King Kong and the Ideal Woman

I dislike watching movies.  But Rob loves it, so I've been trying to find some movies that I can stomach watching with him.  It's hard to do, since I've become so disenchanted by Hollywood recently.  Even movies that I've liked have had unfortunate scenes in them, and that's too bad.

Apparently I'm a prude.

So I've started going to the library and picking out only movies that I know will be 100% non-objectionable.  My first choice:  Mr. Bean's Holiday.  I was so confident about it that we watched it as a family.  Which was interesting.  Miciah thought it was funny (she even wanted to renew it so she could watch it again) but the boys were bored.  Elijah kept saying, "Can I play the wii now?"  I liked it well enough, but I wondered if my picky movie tastes had really brought me to the point of thinking sub-par Mr. Bean movies are hilarious.  That's a harrowing thought.

My second pick:  King Kong.  As in, the ORIGINAL King Kong.  I was suddenly shamed by the fact that I had never seen such a classic American movie.  In fact, I wasn't even aware it was supposed to be a Beauty and the Beast tale (nor that his name was just Kong and King was a title because he was King of the jungle where he lived).

And we watched it.  Clearly, it doesn't look realistic.  But it was a well-done movie (so long as you don't mind the shallow plot line and lack of character development), and I felt my pulse quicken a few times.  I could definitely see how it would have rocked America's world in 1933.

What especially delighted me about this movie, though, was analyzing what the portrayal of the lead lady and her romantic interest said about what men wanted in an ideal woman back then, and what women would accept (or even expected?) from their men.  Absolutely fascinating.

According to this movie, the ideal woman that men were seeking in 1933 was beautiful, wilting, eager to please, completely dependent on men, compliant, eternally optimistic, naive, nice to a fault, excitable, lacked reasoning capabilities, and always needed saving (she was CLEARLY incapable of saving herself).

I'm going to compare her to Miciah's Barbie movies (which are all exactly the same).  I contend that since Barbie is the "ideal woman," the way they represent her in the movies is how we feel about the ideal woman today.  I'd like you to not argue my movie choice until you see the list (it's pretty favorable).

So, according to the Barbie movies, the ideal woman that men are seeking in 2009 is beautiful, eternally optimistic, independent, intelligent, able to fend for herself, intensely loyal to friends, doesn't need a man (but wouldn't mind one either), does what's right no matter what, helpful and nice.

(Now you can argue the choice.  But I don't much care if you do.  You can choose another modern movie if you want.)

It just cracked me up, watching King Kong and listening to the dialogue.  I thought, "They could NOT put this in a movie now."  I even laughed out loud at this exchange (not exact quotes, but close):
Romantic Interest:  "Women on a ship are a bother."
Ideal Woman:  "Oh, I haven't been a bother, have I?  I've tried so hard not to be."
Romantic Interest:  "Of course you've been a bother.  Just by being here.  But you can't help it, I guess.  You're a woman.  All women are bothers."

Awesome.