“Obsession” is an Intelligent Film that Prompts the Question: Man or Bear?

by Harper Williams, Contributor

Illustration by Eila Gunn-Duncan, Layout Assistant

As a young girl is growing up, her mother teaches her many things: always say please and thank you, how to use a tampon, and never, ever be too trusting of a man. Through my elementary years, I always pictured this entity, a man, the same. He was 10 feet tall with huge claws, sharp spikes on his back, and his vocabulary consisted of all the bad words I knew at the time: damnit, asshole, and “the b-word,” although I wasn’t sure what that one stood for yet. I know it now. It stands for a woman who says no. Or a term of endearment, if you surround yourself with flamboyant gay men or Valley Girls, which I proudly do.

As I got older, the boys in my class invented the cure for cooties. I started to feel comfortable becoming friends with boys, ditching my old thoughts of them being smelly and mean, to being thoughts of friendship and trust. Occasionally, my mother’s warning would pop into my head, but I would shake it off. I mean, she was talking about the scary guys that stood in alleys and killed animals for sport, not my friend Jason in the soccer club.

One day, after soccer practice, I was walking home with Jason. By this point, I was 14 and understood that boys took note when I went up a bra cup size or when the hair on my legs was too long. But not Jason, I thought, he’s a nice guy.

“Harper, can I talk to you about something?”

My stomach immediately twisted into knots. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like the angel of womankind was tying my intestines with a bow. The spirit made me aware of every pink atom in my being. In that very moment, the angel played back television shows in my head when a girl would throw her dirty martini at a man’s face when he asked “Let’s go to the back of my Ford and see what’s good.” Being fourteen, my weapon of choice would have to be the Justice soccer bag in my hands. “It was Harper Williams with the Justice soccer bag in the California suburb street!”

“What’s up?”

“Well, we’ve been friends for a long time, and I think you’re pretty. I was wondering if, maybe, you’d like to go on a date with me?”

“Jason, I’m flattered, and I think you’re great, but I think I see us as more of friends.” Something turned in Jason when I said those words. His skinny frame turned into the evil entity I pictured growing up when my mother would warn me. He wasn’t Jason anymore; he was a man.

Curry Barker’s Obsession speaks to this very phenomenon. The film follows Bear, played by Michael Johnston, when he buys a “One-Wish Willow” from an indie crystal shop. He decides to use his wish to get the girl he has a crush on: Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette, by wishing for her to, “...love him more than anyone in the whole fucking world.” His wish, or curse, silences the “real Nikki” and replaces her with a version of her that is “obsessed” with Bear, removing her autonomy and excusing her pain with his own “love” for her.

A week ago, my girlfriends and I watched Obsession in my dorm. At that moment a unification happened. We started telling stories of these “nice guys,” similar to that of ghost stories around a camp fire.

“One dark and stormy night, I was at my Feminist Studies class when “Bear” followed me back to my dorm. He talked about how he thought Gloria Steinem was actually a sexist because her “opinions on men,” were in fact degrading because men are just ‘trying their best.’”

“Well, my “Bear,” and I were talking. I said how I couldn’t hang out today because my menstrual cramps are intense. He said in return, “Yeah, well, men aren’t allowed to cry.”

We talked about these “Bears” as if it was a court of law. We examined their character, and how on Earth they could end up this way! The mind and intention of a “Frat guy,” but the emotional intention and insecurity of a 13 year-old girl who read the “Vagina Monologues” for the first time. Plus Patrick Bateman. Liberal arts colleges, like Oberlin, attract the creative. “Creative types” love talking about feelings, and “nice guys” know this. They think they have invented a new way to get someone in their bed, but trust me fellas, we know your tricks…

Obsession is shining a light on these “Nice Guy Monsters,” and women at Oberlin College are loving it. My friends and I can spot one of these insecure gremlins a mile away. The word “Bear,” has become a part of our daily lives because of this movie. From women at Oberlin College, we say, “Thank you, Curry Barker.”

According to the National Parks Service, they say, “Identify yourself so the bear knows you are human, stay calm, and make yourself look as large as possible.” The article also said that the most dangerous bear is, in fact, the female.