This week, I’m pleased to bring you an interview with my musical and literary twin, Erin, who blogs from Australia at TexErin in Sydneyland. Make sure to check out the interview archives when you’re done!
Living life from cover to cover
by Jana 23 Comments
This week, I’m pleased to bring you an interview with my musical and literary twin, Erin, who blogs from Australia at TexErin in Sydneyland. Make sure to check out the interview archives when you’re done!
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by Jana 14 Comments
Weekly recap. Let’s get to it for this very slow, boring, uneventful week.
This week in reading…In the middle of Wonder and The Leisure Seeker. Alex Woods, Some Luck, and Big Little Lies are next. Also, this is your friendly reminder for the next Show Us Your Books linkup which happens on June 9.
This week in cooking…I made the easiest dinner the other night, one pot pasta with vegetables. Here’s what you do: Mix 2 cups of sauce (I make my own but you can use jarred as well) with two cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add roughly 8 oz of pasta (or, if you’re like me, just dump in a bunch of noodles until you think it’s enough) and a bag of frozen vegetables. Cook until the pasta is done. Add cheese if you want.
This week in TV watching…Thanks to Kathy, I plan to check out Bosch because you can never have too many gritty cop shows in your life. I also decided that I’m finally going to watch How To Get Away with Murder because I meant to watch it when it aired (and by watch, I mean DVR) and never did. Summer TV sucks so I figure it’s a good time to catch up.
This week in gardening…The husband one again created a huge garden in the backyard. Some plants are doing well (corn, pumpkins), and others (peppers, cucumbers), not so much. He did bring volunteers (I call them tributes) home from my in-laws’ and they seem to be surviving thus far. Our garden is officially the hunger games.
This week in what the fuck…So where I live has two main residents groups. One is public, anyone can join and the other is a private/secret/whatever group. I was a member of both. I’m not very active on Facebook at all so I didn’t visit or post in the secret group with any sort of regularity. I was removed from the group as a result. I know they do that, cull people who they think are lurkers or spies from the public residents group (I know) but seriously, what the fuck?
This week in WHY???…Another installment of The Human Centipede is on its way. I can’t even. If you aren’t familiar with The Human Centipede, please look it up. It is the most disturbing, fucked up thing in the history of everything and I don’t want to describe it or even link to it.
This week in things that are awesome…Did you guys read that Jon Stewart bought a farm in NJ to use as an animal sanctuary for homeless animals? Could he be any more fantastic?
This week in internet reads…Loved this post from The Accidental Missionary (not a blog I read regularly but someone I follow posted a link to this post) about how moms need to stop being overachievers. This post on Social Media Week calls those of us born in the late 70s/early 80s The Oregon Trail Generation since we never really feel like Gen X or Millennials, and how we’re different and why we don’t identify fully with either group. Then there was this list of 14 Things Every Fat Girl Needs to Hear (although I feel like we can take out the word “fat” because every girl needs to hear these). And finally, this interview with Amy Schumer, Kate McKinnon, Ellie Kemper, Lena Dunham, Gina Rodriguez, and Tracee Ellis Ross in The Hollywood Reporter. Ladies are fucking funny, yo.
That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend, y’all! See you back on Monday!
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by Jana 14 Comments
Disclaimer: Today, we rant. This is a long, imageless post about an issue that’s been bothering me for awhile. For those without the patience to trudge through it, the summary is this: I’m sick of the malicious bitchy dense cheerleader trope, why I’m tired of it, and why I think it needs to disappear.
I recently read some great articles about a particular movie trope, the manic pixie dream girl. The originator of the name has renounced the creation of the term, stating that it’s been misinterpreted to represent all women in movies who are quirky, cheerful and exist solely to liven up the lives of their male love interest. But the fact remains that those characters exist, whether we like it or not. Movie and TV execs aren’t going to let the trope fade away because it’s great entertainment.
I have much to say about that topic but today’s post isn’t about that. It’s about another trope that’s existed in entertainment for as long as I can remember and, contrary to the manic pixie dream girl, this one is as mean spirited and cruel as the characters it inhibits. And that trope is the one of shallow vindictive dumb cheerleader.
I’m not a TV or movie historian, and while I love watching shows and movies, I don’t know enough to tell you when the stereotype originated but I can tell you it’s been around since I can remember. It never bothered me before but now, as an adult and the parent of a cheerleader, I’m more tuned in to how they’re portrayed.
And that portrayal is just disgusting.
To start, there’s the group dynamic. Like other groups of friends on TV or in movies, there’s always stock characters. For this one, there’s always a beautiful, bitchy head cheerleader and her almost as pretty flunkies who are absolutely incapable of thinking for themselves and do everything they’re told to do, except for the one who’s definitely brainy but only useful to help formulate diabolical plans. Anyone who dares to speak out or disobey the captain is ostracized until she has to pull some horribly evil prank on someone the head cheerleader likes even less which she does because hurting someone else is better than being isolated. And make sure you’re not friends with anyone outside the squad! That’s cause for an automatic black ball.
Next, they’re almost always mean. Downright cruel. They’re master manipulators, specifically the cheerleader in charge, always able to get the adults to believe them as the victim, when in actuality, they’re the ones pulling vicious pranks, breaking up relationships, excluding others, and bringing classmates to tears. And, in congruence with that, they’re completely superficial, rude, and demeaning. Yes, in most cases, they ultimately get theirs in the end, but the next episode, it’s back to the same old bullshit.
Not only are they mean but almost every single one of them, save for the head cheerleader, is cartoonishly dumb. As in, can’t count to 10 or tie her shoes or differentiate between right and left. She’s incapable of doing well in school or even thinking for herself, which is why she so desperately needs the head cheerleader to tell her what to do and why she’s so susceptible, like adults, to being manipulated. There’s no depth to her AT ALL, she’s completely shallow, and has absolutely no goals for herself. She’s shown as content being a flunky except for the one very special episode where she realizes what head cheerleader is doing to her and seeks solace in the really not so bad “regular” kids.
And this may be me being a bit nitpicky, but honestly, why are they always, ALWAYS in their uniforms? Do people think that cheerleaders honestly walk around all the time in those polyester shirts and skirts? That they are so in love with the fact that they’re cheerleaders that they can’t ever wear anything else? That they have nothing else going for them so they have to perpetually show off being a cheerleader?
(This is where I’d like to write about body image and the perception that cheerleading is not a sport but those two topics are each a post of their own so I’m going to say this–do not use what you see at NFL games or on TV as a barometer. The “cheering” that the NFL or TV cheerleaders do is not at all indicative of actual competitive cheerleading nor is their appearance. I have been to my fair share of cheer competitions the last few years and I can tell you, the body types run the gamut. Which is awesome.)
You might be wondering why I let this bother me so much. It’s just entertainment, after all. And it’s a valid point. But as the mother of a young cheerleader, I find this portrayal damaging not only to my child’s self-esteem but also her peer’s perception of her and her perception of herself.
I don’t want her thinking she’s better than anyone who doesn’t cheer. Because she’s not. Cheerleading is an activity, it’s not a personality or social status or intelligence barometer or achievement or anything other than a sport. It doesn’t make her above (or below, because, let’s face it, there are plenty of negative things said about cheerleaders) anyone. Being a cheerleader doesn’t give her a free pass to bully, manipulate, and ridicule. Watching these shows, she might start to feel like wearing a bow and skirt means she’s entitled to say or do things other kids aren’t. And if she sees it enough, she might start to believe there’s a truth to it.
The same with intelligence. When I was in Disney, cheerleading Worlds were taking place. We struck up a conversation with one of the girls and her mother and, while I forget what the girl said, it prompted her mother to question it and the girl to reply “I’m not supposed to be smart. I’m a cheerleader.” Joke or not, I can’t imagine where she got that from. Based on my experience, cheerleaders are no more or less intelligent than anyone else but you’d never know it if you used these shows (and movies and books. Let’s not forget about them) as your frame of reference. Why must they be shown as vapid idiots who can’t form a coherent sentence? Okay, I get that it’s for comedic relief, but it’s so prevalent that there comes a point it stops being funny.
We’ve reached that point.
Now, I will admit there’s a certain arrogance that some cheerleaders carry around. But it’s no different than the arrogance displayed by other athletes or members of other clubs. Kids are allowed, and we should encourage them, to be proud of whatever they choose to do whether it’s drama or band or soccer or FFA or cheerleading. That pride helps build self-confidence. My child should never tell me that she feels like when she watches the shows she likes that they’re are making fun of her.
Because she did tell me that. And it broke my heart.
If we’re trying to teach a culture of tolerance and acceptance, wouldn’t it be a good idea to stop portraying cheerleaders as shallow moronic vindictive assholes and instead start creating characters who have depth, are intelligent and compassionate? Wouldn’t it make sense to stop picking on or creating characters who are stereotypes simply because it’s easy?
This trope is just as cruel and awful as the way cheerleaders are shown treating others. It’s damaging, it’s ugly, and it needs to change. Because the more these shows, which have more influence than most parents (myself included) would like to admit, perpetuate that stereotype, the harder it will be to make them go away.
/rant
P.S. I could have written this post about a number of stereotypes that get under my skin but I chose cheerleading because it’s personal. Let me be clear that I understand that many of the characters are hyperbole since it makes good TV. But it seriously wouldn’t hurt to dial it down a bit.
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by Jana 31 Comments
It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these but now is as good of a time as any to get it started again. One step closer towards feeling normal, right?
This week in baseball…I figured I’d start off with this since that’s where I stole the idea for the post name from. Anyway. So. You all know about the Baltimore riots. I’m not going to rant about those but I will say that it was quite odd watching the Orioles game on Wednesday where they had an unprecedented zero fans in the stands. I can only imagine the emotions for the players, knowing why the fans couldn’t be there. But at least this guy was funny about it:
This week in reading…Next Show Us Your Books linkup is on May 12 and you better believe I have some opinions on The Year of Reading Dangerously, which is the book I trudged through this week. Working on (still) The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and beginning True Story: Murder, Memoir, and Mea Culpa.
This week in TV watching…Husband and I finally began watching House of Cards (or as we call it, House of Kevin Spacey. Not to be confused with House of Don Cheadle). Love. It. That is all.
This week in things I don’t give a shit about…the royal baby. The NFL draft. Patrick Dempsey’s character being killed off of Grey’s Anatomy. The fact that my neighbor who I never see or speak to had twins.
This week in internet reading…I have not been spending a ton of time browsing the interwebs lately but I did read an fascinating in-depth investigative story on Buzzfeed, A Murder at La Casa Green and I highly recommend checking it out. It’s long, 4 parts, but worth the time spent. I also loved this post from Scary Mommy on being an unapologetic lazy parent and this one about the first female ref hired by the NFL. I might not care about the draft but that’s pretty awesome news.
This week in funnies…
Have a great weekend, friends! I’ll be doing two of my least favorite things, gardening and cleaning out the garage. Yay for me. But I’ll see you back here on Monday when I respond to the questions the hilarious and snarky Ali has for me.
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by Jana 18 Comments
This week in everything that sucks…You know those weeks where everything bad seems to happen all at once? That was this week for me. Not only did I get unexpectedly sick with a cold that came from no where and won’t go away, my husband’s teaching job decided to cut his pay for one class more than we expected due to enrollment, and if you saw this face on Instagram the other day, you know my dog, Barkley, ruptured his ACL on Tuesday chasing after the mail truck. And guess who doesn’t get to see The Breakfast Club in the theater for its 30th anniversary? That’s right. ME. All the rage.
This week in unexpected blessings…Barkley’s injury was way less serious than it could have been. He didn’t break anything, he doesn’t need surgery, and because he’s so small, once the rupture heals, he can function just fine (with maybe a little limp). Also, my in-laws are watching the dogs this weekend, for free, while we’re in Atlantic City for a cheer competition, we’ve been getting Showtime for free since the beginning of the month and continuing until the end of May, and I created a tasty recipe for iced coffee using the coffee beans I don’t like. No waste FTW!
This week in nostalgia…Better Than Ezra is touring with Uncle Kracker, Eve 6, and Sugar Ray. I got to have lunch with Steph from Life According to Steph (it had been 15 years since the last time we saw each other! Crazy that it had been that long and, for those who don’t know, Steph and I were friends in college. Like, all 4 years of it). I have been listening to my iPod with its vast library of songs I had forgotten about. And also reading this list of the best 80s shows.
This week in reading…I have been reading Jo Nesbo’s The Son for a week now. Ordinarily an eBook takes me only a few days but this book is so long (just shy of 500 pages) and there are a plethora of characters and plotlines that my brain gets dizzy and I have to put it down. That said, it’s an interesting book. Full review coming on 4/7 for the next Show Us Your Books linkup (not 4/14 as previously stated). Not sure what I’ll pick up next as I have 5 books on my nightstand. Probably whichever one has the closest due date.
This week in things I don’t give a shit about…the guy leaving One Direction. I didn’t know which one he was, I had to look it up, and there is no conceivable way I could care less. The X-Files returning to TV. March Madness.
This week in internet reading…In a similar vein to the Hot Dudes Reading Instagram account, there was this post from Book Riot on 14 Days as a Public Transit Reading Spy. I love the variety in what people choose to read! As someone who spends a good part of each day listening to music, I found this piece on the scientific effect music has on your every day life to be fascinating. And as someone who used to be great about managing her time but currently sucks a fat one at it, I enjoyed this article about the 7 core beliefs of extraordinary time managers.
Have a great weekend! Hope you get to do something fun or relaxing!
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