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Some thoughts on the Alma character
posted by Jacinto CupboardSTAFFMOD on March 3, 2018 at 1:39 AM
I didn't like this movie, but it still left an impression on me. Enough that elements of the movie have puzzled me. Apart from the absence of a coherent story, I was perturbed by things that didn't make sense about the Alma character; not the least why a young woman would be instantly attracted to an elderly, unmarried dressmaker. I tried to avoid the obvious cliche about why the Woodcock character would even be interested in women at all. But dammit, it's the elephant in the room.
If the Alma character was written as a young man, let's call him Alan, then this story becomes a whole lot more coherent and the niggling objections largely disappear. So what happened that this character becomes female? I think it has to do with timing. In the post Jenner, post binary world that has explosively emerged, a story about a destructive, indeed murderous relationship between two gay men would have been career ending for all concerned. The backlash would have been nuclear.
So in that post binary yet still pre Weinstein moment a change in gender for Alan is necessitated.
Sad that women are still fair game for these sorts of depictions. The lesser of two evils it seems.
Reply by Ask Me Anything
on June 17, 2022 at 12:48 PM
Hefner was an extreme example, but you are ignoring reality if you think this type of thing is that uncommon. Average/decent/pretty women are very common, rich men are less common. Hell, Steven Tyler was pushing 70 when he married his current wife who was in her late 20s, it happens. It happens a lot, because women are attracted to the lifestyle an accomplished older man can bring. That's just a fact. And Tyler's wife wasn't a supermodel, she was just an average woman. And DDL looks a hell of a lot better for his age than Tyler did.
It's not about being a gold digger, it's about being attracted to an accomplished man of means. Women are attracted to men who are well off. Sure some are gold diggers but if she had to pick between an attractive man her age who lived with his mom and worked as a waiter, or a man 20+ years older who was still good looking, but also wealthy/famous/well-off, it's no contest. Older rich man will will 9/10 times, if not 10/10 times. Just like a man would rather choose an average 19 year old woman over an accomplished 50 year old woman.