Monday, September 22, 2008

"the world has enough dicks"

declares the "C(I)A" (Clits In Action), an underground, guerilla radical anti-sexist organization and central fixture of the film 
Brought to you by Jamie Babbitt,  the director of "But I'm A Cheerleader," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Nip/Tuck" and much much more...





a great lil dyke-trans-queer-punkrock flick:)

watch it with your girlfriend:)
or your boifriend:)
or your boyfriend:)
or your partner:)
or your luva:)
or with  a crush:)
or your bestgirlfriends:)

or just watch it:)

for it's integration of activism, lgbtq-ness, accessible intellectualism-ness, & youthful eroticism:)

You won't be watching it for it's race analysis (it's got none), which is notable because the central character is a Latina-American played by Melonie Diaz, who comes from a pretty idyllic (stereo)typical "American" nuclear suburban family -- stereotypical except for the mother with a feminist activist past, and out lesbian daughter to ostensibly happy parents who accept her for exactly who she is (very very cool), and daughter preparing for an interracial marriage -- all good stuff. Diaz's character, however, comes off as though she may have been originally conceived as a white U.S. American, and the director/writers/whoever decided "hey! why not *diversify*!!! and plug in a brown face!! a Latina will work! Yay!" Don't get me wrong, I am very very happy to see a lesbian film marketed to a lgbtq white audience that features a woman of color as it's central character. But for goodness sakes, don't stop there!! Feminist activism and discourse certainly *does not* have a reputation for racial inclusivity for emphasizing the ways in which race/racism/white supremacy and whiteness/white privilege intersects with gender/sexism (and abelism, and transgenderism, and xenophobia etc etc) *or* for empathetic, in-depth interrogation of the ways in which white woman are complicit in and benefit from the oppression of women and men of color -- an unfortunate discursive trend which this film exemplifies. Another notable fact is that the writers consist of women of color (a point which I will blog more about soon).

I think I'll shoot the director an email about all this:)

Anyway, I'd love to know what you think of the film if you view it -- so let me know!!!!!

Peace

2 comments:

your small american said...

I saw this movie too! I totally agree with you! I found the lack of race analysis weird. The writers are women of color? I'm interested to hear what you make of that.

I saw it at a screening at a festival in Berlin, and the producer was there. Someone asked her about the scene at the end where they either blow up the Washington Monument or make people think they blew it up. The audience member was like, "What are the politics of killing those people in the Wash. monument at the end, and how is this a 9/11 reference?" The producer was like, "No one is killed at the end. No one can go inside the Wash. monument."

And I who grew up near Washington DC was like, totally shocked that this woman produced a whole movie but did not know that yes, you can go up in the Washington monument. In fact, there's an observation deck full of tourists!

Anyway, the ending struck me as weird for that reason.

Joy said...

i just saw this movie last month at the nc gay and lesbian film festival.

i agree -- it's totally riotgrrrrl fabulous -- in the full angsty, young, white, anarchist sense of the word.

i think along with the complete lack of race analysis, they didn't do as much as they could have with the second wave and third wave feminist divide -- aka the c[i]a versus courtney and the nonprofit crew.