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There were two things that had me pumped up about The Wild Things: 1. Jim Henson muppets, and 2. Karen O.  I was never very attached to the story as a kid, and was pretty sure that it was going to be a hyped-up-indie-fest as a film.  However, this was also during that period that I kept going to movies expecting little and being blown away (Away We Go, Jennifer’s Body, Paper Heart, and Whip It!), so maybe that explains the mild obsession that overtook me after seeing The Wild Things last fall.  The film, the soundtrack, and the book all made their mark on me, and all have a little feminist spin in my opinion.  Let’s break it down:

The Film

Sadly this trailer doesn’t incorporate the Karen O led music that really contributes to the feel of the film, nor does it capture what, to me, was the most meaningful theme: Max’s relationship with his mother.  What? you say?  His mother?  Please, this is a story about a naughty and wild little boy. On the surface, yes, but Max’s relationship with his mom is what gave the film depth.

Max is being raised by a single mother who has a new boyfriend, which can be hard on any kid.  It’s hard even into adulthood to understand split parents, and when a newcomer steps in things become even more difficult.  Max was already a pain-in-the-butt kid, and between a fight with his older sister and the apparent intrusion of a new man into his home, he loses it.  He runs away and winds up living among the Wild Things as their king.  And each Wild Thing offers us an insight into Max’s relationship with his mom.  Carol represents the possessiveness Max feels towards her; Alexander represents how ignored he feels; Judith represents his difficult and disagreeable side; Ira represents the doting and needy part of him; and the Bull represents the stoic role our society asks us to show when we’re really experiencing pain.  K.W. on the other hand, represents Max’s mom.

K.W. is warm, loving, kind, and is more complex than the other Wild Things can understand.  She has a different level of maturity, she needs relationships outside of the group.  Carol in particular is resentful of this and alternates between loving K.W. and not knowing how to express it and loathing her in a violent and possessive way.  This is a clear reflection of how Max has treated his mother on the night he ran away.  When Carol turns on Max for letting him down as a king, it is K.W. that protects him, hiding him in her mouth.  For a moment after it is safe, K.W. wants to keep Max, but she understands that as much as she loves him, she must let him go.  Whether Max has the capacity to understand this as deeply as I see it or not, this is the turning point where he realizes he needs his mother and must return to her, hopefully with a new respect for her as a person, not just a mom.

After the jump, an analysis of the soundtrack (including an interview with Karen O.) and the book

A number of hopeful stories in the news this week:

Human Rights Campaign Announces Comprehensive Campaign to End Failed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Law
From HRC:

“The Commander in Chief sent a clear message tonight that in a time of war, what matters is that our men and women get the job done – not whether they’re gay or straight,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Our ‘Voices of Honor’ campaign will bring about much needed action to end this law that the vast majority of Americans oppose.”

Research Shows Two Gay Parents Are Better Than A Single Straight One
From io9, Full scientific article available via Journal of Marriage And Family.

Anti-gay marriage activists have argued vigorously that children need a mother and father. Now a new research study shows that kids do need two parents — but that gender doesn’t matter… finding that it’s ideal if a child is raised by two parents who are “responsible, committed, stable,” but that the gender doesn’t cause radical differences.

Florida allows third gay adoption
From UPI.com via Jezebel.

A Florida judge allowed a lesbian to adopt a child while an appeals court decides whether the state’s ban on gay adoptions is unconstitutional, records show.

Huge LGBT Family Law Victory in PA
From Feminist Law Professors via Jezebel.

For some time now, the Pennsylvania courts have been relatively good at handling legal issues involving lesbian and gay families. For example, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has interpreted state adoption law to permit second-parent adoptions, and it has applied the in loco parentis doctrine to allow a former same-sex partner with no legal connection (e.g., through birth or adoption) to a child of the relationship to nonetheless obtain custody or visitation.

This is all great news, and shows that even though a lot of battles haven’t gone so well, some are still being won.  The war to extend equal rights to all U.S. citizens rages on.

Keep fighting the good fight, everyone.

I’ll be honest – I didn’t expect to like Monsters vs. Aliens.  It looked like a stupid, plotless, action based animation film filled with obnoxious characters voiced by even more irritating actors.  But I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I was!

What wasn’t clear to me in the trailers I saw for the film, but is pretty clear in this one, is that the film really centers around Susan. Wait, what? An action-based animated children’s film with a female lead? Inconceivable!  Of course, she is the only female character, but she’s big and important, which is nice.  Despite her enormity, Susan doubts her ability to use her powers to defeat the attack of a giant robot on San Francisco, but when she sees the people in danger on the Golden Gate Bridge she goes into battle anyway, saving the city.  Her newfound confidence helps her see that her near-husband is actually a shallow, selfish, arrogant a-hole and she becomes (dun-dun-DUN) a confident and powerful single woman.  Whoa.

Even after Susan’s size returns to normal, her confidence and strength remain and she saves the world as an average woman.  An accident enlarges her again, and after her former fiance tries to rekindle their relationship (now that she’s a famous hero, of course) Susan brushes him off to continue fighting evil with her new-found mutant friends.  What a message for boys and girls – girls can be interesting, powerful, and admirable and romance isn’t the most important aspect of their lives.

Diablo Cody has done it again, folks.  The United States of Tara is complex, smart, progressive, and entertaining, and well worth your time.  The show is about a suburban family coping with the typical stresses of work, school, and relationships with a twist: Mom’s got four personalities.

Tara’s persona’s aren’t the most accurate representation of mental illness, although they do manage to use accurate terms: Dissociative Identity Disorder rather than Multiple Personality Disorder – something that Tara regularly has to correct others on.  Instead, her persona’s illustrate the various stereotyped roles women navigate – T, the wild, rebellious, and promiscuous teenager; Alice, the overly-sweet but passive-aggressive 50’s housewife; Buck, the grungy, rough and tough masculine side; and Tara herself who is trying to live a “normal” modern life with her husband and two children while coping with a buried childhood trauma that led to the development of these personas.  As Tara gets closer to that lost memory a fourth alter arises: Gimme, the animalistic child.

But the show isn’t just about Tara.  It’s about family.  Read the rest of this entry »

“I think that when you’re in the public eye, you automatically become a role model, because people are reading about you and looking at pictures of stuff you’ve done. But, you know, no one’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes. I have made mistakes and I will make mistakes. I’m only human.”

- Dakota Fanning

From Daily Express via Jezebel.

In case Kellog’s message about doctors and nurses wasn’t clear, check out these toys:

Remember, boys use blue medical equipment and are called “doctors,” while girls use pink medical equipment and are called “nurses.”  Other combinations of equipment and/or titles are not allowed.

Check out the full post at Sociological Images.

I recently watched Disney/Pixar’s Up for the first time, and yes, it made me cry, and yes, I did like it.  But that’s not to say it didn’t have its flaws.  For one thing, there is a serious imbalance of m:f characters.  The two moderately important female characters are either a) tragically killed off in the first half hour of the film, or b) named Kevin and shockingly revealed to have babies, automatically making her most important role “mother.”  Furthermore, I was fairly certain that the idea of a movie about an old wrinkly grumpy woman and a chubby little girl would never have been so much as produced, let alone popular.

However, I forgot about a little personal favorite of mine: Hoodwinked.

Hoodwinked is a retelling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and retellings of fairy tales always score high marks with me (or at least have the opportunity to).  There is a goody-bandit in town stealing everyone’s goodies and goody recipes in order to open up a giant goody corporation and take over the world.  The protagonist, of course, is our dear Red (voiced by Anne Hathaway) and her Granny (Glenn Close) is also a lead.  So I was wrong about there never being a movie about a little girl and and old woman, although Red is an attractive young woman rather than a chubby little boy, and Granny is a wild extreme sports champion, not a crotchety old dude.

I love Hoodwinked, highly recommend it, and encourage anyone out there with daughters and nieces to share the film with a generation of girls that could use a little more legitimate “girl power.”  However, critics didn’t agree with me.  Hoodwinked received a rating of 48% (rotten) from Rotten Tomatoes, had “mixed or average reviews,” and grossed $110 mil in the box office.  On the other hand, Up received a rating of 98% (fresh) from Rotten Tomatoes, had “positive reviews,” and grossed $702.8 mil worldwide.  Hoodwinked isn’t a “girly” story, but the main character as female automatically divides its target market in half.

Have you seen these films?  How do you think they compared?  And why do films starring women and girls never stand a chance?

I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for SyFy original movies.  The wild plots, hyper-hyperbole, and fantastically noticeable CGI crack me up and hook me at the same time.  Two of my personal favorites include Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus and High Plains Invaders (which happened to star Buffy’s James Marsters as a wild-west sharpshooter killing giant alien-insect-robots in shoot’em ups).  But I’m willing to argue that their recent Alice in Wonderland tribute was actually pretty good, and not just for laughing at.

I’ve always loved Alice in Wonderland. Alice is typically portrayed (and pretty accurately to the book) as a little girl whose adventures in Wonderland primarily consist of her allowing things to happen to her or eating and drinking strange items simply because their labels tell her to.  At worst, this makes her appear foolish and as though she needs a protector, at best this makes her a compliant little girl.  But something about the fantasy and adventure and the fact that Alice is rarely shaken by her experience has always appealed to me.

SyFy’s Alice takes it to a new level.  Alice is now a young adult teaching karate classes and navigating the dating world.  When her new boyfriend Jack gives her a special family ring, she finds herself falling through the looking glass into Wonderland.  Here she sets out (with the help of the Hatter) to rescue Jack and escape back to her world.  Although Hatter really wants to be Alice’s hero, she often ends up using her karate skills to help them escape and really holds her own throughout the movie.  Hatter just wants to save Alice, but Alice is set on saving Jack (a nice twist on the “damsel in distress” trope). Spoilers, more analysis and a little bit of romance after the jump.

When I saw this commercial, I thought oh, that’s nice, the little girl is the doctor and the little boy is the patient!  How refreshing…

But that would be progressive.  Of course, the little girl is the nurse fetching the patient for the little boy doctor.  I mean, how hard would it be for the little girl to be the doctor and the little boy to be the assistant.

Is it a big deal?  Probably not.  But the messages here about what little girls and little boys can grow up to be isn’t lost on me.

Thanks, Kellog’s.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me begin by admitting that I have never liked Adam Sandler.  I think he’s offensive, crude, annoying, stupid, and irritating.  But, as I’m a bit under the weather and laid up on the sofa, I decided to give Sandler’s Disney kids flick Bedtime Stories a shot.  And despite my low expectations, I was disappointed.

Supposedly we’re supposed to empathize with Skeeter, the screw-up poor kid who lost his family’s hotel and has a chance to win it back.  We’re supposed to root for his success and watch the Average Joe beat the wealthy snobs at their own game.  But true to his track record, Bedtime Stories is filled with sexism, racism, and toilet humor.

Read the rest of this entry »

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