Signal Boost: Check out this kick ass film
Signal Boost:
“Girlfriend” is about a young man with Down Syndrome who falls in love with a single mom. It’s the first US feature to star a Down Syndrome actor. Here’s the trailer: http://justinlerner.com/
feature-films.html .Only five of the 29 shortlisted films make it to the next round.They’re up against some pretty intimidating titles which is where you come in. They need your vote! And you can give it to them here: http://www.indiepixfilms.com/
videocontest/IFP-AUDIENCE
The polyandrous office wife
Interesting book on pregnancy and access.
YAY NNEDI!
From Scarlett:
One good thing came out of CHOGM - they agreed to scrap outdated laws that any prince of the heir to the throne, even one twenty years younger than his sister, is first in line, so now the firstborn in heir regardless of sex. (Let’s not dwell on the principle that, by accident of birth, this girl/boy will become head of state of half the freaking world.)
PS. The monarch can now marry a Catholic. Don’t know which is more antiquated, the no-girls-allowed or the no-Catholics-allowed :p
Shira Lipkin’s The Changeling’s Lament is pretty freaking amazing. Like what you read? Donate!
THIS POEM IS GREAT TOOOO.
Jaym Gates’ post on the WFC Creeper.
From MC:
The creators of “Once Upon A Time” – this fall’s most woman-centric
show – didn’t want to write damsels in distress because they didn’t
think that was releveant for today or as interesting: “In our minds,
Snow White wields a sword and is more of a bad a** than a damsel in
distress.”
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sbg,
I heard that, and ever since I haven’t watched another episode. I’m not purposely boycotting the series, I might get back to it eventually, but it’s just not selling itself real well to me right now.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
I saw it and really had a , “Whu, whu, wait. That was our PoC fairy tale character?” moment, and it was only after it was too late to appreciate her >30 seconds.
sbg(Quote) (Reply)
sbg,
That was really disappointing. I even missed the first 30 seconds and watched the whole episode wondering when this POC character was going to show up. Rewatching those 30 seconds was really awful. Would it have been that hard to make Cinderella or her prince a POC? No, not even a little. Seriously, I am thoroughly unenthused by this years new fall shows. Blah.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
I was completely stunned by that. So much so that it ruined the whole episode for me. First, they write her as what is essentially a servant, and then they blow her up. Within 20 seconds of her first appearance.
My first thought was “what were the writers (casting directors, whoever thought this was a good idea) thinking?!” Apparently, it takes more of a brain than I thought to understand that casting your first (and, so far, only) POC as a magical character serving a white girl, and then blowing her up before she even speaks three lines, is a terrible idea? Ugh.
Dani(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
I was baffled too. Then I read one fan arguing that the show can’t be racist, because Lana Parrilla, who is Puerto Rican and Italian, is one of the main characters. When I replied that having one single not white actress playing the villain is the perfect example of Tokenism, this fan really didn’t seem to understand it…
Is it too much to expect any work of fiction to exel in it’s portrayal of gender, race and sexual orientation? This reminds me of an interview I once read with the creator of “Bend it like Beckham”, who said that initially the main character was supposed to be a lesbian, but the studio made her change the script, because having a film about race and cultural differences was controversial enough.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
Yeah, I hear you. And I’m not trying to deny Ms. Parrilla’s racial identity, but having your token POC be one who is White-passing is a perfect example of colorism. I at least didn’t recognize her heritage until you pointed it out.
About Bend It Like Beckham, it’s been years since I’ve seen it, but I suppose that interview would explain the subplot where she’s suspected of kissing her female best friend. And the subplot with her gay male best friend.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, they pretty much did the same thing on Smallville. They had one main character of colour: the female lead played by Kristin Kreuk, who is Dutch/Chinese. Kristin can easily pass for white, and the producers cast white actors to play her parents, as if they were desperate for the viewers to not notice that there’s a coloured actresss on the show… That’s also how they treated gay characters: there was exactly one recuring gay character that we know of, because he mentioned once that he had an off-screen boyfriend.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
M.C.,
Interestingly enough, that happened to Taylor Lautner in Abduction — both sets of parents appeared white. It was actually REALLY weird because I feel like they did something funky with the lighting to make him appear lighter, as well.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
What was really ridiculous was when they did a story about Kreuk’s character seeking out her biological father… and he was white, too.
Patrick McGraw(Quote) (Reply)
Above I said that Guinevere gets alot of hate in Arthurian fandom because she cheated on her husband.
But there is one other cheating couple in the Arthurian legends: Tristan & Isolde. Isolde was married to king Mark, but betrayed him with the bard Tristan. People usually like Isolde because she never chose to be unfaithful to her husband, she and Tristan accidentally drank a love potion and they were unable to break the spell.
Guinevere and Lancelot on the other hand chose to sleep togheter and that’s why many fans hate them.
It’s interesting that the latest episode of “Merlin” took this approach to the betrayal storyline: Guinevere was enchanted by Morgana so that she would cheat on Arthur with Lancelot.
So as mysigynistic as the show sometimes is, they did manage to portray Gwen in a more sympathetic and moral way than I’ve ever seen in a film/series.
I only know one other version of Gwen who was so likable: the one from Joan Wolf’s “The Way to Avalon”. In this novel Gwen betrays Arthur after he betrayed her. And then they actually sit down and have a long talk about how they both made bad decisions, how their marriage just isn’t working and how they’re better off being just friends. As a reader you want to hug them and congratulate them on being so mature and reasonable human beings.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
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