Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Frida (2002)

#inspirationalmovies

There are many reasons to be obsessed with Frida Khalo. Her paintings, her life story, her activism, her style, her resilience... Frida (2002, Julie Taymor) offers a taste for all of it. It's a high-budget Hollywood interpretation, of course, and bound to be an interpretation after what's known about her life and what can be seen in her paintings through the prism of the director and many other people. And through the Frida Kahlo myth too, of course.

Nevertheless there are certain aspects of her life that are very clear.

• The use of personal, painful, often gendered experiences in creative expression, working through and with them (very similarly as Sylvia Plath, by the way). 
• The courage to embrace her roots and go beyond them at the same time. Her way of both painting and dress is clearly based on Mexican imagery, but then she takes it a step farther and makes it her very own.
• The wish to follow her desires, to act upon them. While this is not supposed to be always easy, there's no doubt that Frida's journey was an authentic one.  

Etc, etc... the internets are full of people - including us, of course - swooning over Frida's work and icon that the popular culture has turned her. Go, read some! But, whatever you read, keep in mind that, as somebody on tumblr said:

"Frida Kahlo was a disabled politically active woman of color who deliberately fucked with gender roles and don’t you ever forget it."

P.S. For the dessert, here's the story on her dresses: 1, 2.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011)

#inspirationalmovies

For a culturally stimulating watch that familiarizes you with one of the icons of the men's men's men's world that fashion was and still is to a large extent, get Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011).

Introducing Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) - especially to those that were born after her epoch in Vogue had already ended - and through archive footage and people that knew her showing that:

You don't have to be conventionally pretty to have fun with dressing-up and to become a style paradigm on your own.

You don't necessarily need a formal education to be good at something and get a job that you are passionate about (although this part is clearly much harder than it was in the 1930's).

You may realize and act upon the fact that family life may just not be for you. Nevertheless - and as the children of Diana confirm - would be nice to realize that before actually bringing any children into the world.

You should be able to express yourself and speak clearly and loudly from your most authentic self. This is not a victimless advice, of course, but the clear satisfaction you can see in Diana's face when commenting on how she perceived the world is priceless. (Again, this is not to promise that just anybody can become the editor-in-chief of Vogue, but to encourage to practice creative self-expression whenever and however you feel it to be adequate. And maybe a bit over the top too.)

You should - to the extent that's possible, obviously - surround yourself by things and people that entertain, educate, and inspire. Because the eye (and the mind) has to travel.  

  

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Girl Superheroines II

#inspirationalmovies 

What do Mindy Macready alias Hit-Girl and Buttercup, Bubbles and Blossom do when they grow up?

According to Pixar, they marry another superhero, move to suburbia and make babies, truing to fake it and be normal (what an awful idea, you have to admit!).
Obviously, the world happens to be in peril again, and again, and again... and the family of superheroes has to balance superheroism and family life. That's the outset of The Incredibles (2004, Brad Bird), the movie trying to merge family comedy and superhero movie.

As we concluded in the first installment about superheroines here, it's a tricky genre and feminist perfection does not abound. So this is no Brave (2012) either. But we can still get some out of this:

1. (After some lies and deceit) we finally have a super-couple doing stuff together.

2. Female agency, even if the whole movie is not dedicated to them (there's mum and daughter vs. dad and two sons balance, so 40% of the central cast).

3. Being a family movie, the superheroines are not oversexualized. Despite some gendered and soccer-mum stereotyping, this still could be much worse.

4. You get the Ah!mazing Edna Mode as the super-fashion designer, and she on her own is worth watching the movie. For real. She's creative, loves challenges, is not impressed by supermodels and fashion weeks (some fat-shaming, though!), and her fashion is super-wearable and practical. Plus, being an independent professional and having all the nonchalance in the world! Adorable.

(Now imagine a movie where Edna would work with the Powerpuff Girls! Uh! Oh!)