Perfectionism is hard on a blog!
I have so many ideas I want to blog about, and no time to do it. Rather than let the site languish without any changes, here are snippets of things that have caught my heart over the past week:
Went to see The Da Vinci Code movie:
* Was reminded of how much I appreciate the alternate media, where women have choices besides whore or wife (which apparently Mary Magdalene does not). It was so sad to see Audrey Tautou (from Amelie) spending a movie getting passively yanked around by Tom Hanks.
* It was also sad to see that Ian McKellen's character conveniently does not mention persecution of the LGBT community when he is describing the ways in which the church oppresses. I am guessing that that omission is a concession to ticket sales. I wonder if that was a painful omission for McKellen, out and proud as he is. It was painful for me.
* In this movie, I noticed that the fat person is evil; the albino is evil; the disabled person is evil; and I was only tracking race consciously for part of the movie, so I may have missed something, but it seems that only one person in all of France is a person of color. In Ron Howard's world, only the pretty white people have lines, and are good. It's the Amelie's Paris phenomenon.
Yet another English-only amendment:
As part of the new immigration reform bill, the US Senate passed an English-only amendment on Thursday, May 18th. If you think this is inappropriate legislation, call your senators.
Not crossing picket lines:
Al Gore, Howard Dean, State Assemblymember Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and State Senator Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) have all refused to honor speaking engagements at Cal this month because doing so would require them to cross picket lines.
I am so impressed and thankful! How fabulous to see examples of people in the spotlight valuing workers and social ethics. Thanks you, thank you, Howard, Al, Fabian, and Liz. Thank you so much.
Allowing transgendered children to identify how they need to, and allowing their parents to support them
A five-year old with male genitals identifies as a girl and her parents are supporting her. O goddess, do my eyes deceive me and are my prayers answered? Can this be a trend? Can an increasing number of parents really be supporting their children who don't conform to societal gender expectations? I heartily cheer, cry, and holler for these wonderful people, and pray that their local (or national, for that matter) government does not interfere.
It is not usually so. Said government took Aurora Lipscomb away from her parents in 2000, and I have not been able to find out yet if she was ever able to return home, let alone attend school as the girl she wished to be. I have a call into GPAC; we'll see if they have any news of her.
image is the cover of one of my favorite books on transgender issues, She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan.
Comments
Just wanted to comment on the Davinci Code as a progressive Catholic and note something I haven't heard mentioned too many places (just from a few Catholic liberals). I certainly don't believe any movie should be censored for any reason. However, I find it funny that people are taking these ideas and treating them as if they are fact or scholarly research. I also find it irresponsible that Dan Brown is treating all of this as if it has a basis in fact. He gets all of the facts wrong and particularly in a couple of glaring errors that appear to be on the progressive side and are really not: 1) Organizations like the Knights Templar and the Freemasons are glorified as fighting for truth or against the powers that be when in actuality they ARE the power structure. Organizations such as these - Freemasons as a prime example - have been used to perpetuate discrimination against religious minorities and other disempowered groups. It wasn't too long ago that being a Catholic in American society was an impediment to getting a job, going into politics, etc. 2)The other more glaring idea is that Mary Magdalene is only worthwhile if she is the lover/wife of Christ and mother of his offspring. I find this offensive. It ignores the idea, held by modern Catholic and Protestant scholars and spoken about openly in many Catholic churches such as my own, that Mary Magdalene was an apostle. She was not a prostitute and that is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Obviously, many religious institutions created that myth. It would be great if the film created dialogues, but I don't see that happening.
Posted by: Becka Criss | June 15, 2006 09:17 AM