Androcentrism- The idea that the male experience of life is the worlds experience of life.
“I Am Not an Easy Man” is a French Comedy that was released in early 2018 on Netflix. The movie follows character Damien, who in his life reaps all the benefits of modern-day patriarchal society. He works at a social media platform business heavily dominated by men, and thoroughly enjoys living up to what women would define as a “sexist playboy” lifestyle. After a particularly normal day, Damien runs into a pole and is knocked out. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a world where gender roles have been reversed, and women are now the “dominant” gender. As a man in a now female dominated world, he is quick to notice the world he is in has no equality for men as he faces constant acts of demeaning sexism by women.
Damien immediately is faced with women catcalling and groping him every day and is at first amused and quite flattered for the attention. Damien soon faces sexism in his workplace (where he is now the only man working there), and after objecting to his ideas being shut down for being “too soft” he is sent home to take a “spa day”. Throughout his interactions in his new world, he encounters the #MeToo movement after being sexually assaulted, paternity leave, body image and self esteem issues, and more. He attempts to adapt to the new world but lives in a constant state of confusion and anger, not only at his sexist society but himself for trying to make sense of whether there can be a world without a dominating gender.
The movie highlights daily interactions and trials females in our modern world of androcentrism and puts them into a comical perspective, comical in the sense of watching Damien struggle so greatly to comprehend why he is being treated so unfairly solely because of his gender. Though most of the film highlights a woman’s perspective of the world (through a man), the film doesn’t forget to point out thing’s men struggle with as well, like receiving paternity leave or having their distressed emotions accepted by society. Damien eventually returns to his original world with a set of new experiences that have altered his mindset on gender roles, and the movie ends with him pondering how to now continue his life.
I’ll leave the rest of the movie to you to watch, and highly recommend watching it with friends of your opposite gender for additional perspectives and input. This movie definitely shows a unique and perhaps unheard of perspective into a sexist and biased world, so be prepared to be shook.