When Film Critics Attack

So, recently, I was on Twitter, when Bob Chipman, better known on the Internet as MovieBob, retweeted this article by Devin Faraci. In it, he makes light of the backlash that the Wolf of Wall Street was made. Also, he refers to another blog/letter, saying, and I quote, "I can call you Marty and Leo, right? It's all the rage with dummies penning open letters to you guys."

Now, I love a good laugh, and the article was actually funny. I figured the linked article was someone missing the point that, even if the film may somewhat aggrandize the lifestyle of the scumbags the movie is based on, it will also condemn them. I figured that the author of the piece missed that.

Boy, could I not be more wrong.

The linked article was written by Christina McDowell. The name shouldn't sound familiar, but her former last name, that of her father, Prousalis should. He was a former associate of the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. In fact, in his trial, Belfort was supposed to be a key witness, but his testimony was silenced to avoid further revelations of even deeper corruption.

No, this was not a critic of the film, it was a critic of the morally bankrupt Hollywood looking to take a horrible slice of many people's lives, film it in glorious technicolour, and then go about collecting accolades for being "brave" and "risktakers." She was attacking the fact that Fox Pictures paid the Wolf 1 million dollars to obtain the rights to his story, even when he had a judgement outstanding for the $110.4 million he stole from those he conned.

And yet, she is the "dumb" one.

I saw this as a total lack of class. I called him on it via Twitter, and their responses were.... well....

@the_moviebob @pawkeshup it's pretty clear she didn't even see the movie, so she's a dummy for going out w/ a public statement like that
— Devin Faraci (@devincf) December 28, 2013

@Pawkeshup @devincf no, she "deserves" it for her, frankly, DUMB level of cinematic understanding.
— Bob Chipman (@the_moviebob) December 28, 2013

Then one of their friends jumped into the extended conversation with this gem:

@the_moviebob @Pawkeshup @devincf accusing Marty and Leo of trying to "profit" off of her misery is just the lowest, most ridiculous thing.
— Andy Crump (@agracru) December 28, 2013

Oddly, when I reminded all these fine gentleman that the villain of the film, the Wolf himself, had actually profited yet again even in just obtaining the rights (forget any other ways he could parlay his new-found resurgent infamy into something more), they all fell oddly silent.

You see, before you start preaching about how people don't "get" cinema, you should first realize that when you talk about a movie based on real events, featuring people who have living relatives and, in this case, living victims, sometimes you should show some goddamn base level of respect when they object to paying and glorifying a piece of scum like the Wolf of Wall Street.

Edit:

As of this writing, the movie was already nominated for an award and had drawn about $22 million, not yet clearing the $100 million production costs. It would be nice to see it stagnate at around the $50 million mark, making it a loss for the studio overall.

Edit #2:

Well the Twittering continued between myself and Andy Crumb. And while I think we disagree on some points over the film and what it could me, I can say that from my side I do respect his insights and think that, honestly, he can at the very least see mine.

This movie, as even he said, is going to start a civil war of words, and that might be the best thing that can come from it. The one thing that we both do agree on is that anyone who comes out of this film feeling as though they want to be Belfort, they should immediately feel ashamed to lower themselves to the level of scum he truly is.

August 27th, 2013, at 12:50 pm

That is the day and time that the woman who brought me into this world, left it.

It has taken some time to come to grips with it. Even today, it doesn't feel like it is real. Just this summer, my mother came here to Ottawa to visit with me. She was so alive, so much herself. Yet I could see the years had worn her down. She no longer could walk as long, and had a huge bag of pills to maintain various health conditions.

And I was never under any delusions that she would be around for all of my life. I am the youngest child, one had later in her life, so I knew this day would come. And yet, my mother seemed to be invincible. I guess that’s how most children feel about their mother. But I had good reason.

My home life wasn’t the greatest when my parents were together. My father was a poor drunk, and free with his fists where it concerned my mother. When my mother needed to have dentures put in (rather early in life), my dad had taken her to the dentist to remove her teeth. He only removed half and told her to wait for that to heal. My mom, fearing my dad would not take her back, decided that was a wrong answer.

With a pair of pliers, my mother removed her own teeth. Re-read that. She removed her own teeth. This is the stuff my mother was made of. She was iron, larger than life, and twice as strong as anyone I’ve ever known.

As a child, the tip of her little toe was smashed off, leaving bone exposed. What did mom do? Trimmed it like a toenail. Even at a young age, she had strength enough to do what needed doing, and without sadness or misery.

My mom walked to the gallows that was her life with a sneer and a quip. She laughed often once she was on her own, and had a perverse sense of dark humour I fully inherited. There was little that intimidated or scared my mom. My mom left my dad when I was just 5, but when I was just finishing 4^th grade, I wanted to go to live with her.

I remember our little apartment. It wasn’t much. It was cold in the winters, hot in the summers, and the wind cut straight through it all year round. We did our best to combat it. At first my mom made sure I was warm under a blanket she hand-crocheted herself. Then, later, when we went to a larger apartment in the same drafty house, she got me a sleeping bag to help keep me warm.

She always bought me cupcakes when I asked. She baked cookies when I didn’t, so we always had something nice to nibble on. She did her best to always have good food for my lunches, and make nice meals for our dinner, even if I was a finicky eater back then. She worked a job she hated, and was far from our home just to make ends meet. And she always made sure that I knew I was loved.

She wasn’t perfect. She smoked, which in the end help speed her death. But beyond that, she was just human. She had her flaws, but she always tried to do her best for my siblings and me. She didn’t let life beat her, she kept fighting.

When I left there, Mom actually picked up and moved south, sick of the winters in New York State. She moved down south, and of all things became a security guard. My tiny, just over 5 foot mom, a security guard. I somehow find that thought both frightening and funny. Frightening mainly because my mom could be quite intimidating for a short little thing.

She kept working down there, eventually shifting from guard work to a packing plant. And it was on her way home from that one night that she lost control of her car, and slammed into a guard rail.

She impressed the doctors by surviving the initial crash, one they said that would have killed people a third her age. But then, her smoking came back to haunt her. Her heart was ravaged from years of a bad diet and smoking. It wound up being the true cause of her demise. A bitter irony, a heart that suffered and gave to others didn’t have enough to save herself.

She will never see me remarried. She will not see if I have any children. She never got to physically meet my fiancée, or see how happy she makes me. She will not be there for me ask advice from. And never again will I be able to hug her and tell her I love her.

When I was flying back to Canada, I was sitting by a window looking out where the plane would come. On the floor, I found a bobby pin, like my mom always used to put up her hair. I’d like to think it was there for a reason.

Thank you Mom, I miss you. You will live on in my heart.

The Current Myth of the Patriachy

So I struck a nerve, have I?

First, a little background. I was over reading a post by MovieBob, one of my favourite movie reviewers. He also does some great nostalgia stuff... and occasionally ventures into political items that, really, he seems to have some obvious blind spots on. One of these blind spots, and one that's bothered me for a while about him, has been the "feminist movement." Please note the quotes, as who he supports in it is not really what I would call the feminist movement. If anything, they are some form of mutant, almost counter feminist movement looking to drive back the gender to a laughable stereotype instead of the valid, valuable voice that inequality still exists when it should not.

Now, I will readily admit that there are some issues still with women in the workplace, and certainly within politics. Hell, I can't even really say why there are issues with women in politics. There are good women there, but they seem to like selecting the most insane and/or stupid to shove out in front of the cameras, as opposed to letting the rational, intelligent ones step up and talk. But then, politics has people like George W. Bush in it too... so let's leave that alone...

No, the comments Mr. Bob took exception to were these:

I would not say it is a false equivalency. Are there still inequalities in pay? Yes, and that should change. But really, look at the female candidates that are coming up through the ranks. Very few are ones anyone would vote for. Most are Michelle Bachman-class insane, or Sarah Palin-stupid. True, there are some truly awesome women in politics, but by and large the big-ticket women are normally the worst choice. 

As for female CEO's, the major reason there are very few in positions of power is because they are women... who frequently wind up having a child or children or playing caretaker to their parents or family members. Because of this, they are often seen as weaker candidates for CEO positions because having your CEO ruled by swaying hormones or having random crying jags is not exactly beneficial to one's image, or they lose out of valuable facetime with the board because they are having to deal with family issues. The reality is that there's a reason it's an old boy's club, and it's got very little to do with keeping women out of power, and more that men and women don't have the same priorities.

Risque stuff there, huh folks?

In reality, it's the truth. When a man wants to have a family, he has the overwhelming convenience of the "Set It and Forget It" option. Sleep with the woman, then return to doing his corporate climb. Women don't have such a convenience if they choose to do the same. They need time off to have the child, and normally want to actually mother the child, then return to work.

Also, because guys have been conditioned by both nature and society to be more about themselves and being a provider that they have a harder time dealing with more delicate, emotional conflicts in their life. There are roots to that stereotype, and you can see it in how guys and girls grieve, both as individuals and as a group. We could go on all day about this differential, but at the end of the day, guys suck at dealing with issues in the midst of an emotional crisis.

Women, on the other hand, are beyond capable of coping, since they literally have an emotional crisis every 28 to 30 days. Seriously, for every guy reading this, just imagine that, once a month, your emotions fly wildly out of control, your body is racked with pain, and you bleed uncontrollably from your crotch. Now imagine dealing with this in puberty. Now imagine being in a room of people who are mostly emotional basketcases in the throws of their own hormonal rollercoasters.

Yea, they get coping skills guys will never have.

Girls are far more emotionally cruel than men, mainly because guys are the physical type, while women are more the emotional type. They know that an insult can slice to the bone just as well as a knife can, and while knife wounds heal, emotional scars are forever. So if you live in that kind of condition, you need to learn a lot more self-reliance than you would if you are, say, getting your ass beat and only need to hide long enough for the other guys to give up.

It is ironic that this sort of early conditioning would be totally amazing training for women to be natural born leaders, and allow them to be the bigger picture thinkers that we truly need in the world, yet women are rarely placed in this role. Now why is that? People like Bob and that women whose name shall not be mentioned because she gets plenty of press undeservedly as it stands would have you believe it's the Patriarchy, formerly the Old Boy's Club, the Glass Ceiling, and I'm sure a few dozen other names through history. And just like racial inequality in the workplace, it does have real roots that have since withered and died.

Back when women first entered the workforce, they were seen as a threat to hard-working, go-getter men, taking their jobs so they cannot provide for their house women and brood of children. Mind you, the women entered the workforce primarily in response to men dying at war, so I'm not sure how they were taking jobs from dead men... but hey... paranoia, right? And yes, women entered the work force prior to this, but the largest surges came in wartime, placing women in roles previously filled by men.

Over time, women became more accepted, if not totally accepted, into the workplace, but appeared to be subjected to an artificial limitation (the so-aptly-named Glass Ceiling) where women could not proceed further into higher levels of... well anything. However, women did eventually breach this ceiling, and began proving that they, too, could be ruthless, heartless bastards that could run a company and step on the heads of anyone below them to get further.

The reality these days is pretty much what I said. While there are still some glass ceilings, most of the issue of a woman advancing comes from the women themselves, either opting for a family, opting for caring for a family and therefore losing valuable face time with those in power, and the much more rare occasion where a women is stopped due to having a vagina and not a penis. Why do I say rare? The media is why. If a woman is truly blocked for being a woman, we'd have a social media revolt against the company. Lawsuits are a thing, you know. There are literally laws against it. And while some will say that women back off to not become a pariah, let's face it. If they are truly a ballbuster, they aren't going to let a few hurt feelings stop them from busting balls.

The truth, which apologist like Bob hate to admit, is that there is no grand conspiracy to hold women down, except in the minds of the women who use it to raise their media profile and garner undeserved praise for their bold manner. There are a myriad of reasons why women are not running the world, but the primary ones are that they choose not to. They decide that they cannot be as heartless, as unfeeling as men can be. They decide that their lives are more important than their jobs. They decide that, at some point, it's just not worth the amount of shit one must deal with to ascend into the halls of power.

In reality, I think women are, in general, smarter than men in that respect.

Why Dark Souls 2 should have an easy mode

So I know the director of the game has already put to rest that the game will not have an easy mode. I also know the topic will not die. So, as a newly amazed fan of the game, I decided to reason out why Dark Souls 2 should have had an easy mode.

Now, I will say that I died. A lot. And in fact I even put the game down for extended periods because of the difficulty curve, the lack of guidance, or even so much as an idea how to proceed through the game. So I can see that as bar for entry to the game, that's for sure. Maybe they can put little arrows and include a helpful quest log that keeps track of what you need to do and what you have done. Maybe even some lore too.

And sure, some of the bosses are downright brutal. I mean, Quelaag was a vicious little bitch, a pain to kill.You know, having an NPC to aid you on every battle, maybe even various ones you can hire would be nice too. You know, to have some variety.

And, while we're on the subject, what about some very powerful items you can get through rich, storylined quests, or allow you to be a part of all of the factions and rank them up regardless of whether or not they conflict, all without penalty.

And you know, the game could use a lot more humour. It's so dark and moody, and depressing with its serious tones. Maybe some repeated dialogue from a host of NPCs, or some comedy relief characters. Maybe some wacky sidequests where wizards turn you into various animals or something.

So, basically... what they should do is just make it a watered down version of the game that apes Skyrim totally, forget the heart of the franchise, the direction of the director, or the desire of the true, loyal fans of the game just so we can appease of bunch of whiny, piss ass bitches who can't stand a game that doesn't hold your hand and kiss your fucking little boo-boos away.

Bitch, this ain't The Elder Scrolls, it's Dark Souls.

Prepare to die.

So, having a vagina means you need a special HIV doctor?

Read the article below first.

Doctors call for gender-focused HIV care in Canada | CTV News

Done? Good. Now I will tell you why this is a humongous steaming pile of bullshit. You see, of late, I have been reading more and more about the neo-feminist movement, not the one that brought them to societal equals in at least as much as rights (even if there are still issues such as salary disparity). No, these new feminists feel oppressed, marginalized by society. They feel as though their needs are not being attended to.

Enter Margarite Sanchez. She is our paragon for this tale. She was not tested for HIV, poor dear. Even though she had tons of symptoms, the victim of an uncaring, inept system with inadequate, virtually third world resources!

Right, and I am the goddamn fucking pope. There are so many holes in this story that the Swiss would want to know her secret for cheese manufacturing.

First, the biggest plot hole: Why her doctor did not test her. She said she was not high risk. She didn't use drugs. She didn't work in the sex trade. Yet, she did not reveal where she got her infection, and, despite being in a committed, relationship, did not tell her husband once she found out.

I mean, seriously, what the fuck. You've just contracted a very much fatal, long-term, sexually transmitted disease... and you are not telling your husband? Why did your doctor not test you for HIV? Well likely because you were in a (supposedly) committed relationship and (supposedly) not a drug user. You didn't fit the risk profile, so why bother testing for it if you are being blatantly dishonest about what is going on in your life!

HIV just doesn't fall from the sky. You either fucked someone else, did intravenous drugs, or got transfused infected blood. And given that you concealed it from your husband, I doubt it was a transfusion. Your story is invalid. It is not the story of the failure of a system. It's the story of a liar who was caught in a lie and didn't want to admit it to anyone until her life was on the line. The system didn't fail, you lied and can't take responsibility.

Second, this mythical rainbow unicorn study. I went looking for it. Plenty of news articles site it, but the website that did it, doesn't have anyone that appears to be it. It might be buried inside one of the studies they purport to have done, but none of them has the conclusion that women are getting unfair treatment. They are, however, a lobby for woman-centric treatment centers. I wonder why? Perhaps for more funding for their efforts?

And what of these claims that doctors are outright refusing patients with HIV/AIDS? Why are they not filing grievances? Why is this not a national debacle? Oh, right, because it's hearsay. It's not first hand accounts. It's accounts by doctors running an underfunded clinic that specializes in woman's treatment. Seems like they'd see a large benefit if this issue were made front page news. Why, more money for more salaries, and a larger facility, more patients for more recurring revenue...

This is not altruism. This is the wolf in sheep's clothing. They hold up an obvious liar as their example of a failing system, bolster it with some pretty outrageous claims with no backing evidence. and support it with a study that has either been retracted from the website or is a nested result of another study done by a group which already shows a bias towards woman's issues.

I'm all for better medical treatment. I am not against improvements made in our policies. But for fuck's sake, stop it with the gender politics. The woman in this case, the woman whose story you feel exemplifies the failures of the system, has lied. She concealed a lethal disease from her sexual partner. This is not the act of guiltless person. She lied to her doctor, who was "floored by the results."

This is why people see feminist conspiracy. Because now feminism is the hot new marketing term to get your way.

#Donglegate is a good thing

I am glad Adria Richards has been fired and fled the Internet. I hope she does not stay gone, but I think this is a great learning experience.

“Oh, my gawd, Pawk, are you saying that she deserved threats of rape? DEATH THREATS?!?”

No, but she most certainly earned them. Now, before you rage and decide to hate me because of that statement, let’s take a closer look at the person who is the central cause of all this drama. Richards has done this before. She has flown off the handle, overreacted and gone public to wage her war for feminine equality. And she rarely ever actually does it in a subtle or even rational fashion. She lashes out, publicly. She doesn’t talk to those she attacks, she just attacks.

She has a history of this. The company who hired her did so as a PR move, plain and simple. They knew she would be a handful. They knew she might cause an issue. They hoped she would take the opportunity and show that she could handle it. What she did was blow it on a scale and size of which warrants termination. It doesn’t matter the reason. They are not cowards, they are wise business people. They took a risk and it blew up in their face. They are cutting their losses, not abandoning a valuable employee.

Richards does not deserve to work in the capacity she did. As it was clearly seen, she is using her access inappropriately. This would be the same with someone who frequently told secrets being given a job in R&D snapping a picture of the latest tech and tweeting it out. She violated what her role required of her, and as such she needs to remain terminated.

The greater lesson, the lesson I hope has now been forcibly pounded through her skull, is that overreaction is bad. She has felt the brunt of overreaction. She got one guy fired. She did not kill anyone. This guy will find work again, likely not without struggle, but he will work again. Everyone will move on. And yet, a good segment of the Internet turned on her, raging and lashing out as she has done in the past, simply with more unconstrained vitriol than she has had in the past. However, she should now know that her constant jump to the ultra-dramatic, the public shaming, is no better than the abuse she has suffered for doing that.

There is a way to create a change. You know how that is? By following the example of Kenzie Wilson. She saw a lack of games. She has a passion for gaming. So she asked her mom to go learn to program, and started a fundraiser on Kickstarter to do just that. And in a week where “Donglegate” (GOD I hate that Watergate was ever a thing) makes us think the industry is not changing, along comes who is truly the future of gaming to show us it is changing, and will continue to do so.

Kenzie is a feminist. Not Adria. Adria is a drama queen, a self-promoting jackass who got served a quintuple helping of the crap she has been dealing out for damn long time. She has learned that, just because the world offers you a stage, it does not give you a pass when you do something to hurt another person with no better reason than that you can. She could have been polite, asked them to stop, and if she was rebuked, outed them. She could have ignored it. But she chose the absolute worst option, followed through, and paid the price.

And no, those guys were not in the right. It was a bunch of innocent, 12 year old potty humour. It’s fine when your audience is cool with it. And it’s not like Richards herself was above it when it was in her favour. But, by the same token, by all accounts, it was not nearly as bad as she said it was, and did not warrant termination of anyone. But, you see, that is what happens when someone has a platform and an inability to understand the consequences of its misuse.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

The myth that we are born equal

Yes, it's a myth. Before you start saying anything like "I can be anything I want," or "we are all born with rights," stop and read.

First, I am not saying that everyone doesn't deserve equal treatment or that people should not be given the chance to do whatever they want in life. What I am saying is that, in reality, when we are born, we are not the same as one another. Some people will dream of the NBA, but will be uncoordinated. Some people will dream of writing a novel, yet cannot write a decent story. Some people will grow up singing to the radio, wanting to be a musician but be unable to carry a tune.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We cannot be everything we want to be. We can have what success our genetics allow us, but at some point, you will reach a limitation on what you can do. So, no, we are not born as equals. But then why would we want that to begin with?

This idea that we should all be the same detracts from the spectacle of the truly talented. I've seen grade school virtuosos, teenage geniuses, and spectacular athletes. They amaze and inspire us all with what humanity has the potential to be. But if we were all like that, or worse, if we were all middlingly mediocre, what kind of world would we have?

We used to celebrate the victor. We used to revel in the win. Now, we teach children they are entitled to winning. That effort is more important than the result. That they can be whatever they chose to be, regardless of what the world says. And while there is value in the lesson that you can overcome and find some success, we much temper what we teach is possible. We have to stop giving everyone those lovely participation awards and go back to having winners and losers.

We need to make children understand that they are entitled to nothing, not even a chance. They need to make their way in life. Otherwise, we will be left with generations of children with no motivation but to maintain the status quo, with no fire in their heart to follow their passion, and without the desire for greatness, merely the acceptance of mediocrity.