Love Me Not Unit: You're Ugly Too

"You're Ugly Too"
Lorrie Moore

Essentially, "You're Ugly Too" is the short story version of 30 Rock.  Zoe's failed career dreams, failed relationships, and tendency to hide her insecurities behind crude jokes led to my envisioning Tina Fey the entire story.  Although entertaining, this characterization of Zoe contributes to the insight that some women cannot find love as portrayed in the stories.

On several occasions, Zoe seems to shoot herself in the foot with her deflective sense of humor.  For instance, during her double date, she decided to attack the married subject of her date's interest: "'Once at a dinner party I amazed the hast by getting up and saying good-bye to every single person there, first and last names' 'I knew a dog who could do that,' said Zoe, with her mouth full," (Moore, 357).  As a result, her date never called back.

However, before completely blaming her, one must observe her past.  In her professional life, she deals with critical students in a boring town; in her love life, she has only ever had one decent boyfriend who eventually only wanted to get her pregnant in order to add a new distraction to the relationship; and in her family life, she lives away from all of her relatives and her sister is planning on marrying an uninteresting man.  Such a life might not be fitting for a character in a story focused on love, but most would agree that her imperfect existence and humorous coping mechanisms are more realistic.  Therefore, her eventual failure to connect with the naked woman at her sister's party reveals that the common ironic armor protects people from finding love.

This theme actually works both ways.  Even though Zoe's hiding from herself (jokes, owning a tree, plucking the chin hair, keeping her ultrasound a secret) stands in her way, she was not the only one in the story hiding. The guests at her sister's Halloween party, Earl in particular, literally hid behind costumes.  Earl decided to dress as a naked woman most likely to debase the female sex following his divorce.  How could anyone expect Zoe to strike a match with a caricatured nude woman with steel body hair?  Earl's mask deepens the meaning of the story: many people fail to find love because both parties hide from themselves.