Gender In The Movie Her

The film Her, directed by Spike Jonze, portrays the ideal of true love and happy endings differently than other romance films. Normally in a romance film, “true love” and “happily ever after” are shown at the end of the movie. In contrast, the film Her, did not conclude with true love and a happy ending. This film broke the boundaries of how these two ideas end up affecting our daily life, due to the influence of the culture around us. The main character, Theodore, goes through periods of transition in his life as he searches for true love, after he was heavily affected by his past relationship thinking that it was the only true relationship he could ever be in. In the world we are living in today, many people believe that there is only one
This film using the idea that OS1 was a female, challenges the definition of gender. Gender is defined as an “individual’s self-conception as being a male or female” which is apart from being biologically male or female (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013). When Theodore fell in love with the female OS1 (Samantha), he found it hard to share it with his friends as he was afraid of being a joke to society, as he was falling in love with an operating system. Theodore hesitated in committing to what could have 2 society. This is shown in the following quote from the movie: “You are dating a computer?... It makes me really sad that you cannot handle real emotions…” said Theodore’s ex-wife when she heard that Theodore was dating an operating system. This is also practiced in our society as the role of male or female are structured in a certain way. A man should only feel a certain way towards a woman, but not towards an object like an operating system. In the present world, we also see the role of patriotism as a normal practice indicating the way things should be. A woman is often expected to be monogamous while a man remains unquestioned. This idea is illustrated in the film as one of the things that made Theodore question whether true love existed between him and Samantha. Samantha’s confession of having romantic feelings for approximately 600 others reaffirms that the idea of having a soul mate is not necessarily obtainable as much as we would want it to be. This is shown in the film when Theodore says “Are you mine?..”, which is the first question Theodore asked Samantha after the heart breaking news. This confirms the role of patriotism in society and how a man can own a woman, and have her for himself to please his own