Umbrella Friday

I admit, watching lip sync battles is one of my distracting pleasures in life.

Now, I can't say I've ever had a particular interest in Tom Holland, but damn, he looks good in drag and has some impressive dance moves to boot.

In the clip below, the best part begins around minute 2:15, but before that, Zendaya also does a good Bruno Mars impression. And yes, I'm an old, so I had to look up who Zendaya was.

Friday Fun: That Sparring Session

My favorite Game of Thrones characters are as follows, in order:

1) Arya Stark
2) AshaYara Greyjoy
3) Brienne of Tarth

You can imagine my delight at the recent sparring sesh between Brienne and Arya:

Brienne can hold her own against The Hound and Jamie Lannister, but can barely keep up with a much-smaller, much-less-experienced teenager? I don't see it as that far-fetched, actually, and certainly not in the grand scheme of things in Westeros about which we're asked to suspend our disbelief.

In a Big v. Little fight, Arya shows that sometimes, counter-intuitively, it's safer to be in close. There, at least, she isn't at the wrong end of a large sword. It also puts her within striking distance with Needle.

Brienne, for her part, is slower, less flexible, and, at first, flustered. But, she aptly shows that a good way to deal with a smaller, quicker person is by not playing on the smaller person's terms. That is, don't let them inside in the first place. Get rid of the person in one fell swoop: a boot to the chest.

All things considered, I'm glad to see Arya somewhat has a mentor again. Now work together and do something about Littlefinger, yeah?

Also, Very Important Info:

One time, Gwendoline Christie* "liked" one of my Tweets.


*Or her social media person, but please don't ruin this for me.

GLOW Friday

Who is watching GLOW on Netflix?

I just finished Season 1 and found it pretty entertaining, but I'm a sucker for women's sports entertainment and TV/Movies Featuring a Strong Female Lead.  What a strong opening scene in the pilot, critiquing the roles available for women in Hollywood.

My only complaint at the moment is that there's like, what, 15 women in the cast? So, why does it seem like approximately 50% of the lines and screen-time go to the male director guy? That might be an exaggeration, but we could have delved more into the other characters' back stories. Although, perhaps Season 2 will head in that direction.

More importantly, I guess the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling did an opening rap before their matches. Now, if you ask me why so many white people rapped in the '80s, I have no answer. I was just a kid. But yes, that was some weird shit.

See for yourself (and the rapping is only like the 10th weirdest thing about this):

Parks and Recreation Friday

I just remembered Li'l Sebastian!

Thinking about this tiny horse made me happy for 23 seconds. I hope it makes you happy too.

Talk about this, or other stuff!

Friday Feeling

[content note: anti-LGBT bigotry]

Feeling nostalgic?

Well, hey hey, the National Organization for [Heterosexual] Marriage (NOM) is back in action, having released a plan to implement their predictable, reprehensible anti-LGBT agenda under a new Administration. Even though NOM was too cowardly to endorse Trump in the general, they just wrote an ass-kissy announcment "heartily" congratulating Trump on his "incredible win."

[insert jack-off motion]

Oh, why hello readers. Gee, I hate to talk about myself in the third person, but the unthinkable happened on 11/8/16 and it appears Zero Fucks Fannie rose from the ashes.

But also, regarding Anti-LGBT Inc. Bring it, assholes.

Beginning next week, I will be posting a series of take-aways from Election 2016, which will sandwich the regular Supergirl recaps. Yeah, yeah, I know. All dozen of you come here exclusively for the rando political/pop culture crossover talk.

Speaking of which, the new Mass Effect game will allegedly be released in about four months, so:

Credit

WayHaught Open Thread Friday

In reading news, I've picked back up Stephen King's The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, apparently just in time for (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT, highlight the following text if you dare) the death of Eddie Dean. Why????  It is true, sai readers, I am known to cry at movies, TV, and books. Don't let my harsh blogging persona fool you, but I was recently a person on a train crying at a book, say sorry.

What are people reading, writing, watching, playing, eating, and/or drinking? Palaver as you will.

And, speaking of gunslingers, who is watching Wynonna Earp?  It has an actual same-sex maintext relationship, if you can believe it, between (spoiler alert?) Waverly and Officer Haught (pronounced "hot" because of course). Speaking of which. Erma Gerd, do you want to watch the absolute cheesiest fan video ever in the history of fan videos? (I do). 

This is the stuff that makes Internet great, folks. 

And remember, in just three Fridays, Election 2016 will be history! Huzzah! Take care of yourselves. Say thankya and so say we all.

 

Puppy Friday

It's official, Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) is adorable, as confirmed by her taking the Puppy Challenge.


Just replace the next presidential debate with this challenge, to be honest, and I think we could learn a lot.

This Friday Was Brought to You By

The Woman Card.

Talk about Hillary, the Election, and/or how it's time for "the Bern" to pack it up.

Or, you know, Pitch Perfect (obvs) or other fun stuff.

Just whatever you talk about, make sure you're exponentially-better at it than everyone else so you can get maybe half the credit!

After all, if we lived in a just world, Bechloe would be canon. Instead, every time we re-watch Pitch Perfect, we have to endure an unbelievable hetero romance and awkwardly-long Beca/Jesse gazes during the Bella's Final Performance, so as to ensure, I guess, that hetero men can sufficiently relate to a movie about a female acapella group.

Just a Quick Post

To say: remember how Sharon Stone was in The Quick and the Dead?

I feel like her character was kind of badass, and also pretty hot. In the movie, I always thought of her as the main character, although it's sort of an ensemble cast where all the other main characters were men. That's always a major missed opportunity with that small fan base known as "women," "lesbian/bisexual women," and "men who also appreciate films with multiple women.'

So, that's today's deep thought. Aren't you so glad you read my blog today?

Claire Danes: Epic Crier

Today's post is dedicated to that feeling of when you at first are elated that Donald Trump did not win the Republican Iowa Caucus but then you quickly realize that that means one of the other nightmare Republican contenders did and that, specifically, that winner turned out to be arch-villain Ted Cruz.

Has there ever been a contest wherein all Republican candidates give you more heebie-jeebies than does Pennywise the Dancing Clown from It? Has there ever been candidate more hated than Cruz, who is hated even among a virtual who's who assemblage of other Republican jerks?

Now, I also feel the need to precede this post by saying that I adore Claire Danes as an actor.

Her portrayal of Angela Chase in My So-Called Life was instrumental in helping me realize that I am a lesbian. Now, yes, I know you're thinking I say that about literally every attractive woman I write about, but I mean it.  I also think she's done a fabulous job in her other work too, particularly Temple Grandin and Homeland.

 

Claire Danes crying on screen is, like, one of my constants in life, whether it's about Jordan Catalano (or, seriously, Rayanne Graff), or Leo DiCaprio (or Rayeann Graff), or Brody (or Rayanne Graff).

And serious kudos, because I don't think I could do the on-demand crying, myself.

For one, I'm not an actor. And two, I'm not what is referred to as "particularly expressive with my emotions." I doubt an audience would find my genuine crying face all that different from my typical resting face, which if you can believe it is not actually bitchy.

So, today, I'd like to invite you to sit back and appreciate Claire Danes, crying for pay.

A Conversation About X-Files Inequality, As Represented in Fanfic Format

So yeah, people who love Mulder may want to skip this one.

I recently had an actual man, one who admitted he had never seen X Files, suggest to me that David Duchovny is a bigger draw than Gillian Anderson, and that's why he was/should be paid more than her. This convo was in response to the recent Daily Beast article in which Anderson discussed being paid less than Duchovny.

What do you do about such an extreme instance of clueless mansplaining, really, except drink vodka straight from the dog bowl and start writing revisionist fanfic about it?

ACT ONE

Scully: [entering Mulder's office at the FBI] Mulder, did you know you've been making twice my salary? [On his desk, she slams down an internal memo] This was just leaked to me by Jones.

Mulder: What? [kicks feet off desk, leans forward to look at memo]

Scully: Apparently, you've been paid twice my salary since we've been working together.

Mulder: [frowning] Who's Jones?

Scully: That woman, you know, in IT?

Mulder: Never heard of her. [Shrugs]

Scully: Come to think of it, I've never actually interacted with her, or any other woman here, either.  She just put this memo in my mailbox.

Mulder: ....Wonder if she's cute.

Scully: [rolls eyes] Do you have anything to say about this?

Mulder: Now, Scully. [putting up hands] You know I'm the biggest advocate for equality and civil rights-

Scully: I sense a "but" coming-

Mulder: But, have you considered that I might be more talented than you?

Scully: I have. And you're not.

Mulder: Well, did you try negotiating for higher pay, then?

Scully: I did. And I have equal pay now. But, I didn't know what you made until the leak. Seems kind of unfair, doesn't it?

Mulder: Scully, are you suggesting that the FBI willfully participated in a campaign of inequality against women?

Scully: Well. Yes.

Mulder: [laughs, shakes his head, pops some sunflower seeds into his mouth]

Scully: So, let's get this straight. There are extraterrestrial worms that can induce people to kill each other?

Mulder: [nods]

Scully: And glow-in-the-dark prehistoric mites which suck humans dry?

Mulder: That's right.

Scully: And you believe in pyrokinetics, telekinesis, and clairvoyance.

Mulder: Yes.

Scully: But believing me when I tell you I've experienced discrimination is too much of a stretch?

Mulder: The truth is out there, Scully. You just have to take an objective step back.

Scully: Well then. I suppose this is as good a time as any to let you know that today I requested and received a promotion into the Fringe Division. When my new partner, Agent Olivia Dunham, swings by to pick me up later, I'll introduce you on our way out.

Mulder:..... Is she cute?

Scully: Yes, actually. [winks, exits Mulder's office]

THE END


Anyway, in real life, I think my favorite part of interacting with my male acquaintance was his admission that he has literally zero, zilch, goose egg knowledge of the show in question. But still, still, he suggested, because it is a woman he was speaking to, that I had not considered the scenario from all possible, objective angles.

In any event, I assure you I responded to this guy with the utmost sincerity, civility, and reason in the moment, but because I'm speaking with you all, I'll just say this for now: fucking mansplainers.

I Respond To Old Comments

I was poking around the back-end of the ol' blog recently and saw that over the years, 81 unread comments going back to 2007 have somehow been sitting unread and unviewable (from the front-end) in the Blogger Comments here.

Whoooops! Um, sorry?

This issue mostly seems due to the DISQUS commenting system, which I use as a Blogger add-on, not properly loading at times or in certain browsers. When this happens, it sometimes makes Blogger Comments the default commenting interface temporarily so that when some people comment their comments aren't viewable to everyone else for whom DISQUS is working and properly loaded. As a result, some people's comments just linger in the aether acknowledged.

In fact, every so often when DISQUS is taking a long time to load, you can see the option to insert a Blogger Comment. It's like a glitch in the Matrix, except way less cool. I've noticed it for awhile now, but I mostly just try not to think about it.

Anyway, some of these lost comments include, by year:

• 2011 - Someone thanked me for linking to their work as a Quote of the Day and also let me know her name was Ragen (which I had mis-stated as Kate) - sorry, fixed!

• 2011 - A commenter creatively named "Antifeminist" took issue with the phrase "mansplain" (from this post) and claimed that the word is a "tactic that fems have to use" because we have no real arguments. To that, my timely response would be, yes good sir, you have hit the nail on the head. If you peruse my blog archives, or use the Control-F feature of your keyboard, you will find that the word "mansplain" is the lorum ipsum filler text of Fannie's Room. (Oooh, + this)

• 2012 - Scooter asked perhaps one of the most pressing questions ever to be asked at Fannie's Room in response to my review of the film Itty Bitty Titty Committee: "I was not consciously aware of this movie but just this weekend I wondered if there was an analogous 'teeny little dick committee' for boys?"  To that I say, I don't know, but there probably should be?

• 2012 - sarahbee made a salient observation (when talking about words in general): "What is up with the word 'female' instead of 'woman' to herald oncoming douchebaggery?" I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Also in these lost comments were a slew of ads and promotional content, which I refuse to re-post on principle.

Anyway, this glitchy thing will probably keep randomly happening, just something to keep in mind in case you comment and it doesn't show up or no one replies.  You are not invisible. Your voice matters! (Except for Antifeminist. That guy seems like a real jerk).

Explain a Film Plot Badly

I had some fun on Twitter this weekend with the above-headlined trending hashtag. Although, to be honest, I don't think I was so much describing film plots "badly" as I was "explaining them accurately but shortly." Oh well.

A Root

When I was kid first watching The Neverending Story (1984), little-me thought that Atreyu was a girl.

This, even though, male pronouns were probably used to describe Atreyu. To be honest, I was at an age where I mostly followed along to movies by the pictures rather than the dialogue.

Thus, in my head, the story was cool adventure girl character something something what amazing flying dog! something something magical book something something cute princess girl.

And, I thought this Atreyu girl was the greatest.



For, I thought that Atreyu was not just any girl, but that he was, perhaps, a lesbian girl. Not that I even knew what a lesbian was, back then. But, I thought Atreyu was a girl that was different from other girls portrayed in movies. Maybe, say, a girl like myself. (And, mind you, imagine a child assuming that of course a girl would be central to a child's fantasy adventure story! Ah, the innocence of youth, before Hollywood had disabused me of that notion).

Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that I identified with this gender non-confirming "girl" Atreyu. And that, perhaps, the movie was one of my lesbian "roots."

Discuss this, or other things.

Like, Jessica Jones. People are watching this, yes?!  And Stephen King's Wizard and Glass is, like, the book that will not end, am I right?  It's entertaining, but again I will need to disinfect myself with some good queer/feminist science fiction/fantasy next.

Very Important Update

I'm Twittering again (Fannie Wolfe @fanniesroom).

I'm still not sure it's the medium for me, given my tendency toward being verbose and getting into prolonged Internet discussions with trolls that, like, no one else actually cares about.

But, blog things are always slow around the holidays, so I suspect I'll be doing lots of lurking around the Internet and possibly occasional tweeting until after the New Year's.

This critical post was brought to you by Beca's sexual confusion in Pitch Perfect 2 (via today's featured fan video).  In case you're wondering, I'm experiencing no sexual confusion about any of that.

Yes or No

Fannie's Room should implement comment moderation in the voice of Blaine the Mono from Stephen's King's Dark Tower series?

Okay, I kid, it's just that I'm about a quarter of the way through Wizard and Glass.  And, as I was reading it, I was thinking that it could be entertaining to deal with trolls and abusive commenters with comments like, "YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRITATING AND RUDE." Or, when banning people, to say, "SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR AFTER WHILE CROCODILE DON'T FORGET TO WRITE."

And, of course, the primo retort for when people inevitably come back sock-puppeting or directly emailing me: "TOUGHT TITTY SAID THE KITTY."

Every now and then, Little Blaine would chime in with a, "Ohh, you better watch out, you're making her mad."

Ahhh, fun times.

Friday Deep Thought

I've been watching some "L Word" episodes on Netflix (again) and it's interesting how my perspective on the show and the characters changes as I age.


I realize I'm a rare lesbian who is entertained, rather than repulsed, by Jenny Schecter, but these days I would love a rehash of L Word where each and every episode consisted of nothing but Jenny producing "Lez Girls," the whole gang having naked pool parties, and Helena Peabody doing pretty much anything.

Friday Fun

Well, I've been quite pleased with the selection of science fiction and supernatural shows these days featuring female characters.  Lately, I've been watching Continuum and Defiance, and look forward to American Horror Story, Orphan Black, and Lost Girl starting back up.

Here are my random thoughts about them:

• Continuum: Kiera and Garza should have more scenes together, and subtext please. Also, I'm much more interested in (*spoiler alert*) Kiera as a character now that she's somewhat joining forces with Liber8.
• Lost Girl: I used to ship Doccubus, but now I'm fully on board with Team Valkubus. Dr. Lewis remains adorkable, I'm just more compelled by Tamsin as a character and love interest for Bo.
• Defiance:  I'm a rare breed of lesbian who (usually) loved Mia Kirshner's portrayal of Jenny Schecter in The L Word, so it's great seeing Kirshner in another series.
• 3 of these shows are Canadian.  I'm not necessarily surprised by that, but pleased that I have access to shows by studios, producers, and writers who seem interested in appealing to a wider audience than the stereotypical American "white dude geek" who is so often assumed to be the default science fiction fan.

What are other people watching, reading, and playing?

Very Important Updates

Mansplain is now in Oxford's Dictionary's online dictionary OxfordDictionary.com.  Along with some other notable additions like side boob, humblebrag, and binge-watch.

In other news, I started Chris Moriarty's Spin series, as part of my ongoing Book Experiment.  Thus far, I've skewed heavily into the science fiction and fantasy genres, and thanks to recommendations of readers and friends, have discovered some new authors I've really liked, such as Jacqueline Carey.

Anyone want to share any other recommendations for my queue?  I'm particularly interested in science fiction and fantasy with LGBT themes and characters.

I'm open to other genres, as well!  For instance, I'm also currently reading Angela Davis' Women, Culture, and Politics.  I've just found that, this year in particular, I've really appreciated the escapism of science fiction and fantasy, compared to non-fiction reading that, in previous years, I've leaned more towards.

Friday's Deep Thought and Open Thread

I pretty much love the movie Pitch Perfect, even though it would have been a thousand times better if Beca and Chloe were girlfriends (NSFW?) in maintext rather than just subtext.

That's all.

Talk about stuff. Or don't! It's Friday!