Humanism and "Bachelorette"

I don’t claim to know a lot about feminism.

I certainly support a woman’s right to make decisions about her body, and I don’t believe sexism has any place in contemporary society.

But feminism encompasses far more territory than that, so it would be pure ignorance to call myself a feminist.

What I can call myself, however, is a humanist. I think everybody should be able to do what they want regardless of gender, sexual orientation, color, race or creed, as long as they aren’t harming others. 

This philosophy occurred to me the other week wile I was watching a new film called “Bachelorette,” written and directed by Leslye Headland.

The film, which debuted earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival, made headlines in August when it hit number one on the iTunes rental chart, a full month ahead of its Video On Demand and limited theatrical release. 

Critical reaction has been mixed. Some have knocked it as a poor man’s  “Bridesmaids.” But I think there’s something more inspired going on here.

Bachelorette centers on three snarky, narcissistic high school friends attending the wedding of a girl they once and still call “Pig Face.”

For the first 20 minutes of the film, I was horrified. These girls cursed. They did ridiculous amounts of cocaine. They had wild, uninhibited sex that would make Hugh Hefner blush.

Then it hit me. These girls are behaving the same way the main characters of “The Hangover” films did, and we celebrate them for it. Once I had this realization, “Bachelorette” became the finest comedy I’ve seen this year.

Unlike the mostly dumb, characters of “The Hangover,” these female characters are whip-smart as well as deplorable.

Yet because they’re women, audiences don’t want to see them behave badly.

This is how my view of humanism was born. That’s why I like to think of Bachelorette’s so-called bad girls as humanists.

They are people, first and foremost, doing exactly what it is they want to do, when and how they choose to do it.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu