

(This is my second ever submission to the celebrity look-a-like site. The first one can be found here.)

life through a feminist lens
"Isn't it better for the ladies to be below the glass ceiling than to be standing on top of the glass ceiling with all those men down there lookin' up?"
The movie, seen so close in proximity to the more acclaimed Batman flick, did have me thinking about the part gender plays in what we determine to be serious. While The Dark Knight dealt with themes of power and violence, Mamma Mia! was about the more domestic, but no less universal, themes of family and forgiveness -- but both films were primarily interested in showy visual sequences. Critics slobbered all over themselves heaping praise on the former, while many admitted being embarrassed by Mamma Mia! The contrast between the way the two have been received makes one wonder why, to start with, we consider singing and dancing showpieces to be "silly" while Batpods, metal suits, and improbably-rigged explosives are allowed be taken quite seriously. We're quick to forgive the tokenization of female characters as villain-bait in superhero movies, but critics whine when men in movies like Mama Mia! and Sex in the City are relegated to love interest status.
The actual material content constituting girl culture is cheap and depreciates with time. With possibly clothing and being the greatest expense, its value does not exceed point-of-purchase, girl-centered magazines like 16 are printed on perishable black and white newsprint, disposable accessories like stickers and lip gloss litter her purse, dime-novels are tossed in with the other Wal-Mart appropriate merchandising that has only a prayer to turn a profit on the fringes of ebay. Although girls are considered to be the hyper-consumers, it is boy culture in which we must invest.
Though video games and gaming consuls must be upgraded constantly, the "cred" of having an Atari or arcade game is considerable, comic books carry the potential of "collectors editions" leering behind counter glass, same goes for baseball cards, same goes for action figures. Re-editions and special editions of Star Wars and Star Trek mark the originals as hot commodities. Though there are notable exceptions, like a fine wine, boy culture value increases with age, whereas girl culture is largely marked by its dispensability.
In every walk of life, men are perceived as having a right to stand up for what they believe and/or “misbehave” - no matter how we disagree with what they’ve said or done. Women who step out of line are perceived as needing punishment - a good spanking to teach us our places. Additionally, our motives are more likely to be treated as suspect - it can’t be that we really believe what we’re saying. We must have an agenda.
Somebody told me how frightening it was how much
topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that
story around the campfire and nobody got scared.
If a "definition of personhood" initiative gets passed in Colorado and Montana this November, you might be investigated if you experience a miscarriage.
If an initiative to end affirmative action is passed in Arizona this fall, you may lose business if you're a woman who receives government contracts.
If a marriage-discrimination initiative passes in California and you're a lesbian newlywed, you'll have to cut short the honeymoon.
In the November election, voters will be deciding whether to roll back equal-opportunity programs for women and people of color, discriminate against gays and lesbians in marriage and adoption, cut public education and threaten women's health care. The big question is whether voters will buy what these ballot initiatives are selling.
My obsessive consumption of feminist literature and political ideology has left me tangled in many equally valid and contradictory schools of thought in the movement, the surface of which is but scraped! If I am therefore dismissed as "confused", at least the label is just. Who isn't?
The only way I can think to grope along the walls of this crude tunnel is by speaking and writing about feminism as much as I can stomach it, utilizing every platform available to refine my thoughts and hope to find truths forged in the fires of debate.
If the above sentiment reads as lofty, that's because the goals of feminism are just that. To imagine that one form of feminism is the one pathway to a complete overhaul in gender-hierarchy and human injustice, you're dreaming. The fact is: feminism, as it stands today, isn't good enough.
It falls short on all counts: symbolism, theory, politics, aesthetics, inclusiveness, coherence, draw, and the list goes on.
This goes without saying. So it is with virtually all movements, though my sense of feminism's inadequacy is piercing because it is the ideology with which I align. The underlying idea, which I define broadly as "the belief in women's fulfillment as human fulfillment", is the only thing I know for sure. Everything else is the process through which I can best live this belief and extend its reach.
I declare: more voices not less, open doors not closed, exchange not embargoes, and joy not despair is the only way for us.
Attention has been called to the rather gross language that is being used by some members of the IBT (Inbetween) Department in the presence of some of our female employees.Being the junior feminist that he is, Dan pointed out that the memo still referred to female employees as "girls", and that its format only allowed writers to address each other as "Mr.".
It has always been Walt’s hope that the studio could be a place where girls can be employed without fear of embarassment or humiliation. Your cooperation in this matter will be appreciated.
Created by OnePlusYou
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:It's funny to me that these are the offensive words, since I'm sure I've dropped an f-bomb here and there, but whatever. Apparently, using the word "abortion" is about as subversive as you can get.
abortion (4x) drugs (2x) pissed
So okay, let’s talk about Pierce Brosnan — and Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard. It is, frankly, weird to see these three men in supporting roles, while the women completely and utterly take center stage. Though they’re playing Streep’s old boyfriends, these are categorically girlfriend roles; the guys exist mainly to look nice, drive the plot forward as necessary, and sometimes take their shirts off. How fucking rare is that? Although I was thoroughly sick of the phrase “male gaze” by the end of just one feminist film theory class, I must say, I can’t think of another movie I’ve seen that so unabashedly employs the female gaze. Not just because there’s lots of eye candy for straight chicks, but because even male viewers are truly expected to identify with the female characters and see everything through a woman’s eyes. Meaning both that there’s no male hero and that in a movie set on a Greek island, there are no lingering shots of hot young girls in bikinis. Amanda Seyfried is plenty gorgeous in a fairly demure one-piece, but the point is not to be turned on by her, even if you are. Granted, most of the time she’s in a bathing suit, she’s hanging out with men who are old enough to be (and indeed might be) her father, but I can’t help suspecting a male director would have glossed over that pesky little fact and put her in a more revealing suit anyway — ’cause, you know, why waste that body? Meanwhile, when Baranski rocks a somewhat less demure, blazing red one-piece, we are supposed to think she’s hot — but in a way that encourages the viewer to think, “Hey, maybe I’m that hot, too!” not “Yeah, I’d hit that.”
For my money, the female gaze is exactly what throws so many male reviewers about Mamma Mia! The movie, as Ebert noted, wasn’t made for them. It’s not just that the poor widdle straight men are forced to watch a bunch of chicks doing chick stuff to an ABBA soundtrack, it’s that they’re supposed to identify with chicks doing chick stuff. They’re supposed to share in the joy when they hear old girlfriends squealing together, imagine themselves on stage rocking “Super Trouper” in sparkly polyester, and fantasize about what they might do with a shirtless Pierce Brosnan. They’re supposed to put themselves in the metallic boots — and behind the eyes — of a bunch of women, taking the same sort of gender-swapping imaginative leap women are expected to make, oh, only about EVERY GODDAMNED TIME WE GO TO THE MOVIES. Seriously, other movies I have seen this summer: Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Wanted, The Dark Knight. If I tried to identify with the female characters instead of the male heroes in those movies, I’d have been bored right out of my fucking skull. Likewise, the man who watches Mamma Mia! and attempts to envision Pierce Brosnan as someone he wants to be, not someone he wants to bang, is pretty much screwed (so to speak). To enjoy it, you’ve got to want to be Meryl Streep. And men are really not used to being put in that position at the movies because, you know, THEY NEVER ARE.
"Each newlywed team of contestants must be legally married to each other (legal marriage defined as one that is legally valid in all 50 states of the United States) and, upon Producer's request, must be able to provide proof of marriage (i.e. a marriage certificate) that shows that Contestants are legally married to each other. As of the tape date of the Program, Contestants must still be newlyweds (which is defined as the period of two (2) years after the date of Contestants' original married to each other)."My first thought about this thinly veiled attempt to exclude gay couples is that it's a huge shame they don't want to welcome same-sex newlyweds with open arms, since doing would mean the writers would have to downplay the ridiculous over-gendered-ness (if I can make that a word here) of the show. I always felt like both the Newlywed Game and The Dating Game had way too much of a Mars/Venus gender binary feel to them.