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12 votes
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American gerontocracy: Typically, congressional representatives are 20 years older than their constituents. We must have lawmakers who look like the people they represent
18 votes -
Stan is the forgotten man in Nine-Fairfax merger
3 votes -
Did Facebook lLearn anything from the Cambridge Analytica debacle? An even bigger data breach suggests it didn’t.
14 votes -
How 'Supergirl' is changing the game for transgender youth
11 votes -
The Banality of Brett Kavanaugh
19 votes -
A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia — and his schizophrenic delusions, too. Some doctors think they know why.
12 votes -
How economists lost their fear of minimum wage rises
5 votes -
Sorry Apple, but the sweet smell of 6S is enough for me
17 votes -
Journey to a night flower
8 votes -
The Maldives has another shot at democracy – but it needs help. At last, the violent rule of Abdulla Yameen is over. But the nation has a long way to go if it is to restore trust in its institutions.
7 votes -
The Unlikely, Obvious Solution to the Trade War
7 votes -
What's in a name? Patience Phillips' Catwoman
For anyone who doesn't recognize Patience Phillips, she was Halle Berry's Catwoman in the most terrible superhero film - Catwoman (2004)...that I really enjoyed it. Probably because it wasn't...
For anyone who doesn't recognize Patience Phillips, she was Halle Berry's Catwoman in the most terrible superhero film - Catwoman (2004)...that I really enjoyed it. Probably because it wasn't well-received, it's often overlooked when talking about things like "the first female hero on screen" or "the first black hero..." sort of things. And technically, Catwoman's not a superhero.
Spoilers ahead. I'm also going to keep my points to the story and characters themselves. I honestly had no issues with any of the actors.
The good
- The theme and social commentary on make-up, beauty products, self-harm/addiction and image issues woman do face. The added layer of cooperate greed. The idea of what you see in the mirror vs. what others see (and if they're right), alongside what you want to present to the world or to specific people - honestly this movie has probably one of the best takes on "the cost of beauty" that I've seen in a while, and since.
- The scene where Tom thinks he's saving a jumper, but Patience is actually trying to save a cat. This random scene turns out to be a great storytelling scene when brought up again after Tom arrests Patience for murder and she asks him what he first saw the first time they met.
- Laurel is probably the most interesting character in this movie. There's a really well-framed shot of her photos being removed from her company lobby in favour of a younger model. I think it's one of the best scenes in the movie. Laurel is capable, powerful, rich and very accomplished, but somehow her relevance still fades as her beauty does. (I can honestly say I generally can't stand the evil step-mother wrestling with her fading beauty and taking out her bitterness on some young snow white-y girl, but this one worked for me.)
- I loved that Batman wasn't in it (but didn't really like that a love interest still had to be introduced).
The bad
- That she's call Patience Phillips...but honestly this is the warning to divorce this from any Catwoman or female superheros (or anti-heros) you know.
- Patience doesn't earn her "powers" - Selina Kyle (Catwoman in basically all other versions) works obsessively to perfect all her abilities. She's an insanely good cat burglar, not a magic cat.
- Patience doesn't earn or drive her own growth. There is basically no growth as a character. A magic cat ghost could have simply possessed Patience's body and the story would be the same.
- Oversexualization of Catwoman...which I didn't even know could be a thing until this movie. Black leather for a sexy Catwoman - awesome. Whatever the belt thing was - grossly missed the point while trying to copy Pfeiffer's patched up catsuit.
- I'm also not the biggest fan of make-over tropes in general.
The ugly
- The basketball scene - just everything about it.
- The hate that surrounded the movie because Catwoman wasn't blonde (or Michelle Pfeiffer), and that Batman's not in it.
- The physical punch-them-out fight scene between Laurel and Catwoman in the end - just why? This isn't a movie at all about physical strength, and having a "face like marble" isn't a real power. (To be fair, I don't like this showdown in really any superhero movie, with the exception of The Death of Superman.)
The cheesy
- The crazy cat-lady Patience goes too, and her tossing a cat toy at her
- The sushi eating scene
- The in case of date emergency kit her friends gave her.
- Laurel seeing her cracked beauty in the moment of a showdown fight
- The cat scratches on Tom
- Her best friend hooking up with her doctor
- The comparing signatures on the coffee cups
- Her Marvel-like comic book name
Final thoughts
So yeah...I would recommend this movie, and really hope that when they do make another Catwoman film that it might share some themes. Have you seen this movie? Did you hate it? Who's your favourite Catwoman? What would you like to see in a Catwoman movie?
10 votes -
What artists do you wish would go back to their roots/an older sound of theirs?
What band that you like/used to like makes you wish they would go back to what they used to do? Personally, I wish Maroon 5 would put out more stuff like Songs About Jane. They had a really chill,...
What band that you like/used to like makes you wish they would go back to what they used to do? Personally, I wish Maroon 5 would put out more stuff like Songs About Jane. They had a really chill, jazz-y, very Jamiroquai-esque sound that I dig the hell out of but now Levine's dedicated to pop music full time.
Hardmode: No Weezer
24 votes -
Australia's Labor party laughing as Coalition kowtows to Rupert Murdoch
4 votes -
The coders of Kentucky
7 votes -
What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez think about the South China Sea?
12 votes -
Twitter's return to a chronological timeline won't be enough to recapture its original magic
7 votes -
We're measuring the economy all wrong
12 votes -
We hold people with power to account. Why not algorithms?
12 votes -
Why computer science students are demanding more ethics classes
22 votes -
Canada betrays its own citizens. Hassan Diab's case is among its most egregious.
8 votes -
Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research – it should be free
28 votes -
Russia’s brazen lies mock the world. How best to fight for the truth?
10 votes -
Sen. Ben Sasse reveals five point plan to address ethics issues in DC
11 votes -
The ugly history of beautiful things: Perfume
8 votes -
The Republican approach to voter fraud: Lie
14 votes -
I am part of the resistance inside the New York Times opinion desk
11 votes -
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
47 votes -
'Trump is checking out of Asia': What Australia should do about it
6 votes -
The religion of Whiteness becomes a suicide cult
12 votes -
Ten years after the financial crash, the timid left should be full of regrets
10 votes -
For poorer people in India and many other countries, a computer engineer has found a way to detect breast cancer without radiation
10 votes -
Beware rich people who say they want to change the world
21 votes -
HIV stigma: How we help spreading the virus
5 votes -
Trump tweets about white farmers while indigenous peoples face annihilation
9 votes -
Civil disagreement (or, how to get people to consider your meta-opinions while not singling out individuals)
A Short Summary and Introduction Before the Actual Content of This Post: A site—especially a small one, like Tildes—is going to have growing pains. That's natural. It's also natural, and to some...
A Short Summary and Introduction Before the Actual Content of This Post:
A site—especially a small one, like Tildes—is going to have growing pains. That's natural. It's also natural, and to some extent, necessary, for users to raise issue with remedies for these growing pains. However, there's a spectrum of correct ways to do this, and a way to not do this. If you aren't interested in—or think you already have a firm grasp on the subject of—this post, you might want to skip it.
Tildes has reached its first major streak of growing pains, as I'm sure everyone active or lurking's noticed. We've also reached our first few incorrect methods of handling these. There are a few obvious things you shouldn't do, and everyone knows that—tantrums, slurs, personal attacks, etcetera—I'm going to be discussing a less realised one, and ways you could handle it instead.
Now, onto the good stuff.
Repeatedly, when handling issues, Tildes has seen a recurring circumstance. User makes post, upset. User namedrops and or subposts a user (the most apt description I could think of for a term lifted off of Twitter—subtweet—for example, "I'm not saying it's Garfield I'm talking about, but there was a suspiciously large orange cat with a mild food addiction with a fondness for lasagne who really pushed my buttons!" and etcetera). User hits "send." The targets of it feel offended, and the poster gets yelled at by the community for hurting people. No one wins.
The trick to fixing this: stop going out of your way to call out users, directly or indirectly. If you have issue with something someone said, either take it to an administrator, or directly message the user in question (politely, of course.) There's no reason to air dirty laundry in public, and there's no reason to bring personal grievances into the public eye for minor things.
If you notice an issue, do the above, and nothing changes, wait a short while before making a post on it. There's a fair chance it will resolve itself. If you end up feeling the need to make a post, do not mention individual conversations. Do not give examples from actual conversations; make an analogous example and put it into quote blocks. Never name a name or names, don't allow hate to be directed at anyone.
We're all (presumably) adults (or close enough,) here. If you have any desire for Tildes to flourish, act like an adult. Passive aggression isn't the behaviour of one. Aim to have better behaviour than the docs recommend; you might slip up sometimes, but you'll never fall too far if you keep that in mind.
Anyway, if you ended up reading this; thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it. I've spent a lot of time handling large forums, and in comparison to most of you, fairly small, incredibly high-volatility subreddits with immeasurably close communities. If you can't get a community to do the above, or something close to it, it's more or less going to be a death warrant for it. We'd all prefer not to have that happen to Tildes, so I—and presumably, most of us—would really appreciate if people made an effort to stop that from occurring.
Hate to copy reddit's slogan, but really:
Remember the Human.
Thanks again,
Eva.
27 votes -
The man who is fervent about feeding hungry kids, but hates food banks
9 votes -
It’s OK to call racists ‘racist’
17 votes -
The US establishment thinks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is too radical – with an impending climate disaster, the worry is she isn't radical enough
21 votes -
The shareholder value myth
5 votes -
Elon Musk’s funding for Tesla wasn’t so secure
13 votes -
Canada doesn’t have an inheritance tax. For the sake of democracy, that needs to change.
23 votes -
Americans own less stuff, and that’s reason to be nervous
16 votes -
Nick Hanauer: Democrats Must Reclaim the Center - by Moving Hard Left
9 votes -
It started as a fairly routine tweet from an inoffensive source - Canada's foreign affairs ministry. But in just a few days it escalated into a world-class diplomatic clash.
14 votes -
Coles 'bagflip' fiasco highlights the need for Australian legislation
5 votes -
"Why objective journalism is a misleading and dangerous illusion"
20 votes -
New agreement with China: Opportunity to save Mozambique’s forests
5 votes -
Why I love my library and you should too
14 votes