Lolita's Fist

🍒 Bechdel-passer (with five words), and the lead is a woman (brains, character, ethics, wit, but she doesn't get her guy, she gets another different sporty non-news guy that we never get to 'read') and the men do battle over one of them being stupid but pretty and the other being brilliant, and funny, but 'ugly'. But seriously, MIND-blowing dialogue, by the same guy that did As Good As it Gets (1997) . Oooh! IMDB Broadcast News (1987) Actors: William Hurt, Albert Brooks Director: James L. Brooks

🍒 About to watch it again, I reckon for the 15th or so time. I have done a mini survey and have discovered to my horror that most people would never consider watching a movie more than three times. Am I a rat with its paw on a lever? Are there other rats out there?? IMDB Addicted to Love (1997) Actors: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick Director: Griffin Dunne

*eyeroll* - all the clichés - lesbian has to die; all you need is a good f*ck; weak if he takes control; a man with no job is better than a woman with any prospects; she ends up with the man. *yawn* from a DH Lawrence story, I should have known. IMDB The Fox (1967) Actors: Keir Dullea, Sandy Dennis Director: Mark Rydell

Paul Newman and bully, George Kennedy, are boxing it out in the yard. Kennedy is twice the size of Newman, who keeps getting up, figuratively calling Kennedy out, "Bully, Bully, Bully," because he just won't stop hitting Newman. The men in the yard start saying to Kennedy to stop, and Newman keeps getting up and swinging a feeble swing. Eventually, Kennedy clicks that his power display is undermining him, and quits. Back in the day, movies spoke. IMDB Cool Hand Luke (1967) Actors: Paul Newman, George Kennedy Director: Stuart Rosenberg

#OMG. Aaron Sorkin just put responsibility into a man's mouth. "I can't be without a job, I'm responsible for my children's tuition." I'm in love, or I came, or something. So refreshing to not have a man talking about which hole is his favorite or how many seconds it takes him to steal or kill. Oh. Heaven. Thanks, Sorkin. That was a good one. #Feminism lives in men. AND another man said, "It's really OK, I understand." Oh wow. Oh super wow. x 855. A lot. IMDB The Newsroom (Series 2012)  Actors: Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer

Derailment can happen  on  all the 'sides' of a discussion, the hard part is facilitating forward motion and 'keeping it clean', i.e.  keeping  the  derailers  voiced, fair and not vitriolic. Now we need to turn  derailers  into some form of  ally  because  derailers  become the 'face' of the group. On another comment stream: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/09/no-more-allies/ #Race ~ #Feminism. #Separatism. #Apartheid. Mary Daly got fired for teaching  derailers  in separate spaces, sadly, but I always understood why she did it, empathized. I'm in the camp of "white people should shut the fuck up" as a general rule (á la Samantha Vice and Gillian Schutte), except when we are talking to our fellow white people. I don't get it right all the time, but I want to.  On another comment stream: Perhaps by claiming a white space they are acknowledging that white women think feminism is 'good for' ...

Relegating racism to 'past' is a failure. Unified condemnation of women, exclusion of women, white women say this and then become part of the patriarchy. Feminism collides with racism. White women charter what racism is. White women position themselves as equal to men. Humanism, women is staged as a universal term, excluding race. Savagery articulated as cultural difference. Human rights, women latched to men by similarity. Difference is a racial Other. Liberalism is coupled with culture, problem. Proscription of actions ignores racial Other. Shapes what practices become Tradition. How can you separate west from anywhere else, how pure is anyone's philosophy. "John Stuart Mill?" Functioning human life "what would make us define something as not human?" Human = masculine = civilization. Reason, logic, conscience, conscious, women try to be reasonable, to be human. = America = universalism. Choice is the true expression of civilized self. Ability to re...

🍒 The love story of Pat and Tiffany is not clichéd, the dialogue is great, the acting is clear, the characters are quirky and real-ly flawed, but... (sigh) Bechdel Test. You might snort at the mention of the Bechdel Test. It's really less of a test and more of mental note that helps put you in the right, *cough*, feminist, frame of mind. It goes like this: 1. Are there two named female characters? 2. Do they speak to each other? 3. Do they speak to each other about something other than a man. This test establishes whether the action is about the man or about the woman. And it's always about the man. I've got a mere 31 Bechdel-passers on my list so far -  http://www.imdb.com/list/Z_tgoKChVPY/ . Feminist role models. I take my role models where I can get them. Tiffany (yes, that's her name) is a 3D-character. She doesn't do the girl-giggling thing. She's slutty and sloppy and dirty and likes that about herself. She can talk dirty. She'll indulge...

Life of Brian (1979) . When Brian loses his sandal is still one of the classic metascenes of all time. World According to Garp (1982) . When Roberta tells Garp he used to be Robert. Thanks for this character John Lithgow. Partners (1982) . When John Hurt comes into the police station to be told he has to come out from behind his desk and be part of an actual case. Thanks for these characters Ryan O'Neal and John Lithgow. The Book of Eli (2010) . Denzel Washington, alone in a ruin in a desert, takes out a wet wipe and bathes with it, while listening to a single song on an iPod whose battery is running out. How can you mend a broken heart? Stranger than Fiction (2006) .  Maggie Gyllenhaal refuses to pay 22% of her tax because she doesn’t want to fund the war machine. #Leadership Don’t like either Eric Roberts or Campbell Scott, but the Raggedy Man (1981) kiss and the Dying Young (1991) kiss are my favorites. Bizarre. Spanglish (2004) . Love scene, Paz Vega says to Adam Sand...

Uptown Girls (2003) . “It’s so 80s it makes my hair pouf.” Goodbye Brittany. The Invasion (2007) . “When someone tries to tell me what is Truth, I only hear what they are telling me about themselves.” Boys Night Out (1962) . “$640.48” “What’s the 48 cents for?” “Well the girl of course.” Jindabyne (2006) . "When something bad happens we all have to do something good to make up for it. Otherwise the bad things pile up." Seinfeld (Series 1989) . "There’s too much urinary freedom in this society. I’m proud to hold it in. It builds character." Moonlighting (Series 1985) . Maddie says David describes the perfect woman as an “oversexed packhorse with a lobotomy and a g-string". Friends (Series 1994). Alec Baldwin puts a positive spin on everything so irritated Phoebe says, "You're like Santa Claus on Prozac; at Disneyland; getting laid." All About Eve (1950) . “I’m not to be had for the price of a cocktail. Like a salted peanut.” Dan Savage...

Harrelson, “If you ask her to cry on cue, she asks, ‘Which eye?’”

Strangely, this movie was about Harvey. I guess there are rarely films of gravity and wit about men's lives, but you know I was there for the Emma Thompson's character's backstory. That would have been far more interesting to me. You know I love Emma, she can do anything! And frequently does. I love her expanding middle and I love her crows feet. Perfect realness. Real perfection. And this is not vitriol, just admiration. The film is 'nice', I don't always want to see issue-movies. And yet there were issues, just well disguised. Tangible. Not too funny, not too sad, not too surprising. Britishly well-restrained. IMDB Last Chance Harvey (2008) Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson Director: Joel Hopkins

Isn't the word Feminism redundant, we could use Womanism, we have other words 'group dynamics', the word's 'ism' suggests man-hating? I was reading a manist's blog (Pelle Billing) and responses to his suggestion that there should be a masculist movement was met by comments that that would just be repeating the mistakes of feminism - that equality should be part of the liberal agenda and not start pitting factions against each other. I was thinking that the desire for a masculist movement is reactionary. To his credit Billing took the criticism and agreed with the point. He is prolific, try this  Google search . Here is  Pelle Billing's blog . Here is  Pelle Billing's website . Would feminism ever have become a movement had there not been opposition to it? Women had to find a name for the thing they were standing up to support. And men had to find a name for the thing they wanted to rail against. At the time when feminism started did it ha...

🍒 I love scifi, and I live in South Africa, 50 kms from where they made the movie. Our local film industry is very sad, but District 9 was great! Very very very very violent, very very very pointed about apartheid. Some hard bits to see, which made it great! But I could never see it again. Way too hectic. We South Africans are very gritty. I was just saying to one of my international pals on Facebook that we don't use the word nice here in South Africa - it would be too anomalous, too weird, too freaky, to unfitting. There are no nice situations here. It's hectic! No one is emigrating to South Africa.... unless they are transferred or living in a place where their limbs are getting hacked off because they don't fit in their social groups. Commentary. "We were filming in a cleared-shack area of Soweto, inhabitants had been moved to RDP housing. The pollution shocked us in the first few days, but by day three it seemed normal. We normalized." IMDB District 9 (...

🍒      Wordplay is a fantastic documentary on crossword puzzles called Wordplay. Fantabulous! Extraordinary! Stunning! Beautifully done. Interviews all sorts of people - celebrities, puzzle makers, New York Times public editors, a guy who decided to make an annual event for the people holed up in their rooms to get out and meet like-minded puzzlers. The competitiveness! Worth keeping. The Indigo girls - and a brief shot of a concert - a sea of dykes. Heaven. IMDB Wordplay (2006) Director: Patrick Creadon Documentary

Worth seeing for some very truthful scenes, but kinda yawn. IMDB Management (2008) Director: Stephen Belber Actors: Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn

Coco Chanel was kinda nice, great cinematography - or shall I say, it wasn't linear but it was a bit been there done that. Her long-time lover was badly cast. But I loved the woman who played her, and there were great notions. Coco was wonderful. IMDB Coco Chanel (2008) Actors: Barbora Bobulova, Brigitte Boucher Director: Christian Duguay

🍒 Danny falls in love with Sandy. She is sweet and lovely and believing and innocent (virgin). He loves her. When he gets to school and sees her through the eyes of his friends, he rejects her because she doesn't put out (whore). She realizes that unless she puts it out there that she wants him, and everyone knows she wants him as a boyfriend, now they need to know that he's the one whose body she wants. She needs to flash her body sexually and be very very thin and wear very very clingy clothes and speak very very dirty(ish) then she will get her man. She does. He is pleased that he can have the nice girl, who will put out, who realizes that virginity is lousy. Sadly, I know every millimeter of this movie by heart. This film tells me, that I can be virgin and whore and I will get the guy, but he gets to tell me what he wants and I must be that. If I choose to do as he wants, I will be cool. IMDB Grease (1978) Actors: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John Director: Randal...

BEEN READING: Jessica Valenti on Full Frontal Feminism Valenti is the founder of Feministing.com and says that the next feminist wave will be cyber. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071015/bennett ... Bullyin - trying to intimidate us women into being Paris Hilton clones I totally think that we are being bullied and emotionally manipulated into being terrified to not shave, terrified to call ourselves feminists, terrified to act. It amazes me that no one realises that the bullying in schools is a reflection of what happens in front of children's eyes everywhere they go. A doctor, doing a breast sonar, made a comment about my underarm hair, suggesting that I should get that shaved before I see him next. It's bullying. He used his position of power to make me afraid that he would not give me his services if I did not conform to his idea of womanhood. How shocking is it that my hair is more scary than his bullying. Those brats in American schools, giggling and laughing and ...

That's a very big request...'Please explain feminism to me.' And the answer is not simple. Just like there are many different versions of religion, politics, whatever - so there are many versions of feminism. Each person who adopts any ideology tweaks it to make it their own. I think that the very basic, very essential idea behind all activism (and feminism is an activism), is to create an awareness that you cannot subdivide society into units - race, gender, sexuality, etc - and say that that subdivision should not be treated as equal to any other group. Feminism focuses that rejection of subdivision on 'women'. Activism generally focuses on the unequal distribution of human rights, among other things (you get eco-feminists who are environment lobbyists). So, under human rights, you can't pay one group less than another for the same work, e.g. women are paid 30% less on average in a similar job to a man. You can't give one group less rights than another...