“Never say, ‘I’ll be right back,’ because you won’t be back.” (The State of the Slasher in 2009, Part Two)
March 3, 2009 at 6:29pm | In film, pop culture, sociology | Leave a CommentTags: "the rules", everyone loves randy meeks, final girls, friday the 13th, likeminded blogs, omfg why did someone make those sneakers, scream, slasher film, state of the slasher in 2009
It seems (after Nadine’s epic, long-awaited analysis of “The Twilight Saga”) that we here at Tiny Gems are very interested in talking about teenage sexuality and its representation in popular, youth-focused media. Which means, of course, that I’m back to the slasher film. We all know the frequently re-hashed tropes of the sexual politics of the slasher – the carnage and chaos unleashed by any active teenage (female) sexuality, the killer as punisher of sexual activity, the “Final Girl” as “masculinized” virgin, the Freudian implications of knives and wounds. Been there, done that. At this point, these generic cliches have even become the founding principle/in-joke of an entire slasher franchise (the Scream series). But what I’m wondering is, do these tropes still hold up – and if they do, do they really impose any normative ideologies over slasher audiences?
In other words – do Randy’s “rules” from Scream (1996) really mean anything today? Did they ever really exist to begin with? Could all of the many, many academics and critics who have trashed the slasher sub-genre for years be wrong about its implications?
Another day, another GaGa
March 3, 2009 at 5:56pm | In music, pop culture | Leave a CommentTags: bizarro universe, clockcleaner, lady gaga, philadelphia, up the punx, weird connections
…you didn’t think I’d really let you go this long without another Lady GaGa update, did you?
But seriously – has anyone else noted the odd similarities between “Poker Face” by Lady GaGa and “Vomiting Mirrors” by local punx Clockcleaner (aka “The Most Hated Band in Philadelphia”)?
ClockGaGa? LadyCleaner? Who knows. In the meantime, check out Clockcleaner’s last show ever at Kung Fu Necktie on April 18. Oh wait, it’s “invite only.” Endless bummer!
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?
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?)
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.)
Obama nation
January 21, 2009 at 1:42pm | In internet, politics, pop culture | Leave a CommentTags: barack obama, bush, inauguration, political fandom, regime change
…and just in case you didn’t know, someone has created a web site for the timeless question: “Is George W. Bush still president?”
Pouring some out for our homies: the pop-culture fallen of 2008
January 7, 2009 at 5:23pm | In pop culture, year in review | 2 CommentsTags: 2008, 2009, fifteen minutes of fame
Although it’s a bit late for a year-in-review, I’d like to remember a few pop-culture phenomena that we (probably) won’t be seeing much more of in 2009. Sometimes, I wonder if there is a retirement home for faded internet memes, vanished non-celebrities, and other cultural referents so out-of-date as to be beyond irony – something like The Surreal Life, but without the cameras.
Rest in peace, 2008 — your fifteen minutes are over.
Samuel Joseph “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher
Chris Crocker and Onch (of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF)
Ron Paul and his grassroots (“Google Ron Paul”) followers
The video of a breakdancer kicking a baby in the face
LOLcats
Everything’s fine in 2009
January 7, 2009 at 4:27pm | In pop culture, year in review | 1 CommentTags: 2008, 2009, heaven's gate cult, lady gaga, waxing poetic on pop culture
Here are Paris and Nicky Hilton on New Year’s Eve (photo care of The Superficial) to confirm that, yes, 2009 will be exactly like 2008 – only moreso.
This year, we at Tiny Gems resolve to give you a close analysis of the fascinating, absurd pop-culture landscape of the early 2000s before it inevitably recycles. And just in case you were wondering what evidence we have for this brand pop-culture millenialism, I give you – of course – “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga.
Look forward to more music, TV, film, art, design and trash-talk all the time in 2009.
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