Love Actually Sexism

Love Actually is full of sexist tropes including some incredibly ridiculous ones if you take the time to think about it. But they make it seem like everything is ok and the women all act like nothing is wrong. But try some of these things in real life and see how that works out. And every year, the movie is aired during the Christmas holidays and is enjoyed by many who are just used to ignoring sexism in movies as it's so prevalent. Just read our summaries of the different relationships in the movie and wonder like us -- who could possibly write such garbage? But the actors play everything on screen with straight faces to make this stuff seem normal.

Harry (Alan Rickman) casually urges his much younger female employee who has a not-so-secret crush on someone in the office to get over her nervousness and "invite him out for a drink and then, after about twenty minutes, casually drop into the conversation the fact that you'd like to marry him and have lots of sex and babies."

Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) runs to the dock and strips down to her bra and underwear in near slow motion as the camera focuses on her top and then pans down to her bottom before she dives into the water in a fruitless attempt to retrieve Jamie's (Colin Firth) manuscript that the wind blew into the pond.

A group of young women dressed in very short red Christmas dresses sing backup for Billy Mack's Christmas special as the camera zooms in on their bodies, ultimately focusing in on the drummer who has her legs wide open throughout the entire song.

Colin, a young Englishman unsuccessful dating in his home country, travels to Wisconsin believing his British accent will change his luck. He meets Stacey, a gorgeous woman who would likely be way out of his league in England, at the first bar he walks in to and she starts flirting with him after hearing his accent. Stacey introduces Colin to her two extremely beautiful friends Jeannie and Carol-Anne and the three of them take turns asking him to say common words so they can giggle at his pronunciations. After finding out he doesn't have a place to stay they invite him over to their place, but, wouldn't you know it, they "aren't the richest of girls" and share one bed and sleep naked. As they are preparing to leave they tell him a fourth roommate will be joining them, but tell him not to worry because she's "the sexy one."

Mark is Peter's best man at his wedding despite being secretly in love with Peter's soon to be wife, Juliet. Mark videotapes much of the wedding, but focused the entirety of his filming on Juliet. She later sees the video and realizes Mark is in love with her. You'd think that would be the end of it, but Mark showed up to her and Peter's house on Christmas eve with a boombox playing "Silent Night" and large note cards that tell how madly in love he is with her. Instead of being mortified that her husband's best friend is expressing his undying love for her she giggles and laughs at some of Mark's cards and, as he walks away, she runs after him and gives him a passionate kiss on the mouth before going back inside to her husband.

Karen (Emma Thompson) discovers her husband was having an emotional affair with his secretary, but stayed with him to try and work things out.

Hugh Grant, playing the Prime Minister of the UK, shows interest in his secretary Natalie, and there are many interactions with his staff about whether she is overweight that were played for laughs such as her being "the chubby girl". In a later scene, a frustrated Hugh Grant asks aloud to himself, “Who do you have to screw around here to get a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit?” His secretary Natalie happens to walk in at just that moment with tea and biscuits, and it's funny because they have been hinting at a romance between the two. He eventually decides to fire her because she was too much of a distraction to him, and -- later realizing that was a mistake -- seeks her out at her home. In their final scene together he quips, "God you weigh a lot!", and she responds coyly "Oh, shut your face" and kisses him.

Aurelia is a gorgeous Portuguese housekeeper working for Jamie (Colin Firth) who miraculously falls for him despite the fact she is many years younger than the middle-aged and disheveled author.

Harry's (Alan Rickman) new secretary Mia makes it clear she wants to be with him despite the fact that 1) he's her boss, 2) he is married and 3) she is much younger than him.