…and the early battle scenes in Qatar? In poor taste, to say the least. Watching American soldiers and Middle Easterners being blown to smithereens isn’t so much entertaining as it is depressing.
Also depressing was this statement, part of Optimus Prime’s endless moralizing: “All sentient beings deserve freedom”. (Or perhaps it was more along the lines of “All sentient being deserve the right to live”…I forget now.) Really?All sentient beings? Because, like, “sentient” isn’t codeword for “human+”.
Sentience refers to utilization of sensory organs, the ability to feel or perceive subjectively, not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness. The possession of sapience is not a necessity. The word sentient is often confused with the word sapient, which can connote knowledge, consciousness, or apperception.
Sadly, and despite the obvious implications of such an animal-friendly statement, Transformers was hardly a pro-AR movie. On the contrary; one of Optimus Prime’s cronies (you know, the “good” “guys”) wanted to kill a dog (which he* saw as evidence of a “rodent infestation”) for pissing on his foot. Uh, yeah, maybe y’all should modify that statement to “All sapient beings…” I hate to break it to the screenwriters, but dogs are sentient, you dumbasses.
The effects were pretty cool, though.
* Though Shane doth protest, the Transformers are all clearly uber-masculine entities. Androgynous they aint.
So. Yesterday, while climbing my way to gams of steel via my trusty step climber, I watched a month-old episode of MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge* (technically called the Inferno, but whatevs). Judge me all you want, but the xtreme competitions make my workout seem that much easier. Cheesy, yes, but it’s my one guilty pleasure. Some people have House, others have Grey’s Anatomy, and for you neocons out there, it’s seasons 2+ of 24. So fuck off, is what I’m sayin.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. This particular week’s challenge involved - well, the details don’t very much matter. Let’s just say that it involved some hawt sticky wet grape-stomping action. With “regulation uniforms”. Required wearing for all participants.
The girls got the standard two-piece bathing suits, and the guys got speedos. And when I say “speedos”, well, that’s what the host called ‘em. I’m just parroting what TJ said. They were more like “boy shorts”, really. We’re not talking banana hammocks, or mankinis, or anything like that. These were tight spandex boy shorts, and had they been on the girls’ women’s bottom halves, then they would have been considered relatively modest.
Most of the guys were, shall we say, good sports about the shorts. Most, in fact, acted like juvenile idiots, though thankfully none wedged their suits up their asses and strutted around with buttocks jiggling about. Like, um, in past year’s challenges. But three of the guys balked at the prospect of - gasp! - being exploited, degraded, manipulated and used. Like, you know, a girl! (Oh, the horra!)
They refused to suit up in their boy shorts, instead choosing to sit out the game.
Their scoffings and rationalizations were priceless. One guy (Alton, for those of you at home keeping score) was all “It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable with my body, I know I look great. It’s just that I’m hung like a mule, and those shorts aren’t big.” I’m paraphrasing, but the term “hung like a mule” is a direct quote. Of that I’m sure. (Just as I’m sure that Alton is, in fact, not hung like said mule.) Ace, who was one of those aforementioned idiots who had previously wedgied himself on national television (albeit on a seldom viewed channel) , ruefully explained that he didn’t want to “catch anymore flak” from his family and friends back home. (Here’s an idea, dumbass: just wear the spandex, don’t try to give yourself a colonoscopy with it!) Timmy, the furthest over the hill of the contestants (and by “over the hill”, I mean to say that he’s probably a whopping 35), didn’t offer a reason, but “pale and flabby / not cut like the yung’uns” would be my best, err, stab at it.
Whatever their reasons, I’ve heard nary a peep from any of ‘em when the girls are crammed into ill-fitting clothes, forced to shimmy to and fro, and otherwise objectified during the challenges. And besides, is wearing an effin’ “speedo” for 30 minutes really worse than eating bull nuts? Didn’t think so.
Something else to keep in mind: their team (and they were all on the same team, the other members of which I fully expected would castrate the uppity douchebags) had been up a player, but due to their teammate’s newfound modesty, they ended up down one player. And they totally got their asses handed to ‘em. Losing, in the process, $10,000.
So, the daily, ubiquitous, relentless objectification of the female sex? Total teh cool.
Thirty minutes of (perceived) andro-objectification for eight men? So offensive that 3/8 of them forfeit 10k.
Objectification sux when you’re the object instead of the objectifier, eh guys?
* Yes, I realize that “reality tv” is less real, more scripted. So my story comes with the standard potential bs disclaimer.
You know, I meant to blog this way back when, but was just too upset at the time. Seriously. So upset I was shaking. No joke.
So I took a few screenshots of NBC’s SVU episode summary page to augment the planned post, uploaded ‘em to Flickr, and…nothing. Never came back to it. That is, until a fellow Flickrite (and feminist, from the sound of it), asked for an explanation. Knowing full well Flickr/Yahoo’s propensity for randomly deleting photos (and the pic’s comment threads, along with ‘em), I thought I’d copy the exchange here.
That, and I’m short on original material. What can I say, closing is less than two weeks away!
According to NBC, this is the face of a woman who was "asking for it."
I’m not sure if I get what you’re saying… “according to NBC?” While there are characters on the show (the abusers or criminals, usually) who might say that a woman is “asking for” this type of thing, every episode of this show I’ve ever seen has a very strong “the victim never deserves this sort of treatment, no matter what” message. This is often expressly stated by the detectives or other characters on the show. I haven’t seen this particular episode, but I’d be very surprised if it deviated from this general message– nothing in the other two screenshots indicates otherwise. Misogyny from characters within the show, yes, but hardly from the creators of the show or NBC.
Esabeau - Actually, I’ve always been a huge fan of Law & Order: SVU, for the reasons you’ve stated. However, this particular ep. involved a woman who made a false accusation of rape against her husband in order to gain the upper hand in their divorce (and the ensuing custody dispute over their daughter). The detectives (and the audience) believed the woman - the "so-called victim" - throughout most of the hour. However, in the last ten minutes or so of the program, the husband made bail on the rape charge, confronted the wife in the street outside court, doused her in gasoline, and set her on fire. She subsequently admitted to the detectives in the ER that she made the whole thing up. Right before dying.
The implication - both implicit and actually stated (though not in so many words) - was that the lying slut pushed an otherwise nonviolent and decent man too far - she was "asking for it". A false rape charge apparently justifies murder. And a grisly one at that.
I was especially offended that the victim-blaming took place in the context of a "ripped from the headlines" show - remember the case of Yvette Cade, whose estranged husband burst into her workplace, threw a 7UP can full of gas on her, and topped it off with a lit match? AFTER Douchebag District Judge Richard A. Palumbo refused to extend the restraining order she had against him? AND made belittling remarks to her? I usually enjoy the "ripped from the headline" shows, but this was beyond tasteless. A woman who was abused by the court system, set on fire by her batterer, and is now disfigured for life….fodder for NBC’s shitty misogynistic fairytales? Talk about adding insult to injury.
And this seems to be the general direction in which the Law & Order franchise is headed. A few weeks ago, they aired a show based on the Shawn Hornbeck case…only this time, Ben Ownby wound up dead, and ("so-called") victim Shawn was later discovered to be his killer. Because Ben was competition for pedophile/kidnapper Michael Devlin’s attentions (!). Talk about blaming the victim. Bill O’Reilly ain’t got nothing on Law & Order!
Sorry, I meant to write a blog post about this when it happened (hence the screenshots), but I was just too upset. Worst. Episode. Ever.
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By the by, NBC invites viewers to leave their feedback here. Not that they give a shit what we wimmins think, being the misogynistic pricks that they are, but still. Blaming the patriarchy is fun!
Put on the Sade and spritz on some Musk. I’m gonna Truth you all night long.
Tune in tonight for an extra-Truthy episode with Richard Dawkins, who “insists that religion is evil and God might as well be a children’s fantasy.” Sounds like a Balls for Kidz moment!
For tomorrow night, Lou Dobbs is bringing his weeklong special report on The War On The Middle Class ™ to your city! *
Lou Dobbs says the middle class is under attack. Watch him go to the frontlines of America’s heartland. Tune in Wednesday, October 18, for a live 1-hour special starting at 7 p.m. ET. […]
The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, Kay Barnes, defines the challenges middle-class Americans are facing in her city.
CNN wants to hear your voice! With the midterm election just weeks away, politics hits the street with CNN Election Express Yourself, a campaign traveling across the nation to give the public an interactive political experience.
With hands-on exhibits, online interaction, video portraits and personalized election memorabilia, the CNN Election Express Yourself can educate you about the current political issues as well as give you a chance to express your own political opinions.
Seriously, though, we do have at least one good thing going for us this month. From October 28 through December 20, the Kansas City Art Institute will be home to Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale, an exhibition of crypto-inspired artwork. The display also features a “selection from Loren Coleman’s Future Museum of Cryptozoology.” According to KCAI’s website, “Three themes are traced through the exhibition and catalog: Artists, Adventurers, Environmentalists; History of Science, Taxonomy, Dioramas, and Museum Displays; and Pop Culture, Myth, Spectacle, and Fraud.” So - hopefully (!) - there will be a decent mix of art, science, skepticism, and fantasy.
I’m acting as though I’m doing Shane a favor by letting him “drag” me along, but - shhhh! - it actually sounds like a lot of fun. Doubly so if I can convince him to dress up like Sasquatch on opening night.
Apocalypse Now
The Apartment
City of God
Chinatown
Sexy Beast
2001: A Space Odyssey
North by Northwest
A Bout de Souffle
Donnie Darko
Manhattan
Alien
Lost in Translation
The Shawshank Redemption
Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
Pulp Fiction
Touch of Evil
Walkabout
Black Narcissus
Boyz n the Hood
The Player
Come and See
Heavenly Creatures
A Night at the Opera
Erin Brockovich
Trainspotting
The Breakfast Club
Hero
Fanny and Alexander
Pink Flamingos
All About Eve
Scarface
Terminator 2
Three Colours: Blue
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Ladykillers
Fight Club
The Searchers
Mulholland Drive
The Ipcress File
The King of Comedy
Manhunter
Dawn of the Dead
Princess Mononoke
Raising Arizona
Cabaret
This Sporting Life
Brazil
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Secrets and Lies
Badlands
