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“The male society is letting the men think of the women as something pretty and soft and that kind of thing, especially in those days, you know. So I just wanted to show what we were. Women are the ones who actually created the human race. I mean without us bringing up the new generation, there wouldn’t be a human race. So we have this very strong powerful energy in us. But the world wants to think that it’s the weaker sex. So that’s why I want to bring out this thing from me.”

– Yoko Ono

On how she got the idea to do primal scream-type music (overhearing a a kid people discussing the sound of childbirth).

From Mother Jones via Jezebel.

I wasn’t expecting a lot when I Netflix’d Baby Mama. The movie seemed to come and go when it was released and the lack of buzz took it off my radar pretty quickly. However, I love funny women so I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did.

About a month ago I watched Bride Wars with my friends. I feel like that movie and Baby Mama could be categorized together, in that they’re both movies about women with stereotypical feminine desires, and both have over the top happy resolutions. They’re the kind of movie you’d watch on a lazy Friday night with a few friends and a bottle of wine (or beer). The difference between the two is one of them made me weep for humanity and the other just made me wish for a slight change of ending.

[Spoilers Ahead] Read the rest of this entry »

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

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 »

“There’s a direct connection between a woman’s ability to plan her family, space her pregnancies, and give birth safely, and her ability to get an education, work outside the home, support her family, and participate fully in the life of her community.

When a girl becomes a mother before she becomes literate, when a woman gives birth alone and is left with a permanent disability, when a mother toils daily to feed her large family but cannot convince her husband to agree to contraception, these struggles represent suffering that can and should be avoided. They represent potential that goes unfulfilled. And they also represent an opportunity to extend critical help to women worldwide and the children who depend on them.

Investing in the health of women, adolescents, and girls is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do.”

- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
Remarks on the 15th Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development

Full transcript here via Jezebel.

I’ve touched on 30 Rock before and argued against it as a feminist show.  I’ve reviewed season 1 and watched season 2, and am more often offended and stupified than impressed.  But I keep trying.  Anyway, clearly there are many people who do like 30 Rock and Tina Fey, and Colleen at Cultural Voice Over has an interesting post up about Liz Lemon as a feminist icon.  Here are some of my thoughts about her thoughts:

And then it occurred to me…Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey, of course) of 30 Rock has to be, truly, one of the best female icons on television right now.Essentially, Liz Lemon is a lot like Tina Fey (except “more of a loser,” as Fey herself once said.) But they seem to represent the same concepts and ideas, and the similarities are obvious when comparing Lemon and Fey’s careers and histories.

I had revered Tina Fey as a feminist role model until I started doing a little research and kept getting stuck when trying to put together a 10 Reasons for her.  I’m willing to admit that I’ve made some stretches in the feature before in finding quotes to support the theory that so-and-so is a feminist role model, but Tina was tough.  I found (and continue to find) myself wondering why I had been operating under the assumption that Tina was a feminist – because she’s intelligent?  Because she isn’t overtly and constantly sexual/ized?  Because she wears glasses?  I’m still not sure, but I’ve had trouble finding enough evidence to convince myself she’s a strong feminist role model (not that she needs to be one).

There are oh so many reasons why us women looooove Liz Lemon. She strives and struggles to “have it all!” as a creative writer, business woman, single woman on the New York dating scene, and a sometimes “clock-a-tickin’” wannabe mother.

Stereotypes are dangerous, double-edged swords.  They exist because there is some truth to them, but as often as they provide us with a blueprint for understanding a group of people they fail us in misrepresenting the individuals that compose that group.  As Colleen notes, Liz is never fully satisfied in any of her roles, and never views herself as successful or deserving or confident, despite her clear successes and intelligence.  And the baby-crazed thing is insulting.

Women say they can relate to Lemon because they “eat like her,” or are “dorky” like she is. Or they get nervous around men like she frequently does. We can relate to her. We see her at home, not made-up, hair a mess and lounging around in un-sexy sweats eating blocks of cheese late in the night.

It’s nice to see a dorky, unique character on tv.  It’s nice to see her as an independent career woman.  It’s nice to see someone who eats.  However, Liz is always either ashamed of her eating or mocked, teased or insulted by her coworkers about them.  The things that we see in Liz that are reflections of ourselves are things that Liz is constantly dogged for and never defends.  Jack is Liz’s boss, so it wouldn’t be easy for her to confront his misogyny, but ignoring and taking it day-in and day-out isn’t really inspiring.

I started watching 30 Rock hoping that Tina Fey’s influence would create an awesome feminist role model in Liz Lemon, and I have been disappointed at every turn.  What’s your perspective?

“Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers
- in a word, better citizens.”

- Mary Wollstonecraft
From A Vindication on the Rights of Women
(1792)

1. She values health for health’s sake, not for beauty’s sake.

“Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”

2. She believes in the importance of identity.

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”

3. She understands the difficulty inherent in being a working mother…

“The work-life balance is a harsh reality for so many women, who are forced every day to make impossible choices. Do they take their kids to the doctor…and risk getting fired? Do they work weekends so they can afford to send their kids to better childcare…even though it means even less time with their families? Do they take another shift at work, so they can pay for piano lessons for their kids…even though it means they have to stop volunteering for the PTA? It just shouldn’t be this difficult to raise healthy families.”

4. …and what that “personal is political” phrase is all about.

“Policies that support families aren’t political issues.  They’re personal.  They’re the causes I carry with me every single day.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Although Rosemary’s Baby is considered a classic horror film by many, and a feminist film by some, I had never given the flick any thought, nor had I seen it before.  Once again, my self-imposed Halloween Movie Marathon gave me the excuse to check out something I otherwise might not have, and particularly with the recent Roman Polanski developments, this seemed like as good a time as any to give it a shot.

Themes of female oppression and patriarchal dominance abound in this film, which was based on the book of the same title by Ira Levin, who also wrote the novel The Stepford Wives.  Although I’ve never had much interest in the Nicole Kidman Stepford Wives remake, after Rosemary’s Baby I’m interested to see the original and some more of Levin’s interpretation of mid 20th century women’s roles. My thoughts on whether or not this is a feminist film after the jump.

If Carrie is a story about the horrors of adolescence, Misery is a story of the horrors of middle age.

When romance author Paul Sheldon is in a terrible car accident, his life is forever changed by an act of (bad) fortune as Annie Wilkes pulls him from the vehicle.  A former nurse, Annie sets Paul’s broken bones, medicates his pain, and shelters him in her own home, claiming that the phone lines are down and she couldn’t get him to a hospital.  Soon Paul realizes that Annie, his #1 fan, is much more than he bargained for – she keeps him locked in his room, heavily medicated, and prohibits him from contacting anyone to let them know he’s alive.  Annie forces Paul to rewrite his last novel, which was not to her liking, and as she fetches supplies he explores her home, learning about her treacherous history as a nurse and searching for an escape.  Paul must constantly be on the lookout for any opportunity to escape, and tread carefully so as not to tip off (or set off) Annie.

The film reverses the roles of typical hostage films, plays with the caretaker role women are so often expected to fulfill, and gives us a deeper glance at Stephen King’s Freudian complex with mothers.  An investigation of these themes after the jump.

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