On the 20th anniversary for her foray into show business, Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood is set to make her directorial debut this year, and she has lined up quite the cast to join her.
Jenny Slate, Alison Pill and Cynthia Erivo are set to star alongside Wood in a mysterious road trip movie that will soon begin filming in Vancouver, according to Vulture’s new profile of Slate.
On July 1, 2018 Evan Rachel Wood posted an update on the movie indicating that it was stuck in development hell, unable to get financing. She tweeted out:
Fyi I have been pitching a film, starring 4 amazing actresses, written by 2 women, to be directed by me, for TWO YEARS, to nothing but room after room of white MEN and ‘weirdly’
no one has given it money. And we wonder why there is a bias in hollywood?? Your move guys. (x)
Pretty much every woman on my timeline is like YES!! And everyone who is saying “well the idea probably sucks..”
Guess who? Not saying ALL men, but a vast majority still cant handle. And this is where we are in the film industry and pretty much everywhere. (x)
Okay this is a very half-formed thought and I’m not sure where I’m going with it yet, but the fact that the teen girls we’re meant to root for in so many Teen Girl Stories are the ones who are bad at or uncomfortable with performing femininity probably isn’t a coincidence.
And it’s mostly not because the people who create media about teen girls want to shatter gender roles; it’s more likely because even though femininity is the prescribed way for female-identified people to behave it’s also seen as something largely unpleasant.
Um. I’m going somewhere with this, maybe after I finish my homework. But I want to hang onto this thought.
ex: the proof of Regina George’s redemption is giving up her hyper-femininity in favor of aggressive, masculine-coded sports
ex 2: in High School Musical Gabriella and Taylor have a bonding moment over their nail beds being “history”, contrasting themselves with the more conventionally feminine cheerleaders. Gabriella is hardly butch but her femininity is portrayed in a more soft, natural way to contrast with Sharpay’s louder, more eye-catching and implicitly unpleasant outfits. Sharpay is not the bad guy because she’s girly, but she’s maybe more girly because she’s the bad guy.
Because caring about your appearance is BAD, that’s a character trait that we associate with Bad Characters, and most especially Bad Women Characters. Sharpay and Regina care so much about their looks because they’re shallow, and that means they’ve unpleasant.
All teenage girls are told, one way or another, that they should care about their looks and put effort into being attractive. But in the stories about teen girls, the only ones visibly caring about their looks are the bitches.
If a Nice Girl ™ wants to make an effort to look good she better have an excuse, like prom or a date or finding out she’s a princess.
Princess Diaries makes such a good point about this, actually. Mia is supposed to be attractive, because she’s the protagonist, but she also can’t do it herself, because that will make her look like just another Vapid Teen Girl. So she gets a makeover handed to her. Pretty is something that Just Happens to nice girls, because if you work at it you’re a bitch.
(Not to mention pretty isn’t compatible with frizzy hair or glasses.)
God, fucking Harry Potter isn’t exempt from this. Hermione gets contrasted with Lavender and it’s so obvious that Lavender is Wrong, because she’s goofy and sentimental and clingy and girly girly girly, in sharp contrast with Hermione “I only do my hair for the Yule Ball, I’ve got shit to do” Granger over here. And that’s not shitting on Hermione! It’s just clear that there’s a very particular sort of teenage girl we’re supposed to like in HP and she doesn’t care about Girl Things.
Even Sky High, the greatest teen movie of all time, falls into this. The women on the good guys’ side are Layla – soft femme, a little tomboyish, has strong opinions – and Magenta – vaguely punkish, v snarky – neither of whom do feminity “right”.
On the bad side there’s Penny, who’s a LITERAL evil cheerleader hivemind, and Gwen, who’s both the most popular girl in school and the actual super villain behind everything. These things are not coincidences.
Tbh as a parent I didn’t realise the baggage about this I carried until my kid got into MLP and I watched it with them and encountered the character of Rarity
She’s a character who is extremely feminine but her positive character trait is generosity she wants everyone she encounters to look as good as they can because she knows looking your best can make you feel good and she wants to share it
And for the first time I saw fashion and make up and all that stuff as self expression and artistry and something that, like almost all things, can be good or bad depending on the person
and I was and am really fucking ashamed that it took a fucking children’s cartoon about magical ponies to help me recognise that
This trope needs to die.
Give me more characters who are stereotypically girly and kind and generous and soft and strong and REAL
“[Katniss]
is supposed to be attractive, because she’s the protagonist, but she
also can’t do it herself, because that will make her look like just
another Vapid Teen Girl. So she gets a makeover handed to her. Pretty is
something that Just Happens to nice girls ”
wonder how many other teenage girl protagonist we can swap that name for
Okay but the first set of gifs is not a joke like that’s literally how it goes.
One of the girls at work won’t get in the guy’s car unless he agrees to let her take photos of him and his license plate to text to her mother. If he gets mad or makes a fuss she cancels the date and goes back inside.
Reblogging for that 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼
I’ve had someone take pics of me and my license plate on a first date before & I was okay with it. I’ve also had a friend allow me to view the tracking on her phone when she went to meet up with a guy the first time. This isn’t a joke at all & women have good reason to worry.
i have only ever met 2 people online, and made sure that we met up somewhere that was 1) public 2) close to my home.
After, I walked to the dollar store that was a couple shops down until I knew they were gone, before walking home.
Louis C.K. kind of nailed it. Men worry that their date won’t measure up to their aesthetic preferences. Women worry that they’re going wind up dead.
The disparity is RIDICULOUS, and the fact that dudes get offended when women try to protect themselves is hard proof that way too many guys Do Not Understand how dangerous it is to be a woman. (Not to mention it’s fucking insulting. “How dare you not trust your life and safety to a complete stranger whose intentions you have no way of knowing”?)
Lookin’ at the notes on this post following my earlier reblog and just
going….
Wow. WOW. Look at all these sheltered people and their internalized misogyny.
The point isn’t, “NOT ALL MEN ARE OUT TO GET YOU.”
The point is, “WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING A NICE GUY FROM A SERIAL KILLER.”
It’s
not like they fucking wear nametags, okay? Moreover, the most awful people with the worst intentions often put on the nicest face or deliberately make themselves seem harmless and likeable, to lull potential victims into a false sense of security. (Read up on Ted Bundy sometime. It’s horrifying shit. Or read any thread on the “Let’s Not Meet” subreddit.)
In order to protect ourselves, we are forced to assume the worst of every man we meet, because statistically speaking, the biggest danger to women…IS MEN. Saying “not all men are out to get you, you’re just being paranoid” is like saying “not every car you ride in is going to crash, so buckling your seatbealt is stupid.”
When dealing with an unknown situation, in the absence of absolute proof of safety, exercising a little extra caution can be the difference between life and death. Shaming women for being what you may view as overly cautious is every bit as horrid as blaming them if something goes wrong later on.
And refusing to go to a
secluded location with a complete stranger without letting someone know
where you’re going, who you’re with, and how to find you is just common street sense, whether you’re on a date or just going out for business or social purposes.
If your life has been so sheltered (or your coping skills so incredible) that you see no need to distrust strangers or worry about the potential for violence, you should thank your lucky stars.
And you should also be aware that just because it hasn’t happened to you or anyone you know does not mean that it doesn’t happen.
Lemme say that louder for the people in the back.
Just because it hasn’t happened to you or anyone you know does not mean that it doesn’t happen.
Re-Reblog for relevant commentary.
And if you won’t take a woman’s word for it because you are some kind of asshat, men who sleep with men also mirror these rituals because even men are afraid of other men based on men’s behavior and inability to understand “no” or take rejection well.
I’ll stop reblogging this when it stops being relevant
Alllll of this. Being paranoid will often save your life. Assholes who say otherwise need to shut their noise holes and stop acting like they know better.
PSA
If I ever get in a new guy’s car I ALWAYS take a pic of him, the vehicle, the plate #, and send it to numerous ppl.
Also, it’s story time! I’m pretty certain I saved my mom’s fucking LIFE by convincing her do this on a date with a fucking COP (which she thought was safer than going out with other men, but let me tell you, cops are the WORST partner abusers around, so pls be safe!!!!).
She had only talked with him online and they were gonna go for a drive somewhere remote for some reason and she wasn’t going to take any precautions at all. I, being a well seasoned internet dater, was terrified by this prospect and warned her about how cops are actually much more dangerous than civilians and that getting in his car and going somewhere remote was even more dangerous. SO, I told her the best thing to do is to take a pic of him, his plates, then send it to me, and make sure you do it all right in front of him SO HE SEES IT. I warned her too that as a cop he should KNOW how dangerous this date would be for her, so if he kicks up a fuss about it AT ALL I told her to run like the fucking wind.
So when she gets there, he is already in his fucking truck, doesn’t get out to greet her, so she takes the pics of his car, plates, and him and sends it to me and I thank her profusely. Then apparently she gets in his car, sees there’s a fucking BAT in the back, and doesn’t this fucker just kick up a damn fuss about her doing this. AND MY MOM DOESN’T GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!!!! OMFGWLJELWNLWEJFANMDS
So he starts the car and they drive away and she can already tell he’s a fucking creeper. At one point, he even tells her a truly sad story of his life and she reacts sadly and doesn’t this dickhead say “why aren’t you smiling?” as if that’s what women are FOR. She responds “You had just told me a very sad, personal story, smiling didn’t seem appropriate”, as if she’s just there for smile back at him and look pretty!!!!
She texts me throughout all of this, telling me she’s increasingly getting uncomfortable and scared. He’s becoming increasingly hostile and unpleasant. She eventually texts me to ask me to call her and pretend to be my younger sister that lives with her saying that I’m sick (my mom’s a nurse). But my younger sis is 26, has a baby, is a personal support worker with some medical knowledge; and that didn’t seem like something strong enough to me that would make this dangerous fucker give up my mom.
So what do I do?
I called her and pretended I was my little sister crying and freaking out because her baby is super sick and she needs her nurse mom at her side bc this is WAY beyond her knowledge or comfort level. Thankfully that worked and he turned around. But he wasn’t happy and that bat was still in the back, staring mom in the goddamn face.
Later she called me and thanked me profusely and she STILL talks about it and how scary it was and how she is CERTAIN the real reason he turned around was bc I had insisted she send me those pictures.
Everyone, please be safe, definitely definitely take precautions! But also know that if something bad ever has or does happen to you, it’s NEVER your fault, even if you “didn’t take the right precautions”. That victim blaming rape culture nonsense is bullshit.
Psa
There’s a principal in evolution – false positives cost less than false negatives.
If the bushes rustle and there’s no tiger there but you ran away because there might have been a tiger, you had to stop what you were doing and you lost a few calories running away.
If, even once, the bushes rustle and you don’t run away because it might not be a tiger, you’re lunch.
He is white. Guaranteed he won’t be terminated from his job like he
should be & the female being groped has dark skin so she will be
seen In the wrong because of her skin color. This is sexual harassment on nation tv
people are disgusting
The fact a female is also justifying it, is horrible
Burn the whole globe
Aight so let another man grab him like this…I wanna see y’all justify his actions with the same “boys will be boys 🤷🏾♂️” energy
I swear if gay men treated straight men the way straight men treat women…then and only then, would y’all see the problem
Kelli Tennant is about 6′2″ before you put her in high heels, Kike Hernandex is 5′11 and in flats. To get them in the same close up shot for the interview either he needed a bucket, or she needed a hole in the ground to stand in.
Ima just leave this here. No one should get offended by any of this because this is literally saying “treat your son like a human being so he can understand himself as he goes through life”
Wait a second … “my mother, my step-father”? Did Padmé survive and remarry Bail or what?
Oh, boy! Here’s some SW lore from before the release of the Prequels! We’re talking somewhere around 1995-1998 here! *dons lore cloak, cracks knuckles* Okay!
Carrie Fisher is amazing by totally disregarding the bullshit ending of Revenge of the Sith where Padme dies (which is a MAJOR continuity problem – seriously, all Lucas had to do was rewatch his own materialso he didn’t contradict himself in the prequels, or pull a Willy Wonka maneuver and have a contest where the winners would get to read the script and check for continuity and consistency, but that didn’t happen and the result was to butcher the strong-willed, intelligent Padme we see in Episode I to an out-of-character, dumbed down barefoot-and-pregnant secret wife. The worst offense was the removal of all of her scenes from Episode III wherein she literally began the Rebellion with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. But, I’m getting off topic.) By killing Padme, George Lucas and the ending of Episode III went and pulverized continuity like Tarkin blew up Alderaan.
*Note: I am well aware that this has been retcon’d to a rather insane degree. Doesn’t mean the initial offense doesn’t still aggravate me. Moving on here with the lore.
YES, PADME ORIGINALLY MARRIED BAIL ORGANA:
In Return of the Jedi, Leia and Luke have a conversation about “remember[ing their] mother, [her] real mother,” and Leia immediately replies that “she died when I was very young…She was very beautiful, kind, but sad.” In original interviews before making the prequels was even a notion to George Lucas, he had stated that Leia’s mother married Bail Organa shortly after giving birth and handing Luke off to Obi-Wan, and she and Leia lived with Bail on Alderaan, effectively hiding herself and her daughter from the Empire by both of them appearing to be the real parents of Princess Leia, and thus hiding both of their identities from the Empire, and especially from Darth Vader. She was smart, she survived Anakin being an abusive shit to her, she fled the dangerous situation she was in by being Anakin’s wife and the mother of his children, and she raised her daughter with Bail under the shadow of the Empire right out in the open, and encouraged Leia to become a member of the Imperial Senate. Padme was a total, defiant, and strong badass character, but here came the editing in Revenge of the Sith, and she became helpless, weak, and literally “lost the will to live” because her husband turned to the Dark Side. Are you fucking serious!? That is not Padme – she was stronger than that. She was *intended to be stronger than that.* Even though she never actually had a name until Episode I was released, not even in the novelizations of the original trilogy.
For Reference: If you still have a copy of the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia that was released before the prequels were made you can find all kinds of stuff like this! (I do have one of these elusive books, but not readily available, otherwise I’d be citing page numbers and shit here!) The Character Encyclopedias were revised following the release of Phantom Menace onward, to remove all contradictions found therein – I looked once in a bookstore when I was really fucking bored and had some spare time to waste.
Here are my ultimate favorite gems (i.e. the things that were changed that pissed me off the most, other than the topic of Padme, which I’ve already covered) from the original encyclopedia, the one published pre-release-of-the-prequels’ character encyclopedias:
THE BATTLE OF MUSTAFAR:
This one is a fun read. Mustafar wasn’t even a planet’s name in this encyclopedia then! Does it seem out of character to you that Obi-Wan just walks away while Anakin burns on the edge of the lava and missing three limbs and screaming in pain? Well, itactually is out of character because originally during that fight, Obi-Wan pushes/kicks Anakin from a ledge and directly into the lava! In Obi-Wan’s mind, there is no way Anakin would survive that. Obi-Wan does not leave tasks and missions unfinished, but in Revenge of the Sith, he leaves his most important mission unfinished – which is out of character and not how that battle was originally planned. So, when he determined Anakin would in no way survive falling into lava, he leaves. He still leaves too early to see the Emperor force-levitate Anakin out of the lava to safety. THAT is why Anakin needed his iron-lung suit to live – not because he barely has any natural limbs left and thus needs replacement ones, but because his entire body and lungs are burned so badly that only machines/his suit can keep him alive – which is why he dies moments after Luke takes off his mask in Return of the Jedi. Also, for Obi-Wan – who is notably a compassionate and merciful character throughout the entire saga – it would be against his entire character to leave Anakin lying there burning on the ground like that without either saving his life, or killing him so that he did not suffer. He certainly wouldn’t just simply walk away, knowing Anakin, his former student, a close friend for many years, is lying there literally on fire, and suffering in agony. It’s not in character for Obi-Wan to do this, to leave like that and in that situation. He would only leave when he was certain that Anakin had died or that he couldn’t possibly survive – like for example, after being pushed into lava. But Episode III just totally messed that up and completely screwed with both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, there.
WHO THE HELL IS OWEN LARS?
This changed too! I distinctly recall this being on Page 91 of my copy of the aforementioned SW Character Encyclopedia, but was later completely contradicted by the time Attack of the Clones was released.
(Even more fun factoid about this: There was a young adult book series called Jedi Apprentice, and in one of those books – I think either the third or fourth in the series – detailing Obi-Wan’s time as Qui-Gon’s apprentice [which is also a continuity problem in itself because of Obi-Wan’s line in The Empire Strikes Back when he tells Luke to go to Dagobah, “There you will learn from Yoda, a Jedi Master who instructed me,” implies that Yoda, not Qui-Gon, was Obi-Wan’s primary teacher/Master. But…*sigh* okay, this is true “from a certain point of view” I suppose, but Ben/Obi-Wan’s confusion about this makes him look like he needs some ginkgo to keep his memory in top shape! But the Yoda-should’ve-been-Obi-Wan’s-Master fuck up aside, there’s one more time George Lucas messed with Obi-Wan’s character, which I started to discuss in this paragraph but got sidetracked…and it’s this!] In those Jedi Apprentice books (the one I am referring to was published before Attack of the Clones’s release, keep in mind)Obi-Wan at one point recalls his home and his birth family, most notably recalling a younger brother. What, you say? Obi-Wan doesn’t have a younger brother. Actually, originally he did, as was confirmed in the Character Encyclopedias and EU books/novels published before the prequels were produced. That younger brother of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Owen Lars. Fun Fact: Obi-Wan’s birth name was Benjamin Lars, which is how we originally get Ben Kenobi. Yes, Obi-Wan and Owen were supposed to be blood-related brothers.Then Attack of the Clones went and fucked that all up by having Anakin and Owen be stepbrothers!
I mean, really, think about this: Do you think Obi-Wan Kenobi would be stupid enough to hide Luke with Anakin’s – excuse me, Darth Vader’s – stepbrother and not think that would be one of the first places the Emperor would look if he even suspected that either of Vader’s kids – who pose huge threats to himself as Emperor – survived!? That makes absolutely no fucking sense. Also, Obi-Wan is way smarter than not only to come up with such a shit plan but then to go through with such a shit plan. However, doing the original plan makes perfect fucking sense: Obi-Wan goes to his own brother, Owen Lars, and hides Luke there. Owen has nothing to do with and no connection to Anakin/Darth Vader, originally, so there is absolutely no reason for the Empire, the Emperor, OR Darth Vader to even give a womp rat’s ass about any of this! That’s why Luke was safe with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru for so long – because the Empire had zero reason to give a fuck about them and their moisture farm. It also explained why Owen in the Original Star Wars (now known as A New Hope) refers to Obi-Wan as “that wizard’s just a crazy old man.” He does not like Obi-Wan. He thinks Jedi powers are akin to wizardry. He uses negative language about Obi-Wan – perhaps because he knows that his family was put in potential danger the moment Obi-Wan asked them to take Luke in. But more importantly, Owen – by repeatedly dismissing Obi-Wan as a reclusive crazy wizard – is deliberately trying to instill in Luke to also dismiss “Old Ben” as someone with whom Luke should not want to associate! Also, in the early encyclopedias, it is mentioned that Luke had encountered Obi-Wan once before his meeting him during the events of the first (A New Hope) film as a teenager, when he crashed his T-16 craft (you know the one we see him playing with in the equivalent of the family shed/garage?) and Obi-Wan rescued him and brought him back to Owen, where he tried to give Luke his father’s lightsaber at that moment…but Owen chased him from the property. THIS is why Owen repeatedly tries to dissuade Luke from going to the Academy. Not because he’s overbearing or a dick of a foster father/uncle…but because he is well aware that once Luke leaves the farm, Owen can’t protect him from his “crazy wizard” brother who Owen believes will shove Luke headfirst toward’s Anakin’s fate. None of this makes sense with Owen being a step-brother to Anakin that he meets once. But it certainly makes a hell of a lot of sense if Owen is Obi-Wan’s brother, knowing full-well what the Force is, how it works, how Jedi training separates families like his own, etc. Owen and Ben even look alike! But…then Attack of the Clones happened…
I think I’ve ranted long enough, which is too bad because I didn’t even get to discuss the entire idea of Bringing Balance to the Force. Next time, perhaps.
*End Note: This was written by someone who LOVES the Prequels, despite – or in spite of – the above flaws and problems. Don’t mistake the above for Prequel hate, because it’s not. I just dislike continuity problems and contradictions.
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