Evil Media: King of Queens

I dont' see an episode title for this particular piece of crap.. but it is such crap.

We've got lead character Carrie who uses her friend Holly, on a regular basis. In a different episode, Carrie is sick so she guilts her friend Holly into bringing her home cooked meals every day. Then when it is Holly who'se gotten sick, she doesn't even notice or care. And Holly doesn't tell this woman to go to hell?

In this particular episode, Carrie apparently doesn't want to ask Holly straight out to borrow her van, but rather tricks her into thinking she wants Holly's advice in redecorating. Of course it backfires because Holly takes her seriously, and so Carrie has to ingeniously figure out reasons why she won't follow Holly's suggestions.

This is a popular show...what is this woman Carrie showing the young kids who watch this piece of crap? That it's okay to deceive people who think you are their friends? That people are so desperate for friendship that they'll allow themselves to be used by people who claim to be their friends?

The other plot is Doug and Deacon in a restaurant. Doug insults a waitress - a short woman. The woman threatens him physically, "I'm going to gut you like a deer." This is so not funny. If it had been the other way around, the patron would have called the police and the male waiter would have been thrown in jail. But because the "victim" is a male and the aggressor is some short woman - albeit a New Yorker, we all know they like to fight - they think it's funny?

I'm all for women sticking up for themselves and being able to karate chop an attacker, male or female, into submission. But "catfights" between two women (or girls, even, sadly) because one girl dared to kiss the other girl's boyfriend?) or women beating up on their boyfriends because they know they can (because it is the man who will go to jail should he dare to retaliate against her)... that is simply unacceptable, and to make jokes about that kind of behavior is not funny at all.

Abortion rights

Let me start out by saying I believe in abortion rights. If a woman doesn't want to have a baby, she shouldn't be forced to have it. Of course, rather than using abortion as a form of birth control, the intelligent, or even just common sense thing to do, would be to teach these girls to use condoms or the pill or whatever. And if their guy doesn't want to use a condom... don't have sex with him. That would also prevent the spread of a little something called "Sexually Transmitted Diseases."

On a related note, for those girls who have no intention of getting abortions, but rather want to get pregnant regardless of the fact that they're only 14 to 16 (conditioned as they are to that, by the gifts of realistic babies when they're little girls), have no education, no job prospects, and don't even know the name of the guy they're having sex with.... we need to educate them as well, to value themselves as human beings first, and sex objects last!

Anyway, the point of this particular entry is an interesting bigoraphical note on a "Doctor Who Companion."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-397508/The-intriguing-story-Dr-Whos-sidekick.html, Anneke Wills.

In the 1960s, she was the live-in girl friend of actor/singer, Anthony Newley, and was pregnant with his child. He went off to America and fell in love with Joan Collins (whom he would later marry.) According to Wills, he sent her a rather cold-hearted telegram, ordering her to abort their child.

And she did so.

She recalls being taken by Newley's manager to see the two psychiatrists necessary to agree to an abortion.
'No expense was spared,' she says bitterly. 'I was in shock, absolutely heart-broken. I didn't know why he had changed his mind.'
When she finally booked into a clinic in Hampstead for a Caesarean abortion at four-and-a-half months pregnant, she remembers taking a doll with her.
'It was ghastly,' she says. 'I was sobbing my eyes out.'

Now, obviously, the 1960s were very different from today. Today, a girl would think, why should I have an abortion? This is your baby, I'm going to have it and you're going to have to support it. (The main reason why guys today should either get vasectomies or wear condoms - don't saddle yourself with child support payments for a one-night stand! Better still don't have a one-night stand to begin with...)

But what intrigued me about it was the fact that she had to see two psychiatrists before she could have an abortion. What did she tell them? "I want the baby, but my boyfriend told me to get an abortion." and they nod and say, "Well, as long as your boyfriend has told you to do it, he knows best."

Anneke Wills story is a sad one...

Let's Have A Little Veracity...

The real Amelia Earhart

In Night at the Musuem, starring Ben Stiller (a movie I enjoyed, by the way), Robin Williams played Teddy Roosevelt...and he was made up to look like Teddy Roosevelt.

Now we're gettign Night at the Museum 2, and Amelia Earhart (or at least, a model figure of her) is apparently going to come to life.

And this figure looks nothing like Earhart. Too many curves! And quite pretty. (Actually, I wonder if it is supposed to be Earhart. Because Earhart never wore a jacket like that, either. Hers was long and covered her rear end... hmm... just another artistic license? Musn't cover a woman's best feature, eh?????)



And I'm torn. On the one hand, Amelia Earhart was quite slender, and in some ways matches the skeletal look that women today are supposed to look like. (I have no doubt she didn't have an eating disorder, she was just naturally slender). On the other hand, this actress, Amy Adams, is all curves - which at least gives a healthy body image for viewers to see.

But the face.... it's just not Amelia. Even Diane Keaton looked more like Earhart than this woman does.

Here's Hilary Swank as Earhart in the upcoming movie.

Evil Media on the Cartoon Channel

I'm staying at a Motel 6 in Williamsburg, Virginia, researching locationss for a pamphlet on travel to the city.

I've got a TV that's got Cable, although with only 22 channels its pretty lame! One of those channels is the Cartoon Channel.

I turned it on at 11.30 pm at night, when I suppose all impressionable kids are in bed. Thank god for that because the comercials are obscene, as is the programming - Family Guy. A cartoon that features bestiality - the dog has sex with the wife, and the young baby who speaks lie an adult but is still breast fed and has nothing but contempt for his mother...

Ah..I see this is "Adult Swim." No wonder this country is headed into the toilet in education, class, morals et al.

Edited...I'm surfing channels and have comew across WHRO. Full nudity of women's breasts, and genitalia, at a strip club! I didn't think this kind of stuff was allowed except on pay channels!And all those women should be euthanized for the disservice their doing their sisters! Take out the guys who go see that crap, too!

Evil Media: Disney Commercial

Okay, it's got nothing to do with women and culture per se, but it just annoys the heck out of me, because its part of the dumbing down of America.

I'm watching Frasier on the Lifetime channel, and have just seen a Disney commercial which I've seen a few other times.

Male kid, perhaps 10 or so, is sitting in a classroom, looking bored out of his mind (as with the rest of the 20 or so kids in the room) while a pompous teacher attempts to teach them something. Kid opens his notebook, and there's an envelope that says "Happy birthday." He opens it up, and the fireworks of Disney shoot out. All the kids ooh and ah...

So what is this commercial teaching kids? That school is boring, and always will be boring, and learning isn't important, anyway, because you can always go to Disneyworld on your parent's money....

Evil Media: King of Queens

I've been watching the King of Queens recently - I've missed many a show on its first run, but that's what syndication is for. I've never really cared for it... but I watch it to see just how offensive it really is.

It was and obviously is very popular. Doug Heffernen is an overweight IPS driver, his wife Carrie is a slender, very attractive woman who could probably have her pick, but as is the way in these shows, she's fine with tubby Doug. (Why is it we never see sitcoms with handsome men and tubby women to whom they're devoted?) Carrie is secretary to a law firm (or perhaps at this point in the episode I'm discussing below, she's secretary at a real estate firm, at any rate, she's employed).

Anyway, the episode I'm wathing this very minute is called "Queasy Rider." Doug wants to get a motorcyle, and his wife says, "No, you can't get it." No discussion, etc. She says this in front of his friends, he gets all embarrassed because they make emasculation jokes, and he gets the bike anyway.

And frankly, I'm with him. It's a running cliche that when two people get married, the woman is always a nag out to change the husband - you can't play golf this weekend, you can't buy a motorcylce, et al - and the husband always comes across as henpecked. And I'm like - the guy's got a job, if he can afford it he should get the motorcyle. Equally, if the woman can afford it, she can get a motorcycle!

Now, obviously, this is a sitcom, so things have to come out in a funny way. In this episode, turns out Doug doesn't actually like the bike - he gets rained on, people laugh at him, and he continually runs into the wall of the garage.

Meantime, Carrie and her father (an annoying man who lives in their basement) have a discussion. "I made him get rid of it because it was too dangerous."

And father says, "What's worse is someone resenting you forever for making them give up their dream."

So at that point Carrie gets a clue and goes back and buys the cycle for her hubby. But of course, Doug has to admit that he doesn't like the bike. So, they're going to return it (and she expects to get the same price she paid for it - like that ever happens!)

But...she does apologize to hubby... but not for ordering him around, but rather for making her "buzzer" sound, which he finds demeaning.

I've seen a few other episodes, and they're little better. In one, Doug and his friend Deacon find a sum of money - $5,000 I think it was. If he gives it to the wife, she'll just make him invest it, so instead, he and Deacon blow it all in one day and a variety of things - renting a Lamborghini, playing golf at a ritzy place, et al...

In other words, Doug is always really stupid, and Carrie is sensible but bossy, and Doug always finds ways of doing things behind her back. The 2000s version of I Love Lucy and other sitcoms where the ditzy wife was always trying to do stuff despite sensible hubby's adavice against it.

After two Kings of Queen's comes two Everybody Loves Raymond's, another show which I really despise. But I'll talk about that in a future entry.

Urine therapy????????

In a different blog, I commented about some poor Brazilian woman who holds the record for plastic surgeries - she's had over 40 different procedures. Her latest one was because she wanted to "look beautiful" for Carnival time. Fortunately for her, her husband is a pastic surgeon, so perhaps it doesnt' cost her anything - except the time lost from use of her body while it heals from plastic surgery, her mental health as she is clearly a deeply insecure woman, and the fact that her body will probably look exactly the same 100 years from now should anyone ever bother to dig her up. OR perhaps they'll just stick her in a corner somewhere as a sculpture after she dies, as there won't be anything left of her to decompose.

Anyway, everyone knows what urine is, right? IT's that yellow liquid that we pass out of our bodies, full of waste, but not solid waste such as goes to form the stool. But regardless....it comes out of our bodies, so who in the world got the bright idea that injecting someone with urine would cure anything, and who in the world is stupid enough to even try this type of therapy?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29126420/



Women have been under attack since the dawn of time, really, but I'll just deal with the last 100 years. It's all about keeping up with the style. Flappers in the 20s weren't supposed to have breasts, or waists, and the trend toward skeletal woman has continued from then to the present day. Take a look at Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel, when she was Germany's idea of a sex symbol - all curves, and contrast that to the way she looked in the States - glamourous, sure, but probably didn't eat enough to keep a mouse alive.

The "beauty" business - whether cosmetics or dieting, is a multi-million dollar business, and they got that way by promoting insecurity in women. You must cover the splotches on your face, you must never have a tummy buldge, if a guy wants you to have bigger breasts, put in that silicone!, if he leaves you, put in that silicone so you can keep your next man!, when men turn to look at you it's not like they're eyeing you like you're a piece of meat, it's really a compliment!

It irritates me everytime I see little girls, or even teenagers, walking around in those short shorts that go right up to their butts... it'd be fine if guys had to wear the same short shorts as well, give us heterosexual women a bit of eye candy, but of course if a guy does it, it signifies one thing... he's gay and looking for a guy...

And straight guys don't think girls who wear short shorts aren't advertising their wares? Well...they don't really care what the girls think, I guess, they're just grateful for the eye candy.

Should non-Muslim women wear a headscarf?

When on duty in Muslim countries that have religious law (i.e. Sharia - the law that says not only that women should be stoned to death for adultery, but also carries out that sentence) many American and European service women would cater to their sensibilties by wearing headscarves. (Of course, their sensibilities must be catered to. When Muslims come to the US, their sensibilities must still be catered to - nothing about them catering to the sensibilities of the US who find headscarves offensive...)

Anyway, Annette Bening and some other female actress I'd never heard of went to Iran to give talks on making film. And of course they wore headscarves. I must admit I was shocked and relieved to ssee it was only scarves, not the full burkha that covered the entire face, leaving slits for eyes.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hs08h0N-fFTlnRAblLSMrXwXLnPg

And, of course, the Iranians who invited them over are in trouble with the government now. (You'd've thought they'd've cleared the visit before inviting the Americans!) Seems Americans have insulted Iran in 30 years worth of film making, making them seem like a violent country with a violent history.

(Well...gee...name one country that doesn't have a violent history - from the indigenous populations on upward, people were killing each other and different tribes for being different... it's what poeple did then and its what they do today. Now the IRA is getting started up again...)

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if heads will roll on the Iranian side:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=190528

"Non-profit" rewards Octomom

Pretty interesting article.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/03/09/2009-03-09_octomom_nadya_suleman_agrees_to_roundthe.html

First the world learned she already had six kids and lived in her mother's cramped three-bedroom house in Whittier, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles.

Then came news she was unemployed, single and living on a combination of food stamps, disability payments, student loans and her mom's retirement checks - all while her mom's mortgage went unpaid for nearly a year.

And now, thanks to her 8 kids who are still alive, Angels in Waiting is rewarding this irresponsible individual with a free house and free round-the-clock childcare.

Meanwhile, average, poor citizens - as Octomom used to be - who got irresponsibly pregnant but at least only had one child, can barely make ends meet and there's no one to help them with round the clock child care.

I've never donated to Angels in Waiting, but if I had I'd demand my money back and I certainly won't be giving them anything now, either.

Forget Obama's snub of British PM, his wife should cover her arms!

I cannot believe this.

Michelle Obama, whom I detest, goes around wearing sleeveless shirts. She's got sculpted biceps, so no one's complaining that she needs to cover up because she's got that whole flabby under arm thing going, neverthless apparently President's wives aren't supposed to wear sleeveless dresses.

Bull crap ola.

Go after the woman for what she says, what she does, not because of her appearance! What's the deal, Barack Obama's ears are taboo but its okay to criticize his wife's arms?

I think I heard something about this during the campaign as well, and this piece reminded me of it:

During the campaign, there was talk in the Obama ranks that Michelle should stop wearing sleeveless dresses, because her muscles, combined with her potent personality, made her daunting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08dowd.html

Michelle Obama needs a few teachable moments on what made the USA great and what can make it great again, but she doesn't need word one about the way she chooses to dress.