Courtenay Hameister: Always starting trouble. First she pretends to not know what a Gorn is, then she admits she never saw Temple of Doom, then she maligns Whoopi Goldberg’s Oscar Winning performance in “Ghost,” introduces the idea that maybe Louis C.K. isn’t the best comedian around and maybe your indie band doesn’t deserve that record deal, and by the end, she manages to insult Hollywood Superstar Producer Dean Devlin. Oh, also, there’s the bit there, in the middle, right after a discussion about Geek Trivia, where we sorta back into last week’s internet-wide debate about why some nerds feel like they need to be geekdom’s self-appointed caretakers, the inherent misogyny that almost always accompanies such heavy-handed attempts to exclude others from being geeky, and how it’s weird that a group of people normally not known for their religious fervor can turn into the unholiest of crusaders when it comes to making the things they buy the most important parts of their identites.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Play along at home, with this handy-dandy essay supplement to one of the show’s discussions: “Five Reasons the Academy Awards are Pretty Much Useless.”
http://fatboyroberts.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/5-reasons-the-academy-awards-are-pretty-much-worthless/
Good piece. I don’t get hung on these awards but I did just watch Dog Day Afternoon recently and wondered who won best actor that year (Pacino was nominated, and awesome in it. Made me miss old Pacino.) and it was Nicholson for One Flew Over. I checked to see when Nicholson won again, and clearly your “he’s due” mandate also means “he’s due not just for a first but for another because it’s been a while.” Hence 22 years later Nicholson gets another best actor for being a gruff, fat homophobic crank in As Good As It Gets, an uninspired performance in a mediocre movie. Maybe all great actors eventually just morph into giant, juicy pieces of ham. Mmmm, ham. We do love our ham. Hopefully in 20 years we won’t see The Viggo Mortensons, Philip Seymour Hoffmans and Joesph Gordon Levitts of today screaming “SHABEEPEEP WAGGA BOO-BOO!” on screen and getting industry praise for it.
Joseph Gordon Levitt IS Adam Sandler IN “Shabeepeep Wagga Boo Boo: The Adam Sandler Story”
I think this is the (Danish) show that Courtenay was referencing, Dumt & Farligt. Water bed explosion at the 5:04 mark. Best is indoor fireworks at 1:57 though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZ-e2SkeMI
Dear Grumpkins & Snarks,
You have the best username in the history of the internet.
Love,
Courtenay
Dear Courtenay,
I love ripping off the work of writers with actual talent, so thank you. Also, Livewire Radio is amazing so thank you very much for that. It’s no prairie home companion or cartalk though
By the way, you’re hot.
Lot’s of (non-creepy) love,
Grumpkins & Snarks
I must admit, I never really blew anything up as a child. As an adult, however, that seems to have changed. A couple of years ago on New Year’s Eve I convinced a few of my friends to allow me to put some rather large firecrackers into the mouth and anus of a stuffed rabbit and light it up.
I gotta say, it was pretty satisfying. Perhaps those little boys are onto something.
As the old Hawaiian saying goes, “the only lava you want to play with is that bar of soap”. Not a real saying, and while I could attempt to make a joke about what the mainland U.S. has donated to the Hawaiian islands in the last 100, I will not. As far as trash being placed into volcanoes, that’s not done in Hawai’i. However, there are some who do believe in the stories/myths of the different Hawaiian gods and that if one sees a lava flow coming through, you are supposed to leave an offering. Some simply offer well wishes (i.e. a prayer), others leave flowers. But then there’s one belief that Pele, the fire goddess, is a lover of gin. If a volcano erupts and the lava flow heads into a state park, highway, farm, or someone’s house, people will leave a bottle or two of gin as a way to either 1) stop it. 2) say thank you. Of course, if you’re Madam Pele and you are the form of molten lava (activate!), you’re not going to stop for anything. Most people aren’t going to run to free gin when the flow is coming in. As slow as the flow may be, it’s hot. Then you have fire rangers and forest maintenance people who get pissed because they have to clean up the trail of broken glass. But Pele did get her gin, so “mahalo nui, Pele”. All I know is, this may prevent me from returning home ever again.
In truth, the belief of different gods in ancient Hawai’i can be simplified as being thankful for something, and having that something be represented by an entity. Even simpler, it goes back to “you take, you also give back”. Or to cite Wikipedia: “During these ancient times, the only ‘religion’ was one of family and oneness with all things. The people were in tune with nature, plants, trees, animals, the ‘āina, and each other. They respected all things and took care of all things.” Or to paraphrase what K-Ci & JoJo said in that Father MC song, treat others how you want to be treated. Baby yeah.
I did like the section about geeks/nerds and identities, which I could relate to as I’m sure I’ve done that to some degree in the past. People can stick to/be devoted to what they love, but life is far more interesting when that shell is cracked.
I’m not excusing the misogyny, cause there is no excuse to be had for it, but…
How much of nerd/geek misogyny is a result of said geeks being poorly treated by women on account of their geekishness? These days the occurrences for young nerds are less to be sure. But the older male geek generation, the one currently most-heavily involved in general nerdery (from creation to appreciation), probably saw a lot more of that kind of treatment. Like I said, not an excuse. Just a discussion point.
I don’t think that happened all that frequently, really. It seems like it did thanks to films of the era, but as an older nerd myself – I don’t remember being treated any worse by girls because I was into Star Wars. Of course, that’s just one anecdotal experience amongst many, but I don’t remember too many other nerdy friends of mine being rejected/rebuffed by women solely because they were into movies/tv more than they were sports.
What I KNOW was pretty prevalent, and it was definitely something I did as an idiot teenager more than a few times, was buy into the idea that if I was super nice to girls, they’d recognize how nice I was, and then give me sex in return. And then when they responded to my niceness by being a friend as opposed to being my girlfriend, I took it poorly, as if I was being denied something I was owed.
This is some ridiculous, backwards, sexist bullshit, by the way. As is the concept of “The Friend Zone” because it assumes the only reason you should be nice to a girl is because she might put her mouth on your genitals.
So I think a lot of the misogyny in nerdery stems more from the fear of the friendzone, the fear of rejection, and either the inability or the lack of desire to socially maneuver more dextrously through such situations.
A lot of nerds consider girls as prizes first and foremost. I think that’s probably a bigger contributor to the embedded sexism in “Geek Culture” than the idea that women were mean to them in high school.
The “girls as a prize” mindset is definitely prevalent in geek culture, but that’s the kind of sexism that really still permeates guy culture in general- the belief that having a girl for having’s sake is what it’s all about. But it’s definitely very evident in geek culture. I think that mindset is improving, though. Just like you know very few geeks who were picked on for their pursuits I know very few geeks who view ladies as a trophy to be displayed next to their Han Solo Limited Edition Blaster.
The Friend Zone is an entirely different beast, though. Speaking from personal experience, it’s not always just sex-based, though the perpetuation of that mindset does continue.
I like Leverage, it’s clever (at times) and fun.
That is all I’d like to add at this moment in time
On the hot magma issue: If you fell into a volcano, wouldn’t you start on fire long before you hit the lava just from the heat? And if that was the case, wouldn’t you die via horribly-painful skin melting before you even impact? Or would you suffer through the skin melting and blistering, only for your last moment to be the bone-crushing impact onto the molten rock?
Maybe the smoke inhalation would render you unconscious before you even start on fire, though.
Damn. It’s almost like you’re calling out Keith when you were talking about the whole militant Atheists being guilty of the same things they rail against regarding organized religion… *cough*
I think there are some geeky activities that are more prominent among geeky women than men. For example, fannish Livejournal communities come to mind, which tend to be more about graphics and fanfic than off-LJ message boards and whatnot (depending on the topic of course).
I personally feel like I’ve always felt more “at home” in female-dominated nerd spaces; in terms of gaming, I’m a casual gamer and only own consoles because I like Zelda and Final Fantasy (how’s that for a stereotype?). I always wrote a lot but it was only through fanfiction that I learned to experiment (yes, some of it slash, yes some of it porny, though never 50 Shades level!). I get geeky about Jane Austen adaptations.
But then, that’s purely my own experience and, you’re also right that there aren’t really any generalisations and to make some is pretty sexist. Some geeky women just want to discuss gameplay and couldn’t give a flying fuck about romantic plotlines. Some geeky women hate Joss Whedon. Some are Trekkies, other swear by Farscape, Babylon Five or superhero comics.. It really takes all kinds.
I guess the main point about keeping Geek Trivia friendly towards geeks of all genders is just to keep an open mind, and not to forget your audience isn’t just composed of one type of geek. I’m pretty sure you guys do well with that, because you seem to do okay with that on the show. I’ve listened to some nerdblabby pods where the assumption is that every listener is a white hetero dude who loves Lara Croft’s boobs and “no homo” is said unironically. Now that’s hugely exclusionary and partly why I like it in my mostly-female fandom spaces.
I get that “you just lost greek cred” bullshit far too often. Any time someone finds out there’s some big-time pop culturey series of movies that I haven’t seen, they get offended. Or that I haven’t played some well-known video game series. I spent my childhood and high school years with my nose shoved into books. And these days all my time is spent drawing until my hand falls off, so I’m not playing video games.
It’s gotten to the point that I’ve made a game of it. First to see the utter look of shock and disbelief when I utter the phrase “I’ve never seen Star Wars.” Then it’s a 50/50 bet on whether they insult me or start making plans to get me to watch all of them. Not a single one has followed through on such plans, though.
I will succeed. My plan is still currently somewhat nebulous, but I know it will involve 300 meters of purple duct tape, strawberry cheesecake and at least one of those little garden trowels. I’ll let you know when I have something on paper.
At the beginning of the show, you start in on Godfather3 with a giant spoiler to the 25 year old movie… well FUCK ME if i didn’t just start watching it for the first time last night, failing to make it all the way through, i was planning on watching the rest of it tonight.