Social Network

A few days ago, I saw The Social Network with a friend. I had high hopes because everyone I know has been discussing the problematic behaviors that come from the obsession we have with facebook. When I first became a part of facebook it was in an effort to reach out to people on campus at Ohio Wesleyan University. Facebook did not at all help me with this. Why? Because it's creepy. I am incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of seeing a stranger and then stalking them on facebook before we ever speak. I know many people disagree with me but I can't get behind it. I use facebook to promote my blog, support my friends with happy encouraging comments, and raising political awareness. I too post on my status but constantly think, how narcisistic is this?

We put way too much out there into the world as people. However, facebook does help me reconnect (I moved too much as a child) and weed out my friends! For example, if your status says, "O.J. is truly innocent" or "Sarah Palin is a feminist", I get to recognize that you are not someone I want to continue to communicate with (online or elsewhere).

This debate is why I wanted to see this film starring my future boo Justin Timberlake. The movie did not answer my questions. In fact, it only made me hate facebook. The film portrays women as having no brains (even Harvard goers), finding success through sleeping with powerful (or men who THINK they're powerful) men, and abusers. The film claims facebook was created from a misogynistic joke by men which results in women gratefully giving them simultaneous blow jobs in a bathroom in a bar. I realize that as women we do that every day but why is it in a movie? Now people will know what we're really like! One of these women disappears because apparently she lost her way in the bathroom. The other (who used to be on the Disney Channel...random but I knew I recognized her) becomes an overly jealous stalker to her boyfriend and later lights his apartment on fire as he cowers in his underwear in his bedroom. This is frustrating because 1) Intimate Partner Violence is soooooo funny and 2) the point being made is clearly that women are crazy or whores...or both.

Also, statistically in cases of IPV terrorism (i.e. lighting your partner's home on fire and following him and texting him 47 times) 97% of abusers are male. Can men be abused...absolutely! However, the media portrayals have us thinking otherwise.

There's also a scene where Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker (ummmmm...okay) is penniless and jobless and sleeps with a young woman who attends Standford (Biological Chemistry major...not too shabby). This woman is clearly intelligent, beautiful by societal standards, and has her own apartment. After finding out she slept with Sean Parker though, she giggles with excitement and says, "I can't believe with Sean Parker!" Um, you mean, "I can't believe I slept with an unemployed guy who does nothing with his life right now except posing as a Stanford student." Boo.

Not only is this film sexist, but it also seeks to set women back thirty steps. I expected more from my West Wing guy Aaron Sorkin. I don't know what happened with this movie. It was really odd for me after hearing such good things and watching in front of me women being used and portrayed as idiots who only have sex to offer. What the hell? Perhaps The Social Network will start intelligent conversations about posting our bad days on our facebook statuses.