Monday, September 25, 2006

Who needs real life when it can be filtered through film?



In 1932, Huey Long said "Fascism will come to America, but likely under another name, perhaps anti-fascism."

I'm awaiting the release of "All the King's Men" a remake of the 1949 film of the same name, which was based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. At first I thought it was a remake of the classic 1976 film"All the President's Men" (Hoffman and Redford), but Tessa pointed out that THAT film title was a nod to the prior film/novel about political corruption and intrigue.

Ah the lineage... in an case, the character of Willie Stark in "All the King's Men" is based on Huey Long.... I await Sean Penn's impassioned portrayal.
Now, I wonder if he traces his lineage to Robert Penn Warren...


Also awaiting, popcorn and junior mints at the ready:
~Sophia Coppola's Marie Antionette;

~The Helen Mirren vehicle "The Queen" about how the Queen dealt with Diana's death;

~Dito Montiel's autobiographical "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" starring Hollywood's best and much-maligned actor Robert Downey Jr. (as well as the break-dancing hooligan from "Step Up" -say what?)

~Inarritu's Babel and Kevin MacDonald's The Last King of Scotland look stunningly shot and crafted, and promise intelligent writing, but they may be too depressing for me right now.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

"Women's rights, but...". I can see we're going to have a problem.

I've just stumbled upon one of the most corrupt-thinking, mind-boggling organizations ever. REAL Women of Canada (Realistic, Equal, Active, for Life) is a group currently lobbying the government to eliminate the Status of Women Council and Ministerial position.

Why would a group that purports to "promote equality for ALL women" (my emphasis) want to do away with Canada's main body for ensuring women's rights? Because REAL women feels the Status of Women has "discriminatory practices", in specific they criticize Bev Oda and the council for its "reprehensible policies of consulting with, promoting and funding only feminist organizations and continu[ing] to discriminate against all other women’s grass root organizations."
Their mandate is to promote equality for all women, EXCEPT feminists. Or more interesting, what is this distinction they are making between feminist and grassroots groups? Unless a group is working to limit or take away women's rights and freedoms (i.e. lobbying to ban abortion, to ban tubal ligations (Hey Humboldt!)), I consider it a feminist organization.

Part of REAL's project, in eliminating the Status of Women, would be to do away with funding for over 500 women's shelters across canada. How can they justify removing survival mechanisms? Do only their hated feminists need shelters? Who are the members of this group, and why are they attacking women's rights under the pretense of caring?

Read their Letter to Bev Oda
[They quote Minister Oda's response, which simply states, "This government is committed to promoting women’s human rights and eliminating barriers for women...there is still work to do to make sure women can enjoy full equality in their day to day lives. As Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, I will continue to work with organizations to attain concrete results in achieving full equality for women." REAL's response to Oda's reply? "We were furious. We wrote to Ms Oda on June 8, 2006 stating that her letter was deeply offensive to our organization in that she had either ignored and/or dismissed the main points of our letter of April 4, 2006."]

Women enjoying full equality as infuriating and offensive.
Fascinating, how so?
Who are you, really, for you cannot be sane women. (The president is indeed a woman, though I am suspicious of the membership).

Take their Humanist (I guess? very problematic) official motto:
Women’s rights, but not at the expense of human rights
There is no way to break that statement down in a way that makes it coherent and sensible.

Compare their motto with this popular slogan brought out at all four UN conventions on Human Rights in the Nineties:*
Women's Rights are Human Rights

What emerges is that REAL Women classifies women as extraneous to some human essence.
REAL: Campaigning for "women's rights" on the basis that women are NOT equal to humans. i.e. Uphold Human rights above all else. Who do they think could possibly be negatively impacted by achieving women's rights?.... oh, the Humans. Those neutral, default beings, men, or more accurately, Man. [That's them, not me!]

UN delegates: Campaigning for women's rights on the basis that woman ARE equal to humans. i.e. uphold women's rights because they are human.
Different understandings of Human, or different understandings of women?

Humanist? Feminist? Humanist? Feminist? Can you be one without being the other? Can you call REAL's policy Humanist, when it holds one genera of existence as more important? Can you separate Woman from Human? Have you ever felt yourself to be especially Human, more than you've felt Womanly or Manly???? (or somewhere in-between?)
I don't get it. When I read a novel about a Haixla teenaged girl in Kitimat, BC (Eden Robinson's "Monkey Beach") I enter her world, but I do so from my distinct identity as a Canadian WASPy Woman from the East Coast. I can't say I know what it's like to separate from my distinct existence, to transcend it and experience pure Humanity.

As for the name of the organization, I don't get couching misogyny inside of a friendly label. Why not call themselves Anti-Feminist Group? (or Anti-Women's Group for that matter)? Anti-feminism is clearly stated and upheld as a major tenet of their organization, why shy away from spelling it out?

I can't stand this sneaky proclivity right-wing and corporate organizations have for naming their lobby-groups, in which they create names that are opposite to their actual function. They KNOW they're trying to fool somebody. Groups like "Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions" (a group composed of Canada's trade associations largely opposed to the country's plan to adopt the Kyoto global warming treaty) and "Foundation for Clean Air Progress" (FCAP) (formed specifically to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not to adopt tougher air pollution controls).


So how about you? Are you feeling particularly Human today? Why not act on it and form an organization devoted to depriving a para-human (children perhaps? the blind? can Men be considered as Other than Human?) of their rights.

Begin your motto with "Man's rights, but...."


* World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna 1993; Intl Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 1994; World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen 1995; and Fourth world Conference on Women in Beijing 1995. From Stephen Lewis "Race Against Time" Chapter IV: Women: Half the World, Barely Represented.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

hey you ugly

I've long avoided myspace because its so, damn, messy and unpleasing to look at. now that I've watched this video by zefrank, i see myspace in a new light. it's still ugly in the new light, but its a profound ugliness that says F-U hegemonic art-practices, I have the right to figure this out!




the show with zefrank




Thanks Stacy and Peter for sending this my way.
Watch on Zefrank's website: Ugly

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

Chile Provides free Birth Control and Emergency Contraception!

At the behest of the Chilean Center for the Development of Women, who asked for greater accessibility to Emergency Contraception, the Chilean Health Ministry decided that contraception will be publicly available for all women over the age of 14 FREE of charge.

According to IPS, all public health centers must dispense birth control, including emergency contraception (EC), free of charge. The decree also ensures that younger women can without authorization from their parents obtain a prescription for birth control pills.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, (a former a pediatrician) has responded to right-wing and Catholic criticism by saying, "The obligation of the state is to provide alternatives, and the obligation of families, of each one of us, is to communicate with our children, explain things to them, and to teach them." Government Spokesperson Ricardo Weber expanded on the real need for Chile to provide these services, telling IPS that 14 of every 100 young people are sexually active by the age of 14.



I'm just so impressed. There's really been a reversal of leadership roles between North and South America.
For now, let's imagine a US in which zealot pharmacists cannot deny women their sexual and reproductive freedoms.

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

ah, the fairytale life of a prostitute.

"Are you going to charge yours?"
"No - Tonight we are not prostitutes.... We are Princesses"

The final words in the trailer for Spanish film Princesas.
Let's watch these two gorgeous women grow close through their mutual hardships of working as prostitutes. It's not all that bad! There are fun times too! and sometimes, they have sex for free, when the men are really nice! [i.e. when they aren't beaten]how lovely.

How come some people get to make films, when I don't?

Maybe Disney can add these women to their Princesses brand.

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