Culturebox: Is the Facebook Movie Sexist?

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movies Is the Facebook Movie Sexist? It definitely has a problem with women. By Dana Stevens Posted Friday, Oct. 8, 2010, at 7:55 PM ET The arrival of The Social Network in theaters last week was like the arrival of sweater weather (in New York, at least). After the flashy, insubstantial sundress movies of summer, here was finally an excuse to put on something with weight and texture, something that might actually last! All week the online communities whose invention the film explores (and, to some degree, critiques) have crackled with conversations, debates, and all-out fights about whether David Fincher's movie is any good, what it's trying to say, and whether it's wrong or right about both the prickly founder of Facebook and the virtual global empire he created. One of the most persistent Social Network conversations has been about the role of women in the movie. One fact is indisputable: There aren't many. Of course, there's Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), the Fair-Isle-sweater-wearing BU student (See? Sweaters!) who breaks up with Zuckerberg in the opening scene and reappears briefly thrice after that--twice in the flesh, once virtually. And Christy (Brenda Song), the Asian-American groupie who, along with her friend Alice, offers bathroom-stall blow jobs to Zuckerberg and his friend Eduardo (Andrew Garfield), and who later becomes Eduardo's girlfriend. Other than that, most of the women in the movie are peripheral, nearly silent figures of fantasy: the busful of coeds who disembark at a Harvard "final club" party of MTV-level debauchery. The Victoria's Secret model who Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the Machiavellian founder of Napster, takes to a nightclub. The giggling, possibly underaged bimbos who do bong hits and play video games on the couch of Zuckerberg's summer rental in Palo Alto, Calif. To continue reading, click here. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Did the Horse Actor That Played Secretariat Have To Audition for the Role? How Obama Can Outflank Mitch McConnell and Get His Judges Confirmed The One Kind of Book You'll Never Want To Read on Your iPad	Advertisement
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