Tucker Max brings his misogyny to the big screen

Tucker Max, the 33-year-old party boy who chronicled his drunken sexual exploits in his 2006 book "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell," has produced a movie with the same name that will be released later this month. IHTSBIH tells the true story of Max's trip to a "legendary" strip club with his buddies Dan (an engaged sensitive guy) and Drew (a misanthropic woman-hater). What ensues, according the film's trailer, is alcohol-fueled misogynistic mayhem. Max has sex with several women, including, to his smug satisfaction, a dwarf, Dan is unwittingly drawn into the debauchery, fielding calls from his angry fiancee along the way, and Drew remains moody and aloof in spite of repeated entreaties from a stripper. But this is Hollywood, after all, and we're treated to a feel-good ending when the degeneracy subsides.

IHTSBIH is an undeniably sexist film. Max adopted an image from his personal web site, a photograph of himself next to a blond woman with her face blocked out by the words "Your Face Here," for the movie posters. The film's horrendously over-the-top web site features a rotating set of IHTSBIH facts, which include nonsensical statements like "Bros Before Hos: Unless she's deaf." and "The best thing about fat girls is heart disease." Max has come under serious criticism from feminist organizations at campuses where he has screened his film. At Ohio State University, Women and Allies Rising in Resistance condemned Max for promoting a rape culture with his scenes of intoxicated sex, to which Max replied in the New York Times, "It’s like they’re accusing me of a crime, but not really." 

The list of Max's transgressions goes on and on and on. And while Max himself is a disturbing character, what's just as scary is the public rationalization of his movie. On the film's site, Max includes quotes from various "haters," bloggers and journalists who have critiqued his work. Most of them disparage the film for being overly raunchy, but they also have a "what do you expect?" attitude. This is Tucker Max, after all, a man who has built his career on filth. "If anything, Max simply affirmed what is suggested in every word of his writing: He is an asshole, albeit a self-aware one," writes Ryan Arnold in the Collegiate Times.

Yes, Max is quick to cop to his impropriety, writing on his personal site that he is known to "ignore the consequences of [his] actions" and "sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead." This self-knowledge permeates the film and his writing. But the fact that Max holds no illusions about his moral rectitude does nothing to justify his behavior. Unlike other raunchy productions that seek to shine a critical light on gross behavior (think Beavis and Butt-Head, for instance), Max's IHTSBIH is a glorification, rather than a critique of the bad boy lifestyle. The fact that Max is totally and completely aware of it should have us questioning rather than condoning his work.
-Naomi