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The best feminist moments of 2008, in my humble opinion.

In the week leading up to the release of the film Revolutionary Road, there was quite a media ballyhoo about Kate Winslet reading Betty Friedan's 1963 feminist classic The Feminine Mystique to prepare for her role as April Wheeler, as well as Winslet's declaration (albeit tepid) that she is a feminist ("I think I probably am. I mean, not in a bra-burning way. But I think I am a feminist, yeah.") Now that the film is in theatres, the connection between the film and feminism has continued to be the subject of much conversation. Over at HuffPo, blogger Melissa Silverstein goes so far as to write that the film "should be required watching for all young women who think that feminism is irrelevant." But in all this talk about feminism and Revolutionary Road, there hasn't been much dialogue about film's relationship to its source, the 1961 Richard Yates novel of the same name, or the way that the character of Frank Wheeler has been re-imagined. Casting a critical eye on the way the novel has been adapted calls into question just how revolutionary the film really is... More after the jump...

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for both novel and film.

I was going to post today about how I got the Wii Fitness for Christmas and what my thoughts were.

But today, the only thing I can think about and post about is what is happening in the Gaza strip right now.

Two days after Christmas, the Israeli government began military strikes against Gaza. Children were heading home from school, university students were waiting for the bus to pick them up, fathers were sending their children out on errands.

And then the strikes began and Gaza was blown to shreds.

One of the great things about the intersection of new media and feminism is that we (consumers and creators of media) are able to learn more about the efforts to improve women's lives and have unprecedented accessibility AND ability to assist organizations in need. As the holiday season continues, let your spirit of giving continue to support initiatives like the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic.

I would be remiss for not mentioning The Spirit, Frank Miller's PG-13 cleavagefest opening tomorrow.  The Spirit features the longest roster of female talent in a comic book adaptation this whole year, but it's sadly a bunch of overstylized nostalgia - and a desperate amount of pandering eye candy for fanboys.  And, according to Miller, this is all in the name of restoring manhood! More after the jump....

 

When buying gifts for children, how do you avoid the pink and blue stereotypes?

One of the biggest gifts this year in the arena of 'sports/exercise' is the Wii Fit. It is billed as a game and an exercise space, only better, and it's virtually impossible to find. You can do everything from yoga to table balancing and apparently so many people are into it, a new affliction has been named for it (the Wii Knee:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3854172/Doctors-fear-a-Wii-knee-epidemic.html).

Here is a clip of Wii Fit in its idealized form:

*Please be warned that this post and the links included may be triggering as they contain graphic imagery and details of sexual violence.*

If you have a tendency to get sucked into bad movies starring formerly famous actresses, you've probably watched some “Fa la la la Lifetime”, a month-long event in which Lifetime Television brings out its considerable collection of Christmas movies.

Whether they're are about Christmas dating, Christmas engagements, or Christmas weddings, the movies usually to have a few things in common: sassy friends with Canadian accents, insipid male love interests, excessive seasonal decorations, embarrassing covers of Christmas carols, and unconvincing dye jobs. I watched enough this year to discover a sub-genre that’s even more unsettling than your average cute-heroine-finds-Christmas-love story. I call it the Second Chance Fantasy.