Post 69: Opposites Attract, the Fallacy

Yes, my friends and readers, it is a fallacy that opposites attract. Sorry to burst that bubble. But, it is true. All the movies that supposedly revolve around this idea are, in fact, proving the opposite. Here are some examples I will be using: in no particular order, Beauty and the Beast, Sound of Music, Dirty Dancing, Grease, and 10 Things I Hate About You.

All of them hold the same principle. The two main characters are opposites. They don't like each other at first, there is tension and animosity. Yet, they come together in the end. But have you noticed that in all these opposites attract movies it isn't the things that they differ on that bring them together. It isn't there opposites attracting, it is the things they have in common that bring them together. So, none of them are truly opposites, and the more they realize they have in common, the more they grow closer.

In Sound of Music, it is Maria's close connection with his kids that really draws the Captain to her, as well as her stubbornness. Both things they share in common.

In Dirty Dancing, Johnny doesn't like Baby at first. He doesn't even really acknowledge her. It isn't until they share dancing he even starts treating her with respect. Once they have dancing in common, they share their feelings as well. How they both kind of feel like outcasts in different ways. But her being from a rich background still drives a wedge between them. So, the things that make them opposite actually work to keep them apart.

In Beauty and the Beast, Beast saves Belle, and in this act shows that he isn't as different from her as she originally thought. She then sees him kind to animals. He gives her a library to use. He shares books with her when she reads to him.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, the two main characters are seen as dangerous and difficult. They don't really seem that different from an outsiders point of view, but together they do seem very different. But neither cares what other people think of them. Neither wants to let anyone else control them. And they both have an affinity for using sarcasm to keep people at a distance.

In all of these cases the fact they were opposites works against them, it is only through finding their similarities that they come together at all. But, the fact that they do have so many similarities, means they were never really opposites to begin with.

In Grease, we don't see their budding romance. We only see how they don't fit together as opposites. But in the end, in order for them be together, someone had to change. Essentially saying that opposites couldn't be together. They couldn't be opposites and a couple, it just didn't work. So, Danny had to be a jock. Or Sandy had to be a Pink Lady.

So, where did the idea of opposites attracting come from anyway?

Maybe it is a psychology thing. Maybe because these people seem like opposites it is an even bigger deal to find out what they have in common, so we root for them. Maybe it is a kind of taboo about the bad boy and goody two shoes ending up together. Maybe it is because we don't bother to look closer at people who seem like us because we don't care as much, it is the people who are different that hold our attention and once they have it we're hooked.

I don't know where the idea came from, but I do know that I have yet to see anything that truly supports it.