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11/06/09
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11/06/09
If you say yes, is there a way I can filter your content out?
PS. Many insects eat their partners. #science Reply
11/06/09
But eating sexual partners is a good idea, right? Nom nom nom. #science Reply
11/06/09
Probably just me, though. #threadless Reply
11/06/09
@elocanth: No it isn't just you. #threadless Reply
11/06/09
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11/06/09
I loved this review, Latoya, but I wonder whether we can actually expect others to approach this material with sensitivity. By sensitivity, I mean with a genuine anti-oppression kind of viewpoint.
I want to believe that narratives are the way into understanding that "Others" are human, but the way this has been received by almost every writer but you worries me. #preciousmovie Reply
11/06/09
And no, I am not sure how it will be perceived. Me & The Racialicious Crew had a long convo on Precious vs. Erasure, and it's making us think some of these things *can't* be understood within our existing structures. There is too much of a chasm to bridge. But I'm still writing, my thoughts will be more clear a bit later. #preciousmovie Reply
11/06/09
That said I notice this has an 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, and film critics are dominated by overeducated white dudes. So maybe I'm being premature. #preciousmovie Reply
11/06/09
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11/06/09
That said, I loved your review because it actually points out one of the most jarring points: Precious' imagination and her derivation of worth doesn't simply come from no where. It came from... Reply
11/06/09
11/06/09
But, as you know, I am cynical like that. Reply
11/06/09
11/06/09
Which is why this one by Latoya is such a joy to read.
I do think narratives -can- be that way. I think they can, at the very least, make people question assumptions. See a different perspective. Push back from the constant "othering" we do. I don't think they can solve it. But I think they're an important component in discussing it, and working at it, and changing things.
So, I don't personally expect this film to make every white audience member questions their privilege and assumptions...but if does that for some, then that's a start. #preciousmovie Reply
11/06/09
This stuff would be rated R15 on anything other than a console. If you want the Z-rated stuff, you buy the PC version. Same goes for all of the 5PB "games". Reply
11/06/09
To be clear, I think Chris Brown is a piece of horseshit who has yet to take full responsibility and I loathe the fact that the public might use this interview to absolve him. Moreover, i've never been hit by a lover before so I am aware of the fact that I lack a visceral understanding about her experience in that sense. But what I have experienced before is being in love with someone I considered my best friend, and being in a relationship with them in a place and a time when I felt like I had no one else, no one else who "got" me, no one else who knew what I was going through, no one else who I could fundamentally relate to. That creates a dependency that makes you love a person without reason I think, because you not only find love in them, you create home in them. You make them your safe place.
It's a dependency that doesn't end when the relationship ends. Instead it creates a cognitive dissonance where after the breakup you have to make them a good person who did bad things as opposed to a bad person who you were tricked into believing was good or a bad person with good moments, because at the time when your relationship with them ends you feel like you have not only lost a lover you have lost something akin to a family member. And no one wants to admit that there are bad genes in their family. No one wants to admit that they loved someone so dark and so damaged. Because, their secret fear is, then it hints at or suggests some possible damage or deep sense of worthlessness in they themselves. It's a deeper thing, I think, than even the feeling of embarrassment she mentions. What she is dealing with a deep sense of shame that someone she consistently considered the foremost person in her life thought little enough of her overall, and so little of her in that moment, that he was willing to hurt her so badly.
When someone is your "best friend" in your mind--not just your boyfriend, or your lover but your best friend-- it's almost like you revert back to class one (first grade) honor codes. You find a way to take some responsibility for the person's actions because you think of yourselves as a unit. You proclaim your allegiance to them publicly. You don't pick someone else at the swings. Most importantly, you protect them from "bullies" or "enemies". You don't let anyone be mean to them. You've done it for so long that it's almost instinctive. Speaking badly about them publicly feels like tattle-taling. And no one wants to be a tattletale on their friend.
She is struggling so hard with that part of the loyalty code you can see the strain on her face. Add to it the other loyalty code: the historical tenet of "black people don't wash their dirty laundry in front of white people" thing, that black women don't rat out black men, that black women stand by their people and don't embarass the race in front of white folks, that no one likes snitches etc etc etc .... and you can see that the girl is doing the best she can. I am surprised she is even able to do this much considering the kind of emotional stuff she is up against. #rihannainterview Reply
11/07/09