In my life as a pop culture deconstructor, one of the sacrifices I make involves getting up twenty minutes early every morning, just so that I can watch MTV’s entertainment news.

If you think that’s bad, one thing that makes this painful sacrifice particularly difficult is today’s ultimate in prefab bands, the Canadian band Hedley, who appear on MTV at least once every 3 minutes. From my expert viewpoint, Hedley’s punk/rebel/emo schtick is so fake - they just seem to be purveying the same old tired sexist, homophobic, classist, racist, ableist…values as their grandpas. But that critique really falls under “Thea’s Personal Rants” and I won’t subject you to it.

This morning while Hedley was being interviewed about their new album which drops today, they were asked if they were concerned about the fact that Britney Spears’ new album comes out today as well. Were they worried about the competition?

“Nah! She’s just trying to get her kids back!”, guitarist Dave Rosin said, “Give her some change or something, man,” And then drummer Chris Crippin proceeded to stick his belly out and do a “sexy” dance, in a clever impersonation of a so-called tubby Spears at the VMAs.

When Stacey May asked us last week if as feminists, we should be defending Spears, it occured to me that, while the way Spears has been treated is undoubtedly a prime example of verbal gendered violence - perpetrated by the media - at the same time she’s an incredibly powerful woman.

So why is Spears being labelled at all ends of the pop culture spectrum as utterly powerless? Hedley speaks of her as if she has the same amount of power and privelege as an underhoused or homeless single mother facing serious addiction issues. But they’re talking about a woman who is estimated to be worth $150 million. Hello?

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Compare and contrast: Dove wants us to feel good about ourselves, and the Body Shop wants us to help fight sex trafficking.

The Body Shop has partnered with the Helen Bamber Foundation to spread the word about the reality of sex trafficking. There have been a series of interactive installations on the topic in London, and the web video is the latest addition to the campaign. Starring Emma Thompson, the video tells a first person account of sex traffic from the visual viewpoint of the john (watch the video here - warning: it’s graphic and disturbing).

The Helen Bamber Foundation is a human rights group based in the U.K., working on both the legal and psychological fronts of sex traffic. The Body Shop is helping raise money, disseminate the video, and get people to sign petitions to delay the deportation of women arrested when sex traffic rings break up.

I’m curious what other people think of this.

I’m always trying to work my crushes into the Shameless Blog, so here’s Douglas Coupland‘s take on Halloween via a trailer for his new book, The Gum Thief. (By the way, I can vouch for the idea that people use “talking to a stranger’s dog” as a method of social interaction.)

Enjoy.

Okay, so it’s the time of year when everyone lets their hidden fantasy loose, their inner demon out, their freak flag fly, however you want to put it. And the next day we wipe off the eyeliner and fake blood and shaving cream and go back to our lives as usual. But for some people, every day is Halloween, and being what other people might call “freaks” is just a part of who they are. I suspect the dearly departed Les Georges Leningrad are some such people. The band broke up not too long ago, but their spirit lives on… on the internet (spooky). So for your Halloween enjoyment, here is a clip of them playing live in Detroit.

Other additions to the Halloween mixtape:

The Cramps - Human Fly
Thee Headcoatees - Strychnine
The 5678’s - Teenage Witch
Faun Fables - Catch Me
Anything by Diamanda Galas

Happy We’en-ing!

If you’re in Toronto, make sure to come by Canzine on Sunday and support independent publishing!

If you haven’t been before, Canzine is an independent press extravaganza with more than 150 zines from across Canada. The event runs from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Gladstone Hotel (here are directions to the event). Admission is only $5.

And besides stocking up on zines, comics (and, of course, issues of Shameless), there are great events happening all day throughout the building. Here are some details from the Broken Pencil website:

Featuring Ghost Stories at the Canzine Camp Fire, all day Indie Horror Videos, and our Cheap Thrills Special Effects exhibit. Also: Canzine Gorefest! Take the Canzine workshop on do-it-yourself gore, then ham up your fake black eye, bloody lip and severed hand at our “Cheap Thrills Special Effects Exhibit”. Plus: All day indie horror movies in the Canzine screening room.
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Sorry that my film Fridays post is late, but I wanted to write about a screening I attended last night at the National Film Board. It was a selection of recent animation, part of their World Animation Day festival.

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Apparently this Japanese commercial is quite old, but I only stumbled across it today. In some weird hybrid of female sexual exploitation for commercial gain and fast food capitalist consumerism, McDonald’s “sexed up” Ronald McDonald and brought us this:

“Those ivory shoulders are a throwback to Old Hollywood. Even though her body is tiny (5‘1”), it’s plush and lush. In fact, she embodies all the best contradictions. Half luminous angel, half tomboy… Sultry as a torch singer and shy as a convent girl.”

Nerve.com had this to say about Patricia Arquette when they crowned her “crush of the week” back in 2005. Her title was specific to her role on the television show Medium, which they described as “a suburban wife who channels an otherworld of violence,death, grief..no surprise either that she makes supernatural powers seem natural.” Medium is indeed a show of dualities, insisting that one side can never exist without the other.

I’ve just spent the last few days working my way through the third season of Medium on DVD, and although deep in my heart I always knew the show was somewhat groundbreaking in it’s potrayal of a wife , mother and professional woman, I am now certain that it’s my favorite depiction of domestic life/work balance on television today. Add to that the joy I experience via the thoughtful, realistic and often hilarious writing of Allison and Joe Dubois’ relationship, and I’m smitten. Believe me when I say I think this show is feminist, and I give credit to the show’s writers. I’ve never seen a husband and wife couple written in such a realistic, sympathetic and progressive way on mainstream television.

On the surface Medium is your typical prime-time supernatural crime drama, based on the real-life Allison Dubois, a self-proclaimed medium who uses her psychic abilities as a jury consultant and to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes. But from its inception, the show has focused not only the psychic solving of often brutal crimes, but on Allison’s family life with her aerospace engineer husband Joe and her three children, Marie, Bridgette and Ariel (who also, often problematically and humourously, share the beginnings of Allison’s gift.)

It’s a case of truth being better than fiction; coupling a scientific mind grounded in reality (Joe) with a woman with a “special gift” often faced with skepticism. Her family dynamic is always fundamental to the solving of every crime, and rather than Allison being the image of wifely and maternal perfection, she is flawed in ways most women can relate to.(more inside…)

There really is nothing to warm the heart like a bunch of gals in fishnets, crash helmets, and vintage rollerskates hip-checking each other and cursing like sailors.

from Susan Moss’s Roller Derby photo exhibit (Susan Moss)

If, like me, you are missing the gene required for rollerskating (also walking in high heels, appreciating small dogs), you can still check out Susan Moss‘s photo exhibit of the ladies in question, which will be on display at Blizzarts (3956a St. Laurent, in Montreal) for the month of November. The show kicks off with a vernissage on Nov. 1st from 8 to 11 PM.

The Montreal derby gals also have a bout coming up on Oct. 28th - sadly (for me) it’s in NYC, but cross your fingers for them nonetheless. And, if you think you have what it takes to strap on your kneepads, grease up your wheels, and get medieval on someone’s hiney, the crews are always looking for new members. Toronto also has several teams - check out The Smoke City Betties and The Gore Gore Rollergirls for starters.