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.)

What else?

• There was a bibliography!  Mayhem would be proud.
• The book’s setting, the convent Santa Caterina, is not a real place, but was based in reality.  In this clip, Sarah Dunant describes visiting the convent and gleaning several pieces of inspiration from the building and its surrounding environment.    (halfway through, there is an image that is the inside cover of the book)
• I was impressed by the somewhat subversive nature of the narrative.  At first I was annoyed with the perceived religiousity stuffed down my throat; afraid this was going to be some religious tome trying to subtly convert me (Left Behind anyone?)– yet happily discovered the author appears to have a well-rounded viewpoint that contains a heavy dose of skepticism surrounding miracles and saints and the like that I do.

Let’s talk about men for a second.  In this book they were rather faceless.  And wordless.  [**Spoiler Alert**] When you discover that the Serafina’s lover has been paid off to leave Serafina behind in the convent, I began to wonder about the author’s own life and if she has some reason to hate men.  Not just because of this book, but because her oeuvre was beginning to display a pattern. You may remember that in The Birth of Venus, Alessandra chooses the convent over life with the artist and her child.  Does Dunant have some aversion to “true love” narratives and love stories’ propensity for saccharine happy endings?  But then– Serafina and her long-lost lover ended up together. And I was terribly disappointed. This struck me as odd, because through it all, I was rooting for Serafina’s escape and their fairy tale ending together. Thinking on it now, however, what I truly wanted was for Serafina to find her place in the convent. I wanted her to find a fulfilling role to play, like Zuana, and her own happiness without its dependence on a man. (And this is why people tell me I hated the 4th Twilight book “Oh, that’s because you’re not a die-hard romantic.” No shit, people. Reality! Cynicism! That’s my bread and butter.)

To close, I’ll leave you with a few more youtube videos I stumbled upon.
Here, Sarah Dunant talks about the women of Sacred Hearts. She explains that if they weren’t married, ie owned by someone, a woman then became owned by God.  At this point in history, everyone believed in God– there was no word for atheism– but some may have believed more than others. (This explains the difference between Umiliana and Zuana)

This video looks at Serafina: Dunant thought the cloisters were synonymous with silence and reverence, so why not begin the book with screams– the screams of a young girl who did not want to be there. 

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.

Luckily, Ivanna says, Whip It didn’t suck because it was written by roller derby skater, Shauna Cross, who shows the reality of skating culture in the film that members and fans love most.  As LV member Shawna the Dead puts it:

“Oh fuck.  2 things.  The camaraderie and the challenge…it [the challenge] is ever-evolving.  There’s always something new to learn and ways to improve your game…  It’s pretty amazing that we have an almost global alliance of women who kick each other’s asses, then hang out talking about how fun it was.  I love that about derby.  It’s a global sisterhood.  Or at least it will be.”

That’s the face of it, but roller derby skaters often share a life-changing story like the characters of Ellen Page and Juliette Lewis experienced in Whip It.  Take Shawna the Dead, the first and only, meaning one, member of LV Neanderdolls.  A mutual friend introduced her to Ivanna S. Pankin and Trish the Dish, the coaches of a memberless derby team.  The coaches had played with Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) and finding no team in Las Vegas, they started one in 2005.  Shawna felt awkward having undivided attention while she fell and sputtered over the rink, but each practice she returned out of guilt as the sole member and from the coaches’ strong encouragement.  At this time Shawna felt her “life was a mess” with serious involvement with drugs.  The team grew until October, 2009 when it beat AZRD in its first bout by 10 points.  Neanderdolls soon developed into a top-ten nationally-ranked travel team.  Because of this crucial experience Shawna cannot emphasize enough her gratitude to the coaches for turning her life around.

Beaver also started when Neanderdolls was a travel-only team.  The way she describes her personality before roller derby is similar to Alia Shawkat’s character in Whip It.  She never played sports in high school or college, considering herself rather bookish, but after moving to Las Vegas, she found out about the team at a bar.  She is still surprised that after a year of watching bouts she talked herself into attending practice, which just like the film showed, involved painful lessons.  As the sport helped her become more assertive, she stepped into the team’s current leadership roles and is proud to call herself a “weiner” to this day.

As a recruit-in-training for Las Vegas’ 2009 teams, The Notorious V.I.Ps and Tommy Gun Terrors, I hear more stories.  Roller derby really is a mix of professional women including waitresses, marketers, engineers, architects, artists, technicians, and therapists ranging in age from 20 to 50.  They basically run a small business, each member contributing her skills at least 4 hours per month to a committee, if not three.  A board of directors runs the committees and carries out financial decisions.  Despite the bruises and the broken bones, some have quit smoking, some have started exercising for the first time in many years, and they share tips on healthy eating, stretching, and strength conditioning.  And to show how serious they are, at their bouts they intimidate each other with tutus, skirts, capes, long socks, and fish nets.  Oh, and hips, hits, and fists.

Whip It may already be off Hollywood’s radar, but for roller derby participants and fans, it is sure to become a cult following.

More than 80 teams have officially joined the standardized national Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).  Former figure skaters, hockey players, and speed skaters are raising the athletic bar, but anyone can join after passing a skill’s test.  Google roller derby in your city to find teams.  If a team does not exist, visit WFTDA.com to learn how to start your own and find official rules.  Roller Derby can help you “be your own hero”.

[image via Wired]
[image via Sin City Rollergirls]

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:

Ocean Girl, an Australian import, was one of the few shows allowed in my household as a child and I loved it. I became borderline obsessed with Neri, marine biology, underwater research laboratories, and deciphering whale song.  And she is probably the reason for my fascination with, and compulsive re-reading of, Island of the Blue Dolphins– whose cover image will be emblazoned in my memory forever– and Zia. Ocean Girl was introduced to American audiences by the Disney channel (reason #37 to not hate them forever) and has since been broadcast around the world, including Brazil, Vietnam, Portugal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands.

To the uninitiated, of which I’ve learned there are far too many, here’s a recap: two boys, Jason and Brett, move to the underwater research facility ORCA with their mother and, once there, discover a girl, Neri, in the middle of the ocean, by herself, with no ascertainable means for survival.  It becomes their imperative to find her– they inevitably win her trust and learn that she lives alone on an island and that her only friend is a humpback whale that she calls Charley and can somehow communicate with.  ORCA’s competing organization (which is of course evil) UBRI finds out about Neri and tries to capture her.  Throw in a dash of long-lost family members (a sister living in a research facility after being found by an aboriginal farmer, a dead father who communicates with her from beyond the grave a la Jor-El), abduction narratives (herself, her sister, the whale), a submerged spacecraft (and its implied home world), and a clear goal (completing her father’s mission to revitalize Earth’s oceans) and you get the basic picture.

Watching clips, like the one below, make me simultaneously nostalgic and queasy: a sort of “This show was awesome” coupled with “Dear God this is the cheesiest can of crap I’ve ever seen“. (And it made me remember the awkward costumes and “futuristic” hairdos)

I really wanted to rent a couple of discs from Netflix to watch today to see how it would compare to the memory I have of it, but, shocker of all shockers, they don’t have a single season! And I can’t find any episodes to watch online– mostly antiquated fansites, episode guides, or fanvids and clips like the one above.  Powers That Be: you’re on notice.  Ocean Girl was fascinating and empowering. It proved that survival narratives weren’t just for the boys, and that science fiction, all too often the boy’s domain as well, can be accessible and exciting for young girls. Neri was pretty much the shit– instilling in young girls everywhere a belief in animal rights, environmental responsibility, and girl power. What’s not to love?

JJ Abrams, Joss Whedon: do I hear “reboot”?

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!

First of all, I give her mega props because she did pop music like rock musicians do rock music: she worked her way up, playing small bars throughout the Lower East Side, going from gig to gig: more New York Dolls than Britney Spears. Instead of schmoozing her way to a record contract, she put in the time and effort by writing and performing her own music from dive bar to dive bar with just a keyboard and a fog machine. On entering pop music, Lady Gaga once said that it seemed more like a challenge–no one was doing pop music. Everyone thought pop music was easy and vapid and Lady Gaga wanted to prove them wrong, that pop music could be not only entertaining but innovative and intelligent. She earned her stripes in a grassroots music way, and I applaud that.

Second, she has a fierce loyalty to the LGBT community. She made her way up through the burlesque scene and she loves her gays. In one of her first mainstream tv interviews on Ellen she said she looked up to Ellen because she’s such an inspiration for the gay community. Could you ever see Rhianna saying that? Lady Gaga recently marched and spoke at the National Equality March in D.C. and said to a crowd of over 500,000 that her attendance that day was “the single most important moment of [her] career.” Sure there’s been lots of female pop singers who’ve been gay icons (Cher, Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli) but I can’t imagine them at a rally like this, not even after 30+ years of success let alone right at the beginning of their career. In her speech she said “as a woman in pop music, as a woman with the most beautiful gay fans in the world, to do my part I refuse to accept any misogynistic and homophobic behavior in music, lyrics, or actions in the music industry.” Love. It.

Third, she’s actually a musician. Like I said, I hated her songs on the radio–the manufactured studio crap that makes pop music so loathsome in my mind. But strip all that production away and that’s when I started to actually like her–the lady can sing and play the piano like a pro. She takes a mic and a keyboard and goes at it solo to play live on tv, on radio shows, on any stage big or small…can you imagine Beyonce ever doing that?

But yes, I know the fashion thing turns a lot of people off. She takes her fashion…well…a titch seriously; she’s in the magazines more for her wacky fashion choices than for her music. And yeah, people think she’s crazy for that. But what about Kiss and the facepaint? Or Bowie–he was a freaking clown for Ashes to Ashes and yet everyone loves him. In an interview she once said that she doesn’t dress to be crazy but to challenge people’s ideas of what is attractive: “I think I’m changing what people think is sexy.”

Finally, if you need only one reason to love her it’s this– she’s fierce. Case in point: her recent SNL performance:

The third-wave postmodern feminist movement needs an icon like Lady Gaga, so take another look at the Lady.

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.

Which brings me to my first point: the structure of this book. I’ve spoken to some readers who found the structure to be somewhat monotonous (chapter, story, story, chapter, story, story, etc.); however, as you can see, Mayhem and I loved it. Fessler compellingly made her case in each chapter and then reinforced each point through personal stories that supported her claims without losing or obscuring the voices of the women. She let the women speak for themselves and it was so refreshing after the resounding disappointment that was Band of Sisters!

“’There’s a loving family out there,’ and I was thinking, ‘Well, how come I can’t be a loving mother?’” (Cathy II, 118)

“Why didn’t they help me keep him, rather than help me give him away?” (Jeanette, 125)

Mayhem: i’ve been reading “the girls who went away”
and holy crap that is the saddest mf-ing book i’ve ever read
me: great. i’m about to start it this week.
Mayhem: i want to hand it to ever man in america and say see? you still think women have been treated equally? do you even know that these experiences existed?

That was a common emotion for me while I read this book: righteous indignation. And anger. At myself for being so completely ignorant of these women’s stories and struggles, and at our society at large for completely brushing them under the rug. I found myself realizing that I’d been naive and ignorant about this: I did think that women who surrendered children didn’t want their kids and that adoption was the best option for everyone, but over and over the women trumpeted the opposite: “It was a baby unwanted by society, not by mom.” (Glory, 11)

On top of that, it was even more frustrating to read about the lack of consequences for the fathers: “Meanwhile, the young men who had fathered these children largely escaped social condemnation. They were not expelled from school, and they were generally not treated with scorn, not stigmatized, and not considered a disgrace to their families… Their role in the pregnancy wasn’t publicly visible, thus they were not publicly condemned.” (74)

“I remember thinking I wished it was a boy, because boys can’t have children. I thought, ‘I gave birth to a little girl who’s going to have to go through this, that poor little thing.’ I had always thought boys had it better than women. All my life, you know? And that whole experience made me feel even more so–that it’s the girls who get punished, the girls who suffer through all of this stuff, and the girls who can’t talk about it.” (Dorothy II, 19)

A few of the stories were particularly heart-wrenching when you realized that their situations could have easily been avoided if only they’d had the appropriate education and tools to make informed decisions:

“I felt safe enough, as we do when we’re feeling close, to ask her [my mom] this question: ‘How do they get rid of the mark when they take the baby out?’ I’d seen people in bathing suits and I could never tell if they’d had children. She stood there, three feet from me, with a look of horror on her face and said, ‘My God, Nancy, that baby comes out the same way it went in.’ I said, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ She said, ‘No.’ I mean, it’s borderline child abuse not to share this kind of information… I had no idea. I mean, we never had pets. I didn’t live on a farm. We had a very puritanical, Beaver Cleaver lifestyle and it just wasn’t anything that was ever discussed. I mean, as amazing as it sounds, I was 16 and pregnant and I did not know how babies were born. It’s pathetic, but it’s true.” (Nancy, 49)

“My mother became pregnant when I was 9 or 10 years old. No one told me until she brought the baby home. The first time I heard the word pregnant was when I was in nursing school.” (Jeanette, 121)

On the Reproductive Rights Timeline, 1972 is a banner year. It was the year that birth control became legally accessible to all women in the United States. (43) And it was also the year that, with Title IX, it became illegal for schools who received federal funding to expel a pregnant girl or teenage mother. (72) Before 1972 it was common for schools to immediately require pregnant girls to “withdraw immediately”– you know, that old ‘one bad apple’ line of thinking:

“The faculty decided that I was becoming disruptive to the schooling process and a bad example. It was determined that I would leave school. ‘I was not welcome there’ was what I was told.” (Pam, 167)

Many women described the power of the language that was used by the people around them (social workers, hospital employees, family members) who were all trying to convince them that surrendering was the only option, the lack of understanding, and the power of just a few words of support:

“It wasn’t my baby, it was always the baby.” (Nancy I, 48)

“They were always real to us. This baby was going to them and they deserved it… You should be happy… You should be grateful.” (Karen I, 162)

“Not one single person said, ‘I know how you feel. If I were in your spot I would have had a hard time too.’ Every single person judged me.” (Dorothy II, 23)

“’She can see him whenever she wants. She’s that baby’s mother.’ That nurse didn’t give me enough self-confidence to keep my child, but with those two sentences she gave me the foundation on which to rebuild my sense of self. She probably didn’t remember me after that shift, but she became one of the most important women in my life. Just by her compassion and two sentences, you know?” (Margaret, 192)

Many women, after surrendering, were forced to suffer in silence– unable to discuss their experiences or publicly mourn their loss. Breaking that silence was oftentimes difficult, but most found peace when they finally confronted and admitted their secret to their loved ones:

“’What are my boys going to think about me? They’re going to think I’m a slut and a whore and everything.’ I’d been called that. I was just weeping openly; it was all I could do to tell them. After I told them, my oldest grabbed the youngest and he was just jumping up and down and he said, ‘We’ve got a sister! We’ve got a sister!’ And the youngest said, ‘What’s a sister?’ And the middle one said, ‘It’s like a brother, only it’s a girl!’” (Pollie, 255)

Mayhem: i’m returning “the girls who went away” to the library today and i really don’t want to. i’m going to have to buy myself a copy, it was such a great book.
me: i loved it.
i think i may turn into that guy who emailed her in the end describing how many copies he purchased for himself, his sisters, his nephews, etc.
Mayhem: i TOTALLY contemplated emailing her and singing my praises. i discussed it during training and told everyone to read it.

You should buy this book, read it, and then pass it on to everyone you know.
I didn’t do it justice, but believe me, it is that good.

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:Despite now being most well-known for the great “There’s no crying in baseball!” quip, you simply cannot find a more motivational sports-themed female empowering film quite like A League of Their Own (although I hear Whip It is quite good.) With memorable supporting cast members such as Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna (“Hi, my name’s Mae, and that’s more than a name, that’s an attitude”) to Tom Hanks (“By the way, I loved you in the Wizard of Oz”) and of course my favorite character, Ernie Capadino played by Jon Lovitz (“Hey cowgirls, see the grass? Don’t eat it.”)

But the film belongs in the hands of Kit and Dottie and their sibling rivalry while treading the tempestuous waters of being members of the first women’s professional  baseball league in America. Married Dottie is the natural, pretty and popular athlete who isn’t too concerned with athletic success and outshines underdog kid-sister Kit whose heart is truly in the game. Dottie sees her place as waiting at home for her husband in the war, while Kit wants something more out of life, she wants to be great.

This film is littered with gems of the time when females playing baseball were seen as a threat to the general order of things. From making the women go to charm school (“Every one of you will be a lady”) to marketing them as anything but masculine (”Legging out a triple is no reason to let your nose get shiny”) it’s a reminder of the patronizing way these athletes were treated.

I saw this film when I was in elementary school and it became a line-by-line favorite that I still watch every time I see it on TBS. The message of friendship and sisterhood not only in a male-dominated sport but in the male-dominated 1940s is one of courage and strength. Based on the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a rarely discussed bit of sports history, this film is a real girl-power gem that’s a must-add to your Netflix queue whether you’ve never seen it or you want to relive these feisty feminist females.

WOW: Juliette Lewis

Why Now?: I finally saw Whip It (which I recommended last week in our FFFF) and I think her performance was especially noteworthy; to me, she’s gotten the least buzz, but was one of the biggest highlights. She portrayed Iron Maven, the “bad guy,” with dignity, class, and a kick-ass attitude that was fresh and accessible–and it fully renewed my love for Ms. Lewis.
That– and she was on Ellen this week, gushing about her childhood crush on Clint Eastwood.

Why Should You Care?:
Juliette Lewis is one of those actors that ostensibly does her own thing and makes it work. She’s not one of the red carpet hustlers you see at every event for no reason and she seems to have a wonderfully discerning eye for the roles that she will go for and eventually accept. She is a marvelous example of a working actress, having been in over 50 films and television shows, and has been recognized for her work earning an Emmy nomination and an Academy Award nomination.
AND she’s a musician. Her third album just dropped: Juliette Lewis: Terra Incognita. Where does she find the time?

How to Fall in Love With Her:

Obligatory Twitter-stalk.

Rent one of her classic films: Natural Born Killers, The Other Sister, Cape Fear, you decide.

GO SEE WHIP IT.

Check out her music.

The time has come–a review of Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited by Molly Haskell!

I read Gone With the Wind in my middle school English class because it was, you know, 1000 pages long and so I got more bang for my buck. But I ended up enthralled and in a sobbing rage in my mother’s bedroom after I read the dreaded “frankly, my dear” on those last few pages. Naturally, I went on to watch the four hour film until I had it memorized and worshipped Scarlett as my new heroine. So the fangirl inside of me was excited to revisit Scarlett and crew from Haskell’s feminist lens.

Scarlett challenges you to read on…
(you have no idea how long I’ve waited for an excuse to use that gif…)

Never was there a heroine so admirable, so despicable, and above all so beyond the reach of the double standard that traditionally closes in on women in Hollywood films and allows them so little moral and behavioral leeway. She is eerily timely, channeling the spirit of an age [...] This is the awesomely shrewd businesswoman who subverts the the ethics and threatens the masculinity of the dear white honorable, paternalistic Southern gentleman. [...] Scarlett embodies the secret masculinization of the outwardly feminine, the uninhibited will to act of every tomboy adolescent, here justified by the rule-bending crisis of war.

Scarlett was bitchin, let’s just get that statement out of the way. Yes she was self-centered and manipulative (and clearly on drugs because who in their right mind would choose Ashley when the could have Rhett I simply don’t know.) But she defied gender norms, knew what she wanted and how to get it, and she was capable and cunning and used the tools available to her at the time to achieve success. While many authors would have made timid polite Melanie the heroine, Margaret Mitchell placed strong-willed Scarlett at the forefront–a woman who defied strict gender roles and played by her own rules.

I know a lot of women who hate this book/film–they say it’s degrading and offensive to women, not to mention racist (and some friends simply cannot get over the shooting of the pony… give it up, Alissa.) I can understand how Gone With the Wind, a romance novel with a bodice-ripping cover, may polarize feminists. One of the greatest points that Haskell makes in the entire book is when discussing being part of a panel about women in film back in 1972:

Gloria Steinem, editor of the newly launched Ms. magazine, brought up Gone with the Wind, deploring the spectacle of Scarlett being squeezed into her corset to a seventeen-inch waist, that perfect illustration of female bondage, Southern style. I sprang to defend her as a fierce, courageous heroine, going her own way, a survivor, and so on. Both reactions were, in their own way, right. But this difference of perspective was also an early augur of the fault lines in feminism or perhaps a necessary split focus: between those predisposed to see and proclaim signs of the victimization of women in an enlightened world now progressing towards enlightenment and equality and those inclined to be heartened by the contradictions–the women in the past (both real and fictional) who’d held their own in a chauvinist culture, who’d subverted the norms and gained victories not always apparent through a literal reading of the plot.

This is an excellent point to make about this, and many, historical fiction novels–what we want from our postmodern feminist viewpoint is not what will happen, and to judge it as such will only lead to disappointment. During the Civil War  Scarlett could not and would not act with feminist agency as we see it now, but this does not mean we should dismiss what she did with the tools given to her at the time. Scarlett wouldn’t start a consciousness-raising committee in the parlor with Melly and Aunt Pittypat–but she could own her own lumber company and show the Reconstruction South that businesswomen were capable and successful.

That being said, on to critique Frankly, My Dear…

I had high hopes for this book; Molly Haskell is the author of the (ahem) seminal From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies which when published in the late 1980s blew the lid off feminist film theory up until then. And although I enjoyed the book, it was a slight let down. First off, I’m big on structure and if there was one I never found it–it seems haphazardly put together and a jumble of thoughts and narratives between dissecting the film producer David Selznick, the author Margaret Mitchell, and the actress Vivien Leigh. Without the structure I found myself bobbing along at times uncaring.

The biggest disappointment was that it…how do I say this…wasn’t hard core enough? It skimmed the surface of a lot of feminist theory I had hoped Haskell would delve into a bit more–she flirted with the precipice but never went over the edge. I would’ve liked a bit more in-depth analysis from a scholar I know is capable of providing it. I enjoyed reading it, but I wanted more.

Anyone else have opinions on Frankly, My Dear? If you haven’t read it, any thoughts on Gone With the Wind as a film or novel, or Scarlett as a feminist pioneer?

Banned Books Week 2009

Now before you accuse me of going all “librarian” on you, keep in mind that your freedom to read is a feminist human rights issue; challenged books limit intellectual freedom for all and impinge upon our first amendment rights.

A few stats taken from the ALA website:

Over the past eight years, American libraries were faced with 3,736 challenges.

• 1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
• 1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”;
• 720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
• 458 challenges due to “violence”
• 269 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

One of the books most often challenged in the past year is And Tango Makes Three, a picture book about the two male penguins at the Central Park zoo who were given an egg to hatch after they were seen caring for an egg-sized rock.

In public libraries and schools across the country, parents argued for it to be taken out of the collection, citing that it was anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexual, challenged religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group. Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said “it’s very misleading and it’s a very disingenuous, inaccurate way to promote a political agenda to little kids.” Gay penguin parents = totally political.

Others to make the top ten list of most challenged books in 2008:

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, charged for homosexuality and unsuited to age group.

Bless Me, Ultima challenged for occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence.

And one of my favorites when I was younger, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, challenged for drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group.

Think it doesn’t happen in your neck of the woods? Check out this Google Map that pins all of the cities where books have been challenged from 2007-2009.

Classics such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Beloved, 1984, The Sound and the Fury, Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web were all banned or challenged books at one point in time.

So why should you care?

Because books that are challenged in an attempt to remove or restrict materials is not just a person expressing their views, but an attempt to remove materials from a library and restrict everyone’s access. This is a form of censorship. It is a first amendment right that the government may not restrict the expression of an idea simply because one finds it offensive. Thanks to librarians, teachers, publishers, and advocates throughout multiple communities, these books are able to remain on the shelves for any who want to read them.

So this week support intellectual freedom, read a banned book, attend an event, or just be thankful that there are people who stand up against challenged books, allowing greater access to all.

Feisty Female: Bliss Cavendar

Year We Get to Know Her: 2009

She’s Hyped For: Becoming empowered through roller derby

Why She Deserves to be Fandango-ed:
Maybe I’ve got roller derby on the brain– I’m headed to the DC Rollergirls season opener in a few short hours– but I’m completely psyched for the new movie Whip It that’s coming out Friday. I have recently joined the Team Barrymore camp, I don’t know why, but I just didn’t like her for the longest time. She’s since wholeheartedly won me over, even if she is dating my future husband Justin Long on and off, and I’m excited to see what she’s capable of doing behind the scenes.

The blogosphere has been thrumming with excitement and anticipation for this movie (especially from the ladies at BUST). So I’ll throw in my 2 cents and say: Agreed: this movie looks marvelous!

Here are the Top 5 reasons that you should go see Whip It this Friday when it comes out:

1.) It was written and directed by women! (Shauna Cross and Drew Barrymore respectively)

2.) The movie was a book first. And you know how we love our books around here. And it’s Banned Books week. I’m sure some nutjob somewhere tried to ban this book– so this can be your way of supporting books and authors (the author of the book also penned the screenplay).

3.) It’s about ROLLER DERBY. That should have had you at hello. If you didn’t know, roller derby is awesome and one of the few female-dominated sports out there.

4.) The cast is jam-packed with amazing female talent: Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore, obviously, but also: Marcia Gay Harden, Zoe Bell, Alia Shawkat, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, and Eve, to name a few.

5.) Watch the trailer: (doesn’t it look adorbs?)

I know I must’ve convinced you, so go fandango your tickets. And let us know what you thought!