How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

In a society in which the word love is thrown carelessly around and relationships are being made and broken in a matter of weeks, men and women are often focused on finding their next conquest. In the 2003 movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Andi Anderson, a “How to..” writer for a popular women’s magazine striving to take up more “serious” journalism, is issued an assignment from her boss to do an article on how to lose a guy, Benjamin Barry, in the deadline of ten days. Benjamin Barry is in advertising, mainly handling the sports and alcohol clients, in order to take over a diamond account he is challenged with making a woman, Andi Anderson, fall in love with him in ten days to prove he understands what they want. Throughout the movie, women are given power and manipulate men through their sex appeal as well as their intelligence and work ethic. Men view women through two lenses, the opinion that they can acquire any woman and that women are fierce competitors that need to be put into place. The movie provides this contradictory feminist argument through Andi’s behavior, their work environments, and interactions between supporting and main characters.

The friends of Andi and Ben often fulfill the stereotypes of gender present in society through their behavior. The movie opens with Michelle, Andi’s friend, in distress over a breakup with a guy she had only been dating for a week and a half. Her emotional reaction perpetuates the stereotype that women are easily driven into emotional episodes and are too quick to be invested in relationships. The discussed pattern of lost relationships and her behavior of crying during sex or saying “I love you” after two dates make her “undateable”, fulfilling the old maid stereotype. During the boy’s night, Ben and his friends are seen smoking cigars, drinking, watching sports, gambling, and making fun of women, specifically Andi. This behavior displays the stereotype that men are messy, sport obsessed creatures. The way they critique Andi proves men have an idea of the “perfect girl” and if the girl does not fit that idea, the woman is not desirable. Through the discussions between these characters and the main characters, we find out the inner thoughts and priorities of Ben and Andi which are not the priorities society would expect them to have.

Ben and Andi both challenge their gender roles by displaying dissatisfaction in their roles at work. Andi displays agency and ethic, she dates Ben and commits all the relationship faux-pas to prove herself to her boss. She does this in an effort to be allowed to write on topics of deeper meaning than topics, such as beauty and love, that are supposed to be the only things that interest women. By exaggerating the stereotype of a clingy, obsessive girlfriend, Andi proves how laughable it is that a woman could honestly behave in this manner. However, by presenting this behavior, it enforces the stereotype and regresses the feminist voice Andi establishes in the beginning of the movie. Ben, instead of being satisfied in his role of covering sports and alcohol brand ad campaigns which most frequently sexualize women, something men are supposed to be most interested in, wants to enter into a diamond campaign. Diamonds are supposed to be of female interest which is why two women are given the project instead of Ben who brought the company the ad campaign, this discrimination against a male emphasizes the roles men and women are supposed to play. By showing devotion to a prominently feminine interest, Ben challenges this stereotype.

Andi is both a strong feminist character as well as a seductress. The premise of the movie is that a woman can manipulate a man and be in control of the relationship. However, Andi “dangles the bait”, meaning herself, to get Ben hooked. This fulfills the seductress stereotype, that women can only have power over men through their sex appeal, something she relies on to manipulate him. While she presents herself as a sex object, throughout the movie, Andi is also presented as an independent, driven woman. Her goal of doing serious journalism contradicts that women are obsessed with arbitrary beauty and love. She contradicts the idea that women are not interested in sports, in fact, Andi is very invested into the Knicks sports team, a theme throughout the movie. She both challenges and defies the image that society has created of a woman.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days presents both a feminist and non-feminist view of society. The characters do not fit into one specific gender category, overlapping in many ways. Although this movie passes the Bechdel test, it is not completely feminist, still portraying some cliched stereotypes of both men and women.