Mists of Avalon -- eh. I did like the second part better, although that may have been because Wendy wasn't there and we weren't feeding off each other with the snarky comments. I do feel that Arthur would have been better to have just discreetly killed Mordred when he showed up and started being nasty, but I suppose that would be very un-Arthurian. But hell, he engineered a three-way with Guinevere and Lancelot, so he does give way to at least some moral expediency. Whatever.

Along those lines, I dug up Lotti's reaction to our Girls' (and Boys') Night Out to A Knights Tale earlier this year.

Ten things I've learned about life from watching "A Knight's Tale":

10. Never piss off someone with red hair. They will make angry, mugging faces and usually punch you in the nose.
9. Any lesson to be learned is best learned through wacky montage.
8. Bad people are cowards and always cheat, but you can still beat them in the end through plucky self-determination and "forgetting" that your arm is broken.
7. Curtains make the best play clothes.
6. Key moments in life are more special and memorable when set to "Takin' Care of Business" and/or "The Boys Are Back in Town."
5. Jousting is COOL.
4. Sex can occur even if (a) you don't know the guy’s real name/station of birth and (b) you're betrothed to the bad man.
3. Sometimes you get really mad at the people you love the most and can't tell the audience why, and that's ok.
2. Chicks make the best smithies, oh yeah!

-- AND FINALLY --

1. Chaucer demands to be called "P. Diddy" for the rest of eternity. All copies of The Canterbury Tales shall reflect said change immediately.

We like bad movies. They're fun.

I'm getting ready to settle down and watch Witchblade, my stupid guilty pleasure for the summer. Newton sent me a lovely link to the Liberation Journal, what I can only assume is a seriously wacked-out libertarian-plus-mega-conservative-gone-nuts organization that apparently equated any vaguely physical woman with something that incites rape. Huh? Well, here's what they say (all spelling mistakes are from the original):

Portrayals of amazon freaks denigrate and pervert women and attack feminine identity and incite in men a lust for sexual violence. These shows are extremely obscene, many are pornographic, they display dominatrix whores who incite lusts for sexual violence, and are an attack on womin, the family and civilization.

and here are some prime descriptions of "misogynist" TV shows:

Charlie's Angels (80s) - Sexy chics with guns. The show was criticized not for the violence but because of the way the women looked. In this society, violence is promoted to women while sexuality and non-violent, moral courage is criticized. Among the many barbaric and obscene shows, one featured women playing tackle football.
Because god knows, nothing is more barbaric and obscene than a woman defiling the sacred ideal that is Football.

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (90s) - Dumbass teen bitch's obsession with violence. Femininity exploitation show. They create a "cutesy" teen character to use to attack feminine identity using anti-feminine stereotypes as straw men to fight against, the idiotic vampires are just the excuse--their real enemy is femininity.
Um, what? Are you offended because Buffy is cute and kicks ass? And why no mention of Willow and Tara? Surely that is worth some bile-spewing from this site. Or could you not even bring yourself to acknowledge their relationship?

Xena: Warrior Princess (90s) - Pornographic dominatrix amazon whore, a crazed, violent bitch. Extreme, obscene violence that provokes in men an overwhelming, obsessive lust to rape and slaughter these bitches. It's obvious intent is to incite females to be violent, to hate, to become socially hostile and to suffer the inevitable consequences of increased violence against women. The makers and participants in this all deserve to die the violent deaths they playact. Stations who show it and its sponsors must be boycotted. Anyone who watches it should be ostracized from civilized society. Parents should not allow their daughters to date boys who watch it. Parents who encourage their kids to watch it should be jailed for child abuse.
Someone's got a Xena fetish, and hasn't quite figured out how to deal with it.

Witchblade (2001) (TNT) - Glorifying evil. Another violent bitch provoking violence against women.
Hey, it's a cheesy show, but that hardly equals glorifying evil. It may provoke violence against your television set at some of the story lines, but that's one of the perils of summer TV viewing.

I guess the rationale behind all this is that men seeing women actually stand up for themselves, be athletic, pursue "male professions," etc. makes real men angry and they take it out on the women in their lives. So the solution is to make sure women don't stray from the roles that these men say they should be following? Well that's back-assward. If the men are committing the crimes, surely it's their behavior that has to change. Sigh.

Newton, where do you find these things?

By the way, Andy, one of the sites they link to is iFeminists, the site you built back when you were in the thrall of the libertarian not-for-profit folks. Hah!