The Internet is For Overreactions

I hate that I’m even giving this attention, but I can’t help myself here. I cannot stand the newer Catherine Zeta-Jones phone commercials. I have never hated any commercials as vehemently as I hate these.

I know this is a part of our culture – sex sells, that much is obvious… I’m not as irritated by the one with the kid trying to hit on her, or the one with the random guy who answers the door. I’m talking about the one where she’s sitting in a living room with a married couple, and the husband is rendered incoherent by the beauty of CZJ in front of his wife, who is the one handling the phone transaction.

CZJ: (something about the phone plan and how it is awesome)
Wife: Great.
Husband: I like it when you say things.
(awkwardness)
CZJ: (blah blah blah, phone company, you are so amazing)
Husband: My wife will like that.
Wife: I’m right here.
Husband: That’s my wife Jen. We’re married. Technically.

I’m sorry, but does this unnamed phone company think we have such a low opinion of marriage that this will be an amusing commercial? That we will laugh at man’s dismissal of his own wife in front of an attractive, famous actress? Yes, I know it’s just a thirty second commercial, I know they aren’t really married, and I know that guy would not have a snowball’s chance in hell with Catherine Zeta-Jones (who, by the way, is married). That isn’t the point. I don’t want to sound all Fundie here, but come on. Where is the respect for committed relationships?  If that situation were real, that couple would have much bigger problems than how much coverage they get from their phone company.

I can’t fathom it. It doesn’t matter to me if you want to get married or not, if you think marriage is outdated or not, if you think same-sex marriage should be legal… I don’t blame this on people who don’t believe in the same traditions that I believe in. I don’t know what to blame this on. Rampant sexism, perhaps? The fact that men can be complete pigs? I don’t know. I just don’t understand why we as a culture cannot respect each other’s committed relationships. Just because celebrities do it doesn’t make it all right. Just because Brad cheated on Jennifer to be with Angelina doesn’t mean infidelity should be accepted as a natural part of a life, and just because he’s chiseled doesn’t mean what he did is any less disgusting. There are no excuses for anyone here.

Is the man in the commercial supposed to be insensible because of how beautiful this phone salesperson is, and he doesn’t know what he’s saying? Yeah. Because that happens. And I’m sure the wife is going to just ignore the fact that her husband is lusting after another woman right in front of her. Forget their vows. Forget “forsaking all others.” Forget caring about how someone feels or would be affected by her husband being a complete douche right in front of her.  Jesus doesn’t like it! Matthew 5:27-28!

There’s a reason I’m so sensitive to this… my freshman college roommate and close friend Jamie had a boyfriend who cheated on her while we lived together. I got to hear about all of it as it happened. I could say a lot of mean (and accurate) things about this guy, but I’ll refrain. Obviously, she dumped him. But ever since then, I’ve developed a sensitivity to people being disrespectful to relationships. I can’t get behind anyone, real or fictional, interfering in each other’s relationships all for the sake of Love, (or lust, which people like to pretend is love) because they just know, in their heart of hearts, that they are supposed to be with that person, regardless of that person’s previous choice of partner. Because that is the thing our culture has failed to remember: “Love might start as a feeling, but it stays by choice.”

And that is why I will never own a TMobile phone.

Let’s All Stop Being Elitist and Let People Like What They Like

Let’s start with an example.

I personally love Harry Potter – maybe not as much as I originally did, but the books mean something to me since I grew up with the series. But if you don’t like it, that’s fine. Plenty of people don’t. Not a big deal. If you think it’s nerdy, I don’t care. I embrace the nerdy. I embrace the geeky. That’s me. That’s my personality. If you can’t look past the stereotype of something and get to the heart of it, that’s not my problem.

Here’s another example. I passionately loathe the Twilight books. I think they are ridiculous, poorly written, and anti-feminist. But I won’t begrudge anyone their desire to read them, just because I don’t see in them what other people do. One of my best friends loves the books, and I still talk to her. Conversely, she never got into Harry Potter, and we’ve never argued about it.

When people start ragging on others for reading what they read on the basis of it being “bad literature,” that’s when I have a problem. Because frankly, reading is reading, and I think the world is better off being filled with books people actually want to read. Just because I think Twilight is awful doesn’t mean I need to force others to share my opinion. People like what they like. It’s the nature of humanity. Everyone has different tastes born out of different personalities. It’s the way God made us! It’s okay that we’re different! So let’s all just chill out and stop being judgy judgy!

This is born out of my reaction to a post on another blog where I saw some of the same judgmental talk about Harry Potter that has been around since the books came out. I don’t even want to go into it – I’m sure that if you’ve been paying any attention to the HP phenomenon over the years, you can probably guess at what I’m talking about.

In this post, I also saw some TV bashing. “Reading is better than TV! At least the kids aren’t having their brains sucked out by television!”  I want to rant about that, and the fact that there are some incredibly intelligent TV shows out there, which isn’t a fact as acknowledged as it should be. It is possible to be discerning in your tastes and avoid stupid crap like Two and a Half Men or 7th Heaven.  But given that I want to work in TV, and I in general love well-written television shows like Lost or Fringe or Spaced or Arrested Development or fill in the blank with one of my favorites here, I’m probably a little biased. And since my whole point is that people should be able to like what they like, I’m not going to yell at people who like books more than TV. You are allowed.

What I really want to say is… don’t be closed-minded, because you might be wrong.

When I was in 5th grade or so, I thought Star Wars was probably the dumbest thing ever, and I vowed never to watch it. Then, my dad got me to watch the first one and when it was over, I asked if we could watch the next one. And thus began my love affair with sci-fi. I’m not particularly in love with the Star Wars universe anymore (thanks, prequels) but I still respect the introduction it gave me, and Empire is admittedly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Sophomore year of college, I got the first Twilight book, because I was curious, and even though I’d heard it was lame, I didn’t want to bash it without reading it first. Well, I read all four of those books, and I think they’re stupid. I also have the liberty of knowing what I’m talking about when I bash it. Which is a habit I wish more people would pick up.

Last night I watched Run Fatboy Run. I fully expected to hate it. I ended up adoring it. The night before that, I watched How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. I expected to hate that movie, and I did hate it. Sometimes expectations are met, sometimes they aren’t. At least now I know.

I could go on, but I don’t want to. Stop being so elitist. Nobody likes people like that. Sometimes I listen to Britney Spears and ABBA. I also listen to Arcade Fire, Johnny Cash, and Michael Giacchino. I listen to tons and tons of random music that I just like, and if you’re going to tell me I don’t have valid tastes because I happen to not be the music snob I used to pretend to be? Well, fine. Tell me that. I’m telling you to leave me alone, because I like what I like. And that goes for everything.

[/soap box]

are you there, blog…

I have more or less fallen out of love with blogging, and I can’t say why… probably because I never have any interesting stories these days, but that never stopped me before. (I know you all miss my rambly posts from years gone by.) I feel like I’ve written many posts like this (“I’m sorry I haven’t updated” ; “I never have anything to write about” ; “My life is so boring”), but I’ve always come back to it, so nobody has to worry about me stopping, if you were thinking about freaking out. I suppose I’ve just been in a creative drought in terms of “non-fiction” writing. I’m almost overflowing with original ideas at the moment, which is both exciting and annoying. Something really good comes to me, and I start to plan everything out and name characters and so on, but then I have another brainwave and suddenly I’m onto the next thing. But then, I’d rather have too many than none at all.

Maybe someday you’ll see one of these things come to fruition. I’ll let you know.

I’m going to try to keep up the blog better this coming fall once school starts, and I’m going to try to be brutally honest with myself and the world, because who wants things sugarcoated? I don’t know what will happen, but I do know that I’m about to enter my last year of college, and I’m kind of terrified. I don’t know what’s coming in the future, I don’t know where I’m going to end up. We will just have to see.

Flash Forward: The “spiritual successor to Lost”?

Well, I’ll definitely be watching it, at least, because I liked the book when I read it years ago, and it has Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, and Sonya Walger in it, along with lots of other awesome actors.

Here’s a trailer for another ABC show coming out next year: V. I’ll probably also check this one out, ’cause… there’re aliens.