As Pixar's newest smash hit, Up, wows audiences in the way that all Pixar movies seem to do, a counter narrative about the franchise's lack of female protagonists is beginning to pick up real steam.
The thesis and methodological approach from the post:
This is not to say that Pixar doesn't include worthy female characters. But these characters are never the main focus - they're there to support the lead male character in whatever quest he's on. Most often, if you see a female, they're there either as a wife, mother or love interest.
Here's a breakdown of the notable female characters from each film, plus an overall feminist grade on the quality of the female characters:
Then today, appeared this post on the NPR website, endearingly entitled "Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees."
Gotta love this snippet:
I want so much for girls to have a movie like Up that is about someone they can dress up as for Halloween, as Anika Noni Rose said about starring as the voice in The Princess And The Frog. Not a girl who's a side dish, but a girl who's the big draw.
And I'd really, really like it not to be a princess.
My understanding is that after the summer blockbusters of 2010 and 2011 -- Toy Story 3 and Newt -- you're planning The Bear And The Bow, a Christmastime fairy tale rather than a summer adventure. And your first one about a girl -- way to go!
But why, oh why, does it have to be about a princess? Again?
Another wonderful cover that appeared in the movie American Beauty, a movie Harrogate has been thinking about a lot lately, for some reason. This takes Harrogate back to the momentous conversation last fall, that he and oxymoron and solon had while driving to the bar to celebrate solon's esteemed doctorhood, about Beatles covers. Harrogate remembers citing Elliot Smith's cover of "Because" as one of his five favorites.
Also, "Because" is one of Harrogate's favorite Beatles songs, period. To wit: "Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry." How distilled.
Because something wise and beautiful is needed today. Annie Lennox, the song she covers here, and the movie soundtrack on which the cover appears, and finally the movie itself, all fit the criterion qute well.
The most recent kerfuffle over Carrie Prejean has to do with recent suggestions that she would be stripped of her "Miss California" crown for lingerie pictures she posed for at seventeen. However, one of the greatest thinkers and handsomest men of our modern era, Donald Trump, has brought the hammer down on this notion.
Miss California USA can retain her crown even though she failed to reveal she had posed in her underwear as a teenager, pageant owner Donald Trump said Tuesday.
Carrie Prejean appeared by Trump's side as he made the announcement at New York's Trump Tower.
Trump also defended the answer that Prejean gave at last month's Miss USA pageant when she was asked her view of marriage by judge Perez Hilton, a celebrity blogger. She said she believes marriage is between a man and a woman.
"It's the same answer the president of the United States gave; it's the same answer many people gave," Trump said. "She gave an honorable answer; she gave an answer from her heart."
Trump said he and other pageant officials had reviewed racy photos of Prejean and decided they were acceptable.
"We are in the 21st century. We have determined the pictures taken are fine," he said, adding that "in some cases the pictures were lovely."
Heh. "In some cases." There's something sardonic about The Donald that Harrogate has always found appealing, however much Harrogate has tried to rebel against liking anything about the guy.
But enough about bad hair, smirks, and the like. In the clip below, Carrie Prejean commits the same error that so many Americans in and out of academia make. She states that she exercised her First Amendment rights on the stage when Perez asked her about gay marriage. This is of course true. But then she makes the leap into asserting that those same rights, for which her grandfather fought, were violated in the backlash that followed. Tied up in this of course is the notion that the Miss USA judges violated her First Amendment Rights when they allegedly deprived her of victory as punishment for her opinions.
Sorry, Miss Prejean, but ye are full of it here. The First Amendment protects you from facing government retribution for speaking your mind. It most certainly does NOT protect you or anyone else from being publically demonized for your opinions. This is part of the American tradition, too. Perez, classless as he is, was exercising HIS free speech rights when he called you a "Cunt," among other epithets. You might think of it as "punishment," but it is not a violation of your free speech rights for people to make fun of you or to villify your opinions. These, like it or not, are often the consequences of weighing in on a hotbutton issue in the American discourse.
All that being said. Harrogate, again, totally disagrees with Prejean's stated opinion, but also thinks that many on the Left have behaved very badly in demonizing her for what she said. Harrogate has established that in his opinion, when you look at the whole fiasco objectively, people like Olbermann and Perez look much, much worse as human beings, than does Prejean. And of course, Prejean's champions in the media, people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity etc., are already wastes of skin who make their living spreading lies and hate, so who really cares where they fit into this particular equation?
And Miss Prejean, as for the judges. They are free to use whatever criterion they wish, especially since you will never be able to prove that you would have won but for offering said opinion.
So good to discover contemporary musicians you instantly love and want more of. The charts can be depressing at times, but if ye just explore the broader Rhetorical Situation a bit, ye realize that really great music is freighting the American pop scene, however so much of it may appear to only be operating on the fringes.
So this realization was for Harrogate, when he discovered James McMurtry, and recently celebrated the badassness of that guy on this very blog (Paperweight: Harrogate is still especially awaiting your weigh-in on McMurtry). And so it is with The Bittersweets, who definitely know something about the Rufusness. Here is a wonderfully intimate performance of "Wreck," off their most recent record.
Here's an awesome image of RuPaul dressed as both Michelle and Barack Obama (found at eonline.com, of course). Apparently, the pic is part of the promotional campaign for RuPaul's new show.
While no one can really replace Harrogate in Supa's heart, she still has warm feelings for Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker and the way he luxuriates in the delicious diversity of this country.
Oh yeah. Maher's comment re: "They're pretty good at this. We should get another one" is awesome. :)
But the news of a new woman in his life is hardly shocking, as rumors of cruelty and infidelity in the former power-couple’s marriage run rampant.
Click here to see photos of Madonna.
Madonna would reportedly taunt Ritchie by telling him she should have married someone stronger, more intelligent and ambitious. According to Us, the singer would even physically abuse Ritchie by slapping him or poking him.
But Ritchie was hardly a pushover in the relationship and Us reports that he would often call her fat, old, ugly and wrinkled. Ritchie also reportedly told her she was stupid and a terrible singer.
UPDATE: At first Harrogate was going to make this about how FOX loves to smear people. But now he sees it's more than just the NY Post racing FOX to the bottom. Apparently Us Weekly won that race handily:
See photos of Madonna's biggest scandals.
For more on Madonna and Guy - including how they would go months without sex and how Ritchie may not have been faithful during their 7 1/2 year marriage - pick up the new issue of Us Weekly today!
Blech. For Harrogate's part, he's sorry it didn't work out for them, at least as sorry as one can be who didn't know either of them personally. But that's pretty boring headline material, admittedly.
Now after all these years we can finally rest assured that Nelson Mandela is not a ter'ist.
"Today the United States moved closer at last to removing the great shame of dishonouring this great leader by including him on our government's terror watch list," Senator John Kerry said.
A blind groundhog will find an acorn every now and then, and every now and then this political system does something marginally decent. Hell, we cheerfully cede that beautiful Americans are everywhere, and for that matter that even a plastic bag floating in the wind, inviting you to play, is so beautiful one almost can't take it (you love him. you want to have ten thousand of his babies). &c.
But for God's sake. Reagan put him on the list more than twenty-five years ago. Really. You almost have to be a polyanna, not to be totally disgusted by our politics.
