#Oscars So Sexist

oscar

That’s the hashtag that’s everywhere today, right? No, I didn’t think so. I mean, Patricia Arquette didn’t say anything to offend people by suggesting that women’s rights are as important as other causes, and the wrong movie was originally given the big award, so, as far as I can tell, virtually no one noticed that approximately THREE women gave acceptance speeches last night, and not many more won awards, even as part of a group. It was wonderful to see the diversity in the audience, as far as race and country of origin were concerned. But the women in the audience were either actresses, or plus ones. Very few were nominees for anything other than an acting award, and even fewer won. Among those who won as part of a group, almost none gave the acceptance speech. The speeches were given by the men.

Under the cut, the actual statistics on the gender of the winners and nominees.

Continue reading “#Oscars So Sexist”

Nashville Season 5 Episode 9: If Tomorrow Never Comes Recap

nvl509daphsingsray

Okay, as the narrator says at the beginning of Jane the Virgin every week, let’s do this thing! If Jane and her telenovela narrator can get through their tough times, so can we! Everybody grab the hand of the person next to you, your favorite beverage for hydration, and a box of tissues.

Last episode, Rayna was held hostage, in a very triggery scene, which she escaped thanks to her own quick thinking. But, then a truck collided with the police car she was riding home in, smashing directly into the side of the car that Rayna was sitting in, as she was talking to Deacon on the phone. We join her again as she’s being rushed into the hospital with serious injuries. She’s in bad shape.

When Deacon arrives, a nurse tells him that Rayna has a shattered pelvis and hip, but is on morphine, so she’s resting comfortably. HA! From my experience, even morphine isn’t going to make that kind of trauma “comfortable,” but whatever. TV medicine. Rayna doesn’t appear to have blood in her brain, and their top ortho is coming in to do Rayna’s surgery.

Continue reading “Nashville Season 5 Episode 9: If Tomorrow Never Comes Recap”

Bearly Dressed: Photo of Bear Embracing Woman Illustrates Misogyny in Photography

Today I came across this picture, by Olga Barantseva, as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed.

It’s a beautiful, captivating picture. For a moment, all I saw was how great it was to show a woman and a bear being friends, the bear protecting her rather than being shown as aggressive and dangerous. The bear is in the classic position that, in this type of photo, a man would usually be in. The bear is standing over and behind the woman, its arm around her protectively. The photo looks like the cover of a romance novel, the woman seductively in a state of semi-undress and the man holding her in his arms, except here the man is a bear. I love the idea of showing humans and animals interacting as equals.

Then I realized that the bear and the woman are not equals in this photo.

Yes, they are positioned exactly the way a man and woman would typically be position in a photo like this, but that doesn’t mean they are equals. Rather, it means that the woman is in some way submissive.

Continue reading “Bearly Dressed: Photo of Bear Embracing Woman Illustrates Misogyny in Photography”

Moana Review: Female Bonding With An Unnecessary Male (Spoilers)

 

I saw Moana on its opening night! Very exciting, and for some reason there was practically no one in the theater. Night before Thanksgiving, I suppose?

Overall, I liked it. I found it emotionally moving, and the spiritual tone was enchanting to me. It is beautifully animated, and the music is absolutely beautiful (not surprising to me, as Lin Manuel-Miranda, writer and original star of Hamilton, cowrote the music). I found the messages and themes meaningful. There were a few times when I was almost brought to tears. That said, I do have some major complaints, most of which regard Maui, which I’m trying not to let color my entire interpretation of the movie.

Spoilers below! (And an unintentionally long review.)

Continue reading “Moana Review: Female Bonding With An Unnecessary Male (Spoilers)”

Straight Talk to Trump Voters from Occupy Democrats

https://www.facebook.com/pg/OccupyDemocrats/videos/

This Occupy Democrats video says so much of what we wish we could say to Trump’s supporters. It can’t be said enough times. I will never be ready to make nice. You take away my rights as a woman, my children’s health insurance, and their right to choose their romantic partners, for your own selfish gain, and we will never be okay with each other. The worst of it is, as the video points out, most Trump voters voted against themselves. They think he’ll bring back the jobs their fathers and grandfathers had, but those jobs are long gone to automation, corporate personhood, and globalization. Trump is only going to help wealthy whites, like every Republican since Reagan, who lowered tax rates for the wealthiest Americans by more than half.

Continue reading “Straight Talk to Trump Voters from Occupy Democrats”

Fewer Than 10% of the World’s Countries Are Led by Women, and the Washington Post Thinks This Is Good News

imrs

Better Than Nothing Should Not Be Enough

This map is from an article on the Washington Post website titled Here are the dozens of democracies that have elected a female leader. The article is ostensibly an attempt to make women feel better about the fact that Hillary Clinton just barely missed shattering the glass ceiling separating her, and all women, from the White House by looking to other countries’ successful elections. I’m not quite sure how that article, or that map, are supposed to make me feel like the rest of the world is any more than marginally more advanced than we are.

The authors say:

But why hasn’t the United States had a female president? There may be as many theories as there are reasons, one of which may be that it is harder to achieve something without precedent. This map just asks that American girls and women look beyond their country’s borders, for the time being.

But this is meaningless. The first woman elected to lead her country in every instance has done something without precedence. It is not an explanation as to why it is harder in a country that likes to think of itself as one of the most advanced in the world.

Continue reading “Fewer Than 10% of the World’s Countries Are Led by Women, and the Washington Post Thinks This Is Good News”

Why I Stopped Watching the Walking Dead

ff1e3a9e6a4a4367c3142cb922bbce16.jpg

It’s not as simple as leaving because one of my favorite characters died. I hate it when people reduce other people’s decisions to quit watching a show to sounding like they are whiny children who didn’t get their way, so here is the long, drawn out explanation that won’t fit in the comments section on other blogs.

I’ve watched The Walking Dead since the very, very beginning, long before it became The Biggest Show on Television. It was my favorite show for years. My (teenage, now adult) kids and I watched it together, then watched Talking Dead. My husband would get drawn into watching Talking Dead, even though the mother show was too intense and violent for him. It took a lot for me to walk away from a show that we enjoyed together as a family so much. (What can I say? We’re an odd family with a dark sense of humor. Think The Adams Family, with chickens, more sunshine, and less black.)

I was hooked as soon Rick Grimes shot the original Symbolic Sacrificial Angelic Blonde Girl in the head in the pilot. I was just about done when the most recent Symbolic Sacrificial Angelic Blonde Girl*, Denise, died as a random in S6 Ep 14. I should have known she wouldn’t last, since, not only was she a blonde female and a Medical Practitioner**, both types sure to die early on TWD, but she also was a Lesbian, and female queer people in general were doomed on television last spring (even more so than usual).

Continue reading “Why I Stopped Watching the Walking Dead”

So Election Day Happened

If I hear or see one more straight white man tell another woman to calm down, stop over reacting, get control of her emotions, or whatever way he chooses to couch his derogatory judgement of someone else’s emotional experience of legitimate grief and loss, then try to mansplain what’s really happening and how she should be reacting, I’m going to explode and show y’all what overreacting actually looks like. Spoiler: There’ll be a lot more profanity than you’ve seen so far.

Guess what? We already know what you want us to think and do. You’ve been telling us how to behave as proper women since the day we were born. The media and Donald Trump spent the entire campaign making sure Hilary Clinton knew that she wasn’t acting like a proper woman just by asking to be considered for president. But still, she was there, on our ballots, and it was an exciting, important moment to get to vote for a woman, to have that possibility. But instead of the woman, the country chose the man, as always. The man who couldn’t have been more disdainful and insulting in making sure she and we knew our proper places in society. That we are nothing more than objects to be harrassed and toyed with, or cast aside if we don’t meet male standards. It’s a slap in the face at a time when we were celebrating having made so much progress.

So give us a minute to express our justifiable feelings. It’s the decent thing to do. But honestly. I don’t really care what you think about my opinions and feelings. They’re mine, and the constitution gives me the right to express them. If you don’t like it, click away from the page. The view on my social media feed probably isn’t going to improve for you.