I went to an advance screening of Whip It on Thursday night and was so pleased to come out of the theatre with my expectations having been met. To be honest, I was practically giddy afterwards. While the plot of Whip It isn’t necessarily innovative, the movie is still incredibly entertaining and fiercely feminist.
Before seeing Whip It (and before being aware of the rising popularity of women’s roller derby in North America), roller skates brought to mind an image of a 1950s/’60s woman wearing a poodle skirt and skating around serving hot dogs and french fries to patrons at a drive-in movie theatre. Contemporary roller derby has reinvented the roller skate, salvaging the retro coolness associated with this piece of sports equipment and melding it with a punk rock aesthetic and athletically challenging competitive sport that makes current roller derby chicks forces to be reckoned with. Combined with the convention that roller derby players adopt rockin’, tough-girl pseudonyms (Babe Ruthless, Iron Maven, Maggie Mayhem, Bloody Holly), it’s clear that this sport is not for the fainthearted. These girls really can body check.
Whip It showcases roller derby’s legitimacy as a women’s competitive sport complete with requisite athleticism and no-holds-barred attitude. And, while some of the appeal of this movie can be attributed to the hip, retro, punk rock aesthetic that the female figures embody, the roller derby players in the movie are clearly intended to be featured as athletes who kick ass. In fact, at no point in the movie did I feel that the roller derby girls were being displayed for the purpose of male voyeurism (unlike the women in the Lingerie Football League, who act as objects that men can ogle. So gross.).
I do wonder, however, how men figure in the real world of contemporary roller derby. In Whip It, women certainly play the dominant roles in the movie, but the team coach and the referee are both men, which hints just a little bit at the idea that men are still needed/required to regulate women’s sports. I’m not suggesting that the movie would have been better had women played these roles; I guess I’m just wondering why it ended up this way. And, for anyone who is familiar with women’s roller derby in North America, what roles do men play if any? Presumably, they must make up some portion of the fan base.
And, speaking of fandom, I think Whip It has not only converted me into a fan of women’s roller derby but also reignited my love of ripped fishnets and thick black eyeliner. Now if only I had a pair of roller skates…
Have you ever lain in bed, looked around your bedroom and thought, “You know what this room needs? A shadowy male stalker lurking in the corner.” Well, look no further! It appears that last year’s Twilight movie has sparked the creation of a life-sized decal portraying Edward Cullen’s silhouette and the accompanying phrase “Be safe.” The figure, which retails at $60 US, stands 6′2″ tall and can be applied to any wall in your home. The decal is intended to help you recreate the relationship between vampire Edward Cullen and teenage protagonist Bella Swan.
Okay, so am I the only one who finds this just a little bit creepy? In all honesty, if I awoke in the middle of the night and saw a male shadow lurking in my room, I’d be terrified. I also can’t help but be put off by the phrase “Be safe.” Like, ewww! It not only insinuates that women need male protection but also plays into the twisted notion that stalkers and overly-protective boyfriends/husbands/partners are really only trying to take care of their women.
I wonder if Vinyl Fruit, creators of the Edward Cullen decal, also make a restraining order decal. That’s really what I’d want in a situation like this.
If you caught Oprah yesterday, you saw Dane Cook, George Lopez and Mo’Nique doing and discussing comedy. The episode was nothing to write home about, really, except the release of the trailer for an Oprah co-pro (with Tyler Perry) called Precious–and believe me, this film has absolutely nothing to do with comedy. Rather, it looks like an amazing drama about a poor, young, American black woman struggling under horrific circumstances (an abusive mother and a pregnancy via her father, for starters). Apparently the film got lots of buzz at Sundance, but because I haven’t been on top of my Entertainment Weekly reading, this was the first I’d heard of it. The trailer sent goosebumps all over my body and, I will admit, made me cry (check it out below). When this movie is released this fall, I will be first in line to see it.
Let’s close out this week at Confabulous by celebrating a little clip from John Waters’ film Pecker, the one that can be held responsible for, er, inserting the word “teabagging” into popular culture (h/t BoingBoing)
Shannon the Movie Moxie has alerted me to Entertainment Weekly’s list of the “20 All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.” Five female characters make the list, and five out of the 20 ain’t bad–but it ain’t great, either. On the chart are Sidney Bristow (Jennifer Garner’s character on Alias), Foxy Brown (Pam Grier of the eponymous film), Nancy Drew, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, of course, of the Alien films). These are all superlative choices, and it’s great to see these women up there with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Jack Bauer and Dirty Harry.
Is there a shortage of cool women in popular culture (and by “popular culture,” the editors seem to mean “fictional characters primarily from film and television, plus Atticus Finch and Nancy Drew”), so much so that they only represent 25% of the people on EW’s list? Or did the list fail to acknowledge some of the coolest women?
I would have liked to have seen Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand’s character from Fargo on the list. I never tire of watching the visibly pregnant Marge solve crimes while keeping her cool. Marge Gunderson is arguably one of the great cinematic heroes of all time. And it goes without saying that Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff and Mary McDonnell’s Boomer, Starbuck and Laura Roslyn from BSG deserve serious consideration (I am blind with bias here, I am sure).
Who do you think deserves to be on the list of coolest heroes in pop culture?
Inspired by Shakesville’s “Today in Disembodied Things” feature (where Melissa McEwan most recently sharedmy grossed-out response to that damn Psychology Today cover), I’m giving a nod (or is that a pointed finger?) to a movie released last year that no one saw called Choke. Why draw your attention to it? ‘Cause I was in my local convenience store today and choked on this:
There is nothing about this graphic that makes me want to watch this movie.
Confabulous badges!
