But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for the ‘Feminism’ Category

A Troll on an Elevator Is Still a Troll

Once upon a time, on a little Celtic island, far, far away, a lovely princess was cornered in an elevator by a drooling troll. The troll propositioned her for sex, and the princess turned him down and fled the elevator as soon as she was able.  A while later, she posted a vlog where she suggested, to trolls everywhere, that cornering princesses in elevators, isn’t going to lead to a Happily Ever After, or even a Happily for Ten Minutes Naked.

And trolls everywhere emerged from under their bridges, outraged–OUTRAGED–by her cruel admonishment. Never mind that it wasn’t “cruel.” The trolls were furious, and couldn’t believe that anyone would impede their right to be creepy. (Apparently the right to be creepy is inextricably entwined with the pursuit of happiness in the Troll Bill of Rights.)

Shorter version: An army of creepy assholes have their man panties in a knot because an uppity woman suggested that they not act like creepy assholes.

What struck me about this debate is that (more…)

Deconstructing Stupid

Ah.  Just another day on the Internet.  Where I learn, once again, that my husband must be gay*, because the person that he married can’t possibly be a woman. (*Not, as they say on Seinfeld, that there’s anything wrong with that.)

For your consideration, I bring you this, proof of my defective girl status:

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

This charming little bit of misogyny and sexism, sadly, was scribed by a woman. The target of her ire, the HBO adaptation of G.R.R. Martin’s absolutely fabulous, A Game of Thrones.

Look, Cupcake, I get it. You don’t like the show. Fine. As someone who (more…)

Shrek Forever After

Shrek Forever After. A lesson in how a franchise that started out well, can be undone by the forces of bland conformity.

The Shrek movies, all four now, follow the misadventures of an ogre (Mike Meyers) who meets and falls in love with a beautiful princess, Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Who, thanks to a curse, is also an ogre. It begins as a delightful spoof of the usual, “Oh, so pretty, little forest animals love her,” princess meets her true love, fairy tale.

And then, by Shrek Forever After, the little ogres come along. And there goes Fiona’s personality, devoured by the thing called Mommy.

This is where somebody, invariably (because this is the Internet) will get their knickers in a twist. Because I’m defaming motherhood and apple pie. (Well, okay, yes to the latter. Strawberry rhubarb is a superior pie.)

I’m not dissing parenthood. I am taking issue with (more…)