MovieChat Forums > Just One of the Guys (1985) Discussion > Something to fall back on...

Something to fall back on...

posted 11 years ago by faithish
3 replies | jump to latest

I realize that it was meant to push Terry further into thinking that the whole motivation behind her being excluded from the contest was being female, but Raymaker's comment to her to become a model as "something to fall back on" was downright laughable. A career in modeling is far more difficult to get into than writing, and is capricious at best. Gain ten pounds or break a limb and you're pretty much done, and the minute the slightest hint of a wrinkle shows up? Forget it. Journalists, on the other hand, can have careers that span decades, and your success in the field depends on hard work and talent, both qualities that Raymaker admitted Terry had. Again, I realize it was a device to advance the plot, but I found it ridiculous that especially as someone who works in the field (not a journalist himself, but he teaches the subject), he would suggest that being a model was a more stable career choice. Did anyone else have that thought?

[–] sidgirl 10 years ago

I know this is old, but I laughed when I read it--just like I laughed this morning as I watched the movie, when that line came up. Modelling as "something to fall back on," really?

A course in data entry (the 80s suggestion would have been a typing class) is "something to fall back on." Going to beauty school--a suggestion a sexist male teacher would totally make to a pretty girl--is "something to fall back on." Other sexist suggestions would be things like becoming a preschool teacher, maybe, or a nurse--people in movies never seem to understand that nursing is an actual profession that requires a degree and a license, not something you just walk into your local hospital and get hired to do--or maybe interior decorating or something. Or of course there's the ultimate, which is, "But in a few years you'll be getting married and having children, and you won't want to work anymore anyway," which I guess even that teacher (scriptwriter) knew would be going too far.

Any one of those would have sounded more patronizing and less, well, dumb. Heck, even just suggesting that she try modelling would be less preposterous than "something to fall back on," like Terry's been fielding increasingly desperate offers from Wilhelmina and Ford for the last few years or something.

It's just a silly, fun movie, but yeah, that bit really stuck out for me.

People said love was blind, but what they meant was that love blinded them.

[–] jnyfknblz 10 years ago

The line was a jab at an infamous line a very prestigious Fashion Model had given a news reporter during a 1984 Interview. I forgot who the person was but she was talking about how modeling was her second choice and had actually gone to school to be a news anchor / reporter. The humor was that she was literally as dumb as a pile of rocks and only by the grace of god with her looks was not out panhandling for extra change. It was all over the tabloid news of the time. The writer of this flick obviously used that news story as a plot jab in his script. Nothing more nothing less. Hell the teacher could have easily just said a hairdresser or makeup artist and it would have had the same connotation.

[–] liscarkat (18410) 2 years ago

I think a good choice for a young woman would be to become a librarian. Then she could quit when a man marries her.