Comments on: AWFJ Women On Film - The Week in Women, April 10, 2009 - MaryAnn Johanson

By: Drunken Sex or Date Rape? A Look at the Issues Raised by Observe and Report « Movie City News

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:56:16 +0000

[...] Mary Ann Johanson, writing about the film for Alliance of Women Film Journalists, opens her piece with this, “IS DATE RAPE FUNNY? That seems to be the big question of the [...]

By: AWFJ Women On Film - The Week In Women, April 17, 2009 - MaryAnn Johanson - Alliance of Women Film Journalists -

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:47:29 +0000

[...] AWFJ Women On Film - The Week in Women, April 10, 2009 - MaryAnn Johanson [...]

By: Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:18:50 +0000

i think that Ed’s speaking about the film with reference to his life experience is terrific…because it’s an indication that behavior shown on screen–good behavior or bad–is a stimulus for the audience to reflect on their own lives. From start to finish, Seth Rogan’s films and Seth Rogan’s characters are excessively in your face, presenting and/or making fun of bad, stupid, inconsiderate, smarmy, crude human behavior and social interaction. Some of it’s funny–mostly, perhaps, because what he acts out is in some ways the guilty subtext of real life. It’s a kind of asexual pornography that entertains a lot of people–innocently enough that nobody complains about it, even though it reveals exploitive situations. Insert the overt sexuality of date rape, ‘though, and the Rogen genre suddenly engenders outrage. My, my…are we so narrow in our thinking, in our ability to observe and report, that we can only wrap our minds around the notion of exploitation when it’s presented in the form of date rape?
For the record, I think date rape is wrong–in whatever context it occurs or is shown–and I am opposed to the gratuitious presentation of brutal behavior–sexual or otherwise–on screen. But this film and its date rape scene seems to be a Pandora’s box for date rape discussion on a very broad scale. Whether Rogen et al intended that to be so or find the whole ‘brouhaha’ to be entirely embarassing, the debate is leading to greater awareness of an evil in our midst, and that is a good thing.

Actually, this scene reminds me of another that seems to me to be somewhat akin to it, a scene in which another pretty blond is too much under the influence to give informed consent about anything. I’m thinking of the ‘reunion’ scene from “In Her Shoes,” the one in which a too-drunk-for-informed-consent Cameron Diaz and a high school buddy rush into the bathroom to get it on, and she pukes and he withdraws and she feels dejected/rejected by him. Call it date rape-interruptus, but Diaz’s character’s disappointment, her thoughts that she’s a failure because she can’t get him to screw her is in some way equivalent to Farris’ “Why’re you stopping?” Yet there was no flap about that scene, and the movie was generally applauded by feminists. Why? Because the film wasn’t billed as a comedy? Or because it was a film that reflected women’s perspectives? Or because Diaz’s character finds redemption from her bad behavior and turns her life around? Probably for all those reasons and dozens more. Maybe just because it’s a better film. Anyway, it’s a film that I very much favor. But, it hasn’t stirred up all this fine and meaningful consciousness raising discussion–which, as Joanna Langield points out above, may just serve as a cautionary tale to young women who see the film and are so shocked by the date rape scene that they learn and follow ways to avoid the real thing in their own lives.

By: Erin D.

Erin D. — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:57:40 +0000

I thought it was a little weird that the film got so much coverage out of SXSW but no one thought to mention the rape scene.

By: Katey Rich

Katey Rich — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:35:48 +0000

And Ed, you doing the right thing helped you avoid what could have been a very real charge of date rape– no one can give consent when they are that inebriated. That’s what worries me most about this scene and its reception, despite the fact that it fits into the movie– that people take her slurred line as her giving consent. It’s not consent, and people need to recognize it.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:58:49 +0000

In the trailer, the scene certainly seems to be making light of the problem of date rape. At the very least, seeing the scene in trailers and elsewhere has succeeded in making me *not* want to see the movie. I’m usually a Seth Rogen fan, but that scene is pretty disappointing.

By: Edward Douglas

Edward Douglas — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:55:26 +0000

No, I don’t think *I* am the one forgetting this is a fictional movie… but if you’re going to try to put it into real world context, then you have to think of the scene(s) that aren’t shown.

By: EKSwitaj

EKSwitaj — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:10:21 +0000

What Edward Douglas above forgets is that this is a fictional movie, so there’s no such thing as what really happened during the time. To argue that that time might have been filled with the woman doing something to create the situation in which she is violated (and really, no matter what someone that drunk says, they cannot give meaningful consent) says a lot more about you than it does about the movie.

By: Edward Douglas

Edward Douglas — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:51:29 +0000

Yeah, the scene kind of bothers me. The first time I saw it, which was on the online Red Band trailer, I kind of laughed because it was kind of awkward and you think “Yuck” but then she half wakes up and prompts him to keep going, so you laugh. That was pretty much the same reaction at the screening on Tuesday… that got the biggest laugh, so obviously people hadn’t see that scene before, because it’s not really funny at all the second time.

But the thing people are forgetting (or deliberately ignoring) is that there is a huge chunk of time that is cut out of the movie where we don’t know what happens…. yes, she’s totally trashed, but we don’t know what she says or does after they start kissing in the driveaway to prompt him to be on top of her like that… people are just assuming that she just passed out and he’s taking advantage of that. I get the impression that he’s so enamored with her that he would never make that sort of move unless prompted and he’s so messed up already (bipolar, delusions of grandeur) that his perceived feelings and confusion about what to do in that situation makes him make the wrong decision.

And I’m only saying this because I’ve been in the EXACT SAME SITUATION… exact that it wasn’t very funny when it happened to me, and I chose to take the high road and let the woman (who I had real feelings for) sleep it off rather than follow up on her clearly drunken advances.

Personally, I think the debate about that one scene in the movie is kind of ridiculous and seems to be done merely to “sell newspapers”.

By: Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:49:44 +0000

It’s interesting that Observe & Report, a film that’s designed to appeal to audiences in the mood for mindless escape romp would penetrate the compelling issue of date rape as profoundly as it has. As MaryAnn says, the questions Q&R raises aren’t necessarily limited to whether or not date rape is or could be considered to be funny. Also in question are the filmmaker’s intent in including the scene, level of awareness about how date rape figures in to the film’s story and message, and how the scene itself is acted, filmed and edited. That is the seed of serious discussion. It’s unusual for such heady issues to be raised by a film that’s intended to have mass middlebrow appeal, and is being marketed directly to young and hormonal audiences. Perhaps we should be taking a closer look at the message the film ultimately delivers, rather than curtail consideration with cursory comments that date rape isn’t funny. Even if it really isn’t.