Flashback to Feisty Females in Film: Anne of Green Gables

Feisty Female: Plain, old, unromantic Anne — with an e– Shirley. (But couldn’t you just call her Cordelia?)

Year we got to know her:  1986 (1985 if you’re Canadian)

Best known for: Her quick temper, red hair, dramatic elocution, fierce intelligence, and loyalty to her friends and family

Why she deserves a second look:

Super Bowl Sunday is Here At Last

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Super Bowl 44 is today and I am so ready to veg out with giant bowls of food and barrels of beer and cheer on the Saints (even if they did defeat my beloved Vikings).

Please do yourself a favor and watch this ad from Planned Parenthood whenever the Tim Tebow ad from Focus on the Family is played. Compare the two and ask yourself which one is really about trusting women and the reproductive choices they make. (I sincerely hope the FoF ad is as respectful as it claims it will be.)

I personally LOVE this ad. And I wish Planned Parenthood had enough cash lying around to actually buy the airtime to play it during the Super Bowl. It warms my heart to see two male athletes talking openly about their desire for reproductive freedom and respect for all women. (Another reason I’m rooting for the Saints today? Scott Fujita.)

There has been a lot of back-and-forth about the Tebow ad controversy. I think everything that needed to be said, has been said, so I’ll share with you what I think is the best argument I’ve read. It comes from Jill over at Feministe who writes:

Woman of the Week: Rachel McAdams

WOW: Rachel McAdams
Why Now?: Because I went to a showing of Sherlock Holmes on New Year’s Day and was scandalized to hear one of my companions describe Rachel McAdams as “the poor man’s Katie Holmes.” WHAT!?

“Woman”: I’m sorry. I can’t. Don’t hate me.

I tried.
I really tried to read our next book Woman: An Intimate Geography– but just TRY and read this sentence with a straight face:

“Even during pregnancy, the event that perhaps epitomizes the notion of woman as a subterranean sorceress, the mother is often not in tune with her great endarkened magic.” (xv)

Could you?

Sacred Hearts

It’s that time again! Time to discuss our book of the month: Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts. In case you missed it, check out the book trailer to get an idea of what you’re missing.

Let’s hop to it!

I loved the way the book opened. The first chapter of Book 1 was an excellent introduction to the story and its setting: picturesque and detailed, but not overwrought. It reminded me of the opening sequence in a film, zooming in and out of all the various characters and story lines that would be introduced and fleshed out.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but found it to be slightly dull.  I’m not sure if it’s my modern mentality that strikes a sharp contrast to the slower pace of convent life?  Or is it my aversion to religious “order”/s of all kinds?  I have this strange obsession with Catholic nuns (my sister and I used to play Nuns, should I blame The Sound of Music?)– I’m fascinated by the details of their daily lives and routines, but shudder to think that I’d ever have a life quite so prescribed.  (Devil’s advocate: my life is almost as rigid as the Convent schedule.  Now: get up, go to work, work, come home, eat, sleep; Then: Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, Compline, Matins.  They just get cooler names for their schedules.)

Film Whips It Good

This is our third guest blog from Revolution, although now she’s better known as K-Y La Jelly. (Check out 1 and 2)

Whip It was not only a directorial debut for Drew Barrymore, it was a debut of women’s roller derby resurgence that began merely at the turn of this millennium.  Hollywood’s spotlighting of lesser known athletics has led to their subsequent national and international growth before.  Documentary Planet B-boy attributes the international exposure to breakdancing simply after 1983 Flashdance’s introductory clip of kids dancing in the streets.  About’s skateboard guide, Steve Cave, lists the 1989 release of Gleaming the Cube, a movie that first featured Tony Hawk among other future professionals, as a major event that boosted skateboarding popularity.  Has the passion of Barrymore’s pet project impacted roller derby in the same way?

Despite the novelty of roller derby in Hollywood, Whip It’s financial and artistic grade achieved a big fat mediocre.  Box Office Mojo ranks Whip It #6 behind Zombieland (#1) and Toy Story I & II (#2) according to gross profits made that opening weekend.  Kyle Buchanan gives a more historical perspective on the film’s monetary losses in “A Dispiriting List of Girl-Targeted Movies that Opened Better than Whip It” on movieline.com.  To summarize, the list includes several movies that star Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, and dramatize the following topics:  boyfriends, princesses/drama queens, animals (horses and mermaids), and gymnastics (not to belittle the athleticism of this sport).  Film critics from New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today grant Whip It one thumb up for an eccentric cast and one thumb down for a predictable plot.

A quick read through roller derby team websites and blogs, however, show a very different story.  Ivanna S. Pankin, founder of Las Vegas’ Neanderdolls and owner of the online derby store Sin City Skates, states that even if the movie had sucked it is a free marketing tool that educates people about the sport’s existence.  For the past year she has prepped her business to respond to sales booms after the film’s release.  Sojourney Beaver, Las Vegas’ general league manager and new recruits coach, says that for every person who asks, “There’s derby in Las Vegas?” another person asks “What’s roller derby?”  After Whip It’s release, Beaver found 22 more women at the next beginner’s practice, about four times the normal 1-5 newbies who show up at the start of the season.  Although most of these new recruits denied the film had anything to do with their choice to start derby, a few admitted they had no clue a derby team existed in Las Vegas until they saw flyers posted at theaters.  Similarly, LV member Bootsi Call quotes 380 tickets sold at the following bout compared with the average 100-200 fans.

Flashback to Feisty Females in Film: Ocean Girl

Feisty Female: Neri aka Ocean Girl

Year We Got to Know Her: 1994

Best Known For: Super strength, telepathic connection to humpback whales, superhuman lung capacity mistaken for underwater breathing capabilities, and **spoiler** being an alien charged with saving Earth’s oceans (shades of Star Trek IV…)

Why She Deserves a Second Look:

Love to Lady Gaga

Okay. So.  I’ve got to admit something. I kind of like Lady Gaga. And by like I mean I frantically read all of her interviews. Big deal, you may say, lots of people like her. But rewind to last spring and I was filled with spiky distate for this lady. I hated “Just Dance” (still do) as it played 20 times a day on the radio (which my coworkers play 24/7 without my control) but that’s all I knew about her. The song was vapid and seemingly manufactured crap just like the image she appeared to be such a puppet slave to. And I’m kind of a music bitch and so I judged.

But then the reverse of what usually happens happened–sometimes I like a song, then hear an interview or hear a band live, realize they’re dumb or untalented and then dislike them. But with Gaga it was the opposite. I hated her songs on the radio, but began to love her after reading her interviews, learning more about her background, and hearing her play live. I fell for her.

In a sea of Taylor Swift and American Idol I think we need Gaga. So here’s why you should love her too. Join us!

The Girls Who Went Away: Discuss!

It’s taken me far too long to compose my thoughts about this book. Mayhem has been ever-so-patient and for this I thank her. I apologize, dear readers, I do.

The Girls Who Went Away
by Ann Fessler

This book has been on BTW’s potential-read list for quite some time (since November 23, 2008, in case you were wondering) but for some reason it kept getting passed over for something or other. This cycle we were having trouble deciding what to read so we finally thought “Why not?” And I am so glad we did.

As you know, reproductive freedom is extremely high on our inalienable human rights list and that sex education in this country needs to move from abstinence-only “education” to comprehensive education. With that mindset, The Girls Who Went Away provided a depth and nuance to my understanding of these issues, supporting and furthering their veracity and necessity in my mind. Jennifer Baumgardner, in reviewing this book for Bitch, explained: “I had always been so drawn to reproductive freedom and justice as a catalyzing issue—but had never understood or really thought about the adoption piece.” I, too, had always thought of adoption as this thrilling and positive experience for all parties involved– The Girls Who Went Away exposed me to multitudes of women for whom this was certainly not the case and forced me to confront this reality. Adoption isn’t such an open and shut case for me anymore. This book was illuminating, heartbreaking, inspiring, enraging, and brilliant in its simplicity and clarity of purpose. E v e r y o n e should read this book. Everyone.

Mayhem: speaking of heartbreaking, have you started “the girls who went away” yet? i’m halfway through and i LOVE It. each new chapter breaks my heart a bit more.
me: yes. and yes. now why couldn’t BOS have been written as well as this one?
Mayhem: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!  BOS would’ve been so much better if it had been structured like the girls who went away. this book has everything i wish BOS would’ve had.

Flashback to Feisty Females in Film: A League of Their Own

Feisty Females: sisters Kit Keller and Dottie Hinson

Year we got to know them: 1992

Best known for: killer side-splits catcher skills, “I like the high ones,” and knockin’ the ball out of the park as part of the Rockford Peaches in A League of Their Own, based on the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League which ran from 1943 to 1954.

Why they deserve a second look: