Women in the Big Bang Theory

It is good sometimes to read opinions in which you don't agree with, though today when I stumbled upon this piece about how someone is tired of Penny on the Big Bang Theory, I found myself not disagreeing in the least.  Basically, they argue that she is boring because she is static and dumb in a misogynistic way, which is so true. 

I would forgive the whole "she's the dumb" one premise if it had only been part of the premise.  If she had learned a little from being around the boys, and didn't always say such stupid things, that would be okay.  If she was shown to have hidden "smarts," like, say, a great understanding of Shakespeare, Ibsen or Oscar Wilde (she is an actress anyway, and this could easily tie into why she chose to become an actress.)  Or have her "smarts" be artistic ones, which again could be tied to her decision to be an actress.  The sad thing is that they haven't even allowed her to be a good actress on the show; she can't even seem to catch a break or at least perform a scene that proves to the audience that she too is worthy of our admiration. 

The other thing I'd like to see is her romantic life take a more sympathetic approach.  She is always dating jerks (Leonard included), but we know immediately as audience members they are jerks.  In real life, when guys turn out to be jerks, it usually starts out in a small way, sometimes in ways that friends do not even notice, and then near the end of the relationship (or when the relationship should end) it explodes into something big and awful.  I want the writers to seduce the audience with what looks like a great guy and fails to be, fails in a monumental, terrible, heart-breaking way.  That way, we understand that Penny doesn't just date awful guys because she's too stupid to know better, but because these guys are liars, and good ones.  Watching this show, I imagine the writer's room filled with guys angry at that one pretty girl who would not go out with them, and here they are, getting revenge on her fictional counterpart, dismissing her as stupid, making fun of her womanliness, and then forcing her into bad relationships with guys who do not love her and just want to sleep with her (again, Leonard included, who could not be bothered with her beyond her physical appearance.)  In some ways, that is far too much like straight women's experiences with men, and why so many men do not deserve the women they turn on after they have been rejected.  If a man gets rejected gently by a woman and then turns into that kind of monster, then that that monster is who is always was.  He would have just behaved that badly in some other way to her later on. 

More than anything, I honestly do not watch the show much because of the flaws around Penny (and the continued trashing of Sheldon, who is far more interesting that Leonard, Raj and Howard combined.)  But do you know what's surprisingly good?  The Big Bang Theory fanfiction.  The fanfiction, written mostly by women, I've noticed, allows Penny to have a certain amount of depth and generally doesn't sink into the dumb stereotypes the show has such a habit of doing.  My favorite group is Paradox.  I am frequently impressed with the writing that goes on over there.  I honestly wish these ladies were the ones writing the show. 

A Catwalk for the Birds

New Scientist has some great photos of birds in flight.  I particularly like the white background of these photos.  It's jarring because they're suppose to be nature photos, but they lack all the other aspects of a nature shot (focusing instead on the subject at hand.) 
Like many English people, I am really interested in the gaze, and I found the gaze of the Secretary Bird startling.  Animals are, to most people, beneath us, in some ways just like women.  This bird gazing at the audience is shocking, because we're not use to looking at them as an audience. 

Go Comedy Go!

I went to a performance at Go Comedy last weekend.  Back when I was in high school, I used to do improv as part of the normal diet for young actors, which is why I suspect one of my friends invited me to go.
We went for two of their shows, a showdown and Dark Matter.  The Showdown was two teams of actors competing with each other, somewhat similar to Who's Line Is It Anyway?  One of the actors even claimed to have played Punky Brewster (and she was one of the better actors.)  Dark Matter just featured the actors making new scenes over and over again.  That sounds potentially boring, but they were clearly having fun.  You got the sense that they were doing this just because it was fun for them.  
Between shows, one of the actors came up to me and my friends and thanked us for coming.  "Is that normal?" I asked one of them.
"They hang out at the bar a lot and will talk to people, so yeah."  I was surprised to hear that, because I figure people wouldn't be into that sort of thing.  
The only thing I was uncomfortable with was the audience participation.  I don't mind other people participating, but I don't like getting called on myself.  I like to sit back and enjoy the show.

Havana Red

Readers: Spoiler Alert! This review does not reveal the murderer of Havana Red, but it does indicate who it is not.

Havana Red is the first mystery novel in Leonardo Padura's The Four Seasons Series. This novel is about Mario Contre, a detective working through the murder of a young gay man found in women’s clothes in an Havana park. Conte goes through the usual subjects, the victim's family and his one friend, an elderly gay playwright, exploring modern Havana in decline.
So much of a mystery novel is in convincing the audience that the city or other surroundings are rotten to the core. Havana, the major city of Cuba, a country in ruins, is a perfect place for a mystery novel, and Padura wisely uses this to his advantage.
But as someone who is pro-LGBT and interested in Latino Cultural Studies, I found myself disappointed by the depictions of the two gay Latino men in the novel. The victim is aimless and no longer gets along with his father, but is close with his mother and former nurse. The victim’s closest friend is Alberto Marqués, an elderly gay man who once wrote plays. By the time of the novel, he’s living in a large, falling down house. He is a creeper, watching the detective in intimate situations, and encouraging the homophobic things said against him. Throughout the novel, he’s the character that the audience can enjoy disliking and pin for the murder, even though he isn’t. Although there may be truth to these stereotypes, this is still just another novel that relies on old ideas about the gay community, and does little to subvert them.
As for the rest of the novel, it’s just boring. The detective is predictably broken and miserable, and works it out through creative writing. The novel takes a maddening detour near the end to feature a short story the detective writes. Even that short story is boring, and it draws out the conclusion of the novel. This novel needed serious trimming down and a rethinking of its cliches.