The Girl Can't Help It

Alright everyone. As most of you probably know today is International Women’s day. Considering the nature of this web space, I want to do it right. There are lots of ways to celebrate this day, whether you are male or female, but I have a very special request for the ladies out there.

Let’s celebrate International Women’s day by cutting the crap, getting together and not tearing each other down. I mean it. We are on the same side, and most of us have been fucked over by this patriarchal society in some way. If we claw each others eyes out over a bunch of trivialities, we are just playing into their hands. The fight for our bodies and our right to just be who we are is ongoing, and we need to support one another in this. 

Lately my personal theme song has been “We Can Be Together” by Jefferson Airplane, which was sung by Grace Slick, one of the baddest Mammas ever to do it. While this song was written for the youth social movements of the 1960s, I think it still holds true today. I’m not saying we should destroy literal property, but the “patriarchal property” that is keeping us down. Pour out your fitness water, and let’s go meet up somewhere. After all, we can and should be together.

Love

Samantha

So after several months away, I’ve decided to get back into the action with this here weblog. I was partially inspired by my girl Molly Lambert over at This Recording, and partially inspired by this strange, wonderful, but often troubling word that we live in. 

Puro Instinct, who are one of my favorite bands currently doing it, recently put out their debut LP, Headbangers in Ecstasy. Although we’re just under 2 months into the year, I can already say that this one will be high on my list. From top to bottom it is a moody sonic experience that is equal parts cotton candy pink and melancholy gray. It moves effortlessly from dream pop, to an intriguingly intangible fuzz of vintage, FM radio near hits. In short, it was an output that was beyond impressive from a band that had already been wowing me.

When Pitchfork’s Ian Cohen reviewed the record, he had a different take on it.  

Now I’m not saying its a sin to dislike something that I love. I can certainly see an angle from which someone might not be feeling this record, and on top of that we’d collectively die of boredom if we all vibed on the same stash. My issue with Cohen’s near slam of the record was his use of off base references, and (more topically to this web space) his thinly veiled use of gender in the overall critique of the record, and the band.

In case you didn’t know, the two main members of Puro Instinct are Piper and Skylar Kaplan who, as many male music writers have pointed out, are young (blond) sisters. Cohen opens his review by pointing out this oft repeated bit of biographical information. As he continues, his review spends just as much time editorializing about Los Angeles culture as it does on the actual sound of the actual record.  He wraps it all up by describing the record as a “sonic embodiment” of the album’s cover, i.e “pretty, vacant.”

This is the album cover

Let’s talk about this cover for a second, shall we?

I have to say that my initial reaction to this image was not entirely positive. I mean, I’m far from a prude, but my gut reaction was that this was not a smart move. My logic was that with the press already so focused on their gender and attractiveness, why not go for something a little bit less sexy? As third (or even ninth) wave as I usually am, I wasn’t feeling the lying down in lingerie motif. I guess it struck me as being a bit passive.

However, as time passed, and I started to peel away the layers of social conditioning and general lameness, I realized that there might be more to the “picture”. I guess my image of sexy, strong and both feminine and feminist looked more like the cover of the album Cut by The Slits.

In that case there was a more obvious attempt to challenge the male gaze. By comparison the Headbangers cover is much more traditionally sexy. However, the one thing that both covers have in common is that the female musicians in question had a great deal of control over the image. They came up with concepts on their own, and weren’t at the hands of some Kim Fowley-esque overlord. Although the covers have considerably different effects, the process behind them aren’t so dissimilar. At first glance the comparison comes down to powerless (Puro) vs. powerful. While standing up, covered in mud might seem more powerful than laying on your back in lingerie, how much water does this actually hold? 

Obviously, I consider myself a feminist, and a central part of my ideology is that women should be allowed to have choices, and to express themselves in a number of ways without risking their right to be seen as human. If I want to wear a low cut dress every once in awhile, because I have positive feelings about my body and don’t want to hide it, I should be able to do that without risking intellectual credibility. If anyone, male or female, can’t treat me like a human because of this, that’s their own patriarchal conundrum to sort out. If a woman wants to dress in a way that de-emphasizes her natural shape, she should be allowed to do that, but that should be a choice, rather than a requirement. No matter how a woman dresses, it shouldn’t be assumed that she is doing it for male validation. 

As far as sex goes, many of us are more often on our backs in something skimpy than we are upright and covered in mud like warrior women. If you are more often than not an upright warrior woman, then I salute you! However, if you are on your back this does not mean the complete sacrifice of power or agency. This is especially true if you’ve built up your thigh muscles. I kid. But in all seriousness, there are a multitude of ways to be sexy and powerful, and things aren’t always what they seem at first glance.

I think one of the main problems with Mr. Cohen’s review of Headbangers is that so much of it seems to be a knee jerk reaction to the cover. While I think it is important to think about what could be read in the image you put out there, I find it highly unlikely that an album by a male artist would ever be treated so dismissively. After all, there is still no effective way to slut shame a man.

Sorry for the spoiler filled post title.

I have to say that this week’s episode of Boardwalk Empire was more compelling than usual. As opposed to inundating us with convoluted plotting, we focused more on character development. We probably spent the most quality time with Nucky, and with Jimmy and his Phantom of the Opera-esque buddy. However, there was scene that gave us some interesting new information.

Angela Darmody (Jimmy’s wife) is a lesbian.

Remember when Jimmy thought that she’d been banging the guy who owned the photo studio while he was away at war. Well JImmy was wrong, because Angela was (and is) doing it with that guy’s wife!

Getting past the initial reveal, on many levels the inclusion of this storyline makes me quite happy; even in 2010 lesbian relationships are rare in mainstream media. Also, the relationship is portrayed in a way that gives off the feeling of genuine love, and physical attraction. This is also something that is rare in portrayals of same sex couples.

However, I do have a few bones to pick. For one thing, it appears as though this plot line isn’t really privileged in the show’s narrative. The two women express worry over having been seen together by Nucky Thompson previously. Pretty much everyone I know who watched the show was confused by this conversation, and could not remember such a scene taking place. This leads me to believe that we never actually saw the scene, and that it was a victim of the editing room. If this is true, the show must not value this lesbian plot line too much. It also makes me wonder what other scenes with these characters might be missing. In addition, while I am happy that they are unafraid to portray intimacy between a same sex couple, the amount of time spent lingering on their youthful, bare chests seemed like it might have been playing into male girl-on-girl fantasies. I’m in no way against ladies getting nekkid (see my stance on Sex Positivism and my appreciation of Paz De La Huerta), and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a man enjoying a woman’s body (even if he isn’t the intended audience), but the way the camera lingered was just a bit too Skinemax. You can hardly call that radical, especially since it seems that this story line has been short changed in other areas. Still, we will undoubtedly get more of Angela and her lover, and I’m excited to see where that plot goes.

During the most recent season of Mad Men Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) found herself in an interesting predicament; after a one night stand with former lover Roger Sterling, she was unexpectedly pregnant. Joan’s husband had been away on a tour of military service at that point for about two months, which would make it clear that he wasn’t the father. After talking it over with Roger, they decide that it would be best for her to have an abortion. We know from a previous episode that Joan has had more than one abortion in the past.

When she arrives at the clinic (which is out of town), she sits in the lobby with a woman who is about her age who is accompanying her teenage daughter. After the daughter goes in to see the doctor, the woman spills her guts to Joan. After this confession the woman asks Joan how old her daughter is, assuming that it could not be Joan who is getting the procedure. Joan lies and says her daughter is 15. When we next see her, it is later on in the episode and she is riding the bus home. Its not clear whether she went through with it. However, after much speculation, in the season finale we learn that she did in fact keep the baby.

The decision of the writers to have Joan keep the baby attracted a certain amount of criticism from pro-choice activists. It is so rare that we see someone go through with an abortion on American television, so it felt like a cop out to some that Joan kept the baby. However, as far as the story goes, Joan going through with a pregnancy could lead the show in an interesting direction. In the next season she will have to deal with her husband (if he survives the war), Roger (who thinks she aborted), and her co-workers who don’t know that she is pregnant. Although I do wish that more shows would portray characters actually going through with abortions, in this case I think the writers made the best decision in terms of Joan’s character ark.

On FX’s Sons of Anarchy, a character is trying to decide whether or not to have an abortion, and in this case I do hope that the writers have her go through with it. Tara, who is the long time on and off again girlfriend of Jax (the Sons vice president) has also discovered that she is pregnant. The timing of this, however, is quite bad. Jax’s infant son was recently kidnapped, which forced Jax to travel to Ireland where he believes the baby to be. Right before he left, he broke things off with Tara because of concerns about her safety. The morning after this, she walked in on him and a porn star. On top of everything, Tara has a high stress career as a surgeon, and does not have the time to raise a child, particularly if the father might be out of the picture. 

Although it is rare for a character to go through with an abortion on television, i feel like the writers on Sons would be willing to take it in that direction. Last season they did a really good job of dealing with Jemma’s rape, and its aftermath. Although abortion is an entirely different issue, it could give the writers an opportunity to explore the tension that is caused by secrets, something that they clearly love dealing with. Also, unlike Joan on Mad Men, Tara’s character arc could be made more interesting by the abortion. Jax doesn’t even know that she’s pregnant, and if he finds out about the abortion, its unclear how he would feel. In addition to this, it not clear that Jax will get his son back, which could effect how Tara feels about the abortion in its aftermath. It would also be playing it a little bit safe if Jax lost his son, but had another baby on the way to help him get over it all. Perhaps the writers plan to use Tara’s pregnancy (and birth) as a way to reunite Jax and Tara, but I think more is to be gained by going forward with the abortion plot line.

Recently I watched the Larry Sanders show from top to bottom, via my boyfriend’s lap top. If you’ve never seen it before, I recommend doing the same; its hilarious, incredibly smart, and ahead of its time. 

There’s one episode that I often think back to. In its main plot, a woman named Wendy (played by none other than Sarah Silverman) is hired to join the show’s writing staff. Wendy is very talented, and Larry even uses some of her jokes in his monologue. However, Phil, who is the head writer, is not a fan of hers. His reason?: Women aren’t funny.

Although the show condemns Phil’s attitude and behavior, the scenario it portrays is still quite common today. Comedy is often thought of as a man’s game, and female comedians often don’t generate the same amount of excitement that their male counterparts do. In interpersonal relations, women are often discouraged from being funny because it supposedly makes them less attractive than men. I’ve been known to crack a joke here and there, but when I was an awkward teen I was afraid to be funny around guys I liked for this very reason. While I know that a lot of guys don’t buy into this, our media has very few female figures and characters who are both funny and attractive. However, there are some major exceptions that I hope will lead to a full fledged trend of awesome, sexy, and hilarious ladies having a permanent place in our culture. Let’s give props to a few of them.

Lizzy Caplan

Sometimes I think of Lizzy Caplan as the better version of Zooey Deschanel. While she often gets cast in those “manic pixie dreamgirl” roles that have made Ms. Deschanel into an icon, she seems way too down to Earth to exist in some sort of twee wonderland made of pipe cleaners and rainbow sprinkles. As Casey Klein on the brilliant but cancelled Party Down, she brought on some serious laughs, but also gave us a character that we could run the gamut of human emotions with. Most boys think she’s a fox, but she could totally hang with most girls. 

In the (hopefully) near future she is set to star in a tv series based on Julie Klausner’s memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band. It kind’ve sounds like a younger version of Sex And The City for ladies who drink Pabst and who can’t afford Manolos, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With Caplan as its lead it should be promising.

Elizabeth Banks

It wasn’t until pretty recently that I realized how talented Elizabeth Banks really was. She did well in most of the roles that I saw her play, but she tended to fit into comedies in the way that most conventionally attractive women do; she was always the “girlfriend”. Although these “girlfriend” roles gave her the chance to show off her comedic timing, her male co-stars usually got most of the laughs. However, through her recurring role on 30 Rock as Avery, she proves that she is a true comedic talent. While she is indeed playing the “girlfriend” of Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, she holds her own, and steals almost every scene that she’s in. She hasn’t been featured yet on this season, but since Avery is pregnant with Jack Donaghy’s child, we will surely be seeing more of her.

Molly Lambert

Molly Lambert, isn’t on TV, but she’s on the the internet. She blogs over at This Recording and is actually a friend of mine. She’s one of those rare people whose writerly voice is a lot like her conversational voice. When you talk to her or read her work, be prepared for some hilarious, brilliant, off the wall commentary relating to pop culture of the past, present, and future (?). I also feel that her Mad Men recaps might be the best on the internet. Also, if you’re looking for some aural pleasure, check out her Kenny Powers mixes that she does as a companion to HBOs Eastbound & Down. She recently started writing for Pitchfork, and I can’t wait to see more of her sensibility on the site.

So that’s it for now. Of course there are many more funny ladies out there (and throughout history) who I could sing the praises of, but time is a valuable commodity. These three have just been on my mind of late. I think that all of them make the world a better place for funny ladies of all kinds.