The scene opens with a woman and man making small talk at an open house. The man is a realtor, and the woman has come to support him at his showing. She tells him that she has to leave because she has some things that she has to do, and they go in for an awkward hug. He says, “Call me”, and the woman walks off. He watches her leaving, and then notices two men watching him. He looks at them confused, and they say, “She’s holding out on you, isn’t she?”. He explains that her not sleeping with him is “killing him”, and he says, “literally I’m dying”. He confesses that he cannot read her signals and that he is not sure what happened because they used to sleep together. The two men suggest that the man who was speaking with the woman stop being “inactive” and “be a man and do something”.
The characters in the scene are dressed in business casual attire, and the home that the realtor is selling is updated and well furnished, suggesting that the characters are from an upper-middle class background. Additionally, they are white as are most of the people in the film. Moreover, the man and woman making small talk who are the leads in the film are straight while the two other men in the scene that are gay are supporting characters. Since the leads in this film are white, straight, upper-middle class individuals, the audience is only able to see these perspectives in the movie’s discussion of love and romance.
A heteronormative understanding of love and romance is employed throughout the film, which can be seen through the clear gender roles that the characters describe. Specifically, the two men’s suggestion that the other man “be a man and do something” suggest that masculinity is active, implying that femininity is passive. Moreover, these gender roles are constructed under white, western definitions of masculinity and femininity. Furthermore, the characters in this scene convey the idea that women must sleep with men to show them love; otherwise, they are “killing” them through their celibacy as the man in this scene expressed. This idea creates toxic definitions of love, which place unrealistic expectations of women to “put out” and men to want to accept sex at all times.
