I can’t remember what triggered this issue, so I’m just going to get into it. I watched a documentary called The Red Pill. The documentary was not good. It was propaganda, which is why I don’t like documentaries. They only give one side of the issue–the one the producer wants to promote. A filmmaker can manipulate a film so much to give you what they want you to see and feel (e.g. Super Size Me, White Wilderness, Tiger King, Dinesh D’Souza stuff, Bill Maher stuff, Michael Moore stuff, anything involving haunted places). They’re entirely biased and often lie. And if they’re not lying, they’re omitting or misrepresenting. They ignore questions…
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The Weaponized Incompetence of Men
So I saw this xweet the other day and it gave me some food for thought. Bit of a paradigm shift. The basic message is “you shouldn’t have to ask your wife what needs to be done. You should already know and just do it.” You shouldn’t ask for what’s on her plate. You should know what’s on the plate, then take it off. You share the plate after all. And if you’re not, you’re using weaponized incompetence. I don’t think this statement is necessarily true. I think it can be used as such. But I consider weaponized incompetence to be closer to this. As you can see, Bart is…
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Be a Woman, Not a Lady
There’s a song I heard on country radio the other day. Didn’t even hear the whole song, just a snippet. But it was enough to know what the rest of the song was about–it’s a sappy mushy country ballad, how deep is it going to go? All I really heard was “You’ll learn how to be a lady”. This is, of course, “Lady” by Brett Young. If you read all the lyrics you see it’s more of a love letter to his wife. Not as directed at the daughter as songs like “My Little Girl” by Tim McGraw or “Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carlisle But I immediately had a visceral…
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A Straight White Male’s Unnecessary Reaction to “Cat Person”
Here it is. The short story that everyone’s talking about lately. Mark your calendars. It’s a momentous occasion when a short story raises anyone’s hackles. Actually, it’s a momentous occasion when someone reads a short story. This one doesn’t even have any robots or murder in it. But it does have sex and female perspective, which seems common with a lot of short stories that garner controversy (“The Yellow Wallpaper“, “The Story of an Hour“, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall“, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?“) Short summary: Margot, a twenty-year-old college student, goes on a date with Robert, a thirty-six-year-old socially awkward hipster she meets at a…
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Eating My Words on Wonder Woman
Oh, look at all these words. Oh… yum… gulp… so delicious… so meaty. So good… so good to eat… so scrumptious… I’ve never eaten words as good as this before. This is delicious. Scrumpf… glomp… chew… oh so good… so satisfying… filling…can’t get enough… So in 2012, I wrote a blog about how we’d never see a Wonder Woman movie, or at least a good one. Let’s take a look at some of the points I made and why I was wrong. “…to make Wonder Woman translate to today’s audiences, you would have to alter her so radically that she wouldn’t resemble Wonder Woman anymore. … Someone’s going to leave…
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Titles For Women that Need to Change
I recently wrote about insulting and derogatory words and how they need to change, because they all imply femininity, which is not a negative trait. The idea that women are weak and sinful is out of date. But language is not evolving fast enough. Titles for women aren’t so great either. They’re based on medieval notions and misconceptions about women’s authority, usually based on who they were married to rather than their rank. Let’s take a look. “ma’am” – Short for “madam,” which carries a certain definition that, well, I don’t need to explain. It’s supposed to be the equivalent of the male’s “sir”. But whereas that one is associated…
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Tropes vs. Anita Part Deux
Oh look, Anita Sarkeesian made a new video. That only took her, what, two months and twenty-one days? And she’s got 12 videos to make? Fantastic. At this rate, she’ll be done by November 2015. Good investment for all those kickstarter contributors. I feel like I should offer a critique like I did before, but I actually have fewer bones to pick with this one. The same issues I had with the last video remain. Like cherry-picking data — she’s starting with her point and then finding just the evidence that proves it. She doesn’t consider the medium as a whole. If you only use movies like “A Serbian Tale” and…
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The Books I Read: September – October 2012
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle My mom was surprised I’d never read it. And I saw the movie, which I loved for its campy 80’s-ness and animation that wasn’t Disney. The book follows the movie pretty damn well. It’s almost word-for-word. So much that I’m afraid my experience with the movie colored my opinion of the book. I guess it’s like when you hear the remix to a song first, then you hear the original version. But the remix was the first one you heard so you like that better. I’m sure there’s a name for that phenomenon. Anyway, I wish I could say I enjoyed it and…
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Sexy Batman Villains
I’ve been looking for porn about thinking about Poison Ivy, the Batman villain. She’s a good character, but for being a plant-woman, she sure exudes sexuality. In fact, that got me thinking about all the Batman villains, especially the difference between the guys and the girls. I love Batman’s villains because they all represent fractured psyches of the hero. Unlike just about any other comic book villain, who are just about power, revenge, or greed. Enemies like the Joker represent chaos opposed to Batman’s order. Bane is what happens when you have too much power. Two-Face is the double identity getting away from you. Scarecrow is fear (which Batman uses…
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How I Would Write a Supergirl Movie
A few nights ago I foolishly kept myself up late in bed, thinking of how I would write a Supergirl movie. I’ve already talked about how Supergirl is an interesting character, and I believe, unlike Wonder Woman, she’s got a lot of story potential. Certainly more than Superman, who’s a bland, God-like, force of nature with no personality, no weaknesses, and nothing to lose. The unfortunate part is that most Supergirl’s vulnerabilities extend from being a “kept” woman. In the comic books, most of her storyline conflicts are about keeping her identity secret. At least in the silver age. Superman’s got the same problem but her’s are a little more crucial because…
