I’m watching the new Entourage episode last week…freakin’ hilarious show. Yeah, the main characters are a bunch of self-absorbed bottom feeders, but so what? The dialogue is fantastic.
Anyway, the studly movie star, Vince, is trying to track down a supermodel he had some quality eye contact with. He goes to her hotel room and meets the model’s suitemate, who answers the door in a robe that is wide open, revealing all of her undergarments, a quality ad for Victoria’s Secret. I shake my head in disgust…I thought women only answered the door like this when *I* was knocking!*
The suitemate tells Vince his dreamgirl has left for Hawaii and doesn’t have her phone number. As Vince is about to leave the woman offers him free use of her body, no strings attached. SEX! Vince, having a deep well of willpower (pretty easy when you hook up as much as he does) politely declines. Without a beat, the woman promises to tell Vince’s dreamgirl that he’s “an honest guy” or something to that affect. Because he’s rejecting her he must be a decent human being and NOW she’s willing to help him find the girl.
That’s when I threw my shoe at the screen.**
What if Vince had accepted her invitation? Would she have slept with him? What would she tell her friend? “No, Vince is a HORRIBLE man–we had sex all night!” What a monster!
Vince wasn’t committed to the woman he was pursuing. So why is he suddenly a good guy because he doesn’t want to sleep with her? Nah, screw that question…there’s a bigger one. This scene triggered the memory of a story a friend told me last year. He was meeting a woman in some sort of business transaction, picking something up or whatever–not the point. The woman propositions him in one of those neutral ways that could be interpreted as inviting intimacy. My pal is pretty sharp with the witty comebacks and he basically shoots it down, but in such a way that he MIGHT have left the door open a crack–or at least, unlocked.
He finds out from his girlfriend later that this woman is a friend of hers and she propositioned him on purpose to see if he would cheat on her. He didn’t cheat, but his answer caused an argument that lead to him dumping her for setting him up.
I guess it’s a stretch to tie this incident to Entourage, but if it shows up in fiction it must show up regularly in reality. Do lots of women create these sort of traps? Because I thought Jigsaw was one sick mutha in those Saw movies, but he’s looking pretty rational compared to this.
Do guys bust out a similar setup? I can’t imagine calling one of my pals and asking them to hit on my girlfriend to see if she would be loyal to me. If anything, I wouldn’t want to discover the loyalty doesn’t exist! Well, maybe I would want to know if the relationship is a sham…no, wait a minute!
Aren’t we messing with human nature here?
The whole concept of this setup is like trying not to start a fire despite playing with a magnifying glass in the sun. True, humans have free will and personal responsibility, but they’re also hardwired to pro-create, make babies and stuff. Take a married man and a married woman–not to each other–and put them in bed together. Hey, put them fully clothed on a deserted island. Despite their best intentions to stay faithful, do you want to bet they’ll succeed? Yeah, I’m sure many do, but you know the truth…you’d rather put your faith into a round of Keno.
AND you’ll get free drinks and cheap prime rib!
I guess you could chalk this up to one of the many differences between men & women, like shoe obsessions or fooling around with other women in college. Because I haven’t heard of many (uh, any?) guys telling their wives, “I used to fool around with men in college, but I was just young and experimenting. I don’t do that anymore” Then again, girls kissing on television is alright while guys kissing is TABOO! We’ve got some lame double standards in our culture.
*Maybe someday I’ll blog about the MAN who answered the door like this in my high school pizza delivery days!
**Metaphorically.
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