tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90381153487654293972024-03-05T06:56:45.436-08:00Mrs Meows Says...Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-55983781577766792722017-07-15T22:22:00.000-07:002017-07-17T00:09:08.216-07:00Novels About 9/11: Foer vs De Lillo<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So, recently I happened to read two novels about 9/11,
one pretty much after the other. This wasn't intentional; I tend to choose
books from my stockpile at random, and I don’t think I actually knew the
DeLillo was focussed on 9/11, I just snatched it up off the shelf at Savers
because I love his writing so much. However, reading these books so close
together has provided a very clear juxtaposition between to the two, and
yielded surprising results.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">First, the Foer. To be
honest, I’ve actually avoided </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Extremely
Loud and Incredibly </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: italic;"><i>Close</i></span><i style="font-family: times; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">(ELIC) for many years. There are a
number of reasons I wasn't especially interested in it, starting from the
'whimsical' font on the cover to the quirky-extreme seeming premise, which is
exemplified by the first sentence of the book’s blurb<i>:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="color: magenta;">Nine-year-old Oskar
Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer,
pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller,
detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">This introduces us to
the novel’s narrator and protagonist, and represents the absolute apogee of the
type of inverted-commas-quirk that was extremely fashionable in the mid-2000s
and had a tendency to set my teeth on edge. These unfavourable impressions were
not helped by the <a href="http://jezebel.com/painful-emails-reveal-jonathan-safran-foer-and-natalie-1783665124">notoriously
excruciating email exchanges between Foer and actress Natalie Portman</a> that the
author proudly paraded in the pages of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
York Times </i>last year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">However, I have to say
that ELIC was a salient lesson in the wisdom of reading stuff you wouldn’t
necessarily choose yourself. Although its opening paragraphs didn’t do a lot to
dispel my misgivings (they reminded me a lot of the cringe-worthy emails
between Foer and Portman), as I read on, the level of preciousness settled down
fairly quickly. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it was handled more
deftly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I strongly suspect that
Oskar Schell is something of a Jonathan Safran Foer analogue: perilously
intelligent, notably odd and therefore unpopular with his peers at school. But
he’s also extremely vulnerable, and struggling to cope with a huge level of
trauma – the literal disappearance of his beloved father in the 9/11 attacks on
the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre. Oskar discovers a potential
‘clue’ left behind by his father – a key hidden inside a blue vase inside an
envelope inscribed, simply, ‘Black’ – and he applies his formidable
intelligence to solving the mystery, and perhaps coming closer to his lost father
in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Oaskar’s story
is also interwoven with the life-stories of his grandparents - his father’s
parents – which are interspersed throughout the novel in epistolary form. This
presents their voices in an extremely vivid and immediate way, and shows the
reader the same events through very different viewpoints. Like their grandson,
these two characters display their own very high levels of ‘quirk’, but this is
very clearly created and mediated by a personal history twisted and distorted
by war, trauma and loss. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Foer manages to walk a
very difficult tight-rope in the writing of this book, and it’s a good example
of the adage that higher risks equal higher rewards. The risk of putting your
story in the hands of such idiosyncratic narrators is that you’ll overload your
prose with too much self-conscious ‘individuality’. But get it right, and you
inject your story with a fresh, unique and wholly 3-D point of view that makes
your prose live and breathe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I think the main thing
that Foer gets right here is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ELIC </i>is
not just a novel of ideas (although there are plenty of these – it’s certainly
a very clever book), but also of feelings. There is a universality to its
sadness that makes the reader reflect on the suffering that war inflicts on
people, and the long effects of that suffering as it echoes through generations.
Although Oskar Schell is undoubtably a singular character, we can understand
him perfectly, and relate to him in his grief – as we can also relate to grief
of his mother, of her ‘friend’ Ron, Oskar’s absent grandfather, his very-present
grandmother… and the grief of the people of New York, the people of Dresden,
the people of Syria and the Congo and Myanmar and anywhere that day-to-day lives are torn apart
by conflict and war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Conversely, DeLillo’s
novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Falling Man</i>, is almost the
complete opposite. Part of this difference is stylistic, and this kind of
writing – near-affectless and scrubbed of emotion - can also contain
multitudes, as eloquent in what it does not say as what it does not.
Certainly, DeLillo goes out of his way to avoid the easy option, strictly
avoiding references to ‘the twin towers’ or 9/11.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSFgyS23Sulv4ryhzC-ceJRyl5UltqvGpJhIaq_E2fhbp5MH7fluZKRBkbfX8rqns_gf5N4gmnKhq9Md-7aZ-2UGwmEwq-jHEQWkyFnSb4Y7bA702IQfjlM2yg23qhmqmza2o1wyHD9Kr/s1600/Falling+Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="426" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMSFgyS23Sulv4ryhzC-ceJRyl5UltqvGpJhIaq_E2fhbp5MH7fluZKRBkbfX8rqns_gf5N4gmnKhq9Md-7aZ-2UGwmEwq-jHEQWkyFnSb4Y7bA702IQfjlM2yg23qhmqmza2o1wyHD9Kr/s320/Falling+Man.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">But ultimately, I found
this novel disappointing, arid and echoing with a strange emptiness.</span></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Falling Man </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">follows the fortunes of Keith Neudecker, a
businessman of an indeterminate type who is inside the World Trade Centre when
the planes hit, and manages to escape. Instead of returning to his own
characterless apartment, he goes instead to the home of his estranged wife and
child, reassuming his place in their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">His wife, Lianne,
welcomes Keith’s return, although her own mother had counseled her against him
in the first place, as a man who is ‘sheer hell on women … living, breathing
hell’. Lianne is a freelance editor who also oversees a group of people in the
beginning stages of dementia, helping them to write and share their own
life-stories with each other before these fade away completely. Lianne and
Keith have a child, Justin, who displays his own marks of trauma from the
terrorist attacks, surveilling the skies with his neighbourhood friends for
more planes. Meanwhile, Lianne visits with her elderly mother Nina, and listens
to debates about terrorism between Nina and her European lover Martin about the
nature of terrorism and the reasons for the attack on America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Throughout all of this, a
street artist known only as ‘the falling man’ conducts impromptu performances
throughout the city of himself jumping from a height, to be caught and
suspended in his fall by a makeshift safety harness. These performances are
controversial and their motivations unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The problem inherent in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Falling Man </i>is that it’s hard to give
much of a damn about any of these people, or see any larger, more universal
picture in their circumstances. As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
York Times </i>reviewer Michiko Kakutani <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/books/09kaku.html">very astutely
pointed out,</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="color: magenta;">Mr. DeLillo makes no
effort to situate these two very self-absorbed characters [Keith and Lianne] within
a larger mosaic of what happened that September morning; they remain two not
very compelling figures adrift in the anonymous sea of humanity, bobbing alone
in their own little life preservers. (Brackets mine)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Like Foer’s Oskar Schell
and family, Keith and Lianne read as very precisely New York characters, but unlike
the Schells they lack anything that also makes them universally relatable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">DeLillo also attempts to
engage with the ‘other’ side of the story; the novel is split into three different
sections, and each section ends with a chapter or coda which focuses on Hammad,
one of the terrorists. Unfortunately, these sections seem very general and
slight, Hammad unrealised as a full person, the language stilted and even
toppling at places into cliché. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the final section,
the narrative of Hammad collides – literally – with the narrative of Keith,
closing the novel in a complete circle and apportioning the entirety of the
vivid trauma and drama of the event itself at the end/beginning. This is a
structural gamble similar to Sarah Waters’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Night Watch</i>, making the reader work through the aftermath of the event to
finally reveal the event itself, but unfortunately here it is far less
successful. This is because the strangely enervated prose of the rest of the
novel makes it hard to see any genuine mark or effect on the characters on
which it is focused, making it impossible to discern any essential meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Perhaps that is
ultimately the point…? But in which case, the reading of the novel seems itself
pointless, because it is a perfect circle – the end brings us to the same point
we were at in the beginning, having learnt, or felt, nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Winner: </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Much to my surprise, in my opinion, Jonathan Safran
Foer takes this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-24657188196869146062016-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:002016-10-02T03:36:02.107-07:00Lionel Shriver, Feminism and Mendacious Marketing<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">My first reading experience of Lionel Shriver
was, as for thousands of others, <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/book-vs-movie-we-need-to-talk-about.html?q=kevin" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We Need To Talk About Kevin</i></a></span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="line-height: 107%;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9038115348765429397#_msocom_1" id="_anchor_1" name="_msoanchor_1"></a></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">, a powerhouse of a novel that explored the realisation of the worst
fears of any woman who is ambivalent about parenthood. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/17/lionel-shriver-we-need-talk-kevin">Before
it was eventually published by small publishing house Serpent’s Tail, the book
was rejected by numerous agents</a> who were horrified by the “psycho” kid,
“unlikeable” mother-narrator and concerned about violent stories in the
aftermath of 9/11. However, three months after the release of the US hardback,
word-of-mouth praise and sharing of the book among women on the Upper East Side
of New York began its slow propulsion to the best-seller lists and ultimately,
the Orange Prize. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Another thing conferred upon Shriver in the
wake of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kevin </i>was the mantle of feminist.
However, her actual stance on feminism may not be what many readers expect, as Shriver
has made the statement that the word ‘feminist’ doesn’t ‘sit’ with her. During <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-01-30/frisky-qa-lionel-shriver-author-of-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/" target="_blank">Shriver’s interview for The Frisky</a></span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="line-height: 107%;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9038115348765429397#_msocom_2" id="_anchor_2" name="_msoanchor_2"></a></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">, </span></i><span lang="EN-AU">writer Jessica Wakeman asked her about this. The author responded:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“[Feminism is] a funny word. The main
reason that I tend to avoid it is it conveys a humourlessness and also an axe
to grind. I’ve got lots of axes to grind; that’s just one of them. It’s not my
guiding purpose in life to redeem my gender. It’s one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">many </i>purposes. I think the best way to redeem your gender is to be
the kind of woman you want to be. Lead by example, rather than preach. So I
don’t prefer to preach.”</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Interestingly, Shriver then finished with
this:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“But in terms of the strict definition of
the word, I’m definitely a feminist.” </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">This is somewhat frustrating, to say the least. After
all, why allow feminism's detractors to be the ones that set the cultural
conversation on this topic? Surely feminism’s - or any other type of rights-advancing movement's - lack of acceptability to
the existing power structure is the point of such a thing in the first place?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">I’m just gonna leave this here: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Nonetheless, Shriver is extremely
clear-eyed about the injustices her work suffers because of her gender. As journalist
Viv Groskop wrote in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2013/apr/21/lionel-shriver-profile-big-brother">2013
article for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian</i></a> (italics
mine, links Groskop's):</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN-AU">“Shriver comes across as bizarre in
interviews. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She has said that this is because
she is female.</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Male authors are not
painted as eccentric. </i>She wears gloves and a coat indoors to save on
heating bills. She cycles everywhere, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/01/lionel-shriver-reluctant-runner">runs
nine miles at night,</a> every other day, and performs a series of exercises
("130 press-ups in two sets, 200 side crunches, 500 sit-ups and 3,000 star
jumps"). She has coffee for breakfast and then eats nothing until 11pm.
She writes standing up. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/emma-brockes-blog/2013/mar/15/philip-roth-unmasked-documentary">Philip
Roth does this too</a>, however, and everyone reads it as a mark of
genius. And no one teases Haruki Murakami about his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jul/26/sportandleisure">running</a>.”</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Later on, Groskop observes: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“A lot of the evaluation of [Shriver] is,
arguably, misogynist: she has been described as having a "mannish
intellect", chastised for not being sufficiently modest about her literary
success and made to feel, in her own words, that she is "a bitch for
not having children". She has many traits that would be seen as
laudable in a man: "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whereas if it's
a woman, it's neurotic</i>."”</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">(“Mannish
intellect”? Whoo boy, that makes me feel <i>especially </i>explodey</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="line-height: 107%;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9038115348765429397#_msocom_4" id="_anchor_4" name="_msoanchor_4"></a></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">!)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">But the more I learn about Shriver, the
more I feel I kind of understand her position. This particular anecdote seems
instructive: born Margaret Ann, she chose to be known as Lionel from the age of
15. E<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/17/lionel-shriver-we-need-talk-kevin" target="_blank">xplaining this decision</a></span><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="_anchor_5" name="_msoanchor_5"></a><span lang="EN-AU">, “She has said that it is "moderately true" that "maybe"
she wanted to be a boy - "Not because, as British papers have crudely
abbreviated, 'I thought men lead better lives', but because I hated wearing
dresses as a kid."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">(An aside – I can relate to this, reminding
me as it does of the first time I experienced exclusion from something because
of my gender: Not being allowed to climb the hill with the boys at my cousin’s
birthday party because it “would spoil my nice dress”. I remember watching with
impotent fury as my boy cousins took off to race up the hill. Were their nice
shirts and pants less likely to ‘spoil’? Didn’t I have two legs and two arms,
the same as them?) </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Essentially, it seems to me that Shriver
dislikes being pigeonholed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any </i>way,
and wants to be judged simply on the merits of her work. In her opinion, that
“funny word”, feminism, contains far too many derogatory implications for her
liking. The problem for Shriver is that certain words become ‘contaminated’, as
she describes <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-01-30/frisky-qa-lionel-shriver-author-of-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/">in
her interview with Wakema</a>n (although her choice of comparison is perhaps a little problematic, to say the least):</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“It would be nice if we could reclaim the
term. It’s been contaminated. It’s like a lot of terms that get contaminated
with previous prejudice. The word “Negro” became uncool after a time because we
were still prejudiced against blacks. Then even “black” got kind of funny and
we had to start using “African-American.” When terms go funny on you, there’s
usually a sign that there’s a carry-over of the prejudice and they have
infected the new word.”</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">One of the most ‘contaminated’ words, in
this sense, goes straight to the source: ‘woman’. When Wakeman mentions the
term ‘woman writer,’ Shriver quickly interjects, “I don’t think of myself as a
woman writer.” And when one considers how “woman writers” - and readers - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/09/female-novelists-usa">are
perceived by the literary establishment</a> –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/bras-the-only-support-for-women-writers/story-e6frfkui-1225795570226">second-tier</a>,
smaller in scope, smaller in stature, indeed, smaller-minded – then this is
understandable. It also makes Shriver’s frustration at her
constant categorisation as a “woman writer”, with all
its accompanying implications, easy to comprehend.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">There is almost no more concrete expression
of those “implications” about women than the covers publishers bestow
on Shriver’s books. She has actually commented on this herself, in her own
piece for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian </i>entitled, ‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/02/publishers-ghettoise-women-writers-and-readers">I
write a nasty book. And they want a girly cover on it</a>.’ And actually, the
book that first really brought this to my attention was the very one she is
discussing in this article.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">The book is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game Control</i>. Here is its description, from Google Books:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American
family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor.
Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper,
despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population
control and the future of the human race.”</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">It should be noted that this description
already serves to tone things down. It is true that the
romance between Eleanor and Calvin is the centre of the story. But it’s not
really a romance in the traditional sense so much as a device for an argument
between two different poles about population control, which you could broadly characterise
as pessimistic vs optimistic, or bleeding heart vs brutally pragmatic. During
the course of this argument a variety of population solutions are suggested,
ranging from contraception to a deliberate cull using AIDS as a tool. And yet, Shriver’s
fourth novel, clearly released to capitalise on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kevin’</i>s success with a female audience, was lovingly repackaged…
with frills.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Shriver described the process:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">“…my publishers constantly send prospective
covers for my books that play to what "women readers" supposedly
want. Take the American reissue of my fourth novel <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Game-Control-Lionel-Shriver/?isbn=9780061239502" title="HarperCollins: Game Control">Game Control</a> – a wicked, nasty novel
about a plot to kill two billion people overnight. The main character is a man,
the focal subject demography. Yet what cover do I first get sent? A winsome
young lass in a floppy hat, gazing soulfully to the horizon in a windblown
field – soft focus, in pastels. Dismayed, I emailed back: "Did your
designers read any of this book?" When I proposed a cover photo by Peter
Beard of sagging elephant carcasses – perfectly apt – the sales department was
horrified. Women would be repelled by dead animals.”</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Why do publishers persist with such an
outmoded, 19<sup>th</sup> century perception of what “women” are like, or what
they want? To be clear: There is nothing wrong with wanting to read about
romance, or nature, or winsome young lasses in floppy hats. But women are
people, just as men are, and “people” are a diverse lot. Many of us can cope
with concepts beyond romance and Vaseline on the camera lens. Many of us can,
indeed, be interested in both! We contain multitudes! We have brains as well as
breasts!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Besides, surely it’s counter to marketing
intentions to actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">misrepresent </i>what’s
inside the covers of the book? And why risk potentially cutting off half (or
more!) of your potential audience with a cover that’s so directly targeted at such
a specifically, peculiarly feminine sector of the market? It’s already
quantifiably more difficult for female writers – in particular, female literary
writers - <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/guest-post-i-dont-read-books-women">to
even get published in the first place</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/09/female-novelists-usa">let
alone gain the three Ps – profile, praise and prizes</a>. Why hobble them even
further with lazy, default signifiers of “femininity/inferiority” such as
these? It’s bad for equality – and it’s also bad business sense, which shows it
draws on prejudices deeper than the uber-rational business of making money. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">The edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game Control </i>that I was given was even more<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>egregious cover-wise than what is described above. Here it is: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpxtQPNUoFebGr4R-ILWpo3pYHyH7BNLRq9k9uPHVbC-T8rvM6L_M89XFNAn0hf6w541lQNbjwFdzYpMJ_zfQhyGccNsSBDMSAGlWX4c7uCpYJQz3g7xSKuaWfWySLiOLrqbz0b1TPh9J/s1600/Game+Control+ughh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpxtQPNUoFebGr4R-ILWpo3pYHyH7BNLRq9k9uPHVbC-T8rvM6L_M89XFNAn0hf6w541lQNbjwFdzYpMJ_zfQhyGccNsSBDMSAGlWX4c7uCpYJQz3g7xSKuaWfWySLiOLrqbz0b1TPh9J/s320/Game+Control+ughh.jpg" width="201" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br />
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Look at the blurb at the top: ‘Deft, smart
and very scary’. Then look at the cover. Does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that
</i>look ‘deft, smart and very scary to you??? This cover makes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC75aU47GRk" target="_blank">sad trombone</a> </span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="line-height: 107%;"><a class="msocomanchor" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9038115348765429397#_msocom_6" id="_anchor_6" name="_msoanchor_6"></a></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">even sadder.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Clearly, it is designed to emphasise the
‘romance’ aspect of the novel. But it doesn’t even manage to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> very well - it just looks so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perfunctory</i>, it has all the passion of a
stock image. I’d even go so far as to say, it looks like a casting call for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bachelor</i>. The models are so generic,
and neither seems representative of the characters in the book, being
considerably younger and less care-worn than the novel’s protagonists. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span lang="EN-AU">At least it’s tried to communicate the
adversarial nature of the couple’s views on population control with… the
string, of different colours. But both faces are so blank and devoid of
opinion, passion or expression – it’s very hard to get a sense of what the book
is actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about </i>from this cover (a
cat’s cradle tournament in Africa…?), although it’s not as misleading, I
suppose, as a winsome gal in a field of flowers.</span> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCG8-K6GzIPoKzYKdNYYtbpq5LYY1ulXwxTs9_8rwgKto-yFJkq9svV3-lsU_L2gvxa4kDneX1qk-VCLXuaVK8CC04rfDGriDaYOsdB0Yz4t9QFRiSqjO0hhKlC4v5ViXsqEecyzYntUJt/s1600/Game+Control+Mosquitoes.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCG8-K6GzIPoKzYKdNYYtbpq5LYY1ulXwxTs9_8rwgKto-yFJkq9svV3-lsU_L2gvxa4kDneX1qk-VCLXuaVK8CC04rfDGriDaYOsdB0Yz4t9QFRiSqjO0hhKlC4v5ViXsqEecyzYntUJt/s200/Game+Control+Mosquitoes.png" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">The mosquito cover on the right is a vast improvement.</span><span lang="EN-AU"> More abstract, perhaps, but it works well
in terms of the arguments the novel presents about population control. It also
alludes to the vectors of disease in a hot country and the nature of the risks
for foreigners.</span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">The cover below is better still, and probably
closest to what Shriver wanted in the first place, even if the animals remain
alive:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJWVdotY_EaxdszHdGs4GDjuyKiacr9PivszI6SVNIz410x560KMsiOhm_rSPDNhUx2RkbSs_9IurfvmDveI-mffz7LawWhwMzKOSoZ93FdhR9sTMwbMFCzRpbuJWDNUcVfhpSGKTu7rk/s1600/Game+Control+best.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJWVdotY_EaxdszHdGs4GDjuyKiacr9PivszI6SVNIz410x560KMsiOhm_rSPDNhUx2RkbSs_9IurfvmDveI-mffz7LawWhwMzKOSoZ93FdhR9sTMwbMFCzRpbuJWDNUcVfhpSGKTu7rk/s200/Game+Control+best.png" width="132" /></a><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Both the latter covers represent clean, unfussy
design, which I would suggest is prized by discerning readers of all genders.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">The next shocker, perpetrated by the same
publisher and designer, was the cover for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So
Much For That. </i>As described by Shriver herself:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span lang="EN-AU">'My latest novel, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/28/lionel-shriver-so-much-for-that" title="Guardian: So Much for That by Lionel Shriver">So Much for That</a>, is
told from two male points of view. Its subject matter – illness, mortality, and
the fiscal depredations of American healthcare – is unisex, its tone furious.' </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">To the right, the cover of the edition I read. Again, look at the disconnect between the
blurb at the top and </span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUtqVTXmo6APa55ua-j8FxvdC81090NVQ0FlFQTN5bzakURIG834LI3BdqKPF3LePe51RLyFdknZqP5QLmbSyX5Q-we3OYSxdGczQDm-9lz5QSkxDfiVpnKEH323GAYsyU7yG15X6iGzo/s1600/so-much-for-that.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUtqVTXmo6APa55ua-j8FxvdC81090NVQ0FlFQTN5bzakURIG834LI3BdqKPF3LePe51RLyFdknZqP5QLmbSyX5Q-we3OYSxdGczQDm-9lz5QSkxDfiVpnKEH323GAYsyU7yG15X6iGzo/s320/so-much-for-that.jpg" width="207" /></a><span lang="EN-AU">the image: ‘Another dazzling and provocative novel.’ What
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hell</i> is dazzling and provocative
about this image??? Once again, it’s tepid, generic and dull. And what’s with
the fucking string theme??? Limp, confusing, and signifying nothing. Just drop
it, guys – it’s not working. The models bear no resemblance at all in looks,
age or energy to the characters in the novel; once again, younger, blander,
completely removed from any feeling or opinion about what to have for dinner
that night, let alone the broken state of the American health system.</span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Interestingly, although the male
protagonist is often depicted in the novel as distraught over his wife’s
serious illness, while the wife herself mostly bears her suffering with a
frightening stoicism, Shriver’s German publisher decided to illustrate the
cover with “a woman, looking stricken.” Another chose to grace the cover with,
in Shriver’s words, “<a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-01-30/frisky-qa-lionel-shriver-author-of-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/">A
flower. A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fucking </i>flower</a>.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">Another point that can be made about both
of these 'string' book covers: they are goddamn <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fugly</i>.
I thought if there was one thing we ladies knew about, it was aesthetics, gurlz
amirite????</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">While Shriver may balk at being labelled a
feminist, she is clearly still labouring under a publishing system constructed
with sexist notions of what constitutes literary quality, and also of what
appeals to women, to the point where even the marketing will be designed in
such a way to sabotage the appeal of the product it is trying to sell.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">This kind of marketese-infantilisation,
quite frankly, needs to stop. Not only does it often misrepresent a book’s actual
content, it’s also insulting to both writer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
reader, which doesn’t seem like a sensible way to do business. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">So publishers, how about we aim to give the
reader the most accurate perspective of a novel’s content, with an interesting
and meaningful design, rather than trying to reduce its appeal to whether the
genitals of prospective buyers may or may not like flowers? I promise t<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>he brains and eyes of the reading public will thank you for
it.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-4189570045688906172016-04-30T03:30:00.000-07:002016-05-03T16:31:27.999-07:00My Life in Various Recorded Music Formats or, On the Ownership of Music<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The desire to own music, seems, these days,
hopelessly anachronistic; but I just can’t shake it off.</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">In my late thirties, I am, I suppose, not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that </i>old. (Right? Right???) And yet within
my time I have seen some pretty amazing developments in the realm of
technology. In particular, I’ve seen a variety of formats for music home
listening come and go. </span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Part
One: Records<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieutUlwfOdkvlInUdO-OGgxzaWIBXDlOKn7Ofb6Q4aB1kgHRNKYcWV2n4mov6D1Ge47a63Beftz-KO-NDVIFKUrw6PA233Ogvb9vNYd-G7ylXm2gukmzHK9WWvmrodAZE_IqbGeFCdQe7x/s1600/rekkids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieutUlwfOdkvlInUdO-OGgxzaWIBXDlOKn7Ofb6Q4aB1kgHRNKYcWV2n4mov6D1Ge47a63Beftz-KO-NDVIFKUrw6PA233Ogvb9vNYd-G7ylXm2gukmzHK9WWvmrodAZE_IqbGeFCdQe7x/s320/rekkids.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">My parents were very keen music listeners,
so all this stuff was pretty central to our household. They already had a
pretty decent vinyl record collection when I was born, and it continued to grow
along with their only child; its growth only really abating in perhaps the mid-eighties
(don’t worry though, mine continued normally). </span></div>
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgVnwUqmfWCvTJ11lmPd6MkY0jDP6nNIrWJLeXK6M0mvI_44ADMXA3kxa-9SM02L5IvmQ5YkdF5NufUfq5snks_YXLyJXMVBo9xJTTHEJDs3KU8PzdansVLHs3LJ9pC7nF95E43kvE1ep/s1600/tumblr_kt48vaby4C1qza5oeo1_500+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgVnwUqmfWCvTJ11lmPd6MkY0jDP6nNIrWJLeXK6M0mvI_44ADMXA3kxa-9SM02L5IvmQ5YkdF5NufUfq5snks_YXLyJXMVBo9xJTTHEJDs3KU8PzdansVLHs3LJ9pC7nF95E43kvE1ep/s200/tumblr_kt48vaby4C1qza5oeo1_500+%25281%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-AU"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Oh, what a collection they had! I spent
many hours flicking through the records, studying their covers deeply. Some had
innovative cut-outs that I enjoyed playing with (The Rolling Stones, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Some Girls; </i>Led Zeppelin’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Led Zeppelin III – </i>not only did the
record have cut-outs, <a href="http://www.thatericalper.com/2012/08/24/the-story-and-images-behind-led-zeppelins-iii/" target="_blank">you could actually revolve the inner to change the images that showed through the little windows</a> –
hours and hours of diversion, I can assure you.)</span></div>
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</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFSmgwzmEHU2h6Pyi3M9LvZgSeEFZ1SALJpBrb-iagCL9aD2YvIJ7vRfeDB5aTmV7IMi6KiOCzuOGP_zmpEXldUyOXEzSMr34UfP-DsZ-yW37P5y-qpdQc1sCgH88F-eA-1Zq5TqB1_uB/s1600/Twister_Sister_-_Stay_Hungry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFSmgwzmEHU2h6Pyi3M9LvZgSeEFZ1SALJpBrb-iagCL9aD2YvIJ7vRfeDB5aTmV7IMi6KiOCzuOGP_zmpEXldUyOXEzSMr34UfP-DsZ-yW37P5y-qpdQc1sCgH88F-eA-1Zq5TqB1_uB/s200/Twister_Sister_-_Stay_Hungry.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This scared me... I was five, ok???</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Some had artwork that transfixed me with a
faint thrill of fear – could it actually be evil??? (<a href="http://loudwire.com/files/2011/12/Maiden.jpg" target="_blank">Iron Maiden’s </a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://loudwire.com/files/2011/12/Maiden.jpg" target="_blank">The Number of the Beast</a> </i>fell under this
category<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>and, laughably, Twisted
Sister’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stay Hungry – </i>it might help
to remember that this was the period in which “<a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-satanic-panic-in-the-1980s-1679476373" target="_blank">Satanic Panic</a>” was at its
height.) </span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">One of the album covers, Dolly Parton,
Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trio</i>,
not only had a kick-ass front cover portrait of the three singers but also a
back that featured each of them as a paper doll, complete with awesome outfits.
I pestered my mother until she let me cut them out and play with them, a concession
I’m still a bit puzzled about to this day, as she genuinely prized her records,
I suspect more than she did me. A rare show of affection perhaps?</span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">(i. A
record aside<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbD2VwQmEiRFltX9IvNK7n8K6lnlHed8zk3AoWux3XCFEFGNqhHHBLxgmk7cROVBESk_U34XWk2dKMHOYjDKR7DzCt10VeHt85LH9TNf8HZS0zbHF6goraJZ3dj3WzspUd5nTyeKG_SS7A/s1600/Dolly%252BParton%252BTrio%252B243887b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbD2VwQmEiRFltX9IvNK7n8K6lnlHed8zk3AoWux3XCFEFGNqhHHBLxgmk7cROVBESk_U34XWk2dKMHOYjDKR7DzCt10VeHt85LH9TNf8HZS0zbHF6goraJZ3dj3WzspUd5nTyeKG_SS7A/s200/Dolly%252BParton%252BTrio%252B243887b.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-AU">Mum and Dad moved to Australia in the early-to-mid
2000s and sold their entire record collection, which was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worst possible time – </i>records hadn’t yet
become cool again and it didn’t even occur to me that I could want to own a
record player of my own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sold
some of them – I’m presuming the coolest ones, such as the aforementioned Led
Zep 3 and Iron Maiden found homes, although I guess my butchery of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trio</i> would have condemned it to an
unkindly fate. I still cringe to think of how many of them probably ended up on
the scrap heap, though – I just have to put it out of my mind!)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-AU"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Part
Two: Tapes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_MGWbwCf6ZkKsoC2uxitPvsekyDiZRYHslo13lhYugnQDLqxOReXFacPhyCq-ZfJHka5LNMKTdxgIj4digWQ0zy0B64z_qCZkMIsgcDsfNevSQR1p30PIfiyGUQEFcBvyu8EWH2mjzo4/s1600/1012_cassette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_MGWbwCf6ZkKsoC2uxitPvsekyDiZRYHslo13lhYugnQDLqxOReXFacPhyCq-ZfJHka5LNMKTdxgIj4digWQ0zy0B64z_qCZkMIsgcDsfNevSQR1p30PIfiyGUQEFcBvyu8EWH2mjzo4/s320/1012_cassette.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">By the time I was born, however, cassette
tapes were already gaining popularity. Though I remember listening to records
into my teenage years – the whole ritual of setting the record spinning,
lowering the needle just right and then waiting for the warm sound pour forth
from the speakers – it was cassette tapes that dominated my childhood. </span></div>
</div>
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</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZ6LYEKxqC4vdsqh6AjYkZhuB5jPjFn0j4FBRlcqXpS3k9zicj6jGThypgzA7bTREoxwREqTNSQzG8R7bVEC7B6gYG7dRu39W5A6P7fHYNSMHXZCdA3qyhP8n_xhIJTYrTDf7q8x_uIQ4/s1600/walkman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZ6LYEKxqC4vdsqh6AjYkZhuB5jPjFn0j4FBRlcqXpS3k9zicj6jGThypgzA7bTREoxwREqTNSQzG8R7bVEC7B6gYG7dRu39W5A6P7fHYNSMHXZCdA3qyhP8n_xhIJTYrTDf7q8x_uIQ4/s1600/walkman.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I WISHED I was this cool.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Arguments may have raged over comparative
sound quality, but cassettes had some other big advantages over records. They
didn’t scratch, for one thing. Also, they were small and portable, and soon
this, combined with developments in listening technology, offered a whole new
world of possibilities – you could listen to them in the car! And then the
walkman came out. Think the ability to soundtrack your own life began with the
ipod? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Think again, </i>my friend. The
walkman crossed that particular finish line first and with pride.</span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Tapes were the witness of some important
musical firsts in my life. The first album I ever owned - the Ghostbusters
soundtrack - was on cassette tape. My cousin and I spent a particularly
glorious summer riding our bikes around Whakatane with “Who you gonna call? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghostbusters!” </i>blaring distortedly out
of my plastic yellow walkman, which I had just discovered had some limited
capacity as a boombox. The first album I ever bought for myself was also on
cassette tape – Martika’s eponymous debut, a true modern classic.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Of course, tapes were enthusiastically
adopted in our household as my parent’s two favourite things in life seemed to
be 1. Music, and 2. Driving around in cars. Tapes took up a lot less space than
records and made it much easier to access music for your listening pleasure. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">(A Tape Aside<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Tapes made a comeback into my life in the
mid-2000s. I had moved to Auckland to pursue a Masters in Creative Writing at
the university and was flatting with my friend Faith. She was possessed of an
old, battered red car that had a tape deck, which by this point, while not entirely
unknown, was certainly amusingly quaint. She also had a small collection of
tapes, and we spent that year driving around the city alternating between them:
Joe Jackson, The Smiths, A-Ha [Faith had an interesting obsession with their
lead singer, Morten Harket, whom, you may like to know, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFDyJgbct0" target="_blank">holds the world recordfor the longest note held </a>in a top 40 pop song, for ‘Summer Moved On.’] ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TzKSFbsh2Y" target="_blank">Is SheReally Going Out With Him?</a>’ will always take me back to that time, with great
fondness.)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Part
3: Compact Discs<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Ghostbusters notwithstanding, the rule of
tapes was destined to be poignantly short – the compact disc was coming, and as
music-listening aficionados, there was no doubt my parents were going to ride
the wave of the new technology. Dire Straits were the first artists to sell a
million albums of CDs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms_(Dire_Straits_album)" target="_blank">with their album </a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms_(Dire_Straits_album)" target="_blank">Brothers in Arms</a> </i>in 1985, and though Mum and Dad did have that album, I don’t think
they were quite in that first wave of adopters. However, by the time <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Simpsons </i>debuted on our TV screens
in 1990, our lounge was definitely home to a pretty impressive collection of
the small silver discs.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The household, then, had a large music
collection spread across three different formats; but CDs hit me right in my
formative years, and as embarrassing as it is to admit in this digital age, I
remain attached to them – I still buy them today (even if it’s just to burn
them onto the computer).</span><br />
<br /><br />
In my 20s, CDs pretty much ruled my life. I frequented all the CD stores in Wellington, and at that time, there were many. There were heaps of wonderful independents - Silvio's and Slow Boat being just two examples - there were so many more but now I can't remember all their names (and Slow Boat is still standing today). But even the chains were worth visiting on a regular basis, staffed as they were by cool kids who knew what was going on (although I'll never, NEVER forgive the dude at Sounds who scoffed at me when I inquired about Primus, telling me they were "old hat". Old hat! Who says that in their youth, anyway!)<br />
<br /><br />
My literal favourite thing to do, especially as a poor student (and then after that as a poor part-time employed second hand bookstore worker), was to go to Real Groovy and pore through the sale bins - they always had <em>awesome </em>stuff in there that had somehow slipped through buyer's radars and was available for less than ten bucks. I was also an <em>Uncut </em>magazine devotee in those days, treasuring each monthly CD and duly searching for the creators of my favourite tracks at the CD stores. I would make <em>Best of Uncut </em>mix CDs of my top picks. It was not unknown for me (actually, it was pretty much a regular thing) to spend most of my income on CDs or other and spend the rest of the week living on poached eggs and 2-minute noodles - and dear reader, it was worth it. (Eggs - so many eggs.)<br />
<br /><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">(Another
sort of tape aside<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Strangely, though, I didn’t actually buy my
first CD of my very own until I was about 16 – perhaps because there were so
many of them already in the house, and Mum was obsessed with keeping up with
the latest sounz (I first heard PJ Harvey via my mother’s CD copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rid of Me)</i>, so it’s not like I was stuck
with Phil Collins and Engelbert Humperdinck. I actually still remember making
mix tapes into the 90s, and I also had a dubbed version of Nine Inch Nails' <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Downward Spiral </i>that I had illustrated myself with metallic gel
pens [I couldn’t understand, at the time, why my friend Anna thought this was
so funny].)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-AU">Anyway, if you’re interested to know what my
first CD was, I bought Kate Bush, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Whole Story</i>. I was, perhaps, a little odd.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Part
4: The unbearable lightness of digital files<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Of course, CDs themselves were soon to be
deposed by the rise of MP3s and other digital formats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this development was to overturn
the very notion of paying for and owning music, taking billions of dollars of
profit and sometimes entire conglomerates along with it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Initially, it looked as though digital
downloads would take over from CDs as the new form of ownership – people would
pay a fee to purchase an album, or a song, or whatever, in digital form. But
though this dispensed with the physical ‘middleman’, as it were, of the medium
– no tape, or disc, or vinyl – it still presented its own issues.
Transferability, for example; just because you had paid for a digital download
didn’t always mean you’d be able to listen to it across all your devices, which
was annoying. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">And although the physical vessel no longer
existed, the music still had to be ‘kept’ somewhere. How much hard-drive space
did you want to use to store your collection? And if you had a LOT of music,
what was the best way to access and listen to all of it, since many playback
devices didn’t have that much storage space?</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Increased access to broadband seems to
provide the perfect solution to this problem. Why worry about storage at all? Instead
of having to buy and run 60 million frigabytes of storage, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/melindanewman/2016/01/05/2015-in-music-stats-streaming-soars-digital-drops-and-adele-adele-adele/#5bb16eae571a" target="_blank">it makes sense to outsource all of that to the cloud and simply stream your music</a>. You can listen
to pretty much anything you want (except <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-you-cant-find-princes-music-online" target="_blank">Prince</a>), whenever you want (well, as
long as you have internet access) – for a pretty minimal fee, or even for free.
What’s not to like?</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Can’t
let go, and a plea for the artist</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">And yet – and yet. I just can’t let go of
the desire to own the music I love. I don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want
</i>it to be in a nebulous cloud – I want it to be at hand, accessible, archiveable,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tangible, </i>I guess, in a metaphorical
sort of way.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The other interesting issue here for me is
the issue of who gets paid. I know a few musicians, including Mr Meows, and
while it’s never been easy to make a living out of music, it’s probably never
been harder than it is now – a fact that’s been acknowledged by no less a star
figure (and champion of venality) than <a href="http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/kisss-gene-simmons-the-fans-are-killing-new-bands/" target="_blank">Gene Simmons</a>. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The digitisation of musical formats is
definitely a large part of this – the genie is well and truly out of the
bottle, and I certainly don’t advocate trying to put it back in. For one thing,
you can’t turn back the clock, but obviously there are a lot of great benefits
to be found in the digitisation of music. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Besides, people have always shared (or
pirated, in the industry’s opinion) their favourite music; digitisation has
simply enabled this to be done at an unprecedented speed and scale.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">One of the problems here has been the
industry’s reluctance to accept the changing landscape, and adapt. Many of the
big labels tried to hold back the tide instead of figure out how to ride it
into shore instead. History is littered with the bodies of companies who have
made the same mistake in the face of advancing technology.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">But so much for the fate of the record
companies – I’m a bit more concerned with the musicians, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">namely the way they
get paid. I’m not saying traditional record companies were great paragons of
virtue, nor that all musicians were treated fairly under the old system. But
with new forms of music listening and distribution, it seems that <a href="http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/06/11/the-more-money-spotify-makes-the-less-artists-get-paid/" target="_blank">the cut ofthe pie received by musicians for what is known in digital marketing as the‘content’ has become even smaller</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9D5m_FPK1g_-DEVqfeXxz-5mwRc3AHVqjkquwkIW9-6U_ULgStl2E1dTj8aKTroZ5o8_FpLdIVZZ9BW1SzCFssmMVGquaoBFE87TYmVr0xnbE9b_lWnqmSsrR5ID0giYZX2VIlZGpACJj/s1600/611eb21787aec8f9a1e9ca2c7af7b14b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9D5m_FPK1g_-DEVqfeXxz-5mwRc3AHVqjkquwkIW9-6U_ULgStl2E1dTj8aKTroZ5o8_FpLdIVZZ9BW1SzCFssmMVGquaoBFE87TYmVr0xnbE9b_lWnqmSsrR5ID0giYZX2VIlZGpACJj/s400/611eb21787aec8f9a1e9ca2c7af7b14b.jpg" width="400" /></a><span lang="EN-AU">It’s hard to know what do about this.
Digital formats are easy to access, fast and cheap – if not free. Of course
that’s appealing. We’ve all been guilty of benefiting from this in one form or
another (I may or may not have received some episodes of a certain fantasy TV
epic via flash drive…) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">But whether we like it or not, we live in a
capitalist society where people have to pay for food and rent. Artists are
placed in an interesting position re society (in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lumpenproletariat</i>, as Karl Marx would have it) in which we regard
what they do as something of a hobby – we almost look down on them for having
any expectation of making money out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We expect them to produce this ‘creative labour’ for free, almost
as a favour. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">But what if the artist wants music – or
acting, or scriptwriting, or music producing – to be their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">job</i>? Much of the music that we value so much, that we place on a
pedestal and use to soundtrack our lives, couldn’t have existed under any other
conditions. Some of it has taken weeks, months, years, to produce, not to
mention the hours of practice, of tiny gigs attended by three people if you’re
lucky, or studying for a music degrees or whatever else might have been
experienced to get to that song, that single, that album.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">All forms of recorded art have suffered
from this problem in the digital age, but it seems like television – which also
seems to be experiencing something of an artistic golden age – has managed to
get ahead of it with streaming services such as Netflix and Presto. People <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are </i>willing to pay, for access and
convenience and good product, as long as the price is reasonable. I suppose
that’s the ostensible reason for services such as Spotify, but there seems to
be much more trouble getting people to pay for it – and of getting a decent
amount of the money that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>paid to
the people who are actually making the ‘product’. Of course, I'm not worried about the Gene Simmons' or the Rihannas - they're doing ok. But it's the ones a few tiers below that could do with a bit more help.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">So – people don’t have to be dorkily hung
up on CDs, like I am. But if we want to keep supporting new music and giving
creative people the encouragement to keep going, it might be awesome to drop a
digital coin into the musician’s cup whenever we come across someone we really
like; buy an EP on bandcamp, or look up a band’s official Vevo channel on
YouTube - or maybe even subscribe to that streaming service.</span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-15886607108832547252015-08-23T03:54:00.000-07:002015-08-23T03:54:33.684-07:00Behind the Scenes of Fertility: Kate Atkinson, Autonomy and Pregnancy Horror Tropes<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span lang="EN-AU">Most would not
consider Kate Atkinson a horror writer. However, as I closed the covers on Kate
Atkinson’s debut novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Behind the Scenes
at the Museum, </i>it occurred to me that many of her books contain horror
themes, but not in terms of ghouls or ghosts or things that go bump in the
night, or even that more modern creature of horror, the serial killer. No,
Atkinson’s books are often permeated with the horror of fertility – or more
precisely, fertility that cannot be controlled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Horror based
around women’s fertility is not something new – it is a trope that has a long
history in the genre, to the point where it has its own entry on the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/">TV Tropes</a> website. However, I would argue that
Atkinson’s fertility-horror comes from a different place – instead of making
the woman and her body the object of horror, it makes her the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subject, </i>placing her at the centre of
the experience, addressing her own horror at her situation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Cartesian Dualism and the Disgust of the Bodily Abject<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Fertility has long
been a double-edged sword for women. For many, parenthood is strongly desired
and brings a sense of delight and completeness into their lives. However, in a
patriarchal society, the ability of women’s bodies to carry, develop and give
birth to children is perceived as something that must be strictly controlled.
This is because within this social structure, children are perceived as
resource that is “owned” by their male parent and therefore their “purity” and
“quality” - not to mention their plenitude - must be assured. To guarantee
this, women must be brought under the banner of their “owner and protector” by
the legal bonds of marriage, and their mobility must also be restricted and
monitored – this to ensure that any progeny can be confirmed to be those of her
husband and also to prevent any possible harm coming to the “moneymaker” – that
is, the womb. (“<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/husbandry">Husbandry</a>”
indeed!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-qjVQTQIDYexpjx0Avh924ESN2POHTdRUZKBuwjLBl36mSFg6rQyCxE7ThBpmeY13LXpBkJLoirxeG9j0Otzvna1nNvxjCfgiiyryjoalm-tSC7OW2jW2YXlqWYYSVf-pYSQofRlZXj-/s1600/mind-body-split.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-qjVQTQIDYexpjx0Avh924ESN2POHTdRUZKBuwjLBl36mSFg6rQyCxE7ThBpmeY13LXpBkJLoirxeG9j0Otzvna1nNvxjCfgiiyryjoalm-tSC7OW2jW2YXlqWYYSVf-pYSQofRlZXj-/s320/mind-body-split.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-AU">However, <a href="http://www.philosophyonline.co.uk/oldsite/pom/pom_substance_dualism.htm">Cartesian
dualism</a> – the mind-body split - has a role to play, too. In his desire to
pursue a basis for certainty in the quest for knowledge, Renee Descarte posited
a split between Mind and Body. To put it simplistically, mind represented
rationality and consciousness, logic and reason, the tools needed to pursue
absolute truth. Body, on the other hand – that too, too solid flesh – was ruled
by emotions, appetites and distractions from the physical world that derailed
the more pure functions of reason.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Despite Descarte’s
noble intentions, this concept opened the door to thinking about the world in
terms of binary divisions (see my previous blog about <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/beauty-booby-prize-meditation-inspired.html">Sean
Kingston’s Beautiful Girls</a> for a deeper explanation of this term). If you
think of Cartesian Dualism and binary thinking as a kind of custody split
between husband and wife, you’ll see that in the settlement, the husband
received Mind while the wife receive Body. The ultimate outcome of this was,
surprise, surprise, not beneficial to the wife.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">The Yoke of Biology<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xURIx5tkP9JE49Vu3UtjDzUQRpVyY9Q8KKMQB7jwZ_33NF2rIkduoIg4GzIrtV29mktB65LIpKbhC4zmodwPy3yWOemxS0mYhKm5bB-ChCxdoudekEcUIWaAlWzSjtdKI2aTuaax1MJZ/s1600/carrie1976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xURIx5tkP9JE49Vu3UtjDzUQRpVyY9Q8KKMQB7jwZ_33NF2rIkduoIg4GzIrtV29mktB65LIpKbhC4zmodwPy3yWOemxS0mYhKm5bB-ChCxdoudekEcUIWaAlWzSjtdKI2aTuaax1MJZ/s320/carrie1976.jpg" width="255" /></a><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This is because within the binary division of mind/body, the body was
seen as inferior – at the very least, an annoying distraction to the pursuits of
rationality.</span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">Therefore,
from a patriarchal point of view, women were ineluctably tied to the physical by the very nature of their biology. The body came to be seen as abject;
embarrassing at best, disgusting and horrifying at worst. In addition, many men
were horrified enough by the workings of their own bodies, and felt positively <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faint </i>at the carryings-on involved with the
ownership of a female body – menstrual blood! Pregnancy! Birth! More blood!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Patriarchal
disgust for the female body and its functions can be seen clearly in everything
from Sartre’s pejorative discussion of female sexuality in terms of holes,
slime and the obscene (a choice quote: “the obscenity of the female sex is
everything that gapes open”) to Mr Garrison’s statement about women in South
Park: “Never trust anything that bleeds for a week but doesn’t die.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">From this
perspective, pregnancy and childbirth, which are perfectly normal biological
functions – indeed, none of us would be here without them – assume a horrifying aspect.
If a body is abject, a pregnant body magnifies that abjection ten-fold </span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">– </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">swollen, exaggerated, </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">containing a
whole other body inside it</i><span style="line-height: 150%;"> which will eventually burst forth in an
explosion of blood and all sorts of other unmentionable fluids. The horror,
indeed!</span></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Pregnancy and Birth as a Trope in Horror – Fear of the
Female Body<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Thus pregnancy and
birth came to be seen as the Thing That Could Not Be Discussed – the secret,
burgeoning horror that must take place behind closed doors. If one ascribed to
a biblical point of view, <a href="https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/genesis-deuteronomy/god-multiplies-pain-women-child-bearing">the
pain of childbirth was a divine punishment for the ultimate sin</a> – “Eve’s
curse.” In short, childbirth was a painful, shameful, bloody women’s business –
and a suffering they’d brought on themselves, no less – which was not to be
contemplated or mentioned.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">However, the
business of the horror genre is to look into the deep dark corners of the
subconscious, to face the unmentionable and the abject; also, the object of a
lot of modern horror is simply to be gross. Considering this, it’s little
surprise that pregnancy and birth, with all its blood and guts, has been the
focus of many horror stories. However, as much of our media has been designed
for <a href="https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-%E2%80%9Cmale-gaze%E2%80%9D/">the
male gaze</a>, these stories have tended to come from this point of view, which
by virtue of biology and also influenced by centuries of disgust, stands
outside the experience, viewing it as alien, a frightening invasion, distressing
and horrific. This is clearly manifested in the two main streams of
pregnancy/birth as horror stories.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The first of these
is the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MysticalPregnancy">mystical
pregnancy</a>, a sort of inversion of the Nativity (although it would be
interesting to know what Mary’s side of the story would sound like, if someone
was able to ask her directly…!) The mystical pregnancy involves a woman who has
either been impregnated by an outside force, or who is already pregnant and
something happens to interfere. Either way, the resulting progeny has something
Horribly Wrong with it, ranging from being some kind of monster or having
strange powers to being the Antichrist himself. This has been seen again and
again in popular culture, from Rosemary’s Baby and Demon Seed through to the X
Files and American Horror Story. (This trope also strongly informs The Ring and
the Twilight trilogy as well.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzbRBPhyphenhyphentaaNOxv-F9Z0LiSC6sxQfRTsBj_k4zIHdFa8uxsGWTZYqZdIJPOcB9HfMAyauB2vI4OYxkQER4FOP4kLW0yW9uakyXkIHdPl3V8HRN4RRpubuZq2NXKwP-SL9EVNU_9YvBH4q/s1600/horrorpregnancy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzbRBPhyphenhyphentaaNOxv-F9Z0LiSC6sxQfRTsBj_k4zIHdFa8uxsGWTZYqZdIJPOcB9HfMAyauB2vI4OYxkQER4FOP4kLW0yW9uakyXkIHdPl3V8HRN4RRpubuZq2NXKwP-SL9EVNU_9YvBH4q/s320/horrorpregnancy.gif" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-AU">The other stream
is the Parasite, which doesn’t always focus on an actual pregnancy but it shows
a similar process – a person is infected, either wittingly or unwittingly,
until the full-term creature emerges from the shell of its host in a
spectacularly bloody fashion. The most famous of these, of course, is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alien, </i>although there are multiple other
examples. Within this type of pregnancy/birt-as-horror story men <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>women can be victims, and the horror
seems very predicated from an outsider’s terror of the process of birth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Why The Horror, Guys?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Considering the
cultural history behind it, it’s easy to understand why pregnancy and birth are
so often the focus of horror stories. It’s also, quite frankly, understandable
that these processes may be regarded by many with fear <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- although the reality is that global
maternal mortality rates are falling faster than at any time in history – <a href="http://www.figo.org/news/global-maternal-mortality-rate-falls-significantly-0014903">42%
since 1995</a>. So the reasons for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual
</i>fear of childbirth have greatly diminished – it’s interesting to
contemplate what could be behind the continuation of the fear in the cultural
imagination.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">However, as is
pointed out in <a href="http://feministfrequency.com/2011/07/28/tropes-vs-women-5-the-mystical-pregnancy/">this
excellent video at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Feminist Frequency</i>,</a>
(transcript also available) these tropes can also be extremely harmful for a
variety of reasons: they tend to render the afflicted female character passive,
turning her into a Damsel in Distress, and they also serve to demonise a
biological process that, while painful and challenging, is also completely
natural. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the transcript:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: magenta;">Fanvidder, Laura Shapiro calls the Mystical Pregnancy a type of
reproductive terrorism because it makes becoming pregnant seem disgusting,
frightening and nightmarish. Laura goes on to say, “The problem from my
point of view is that pregnancy and birth are natural processes that are being
distorted into torture porn, ways of punishing women and exploiting their
terror to up the dramatic stakes.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: magenta;">These stories are especially striking at this point in American history
because women’s reproductive rights, which have always been threatened, are
currently under vicious attack by conservative and religious groups. Some
states are trying to pass legislation that will criminalize miscarriages or
make abortion procedures so strict and complicated that it renders them nearly
impossible. Planned Parenthood is even in danger of being defunded through
direct ideological attacks on women’s ability to control what happens to their
own bodies.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is sobering to think about, and to me <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this </i>is the real horror story, not the reproductive process
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is exactly the type
of horror that is documented in Kate Atkinson’s novels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Kate Atkinson – the Horror of Lack of Conrol<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">A fan of Atkinson
since I first entered her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oeuvre </i>with
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/book-o-day-human-croquet-hey-that.html">Human
Croquet</a>, </i>I have read enough of her books now to clock the recurrence of
pregnancy that is often thrust, as it were, onto her protagonists, whether by
rape (as in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life After Life) </i>or by
the strictures of marriage in the 1950s (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Behind
the Scenes at the Museum). </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women are constantly done in, ended, worn down and broken by
a series of pregnancies and births that cannot be controlled or avoided. Many
of these women are simply unsuited to the task, in the sense of someone who’s
all fingers and thumbs being forced to take up the profession of watchmaker.
For example, Bunty in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Behind the Scenes, </i>answering
her oldest daughter’s assertion that she doesn’t like porridge for breakfast.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;">“As fast as a snake, Bunty hisses back, “Well </span><i style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;">I </i><span style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;">don’t like children, so it’s too bad for you, isn’t it?”</span><span style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;"> </span><span style="color: magenta; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 21.3pt;">She’s joking of course. Isn’t she?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Or there is
Bunty’s grandmother, Alice:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: magenta;">“During his
courting of Alice, Frederick struggled to show only his better side, but once
he secured her in marriage he was relieved to be able to reveal the less
savoury aspects of his character… Eventually, inevitably, he lost the farm,
land that had been in his family for two hundred years, and moved Alice and the
children – Ada, Lawrence and brand new baby Tom – across to Swalewale where he
got a job as a gamekeeper. There have been two more children since then and
another one on the way. Not a day passes when Alice doesn’t imagine what life
would have been like if she hadn’t married Frederick Barker.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Or poor rebellious
Patricia, young woman of the 60s and daughter of Bunty, who still can’t escape
the engine of fertility:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: magenta;">Particia got a
second holiday that year, staying in Clacton in a Methodist mother-and-baby
home. When she came back, a mother-and-no-baby, she was a different person
somehow…. Patricia never went back to school, never took her A Levels, and she
was so full of darkness that in some ways it was quite a relief when she walked
out one bright May morning and never came home again.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">This is the
flipside of an often sentimentalised representation of fertility; the holy
trinity of mother, father child in an eternal echo of the Nativity scene. Instead,
it’s a nightmare vision of fertility as containing an inescapable destiny,
barrelling towards you whether you want it or not, with no consideration for whether you have the skills
or the propensity for parenting or not, and it is terrifying – an engine,
an engine rushing off to a future that will inevitably narrow to a single,
choking pinpoint, like being buried alive. It’s also related to the Parasite
stream of pregnancy horror, but rather than an alien or an evil scientist the
parasite is possession of a woman’s body as a chattel (derived from cattle,
there’s the spectre of husbandry again) by a patriarchal system. The
diminishment of a woman to mere flesh, a reproduction machine, a womb without a
mind. – a bad bargain for both her and her resulting children. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzk0FA1qHkO6GYUOJH8bypvuqHGnjEhsq9tVo0nZqKAKoMy8CFduGyITzX0Kd9YrDmMx40lAt8eSAxBJrQgYNF0hxNDEj0I8UKa_D0sVhrKXtWEKQZiZsCMnOKTR2yzaC4r3GsP5-_5v-a/s1600/2013-03-25-arkansas-rally-375x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzk0FA1qHkO6GYUOJH8bypvuqHGnjEhsq9tVo0nZqKAKoMy8CFduGyITzX0Kd9YrDmMx40lAt8eSAxBJrQgYNF0hxNDEj0I8UKa_D0sVhrKXtWEKQZiZsCMnOKTR2yzaC4r3GsP5-_5v-a/s320/2013-03-25-arkansas-rally-375x250.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Atkinson’s fiction
is an expression of this horror – the horror of fertility without choice and
control. And sadly this is a reality for many, and not just in the third world,
as is proven in <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/05/28/i_couldve_been_a_duggar_wife_i_grew_up_in_the_same_church_and_the_abuse_scandal_doesnt_shock_me/">Brooke
Arnold’s article about the Duggar molestation scandal</a> for Salon. The struggle over reproductive rights is all the more distressing when research has shown that economic and reproductive empowerment for women actually lifts the economic well-being of nations as a whole - as this <a href="http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/global_ethics/economic-empowerment.html" target="_blank">article by Almaz Negash</a> states,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="color: magenta;">Women who control their own income tend to have fewer children, and fertility rates have shown to be inversely related to national income growth. </span></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Novels like
Atkinson’s take us outside of our current experience and help to remind us that
control over our own bodies is not something we’ve always had, and is something
that is worth continuing to fight for. Sadly, we might not have the luxury of
taking it for granted – but it’s definitely something we should all appreciate,
whatever choices we make.</span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-5302201600502932212015-04-18T00:55:00.000-07:002015-06-04T04:36:58.667-07:00True Detective, Season One, its "Woman Problem" and the Voices of the Victims<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRveUkwgFM18x6TTKg00ODSWaAH2hZW0m9RqTswTmY5hQU3uSpQiJWQ5FUy4IvbYAEO1QtJk_-FYjplqvLWnRJ5tsydL28tK5eJyxLUzIeGIn12sIu3qAuHqTr7sG8w14wSstEsLwsTokr/s1600/The-DVD-cover-for-True-Detective.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRveUkwgFM18x6TTKg00ODSWaAH2hZW0m9RqTswTmY5hQU3uSpQiJWQ5FUy4IvbYAEO1QtJk_-FYjplqvLWnRJ5tsydL28tK5eJyxLUzIeGIn12sIu3qAuHqTr7sG8w14wSstEsLwsTokr/s1600/The-DVD-cover-for-True-Detective.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">It's not news that the first season of True Detective was controversial
in terms of gender, and on the surface it's not difficult to see why: a
male-dominated cast, with female cast-members side-lined in the traditionally thankless roles
of "mother/wife", "mistress", "daughter" and at
the very bottom of the heap, "prostitute." A story built on the
tropes of silent, murdered victims (female, of course), long-suffering wives
and "crazy" mistresses. In response, a raft of critical articles
abounded in the media. The show's writer and creator, Nick Pizzolatto, gave
defensive and unsatisfying answers when questioned about this issue. It all
seemed to add up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Except that, when I watched the show, it didn't strike me that way at
all; in fact, quite the opposite. I fell all the way in love with True
Detective, and its darkness, and its Southern noir, its Lovecraftian references
and all the rest of it. But most of all, I appreciated what it had to say about
women and their status in our society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">I certainly understand where the criticisms come from, and I think it's
good that they're happening; these are very important discussions that we need
to have about the stories we are telling in our culture. But in my point of
view True Detective has suffered to some extent from misunderstood intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b>An Argument Whose Time Has Come</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">The way women are represented in popular culture (as well as in
"real life") is under the microscope more than ever before.
Excitingly, women are becoming more and more prominent in popular culture both
as characters and creators, to the extent where reactionaries such as comedy
dinosaur Lee Aronsohn bemoan their belief that "<a href="http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/two-and-a-half-men-creator-lee-aronsohn-demonstrates-why-we-need-more-female-driven-comedies"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">we are reaching peak vagina on
television</span></a>." (If you're wondering who this guy is and why on
earth anyone should care about his opinion, he's the co-creator of</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Two and a Half Men.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Oh, wait, that still doesn't answer the question, does it?) Despite
this avowed "labia saturation" (another quote from the charming and
obviously finger-on-the-pulse [though definitely not the clit] Aronsohn), women
are still</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.womensmediacenter.com/pages/the-problem"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">massively under-represented in the
media</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXNt16Cm1EhNTaTiC_04xTiC84Isqe7obHfPnEcJl8wZuEU1-B4wp2rIAbgmyg0pvSj-RqUpF2HDIShZ4AJOL8jTQ-1BPjWJbJmcshzG1yMAxt3tqt-uaVnnOj93voTDGWa4U-oH_QBqj/s1600/media+low+on+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXNt16Cm1EhNTaTiC_04xTiC84Isqe7obHfPnEcJl8wZuEU1-B4wp2rIAbgmyg0pvSj-RqUpF2HDIShZ4AJOL8jTQ-1BPjWJbJmcshzG1yMAxt3tqt-uaVnnOj93voTDGWa4U-oH_QBqj/s1600/media+low+on+women.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Reality-blind comments like Aronsohn's are incredibly frustrating when,
despite all the gains women have made, we still live in a world in which they
are frequently erased and negated, removed from the centre of the action and
forced onto the sidelines as supporting characters at best, two-dimensional
caricatures at worst. Well actually, no - the worst can be when women simply
aren't there at all. This creates an incredibly lop-sided view of the world,
and one that simply isn't reflective of reality, since women indisputably
exist, whether you like it or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">It's this kind of frustration that Guardian television critic Abigail
Chandler was addressing</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/mar/31/true-detective-turnoff-for-women-viewers"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">in her blog</span></a></span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">when she stated,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Let's start with the title of the show,
then: True Detective. This programme is saying that these people are real,
honest-to-God po-lice. In 1995 in the US, approximately 9% of police officers
were female. By 2012, when the latter portion of the show is set, 15% of police
officers were female. A quick count-up on IMDB tells me that there are 27
police-officer characters in True Detective. Even at the lowest percentage, at
least two should have been female.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Not a single police officer depicted in
the show is female.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Emily Nussbaum of the New York Times is
speaking to the same frustration in her essay "<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/03/cool-story-bro"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cool Story, Bro</span></a>",
a</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">nd when she cites shows like "Boardwalk Empire,
Ray Donovan, House of Lies etc" as purveyors of "macho
nonsense," I can definitely yell out "Can I get an A-MEN!" Both
her and Chandler's argument comes from a life-time of looking at the screen and
seeing nothing there that reflects their experience in a realistic or relatable
way; if women were there at all, they were distorted in a fun-house mirror that
gave them two dimensions and bigger tits. </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Nor did show writer and creator Nick
Pizzolatto particularly help himself with his public comments on the
controversy. Clearly frustrated, he attempted to defend himself in a
now-infamous <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/true-detectives-nic-pizzolatto-season-723406"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">interview with the Hollywood
Reporter</span></a>. He argued that the purpose of TD was as a
close-point-of-view story, told entirely through the perceptions of its two
male protagonists, Marty Hart and Rusty Cohle (Woody Harrelson and Matthew
McConaughey, respectively). "You can either accept that about the show or
not, but it's not a phoney excuse." He goes on to dismiss such complaints
against the show as "dumb criticisms", reducing these literate and
respected critics expressing legitimate concerns to "someone with a wi-fi
connection."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">While Pizzolatto's frustration is
understandable, so is Chandler's and Nussbaum's, and his response didn't do a
lot to correct anyone's point of view about his intentions. This is a shame, as
it could have been a good opportunity to open up a dialogue between the
differing points of view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">What's ironic is that it's the show's high
quality that has resulted in it being such a target for this kind of criticism
- both writers praise the style, the acting, the compelling nature of the story
- it's the portrayal of women that drives them crazy. The thing is, in some
ways they are right - but in terms of the intention and the result, I must
respectfully disagree. Let's take a closer look at why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Absence of Women -
Zen, Not Oblivious</span></b></h3>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When you look at it in a literal sense, Chandler's
criticism is absolutely correct. Statistically, it's very unlikely that there
would be no female police officers in this area, especially over the almost
twenty-year time period covered in the course of the show. </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's also absolutely, literally true that the women
are side-lined in the show, appearing merely as supporting or incidental
characters. Furthermore, they appear to be only significant as adjuncts to the
male characters, or as window-dressing to portray the tawdry, seamy side of
their piece of Louisiana.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the face of it, this appears to be treading the
same old, familiar ground: women as 2D characters, their existence pointless
unless it's in relation to a man. The dead women more important than the living
ones, fulfilling their obligation in another dance around the murder-porn tree.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Except that it's the very <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">absence </i>of women in the story that is significant,
especially <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because </i>it's so
unlikely and so noteable; it's almost a character in itself.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">From this perspective, the absence of
women in TD functions in a Zen fashion as "negative space". I don't
mean negative in the pejorative sense; to speak very broadly, negative space in
Eastern philosophy is just as important to the definition of an object as "positive
space". As John Suler explains in</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://users.rider.edu/~suler/photopsy/negative_space.htm"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">his article about photographic
psychology</span></a>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXtZGmlh6wRyezTFEjJnE24Nm4VHBFlKJW9xk9kfmsL-ekJX752b30myYITX9qLL3G-zhpvmWmxtyEUthlZUZWeBVd2O19invkoFppdwZ79XkBS8zkoFaAZJ2I7tmiQTTcFBZZzl4H_40b/s1600/noma-bar-legs-negative-space.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXtZGmlh6wRyezTFEjJnE24Nm4VHBFlKJW9xk9kfmsL-ekJX752b30myYITX9qLL3G-zhpvmWmxtyEUthlZUZWeBVd2O19invkoFppdwZ79XkBS8zkoFaAZJ2I7tmiQTTcFBZZzl4H_40b/s1600/noma-bar-legs-negative-space.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very pertinent example of negative space!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Defined simply, negative space is the area around and between the
subject of an image. It is the area that is NOT your subject. In Gestalt
psychology, they would say that the subject is the “figure” and the negative
space is the “ground.” ...</span><span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Positive
space is the area occupied by the subject, which is basically the same thing as
saying that it IS the subject. It’s the figure or form that your mind focuses
on, while the rest is “background.”</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">This may seem to lend strength to the
argument that women are defined in TD against the men as an absence, or a lack
- as "background" - if as anything. I won't argue against this
perception. What I</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">would</span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">argue about is the intention, and the
result. As Suler goes on to explain,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">This simple definition, as well as the
examples I just described, might lead us to believe that negative space is
empty space. This is what the term “negative” suggests, that things are absent
and there’s nothing there. However, that’s not quite true, at least not in most
photographs... All negative space, even an area of total white or black, has
weight and mass that help define the subject. </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">And later on in the essay, we reach the
crux of the matter (emphasis mine):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Because negative space is the area that
the eye doesn’t focus on, it’s easy to overlook it when creating and analyzing
a photo. You have to train your eye to see it. Y<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ou have to focus on the space around the subject rather than the
subject itself.</i></span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">In my experience as a viewer, the absence
of women - and women's voices - in TD serves to underscore that very absence.
It throws the subject - the men, and the male-dominated nature of the society
in which the story takes place - into higher relief, like a tree highlighted
against a stormy sky. The silence of the women in this culture, the silence of
the victims and the living breathing women surrounding the male subjects - is
absolutely deafening, and also absolutely damning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Misogyny in True
Detective</span></b></h3>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is absolutely no doubt that misogyny is rife in
TD. The way it's portrayed onscreen, it's almost the life-blood of the
community. </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">However, it finds its most solid
embodiment in the character of Marty Hart, played with great nuance by Woody
Harrelson. Hart is your classic, garden-variety misogynist. Actually, it's more
correct to describe him as the embodiment of male entitlement. He's a family
man, married to his high-school sweetheart and father of two young daughters.
He also helps himself to a mistress on the side, seeing no apparent
contradiction in his duplicitous behaviour. He justifies it to himself as down
to "the pressures of the job." This attitude is reinforced by his
colleagues on the force, who close ranks against his wife when she becomes
suspicious, a blatant practice of an institutionalised code of
"bros-before-hoes."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">However, although he allows himself a fair
degree of latitude, he doesn't extend the same to the women in his life. Though
he has no intention of being more than a part-time lover to his court reporter
girlfriend, be is pathologically jealous when she becomes involved with another
man, forcing his way into her apartment and beating her new beau. Once again,
his good ole' boy compatriots cover up this incident - but she takes matters
into her own hands, contacting Marty's wife Maggie and telling her the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VIGJzN9u3X4jqqkpFFovHp_azZCqKYtikc9B18uzeCCo4FTdhSli0Onq060Ga5XlJEZLsQ0-oqqcBFpM_-KdwbSmTzb32UyZDTr1n8SSmMM7ZSVa7LuOHwJzmUYrxsqtEtIEltbV1fKH/s1600/mans-game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VIGJzN9u3X4jqqkpFFovHp_azZCqKYtikc9B18uzeCCo4FTdhSli0Onq060Ga5XlJEZLsQ0-oqqcBFpM_-KdwbSmTzb32UyZDTr1n8SSmMM7ZSVa7LuOHwJzmUYrxsqtEtIEltbV1fKH/s1600/mans-game.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">It's certainly significant that not one of
the men in Marty's life will "rat" on him or alleviate his wife's
suspicions, including his partner Rusty Cohle, who is the closest thing the
series has to a moral centre and also knows, likes and respects Maggie. In
fact, Rusty also refers to Marty's mistress as "crazy pussy", a
sexist and reductionist description which is intended to not so much comment on
Marty's cheating as his laxity when it comes to choice of cheatin' partner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Marty's misogyny and male entitlement is
on display throughout the series and in every single instance produces
calamitous results: marriage breakdown, estrangement from his daughters,
ill-advised sexual entanglements. Marty can never view women outside of a
paternalistic view constructed around ownership; when his daughter is caught
engaging in a threesome with two boys in a car, he reacts as though his
property has been despoiled (much the same as his did with his mistress at the
beginning of the show). When he encounters an underage prostitute in a
make-shift brothel in the woods, he is full of pious and pompous disgust,
prompting a blistering speech from the madam in which she reads him perfectly:
as a man who can't bear the idea a of woman who's in charge of her own body
without a man as boss, and who would then</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">choose</span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">to be an active
participant in behaviour that he sees as the man's prerogative. His hypocrisy
is further underlined when he encounters the same girl years later in a
different setting and embarks on a frantic sexual relationship, endangering his
marriage once again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">In the end Marty's barren life is the
ultimate indictment of his behaviour: living alone, eating microwave dinners in
front of the television.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Though Marty is the clearest embodiment of
misogynistic attitudes and entitled masculinity, he is supported at every turn
by the surrounding culture. He is not particularly self-aware, but he also has
no need to be when he sees his own reflection everywhere he looks. As far as
he's concerned, it's not him that's the problem - it's the women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">While Marty Hart is the personification of
these values of male-domination, it also becomes increasingly clear that it's
the social values he is free-floating in that allow the ritualistic murders to
occur, and which also allow them to continue undisturbed for such a long time -
as Rust Cohle observes, no one</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">sees</span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">the women. No one listens, and no-one
cares, because the murder victims are the marginalised and the invisible -
women, children, and the poor. This is what makes Cohle's ultimate response to
the crimes so radical - because he</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">does</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">make an effort to see, and to hear. And interestingly, this utterance
also causes his colleagues to consider Cohle too far gone into obsession to be
taken seriously, because they are so entrenched in this way of seeing the world
that his challenge to it seems non-sensical, even offensive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Slack-Jawed Strippers,
Prostitutes and Put-Upon Wifey”: An Expression of Middle Class Bias</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIlcDRLsA-27lmA_b3HVYi5E0sIE1ZcNZW0XHyeUjHbJs-zB62sjvvTY-VtNmrpLTuXCtOfSZqwrQtfm6svfeYNLlAcB8URFvvwHIOi3l-eu00qooMJvsYvbK6k51Gw3Wmthji_FDoSU4/s1600/3027343-slide-antibodytdprocess-stillsc4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIlcDRLsA-27lmA_b3HVYi5E0sIE1ZcNZW0XHyeUjHbJs-zB62sjvvTY-VtNmrpLTuXCtOfSZqwrQtfm6svfeYNLlAcB8URFvvwHIOi3l-eu00qooMJvsYvbK6k51Gw3Wmthji_FDoSU4/s1600/3027343-slide-antibodytdprocess-stillsc4.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">As discussed above, it is an intersection of gender and class that allow
the murders at the centre of TD to occur with impunity for so long (there's
also a third factor - a lack of communication between police in different
districts, which is true for so many cases of serial murder - John Wayne Gacy,
Jeffrey Dahmer, Andre Chikatilo, etc). The victims of the murders are
struggling against a double-hit of invisibility: they are women and children,
and they are poor. Some of them are from even more marginalised situations, as
sex workers or runaways or both. They themselves, and in some cases their
families are well, are considered unreliable, unimportant and disposable.
Misogyny and class bias turns a blind-eye to their plight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Interestingly, there are echoes of this kind of attitude in some of the
criticism aimed at TD by critics who are intending to defend women from being
marginalised by this TV show. But I can't help feeling they're only interested
in defending the "right" kind of women. Take a look at Nussbaum's
litany of the women who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do </i>appear
in TD:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">"the slack-jawed teen prostitutes; the strippers gyrating in the
background of police work; the flashes of nudity from the designated put-upon
wifey character; and much more nudity from the occasional cameo hussy, like
Marty’s mistress, whose rack bounces merrily through Episode 2."</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is clearly intended as a scathing and sarcastic
criticism of the way women are written and portrayed on the show. However, I
felt uncomfortable with this summing-up of the women in TD; for me, the
middle-class bias against these women's marginality felt a little too close to
the attitudes of the detectives themselves.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
One of the great misconceptions about murder is that most of it is perpetrated
by a stranger; in fact, as </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://freakonomics.com/2009/01/06/the-cost-of-fearing-strangers/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics
fame points out</span></a></span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, you are three times more likely to be
murdered by someone you know than by a stranger. However, when stranger murders
do occur, it is thought that marginalised people will be more vulnerable to
such attacks: the homeless, street prostitutes, runaways. The callousness of
middle and upper class attitudes to the fate of such people is often a
contributing factor. If you already regard a young runaway engaging in sex work
to support herself as "slack-jawed teen prostitute", how sympathetic
will you be when something bad happens to her? And how much will you care about
finding justice for her? </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Similarly, I found the dismissal of Marty's mistress as a "cameo
hussy" was too close to the contempt the men in the programme showed
towards her. Sure, having an affair isn't the most ethical thing to do. But to
reduce Lisa Tragnetti, court reporter, as a "bouncing rack" rather
than a complex young woman in a small town with limited opportunities, seems
unfairly reductive. Rust Cohle disappointed me by referring to her as
"crazy pussy", but the critics have disappointed me further by
seeming to fall into line with this assessment. Upon watching the show myself,
I am yet to see what Tragnetti actually did that could be construed as
"crazy" (apart from getting involved with Hart in the first place).
It seems particularly galling to characterise her this way when Hart's actions
towards her demonstrates genuinely crazy behaviour, in a classic sense -
possessive rage.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, I was even
more </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">surprised by critical
disgust shown towards the character of Marty's wife, Maggie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Interpretations of Maggie</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">When Nussbaum contends,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">"...while the male detectives of “True Detective” are avenging
women and children, and bro-bonding over “crazy pussy,” every live woman they
meet is paper-thin. Wives and sluts and daughters—none with any interior
life."</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nussbaum is clearly angry that the men have all the
adventures while the women are expected to stay at home and keep the home fires
burning. And I understand that, I do. But it seems like throwing the baby out
with the bathwater to dismiss female characters as "paper-thin" just
because they are supporting rather than protagonists, and just because they happen
to be wives and mothers (or for that matter, prositutes and runaways).</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It can certainly be
argued - and with great justification - that the roles given to the women in
this show - wife, mistress, murder victim, stripper, prostitute - are fairly
stock; archetypes, if you will. But so is "hard drinking, philandering
detective" and "hollow-eyed lone wolf with a dark past." TD is a
variant of noir, which is a genre sub-type, meaning that the telling of the
story is bound to follow conventions to some extent (or subvert, but either way
it is still bound by these conventions).</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Maggie in particular, as the detective’s wife,, was subjected to some pretty
harsh treatment from critics. Chandler contends that Maggie is given very
little agency throughout the show, even when she chooses to revenge-fuck her
husband's partner to show him how it feels to be betrayed. Chandler does
concede that this episode </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">allows Maggie to "prove that she can be just as
screwed-up and mean as the men," but then she claims this is then
undermined by Cohle's anger towards her and his "helplessness" in the
face of her seduction, leaving her with all the "blame". She contends
that the show implies that "once a man is aroused, there's not a damn
thing he can do to stop himself." </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From such critics' point of view, Maggie had so much
loaded against her from the start; with their perception of her as a Mumsy,
domestic, long-suffering supporting character, it's hard to see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how </i>she could have handled Marty's
infidelity and escaped the critics' ire. But it seems extremely unfair to
dismiss her actions as lacking in agency just because you don't like the
situation she's in. And yes, her situation is cliched, but whether we like it
or not, it's one that many, many real-life women face, every day, all around the
world.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To me, seducing Cohle
shows an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">incredible </i>amount
of agency. As the actress who plays her, Michelle <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/tv/bp/true-detective-michelle-monaghan-shocking-disturbing-resolution-032424573.html"><span style="color: blue;">Monaghan describes it</span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">As a result of Marty's infidelity — once again — she makes a very, very
bold decision. In order to really free herself from her relationship with Marty
and to protect herself and her daughters from him, she decides to have an
affair with Rust, knowing that Marty would never, ever be able to forgive her
for it...she goes out to that bar, looking to pick a guy up and then tell
Marty, but I think she realizes that wouldn't be enough. I think Marty would
look at it and say, "Alright, well an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Let's move forward now." And I don't think she really believes his
behavior is going to change, and I think it dawns on her then that her only out
is Rust... She goes over, almost sort of like a predator. She knows what
she's after... And as soon as the act is finished, she has to come clean with
him at that point. She can't play the game any longer; the game is done for
her. And it's devastating for her that she's used him as a scapegoat… I think
that's the thing that hurts the most — that she's used him and devastated him.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maggie's actions are in
fact very calculated, designed to completely and utterly sever the connection
between herself and her husband (of course there's more than a little revenge
in this, too). </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, it's not just
Chandler's assessment of Maggie that's unfair - so is her assessment of
Cohle. Her interpretation absolutely makes sense if you perceive the seduction
as purely sexual. But this is blind to the possibility that Cohle's anger may
in fact spring from emotion and vulnerability - after all, we know that he has
been largely solitary since the death of his daughter and subsequent collapse
of his marriage. We also know that his relationship with Marty is - in its own
strange way - a close one, and that he has respect for Maggie (and obviously a
latent attraction). He is very aware that what has just happened between
himself and Maggie means the ruination of his friendship with Marty, and also
with Maggie herself. When viewed from this perspective, Maggie's decision - and
yes, the way she has taken advantage of his vulnerability - has a massive
impact on his life. In fact, it propels him to abandon his job, leave the town
entirely and construct a life on the fringes. On the whole, Maggie's actions -
which must be judged within the context, and are influenced by a complex web of
factors - have incredible power.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Chandler also writes, describing a later scene in which Maggie is
interviewed by the police years after all this has taken place: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">When Marty's wife, Maggie, delivers her speech about
"navigating crude men who thought they were clever", she's undermined
by Detective Gilbough laughing "That's a cop's wife alright." Years
later, she is still being defined by the man she was married to.</span></span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Well, that may certainly be the case for her husband’s dullard
colleagues – after all, that’s the only context in which they’ve every known
her. But it's no longer the case for Maggie herself, who has left Marty and
married someone else. She is no longer a part of this world whatsoever, and
from her point of view is revisiting the past. As well, her observation is an
observation on the entire general culture of the police in this area, and they
way this culture has allowed a serial killer to run rings around them for
years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maggie never seemed
"paper thin" to me. Yes, she was a supporting character rather than a
lead; yes, she was a wife and mother, but she was grappling with a tough
situation in an extremely human and messy way. To dismiss her as a
"put-upon wifey" was unfair to her character and seems redolent of
second-wave feminism's wholesale rejection of traditionally
"feminine" roles - definitely understandable in a context in which
women were stuck without any other options, but hard on women that are
performing these roles for whatever reason. The other hard, and unintentional,
consequence of this is that such women can end up becoming figures of contempt
from all sides – from both chauvinists <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>feminists.</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">L<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">istening to the Victims</b></span> </h3>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p>There's so much more that could be said about this subject - I haven't even touched on the Harts' oldest daughter, among other things - but I think that gets the gist of my argument across. On balance I felt that this show was extremely conscious of women, and the way they are sidelined and ignored. It will be interesting to see how the second season of the show responds to the criticisms - as we know, <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Ftv%2Fnews%2Frachel-mcadams-lands-true-detective-leading-role-20141124&ei=kg0yVYy4O8K1mAWn2oGwBg&usg=AFQjCNGHnZO1WXyqwjNERTnDGFf4nrP3jw&sig2=OCsyl-I1BjtEP3zL4JgnNA&bvm=bv.91071109,d.dGY&cad=rja" target="_blank">Rachel MacAdams has been cast</a> in an effort to have a less secondary female character - and how this affects the telling of the story.</o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span>
<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p>I think it's also extremely important to consider how the <i>men </i>are portrayed. There's certainly no argument that misogyny is endemic in the behaviour of these characters, both in the way they treat the women in their lives and how they regard women as a whole. The key question is this: is the show aware of this behaviour? How does it present it? Is this behaviour represented with approval, or with an inherent criticism? Whatever you feel the answer is to these questions will strongly shape how you feel about the show.</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">As for my final thoughts on season one - I know viewers had mixed reactions to the show's conclusion, which I can
completely understand. Though I did feel it was a bit rushed (much like this one, ha ha), I was otherwise
delighted by the occultness, the strange tangled Southern gothic web; the
corruption at every level; the remaining mysteriousness of it all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">But what pleased me the most is what I would also consider to be the
show's ultimate moral: the case was ultimately solved by one detective's
doggedness, and his understanding that what was needed was to</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">listen to the voices of the victims,</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">and start</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">actually</span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">seeing the people at the margins, the
invisible ones: the women, the children, the poor. It's almost this, more than
anything else, that convinces me of the true intention at the heart of</span><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">True Detective.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">And it's a moral I can truly get behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-71993398961019614002014-09-28T00:54:00.002-07:002014-09-28T00:59:52.414-07:00The True Cost of that "New Phone Feeling"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in the '90s, when cellphones first started becoming a wide-spread thing, I was one of the nay-sayers. In my mind, these objects were still firmly connected to the yuppies of the '80's and were totally wanky and unnecessary. I declared, loudly and often, my unshakeable conviction that I would never have one, and settled back with young fogey-ish satisfaction to watch this latest "fad" die out.<br />
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Well, that was embarrassing. Since then, as we all know, cellphones have swept the globe, becoming ever-more sophisticated and multi-functional (and I myself have been in possession of fair few over that time). Mobiles have become more than just a portable telephone, providing GPS services, games, video, electronic diary etc ad infinitum. And while those of us in Western nations find our phones increasingly indispensable, they can provide an even more vital function in developing countries where they can help plug gaps in infrastructure, provide a platform for further services, and foster greater inclusion in technological development. As t<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18008202">he Economist reported back in 2011</a>:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Mobile phones are the world's most widely distributed computers. Even in poor countries about two-thirds of people have access to one. As a result, such devices and their networks, though mainly still much simpler than in the rich world, have become a platform on which many other services can be built. This boosts innovation—just as smartphones and faster wireless data networks have led to an explosion of mobile applications (“apps”).</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/297822/how-the-mobile-phone-is-evolving-in-developing-countries">There is wide cellphone ownership even in places that lack electricity.</a> As the World Health Organisation discussed in its report, "<a href="http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_mhealth_web.pdf">mHealth: New Horizons for Health Through Mobile Technologies"</a>: "The penetration of mobile phone networks in many low- and middle-income countries surpasses other infrastructure such as paved roads and electricity, and dwarfs fixed Internet deployment." <br />
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Yayyy! So everyone's a winner, right??<br />
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Unfortunately, the answer is "no". Though both the first and third worlds undoubtably reap great benefits from developments in telecommunications technology, there is also a dark underbelly and concomitant cost. And as a typical consequence of a global system of capitalism predicated on massive inequalities, it is the world's poorest and most vulnerable that bear the brunt of this cost - although ultimately, all of us will be the losers.<br />
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Many of us now feel so reliant on our phones that there's even been a new term coined for the anxiety of being without them - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomophobia">nomophobia</a>. And mobile phone manufacturers and distributors are keen to build on this attachment to our smartphones by combining it with our enjoyment of consumption - see for example T<a href="http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/plans-and-rates/new-phone-feeling/">elstra's "New Phone Feeling" campaign</a> which encourages people to sign up to a plan that offers a new device each year.<br />
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Quite apart from the fact that this plan <a href="http://reckoner.com.au/2014/03/is-telstras-new-phone-feeling-meant-to-be-a-sort-of-creeping-sense-of-dread/">doesn't seem like good value for money</a>, it also exhorts people to get rid of existing phones just for the thrill of getting a new one, not because the old one doesn't work any more. <br />
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I know this observation is obvious, and maybe once again I sound fogeyish, especially at time when smartphones are developing at a dizzying speed, delivering constant new functionalities. But let's be frank, people: a new cellphone every year is a want, not a need.<br />
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Not that there's anything wrong with having "wants". A life composed of solely of needs and no wants would be a pretty poor one indeed. But in a capitalist society dominated by the profit motive, it's the job of companies to create new wants where none existed before, and then to convince you that the line between wants and needs is blurry. Once a market becomes saturated, the need to continue creating profit becomes even more frantic, and accelerates to completely conflating needs and wants into the same thing. You'll already know the drill: got a pretty snazzy smartphone? Bitch, that ain't nothing compared to the even more awesome cellphone that's coming out next week! Only losers allow themselves to get stuck with the old model cellphone, join the beautiful people who have attained the next level of existence with the T minus five model, etc etc ad infinitum. <br />
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Where seduction doesn't work, companies will use plain sabotage, aka <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/planned-obsolescence-460210#slide-1">planned obsolescence</a>. This is when products are deliberately designed to cease being useful after a certain period of time. A good example of this can be seen in <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/planned-obsolescence-460210#slide-6">any kind of device that comes with a software package</a>. Functionality is maintained with software updates... until your particular software software is "<a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows/end-support-help">no longer supported"</a>. No more updates, no more virus protection. Now you have to purchase a whole new software package, or upgrade to a new device - even if the one you already own works perfectly fine in every other respect.<br />
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It's not hard to see that planned obsolescence poses major problems, not only for the consumer's pocket but <a href="http://www.sociologyinfocus.com/2012/11/07/the-iphone-planned-obsolescence-and-the-environment/">also for the environment</a>. Millions of perfectly functional devices end up in landfills every year as e-waste - <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-26/electronic-waste-a-toxic-timebomb/4443678">more than one million tonnes a year in Australia alone, and more than 40 million tonnes around the world</a>. This is bad enough in itself, but what a lot of people don't realise is that these electronic devices contain minerals and metals that are environmentally toxic. T<a href="http://www.tec.org.au/images/e-waste%20report%20updated.pdf">his includes things like </a>mercury, beryllium and cadmium, among others. Another issue is that our electronic gear contains rare and non-renewable materials which are wasted when they get dumped into landfill.<br />
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This is especially terrible when the sourcing of some of these non-renewable materials has already<br />
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come at such a high cost. Almost half the world's supply of tantalum, a rare blue-grey metal that functions as a conductor for our electronic devices, <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/09/the-congo-mines-that-supply-conflict-minerals-for-the-worlds-gadgets/">comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo</a>. The problem with this is that the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13283212">DRC also has a long history of corruption and bloody civil war</a>, and the sale of these metals has funded the continuation of terror and violence which includes <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/unearthing-exotic-provisions-buried-in-dodd-frank/?_r=0">mass slaughter and wholesale rape</a>. In addition to this, the mining itself <a href="http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/congo-connection-between-slavery-and-conflict-minerals">relies directly on slavery</a>. There has been a concerted effort to combat this and hold corporations accountable for the sourcing of the minerals they use for manufacture, and some have vastly improved their processes over the past few years. But the performance of others has been abysmal, with Nintendo, shockingly, being the worst offender. Companies are not currently obligated to disclose to consumers where they source their minerals from, but the <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/09/conflict_minerals_from_the_congo_is_your_cellphone_made_with_them.html">Dodd-Frank Act</a>, passed in the US in 2010, will require them to do so at some point this year. I'm not sure how this impacts on Australia, but the <a href="http://www.enoughproject.org/about">Enough! Project</a> tracks corporation's rankings on this issue, so if you'd like to know where they stand take a look at the list <a href="http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-company-rankings">here</a>.<br />
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And it's not just people who are suffering as a result of this industry. T<a href="http://www.zoossa.com.au/conservation-ark/conservation/current-conservation-programs/2009-year-of-the-gorilla/they-re-calling-on-you">he mining is also encroaching on the habitats of chimpanzees, gorillas and other primates.</a> Increased activity and human presence in the area also means increased hunting of these animals for bushmeat.<br />
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On top of all this, the impact of our dumped phones is felt in the developing world in yet another way - the illegal dumping of e-waste in third world countries. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/14/toxic-ewaste-illegal-dumping-developing-countries">Last year Interpol revealed that </a>"almost one in three containers leaving the EU that were checked by its agents contained illegal e-waste." Some of these are recycled and dismantled, but this often takes place in primitive conditions. Workers at these sites suffer frequent illness. Even where there is a legitimate industry in e-waste recycling, for example in Lagos, i<a href="http://ban.org/films/TheDigitalDump.html">t is estimated that 75% of imported material is junk that's not economically viable for repair</a>. This extra waste is discarded and sometimes burned, an environmental horror which will deliver unavoidable consequences.<br />
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Meanwhile, there are <a href="http://www.zoossa.com.au/conservation-ark/conservation/current-conservation-programs/2009-year-of-the-gorilla/they-re-calling-on-you">more mobile phones in Australia than there are people</a>. 2<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/14/toxic-ewaste-illegal-dumping-developing-countries">012 saw 50m tonnes of e-waste generated globally </a>- that's 7kg per every person on the planet. In this context, it's mind-blowingly irresponsible to incite people to upgrade, update, junk your old phone that you've had for a year!<br />
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That "new phone" feeling? Just not worth it. We need to learn to appreciate what we've got, and that goes beyond our smartphones. And if you do need to get rid of your device, please recycle it. In the end, everyone will thank you for it.<br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-3114191532293702302014-07-16T23:55:00.000-07:002014-07-16T23:55:10.632-07:00Unpacking the "Inevitable" Jennifer Lawrence Backlash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jennifer Lawrence: a talented young actress who has had much success and media attention, and who displays a lot of personality. She is charming, funny and willing to be a total goofball in public. People love, love, LOVE her - and then, suddenly, they hate her.<br />
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This is a familiar part of the star-making process, so familiar it's like a movie cliche - it's a story we all know. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">But one thing seems very clear to me: that this backlash narrative isn't just about Jennifer Lawrence, but is actually part of a wider cultural backlash against women in general.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">I'm not the only person to make this point; The Daily Dot has <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/jennifer-lawrence-lupita-nyongo-backlash/" target="_blank">a great article</a> discussing it, and <a href="http://jezebel.com/brace-yourselves-for-the-jennifer-lawrence-backlash-1476594838" target="_blank">Jezebel </a>pointed out that "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">it has everything to do with our desire to tear female celebrities down and little to do with Lawrence herself". Many have discussed 2013's pitting of female Academy nominees Anne Hathaway vs then newbie Jennifer Lawrence against each other, with Hathaway the hated hag and Lawrence the loveable underdog. <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/01/31/why_do_people_hate_anne_hathaway_one_reason_is_simple_sexism.html" target="_blank">Slate's Forrest Wickman</a> laid this at the door of simple sexism, and though I have to put <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/double-standard-alert-anne-hathaway.html?q=hathaway" target="_blank">my guilty hand up as a Hathahater</a> (in my own defence I'll say she's <i>always </i>annoyed me, this had nothing to do with the Oscar race and I was not in the slightest bit interested in pitting the actresses against each other) I have to say I agree with his analysis. As he points out,</span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/the-cult-of-hathahaters-will-it-hurt-anne-hathaway-s-oscar-chances.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: sl-ApresBold; font-size: 15px; line-height: 27px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Daily Beast</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sl-ApresRegular; font-size: 15px; line-height: 27px;"> and </span><a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/why-people-hate-anne-hathaway-211800917.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: sl-ApresBold; font-size: 15px; line-height: 27px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Yahoo</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sl-ApresRegular; font-size: 15px; line-height: 27px;"> ... [call Hathaway] a “desperate theater girl.” Can you imagine anyone calling, say, Hugh Jackman a “desperate theater boy”? Hathaway is an actor. Is she not supposed to be “dramatic”? When Daniel Day-Lewis wins his Oscar, he’ll probably act surprised, too.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">This very same point can be recycled in the lead up to this year's Oscar race, in which Lawrence's oft-praised "refreshing" and "natural" behaviour was suddenly being derided as "fake". People were questioning whether <a href="http://www.hollywoodtake.com/jennifer-lawrence-falls-hilarious-or-fake-after-oscars-trips-american-hustle-star-nearly-tumbles" target="_blank">her falls on the red carpet were staged</a> and there has been endless speculation about whether her public persona is in fact <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/the-acting-personality" target="_blank">a carefully constructed PR stunt</a>. The Oscar race was now between Lawrence, who had become the seasoned award winner that everyone was so "over," and newcomer Lupita Nyong'o, and as articles like <a href="http://www.crushable.com/2014/01/17/entertainment/why-im-over-jennifer-lawrence-but-not-lupita-nyongo/" target="_blank">this one from Crushable</a> made it clear, it had to be one or the other - and Jennifer Lawrence had to be destroyed!!! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">But strangely there was no such arm-wrestling competitions for the male nominees. Where are all the commentators waspishly dissecting Matthew McConaughey's stoner philosopher? Or Leo DiCaprio's socially conscious modeliser? And why weren't <i>they </i>pitted against each other so viciously in the Oscar race? Why are we not allowed to root for one woman over another without having to <i>hate </i>one of them? Why do the stakes have to be so high for women while everything remains so collegial for men?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">What's the real takeaway from all this? It's that there's room, and friendship, at the top - but only if you're a man. If you're a woman, you must always be engaged in a struggle with other women. You can never be colleagues, but must instead be enemies </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">because Hollywood does not need you as much. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">There is less space for you, less roles for you, less coverage, less adulation, less time. You are the sideshow, not th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">e main attraction.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">As for Jennifer Lawrence, one of the reasons <i>I </i>liked her so much - and I suspect it's the same reason that many others did too - is that in a lot of ways she reminds me of myself, which I guess is what they call "relatability". She's clumsy, she's goofy, she says random stuff and she doesn't present a polished front to the world. (Quite frankly I don't think the question is, were Jennifer's falls on the red carpet real? I think it should be - why doesn't it happen more </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">often</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">? If I had to walk around in heels and long dresses all the time people would have to </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">carry </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">me.) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">And when I say she reminds me of myself, I of course mean an </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">ideal</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> version of myself, an aspirational version - more confident, more relaxed in her own skin, more famous and successful. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">But even more than this, she represents a version of femininity that you don't get to see very often in the public eye - funny, clumsy, not quiet, demure or polite. As I've stated </span><a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/adventure-time-vs-regular-show.html?q=regular+show" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">in an earlier blog,</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> when I was a kid playing pretend, all the characters I identified with - the jokesters, the clumsy smart-asses, and the heroes - were male. I had no female characters to "be", not if I wanted to do anything active or fun. For me - and probably many, many other girls - the rise of a personality like Lawrence is a bloody breath of fresh air. And perhaps that's also why some are inclined to find her irritating, as she doesn't conform to a lot of "feminine" qualities that young women are supposed to.</span><br />
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But I think it's those very qualities, and a certain savviness, that will help Lawrence to ride out the backlash. She herself was well-prepared for it, saying in an interview with <a href="http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/jlaw" target="_blank">Marie Claire back in June</a>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">"Honestly, I'm just doing my best. But if people want to start the backlash, I'm the captain of that team. As much as you hate me, I'm 10 steps ahead of you."</span><br />
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I think she - and Nyong'o, and many of their other compatriots - will be around for years to come, and hopefully they will help to change the look and the shape of Hollywood, and what we get to see on our screens. And give young girls something else to look towards than the princess in the castle.<br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-61441744404355428382014-06-24T01:00:00.000-07:002014-08-15T21:42:04.370-07:00The First Wives' Club and First World "Feminism"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In 1996, the year this movie was released, I was in my mid teens, and it felt like a good, hopeful time to be a young woman. Grunge and riot grrrrrl seemed to have ousted the need to conform to restrictive conventions of feminine fashion and behaviour. The music charts were full of talented and unique female artists. Movies and television were starting to show more complex, and sometimes even bad-ass, female characters. Looking back, I feel grateful to experience those difficult formative years in such a time.<br />
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It was definitely the right cultural climate for this film. I remember it featured a lot in the media at the time - a story about a group of discarded first wives plotting revenge on their ungrateful ex-husbands definitely had a whiff of the zeitgeist about it. Indeed, so much so that the book was <a href="http://www.americanpopularculture.com/archive/bestsellers/first_wives.htm" target="_blank">purchased by a movie studio before it was published as a novel</a>. (The more hidebound publishing industry <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-08-13/features/9608130322_1_new-york-publishing-houses-olivia-goldsmith-manuscript" target="_blank">rejected the novel 26 times</a>. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the author, Olivia Goldsmith, on Oprah talking about this, saying that many of these publishers thought the male characters were portrayed "too negatively".)<br />
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Though I thought this movie sounded like a positive cultural event, and quite possibly also a good wheeze, I missed it at the time. So when it happened to be playing on Foxtel on a recent cold Sunday night, I was more than happy to stay in the lounge with the gas heater all rugged up and warm and make up for my neglect...<br />
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What was I expecting? I guess a funny and entertaining revenge romp with a feminist punch? What did I get instead? Well, not that...<br />
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Probably the most entertaining thing about it was the long and delightful roll-call of actors I recognised from subsequent other things. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000445/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Dan Hedaya</a>! <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001255/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Victor Garber</a>! <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001315/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Marcia Gay Harden</a>! And of course the peerless <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001621/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Bronson Pinchot</a>. Yay! That was good fun, and I was very glad they got to be part of something that would have given them a big boost at the time.<br />
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The next thing I noticed was the extremely overdone and intrusive score. Guys, I <i>cannot believe </i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Wives_Club#Awards_and_nominations" target="_blank">this score was nominated for an Oscar</a>. To me it felt like an obnoxious guest at a party who keeps grabbing your arm when you're trying to talk to other people so he can tell you a really long and boring/offensive story that scares all other guests away from you. <i>Hated </i>it.<br />
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My second major hate: Diane Keaton, but I guess that's probably more of a personal thing, although a<a href="https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120815080941AAz1k4r" target="_blank">t least I know I'm not alone</a>. I get why Woody Allen loved her so much - she's totally the female version of him. Same schtick in <i>every single role </i>she plays: blinky, quirky, neurotic, and when she's required to get emotional, shrieky. Also ineffably smug. Teeth-clenchingly annoying.<br />
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Next problem: the characters. Was this the fault of the script, the acting, or the direction? I would say an unholy collusion of all three. <i>All </i>the characters are shallow and unlikeable, <i>including </i>the women you are supposed to be rooting for. Nobody seems remotely like a real person - the husbands are drawn as dastardly cardboard villains, the first wives are shrieky caricatures, the second wives are completely one dimensional bimbos. The gags and one-liners are broad, awkward and the timing is just a little bit off every single time. The set pieces are cringey and the plot is just confusing. The revenge plots were a bit unclear and vague to me, as if the writers weren't quite sure how to pull them off.<br />
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I think part of the frustration was that while the story was addressing a real and genuinely affecting issue - <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/wanna_know_what_its_like_to_disappear_try_being_a_woman_over_50_partner/" target="_blank">the culturally-sanctioned discardability of women as they grow older</a> - it opted to bury it inside a combination of broad slapstick and an extremely privileged, neo-liberal kind of feminism concerned solely with economic gain. I was somewhat in wonderment at the moneyed, ten-percenter world these women moved in. Of course separation, abandonment, betrayal and heartbreak are a great leveller - all of us can suffer whatever our bank-balance. But the focus on "getting everything" was a little hard to stomach from women living in huge condos in the heart of New York with an interior designer on their payroll. Somehow it felt like the message was getting a little lost in the middle of all the high-society hob-nobbing - there was nothing particularly universal about it, and any feminism that was being communicated was certainly of a rarefied kind that most of us wouldn't be able to access.<br />
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Perhaps key is the fact that the movie was written, directed and produced by men - or more specifically, men who shared the publishing world's squeamishness about "man-bashing". As producer Scott Rudin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/24/movies/appeal-of-a-woman-s-revenge.html" target="_blank">stated in the New York Times</a>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: magenta;">When I took this on, I didn't want a feminist manifesto, which it threatened to be,'' he said. ''Initially, it made all the men terrible and was kind of anti-marriage. I didn't want that. The film is really a satire. The amount of moaning and wailing is an object of satire. We're not taking anything too seriously.''</span></span><br />
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Rudin, like so many others, accepted the<a href="http://dlisted.com/2014/05/05/and-now-for-shay-lean-woodleys-super-smart-thoughts-on-feminism/" target="_blank"> fallacy conflating feminism with hating men</a> rather than its simple belief that women and men "<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism" target="_blank">should have equal rights and opportunities</a>". That this conflation is so often promulgated is tiresome. It's also tiresome that charges of "man-bashing"against films are so loud and strident when negative, and even harmful portrayals of women in film and television and <i>everything </i>are so commonplace we don't even notice them most of the time. And the effect of this kind of distaste for anything remotely feminist in the stories we tell can cut the heart - and the ovaries -right out of them.<br />
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Feminism is not the only thing that's diluted in the adaption of this story from book to movie - certainly <a href="http://www.americanpopularculture.com/archive/bestsellers/first_wives.htm" target="_blank">the differences between the film and the book</a> seem very revealing. For example, the complete excision of Annie's (Diane Keaton) daughter's Down's Syndrome - she is turned into a lesbian, instead. (and the way she's portrayed one sometimes wonders if the writers thought they were just swapping one disability for another???). Which removes the onus for Brenda (Bette Midler) to become a lesbian herself, clearing the way for her to have a (SPOILER ALERT) reconciliation with her dastardly husband Morty, a strange and sudden reversal in the storyline of the film.<br />
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But one of the most interesting differences is how they choose to "avenge" their friend Cynthia, whose husband's betrayal resulted in her suicide and provided the impetus for the first wives to reunite, rediscover their friendship and begin their club in the first place.<br />
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In the book, the women go after Cynthia's husband and bring him down for insider trading, to his personal and financial ruin. But in the movie, the women decide that personal revenge is not noble enough - so instead they blackmail their ex-husbands into providing money to open a Crisis Centre for Women. This is a safe aspect of feminism; it's hard to argue against helping the most vulnerable in society, and it's easy in our culture to accept women in the role of victims - and indeed, the centre is named after their friend Cynthia Swann Griffin, the movie's ultimate victim and sacrificial lamb.<br />
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The final scene - the opening party for the Crisis Centre - is intended to be the triumphal close to the movie, but instead it feels patronising and smug, the worst kind of charity. The party is ostentatious, opulent, and replete with the kind of economic excess that seems to cover the characters' lifestyles like a thin film of oil. It is of course stuffed with the rich and fabulous, New York high society elite. There is a lot of back-slapping. Ivanka Trump appears, as well as Gloria Steinem, in a vague shout-out to "feminism". There are no specifics discussed as to what kind of crises the centre will be helping women with, what kinds of women will be helped, or how. The husbands have been threatened with destruction but ultimately this female anger has been contained, and now the men are simply implored to open their pocket-books. In the final scene the three women engage in a truly embarrassing song-and-dance routine, singing Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me" and dancing like your Mum doing karaoke at your cousin's 21st. The ultimate in Boomer smugness, and of course led by the inimitably irritating Diane Keaton.<br />
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In the novel, as the <a href="http://www.americanpopularculture.com/archive/bestsellers/first_wives.htm" target="_blank">American Popular Culture Archive </a>explains,<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'lucida sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: magenta;">Once the women decide to act, they exude power and energy. Brenda asks Elise, "Did anyone ever tell you you're beautiful when you're angry?" Elise replies, "No. Mostly they liked me passive. But those days are over, my friend. I'm changing."</span></span><br />
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This movie adaption is, quite frankly, a mess, and seems to replace female power and agency with money. I'm no book adaption purist - I accept that the two mediums are different, and changes have to be made in translation. But in this case, it doesn't seem that the changes were especially serving the ends of telling a story and preserving a message, so much as containing it to make it more marketable. But unfortunately the end result is clunky, unloveable, and not even entertaining. Perhaps it met the zeitgeist in 1996, but I think that it should probably stay there.<br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-59041994199906808282014-06-07T22:56:00.000-07:002014-06-07T23:25:06.482-07:00Beauty: The Booby Prize (A Meditation Inspired by Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls")<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Do you remember that Sean Kingston ear-worm from 2007, <i>Beautiful Girls? </i>If you were alive then, I <i>know </i>you do, cos it was <i>errywhere</i>! If you have managed to forget it (in which case I say well done, and apologise for the following), let me refresh your memory, lyrics-wise:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You're way too beautiful girl</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">That's why it'll never work</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You'll have me suicidal, suicidal</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">When you say it's over</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Damn all these beautiful girls</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They only wanna do you dirt</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They'll have you suicidal, suicidal</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">When they say it's over</span></span></span><br />
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You may also remember <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrTz5xjmso4" target="_blank">the video</a>. I saw it again recently, and all these years later it made me ponder our cultural values of beauty (yes, I <i>am </i>a dork, actually, why do you ask?).<br />
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The lyrics in their entirety are actually pretty sad, despite the catchy cheeriness of the tune: a woeful tale of jail-time coming between a guy and his gal with a low self-esteem chorus. The video, on the other hand, plays up the cheerful tune with bright pop colours and big white smiles and of course, <i>be-yoo-tiful</i> girls, girls, girls everywhere which of course in our culture translates to the slender-waisted, symmetrical faced, significantly boobed and bootied, long-haired young woman. In the middle of it all sits Sean Kingston, a baby-faced lad on the larger side, singing winsomely about having suicidal feelings due to his rejection by such young women.</div>
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The juxtaposition is obvious: beautiful girls, pudgy Sean Kingston. There are two schools of thought that may be evoked by this scenario: firstly the "male entitlement"school in which a man automatically deserves the reward of a "beautiful girl"'s sexual services for his efforts and attentions. (Poor guy, parched amidst a pussy explosion!) This turns male-female relations into a simple transactional equation and views the woman as a trophy and a possession. From this perspective these "beautiful girls" are cruel and selfish, and undermining the rightful ownership of the man who is pursuing them. The rules of the game are simple, and women who won't 'give it up' are contravening these rules, fighting dirty and denying the pursuer's masculinity. Such women deserve to be treated with rage and contempt. Pursuing this to its logical conclusion leads to division, resentment, ugliness and violence (as we saw so chillingly in <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isla-vista-rampage/california-shooting-suspect-elliot-rodgers-life-rage-resentment-n113996" target="_blank">the recent shooting in Santa Barbara)</a>.</div>
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The other school of thought is hierarchical and concerned with dividing people into physical "leagues"by degrees of their sexual attractiveness. By this way of thinking Sean Kingston is foolish for aspiring to women who are so many "leagues" of attractiveness above himself, a sad sack who just can't accept his low place on the totem pole and who will have to learn to content himself with "look, don't touch." </div>
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I have to admit that the disparity in appearance between Sean and the girls in the video annoyed me because of the double standard of what's expected in terms of attractiveness between women and men. But my opinion the perspective of "leagues" is just as faulty in its thinking as the male entitlement view, because it's focused on judging people primarily on their appearance. Sure, it pisses me off that the 'looks' bar is set a lot higher for women. But that doesn't mean I think people should only be paired with their 'equal' in terms of looks. Why shouldn't a person be attracted to someone who might be larger than them, or plainer, or skinnier, or any particular physical attribute? We are all more than what we look like, and while of course attraction is important, it's also variable - one girl's Johnny Depp is another's Johnny Vegas.<br />
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Ultimately, <i>both </i>of these perspectives are irrelevant and function as a distraction to deeper questions about the structures that underlie the entire paradigm in the first place.<br />
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I've talked before in this blog about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition" target="_blank">binary opposites</a>. Referring to the mighty Wikipedia, these can be described as:</div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start;">...a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1; text-align: start; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition#cite_note-1" style="background: none; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start;"> It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Baldick_2-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1; text-align: start; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition#cite_note-Baldick-2" style="background: none; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start;"> Binary opposition is an important concept of structuralism, which sees such distinctions as fundamental to all language and thought.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Baldick_2-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1; text-align: start; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition#cite_note-Baldick-2" style="background: none; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start;"> In </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" title="Structuralism">structuralism</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: start;">, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language.</span></span></div>
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Whether we're aware of it or not, we use binary opposites every day to organise our thoughts and<br />
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perceptions about the world around us. There's a lot of information out there, and we need some kind of framework to sort and analyse all the input. However, our conception of binary opposites is not neutral; they are suffused with value judgement, and there is usually a subtle hierarchy within each pair ranking one above the other. </div>
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Male/female is an obvious example of a binary opposite, and a central one. So is white/black. Think about what the hierarchy would be within these two pairs according to our dominant cultural values. To the right are some further examples, and you can probably think of more yourself (once you get going it's hard to stop - it's a regular lolzacoaster!) </div>
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Beautiful/ugly is another one. The value judgement is easy to see there, and in some ways this seems to be a binary division that actually falls in the favour of women. Obviously we value beauty over ugliness, right? And in the cultural custody battle between the genders women got beauty, yayyyy! </div>
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But when you think about, beauty as a "power" is - well, kinda passive. Essentially, it's the power of being looked at, the power of the object. Objects are not active, they are acted against. Yes, studies have shown that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/attractive-people-are-more-successful-2012-9" target="_blank">attractive people are more likely to earn more, be perceived favourably</a>, etc. But this can only get you so far. A look at <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2013/10/30/the-worlds-most-powerful-people-2013/" target="_blank">Forbes.com's list of the 72 most powerful people of 2013</a> shows that (no disrespect to these 72 individuals) beauty is not necessarily a top requirement for making this list. Also, women made up nine entries in this list of 72. That's 12 percent, when <a href="http://www.indexmundi.com/world/demographics_profile.html" target="_blank">the proportion of women to men in this world is roughly equal</a>. Clearly women's allotment of "beauty" as a power doesn't quite balance out all the other choice powers that were awarded to their brothers on the other side of the binary opposite.</div>
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In fact, real talk: being allotted beauty as almost your sole "power" is a real booby prize. Imagine if you were constructing a character for a Dungeons and Dragons game under these conditions! How far do you think you would get on the quest with 'beauty' at 10 and stealth/strength/wealth/magic at their lowest settings???<br />
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The other thing that can happen is that because this is perceived as the prime power a woman holds, it's often the sole value she is judged by, especially if she's being assessed as an unknown quantity. Perhaps analysing "Beautiful Girls" in this light is a bit much to ask of a pop hit, but it's telling that it's called 'Beautiful Girls," and not "Smart Girls" or "Funny Girls" or "Kind Girls" or anything-bloody-else. When beauty is your sole criterion for a girlfriend or a hook-up or whatever, any other qualities this person might have become irrelevant - all women become interchangeable, or invisible, depending on whether they meet this criterion or not. Their "beauty" or lack of beauty gets in the way of their person-hood. This is sad, and a waste of soooo much potential other-stuff women might have to offer above, beyond and as well as their looks.<br />
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Maybe Sean Kingston should stop worrying so much about "beauty" and try thinking about some other qualities he might like to find in a girl. It could change his world.</div>
Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-87845582824869751782014-05-30T02:48:00.000-07:002014-05-30T02:48:45.548-07:00Biological Determinism in 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgSAPD3S2rBshxHxFBIbfbV6FtHB8O266Zw5Dr4r9e01KqRqsUoPJpPKETUAkPVRgUykNk7K6QZYwE9cK2uIodixG7OrLQXuoCmSNfE5EChyphenhyphen5SN92xg9hltw57chCLyUesaZTekWRPIAK/s1600/Perfume+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgSAPD3S2rBshxHxFBIbfbV6FtHB8O266Zw5Dr4r9e01KqRqsUoPJpPKETUAkPVRgUykNk7K6QZYwE9cK2uIodixG7OrLQXuoCmSNfE5EChyphenhyphen5SN92xg9hltw57chCLyUesaZTekWRPIAK/s1600/Perfume+Book.jpg" height="400" width="261" /></a>I read <i>Perfume </i>many years ago, and I have to say that for the most part it was a very enjoyable and rewarding read - I certainly have no wish to denigrate the skill and hard work utilised in the writing of this book. It's beautifully written and creates a fascinating and very vivid portrait of the time and place in which it is set: 18th century France, both city and provincial. It's also built around a creative and intriguing idea which is carried out with great rigour and detail to its ultimate conclusion. But biological determinism lurks at the heart of the story like a canker in the blossom and ultimately resulted in disappointment for me as a reader. </div>
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Grenouille (French for 'frog'), the novel's protagonist, is born without a scent which alienates him from the rest of the human race and marks him as a permanent outsider. His origins are somewhat horrific and his birth heralds his monstrousness - dropped from his mother's womb into a pile of fish guts, he is left by her to die in the stinking mass. He is then passed from pillar to post by various wardens who believe him to be possessed by the devil, then finally to an orphanage where his fellow inmates attempt to smother him for reasons that remain opaque to them. He is cold and unfeeling and stands apart from the rest of his species. The only thing that moves him is his incredible nose for scents, and he vows to become a master scent-creator. As the book states,</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: magenta;">“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.” </span></span></div>
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As the notes on <a href="http://gradesaver.com/">gradesaver.com</a> point out, Suskind is predicating that:</div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.00299835205078px;">...we live in a chemical world that we only dimly perceive or understand. That is, the overriding reason that we might like or dislike another human being is odor--not shared interests, visual cues, or more intangible notions such as goodness or virtue.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.00299835205078px;"> </span></span> </div>
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I'm not completely against this idea - I think it is clear that smell has a lot to do with our perception of other people (sometimes this ridiculously obvious, such as the sweaty, malodorous guy who you pray won't plunk down on the seat next to you when riding the tram; other times I'm sure there are processes involved that are subtle and undetectable on a conscious plane, pheromones and so on). But to carry this to an extreme where all other considerations are swept aside represents a somewhat pessimistic point of view and a denial of any kind of human agency above and beyond the impressions our noses deliver to us. <a href="http://www.simplypsychology.org/freewill-determinism.html" target="_blank">Free will vs determinism </a>once again. Already feeling uncomfortable about this fairly sweeping conclusion, the destination of Grenouille's journey was to prove the <i>coup de grace.</i></div>
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Considering the title of the book, it's certainly no spoiler to say that Grenouille ends up murdering people. But it's <i>who </i>he murders and <i>why </i>that came as such a crushing disappointment to me. (Okay, here come the spoilers so if you haven't read this and don't want to know what happens TURN BACK NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE): Grenouille discovers that virginal, on-the-cusp-of-sexual-maturity young women possess the most beautiful and 'perfect' scent, and so goes on a carefully organised campaign to kill 25 young virgins so as to capture and distill their scent into the ultimate, 'divine', scent.</div>
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When I got to this point of the book I felt a disappointment so keen it resembled despair. From such high-flying ideas to something so completely clunky and quotidian! But the worst part of it all, for me, was the assumption that a collection of young, white, just-sexually-mature-but-still-virginal young women were the ultimate expression of 'beauty' - and that this was grounded in unassailable biological 'fact'. To paraphrase Shakira, the nose don't lie, folks!</div>
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For <i>why </i>does virginism (or its cultural synonym, 'innocence') count as a paramount requirement for 'ultimate beauty'? And it's significant that so much is made of the fact that these young women have just become sexually mature, too - otherwise surely Grenouille could just bottle children. No, the victims have to be preserved when they are fuckable but untainted by actual fucking - so they can be owned and enjoyed? Does the scent of a woman become 'spoiled' by becoming sexually active? (Not a new idea in our culture; I read a fashion industry expose a while ago in which an unnamed but high profile fashion designer was quoted saying he didn't like working with models after they'd started having sex with their boyfriends as it gave them a spoiled smell.)</div>
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Of course it goes without saying that these women are all white (we are in the French countryside of course, so it could perhaps be argued there isn't a lot of choice otherwise) and young. But another fact which seems so obvious it almost seems silly to point it out - <i>they are all women. </i>So women are the only possessors of true beauty? In a culture so dominated throughout history by <a href="http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-%E2%80%9Cmale-gaze%E2%80%9D/" target="_blank">the male gaze</a> this seems self-evident, but when at least half of the population must, by <i>biological fact</i>, find <i>men</i> attractive (and I am including heterosexual women and gay men in this) then this women-as-the-only-possessors-of-beauty simply <i>cannot</i> be a universal value. ('Beauty' is also a booby-prize in a binary division which awards men agency and agency - the only power beauty has is a passive power, an obvious oxymoron.)</div>
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This question is also raised later in the novel when Grenouille uses his resulting 'ultimate' perfume to craze the entire town with lust and love, both men <i>and </i>women. I think this is actually a good illustration of what it is like when an entire society is dominated by the male gaze, so <i>both </i>men and women are given images of women presented in a certain way as stimulants for desire. But the novel isn't aware of this assumption, but instead assumes hegemonic masculine heterosexuality as universal. (As an aside, I think that's why it tends to be easier for heterosexual women to imagine sexual activity with other women than it is for heterosexual men; and <i>how</i> many times have we heard this same declaration from female celebrities, the most recent exponent being <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/cameron-diaz-women-sexually-attracted_n_5049002.html" target="_blank">Cameron Diaz</a>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"I think women are beautiful - absolutely beautiful," she continued. "And I think that </span><a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/526005/cameron-diaz-thinks-all-women-have-been-sexually-attracted-to-another-woman-at-some-point" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ed4a4b; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">all women have been sexually attracted to another woman</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> at some point. It's natural to have a connectivity and an appreciation for the beauty of other women." Sure it is - when you are constantly immersed in a culture that bombards you with images of women as sexually attractive and available!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Once it became clear this was the direction of
Suskind's novel, it lost a lot of its power and interest for me. The
women-being-objectified-and-killed genre is a crowded one, and some of the
works within it even manage to investigate this phenomenon with intelligence
and compassion, unlike <i>Perfume</i> (see:</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><u><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Detective_(TV_series)" target="_blank">True Detective</a></span></u>. </span></i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">This may be <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/03/09/true_detective_has_a_women_problem/" target="_blank">a controversial assertion</a> in
some quarters, but one I am prepared to defend – and will, in an upcoming post).
To me, Grenouille's project was a let-down; remember in the Matrix when Neo's right
inside a super-plastic, malleable virtual reality environment where literally</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">anything</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">is possible, and he has to fight the Big
Bad, and he says, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y70vcs3oV14" target="_blank">'We need guns. Lots of guns," and lo, shitloads of gunsappear</a>? What a crushing disappointment. What a missed opportunity. And to me <i>Perfume </i>contains a similar failure of
imagination. Grenouille is essentially a kind of superhero (or
supervillain) with his heightened abilities and separation from the rest of
humanity. To have a banal and hide-bound outcome like this when such a
character opens a universe of possibilities feels like a fall at the last
hurdle. If only Suskind could have risen out of our cultural noise, <i>Perfume </i>could have been so much more
interesting and unique. As it is, though beautifully written, it’s ultimately
just another murder book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-22015062601670142572014-04-16T00:18:00.000-07:002014-04-16T00:18:03.265-07:00Growing Out of Michael Jackson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBXt8cM57NCFhdegb5m1CIOmF9rrXd-FjoL4XThF5EkwjdwyLM23e9837Yk1nRWmWUpqRYfJJX9N1DGdWaqc3gOWA-AzNkgCi06V6MvoIfcS2I_U3ANUF69T7UIGMhjnQus9Q-KLZd5Cs/s1600/2+face+michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBXt8cM57NCFhdegb5m1CIOmF9rrXd-FjoL4XThF5EkwjdwyLM23e9837Yk1nRWmWUpqRYfJJX9N1DGdWaqc3gOWA-AzNkgCi06V6MvoIfcS2I_U3ANUF69T7UIGMhjnQus9Q-KLZd5Cs/s1600/2+face+michael.jpg" height="400" width="347" /></a></div>
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I remember one day years ago when I was wandering around in Real Groovy in Wellington (remember that place? Ah, those were the days - hours of happy browsing among the bargain bins. I can't tell you how many gems I found - <i>Pills Thrills and Bellyaches </i>for 8 bucks! But anyway, I digress). They happened, that day, to be playing Michael Jackson's greatest hits, and so I had the experience of drifting through Jackson's <i>oeuvre </i>from the early, heady, helium days of the Jackson 5 through to the leaden descent of 2001's <i>Invincible. </i>Notable, of course, was the decline in the quality of the music over time. But something else also struck me: listening to all the hits laid out flat like that from one end to the other, I realised that <i>en masse </i>they sounded kind of... empty, to my grown-up ears. Whatever the fireworks added in the production, or the lavish indulgence of the videos, lyrically and emotionally the songs, as they marched past me one by one, just felt kind of - flat.</div>
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Rewind back to the early 80's, when Jackson was in his full pomp as the reigning King of Pop. I was four <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088263/" target="_blank">when the video for <i>Thriller </i>was released</a>, and I was <i>berko</i> for Michael Jackson, as many children are (I remember getting my parents to buy me <a href="http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=13652" target="_blank">a single white glove </a>at a garage sale so I could be more like my hero). J<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=116639" target="_blank">ackson's troubling affinity for children is well-known</a>; his father Joe Jackson <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1327935/Michael-Jacksons-father-Joe-admits-beatings-abuse-Oprah.html" target="_blank">was clearly cruel and abusive</a> to his children and <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33027557/ns/dateline_nbc-newsmakers/t/michael-jackson-i-am-scared-my-father/" target="_blank">particularly, it seems, to Michael</a>. Jackson himself made it repeatedly clear that he felt<a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/childhood.html" target="_blank"> he had been deprived of a childhood</a> and therefore intended to reclaim it in his adult life:</div>
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<a href="http://img4.rajce.idnes.cz/d0407/3/3010/3010787_aec8e4d9ec8e0666484ade6a39860490/images/fuypn5_1.jpg?ver=0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="" border="0" id="detailImage" jquery1357667837984="32" src="http://img4.rajce.idnes.cz/d0407/3/3010/3010787_aec8e4d9ec8e0666484ade6a39860490/images/fuypn5_1.jpg?ver=0" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: 297px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; width: 225px;" title="klikni pro další 97/114" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">"When I was little I grew up in an adult world. I grew up on stage. I grew up in night clubs. When I was seven, eight years old I was in nightclubs. I saw striptease girls take off all their clothes. I saw fights break out. I saw people throw up on each other. I saw adults act like pigs. That's why to this day I hate clubs. I don't like going to clubs - I did that already, I've been there. That's why I compensate now for what I didn't do then. So when you come to my house, you'll see I have rides, I have a movie theatre, I have animals. I love animals - elephants and giraffes and lions and tigers and bears, all kinds of snakes. I get to do all those wonderful things that I didn't get to do when I was little, because we didn't have th</span><span style="color: magenta;">ose things. We didn't have Christmas. We didn't have sleepovers. </span></div>
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Read more: <a href="http://www.truemichaeljackson.com/childhood/?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=paste&utm_campaign=copypaste&utm_content=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.truemichaeljackson.com%2Fchildhood%2F" style="color: #871616;">http://www.truemichaeljackson.com/childhood/</a></div>
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However, some were uneasy about <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=116639&page=2" target="_blank">what that might mean for a grown man with (presumably) an adult libido</a>.</div>
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But when you're a kid, of course, you don't think about any of that stuff. And Jackson's affinity for kids meant (and still does) that kids have an affinity for <i>him</i>. When you're little, you just dig the catchy, poppy music and you totally identify with Jackson's fantasy world - it's fun, exciting, and communicates to you on exactly your level. But I found, as I got older, that some of the gloss wore off of Jackson's fantasy world - that it started to look increasingly tarnished, empty and sad, like an abandoned fun park.</div>
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Whatever the state of Jackson's sexuality (and I think most of us can agree that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_child_sexual_abuse_accusations_against_Michael_Jackson#Friendship.2C_tape_recording.2C_allegations_and_negotiations" target="_blank">his behaviour with children was at <i>the very least </i>grossly inappropriate</a>) his relations with women is very interesting - as is the portrayal of these relations in his music videos. </div>
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As Brian Hiatt wrote in <i>Rolling Stone's </i>article, <i>Michael Jackson: What Went Wrong,</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: georgia; font-size: 12px;">Jackson developed an aversion to adult sexuality early on, after being horrified by his brothers' encounters with groupies (sometimes while he was in the room) and his father's casual adultery. Outside of the young boys who accused Jackson of abuse, the only person who has claimed to have had a sexual relationship with him was his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, who stayed with him for less than two years. In any case, Jackson decided that he was literally Peter Pan, that he could will himself to remain a child even as he hit middle age.</span></div>
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Read more: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/michael-jackson-what-went-wrong-20090730#ixzz2z1BvQRXt" style="color: #003399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/michael-jackson-what-went-wrong-20090730#ixzz2z1BvQRXt</a> </div>
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And yet the marketing and imagery of popular music is - and has been, as long as popular music has been a significant cultural force - strongly rooted in the expression of adult sexuality, which must have been an uncomfortable place for a self-professed, sleepovers-and-funpark-loving pop Peter Pan to be. And indeed it was, as many of Jackson's music videos bear awkward witness to.</div>
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This particularly struck me with <i>Thriller: </i>a major popular culture landmark by anyone's reckoning, an epic music video which <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/21/michael-jackson-thriller-changed-music-videos" target="_blank">forever altered the concept of music video</a>. To anyone who grew up in the 80's, it was a behemoth that had a huge influence on their imaginative and cultural landscape. A loving <i>homage </i>to classic horror and centered around a creative and innovative dance routine, it is a document,<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/21/michael-jackson-thriller-changed-music-videos" target="_blank"> as director Spike Jonze says</a>, of "Michael Jackson at his most electric."</div>
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But as an adult I found the zombies and the sets and the awesome dancing became secondary to the fucked-up dynamics between Michael and his 'date' throughout the clip. <i>Thriller </i>now seems charged with psycho-sexual significance, and for Michael Jackson, I feel like it says it all.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.allforloveblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/424113_1271685592933_full1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.allforloveblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/424113_1271685592933_full1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Seriously, who's scaring who???</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>Thriller </i>has a matryoshka-doll structure: three stories in one. First we see Michael and his date (portrayed by former Playboy centrefold Ola Ray - an ultimate heterosexual fantasy object) out together in the '50's. They get out of the car and go for a walk in the dark, menacing forest. He offers her a ring, and tells her he's not like other guys. She says, well that's why I like you, but he responds <i>no, you don't understand. </i>Then the moon comes out and he goes all funny, then turns into a monster and yells at her to <i>go away</i>! She screams and tries to run away, but he catches her and, we presume, kills her.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_zmf7mEw8b4fnzVv-aeRTqbFZM9_lZbVHtrJgaAAJz2Ezrf__Q2rouiDu2Yjic79yaSWOQ0S9V8EAuw1FynZUccNoK-DxMXqh1VTi_bP1hIWO4ZgRo3YByR4zQtGhU7C0mRlZMhB2XLf/s1600/michael-jackson-thriller-theater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_zmf7mEw8b4fnzVv-aeRTqbFZM9_lZbVHtrJgaAAJz2Ezrf__Q2rouiDu2Yjic79yaSWOQ0S9V8EAuw1FynZUccNoK-DxMXqh1VTi_bP1hIWO4ZgRo3YByR4zQtGhU7C0mRlZMhB2XLf/s1600/michael-jackson-thriller-theater.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the next segment, we are in a movie theatre, and realise that the 50's scene was a horror movie playing on the screen. Michael and his date are now sitting in the theatre in a contemporary setting. She is terrified by what's unfolding on the screen and can't watch as the monster does its work. She clings to Michael's arm, but he is impervious to her fear, and sits staring and grinning at the screen while munching in popcorn with his huge white teeth (this constant fixed grin is by far the creepiest thing about this film for me).<br />
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Frightened, the date leaves the film, and Michael nonchalantly follows her, teasing her and telling her it's just a movie. The creepy grin remains throughout. During this section there is some aggressive flirting from the girlfriend as they walk down a foggy road, which is largely ignored by Jackson. Then they end up in a graveyard and are surrounded by zombies... which the girlfriend slowly realises Jackson is in league with. In fact he is their leader!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LgovyvykADHTfrLk1CykSN4hpvZ9xwXeKkFTYUqSmqHLduj-y7XtckP46C7cHpYJlDDAXEjfDlIJZ9NbFRMLq0PkH2w3aWwYnsiTDhXf5B8TSxOi8Scs1sHKiz2ngiFAOZGKrXZkiaR9/s1600/Thriller_C011Pyxurz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LgovyvykADHTfrLk1CykSN4hpvZ9xwXeKkFTYUqSmqHLduj-y7XtckP46C7cHpYJlDDAXEjfDlIJZ9NbFRMLq0PkH2w3aWwYnsiTDhXf5B8TSxOi8Scs1sHKiz2ngiFAOZGKrXZkiaR9/s1600/Thriller_C011Pyxurz.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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Terrified, she runs away to an abandoned house, where she ends up trapped in a corner. Zombie Michael advances on her, reaching for her throat, and she screams her final scream...</div>
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...only to wake up in the house, with a creepily grinning human Michael looming over her. It was just a bad dream! He offers to walk her home and she happily accepts, without questioning FOR WHY she has woken up in a weird abandoned house with a grinning creep staring at her while she is passed out. Michael throws us a look over his shoulder to show us his freaky were-cat eyes - remember, <i>he's not like other guys</i>.</div>
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As for the initial 50's segment: I know this decade is referenced in the clip as the golden age of monster horror flicks. But it's also the ultimate decade of conservatism in gender roles and conformity. One interpretation: Michael is doing his best to conform to the 'right' behaviour by proposing to a model of ideal femininity, but he's 'not like other guys', and is a 'monster' (self-loathing? He seems pretty happy about it though) so he has to destroy this charade as soon as he has set it up. But there also seems a fear of and an impulse to vanquish a 'horrifying' adult female sexuality, with its threat of capture and envelopment.</div>
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This continues in the then-contemporary 80's, in which female sexuality is even more threatening as it is no longer so tightly bound by conservatism. Every time this sexuality makes an advance it must be strongly resisted, even destroyed. The protagonist's identification with the zombies, and the monstrous, seems interesting too - figures that are horrifying to most of us, outside of the norm, but also sexless.</div>
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The choice of horror as a genre is also interesting. Obviously part of its appeal is its fantastical-ness. But there is also a psychological undercurrent to horror; "<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">a manifestation of the “uncanny,” reoccurring thoughts and feelings that have been repressed by the ego but which seem vaguely familiar to the individual," if you subscribe <a href="http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/horrormoviesRev2.htm" target="_blank">to a Freudian interpretation</a>.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxKPiwC5fVteGkN_tUsKQuy7G5JWgYv_b8tt46MnIFmb6DJV8XTlyGlZcE3wIF5jV6d-MBce-ytSd5y9mDurBUzSTBJQY2PlONFAI3Uz7uMvG1Akf6RwY_GOYDSFmD3zUj9ibJa4nRrN8/s1600/-In-The-Closet-michael-jackson-35674249-407-560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxKPiwC5fVteGkN_tUsKQuy7G5JWgYv_b8tt46MnIFmb6DJV8XTlyGlZcE3wIF5jV6d-MBce-ytSd5y9mDurBUzSTBJQY2PlONFAI3Uz7uMvG1Akf6RwY_GOYDSFmD3zUj9ibJa4nRrN8/s1600/-In-The-Closet-michael-jackson-35674249-407-560.jpg" height="320" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't... get...pelvis.... any further... away...</td></tr>
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Obviously <i>Thriller </i>is following the conventions of the genre it pays tribute to. But many of Jackson's more generically 'romantic' videos bear traces of a strong discomfort with an adult heterosexuality; <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzZ_urpj4As" target="_blank">The Way You Make Me Feel</a> </i>depicts Jackson dancing frenetically around a very boyish-looking young woman without actually touching her; <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyKJAtDNCw" target="_blank">You Are Not Alone</a> </i>which has got to be the most awkward ode to heterosexual marriage EVER (Look! We are <i>naked! </i>Together! Well, except for a strategically-placed loincloth that I never take off, you see I'm a <a href="http://arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Never_Nude" target="_blank">never-nude</a>, but hey, <i>she's </i>naked! We kiss, you know, on the cheek! It's a non-stop raunch party around here!!!); and do we even need to talk about <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbl_ctRj8C8" target="_blank">In The Closet</a></i>?? Was he so surrounded by yes-men by that point that nobody dared to <i>tell </i>him what that means??? And how uncomfortable does he look every time Naomi Campbell touches him? <i>AWKWARD.</i></div>
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Because Jackson did not want to grow up, he became an artist that became harder for me to relate to as I grew older, as much as I appreciated the wonder he was trying to create with his music and videos when I was kid. However he is a fascinating example of what happens when the space between the public and the private becomes almost unbridgeable. I wonder what his videos would have looked like, what his music would have sounded like, if he had been able to be true to himself?<br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-73171895875249897772014-03-24T22:25:00.003-07:002014-03-24T22:25:57.117-07:00Double Standard Alert: Role ModelsWhat is a role model? An older or high profile person that the youth of today can look up to and model themselves on - for good or for ill.<br />
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It has also become a stick used by contemporary media to beat public figures for stepping outside an acceptable public presentation of behaviour.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEAj__3Nvlv9d_FKkYByiWzaUkRwe_rAtveifpi_Kh6I7X-bAuGoiwHDnMDs0pnqHjsJFLf8-MxRP4euSiswzgLsd42QtMXhF5CemeWS1U_ylqu0VCcX0UF-1lYwWI2XTCgLC4-aIePQuw/s1600/role_models01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEAj__3Nvlv9d_FKkYByiWzaUkRwe_rAtveifpi_Kh6I7X-bAuGoiwHDnMDs0pnqHjsJFLf8-MxRP4euSiswzgLsd42QtMXhF5CemeWS1U_ylqu0VCcX0UF-1lYwWI2XTCgLC4-aIePQuw/s1600/role_models01.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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The problem with public discourse<br />
is that it's dominated by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony" target="_blank">hegemony</a> of the time, and is permeated with certain cultural assumptions shaped by that hegemony. These assumptions lurk invisibly inside the use of every word, like a virus that infects and filters our thinking, often without us being aware of it. One of the key hegemonic assumptions that lurks inside our public discourse today is the acceptance of a universal 'everyman', who represents our normative baseline or our default setting. And though there have been further and further (<a href="http://open.salon.com/blog/chauncey_devega/2012/03/06/rush_limbaugh_and_the_crisis_in_white_conservative_manhood" target="_blank">conservative-bothering</a>) incursions into this default setting over time, this point of view still remains that of the white middle class male.<br />
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You can see the effect of this point of view in our language, where anything that deviates from the assumed norm must be overtly labelled; for example instead of simply using the term 'doctor' we may feel we have to adjust it to 'lady doctor', or instead of 'reporter' you may find yourself saying 'black reporter'. If you consider referring to someone as a 'male police officer' or a 'white doctor' you can very clearly see the assumptions that underlie our use of descriptive language. It's also very interesting to consider the more unusual circumstance of describing a male qualification of a traditionally feminine assumption: "male nurse", "male model", or an interesting recent variation, "man-whore." ! (Very stark when you really investigate the way our culture has divided up the roles between genders.)<br />
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The rise of <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/39/a-primer-on-neoliberalism" target="_blank">neo-liberal </a>politics and the triumph of <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286303/individualism" target="_blank">individualism</a> in contemporary Western society has created a social climate in which we are encouraged to see ourselves as unique, separate from others and with something special to offer the world (the more snarkily inclined among us may refer to some manifestations of this as <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Special%20Snowflake%20Syndrome" target="_blank">the 'special little snowflake' syndrome</a>). But this is complicated by the fact that the very concept of the individual is filtered through the white middle-class male hegemony described above (as <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/mary-beard/the-public-voice-of-women?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3605&hq_e=el&hq_m=3067507&hq_l=6&hq_v=408eb5568e" target="_blank">Mary Beard points out in her excellent article</a>, this shows how the classical world's enfranchised voter - male, white, and educated - is the only category allowed to have a say in the public affairs of society still dominates our thinking today).<br />
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The ultimate result of that for those who stand outside of this demographic is that they literally <i>remain</i> outside, a special case that has to be qualified. They are labelled 'minorities' even when actual numbers render this description nonsensical. But the real kicker is that because of this status as a 'special case', the actions of any minority in the public eye are interpreted as representative of the entire category they have been defined by, rather than as the actions of an individual.<br />
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This brings me back to the term 'role model'. What is a role model if not a representative of their 'sector'? And I have found, over recent years, women in the public eye being admonished about their role model status in a way their male peers haven't. This illustrates several things:<br />
<ul>
<li>The stricter constraints applied to female behaviour than male behaviour</li>
<li>The freedom of males to be 'individuals' within the public sphere rather than representatives of their demographic, no matter their behaviour</li>
<li>The positioning of women as 'minorities' in the public sphere who continue to be qualified and ghettoised in a way their male peers are not.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3ekArD3rDfCvKvzkuUwKRzluUlLQnUadXi9S7CDNz-Wd7r-jcYOdXXcIS2_QRIZL1wKPIg82v6Ry2-GfFGoO5t4CKMma5QlWbrPy9710l6ySqu91MNXz6WyL7DoyPAFkCyzlqORPFyQw/s1600/feature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3ekArD3rDfCvKvzkuUwKRzluUlLQnUadXi9S7CDNz-Wd7r-jcYOdXXcIS2_QRIZL1wKPIg82v6Ry2-GfFGoO5t4CKMma5QlWbrPy9710l6ySqu91MNXz6WyL7DoyPAFkCyzlqORPFyQw/s1600/feature.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a>One obvious example of this would be to contrast the public discussion of Miley Cyrus vs Justin Bieber. Both performers became famous as singers targeting the 'tween' market, and both have come of age in public, very keen to shed their earlier 'childish' image.<br />
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Of course, both Cyrus and Bieber have drawn very loud public condemnation for their behaviour. But Cyrus has copped much more specific criticism for the sexualisation of her image and - you guessed it - <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10427622/Miley-Cyrus-is-a-poor-role-model-to-girls-and-gives-them-mixed-messages-says-headmistress.html" target="_blank">the supposed bad effect on her fans, for whom she is their role model</a>. Interestingly, Taylor Swift has <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/taylor-swift-defends-miley-cyrus-says-cyrus-can-still-be-a-role-model" target="_blank">come to Cyrus' defence</a>, arguing that she can still be a role model despite 'making mistakes', although I would argue, who the hell would <i>want </i>to be a role model, considering the restrictiveness of the part?<br />
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<a href="http://cdn01.cdn.justjaredjr.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2013/02/justin-bieber-mom-found-out-about-his-new-tattoo-on-tv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn01.cdn.justjaredjr.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2013/02/justin-bieber-mom-found-out-about-his-new-tattoo-on-tv.jpg" /></a>You certainly couldn't argue that Bieber is the public's darling, and he's gone a long way to sabotaging his core audience - h<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/douchiest-things-justin-bieber-has-ever-done/ariel-kana" target="_blank">e is widely referred to as a douche</a> (guys, there was just SO MUCH STUFF listed under the search "Justin Bieber douche") but despite behaviour ranging from drag racing city streets drunk to sleeping with Brazilian prostitutes I have rarely seen him described as a "role model". And instead of a celeb friend standing up for his position as a role model, he instead has Will.I.Am telling the world that <a href="http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/144376/William-Insists-That-Justin-Bieber-Is-Under-No-Obligation-To-Be-A-Role-Model" target="_blank">Bieber doesn't <i>have </i>to be a role model</a> - a choice that doesn't seem to be open to his female compatriots, however they might resist it.<br />
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This double standard in the role of 'role model' becomes even more stark when partner violence enters the mix. Of course the most famous example of this is the <a href="http://www.spin.com/articles/chris-brown-and-rihanna-whole-story/" target="_blank">Chris Brown-Rihanna case</a>. Throughout the incident and its denouement, Rihanna's every action and decision was closely scrutinised and she was often criticised as being a bad role model - even a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2347680/Rihannas-toxic-role-model-army-young-fans-says-LIZ-JONES.html" target="_blank">toxic role model</a> - for her protection of Chris Brown, her perpetrator, and ultimately getting back together with him.<br />
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The lack of understanding and support evidenced by <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2347680/Rihannas-toxic-role-model-army-young-fans-says-LIZ-JONES.html" target="_blank">Liz Jones in her article for the Daily Mail</a> for Rihanna as a victim of domestic violence is troubling, to say the least - and I would argue, irresponsible:<br />
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<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">After the beating from boyfriend Chris Brown (left) in February 2009 she had an opportunity to be a poster girl for young women escaping abusive relationships,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"><br /></span>she says. Oooh, lucky Rihanna, the <i>opportunity </i>to be a <i>poster girl! </i>Never mind any concern you might have for the fact that this experience - which clearly leaked against Rihanna's will - highlights that domestic violence can occur no matter your level of objective success. It also highlights that it's a complicated, multi-layered situation, in which violence is one of a number of strategies used by an abuser to gain control over their partner.<a href="http://www.domesticabuseshelter.org/InfoDomesticViolence.htm" target="_blank"> On average, women make seven attempts to leave an abusive partner</a>. Anyone who has had any experience with domestic violence situations knows how frustrating and difficult it can be trying to help someone to leave. The lack of sensitivity shown here in public discussion shows that while there has been a lot of progress, there is still a long way to go.<br />
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Three years later, when Rihanna made the admittedly disappointing decision to go back to her abuser, she declared in an interview with Rolling Stone that "even if it's a mistake, it's <i>my </i>mistake," which is exactly the kind of privilege men seldom have to declare for themselves - their mistakes, as well as their successes, are judged to belong solely to themselves.<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile, though Chris Brown was of course
vilified for what he had done, he was not as widely criticised for being a bad
role model. How can this be? Somehow the victim is chastised for
being a bad example,
while the perpetrator is seen as just a guy who fucked up rather than a bad influence -
presumably his fans are smarter than hers and less likely to emulate his
behaviour? But what does this teach people about male entitlement?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another recent example is the Nigella
Lawson-Charles Saatchi case. Here's the picture; </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIBQvVWIGFLvZo8mw9uFicrI-IFXO_1QW6VryK_lv1Kfk7txX-YXoDv8BZM7JxwGcK5vcXxCleIQGMpGHZuaKNidp9rF8jz-lNATFGj8Xi8QXQ3H51BKTm-akqcsOX10X2vgLdIw6p3-Ch/s1600/Charles-Saatchi-Says-Nigella-Lawson-Hasn-t-Left-Him-They-re-Fine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIBQvVWIGFLvZo8mw9uFicrI-IFXO_1QW6VryK_lv1Kfk7txX-YXoDv8BZM7JxwGcK5vcXxCleIQGMpGHZuaKNidp9rF8jz-lNATFGj8Xi8QXQ3H51BKTm-akqcsOX10X2vgLdIw6p3-Ch/s1600/Charles-Saatchi-Says-Nigella-Lawson-Hasn-t-Left-Him-They-re-Fine.jpg" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
him with his hand around her throat, her leaving the restaurant crying. Pretty unequivocal, I would
have thought; despite Saatchi's protests that he was <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/nigella-lawsons-husband-charles-saatchi-defends-choking-photos-2013176" target="_blank">merely "trying to get her attention".</a> This explanation raised alarm bells for
me rather than ameliorating concerns, as he obviously intended it to.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The aftermath was, of course, a circus. It ended
in divorce and a very spiteful sideshow in <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/recap-nigella-lawson-charles-saatchi-2937700" target="_blank">the fraud case involving Nigella's personal assistants</a>. But what was most chilling was Saatchi's sense of entitlement and
his <a href="http://dlisted.com/2013/07/06/nigella-lawsons-husband-announces-that-hes-divorcing-her-remains-an-utter-piece-of-trash-while-doing-so/" target="_blank">rage that Lawson had refused to exonerate him in public.<o:p></o:p></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On top of all this, as if the whole thing wasn't
humiliating and stressful enough, Nigella Lawson found herself attacked for -
yes, you guessed it - <a href="http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/3aw-generic-blog/nigella-we-dont-like-to-think-of-you-cowering-from-a-thug/20130617-2ocui.html" target="_blank">being a bad role model for putting up with Saatchi's abuse</a>. It's astonishing that she should be victimised twice in this way - once
by her husband, and then again by some media commentator for being a victim in the first
place?? (Thankfully <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/living/why-nigella-lawson-doesnt-need-to-be-a-role-model-877409.html" target="_blank">others have pointed out</a> <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/49285/nigella-lawson-has-society-accepted-domestic-violence" target="_blank">the same thing</a>.) And yet, Charles Saatchi - co-founder and
partner of a globally successful advertising agency and a kingpin in the art world, escapes judgement as a bad role model for putting his hands on his partner when he feels things are not going his
way? If <i>that</i> is not a bad role model, I don't know what
is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As an interesting footnote -</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-field-code: "HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/www\.foxnews\.com\/entertainment\/2013\/06\/19\/which-celebrity-is-worst-role-model-for-kids\/\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022";"><u><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a survey conducted last year</span></u></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(admittedly
by something called couponcodes4u.com to 2000 parents, so dodgy, I know, but
still) about the worst role models for kids came up with Chris Brown for the
males, and Miley Cyrus for the females. So a convicted partner beater and
rage-a-holic on the male side, and a sexy hedonist for the girls who, um,
hasn't been convicted of anything. Good to know your priorities are on
straight, parents!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-36597840550916462472014-02-23T20:23:00.000-08:002014-06-07T21:39:22.184-07:00Fiction vs Non-Fiction - An Artificial Divide?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jzLFoY6eN4FTUW8n-XaUkBvF9JEHGMABfTknFJZyXdpC5pqvX06EyjzRUDVUa-aCZQqE4bt-tQhY2sJ_YR_oy9_99fDTAi-LdDtc5lHczJQ3iSFu9FaUmvQpSxocrL4xyYV3HB_EdnR0/s1600/fiction-vs-nonfiction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jzLFoY6eN4FTUW8n-XaUkBvF9JEHGMABfTknFJZyXdpC5pqvX06EyjzRUDVUa-aCZQqE4bt-tQhY2sJ_YR_oy9_99fDTAi-LdDtc5lHczJQ3iSFu9FaUmvQpSxocrL4xyYV3HB_EdnR0/s1600/fiction-vs-nonfiction.jpg" height="288" width="320" /></a><br />
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Fiction vs non-fiction is one of those classic, value-loaded binary opposites. There's something Calvinist in our attitudes towards the two: creative vs factual, fun vs work, qualitative vs quantitative... and, as is often the subterranean rumbling beneath these things, feminine vs masculine.</div>
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I've heard quite a few declarations from men that they will only read non-fiction. (An addendum: I'm only recounting this from my personal experience; I have only ever heard this declaration from men [and baby, it's <i>always</i> a declaration] although I'm sure there are plenty of women who feel this way too.) I even had a creative writing classmate whose own father actually refused to read her manuscript, so dedicated was he to this dictum. There is, I feel, a certain level of distrust underlying this; a belief that fiction is tricksy and untruthful, dealing in the phantasmic and dangerous world of 'feelings' - when you get right down to it, it's simple lies! There's also the uneasy issue of 'pleasure' - for those living in a world shaped by the Protestant work ethic, engaging in any activity that (seemingly) has enjoyment as its sole purpose is suspect; a neglect of the mind and the beginning of the slippery-slide into the devil's hands.</div>
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There's nothing wrong with having a preference - you don't have to like everything, and indeed some kind of discernment serves you well - but discounting fiction altogether has a flavour of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. As with many binary divisions, I would argue that the divide between the two is not as absolute as it's often presented.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The langoliers! And in the background, a shit-ton of research</td></tr>
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For a start, though it may not be immediately apparent to the reader (and indeed, if the reading experience is to be enjoyable it <i>can't </i>be apparent in the prose) a lot of fiction requires vast amounts of research before the story is even begun. Fiction may be 'made up', but to be convincing, the structure surrounding it must be sound. Even if a writer is telling the most fantastical tale about six-armed aliens and dragons or gremlins or whatnot, the story benefits from a basic grounding in facts: whether it's the principles of gravity and how these might operate on different planets; or a sound knowledge of the legends of dragons from all around the world; or how a plane's mechanics operate and what might happen if they are interfered with. This goes double for any kind of fiction set in a historical setting. (That third example came to mind because I was stunned by <a href="http://wallacestroby.com/writersonwriting_king.html" target="_blank">Steven King's account of how much research he undertook into the workings of aeroplanes to write 'The Langoliers', </a>which I wouldn't have even considered as a reader had I not known.)</div>
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There is also the issue of - as corny as this sounds - emotional truth. For fiction to really resonate with a reader, no matter how outlandish it is, and regardless of whatever amount of research has gone into it -</div>
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it has to contain something inside it that a reader can recognise and equate with their own experience. This is why we can read about things that happen on the other side of the world or in different centuries and still relate to them - they <i>communicate </i>to us in some way<i>, </i>and sometimes fiction can enable you to access a dimension of an experience or historical period in a way that factual writing maybe can't.</div>
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This, I think, is what is really meant by the advice to 'write what you know'. It doesn't necessarily mean that you can only write about what you have yourself experienced (although there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you have something interesting to say), but that you must have come to know a subject intimately before you write about it - you know it from the inside-out. To do this may take research, but it takes something extra as well - imagination and empathy.</div>
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In a lot of ways I think that imagination and empathy are the same thing, or rather that empathy is a special offshoot of imagination. It takes imagination to think about things that you haven't experienced, and empathy to put yourself in the position of another person and identify with their experience. If you can put yourself in someone else's shoes, you can then pass that experience on by showing other people what it's like. Then you are communicating, and the most exciting thing about this is that it make people feel less alone, and also expand their attitudes and their feeling for others. An great example of this is <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/search?q=doyle" target="_blank">Roddy Doyle's <i>The Woman Who Walked Into Doors </i></a> which takes us into the life of an Irish working-class woman Paula Spencer, and as critic Mary Gordon wrote in the <i>New York Times Book Review,</i> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"It is the triumph of this novel that Doyle - entirely without condescension - shows the inner life of this battered housewife to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe"</span>. In another, perhaps reverse, example, Bret Easton Ellis takes us into the life of a clinical psychopath in <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Psycho" target="_blank">American Psycho</a>. </i>Ellis' achievement in getting inside the psychotic mindset is dazzling, to the extent that the average person could <i>not</i> empathise with Bateman's actions even while you are taken inside them. But he is a mirror to the psychosis that grips the society that contains him, all the while tormented by a frantic emptiness at the heart of his own existence which cannot be dispelled by more and more extreme crimes. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_44" target="_blank"><i>Child 44 </i>by Tom Rob</a><u> Smith</u> painted a compelling picture of Stalinist Russia while basing the crimes of its villain on those of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo" target="_blank">Andrei Chikitilo</a> - although it copped out at the finish, in my opinion, but that's another story!</div>
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This is not to say that <i>non-fiction </i>is completely heartless and without empathy - far from it. It takes great imagination and empathy to write about anything that involves a social dimension. All writing of this kind, fiction or non-fiction, is telling a story and taking you inside of its subject, and the experience of reading on either side of the division can be very similar.<br />
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This is the thinking behind the genre now known as "creative non-fiction,"a relatively young genre in terms of being named, but really it's something that's been around as long as writing. Described below by <a href="http://www.creativenonfiction.org/authors/lee-gutkind" target="_blank">Lee Gutkind</a>, dubbed the the Godfather of the genre by Vanity Fair:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The words “creative” and “nonfiction” describe the form. The word “creative” refers to the use of literary craft, the techniques fiction writers, playwrights, and poets employ to present nonfiction—factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner. The goal is to make nonfiction stories read like fiction so that your readers are as enthralled by fact as they are by fantasy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The word “creative” has been criticized in this context because some people have maintained that being creative means that you pretend or exaggerate or make up facts and embellish details. This is completely incorrect. It is possible to be honest and straightforward and brilliant and creative at the same time.</span><br />
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Sounds like a pretty good description of good writing to me, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. Life is enriched by picking flowers from both sides of the fence, and encouraging cross-pollination. Imagination spurs innovation, and communication and empathy brings us closer together. Division just encourages more of the same.</div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-337106667460825982014-02-09T00:00:00.001-08:002014-02-09T00:01:54.786-08:00Miley and "Twerkgate": The Cons <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg05A_huOC-CuwEn2wSj_Ou720dxBNWFHqCCiOPyebyD65DEsNzFzNDPrIvIpLUnpNZiyvywIrJScjYxkAdlNu4DHiPKKIK36QqY8WeS8pHRMy7JyrS0Gjx5Y2PGG4aPRYXNpaWxNIaIaIw6xXIC7pH7ygSAVjlJmFIKUGDcK0plUXB2jSIaaLpAZU=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www3.images.coolspotters.com/photos/1018298/miley-cyrus-gallery.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a>Apology-sort-of/disclaimer: My apologies every one, I know it's been a ridiculously long time since <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">my last post</a>, and that Miley's whole VMA performance was a million years ago (at least in terms of pop culture relevance, with is like a millionth a fraction of geological time) and nobody cares any more and we have all moved on, but I have been sitting on this planned entry for <i>months </i>godammit and I'm gonna deliver it whether anyone wants it or not!!!</div>
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Right, now that <i>that's </i>out of the way... besides, my pretties, I know you've been waiting with bated breath, constantly refreshing, and now I am finally releasing you from your misery... no, don't thank me, I'm kind like that.</div>
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So, in my last post I discussed <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">what I felt were the 'pros' of Twerkgate</a> - but that doesn't mean that I consider Miley's performance to be an unmitigated feminist victory. Though it's hard not to rejoice inwardly about Miley's utter domination of strutting cock (in every sense of the word) Robin Thicke, it's also troubling that she was so eager to attach herself to a song that is essentially <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/17/blurred-lines-robin-thicke-s-summer-anthem-is-kind-of-rapey.html" target="_blank">a celebration of female sexual passivity to the point of date-rape apologism</a>. </div>
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Of course, on a pop music career level, this decision makes complete, and very good sense: <i>Blurred Lines </i>was the huge, huge hit of last summer, impossible to escape from. Cyrus herself was at an essential locus point in her career - freeing herself of the last little pieces of the Hannah Montana persona, making a play to be taken seriously as a grown adult performer and serious pop-force, competing in a milieu where it's mandatory for women to present themselves as desirable sexual object. Jumping in on the live performance of <i>Blurred Lines </i>was guaranteed to grab millions of eyeballs and generate an incredible amount of buzz. It was a stunt, a well-calculated one, and it certainly paid off in terms of column inches, clicks, and youtube views.</div>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/miley-cyrus-feminist_n_4274194.html" target="_blank">Cyrus even made a claim to being "the biggest feminist in the world"</a> because:</div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">"...I tell women to not be scared of anything," Cyrus said. "For me, </span><a href="http://jezebel.com/miley-i-feel-like-im-one-of-the-biggest-feminists-in-1464302601?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">it's not even that I'm a feminist</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">. I'm for anybody. I'm for everybody, for everything. I don't care what you wanna do in your life, or who you wanna be with, who you wanna love, who you wanna look like."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">On one hand, it's great, <a href="http://jezebel.com/miley-i-feel-like-im-one-of-the-biggest-feminists-in-1464302601" target="_blank">as Jezebel pointed out</a>, that a young, mainstream pop-star is so keen to openly declare herself as a follower of "the F-word" when it's a movement that has been so demonised in the popular media for such a long time. On the other hand, it's interesting that the term 'feminist' can now be used so loosely that it really means nothing more than "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." It also becomes incredibly problematic when said 'feminist' is performing a song such as <i>Blurred Lines, </i>which, however subversive her performance is, essentially legitimises rather than challenges the underlying message of the song. Rather than positioning herself as questioning the meaning of the song, and how the delivery of such a meaning might ultimately affect women's lived experience in the everyday world, she is 'joining the boys' club' by positioning herself <i>alongside</i> them, by being a 'good sport' and joining in on the objectification of other women used as personality-less props within the song.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">...What </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">did </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">feel offensive to me was the 'oh my </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">gosh, </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">daddy, I'm naked!!' dummy act of the models prancing wide-eyed through the video while the men ogled at their comfortably-clothed leisure. The power imbalance communicated by this visual is - ahem, excuse me - </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">nakedly </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; text-align: justify;">obvious. To me it read like a modern day minstrel show - where the women wear nakedness to play up their essential inferior woman-ness and pratfall for the pleasure and edification of a bunch of indulgently laughing men. Joke's on you, girls.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">I'm not saying that being sexy or naked or behaving in a sexual way is in itself disempowering - in fact, I find that line of argument somewhat disingenuous and boring, and it's often used as a stick to beat women with. I agree with sociologist Catherine Hakim, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/miley-cyrus-feminist_n_4274194.html" target="_blank">who says</a> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">“There’s </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10445850/Miley-Cyrus-Im-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-feminists.html" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #7c1417; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">absolutely no contradiction at all between being a feminist</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"> and taking your clothes off and being comfortable about displaying your sexuality.” We are all sexual beings and we are all, essentially, naked. If we start down the road of demonising that, we're kind of fucked in general. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">What is important is <i>context</i>. By playing "house woman", and positioning herself alongside the men in laughing at/objectifying these women, Cyrus is setting herself </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">apart</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> from them - 'look, I'm more important and not as silly as </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">these</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> disposable women' - while at the same time knowingly and powerfully objectifying herself. It's a very delicate balancing act, and I applaud her for managing to emerge out of it as a dominant figure. But it was achieved on the backs of other women, and doesn't do anything to address the ultimate power imbalance between the genders as represented in the video and the lyrics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">The whole thing calls to mind an experience I had a few years ago, when I was a callow youth involved in a large cast-of-thousands theatre thing over the summer. It was a mixed cast, young men and women, with all the joy and excitement such things entail.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">However, something interesting happened with the young men. Being gathered together in this way over the summer seemed to awaken something tribal within them and they became sucked into some kind of vortex of machismo, forming a men-only club that in the interests of anonymity I shall refer to as 'the Blue Hawks'. Almost all of them, from the mildest and most foppish to the most frothingly masculine became enmeshed in this secret club, and it seemed to become less satirical over time and more worryingly serious. [As an aside, once at a party, trying to find a friend so I could say goodbye, I </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">walked </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">inadvertently into a Blue Hawks meeting, involving codenames for every member, lots of shouting and an elaborate toast all of their own devising. There were a great many testosterones in the air, that day, I can tell you! I stood transfixed in the doorway, and when they finally became aware of my presence they suddenly all became very embarrassed as the absurdity of their great ritual had been revealed before my disbelieving eyes.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">Most of us girls were pretty unconcerned about the whole thing, regarding it with not much more than an eye-roll. But there was one who was especially irked by it. She was a very attractive woman who also enjoyed being the focus of special attention; I think she liked to be regarded by the men as 'one of the boys', just a bit better than your usual woman. It drove her crazy that they had lumped her in with the rest of us, barring her from membership.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">So one day, I heard her asking, teasingly (a tone that concealed a deadly earnestness) if they could make an exception for her and make her 'an honorary member'. "Sure," said the Hawk in response, completely deadpan. "But your code-name would have to be 'Open Season.'"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">She turned down those terms. And so, I think, should all of us. Being part of the 'boy's club' shouldn't matter more than respect. Don't join the minstrel show, ladies - we are all better than that.</span></span></div>
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So, unless you've been living under a rock (because I think they've even been talking about it in the depths of the Amazon jungle - they might not have TV but they sure know what "twerking" is and have been humming along to "Blurred Lines" throughout the summer) you will, whether you want to be or not, be aware of the Miley Cyrus/Blurred Lines VMA SCANDAL ZOMFG.<br />
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Miley's performance has become a locus for a cultural firestorm. Miley, being young, female, a role model for younger generations, etc etc, has drawn the predictable <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-media-reacts-in-shock-20130826,0,7040383.story" target="_blank">widespread condemnation throughout the media</a> while <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/miley-cyrus-vmas-six-minute-guide-prejudices-entertainment-industry" target="_blank">co-performer Robin Thicke escaped unscathed</a>, walking unharmed from the car-crash, as it were.<br />
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Miley's VMA performance is the perfect microcosm - or powder-keg- of controversial issues in contemporary America, and to some extent throughout Western popular culture in general: issues of race, gender, sexuality, power relations, taboos, and so on. A thesis could be written about it, but for my purposes and the sake of brevity I'll contain myself to my personal hobby-horse of sexuality, power and gender relations. In my point of view, this event has a strong 'pro' and 'con' side in terms of these issues. I'll address these in two separate posts. So without any further ado, let's get into it, shall we? Let's start with the 'pro'.<br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">VMA Performance Pro</span></b><br />
<i>Blurred Lines </i>has itself been the subject of controversy, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/17/blurred-lines-robin-thicke-s-summer-anthem-is-kind-of-rapey.html" target="_blank">famously described by <i>The Daily Beast'</i>s Tricia Romano as 'rapey.'</a> I would have to agree. As <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/08/08/is-blurred-lines-a-rapey-song/" target="_blank">Elly Brinkly points out</a> in her excellent article,<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The issue is that the song seems to undermine the importance of consent in sexual relationships. The very title of the song draws from the rhetoric of rape apologists who believe that date rape isn’t </span><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">real </em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">rape and that sexual assault is often a “gray area.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Let's take a look at the lyrics of the chorus, chanted by many thousands over the American summer:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I always wanted a good girl</span><br />
<br style="background-color: #ccccdd; border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You're a good girl</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Can't let it get past me</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You're far from plastic</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Talk about getting blasted</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I hate these blurred lines</span><br />
<br style="background-color: #ccccdd; border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know you want it</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">But you're a good girl</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The way you grab me</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Must wanna get nasty</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The lyrics reveal a sce</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">nario built around the cultural ideal (not just restricted to the West) of the "good girl", who is demure and innocent, and possesses no sexual agency - in fact, she is not allowed to have any sexual desire of her own but must instead be entirely reactive to that of a male. Under this model any heterosexual activity has to occur within "blurred lines" because for a woman to admit to having sexual feelings at all is to be a "bad girl", a slut, and therefore beneath contempt, an object of utter abjection. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The problem for women living under this construction of sexual behaviour is that there is no acceptable way to say "yes", or to even start the conversation. That means that "yes" must be codified as a set of behaviours - a ridiculous example of this is outlined by "Dr" John Gray of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mars-Venus-Bedroom-Lasting-Romance/product-reviews/0061015717/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1" target="_blank">Men Are From Mars Women are From Ethiopia </a></i>fame, in which he provides a long and detailed list of coloured lingerie that women should wear to indicate to their men what sexual mood they're in without<i> </i>actually <i>telling</i> them, because apparently a woman speaking up is emasculating: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"If she is wearing black lace, it means she is in the mood, if she is wearing white, it means she feels virginal, if she is in pink, it means she feels romantic." Etc etc etc <i>ad nauseum. </i></span><br />
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The concomitant problem is that if one party's voice is taken away, forcing them to communicate in a kind of pantomime, with dire consequences for 'saying' the wrong thing to the wrong man, that also makes it hard to say 'no'. If a woman's desire is merely a reaction to a man's, she can also become the target for the <i>projection </i>of a man's desire. If a man is 'up for it' and wants to believe that the woman is, too, it's easy to self-servingly interpret almost <i>anything </i>as a yes: Laughing at your jokes? Hot for you. She got so drunk she can barely stand? T<i>otally </i>wants to bone you, dude. Out walking at night by herself? Asking for it. Met your eye on the train? Wants you to get off, follow her, and "give it to her."<br />
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Sound extreme? How many times have you read of a rape followed by the multiple arguments that she shouldn't have been at <i>x</i>, shouldn't have been doing <i>y</i>, shouldn't have been wearing <i>z</i>? I have also read many accounts of rape after which the victim was given the classic tagline after the act: "I know you wanted it." He just <i>knew. </i>Y'know, because of those 'blurred lines'.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/03/rapecrew/large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/03/rapecrew/large.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The victim of the self-christened <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/01/steubenville-high-football-rape-crew/60554/" target="_blank">Steubenville 'Rape Crew'</a>. They knew she wanted it,</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In fact, there has been a photo-essay project posted at <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/" target="_blank">Sociological Images</a> based around t<a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/09/17/from-the-mouths-of-rapists-the-lyrics-of-robin-thickes-blurred-lines-and-real-life-rape/" target="_blank">hings that rapists have said to their victims - and pointing out the disturbing similarity of these phrases to the lyrics of </a><i><a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/09/17/from-the-mouths-of-rapists-the-lyrics-of-robin-thickes-blurred-lines-and-real-life-rape/" target="_blank">Blurred Lines</a>. </i>Guess this won't be 'the hit of the summer' for a lot of rape victims.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Thicke himself has even admitted the song and the video are degrading <a href="http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/05/robin-thicke-interview-blurred-lines-music-video-collaborating-with-2-chainz-and-kendrick-lamar-mercy.html" target="_blank">in an interview with <i>GQ </i></a>magazine (a quote I think he has come to regret):</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: magenta;">We tried to do everything that was taboo. Bestiality, drug injections, and <i>everything that is completely derogatory towards women</i>. Because all three of us are happily married with children, we were like, "We're the perfect guys to make fun of this." (<i>Huh? How are they making fun of 'this', exactly? And what is 'this'? Mrs Meows) </i>People say, "Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?" I'm like, "Of course it is. <i>What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. I've always respected women.</i>" So we just wanted to turn it over on its head and make people go, <i>"Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around."</i> ... Right now, with terrorism and poverty and Wall Street and Social Security having problems, nudity should not be the issue. <i>(Emphasis mine. Also, am I the only one who finds the idea of 'always being followed around' by men a bit creepy...??)</i></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">You know in a way I kind of agree with old Thicke - nudity <i>shouldn't </i>be an issue! I mean, </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">the body is beautiful and natural and a wonderful example of God's creation, right?? And obviously for some it <i>is </i>still an issue, leading to the banning of the <i>Blurred Lines </i>video with all its heathen-ish toplessness and whatnot. But what Thicke perhaps missed is that there's <i>another </i>nudity<i> </i>issue here - the fact that <i>all </i>the nudity falls to the women, while the men remain completely and smugly clothed. Where the fuck is also the beautiful, natural <i>male</i> nudity???</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">When I saw the uncensored <i>Blurred Lines </i>video, it did seem pretty lame to me that the censors were so hot and bothered about a bunch of (not even very bouncy) naked titties. (oh yeah, and the pronouncement that 'Thicke has a big dick'! Yes, well done Robin - they <i>do </i>rhyme!) What <i>did </i>feel offensive to me was the 'oh my <i>gosh, </i>daddy, I'm naked!!' dummy act of the models prancing wide-eyed through the video while the men ogled at their comfortably-clothed leisure. The power imbalance communicated by this visual is - ahem, excuse me - <i>nakedly </i>obvious. To me it read like a modern day minstrel show - where the women wear nakedness to play up their essential inferior woman-ness and pratfall for the pleasure and edification of a bunch of indulgently laughing men. Joke's on you, girls.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">The nudity double standard was starkly high-lighted by a NZ-made (big ups to my homies!) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM" target="_blank">parody video</a> in which the genders were reversed, and which was <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/zealand-blurred-lines-parody-goes-viral-003112791.html" target="_blank">removed by youtube</a> for 'sexually inappropriate content' while the original was allowed to stay up !!! I figured this must mean it was more explicit than the original - imagine my disappointment when the video finished without a peen in sight. Well played, youtube! I'm so glad you're enforcing such strict and correct moral standards. I could have been corrupted!!!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Miley</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;">So, how does all this lead to a 'pro' about Miley's performance, you wonder?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;">When we take a look at all the furore surrounding Miley's bump n' grind, what does it centre around? It's Miley being 'inappropriate', 'distasteful', even <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-media-reacts-in-shock-20130826,0,7040383.story" target="_blank">'disturbed' and 'probably suffering an eating disorder' </a>(????) to 'disgusting' and of course the old stand-by 'slutty', for the shrillest of the bunch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;">So what exactly is it that people are disturbed about? It's the fact that she is in no way <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1326733/thumbs/o-MILEY-CYRUS-FOAM-FINGER-570.jpg?6" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1326733/thumbs/o-MILEY-CYRUS-FOAM-FINGER-570.jpg?6" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She's just bein' Miley!</td></tr>
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conforming to the "good girl" behavioural model so enshrined in the lyrics of <i>Blurred Lines - </i>she is the complete opposite. Instead of the mute, doll-like models jiggling about in the lyrics, Miley has a voice, and a loud one. She is singing, she is active, and she is using that foam finger also wielded in the video in a much brasher, more aggressive fashion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif;">As Tamara Shayne Kagel <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamara-shayne-kagel/defense-of-miley-cyrus-vmas_b_3824923.html" target="_blank">pointed out in the Huffington Post</a>, when</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">"...the medley transitioned to "Blurred Lines" .... [she] immediately... inverted the meaning of the song. Once Robin Thicke appeared, it felt like he was singing back-up to her. And probably to his displeasure, she completely controlled the entire performance. </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">She</em><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> sang the line to </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">him</em><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> about "trying to domesticate you" and "you're an animal." Instead of using the foam finger to cover her breasts and tease a man as is done in the video, she used the finger to grope Thicke as she walked around him. When Cyrus twerked... against Thicke's crotch in this case, <i>he looked more powerless than at any time in his own video when he's using the models as his prop. Here, she was using him as her prop." (Emphasis mine.)</i></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/31/article-0-1B88808E000005DC-960_634x623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/31/article-0-1B88808E000005DC-960_634x623.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Married, 'perfect gentleman' Thicke poses with a young fan</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Commentators who seemed perfectly okay about a song championing female sexual passivity to the point of date-rape apologism were having apoplexy over a young woman showing complete and utter sexual agency, even overshadowing a man -<i>dominating</i> him. How emasculating! </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">It's not the fact that Miley was near-naked that people are so upset about, although many of them would like to claim so, or at least chuck this in to their grab-bag of complaints. We all know that near-nudity is pretty much par for the course for music videos these days (and to further address the point, a marginally more naked Lady Gaga warranted barely a ripple, poor thing). It's the fact that she was so <i>aggressive</i> that's got people riled up. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Miley's performance was plunging over to the 'dark side', the 'wrong' side of femininity, the aggressive, the loud, the 'slutty' - a complete rejection of the good old-fashioned silent, compliant girl that <i>Blurred Lines </i>celebrates. Some commentators referred to Thicke's demeanour as "shell-shocked", and many saw the need to point out with a 'tut' the fact that he's "married", to clarify their disapproval of Miley's sluttish behaviour and the need to hold up the image of the thirty-something aged Thicke as <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/09/18/blurred-lines-model-elle-evans-disappointed-by-miley-cyrus-twerking-says-robin/" target="_blank">a 'perfect gentleman'</a> and a scandalised victim of this all-destructive young harlot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">There is plenty of debate over the way that women in the music business seem compelled to sell their product through sexuality and use of their bodies, and so there should be. It's not right that the representation and consumption of nudity and sexual imagery is so disproportionate - both men <i>and </i>women shill their products on the backs of objectified women. But it is quite an achievement that while near-naked and sexualised, Miley took the reins and put poor old Thicke in his place - reducing him to the passive prop that he seems to prefer his women to be. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">As for the 'controversy', well that goes to highlight once again the double-standard of sexual behaviour that women have to negotiate in our society, famous or not. It's quite a tight-rope, the one between 'sexy' and 'slutty' and a 'crime' that women are constantly called to account for. I can't help but admire a young woman who's willing to just say "fuckit, it's my party Ima do what I want," cos whatever you think of it, that's brave in today's cultural climate. Is it 'appropriate' or 'tasteful' or what the hell ever? I don't think that's the right question. I think it comes down to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8637971/Ceri-Radford-on-Caitlin-Moran.html" target="_blank">Caitlin Moran's brilliantly simple test </a>- </span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.71875px;">“Are the men doing it? Are the men worrying about this as well?… Is this making Jeremy Clarkson feel insecure?”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> And as Thicke himself pointed out, there are more important issues than what's 'appropriate' on a video awards show where most of the audience seemed bored anyway and spent most of their time looking at their smartphones. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Stuff like the prevalence of rape culture, the cost of that to our society - yes, all of us, men <i>and </i>women - and how to challenge it and start to dismantle it.</span></span><br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-10658044017513018042013-08-09T03:25:00.000-07:002013-08-09T03:27:11.408-07:00An Absence Note From Mrs MeowsHiya all, just wanted to post a quick note to all my fans (I know yer out there!) to apologise for my long absence... Those of you who know me will be aware of the sad circumstances that have caused this. To those of you who don't, I'm afraid I can't explain right now - as freaky as it sounds, it is a family matter that has emerged from the darkness into the light!! And thus into the courts. Therefore I can't discuss it on this blog until the legal process is over. However, being the chatterbox that I am, I will be writing a blog entry about it as I find sunlight is the best disinfectant - I got that phrase from <a href="http://www.jerryspringertv.com/" target="_blank">Jerry Springer</a>, by the way, bless 'im (and OMG, he is still going!!! Keep on keepin' on, Jerry).<br />
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All of this drama has made me feel a bit like writing about movies, books and heaven knows what else is alarmingly trivial in comparison. But I am slowly emerging out of that cave and into the light, and can feel my opinions on all sorts of topics bubbling up again - so fear not, impatient readers! I feel my return the blogging terrain is not long away.<br />
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In the meantime, I would like to post a copy of this story that I wrote to enter into the Moreland Libraries short story competition. The theme was fairy tales and the word limit was 500 - I am proud to note that in the end, my story came in at a round 500. Skills. I didn't win, so, if you're wanting to boycott the Coburg library I won't object... just jokes, just jokes. They are beautiful people (though wrong).<br />
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This is my take on the old tale of the Snow Child, which in my imagination took on a sinister turn, of course. Enjoy.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">The No-Child<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">They’d married in the summer, blessed by
warm rays of sun. But now, in their second winter, the careless flow of time
had subsided to a tense and watchful counting.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">So many days since the wedding and still no
child.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Instead, they had a No-Child. The No-Child
took up more space each time it came. He knew it had come when he came home to a
dull heaviness in the house; a shape in the bed crumpled with tears; the hearth
cold and no preparations made. He’d used to feel a glow of pride at the chestnut
shine of her hair by the fire. Her eyes would crinkle and smile when she looked
at him. But the No-child was closing a hand over their hearts, turning them
away from each other. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">It was a hard winter, many said the meanest
the town had seen in fifty years. In its very depths he came home one night to
find her outside and barefoot, hair dancing in the blizzard. Her blue fingers
worked around a figure in the snow, a small lumpen thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He froze at the sight of it: the
No-Child, taken form at last. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">He prised her hands away and led her into
the house, heavy and sad. He lit a fire and started to rub her cold limbs back
to skin-colour. But before the fire had even kindled there was a knock at the
door. She looked up red-cheeked and bright-eyed as if in a fever: “Husband, we
have a guest.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Before he knew what he was doing he was
looking down at it on the stoop, the No-Child, gleaming dully in fitful
moonlight. Neither moved as the wind howled and shook.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Then his wife’s voice rang out over the
wind: “Don’t just stand there, Husband, let the poor baby in, our baby, out in
the cold.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">In front of his eyes, not-believing, the
No-Child took a shuddering step, and then another, thudding-crunching as it
lurched across the floor. Leaving tiny glistening puddles behind it. Snowflakes
curled and danced in the doorway, dashing themselves to the ground like dying
moths as the outside came inside.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">She took the No-Child up in her arms,
cradled it tenderly, her face like a woman who has seen an angel. Crooned as a
ragged hole opened in its snowball head and clamped down on her breast. She
gave a long sigh as her warmth poured into the No-Child, as each lengthy suck
caused veins to race blue across her skin like cracks across a frozen lake. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">He still hadn’t moved when it finally let
her drop. Her head lolled back on the damp pillow, her eyes beatific. Beyond
him. He heard its steady “thud thud thud” measuring out the distance towards
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew its touch would be
cold and then slowly warm, like falling asleep in the softest bed. A strange
kind of love shot through him then, a hope his life’s breath could sustain it,
this, finally, their child. He closed his eyes and waited. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">It wouldn’t be long.</span></div>
Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-50413924684011150862013-05-20T19:09:00.001-07:002013-05-20T22:29:13.818-07:00Showtime: Jack Reacher<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cinekatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/jack-reacher-the-movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://cinekatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/jack-reacher-the-movie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>No, you're not. Um, and who's your friend?</b></td></tr>
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Before I get started on this, I'd just like to share with you that me and Mr Meows derive a lot of pleasure from referring to this movie as "Jack Reacharound", it's pretty enjoyable, you should try it. I also can't take credit for it - that honour goes to the inimitable<a href="http://technorati.com/social-media/article/up-close-and-personal-with-dlisteds/" target="_blank">Michael K</a>, well at least as far as I'm concerned, anyway.<br />
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So, <i>anyhoo, </i>yeah, right, the movie. I can't say I was particularly enthusiastic about this go-around from Mr Cruise; I vehemently agreed with the <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/15418/jack-reacher-movie-trailer-tom-cruise-is-the-worst-choice-to-play-the-lee-child-hero" target="_blank">outraged chorus against his casting</a> as the 6 foot 5, rugged and blond Jack Reacher. And when I say "outraged chorus," I am not kidding. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/21/entertainment/la-et-jc-tom-cruise-jack-reacher-fans-react-20121220" target="_blank">People be </a><i><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/21/entertainment/la-et-jc-tom-cruise-jack-reacher-fans-react-20121220" target="_blank">pissed</a><a href="http://pissed./">.</a> </i>There's even <a href="https://www.facebook.com/reacherfriends" target="_blank">a facebook page</a> that was started in protest at this casting decision. On imdb I found <a href="http://www.imdb.com/list/3NUbdoYQjXs/" target="_blank">a list of 44 actors that would be better cast in the role</a> - and it includes such luminaries as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001116/" target="_blank">Warwick Davis</a> - owch!<br />
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The author himself, Lee Child, has said that he was "not disappointed" in the casting, in <a href="http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/playboy-interview-lee-child" target="_blank">an interview with Playboy magazine</a>:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">PLAYBOY: Paramount cast the diminutive Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher. You’ve been quoted as saying you don’t object. Come on—Reacher’s size and ruggedness are an essential part of his appeal. You have to be disappointed.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">CHILD: Disappointed is the wrong word. When you transfer a book to the screen, something’s going to give. It seems to me there are three essential things about Reacher. First, he’s smart. Second, he’s still and quiet yet menacing. Third, he’s huge. It was always likely we were going to lose one of those characteristics. The question was which. For a long time we were fixated on his physique. We had to have a big guy. But we got nowhere. There were no actors big enough who could do even one of the other things. Then it came as an epiphany. Give up the physique and concentrate on Reacher’s smartness and quietness.</span></span><br />
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For one thing, I find the explanation that there were no viable alternatives a little hard to buy. The 44 actor list - Warwick Davis notwithstanding - does actually supply some very credible tall and bulky dudes who could have filled these shoes. On the other hand, I also completely understand the need to change story and character aspects when adapting a book for the screen - this is just the reality of film-making. And let's not forget the outcry that broke out over Cruise playing Lestat in the film adaption of <i>Interview With the Vampire </i>- and the acclaim that washed over him once the film was actually released. Even author Ann Rice, one of his most fierce opponents, <a href="http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/celebs/photos/controversial-casting-the-roles-we-didn%E2%80%99t-want-these-actors-in?page=3" target="_blank">graciously ate her words when she saw his performance.</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b> This was always the guy I imagined as Reacher. Who did you think?</b></td></tr>
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But I do understand the uproar in terms of the source material. I've read a Jack Reacher book, I think it was even this one, <i>One Shot</i>. It was a long time ago but I remember being surprised at how much I enjoyed it, even though action thrillers aren't generally my thing. And I can tell you one thing - the (relatively) diminutive Cruise was <i>not </i>the image in my mind as I turned the pages. It's not just a matter of height, it's <i>everything</i> - voice, presence, looks, demeanour, the ineffable <i>x </i>of a person's being.<br />
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And I have to say, dear reader, that viewing the movie itself did not change this feeling in any way whatsoever. In the role Cruise just feels like a poorly tuned trumpet parping its way throughout a symphony. Although I do have to say, I was kind of impressed by how weathered-looking he was - dude was <i>lined, </i>and strangely leathery-looking - although I suspect this was gained in the make-up chair in an effort to make him look more like the "tough" Reacher.<br />
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Mind you, he's not particularly helped out by the script, either. I mean, it's overstating things to refer to the story analogously as a "symphony". Jack Reacher isn't a symphony, but it is good, well-crafted, exciting genre fun. As a genre piece, it of course conforms to genre conventions. But <i>oy, </i>this script, it's so paint-by-numbers. Sometimes as a viewer this can be enjoyable, watching how a well-worn story will unfold in this particular incarnation. But in this case, the execution is so lumpen limping from set-piece to set-piece in an entirely predictable fashion, that it's not just paint-by-numbers but actually <i>dull</i>. (Spoiler: I fell asleep before the end. I was tired, but, <i>still.</i>)<br />
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It also suffers from a trend that has been taking place in Cruise films over the last decade, which I call the <i>Cruise Messianic Complex </i>(or Cruise Control - ha! Ha!). This is a syndrome in which Cruise's character is not just the hero but the <i>ultimate </i>hero, who is more fully qualified than all other characters, whatever they might be, as well as smarter, braver, handsomer, etc etc etc <i>ad nauseum. </i>Case in point, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/" target="_blank"><i>War of the Worlds </i>i</a>n which Cruise's dock-worker is consulted for instructions by police and military. Or particularly egregious offender, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985699/?ref_=sr_1" target="_blank">Valkyrie</a>, </i>in which all other actors are forced to bang on about how much braver and more wonderful Cruise's character is than every other person who ever lived. I wondered how the famously arrogant <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000110/" target="_blank">Kenneth Branagh</a> (a 'Sir' to you, by the way) managed to swallow having to deliver his especially sycophantic speech.<br />
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This trend reaches absolutely dizzying heights in this film. I felt very sorry for the excellent <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683253/?ref_=sr_1" target="_blank">Rosamund Pike</a> (the Kenneth Branagh of this film, I suppose) whose defense attorney is forced to follow Reacher around, doing errands for him while constantly having to ask him why. She is also the focus of a cringe-ingly <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Yeah, I don't know how it happened either, Rosamund.</b></td></tr>
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embarrassing scene in which she witnesses Cruise take his shirt off and her brain is melted by the sight of his incredibly ripped action-figure body. In fact, it's quite remarkable how often his character is required to take his shirt off in this movie. A convention again, of course, but it's so clumsily handled that it makes you want to cover your eyes and squeal. The same goes for the five-on-one fight against Cruise, the car chase, and oh, pretty much everything.<br />
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(Any coincidence that this film is directed by the writer of <i>Valkyrie </i>and produced by Cruise...?)<br />
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Strangely, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001348/?ref_=sr_1" target="_blank">Werner Herzog</a> is also in this movie playing the Big Bad, which is especially amusing if you think of his <a href="http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2012/02/werner-herzog-despises-chickens-eez-beautiful" target="_blank">diatribe against chickens </a>during his scenes. I can only conclude that he is using the big fat paycheck to finance another of his excellent documentaries.<br />
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I read a great article in GQ recently by Mark Harris about the <a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201303/the-new-and-improved-leading-man-march-2013" target="_blank">new rules for the leading man</a> in which he had some good insights on Cruise's waning place in the firmament:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Every male movie star has a different magic number—an age at which his attractiveness and ability and maturity all come together. Before that, a star may not feel fully formed; after that, if he has talent, he seems to become more assured, complicated, and real with every passing year. Tom Hanks's ideal age was about 36—when he made <i>Philadelphia</i> and <i>Forrest Gump</i>. How can you tell, besides the two Oscars? Because, for one thing, Hanks looked 36 when he was 26, and he looked 36 when he was 46. Once he found himself at the crossroads where his age linked up with how we felt about him, he hit his stride and, some bad choices notwithstanding, has never really lost it. Once we knew who he was, we were in for the whole ride.</span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Sometimes, you have to ripen. Stars evolve on-screen at about the same pace as we evolve offscreen. So in many ways, the later you peak, the better for the fragile egos of your audience. Clooney's ideal age seems to have been about 45—the <i>Syriana-Michael Clayton</i> period. He needed the gray hair and extra years because his whole "I've done things with women you only dream of" vibe required some visible baggage—creases, texture, a little sag. Clooney, it turned out, was much more interesting as a guy too old to be Batman than he was as Batman. Middle age suits him, and he ennobles it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Tom Cruise is about Clooney's age; unfortunately, Cruise's ideal age was about 25—the <i>Top Gun-Color of Money</i> moment of maximum cocksureness. I don't mean to suggest that it was all downhill from there—Cruise is a much better actor now than he was then and, several cubic tons of personal history notwithstanding, a more connected screen presence. But we, as moviegoers, are less forgiving of stars who peak young—for whom aging can read as erosion—than we are of stars who make us feel a little better about the passing years. Cruise's refusal to age on-screen—the carefully managed news drops about doing his own stuntwork, the "can- did" photos showing off his trainer-chiseled torso—has come to seem distancing, even alienating. When he turned 50 last summer, it felt like a prank someone played on him. When Clooney turned 50, by contrast, a lot of guys thought, "I hope I look that good when I'm his age" (or, "I'm his age. Holy crap, where did I go wrong?!").</span></div>
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This, I think, is absolutely correct, and it captures what seems so embarrassing and clunky about <i>Jack Reacher. </i>It feels like the whole movie is centred, not around trying to tell you an exciting story, but selling an image of Tom Cruise as a ripped, tough-guy action hero who still does all his own stunts and gives women the down-stairs drips with a single glance. But it's subject to the law of diminishing returns and, quite frankly, is starting to look a bit desperate, kind of like when Dad tries to hang out with his son's mates at the 21st<i>.</i></div>
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What I don't understand is why Cruise keeps trying to till the same piece of diminishingly-fertile ground. He's already proved he can do an excellent job when cast against type in <i>Interview With The Vampire</i>, and that he can play complex, unlikeable characters in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Rain Man</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Magnolia</a>. </i>I imagine he saw <i>Jack Reacher </i>as a way to bring his action hero persona to a more rugged maturity but it just feels tired and ultimately, futile. It distances us even further from Tom Cruise and makes him seem out of touch.</div>
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At the end of the day, <i>Jack Reacher </i>reads as a kind of mid-life crisis played out onscreen, but without the self-aware humour. And that's not what you want to see in an action movie. Tom Cruise needs to regroup and think of a way to age more gracefully, and you need to watch <i>Die Hard </i>again instead.</div>
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-19035875877005674422013-05-03T04:11:00.002-07:002013-05-03T04:11:51.419-07:00Mrs Meows' Guide to Job-Hunting: the Agony and the Ecstacy (Mostly Agony Though)Hello people! I'm sorry I've been away for so long - (I know you've been crying every night as you refresh the page over and over - it's okay, you don't have to tell me about it. I understand.) Mr Meows and I have been busy with our relocation to Australia!<br />
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Specifically Melbourne, of course. I know, you don't have to tell me what a cliche that is. Although I haven't met many other New Zealanders over here yet - but that's because I haven't really met, well, <i>anyone.</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le me.</td></tr>
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Most of this is because so far, after 6 weeks, I have failed to find a full-time job. It's amazing how much of your social life, especially in a new country, is often predicated by your work. I mean, how do else do you meet people? Especially once you get older. And Mr Meows and I are no longer exactly spring chickens, being in our thirties - in my case, edging towards my mid-thirties and impending death. Aaarghh!<br />
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However, it's not from lack of trying. I have applied for many, many jobs. It's a shame they don't have ACC over here as I am probably going to get Repetitive Strain Syndrome (or whatever the hell they call it now, go away, I'm old) from typing all those cover letters. When I looked at my "applied jobs" section in seek, it told me I had applied for 73 jobs - and that's not counting the ones I applied to directly. These jobs cover a wide spectrum of working possibilities, from short term admin work to research assistance to journalism to sex education for sex workers. I am definitely not looking to limit my employment opportunities! And what has all this industriousness gotten me?<br />
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Well, the phrase "an overwhelming number of applications" has popped up alarmingly often, assuming a depressing inevitability. I have also seen the sentence "both in quantity and quality" several times. Clearly, the job market here is incredibly tight, which I guess shouldn't be surprising given that this is a city which hosts a population the size of the entire of New Zealand.<br />
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I suppose we did have a bit of a "streets paved with gold" mentality coming to Australia - after all, the prosperity of the Lucky Country is something that's trumpeted about by the current government enough (although they always coquettishly leave out the role of incredibly strong unions in this worker prosperity). But even cafe and retail jobs are asking for people with two or more years' experience. How does anyone go about gaining enough experience to get a job in the first place?? Now I'm starting to see how institutional gate-keeping comes about - how long will it be before you need a certificate in retail before you can get a job in a shop? After all, when there are so many hordes desperate for employment, there's got to be something to create a bottleneck and pan the gold from the sediment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEAbSLDLo3qpMonfkAWOzAg09Q2BVY4DIAfqRT66b-HMjztU1i847U_Ra2cwPY94YrIHS0dK4nqalX16LItjaRb9pK1QJTQK99XxMjghpErHsByEJOq3Ve-TZXLlMzvr8NHxhBkXTAdHk/s1600/bunnyunemp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEAbSLDLo3qpMonfkAWOzAg09Q2BVY4DIAfqRT66b-HMjztU1i847U_Ra2cwPY94YrIHS0dK4nqalX16LItjaRb9pK1QJTQK99XxMjghpErHsByEJOq3Ve-TZXLlMzvr8NHxhBkXTAdHk/s320/bunnyunemp.jpg" width="269" /></a></div>
However, it's incredibly humbling to arrive somewhere thinking you're a gold nugget and discover that you're not even a golden speck - no, my friend, you are the sediment.<br />
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Of course, this is all a bit melodramatic. For one thing, the state of the job market doesn't necessarily reflect your intrinsic worth as gold or sediment - it merely reflects the brutal realities of supply and demand. For example, a friend of ours who moved to Melbourne after trying her luck in America - her father's American so she has an American passport. It didn't do her much good, though, as the American job-market is languishing somewhere at the bottom of the toilet - after six months, the most she was able to land was one day in a factory. Yikes.<br />
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The other thing is that landing jobs takes an annoying amount of time - and because you can't see into the future, you don't know how long it's going to take or which attempt will be the successful one. After six weeks of applications I finally managed to get several interviews, wearing my one job interview dress - a black number that makes me feel a bit like an Italian widow (I really, really hope I don't spill anything on this dress as it is the only formal outfit I now own). A week and a half later, despite promises of "I'll let you know tomorrow" I'm still waiting to find out the results. Immutable law of the universe: employers will NEVER get back to you as quickly as they say they will. They like to abuse their power and torture the poor supplicants dancing pathetically around their ankles as much as they possibly can. The median amount of time they delay has been found by a Harvard Business School study to be eight days.<br />
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Of course, Murphy's law being what it is, what will happen next is that there will be two, or even three possibilities of varying desirability bobbing about at the same time. Inevitably the job you are least interested in will be the one you are offered first. You then have to make the agonising decision whether you should go for the sure thing and keep yourself from having to eat newspaper for dinner or hold out for the dream, which may yet turn out to be unattainable.<br />
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All of this produces a keen, exquisite pain, one that is felt like a knife's edge at the time and then is quickly and blessedly forgotten as soon as the sacred job is achieved.<br />
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Because once that happens and your sheer relief at avoiding homelessness wears off, you find yourself in the next stage - <i>complaining about having to go to work. </i>This is what my friend Hannah very cleverly referred to as the "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable, Now" syndrome, or what we shall for the sake of brevity call "Morrissey-itis." To whit:<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: magenta;">I was looking for a job, and then I found a job </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: magenta;">And heaven knows I'm miserable now</span></i><span style="color: #474747;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.imghut.com/content/173/c25105255be1c604442ae12d456d94f4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://www.imghut.com/content/173/c25105255be1c604442ae12d456d94f4.jpg" width="320" /></a>It doesn't take long for this to happen. Karl Marx knew all about it and explains it well:</div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: magenta; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">And this life activity
[the worker] sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of
life. ... He works that he may keep alive. He does not count the labor itself
as a part of his life; it is rather a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity that
he has auctioned off to another.</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Sigh.
Well, until the <i>genuine </i>Communist revolution
comes and we are all blissfully fulfilling ourselves in a Marxian utopia, we
all have to continue going to work, sadly. At least, as long as we are "NZ
permanent residents" and unable to get the dole. And so the grotesque
dance continues. Good luck to all those job seekers out there, I feel your
pain! And to those who are suffering the tortures of gainful employment,
hopefully I will be joining your ranks soon and adding my wails to the chorus.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In
honour of us all, I shall leave you with this. Goodnight!</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-5778819824956482752013-02-18T16:56:00.000-08:002014-07-22T23:16:54.948-07:00National's PokiesRecently Mr Meows and I travelled up to Auckland <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/mrs-meows-goes-to-radiohead.html#!/2012/11/mrs-meows-goes-to-radiohead.html" target="_blank">to see Radiohead</a>. The concert was fantastic - but when we emerged from the Vector Arena, the weather was not. After a sweltering day, Auckland had put on one of those singular downpours it's so famous for, where the rain falls straight down like a blow-out and continues this way unrelentingly for hours - sometimes days.<br />
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Since we'd been walking around in the heat all day and hadn't wanted to weigh ourselves down with bulky coats, we were woefully underprepared for this meteorological turn of events and were waterlogged in seconds. (I've since had to throw away the shoes I was wearing that night, as they were forced to moulder away in my suitcase afterwards and became quite unpleasant.) Despite this, though, we weren't yet ready to give up on the night - we were jazzed up after an amazing concert and wanted to find a drink somewhere and hang out.<br />
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Unfortunately, central Auckland is <em>el lame-o </em>when it comes to bar action on a Tuesday night (it could really learn a thing or two from Cuba St). Everywhere was either shut or packed out with other Radioheadheads who were similarly excited (and probably also from Wellington). After swimming miserably through the streets, unable to find a bar that could accomodate us, I suddenly said to Mr Meows, "Hey - what about the casino? It's open like, 24 hours a day and it <em>definitely </em>will have alcohol."<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEz4GiQl4UyAaXV6zrTSEOnO0ZZSMiY2maRAKIHzV43uXoE8sR65Urlk2zlYpZknB3EHxyptRkHffFxDUQmWqTewCd0vww7k6aHkrhM2XMT3JfT_RhSRgMQY-vt07OukrSTK3ttV0deZX/s1600/Sky+Tower.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEz4GiQl4UyAaXV6zrTSEOnO0ZZSMiY2maRAKIHzV43uXoE8sR65Urlk2zlYpZknB3EHxyptRkHffFxDUQmWqTewCd0vww7k6aHkrhM2XMT3JfT_RhSRgMQY-vt07OukrSTK3ttV0deZX/s1600/Sky+Tower.jpeg" height="320" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sky Tower, absolutely freaking out.</td></tr>
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So we trudged up central Auckland's bizarrely steep central streets to its castle of problem gambling, located proudly at the rotten heart of the Super City, its Sky Tower thrusting like a great needle into the buttocks of the sky.<br />
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I haven't been into casinos very often; gambling just isn't my thing. I'm too cautious to get the appeal - to me, it pretty much seems like flushing money down the toilet. When I have been into them, I've been struck by their homogenous weirdness - every casino I've ever been into feels like an episode of the twilight zone, where time is suspended in a strange, earth-toned Florida of the mind.<br />
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We had to pass the roulette tables and the blackjack to get to the bar. They were intense, people standing around the tables pulled tight like wire strings as the ball rolled round and round, or the cards shelled out, foretelling your destiny. Whatever was happening here, people were very, very invested in it.<br />
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<a href="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1206078.1353546797!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/florida25e-2-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1206078.1353546797!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/florida25e-2-web.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a>And then came the pokie machines. We were amazed - boggled - by the sheer <em>number </em>of them. They were <em>everywhere, </em>distributed throughout the whole casino like clover through a field. Row upon row upon row of shiny metal and flashing lights, towering over you like an aggressive gameshow smile. There were sea-creature ones, Egyptian ones, Australian gold-mining ones, diamond ring and high heel ones for the <em>Sex in the City </em>set. They were gleaming and transfixing and mesmerising.<br />
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The clientele in these sections was completely different from the high rollers at the tables. These people were older and a rung or two down the class ladder. But the biggest difference was that none of them seemed to be having any actual <em>fun. </em>While the people at the tables were actively engaged in what was going on, the pokies people just sat in front of the machines, inserting coins and pushing buttons over and over and over again while the lights flashed over their expressionless faces. It was a Sisyphean task, not a fun night out. And while the tables and the cards have a spark of tension and excitement, the pokies just seem mechanical, meaningless, money going into the guts of the machine and algorithms dictating what comes out once in a million button pushes.<br />
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It was depressing and horrifying, and very, very clear that there was no purpose to these things but to hook people in and keep them sitting there for hours on end, shovelling coins in. Mr Meows and I had a bit of a go on them (with a limit of $20), and though it took me a while to understand them or see the point, I suddenly saw the hook after a small advance in my fortunes preceded a total loss. There was the spark <em>- if I just put in a few more coins, I'll get that win again and I'll maintain it... just a few more coins and I can bring my luck back again</em>... What hard work though, to chase a very elusive dragon!<br />
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Mr Meows and I left down twenty dollars and feeling disturbed and depressed by the whole spectacle of the pokie machines. I have known someone who became addicted to these at a low point in their life, and have seen the kind of destruction this can cause in someone's life - and the lives of those who love them. It angers me that these things even exist, they're such a naked grab for the coins of the poor, lonely and disenfranched. As the latest release from the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand states:<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: magenta;">Non-casino pokies are more likely to be found in the more deprived areas of New Zealand rather than well-off areas. Each pokie takes in an average of $47,500 per year, and usually from the pockets of those who can least afford it. </span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">In poorer areas the ratio of pokies to people is one to 75 whereas in our wealthy areas, the ratio is one pokie machine to 465 people. </span></span><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-size: small;">That means a young person growing up in a poorer area will be exposed to six times more pokies than a young person in a well-off community. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: magenta;">Māori and Pacific adults are between 3.5 and 4 times more likely than adults in the total population to be problem gamblers. This is because these populations are more concentrated in higher decile areas (8-10) where there are more pokie machines.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span>Pokie machines are <em>designed </em>to appeal to/prey on the poor and vulnerable. And yes, non-casino pokies are the ones that are placed in deprived areas. But if you walk into any casino, the class lines are still just as clear when you look at who is doing what kind of gambling.<br />
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But if I feel angry about that, I am <em>furious </em>that PM <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10799699" target="_blank">John Key personally offered Sky City more pokie machines in return for a multi-million dollar convention centre</a>. John Key will certainly be acquainted with the research on these things and the harm they cause to the community, particularly the already deprived. I suppose he figures it's a free market issue that he doesn't want to interfere in. But it's yet another indication that he doesn't give a shit about nebulous things such as "the community" or "the poor" - no, he can't hear them over the noise of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUBl1W-dWE0" target="_blank">money talking</a>.<br />
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However, on the Green Party's request t<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/7094814/Govts-SkyCity-deal-to-be-investigated" target="_blank">he Auditor General launched an investigation into the deal</a>. Though the Greens said the deal should go on hold while the investigation took place (which only seems polite), Key maintained that it was <a href="http://%22always%20possible%22%20a%20deal%20with%20skycity%20could%20be%20signed%20while%20an%20inquiry%20continued./" target="_blank">"always possible" a deal with SkyCity could be signed while an inquiry continued</a>. However, after commentators criticised this statement for its "arrogance", he later toned it down, saying instead that "Obviously we'd be cautious about signing a deal but we'd welcome it. We'd certainly carry on the negotiations but we have respect for (the auditor-general's) role and what they are doing." Oh, how gracious of you, Mr Key! I'm sure the Auditor General is flattered by your "respect". I don't imagine problem gamblers, or the people in lower-decile communities who want to see pokie machines banned or at least minimised, think much of the level of respect <em>they</em> get, however.<br />
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The Auditor General's report is <a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/report-into-skycity-deal-released-today-5344869" target="_blank">due to be released today,</a> which seems timely as there's also concern at the moment over the effectiveness of Sky City's host responsibility programme. This is supposed to monitor and curb problem gamblers, but people can gamble for 12 hours straight before being flagged as needing monitoring! This definitely gives credence to Green Party MP <a href="http://www.greens.org.nz/candidates/denise-roche" target="_blank">Denise Roche's</a> concerns that the programme is "kind of like the hen house being all safe and secure according to the fox."<br />
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<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10866307" target="_blank">Apparently Mr Key has seen some drafts of the Auditor General's report</a> and "isn't concerned", blithely stating that "In my view there's no political element to it." Ahem - excuse me, I just had to choke a little on my irrepressible cynical laughter.<br />
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Whether Key's blithe lack of concern is justified or not we shall have to wait and see. But one thing is clear - this whole Sky City episode is yet another example of this government's ranking of business interests over people and community well-being. And it won't be the last.<br />
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UPDATE: Interesting outcome - <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10866489" target="_blank">process "fell short of good practice" and Sky City was treated differently from other contract bidders, but the deal is allowed to proceed for 'the good of the country.'</a> Hmm. Very mixed, and essentially pretty dodgy. <br />
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Having seen <em>how many </em>pokie machines are in that place (and how comparatively few people were playing on them) it staggers me that Sky City wants licence for <em>more - </em>and that they actually want legislation to be altered to enable this to happen. No doubt the convention centre will be beneficial, but it doesn't alter the fact that if this deal goes through, it leverages on exploitation of the deprived to do so. That's a "boo, hiss" from me, National.<br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-79594162791947129092013-01-29T14:12:00.000-08:002013-01-29T16:51:02.220-08:00Showtime: Les Miserables<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not a huge musicals person. I mean, I don't hate them all with a burning rage or anything like that - in fact, some of them I love (for example, <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/" target="_blank">Westside Story</a></em>! Maybe they have to get ya when you're young). It's just that often they seem stiff and outmoded to me, an uncomfortable marriage of song and story-telling. When they are converted into movies, I find this tendency is usually exacerbated.<br />
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Also, I knew nothing of <em>Les Miserables </em>before I went to see this film, an ommission I feel vaguely guilty about, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables" target="_blank">derived as it is from a great work of 19th century literature</a>. So before I get started on my unavoidably ignorant reaction to this film, I must acknowledge that there is no way I can top <a href="http://www.the-editing-room.com/les-miserables.html" target="_blank">this utterly perfect summary</a>. But I will try my humble best to describe the experience, in my own way.<br />
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I'm not quite sure what made me want to see it in the first place, given my indifference to the entire project. I wasn't particularly excited about it when the announcement was made. To be honest, I thought it would be boring. What was it that wrought the change in me? The hype? The audible sound of musicals-geeks all over the world grinding their teeth into glass with excitement? The promise of sheer, unadulterated epicness??? Whatever it was, it had me dragging a friend along to buy a ticket on cheap Tuesday and sit in the dark eating fundaes while the magic unfolded before us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.paperaffinity.com/art/illustration/2008/soliloquy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://www.paperaffinity.com/art/illustration/2008/soliloquy.jpg" width="320" /></a>Readers, I know this is no big newsflash to ya, but <em>Les Mis </em>is <em>long. </em>2 hours and 38 minutes, to be precise, about the same as <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=hobbit" target="_blank"><em>The Hobbit</em></a><em>. </em>But it feels <em>so much</em> <em>longer. </em>The enervating effect of filmed musicals that I feared is demonstrated here in spades. It's more like a proper opera than a musical in that there's actually only a handful of spoken dialogue - everything else, every thought, every conversation - is a song. Most of these songs are designed to explain plot points and/or express a character's inner feelings, so as a whole the movie feels like a long string of <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/soliloquy" target="_blank">soliloquys</a>, one after the other. The effect of this is stilted, odd and old-fashioned, especially as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliloquy" target="_blank">the soliloquy fell out of favour as a dramatic device in the late 18th century</a>, almost a hundred years before the book itself was even written. This means that it's not long before you start to feel a sinking in your stomach whenever a character takes a breath at the beginning of a scene - <em>Oh God, </em>you think, <em>it's another bloody song!</em><br />
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Much fanfare was generated by the fact that the <a href="http://screenrant.com/les-miserables-music-songs-featurette/" target="_blank">actors all sang live as they were being filmed</a>. There was also a lot of debate about this - some argued that this was hardly a big deal, <a href="http://www.thestage.co.uk/columns/shenton/2013/01/short-shorts-68-les-miserables-and-legally-blonde-inspire-controversy-and-quiz-answers/" target="_blank">as Broadway actors have to do this all the time</a>. Jonathon Kim of the Huffington Post argued that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/rethink-review-emles-mise_b_2374096.html" target="_blank">the filming technique needed to accomplish this blasted away any nuance that might have been achieved</a>, resulting in the impression of "giants yelling at you".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Lambert" target="_blank"> Adam Lambert, of American Idol fame</a>, <a href="http://www.justjared.com/2012/12/30/adam-lambert-slams-les-miserables-casts-pretend-singers/" target="_blank">caused a minor furore by calling the cast "pretend singers</a>". But Hollywood singing legend <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9812939/Why-I-walked-out-of-Les-Miserables.html" target="_blank">Marni Nixon essentially argued the same thing</a>, albeit with far more grace.<br />
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Russell Crowe defended this technique as producing something that was <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/russell-crowe-hits-back-adam-lambert-les-mis-slam-article-1.1231595" target="_blank">"raw and real</a>." (A defence you might expect from someone once in a band called "30 Odd Foot of Grunts.") In some cases, perhaps this was true. But it was unavoidably clear that the cast displayed varying levels of singing talent (and sorry Russ, but you were at the bottom).<br />
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But what was even more unavoidable was that no matter the level of talent or passion or live-singing, the end result just seemed strangely <em>flat. </em>My feeling is that <em>Les Mis </em>needs the spark and "present-ness" of a live performance to make it really soar. This is entirely absent from the film version, and in this I agree with Jonathon Kim - though film is an up-close medium, somehow this one divests the story of any intimacy. I felt no passion or attachment to any of the characters and the clunkiness of the 19th century plot devices seemed horribly exposed, like a nana's undies showing through a hole in her pants. (Although apparently much of the action that takes place <a href="http://rageoffstage.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/tom-hoopers-movie-puts-the-misery-back-into-les-miserables-and-takes-the-musical-out/" target="_blank">is an attempt to "fix" some of these plot holes</a> - in which case I'm sorry, but I have to call "fail"!)<br />
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Despite this, many of the actors put in their best efforts and delivered some impressive performances, even underneath the deadening distance of film. Hugh Jackman as the heroic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Valjean" target="_blank">Jean Valjean</a> really belts his songs out and his anguish, fear and care for others were palpable on-screen. But as <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/12/27/boys_love_les_mis_rables_because_jean_valjean_is_a_superhero.html" target="_blank">David Haglund points out</a>, Valjean is essentially a superhero - super-strength, secret identity, unbelievably rigorous moral code, etc. What's important about Valjean, what would humanise him, is vulnerability. But this film sandblasts this all away, leaving us with naught but a lung-quivering vibrato and ridiculously self-sacrificing, upstanding behaviour.<br />
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The other pole in the story is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javert" target="_blank">Inspector Javert</a>. While Valjean represents the power of redemption and Christianity expressed through practice, Javert is a different kind of Christianity: the rigid, letter-of-the-law kind. The with-us-or-against-us kind. The tragedy of Javert is that he cannot understand anything that doesn't fit into his black and white moral code, he only understands the letter and not the spirit. In a sense there is no vulnerability in Javert - except for this, and this is the flaw his story turns on. <br />
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Russell Crowe, as mentioned earlier, is not the cast's strongest singer. He acquits himself adequately, but to be honest, pitting him against the other voices seems simply cruel. (I heard a rumour that the film's makers originally wanted a Broadway star for Javert, but the studio wanted a star, which makes sense, but I can't substantiate this in any way). You would expect at least that he would be able to bring his acting talent to bear on the role of Javert. Sadly, instead, Crowe's Javert is stiff, one-note and frozen-faced. It's unclear whether this is caused by direction or Crowe himself, but the end result is that Javert just seems like someone suffering the later stages of rigor mortis.<br />
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Both of his big songs are performed standing on a parapet looking out over the view. Amazingly, he stands rigid as a board almost the entire time and <em>does not move his arms. </em>This drove me to distraction. I couldn't understand it - did the director tell him to do that? Or did they just leave him to it? Who could possibly stand there, belting out an entire song, and <em>not move their body at all, even slightly?? </em>Perhaps this was intended to communicate Javert's rigidity? Or maybe poor Crowe couldn't concentrate on getting the song out and acting at the same time? Whatever, it contributes to making the dull experience of a set of soliloquys set to music even duller. Javert is not even like a black hole - more like a grey hole.<br />
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The other much-fan-fared role was that of Fantine, played, as we all, even tribal peoples in the Amazon who have never even seen a movie before, know, <a href="http://www.laineygossip.com/Anne-Hathaway-to-play-Fantine-in-Les-Miserables/21592" target="_blank">is played by Anne Hathaway</a>. Y'all probably also know that <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=hathaway" target="_blank">I am not a fan of Ms. Hathaway</a> (yup, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/the-cult-of-hathahaters-will-it-hurt-anne-hathaway-s-oscar-chances.html" target="_blank">I'm a Hathahater</a>). Hathaway famously underwent a ridiculous starvation regime to play Fantine, a starving prostitute, <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/after-les-mis-oatmeal-paste-starvation-diet-vegan-anne-hathaway-gobbles-pasta" target="_blank">eating two squares of oatmeal paste a day</a>. Predictably this ignited a huge debate in the media about her weight loss, <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=hathaway" target="_blank">one I even weighed into (heh) myself.</a> Apparently Tom Hooper, the director of the film, <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/anne-hathaway-les-miserables-director-tom-hooper-begged-me-to-stop-losing-weight-20122812" target="_blank">begged her not to do it</a>. Nope, like <a href="http://www.cracked.com/funny-4906-method-actors/" target="_blank">platoons of oh-so-serious Method actors</a> before her, this was all of Anne's own volition. <br />
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Having seen the film, and been surprised at the short time she was in it (I mean, I knew Fantine died, but considering all the hoopla I guess I thought she would feature more), I agree with Hooper - this starvation diet was not necessary. Her condition could have been adequately conveyed by make-up and, y'know, this thing they call "acting". To me the whole weight-loss for a movie process seems like a macho actor thing - "I see your 25 pounds lost for a tuberculosis-ridden prostitute and raise you 40 pounds lost to play a child crack whore with cancer!" I think endangering your body to that extent for - let's get things into perspective, people - a <em>movie </em>- is <strong>never </strong>necessary.<br />
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Having said that - and also admitted to my status as a Hathahater - it pains me to say that her performance as Fantine was definitely the best and most outstanding in the entire film, the only thing that even came close to moving me. (Even though <a href="http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/12/anne-hathaway-was-not-pleased-with-her-performance-of-i-dreamed-a-dream" target="_blank">she annoyingly played the time-honoured fishing card of "Oh, you liked it? I didn't think it was very good..."</a> in subsequent interviews). Her song is the definition of the "raw and real" Russell Crowe claimed the film-makers were aiming for, and she deserves the acclaim she has received as a result.<br />
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But the staging of her scenes...! When we first meet Fantine in the factory I found it really irritating the way that she's immediately set apart from her co-workers - dressed in blush-pink while the others are in off-white, young and blooming and beautiful while the rest are all crones. While Valjean is marked out as the "superhero", Fantine is the feminine equivalent, the classic "damsel in distress," unbelievably pure and virtuous as is he, but doomed to be a victim rather than a hero because of her sex.<br />
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In fact, that's another gripe I have but it's more with the story itself than the film in particular. As usual, the men are heroes and the women are - support staff. The young men sacrifice themselves for the greater good, for freedom and revolution. The sole woman involved in the battle, Eponine, only joins because she is also a victim - of unrequited love. She sacrifices herself for her love-object, Marius (played by Eddie Redmayne, who's meant to be some kind of hunk but whose looks I find intensely repellent) but seems to have no awareness of or interest in the greater struggle. And then there's poor Cosette, beautiful and good, but essentially a bird in a gilded cage, passed on from her father to her husband and deemed to delicate to know the truth about her guardian's life.<br />
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This is a <em>big </em>movie, guys. There's so much I haven't talked about - scores of actors, themes and settings I haven't even mentioned that I could opine on. But the movie itself is long enough - I'll leave it there. To cut a looooong story short, this film, my dears, is long. And kind of boring. It will win loads of awards though, cos the Establishment loves that sort of thing. I have to say I regret seeing the movie, though. If you want to experience <em>Les Mis, </em>I would recommend seeing it on stage. I think that's what would give it wings. Or even better, read the book!<br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-90618705912423107312013-01-21T17:32:00.000-08:002013-01-24T15:11:45.960-08:00Biblical Comfort for a Secular HeartI grew up completely religion-less. Apart from my own baptism (regarding my parents, I guess old habits die hard) I have never been to church except for "special occasion" kind of events in other people's lives; y'know, weddings, baptisms and funerals. I've never been to a run-of-the-mill Sunday service, unlike many of my peers who have weekend memories of leaving friends' houses early on Sunday after a sleepover to go to church and fidget in the pews in their uncomfortable 'good' clothes.<br />
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I remember when I was a small child attending school for the first time, this church-less existence - which I had hitherto taken for granted - suddenly became something I thought about. It was brought into view by my classmates, many of whom went to church or Sunday school. I started to feel guilty because my family <em>didn't</em> do those things. One of my friends expressed shock about this, and would feed me little factoids such as it was wrong to believe in ghosts because that was an insult to God. One day she invited me to come to Sunday school with her and I was so excited - finally I would pierce the veil into the mysteries beyond! Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that all that lay beyond the veil was colouring-in pictures of some guy called Jesus standing in a boat.<br />
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That experience allayed my religious curiosity for a while (although I remember asking Dad "If you do a big burp and there's no-one around, do you still say "excuse me" because God heard you?"). However, there were intermittent flare-ups - when I was about twelve I developed a fixation with Catholicism. I went to visit a priest with a list of questions about his religion. He was rheumy-eyed, seemed about ninety years old and was extremely surprised by my fervour, and I found his responses to my queries entirely unsatisfying. End round two.<br />
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In my teens I decided to start a worthy endeavour - reading the entire Bible, cover to cover. However, this was a fairly daunting task, so I did it book by book over a long period of time. I finally finished it- there had been years-long gaps between - almost two years ago to the day. (You can see my boastfulness about this achievement <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/gloat-o-day.html#!/2011/01/gloat-o-day.html" target="_blank">here</a>.) Real talk - some of the Bible is boring. Some of it's interesting. Some of it's downright weird, and some of it's <a href="http://rarebible.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/another-case-of-offering-daughters-so-mobs-can-rape-them/" target="_blank">disgusting</a>. It serves as a fascinating document of the society which produced it so long ago. Much of it is clearly a product of those times, giving rules to live by which made sense then but are no longer relevant centuries later - for example, <a href="http://bible.cc/deuteronomy/25-5.htm" target="_blank">the rule outlined in Deuteronomy</a> that if a man dies without a son, his widow must marry his brother. (The purpose of others is hard to figure out at all, such as <em><a href="http://www.asylum.com/2008/02/20/the-weirdest-laws-in-the-bible-no-mixing-fibers/" target="_blank">"Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee." -- Leviticus 19:19</a>). </em><br />
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Whether you grew up going to Church or not, even whether you've actually read it or not, those of us raised in Judeao-Christian based countries are pretty familiar with a bit of Bible stuff and the principles of Christianity in general. Because of that familiarity and that comfort, it's easy for us to make fun of the Bible. I'm reading the Bhagavad-Gita now and I don't know if I'll put up a satirical post on that when I'm done - I suspect probably not, because that's less familiar ground to me and so I'm not as comfortable poking fun at this belief system. Also, as our society has become increasingly secular the standards of what you can say about Christianity has relaxed a lot since Professor <a href="http://billpeddie.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/lloyd-geering-%E2%80%93-distinguished-theologian-and-sometime-heretic/" target="_blank">Lloyd Geering's trial for heresy</a> in the 60's.<br />
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Personally, I think that's a good thing. Any belief system should be robust enough to stand up to critics, and also to people poking fun and satirising. Any religion - or any<em>thing</em>, Communism for example - without sense of humour about itself is bad news. No laffs = oppression. <br />
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Though I'm still curious about belief systems, and keen to understand the major ones as much as possible, I'm pretty happy with mine the way it is. I'd call myself an <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnostic" target="_blank">agnostic</a>, I guess - I don't believe in a bearded guy sitting up on a cloud; the idea of heaven and hell seems pretty medieval and very, very human to me; but at the same time I'm down with Hamlet - "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in
your philosophy." I don't believe we can claim to know or understand everything in this universe - that would be kind of arrogant, imo - and it's possible that I maybe-might believe in ghosts. (Yeah - and what of it???)<br />
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But sometimes I really envy that Christian (and other religions') capacity for belief. The faith that there's something else, something beyond yourself and the life you're living in the here-and-now, that gives some greater meaning to everything. There are times when it feels like the news is full of nothing but people doing bad things to each other, when I feel a huge hopelessness about living in this world. I think of the seven deadly sins, my major one would be wrath - the injustice that is committed in this world every day (because let's face it, while high profile cases come up from time to time, if you want to you can find stories just as bad or worse any day, anywhere) fill me with rage and despair. Recently I was having one of those times - war in Syria, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/28/world/asia/india-rape-victim/index.html" target="_blank">gang rape in New Delhi</a> and<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256386/Steubenville-rape-case-Video-shows-group-high-school-students-laughing-girls-ordeal.html" target="_blank"> smalltown USA</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism" target="_blank">daily street harrassment of women </a>EVERYWHERE, murder EVERYWHERE, child abuse EVERYWHERE. War, famine, pestilence, death. Sometimes I can't help asking myself, how can anyone sane, anyone who cares about <i>anything </i>go on living in this world?<br />
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Lately, though, these times have made me reflect on what I read in the Bible, especially the New Testament. I don't believe in God, and I can buy that Jesus existed, but I don't believe in him as the literal son of God. But I find some of his message as conveyed in the Bible very comforting. The main thing that resonates with me about Jesus and the New Testament is its message about how to keep on living in a world that seems to constantly vibrate with rage and suffering and pain. "Turn the other cheek" is not a doctrine of passivity but instead of acceptance - there will always be shitty stuff going on in the world, there will always be selfish, nasty people inflicting pain on others. The trick is to figure out how to accept that and not take it on board in a personal way, and still go on being positive. To believe that there is something bigger than yourself that makes it all worthwhile. <br />
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It's like the twelve steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous programme - these cause some controversy because of the <a href="http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/info/a/aa981021.htm" target="_blank">spiritual component</a>: the requirement that you believe in, and surrender to, a higher power. Many are suspicious of this, feeling the programme is trying to sneak Jesus in the back door. James Frey famously wrote an "autobiography" in which he recovers from a serious addiction without the twelve steps, which <a href="http://observer.com/2006/01/the-awful-untruth-3/" target="_blank">all turned out to be complete balderdash.</a> (This is not to say that such a recovery is not possible, but the book essentially claimed that the 12 steps was complete rubbish, a harmful assertion to make - especially when it was entirely fictional.)<br />
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But proponents of the Twelve Steps assert that your "higher power" does not have to be God. It can be anything that is meaningful to you, anything outside yourself that gives your life more purpose: your cat, your Grandma, your favourite literary character. This is because they categorise addiction as a spiritual disease. As <a href="http://www.fatherdave.org/article/article_658.html" target="_blank">Reverend David Smith says in his article on addiction</a>:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Here the definition of '<i>spiritual'</i> involves being connected in a
meaningful way to the world. It involves having the ability to extract meaning
from one's experiences. The feeling of belonging and being an important part of
the world is lost as addiction progresses. The sense of knowing oneself and
one's value drifts farther and farther away.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">I'm not an alcoholic, and nor am I religious. But that doesn't mean I think all religious teachings are useless - that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. The purpose of religion is to take on that question, "what is the meaning of all this", and try to provide an answer. That's a question we all grapple with at some point in our lives, and there is stuff that is helpful, even comforting, in texts that deal with this question head-on. Whatever your meaning or your deeper purpose in the world is, it doesn't have to be God or Allah or Shiva - not to take away from that if that <em>is </em>your deeper purpose, but just to say that being without religion is not to condemn yourself and your life to being without meaning.</span><br />
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Sometimes, when all the suffering in the world just seems too much, I think about the helpful stuff I read in the Bible. And I'm sure that when I'm finished with the Bhagavad-Gita, I'll be able to draw on that too.<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><em>As Dostoyevsky keenly noted in</em> <em><a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/2010/09/book-o-day-brothers-karamazov.html#!/2010/09/book-o-day-brothers-karamazov.html" target="_blank">The Brothers Karamazov</a></em>, <a href="http://literaryjukebox.brainpickings.org/post/41341726762" target="_blank"><em>“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”</em></a></span><br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-12353313574665316932013-01-13T18:13:00.004-08:002014-08-15T20:53:10.222-07:00The Hobbit Part Two: The Film Itself!<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Okay, so as promised after <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">my potted history of <em>Hobbit </em>labour disputes</a>, my verdict on the actual film itself! I know that every Tom, Dick and Dwalin is dishing out their opinion on this cinematic opus, but I figured, I exposed my eyeballs to it, I might as well throw in my two cents...<br />
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I should disclose here that I <em>loved </em>LOTR. As a fan of the books and also of Peter Jackson, it's fairly safe to say that this was to be a given (although not a hundred percent safe, as I also thought that if anybody could get <em>The Lovely Bones </em>right as a film it would be Jackson - <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1189344-lovely_bones/" target="_blank">boy was I wrong</a>. Although I have heard there were extenuating factors for this... but anyway, I digress.)<br />
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However, I was not as jazzed-up on the idea of <em>The Hobbit. </em>Unlike <em>LOTR, </em>I haven't read the book (although I do of course have it hoarded in my book-basement; if I were a dragon, books would be my gold) and to be honest, I've always, in my ignorance, perceived it as a kind of inferior kiddy Middle-Earth Lite. I'm sure that's completely unfair. But unfair or not, this made me indifferent to <em>Hobbit's </em>enshrinement in film form.<br />
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In addition the film's <a href="http://mrsmeowssays.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">seemingly endless delays and legal wrangling</a> soured the whole thing somewhat. Plus we'd already seen the production of a large-scale Hollywood movie in New Zealand before, and we'd become jaded by it; we were now well aware of the bad as well as the good. As the fantastic Morgue puts it in <a href="http://morgue.isprettyawesome.com/?p=3976" target="_blank">his blog</a>: "There’s... a frenzy of grump as long-simmering negativity finally boils up around such issues as the cultural worth of the movie, the government’s priorities, our tourism branding and sense of identity, and Peter Jackson’s reputation as a nice guy."<br />
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And then, on top of all that, the announcement that <a href="http://screenrant.com/hobbit-3-movie-trilogy/" target="_blank"><em>The Hobbit </em>was going to be split into three movies</a>. Not just two. <em>Three. </em>This led to a whole slew of twitter jokes about Peter Jackson, such as "PRETEND to be <strong>Peter Jackson</strong> by taking six days to tell anyone who asks what you did at the weekend" from <a href="https://twitter.com/Twips2" target="_blank">Twips2</a> and "This day is going slower than a football game directed by <strong>Peter Jackson," </strong>from <a href="https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt" target="_blank">OhNoSheTwitnt</a>. Others felt this decision was a cynical <a href="http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Third-Hobbit-Movie-Creative-Risk-Or-Cash-Grab-32195.html" target="_blank">money-spinning move</a> or the sign of a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/sep/03/peter-jackson-three-hobbit-films" target="_blank">spent creative force</a>.<br />
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Given the feelings I already had in place about the film, it was hard not to be swayed by these arguments. The rationale for three <em>Rings </em>films was clear - dense, detailed, and already a trilogy. But a single-volume children's book?? Was that <em>really</em> necessary?<br />
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Furthering the controversy was Jackson's decision to film the movies at <a href="http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/hobbit-movie-3d-technology-121124.htm" target="_blank">48 frames per second</a>, twice as many as the standard 28. Reactions to this were mixed. Intially, <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2012/12/critics-on-the-hobbits-high-frame-rate.html" target="_blank">critics attacked it</a>, almost universally disliking the look of the technology on the screen. The result was described as resembling a video game or Hi-Def TV; plasticky, too real. As the <em>Village Voice </em>critic stated,<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">This 'high-frame rate' <i>Hobbit</i> features exceptionally sharp, plasticine images the likes of which we might never have seen on a movie screen before, but which <i>do</i> resemble what we see all the time on our HD television screens, whether it's <i>Sunday Night Football</i>, <i>Dancing With the Stars,</i> or a game of Grand Theft Auto. (Indeed, most TVs now have a menu setting that can, if you so desire, lend this look to everything you watch—a setting appropriately christened by some gearheads as the 'soap opera effect.')"</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://movieline.com/" target="_blank">Movieline</a> has published an article providing a scientfic explanation of why <a href="http://movieline.com/2012/12/14/hobbit-high-frame-rate-science-48-frames-per-second/" target="_blank">"The Hobbit Looks Bad a 48fps."</a></span><br />
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None of this sounds particularly encouraging. And yet despite <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/hobbit-headaches-reports-film-sickens-fans-135246112--abc-news-movies.html" target="_blank">instances of 48fps-induced motion sickness in some audience members</a>, the film has gone on <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9750840/The-Hobbit-breaks-US-box-office-record-for-December.html" target="_blank">to become a great</a> success, at least financially.<br />
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However, though we have been here before, the making of a large-scale Hollywood production in NZ is still sufficiently novel to be a bit exciting, and to engender curiosity about the results. Plus, as <em>anyone </em>who lives in Wellington will be able to say, I knew people who worked on it. It would be nice to honour their labour by seeing the finished product. Then there was the fact of the new technology - I'm always tickled and intrigued by novelty, and by firsts. Finally, to tip the scales was the arrival over the holidays of a dear friend visiting from London and his desire to see <em>The Hobbit </em>in good old "new Zild," as she was made. <br />
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So off we went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_Theatre,_Wellington" target="_blank">The Embassy</a>. The $20.50 (!!) ticket price was duly paid, and the glasses donned. An unexpected journey, indeed.<br />
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While the 48fps didn't make me feel sick, thank God, it was certainly weird. It took a while to get used to it. It certainly does look "hyper-real" - more real than real, with the kinds of crisp edges you'd expect if God was a Virgo and used a ruler to design the world. Also everything seems cartoonishly bright, and sometimes the character's movements seem to take place almost too fast for you to perceive them normally - they seem juddery, stuttery, like you can see the movement fanned out in front of you in instalments.<br />
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The 3-D however, is quite effective - I certainly started out of my seat more than once, and at intervals during the film, which is thorough. Usually you get the impression that film-makers lay all the 3-D stuff on right at the beginning and then can't be bothered much after that.<br />
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I thought Martin Freeman was a perfect choice for Bilbo. He is extremely hobbity and at times even resembles a possible young Ian Holm.<br />
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<a href="http://www.chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hobbit7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hobbit7.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a>As for the story, it takes a little while to get going, although I suspect that's Tolkien's fault rather than the film-makers'. The introduction to all the dwarves, though long, does establish their character very well - certainly, the tone of these films will clearly be quite different from LOTR in the hands of the profane, bodily dwarves. I must say, Gandalf comes off as something of a jerk, inviting all these guys to Bilbo's without his permission and allowing them to eat him out of house and home and track mud throughout the house. Jolly bad show, Gandalf!<br />
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Interestingly class divisions seem pretty clear, not just among the races of Middle Earth (ie "upper-class" Elves vs "working class" Dwarves) but also within the dwarves themselves; the King of the motley bunch, for example, is more human-seeming and handsome than the rest of them. Message: nobility= better looking... but oh well, this is Hollywood after all, plus a story from a British writer, so inescapable!<br />
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Anyway, once the story gets going, it's a real cracker. As I mentioned before, I haven't read the book so I have no expectations or pre-conceptions, and I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's a real adventure story, there's always something exciting happening and it moves along really quickly. However, though it's about an important quest and the scriptwriters have been careful to make it clear that there are dark forces building, foreshadowing LOTR, it has a much lighter tone than those films (as you would expect, being adapted from a children's book). There are moments of levity to balance the dangerous set-pieces, and all in all I found the pace was deftly judged. It's a fairly long movie - almost three hours - but once the initial set-up was out of the way, I honestly didn't notice the time. Having seen this first instalment, I think perhaps the three films decision wasn't so venal after all.<br />
<a href="http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17zj66lpa0x5yjpg/original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17zj66lpa0x5yjpg/original.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><br />
I think this lack of familiarity with the story may have served me well as a viewer. David Larsen, who reviewed the film for <em>The Listener, </em>is a great fan of the book and therefore suffered; dear readers, <a href="http://www.listener.co.nz/entertainment/film/down-the-rabbit-hole-a-review-of-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey/" target="_blank">he did not like it</a>. I can't compare the film to its source material, at this stage, so I don't know how much I could agree with his assessment. But I do think he's possibly a little unfair in terms of the challenges that arise from adapting a book into a film. He objects to extra material put into the film, particularly relating to the Wizard, Radagast the Brown. Well, maybe Radagast is a bit cheesy, a bit childish<em>.</em> But it is a <em>family </em>film. (And I actually quite enjoyed him and his chariot of hares.) He also serves well to provide a window into what's happening in Greenwood, to become Mirkwood, and to foreshadow the rise of Sauron and the Witchkings - AKA the Ringwraiths or the Nazgul. It also clarifies Gandalf's ability to appeal to the giant eagles, both in this film and the LOTR. So I understand the expansion of his part in the story.<br />
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Other thoughts: though you do get used to the 48fps, there are points where it doesn't quite come off. The main offender in this category I felt was Rivendell, which looked like - well, you know when you go to a Thai restaurant and they have those bright pictures of landscapes with oscillating lights behind them to simulate the movement of waterfalls? Yeah, it looked like that. Not very dignified for those stick-up-the-bum Elves.<br />
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Also, Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin, King and leader of the Dwarves in the company, is clearly <em>The Hobbit's </em>Aragorn. But I'm not entirely sure he's up to the task. It takes a very good actor to pull off a part like that because serious and po-faced is extremely hard to do convincingly. David Larsen thinks it is the fault of an overly broad script, but I'm not so sure; I just don't think he has the necessary gravitas, quite. But perhaps he'll develop it over the next two movies.<br />
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On the whole, I have to say I actually really enjoyed it, much more than I expected, and was thoroughly entertained - enough to not begrudge my over $20 ticket. (And that's really saying something!) Even enough to want to find out what happens next.<br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-80799551437505678622013-01-09T15:59:00.000-08:002013-01-09T15:59:42.182-08:00The Hobbit, Part One: An Unexpected Change of Labour Laws, and Other Litigation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, <em>The Hobbit </em>is finally here! And I went to see it! But before I give you my sterling opinion, I thought I'd discuss the hoopla the preceded its arrival to our cinemas. Oy - talk about a troubled process!<br />
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The production of the film itself was so drawn-out and painful - we're talking years - that it kind of sucked any anticipation out of the whole venture. First of all, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/media/27movie.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">Peter Jackson, the Tolkien Estate and Harper Collins sued New Line</a> over claims of underpayment. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868219/" target="_blank">Guillermo del Toro</a> was slated to direct and <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/2434523/Hobbit-director-sets-up-his-man-cave" target="_blank">hung around in Wellington a good long while,</a> but the film was held up by <a href="http://screenrant.com/mgm-bankruptcy-the-hobbit-james-bond-ross-27635/" target="_blank">studio backer MGM's money troubles</a> and finally had to bail when <a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/Guillermo-Del-Toro-departs-The-Hobbit/tabid/418/articleID/158436/Default.aspx" target="_blank">his three-year commitment was set to expand into six</a>. In the end, Jackson, though reluctant to direct the film himself (<a href="http://screenrant.com/peter-jackson-direct-the-hobbit-ross-62703/" target="_blank">he was already committed to other projects</a>) <a href="http://www.showbizspy.com/article/215768/peter-jackson-agrees-to-direct-the-hobbit.html" target="_blank">agreed to step behind the director's megaphone.</a><br />
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So finally, the film was actually ready to be made - financed, greenlit, with a director and everything. But the gods of strife weren't through with it yet. <a href="http://screenrant.com/the-hobbit-delays-peter-jackson-ulcer-kofi-98446/" target="_blank">Jackson was hospitalised with a perforated ulcer</a>, further delaying the project. And there were further catastophes to come - which were to actually impact on New Zealand legislation.<br />
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Looking back, the <em>LOTR </em>films were a heady time. Having a major Hollywood production so firmly and publically based here was a first for New Zealand, and people were just so grateful and excited that it was happening that the production was buoyed by a general sense of beneficence. The country pulled together to get it made (Billy Crystal wasn't far off with his joke about every single person in NZ being involved - we all have about one degree of separation now between ourselves and Viggo Mortensen) and indeed I often think it couldn't have been what it was without that "number 8 fencing wire" effort. What did it matter that extra work wasn't very well paid for most, or that the hours were long, safety conditions not the greatest - you were helping to make Lord of the Rings! You were in a Kiwi-made Hollywood film, helping to create history!<br />
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By the time <em>The Hobbit </em>came around, though, innocence had been lost. We knew the American production crews referred to us as "Mexicans with cellphones". The lawsuits and the financial problems had soured the whole thing somewhat. And Kiwi actors were acutely aware of the protections afforded to their American counterparts that were denied them.<br />
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As Professor McAndrew of Otago University and Associate Prof Martin Risak, of Vienna University, Austria, stated in their article, "Shakedown in the Shaky Isles: Union Bashing in New Zealand", (published in the United States-based Labour Studies Journal): "...actors coming to New Zealand to work on <i>The Hobbit</i> project work under the union-negotiated contracts of their home countries, supplemented by any individual 'personal services' contracts," while their Kiwi counterparts had no such union protection or employment rights. To Actors Equity New Zealand and their Australian parent, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, <em>The Hobbit</em>, as a huge production with multi-millions of dollars at stake, represented a chance to take a stand and negotiate the same rights for NZ actors as their fellows in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.<br />
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The Actors Equity <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4267919/The-Hobbits-whipping-boy-talks" target="_blank">tried to set up a meeting with the films' producers, but were refused</a>. So to prove they meant business, they called for an international union <a href="http://themovieblog.com/2010/peter-jackson-responds-to-new-zealand-hobbit-boycott/" target="_blank">boycott of the production</a>.<br />
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Chaos ensued. While the conditions that the actors were asking for were not actually all that unreasonable - pay rates, employee rather than contractor status, fair contract terms - the boycott resulted in (predictable) studio threats to <a href="http://screenrant.com/the-hobbit-new-zealand-peter-jackson-kofi-83734/" target="_blank">relocate the film to other, more employment-law amenable countries.</a> Not only did <a href="http://themovieblog.com/2010/peter-jackson-responds-to-new-zealand-hobbit-boycott/" target="_blank">this anger Jackson</a>, it also angered <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4222575/Wellington-actors-oppose-boycott" target="_blank">other actors</a> who were not happy with Actors Equity choosing this platform to protest their conditions, and <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/4254453/March-over-The-Hobbit" target="_blank">film technicians of various kinds</a> who were not even included in discussions over employment conditions. (Ah, actors, so self-absorbed... :P)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwzOABwKslDrktuZOKcJ_HGP4FXaifZ3fTc9nwLSZK3yNfC_aey5X6cmFRFHY7UKhNbfq7AA_6JEQX0qvP1rdR_j0W4OilCej65TZpjOyV56wvYNqoxx58rUwBVB7TJtrbiImEBDmm_M/s1600/fuck+you+all+nz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwzOABwKslDrktuZOKcJ_HGP4FXaifZ3fTc9nwLSZK3yNfC_aey5X6cmFRFHY7UKhNbfq7AA_6JEQX0qvP1rdR_j0W4OilCej65TZpjOyV56wvYNqoxx58rUwBVB7TJtrbiImEBDmm_M/s320/fuck+you+all+nz.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Ultimately, even though <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/nz-actors-equity-ends-hobbit-boycott-amid-warners-threat-to-move-offshore/story-e6frg996-1225941589481" target="_blank">Actors Equity had called off the boycott by this point</a>, the National- led government weighed in and used the dispute as an opportunity to brown-nose an American corporation and bash unions all at the same time. (John Key's erection must have been prolonged and extremely painful - I hope so.) <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/27/the-hobbit-deal-new-zealand" target="_blank">They offered Warner Brothers a $25 million tax break and also changed labour laws - <em>actually changed NZ legislation</em> - to strip New Zealand film workers of their employment rights</a>. <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10683613" target="_blank">Opportunistic</a>? Too right.<br />
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If you're wondering what all this contractor-vs-employee stuff means, it's enshrined in a 2003 court case, <em><a href="http://www.nzjournal.org/NZJER36(3).pdf" target="_blank">Bryson vs Three Foot Six</a>. </em> James Bryson was employed by Weta Workshop to make miniatures and was provided a contract given to all crew which named him as a "contractor" and "independent contractor". When you are an employee, you have certain conditions - sick leave, set hours, redundancy payments. Contractors are not entitled to any of these, and their contract can be terminated at any time. However, when Bryson was made redundant, he took a case to the Employment Court, alleging that he was in fact an employee, despite what was stated in his contract.<br />
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As the New Zealand Journal edition on "The 'Hobbit Law': Exploring Non-standard Employment" states:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">The Emploment court <span style="font-size: small;">considered that Mr. Bryson had been an employee (</span></span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><em>Bryson v Three Foot Six, 2003</em></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">). It noted that the label given to the relationship was not to be treated as decisive. The Court had recourse to a wide range of matters, such as the control exerted over Mr Bryson and the extent of his integration into the business. For example, he could not accept other work engagements and had fixed hours of work, taxes were deducted at source; payment for statutory holidays was at double time or a day in lieu; the company provided him with protective equipment; all items created were to be the sole and exclusive property of the company, Three Foot Six. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: magenta;">Mr. Bryson had also worked closely with other members of the miniatures team and, as such, was thoroughly integrated. At the beginning of his engagement, he had received six weeks of training so it could not be said that he had contracted his skills from the outset. The Court also noted that Mr. Bryson‟s contract with the company read like a contract of service and rejected submissions that such terms and conditions were nothing more than common industry practice. The Employment Court determined that the real nature of Mr. Bryson‟s relationship with the company was that of employee and employer. Judge Shaw made the point that the decision was one made based on Bryson‟s particular circumstances.</span> </span><br />
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Three Foot Six went to the Court of Appeal who overturned the case on the grounds of "industry practice" and concern that there would be a negative effect on the NZ film industry if Bryson was successful. It then went to the Supreme Court which restored the Employment Court's decision. Among other observations it noted that: <span style="color: magenta;">"</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: magenta;">evidence of industry practice did not seem to describe relationships similar to that between Mr. Bryson and Three Foot Six, and that prevailing industry practice ought not to obscure a consideration of the contract as it had operated in reality."</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Warner Bros used this case to argue that "<span style="font-size: small;">the "uncertainty" of New Zealand employment law was affecting their decision on whether to commit to filming in this country." Ughh.</span></span><br />
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It's an interesting issue. I, as with probably everybody else in Wellington, know people that have worked or continue to work on these films. Yes, for some it's lucratively paid. But this often thanks to the hours and hours of overtime that have to be put in to get stuff done to insane deadlines. These deadlines are set by the fat money cats at the top, who don't particularly care what conditions people have to work in to get the movie done, they just want it done as quickly as possible to extract as much profit as they can. This means it's pretty much impossible to have any other kind of life while you're working on a film - pretty rough, especially if you have a family.<br />
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The other reason this work is lucratively paid is because of its contractor status. Contractors are monetarily rewarded for their lack of conditions and benefits that go along with being an employee, especially job stability. You might work for three months getting paid hundreds of dollars a day, but then you might not have any other work for a year and a half. Or maybe you think you'll get work for three months but after three days you never get called back to set. You're not entitled to any kind of explanation or compensation. It's a pretty stressful lifestyle.<br />
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Actors - in New Zealand, at least - have no rights or control over how their image may be used after filming. They're paid for their labour time, that's it. If your voice pops up in an ad, or your face on a poster, or a toy, or whatever, you've got no recompense. That's kind of scary.<br />
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In a lot of ways film work is a bit of a rough deal, which exploits peoples' desire to work in a creative industry. I think what Actors Equity was asking for was fair enough, and should really be extended to all film production workers, whether in front of the camera or not. But I have to agree with <a href="http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/207757/article-analyses-film-law-change-controversy" target="_blank">Professor MacAndrew</a> that:<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">The New Zealand Actors Equity campaign over collective-agreement negotiations had been "ill-advised" and the union's involvement with the Australian-based Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance was "probably a strategic mistake", the article said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">As unfair as the conditions are and as just the struggle might be, there were a lot of people who just wanted the chance to work on the damn films and advance the struggle in other ways. Plus there's the fact that we were helmed by a government that is willing to sell their own country out - prove us, indeed, as smiling corporate toadies, happy to thank master for the crumbs off his table. How embarrassment!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.gateworld.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/judge_ageofhobbits_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.gateworld.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/judge_ageofhobbits_poster.jpg" width="228" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">Once the dust had all settled on that one (although the consequences will be with us for a long time), litigation and controversy <em>still </em>weren't done with <em>The Hobbit. </em><a href="http://www.themarysue.com/hobbit-lawsuit-animals/" target="_blank">There were allegations of animal cruelty and neglect, and Warner Bros. were sued by the Tolkien estate for licensing Hobbit slot machines</a> (!And rightly so, I should say!!!) Then there was <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hobbit-trademark-lawsuit-producers-enlist-394685" target="_blank">a low-budget movie <em>The Age of the Hobbits, </em>set for release in the same week as <em>The Hobbit, </em>which duly got sued</a>; I mean, of course, but I can't help feeling that's a little mean-spirited. And oh, my God, I just saw that it has <a href="http://www.officialbailing.com/" target="_blank">Bai Ling</a> in it and it looks magnificent, I so have to see this! But anyway that's another story for another time my little hobbits...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So there's a whistle-stop tour of how <em>The Hobbit </em>led to a change in our employment laws. Tune in next time to find out what I thought of the actual movie!</span><br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-74302814667969110822012-12-19T18:44:00.001-08:002012-12-19T18:44:59.108-08:00Book o' the Day: The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGCzdcIip00ujOjsdYDnGV2MvMcUp-FHxYsQcF3DDXLZybqGU0rdM8lki3LxrkVgxZSwFQNmnuQWUxvRx7kGWj1aNEsTMHXgGXPLTV9gSFxU1FsC8yvq4qpsgRcXyWwcWo1gAm1IOl8Y7z/s1600/9780552774345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGCzdcIip00ujOjsdYDnGV2MvMcUp-FHxYsQcF3DDXLZybqGU0rdM8lki3LxrkVgxZSwFQNmnuQWUxvRx7kGWj1aNEsTMHXgGXPLTV9gSFxU1FsC8yvq4qpsgRcXyWwcWo1gAm1IOl8Y7z/s320/9780552774345.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
Though Germaine Greer is a "founding mother" of modern feminism, her legacy looming large over all of us, this is my first personal encounter with her work. She's definitely a provocative figure who is not at all worried about what others think of her, and likewise she inspires strong reactions; it seems rare that people have a neutral reaction to Germaine Greer. As a case in point, my own dear Ma, on being told I was reading Greer, responded "Dear God, why? A bitter mad cow." I suspect she is not the only person out there with this view.<br />
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So I approached this book with some trepidation - what was I going to find within its covers? Would the fury contained within blow my hair off? Would it be bitter, harping, extreme, enraging?<br />
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What I did find was in some ways surprising. Polemical, indeed, as the Guardian states on the cover, but it's also very measured and reasoned, its arguments well-thought-out and supported by a substantial amount of research. She states at the beginning that this is the book she vowed never to write, as she believed it would not be necessary. But she found that instead of declining, women's oppression merely mutated and evolved in surprising and disturbing ways, while in some cases business as usual simply continued. Thus the anger she had hoped would be put to sleep was roused again - it had some more work to do.<br />
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It's interesting coming into Greer's work at this point; this book was published in 1999, thirty years after its predecessor <em>The Female Eunuch. </em>Having not read it yet, I can't make any comparisons. But I can say that right away a patterned response began which was to continue throughout my reading of the book: at first, incredulity, then a dawning "ah, I see what you meant by that statement" as I read through the body of the chapter, to either persuasion or at least a healthy respect by the end.<br />
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The book is broken up into four main sections - "Body", "Mind", "Love" and "Power", which are then further divided into what Greer calls "chapterkins." These average out at about twelve pages each, and outline a reasoned argument in their stated topic. Breaking up the book this way makes the ideas and arguments digestible, allowing the possibilty for the reader to contemplate Greer's take on each topic separately, while also appreciating the overarching shape of the whole as you progress.<br />
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Greer certainly makes some controversial assertions. One of the ones I found the most difficult was her opposition to recognising male-to-female transsexuals as women because "the insistence that man-made women be accepted as women is the institutional expression of the mistaken conviction that women are defective males." However, I do agree with and appreciate her eloquent argument that feeling the need to radically alter the body with painful surgery is not necessarily the best or healthiest solution to a desire to fit into socially-determined gender roles. She discusses the existence of sexes beyond the binary-division male-female model in other cultures; I have often felt that the need to fit into one of two very starkly and narrowly defined sex-roles is harmful for <em>everyone</em>, not least the people we currently define as "trans". It would be far less harmful if we were able to accept feminine, womanly men as just that (and vice-versa) rather than forcing them to commit to painful and only ever partially successful procedures to fit the mould of how they "should" "naturally" be. The way that they already are is their "natural" state of being, and acceptance of this could solve a lot of heartache, money and physical pain.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/files/imagecache/home_content_listing_large_thumbnail/Germaine-Greer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://www.themonthly.com.au/files/imagecache/home_content_listing_large_thumbnail/Germaine-Greer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The awesome Ms Greer enjoying a well-deserved glass of wine.</td></tr>
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I also found her discussion about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) fairly challenging - while I feel a general outrage and abhorrence about the subject, she argues that the issue is more complex than the West would have it (disclosure: she has actually visited the countries where this is practiced and explored the issues among the cultures themselves, so she certainly has more first-hand experience than I probably ever will) and that we in the West must be careful of using this issue as a tool to "reinforce our notions of cultural superiority". However challenging I found this, though, I did appreciate her informed and nuanced view of the situation and I'm glad I was exposed to someone looking at it from a different perspective.<br />
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At times I did find Greer's perspective to be a bit essentialist for my taste, but it was also refreshing to have a woman who was passionate about feminism but also heterosexual helping to dispel some of the "punk-rock guilt" that can accumulate as a feminist - ladies, you'll probably know what I mean. I also want to applaud her overarching point, that agitating for "equality" is meaningless to most of us when this simply means eqaul opportunity to participate in a patriarchal system that is grossly unfair and oppressive to most <em>men </em>let alone women. She also brings in a wider view than many theorists, pointing out that poverty is becoming vastly feminised, not just within developed countries but also on a global scale as these same developed countries enrich themselves on the resources and labour of the Third World, exploiting their poverty to fill up our shops with cheap, disposable items and blood-drenched coffee-beans.<br />
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I came out of this book feeling informed, challenged, and you know what, affectionate towards its writer. Though I'm sorry for the reasons behind it, I'm glad Greer wrote this book and I think anyone who is interested in gender issues and feminism would get a lot out of it. I'm also very interested in what she would think of many of the developments that have occurred since; 1999 is over ten years ago now, and in our accelerated age so much has changed even over this period of time. I have no doubt, though, that whatever she'd have to say, she'd come out swinging.<br />
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<strong>Post-Script Warning:</strong> The "Body" section contained a lot of unflinching discussion of female medical experiences that made me squirm the way men do when someone gets kicked in the balls during a movie. So watch out for that. Still, it's worth it.<br />
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Greer_3-6"></sup><br />
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Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038115348765429397.post-25165067054581452052012-12-05T00:12:00.000-08:002012-12-11T16:51:51.743-08:00High Hells<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.evilbeetgossip.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Feet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.evilbeetgossip.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Feet.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guest Appearance: SJP's feet. Ew.</td></tr>
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I see them posted on Trade Me: <i>High hells </i>of all colours and descriptions. I know it's a typo, and I always have a little chuckle over it (to me it never gets old, for some reason), but I also have to reflect that it's a typo that stumbles over a truth. High heels <i>are </i>hell. They are unnatural, uncomfortable, and prolonged wear can (and probably will) <a href="http://www.personalhealthzone.com/high_heels.html" target="_blank">damage your feet permanently</a>. To wear them is to become The Little Mermaid, forever walking on knife-blades in your effort to be a Real Woman.<br />
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So why do they persist? This is actually a deceptively complex question which would take much history and sociological analysis to even begin to answer, but fashion pundits <a href="http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/" target="_blank">Tom & Lorenzo</a> provide an aesthetic summary in <a href="http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2012/09/yea-or-nay-prada-spring-2013-shoes.html" target="_blank">their discussion of Prada's stunningly ugly 2012 spring collection shoes</a>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: magenta;">The one thing you can say about the standard high-heeled shoe, in response to entirely reasonable criticisms that they’re painful, physically damaging and ultimately a little sexist, is that they’re aesthetically pleasing. The lines of the average pump, slingback, or peeptoe are lovely to look at, whether a human foot resides in them or not. We think that has a lot to do with why they’ve become a classic and why women’s footwear hasn’t really changed all that much in the last 50 years ... that, and the idea that they somehow “improve” the shape of a woman’s leg and that straight men find them sexy. And we’ve heard many a lady say that she likes wearing heels because they make her feel more powerful and confident.</span></span><br />
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My friends and I have lately taken to remarking how grateful we are that we spent our formative years in the 90's; in the decade of Grunge, it was something of a sin to be <i>too </i>girly, unless you were doing it in a performative, riot grrrrrl sort of way. In high school it was unisex flannel shirts and jeans all the way, and shoes were furnished by Doc Marten or Converse. What a fantastically <i>comfortable </i>time to be a young woman! There was little pressure to compromise comfort for sexualised display (at least, for myself and my friends). We didn't totter about in stilletos - in fact, we scorned the very idea. Clothes were functional and comfortable; the emphasis was on anti-glamour and recycling - rifling the Salvation Army was our vice, and campus was an explosion of multi-coloured polyester wonders (and the inevitable B.O that would follow).<br />
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However, as the 2000's took over and the <i>fin de siecle </i>has receded, high heels and "femininity" has come back, with a vengeance. It's been bemusing and sometimes alarming (and weirdly surprising, although I shouldn't have been surprised I guess, everything comes back eventually - witness: harem pants) to watch this, as an ageing member of the Grunge generation. Frequently I'll pass groups of young women in the streets tottering along on outrageously high heels or wedges, their feet imprisoned by frighteningly complex-looking networks of straps. So different from ourselves at that age.<br />
<a href="http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/297/53/53297/1349555036-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/297/53/53297/1349555036-0.jpg" width="213" /></a><br />
But the thing is, I also <i>get </i>it. As a young child, I was extremely girly - as in, refusing to wear trousers of any kind girly. I <i>loved </i>Barbie. I loved those strange pointy feet, shaped so to enable them to fit into her dainty little plastic stilletos. I loved the <i>clip-drag-clip </i>sound women in high heels made as they strode through the streets. I couldn't <i>wait </i>until I too was a woman and I could take on this great badge of woman-hood.<br />
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But then the day came, dear reader, and I actually <i>wore </i>some. How did those glamorous women on TV, in the streets, make it look so effortless??? In these tiny, precarious little stilts I clopped and stomped like a Clydesdale. But worst of all, they <i>hurt. </i>Oh, how they hurt. It was a special kind of pain I'd never felt before, like multiple devils swarming over your feet, each one a specialist in podiatric suffering: the <i>burning </i>in the balls of your feet. The chafing at the heels. The pain of the over-extended calf. The unnatural, tiny steps of locomotion, like a sparrow trying to eat a sandwich. In the end your feet feel like they are on <i>fire</i>. It's like childbirth - you cannot truly know the pain until you have experienced it. On the odd occasions I am in a McDonald's at three in the morning and I see lines of young women standing in barefoot finery on the filthy ground, I wince - but I understand.<br />
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And yet - still, somewhere in my heart there is a corner of love for these instruments of torture. A child-hood decade of 80's conditioning - the Age of the Stilleto - cannot be undone. Heels retain their unmistakeable faery glamour, no matter how much my feminist side is ashamed of this dirty, secret desire. I can't help but yearn after them, find some of them beautiful, fantasize about wearing them - even as I know that really, I <i>can't, </i>no matter how much I secretly-shamefully want to.<br />
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Today I wore a pair of heels, a rare occasion. They're a pair I bought from Trade Me which seduced me with their simple black classicity (and nifty ten dollar price). Plus they looked kind of wedgy so I figured they'd be more stable, manageable. (I can extend to wedges sometimes.) Today was the first time I'd worn them, and to my chagrin they turned out to be higher and more tottery than I'd expected. They're pretty, but I feel off-balance wearing them, like I'm poised, on-edge, constantly ready to take flight. Each step feels a little unsteady, setting off a tiny flutter of anxiety.<br />
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That loud <i>clip-clop </i>sound I admired so much as a child now embarrasses me. It feels showy and show-offy, brash and invasive like a moustachioed boor at a party. And worst of all, they are constraining. You cannot stride in shoes like this; only move forward in little nips.<br />
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As I clipped-nipped my way home from the supermarket, two young girls came running past me in their jeans and sneakers, gloriously mobile and free. It made me consider my veneration of heels when <i>I </i>was a child, versus the frustrating reality. How would I have felt had I known that this symbol of womanhood meant hobbled constraint? Isn't it interesting - and sinister - that footwear which "makes women appear "sexy" to straight men" also prevents them from being able to run away? A comparison to <a href="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-foot-binding" target="_blank">Chinese foot-binding</a> may seem heavy-handed (footed?), exaggerated - but apparently <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/latest-cosmetic-surgery-fad-toe-shortening/story?id=12348192&page=1#.UL78nuSsiSo" target="_blank">surgery to remove some of women's toes so they can fit into "cute shoes"</a> is growing in popularity.<br />
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A lot of what we find "sexy" is culturally determined; it is not a universal truth that wearing shoes such as high heels is considered to make a woman look more attractive. It pays to reflect on what "trends" or preferences such as these may reflect about our cultural values, or about women's perceived place in our society. Women and men's legs aren't really that different from each other in their natural state; why do we not consider high heels to look just as good on men as they do on women? As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem" target="_blank">Gloria Steinem said, "If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?"</a> What does the shape that the foot must be forced into to fit into a high heel shoe say about the owner of that foot?<br />
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In spite of all these reflections - and, as Tom & Lorenzo point out, entirely reasonable criticisms of high-heel shoes, I will probably always admire them, even as I feel troubled by their existence. But no matter - in everyday life it is simply not practical to wear them, an incontrovertible solution to my complicated feelings. As for my lovely-looking but teetery Mimi heels, they will no doubt end up back on Trade Me, among the listings of high hells.<br />
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<br />Mrs meowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04817026674133671866noreply@blogger.com2