Hosted by the Indiana Dunes.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker catvoncat: "What is your least favorite sound?"
Slurping.
(Got a suggestion for the QotD? Drop it in comments here!)
No Female Heroes: The Circle of Fail
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
My thanks to Mother Jones for inviting me to crosspost this piece in Kevin Drum's space while Kevin is focused on getting better. Best wishes, Kevin. I'm thinking about you.
Each time WikiLeaks posts another round of emails from the Sony hack, there is a garbage trove of misogyny: Unequal pay, gendered and racist harassment, Aaron Sorkin waxing sexist, Angelina Jolie dismissed as a spoiled brat. Found among the latest collection was a dispatch from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter to Sony CEO Michael Lynton on the subject of female-centered superhero films, and if it's not exactly as awful as you're already imagining, that's possibly because it's even worse.
Sent under the simple subject line "Female Movies," Perlmutter writes:
Michael,Case closed, your honor!
As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.
Thanks,
Ike
1. Electra (Marvel) – Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elektra.htm
2. Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film was a disaster. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm
3. Supergirl – (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.
Best,
Ike
At Women and Hollywood, Laura Berger quite rightly notes that Perlmutter's list is highly selective and narrowly defined. "It seems fair to assume," writes Berger, "that Perlmutter is referring specifically to female superhero movies. If that's the case, why is something like 'The Hunger Games' omitted from this list? The extremely lucrative franchise is led by a woman, and while Katniss isn't technically a superheroine, she's certainly marketed as one. Isn't 'The Hunger Games' a more relevant example of how female-led films fare at the box office today than, say, 'Supergirl,' which was released over 30 years ago?" Emphasis original.
And at Think Progress, Jessica Goldstein shows how easily one could selectively compile a list of male-centered superhero flops, if one were inclined to make the incredulous assertion, based exclusively on box office returns and not on the inherent quality of the films, that male-centered superhero films don't work.
The three films on Perlmutter's list frankly just weren't very good. Which has to do with their female heroes only insomuch as studios don't generally dedicate equivalent creative and financial resources to female-centered superhero films, because they don't want to "waste" them on films they fear won't succeed at the box office.
Thus the vicious cycle continues: Many female-centered superhero films are set up to fail, and then when they fail, the blame is directed at the women at its center, rather than the misogyny at her back.
This is conversation that happens around every genre of "hero" film: Superhero films, action films, fantasy films, adventure films. The wildly successful male-centered flicks get rattled off, as evidence of what "works," and implicit condemnation of what (allegedly) doesn't.
Many of the wildly successful male-centered franchises have, however, a token female character—carefully segregated from other women and girls, lest they get any ideas about taking over the world, I suppose.
And we are ever meant to understand that all of the dedicated superfans of these films watched them because of the men, always the men. What Perlmutter and his cohort don't understand, don't consider, or simply don't care about is that there are plenty of us who watched those films for the women.
When I watched the "Superman" series, I wasn't watching those films for Christopher Reeve; I was watching them for Margot Kidder's Lois Lane, who I was certain was the coolest woman with the most amazing voice who had ever lived. When I watched the "Star Wars" trilogy, I had zero interest in Luke; I showed up for Leia. When I watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark," I was watching it as much for Marion as I was for Indy. When I watched "Dragonslayer" (which admittedly was a commercial flop, but later became a cult classic) over and over until I could say every line, I was all about Valerian. When I watched "Romancing the Stone," I was cheering for THE JOAN WILDER.
There were female heroes in my favorite films, and they were the reason I watched them. I imagine there are plenty of little girls (and little boys) who watch "The Avengers" not because of the guys, but because of the one, remarkable, exceptional (in every sense of the word) female hero in their midst.
That doesn't show up in the numbers—nor, apparently, in the imaginations of the men who make creative decisions based on numbers.
The thing about many of the films I mentioned is that they're generally regarded as good movies. They were made with monumental investments of care and attention. And they didn't have to be male-centered, but they got that care and attention because they were.
What would happen if a female-centered hero were given the same mighty powers? Welp.
Welp
[Content Note: Misogynistic violence.]
After a three-month investigation, the National Football League has concluded that "it is more probable than not" that members of the Patriots franchise "deliberately deflated the team’s footballs in the AFC Championship game and that quarterback Tom Brady was aware of it."
Patriots owner Robert Kraft: "While I respect the independent process of the investigation, the time, effort and resources expended to reach this conclusion are incomprehensible to me."
Agreed! Although we are definitely sharing that opinion for very different reasons!
What if the NFL cared even half as much about abused women as they did about deflated footballs?
For fuck's sake.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by a warm breeze.
Recommended Reading:
Sheila: [Content Note: Disenfranchisement] Why Hoosiers Don't Vote
Chauncey: [CN: White supremacy; classism; violence] Matters of Race and Class: How 'Whiteness' Is One of the Greatest Scams in Modern History
Anne: An Open Letter to All of My Friends Who Take Selfies
Parker: [CN: Transphobia; gender essentialism; body policing; violence] It's a Shame You Didn't Get a Say in Whether Trans People Exist, But Get Over It
Peter: The Swiftboating of Hillary Clinton
Mark: ACLU Makes App That Sends Phone Video of Police Misconduct Directly to ACLU Servers
Diane: This Shrub Uses Moonlight to Show It's Ready to Get it On
Diamond: Nina Simone Documentary Drops Next Month
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly says, "IT'S A DAY!!!!"
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There is a strobe-light effect in this video.]
Anita Ward: "Ring My Bell"
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism] Daniel Rivero: "Web series about Cleveland police lawsuits is a must-read for #BlackLivesMatter activism." Yep.
In related news: Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has requested "a federal civil rights investigation into the 'patterns and practice' of the city's police" following a meeting with US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and the Chicago City Council has approved "a $5.5 million reparations package for the victims of the city's notorious police torture scandal that also includes a formal apology and a promise to teach schoolchildren about one of the darkest chapters in Chicago's history."
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has ended the Progressive Conservatives' (PC) "44-year rule" of Canada's Alberta province: "Political observers were stunned by the result, with one commentator saying: 'Pigs do fly.'"
[CN: Domestic abuse] A woman being held hostage with her children by her boyfriend cleverly used the Pizza Hut mobile app to signal for help: "Nickerson took away Treadway's phone, police said, but she was eventually able to persuade him to let her order a pizza using her Pizza Hut app" because the kids were hungry. "Along with her order of a small, classic pepperoni pizza, she wrote: 'Please help. Get 911 to me,' according to police. She also wrote: '911hostage help!'" And enormous credit to Pizza Hut Manager Candy Hamilton, who immediately took action: "I've been with the company for 28 years and I've never seen nothing like that ever. We didn't even question it, we immediately called 911."
[CN: Airline crash] An update on the Germanwings crash investigation: The German newspaper Bild, "citing sources close to France's BEA crash investigation agency, said an interim report that BEA was planning to publish on Wednesday would say that Lubitz had practiced reducing flight altitude on the outbound flight from Duesseldorf to Barcelona the same day as the crash. Bild cited the sources as saying the BEA report would talk about a 'controlled descent that lasted for minutes and for which there was no aeronautical justification.'"
Jem and the Holograms artist Sophie Campbell has disclosed she is trans. "It's time to stop hiding. I'm transgender and over the past year I've been transitioning and I'm sick of keeping it all a secret."
Astronomers have discovered the oldest and furthest galaxy from our own that has been identified. EGS-zs8-1 is 13 billion light years away from Earth and is 13.1 billion years old. Wow.
Did you miss Oprah's interview with Janet Mock? It's now available on her website!
"Rock Band 4 May Be the Last Music Game You'll Ever Need." YES! I CAN'T WAAAAAAAIT!!!
Daimler Trucks has introduced the first self-driving 18-wheeler. I have mixed feelings about this, because trucking is a huge source of jobs around here, but also a huge safety issue, because the highways are cluttered with trucks (and their shredded tire detritus) which are often being driven by people who are exhausted and racing to meet impossible deadlines set by exploitative employers. I don't want people to lose their jobs; I'd prefer to see tighter regulations on the industry. But I don't believe that's ever going to happen. It pains me to think that losing drivers altogether is the only thing that will make the roads safer, because their greedy employers won't prioritize human safety and decency.
And finally! This photo series documenting the friendship between the photographer's sons and their cats is lovely. ♥
Primarily Speaking
Are you all SO EXCITED for the presidential debates which will begin as soon as THIS FALL?! If you are SO EXCITED that you can barely contain your OVERFLOWING ENTHUSIASM, please check this box: □
If you failed to check the enthusiasm box, perhaps the following news straight off the WHO CARES NEWS PRESS will help inflate your enthusiasm back to maximum enthusiosity: New polling out of Iowa has found that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is winning the battle of least-worst of all the Republican candidates among Iowa Republican caucus-goers! Congratulations, Scott Walker! You've got 21% of the votes, which means there's not much room for you to go down if you announce a candidacy and those same people get a good gander at your garbage policies!
Poor Jeb Bush only got 5% of the vote. I bet he'd feel really terrible about that, if these actual numbers actually meant anything! HA HA FUCK YOU, VOTERS! CASH IS KING!
In other polling news: "Americans now view Hillary Clinton more favorably and more see her as a strong leader than they did earlier in the year, despite weeks of scrutiny about her ethics, a New York Times/CBS News poll has found." LOLOLOL. Huh! It's almost like fake-ass stories about fake-ass bullshit that are transparent partisan and misogynist attacks don't even work to make people hate a woman they have liked and admired for a really long time, but instead only make them like and admire her more for withstanding unmaudely amounts of garbage! GO FIGURE.
Hey! Do you want to hang out with Senator Marco Rubio? I BET YOU DO! It'll only cost you "$2,700 per person or $5,400 per couple—followed by a reception at $1,000 per person." Seems reasonable! Who wants to go in with me so we can get that TERRIFIC couples discount of $0?
Senator Rand Paul says some shit in Michigan. That's exactly as exciting as it sounds! Don't say I don't bring you ALL THE BEST Rand Paul news!
Senator Ted Cruz continues to be a totally reasonable person by asking questions about the Jade Helm military training exercise and justifying his suspicion by saying cool shit like "I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don't trust what it is saying."
Speaking of totally reasonable people: Senator Lindsay Graham, who is still considering whether to put on some oversized shoes and hop in the clown car, said at a dinner on Monday with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that "everything that starts with 'Al' in the Middle East is bad news: Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula." For the record, "al" is the Arabic word for "the."
Professor of Bible Bigotry Mike Huckabee is making friends: Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul should either resign from the Senate or drop out of the presidential race, according to Huckabee, because "if a person has a job that the taxpayers are paying for, shouldn't that person do that job? I just believe it's a matter of integrity to say, 'I don't want this job that I just got elected to, I think I want another job.' Okay, then resign the job you have, and go out there and seek the one you want."
Jeb Bush: "If our government leaders want to attack poverty, they should first acknowledge that an effective anti-poverty program is a strong family, led by two parents. The evidence on this is incontrovertible." Does that mean Jeb Bush now supports same-sex marriage and adoptions by same-sex couples? No? Just more incoherent racist and classist dogwhistling? Cool.
Hillary Clinton said during her speech on immigration reform that she's pretty pissed "our undocumented workers in New York pay more in taxes than some of our biggest corporations in New York." BOOM.
In response, Carly Fiorina [video may autoplay at link] accused Clinton of "pandering" and then went on a tear about how giving citizenships to undocumented immigrants is unfair to documented immigrants: "I think it isn't fair to say to people who've worked hard to earn the privilege of citizenship that 'Never mind. Never mind that you played by the rules. People who didn't get to have the same privileges that you do.'" I strongly suspect my documented immigrant husband would tell her: "Stop using me."
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Research Confirms What Fat People Have Been Saying
[Content Note: Fat hatred; food policing; diet talk; disordered eating.]
This is a pretty terrific interview with Traci Mann, "who teaches psychology at the University of Minnesota and has been studying eating habits, self-control and dieting for more than 20 years...at the University of Minnesota's Health and Eating Lab," and who has a newly published book titled Secrets from the Eating Lab, in which she explains why diets don't work for the vast majority of people long-term.
And, again, it's another situation in which research has simply confirmed what many of the people being researched have been saying about their own lived experiences for a very long time, so, hey, maybe we could have just listened to them and treated them as authorities on their own lives, but, okay, since lots of people refuse to do that, it's great to have Official Science to which to point, saying the same thing.
Which essentially boils down to this: People have natural body diversity; dieting fundamentally changes your body; the issue is not as simple as "willpower."
[Related Reading: "No one wants to be fat."]
Jeremy Renner Doubles Down
[Content Note: Misogyny; slut-shaming.]
Last month, during promotions for Age of Ultron, Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye, and Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, called the only female Avenger, Black Widow, a "slut," a "whore," and a cocktease. The two later apologized, with Renner offering a classic non-apology: "I am sorry that this tasteless joke about a fictional character offended anyone. It was not meant to be serious in any way. Just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour."
Via Bedhead, Renner has now doubled-down (underlining what a non-apology his "apology" really was) while appearing on Conan O'Brien's show:
O'Brien: What I like about you is you're very unguarded when you talk; you've been talking to the press and you'll say all kinds of stuff—Renner is really fixated on this idea that, because Black Widow is a fictional character, somehow it doesn't fucking matter what anyone says about her. As if fictional characters exist in a vacuum, outside of actual culture. It doesn't matter if you call her a slut; it doesn't even matter that she's the only female superhero in the film. It's fictional! Thus is has no consequences!
Renner: Sure.
O'Brien: —and you'll go for it, you'll go for the joke.
Renner: [chortling] Yes.
O'Brien: You caused a bit of a controversy recently— [chuckles] You were talking to the press, and you called Black Widow a slut.
Renner: Yeah. [audience laughs]
O'Brien: Uh, let's elaborate on that.
Renner: Yeah, it was a joke, off-color or whatever, but, yeah, I'm unapologetic about a lot of things, but— Yeah, I got a lot of internet trouble. I guess that's a thing now, you can get in.
O'Brien: The internet's a brand new thing. It's creeping up on America. [laughs; audience laughter]
Renner: Yeah, see, I was asked a question that was like, 'So Black Widow's been linked to Hawkeye, Iron Man, Bruce Banner, and Captain America, so what do you think about that?' I'm like, well, I said, 'Sounds like she's a slut!' [Conan laughs; audience laughs] Now, mind you, I was talking about a fictional character and fictional behavior. But, Conan, if you slept with four of the six Avengers, no matter how much fun you had—
O'Brien: Right.
Renner: —you'd be a slut.
O'Brien: Yeah. [laughs; audience laughter]
Renner: Just saying. I'd be a slut. Just saying.
O'Brien: I'm just curious: Which one would she be most attracted to, of all those guys?
Renner: I don't know, man. Again, we're talking about fictional characters. I guess maybe it's The Hulk. She's into The Hulk now.
O'Brien: Yeah. It's not Quicksilver, we know that. Uhhh. [Renner laughs; audience laughs] Things are over way— Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh. It's a quick evening with Quicksilver, yeah. [Renner laughs; audience laughs] 'That's it?!' 'That's that's what I do!' Uhh.
This is, of course, absolute garbage. Of course fictional characters and stories matter. They are part of culture and they reflect culture and they inform culture and they influence culture. To suggest otherwise is absurd.
What I think is the important caveat here about why Black Widow doesn't matter is that she's a fictional female character. She doesn't matter.
Which is why, the last time I wrote about this, I had fanboys up in my grill endlessly repeating Renner's codswalloping argument about Black Widow being fictional—and why, when I write about a straight white male superhero being recast as gay or a man of color or female, I have fanboys up in my grill shouting about me about CANON!!!!1!eleventy!!!1!!11!
Because fictional characters are sacred when they are male, and irrelevant when they are female.
Go take a nap, Jeremy Renner.
Democratic Debate Schedule Announced
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and whoever else decides to throw their chapeau into the ring with them will debate it out at six primary debates beginning this fall, as decided by the Democratic National Committee.
The debates will be sponsored by a combination of state Democratic parties, national and local media companies and civic organizations. Each of the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina will host a DNC debate.What are those sanctions? Who knows! I'm sure they're great, though! Because everything about US presidential politics is the greatest!
DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement that the debates should "give voters ample opportunity to see candidates side-by-side, while remaining manageable for all of the candidates."
The committee says that the schedule of six debates "is consistent with the precedent set" in 2004 and 2008, but this year, the DNC is also implementing an exclusivity requirement, requiring any candidate or debate sponsor interested in participating to do so exclusively, that is, to respect the sanctions set by the DNC.
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
Daily Dose of Cute
Queen Matilda, dignified as always.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Um.
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
Someone literally wants to make a federal case out of her own bigotry:
An Auburn [Nebraska] woman calling herself an ambassador for God and his son, Jesus Christ, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against all homosexual [people].She sounds like a terrific person who knows how to ask some terrific questions!
Sylvia Driskell, 66, said in the suit that she is petitioning the U.S. District Court of Omaha to be heard "in the matter of homosexuality. Is homosexuality a sin, or not a sin?"
In a seven-page letter framed as a lawsuit, she cited Bible passages that described homosexuality as an abomination and against nature, and she said never before has the nation or the state been "besiege(d) by sin."
"Will all the judges of this nation judge God to be a lier [sic]?" Driskell asked.
She said she petitioned the court because she feels it imperative to stand up for the moral principles on which the nation was founded.Ah yes, the founding principles. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Also: No butt stuff."
As I'm sure you're aware, there's long been an argument about whether the Founders included what's colloquially known as the Butt Stuff Provision as an explicit condemnation of homosexuality, taking a cis male centric view, or whether their intent was a broad admonishment to anyone with predilections toward posterior pleasures. You know, a typical strict constructionist debate.
Hopefully, Ms. Driskell's lawsuit will help us sort this out once and for all. Good luck suing ALL THE GAY PEOPLE IN AMERICA, Ms. Driskell! You are a true patriot.
Deeky W. Gashlycrumb, you're gonna need a lawyer. Better Call Saul!
Huckabee Is In
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy; eliminationism.]
Former Arkansas Governor and Christian Dominionist Mike Huckabee has officially announced he is running for president, and his first shot across the bow at "the Clintons" appears to be stealing Bill Clinton's shtick:
Huckabee, who is popular with the religious right, shared the news of his candidacy with supporters at Hempstead Hall in his hometown of Hope, 113 miles southwest of Little Rock.For those of you who aren't older than dirt and/or don't have a lint trap of a memory, here is [video autoplays at link] a 1992 Bill Clinton campaign ad called "Hope" which documents Clinton's journey, as someone might describe it, "from Hope to higher ground."
"I was raised to believe that where a person started doesn't mean that's where he has to stop," he said. "I always believed that a kid could go from Hope to higher ground."
All you Huckabee fans out there are probably pretty worried that Huckabee's plagiarism barely left any time for eliminationism, but fear not! The man can multitask:
In a speech filled with fiery rhetoric, Huckabee...was also tough on Islamic State, saying he would change the U.S. approach from attempting to contain the militant group and instead would "conquer" it.Cool rhetoric, Reverend. As we all know, the most perfect solution to gruesome violence rooted in othering and dehumanization, it's more gruesome violence rooted in othering and dehumanization!
"We will deal with jihadis just like we deal with deadly snakes," he said.
There was, of course, plenty of Bibletalk, too—because Mike Huckabee's #1 qualification for GOP presidential politics is being THE BEST at using the Bible to justify rank bigotry.
This guy is the worst, and his entire platform sticks like a rancid dog fart.
