a quick newsflash and a movie-related rant

[floatingleaf]

Had a lovely time with mellacita. I love that feeling of ease and familiarity with someone you've never actually talked to before.:) Only happens with online friends, though.;)

Then I decided to try and find the Italian restaurant where we are having our company holiday lunch this coming Thursday. I thought I knew the area, since I used to live nearby, and that spotting a restaurant close to a huge shopping mall should be easy. Hahaha. I probably wasted about two hours driving around in useless circles.:/ I found about 15 OTHER restaurants, thank you very much - just not this one. Finally I spotted a roadside sign that included the restaurant's name, among others - but I still don't know which particular building it's in, since there was no sign on the wall/above the door anywhere. So it's going to be fun trying to get there on time Thursday morning.:/ (There's a company meeting first, for which it's not acceptable to be late, and then the lunch.)

I feel drained now, even though I barely did anything today. Must be the weather. The below-freezing temperatures have hit, and that always depletes my energy levels. Plus, endless driving makes you sleepy. And just the thought of getting up early tomorrow and going back to work makes me want to curl up with my back to the universe, LOL.

In better news, I received a holiday card from dissonant_dream today. It's sparkly! ;) Thank you, dear. *hugs* Fresh snow is so beautiful to look at when you don't have to be outside driving in it.:P

Also, I feel like I should watch The Road again, but I just don't have the emotional fortitude to handle it. I mean, it's a beautiful film, and why on earth did I buy the DVD if I am not going to watch it - but... you know. I swear the older I get, the more weepy I am during movies. It's kind of embarrassing, actually. Which is why I mostly watch movies by myself. For example, I just saw Rabbit-Proof Fence last weekend - based on a true story of Australian Aboriginal kids being taken away from their families to be raised among white people. There was this government program designed to assimilate the so-called half-castes (native children who happened to have one white parent) into white society, in order to maintain "racial purity". Now, just hearing the term "racial purity" makes me boil with rage - what a nonsensical concept in today's world, if not ever - but when you add to it forcibly tearing screaming children away from their mothers and calling it doing them "a favor", I just... well, I can't even. By the end of the film, I was sobbing and shaking and just so terribly, unbelievably ASHAMED of being a white person. Of that disgusting, sickening arrogance that somehow allows us to think we are something better. In what way, I ask? Why have we been so concerned, throughout history, to keep our white genes intact? It's not like we are better looking than other races, for one. We often have pasty skin, plain features and limp, mousy hair. What's so damn superior about that? Dark-skinned people are so beautiful. Why on earth would they want to look like us?... Oh, that's right: because we treat them like shit if they don't.:/ What gives us the gall to call them "savages", or to refer to their native language as a "jabber"??? Just because their culture is different from our own? It's just... mind-boggling, when you stop to think about it. Anyway... there was this 12-year-old "half-caste" girl (true story) who escaped from a government-run orphanage and WALKED THE 1,500 MILES BACK HOME. While hiding from the authorities and carrying her younger sister on her back much of the way. It took months, of course, and they were occasionally fed and sheltered by random people along the way. That's what the whole movie is about. Can you even imagine the fortitude and strength of spirit this must have taken?... I wonder if white kids would be capable of such a feat. Not that it's their fault if they aren't - but what's so superior about our culture compared to that?... Just saying.

Gotta go now. I'm wiped. Early bedtime tonight, methinks.;)

Comments

[dissonant-dream.livejournal.com]

I love that feeling of ease and familiarity with someone you've never actually talked to before.:) Only happens with online friends, though.;)

Yes, yes, it does. ;)

I'm glad you got the card. I like my sparkles.

As for your restaurant searching, that is me completely. I hope you managed to find it when you needed to.

I don't think I could watch The Road again. It might be a one time thing for me. I just watched The Pianist on Saturday, have you seen it? I think it's important to watch films like that but oh, it was hard to watch. But it should be hard to watch. Anyway, shutting up now.

Oh my goodness, that movie sounds painful and important and one I want to watch, but after The Pacific and The Pianist I need something lighter.

[floatingleaf.livejournal.com]

As for your restaurant searching, that is me completely.

So good to know I'm not the only one...;)

Yes, I have seen The Pianist. It was powerful, and I loved Adrien Brody in it. It's just... I really have a problem with Polanski right now. I don't think I'll be watching any more of his films, no matter how great. I just can't think about him without being sickeningly aware of what he's done. I know it doesn't have an impact on the quality of his work, but... the very fact that so many people - including my parents! - defended him, JUST BECAUSE HE IS TALENTED AND FAMOUS, as if that excused everything. I find that so very disturbing, I can't even... *shudders*

Anyway... that was off topic. Shutting up now, before I launch into some massive feminist rant.:P

[dissonant-dream.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, YES. I am so angry about it and I can't understand why so many people are supporting him. It bothers me immensely. shoelacedreamer and I have had many discussions/rants about this.

So no need to shut up, I completely agree. It makes me FURIOUS and disgusted.

[floatingleaf.livejournal.com]

It's just... I think I'm only beginning to realize how widespread rape and abuse of women and children really is within our society (on a global scale), and it slowly makes me loose the last shreds of faith in humanity. Up until recently, I had no clue how lucky I was to never have experienced any of it personally (well, except for leering looks, rude comments and some unwanted groping, which I'm sure every woman has experienced on more than one occasion). Now, thanks to the internet, I have read countless blood-curdling stories of women & children who went through hell, only to be dismissed/disbelieved (or even ridiculed) when they finally summoned up the courage to tell the world about the REAL nature of their well-respected father, nice uncle, holier-than-the-pope Catholic priest etc.etc.etc. And on top of that, it suddenly turns out that if you're famous/revered enough, you're somehow entitled to immediate forgiveness even if you officially ADMIT to raping a child. If, say, a poor, black guy from the slums did the same thing, everyone would be screaming to put him in an electric chair. And if a famous, privileged woman admitted to abusing a young boy (which might be less widespread, but also happens), everyone would be rooting for the boy. But if you're white, male, famous AND beloved by the media, you get away with pretty much anything. This is the world we live in. The "cultured", sophisticated world that spouts endless platitudes about "human rights". Well, apparently some of us are less "human" than others (hint: if you're 13 years old and no longer a virgin, you totally deserve to be raped).:/

See?... I shouldn't even get started on the topic. It's more than I can handle. *needs a tranquilizer*

[dissonant-dream.livejournal.com]

YES, THIS. What you said. I agree with you completely and I hate this and I don't understand it at all. How is this the world we live in, that so many people support him? What if it was their child, how would they feel then?

[floatingleaf.livejournal.com]

What if it was their child, how would they feel then?

Exactly. I think people just assume things like that don't happen to THEIR kids... until they do.:/ No one wants to believe that really bad things happen to good people - so they tell themselves that whoever met with a gruesome fate must have somehow deserved it. However absurd it may seem to think that way. *sigh* Example: you know what my mother said of Polanski's victim? That she must have been a "spoiled brat", and "what was she doing in his house at night anyway???" Yes, that's a direct quote from a woman, a mother of two daughters, and also someone who has narrowly avoided being raped herself on at least two occasions that I know of (!!!). This is what our misogynist culture does to people's minds. Now, you know I have issues with my mother - but I never actually expected her to say something so callous without even realizing how nonsensical it was. It shocked me speechless. I didn't argue, simply because I felt stunned. I'm sure if anything like that ever happened to either me or my sister, she would want to tear the guy's heart out with her own bare hands - and yet, some other faceless teenager apparently deserved to be raped, because she was a "spoiled brat" and happened to be in a grown man's house at night. Somehow, the man is not responsible here (!!!). And I used to think, you know, that my parents were pretty liberal for their generation. Well... that certainly put things into perspective.:/

On the other hand, maybe I would have felt the same way if I hadn't been exposed to so much feminist literature as a result of questioning my own sexuality. If I had been straight and never left the small provincial town I grew up in... If I had been raised Catholic etc.etc.etc. It's scary to think how hard it can be for most people to escape the mold they were stuffed into, how much it takes to change the way you see the world... There is so much oppression and prejudice, and we learn not to see it - and when we are forced to see it, we rationalize and justify it.:/ Another argument people use in favor of Polanski (and that my mother also used) is that the victim withdrew the charges. Which apparently means that the whole thing wasn't such a big deal for her (!!!). I mean... do they ever stop to think how terribly humiliating it must be to have something like that discussed in public?... To relive it again and again, while trying to convince a sceptical crowd that yes, it really happened???... Does it take some superhuman powers of empathy to imagine that?... I thought not. I mean, it never happened to me, and yet I have no trouble seeing how horrific it must be. I am not that exceptional, am I?... *blinks*

Um... sorry for the rant, yet again. I am preaching to the choir here, and I probably should talk to my parents instead - or some other people who don't seem to grasp the problem. But it's easier to vent to someone who I know will understand - which makes it kind of pointless in a way, I suppose, but well... there you go. That's the kind of fearless "activist" I am.;) *sigh*