Fox Nation cannot take a joke.
US government defends deportation of 4 yr old citizen, reigniting debate over anchor babies
Some thoughts on Libya.
Help some students put together a trans* zine for their women’s college. I will say that as the proud graduate of a women’s college that I think it’s possible for a women’s college to be a safe space for transgendered students without diluting its mission of educating and empowering students who are marginalized in traditional classrooms/campuses because of their gender identity (or the fluidity there of). I know a lot of alums express concern over that — particularly because sometimes the campus resources that would otherwise go to “women’s” issues like sexual assault prevention, etc., seem to go to “protecting” this new identity. This is a trick — it’s part of the competitive rhetoric people in positions of authority use to keep marginalized groups divided and not talking to each other or working towards solidarity. We aren’t in competition for bites of a slice of pie — we’re trying to make sure EVERYONE gets pie and to demand more if the pie we have been provided with is not enough.
Speaking of collegiates: this Native student group could use a little moral support.
The Hunger Games has some early casting and fandom fail.
Getting an abortion is SECRETLY a tax issue. Also: grammatical. Also: take a nap, pregnant chicks, or you can get arrested. Regardless of your arrest history, you still will realize less professional success and make less money once you spawn. You’ll also probably be more stressed. Great!
Sarah Monohan comes forward about child sexual abuse and the film industry.
From ChronoCatfish: The most damning promo of all time.
From Casey: The 100 “best” female characters of all time.
Reflections of a frustrated woman gamer
OMG THE NEW WONDER WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Animorphs WTFery — why re-do the covers anyways??
Jesus, it’s been a race-bendy week.
An ebay auction goes horribly right! <3
David and Goliath, Hot Topic, and one particular Etsy seller all steal the shit out of other people’s designs.
Knut the polar bear died.
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I’m really excited that Racebending is becoming a great resource for issues of race in film. It was right on the money about the Last Airbender travesty, & the fact that it didn’t stop there speaks well of it.
mordicai(Quote) (Reply)
Hmmm… the ’100 best female characters’ comes across as something of an antithesis to Hathor’s old logo of ‘the search for good woman characters’.
Gabriella(Quote) (Reply)
Racebending.com is awesome and so depressingly necessary.
I am so disappointed in Scholastic. Animorphs was a childhood must–though I never finished the series, I know what happens even though I was in college by the time it was over, and read for about a decade. The whitification of Marco is so…unnecessary and stupid. I don’t even get it. And the new covers are so…meh.
FOr AKIRA, the film which was one of my original introductions into anime and a favorite since I was around 13, I am honestly pissed about the casting, for race as well as age issues. If they keep the names Kaneda and Tetsuo, that’s just stupid. If they change them and accomodate white actors, that’s even more stupid. If they’re going to redo this for a New York experience both, IMO, should be black and have different names. BUT, I don’t really get the americanization of all adaptations. Is it really so bad to have a live action AKIRA still set in Tokyo, starring Japanese actors? If you MUST americanize it, can we just stop with the whitewashing? And the pretending that really old people are teenagers? Unless they’re upping the ages from 15/16 to the twenties, which just…I don’t know. There’s just way too much sense this isn’t making. I don’t even.
The political climate in the USA is starting to depress me more than enrage me, because I think I’ve started to not be surprised. I feel like I should be stockpiling food and move to Alaskan wilderness just to get away. But then I remember that it snows there and I am sick of snow.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
Scratch that, I was only in college when I READ about the last ones. I was only a freshman in highschool when the last one came out, apparently.
AAAAND I’ve now read they’re also updating for content? WFT? I’m so pissed I can’t even spell an acronym correctly.
But I’m abgry at a lot of things at the moment. Blah.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
I gotta say, I would be thrilled if there was an Akira-like movie with black actors.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
The age thing I can kind of understand, I think: actual teenagers have more pain-in-the-ass regulations to work around regarding school etc, so I don’t blame studios for trying to cast young-looking adults or upping the age when they can. Just, y’know, *young-looking*. (Having Grease flashbacks now.)
There’s no excuse for the race, though. Or for moving it to New York. Why the fuck does everything have to happen in America? We can grasp the idea of there being other countries out there. Really. Seriously. (Problematic in many ways as the new Karate Kid was, at least it actually took place in a non-American city.)
Isabel C.(Quote) (Reply)
Updating the content bugs me a little less — Sweet Valley High is in the midst of a reboot. What’s weird about it isn’t the blogging or the fashion updates, but the additions to the twins’ bodies (I think they’re not a perfect size two instead of a perfect size 6?) that are strange.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Ugh, that stuff about the little girl being deported made me want to puke. I *hate* the attitude toward immigration in the media and politics at the moment – in the debates before last year’s election here in the UK, I can remember literally crying with rage at the things said about immigration by even the so-called leftists. The sense of entitlement in Britain and the US, and the total dehumanization of people from other countries, is just horrendous.
Mind you, is the prevalence of racism and xenophobia really that surprising when the hugely profitable, hugely influential entertainment industry is just outright stating that it thinks white people are worth more than non-white people? I wrote about the whitewashing of The Hunger Games on my blog too, threatening to just stop seeing Hollywood movies if they don’t quit perpetuating the marginalization of everyone who isn’t a straight white cis male. It’d be hard for me, but maybe that’s what we all need to do – vote with our wallets…
Rainicorn(Quote) (Reply)
But Joaquin Phoenix? Justin Timberlake? The only teens that have restrictions are under 18. If the prospective cast was between 18 and 23 instead of like 24 and 40, sure, but…none of those actors is particularly young looking to me. They all seem way older than me. And, well, the age thing is much less troubling than the white thing. It’s just another gripe that makes me not trust the movie-makers to understand what made Akira awesome–delinquent teens rampaging around Tokyo on bikes with lights that left trails. I just wouldn’t be interested in watching Justin Timberlake or Robert Pattinson…because, well, they’re JT or RP, not Tetsuo or Kaneda. It’s kind of like they’re too much of themselves for me to believe it. And, really, that’s a tiny gripe to the thought of having to sit through a remake of one of my favorite childhood (warped, I know–I was lucky in that my parents assumed cartoon=kids and didn’t really look at ratings XD) movies and see white US stars dropping trou and emptying their bowels all over the characters and animation I adored.
And Grease…is an awful example to me. I hate that movie. XD
Eh…besides the race issue I don’t think it’s worth arguing over, and I know I won’t be going to see it. This and Hunger Games…I’ll be skipping.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
I just don’t get it, either.
All of my ancestors immigrated here. My great grandmother through Elis Island, and others long before that. I don’t get how people tout the “Founding Fathers” and love the States and everything but conveniently forget how much of this country is based upon illegal, awful, shoddy, and barely defensible immigration. And, well, the way I see it no illegal immigrant to the USA right now is spreading small pox and committing genocide, so they’re automatically better than my own ancestors. And it’s hard for me to even consider demonizing them or their children (!) for having the AUDACITY to want a better life for themselves. Especially when 3.2 billino dollars worth of tax benefits were dished out to GE last year. >:(
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
*billion. My typing skills today are abysmal.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
Almost everyone is an immigrant. Humankind started out in East Africa, so if you’re anywhere else on the planet you and your ancestors are immigrants. Of course, I grew up in East Africa, so it makes perfect sense to me to view it as the centerpoint of human evolution
Rainicorn(Quote) (Reply)
How so? Did you go read the list and the comments after it?
Gategrrl(Quote) (Reply)
Most definitely! Even my Irish/German/French/English/Dutch/etc origins aren’t the root of my origin. And Beyond even Africa we can go back to common ancestors with every living thing on the planet, pretty much. Well, not quite, but all the macrofauna, to an extent.
I read somewhere recently that they’ve found evidence to support a more southerly African origin. Have you heard anything of the sort?
It pleases me somewhat to think of ALL human beings as African, and to think that all those racist bigots are african if you look far enough back. At the same time, and as at home as I felt visiting Namibia and Zambian, it’s very…arrogant of me to think of myself as African, wouldn’t it be? As a silly middle class white girl from the USA. It’s a great rallying factor to humanity that’s vastly overlooked, though. I definitely also look at Africa as central to the human existence/development on the planet. I need to learn more about the continent–right now I’m working my way through “Dead Aid” by a woman from Zambia whose named Dambisa Moyo, an economist. It’s…saddening.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
Not to excuse anybody, but because you got me thinking:
–Immigration is a huge, huge issue. It’s easy to look at the elephant’s tail, thinking you’ve got a rope and that’s the whole thing, when there’s much more to consider.
–Therefore it doesn’t fit into soundbytes or conversations around the water cooler.
–The media, govt., etc. sure aren’t trying to help. Politicians in particular like to divide it all up into tiny problems to which they have The Solution.
–All most people really grasp of it is, “Well, do we let just anyone immigrate anywhere, or do we have some restrictions, and if so, which restrictions?” That’s enough of a problem right there. Unfortunately, it’s not all one needs to consider. It’s not even just a matter of policies.
I was just thinking today how the issue of imperialism ties in: we keep certain countries poor so they’ll provide cheap labor or products (like diamonds) to imperialist nations. If we let those folks all immigrate here, who will we sacrifice to keep our Wal-Mart McMansion lifestyle intact? And if we really don’t want them here, we should probably consider, you know, backing off on the imperialism thing so their countries can maybe go back to being nice places to live? Just a thought!
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Ok, somebody please explain this to me: Hollywood thinks that white men will only watch films about white men AND Hollywood thinks that women don’t watch any films. So where’s the logic in whitewashing female characters? Men only care about the white male characters anyway and women don’t care about any characters since they aren’t watching the film…
Goddamnit can’t they at least pretend to have some logic in their sexism/racism/homo-&transphobia?!
And why is Russell T Davies, a white gay British guy, the only producer I ever heard speaking about how he tries to include many female characters of different races (Martha Jones, Rani Chandra, Toshiko Sato) in his work?
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
edit: I just saw that Rashida Jones is writing a film so that she can have a decent role. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/03/rashida-jones-andy-samberg-celeste-jesse-saturday-night-live-parks-and-recreation.html
OMG how awesome is this woman?!
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
DEAR GOD THEY’RE REALLY GOING THROUGH WITH THE AMERICANIZED AKIRA!?!? I thought that shit died in pre-production! UGGGGGHHHH. I’m glad Roger Ebert pointed out how FUCKING STUPID this white-washing will be and whatnot. I keep forgetting the Japanese student protests/riots of the ’60s helped play a big part in formulating the world of Akira, but now it’ll be niggling in the back of my mind if this thing really gets made.
Also, The Other Anne? I first saw Akira (AND HAD MY MIND BLOWN) at the tender age of 10, so don’t feel too weird about that! XD (then again, I watched The Maxx when I was like…four or five and loved it. I didn’t realize how much rape and feminism played a part in that show until I re-watched it on MTV’s website. I also watched Evangelion and a bunch of ultra-violent/perv-tastic anime that I rented from Blockbuster’s when I was 7~9. OTL)
I’m of two minds on the new Wonder Woman costume…on the one hand, it looks too cheap/fetishy/like a glorified Halloween costume (and just seems to emphasize DEM TITTAYS) and I wish the boots were red[/minute gripe] but on the OTHER HAND, I like how they just streamlined her “iconic” look by giving her pants as opposed to going all out and having her wear that bootleg ’90s!Rogue costume WW has in the comics nowadays.[/I'm not a fan of that look]
But she’d probably look best in armor.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
I’m also pleased to see links to the racebending website / LJ community in the various websites I visit. It’s good to see that they are being heard, and the word is spread.
Skemono(Quote) (Reply)
I loved this one:
http://fanartexhibit.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/character-design-wonder-woman/
http://fanartexhibit.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/character-design-wonder-woman-updated/
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
I’ll admit it looks a little vinyly, but… PANTS. The previous costume showed off her boobs at least as much, so at least she’s getting more covered. Armor would make the most sense for her (since, unlike Superman, I understand she’s actually supposed to be a warrior).
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
Those are freaking awesome! But reminds me of this pin-up fail I found on DeviantArt (DEM IMPOSSIBLE PROPORTIONS): http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/083/0/6/steampunk_wonder_woman_by_papaninja-d3ce26y.jpg
It’s doubly sad for me ‘cuz I like steampunk.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, but this costume looks like it has a more…uh….hmmm…”deliberate” bustier design? IDK, but it bugs me.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Jessus. What’s up with her FACE being bigger than her WAIST?
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
It’s like if Rob Liefield knew how to airbrush.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Her waist is the size of my leg. o_O It makes the boobs look in proportion.
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
In comparison to the Lynda Carter one, I don’t see it, but it still *has* a deliberately busty design. Hi, I’m Wonder Woman, please direct all attacks to my exposed chest! That’s where the organs are!
Shaun(Quote) (Reply)
The Libya thing misses one important point: Bombing the country will, if anything, decrease production, and our leaders know it. Look at Iraq. Plus, as the article said the regime already gives us their oil. This sure as hell won’t help Libyans, but it’s also got nothing to do with oil mongering.
Hazmat Sam(Quote) (Reply)
Honestly, I wish they wouldn’t bother with a costume at all – shout out to it by having one episode where she has reason to wear a swimsuit or leotard and picks one with that design – but otherwise have her wear normal clothes.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
On the subject of the Wonder Woman costume, now I understand this cartoon:
http://nonadventures.com/2011/03/18/how-now-loud-trou/
Djiril(Quote) (Reply)
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