Although Bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theater, has long been regarded as old peoples' entertainment, recently it's become popular amongst young women. Explains one fan, "Bunraku sheds light upon the harsh realities of women in the partiarchal, feudal society." [WSJ]
The last time Avril Grube saw her son, Gavin, he was three years old. As her marriage broke down in 1982, Gavin's father, Joseph, "took him to Blackpool for the weekend and never came back."
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Let's just say you had an exciting, seductive, thrilling lover who mysteriously and secretively disappeared, leaving you with hundreds of unanswered questions. Eight months later, he's back. Do you give him an hour of your time? You do if he is a TV show, and if that TV show is Lost. Fans already know the deal: the ABC program is an exercise in exquisite torture, the primetime equivalent of an emotionally abusive relationship. What makes it abusive? Let us count the ways:
According to The National Domestic Violence Hotline, you may be in an emotionally abusive relationship if your partner (in this case, the show), tries to isolate you from family or friends. When you watch Lost, the world divides into two groups; those who also watch and those who don't. Even my own mother will be denied and ignored if she dares to call while I'm watching tonight. And heaven forbid if she asks, "What's the show about?"
It's been noted how much the media loves to pick up stories of missing women — so long as they're white. Today it was reported that the bodies of both Latasha Norman (a black woman) and Emily Sander (a white woman) were discovered yesterday, and unsurprisingly, Emily's case had received much more attention in the days following her disappearance. And while the whole race aspect definitely has played a part here, I think that the real hook to her story was the whole "porn" thing. It added a dark seediness to the case that, as Jezebel's Jessica put it, would make her case perfect for Law and Order: SVU to rip from the headlines. The idea of her "secret life as a porn star" led many to jump to the conclusion that it must've had something to do with why she'd gone missing, because even if they don't want to admit it, people still think that women who engage in that sort of activity kinda have it coming. Oh except here's the thing: Emily wasn't a porn star. More »
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