Hey girl

When I found out the Indiana Memorial Union would be screening the Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan film “Drive,” I was thrilled. From the beautiful cinematography to the entrancing soundtrack, it was easily one of my favorite films of 2011.

To my surprise, my fellow moviegoers did not receive it quite as enthusiastically.

Seated in front of a particularly vocal group of critics who made up for in volume what they lacked in articulation, I was able to gauge the crowd’s overall distaste for the thought-provoking thriller.

Their commentary ranged from inappropriate laughter to observational critiques, such as “that camera angle is stupid.” One sensitive viewer dared to raise the question “What is this movie even about?”

The comment that most caught my attention, happened during a particularly violent scene. Amidst a rousing repartee of “Gross” and “Ew, stop!,” one questioned Gosling’s identity as an actor. “But he was in ‘The Notebook!’”

Yes, indeed, his role in the 2004 movie, “The Notebook” was one of the breakthrough gigs that propelled Gosling from a scruffy, indie actor to A-list GQ dream hunk. However, Gosling has occupied a wide variety of roles since his schmaltzy beginnings.

From playing a delusional man in love with a doll in “Lars and The Real Girl” to the tortured father and husband in “Blue Valentine”, Gosling has proven that he can be more than the lovelorn, Nicholas Sparks protagonist.

So what was it about this film that made our audience, seeing talented, versatile and respected actors such as Gosling and Mulligan, so uncomfortable? Perhaps it is this versatility and his fluid manipulation of the masculine image that is so disliked.

As a culture, we tend to put our male actors in a box.

There are the hyper-masculine action heroes, such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger. There are the eternal underdogs found in any Judd Apatow production. So what do we do with complex male characters who don’t fit into our limited realm of appropriate masculinity?

From what I gathered, Gosling’s role in “Drive” was neither macho nor adequately sexualized enough to appease any demographic. As a friend of mine observed dryly, “He didn’t take his shirt off once.”

Gosling’s unconventional approach to his career has earned him somewhat of a cult following and sparked several memes across the blogosphere, such as, “Hey girl.”

The original “Hey girl” meme consists of text saying things like “Hey girl, sorry my shirt fell off,” superimposed over pictures of Gosling in various, often-shirtless scenarios.

A spinoff of this, Feminist Ryan Gosling, takes a decidedly different approach, referencing famous feminist discourse.

“Hey girl,” says one Feminist Ryan Gosling post, “you built a room of your own and a room in my heart.” And so the over-simplified representation of the actor becomes complex and confrontational.

So what comforting words of wisdom would Feminist Ryan Gosling have offered to the girls behind me?

I can picture him whispering soothingly, “Hey girl, I know the bulk of my career doesn’t fit into your narrow ideals of constructed masculinity, but please, keep your mouth shut. People are trying to watch a movie.”

­— alliston@indiana.edu