Since we’ve had an extra week to dig into the BIP incident, I almost forgot about probably racist Lee. Turns out my thirst for petty drama needs weekly quenching, so I'm parched dry now. Let's dive right back in.
As all the good citizens of Bachelor Nation know by now, the 4th season of “Bachelor in Paradise” has been suspended due to allegations of sexual misconduct on the third day of shooting. Details are still scant, but what is known is that a producer filed a third-party complaint after a sexual encounter between cast members Corinne Olympios (the “villain” of the most recent Bachelor season), and Demario Jackson (the “villain” of the current Bachelorette season, who was only just booted a couple weeks ago). The two had apparently been drinking throughout the first day of production, and at one point moved from the resort bar to the pool, where the sexual encounter occurred, with cameras rolling.
In the name of gender equality, I am here to review Rachel’s search for love as deeply as I did Nick’s. Probably more, because I like and respect her. I have lots of questions. Mainly, how often will one of the dudes remark on Rachel's race? How often will they make a terrible legal pun because she’s a lawyer? Will Nick show up out of the blue right when we thought we had him out of our heads? Let’s find out.
My first thought was, “I am so happy to be alive in Heben’s and Tracy’s America.” I am so grateful that I live at a time when I have the opportunity to watch women I admire create films, podcasts, articles, stories, and art that I find enormously inspirational. Particularly given the current political landscape, I am grateful that I can surround myself – physically and virtually – with women who are freaking killing it.
As children, we are all made to believe that Romantic Comedy couples have the strength and love to form lasting unions. But when you meet under a case of mistaken identity, or actually hate each other, or are children, the chances of it working out are slim. There are some movie couples that had the legs to go the distance: Harry and Sally, Bridget and Mark Darcy, Pongo and Perdita. However these are not those couples. Here is a definitive list of romcom couples that have surely split by now.
Small portions. If only we could have Woody Allen in small portions instead of being force fed a rancid new meal every year.
Oh, "Annie Hall." A movie about a forty something white man going through a life crisis which he will describe to us using his relationships with a cavalcade of beautiful and insecure women. How exciting! How refreshing! Why is this movie called "Annie Hall"? It is less about Annie than it is about the lobsters. A more accurate title for this film would be "Alvy Singer" and an even more accurate title is "Woody Allen." Allen argues that this movie is not strictly autobiographical, yet Alvy has become the prototype for all his subsequent avatars in every future Woody Allen movie. These avatar slash stand-ins for Alvy slash Woody are generally neurotic, down-on-their-luck creative types who show no real creativity, and they're obsessed with at least one younger woman, who is conveniently and inexplicably drawn to him in turn.
It is by sheer luck of birth that I was born a straight, cis, white woman in a middle class family. Yet because of this luck, the world bestows upon me certain gifts others are denied. Since the election, I have thought many times about how easy it would be to sink into my privilege. Turn off the TV, only look at interspecies animal friend videos on the Internet and live in sheer denial of what the world is becoming. I have that gift. Others do not. Feminists with privilege have the freedom to ignore how misogyny affects non-white women in greater and less addressed ways.
As someone who reads a lot and reads widely, I’m often asked why I read when I’m not in school. I loathe this question because is both tired and a little sad to me, but I’m willing to fight for bibliophiles everywhere and I’m ready with a list. I read for fun, I read to go to places I could never otherwise go, I read to learn more about humanity, I read to keep my mind fresh even though I’m not involved in higher learning, and on and on the list goes.
