Equality, the final frontier. Where no man has gone before?

 

 I came out of the latest Star trek film feeling angry, and let down.

In a film set in a future that is supposed to be pretty damn idealistic (great tech, multicultural/multi-planetary teams, etc.) this film was behind the times NOW.

This film just felt like one big "Male Gaze" to the point where at times I felt physically pushed out of the moment of enjoying a story by the horrible realisation this film wasn’t made for people like me (that's 50% of the population BY THE WAY film industry). The concept of a film so overtly made by men for men is problematic for several reasons, sexual objectification being one, but my beef is that women have ZERO independent character development; they are defined solely by their relation to the male characters. Meanwhile male characters are given development both within their romance and out of it.

Urgh, it turns out that it is not space that is the final unexplored frontier, it is equality.

First up, in a meeting of senior leaders –out of all the entire table of a variety of species discussing plans, 5 women (mixed races and alien). A few characters are overtly alien. There are Eleven white humanoid men.

Really? In the future, we STILL don’t have gender equality, or racial diversity? REALLY?

Uhura has always been a favourite of mine, and I was looking forward to seeing her in this film. Unfortunately she only had one token scene that didn’t revolve around her holding up the concept of Spock's humanity. She bravely negotiated in perfect Klingon, and appealed to the enemy’s' sense of honour to try and save her team. it didn’t work, but it was a neat moment of one of the team showing their true colours and value. Pity it was the only interesting thing she got to do.

The first scene to make me realise that this movie was NOT going to make me happy, was the arrival of Carol Marcus. A young female member of the team is introduced to her new captain (and obviously, boss) – Kirk. On her arrival to the ship Kirk overtly eyes her up and down, makes a loaded comment about how he is happy she is on board, and proceeds to hit on her for the duration of the film.

So just to reiterate, a man who is responsible for hundreds of lives in a workplace people have to LIVE at, he feels confident enough in his own power, and consequently, her lack of power, to sexually harass her within minutes of being introduced.

When I mentioned this to people the overwhelming, and disappointing response was that the action was in character with Kirk, who is to be honest, a bit of a knob. He is endearingly reckless, thoughtless, and laddish. That’s what “makes” the film.

Talk about missing the point.

In the future, there will still be risk takers and creeps, I can totally understand that. But in this film, Kirk didn’t force her back to his cabin to marry him, and consecrate the marriage to make it legal to make an alliance with his commander’s family… why? Because it’s a ridiculous, outdated concept, based on the B.S. model that women are chattel to be passed from father to husband in some sort of sick ownership.

Star trek is set in the future. The future where I hope fervently the idea that workplace harassment and the idea that any leader has the right to treat a staff member like they are there for their enjoyment is ALSO not ok. JUST as silly as the idea of a man "owning" a woman.

We don’t just stop having creeps in this world, the entire culture around what those jerks are allowed to do to other people changes. This is evidenced by all human rights changes ever.

In the future, all will be equal, right? Star trek was the first show to have a woman of African descent in a non –menial role*. It is SUPPOSED to take strides and be forward thinking – the 1968 episode "Plato's Stepchildren" Uhura and Kirk kiss. The episode is popularly cited as the first example of a scripted inter-racial kiss on United States television.

This show is supposed to be thoughtful, provocative, and philosophical.

I’m well aware that the show has been problematic before now, and will continue to need to improve, but to see that NO progress has been made in this latest film, is as much of a kick in the guts as finding this out was…

“I was trying to make a movie, not tryingto make a Trek movie." – JJ Abrams
 

*how the actress herself was treated is more problematic – Nichols was the only performer in the cast who wasn't originally offered a contract, but instead worked on a week-to-week basis.

Angelina Jolie, cancer, and why you might have privilege too...

I got severely shitty with the large number of “check your privilege” tweets on twitter today about Angelina Jolie’s news that she had opted for preventative bilateral total mastectomies due to her genetic risk for breast cancer. My reasons for being so grumpy went deeper than 140 characters could explain, so I kept my mouth shut and waited until I got home to write this.
The fundamental issue I had is that there is only one reason to have a preventative mastectomy, and that is to avoid a condition that could KILL you. So if you are worried about anything other than survival, when you read about Angelina Jolie’s choice, Check YOUR privilege.

YES, that’s right. If you didn’t get a cold fucking chill down the back of your neck, and that little voice in your head saying “I know why she did that”. CHECK YOUR FUCKING PRIVILEGE.

I’m not saying that you haven’t had to think about death, dying, or risk to your life.

In fact, most people, by the time they hit 50 have probably had some form of lump or bump, or scary moment that has meant they have sat down and written a will, and thought about their life-span and how long it may be.

But MOST of us had those moments thrust upon us.

I didn’t go out looking for trouble. It came to me.

My friend didn’t expect to find a fatal cancer, it was caught by her lovely GP.

My Uncle didn’t expect to start having seizures for no reason – but he did.

And THEN, and only then, did we start to take action to do with our own mortality.

It takes courage to look death in the face and make sensible choices. To take steps to decide to fight. Perhaps even to stop fighting, and make the decision to turn and face it and make the most of time remaining.

It takes bravery.

It also takes time, and support and endless cups of tea and good people.

A lot of people don’t look.

They avoid check-ups.

They skip prostate exams.

They delay mammograms.

They don’t visit the doctor, because “everyone has blood in their poop sometimes.”*

They make excuses, they look the other way. They avoid the issue.

Because this shit is HARD people.

And this woman didn’t just deal with something when it came to her, she anticipated it, sought out the hard truth about her mother’s death and faced her own mortality. Took some MASSIVE steps to avoid a bad outcome in the future, and has reduced her risk.

But this took courage, and the insight that her body wasn’t in her control. That her genetic code could eventually turn against her.

A real understanding that she could die.

And that’s not a privilege, that’s life. But I think you missed the point if you are worried about who paid.

*they don’t. Always check with your doc if your poop has changed or you notice blood.

Doing the wrongest thing for the right reasons.

Several times in my career I have had to do things to a patient so cruel that I was physically ill afterwards. Both times they were lifesaving measures. Something that made the difference between life and death, and something they had no memory of later.

At the time though, they experienced it, fought it, and lived that horrible moment.

But they lived, with good outcomes. They and their family were grateful for the care we gave and the interventions that were used.

I still occasionally have nightmares about one of them.

In my day-to-day practice I hold a person’s hand and talk soothingly to them until they are unconscious, whereupon I make a remarkable transition from a kind hearted person to looking at the patient to a nurse seeing them as a puzzle needing to be solved. Intubation tube in. Catheterisation done. Patient positioned as required for surgery. Dislocate the hip for better access. Suction. Diathermy. Sutures.

We do awful things to people

Awful.

Well documented, fully researched, best practice, global standards of awfulness.

It’s not until I am at the pub and make a flippant comment related to “burning the patient” and have to explain that it was deliberate and totally ok, that I realise how truly messed up what we do is.

Actually, what we do isn’t messed up, it’s how we get our heads around it that is messed up. Everyone varies in how they cope. But I PROMISE that if you know and love a nurse, that they disassociate in some way, in order to do what needs to be done on a daily basis. The alternative is the disturbing concept that they are ok with doing what they do to a person that they get to know.

So next time you ask someone who cares about you to look at you like a patient, and diagnose or help you Please don’t get upset if their face goes oddly blank, and they give their answers in a way that doesn’t seem entirely like them. And do not get cranky with us because we are unsympathetic. You are asking us to do our job. To look at your body as a just a sum of its parts, a puzzle to be solved, a problem to be fixed. We can’t CARE how it feels. We can empathise, but not sympathise.

It’s an important differentiation.

They are looking at you like a patient, because if we cared when we had to do what we do, it would rip us to tiny pieces every day.

Muriwai tragedy of a fisherman and a shark

My heart goes out to the family and friends of the man who died at Muriwai today. I know the feeling of a knock on the door and the world dropping out from under you. It’s horrible to have to keep going after news that someone has been suddenly taken from you, and made infinitely worse when you know they had no support at the end.

I hope that somehow the media attention makes them feel as though they are more supported, and not that the focus is being taken from his life, through the manner of his death.

Just a gentle reminder to anyone rude enough to speak up on this topic without knowing the full facts, that humans in wetsuits have a silhouette remarkably similar to seals. It is a testament to the fact that sharks do NOT target humans deliberately that there are so few shark attacks, in spite of this similarity.

To put it in perspective, shark attacks are so infrequent in NZ we have less than one every 5 years.

In a year in New Zealand…

We have around 547 Suicides

303 people die in roadtraffic accidents.

There are around 277 hospital mistakes causing death or serious injury.

There will be around 123 drownings

There are 60 deaths related to hospital acquired Venous Thromboembolisms (VTE)

54 Workplace fatalities*

There were 27 family violence deaths reported in 2011

15 deaths of women during pregnancy*, and childbirth

8 children per year died as a result of injuries arising from assault, neglect or maltreatment

And in the hour it took for the news to break of a shark attack on Muriwai beach 22,831 sharks were killed around the world for FINS ALONE, meaning the rest of the body was thrown back into the water, wasted.

So if it is part of your job to report on this poor man’s death, please try to be reasonable and sensible. He had every right to feel safe in and around the water, his death was a tragic and unusual accident, and his family deserves peace and privacy.

Go safe my water buddies, sometimes life just kicks the shit out of you, and there is nothing you can do to see it coming.

*The statistics show the number of fatalities, notified to the Department of Labour under the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act 1992. The statistics do not include: fatalities in the maritime or aviation sectors or due to work-related crashes on the road as these are investigated by Maritime New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority and the NZ Police respectively. Nor do they include fatalities from long latency diseases caused by exposure to hazardous substances.

*irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy

Cameron Russell - TED talk

I rarely put links up without writing about the topic around them first.

This needs no introduction or explanation, and is worth a look.
As someone who has appeared emaciated she was so skinny, and progressed to be on the "obese" end of the BMI spectrum, what she says about attractiveness, perception and insecurity rings SO true. How I feel inside my own body has done nothing but improve, and yet the world around me is less and less accepting of my place in it.
I love how she pointed out the perception of appearance so effectively, and I adore her quick and effective points about discrimination on the grounds of appearance and race.
Thank you.

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and the amazing James Hill 15/2/13 Q-Theatre, Auckland

Tonight was remarkable.

I can’t actually find words to describe the evening in one starting sentence so I’m going to compare it to a scenario...

 hang on…

Here goes…

It was a bit like going to what you thought was going to be a panto, then realising that you were a bit overwhelmed by the talent of the actors, and it turned out there was a sexy nude scene that you just didn’t see coming. And yet it all seemed perfectly natural, and at the end, you walk out covered in glitter, voice raw from cheering, and think… What the fuck just happened?

At one point in the show my face looked like this…

It was a sort of horrified overwhelming TERROR and joy all at the same time.

Not a look you want to see on your audience’s face, but it was for all the right reasons. James Hill blew all my preconceptions about the limitations of the ukulele right out of the water.

Everything I thought I knew was gone. It was a bit like finding Jesus, and realising he was your Dad. What do you MEAN you can do all that with a FUCKING UKELELE!? What the hell have I been learning guitar for?!

The man played a bunch of beautiful songs, made all the more beautiful by the work of celloist Anne Janelle.  He then proceeded to NAIL a few popular songs, give out playing tips, and do THIS.

He gently guided us into it by showing us how a Uke can make percussive noises, but even after he showed us how he did it I was left with the urge to check behind him to figure out where the extra musicians were hiding. It was a musical magic trick and when he took it to the next level with his final number the crowd went INSANE.

In the second half, the focus was the orchestra and it was admittedly a level down from the ninja stylings of James, but just as enjoyable for different reasons.  I’m not going to get into the specific songs, because this is a whole new list of numbers for the group and I don’t want to ruin the surprise for the lucky people who will be seeing this tour. Needless to say it was beautifully performed with heart, joy, and perfect delivery. Each of the members shone in their own moments, And I’m not even going to get into the MUSICAL moments that they shone…

My highlights were;

The sultry voice of Ms Gemma Gracewood.

The fact that every time the understated Nigel Collins stepped up and did anything you could hear the audience breathe a little shallower, afraid to miss something.

Bec Coogan bringing the audience (and perhaps the orchestra) to their knees with her amazing percussion skills on the spoons. But without the spoons… Basically she played the thighs, and it was awesome.

The sexiest skivvy fashion parade I’ve ever seen from Dan Yeabsley. I was disconcertingly fond of a turtleneck by the time he had finished with the audience.

Brilliant off-the-cuff dance moves

The fact that the joy of performing together literally swamped the audience within the first 30 seconds and I was grinning like a LOON by the end of the first number.

By the end of the concert the audience was clapping, singing, and laughing together. Within 2 hours the WIUO had coaxed what seemed like a rather reserved, quiet crowd out of their shells, beyond their insecurities, and into the music.

The audience felt themselves be a part of the show, and I don’t think it will be easy to recover from.

So really, in summary. Thank you. You have a new fan-for-life; I’m off to go browse WIUO on itunes.

Anna Karenina film review.

It takes a gifted artist to make to feel something you can only see.

It takes a master to make you feel something you thought you couldn’t feel. Relate to something you thought you had grown out of. Anna Karenina was that for me.

I have long been criticised for being hard-hearted in and out of love. I’m sensible. A blessing really, although I suspect it’s hard to live with for those on the receiving end of my affections. This film made me hold my breath for the young lovers, root for them in a way I don’t normally do with idealistic, naive, stupid thoughtless love.  I was caught up in the intense longing; the tension was captured to perfection. The gentle, kind, obliviousness of Anna’s divinely patient husband was represented beautifully by Jude Law, with a dab touch of heart that made you care how he turned out, even while you understood how she could turn her back on him.

At each and every step of Anna’s journey I related to every single choice she made. And they are so STUPID. I mean for god’s sakes, the book is ridiculous!  It is essentially pity-porn with nice frocks. Everyone wanders around looking longingly at each other and feeling very sad about their pathetic issues. Anna makes bad decision after bad decision and the two loveliest characters (Levin and Kitty) are relegated to the back row to allow the tormented lovers more space. Tolstoy is a writer with an artistic mind, for artistic minds. Sensible pragmatists who make choices based on outcomes need not apply.  But Aaron Taylor-Johnson, UNF. There is a scene early on, where at a dance he takes a drag on a cigarette (something I usually find a massive turn off) and just the sight of his mouth makes me want to steal away to a back room and do terrible things to the poor man. I related to the undeniable passion between the two characters, in a way you really need to, to be able to join the story.

As an aside, they get ten million points for the casting of Domhnall Gleeson in the role of Levin. He is adorable, you can’t help but love his idealism. Also, GINGER BEARD FOR THE WIN! 

I’m struggling to find the words to explain what just happened between this film and I in the cinema, and as time passes I can feel the captivating magic they spun around me, slip away.

Somehow, with a sense of beauty the team that made this film helped me love a book I had previously tolerated.

I’m off to read it again.

“I love you!

Why?

You can’t ask why, about love.”