tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20784473836292164072024-03-12T22:57:54.303-07:00Chicks Who Kill ThingsA blog dedicated to urban fantasy, superheroines and other stories of women and girls fighting monsters and bad guys.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-91583786037347480412011-07-23T14:09:00.000-07:002011-07-24T06:58:32.637-07:00RETRO REVIEW: Labryinth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNzDiRYHGVn3A5Slh3QauZP3ESklosrFzzPzp6GGQUzydBB1WAghBhXrisJzGTnUpHuRWz7iTujgSDEC_o3qB_sIoy3vga7MTlEqe1o5k3xwWqEWrgtK8hSXKu2ujxNlrpxn31nWQl2o4/s1600/labyrinth+movie+poster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNzDiRYHGVn3A5Slh3QauZP3ESklosrFzzPzp6GGQUzydBB1WAghBhXrisJzGTnUpHuRWz7iTujgSDEC_o3qB_sIoy3vga7MTlEqe1o5k3xwWqEWrgtK8hSXKu2ujxNlrpxn31nWQl2o4/s320/labyrinth+movie+poster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632659108863290834" /></a><br /><br />More than one reviewer has talked about the fantasy of the beautiful and dangerous man who represents the scary but intriguing side of coming into one's own sexuality, especially when it comes to <a href="http://chickswhokillthings.blogspot.com/2011/06/just-because-twilight-is-stupid-doesnt.html">everyone's favorite punching bag</a>. I don't think this fantasy is a bad thing, especially if put into its proper context, like a villain. And thus, for once we move away from Edward Cullen and come to <i>Jareth</i>, the Goblin King of Jim Henson's late film <i>Labyrinth</i>.<br /><br />Unlike many girl geeks of my age I do not have fond childhood memories of this movie, although I remember very much remember wanting to see it when I saw an ad on HBO. It never happened until a few weeks ago, and while it probably would have blown me away more back then, it's certainly more interesting to me now.<br /><br />The film follows Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a 15-year-old girl obsessed with fantasy worlds who is having a hard time with her father's new marriage, particularly her new younger brother, Toby. Told to look after the crying baby for the night, Sarah in a fit of rage calls upon the Goblin King (David Bowie) to take him away. He does that, arriving in a puff of glitter, and when Sarah fails to be seduced by him, he tells her she'll need to complete his labyrinth in 13 hours.<br /><br /><center><object width="240" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WT_xpFZe20A?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WT_xpFZe20A?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="240" height="195" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /><br />The HBO ad I saw (unlike the trailer I posted above) really played up the "Sarah must save her brother" angle. This intrigued me as a kid, because I'm a big sister with a little brother. (Plus, I remember reading a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Over-There-Caldecott-Collection/dp/0064431851/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311461668&sr=8-1">picture book with a similar plot that seemed more about the sibling relationship</a>.) Yet quest tales are never about the object, but about the journey. Toby will be saved, but he's not the important part.<br /><br />Jennifer Connelly is a great actress ... now. I loved her in <i>Requiem for a Dream</i> and <i>The House of Sand and Fog</i> and thought she was one of the saving graces of Ang Lee's <i>Hulk</i>. That being said her acting here is kind of rough and somewhat shrill. Of course, she was young, but it makes her performance somewhat distracting. Nevertheless, I did like Sarah, and enjoyed her journey. I liked that she was a protagonist who remained feminine, using her lipstick to mark her path (even if it didn't work).<br /><br />And of course, Sarah meets very strange creatures and even stranger perils along the way, and makes some friends, as one does on quests. I felt a particular attachment to Ludo, a giant hairy beast who is also an Earth Bender.<br /><br />Yet the real conflict on a both surface and metaphorical level is between Sarah and Jareth, and about how Jareth tries to seduce Sarah throughout the movie. As a growing young woman, Jareth's seductions upon Sarah are twofold. He tries to entrance her with the delights of childhood. At one point a goblin takes Sarah to her room and entreats her to stay with her old toys. In a scene that probably still makes Harry Knowles cry, Sarah breaks away when she exclaims, "It's all junk."<br /><br />But there's also the enchantments of adulthood. Jareth, played by Bowie at his glam-rock best and wearing very tight pants that leave little to the imagination, remains a romantic figure to Sarah. He's perfect for the job, of course. Others have spoken about how androgynous males appeal to young ladies because they seem "safer" and less scary, and Jareth walks that scary/safe line perfectly. The sexual awakening elements of the story are left appropriately in subtext, but that makes them no less powerful. I'm by no means a hardcore Bowie fan, but I don't know who wouldn't find this fantasy ball sequence enchanting.<br /><br /><center><object width="240" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yt2zoY45508?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yt2zoY45508?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="240" height="195" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /><br />But one can't really give into the sexy/scary type, whatever <i>Twilight</i> tells us. Edward Cullen can raise the spectre of being scary only to has his author forget about it, but Jareth must remain in the realm of fantasy and Sarah must return. Even if Jareth offers to be her slave, she must reject him.<br /><br />Although perhaps not completely. Even though we must all grow up, one can still return to childhood for visits, as Sarah assures the friends she made in her fantasy world when they turn up in her room in the final scene. Meanwhile a barn owl, the avatar of the Goblin King, remains tantalizingly watching through the window. He's still not Edward Cullen, though. He does fly away.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-5311395086236546122011-07-03T15:20:00.000-07:002011-07-03T18:36:38.325-07:00RETRO REVIEW: Hellraiser<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2N8P2gju2eD_ueUA7v76K5MbgbM-R04yMl6V31PnTCKv0cW4WK1TgnyPnhG7juaZ4Kjk4CI4p8JSVf4h6lTt3c7Z8KV_HZae9gJ6vuCe0h1H5LGiUwrLu-Jp1iSSXdEbgviyN9fco7cI/s1600/Hellraiser_poster.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2N8P2gju2eD_ueUA7v76K5MbgbM-R04yMl6V31PnTCKv0cW4WK1TgnyPnhG7juaZ4Kjk4CI4p8JSVf4h6lTt3c7Z8KV_HZae9gJ6vuCe0h1H5LGiUwrLu-Jp1iSSXdEbgviyN9fco7cI/s320/Hellraiser_poster.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625255840330247586" /></a><br /><br /><i>(Heavy spoilers below.)</i><br /><br />One of the many things my high school writing teacher, Mr. Harvey, said that I'll never forget was his criticism of the <i>Tomb Raider</i> movie. Unlike Indiana Jones, who gets knocked about and dirty during his movies, Lara Croft spent her movie clean and things came just a bit too easy for her. There was no sign of struggle. The very opposite can be said for the heroine of <i>Hellraiser</i>, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence), who fights tooth and nail through most of the movie and ends up dirty but completely successful. Of course, that's not exactly uncommon in horror movies, but it's surprising that movies about superheroines have dragged their feet on this "bloody struggle = humanizing" ideal when it comes to women.<br /><br /><i>Hellraiser</i> is not a perfect movie. For a movie that's supposed to be about S&M demons it's one of the unsexiest things I've ever seen. (And at the risk of sounding cruel I'll just say Clare Higgins, who plays the femme fatale/evil stepmother was maybe possibly just a teeny bit of a poor choice for her job as attractive seductress. Also, her acting is rough.) Plus it seems to be the product of its time in the effects. The movie is short at a little over an hour and a half but spends a lot of film showing off the reanimation of Frank as a monster, mostly because I think they were amazed they were able to do it. Still, a lot of the scenes that I think were supposed to be scary just elicited a "yuck" reaction from me.<br /><br />Yet I had to admit Kirsty earned my sympathy far more than heroines of better movies, such as Laurie Strode of <i>Halloween</i> or Nancy Thompson of <i>Nightmare on Elm Street</i>. (And of course she is better than whoever the hell was the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men,_Women,_and_Chainsaws">Final Girl</a>" of <i>Friday the 13th</i> but almost all movies period are better than <i>Friday the 13th</i> so that's pretty easy.) The story begins in an unspecific foreign land, where sadist creeper Frank buys a puzzle box, takes it back home, and solves it, which sends him to an alternate reality where he's tortured and killed by Cenobites, the aforesaid S&M demons. Later his milquetoast brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and Larry's wife move into the house. The wife, Julia, is still obsessed by her masochistic passion for Frank but the husband is trying to make their sour marriage work. The marriage is bad enough that Larry's daughter Kirsty has moved away, even though dad and daughter still love each other.<br /><br />It was this part where both the movie and Kristy won me over. Kirsty and her father have a sweet relationship built on mutual caring for each other. For a few brief shining moments I would have said Larry reminded me of my father, but then Larry cuts his hand pulling a mattress up the stairs and almost has a fainting fit and I thought, "No, actually, my Dad is not a complete wuss."<br /><br />Anyway, Larry's blood drips onto the floor and revives Frank into little more than a talking skeleton with eyes. Julia finds Frank later, and their mutual attraction is enough to convince Julia to go out and find human sacrifices so he can be whole again. Yet Frank wants more of Larry's blood, and while Julia tries to dissuade him, it'll ultimately come down to Kirsty to defend her father's honor, even if she can't save him.<br /><br />I came into this movie completely blind beyond knowing what the head cenobite Pinhead (Doug Bradley) looked like. The male iconography, while striking, does the movie something of a disservice, because I feel it's essentially the struggle between two women. The movie follows Julia before moving onto Kirsty. Julia is motivated purely by a man, and while it annoys me a bit because I think S&M relationships are more complicated than that, it means something that Julia is kowtowing to Frank while Kirsty's main goal is to protect her father.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKpIkodbPsCPtclo9ksGhlXvJ-IBEEbEMMjRUEYEIyVLiuy-U-O89k040YWyhXIdgtYoldy7IyL6MLfIh5ZcaGWJSy_bRtvoq2hCY7TYe4ic39vx-SZ7_gRhiCECqRaUaPrmDQqb4224/s1600/KirstyCotton.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKpIkodbPsCPtclo9ksGhlXvJ-IBEEbEMMjRUEYEIyVLiuy-U-O89k040YWyhXIdgtYoldy7IyL6MLfIh5ZcaGWJSy_bRtvoq2hCY7TYe4ic39vx-SZ7_gRhiCECqRaUaPrmDQqb4224/s320/KirstyCotton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625301995010344146" /></a><br /><br />Since Kirsty won me over in her first scene I spent a lot of the movie worried she would get killed, and grateful when she didn't. This is a good thing, because a hero looks better if their safety is at first in doubt. Kirsty survives her first confrontation with Frank, even stealing the puzzle box. However, the situation gets worse when she solves the box, not knowing what it is, and unleashes the Cenobites, who will kill her with their games. She offers to return Frank to them if they spare her life.<br /><br />At this point Kirsty has already fought off Frank the first time and then been chased by a monster through a labyrinth, but she returns to the house and Frank has peeled off her father's skin and is wearing it. In the final confrontation Kirsty not only has to fight Frank-as-her-father, but all of the Cenobites, and while her mostly-a-nonpresence of a boyfriend helps her out a bit, it's mostly her that does the fighting, and she's also the one who solves the puzzle, defeating monster after monster and a collapsing building as she does.<br /><br />And throughout the fight, she gets messy. Kirsty's a bit more glamorous than the average heroine, but she gets dirty and banged up in a way that's both realistic and not exploitative. And, of course, even with the set-up for a sequel, she still saves the day and comes out with her boyfriend by her side. It's not much, but considering how rough the genre can be to women, it goes a long way.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-50689791220249463482011-06-26T18:04:00.000-07:002011-06-26T21:01:01.792-07:00Why I am Not a Harry Potter Fan ... (A Remix)In 2007, when I lived alone in a new state where I had almost no friends, I learned what it is to be a geek and be alone: It really sucks. If you haven't gone to a comic book convention by yourself I wouldn't recommend it. Sure, you might pick up nice swag but what's that without a friend to show it to and compare your bounties? Same with going to a showing of the <i>Rocky Horror Picture Show</i> without another Virgin to buoy you. Half-way through throwing toilet paper at the screen from your empty row you'll realize you're not having fun.<br /><br />Still, I have an affection for the night I went to the midnight release of <i>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows</i> at the Borders in Newark, Delaware. Uninterested in any of the contests or most of the rigmarole going on within the center of the store, I hunkered down in the Shakespeare section along with two preteen girls with braces on their teeth and a guy inexplicably dressed in a black t-shirt and red clip on bow-tie getting a backrub from his Goth girlfriend. I drank hot chocolate from the Seattle's Best Coffee and chatted with the girls. After midnight hit I still had to wait until they called my letter (which was J or something) to get in line for my book, and ended up taking a nap on the floor, my head on a copy of <i>The Portable Dorothy Parker</i> that would also be coming home with me. I left that night happy to have experienced a special event the likes of which probably never would be seen again. Okay, so the midnight release of <i>Breaking Dawn</i> quashed that dream, but it was nice while it lasted.<br /><br />If you actually read the title of that post, I am sure you are confused. I like Harry Potter. I've read all the books and seen all of the movies, about half of them when they came out in theaters. In one memorable instance I went to the movie of <i>Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix</i> with my college buddies after an afternoon wedding/civil union ceremony and ended up sitting in the theater in a ball gown. I think the books are a lot of fun and occasionally quite clever. The movies a bit less so (what the heck happened with the sixth?), but I still like them just fine.<br /><br />Yet I am not a Harry Potter fan. I know Harry Potter fans, I have walked among them. I know who they are and what they do and how they think.<br /><br />Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter.<br /><br />The main focus of the fans' hate is J.K. Rowling, the author and mother of the franchise and Richer Than The Queen of England (TM). Unlike <i>Twilight</i> fans, who are quick to shun any who speak badly of Stephenie Meyer, in the Harry Potter fandom hatred of J.K. Rowling is encouraged if not required.<br /><br />They hate that J.K. Rowling got it wrong from the beginning, making Slytherin a house that was always more evil than ambiguous. They hate that Harry didn't get together with Hermione, his actual true love, instead dating Ginny, who is a whore because she dated TWO GUYS before bestowing a kiss on Harry Potter's pure lips. They hate Hermione and Ron together, which is sure to degrade into domestic violence for some reason. They hate that the books didn't focus on the true protagonist of the series - Ron, Hermione, Snape, Neville Longbottom or Draco, depending on who you talk to - and instead focused on a rules-breaking athlete who got fame for not dying.<br /><br />Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter.<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yParloGUdz4?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yParloGUdz4?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="195" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br /><br /><small>(These excited children are not Harry Potter fans. The average Harry Potter fan is 30 or something.)</small></center><br /><br />Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter books. They hate that the first book was too reminiscent of Roald Dahl's writing, and believe the increasing size of the books was not due to a world growing more complex, but due to the writer's own increasing ego. J.K. Rowling needed a better editor. Nevertheless, the books could have always been longer, if only to get in all the parallels between Snape, Dumbledore and Tom Riddle. Do you know all the parallels? J.K. Rowling doesn't, and this makes Harry Potter fans angry.<br /><br />This is the crux of Harry Potter fans' complaints with the series. J.K. Rowling does not understand her own work. Did you know that Blaise Zabini should have been Italian instead of black, and also possibly a woman? Did you know that werewolves are a metaphor for homosexuals? Did you know that when the centaurs took Umbridge out into the woods they raped her? J.K. Rowling doesn't, and this makes fans angry.<br /><br />Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter.<br /><br />There is also material supplemental to the books, and Harry Potter fans hate this too. Why should Crookshanks' origin be revealed in a charity book? Who does J.K. Rowling thing she is, making books primarily to raise money for charity? And don't even get them started on the upcoming encyclopedia, whenever that will come up.<br /><br />Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter.<br /><br />There have also been seven going on eight movies based on the Harry Potter series, and fans hate these too. They hate the first two movies, directed by that over-literal dork Chris Columbus, and that they never got to see Rik Mayall as a ghost. They also hate Alfonso Curazon for putting the kids in street clothes instead of robes, as well as for making it okay to actually cut things. They hate the sixth movie for blowing up the hollow, and the seventh movie for being two parts, and it will probably still not get in all the details that they want.<br /><br />Also, Pottermore will probably suck.<br /><br />Yes, Harry Potter fans hate Harry Potter, which of course begs the question: why do they read and watch and consume and write fanfics about Harry Potter? Why the real life Quidditch games? Why the cosplay? Why the bands? Why?<br /><br />I don't know. Ask a Harry Potter fan. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter.<br /><br /><i>This post was <strike>stolen</strike> heavily based on <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20071005041825/http://www.jivemagazine.com/column.php?pid=3381">The Complex and Terrifying Reality of Star Wars Fandom</a> by Andrey Summers. I still haven't seen </i>Green Lantern<i> and thought it needed adaptation.</i>Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-61687595673034712112011-06-19T19:05:00.000-07:002011-06-19T22:06:03.814-07:00A few belated thoughts on X-Men: First Class ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0FYzyvntGhi7EnGIlARMz_K53AV7k-Z681DtUL62jcJKl1w7wce-BJ7nqw8bl6z_koBnJ4403Nu0oEI7T1NuuBbT-UqChnP8v65M-LQnLjzttbBMyAJXlPaK59mqQXx8cxH8CFeiQYPE/s1600/X-MenFirstClassMoviePoster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0FYzyvntGhi7EnGIlARMz_K53AV7k-Z681DtUL62jcJKl1w7wce-BJ7nqw8bl6z_koBnJ4403Nu0oEI7T1NuuBbT-UqChnP8v65M-LQnLjzttbBMyAJXlPaK59mqQXx8cxH8CFeiQYPE/s400/X-MenFirstClassMoviePoster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620163795409465330" /></a><br /><br />I know the comics blogosphere has moved on to bashing/playing apologist for <i>Green Lantern</i>, but work and the odd business that comes with going on vacation has prevented me from being on time and possibly relevant. So let us travel weeks back in time and discuss <i>X-Men: First Class</i>.<br /><br />First things first, I did like the movie. I've never liked the <i>X-Men</i> movies as much as the majority of the geek community but it was a large step up from <i>X-Men: The Last Stand</i>. What would have otherwise have been a mediocre reboot was elevated by the characterization of the central characters and the performances of James MacAvoy (Professor), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw). I don't think it's a great movie, but it's an enjoyable movie, and considering I had low expectations for this movie given that it takes its title from a solid, unique X-Men comic series that this movie has nothing to do with I was overall pleasantly surprised.<br /><br />Yet, I always have a certain problem with the X-Men movies ... nay, the X-Men franchise in general, and that's this. Now, let's say you're a preteen girl with limited funds. Let's say said preteen girl is interested in superheroes. She watches the 90s <i>X-Men</i> cartoon but for the backstory largely learns about said superheroes not from comics so much but from the trading cards and profiles she reads on the Internet. Basically, this is how it plays out.<br /><br />Cards/Profiles: "Hey Kid! Look! We have girl superheroes! Lots and lots and lots of girl superheroes! We have ones that fly and ones that control the weather and ones that make fireworks and ones that fuck your shit up and eat a whole sun! Read us! We are fun! Come play with us forever!"<br /><br />Actual Stories: "Giant mutant horde fights other giant mutant horde. Wolverine mostly does everything."<br /><br />That's not to say that I've never enjoyed an X-Men story or never found X-Men stories that didn't follow that formula, but the first three X-Men films, as much as I liked aspects of them, were basically that formula. Also, did I mention Wolverine is my least favorite X-Man and Storm my favorite? Yeah. So I've basically been brokenhearted since 2000.<br /><br />Still, for all the heavy focus on Wolverine, and as much as I appreciate how this movie focused more on XavierMagneto (they are one word) and Mystique, I still feel like the first three movies had more for my metaphorical preteen self than this one. Did no one in the boardroom go, "Hey, so ... in our metaphor for racism it seems like all the people who end up on the good side are white American males. Should we think about this?"<br /><br />Granted, I'm far from the <a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/10/xmen-first-class-race/">first person to complain about this</a> and whatever I write here probably won't be as eloquent as what David Brothers said. But sheesh, we couldn't have even had a good team that spanned the globe, even the white parts of it? I know there were some bad accents in the last films but what is an X-Men story without terrible accents, anyway?<br /><br />So given that in the end we close with no female superheroes, this is what we do have.<br /><br />Mystique - Now, despite her small amount of lines, I've always liked the movies' Mystique. I even dressed up as her in high school, which was probably a bad idea given that I was too lazy to add the spines and didn't cut my hair so nobody knew who I was. (Some guys liked my costume, but probably for the wrong reason.) Still, as much as I appreciate what a good sport Rebecca Romijn was for wearing all that makeup and terrible contacts in the first three films, the future Katniss Everdeen was definitely a step up, and her storyline was compelling. It's essentially a tragedy (the girl who could have been good turns evil), although the star of the tragedy doesn't see it as one.<br /><br />Emma Frost (January Jones) - On the other hand, Emma starts off as a bad girl who is powerful but underappreciated by her boss Shaw, who at one point requests she get him ice for his drink, spends many of her scenes in her underwear and the climax of the movie largely out of the action. In the end she switches to working for the other bad guy, most of her motivations largely unknown. I think the character of Emma Frost has been largely mismanaged in recent years, and this tepid portrayal didn't help. At least she got a decent fight scene.<br /><br />Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz) - Well, her makeup and the effects for her powers were nice. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, this was the case of the only black female character turning evil soon after the one black male character is killed, and most of her motivations for doing so are not well developed.<br /><br />Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) - It's kind of standard that the role of the normal woman is diminished in comparison to the heroes, but despite Moira's importance to the plot in a lot of smaller ways, I came away without much of an impression of her beyond when Magneto choked her. Compared to the work done with Pepper Potts in the <i>Iron Man</i> movies and Jane Foster in <i>Thor</i>, I was rather bummed.<br /><br />I am aware that a two hour movie isn't the time to have an in-depth exploration of every character's psyche, which is okay, but I do wish these movies ostensibly about teams weren't one-man shows. This movie does improve the formula by making it more of a three-person show, but I think my wish for a glorious team movie where all characters - male and female, all different races - get to shine is still a dream for the future.<br /><br />***<br /><br />By the way, not that this is related to anything said above, but Good God Internet, you are hard on Xavier.<br /><br />I mean, look, we all agree that the prejudice metaphor has long been a part of the X-Men mythos but as a result of this it occasionally runs up into ideas that are rather retrograde, such as the idea of proving yourself to be the "good type" of minority. It's totally an issue that should be talked about, and is a problem to be expected, given that the principal creators of the franchise were 1960s-era liberal Jewish men and thus saw it through that lens rather than the lens of 21st century progressives. I do think that comics and sci-fi lean on racism as a metaphor in ways that are often uncomfortable and borderline offensive rather than working to make their stories more diverse (i.e. <i>District 9</i> and James Cameron's <i>Avatar</i>), and X-Men can occasionally fall into the trap.<br /><br />But are we really going to side with the guy who wants to solve the problem by killing many people and starting a war to kill many, many more? Don't get me wrong, I like Magneto, but the guy's least death-filled plan to solving this problem in the comics is to bring all the mutants to their own island. I do not think the best way to dismantle the kyriarchal system is to kill everybody or take your toys elsewhere. I find fandom painting him as the good guy who knows what's really going on and how to really solve the problems as a bit disturbing.<br /><br />Yes, I was there when Xavier said things like "We have the chance to be the better man" or "They're just following orders" but Magneto also counteracts this and when he does Xavier has <i>nothing to say</i>. Xavier is a hero who is sometimes wrong, and pays the price for it, losing his best friend and sister. He lives in an imperfect story, but he's an imperfect character who suffers for his beliefs and mistakes, and I don't see how some in fandom seem to not find that compelling.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-64904419174494411482011-06-03T13:47:00.000-07:002011-06-03T20:42:47.985-07:00Just because Twilight is stupid doesn't mean girls are stupidFor a long time I resisted reading the <i>Twilight</i> series, first because I heard it was bad, and then because <i>everyone</i> had read it and said it was bad. What could I possibly add to the discourse that <a href="http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/630150.html">Cleolinda Jones</a> or <a href="http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html">Stoney</a> or countless other parodies hadn't already said? (<a href="http://balcarin.livejournal.com/462027.html">This one is the best, by the way</a>.) Yet as I began to listen to the discourse in the geek community around <i>Twilight</i>, I decided I did have something to say: I usually fucking hate it when men/guys talk about this series.<br /><br />Let me back up. Of course, pretty much everyone knows the story by this point. Sullen average teen girl Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington and meets a boy named Edward in her class who is really beautiful but is also a vampire and blah blah abstinence metaphor blah blah bad writing blah blah vampire is with her and then leaves her and then the book goes blank and wastes trees blah blah Team Jacob blah blah Edward's back blah blah love triangle goes on forever blah blah Edward takes the engine out of her truck blah blah marriage and horrible death baby scene blah blah imprinting blah blah small perfect piece of our forever.<br /><br />Okay, look. I have no great love for this series. I think it's problematic on levels of sex and race. Even considering that as a Young Adult novel it is printed in big text and big margins it is still WAY too long for its flimsy content. Stephenie Meyer's plots are incompetent, her sense of suspense nonexistent and she seems to have an allergic reaction to writing anything resembling a fight scene. As a journalist her attempt to write a news article in <i>Eclipse</i> gave me hives. I don't like Edward. I hate Jacob even more. Meyer constantly brings up moral dilemmas ("Is it right to get help from vampires who eat people?") and then cops out on them ("Well, we just won't think of all those people they're killing out-of-state."). And did I mention the length? I know I did, but sheesh that last book was heavier than my copy of <i>Moby-Dick</i> and it's mostly made up of two characters having the same conversation ad nauseum. That's ridiculous.<br /><br />Still, as bad as the books are, with all their Edward-sneaking-into-Bella's-room-at-night and Jacob-force-kissing-Bella and Bella-turning-into-a-zombie-because-Edward-leaves-her, I don't think they're the world's worst books. They're not even the worst I've ever read. Most people get stuck over the sparkly vampires that don't have fangs, but to be honest there have been so many modifications to vampires I don't in the end think that's a big deal, especially when there's so much more that's discomforting about the series. Plus, there are some genuine high points. I do appreciate how it ends with Bella becoming a vampire and being more powerful than Edward, even if that may be less of a feminist statement and more of me liking girls killing things and getting sick of her whining. Some of the minor characters such as Alice, Aro and Garret are a lot of fun. Finally, when Meyer finally does touch the darker elements of vampirism the book shines. I have to admit when I did decide to read the series I was most looking forward to the terrible vampire birth and in its own way it didn't disappoint. The scene in <i>New Moon</i> when Bella watches the Volturi murder tourists who come into their castle or whatever is another rare moment of powerful writing in the series. There does seem to be something resonant about these books, something that seems to entrance those who love and hate it, in a way that I don't think lesser bad books do.<br /><br />And, as horrible as these books can be, sometimes people turn the message from "Wow, these books are stupid" to "Wow, girls who like these books are stupid." The commentary thus becomes not how the books fail, but why girls like stupid things. I hate this type of commentary, especially because it comes out as sexism with a feminist mask.<br /><br />For one, I wish we could just call a moratorium on men whining about pretty boy actors. One because being in a culture where if I complain about sexualized women I'm just jealous and men need their jiggle-vision on video games and sex is awesome if you don't like a woman being sexy get the fuck off this messageboard, but if a guy without a beard takes off his shirt and shows muscles it's giving women unrealistic expectations about men and has to be stopped just makes me want to tear my hair out. Also, I was a teenager when <i>Titanic</i> came out and don't particularly like to feel like I'm back in 1997. <br /><br />However, more irritating is when commentators take the legitimate complaint of "The romance in this book has a stalkery element" and turn this into "This book will lead girls into abusive relationships," or, worse, "Girls who read this want to be abused." To those who think that, are you kidding me? Did I miss all those news stories in the 1980s where <i>Flowers in the Attic</i> led to an epidemic of girls fucking their brothers? Where is the geek community that rails against how shooting people in a video game doesn't have anything to do kids who shoot up their schools when this garbage comes up?<br /><br />Look, I'm not saying I'm okay with <i>Twilight</i>'s messages. My younger girl cousins read them and the first thing I said to them when I heard was, "If a guy comes to your window at night, he's not cool" but I think they know that anyway. Teenagers aren't always the brightest, but a good number of them know the difference between fantasy and reality, and I think girls deserve just as much credit in this arena. And it is still fantasy. Most of the girls who have a crush on Edward Cullen now aren't going to try to find a guy like him, just as most of the women who like <i>Star Wars</i> aren't going to look for a guy who can crush a man's windpipe with his mind. That doesn't mean that there aren't some fans that take their obsessions to the point where they shouldn't, but I don't think in that respect women are necessarily worse than men.<br /><br />So some girls like things that aren't very good. If movie grosses have taught me anything, quite a lot of <i>people</i> like things that aren't very good. That's no reason to complain harder about when <i>Twilight</i> fans come to Comic Con any more than when <i>Transformers</i> movie fans come to Comic Con. That doesn't mean that they're both above criticism, or that fans in of themselves can't be criticized, but I think this sort of broad brush isn't fair.<br /><br />Oh, and guys, please try not to paint a picture of <i>Twilight</i> fans by picking and choosing the worst of what the most disengaged from reality say. You hate that when the mainstream media does that to comic book and video game fanboys. Do unto others.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-9197135736312513102011-05-22T15:07:00.000-07:002011-05-22T19:14:52.371-07:00I feel for Rosalie and Leah like I feel for characters in a bad fanfic<i>(This post has spoilers for the later books in the</i> Twilight<i> series.)</i><br /><br />For a long time now I've tried to make my way through the <i>Twilight</i> book series, but it's been hard, mostly because I can't stand them. While I could read 100 pages in one sitting I often feel I do not want to do so. As of this writing I'm a little past the second book in <i>Breaking Dawn</i>, the final novel in the series, and while I've long been planning to write on the series as a phenomenon I figured that while I'm not done I'd like to talk a little bit about two characters whose depictions really bother me, Rosalie Cullen and Leah Clearwater.<br /><br /><center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOe4q8LMaEYz-UAX1wZnEpSIvCGXQF5uu6xaplppD6bCR0YSNeXlqZCalzoxnVNIG9xvn-kcxDX_BruUhFVgpCYIwofoaCem2K6z01zwaclvo7gcl1FQlzyic_y_sVfr8G785dKwQGY1o/s1600/250px-Rosalie-hale-gallery.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 223px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOe4q8LMaEYz-UAX1wZnEpSIvCGXQF5uu6xaplppD6bCR0YSNeXlqZCalzoxnVNIG9xvn-kcxDX_BruUhFVgpCYIwofoaCem2K6z01zwaclvo7gcl1FQlzyic_y_sVfr8G785dKwQGY1o/s320/250px-Rosalie-hale-gallery.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609721925491841266" /></a><br /><small>Rosalie Cullen. You know she can't be trusted because she's blonde.</small></center><br /><br />Most people who read the <i>Twilight</i> series and don't like them focus on the problematic relationship between Bella and her suitors, and while there's plenty to say about that I find Rosalie and Leah's stories more jarring as a feminist and as an aspiring fiction writer. For those not in the know, Rosalie is one of Edward Cullen's "sisters," a vampire created by their "father" Carlisle to be a companion for Edward, except Edward didn't love her that way and now Rosalie has her own squeeze, Emmett, and Edward is the primary love interest of <i>Twilight</i> heroine Bella. Leah, meanwhile, is a cousin to werewolf Jacob Black, Bella's secondary love interest, and the only female werewolf in a pack of mostly-shirtless men.<br /><br />Both Rosalie and Leah belong to that class of characters that probably have a cute name on TV Tropes but I'll just call them "dislikable allies." Both characters are coded as bitches by not only the viewpoint characters - Bella doesn't like Rosalie because Rosalie doesn't like her, and when Jacob narrates in <i>Breaking Dawn</i> large portions of the narrative are dedicated to how loathsome the both of them are. None of the characters seem to disagree with them, either. Rosalie has a husband but while he doesn't diss her we never at any point in the narrative see him stick up for her. And Leah is apparently so loathsome that when the wolf pack splits into two and Leah joins up with Jacob's pack of him and Leah's little brother, Seth, Seth is disgusted at having to be in a pack with his own sister again because she's just that much of a pain.<br /><br />What is it that sets these characters so apart? Well, Rosalie doesn't like Bella so she's cold to her sometimes. Also, Rosalie is bitter that she can't get pregnant. As for Leah, she's bitter because Sam, the head of the wolf pack, doesn't love her anymore. And ... that's about it. In paragraphs upon paragraphs in this book, author Stephenie Meyer urges us to hate these characters, loathe these characters, laugh at their humiliations, feel triumph at their sufferings and sneer at their joys, all because they have the gall not to be totally happy with the hand fate has dealt them.<br /><br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdkoEJ81_JPBqQM6hyphenhyphenExISgfiWaxyD_6W7pvP9xNyBgVnfMBcRGn3VX_1BalTZYD9N_lABNEvcjSWF3diZI3i3AKVNGfMHMbtNqI-cKN7thyMME328xsJsTjtT2IOX3L8vA4_mI1ZCa-0/s1600/250px-Leah_Clearwater.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdkoEJ81_JPBqQM6hyphenhyphenExISgfiWaxyD_6W7pvP9xNyBgVnfMBcRGn3VX_1BalTZYD9N_lABNEvcjSWF3diZI3i3AKVNGfMHMbtNqI-cKN7thyMME328xsJsTjtT2IOX3L8vA4_mI1ZCa-0/s320/250px-Leah_Clearwater.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609723252945557474" /></a><br /><br /><small>Leah Clearwater. Because she's <strike>from the First Nations</strike> a werewolf she's forever damaged.</small></center><br /><br />Reading the passages with Rosalie and Leah in <i>Breaking Dawn</i> gave me the odd sensation of reading fanfiction where the fanfic writer clearly doesn't like one of the cast members who were meant in the original work to be protagonists. In this common phenomenon, characters who had once been friends become enemies, what in the original work were annoyances and bad decisions become in the fanfic become cruelties and abuses, and the writer seems hellbent on telling the reader any goodwill they have for these characters is wrong, wrong, wrong and we are meant to delight in their repudiation. (This is a frequent occurrence among both fanfics with original characters AND slash fanfics, and the disdained characters are usually but by no means exclusively female.) For those who don't like these characters, these fanfics can provide vindication, but usually I come away from them feeling sad and pitying the characters no matter how I felt about them in the original work. When the fanfic writer, in this instance the equivalent of God, hates you so much, you're automatically an underdog.<br /><br />What makes it worse is that Meyer, remembering that even negative characters need reasons for the things they do, gives both Rosalie and Leah tragic pasts. While Rosalie's origin is written with this infuriating rose-colored (pun not intended) view of the past where things were so great back before the Internet and the civil rights movement because people cursed less and wore dresses or something, her essential story is that Carlisle made her a vampire because Rosalie's former fiancee and his friends gang raped her and beat her until she was near death. Since she was dedicated to having a normal life with a family and children, she's not very happy about being a vampire, either. Sam used to be in love with Leah, but after he became a werewolf, he "imprinted" on her cousin Emily, a weird and creepy phenomenon where werewolves become obsessed with their "soulmate" after they meet them and said soulmate, always a woman in <i>Twilight</i>, has no choice in the matter. After Leah also becomes a werewolf, her mind is linked with Seth's and all the other werewolves. So she not only has to hear how Sam no longer loves her and doesn't want her around anymore, but how the other, all male, werewolves, wish she would shut up and go away. Also, she may be infertile because she's a werewolf and the males wish she would shut up about her periods because that's gross.<br /><br />Of course, one could argue that a bad life doesn't necessarily make one a good person. Yet most of the time being unhappy and voicing their unhappiness is these characters' worst sin. I know many have issues with the second part of <i>Breaking Dawn</i>, where Bella becomes pregnant with a half-vampire baby that may possibly kill her but nevertheless wants to keep it, and see those chapters as implying that women should be prepared to sacrifice it all for a baby. Now, I'm pro-choice and think doctors should have a moral imperative to save mothers when pregnancies become dangerous and should always respect the mother's personhood, but in this instance Bella does want her baby, and Rosalie is the only one who completely supports her in that decision. Carlisle helps medically and Edward worries over her, but Rosalie is the one who acts as 24 hour nurse and does favors for her while Alice, who is coded as Edward's good sister and usually plays the role of Bella's best friend, can't stand to be near her because the baby disturbs her psychic powers. Yet because Rosalie is more invested in the baby and Bella, all that work is considered moot if not actively malevolent. Also, Leah should stop whining about being second in someone's heart because only Jacob is allowed to do that. Although if Leah confronts Bella on stringing him along, that's also evil. Granted, she probably shouldn't have done it when Bella was sick from the deathbaby, but I didn't really want to see two powerful men threatening to beat her up for it.<br /><br />In fact, only men are allowed to be angry and even vengeful against the ones they love. Jacob can want to kill Bella's baby and Edward can disable Bella's truck, but their acts against the heroine don't count. Even among the minor characters, Sam can disfigure Emily and still be the love of her life. Carlisle can turn a woman who tried to kill herself into a vampire but nobody questions his choice and said woman is now his happy wife. We know their theft of a woman's personhood is just temporary and they know best so it's okay, but somehow a woman being bitter can't be tolerated. It's a frustrating, sexist dichotomy, made all the more frustrating because I had to read more than 200 pages of Stephenie-Meyer-as-Jacob whining about how he couldn't have Bella but talking about how Leah was such a bitch for being upset about Seth, capped off with Jacob being gleeful when he got to beat Rosalie up.<br /><br />Maybe I'm off-base. Maybe everyone else finds these characters as irritating as Meyer intends them to be and I'm the equivalent of those creepy <i>Harry Potter</i> fans who see the Death Eaters as a noble race of aristocrats who have been unfairly maligned by the bullying Gryffindors and not as a rather-obvious metaphor for Nazism. Yet I can't help but look at these characters who've had a harder time than the main characters, and aren't happy about it, and can't help but sympathize as they rage against their clearly unsympathetic creator who set them on that path.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-5199242042791253802011-05-15T17:43:00.000-07:002011-05-15T20:42:05.797-07:00I enjoyed the ladies of Thor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdYkAfhMxgYBRmkLtfLMxrjhAJnHKInVxeBBr3dlCzMLCXaWFk3TzMqXTLU-nbECippvYvZ9w6lXIhbdv6Ay7sV7-925CsLk2qZKqxzl_TTZ_EZ4UpzZQ58hHyQ97YgEjQqj4urmCys0/s1600/thor-movie-poster-natalie-portman-01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdYkAfhMxgYBRmkLtfLMxrjhAJnHKInVxeBBr3dlCzMLCXaWFk3TzMqXTLU-nbECippvYvZ9w6lXIhbdv6Ay7sV7-925CsLk2qZKqxzl_TTZ_EZ4UpzZQ58hHyQ97YgEjQqj4urmCys0/s320/thor-movie-poster-natalie-portman-01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607111570737561586" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oGZWsBN-fnzjqYTxrXmH_4tdgl_Vzz4LX6dapF7oQNM2zB4UG-9xQ6HuadES-Lt0GGgKtHyWVJD8yhdzWYtQxs40Rqd_XtQ5pixTDVrgY-Z9eEU1pMoBV2ojea9UQBvhJ3wIwYsrETs/s1600/Jaimie-Alexander-Sif-Thor-Movie-Poster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oGZWsBN-fnzjqYTxrXmH_4tdgl_Vzz4LX6dapF7oQNM2zB4UG-9xQ6HuadES-Lt0GGgKtHyWVJD8yhdzWYtQxs40Rqd_XtQ5pixTDVrgY-Z9eEU1pMoBV2ojea9UQBvhJ3wIwYsrETs/s320/Jaimie-Alexander-Sif-Thor-Movie-Poster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607111639709300626" /></a><br /><br />I'm a little late to the party on this film, which came out in the U.S. last week. Yet last week was also the week that <i>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</i> ended its first season, and I decided I'd rather be timely on something that was over than something that would be in theaters for quite awhile. The perils of forcing/limiting myself to one post a week, I suppose. I wish I could do more. (I finished the first <i>Portal</i> video game this week and would love to talk about that too. Maybe at a later point.)<br /><br />Anyway, given that I'm surely not the only person to wait to see a film until its second weekend in the theaters, I'll report back saying I genuinely enjoyed the new Marvel Comics movie <i>Thor</i>. Now, I've read quite a few comics with Marvel's version of the character but very, very few comics where he's the star, something I hope to remedy when I feel comfortable buying new books and comic book trades again (I have about 150 books to read and need to pay penance. No, that's not an exaggeration). So I knew the basics of Marvel Thor's powers and comic-book mythology surrounding him but very little about the specifics, and while I consider myself a comic fan I came to it as an outside observer, I suppose. (I also don't know much about the original Norse tales, for the record, but that may be for someone else to analyze.)<br /><br />What I'm trying to say is, with few preconceived expectations, the movie is really fun. I know some people had trouble with the first thirty minutes, which largely takes place in Asgard. I don't quite understand this. The CGI renderings of Asgard alone are really impressive (I watched the movie in 2-D), and if they don't replicate Jack Kirby's drawings exactly they have enough of the feel. Plus, I like sparkly rainbow bridges, battles with Frost Giants and Anthony Hopkins' acting as the All-Father. Kenneth Branagh's directing makes these scenes shine.<br /><br />I also like the beginning because it's a setup for Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) transformation from an arrogant man (or is it god?) into one who is genuinely good. I know some people are turned off by Tony Stark's arrogance in the <i>Iron Man</i> movies, which doesn't go away even after his transformation into a superhero. I think those who had an issue with Tony Stark will find Thor a lot more palatable. He comes off as genuinely interested in people and kind, especially when he smiles.<br /><br />But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Critics seem to have had better things to say about the rest of the movie, where Thor is banished to earth and spends a lot of time fighting hospital staff and acting like what everyone else in the movie thinks is a "crazy homeless person." There is a lot that's awesome about this part. People can debate over whether or not Natalie Portman makes a convincing astrophysicist, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised at the movie 1.) creating a scientific team of two women (Portman and Kat Dennings) and one older man (Stellan Skarsgard) and 2.) not having that older man be in charge.<br /><br />This may be the time to say what I've been trying to say for at least five paragraphs: I really liked the female characters in this movie. I won't say it was so great it completely blew me away or anything like that, but in terms of that it was a solid movie. Portman's Jane Foster may not be my favorite superhero girlfriend, but she's up there. She's charming and funny and clearly feels deeply for Thor even though the movie itself is low on angst. She doesn't fight, but she doesn't have to be rescued, either, which is actually really refreshing. Her assistant Darcy, who also doesn't need to be rescued, provides a lot comic moments in the film, too.<br /><br />And if you want women battling, there's Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander). Sif doesn't have a lot of fighting scenes, but she has just as many as the Warriors Three, Asgardian male warriors. In fact, while I'm not sure if it's this way in the comics, the movie goes out of its way to make Sif an equal to the Warriors Three, both in her fighting and her attitude.<br /><br />An aside, one of the Warriors Three (Tadanobu Asano as Hogun) is Asian, and Heimdall (Idris Elba) is black. I have no idea why a bunch of jerks got upset about one and not the other. I have a few theories but it doesn't really matter. Someone always takes the opportunity to act like a complete and total jerk in this situation, whether it's Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin, Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman or Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (even if that has a reasoning in the comics), and they should knock it off. I mean, it's just unconscionable, especially because few of the same people who are upset about this were upset about Jubilee being played by a white girl in the <i>Generation X</i> movie (yet they'll always call upon that false equivalency, of course). Asano and Elba are both really good in their small roles and it would be better if the background characters were more diverse, anyway.<br /><br />I guess if I have any complaint about the movie is that I don't have a whole lot to say about Loki. The plotline of the movie is good, but Tom Hiddleston and the character don't leave a strong impression. That's not to say I hated the character, but he seems rather small scale for a God and pales compared to other Marvel supervillains.<br /><br />Still, I'd recommend it. Kenneth Branagh did a very good job. The sets are awesome, the main character is likable and the female characters are solid. See it at one point, even if you missed this weekend or the first it will still be just as fun.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-57239599199771653692011-05-08T20:31:00.000-07:002011-05-08T21:20:17.531-07:00Thank the Nerd Dieties for "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKQuZ_rZSbOqMAxvcFNy5uWpQp2EhLkBXG_pHpU1Y3v61gRNzH2FcyJcfsOaAoFn6YHEpCVZArwubZfZnMvAwxRlhqO0kMvKj7NyIdUspDVEzUHkT80T2ILK_aEyXFG-kNQ5xe3WAnY4/s1600/my-little-ponies.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKQuZ_rZSbOqMAxvcFNy5uWpQp2EhLkBXG_pHpU1Y3v61gRNzH2FcyJcfsOaAoFn6YHEpCVZArwubZfZnMvAwxRlhqO0kMvKj7NyIdUspDVEzUHkT80T2ILK_aEyXFG-kNQ5xe3WAnY4/s320/my-little-ponies.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604532304341534274" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When Michael Bay's <i>Transformers</i> film came out in 2007, I was one of the only people I knew at the time who had no interest in seeing it. This was before the franchise and Megan Fox developed their toxic reputations, but I'd heard negative things about the portrayal of Jazz (the "black" Transformer), and that a female Transformer had been cut out of the film, so I stayed away. When my younger brother called me pigheaded for this, I said something along the lines of, "Well, they would never give a girl's show from the 1980s a remake treatment! When are we going to get a 'My Little Pony' movie?"<br /><br />Even at the time I knew my argument was a little silly. I didn't actually want a live action film of multicolored ponies and, to be honest, never really watched the '80s show as a kid. I liked the toys, and to a certain extent I liked the fandom that had sprung up around it when the "generation three" ponies came out, especially the part of fandom that liked to repaint the toys and make them look like Batman or whatever. Still the direct-to-DVD animations for that were <i>dreadful</i> and I can't imagine anyone who wasn't a child liked them in a non-ironic way.<br /><br />So it was strange when people began talking about <i>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</i>, especially before I figured out they weren't talking about those aforementioned direct-to-DVD things. Learning that the first episode was a dramatic fantasy battle and the rest of the series was about the ponies having slumber parties and relay races, much like the 80s show that had unimpressed me, left me skeptical. Seeing the new show was different and the animation style had drastically changed didn't rid me of my skepticism. Also, while I'm getting more used to it, I don't like the remade opening theme song. I worked in a children's clothing store between 2009 and 2010 and the aggressive-yet-muzzled guitar work reminded me of a lot of the tunes I had to suffer through on the job.<br /><br />Still, when I heard Lauren Faust, wife of Craig McCracken, was the creator of this show, I decided to lighten up. And I'm glad I did. I might have not really meant my wish for a remade, better My Little Pony, but I got it, and I couldn't be happier. I've loved watching every episode. I've loved recommending it to my friends. And I've really, really loved recommending it to my younger girl cousins. Especially that moment when they watched the opening song on their iPod and said things like, "We can't wait to get home and watch this!" and "Rainbow Dash is a BEAST!"<br /><br /><center><object width="240" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QmJvHILyeOo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QmJvHILyeOo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="240" height="195" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /><br />What drew me so hard to this show where its predecessors failed is that this show is clever, much in the same vein of McCracken's <i>Powerpuff Girls</i> or <i>Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends</i>. There's a lot of Buttercup in Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie is a little bit like Cheese. Also, like both of those shows, you can learn a lot about the characters' personalities from their character designs and their gestures. In former MLPs, the ponies all blended together. Not so much with this one, where changing the color scheme can't erase who they essentially are. Since female characters are often painted with the same brush, this is a cool thing.:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBlF1vkrE6P_TlwrSbgT68QXo_lPetubfxpjVpWeruzBfcqRxNKjJDVphwbnSzUYZYCYbqZl4Wk8zvPkv7_L-Beo8WxlYeRx-l6UISdaSAITT2ju46m7lemKIw2XCF-PyZ7IhGUqCQ1Y/s1600/tumblr_lj84azH4qA1qiq96ko1_500.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBlF1vkrE6P_TlwrSbgT68QXo_lPetubfxpjVpWeruzBfcqRxNKjJDVphwbnSzUYZYCYbqZl4Wk8zvPkv7_L-Beo8WxlYeRx-l6UISdaSAITT2ju46m7lemKIw2XCF-PyZ7IhGUqCQ1Y/s320/tumblr_lj84azH4qA1qiq96ko1_500.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604552825564881666" /></a><br /><small><center>(Found picture on Tumblr. Tell me if this is yours.)</center></small><br /><br />Hyperactive Pinkie Pie and tomboyish Rainbow Dash I fell for at first, but I eventually grew to love almost everybody, even bookish Twilight Sparkle and her dragon Spike, who, by taking a cocky but sweet little brother route, seems to be the best version of this character, which has appeared in all the MLP shows. As you can guess, the show puts the characters into general "types" but mostly ignores negative stereotypes. Apple Jack is a farm pony but that doesn't make her stupid. And while I do think the writers slipped with her a few times, Rarity's love of glamor and fashion doesn't exclude her from having a generous heart. Along the same lines, the writing is very good. It's smart and funny, and while it's not afraid to poke fun at itself, it also doesn't turn into something cynical like the <i>Shrek</i> movies.<br /><br />Also, this may seem sentimental, but there's one moment in particular that makes me love the show. I grew up a very shy kid with low self-esteem. And when you grow up that way, you tend to get a lot of messages that the responsibility is on you to be different. There's one episode where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash decide to play pranks on all the ponies. Rainbow Dash sets up a prank to play on Fluttershy, but Pinkie Pie stops her, saying Fluttershy is too sensitive to handle even the mildest prank. What surprised me so much about this is the show 1.) gave what could have a very ditzy character who could potentially run over anyone else the intelligence to recognize another character's boundaries 2.) had a character that could have been a bully step back and say "Hey, you're right." It's a wonderful bit, and something that would have made me feel a lot better as a kid, and I hope it works on the kids out there now.<br /><br />The show hasn't always been perfect. I'm not sure if Zecora the African Zebra and the Native American buffalo make sense, especially since their episodes deal with racism/colonialism on a metaphorical level and it would be offensive to have racism/colonialism themes centered around a bunch of fantasy characters who nobody has prejudices toward (i.e. James Cameron's <i>Avatar</i>), or are stereotypes that have the unfortunate implication of implying all the regular ponies are coded "white." (Although the fanart of the main character ponies as humans that makes some of them into people of color helps a little bit, I suppose. On a similar note, I have no urge to get into the subject of that gray pony with the silly eyes right now.) And I'm never quite sure if I find the Cutie Mark Crusaders, baby ponies on a quest to get the pictures on their butt which imply they have found their purpose, annoying or endearing. Still, the pleasures of the show are great and often outweigh the occasional discomfort.<br /><br />Faust has left the show, which leaves me wondering if the second season will be as good as the first. I have high hopes, yet even if it doesn't, the first season has been a wonderful gift on its own. I may not have meant it when I asked for it, but I'm glad I got it anyway.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-5431201226236568782011-05-04T18:28:00.000-07:002011-05-04T18:34:03.380-07:00She Did Not Kill Things but Sanctioned It: A Review of "A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4RygR8Y_8sZxHC9xFg464INPscLGXtGuVhFG_5lN1Cky533dkUvtC6NCoxUPgCzTXUq2zNuj-wYabEiBWBPS8DBXLVITUE0Pu78cz-QsElg4_nUtc13PJtnF43O6IHrk3x6L7-QH464/s1600/51asU0bsLAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4RygR8Y_8sZxHC9xFg464INPscLGXtGuVhFG_5lN1Cky533dkUvtC6NCoxUPgCzTXUq2zNuj-wYabEiBWBPS8DBXLVITUE0Pu78cz-QsElg4_nUtc13PJtnF43O6IHrk3x6L7-QH464/s320/51asU0bsLAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601929668208382626" /></a><br /><br />Webcomic artist Kate Beaton has made <a href="http://www.harkavagrant.com/">a career out of riffing on history</a>, but when comics mixes with history it isn't always for jokes. In collecting comics outside the superhero mainstream, I've found a couple of good titles that combine comic books and biography, like the anthology <i>Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists</i>, the Harvey Pekar-headed anthology <i>The Beats: A Graphic History</i> and <i>Action Philosophers</i> by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. Okay, well, maybe the latter was about jokes as much as education, but I expected something similar to the former titles when I purchased <i>A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman</i> by Sharon Rudahl.<br /><br />I hadn't known very much about the anarchist leader before reading the comic besides the section in Sarah Vowell's <i>Assassination Vacation</i> on the killing of William McKinley. In this book about the assassinations of three U.S. Presidents, Vowell describes Goldman's philosophy, and her kind-of-sanctioning-but-kind-of-not of Leon Czolgosz's killing of President William McKinley. Vowell ends up finding Goldman interesting if not likable, and after reading the graphic biography I feel the same way.<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jo-Wdyxk_68?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jo-Wdyxk_68?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="195" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /><br />The graphic novel, of course, covers far more than just the assassination, following Goldman from her birth to a dysfunctional Jewish family in Russia to her days as an anarchist writer and orator in America to her return and disillusionment in Russia and finally ends with her death in Canada. It gives a great overview of her life and some of her philosophy, often using quotes from her writings. The art can have static expressions, but is also pleasant to look at and serves the stories. Also, there's some sex if you like that sort of thing. Maybe you don't.<br /><br />But the main point of the book is to highlight the accomplishments and progressive viewpoints Goldman held. They're numerous, and yet ... it's clear Rudhal has a very positive view of Goldman, and maintains that positive and heroic viewpoint throughout. This is a stance that seems incongruous and occasionally even shocking when Ruhal describes Goldman's feelings on Czolgosz or how Goldman plotted with her lover Alexander Berkman to kill American industrialist Henry Clay Frick. Or even when she says first-wave feminists were wasting their time trying to get women the vote.<br /><br />However, I have to admit that even if the book has a sometimes overly-positive view, it gave me enough of a knowledge base to the point where I came around to the same place as Vowell. It even made me interested in Goldman's autobiography. So if you think you're interested in this book, pick it up. You may like it.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-49518234699956536142011-04-15T20:14:00.000-07:002011-04-15T22:48:31.858-07:00Things I read on Twitter ...So, there were a few things tearing up the Twitter stream lately that I'd like to break down.<br /><br />**<br /><br />First up, <a href="http://www.tokyopop.com/Stu/tp_article/3203033.html">TokyoPop is closing its US operations</a>. This news has been greeted with a mix of disappointment and unsurprise, no less than by me. Of course, the American "otaku" community's relationship with American translators of manga has always been one of love mixed with hate, so it's no surprise that the ambivalence that's been there since the beginning should be there at its end.<br /><br />I've been a manga and anime fan on and off for years, and remember the excitement of being able to buy <i>Sailor Moon</i> manga in the store coupled closely with the knowledge that the translations weren't very good. I remember being excited seeing manga bloom on the shelves of comic book stores and bookstores and then being upset at how much they cost. I was glad TokyoPop had done so well and made a degree of concessions to manga fans and then the reports came out about the really poor way it has treated its creators of original work (which I won't even pretend to be conversant in). Like I said, mixed feelings. Very mixed.<br /><br />Still, reading over the press release about the company's end, I can't help but be drawn to this:<br /><br /><i>Starting with just four titles -- Parasyte, Ice Blade, Magic Knight Rayearth, and, of course, Sailor Moon -- we launched MixxZine, aspiring to introduce comics to girls. These four series laid down the cornerstone for what would eventually become TOKYOPOP and the Manga Revolution.</i><br /><br />My best friend tweeted about the ludicrousness of a decision to pair up a violent manga like <i>Parasyte</i> with titles like <i>Magic Knight Rayearth</i> and <i>Sailor Moon</i>. Even so, I can't help but be heartened by the phrase "aspiring to introduce comics to girls." Despite all their odd decisions over the years, one has to admit they really did it. They built it. We came. And they're proud of it. Considering the alienation most women feel from comic book publishers and the geek industry itself, the fact that as this company is going out of the US it has said "We wanted you there, and we wanted you there from the beginning" is a very, very big deal.<br /><br />Thanks for the memories, TokyoPop. (And I better get to buying more <i>Fruits Basket</i> if it goes out of print. Eeek!)<br /><br />**<br /><br />Switching over from an acknowledgment of geek women and girls to yet another sad dismissal, many on Twitter have also been epically pissed about this off-hand comment in Ginia Bellafante's <a href="http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-begins-sunday-on-hbo-review.html"><i>New York Times</i> review of the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's <i>Game of Thrones</i></a> series:<br /><br /><i>The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness [the series sex and incest] has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.</i><br /><br />Well, Bellafante's got me there. I certainly wouldn't stand up at my book club and demand we read <i>The Hobbit</i> over Lorrie Moore, but that's only because Lorrie Moore is really good and in any book club I'd be a part of, the ladies would have all have read both <i>The Hobbit</i> AND <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> trilogy in high school, even if they never got through the appendixes (cough cough).<br /><br />As for my own book club -- which isn't so much a club but my best friend and I looking at our more than 100 unread books each that we own and going to each other "Maybe something should be done about this ..." -- we're both reading <i>Orlando</i> right now. It's fantasy-tinged novel by Virginia Woolf about a nobleman who becomes a woman, which is awesome in itself but we're reading it too so we can get references in Alan Moore's (no relation to Lorrie) <i>League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</i> comics. So I would also suggest to Ms. Bellafante that perhaps she hasn't gone to the right book clubs.<br /><br />But amid all the indignation the main point of this passage has gone curiously unremarked upon. Now, I haven't read Martin's work. I hear it's a fantasy version of The War of the Roses, and so long as he has a heroine half as cool as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_of_Anjou">Queen Margaret of Anjou</a> I'm pretty much down. Anyway, I have no authority myself on what would or wouldn't appeal to the average woman or average geek woman about Martin's work but I'm a little weirded out by the assumption that what the average woman wants is stories with <i>lots of sex, preferably incestuous sex</i>. That's not usually a stereotype that comes up, although I guess considering how often the <i>Times</i> writes trend pieces about how women are like <i>Sex in the City</i> maybe that's just the buzz around the office. Or maybe she/her friends read a lot of <i>Flowers in the Attic</i> in her youth and that's the "girl fiction" standard she's going for.<br /><br />On the other hand, and because I don't want to be too mean, considering one of the few non-Tolkien doorstopper fantasy novels I've ever read is Jacqueline Carey's <i>Kushiel</i> series, which is much higher on sex than it is on fantastical elements, she may have a point. Still, I'd probably tell my book club to read Tolkien over Carey. I guess we have to get through <i>Silmarillion</i> at one point.<br /><br />**<br /><br />And speaking of novels that have developed a reputation in my mind as dense and long and maybe don't have a literary reputation comparative to their time/effort demand, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> has a mainstream movie adaptation. The first part of it, anyway.<br /><br />I haven't seen it yet. Other than professional critics I think nobody has seen it yet. I'm not sure I will see it. I have the book lying around somewhere and I'll get to that one day because I've read enough of Steve Ditko's Mr. A comics for it to be worth it and sometimes I like to track the depth of my anger levels. Yet even though I admit I don't have an informed opinion, there have been a couple of things I've been wondering in the amazement over the collective critical throw up.<br /><br />1.) I wonder if it's fair to call Bella Swan fandom's choice of "Worst Female Character" ever when Dagny Taggart exists. From the little I saw/heard of her in the trailer and what I've read about her character in essays about the book she seems incredibly unpleasant. Of course, I've also wondered that when I read the Sookie Stackhouse series. And when I saw my roommate was reading a <i>Shopaholic</i> book and remember the blinding rage I felt watching 30 minutes of that movie.<br /><br />2.) How much the people who are freaking out over the negative reviews in the form of comments don't really seem like fans. They seem like cheerleaders.<br /><br />I saw this phenomenon a lot when the conservative comedy <i>An American Carol</i> was coming out. You'd see a lot of messages of support in response to the bad reviews but most of them weren't about how great the film was or how much they expected to enjoy it, but how glad they were that something on "their side" was coming out. I remember one comment in particular that gushed "I'm going to take 12 of my friends!" I had to laugh because 1.) I don't know anyone who has that many friends and 2.) it's hard to get my friends into anything I'm really, really excited about. How many viewings of <i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i> have been ruined by someone who knows all the lines and says them before they happen?<br /><br />I also doubt their fannishness because fans tend to fret and freak out over whether a movie adaptation of their favored work will be good, and then when it turns out not to be curse the filmmakers and talk about how amazing the book was and how nobody could get the essence anyway. I try to be above that but I've succumbed to the hype/hate cycle. These cheerleaders, on the other hand, seem to bypass all that and go straight to "It's amazing!" Of course, people want these movies to fail, so some defensiveness can be expected and even human. It still seems like an alien concept to me. I won't pretend I don't prefer movies that reflect my worldview but since when did watching a movie become voting?<br /><br />Oh well. Hopefully there'll be a potential Rifftrax. It'll rock! Or it'll suck! I need to post about this everywhere! And bring 12 of my friends! DOWN WITH <i>ATLAS SHRUGGED</i>! UP WITH RIFFTRAX! I HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND IT DOESN'T EXIST BUT I DECLARE VICTORY! TEAM MIKE NELSON! Wooooo!Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-2188471125905920022011-04-10T16:49:00.000-07:002011-04-10T20:55:03.972-07:00Hanna: It's better, but not great ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNcUbxR2ZAQM9rDfoZA6oL54cZAM03rHbswDq7p2Z3OjkgEo8TmpC1VDPI0xqijUu2cTVwvTeeg80ybVnTBImIf2L70xQGSmFAW8f_ve619fP2_6yJSoukHF4MF1TYRJJs-D8aF8Oq2k/s1600/Hanna_poster.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNcUbxR2ZAQM9rDfoZA6oL54cZAM03rHbswDq7p2Z3OjkgEo8TmpC1VDPI0xqijUu2cTVwvTeeg80ybVnTBImIf2L70xQGSmFAW8f_ve619fP2_6yJSoukHF4MF1TYRJJs-D8aF8Oq2k/s320/Hanna_poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594121665178020370" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I've seen the premise of "young girl assassin" in quite a few different types of media now, but I have to admit the title character in the new movie <i>Hanna</i>, played by Saoirse Ronan, reminds me less of the characters from the anime <i>Gunslinger Girl</i>, Hit-Girl from the movie/comic book series <a href="http://chickswhokillthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/kick-ass-movie-is-not-feminist-and.html"><i>Kick-Ass</i></a> or the Cassandra Cain Batgirl and more of the character Eli from the Swedish vampire film <i>Let the Right One In</i>. I think this is because I liked the character and the film for what it wasn't, in much the same way I wager most of the people who loved <i>Let the Right One In</i> did so less for its own merits and more because it wasn't like <i>Twilight</i>.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, <i>Let the Right One In</i> was a good film, and so is <i>Hanna</i> but most of the accolades for the former seemed to be some brand of "Wow, this movie does vampires right, not like those awful, wuss-ass sparklepires." In a similar sense I like this film better than <i>Gunslinger Girl</i> because Hanna as a character has more depth and character growth compared to the blank, albeit often tragic, slates that populate that story. And while I wouldn't call <i>Hanna</i> a girl power character, like <a href="http://www.ebertpresents.com/movies/hanna">Christy Lemire did</a>, I preferred her story of escape and trying to become human through interactions with her peers and a mother figure better than Hit-Girl's journey, where she's mostly influenced by older men.<br /><br />The film begins in snowy Finland, where Hanna is being brutally trained by her father, ex-CIA agent Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in combat, language and general knowledge but keeps her isolated and ignorant of some technology in the world. After training her to a certain point, Erik allows her to signal the CIA and begin the mission she has long been trained for, which is slowly revealed over the course of the movie. What we do know is that Hanna is constantly pursued by CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Throughout her journeys, Hanna also meets up with a British family that gives her a taste of a normal life.<br /><br />Before I watched this film I wondered if the film would be one of exploitation, like so many of these stories are. I didn't get that vibe, and I wondered if I should count that among the movie's flaws, but in the end I believe Erik's motives turn out to be far more altruistic than expected, which leaves a better taste in my mouth. It still doesn't make Hanna a feminist heroine, but that's okay. Assassins by their very definition really shouldn't be.<br /><br />On that note, the film also does well at making Hanna scary but still sympathetic. I was a little facetious when I compared her to Eli earlier, but they are both essentially dangerous "children" trying to make their way in the ordinary world, and while Hanna's friend Sophie (Jessica Barden) doesn't have a major role the way Oskar does, their relationship has some parallels.<br /><br />I also really liked Blanchett's character, who I think is one of the more effective villainesses I've seen in awhile. What I like so much about her is how she's a woman but she's still very much the standard military heavy, even down to the Southern accent that Blanchett uses to bark out orders to her subordinates. Even while the character's childlessness occasionally comes into play, it's a role that could have easily been played by a George C. Scott type, but just happens not to be.<br /><br />On the same note, another refreshing piece of the story, and one that's not really emphasized in the trailers, is how often the conflict and the relationships comes from women: Marissa vs. Hanna, Marissa vs. Hanna's mother and grandmother, Hanna and Sophie, Hanna and Sophie's mother. The film passes the Bechdel's test and passes it often. Erik may have trained Hanna and she may meet up with nice men, but it still feels like in the end women are the driving players of a large part of the tension and character building.<br /><br />The film's also exciting. I wasn't too fond of the last chase scene, but there are a lot of riveting sequences, especially the one where Hanna escapes from holding. I like the direction, too, especially Joe Wright's nature shots. The action is shot with less quick cuts than the average movie, allowing you to better see what's going on, and The Chemical Brothers' score does wonders for setting the mood. I hadn't been familiar with them before but I really loved their work in this film.<br /><br />That being said, the film stumbles sometimes. The screenplay isn't sure how adept Hanna is at modern technology. One scene has her scared of an electric teapot and a TV but before the climax happens she's able to research her past on the Internet. The final sequence that compares Marissa quite literally to a big bad wolf after Grimm's fairytales have been used throughout the film in a not-quite-cogent metaphor also made me groan.<br /><br />Still, it's a decent movie if not a great one. I wouldn't say it's a must see but it's worth checking out, at the very least for Blanchett. It was better than I expected, anyway, which is something I, like Lemire, am glad to say after <a href="http://chickswhokillthings.blogspot.com/2011/04/this-is-sucker-punch-review-empowerment.html"><i>Sucker Punch</i></a> and <i>Kick-Ass</i>.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-8050189446753370572011-04-01T19:52:00.000-07:002011-04-02T08:39:21.509-07:00This IS a Sucker Punch review: Empowerment shouldn't be so depressing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcv4MSiG5w56XuuxNVX8VdkdIQl7BsFLigQIYamqzbHgLvj3Pb7YnhJ-MMPvZobIBWQZzQm-vVMtv0LMZCPlIYmGDbrJgciIViVc4XlJLk6PU5h_pFYG-QhuzMcnCXkxS6MIXO84pyGxs/s1600/SuckerPunch.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 249px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcv4MSiG5w56XuuxNVX8VdkdIQl7BsFLigQIYamqzbHgLvj3Pb7YnhJ-MMPvZobIBWQZzQm-vVMtv0LMZCPlIYmGDbrJgciIViVc4XlJLk6PU5h_pFYG-QhuzMcnCXkxS6MIXO84pyGxs/s320/SuckerPunch.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590817274960489202" border="0" /></a><br />Ever since I was a little girl my id has been something of a complete dipshit. When all the other girls were avoiding the proliferation of huge tits-tiny bikinis-big swords books that seemed to flood a quarter of the comic book shelves in the 90s as sexist garbage a small voice in the back of my head would always whisper, "But they're superheroines ... they can't be that bad, right?" This may go a long way toward explaining why I grew up to make a blog called "Chicks Who Kill Things" and not something like "Enlightened Discourses on How to Further the Role of Strong Genre Fiction Heroines in Urban Fantasy, Comic Books and the Culture at Large." While I can always fault this tendency -- it's true my first comic was a Jim Balent Catwoman -- it sometimes leads to good results -- I'm really glad I started reading comics. Yet it sometimes leads to bad results, like an urge to see this movie.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sucker Punch</span> has gotten terrible, terrible reviews. As I write this it's got a 20 percent fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com. I can't imagine this review is the first of those you've read, but in case it is, the movie follows Baby Doll (Emily Browning), who has been framed for the murder of her younger sister and imprisoned by her stepfather in an insane asylum, where she's due to be lobotomized in five days. To deal with the pain, Baby Doll mentally escapes into an alternate reality where she's actually in a brothel and is due to be sold to "the high roller" in five days. In this reality the psychiatrist becomes her madam (Carla Gugino) and the head of the hospital the evil, slimy head of the brothel (Oscar Isaac). In the brothel she meets five other girls, Amber (Jamie Chung), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Rocket (Jena Malone) and her sister Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish). Baby Doll is also made to dance, and at the madam's urging when she dances she goes within herself to <span style="font-style: italic;">another</span> fantasy, this one where she's a sailor suit-clad fighter in a world that crosses just about every genre well-loved by nerds. In this fantasy a wise man (Scott Glenn) tells her she and her friends can escape if they find five items: a map, fire, a knife, a key and an unknown item that will require a great sacrifice.<br /><br />A lot of pixels have been spilled on how much this movie panders to a geek audience and a male geek audience in particular. Let me tell you right there that this is not why this movie is bad. This movie is bad because it has a girl and her friends cutting open samurai giants and steampunk zombie Nazis and a dragon in a castle and robots on a train set to blow up a futuristic city and yet <span style="font-style: italic;">it is totally, completely not fun</span>. Okay, well, it's mostly not fun. When they found the fire and lit the fire in the nerd mashup fantasy world I was like, "Wow, that fire looks really pretty." That may have been the only time I had fun.<br /><br />There are a couple of reasons the movie falls apart for me. The first is that director Zach Snyder seems to have spent way more time thinking up the story/visuals than the characters. Baby Doll doesn't speak for about 10 to 20 minutes of the movie and is mostly a passive presence, staring at everything with a wide-eyed, lips pursed expression of beaten down, beautiful fear. When she finally starts talking the movie is more concerned with moving the plot forward than the emotions of her or any of the other girls, who are called on to either be fighting badasses or to look scared and cry a lot. Snyder tries with the sister relationship between Rocket and Sweet Pea but that never feels like it gets to the emotional level it should. The action scenes just aren't very good, either. They're usually confused and muddled and shot through a brown filter that makes everything look the same despite the very different locales. Reviewers have compared the action scenes to video games, but that's not really fair. I felt more connection to Heather from <span style="font-style: italic;">Silent Hill 3</span> (which also has a plot where the character descends to an evil world and then a still eviller world, I guess) than I ever did to Baby Doll.<br /><br />Even if they were great, though, they'd have an uphill battle in overcoming the nauseating "brothel" plot. Now, I will say this for Snyder, I do get the impression that however flawed the movie is, he and the actresses think it's empowering. Even though I rolled my eyes at shots like Baby Doll's high-heeled "battle" shoes and how every outfit was some sort of sexy black hell, I did feel like the film at least likes its female characters and feels sympathy with them, as opposed to something like Frank Miller's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spirit</span> movie which has tough female characters and doesn't seem to like them too much but thinks it can fall back on "But they can fight!" if anyone accuses it of sexism. Like the scene between the Comedian and the first Silk Spectre in <span style="font-style: italic;">Watchmen</span>, all of the scenes of men threatening or killing helpless women are appropriately horrible. (Speaking of which, man, I hope Snyder took Gugino out to a lot of fancy but professional dinners where he said "thank you" a lot in between these two movies.) I appreciate that but I don't appreciate how much time we spend in the horrible scenes. Watching this movie I didn't feel empowered at seeing women fight monsters, I felt depressed at seeing women get killed and nearly raped by men.<br /><br />Also, the even the mashup scenes of empowerment seem somewhat hollow since they're led by a man in all of it. I don't understand what Glenn's was supposed to represent or why he was there, other than to be the "good" man. I have to admit while watching the movie I made up a fake backstory where he's actually Baby Doll's real, dead father. Despite the ending, I still want to believe that bit of fanon.<br /><br />This is a concept that really needed to either go campy or needed a Tarantino-like touch to work. It needed to either be big and ridiculous like a Russ Meyer or John Waters film so its uglier moments could go down easier, or the characters needed more time to talk and grow inner lives like they do in most Tarantino films -- admittedly I'm thinking more the Tarantino of <span style="font-style: italic;">Kill Bill </span>than the Tarantino of <span style="font-style: italic;">Death Proof</span>, where the talking goes nowhere, but that's another story. At any rate, though, the movie needed to be big and fun, the movie needed to be worthy of a name like <span style="font-style: italic;">Sucker Punch</span>.<br /><br />I will throw the movie a bone, though. I didn't hate the ending as much as some people did. HUGE SPOILERS BELOW.<br /><br />At the end of the movie, which comes after all the non-blonde heroines are dead (sigh), Baby Doll realizes in the "brothel" layer of the plot that what she has to sacrifice is herself, and by doing so she'll allow Sweet Pea to live. Her decision has repercussions in the "insane asylum" layer of the plot, where she gets lobotomized. The lobotomy was supposed to be authorized by Gugino's character and when she discovers this she has Isaac's character, who forged her signature, arrested. So the implication isn't that Baby Doll gains freedom through a lobotomy, but that she's sacrificed herself so that not only Sweet Pea will live but that life in the asylum may get better for the inmates. It's not a story of self-empowerment (at one point Baby Doll explicitly says it's not her story), but the story of the empowerment of others. It also has a degree of symmetry, as Baby Doll failed to save her sister at the beginning of the story but manages to save another girl who's lost a sister, as well as many others.<br /><br />Granted, I would have felt better about this if they'd given Baby Doll a stronger personality from the beginning though, maybe making her a sort of McMurphy from <span style="font-style: italic;">One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest</span> to the other girls. So I can't help but feel depressed at how it all went. Very, very depressed.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-17292272664257285692011-03-27T18:02:00.000-07:002011-03-27T20:15:29.359-07:00This is not a Sucker Punch review but I talk about another Zack Snyder filmI meant to see <i>Sucker Punch</i> this weekend. No, really, I did. It was going to be great. Well, the movie probably was not going to be great but having just seen a sexploitation film like <i>Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!</i> it would have been a nice lead-in to something like <i>Sucker Punch</i>. How do they compare? How do they contrast? Where does one go wrong and the other right? Do they both go right? How about those <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> stories that are very similar? Will I ever get around to finishing that video game?<br /><br />Alas, I went home to see my mother this weekend, and while I planned to see the movie while my mother was working at <a href="http://www.frozsurt.com/">my aunt and uncle's yogurt store</a> (it's in Red Bank, N.J. so stop by when you're going on your Kevin Smith-related field trip!) business has been slow during the cold weather so she texted me to come visit her at work. So, alas, Sad and Lonely Mom trumps Probably Bad Movie. Maybe next weekend.<br /><br /><object width="320" height="145"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KrIiYSdEe4E?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KrIiYSdEe4E?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="145"></embed></object><br /><br />But I guess this is a good opportunity to think a little about Zack Snyder, and his last movie I saw, <i>Watchmen</i>. Now, I love <i>Watchmen</i>. Like, <i>really</i>, love <i>Watchmen</i>. I was on <a href="http://www.watchwomenpodcast.com/wordpress/">a whole podcast dedicated to <i>Watchmen</i></a> and have a poster of Rorschach. I'm first and foremost a lover of the comic and will defend Rorschach as an awesome character to those who dislike him because damn it some characters are <i>fascinating</i> if they're not models of how one should behave, but I know some people aren't fond of it. And some <i>really</i> aren't fond of the movie.<br /><br />But I think there's a lot to like the movie. I don't think they could have found more perfect actors for Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson, who did great despite maybe being a bit too attractive for the part) or The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) but the movie's not very good for women. I disagree with those who say the near-rape scene was sexualized; I actually thought it was the right type of brutal and harrowing. I did think the death scene of Silhouette and her girlfriend was sexualized, though.<br /><br />I'll be first to admit the movie has its problems, though, and I'm not too fond of what ended up in theaters OR the really badly-put-together "Ultimate Cut" which has <i>The Black Freighter</i> cartoon clips inserted haphazardly into it, breaking up the flow to a crazy degree. Still, the "Director's Cut" hits a certain sweet spot. It's not quite as rushed and explains a little more. Also, it has a few more scenes of Laurie, my favorite character. Albeit not enough to redeem the pathetic portrayal of the character in the movie for me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinoB7T-NbrpF5G5oSDOy_LNzuI3ejyb0pot8fMLpRER_8_gJNzRQRrZdGn-lsQe9y02Omn5YatbDokYd8RhrNpQyUe1N0xNdjW2hXa8GasSQXPNCRlJc-h4UeJCc67_onJAHQKdHSDeg4/s1600/watchmen_character_movie_poster_silk_spectre_l.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinoB7T-NbrpF5G5oSDOy_LNzuI3ejyb0pot8fMLpRER_8_gJNzRQRrZdGn-lsQe9y02Omn5YatbDokYd8RhrNpQyUe1N0xNdjW2hXa8GasSQXPNCRlJc-h4UeJCc67_onJAHQKdHSDeg4/s320/watchmen_character_movie_poster_silk_spectre_l.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588943607241917314" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II. I'm not sure what went wrong here. Akerman's something of a blank, and considering that Carla Gugino, who played the first Silk Spectre, did a pretty good job even with unconvincing old age makeup, I don't think it's Snyder giving her bad directions. Yet ... I don't think it's totally her fault, either. I doubt she made the decision to cut out some of the character's more aggressive lines. I doubt she made the decision to turn the character's already impractical costume into something that was just as impractical but in a different way. And I <i>really</i> doubt she made the decision to make the character a nonsmoker, meaning the character ends up pushing a button on the Owlship with a giant fire sign because it's fun, rather than because the character was looking for a light.<br /><br />Like I said, the Director's Cut restores at least some of the character's edge, having her beat up one of the military men who are keeping her locked up in the base after Dr. Manhattan goes to Mars and handcuff him in the bathroom but it's still something of a waste. Especially because in a lot of the pre-release interviews Malin Akerman seemed really excited about playing the role and about the film itself. So it's a bummer that it all didn't come out so well.<br /><br />Actually, it seems like a sad trend that women in superheroine movies seem to either be good at their roles and yet dismissive of comics or comics culture as a whole (Gwenyth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst to a certain extent) or excited about comic books or playing a superheroine and then and then not so good at acting (Jessica Alba). Which sucks. And, like I said, I'm not sure whose to blame here, if the movies are casting the wrong people or directing them the wrong way or both. And the sort of blank faces of the girls in <i>Sucker Punch</i> I'm seeing in the movie posters don't lend themselves to me thinking this one's going to be much better.<br /><br />At least I heard they cut out the sex scene, right? Not that I thought the sex scene between Laurie and Dan to "Hallelujah" was that bad but maybe "You're My Thrill" might have been better considering that was the song actually mentioned in the comic book and ...<br /><br />Oh, hold on, let me go to <a href="http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=article&parid=5928">this <i>Sucker Punch</i>-related interview</a> ...<br /><br /><i>EMILY [Browning, star of the film]: I had a very tame and mild love scene with John Hamm... I think it's great for this young girl to actually take control of her own sexuality. Well, the MPAA doesn't like that. They don't think a girl should ever be in control of her own sexuality because they're from the Stone Age... So essentially, they got Zack to edit the scene and make it look less like she's into it. And Zack said he edited it down to the point where it looked like he was taking advantage of her. That's the only way he could get a PG-13 [rating] and he said, "I don't want to send that message." So they cut the scene!</i><br /><br />Actually, never mind. I'm depressed forever.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-29016334716183023872011-03-20T19:33:00.000-07:002011-03-20T21:59:43.740-07:00Why I Liked "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7l31lU_U9_vlPtUc6yonKz16MkqiMxNrFkBUMMqYOd_qrKBBtuLDi6X86CumZRj3VrdkmIBQEFnEH04adiflsYBt8r1JTajOWF-2JIfaPOklhN1fgGQFHyhhL-k-4_AWnbk5BcRujAQ/s1600/FasterPussycatKillKill.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 219px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7l31lU_U9_vlPtUc6yonKz16MkqiMxNrFkBUMMqYOd_qrKBBtuLDi6X86CumZRj3VrdkmIBQEFnEH04adiflsYBt8r1JTajOWF-2JIfaPOklhN1fgGQFHyhhL-k-4_AWnbk5BcRujAQ/s320/FasterPussycatKillKill.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586379425874488738" border="0" /></a><br /><center><small>Image taken from Wikipedia</small></center><br /><br />I was kind of bummed but not exactly surprised when some of the more prominent feminist sites didn't acknowledge the death of actress/cop/dental hygenist/exotic dancer/model Tura Satana last February. Bummed because Satana's history -- living in an internment camp, learning martial arts and tracking down her rapists, becoming the leader of a gang, modeling for Harold Lloyd and then working as an actress on his recommendation -- should be worthy of merit. Not surprised because feminism and sex work has an uneasy history, and I have to admit I'm not always sure who's right in this debate.<br /><br />Ever since I was 11 I loved comic books because I loved the idea of superheroines. Yet I very early on told myself to accept that the heavy and unequal sexualization of female heroes - and yes, they are unequal no matter how much you like looking at Dick Grayson's butt - was part of the package. Is a woman kicking ass rendered moot if she does it in a low cut top? Can true empowerment really be reached if women remain sex objects first and foremost?<br /><br /><i>Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!</i> is not a comic, but it shares many traits with comics, especially the comics of the Silver Age. Fight scenes abound in the story. Characters fight with judo chops and test their strength against racecars. Women are dressed in skintight clothing and have big breasts. The characters use slang and the same quippy style of talking that I remember from comics written by Stan Lee. Its director, Russ Meyer, also reminds me more than a little of comic books' preeminent showman, even if their intended audience is much different.<br /><br /><center><object width="240" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WxNvIpZkIcM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WxNvIpZkIcM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="240" height="195"></embed></object><br /><br /><small>NSFW, some offensive language</small></center><br /><br />It's this sort of high cartoonishness that, as Roger Ebert says in the above documentary, sort of mitigates any offensiveness one might take from the movie. Can one really take a movie seriously if it has lines like "The point is of no return, and you've reached it!" For those who haven't seen the film, the plot centers around three go-go dancers who like to race fast cars. A man joins their drag race and for reasons that aren't entirely clear, the main girl, Varla (Satana) kills him and kidnaps his girlfriend. Later the girls run into a misogynist old man and plan to steal his money, but it doesn't quite work out as they planned.<br /><br />Is this movie tailor-made for the male gaze? Absolutely. Yet the movie doesn't have a great opinion of the men doing the gazing. Watch the opening scene below. After the hilarious spoken word intro (my absolute favorite part of the movie), the movie cuts to our three ... um, main characters ... dancing in glittery bikinis for men. Yet the women are filmed from below, a shot often used for powerful figures (see: <i>Citizen Kane</i>) while the men are filmed from above, visually cueing us to the fact that they are weaker despite the creepy shadows.<br /><br /><center><object width="240" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ACu2AR7fbCo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ACu2AR7fbCo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="240" height="195"></embed></object></center><br /><br />The men they meet later in the story don't get much better: the misogynist old man, the racecar driver and even the only male character in the story who could be a hero are unattractive and schlubby. The one attractive male in the movie is mentally slow, like a darker version of Rocky Horror from <i>The Rocky Horror Picture Show</i>. Obvious abelist issues aside, it's clear who are the more powerful figures here. Laughing the way they do, Varla, Rosie (Haji) and Billie (Lori Williams) remind me more than a little of mythical witches, with their cars standing in for their brooms.<br /><br />Yes, these women are villainesses. Did that schlub deserve to get killed? No. But since when do the teenagers in a slasher film deserve to get killed for having sex? As spectators, we enjoy these women the same way we enjoy Disney characters like Maleficent. They may be bad, but they're fun to watch as they're bad. And anyway, the old man, who has nefarious plans for their kidnap victim, is much worse.<br /><br />[SPOILER] On a similar note, it also helps that for the most part it isn't the schlubby men who take the women down. "The Vegetable" takes down Rosie, but that death feels as senseless as he is, and not as a justified revenge you can cheer over. Varla kills Billie, and Varla herself is taken out not by the "hero" of the story but the female victim who spends most of the movie crying and whimpering in a bathing suit, proving that even at the end the weakest woman is still stronger than the strongest man.[SPOILER]<br /><br />So, is <i>Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!</i> exploitative? I think so. Is it feminist? I think so, too. It's feminist enough to give props to Tura Satana, at least. Those are some nice, big judo chops.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-28215033407954461972011-03-11T10:37:00.000-08:002011-03-12T16:10:08.394-08:00Things I am Excited For: Avatar: Legend of KorraOne of the hard things about being a geek -- and by "hard" I do not mean actually difficult but I mean "maybe I should rethink my life choice" -- is that even though you may have loads of stuff to read and watch and otherwise enjoy and engage in, there's still that moment where you get way too excited about the next big thing. <a href="http://ourvaluedcustomers.blogspot.com/2011/03/moment-of-clarity-as-he-paid-for-his.html">It will never be enough!</a><br /><br />So while I'm really enjoying the <i>Twin Peaks</i> and the <i>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</i> episodes I'm watching, the <i>Fruits Basket</i> manga I'm consuming, and the little bit of headway I've made on <i>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i> -- hey reading that for fun is geeky -- I'm still excited over the news that came out this week for <i>Avatar: Legend of Korra</i>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi7sZg84VmkBSAztCTf3vUqoBVVj65BXvVG25KBRi9JD2oM0dzOOwwEh39aALRqxiyVSn6k50GTTH2vTMyHlj0wk_jFIIWZNSmFO0t6TNFXfIP30lUWTDlv3JLEfWe8wBizWH8GwVpro/s1600/OB-MW926_korra2_G_20110305235453.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi7sZg84VmkBSAztCTf3vUqoBVVj65BXvVG25KBRi9JD2oM0dzOOwwEh39aALRqxiyVSn6k50GTTH2vTMyHlj0wk_jFIIWZNSmFO0t6TNFXfIP30lUWTDlv3JLEfWe8wBizWH8GwVpro/s320/OB-MW926_korra2_G_20110305235453.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582902821984420530" border="0" /></a><br /><center><small>Image courtesy Nickelodeon, taken from WSJ.com</small></center><br /><br />You probably do not need me to tell you that <i>Avatar: The Last Airbender</i>, the Nickelodeon television that is not to be confused with either James Cameron's blockbuster movie nor the <a href="http://www.racebending.com/v3/">cowardly, racist and reportedly not very good live action film</a> it inspired -- is amazing. Like the <i>Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i> comic series, it's a great example of a western media learning from anime not just by aping its style, but by getting to the heart of its appeal and making something new. It's also brought Eastern Culture and a plethora of strong female characters into the homes of the young and the young at heart.<br /><br />The spinoff series, which will have a female Avatar as its lead, was announced last year but this week was the first time we saw her face. The Wall Street Journal also has <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/03/08/the-last-airbender-legend-of-korra-the-creators-speak/">an interview with the creators where it's announced Nickelodeon has ordered 14 more episodes</a>. Good news upon better news, there.<br /><br />I was a Janey-Come-Lately to <i>Avatar: The Last Airbender</i>. I knew while it was airing that people enjoyed it, often saying it was a great show because it had a serious, involved story that could be enjoyed by adults as well as kids. While I think they overemphasized the seriousness of it (the show has a lot of jokey pratfalls that are meant to appeal to children) I loved almost all aspects of it.<br /><br />Yet I hadn't realized quite how much it had meant to people until the controversy surrounding the movie. As a woman, as someone who was once a young girl, I was overjoyed by the great amount of strong and very different female characters that populate the story. (And they're different in both personality and design, which is another great thing.) I am white, and while I grew up searching for female characters to relate to and enjoy and didn't always find much, I'm sure those who grew up non-white found even less.<br /><br />It's sort of a bummer that it's mostly hated because people thought it was bad more than people thought it was racist. There are still some who will argue that just because a character is entrenched in Asian and Inuit culture and writes in Asian languages and uses Asian styles of fighting DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN'T BE WHITE (OR WHITE WITH A TAN) and that makes me depressed. Of course, the fact that the live action movie was both racist and bad perhaps speaks to a general lack of care inherent in its creation in general. The two go hand in hand in this case.<br /><br />Not that such sad news doesn't make this any less funnier:<br /><br /><object width="320" height="195"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHi1zaN0ooc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHi1zaN0ooc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="390" height="195"></embed></object><br /><br />Ahhhh, that never gets old.<br /><br />But the anticipation for this new show makes it better, at the very least. And I'm really happy to have this to look forward to.<br /><br />That being said, if Korra falls in love with Katara and Aang's kid I'm going to find that a little creepy. Your girlfriend can't be your dad. I draw the line here.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Meanwhile, I'd be remiss if I as a white blogger were to discuss Asian culture for entertainment and not acknowledge the tragic earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. <a href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1221">Please give what you can</a> and try to do no harm.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-85345359480722995832011-03-06T13:13:00.000-08:002011-03-06T14:59:57.186-08:00White Tiger Was All Hook and No Bait: A Reflection on Bringing in Big Names in Other FieldsOccasionally over my years collecting/reading Marvel Comics I've picked up a mini-series here or there spotlighting a superheroine. This sometimes turns out to be a mistake, and when it does, it usually turns out to be a mistake in the exact same way. What's fascinating about Marvel's 2007 <i>White Tiger</i> miniseries is that it manages to have the same problems as comics back in the 1990s despite being written by a "name" writer, specifically fantasy Young Adult fantasy writer Tamora Pierce and her husband Timothy Liebe.<br /><br />Reading the book was a disappointment, especially since while I have not <i>yet</i> read Pierce's books, both she and Liebe made mostly-favorable impressions on me when they were active on Livejournal near the time of the mini-series' release. Unfortunately, the book is something of a mess. It's saddled with an unmemorable gang/police procedural plot. The writers can't seem to decide if the heroine, Angela Del Toro, is super-serious or a wiseacre. And then there are the guest stars. The numerous, numerous, <i>numerous</i> guest stars.<br /><br />I feel like I've read a number of miniseries like this one - the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman mini-series in the 90s being the one that comes to mind the most right now. Miniseries that spotlight a superheroine but put her in an overly-complicated plot that requires a lot of infodumping, contains a lot of continuity links and is dreadfully lacking in any human drama. All in all, the entire enterprise feels like an attempt to spotlight a character without knowing why she should be spotlighted and without even the confidence that the character can stand on her own.<br /><br />Yet what bothers me about the book when I look back on it is not so much that the comic was mediocre. What bothers me is I can't figure out what Marvel was trying to do here. Presumably, putting a name writer on a book creates crossover appeal. Say what you want about the comic book adaptation of <i>Anita Blake</i>, but it's pretty clear the prime purpose is to get fans of the original novels to purchase the work in a new format. It may be a format they're unfamiliar with (comics) but it's a story they heard before and thus may be a good entry point for at least some of them.<br /><br />But who would want this comic as an entry point? I've been reading Marvel Comics since I was 11-years-old, and while I admittedly don't know much about <i>Heroes for Hire</i> (case in point: I thought this comic was going to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tiger_%28Heroes_for_Hire%29">about a tiger in human form</a>) I had very little idea what was going on here. Many of the guest stars motivations' heavily involve things going on in other books and the book contains inside jokes that mostly play to longtime readers. It's the extreme inside of inside baseball. One might argue this was done so readers of this book would be interested in other properties, but I sort of doubt that. I can't imagine anyone becoming interested in <i>X-Men</i> because Emma Frost shows up for one page to point out something insignificant and snark at the heroine, never to be seen again.<br /><br />There's been a lot of speculation and thought on the comic book industry and the video game industry's attempts to bring in outside writers who've succeeded in other fields, most of it coming down on the side of disfavor. I don't think it has to be that way. A writer who succeeded in one field could very well succeed in another.<br /><br />But that shouldn't be taken as self-evident. Crossover appeal also shouldn't be taken as self-evident. When I worked in a bookstore, I remember telling a Jodi Picoult fan that Picoult was writing a Wonder Woman comic, and the fan, far from being happy about the news, glared at me in disbelief and wondered why Picoult would do something like that.<br /><br />Also, if you're famous in another field or not, if you write a mini-series about a rarely used character, please teach me something about that character, please make me want to read her somewhere else, please make it count. Because I need no prodding to pick up a story about an FBI agent who wears a tiger costume and fights bad guys, but the writer, whoever she is, needs to give me the a reason to want to <i>keep</i> reading it.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-30972062219815633462011-02-26T11:32:00.000-08:002011-02-27T11:14:44.969-08:00Battle Royale vs. The Hunger Games: A Mostly Positive DiscussionIn my secret identity, I'm a reporter for a small weekly newspaper. It was on assignment at a library when I learned about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> series by Suzanne Collins. Trying to entice a preteen to give me a candid quote, I asked her what her favorite book was.<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span>," she said.<br /><br />"Oh, what's that book about?" I asked, both trying to get her to open up more.<br /><br />"It's about a bunch of kids who are put in an arena and have to fight each other to the death until only one is left."<br /><br />"Huh ..." I said. "I thought I already read that book ..."<br /><br />Of course I hadn't only read that book. I'd seen the movie and read the 12 volume manga series as well. I was first exposed to the story of <span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span>, a story about teenagers who are put in an arena and forced to fight each other to the death until only one is left, when I bought the first movie on VHS tape at a comics convention and loved it. Then I read the novel by Koshun Takami upon which it was based and loved that a lot better. Then I read the manga by Masayuki Taguchi and that was ... um, interesting ... I won't say I like it, but I appreciate how it at least didn't change as much of the story as the movie did.<br /><br />So I was a little skeptical of this newcomer on the block with largely the same premise. Yet my best friend really liked it, so I decided to give it a try. Friends and strangers, if you have loved <span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> and have been avoiding <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> because of that, don't. It's a great story, and there's enough differences to make both stand on their own.<br /><br />Actually, for me. If you wanted me to sum up the novel <span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> vs. the first book of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> I would say this:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> is a better exploration of the premise. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> has better central characters.<br /><br />There are a couple of superficial differences so let me get them out of the way through the use of a chart ...<br /><style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style><br /><div class="nobrtable"><br /><table border="0"><br /><tbody><tr><br /><td><b></b><br /></td><br /><td><i>Battle Royale</i></td><br /><td><i>The Hunger Games</i></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>The setting is ...</b></td><br /><td>In an alternate present Japan where the country won WWII and is run by a dictatorship that keeps the populace in a state of perpetual fear</td><br /><td>In a future North America that has been ravaged by natural disaster and is run by a capitol that keeps its surrounding <strike>13</strike> 12 districts in a state of perpetual fear</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>The government runs the contest to ...</b></td><br /><td>Terrorize the country and keep the populace from revolting</td><br /><td>Terrorize the country and keep the populace from revolting AGAIN</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>Contestants are chosen ...</b></td><br /><td>By picking one high school class at random, gassing them and surreptitiously moving them to an arena</td><br /><td>By holding a lottery of all children from the ages of 12 to 18 and picking two from each district - one boy and one girl - to fight in the arena</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>Contestants enter the arena</b></td><br /><td>Staggered one by one, each getting a few minutes head start</td><br /><td>All at once</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>How they distribute weapons/supplies</b></td><br /><td>Each contestant gets a backpack at the beginning with supplies and one weapon or special item, which can range from good to a piece of crap (although they fight in their school uniforms)</td><br /><td>Contestants fight over them in a free-for-all battle at the beginning, or get them through "sponsors" watching the show who choose to send them items (although the gamemakers give them appropriate clothing at the beginning)</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>The gamemakers keep track/control of the characters ...</b></td><br /><td>Through collars around the contestants' necks</td><br /><td>Through unseen cameras</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>They keep the players moving throughout the arena ...</b></td><br /><td>By rigging certain areas after a period of time so if contestants walk into them, their collars will explode and kill them</td><br /><td>By flooding an area with dangers such as fire, floods, lightning or mutant animal attacks<br /></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>The novel centers around the struggles of ...</b></td><br /><td>Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, whom he likes</td><br /><td>Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, who likes her</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>The "veteran" player is ...</b></td><br /><td>Shogo Kawada, who won a previous Battle Royale and acts as mentor to Shuya and Noriko in the arena</td><br /><td>Haymitch Abernathy, who won a previous Hunger Games, and mentors Katniss and Peeta before the games begin</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><b>Speaking of which, the names ...</b></td><br /><td>Are normal for the country where the novel takes place</td><br /><td>Are stupid</td><br /></tr><br /></tbody></table><br /></div><br /><br />In many ways, the story plays out largely the same, with teenagers killing other teenagers but more people surviving than they should. Yet both novels are different in their focus, which causes strengths and detriments in both works.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> is more concerned with the contest itself, and the effect it has on the players, whereas <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> is more interested in the main characters and the world itself. This isn't a bad thing for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span>, especially as the trilogy goes on, and we end up learning a lot about the world of Panem whereas the dictatorship government in <span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> is very vague.<br /><br />Yet it does mean <span style="font-style: italic;">Battle Royale</span> comes off as the more realistic of the two, and not just because in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> the arena will occasionally get flooded with mutant werewolves. With a larger cast of characters and an omniscient viewpoint that jumps from student to student, the novel plays out as a series of episodes of mini-tragedies, from the couple that would rather kill themselves than play to the alliance of girls that ends up self-destructing in a hail of suspicion and bullets after some poisoned food is delivered to the wrong person. Not all of the pieces work. There's a stereotypical gay character that angered me so much I considered giving up the book after his chapter, and the main villains' origins aren't great, but I feel like these stories are the heart of the book. These stories are mostly absent in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span>, too, which sticks mostly to Katniss' point of view and draws most of the rest of its characters (except for Rue and Thresh) in broad, flat strokes.<br /><br />So much so that in all of the incarnations of the story I find the main characters Shuya and Noriko dull by comparison. Even if you set aside their terrible manga versions, whom reach their nadir when Shuya cries to the corpose of the psychopath teenager who had been stalking them for three days that they could have escaped the island together, I never remember them as well, despite their prominent pagetime.<br /><br />Still, one could say - as my best friend did - the advantage they have over <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hunger Games</span> heroine Katniss is that they are mostly normal people, whereas Katniss' history of hunting and trapping makes her more powerful and self-sufficient than the average teenager. (Although, as another friend of mine pointed out, the scene where they and the more-experienced Shogo [SPOILER ALERT] take out a ship of armed guards after three days of trauma is rather superhero-like. [/SPOILER ALERT])<br /><br />Yet at the end of the day I do feel more of an affinity for Katniss than for Shuya or Peeta than for Noriko. Part of this is probably personal preference. I'd rather see a story where the female character is the active fighter while the male character needs to be protected but can camouflage really well, than a story where the two main male characters fight while the female character makes encouraging speeches and loads the magazines.<br /><br />On the other hand, for all of her skills, Katniss is one of those rare beasts in genre stories: a heroine who takes damage but keeps going. Katniss being a 16-year-old who can shoot squirrels with a bow and arrow may be a little unrealistic, but the explosion that knocks out the hearing in one of her ears brings her back to earth again. She may have some advantages in the fight, but the road is never easy. This isn't to say that Shuya and Noriko never get hurt -- they do, and badly. Yet I can't help but be taken in by a heroine who remains active even through her struggles because it is so rare. In an age where <a href="http://ragnell.blogspot.com/2010/11/can-you-be-prettier-when-you-cry.html">most superheroines in movies have to be beautiful rather than hurt</a>, it's very refreshing.<br /><br />I also like Katniss and Peeta better, I suppose, because their story continues. They have more time to grow before and after the games, and more time is focused on their romance (and, yes, the notorious love triangle with Gale). Of course this is due to the story structures. [SPOILER ALERT] The destiny of Shuya and Noriko is to run off into the sunset forever under the eyes of the government, whereas Katniss and Peeta will both have a role in changing it. [/SPOILER ALERT]<br /><br />Once again, this is because the stories have different goals. That one doesn't do what the other does doesn't mean either story is bad. I'd encourage people who haven't read one to read the other, and vice versa. It's impossible to not compare, and undoubtedly what will attract a person to one story may be a repellent for another. Yet just because one exists doesn't mean the other can't, and they're, in the end, both worthy of consideration.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-1924372245098107882010-08-21T05:05:00.000-07:002010-08-21T07:47:49.335-07:00No, it's not "Twilight for Boys." Scott Pilgrim and the Bizarre Comparisons.(Watch out for spoilers!)<br /><br />Hello blogosphere! I apologize for being away for so long. I got a new job in June and so even the minuscule time I had put aside to build this blog was flushed away. Hopefully things will even out and I'll get back to posting on a semi-regular basis.<br /><br />So, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</span> movie has come and hopefully will still hold on in theaters for another week or two. Personally, if it doesn't, I say "que sera." Some seem to be upset about the <a href="http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=scottpilgrim.htm">low box office</a>, but I'm not. I don't really see why the low box office is such a tragedy, at least for fans. Sure, it's upsetting for everyone who made it, but I don't think there's anything fans have to lose by it. It's not like <span style="font-style: italic;">Serenity</span>, where the low box office meant the fans wouldn't see the story continue (at least not with real actors moving around and stuff - there's always comic books), or with <span style="font-style: italic;">The Golden Compass/Northern Lights</span>, where the low box office meant the later books in the trilogy wouldn't be adapted. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> movie adapted the entire comic book series. The story is complete in book and movie form. There's nothing more to wait for. The only thing it could possibly affect is O'Malley's chances to get another work adapted if he makes another work worthy of adaptation, and I think by that point there may be enough X factors that the movie gets made, anyway. (I think Edgar Wright is popular enough not to be affected in the long run by this.)<br /><br />Anyway, I liked the movie very much. I started reading the comic book series after the first trailer hit, but I had heard good things about it previously. It's a lot of fun. It's a series that takes the standard everyplot of a video game - male character fights baddies to save female character - and overlays it in an indie-comic style romance to awesome effect. Also, despite its plot's origin as a chauvinistic trope, the comic book has awesome female characters.<br /><br />O'Malley makes a huge step toward mitigating the sexism of the original trope by not having the only female character be "the princess." We see all of Ramona Flowers' (said girl) ex-boyfriends and her ex-girlfriend, who Scott has to fight. Yet Scott also has his own exes to contend with (albeit not in a battling way) in Envy Adams and Lisa Miller, both of whom have unique goals and personalities in addition to their story function to throw Scott's hypocrisies in sharp relief. There's also ex-girlfriend and Scott's bandmember Kim, who is the character in the series I would have wanted to be a few years ago: not at the center of attention, but nevertheless a sarcastic commenter on the action -- the one who has the clear picture of the whole situation. Sister Stacey Pilgrim has a similar role, but nevertheless a different personality and she remains distinct from Kim. The series also doesn't stop from having a lot of minor women characters who don't do much and have more one-note personalities, like Julie Powers, but no more or less than characters like Joseph or Kim's friend who Scott can never remember. At any rate, there are many women "outside" the standard video game plot, many of whom are retained in the movie and ensure Ramona isn't "the girl character, so naturally she must be rescued."<br /><br />And there are also two main characters in the movie and comic I haven't even discussed: Knives Chau, Scott's most recent ex/sometime stalker, and Roxy Richter, because even in the 90s you usually had at least one female villain in a video game. Both of these female characters are crucial to the plot, and deserving of full blog posts on their own.<br /><br />Of course, there's also Ramona, who isn't just a princess ... or much of a princess at all. In addition to helping fight some of the evil exes herself, both in the comic and movie, she also has her own emotional journey to go through. Ramona is my favorite character in the series, and the one I, in the end, find I relate to the most. I like how in the comics one of the main points is how she's revealed to not really be a perfect dream girl, but sometimes an ordinary person who has to go to work and has annoying roommates and sometimes an outright bad person who makes hurtful decisions. Scott has to forgive her, but, just as Scott has a bad self to defeat - literalized in the nega-Scott, Ramona has her own past to get over - literalized when she breaks the shackles holding her to Gideon. Her victory is Scott's victory, but also their victory, and something that cements them as a couple. It is, unfortunately, something I believe the movie muddles at the end where Knives fights Gideon with Scott, but some of it at least gets in, and the movie does a good job at bringing out Ramona's good and bad sides.<br /><br />I hope what I'm getting at is coming through - this is a franchise that isn't perfect, but it has a lot to offer to female geeks in its characters. So it's mystifying, and somewhat frustrating, to see this "<span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> for Boys" comparison to come up.<br /><br />It's tempting to scream out, "But <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> is good and <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> is not!" but these things are, of course, relative, and that's not helpful. It's not even why the comparison irritates me.<br /><br />It irritates me because even if you go by the basest, broadest stereotypes of what male and female readers like in comics,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Scott Pilgrim</span> is for boys AND girls.<br /><br />Before any <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> fans jump on me for this (any more than they would have for saying the series is bad), I just want to say that yes, I know <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> has some male fans - my brother likes the series far more than I ever will (and yes, he recognizes the problematic elements of the series). Yet, going by broad stereotypes, most males won't read a heavily romance-based story with a female protagonist where the men do most of their fighting off-stage.<br /><br />On the other hand, let's look at the broad stereotypes of female comic geeks. First, most girl geeks read manga. Hey, <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> is in a manga-sized format! Most girls like romance. <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> is about romance! Girls like pretty clothes. O'Malley said in an interview with the now-defunct <span style="font-style: italic;">Comics Foundry</span> that he puts a lot of care into how his female characters dress, and most of them wear hip, trendy clothes that usually aren't all about showing skin. Girls' first introduction to anime was usually <span style="font-style: italic;">Sailor Moon</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> has a reference to <span style="font-style: italic;">Sailor Moon</span>!<br /><br />Honestly, there was a reason that when Dave Lizewski in <span style="font-style: italic;">Kick-Ass</span> first got his blank-slate girlfriend into comics he did it with <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span>. It's the type of comic - like <span style="font-style: italic;">Sandman</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Blankets</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Strangers in Paradise</span> or any other popular comic without superheroes - that is traditionally considered girlfriend-bait. This status is so well known it was used in a movie that, while I disliked it, had a larger box office than <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim vs. The World</span> and the reference to it was intended to send a specific message to its adolescent audience: "girls will like this comic."<br /><br />So why don't the book's critics <span style="font-style: italic;">get that</span>? Older critics can be excused from not knowing the intricacies of fandom but younger, geekier critics have no excuse. It's frustrating, and I feel like it's another sign of how female members of fandom are often unacknowledged by the mainstream at large. Even something that has all the stereotypical signs of being ours is not any longer.<br /><br />Yet now that I've covered the "for Boys" aspect, it's time to go back to<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span>the "<span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>" aspect. I've talked about this a bit with MadMarvelGirl on Twitter and, yes, I can see it in the broadest sense. There's a love triangle at the center with one character who the protagonist perceives as perfect and another, younger character who the protagonist will never be in love with but doesn't want to hurt their feelings. There's wish fulfillment involved. It may be hard to see what the perceived "perfect" character sees in the rather ordinary protagonist.<br /><br />Yet I still find these comparisons rather superficial, and more based in the fact that we as a culture have <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> on our minds than anything else. It's like how fanfic writers somehow seem to draw connections between their favorite character on a television show and the latest Top 40 hit. The world gets colored by our obsessions, and whether we like or hate it we're obsessed with <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> as a culture.<br /><br />I do not think the biggest criticisms of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> series apply to <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> at all, anyway. <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> has been criticized for not being conscious of its genre ("Stephanie Meyer hasn't read <span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span></span>!<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span></span></span></span>The vampires sparkle!"), whereas O'Malley is a consumer of comic books, manga and video games and peppers his work with references. <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> has been accused of not treating the appalling actions of its characters as abusive or controlling and rather as "just fine" or not the big deal that they should be, whereas Scott's dating of a high schooler is criticized by all his friends and most of the characters have to deal with the consequences of their poor actions. <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> usually fades out before any action scene but <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> revels in the action scenes and usually expends most of the creativity on them. Plus, both stories deal with very different types of inner angst - <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> is about the rush of first teenage love whereas most of <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span>'s early twentysomething characters have all been burned by romance in some way, and all the characters in the triangle - Scott, Ramona and Knives - reach the end of their journey when they earn self-respect. <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>'s characters win when they find the only one for them - their victories are contingent on another person and <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span>'s characters' victories are contingent on themselves.<br /><br />So to critics from a girl geek fan: <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> is not <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> is for us, too. Although that doesn't mean all girls like <span style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span> ... or <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>, for that matter.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-74709484175909828802010-05-25T11:26:00.000-07:002010-05-25T13:02:48.260-07:00Iron Man 2 and the Hype LetdownI hadn't been extremely excited about the first<span id="{014D6B74-1753-4ECF-B585-B7F7AE8A2B62}" style="font-style: italic;"> Iron Man</span> movie when it came out -- my previous experience with the hero was some crossovers, a few of the old comics I'd read off a CD of the first 10 issues of all of the major Silver Age titles and the '90s cartoon, which was just okay. (I mostly watched it for the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman, who was incredibly dull.) Plus, I was cynical about comics in general at the time. Nevertheless, I ended up loving the film and, temporarily, became an enthusiastic comics fan again. I even found myself raising my hands and making a "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">wooo</span>!" noise when the after-the-credits scene ended.<br /><br />Not many feminist comic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">bloggers</span> at the time agreed with me. While not a female-focused movie, I thought it made some strides in the right direction. Love interest/secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Paltrow</span>) had the willpower, intelligence and wit to match the hero/her boss Tony Stark (Robert <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Downey</span> Jr.) and she was crucial to multiple elements of the crusade to save the day. I also appreciated greatly how the female journalist who Tony Stark loves-and-leaves in the beginning is not just dismissed as a stupid floozy but is the one to call Tony Stark out on his attempt to sell Iron Man as his bodyguard and not his alternate identity. I thought it undercut Stark's sexism from earlier in the movie. Others, though, thought the movie didn't do enough in that area and that Stark's sexism was still celebrated, and thus condemned the movie. I respect the opinion, although I'm still mystified why <span style="font-style: italic;">Iron Man</span> was given the thumbs-down for something that might be a parody but <span id="{E0AC0147-48D2-4C2B-88E8-E23FBEB4D3AD}" style="font-style: italic;">The Dark Knight</span>'s use of the most cliched <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">plotline</span> for girlfriend characters (i.e. kill them for maximum angst) and shunting aside of a young potential Barbara "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Batgirl</span>/Oracle" Gordon in favor of a son who doesn't exist in the comics was pretty much ignored.<br /><br />Anyway, I get off track. While I suspected I wouldn't like <span id="{CD84FBA0-1A42-460B-BD0B-CFB41BFDDDEC}" style="font-style: italic;">Iron Man 2</span> as much as I liked the first -- no hype can replicate the surprise of the first movie -- I nevertheless thought the women would continue to be awesome. So I'm sad to say I came away a bit disappointed.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie. It's fun. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Downey</span> is fun. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Paltrow</span> is fun. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Cheadle</span> is fun. Rourke is fun. It's a wish-fulfillment fantasy of the highest order -- I don't think anyone really believes a billionaire's spectacular super-suit would bring peace to the Middle East -- but the original comics require a large amount of suspension of disbelief as well. (I remember talking to a non-comics fan about the first movie and she told me she couldn't get past the terrorists letting Stark build his super-weapon right under their noses. I couldn't argue with it.) Overall, I liked it.<br /><br />Still, I couldn't help but feel that Pepper lost a lot of her edge in this movie. I very much hated the last scene, when Pepper in full freak-out mode tells Tony she can't continue to be CEO because she worries too much about him and can't take the pressure. Then they kiss.<br /><br />This came as a shock, and at the time I wondered where it had come from. Whenever I remembered Pepper in the previous scenes, particularly the one where Tony tries to win her favor with strawberries as apology for when he got drunk, made an ass of himself and fought with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Rhodey</span>. To me, it seemed like her curt refusal was evidence of her staying tough with a guy who hasn't quite done the right thing yet, even if she may be a little regretful about having to do so. Was I supposed to have seen it that way? Was that scene actually supposed to be about how she is clearly cracking under the pressure? Did I have an expectation of Pepper as a strong woman that perhaps did not exist?<br /><br />I don't mean to say that Pepper isn't allowed to have moments of weakness. Far too often, lazy writers often try to show women are strong by making them flawless, and that doesn't make them compelling heroes. In fact, I'll admit it, I don't quite know who won that argument in the last scene. She did go through a lot -- maybe is deserving of a little bit of a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">freakout</span>, and if she stays on as CEO for <span id="{6DDD4FFC-ACAF-448E-9298-F32F8C92D842}" style="font-style: italic;">Iron Man 3</span> I really don't have much to complain about. Still, I found the last scene left a bad taste of my mouth.<br /><br />And speaking of women who are shown to be strong by not having any flaws and being amazing law student/underwear model/trained in all manner of fighting arts/computer hacker/super spies ...<br /><br />There is a lot to like about Natasha <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Romanoff</span>/The Black Widow (Scarlett <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Johansson</span>), but as my friend <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Kayleigh</span> said after we both saw the movie the same day, her character was mostly just "boobs and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">asskicking</span>." I (and she) appreciated how the movie ended up beating the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel%27s_Law#The_Bechdel_test"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Bechdel's</span> Law</a> and had Natasha and Pepper work together and talk in a non-competitive manner, yet I felt a little let down. Even her big fight scene wasn't too much more than we already saw in the trailers. I'm happy she'll be in the <span id="{53A1D6C2-E8A9-415B-9FB5-3D3BF67BBCF3}" style="font-style: italic;">Avengers</span> movie, I suppose, but at this point that's only because the filmmakers seem to have no interest in adding The Wasp onto the roster.<br /><br />I guess in the end, when it comes to women and this movie, I remain feeling let down, albeit not in a manner I expected. There were elements of the first movie that I could defend in contrast to Tony having stripper flight <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">attendants</span> in his jet, yet I don't know if I could totally argue that Pepper and Natasha redeem the sexy Iron Man dancing girls in this one. Oh well, at least War Machine only improved from his first appearance.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-19113860234483327052010-05-12T07:17:00.000-07:002010-05-12T08:16:30.324-07:00This Comic-Book Related List from a Mainstream Magazine Surprisingly Does Not SuckYesterday, Darren <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Franich</span> of <a href="http://www.ew.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">EW</span>.com</a> published an article titled <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20367589,00.html">10 Comic Book Heroines We Want to See in Movies!</a> and I have to tell you: it's really great. The choices are excellent -- from the obvious "Why didn't we get this five years ago?" Wonder Woman movie to the obscure-but-no-less-amazing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Fantomah</span> movie starring Lady Gaga! (Can she act? Does anyone care?) -- and the list is clearly written by someone who knows and loves comics.<br /><br />I'm surprised at how good this article is because in my experience mainstream articles on comic books, even if they're not the obvious "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Bam</span>! Pow! Comics Aren't for Kids Anymore!" type, are usually written by people without a knowledge of the genre. Thus we get <a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/02/23/comicsalliance-vs-the-independents-mark-millar-article/">articles where Mark <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Millar</span> can say he sets his comic books in the real world and the journalist will just write it down</a> and Maxim can declare Robin the lamest superhero ever. Yet when you read the article you can tell it's by someone who has a knowledge of the original stories and who is thinking about these female characters as characters and franchise starters, not as a way to get a sexy actress into a skintight suit.<br /><br />I also find this article significant because it's by a mainstream source and it <span id="{EFE703A9-FCE9-4514-859F-832DA64EF0C6}" style="font-style: italic;">naturally assumes</span> that audiences want to see good movies about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">superheroines</span>. Since <a href="http://www.spinoffonline.com/2010/04/27/no-more-dc-comics-superheroine-cartoons-says-timm/">Warner Brothers apparently can't</a>, this is also something remarkable.<br /><br />Some years back, I was interviewed by a Canadian newspaper about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">superheroine</span> movies, and why they didn't do well. Is the public not interested? the reporter asked. Is it sexism? I told the reporter the reason why most <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">superheroine</span> movies don't do well is that they are bad. It's not that nobody wanted to see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Catwoman</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Elektra</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Supergirl</span> fighting bad guys, but <span id="{94F8276C-5060-4CF4-85B5-38E64DC415FE}" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Catwoman</span></span>, <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Elektra</span></span> and <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Supergirl</span></span> were not good movies, so nobody went. Unfortunately, that's never the message studio executives get.<br /><br />I unfortunately can't see that mentality changing any time soon. Even when women turn out to be the big spenders for a franchise, like the unavoidable <span id="{64B722AF-E621-4D8B-BA2F-BC6F5572A5D2}" style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> series, Hollywood tends to be tone deaf. Still, it's nice to have an acknowledgement that yes, the audience for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">superheroine</span> movies is out there, and from such a major source as <span id="{9316EC80-8A35-469B-A6C6-9A63CF002484}" style="font-style: italic;">Entertainment Weekly</span> as well.<br /><br />Also, I don't know about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Franich</span> but <span id="{F52729A1-1E65-49F4-9C68-0E15D7F8131C}" style="font-weight: bold;">I</span> want a She-Hulk movie. Preferably a meta-one where our heroine teases Edward Norton about <span id="{87FC74AC-9B4D-44F2-AB6D-6736B4EA0925}" style="font-style: italic;">Fight Club</span> and breaks the fourth wall. Hey, I can dream, can't I?Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-23820502510828996622010-05-05T06:59:00.000-07:002010-05-05T12:59:51.431-07:00The Kick-Ass Movie is Not Feminist (and Neither is Hit-Girl)(In-depth spoilers for the movie follow.)<br /><br />I do realize I'm late in discussing this, and the reason is because for a long while I didn't want to see this movie. I'm not a fan of Mark Millar. His Marvel Knights Spider-Man was okay but he never seemed to get the character's voice completely right and I really hated <span id="{6E84336A-9D4D-4842-9332-8E8B488D193B}" style="font-style: italic;">Wanted</span> (although, to be fair, more of that has to do <a href="http://quietprofanity.livejournal.com/56886.html">with the art</a> than his writing) . I haven't read the <i>Kick-Ass</i> comic, either.<br /><br />Yet I eventually changed my mind after I read essays and exclamations proclaiming Hit-Girl as a feminist character. This did not sound convincing to me: a young girl who is superheroing because her "Big Daddy"has groomed her to be a killer is inherently a character without agency and thus not feminist. Still, I decided to see the movie for myself and found my opinion changed from "That's not feminist" to "No, really, that's <span style="font-style: italic;">not feminist</span>."<br /><br />I can see why people would want to think it is, and why people would like Hit-Girl. She beats up a bunch of bad dudes, does it better than most of the male superheroes in the story, makes semi-clever quips while doing it and does it (ostensibly) wearing clothes that don't sexualize her. I can see where that appeals to the id brain of most female superheroine fans, and I will admit I'm not totally immune.<br /><br />But as I said in my last post, sometimes the way to tell if a work is feminist is not how the story treats its heroine, but how it treats the other women in the story. So we're going to talk about them before we even get to Hit-Girl.<br /><br />The movie begins on a bad note for women. It starts with our hero, Dave Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson), describing his life as a comic book-reading loser who can't get girls and who masturbates all the time. Dave gets explicit about the latter point, describing how he fantasizes about his teacher: an older, buxom white woman. The film then shows Dave's fantasy wherein the teacher urges Dave to touch her breasts, and then takes off her shirt and unhooks her bra. The film cuts away before she can take reveal her breasts, but has no compunctions about cutting to a photo of two topless African tribal women on Dave's computer. In his voiceover narration, Dave explains his interest in the black women by saying, essentially, that he'll masturbate to anything -- with the clear implication that for anyone to find such women sexy is unthinkable. Essentially it's anti-feminist on two levels -- for one, it upholds the offensive double-standard that "white women's breasts are pornography, black women's breasts are anthropology" and also specifically codes an interest in black women as less desirable than an interest in white women.<br /><br />Then there are the girlfriends in the story, Dave's girlfriend Katie and her Asian-American friend, who becomes a girlfriend for one of Dave's friends. Neither of these girls are real people, but are a male geek-specific fantasy of how some male geeks hope girls will act when they start dating them.<br /><br />Katie is a beautiful blank slate of a girl, the type imagined by the myriad and maligned "How to Get Your Girlfriend Into Comics" essays. Her one unique interest (if you don't count "lattes") -- working at a methadone clinic, only serves to code her as "kind" and to connect her to the main plot of Dave fighting the mafia. Other than that, her role is to breathlessly state how amazing it is now that Dave is introducing her to the amazing world of comics. "I love <span id="{8191F683-22EF-427B-B134-4D2C47BD2501}" style="font-style: italic;">Scott Pilgrim</span>," she says breathlessly, "but I'm not into that superhero stuff." Although it's okay, after she's read what are considered the "girlfriend bait" comics, there's a scene later where she tells Dave "I really enjoyed those Ditko-era <span id="{8427490F-D37F-4BE0-8979-DA5ABA169562}" style="font-style: italic;">Spider-Man</span> comics you gave me" as he rubs self-tanning oil onto her nearly-naked body.<br /><br />An aside: There's a subplot too complicated and offensive to explain right now about how Dave is able to hang out with Katie because Katie thinks he's gay. Yet no intelligent straight woman who has respect for her gay male friend would ask him to rub tanning oil onto her body. Most gay men will see it as a cheap, titillating ploy for a girl to get an attractive guy's hands on her but make it "okay," and will ditch her for a woman who sees him as a real person and not as a handbag or a living slash fanfic fantasy posthaste.<br /><br />Anyway, eventually Dave tells Katie he's straight and he's Kick-Ass, and unlike in the comic they get together. In their first love scene, Dave and Katie share a kiss, and then, like a romantic, he goes straight for the tits. Because that's what geek romance is really about, right? The guy finally getting to touch the breasts that have eluded him for so long. You may think I'm being pedantic or a prude about this, but nothing else happens in the scene. Katie doesn't try to touch him -- she just basically smiles like she's doing him a favor. The scene is not about two people who love each other getting together. It's about how Dave gets to touch tits -- that's its entire point.<br /><br />About Katie's friend, all I can say is she and Dave's friend get together, even though Dave's friend sniffs her hair like a creepazoid when she's not looking. Later, he says "I'm going to explain comics to you" and she sits next to him and listens with wide eyes as if she's a five-year-old. Later she's hanging off him.<br /><br />So, really, that's how the <span id="{2C63FFA2-882C-428E-86C0-65716BA4C8CD}" style="font-style: italic;">Kick-Ass</span> movie treats its adult women: as blank objects of desire to be filled by geek males with their own interests, or freaks.<br /><br />And now (finally) Hit-Girl. As I mentioned earlier, she's capable and strong. I liked her. She and her father are the best parts of the movie, and Chloe Grace Moretz and Nicholas Cage put in really funny performances. If the tone of the movie didn't wildly vacillate between a humorous dark parody of superheroes and a "serious" exploration of what superheroes would be like in the real world, I might have liked them better. But the movie wants you to see Hit-Girl's story as one of a child who isn't allowed to be a child by her revenge-driven father who makes killing a game to her, but also be gleeful about a child brutally murdering mobsters. It wants to eat the cake and have it, too.<br /><br />Some will say I don't get it, because they mistake this hypocricy of tone Millar employs as satire or a joke on the reader. No. It doesn't work. This movie doesn't work. You can't claim this is a realistic movie and then have the hero fly in to save Hit-Girl on a jetpack.<br /><br />Defenders of the movie have also said critics of the movie are only offended because Hit-Girl is female, and they would be fine if a young boy was brainwashed by a parent or parental figure into being a superhero. For one, I would not be. For two, the problem for me does not lie so much in the concept but, as I mentioned before, how it's presented. One of my favorite DC characters is the Cassandra Cain Batgirl, who was raised by her father to be a killing machine from a young age, but that story had a consistent tone -- Cassandra's upbringing is explicitly exploitative in the text, and her father is considered a supervillain, not a superhero like Big-Daddy. Also, what makes Cassandra a superheroine is how she eventually struggles to be independent and have her own agency (consider that her father took away her power to speak and she has had to fight to win it back). Hit-Girl does not have this agency.<br /><br />Now, I don't mean to suggest that Hit-Girl has to become traditionally heroic to be a good character. I also do not necessarily need every superhero to be a good person -- I love <span id="{66D631B7-16D9-48C9-B707-92580B5B9211}" style="font-style: italic;">Watchmen</span>'s Rorschach. If Hit-Girl were just an exploited child with an incomplete set of morals and that was seen as a horrifying thing, I'd probably be fine. But, like I said, the movie thinks what happened to her wrong but also thinks she's the coolest, and that's just messed up.<br /><br />I also want to address a common claim I've heard: Hit-Girl is feminist because she's a child and thus can't be sexualized. I've heard this a lot and it is ridiculous. How low are our standards for superheroines that "she doesn't show cleavage" is the dealbreaker? And how does having a character too young to have cleavage solve that problem? It's like slash fanfic writers who say what they write is feminist because they can have romance without women characters and thus without gender differences. It's not solving or fighting the problem, it's sweeping it under the rug.<br /><br />And it's not even true. Society has certain expectations for what little girls are supposed to look like and how they are attractive to adults, and Hit-Girl meets those expectations. Her superhero outfit has a skirt. When not in costume, she wears her hair in pig-tails with bows. She's constantly smiling and speaks in the cheerful, adoring voice of a good little girl. At one point, she dresses up to fight bad guys wearing a Catholic schoolgirl uniform.<br /><br />I am not saying that any of those things in of themselves are bad or that this movie is somehow obscene or pedophiliac for presenting Hit-Girl this way, but I would also argue that cleavage and women looking sexy in of themselves are not bad, obscene or pornographic. I'm just saying it's there, and it is what it is.<br /><br />One could also say that Hit-Girl defies these expectations by being tough and using profanity, but while I like pretty, dress-wearing warrior princesses (Tim Burton's <span id="{947483E8-3213-4BF6-854D-10AA3D758EC9}" style="font-style: italic;">Alice in Wonderland</span> movie is underrated), you could argue that buxom women in spandex beating people up is also defying some expectations. Honestly, they're both rather ordinary at this point.<br /><br />But for those unconvinced, I offer up a scene with Dave's before unmentioned second friend. At one point in the story he sees a video of Hit-Girl fighting and declares, "I want to marry her!" When Dave's first friend reminds the second friend that Hit-Girl is 11, the second friend says, "I'm going to save myself for her."<br /><br />Think about that scene and tell me again Hit-Girl isn't sexualized.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2078447383629216407.post-34232808505232092872010-04-28T09:20:00.000-07:002010-05-05T09:56:19.039-07:00Anita Blake, Superheroines and Why I Am HereA couple of years ago, I asked a bunch of online friends to recommend some books that were easy yet solidly fun and not intelligence-insulting reads. My friends came through admirably, and I read a lot of great books out of this list -- like Anthony Bourdain's <span style="font-style: italic;">Kitchen Confidential</span>, Terry Ryan's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio</span> and James McBride's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Color of Water</span> -- and a few duds, like Max Barry's <span style="font-style: italic;">Jennifer Government</span>. Yet what fascinated me the most about my friends' recommendations was that almost every one recommended Laurell K. Hamilton's <span style="font-style: italic;">Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter</span> series, because the rest of the Internet had left me with the impression that those books were absolutely horrible.<br /><br />Most of the complaints about the actual series (we'll get to the <a href="http://www.the-isb.com/?cat=91">comic book series</a> another day), centers around a superpower Anita Blake gets in the tenth book in the series, <span style="font-style: italic;">Narcissus in Chains</span>, which requires her to have sex multiple times a day. For those of you who have never heard of this, yes, this is what actually happens. It's gotten to the point where people say if you pick up one of the later Hamilton books and flip to a random page, nine times out of 10 you will see the main character having sex. I'm bad at this game, (although I found it worked very well for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lennon-America-1971-1980-Based-Diaries/dp/081541157X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272474206&sr=8-1">this book</a>, oddly enough) and I haven't read the later books, but I did read the first book of Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, <span style="font-style: italic;">A Kiss of Shadows</span>, and thus I have no problem taking others' word for it.<br /><br />Still, many of those who vociferously condemned the later books did so because they loved the earlier books so much. So I decided to give them a try. I've read six of the Anita Blake books now, and I have two general things to say about them.<br /><br />1.) They're a lot of fun. Anita has a great character voice: a gee-whiz type of sarcasm that keeps the books funny and as grounded as possible for a series centered around an integrated human-monster society where vampires vote and have their own churches. Also, while I think most of Hamilton's vampires are slightly less scary than the guy wearing fake fangs at your parents' Halloween party, I really like her zombies -- <span style="font-style: italic;">The Laughing Corpse</span> is easily the best book in the series -- and a lot of the worldbuilding in general.<br /><br />2.) For a series with a female heroine that had some degree of good feminist intentions (or at least evening-the-score intentions) in its origins, as Hamilton describes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Blake#Character">here</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I started reading a lot of hardboiled detective fiction—</span><span style="font-style: italic;">Robert B. Parker</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> in particular—and I read a lot of strong female protagonists. But there was one problem, a difference between the male and female protagonists of the different series—even the strongest of the women did not get to do some of the things the men got to do. The men got to cuss, the women rarely; the men got to kill people and not feel bad about it, if the women killed someone they had to feel really, really bad about it afterward and it had to be an extreme situation; the men got to have sex, often and on stage and very casually, but if the women had sex it had to be offstage, very sanitized. I thought this was unfair.</span><br /><br />... the way female characters are treated in the series, and in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Merry Gentry</span> series, is kind of messed up.<br /><br />In Hamilton-world there are three types of women: 1.) the heroine, who is exceptional in the face of working against a sexist system perpetuated by bad men and women who hate her, and this exceptionalism is shown by her amazing superpowers 2.) the villainous women, who are not much different from the heroine except they're, y'know, evil and 3.) a mass of female victims -- usually ones who are in an abusive relationship -- who the heroine can feel pity for, mixed with some disgust because they do not work hard enough to escape their situations and/or fight the system and are basically not special like her.<br /><br />One of the most egregious examples occurs in <span style="font-style: italic;">A Kiss of Shadows</span>, where Merry's evil male cousin Cel takes Merry's female childhood friend as a slave. While Merry feels sorry for her friend, the text also emphasizes that her friend's debasement is her friend's own choice because her friend is submitting to be Cel's slave to enter into faerie society. Basically, her friend is being abused and that is terrible, but she asks for it, and not in a BDSM sense, either, so Merry doesn't have to feel too bad about it. After the first book, the friend is never seen again.<br /><br />These problematic elements could be dismissed as a writer's own quirks, yet I have read a number of other urban fantasy novels with female heroines, and found they had a number of problematic elements as well, especially with race and gender. This is perhaps surprising to some. Urban fantasy seems to be one of the only mainstream genres where women (white and of color) can write superhero stories about and for women, and yet they seem to have just as many problematic elements as male comic book writers writing superheroines, or comic book movies/TV series centered around superheroines.<br /><br />Yet I find comic book and urban fantasy heroines fascinating, because the idea of a superheroine is one that has always held an appeal for me and still does. There's still a little six-year-old inside me who wants to run away and slay dragons, and I've been on the Internet and met enough other comic book, manga and urban fantasy fans to know I'm not the only one. Basically, urban fantasy and comic book superheroines are genres where I want to see women succeed in a fantasy/sci-fi/horror setting, and yet they often do not.<br /><br />So the wish-fulfillment fantasy is a big draw and I know that among the seekers of superheroines we're always looking for something more, but I find I usually have a lot to say about where these stories -- whether written by men or women -- go wrong, as well.<br /><br />Thus, this blog, where I try to look at the big, wide world of chicks killing (or maybe just beating up) things in the media. I hope you'll join me.Rebecca Henelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286041984335080435noreply@blogger.com0