"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Cats and Dogs are a Feminist Issue!

THIS is why Sociological Images is one of the best blogs ever.

So true, lisa. So true.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Women: Swarming Mindless Cooing Machines

I searched for this ridiculous Burger King commercial on YouTube the minute I saw it on TV and couldn't find it, but it's up The Hathor Legacy. Check this out:



Get it?! When ladies see things that are little and cute, they lose all control over their mental capacity and become mindless cooing machines. Swarming mindless cooing machines.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Comment Moderation

I hated to have to do this, but comments from spammers have forced me to turn on the comment moderation. I will approve real comments as soon as I get to them.

And a note to spammers: Stop being parasites!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Gay TV Guide

Wanna check how many of your favorite shows have included gay characters? While doing some research on textual analysis in pop culture for a class, I stumbled upon this amazing website at which researcher David Wyatt has compiled a comprehensive list of gay/lesbian/bisexual television characters who appear or have appeared regularly on English-speaking TV networks.

I had way too much fun control-F-ing the shows I watch (or grew up watching), and I especially enjoyed the last two sections of the site on characters that almost fit the criteria or ones that are worth mentioning despite the probability of their not being gay. Peppermint Pattie and Marcie, anyone? Xena and Gabrielle? Bert and Ernie?

Check it out.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

My New Favorite Video



(Via Cute Overload. Of course.)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Lurking in the Quotation Marks

Yahoo news has this blurb about the new CBS sitcom "Accidentally on Purpose":

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Jenna Elfman, who starred in the sitcom "Dharma & Greg," has been cast in the lead role of the CBS comedy pilot "Accidentally on Purpose."

She will play Billie, a San Francisco movie critic who finds herself "accidentally" pregnant after a fling with a younger man, and builds an unconventional family around her "mistake."


Now, while the entire show can't be summed up in just one sentence, I'm bothered by those quotes around "accidentally" and "mistake". Because they hint at a plot based around one of most dangerous stereotypes used against women -- that women are deceitful and will try to get pregnant to trap men. Just as TV teaches men to fear the mythically numerous "girls who cry rape", do we really need another example of a "sperm-theif" outside of soap operas?

I suppose we will see in time what this show is really all about. But I'm skeptical.

Hollywood Boys Club

Entertainment Weekly just published their list of the 25 Greatest Active Film Directors. Wanna take a stab at how many women are included in the list?

1. Steven Spielberg
2. Peter Jackson
3. Martin Scorsese
4. Christopher Nolan
5. Steven Soderbergh
6. Ridley Scott
7. Quentin Tarantino
8. Michael Mann
9. James Cameron
10. Joel and Ethan Coen
11. Guillermo del Toro
12. David Fincher
13. Tim Burton
14. Judd Apatow
15. Sam Raimi
16. Zack Snyder
17. Darren Aronofsky
18. Danny Boyle
19. Clint Eastwood
20. Ron Howard
21. Ang Lee
22. Paul Thomas Anderson
23. Paul Greengrass
24. Pedro Almodóvar
25. Jon Favreau

That's right. ZERO. While the guys at SlashFilm (who saved me the work of typing out the list from the original slideshow) are angry at the omission of Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Brad Bird, and Hayao Miyazaki, I'm left scratching my head over both Entertainment Weekly AND Slashfilm's inability to think of at least one female director.

I think they should take a look at this list and start reading Women and Hollywood. Stat.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

WTF



Who lets these films get made? Seriously?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gender Analysis in Just Two Minutes!

I have to confess that one of the reasons I've been so absent from this blog lately is that I have been busy managing and contributing to a collective class blog with the students in the Women's Studies 101 class I am teaching. I wish I could share it with you all, since my students' posts are kicking SO much ass, but, alas, it's understandably confidential.

I do, however, want to pass along this supercool video that one of the students in the class found to demonstrate various aspects of gender socialization:

There's so much going on here. It demonstrates how little choice we have in the process of becoming gendered, how we resist this process, how much we can be ridiculed for assuming characteristics of the "opposite" gender, and even how men (as well as women) may feel helpless to address the problems that arise from gender socialization.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Ack! Two years!

We interrupt this month of unintended non-blogging to announce the passage of this little site's TWO YEAR Blogiversary.

Photobucket


And now I need to return to not-blogging, which is also known as reading-Foucault-for-grad-school-when-I-would-rather-be-blogging. Sigh.