what do you want to be when you grow up?
Have you seen Commander In Chief? Because I just saw the last half of an episode for the first time and here's the synopsis:
• the president's daughter is thought to have slept with one male and is now considered a slut by her father and brother and school class
• the president finds out one of her personal secretaries is HIV positive [oh nos!] AND gay [GASP]... she fires him at first, but then decides he can stay. Oh, by the way, the president is a republican. See? They have hearts too!
• The speaker of the house who is, obviously, democrat, is shown to have been a racist, pro-segregationist from the South when he was young. He is also villanized as being a homophobe AND sexist. He's also just plain creepy.
Here's another twofold::
a:: the paradox of a republican woman becoming president: ugh. also, this really goes for minorities. I know, I know... minorities and women can be shitty people with horrible beliefs too. But I'll take a marginalized person for leader any day. What the hell am I supposed to do, though, when they're working for the Man? Is this inappropriate? I can't even tell anymore.
b:: the influence of politics on entertainment: a few years ago I took an 80s/90s film class. It turns out, if you watch trilogies or sequels and pay any mind to politics, you'll shit a brick. No. Really. Watch the "Back to the Future," "Rambo," and "Terminator" movies. You'll see political manifestos rise up from the narratives and then drastically shift in one of the following films when an administration changes. Usually with regard to masculinity. So where does this leave us when we have a television show with a female Republican president that is obviously differentiated from GW and his administration's politics. Um. Well. WTF. I've never been very good with politics.
• the president's daughter is thought to have slept with one male and is now considered a slut by her father and brother and school class
• the president finds out one of her personal secretaries is HIV positive [oh nos!] AND gay [GASP]... she fires him at first, but then decides he can stay. Oh, by the way, the president is a republican. See? They have hearts too!
• The speaker of the house who is, obviously, democrat, is shown to have been a racist, pro-segregationist from the South when he was young. He is also villanized as being a homophobe AND sexist. He's also just plain creepy.
Here's another twofold::
a:: the paradox of a republican woman becoming president: ugh. also, this really goes for minorities. I know, I know... minorities and women can be shitty people with horrible beliefs too. But I'll take a marginalized person for leader any day. What the hell am I supposed to do, though, when they're working for the Man? Is this inappropriate? I can't even tell anymore.
b:: the influence of politics on entertainment: a few years ago I took an 80s/90s film class. It turns out, if you watch trilogies or sequels and pay any mind to politics, you'll shit a brick. No. Really. Watch the "Back to the Future," "Rambo," and "Terminator" movies. You'll see political manifestos rise up from the narratives and then drastically shift in one of the following films when an administration changes. Usually with regard to masculinity. So where does this leave us when we have a television show with a female Republican president that is obviously differentiated from GW and his administration's politics. Um. Well. WTF. I've never been very good with politics.