Female Character of the Week: Cassie LoganWhen looking back at the female characters I’ve highlighted since I started this blog, I noticed that, with the exception of Bonnie Bennett from The Vampire Diaries, they’re all a bunch of white girls. I feel like Shirley from Community would look at my list and say, “Yeah, you’re all so different. Skinny bitches.” Keeping that in mind, this week I’m going to write about a childhood favorite from a beloved historical fiction book: Cassie Logan from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
The Republican War on Women: Every Sperm is SacredThis weekly linkspam is brought to you by the letter “R,” which stands for both “Republican” and “reproductive rights.” That is the very definition of “irony,” no?
As moveon.org has pointed out, the Republican lawmakers in Congress are waging a war on women’s health. Their actions as of late extend far beyond the typical anti-abortion stances. They have included “forcible rape” language into one bill, changed the term “victim” to “accuser” in terms of rape, and introduced a bill that would cut all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, to name just a few. Fortunately, they found enough money in the budget to give to NASCAR and give contraception to horses.
I have often wondered why anti-choice Republican legislators (and Democrats and independents, for that matter) do whatever they can to restrict family planning that has nothing to do with abortion. In addition to being anti-choice, they are also anti-contraception for the most part, even though contraception will prevent most pregnancies. They want to give more power to rapists and less to women who might become pregnant as a result of rape. They clutch their pearls like Helen Lovejoy and scream, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?!!” but it’s clear that they prioritize the life of unborn fetuses over the lives of women.
The question is, why? Why do they want so much control over women and their bodies?
My first, cynical thought was a reactionary, “reverse sexist” one. I thought, “Well, these people don’t care about women, but they care about unborn children, because while the children are still in the womb, they have the potential to be male children. And if the woman is unfortunate to give birth to a girl, these girls still have the potential to grow up and bear more male children. This also explains why they hate homosexuals; lesbians have no use for men, and gay men are wasting their potential by not making more men.”
But that was unfair of me. In fact, that was hysterical and very female of me.
It soon hit me – the real reason why these anti-choice legislators want to control our bodies.
They’ve been watching too much Monty Python. Continue reading
Community 2×16 – “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”In this week’s episode of Community, Pierce continues to be a jerk of massive proportions, Jeff unleashes his rage after years of father issues, and Donald Glover continues to be one of the best comedians on television.
Summary: Pierce is in the hospital after overdosing on painkillers the week before. Angry with the rest of the group for missing the signals of his downward spiral, he tells them all he’s dying. He plays mind games with each one of them by bequeathing them gifts that are both a curse and a blessing. He gives Britta a $10,000 check to give to the charity of her choice, Annie a tiara that was a family heirloom “because you’re my favorite,” Shirley a CD with a recording of the study group members talking behind her back, Troy a visit from actor LeVar Burton, and Jeff a visit from his long-lost father. Abed, meanwhile, acts as the narrator and films his friends to make a documentary. As such, the episode is presented in “mockumentary” format, a la The Office and Modern Family. Continue reading
Justin Bieber and the PR FailI have not yet watched “Comeback,” the newest episode of Glee, for two reasons. First, I was told that Kurt did not appear at all in the episode. When it comes to Glee, No Kurt = No Interest. But I was also told that the show performed not one, but two, Justin Bieber songs.
As we all know, Justin Bieber is the greatest human being on the face of the planet, and I was deeply offended that Glee would attempt to cover his songs. Covering such classic artists such as Queen and Michael Jackson is one thing. Covering the work of a young man who is clearly the second coming of our Lord and Savior is pure sacrilege. The future President of the World should not be imitated by someone with the ludicrous name of Chord Overstreet.
At least, that’s what I thought. Continue reading
Female Character of the Week: Rachel BerryI often use my Female Character of the Week posts to praise characters that are well-written (and well-acted, in the case of movie and TV characters). This post is less of a praise, and more of a plea. On behalf of teenage girls and little girls everywhere, I ask the writers of Glee to please, please figure out what the heck you’re doing with this Female Character of the Week: Rachel Berry. Continue reading
Women, Romantic Comedies, and the Grand Romantic GestureLast week on Glee, Blaine and the Warblers performed their rendition of “When I Get You Alone” to serenade an employee at the GAP.
I loved this scene for two reasons.
One, despite Glee’s many, many problems, I will be eternally grateful to the show for putting Darren Criss on my TV screen and giving him a song with the lyrics, “Keep your toys in the drawer tonight.” Hot damn.
Two, this scene is brilliant because Blaine’s behavior is as brave as it was stupid. It was stupid because serenading someone at hir workplace is almost always a bad idea, especially with a song that has highly suggestive lyrics. (Kurt’s expression throughout the fiasco was perfect – he was heartbroken that he wasn’t the object of Blaine’s affection, but also embarrassed as hell for Blaine). It was brave because he’s a young gay man in a homophobic society who’s declaring his affection in public. This was the first time I really loved Blaine in his own right, and not just because he made Kurt happy and Darren Criss is supermegafoxyawesomehot. Continue reading
2/13/11 – Links I LikeI didn’t bother posting links I liked last week (hi, alliteration!) because I figured everyone would be watching the Superbowl and not paying attention. Here are new links I’ve enjoyed.
Red Eye: A Contemporary Feminist Classic? – from Shameless. This blog post is several years old, but I’m re-posting it because I watched Red Eye this weekend. It’s a great thriller and one of the most feminist movies I’ve seen in a long time, and was going to write a review until I found this, which sums up everything I want to say about this exciting, challenging movie.
Radical feminism: What it Is and Why We’re Afraid of It – from The Guardian. Jonathan Dean writes about the prosecutor in the Julian Assange case, who was accused of being a “radical feminist” by a retired judge, and exactly what radical feminism is and why we need it. The article is interesting in of itself, but many of the comments prove why such an article is needed in the first place, as many readers are refusing to Get the Point. “Of course there are women who hate men as a group. Just as there are men who hate all women” – because institutional misogyny and the occasional misandry are totes the same thing, y’all! “I have no problem with feminism seeking equality of gender, but that has been mostly (if not entirely) achieved in this country and most western countries. Feminism is necessary in places where women continue to be oppressed.” – LOLLOLLOL. Oh, wow. Listen, I won’t deny that American and British women, as a whole, are better off than, say, Middle Eastern women or women in countries that support institutional genital mutilation, but saying gender equality has been “mostly (if not entirely) achieved in this country” is like saying that racism doesn’t exit anymore just because we have a black president.
Of Course – from Shakesville. Josh Jasper, director of the Riverview Center, which serves survivors of sexual and domestic violence, created a Superbowl ad that challenged the way we as a culture raise our male children. In response, he’s had a lot of death threats, in addition to more calls for help from survivors. What kind of a world do we live in when a person receives death threats for saying, “Rape is bad and we need to raise our male children differently?” But I thought “everyone” agreed that rape was bad, no?
I Used to be a Pro-Life Republican – from Hay Ladies! A woman describes her conversion from being pro-life to pro-choice. I don’t think everyone who is against abortion is necessarily anti-feminist – in fact, I find that an overly simplistic generalization – but I do strongly believe that the elected officials who keep trying to take our abortion rights away don’t really give a fairy’s fart about babies and are only afraid of female sexuality. That’s why I enjoyed this.
Hello, I Am Fat. A woman writes about the radical notion that she doesn’t have to be ashamed of her body just because she’s fat.
February Movies I Won’t Be Seeing (and One I Might)Sometimes I bemoan the fact that I have very little time to go to the movies. Then I look at what’s out there, and I start to think that I’m not missing out on much. Some of the February movies that have just been released, or will soon be released, look entirely skippable and make me feel justified in getting most of my audiovisual entertainment from television.
First up is Just Go With It, with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler.
Summary: Adam Sandler is a “lovable” rake who has a “perfect” system for seducing young women into having one-night stands: he wears a wedding ring and tells the women in question that he’s in an unhappy marriage with a wife who beats him (HAHA DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LOL!) Then, he meets the woman of his dreams, and you can tell she’s the woman of his dreams because she’s blonder and with more boobage than the other women he sleeps with. She is unimpressed when she finds his fake wedding ring. He convinces his boss to pretend to be his soon-to-be ex-wife so that his Dream Girl (Brooklyn Decker) is satisfied. The boss is played by Jennifer Aniston, who is playing a wildly different role than she normally does. Instead of being The Girlfriend, she’s the Fake Wife.
Predicting the ending: In pretending to be a couple, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston fall in love for real. Brooklyn Decker probably turns out to be a bitch.
Verdict: I will forgive Adam Sandler an awful lot of stupid, predictable movies, because I adored Punch-Drunk Love just that much. But forgiving him doesn’t mean I have to see this. I’ll miss it. Continue reading
Community 2×15 – “Early 21st Century Romanticism”In this week’s Community, Jeff takes a break from the group after an angry disagreement about the Barenaked Ladies, Britta becomes friends with a woman she thinks is a lesbian and rubs it in the face of everyone who is less open-minded than she, Troy and Abed like the same woman, and Pierce hallucinates about Andy Dick.
The Feminist in Me Thinks… The writers continue to use Britta perfectly. She hasn’t had a prominent storyline in her own in a long time and usually just exists to comment on the other characters, but here, she was so delightfully smug on her hipster pedestal, announcing to the entire study group that she had a lesbian friend. The twist that her friend Paige was not, in fact, gay, but hanging out with Britta to further her own hipster credentials, was the icing on the cake, and I enjoyed watching Annie and Paige’s “Annie” friend looking on with horror and amusement. Of course, the writers had to throw in a little fan-service there when Annie looked like she would have kissed Britta – not that that’s the first time they’ve dipped into that well (that’s what she said). Continue reading
Glee 2×12 – “Silly Love Songs”In the Valentine’s Day episode of Glee, the writers began slowly developing one of the sweetest, most promising teen romances I’ve seen on television, and also introduced what has to be by far the dumbest storyline this show has ever done – and that’s saying a lot.
I’ll start with the bad: this Finn/Quinn reunion is needlessly stupid. I don’t buy this story the writers are selling. Heck, I wouldn’t even shoplift this story. I almost can’t even describe the idiocy of reuniting two characters who have had nothing to say each other for an entire season. But I’m going to try, using the tune of the South Park from the “All About Mormons” episode to help me:
Finn Hudson was a school athlete, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
Whose girlfriend made him a big cuckold, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
And said he was her baby daddy, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
But now he wants to date her again, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
Rachel now is independent, smart-smart-smart-smart-smart
Finn wants the girl who hurt him badly, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
Rachel Berry smart-smart-smart, Finn and Quinn are DUMB Continue reading
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