In the 1976 cross-country race film The Gumball Rally, the late, great Raul Julia rips off his rearview mirror and tosses it over his shoulder, saying “What’s behind me is not important.”
It’s a natural, normal part of life. But people hesitate to talk openly about their needs, their desires, and their concerns because they are so fearful of what others might think. But we all have urges, and we all have questions, and the more we can talk about them, the happier and more fulfilled we all will be. It should be a joyful, tender, and esteem-building part of life, not a source of confusion or shame. Yet it’s hard to get a handle on it, because although there’s a lot of information out there, much of it is judgmental, misinformed, or quite simply false.
Two years ago, the preppy mall staple Abercrombie & Fitch released a line of t-shirts that paired early 1900s–style caricatures of Chinese men (complete with coolie hats, big grins, and slanted eyes) with slogans like “Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White” and “Wok-N-Bowl—Let the Good Times Roll—Chinese Food & Bowling.” The clothing chain then professed great surprise when Asian-American activists cried foul; A&F’s pr flack Hampton Carney told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We personally thought Asians would love this t-shirt.... We are truly and deeply sorry we’ve offended people.” As a result of continued protests, the shirts were eventually pulled from stores (and quickly became hot commodities on Ebay).
Last fall, at a reading for Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, a 50-ish audience member questioned the thirtysomething authors’ ever-so-casual usage of the word “ladies.” To this woman (who turned out to be tireless second-wave activist Laura X, creator of the Women’s History Research Center), the blithe use of “ladies” ran counter to everything she and her generation of feminists had fought for—and against.
But to the authors, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, and their peers, the lady words can spill forth with ironic glee.
In the early 1990s, vampire mythology, horror revival, teen angst, and kick-ass grrlness congealed in a new figure in the pop culture pantheon of the paranormal: the vampire slayer. Not just any vampire hunter, mind you, but Buffy, the Valley-dwelling teenage slayer.
Lisa already gave a good rundown of what makes WAM so fab. This was only my second WAM, and I was blown away by how much it's grown since I last attended. As compelling as the lectures and panel sessions may be, for me WAM is all about the networking, the mutual-admiration-society atmosphere, and the re-energizing effect of being around so many sharp, funny, and impassioned women.
I've got two weeks to rethink my babyproofing strategy of relegating the TV to the closet, because the new season of Battlestar Galactica starts up on April 4. Even if, like me, you aren't much of a sci-fi fan, BSG is worth watching for its complex storylines, shades-of-gray take on morality, and especially for its unspoken feminist agenda in which gender is largely irrelevant.
Apart from a brief fascination with Go Fug Yourself and the de rigeuer doctor's office perusal of People, I'm just not that compelled by celeb gossip, whether it's online or in print. Sometime in the last year, though, someone sent me a link to the Celebrity Baby Blog, which is like an entire blogful of Us Weekly's "Just Like Us!" section with content limited solely to celebrity reproduction and offspring.
I finally got around to seeing The Business of Being Born, which means I got very intimate with Ricki Lake and her female powers. Lake not only produced this documentary about the ever-increasing medicalization of birth in the U.S. but also included up-close-and-personal footage of the birth of her second son, at home, in the bathtub, attended by a midwife.
I feel sheepish asking for reader participation when my own contributions to this neglected blog have been so pathetic. I do hereby swear to post every day for the next week if you all help me out here, okay?
I'm looking for references to abortion or unplanned pregnancy on tv shows or in films over the past year or so. Knocked Up, Waitress, and Juno are, of course, already on the list. What else should be there?
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