oh, meatloaf

There's a new commercial for the "Go Phone" that I've caught a couple of times. It uses the song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf.

Disturbing that a song that is blatantly about a guy trying to get into a girl's pants is being reworked to be sung between a dad and son about the dad buying the kid a phone.

Sad that Meatloaf is singing in the commercial and playing the dad. It just makes the whole thing weirder.

However, I do enjoy a recent new commercial for Dairy Queen. It begins with a dad talking to a class on career day, and saying "So that's what it's like to be a spy." The kids say, "Wow" but aren't overexcited. Then the next dad comes in and says he owns a Dairy Queen and is making everyone Blizzards, and the kids go nuts. Three more dads wait outside, and one says "How do we follow that?" They are an astronaut, an animal tamer with a lion, and a guy wearing a jet pack.

It's silly and it makes me laugh, without being disturbing. My class has career day on Friday. We don't have a guy with a jetpack, but one of the dad's IS a race car driver.

ok, so explain this to me

I'm currently watching Saving Private Ryan on TNT. It's a amazing movie, don't get me wrong. I think everyone should see it.

But each time it comes back from commercial, there is a warning that the movie contains "extreme graphic violence and intense adult language, viewer discretion is strongly advised."

Through out the movie, most of the bad language is dubbed out. "Fucked up" is replaced with "fouled up." When it can't be easily dubbed over, it's just blanked out, or cut away from. There's no more "intense adult language" than your average episode of CSI.

Violence, however? There's plenty of that. Men are shot, blown up. Two soldiers without guns fight hand-to-hand for their lives. One bites the other in the hand, the blood welling out of his mouth. One is finally, slowly, stabbed in the heart to end the battle. Another man is gut-shot and dies, slow and bloody, crying for his mother.

Is the violence realistic, necessary to the story? Absolutely. But so is the language. Both are integral parts of the reality of the film. How is it damaging for a child to hear "fuck" or "asshole," but not damaging to watch a man get blown up or stabbed in the heart? Which are they more likely to remember later? Why does the FCC regulate one and not the other?

It's the same thing with television shows. They're filled with violence, sexual situations, but heaven forbid someone says "fuck."

I don't particularly advocate filling TV shows with profanity, but I certainly don't advocate violence either. I believe parents should be responsible for what their children watch. The double standard just irritates the hell out of me (yeah, I said hell).

We imbibe language with a power out of fear, while consuming untold amounts of visual images of violence and sex that desensitizes us to its ugliness, ignoring the fact that it has much more power, whether we recognize it or not, than language has.

germans and georgians

Man, you gotta love the Germans. They are truly hilariously weird people.

A German advent calendar for children has become a hot seller since word got out it has a picture of a notorious serial killer on it.

The cartoon calendar shows Fritz Haarmann, who murdered 24 young men and boys in the 1920s, lurking under a tree with a hatchet next to the door for December 1. Below him, Santa Claus hands out presents to children in a festive-looking Hanover.

A local tourism office included the serial killer alongside 23 other celebrities in the northern city, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and hard rock band The Scorpions.

Of course, we have our own weirdos right here in the US. Constitution-violating weirdos.

With no rain in sight, Gov. Sonny Perdue is looking for a little spiritual help to get North Georgia out of its drought.

Perdue's office has begun sending out invitations to a prayer service for rain at the Capitol next week.

"Georgia needs rain. The issue at the heart of our drought problems is a lack of rain," Teilhet said. "And there is nothing the government can do to make that happen.

"The governor recognizes that the request has got to be made to a higher power."

Teilhet said the governor's office has invited spiritual leaders from several faiths and dominations to participate in the service.

Way to illegally waste the taxpayers money!

Also, AJC - you mean denominations. Not dominations. I'm pretty sure no leather-clad dominatrix is going to show up for this prayer service.

a confession

I'm about to make a confession here that I fear may lose me the respect of some of my friends. But, really, I feel the need to clear the air.

I do not listen to NPR. I do not listen to public radio at all. Ever. Except when I'm in a cab, sometimes.

It seems like everyone I know listens to NPR, and talks about what they've heard with the same assumption that everyone knows what they're talking about that was once reserved only for episodes of "Friends." I do not know these radio programs that you speak of. Those hosts' names mean nothing to me.

I'm sure NPR is great, and interesting and educational. I just can't listen to talk radio. I am the opposite of aural. Listening to people talk, without any visuals, bores me to tears. I love to have music on as background, but I am unable to listen to people just talking. I have great difficulty listening to people lecture, too. I hate talking on the phone, because I'll forget half of what I'm told. Send me the same information in an email, and I'll stick in my brain. I can read anything and remember it - but listening to voices, talking and talking...

zzzzzzz

Anyway. I just wanted to get this out there, so that I can stop nodding when people talk about NPR, and just admit that I have no idea what they're talking about.

sending rats

I'm totally in love with the commercials for 1-800-Got-Junk. The concept of the commercials is that they are releasing rats wearing little rat jackets with their phone number on them. The rats are attracted to piles of junk. People find the rats and call the junk company. The tagline - "Call us before we send you rats."

Cracks me up. Watch them - they'll crack you up.

rats 1 and rats 2

phelped off

I like to think that I'm a fairly tolerant individual. There are lot of beliefs that I don't get, and maybe I'll even mock a little, but as long as you're not stuffing them down anyone else's throat or hurting anyone, I think you're pretty much free to think whatever you want. I may not agree with you, but I can usually see how you got there, and I'll let you slide.

Then there are those beliefs that are both fuckin' insane, and ALSO being shoved enthusiastically down as many throats as possible.

We're talking about the Reverend Fred Phelps and his followers at the Westboro Baptist Church. We're talking about a man whose actions are so vile that GEORGE W. BUSH signed a law against them (and that's a man who knows vile actions!).

If you aren't familar with the name Fred Phelps, oh please, let me enlighten you. Some of this might become familar as we go along.

As way of introduction, let me provide the website for the Westboro Baptist Church - http://www.godhatesfags.com/. Beware clicking on the link - seriously. This website is more offensive than pretty much anything else I've seen on the internet, and I once had someone show me German scat porn.

Basically, Phelps and Friends believe that God hates fags. I mean seriously. And not just fags - anyone in any country who remotely "tolerates" fags. According to an article I read on Phelps, this hatred was born when his grandson, as a toddler, was supposedly proposition by a gay man in a park. And Phelps and his Family decided to take revenge on everyone who has ever had the passing thought of "those gays aren't so bad!" Phelps and Friends have been warning America, and America has not listened. And so revenge cometh.

How do they take this revenge? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. One of the primary ways is that Phelps and his followers picket the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq. I see you looking confused, so let me clarify. These soldiers are not picketed because they were gay. They didn't have a gay family member, didn't save a gay from a burning building, didn't really have anything to do with being gay at all. So why does Phelps target their funerals? Because God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality, and the deaths of these soldiers are the evidence.

Did you get that? Did you follow that twisted logic? Let me direct you to a flyer advertising the latest picketing. These pickets are intended as a warning, a punishment, or an "I told you so" - I'm not sure. As I read more around the site, it appears that at some point someone bombed Westboro Baptist Church (I wonder why!), and Phelps attributes this not the action of one person, but as sanctioned by America, as this person was never caught and therefore that means "he knew full well he had complete safety in his attack." So now Americans are being killed by bombs in retaliation by God. I think...

Oh, but it's not just through the war in Iraq that God is punishing America. Links to other pages on Phelps's site have titles that include "Thank God for the Utah Mine Disaster" and "Thank God for Katrina" and "America. A sodomite nation of flag-worshipping idolaters." Most recently, Phelps announced that they would picket the funerals of those who died in the bridge collapse in Minnesota, as the bridge collapsing was an example of God's wrath against Minnesota's tolerance of gays.

Apparently, they didn't show - they were picketing a military funeral instead. At the end of the article, there is a quote from Phelps' daughter - "We've got all the time in the world. You're going to be fishing bodies out of there for weeks. There will be more memorial services and there will be more funerals, and along the way we will pick some of them off."

What a good Christian.

In 2006 Congress passed, and Bush signed, the "Respect for Fallen Heroes" Act, which limits picketing around federally controlled cemetaries. It's pretty rare that one groups actions are so vile, that legislation has to be passed specifically to try to stop them. Westboro Baptist Church issued a "statement" in response. Read through it - it gives Phelps' "story" better than I can possibly sum up, since summing up insane ravings is like trying to get cats to walk in a parade.

I was talking with a friend about Phelps, and trying to come up with a new ephithet to describe him - because there's nothing currently in the English language vile enough. At that point I remembered Dan Savage, and got another, better idea. He and the readers of "Savage Love" gave legislative gay basher Rick Santorum's last name a new definition.

The other night, I emailed Dan Savage to ask him to mobilize his readers to come up with a suitable definition for the verb "to phelp"? It makes such a great verb. "phelp, phelping, phelped." I hope that he accepts the challenge, and comes up with something appropriately and totally gay.

the horrors of sunshine

So, i went over the weekend to see Sunshine, having only a vague concept of what it was about (Danny Boyle? Cillian Murphy? I'm in!). Ok, seriously, such a weird and sad movie should not have a word that is so cheerful for a title. It's a hard movie to explain, especially since it is of the action/mystery genre, and I don't want to give anything away. If you're familiar with Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" or "Trainspotting," you'll probably like this movie, especially if you also enjoy sci-fi. I do wish they'd explained a little more of the "science" they were using - it seemed like about 10-15 minutes of exposition was cut to get the film well below 2 hours, and there was some information I could have used, or at least would have liked. And then, the ending sort of freaked me out. I thought one thing was going on, turns out it was something else. But the something else is actually really freakin' cool. Am I being vague? Very well, I'm being vague.

blowing your indie cred

Dan just sent this picture to me.



Yes, you're seeing that right. That's Jason Lee, completely blowing all the indie cred he's developed among thirty-somethings by appearing as Dave in a new, live-action version of "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Where the musical chipmunks of old are now RAP STARS. Yes, rap stars. It's rapping chipmunks. Chipmunks, performing rap.

I'm trying to figure out where Jason Lee's decision-making process went awry here. My guess is that he and his manager recognize that the fans of Kevin Smith movies are getting to the age that they are having kids, and they'll take their kids to see this movie, and Jason can't stay in the weird indie movies forever. But it's like Bill Murray voicing Garfield - just because it's a classic character, does not automatically mean it's going to be a good movie. Do these stars not vet these ideas, read the scripts? Are they fine with being in remade movies that are going to be financially huge ('cause you know it will be), but artistic vacuums?

It's like William H. Macy in "Wild Hogs." I love William H. Macy. I'll pay to watch him read a phone book. I think he's fabulous. But come on. He didn't know that "Wild Hogs" was gonna be a sad, sad movie? He's been cultivating indie cred for years, and he blew it on that? You KNOW he didn't need the money. Felicity is raking it in on "Desperate Housewives" - I think the family finances were secure. So what was he thinking?

on a lighter note...

My favorite news story of the day: Squirrel goes on rampage, injures 3

The thing about it that is so beautiful is how the writer managed to make it so dramatic. This is a lesson in the use of language:

An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

Rampage isn't a word we get to use often, but here's a less dramatic example:

Ape escapes, goes on 3-hour rampage

Also see: Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

freedom of what?

I've been boiling mad about the situation with the teenager here in Illinois, arrested for writing a supposedly violent and disturbing essay in school.

The assignment was to: "write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing."

The reports I've read of the essay say that it made no specific threats against anyone, which is illegal and a cause for arrest. Yet this student was arrested for "disorderly conduct" because teachers and administrators found his essay "disturbing." If we have to arrest people for writing distrurbing, violent, blood-soaked fantasies, I hope someone is at Quentin Tarantino's house and slapping him in cuffs right now.

I can understand the school recommending a psychological evaluation, to check the kid's understanding of reality vs. fantasy and overall psychological condition. But you cannot arrest him because you find his words "disturbing."

It's the First Amendment kids. Look it up. The Constitution is there for a reason, and when once again, it's being stepped on, we need to speak up.

"if the accident will."

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1922-2007.

So it goes.

freaky monster

over the weekend, I saw a new movie called "The Host." It's a monster-movie from South Korea, in Korean. It was pretty awesome.

The marketing on it is a little strange, as it's basically being portrayed as a kind of comedy. It has comedic moments, but it's still a freaky monster movie. Even with the subtitles, it still moves right along and keeps the viewer intrigued. It's probably better than most of the movies coming out of Hollywood right now.

A 10 year-old girl is taken by the monster, and her father, grandfather, aunt and uncle escape quarantine to go into the sewers to try and find her.

One of the really interesting parts is that the US is kind of portrayed as the bad guys. A US Army doctor creates the original situation that results in the monster's mutation. US officials start pushing around the South Koreans on how to deal with the possible "virus" passed by the monster to people in contact with it, and these US officials start doing some pretty far out stuff and generally man-handling the population (I don't want to give too much away!). But it's a strong portrayal of how other countries see the US. Brutish overreactors, with no respect for others.

There's some interesting political commentary, a really cool giant mutant salamander, a bittersweet ending, and some weird characters.

"The Host" is currently playing in Chicago only at Landmark's Century Centre Cinema.

damn catchy pop songs

I listen to the radio all day at work, to keep from going quietly crazy. A few days ago, the song "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones, was on. That's a song that I've enjoyed for a while, sung along with, but never really paid attention to.

That day, I actually listened to the words I was hearing and singing, and realized that song, despite its poppy and catchy tune, is incredibly degrading and kind of sad, and put it on my "BOO" list.

A few minutes ago, I was working, and singing along with the radio. Halfway through a song, I realized I was singing "Under My Thumb."

damn catchy pop songs.

calories for liberty

Just to add to the list of reasons why I have a huge crush on Stephen Colbert.

New Ice Cream Named for Stephen Colbert

Ben & Jerry's has named a new ice cream in honor of the comedian: "Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream." Announcing the new flavor Wednesday, Ben & Jerry's called it: "The sweet taste of liberty in your mouth."

But the fact that he got his own ice cream flavor isn't the reason. This is the reason:

Colbert...is donating his proceeds to charity through the new Stephen Colbert Americone Dream Fund, which will distribute the money to various causes.

He's giving the money to charity. And calling it the "Americone Dream Fund." Delightful.

free to be you and me

It's Freedom to Marry Week this week. I'm al in favor of allowing marriage to any and all who want it.

In honor of FtMw, here's a really awesome group that seeks to prove to the conservative right how crazy their position on marriage is. (Link courtesy of my buddy Hud Callahan)

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance seeks to defend equal marriage in this state by challenging the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling on Andersen v. King County. This decision, given in July 2006, declared that a “legitimate state interest” allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together. Because of this “legitimate state interest,” it is permissible to bar same-sex couples from legal marriage.

This group is challenging the decision not by protesting it, but by trying to add to it to say that all couples who marry MUST procreate within a certain amount of time, cannot divorce if they have children, and must get an annulment if they do not procreate within a certain period of time.

This idea being to prove how absurd the beliefs are on which the decision is founded. I'll be watching this one - I think it's genius.

gimme some truth, part 2

Ok, so weather like what we're having in Chicago and the northern Midwest is why I get cranky when people see 50-degree weather in January in Chicago, and blame global warming. It's been single digits here the last few days. Sunday night, we had wind chills of -25.

The point is, short-term weather patterns are unpredictable, and people need to learn to look at long term trends.

If you don't understand how it works and point to the wrong evidence, you are just providing the fodder for the right-wingers who are trying to convince us that global warming doesn't exist. So, if you don't understand, then shut up about global warming and do some reading. Then we'll talk.

gimme some truth

I believe in global warming. I believe that humans are making a huge impact on the planet. We aren't destroying the world, as I believe Earth will go on for a while, but we are certainaly damaging it, and possible so much so that humans will soon be unable to live on it.

I've grown kind of tired of these "oh my god, this is a warm winter! It's global warming!" news stories, and I feel like they undermine the truth. Short term variations are not evidence of global warming, as the Earth DOES go through climate cycles. There are a great many things to be taken into account, way more than most of us can easily understand.

I watched "An Inconvient Truth" last night, finally. I'd been meaning to for a while, but for some reason just hadn't gotten around to it.

Gore talks a great deal about short-term changes - drought, heat waves, flooding, that are weak evidence of global warming, and to me, are not convincing that we, as humans, have had any effect. These short-term changes could be part of a large cycle that is too large for us as humans to see.

But there were a few longer-term, hard science facts that convinced me that we are making a sizable impact.

One was a chart based on a study of Arctic ice core samples, going back 650,000 years (covering 6 Ice Ages) - long enough to be a good sample. Using these core samples and reading the layers, they can get samples of the atmosphere (or air bubbles trapped in the ice) of every single year, going back 650,000 years. They can measure how much carbon dixoide was in the atmosphere. They can also measure the temperature of the Earth, based on something about Oxygen isotopes. What the core samples showed was that the temperature was pretty consistant with the CO2 levels. CO2 goes up, temps go up. They could chart all the Ice Ages, and this pattern stayed true. But during the warm periods, CO2 never went above a certain level (300 somethings or other). In the last 100 years, CO2 levels have been steadily rising, and are now over double the highest levels in the last 650,000 years.

The other one that was really interesting to me was description of the cause of the Little Ice Age in Europe, right after the end of the last Ice Age. As North America got warmer, the glacier that caused the Great Lakes melted and rushed into the North Atlantic. This freshwater influx effected the water currents that brings the warm Gulf Stream up to be cooled in the North Atlantic, before being shot down south again. It's the Gulf Stream that keeps Europe warm. Due to something involving evaporation making water saltier than therefore heavier, the rapid influx of freshwater messed up these currents, causing the Gulf Stream to stop flowing north, and plunging Europe into a Little Ice Age. The nearby Greenland ice sheet (freshwater) has been melting more each spring over the past 100 years. Several other ice sheets are also melting and breaking up at a much faster rate than predicted.

These are a couple of the most compelling examples. There are more than I can go into, though. If you haven't yet, see the movie. There's more going on that you might know.

This brings me to Al Gore. In "Partly Cloudy Patriot" Sarah Vowell describes Al Gore as a nerd. A nerd is someone who is really passionate and interested in specific subjects. She pulls specific examples of Gore's nerdiness from books he's written and interviews he's given (a specific one is where he says in a book that beginning in January 1981 he started spending many hours each week studying the nuclear arms race and Vowell comments on the fact that he began in January: "I bet it was his New Year's Resolution. Every other member of Congress was vowing to cut back on the hookers, but then-Senator Gore probably French-kissed Tipper at midnight and made a mental pledge to really get a handle on those ICBMs."). He's a man who wants to know about things, understand things. Isn't this a mean we'd want for President? A complete nerd?

The point is, as I think about how Vowell portays Gore, and how I saw him in the movie, I am starting to realize that I fell for the portrayal of Gore fed to me by the mass media. The portrayal of Gore as an uptight dork who takes credit for everything. It's as Obama talks about in "The Audacity of Hope" - "I am who the media says I am." The media decided to portray Gore as the uptight dork, and Gore tried to fight it by playing the jock a little, rather than embracing his dorkness. And the media jumped all over him for it.

Back in 1999-2000, I wasn't as media saavy as I am now. The proliferation of blogs and independent media had not really begun. I'd like to hope that when this next round of candidates starts coming around, I, and the other voters, will do a better job of looking at them through our own lenses, rather than the lenses the media distorts for us.

"I am who the media says I am"

I'm excited by the fact that being in grad school has really awakened my brain. I feel much more politically conscious than I was, and I'm much more interested in learning, in reading non-fiction, etc.

not too long ago, I just finished reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, which is well written, and very, very interesting.

Currently, I'm cruising through Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope." And it does, in fact, give me hope. Read it, and you'll see why Obama is such a phenomenon. He seems like a man who thinks, who considers, who recognizes that issues aren't black and white, but many, many shades of gray. He details how idealistic politicians can be eaten up by the system of politics, how hard it is to hold on to your morals and ideals in the face of the political machine. How the media actually controls how politicians are perceived, based on where they do or do not place their focus.

I'm reading it, and part of me wants to believe so badly in what he saying, to trust that he is straight-forward and real and that he recognizes the landmines enough to avoid the worst of them. And there's a small part that suggests that the whole thing is nothing by bullshit and posturing, that I'm being manipulated, even as I hope that part of me is wrong.

In part, I feel sorry for Obama. We've all put him up on such a high pedestal, there's really nothing for him to do but fall. We want, so badly, a politician that we can trust and believe in. But I get the feeling that it's not so much the politicians themselves, but how they are portrayed to us, that might be the problem.

He says at one point, that through town hall meetings, he could meet with about 15-20,000 people in a six year term. A three minute story on the lowest-rated Chicago news station would reach 200,000 people.

"I - like every politician at the national level - am almost entirely dependent on the media to reach my constituents. It is the filter through which my votes are interpreted, my statements analyzed, my beliefs examined. For the broad public, at least, I am who the media says I am. I say what they say I say. I become who they say I've become."

"It's hard to deny that all the sound and fury, magnified through television and the Internet, coarsens political culture. It makes tempers flare, helps breed distrust."

"Every statement I made would be subject to scrutiny, dissected by every manner of pundit, interpreted in ways over which I had no control, and combed through for potential error, misstatement, omission, or contradiction that might be filed away by the opposition party..."

"Every reporter in Washington is working under pressures imposed by editors and producers, who in turn are answering to publishers or network executives, who in turn are poring over last week's ratings... To make the deadline, to maintain market share and feed the cable news beast, reporters start to move in packs, working off the same news releases, the same set pieecs, the same stock figures. Meanwhile, for the busy and therefore casual news consumer, a well-worn narrative is not entirely unwelcome. It makes few demands on our thought or time; it's quick and easy to digest. Accepting spin is easier on everybody."

"This element of convenience also helps explain why, even among the most scrupulous of reporters, objectivity often means publishing the talking points of different sides of a debate without and perspective on which side might actually be right... Is one [side's] analyist more credible than the other? Is there an independent analyst somewhere who might walk us through the numbers?"

destiny

i think everyone has TV show crushes. am i right? characters on shows that you are totally in love with, and wish were real people? and if they were real people, you'd go to their houses and stalk them? ok, maybe not the last part.

anyway. what i'm wondering is if our TV show crushes can tell us anything about the kind of people we prefer/date in real life. are those characters similar to our real life loves? opposites?

because if they are similar, i think i might be in trouble. i was thinking about this the other day, and there are basically three TV guys that, if they were real, I'd totally be in love with. all three are basically unconventionally attractive, extremely intelligent, super sarcastic, emotional wrecks. the part that I feel dooms me is that I can see similarities to these characters in my dating past. these TV characters, of course, are more extreme characterizations, but there are underlying similarities that indicate that i am completely attracted to the wrong kind of guy. the kind of guy that puts up a front or shield, that wants nurturing but doesn't want to admit it, that has some sort of emotional damage, that wounds with words.

i think i need to figure this out, or else my dating life could be doomed.

manipulation station

One of my favorite bloggers, Maggie Mason, wrote a post last week about the film "The Holiday" and how in the film, Kate Winslet ends up with Jack Black.

It seems to me that for a woman to play opposite a guy as good looking as Kate Winslet, they’d tell her to lose a hundred and fifty pounds and consider plastic surgery...I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie where the girl wins a stunning guy on the basis of her awesomeness. In the few examples I can think of, the guy overcoming a woman’s lack of conventional hotness is a central plot point. In movies, awesomeness only seems to really count if you’re a boy, and that makes me want to punch something.

Most of the comments on Maggie's blog completely miss the point she's making, telling her 'it's a great movie, you should see it before you comment,' or that they think Jack Black is funny, so that makes him cute. I wrote this most of this long post in her comment box, before realizing it was way too long for comments.

It has nothing to do with whether the movie is good or not (it looks good and I do want to see it). It has nothing to do with whether women are attracted to funny, conventionally unattractive men (I am!).

The point is that in the media, men aren't attracted to funny, unconventionally attractive women. It's a complete double standard that is being perpetuated by Hollywood - because you see old/unattractive men with hot women, but almost never see old/unattrative women with hot guys. Think about film and TV pairings, and ask how often the woman is the less attractive one. How many Hollywood leading women are not smoking hot? How many Hollywood leading men are not smoking hot?

What kind of messages is this sending? What is this consciously or unconciously telling us about what we as women and they as men should be attracted to? Because Hollywood doesn't reflect society as much as it helps to shape it. These subconcious messages are repeated over and over in films, TV and advertising, that women are only attractive when they are physically attractive.

Think about the furor over those Dove ads last year - there were all kinds of opinion articles out there from guys who said that seeing these "fat" women on billboards was disturbing to them, they didn't want to see size 8 or 10 women on billboards. Never mind that the women on the billboards were the same size or smaller than most of the women these men knew. These men have been trained to find a certain kind of body type (that maybe 5-10% of women have?) attractive. Women of a normal body type were "gross." If it had been a billboard of normal looking men, would women have had such violent reactions?

And it's not "instinctive" for men to find skinny women attractive, as some might claim. What is attractive has changed many times, and in many cultures, over history. 50 years ago, Marilyn Monroe was the hottest of hot - and she was a size 10, I think? Pale, white skin used to be attractive in Victorian England, as it was a sign of wealth (not having to work outside). Some cultures prize big hips, because it means a woman can bear children.

Society, and especially the media, condition men and women into what they believe is attractive - and who is in charge of most of this media? Who gets to pair funny balding men with physically attractive women? And why do they do this?

Who spends billions of dollars each year on getting skinny and looking attractive, men or women? Why do women wax, pluck, highlight, polish, suck in, wear killer high heels? What's convinced us that this is how we have to look in order for men to find us attractive? What's convinced men that only women who do this ARE attractive?

This is the point I think Maggie was going for.