Overheard at Booth 1: It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006)

Watched Sept 20, 2016

Found this movie in my notes, and had never written the synopsis/review.  As I recall, it was fairly cute/funny at the time, but going back and reviewing the plot, boy, how times have changed.

These days, this movie, made in 2006, would be slammed hard for being homophobic and playing into transphobic tropes.

Breakdown, a nerdy girl and a jock get switched into each other's bodies and have to navigate high school trying to be each other until they can figure out how to switch back.  Misunderstanding of each other as what is now called "cis" as well as each other's different social personas (nerd/jock) leads to comical hilarity.

In the end, they both have a deeper understanding of each other as both individuals and as their gender.

It is a "walk a mile in the other's shoes" story, that these days, as I said before, would be harshly criticized for maintaining cis-patriarchal norms.

Which actually brings us to an interesting point that, even when I watched this film a mere 7 years ago, I would not have written this blog post.  Something in our culture has shifted - hard and fast.   This tsunami of gender fluidity did not happen gradually - it opened like a floodgate.  (And I make no apologies for the water metaphor and simile, which were inspired by the word "fluidity")

Were this movie to be remade today, as it stands, it would be called "It's a Cis Thing" and if the script were to be re-written to be all inclusive (or at least, "woke") it'd be called, "It's a Fluid Thing" (which actually sounds a trifle scatological, if you ask me).

Overheard at Booth 1: The Jokes We Tell About Marriage

I always find it just fascinating that we always have these jokes against marriage - for example, just looked these up:

1. Marriage is when a man and woman become as one. The trouble starts when they try to decide which one.

2. Grooms, once you get married remember that when you have a discussion with your future wife, always get the last two words in: "Yes, dear."

3. My wife gave birth four times and still fits in her prom dress from high school. I gave birth 0 times and I haven't fit in my pants since March.

4. Marriage is like going to a restaurant. You order what you want, then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

5. When a newly married man looks happy, we know why. But when a ten-year married man looks happy, we wonder why.

https://parade.com/1043061/marynliles/marriage-jokes/

 

... and we all know more.  We've heard them all our lives.  All our sitcoms with married couples are all about how they gripe and snipe at each other.

... and we wonder, then, why there is so much divorce.  

It's not the gays ruining our marriages.  It's a culture of toxicity toward marriage, like these jokes, that ruin marriage.

... and don't even get me STARTED on the church.  The church can go on and on and on all they want about how homosexuality has ruined marriage, but the church has - for DECADES - had divorce classes.  LONG BEFORE gay marriage.  So the Church knows full well that marriage was in decline, and has even contributed to the decline - because the prevalence of "divorce recovery" instead of the focus on healing hurting marriages has also contributed to the decline of marriages within the church.

 When believers know, even subconsciously, that if they divorce their spouse, that somehow their church will help them through it, that gives them yet another thought that the devil uses to compel them to their decisions to destroy their marriage.

 

 

 

 

Overheard at Table 4: Fools

- we need to bring back words like 'fool' - 'fool' is a good word.  really gives that extra Biblical OOMPH to words like 'idiot' or 'stupid'

- just remember that the most foolish people in the world are the fools we make of ourselves.

- what's that supposed to mean?

- case in point.

Overheard at Booth 3: What I Need

... we've been together how long now? 20 years now?  Married for 17 of those years?  And you still haven't learned that I have a tough job with a bitchy boss who's giving me shit every single day and then I come home and you're all frenetic with 'hey listened to what I heard on the radio and AH!  AH!' and I need you to be calm, you're never calm, you KNOW I have a hyperactive system and the man that I need is the exact opposite of you, because I need a man who's centered and calm and you're not that and you're not the man that I need.

... but I love you anyway and everything else about you is great.

Overheard at Booth 3: Lucky Moran Discusses Husbandry - Part 2

Lucky Moran: Sooooooo, you know what I was saying about being a husband being so easy the other day.

Otis Redwing: Yeah?  You still doin' good.  Fixin' stuff before being told?

Lucky: Yeah, well, apparently those 'good feels' didn't last that long.

Otis: What'd'ya do now?

Lucky: Pinche tortillas, man.  I mean, she sends me out at frikkin' NINE at night to buy tortillas, and she doesn't like the packaged kind.  She only wants the freshly made bakery kind. But when I get there, they are out of the regular sizes and the only have two packs left of the oversized ones, and I know she hates the oversized ones, so I went and got Mission tortillas.

Otis: I see where this is going...

Lucky: So I get home and she's SCREAMING mad.  'You got the wrong ones!  Again!  I need to do the grocery shopping!  Can't trust you to do anything!'

Otis: Did you remind her about unclogging the sink?

Lucky: Yeahh, I know that wouldn't cut it.  And I tried to tell her that I only got the Mission ones because I knew she doesn't like to use the oversized ones, and then she's like, 'I always use the oversized ones' - and I'm thinking to myself, 'this is a trick, this is a mind-trick!  Been with this woman 17 years and she has NEVER liked oversized tortillas' but then she's like, reading my mind, because then she says, 'I always use whatever size, as long as they are made fresh in the bakery.  If you really paid attention to what I say, you'd know that!'

Otis: Ah, the old, 'If you really loved me, you'd ... [insert thing here].'

Lucky: Exactly.  So tell me, how do YOU do so well in your marriage.

Otis: I set low expectations early on.  Do that, and anything above that seems special.

Overheard at Booth 1: Lucky Moran Discusses Husbandry

Lucky Moran: Look, every guy is always 'Oh man it's so HARD to be a husband' but really, being a husband is easy.  All you gotta do is fix stuff before your wife asks. 

Otis Redwing: Fix stuff before she asks?

Lucky: Yeah.  Case in point, the other night, I unplugged her sink - pulled out all the hair clogging it - before she even asked me to.  She acted like I had just single-handedly won the Peloponnesian War!  It was awesome!

Otis: Cool.  You can come over and unplug my sink.  I'll give you a beer.

Lucky: That's just as good!

Overheard at Table 2: Tesla Bonus

Young Man: My friend just started working for Tesla in their tire department.  He says they say if he stays there 3 years, he'll get a $400,000 bonus.

Older Man [to Older Woman]: Do you wanna call 'bullshit' or can I?

Older Woman: I believe our son.  Tesla is a great company.  They have high salaries for all positions!

Older Man: Oh God not you, too.

Young Man: Well, to be honest, they do work him to death.  Like, he's got no time for anything, just work.

Older Man: So the $400,000 might be compensation for the burnout, huh