#002 - Unpacking the heart throb to hero narrative in Hollywood (& other obsessions...)
Welcome to Edition 002 of Kinda Obsessed!
Hi! It’s me again. I know I mentioned I was aiming to send these out every Tuesday evening, and look, that remains the plan. However, even the best laid plans go haywire sometimes and so I encourage you to really see that as more of a guideline than a hard rule.
I want to thank everyone so much for the kind feedback I received on my first newsletter, and hello to any new subscribers! This is a side project I’ve been meaning to embark on for a while now, to creatively harness my love of writing (instead of only utilising it for professional purposes). The internet can be such a scary place, and putting yourself out there remains as terrifying as ever, but I am just embracing the things I want to do and wholly owning how I want to represent myself. So let’s dive in to all the things I’ve been thinking about since we last spoke!
PS — if you like the newsletter and think you know someone who also might like it, I’d love you to forward it on for them to read (and maybe subscribe!). You guys rock x
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Kinda obsessed with thinking about…
A few months ago, Australia went mad with Matilda’s fever. The Aussie female soccer team began dominating in the World Cup, and the country stood up and paid attention. I can’t recall a time in my life where so much passion and support was thrown behind a sports team, with the Matilda’s players being thrust into bonafide celebrity status. Records were broken, and the media began running a plethora of stories around gender equality, most of them pointing back to one question — why has it taken so long for female sport to gain (and retain) the attention it deserves? The Matilda’s, in one fell swoop, annihilated the hypothesis that female sport doesn’t drive enough dollars for adequate investment. There is no chicken and egg scenario - people will pay attention if the platform exists.
Matilda’s Mania was unfolding at the same time as Barbie was dominating the box office, and Taylor Swift was boosting localised economies around the world with her Eras Tour. Between the Tillies, T-Swizzle and Barbie, there’s certainly an economic and commercial case for pro-women content. The numbers add up.
So why has Hollywood not caught up? I was listening to a podcast the other day when they started discussing a concept I’d never considered — the heart throb to hero arc, that male actors so often seek out in Hollywood. Here's how it goes… a male actor gets cast as a heart throb in a quasi break out style role. Think Health Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, Robert Pattinson in Harry Potter (and Twilight respectively), Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, and Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. These actors are nurtured by the female gaze, loved and brought up by these women and their respective communities, bolstering their acting careers to new heights in the way that only female fandoms can. Then, in swoops the big shot male directors, Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino and Nolan, to grab these heart throbs and turn them into heroes. Health Ledger went on to become The Joker, Robert Pattinson recently played Batman, Leonardo Dicaprio has avoided the heart throb role ever since, and Ryan Gosling played a hardcore stunt driver in Drive.
The only difference between these above actors? Ryan Gosling came back for us... when he decided to play Ken in Barbie. Whether or not Heath would have also come back for us, we will never know.
When will the men in Hollywood catch on that playing a role intended for nurturing through the female gaze isn't only okay, it should be encouraged? Even after Titanic’s success shot DiCaprio to a level of fame only rivalling that of the Beatles, he seemed continuously ambivalent about the film, and publicly cited that “It’s not really my cup of tea”, despite the several Oscar nominations. His transformation finally culminated this month with the release of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” directed by his longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese, where he plays a half-wit WWI veteran with tobacco-stained teeth and a protruding underbite. We get it, you’re a serious actor. Sweet Leo seems to have forgotten that it was teenage girls and women who recognised his talents far before the rest of Hollywood, and while he’s very much still Hollywood’s golden boy, it will be interesting to see how the narrative around him changes during this zeitgeist shift when women’s stories are valued more than ever before.
For our whole lives as women, we're often told that our limp, lovesick style of fandom isn't considered to be a trustworthy arbiter of taste. If something is much-loved by women, it's considered frivolous. I can only hope that’s slowly changing as recently, the proof has been in the pudding (and the economy).
So thank you Ryan Gosling, for not only being the best Ken us gals could ever ask for, but for showing the rest of Hollywood that you can take risks, and play an abundance of roles for an abundance of tastes.
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Kinda obsessed about purchasing…
It’s silly season babies, and that means SO. MANY. GIFT. GUIDES. I love knick knacks, so naturally, I love gift guides. Here’s a couple of things I am eyeing off to pop under the tree for some of my loved ones this year:
I’m obsessed with necklace stacks in summer, and Eliou is the blueprint. This baby is on my summer wishlist.
This 1.4kg bucket of everyone’s fave flaky sea salt, obviously. It’s literally a years worth of sea salt. Hilarious and useful - the best type of Secret Santa gift.
I was gifted this incredible Fredericks & Mae confetti chopping board from one of my dearest friends for our wedding earlier this year… and it’s probably my favourite thing in my house.
Dolly Parton’s new coffee table book, with exclusive never seen before imagery from her personal archives. It speaks for itself.
For those hard to buy for friends and family members, this pickle flask is perfect… because who doesn’t need a flask shaped like a pickle?! Truly, I can’t think of a single person.
Kinda obsessed with listening to…
Chicks In The Office podcast. A classic case of me believing that if I ever got the chance to meet the hosts, Ria and Fran, we’d be instant besties.
Kinda obsessed with reading…
I’ve read almost 80 books this year (I’m insane, but trust me when I say the second half of 2023 has been my hermit era). These have been some of my faves:
A final remark…
The TV adaptation of Lessons in Chemistry has recently been released on Apple TV+, and when I say Six Thirty has exceeded all my expectations in his role, I mean it. So far, I think they’ve done the book excellent justice.
Lessons in Chemistry was actually one of the very last books my dad gave me before I lost him late last year, so it holds a very special place in my heart, meaning I might be a little bit bias about the series.
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