I went to see Into the Woods this week and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would having read some things on the interwebs about its race and gender problems.
While it certainly still had those (*spoiler alert* both The Witch and The Baker’s Wife die because they don’t subscribe to typical notions of femininity; The Wolf wears a zoot suit in a dodgy part of the woods) it’s probably the least problematic of all the Oscars bait in cinemas at the moment.
I found the politics of gender very interesting. I was surprised by how on the nose the rapeyness of The Prince was, and I thought Chris Pine played him to perfection. I was taken aback by the pedophilic undertones rife throughout the musical, exhibited by The Wolf and The Baker, amongst others. And for those unfamiliar with the stage version, in it the actor that plays The Prince also plays The Wolf! It gives a whole new meaning to the niceness/charm VS. goodness that reverberates throughout Into the Woods. If you like musicals and/or picking apart the underlying meaning of pop culture, go see it. [The Windowsill]
Why are some of our favourite TV shows given a “free pass” on their problematic content while others are expected to be all things to all people? I love that Sinead Stubbins threw in the gender card: Sex & the City, Girls and even Grey’s Anatomy are often held to a much higher standard than prestige TV’s other (read: male protagonist-based) vehicles. [Junkee]
Not knowing you’re beautiful is exactly what makes you beautiful. [Daily Life]
The history of the Lifetime movie. [WaPo]
Disney’s Agent Carter isn’t feminist: it’s about “Disney owning feminist entertainment, and thereby being able to set the terms for it.” [In These Times]
Just as relevant to the #Tay4Hottest100 controversy as it was when it was published last year, Brodie Lancaster writes about gender-based music elitism. [Rookie]
“Looking ‘Black’ is a Crime”:
“Authorities want to ban hoodies but not guns, sagging pants but not police murdering unarmed Black people, natural hair but not unnatural racist discrimination.” [Dame]
Nicki Minaj sacrificed love for career success on her latest album, The Pinkprint. [One Week One Band]
Looking at Pretty Woman‘s positive portrayal of sex work. [Bitch Flicks]
Why do all on-screen female journalists sleep with their subjects for a story? [NY Magazine]
The inevitability of being called fat for deigning to be a woman in public. [Musings of an Inappropriate Woman]
“The Girls effect” on the Iowa Writers Workshop. [Vulture]
The effect menstruation has on professional sportswomen. [Birdee]
Glee flies in the face of character development, storyline continuity and sensitivity by making Coach Beiste a trans man. Would you expect anything more? [Autostraddle]
On being a fat bride-to-be. [The Guardian]
Image via Tumblr.