Blog PostsA Confession

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Theresa Basile

ThinkProgress has a great video regarding the recent rise in popularity for Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand’s philosophy:

I think my favorite thing about the Tea Partiers gushing and worshiping at the altar of Ayn Rand is the way her philosophy completely and utterly contradicts the philosophy of the conservative movement’s other favorite poster child, Jesus Christ.  You know, the guy they’re always invoking whenever they want to blame progressives and liberals for the downfall of our country?

South Park nicely sums it up for us:

Having said all this, I have to make a confession:

I read The Fountainhead.  And I liked it.

I find Rand’s belief in selfishness and the idea that very few people in this world “deserve love” to be utterly abhorrent and disgusting.  And the story is clearly problematic from a feminist angle, considering the romance between Howard Roark and Dominique Francon begins with him raping her.  But I have to admit that I liked all of the architecture talk and description of buildings, and the idea of an artist and creator striking out to create for himself, rather than selling out his style to conform to what others wanted or what was socially “acceptable,” was very appealing to the writer in me.

In short, I wish The Fountainhead hadn’t been written by Ayn Rand.

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ReviewsGlee’s “A Night of Neglect” Neglects Logic

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Here are some of the recent developments on Glee.

1) Rachel was becoming more of a team player and appreciating her fellow glee club members.  So, of course, in this episode, she had the gall to call herself the neglected artist of Glee club after the team unanimously voted her freaking MVP after Regionals.

2) Last year, Sue Sylvester saved New Directions from losing their funding and even voted for them to win Regionals.  So, of course, this year, she’s more evil than ever and doing anything to drestroy them.  Clearly, the writers don’t know what else to do with her character.  Sue is played out, even though Jane Lynch is wonderful.

3) Jenna Uskhowitz, truly the most neglected cast member of the show, has proven in the past to be a very good singer and a very bad crier.  So, of course, the writers included another scenario where Tina finally, FINALLY gets a solo…that’s interrupted by hecklers so she can cry some more.

4) This year, Glee has performed Top 40 hit after Top 40 hit, neglecting more classic or interesting artists in favor of making cardboard copies of mediocre “music” garbage that’s currently on the radio.  For this episode, they finally decided to perform a lovely, ethereal song by Adele.  So, of course, they gave it to Gwyneth Paltrow.

(Just in case anyone was counting, here are the Broadway stars on Glee who have had fewer songs than Gwyneth Paltrow: Victor Garber. Debra Monk. Neil Patrick Harris. Idina Menzel. Cheyenne Jackson. Jonathan Groff. Even Kristin Chenoweth has, by now, had fewer songs than Gwyneth Paltrow.)

Oh, Glee.  I hate so much about the things you choose to be.

The three things that made this episode watchable: Cheyenne Jackson being hot.  Mike Chang dancing.  Prince Blaine defending the honor of his fair maiden, Prince Kurt, against the evil beast Karofsky, aided by the fiery good witch Santana Lopez.

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Blog PostsA Game of Tits

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Theresa Basile

At least, that’s what the show should be called, because many scenes in the first episode of A Game of Thrones contained gratuitous titty shots.  I felt like a drunken Homer Simpson on the spring break episode of The Simpsons: “Guess how many boobs I saw today, Marge?  FIFTEEN!”

And yes, I call them gratuitous titty shots.  I’ve read A Game of Thrones five times, and the amount of sex, violence, and sexual violence didn’t bother me.  I thought George R.R. Martin was simply being authentic in depicting a savage time period.  But the show took the nudity and sexuality to another level, and I found the filmmaking choices problematic.  (Spoilers ahead). Continue reading →

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ReviewsMolestation Jokes are Hi-LARIOUS, Part 2

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I started this blog because I’m always trying to find a balance between the two dominant parts of my personality: the part that loves gallows humor and making jokes about inappropriate subjects, and the part that believes sensitive subjects deserve to be treated with seriousness and empathy.

I recently wrote about a disappointing episode of Community that included a storyline about a character that lied about being molested as a child in order to impress a woman and the people in his acting class.  A poster left this comment in response:

“…I found Troy’s plot stupid and standard sitcom, though not actively offensive. I never really connected to it to the doubts thrown up at real-life rape survivors, and thinking about it now, I don’t feel that it. Even what I consider a funny version of the same joke (a throwaway bit in The Office a few years ago) doesn’t make me feel that rape is anything but underreported and that the system makes it very difficult for victims for to be believed, let alone get justice. And I feel uncomfortable with the argument that other people will feel persuaded, or that it’ll give aid and comfort to those who enjoy and benefit from that difficulty.”

To which I say: Yes.  And No.

There are plenty of ignorant fuckwits in this world that will misinterpret an author’s intent or misappropriate a text for their own nefarious purposes.  There’s no arguing that.  At the same time, I do think writers have a moral responsibility to consider how their work contributes to the culture and social consciousness.

To explain further, I’m going to do a little compare and contrast exercise using the latest episode of Community and an episode of a different television show that included a similar plot, but one that I did not find offensive.  This was an episode of South Park.

Yes, South Park.  Bear with me. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsHey, Did You Know Women Don’t Like the Fantasy Genre?

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Theresa Basile

It’s true!  Back in 2003, Caryn James wrote a stunning, eye-opening piece for The New York Times  called, “Are Women Just Bored of the Rings?”  This provocative piece of journalism with a painstakingly crafted pun in the title revealed that women only tagged along with their boyfriends to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for superficial reasons.

I had spent a great deal of time in 2003 reading The Lord of the Rings, and deluded myself into thinking I liked the story because I was fascinated by Gollum’s internal struggle, interested in the different languages of Middle Earth, moved to tears by the beautiful friendship between Frodo and Sam (and by Howard Shore’s incredible soundtrack for the films).  Caryn James, however, opened my eyes to the truth: I only liked the movie because of Viggo Mortensen’s sexy sexiness.

What a blessed relief!  I no longer had to spend all this time thinking about the world of Middle Earth and wondering if I could someday build my own hobbit hole.  I promptly set fire to my book trilogy, my copies of the movies, and the handmade T-shirt with Elvish writing on the front and a Samwise Gamgee quote on the back that I wore while waiting in line for The Return of the King tickets, stripped my clothes off, rubbed paint all over my body, and danced a pagan dance of joy and freedom.

Eight years later, I am ready to pay the same tribute to Gina Bellefante, also of The New York Times, for giving me the same necessary perspective about A Game of Thrones.  Being a devotee of the works of George R.R. Martin, I was waiting on pins and needles for the HBO adaptation of his A Song of Ice and Fire series, until Bellefante wrote this eye-opening review. Continue reading →

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ReviewsMolestation Jokes are Hi-LARIOUS: Community 2×20 – “Competitive Wine Tasting”

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I have a low tolerance for rape jokes.  Even as someone who believes that comedy should take no prisoners, and that everyone and everything should be fair game for humor, I mostly find rape and molestation jokes abhorrent and not funny.  Why?  Because of incidents like these.

That’s why I really hate it when sitcoms have characters lying about being raped or molested for the sake of gaining sympathy.  Incidents like the above happen all the time.  Rape victims of both sexes are constantly accused of lying about what happened to them.  I’m very disappointed in Community for having a story where Troy lies about being molested in an acting class in order to a) gain sympathy from his fellow students, and b) get into Britta’s pants.

This show is better than that.  It’s also funnier than that.  Community is a show that keeps the viewers on their toes, with plot twists and clever jokes coming out of nowhere.  As soon as Troy lied, I rolled my eyes and groaned because I knew exactly how the rest of the episode would go: Britta would be attracted, Troy would continue with the lie, Britta would tell others, Troy would confess the truth, and the acting teacher would applaud him for tapping into real emotion.  And that’s exactly what happened.  This show is too good to rely on cheap, tired sitcom tropes like that.  Not even Kevin Corrigan’s return as Professor Professorson, or Troy describing his emotions as “My heart is at war with my kidneys!” could save it.

I did enjoy the show’s two other plots, with Pierce finding a soulmate in a woman just as offensive and horrible as he.  I also laughed for about five minutes in the hilarious conclusion to Abed’s “Who’s the Boss” subplot: Stephen Tobolowsky, upon realizing that his life’s work is discredited, opens the drawer to his desk and we see a gun…until he pulls it out further to find a copy of What WAS Happening? and starts reading it.  THAT was a delightful fakeout worth this show.

The Troy subplot, however, was offensive, not funny, and a waste of Donald Glover.  This episode was disappointing.

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Blog PostsI Love the Smell of Troll Droppings in the Morning…

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Troll (n): one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.  [Source: Urbandictionary.com].

I got my first troll dropping today.  In response to my recent post about Judd Apatow’s films (my post with the most site hits so far), a troll kindly left the following comment:

“Boo hoo hooo. Apatow actually makes funny shit rather than pandering to you fucking sluts. Cry more.”

I deleted the original comment because I felt it would detract from the original post, like a big stinky turd in the middle of the carpet on a living room floor.  But I had to re-post it for posterity’s sake.  Like a baby’s first shoes, I felt that my first troll dropping should be bronzed.  Continue reading →

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Blog PostsFemale Character of the Week: Lisa Simpson

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Theresa Basile

We feminists put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be “perfect” women, and this struggle goes beyond the typical “Can I have a satisfying career and a family?” conflict. If we’re supposed to reject stereotypical gender roles, is it anti-feminist to shave our legs and wear makeup and high heels?  Is it okay for us (heterosexual) feminists to still want the men we’re dating to hold doors open for us, make the first move, and propose marriage?  Can we still enjoy typically “feminine” things and still be strong feminists?

These aren’t easy questions to answer.  One female character very close to my heart is often asking herself the same questions.  This complex, well-developed little Gloria Steinem-in-training is Lisa Simpson.

Continue reading →

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Blog PostsO Apatow, Where Art Thou?

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Theresa Basile

You may not believe this after watching movies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, and others of their ilk, but Judd Apatow used to know how to write for women.  He also used to know how to write for men that were men and not overgrown man-children.

How do I know this?  Well, I spent a good portion of my downtime in the last month re-watching Freaks and Geeks with my roommate, who had never seen the show before.  I was especially struck by the empathy and sensitivity in the penultimate episode, “The Little Things,” co-written by Judd Apatow himself. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsApril Movies I Won’t Be Seeing (and One I Definitely Will)

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Let’s see how the movie studios plan to help me keep my money this month.

First up is Your Highness, starring several Academy Award nominees who like to go slumming every now and then:

Summary: It’s a “satire” of a fairly tale starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey Deschanel.  (For the record, Zooey, I am most disappointed in you).  Natalie Portman is captured and James Franco and Danny McBride have to save her.

Predicted ending: In a “surprising” “twist,” Natalie Portman ends up with Danny McBride and James Franco wins the heart of Zooey Deschanel.

My verdict: There was one part of the trailer that made me giggle, and that’s when James and Danny are spying on a bathing Natalie and “freeze” so she can’t see them.  But that only made me laugh because it reminded me of Troy’s “Just pretend like you’re asleep” from Community. Other than that?  When it comes to fairy tale/quest movies, this is no The Princess Bride. It’s not even Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Continue reading →

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