December 24, 2024 • 21 mins
The business woman who returns home to her small town. The mother who puts everyone first. The - gasp - single woman who needs to find love. Holiday movies are full of tropes. We highlight a few in this merry, special episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm welcome stuff Never
Told You production of iHeart Radio and today welcome to
another sub sub sub sub sub segment, Fictional Women around
the World. This is a special one because, as it
(00:26):
comes out, it is Christmas Eve. Happy Christmas Eve to
anyone who celebrates Chris, Happy Christmas to whoever, Happy Day tooever,
good luck. Because of that, I thought I'd do something
a little different for this fictional Women around the World,
and we would just talk about some popular tropes around
women in holiday movies, because there are a lot of them,
(00:48):
starting with the workaholic. And we briefly discussed this in
one of my recent happy hours about how I feel
like I've sort of been put into this trope. This
is the woman who puts her career first and now
her life is meaningless. She has to go home for
(01:08):
Christmas for some reason and then finds out it's all
a line. Here we go she finds the meaning of Christmas,
usually because of the related trope the hunk who shows
her life is more than work. They're always like a carpenter, yeah,
(01:30):
or they work at like the local store and they
have they wear a lot of plaids.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Or they own a bookstore, yes, than the Go to
Go two things.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, And I guess I should put a disclaimer here.
I have seen plenty of holiday movies, but I'm not
like I haven't delved into Hallmark at all, Like I
don't know even I though I know some of these,
I know these.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Hey, I was actually thinking about this because it is
now on the advertising for Google TV. So if you know,
if you have that as you know ro Google TV,
Google TV, they show you holiday movies you might want
to watch in The Hallmark channel is absolutely featured.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Old school days.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
To be in a Hallmark movie meant that you were
about to make it, like you haven't quite made it,
but you've been on either a kind of a syndicated
show or you're about like you're jumping from TV to
movies like you Like I just saw it with like
Skate Ulerich I think and Carry Russell. Yeah, so Skate
(02:34):
Oleridge and Carrie Russell's old, old old Hallmark movie And
I was like, my god, did they do one?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Really?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It was way back when, and I think it was
at the era of her being in Felicity and like
way back when, like she was starting to get big,
her hair was being talked about because for some reason,
the nineties era of like women in hair like that,
everybody wanted that haircut anyway. But I was like, yeah,
I think once upon a time when Tiffany and Berthieson
(03:03):
was getting off of Saved by the Bell, she was
in a crime Hallmark Lifetime movie. Like it was weird
because at that point, Lifetime on Hallmark one in the
same like they were featuring because Hallmark channel wasn't its
own channel, it was all being featured on Lifetime. I'm old,
just go work and being with me, and so you
would have both. But like it's so fantastictually just pulled
(03:23):
out the magic ordinary days of ordinary days.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Maybe it was a real movie and I just thought.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
It was Hallmark version, but I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I'm like, wow, to truly have made it.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And now it's people who have either their career needs
to be revived or we've never heard of them.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, like I said, if you could get a good
Christmas movie, like I've said before, I haven't said it
in this current episode, but like I've said before, if
you can get a good Christmas movie, that's kind of
a guaranteed yearly income moneymaker.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Mm hmmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I do have a friend who was on Sminty back
when we didn't have a co host, and she loves
Hallmark movies and she talked she broke it all down
for me. But these tropes, I mean, I feel like
they've infiltrated. They've infiltrated. And this was part of the
reason I wanted to talk about it was my mom.
She got it in her head. She wanted to watch
(04:21):
Hot Frosty and I was like.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He's a gay Hellmark movie.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It you don't know what it is.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
No, oh, it's about No, it's not man, It's about
hot Snowman abs and comes to life and it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, love is fanned.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I guess was the title Hot Frosty?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Really? Yes, I have heard some people like it, and
I'm not judging it. I haven't seen it. I was
just kind of like Bob, I always only bringing this
up because I kind of think it's funny. But then
she got in her head it's like we should.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Watch it, did you No? Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Now, well, my mom. I love her to death, but
she's not good at watching movies. She usually falls asleep
within like the first twenty minutes, so I was like,
I don't want to be stuck watching Hot Frosty about myself,
and maybe I would like it. I have an upcoming
classic about how I brought up all this debate about
what a Simon role actually is the tripe. So I
(05:26):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Uh, I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I disagree, but I think, yes, I can see it.
I can see it, but I haven't. I haven't watched
the movie, so I got to do that before I
can judge.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Finally disagreeing already, Dal.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, well, based on the article I read about it
their points, I disagree, but I haven't seen the movie,
so I'll have to watch and then I can judge.
But yeah, my mom will fall asleep in it, i'd
be watched, I'd be left watching it by myself, and
I wasn't in that place at the current moment. So
here is a quote from mc sweeney's about the kind
(06:03):
of workout workaholic Christmas movie woman. Sure she gets great
satisfaction from maintaining her independence, achieving her goals, and surrounding
herself with people who challenge and inspire her, but it's
time for her to stop working and start living the
Hallmark way. It's time for her to go home for
the holidays. Once home, she will agree to whichever of
(06:24):
her parents is still living. She's required to miss at
least one of them tragically. Then she must bump into
some guy she knew in high school. He knew her
when she was still young and carefree, before she'd had
any meaningful life experiences, and before her brain was even
really finished developing. He knows the real herb perfect It's
(06:45):
a really great article. It's satirical, I hope, obviously, but
it has a lot, a lot, a lot of great quotes,
so if you're interested, I would say go check that out.
Also related is the perfectionist, and this is sort of
the woman who has to get all of Christmas right.
She has to get all the decorations right. She's got
to win the cookie contest and the light show contest
(07:08):
and all of that. That is also a popular trope.
These last two are the ones I'm most familiar with.
The nagging mom. This this is the woman who does
(07:31):
like everything, but the man gets the credit for finding
the spirit of Christmas or something right.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's usually like she asked him to do the one
thing and then he didn't do it, and then for
some reason she's the villain in this for bothering him
about it, and then he eventually finds some way to
succeed and he's.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The hero, like he becomes Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
He becomes Santa Claus. That's a big one orgy jingle
all the way, which, by the way, has a post
credit scene if you didn't know, And the post credit
scene is so the whole plot of that movie is
he like doesn't spend any time with his family and
then he was supposed to get this like really hard
to get gift and he didn't, and now he can't
(08:18):
get it because everybody's sold out everywhere. He's able to
get it in the end, but whatever, whatever, whatever. Anyway
credit scene post credit scene is his wife is like,
I'm so impressed with everything you did for our son,
and it makes me wonder what did you get me?
He didn't get her anything, and I'm like, yep, yep,
(08:41):
that's it, right.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I like that ending like yeah yeah, and his face
like the Blue Boars are like, oh yeah, it like
does the quick zoom and he's like, oh, like I
don't know if it's just implying that all men have
ADHD in that they don't I don't remember to tell,
or they wait to the last minute. Yeah, and then
they're like, oh no, I'm scrambling around for kind of
(09:06):
a good gift. I will say the time to get
away from me this time as well, So I'm like,
they're not the only ones, but.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Get it together.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I mean, I was reading an article before this about
I mentioned it briefly in the Happy Hour that will
come out about how there's been a lot of articles
lately about people realizing that their moms bought and wrapped
their own gifts. And there was one article who was
(09:35):
written by someone who was like, you know, I'm always
kind of annoyingly bragging about how our relationship is so
equitable and we share all these responsibilities, but when Christmas comes,
it goes out the window, and he's always so last minute,
and I'm like shouldering all this other stuff. And when
we talked about it, what he said was he's never
(09:59):
he doesn't get the exchanging of gifts, so he just
it doesn't occur to him. But she was like, well,
tell that to all the people in our life. I
don't know right. It was interesting though.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
But guarantee he would have been embarrassed if they didn't
show up with gifts and things in all of that
and been like, oh no, And then when he.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Gets gives and be like, why didn't you do it?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah? Well, and she was saying, like a lot of
times people they would cut their eyes to her because
they're expecting her to do it. So he's even though
it's on him, he's not getting the blame.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Right, No, she is, but he was still feel embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, but that is such a trope, especially in Admittedly,
my data set of like holiday movies is from when
I was growing up, so like the nineties, right, I'm
not sure if it's changed, but in the nineties this
was a huge trope.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Well, just like a Disney movie.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I had a lot of movies about like parents dying
and them being alone and having one parent trying to
shoulder all that. But then like telling me the kid
to get it get over it, or like having the
ant come in still being seen as a villain.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Mm hmm, prancer. That traumatized me.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I hate it with a passion, hate it with everything
in my being.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Everything about it makes me angry. This is why I
don't get into the Christmas spirit. I think movies.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That's fair. There is another related trope I would say,
which is that the mom who is underappreciated and puts
everyone first even though they're having a terrible Christmas. So
a lot of people gave who is it taylorone from
Love actually like she's having this horrible No, who is
(11:50):
Ama Thompson?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay Thompson aste.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Like of love actually happy? But they say, like, she's
having this horrible Christmas and she's just like putting on
smile and still trying to.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean, to be fair.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
She finds out that her husband is talking to a
very very very young secretary.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, rip Alan Rickman.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, of course she's having a terrible Christmas, but
like that idea of her, Yeah, feeling like I have
to right shoulder on and put it on the smile
and make all this magic, right, yeah, make.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The costumes of a lobster for the first lobster and
then they tivity y'all if y'all know, you know, Yeah,
there's so many like the mom. Like even the Christmas Story,
the mom is just tired and I've only seen I
still have not seen all of the Christmas Story because
it is on repeat everywhere I go, and I can't
(12:46):
stand it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Not because of it's a bad movie. It's just because it's.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
So overplayed that I'm like, I will never watch this,
no offense to those who love it. I get it,
it's a good Christmas movie for y'all. But like the mom,
she is thoroughly tired and constantly having to watch after
the kids and constantly having to watch over her and
besilac husband essentially, so it seems someone's gonna come out
(13:12):
here and get really mad at me about me denigrading
the Christmas Christmas story. But I think about that as well,
and even like Elf, her character is just trying to
like being like, no, I have a job to You're
responsible for the son.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He's miserable because of you. You need to get it together.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Like she's also tired of him, and also taking kind
of care of El, the adult man who was his son,
who thinks that he's an ELF. I'm pretty sure she
and Here are the closes same age, by the way,
But anyway, but I think like even the newer movies
still have the moms just being like secondary characters who
are just done getting tired.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah. I think about that too, because it's usually like
it's about the main dude finding Christmas and she's just
there like, please help, please do your job, please do
the bare minimum once again.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
At least they don't paint her as the bad guy
in this one, because she is so secondary, but she's
just more like I'm done and I appreciate that, but
like that's still that level of nagging in which you
really are trying to pigeonhole women in these characters. Yeah,
(14:30):
we've done those episodes before, it is, so I'm like,
why do we need to do this again?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, this brings us to I have a tiny bonus
one after this, but our final main one is all
I want.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Is a man.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Big trope. She is single on Christmas.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
No, the family stone is not that, but it's kind
of like being the perfect girlfriend to keep a man.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I feel like a lot of the a lot of
the kind of rom com ones are she's single at Christmas.
Oh no, oh no, no no, and they're usually presented
very comically like she's can't get her life together. Maybe
she got fired from her job, maybe she slipped in
the road, and it could be anything, but she's not
(15:32):
having a good time at Christmas. Here's the quote. Here's
the quote from the stylist. Being single at Christmas in
a festive film is akin to being a social pariah.
Your entire purpose is to find love before the credits roll.
The longer it takes you to achieve this goal, the
more you will be punished via a series of cinematic misfortunes.
(15:54):
Your bags will break and spill your shopping all over
the floor. For example, you will make it ours of
yourself at the office karaoke part. You will wind up
drunk and home alone at least once dancing to the
Killers are singing album myself. See The Holiday and Bridget
Jones's diary for proof. It's true, it's true.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
It's more about New Years though both.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
If we did do I think both of those for
holiday movies? Yes we did, we did, but yeah, that
kind of whole. I can't be alone over Christmas. No,
and very heteronormative sense, not even just your family, but like.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well apparently there's a gay Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
You single all the way, There's there's more.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
There's more than that one there because there are exceptions.
Things are changing. It's very slow going, but yes, there
there are a few. Because for so long it was
very straight, very white. It still largely is, but there
are exceptions, and there are more and more exceptions, so
(17:01):
that's something. But yeah, I was reading articles about like
just so much of it is still kind of like
and I mean, it's the reality. Unfortunately, it's still the
women in the kitchen cooking and making everything and doing
all the gift giving and all this stuff, and they
(17:21):
are secondary and less. They're single, and they need to
find a man to find their meaning than otherwise, what
are you even doing?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
What are you even doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I just love, honestly that a bunch of the movies
are just quite on the nose, like a merry single Christmas. Yeah,
I will say, during the pandemic one of the best
Christmases I had. I'm a love of all my Christmases,
but as me being by myself at my house because
(17:57):
we couldn't travel anywhere, and my parents all of them
had COVID because they all decided to see each other
like a week before and all of them got COVID.
I'm like, I'm not coming to see you. And then
my partner ended up going I think actually went to
see his family, and we weren't at that point yet,
like we weren't visiting each other's family, and I was like,
how much chill here?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Happy holidays y'all. And I think I watched like Christmas
movies and just sat at home.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It was delightful.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I mean, that's the thing. It doesn't have to be
the saddest thing. Ever, it's not. For a lot of us,
it's not. But we've also talked about how before when
you go home, a lot of times you get those
questions and why are you still single? And that can
make you feel like is that the only only purpose
(18:47):
I have?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, but for plenty of us, you could even enjoy
these movies and know that it's very silly, and uh,
it's not.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Okay, it's enjoying those silly movies.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, just you know, always recognize when you get some jokes.
But yeah, come on.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We talked about this before recently. Cliche tropes, they're not
all bad, No, enjoy them with caution.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Enjoy with caution. So I would say my honorary mention
is young girls who like help everybody find the spirit
of Christmas. Miracle on thirty fourth Street is a good example.
And Cindi lu who who actually did find a really
interesting article about her and about how she basically is
(19:35):
like rescuing her family in town from capitalism and go, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's nice.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Frosty the Snowman is a young girl that rescues Frosty
the Snowman essentially in the spirit of Christmas as well.
There's several that's like that. I think it's always typically
young girls. Again, plants are still traumatized, but it's that
same trope and I hate it.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's there's definitely several that fit into
that as well. But I hope listeners that whatever you're doing,
wherever you are, however you're choosing to celebrate or not celebrate,
you are well. And if you have any thoughts on
any of this, any suggestions, because there are some like
(20:19):
pretty newish movies that have come out that I was
reading about. I was like, oh, this is different. I
haven't seen this holiday movie before, so always appreciate suggestions.
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(20:39):
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Speaker 3 (21:02):
Ye
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm welcome stuff Never
Told You production of iHeart Radio and today welcome to
another sub sub sub sub sub segment, Fictional Women around
the World. This is a special one because, as it
(00:26):
comes out, it is Christmas Eve. Happy Christmas Eve to
anyone who celebrates Chris, Happy Christmas to whoever, Happy Day tooever,
good luck. Because of that, I thought I'd do something
a little different for this fictional Women around the World,
and we would just talk about some popular tropes around
women in holiday movies, because there are a lot of them,
(00:48):
starting with the workaholic. And we briefly discussed this in
one of my recent happy hours about how I feel
like I've sort of been put into this trope. This
is the woman who puts her career first and now
her life is meaningless. She has to go home for
(01:08):
Christmas for some reason and then finds out it's all
a line. Here we go she finds the meaning of Christmas,
usually because of the related trope the hunk who shows
her life is more than work. They're always like a carpenter, yeah,
(01:30):
or they work at like the local store and they
have they wear a lot of plaids.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Or they own a bookstore, yes, than the Go to
Go two things.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, And I guess I should put a disclaimer here.
I have seen plenty of holiday movies, but I'm not
like I haven't delved into Hallmark at all, Like I
don't know even I though I know some of these,
I know these.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Hey, I was actually thinking about this because it is
now on the advertising for Google TV. So if you know,
if you have that as you know ro Google TV,
Google TV, they show you holiday movies you might want
to watch in The Hallmark channel is absolutely featured.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Old school days.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
To be in a Hallmark movie meant that you were
about to make it, like you haven't quite made it,
but you've been on either a kind of a syndicated
show or you're about like you're jumping from TV to
movies like you Like I just saw it with like
Skate Ulerich I think and Carry Russell. Yeah, so Skate
(02:34):
Oleridge and Carrie Russell's old, old old Hallmark movie And
I was like, my god, did they do one?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Really?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It was way back when, and I think it was
at the era of her being in Felicity and like
way back when, like she was starting to get big,
her hair was being talked about because for some reason,
the nineties era of like women in hair like that,
everybody wanted that haircut anyway. But I was like, yeah,
I think once upon a time when Tiffany and Berthieson
(03:03):
was getting off of Saved by the Bell, she was
in a crime Hallmark Lifetime movie. Like it was weird
because at that point, Lifetime on Hallmark one in the
same like they were featuring because Hallmark channel wasn't its
own channel, it was all being featured on Lifetime. I'm old,
just go work and being with me, and so you
would have both. But like it's so fantastictually just pulled
(03:23):
out the magic ordinary days of ordinary days.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Maybe it was a real movie and I just thought.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
It was Hallmark version, but I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I'm like, wow, to truly have made it.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And now it's people who have either their career needs
to be revived or we've never heard of them.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, like I said, if you could get a good
Christmas movie, like I've said before, I haven't said it
in this current episode, but like I've said before, if
you can get a good Christmas movie, that's kind of
a guaranteed yearly income moneymaker.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Mm hmmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I do have a friend who was on Sminty back
when we didn't have a co host, and she loves
Hallmark movies and she talked she broke it all down
for me. But these tropes, I mean, I feel like
they've infiltrated. They've infiltrated. And this was part of the
reason I wanted to talk about it was my mom.
She got it in her head. She wanted to watch
(04:21):
Hot Frosty and I was like.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He's a gay Hellmark movie.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It you don't know what it is.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
No, oh, it's about No, it's not man, It's about
hot Snowman abs and comes to life and it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, love is fanned.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I guess was the title Hot Frosty?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Really? Yes, I have heard some people like it, and
I'm not judging it. I haven't seen it. I was
just kind of like Bob, I always only bringing this
up because I kind of think it's funny. But then
she got in her head it's like we should.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Watch it, did you No? Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Now, well, my mom. I love her to death, but
she's not good at watching movies. She usually falls asleep
within like the first twenty minutes, so I was like,
I don't want to be stuck watching Hot Frosty about myself,
and maybe I would like it. I have an upcoming
classic about how I brought up all this debate about
what a Simon role actually is the tripe. So I
(05:26):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Uh, I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I disagree, but I think, yes, I can see it.
I can see it, but I haven't. I haven't watched
the movie, so I got to do that before I
can judge.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Finally disagreeing already, Dal.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, well, based on the article I read about it
their points, I disagree, but I haven't seen the movie,
so I'll have to watch and then I can judge.
But yeah, my mom will fall asleep in it, i'd
be watched, I'd be left watching it by myself, and
I wasn't in that place at the current moment. So
here is a quote from mc sweeney's about the kind
(06:03):
of workout workaholic Christmas movie woman. Sure she gets great
satisfaction from maintaining her independence, achieving her goals, and surrounding
herself with people who challenge and inspire her, but it's
time for her to stop working and start living the
Hallmark way. It's time for her to go home for
the holidays. Once home, she will agree to whichever of
(06:24):
her parents is still living. She's required to miss at
least one of them tragically. Then she must bump into
some guy she knew in high school. He knew her
when she was still young and carefree, before she'd had
any meaningful life experiences, and before her brain was even
really finished developing. He knows the real herb perfect It's
(06:45):
a really great article. It's satirical, I hope, obviously, but
it has a lot, a lot, a lot of great quotes,
so if you're interested, I would say go check that out.
Also related is the perfectionist, and this is sort of
the woman who has to get all of Christmas right.
She has to get all the decorations right. She's got
to win the cookie contest and the light show contest
(07:08):
and all of that. That is also a popular trope.
These last two are the ones I'm most familiar with.
The nagging mom. This this is the woman who does
(07:31):
like everything, but the man gets the credit for finding
the spirit of Christmas or something right.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's usually like she asked him to do the one
thing and then he didn't do it, and then for
some reason she's the villain in this for bothering him
about it, and then he eventually finds some way to
succeed and he's.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The hero, like he becomes Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
He becomes Santa Claus. That's a big one orgy jingle
all the way, which, by the way, has a post
credit scene if you didn't know, And the post credit
scene is so the whole plot of that movie is
he like doesn't spend any time with his family and
then he was supposed to get this like really hard
to get gift and he didn't, and now he can't
(08:18):
get it because everybody's sold out everywhere. He's able to
get it in the end, but whatever, whatever, whatever. Anyway
credit scene post credit scene is his wife is like,
I'm so impressed with everything you did for our son,
and it makes me wonder what did you get me?
He didn't get her anything, and I'm like, yep, yep,
(08:41):
that's it, right.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I like that ending like yeah yeah, and his face
like the Blue Boars are like, oh yeah, it like
does the quick zoom and he's like, oh, like I
don't know if it's just implying that all men have
ADHD in that they don't I don't remember to tell,
or they wait to the last minute. Yeah, and then
they're like, oh no, I'm scrambling around for kind of
(09:06):
a good gift. I will say the time to get
away from me this time as well, So I'm like,
they're not the only ones, but.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Get it together.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I mean, I was reading an article before this about
I mentioned it briefly in the Happy Hour that will
come out about how there's been a lot of articles
lately about people realizing that their moms bought and wrapped
their own gifts. And there was one article who was
(09:35):
written by someone who was like, you know, I'm always
kind of annoyingly bragging about how our relationship is so
equitable and we share all these responsibilities, but when Christmas comes,
it goes out the window, and he's always so last minute,
and I'm like shouldering all this other stuff. And when
we talked about it, what he said was he's never
(09:59):
he doesn't get the exchanging of gifts, so he just
it doesn't occur to him. But she was like, well,
tell that to all the people in our life. I
don't know right. It was interesting though.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
But guarantee he would have been embarrassed if they didn't
show up with gifts and things in all of that
and been like, oh no, And then when he.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Gets gives and be like, why didn't you do it?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah? Well, and she was saying, like a lot of
times people they would cut their eyes to her because
they're expecting her to do it. So he's even though
it's on him, he's not getting the blame.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Right, No, she is, but he was still feel embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, but that is such a trope, especially in Admittedly,
my data set of like holiday movies is from when
I was growing up, so like the nineties, right, I'm
not sure if it's changed, but in the nineties this
was a huge trope.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Well, just like a Disney movie.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I had a lot of movies about like parents dying
and them being alone and having one parent trying to
shoulder all that. But then like telling me the kid
to get it get over it, or like having the
ant come in still being seen as a villain.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Mm hmm, prancer. That traumatized me.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I hate it with a passion, hate it with everything
in my being.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Everything about it makes me angry. This is why I
don't get into the Christmas spirit. I think movies.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That's fair. There is another related trope I would say,
which is that the mom who is underappreciated and puts
everyone first even though they're having a terrible Christmas. So
a lot of people gave who is it taylorone from
Love actually like she's having this horrible No, who is
(11:50):
Ama Thompson?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay Thompson aste.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Like of love actually happy? But they say, like, she's
having this horrible Christmas and she's just like putting on
smile and still trying to.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean, to be fair.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
She finds out that her husband is talking to a
very very very young secretary.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, rip Alan Rickman.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, of course she's having a terrible Christmas, but
like that idea of her, Yeah, feeling like I have
to right shoulder on and put it on the smile
and make all this magic, right, yeah, make.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The costumes of a lobster for the first lobster and
then they tivity y'all if y'all know, you know, Yeah,
there's so many like the mom. Like even the Christmas Story,
the mom is just tired and I've only seen I
still have not seen all of the Christmas Story because
it is on repeat everywhere I go, and I can't
(12:46):
stand it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Not because of it's a bad movie. It's just because it's.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
So overplayed that I'm like, I will never watch this,
no offense to those who love it. I get it,
it's a good Christmas movie for y'all. But like the mom,
she is thoroughly tired and constantly having to watch after
the kids and constantly having to watch over her and
besilac husband essentially, so it seems someone's gonna come out
(13:12):
here and get really mad at me about me denigrading
the Christmas Christmas story. But I think about that as well,
and even like Elf, her character is just trying to
like being like, no, I have a job to You're
responsible for the son.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He's miserable because of you. You need to get it together.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Like she's also tired of him, and also taking kind
of care of El, the adult man who was his son,
who thinks that he's an ELF. I'm pretty sure she
and Here are the closes same age, by the way,
But anyway, but I think like even the newer movies
still have the moms just being like secondary characters who
are just done getting tired.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah. I think about that too, because it's usually like
it's about the main dude finding Christmas and she's just
there like, please help, please do your job, please do
the bare minimum once again.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
At least they don't paint her as the bad guy
in this one, because she is so secondary, but she's
just more like I'm done and I appreciate that, but
like that's still that level of nagging in which you
really are trying to pigeonhole women in these characters. Yeah,
(14:30):
we've done those episodes before, it is, so I'm like,
why do we need to do this again?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, this brings us to I have a tiny bonus
one after this, but our final main one is all
I want.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Is a man.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Big trope. She is single on Christmas.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
No, the family stone is not that, but it's kind
of like being the perfect girlfriend to keep a man.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I feel like a lot of the a lot of
the kind of rom com ones are she's single at Christmas.
Oh no, oh no, no no, and they're usually presented
very comically like she's can't get her life together. Maybe
she got fired from her job, maybe she slipped in
the road, and it could be anything, but she's not
(15:32):
having a good time at Christmas. Here's the quote. Here's
the quote from the stylist. Being single at Christmas in
a festive film is akin to being a social pariah.
Your entire purpose is to find love before the credits roll.
The longer it takes you to achieve this goal, the
more you will be punished via a series of cinematic misfortunes.
(15:54):
Your bags will break and spill your shopping all over
the floor. For example, you will make it ours of
yourself at the office karaoke part. You will wind up
drunk and home alone at least once dancing to the
Killers are singing album myself. See The Holiday and Bridget
Jones's diary for proof. It's true, it's true.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
It's more about New Years though both.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
If we did do I think both of those for
holiday movies? Yes we did, we did, but yeah, that
kind of whole. I can't be alone over Christmas. No,
and very heteronormative sense, not even just your family, but like.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well apparently there's a gay Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
You single all the way, There's there's more.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
There's more than that one there because there are exceptions.
Things are changing. It's very slow going, but yes, there
there are a few. Because for so long it was
very straight, very white. It still largely is, but there
are exceptions, and there are more and more exceptions, so
(17:01):
that's something. But yeah, I was reading articles about like
just so much of it is still kind of like
and I mean, it's the reality. Unfortunately, it's still the
women in the kitchen cooking and making everything and doing
all the gift giving and all this stuff, and they
(17:21):
are secondary and less. They're single, and they need to
find a man to find their meaning than otherwise, what
are you even doing?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
What are you even doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I just love, honestly that a bunch of the movies
are just quite on the nose, like a merry single Christmas. Yeah,
I will say, during the pandemic one of the best
Christmases I had. I'm a love of all my Christmases,
but as me being by myself at my house because
(17:57):
we couldn't travel anywhere, and my parents all of them
had COVID because they all decided to see each other
like a week before and all of them got COVID.
I'm like, I'm not coming to see you. And then
my partner ended up going I think actually went to
see his family, and we weren't at that point yet,
like we weren't visiting each other's family, and I was like,
how much chill here?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Happy holidays y'all. And I think I watched like Christmas
movies and just sat at home.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It was delightful.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I mean, that's the thing. It doesn't have to be
the saddest thing. Ever, it's not. For a lot of us,
it's not. But we've also talked about how before when
you go home, a lot of times you get those
questions and why are you still single? And that can
make you feel like is that the only only purpose
(18:47):
I have?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, but for plenty of us, you could even enjoy
these movies and know that it's very silly, and uh,
it's not.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Okay, it's enjoying those silly movies.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, just you know, always recognize when you get some jokes.
But yeah, come on.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We talked about this before recently. Cliche tropes, they're not
all bad, No, enjoy them with caution.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Enjoy with caution. So I would say my honorary mention
is young girls who like help everybody find the spirit
of Christmas. Miracle on thirty fourth Street is a good example.
And Cindi lu who who actually did find a really
interesting article about her and about how she basically is
(19:35):
like rescuing her family in town from capitalism and go, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's nice.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Frosty the Snowman is a young girl that rescues Frosty
the Snowman essentially in the spirit of Christmas as well.
There's several that's like that. I think it's always typically
young girls. Again, plants are still traumatized, but it's that
same trope and I hate it.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's there's definitely several that fit into
that as well. But I hope listeners that whatever you're doing,
wherever you are, however you're choosing to celebrate or not celebrate,
you are well. And if you have any thoughts on
any of this, any suggestions, because there are some like
(20:19):
pretty newish movies that have come out that I was
reading about. I was like, oh, this is different. I
haven't seen this holiday movie before, so always appreciate suggestions.
You can emails Steffani your mom Stuff at i heeartmedia
dot com. You can find us on Twitter and blue
Sky at mom Stuff podcasts, or on TikTok and Instagram
(20:39):
a stuff I've never told you. We're also on YouTube.
We have tea public store, and we have a book
you can get wherever get your books. Thanks as always too,
our super producer was seen or execut to producer My
and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
for listening stuff I never told you. Distection my Heart Radio.
For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can check
out the Heart Radio, Apple podcast or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Ye
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