AdrianneSchoen

Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful movie. I have nothing to say about that, but the Notebook? What is Amy thinking? The Notebook is just gross. The couple is toxic. She's terrible to him and he seems to be mentally unhinged, and obsessive. I spent the whole movie hoping they would never see each other again so they could move on and grow up. I also have some difficulties suspending my disbelief and accepting a universe where the aging process would transform Ryan Gosling into James Garner, but that's beside the point. Lets look at the scene with the ducks. The grand romantic gesture where they sit in a small boat swarmed by birds. Now you may or may not know that ducks are monstrous rape machines that have evolved complex corkscrewing penises to circumvent vaginas with false passages as an evolutionary protection from the large amount forced mating that goes on. It's a perfect metaphor for their relationship. A winding farce to avoid a painful relationship that should never happen. I'm actually a fan of Ryan Gosling and I very rarely hate any movie as much as this one. I'm generally a pretty easy audience, but this movie actually hurt to watch. I hope they discuss this on the Cannon just so I can understand why people love this movie so much.

I love the Cracked podcast and these discussions about the unintentional impressions pop culture leaves on us, but I found this one problematic. I realize there aren't a lot of women on the writing staff, but why would you try to cover one of the few collections of female protagonists with no women? Personally, I found it difficult listening to a collection of dudes unapologetically tearing down female icons and calling them worthless or damaging to women. It's not that I don't think there is a valid conversation to be had here or that I don't think men should be a part of it, but this definitely suffered from a lack of perspective. To just make an extreme metaphor, what if the same group had done discussion on "African American Heroes and why they're ruining it for Black People" then described how Rosa Parks sucked for taking all of Claudette Colvin's glory. I think it would be hard to justify that conversation without proper historical context or an outside perspective. Obviously, that's a huge leap from Disney princesses, which the guys in the conversation grew up with and were influenced by and are generally a bit silly. I'd like to address a few things that were brought up. Not to apologize for clearly sexist or racist norms of the time period or the Disney company, but to add context to the conversation. The form letter that was sent was very much a product of it's time. A time when it was considered inappropriate for married women to work (most likely because of all the horrible sexual harassment that was allowed in most workplaces) and if a woman married or got pregnant they would leave. It was viewed as a poor investment to train them. Disney actually did have female animators, many of them seeking jobs during the war and staying on after.The art director for Snow White was a woman.She was also Walt Disney's sister in law, so take that how you will. Walt Disney was not a perfect man, but I do think he was fairly progressive for the time. Certainly not any kind of leader of social change, but moderately progressive. “If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man. The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could.” – Walt Disney, 1941 There is a great tradition of creative female leaders involved in many of these films that shouldn't be dismissed or forgotten. I'm guessing none of you guys saw the Princess and the Frog, but that story is a good example of how Disney started to shift the stories away from characters with a lack of agency to a message of taking responsibility for your future. It's very sweet. Actually, the podcast "We Got This" covers all the princesses very well. I'll leave it to them to make the positive argument. http://www.maximumfun.org/we-got-this-mark-and-hal/27-best-disney-princess Disney is a great punching bag. It has a huge loyal following that are likely to click on stories with the name in the title. That makes it great topic to single out. I do marketing, I've met the internet, I get how it works. I just wish this had been a more interesting and balanced conversation, but I think it turned out to be the easy one. The arguments were weak and well worn for Cracked. I love you guys and I don't generally like to criticize people who are out there creating stuff. I just think this might be an interesting conversation to start.