Minority Majority

There's been all this buzz about the latest census data on how just slightly over 50% of babies born in the last year belonged to a minority group. This article in WashPo has a pretty representative mix of facts and sensationalism. 

It got me thinking about a conversation I once had with one of my best friends in college who we will call A. Around the time Boybee and I were engaged/getting married, A and I disucssed our mutual desire to bear and raise children. To set the scene, A is also a cisgendered woman and she is African American (also gorgeous, hilarious, and brilliant - the woman speaks like, a bazillion languages). At the time, A was seriously dating a guy who happened to be white. So here we are, a couple of women in our early 20s talking about future child rearing plans. 

See Haywire (SPOILERS AHEAD)

I saw this movie a couple months ago in theaters, wrote this review and then... never posted it? Whoops! But, dudes, it came out on blue-ray/DVD/what-have-you this month and is so good, so I'm posting this now:

I heard through twitter that there was this movie starring Gina Carano, who I had never heard of, and that I needed to see it. Basically, instead of finding a gorgeous, wafer-thin, actress for me to pretend is an action star, they got a gorgeous action star for me to pretend is an actress. (See Jean Claude Van Damme for the male equivalent.) I generally like goofy action movies and really love action movies that star women. (As a side note, if you haven't already, go see Salt too - so good! As, really, I believe wafer-thin Angelina Jolie is a brilliant spy who can shoot a gun any day of the week, plus SHE TAKES OFF HER GORRAM HEELS BEFORE RUNNING DOWN A FLIGTH OF STEPS!!!! Finally. Some realism in my goofy action movies!) So, some friends and I caught a Sunday matinee while Boybee was busy. My thoughts and spoilers follow:

The P-Word and What Do We Do About It?

I just read this awesome article by John Scalzi presenting a somewhat overly simple yet incredibly eloquent analogy to explain how privilege works in society. Go read it. (Yes, it's a really simple analogy, that's why it's an analogy and not a treatise on the subject. Rhetoric is a thing we use to communicate; let's not get all huffy and post-structuralist on it just yet).

In the comments, there's this common theme of "ok, so I get it [sort of], now what do you want me to do about it?" and to those comments, my first reaction is - I don't think you actually grok what the man just wrote, so maybe... read it again and then we can chat? Maybe? This comment of course comes on the heels of those who totally do not get it at all (ever) who then point out how people with 'higher difficulty settings' complain too much... and it's like, who here is complaining? Oh wait. I remember. You guys at the easy difficulty settings are whining about how hard it is to know what to do or how even though it's easier for you, you still don't automatically win... or something? I don't actually know what those folks are complaining about.

So, now that folks have read it [again] and the grok is sinking in to the brain, we are still left with the question: What do we, as members of a society*, do about privilege? And, what role, if any, do those of us at varying difficulty levels have to play in the games of others who may be playing on a harder setting?

I therefore submit the Bee-Approved Action Plan:

Avengers! (Spoilers for all the movies ever!)

Like everyone else on the internet, I saw the Avengers this weekend and loved it.

The Spoiler Free Review: The script was good - lots of funny moments and the dialog and plot actually made sense! Chris Hemsworth continues to be very pretty and Black Widow is so BA and awesome, it's not even funny. This is also the first Marvel movie featuring Pepper Potts wherein she is not a dingbat - in the comics, Pepper is pretty sweet and at least in this movie, they let her have lines that an adult woman with self-respect would actually say. They also gave Bruce Banner a personality/motivation outside of being the Hulk which was exciting.

I left the theater wanting to see the movie again and really wanting them to make a Black Widow movie. Black Widow in Iron Man 2 is a hot chick in a painted on costume pretending to kick asses; Black Widow in The Avengers movie is a scarily BA spy with mad skills who is awesome and who has a reason to be kicking so much ass.

The Spoiler-full Review (for serious, don't read this if you haven't already seen the movie):