The “The Twilight Saga” Saga
February 25, 2009 at 7:31pm | In literature, pop culture, sexuality, year in review | 2 CommentsTags: 2008, conceptual blogging, gossip girl, inability to blog, media studies on acid, new years resolutions, twilight, waxing poetic on pop culture, ya fiction
While Michael Tom was regaling you throughout the month of January with posts about Chris Crocker, Joe the Plumber, and breakdancers kicking babies in the face, I have to admit I felt like a bit of a fraud. 2008 was the year when I finally lost touch with popular culture to a point where I barely know what any of that stuff even IS. I also recently discovered that several of my friends didn’t realize that Michael Tom even wrote for this blog and were under the impression it was all me, all the time. They were pretty confused about why I was writing all that stuff, when my bro is the true pop culture junkie of the fam (if he has his way, I think Lady Gaga will become the largest item in our “tag cloud,” oh shit is she already??).
We believe in new year’s resolutions around here at Tiny Gems; one of mine for 2009 was to get back in touch with popular culture, because I have a feeling it might be kind of ridiculous/awesome right now and I’m missing out. But for now – instead of pretending that I gave a shit about stuff I didn’t even know existed – I’m going to tell you about the two pieces of 2008 popular culture that I completely, unabashedly, truly and deeply GET:
Except that maybe I don’t really get it.
Part One: On the Really Weird Sexual Politics of Twilight
(Spoiler alert, y’all: I read all four of the Twilight books in, like, a week while bored out of my mind at my parents’ house. I’m going to talk about all four here. If you want plot summaries or whatever, check wikipedia… loser.)
I know that – at least according to the many repetitive reviews I’ve read by this point – I’m supposed to think Twilight is this giant metaphor for abstinence or somebody’s half-baked idea of Puritanism or whatever. And it seems, as a “feminist,” I’m supposed to be afraid of its subliminal mental poison and what it’s doing to the selves of today’s teenage girls. The (possibly sad?) truth, however, is that the sexual politics and dynamics that permeate Stephenie Meyer’s supremely weird/fascinating – and yet fucking horribly written – Twilight “Saga” are actually, umm, a lot more complicated than that. OK, OK, I know, they get married. Which is totally lame. But which doesn’t begin to explain away the towering weirdness of everything else that’s going on here.
OK, so I understand the common ‘abstinence’ reading of the first book; before I continued to the others I thought I got it, too. But after that, what sex is both representing and being represented by begins to shift in directions no one is really addressing (maybe because no one except me — as both a voracious reader of children’s and young adult fiction and someone with a degree in “sexuality studies” — would actually bother…..), and that maybe no one – not even the author herself – actually understands.
Lady GaGa: Experimental Filmmaker
February 23, 2009 at 11:51pm | In film, pop culture, video | Leave a CommentTags: experimental filmmaking, lady gaga, new BFFs, SRLSY WTF
(Via Kirsten, via Perez Hilton.)
Edit: After posting this, I had a dream that I was a contestant on an MTV reality show entitled “Lady GaGa’s My New BFF.” I can only hope that I have psychic abilities and this was some kind of prophetic dream. For the record, I can’t say that I won (I woke up after one “episode”), but it was totally going in that direction. These short films totally prove that Lady GaGa and I are operating on the same wavelength, anyway – how could she not be my BFF?
Who Did It Better?
February 23, 2009 at 4:15pm | In discussion, music, video | Leave a CommentTags: mariah carey, music videos, odb, remix, sampling, tom tom club
Tom Tom Club or Mariah Carey?
Subquestion: I listened to one of these songs every day of January 2009. Can you guess which one?
We Are Not the Same, I Am A Cyborg
February 20, 2009 at 4:30pm | In music, pop culture, sexuality | 1 CommentTags: cyborgs, donna haraway, gender, hip-hop, kanye west, maybe kanye and lady gaga should get together and have crazy high-fashion robo-babies, queer theory, radical feminism
In her famous essay A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Donna Haraway sets up the metaphor of the cyborg as a new way of thinking about feminism. The “cyborg” – both human and machine, both organic and inorganic, both real and fictional – defies conventional, static categorizations and fixed concepts of identity. The nature of the cyborg stresses the unification of opposites and fluid concepts of gender and sexuality. Cyborgs are products of multiple, simultaneous states of being, and stand in radical opposition to conventional ideologies.
Although he is probably not remotely what she had in mind when she wrote her essay, Haraway’s idea of the cyborg has been incarnated (at least, within the context of contemporary pop culture) in the figure of Kanye West.
The typical persona of the successful, respected rapper/hip-hop producer is tough, collected, egocentric and hyper-masculine. Kanye West’s recent activities, however, actively subvert this image; rather than projecting this conventional masculine persona, Kanye takes part in traditionally feminine (or effeminate) behaviors. He has changed gears to release an R&B break-up album (808s and Heartbreak), collaborated with high-end designers and fine artists on music videos and fashion items, and expressed interest in posing for naked photographs. These behaviors are more typically associated with the female pop or R&B diva than male rapper/producer (Kanye’s interests and activities are much more in line with those of Beyoncé or even Björk than with those of, say, Jay-Z). His choices in clothing (Dayglo colors, tight pants, the famous Shutter shades) serve to further distance him from the hyper-masculine world of contemporary hip-hop; his image is robotic, highly stylized, and (above all) ambiguously gendered. Even his use of Auto-Tune vocals on 808s and Heartbreak underscores his new cyborg identity.
Of course, not everyone has taken kindly to Kanye’s development of this new cyborg identity. Both tabloid media and online pranksters have derided Kanye for perceived homosexuality. Porn trade mag Adult Video News recently printed a false interview in which “Kanye” stated,
I’m open to doing porn. Hell, I’ll even do bisexual scenes – myself, another man and a woman, or just me and two women. I know people will find that as some weird shit, but I am who I am.
Kanye has responded bombastically to these sorts of rumors through all-caps blog rants. This tendency to respond to rumors and accusations with “hysterics” pushes him even further beyond the typical gender binary.
Recently, Kanye claimed to have re-invented the term “gay” itself, transforming it from a fixed (negative) marker of identity into a marker of cultural cachet – the ultimate step toward becoming a post-gender cyborg being. Donna Haraway should be proud to see her cyborg literally personified – not to mention getting to #1 on the Billboard charts.
¡VIVA KANYE, VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
(OK, so I know the title is actually from a Lil Wayne song. Weezy isn’t a cyborg, he’s a Martian, and that’s totally different and probably just as revolutionary. Or, he’s just on too many drugs. Either way, it’s a completely different topic. What do you think, readers?)
Breanne Trammell’s Triumphant/Normative Experience
February 20, 2009 at 11:55am | In art, design, video | 1 CommentTags: breanne trammell, giant bookmarks, potential friends
I like Breanne Trammell’s art because she asks questions like, “what if I made art like a dude?” and makes 7 foot tall inspirational bookmarks out of mean things people have said to her and did a video project called “Gossip Gulls,” which is definitely helping tide me over until March 16th.
Breanne is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York. Her work celebrates normative experiences via 1980s-1990s popular culture, domesticity, cute, kitsch and the culture of collecting. It shares triumphant moments of youth and adulthood and oftentimes reveals the dark and embarrassing ones, too.
I feel like we could be friends. Maybe it’s totally lowbrow/dumb of me but I think that’s a really important quality to look for in an artist.
I Have Nothing To Add To This
February 11, 2009 at 11:22am | In fashion, pop culture | Leave a CommentTags: beyonce, breakfast pastries, celebrities, hair, lady gaga
(Via In Touch Magazine and Gawker.)
The Night “He” Came Home (The State of the Slasher in 2009, Part One)
February 10, 2009 at 5:35pm | In film, pop culture, sociology | Leave a CommentTags: friday the 13th, horror, jason voorhees, reaganomics, slasher film, state of the slasher in 2009, this really should've been my senior thesis
Michael Myers has already been there, Jason Voorhees gets in this week, and Freddy Krueger will be there soon – of course, I’m talking about your local multiplex. The classic slasher is back in a big way, as CHUD.com writer Devin Faraci notes in a recent article. Slasher films, such as the Friday the 13th remake opening this Friday, the 13th – make up a significant amount of recent mainstream horror film production, and are definitely making a killing (pun intended) at the box office. As mentioned in Faraci’s article, as well as in the New York Times, this new Friday the 13th remake (and series reboot) comes on the heels of a series of other slasher remakes, including new versions of three of the sub-genre’s founding films – Black Christmas (2006), Halloween (2007), and Prom Night (2008).
Trailer for Friday the 13th (2009)
While Faraci’s attempt to answer the most often-repeated question about the slasher sub-genre (“What is it that makes slasher films appealing?”) from a fan’s perspective is interesting, it leads him to away from a much more intriguing question – that is, “Why slashers now?” What is it about these mask-wearing, unstoppable killing machines of the Reagan era that resonates so well with horror film spectators in 2009? Why do audiences look to slasher remakes over original horror storylines? And why have these slasher movies so completely replaced the much maligned “torture porn” films – the Saws and Hostels – that ruled the horror universe earlier in the 2000s?
Stay tuned for a detailed investigation of these questions – and in the meantime, don’t go in the woods… alone!
(While you’re waiting for the next installment of this series – or just while you’re waiting for the new Friday the 13th movie – check out The 10 Days of 13 Redux on CHUD – Devin Faraci re-visits and reviews each film in the original Friday the 13th series.)
Special Offer, A Guaranteed Personality
February 9, 2009 at 12:57pm | In culture, psychology | 2 CommentsTags: astrology, atheism, carl jung's ghost, conceptual art, intp, myers-briggs, personality crisis
Something I’ve been pondering alot lately: how can I reconcile a genuine belief in astrology with my frankly-quite-fanatical atheism? I don’t necessarily want to believe in astrology, but I relate SO, SO strongly to being a Scorpio. It says nearly everything there is to know about me. I’m dating a Pisces who is constantly on my case about how secretive I am and all I can say is, I’m doing the best I can, man! I am a Scorpio: totally intense bitch, secret keeper, loyal yet vindictive, sometimes charming when I wanna be. Rep my fellow water signs and think Geminis are the worst kind of two-faced jerks.
Everything astrology doesn’t say, my Myers-Briggs personality profile (INTP) does:
- Highest in career dissatisfaction
- Least likely to believe in a higher spiritual power
- Lower grades than would be predicted from aptitude scores
- Difficult to get to know well
- Independent/creative/eccentric
- Obsession with “logical correctness”
- Find it extremely difficult to deal with those perceived as less intelligent than themselves
Maybe I am attracted to these systems in the same way some people are attracted to religious belief: as a way to avoid taking responsibility. In this case, responsibility for some of the darker parts of my own personality, the things I think but don’t say out loud because I know how much of an asshole I’d sound like. The secrets spelled out in my Myers-Briggs typography for everyone to see. Like the ghost of Carl Jung is staring into the very depths of my soul or some shit.
I’ve contended for the past several years that February is the dirtiest fucker of a (thankfully, short) month there is. To make February ‘09 more tolerable for myself, I’ve decided to take zero responsibility for my own actions these 28 days! I’m having my astrology.com horoscope texted to me each morning and living entirely according to what it says. “Taking steps to improve my life” one day, “going with the flow” the next. Whatever, it’s conceptual art? I’ll let you know how it went at the end of the month!
Dear reader, what’s your sign????
From the Department of Recent Obsessions: Kickin’ it old school
February 6, 2009 at 3:37pm | In fashion, music, obsession, video | 1 CommentTags: oi oi oi, super old school, the 80s, up the punx
I am turning 23 soon, trying to go to grad school or find a real, full-time job in the film industry within the next year, and basically trying to look and act like a real human being. But I also have a tendency to watch videos of early British punk and oi bands – and to get really jealous of their style. Do film studios hire guys who spend all their money on suspenders and jackets in an attempt to look like Feargal Sharkey et al. circa 1979?
I think this might be a bit of a problem.
999, “Homicide”
The Buzzcocks, “What Do I Get”
The Undertones, “My Perfect Cousin”
Cock Sparrer, “We Love You”
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