Salandar's Turn

Rooney Mara has posed for some very racy photos dressed as the character Lisbeth Salandar for W Magazine. I am shocked and upset at this turn, inventing a sexual image for a rape victim. The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series focuses on one of the best female characters in literature, I would argue, ever. A strong, independent woman, facing mental illness and a past of gigantic proportions, Lisbeth is kept androgynous by genius author Steig Larsson. The Swedish film series, although heavily sexual, does not stray from this portrayal of Lisbeth. Suffering from years of abuse and rape, Lisbeth experiments with her sexuality but I find it hard to believe she would go this far with her experimentation. David Fincher has an interesting past with women's issues (most recently seen in his almost completely male cast of The Social Network). It will be interesting to see if this is merely poor publicity or how Lisbeth will be portrayed once the movie comes to the big screen.
To see the photos and the accompanying article, please click here.

Salon's Broadsheet Folding

Salon.com's women's feature blog, Broadsheet, is being closed down. What does this mean? Definitely a loss of an intelligent voice in the women's online community. Of course, Salon will still be publishing their take on world issues, often presented with a women's position in mind, but to lose such a compelling argumentative authority for health issues, financial issues and popular culture is a shame. I worry that this could signal a decline in other women focus blogs (Jezebel.com and Feministing.com come to mind). Is the blog reading generation just apathetic to feminism? Or is it just too heavy a subject for a generation fixated by the Kardashians?

Black Swan's Body Issues

Last night, after watching (well, mostly watching) the chilling Black Swan, there was one thought that kept nagging at me. For as long as the movie has been out, the media have been raving about the amazing shape that Natalie Portman was in during the shooting of this movie. A recent Today Show segment pegged her body as such and the hosts were seen practicing workouts that would elicit the same kinds of results.

To achieve such shocking results, Portman tells Access Hollywood that she did see a nutritionist and “couldn’t not eat.” So, she wasn’t starving herself. Good, but still, she has the shape of a 12 year old boy in the film!

The people that will be most affected by this, I worry, are under the movie’s 14A rating, and without the crazy ballerina story line that Portman portrays as the decrypted Nina, this body type could seem, with all the attention it is garnering, like a positive decision. The sexual nature of the film and the stars' bodies are all the media is really capturing about this strange and striking movie. Maybe less about inspired workouts and more about the actual film? Thanks, American media.

One Day

I have just finished reading David Nicholl's One Day. Since it appeared on so many 'Best of 2010' book posts, I thought it might be a good read for the winter break. I did find it enjoyable but with one glaring issue, I could not connect to the characters! Last semester I was fortunate to take an Indian Writing in English course, where we read The Guide by R.K. Narayan. This question was presented during discussion, "do you have to like the characters to get something out of the novel, or perhaps, are the characters unlikable to exemplify a greater theme in the novel?". For Nicholl, I felt the character was, frankly, sloppy. The greater theme of finding true love was diminished by the disdain I had for the lead male. Dexter is a personified Peter Pan British boy, a similar complex that Hugh Grant exists within almost all his movies. I think that this shtick is overplayed and is often a fall-back for writers looking for a clichéd character to present.

The female lead, although more likable, falls in the predicable literary trap of being the destroyed-by-love female, waiting for the man to finally come to his senses. Emma, the female protagonist, is constantly and continually falling in love with a terribly abusive and awful Dexter. She attempts to lead a strong, independent life, but is unable to move on from that one perfect day that she shared with a man who hasn't existed since.

The two find themselves in a committed, adult relationship. One where Dexter has to clean up his act and finally this static character changes! Ultimately, I have no qualms with this book being a fun, and despite being rather large at 448 pages, it is still a light read. If I wasn't trying so hard to find qualities in especially Dexter that were relatable, I think I would have liked it much more.
Done!

Madame de Prince de Beaumont and Feminism

This blog is titled Beaumont's Folly, solely due to Madame de Prince de Beaumont, a little recognized early feminist and writer. Along with dedicating her life to the creation of equal educational rights in England for women, Beaumont is credited with writing the canonized Beauty and the Beast, creating a strong didactic tale exemplifying her life's purpose.

Currently, I am a student at the University of Alberta and am often struck at the extreme apathy towards women's issues that surround me at work, in my personal life, and in school. Here, I plan to write on issues that Beaumont would have been shocked by still exist in 2011, whether they exist in politics, literature or pop culture.

I hope to apply a refreshing and youthful feminist spin to critical critiques of what I am constantly surrounding myself with.

Here's hoping it works!