oh, forbes

[rivendellrose]

Forbes completely misses the point of the box office success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by saying:

Yes the film was about Frodo's quest to throw the Ring into Mt. Doom. But the coupling of Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler convinced a lot of girlfriends to sit through more than nine hours of orcs and wizards and hobbits.

Screw off, asshats. I know a fuck of a lot more women who care passionately about those books than I do men, myself included, and most of us were dragging everyone we knew to see that movie, not the boys. And while I'm happy to admit that I loved Viggo as Aragorn and, yes, do happen to like the story of him and Arwen, Liv Tyler is a useless twit who can't act. Also: Eowyn. So there. :P

Ahem. Sorry, I'm rereading the books right now for the first time since The Thesis (tm), and am consequently going through a major bout of "omg I LOVE THESE BOOKS. ♥♥♥" Asshats who persist in thinking that they're either only for boys or that girls are only in it for Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen make me want to scream.

Comments

[gaslightgallows]

There is a persistent misconception in popular culture that people with vaginas are genetically incapable of appreciating anything relating to science fiction or fantasy (including video games) if there is too much violence & gore and/or not enough romance.

This is linked to the equally moronic notion that men are unable to watch any film or TV show that:
• has a woman as a main character
• has more than one woman as main characters
• has women kicking ass and taking names irrespective of men in the cast, or
• all of the above.

This theory tends to disregard box-office hits like Terminator, Alien, Kill Bill, and even The First Wives Club.

(Also: Firefox spell-check does not recognize the word 'vaginas.')

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

(Also: Firefox spell-check does not recognize the word 'vaginas.')
Really? that's unbelievable. Does it recognise "Penis"?

[gaslightgallows]

It recognizes 'penis,' 'penises,' and 'vagina.' It's just the plural 'vaginas' that it refuses to acknowledge. I can't think why, unless it's really that uncommon to refer to more than one of the female genitalia at a time. (But hey, let's talk about multiple penii! ← not a word, thank god.)

Interestingly, and in my experience, at least, people of both genders are actually more comfortable saying and typing the word 'penis' than they are 'vagina.' I've actually had female friends tell me they avoid the word because it sounds too much like a disease.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

"I've actually had female friends tell me they avoid the word because it sounds too much like a disease."
Wow I find that sad.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Hrm. What about 'vaginae'?

[gaslightgallows]

Hmm, 'vaginae' does appear to be the accepted plural. Doesn't help that no one I know (including members of the medical profession) has ever used that word.

Wow, I had no idea Firefox was so obscure.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Interesting...I had no idea.

Also...

[gaslightgallows]

I'd just like to point out that I thought the Aragorn/Arwen thing was the absolute lamest part of the books, and while I appreciated that Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens made Arwen more regal, more equal to Aragorn, and less of a passive player (she's hardly even in the books as a character), Eowyn is still a better character because in both books and movies she actually does stuff.

Re: Also...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Eowyn is still a better character because in both books and movies she actually does stuff.

Totally agreed. I didn't mind Aragorn and Arwen in the books, and I even sort of liked it in the movies (despite totally not liking Liv Tyler as Arwen) because of how much I love Aragorn, but yes. Eowyn = soooooo much more awesome than Arwen could ever hope to be. :P

Re: Also...

[gaslightgallows]

The most irritating thing? Tolkein originally intended for Eowyn and Aragorn to end up together, but decided that Aragorn was too old and grim for her. I still can't decide which character that's offensive to. :B

Re: Also...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

...Okay, how had I not run across that before? ...Probably because the one time I read the various "War of the Ring" books with all his notes and crap, I was skimming for info on the elves. *Sighs*

That's sort of charming, really, IMHO - his reasoning for it, I mean. A little insulting to Eowyn and Aragorn both, and definitely not the sweetest thing for poor Arwen (you wait for a guy for how many years, and then he picks some girl up that he meets on the road?), but I'm somewhat delight to think the good professor would have chosen against it for Eowyn's sake rather than, as I'd always taken the Arwen thing to be, that they were Destined because of her whole "evenstar of her people" and him being the last of the line of Numenor and all of that. I think I just like the idea of him caring slightly more for his characters than for his plot, if it's true.

Re: Also...

[gaslightgallows]

That bit of trivia is from The Treason of Isengard. My SO has the whole War of the Rings set, I'll have to go and investigate this further.

As a writer, I can totally empathize with Tolkien's reasonings and having to do right by his characters, and in that sense, the way things happen in the book work perfectly. And since I adore Faramir, I'm more than happy to have him get the more awesome girl--and for Eowyn to end up with someone who doesn't have quite so much baggage. As a gibbering fangirl, I simply would have liked the woman who ended up with Aragorn to have had more of a personality, which Eowyn has in spades.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yup, that thought is way too common, as are the others that you listed. It drives me crazy. I do have to admit, I don't like a lot of violence or gore either in movies or in video games, but I love nothing better than sci-fi or fantasy movies, and I love the kinds of battle scenes we had in LotR.