Review of episodes five and six of Friends with Benefits, right this way.
Sara’s professionalism still leaves something to be desired.
Aaron’s ‘big-dogging’ of Fitz has definite class, wealth, and race privilege overtones.
Evan is a class-A douche for not stopping with the sexy touching when Sara made it clear she didn’t want it right then.
Ben is a douche for not ending things with Mia when Mia made it clear that she wants something more serious than Ben wants.
Trigger warning for episode six: sexual harassment and rape culture.
Ben is a douche for letting a woman’s looks decide whether she’s worth having sex with.
Ooooh, Riley’s bisexual! Not enough people like me on TV, and now there’s one more!
Fitz is a douche for the whole thing with the define-the-relationship talk with Lauren. Actually for this whole plotline. Right up to the end where he’s going to break up with her for doing the exact same thing he spent half the episode trying not to let her catch him having done.
Ben really has no idea how rapey he sounds, does he? Rape culture, welcome to it, and please don’t tell me we’re supposed to be sympathizing with Ben in this storyline. Good on Amanda for filing that complaint.
Sara is an ass for falling into the gender-essentialist trap of a nerd is not a real man.
So I didn’t like episode five and I hated episode six. The first few eps have some real promise, though, so I’m gonna keep watching.
Friends with Benefits episodes five and six are available on IMDB, and episodes seven and eight air Friday at eight and eight-thirty on NBC.
“Ben is a douche for letting a woman’s looks decide whether she’s worth having sex with.”
No, he’s not. No one is entitled to sex. Everyone has a right to refuse sex for any reason or no reason at all and no one has the right to decide wether someone’s reason for refusing sex is adequate.
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Elizabeth Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 11:07
@JE, that is all true but doesn’t make what she looks like any less of a douchey reason to refuse sex.
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JE Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 11:24
@Elizabeth, I disagree, there is nothing wrong with refusing sex if you don’t want it no matter what the reason for that is.
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Isabel C. Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 14:19
@Elizabeth,
I’d have to see the actual scene. If it’s weird “I’m attracted to her but society doesn’t think she’s attractive so I’m not going there” then yeah, it’s douchey. He has a right to do it, but…douchey.
On the other hand, if blondes/tall girls/women five years younger than him/etc just don’t turn his crank, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Physical appearance is a pretty big part of sexual attraction. Chemistry can always play some pretty interesting tricks, but odds are I wouldn’t sleep with a bald guy, or a guy with a largish beard, or whatever–wonderful people, quite possibly but just not my thing, physically.
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Elizabeth Reply:
August 29th, 2011 at 21:34
@Isabel C., it isn’t clear from context whether Ben is attracted to her, but the reason he’s not pursuing her the way he pursues every other woman in sight is that society finds her unattractive.
@Elizabeth: Oh, ew, that’s no good.
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