Jake storyline not quite believable?
As much as I like Kate Moennig's character and the whole story line, am I the only one who didn't seem to find it quite believable?
shareyou and me both...buts its the wb sooo
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MovieChat Forums > Young Americans (2000) Discussion > Jake storyline not quite believable?
I thought it was 100% belivable. That just goes to show how much gender doesn't have a role in who you like. It's all about personality...physical attraction also comes into play, of course, but if you were a straight girl, and you met a girl who was everything you'd ever wanted, minus the gender, would you go for her? Makes you think, doesn't it?
shareBelieveble or not it was a very intersting plot line and Kate is pretty
shareWow, what an utterly stupid thing to say.
shareI kept thinking of Yentl during the big reveal scene - when she shows her chest to Hamilton to prove to him she's a girl. Pretty much the same thing happens in Yentl between Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin; though much later in their relationship.
Also, I think that what does make the Jake/Hamilton relationship believable is that while Ian Somerhalder is insanely pretty (almost in a femimine way) Katherine Moenning is beautiful in a handsome way - rather than merely pretty. Their unconventional looks work towards making the story believable.
She looks like a young Edward Furlong in Young Americans. Anyone agree?
I agree she did look a bit like Edward Furlong
shareI think the fact that people didn't recognize that she was actually a girl is totally unbelievable. Come on, she didn't look THAT masculine! People would have smelled a rat immediately.
shareThat's what I thought to. She just doesn't look like a guy.
I presumed the threadstarter meant not believable that she got away with dressing as a guy rather than not believable that Hamilton fell for her.
I agree. I knew the first moment she was on screen she was a girl, it was obvious.
shareShe totally looked like a young Edward Furlong.
shareIt probably wouldn't happen in real life but it wasn't completely unbelievable at all. Applications accept you by what you put on there, they don't do a strip analysis themselves to see if you're male or female. And sure, she might've looked a little feminine but what were they gonna do, kick shim out because of that? I once knew a chick named Aubrey and she dressed like a boy too. I hung out with this chick so much but I never knew she was a chick until someone told me she was gay. To this day it's unbelievable to me.
shareI can say- from personal experience- that it's easy to get away with pretending to be someone of the opposite sex if you're doing it right. I'm a girl and it's obvious if I wear something feminine. However, it's just as easy for me to look like a guy if I wear old jeans and a shirt simply because I have an androgynous appearance.
A lot of times, if you're a girl who's mistaken for a guy, people just assume that you're a teenage boy. I actually once had a track coach who only knew me by my last name and didn't realize I was a chick until after tryouts and I was put on the roster for the girls' team. There have also been a few times when my friends thought it would be funny to go to the mall see how many girls I could flirt with and get phone numbers from while pretending to be a guy.
So yeah, some things about the story may be a big stretch, but I don't think the masquerade is. As long as you have the right body language and no obvious curves, it's insanely easy to pass as a guy.
I think the only thing that was "not quite believable" was why she did it. I mean, be a guy just to make your mother notice that she has no idea about what's going on in her daughters life? That's a little bit too much,I think.. (but just a little, it's not annoying or something..) But apart from that, it's totally believable. I mean, there are a lot of young boys looking rather feminine, and why should anyone question her being a guy? I mean, if you would meet a young (they are supposed to be 15..)guy who looked a bit feminine, would you think "Oh, that's a girl masquerading as a guy!" ?? I think not. Most people just accept it. Of course there are some who notice (here it's Bella), but not many. And that Hamilton falls in love with her, that's all about why and how we fall in love with someone. People think about this a lot.. There's the personal attraction of course, the personality, and the "smell idea".. Remember when Hamilton takes Jakes baseball cap and says that it smells good? Well, there's a theory that falling in love is all chemistry and that it has something to do with the way people smell, which we don't really notice consciously. So , according to this theory he subconsciously knows that she's a girl. Anyway, I liked it because it really gives you stuff to think about... You can wonder about what Jake and Hamilton are. I think it's all rather interesting than unbelievable, like the most people here do..=)
share"Jake" can totally pull it off, looking like a lanky teenage boy... it's the other guys who look a bit too mature for 15 year olds.
shareAll things considered, Jake was more believable as a woman than Tootsie.
Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert
I loved the Jake and Hamilton storyline and I like Kate and Ian too but I agree, the whole 'fooling a school into thinking you're a guy' thing did seem a bit preposterous. It wasn't even a regular school with thousands of kids where the teachers never spend much time with any of them, it was a prestigious one with very few students, where the teachers had close relationships with all of them and were very familiar with them. Also, I'm sure there must have been a passport or other formal identification documents passed between Jake/her parents and the school at some point during her enrollment. At a school like that they probably do criminal background checks before accepting anyone!! Oh well, it *is* fiction after all. And I don't think anyone could have played Jake any better than Kate Moennig, she rocks.
The mirror... it's broken.
Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.
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I thought it was silly they made her reason for being there dressed as a boy was so she could get back at her mom. because she really didnt even try to when it came down to it did she...
Plus the character had "james dean" mannerisms anyway (sitting on the bike)
obv. its more than getting back at her mom. its like the WB just wanted to shock the audience without actually going through with it.
I believed it, 100%.
shareI didn't find it very believable.
I actually liked the other storyline better.
"I rule!" -Lester Burnham
The storyline was dumb but they actually should've just had her playing Jake the whole time. Once she revealed she was a girl, the story got dry. Or maybe it's just that Ian reads "gay."
Totally agree. It's strange how much I liked the storyline until recently when I realized they writers completely missed the boat on making Jake a trangender male. The reason why she said she was doing it was so absurd.
Jake should have been a gay trans man, come out to Hamilton and then there story arc would be them struggling to be in a relationship. You touch on sexuality, gender identity and all the complicated stuff that trans and cis people who are dating actually deal with. The UK show hollyoaks did that exact storyline and it was very good for the most part.
With that said, I still re-watch it sometimes and enjoy their storyline the most.
The series creator, Steve Antin, is gay and has had those themes in some of his film work. So, I'm sure he intended to go as far as the network brass would let him. That said, for a US network show, Young Americans was still pretty edgy.
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It worked fine in the context of the show with Katherine having an androgynous look but realistically from a viewer POV it was always obvious she was a girl!
It was kind of amusing that she was a boyish girl and Ian Somerhalder was a feminine (pretty) boy!