The House Bunny. It's new, it's funny, and it's going to be an excuse to strutt out pretty girls while reinforcing society's negative view of women. If you check out the IMDB page for the film you can see the raging message board war about whether the movie is setting the women's movement back several years or if feminists are all just ugly women with unshaven legs (blah, blah, blah).
Without seeing the movie, it's difficult to judge the entire film. However, I can judge what the filmmakers have already released as publicity for the movie. And judge it I will.
First off, the official synopsis.
Shelley (Ana Faris) is living a carefree life until a rival gets her tossed out of the Playboy Mansion.
Translation: An example of women competing for status and sexual attractiveness. They both can't be the object of Hugh's affections so one of them has to go.
With nowhere to go, fate delivers her to the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. Unless they can sign a new pledge class, the seven socially clueless women will lose their house to the scheming girls of Phi Iota Mu.
Translation: Shelley is introduced as living a "carefree life," the girls are introduced as "socially clueless." Why go with this version when you could say that Shelley is a dimwitted freeloader and the Zetas are intelligent young students? Living a life without actually having to do anything (except take your clothes off on command) is preferred to studying and learning. Also, there's more female competition! We girls can't quite get along, can we?
In order to accomplish their goal, they need Shelley to teach them the ways of makeup and men.
Translation: Yes, because why try to appeal to other girls who are intelligent and in the same social situation that they are in when the Zetas can simply turn themselves into the sorority girls who are their rivals? Will they then begin to mock girls such as themselves for not spending hours coordinating their outfits?
Also, if they need to get more pledges from women, then why must they attract men? To make themselves popular with girls they have to be considered sexually attractive to boys. Seducing a man is a true test of female worth.
At the same time, Shelley needs some of what the Zetas have - a sense of individuality.The combination leads all the girls to learn how to stop pretending and start being themselves.
Translation: The Zetas aren't being genuine until they're caked in make-up. They have a sense of individuality yet they're pretending? Wouldn't turning themselves from smart, conservative, studious women into stilleto-wearing arm candy be pretending?
Also, Shelley seemed to have no problem with her life as it was. She didn't long for intelligence. She was completely happy lounging by a pool for the rest of her life when her dreams of being totally unproductive.
Next, the official poster.
Shelley stands at the forefront wearing her pink ears and her pink outfit with her pink suitcases. Meanwhile, the intelligent girls are standing behind the house door, trapped at the threshold. They are ugly and tragic in contrast to Shelley's perky appearance. The Zetas are waiting in the wings, too unattractive to step out into the real world. After all, they can't. They don't have bunny ears.
Finally, the trailer. That is what the movie makers want us to see in order to send us stampeding into the theatre. What message comes across in the trailer itself. What point are the clips trying to make?
The official trailer, located on the official website, goes a little something like this:
Shelley learns that she's being kicked out of the Playboy Mansion. The man who delivers the message states that it might be because of her age. She's only 27, but that's 59 in bunny years, he tells her.
Translation: women have an expiration date. Before Shelley is even thirty she finds out that she's past her stride. Meanwhile, Hefner is old enough to be her grandfather and is a permanent fixture at the house. He is ruling the Playboy Mansion, not Shelley, contradictory to what the opening voice over states.
Shelley sobs to a Mexican man that she doesn't know what to do. He tell her that she needs a "yob."
Translation: First off, way to be racist. Without the validation of her sexual attractiveness Shelley is lost. Who or what is she if she's not a topless model?
Shelley runs into a meeting of the housemothers of the sororities. They are older, unattractive and starchy. They inform Shelley that the sororities are not a brothel to which Shelley responds "Oh, I'm not looking to make soup."
