Lolita's Fist

#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...

In her explanation of  gynocidal  ritual, feminist theorist Mary  Daly  explains that in a patriarchal culture, society uses certain ritualistic behaviors (usually in the interest of enhancing female "beauty") to destroy female connections and to oppress women.* In these situations, women are often used as "token torturers". For instance, there was a saying during the days of Chinese  footbinding : "If a mother loves her daughter, she will take no mercy on her feet." Nope, instead she will torture and cripple her to make her palatable to a society infected with brainwashed men who wouldn't know a natural woman if she bit him on the ass and then ran away on her big ' ol  feet! * Discussion of  gynocidal  ritual can be found in Mary  Daly's  book,  Gyn /Ecology: the  Metaethics  of Radical Feminism. Source:  Only one Manda I love the way Amanda puts this. Great voice. Amanda wrote this while expressing her horror a...

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." Gloria Steinem "I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them." Robin Morgan "I haven't the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white hetero-sexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. But then, I have great difficulty examining what men in general could possibly do about all this. In addition to doing the shitwork that women have been doing for generations, possibly not exist? No, I really don't mean that. Yes, I really do." Robin Morgan "We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage." Robin Morgan "I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and de...

In response to the publishing of her first book The Church and the Second Sex in 1969, Mary Daly was issued a terminal contract by Boston College i.e. her position would not be renewed once it had expired. Her situation became the cause for student protests, petitions, and teach-ins celebrating academic freedom. With student (all male at the time) and other popular support, not only was she taken on as full professor but also was given tenure. AND she refused to admit male students to her classes at Boston College. She believes that men's presence in her classrooms kept the women students from fully and freely exploring radical feminism. Because of her ban on men from her classroom she has provoked repeated reprimands from Boston University and accusations that she was violating both university policy and Title IX (the federal statute banning discrimination in higher education on the basis of sex) requirements. The confrontations came to a head in 1998 when Boston College Theol...

The women of today are asking the second-wave feminists "What have you done for me lately?" What are feminists doing?" doing my bit to get rid of the Ms-Miss-Mrs to None offer a place to stay to women who have been abused (several) rescued a woman in a violent-home situation pick up women hitchhikers disseminate information about feminism actively support the activities of other women, even when the women themselves would not self-identify themselves or the activities as feminist promote a theme of the-man's-friends-are-culpable-in-an-abuse-of-women-situation act against women who abuse raise awareness in relationships that one of the partners is not enhancing the goals of the other partner make sure that women enter their houses safely before I leave, after dropping them off blog raise consciousness about informed choice raise awareness of sexual gratification do general computer-fun training for women at every opportunity took the education of the d...