And the weblog lives up to its name for once

Before I begin with the bitching, a disclaimer:

Any time "the mainstream media" is invoked as the cornerstone of an argument, I almost always end up dismissing the whole thing, because that little phrase -- or the acronym MSM, which lurks like a kitty turd in the middle of the blogosphere's sandbox -- is invariably a warning flag. "Intellectual laziness ahoy! Here there be no honest analysis!"

However, here I am, hours after reading pieces in the LAT ("Behind Batwoman's Gayness," Jul 15, 06) and Salon ("The Riot Quiets," July 17, 06) and I am tempted to start squawking about the MSM. However, that's not constructive. Let me carp instead about this: the unfortunate punditry trend in running pieces that manage to misread reality in a bid to make A Bigger Point About The Grievous State Of Women Today.

Exhibit A: "The Riot Quiets," which is ostensibly about Sleater-Kinney's pending hiatus, but is really a complaint about:

[W]atching indie rock devolve into backward-looking, fashion-damaged pop, while the culture grows ever more unwilling to admit feminism did anything but give women delusion, heartbreak and resentment

Which, I would imagine, comes as news to Ani DiFranco, among others.

Also, way to completely diminish the feminist impact of a lot of other female artists:

[W]e have given you Sleater-Kinney. Who are not fodder for the wet dreams of pedophiles, like the Runaways and the Donnas. Who are not, like the Bangles or the Go-Gos, making pretty, flashy guitar pop with retro touches. Or Debbie Harry or Chrissie Hynde out front with a wall of nameless, faceless suits behind them.

But are you ready for The Bigger Point About The Grievous State Of Women Today? Here it is:

Here, back home, it has been very hard to shake the feeling that all the gains, political and cultural, of the previous decades are being reversed. .... Combat boots have long since been exchanged for stilettos.

Do you have the big point? We're apparently backsliding. Vibrators may or may not be to blame.

This could basically be seen as one woman's lament for her twenties -- I myself was lifeguarding a pool party on Friday night, watching the girls fling themselves into the water as Fergie simpered something about her lovely lady lumps, and wondering, "What the hell?" It could be -- except then I was directed to "Behind Batwoman's Gayness," in which the author clumsily transitions from a pseudo-timely opening:

We then proceeded to have a conversation about "Commissioner Barbara Gordon," and it took me several minutes to realize he was talking about a comic book character and not an actual politician.

So, yes, I'm a dope when it comes to comics (also apparently about city government). But I'm not a dope about that 51% of the population known as women, many of whom seem to be undergoing a sexual identity crisis without even knowing it.

Oh, those comics geeks! So willing to spout arcana about made-up people! But it's okay, because the author knows about women. And because she knows about women -- how, is anyone's mystery, as her bona fides are never established beyond the reader's presumption that the author's got some ovaries -- she feel comfortable enough to say My Big Fat Gay Batwoman is merely a bellwether for what is A Bigger Point About The Grievous State Of Women Today:

[T]here are only two ways to go about being female these days: You are either a midriff-bearing, gum-snapping, engagement ring-chasing girly girl or you are a probable lesbian ... Apparently "lesbian" is now the de facto label for any woman who asserts her own tastes and opinions and does not necessarily need to get married tomorrow ... DC Comics might be touting the idea of diversity, but I suspect what we're really seeing is an antidote to the rampant girliness of our era presented — how's this for ironic? — in the safest way possible.

Not that Dinah Drake Lance, Barbara Gordon, Helena Bertinelli, et al are real women, but if they were ... boy, wouldn't they be surprised to learn that they're presumably "midriff-bearing, gum-snapping, engagement ring-chasing girly girl(s)." Not to get all comic book quote-y on you -- here I go spouting arcana about made-up people and bringing up actual citations that could undermine A Bigger Point About The Grievous State Of Women Today -- but in the Green Arrow's "The Longbow Hunters" plot arc, it's actually Dinah who decides she doesn't want to make an honest man of Oliver Queen.

What got me going about these two articles in propinquity: the idea that we're all be bludgeoned by some ideal of womanhood-as-animate-Barbie. You're kidding, right? In this age of blogs (which show all sorts of unfiltered female personae and experiences) and niche media (which seeks to make a buck off it all), in this time of decreasing network TV viewership and declining print-media circulation, in this period where few movies make up common cultural denominators and radio stations are frantically trying to find a large enough listener base ... we're all held hostage to this culturally-imposed idea that women are dainty decorative idiots?

Look, I think it is possible to examine a pop culture artifact and decide that yes, it does make A Bigger Point About The [X] State Of [Y] Today. I also think it's possible to examine those arguments and decide whether they hold up. However, with both pieces here, what eventually struck me was that both authors are using the shield of a gender disconnect (Women! We're In A Grievous State!) to mask what's really going on: they're out of sync with the current pop culture currents. They've been made to feel irrelevant.

Well, their arguments made me feel irrelevant. That's me, not Women Today. But I'm okay with being out of touch with the current punditry current. Eventually, it'll flow my way again.

Comments

[drunken monkey]

Bargh gah snarl.

I think that the author of the second piece has taken a reasonable statement -- sometimes, in today's popular cultural climate, it can feel like there's only a couple of acceptable ways to be a woman -- and done a whole lot of extrapolating and reaching in an attempt to make a Big Point. Comics are just an easy target, a simple way in.

As for the first one, I don't even know what's up there. For one thing, if we're going to base What A Woman Is Today on the singles charts alone, things are looking a lot better now than they did, say, five years ago. You mention blogs, which I think have really only made it easier for artists who may fall outside the musical mainstream to find an audience. And just last year, Sleater-Kinney received lots of very positive press for their last album release (and rightfully so); they were hardly scuttled into the background. It was one of the best reviewed albums of the year. S-K didn't go out in defeat; they went out on a high note.

I hate that the Paris Hilton image is so pervasive, that she's someone young girls want to emulate, that my 13-year-old cousin's role models are people like The Pussycat Dolls. Sometimes it's hard to look beyond that. But we're not going to hell in a handbasket because a band broke up for reasons underdermined and probably interpersonal. I'd suggest the author listen to S-K's "#1 Must Have," which at least interjects a little hope into the equation.