How to Be Single

How to Be Single is a classic chick flick movie. It follows four main characters Alice, Ruby, Lucy, and Meg through their journey of overcoming and dealing with the challenges of being single in New York City. The movie stars some big names in the film industry such as Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann, Dakota Johnson, Nicholas Braun, Alison Brie, and Anders Holm.

For the women category in the Rep Test, How to be Single scored well. It earned two points for having the protagonist a woman since the main characters are all women. It also earned a point for representing women as more than objects of the male gaze, including a woman in speaking roles with diverse body types and passing the Bechdel test. Rebel Wilson, who plays Robin, has a larger more diverse body type than the rest of the cast. In my opinion, the movie does more than just represents the women as “objects of the male gaze.” The movie does in some scenes show women as just an object of the male gaze, but not many. Most of the scenes in the movie showcase, these four women learning and having fun without a man around.

Surprisingly, the movie passing the Bechdel test. When I first watched the movie, I thought there was no way that it would meet the three criteria. I knew it passed the first two criteria which were the movie must have two women in the movie who speak to each other. The last criteria are that they must talk to each other about something other than a man. With the title of the movie, I thought all they would talk to each other about was men. But I was wrong. This movie is not only about men and being single, but it is also about this four women having fun, getting drunk, and living a very busy working life in New York. So, yes the women talk about how to cure hangovers, their jobs, and families without mentioning men.

The movie does a good job of avoiding the glorification of violent men. There are no violent scenes in the movie. How to be single also has a man of color in it with a speaking role that does not have racial stereotypes. It also features a male character in a non-stereotypical role, like a single dad who is very involved in his daughter’s life. The character’s name is David. He is a single dad who becomes friends with Alice, and later they start dating.  

The final point of criteria that How to be Single meets is that one of the writers of the screenplay is a woman, Abby Kohn. She is also famous for writing the screenplays for The Vow and He’s Just Not That Into You. She is a co-writer on this screenplay with two other men. The director of this movie is also male.

Overall, How to Be Single scores a nine on the Rep Test and earns a B. Personally, I enjoyed this movie. I thought it was funny and showcased women in a fun positive way without that many stereotypes, sexist or racial prejudices. So, I do not believe that the Rep test is an excellent way to score movies. In my opinion, a movie can be great with or without gays or lesbians, people with disabilities, or no main female roles. It is all about the storyline and the message, and the Rep Test fails to score these two things. I believe this movie should have scored higher.