Offbeat princesses

Within the week, not one, not two, but THREE movie trailers have come out that feature princess protagonists: Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror (the kid-friendly version of Snow White, apparently), and now Brave, with Pixar's first female main character.  So far it looks like Kristen Stewart's princess, in SWatH, seems the closest to a "warrior princess" type, but all three heroines are shown wielding a weapon (double-bladed sword, epee or foil, and bow and arrow, respectively).

Out of the three I'm the most excited for Pixar's movie-- and how could I not be? They don't just make films, they craft them.  And I'm pretty sure this is the first time seeing a main character who is a ginger and has massive amounts of enviably voluminous and curly hair.  I don't know if the source material has the character thus coiffed, but it's kinda gutsy that they didn't just go with the typical long and flowy route with this princess.  I can't think of a single Disney princess with curly hair (The Princess and the Frog's Maddie sorta had some texture in her hair but she's a frog for half the movie, so I'm not counting her).  I can only imagine how difficult it was to animate Merida's hair.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about this movie for a lot of reasons, but...hair! My goodness! So cool.

Anyway some other recent examples of offbeat princesses:
- Hanna (2011).  Okay, so the titular character is not a real princess, has no royal blood, but this film is very much a fairy tale, complete with mystical powers, a bloodthirsty witch, betrayal...it's like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz, and even makes overt references to the brothers Grimm.  Hanna has the "skin as white as snow" part down, and maybe even a vengeful mother...

- Tangled (2010?) I haven't seen this, but I know it's a Rapunzel story and that the princess wields a mighty frying pan as her weapon.  Definitely offbeat.

- Black Swan (2010).  Okay, "offbeat" isn't the optimal word to describe Natalie Portman's character; "tortured" would be closer.  One could say that she's sheltered and coddle in the way that a little princess might be, the way that Disney's Princess Jasmine was (minus the pet tiger, bumbling father, lecherous vizier, etc.) 

I'm of two minds about this phenomenon, regarding the three movies from the beginning of this post.  On the one hand, these girls are all white/European and based off western European tales, and they're all, well, princesses.  There are equally interesting and filmable stories about women and girls in non-European folk and fairy tales who are not born of royal blood. But on the other hand, these are all princesses who fight, who aren't just dainty damsels in distress, and they challenge gender expectations as royalty and as young women.  And I'm a sucker for this kind of story, and genuinely look forward to watching all three movies.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

I'm dubious of fragrant candles, room sprays, and air fresheners.  They do smell nice and many actually do a good job mimicking the scent that they're inspired by, but I'm suspicious of the ingredients involved in creating them.  I watch those Febreze and Glade commercials and can't help but wonder, what exactly is it that they are inhaling?  I feel that all those scented things that get wafted into the air are filled with questionable chemicals and carcinogens.  I feel that it's a conspiracy against women, particularly against housewives who are active in maintaining the cleanliness of their households.

Okay, I don't actually think that companies are out to get these women, but I do really think that the products that are marketed toward women have weird ingredients that might get the job done but at the cost of the user's health.  I have the most beef with these types of products, but I'm also suspicious of the stuff (the preservatives and additives) in makeup and cleaning products.  Call me a crunchy hippie lady, but I prefer to use baking soda, white vinegar, and water for various disinfecting purposes because I know the chemical composition of those items and I know that they're all safe (and edible).

On Halloween and being 'ethnic'

Ah, Halloween:It’s the only day on which it is socially acceptable to dress up as someone other than yourself (or a sexualized version of yourself) and ask people for free candy.  So many options to choose from, with so many pre-fabricated costumes available not just at your local party needs store but in department stores and drugstores and megamarts.  But I think the issue of who/what to be for Halloween gets a little sticky if you’re not a white person. 

“An Asian little red riding hood?”

My best friend in middle school Dorothy (not real name) gave me this question, accompanied with dubious look when I told her I was considering going as that character for one Halloween.  We were close friends and I thought we had reached the point where we could be brutally honest with each other without getting offended or personally injured, but the way she responded managed to sting me a bit.  White girls were used to sell the costumes for geishas, Pocahontases, harem girls, gypsies, flamenco dancers, and Cleopatras—why couldn’t I dress up as someone who didn’t share my ethnicity?  Did Dorothy expect me to trick-or-treat as an Oriental, because I already had the right “look”?  Actually, I think that was the year I went as Cleopatra—mostly because the costume kit was relatively inexpensive and it gave me the chance to rock some heavy black eyeliner.

It’s fun to assume another identity through a sartorial transformation, don’t get me wrong.  But it’s not fun when being “ethnic” or being a minority is thought to restrict what kind of roles you can play, even just for one night.  It’s bad enough that Hollywood often sequesters certain minority actors to certain roles.  The first thing I think of it how the (very handsome) chocolate-skinned Idris Elba was cast to play a Norse god in “Thor”.  Well, why not?  Elba himself pointed out the ridiculousness of the fact that the movie deals with Norse mythology, and that itself is stranger than his casting in his role.  Ah, but I digress; this could be a blog post itself but this topic has already been extensively covered and articulated more comprehensively than I could ever hope to accomplish. [Amazing Grace is a great children’s book on a similar topic.  The titular Grace is an African-American girl who gets the part of Peter Pan in her school play, despite the discouraging whispers of her peers that she’s black and a girl.  Thank God for “Reading Rainbow”, which is how I know about this book in the first place.] 

So, Halloween: great opportunity for people—especially white people—to  appropriate other cultures’ dress just for kicks and giggles.  This year I hope to go as the boy Russell from the movie “Up”.  When I first watched the movie it never occurred to me that his character was Asian, but I later learned that the voice actor and Russell were both Japanese.  I admit it: it’s convenient for me, an Asian person, to dress up as this character.  But another motivating factor is that I have the proper physique and this character is a boy, a young male.  Most of my peers—twenty-something year old females—will opt to dress up as something sexy and female.  I aim to do the opposite by donning garb that is the opposite of both those adjectives. 

Character sketch: Mr. Creeper

In retrospect, Mr. Creeper (obviously not his real name) really did look like a typical pedophile.  But then again, he was a teacher in his sixties, so of course his usual work outfit consisted of sweater vests, button down shirts, khaki pants and loafers (with not-matching socks).  And those huge circular square glasses, all the better to see you with, my dear.  And requisite thinning salt and pepper hair.

I never had Mr. Creeper as a teacher for anything, but he was my best friend's English teacher in 8th grade and she regularly filled me in on his...exploits.  His conquests.  He liked to give special attention to those girls who had developed early and boutifully.  He liked to come over to them and give them shoulder massages as he spoke to the class.  Keep in mind, this was middle school, when tween girls are just coming into their own, and the desks were sometimes arranged in four or five table islands, so it wasn't like Mr. Creeper was obstructing someone's view of the black/chalkboard as he massaged.  Ugh, I shudder.  I know we students complained about him to each other, but surely someone had to have complained to someone who was in power to actually do something about it, like another teacher or administrator or the middle school guidance counselor.  Actually, scratch that last person, she was pretty worthless, barely did anything from what I could tell, but that's another story, another sketch.

Hopefully he doesn't still teach anywhere...

Purse-onal belongings

http://www.nataliedee.com/

I envy guys' ability to travel light and stow things in their numerous pants pockets.  I have a few pairs of cargo pants but they are not figure-flattering and I don't usually put things in the extra pockets-- the ones other than the standard three in the front/two on the butt.  It's just not practical for me, doesn't feel comfortable when I walk.

I tend to overpack.  And I'm a klutz.  And I'm a girl, a female.  Wherever I go I carry a purse or backpack with me; sometimes during the winter I'll go sans bag, but only if I'm on an errand and won't be gone long.  I can get away with this during the winter because I use the pockets in my coat, but still I feel lacking if I'm not carrying something with me when I leave. I never leave the house with my MILK essentials: money, ID, lip stuff, and keys (with flashdrive attached).  The bigger the bag, the more stuff I end up putting in it.  The contents of my backpack as of this writing:

- MILK essentials
- Moleskine weekly planner (pricey but worth it)
- pens
- travel-sized Band-Aids packet
- travel-sized Tylenol bottle
- notebooks
- books
- Metro (free newspaper)
- toothbrush
- travel-sized toothpaste
- squashed water bottle
- misc. backpack debris (trash, mustard packets, ticket stubs, Lifesavers)
- travel-sized tissue packets
- Banana Nut Odwall bar

All this is heavy, and it's not unusual for my backpack to have more stuff to add to the weight.  Hey, at least I'm lugging all this in a backpack, where the weight is evenly distributed across my small, sloping shoulders.  I half-cringe, half-groan when I see girls with massive shoulder bags, walking with a hobble to counteract the weight of what must be a small anvil on just one shoulder.  Even trendy backpacks aren't that trendy, I think a slightly hunched forward walk is preferable to the limping gait brought on by carrying the weight of the world on a single shoulder.  Okay, as much as I bash this practice I have to admit that sometimes I do this.  Why? Eh, bad planning, vanity/stupidity.  But sometimes it's better to be prepared and carry all that extra weight so that you're ready for any emergency/"emergency" situation.

There's a first time for everything

For the first time in my life (I think) I was misidentified as a male.  I was addressed "sir" by a woman.  I was wearing a black and grey-striped hoodie, dark blue skinny jeans (okay, fine, jeggings) and charcoal grey Converse sneakers.  Pretty typical for me, although I do "femme it up" some days and wear a more girly blouse or flats or something.  Lately I've also been wearing a little makeup-- nothing really obvious, just some foundation to cover up acne scars and a little eyebrow pencil to fill in my brows and make them more defined. 

I was mildly amused by this experience.  I hate being called "ma'am" but "sir" isn't really any better.  I wonder if this'll be a first of many, or just a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

If the world were an enormous nudist colony...

I've never visited a clothing-optional beach, nor have I ever been to a nudist colony/community.  I'd just like to take this time to consider what it would be like if everyone in the entire world were made to not wear clothing.  Before I continue I want to acknowledge the obvious and/or silly problems with this scenario:
1) it's not warm enough everywhere to merit going about without clothing.
2) it's not practical/sanitary to go about without clothing, especially when performing certain tasks such as operating machinery or cooking/baking or jogging, etc.
3) you can't make everyone go clothesless.  And Fashion Industry Is Powerful.

Having gotten those three broad categories of concern out of the way, here are some of the hypothetical beneefits of my aforementioned scenario:
1) there would be less sexual harassment and rape (the reasoning behind this is that, in many instances, rapists claim that the person/people they raped were "asking for it" due to the way s/he dressed)
2) pornography, as commonly defined today, wouldn't exist
3) there would be more body acceptance and acknowledgement of what the human anatomy looks like without any non-surgical enhancement
4) the world would be more conscious/concerned about cleanliness
5) you get the point?

This is where I would try to make some transition into the argument for letting women walk around topless, just as men are allowed to walk about in public without shirts on.  But that is a topic for another day.  And this topic would easily transition to the tangentially related issue of bras; alas, a subject for yet another separate post.

According to Steve, sort of.

I was going to make this a post on "Steve-isms"; or, things that the character Steve from Coupling says.  I started making a list when I realized two things:
1) someone else out there on the internet made a much better, comprehensive list
2) Steveisms are funny because they're sexist, and his character is such a stereotypical heterosexual man.  He's the most sensitive of the three male leads but that doesn't mean he says or does infuriating things.

Examples:
from Season 1, Episode 4: The 4 Pillars of the Male Heterosexual Psyche:
1. Naked women
2. Stockings
3. Lesbians
4. Sean Connery best as James Bond

"When man invented fire, he didn't say, "Hey, let's cook"; he said "Great! Now we can see naked bottoms in the dark!"

from Season 2, Episode 9: 3 things all men should know
1. You're never going to be famous
2. You're fatter than you think
3. They (women) don't keep wearing stockings

I still like the show and feel that it's a solid sitcom, but it disturbs me that it took me so long to notice just how sexist the characters can be.  Each of the six leads represent different stereotypes based on gender but they're all still pretty homophobic, classist, sexist, and they're all white.  I don't feel like I'll have to turn my brain off to watch this show but I've come to realize why I find some things funny and accepted that some jokes are funny because they're sexist, etc.

Thoughts on...Ugly Betty

This show came out in fall 2006 and ended(/was cancelled?) after 4 seasons.  I heard many positive reviews on this show, and the actress who portrayed the eponymous Ugly Betty even won an Emmy for the role.  But during its run I was only tepidly interested and only watched maybe a few accidental clips while flipping through to other channels.  A week or so ago I went to watch TV to bore myself to sleep and an episode from the beginning of the first season was on and I thought, what the hey, I'll watch it.  And I liked it.

Fast forward to now: I just finished watching the entire first season on Hulu.  I'm kind of surprised that this show even made it to air; it deals with lots of Important Sociological Issues but in a very soapy, ABC hour-long comedy kind of way, with its slight fantasy-silly tone and caricatures of characters who you love to love and love to hate.  Some of the issues that the show comments on (in more than one episode):
- first-generation Latino immigrant family
- issues with immigration laws/citizenship
- difficulty of being a single parent
- sexual harrassment
- difficulty of being a gay child
- gay/straight men passing as the other sexual identity to be accepted by certain people
- the ridiculous beauty standards set for women, and the efforts women make to become beautiful (incl. hair, makeup, fashion)
- alcoholism
- gender modification through surgery/transgender issues/gender identity
- sibling rivalry
- workplace relations/the work family

Okay, so a lot of these topics are ones that are often found it soap operas.  Actually, this show was adapted from the Mexican soap opera Betty La Fea (Betty the Ugly), and a good deal of the episodes in the first half of this series featured a fake Spanish-language soap opera, complete with ridiculous plot twists and spontaneous make-out sessions between reformed pastors and the like.  Ugly Betty works because it embraces the silliness and makes every character quirk comically enormous-- but adjusts the goofiness according to the seriousness of the situation. I'm not deeply invested in any of the characters beside Betty and I still find the show a bit more twee than the comedies I tend to enjoy, but I really like Betty and have to hand it to actors Becki Newton and Michael Urie for having great chemistry and comedic timing.  I have the second season in my bag and can't wait to dig into it this weekend.

thoughts on Pan's Labyrinth

Stream of consciousness writing, vomit draft, raw & largely unedited thoughts on the aforementioned film.

“Pan’s Labyrinth” is another one of those movies I had meant to watch for ages but kept finding one reason or another to put it off until later.  I have this feeling against casually watching movies that demand more attention.  This seemed like a fairly prestigious film, one that had been nominated for an Academy Award and therefore made me sort of sigh reluctantly at the thought of having to block out time to watch it.  Plus, it’s a foreign film and necessitates the reading of subtitles for the duration of the film.  I hate to fall under the figure of stupid ugly American who won’t watch a good movie because she has to read subtitles.  Basically it was an accumulation of little excuses that deterred me from discovering this gem, and I’m glad to have finally watched it.

 This film is deserving of its R rating.  I’ve definitely seen more grisly, bloody violence in other movies but there’s something very primal and psychologically disturbing about the violence in this movie, which I admire of it.  Having seen the film more than once I know when to close my eyes and ears—not just the sights but also the sounds that accompany them are equally terrifying.  It is very much an adult fairy tale.  This sounds misleading, as if there is some “adult content” that children should not know of until they reach a certain age, but it is not the case with this movie.  It is just that children would probably have nightmares about it, and there are heavy topics that would have more of an impact with adults who can process the psychological and historical occurrences.

I’m not sure if I would go as far to say that director Del Toro is a feminist but he certain puts a lot of womb-like elements into the set direction.  There is something very pro-woman in this film, which goes against and in contrast to the very male, fascist antagonist figures.  I know that he went against typecast with his actresses; for the deferring mother he cast a woman known for playing strong independent females, and for the strong surrogate mother maid he cast an actress who typically plays more of a femme fatale, lusty eye candy for men.

A real grown-up fairy tale, very well told by director Guillermo del Toro.  A wonderfully brave and not too precocious nine year old actress plays the protagonist.  Wi would tell anyone who dismiss fantasy as kids stuff to watch this and have them change their minds.  Some truly gripping, terrifying scenes that don’t show violence but hint at it, which makes it all the more gasp-inducing.  I’ve read somewhere that its really a horror film disguised as a fantasy, which it may well be.  And really, if I hahad known it was so violent I probably never would have seen it.  However, that wasn’t the only impediment/deterrent that prevented me from getting around to watching this.  Sometimes I like to watch something that I can put on in the background and sometimes I want something “meaty”, something I can chew over, some food for thought.  I heard much acclaim about this movie and worried about finding the time for such a prestigious work.

OMG SHOES

http://www.nataliedee.com/

Why are women's and men's shoe sizes numbered differently?  Women are supposed to have daintier feet, yeah, I know, and we are vain and lie about our what size we wear to make ourselves feel better.  But then why is a men's shoe size 3 the same as a woman's size 5?  I mean, on the flip size, guys want to be able to say they wear a bigger shoe size because you know what they say about men with big feet, a-ha ha ha... But seriously, why are they different in the first place? I sorta get why it's different when it comes to clothes because women have curves in varying places, widths, girths, etc; additionally we have more styles of clothing than men do-- I'm aware I'm grossly generalizing based on U.S. fashion and trends. Okay, focus: why the difference in shoe sizes? Feet are feet.  Women and men walk in different shoes but that doesn't mean that the feet inside are built differently to accomodate the footwear.

Boy or girl?

Gender is a social construct.  When boys and girls act like their stereotyped roles it's because society has conditioned them to act one way or the other based on their gender.  But ultimately a kid is a kid, and it's hard to tell if one's a boy or girl if you have them dressed and coiffed the same way.  Why must girls be treated as delicate beings while boys are often encouraged to be more physical and strong? Like I said, a kid is a kid.

Try to guess the gender of this real child based on these facts:
- favorite color is pink
- favorite book is written by Stephen Hawking
- dressed up as Darth Vader once for Halloween
- concerned about getting fat/eats healthy
- enjoys playing soccer
- small for age
- likes to sing (likes to show off in general)
- a self-proclaimed artist
- likes gardening
- has scraped knee several times
- aspires to grow up to be some kind of scientist

Have I made it ambiguous enough, or is it too easy?

Answer: Highlight area below

Child identifies self as a boy.

Just dance

Confession: I watched The Bachelorette  on Sunday.  I don't typically watch it but my curiosity (and boredom, mayhaps) got the best of me as I found myself flipping through the channels that night.  Don't judge me solely on that piece of information!

The bachelorette, a dentist with a passion for dance, brought 12 of her suitors to Las Vegas, divided them into two dance crews and gave them 30 minutes to come up with a dance (to impress her).  I felt bad for these men, who came to Sin City only to have to earn a mini-date with the bachelorette, not through luck or strategy but through their body movement and gestures.  It's one thing to move about in a sporatically lit club while mashed against other writhing bodies, and it's a completely different matter when dancing in sync with five other people on a stage.  I didn't actually watch their dances due to secondhand embarassment; I regularly make a fool of myself and I don't tend to savor watching others put themselves in potentially embarassing situations.

Dance seems to be a bigger deal with women, yeah? If a man isn't a good dancer it's not a big deal, not as expected; the man is apt to be able to laugh it off good-naturedly and proclaim that it in no way implies incompetence in any other field of experience.  Females tend to feel more self-conscious in the first place, worrying about things like do I smell okay?  Is my hair getting undone?  Are my breasts in place?  Does my muffin top show? I'm rather impulsive (or intuitive) and tend to Just Dance! and find out afterward that I was dangerously close to some sort of hair/wardrobe malfunction.  I haven't done ballet in almost ten years but I'm still somewhat flexible and aware of the limits of my body and how to move.  I've never been graceful but I've managed.

OMGPROM

Catalyst:

1) Glee's prom episode aired on Tuesday

2) News of a senior banned from prom for his public prom proposal

3) Disney movie "Prom" came out recently (I think last week)

Along with class rank and homecoming festivities, my high school didn't have the typical tradition of electing a prom king or queen.  But this doesn't mean that there was a lack in prom-related stress; you could practically cut it with a knife and spread it like cream cheese on a bagel or some other caloric spread that was fastidiously avoided by girls who purposely bought dresses that were a little too small.

An Observation

In Spanish--and I’m guesing this goes for French and other European languages in which nouns are gendered--the sun is el sol (masculine article) and the moon is la luna (with the feminine article).  Son, the word for a male child, and sun are homophones.  There’s a song called “Mr. Sun”.  In Western cultures the calender is marked by the movements of the earth around the sun.

There’s a Korean folktale that I learned as a child.  It says that a brother and sister stole away into the night and were chased by a tiger; they ended up escaping it by going into the moon with the brother becoming the sun and the sister turning into the moon.  But the girl was scared of the dark, so the siblings switched places and the brother became the moon.  The moon is male. Many Eastern cultures follow the lunar calender, marked by the cycles of the moon around the earth.


I wonder if there's a culture out there which believes that feminine>masculine and reflects this in its calender.