Where are MY Heroes?
Warning: RANT

Last night I watched (on tape, the old-fashioned way) the first hour of NBC’s new drama “Heroes.” I’ll finish it tonight. I’ve been kind of geeked about it, because I like the whole “finding out about special powers and what to do with them” storyline, whether it's mutants or wizards or tales of personal strength and growth. I was expecting last night’s episode to be full of all kinds of wonder and discovery and drama, and maybe even the writing and characterization would be decent, too! Well, it wasn’t all bad and there were some interesting moments, but a lot of it proved to be just as mundane and clichéd as your typical sitcom. Minor irritations, really. What irked me the most, though, was the portrayal of the women “heroes.” The only women depicted as having powers (so far) in this drama are the sex worker and the cheerleader (we open with hot, hot scene of Sex Worker writhing about in her skivvies before a camera, and later we get to see her be assaulted. How original.) The cheerleader’s story is initially told through the eyes of the underdog boy who videotapes her. It may have been her story, but I felt that he was the sympathetic character at first. He was the typical high school underdog. We’ve been trained for years to see through his eyes. Fortunately we lose the boy and the cheerleader’s story looks like it will improve as the show continues. The other major female character was the beautiful young black woman who is dating the crazy artist but who kind of likes the (male) nurse. I don’t yet know what she does besides date guys and take care of grandpa. She may be a hero, she may be important, she may not, I’ll hold my judgment until I’ve seen more.

I know, I know, the target audience here is young men, and young women are secondary targets, blah blah blah. But seriously, what harm would it do to make the artist, or the academic, or the nurse/politico sibling pair, or the Japanese guy a woman? Would it really turn away male viewers if they had to watch a woman that’s neither sexual nor love interest nor the “other?” I’ll bet it wouldn’t. In fact, if “Heroes” featured better female characters it may even attract more female viewers. Network television loves more viewers! Let’s compare these characters to another ensemble of superheroes: the mutants of the X-Men films. The X-Men were a more gender diverse group. The female characters were strong leaders, scared teens, and loyal teammates. They were sexy, sure, but all the X-Men were hotties so attractiveness was pretty all-inclusive. Many women watched the X-Men, in large part because we were able to identify with the characters (in a fantasy sense, not a reality sense). And did the male audience reject X-Men because there were too many girls? No! It tore up the box office! A decent script helped, sure, but that’s beside the point. What I’m trying to say is this: television executives should not fear the strong women. Just because there’s a respectable woman main character or two in the cast does not make it a girls’ show and therefore unwatchable to men. Ditto to Hollywood.

BTW: Women also like X-Men because Wolverine and Cyclops are babes, but babes alone don’t draw us en masse to the movie theaters.

Six Months!

Today is the day I've finally made it to 6 months on the job. 6 months of full-time employment with bennies and all those perks. 6 months of 40+ hour weeks, holidays and weekends off, paid sick days, and cheap dentist appointments. It's been much more tolerable, and even enjoyable, than I ever imagined. I used to stand firmly opposed to the 40-hour work week, but now I welcome it. I love the ability to take for granted my bi-weekly paycheck, I love the freedom to schedule activities and trips in advance, and I love feeling useful, appreciated, and necessary. Sure it's only been six months, so I'm still riding high on that "yay I'm employed!" feeling, and I'm sure I'll feel the boredom and drudgery of a consistent and regular schedule soon enough. In the meantime, though, I'll appreciate this as much as possible.
By the way, I've never held a full-time job for this long. I've had a part-time job for a year and a half, I've freelanced for nearly two years, and I've had a 6-month full-time temp job. This just barely beats out the temp job. How did I manage to make it 26 years without a full-time job? I like to think it was my perseverance.
Oh, and this is by far the best job I've ever had as long as I don't count the TV show "Staffers," which was more of an adventure than actual employment, except that I got paid (no benefits, other than a kick-ass time). Maybe one day I'll have another similar employment experience, but if I don't then at least I had that.
A few observations: 1. Working regular hours sure makes time pass extra-quickly. 2. My brain appreciates the school/work balance.
BTW I don't want to make it sound like my life is all flowers and rainbows. I'm very angry about many things, mainly the government but a good deal of social issues as well. I have personal shit I don't exactly write about on this blog, too. But my job is one positive aspect of my life and school is another. That's why I tend to go on and on about them. Talk to me in a few months, on a day where my job is boring me stiff and school is kicking my ass. I may have different words.

Politics, School, and Life in General

I’ve had a busy, busy week so far, and it’s only Thursday. Since the beginning of school, my life has rapidly picked up its pace and I’m grateful for the new variety, activity, and stimulation.
So much has been going on around me as well. I voted in the Democratic primary this past Tuesday. It was hardly a race; Clinton and Spitzer both won by margins as wide as 70%. Holy lopsided, batman! There real competition happened in my district and was marked by some racial tensions. In short: it’s a predominantly black district, but thanks to recent redistricting and gentrification there are now large white populations (and Jewish populations, who are white but yet another demographic). In the past, the congressional seat has been held by black congress-people. This year the candidates consisted of three black people and one rich white guy. You can see the potential for controversy. At the end of the day, the seat went to one of the black candidates, Yvette Clarke, but the white guy ran a close second. A few people I spoke with (by no means a representative sample of the district’s population) expressed the idea that race shouldn’t matter and the best candidate should win, and to a degree I think that’s a reasonable and fair argument. Yet I tend to believe that if you are a member of a minority or oppressed class, you may be more likely to address important and relevant issues that affect you as underclass that the majority or ruling class may overlook. Since the district is still mostly black, chances are higher that another black person will better represent the people and their needs. That is why I like to see women in congress and in all kinds of positions of power: I feel they are more likely to address issues that are of great importance to my half of the population that the male half may not necessarily take on. It would be nice if we could all be race and gender blind, but that’s just not possible as long as there is an imbalance of power between the races and genders.

Other than that, class is moving along well. After two sessions of each, I think it’s clear that one class is vastly superior to the other in terms of interesting subject matter and engaging discussion. One class is all about research, and although it’s something we need to know, you can’t really have a valuable and lengthy debate about research. Well, you can, but it’s not very productive. Maybe it will get better once we move onto our respective research projects, but for now the class discussion seems like so much filler.

Since I’m at work I think I should get back to actually working.

Parrots are Cool


There is a flock of wild Quaker parrots who live on the Brooklyn College campus.* They came from Argentina around 1966, when they broke free while being transported from LaGuardia. They chose to go hang out and live around the college and I don't blame them. I went to hang out at the college yesterday, too, and it was lovely and quiet and full of yummy grass (apparently these parrots like to eat grass, like they're cows or something. Wierdos). Anyway, I'll be visiting the parrots more often, because they are too much fun to watch. Maybe I'll even get some binoculars. I may turn into a birder yet.

*There are several other flocks around Brooklyn, the Bronx, Jersey, and Connecticut, but the Brooklyn College parrots were the first in the area and one of the largest flocks around.

YAWWNNN

I've been a little lazy on the updates as of late. Lots rolling around in my brain, but little motivation to put it to page. So here is a half-assed rundown of my current activities:

I was finally trapped in an elevator on Monday, after years of fearing being trapped in an elevator. Obviously I got out, so all is well. Unfortunately the elevator is in my apartment building (no shocker... it's always broken) so now I have to climb six flights of stairs on my way home every day because I don't want to be caught in there again.

I started volunteering for a campaign. The candidate is going to win by a large margin so they don't really need my help, but hey, it's something to do, it's social, and I get to go to the victory parties. Also, I actually like the candidate a lot, which is why I am supporting him with my time in addition to my vote.

2nd class went well. The students are much more diverse than the ones I met during orientation, which comforts me. There's even another audience researcher! School is looking more and more like a good time after all.

I sent an angry email to ABC regarding that Path to 9/11 tripe. DON'T WATCH THEIR PIECE-OF-SHIT RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA! I'm more angry than I can possibly say. I wish I'd been chosen to have a Nielson Ratings box just so I could refrain from watching ABC ever again. Gray's Anatomy has gone a little over the top anyway.

And that is all the news for now. In a half an hour I'm going to spend some time disturbing people at home with campaign phone calls. Yikes. I wish they'd make me stuff envelopes or something. I have lots of experience with envelopes. I was a temp, after all.

Speaking of temping... Tuesday was 1 year from when I started at the Opera. It was the beginning of a new phase in my life: the responsible 8-hour workday phase. The Opera was a good place to transition. Ah, memories.

BTW

I didn't go back to the acupuncturist. Now my stomach hurts again, but I can buy a digital camera! Or not.

First Day of School

I am a little late on reporting the details of my first day. I don’t care to write much at the moment, but I will say that I was pleased with my first class. The law is so interesting — it’s a combination of logic and interpretation -- and I was thrilled to exercise my brain again. At first I was worried that the class would mirror my undergrad law class. That is, I was afraid I would spend a semester memorizing laws, rules, and cases. Snore! But it seems that the class will be more comprehensive and research-oriented, which is typical of grad school from what I understand. And I’m glad! I left the class feeling optimistic and excited. I still don’t know whether or not I’ll follow through with the entire program, but for now I’m glad to be in class at long last.