-via The Guardian - ”Hollywood Woman Unite to Break Through the Celluloid Ceiling” (via joshruben)
-Molly Lambert
I’m so bored of stories about guys who like having fun with their fun friends but then learn a valuable lesson about responsibility from their not fun girlfriends and in the end settle down and mature and become an adult who still gets to have fun with his friends sometimes, but the rest of the time has to be in a boring mature relationship because that’s what grown-ups do.
Because what a bummer that is for the girlfriend, to have to be the responsible one, to have to be the one that actually cares about their relationship. Because of course she doesn’t have any of her own friends that she likes to have fun with — she’s just a prop for the male character’s development. It’s a trope every bit as stale as the manic pixie dream girl and it’s so boring.
The boy, goof-off sweetheart that he is, forgot the anniversary, or didn’t read the baby books, or took the girl for granted, so busy was he chasing his own dream. And the girlfriend rolls her eyes because, oh, boys will be boys, and it’s all fun and fine as long as they can get married at the end, because of course that’s all the woman really wants.
It’s a weird kind of sexism in the form of flattery— you put the girl on a pedestal, you flatten her out. She’s a passive aggressive wet blanket stick in the mud who instead of chasing her own dream just wants her boyfriend to be a little bit better, when really she should want a better boyfriend.
It’s so super-gross, especially in a kids’ movie, but it doesn’t make me angry, not really. I’m not offended or shocked or outraged when I see movies like The Muppets. I’m just bored. It’s so boring. And I’m so so bored of being so bored.
-Kurt Vonnegut
I found this fascinating and enlightening
The nearly 9 minute version of this trailer thats on facebook is even better. The whole thing is a must watch. Hope to get to see the full movie soon.
Helen Reddy - “I Am Woman”
Well, you knew I was gonna post it at some point…
There’s a reason that if my daughter only hears one song in her life it’s gonna be this one - because forty years later and still no one’s really come close to equaling it.
Modern feminism begins here.
Martina McBride - “This One’s For the Girls”
Country music has long had a complex and interesting relationship with women. Of all forms of popular American music it has, almost from the beginning, been the one that has most allowed women to be on equal footing and as big a stars as their male counterparts. Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, The Dixie Chicks, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, and many many others have all sold as well and been seemingly as popular as their male contemporaries. And that sort of history and track record for female artists is unfortunately too rare in any art form, let alone music. So it should be rightly celebrated and embraced. And best of all, country music has always allowed women to be feisty and strong and independent minded and individualistic in a way that the rest of popular music has been much slower to come around to. And likely because of country music’s inexorable ties to the American south, its male singers have always sung about women with a level of admiration and respect that is all too often absent in other forms of music.
Yet despite all that there always seems to be a deep paternalistic, sexually and socially regressive undercurrent lurking just below the surface of country music. The genre that gave us “9 to 5” also gave us “Stand By Your Man” after all. And it’s always been allied very closely with a political movement that is no fan of women’s reproductive rights. And we all know what happened when The Dixie Chicks tried to speak their minds. But most of all, country music seems all too interested in a woman’s purity and goodness. It’s no coincidence that the genre’s biggest star is Taylor Swift. And I say that a big Taylor Swift fan and supporter. But even in this wonderful Martina McBride song the whole first verse is about remaining chaste and innocent.
Now I’m painting with a broad brush I know, but totally fair or not, does the good mentioned in the first paragraph outweigh the perceived wrongs of the second? After all country music has been, and continues to be, great to its female artists and to the cause of female empowerment and feminism in general. Yet at the same time, even as I typed that sentence it seemed like an inherently and almost laughably incorrect thing to say about country music.
I guess, as I said at the open, it’s a complicated issue.
Then again, so is life.
Attention recently engaged ladies on facebook: You’re not an “it” that he “liked” and “put a ring on”. You’re better than that.
And you’re more than that.
Selena Gomez - “Who Says”
By posting this I’ll probably lose a few dozen followers but I don’t care. There’s no way my daughter won’t love this song and its message and no way she wont be open minded enough to accept that there’s a place in this world for both Sleater-Kinney songs AND Selena Gomez songs.
Sure, someone making their own way in the music industry, releasing edgy songs on an indie label is ostensibly “better”, whatever that means. But something like this, backed by Disney, with a polished catchy mainstream sound is way more likely to reach more impressionable young minds who could benefit from hearing it. Which is basically my roundabout way of saying that Disney a-ok in my book as long as they keep putting out songs like this. And that I’m thrilled and grateful that they’ve helped make empowerment be such a prevalent message in so much teen-centric music. I hope it’s a trend that continues for a very long time.
Caitlin Crosby – “Imperfect is the New Perfect”
Imperfect is the new perfect. Offbeat is the new normal. Smart is the new sexy. Modest is the new rich. Unique is the new way to be.
Feels good to be trendy for a change doesn’t it?
