A propos of the other day’s post on “The Bletchley Circle,” here’s a question what often comes up. Blamer Michelle writes: Are portrayals of rape on TV and in movies unavoidably misogynistic? I watched the Stieg Larsson movie awhile back – the Dragon Tattoo one — and was infuriated by the portrayals of sexual violence… …
Category Archive: Movies and TV
May 13 2013
Just when you thought you wouldn’t have to slog through a feminist analysis of “The Bletchley Circle”
You’ve heard that spinster aunts, their kiesters permanently affixed to their lime green recliners, are constantly monitoring the airwaves for examples of patriarchy-replication in male supremacist cultural narratives. Recently here at Spinster HQ we cast our jaundiced eye upon PBS mystery/period drama “The Bletchley Circle”. Four women, veterans of the eponymous WW II British code-breaking …
Feb 28 2013
Hi, Mom!
Hey, what about that 3-hour documentary on PBS the other night? I’m talking about “Makers: Women Who Make America,” a short history of the women’s movement in the US. Despite the title, during the station break a voiceover described the doc’s subject as “women who ‘helped’ shape America.” Women are helpers, yo, just in case …
Aug 30 2012
Fifty shades of Gunsmoke
A propos of any befuddlement concerning the current popularity of corny BDSM novels: Last night while waiting for my orecchiette to cook, I flipped on the TV. It was a 60′s-era episode of “Gunsmoke,” the longest-running primetime TV series in American history. Here is the scene I saw: A Marlboro Man and a hot but …
Jul 28 2012
Breaking Baddus Interruptus
Fully loaded ice bucket next to couch? Check. Bottle of Prosecco in it? Check. Bag of Funyuns? Check. That’s right. Time to watch the season premier of “Breaking Bad.” Wait! The phone’s ringing? Son of a bitch, phone off hook, not-check! Well, it was my mother. I always answer when it’s my mother because she’s …
May 27 2012
Actor who has had the balls to utter “vagina” on TV: “It’s just an inherently funny word”
The sassy ubiquity of the hilarious word “vagina” in popular culture is the subject of this foofy article in the LA Times. Unmentionable for so long, referred to with euphemisms including “down there” and “hoo-ha,” the anatomically correct “vagina” has gone mainstream. It’s now become not just acceptable in many circles but fashionable. It’s being …
Feb 27 2012
Spinster aunt admits she is entertained by sexist, honky TV show
The morning after the Oscars — no I didn’t watch it, as Angelina Jolie’s Leg is fairly irrelevant in the life of a reclusive dirt farmer — seems as good a time as any to trot out one of my favorite themes. Which is: If misogyny didn’t exist, if the human uterus was not the …
Feb 07 2012
PBS: Profiles in sexiness
Longtime readers are aware that hot flashes at 2 AM often oblige spinster aunts to engage in feverish channel-flipping. Last night, in the grip this plague, I encountered on PBS a riveting episode of “American Experience,” which series documentarizes and dramatizes the lives of iconic figures in American history. The subject of last night’s re-run …
Jan 27 2012
Spinster aunt has a past
A propos of asexuality, which, devoted readers will recall, was discussed on this blog as recently as 2005, is the revelation — currently taking the nation by storm! — that Tim Gunn hasn’t had sex in 29 years. Who the hell is Tim Gunn, you ask? To answer that question, I must reveal something horrible …
Nov 23 2011
Little Niggling Instances of the Redoubtable Efficacy of Patriarchal Oppression, Part II: Shit I Saw on PBS
God, PBS sucks. Here’s why. PBS, though it wants you to believe that it’s above this sort of thing (which it tries to demonstrate, as I have noted elsewhere, by those promo spots wherein divers Attractive Sample Children of the World in colorful rompers leap across the screen in slow-motion), definitely shoulders its fair share …
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