"Women are as Fucked a Group as Ever" in Five Minutes of "Something's Gotta Give"

Casondra Colizzi
English 313
Dr. Wexler
November 18, 2008
Movie Clip: Something’s Gotta Give
Writer/ Director: Nancy Meyers


“Women are as Fucked a Group as Ever in Five Minutes of Something’s Gotta Give”

Erika Berry is a talented and successful playwright in Nancy Meyers Film Something’s Gotta Give. When her daughter brings over an older boyfriend, 40 years her senior, Erika finds herself having to make reasons as to why she is still a divorcee. Older women who are not married or widowed are questioned as to why they never remarried, but as in this scene, older men, especially the lucky one’s like Harry Sanborn, are praised for never having been married. Women are still considered spinsters and hags if they don’t share their bed with the same man after a certain age. Society is supposed to be in a progression towards equality, yet even in a romantic comedy, the presupposed notions of the bachelor and the spinster are still strongly evident. Zoe, Erika’s sister, plays the narrator in this scene for viewers to recognize the underlying notion of this film: Women are as fucked a group as ever. Although women are as successful as men, and are treated much better now than before the women’s movement, we still must fall into certain conventions regarding marital status. Even though our paychecks are as high as men, our lifelong struggle for equality still must be fought, American society still portrays the idea of women having to be married in order to be successful, but the question still states, “Why do I have to defend this time in my life?” Women will forever be defending why or why not they are living the way they are, whether it be career-wise, single, or childless; society is still living in a pre-women’s movement era, and will be this way until everyone recognizes the ties still on younger and older women living their lives in the style they choose.