Thursday, October 19, 2006

Ben Wallace - #1 Fantasy Sports Pick!


I guess cats don't really like being dressed up. But when I looked at my "Benny the Bull" doll's outfit, and then at Wallace, something inside me said "DRESS UP YOUR CAT!" I'm officially crazy.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Sammy Baker Davis Junior is a Racist Homophope!

Over the weekend, I watched the John Hughes classic Sixteen Candles on cable. Mostly because nothing else was on, and it was nice background while I finished the back panel of the sweater I've been working on since, oh, April or something for Scratch.

I hadn't seen it in years. And as I half-watched and mostly listened, I heard things that really made me re-think the worship of these teen movies. Like the part where Molly Ringwald's character says "Yes you're a total fag." And then later Farmer Ted tells his friends to stop acting like "faggots." Not to mention the total gross-out look Sam and her friend swap when Sam says "A black one." The friend says "A black GUY?" and Sam was all "No a black Trans Am. A pink guy." Ha ha ha. Like anyone in a John Hughes movie would date a black guy! And while "The Donger" is this time-honored and oft-quoted character, the way he was treated by the white upper-middle-class adults was pretty crappy and ignorant. Was that the point? Or am I just overreacting to a beloved comedy of my generation? Am I too old to like it anymore?

It made me realize how much I hate the way "gay" is used as a derogatory adjective - how to a lot of people it has a life of its own apart from real homosexuality. And I guess in the time and place where these movies were set, that was totally normal and how kids "really" talked in the mid-80s, that being gay was the worst possible thing imaginable, and how there are few, if any, black or gay characters in any of the John Hughes catalog. The same way I guess there weren't any black people or gay people in that community. It made me kind of sad. I'm not trying to act all superior about it, because I loved this movie, and The Breakfast Club, and Pretty In Pink, and Some Kind of Wonderful. But I just never realized that the protagonist characters used pretty much the same vocabulary you'd expect only from the 'bad guys.'

I wonder if people a little older than I am who have budding teenage kids show them this movie and are all "THIS was the greatest movie when I was your age! It's totally what high school was like!" and their kids are all "Geez Mom & Dad, you sure were some racist homophobes!"

It makes me realize why "Politically Correct" language was so important, backlash be damned.

Sorry for being a Debbie Downer on our teen memories, but hey - would you talk like that now?

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