So, why are men in charge?
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The answer lies in “evolutionary biology”, which is the study of what behaviors we exhibited back “in the day” (hundreds of thousands of years ago) and how it informs our behavior today.
Back in the day, things were rougher in a lot of ways (but easier in others, believe it or not, but that’s for another article) and child mortality rate was rough. Men could ‘Wilt Chamberlain’ it and have like 100 kids in a day... But a woman had to wait 9 months for a single child. If she was “lucky” she might get two. To give that child the best chance of survival, not only did she need to take extra special care of it, but she needed the biggest, strongest dude around to help protect it. Now... That dude might help her out a bit, but for *him*, the best way to conquer child mortality was to have as many kids as possible with as many women as possible, so he had to go out and knock up all the women while preventing *other* men from getting to them first.
Ipso facto, women are nuturing caregivers and men are violent and aggressive. This isn’t ‘because that’s how it is’, it’s because that original model of child rearing, which was central to homo sapiens surviving at all, has stayed with our DNA through thousands of years, even if our circumstances have changed. So, ladies, if you happen to be very attracted to that ripped macho jerk who treats you like dirt, it isn’t necessarily because you’re ‘self-destructive’ or whatever negativity you want to foist on yourself, it could very well be that your DNA remembers WAY BACK to when you NEEDED that jerk to protect your kids.
Let me clear about something... Using the past to describe behavioral origins is fine. Using the past to PRESCRIBE behavior is terrible. If you want to tell me women are, in general, empathetic and kind, and men are, in general, aggressive and violent, and you tell me evolutionary biology explains why... I’m listening. If you tell me women SHOULD BE empathetic and kind, and men SHOULD BE aggressive and violent because nature dictated that was the way of things in the past and nature always gets it right... I’m going to tell you to fuck right off into the night. Time. Moves. Forward. We can learn from the past, but DO NOT try and return to it. Regardless of whether it’s ‘better’ or ‘worse’ (which is subjective), it’s the PAST. It’s DONE. Things are different! It’s why I hate legal precedent. You want to rule on a case based on a ruling in a similar case in 1879? Are you KIDDING me? We are light years away from 1879! We need to look at circumstances NOW and for the FUTURE. So go ahead and ignore people that tell you to behave a certain way because “that’s how it’s always been done”.
So this brings me to “Ladies First”, where our main man Damien Sachs (Damien? Like from “The Omen”? Turns out yup) is transported to an alternate universe where women and men have swapped gender roles. Women are crass, aggressive, and have the wealth. Men are sensitive, empathetic, and trying desperately to assert themselves and move up the corporate ladder while the “girls’ club” lays down a glass ceiling they just can’t break through.
The thing is... Other than the roles, everything else about men and women is the same as Damien’s original universe (”our” universe). Men are bigger, stronger, and capable of having bunches of kids with different women, and women are smaller, and they still get pregnant and need to take time off whatever they’re doing to have a kids.
So how, exactly, did they become so aggressive? Women being in charge in this universe goes way back. In the ‘new world’, god is a ‘her’, kings of the past are now queens, the gender roles are perfectly swapped. But... We’ve already established WHY men assumed the aggressive role and women assumed the caregiver role. THOSE circumstances are the same! How on earth did we have the same biological imperatives and a completely different outcome?
By far the likeliest answer seems to be... We simply decided to. At some point in the distant past of this new world, humans unilaterally just decided that women should be aggressive and men should be beta cucks. No shade thrown, I might or might not be a card carrying member of the beta cuck club.
Is that even possible? I mean... It is theoretically possible that we could all just ‘decide’ something and start acting that way... But could it really happen?
In “Ladies First”, it clearly did. While I am skeptical... I like to think there’s a chance that we actually COULD make a species-wide change in perception. The internet actually makes this logistically possible now. 100 years ago, in order to have this major perception shift, we would need some Jungian collective thought or mind waves or SOMETHING to get everybody on the same page. Now... We have the internet connecting everybody on earth. All we need is the idea. I like to think that if there is truly a great idea, that it could ‘take hold’ and make everybody perceive things in a new way, very quickly.
However, “Women and men should swap power dynamics” isn’t a great idea, and “Ladies First” doesn’t present it as such. If you don’t like men being alpha assholes, putting women in those positions and watching them behave the same way doesn’t reduce the asshole content of the world (we’re currently sitting at 79% and rising... Thanks to the aforementioned internet).
There is some amusement to be had in the swap. Damien is forced to start working out and ‘get fit’. I do think it’s notable that, in the ‘real world’ a man who puts a lot of effort into his physical appearance is a “looks-maxxer”, while a woman who puts a lot of effort into her physical appearance is a “woman”. It’s fun to watch women eat steak while Damien eats salad (is that still a thing? I thought the whole “women be eating salads” nonsense vanished at the end of 90s? Am I wrong? Are you still eating salads, women? Let me know in the comments! Or don’t, because there aren’t any). While there is fun to be had, there’s annoyance as well. Watching our heroine, Alex, be completely ignored in a meeting led by Damien, only to have Damien completely ignored in the alternate universe meeting led by Alex, followed up by him saying “Well, I see now how that’s really annoying” isn’t particularly novel and just insults our intelligence.
Ultimately, the movie focuses on the wrong problem. While misogyny is a problem, it isn’t *the* problem. *The* problem is having idiots hold the power. Damien is, literally, useless. When he gets transported to the new world, he is told that to return to his home dimension, he needs to become CEO of his company. He says “I’m really good at this” several times over the course of the movie, and what he’s good at is schmoozing, telling people what they want to hear, and sucking up to his boss. He. Doesn’t. Produce. ANYTHING. Yet... In BOTH universes, he ends up as Alex’s boss! She is a genius who actually produces stuff, but she ends up working for HIS dumb ass that can’t do a damn thing! And we’re to understand that it’s *cool* as long as he values her and respects her? It’s not cool! Get his ass OUT of there altogether! I don’t care how! Implement socialism and get rid of all bosses! Implement libertarian meritocracy! Anything to stop a schmoozing dork from reaping the benefits of underlings who are producing what he can’t.
Alex is even worse than Damien. She’s a genius... At producing ads. They both work for an ad agency. There are few things I hate as much as ads. Every time I see a commercial, I want to violently punch myself in the face and then explode the world. Ads are THE WORST, and Alex is a master at creating them. She’s the best at creating the absolute worst thing... So you know what? Fuck ‘em all. Damien, Alex, women, men, cats... Just STOP TRYING TO FUCKING SELL ME THINGS. To do this, it just takes the simple act of overthrowing capitalism.
Now *that* might be an idea worth unilaterally pursuing.
9/10