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If you're a huge Degrassi fan like I am, be sure to catch tomorrow night's episode, which will be part one of two (part two airs Thursday night) of the first Degrassi episode to feature a transgender character.
Given that Degrassi has covered nearly every controversial issue under the sun, including abortion, drugs, sex, gay/lesbian issues, and even murder, I'm surprised it took them ten seasons to put a transgender character on the show.
Still, I'm stoked to see the episodes and I sincerely hope they're done tastefully. Here's an interview with the actress, Jordan Todosey, who plays Adam on Degrassi, a new character who is FTM (female-to-male) and deals with the backlash when his fellow students find out.
I saw this on Feministing, and thought it was pretty interesting. This domestic violence awareness campaign from London puts a specific emphasis on the responsibility of those who might hear or witness this type of violence to call 911 (or 999 in England) for someone who might not be able to.
They also use an interactive video to convey this message -- depending on if you "choose" (by clicking) to call the police or not, you will get a different ending to the video.
Sociological Images posted this, and I thought it was worth putting here. It's a 30-second animation showing the changing unemployment rates from 2007-2010. Scary stuff.
Thanks to Feministing for the reminder that tonight is the premiere of the documentary12th & Delaware on HBO. This film highlights the intersection in Florida known as "ground zero" for the abortion rights battle because on this corner lives both a reproductive health clinic and an anti-choice crisis pregnancy center, right across the street from one another.
As mad as this documentary will inevitably make me, I'm excited to watch it. I sincerely hope the numerous ways in which CPCs are detrimental to women is apparent in the film because more people need to know the truth: these fake clinics are staffed with liars and harassers who don't trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. And sadly, CPCs greatly outnumber abortion-providing clinics in the U.S.
This is possibly the greatest YouTube video I have ever seen. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a faux trailer for a film about a fight club consisting of Jane Austen characters. There’s a transcript below the cut. You absolutely have my permission to repost the transcript, and please do, but I would appreciate a note and link of credit and if you’d let me know!
I’m so pleased to see people who aren’t white in a video like this, and every time I watch this anew I am more and more impressed by the high production values of a video obviously done on quite a small scale! They have to produce the film the “trailer” is for, don’t you think?
Transcript:
Fade from black into a shot panning over misty hills. Gentle piano music plays and we transition into a shot looking up into trees. And then down into yellow flowers as a bee flies around to the right.
To black and then two young ladies are walking, arm in arm, through a garden. Pink flowers are to the left of the shot, and, closer to us, yellow flowers are to the right. The woman on the left is in a white bonnet and a blue dress, holding a purple posy. The one on the right is wearing pink and a fascinator and has a smaller white posy.
Lizzie (which, as we will learn, is the name of the lady in pink, and who is smiling as she leans in head in a little towards her companion): I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
Fanny (the one in blue): What?
They stop and turn to each other. Close up of Lizzie, who has a hint of a smile about her features.
Lizzie: Hit me.
Fade to black and a voiceover: Wait. Allow me to begin earlier.
Back again. Then: Fanny and two women just behind her sides look very bored indeed.
VO: For all of us, life had become an endless surrender to propriety. [One of the ladies is sitting at her sewing.] A lady had her duties, [the pianist is shown, head resting on the piano, bored] her expected accomplishments, her polite affections [as Emma, as well will soon know her to be, meets a man passing in a corridor and they greet each other formally] and the primary objective to marry or, for all intents and purposes, perish [as the shot pans from a couple with eyes only for each other to a sad-looking young woman sitting on a couch with a fluffy white dog. The dog jumps down from her lap and her head sinks into her right hand].
Black, and back to the shot of the three women. Lizzie comes down the staircase.
Fanny in VO: She changed everything. [As we return to the opening conversation and Lizzie smiling hugely.]
[More contemporary music starts. Lizzie is making mock jabs at Fanny] Lizzie: Come on! Hit me before I lose my nerve! [Fanny slaps her lightly on the shoulder. Lizzie looks and her shoulder and then contemptuously at Fanny.] Really?
A group of young women, some in dresses and some in long period undergarments, are gathered around in a garden, cheering on a fight between Lizzie and a woman who wins.
VO: It was on the tip of everyone’s tongue…
[Close up of Emma, who raises her hand] Emma: Can I be next?
VO: … she just gave it a name.
[Shot quickly pans to Lizzie.] Lizzie: Ladies. [She slips off her dress to show frilly undergarments] Welcome to Fight Club. [She walks forward, out of shot.]
[Lizzie's VO begins as there are shots of one of them admiring a bruise on her cheek in the mirror and the sewer from before lowering her sewing from in front of her face, revealing a black eye. She smiles.] VO: The first rule of fight club is one never mentions Fight Club.
Lizzie, walking down a line of fighters standing outside: No corsets, no hatpins, and no crying. [She turns back to give a stern look to someone who looks aside and down, abashed.] If this is your first invitation to Fight Club… [change of shot] you must fight. [She smiles back at them.]
Another fight scene, with the onlookers cheering them on, in which Fanny wins over Lizzie. In another, one fighter swings from a tree to kick another in the chest. In another, a fighter cartwheels to standing and then has her nose twisted. In another, one fighter simply punches another in the face. With that shot, the voiceover starts again…
Fanny VO: After Fight Club, we were inclined to see the world differently. [A shot of one woman playing the piano with her skirts hitched up and a gash on her leg. Lizzie dances in a close and contemporary style with a young man.]
[Fanny is sitting at a table with a young woman who is cutting a cake.] Woman: Is that your blood?
[Fanny glances down at the rose on her dress, which is stained.] Fanny: Oh. Yes. Some of it. [Her companion looks horrified.]
Lizzie VO: You’re going to start a fight with a complete stranger.
Emma walks up to someone with whom she is playing croquet and slaps her lightly. A woman is reading a book as someone walks up behind her and pushes her into a hedge.
Lizzie VO: And you’re going to lose.
One of the fighters is dragged backwards over a lawn, to the right of the shot.
Fade to black as Fanny’s VO continues: We were no longer good society.
The music flares as the young women come down a staircase, the movement jumping forward a little with each surge of the music. Lizzie is at the front. Coloured splotches appear on the screen with the words, in white, ‘IN 1810′.
Lizzie punches someone and something sprays out of the latter’s mouth, shown in slow motion. Next, there is a shot of the women dancing in a very anachronistic style, some on a balcony, some in a front garden. Then a shot of a young woman pulling a young man in towards her. Again the coloured splotches, and the words ‘AND 2011′ appear.
Back to a fight as Lizzie gets punched, and a close-up as she thuds to earth. She leans up a little and smiles. Splotches and ‘LIZZIE’. A shot of Fanny smashing her companion’s head into the cake and ‘FANNY’. Emma punches someone in the face, and she is shown with her name, teeth bared. One of the Dashwoods flips the other over as they walk across a lawn, tossing her shoes down the lawn. ‘THE DASHWOODS’ appears amongst splotches with pictures of them both with their fists raised and bruised cheeks. Lizzie, in a faux leopard fur coat, backs away from Fanny, who has her back to us.
Lizzie: In the end you’ll thank me!
She puts on her sunglasses, gestures widely, sharply and defiantly, and turns to walk away.
Indoors, two women confer. One of the women: I suppose they think this will throw them into the path of eligible young men.
…as Fanny is pushed over, only to fall into a young man’s arms very stylishly.
Lizzie is pushed as she walks along with one of the women. Another fight shot. All the while, we have a voiceover from Fanny’s young man:
VO: You’re very clever, aren’t you? How’s that going for you? Being clever [...as we see him behind her, talking in her ear.]
A shot of Fanny pulling her companion out of the cake by the hair, and the two women who were conferring, one now laughing and one now drinking tea. A shot of Lizzie and two others looking serious. Lizzie turns her head to her right. Meanwhile, Fanny is looking back.
Fanny: Splendidly.
Lizzie, back in her coat, walks past the one of the conferring women, who is on the balcony holding a cup of tea. She knocks it out of her hand and far onto the lawn.
A splotchy title card appears, with ‘Jane Austen’s’ in a delicate font, followed by ‘Fight Club’ in strong capitals.
Lizzie, post teacup-knocking, throws a punch in the air and walks off before us. Black, and it’s over.
-
Here are the credits from the YouTube page:
We were no longer “good society.” janeaustensfightclub@gmail.com
Directed by Emily Janice Card & Keith Paugh
Written by Emily Janice Card
Director of Photography: Keith Paugh
Editing and Visual Effects: Jeff Dickson
Produced by Jeff Dickson, Emily Janice Card, Wendy Crompton
Stunt Choreography: Michelle Crompton
Sound Department: Leslie Paugh & Russell Lloyd
Makeup and Hair: Farrah Walker
Cast: Esther Rawlings, Emily Janice Card, Farrah Walker, Wendy Crompton, Michelle Crompton, Julie Hinton, Jessica Preece, Bonnie Anderson, Tiffany Jordan, Renee Miller, Kristen Hill, Kathryn Kulish, David Axelgard, Travis Morgan
I just saw a commercial on TV for Kotex's line of menstruation products, called "U." I have to admit: normally, I tune out during commercial breaks, but this completely got my attention because it expressed basically every single qualm I have with your average tampon/pad ads:
I did some YouTube'ing, and not only do their commercials address how obnoxious tampon ads are, but they also address how uncomfortable people, particularly men, get when women talk about their periods:
And this one, again addressing the ridiculousness of most tampon/pad ads, made me laugh:
I also noticed that one of their ads posted on YouTube was tagged with "feminism." All of this was a bold move on Kotex's part, and although I don't use disposable pads/tampons (not since I bought my LunaPads), I'm intrigued.
Visit their YouTube channel or their website to learn more. Their website even has a pledge you can sign that starts out with:
Yeah, I have a period. And a vagina, not a va-jay-jay. It's what makes me a woman. But society and the media aren't being straight with me. It's like there's a code of secrecy and it makes me feel uncomfortable when talking about these topics.
Wow, just when I thought Mel Gibson's existence couldn't get anymore appalling, the internet gets ahold of his latest disgustingly misogynist and racist rant. It was recorded by his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. "Horrific," "offensive," and "repulsive" are all understatements.
Here's a part of it, from AlterNet, where Gibson yells at Grigorieva for looking like a "Vegas whore." SERIOUS TRIGGER WARNING.
You go out in public and it's a fucking embarrassment to me. You look like a fucking bitch in heat. And if you get raped by a pack of niggers it will be your fault. Alright? Because you provoked it. You are provocatively dressed all the time with your fake boobs that you feel you have to show off. I don't like it. I don't want that woman. I don't want you. I don't trust you. I don't love you.
Even though this is absolutely detestable language, I'm posting this here because this is an unfortunately common sentiment today: dress like a "whore," and you're asking for it. Not too long ago, I was out at a bar with some friends, dressed in my usual jeans, boots, and a tank top with a cardigan over it. Some charming gentleman tried to hit on me, I took him I was married to get him off my back, to which he responded, "If you were my wife and you went out looking like that, I would smack you around." Nice.
The Sexist actually recently posted a really nice PSA from Scotland that dealt with this issue.
Seriously, this shouldn't be such a hard concept to grasp. Women NEVER "ask for it," and even if a woman does go out in public wearing a short dress or whatever and ends up getting raped, the fault ultimately lies with the rapist. To say otherwise is preposterous.
Once a friend of mine got her hands on a whole library of sex ed tapes from around the world, and held a viewing party at her house. There were two: the first, an abstinence-happy 1980s piece of work (featuring one of the Coreys!) that warned you were like a delicate flower, and each time you had sex it was like pulling off one of the petals until there was nothing left and you died.
The second one was an amazing video from the Netherlands that went into everything — masturbation, sexuality, attraction, changes etc, but the most controversial part was not in fact the two cartoon teenage bodies writhing together on a bed but the message that came next: that it was ok to say no. And even more controversially, that it was ok to want to have sex and still not be ready, to want to make out but not “go all the way” and to tell someone to stop and they were supposed to then listen to you.
That’s what stuck in my mind when I read the below story, a part of my “losing your virginity series” (the string of comments on the first post are amazing by the way, I highly recommend reading them). I’m not sure about the rest of you, but that “it’s ok to say no” message wasn’t one I got as a kid — you either made out and had sex, or you didn’t make out at all. There was no “waiting until you were actually ready” in-between. Anyways, enjoy:
How I learned about sex:
When I was in the third grade, I had a crush on a boy in my class. Some kids were teasing me about it and kept saying, “You want to do IT with Mike!” But no one would tell me what “it” was. I went home from school that afternoon and asked my mom to explain “it.” Little did I know that she had books prepared in her nightstand! She sat down with me and, with the help of some photo illustrations, explained how a man and woman have sex. She told me that sex was something that only married men and women did. I was so grossed out that I hoped to never have sex with anyone! (Only later did I form my own opinions about who should be having sex with whom and when.)
How I lost my virginity:
I had been dating Kevin for months. We were both virgins and had discussed becoming sexually active. He was ready, but I wasn’t. He didn’t pressure me; he was willing to wait until I was comfortable. Having been raised under the premise that I would save myself for marriage, I was torn between my own desire to share my sexuality with someone I was truly in love with and the terror of my parents finding out that I hadn’t upheld their standards. Many of my friends were having sex, and it sounded like fun. I wanted to see what all the excitement was about.
Kevin’s parents were out of town that summer before our junior year of high school. As we showered together, Kevin gently asked if I might want to have sex. I declined, and he didn’t bring it up again. After the shower, we continued fooling around, but my mind wasn’t on Kevin. What was I waiting for? If I wasn’t ready to have sex with someone I was deeply committed to, then when would I have sex? I realized that no one was going to give me permission to be sexually active; I had to grant myself that privilege. It felt right to me, and I was tired of conforming to my parents’ moral code.
I pulled away from Kevin. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, what?” he asked. I explained that I was ready, and he pulled out a condom from his nightstand. We were together for the next four years, and I have very positive feelings about losing my virginity to him.
PS – As I mentioned in my first post — Planned Parenthood of New York City has some great guides on how to talk to your kids about sex, and is currently running a campaign to make sure all kids in NYC are taught accurate, age-appropriate sex education.
To my wonderful dad, and all the other wonderful dads out there. Fatherhood is undeniably a feminist issue because it's up to us to promote positive parenting that transcends gender stereotypes. To demonstrate, I'm re-posting this adorable and heart-warming ad from Fatherhood.gov.
And one more!
We can only hope for more people to be lucky enough to have feminist daddies :)
