Well, that was Anti-Climatic

I'm sick, and on Saturday night there's not much to choose from with TV. There was a remake of an old movie (I liked the original) on television, so I turned it on. (Sadly, its been years since it was released so my reaction is a bit late).

About halfway through, I found myself wondering WHAT THE FUCKITY FUCK HAVE THEY DONE TO THE STEPFORD WIVES?!!!

Full Spoilers for both versions of the movie below

Seriously, the first movie was fucking brilliant, subtle, and scary. I expected any remake to be bad because everyone already knows the twist, but I did not expect:

1) Joanna to be a REALITY TELEVISION EXECUTIVE. Dear gawd, in the 70s she was a normal sympathetic woman -- this movie starts with a show that details a marriage breaking up on her reality show (a show where the man and the woman get split up, spend wild weekends away from each other -- and the example shows a man who is faithful and a woman who leaves him).

2) Joanna's friend (played by Bette Midler) is a sloppy writer. Now, in the 70s she was a bit messy, but in this fucking movie she keeps the house like a disaster area. Another perfectly normal character from the 70s taken to an extreme.

3) The friend who'd been there the longest, the first to go. In this movie, that friend is a gay man who fits the gay yuppie stereotype to a tee. It really pissed me off that he got Stepford treatment and then put up for Senate, and nothing in the movie pointed out what a huge fucking injustice it was that the man getting redone was put up as a career guy and all of the women were remade to be housewives. Its like they consciously thought "Hey, gay men are too feminine, so let's have him redone to be really masculine and uptight" and just threw that in along with some joke about Republican candidates. It was flippant, and worthy of more examination than "that's the way it is."

4) The men in town were played up FUCKING SYMPATHETIC. What the HELL?! They're REPLACING THE WOMEN WITH ROBOTS and its somehow presented as OKAY?!!? They are cold-blooded bastards who care only about their own comfort. They are selfish as possible. They're a bunch of animals. These are fucking monsters and in the first movie they were played as the monsters they were.

5) THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HORROR MOVIE!!!!!! IT IS SUPPOSED TO SCARE THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF YOU!! They don't even try to be scary.

So anyway, I make it as far as the grocery scene that ends the first movie, and the damned thing goes on. There's a twist. Joanna's not a robot, her husband Walter is not evil and together they join forces to take out the evil male mad scientist -- Only, the mad scientist is not the mastermind.

The mad scientist is a robot (everyone else was dealing with implanted brainchips, but this guy was a full robot), created to be his wife's perfect man. Glenn Close is the mastermind.

I'm not sure how to digest this movie. I mean, I spent most of the movie getting extremely pissed off at the entire thing. The five points outlined above do a lot to dilute the power of that poetic justice at the end. Especially since, even though none of the women were physically hurt (though they were all career women who have essentially had their lives slip away from them as they were under Stepford brain-whammy), all the men got off extremely easy in the end. Basically the moviemakers made a "whipped husband" joke.

Also, I have trouble forgiving any movie that gets me that pissed off just to end with fucking insane Glenn Close. Can she even play sane? Has anyone ever seen her play sane?

I think it would have worked as a parody of the first movie, if it had been presented that way. It was presented as a remake, so I got myself worked up over a movie that, in the end, turned out to be nothing of substance.

Certainly not worth the trouble. Hollywood can't even be competently misogynistic anymore.

Batgirl

I think Marionette sums up the situation best:

But somewhere up at DC, whoever was responsible for this villainisation got overruled and Teen Titans #43 gives us an explanation that allows Cass to return to the good guys' team. It's a bad explanation, which doesn't begin to cover the changes that were made to her in Robin, and it's all about abuse and mind control, but I see a lot of fans happy to accept it because it gives them Cass back.

This in turn has prompted a reaction to happy feminist fans of Batgirl that can be summed up as "Oh, so it's okay to have a story of abuse towards women when it suits you, is it?" To which the answer is "No, but this bad thing fixed something that was worse. We do not cheer the bad fix, we cheer that the worse thing is gone."

Technically speaking, Cain's occupying a refrigerator either way -- tossed off her own book and grabbed for Robin's storyline. But the TT#43 storyline gives the option to thaw which is a relief more than anything.

And Lo, the Seventh Book was Published...

Found this prophecy about the looming July non-comics-related pop culture mega-event. (Via)

Poetry for Brigid

Today's Imbolc on the pagan calender, and I stumbled across a cross-blog poetry meme.

One of my own, but I'm not sure civilians will understand the reference.

Military Girl
Ben's mother at the door.
Surprise!

He crosses the room to let her in.
I stand up, straighten my hair, and absently
rub the toe of my shoe against the
back of my nylons.

Another Director Bites the Dust

Whedon's off the Wonder Woman project (Via):

You (hopefully) heard it here first: I'm no longer slated to make Wonder Woman. What? But how? My chest... so tight! Okay, stay calm and I'll explain as best I can. It's pretty complicated, so bear with me. I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated.

Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views.

The worst thing that can happen in this scenario is that the studio just keeps hammering out changes and the writer falls into a horrible limbo of development. These guys had the clarity and grace to skip that part. So I'm a free man.

On one hand we won't have to suffer through Whedon-made villains. I cringed when I heard he didn't want to use the ones she already has. Plus I was dying for the WWII connection to remain (I do hope the rumor that the new script has a WWII setting is true).

On the other hand, its back to Development Hell for one of my favorite franchises.

10th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

The 10th Edition is up at Adventures in Lame. Check it out!

Hosting is lined up for the 11th Edition, but if anyone is up for the 12th and beyond email me.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Pet Peeves

Okay, I'm not sure how this'll be recieved by the greater meming community as its probably not what they had in mind (but hey, you wanted to get to know bloggers better!), but I've had a hair trigger all week and this was all I could think of. (Yes, I picked the sweet little hearts code just because I'm ranting.)

Some of these will be political, US-centric, and contain profanity.

Thirteen Things about Ragnell the Foul Thirteen Things That Greatly Annoy Me 1) Being treated like I'm stupid. 2) Oversimplifying a complicated argument so that everyone gets classified in extremes, with one position being "good" and the other "evil." 3) Barney Fife jokes about the police. 4) People who argue the meaning of "freedom of religion" without ever having read the Consitution. 5) People who argue what ideals the United States was founded upon without ever having read the Declaration of Independance. 6) Micromanagement. 7) Using the phrase "politically correct" to complain about being asked not to be a dick. You are not being a rebel with racist and sexist jokes. You are being a dick. 8) Nationalists who claim to be Patriots. 9) Calling any character trait I display "masculine" "manly" or "male." I'm a woman, dammit. Everything I am and do is feminine. The problems are your narrow definitions. 10) Characterizing the entire military as conservative hawks. Just because they're volunteers doesn't mean they're disposable OR that they have a particular political philosophy. Some people need money, some people need training, and some people actually do love the Constitution and the freedoms outlined. 11) And while I'm at it, the "she killed, isn't she a villain now?" meme that pops up occasionally in the comics community (usually whenever a hero kills somebody.) In actual life, policemen and military members are taught that killing is possible while in training, and take the job fully knowledgable that its necessary in some scenarios. Preparing to accept that does not automatically mean a person doesn't respect life, or that they look forward to the option, or even that they'll bring themselves to do it when the time comes. That "killing automatically makes you a bad guy" argument basically argues that the policemen and veterans who've killed during their duty are bad guys and no "But superheroes are different because of x" argument has ever or will ever lessen that. 12) Aircrew. By the very nature of your job, if you fly in an airplane for a living and break the shit I or my counterpart works on, I hate you. Nothing personal. I just hate you. 13) Perky, rebellious, blonde teenaged girl superheroes. There were been too damned many of them at DC (Arrowette, Wonder Girl, Spoiler, Secret, Supergirl, Stargirl, Speedy -- you couldn't fit a redhead or a brunette in there?) and with a bad artist you couldn't tell them apart in civvies. We need a moratorium on creating new ones for at least a decade. Try someone who's not white instead. If she must be white for being a blood relative of another character, try a redhead or a brunette instead. Really, its like there's a factory for superheroes and someone left the setting on "Blonde" "Teenaged" "Female" "Perky" and "Rebellious." Even when later writers flesh them out, they all start out the freaking same. They all look the fucking same. It must be stopped! I demand diversity, if only to be able to follow the fucking story without wondering who the hell's talking! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Geoff Johns, I could never stay mad at you...

Teen Titans spoilers.

He's getting mixed reactions, but I have to say that between that and the Batgirl revelation in that issue my anger at the POW storyline in Green Lantern has disappeared.

Which is weird because I'm a huge Green Lantern fan that's only marginally interested in the Gotham characters.

Teen Titans Creative Team Change

Geoff Johns is leaving to make room for Adam Beechen.

I dropped Teen Titans a long time ago because I didn't like Johns' Wonder Girl, and even though Beechen is the DC Hit Man for Batgirl I thought I might give it a shot. Because Marz was the DC Hit Man for Hal Jordan, and I still ended up liking some of his non-editorially driven stuff. Emerald Knights and Final Night were my first Hal Jordan stories.

Why do I still care?

Lisa at Sequentially Speaking has some information about artist changes for DC books:

ART UPDATE FOR GREEN LANTERN #18 AND 19

Please note that GREEN LANTERN #18 (JAN070293) and 19 (FEB070275) will be illustrated by Daniel Acuña (UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS), with covers by regular series artists Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert.

Not that I was planning on buying it (well, okay, I was planning to buy it if, miraculously, issue #18 shipped with all of the fleshy parts of Star Saphire's costume colored in black, blue, purple or white) but I couldn't buy it even if I was buying it with Daniel Acuña on the art.

He's responsible for this.

Yeesh, I don't know why fauxtorealistic artists get work.

He'll ruin this for everyone, won't he?

Stephen Colbert just launched another attack on Wikipedia.

Upcoming Deadline: Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans 10

Reb at Adventures in Lame put out the call back on the 12th. Deadline is Tuesday. Get your posts together.

Deadline: January 30th
Contact: allreb[AT]gmail[DOT]com or submission form
Carnival Date: February 1st

In other news, the mainstream Carnival of Feminists has issue #30 up at the Feminist Pulse and issue #31 will be at Truly Outrageous on February 7th.

Now I just need an envelope.

Wrote another letter to DC, this time over this. Feel free to pinch your nose and read aloud Comic Book Guy-style:

Dear Mr. Didio,

I saw Eddie Berganza's guest column in DC Nation last week. I had a mixed reaction, as a female reader

On one hand, its nice that you know we exist. I've been reading since I was 12 and over that time I've gotten the distinct impression that comic book companies only think guys read.

And I am casually interested in Supergirl. I pick it up from time to time to see if I like what's going on, but I'm not a big Kelly or Churchill fan and with Super-books I read for the creative team. (And implying the Power Girl is a "bimbo" by creating a "mimbo" equivalent doesn't endear them to me.)

Now Green Lantern books I'll read even when the writer and artists are unknowns. I love Green Lantern. I have the T-Shirt. I have the toys. I have the 'piggy' bank. I WANT to buy the entire series from the 40s until now because I ADORE the concept.
But I've dropped Green Lantern 3 times over the last 13 years. Twice because Jade was being treated like crap, and once for costumes. I never thought I had a problem with cheesecakey costumes before (love Wonder woman, love Power Girl) but Ivan Reis' interpretation of Arisia made me cringe. The shirtless Star Sapphire on the cover of GL#18 made me drop the book in the middle of a storyline. It looked like porn.

While its heartening to see an actual superhero book looking for female readers, its hard to stomach the sentiment when another book makes it crystal clear through exploitive art that female readers are not welcome.

Look, at DC you have an AWESOME product concept-wise. Superheroes can and do appeal greatly to women and you have the icons. And its wonderful (hint, hint) that you have pleasing female readers in mind.

Just don't stop at the 'girl' books. I'd read everything you put out if I felt welcome to.

Its obvious that column was because Supergirl's sales are declining and they know that women are reading due to the Girl-Wonder.org letter campaign, but I don't think they realize how stuff like this and Minx sound when contrasted to the mind-boggling sexism of the Green Lantern #18 cover. So I thought I'd bring that to their attention.

Quote

From Thunder Blossom's livejournal:

So what's really making people feel iffy about our lazy janitor as a woman? I'd say it's simply a matter of what standards have been set already. Really, the problem is that we're just not used to having female characters that don't do what has been already set in our culture as female things to do. And it comes down to, why is the character a girl? People asking THAT, but not ever asking, why is this character a typical white guy AGAIN? And we're so used to seeing men as the stars, that when there's a woman, the rarity calls attention. Calls so much attention that I guess people get more wrapped up in the "why" of that instead of just trying to follow the story.

Another classroom example: In acting class, our instructor drew a big square on the board and asked us to make a character out of it. It was just an exercise in figuring out a character and motivations and goals and all that. Most that were made were male characters, all without any romantic histories or motivations, while the one female character did. I mean, there were some crazy and fanciful ideas for the male characters, but the one girl seemed quite limited to that girl stereotype.

What's happening here is... I guess people are asking the wrong questions. "Why should we have a female character? There has to be a purpose in our character choices! Oh, so logically something significant to this character story-wise would probably be a boyfriend or something."

When these attachments are taken out of a story and we simply have a character that happens to be a girl, it may throw some people off because they're just not used to it.

Interesting

Newsarama posted a teaser image that DC sent out. Careful, it might spoil some of 52 (though there's an argument that its meant to mislead going around).

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on four things in that picture.

Spoilerphobes, go away



1) Someone online is probably already making a big deal of that belt. Well, forget it. Not even Didio would bring Barry Allen back.



2) I'm happy to see Mary healed up and sitting around like she's mourning someone else (rather than being mourned).



3) Donna and Kyle. I thought I'd scream at the implication of seeing them together, but weirdly I'm getting comfortable with the idea. Don't get me wrong, I'll never be a Donna fan, but damned if she wasn't the strongest love interest Kyle ever ran across and she has proven staying power. Idiot writers can depower her, kill her, turn her to stone, erase her mind, turn her into a villain and she keeps coming back to what she was in her most popular incarnation. She's got a better chance of getting through a crossover than Kyle does.



4) This is adorable and I want a poster of it.

Raquel Ervin and Why I'm Pro-Choice

Today's the 34th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, so naturally I turned to my stack of Icon issues and dig out the appropriate story for the occasion -- Icon #7, which illustrates pretty well why I went from anti-choice to pro-choice over the last 5 years.

The first thing you need to know about Icon is that is is a very political book. Augustus Freeman IV is an alien who has been stranded on Earth for almost two hundred years. He's very old, very rich, and very conservative. Raquel Ervin is an idealistic teenaged girl with very progressive leanings who convinces Augustus to don a suit and use his powers to inspire and help people. She has a belt that gives her superpowers. Together they are Icon and Rocket, fighting crime and debating human nature across Dakota City.

Early on in the series, Raquel discovers that she's pregnant, and the father asks how she knows its his. Raquel doesn't react too well to that.



So yeah, help from him is out. The family already lives in the projects. Her grandmother all but tells her she won't help, its abortion or adoption. Raquel doesn't think a black baby will get adopted, so as Icon #7 (by Dwayne McDuffie, Erica Helene, and MD Bright), the "Very Special Issue About Abortion" opens, Raquel sees one option to save her ambitions.

Hoping for a mistake, Raquel takes a trip the clinic to get the diagnosis confirmed. After the Doctor tells her that yes, indeed, she is pregnant, she goes off the record. Because the government funds the clinic, its illegal to give Raquel the information she needs, but the Doctor tells her what type of procedure she needs, how long it will take, and that she needs to make the decision quickly for both her physical and her emotional health. this leads to the first revelation of the issue (all issues of Icon of drama and personal revelations that lead to social commentary monologues on Raquel's part).



After this, she decides (consciously) that an abortion is the smart thing to do so she goes to Augustus to borrow the money. Augustus, as mentioned before, is very old, very rich, and very conservative. She goes in expecting a denial and a sanctity of life lecture but here's where the writers throw a little twist her way. Augustus was married before.



Estelle and Augustus decide on an abortion, and fortunately they had enough money to afford a safe one, by 19th century standards. Augusus tells Raquel that he can't put himself in her position, or judge her based on her choice, but the money is a gift if she needs it.

Raquel does not react well to that.



This is when we find out what Raquel's really been searching for. Not money, not options, but someone to tell her what to do. Raquel's at a scary crossroads. She can have the baby and forever wonder what her life would have been like without having put her life on hold for a child, or she can have the abortion and forever wonder what her life would have been like with a little son or daughter. Its such an incredible decision, and both choices have a lot of pain associated with them. If she was denied the money, or the ability to get an abortion, she would be forced to keep the baby and responsibility for her decision would not be on her. She could always blame Augustus if she has to drop out of school. She wants to keep the baby, but she doesn't want to think that she gave up her dreams when she does.

This may also be when I start projecting onto Raquel. See, I've lived my life avoiding responsibility and deferring to other people for even little decisions. I put off college too long, I put off learning to drive until I was forced to, I put off buying a car until my situation become impossible, I put off moving off base and into an apartment until the USAF forced me out of the dorms. Every single step I've taken towards being an adult has been reluctant, and made at the very last moment. Because, at the least moment, its very easy to blame circumstances or other people if the choice you've made was the one you regret. This always made the pro-Choice movement scary, because whichever choice you make, you own it and its a unimaginably huge decision.

Raquel ended up keeping the baby, but she couldn't resign herself to having been forced to make the decision. She had to commit herself to working her butt off to making things work for her, and for the baby together, and if she fell on her face it would all be her fault.

I've gotten into arguments at work with pro-lifers who think that the pro-choice movement is irresponsible. For me, being pro-life and letting everyone else makes my decisions for me is the irresponsible path. Its the easiest path possible, that's why I was pro-life when I was a teenager.

As an adult, I can't be anything other than pro-choice, because adults make decisions. And adults don't make other's decisions for them.

And this issue captures my own view of it perfectly. At the end Raquel makes the choice to have the baby, but she and everyone around her are better off for having the options available that they do, and the right choice for Raquel is not the right choice for everyone and the stories of the Dr. Sidhani and Estelle Freeman illustrate that.

This is Actually Related to the Post I Was Writing

I'm trying to do a Blog for Choice Day post, but today I am easily distractable so I'm not sure how well it'll come out. I seem compelled to be flippant when I discuss Icon. I think its the overwhelming joy of having such a pro-Feminist superhero comic in existence, even if it is long since concluded.

In the meantime, please enjoy Raquel "The Rocket" Ervin punching some dude in the face.

We haven't done a caption game in a while.

Have fun, I even left a bit to get you started.


(Here's the original image, scanned out of The Best of the Spirit)

Gossiping Gods!

Guess what happened next.

Since I'm doing memes anyway..

(Found via Artemis and Racy Li)

Thirteen Books I Started Reading, But Haven't Finished 1) Triplanetary 2) Rituals of the Dark Moon 3) Women in the Line of Fire 4) Superconscious Meditation 5) Any Four Women Can Rob the Bank of Italy 6) War of the Worlds 7) Survival 8) Art is a Way of Knowing 9) The Prince 10) The Universe Next Door 11) The Second Sex 12) Witchcraft for Tomorrow 13) To Write Like a Woman (Just started 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 13. I've given up completely on 8, 9, and 10.) Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Racy Li 2. Caylynn 3. KT Cat 4. Jenny Ryan 5. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants