Slacktivism

I’m sure most people have seen the KONY 2012 video. If you haven’t, here it is:

Prior to Fall Out Boy’s I’m A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You) video clip in 2007,  which also showcased Invisible Children and the plight of the child soldiers of LRA, I was completely ignorant that such atrocities existed. Yes, the song title is very pretentious but the video clip’s messaging is effective. I’ll let you guys watch it first:

Pros:

I’m glad that the campaign is putting such a massive light on the crime. The world will be better off without warlords like Kony, and at least the children of Uganda and nearby African countries can sleep better knowing that they are relatively safe in a war-torn and poverty-striven country, though I hope we’re not so naïve as to think that by removing Kony alone will stop all the problems in Uganda.

It’s also great that the video is promoting activism in youth because at the risk of sounding cliché, these are the world’s future leaders. If we can get more people to be socially aware, I think the world has a better chance in surviving the next decade in a relatively peaceful manner.

This is a great example of viral marketing. Seriously, it has garnered sooo many views from only a couple of days (right now: 66million & counting), and I don’t even know how many people tweeted about #KONY2012… I have a guesstimate of 187,849,203.

Cons:

What is Invisible Children, the organization running this campaign, main message? The video said “I will tell you exactly what to do!”, to help in the apprehension and prosecution of Kony. I was excited to know, I want this criminal captured, convicted, and put into prison! And it’s… by buying a bracelet. Errr? Then put up posters provided in the “activism kit” all around your cities, vigilante style. The kit is USD10 plus approx. USD20 for international shipping. By buying the kit, you’ll help fund Invisible Children to… what is it, actually, that they do? They’re not in Uganda, helping the displaced children of LRA find their homes. They’re not in Netherlands, working with the International Courts to build a case to prosecute Kony. From the video, all I can tell is that they raise awareness in schools, talk to policy-makers and… make bracelets. They have not been transparent of where the money is channeled. Do they support Ugandan nonprofits who are actually on the ground doing conflict recovery? Do they channel it to the people of Uganda displaced by the war? Do they channel it to the American “advisors” so that they can continue to help strengthened the Ugandan Army? Or do the money go to the operational expenses of Invisible Children who are based in America, raising awareness? I don’t mind that some of the donations go into the operational budget of the organization, because money is needed to operate anyway, but I would also like to know what is the percentage that actually goes into helping Ugandans.

I find this video paternalistic. “I am the great, white American. I will help Africa with my great whiteness!” Again, the mighty West will solve all the problems of Africa. Yay, the US has put in their “advisors” in Uganda to organize the local army, they are saved! What about the people of Uganda? Those featured in the video are shown validating the work of Invisible Children only, which I’m sure is not the case when they sat down for the interview. I’m sure they talked about their own work in Uganda too. Is that responsible editing? Why not show the good things that the local people have been doing? FYI, the situation showed in the video is about 5-6 years in the past. Now, the country is focusing on recovery and rebuilding. Kony is still at large, yes, but not because of the lack of awareness from the West!

Slacktivism. From wiki: a term formed out of the words “slacker” and “activism”. A simple “feel-good” measure in support of a cause. This video simplifies things that doesn’t accurately portray the real situation. Yes, I do think that voice amplification is important in a cause, but it’s not the only method to bring change per se. This reminds me of the Arab Spring Revolution where the media is quick to label it as the Twitter/ Facebook Revolution. Hookah, please. Social media were tools involved in the Revolution… But it’s the People of Egypt/ Libya/ Syria’s Revolution. Was Twitter the one that stayed vigilant in Tahrir Square to demand change? Was Facebook the one that set itself on fire to show its extreme dissatisfaction over the corrupt government? Let’s give credit where credit is due, shall we?

This one is probably just my Asian values, but in the last scene when the son said to the camera “I want to be just like you, Dad, helping Africa”… It occured to me that this is quite an exercise on vanity. To explain it in Twitter term, it’s like if you RT a compliment about yourself to your followers… Just, you know, FYI. Eg:

@lindsaylo: RT @superfan i think u’re beautiful @lindsaylo!

Right? Why would you RT a compliment about yourself? Worse, without an accompanying comment, not even a measly “Thanks! @superfan”. Am I the only one who thinks that this is not cool? It’s very admirable that your son is proud of you, but… what does that have to do with your cause? End Asian rant.

By all means, donate if you want to. Just know that it’s ok if you prefer to donate to the cause via other more transparent channels. #NEVERFORGETKONY

This shit is messed. up, VC Andrews style

My parents moved to a new place in January, so we finally unpacked all the boxes kept in the “dungeon” of the rented house into the new, permanent home. I didn’t help much, except for volunteering to sort out the books. With my vast experience of being a librarian in my primary school when I was 11, naturally I would know how to sort books according to genre, author, and preference. For example, books that will be read constantly shall be sorted on the easy-to-reach shelves, whereas my father’s conspiracy theories, political, S.H. Al-Attas books (red-coloured covers… blergh) will be kept on the top-most shelf, because absolutely no one, not even my father, will read the books. Ever. I don’t know why he still keeps them. Maybe for fires in case of a zombie apocalypse and we run out of coal.

Anyway, I found my old books! Books that kept me entertained as a child, while figuring out what I want out of life: for people to leave me alone, or to not leave me and be by my side forever. Oh, the perils of the second child whom no one cares because you don’t have the distinction of being neither oldest nor youngest, or even the middle child because you have 6 siblings! People will be all, like, 2 of 6? What is that? Who cares! Cue me: b-b-buttttt… I have feelings! <– thoughts that go through my brain when I try to recollect my childhood memories.

One of the books that I found: Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. SO. DOPE. I haven’t read this since… since… since I was 14!! How many years ago was that?! For all intent and purposes, the answer to that question is 2. I’m 16, ALWAYS.I was so excited to read it again eventhough I know how the story ends (very sad and tragic. That was a spoiler, sorry guys). So over the next couple of nights, as a pre-sleeping ritual, I would read a couple of chapters. And proceeded to have weird, dark, borderline nightmarish dreams over the next couple of days.

This book… I knew it was tragic, and crazy, but… why didn’t I remember how tragic and crazy it was?? Summary:

The four Dollanganger children had such perfect lives — a beautiful mother, a doting father, a lovely home. Then Daddy was killed in a car accident, and Momma could no longer support the family. So she began writing letters to her parents, her millionaire parents, whom the children had never heard of before.

Momma tells the children all about their rich grandparents, and how Chris and Cathy and the twins will live like princes and princesses in their grandparents’ fancy mansion. The children are only too delighted by the prospect. But there are a few things that Momma hasn’t told them.

She hasn’t told them that their grandmother considers them “devil’s spawn” who should never have been born. She hasn’t told them that she has to hide them from their grandfather if she wants to inherit his fortune. She hasn’t told them that they are to be locked away in an abandoned wing of the house with only the dark, airless attic to play in. But, Momma promises, it’s only for a few days….

Then the days stretch into months, and the months into years. Desperately isolated, terrified of their grandmother, and increasingly convinced that their mother no longer cares about them, Chris and Cathy become all things to the twins and to each other. They cling to their love as their only hope, their only strength — a love that is almost stronger than death. (source)

Did you think the ‘love’ they’re talking about is referring to incest? Well, you’re right! The plot lines are, like I said, crazy, but the writing… oh god. The pace is uneven, the dialogues are overwrought, and the incestuous sexual thingies are just… icky. But I still read it! WHY?? When I was 14 and didn’t know any better, I could forgive myself for unknowingly picking up this book thinking it was your garden variety Young Adult/ Horror genre books that I favoured back then. But now that I’m a fully grown woman (of 16), and knew how terrible the book is, why did I read it again? Seriously, brain, why?? And why was it marketed towards Young Adults given its dark and most definitely taboo contents? Are the publishers crazy too? Look at the new cover that they’re selling on Amazon:

Oh I feel sorry for the girl who sees this cover and thought to herself that this is a teen-romance book and promptly purchases it. Haha, when you think about it, it IS kind of funny the way your innocence is stripped because you fell for this unassuming cover. Hilarious, Publisher!

Anyway, I haven’t even begin to start cataloguing the books at my parents’ home, so I’m pretty sure I’ll find more gems from my childhood soon, and I hope that I’ll find the rest of the books in the series. OH YES, it’s a 5-book series! But I only have the first three because I couldn’t take it anymore after that. In hindsight, that was probably one of the few smart decision I made as a teenager.

Hello?

*dusts off blog*

It’s been such a long time! I miss purging my thoughts nonsensically in a medium that is fairly accessible to all, even future employers. No, I’m not looking for a new job as I’m still in the honeymoon phase of my current job. But I do so much of writing at work, that sometimes all I want to do when I have free time is just to… not write. All I want to do is watch tv, read gossip blogs, and occasionally hang out with non-online friends.

Anyway, it’s been raining since 6pm and the gloomy weather is making me think all sorts of ideas for blog posts! Mind you, they’re just ideas. I will not commit to a post in case my laziness gets the better of me. But I’ll try. And as the kids say nowadays: I tried therefore I shall not be criticized for it!

Hehe.

I miss you blog!

Cumberbatch, my future ex-boyfriend

I am officially obsessed with Benedict Cumberbatch. I knew (“knew”) him from Atonement first, and thought that this guy is quite ugly. Like, seriously, ugly. It didn’t help that SPOILER ALERT BUT I DON’T CARE BCOZ IT’S NOT 2007 ANYMORE he was also the rapist but let James McAvoy took the rap and forever altered the future of the lives of McAvoy and Keira Knightly. That was a depressing movie, not gonna lie.

He’s now in BBC One, Sherlock, among other productions.

Season 1 was cool, but to me it was also like watching a British/non-medical-centric episodes of House M.D. Both protagonists are highly functional socio-path with  above average intelligence and little patience for those not quick enough to cope up. I mean, the mysteries are cleverly written and funny, and the scenes are beautiful, but it’s like… House. Season 2 however… omg I love it so much I want to marry it! Like, sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about being in one of the episodes. Gaaaah I’m so pathetic. Not only are the stories better, but the chemistry between Sherlock and John (Watson) is so… dynamic. I do not want them to separate, ever!! But yes, Sherlock’s love of his life is Irene Adler, who was introduced to us in the first episode of Season 2, and… well, I’m so jealous of her. I want Sherlock to love ME! Gaaaah I’m so pathetic.

So now that I’m properly obsessed, of course I googled everything about him. Found this gem of an interview from Guardian, which makes me sad and happy at the same time. You guys should totally read it in full, but my favourite part:

What do you most dislike about your appearance? 

The size and shape of my head. I’ve been likened to Sid from Ice Age.

CANNOT BE UNSEEN!!!

Every time I look at him I see Sid now! Thanks a lot, Ben.

“Ben”

Bring it 2012!

Happy new year! We may or may not live to see the year through, but we’ll live life to the fullest, won’t we?

Peace out, and let’s do this!

Who are these people??

As you can tell, I have been neglecting this blog for about 2 months. I wasn’t too worried about it because it’s not like I OWE U ANYTHING, INTERNET. Also, one of the many reasons why I’m not a writer by trade is because I have months-long writer’s block during which nothing will be written down. I’m not George RR Martin who can take his own sweet time (years!) to finish off one book and STILL manage to get the pissed-off fans to buy it. #imsopathetic

Another reason why I’m not a writer? Being talentless.

It’s better that I do this as a hobby and not put pressure on my brain to remain “unblock”. How do writers write in cafés anyways? I tried, you know. Yes, I was that pretentious little twerp hogging the table at the café, staring at a blank Word document on my laptop, willing myself to write something, while you over there holding a mug of hot coffee trying to look for a place to sit and thinking “This twerp is not doing anything! Leave the table!” Bitch. Oh yes, sometimes I do indulge myself in fantasies of being a writer because… well, why not? JK Rowling pulled herself out of poverty and became what she is today because of her talent. Maybe one day I would wake up with the same talent, and then I’ll write the most beloved series of this generation, and I’ll buy a castle in Scotland and you all can suck it. JUST KIDDING. You guys can live with me in the castle as my servants.

I actually had a point when I first started this post. My point was: I just checked my site’s stats, and I have more visitors now (like, exponentially more) than when I was actively blogging! What is this man?! You guys like me when I’m not blogging, izzit?! How dare you! Most were directed from search term “rooney mara”, that girl with the dragon tattoo, which is kinda ironic because I gave a not so good review about it. BTW I haven’t seen the Hollywood version yet. The internet tells me that the rape scene is quite graphic, so I’m not sure how that movie is gonna go over the Malaysian censorship board. I mean, the rape part is an essential piece of the puzzle that is Lisbeth Salander, the badass. I don’t know if the character/ movie will suffer from the lack of it. Anyway, it’ll come out in blu-ray next year, and I’m a patient person. Also broke. Damn you black friday sale.

There I go again, on a tangent!

Thanks Rooney Mara for the traffic, I think. I hope no one stays for my writing because… well, 1. it’s awful, and 2. that’s just more pressure on me, innit? I’m useless under a spotlight! <– perasan nak mampus

I hope by the time this post is publish the # of visitors would go down again. So weird and insulting.

Fassbender… stop. You’re making me blush.

So I bought a bunch of blu-rays from Amazon’s Black Friday sale, and one of it was Jane Eyre. It’s the latest version of the classic story by Charlotte Bronte. Full disclosure, I’m not really a big fan of the story because, like Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, I thought it was unnecessarily melodramatic. Both of them had a lot of things going on at the same time, and the narrative felt disjointed at times. Though I suspect I’m only feeling this way because I was exposed to Jane Austen first, rather than the Bronte sisters, so… you know what they say: You’ll never forget your first love. Cewahhh! Jane Austen is… normal and tame when compared to the Brontes. Some would argue that it’s so normal, it’s boring. For me, it’s not so much as the number of surprises or plot twists there are in a book, but how the author is able to engage the readers even on a most “normal” topic, innit? That’s just my preference. Maybe if I had read one of the Bronte first than Austen, I would feel differently.

Anyway, even though Jane Eyre is not my favorite story personally, like a true nerd, I still need to watch all interpretation of the story offered by the celluloid machine, because I just have to. It makes more sense in my brain, trust me. Like many film adaptation of a book, this one isn’t a loyal adaptation, but then again it’s almost an impossible feat to include everything in a 2-hour movie. What this movie manage to do is include in all the necessary bits for a continuous narrative, while still being entertaining.

Synopsis:

Jane Eyre, orphaned, is left to live under the charity of her Aunt Reed. After living ten years of mistreatment and segregation in her Aunt’s home, she is then sent to Lowood- a boarding school for young girls. Jane grows up both physically and mentally at Lowood and becomes a teacher at age eighteen. She then advertises for the position of a governess and is called upon by Mrs Fairfax at Thornfield. At Thornfield, Jane falls in love with the master, Mr Rochester, and he with her. However, he yields a terrible and dark secret that threatens to tear them apart for good.

Jane Eyre is played by Mia Watchamacallit, rather successfully I might add, with the quiet strength and keen but understated intelligence of Bronte’s intended Jane. Well, at least I think Bronte would approve. See, Jane Eyre feels everything inwardly, keeping things to herself as a form of self-defense. Other people often underestimate her, solely judging her on her physical appearance (“plain”) and her youth, but in actuality she is very opinionated and not easily intimidated.

This seemingly unusual combination is what intrigued Mr. Rochester, played by the sex-EHHH Michael Fassbender, to Jane. Mr. Rochester is the master of Thornfield, he of the many secrets and can be quite a jerk, not gonna lie. Fassbender’s Rochester is not nearly as crazy as I would expect, because in my mind, Rochester is kinda bipolar. He can be very sweet and pleasant one time, and completely crazy and scary abusive the minute after that. I expected some crazy-eyes from Rochester, but this is not how Fassbender played him in this version. What I got from his Rochester is “smoldering, piercing stare” and “Oh Mr. Rochester, imma gonna faint from your stare please catch me when I fall”, and “Mr. Rochester, behave!” when he did the playful smirk. Or when his jacket bellowed in the high wind, or when he’s cold and wet from the snow because he went out looking for Jane. SERIOUSLY. Like, I don’t know how Mia Watchamacallit managed to stay standing when they do scenes together because MY SCIENCE HE’S SO STUDLY.

Ehem.

So he’s ok.

Another thing that I like about this version is that, though Jane is not supposed to be very expressive emotion-wise most of the time, and Mia plays that beautifully, the accompanying violin kind of speaks for all that she’s feeling, without telling us in words. When the violins came on, my tear ducts went all watery for some reason. And what do you know, Dario Marianelli did the music score for this film! His music was the only thing that I liked about 2005′s Pride & Prejudiced! That, and Matthew MacFadyen‘s  rather shy Mr. Darcy. But on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the awesomest and 1 being the yuckiest, P&P musical score is 10 while MacFadyen’s Darcy is 7. You know how in Taiwanese/ Korean/ Japanese soap opera, they will have this one theme song for the whole series, and versions of the same song throughout the show depending on the scenes (sad notes, happy notes, in-between)? Yeah, so the musical score is like that.

OMG I can’t believe I just compared Jane Eyre to asian soap operas! I’m so sorry.

Though not an accurate portrayal of the book, it’s still a good movie. If only for Michael Fassbender’s smoldering gaze alone. *sigh*

I have little attention span

I’m sorry, blog. Haven’t checked in with you in a while, have I? I haven’t been that busy, I’ve just lost interest. But now I have a new phone with all those apps thingamajig! But I’m really bad at typing on this touchscreen.

Here’s hoping I’ll update more on the go!

Movie review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This was in draft since forever. I saw this movie during Eid. I KNOW.

***

I think I wrote somewhere in the blog that I’m a fairly big fan of sci-fi, so I guess I’m predisposed to like this movie even before I see it. I liked both the Charlton Heston’s Planet of the Apes and the Mark Wahlberg’s reboot of the same movie. Funnily enough, I have not seen the former’s sequels, which is so unlike me because I can be very obsessive when it comes to my movies/ tv shows. Anyway, Amazon has the complete set of the 1968′s movie and its sequels in blu-ray, so I might get that during Black Friday Sale. But I’m not opposed to receiving gifts, btw… she said to herself.

Summary:

Set in present day San Francisco, “Rise of the Apes” deals with the aftermath of man’s experiments with genetic engineering that lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. James Franco plays a driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes. (Source)

It’s very engaging, I find myself completely absorbed in the movie eventhough it’s predictable because, duh, it’s a prequel to a movie I’ve already seen. I don’t even know where the CGI starts or ends in the movie, it’s so seamless. I guess with CGI it’s easier to ‘emote’ the  facial expressions of the chimps, so the viewers, like me, find it natural to empathize with the chimps’ plight.

Speaking of, this is a personal view of mine and not related to the movie: I understand the need for science to experiment on animals, especially chimps with its 98% similarity to human DNA. It’s kinda freaky, if you think about it. If for some reason, my DNA is, oh I dunno, mutated to have less than 2% than what I have now, I would’ve been a chimp. Freaky. The lives of the chimps are infinitely better in their own habitat, for sure — out of reach from us pesky humans, who keep them in cages and test God-knows-what drugs and procedures in the name of science, for our own gain. I also believe that every life created by God has its own purpose in this world. If my purpose in life is to have OCD, then that is my life. If I’m supposed to be a medical experiment, then so be it. On one hand, I don’t want us humans to play God, but without research and development on modern medicine, would we be where we are today?

This is the debate shown in the movie. Freida Pinto, who plays the lovely veterinarian girlfriend to James Franco’s character (Will), visibly disagrees with him, the scientist in a pharmaceutical company who is doing R&D on a drug to cure Alzheimer’s. But she doesn’t say much. In fact, she’s sorta like the mute girlfriend. Idongeddit.

Will is driven to find the cure because his father, played very sensitively by John Lithgow, has Alzheimer’s, and it’s more than Will can bear to watch his father deteriorates into someone unrecognizable. Will leads a team of scientist at the pharmaceutical company running tests on chimps for different strains of viruses and drugs, and finally he was successful with one older chimp, where its brain function and intelligence clearly showed a marked improvement after being tested on the virus/ drug. What Will doesn’t know was that the chimp was pregnant, and the virus/ drugs were… err.. absorbed? osmosis? filtered into? passed on?… to the baby its carrying. Excited with the results, he gathers the Business People in a meeting room, and the chimp (who had given birth, secretly (!)) acted aggressively, thinking the humans were going to take its baby away. The chimp attacked the people in the facility and eventually  was taken down by Security. Will is devastated, and the Business People REJECT the program, ordered for all the chimps in the experiment to be taken down for fear of the aggressive side-effects the virus/ drugs have on the chimps.

As they were “cleaning” up the place, they found the baby chimp, and because one scientist, also Will’s friend, cannot kill more of the chimps, he asked Will to do it. Typically, Will cannot, and he brought the baby chimp home. Named it Caesar. Yea Will, name the animal that you’re going to kill later. That won’t create emotional attachment at all. Anyway Caesar proves to be a saviour for Will and his father, as caring for another needy being helps them forget about their own problems and needs.

I saw a documentary on tv that humans who have chimps as pet, sometimes don’t realize that yes, baby chimps are cute and cuddly and easy to manage, but when the chimps hit puberty, it becomes aggressive and dangerous, as its strength and primal instict increases. Usually this is the time when the human owners would have to “take care”of their pet. This is exactly what happens to Caesar. He is too intelligent to not comprehend how not human he is, but he wants to be because he loves his human family, but he cannot control his animal instinct. And you can tell that he is conflicted and confused about it. See, he is not human, yet he is not animal too. What have we done, people!

Meanwhile, Will has been secretly continuing testing out the virus/ drugs on Caesar and eventually his father, and lo and behold, it seemed to work on the human test subject i.e. his father! His brain functions improved remarkably, and Will is happy and elated that he has found the cure. OR SO HE THOUGHT. Apparently human antibodies reject the virus eventually, while the apes’ DNA do not. Damn 2%! The virus/ drug only further enhance Caesar’s intelligence and animal instinct. Because of that, instead of being, for example, a normal protective ape, he became, like, a super abnormal protective ape.

These instincts are the ones that got him into trouble with other humans, #ofcourse, and eventually a rather violent incident happened that made the authorities ordered Will to send Caesar to a facility where other “misbehaved” apes are kept. Of course, the facility is far from the loving environment that Caesar is used to, and he could not assimilate with the other “normal” apes (got chimps, monkeys, orang utan and gorilla). He got into fights, was bullied and OH. MY. GOD. DRACO MALFOY! Draco was so cruel to him and the other chimps. Ava kedavra, Draco! Ava kedavra. So Caesar resents his human family for making him the way he is, he also has abandonment issues because despite his resentment he loved his human family, and he’s being tortured by Draco. What else is there to do but organized the apes and rise against the humans!

Also, the CGI’s so good, that even without speaking you can tell that the chimp is plotting and seriously thinking. You know who is the man behind the CGI-chimp? Smeagol. So Harry Potter and LOTR in another sci-fi movie? Dream == came true.

There’s some cool action scenes when the apes rebelled, and not gonna lie, I almost teared up a bit at the end of the movie. Also, a sort-of warning to us humans that if we play around with different viruses and drugs, we’re going to get what’s coming to us. We’re going to become an endangered species and apes will rule the world. You’ll see.

But good movie. I love sci-fi!

Princess Bride: The 24th Anniversary Reunion

Inconceivable!

It’s inconceivable how this movie still has a special place in my heart after 24 years. I don’t even remember when was the first time I saw the movie, because I’ve seen it countless times in my life. I was so in love with Cary Elwes then, he was so cute. He has that middle-age jowl and bloat going on right now, which I will not fault him because he is human and I will go the same route (sooner rather than later in my case) too. Plus, he is Wesley. “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for awhile”. LOUD. SIGH. But Billy Crystal, my my. I almost didn’t recognize him. I hope he hadn’t done any surgical work on his face… because I would ask for a refund from the doctor. His skin looks smooth and wrinkle-free, but the waddle is giving us a hint of his real age. It’s very confusing, my brain’s not equipped to process this.

Back to the movie! It’s true what the actors said though, it’s not a one-genre movie that you can easily sell to the public, with no “target audience” in mind. There’s romance, action, humor and giant rodents that looked like sock puppets. There is no target audience, it’s a movie for all! I made my youngest brother (who was born in the early 90s) watch it when I got the blu-ray from Amazon, and he was vehemently adamant that he wouldn’t like it, but in the end, I, again, proved that my wisdom and far-sightedness are far superior than his, and he turned out liking the movie. I wanted to pause the movie for some reason that I can’t remember now, but I do remember that he involuntarily yelled, “NO!”. See, I am always right. Resistance is futile. Hehehe.

Buttercup isn’t the beacon of female empowerment, and yes, she could’ve fought more than merely subjugating under the domineering thumb of Prince Humperdinck, but I guess, in the time period when the book was written (by William Goldman), the fictional damsel-in-distress, princess-y character is accepted as the norm. Heck, I think whenever a fictional character, be it in literature or on celluloid, is a ‘princess’, the character will project a sense of fragility and infantility. As long as little girls are also exposed to other female characters that inspire self-reliance and independence, then I don’t see a problem with that.

You know what I see as a problem? If grown-ass women act as if they’re an entitled princess. Not cool.

And EW has such beautiful reunion photos of them in their new issue. I think I might just buy that for Princess Bride photos alone! It’s freakin’ expensive, especially for a magazine. But I guess it’s worth it. Maybe. Should I? I should. Should I? Maybe.