Love in the Top Ten

The Bechdel test stuff reminded me of something I did in my history of rock class in college. We looked at the iTunes top 10 songs for themes. Most of them were about love in some respect: having it, enjoying it, losing it, wanting it, etc. It was something I noticed before.

Looking at the top charts for today, it’s less about love and more about sex.

1) Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke Sex

2) We Can’t Stop by Miley Cyrus Drugs, partying, and probably sex

3) Get Luck (feat. Pharrell) by Daft Punk Partying & sex

4) Radioactive by Imagine Dragons Now this is an anthem. Not sure what it’s about but I love it.

5) Cruise (feat. Nelly) by Florida Georgia Line Love in a summer party song

6) Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Another anthem

7) Same Love (feat, Mary Lambert) by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Love but it’s an interesting look at homosexuality. Good job Macklemore.

8) Treasure by Bruno Mars Love. Does he sing about anything else?

9) Cups by Anna Kendrick Love but in a kiss-off way. It’s a good mix of the original track.

10) Come & Get It by Selena Gomez Love

The first three tracks on the list disappoint me greatly. All of the lyrics are asinine and trite. IMHO, the only good qualities with 1 and 10 are that they are interesting musically. I like the instrumental Selena uses but the lyrics are insipid and uninteresting. I love what Thicke does with the vocal variances and the music itself is good. I hate the lyrics. Did you need skill to write that crap or did you borrow a romance novel?

I have nothing nice to say about 2 and 3. They are catchy as hell but I hate them. The music is incredibly simple. The lyrics are shallow if not a little stupid. I’m all for fun trash pop but 3 says ‘get lucky’ about 10 times every chorus. It makes me want to blow my brains out.

4, 6, and 7 give me a bit of hope though since the songs are good both musically and lyrically. 4 has that great drum pounding and is a good anthem. I expect to see it in previews for sci-fi and video games soon. I was truly impressed with Macklemore’s depth when talking about homosexuality. The instrumentals are not something you hear much in hip-hop.

5 and 9 are decent. 5 is excellent for what it is, a fun summer song. 9 was a little unexpected but it’s a fun mix. I also like 11 (Clarity by Zedd, another love song). All have enough going on musically and the lyrics are fun without being insipid. Kelly Clarkson’s new song Tie It Up (not charting yet) uses amusing plays on word to sing about marriage to a fun country band. See, I’m not just hating on all the new fun songs.

As for the Bechdel aspect, love and dating is incredibly universal. It’s something almost all of us go through which is why that subject resonates so well but songs about other things aren’t hurting (My Songs Know… by FOB is #12). The top ten could use more female artists however…

Bechdel Test: TV Shows

Movies are usually a one shot deal so sexism is easy to spot. TV shows are on-going and you can spot patterns. IF you have no idea what I’m talking about, go back and read the first entry about the Bechdel test.

I did a lot more than I was originally planning on but there are several off-air shows that are crazy popular on Netflix and/or in the nerd community. Some just merit a mention

Supernatural: Fails. Caveat, I’ve only seen the first 3 seasons however, most of the female characters don’t interact save a mother & daughter in season 2.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Passes. There’s a good mix between relationship stuff and saving the world.

Firefly: Passes. They talk about work, the ship, the planet they’re on, and a variety of things including relationship stuff.

Star Trek (TNG, DS9, Voyager): All pass. All named characters, regulars and one episode wonders, have something else to discuss. I skipped TOS because 1) it’s a different era and 2) I haven’t seen it.

Warehouse 13: Passes. With an excellent balance of male and female good guys and bad guys, this show gives its characters plenty to do and care about.

BSG: Passes. Relationships add to the post apocalyptic, save-the-human-race drama.

Dr Who: Passes, mostly. The number of named female characters who interact varies from episode to episode. It’s not consistent enough to pass with flying colors although River Song helps.

Torchwood: Passes, mostly. The female characters primarily talk about the job they’re doing however Gwen is it for season 3.

Game of Thrones: Passes. Women have little power outside their wiles but still find other things to discuss.

Bachelor(ette): Epic Fail. A woman left her 25% chance of winning to save her dream job and was shamed for it. Add that to all the cat fighting and you can see why this show should be a feminist drinking game.

Sex and the City: Epic Fail. The show admits it epically fails at this in one of the episodes.

NCIS: Pass. The current episodes could use a few more female characters but it has a good balance and the women on the show have stuff to do

Big Bang Theory: Passes. Most of the women on the show are attached to the men so relationships come up a lot but the girls have really come into their own in the last few seasons.

30 Rock: Passes. I like how work defines Lemon more than her relationships. She’s more interesting to watch for it.

How I Met Your Mother: Passes. Given the premise, relationships are the main gag but other stuff does come up.

The Walking Dead: Passes. I’ve only seen season one and while it’s light on the women, every character has better things to worry about.

Criminal Minds: Passes. I haven’t seen recent seasons and the show is male dominated but they did have enough female characters that they pass.

Gilmore Girls: Passes. While it’s on much anymore, women dominated the show and did manage to find other things to talk about.

CSI (all): Passes. I’ve seen enough of each incarnation to know that the show passes.

The Office: Passes especially since the premise of the show is about work.

The IT Crowd: Fails. There are no named female characters for Jen to talk to but that is also partly the point. IT is pretty male nerd dominated.

Downton Abbey: Passes. Despite the time period, the women do find other topics to discuss.

True Blood: Passes. Despite all the sex, the supernatural always gives characters something new to discuss.

Shows I have not seen: Mad Men, Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, Friends, Seinfeld, Alias, Grey’s Anatomy, Person of Interest, Big Brother, Modern Family, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, Nashville (probably passes), Eureka, Dexter, and Homeland (probably passes).

The easiest path to give characters something to talk about is found in either genre shows (like sci-fi or fantasy) or shows where the woman’s job is part of the premise. Sci-fi usually makes female characters stronger and more empowered. They have more agency and responsibility than you see on a show with a more ordinary premise. Gilmore Girls is a rare example of a show that is every day but the female characters are layered. They are as kick-ass as sci-fi chicks but it was a good start until the final season when they canned the good writers.

Current Music: Northern Star by Melanie C

Bechdel Test: Movies

I recently heard about a test done on movies and other media that can reveal a gender bias. From a comic in 1985, one of the characters says that she won’t watch a film unless it has ‘two women who talk to each other about something besides a man.’ More recent applications also require the women be named characters. For the purpose of this blog, I’m focusing on movies.

A work can pass and still contain sexist content such as the Twilight Saga. All of the movies pass because Bella talks to other named female characters about something other than Edward such as the Volturi, how vampires survive, a character’s backstory, etc. Despite that, there is nothing positive going on for women in this series.

Another example is that the female characters will talk about babies, weddings, or marriage rather than just men. They don’t talk about the world or what makes them tick outside of their husbands/families.

Other films may fail because of the setting and time for the characters. Most war movies or certain historical themes will be light on women in order to accurately portray setting. If it’s going to be something other than an alternate history or comedy, I’d rather it be realistic than politically correct. It just shows the world needs to pass the Bechdel test as well.

Let’s look at some popular movies on HBO and Netflix, Wikipedia’s list of the highest grossing movies, and a few personal favorites. I’m limiting it to movies I’ve seen. I’ll hit up TV shows another time.

Avengers: Fail. Black Widow and Agent Hill (Robyn from HIMYM) are good characters but they never speak to any other women for the whole movie. Also, most of you didn’t know Agent Hill’s name.

Hunger Games: Passes. Katniss speaks to Effie, Rue, and her sister. All of them are young but love is not the concern here.

Pitch Perfect: Passes. The biggest topic of conversation is a capella and most of the major characters are women.

Dark Knight Rises: Fails. Going off of memory, I recall no significant dialogue between Catwoman and any named female characters.

Dark Shadows: Passes. There are four women plus a daughter in the movie and they rarely, if ever, speak about men.

Avatar: Meh. I vaguely recall brief conversations between Neytiri and her mother and Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver’s characters. All are named characters but any interaction would be so nominal that it only technically counts.

Skyfall: Meh. There was some interaction with M and Moneypenny about work and 007. Nothing memorable other than [SPOILER ALERT] M being replaced by a man.

Lord of the Rings: Fails. I genuinely cannot recall any major interaction between any of the major female characters. This goes for the whole trilogy.

Pirates of the Caribbean (1-3): Fails. Who else does Keira Knightly talk to besides the male characters?

Inception: Fails. Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard almost never interact that there’s no other woman for Page to talk to.

Leap Year: Fails. I love Amy Adams but the only named female characters talked about love, relationships, and engagements. I don’t expect better from most rom-coms

What to Expect When You’re Expecting: Passes. There are plenty of named female characters but they mostly talk about having babies. They don’t talk about work, domestic expectations, money, etc. Again, it’s a rom-com, they usually don’t go too deep.

The Jane Austen Book Club: Pass. When I thought of a movie that passed, I immediately thought of this. The women talk about their relationships but they also talk about books and several other things. It’s one of my favorites.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland: Pass. While Alice mostly discusses relationships with people at the start, the Wonderland queen have better things to discuss.

Push: Passes. The sci-fi flick has a good ratio of named female characters who spend almost no time talking about relationships.

Current Music: Electric Daisy Violin by Lindsey Stirling

Home Sweet Own Challenge 20

I love this concept. A world full of heroes who now must cope with those powers being gone? Brilliant. I even met the writer last year and he was a rather nice fellow. He signed my copy with the line you hear throughout the book “Everyone comes back.” I was very excited to finally read it. I really enjoyed the mix of B&W panels with the text. I wanted to like this book so badly. I’m mostly out of nice things to say.

I loved some of these hero concepts. They sounded fascinating and I would have loved to have seen a bit more of them in their heyday. Most of the back story comes is too little for some characters, too much for others, and most is too late to resonate. It’s hard starting with former heroes losing what defined them and trying to figure out how to be vulnerable mortals. There was no glory before it got depressing so the whole thing had a dismal tone.

So much time is spent on long drawn out expositions. It’s exhausting and grating. If those had been cut down to size, I’d have made it through a lot faster. I would literally think “Are we done yet?” in several chapters. I’m not a slow reader but this writing style made this drag on for at least another week since I’ve got a life too.

Then there was the oft repeated phrase “We all come back.” [SPOILER ALERT] They lied. Nobody’s powers were restored. Why the hell is that the damn catchphrase of the book if it doesn’t happen!?!

Some of the plot twists were good. The terrorist attacks and the true villain and the true nature of the blue. I also enjoyed the shifting perspectives which added to the story, just not enough. Some of the characters were less than likeable. I wanted to like Pen but he was cowardly. Sicko was all sorts of annoying and Strength irked me with her recklessness. Shouldn’t your protagonist be someone you can root for and get a better ending out of? I finally finished it and I remember thinking “What was the point of that?”

I’m a fan of comics and most of those have better, faster story telling. Anyone who says if you like comics, you’ll like this, is wrong. This book has so much potential but it was such a letdown.

1) Fiction – A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King

2) Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi

4) Fantasy 

5) Mystery – Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

6) Horror 

7) Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

8) Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

9) Feminist – Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

10) Teen – What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

11) Holiday 

12) Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman

13) Short Stories 

14) Library 

15) Animal 

16) Book about Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto

17) New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

18) Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod

19) Pop Science – Why Men Fake It by Abraham Morgentaler, MD

20) Near 

21) Far 

22) Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler

23) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

24) Wild Card 

25) Otherworldly Creature 

26) Free – Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin

27) Noteworthy 

28) Bestseller – How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

29) Themed Anthology – Red edited by Kris Goldsmith

30) Steampunk 

31) Movie-Book 

32) Media – Doctor Who: Touched By an Angel by Jonathan Morris

33) Travel 

34) Food 

35) Classic 

36) Humor 

37) Poetry 

38) Past – Stasiland by Anna Funder

39) Future 

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic 

41) Zombie 

42) Sports

Current Music: Crazy on You by Heart