November 19, 2013 - I find it somewhat interesting when celebrities get involved in social causes. Often times it's great for raising awareness, and certainly there are some celebrities who have taken outspoken stances on particular issues (take for example Martin Sheen whose been arrested 66 times related to political protests or Angelina Jolie's breast cancer op-ed which was somewhat controversial). There aren't any particularly prominent celebrity proponents advocating better access to abortion, however. A few lump it in with other causes and Emily and I found this anti-abortion site that somewhat counter-productively lists celebrities that support Planned Parenthood at least in part (which we'd likely be mining for casting ideas if this was ever a show). No one really wants to be associated with the abortion cause though because of its complexity and controversy. I don't know if changing this attitude would improve things, but I wouldn't mind someone trying.
In the realm of comics dealing with women's rights and female representation, there's recently been a bit of a controversy involving claims of sexual harassment. I think this blog post on the matter sums it up about the best, though Fowler's reaction to Wood's statement is probably also worth noting and can be found at the bottom of the article here. I think there are important questions to ask about people's ability to change and what they can accomplish as a writer, but already somewhat disappointed with Wood's X-Men run already myself, this is pretty much the nail in the coffin for me.
Also discussing the role of women in media, Anita Sarkeesian's latest Tropes vs. Women video is online. As with a lot of her prior videos, I find her delivery a bit dry, so luckily there's a transcript, but overall it follows a similar narrative of her past videos of accurately describing the trope and its ubiquitous while running in to slight problems clarifying some of the inherent negative aspects of such tropes. It's easy to misinterpret her argument to assume feminine characteristics are inherently bad rather than that feminine characteristics are inherently bad when they are the only characteristics female characters are shown to exhibit (i.e. the combination of the ms. male character with the smurfette principle, a connection she comes close to but doesn't quite achieve). There's nothing wrong with being feminine. It's just when that's the only option and/or presented as a default characteristic that this becomes problematic. What's the difference between Wendy O Koopa and Teen Titan's Kitten? As characters they're exactly the same, but where Kitten has varied alternate female representations in Starfire, Raven, Jinx, or Terra, Wendy O only has a handful of Marioworld princesses which Sarkeesian has already discredited in previous videos. I'd also argue that Sarkeesian's dismissal that men don't have obvious gendered identifiers like the bow and makeup is inaccurate. Men are often portrayed as overly muscled and barrel chested, the fact this element is often missing from many of the characters given a "bow" to though is very significant in saying that the female character's gender matters while the male character's seemingly does not. I also take issue with her argument regarding Ms. Pac-Man as "the more than Pac-Man with a bow" jingle was intended to highlight changes in level design and enemy a.i. that are generally considered significant improvements over the original game, but she does make referrence to this fact (though doesn't quite connect it back to her argument) and is mostly a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. As always, I'm mostly just happy someone's saying anything at all, and mostly pleased with the more positive attention she's gotten for her effort.
If you read all that and live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I encourage you to vote on this initiative which will likely have a huge impact on the state and possibly the country. Abortion opponents are trying to stop late term abortions in the city of albuquerque and effectively the state, and if successful such efforts could quickly spread across the country. It will be interesting to see what happens, and I'll probably talk more about this tomorrow when the results are in.
-D
In the realm of comics dealing with women's rights and female representation, there's recently been a bit of a controversy involving claims of sexual harassment. I think this blog post on the matter sums it up about the best, though Fowler's reaction to Wood's statement is probably also worth noting and can be found at the bottom of the article here. I think there are important questions to ask about people's ability to change and what they can accomplish as a writer, but already somewhat disappointed with Wood's X-Men run already myself, this is pretty much the nail in the coffin for me.
Also discussing the role of women in media, Anita Sarkeesian's latest Tropes vs. Women video is online. As with a lot of her prior videos, I find her delivery a bit dry, so luckily there's a transcript, but overall it follows a similar narrative of her past videos of accurately describing the trope and its ubiquitous while running in to slight problems clarifying some of the inherent negative aspects of such tropes. It's easy to misinterpret her argument to assume feminine characteristics are inherently bad rather than that feminine characteristics are inherently bad when they are the only characteristics female characters are shown to exhibit (i.e. the combination of the ms. male character with the smurfette principle, a connection she comes close to but doesn't quite achieve). There's nothing wrong with being feminine. It's just when that's the only option and/or presented as a default characteristic that this becomes problematic. What's the difference between Wendy O Koopa and Teen Titan's Kitten? As characters they're exactly the same, but where Kitten has varied alternate female representations in Starfire, Raven, Jinx, or Terra, Wendy O only has a handful of Marioworld princesses which Sarkeesian has already discredited in previous videos. I'd also argue that Sarkeesian's dismissal that men don't have obvious gendered identifiers like the bow and makeup is inaccurate. Men are often portrayed as overly muscled and barrel chested, the fact this element is often missing from many of the characters given a "bow" to though is very significant in saying that the female character's gender matters while the male character's seemingly does not. I also take issue with her argument regarding Ms. Pac-Man as "the more than Pac-Man with a bow" jingle was intended to highlight changes in level design and enemy a.i. that are generally considered significant improvements over the original game, but she does make referrence to this fact (though doesn't quite connect it back to her argument) and is mostly a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. As always, I'm mostly just happy someone's saying anything at all, and mostly pleased with the more positive attention she's gotten for her effort.
If you read all that and live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I encourage you to vote on this initiative which will likely have a huge impact on the state and possibly the country. Abortion opponents are trying to stop late term abortions in the city of albuquerque and effectively the state, and if successful such efforts could quickly spread across the country. It will be interesting to see what happens, and I'll probably talk more about this tomorrow when the results are in.
-D
comments powered by Disqus
