Love & Romance, Hollywood Style [Period 4, Class 5]

[carpe_demon]

Drake was playing some somewhat creepy music when the students arrived for class. "Today we're going to take a trip to the dark side," he said. "No, don't go running for the nearest witch with a vanquish potion, I'm talking about obsessive love. I've got two examples for you today."

A snap of his fingers, and the projector started rolling. "In meta for Sleeping with the Enemy," Drake began, "Laura is married to an abusive, controlling, possessive husband. So she fakes her own death and runs away to start a new life. Of course, psycho hubby hunts her down. He beats up her new boyfriend and tells Laura that he loves her, he can't live without her, and he won't let her live without him. But Laura's built up a spine in the meantime, and she grabs a gun and blows the psycho away.

"Now, in Fatal Attraction," Drake continued, "the sexes get reversed. Dan cheats on his wife with Alex while his wife and daughter are out of town. When wifey comes back, Dan cuts things off. But Alex doesn't want to let go. She makes a suicide attempt and then starts stalking Dan and spying on his family. She even boils the pet bunny. Eventually she decides to kill Beth, Dan's wife, seeing her as the obstacle between her and Dan's love. Dan attempts to drown her and then Beth blows her away."

Drake stopped the clips and turned his attention back to the class. "Alex claimed to love Dan, and Laura's husband said he loved her. Was that really love? What would you do if you were caught up in those circumstances? And why do teenage girls sometimes think sparkly controlling, suffocating engine-stealing boys are so dreamy?"

Comments

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Five]

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"Of course, some of them are really good at hiding what they really are," Joan said. "My dad's a cop and he's got tons of stories about those kind of guys."

They didn't generally end well either.

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Five]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

A faint smirk crossed Kennedy's face for a moment. She entertained, very briefly, the notion of commenting on the first bit, but decided there were more amusing things to say. "Way to contradict yourself," she drawled as if she'd never done that before herself. "You just said 'any gender,' and then 'those kind of guys.'"

Someone had an extra dose of pain-in-the-ass pills with her healthy balanced breakfast today.

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Five]

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Joan looked sheepish. "Yeah, I guess I did. Most of my dad's stories are about guys who abuse women, so..."

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Five]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy could have made a crack about why girls were superior there; it wouldn't have been entirely out of the realm of possibility. She wasn't entirely stupid, though, and dropped some of the smartass attitude.

"Which doesn't mean it doesn't work the other way. 'course, I'm not saying all women who do that are all bunny-boiling psycho stalker, 'cause that image isn't doing women any favors either."

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Five]

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

"Ugh, no, definitely not," Joan agreed.