THE HOT PINK PEN

6/24/08: On Vacation

Rich & I leave tomorrow for a much needed vacation.  Back online next week.  Bye now, Jan

24.Jun.08 zBackfill/Misc Read more Comments (0)

KIT KITTREDGE Rant

      Today I took myself to an afternoon screening of KIT KITTREDGE.  I was surrounded by eager girls, many of them with dolls.  Moms, grandmothers, & aunts were there too.  There were 2 adult men in the audience. (Hopefully they were Dads with daughters in the Ladies Room, but who knows.)  What didn’t I see?  Boys!  Not a single boy was in the KIT KITTREDGE audience even tho there were several boys in positive roles on screen.

     This makes me furious!  From the earliest age, it seems we’re teaching girls to be ambitious, brave, empathetic, loyal & true, while we’re teaching boys… to punch each other & blow things up.  What is wrong with this picture?!?!?

     I heard a boy interviewed on NPR.  Does he plan to go with his sister to see KIT KITTREDGE?  Heck no, he said: “I’ll probably do something else with my Dad that day.”

     The kids’ version of the SEX AND THE CITY brouhaha

24.Jun.08 Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comment (1)

6/13/08: Critical Weekend for SATC

     This is the weekend that SEX AND THE CITY will undoubtedly crack the $100M mark (which is a critical milestone in movie marketing), but note that both IRON MAN & INDIE 4 have already grossed well over $250M.

     Per my prior postings, there are the only two points in this debate that really matter to me: (1) If you haven’t seen it, then you’re not entitled to a qualitative opinion.  (2) If you don’t see it, then you’re not making a quantitative contribution.  Maybe box office stats don’t matter in the ideal world, but down here in the real world purchasing power is the best weapon we have if we want to create positive change in our cultural environment.

     If you haven’t already done so, please see SEX AND THE CITY, & do your part: “If we change media images, we change the world!”

13.Jun.08 zBackfill/Misc Read more Comments (0)

6/10/08: AWJ Update

Here’s a message I just posted on the AWJ Listserv in response to a challenge about my earlier posting:

     Someone I respect just challenged me offline (”as a feminist”) about all of this, so here’s my reply: look at the options! In the past 3 years, I have spoken to over 50 audiences filled with women & every time I say: “If I never saw another fist fight, knife fight, sword fight, explosion, or car chase again in my life, that would be fine!” everyone cheers.  It’s the big “applause line” in my stump speech.

     I was never a huge fan of SEX AND THE CITY on TV (altho I watched it pretty regularly because my best buddy wanted to), but I did watch it enough to know that the overriding concerns were NOT “consumerism and sex” (as my challenger just asserted).  As a feminist, I liked it because I thought the main questions addressed by all four lead characters were: (1) in a world filled with choices, how do I chose what’s best for ME, & (2) how do I recover my sense of self when my choices have negative consequences for me &/or those I love?

     What was that LOVE STORY garbage from the ’70s: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”  Well on SATC, like in real life, love means having to say you’re sorry all the time!

     I found the film surprisingly satisfying precisely because its creators used the long form to dig deeper into the 2 questions above.  As a film critic, seeing as many movies as I do, I have learned to trust my body to tell me if I’m “engaged.”

     When I start to fidget, fantasize about coffee & chocolate, mentally count the inches between me & the closest bathroom, &/or tacitly allow myself to fall asleep just to escape what’s on screen, then most of the time I’m learning something true about my reaction to the film I’m watching.

     But if I get chills up & down my spine when someone starts to sing, if I go all melty when two people kiss, if I can feel my heart pounding when a character is in danger, or if I start to cry, then those are all good signs that I’m ”hooked,” & I am not ashamed to say I cried not once, not twice, but three times before the final SATC credits rolled.

*****

     So I will never tell you that you “should like” SATC; all I can say is that I liked it & lots of other women (& men) did too.  There are the only two points in this debate that really matter to me: (1) If you haven’t seen it, then you’re not entitled to a qualitative opinion.  (2) If you don’t see it, then you’re not making a quantitative contribution.  Maybe box office stats don’t matter in the ideal world, but down here in the real world purchasing power is the best weapon we have if we want to create positive change in our cultural environment.

10.Jun.08 Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comments (0)

6/10/08: SEX & The Weekend Box Office

     Today’s Internet Movie Database carried a weekend box office report showing SEX AND THE CITY in the top spot world wide.

     Meanwhile, now that Hillary Clinton has withdrawn her bid for the presidency, the media seems more willing to acknowledge sexist attacks during her campaign & see their parallel in attacks on SATC.  Says Ramin Setoodeh in this week’s issue of NEWSWEEK: “it’s tempting to draw the parallel between the “Sex” haters and the Hillary haters.” And in SLATE, Timothy Noah asks: “Is Sex and the City our culture’s consolation prize to Hillary Clinton’s supporters?”

D’uh?  Ya think?!?!? 

     Now I’m in a very difficult position here: I’m a fervent lifelong Democrat. (My first campaign was in 1960.  My Dad was a precinct captain in Newark, NJ, & young as I was, I vividly remember stuffing JFK flyers under every door on the block.)  I wore a saxophone pin as a member of Bill Clinton’s Rapid Response team in ‘92, & I started sending money to HILLPAK as soon as the First Lady became Senator Clinton.  But we are also residents of Chicago & my husband is one of Michelle Obama’s UCMC colleagues, so we were early supporters when BHO began his run for the Senate.  What a quandary!!!

     Furthermore, as a Jewish-American activist, I have empathized deeply with my African-American sisters.  Am I a Jew first or a feminist first?  Well, that depends: am I talking to Adolph Hitler or Don Imus???  I’m both & I don’t like being forced to choose!!!

     But in the current context, I think we must be absolutely clear about one thing: the Liberal establishment abhors racism, & whenever they are forced to chose, the powers that be will ignore sexism every time.  As Professor Martha Lauzen told Patrick Goldstein of the LA TIMES last month: “Hollywood is far more embarrassed about being labeled racist than sexist.“  She told me the very same thing when I interviewed her way back in 2002.  In fact, my conversation with her was one of the key inspirations for the creation of WITASWAN.

     So, women: this is OUR fight, & we MUST keep fighting!!!

10.Jun.08 Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comments (0)

6/9/08: “Man plans; God laughs.”

Handout prepared for PRBF ‘08 

     How many times have we all seen those tornado reports: one house completely demolished while all the others on the same block are fine?

     Well, I live to tell because that’s EXACTLY what happened to us @ yesterday’s Printers Row Book Fair.  This was my 7th year staffing IWPA’s PRBF display & I thought I’d experienced every weather condition possible, but, how wrong was that?!?  This year we were in location “BB” on Dearborn, 4 tents in from the Polk Street corner: a seemingly perfect location.  But as the winds from the southwest grew increasing active, a furious blast whipped around the historic Franklin Building & toppled our poles!!!

     Me?  I was yakking away @ the edge of the rain, treating it all as a joke.  But suddenly Art Brauer (this year’s IWPA Coodinator) had a certain “look” in his eye.  With his mask of command firmly affixed, he shouted: “Everyone out of the tent!”  I obeyed immediately, grabbing my box of WITASWAN materials & dashing into the Cafe Mediterra just in the nick of time.  Pretty exciting stuff!

     I huddled with rest of the refugees for about 30 minutes.  Then the rain subsided & most folks went about their business.  But not us: the IWPA tent was totally trashed

     *****

     Huge thanks to my team: Pat Graunke (who came @ 9 to help set-up), Sandy Bass (who staffed with Pat from 10 to 12); Mary Lou Edwards & Bernadette Jones (who staffed from 12 to 2, helped gather everything up when the rain started, & schmoozed with me in the Mediteraneo); Pamela Sanner (who called from Dearborn when she arrived ~ 2:30 to find… no one); & Amanda Robertson (who was scheduled for the last shift from 4 to 6 & tried to warn me on Saturday that weather conditions were worrisome).  Thanks also to Kim Benziger & Mary McNulty (companions from AAUW-Illinois staffing the Jane Addams Day display to our right), & to all my IWPA buddies, most expecially Art & Susan Brauer.

   *****

     Last but not least, my biggest thanks of all to my husband Richard, who not only helped carry everything to the PRBF in the AM, but found me, rescued me, & got everything home safely after the storm.  As Rabbi Stampfer (my Yiddish teacher @ Spertus Institute) likes to say: “Man plans; God laughs.”  He’s got a great sense of humor!

09.Jun.08 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)

6/8/08: WITASWAN Announces New Logo

PRBF ‘08 Flyer

Batman, Ironman, Spiderman… Enough!

Read more about WITASWAN (”wit-uh-swan”)

& learn how YOU can impact cultural options

for audiences all around the world.

*****

BACKGROUND:

Read Jan Lisa Huttner’s 2002 chat with Professor Martha Lauzen.

(This conversation represents a key moment in the history of WITASWAN.)

Click here for more information about International SWAN Day.

Click link at the very top of this posting for comparison of old & new logos.

08.Jun.08 zBackfill/Misc Read more Comments (0)

6/6/08: WeN Posts Smart Words about SEX

     Women’s eNews posted a smart editorial this AM explicitly linking together SATC & the Clinton Campaign.  Here’s an excerpt:

*****

“… paying $10 to watch four shop-a-holic women from Manhattan who seem to inhabit a world completely devoid of politics is not how I usually spend my sunny California Sundays.  But my 19-year-old daughter, 84-year-old mother and 50-year-old best friend all told me to go. I went…

….the thing I most enjoyed was the sheer fact that we were all there to watch a quartet of 40-plus [female] characters with no major personality disorders and all capable of strong friendship….  In “Sex and the City” each character has a distinct personality, be it sweet, sassy or overtly sexual. But not one is mean, conniving or dishonest. No one’s fighting over a man, backstabbing at a job, scheming or competing with each other. Instead they support each other through good and bad times, something that’s normal in real life but rarely shown on the big screen.”

 *****

”Bravo, Sandra Kobrin!  You got it!!!

     Now remember, if YOU haven’t seen SEX AND THE CITY yet, then you need to GO THIS WEEKEND.  I promise you this: people are counting every dollar behind-the-scenes, so if you think of yourself as a feminist then you MUST put your money where your mouth is!

06.Jun.08 Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comments (0)

6/6/08: Come to the 2008 Printers Row Book Fair

Learn more about WITASWAN

at this year’s Printers Row Book Fair

Sunday, June 8, 2008

10 AM to 6 PM

Under the IWPA canopy (tent BB) on Dearborn:

Illinois Woman’s Press Association

PRBF Map: Tent BB

06.Jun.08 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comment (1)

6/5/08: Perfect Timing!

     In a recent interview with ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Sarah Jessica Parker said: ”…I want [SEX AND THE CITY] to do well, but the bigger story for me here is that I want the people who hold the purse strings to believe that there are female audiences…” 

     Meanwhile, WITASWAN has been simultaneously working behind-the-scenes on a logo to capture our new pitch: THE POWER OF THE PURSE!  Thanks to SJP & her SATC Gal Pals, the truth is out there.  Who holds the purse strings???  We do!!!

     Note that even tho SATC is not a WITASWAN film per se, its box office power ensures more greenlights for more films about women, some of which certainly will be WITASWAN-qualified.

    So what are YOU doing this weekend?  If you’re one of the many women who didn’t get to see SATC last weekend because so many screenings were sold out, then I urge you to go this weekend.  Remember: our options expand if we exercise THE POWER OF THE PURSE!!!

*****

     Message to guys: The Celluloid Ceiling is real & if you have any conscience at all, then get yourself on the right side of this issue.  After you go, you can decide if you liked it or not, but you cannot have a good faith opinion on this subject if you don’t go.  Are you letting bullies like John Kass intimidate you?  If so, then what does that make you: a “real man” or a chump???

05.Jun.08 Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comments (2)