Last night’s movie was Pinocchio. I’m not sure I had ever seen Pinocchio, so it was definitely something interesting. I phoned my mom to talk and mentioned we were going to see it and she asked me why. She felt it was a horrible movie and why would I want to see it?
The movie began sort of as Snow White did, with a book. But a different sort of book. And Jiminy Cricket opens the story and reads. An interesting introduction, but what I noticed most of all was how clear the picture was. Apparently, this was the first time that a multi-plane camera was used and it totally shows. Looking back at Snow White, it looks hazy and foggy compared to the town that Pinocchio is set in. The detail and definition in the buildings just screams “Walt.” Walt was incredibly detail oriented, as you can tell from the minute details put into Disneyland.
In any case, the scene that gets set is that of a puppeteer in what I assume to be Italy, from Pinocchio and Stromboli. Geppetto is set as the sweet, loveable, wonderful toy maker who longs for a son of his own. And thus my question now gets raised. What did Disney have against the “traditional” family? Was he trying to prove that kids from non-traditional families, we assume, turn out just fine? Or was he proving that people can overcome obstacles? Or was he being cruel? The few Disney characters in the 1900s with both sets of parents were the Darling children and Mulan. Everyone else is raised with one parent (Geppetto, the little boy from the Rescuers Down Under, King Triton, Maurice), a step-parent (Snow White, Cinderella), a pseudo-parent (Briar Rose, little girl from Oliver & Company) or no parents at all (Bambi, little girl from Rescuers).
Anyways, Geppetto wishes that his new little toy – Pinocchio – could become a real boy. We don’t get an answer as to why he wants to be a parent, but I suppose it can only be because he is lonely. For heavens sakes, he talks to a cat and a fish! He makes a wish on the wishing star and then falls asleep.
Enter the blue fairy. She is the keeper of truth and has the ability to see the obvious difference between right and wrong. She grants Geppetto’s wish and Pinocchio becomes a real (wooden) boy. She tells him that if he is selfless, brave and courageous, he’ll get to become a real boy. Jiminy signs up to be his conscious and throughout the rest of the movie, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t actually real. Everyone else makes fun of Pinocchio for talking to either a nobody or a bed bug.
Geppetto wakes up and finds Pinocchio and freaks, like any normal person would. He then rejoices and then, after a small scare of Pinocchio burning himself, everyone went to sleep. It’s interesting because I figured, after watching so many modern movies, that Pinocchio burning himself and Geppetto telling him not to would have been a foreshadowing moment. But, it wasn’t. I don’t know if that’s a nice way of being shocked or if modern movies have just become so predictable.
The very next day, Pinocchio heads off to school. It’s really odd to me that Geppetto gets a kid and then sends him off to school the first chance that he gets. Don’t you think that Geppetto would want a little time with him to teach him basic things? Anyways, Pinocchio skips merrily off to school when he is stopped by Honest John and Gideon who tell him that “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me).” Pinocchio becomes the star puppet of Stromboli because he can sing and dance with no strings. He does his solo part:
I've got no strings to hold me down
To make me fret or make me frown
I had strings but now I'm free
There are no strings on me
Hi o the merio, that's the only way to be!
I want the world to know notin' ever worries me
I've got no strings so I have fun
I'm not tied up to anyone
They've got strings but you can see
There are no strings on me!
And then come the girls. First, a girl from Holland:
You have no strings your arms are free
To love me by the Zeider Zee
Ya,ya,ya if you would woo
I'd burst my strings for you
And then a girl from Italy:
You've go no strings comme ci comme ca
Your savoir faire is ooh la la
I've got strings,but entre nous
I'd cut my strings for you
And then one from Russia:
Down where de Volga flows
Dere's a Russian rendezvous
Where me and Ivan goes
But I'd rather go with you
It’s interesting to me that these girl puppets, the only other females seen in the movie besides the blue fairy, want to date Pinocchio. And it makes Pinocchio uncomfortable. As you can see, he runs away from the girls and instead chooses to imitate the Russian kazatski dancers.
The show gets over and people throw money to the stage. Jiminy thinks perhaps he’s made the mistake and leaves him, depressed and questioning himself and his worth. Stromboli thinks he’s got a winner here and while laughing with Pinocchio, realizes that Pinocchio is a dim-witted kid and locks him away in a birdcage. Jiminy comes to wish him luck and tries to free him. The blue fairy shows up to make everything well and this is the only part in the story where Pinocchio lies. Having never seen the movie before, I figured it was a central feature to the story. Turns out, not so much. She makes everything right and then tells Pinocchio and Jiminy that this is the last time she can help them. They escape and go to run home.
On the way, they run into Honest John and Gideon who have just met with the coachman who is a greedy man. He runs a place called Pleasure Island (when Honest John hears the name, he grabs Gideon in fear) and strongly requests Honest John to send him misbehaving boys. The last boat, he tells Honest John, leaves at midnight. Honest John encourages Pinocchio to take his ticket (the Ace of Spades – does that have significance?) to have fun on Pleasure Island.
Pinocchio befriends a kid named Lampwick and eats too much, drinks beer and smokes cigars. Jiminy finds them and scolds Pinocchio only to have Pinocchio explain that Lamwick is his new best friend. Jiminy gets angry and leaves only to find that the boys are being turned into mules (or jackasses as the movie shows) to work in the salt mines. As Jiminy runs back to warn Pinocchio, Pinocchio watches Lamwick drink beer and begin to turn into a jackass. Pinocchio puts down the beer. Lamwick smokes his cigar and turns more into a jackass. Pinocchio then puts down his cigar. Was Disney trying to make a point about the evils of these to children or the evils of them entirely? Could Walt Disney, a chain smoker until the report in 1960, have seen into the future or was he just telling kids to wait until they grew up?
Pinocchio grows mule ears and a tail and he and Jiminy escape, jumping into the ocean. They get back onto land and run home only to find that Geppetto isn’t there. A message from the blue fairy tells them that Geppetto went looking for Pinocchio and got swallowed by a large whale named Monstro. Pinocchio knows he has to rescue his father and thus ties a rock to his tail and goes after Geppetto. Being wooden, he can breathe underwater, but the same cannot be said for Jiminy, so I’m not sure what to make of that. In any case, all the fish run away whenever Pinocchio mentions Monstro.
We cut to Geppetto, Figero and Cleo, starving in the belly of the whale. As an adult, what I find amusing is that Geppetto and Figero have not eaten Cleo. In any case, the whale gets hungry and swallows up lots of fish and Pinocchio right along with them. Pinocchio gets reunited with his father and has the brilliant idea to make Monstro sneeze. Monstro does and gets very angry and comes after the group. After a fight scene, Geppetto, Figero and Cleo all wash ashore and we see that Pinocchio has been the casualty in the story. We see him face down in the water.
The next scene shows Pinocchio lying on a bed and Geppetto crying. The blue fairy’s voice can be heard saying that because Pinocchio was brave and true, he can become a real boy. Pinocchio is transformed and tries to talk to his father. Geppetto, still crying, says “I’m crying because you’re dead Pinocchio.” Now, how can a wooden boy, who walked and talked underwater, have died from a wave? In any case, the family is united and all is happiness. Jiminy gets his gold badge and the movie ends.
I suppose my main issue with this is the greed of people. Pinocchio was made in 1940. How did Walt Disney know that people would be so greedy in the years to come? Human trafficking, drug laundering, bounty hunting, etc. would not all come into the world until years later. Were there people like this in 1940?
The other issue is that only little boys can be corrupted. And while I’m not insisting that little girls are the devil’s playground, neither am I stating that little girls are perfect angels. I find it interesting that only little boys went to Pleasure Island. Is it because little girls make bad mules? Or just that little girls cannot be jackasses? Or that little girls of the time don’t do the sorts of things that go on at Pleasure Island, things like drinking and smoking?
I like the fact that there is an equal balance between the two creatures that represent the truth and all that is good. Jiminy Cricket represents the male half and the blue fairy represents the female half. While I’m a bit annoyed that the blue fairy is called just that and has no other name, I understand the purpose of it.
Next week is Fantasia. It should be awesome!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Snow White
Sweetie and I got invited to go and start seeing Disney movies, in their order of release, every Monday evening. Since it’s free and not too far from where we live, we decided it would make a good “date night.” Last night was the first night of it and the movie was, obviously, Snow White.
While I understand that the movie was meant for those people in the 1930s and thus to judge it by today’s standards is incredibly ineffective and anachronistic, I feel like it still deserves a fair critique, or at least as fair as I can give it.
Before the movie, we learned a few facts about the movie, like how it was the first full length animated film, that Walt Disney received an honorary Oscar from Shirley Temple for it being the first full length animated film and that it took in $66 million at a time when a child’s ticket to the movies was 10 cents.
The movie opens with few credits and then goes to what I think Disney did best, having the actual book open. It is one of my favorite things, because it means that the audiences were educated enough to be able to read it and not have to have it read to them. It also sets the stage for a beautifully artistic development.
We learn about the evil queen, who is only evil because of her vanity. We don’t really learn anything else about her, with the exception that she wants to be the most beautiful woman in the land. What strikes me as odd about this is that once she is turned into the old hag, we see that someone she has imprisoned has died trying to get a drink of water. This is the only other reason she could be evil. And while I understand what the point of the story is, why have everything situated on vanity? Were women of the 1930s and 1940s so desperate for beauty that they would kill for it, transform themselves? I should hope not, which then brings the question of how is this relatable? The point of movies is that people can see themselves in roles, get lost in them or just understand what the characters are going through. And perhaps that is the point of the protagonist. Maybe we aren’t supposed to understand the antagonist. But if that were the case, why would Walt Disney give us such wonderfully rich and evil characters such as Cruella DeVille or Malefiacent? But I digress…
The evil queen dresses Snow White in rags to hide her beauty and when she does, Snow White has a two and a half second encounter with the Prince (remember, Prince Charming is from Cinderella. Snow White only refers to her man as “the Prince”), the “one true love” who will eventually wake her from the sleeping death.
But rags and dirt cannot hide Snow White’s beauty and the queen has the huntsman take Snow White into the forest to kill her. At this point, I am still wondering how old Snow White is. We see that Disney’s next female lead is Cinderella, a young woman as can be seen from the breasts that she has on her body. Aurora has them as well, and the future will bring us the rest of the princesses with breasts, such as Ariel, Jasmine and Pocahontas. The one princess who is lacking in the breast department is Mulan. Is this a deliberate action on Disney’s part? Does this tell us that Snow White is Asian or just that the both of them are young? Again, I digress.
Snow White runs into the forest and her imagination runs wild with all the crazy trees and whatnot. She flips out and then cries until she can compose herself. When she stops crying, she utters the phrase “I’m ashamed of the fuss I’ve made.” Is this a proper woman who is not supposed to show emotion or is this a young girl whose mother taught her well? It’s neither as we can see that Snow White has a stepmother who we can assume never taught her anything and no father. While we cannot guess as to what happened to him, we can only focus as to what is on the screen. In which case, the fuss is being terrified. Why should she be ashamed of that? Because children are to be seen and not heard or because society has implanted in her what a woman is to be? It seems as though we have a problem here due to the fact that Princesses are not usually allowed outside the palace walls (see Jasmine in Aladdin). Therefore, is she a young girl who was taught by someone that she should be seen and not heard or is she a woman who has the ability to fall in love? She cannot be both.
After she sings a song to the animals, she realizes she has no place to sleep. And while it is admirable that she is trying to take care of herself, the fact still remains that she relies on animals to do the dirty work for her. And not just in finding the place, but in the cleaning up of it. She does make a good point in the bargaining of her thought process: “maybe if I clean up for them, they’ll let me stay here” and that is to be commended. However, when the time comes to clean up, she has the animals do the laundry, the dishes and the dusting. What does she do? She sweeps and delegates, like a good modern woman.
She falls asleep on the dwarf’s beds and then we cut away to the dwarves. They are at work in a big mine and then get ready to go home. They encounter the open house and react like we would expect they would. While each has their own quirk that they have to get around (do we see a similarity between them and the original thought process behind Winnie the Pooh?), they seem to work together well. The rest of the scenes in the lot deal with them finding her, freaking out, accepting her and then washing up for supper.
We are then transported back to the queen who loses her temper when she finds out she has been tricked by the huntsman. Her first thought is not revenge on the man who tricked her, but to kill Snow White herself. And I think this has brought us to something that modern women can relate to. We are so worried about what the other women are doing that we’d rather resort to anger and violence than sit down and talk about it. And I don’t mean the random woman on the street. I mean second generation feminists, third generation feminists, feminists of color, queer feminists of color, etc. etc. No one can see that we all need to work together to be able to succeed. But again, I digress.
The evil queen goes down into her lair and makes brew to change her appearance. She becomes an ugly old hag so that she can become the fairest in the land. Anyone else see a problem with this? But then again, I suppose we can have a look at people like Sabbatai Zevi. In any case, she creates the sleeping death and dips the apple into it. I couldn’t help myself to think if this was flashback to the fruit in the Garden of Eden. In any case, she sets out to find Snow White in her hag garb.
The next scene takes us to the dwarf’s house as they are leaving for work. The animals and Snow White stay behind. Each dwarf, save for Dopey, instructs Snow White not to open the door to anyone, but Grumpy is especially forceful. It is as if they do not trust her to make decisions for herself, which would point to the fact that Snow White is a child.
The hag shows up, of course. The animals flip out and go get the dwarves. However, it’s too late and Snow White has eaten from the apple. The dwarves chase the queen up the mountain and then, as luck would have it, a bolt of lightening strikes the area where the queen is and she falls to her death. Do we have an inkling of Karma here or could Disney just not think of a way to do this otherwise? This trend will be the end of many characters in the Disney universe. Gaston, Mufasa, Malifiscent, Ursula, Kokuum, the bad guy in the Incredibles, etc. etc.
The dwarves cannot bring themselves to bury Snow White so they encase her in glass. (I couldn’t help but think that she was like Lenin, sitting there for eternity under glass.) The dwarves bring her flowers daily and weep beside her glass grave. The Prince from the beginning of the movie comes around, kisses Snow White and she wakes up. He carries her to his horse where he lifts each of the dwarves up so that she can kiss them good-bye. She is smiling and happy the whole time and then he leads away the horse to his castle in the air. She doesn’t get a say in any of it and it’s almost hurtful the way that its done. Of course that could just be my modern way of looking at things. It would be really nice to see what someone else, a feminist from that time, thought about the movie.
All in all, not a terrible movie, but still anti-feminist. It is my belief that Snow White is a child and thus has no ability to argue with her stepmother when required to clean things and wear rags. However, if this is the case, she should not be ready to marry at that young age. The Grimm Brothers version of the story as I found it has Snow White set at the age of 7 and a real dunderhead, allowing the queen to access her three times. In any case, if we judged a company or person on one of the first things they put out, most people would amount to nothing.
Next week is Pinocchio. I haven’t seen it in YEARS, so it’ll be an interesting refresher.
While I understand that the movie was meant for those people in the 1930s and thus to judge it by today’s standards is incredibly ineffective and anachronistic, I feel like it still deserves a fair critique, or at least as fair as I can give it.
Before the movie, we learned a few facts about the movie, like how it was the first full length animated film, that Walt Disney received an honorary Oscar from Shirley Temple for it being the first full length animated film and that it took in $66 million at a time when a child’s ticket to the movies was 10 cents.
The movie opens with few credits and then goes to what I think Disney did best, having the actual book open. It is one of my favorite things, because it means that the audiences were educated enough to be able to read it and not have to have it read to them. It also sets the stage for a beautifully artistic development.
We learn about the evil queen, who is only evil because of her vanity. We don’t really learn anything else about her, with the exception that she wants to be the most beautiful woman in the land. What strikes me as odd about this is that once she is turned into the old hag, we see that someone she has imprisoned has died trying to get a drink of water. This is the only other reason she could be evil. And while I understand what the point of the story is, why have everything situated on vanity? Were women of the 1930s and 1940s so desperate for beauty that they would kill for it, transform themselves? I should hope not, which then brings the question of how is this relatable? The point of movies is that people can see themselves in roles, get lost in them or just understand what the characters are going through. And perhaps that is the point of the protagonist. Maybe we aren’t supposed to understand the antagonist. But if that were the case, why would Walt Disney give us such wonderfully rich and evil characters such as Cruella DeVille or Malefiacent? But I digress…
The evil queen dresses Snow White in rags to hide her beauty and when she does, Snow White has a two and a half second encounter with the Prince (remember, Prince Charming is from Cinderella. Snow White only refers to her man as “the Prince”), the “one true love” who will eventually wake her from the sleeping death.
But rags and dirt cannot hide Snow White’s beauty and the queen has the huntsman take Snow White into the forest to kill her. At this point, I am still wondering how old Snow White is. We see that Disney’s next female lead is Cinderella, a young woman as can be seen from the breasts that she has on her body. Aurora has them as well, and the future will bring us the rest of the princesses with breasts, such as Ariel, Jasmine and Pocahontas. The one princess who is lacking in the breast department is Mulan. Is this a deliberate action on Disney’s part? Does this tell us that Snow White is Asian or just that the both of them are young? Again, I digress.
Snow White runs into the forest and her imagination runs wild with all the crazy trees and whatnot. She flips out and then cries until she can compose herself. When she stops crying, she utters the phrase “I’m ashamed of the fuss I’ve made.” Is this a proper woman who is not supposed to show emotion or is this a young girl whose mother taught her well? It’s neither as we can see that Snow White has a stepmother who we can assume never taught her anything and no father. While we cannot guess as to what happened to him, we can only focus as to what is on the screen. In which case, the fuss is being terrified. Why should she be ashamed of that? Because children are to be seen and not heard or because society has implanted in her what a woman is to be? It seems as though we have a problem here due to the fact that Princesses are not usually allowed outside the palace walls (see Jasmine in Aladdin). Therefore, is she a young girl who was taught by someone that she should be seen and not heard or is she a woman who has the ability to fall in love? She cannot be both.
After she sings a song to the animals, she realizes she has no place to sleep. And while it is admirable that she is trying to take care of herself, the fact still remains that she relies on animals to do the dirty work for her. And not just in finding the place, but in the cleaning up of it. She does make a good point in the bargaining of her thought process: “maybe if I clean up for them, they’ll let me stay here” and that is to be commended. However, when the time comes to clean up, she has the animals do the laundry, the dishes and the dusting. What does she do? She sweeps and delegates, like a good modern woman.
She falls asleep on the dwarf’s beds and then we cut away to the dwarves. They are at work in a big mine and then get ready to go home. They encounter the open house and react like we would expect they would. While each has their own quirk that they have to get around (do we see a similarity between them and the original thought process behind Winnie the Pooh?), they seem to work together well. The rest of the scenes in the lot deal with them finding her, freaking out, accepting her and then washing up for supper.
We are then transported back to the queen who loses her temper when she finds out she has been tricked by the huntsman. Her first thought is not revenge on the man who tricked her, but to kill Snow White herself. And I think this has brought us to something that modern women can relate to. We are so worried about what the other women are doing that we’d rather resort to anger and violence than sit down and talk about it. And I don’t mean the random woman on the street. I mean second generation feminists, third generation feminists, feminists of color, queer feminists of color, etc. etc. No one can see that we all need to work together to be able to succeed. But again, I digress.
The evil queen goes down into her lair and makes brew to change her appearance. She becomes an ugly old hag so that she can become the fairest in the land. Anyone else see a problem with this? But then again, I suppose we can have a look at people like Sabbatai Zevi. In any case, she creates the sleeping death and dips the apple into it. I couldn’t help myself to think if this was flashback to the fruit in the Garden of Eden. In any case, she sets out to find Snow White in her hag garb.
The next scene takes us to the dwarf’s house as they are leaving for work. The animals and Snow White stay behind. Each dwarf, save for Dopey, instructs Snow White not to open the door to anyone, but Grumpy is especially forceful. It is as if they do not trust her to make decisions for herself, which would point to the fact that Snow White is a child.
The hag shows up, of course. The animals flip out and go get the dwarves. However, it’s too late and Snow White has eaten from the apple. The dwarves chase the queen up the mountain and then, as luck would have it, a bolt of lightening strikes the area where the queen is and she falls to her death. Do we have an inkling of Karma here or could Disney just not think of a way to do this otherwise? This trend will be the end of many characters in the Disney universe. Gaston, Mufasa, Malifiscent, Ursula, Kokuum, the bad guy in the Incredibles, etc. etc.
The dwarves cannot bring themselves to bury Snow White so they encase her in glass. (I couldn’t help but think that she was like Lenin, sitting there for eternity under glass.) The dwarves bring her flowers daily and weep beside her glass grave. The Prince from the beginning of the movie comes around, kisses Snow White and she wakes up. He carries her to his horse where he lifts each of the dwarves up so that she can kiss them good-bye. She is smiling and happy the whole time and then he leads away the horse to his castle in the air. She doesn’t get a say in any of it and it’s almost hurtful the way that its done. Of course that could just be my modern way of looking at things. It would be really nice to see what someone else, a feminist from that time, thought about the movie.
All in all, not a terrible movie, but still anti-feminist. It is my belief that Snow White is a child and thus has no ability to argue with her stepmother when required to clean things and wear rags. However, if this is the case, she should not be ready to marry at that young age. The Grimm Brothers version of the story as I found it has Snow White set at the age of 7 and a real dunderhead, allowing the queen to access her three times. In any case, if we judged a company or person on one of the first things they put out, most people would amount to nothing.
Next week is Pinocchio. I haven’t seen it in YEARS, so it’ll be an interesting refresher.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Catching up
I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted! Getting married, going on our honeymoon, having Chanukah for the first time as a married couple. It's all been a lot. I'll just give some of the highlights.
Getting married was an experience all to itself and deserves a few paragraphs. It was nerve-racking, exciting and everything else all at once. Getting ready was fun and made me really nervous because in the end, with all the makeup and hair and dress, I almost didn't recognize myself. One of my bridesmaids did my makeup and it looked amazing in the photos, but it looked like so much in person. I'm the kind of person who three seconds of mascara is enough. My mom and sister always make fun of me for it, but eh.
I was totally out of my body and thus am so excited to be able to watch the video. Our niece started screaming during the ceremony and so I lost concentration a bit, but regained it later. What really annoyed us is the fact that the photographer didn't get some of the key photos we wanted, like our first kiss. Fortunately, Sweetie's grandfather got it for us.
The reception was crazy. My dad and I had told the DJ (who totally sucked) to play something silly and old and then go to Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine." Little did we know that he would start playing Eidelvise. He then changed songs and we danced the whole thing just the two of us. It was a little weird, but in the end, the crowd roared with approval. Sweetie and I danced to an edited version of "For Good" from Wicked. We had an amazing time.
We caught a plane the next day for our honeymoon. We took a 12 day mediterranean cruise that left from Rome and went to Naples, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykanos, Cairo and Alexandria. After the cruise, we spent 4 days in Rome. We had an AMAZING time. I wrote up a journal of our honeymoon and it's 32 pages long and is available for emailing. :)
We got back in time for the American holiday of Thanksgiving. We had a good time but didn't get off the jet lag until after we went back to work. Going back to work was really annoying, but you know, you have to do it.
We had my mom's side of the family over for Chanukah on Christmas. We were so nervous but everything went really really well. It was so cool!
There was so much feminism stuff that happened during this time that I just can't comment on because the post would be so long and I don't even know what I would begin with. In any case, I look forward to the next year and hope that it finds everyone happy and in good health.
Getting married was an experience all to itself and deserves a few paragraphs. It was nerve-racking, exciting and everything else all at once. Getting ready was fun and made me really nervous because in the end, with all the makeup and hair and dress, I almost didn't recognize myself. One of my bridesmaids did my makeup and it looked amazing in the photos, but it looked like so much in person. I'm the kind of person who three seconds of mascara is enough. My mom and sister always make fun of me for it, but eh.
I was totally out of my body and thus am so excited to be able to watch the video. Our niece started screaming during the ceremony and so I lost concentration a bit, but regained it later. What really annoyed us is the fact that the photographer didn't get some of the key photos we wanted, like our first kiss. Fortunately, Sweetie's grandfather got it for us.
The reception was crazy. My dad and I had told the DJ (who totally sucked) to play something silly and old and then go to Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine." Little did we know that he would start playing Eidelvise. He then changed songs and we danced the whole thing just the two of us. It was a little weird, but in the end, the crowd roared with approval. Sweetie and I danced to an edited version of "For Good" from Wicked. We had an amazing time.
We caught a plane the next day for our honeymoon. We took a 12 day mediterranean cruise that left from Rome and went to Naples, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykanos, Cairo and Alexandria. After the cruise, we spent 4 days in Rome. We had an AMAZING time. I wrote up a journal of our honeymoon and it's 32 pages long and is available for emailing. :)
We got back in time for the American holiday of Thanksgiving. We had a good time but didn't get off the jet lag until after we went back to work. Going back to work was really annoying, but you know, you have to do it.
We had my mom's side of the family over for Chanukah on Christmas. We were so nervous but everything went really really well. It was so cool!
There was so much feminism stuff that happened during this time that I just can't comment on because the post would be so long and I don't even know what I would begin with. In any case, I look forward to the next year and hope that it finds everyone happy and in good health.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Introspective
While I have never been prouder to be an American, I am so ashamed to be a Californian. I know that those who supported Proposition 8 say that it's not about bigotry, but the fact remains that what Proposition 8 allows is for bigotry in this state. It also opens the floodgates for other behaviors to be allowed.
While my co-worker says that morals and "doing the right thing" will stop other things from happening, I cannot be for sure. I posed the question that sweetie and I talked about last night/this morning. What is to stop the next bill from saying that African-Americans or Jews or Hindus can't marry each other? My other co-worker said that there's a difference between religion and a man and a woman. And while this is true, what's then to stop a bill outlawing the marriage of short or tall people? While the jury is still out on the scientific basis of nature vs. nurture, I personally believe it to be a combination of the two, leaning strongly towards the nature aspect. Being short or tall, or blood type A or O, or having blue eyes or brown eyes, or being white or being black is not the same as being a man or a woman, but it is who you are. It's in your genes.
So while the hope of our future resides in the man who we have so proudly elected, I can only hope he does the right things. Being elected is one thing. Staying elected is another.
And I know that some people really liked Palin. And I know why too. She is a Republican "feminist" (and lord knows that it's in quotes for a reason) who defends the morals of the Conservative sect of the party. Speaking with sweetie last night, I asked what would have happened if McCain won. Sweetie replied by saying that we would have to move, for the simple fact of the laws that would be passed if McCain were to pass on. I can honestly say that I saw a V For Vendetta like world coming about. She is a champion for conservative ideals and (most likely-don't quote me on this one, but her Church has done some really really [3/4 of the way down on the first page] really strange things as well) believes that Christianity should be the only religion, so what would stop her from making it the official religion of the country? Being Jewish, I don't think I'd want to stick around for that, because it's a slippery slope from "Official Religion" to "Only Religion," especially if enough states get on the bandwagon for changing the Bill of Rights.
And while yes, I seem a doomsayer, I don't have to worry about that happening. My sister told me that she's expecting a revolution as she feels it is the only way to get things back on track. And while I understand her point, it is something that a lot of people are concerned with. There are many people who, when they talk about the Founding Fathers, seem to be speaking about deities. They hold these men in extreme high regard and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it is something to be brought to the attention of the people that yes, these men could make mistakes. And who's to say that they didn't or haven't? But by judging them by today's standards, we are creating an issue that we will not be able to solve.
I'm not sure there's an easy answer to any of the questions postulated here. But I think it's at least a place to start.
Now I can focus on getting married!! It's Saturday ya'll!!
While my co-worker says that morals and "doing the right thing" will stop other things from happening, I cannot be for sure. I posed the question that sweetie and I talked about last night/this morning. What is to stop the next bill from saying that African-Americans or Jews or Hindus can't marry each other? My other co-worker said that there's a difference between religion and a man and a woman. And while this is true, what's then to stop a bill outlawing the marriage of short or tall people? While the jury is still out on the scientific basis of nature vs. nurture, I personally believe it to be a combination of the two, leaning strongly towards the nature aspect. Being short or tall, or blood type A or O, or having blue eyes or brown eyes, or being white or being black is not the same as being a man or a woman, but it is who you are. It's in your genes.
So while the hope of our future resides in the man who we have so proudly elected, I can only hope he does the right things. Being elected is one thing. Staying elected is another.
And I know that some people really liked Palin. And I know why too. She is a Republican "feminist" (and lord knows that it's in quotes for a reason) who defends the morals of the Conservative sect of the party. Speaking with sweetie last night, I asked what would have happened if McCain won. Sweetie replied by saying that we would have to move, for the simple fact of the laws that would be passed if McCain were to pass on. I can honestly say that I saw a V For Vendetta like world coming about. She is a champion for conservative ideals and (most likely-don't quote me on this one, but her Church has done some really really [3/4 of the way down on the first page] really strange things as well) believes that Christianity should be the only religion, so what would stop her from making it the official religion of the country? Being Jewish, I don't think I'd want to stick around for that, because it's a slippery slope from "Official Religion" to "Only Religion," especially if enough states get on the bandwagon for changing the Bill of Rights.
And while yes, I seem a doomsayer, I don't have to worry about that happening. My sister told me that she's expecting a revolution as she feels it is the only way to get things back on track. And while I understand her point, it is something that a lot of people are concerned with. There are many people who, when they talk about the Founding Fathers, seem to be speaking about deities. They hold these men in extreme high regard and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it is something to be brought to the attention of the people that yes, these men could make mistakes. And who's to say that they didn't or haven't? But by judging them by today's standards, we are creating an issue that we will not be able to solve.
I'm not sure there's an easy answer to any of the questions postulated here. But I think it's at least a place to start.
Now I can focus on getting married!! It's Saturday ya'll!!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The end is nearing
No, this is not a post about the End of Days.
In 25 days, I will be getting married. I'm very happy about it. I love my sweetie very much and can't wait for the wedding to be here.
In 21 days, the election will be here. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I no longer have to listen to the stupid commercials, the stupid bantering on TV or the arguments that set people apart. While I enjoyed this YEAR LONG EVENT, I'll be very very very very happy not to have it again for 4 more years.
So the end of a year of planning for the wedding is upon us and the end of a political stretch is upon us. Seems appropriate that they would be at the same time. I'm ending my single life, the time of carefree days and no responsibility, living off my parents in a world crumbling around me. I'm beginning married life in a new time, a time where (hopefully), people will have to answer for their crimes. Change is all about us and I cannot think of a better time for it to coincide with my life.
And while the world does not revolve around me (and trust me, I know this), it is nice when things make sense. It would be so nice for the world to make sense, for there to be less violence and more peace, less tolerance and more acceptance, less ignorance and more understanding, more working together and less divisions. But I'm not sure that we'll ever find that, save for the Messiah coming and joining us all at the hip in the love and friendship that we all should have learned from the 1960s.
The next few weeks should be interesting, both here in America and California, as well as in my own life. I can't wait to see what the world has to offer. Selfish? Perhaps, but since I hadn't posted in a while, I just wanted to put out hope into the world. If you put good things out into the universe, you're bound to reap the benefits. I just love the idea of karma!
In 25 days, I will be getting married. I'm very happy about it. I love my sweetie very much and can't wait for the wedding to be here.
In 21 days, the election will be here. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I no longer have to listen to the stupid commercials, the stupid bantering on TV or the arguments that set people apart. While I enjoyed this YEAR LONG EVENT, I'll be very very very very happy not to have it again for 4 more years.
So the end of a year of planning for the wedding is upon us and the end of a political stretch is upon us. Seems appropriate that they would be at the same time. I'm ending my single life, the time of carefree days and no responsibility, living off my parents in a world crumbling around me. I'm beginning married life in a new time, a time where (hopefully), people will have to answer for their crimes. Change is all about us and I cannot think of a better time for it to coincide with my life.
And while the world does not revolve around me (and trust me, I know this), it is nice when things make sense. It would be so nice for the world to make sense, for there to be less violence and more peace, less tolerance and more acceptance, less ignorance and more understanding, more working together and less divisions. But I'm not sure that we'll ever find that, save for the Messiah coming and joining us all at the hip in the love and friendship that we all should have learned from the 1960s.
The next few weeks should be interesting, both here in America and California, as well as in my own life. I can't wait to see what the world has to offer. Selfish? Perhaps, but since I hadn't posted in a while, I just wanted to put out hope into the world. If you put good things out into the universe, you're bound to reap the benefits. I just love the idea of karma!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
7 years later
7 years ago, the worst terrorist attack in American history took place on American soil. Today, we have done nothing to remember the people we lost as well as the image that was shattered. We sit and have a moment of silence, but that moment means nothing for we have lost all the ties that it created. After September 11th, we were a county, united on all fronts. While we may not have agreed as to who the president was, we all got behind him, rallying for one cause.
I am not ashamed to tell the world what I thought when it happened. For so many years, countries had been criticizing Israel when a terrorist set off a suicide bomb or sent rockets into towns. For too many years, these countries, the US included, didn't understand what it meant to have their homeland invaded by unwanted people whose sole purpose in life is to get rid of you and everyone like you. So while I mourned for those who lost their lives, cried with the country and sat in shock in front of my television, I was glad that the US would never again criticize Israel for taking certain measures.
And while the US has ceased critique of Israel, their efforts are nothing to be proud of. The galvanized feeling that we all had, the love and concern for our neighbors, was gone after a year. When George W. Bush announced that we were heading into Iraq, I was a senior in high school. There were students who felt that this was the wrong idea, that we were already fighting a war that couldn't be won, that we'd entered Vietnam again.
So they protested. The bell to end lunch rang and the students wouldn't move. They wouldn't go to class. Things escalated and we had a full out riot on our hands. I don't know how it started, but when things got loud and I saw fire, I got pushed in the opposite direction with the rest of the masses yearning to be free.
The instigator of that protest was in my next class. Fortunately, we had a fabulous teacher who wouldn't lock people out of class (as so many of the teachers at my high school were prone to do). He walked in to class afterwards and I remember thinking what an odd thing, to hold a protest. Weren't we united? Why did we need to fight?
Jump forward a few years and I am in college, heavily involved in LGBT related issues. I participated in all of the events I could, organizing the Day of Silence for three years. People had not been united for a very long time. I began to get more radical in my thoughts, researching ideas on radical feminism and realizing that while perhaps I fit, I didn't fit wholly. Why couldn't we unite?
We exist because we are not all the same, we do not lead the same lives, make the same decisions, worship the same way or even brush our teeth the same way. And yet it is those differences that brings us together. However, most of the time, it brings us together because of how we feel about other differences. During World War II, Russia and the US, countries soon to be bitter rivals, came together to stop a common enemy - Germany. It was the Us-Against-Them narrative that has come to envelop so many conflicts. And we are no different here.
We cannot agree upon civil rights issues. We cannot agree on gay rights issues. We cannot agree on women's rights issues. Because there is always the Us-Against-Them idea pervading through everyone's mind.
7 years of nothing. 7 years and what change have we seen? Increased fuel prices, increased food prices, more starvation, more suffering in the world. 7 years and while we've had some breakthroughs, it cannot make up for what we have not done.
So thank you, 7 years, for showing us our shortcomings, our failings and our mistakes. Maybe the next 7 years will be better. We can only hope.
I am not ashamed to tell the world what I thought when it happened. For so many years, countries had been criticizing Israel when a terrorist set off a suicide bomb or sent rockets into towns. For too many years, these countries, the US included, didn't understand what it meant to have their homeland invaded by unwanted people whose sole purpose in life is to get rid of you and everyone like you. So while I mourned for those who lost their lives, cried with the country and sat in shock in front of my television, I was glad that the US would never again criticize Israel for taking certain measures.
And while the US has ceased critique of Israel, their efforts are nothing to be proud of. The galvanized feeling that we all had, the love and concern for our neighbors, was gone after a year. When George W. Bush announced that we were heading into Iraq, I was a senior in high school. There were students who felt that this was the wrong idea, that we were already fighting a war that couldn't be won, that we'd entered Vietnam again.
So they protested. The bell to end lunch rang and the students wouldn't move. They wouldn't go to class. Things escalated and we had a full out riot on our hands. I don't know how it started, but when things got loud and I saw fire, I got pushed in the opposite direction with the rest of the masses yearning to be free.
The instigator of that protest was in my next class. Fortunately, we had a fabulous teacher who wouldn't lock people out of class (as so many of the teachers at my high school were prone to do). He walked in to class afterwards and I remember thinking what an odd thing, to hold a protest. Weren't we united? Why did we need to fight?
Jump forward a few years and I am in college, heavily involved in LGBT related issues. I participated in all of the events I could, organizing the Day of Silence for three years. People had not been united for a very long time. I began to get more radical in my thoughts, researching ideas on radical feminism and realizing that while perhaps I fit, I didn't fit wholly. Why couldn't we unite?
We exist because we are not all the same, we do not lead the same lives, make the same decisions, worship the same way or even brush our teeth the same way. And yet it is those differences that brings us together. However, most of the time, it brings us together because of how we feel about other differences. During World War II, Russia and the US, countries soon to be bitter rivals, came together to stop a common enemy - Germany. It was the Us-Against-Them narrative that has come to envelop so many conflicts. And we are no different here.
We cannot agree upon civil rights issues. We cannot agree on gay rights issues. We cannot agree on women's rights issues. Because there is always the Us-Against-Them idea pervading through everyone's mind.
7 years of nothing. 7 years and what change have we seen? Increased fuel prices, increased food prices, more starvation, more suffering in the world. 7 years and while we've had some breakthroughs, it cannot make up for what we have not done.
So thank you, 7 years, for showing us our shortcomings, our failings and our mistakes. Maybe the next 7 years will be better. We can only hope.
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