you wanna prowl - be my night owl?
I'm coming up on the end of the first season of Castle; so far it's entertaining though not incredibly high-quality. I'm watching it for Nathan Fillion, though his ginger daughter and obnoxious mother amuse me as well. Not such a fan of Detective Kate Beckett, though.
I heard this quote a few minutes ago, and it's kind of really awesome (Martha is Castle's actress mother):
Martha: *scoff* Newsflash. She already has body image issues; it's an intrinsic part of being a woman. Every woman in the world has some part of herself that she absolutely hates. Her hands are too small, her feet are too big, her hair's too straight, too curly, her ears stick out, her... (looking at herself in the mirror) Oh, God, her butt is too flat, her nose is too big... And you know, nothing you can say will change how we feel. What men don't understand is, the right clothes, the right shoes, the right makeup, just... it hides the flaws we think we have. They make us look beautiful-- to ourselves. That's what makes us look beautiful to others.
Castle: Used to be, all it took to make her feel beautiful was a pink tutu and a plastic tiara.
Martha: We spend our whole lives trying to feel that way again.
And that could be read as a depressing statement about how all women are indoctrinated into body image issues by the evil media and we hate our bodies and so on, but it's delivered with smiles and gentle understanding. I like the other message - that fashion and dressing up and physical pampering are a way of being good to ourselves, of assuring ourselves that our bodies are beautiful, that our confidence is deserved, that we can face the world without fear of judgment. I'm not saying that this is the perfect stopgap, but I do think it's a healthier way of seeing physical indulgence than the hyper-"feminist" idea that any attention paid to our physical appearances somehow invalidates our Inner Beauty and our Strong Woman Minds and all that jazz.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't like the dichotomy between outer and inner, as if we have to choose one. And I think it's good to see it acknowledged that (a) the vast majority of our physical flaws are only in our own minds and (b) it's all right to have those flaws in our minds and compensate for them and thus make ourselves happier. And now I've rambled a lot, so I'll leave that.
I heard this quote a few minutes ago, and it's kind of really awesome (Martha is Castle's actress mother):
Martha: *scoff* Newsflash. She already has body image issues; it's an intrinsic part of being a woman. Every woman in the world has some part of herself that she absolutely hates. Her hands are too small, her feet are too big, her hair's too straight, too curly, her ears stick out, her... (looking at herself in the mirror) Oh, God, her butt is too flat, her nose is too big... And you know, nothing you can say will change how we feel. What men don't understand is, the right clothes, the right shoes, the right makeup, just... it hides the flaws we think we have. They make us look beautiful-- to ourselves. That's what makes us look beautiful to others.
Castle: Used to be, all it took to make her feel beautiful was a pink tutu and a plastic tiara.
Martha: We spend our whole lives trying to feel that way again.
And that could be read as a depressing statement about how all women are indoctrinated into body image issues by the evil media and we hate our bodies and so on, but it's delivered with smiles and gentle understanding. I like the other message - that fashion and dressing up and physical pampering are a way of being good to ourselves, of assuring ourselves that our bodies are beautiful, that our confidence is deserved, that we can face the world without fear of judgment. I'm not saying that this is the perfect stopgap, but I do think it's a healthier way of seeing physical indulgence than the hyper-"feminist" idea that any attention paid to our physical appearances somehow invalidates our Inner Beauty and our Strong Woman Minds and all that jazz.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't like the dichotomy between outer and inner, as if we have to choose one. And I think it's good to see it acknowledged that (a) the vast majority of our physical flaws are only in our own minds and (b) it's all right to have those flaws in our minds and compensate for them and thus make ourselves happier. And now I've rambled a lot, so I'll leave that.