The military doin' what it does best...

On the subject of military self-representation, I was reading ASPI's weekly round up of things to read when they directed me to this:

British troops dancing and singing...

which then led to Swedish marines lip syncing to Greased Lightning..

and then to US soldiers doing a parody of a Saturday Night Live skit.

This last is particularly interesting especially as it pokes fun at the US military-- a common refrain is "The US Army won't let me go home". Does this count as sanitized resistance (presumably it's approved by the Powers in Charge)? Or, is it just some guys having fun, showing "us" at home, the readers who run across it in some news story, that soldiers are human too? In short, to what ends are we being allowed to see these? 

Things on TV (that have little/nothing to do with terrorism)

A few things to add to the previous post:

1. I'm not going to comment on the Budweiser military advert, except to say that both Bud adverts (and quite a fair few of them actually) showed an idealised vision of the United States that doesn't really exist in reality. Young, clean, white people joyous. Instead of debating whether the military should support this advert or not, why are we not asking why that advert was even necessary? If you stop sending young folks off to war, the whole premise of the advert and the view that "we" should "support the military" becomes irrelevant. Instead, here's an advert that didn't make it to the Superbowl (and never will). Imagine this in the place of the Budweiser advert.

2. Which brings me to Enlisted. My granddad and us (grandkids) used to watch heaps of films borrowed from the local British Council (for those who know me in person, this partly explains the accent. As does living in a house with one main room and which had the BBC World Service on at all times). Some of our favorites were the Dad's Army series. The construction of Britain as a plucky little island facing the scary hordes of Hitler's Germany is, of course, ridiculous for a country which still had a pretty big empire at the time the show is set. But the show itself and its ridiculous characters helped poke fun (to me, at least) at the notion that Britain was powerful. Indeed, the British were a bit stupid, keen on rules, but also innovative (some times) and lucky (at other times). I find Enlisted similar. And by its focus on everyday aspects of war, it humanizes war. So far, in just a few episodes, they have touched on PTSD, the difficulties of being friends if you are an officer and others are your juniors? (whatever it's called in the military), and drawn attention to the difficulties faced by those left behind as folks go off to war. Of course, the gender dynamics are problematic (the show focuses on a family of three brothers. There is a female officer that commands the other team thing but, so far, she's not really had much to do) and it plays a bit too much into the whole "they're just a band of lovable misfits" narrative that seems to proliferate about just every security service in the US these days (exhibit B: Brooklyn Nine-Nine) but I'd rather have this than something like NCIS.

I am not a regular NCIS viewer but had it on today for the episode titled "Monsters and Men" (without any irony). There's a terrorist (brown-skinned, speaking in an English-y accent, of course), there's a young white woman (of course), there's an older white guy who "saves" this young woman and there's an interrogation scene, during which it is implied Young White Woman and Brown Terrorist Bloke had a bit of a thing going at some point. In the end, even when the disembodied voice of his sister urges him to call off his diabolical suicide bombing plan (of course, I mean, what else would brown-skinned terrorists types *do* otherwise?), BTB tries to take YWW hostage (insert your own comment regarding masculinities/fear of Brown Blokes after "our" women/etc here) and is shot by the Older White Guy. I mean, what would we do without Old White Guys to save us in the nick of damned time, eh? What?

3. Right. That apparently annoyed me more than I thought it would. Let me end with a bit of levity. Sometimes, slogging through yet another extremely boring government document on something or the other that invariably annoys me, I dream of doing a completely different kind of research. Perhaps the sort that says: "Faster cyclists are seen as more attractive." I mean, on the one hand, yeah. On the other, what about non cyclists? Are faster humans in general considered more attractive? Should I bother with looking up the actual study (no)? 

I have feels...but not the kind that they were looking for

Big day yesterday. I was glued to the television, cheering on This Team over That Team. It was the best. When That Guy ran over the line? Best feeling ever. It was like having Raylon Givens as *my* town's sheriff (Yes, I know he's a US Marshal or whatnot. Just go with it) and having the Tardis land on my back yard.

But, the best of feel was, of course, for this. Look at the wee puppy! they said. Look at the (ridiculously clean cut, very well dressed and *clean*) people! Look at the lovely horsies! I'm not a fan of horses. Friend Y (who I've known since a kid) lives with her bloke in a horse boarding farm in Maryland. Horses are giant and have large teeth.

But, puppies! you say. PUPPIES! How can you not like puppies? Looks like the woman bred them, doesn't it? Do you know how many dogs and cats are killed each day in US shelter? It's 3-4 million, each year according to the Humane Society. That's 1 every 11 seconds. Want a dog? Go to your bloody shelter, not to the pretty woman who happens to have 8 perfect-looking labrador puppies (most popular in US and also the most abandoned in shelters because you know what? Turns out labs are highly active and need a lot of exercise). Want a lab? Well, there are rescues that just focus on specific breeds. Go find one.

Labs. There's the other thing. A lovely golden lab (black dogs don't get adopted as often). There's not many of those around. So what if you watch this advert, get all the feels, go rescue (or buy, more likely) a perfect golden lab and find out it's a damned puppy. It pees everywhere. It chews things. It makes little whiny noises. It needs taking out *all* the damned time. Well, that's all right, isn't it? Just take it to the local shelter and go home and knock back a can of bud. 

Sherlock lives!

Been a while, yes? But, I'm back and all ready to talk about various pop culture-y things, mainly (for the moment) Sherlock Season 3 (let's leave aside questions of run on sentences and what seems like a lack of appreciation for English grammar on my part). I've watched the Empty Hearse (EH) and Sign of Three (SoT) and have some thoughts (not in length since I'm also dealing with a burst water pipe and a flooded basement in my Real Life. But, hey, I still managed to watch Sherlock since there's only so much of staring at pipes-in-old-walls one can do). I've not yet watched the final episode--The Last Vow

- This series seems to be an effort in humanizing (in the most basic sense of the term) Sherlock. He's gone from a "high functioning sociopath" (though he calls himself that again here) to a quirky friend, one who takes time to meticulously plan a stag night for his best friend, one who gives a lovely speech at said best friend's wedding, one who apologises for not letting in the best friend on the Big Secret, one who kisses girls (becomes relevant for another point I want to make), one who is almost too conventional. It's a bit strange since I think since the charm of Sherlock was that it was about a person who was clearly not a fit for the current world actually managing to do all right in it. Even do really well in it. As such, it was a show for and about misfits and about friends (Well, just one-Watson)

- In a show set in London, why are there so few people of colour? I suppose one could laud the show for not going the "usual way" and having the police chap be black (and, really, Rupert Graves is superb in his role as Lestrade) but what about medical examiners/random people/friends/etc? Or, Mary even? It's a very white milieu and I find that somewhat odd.

- Following on from that, did we really need to establish Sherlock as (fairly) aggressively heterosexual? Kissing Molly; Kissing whatshername; Why couldn't he have been played as "Girlfriend? No, not really my area" (from 2010's A Study in Pink and a sentence that is open to different interpretations) rather than "goes about kissing girls since he's lonely now that John's leaving him to get married".

- Women. I'm not the only one who reckons Mr. Moffat isn't that great at writing women. Mary, to me, comes off very much River Song-ish. All we need is "sweetie"after the end of whatever it is she's saying. That's not to knock River Song (or Mary) but that one almost expects her (Mary) to do something nefarious in the final episode now. She's been almost too tolerant of Sherlock and seems to be able to get both Watson and Sherlock to do what she wants. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the final episode (though my bet on having her turn out to be Moriarty's twin/double/wife/sister is probably not going to work out--too obvious, eh?). Molly's moved on but to another chap who looks rather like Sherlock. We never see Watson's sister. Mrs. Hudson remains a bit of a stereotype as well and doesn't really have much to do (though her past and her marriages seem to be foreshadowing what will happen to the Watsons, perhaps?)

In short, I'm somewhat disappointed so far with EH and SoT. I'm disappointed with the efforts to humanize Sherlock as a conventional (and boring) human being. I'd have preferred him as "odd" and a "misfit" but one with friends who care for him and who he, in his own way(s), cares for. Lestrade hugs him when he realizes Sherlock lives and that is when he (and we) still think it's OldSherlock--grumpy, uncaring of people often, unused to living in "society" but capable of doing so and capable of having friends.

Links on race and living in the USA

A few links for you all as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.

1. A story of how someone(s) defaced Gap's advert and Gap's response. Much has been said on this and I won't repeat it but a) this is New York City. New bloody York. Bastion of civilization and all that. Pshaw. b) The chap is a Sikh and people have mistook him for Muslim ("make bombs"). c) Of course, if he *were* Muslim, it wouldn't make this sort of thing any better.

I"m assuming it wouldn't be difficult to know who did this. After all, subway stations should have CCTVs. But, while Reddit and its ilk are pretty keen on figuring out (wrong) "terrorists" during mass murder events (see the Boston bombings), there's far less interest in figuring out hate-related issues. Or, racism.

2. Talking of racism, the latest NSA story discusses how various prominent and non-prominent Muslims were kept under surveillance and their porn-viewing habits tracked in case (note this: in case! Not when. Not as) they do something nefarious. There are a lot of things to be upset about in this whole NSA surveillance saga but this is absurd.

3. Finally, here's the story of how TSA spent $900 million over the last 5 years on "behavior detection officers" to detect high-risk travellers. How many travellers were caught? 0. Yup, zero.

Saving others (in pop culture and in "reality")

It's the first weekend of Thanksgiving break here in the US. I've spent much of it listening to sports (cricket--Ashes--Australian win for the first time in...oh ages! Felt great), watching sports (Liverpool-Everton and also Ireland *almost* making history) and watching other stuff on TV. Mainly the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode. About which I might get around to saying something soon(ish). 

There's also this, which I almost enjoyed more. This was more of an "in" thing--for fans--while the actual episode was a bit too much flash and glamour. 

For those of you interested in international development and aid, there's this. It's a parody (?)/spoof (?) of charity videos about Africa. I think the video works better in Europe where there *are* charity videos being played on TVs. Here, especially on public TV in Southwest Virginia, I've never seen any. Usually the adverts on TV here are about various kinds of medication "you should ask your doctor about" (turning the patient into a consumer who needs to know what medications they need before they even step into the doctor's office) or anti-drugs adverts in which some random band is playing and they suddenly stop to tell us they couldn't do it if they were smoking and/or on (vaguely defined) drugs. Of course, this is in between elections (the US is always in the process of having elections, it seems) in which case, the advertisements are about various local politicians and they good (evil) deeds. 

Girls girls girls

I like this because not only does it push back against the stereotypical depiction of girls in popular media but it also pushes back against stereotypical depiction of boys. I often have a hard time explaining to students that feminism isn't just about women's issues or female stuff. It's about gender relations and the socially-constructed world we live in in which men, women, neither, both, others, all are characterized in specific ways such that deviation from those ways of acting is considered odd (by the mainstream).

Or, a shorter way to say this: just watch the video.



Via Openculture.

PS: Yes, we can make the claim that girls-who-read don't need a chap to validate that he "likes" them reading. They read because they fancy reading. This also serves to distinguish "girls who read" from "girls who don't read", thus pitting women against each other. This is just objectification of a different sort. Yes, agreed to all of that. But, small steps, eh? I still find this quite subversive in terms of critiquing general representations of women in the media. And, on a shallow note, Mr. Grist isn't hard on the (my?) eyes either.