In love with a loser?
Jessica Yadegaran / Contra Costa Times (MCT)
Issue date: 1/21/08 Section: Features
In Katherine Heigl's new film, Knocked Up the Grey's Anatomy star and Botticelli beauty plays a successful career girl who has a one-night stand with an unemployed, slobbish slacker. When she becomes pregnant, the two reunite and eventually fall in love.
In pop culture, this isn't the first time the loser gets the girl. Think of John Cusack in "Say Anything," Jason Schwartzman in "Shop Girl" and almost every Adam Sandler comedy. For Type-A women at the top of their game, what's the allure?
"They're safe and fun," says Dana Ovadia of Walnut Creek, California "You feel like you're still living in your youth when you're with a guy like that."
Ovadia, who heads to nursing school in the fall, says she has friends who justify dating losers, even if they're "terrible" boyfriends.
"I have friends who say, 'I'm not going to marry him or anything, I'm just having fun,"" she says.
In Knocked Up Allison Scott (Heigl) is a newly promoted, on-air correspondent for E! Entertainment Television, and a fox. Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) is a slovenly pothead who stays home watching movies with his fellow slacker roommates. Their goal in life is to launch a Web site listing when and where actresses appear nude in movies.
Ben is the first to admit that Allison is too good for him ("You're prettier than I am"), but he is also sweet, funny and honest. While their yin and yang makes for great comedic entertainment, experts say there is something to the pairing of underachieving men and overachieving women.
Part of it, says Lynda Phelps, a college and career adviser, stems from the fact that women are more successful and empowered than ever. They outnumber men in college, a statistical flip of the past 20 years, and they're raising children alone, buying homes and running businesses.
"Things have changed a lot," says Phelps. "Women have become extreme overachievers, and with that stress and pressure comes the need to relax. It can be totally relaxing to be with someone who is carefree, adventurous and doesn't take themselves that seriously."
In pop culture, this isn't the first time the loser gets the girl. Think of John Cusack in "Say Anything," Jason Schwartzman in "Shop Girl" and almost every Adam Sandler comedy. For Type-A women at the top of their game, what's the allure?
"They're safe and fun," says Dana Ovadia of Walnut Creek, California "You feel like you're still living in your youth when you're with a guy like that."
Ovadia, who heads to nursing school in the fall, says she has friends who justify dating losers, even if they're "terrible" boyfriends.
"I have friends who say, 'I'm not going to marry him or anything, I'm just having fun,"" she says.
In Knocked Up Allison Scott (Heigl) is a newly promoted, on-air correspondent for E! Entertainment Television, and a fox. Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) is a slovenly pothead who stays home watching movies with his fellow slacker roommates. Their goal in life is to launch a Web site listing when and where actresses appear nude in movies.
Ben is the first to admit that Allison is too good for him ("You're prettier than I am"), but he is also sweet, funny and honest. While their yin and yang makes for great comedic entertainment, experts say there is something to the pairing of underachieving men and overachieving women.
Part of it, says Lynda Phelps, a college and career adviser, stems from the fact that women are more successful and empowered than ever. They outnumber men in college, a statistical flip of the past 20 years, and they're raising children alone, buying homes and running businesses.
"Things have changed a lot," says Phelps. "Women have become extreme overachievers, and with that stress and pressure comes the need to relax. It can be totally relaxing to be with someone who is carefree, adventurous and doesn't take themselves that seriously."
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