Ides of March - The Story of Uncaring Sexy Men
'Ides of March' is a classy movie. It is a story about political campaign machine trying to win the public over. The story that has multiple plots. The bigger story is that of one candidate's political machine trying to thwart another's. This battle in the public eye is being fought on the realm of big ideas and noble personalities that have perfected the public persona. Within this big story, there are smaller stories of human dynamics involving rivalry, loyalty and sex too. What 'Ides of March' does best is in showing how it is the smaller stories of human dynamics that really determines the big story.
There are many strands to the smaller stories. In this post, I would like to deal just with the story of sex, because this movie clearly depicts why sex is not a casual thing the present day 'hook-up' culture has made it to be. Sex has big implications in life. There are two reasons. One, sex has procreative powers. Two, God created sex as serious stuff in a way that creates a deep bonding between people that truly care for each other. God did not create sex to be casual stuff.
There are many strands to the smaller stories. In this post, I would like to deal just with the story of sex, because this movie clearly depicts why sex is not a casual thing the present day 'hook-up' culture has made it to be. Sex has big implications in life. There are two reasons. One, sex has procreative powers. Two, God created sex as serious stuff in a way that creates a deep bonding between people that truly care for each other. God did not create sex to be casual stuff.
Ryan Goslin is the campaign manager for George Clooney's Presidential bid. The beautiful Evan Rachel Wood is an intern with the campaign team. Evan finds Ryan sexy and seductive. She tells him that they should have 'casual sex' as and when they find time. They do that. Thankfully, the movie doesn't have any explicit or yukky scenes that make you too uncomfortable.
Though a campaign manager getting caught having sex with an intern could be extremely damaging, Ryan is confident no trouble would befall them. He is right and wrong. One day Evan finds herself pregnant. The father is the Presidential candidate George Cloony himself. Geroge has an unsuspecting wife and kids, not to mention the carefully crafted public image of a good Father and Husband.
Though a campaign manager getting caught having sex with an intern could be extremely damaging, Ryan is confident no trouble would befall them. He is right and wrong. One day Evan finds herself pregnant. The father is the Presidential candidate George Cloony himself. Geroge has an unsuspecting wife and kids, not to mention the carefully crafted public image of a good Father and Husband.
Evan tells Ryan about her pregnancy. Ryan VERY UNCARINGLY tells her that in order to avoid a political scandal she'll have to abort the kid and then quit the campaign team. Evan does not like that option. She says she does not want to quit the team. That would be the end of her life's dreams. Ryan maintains that he wouldn't allow her to work in the campaign. If someone found out about the abortion, that would be the end of George's campaign. He gives Evan cash and drops her off at the hospital to have the procedure done. Evan is terribly sad. She doesn't speak much. You could see an inexplicable sadness in her eyes.
After the procedure, Ryan discretely picks Evan up and leaves her in her room and tells her she'll have to leave as soon as she could. In the mean time, Ryan gets fired from his campaign on questions of loyalty to the campaign. Ryan comes back to see Evan. Finds her dead. Evan had committed suicide. The last text in Evan's cell phone is to George. NOW the Man in Ryan wakes up. He decides to take revenge on George and bring his campaign down, which is what the rest of the movie is about.
There are two questions here...
1. Initially, Ryan thinks the campaign is worth killing a child in the womb. But when a person outside the womb dies, he decides to bring the campaign down. Why this double standard?
2. Why does Evan commit suicide?
I think the answer to both points to the same - a strong sexy man's uncaring nature.
There are two questions here...
1. Initially, Ryan thinks the campaign is worth killing a child in the womb. But when a person outside the womb dies, he decides to bring the campaign down. Why this double standard?
2. Why does Evan commit suicide?
I think the answer to both points to the same - a strong sexy man's uncaring nature.
Ryan is a strong, slick and sexy. He competent enough to build or destroy a campaign, but he doesn't 'care' for a vulnerable life that needs help. Ryan prefers to lose a life (Evan's child in the womb) in order to save the campaign. But when Evan's life was lost, he decides that someone needs to pay for Evan's death. At the heart of this flip-flop is the idea that he doesn't have to 'care' for the baby in the womb. From a Christian perspective, this sort of not caring is TOTALLY wrong.
Jeremiah 1:5 - Before I formed you in the womb I knew (chose) you, before you were born I set you apart.
God created men to be strong and support the vulnerable. But Ryan doesn't 'care' enough to support the vulnerable. In this, he had lost his 'manishness'.
Jeremiah 1:5 - Before I formed you in the womb I knew (chose) you, before you were born I set you apart.
God created men to be strong and support the vulnerable. But Ryan doesn't 'care' enough to support the vulnerable. In this, he had lost his 'manishness'.
Now to the question of why the beautiful Evan ends her life at its prime best. Evans has been a happy-go-lucky girl for so long, having 'casual sex' in the hook-up culture. When she gets pregnant, she is forced to make serious choices. She realizes that there is more to life than meets the eye. She is vulnerable. She needs support, but there was none to stand by her. Her 'casual' sex partners don't quite 'care' for her. Both the men involved in her life George and Ryan are very powerful men. But they couldn't have loved her less. She feels totally abandoned by men with whom she shared something special - her sexual and romantic self. She had foolishly bargained something very special for something cheap - momentary titillation. To be at a place where one realizes that there is none that cares, is the worst place to be in. Perhaps, it is not terribly surprising that she snapped.
Ryan should have stepped-up to support her and her child when she was alive. He failed to do that. Then after her death he steps-up to have his vengeance. But what is the point? He is just sexy, seductive, strong uncaring man.
I was reading an article that talks about the American college experience. It says that for a college to make a lot of money and be successful, it has to have three things parking for faculty, football for alumni and sex for students. Kate Bolick in her incisive article on the Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/all-the-single-ladies/8654/) talks about how in the 1990s, the 'hook-up' culture became pervasive in College campuses and students began having 'casual' sex with multiple sex partners. She goes on to point that sometimes women do it not because they find it erotically or emotionally satisfying, but because it is just a part of 'social conformity'. Being sexually active is often taken as proof that one has it in oneself. She recounts an experience where she talks to some very sexually active college girls and they frankly acknowledge that they can't keep doing this for long.
What we do changes us. It defines us. When sex becomes casual and cheap, men tend to become uncaring. When people have casual 'safe' sex by suppressing the 'bonding' part of it, it alters the psyche of people involved. Which is why psychologists says that sex in uncaring relationships can be very harmful to the human psyche. Unfortunately, liberal college campuses have become the breeding ground 'hook-up' culture where casual sex is the norm of the day. God never meant sex to be shared casually. Sex is a serious thing which has serious implications in terms of procreation and in its ability to bond people. Sex was never supposed to be 'safe' either. Sex is dangerous, needs careful handling.
When we take something that God meant for one thing and use it for something else, it will twist our nature. Human nature will lose its humaneness. Which is what happens in 'Ides of March'. Ryan got free sex. He didn't want to say no. If it is free, why should he care about the person who is the gift-giver? He is a strong man that becomes uncaring. He is a creation of this 'hook-up' culture. Abortion is just a by-product of this problem. When men become uncaring, they lose their 'manishness'. They no longer are caring enough to stand by the vulnerable. A society with such men would eventually self-destruct. In fact, one of the causes of the decline of Roman empire was its 'casual' attitude towards sex. The men of that civilization accustomed to getting everything free from sex to food weren't disciplined or responsible or powerful enough to defend it when the Visgoths came down upon Rome.
The story of a civilization would be defined more by the story of uncaring men than by BIG political ideas of democracy or autocracy or capitalism or communism. Stepping outside of God's prerogatives for life will create foolish women and uncaring men. Consequently, a decadent civilization. Just like in 'Ides of March', the success and the failure of a Civilization depends not so much upon the BIG propagandized ideas, but on whether the little stories of the human dynamics is in obedience to God's written laws. It was in light of this that G.K.Chesterton said, "Civilization can stand in one angle. We are now testing angles."
The Christian hope and prayer should be that people realize the vacuousness of the hook-up culture and repent to honor God's cultural prerogatives, starting with matters of sex. Sex is special 1) it begets life, 2) it creates bonds. God created sex to be serious powerful stuff needing careful handling. 'Casual' sex would twist human nature, make people irresponsible and uncaring which would eventually lead to the toppling a civilization. With more than a third of today's children born in single-mom homes, the story of this civilization is likely to be defined by the story of uncaring 'sexy' men than by anything else.
Ryan should have stepped-up to support her and her child when she was alive. He failed to do that. Then after her death he steps-up to have his vengeance. But what is the point? He is just sexy, seductive, strong uncaring man.
I was reading an article that talks about the American college experience. It says that for a college to make a lot of money and be successful, it has to have three things parking for faculty, football for alumni and sex for students. Kate Bolick in her incisive article on the Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/all-the-single-ladies/8654/) talks about how in the 1990s, the 'hook-up' culture became pervasive in College campuses and students began having 'casual' sex with multiple sex partners. She goes on to point that sometimes women do it not because they find it erotically or emotionally satisfying, but because it is just a part of 'social conformity'. Being sexually active is often taken as proof that one has it in oneself. She recounts an experience where she talks to some very sexually active college girls and they frankly acknowledge that they can't keep doing this for long.
What we do changes us. It defines us. When sex becomes casual and cheap, men tend to become uncaring. When people have casual 'safe' sex by suppressing the 'bonding' part of it, it alters the psyche of people involved. Which is why psychologists says that sex in uncaring relationships can be very harmful to the human psyche. Unfortunately, liberal college campuses have become the breeding ground 'hook-up' culture where casual sex is the norm of the day. God never meant sex to be shared casually. Sex is a serious thing which has serious implications in terms of procreation and in its ability to bond people. Sex was never supposed to be 'safe' either. Sex is dangerous, needs careful handling.
When we take something that God meant for one thing and use it for something else, it will twist our nature. Human nature will lose its humaneness. Which is what happens in 'Ides of March'. Ryan got free sex. He didn't want to say no. If it is free, why should he care about the person who is the gift-giver? He is a strong man that becomes uncaring. He is a creation of this 'hook-up' culture. Abortion is just a by-product of this problem. When men become uncaring, they lose their 'manishness'. They no longer are caring enough to stand by the vulnerable. A society with such men would eventually self-destruct. In fact, one of the causes of the decline of Roman empire was its 'casual' attitude towards sex. The men of that civilization accustomed to getting everything free from sex to food weren't disciplined or responsible or powerful enough to defend it when the Visgoths came down upon Rome.
The story of a civilization would be defined more by the story of uncaring men than by BIG political ideas of democracy or autocracy or capitalism or communism. Stepping outside of God's prerogatives for life will create foolish women and uncaring men. Consequently, a decadent civilization. Just like in 'Ides of March', the success and the failure of a Civilization depends not so much upon the BIG propagandized ideas, but on whether the little stories of the human dynamics is in obedience to God's written laws. It was in light of this that G.K.Chesterton said, "Civilization can stand in one angle. We are now testing angles."
The Christian hope and prayer should be that people realize the vacuousness of the hook-up culture and repent to honor God's cultural prerogatives, starting with matters of sex. Sex is special 1) it begets life, 2) it creates bonds. God created sex to be serious powerful stuff needing careful handling. 'Casual' sex would twist human nature, make people irresponsible and uncaring which would eventually lead to the toppling a civilization. With more than a third of today's children born in single-mom homes, the story of this civilization is likely to be defined by the story of uncaring 'sexy' men than by anything else.