Hollywood's MISS Representation

Since winning this big grant to educate college, high school and middle school students on the paucity of women in the media, I have begun stumbling upon new websites, blogs, and video blogs that address this issue.  And boy, am I learning a lot! 

As a theatre person at heart, I do not spend a lot of time studying film, movies or Hollywood.  It has just never appealed to me.  I like a well written, well acted, and well directed movie, but my first love is for plays and live theatre.  Interestingly, people often assume if you like to act or direct than you want to do film.  This may be because so many Hollywood "stars" come back to Broadway to do plays, now more than ever.  But I have done some small film work and found it mind numbing.  (See the side of my face as an extra at the airport in 27 Dresses.  I walk in front of Malin Akerman).

This week in my research I stumbled upon Melissa A Fabello's video blog on women's representation in horror movies.  She and her friend discuss the Bechdel test.  From there I found the v-blog Feminist Frequency,  run by Anita Sarkeesian, who also talks about media representation and the Bechdel test.   One of my best friends, who is a filmmaker and movie buff, knew all about it.  But I'm writing about it today because I don't think the general public does, and you should! 

Basically it was started, kind of tongue-in-cheek, by Alison Bechdel, in her famous comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For (Mo Movie Measure).  The "rule" or test, goes like this:  (1) there has to be at least two NAMED women in the movie, (2) they have to talk to one another, (3) about anything other than a man.  In last year's Academy Awards nominees, only two of the nine movies nominated met the test. And as Anita Sarkeesian said, "Let’s remember that this was made as a bit of a joke to make fun of the fact that there are so few movies with significant female characters in them. The reason the test has become so important in recent years is because it actually does highlight a serious and ongoing problem within the entertainment industry."

What has also been illuminating for me in this research and work I am now consumed with is that "chick flicks," often fail this Bechdel test.  Wouldn't it be great if before we went to the movies or downloaded that movie to our television we could make sure they pass this test?  Anita Sarkeesian has suggested adding another question to this test; (4) Do the two women talk to each other for at least 60 seconds?  When you add this fourth question, even more movies fail the test. 

While I do my best in this blog to critique pop culture and educate my readers, there is NOT always a takeaway in terms of social change.  Today I am trying more than ever to live what I preach.  After winning my award I decided I couldn't subscribe to my favorite local theatre because they are producing no plays by women this year.  So in this case, don't go to movies that fail the test.  Do go to movies that pass, particularly those with women directors.  Go on the Friday of opening weekend.  This is the date Hollywood uses to judge how well the movie did.  There's a rumor out there that some amazing feminist film folks are developing an app for this.  I can also recommend subscribing to Melissa Silverstein's Women and Hollywood if you are into the indie/women/film scene. 

If we don't start using our consumer voice to tell the world how WE want it, those in control will continue running it the way they want to see it:  white, male, with women serving as prop pieces. 

Romney is Not a Friend to Women

Last week I defended Obama's poor debate performance by suggesting that he had a job that might possibly take up some of the time that Romney spends preparing for the debates and running for President. 

This week I am pleased that Obama seemed back in the game and Romney seemed more like himself.  You know, the self who can't stand women.  This guy actually suggested that single mothers are to blame for gun violence.  WHAT?  And when asked about pay equity, the now famous "binders full of women" phrase was invented.  Rather than address actual documented pay inequity, he felt compelled to address the need for flex time so that women can get home and cook dinner and take care of their kids after their long day at the office.  WHAT?

We can also talk about how Romney does not support contraception or the right to an abortion.  This man is no friend to women.  I love it when Republican women are interviewed on NPR and they say that they aren't "one issue" voters and that they need to look to larger issues, like the economy in their decision on how to support for President.  I'm sure the right to control your family size has NOTHING to do with economics, right? 

I also like how the notion of reproductive freedom, rights or choice is always lumped into "one issue."  This topic is full of issues from the access to birth control for poor women, coverage for abortion, the right to prenatal care, the right to make decisions about your birth plan, the right to stay in a hospital after you have a baby, the right to have a vaginal delivery after a C-section, and the right to be sterilized, or not. 

As a woman who has never been pregnant, I take this "one issue" pretty seriously.  I see my friends in their mid-30s and early 40s trying to get pregnant in a country where hormones have over populated our food.  I see young women, where I work, unclear how to advocate for themselves as fertile women who don't yet want to have a baby.  I see young men refusing to wear condoms.  I see couples struggling over whether they can afford a second or third child. 

I religiously read Margaret and Helen, a blog by two women who have been friends for 60 years.  She recently wrote this about Mitt Romney being a liar "I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose… Roe v. Wade has gone too far… I am pro-choice… I am pro-life… I never really called myself pro-choice…When I am asked if I am pro-choice or pro-life, I say I refuse to accept either label…"  

Beware of this man when you head to the polls on November 7th.  He is not a friend to any woman, except maybe Ann Romney.

Obama Has a Job, Romney Doesn't.

Obama won the debate.  I think I have heard enough punditry (is that a word) on that topic.  I get it.  I watched.  Yes he was distracted, yes he wasn't "on his game,", yes he looked down too much.  Gee, I wonder what could cause a person, like the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to be distracted.  Could it be something that we don't even know about, some top secret terrorist, or Middle Eastern crisis causing him to worry?  Perhaps?

Jon Sununu, former NH Governor actually referred to Obama as "lazy" on Andrea Mitchell's  MSNBC show.  She was shocked.  We all should be shocked.  Not only is that an inappropriate word to call the current president (maybe appropriate for former President George W. Bush), but downright racist. 

What does Mitt Romney do all day?  Hmmm.  I think his job is RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.  He doesn't have a job.  He gets to run around the country all day and make speeches and meet people and spend hours and hours and hours at his beautiful NH lakefront home preparing for his three debates. 

And while Romney is preparing for his debates with the President, before we get too critical on how he did in the first debate, spend some time imaging a day in the life of both of these men as we move toward the election.  Obama cannot spend nearly as much time preparing for the debates as Romney as he has to run the country.  Why has this point not come up during any of the criticism of him?  Why hasn't one of the so-called brilliant journalists we have on all these news stations thought of this?  Let's cut him a little slack. 

Celebrities Not Needed

I read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide when it came out in 2009.  The book, written by writer couple Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDun, details atrocities done to women and girls all over the globe.  It focuses on rape, sex trafficking, maternal mortality, female genital circumcision, and access to education.  It is an illuminating yet frustrating book.  Kristof and WuDunn spend time in each chapter detailing the work being done in these areas to help girls and women.

This week, on Monday and Tuesday, the documentary version of their book came out.  There was a big media blitz about it on the Internet, including emails to Women's Centers, like mine, to hold screenings.  It was too short notice for us to hold a screening, not to mention, too late for me to stay at work on a Monday or Tuesday night.  The film aired from 9-11pm ET.  But I was so disgusted with the Monday night viewing that I couldn't force myself to watch the second half, which I'm sure will now be airing on PBS all month.

The film opens with a statement by George Clooney.  Fine.  Then there are clips interspersed with Kristoff's intense interviews or investigations in each of the areas mentioned above.  Also fine.  Each one of the places that Kristof visits in the film, where he focuses on a specific issue to women and girls, he had a celebrity with him.  It was so odd at first, almost unsettling.  There is no explanation why Meg Ryan is with him going to a safe haven for girls who have been sold into sex slavery.  Was this an issue she was already interested in?  Was this a cause she had been working for?  As they drive up to this haven, where all these young girls welcome them in uniforms, Meg Ryan says "Aw.  They look so cute."  WHAT???? Cute?  These girls were just sex slaves and we're going to immediately respond to them in terms of their bodies and how they look?  Who the hell edited this thing?

When you go to the half the sky website, you can click on a drop down menu of Celebrities/Advocates.  There you can see what this person does on behalf of women.  Gabrielle Union, who visits Vietnam with Kristof, is described as

"being an ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, as well as her support for the Young Survivor Coalition (YSC) and the Rape Treatment Center (RTC) at UCLA. Union often travels on behalf of Susan G. Komen and the YSC to share her story of losing a friend to breast cancer and works to inspire others as well when she visits the RTC to talk to young women. She also helped found a program called "A Step for Success" in 2004, which helps raise funds for the economically challenged Kelso Elementary School in Los Angeles. The program holds fundraisers to help pay for books, classroom supplies and many other daily needs that teachers have fallen burden to paying for themselves. Union traveled with Nicholas Kristof to Vietnam to visit John Wood at Room to Read." 

Nowhere in her bio does it talk about why she would be going with Kristof to Vietnam, nor her interest in John Wood's organization.  And this seems to be the case with all these famous female actors.  Eva Mendes bio on the site lists nothing about her interest in fighting rape.  She gives a young rape survivor a necklace, which makes the viewer very uncomfortable.  This is the case with all the celebrities featured in the film.

If you click on each of the celebrities names, that page features a picture of them with one of the women or girls interviewed in the film, with a big smile on their face.  The complexities of race and class in these pictures are unsettling.

I would have been perfectly fine viewing this documentary with the clips of "experts" interspersed with Kristof's intimate interviews with women and girls who have survived horrible circumstances, but adding celebrity women to bring viewers to the television seems forced and inappropriate.  WuDunn was an articulate and intelligent voice throughout the movie and she was all the celebrity I needed.

Should Politicians Have to Take a Test?

So by now we are all just sick and tired of the election.  Sick of seeing the same old commercials of how Warren is better than Brown and Romney is better than Obama and this one didn't do this and that one didn't do that. 

And I am certainly the last person to say I have given up and I won't vote because our political system has become too irrational for the everyday person, but this year (or maybe it really is every year) I keep getting this nagging sense that there needs to be some kind of test or requirement or schooling that some of these people need before they start running for office.

Todd Akin who sits on the House Committee for Science, Space and Technology thought that a woman's body rejected pregnancies caused by "legitimate rape."  You've got to be fucking kidding me.  Sorry, I really had to swear here.  Todd has a B.S. in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Master's in Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary.  I'm not sure either of these degrees qualifies him to provide medical statements on rape and pregnancy.

Mitt Romney, my former Governor of Massachusetts, who has helped many of my friends get health insurance continues to bumble.  His latest tape revealing he doesn't care about 47% of the electorate, as they don't pay taxes and thus won't vote for him makes one wonder if people running for President should have a degree in Economics.  Romney has a Bachelor's in English and a J.D. and MBA from Harvard.  Maybe it's the English degree that makes him struggle with math. 

We can certainly question the folks who advise these "brilliant" men.  Or question the brilliancy of men who hire people who give them terrible advice.  These same would-be politicians will continue to hire people if elected; people who might continue to provide poor advice as well as incorrect information.  Whatever the case, I'm just looking forward to Thanksgiving when all this will be behind us, for another two years. 

Leave Sandra Fluke Alone!

I was fortunate to see Sandra Fluke live this past April when I brought five students to the Feminist Majority Foundation's National Young Women's Leadership Conference.  She spoke passionately about her experience testifying before a panel of men about women's need for birth control.  She is a true reproductive justice activist.

I was thrilled the DNC invited her to be one of their speakers, not only because of her passion for reproductive rights, but also because she is a young outspoken woman who TELLS THE TRUTH.

Should I be surprised at the aftermath of her speech?  Should I be surprised that the right wing CHRISTIANS used sexualized language to critique her?  I guess I shouldn't, as Rush Limbaugh's horrible attack of her after her Congressional Testimony where he stated,"What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps."  (If you want to read more about the Rush Limbaugh attack, read David Frum's article) It doesn't make sense to me that a party who extols the virtues of Christianity would say some of the horrible things they have been saying about this woman.  Honestly, I would be embarrassed if I was a pro-choice Republican woman.  Here are a few of them:

Before the speech, the lovely Ann Coulter tweeted, "Bill Clinton just impregnated Sandra Fluke backstage."

The rest of this I quote from David Frum's CNN column "Slurs only Bolster Sandra Fluke's Cause." 

Stephen Kruiser:   "Tricky camera work to keep TV audience from seeing (David) Axelrod's hand up Fluke's a**." 

Steven Kruiser: "Sandra Fluke has been blessed with a quarter-million dollars of elite education ... and she has concluded that the most urgent need facing the Brokest Nation in History is for someone else to pay for the contraception of 30-year-old children."

James Taranto:  "Seriously, the party of Andrew Jackson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman chose to showcase someone whose claim to fame is that she demands that somebody else pay for her birth control."

Joe Walsh: "Think about this, a 31-, 32-year-old law student who has been a student for life, who gets up there in front of a national audience and tells the American people, 'I want America to pay for my contraceptives.' You're kidding me. Go get a job. Go get a job, Sandra Fluke."

Sandra Fluke's original testimony was about student's having access to birth control at Catholic Universities, like Georgetown, where she is a law students.  This was not about taxpayers paying for birth control, although that's what one would think it was about if you read all the pundits responses to her.

What remains for me, however, is what these attacks on Fluke tell us about the way women are represented in our culture.  A smart, young woman cannot get up in front of a group of men, only men, and talk intelligently about the needs of young woman without being sexualized and demonized.  Women can't run for office without being ripped apart about how they look and what they wear.  Hillary cries a tear, she's emotional and clearly can't be President.  Elizabeth Warren looks like a librarian and thus isn't "hip" enough to be a Senator.  Michelle Obama is gorgeous and has style so she should be on the 2012 ticket.  And people wonder why more women don't run for office.  What smart woman wants to put herself through THAT kind of scrutiny, opening herself up to being called a slut or ugly or emotional, none of which has anything to do with her politics and her leadership ability.

In the years that I have observed the world through my purple-hazed feminist glasses, I don't recall it being so crude, so mean, and so trivial.  For male conservative leaders to use sexual language to critique a person's opinion instead of intelligent critique backed up with facts only demonstrates who is really the idiot in the room. 

Crazy Dating Site

I heard about this dating website on an academic listerve.  Whatsyourprice.com is a site where people bid on dates.  For example, if I was interested in dating you, I'd offer you $50 and you can accept my offer.  The site talks about "generous" people and "attractive" people.  Your photo has to be approved to allow you to register.  The site also maintains a blog.  This blog got me fired up.

Step by step guide to being a lady

I don't even think there is any need to comment on this in 2012.