Hannah Nicklin

In Defence of: Romantic Comedies

Image shared by ClickFlashPhotos / Nicki Varkevisser on Flickr via CC

Is this a title you didn’t expect to see on my blog? If so, why? Did I not seem like the ‘type to like romantic comedies’? Well let’s stop right there, shall we. Since when was it OK to dismiss a whole genre? I’d struggle to find even a sub-genre that I’d feel comfortable dismissing as universally rubbish, probably Snuff, though is that a form, not a genre? Sub genre of documentary? Anyway, killing people is fucked up. Stop it.

Back to point.

I AM SO BORED of the lazy dismissal of romantic comedies. I was having a discussion on Twitter yesterday about Space Westerns, I like the genre, and I thought I might try one, probably in a comic book collaboration I’m vaguely starting. Cue much self-satisfied snarking of ‘you mean like Firefly’ as if a) I had imagined I had invented the genre (srsly) and b) Firefly was the only one of its kind (try Star Trek (‘the final frontier’?) Star Wars, Halo Jones, Mass Effect, Cowboy Beebop, and they’re only some of the good ones). I tried to put this point to someone who suggested it could be nothing but a Firefly copy, by suggesting that had I said I was going to write a Romantic Comedy, he would not have suggested it must be a ‘Singing in the Rain’ ripoff. He responded that if that had been the case he would have considered it immediately rubbish anyway.

Though this made me facepalm, I’m willing to admit that there was, many a year ago, a point at which I would have agreed with him. That was the point, probably in my early teens and recognising something in society, I was in full-blown tomboy mode. I did not like musicals and romantic comedies because they were all rubbish, weren’t they? Why? The same reason I was imitating male clothing, academic ambitions*, sporting prowess. Because I have always wanted to be good at things, score high, understand how things work, learn. And what I had learnt from society was that ‘girl’ was not as good as ‘boy’. It was an insult. ‘You throw like a girl’. I bloody well didn’t, I bowled on a par with the boys and made it onto the school cricket team, I got the highest GCSEs out of the whole school, boys included**. And I won acceptance from boys for acting as they did. And Romantic Comedies, with their ideas of love and happy endings, they were uniformly feminine. And therefore, obviously, rubbish.

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Higher Education – an Alternative.

An image from the protests the day the tripling of university fees and effective privatisation of higher education was passed.

Always seem to find myself blogging on Christmas Eve, and it does tend to be a slightly political one. A combination of panic over not hitting my 4-a-month pseudo target to provoke the blog, and of looking forward to a whole new year to shuffle bigger ideas into my head. I haven’t done very much talking about politics over here recently though, and I think that has something to do with feeling completely overwhelmed at the sheer amount of thoughtless, incredibly damaging and regressive policy that a government can propose and pass in such a short amount of time. But I suspect that front-loading this shift to a severe right wing agenda is entirely meant to wrong-foot opposition – both in terms of mainstream political opposition (still reforming) and  what I guess I might term ‘social’ opposition (i.e. of wider society, protest, resistance, occupation). Who on earth has the energy to oppose each ignorant and hurtful piece of policy? And while single-interest organisations and movements are probably the best way to aim energy at each attack, this prevents energy mounting behind a universal resistance. Heads they win, tails you lose.

And I could concentrate on and deconstruct some particular attacks; on women, on children, on the disabled or education, but there are people doing this stronger and more thoroughly than I have the energy to do. And actually we all need moments of throwing energy at non-negative things, don’t we? Ideas of our own, not formed in direct opposition to others’. So I’m going to talk about something briefly here, inelegantly and slightly outrageous, but importantly about change-for-the-better , not stopping change-for-the-worse. It is borne of the resistance that I have been involved in the most – the privatisation of our higher education system (it is nothing less, and so not about tuition fees foremost) – and also as an academic, lecturer, and student, an area which I daily encounter. And finally it hopefully faces the ‘you’re just protesting against, not offering an alternative/it’s just the same as a graduate tax’ criticisms.

This is cobbled together from a couple of comment posts and is still fragmented. But it’s Christmas Eve, gimme a break.

Most people agree the problem with funding higher education is that by raising the bar in attendance (albeit for reasonable aims – and I think I stick by Labour on this – beforehand the wrong 10% were going) to 50% or so, there are just too many people to fund all of them (to a degree that is palatable to current UK mainstream politics at least), and it results in a surplus of people educated to degree level, leading to the farcical situation where you need a degree for an entry level admin job in any of the big desirable professions – media, PR, the creative industries, engineering, etc.

We also need a revision of the education system inline with the needs of the country. What is the biggest problem? In a society with what is considered a ‘surplus’ of uni-educated people, NEETs – those Not in Education Employment or Training – often young, often from the least advantaged backgrounds – the kind of people for whom  EMA and FE make all the difference -  they are completely lost to this system.

We should also admit that some people want to pursue education for its own sake – but also some people want a job, and that’s why they go to uni. And that, finally, greater employment, better research, a more educated populace, people better at and more happier with their jobs – these are things a country should invest in. Not only because they pay back dividends. This final point is a left-wing ideological stance and I make no apology for that, but the idea below also outlines aspects of meritocratic ideas that the right-wing claim to aspire to, too.

So higher education, how do you fix it?

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A Facebook Message From a Friend

Image shared via CC on Flickr by Lamazone

I received this, today, from someone I met on a writing course a couple of years ago. I’m glad he shared it with me, and I thought you might be interested in reading it too.

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Hope you’re well. Thought you might like to hear about a bit of a back and forth we’ve been having at work. Feminism-related, and frustrating from our point of view (and probably yours). What with your interest in the topic I thought I’d share the anecdote.

I work in a Creative Advertising Agency, these days, as a Copywriter. One of our accounts is a major retailer (who shall remain nameless). The client is keen boost sales of technology-related stuff to women over the Xmas period, as they see it as an untapped market.

The idea the client came up with was a “Girl Gamer’s Survival Kit” – everything from fancy gaming keyboards/mice to xbox bits and bobs. They wanted us to design three A3 posters to be displayed in their UK stores, advertising the range of products.

Reservations about the name aside, we went out and spoke to any female employees (and occasionally customers) we could find in our local GAME, GameStation, HMV video game sections etc and found out that, without exception, they didn’t give two fucks about things being pink, they just wanted nifty gadgets, cool peripherals… just the standard stuff, really.

With this in mind we went back to the office and designed what we thought was a pretty good campaign. It was chiefly black in colour, shiny – we wanted it to look as ‘bad-ass’ as possible. There was a girl on it, mid-shot, wearing a plain black t-shirt, slightly alternative-looking. But yes. It was awesome.

We then sent it over to the client.

It came back with a one-sentence reply:

“I don’t get what this has to do with girl gamers.”

Over the course of the next few days (with a back and forth conversation between the client and our account managers) the advert gradually became more and more pink. And more and more sexist.

The final poster they’re going with features what looks like a scantily-clad bad CGI Lara Croft-style woman with enormous breasts holding a ray gun or something. It’s pink. As are all of the gadgets on it. Pink X Box controller, pink X box add-ons… everything.

Unfortunately the money only flows one way – and we’re there to do what the client asks us to. We can argue with it and fight our corner, but ultimately the advertising industry is subservient to the clients who foot the bill; and their fear of change.

I just wanted to write and say sorry.

We tried our best.

Luke

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How do we send a message that we’re more than tits and pink? Is it time for some kind of petition? Some kind of ‘girl gamer’ movement that can raise its voice loud enough that the advertisers listen?

I Didn’t Applaud, Was That Right?

I am so tired at the moment. I am so tired of being angry, of feeling each stupid, ill-thought-out, privileged and destructive decision of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition hit me like a punch to the stomach. Have you ever been punched in the stomach? I haven’t, I spoke to someone who has though, and I think it’s an adequate metaphor.

I went to see Tim Crouch’s The Author, today. I had tried to avoid reading details about it, all that I knew was that it was an interactive-ish play with two lines of audience facing one another, and that it was about writing, and accountability. I also knew people had walked out, fainted, thrown things in reaction to it.

And I was apprehensive. I was apprehensive about doing it wrong, it wasn’t clear how much of it was a script, and how much of it wanted audience input. I knew that it asked for some, but had also read one of the performers bemoaning ‘wrong’ interruptions.

I was also angry. And tired. Which I normally am these days. And I knew that if someone stood up and tried to imply that I did not hold myself accountable to the world, to all that people do to other people, that I did anything other than spend every second I am not (and also some that I am) trying to earn a living or make art; protesting, writing, coding and shouting about the wrong in the world, I would react with violence. Like the image of the Millbank protester kicking the window. I would speak out of turn, and shatter their words.

“I looked at the performers on the stage and I saw that they had imagined me, badly”*

I sat down. The door closed. And as @danrebellato said, it was cleverer than that. It asked you to lean towards it, but it didn’t exploit.

It described some shocking things. But not with the aim To Shock, rather with the aim To Show. Shocking if you have never forced yourself to look, certainly. But it also talked about what looking means.

Here’s something about me: I have never, and will never purposefully watch a youtube video or recording of someone dying. I won’t even watch people breaking bones, or hitting a hard bail whilst skateboarding. Might not sound unusual to some of you, but for most people my age it I am an anomaly. It’s not that I don’t admit the horror or the pain, but rather that I won’t abuse someone’s embodied life by cheapening their death or injury with disembodied mimesis.

This person is not a symbol of the Iran riots, this woman is called Neda, and she is dying, bleeding to death, struggling to breathe, suffocating. She’s not 500,000 google hits. Continue reading…