Friday, December 11, 2009

Tiger Ain't Outta the Woods Yet....

Hey all,

Sooo who else is sick of hearing about Tiger Woods? So the guy cheated on his wife...with however many women - what are we up to now? 10? Ugh. It's gross. It's wrong. But is it really any of our buisness?

If he did cheat, he was wrong and his wife had every right to try to brain him with his own golf club while he attempted to drive away in a very expensive car, which he crashed because he was in a drug induced stupor - or whatever the story was that day. Personally I would have tried to kill him too. Lol.. but is it really necesary to air another story on TV about Tiger Woods every 10 minutes? Yes I counted.

I think the media is blowing this whole ordeal waaay out of proportion and quite possibly making the situation worse. One minute Tiger's a cheater, the next he's a sex addict with connections to escort services, prostitutes, oh and apparently he's addicted to pain killers.

I also think that whichever NBC exec decided to give Jaime Whatsherface her 15 minutes of fame - which is what she clearly what all these women want - on the TODAY show is retarded. Forgive my language, but I really don't see the point of letting these homewrecking sluts get their TV time - they all try to appear sweet and innocent, but they are just as much in the guilty party as Tiger. They can't honestly say they didn't know he was married as I'm sure they all read the gossip rag magazines that are owned by the TV shows they appear on.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Planting of Girls

Hey All,

So this week I watched The Planting of Girls for Comm. 399 and all I really have to say is "ouch!"

The entire film (another by Viola Shafik by the way) is a documentary about the practice of female circumsicion in the Middle East. In the film various families get to discuss why they do or do not choose to circumsize their women.

Unlike male circumsicion, which typically happens at birth, female circumsision usually takes place at the onset of puberty or anytime between 7-13 years of age. More often than not, these procedures are done without any kind of anestheic. Basically what happens is the doctor or midwife (or whoever typically performs the procedure in a certain village) completely removes a girl's clitoris and the surrounding tissue...yeah...like I said...ouch!!!

From what I could gather, those who still choose to carry on the practice do so because it's a traditional practice that's been done for many years. Others claim that in the Quran the prophet encourages the practice to keep women pure and clean. In the film more than one mother validated her choice to circumsize her daughter because of the belief that circumzising actually helps calm a girl and keep her mild mannered as opposed to being a boy crazy wild child.

There has been a recent movement however to educate people about the practice of female circumsision and about the major misconceptions people have about the practice. There was one woman in the film who held a sort of sex ed. for grown ups class. She pretty much told these women that female circumsision does not make a girl calmly or pure...she tried to drive home the fact that modern science has determined that our brains are responsible for our control over our actions and if a girl is disobedient its because she chooses to be that way not because of a piece of skin.

Some of the women in the film were truely depressed because of their circumsisions. They have quite a bit of deep seated resentment and hatred toward their family members who one day grabbed them and forced this procedure on them. They were never asked their own permission. Others still were in unhappy marriages and in the midst of divorce. One man, in the film, actually came and complained to his wife's doctor about her inability to feel anything while in the midst of intercourse because of this procedure.

The film was pretty hard to sit through. You know how guys automatically cringe when they see another guy - in real life or even on TV - get kneed in the groin? Yeah, this film was kinda like that only for girls. Lol. The film wasn't graphic and it didn't show any of the actual procedures but just hearing about them was pretty bad. I just didn't quite understand why a mother - who had herself experienced the pain and suffering associated with such a procedure - would put her daughters through the same thing.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Lemon Tree

Hey All,

Soo just got done watching The Lemon Tree for Egyptian film. It was short and interesting...sort of.

The film was directed by Viola Shafik - the woman who's books we're supposed to be reading for the course.

The film take the story of The Lemon Tree written by Ibrahim Shokrallah and applies it to the writer's family living in the Middle East at a time of political unrest.

In the story, a little boy tells the story of his family's lemon tree that sits out in the garden. The family practically worships the tree. They love to watch the lemons grow and ripen; they like the smell of the lemons wafting through their house on breezy days, and the tree provides a comfortable shady spot to sit when the sun gets too hot. One day, the boy's father decides to chop down the tree to make way for an expansion to the house - the family would use the extra rooms to generate more income. This decision, of course, upsets the entire family, but the father does it anyway. The boy then explains the fear and anxiety he feels about his father's decision. While it may be just a tree to everyone outside the family, the boy explains that not having the tree there is like living in a foreign, chaotic world.

The story of the lemon tree serves as sort of an allegory to the writer's own family. The writer Ibrahim, the father, was an affluent writer at the time...he also was heavily involved on the political front. Well he got married, had 3 kids - all of whom also got involved in political matters. Each of his children was arrested at one point or another during student protests. It was a very chaotic time for the family. It was as if their own 'lemon tree' was cut down, their peace destroyed and all of a sudden the entire family was thrown into this foreign, chaotic world the boy in the story attempts to explain.

Yeah. It was a bit much to pack into a 28 minute film.