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Miscellaneous / Verschiedenes » alt.tv.simpsons » (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)"
| (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255072] |
Mo, 01 Mai 2006 07:33 |
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[The long of it]
Lately, we've had a run of episodes that have been funny, made
insightful pop culture references, and even had some sweet family
moments. Yet, something seemed to be missing. "The Simpsons" hadn't
become tame, exactly, but some of the subversive flair that the show
had in its earliest days was gone now. Perhaps the show didn't
change, but the entertainment world did, moving away from "safe"
series like "The Cosby Show" and "Full House," and toward shows like
"Family Guy" and "South Park" that aren't afraid to shock audiences as
much as amuse them. And then along comes "Girls Just Want to Have
Sums," which reminds me of the days when "The Simpsons" didn't just
address social issues, but made you laugh first and then think later.
The show opens with gloriously tacky musical based on the "Itchy &
Scratchy" cartoons. Actors in costumes and working life-size puppets
re-create all the gory details of the original cartoons, culminating
in a parade of Scratchy's internal organs. The musical's great, but
the real show begins when Skinner tries to congratulate the director,
a Springfield Elementary alumna. When she modestly mentions she
didn't excel in math, Skinner tries to reassure her by saying, "Well
of course not, you're a girl." The comment goes down about as badly
as you'd expect (and it is a dumb thing to say). The aftermath
couldn't be handled better. The school is forced to hold a diversity
forum and everything Skinner says just digs himself deeper, each step
a commentary on the no-win nature of gender politics. When he says
that men and women's differences should be respected, he's blasted for
implying that they're not equal. If he says that they *are* equal,
he's condemned for implying that the two sexes are interchangeable.
Finally, he's reduced to, "It's the differences, of which there are
none, that make the sameness exceptional ... just tell me what to
say," and we see that we'll make no real progress on this issue until
both sides stop assuming the worst about each other.
The school district quickly gives up on Skinner, and appoints a new
principal who divides the school into two facilities, one for the
boys, and the other for the girls. This section plays a lot with
gender stereotypes, but without becoming lazy or obvious. (It says
something, for instance, that there is no gym class scene.) The
girls' side has beautiful facilities, but has a hilariously single-
minded focus on self-esteem at the expense of learning. The boys'
side looks like a war zone, where the bookmobile burns in the
playground, the grass is dead, and the students draw pictures of gun-
wielding robots that shoot down planes made of guns. Both sides are
darned funny. As one of the schoolyard bullies notes, there's a
kernel of truth in every joke, and that holds here: In my school, the
boys were a lot more likely to doodle killer cyborgs and get into
fistfights, while the girls were sweet and well-behaved.
Lisa, desperate to get some real lessons in math, masquerades as a
boy. In addition to math, she learns that it's tougher to be a boy
than you might think. As the new kid, she's instantly given a
humiliating nickname, "Toilet," and challenged to fights. Most
interestingly, she's forced to part with her principles, one by one.
Ultimately, she even consents to beating up Ralph, "the most harmless
student in the school."
The strongest point of this episode is that it doesn't offer pat, easy
answers (or any answers, really) to the issues it raises. Are the
students better off in separate classes? They're free to be true to
their natures, but each half of the school seems to draw out the worst
tendencies in its students. Lisa gets the solid education she craves,
but at what cost to herself? For that matter, what happens to kids
like Lisa, who don't fit perfectly into their gender roles? (I could
ask the same question about Martin, who as a sensitive, artistic type
might have flourished at the girls' school.) The show resolutely
doesn't say; when Lisa is about to propose a solution, she's
interrupted. Ultimately, there may be no answer, or at least no
answer that suits everybody.
It's fitting that the episode opened with a Broadway-style salute to
"Itchy & Scratchy," because "Girls Just Want to Have Sums" reminds me
of "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (7F09)." That episode presented all
sides of the free-speech argument, made fun of them, and endorsed none
of them, forcing the viewer to decide what was right. "Girls" does
the same thing, using humor to keep things entertaining for the viewer
while it provides food for thought. Insightful and funny, it's edgy
without falling into the trap of providing shock humor just for the
sake of being shocking. It's a lesson in how to do a social issue
episode the right way.
[The short of it]
This show reminds me of the days when "The Simpsons" didn't just
address social issues, but made you laugh first and then think later.
After a cool musical, Skinner's attempts to recover from his
controversial statements about gender really highlight the no-win
nature of gender politics. Scenes at the boys' and girls' schools
play with stereotypes, but have enough truth in them to seem funny and
realistic. It's also interesting to see the toll that acting as a boy
takes on Lisa. The episode offers no easy answers to the questions it
raises, but instead lets you decide for yourself. It's a funny and
insightful lesson in how to do a social issue episode the right way.
(A)
[DYNs]
.... the positions of the protesters and their signs in the long shot
match the ones in close-up? (See animators, we really *do* pay
attention to this stuff!)
.... Lewis "dips" Bart during the ballroom dance sequence?
.... Maggie nods in agreement when Marge says girls can be as good
mathematically as boys?
.... the downed helicopter in the boys' half of the playground?
.... Lisa, a second-grader, is admitted into the fourth-grade math
class?
[References]
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (song)
- episode title a spoof
"Camelot" (musical)
- I&S musical called, "Stab-a-Lot"
"The Lion King" (the musical, more than the movie)
- costume and set design similar to the live-theater musical
- opening number a takeoff of "Circle of Life"
Lawrence Summers controversy
- former president of Harvard made a faux pas similar to Skinner's
[See "Personal Comments & Observations" for more -- Ed.]
Wang Chung (pop group)
- one of their hits has a line that goes, "everybody Wang Chung
tonight"; Homer uses this a come-on line to Marge
[Previous Episode References]
[4F21], [DABF06] Lisa yearns for a better education at a different
school
[FFF]
Theater marquees:
NATHAN MATTHEW ONE GUY
AND NAMED [Moe]
LANE BRODERICK MOE
IN
$ $ $
STAB-A-LOT
THE
ITCHY AND SCRATCHY MUSICAL
Protest signs:
SKINNER + WORDS = HATE XX = XY WHY DID I
MULTIPLY?
Diversity forum banners:
DIVERSITY FORUM TONIGHT
PUBLIC WELCOME
ALBANIANS ENTER IN BACK
"Cathy" painting:
I FINALLY FIT
INTO MY SUMMER
BATHING SUIT ...
AND IT'S OCTOBER!
Boys' math textbook:
REAL MATH
NOW
EXTRA
CHALLENGING!
Math problem:
Y + Y = 25
Y = 5, -5
Award ceremony banner:
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
(SOME AWARDS PRE-TAPED)
[Personal Comments & Observations]
>> Musical References
A snippet from Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" plays on the radio
before Otto lets the boys out of their cage.
We hear "I Know What Boys Like," by the Waitresses, as Lisa learns to
fit in at boys' school. (Ironically, the point of the song is that
what boys really like are girls who are, ahem, willing to flaunt their
femininity.)
Martin, demonstrating his skill with the flute, sings Jethro Tull's
"Thick as a Brick." The original version of the song plays over the
end credits.
>> Political Backlash 101
Poor Principal Skinner -- he could have saved himself a lot of trouble
if he had paid attention to the Lawrence Summers flap at Harvard.
Speaking at some sort of assembly, Summers mentioned that men tended
to do better than women at math and engineering. Apparently, this was
based on observations that showed that men do indeed fare better than
women at math and engineering. That alone would have been enough to
anger feminists, but he went a bit further, suggesting that this
disparity just may be one of those biological differences between men
and women. Women's rights advocates were incensed, noting that his
remarks could be interpreted to mean that it was a waste of time to
try to teach "hard" math and sciences to women who were, after all,
biologically incapable of understanding them. Summers tried to
explain that this was not what he meant, but to no avail; he turned in
his resignation earlier this year. At least he wasn't demoted to
assistant groundskeeper.
>> Girls - boys = success?
People who reject the notion that men are inherently better than women
when it comes to adding up numbers still need to explain why men's
math scores on standardized tests usually surpass women's marks.
Cultural bias is usually cited as a culprit -- and there may be
something to it. Psychologists have camped out in classrooms,
observing how the two sexes learn. One thing they noticed is that
boys tend to hog the teachers' time by, for instance, asking more
questions. They were also more aggressive about *answering* questions
in class. Over time, girls develop an attitude that math and science
are really more of a boy thing, and retreat to other subjects, or just
lose interest in school altogether.
One of the suggested fixes for this makes the arguments over Summers'
fate at Harvard seem positively polite: Going back to the notion of
single-sex classrooms. Advocates think it will provide a non-
threatening place where girls' natural math and science talents will
blossom. They also point out they boys can be given more slack to be
their usual boisterous selves. Opponents worry that this will
backfire, reinforcing outdated gender roles, and dooming either boys
or girls (take your pick, because I've heard it argued both ways) to a
second-class education. I don't think anyone has come right out and
said girls will be given mushy feelings-based nonsense that Lisa had
to endure, but that is an underlying fear.
>> If a girl invented it, why isn't it pink?
Liquid Paper (or as it's generically known, correction fluid) was
invented by a secretary in the days before personal computers. She
made a fortune from it, which she passed on to her son, Mike Nesmith
of "Monkees" fame. It's probably a measure of the male-centered bias
of our society that I know her only as "Mike Nesmith's mom," and not
by her actual name.
>> Personality Parade
The all-artist edition ...
Frieda Kahlo -- Mexican artist, and subject of the recent film,
"Frieda." I believe the picture hanging in SES is a self-portrait.
Georgia O'Keefe -- Another female artist, at a time when this was
considered an oddity. Two of O'Keefe's favorite subjects were orchids
(the painting Lisa sees is typical) and cow skulls, the latter being a
frequent decorative motif in New Mexico, where she lived.
Cathy Guisewhite -- Cartoonist. Her creation "Cathy" was a thinly-
disguised commentary on her own life and issues facing women. In
particular, the strip pointed out how society seems to set the bar
unrealistically high for women. Lately (in my opinion), it's devolved
into three panels of Cathy listing things that annoy her, plus one
panel of punchline.
(By coincidence, my local paper announced to day that it has bumped
"Cathy" from its daily comics pages.)
--
Benjamin Robinson bjr7 [at] freenet.tlh.fl.us
This message may or may not contain sarcastic content; your burden to decide
"I'm naked, clueless, and f-e-e-e-ling good!" -- Ratbert
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255091 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 01:32 |
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Benjamin Robinson wrote:
> Frieda Kahlo -- Mexican artist, and subject of the
> recent film, "Frieda." I believe the picture hanging
> in SES is a self-portrait.
It's «Self-Portrait with Monkey» (1938). BTW, I
believe the canonical spelling is «Frida».
> Georgia O'Keefe --
That one is «Jack in the Pulpit II» (1930).
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255093 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 04:10 |
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In article <44559ceb.24283421 [at] news.east.earthlink.net>,
bjr7 [at] freenet.tlh.fl.us (Benjamin Robinson) wrote:
> Liquid Paper (or as it's generically known, correction fluid) was
> invented by a secretary in the days before personal computers. She
> made a fortune from it, which she passed on to her son, Mike Nesmith
> of "Monkees" fame. It's probably a measure of the male-centered bias
> of our society that I know her only as "Mike Nesmith's mom," and not
> by her actual name.
I don't think so. Think of similar office produces invented by men. Do
you know any of their names? If Mike Nesmith's dad had invented Liquid
Paper, you'd probably know him as that: Mike Nesmith's dad. This is
because in general, regardless of the sex of the inventor, people just
aren't interested in who invented products like that. So, her claim to
fame for most people is her relationship to Mike Nesmith, not her
invention of liquid paper--to most people, that's just a bit of trivia
about her.
--
--Tim Smith
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255094 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 05:29 |
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"Benjamin Robinson" <bjr7 [at] freenet.tlh.fl.us> wrote in message
news:44559ceb.24283421 [at] news.east.earthlink.net...
> Liquid Paper (or as it's generically known, correction fluid) was
> invented by a secretary in the days before personal computers. She
> made a fortune from it, which she passed on to her son, Mike Nesmith
> of "Monkees" fame. It's probably a measure of the male-centered bias
> of our society that I know her only as "Mike Nesmith's mom," and not
> by her actual name.
Actually, her real name was "Mike Nesmith's Mom" - an unusual name, to be
sure, but there we are. No doubt this name made "Mike Nesmith" the natural
choice for her son.
-- R Flowers
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255101 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 15:40 |
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R Flowers wrote:
> "Benjamin Robinson" <bjr7 [at] freenet.tlh.fl.us> wrote in message
> news:44559ceb.24283421 [at] news.east.earthlink.net...
>
> > Liquid Paper (or as it's generically known, correction fluid) was
> > invented by a secretary in the days before personal computers. She
> > made a fortune from it, which she passed on to her son, Mike Nesmith
> > of "Monkees" fame. It's probably a measure of the male-centered bias
> > of our society that I know her only as "Mike Nesmith's mom," and not
> > by her actual name.
>
> Actually, her real name was "Mike Nesmith's Mom" - an unusual name, to be
> sure, but there we are. No doubt this name made "Mike Nesmith" the natural
> choice for her son.
1. Just like those boys from Brazil who were all clones of Hitler.
What were their names? Nobody knows! We only know them as those boys
from Brazil who were all clones of Hitler.
2. Lew Wallace. Union Army General. Governor of Wyoming, I believe.
But mostly known for a novel he wrote. "Ben Hur".
Aaron Space Museum
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255103 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 17:31 |
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2. Lew Wallace. Union Army General. Governor of Wyoming, I believe.
But mostly known for a novel he wrote. "Ben Hur".
A minor correction---he was governor of New Mexico. I know this because
the New Mexico education system told me this. And they never lie.
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| Re: (long) A review of "Girls Just Want to Have Sums (HABF12)" [message #255105 ] |
Di, 02 Mai 2006 19:36 |
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Whatever territory the Lincoln County Range War took place in, he was
the Governor. I couldn't remember which.
"I know this man!" - a line from "Ben Hur"
Aaron Space Museum
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