Of Super Bowl Ads and Women

February 1st, 2010 by Brianna

Ever since Focus on the Family announced their pro-life Super Bowl ad, there’s been arguments and discussions all over. Should it be allowed by the network? Are feminists taking the wrong approach to criticizing it? (thanks, Sarah Palin!) And so on. One of the more interesting pieces was in the Washington Post – it basically suggests that feminists be, well, warmer and fuzzier and more appealing.

Echildne wrote a good (if very angry) bit about treating the pro-choice movement as if it was some sort of for-profit corporation, and loosing sight of well, a woman’s right to choose.

I’m going to suggest a slightly different take; the problem is all in the framing.

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A few thoughts on Haiti

January 26th, 2010 by Brianna

The disaster in Haiti (as seen by those in the rest of the world, of course) is winding down. The government is giving up on searching and moving toward rebuilding. The media frenzy is nearly over – no headlines, few articles on the front pages of websites and papers. Even more – people aren’t talking much about Haiti any more, and although I don’t know, I imagine donations are on their way down, too.

I could say that in reality, the disaster is far from over, that we still need to support Haitians, etc. And it would be true – at least to a point.

But in all honesty, Haiti will be okay – as much as it can be. The damage is already done. Hundreds of thousands are dead, and the country destroyed. The humanitarian groups are finally in place, and all the rich foreign governments are involved. The disaster relief machinery is in place, it’s all downhill (or is that uphill?) from here.

And it’s too late to really do anything, because this disaster wasn’t really caused by the earthquake.

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Sarah and Lori are back – and with even more rambling!

January 22nd, 2010 by Brianna

Ever since their old video blog (She Made Me Watch This), I’ve been a big fan of Sarah Warn and Lori Grant’s particular brand of pop culture commentary. (Sarah is of course the former editor of afterellen.com, Lori’s her girlfriend.) They’re super smart, rather funny, aren’t overly critical (except when something’s sexist or racist, etc.), and are generally pleasant to watch.

So, I had high hopes when I found that they started a podcast – and wasn’t disappointed, either.

It’s called Small Screen Stakeout, and it’s pretty much the same sort of thing as She Made Me Watch This – plus more web series talk, minus the bunny rating system. Which is to say, it’s pretty fun. And very long – which I rather like. (The first episode is 99 minutes long, the second 61).

So, digression on long podcasts:

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Worst. Complainer. Ever.

January 21st, 2010 by Brianna

Can be found here – read at your own risk. It’s a whole bunch of complaining about famous film directors.

I actually had hope for this lovely bit of… supposed director criticism, given that it was linked from Afterellen, where writers usually have good taste. Except Mr. Shapiro isn’t really criticizing the various director’s, well, directing (remember, people – they don’t actually write the film, they just tell the actors what to do…). Instead he’s taking random jabs at their films (writing, acting and all!), and than yelling that they suck. Wonderful, isn’t it?

And, you know, it could have been a good article. For one thing, all the directors he goes after are, y’know, famous white guys, who are after all consistently overrated. He’s not going to go that route, of course! His criticism of Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise “… is liberal tripe, although it does provide the best imagistic summary of modern feminism: two irritating “independent” women driving themselves off a cliff.”

Yeah.

Some of his targets could be considered moderately overrated for their directing abilities, of course – David Lynch only really appeals to people who like weird surreal stuff, for instance, and Tarantino, despite frequent moments of genius is so offensive as to balance his work out to only ‘decent’ (entirely my opinion, of course!) But all the same, every director he mentions both created unique works, and is quite influential. If that’s not criteria for a proper ‘rating’, I’m not entirely sure what is.

In any case, all this vitriol made me wonder what kind of directors and movies Mr. Shapiro actually likes. So I clicked over to the blog’s front page. Which is almost entirely occupied by articles praising the great and glorious wonderfulness of former President Bush.

Perhaps the whole thing is an elaborate parody?

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On listening to MLK

January 18th, 2010 by Brianna

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

I sat down and listened to the “I have a dream” speech today – and realized that I had never actually heard it before! Sure, I’ve read the speech, and others of his perhaps a dozen times, but I never actually listened to it, all the way through, as spoken by the man himself.

It was surprisingly enlightening.

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Happy Pride Everyone!

June 28th, 2009 by Brianna

Happy Pride to teh Internets, all three of you.

And no, I’m not dead, just busy. I’ll hopefully start posting semi-regularly again soon!

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Anyone But Me Episode 8

May 23rd, 2009 by Brianna

This episode was all about being a coward. Afraid. Vivian’s afraid of coming out again, Archie’s too afraid to tell Elisabeth how he feels, or even really talk to anyone except Vivian and perhaps Aster. Aster’s afraid to be in the closet again. Sophie’s seems afraid too – I’m not sure what of yet, but she definitely has problems. In fact, the only people not afraid are the drunk homophobes. Which is perfectly realistic, if you ask me!

Vivian is under a lot of stress. New place, strained relationship, new ‘mom’, reunion with an old friend. Some people respond to stress by reaching out. Others respond by closing up. Guess which sort Vivian is! By the end, she can hardly tell Aster she still loves her, and she can’t ask her honestly to stay. More importantly, she can’t really tell her, can’t make her understand why she’s acting that way. The same things that keep her from coming out to the school keep her from explaining to Aster. It’s a cycle.

This is an unusual sort of characterization. (And one that I identify with – I act this way, very much) We see ’shy’ characters often, but usually only in stereotype. They’re scared of social interaction in general, or scared of asking someone out, or something like that. The solution is always for them to become less shy, more extroverted, whereupon they are suddenly happier. (Think of Willow from Buffy). The other ‘bottled up’ sort of character refuses to share their emotions – the typical male pattern. Their solution is to learn to share, to relate. But Vivian is neither. She expresses her emotions perfectly well, but is unable to… articulate her reasons, if you will. And Aster only sees this as abandonment.

In real life, as in the show, it’s just not so simple as suddenly being more outgoing, or anything like that. For one thing, you can’t just change yourself, and even if you could it wouldn’t necessarily be better!

It’s all just just one hurdle, one decision at a time, and Vivian needs to find her path among them. Hopefully without driving the people she cares about away.

Things I liked:

  • Vivian yelling at the surprised bystanders – one again, no problem expressing her emotions!
  • The overall realism. Breakups aren’t all about angry yelling and dramatic exits. And sometimes they just drag on and on.
  • It’s good to see that the homophobes are out in full force. I was beginning to thing that Viv was overreacting to the whole situation.

Things… not so much

  • I’m confused about Sophie. Hopefully, her story thus far will be cleared up soon.
  • The scene on the bench. I think it might have been the camera angle, or the sound, or something, but it felt a bit disconcerting and distracted.

The one-off weird bit:

  • “Get me another drink?” Really? Really? Loser.

What made me cry a bit:

  • Vivian in bed alone near the end, as the counterpoint to the opening of the two parter.
  • “Pride.”

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TV Roundup – with a moral!

May 21st, 2009 by Brianna

I’ve been traveling and didn’t have time to work on anything, so…

First, Legend of the Seeker:

I really, really wanted this show to be good. The first episiode was good enough that I started reviewing it… but it never got any better, just kind of sat there. I’ve officially lost interest. Which is a shame – I love high fantasy. Someday there will be a good high fantasy TV show. LotS just wasn’t that show.

Oh, well.

Sarah Conner:

I wasn’t really sorry to see T:SCC canceled. It never seemed particularly… focused, I think. Was it supposed to be about Sarah Conner? Or John Conner? Or Cameron? Or The Future Aussie Chick who’s name I can’t remember? In retrospect, the problem with T:SCC was that neither Lena Headey nor the actor playing John Conner were suitable to focus an entire show on. So they brought in Brian Austin Green (who stole far too many scenes!) and lots of other characters to spice it up. And the best actor on the show (Summer Glau) was playing the robot! (I would have liked to see Glau as Sarah Conner.) As a result, the show wasn’t really about anything or anyone, and the only reason to watch was to see Summer Glau beat up everybody!

Nothing against Lena Headey, by the way – she was amazing in Imagine Me And You, but she’s not great action hero material. She did a solid job as Sarah Conner, of course, but unfortunately she didn’t do an outstanding job. And the show needed an outstanding job.

Dollhouse:

I’m not crazy about Dollhouse yet. I don’t hate it, but it’s no Buffy or Firefly. Perhaps it will be eventually, but in the mean time it annoys me a bit that of the short-lived almost-canceled shows I like (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daises, etc.) the one that makes it is the one I like the least!

In Plain Sight:

I love this show! For one thing, the protagonist is a badass woman who’s NOT supernaturally gifted in any way. For another, the show manages to be entertaining without always being serious, and yet not making overt jokes. The only bad part of the show is Mary’s family. They who make no sense to me, and the drama is seems senseless and overblown. Happily, it doesn’t take up the bulk of the show.

Bones:

Speaking of jokes, I am competely ticked off at Bones (the show, not the character!). Bones was an unusual and interesting show once upon a time. It featured a highly rational woman who, while lacking certain finer social graces, managed to show an uncanny understanding about the world. Sure, her awkwardness was played for laughs, but if she told somebody, “You’re only saying that because you want to have sex with her,” or “Love is only a chain of chemical reactions in the brain,” it was probably true! She was blunt, but often right. Booth was sometimes right as well – and the mutual learning between the two kept the show interesting. Now, the writers have seemingly become scared of the rationality. They constantly go out of their way to show that Booth (equals feelings!) is right and Brennon is wrong. Brennon is nothing more than a big joke. Worse, they are also trying to show us that Booth is smarter than he looks – i.e. it’s possible for a ‘lab rat’ like Brennon to be just as successful without the rationality. Thus her need to change.

As a moderately rational person, I strongly resent this!

Fear of reason (on the part of the writers, in this case) belies an essential insecurity about one’s environment and nature, leading to unintended negative results. (In other words, I’m not watching Bones anymore.) Bah.

Fringe:

…is the best show on television.

It does have its moments. Walter’s sense of humor is just annoying. Peter serves no function at all. And the boss-man having to talk Olivia down only worked the one time! But it’s all worth it to see Olivia either: A. find some piece of the puzzle, or B. beat the crap out of some really evil guy.

I only wish that Fringe wasn’t quite so disgusting. It’s as if they are overpaying their FX crew, and want to get their money’s worth!

So finally, the moral is:

Anyone But Me is officially better than anything currently on TV. I’ll review the latest episode tomorrow!

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Afterellen vs. Maxim, round n + 2

May 15th, 2009 by Brianna

Afterellen’s Hot 100 list came out earlier this week. Maxim’s came out a day later. AE published a hilarious comparison of the two a day later.

Salient features of the AE list:

  • Portia is #1!
  • Lena Headey’s request was answered (#3).
  • The separate 10 hottest WOC, woman over 40, and out women lists predictably caused the 100 list to contain more people from those categories.
  • Jill Bennett’s stay in the top 5 was short-lived. (Yes, it was a bit weird having her there, but I’m still sad!)
  • Math Geek alert! I think Jennifer Beals and Leisha Hailey are now tied (at 3.33) for highest average.
  • This page contains the hottest photo of Lucy Lawless ever!

I’ve already commented on the futility of comparison between the AE and Maxim lists, and I still think it still stands. Yeah, yeah, we know, gay women watch gay TV shows, and Maxim editors make their picks while drunk. (Another interesting tidbit from that page – one of their criteria is ‘hotness’ as in ‘how hot is their career?’ So… the popular people are guaranteed to win!)

I have just three further observations:

A. Certain AE readers: It’s just a couple of silly lists. There’s no way anybody can say that one list is ‘hotter’ or ‘narrower’ than the other. And the relative hotness also is not a personal insult to you! So just look at the pictures and be happy, please?

B. All of the Maxim pictures were of the women in lingerie. Which isn’t as hot as they think it is. It’s just boring. And objectifying.

C. Sarah Warn must feel really weird counting the votes. AE staff exclude themselves from the list, of course, but you just know people vote for her (and Lori), anyway. I’m imagining her sitting in front of her computer, deleting her votes, <Sarah Warn voice>”Dammit people! Stop voting for me!</Sarah Warn voice>

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Anyone But Me – Episode 7

May 12th, 2009 by Brianna

It’s back! Anyone But Me – Episode 7 is here.

Aaaaand we’ve got drama! Or at least drama, ABM style.

Episode 7 was the mirror image of episode 4, only more so. Both began with Aster and Vivian in bed together. In both, there was a party, which Vivian did not want to attend. And both ended with a fight. In ep4, Vivian was sad and hurt that Aster didn’t want to spend time alone with her. In ep7, Aster is more than hurt – she seems almost devastated. She says “I won’t be the friend again. Not even for you.” And she walks off. It seems this has happened to Aster before. And she won’t let it happen again.

To make things even worse, there’s something… not really flirting, but just something, between Vivian and Sophie. (Don’t do it, Vivian!)

I was hoping (but not really – that would be boring!) that this wouldn’t happen. It almost seems inevitable, though. Vivian was completely out in NYC. She moves, and she’s not out anymore. I get the impression that it took her a long time to come out in the city – perhaps she didn’t start with Aster until after she was out. Now, she wants to do it slowly all over again, but Aster’s not having it. It’s almost like Vivian is trying to start a new relationship with Aster right on top of their old one.

Fascinating.

I personally can’t blame Vivian. New places are scary, especially for an introvert like Vivian (or me!). I can hardly blame Aster, either – she is ‘right’, after all. It’s just life; a bad situation.

Things that were wonderful:

  • The opening mirror shot – which, now that I think of it, reflected this episode’s relationship with ep4!
  • The aunt’s question. I take it she bit her tongue and said something else?
  • Archibald. Can’t dance. That was so me, it’s not even funny.
  • The overall feeling. I know I’ve said this a million times, but it’s even better than ever. Some of the early episodes had scenes that just seemed… awkward, especially in the camera and sound work. This episode had no such problems.

Things that were not-so-good:

  • The scene with the Dad and Aunt seemed out of place. I wish there was time for more about Dad, but you can’t have everything!
  • Is Jonathan really that big of a jerk? Yuck.

Little touches that made me laugh:

  • Archibald trying to dance.
  • Aster’s relationship advice. “She knows.”
  • The expression on Jonathan’s buddies’ faces when Sophie started going off.

Little touches that made me cry:

  • Vivian pushing Aster’s hand away from her waist as they walked into the party. It all went downhill from there.

Amazing as usual.

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