Posts by Heather Gaye
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Bechdel test
FWIW TV seems to be becoming more progressive in this respect. While Fringe commits more travesties against science than your usual scifi pap, I LOVE it for the strong female leads. The only thing that really pisses me off is the fact that Olivia always leaves her top two shirt buttons undone.
Ditto V, except for the shirt buttons.
-
WRT the cycle helmet thing, are there examples of countries revoking a helmet law and the number of cyclists increasing?
-
(And not to pick on you Heather, a couple of people have said this, you're just the most recent)
Yeah, but what does that mean? Someone else mentioned 'collective action', in which case I am going to have to hand back my membership card.Wouldn't dare speak for the borg, but I don't just mean "action" in narrow activist terms (otherwise I'd score a big fat fail as well), but in exactly the sense you're describing as the office stroppy bitch. Perhaps "action" invokes too strong a picture - how about a willingness to engage. I kind of only added that as a half-formed side-thought to the "men can't be feminists" argument - that maybe it's also prompted by the relative passsivity of men who - when pressed - might say "sure, I'm a feminist".
...& thanks, your post is exactly what I was trying to convey, only far more effectively & succinctly.
-
Another four-page-reader first-time-poster. I've been copying quotes to respond to for the last.. well, four pages. I have SO MUCH to say on this subject it could easily turn into a 6-month treatise.
I've only recently fully embraced the "feminist" epithet, after most of my life being a kind of naive post-feminist. As a woman who has been subjected to very little misogyny or oppression, I also take issue with the experience requirement. I think it's simply driven by the presumption (reinforced, I admit, by being widely - but not universally - accurate), that people without experience can't have sufficient understanding of gender discrimination to be able to call themselves a feminist.
Firstly, I think the conflicting factions within feminism are indication enough not to demand perfect understanding (which would require first-hand experience plus possibly multiple personalities) in order to call oneself a feminist.
Secondly, as mentioned in a previous post by who's-even-keeping-track-now, there are plenty of women who are first-hand victims of gender discrimination that still haven't graduated feminism 101. Thoughtlessness or bad assumptions may make one a Bad - or at least cringe-inducing - Feminist; not lack of experience, just there's a correlation.
Lastly, after years of interacting with a lot of smart women* and being the recipient of many many patient explanations about how & why feminism is still relevant, I believe I've now come to grasp sufficient understanding of gender discrimination to feel strongly about identifying as a feminist, albeit within a quite specific scope. If I can, anyone can.
* I admit, the only man who has made any visible contribution to my education to date is Dan Savage.Yeesh, I now have a whole stack of other rubbish in my head related to being female, Maori, straight and bourgeois, but I can't even go there now. Upshot is that I think the "what the hell would you know" mentality isn't entirely unfair, especially since common experience is a powerful unifying force, but ultimately it's not helpful.
By the by, I see no problem - and every benefit - in adding a qualifier to the label, just to frame the debate you're willing to have. An "I'm a feminist because I believe..." kind of thing. It's probably easy for me to say given I have a pretty clearly defined soapbox. "I'm a feminist because I believe that there are deeply-ingrained presumptions about how women and men can and can't express themselves sexually, and I believe those expectations are a large part of the foundation of a great deal of bad policy, bad advice, even such problems as the animosity directed at solo mothers, and the low conviction rate for rape cases. I want to be one of those patient smart women who can help other people - men and women - understand what it is that's wrong, and start on fixing it." FWIW I do think action is an important part of identifying as feminist.
(No doubt that wee description will trigger memories of various online conversations on PAS & elsewhere, so thanks to every smart patient woman that's contributed to my ever-continuing education.)
-
I only watched the first season, but I've had a pretty basic review in stereo, between my boss and my boyfriend.
"there's so much they didn't address... not small stuff either - the dharma initiative were like running the island for a whole two seasons"
" 'focusing on the characters'... proof positive the writers have run out of ideas"
"they started out as science fiction & then turned it into a fucking fantasy series in the last six episodes"
"there was a door! A door with a bright fucking light behind it!! A FUCKING DOOR WITH A BRIGHT FUCKING LIGHT!! THAT'S HOW BAD IT WAS!!!!"
"117 HOURS OF MY LIFE I CAN'T GET BACK"
I caught about 5 minutes' worth on saturday, & was quite surprised at how indiana jones it had turned since I last saw it.
-
I'm in my dream job working for a couple I met through nzmusic.com. Still can't quite work out how they could hire me based entirely on the vast swathes of non-work-related debate I contributed, primarily during work hours no less, but everything's coming up milhouse for all of us.
Actually, 80% of my friends can be traced back to that site. I'm friends with people I wouldn't have given a second look if my first impression hadn't been based on their superb musical tastes and erudite reviews.
Public address is the new nzmusic.com, 10% and climbing.
-
I just bought Grayson Gilmour's new album, and it's so good that using capital letters and exclamation marks would feel tacky.
-
I suppose I should refrain from comparing him to one of the Cactus Lab boys...
Ooooohhh, snap!
As for Dr Who the 11th, I've watched the episode three times now. Googled, and there are entire threads dedicated to critiquing his choice of dress, the new theme & opening credits (FWIW I thought the score for the whole episode was marvellous), and complaining (???) about Amy's short skirt, including someone that complained about the impropriety of putting a "stripogram" [sic] on a "children's show" [sic].
Apparently a bunch of Dr Who fans are annoyed about the "sexing-up" of the show, as if other female companions spent their years wearing a habit. Frankly, I noticed Amy's legs, but I was far more distracted by the Doctor's extraordinary cheekbones. Hell yes, they've sexed up the show; Matt Smith could've walked straight out of NME (bow tie and all), and I'm totally at peace with that. And I reckon he's going to be an awesome doctor! Russell C described exactly why I wasn't completely convinced by Tennant's take (as much as I hate myself for admitting that) - struggling with the weight of all the emotional baggage they heaped on him. Matt Smith appears to be able to convey haunted hidden depths simply by not smiling.
Wasn't expecting to be so ok with Amy (there's something about impossibly cute female sidekicks that irritates me to all hell), but I really liked her in the context of the whole tragically romantic girl-who-waited storyline. (sigh)
-
but is the misogyny considerably worse than that shown in some of those alcohol ads where we see a woman, drinking, drunk, raped. Without repercussions.
There are a whole bunch of people (including some PA readers) that laid official complaints about that ad, and I imagine many would agree that the misogyny in a public service ad is more insidious for its unthinking presumption.
-
Honestly theres so much you can equate to america personified with dex.
Absolutely, but my point is that the show emphasises that the "renegade" ideal is.. well, considerably less than ideal. And I think reading "justification" rather than mere "exploration" of immoral behaviour into the show is kinda lazy. Just because some redneck on the show says the bay harbour butcher should keep up the good work doesn't make the show itself a ringing endorsement for vigilantism.
Hmm...I wrote a stack of stuff about Season 4 in particular (which regularly re-iterates that he's not killing people purely for the good of society, and ultimately his behaviour has negative consequences), but I suspect you and I use different filtering software, so even if you'd seen it, you'd probably disagree.