Letters to the Editor
libraryprincess
Published Letters: 4 Editor's Choice: 1
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Forget the politics of "shmashmortion" what else does this movie say about women?
[Read the article: Abortion, shmashmortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, let's pretend that "but if she decided to have an abortion, there'd be no movie!!" is a legitimate reply. Let's forget all the "shmashmortion" stuff. What about what ELSE the movie says about women?
Alison has NO female friends outside of her sister. She has no circle of people to discuss her decision with. Ben? Is surrounded on all sides by friends, by guys who are THERE for him in every aspect of his life, at the delivery, while making the decision, while hanging out, they are all there. And Alison, in turn, learns to adjust to hanging out with them. Alison, in fact, tries DESPERATELY to relate to things in Ben's world. Ben...pretty much thinks she is, well, pretty. This is a "dude's" world, from the conversation and humor down to Harold Ramis as the "good" parent and Joanna Kerns as the "bad" one.
Or what about Ben's ultimate decision to "be the MAN" ... he starts fixing up a house, gets a real job, does what "a man" is supposed to do. Alison, I guess, with her salary from E! News is...I don't know, buying shoes? Because, after all, that's what ladies do! They are certainly never the main breadwinner! Pish-posh.
My problems with this movie, and with Judd Apatow's entire school of comedy, is much larger than just the "shmashmortion" issue, it's the things he hints at in interviews (like the NY Times magazine article where he discusses how staying together for a kid's sake is "honorable" and talks about how he's writing a movie about relationships but he is surrounded by guys who are "scared of talking to girls.") and that is his larger problem with dealing with women. I think that's just as telling...and troubling.
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Wow, I'm loving all the misogyny flowing here!
[Read the article: Whack-a-baby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's almost as awesome as the graphic which, forget Traister's description (which was SUPPOSED to be over-the-top), is completely insulting. "I was considering getting an abortion, as is my legal right" somehow translates to "I WANTED TO BASH THE BABY IN THE HEAD, ALSO, YOU KNOW HOW THOSE MEXICANS ARE, WITH THE LOVING PINATAS." So, yay, all the anon trolls who don't have the guts to sign their names but love bashing the feminist blog conspiracy which, as we all know, is a secret cabal of "feminazis" out to, ya know, bash babies in the head.
As for the content of the article? Like all "Modern Love" columns it dealt with the agonizing problems facing the upper-middle class. Yes, I do feel great sympathy for any couple facing this situation but, please, they had so many options open to them that that to pretend this was a crisis of unheard of preportions was insulting. And besides the passive-aggressive insult to blogs that have the TEMERITY to discuss abortion like it was some kind of POLITICAL ISSUE (and yes, there are plenty of blogs and blog entries from the left that talk about the emotional experience of it. They aren't hard to find. But GOD FORBID poor Ms. Kaysen actually read blogs that suggested that post-abortion she would thrive. HOW UNHELPFUL!!) I ended up thinking their marriage is going to end in divorce in a year or two when their "adventure" leads to Ms. Kaysen wanting to return to the states for their child's health and safety ("My mother wants to see the baby sometime! We need to start thinking about the best Mommy and Me classes!") and her husband wanting to stay because, "I am finally getting material for the book!" But I'm sure that's just me, being the cynical kind of person who, since she has considered abortion, wants to bash babies heads in.
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Good Old Fashioned Sexism At Work
[Read the article: Greed, water and poetry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for covering this documentary, I've been hearing great things about it and it's good to know that it's not all hype. I hope it manages to get a fair-sized-doc run in theaters.
I do, however, have to point out that your blurb for it is incredibly, and typically, sexist. Produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, "The Unforeseen" is the "Chinatown" of Texas real-estate documentaries.
Yeah, seventeen words and you can't spare one for the director? (who is famous herself, but nevermind that part.) No, no, what about THE MEN that made this baby???!!
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Who Has The Dirty Mind Here?
[Read the article: They "might as well call themselves Slutbucks"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Legs spread!" cries the fundamentalist. LEGS!?!? She's a freaking mermaid, for the love of GOD, she doesn't have legs, she has a tail! Talk about wanting to see perversion and attack where there is none. C'mon.