Materialists — why love is easier than what we think, and dating is more risky than we expect.
When I was studying sociology in university, I learned a term called commodification, an idea of how capitalism works that even humans can be a commodity trying to "be sold successfully” to make a living. The latest movie Materialists focuses on love and marriage.
Lucy who is a matchmaker helps singles look for their ideal partners to marry with, which is based on a combination of criteria in terms of body shape, economic background, political stance, preferences and so on. It’s like choosing the best valuable product lasting for at least 50 years by reaching a business deal.
There are plenty of material-related words say unicorn, worthless, disposable, do the math… throughout the movie, showing how people think of humans in a materialistic way, and it looks like we get used to how we treat humans.
But people, as Lucy says,
”PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE!"
It’s worth noticing that we are also inevitably commodified ourselves in every domain of life, but we are always unconscious of becoming. Being an artist is one of the examples, that it looks like we are towards better amazing persons but we are sometimes trying to become valuable products for others to consume, through productive art making, boosting sales and branding us for more commissions and better job offers.
John, who used to be the boyfriend of Lucy, meets her again for a ride after breaking up. When they kiss together he wonders if he will be dumbed again like an object. While we want to have a better life by becoming a materialist, we can feel more miserable in some situations.
Dating is always risky, as the movie conveys. We need to make sure every dating is wonderful in order to bring the next dating until we can successfully reach an agreement of the “business deal”, but who knows something is (lifetime) guaranteed through a series of processes? Sophie is already sexually assaulted in her first dating with Mark.
However we still prefer this materialistic way simply because we can stay hopeful before the marriage comes true, even though we know we will have challenges from fighting against each other even due to a few pennies to showing resentment to our kids.
Love is easy, as Lucy says, because of mutual understanding, and it can fix what money can’t. It looks like human beings love avoiding possible issues by choosing a perfect product. (Again, nothing is guaranteed!)
Lucy finally resigns from her job even though she gets promoted. She says she doesn’t know why she makes that decision. Maybe there is something that we don’t have to verbalise, or materialisation can result. Just trust your guts instead of doing the math. Simple.
It’s a great time for us to think about what a love relationship is when watching Materialists, by asking what a human is and if it is necessary and even safe and beneficial to become quality materials which need to be sold successfully.
