Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Arctic - 2018, Netflix, survival story (fiction).

This movie won't be for everyone: it's slow, it's extremely low-dialog. I however loved it and thought it was very interesting, with impressive realism.

Mads Mikklesen plays Overgård, who is already stranded on the ice when we meet him, after his small plane crashed. He is a hyper-competent sort of person and has apparently been there a while: he has several fishing holes set up with bells to alert him when a fish bites. He has created a giant "SOS" sign by digging out snow down to rock. His watch alarm keeps him on task, relentlessly. He's developing a map of the area and using that to find places to signal with a hand-cranked transponder. His life is relatively safe, and he's just waiting for someone to find him.

One day in a snowstorm, a helicopter appears. He signals the helo, but it spins out of control in the storm, and crashes. Of two people on board, one has died, and the other is injured. Overgård assists the young survivor, a woman who has little English and is drifting in and out of consciousness. He brings her back to his camp and searches the crashed helo for supplies.

One thing Overgård finds in the helo is a photo of the woman and her family. With great tenderness and care, he bends the photo and places it into the breast pocket of his parka. He later places the photo in a window where she can see it if she wakes up. Overgård places his own scarf around the woman's neck and tends carefully to her wounds. His care of this stranger is carried out with the utmost respect. Once when he first carries her to lay her down, Overgård pauses and revels in the moment of touching someone, in the basic platonic sense, just enjoying the warmth of another person next to you. His face transforms.

Overgård must now decide to leave his camp. This woman needs medical care. She was carrying a map of the area, so he can now find his way to a permanent station, a several day's journey. He must pull her along behind him so that he can make sure she drinks water and stays warm.

Overgård has what I think of as a Scandinavian approach to very difficult problems: this needs to be done, there is no two ways about it. So I am going to do it. (Extremely relatable and part of the culture that came over to America with my family members).

What follows is a harrowing journey through an incredibly hostile landscape, one that has a harsh beauty to it. Overgård continues to demonstrate his competence and stamina, but the obstacles continue to increase.

This is a nearly silent film, the ultimate in "show don't tell," and so some things are not explained. The story is simple, but told well. The movie grapples with the idea that our hero might fail, but he is heroic for trying. Overgård represents a healthy and heroic masculinity. He never seems to regard his charge as anything other than someone he needs to take care of and keep alive. Caring for someone gives him meaning and purpose beyond just staying alive. Indeed he risks death to do so, putting the chance of saving her above his own life. If the two of them die, at least they will not be alone.

Content notes: helicopter crash, blood, injury.

Sometimes you're reading a fan fic or a book and it's going along fine, until you encounter that one line.

Cut for discussion of sex in fan fiction.
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I watched the film "Little," which is one of these age-difference body-swap films, via library DVD. It was a mediocre film: good performances, especially by the child actor Marsai Martin; good costume design; fun and colorful sets. The writing could have used some work.

The idea is that adult Jordan (Regina Hall), in an abusive boss at the tech company she owns. April (Issa Rae) is her long-suffering assistant. Jordan gets magically turned into a teenager, allowing her to reconnect with her childhood self and learn some lessons. It's not actually clear in the story what these lessons are, though, and it's got me thinking.

Having watched this and "ParaNorman" in succession, it's clear that movie writers want to address the topic of bullying, but they really don't know how to do so. I suppose this is not surprising, as bullying is just a normalized form of abuse, and dealing with abuse is a largely unaddressed challenge in our society.

In ParaNorman, our hero Norman has the ability to speak to the dead. He must deal with the spirit of a young witch, who wants violent revenge for her own murder. He achieves this by listening to her, and telling her that violent revenge makes her just as bad as her bullies. He tells her to focus on people that loved and supported her. This is not a terrible message, but it would have been nice if there had been apologies from her abusers, acknowledgment that her anger is justified, and just basically some longer process.

Norman himself is also bullied, by school peers and by his family, and this is mostly "resolved" by people being nicer to him in the end, after he saves the day. There are no apologies.

In "Little," adult-Jordan is a massive bully to everyone around her. At the end of the film, she does apologize, reluctantly, to April, and starts treating people a little bit better. Part of the problem here is that this film is supposed to be a silly comedy, not to be taken seriously, but Jordan's bullying at the beginning of the film is excessive and upsetting.

Teenage Jordan ends up going to middle school and sitting at the table with the other bullied kids. Her solution to helping them be "cool" is to throw money around: she buys them expensive, fashionable clothing, and they pose for Instagram photos to show them off. This seems to place the impetus for change onto the bullied, rather than the school bullies who reject these kids. Just be cool and have expensive clothes, and people will like you!

Teenage Jordan later supports these kids at a school talent show, where they become more cool because they can sing and dance (while wearing cool clothes). Not sure what this is supposed to be saying.

What about "bullying is wrong" (full stop) and adult intervention? What about apologies and the slow process of building up trust? We need such stories in our society, and kids and adults both need to learn such things.

Everyone in my house is tired today, including the dog.

Nothing much to report here. I found this article on the "anti" phenomenon to be very helpful for understanding what is going on in fandom.

Toxic Fandom: When criticism and entitlement go too far.
By Sean Z, with additional reporting by Aria C.

https://geekdad.com/2018/10/toxic-fandom-when-criticism-and-entitlement-go-too-far/

While some fans may be on a purity/ morality crusade, this article makes the case that certain people in fandom are interested in waging harassment campaigns, and have co-opted the language of social justice in order to do so. It also talks about how Tumblr, as a platform, fueled this fire due to the way it is set up.

I read the first two volumes of "Sex Criminals" by Fraction and Zdarksy. I was annoyed because it has a great concept but could have been so much better than it is.

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Vid Discussion Panel with myself, metatext, brainwane, were_duck, and cyborganize. For a list of all vids, please see http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/12762.html

These notes are from memory; any mistakes are my own and please correct me! We mostly talked about the premier vids.

We discussed brainwane's premiere, Pipeline, quite a bit. Brainwane has written about her vid on her journal including sources. This was brainwane's first vid and she did a lot of research into how to use still footage and how to make a multivid; she was very pleased with people's response to the vid. Women used to make up a lot of the tech world but have been pushed out. Similarly, women are recruited into tech but then are pushed out due to hostile work environments. Someone in the audience said that in Mongolia, Ghengis Khan had his daughters inherit power in the capitol city and his sons took over the outlying territories. But when the daughters died, the sons came in and literally scratched the daughters' names off of the stone because it was shameful to them to have women in power.

I don't remember what we said about garrideb's Pretty Deadly vid, "Hope in the Air", except a lot of Ooooh, it is beatiful, and great song choice! Brainwane said that the still techniques were different than what she had researched for her vid.

For starlady's vid, "Just a Dream Away", people joked that hardcore ST fans will brag about seeing "everything" in the Star Trek universe but will not have seen the animated series. But what is great about the series is the camp, and the way it uses animation to do things that traditional film cannot (such as tentacles), and this vid celebrates that. I loved the humor in this vid, and the way it centers women.

For seekingferret's vid "Cassavetes", metatxt explained that Cassavetes was a controversial, prolific film maker who did not share credit easily. The band here, Le Tigre, is a feminist band, and the question they pose in the song is one we struggle with in fandom: how do we react to problematic characters? No person is all good or all bad; when we elevate them, what does that mean? A very WisCon-appropriate question.

Other vids that the panelists and audience mentioned as being particularly note-worthy:
Roxane Samer's Orphan Black vid, Gold Rush, which intercuts footage with intersectional feminist quotes
Silent Fandoms by Ghost-Lingering. were-duck liked the vidder's subtitles which were quite meta and contributed to a community, in-the-moment feeling
Repeated use of the song "Blank Space" in 3 vids (Pipeline; Purple_fringe and such_height's Dr. Who vid; and sleepygeeky's Power Rangers/Fair Use vid). Interesting to note how the meaning of the song seems to change in each vid.
Losing my Religion by rhoboat. Such intense feelings and the song really stood out for people, as it is a cover of a familiar song.
Pressure (Quantum Leap/vidding) by the California Crew. A spotlight on vidders, in the VHS/analog age. were-duck mentioned that when you see what they are actually vidding, you can see that it is in the service of smut, which is so great.

I really appreciate that hc_bingo has changed its prompts to reflect events rather than identity categories (for instance "loss of vision" rather than "blindness").

Thanks, mods.

I love Downton Abbey! The characters are flawed but likeable, complex people; the costumes and scenery are wonderful, and the storylines engage me, even if the soap opera aspects are a little over the top for my tastes sometimes.

I have some problems with the way they portray gay people and people with disabilities on Downton Abbey.

Ahead are spoilers. If you want to catch up, the latest eps are online at PBS.org.
( spoilers ahead for all aired episodes )

I am doing that thing where you try writing the post you've been thinking about forever, in favor of not ever writing it. This post is about how Legally Blonde is a really wonderful feminist film. I've seen it many times and love this movie.

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair. 2001.
Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, president of her sorority at CULA, looking forward to getting engaged to her boyfriend Warner Huntington III, and majoring in fashion design. Her plans change when Warner dumps her for "someone more serious" and she decides to follow him to Harvard Law School and win him back.

This movie is funny, delightful, and surprising at every turn. Just when you think, oh, horrible sexist film (based on the marketing or basic story), it turns out to be a clever feminist story with very witty writing and sharp performances. Elle makes mistakes but they are the kind of mistakes that give her a steely resolve. She expects to find friends in her peers at law school, who turn their noses down at her, so she instead finds friends and allies in places you might not expect, across age, class, and gender divisions. It passes the Bechdel test easily because it focuses on Elle's career, several female friendships, and her general struggles and triumphs; her relationships with men are secondary. And yet it also acknowledges the existence of sexism and sexual harassment: there is an incident at her job that nearly causes her to quit, her co-worker is also casually mistreated in this same workplace.

There are a couple of things I would change. There are not many people of color in this film, particularly at the law school or CULA. There are gay people in this film (I am happy to say), but they do play up the stereotypes pretty strongly for the sake of a plot point or a laugh. The story also falls into the Victorian trope of coming-of-age story in which the heroine must end up with a man at the end. Sure, it's a good man, a kind and respectful one, but still, can't Elle stand alone at the end? I would like the movie better if she did.

The main impression this movie has made on me as a feminist is that it celebrates someone is what we might call "high femme", who embraces everything pink, is really into fashion, shoes, makeup, and celebrity gossip magazines, who is conventionally attractive (and cares about looks), loves her sorority, and has a little dog she carries in her purse. My own coming-of-age journey, finding my own identity as a woman, has largely been about rejecting these things and making fun of them. I am not highly femme, I resisted and still resist a lot of markers of femininity, and with that resistance came a certain derision of those who chose to participate in them. Growing into adulthood as a woman and a feminist has been about reconsidering this stance and respecting other people's choices. And this is what the film does for me. Elle is serious, smart, and powerful. She is a strong woman, a sympathetic one, a relatable one. I identify with her and cheer for her even when I am mystified by her love of pink sparkles and sororities. She is unapologetically herself, and that is something I want to be. Be yourself. Own who you are.

There have been a couple of moments in my life that I call "Legally Blonde" moments, where I encounter some woman who is perhaps blonde, very beautiful, probably petite, probably very femininely dressed. And so I automatically discount her a little, think that she and I have nothing in common, classify her in my head as someone I am not interested in getting to know. And then later, I am surprised, because it turns out she's a scientist or something else I find really cool, and we have many things to talk about. There was one woman in school with me like this, who told us she'd been in a beauty competition before coming to grad school. I had that reaction. How can she be serious, if she'd been in a beauty pageant? But she was very serious and smart. Society trains us to discount things that are coded as feminine. It is one of the strange looping side effects of misogyny. Because sometimes women are into these things (and only rarely are men into these things), we therefore think they are unimportant, frivolous, beneath our attention, just like women themselves.