Slumdog

Never before has a movie impacted me more than Slumdog Millionaire. Upon seeing this film, which for good reason swept the Academy Awards, I was completely mystified by the stunning camera work in this film. I have always been a supporter of independent cinema, simply because money is short, and yet, a good number of these films run circles around big production pieces. Take, for example, the number of blockbuster-esque movies flopping at the box office in recent years. Production companies like Fox and Warner Bros. spend hundreds of millions on one film. In 2002, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, starring Eddie Murphy, had a budget of 100 Million dollars. This film was horribly recieved, and actually, Warner Bros. reported a loss of almost 96 million dollars. Then you look at an independent film like Slumdog, had a budget of 15 million. This film debuted at a relatively small independent film festival, won acclaim, and now has grossed more than 175 million. This film featured no Tom Cruises, no Samuel L. Jacksons, just actors with no recognition and loads of talent. It could be said, then, that actors who aren't recieving a 6 figure check for a film pour more of themselves into the film. They are not acting to make a check, they are acting through their feelings, and regardless if they make 1,000 or  1,000,000 for a film, their heart is in the film, not their wallet. 

Sports-centered???

I watch Sportscenter on ESPN pretty regularly...and it was not until recently that I came to a revelation....Where are the women? I understand that there is not a lot of coverage on women's sports in general, but on the household name for sports in America? It is a travesty that there isn't any diversity in sports coverage today. I would say that Sportcenter cycles more than a dozen times in a day, and there are only at maximum 5 reports about women.  ESPN should realize that there is...i don't know...a market for women's sports reports?  They should also realize that the MLB, NBA, and NFL are gravy, but they should put more emphasis on NCAA athletics. I am tired of the three biggest sports in America completely dominating sports reporting. For once, I want to see a Jai-Alai match on ESPN. I want to sit down and watch Pompolona's Running of the Bulls in it's entirety. But no, I have to special order a channel for 20 dollars a month to maybe even catch these events. Does the same go for women's sports? Are they designated to a special channel? Oh wait! oh, nevermind... I thought I spotted a women's basketball game recap on the live ticker. ESPN, being the sports powerhouse,  can pretty much do whatever they want. They might not view it unfair the spend so little time covering women, because our sports market in America is truly centered around the MLB,NBA,NFL, and NCAA Men's Sports. When will ESPN realize that their ratings would probably go up if, just on Sportscenter, they had more segments about women's sports?

Bret Michaels, love him, or get the hell off of the show!

Here we go....Rock of Love. I really cannot get past the fact that Vh1 chose a washed up glam rock star to star in this atrocity. Bret Michaels, like anyone, needs love. Got it. He also has quite a fortune from his days with Poison. Combine that with a horde of "beautiful"...coughFAKEcough women seeking a rockstar's heart, and you get Rock of Love! EVERY woman on this show is, in one way or another....modified. In fact, this seems to have become the norm for shows like this, which begs the question. Are these women really the representation of beauty in society today? These shows consist of flirting and drinking, scenes of the women being slutty and fighting over Bret whilst drunk, while he sits back and watches it all unfold. I really do not know how you can find love on a T.V show, let alone with women who are only in it to a) get famous, or b) have an unhealthy obsession with Bret Michaels and his money. Upon further research, none of his relationships with the winners have lasted. I wonder why.....

Visions of Cavewomen, circa 60's.

I was watching this movie from the late 1960's called One Million Years B.C. I stumbled upon this film as a joke because my friend has seen it before and said it was terrible but worth watching for the humor factor. This film is chock full of gender bias, right from the beginning. The women, in un-cavewomanly like fashion, are drop dead gorgeous and very scantily dressed. They seem to follow the men around everywhere, and they take a secondary role to the men, the hunters, which is somewhat historically accurate. When Tumak is kicked out of the Rock tribe for killing a fellow caveman, the "alpha female", Loana, follows him into the wilderness amidst sighs and looks of astonishment from the other females. The funniest and most ironic gender based stereotype portrayed in this film is the fact that, while out, all of the cavewomen don hot pink purses and seem to act very weak throughout the film, although at the beginning the men and women were separated into seperate tribes.

Now I Ain't Sayin She's a Golddigger.....

I feel like I have to address the issue of just how much plastic surgery it will take to make someone a Barbie Doll! I was flipping through channels the other morning when I came across a show called "The Real Housewives of Orange County" I have to say that before I even saw a frame of the show, I had to slow down and think to myself....Real...Housewives....of one of the most affluent counties in California. Great. Frankly the only reason I made myself stick through the entirety of this travesty was this blog on gender. I got a cup of coffee and sat down, already regretting the decision to let whatever I'm about to watch pass through my brain.

Oh, the opening credits. Time to get a look into who these people really are! In orderly fashion, they all say their name followed by a little quote. None caught my attention until it rolled to Lynne. "You know, I'm just a typical Orange County Housewife, and I'm OBSESSED with Being Young!" BEING young, even though she appears in her mid fifties. To accent her youth, she parties constantly, and because of this one of her daughters has become a little rebel, drinking in bowling allies and causing all sorts of hubbub in the OC. Lynne, with a little luck and some seduction, just happened to marry some tycoon who has a net worth of oh, just a couple hundred million. yet shes typical, like the rest of us. Fantastic. Good for you Lynne!

In the first five minutes of this episode I saw enough plastic to create the t.v I was watching, and again I found myself clutching the remote to turn to anything but The Real Housewives of Orange County. However it quickly became clear that that is what this very episode was about. Plastic Surgery. Wonderful! now I get to watch someone try to improve the way they look via a knife and some plastic. After the surgery, her daughter commented "well, now we're going to take her to a get well center, and hey, maybe I might even be able to get her a date!" A new revelation dawned on me. All I need to do is get a little botox, maybe a facelift or two, and just like that every woman will be attracted to me! Is this really the mindset of upper-class America?

As the episode progressed, I found myself getting angrier at this show; everything was fake! Even simple husband to wife interations seemed staged. The basis of the episode was even fake, based on groups of women gossiping and talking trash about their neighbors and friends. I couldn't take it any longer. I cannot imagine a life where all you do is wake up in your larger than life bed in your cookie cutter mansion, hop in your Land Rover and head down to the country club to grab a couple margaritas before you head on over to the mall and drop a few G's on new clothes. Rinse. Wash. Repeat....