THEY ARE DROWNING OUT MALE VOICES WITH THEIR EVIL MOVIE TRAILER >:(
Posted by Richie on May 22, 2007
Comments which have been left on the YouTube trailer for the documentary Girls Rock! The Movie, about a rock n’ roll camp for girls who look to be between about 9 and 17. All of this was generated within twelve hours of the video appearing.
Punctuation and “spelling” left intact. I know I usually take screenshots for things like this, but there’s a lot and I’m feeling lazy.
Part One: General Trolling.
Girls cant play guitar…….
are you a lesbian? if you are thats ok. I’m a lesbian too; in the way that I like women.
if girls want be respected as good rock musicians, maybe they should actually put out a good album.
WHINY WHORES!!! FUUUUCK!
girls are going too wild…..seriously…..get a life
Without men there would be no children and the women with their P.M.S. would nuke each other until there was no world left.
Girls lose.
Shouldn’t they be teaching girls more useful things, such as how to make sandwiches??
I think its cool if girls are in bands, but do you have to look like a dude / really butch….ugh thats nasty.
There are 2 things a woman should never go near: a) a car b) an electric guitar
want to read something funny… “WOMANS RIGHTS”
When they try to rock they just end up looking like morons, stick to the dolls ladys. It’s like a guy trying to be a super model, you just dont do that, unless you want to look like a retard.
Just another lame Self-empowerment video for women, they say they’re so strong, why do they NEED these videos/programs…? It is completely stupid.
Yes, the best way for progression is to poorly imitate what males have already done.
girls do rock, well hott ones atleast
im assuming your a female so i probably would fuck you but then your probably fat so i wouldnt
This is trash. So the girls shouldnt be concerned about being fat and become some alternative crappy emo singers instead? What kind of logic is that? Why cant she join a gym?
girls need too learn too suck dick better fuck these whores
you should not have been featured because males are the domminant gender period, and im a girl [Richie: This user's profile identifies them as a 27 year old man called John]
ill those girls in the video were fugly
theres is a shortage of goodlooking girls in the video
im nto sexcist but teaching young girls rock and roll is basiccly inaproprite, whatever life style they choose at a young age will influence theyre future life style, now we dont want our next generation of wifes to be hard core rockers now do we?
They are all fat
There will always be sexism and thus the male will win.. because women are weaker, it’s a fact
wow are all girls like not strait anymore. 1 star
All these girls are handicaps. And when they are older they’ll be dominatrix’s whipping niggers.
the only girl that was ment to be a musician was janis joplin. the rest of them need to go make my dinner and stay at home cleaning up the house. i think i’ll have you make me… prime rib. yea that sounds good
Girls are so fucking dumb.
girls suck….. my dick
All that camp will do is create a batch of new lesbians, which I would be ok with, but most of those girls were ugly.
this was dumb and bitch your fat. I hate feminists.
women are inferior to men, and im a girl so dont pull the sexist card [Richie: This actually was from a girl, depressingly]
Woman are by nature gental and passive no matter how bad ass you think you are. Your intensity comes out in a histerical ball of self hate, crying, breakdown. Sure i agree Music is good for the soul woman or men but to compare both men and woman in rock and metal is just crazy.
Holy FUCK. i dont want to hear these dumb fucks sing about there boyfriends breaking up with them. Lets hear about how many cocks you had in you this week you ugly sluts
That girl screaming at 17:00 was screaming because she saw my incredibly large cock.
I fucking hate ugly woman. ANd chinks. This trailer pissed me the fuck off.
girls rock:Bullshit
Part Two: Bizarre MRA conspiracy theories, reverse sexism et al.
Psychological and sociological statistics tend to show that men are under greater pressure to conform to society (see suicide rates relating to inacceptance among society as an example). Women just whine a lot more about it since that’s in their nature. Also women tend to have more friends on average than men, hence they can form bitch factions that drown out male voices.
In the olden days, there were water fountains for whites and water fountains for blacks. The new segregation has a water fountain, (or a gym, or a hospital, or a taxpayer funded subsidy) for only women and maybe a water fountain, (or any of a million other things) for men which of course women can also use too. At least the old segregationists pretended to try and be fair.
When did our fucking culture get so pathetic and lame ass that everyone needs a “space” to call their own. Fucking get over yourselves! girls, gays, pop starts, druggies ect. the list goes on and on all need their “space”. Shut up dumbass!
The very nature of this genre is masculinity. The girls should be taught more natural ways to express themselves. Dont turn them into foul mouthed she-males who spit on the sidewalk, scratch themselves and belch outloud. Women are at their best when they display femininity and class
Im all for girls rocking, but isn’t the very idea of making a documentary about their segregation..a segregation in itself?
Women in the genre of hard rock will never compare to their male counterparts. The idea of a camp to teach girls to have masculine tendencies is weird and a sad sign of the times. Why not just cut to the chase and surgically implant a set of balls on these girls.
Femenism / Women empowerment is sexist. have you ever heard a guy say “FUCK WOMEN! I HATE THEM”… no? all you hear is “I LOVE WOMEN! especially the hot ones!”
The idea of this camp is so bias. Its 2007, woman are just as equal as men.. why can’t we see this. We now have this power of equality and it’s getting out of hand; we want more. One little wrong thing said from a man, we stereotype him as sexist. We say tons of wrong things but men let it pass, right? Women are just as sexist and racist as any man if you ask me.
So stupid. You think a bunch of girls making girly rock and roll music is really going to change the way anyone thinks of them? You think science camps aimed directly at girls is going to make them better scientists? It’s voluntary segregation, and it removes competition. All you are doing is insuring that our generation is the laziest generation yet.
Women and girls are not victims. Stop pretending people are telling you what to be. You don’t hear men complaining everyone wants them to be muscularly built business men/jocks, that’s because we know we’re not victims. Women aren’t either. You can be whatever the fuck you want. Stop making whiny shit music. It has no place in rock n’ roll.
I dont believe in 2007 that women are inferior to men, but It was men that created everything and the women trying to prove that they can do what has already been created. think about it. It’s not sexism..just the truth. Besides, western man is being gelded and it will not matter in another 50 years. boys will be like girls and girls will be like boys. ugly future.
Part Three: This doesn’t really fit in anywhere, but it deserves to be singled out anyway.
All i want is an average gaming chick =/
Part Four: Choice comments redux, keeping what was said above in mind.
When did our fucking culture get so pathetic and lame ass that everyone needs a “space” to call their own.
Women and girls are not victims.
have you ever heard a guy say “FUCK WOMEN! I HATE THEM”… no?
they can form bitch factions that drown out male voices
Part Five: That beautiful moment of denying the obvious again.
they can form bitch factions that drown out male voices
Appendix: Two totally unrelated excerpts from Harry Knowles’ review of Spider-Man 3.
Why does Mary Jane come across as a beautiful naggy bummer to live with and date? BECAUSE Mary Jane is the WRONG girl for Peter Parker. She loves SPIDER-MAN, look at her. She’s just like that cunt Lois Lane, remember when Superman gave up his powers for that twit… what does Lois do, basically you can see her interest instantly wane. She’s a Superman groupie. She likes a flying fuck, and Mary Jane loves the upside down kiss. That’s all these women want, they certainly DON’T want Peter Parker.
I’d love for him to kill off Mary Jane and let Parker make wild sex with the Gwen Stacy before killing her tragically and he ends up with the Russian girl that makes with the cookies and cake.
WHY DON’T WOMEN LIKE GEEKS WE JUST LACK CONFIDENCE AND WE’D RESPECT THEM SO MUCH MORE THAN THOSE FOOTBALL TEAM JERKS >8(
cellycel said
Ugh.
You know, I wouldn’t date Peter Parker. (Or spiderman.) He’s a jerk. In the latest movie after MJ breaks up with him he messages her about a millionty times, shows up at places that he knows she’ll be, and watches her through her window from outside her apartment. That’s called STALKING, and it’s not romantic.
>.>
Richie said
I haven’t seen it, but that trope has always bothered me. The men writing it know he’s not really going to snap and kill her, but she has no way of knowing that, and we’re meant to think she’s being insensitive or something.
I had a similar problem with the Owen / Gwen relationship in Torchwood. He pins her to a tree out in the middle of nowhere and asks her when was the last time she came so hard that time stopped. He’s right in her face and baring his teeth. But Owen isn’t really a dangerously violent potential rapist, so it’s OK and they end up in bed together by the end credits.
cellycel said
I’ve seen Torchwood, but if it were on some sort of ‘movies-I-want-to-watch’ list, it wouldn’t be anymore.
Oh: Another thing that pisses me off. My frieds and I rented that “Devil wears Prada” movie and there’s this bit in it where a guy asks the lead girl if she can “Go up to his place.” She says she can’t, it’s late, and he brushes it off, she says she has things to do, he brushes it off, until she runds out of excuses and sleeps with him.
NO MEANS NO MOVIE MAKER PEOPLE! THAT BEHAVIOR IS COERSIVE RAPE AND IT’S ALSO NOT ROMANTIC!
Richie said
God, and in a movie that was marketed as THIS IS FOR WOMEN!!!, that’s just… creepy.
cellycel said
Eck. My friends actually didn’t see my problem with that section. Actually, no, one of them did, one of my friends boyfriends who was listening to us understood why I was so annoyed with that bit.
The movie played it up as romantic banter, you know, she never really meant to say no, and she was happy to sleep with him, so… it’s all okay!
cellycel said
Oh I forgot, there’s more on Peter Parker.
There’s this one scene where he’s been taken over by the evil of the venom suit, and he gets into a fight with some guy, and MJ get’s in the way, so Peter slaps her to the ground.
It’s okay though, because it wasn’t really Peter, it was the evil suit.
Prof Fifi Trixibell said
Wow – of course the little phallocentrics are goint to spit the dummy – the girls are allowed some power, are choosing not to look like the pussycrap drolls or mariah carey, breast implants were not mentioned, and because they don’t look hyper-sexualised, they are lesbians? Also, I wish these whinging babies who call themselves men would make up their minds what they actually think a lesbian is – not that I would give a flying fuck. Real lesbians know what they are, that’s all that counts – I think what he was trying to say was, they look like what male-defined “hawt” girl-on-girl made-up by men lesbians do are not supposed to look like – bring on the backlash!
Camryn said
Here’s a favourite of mine from the youtube comments:
“do what you want but don’t but a feminist theme behind everything you try to do.. it’s just not attractive.”
Richie said
Oh God, there were more? I thought I caught them all, aside from the dozen different variations on “You wanna hear something funny? Women’s rights!”, none of which used the correct form of “women”.
Sara no H. said
I read shit like this, and it’s what I tell my friends when they complain that feminists hate men. Well, if y’all are gonna act like that…
(*Compulsory disclaimer for the stupid: yes, I know feminism isn’t about hating men, and yes, I know that not all men act like youtube commenters.)
tekanji said
You know, people always say that we shouldn’t count shit like that because it’s the internet and there are no consequences, so people are more bold. But, really, I say that reason is exactly why we should count it. That kind of stuff is what people really think but are (often) afraid to say in real life because they don’t want to face the consequences.
Richie said
Yes, exactly. That’s also the same problem I have with all this “ironic” bullshit; people really think this, and the presence of a cartoon pirate doesn’t automatically make it stop mattering.
What’s also a concern is how this would have gone down in a different online situation. The girls have already finished camp and the movie is set for release, so these fuckwits aren’t going to do much damage. Well, relatively speaking. But what if this had been an online space designed to encourage young girls to get into rock music, and (say) Something Awful targeted it? Considering the average age of the
pro-segregation feminazisgirls involved was about fourteen, they’re not likely to weather coordinated cyberbullying terribly well. And then, of course, it’s their fault for not being able to take a joke. Zany jokes like “I hate chinks” and “You’re a fat whore”.Actually, a couple of years ago, a “friend” (no communication since MySpaceGate) ran this shitty SA-ripoff website where two articles (of not many) were just this stream of attacks on a girl in his IT class. At the time, I had absolutely no problems with him doing it. Now I look back, cringe and hate myself for ever supporting his shit.
Camryn said
Richie, I missed the whole MySpaceGate thing and, of course, feel free not to answer but what changed your mind – how come you didn’t take issue with those attacks then but see them differently now? I’m curious what it takes to reach people. How does that lightbulb get switched on?
Richie said
MySpaceGate happened at the start of the year and it’s not really related to the abuse thing, except in a “straw that broke the camel’s back” way, because it was the culmination of a lot of shit that had been going on for a few years and I’d been trying to ignore.
Anyway… What changed my mind about it was that I realised there was a person on the other end of what he was saying, basically.
Back in time, 2004ish: We were both part of a large-ish web community that had a “revolving door” approach to who was in charge; different people would own the server or moderate the forum or write the code or whatever, depending on who had the spare money and time at that particular moment. At one point, the person who owned the server was a transwoman. She got all sorts of transphobic abuse hurled at her, but it was always in private, because she was in charge and had the power to ban people. It was really disgusting, and just as much was coming from the “nice” people as anywhere else. I made my thoughts pretty clear, but it didn’t do much to change anybody’s attitude, except that they just attacked her when they thought I wasn’t paying attention. I think she knew about it, but she never did anything. We talked fairly often and she told me up front several times that I was the only person there she felt safe talking to. She moved on after a while, we kept in touch, etc. etc., this is another story.
Anyway. A few years later, this guy from the community, who’d been fairly awful about her in a standard “over-privileged young white guy who thinks he’s being funny by telling rape jokes” way, starts his own website. He’s just enrolled in college, and he keeps telling us these stories about this really annoying girl in his class, who doesn’t know anything about the subject and keeps making ridiculous comments. They’re amusing in the way that all stories about annoying people who don’t know what they’re talking about are amusing. Then he starts writing website articles about the girl. “[girl in my class] keeps saying stupid shit about subjects she doesn’t understand” is standard ‘net complaining, although it he probably shouldn’t have used her actual name. But he went beyond that into pure personal attacks, calling her a dumb whore with a face like a shovel and writing a “hilarious” biography where she “gets a massive erection” because she’s sexually attracted to car crashes or some shit. And… I’m not telling him to stop this, because, to me, that girl wasn’t real, she only existed as this horrible fantasy bitch-monster he’d been describing, so I don’t think about how it might affect her.
Then he passed the site’s URL to his friends, and they passed it around the school, and somehow it got to her, and he was forced to take it down. I think he almost got expelled, but they reached a settlement where he wasn’t allowed in the same room as her or something; I’m not sure… At which point I realised that I was condoning the same kind of abuse that I’d been trying to stop being directed at the transwoman earlier, simply because I was personal friends with one and not the other.
So I stopped applying the “It’s OK as long as nobody I know gets hurt” double-standard. I didn’t really speak up about it because I didn’t want to get in arguments, but I found most of the stuff being thrown around by these people more and more disturbing. The thing about bringing up these issues in conversation is that people tend to get hyper defensive / aggressive and argue their point simply for the sake of it, so I started writing blog entries about it, thinking that people could read them, digest my point and (hopefully) change their behaviour without us having a big counterproductive argument. This worked for about six months, because I was using specific examples and laying the blame at the feet of specific people / organisations. Then I moved on to wider issues within culture and society, and started discussing how men / geeks / bloggers / gamers / white guys needed to do more, which resulted in this huge backlash because suddenly I was talking about the people who were actually reading the thing instead of Frank Miller or Eli Roth or whoever. Then they’re calling me sexist and politically correct and expecting to be given a free pass on all gender-related issues because they don’t beat up their girlfriends (which is pretty easy if you’ve never actually had a girlfriend in the first place – being lectured on women by a 24 year old virgin would have funny if it weren’t so depressing). At which point I gave up and started this place.
Yeah, that was longer than it needed to be, but I should be in bed and I don’t have time to edit it.
Camryn said
Thanks, Richie. It sounds like you did a lot of good work in raising these issues with your former friends (even if they’ve yet to appreciate that). I wish more people would step up and start calling people on their shit like you have.
Richie said
I’m not sure it actually worked in the end, because I just ended up writing for an audience who already agree with me. Although it’s better than listening to people whine about how my discussing rape is making them feel uncomfortable, dear God what about the men?!?!?!
Camryn said
Well, I think preaching to the choir is important too. It makes people aware that they’re not alone in all this madness. Also, you may have planted seeds of doubt in some people with your efforts on myspace. I hope, hope, hope we can chink away at anti-women beliefs bit by bit if they keep hearing opposing views voiced from enough sources (like Joss Whedon’s writing on Dua Khalil).
Richie said
Thanks. Any positive response I got earlier just got written off as “an ass-kissing festival”, so it’s not like it was making much difference to them. BUT I FEEL THEIR PAIN having to conform to society’s ridiculous expectations [see these statistics about men that I'm going to blame women for despite them not actually having the ability to influence things] and not being able to hear themselves think over the bitch chorus of man-hating rhetoric spread far and wide by the vast matriarchal conspiracy that ignores the hundreds of billions of men who are beaten by their wives (with no physical symptoms due to their Wolverine-like healing powers). I’m surprised they can even leave their houses.
stormy said
Argh Richie, you had to remind me of Owen in Torchwood — I had successfully erased it from my memory.
Ahh, the good old days of MySpaceGate. Also called bashing head against brickwall.
As for ‘drowning out poooor menz voices’ I could perhaps muster a little sympathy — IF 99.9% of world leaders weren’t male.
Filed under: FFS
Sarah said
Hi Richie
I came to your site through Charliegirl and would like to say, in addition to wholeheartedly agreeing with everything you say, that some (I may even say the best, but that might seem self-congratulatory!) women do fancy geeks! I have never been attracted to the arrogant, stupid kind of person that make these kind of remarks (which does cut down on potential boyfriends, I admit). If ‘jocks’ really are as they are portrayed in Americna films then I shudder.
I really empathise with what you say about having double standards. I have realised recently that I had quite a few too, and I’m really trying to stop it. Becoming a feminist has really made me reassess my beliefs and principles.
Since I’ve come to realise my feminist beliefs more fully I’ve also realised that just holding different opinions – even if you don’t make an issue of it – makes life difficult even among friends. I think it takes a lot of courage to do it, so congratulations! My blog has floundered recently because some gamers who knew me anonymously linked it to their discussion threads and I had lots of people who didn’t know me assuming I was ugly and describing how I should be mutilated. Unfortunately the social implications of all this has kind of cowed me – I’m debating relocating to a new site and not telling anyone, but being anonymous seems cowardly in itself! Anyway, I see it as a brave and difficult thing to do, standing up for your beliefs under a hail of abuse. And we need people to do it because that’s how change happens, however slowly.
One thing I’ve definitely noticed whilst trawling the feminist blogosphere is that, almost universally, feminists are intelligent and articulate, whilst their detractors are the opposite!
Anyway, I enjoy reading what you have to say.
Sarah
Richie said
Hello! I’ve always thought that the Geek / Jock dichotomy was false, actually. I’ve been hanging around geeks since I can remember, and they’re just as capable of being misogynist chest-thumping alpha-male twits as anybody else. But after what happened to your blog, I’m sure you’re well aware of that. The whole “Women don’t like geeks” complaint is just a way to avoid their own responsibility and blame the women, when the real issue is “Women don’t like socially-inept man-children with appalling personal hygiene who won’t watch anything that doesn’t involve po-faced actors forcibly emoting over futuristic tactical displays”. I’m a caffeinated nocturnal shut-in who’s seen every single episode of Doctor Who at least twice and plays miniature wargames, so if I can get laid then the whole “geek” excuse starts to look rather flimsy.
Anyway. It sucks what happened to you, especially since it’s not even a rare occurrence. I relocated because I was on MySpace, which doesn’t let you screen comments or see who’s linking to you, so it’s harder to set up a network thing. I still get abuse here (I just deleted a comment from “Jesus” who called me a gender traitor. I’ll take that as a compliment), but I know there are a lot of people who are supporting me, so it doesn’t feel like I’m banging my head on an unusually obstreperous wall. I hope what happened doesn’t stop you blogging, either where you’re blogging now or somewhere else, because there are a lot of people on your side and they’ll support you against the assholes.
tekanji said
Sarah: If it’s gaming your into, I highly suggest you join Iris’ forums.
In terms of blogging, no matter where you go, you will get trolled. That’s basically the first tenet of blogging while female. If you have strongly-worded rules/guidelines and a moderation policy, you will get flames much less often (though concern trolls aren’t affected).
If your old site is up, can I have a link to it? I’m curious as to your writing style.
Arne said
Hey,
I’m actually the co-director of the film “Girls Rock!”, and was likewise blown away by the deluge of horrid comments. We quickly put an “Approve First” filter on it because of exactly what Richie is saying about the ability of these young girls to fight off cyberbullying. We did, however, decide to let the less personal and stupidly ugly comments (“Dyke slags”, that sort of stuff) remain so folks like you could see what was out there and talk about it. A heartening amount of women and men fought back in the comments and that was worth showing too. Funny thing is, the comments were evenly divided between “Girls can’t rock, only men can play the guitar, they shouldn’t try” and male panic comments like “Why do you need a special camp to separate girls out, they have the same opportunities as men now!” Amazing no-one realized the two canceled each other out. On our site, which is a group blog, we’ve got pretty tight restrictions on who can comment and stuff and so far so good. Anyway, I’m glad to see another place where this is being discussed.
Richie said
Hi! Wasn’t expecting anybody else to read this beyond the usual, so this is a surprise. I actually friended your MySpace page when I still had an account.
Glad the site is troll-free. Good luck with the film; I doubt it’s going to screen in my town (nothing beyond mainstream Hollywood does), but I’ll try to catch it on DVD.
stormy said
Good luck with your film Arne. Unfortunately, there is a huge backlash against women and feminism that has heated up within the last few years – so the venomous comments are to be expected.
The contradiction between “girls can’t X… so don’t even try” and “everything is equal now” is a ‘classic’ (in the oft-used whiny sense of classic).
Thirty or forty years ago it was “girls can’t do maths/science [or they would get all hairy or something]“. What was actually found after girls were encouraged into maths/science (and sometimes female-only classes) was that females routinely outperformed males in maths and sciences, this has apparently led to “an education crisis” today as to why ‘boys are slipping behind’. The real issue is of course that boys always ‘played on the unlevel playing field’ and when that was taken away — shock horror — girls were generally better and outperformed their male peers. External observation of the whole “girls can’t do X” phenomenon shows that when males (more correctly, male supremacists) make this (whiny) protest, you can bet that it is a case of artificial dominance/superiority that is in play (they doth protest too much).
As for the music biz, a slightly different game is in play. Many males only join a band, not because of their love of music, but as a way to get laid (this really does explain why a lot of contemporary music is pure crap). Hence the comments above that automatically assume that females pursuing a career in music will become ‘sluts’. It is all about protecting a male bastion and nothing more. Currently the whiny male voices need not worry unduly, as males rule the music industry and therefore any new female talent is weeded out unless she bumps and grinds like a porn star. The music videos of today all look like a moving version of a Lads’ Mag.
Returning to the maths and sciences, there have often been women at the top of these fields, however, their contributions are almost always written out of history with men taking the credit. The most notable example was the work done by Rosalind Franklin on DNA structure – all the glory and credit was taken by Watson and Crick who each swanned off with a Nobel Prize, she got death and footnoted for all her work. [Richie, I had been meaning to make a similar comment on your other thread].
nightgigjo said
The blatant misogyny of YouTube comments is, well, not surprising. The fact that these folks can call 9- and 10-year-olds ugly names like ‘hoes’ and the like, is, well… mind-boggling.
I just wanted to scream at them: THESE ARE KIDS YOU SICK FUCKS!!!!
(File THIS under: FFS)
Okay, I feel slightly better now. ^^
AND: I made the mistake of telling a chat buddy that I was “baiting sexists” on YouTube (I couldn’t resist: not trying to change them, just have a little fun) and a whole conversation has ensued. Yay for explaining sexism and how it works to a 16-year-old male.
Stormy: You provoked a thought, that is, “Girls outperform boys when they’re encouraged to do their best because they’ve been spending generations fighting like mad to just be ‘as good’ — we’re used to the work. Boys don’t keep up when the uneven playing field is taken away ’cause they haven’t had to work hard.”
Oh, and Richie? I am the Geek in my house. I *like* po-faced actors forcibly emoting over futuristic tactical displays. ^^
Michelle said
Re. You Tube commenters: Just blast some Babes in Toyland at maximum volume at them, and that’ll make ‘em shut the fuck up. Women + guitar = a brilliant- and necessary- combination.
Richie said
Or Bikini Kill. Or… Hell, B*Witched were easier to take seriously than most drivelly macho cock-rock bands. I’ll show you loviNAHHHH like you nev-uh knewwwww.
I Read the Internets, too: 26/05/07 said
[...] to see these bloggers getting attention from the people who are actually writing this stuff?), who said: Funny thing is, the comments were evenly divided between “Girls can’t rock, only men can play [...]
Grace said
Mmm Bikini Kill…or Sleater-Kinney, or Jack Off Jill, or The Slits…or heck Ani Difranco (had to get it in there)!!
I saw this video a while back just before I found the Fempyre – Me an’ My video, and got distracted away from blogging about it. The comments made me so sad and sighful.
There is definately a pattern of sexism, racism and homophobia among the commenters, and i’m just glad that I don’t have a YouTube account because reactionary comments from me would probably just provoke more “fat lesbo whore” comments (while i don’t like my body i’m average weight, am straight and do not sell sexual services – hmmm just like the 14 years in the video!!!)
I am extremely sick of
peoplemen saying that women can not rock or play guitars!! What also annoys me is that men like this give men who actually think women can rock, deserve space, believe that sexism is alive and thriving like Dee, and like you Richie, a very bad name, and a very bad position to claw back from – for e.g. the delightful Troggy has accused you of being a troll today. Blah!I prefer geeks too!! Dee’s a computer/tech/music geek
And I prefered Seth Cohen when he was really geeky in the first series of the OC, before he got like confident and beefy, chuh.
Meh I can’t believe troggy called you a troll – I posted his comment, I think you should retort (if you want) try not to use too many big words though, the biggest one he has come up with in comments is ‘w*nking’, I think!
Grace said
Just noticed your tag! How pleasant!
Another thing I meant to say was that it is particularly disturbing that youtbue commenters commented saying that these girls should dedicate themselves to a life of providing oral-sex for emotionally redundant fuck wits who wouldn’t appreciate the act, regardless of ‘sacrifice’, dedication, ‘quality’ or quantity, because it’s their god given right to be serviced sexually by women, that’s why women exist afterall. To be inpregnated and populate the world with likeminded football players/fuck wits, and then receive no sexual pleasure for the rest of their lives while providing it on tap to someone who does not appreciate them, as there is no need because all the appreciation they need is the privalege of being a brainless fuckdoll for a power hungry, superiority complex ridden fuckerdy fuck wit!
Sorry I said fuck so much…i’m a bit angry…damn these headaches! Feel free to edit and asterix as this might be a kids show and therefore should be vetted first by the parentally conscious…heh
Richie said
This is definitely a post-watershed blog.
Grace said
Aha! Well who I am kidding, i’m hardly the most offensive person out there even if I do say the f-word a lot (as in “feminism” haha, people seem to treat it like a swear word, much more offensive and conversation stopping than derogatory words for female genetalia surely…). Maybe it’s the Irish half of me that makes me swear a lot, but now i’m just pigeon holing myself!
BTW GIRLS ROCK!!! GRRRLZ ROCK even! More young girls/women should get the opportunity to nurture their talents, find their voices, and share their experiences the way the girls in the video, and I hope it’s the start of things to come rather than a one off
Kate the Great said
Loved this entry – I was hoping someone would respond to it
I’m interested in the Spiderman analysis, as I interpreted things differently.
Peter Parker is a HUGE jerk-face in this movie when he’s wearing the suit – and that’s the point. In that context they don’t try to glamorize the fact that he is.
As with many comics, but with this movie especially, Spiderman 3 is an allegory for good vs. evil. When he wears the dark suit, he is the embodiment of the dark side and he loses a lot of the qualities that make him a great superhero in the story (ex: selflessness, respect, etc.) The suit doesn’t act as an excuse though, if you look at it symbolically. Or at least that’s how I interpreted it.
When he wears the suit under his clothes, he completely changes from the polite and considerate Peter Parker, to a womanizing, manipulative Peter-Parker – And most women don’t take to this new version. Even when he uses Gwen Stacey to make MJ jealous, Gwen realizes this and she apologizes to MJ. She then storms out humiliated and upset – so it’s obvious he’s lost out on both counts. He has impressed neither Gwen nor MJ. Finally, he gets in a scuffle with some bouncers, and in said scuffle, MJ tries to step in and stop it and he just fires at whoever’s there.
When this happened the audience gasped. This is the peak of the story when he realizes what he’s done is unforgivable and he knows the darker path is not the right one.
Given the context – that he’s wearing the suit which is supposed to represent evil or the undesirable qualities, and the context of the movie presents his idiotic behavior as a problem, as being harmful –I thought the movie did more to make hitting women look deplorable. But once again, I’d be open to alternate analysis. I’m a little shady on the details right now.
I do understand this sort of argument’s been used for Grindhouse: “But the stripper shot the rapist in the balls with her leg gun! it’s pro-woman!” but come on folks, the misogynist tone of the rest of the movie makes it hard for me to buy this as a plausible argument.
As for geeks – I agree. I happened to stumble upon a sexy, feminist geek myself, but he is a rarity if my experience with some other geeks is any indication. They can go two ways, be intelligent and extra sweet because they appreciate women more thoughtfully, or they’re reserved and bitter and have spent years enveloped in a female fantasy world where they’ve developed bizarre expectations about real women. There’s a deep seated “nice guys finish last” bitterness amongst some of them, even though they do all the things that not-so-nice guys do, but do it more covertly, or meekly.
Plus, you should’ve seen the mighty ranting that ensued after I watched Revenge of the nerds. See, these nerds put cameras in the female dorm rooms, tape the girls changing, watch it, and then sell some of the naked photos at the county fair.. but they’re better than the jocks because.. um.. well..
Hmm..
Richie said
Ohhh dear. I haven’t seen it, precisely because a certain something (common sense, pessimism re: the world in general) told me it would turn out like that. And, personally, by the end of high school, I wanted revenge against the nerds more than anybody else. Being stuck overnight with six drunk virgin Dungeons & Dragons players who freeze-frame Cardcaptor Sakura because you can see up a 12 year old girl’s skirt and threaten each other with physical violence for being “fags” resulted in me giving up on fandom.
I tried getting back into the swing of things a couple of years ago. I then discovered that the guy I was talking to online about it was simultaneously jerking off to a photoset of Supergirl being tied up and raped by a man in a gorilla suit. He later complained that he sometimes hated himself for being such a nice guy, so at least we agreed on something.
Also, she beat up the gorilla monster afterwards. PRO-WOMAN.
cellycel said
What got me about spiderman three was exactly that he was supposed to be good in the suit, and evil when not in the suit. He didn’t watch MJ from her apartment while in the suit that was normal “good” Peter. He didn’t call her million times in the suit, that was also normal good Peter. (Except the scene where there’s the Russian girls and the cookies.) Something not related to feminisms: When Harry lost his memory, Peter could have used the oppourtunity to rectify the situation and could have been honest with his friend, but instead he hid the truth (again.) That was also normal good peter.
My problem is that Peter without the suit is a “Nice Guy”TM. He’s not actually very nice at all. His actions both in and out of the suit were bad most of the time, but the movie only showed it as bad if he were in the suit. The reason I said “It’s okay though, because it wasn’t really Peter, it was the evil suit.” is because Peter did a bunch of other things in the movie that I though were really terrible, and he did them without the suit and it was “okay” but as soon as he’s in the suit, his bad actions aren’t his fault anymore. Another side note: It was normal “good” peter who chose to use the goddamn suit to get a power rush anyway. He kept putting the suit on, and there was what, one scene where he used the suits extra power to defeat a villian. The suit seems like a grand excuse for Peter not to have to take any responsibility for his actions. “The suit did it. I don’t have to apologize to my ex girlfriend, or stop showing up at places I know she’ll be or anything like that, because the suit did it, so I’m okay”
The hitting women was portrayed as an evil ‘suit’ action, but when he went home not in the suit to talk to Aunt May about how he’d hurt MJ, he was given the advice that made me really annoyed. “Sometimes when you do something bad the first step to take is to forgive yourself” she tells him.
I’m sorry. Forgiving yourself is only good if it then leads to you taking responsibility for your actions, or trying to right your wrongs. “Not putting on the suit anymore” isn’t taking responsibility for his actions (Though I honestly don’t remember if he put it on again after that point or not. He might have, which would make the whole thing more ‘craptacular’) Actualy trying to repair his damaged relationships might have helped, or better yet, he could stop harrassing MJ. (The movie might have displayed the scenes I count as harrasment, but really. If you show up at your ex’s house, and leave a bunch of messages, phone all the time demanding to know why she’s broken up with you, and show up at places you know she’ll be, that’s harrasment. They’re trying to show Peter being “romantic” when those actions in the real world are beyond creepy. It doesn’t matter that she broke up with him because she was blackmailed into it, because Peter didn’t know about that. He was harrasing he for no good reason, and it wasn’t in the suit. Because it wasn’t in the suit, it was portrayed as good.
That’s where the allegory for good and evil don’t mesh with me.
Beyond that, the “forgiving yourself” perpetuated itself as a theme throughout the movie. For example they used it on the Sandman, who forgive himself for killing Peters Uncle (and he got Peter to understand too. Good-o) It can’t have mattered that much to him, because he broke out of jail to rob banks.
That’s never a responsible action. Ever. No matter how emotionally compelling.
However it’s “okay” because he’d come to some sort of understanding about what he’d done. (and he was just trying to save his daughter anyway.) It’s like the theme of the movie was “Acknowledge when you do evil, and forgive yourself when you do” but with no focus on taking any responsibility for your evil actions.
Maaaaaaaaan. I reckon I could write a whole essay on this subject.
cellycel said
“The movie might have displayed the scenes I count as harrasment, but really. If you show up at your ex’s house, and leave a bunch of messages, phone all the time demanding to know why she’s broken up with you, and show up at places you know she’ll be, that’s harrasment. They’re trying to show Peter being “romantic” when those actions in the real world are beyond creepy.”
That’s supposed to read: The movie might have displayed the scenes I count as harrasment in a romantic light, but really…. etc.
Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » The Semiotics of Internet Reactions To A Documentary About Girls Who Play Rock Music said
[...] The blog Crimitism reports: Comments which have been left on the YouTube trailer for the documentary Girls Rock! The Movie, about a rock n’ roll camp for girls who look to be between about 9 and 17. All of this was generated within twelve hours of the video appearing. [...]
Grace said
Kate the Great said: “or they’re reserved and bitter and have spent years enveloped in a female fantasy world where they’ve developed bizarre expectations about real women. There’s a deep seated “nice guys finish last” bitterness amongst some of them, even though they do all the things that not-so-nice guys do, but do it more covertly, or meekly.”
Kate, it seems you have met my EX-boyfriend. I’m SO sorry.
A lot of my ‘geek friends’ from school used to be the sweet kind, but since they went to uni and actually found women who were willing to have sex with them, they mostly stopped being insightful and got stuck on dick jokes. I think in their heart of hearts they would still appreciate the concept of Girls Rock though. Thankfully music is more important to them than like anything else.
Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony » Blog Archive » I was going to title this Men Behaving Badly but it doesn’t even begin to describe it said
[...] next day, I rediscovered the wonderful Crimitism, who does get these things, and read through the comment thread on the YouTube page for the Girls Rock! documentary trailer. It’s disheartening. Mr Pubgroper [...]