(Repost) Fifty Shades of F**king Abuse

In light of Fifty Shades Darker infesting theatres, I figured it was time to repost this 2014 article in which I explain, at some length, just how fucked up and abusive this franchise is.

CN for sexual, physical, emotional and verbal abuse; stalking; fake BDSM; Fifty Shades shit; gaslighting; casual ableism in quotes and links.

Let me tell you how I got acquainted with some of the worst books on the market:

It was an odd time. I’d just spent over a month intensively critiquing creationist earth science texts, and that triggers depression after so many chapters. One begins to lose all hope for humanity. The end of summer loomed. B and I had a rather serious falling out. So there I was, mopey and miserable and wishing the world could just stop for a while.

I don’t remember what I was reading, but there was a link to Jenny Trout’s blog in the comments. And she had done to the Fifty Shades trilogy what I’m doing to Christianist textbooks. I’d been hearing for years how bloody awful the Fifty Shades of Grey books were, how they glorified abuse, how fake the BDSM was, and how terrible the writing was. I’d heard it from enough people whose opinion I trust that I hadn’t wasted my time attempting to read the bloody things. But now there’s gonna be a movie, and about nine trillion people think this shit’s the cat’s pajamas and ever-so-good for their looove lives, so maybe it would be a good idea to find out a bit more about it. And here was a brilliant, funny, and feminist writer who’d read and reported on them so I didn’t have to. It was like Cliffs Notes, with brutal honesty and snark.

Now, I should’ve been working, but I really couldn’t. And a day off wouldn’t hurt. And I read this: Continue reading “(Repost) Fifty Shades of F**king Abuse”

(Repost) Fifty Shades of F**king Abuse
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Twilight is a Symptom of Everything Wrong With America

You may think I’m exaggerating, but hear me out.

B and I chose to watch Twilight on Netflix because most of the good vampire movies aren’t on there. And we wanted something we could laugh to. Since we didn’t have any comedies in mind, we decided mocking laughter would do.

People, I have read endless reviews of both the book and the movie. I could tell you exactly what happens scene by scene, from opening to closing credits. Much of my joy came from finally seeing some notorious moments for myself. Have you ever watched a movie and gone, “Hey, I know that scene from memes!” or “They used that one in a Bad Lip Reading clip!”? It’s a very specific sort of pleasure.

Now, I’ve read many a review by outraged feminists who utterly despised Edward. I know all of his abusive proclivities. I even know he’s a completely genocidal shitmonger. But actually seeing Robert Pattinson act it out rather than reading about it made me scream roughly five thousand times something along this lines of the following: Continue reading “Twilight is a Symptom of Everything Wrong With America”

Twilight is a Symptom of Everything Wrong With America

Promised Land: A Must-See Documentary in This Era

Promised Land is screening at Seattle Central College on Thursday, February 9th, and at the University of Oregon on Friday, February 10th. For other screenings in various cities, please see listings here.

 

Imagine that you live in a place your ancestors have occupied for thousands of years. Every landmark, every waterway, every plant and tree and animal is part of your heritage. You can stand in places that your grandmother, and her grandmother, and women stretching in an unbroken line back to a mythical point, told stories about, stories that defined your people.

You have stories passed down since the Ice Ages, which your ancestors witnessed. You don’t remember the ice because scientists found its traces in the rocks and on the land: you remember it because your tribe descended from people who lived with it, and your generational memories are strong.

Imagine that your roots here go that deep, that they stretch over ten thousand years into the past.

Now imagine that new people came, and took possession of your lands without permission. They uprooted you and cast you aside. They tore down your houses and stole your art. They changed your rivers and landmarks almost beyond recognition. They built cities on your land, the land that holds your ancestors, that was your inheritance and your future, and then outlawed you from those cities – not for any crime, but because of the color of your skin. They made it literally illegal for you to step foot in the cities they built on your land after sundown, and they only allowed you in by day in order to exploit your labor for their profit.

They made it illegal for you to gather together, to tell your stories, to carry on your traditions, to pass your culture on to your children. They tried to strangle everything that made you you: your language, your clothing, your art, your music, your identity.

Imagine you somehow survived all of this. You held on. You sang your songs. You spoke your language. You protected what was left of your land as best as you could. You learned how to survive in this new world without losing quite all of your heritage. In a city named for one of your forebears, you have done your best to survive as a people among strangers who are happy to take your art and your symbols and your resources without giving much of anything back.

And imagine that after all of this, those strangers tell you that they won’t recognize your tribe as a legal entity. That, despite the fact that you come from an unbroken line of indigenous people stretching back ten thousand years, perhaps more, in this place, you can’t check the box that says you’re Native American. You have to call yourself White, or Other. You can’t protect the things that belonged to your ancestors when they’re unearthed. You can’t protect your lands. You can’t even get back a tiny fraction of the wealth that was stolen from you, because they say you’re not one of the tribes who can get a grant or a scholarship reserved for those whose inheritance was taken by force, fraud, or both.

That’s the story of the Duwamish, told in the heart-rending documentary Promised Land. Continue reading “Promised Land: A Must-See Documentary in This Era”

Promised Land: A Must-See Documentary in This Era

Hidden Figures: Yes, Go See It Right Now

Here’s how to deal with the fact that a great orange buffoon is getting sworn into our highest office: go see Hidden Figures. Just go. Go see black women fighting misogyny and racism and Jim Crow while doing badass math. You need to see that right now.

*This review is mostly spoiler-free*

Take your children to go see it. Yes, even the young ones. Yes, even the teens. Look: I was in a theater full of little kids and teenagers, and they were sitting there beside unrelated adults up to the age of probably-watched-John-Glenn-orbit-live-on-teevee-with-their-own-kids, and apparently they were all riveted. I have never been to a movie that full of young folk who were so extraordinarily quiet. I’ve never been in an auditorium packed with nearly 400 people of all ages and had such an uninterrupted experience. The kids will do fine, and they need to see this.

Hollywood put out a movie about black women doing math, and it was spellbinding. I never thought they’d try. And since they tried, I never thought they’d do it with so much math and so few explosions. They had exploding rockets, but seemed almost embarrassed to mention them. There was a love story, but only because one of the real women this movie is based on actually got married in the middle of our race to space. It wasn’t shoved in just to hook our emotions, and you get the feeling they’d rather be doing more math. The movie stayed remarkably true to actual, historical events.

You’ll get to meet three of the most extraordinary women in our country’s scientific history: Katherine Goble (later Johnson), Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. You will get to see them be math nerds. You will get to see them have interests other than marriage and children. Hell, you’ll even get to see one of them fix a car. In a dress. Did you know women could fix cars while wearing dresses? Well, now you do.

You’ll get to see three black women star in their own story, as heroes, not as sidekicks and inspirations to white people. This wasn’t a story about white people learning how not to be racist gits (although several white people learned this, the movie isn’t about them). This wasn’t a story about three career women trying to also balance their roles as wives and mothers (although they were). This wasn’t a story about men learning how to deal with career women, women smarter than them, and figuring out how not to be sexist gits (although this all happens).

No. Continue reading “Hidden Figures: Yes, Go See It Right Now”

Hidden Figures: Yes, Go See It Right Now

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Promised Land is screening on Monday afternoon – TODAY! – at the 41st American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco, AMC Van Ness Theater.

If you want to understand Standing Rock, get a sense of Native American history, and see what happens when people whose ancestors can be traced back to tribes that have occupied these lands for thousands of years are denied federal recognition, you need to see this film. Please go if you can, and spread the word. Continue reading “Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!”

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Not Only Is The Accountant a Shit Movie – It Could Kill You

So. The Accountant’s out. And if anyone thought we were going to get a nuanced film with an autistic hero which doesn’t objectify or other autistic folk, well, looks like they’re wrong. Go read all of the reviews here at my friend Ronja’s Facebook post. I hope you have an ableism bingo card of some sort handy, because you’ll win big just from what the reviewers talk about.

Special notice:  if you’re epileptic or have migraines, or if those health issues run in your family, this movie might physically harm you. More on that later.

If you’re a neurotypical person who goes to this movie and laughs at the awkward things the autistic dude does because hur hur hur he’s awkward, you should probably exit my life until you’ve learned why that shit’s not funny. My autistic friends have a hard enough time in the world neurotypical folk made without you adding to their misery. I mean, seriously, don’t be these jerks: Continue reading “Not Only Is The Accountant a Shit Movie – It Could Kill You”

Not Only Is The Accountant a Shit Movie – It Could Kill You

I’m So Torn Over the New Ghostbusters

B and I spent our Monday afternoon watching the movie fake geek boys love to hate. And I am seriously torn. Because I really, really would like to see this movie as a child. But then I’d have missed out on all of the delicious adult subtext, plus the overturning of cultural norms. But the special effects would’ve blown my young mind. Oh, dilemmas.

So, my dear friend and fellow Orbit blogger Aoife has already told you what’s best about Holtzmann. She absolutely steals the show. She is 100% not there for the straight male gaze. I love that. I love that the only somewhat sexualized woman was for women. And I’m so sad I’m almost completely straight, because being Holtzmann is now my new life goal, and I just don’t think almost completely straight people can even come close to managing that.

What else did I love? Continue reading “I’m So Torn Over the New Ghostbusters”

I’m So Torn Over the New Ghostbusters

Frivolous Friday: Which Upcoming Movie Are You Craving?

Summer movie discussion time, my darlings! Or, if you’re in the southern half of the world, winter movie discussion time! I’m busy writing fiction this week, which has got me thinking about fiction. There’s a lot coming out this summer (or winter). I’m looking forward to a few, but if I had to pick just one, I think it would be… Continue reading “Frivolous Friday: Which Upcoming Movie Are You Craving?”

Frivolous Friday: Which Upcoming Movie Are You Craving?

Kickass Women and No Clear Heroes – Captain America: Civil War

B and I gave a gorgeous sunny afternoon a miss and went to see Captain America: Civil War on Thursday. Who wants something as boring as non-rainy weather when you can watch Captain America and Iron Man beating the shit out of each other? Not us.

I’d started the day on about three hours of sleep, cranky as shit and ready to beat the shit out of lots of things myself. I ended it too happy and hyper for a nap. I just laid in my bed running scenes through my head and squeeing internally. Overall, it was an excellent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and all I want to do now is see it again at least once a week until Black Panther, Black Widow, and Scarlet Witch get their own movies.

**********CONTAINS SPOILERS – PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK**********

Continue reading “Kickass Women and No Clear Heroes – Captain America: Civil War”

Kickass Women and No Clear Heroes – Captain America: Civil War