为什么圣诞电影中的男人如此有毒?

为什么圣诞电影中的男人会有如此毒性?

浪漫圣诞喜剧通常属于“烂得好”的类别。简单的情节和俗气的场景给人带来轻松的娱乐,尤其在圣诞节期间,当你可能已经有些多愁善感了。但最近我重新看了一些我以前最喜欢的电影,如《真爱至上》《假日》,以及一些这个题材的新作品,我意识到:我的多愁善感使我完全对这些电影的明显问题视而不见。在这些电影中,都是关于有毒男人的。无论是他们玩弄选择他们的女性,向她们索要最多,却自己付出最少,还是具有对女性的敌意倾向 – 我所喜爱的圣诞电影中的男人都有一个共同点:他们期待女性解决男性的问题。

在2021年,我看的第一部圣诞电影是Netflix的浪漫喜剧片《爱的困扰》。这部电影讲述了Natlie(妮娜·杜波夫饰演)在圣诞节时去美国的另一端惊喜她虚拟约会几周的男人Josh(Jimmy O. Yang饰演)。转折?当她到达时,她发现Josh其实是猫鱼了:他的照片中的那个人实际上不是他。《爱的困扰》满足了经典圣诞电影心愿单上的许多要点:两位非常有吸引力的演员,一个意想不到的爱情故事,精彩的对白。我的意思是,主角们甚至演唱了一首批评原版“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”存在女性敌意含义的版本。但是当电影结束时,我感到有些奇怪 – 有些不满足。因为电影的结局(这是一个*剧透!非常可预测)是Josh和Natlie坠入爱河,而她对他的身份欺骗置之不理,仿佛这只是一场小小的争吵而已。

当然,我对Netflix的圣诞电影没有太高的期望,但是对于虚伪地描绘猫鱼现象,问题至少也存在于其中,因为受害者经常承受经济和情感上的损失。对此轻描淡写,对我来说并不对。同样重要的是,男主角最终因为他的欺骗而获得奖励 – 而实际上他甚至没有真正道歉。

这只是个开始。多年来,我们对我们最喜爱的圣诞电影中角色的许多可怕行为都视而不见;是的,这包括像《假日》和《真爱至上》这样的经典之作。

首先让我们看看2006年的《假日》。杰克·布莱克扮演的Miles显然是个问题人物。他一次又一次地给艾丽斯(凯特·温丝莱特饰演)希望,然后却放弃她,选择了他有毒的前任女友 – 直到最后他才和艾丽斯在一起。好吧,至少裘德·洛饰演的Graham是个完美的男人,对吗?不是。当我在2021年重新观看这部电影时,我意识到,这个非常吸引人的Graham不仅仅喝醉酒闯入阿曼达(卡梅隆·迪亚兹)的度假屋(他们当时甚至不认识对方),还在第二天告诉她,她可能永远不会再见到自己。

“I tend to hurt women just by being myself,” he adds, clarifying that he has the “classic male problem” of not being able to stick around – meaning: he never calls the women after sex. This realization made me panic. Could it be that Jude Law in The Holiday is the ultimate fuckboy? The film tries hard to convince us otherwise and also portrays Miles in an undeserved positive light. In summary, the plot of The Holiday can be described as: two troubled women try to “save” two toxic guys.

Apparently, we find it somewhat festive when a woman “improves” a man or saves him (from himself).

In the past, I didn’t notice the problematic elements of the film; probably because I was dazzled by snowy winter landscapes and Cameron Diaz’s absurd shiny hair. But if you consciously try to see through this Christmas facade, you quickly realize that The Holiday is just as problematic as Love Hard, in that the film doesn’t just let the toxic behavior of men slide, but even rewards them for it.

It’s not any better in Love Actually, and that has become painfully clear to more and more of its (former) fans in recent years. Take Mark (Andrew Lincoln), for example, who confesses his love to his best friend’s newly married wife on huge cardboard signs. Clearly an asshole. And no one could forget the scene where Harry (Alan Rickman) breaks his wife’s heart (Emma Thompson) through his affair with his much younger secretary.

Even some of the more lovable men in the acclaimed Richard Curtis film are only “saved” and rehabilitated by the women by their side. Colin (Kris Marshall) puts in no effort at all, but ends up in the arms of three beautiful American women in the end, and Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister only has emotional depth through his relationship with his funny, charming employee Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). He fires her, by the way, after she is sexually harassed by the US President. Terrible.

You would think that in the 20 years since the release of Love Actually, things would have changed for the better. But Netflix seems to have crowned toxic men and the women who forgive them as its ultimate Christmas rom-com recipe. This can be seen not only in Love Hard; in A Christmas Prince, one of the platform’s most popular Christmas movies, Amber (Rose McIver) falls in love with Prince Richard, despite his notorious playboy reputation and his extremely unfriendly behavior towards her during their first meeting. Amber then spends the majority of the story trying to elevate the character of the prince – both in the eyes of the public and her own. The same goes for The Knight Before Christmas, where Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) tries to explain the modern world to a time-traveling medieval knight and repeatedly apologizes and justifies his inappropriate behavior during her efforts.

The formula is usually the same: he and she meet, something goes wrong, the problem is solved, and they live happily ever after. A woman “healing” a toxic man is a simplified version of this formula.

显然,当一个女人“改善”或(在她自己看来)拯救一个男人时,我们似乎会觉得这种情节是喜庆的。也许这样吸引我们的是因为我们中的许多人在假期回家时受到保护;可能是因为一个原谅并帮助她的人正是代表着许多人在圣诞节期间渴望的“母爱本能”。

此外,这个情节也很简单,这是每个圣诞节浪漫喜剧的重要元素。而且公式通常都是相同的:男女主人公相遇,发生一些问题,问题得到解决,他们从此过上幸福的生活。一个能够“治愈”有毒男人的女人是这个公式的简化版,而在圣诞节,我们可能更容易对这个无压力的情节忽略不计。此外,节日正处于所谓的“手铐季节”,在这个季节中,我们更希望有个伴侣,甚至会忽视一些性格缺陷。而“女人纠正有毒男人”的情节还给予我们希望的火花,即(即使是最坏的)男人并不像他们看起来那么糟糕,而且绝对有能力去爱——这也许更符合女性的幻想,而非她们的经验。无可非议地,我们中的许多人在圣诞节期间会回到我们的前任或给予有毒的关系另一个机会。

幸运的是,不是一切都糟糕。一些圣诞影片打破了这一可怕的传统;例如2019年的《Last Christmas》,由艾米莉亚·克拉克主演。不多透露:男主人公在情节的情感转折中拯救了艾米莉亚·克拉克的角色。而《Prinzessinnentausch》也是Netflix中的例外之一,主角并不是为了拯救男人而存在。与《一对双生子》类似,凡妮莎·哈金斯在其中遇到一个与她长得一模一样的陌生人,两人交换了生活。两位主角在其中拥有更多的目标和兴趣,而不仅仅是他们生活中的浪漫关系,因此男性扮演的角色仅是次要的,甚至看起来相对无毒(也许也是因为他们没有扮演如此重要的角色)。

这些电影表明,没有对有毒行为的辩解的圣诞浪漫喜剧并非不可能。而在流媒体平台上,虽然它们给现代版本的“经典圣诞爱情故事”赋予了一些 Catfishing 等当下的故事情节,但它们应该意识到自己的责任。我们中的许多人想要从这些电影中得到放松,而不是对它们进行批判性思考;因此,对有毒行为的敷衍将在其中无处容身。

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