Olga got her stitches out on Wednesday, finally. We're still giving her a few more days off from the dog walker, just to make sure everything is healed, and she's wearing her Tudor donut through the weekend. But by Monday we should be back to our normal routines.
I will be so happy when this dog is getting walked again. I basically abandoned trying to come home each day for lunch -- I just don't have enough time. She doesn't seem to mind. She just lies on the couch and sleeps. I've never seen any creature that can sleep as much as a dog. They're like computers -- when there's no activity, they slip into standby mode.
There was an interesting article in The New York Times yesterday about '80s movies and the way they conveyed, and confirmed, the culture of teen male sexuality represented in the bad behavior of guys like Judge Kavanaugh. Hit movies like "Porky's," perhaps the prime example, celebrated what we would now consider harassment, or worse. They reflected that "boys will be boys" attitude of permissiveness.
Even in the '80s, I thought "Porky's" looked stupid. I don't think I saw it until sometime in the 2000s, when I finally rented it from Netflix and found it completely forgettable. But of course, being gay, I wasn't the typical audience. There are undoubtedly a lot of guys who did see it -- and "Animal House" and other films of that ilk -- and used them as models for their own behavior, or at least their aspirations.
This doesn't excuse Kavanaugh at all -- his behavior was egregious even by the standards of the '80s, and his angry, tearful defense of it now is even worse -- but it is interesting to consider how the cultural lens has shifted.
(Photo: A candy wrapper in a hedge, Cricklewood.)
The film genre you refer to certainly does promote a cartoonish type of manliness that is an affront to most right thinking men. In addition, those films are not even remotely funny.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that isn't a candy wrapper, it's a sweet wrapper.
Colour coordinated garbage!! It blends right in. Almost.
ReplyDeleteYears ago when I saw Animal House, I thought it was funny, because I didn't know that it wasn't exaggerating all that much. Naive, I know.
I've never felt the need to watch Porky's or any of those movies. Now yes, I did see Animal House.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking a lot about the difference between the boys who belonged to fraternities and the hippie boys when I went to college. There was a vast chasm in how they looked and acted.
I stuck with the hippie boys. Obviously.
I'm glad that Olga got her stitches out and I loved how you described dogs as being like computers. They surely can sleep a lot.
never saw either of those two movies. maybe parts of Animal House when it has been on TV. I stuck with the hippie boys too. the whole frat thing was just a continuation of the jocks from high school. it seems like the social conscious has changed but the only thing that is different is that women are not being silent about it anymore. the culture is still the same though and with many women supporting it! that just blows my mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear that Olga is on the road to recovery. I remember when those movies were popular but, I never saw any of them. I'm listening to the Senate vote now. It's pretty frustrating. I'm ready to scream every time I hear a Republican complain about attempts to "delay" the vote. I don't know how they can say that after what they did to Obama's nominee.
ReplyDeleteThere has been change but there's a long way to go yet. Kavanaug is a slimy example of of poor behaviour.
ReplyDeleteYes! Dogs are like computers on stand-by mode!! I'm amazed at how long they can sleep. Then, you take them outside, wind them up, and they just GO.
ReplyDeleteI've always detested the frat boy culture and the sorority girl culture that supported those boys. I went to college at an institution which actually BANNED Greeks until the California Supreme court ruled they must be allowed to exist as a student club on our campus. We were the UCSC Banana Slugs, and we loathed frats, football and anything remotely 'main stream.'
The irony of it when I was on staff there, years later, I became the staff advisor for Greek Clubs. They were as vile and loathsome as I feared. Would lie to my face about the nature and guidelines to a "fundraiser" which was just a cover for a beer fest. It took every ounce of professionalism and patience for me to conduct myself well while I held their feet to the judicial fire.
I think things are changing...my son in law and his friends are such good men: straight white males who have friends of every stripe. Men who raise their children with the seriousness usually reserved for moms. We can only hope the trend will continue.
Mr. K has the same narcissistic sense of entitlement as he of the orange hair, and yes, things have changed for the better. Olga is very active because of all the walking she does with you, so if she sleeps it is only to gear up for more.
ReplyDeleteCan't even express how terrible this nation has become, maybe always has been, but there used to be an illusion of civility before Rump and his cult. I am disheartened, we all are, those of us with two brain cells to rub together.
ReplyDeleteHeal OLGA! Heal!
YP: That's exactly true -- they're NOT funny. The few times I've watched one of them, I've thought, "WHY am I watching this?!"
ReplyDeleteJenny-O: I think "Animal House" helped create fraternity excess. Boys went to college and thought they were supposed to behave that way.
Ms Moon: There were still a few hippie boys wandering around when I was in school, but alas, the Reagan-era business majors were on the ascendancy.
Ellen: The female support for the likes of Kavanaugh is surprising. I don't get that at all. Unless they're women with badly-behaving sons and they're sticking up for their kids.
Sharon: Ugh. I can't think about it. It makes me crazy.
Red: Well, I suppose we can take some hope from the fact that change has occurred at all.
Tara: It's so funny that you wound up supervising the Greeks! When I was in school, we had a faux-fraternity called Gamma Delta Iota or GDI, which really stood for God-Damn Independents, and was essentially an anti-Greek club. I wasn't a member, but I dated a girl (yes, it was that long ago) who was.
E: Olga hasn't been walking nearly as much in the last few weeks. We really need to get her out and about more.
Linda Sue: It's true. I don't know what happened to basic politeness.
As somebody who watched "Animal House", "Porky's", "Hot Dog" (which is an awesomely stupid movie), and others, repeatedly, to the point I could recite dialogue; I can firmly say that no movie of the genre ever motivated me to behave in a similar way towards women. I can't imagine ever seeing Bill Murray in "Stripes" hike PJ Soles up onto the stove and giver her the "Aunt Jemima treatment" until she admits that she loves him and thinking that's the way to win over a girl. Similarly, "Friday the 13th", never made me want to hide under a bed and shove an arrow up through Kevin Bacon's chest. The entertainment value in both movies is that they are exactly how you should not behave, and that they are so stupidly assembled as movies that the obviousness of that fact is nearly undeniable.
ReplyDeleteExample: Don't ever steal a Ferrari and graft it into the back of a sailboat just to win over Demi Moore. Do we really need to tell people that? ("One Crazy Summer")
Films like "Porky's" and others with a reliance on sexist or criminal behavior only mold the behavior of the weak minded. Which I think is the crux of your later post regarding Kavanaugh's ultimate confirmation. No matter how stupid or insulting or politically motivated the question, angrily barking out, essentially "What about you? What's your favorite car to steal and graft onto a sailboat, senator?" should be grounds for a failure of confirmation.
Utah: I never knew you were such a connoisseur of '80s trash comedies! I've never even heard of "Hot Dog" and I barely remember "One Crazy Summer" (and never saw it). You're right that only an idiot would mimic specific behaviors shown in these sorts of films. But I wonder if in a more general sense they help create a climate that encourages, or at the very least permits, men to behave badly toward women. You might not steal a Ferrari and graft it onto a sailboat to win over Demi, but you might push Demi into a closet at a party. (Not YOU per se, but you know what I mean.)
ReplyDeleteBy that logic I would maybe watch Friday the 13th and decide to just 'graze' Kevin bacon with an arrow? I still think the person is to blame more than the film, and that is what makes the confirmation most disturbing.
ReplyDelete