MovieChat Forums > Crystal Fairy y el cactus mágico (2014) Discussion > Comment about American perception of fem...

Comment about American perception of femininity?


I find it interesting how Cera's character (emblematic of many American males of his generation raised on hardcore pornography and Hollywood cinema) reacts so negatively to the sight of normal female body hair, yet doesn't appear to realise that the two women he picks up off the street earlier in the film are drag queens. Are we supposed to conclude that his perception of femininity is so skewed that he identifies more closely with an exaggerated charade of 'womanhood' than the real thing? What did you think?

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It never occured to me that he didn't know they were drag queens.

And the argentinians didn't look particularly pleased with her body hair, they just weren't jerks.

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Fair point on the second part — I guess it's hard to tell. They certainly don't seem as uncomfortable about it as Jamie.

You could be right about Jamie knowing all along that they were drag queens, but I wonder what his purpose was in taking them home? I presumed he wanted to have sex with them, and I'm pretty sure his character is supposed to be straight. I just got the impression he was either too high or generally oblivious to notice.

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I would have to re-watch it. And it could be wishful thinking, for it not to be such a cliché.

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They were Chileans. And you're right: They didn't want to be rude to her.

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I thought that the Chileans weren't really grossed out by her body hair, they were just (like Jamie) a bit startled when she casually walked out of the shower naked. They just didn't make a fuss about it and didn't really care if she preferred to be naked, when they got over the shock.

It was an issue only for Jamie, maybe because there were hints (him refusing to eat that empanada, being so disrespectful to the locals, thinking every Chilean was okay with drug-fueled debauchery) that Jamie unconsciously regarded the Chileans as more "uncivilized" than the Americans. So when his fellow American acted all laid back, unconventional and against the usual standards, he felt embarrassed.

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Well ever since the 90's the trend for porn and in gener has been clean shaven and Crystal Fairy is au natural from her V to her pits to her eyebrows. To many American men, teens and adults the idea of unshaven women is sort of taboo and very outdated. I'm not surprised at his reaction at all.

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That's my thought too. He's still very much a 'child' in his perception of women. It's interesting that it's a topic not more frequently dealt with in cinema (well, perhaps understandable given that most of it is devoted to propagating those norms).

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I don't think Jamie wanted to sleep with the hookers. He was in Peru for a spirtual experience and probably viewed himself as an enlightened guy that was just being cool. The only problem was that nobody saw him that way. Doors of preception, indeed.

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That's true, he started out being very much self-righteous and didn't realize a bit that he wasn't being genuine. It was interesting to see him actually becoming more sincere and enlightened and open-minded towards others and himself after the trip. It shows that even though he had a bad trip at first, it still served its purpose.

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I don't think so. I think he invited the drag queens because he was high. That's also why he didn't know what they were. But he's sober when CRYSTAL FAIRY gets naked.

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I didn't get any sense that he was attracted to the prostitutes. That's why they eventually leave, because they could tell he wasn't aiming for sex... he was actually trying to hang out, probably so he could later brag to people about that time he was high and chatted with two funny prostitutes. He seemed to spontaneously invite them to eat for the same reason he spontaneously invited Crystal Fairy to go to the beach - he was high and just saying a lot of things, too hopped up to sleep and desperate for company (or an audience.)

When sober, he seemed to find Crystal Fairy repellant mostly because she was over the top in her behavior (like being the only nude person in a small room of people...which is provocative, regardless how that person looks; lecturing them about road trip food), smelly (which is unappealing on anyone you're going to share a car/room/tent with) and she was manipulating the experience as much or more than he was, so they had a competitive dynamic. She threatened his ability to feel in control of the situation, although in doing that she seemed to genuinely want him to have a deeper experience. He couldn't understand that because he couldn't empathize with her until the end, faced with unexpected shame it brought up after he was too harsh. She revealed at the end that she's not simply a hippy dippy caricature- she's more complicated than she looks and a bit wounded, which humanized her and cracked Jamie's shell of defensiveness.

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^ nice Summary!!

1789

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Really good summation. Well said.

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He's not reacting negatively. Well, he is, but it's not because of his own beliefs. Very little that comes out of Cera's character's mouth is honest and directly from his own thoughts, that's why he's so annoying. People don't like it when they're presented with an obvious caricature of a human instead of a real one.

He's putting on an act 24/7 and so is Hairy Fairy and they both know it. They're throwing out at the world what they are really hoping the world is going to want to see. They don't know that it's what the world wants to see, and clearly given the awkward reactions it often isn't, but their life experiences has lead them to concoct these cringey personas.

His character is complicated by the fact that along with the fake act he's throwing out, he is actually a bit selfish and arrogant even beneath his insecurity. We see this when he's tripping and he spots Crystal and he feels for her, but he goes back to the water instead of bridging that gap. That's his natural inclination. Later his natural inclination is to have an emotional moment with her and apologise and all that. It makes him feel like he's achieved something. Then ten minutes later his natural inclination is to hijack her big rape reveal. He just can't keep it in, even for a minute for her to finish.

Crystal obviously has a dramatic change after her trip where she comes face to face with her persona (writing her name out) and realises the ridiculousness of it. Even before this though, we see her acting normally very briefly when she shares her elaborate fear with the group. The guys laugh, they apologise because that's what nice people do when they can't help themselves and instead of making a scene she accepts the laughter in an almost self-deprecating way. All the crazy tension that she had just built up diffuses instantly.

This is really interesting to me because not only do the two americans conjure fake personas out of the ether, out of their idea of what society is and what it wants to see, but they believe with all their being that the fake persona will get better results than their true identity. That's the crux of the issue. Whatever they've done or not done in their lives, has lead them to believe that their true identity isn't good enough. Through the emotional experience of a strong psychedelic trip, Crystal realises the futility in this and drops the act. Fortunately she has a rather pleasant and complete identity beneath the act that she can fall back on.

It's harder for Jamie because beneath the act he actually has some real behavioural issues he has to work out. He can't simply stop being selfish. It takes more than one strong mind bender to give a man true empathy, especially if he's going into it with almost none at all as the case might be with Jamie. He has to learn that lesson all over again with some potent drugs and it's going to be rough for the guys he shares the road with, but he'll get there. Perhaps surprisingly it might be one of his biggest flaws (being overly analytical) that gets him there. He just needs to point those skills in the right direction (the minds of others). I feel like perhaps he should be following at his current stage in life instead of leading as he's trying to do for most of the movie. We can see this when the guys take him to the water and he's behind them all chasing after them. He looks truly happy and at peace with his allotment.

Of course you could say that everybody on the planet earth is putting on some kind of act and you would probably be right, but I think the difference comes in the disparity between the act and the truth.

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