Sheeni Sauders (Portia Doubleday) and Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) make the best of an afternoon in their trailer park.

Youth in Revolt‘s premise is a familiar one, with some unexpected twists along the way; (virginal, sweet, innocent Nick Twisp) boy meets (flaxen haired, ivory skinned, sexy, intelligent Francophile Sheeni Saunders) girl, boy falls for girl, girl plays with boy but has a much sexier/intelligent/athletic/accomplished boyfriend (who now of course becomes boy’s arch-nemesis by default), girl’s parents hate virginal sweet boy and prevent him from seeing girl, boy decides to fight for girl. By becoming bad. Very, very bad.

The rest of the plot is ridiculously complicated, but at the same time suprisingly believable for a love-struck teenage boy. But.. a lot of it was very… cringe inducing, not to say problematic and fucked up. Nick really wants to get the girl (or is it sex? sometimes the viewer is not quite sure), and goes to absurd lengths in his attempts to do so, including emotionally harassing his mother after her boyfriend dies, stealing and destroying vehicles, faking his own death, and last (but definitely least charming) lying to and emotionally manipulating not one, but two girls, including even drugging one of them.

Yeah.

But! The film is still worth critiquing. So let’s fast forward a bit through the film for the two things that really bothered me about Youth in Revolt. Nick has made his life at home with his mother toxic to the point that she sends him to live with his father, which suits Nick just fine because it is where Sheeni lives and goes to school. But! Turns out Sheeni’s parents have sent her to private school a few hours away. Bummer.

The only friend he makes at her former/his new high school is Vijay: smart, funny, and just as sexually frustrated as Nick is. Vijay “borrows” his grandmother’s car so they can go and visit Nick’s girlfriend and sexy roommate at Sexy French School. However, we don’t ever really understand why they are friends, other than for Nick to use him to get to Sheeni. We even make a joke about his being brown by insinuating illegal immigrant status (which, honestly, could be interpreted in one of two ways; one being racist and the other being a jab at dumb white people with a saviour complex). Sadly, this scene makes it seem as though since Harold & Kumar was successful, now all of these zany teenage comedies get a free pass for not giving any of the people of colour in their scripts any depth! Youth in Revolt would have been a far better film if his sidekick was actually a friends, as opposed to being the only person of colour in the entire film, used as a boring plot device.

Nick’s friend Vijay Joshi (Adhir Kalyan) ponder their next move

Secondly, there is this “alternative” girl who also studies at Sheeni’s Sexy French School whom Nick meets after she vomits in the bathroom. Nick decides to use this girl to start rumours about Sheeni’s boyfriend through flattery, banking on the fact that it’s insinuated that she suffers from an eating disorder, and is “alternative,” hence, is probably not used to male attention and of course desires it. Everything about his interactions with this character and her portrayal in the film, are just over the top messed up. To me, she seemed much more interesting and complex than Sheeni. And of course, Nick never considers her as anything other than someone he can use on his path to Get the Girl TM. And the Girl TM is the perfect rich white blonde girl… (but to be honest this is probably just me projecting my teenage insecure underdog feelings on the dirty scuzzy kind of punk kid instead).

In the end, what really got my goat me about this movie is that Nick is really an emotionally abusive asshole who gets everything he wants… and we’re supposed to LIKE him. And we kind of do! I kind of did! The movie was funny, it made me laugh, it was unexpected… but it was also pretty fucked up in many, many ways!

It is not without its redeeming qualities, though. One thing I did really like about the film is that Sheeni has Nick in the palm of her hand. She is the one who decides whether or not she is inclined to his affections, she is the one who is frank and honest and whether they are a couple or not, deciding whether or not they have sex. Sadly, that is something we see far too rarely in movies.

However, this refreshing dialogue of consent, agency and power on the part of Sheeni is not nearly enough to redeem this film from its other faults. Of the six female characters in this film, she is the only one treated with a shred of decency and respect. There are too many (ridiculously underutilized! and superbly acted!) side characters, which makes it feel fast-paced and entertaining, but the viewer just wants to spend more time with the funniest ones and kick Nick out of the way. Even François, his fictional alter ego, becomes someone we’d rather have around! There are too many loose ends by the time the film reaches its flimsy end, and there are too many problematic gender politics at play for me to wholeheartedly endorse Youth in Revolt. Part of me wonders if the fact that it instilled such vehement reprehension for the main character means the film was successful in its attempts at engaging the viewer in the story… which is what leads to me giving this memorable film a 2.5 as opposed to a 0. 2.5/5

This is part two of my previous post reviewing the Bite Me! Toronto International Film and Arts Festival.

A Question of Beauty is a Canadian documentary directed and narrated by Moncton-based Colleen Furlotte that seeks to answer the question: what is beauty? The film features approximately 20 women of varying ages, and uses art and other creative pursuits in an effort to broaden the audience’s definition of beauty. The film is a feel-good celebration of beauty that asks the women involved to speak against the beauty ideal and celebrate their own beauty through art, dance, and discussion.

As a critical look at conventional definitions of beauty, however, this film falls extremely short. While watching it, I wondered: while it does contain a few positive elements, can anything be gained from such a problematic film?

(more inside…)

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

OTHER TONGUES: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Co-editors Adebe D.A. and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions for an anthology of writing by and about mixed-race women, intended for publication in Fall 2010 by Inanna Publications.

The purpose of this anthology is to explore the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the 21st Century. The anthology will also serve as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today. We are inviting previously unpublished submissions that engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.
(more inside…)

AQSAzine, a grassroots zine for 16-35 year-old women and trans people who identify as Muslim, is launching its second issue at a free event hosted in partnership with The AGO Youth Council. The event is also a launch for Making Noise! Muslim women and trans people video project, and Jasmine Magazine, the first Palestinian Magazine in Toronto.

Making Noise! is an exciting hands-on media arts training that addresses the invisibility and negative portrayals of young Muslim women and trans people in the media, supported by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations.

The event will showcase videos, visual art, and readings by Azza Abbaro, Shadi Eskandani, Sidrah Ladin, Sara Mir, Samira Mohyeddin, Shara Mohammed, Golie Moulaie, and Sahar Rizi.

Musical performances by Farheen Beg & Arun Chaudhuri and Tanya Jacobs.

Dance performance by Raja Jalebi and Sheesha YaDil.

Plus: silk screening and zine-making workshops.

This event is part of the 16 Days to THRIVE! Challenging Violence Against Racialized Women and Our Communities.

Friday Dec. 4th, 6-8 p.m.
Art Gallery of Ontario
Anne Tannenbaum Gallery School
317 Dundas Street W., Toronto

Wow. I’m a big fan of Terry O’Reilly’s radio show The Age of Persuasion and I watch more Mad Men than I like to admit, but every time I think I’m a savvy mediaphile who’s completely immune to shock tactics in the world of advertising, those zany ad execs prove me wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong.

Hit the Bitch is a Danish anti-violence-against-women campaign that works much like a video game where you’re supposed to, well, beat up a woman. Your mouse or webcam controls a big, hairy, manly arm that slaps and punches a very realistic avatar of a woman, complete with sound effects and bruises that appear on her face. Your “performance” is ranked on a scale that goes from PUSSY to GANGSTA (we’ll get to the racist implications in a second). I was not able to complete the game, because I must be a pussy (& proud to say it!) but according to the AdFreak researchers, who are more dedicated than me, when you’ve successfully reduced the woman to a tearful pulp the game calls you an idiot. Well, on behalf of all abused women worldwide, thanks a mill’.

Yeah, so I didn’t really want to include an image from the Hit the Bitch website, since I figure we see enough images of women being abused and victimized, so here instead are Thelma and Louise, who fought back. Enjoy!

The AdFreak piece already makes several strong points about the absurdity of the site (people who think it’s okay to commit violence against women will enjoy it, while people to whom it’s revolting won’t be able to look at it for more than a second; it makes violence against women into a game, which is not okay no matter what the message), and personally I tend to agree that doing something in the name of a cause I support doesn’t equal carte blanche. Plus and besides are there so few images of victimized and abused women in the world that we need to start making more of them? I’d be curious to know where other people stand on that, but before I open up the floor I want to comment on what to me is maybe the most disturbing aspect of this ad, which is the conflation of violence against women and what the makers seem to suggest is a “gangsta” or hip-hop lifestyle.

(more inside…)

One more thing to get excited about for the upcoming weekend: Angela Davis, activist, writer and professor, is speaking at McGill University this Thursday about the case of Oscar Grant, a young black man who was shot and killed by transit police in California on New Year’s Day 2009.

Aaaaand… Davis is going to be interviewed on my radio show earlier that day! Tune into Venus on CKUT 90.3 FM (you can listen online as well, just follow the directions on the website) around 1:30 this Thursday the 1st. This is a great opportunity to hear an activist icon being interviewed in a non-mainstream- media setting. You can bet you’ll hear questions and answers you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

An activist poster of Davis from the 1970s(?)

From the Media@McGill press release:

“Oscar Grant was a young Black man returning home by way of the Fruitvale BART station after celebrating the New Year. This was the only excuse the cop needed to end Grant’s life execution-style. Maybe Oscar was too loud, too proud, too Black. Maybe he was too calm during the taunts of the police. Or maybe it was for nothing at all.”

Coming only days before the inauguration of Barack Obama – as the world’s media was proclaiming the dawn of a new “post-racial America” – the case of Oscar Grant demonstrated the depth and complexity of the relationship between media, race and power.

Renowned human rights activist Angela Davis will reflect on this issue in a Media@McGill / Beaverbrook public lecture entitled “Media, Race and Power: The Case of Oscar Grant”.

Angela Davis is an American political activist and university professor who was associated with the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Today, Davis continues to work for racial and gender equality, gay rights, and prison abolition and is a popular public speaker, nationally and internationally.

Thursday, October 1, 2009 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Room 132, Leacock Building, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec

There are few jobs in North America where exploitation of gender, race, and class intersect so sharply as in domestic work, where immigrant women from around the world labour in the homes of wealthy families in what are often dismal conditions: low wages, no security, fear of violence and deportation, and overwork. The situation of live-in caregivers (as they’re officially called by the state, erasing the fact that these women work, hard) in Canada briefly made headlines when MP Ruby Dhalla was accused of mistreating Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongso. There has been a lot of academic and activist attention to the struggles of domestic workers in Canada, with groups calling for the elimination of the government program that capitalizes on historically undervalued work and the desperate economic situations of women around the world.

And so it is inspiring to read Lizzy Ratner’s article “The New Domestic Order,” a piece that describes the courage domestic workers in New York City have mustered to fight back against abuses and call for a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which could be the first of its kind. Women are calling for “severance and overtime pay, advance notice of termination, one day off a week, holidays, healthcare and annual cost of living increases, among other fundamental rights.” Seems pretty basic, huh? Ratner’s article looks at the history of domestic workers’ struggles for rights in the US and outlines the global political economic conditions that compel so many women around the world to migrate to work in other women’s homes. The story is heartbreaking and exhilarating; well worth a read.

Here’s something you Toronto readers may want to check out. It’s an art opening and also a screening of a film made by Jessica Yee, activist, community organizer, and Shameless blogger and contributor.

The Centre for Women’s Studies in Education and The Native Youth Sexual Health Network present:

Youth Resisting Colonialism and Rebuilding Pathways to Hope - A Film Screening and Art Exhibition

Monday, September 21st, 2009
OISE Building, 252 Bloor St. W., Room 2-212
6 pm to 9 pm (film @ 7 pm)

This event exhibits the work of youth reflecting their resistance to violence and colonialism through artistic expression.

The exhibit will be followed by a screening of Building a Highway of Hope, a documentary filmed and directed by Indigenous feminist activist Jessica Yee about the numerous disappearances and murders of Aboriginal women along Highway 16 in British Columbia, followed by a panel discussion featuring Jessica Yee of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Charlene Catchpole, Executive Director of the North York Women’s Shelter, and Tannis Nielsen, Artist and Youth Program Coordinator, Native Canadian Centre of Toronto.

The exhibition will continue until October 2, 2009.

Light refreshments will be served. Venue is wheelchair accessible.
For more information contact the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at: 416-978-2080 or cwse@oise.utoronto.ca

Just read a great article over at Bully Bloggers about Caster Semenya, the South African runner who recently underwent gender testing after she won a gold medal in Berlin. Incidentally, she also recently underwent a makeover, presumably with the purpose of quelling the panic that ensued around having a gender-ambiguous athletic hero. It’s disturbing on many levels, and the article’s author, Tavia Nyong’o, does a great job of tying in historical ideas of race and gender and how they play into what seems to be a good old-fashioned gender panic in the media, both for those who accuse and mock the runner and those who defend her. “If ever a case called for an intersectional analysis that included queer and trans perspectives, as well as anti-racist and anti-imperialist ones, this is it,” she writes.

Interestingly, many forums seem to agree that Semenya must feel “humiliated” (see link above), as much as at the gender testing as at the makeover, which makes her look like a “normal” teenage girl (whatever that means). Although I absolutely agree that no one should be subjected to gender oppression in the form of forced or coerced adoption of gender norms, it strikes me as odd that these media outlets tie “feminine” to “humiliating” so easily, while simultaneously continuing to push the same old agenda of representing attractive femininity as slim, delicate, long-haired and white. And preferably in a bikini. The cries of “she’s beautiful just the way she is!” seem a weeeee bit forced. In any case, I do recommend Nyong’o’s article for an interesting and challenging (if somewhat gender-studies-lingo-heavy) read.

Semenya in action

Did someone say “gender is fluid”?