Feeling fatigued, overwhelmed, uncertain?
Who isn't?
Over at Shakesville, I share some thoughts about the Resistance and endurance.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Things Trump Has Had Time For Other Than Political Correctness
For posterity:
Calling established, if imperfect, news organizations "FAKE NEWS":
Mocking the largest protest in US history, which was waged in response to his Electoral College win:
Participating in Important Golf Matters:
Mocking Meryl Streep, who used her platform upon receipt of a Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Award, to speak against Trump:
Monitoring the ratings of a TV show and comparing its current ratings to when he was on that TV show:
I see.
Coupled with his atrocious Cabinet picks and recent Executive Orders, it's not clear what, exactly, Trump is making "great," let alone "safe" again. Other than, I suppose, his own thin-skinned ego and life of 100% unexamined privilege.
"I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either." -Donald Trump, 2016Today I offer a sample of some of the important items the pressed-for-time Trump has had time to talk and think about.
Calling established, if imperfect, news organizations "FAKE NEWS":
Mocking Meryl Streep, who used her platform upon receipt of a Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Award, to speak against Trump:
Monitoring the ratings of a TV show and comparing its current ratings to when he was on that TV show:
I see.
Coupled with his atrocious Cabinet picks and recent Executive Orders, it's not clear what, exactly, Trump is making "great," let alone "safe" again. Other than, I suppose, his own thin-skinned ego and life of 100% unexamined privilege.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Femslash Friday: Saving Face
You know how with some movies featuring lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer women you have to stop them before the tragic ending hits? (Is that just me who does this?)
For instance, in the Xenaverse, I pretend that the final episode, in which Xena dies, is not canon. In High Art, which features Ally Sheedy as a lesbian artist (yes please) I stop the movie when it has about 10 minutes left so as to avoid the tragic ending. I'm still not caught up on The 100, and am not sure I'll ever finish the series given Lexa's infamous fate. I've watched every episode of Buffy numerous times, with the exception of "Seeing Red," in which Tara is killed, which I don't ever need to see again.
I recently gave Saving Face a re-watch. It's really a gem, from 2004, if you've not seen it! And, it has, refreshingly in this genre, a great ending. We need more romantic comedies like this - I would throw money at more movies like this - especially featuring more women of color.
Some randos tried to tell me on Twitter late last year that pop culture is not political,because made-up stories have no impact on "real life." This argument is often made in the context of people with certain privileges telling other people that sexism, racism, or homophobia in TV doesn't matter because it's "not real."
I suppose these unexamined arguments are easy to say with a straight face if one is used to seeing representations of oneself everywhere in pop culture: books, games, TV, film. I mean, straight people get a billion and a half romantic comedies riffing off of every conceivable "Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" gender stereotype featuring clueless privileged white hetero characters. (That many of these are bad and sexist also matters, I argue).
Queer women, meanwhile, have about a good dozen to re-watch over and over again. Women of color and trans women, even fewer. All of this matters. The conservatives who call for banning books and pop culture that show affirming representations of same-sex love know this. Why don't some on the left seem to get it?
Anyway, if you need a teaser, somebody made a fan music video of the romance between the two main characters, Wil and Vivian, because of course they did [NSFW]:
P.S. - Both lead actresses are great. Michelle Krusiec is divine. That is all, HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!
For instance, in the Xenaverse, I pretend that the final episode, in which Xena dies, is not canon. In High Art, which features Ally Sheedy as a lesbian artist (yes please) I stop the movie when it has about 10 minutes left so as to avoid the tragic ending. I'm still not caught up on The 100, and am not sure I'll ever finish the series given Lexa's infamous fate. I've watched every episode of Buffy numerous times, with the exception of "Seeing Red," in which Tara is killed, which I don't ever need to see again.
I recently gave Saving Face a re-watch. It's really a gem, from 2004, if you've not seen it! And, it has, refreshingly in this genre, a great ending. We need more romantic comedies like this - I would throw money at more movies like this - especially featuring more women of color.
Some randos tried to tell me on Twitter late last year that pop culture is not political,because made-up stories have no impact on "real life." This argument is often made in the context of people with certain privileges telling other people that sexism, racism, or homophobia in TV doesn't matter because it's "not real."
I suppose these unexamined arguments are easy to say with a straight face if one is used to seeing representations of oneself everywhere in pop culture: books, games, TV, film. I mean, straight people get a billion and a half romantic comedies riffing off of every conceivable "Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" gender stereotype featuring clueless privileged white hetero characters. (That many of these are bad and sexist also matters, I argue).
Queer women, meanwhile, have about a good dozen to re-watch over and over again. Women of color and trans women, even fewer. All of this matters. The conservatives who call for banning books and pop culture that show affirming representations of same-sex love know this. Why don't some on the left seem to get it?
Anyway, if you need a teaser, somebody made a fan music video of the romance between the two main characters, Wil and Vivian, because of course they did [NSFW]:
P.S. - Both lead actresses are great. Michelle Krusiec is divine. That is all, HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Throwback Thursday: Clinton and 2008 Misogyny
This post is a sort of meta, but I'm old enough to remember that the misogyny thrown at Hillary Clinton in Election 2016 was similar to when she ran in 2008.
Hop in the DeLorean and let's take a trip back in time, shall we?
First, The Feminist Law Professors' Ann Bartow, in her 2008 piece "The Sexism in the Democratic Primary," has a rundown of the misogyny Clinton experienced that year. Reading through it, geeeez, the misogyny was (ironically) so shrill, so overt, and so very emotionally fragile. This was before phrases like "SJW," "alt-right," and "cuck" entered the Internet lexicon. It was a simpler, kinder time.
Ha ha, just kidding. George W. Bush had just been President for 8 years. It was awful!
For instance, I had forgotten that Hillary Clinton was made to publicly deny that she was a lesbian and that one of her 2008 version of "email server" controversies was that she teared up during a speech (lock her up!). In Bartow's piece, Echidne was quoted with an observation:
Sadly, I recognize some of that buying-into of the "monster bitch" caricature in my 8-years-ago self. My feminist consciousness was less developed then. I was less critical of what I was hearing. I wrote several posts back then noting instances of sexism aimed at Clinton but did not come out strongly supporting her over Barack Obama.
To quote Sarah Paulson's famous Emmy speech about having unfairly judged Marcia Clark, "...I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment." I'm ashamed and sorry I didn't or say enough to counter it back then. Looking back, I can say that watching what Clinton experienced did, I believe, turn out to be formative to my ongoing development as a feminist.
I recognized much of this uncritical acceptance of the Hillary "the monster bitch" meme in many young women in 2016, particularly some I interacted with or saw on Twitter who uncritically bought in the notion that Bernie Sanders was something of a saint compared to Clinton.
Some of these people truly believed that Trump and Clinton were both just as bad as one another. And now? They sure are gonna see. We're all gonna see. That's, perhaps, the tragedy of it. How could this happen, but for some seriously-unexamined misogyny?
I try not too think too much about the alternative universe where Madam President is diligently working for us - protecting reproductive rights, not cutting violence against women programs, celebrating diversity, some people on the left still calling her a neolib and telling us Trump would have been better (ha ha).....lord, where do you even stop?
But, hopping back in our DeLorean, Historiann also wrote a 2008 piece that's interesting to read today, entitled, "Hark! A Voice From the Future, Today:"
In 2016, the media certainly had a preferred narrative about Clinton: She's hiding Serious Wrongdoing in the Emails, with the implication that Trump is right to call her Crooked Hillary. Both sides are therefore Just The Same.
What I believe helped lead to her primary and general popular vote win, however, are two factors:
(1) Social media usage for candidates, pundits, and voters was likely much greater in Election 2016 than 2008, meaning more people were exposed to messaging other than that of mainstream media sources; and (2) Many Clinton supporters, and feminists in particular, used social media, blogs, and larger media platforms to confront misogynistic tropes leveled at Clinton, probably to a greater degree than what we saw in 2008.
In a dark way, I suppose it is progress that, this time, it took misogyny, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant fear-mongering, Russian interference, hacking, Wikileaks, the media obsessively reporting on Hillary's email server, and assists from James Comey and Jill Stein to obtain a small electoral college win over the woman.
Hop in the DeLorean and let's take a trip back in time, shall we?
First, The Feminist Law Professors' Ann Bartow, in her 2008 piece "The Sexism in the Democratic Primary," has a rundown of the misogyny Clinton experienced that year. Reading through it, geeeez, the misogyny was (ironically) so shrill, so overt, and so very emotionally fragile. This was before phrases like "SJW," "alt-right," and "cuck" entered the Internet lexicon. It was a simpler, kinder time.
Ha ha, just kidding. George W. Bush had just been President for 8 years. It was awful!
For instance, I had forgotten that Hillary Clinton was made to publicly deny that she was a lesbian and that one of her 2008 version of "email server" controversies was that she teared up during a speech (lock her up!). In Bartow's piece, Echidne was quoted with an observation:
"But if you read widely on this topic on blogs you will find that even many feminists have this view that the sexism is not really deplorable, because Hillary Clinton really is a monster bitch."(Props to predicting "deplorable" 8 years ago!)
Sadly, I recognize some of that buying-into of the "monster bitch" caricature in my 8-years-ago self. My feminist consciousness was less developed then. I was less critical of what I was hearing. I wrote several posts back then noting instances of sexism aimed at Clinton but did not come out strongly supporting her over Barack Obama.
To quote Sarah Paulson's famous Emmy speech about having unfairly judged Marcia Clark, "...I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment." I'm ashamed and sorry I didn't or say enough to counter it back then. Looking back, I can say that watching what Clinton experienced did, I believe, turn out to be formative to my ongoing development as a feminist.
I recognized much of this uncritical acceptance of the Hillary "the monster bitch" meme in many young women in 2016, particularly some I interacted with or saw on Twitter who uncritically bought in the notion that Bernie Sanders was something of a saint compared to Clinton.
Some of these people truly believed that Trump and Clinton were both just as bad as one another. And now? They sure are gonna see. We're all gonna see. That's, perhaps, the tragedy of it. How could this happen, but for some seriously-unexamined misogyny?
I try not too think too much about the alternative universe where Madam President is diligently working for us - protecting reproductive rights, not cutting violence against women programs, celebrating diversity, some people on the left still calling her a neolib and telling us Trump would have been better (ha ha).....lord, where do you even stop?
But, hopping back in our DeLorean, Historiann also wrote a 2008 piece that's interesting to read today, entitled, "Hark! A Voice From the Future, Today:"
"In many ways, the misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton this year–the blowback of which will probably be felt by women in all walks of life for years to come in thousands of discouraging ways–is part of an old story best documented by Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler. Somerby has been on the case of the insular corporate media since 1999, when he noticed the power of the preferred media narrative about Al Gore’s candidacy for the Presidency, and its curious imperviousness to the facts. And as Somerby points out regularly–you’ll never see or hear the media tell the truth about its own role in shaping our political and cultural discourses."She notes that many people, including liberals and Democrats, were bystanders to or active participants in the spreading and acceptance of vicious lies about Clinton. (+ note the mansplainy condescending comments following the post - how familiar those look!).
In 2016, the media certainly had a preferred narrative about Clinton: She's hiding Serious Wrongdoing in the Emails, with the implication that Trump is right to call her Crooked Hillary. Both sides are therefore Just The Same.
What I believe helped lead to her primary and general popular vote win, however, are two factors:
(1) Social media usage for candidates, pundits, and voters was likely much greater in Election 2016 than 2008, meaning more people were exposed to messaging other than that of mainstream media sources; and (2) Many Clinton supporters, and feminists in particular, used social media, blogs, and larger media platforms to confront misogynistic tropes leveled at Clinton, probably to a greater degree than what we saw in 2008.
In a dark way, I suppose it is progress that, this time, it took misogyny, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant fear-mongering, Russian interference, hacking, Wikileaks, the media obsessively reporting on Hillary's email server, and assists from James Comey and Jill Stein to obtain a small electoral college win over the woman.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Recap: Supergirl 1.15 "Solitude"
Buckle up, 'cuz this is a big episode. "Solitude" begins with Kara still upset because she thinks Hank killed Astra. Knowing this, Alex shows up one morning to Kara's apartment with a box of donuts. I guess the thinking is that if she showers Kara with donuts, Kara won't be upset when she finds out the truth?
I just want to put it out there that Alex Danvers could shower me with all the donuts all the mornings and I would not have an iota of crankiness. But, I can see how with Kara and Alex being sisters things might be different. And also, Kara has cool lights in her apartment:
Despite the donuts, Kara insists she doesn't want to go back to work for the DEO because she can't forgive Hank. She'll do things on her own now!
At CatCo, an anonymous person sends Cat a thumb drive with data from some adultery hookup website. Cat refuses to run a story on it, saying no one cares about adultery anymore and, as a victim of hacking herself, she doesn't want to condone that behavior. (Phew, for a minute, I thought she was just going to stick a random thumb drive into her computer. Free Wednesday Tip of the Day: Don't put rando thumb drives in your computer if you're trying to avoid malware).
Later in the day, a woman appears on all the TV screens in the office claiming she's the hacker and that all information systems are about to be shut down. Also, "the age of chaos is here." (Tell me about it, sister). Traffic lights go out. The banking and Internet go down. The market starts to crash. Grab your prepper supplies and get to your bunkers people! (No, like, for real).
In response to this impending apocalypse, Cat turns to Winn and says,"Fix this." (LOL)
To his credit, Winn grabs some M&Ms and gets to work on his three computers. While he's working, the mysterious hacker villain woman pops up on one his screens:
And THEN, the hacker woman jumps out of the screen and morphs into a physical being bearing more than a slight resemblance to Liara T'Soni and Mystique. Her name is actually Indigo and she is somehow in cahoots with Non. By "in cahoots with Non" I mean that it seems like they are both plotting something very evil together AND they maybe used to canoodle together:
Indigo knows that Kara is Supergirl and starts attacking her. However, Alex and Hank burst in and scare Indigo away. Kara still refuses to work with the DEO, however, and leaves, insisting that she can deal with villains on her own. But can she though? I feel like there is a lesson coming!
(And, what about all that Stronger Together talk? Does it mean nothing, NOTHING AT ALL??)
Back at CatCo, Siobhan has been acting cranky. I mean, like, more than usual, ever since the thumb drive arrived at CatCo. She tells Winn that she found out that her father was like a platinum member in the adultery club. So, there's a brief moment of vulnerability and then two seconds later she's back to her snotty self.
Alex then comes to CatCo and says that the DEO needs Winn's expertise to defeat Indigo. He's hesitant to go, because he knows Kara is no longer working with the DEO. But, Kara reluctantly tells him that they're all on the same team and they need to work together if they're going to defeat Donald Trump. I mean this villain. Indigo. So, he goes.
Supergirl then flies (with James on her back, or?) to the Fortress of Solitude (in Antarctica? the North Pole? Russia?), where they try to find out more about Indigo:
There, a robot similar to the little Claptrap robot in Borderlands is for some reason just hanging out. It helpfully explains that Indigo belongs to a race of supercomputer aliens and she wants to destroy the entire human population.
Accordingly, Indigo has gotten hold of the nuclear launch protocol. To launch the nukes, two separate keys need to be turned on opposite sides of the room. That would pose a problem to a mere mortal. But then, Indigo makes this terrifying thing happen:
Yes, she has stretched her arms so as to reach each key slot. Awesome. This might be the scariest Super-verse computer-gone-bad thing to happen since this computer-gone-bad thing happened in Superman III:
Indigo launches a nuke at National City and Supergirl goes after it, but isn't sure how to change its course. (Um, use your super strength to push it over the ocean?). So, she calls Hank for help on shutting down the on-board computer. I still haven't figured out if she's able to randomly call Hank and Alex via secret earpiece or what, but in any case, Hank helps Supergirl thwart the nuke attack and then Winn injects Indigo with a virus.
Stronger Together! The Scoobies are back in action!
In other Winn news, he and Siobhan make out. So, that's odd, but whatever floats your boat. In Lucy-James-Kara love triangle news, Lucy breaks up with James.
In sister news, Alex finally tells Kara that she's the one who killed Astra - and I find this moment to be the best so far in the series. It wasn't clear at first how Kara would respond - it could have turned into this Big Thing that divided the sisters. Instead, Kara forgives Alex, and acknowledges what Hank tried to do for them, to keep them together:
The fam is back together, folks.
Deep Thought of the Week: This happened at the Women's March on Washington. Note that her shirt says "FEMINIST." YES!
[Note: In November 2017, CW/Supergirl Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg was suspended after allegations of sexual harassment.]
I just want to put it out there that Alex Danvers could shower me with all the donuts all the mornings and I would not have an iota of crankiness. But, I can see how with Kara and Alex being sisters things might be different. And also, Kara has cool lights in her apartment:
Despite the donuts, Kara insists she doesn't want to go back to work for the DEO because she can't forgive Hank. She'll do things on her own now!
At CatCo, an anonymous person sends Cat a thumb drive with data from some adultery hookup website. Cat refuses to run a story on it, saying no one cares about adultery anymore and, as a victim of hacking herself, she doesn't want to condone that behavior. (Phew, for a minute, I thought she was just going to stick a random thumb drive into her computer. Free Wednesday Tip of the Day: Don't put rando thumb drives in your computer if you're trying to avoid malware).
Later in the day, a woman appears on all the TV screens in the office claiming she's the hacker and that all information systems are about to be shut down. Also, "the age of chaos is here." (Tell me about it, sister). Traffic lights go out. The banking and Internet go down. The market starts to crash. Grab your prepper supplies and get to your bunkers people! (No, like, for real).
In response to this impending apocalypse, Cat turns to Winn and says,"Fix this." (LOL)
To his credit, Winn grabs some M&Ms and gets to work on his three computers. While he's working, the mysterious hacker villain woman pops up on one his screens:
And THEN, the hacker woman jumps out of the screen and morphs into a physical being bearing more than a slight resemblance to Liara T'Soni and Mystique. Her name is actually Indigo and she is somehow in cahoots with Non. By "in cahoots with Non" I mean that it seems like they are both plotting something very evil together AND they maybe used to canoodle together:
Indigo knows that Kara is Supergirl and starts attacking her. However, Alex and Hank burst in and scare Indigo away. Kara still refuses to work with the DEO, however, and leaves, insisting that she can deal with villains on her own. But can she though? I feel like there is a lesson coming!
(And, what about all that Stronger Together talk? Does it mean nothing, NOTHING AT ALL??)
Back at CatCo, Siobhan has been acting cranky. I mean, like, more than usual, ever since the thumb drive arrived at CatCo. She tells Winn that she found out that her father was like a platinum member in the adultery club. So, there's a brief moment of vulnerability and then two seconds later she's back to her snotty self.
Alex then comes to CatCo and says that the DEO needs Winn's expertise to defeat Indigo. He's hesitant to go, because he knows Kara is no longer working with the DEO. But, Kara reluctantly tells him that they're all on the same team and they need to work together if they're going to defeat Donald Trump. I mean this villain. Indigo. So, he goes.
Supergirl then flies (with James on her back, or?) to the Fortress of Solitude (in Antarctica? the North Pole? Russia?), where they try to find out more about Indigo:
There, a robot similar to the little Claptrap robot in Borderlands is for some reason just hanging out. It helpfully explains that Indigo belongs to a race of supercomputer aliens and she wants to destroy the entire human population.
Accordingly, Indigo has gotten hold of the nuclear launch protocol. To launch the nukes, two separate keys need to be turned on opposite sides of the room. That would pose a problem to a mere mortal. But then, Indigo makes this terrifying thing happen:
 |
| No tiny hands here. |
 |
Indigo launches a nuke at National City and Supergirl goes after it, but isn't sure how to change its course. (Um, use your super strength to push it over the ocean?). So, she calls Hank for help on shutting down the on-board computer. I still haven't figured out if she's able to randomly call Hank and Alex via secret earpiece or what, but in any case, Hank helps Supergirl thwart the nuke attack and then Winn injects Indigo with a virus.
Stronger Together! The Scoobies are back in action!
In other Winn news, he and Siobhan make out. So, that's odd, but whatever floats your boat. In Lucy-James-Kara love triangle news, Lucy breaks up with James.
In sister news, Alex finally tells Kara that she's the one who killed Astra - and I find this moment to be the best so far in the series. It wasn't clear at first how Kara would respond - it could have turned into this Big Thing that divided the sisters. Instead, Kara forgives Alex, and acknowledges what Hank tried to do for them, to keep them together:
 |
| Blub |
Deep Thought of the Week: This happened at the Women's March on Washington. Note that her shirt says "FEMINIST." YES!
[Note: In November 2017, CW/Supergirl Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg was suspended after allegations of sexual harassment.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
