Quick Hits on Pop Culture & Politics: A Collapse, Unproven Rear Toning, A Disappearing Bra, Fresh 'Up All Night' & Sports Fans’ Sexism

Red Sox, A Collapse: Epic. Historic. Implosion. Angry. Heartache. Words are insufficient . . . Baseball is so over for 2011 . . . at least in this house.

Easy Tone’s Unproven Rear Toning Claim: What’s my take-away from the story about the fact that Reebok was forced to pay $25 million to the people who bought their EasyTone sneakers which Reebok claimed would firm up the wearer’s derriere but the Federal Trade Commission said there’s no proof for those claims? There’s no easy shortcut to a hard body.

‘Sleight of Hand’ & The Disappearing Bra at the School Board Meeting: In this day and age, what kind of person would ever think that it’s a good idea to do a magic trick at a public meeting where you pretend to pull off a woman’s bra? The chairman of the Massachusetts School Committee in Abington, that’s who.

The Brockton Enterprise reported that the committee chairman “performed a trick that made it appear as though he and high school teacher Steven Shannon had just ripped the bra off committee member Ellen Killian.”

Good. Lord.

Can you imagine what would’ve happened had a male student done this to a female student in front of a classroom? Or if a male teacher did this to a female teacher at a staff meeting? You’d say, “Unacceptable!” right? So why doesn’t the male chairman of the Abington school board realize that it’s just as unacceptable at his meetings, where they’re supposed to be setting the example for the entire school district?

Fresh Up All Night: It's three episodes into Up All Night, the new Christina Applegate/Will Arnett comedy and I'm hooked. They've managed to take issues facing new parents (exhaustion, lack of interest in sex, feeling uncool, work-home struggles, etc.) and make them seem fresh and new again. I've been reviewing it for CliqueClack TV. Check it out. You'll thank me.

Sexism Aimed at Yet Another Female Sports Scribe: Sportswriter Jennifer Gish wrote a column last week for the Albany Times Union poking fun of the fervent, ever hopeful Buffalo Bills fans and the response she got for her troubles wasn’t simply the kind of “you’re a big idiot” e-mails and comments that columnists typically receive. She was deluged with all manner of misogyny and horrific, personal attacks.

Gish wanted her readers to understand what kind of feedback she was receiving, so she wrote a column detailing some of it, including these comments:

“seen some photos of you and you are as ugly as your story about we bills fans.


we may lose, we may win but you will still be ugly either way.

in response to this story

GO TO HELL

and you may want to consider plastic surgery or something, you are one god awful ugly looking female.”

AND

“YOU SUCK DONKEY D***! That's why females shouldn't be allowed to write articles about sports. You better not write a good article about the Bills now because then everyone will know that you really just a dumb, bandwagon slut.”

AND

“Well great prediction! Maybe your article will help get women like you removed from sports media. You are incompetent and really offered no unique points that haven't already been beaten to death in the past ten years in your tirade against the bills. Glad they could prove a hack borderline blogger like you wrong.


Maybe you should stay in the kitchen next time.”

This vehemence and level of vitriol just doesn’t happen to male sportswriters. And it’s disgusting. But at least the commenters didn’t threaten to try to remove her bra as part of a magic trick at a public meeting.

Image credit: NBC.

When Don Draper Pitched Facebook's New Timeline App

Some clever soul took one of my all time favorite Mad Men scenes, Don Draper's pitch for the Kodak Carosel, "The Wheel," and transformed it into a pitch for Facebook's Timeline app.

Brilliant.

Watch the video here.

Via Brooklyn Mutt.

Image credit: Michael Yarish/AMC.

Attention 'Grey's' Writers: Don't Make Meredith Grey a Victim. Again.

I expressed my frustration with the season eight premiere of Grey’s Anatomy in my review over on CliqueClack TV, “McDreamy is dead to me.” My chief complaint: That Derek Shepherd was a sanctimonious, calloused cold fish who abandoned his wife in her time of need. Again. (A few years ago, after the house of candles and Post-It “wedding,” showrunner Shonda Rhimes had promised viewers that Meredith and Derek were “together forever.” There’s apparently been a change of heart.)

The more I thought about it, the more aggravated I became about what’s happened to one of the few female lead characters in a drama. In a mere two hour span, Meredith Grey lost her job (because she’d tampered with Derek’s Alzheimer’s clinical trial in order to help a friend), saw her husband abandon her, got her job back (because the Chief, whose wife Meredith’s meddling benefited, took the fall for her) and then lost custody of her adopted daughter.

Why do the writers seem determined to grind Meredith Grey into the dirt? Let’s review what this character has endured since she graduated from law school and began her surgical internship in the shadow of her renowned surgeon mother:



She fell in love with a man who didn’t tell her that he was married. This man then dumped her, after she begged him to pick her, so he could give his marriage another try, then called Meredith a whore when she started dating and sleeping with other people.

She learned that the chief of surgery had a lengthy affair with her mother that led to the demise of her parents’ marriage.



She risked her life to extract a live bomb from a patient’s chest cavity and then watched the guy from the bomb squad (Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights) blow up, literally.

She learned that her father, Thatcher Grey, had created a brand new family and had doted on his daughters, while Meredith never saw him once he divorced her mother.



Her Alzheimer-ridden mother Ellis, who’d ignored her daughter for most of her life, told Meredith in one of her rare, final moments of lucidity that Meredith had disappointed her because she was “ordinary” and had done nothing special with her life.



She allowed herself to sink into the water after she was accidentally knocked in following a ferryboat crash. Meredith nearly drowned, just as her own mother died, hours later in Seattle Grace while Meredith was unconscious.



After she treated her stepmother in the hospital for a case of hiccups gone horribly awry and the stepmother died, her father hit Meredith in the face, later banned her from the funeral, holding her personally responsible for what happened. He later fell off the wagon and showed up at the hospital completely drunk.



Her boyfriend, who eventually left his wife Addison for Meredith, started dating other people after Meredith told him she wasn’t quite ready to commit to marriage yet but wanted to be with him. (It should be noted that Derek's demands that she commit or else he was off to date others occurred not long after the bomb squad guy had blown up, after her mother died, after Meredith nearly drowned and after her father blamed her for his wife's death and then started drinking again.)



On the day she was going to tell her “Post-It Note” husband Derek that she was pregnant, he was shot in the chest by a gunman. When her colleagues were operating on Derek and the gunman demanded that they cease operating or be shot, Meredith offered herself up to the shooter be sacrificed instead of Derek and the other doctors. One of the surgeons messed around with some wires and made it look as though Derek had died on the table so the shooter would be satisfied and leave the room. Meanwhile, Meredith crumpled to the ground in enormous grief. Meredith regained her composure once she learned Derek wasn't dead and began operating on a fellow doctor who’d been shot. Then she had a miscarriage.

Her best friend Cristina wouldn’t speak to her for some time later as she was experiencing emotional difficulties after the shooting and blamed Meredith for it.

Meredith couldn’t get pregnant again, even after fertility treatments. When she and her husband Derek got the chance to adopt a baby, an error in her professional judgment led to not only her firing, but to her husband shunning her and to them both losing custody of that baby.

If all of this had happened to me in the span of a handful of years, I'd be balled up and sitting in a dark corner someplace.

I no longer wish to see Meredith Grey, an intelligent, talented, big hearted surgeon as a victim. What’s next, have Meredith Grey get early onset Alzheimer’s like her mother? Get cancer? Become an alcoholic like her father and her father-figure (Richard Webber)? Get hit by a bus? She could go the Dr. House route and either start abusing prescription drugs and then get locked up in a mental facility or ram a car through the front of Derek’s house-in-the-making then wind up in prison. Actually, I’d prefer to see Meredith crash her car into Derek’s unfinished house because then at least she wouldn’t be the one who was victimized. At least she’d be doing something other than getting crushed and let down by the people she loves.

Meet Me in the Political Middle: Commentary on the 2012 Race

When it comes to politics, I can be found all over the map depending on the issue.

On some matters, I lean toward the left, on others toward the right. I’ve voted for Democrats and for Republicans. I vote the person, not the party. I vote on character and policies, not on partisan litmus tests. I don’t believe that one of the two main political parties is entirely evil and hell bent on wrecking the nation while the other has only the noblest, best intentions for the United States in mind. No one party corners the market on the most ethical, intelligent, reasonable and pragmatic solutions to the nation’s problems. They’ve both got gigantic flaws and lunatics in their ranks.

There are some politicians who are Democrats and some who are Republicans whom I admire and have enormous respect. There are crazies on both ends of the political spectrum – on the far left and far right of both parties – who try to push their presidential (gubernatorial) candidates and legislative leaders to the outer wings during primaries, rendering the candidates, in the end, looking like unbalanced hypocrites when they turn around and seek to claim the middle, moderate ground during the general election because that’s where the undecided voters reside. (Those folks on either ends of the extremes are likely going to vote party line in the general election, while those who are more moderate could go either way.)

The tactics of our political parties make our candidates behave worse, not better. The parties pressure well intentioned officials to support bills in which they actually don’t believe, to give lip service to issues with which they don’t agree. If an elected official dares to go rogue on his or her party and defy the demands of the party leaders, the fierce partisans and political establishment mete out punishment in the form of party-funded opponents in the primary, of being stripped of one’s seat on legislative committees and of one’s district suddenly seeing public monies evaporate, all as a penalty for not towing the party line. Politicians in our system have a very difficult time remaining true to themselves because not only are they expected to do what the establishment and the party leaders want them to do, but because there are also powerful, wealthy lobbying groups who wield tremendous influence and power over the process (by not making hefty campaign contributions or by throwing support behind a rival candidate, etc.) if they’re dissatisfied.

This makes those of us who find ourselves in the political middle disillusioned with politics and the political process. Watching the primary candidates reach out to the extremists, moderates frequently feel alienated. It’s only when the general election rolls around and the candidates stop staking out positions on the far left or right and try to say, “Hey, I’m in the middle with you guys too” that people who might be a little liberal and a little conservative depending on the issue feel as though the politicians are finally speaking their language. But once that person is elected, he or she is forced to become partisan again because partisanship seems to be the only way of doing business these days.

A confession: I used to hold pretty partisan positions when I was in college. I did not take the time to listen to the other side. I saw the world as fairly black-and-white and invoked lazy caricatures of those folks who lived on the politically polar opposite plain than I did at the time. Then I gradually started to let go of the angry partisanship which marked my college years and actually began listening to the whole spectrum of ideas. Then, after an incident made me feel as though I’d been sold out by the political party to which I was registered, I angrily switched sides (my husband was stunned). In the last few years, however, I’ve started to realize that maybe I’m not a one side of the aisle type of gal after all. I am, indeed, somewhere in the middle.

Just this week, for the first time since I was 18 years old, I unenrolled from all political parties because I’ve had enough. I’m hardly alone (despite the fact that those who reside on the sanctimonious, narrow-minded edges of both political parties say that being an independent moderate means you’re wishy-washy). Earlier this month, pollsters from Rasmussen Reports found that, “The numbers of Americans who are not affiliated with either major political party has reached the highest level ever, as the number of Democrats has reached an all-time low.” In fact, the American electorate is roughly divided into thirds when it comes to party registration, according to Rasmussen:

• 33.5 percent are Republicans
• 33 percent are Democrats
• 33.5 percent are not enrolled in a political party

But even among those who are registered with a party, which I was until this week, they aren’t necessarily dogmatic about their party affiliation. Why else was the term “Reagan Democrat” invented?

This is why a group like No Labels, which calls upon us to ditch the “hyper-partisanship” which “dominates today’s political debates” and seek out moderate solutions, is so appealing to me. Yes, the organization seems very Mr. Smith Goes to Washington idealistic as it aspires to prompt elected officials to be reasonable, given that reasonableness is anathema to partisans and pols who are posturing themselves for re-election and want to look “tough.” But at least it doesn’t represent unthinking, unbending lockstep partisanship that sacrifices the common good at the altar of party unity.

So for the duration of the 2012 presidential election season, I will be periodically weighing in on events from my new post, smack dab in the unenrolled middle, where at least a third of the rest of you reside. I’ll continue to listen to both conservative and liberal radio shows and watch conservative and liberal TV talk shows. (All the better if they’re combined in one like Morning Joe, which features conservative Joe Scarborough and liberal Mika Brzezinski and doesn’t demonize all Democrats or all Republicans.) I will continue to cast a skeptical eye on all politicians’ assertions and assignments of blame for this crisis or that one. And I’ll do my best to try to look at the issues from here in the political middle. I hope you’ll join me.

Image credit: No Labels.

Notes on Pop Culture: Emmys (FNL! Mad Men!), Cheers for Character Actors, 'Blue Valentine' Haunts

Awards & Awkwardness at the Emmys

The Emmy broadcast on Sunday was one honkin’ strange bit of TV. While I really did not like most of what the awards show folks presented to us under the guise of "entertainment," I did like the decisions the voters made.

What I hated: The Emmy Tones (unnecessary, uninspired), the feckless scripts written by people who are apparently severely lacking in the humor department, the cheesy “In Memoriam” segment where the smoke was swirling around the feet of the people butchering the song Hallelujah and the SNL musical montage that included the ditty about a "three-way" (but at least my kids, who’d been watching the awards show with me, had already gone to bed so I didn’t have to field questions about three-ways).

What I adored: Friday Night Lights getting much belated though much deserved accolades including an Emmy for the writer of the series finale (which hit just the right notes without being too saccharine) and for Kyle Chandler who keenly his testosterone-laden role of football coach Eric Taylor with a sensitive side where he was a family man who loved his wife and daughters and would be willing to move thousands of miles away from the great state of Texas to pursue her dreams; Mad Men getting the best drama nod for an exquisite season and Modern Family’s tsunami of justly earned awards for their big hearted, snarky and smart reinvention of the family sitcom.

The single best moment, however, was the one above, where all the nominees for best comedic actress took to the stage and clasped hands in a beauty pageant bit from the creative mind of Amy Poehler. For those who say women aren’t and can’t be funny, they can stuff it, that bit seemed to say. And to have Melissa McCarthy win, after all the garbage she put up with a year ago when Mike & Molly premiered, was just the cherry on top of the Sunday.


Image credit: NBC.


Cheers for Character Actors

This past weekend, I was intrigued by the piece by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott in the Sunday’s New York Times about character actors who “endow the make-believe of movies with personality.” A love letter to the likes of Paul Giamatti, Bryan Cranston, Viola Davis, Judy Greer and Steve Buscemi, it extolled the virtues of those actors and actresses whose craft feels real when you watch them embody their characters, unlike what oftentimes happens when you’re watching a BIG star and you’re acutely aware that you’re watching a BIG star playing a role.

“A star imports outsized individuality into every role, playing variations on a person we believe we know,” they wrote. “A character actor, by contrast, transforms a well-known type into an individual.”

This got me to thinking about character actors who pop up on numerous TV shows, shows which sometimes air at the same time, who always seem to deliver.

The man who first popped into my mind was Zeljko Ivanek. Not exactly a household name. You may think you have not earthly idea of who this guy is just by looking at his name, but when you see his face (see photo above), you’ll say, “Oh yeah! THAT dude!” He’s been on so many TV shows in so many different roles it’s thoroughly impressive. He’s been on The Event, The Mentalist, True Blood, Damages, Big Love, Heroes, 24, Homicide: Life on the Streets, on one episode of House, two episodes of the John Adams miniseries, one episode of Lost, three episodes of The Practice . . . the list goes on and on. And no matter when and where he appears, he's always good.


Image credit: AMC.

Another actor whose face immediately came to mind was Anne Dudek’s. Again, you might not know her name, but you’d know her face which has appeared as a series regular on Covert Affairs, Big Love, Mad Men and House, and has also appeared on How I Met Your Mother, Castle, Bones, Invasion, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under.

As I was thinking about Dudek as Betty Draper’s best friend in 1960s Mad Men, I remembered Mark Moses who not only had a stint on Mad Men (as the alcoholic ad man Duck Phillips) but enjoyed a one-episode excursion on Covert Affairs as an astronaut this season. He too was on Desperate Housewives (an on-again, off-again role as Paul Young) and appeared in a ton of other TV series for one episode, everything from NYPD Blue to Malcolm in the Middle.

Then there’s another Mad Men cast mate whose name I never knew: Audrey Wasilewski. Seriously, I had never even heard of her name until I looked it up for this blog entry. But you’ll know her once I tell you that she plays Peggy Olson’s sister Anita in Mad Men. She was the Henricksons’ neighbor across the street, Pam (the one who asked Margene to be a surrogate for her and whose estranged husband killed Bill Henrickson) on Big Love. She’s been on Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Bones, Monk, Private Practice, Gilmore Girls and Six Feet Under. Believe me, you know her face when you see it.

Who are some character actors on TV today who you seem to see everywhere?

Blue Valentine Haunts

I was battling a head cold over the weekend so that gave me the perfect excuse to don some comfy clothes, grab a warm blanket and sack out in front of the TV to catch up on a couple of flicks while my husband took our three kiddos to their sporting events. I finally got the chance to screen the indie darling Blue Valentine and the mind-bending crowd pleaser Inception.

I found them both entertaining but, by far, Blue Valentine resonated with me and has had me thinking about it for days. Its portrait of the disintegration of a marriage, coupled with the gritty, bone-depth needy performances of Ryan Gosling and the put-it-all-out-there Michelle Williams reminded me of a non-ironic, dark version of 500 Days of Summer. Blue Valentine may bill itself as a “love story,” but in reality, it’s about the sticky course of an unlikely relationship forged out of opportunity, desperation and physical attraction that runs aground ugly like a rudderless boat in a dingy river.

Inception, meanwhile, took a lot more work on my part to enjoy because I had to suspend a whole lot of questions and thoughts like, “Wait, if they can imagine a train running down the middle of the street, why can’t they imagine they’re in a bulletproof car? Why can’t they imagine that they can fly away? It’s their dream!” in order to roll with it. Once you do that and you suspend you’re inclination to say, “This makes no sense!” you can find yourself able to follow Leonardo around and cotton to his personal backstory, because that was what I found most interesting about the film, the story about Leo and his dead wife, not the loads of special effects.


Image credits: NBC, AMC.

Forget All These Debates & Pleas for Passing Bills . . . I'm Voting for Leslie!

If only I could vote for Leslie . . .

The fourth season of Parks & Recreation -- which starts on Thursday, September 22 -- will not only feature Leslie (Amy Poehler) trying to decide whether she's going to run for public office, but whether she's going to continue dating Ben (Adam Scott), in violation of the town of Pawnee's employee code of conduct. Their boss, Rob Lowe wouldn't like it if he knew they were an item.

Plus, we will meet not one, but two more Tammys in Ron Swanson's (Nick Offerman's) life. Holy cornrows Batman! And one of those Tammys is Patricia Clarkson, Ron's first wife.

With all the depressing political and economic news out there, I could use some Leslie Knope/local government humor right about now.

Full Length 'Breaking Dawn' Trailer: Bella's Lookin' a Bit Peaked

After she's the blushing bride in the flowing white dress, Bella Swan, in the first installment of the Twilight series' Breaking Dawn, retreats to an island paradise with her dashing vampire husband, Edward Cullen.

Soon, very, very soon thereafter, Bella becomes pregnant and experiences the fastest gestation in modern cinema. Judging from the newly-released full-length trailer, being pregnant with Edward's baby doesn't suit Bella so well. Somebody give that girl some iron or something.

The 9/11 10th Anniversary Ad that Gave Me Goosebumps

While watching some NFL action yesterday, I caught this State Farm ad.

Perfect blend of uplifting, hopeful and respectful.

We will, indeed, remember.

At the First Hint of Fall, My Thoughts Wistfully Turn to the 'Gilmore Girls'

I just noticed the first hints of autumnal color in the leaves on the tops of two trees on my New England street. During the past two days, the temps haven’t made it above 70 and school has begun. As fall gradually unfurls, my thoughts turn to many things, like playoff baseball (Go Sox!), apple picking, making everything I can think of from the apples before they go bad, fresh cider and cider doughnuts, jack-o-lanterns and cozy sweaters.

And I also think about one of my favorite TV shows, the Gilmore Girls, a program which showcased fall in New England quite often. Set in a fictional Connecticut small town named Stars Hollow, about a half-hour outside of Hartford, it began in the fall, in September specifically. Its opening credits display the show’s title across a background of vibrant foliage. On the DVDs (I own nearly all of the seasons), you make episode selections by clicking on a leaf. The ABC Family web site which has a page for the show, is covered in fall leaves. Fall and the Gilmore Girls go hand-in-hand, despite Lorelai's professed love for magical snow.

 

Many memorable, quirky moments occurred in the fall: Rory Gilmore’s birthday was in the fall -- something that was marked during several seasons -- and she received her first gift from her first boyfriend Dean outside amidst the leaves while her mother Lorelai looked on through the kitchen window.

Luke Danes was constantly hounded by the Stars Hollow selectman, Taylor Doose, to festoon his diner with festive fall decorations, given its proximity to the town green where the Thanksgiving horn of plenty resided and where the fall fair was being held.

Rory got her first kiss in Doose’s Market while she was awkwardly clutching a box of corn starch from a Thanksgiving display (a box she inadvertently shoplifted), and then ran across the center of town, stepping around pumpkins and hay bales to share her good fortune with her buddy Lane.

Rory and Lorelai had four Thanksgivings one year when they were emotionally blackmailed and/or cornered by their friends and family and felt as though they couldn't decline the invitations.

The first one at Lane Kim’s house featured tofurkey, the second at Luke’s diner featured Luke’s gruff banter, the third at Sookie St. James’ house was highlighted by Jackson deep frying the turkey and Snooki getting drunk, and the fourth at Emily and Richard Gilmore’s was the site of an argument over where Rory should apply to college. The mother-daughter duo gave everybody a bouquet of fresh fall flowers, cranberry sauce and chocolate turkeys.

When Rory was a freshman at Yale, Emily and Richard insisted on tailgating prior to the Yale-Harvard football game (albeit tailgating alongside a massive motor home, using linens and fine china and the services of a wait staff). Richard got drunk, ran into an ex and, when Emily became jealous that he’d maintained regular contact with a former flame, she took out her anger on Lorelai who’d finagled an invitation to the tailgating soiree at the last minute.

Just a month or so earlier, Lorelai had eased Rory through the college transition by spending the night with her in her Yale dorm, inviting the female students into Rory’s suite as they ordered from all the take-out joints in the neighborhood so they could sample them, that was when Lorelai wasn’t arguing with Luke over his truck in which she’d left Rory’s Yale-issued mattress.

Are there any TV shows which remind you of fall? Any favorite fall-related Gilmore Girls episodes?

Image credits: ABC Family and The WB.



Notes on Pop Culture: 'Miss Representation' Broke My Heart

Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

I recently saw a screener of the documentary Miss Representation – slated to air on the OWN (Oprah) Network in October and currently being shown in limited screenings around the country -- and it reminded a great deal of a documentary I saw way back in the Stone Ages when I was sitting in a university sociology class as a student watching Dr. Jean Kilbourne’s Still Killing Us Softly documentary (there have since been more versions made) about how advertising depicts women as things, as sexual objects and creates a feeling among women that they can never, ever be good enough to compete with the phony, inhuman versions of femininity peddled by the advertising world that commodifies them and their bodies and debases their intelligence. Later, a UMass-Amherst Communications professor, Sut Jhally produced the first of many documentaries about how music videos transformed women into purely sexual, mindless objects for men to possess, consume and master.

Now, two decades later, these problems that I first pondered as a university student have only worsened.

And along came Miss Representation, the documentary which demonstrates how the degrading, oversexualized, trivializing depiction of women in the media and pop culture affects women and girls, as well as what negative impact the media’s messages have on women’s attempts to climb into the upper echelons of political and business power. From contemporary advertising and reality TV shows making women look like sex on two legs, to the news media’s treatment of women politicians and business leaders, Miss Representation piles example after example on top of each other, creating layers of angst, hatred and marginalization which, when consumed by the female half of the species, does tremendous damage.

An assortment of some of horrifying bits from this documentary:

• 53 percent of 13-year-old girls say they are unhappy with their bodies. When those girls reach age 17, 78 percent are unhappy with them.
• “Girls seen as objects by other people, they learn to see themselves as objects.”
• Seven-year-olds say they want to become president in roughly the same numbers among boys and girls. But by the time they reach age 15, the number of girls who wants to be president drops off precipitously. “Women are discouraged from pursuing ambitious positions.”
• In pop culture, these messages are driven home. Hard. Only 16 percent of protagonists are female. “Mainstream movies are mostly stories about men’s lives.” Of the so-called “chick flicks,” the documentary filmmaker said that many of those movies revolve around a woman getting a man or being taken down a peg, or humiliated in some way.
• On TV and in film, if a woman is depicted as powerful, she’s typically a “bitch” or has sacrificed love and family for her career. One Oscar winning male screenwriter said that woman are portrayed by Hollywood as “cartoons, not complex human beings.”
• When women are “empowered” in pop culture, that generally translates into them flaunting ample skin and body parts, being thoroughly sexed up, in other words, objectified, existing, as one commentator said, “for the male viewer.”
• The people who call the shots in Hollywood in terms of TV and movies are nearly all male, with women comprising a paltry 16 percent of all writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors.
• Female TV journalists face pressure to get Botox, wear sexy clothing, lots of makeup and act in a sexual manner, while female politicians face demeaning insults and inquiries about their looks, sexuality, clothing, sexual proclivities, voices, maternity and their hormones. “A woman in power is often seen as a negative thing,” one commentator said.
• While Condoleezza Rice said when she heard people questioning if Hillary Clinton was tough enough to be president in 2008, she thought, “I’ve known plenty of men who weren’t tough enough to be commander in chief, but they weren’t asked that question.” Meanwhile Sarah Palin was “pornified” by the national media in 2008 with some calling her a ditz and one man on a TV talk show saying she’s “masturbation material.” News photographers took photos of members of the audience at Palin’s events as seen through Palin’s legs.
• The average number of news stories about women and girls is less than 20 percent.

This doesn’t seem to end. Just this past week I eviscerated JCPenney’s ill-fated, ragingly sexist T-shirt, aimed at elementary school girls which said, “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.” Though the retailer pulled the shirt off their web site after people protested, in my Mommy Tracked column this week I made the point that things like this only reinforce the assertions made in Miss Representation.

Throw in the fact that I’d recently read an article in the New York Times telling women like me that I should start worrying about getting “cleavage wrinkles,” to my observation that after the Women’s Pro Soccer league had its final in New York and there wasn’t a full news story about the championship in the New York Times Sports section, and to seeing GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann mocked for wearing what one web site felt was “ugly shoes” and it’s enough to really, really make me steamed, frustrated and ready for a change, ready to say, “No mas.”

Saying Goodbye to 'Rescue Me'

As Rescue Me fans gear up for the series finale next week, I can’t help but feel sadness at the conclusion of this complicated, uneven, edgy but unquestionably button-pushing drama that plumbed the depths and sadness of 9/11 like no other piece of pop culture.

Though I gave up on the show for a season and a half – I was very put off by a scene late in the third season where Tommy Gavin sexually assaulted his estranged wife Janet – I returned for the fifth season and have remained a loyal viewer since. I’ve even been reviewing it for CliqueClack TV for the past two seasons.

This final season has been incredibly powerful, from its somber reflections on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 – how it’s being exploited, how it is still such a raw wound for many – to the depiction of firefighters facing their own mortality, ever aware of the dangers they walk into when they attempt to save someone who’s inside a burning building.

Tommy Gavin’s come full circle, from the crappy, alcoholic, selfish, wounded husband and emotionally AWOL father, to one who appears to have finally given up the booze, embraced his responsibilities as a husband and father and who can finally take a pass on temptations that come his way. He's made his peace with those around him (thanks to his buddy Lou prematurely delivering heartfelt letters Tommy wrote to be distributed to his family and friends in the event of his death).

Which of course means Tommy’s got to die, right? Well if you go by the second-to-last episode (I reviewed it here) it seems as though Tommy and his whole crew may (emphasis on may) have died in a warehouse fire (which reminded me of the 1999 Worcester fire, the one in which Denis Leary’s firefighter cousin and childhood friend perished as they entered a building intent on saving the people they thought were inside).

Who knows what lies in store for the finale next Wednesday night, whether Tommy Gavin will live or die, along with his brethren. Either way, I hope the series finale will be respectful of the show, the characters and the audience.

Image credit: FX.