What's Your Number? →
5. —Anna Faris
Daily Beast, which I follow despite its repeated poor judgment as to what constitutes “news,” just posted a quote where Anna Faris, an actress, reveals the number of men she slept with before meeting her husband. The premise of her most recent movie is outrageously sexist. In it she has to abstain from any new sex partners because the odds of her getting married after sleeping with 20 people will drop, statistically speaking.
The movie itself suggests women should feel shame around their sexual choices especially if they want any hope of getting an ever-coveted marriage proposal. Here Daily Beast takes the subject matter out from under the protection of fantasy and lets us all how many partners this woman has actually slept with.
Faris may have said it, but does that mean you have to broadcast it?
I’ll reserve judgment on whether Faris’ movie is sexist until I see it, but your Tumblrer maintains that revealing one’s number of sexual partners is in no way sexist. Anything from zero to 100 or more sexual partners is nothing to be ashamed of, and we see no problem in someone broadcasting (Faris revealed her number at a screening) his or her number if s/he chooses. As you say, Faris’ character is limiting her number of sexual partners based on statistics (silly though they may be)—not because of any sort of slut shaming. If you’re offended by a movie about a woman who wants to get married (or even be in a relationship) and falls vulnerable to arbitrary suspicions or tactics, then stay away from the rom-coms.
I agree with The Daily Beast. We should be more open about sex. Anyway, I don’t think the movie is suggesting that after 20 guys would think she’s a slut. She thinks that statistically she should have already met the guy and so she decides to go back to all her boyfriends. It’s more superstitious than sexist. I don’t think Faris’ character would have cared if she slept with 100 guys until she found the one, she just believed too much in a statistic as a hard cap.
But I’m not talking about the movie… I’m talking about the Daily Beast’s judgement as to what is newsworthy. Why should we care at all how many people Anna Faris, the real life person, has slept with?
If one is of the opinion, like Daily Beast is, that just because one says it shouldn’t matter how many people you sleep with society will suddenly agree well then I don’t know what to say. This discussion becomes no longer worth having. In reality, our society as a whole does still believe women should keep their “number” low. Faris’s comments about her possibly being unskilled in bed given to her having slept with just a few people are antithetical; they’re designed to make her seem cute and innocent. They are definitely not a feminist comment on how we should be more open and unashamed… like at all.
PS: This is my earlier rebuttal to DB’s response above that they did not reblog:
Thanks for the tip re: romantic comedies. My point is more whether and why The Daily Beast is comfortable with perpetuating misogyny. As I said, the movie is fantasy, and though its premise is sexist I have learned to not expect much better from mainstream entertainment. I haven’t yet reached that level of disillusionment with news media. So to reframe your response into a question, should those of us offended by slut-shaming stay away from The Daily Beast?
