What if gender roles change? If they were the ones who had to do the housework, wax, play the tricky part, they were the ones who expressed their emotions when they had sex, can you imagine?
French film director Eléonore Pourrat, Je ne suis pas un homme facile (I am not an easy man) invites us to reflect on what would happen if gender roles switch.
In the film, Pourrat tells us the story of Damien, starring Vincent Elbaz, a macho man who suffers an accident and wakes up to a world dominated by women.
The hetero-patriarchy disappears, and a hetero-matriarchy is in place, where women are the ones with the highest salaries, recruit employees for their physical appearance, and enjoy sports while men take care of the house chores.
Demian''s wardrobe has also changed, now she must wear tight and transparent clothes, pants with erotic words.
With a touch of humor, the filmmaker invites us to reflect on the normalization of machismo in minimal aspects of everyday life.
In one scene, Demian is rejected by a woman for not being shaved, assuming that he must take more care of his appearance.
He falls in love with Alexandra, an androgynous-looking writer. Alexandra, played by Marie-Sophie Ferdane, is shown as a dominant, successful, manipulative sexist and arrogant woman.
Men organize and create the “masculinist movement” that seeks respect for their rights: not to be harassed on the street, equitable distribution of household chores, equal pay, among other requests.
Pourrat''s film has been criticized for lacking a feminist theoretical basis. However, it does manage to portray a parallel universe to make visible the violence that women experience. The argument is not to impose a feminine force. Otherwise, rights will continue to be violated, and stereotypes will be imposed, its the search for equality.
How did the movie come about?
In 2014, Éléonore Pourriat published on YouTube a short film called Majorité opprimée (Oppressed Majority), which shows a parallel universe, a matriarchal society in which women are the oppressors, the owners of power, and in which a father dedicated to the home he is raped and re-victimized when filing the complaint. It had such an impact that Netflix offered Pourriat to produce a feature film with the same plot. Je ne sais pas un homme facile is the first film in French produced by Netflix written by a woman.