Rabbits, Blinkity

Amanda Marcotte, as usual, has the answer. In summary: a men's movement is, by definition, about men. Things that are inherently about men are an extension of the patriarchy. Men sitting around talking about being men can only lead one place. Ergo, any men's movement, no matter how well-meaning, is doomed to either fail or turn into a slime pit of misogyny.

Truth.

Now it's probably true that there do need to be more spaces where men can say the offensive things they gotta say, so they can avoid derailing feminist conversations... but you know what? Plenty of women have the exact same misunderstandings and ignorant ideas. And if feminism tells us anything, it's that treating women and men differently is usually a bad, bad idea. We simply need more "feminism 101" spaces for everybody, regardless of gender.

So this just happened, and I just can't even with the blogosphere lately. I really, really want to start a decent men's stuff community blog now, but you know what? Ozy couldn't even really keep hir various communities under control, and zie probably had the best shot at it of anybody.

So blah.

Woody Allen movies are excellent in many ways, but they irk me on a very profound level. Let's talk about it!

I recently had a discussion with a friend (Hi Steve!) about Allen's work and morality, or lack thereof. (Mostly vis-a-vis Roman Polanski and that whole stepdaughter thing.) The end result was, not wanting to be the sort of person who complains about things they don't watch, I agreed to make an attempt at some of his films. Thus, I was in the curious position of watching a Woody Allen film in entirety for the first time, while having previously read quite a bit of criticism about both him and his films, especially about to his supposed misogyny or lack thereof.

So I had assumptions. I expected a couple of possibilities. First, that the whole thing might be overblown, that his films would be at worst reasonably well made, original stories, which due to their tremendous influence would feel just a touch stale. Second, that they might be the worst sort of 1950s sexist and classist tripe, only considered worthwhile because that sort of thing tends to go over the heads of the (white, straight, male) critical establishment. Or most likely, some combination of both.
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I think the Olympics, as a concept, are just really great. Interesting sports we don't often hear about, played by interesting people, all for the glory of their country. I love watching the games. There's just nothing quite like it.

However, the people organizing said Olympics are a bunch of corrupt, authoritarian, elitist pigs who, among other things, apparently think they can prevent people from linking to their site in a derogatory context. Which, if you weren't paying attention, is what I'm now doing.

Wanna try to enforce it? As Vika Azarenka (who is now one of my very favorite people, incidentally*) would say, "Good luck with that!"

*In other news: down with grunt-o-meters!

Pippa Mann just wrote a great article about the glass ceiling in race car driving, and her new role mentoring young women.

But according to this fine gentleman, Pippa Mann should just realize she's an obvious failure and go make him a sandwich. And yes, there are lots of comments telling him to be more civil, and that he's probably a sexist jerk, and other remarks defending her driving record, and the usual chorus of "me too" all around. It's mostly all noise, though.

The truth of the matter is that sexism is still alive and well, and definitely affecting Mann's ability to get rides and sponsorship, and she has a right to talk about this and help other women without people running their mouthes about it.

But just for fun, let's say the critic is right. Say she's personally gotten a bit of an unfair advantage because she's a woman. Hell, say his favorite driver (who we're all just sure is so much more talented) didn't get a chance because she got her grand total of three Indycar rides last year.

Big. Fucking. Deal.
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And Buducnost is the new champion. 54-54 by points scored while away.

So I had several feelings about the semifinals, but then I didn't write them down and promptly forgot. In any case, all the expected teams won, and it wasn't really close. Home court advantage made all the difference for the Hungarians.

As for the final... well (loud American alert), this is why the majority of sports don't play two-legged ties. "Points scored while away" doesn't seem like much of a metric for deciding the champion. Best-of-N seems so much more satisfying, and it's not like they couldn't sell the tickets. Plus, it seems to screw with the psychology of the players; Györi let a 5 goal lead slip to two in the first leg, which didn't seem like a big deal at the time but in retrospect made all the difference. Still, that's handball for you.

As for the final game itself, basically:
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So, Cow on Ice beat Vika the Pirate (aka Extremely Injured) in the Stuttgart final. And it was awesome.

So now, people are speculating on whether or not Sharapova's best surface is clay now. I'm pleased to report that according to my magic tennis statistics box, is probably is:

Maria Sharapova pre-surgery (before 2009)
Overall win percentage: 0.794
Clay win percentage: 0.750
Grass win percentage: 0.855
Hardcourt win percentage: 0.790

Clay is worst.

Maria Sharapova post-surgery (2009 and on)
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If I see one more obnoxious, anti-women, homophobic article/post/comment about Brittney Griner, I'm going to scream. Did you get pissed because Shaq was 7'1" and weighed 300 pounds? No, you didn't. You either though he was awesome because he could push people around and get those rebounds, or you didn't like him because he was beating your team, but respected his physical skills anyway.

And yes, this means you, Muffatt McGraw. Playing with Griner was not like "a guy playing with women." It was like playing a woman who is 6'8" and really good at basketball. Which, as it turns out, is remarkably like playing a person who is 6'8" and really good at basketball. (Besides, the reason ND lost so badly was that Novosel couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and Peters couldn't keep her fouls under control. Not Griner's fault anyway. But even if it was, the point still stands.) Heck, I could say the same thing about 5'9" Skylar Diggins, she kinda has "shoulders like a man," don't you think? See how ridiculous this sounds?

It's like the whole Hingis vs. Mauresmo business. Ironically enough, compared to modern players like Serena Williams or Stosur or Kvitova, Mauresmo of 1999 seems downright, well, average in terms of physicality. When "masculine" equals "good at sports," of course women who are good at sports will seem masculine. It's only going to become more true over time, and unless you're some kind of asshole who thinks women's sports are only supposed to be a mild, barely competitive diversion, this is a good thing.

Just stop already. Brittney Griner is one of the best female basketball players ever. I don't care if she did just beat your team; you've got to respect her anyway.
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