Feminist Alert: Amazons, inherently defeatable (and rapable)?

(I was just informed by my flatmate that it is actually colder here in NOLA than in either Paris or Norwich… can you believe it?)

I read something interesting today that got me a little thinking and, of course, I wanted to share it with you:

“As long as a woman did not take her assumed masculinity too seriously, as long as she did not believe that it entitled her to any male social priviledges, men must admire it somewhat, just as the Greek warriors were said to have admired the Amazons they defeated.” Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men – Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present

Don’t mind the first part (although it is interesting and not very surprising since men would probably think that women who were masculine wanted to imitate them ’cause they are so great…), the last part is interesting. “… the Amazons they defeated.” No wonder everybody thinks they were a mere myth when men talked like that: Oh, yeah, they were good warriors, but in the end we defeated them (with no great losses, nobody was killed, some died of a severe cold, though), ’cause after all, they were just women…

Annoying, somehow. What it says is clear: women want to be defeated, they want to be dominated. (Did I say annoying? It’s sick, really.) What makes me really more doubtful about this whole thing is, that even a show like “Xena: Warrior Princess” jumps onto that bandwagon. I mean, I love the show, but even I got annoyed when the Amazons were defeated once more…

I mean, I can understand that Xena nearly wiped a whole Amazon Nation (that woman had to just smile at them and they would have been defeated, I understand that perfectly) but everybody else? Even those stupid Romans? Hell, what were those writers thinking sometimes? That we wouldn’t notice? Well, I guess that could have thought that… after all, they actually tried to sell us that Xena would fall for a guy like Rafe (was that the guys name in “King Con”? You know who I mean.)

Anyway, if we go back to the myth behind Ephiny and her companions we see how often the heroes would – after having defeated the Amazons – would then sleep with at least one of them, having a lover, is probably the terminology the writers of these myths have chosen (I have never read any of the texts, only heard those stories told over and over, sometimes differently). But do we honestly think the defeated proud Amazons would have succumbed to that? Oh, yeah, I know, we were enemies before and I would have cut your head off your shoulders if only I could have, but it’s okay now, take me, my hero…

Somehow, I don’t think so. Which brings me to warfare in general. What did men do when they had conquered a land (through warfare or otherwise)? They would loot, pillage, burn the village and rape the women on the way out… common warfare practice since forever.

We have read a book in our Gender-class: Conquest by Andrea Smith. She argues that native nations were and are still inherently rapable. That they are still abused, that Indian women are still raped, together with the land. I think, it’s a really powerful and disturbing peace (I know, that there are people who disagree).

To come back to the Amazons (and I really believe they have lived, and I hate when the people in my Anthropology classes talk about Amazons like they never existed… but that’s another blog-post, altogether), they were defeated (pretty much by everybody) and there was sexual intercourse… historically it is much more likely that they were raped. I guess, it would also be more logical but I hate to say that rape is logical…

Anyway, that was on my mind today.

Watchable: Xena Music-Videos (includes severe labelling!)

I don’t really have to say much today – or yesterday… that was weird, I could not think of a single thing to say to you guys (must be the weather – if you’re short of someone to blame, the weather is always a good substitute, by the way… where was I). So, I am very tired these days with writing a gazillion papers and exams and blogposts (well, that is not really exhausting, if it was I wouldn’t do it) and I need something to relax and sometimes I just switch to youtube.com, because you can spent hours there looking at (lesbian) videos. And since I am a Xenite, lots of those videos are Xena-related.

So, I came across these videos. They are funny, they are so not pc, I like them and I thought you should, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pyH3l9nEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT4xaiNQwk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leq5xBeR_OY&NR=1&feature=fvwp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_pqcFUmCI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGArAZWSyY&feature=related

Okay, this might not be so much fun, but I love the song and think it’s perfect (I actually immediately thought of XeGa after hearing it the first time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha824Z6NSpI&feature=related

And if you want to, we can talk how you feel about this…

RMB: Lesbians-that-wasn’t

I have already said that I spend a lot of time on afterellen.com. I like the articles, the way it is presented, the snap of it (I have actually written an essay about it… maybe I will put it up on the essay page… I’ll think about it). So, is what I do every morning I read and this morning came across this article:

http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2009/11/characters-were-thankful-for

For those too lazy to follow the link: some of the bloggers of the page came up with a list of lesbian and bisexual character they are thankful for (since it is Thanksgiving and we all have to be thankful for something). The list was not what I thought it would be, some of the characters surprised me, most of all Nancy Bartlett (Sandra Bernhard) from “Roseanne.” I remember her, of course, since I watched that sitcom and still watch it’s reruns because I love the show.

Well, I started thinking abou the question myself but must have lost track because I thought of another character on “Roseanne” that was one of my favorite “lesbians”: Jackie Harris (Laurie Metcalf). Those of you who know the show may now say, but she wasn’t a lesbian. Yet she was. Strangely enough, in the last episode of the show Roseanne reveals that it was not her mother but her sister who had come out that last year of the show – she just changed it in her story, which was the show (it got complicated, but I thought it was well done). And I was not surprised. I guess, in a way I had always seen Jackie as lesbian, and her horrible track-record with men had little to do with it. She was just so… so gay.

And she wasn’t the only one on the show:

Darlene (Sarah Connor) to me became a sort of stereotype for lesbians-that-wasn’t. This is to say, they were character that should have been lesbians but the story-tellers, conventions, the invisible God that is society did not allow them to be lesbians. They were smart to a fault, arrogant because of it, had poor social skills and would say the seemingly meanest things – but not be aware of the meanness. Here are those I remember:

Remember “Growing Pains”? If I remember correctly it was the show, Leonardo di Caprio came out of (that’s not him in the picture, though). Tracy Gold’s character Carol Seavers was edgy, intelligent and usually the most grown up of the Seaver-kids. The constant reference toward her weight on the show brought on eating disorders for Gold and she had to resign… maybe she would have been happier if the writers had made her come out and tell her brother to finally shut up!

Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris). You cannot believe how much in love with her I was (without even knowing it). She was the main reason I watched “Beverly Hills 90210.” She was the oldest in a cast full of actors who were too old to play high-school-kids but, man, she could pull it off. Her character was the one who would hint at the controversial stuff discussed early in the show (remember the discussion about condom-dispensers in the school’s bathroom, the fact that she was probably the first teen on a tv show that had an African-American boyfriend…). Unfortunately, she was also the one with sexual missteps such as sleeping with her college professor, and the first of the girls who got pregnant (the only one?). I think, the writer’s never know what they are supposed to do with intelligent girls, so they make them sexually inexperienced and dumb in the respect of birth control.

Paris Gellar (Liza Weil). She’s classy, ambitious, an impossible character to love but I did that. And when you think about it: her first love-interest on the show was a boy she couldn’t have, then a boy she hardly ever saw, then an elderly – or rather “old” – man (what is it with would-be-lesbians and their professors?)… a closeted lesbian, if you ask me. The relationship with that editor-dude (whom I still blame in part for the death of Tara on “Buffy” – hate ‘em all!!!) was a mistake, clearly, they should have just given her a girlfriend and be done with it.

And last but not least (and she’s still on, even though they try to change her character and fit it into their little cake pan for heterosexual women):

Yes, Bones. And let me tell you, I get the goosebumps when Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Cam Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) are leaning closely over a dead body… and not because of the dead body. What can I say, I am twisted…

Just to come around, the lesbian / bisexual characters I am most thankful for (and I guess they are obvious answers, but I am an obvious kind-a-gal):

Ellen and…

Xena, of course!

RMB: Xena – Warrior Princess

Okay, this is a birthday-treat for me. I am getting to write about one of my favorite things (so what, if it’s a tv show?). I have been a tv junkie since forever. I would sit in front of a tv set for hours even when I was just a kid. The first thing I did when I came from school, I would turn on the tv and then get hypnotized till I had to go to bed… I guess, you could say I was partly raised by the stuff that was broadcasted on German television… nowadays, I don’t even own a tv set.

The reason is that the tv program really sucks. I mean, really, really sucks. And part of the reason is that in 2001 they stopped doing “Xena.” You probably think, that this is not really a reason, but it is, actually. Think of what they produced afterwards and you have to agree. All those “great” shows that ran ever since 2001 were in most cases sexist, anti-feminist, anti-queer, or just plain stupid! And Buffy was cancelled two year after “Xena” and I didn’t even watch the last season because they killed off Tara at the end of six… I’m still mad about that.

Y’know, ever since I came across this weird show with the leather-clad heroine and her chatty friend  I wondered what made it so special. Most people still think that it was mainly a female version of “Hercules: The Legendary Journey” but it was not. It was not (technically) a show about lesbians, it was not even a fantasy show (not for me, anyways). It was a show about friendship (yes, even as a maintexter, I have to admit that it was mainly about that), the sort of friendship we are all looking for. The sort of friendship where your daughter can kill your best friend’s son and you are still forgiven (man, that plot really rocked!). So, if you have never seen an episode I’d say you missed out on something. But it’s never too late since even in Germany you can now purchase the DVDs.

I remember when I first heard of the show, I was like: Oh, no, not another show about pseudo-greek-mythology. I had never seen a Hercules-episode because I am actually a fan of Greek mythology and thought I could not stand something that was an Americanized version of it. No way, no how. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it turned out) they showed “Xena” on Sunday afternoons and there was absolutely NOTHING on at that time of day. So I usually switched from one program to the next, bored beyond reason… and then I came across the ending of “Here she comes, Miss Amphipolis” and saw two women kissing (it wasn’t really two women, it was a drag-queen that kissed Xena “full on the lips”, but he was dressed as a woman but since I had not seen the whole episode I did not know that). The thing is, I didn’t even know I was gay at that time, still, it intruiged me and I had to tune in the next time, which was “Destiny” – also intriguing because Xena dies in that episode (and I did not know that this was just another ordinary plot device). Gosh, good times, good times. *lol*

The show was unconventional. It was – should probably write “is” – feminism in practice. Then there is the more than hinted at lesbianism… but more importantly the love between the main characters. They did a lot of extraordinary things on this show, often for the first time in television history. It was ground-breaking. Willow (on “Buffy”) would probably not have been a lesbian if it wasn’t for “Xena.” There would probably also never have been a musical episode on “Buffy” without “Xena” (Joss Whedon was a Xenite – maybe he still is).

It is actually kind of sad to look at television now. Post-Xena television is business-as-usual. Women have gone back into the kitchen (which is a metaphor for the genres women usually inhabit and action-shows are not among them), you just have to look at “Heroes” (a show I actually like): two female heroes and a lot more male heroes… look at crime shows, most of them have one female cop and loads of male cops, feds, whatever… sad, really, to watch tv.

The 90s (and early 00s) did not only have Xena and Gabrielle, there was Buffy, Willow, Faith, on “Buffy,” Jessica Alba was “Street Angel” (if only for two seasons, or was it actually three?), but whenever they come up with a female hero now it is recycled and not very long-lived (Sarah Connor and the “Bionic Woman” did not survive, why?).

Well, you see, “Xena” was good as long as it lasted (she died too young!). I am now waiting for “Spartacus” to take up that threat – please, let Lucy kick some ass, TPTB, I’ve waited so long for this!

Watchable: Bitch Slap

Finally, “Bitch Slap” has a release-date, the downside is, I won’t be here anymore or anywhere near the movie-theaters they’re playing it in. New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco are the lucky cities that show this film that has been on my dying-to-see-list since I first heard about it.

Let’s time-travel a little, because I think, the first time I heard about it was – I don’t know – two or three years ago. I was looking up Lucy and Renée on imdb.com and saw that they were both cast for the same movie… for some reason, that got me hooked (oh, by the way, if you don’t know who Lucy and Renée are: does the quote: “I’ve got many skills.” ring a bell with you? No? Then, what are you doing here?). So, I have been waiting a long time for that release-date (watching trailers, visiting the official web-site, watching the trailers again), but it seems that I have to wait even longer. Seems that the DVD is coming out in April… hm, I wonder if they will maybe show the movie in Berlin. *havingagoodideaformybirthdaywishtomorrow*

If you are able to watch it in those few theaters who will actually show it (in case I haven’t mentioned, release-date is January 8th, 2010), or on DVD or via telepathy (well, I don’t know you well enough to know that you cannot do that), in any given case, watch the red-band trailer here:

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/bitch-slap/red-band-trailer

Oh, and you might wanna put a towel over your keyboard – audiences of the trailer have been reported to drool… just a precaution.

So, I guess I should go into the appeal of this movie. I guess, you would agree that the trailer looks a little Tarantino. Well, it should since “Bitch Slap” is ripping-off of 70s exploitation movies and we know how much Tarantino likes to do that. But maybe this is even better: think of “Xena: Warrior Princess” meeting 70s exploitation movies. The Producers of “Bitch Slap” are Eric Gruendemann and Rick Jacobson (who were both involved a lot in “Xena”), Lucy and Renée are in there, as well as Michael Hurst and Kevin Sorbo, and what was his name, the dude who played Joxer’s son, William Gregory Lee. Plus, Zoe Bell who was Lucy’s stuntdouble. Need I say more?

 

Exactly! What else: hot women, big guns, Lucy and Renée, things that blow-up, girls kissing (each other), Lucy and Renée, more hot chicks, men get beaten-up and have I mentioned – LUCY and RENÉE in ONE movie TOGETHER!!!

Am I obsessed?  I have been since ca. 1997. But I tell you what: as soon as I have finally seen it I will write a feminist review on why women (straight women, because I would not keep lesbians and bisexual women from watching this for the world) should not watch it.

May God have mercy on your soul…

Let’s play Charlie’s Angel today

I have just read that there is a new TV show in the makings: “Charlie’s Angels”. Well, not that new, really, because most of us should remember the original Spelling-show from the 70s not to mention the two recent movies. And it is not surprising that one of the people involved in this new show seems to be Drew Barrymore.

I am not sure if this is such a good thing, though. Believe me, I love Drew Barrymore and not just because she was the little girl on E.T. (which was by the way a rather scary movie which I would not be unhappy to never watch again). Drew Barrymore has proven that she is a great actress, a capable producer and director (I have not seen “Whip It!” yet but I am going to). But unfortunately, I hated the two “Charlie’s Angels” movies. I am not even sure why – I don’t think that Cameron Diaz would be reason enough to hate a movie though I am not especially a big fan of her. But I guess, it’s because I loved the original series so much.

Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith kicked ass! And I even liked Cheryl Ladd (in re-runs even Shelley Hack, Tanya Roberts not so much, though). Of course, today I can also see that I was a total goner for Kate Jackson (the first in a row of many Kates…).

That picture, by the way, is from the episode that had Kim Basinger in it… *smile*

I remember her better from the show “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (in Germany “Agentin mit Herz”). Gosh, I loved that show, too. As you may have noticed I am travelling down memory lane by now but that’s okay, too, after all, this is my blog. What I really want to say is: I don’t want a TV-version of the two Angels-movies. I think, they lacked class compared to the original series. And they lacked Kate Jackson. I am also a little doubtful about the value of a done-over TV-concept. Why not try something new instead?

And while we are at it: where is the “Cagney & Lacey” movie I have been waiting for so long… and the “Wonder Woman” movie. If you want to recycle old why not start there? I am also still waiting for a “Xena” movie… but don’t try to do it without Lucy and Renée, ’cause we won’t stand for it… I am going to blog on “Xena” one of these days, by the way… there is still so much to say…

Okay, leaving you to think about your all time-favorite shows now…