Oh, god, Sex and the City has a lot to answer for.
I'm not sure I can sit through another movie or TV show about female friendship and grrrl power in which the "girls" are over-privileged middle-aged, or almost middle-aged, women obsessed with designer clothes*** who have conveniently non-taxing, glamorous careers in which they angst about their jobs but apparently never actually do more than two hours of work a week. Yeah, I know, I know, it's a fairy tale. But instead of believing if we're virtuous and beautiful, we get Prince Charming, we're supposed to believe if we're shallow and self-obsessed, it's all okay as long as we love ourselves, our girlfriends, and our Laboutins. (Which I really don't think is any less harmful, but whatevs.)
Oh, Andrea, you know that, having rejected most of the values and morals of the dominant culture, these movies are just going to annoy you, and yet you watch. Do you *enjoy* seeing "empowering" scenes like the one in which Meg Ryan, her fashion collection having been bankrolled by her rich mommy, rejects the offer from the buyer at Saks, an offer which anyone actually *really* starting a business would sell their soul or firstborn child for, because "she doesn't want it to get that big"? Oh, yes, rich women playing at being dilettante artistes, that's feminism for you. Or the heartwarming scene in which Bette Midler (oh, Bette) in her little cameo role as the Wise Pot-Smoking Woman advises Meg that the solution to her problems is to be more selfish. Yup, yup, *that's* a message Americans in 2008/2009 need to hear because none of us ever thought of that, omg!!!!
And the clothes in this movie aren't even that good. And Meg? When you straighten your hair as you change your life? You look like Jennifer Anniston on a bad day. This movie doesn't even cut it as eye candy.
***speaking of designer clothes? I was at Marshalls this weekend and they had these little BCBG tunics/shifts in a variety of different colors/prints and they were about $30. And they were quite cute and the kind of thing I could wear to work on a day I wanted to look nice. The original tags were still on them, saying manufacturers' suggested price was $280. Wow, I thought. These are almost 90% off.. That's a good deal! Except, you know what? They were polyester and made ::shock!:: in China. In other words, they were cheap crap and if you paid $280 for one because it was BCBG, you should have your head examined. So I didn't buy one. Instead, I went to Bed Bath and Beyond, where I also didn't buy an $8 OXO hair strainer thingy for my tub, even though it looked all high-tech and awesome, because it was also made in China and, seriously, how ergonomic does a drain plugger thingy need to be? Another ripoff.
All right. I'm done.
xoxo
2 comments:
I think you've been channeling the NYTimes. Or at least your points and some in this sit-com review are not unrelated:
http://tv.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/arts/television/21accident.html
I've seen neither version of The Women but I have noted how often recent remakes toss aside any actual sense of believable psychology or social conscience and consciousness in favor of completely shallow and banal surface filmmaking, not much above the level of a TV sitcom with the intellectual insight of a 13-year-old (15-year-olds being much of mainstream movies target audience, and they tend to enjoy feeling intellectually superior to their entertainment, even if by just a couple of years).
This is one of the reasons I find so much current mainstream Hollywood filmmaking close to unwatchable nowadays, whereas much of the filmmaking of the '30s and '40s studio era had a foundation partly anchored in reality beneath the glossy surface entertainment.
Woops, forgot Blogger's line length limitations:
http://bit.ly/fzlSh
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