Penile Complicity

Tiger Woods is not someone I know personally. But there's something about him that's always made me nonchalant toward him. Yes, yes good for him for making history with his green blazer PGA victories and all of that. Who am I to judge but the guy always came across as somewhat arrogant. And it's shown. Sex, lies and no videotape...yet. Why this is such a massive story is beyond me. But it's been interesting to note the amount of support he's been receiving from other MEN namely sportsmen. It's kind of sickening and smacks of what we all know as male privilege. Here we have a high profile, very wealthy male athlete who has cheated on his wife with several women. You have people like Dennis Rodman, Donald Trump and Charles Barkley sending him messages like "hang in there". It's as if he is some kind of victim in the midst of a media firestorm that has been brought upon him without any of his doing. I don't get it. Instead of pointing out his obvious disrespect and audacity to commit such trifles, they're showing him love. These types of men have normalized infidelity so much in their minds that when they are caught in the act and punished for it (as Gillete has done with Tiger), their self-perception is that of unwarranted persecution instead of worthy justice.

So, in the minds of privileged men, cheating is right. These people feel entitled to use their money to lure women into relationships in order to feed their empty, insatiable shells. When obstacles come in the way of achieving this end, they transform into the hapless victim.

I don't think I need to point out the apparent double standard. If this was a woman, not only would she be immediately labelled negatively. She would also not experience the same kind of support that Tiger's contemporaries are offering him.

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Growing Up Girl, Being Black

When I read essays such as this one, I am reminded of how important it is to view the world through an objective and critical lens. Critique is necessary to avoid internalising fallacies and driving myself into a ditch. Objectivity is required to avoid getting angry.


Yet it makes tons of sense when spoken in light of perplexing encounters that leave you wondering whether or not some people are capable of seeing a fellow human being when looking toward you. Archetypes just annoy the hell out of me. Literally. When the machinations of this collectively racist and sexist consciousness reaches my understanding. My fires cool. Guess I just stop taking it to heart.

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My Take On Twilight: New Moon

Simply for the sake of finding out what all the mayhem was about, went to see "New Moon" two weeks ago and them again today. Simply to accompany some friends still in the dark about it and to...yes, I wanted to see Taylor Lautner's buff and beautiful physique. No shame. Not at all. I have not read any of the books. After what I've seen so far, I don't think it'll be worth the time.
Plenty of discouraging remarks from Ms Peterson and the league of extraordinary commenters

It's enough to keep me away from the third one. But I'm so adamant to see how Chris Weitz or whoever is directing "Eclipse" transposes Meyer's third book in the series.

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"Wait Your Turn, Chris!"

Laughing at some of the tweets I read with reference to Rihanna's new video. Not Russian Roulette which is so flat, the Namib Desert is jealous (drum strikes for the bad joke). It's this song called Wait Your Turn. How baffling this young lady's behaviour is becoming. I have expressed my concern for her. Has she found emotional healing from the abuse. Think about the transition she's made from her "Music of the Sun" sugary to the point of wackness sweetness to this dark, dreary, gloom and doom character that's "Rated R". Pointing guns at the camera and grabbing her crotch. Even Grace Jones didn't instigate this much violence. She was eccentric yes, hypersexual yes but I can't remember her making threats to harm with her body language. I'm mobile so can't post the video. You know what to do YouTube addicts.

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Why I Don't Believe in Vengeance

Lately, I've been delving into some literature about the subject of verbal abuse. I've learned so much. Ironically enough, Womanist Musings happened to have a post closely related to this topic:

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/12/eminem-plays-with-words-to-disguise.html

In the past I've made the same mistake of attempting to transfer the pain of things said to me and of me, prejudiced, cruel treatment from others. I was young and naive. Instead of putting the insults into context, I often allowed myself to hurt over them. It took a toll in the long run and I eventually started lashing out - impersonating those that caused me pain.

That's what Eminem is doing. I often felt compassion for him especially after hearing "Cleaning Out My Closet" in 2002. I can see the source of his pain but he, as a 35 year old man, must be mature and realise that the past no longer has an influence unless one chooses to give it one. But instead of using his adversity as a way of knowing others' struggles and becoming empathetic and kind, he does the opposite by turning into the father that left him, the mother that neglected him and all those that hurt him very deeply.

It's difficult especially if one's wounds are deep to march forward and heal. I've learned that for the sake of one's wellbeing, if anything else, love and forgiveness are the key.

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Full Blown and It Could Have Been Avoided

After watching a documentary entitled "The Age of AIDS", I'm left quite depressed but also flabbergasted at the failure of South African goverment since 1994 to tackle the issue of the epidemic.
Nelson Mandela did very little to address it during his presidency owed to the fact that little was still known of the virus at the time. It was still much of a myth that many believed only affected those overseas. Namely white male homosexuals in the USA. Not the migrant mine workers, prostitutes in "mine brothels" and wives and girlfriends of these men. It is believed that this is where the virus boomed.
So while goverment paid more attention to uniting the nation after the end of the apartheid era, this was mainly ignored. With the new administration still under ANC rule, Thabo Mbeki only sought to worsten an already deepening problem by denying that HIV causes AIDS and by stating that the "toxic" aspect of anti retro viral drugs should limit them from being given to patients. The result of this was a boom in mother to child infections. Imagine. All the kids born in that period whose mothers were unfortunate enough to have contracted HIV could have been spared the chance of living with the virus themselves. But the president chose to ignore the crisis at hand. Sad.
Well now for the results...South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world. And the president we have now seems to think that all you have to do to make the virus go away is take a shower! And that it is absolutely fine to have more than one marriage partner (ONLY if you're a MAN) I've heard him sing "Mshini Wami" (translation: bring my machine gun) more times than I've heard him talk about the importance of safe sex. On top of that, there is a violence and crime epidemic. I (very sarcastically) wonder why??

Well it's plain to see now isn't it. The tragedy of this nation lies for the most part in the inability of a post-apartheid government. Only concerned with power.

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No "Proper" Actor in South Africa?

Black Snob I'm going to bite you: O RLY?? Luvvie darling I'm also going to bite you: iRefuse to accept that the reason big budget motion pictures don't use African-born actors is because there aren't any. No, there are plenty. But the fact that they're a bunch of nobody's reduces their suitability for playing lead protagonists for such high-scale movie projects.

This was just one of the illogical comments published at the imdb.com on the message board for the movie Invictus. Where there were complaints about Morgan Freeman's lousy accent. Which from what I've seen in the trailer really is off to say the least. And yes, we all know he is the crème de la crème of the veteran Hollywood fold but even Denzel (no surname needed, that's how larger than life he is) faltered with his role as Steve Biko in Cry Freedom. With that high-pitched fantastical "imitation" of a South African accent. What was meant to be a stern biopic of an extremely important figure in the South African freedom struggle turned into somewhat of a comedic interpretation of this man's life (something I'd imagine Dave Chapelle performing in one of his 15 minute skits). It leaves many thinking, "Why not just use African actors?"

Alot of it probably has to do with African American actors being recognisable and therefore better able to draw the public's attention. That's an obvious one. But why can't they just follow Don Cheadle and Forrest Whitaker's examples and take the time to really study the accents and dialects, master them and carry them out properly in their portrayals. It's more than just vying for an Oscar, just the mere fact of acknowledging the intricacy and uniqueness of each manner of speech on the continent that differ from location to location will be a huge leap for Hollywood. If using unknowns is too risky at least whip those American tongues into shape with proper language training from the locals themselves. Don't forget to pay them properly for their tutoring services.

As for Jennifer Hudson playing Winnie Mandela in director, Darrel Roodt's upcoming project. I'm not too sure what to expect but I believe in her acting abilities. Let's be honest, the movie's earnings may not be that great if they chose to cast a locally-known South African actress in place of J.Hudson. She did win an Oscar and people always stand up and listen when Oscar winners happen to appear.

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