As a lovely tumblr post I've seen somewhere said: I am really enjoying this new film genre of Mens Rights Activist Horror Films. Films in this genre include Mad Max: Fury Road and Ghostbusters2016. The so called man hating films that are taking macho genres away from the men with their positive female characters and the fact that the male characters are secondary. You've probably seen the man hate on Twitter, Youtube, and any other place stupid babies need the most attention.
I thought Mad Max: Fury Road was the best film of last year and I wouldn't have seen it without all the man hate it got. I also credit Tumblr's "It's actually really fucking good!" posts and the Biker Kookums in the movie for making me love it. So I'm expecting good things from Ghostbusters 2016 after seeing all the hate it's been getting months before it's even released.
I saw the most recent trailer for the film and really loved how bad ass it made all the female leads look. There's a scene around minute 1:08 where Kristen Wiig's character fires off her weapon and she looks like freakin' Xena Warrior Princess! I love how Thor is their dimwitted but well-meaning receptionist that they're most likely going to have to save at one point in the movie. I LOVE HOLTZMANN AND SHE IS ONLY IN THE TRAILERS BRIEFLY.
I'm also really blown away by the hate it's getting before everyone has even seen it. I think I know why it's getting so much hate from the men, let me tell you a story:
When I was a little girl, I loved the original Batman movie with Michael Keaton. I wanted to BE him and told my mum on Halloween that I wanted to go as Batman. She said I couldn't cause Batman was for boys. She said I could go as any girl character I wanted. So I looked at my choices in that movie.
There was:
Vicki Vale who faints after getting jump scared.
Alicia who is disfigured and presumably murdered by the Joker
And Martha Wayne who is killed by the Joker.
For a long time, this was basically the choices for nerdy girls to look up to in their favourite media. The girls in nerd media were always secondary and the ones that needed to be saved or die for the male hero's story.
With the new Ghostbusters, this is reversed. The leads are the women who are going to have to save their guy. Now the nerdy girls and women are the Batman and the nerdy Gatekeeping MRA asses are the Vicki Vales. And they can't even handle ONE movie where they aren't the focus and that makes me laugh.
So I'll see the new Ghostbusters and I'll cosplay as Holtzmann at my next con. Cause it's cool to be the Batman for once.
I've been on a kick for the last little while looking for movies about Indigenous people. Not just First Nations obviously but other Indigenous folks from around the world. I was really loving Elle Maija Tailfeathers documentary Bihttoš when I saw it at Native Women and Film last month (where my film Crash Site also played awwww thank you!). Of all the narrative films I've seen about Indigenous people, all of them have had Indigenous women in the leads. Which I thought was just awesome.
I saw Rabbit Proof Fence when I was in Australia. I was in Brisbane after a day spent on the ocean, winding down in the common room of the hostel I was at when someone from South America wanted to watch an "Australian" movie. So we watched Rabbit Proof Fence. In case you haven't seen it, it's about these three Aboriginal girls who are stolen from their home and taken to a government school to be trained as maids. They run away from the school to return home, following the rabbit proof fence that leads back to their mum and grandmother. The best thing about the movie is that it's a true story. A 14-year-old escaped a terrible school with her 8-year-old sister and 11-year-old cousin and crossed 1600KMs on foot across the bloody desert. And the 14-year-old did it again when she was sent back in her 20s. This movie is one of my favourites! It's so rare to see a journey story with girls in the leads. And it breaks my heart every single time Molly and Daisy made it home and all Molly can say when she hugs her grandmother again is that she "lost one", meaning their cousin Gracie who was taken back to the school. She's been so strong throughout the journey and other than the time she was stolen, this is the only time she breaks down.
One thing I always argue about with my good friend Sage is how the roles
of women might have evolved within Indigenous cultures had we been
allowed to let it grow as it should have. I say this because I was
annoyed that there are so many rules barring me from rituals cause of
moon time or just because I'm a lady. This is probably why I responded
to Whale Rider so hard. The movie is about a young girl who's
male twin was destined to become the next leader of their community but
died at birth. She decides that she's really the leader and sets out to
prove it to her grandfather. My favourite thing about the movie is how
the acceptance of Pai as their leader starts to make her community
better. I also really like the message of how holding steadfast to the
old ways may not always be the best thing. Watch it, it's great!
Ok and now my favourite movie. But first, a rant. I am watching Canada Reads and was really annoyed at the comment that one of the panelists said about how there needed to be more "positive" stories about Aboriginals. Which annoys me. White people's stories aren't entirely positive or negative. There's good with the bad in everything. But one of the movies I think balances the good with the bad is The Sapphires. It's a funny movie with cute characters and an awesome soundtrack. But it's also a movie where one of the characters is of the Stolen Generation and deals with racism dealt out by people of her own community. That one hit me where I lived. Kay is Aboriginal but faces a lot of criticism cause she looks white. Her cousin implies that Kay hasn't had to face the same struggles she has had because of her skin colour. Nothing bugs me more than people trying to belittle the struggle of others. Kay was taken from her family as a CHILD and told that everything that she loved was wrong and she had to forget about it. I am a pale Native and I hate when people try to belittle my struggle. It's not a competition. Native isn't who I am trying to be it is who I am. And this movie was one of the first times I saw an Indigenous girl dealing with that struggle. Lots of love to it.
What are you waiting for? Go watch these movies! They're great.
Being a wrestling fan isn't easy. You've got folks on your ass about liking a "fake" sport and all the homoerotic bits.
Add on being a female wrestling fan and things are even more sucky. You're told you're only into wrestling for the hot guys and don't know shit about anything when it comes to wrestling.
Trust me, I wasn't in it for the hot guys. Back when my grandfather and dad got me into wrestling, wrestlers looked like this:
Oh, baby, take me, I'm yours.
I go in and out of my interest in wrestling but I have a massive soft spot for it.
It's why I lost my mind when I found out Mick Foley was doing a speaking show in my city. Mick has always been one of my favourites. Back in the late 90s, Mankind scared the hell out of me so, of course, I loved watching to see what other scary things he'd do.
After reading Mick's first book Have A Nice Day I really thought he was brilliant. It was nice to see him succeed despite being told repeatedly that he'd never do so because he didn't look "the part". Since being a wrestling fan usually means you're put down a lot about it, I (and many other fans) could relate to his struggles. I also really loved that he is a feminist. Considering that pro wrestling isn't exactly known for its pro-women stance (amongst the wrestlers or with fans), having a wrestler tell his audience that maybe a woman should get a chance to ask a question (which Mick did at the WWE panel when I was at SDCC) is a pretty big deal.
And he's just a nice guy really. At the WWE signing at Comic Con, my sister was heartbroken that she'd have to choose being going to a panel for her favourite TV show or going to a Mick signing that I decided to go get her autograph. I ran up to Mick during the signing and handed him a note book turned to a page with "Hi Kerri" written on it in a word bubble. I quickly told him that my sister loved him but couldn't make it to the signing but would he be so kind to take a picture for me holding the sign so I could give it to her.
His body guard was about to push me off but Mick said, "No, no, it's ok! Do you have a camera?"
My sister nearly wet her pants
My sister was excited to meet Mick this evening to get him to sign the Comic Con picture. I was excited to shake his hand and tell him I really appreciated all the good work he does for organizations like RAINN in the US and for victims of war rape in Sierra Leone. As we got on stage at the Park Theatre and got our chance to talk to Mick, he smiled brightly at me and commented on my Cyndi Lauper shirt that reads "GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN" saying it was cute. I shook his hand and he asked how I spelled my name. As I shook his hand again and he handed me my autograph, I told him that I really appreciated all the work he does for women who have gone through such tragedy and I wish more men were like him. He smiled and thanked me.
I didn't tell him but I am a survivor of sexual assault. The first thing you want to do about it is hide the fact that it ever happened. It's so hard to talk about it and so many people want to ignore that it even happens. 1 in 3 women are survivors of sexual violence. Every time I tell my story to a friend, they more often than not tell me they went through something similar. For a long time I felt that every man that I ran into would hurt me and that I always had to be on my guard. When you are growing up, the incentive is on you to protect yourself because "guys can't control themselves". What does this say about men? Women have to take the procautions because men can't control themselves? This thought process hurts both men and women. Men are mindless animals while women only have themselves to blame if they're raped. I think it's important that men and boys are involved in the prevention of sexual assaults.
As Mick himself has said, he's "hopeful that if he can spread the message that 'this thing that
you think of as a drunken exploit that you might brag to your friends
about is shattering a life and the lives of people around [the
survivor],' then maybe men will listen. 'Everyone knows a survivor,
whether you [are aware of it] or not, and I'm hoping that others, both
unlikely figures and likely figures, will join the cause.'" (Source)
"It doesn’t seem like a pro-wrestler would be able to lend much when it
comes to a campaign against sexual violence, but for some reason I kept
telling myself that it made perfect sense."
Maybe some dudes in the wrestling fandom will see Mick's tweets about RAINN and get interested. Maybe they won't. However it's nice knowing that there are men like Mick supporting the cause. I really wish there were more guys like him. Knowing that there are makes me less afraid that I'm going to be hurt in those moments where I don't have my guard up.
Plus his book made me discover the awesomeness that is "Winter" by Tori Amos.
