Sex Comedies & The Graduate

Tamar Jeffers McDonald defines the main goal of the sex comedy as "[pitting] woman against man in an elemental battle of wits, in which the goal of both is sex.  Only the timing and legitimacy of this differs from gender to gender, with woman wanting sex after, and men before or without, marriage" (38).  The latter part of this definition is debunked by the Kinsey Report, which revealed that women also had sexual desires.  The initial publication of the report created much shock to the public, who could not imagine such a revelation of truth.  This was, and still is, a double standard, where it is considered acceptable for men to have multiple lovers, but women, on the other hand, are looked down when they sleep around.

What I found most interesting was the introduction of a "'hierarchy of knowledge' in which he knows more than she and we know more than either" (45).  This type of battle-of-the-sexes game between is quite evident in How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days, where Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey duel it out -- for Hudson, to write a magazine article, and for McConaughey, to win a bet.  Without revealing their true motives for most of the movie, their battle of wits turns into real feelings for each other, and the ending suggests that they are in a committed relationship with one another from then on.  The audience, of course, has full knowledge of what's actually going on, which drives the storyline even more and makes the movie enjoyable.

Indeed, we can fit The Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman, into this type of romcom.  It would appear that Hoffman and Anne Bancroft have their own reasons for wanting to get each other in bed - Hoffman's character is [in all senses of the word] awkward and doesn't really seem to have any motivation to move forward after graduating from college and Bancroft's character, as she later reveals, does not have a great relationship with the rest of the family, obviously jealous of her daughter and sleeping in a different room than her husband - so for the first part of the movie, sex is, subconsciously or otherwise, their main goal.

McDonald, Tamar Jeffers.  Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre.  New York: Wallflower Press, 2007.  Print.
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Movie trailers for The Graduate and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

The Graduate trailer

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days trailer