The Hating Game

 

If you take this movie for what it is, a cheesy romcom, then it does the job pretty okay. It's nothing to write home about, but it hits the notes of most of your classic and often cringy romantic movies. But if you dig deeper into the scene work and begin to think about the representation of sexism in the workplace it gets interesting. For anyone who hasn't seen it this movie is about two feuding co-workers (Lucy & Joshua) who are fighting towards the same promotion in order to keep their separate companies afloat while trying to stay out of each other's way. But as most of these movies work obviously something does get in the way, feelings. I don't have anything bad to say about the romance itself, but instead I want to talk about the workspace they are surrounded by. She is constantly held at a higher standard and often sexualized by the manager of josh's side of the business. He usually makes lewd comments or chalks up her having an opinion to it being "that time of the month". This does accurately represent what it's like to be a woman pursuing a job in any field that isn't consider atypical, she's working towards a promotion while being constantly fed the idea that it's a "man's job." They're both working at a publishing company, and they both do a damn good job, in any standards they would both be equal candidates for this promotion, but she's at a disadvantage just simply due to workplace sexism. But we see her work her ass off for the promotion and get it in the end, I do think the movie does sort of paint a "she only got the job because he quit" picture, but I still think it's a win none-the-less. I also thought it was interesting to see on the other side of the coin Josh getting belittled for not becoming a doctor and instead choosing a "feminine" job like becoming a publicist. His job is an actual, real, high paying job, and he's good at it but yet he is still getting belittled by his parents. It's odd to see how josh is told his job is too feminine and not manly enough, but Lucy is told that she is meddling in a man's world for trying for this promotion. I wouldn't really recommend the movie just for the sheer fact that it is still a cringy rom com at heart, but if you do decide to, I think it's more interesting to just disect the workplace sexism being portrayed in the film.