Easy A

Ok, so a movie about a girl lying about sleeping with others in order to help their reputations seems

to be a bit questionable.  See, here’s the thing, though-it makes tons of references to one of my favorite American authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne and his classic novel The Scarlet Letter.  So, I put caution aside and my wife and I watched it this weekend.

I was disappointed.

This movie had the potential of having something meaningful to say.  I recognize that any meaningful story that takes place in real life will be filled with “objectionable content.”  That’s true of Romeo and Juliet from the 1490s to Adam Sandler’s Click from 2006. 

But like so many movies targeted to you guys in your teens, instead of going for the heart of the film, they work so hard to make it raunchy that it loses itself. 

At the movie’s heart was a girl who found herself in a weird position to help outcasts.  Her first rumor, that she lost her virginity to a college guy, was offhandedly started by her in order to impress her friend.  From there, since she has gained a ‘bad girl’ reputation, more guys ask her to lie for them to get them out of situations or to help them not be ostracized. 

As crude as it all is, the beauty of it is that Olive has a sweet heart and feels for these guys, enough to drag her reputation through the mud for their sake.  Jesus, quite honestly, did the same thing.  He got accused of a lot of things and got labeled by a lot of popular people because he fraternized with the unpopular crowd (including so-called ‘skanks’ by the way).

The most powerful moment of the film comes when a guy honestly asks her out on a date.  She finally feels truly cared for instead of being used.  Then, at the end of their date he offers to pay her, not to lie, but to actually sleep with him.  He begins to physically take advantage of her before she finally pushes him away in disgust.

This was such a poignant moment.  I was like, “Yes!  Finally!”  Here was a girl finding out that selling her body out to guys who just wanted to take advantage of her wasn’t worth it.  She has true dignity and worth and she doesn’t ‘deserve’ to be used.  The amount of girls that are sexually abused in some way is 1 in 4.  That’s a terrible reality. 

But, instead of driving home this point, the rest of the plot devolves into the silly escapades of a guidance counselor who has a fling with a student who happens to be in a ‘Christian’ group, the weirdness of Olive’s parents’ past, and, on and on. 

So, what does this mean for us as believers?  Well, there are inequalities.  Notice that the guys in the film get better reputations because of their (false) exploits, while Olive’s reputation goes down the drain.  Both of these are problems.  As believers, we want to develop a healthy sexuality between the sexes where our attractions are honed into ways to honor the opposite sex, for guys to recognize women’s differences by treating them with both equality and extra kindness and gentleness, and for girls to honor guys by giving their affections to men who are worthy of it.

Olive seems to kind of get this at the end.  She finds that sexuality, at its best is romance, not just sex.  Yet, so much of the movie shows what most of us already know: that our sexuality is often used as a means of blackmailing, using, pressuring, and abusing.  God has given us a gift.  Let’s not let it get dragged through the mud like that.