Josh Nallathambi - Supplemental Post 3

Coming into the screening, I had little knowledge of Gentleman Prefer Blondes, except that the song Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend was featured. What surprised me was how strong the stereotypes were presented. Both Dorothy and Lorelei are written as extremely shallow women whose only objectives are to get a good-looking man who has the money to keep them occupied. What’s even more depressing is that there isn’t any real development or change in these characters over the course of the plot. By the end, Lorelei has not only affirmed her lifestyle but convinced her detractors such as Esmond Sr. to agree with her. While Lorelei is certainly within her right to seek out fulfillment through marriage, the writing limits her characterizations. She doesn’t seem to gain any real new understanding about life or significant personal growth. It’s just more of the same. Even with Dorothy, though she ends up meeting her husband through the course of the film’s events, her outlook doesn’t change at all. The film chooses to paint them in the maneater mold, caring for nothing else than a comfortable domestic life.

It’s interesting comparing this film with a show I recently started re-watching this past week, How I Met Your Mother. I wanted to go back and see if the comedy and storytelling still held up in the wake of the recent Hollywood fallout. While I found the overall craft and writing of the show to still be great, some things I used to laugh at I now cringed in retrospect. The character of Barney comes off as grotesque, and makes you wonder that if Barney Stinson would still have a job if the show had aired in today’s culture. Most of the rules and running gags like “The Hot Crazy scale” seem reductive, especially when we never get a female perspective on what Ted and Barney were like to be with. It’s also interesting to note that Ted is completely obsessed with finding domestic bliss, just like Lorelei or Dorothy, but his characterization allows him to find the heart behind his pursuits, being a male he gets more chance to shine and present a more fully-rounded character. It makes you wonder if Gentleman Prefer Blondes were to be made in 2018, whether Lorelei’s and Dorothy’s characters would be given more to work with and be more developed leads.