The Magical World of Race and Gender

I'm sure your time in college has provided you with many opportunities to hear criticisms of Disney and the messages sent. I think some of these arguments have validity. Why is it that so many women need a man to save them or to find happiness? Is it appropriate to have these women in stereotypical roles, like a housecleaner? The idea of being a princess is the goal to be achieved in many films, and this can be dangerous to girls who grow up learning that gowns, jewelry, and the need for a prince are important things. There is a possibility that it could cause girls to desire impossible or unhealthy body images. Studies have shown that women who aspire to classic feminine beliefs are at risk: less likely to use contraception, more depression, less interest in sports and physical activity. The white princesses give this impression, of demureness and fragile, while women of color are highly sexualized (for example, The Hunchback of Notre Dame's Esmerelda, Aladdin's Jasmine). The princes depicted in many of the films are overly handsome, sensitive, smart, and dare I say perfect? It's such an ideal that is uncommon and probably unachieveable. It sets impossibly high standards for boys to achieve and for girls to desire. It can create false hopes in regards to romance or at least for the romanticized worlds that exist in Disney movies.

Why is it that in Aladdin, a movie set in the Middle East, the main characters have been Americanized while the bad guys have accents? The "evil" hyenas in The Lion King had street-wise African-American dialects too. Why did the primates act black in The Jungle Book? If Tarzan was set in Africa, why was there not a single black person? And Dumbo. I couldn't believe how the black crows were depicted when I looked back on the film recently. Seriously, I can't even describe it, just watch it. And in Peter Pan, Tiger Lily's father was uncivilized and savage.

I'm not going to discount that Disney has been making progress in the last few years. The movies of the 90's depected stronger women and various cultures, but there were still many mistakes that are embarrassing, such as the depiction of ethnicities in Aladdin that I alluded to earlier, or Tarzan's white-person party. At first I'm pleased with the character of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, but upon closer inspection, her intelligence and individuality begins to disappate as she falls further for the Beast. She becomes foolish in her decisions to trust the rageful and abusive Beast. Pocahontas provides us a positive story of ignoring skin color and cultural differences, but her independence and strength that becomes clear by her choice to stay with her people is diluted in her apparent desire to be with her man. Mulan is my favorite example of progress, because it positively portrays a different culture and encourages people (particularly women) to be strong in the face of adversity and suppression, but even in that film it finishes with the idea that she needs to find a man ("Great, she brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should have brought home a man!" And of course he shows up right then.)

Crash into me [and I'll come into you]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7in-9E3ImQ

One of the Dave Matthews Band's best and most popular songs is called Crash into Me. It's cute how many people think it is a love song, because it really isn't. As my cousin finely put it one day, "It's a stalker song!" and he's quite right: if you listen closely to the lyrics, you might realize that it is totally voyeuristic. In the VH1 Soundstage, Dave Matthews himself admitted this. It's about a guy who is crazy about this girl, watches and fantasizes about her.

Don't believe me? Think about these lyrics:
"Hike up your skirt a little more and show your world to me
A boy's dream...a boy's dream
I watch you there through the window and I stare
As you wear nothing but you wear it so well
Tied up and twisted the way I'd like to be
For you, for me, come crash into me"

Hmm...only a little bit creepy.

Spartacus

Last week, I watched a few episodes of the Starz! show Spartacus, and though I knew that there would be nudity (both female and male) and sex scenes, I was a little surprised about how unfair this was. What I mean is that the proportion of female nudity to male nudity was a phenomenal ratio, for you would see boobies and more every single episode while there were only a couple of nude shots of the men the half-dozen or more episodes I watched. "There's something for everyone (as the show's PR people said in an article I read a while back)" my ass. Or their asses, I suppose. The show aims to show women as powerful and smart, but considering how often they are undressing and having sex with the men, I can't help but conclude they are included in the show as little more than objects of a sexual nature, since they do little to advance the plot (other than Spartacus' wife being a damsel in distress). This show is no better than any skanky ad that uses sex to sell and I wasn't impressed. Next time, Starz! needs to do a better job of including respectable female characters if they want to have a larger demographic.

Pushing up the daisies.

I have the title lowercased and reworded on purpose, it is not a typo. It's a play on the fact that the wonderful, whimsical television show was cancelled far too early into its run. Perhaps the writers' strike was to blame. After all, it cut the first season in half and put the show on hiatus for months. Then the second season was cancelled halfway through, despite decent ratings. Why is it that good, unique shows like this get cancelled so early, but every time a medical drama/cop show comes around, everyone watches it like it's the new best thing? Aren't there a million and a half of those? Not to mention prime-time soap operas like Gossip Girls and 90210 are dumber than the remote people use to turn them on. If only more clever things stuck around, I wouldn't be so bitter.

The Amazing Spider-Plan

No offense meant to all those living under rocks, but by now everyone should have heard about the new reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. For those rock-dwellers, or those who need a refresher, here's one of the breaking articles on the news from back in January: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/01/spider-man-film-gets-reboot-sam-raimi-tobey-maguire-out.html. I read just today that Percy Jackson's Logan Lerman is almost definitely going to be the next Peter Parker. It's a good thing I think he's cute.

I'm pretty pissed about this. Okay, I'll be the first to admit that Spider-Man 3 was not as good as the first two, but I would have been more than willing to line up at the theatre for a Spider-Man 4 if they wanted to make one. So would millions of others. After all, the Spider-Man movie franchise has been one of the most successful in movie history! Critics and audiences have adored it. It is a big money maker if I've ever seen one.

So why are they remaking it? Why mess with a good thing? I understand Tobey's getting older and all that, but it's not like he's got wrinkles. Part of the whole deal of going to a movie is the knowledge that the movie is not real. It doesn't need to be perfect. Moreover, I think it is WAY too soon to start over. The reboot is scheduled for 2012! No wonder the world is set to end that year, it probably has something to do with the crazy, unnecessary remake slated for release. I can understand waiting a few years and then starting again, but the Tobey/Riami version is still going to be fresh in everyone's minds. Comparisons will flourish, and this movie is going to struggle under the pressure, just watch.

Don't get me wrong, I'll probably be at the theatre the week the new Spider-Man comes out, seeing if it's any good like half of America, but I really don't think it is a good idea. As my dad just said, "What's wrong with it the way it was?"

Jackson Katz

When I saw Jackson Katz speak, I kept thinking to myself over and over how great it was how insistent he was that stuff like violence against women was a men’s issue, and I think he’s absolutely right. For years, men have gotten by ignoring problems like this when the reason for them stems from people just like them, not the easy-to-ignore minority cultures. As he was clear about, not all men are violent, but many are, and that’s part of the reason why so few people are willing to step forward and admit that there is something wrong with that part of society. I find it frustrating, though, to sit and watch a speaker like Jackson Katz say all of these true things and realize that I am rather unable to make changes myself because I am a woman; he explained how women try to stand up for what is right, but are ignored. It is necessary now for men to do that, and it seems that it is time for women to sit on the sideline with our fingers crossed.

Books --> Movies

How many times have you read a book and thought to yourself, "I wish they'd make this into a movie!" Then how many time have you seen the movie verson and have been disappointed it because it didn't live up to your expectations?

I was trying to think of why. I think that movie makers are stuck between a rock and a hard place: Some people want to have the movie verson differ from the book, so it stands on its own as a work of art. Others want the movie to follow the book closely and be faithful to the parent materials.

Thinking about this for too long gives me a headache. How can everyone be satisfied? It seems impossible.

I can think of many examples of movies that are based on books, and I have mixed feelings. I like when a movie tries to stay close to the book's characters and storylines, and I think movies like the first couple Harry Potters, the Golden Compass, and Lord of the Rings have done a great job with this. I feel like the book has come alive, out of my imagination, and onto the screen. (I suppose even Twilight wasn't that bad, though I'm not a fan of the series.) But what about movies like Percy Jackson and the Olympians, where the characters were changed to appear nothing like the description of the physical and personal represenations in the book, and the story was manipulated to be completely different? Perhaps it could make an entertaining movie, but I didn't like it. I was too annoyed with the actors playing the roles and the drastic change of storyline to disappear into the film. I kept thinking, how can they continue the story line of the rest of the series? What were they thinking? Stuff like that doesn't make for a fun movie experience.

Can you think of other movies based on books that left an impression, good or bad, on you?

A Razzie AND an Oscar? That's special.

Better late than never: Sandra Bullock's award season. It was pretty amusing to say the least. How often does an actor/actress win the best award and the worst award for acting all in the same year?

For those who don't know, she won an Academy Award for her role in The Blind Side. Good for her. But she also won a Razzie, which is where the worst of the worst are acknowledged for their roles, for her movie All About Steve. I haven't seen it, but part of the reason for that is because I heard it sucked. Perhaps it did, and Sandra's acting was cringe-inducing. What I did see, however, was Sandra's appearance at the Razzies to accept her award (which rarely ever happens, as you can imagine). It was rather classy. She showed up dressed rather casual, pulling a red wagon behind her full of All About Steve DVD. And when she walked up to the microphone, instead of saying, "Yeah, maybe the movie sucked," she basically said, "You're not looking at this movie right, and if you did, you'd see that it wasn't that bad and I didn't do a bad job. I'm giving you all copies of the movie and I want you to watch it and try to look at it differently. Then I'll come back next year and give back this award." Something like that.

I think that response was, well, cool. First, she showed up to the Razzies and accepted her award. Second, she defended herself without seeming whiney. It was classy.

Kudos to Sandra. I'd give her an award for her respectable attitude, but I think she's gotten enough of those lately.

You can watch her Razzie acceptance speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYced7GB8k