A new study released Monday from the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative (MDSC) at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found a lack of gender equity in international films. In the 120 films the MDSC analyzed, only 30.9 percent of speaking and named characters were women.
This study is the first from the institute to take a specifically international perspective. Rather than looking at the top films overall, the MDSC compared 10 domestically popular movies with the top 10 films from the 10 largest international markets: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United Kingdom (the study also looked at 10 films produced collaboratively in the U.S. and U.K.).
The United States is far from a leader: Of the 11 most profitable film-producing territories, the United States ranks near the bottom in allocating speaking roles to women.
But surely it means nothing. And don’t bore us with further nonsense about women’s equality being an issue. That half the population is so underrepresented and underpaid in everything from board rooms to politics to sports and entertainment is just the way it is. We really need to quit our whining and concentrate on important issues. The ones that affect men.
I get that most people look at that and don’t see it as a problem because this is how the world has always been organized. It feels normal. Even many women feel this way. But it’s not normal. It’s an anachronistic throwback to a more primitive time. And frankly, I’m getting sick of the excuses I keep hearing from otherwise evolved people as to why this situation is not urgent and we must focus our attention on more important matters. For some reason there are always more important matters than equality for women.
National Voter Registration Day – Tuesday
by Tom Sullivan
In which Latino voters flex their American muscle. And in which I agree with Team Trump. Politico reviews the part Latino voters will play in the 2016 elections:
Hispanic activists have two words for Donald Trump — thank you.
“I think the greatest thing to ever happen to the Hispanic electorate is a gentleman named Donald Trump, he has crystalized the angst and anger of the Hispanic community,” U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Javier Palomarez told POLITICO in an interview. “I think that we can all rest assured that Hispanics can turn out in record numbers.”
Let’s hope that’s true.
The Trump camp is not worried, and it says it sees more Hispanic voters as a good thing.
“I don’t hear any empirical evidence that that is going to happen,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said about the idea that more Hispanic voters could hurt his chances. “The more people that take part in the election process, the better, and I think it’s clear that Mr. Trump has invigorated people who aren’t traditionally participating in the process.”
I couldn’t agree more. That is a rather refreshing sentiment coming from a Republican campaign, considering Republicans’ decades of pretzel logic, “voter fraud” propaganda, and legislative legerdemain aimed at defunding and disenfranchising voters who traditionally do not support Republicans. How much of the cheap talk from Team Trump is any more than that remains to be seen. Cheap talk being its candidate’s stock in trade and all.
By 2016, there will be an estimated 58.1 million Latinos in the United States. As of 2014—the most recent population estimates available—there were 55.4 million Latinos in the United States, making up 17.4 percent of the population. Between the last presidential election in 2012 and the next one in 2016, the Latino population will increase by 5 million people. Between 2014 and 2060, the Latino population is expected to increase 115 percent to some 119 million people; Latinos will be 29 percent of the U.S. population.
2. The Latino electorate is increasing
Latinos over the age of 18 will comprise 16 percent of the U.S. adult population in 2016. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the 2016 Latino over-18 population at nearly 39.8 million. A total of 800,000 Latinos turn 18 each year—one every 30 seconds or more than 66,000 individuals per month. Ninety-three percent of Latino children are U.S.-born citizens and will be eligible to vote when they reach age 18. As of 2014, one in four children in the United States—17.6 million total—were Latino. This contributes to the fact that people of color already make up nearly a majority of the under-18 population nationally. The share of the U.S. population under age 18 that is Latino is expected to increase from around 24 percent in 2014 to more than 33 percent in 2060.
3. The Latino share of eligible voters is growing
Latinos will make up 13 percent of all eligible voters in 2016, a 2 percent increase from 2012. And the numbers are much higher in some states. In Florida, for example, the share of eligible voters who are Latino will increase from 17.1 percent in 2012 to 20.2 percent in 2016. In Nevada, the 2012 to 2016 Latino eligible voter increase is 15.9 percent to 18.8 percent. Projections show that Latino eligible voters could reach 28.5 million nationwide in 2016.
4. Latinos are underrepresented on registered voter rolls
In 2012, there were 13.7 million Latinos registered to vote. However, given that 23.3 million Latinos were eligible to vote that year, 9.6 million Latinos—41 percent—were eligible to vote but did not register. And this does not include Latinos that could naturalize but have not. As of 2013, 8.8 million lawful permanent residents were eligible to become citizens that had not naturalized; at least 3.9 million of them were from Latin American countries, with more than 2.7 million from Mexico.
5. Latinos are showing up in greater numbers at the polls
More than 11.2 million Latinos voted in the 2012 presidential election. While impressive, that still means that 2.6 million Latinos who were registered did not vote. Moreover, 12.1 million—52 percent—of the 23.3 million Latinos who were eligible to vote did not do so. Latino voters made up 8.4 percent of the 2012 voting electorate. This share is 15 percent higher than 2008, an increase of 1.5 million voters. For 2016, estimates show that the Republican presidential nominee must garner the support of 47 percent to 52 percent of Latino voters in order to win the general election.
6. Immigration is the top issue for Latino voters
Polling clearly shows that immigration is the key issue for Latino voters, with wide support for comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship and implementation of the recent administrative actions. Immigration comes in significantly ahead of the next two top issues—the economy and education.
I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man.
-Michael (aka ‘Dorothy’), from Tootsie
If you have a list of 10 reasons to transition, sex would be number 10.
-Caitlin Jenner
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world
Except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola
-Ray Davies
***** This week’s review contains possible spoilers *****
Do you remember this tag line from When Harry Met Sally: “Can men and women be friends or does sex always get in the way?” In his latest film, The New Girlfriend, director Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool) aims to up that ante, asking “Can a straight, cross-dressing man and a straight woman be friends, or does sex always get in the way?”
The straight, cross-dressing man is David (Romain Duris), a young widower whose late wife Laura was BFF with Claire (Anais Demoustier). The depth of the women’s friendship is parlayed via opening montage (the French invented that word, you know). It’s all there, from childhood blood oath (“Together forever!”) to dreamy, vaguely erotic scenes of Claire lovingly brushing Laura’s hair (age 7 through womanhood), to Meeting Cute with their respective future husbands (on the same night, at the same discothèque!), happy weddings, the christening of David and Laura’s daughter, then…Laura’s tragic demise soon after, from some non-specified wasting disease. (*sigh*) C’est dommage.
Unfortunately, the remainder of the film, which focuses on an unexpected relationship that develops between the two survivors after David outs himself to Claire as they are both still struggling to come to terms with Laura’s death, never quite shakes off the soapy residue left over from that sudsy preface. This film should have worked; it has an intriguing premise, Ozon (who adapted his screenplay from Ruth Rendell’s novel) does his best Douglas Sirk impression in tone and execution, and the two leads are charismatic and eminently watchable throughout, but the melodrama is just too overcooked (especially in the overly-contrived denouement). Puzzlingly, the film is billed as a “Hitchcockian thriller”, which did a flyover on me. Well, maybe there’s a touch of Vertigo, in that one of the characters becomes an idealized surrogate for the departed to the other character (I’m being vague, to keep this as spoiler-free as possible). You know what they say-it’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world. Except for Lola…
…and one more thing
Hollywood saw it coming, pt. MCMXCIX
I’m sure you heard about Ahmed Mohamed and his homemade digital clock earlier this week. The incident was so absurd; it’s like something out of a stoner comedy. Oh, wait…
Here’s a video of a police officer spotting someone walking down the road, pulling over, instantly demanding the person submit to him or get tasered, refusing to tell him why he’s being detained, then tasering him into submission making him scream in pain, when he passively resists.
And then the officer arrests him for resisting arrest.
Now the whole thing has become a political issue in the town. The police chief originally said the video was egregious and appeared to have violated policy. Then she reversed herself. And now she has been placed on leave:
The police chief here will be paid to stay at home while investigators sort out how and why she returned an officer to work not long after the chief had called the cop’s use-of-force on a suspect “egregious,” the city manager said.
Opal Mauldin-Robertson placed Chief Cheryl Wilson on administrative leave on Thursday. The city manager faulted Wilson for being “inconsistent with agreed upon directives” between her and city officials.
Wilson, who had confirmed Friday morning that she was on leave, did not respond to a call seeking comment after Mauldin-Robertson’s 5-minute-long Friday evening news conference. Wilson’s attorney also didn’t respond to a request for comment after he had said Friday morning that he was waiting to hear why Wilson was on leave.
Mauldin-Robertson said that the next day, Wilson told her, Assistant City Manager Rona Stringfellow and City Attorney Bob Hager that the incident was “serious, and appeared to, at a minimum, violate our policy.”
Fine was reassigned pending an administrative review about whether he justifiably used his Taser. The department’s Taser instructor later said he used it appropriately, Mauldin-Robertson said.
Two weeks later, Wilson met with the mayor and Mauldin-Robertson to watch the video together. Mauldin-Robertson said Wilson agreed to keep them updated.
But after a Dallas County prosecutor and a Texas Ranger both said the officer was justified in stopping Tucker, Wilson returned Fine to his regular duty. Mauldin-Robertson said Friday the investigation had not been completed.
Mauldin-Robertson said Wilson, who became chief in 2013 after a career with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, waited five days to tell her the officer had been exonerated and returned to regular duty.
Mauldin-Robertson said Wilson’s decision to return Fine to the job “without any actions or recourse caused some questions and concerns regarding the completeness and independent review of this matter.” She said Wilson would remain on leave until those questions could be answered.
Mauldin-Robertson then ignored reporters’ questions after the news conference.
What appears to have happened is that the Chief understood immediately that this was a bad stop and an egregious use of the taser but came under pressure from her department to let it go. And the city officials aren’t having it.
Both the chief and the city manager are African American women so it appears that this is as much a matter of the thin blue line in general as it is systemic racism.
Cops use tasers willy nilly on everyone, we know that, and it’s horrifying for me to watch anyone screaming in pain during a police encounter when they are presenting no threat to the cop or it’s clear that the situation could have been dealt without shooting a human being full of electricity to force their compliance.
But I cannot imagine how galling it to be a black person walking down the street, minding your own business, doing nothing wrong and have a white man run up and demand that you instantly submit to him on demand, without explanation for no reason. It’s true that in the Jim Crow south for centuries any white man could do this and now it’s only people in uniform who are allowed this “privilege”, but the historical resonance is truly striking. I’m sure that African Americans feel this in their bones.
I Guess Muhammad’s Pencil Box is Cooler Than the Palin Kids’
“It doesn’t look like a pencil box to me.” I love Bristol’s perspective on this. You have to read this: http://www.patheos.com/…/obama-invites-kid-mistakenly-arre…/
Talk about the dangers of a reactionary-slash-biased media! The first reports on this potential bomb-imitator were so fishy to begin with.
Friends, consider the kids disciplined and/or kicked out of school for bringing squirt guns to school or taking bites out of a pop tart until it resembled (to some politically correct yahoo) a gun. Or the student out deer hunting with his dad early one morning who forgot he had a box of ammo in his truck when he parked in the school’s lot later that day. Kids humiliated and intimidated for innocent actions like those real examples are often marked the rest of their lives and made to feel really rotten. Whereas Ahmed Muhammad, an evidently obstinate-answering student bringing in a homemade “clock” that obviously could be seen by conscientious teachers as a dangerous wired-up bomb-looking contraption (teachers who are told “if you see something, say something!”) gets invited to the White House.
By the way, President Obama’s practice of jumping in cases prematurely to interject himself as the cool savior, wanting so badly to attach himself to the issue-of-the-day, got old years ago. Remember him accusing police officers doing their job as “acting stupid”; claiming if he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin; claiming he needed to know who was a fault in an industrial accident so he’d “know who’s a** to kick”; etc., etc. Those actions are about as presidential as his selfie stick.
Here’s background on Muhammad’s innocent “clock” he brought to school, and his suspicious refusal to answer authorities.
http://www.breitbart.com/…/09/18/real-story-istandwithahmed/
Yep, believing that’s a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history. Right. That’s a clock, and I’m the Queen of England.
You want authentic? Sarah Palin is the most authentic voice of the American right we have in public life. Completely confident in its incoherence.
Technically, Fiorina wasn’t on late night but I had to include her since she’s the new comer. I assume she’ll appear soon on a late night show. Probably the biggest act of chutzpah in all those clips, and that includes Trump, is Carly Fiorina saying “one of the things I think people are tired of is sanitized soundbites” and calling Hillary Clinton a liar.
Also too, she is not a very nice woman:
Seriously, the contrast among these people is extreme on every level as far as I’m concerned. Both Clinton and Sanders are lightyears more qualified, more articulate and more humane than these GOP clowns, creeps and climbers.
What does it take to impersonate a Donald Trump supporter? As Jimmy Kimmel Live correspondent Jake Byrd discovered Tuesday night, all you need is a lot of enthusiasm, a vehement opposition to Obamacare and the media, and a cowboy hat.
Byrd went undercover as a Trump voter at The Donald’s speech yesterday in Dallas, Texas, disguised in a ‘Make America Great Again’ cowboy hat. He first met with real-life Trump supporters outside American Airlines Arena, goading them into putting “Trump stamps” on their lower backs and convincing them to join him in cheers of “DTF,” which he said stood for “Donald Trump Forever.” The acronym, first popularized by the MTV show “Jersey Shore,” actually means “down to fuck.”
Byrd then ventured inside for Trump’s speech, where he managed to score a seat almost directly behind the GOP candidate. He met each of Trump’s applause lines with maniacal enthusiasm, burst into loud laughter at every joke and changed into a DTF hat mid-way through the speech. Trump seemed to eventually notice his happily unhinged fan, turning around to say, “I love these people back here.”
“We love you, Donny!” Byrd yelled back.
Yesterday on the Five on Fox Greg Gutfield said he thinks those questioners at the Trump rally were all hoaxters too. Unfortunately he neglected to note that Trump chose the questioners. And that what that guy said is everyday speech in right wing circles.
The glorious and all-powerful, self-correcting MARKET (its Name be praised; genuflect if the Spirit moves) found itself disturbed earlier this week when something that wasn’t supposed to be possible happened. Very early on Sunday morning, the price of electricity went wonky in Texas (where else?). As Daniel Gross tells it:
And then a very strange thing happened: The so-called spot price of electricity in Texas fell toward zero, hit zero, and then went negative for several hours. As the Lone Star State slumbered, power producers were paying the state’s electricity system to take electricity off their hands. At one point, the negative price was $8.52 per megawatt hour.
Impossible, most economists would say. In any market—and especially in a state devoted to the free market, like Texas—makers won’t provide a product or service at a negative cost. Yet this could only have happened in Texas, which (not surprisingly) has carved out its own unique approach to electricity.
Texas being the sovereign republic of legend, the state has organized electricity production to make the state “an electricity island.” Texas may allow oil and gas pipelines to cross its borders, but not power lines. Its power grid does not connect with other states. This makes the Texas market for electricity self-contained as well, and if there is surplus production the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) cannot sell it to the national grid. Plus, its unique market structure resets the price of power going into the grid through a bidding process every 15 minutes.
Here’s the kicker: Texas also has more wind generating capacity than any other state. And it was particularly breezy in Texas last Sunday morning. Wind-farm owners had an incentive to lower their prices. And wind producers, Gross writes, still get a federal tax credit equal to $23 per megawatt-hour. You can do the math.
The MARKET will be displeased. Very. A sacrifice will be required. Guess whose?
In other Force-disturbing news, Apple’s new iOS 9 operating system will allow ad-blocking. Within hours of the iOS 9 release, ad-blocking apps shot to the top of the list at Apple’s App Store:
It was inevitable that something like this would happen. After all, we’ve been here before. In their pleas to readers that ad-blocking is killing their business, media executives sound exactly like their counterparts in the music and film industries who have spent untold millions searching for a way to prevent digital piracy. Some of those strategies worked better than others, but piracy in some form or another is here to stay. There will always be someone providing a new workaround, and audiences are rarely convinced by appeals to the sanctity of the artist’s—or, in this case, the journalist’s—craft.
In the near future, it seems likely that an arms race will break out. The answer to ad blockers is to create ads that can’t be blocked. The answer to those ads is to make more sophisticated ad blockers, and so on and so on.
