Jack: What kind of movies do you prefer, the ones with the sad endings or the happy ones?
Claire: The sad ones definitely. I like movies that make me cry.
Jack: Then you’re with the right guy.
Jack is the leading man. Such screen time is only reserved for protagonists, though anti-hero’s fit this mould too. You want to root for him, to discover that in the end he’s smart enough to give up the criminal life, to stay out of trouble, to truly appreciate the one who loves him. That’s what Claire is banking on too.
She wants to fulfill the dream that she’ll get the bad boy, and she’ll be the one for whom he gives up his criminal life. A story that’s been told time and time again, in life and on the screen. But he won’t, and that makes her want him even more.
Through their relationship, you have a hard time believing that anyone would be so self-destructive to fall for a guy like this, the way you don’t believe a professional assassin would suddenly develop a conscience when discovering that his mark is a 12-year-old girl. But this is Hollywood, and we’re lead to believe that anything is possible.
And as he cleans Claire’s blood off his bedroom floor, you realize that it’s harder to believe he was able to fill a bucket of water from the faucet when he just got out on parole and his utility bills have been unpaid for over a year, than a girl falling in love with someone so bad for her. After all, life has not proven otherwise.
This quietly fills you with bitterness.
Women. Want. To. Change. Men.
Unfortunately, very few succeed. I can’t blame them for the effort. After all, it’s for the better. GIRLS want bad boys. I don’t believe WOMEN do.
I’m a stoned-faced, hard nosed Marine Corps drill instructor… who loves children and sappy movies and cuddly things. Women want to change me, without knowing me.
I’m bitter for this without real reason.
I think you have every reason to be bitter about this. You’re being judged quite unfairly when these women don’t truly know you.
Bitterness. Not so much as the desire to prove them wrong. If Hollywood is any indication of mainstream idealism of love, then by all means, I’ve always sought to show that those ideas can be chucked out the window.
There are women in the world who don’t want to change the men they are with. Just as there are men in the world who want to change the women they are with. You just need to know what kind of person you’re more comfortable with. Girls who want bad boys or women who are sick and tired of it.
For this reason I stopped going out with women whom I know are uncomfortable with the morbid sense of humour and curiosity that I hold on to. Stuck with those that do like a change in perception. The benefit to that, we both stay the same and we both change at the same time without noticing it. That kind of mutual symbiosis in a relationship, whether you’re good or bad, is what we should all look for.
You bring up a good point. It’s very hard for me to be with someone who wants to change me. Maybe I’m just too old now, or too stubborn, but I don’t want to change to fit the needs of someone else (unless it’s an improvement that’s in line with my own personal principles). I like me.
I don’t think that women start out wanting to change men. (Girls may, but not women). However, there are two pitfalls that inevitably happen simultaneously:
1) Men often hide all their bad boy behaviour until we’re awash with hypnosis and can’t believe they’d do something awful; and
2) Women are prone to being glassy eyed romantics anyway and often misread obvious signs due to
a) fairytale and hollywood rubbish and altruism
b) girlfriends’ and peers’ misinformation and
c) Misinformation from Mom lurking beneath everything
that makes her feel crappy about herself.
I think c) is the big one that fells most women.
What pisses me off is that I believe I don’t think any of those points relate or apply to me, and yet I’m the one who has to deal with the consequences of them.
You’re so very right. They don’t. It sucks.