Arts

The Ugly Truth’s Cynical Rewrite of Sally’s Fake Orgasm

And what it says about modern sex lives.

Everyone remembers when Meg Ryan operatically faked an orgasm in the middle of Katz’s Deli in When Harry Met Sally. She did it to prove to the cocky Billy Crystal that, even with his apparently prodigious sexual experience, he couldn’t tell the difference between a real orgasm and one that was expertly faked. Sally’s open-air climax was an effort to puncture Harry’s cocky assumption that his partners “have a pretty good time.” Meanwhile, Sally replaces the pleasure she’s apparently not getting from sex with the satisfaction of making Harry squirm. First, she gets the upper hand. Eventually, after finally hooking up with Harry, she presumably gets her real orgasm and true love.

Twenty years after Harry and Sally’s lunch date, a hit, R-rated comedy is broadcasting a decidedly different attitude regarding the intersection of male ego and female pleasure. The Ugly Truth, a deeply bitter twist on the romantic comedy, has its own restaurant orgasm scene. This time the woman, played by Katherine Heigl, has a real orgasm. But it’s manipulated by remote control and happens in entirely embarrassing circumstances. The point is not her humiliation, exactly; it’s even more cynical than that. Whether it’s real or fake or manufactured doesn’t matter. It’s the good performance that counts. “A fake orgasm is better than no orgasm at all,” her love interest, played by Gerald Butler, tells her.

The plot of The Ugly Truth hews pretty closely to When Harry Met Sally. Heigl plays Abby, the uptight, blonde producer of an unsuccessful local morning show. In an effort to goose ratings, her station manager gives a regular segment on her show to Mike (Butler)—a Neanderthal whose specialty is recommending that women who want to land a man should focus chiefly on appearances. “If you want a relationship, here’s how you get one,” he advises on-air. “It’s called a Stairmaster. No one falls in love with your personality at first sight.”

The crux of Mike and Abby’s relationship is established in an early scene where, over coffee, he explains in detail What Men Want—and begins molding her into the woman he wants her to be. He tells her that it’s important for her to flatter a man with positive responses, but cheerfully admits that the authenticity of that response—whether she’s laughing at a man’s jokes or quivering at his touch – is “irrelevant.”

Sally broke through Harry’s apeish tendencies by teaching him to see past “first sight.” In the end, when he is trying to win her back, Harry makes a laundry list of all her faults and explains that he loves her because of them. In The Ugly Truth, the opposite happens. Like Sally, the Heigl character initially resists the oaf who is trying to seduce her. But then she begins to absorb his lesson. At one point in their coffee conversation, she giggles and he says, “That’s good! Real or fake?” With a dead-serious game face, she responds, “You’ll never know.”

"Real or fake" is the question that hangs over the movie. A real orgasm happens in fake circumstances, and a fake one during real sex. After she makes the mistake of admitting a lack of familiarity with orgasms, Mike buys her a pair of vibrating panties, which she “accidentally” wears at a dinner in the presence of Mike, her hunky would-be boyfriend and a number of business superiors. The remote control to the panties “accidentally” ends up in the hand of a curious child. Poor Abby is left trying to explain marketing initiatives mid-shudder, as Mike smiles bemusedly at the convulsions he’s indirectly responsible for.

Later, Mike poses the question “fake or real?” in bed, while he and Abby are still having sex. Again, she responds, “You’ll never know.” Both laugh like it was silly for him to ask in the first place. In the moment of her fake orgasm, Sally was being more honest with Harry than she’d ever been. She was taking control of the sexual dialogue and demanding that Harry—and by extension the entire male audience—acknowledge that female pleasure has to matter to both partners. In The Ugly Truth real pleasure is beside the point. There is no authenticity, only performance.

Tags: faking it, orgasm, the ugly truth, when harry met sally

Karina Longworth is a film and new media critic who lives in Brooklyn. She founded the movie blog Cinematical.com.

Comments

Thanks a lot again for a lot o

By: jakeblake | Wed, 02/08/2012 - 23:01

Thanks a lot again for a lot of things. Articles On Photography artistic fashion photography

You can take a karen millen

By: karenmillens | Mon, 01/30/2012 - 20:46

You can take a karen millen outlet online of someone close to you — a sibling, a grandparent or a teacher. Or, you can take a picture of one of your favorite spots — the garden outside your window, the favorite nook where you like to read, or the beautiful covered karen millen karen millen near the river. Then, ask your parents to help you submit that photo here. In the caption, please tell us your name, your age, and a brief cheap karen millen dress outlet of what the photo shows and why it is so special to you. We may feature some of your pictures on our website!

If you notice your karen

By: karenmillens | Mon, 01/30/2012 - 20:39

If you notice your karen millen dresses is squinting in the sun, find a spot in the shade. If your photo is coming out blurry or too dark, try using the flash or wait until the sun comes out. 3. Experiment! Get down on your belly, or climb up karen millen uk to take your photo from a new and interesting angle. But be careful — when you're framing your Karen Millen online , try not to cut off heads, noses, knees, or toes! Welcome to the fourth installment of NPR's Backseat Book Club, where we select a book for young readers

The opportunity to provide

By: Toolman11 | Fri, 01/27/2012 - 06:01

The opportunity to provide direct feedback to the engineering and product teams, helping define the future of IT operations in the cloud.

Regards,
Buy Research Paper

The festival karen millen

By: karenmillens | Mon, 01/23/2012 - 22:33

The festival karen millen dresses sale are fully committed to ensuring compliance of all prevailing laws and will continue to offer their fullest co-operation to prevent any legal violation of any kind," the statement added. "Any action by any delegate or anyone else involved with the festival that in any manner falls foul of the karen millen coats jackets will not be tolerated and all necessary, consequential action will be taken." The karen milen clothes stand may have been prompted by the Indian government's ban on the book as well as potential law-and-order problems

It suggested that karen

By: karenmillens | Fri, 01/20/2012 - 19:42

It suggested that karen millen Irenland receive a monthly allowance of S$11,000, which is the estimated starting salary for senior executives in the civil service. Therefore, ministerial salaries would start at S$55,000 per month for entry grade ministers, to $99,000 per month for the karen millen outletMinister. The opposition party also proposed that ministers receive bonuses of not more than five months in any year, as compared to 13.5 months as recommended by the Karen Millen for sale. Chen pointed out that many of the former and current ministers did not come from the private sector or top earning professions. “Of course, we would like to see capable men and women in the cabinet, but we do not believe that our best people for political office are only those who make the most money,” he saidWhen you wear a scarf, slip it under your collar.

whether they come from karen

By: karenmillens | Fri, 01/20/2012 - 19:38

whether they come from karen millen purple dress or Dior, are one way we express ourselves. So when we receive compliments on an outfit, it's not just our appearance at that moment that's being praised but also our discernment - our ability to select the right piece for the karen millen colour block dress. We start picking out our clothes at a young age - or battling our parents to let us - because it's a lot more satisfying to give yourself a mental "You did it!" sticker when you actually did do it. I have attended seventeen weddings in the past six years

Hi! Thanks for the great

By: alpha15995 | Thu, 01/19/2012 - 01:17

Hi! Thanks for the great information you have provided! You have touched on crucuial points! i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later.
wedding dresses online store,cheap wedding dresses,UGG Boots On Sale,cheap ugg boots,Down coats and jackets,Down coats,Down jackets,Classic And Fashion Boots,Fashion boots,Classic Boots,

exaggerated Karen Millen

By: karenmillens | Sat, 01/07/2012 - 04:02

exaggerated Karen Millen Online . Since I’m tired of shopping, I’m going to write about something that I know very little about it and try to relate it to something I’m far too familiar with. Jesus, through Mary, his natural born mother and Joseph, his adoptive father, was of royal blood and would have been king if Israel hadn’t been under Roman rule (see Matthew 1:17) According to Jewish custom, the swaddling clothes, the strips of cloth Mary used

Karen Millen Ireland were

By: karenmillens | Sat, 01/07/2012 - 04:00

Karen Millen Ireland were hand-stitched. This sort of work allowed for some dressmaker shops to exploit their workers when they advertised 24-hour services for a dress. The customer came to the shop to choose the pattern and material of her dress, be measured and then left, assured that she would have her custom-fitted dress the very next day. Then the measurements and pattern were given to several women working at the shop, who were expected to slave away all night creating the promised dress.