"I was in *NSYNC with you!"

"That's MC Skat Kat!"

Justin had quite a Saturday night:





"Bring it on down to Liquorville!"


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I saw it.

The Social Network was no Superbad, but Stephen Colbert was correct. Almost every girl and woman in the movie was unnecessarily objectified for the purpose of satisfying some fantasy, fantasies that stemmed from both the male characters in the movie and from the male creators of the movie. Even the characters played by Rooney Mara and Rashida Jones existed in the story on some level because the Mark Zuckerberg character was sexually attracted to them. Two of the last scenes in the movie involved Mark asking Rashida's character out to dinner, followed by Mark obsessing over the Facebook page of Rooney's character.

Both the presentation of and the critical acclaim for The Social Network depress me. It's a perfect storm of straight white male privilege packaged by a writer and a director who were both trying a little too hard. The movie's current 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't surprise me, considering that most film reviewers are nerdy white guys whose nerdy wet dreams were fulfilled by seeing their self-projections on screen, as portrayed by the likes of Andrew Garfield and panty-chasing Justin Timberlake (?!). (Jesse Eisenberg is talented, but the real Mark Zuckerberg did get cheated aesthetically on the casting.) There are no movies this year or last year or scheduled for next year that would either be a female equivalent of The Social Network, that have a solid female cast, or that even pass the Bechdel test. This exclusive, incestuous system takes a property from the male-dominated field of nonfiction--a story about the male-dominated field of technology--then has the story adapted through the male-dominated fields of screenwriting and directing; this system does not encourage or leave much room for women to succeed.

The scene that summed up the movie for was when Mark was handing out assignments to his friends so that he could to expand the website to additional schools throughout the country. When Brenda Song's character, who was eager to help, asked what she and her female friend could do, Mark simply replied, "Nothing."

With all that said, I advise you readers to go see The Social Network (tickets are still available!), and report back to me. I welcome your thoughts. Please leave comments! :)

Edit 10/13/2010:

1. In the words of Joan from the episode of Mad Men, "The Summer Man", "No matter how powerful we get around here, they can just draw another cartoon." In this case, no matter how hard you have worked to get into Harvard or Stanford, they can just make another movie, portraying you and all of your female colleagues as useless, drunken, coked-up whores. You would think that attending an Ivy League university would spare you as a woman from getting painted with the skank brush on the silver screen, but no. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a Sorkin/Fincher movie coming out next year about the girls gone wild in the House of Representatives.

2. I didn't fully address Brenda Song's character, but someone else did:

Brenda Song’s Crazed, Hypersexualized Asian Female Stereotype in The Social Network, (Updated), by Jenn, Racialicious.

3. Joseph Mazzello is still working. And he has a college degree? Good for him!

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"Let's leave New Jersey out of this."

"That's what the Constitution should have said."

Ha!

BT-dubs, I forgot he was black, too (at 4:25). That's the power of Fred Armisen.

Also:





That's what I'm saying, Andy.

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Yeah, you could have.

Justin Timberlake: 'I Could Have Handled Wardrobe Malfunction Better', Starpulse via mun2.

Justin Timberlake has come to regret the way he handled Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show, insisting he should have been more supportive.

The "Cry Me A River" singer was performing onstage with Jackson and ripped open her jacket breast to reveal a naked boob to the world on live TV.

As the scandal of the big reveal escalated, the singer spoke out and confessed he had no idea Jackson intended to go topless - if that, indeed, was her intention.

Timberlake distanced himself from the incident and from Jackson, but now feels he could have handled the controversy and the fall-out from the show a lot better.

He tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "I wish I had supported Janet more. I am not sorry I apologized, but I wish I had been there more for Janet."

Commenter mjlove shares my reaction to this five-years-too-late declaration:

Get outta here JT, now that youre comfortable in your career you want to issue a statement about that after all this time. Its all good that he feels that way and thats his right to put it out there, but damn where was you when the woman was getting blacklisted left and right. Fine time to feel empathetic towards her huh, but thats just my opinion I'm not judging. I just think that he wasnt very supportive when it would have counted the most, thats all...

I agree. Except that I am judging.

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Acceptable double standards,

or, This post made me giggle and crystallized my disappointment in Justin Timberlake.


The Race™-Approved White Guys [Humor], by AJ Plaid and Fiqah.

[ . . . ] in an effort to make sure such a pop-culture faux-pas don’t happen again, we’ve composed a list of white guys who are deemed The Race™-sanctioned—any Black female performer can be seen with these white performers and know she’s doing right by Us™. Our criteria:

1. We know they’ve dated, are dating, are married to, have and/or have babies by Black women. (Having Black or Black biracial daughters, adopted or biological, is an added bonus. ‘Cause, as some of us wanna believe, if the white guy can touch/sex up/adopt/father a sistah, they can not possibly be…well, you know the rhetoric.)
2. They can actually have performing-arts skills. (This leaves out Kevin “K-Fed” Federline.)
3. They’re famous in their own right. (This kinda sorta leaves out Gabriel Aubry. Some early men-watchers know him as a model. But many more know him for siring Halle Berry’s baby. If you don’t believe us, say Aubry’s name and “model.” Then say Aubry’s name and “Halle Berry’s baby’s daddy.” Record the results.)
4. We get the 6^th Sense* that they’ve been with sistahs but aren’t talking about it.
5. We sistahs have sensed the sexual tension between these dudes and the sistahs on-screen.
6. They’re not Justin Timberlake.

My favorite special mentions in the category, "You'd Think So . . . But No", include Bill "I'm Not 'Down,' Just Visiting" Maher, and the winner of the "Don't Date Him Gurl" Award, Quentin Tarantino.

For more positive examples, please see this photo spread in Essence.

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Saving me an hour and a half.

Bring it on down to Turkeyville!

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