Judd Apatow has created some of my absolute favorite movies. “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is my ultimate favorite film, and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” isn’t too far behind. Yes, I know I’m quite discerning in my tastes. But being real, I probably watch “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” once a month.
To me, and many, Apatow is a master of comedy. So when I found out last week he was helping create a movie about rabid female football fans — sparked by an idea from Laura Dern, of “Jurassic Park” and “Blue Velvet” fame — my attention was certainly attracted. It’s like two of my favorite things combined: Judd Apatow and women in sports!
The project remains nameless and relatively detail-less, so drawing from what I know: The movie is about women who aggressively and obsessively love sports. Respectably, there are women who have their hands on the creation. In addition to Dern’s presence, Pam Brady, a writer for “South Park,” will write the screenplay.
However, Apatow’s name is the only one you’re seeing in the headlines. Perhaps deservedly, given his track record. In the several courses I’ve taken that tangentially relate to pop culture and representation, Apatow has come up in every single one. He’s a prominent example of someone who can make people laugh, and he often brings social issues involving masculinity and other topics to light using parody.
But this particular project gives me a weird feeling.
That weird feeling stems mostly from my experiences as a female sports fan. I have a lot of feelings about the state of football that I don’t have time to get into in only a few hundred words. The SparkNotes version of my hypothesis: Of all the sports in the entire world, football is the least accessible and welcoming to me as a woman. I feel very little need to put the energy into watching a sport that doesn’t respect me back and that frankly I don’t really like a whole lot anyway. There are sports that respect me more and that I find considerably more entertaining and invigorating.
Assuming the film follows a traditional Apatow route, it’s going to portray the women as weirdos. Apatow likes to have his hands on parts that bend stereotypes and expectations, and I’ve long respected him for his ability to do so effectively — Jason Segel was the one devastated over his breakup with Sarah Marshall, remember?
Apatow doesn’t want to portray normalcy. He wants to portray difference. Any smart filmmaker does that. No one would watch a movie about rabid male football fans, would they? But it’s extremely problematic that the novelty of women here as sports fans is what is going to attract an audience.
Men are presented as goofy, as “not normal,” all the time, yes. The difference here is they’re also represented in the mainstream in other ways. Women are not. Women lack a basic representation as respectable sports fans — and members of society, for that matter.
A comedy isn’t going to draw respect for women as sports fans, nor will it normalize them. All it will do is portray female sports fans exactly how most of the rest of the world sees them: A joke. I most certainly hope Apatow et al can convince me otherwise.
Sarah covers men's hockey and other sports for The Daily Free Press, and is the chairman of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the FreeP during the Spring 2014 semester and was Sports Editor in Fall 2013. She has also written for the Boston Globe and seattlepi.com. When she's not writing, she loves baking and going to concerts. You can contact her by tweeting her at @Kirkpatrick_SJ or emailing her at sjkirkpa@bu.edu.
