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Things that annoy me
1. You know, I wish the commentators (aka, Dick Button) would stop talking about the new judging system like it's the plague! I don't even care that much about the new rules or whatnot, but I am so sick of everyone turning around and thinking it's the worst thing in the world. Ok, ok, everyone being some of the commentators on NBC and ABC. Seriously though. They have been doing this for the last two winters, and originally I might have agreed with them, except I am tired of hearing of it now.
2. I wish Dick Button would stop giving so many props to skaters who are "easy on the eyes" or "comfortable to watch." Usually I am all for the artistic bit of things, but it's been getting so that every single time someone skates, one of the commentators will mention the new system and how it privileges jumps over choreography or somesuch. And then I start arguing with them in my head, because it's in the Olympics! The new system was put in for a reason after people heavily disagreed with the results of the old system! Choreography is not a sport, but jumps are! Wargh.
It also irritates me because almost every single time Dick Button comments on something, there's a comparison to the good old days before this horrible new-fangled system with its actual points, and then I get irritated again because it sounds like he's just being reactionary. And, well... sport! If the figure skating people or whoever decides the rules wanted to make the choreography more important, than would it be in more art competition type things or something? I dunno.
Again, talking about the commentators and not LJ people, because I have been listening to the commentators say this for two years.
3. I wish Dick Button would stop giving so many props to skaters who are "easy on the eyes" or "comfortable to watch" for another reason as well. I understand that wobbly spirals and whatnot means sloppy technique, and that good extension and the like are signals of athleticism. But I also get the sense that there is this view that the skaters should be lovely and delicate and wispy, and that if you are a stocky skater who has explosive jumps but not-so-delicate choreography, you immediately get points off. Not from the judges, given how well Slutskaya does, but from the rest of the commentators.
And that just makes me think about skaters as athletes and how there seems to be this push to see them as beautiful dolls or ballerinas, and that when an athlete lets her muscle and her power show through over the gracefulness, she gets put down. And while I'm sure this goes for the male skaters as well, it hits me the wrong way. Why shouldn't the female skaters be "allowed" to be athletic and powerful? Why is it that the powerful ones always get this complaint about not being graceful enough? And it seems like the graceful ones always have this free pass, despite falling, just because they are so beautiful.
4. The commentator who said "All the other skaters skate to Romeo and Juliet, but [Sasha Cohen] is Juliet" should be hit over the head with a kendo stick for making me gag.
5. I watched lovely vids for Kill Bill last night, which only reminded me of why Kill Bill annoys me. There's the entire violence bit, which I'm not so good with, but what actually turns me off is the entire martial arts thing. I understand that Tarantino adores Hong Kong martial arts movies and that it's supposed to be a tribute to them, but I can't help but be reminded of the way Joss included Asian culture in Firefly. I feel almost as though Tarantino is appropriating martial arts and the whole Asian mystique thing in Kill Bill.
There's Lucy Liu playing a Japanese woman in a kimono and the typical Japanese schoolgirl. There's the hordes of faceless Japanese killer ninjas. There's the master of martial arts. There's the mystical maker of katanas. There's the mix of Japanese and Chinese with no real distinction between the two.
And, much like Firefly, I feel like Tarantino is paying lip service to the incorporation of Asians and Asian culture in the movie, so that in the end, it's a tall, blonde, white woman who is trained by the mystical and quixotic Chinese martial arts master, who takes the mystical katana of doom, who cuts through swathes of Japanese ninjas. The Asians in the movie are all types. I do get that pretty much everyone in the movie is a type, as exemplified by the Bride being the Bride and not someone with a name, but in the end, the real villains and the heroine are all white while they all take on the trappings of Asian culture (or, more accurately, Asian culture filtered through Hong Kong martial arts movies and the Japanese samurai mythos filtered through Tarantino), while the Asians are again relegated to being ninja or geisha girls or Japanese schoolgirls or martial arts masters.
This wouldn't be so irritating if there were adequate representation of Asians elsewhere, but there isn't. And so it's frustrating when what little does come through is filtered through Tarantino's childhood recollections of Hong Kong B-movies and samurai, no matter how much it's intended as a tribute to these fond memories. Also, just the fact that these are Tarantino's memories are somewhat indicative of the perception of Asians and the common portrayal of Asians in the media. This is not to say that no one can ever represent Asians as martial arts masters or the like, or that no one should enjoy these things, but that I think there is a problem when that's the sole cultural representation of a race, just like people who watch anime and think that they understand everything about Japan (I'm talking about irritating fangirls or reporters who watch one Miyazaki movie and think that means they can draw giant conclusions about the entire nation, not people on LJ).
I would say more about the blaxploitation aspect and how that's treated with the opening fight in Kill Bill, except I don't know that much about blaxploitation movies of the seventies, nor about Jackie Brown or the like. Sigh.
Ok, am done ranting now. But yes, if Dick Button admires the way a skater looks one more time instead of directly connecting the "gracefulness" to the power to actually hold your leg up without wobbling, I will throw something at the TV.
2. I wish Dick Button would stop giving so many props to skaters who are "easy on the eyes" or "comfortable to watch." Usually I am all for the artistic bit of things, but it's been getting so that every single time someone skates, one of the commentators will mention the new system and how it privileges jumps over choreography or somesuch. And then I start arguing with them in my head, because it's in the Olympics! The new system was put in for a reason after people heavily disagreed with the results of the old system! Choreography is not a sport, but jumps are! Wargh.
It also irritates me because almost every single time Dick Button comments on something, there's a comparison to the good old days before this horrible new-fangled system with its actual points, and then I get irritated again because it sounds like he's just being reactionary. And, well... sport! If the figure skating people or whoever decides the rules wanted to make the choreography more important, than would it be in more art competition type things or something? I dunno.
Again, talking about the commentators and not LJ people, because I have been listening to the commentators say this for two years.
3. I wish Dick Button would stop giving so many props to skaters who are "easy on the eyes" or "comfortable to watch" for another reason as well. I understand that wobbly spirals and whatnot means sloppy technique, and that good extension and the like are signals of athleticism. But I also get the sense that there is this view that the skaters should be lovely and delicate and wispy, and that if you are a stocky skater who has explosive jumps but not-so-delicate choreography, you immediately get points off. Not from the judges, given how well Slutskaya does, but from the rest of the commentators.
And that just makes me think about skaters as athletes and how there seems to be this push to see them as beautiful dolls or ballerinas, and that when an athlete lets her muscle and her power show through over the gracefulness, she gets put down. And while I'm sure this goes for the male skaters as well, it hits me the wrong way. Why shouldn't the female skaters be "allowed" to be athletic and powerful? Why is it that the powerful ones always get this complaint about not being graceful enough? And it seems like the graceful ones always have this free pass, despite falling, just because they are so beautiful.
4. The commentator who said "All the other skaters skate to Romeo and Juliet, but [Sasha Cohen] is Juliet" should be hit over the head with a kendo stick for making me gag.
5. I watched lovely vids for Kill Bill last night, which only reminded me of why Kill Bill annoys me. There's the entire violence bit, which I'm not so good with, but what actually turns me off is the entire martial arts thing. I understand that Tarantino adores Hong Kong martial arts movies and that it's supposed to be a tribute to them, but I can't help but be reminded of the way Joss included Asian culture in Firefly. I feel almost as though Tarantino is appropriating martial arts and the whole Asian mystique thing in Kill Bill.
There's Lucy Liu playing a Japanese woman in a kimono and the typical Japanese schoolgirl. There's the hordes of faceless Japanese killer ninjas. There's the master of martial arts. There's the mystical maker of katanas. There's the mix of Japanese and Chinese with no real distinction between the two.
And, much like Firefly, I feel like Tarantino is paying lip service to the incorporation of Asians and Asian culture in the movie, so that in the end, it's a tall, blonde, white woman who is trained by the mystical and quixotic Chinese martial arts master, who takes the mystical katana of doom, who cuts through swathes of Japanese ninjas. The Asians in the movie are all types. I do get that pretty much everyone in the movie is a type, as exemplified by the Bride being the Bride and not someone with a name, but in the end, the real villains and the heroine are all white while they all take on the trappings of Asian culture (or, more accurately, Asian culture filtered through Hong Kong martial arts movies and the Japanese samurai mythos filtered through Tarantino), while the Asians are again relegated to being ninja or geisha girls or Japanese schoolgirls or martial arts masters.
This wouldn't be so irritating if there were adequate representation of Asians elsewhere, but there isn't. And so it's frustrating when what little does come through is filtered through Tarantino's childhood recollections of Hong Kong B-movies and samurai, no matter how much it's intended as a tribute to these fond memories. Also, just the fact that these are Tarantino's memories are somewhat indicative of the perception of Asians and the common portrayal of Asians in the media. This is not to say that no one can ever represent Asians as martial arts masters or the like, or that no one should enjoy these things, but that I think there is a problem when that's the sole cultural representation of a race, just like people who watch anime and think that they understand everything about Japan (I'm talking about irritating fangirls or reporters who watch one Miyazaki movie and think that means they can draw giant conclusions about the entire nation, not people on LJ).
I would say more about the blaxploitation aspect and how that's treated with the opening fight in Kill Bill, except I don't know that much about blaxploitation movies of the seventies, nor about Jackie Brown or the like. Sigh.
Ok, am done ranting now. But yes, if Dick Button admires the way a skater looks one more time instead of directly connecting the "gracefulness" to the power to actually hold your leg up without wobbling, I will throw something at the TV.