Why so serious?

[stinglikeabee]

I have a crazy amount of things to do this weekend before SDCC trip. It all boils down to organisation and concentration, both of which I sorely lack. See, I even forgot yesterday was OSJ post day.

When did life get so hectic? Why am I so damn lazy?

Seems like everyone on the flist is going bananas over the Batman film. Is it wrong that I'm not interested? The more hype there is, even if its wholly deserving, the less likely I am to attend a screening. Maybe something Bat-related in me died. I shall be adding Bat-seance to the weekend list.

Hope to get around to making a nice roundup these weekend, especially with the great topics I've read in this week's LA Weekly. Tonight however, I'll leave with a Joanna Lumley's (animal rights campaigner and actress best well-known for Absolutely Fabulous) answer to the question 'are you a feminist?':

No, I don't think so, not in the true terms of how it's understood. I adore women and I think we've had a very raw deal for an amazingly long time and continue to have that raw deal. Women are very different to men and that hasn't been respected. So when people say there's never been a good woman painter or poet or engineer or whatever, they don't understand that our skills are many simultaneously and men's skills are single. But I don't think it's the way to advance the cause. I don't think we should put men's backs up. In many ways we are vastly superior to men, and it's stupid to rub it in. So, darling, I'm not really a feminist.

Again, the stereotype of a feminist as an angry woman who is constantly antagonising men. With what Lumley's lived through, I thought she at least would have a positive answer. UGH.

Comments

[parlance.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be interested if it weren't for Heath Ledger, and I can't say I'm clamoring to see immediately anyway.

Lumley *almost* takes it to a positive conclusion, and I almost want to give her a pass because she qualifies her understanding. But, yeah... it's too bad the word's been so bastardized... by both those who embrace and oppose it.

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

It's a fair point the term's been bastardised, but does that mean we have to take the conclusion that it's how it is? According to the wiki page, Lumley was a single mother in the '60s. She must have faced incredible prejudice at that time, raising a son by her own. And yet even she hesitates wanting to be called a feminist :(

[parlance.livejournal.com]

I agree with you up to a point. I think part of the problem, though, is that many (most?) people don't see feminism as a movement that's relevant to working-class women or single mothers she probably never made that connection that it can be. And who could blame her if the most visible sectors of the movement are overwhelmingly white and middle-class?

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

That reminded me, Lumley is white and upper-middle-class. I'm pretty sure being privileged and monied creates a nice bubble, a vacuum removed from ordinary life. It probably wasn't the same experience as a working class single mother at the the time would have. That might explain why she saw feminists as 'other' and not relatable to herself.

[cold-nostalgia.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's wrong that you're not that excited for TDK. I tend to be a bit hesitant when it comes big blockbusters like that. It took me an age to go and see Iron Man. Plus, given that BB wasn't that great, (we both agree on that) it's difficult to get revved up for more of the same.

I've been avoiding the generated hype machine like the plague so that I won't drag my heels on this one.

And yeah, that Lumley quote is at best disappointing, but I've heard far worse from better.

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

And yeah, that Lumley quote is at best disappointing, but I've heard far worse from better.

Oh yeah, and even from feminists themselves :( During Hillary's campaign, we heard plenty of horrible things said by certain high-profile feminists, divided by the issue of race. Did no favours for the cause at all, and who knows if the movement will manage to reunite after the nastiness.

[cissie-king.livejournal.com]

> So when people say there's never been a good woman painter
> or poet or engineer or whatever, they don't understand that
> our skills are many simultaneously and men's skills are
> single.

I know that painting and engineering have been a boy's club for a loooong while, but poetry? In what kind of tard-bubble have people never heard of Sapho, Gabriela Mistral or Maya Angelou?