TV for Women

1. It's very easy to be critical of women-created/based TV shows. I was very critical of Girls for a second because it was such a bad example of women I thought the show was trying to represent. But, then I took a step back and had to realize this was just a gang of gals like any other gang on TV, and why I was ACTUALLY upset was because I wasn't being represented. It's not Lena Dunham's job to represent me on TV. It's her job to tell an interesting and entertaining story.

2. It's TV corporations' job to include equal male and female voices so that those stories start to show more diversity and thus represent more of our world so viewers who identify can feel as though they belong and viewers who don't can feel as though they understand others better.

3. I like Mindy Kaling a lot a lot, and I love her show. It's fun and quirky, and her character is sort of an idiot. "It sets women back." But also, again, it's not that one show's fault there are not other "setting women forward" shows.

4. In a recent interview she mentioned how she didn't intend to name the lead character after her true first name, but the producers wanted it. I wonder why that is? Is it because part of the show's appeal is that people love Mindy Kaling and they wouldn't be interested unless they thought it was her they'd be watching?

5. I realized many women on TV have had to take on their own similar to themselves personalities. Whitney Cummings, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Dunham, Zoe De. This is true for men as well at times (Seinfeld, Mullaney, Raymond). BUT, there are also a LOT of other men who have nothing to do with their true selves: John Hamm, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, etc.

6. Mindy's show almost never passes the Bechdel test. Yes, the protag is a 30something avergae-built Indian woman (yay diversity) but the next main supporting characters are four white men. Mindy had a bestie at the beginning of the show, and she was written out extremely quickly. Now it's just her and dudes basically.

7. Bisque went on a business trip last week. He came home and I said, "But it was kind of nice to be apart for a couple days, right?" He said, "Uh, no!" And I was like, "Yeah, but I took up a ton of bed space and watched whatever I wanted on TV!" He thought and said, "That's every night for me." And it's true. I don't really watch TV, so he controls the remote for the evening and I grade papers half looking on at what the case is this episode of Criminal Minds.

8. Today I did my usual Daily Burn workout and watched The Mindy Project. When Bisque is home I don't watch that show because I don't think it would interest him.

9. Sometimes I have watched Sex and the City with him nearby, and he sort of chuckles at the stupid drama happening. He has a point. It can be stupid. And then I feel kind of ashamed to be watching trash. But SATC is the closest thing I have to female Sopranos! Sometimes it's really good in a way I don't think Bisque will ever really understand...but I'm still embarrassed.

10. So. Why is there such a lack of TV shows featuring women and womens' interests? I think we are all part of the problem.

High and Dry

Writing a play for high school girls. I have massive writer’s block, which is odd for me. But also, I’m just really grossly burnt out. I so don’t deserve to be. I just had fall break. This morning Ro stopped at home for a mid-morning cig and we sat on the back porch, her in work clothes, me in an over-sized Cosby sweater. It was like a game—“What stresses you out? This is what stresses me out.” And then we died laughing because we’re 20somethings just hanging out at 10 AM on a Thursday. How bad could it be? I mean, we recognized that, but then we paused, and all the grey stuff still hung over.

So, this writer’s block. High school girls. I plunged into some prime material: my old LiveJournal. It was just so sad. I mean, even when I was happy, it was still sad. This puddle of gloom, of “What will happen after this? This is all so fleeting.” College had umbrella’d since I was twelve. I clicked through other friends’ journals. None updated since 2006, 7. These kids stuck in cyberspace. And they were sad. So sad. Just like me! Girls I loved, girls I didn’t, girls I envied, girls who envied me. None of us were that different. But in each piddly little entry was a kind of hope. A hope that the writer was young and knew more was to come. Twinge of nostalgia for high school sure to end, but a feeling of relief that soon the confusion was over, the sad sack days were numbered.

Honestly, I liked high school, but I also grew up surrounded by TV and movies assuring me that growing up is supposed to feel like hell. At times it did, but that was apparently norms. College is more the mystery. Everyone I know went through some form of depression in college. But it wasn’t cute anymore. It's just wrong. "No one is supposed to feel this way anymore," you think. But deep down you know everybody does and this time it never ends.

Lena Dunham said in an interview last year that she created Girls to explore just what is wrong with youth culture. No one ever says they are happy when asked sincerely. For a while I took this as a challenge to be genuinely happy, and I think I was. I think I am. But it’s weird that the word “think” is in there.

Screen Too Thin

Kevin Spacey only follows eleven people on Twitter.
One of those people is John Stamos.

A. Isn't that weird? That talented man chose the ex-Full House heart-throb to keep up with? Out of all the people on this earth?
B. Isn't it weird that I know this? That I, currently singing along to "Brand New Colony," currently rocking chipped pink toenail polish, currently in Illinois, currently a teacher, lover, sister, pray-er can find out what the star of American Beauty is interested in? It takes all of thirty seconds and two mouse clicks to know.


Yatchface, Spring 2010, Photo by Pookie

When I hold the contents of the world on my lap,
which I do daily,
it doesn't seem heavy.
But it really is.
It really is so heavy--although my attention is pulled into three million different directions.
On CNN, the newsfeed announced, "VICTORIA BECKHAM PREGNANT"
over footage of a Japanese woman
alone, destroyed by waves.
When I hold the contents of the world in my lap,
the screen seems too thin,
my confidence too low,
the words too many,
the trials too many,
the colors too many,
and still, I do
hold the contents of the world on my lap.

I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick where you will sit and contemplate your day.

My Beefs

1. When people refer to the central idea or problem as "the meat." "The meat of the story..." etc. Lame. Let's try to get rid of meat, not say it's important. The "meat" of a meal doesn't have to be meat. We can say "The main course of the story"?

2. Just tried the 30 Day Shred yesterday with Jillian Michaels. It was very enjoyable, and I even feel a lil sore! I have a theory that only NBC is actually marketing Jillian as America's hottest woman/toughest lady because...she's obviously fit, but I don't think she's that hott. The video starts with her being like, "I guess you've heard I'm the toughest trainer ever." From who has that been spread besides her? The oldest trick in the book.

3. Still patiently awaiting being settled. My dad gave me some good advice saying--nothing ever feels right at first. Sad, but I found it true. The beginning just feels weird, different, because it is. It's a beginning. He explained moving into his new apartment years ago with only a book and a sleeping bag. Now, that would be weird, but now he is so happy. So...SO!


Come back Muff, 3/10

But I'm still loco enough to choke you to death with a Charleston Chew.