I am gonna take a moment here to rant about this HORRIFIC situation that occurred in Libya and Egypt last night. Firstly this is not an issue of “free speech”. Freedom of speech was NEVER intended to allow people to spread hate or religious intolerance. NEVER. Our country was founded by people seeking a more perfect union where every citizen was granted the right to religious freedom. Free to practice their religion as it is laid out in their texts. Not to have their religion mocked or violated by anyone.
What happened in Egypt and Libya is unacceptable and all those responsible should be brought to justice. The INDIVIDUALS behind this should. NOT an entire country, people or religion is responsible. Specific individuals should be brought to justice.
Likewise the individual/s who posted this hate filled video, that violated the laws and practices of a religion should be brought to justice for causing and international incident and for the deaths of those Americans. They are equally culpable in the deaths as the people who set fire to the embassy.
Mitt Romney needs to STOP chomping at the bit for an excuse for war. This incident is wrong on all levels but there are Americans responsible for setting the spark of this fire just as there are Libyans responsible for setting the fires. ALL need to be brought to justice. There is ZERO cause for an all out WAR with ANYONE over this. WAR isn’t the answer.
Well there is a lot to think about these days. The economy, climate change, the election and women’s rights. There is so much being thrown around it is getting difficult to focus on any one thing. But somehow, amongst the chaos I am finding peace. I see all these things flying about, clashing and clanging into each other; friendships divided over politics and ignorant people running around screaming that the sky is falling. And somehow I find that I can sit and see all this turmoil and understand it and not get upset by it.
Sure I care about who wins this election. I care an awful lot about it. But instead of getting upset about it I am choosing to act on it. I am worried about Climate Change and what kind of world will be there for my kids. So I am DOING something about it. I am learning sustainable farming techniques, conserving energy and have most recently become Vegan.
Women’s rights of course is important to me as a woman as a mother and just as a human being. So I am working daily to make sure that the injustices that are being attempted on women are brought to light. I am prepared to go the distance to ensure that not only I keep my rights but all the women that come after me do as well. But I am not angry about it or anxious. I am aware what is needed and I am acting on that.
I guess I am learning to appreciate life. I do appreciate it. But it is most definitely a learning process. I have to tell myself every day to be thankful for what I DO have and who I have it with and not to burden myself with bygone friends and habits.
Take today for example. I am very content. Business is good. My kids are healthy and doing well in school and I have a great relationship with my husband. What more could I ask for?
Yesterday I wrote a retort to Mansfield Frasier and his article on President Obama’s lack of minorities in his Chicago campaign office. Today on the Maddow blog they post this WHITE congressman talking to a room of WHITE people about impeaching President Obama. And just blatantly lie about his record and about him violating the constitution and all that. Just, in my opinion, the usual scare tactic, right wing nonsense, that the lunatic fringe right tries to get everyone in this country riled up with.
Now this Congressman, Todd Akin of Missouri, that’s him in the picture, is fine on talking to this small room of all WHITE people about impeaching our President but he doesn’t call for it on the floor of the house or in the press. Just in this tiny room where it is apparently alright to slander someone. Where, I ask you, Mansfield and others who were happily jumping on the “Obama has no love for minorities train”, are you today for this out and out racist cry to get our President impeached? Do you not see the irony of not speaking out equally about both of these things?
Today Mansfield Frasier wrote an article that got my blood boiling! Read the article in The Daily Beast and read my response below!
To me this is the typical rhetoric against President Obama that has been waged since the 08 campaign. He isn’t “Black” enough. He’s too “Black”. They guy can’t win. The fact that a “Black” man is garnering support from EVERY community is ignored completely. I see Asians, Latinos, whites and yes some. admittedly not many, but SOME black people in that photo. But yes young, hip, white America is in love with the President. Is that a crime now?
Oh I’m sorry, so now White people are supporting a Black man and that is a bad thing? I am confused. My whole life we learned about Civil Rights and the March on Washington and we were taught that everyone is a person not a color. Now in 2012, when I am raising my own children it is ALL about color again? WHAT?
I find it hard to fathom that we are still roasting that chestnut in America. Get over it people! So what he has white volunteers. He has Black ones as well and Asians and women and on and on. What he has, in my humble opinion, is Americans working for him. Young, bright, enthusiastic Americans that believe in him and his vision for our country.
The Author here, Mansfield Frazier, is forwarding the centuries long viewpoint in this country that somehow it is wrong for Whites to support Blacks. That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with our country. We still have the shackles of slavery wound around EVERYTHING we do. We need to, all of us, EVERY American, finally move forward from that. Support someone based on their policies and actions. Gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation have nothing to do with it. We must begin to move past this “monochromatic” view of our country if we are ever going to be free.
Today Ashley Judd wrote a piece about her face. The Daily Beast article lays out in detail what is the major problem in America right now. Women, Men, Children, WE are all OBSESSED with bodies and what they look like and who is looking better than who and all that. The fact that a beautiful, 43 year old woman, is on television, in great shape, giving the performance of a career in a terrific show garners only questions about her face is disgusting.
That has nothing to do with the story line. No one brought up the tremendous amount of stunts that she is doing on her own and the work ethic that must go along with that. No one brought up how incredible she is as this mother desperate to get her child back. Not once. When she is running down the tarmac and her son is being forced on a plane, screaming for her, and she just misses him, can’t get to the plane in time and she crumples on the tarmac sobbing, clawing for air. That was real. That was the best scene of that nature I have ever seen. She is a tremendous actress. It is a wonderful show. But no instead let’s talk about her face and have experts deciding how much work she has or hasn’t had done. WTF? Is this really where we are at people?
Can we not look at a show or a movie or ANYTHING and just look at that and appreciate it for what it is? Isn’t it time that we, collectively as a society, just get over it. Really. We have evolved this far. We have cars and planes and cell phones. We have put men on the moon and into outer space. We have a tiny device that can hold thousands of songs and yet we haven’t evolved past our superficialness. We have actually devolved in that respect.
That is sad. I think Ashley put it best,
“If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that it is a feminist one, because it has been misogynistic from the start. Who makes the fantastic leap from being sick, or gaining some weight over the winter, to a conclusion of plastic surgery? Our culture, that’s who. The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women. In fact, it’s about boys and men, too, who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood. It affects each and every one of us, in multiple and nefarious ways: our self-image, how we show up in our relationships and at work, our sense of our worth, value, and potential as human beings. Join in—and help change—the Conversation.” — Ashley Judd
Well the Hunger Games is finally upon us. Yes I read the book. I REALLY loved it. It is a biting commentary on where we may be headed as a nation and as a world if we continue on our blind path of greed.
As a woman I found it refreshing that, for once, the reluctant and unexpected hero was a girl. Not a magical girl, or some bio created super machine, or a girl from another planet who has super powers. No just a girl. A girl who stopped being a kid at an early age and was a fighter and survivor on levels beyond what I could imagine. She was a reluctant heroine who found her true self and even love during the worst possible time, the Hunger Games. It is a delicate story, woven carefully and fantastically by Suzanne Collins. She captures everything that goes on in EVERY 17 year old girls mind and puts it into a literal life and death situation which only magnifies the significance of that time in all our lives. This is a powerful look at Humanity and how survival can test even the best of us. But how, the few of us will rise to a height not even imagined when in that situation.
Katniss Everdeen, as written in the book, is someone to look up to. Someone to emulate.
The movie, however, is something else entirely.
Obviously Hollywood, particularly the TWO men who wrote this script with Suzanne Collins, clearly couldn’t have a STRONG, SMART, EXTRAORDINARY woman on the screen. I am severly disappointed in Suzanne for allowing this truly watered down, cliff notes version of her revolutionary story to come to the screen. Yes I am calling you out Suzanne. Shame on you for selling out on a true heroine. The problem wasn’t Jennifer Lawrence. She did the best she could with what she had. She was good. She always is. But you took Katniss and made her the ever typical damsel in distress. She is tied to a tree sleeping more than anything else in this movie. WHAT?? What happened to the girl battling and scheming? What happened to the warrior that was fighting, not only for her sister and family, but in the end for love?
FOR SHAME. Read the book. Wait for this on HBO if you must.
In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote “A Princess of Mars”. This Science Fiction Novel was truly revolutionary for its day. Just imagine the time that Edgar lived in while he was writing this. 4 Years earlier Ford had produced the Model T. The first production car. 11 Years earlier the Wright Brothers took their first flight. We knew very little about the moon or really any of outer space, yet Edgar imagined, not only life on Mars, but calculated out what John Carters abilities would be on that planet based on the gravitational differences. He imagines ships that flew in the air powered by light. We don’t even have that now.
So when I see people critiquing this movie as a ripoff of “Star Wars” or “Avatar” or ANY modern Sci-Fi movie I have to remind these critics of the mere fact that perhaps, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, dare I say it, STOLE from Edgar Rice Burroughs??? I think there is an argument that could be made for that. But I am sure he would be proud of all the great stories that he inspired. But to criticize this movie and belittle it is just beyond me. The concepts in this movie are not new to us now, but they were FANTASTICALLY new at the time. And if they had had the special effects technology they that we have now to bring them to life it would have been done.
The cast was wonderful and the world of Mars was something to behold. This movie made me look into the sky and at the tiny dot that is Mars and wonder, maybe there is something more there. Go see this movie and have an adventure!
I LOVE this book by Dr. Seuss. I saw the preview for the movie and I thought, “UGH! Once again Hollywood has taken a great childhood story and RUINED it with some abstract interpretation.” That is really the clean version of what my first thought was. Gotta keep this a family friendly blog!
I vowed that I wasn’t going to see it at all because I was convinced that they had taken a great story and ruined it. But of course I couldn’t stick with that once my boys, Landon age 6 and Nicolas age 3 saw the same ad and started jumping up and down yelling that they wanted to see it. So, reluctantly, I took them to the movie.
I figured at least I might get a nap. Well I was beyond delighted to find that they took the story and didn’t ruin it at all. They took it in the right direction. I think that Dr. Seuss would be proud of what they put up on the screen. The best part wasn’t how I felt about it but seeing the twinkle in my boys eyes as they watched the magic on the screen. They loved every minute of it. So I would say definitely bring your kids to this movie. They will love it and you will like it as well!
I went and saw this movie because I pretty much see everything that Denzel does because he is, well DENZEL! I wasn’t expecting really much in terms of plot or even dialoge. But I was BEYOND surprised at the real awe inspiring action and intrigue that was going on in this movie.
It really was non stop action from about the 10 minute mark. Just keeps you guessing and your hands gripping your seats the whole movie. Denzel is of course wonderful and scary and amazing all at once and Ryan Reynolds holds his own on the screen next to him.
They make a great reluctant duo in this movie and it is well worth watching in the theater. If you miss it there definitely rent it as soon as you can. You won’t be disappointed!
I stumbled upon this movie by chance. Just an ad on the side of my facebook. I clicked on it and was taken to www.missrepresentation.org. I started looking at this amazing site. Then I saw the trailer for this film. Immediately I got goose bumps and I HAD to see this movie.
I found out where a screening was going to be near me and got tickets for me and two of my closest girlfriends. We just saw the movie last night. I could hardly sleep last night. I was thinking about this movie that much. I discussed topics from this movie for well over an hour with my friends. I spent the morning talking about it with my husband, stepfather and a mom in my son’s class. I can’t stop thinking about it and how sincerely it has forever changed me. A movie hasn’t changed me this much since I watched “Blood Diamond” and I decided to never again wear diamonds.
It was, for me like a slap in the face. A revival slap. Like, “Hey Nora! Remember when you were a girl and you had a million dreams and aspirations and you were going to change the world?? Well?? What is stopping you. GET UP and DO IT.” It is hard to describe without making less of what I am doing and have done. I love my life. I love my kids and my husband. I work, I clean I take care of them but I need to do more. I need to be a part of this movement. One I was a part of that somehow I inadvertently left behind like a dream of a former life.
And that is the magic of this movie. It is in your face and it makes you want to do something big and wonderful and really change the world. It is magnificent and it should be seen everywhere by Women especially but Men too. Men need to know what they can do to be a part of the solution.
Please if there is a screening near you GO, RUN to this movie. If there isn’t a screening then arrange one. Make it happen. This message is vital to the future of not only women but humanity as a whole.
