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The Social Network

Salomé

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The Social Network is an expertly crafted and exhaustively modern film, and one of its more pertinent flashpoints is the reminder that a resource that redefined the human interactions of 500 million people across the globe was germinated in an act of vengeful misogyny. Woman-hating is the background noise of this story. Aaron Sorkin's dazzlingly scripted showdown between awkward, ambitious young men desperate for wealth and respect phrases women and girls as glorified sexual extras, lovely assistants in the grand trick whose reveal is the future of human business and communication.

The only roles for women in this drama are dancing naked on tables at exclusive fraternity clubs, inspiring men to genius by spurning their carnal advances and giving appreciative blowjobs in bathroom stalls. This is no reflection on the personal moral compass of Sorkin, who is no misogynist, but who understands that in rarefied American circles of power and privilege, women are still stage-hands, and objectification is hard currency.

The territory of this modern parable is precisely objectification: not just of women, but of all consumers. In what the film's promoters describe as a "definitively American " story of entrepreneurship, Zuckerberg becomes rich because, as a social outsider, he can see the value in reappropriating the social as something that can be monetised. This is what Facebook is about, and ultimately what capitalist realism is about: life as reducible to one giant hot-or-not contest, with adverts.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/10/social-facebook-geek-women
Think I'll pass.
 

InvisibleJim

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Think I'll pass.

Couldn't agree more. Infact I think the whole holywoodification that has been performed sounds like complete bollocks. I've read in a few sources that the whole story is blown up out of all proportion when compared to 'what actually happened'.
 

MacGuffin

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Why is it everytime there's a divious and/or caustic charter everyone just HAS TO type them as an INTJ. How many INTJs do you know obssess about being a part of some college club just so they can hang with the "cool crowd"?

Try ISTJ.

That wasn't his reasoning though - the clubs were a means to an end - a better life. He wasn't longing to join because it was expected or the "right" thing to do.

Couldn't agree more. Infact I think the whole holywoodification that has been performed sounds like complete bollocks. I've read in a few sources that the whole story is blown up out of all proportion when compared to 'what actually happened'.

Several people (the twins, notably) have said it's quite accurate. One producer said there's a reason no one has sued them, and why they know exactly what brand of beer Zuckerberg was drinking when he created his first notorious webpage.
 

ZPowers

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Sorkin has directly addressed the accusations of sexism, saying that, unfortunately, most of the sexist dialogue is verbatim from Zuckerberg's blog, and on account of the guy being a sexist douche, most intelligent, independent women did avoid him and groupies flocked: This is how the actual story played out, and in fact Sorkin added a strong female character (played by Rashida Jones) who wasn't even involved in the actual events surrounding the origins of Facebook. Here's a full explanation (and apology):

I also loved The Social Network, except for one thing-- the lack of a decent portrayal of women. With the exception of 1 or 2 of them (Rashida Jones included), they were basically sex objects/stupid groupies. Even what you say here:
Jesse Eisenberg is what Michael Cera aspires to be. Justin Timberlake continues to be the most talented STAR SEARCH winner ever, And Rashida Jones is just great to look at.


... kinda makes me think that Aaron Sorkin (though I love his writing) failed the women in this script. Kind of a shame considering he's written great women characters like C.J. Cregg!

---------

This is Aaron Sorkin and I wanted to address Taraza's comment. (Ken, I'll get to you in and your very generous blog post in just a moment.

Tarazza--believe me, I get it. It's not hard to understand how bright women could be appalled by what they saw in the movie but you have to understand that that was the very specific world I was writing about. Women are both prizes an equal. Mark's blogging that we hear in voiceover as he drinks, hacks, creates Facemash and dreams of the kind of party he's sure he's missing, came directly from Mark's blog. With the exception of doing some cuts and tightening (and I can promise you that nothing that I cut would have changed your perception of the people or the trajectory of the story by even an inch) I used Mark's blog verbatim. Mark said, "Erica Albright's a bitch" (Erica isn't her real name--I changed three names in the movie when there was no need to embarrass anyone further), "Do you think that's because all B.U. girls are bitches?" Facebook was born during a night of incredibly misogyny. The idea of comparing women to farm animals, and then to each other, based on their looks and then publicly ranking them. It was a revenge stunt, aimed first at the woman who'd most recently broke his heart (who should get some kind of medal for not breaking his head) and then at the entire female population of Harvard.

More generally, I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people. These aren't the cuddly nerds we made movies about in the 80's. They're very angry that the cheerleader still wants to go out with the quarterback instead of the men (boys) who are running the universe right now. The women they surround themselves with aren't women who challenge them (and frankly, no woman who could challenge them would be interested in being anywhere near them.)

And this very disturbing attitude toward women isn't just confined to the guys who can't get dates.

I didn't invent the "F--k Truck", it's real--and the men (boys) at the final clubs think it's what they deserve for being who they are. (It's only fair to note that the women--bussed in from other schools for the "hot" parties, wait on line to get on that bus without anyone pointing guns at their heads.)

These women--whether it's the girls who are happy to take their clothes off and dance for the boys or Eduardo's psycho-girlfriend are real. I mean REALLY real. (In the case of Christy, Eduardo's girlfriend so beautifully played by Brenda Song, I conflated two characters--again I hope you'll trust me that doing that did nothing to alter our take on the events. Christy was the second of three characters whose name I changed.)

I invented two characters--one was Rashida Jones's "Marylin", the youngest lawyer on the team and a far cry from the other women we see in the movie. She's plainly serious, competent and, when asked, has no problem speaking the truth as she sees it to Mark. The other was Gretchen, Eduardo's lawyer (in reality there was a large team of litigators who all took turns deposing witnesses but I wanted us to become familiar with just one person--a woman, who, again, is nobody's trophy.

And Rooney Mara's Erica's a class act.

I wish I could go door to door and make this explanation/apology to any woman offended by the things you've pointed out but obviously that's unrealistic so I thought the least I could do was speak directly to you.

Ken--Thanks for your really nice words and for giving me a chance to apologize again for my remarks back in 2005. Obviously a star writer on one of the best comedies of all time doesn't need to prove his credentials as a "real" comedy writer.

Aaron Sorkin

From what I can tell, the movie isn't accountable for most of the sexism: it's the reality that the central characters are sexist men who repel strong women, and to claim otherwise is to lie about a story that actually happened.
 

Patches

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It was pretty clear that Mark was an INT. INTP seemed much more likely, but INTJ isn't completely out of the question.

Agreed. The VERY first scene in the bar with the girl where he is jumping from topic to topic and having 3 conversations at once? Seems more NT. I wouldn't label him S.
 

Edgar

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That wasn't his reasoning though - the clubs were a means to an end - a better life. He wasn't longing to join because it was expected or the "right" thing to do.

I disagree. He was on the quest to be part of the cool crowd. That why he was all into that Napster guy's shit - because that guy was cool and Mark wanted to be like him.

And if it was merely a mean to an end, he wouldn't have gotten so butthurt about his friend getting accepted into the Phoenix club.
 

KarenParker

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Mark Zuckerberg is the most hardcore INTJ I've ever seen. I mean real life Mark Zuckerberg. He is the poster child for INTJ. Trust me, I was married to one for 7 years.
 

Salomé

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Sorkin has directly addressed the accusations of sexism, saying that, unfortunately, most of the sexist dialogue is verbatim from Zuckerberg's blog, and on account of the guy being a sexist douche, most intelligent, independent women did avoid him and groupies flocked: This is how the actual story played out, and in fact Sorkin added a strong female character (played by Rashida Jones) who wasn't even involved in the actual events surrounding the origins of Facebook. Here's a full explanation (and apology):

From what I can tell, the movie isn't accountable for most of the sexism: it's the reality that the central characters are sexist men who repel strong women, and to claim otherwise is to lie about a story that actually happened.

That was interesting, thanks for posting. Still, the movie is glamourising and perpetuating that philosophy, (and making a shitload on the back of it) so Sorkin can't wash his hands so easily.
One wonders why such a successful writer/producer would want to be involved in a project which makes him "wish he could go door to door to apologize" to the women (and presumably enlightened men) he offends (though one doesn't have to wonder for very long).
Clearly there were other possible treatments, they were just less commercial.

It reminds me of the similar debate over The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series ""Misogynist violence is appalling," the author whispers; "now here's some more."
 

MacGuffin

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It reminds me of the similar debate over The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series ""Misogynist violence is appalling," the author whispers; "now here's some more."

Kinda, but that was complete fiction, this is semi-biographical. Couldn't really shoehorn a competent woman into the script where none were allowed IRL.

Though Rooney Mara's character (she's also slated to play Lisbeth Salander is the American GWTDT remake) in the first scene was fantastic:

"You're going to be successful, and rich. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole."
 

MacGuffin

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I disagree. He was on the quest to be part of the cool crowd. That why he was all into that Napster guy's shit - because that guy was cool and Mark wanted to be like him.

And if it was merely a mean to an end, he wouldn't have gotten so butthurt about his friend getting accepted into the Phoenix club.

I wouldn't say INTJs never play social games though. Just look at this forum. He didn't know how, so he created his own elite club.
 

Salomé

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Kinda, but that was complete fiction, this is semi-biographical. Couldn't really shoehorn a competent woman into the script where none were allowed IRL.
Because there are no competent women in Zuckerberg's industry? At Stanford? Or IRL?
Way to be the target demographic...

Anyway, you're wrong about Zuckerberg's endorsement, according to at least one source:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a282938/zuckerberg-objects-to-social-network-portrayal.html
"The thing that I think is most thematically interesting that they got wrong is... the whole framing of the movie, I'm with this girl who doesn't exist in real life who dumps me," he said during an appearance at Stanford University's 'Startup School' conference.

"They frame it as if the whole reason for making Facebook and building something was because I wanted to get girls, or wanted to get into some sort of social institution."

Zuckerberg continued: "The reality for people that know me is that I've been dating the same girl since before I started Facebook so obviously that's not a part of it."
 

MacGuffin

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Because there are no competent women in Zuckerberg's industry? At Stanford? Or IRL?
Way to be the target demographic...

Anyway, you're wrong about Zuckerberg's endorsement, according to at least one source:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a282938/zuckerberg-objects-to-social-network-portrayal.html

Evidently not around the founding of facebook. And it seems he's weasling out of the beginning of the movie, talking about the start of facebook rather than facemash:

#1) Did Mark Zuckerberg really call his girlfriend a bitch while creating FaceMash.com?

Yes. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin used an actual trasncript from Zuckerberg's former LiveJournal Blog (down to the HTML code) for the movie.

#2) Does Erica Albright, the girlfriend character Rooney Mara played in the film, actually exist?

Apparently so, but her name was changed in the film. The real name that Zuckerberg mentioned in his blogging was Jessica Elona, but she has never been interviewed or heard from… ever. Which, honestly, is a little strange. It's unknown if she is a real person, or if Zuckerberg and her were actually dating at the time, but Zuckerberg did definitely say it in his blog.

http://www.thecinemasource.com/blog/news/the-truth-behind-the-social-network/
 

Nicodemus

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I disagree. He was on the quest to be part of the cool crowd. That why he was all into that Napster guy's shit - because that guy was cool and Mark wanted to be like him.
Parker also knew what he was talking about. That is, I believe, what convinced Zuckerberg even more than the side effects of his past successes.

And if it was merely a mean to an end, he wouldn't have gotten so butthurt about his friend getting accepted into the Phoenix club.
Maybe he regarded it as a loss in a competition. It is also more Saverin's claim than Zuckerberg's behavior what made me think of jealousy in the first place. Zuckerberg did not seem so terribly upset to me.
 

Salomé

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Who was? The film centered on Zuckerberg, Saverin, and the Winklevoss twins. Is there a woman the movie should also center on?

Now you're just being disingenuous.
:zzz:
 

Salomé

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I don't know what point you're trying to make.

The point is, there are numerous ways to spin a "semi-biographical" story. Some in better taste than others.
Your assertion that the film features no competent women because none existed IRL is ignorant and offensive beyond belief.
 

MacGuffin

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The point is, there are numerous ways to spin a "semi-biographical" story. Some in better taste than others.
Your assertion that the film features no competent women because none existed IRL is ignorant and offensive beyond belief.

I don't get it - evidently there were none. Is that fact ignorant and offensive? I suppose, but I didn't invent it. To wit, from above:

More generally, I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people. These aren't the cuddly nerds we made movies about in the 80's. They're very angry that the cheerleader still wants to go out with the quarterback instead of the men (boys) who are running the universe right now. The women they surround themselves with aren't women who challenge them (and frankly, no woman who could challenge them would be interested in being anywhere near them.)

And this very disturbing attitude toward women isn't just confined to the guys who can't get dates.

Is it surprising there wasn't a competent woman around?
 
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