What I’m Reading, June 16, 2014

Women Are Hard To Animate. Thoughts on Representation of Women in Movies, Television and Games, Echidne, Echidne of the Snakes, June 12, 2014

My point is that these stories are picked from a certain angle, an angle of traditionally male heroism, and even when that is not the case most of us are lulled into believing that a handful of women in a large list of participants is a mixed gender setting in a movie or television series. Just think of the Noah’s Ark (which also consisted of all white characters). Probably a fifty-fifty distribution of men and women in some movie reads as a chick flick to many viewers.

One reason for all this is that we tend to see women portray womanhood in their roles, not play roles of individuals who have different temperaments, characters and so on. That’s why having a handful of women in a movie looks like inclusion, even if they all play the role “women,” because that role might be subconsciously compared to the number of dentists or gamblers or whatever in the same movie, never mind that most of the rest of that list are played by men.

Who Owns Your Womb? Women Can Get Murder Charge for Refusing C-Sections, Michelle Goodwin, AlterNet, June 13, 2014

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This Week in WTF, April 18, 2014

Via beautifullivingdolls.tumblr.com

Via beautifullivingdolls.tumblr.com, a blog that actually exists.

– Maybe not such a good role model: Valeria Lukyanova, the Ukrainian model who has transformed herself into a life-sized Barbie doll, has made some pretty out-there statements about how she hopes to one day be able to live as a “breatharian,” meaning that she subsists solely on air and sunlight. Good luck with that.

Anyway, it turns out that, without makeup, she still looks a lot like a Barbie doll.

Also, she seems to be pretty racist, which might not be that surprising for someone who wants to be the exemplar of white blondeness. She also said she hates kids.

– The headline says it all: Rich People Call Cops On Statue Of Homeless Jesus.

– They messed with the wrong squirrel: Seriously, man, squirrels will mess your sh!t up. Especially in Indiana: Continue reading

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