The Pretenders

The Pretenders
MySpace, one of the worlds largest social networking sites, connects it members with old friends and allows its members to meet new friends through unique profiles that allow them to share pictures, comments, blogs, and so much more. The social networking site is popular among all ages ranging from middle school children to grandparents. Some of MySpace’s members utilize the site to keep in touch with old friends and relatives; others use the site to meet new friends. It is even a widely known fact that some employers use the site to spy on potential candidates with whom they have interviewed to see if they would be a right match with their company. For those that use the site to meet new people, they are not just looking to meet any type of new friend. They are looking for potential mates and sometimes even just a “booty call.” At times MySpace can resemble a dating website. The ability to share pictures allows for potential suitors to view each other without ever having to meet face to face and comment sharing allows for its users to communicate without ever having to reveal personal emails or phone numbers. Unfortunately just like a dating website, the information shared between users on MySpace can sometimes be deceitful.
According to a study that examined the accuracy of dating websites it found that “both men and women report lying to a member of the opposite sex to initiate a date.” “In the absence of direct physical contact between daters, characteristics such as height and weight can be easily misrepresented, photographs manipulated, and status and income exaggerated.” This is all done to make themselves seem valuable in the eyes of those they are trying to pursue. For many the goal is not to be the most desirable man or woman on the planet but to be the most desirable man or woman among those they are competing against for the affection of another. As I stated earlier, some MySpace users use the site for one thing, someone to hook up with. These users can sometimes be deceitful in their profiles, masquerading as someone they are not, with one goal in mind, sex. The movie Wedding Crashers is an example of those who masquerades as something they are not to end up having sex.
In the movie Wedding Crashers two men Jeremy Klein (Vince Vaughn) and John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) crash weddings as their hobby each weekend for free food, alcohol, and the hopes of seducing lonely bridesmaids. Jeremy and John use fake names while masquerading as war veterans, hikers, MLB players, and bankers all in hopes of romancing women to the point that they will sleep with them. Jeremy and John’s factitious characters are so convincing that every time they embody the character they end up with the woman. This element of romance falls under the category “sex comedy.” As McDonald states, “in the sex comedy the adoption of a new persona is carried out by one the protagonists against the other. Usually it is the man who puts on a different person with the adoption of an accent and the creation of a new name... The usual motivation and terms of the masquerade are both sexual: frequently, in order to bed the woman, the man will pretend he is too courteous, or shy, or even impotent, to do so” (45-46). What McDonald is saying is that the reason these men pretend to be something they are not is for one reason, and that is to get the woman into bed. At the end of both John and Jeremy get the woman they were vying for and realize that they are in love. This is contrary to the beginning of the movie when both guys believe that real love does not exist because they have seen many marriages fall apart. McDonald points out this trait in the sex comedy by giving an example of Dustin Hoffman in the movie Tootsie. In the movie he pretends to be a woman and as a woman he is able to realize his true self. McDonald describes this as “the hero of the sex comedy has his personality enriched by the pretence as well as being rewarded with experiencing the true love he had never known in his ‘real’ self. The man, pretending to be someone, or more accurately something, else, ceases to be the sexually aggressive he-man he has habitually been acting, and while his more passive, respectful self is invented as a ruse to trick the woman into bed, its real effect is not her capitulation, which is always prevented at the last minute by some plot invention, but his improvement, becoming nicer, more loving, by the insights he has gained while not being a wolf”(McDonald 47-48). McDonald explains here that the transformation that the male character goes through helps them to realize the more loving person inside them. The male is unable to reach this conclusion through the him that he has been only through the self that has been invented. Once the characters are able to see their true selves they can fall in love. Much like John and Jeremy they do fall in love with the women that they masqueraded for then the story ends. Like McDonald said, “the drive of the sex comedy from whatever period is generated by fighting, insults and scheming, and once the couple love each other sweetly the films have to end” (McDonald 58).




Works Cited


McDonald, Tamar. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Wallflower Press, 1997.
Toma, Catalina L., Hancock, Jeffrey T., Ellison, Nicole B. Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2008 34: 1023-1036