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You have spent several seconds reading this post when you could be watching The Avengers.
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I just found a post about "Think Like a Man" and how it's successful, and how Hollywood needs more movies starring black people.

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/04/what-hollywood-needs-to-learn-from-think-like-a-man.php

Speaking as a black guy; why?

Read more... )
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"Manners!"


Seriously, dude, you can film from more than two feet away. And there's no law against showing the top of someone's head.

That aside, I think the movie benefits from not being in first person. Katniss Everdeen, in the book, is a young woman from the rear end of nowhere who nonetheless writes like an English professor. The movie does this revolutionary thing called "acting" whereby characters convey information and feelings without needing to explicitly state it. It also allows other characters more development; President Snow, for example, is much better developed in the film, where Katniss barely saw him in the first novel. Peeta and Cinna, as always, are both bro-tier. Someone put a lot of effort into this film-I've flipped through the behind the scenes book at ASDA-and it shows. It really is a very good film.


I bought some posters for the movie; Katniss and Rue. Katniss 'cause she's Katniss, and Rue because she reminds me of my niece. I haven't had any posters up since last year, and since I also bought a Florence and the Machine poster, I keep looking up from my computer and briefly thinking some lunatic who likes leggy redheads snuck into my room and pasted it up.

Hey, what's this poster doing here?
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http://www.penny-arcade.com/2012/04/10/my-big-pax-post?
Last year we were given all kinds of [poo-poo] for the Duke Nukem booth babes. How could we allow women to be used as sex symbols just to sell a game? How could we allow them on the show floor in their school girl outfits while children and families were walking around? We were vilified for not kicking them off the show floor on the very first day. Now, exactly one year later I am also a monster, but now it’s because I am “punishing women” by asking them to cover up. I’ve been asked why I find the female body to be “obscene” and told that I must really hate women.

Hopefully you can see now why I find this so [gently caressing] ridiculous.

How about all of you that hate me get together and have your own conference. I need you to decide if half naked girls are empowered or exploited because I’m doing my [gently caressing] best here and it’s apparently always wrong. I swear to God I don’t understand how I’m supposed to know if I’m promoting the patriarchy or criminalizing the female body.
Incidentally, this was the same comic that was incorrectly accused of condoning rape, even long after they categorically denied that they condoned rape. They were also said to be ignoring complaints about the strip in question, when they specifically stopped selling t-shirts based on it because it would make people uncomfortable at PAX.

Everything you do is wrong? This is what it's like being famous, Mike. Get used to it.
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Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, [among other things], the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it.Ashley Judd Slaps Media in the Face for Speculation Over Her ‘Puffy’ Appearance

I'm kind of ambivalent about this. For on thing, I know that societal prejudice exists against men too. A woman getting raped is a tragedy, a man getting raped is a joke. A woman abused by a male SO is a victim, a man getting abused by his female SO is weak.

On the other hand, I do believe that the patriarchy, as defined in feminist discourse, has women participating too. For all it is used as a synonym for "men", any societal-level system of oppression has to have women participating in it. And despite the fact that the patriarchy is broadly defined as "the collective societal systems which privilege men over women", even when women are given advantages over men. For example, most teachers are women, yet when one hears about a teacher abusing a student, one thinks of a male perp. Men accused of rape are generally presumed to be guilty in the court of public opinion, and have their lives put under a microscope just like feminists claim the alleged victim is subject to. Yet when you bring this sort of thing up in feminist discussions, the cry rings out "the patriarchy hurts men to!" despite that being self-contradictory to the very concept. I've seen one feminist blog insist that the same horrible treatment they complained about a false rape accuser getting didn't really hurt the accused at all.

And if patriarchy privileges both men and women, then what's the point of making it a male-gendered term? I'd use "kyriarchy", but I really hate how social justice discussions tend to spring up new vocabulary like weeds. I prefer to just use "society".

I'm not sure what any of this has to do with Judd looking puffy, though.
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Pinkie Holmes
by ~u63r on deviantART

I REGRET NOTHING.

Drawn after “Mmmystery on the Friendship Express”.
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http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6501955/6/Project_Gethinator
"These are no longer Protheans," EDI replied. "There are signs of extensive genetic rewrite: Reduced heterochromatin structure, deletion of superfluous 'junk' genes, and the phrase 'U GOT REAPED LOL' encoded into their genome."

No.

Just...no.

For the record, Mass Effect: Interregnum, covering what Garrus did while Shep was dead in ME2, does shout outs so much better. I generally prefer to put mine in where the story happens to have room for them, like when Alex needed an alias in inPrototype and I chose "Sly Cooper". Broadly speaking, if you can't remove or replace  the reference without the story ceasing to make sense, it's too vital. If you need to know what the shout-out is in order to make sense of what its doing in the story, it's too vital.

In ME:I, there's a scene where Garrus and co get their hands on weapons reminiscent of those from Team Fortress 2, even discussing how much it costs to fire the weapon. This helps to underline the amount of money their employer has. Thing is, it's not a one-off. Garrus keeps thinking of how expensive the mini is during the following action sequence. It's integrated into the story, and can be understood even if one doesn't catch the reference. It's not just some joke shoved in without consideration for whether it fits the tone or not.

Project Gethinator is a light-hearted story, but it at least supposedly has a serious core. Think some of the latter Discworld books. Once you stop portraying the Reapers as an ancient and incomprehensibly powerful force--think space robot Cthulhu--and reduce them to the level of a script kiddie from 4Chan, you might as well be writing a crackfic.

Imagine, say, Inception, or the Dark Knight. Now imagine the dudes from the Hangover suddenly show up. It's not going to work very well.
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Note that they specifically acknowledge that they knew Korra would never be gay.

It's also very sad that one's only interest in the show was that one thought it might have a lesbian in it. Or at least an asexual you can pretend is really lesbian. This is just as shallow as someone choosing not to watch a show because it has gay people in it. Heck, I'm a conservative Christian, and my default reaction to gay characters is "ehh", unless it reaches fanfic levels of the new guy being the morally ambiguous bisexual former lover/professional partner of the main character who finds his estranged (also evil) brother and wears a ridiculous coat with no shirt.

And that's why I don't watch Torchwood.
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>searching for a preview of a Community episode on YT
>keep getting bits of the entire episode

WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON
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http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/19/showbiz/movies/bay-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-ew/index.html

"When you see this movie, kids are going to believe one day these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie," said Michael Bay as he took the stage to discuss his new vision for the reptilian reboot. "These turtles are from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable."
The funny thing is that the franchise always had a load of aliens and sci-fi, and the goo that turned the turtles into mutants in the comic turned out to be from a research institute run by aliens. There was a whole arc about it. Yet fanboys are absolutely flipping their wigs. They are buying wigs in order to flip them. I am schadenfreuding so hard.

This is just another example of people saying Hollywood is original, then complaining when they change something in a way they don't like. And then there's the possibility that Bay meant "alien race" as in "strange and weird race".
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Disney had Middle Eastern, Native American, Asian, and even Hawaiian lead female characters before they had a Black Disney Princess.

What was that about them not being diverse?
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Breakup song by a man: Man, I'm sorry.

Breakup song by a woman: He's a sorry excuse for a man.

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Fanboys: Why is Hollywood always so derivative and unoriginal? All they do is rehash the same ideas over and over.
Marc Webb: This is Amazing Spider Man. Instead of a nerdy everyman like every version ever, Peter is going to be a punk kid with a smart-mouth, smarter mind, and authority issues. Also, the plot is partially about his parents.
Fanboys: WHY ISN'T IT LIKE THE RAIMI MOVIES RUINED 4EVER
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[Brit is cast as an American]
British People: Wow, Actor is really good at that.
[American cast as a Brit]
British People: Why can't they just use British actors to play Brits?
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Insert jokes about the Daily Mail here.

In the age of Lady Gaga's stunts and Nicki Minaj's multi-coloured hair, it's hard for young talent to stand out from the crowd.

Short of dressing like a bank manager, there's almost nowhere left to go...
Well, it worked for Tank Girl. How about shocking by not shocking?

I dunno, Kesha, wouldn't it be a nice change to go out looking like someone who could actually hold down a day job?
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>flips off the show's organizers
>they have to apologize

WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON
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I just had one of those dreams where it's a dream, and you know it's a dream, and characters from the BBC's Sherlock are apparently living in your house and are about to be framed by two women for My Little Pony graffiti in your living room.

Does anyone else have those?

And doesn't it suck when you wake up just before they catch the culprits?
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>musician on YT has a great new video out

YAY

>video was basically paid for in full by a known scumbag currently charged with enough crimes to sent him to jail for 50 years if convicted

Um

>musician says they don't care what the media says, they consider the scumbag a friend

UM
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Our boy specifically thinks he does not want to marry women X and Y, while he is sneaking into a quick wedding with woman Z.

X and Y were willing to share, since the planet allows polygamy, but he did not want to be shared, since he felt that for all their good company in the bedroom, either or both would be the domineering type of woman his mother is before long, and more than he could bear. He has been dodging their offer of marriage for two years.

And Z is the girl next door type, and he both loves her and wants to help out her dad.

Due to a series of circumstances, X and Y show up, and our hero is forced by social and political pressure--from two Emperors, no less--to marry all three women. Z seemed to have no problem with it, but absolutely no one saw fit to consult our boy, even while they were negotiating right in front of him.

So he walks in expecting to marry one woman (whom he loves), and ends up marrying three women, two of whom he explicitly did not want to marry.

I know he's the whipping boy of the canon, but that's Not Okay.

And to think, this fanfic series was going so well up until now, then you just ran full tilt into what TVTropes calls Unfortunate Implications.

Do you know why people like the Wooster books? Because we know Wodehouse is never going to let Bertie end up in a loveless marriage. If he ever did end up getting hitched, we would be reading less along the lines of a light-hearted comedy of manners, and more along the lines of those critically-acclaimed Oscar-nominated movies where everyone is miserable but played by really good actors.

Hang on, I think I'm onto something here. All I have to do is call it a "deconstruction".

Srsly?
-Jonathan
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021500818.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

"I call myself a feminist when people ask me if I am, and of course I am 'cause it's about equality, so I hope everyone is. You know you're working in a patriarchal society when the word feminist has a weird connotation. "Hippie" has a weird connotation. "Liberal" has a weird connotation."


The implied logic here seems to be "feminism has weird connotations, therefore we are living in a patriarchal society". Or perhaps "feminism has weird connotations, and only men are responsible".

"Conservative" has a weird connotation too. It's associated with fat, old white "the 1%" far-right Christian guys. Who's responsible for that, pray tell? Is it an indication that we are living in a Conservative society?

I know, I know, I'm overanalyzing an Ex Tempore remark. But it's one that was widely repeated across the feminist blogosphere, with the equivalent of "you go girl!" attached. Theoretically, feminism is about equality. In practice, however, not so much.

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