The Power of Merchandising

Is it weird that my kids know "Tauntaun," "R2D2," "Obi-Wan Kenobi," "Darth Vader," "Bantha," "Yoda" and "Tie Fighter" are all Star Wars things but have never seen the movie and don't know anything about the story upon which they are based? Since Monsters Inc still freaks Sidney out, we've got a long way to go before we do a Star Wars screening...

But the power of merchandising is alive and well!

*******

As heard from the backset:

Part 1

Sidney: "Calvin, give me back my doll! (Whining) He's the closest thing to Prince Phillip that I haaaave!

Me: "Sid, he's not a doll, he's an action figure and he's actually mine. I lent you and Calvin my action figures to play with but their not 'yours'."

Sidney: "You should give them to us to keep."

Me: "Not if you're going to fight over them."

Sidney: "What's this action figure's name?"

Me: "Obi-Wan Kenobi"

Part 2

Sidney: "Calvin, say Obi-Wan Kenobi"

Calvin: "Ototo kebi!"

Sidney: "NO! Say Obi-Wan....

Calvin: "Obi-Wan..."

Sidney: "Kenobi"

Calvin: (A bunch of gibberish)

Sidney: "NO!"

Me: "Hey, what if you guys just call him Ben?

Calvin: "O-key Toby!"

Sidney: "Alright, let's just call him Toby."

Me: (Hysterical laughter)

"O-key Toby"

Some words about the Seattle Pacific University Shooting

I remember a few years ago when my brother-in-law (whom I don't align with politically but still respect) was arguing against financial regulation or universal healthcare or something; I even think the term "bootstrapping" came up. He grumbled about the direction the country was taking. I allowed his well-articulated but unconvincing arguments to wash over me. My blood pressure began to rise because he just didn't get my perspective.

Of course, I agreed that no one wants to be taken advantage of, no one wants their taxes wasted, no one wants their rights compromised. But after several minutes of hearing how everyone in this country should be completely self-made and how the new administration was ruining everything--I had finally heard enough. "You know what," I said, "As a parent, I can't afford to be so cynical about the state of things. I have to believe that the positives outweigh the negatives. Because if I don't, then what the hell have I done bringing a child into this world?"

~*~

Flash forward to last Thursday and the shooting at Seattle Pacific University. As if sensing my deepest fears, Anna Minard of The Stranger wrote a phenomenal response to the incident that made me seriously pause.  She said:

"This is your country. This is the world we have built. And we should start really coming to terms with that." 

She described a defeated acceptance of a world in which mass shootings are expected and prepared for with the inevitability of a natural disaster--except that they are anything but natural. The 'leave-everyone-to-their-own-devices-and-everything-will-be-fine' and the "infallibility" of the 2nd Amendment sickens me whenever there's a shooting like this. No one in power has done a damn thing about guns after all the other incidents of carnage. So maybe it's what we deserve for letting the NRA hijack our political system.  And I was reminded of my spirited debate with my brother-in-law but it was my turn to play the cynic.

This gun problem we have in America--it defines us now. It's a standout feature of our culture. And yes, mental illness is to blame as the instigating factor for the SPU shooting. Absolutely, yes.  But the guns. The access to guns. This Mother Jones piece on 10 Myths about Guns, so simple to understand, made me furious with knowledge: for instance, states with higher gun ownership have higher numbers of gun deaths per capita--not surprising. And the adage that "good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns"? Well, the number of armed civilians that have stopped a mass shooting is a big fat zero.

Otto Miller Hall on the Seattle Pacific University campus is where I used to attend monthly children's writing meetings and where I met my dear friend Sarah for the first time. It was also where I've mingled while eating appetizers, workshopped new children's story ideas and laughed with other struggling writers.  But now the carpet has bloodstains...

After this and the long spate of shooting incidents, a rarely-accessed, indignant part of me just wanted to gather up my family, play the isolationist/protectionist card and leave the country. But then I took a breath and "bootstrapped" my attitude.  Because there are people in the world like fellow ParentMap writer, Rory Graves, who have experienced intense personal anguish due to guns but turned it into positive, productive action. So as a parent and someone with a voice, there is absolutely no room for me to have a pity party or accept that things can't be made better.  No room at all.

Scenes from a Garden

For people who don't like to garden, we sure do have one.

Brutal Brutality

Game of Thrones should be one of the cult shows I watch.  It has all the makings of a favorite and with the wave of popularity it's enjoyed, I'll admit I've felt a bit left out of the cool geek crowd. I do love fantasy worlds like Lord of the Rings. The early descriptions of Game of Thrones noted a sword-swinging, intrigue/adventure tale with dragons and British actors talking to each other while riding horses--it sounded so promising!  Okay sure, there was also vengeance, sadism, nudity and sex to spice it up but everyone could use a little more of that I suppose.

Well we didn't have HBO and the premiere of this show coincided with the birth of my firstborn. But I started hearing from Facebook friends, blogs, podcasts and articles in popular culture about some of the details of this show. Incest? Gory torture and death? Beyond gratuitous nudity and sex scenes? Rape? Blame the postpartum hormones or my upgraded respect for the value of a life--but my tolerance for all that crazy sh*t was about as strong as my tolerance for alcohol (decreasing over time and not that high to begin with).

Over the next few years, Game of Thrones (the show) came into it's own with some of the most brutal and explicit visual storytelling.  People couldn't stop talking about it. In a state of perpetual hesitation, I wanted to be a part of a cultural phenomenon, but I just couldn't do it. Yet I felt its power. I mean, I didn't even follow the show and I felt the waves of devastation after the Red Wedding. The night that episode aired, my Facebook feed flooded with aggrieved despondency.  So when I found out more details about the Red Wedding and what happened to some specific characters--especially having just given birth to my second child--I was all, "NOPE." Right then, like a Vegas dealer at the end of her shift, I clapped my hands together and said, "I'm out." I just can't bring myself to keep horrific images like that in my head no matter how great the story.  Seriously, I even had to stop watching Breaking Bad when <spoiler alert> Jane shoots up heroin, begins to choke to death on her own vomit and Walter just stands there, watching her die.  It was something about that scene, probably having to do with being a mom and Jane being someone's little girl.  Anyway that was too brutal.  And Game of Thrones, from all that I heard and what little I'd seen, was too.

Well last Sunday on Game of Thrones, unless you were under a rock somewhere, the news of a rape of a major character tore through the Internet. Yet that particular rape was not in the book so it took on a strange tenor.  There was so much chatter about this scene that I felt inclined to find the clip, read multiple editorials and write my own post on a show I don't even watch. It's because I have noticed, as have others (check out this amazing piece by Matthew Wallace), that TV and movie writers tend to use rape to just sensationalize and escalate stories.  Even my much beloved Downton Abbey had a terribly handled rape plot line this year and it sparked a reaction.

Like it or not, the majority of the writers and directors for TV shows like this are men. It doesn't mean they can't address and explore something as prevalent, damaging and regressive to women as rape but, too often it's used as an ingredient to spice up an existing story. It's also something that if done improperly on a show can make it seem sort of "exciting."  When you look at the Game of Thrones scene from last Sunday, it's shot in a manner that could make it seem less terrifying and more, dare I say, voyeuristic.  The ladies of The Mary Sue also had an in-depth discussion about this too.  They make some great points about not needing to use rape just to communicate how dysfunctional a relationship is or increase shock value of a show. Which leads me to wonder if this show (and others like it) are reflecting a trend that brutality is a necessary component for praiseworthy and cutting-edge entertainment. And in doing so, does that desensitize or perpetuate the acceptance of brutality (in this case, rape) in real life as a status-quo?  This above all else worries me most...