Chasing Amy is More Woke Than You’d Think
A retrospective look at Kevin Smith’s 1997 film.
The 1997 Kevin Smith film Chasing Amy is one that on all accounts should not have aged well. The premise the movie was sold on was “Ben Affleck dates a lesbian”. On its own, that is already very problematic.
But the thing is, that isn’t really what the movie is about. Like yes, Ben Affleck’s character in the film, Holden, does start to date someone, Alyssa played by Joey Lauren Adams, whom when they met identified as a lesbian.
But the character of Alyssa wasn’t “turned straight” or anything. She slowly forms a deep connection with Holden and that’s why they start dating. The character is also one who is much more openly experimental with their own sexuality. A major characteristic of her is that she doesn’t like being labeled in any way.
Holden on the other hand is practically incapacitated by his own insecurities. Alyssa’s confidence is very threatening to his perception of his manliness. So when he just thought she was a lesbian, he got very cocky. The attitude of “haha, I’m so cool even the gays want me”. But as he learns more about her, as they become more vulnerable around each other, and as he finds out that Alyssa has indeed had relationships and sex with other men in the past, he acts like a big whiny baby.
Holden’s character flaws are the central conflicts of the movie. It just so happens to use the LGBTQ+ community as a background element to show how toxic an average man has the potential to be through Holden.
This movie doesn’t say that the issue is that he is a straight white man either, which would be super easy to do in a story where gay people are the heroes. It would probably be the easiest way out of writing the character conflicts. I’ve seen movies do that in the past and honestly, it’s just lazy.
Instead, the movies pose that this hyper-masculine attitude that is put on so many men ultimately harms everyone around them, including themselves. It’s the social standards and stigmas that are the real villains of this piece. It’s a much more nuanced take than I would’ve initially expected from this movie.
And no character in the piece sums this up better than Holden’s best friend Banky, played by Jason Lee. This character is constantly dropping slurs, proudly exclaiming his sexual exploits to anyone willing to listen, and is overall just an embodiment of toxic masculinity.
He is easily the most offensive character in the movie, but that is also sort of the point. Nothing that Banky says is the message the movie is trying to get across, and it’s very obvious that it is not the point-of-view of the writer/director when you listen to any interviews or podcasts with him.
He says things and acts so badly precisely to show that this attitude is wrong. And by the end of the movie he changes. Not only does he mellow out a lot as a person, but in Kevin Smith’s later movies it’s revealed that part of the reason he acted so homophobic was that he himself was a closeted gay man. He even goes on to date one of the characters in the movie, Hooper.
The last time we see Banky in Kevin Smith’s View Askiewniverse is at the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He walks out of the theater with Hooper and Hooper makes some comment about the two of them having sex, and Banky tells him to be quieter.
Sure, it isn’t great that he still feels so secretive about it. But admitting that he would have a threesome with Holden at the end of Chasing Amy and having some form of relationship with Hooper at the end of Strike Back are big for him.
It sucks that he still doesn’t feel comfortable with being public about it. But with the growth, the character has shown I think he would be open about it if the in-universe movies ever showed him again.
The constant theme with every main character in the movie is overcoming social stigmas. For Holden, the stigma he needs to overcome his insecurity.
Society often puts pressure on men to be hyper-masculine, never be sad, and to have a big libido. That is exactly what Holden tries to do throughout the movie. But the fact that he can’t deal with is that he is a pretty emotional guy that has no idea how to handle his emotions.
He gets intimidated by the slightest threat to his sexual prowess because he doesn’t want to be perceived as weak by his girlfriend. Once he learns that Alyssa had relationships with other men that she could mentally compare him to, he kinda loses it. And because of that, he feels like the status of his relationship is at risk. It’s a very childish and immature notion.
This eventually leads to one of his low points in the film where after he hears rumors of her past sex life, he confronts her about it by slut-shaming her in public during a hockey game.
It’s horrifying for both of them. Obviously it’s more horrifying for Alyssa because she is directly confronted in a public setting with the social stigma she has to deal with, the perception that she is a “slut”. And what makes it hurt more for her is that this is coming from someone she cares deeply about.
It’s clear that Alyssa has endured this slut-shaming for years. The characters are in their mid-to-late 20s and she has been experiencing this judgment since at least high school. That coupled with the fact that society views her gayness itself as an aspect of her being “slutty”. She is so completely over it and tired of it being perceived as an issue time and time again.
Luckily, Holden figures out real quickly what he did wrong. Which is why it’s horrifying to him. But he makes it worse is that he doesn’t handle the aftermath in a proper or healthy way.
Instead of confronting his own immaturity, he instead asks Alyssa to have a threesome with him and Banky. His reasoning that if they do it, they will all have a shared experience that would also make him have a perceived similar level of sexual experience as Alyssa.
Obviously, she doesn’t go for it. And she is disgusted at him further by implying that she can be used as a tool to further his sexual experience.
It’s all super uncomfortable, for the characters to experience and the viewers to witness.
Something that even Kevin Smith agrees with is that this is a story that probably should have been told by someone who is gay or a woman since that perspective really would have enhanced the story.
And I agree with that in theory, this movie would benefit from that especially if Alyssa was the POV character instead of Holden. But that would also be an entirely different movie.
I don’t think the story suffers from being from Holden’s perspective. Especially since the character is a stand-in for Kevin Smith himself. It makes the story much more sincere and honest instead of Smith trying to imitate the perspective of someone so different from himself and his experiences.
And I don’t see a problem with a filmmaker wanting to tell a story based around their life and experiences.
Being a movie about a lesbian woman grappling with her sexuality and identity as Alyssa does would have made for a great movie. But a movie about a man struggling with his own inadequacies and identity I think is equally valid. Especially since Kevin Smith is the one making it.
What saves this movie is that because it’s told from Holden’s perspective, it carries the message he learns throughout the film. Much like Holden, the movie is pretty clear that it’s not an expert in the gay community. Nor does it completely understand the issues stemming from toxic masculinity, slut-shaming, and homophobia. But it’s trying to. It wants to learn. It wants to be better. It wants to be more mature.
Honestly, in the film, even Alyssa needs to mature a bit. Besides the aforementioned issues, a root cause of Alyssa and Holden’s relationship is that neither understands the love they feel for each other and are horrible with communication. Because the two do love each other, just not romantically. But it’s not completely platonic love either. It’s a complex emotion a lot of people have a hard time grappling with. But at least when the characters returned in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, they appear to have finally figured it out.
Even when the movie fails in its representation, I think it more than makes up for it with its heart and intent. I completely understand that a lot of people would disagree with me and just claim this film is problematic now, and that is completely valid and I see how one would reach that conclusion. I just happen to not reach the same conclusion.
As a bisexual person, this movie does mean a lot to me. It beautifully shows a lot of the bisexual experience without even having a bisexual character.
When people find out you are bisexual, they often try to pigeonhole you into being gay or straight. They’ll call you a slut. Or stupid for “not being able to choose”. Or, perhaps most strangely, will say to your face “bisexual people don’t exist”.
I honestly can’t think of a movie that gives the message of that experience better than this, regardless of it being written by a straight man.
Another scene that I think breaches a subject that is often a factor in the LGBT+ community that most media avoids is the frustration within the community.
There’s a scene in the movie where Holden and Hooper are inside a record store talking about their relationships. Throughout the film, Hooper has to put on a persona that acts like a stereotype of an “angry black man” in front of fans of his comic book. It’s offensive to him, and it’s a persona that he blatantly tells his friends was mandated by the publisher of his comic book to sell more copies and reflects nothing of his actual personality. All to hide the fact that he is gay from the consumers. He is being forced to act as “masculine” as possible just to keep his job.
In the scene in the record store, you see Hooper put on the persona to sign a comic book for a fan and then drop it once the fan leaves. He then proceeds to tell Holden about how it’s frustrating for him to go to such lengths to hide his gayness so he can live his life while Alyssa can be more open about her being a lesbian. Because unlike him, Alyssa is a white woman.
This frustration of how different groups within the LGBT+ community are treated by other LGBT+ people and by society is something that is talked about a lot within the community. And Hooper is right, the discrimination he has to face is a lot different, and often times a lot harder to face, than that of Alyssa. Alyssa does have a lot of white privilege. As do Holden and Banky. Especially Holden since he’s the only straight character in the main cast.
And society does often tend to be more open towards lesbians than gay men. But the double standard of that is the open-mindedness with lesbians is partially due to a large number of people fetishizing lesbians. People can often interpret it as more of a gimmick instead of accepting lesbian women for who they are. They’re willing to demean it as “just a phase”. So even while it is technically more accepting, it often can be equally dehumanizing.
It’s an interesting subject to bring up, even if it is only done briefly. The conversation is similar to many I have had with other people in the community. And, on a personal note, as a white man, I do have a lot more privilege than a lot of other people within the gay community.
But I think the key to what Kevin Smith is getting at through this scene is that it’s good to acknowledge this because it helps people recognize and confront their own issues and struggles but to not let that invalidate the experience of people who have different struggles. It’s a good message.
Hooper isn’t mad at Alyssa and doesn’t resent her for not dealing with what he has to. But he does recognize that they have different struggles and different levels of severity with those struggles. On the flip side, Hooper’s friends don’t treat him differently or resent him for not having the same struggles as them either. But all sides at some point in the film see the differences between their treatment by society. And it’s frustrating to all of them.
In a world where most movies lump all LGBT+ people together, even the acknowledgment that there are different experiences in the LGBT+ community feels groundbreaking. Especially for a movie that’s over 20 years old.
Chasing Amy is not a perfect movie. It can be viewed as problematic in areas and it doesn’t always nail its representation. But it has a good heart and this movie means a lot to me. Its messiness makes it feel more honest and grounded. And it meant a lot to me growing up with confronting and accepting my own sexuality, and there isn’t anything that can undo that or take it away from me.
As I said, I completely understand if people just want to label this movie as problematic and bad, I just happen to not agree with that assessment. And I don’t think either of these opinions is wrong. I think a lot of it just comes down to not just personal taste, but personal experience as well.
It’s imperfect and messy but it’s also earnest and sweet. The fact that it isn’t perfect I think just goes to reinstate the theme of the movie. Like Holden, we all have room to grow and mature. We all deal with aspects of ourselves we are insecure about, whether that’s put on to us by ourselves or by social stigmas. None of us are perfect, and that’s ok as long as we are willing to make the change in good faith.
