HEY, YOU GUYS, LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS YEAR'S OSCAR NOMS SUCK!

[bookshop]

*Best Picture 2010 nominations list*
- Avatar <-- racist, imperialist white liberal guilt fantasy (everyone, native peoples, mountains, animals, trees and tree-nerve-endings, get exploited by white people, awesome!!)

- The Blind Side <-- i haven't seen this, but true story notwithstanding the trailer just me cringe. It really, really seemed

Comments

[tangledtale]

c) (my priorities are in order) THE MOVIE CLEARLY SHIPS PASH/BLISS WHAT MOVIE WERE YOU WATCHING. I'm open to any and all variations of cast/cast pairings though!

b) I think the part that cemented my annoyance was during the final match where Pash tells him not to be embarassing and surprise! he does something embarassing (to her) and it's played as this comedic moment. I don't know why it rubbed me up the wrong way but maybe because I'm chinese and usually all the male asian characters I see are played as ridiculous, socially awkward types that aren't good enough for their girlfriends if they can get one at all so I'm particularly sensitive to seeing variations of that type of character played out in conjuction with their being POC onscreen, even if the character themself isn't even remotely of the same background as me?

a) I think maybe because I saw roller derby itself (as presented on the screen, and I should really look this shit up so I could be wrong about RD irl etcetc hedging bets) as being quite white because it felt to me to be actively anti-those traditional, limiting notions of femininity but also of a specifically white idea of femininity? Like its mix of sassy/pretty/toughness felt like it's in part a defiance against the idea of women's inability to occupy traditionaly male-dominated/created spaces of sport and physicality, which itself has its roots in women being more 'delicate' and women being associated with concepts like passivity/domesticity as opposed to the activity/publicity that being a recognised sportsperson and performing in front of an audience entails. And basically all that stuff that has a history of being a white woman's experience. So in the context of that, Rosa Sparks' lack of screentime stuck out in particular to me. (as opposed to all the other Hurl Scouts who, you're right, do also suffer in development by the constraints of film running time and the mutliple story arcs for Bliss) In that vein, I also have a faint remembrance of how most of the scenes featuring all the Derby teams (the games/the food fight/the tryouts) had a majority of white faces. Obviously I'm making presumptions on how people might identify but well, in the context of your post talking about the levels of fail in terms of each films' sexual and racial politics and presenting Whip It as something of an alternative, it made me think about Whip It's own failings even if it does succeed as a good movie about the building of bonds at community/familial/friendship levels etc.