Third Post

Implications about Gender in House Bunny.
House Bunny, a movie released in theaters last year, is the story of an ex-Playboy model, Shelley, who is kicked out of the Playboy mansion and forced to make a living on her own. Confused and nieve, she wanders onto a college campus noticing that the fraternity and sorority houses look like "mini Playboy mansions." Conveniently, the girls of a rather unpopular and socially awkward sorority need a house mother to help them out and Shelley is perfect for the job. She succeeds in boosting their confidence and getting others interested to join by throwing great parties and giving the girls extreme make-overs. Though the movie and main character come off as extremely stupid and shallow, there are important subliminal messages concerning feminity and masculinity in the film. It is not enough for the girls to be intelligent, they must also dress like models, wear makeup, and appear less nerdy to get people to like them. These social requirements show that some people place way too much emphasis on looks instead of "what's on the inside," which, as cliche as it sounds, counts. Not only does the film convey that young women should be sexy, cool, outgoing, and less intelligent than males to attract the opposite sex, it also contains messages about what is or isn't masculine. For example, members of the popular fraternity on campus were good looking, conniving, manipulative, athletic, and were "only interested in one thing" (another common stereotype about fraternity guys). In fact, the movie is full of stereotypes about college-age males and females: what they're supposed to do, what they're supposed to wear, what they're supposed to say, how they're supposed to act, etc. As a college student myself, I see so much more diversity and variety than that in college. My school has people of all colors, sizes, shapes, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. The pretty blonde cheerleader and muscular football player are ideas of the past that should be thrown out the window. It is perfectly fine if you are those things, but if not, that's perfectly fine too. In House Bunny, everything works out (the nerdy girl gets the hott guy, and the hott girl gets the nerdy guy). However, whoever makes the next college film should really take into consideration the largely diverse community that inhabits college campuses instead of stereotyping students and playing into the popular ideas of the past that tell young men and women how or who they should be.