David Michael Newstead's Blog, page 117
November 24, 2015
November 22, 2015
November 18, 2015
November 15, 2015
Suffragette Review
By David Michael Newstead.
Suffragette is excellent on a granular-level from the acting to its film locations, period clothing, and cinematography. Against the backdrop of the women’s suffrage movement, we see a snapshot of Britain a century ago – a country of impoverished slums, rigid class distinctions, and strong Victorian sensibilities.
The activists that challenged those norms go on to experience all the hardship that British society at the time can inflict. This comes in the form of police beatings, imprisonment, shaming, force feedings, and early attempts at government surveillance.
Some years ago, in fact, I recall seeing an old political cartoon from that era criticizing the force feeding of suffragettes on hunger strike. But knowing that that happened in a general sort of way is much different than watching it and Suffragette certainly doesn’t sugarcoat the past. Throughout the film, the drudgery, poverty, and violence of 1912 is as visceral as the chauvinism.
The film’s real accomplishment though is that it shows itself to be more than just a history lesson. After all, Saudi women only recently got the right to vote in August of this year.
November 8, 2015
Are Men Necessary: 10-Year Anniversary
By David Michael Newstead.
On November 8, 2005, Maureen Dowd came out with her book, Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide. And although parts of the book are very specific to 2005, I thought it’d be worthwhile to go back and re-examine these topics 10 years later. Conversational and anecdotal, Are Men Necessary? is a kind of informal discussion about dating, politics, popular culture, and even genetics. For example, one chapter is devoted to the decline of the Y chromosome and the eventual extinction of men as a gender in 125,000 years. And while the title is meant to grab your attention, the author basically answers the question early on with a joking quote from her mother saying, “Men are necessary for breeding and heavy lifting.”
Here are a few other quotes from the book that stood out to me.
Whether or not American feminism will be defeated by American conservatism, it is incontrovertibly true that American feminism was trumped by American narcissism.
We’d liked to be like men in the way they can look good in many ways, whereas women are expected to endlessly replicate themselves at twenty-five, a la Goldie Hawn and Heather Locklear, until they look like frozen reproductions of themselves.
I learned covering Geraldine Ferraro’s vice-presidential bid that the reaction of women to extraordinarily successful women is also ambivalent, with as much hostility as sisterly pride.
The bottom line? Men don’t want it all and women do.
Choosing between work and home is, in the end, a problem only for those who have a choice.
In 2015, these statements still seem pretty accurate despite a good amount of social change over the last decade. The much discussed Can-Women-Have-It-All debate continues. Contentions over feminism and prominent women seeking elected office are only going to intensify in the coming year. And American narcissism always seems to outpace American social progress.
But the good news is men and women still have 124,990 years left to work on it.
November 5, 2015
The Movember Reader 2015
By David Michael Newstead.
Here’s some select blog posts for the month of November. They include write-ups, news articles, and photos focused on facial hair and history.
This Man, This Moustache: Napoleon III
Cousins, Monarchs, & Moustaches: Nicholas & George
This Man, This Moustache: Maximilian I
From the Washington Post: Sponsoring a Beard
November 1, 2015
October 30, 2015
October 27, 2015
Under the Skin
By David Michael Newstead.
I don’t remember this coming out, but I thought Under the Skin was a very interesting movie. The film is a dark look at gender and humanity. Through contemporary science fiction, we can see different aspects of our society, but from a cold, outside perspective. The result is jarring.
Watch Under the Skin – https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00JH49OTS?ie=UTF8&keywords=under%20the%20skin&qid=1443760446&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
