- Baked cupcakes with my mum, and got in touch with my inner child:
- Co-organised and attended the joint Swansea Feminist Network/Swansea Women’s Centre International Women’s Day event
This was a fantastic day – you can read my review of the event at the SFN blog. I bought a knitted womb from one of the SFN girls, and when I showed my mum and auntie they loved mine so much that they asked me to buy them one each too!
Knitted womb!
- Finished building my new website!
Take a look, it’s awesome. Built thanks to the technical wizardry of Waj. www.catherineelms.co.uk
- Took Toby for long walks on the beach, and took my favourite photo of Toby ever:
- Went veggie for a week
A blog post documenting this experience will be posted soon!
- Published the third issue of Pandora Press!
I kinda rushed this issue a little bit so I could get it ready in time for the International Women’s Day, especially the artwork, but overall I’ve had lots of positive comments about it, so maybe I’m being too hard on myself. It’ll be stocked in Marching Stars distro from next week onwards, or you can pick up a copy at any upcoming SFN event.
Best Song of 2011:
Lady Gaga – Bloody Mary
I’m not a huge fan of pop music generally – I find a lot of it to be cheap and unsatisfying, annoying me after too many listens – but Lady Gaga’s latest album has softened me to the pop world. I found Born This Way to be much darker and more complex than Gaga’s previous work, and the song Bloody Mary was the highlight of the album for me. The song explores Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus and the duality of being a religious icon and a real feeling woman (“when you’re gone I’ll tell them my religion’s you”). Some strange lyrics abound here – she calls Pontius “Punktius” for some reason – and the title doesn’t quite work due to its associations with Mary Tudor, but it’s nonetheless a very interesting concept, rarely explored in pop music. I also love the dark electronica feel, interspersed with male choral cries of “Gaga…”. I love Gaga, and I don’t care who knows it. (read my review of Born This Way on The F Word here!).
Worst Song of 2011:
Professor Green ft. Emeli Sande – Read All About It
Many, many songs were in the running for this title – I listen to the radio on my way to work every morning, and I swear they play the same 5 fucking songs every day – Moves Like Jagger, Jar of Hearts, Fly (Rihanna & Nicki Minaj), Price Tag, and this song. This song ultimately wins out for being completely trite, annoying, and whiny. An honourable mention must be given to Leona Lewis’ cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, the most inappropriate pop cover since 2008′s X Factor winner butchered Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Best Film of 2011:
Black Swan A predictable choice, I’m sure. I loved this film – drawing on feminist themes of the virgin/whole complex, the quest for perfection, and body transformation, this film was intelligent and moving. There’s an excellent feminist analysis of the film here; if I were to discuss this film, I would only be rehashing the arguments already made by the Feministing ladies. A close second is Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, a beautiful, haunting film about the destruction of the earth (you can watch the trailer here; though, be warned – it makes the film look far more exciting than it actually is).
Worst Film of 2011:
Sucker Punch
There have been many bad films this year (did anyone else notice how many films released in 2011 were sequels or remakes?); to devote a paragraph to dissecting one of those kinds of films would be a waste of time – we all know they’re shit. So I thought I’d choose the most disappointing film of 2011 for me, which was Zack Snyder’s girl-power romp, Sucker Punch. It looked so promising! Five women kicking ass to an amazing soundtrack – yeah, they’re wearing ridiculously inappropriate battle gear, but I could potentially overlook that. Sadly, ten minutes into the film, I realised just how wrong my expectations were. Here is a clip from the first fight scene – this is a very good example of what the whole movie feels like. Cartoonish, meaningless violence (if there’s no risk of injury, how can you engage and root for the hero?), scantily-clad young girls doing impossible stunts and inexplicably defeating enormous, faceless bad guys who supposedly represent “their demons” or some shit like that. Sarah at Bad Reputation hit the nail on the head when she described this film as “tedious in a watching-someone-else-play-a-computer-game way. You watched, but didn’t really engage”. Another irritating aspect of the film was the romanticisation of mental illness and the mental institution that the characters were imprisoned and abused within. Massive shame.
Best Book Read in 2011:
The Women’s Room – Marilyn French
A classic feminist novel about the struggles of American women during the 1950s through to the 1970s. While certain aspects are, of course, no longer relevant to a modern feminist audience, I was shocked at how much I could relate to, and how many problems that the second-wave feminists wished to address are still ongoing. For example, the story about the rape of a central character, and her dealings with the justice system, showed how little has changed in terms of victim-blaming attitudes. A thought-provoking read.
Worst Book Read in 2011:
How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic – Madsen Pirie
I thought I would learn a lot from this book about how to win arguments and be able to stop others making fallacious arguments; instead, it merely listed the common logical fallacies people make, e.g. arguments “ad baculum” (by threat of force). It’s not difficult to spot when people are making incorrect arguments; it is difficult to defeat the person advancing it, however. What a waste of an afternoon.
Best TV of 2011:
Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker’s 3-part drama series, aired on Channel 4 over December, was by far the best TV I’d watched for a long time. The theme of the series was our dependence on technology, and its effect on our social interactions. Admittedly, the series hasn’t been very subtle in its satire, which I think turned many people off – do you need to guess which popular TV show the image on the right is parodying? – but all three stories were thought-provoking, and left me with a cold sense of unease.
Worst TV of 2011:
I’m A Celebrity
I found myself stuck in front of the TV far too much this winter after long days at work – I’m a Celebrity was usually bad enough to shift me from the spot in the sofa I was cemented to. The X Factor came a close second; the latter programme only saved by the brilliantly snarky commentary found in the #xfactor hashtag on Twitter.
Top 5 Blogs Discovered in 2011:
1. Hyperbole and a Half. A blog about being awkward, and growing up. Every single post I’ve read on Allie Brosh’s blog has been hilarious and heart-warming.
2. Bad Reputation. A UK feminist pop culture blog, often blogging about music, film, comics, and other cool stuff.
3. Monday Through Friday. The (slightly more) intelligent older uncle of the Cheezburger Network, this blog features funny work-related gifs and memes. (we all need a guilty internet pleasure; memes are mine)
4. Women In Theology. A blog written by female theology graduates from an anti-kyriarchal Christian perspective, dedicated to discussions about women in religion. They write about a wide variety of topics, including sexual ethics, Jesus, LGBT rights, saints, and traditional theology.
5. Maranda Elizabeth. The author of Telegram Ma’am zine, their blog features writings about mental health, genderqueerness, self-care, recovery, and writing. It’s among my favourite single-author blogs, due to its honesty and inspiring feel.
Top 5 Zines Read in 2011:
1. Jane: Chicago’s Clandestine Abortion Service
2. List #14
3. Telegram Ma’am #20
4. xyz #1
5. Shape and Situate #2
What were your favourite books, songs, etc, of 2011?
I used to enjoy watching it. Yeah, go ahead and judge me. The sad fact of the matter is that I have nothing better to do on a Saturday night. Suffice it to say that if I was actually going out on a Saturday, I would not bother recording it on BT Vision, but as I don’t tend to go out, I stayed in watching it while bitching about the contestants on Twitter. I also get sick of reading theology all week, so I need a bit of light relief come the weekend.
But recently it’s been leaving a bitter taste in my mouth… so I’ve decided to weigh in on the Wagner debate.
I should clarify: I never phone in and vote for things like this, no matter how passionate I feel about it. But if I were to vote for someone, it would be Wagner. He’s ridiculous. He’s fun. He seems to be taking the whole thing in his stride, despite getting booed by the studio audience every time he gets through. And there’s a picture of him holding a lion by the tail.
On the last show, Cheryl got her claws out and said to Wagner after his performance:
“I don’t usually have anything constructive to say to you, Wagner, but I believe you have made some comments about me. I am very proud of my roots and I am very, very, lucky. But if I was to give you any constructive advice it would be don’t focus on everybody else or how lucky I am, but how lucky you are to be on that stage tonight.”
Ouch.
I thought Wagner’s response was the best thing he could’ve said; he grabbed the mic from Dermot and explained that he thought Cheryl was a role model for having made it big despite her difficult upbringing, etc.
But this nasty outburst by Cheryl really made me think about just how hated Wagner is, and how unfair the whole thing is.
So check out his audition video. They all put him through, and they all thought he had a good voice (as did I when I first saw it)!
And now they have the audacity to give him ridiculous, fast-paced songs to learn every week, and then mock him for being rubbish?! You wouldn’t catch anyone giving Matt Cardle “She Bangs, She Bangs” to sing on their first live show, would you?
The judges put him through, and the public are voting to keep him in. It’s not his fault! He has no say over what songs he gets to sing, so he’s being taken for a ride and turned into the “joke” contestant, just like Jedward were last year, except Wagner does actually have some talent. They’re just completely manipulating and exploiting him. He’s been set up as a bit of a joke contestant/hate figure, and I think it’s mainly due to the fact that he’s now attracting plenty of media attention, and regularly causes a bit of a stir on Twitter and Facebook on Saturday night.
(Yeah yeah, I know that’s the nature of the show and the showbiz industry, but you don’t see any of the other contestants being set up as hate figures to quite the same extent… well, not by the judges anyway.)
It’s Wagner’s dream to win the show and become a pop star too, just as much as it’s Cher’s dream, or Rebecca’s dream. They KNEW what his abilities were when they put him through! He has every right to be there as everyone else. What are they expecting him to do, quit for the sake of maintaining the show’s integrity?! And be labelled by the press as a “drama queen” for “storming out” of the shows, no doubt.
And yet he’s still in, after some great singers like Treyc and Aidan were kicked off. I suspect that people are voting for him to annoy the judges and/or because they hate what the show stands for (kinda like the Rage against the Machine campaign last year). Also a lot of people think Wagner is a nice guy, so they’re probably voting for him to piss the judges off, who seem to relish mocking him. That’s certainly why I’d vote, if I were to vote.
But others are really up in arms about this whole thing, attacking Wagner and his supporters, by arguing that it’s unfair for voters to destroy “one of the few platforms for young talented musicians that there is on TV”. Um, really? The contestants are given cheesy pop songs to sing and are systematically voted off by the public based mostly on personality rather than singing ability… are people really trying to argue that this has anything to do with artistic integrity or promoting “talented musicians”? I’m not convinced.
So anyway, it turns out that there’s a Facebook group called “Wagner To Win X Factor” that’s probably got a lot to do with his popularity. Some of the comments on the page are quite telling of their motives, hehe:
“If you hate Simon Cowell and want to piss him off vote Wagner! If you want to help run the X factor into the ground and cause mayhem vote Wagner!”
“I actually think Wagner would make for a really fun Xmas number 1, gotta be better than the alternative romantic slushy shite that one of the other contestants would bring out!”
You gotta get over there, even if it’s just to see the ridiculous fan photos people have made. Oh my goodness.
That’s it, isn’t it? Causing mayhem. Fucking shit up. If you’re going to have the gall to openly mock and tear apart a contestant who wants it just as badly as anyone else, then you’re gonna pay for it. And damn, wouldn’t it be a fantastic send-off if this is Cowell’s last X factor, to have Wagner win the competition? Can you imagine Sony ploughing thousands of pounds into promoting Wagner?! :D
So yeah. That’s my take on the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, I know that reality TV and the Cowell-machine is a load of old cobblers and I’m not toooo bothered by the whole thing… but I just feel bad for Wagner, is all. I want to give him a little cuddle.
And finally, because I love lists, here is a quick breakdown of my opinions of the other contestants, in reverse order of preference:
7. One Direction. The Justin Bieber brigade? No thanks. A lot of people have expressed outrage at the fact that they were entered as five seperate singers, who were then turned into a band by the judges at boot camp – unfortunately, they survived longer in the competition than the proper bands! I have to agree that that seems very unfair, especially since most of the groups that were ousted were far better than One Direction, but I can’t say I’m surprised. You can practically see the pound signs in Cowell’s eyes when these guys sing. ¬_¬
Fun fact: someone on Twitter pointed out that every time Dermot O’Dreary says “One Direction”, it sounds as if he’s saying “Wand Erection”! This makes me giggle, and detracts every so slightly from the fact that they are shit.
6. Katie Waissel. Alright, so I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about the fact that she is already in with the guys at Sony BMG, a company of Cowell’s…. Anorak.co.uk have a great article about it all here. Other than that, her voice is really bland, and I hate how Simon and Cheryl fawn over her so much. She’s so bloody mediocre.
5. Mary Byrne. Very likeable and down-to-earth, but I don’t like her singing style/song choices. That’s just personal preference though. Would be rather happy if she won.
4. Cher Lloyd. There’s an air of arrogance about her that makes me uncomfortable, but I do like the fact that she’s a little different. It’s quite scary to think that she’s doing this show, and is 4 years younger than me. Eep.
3. Rebecca Ferguson. Classy, talented, but a little boring for my liking. She seems like a really nice person, and I like the fact that she’s understated and a little shy.
2. Matt Cardle. I like his kind of laid-back charm. He has a lovely voice too.
1. WAGNER. He exposes the show for its true farcical nature, even if his songs are badly chosen. What’s with all the up-tempo medleys and ridiculous over-the-top staging, Louis? You tool.
ETA: the dream is over. Good night sweet prince. [28.11.10]
Feminist musician, zinester, and activist. I write a perzine called Here. In My Head., edit a feminist comp-zine called Pandora Press, and edit zine review blog Spill the Zines. I'm also the media offer of the Swansea Feminist Network, and occasional write for various feminist publications.
On this blog I document my life and goings on, often with a feminist slant. I love hearing from my readers, so please leave comments and share your stories!
Best Film of 2011:
Best Book Read in 2011:
Best TV of 2011:
Top 5 Blogs Discovered in 2011:
