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Mary McCarthyite
01:40 PM

In reply to Listicle Reveals Top 10 Political-Sartorial Moments Of The Year
This list is null and void because there is no SASHA or MALIA in it.
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Mary McCarthyite
01:43 PM

@Mary McCarthyite: I how can THIS not be a sartorial moment?
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Lymed
01:37 PM

In reply to Listicle Reveals Top 10 Political-Sartorial Moments Of The Year
Lubna al-Hussein wins for me. Clothing not only as a statement, but as a demand for freedom.
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gretchasketch
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
OK, i just have to say this, I don't care what jackass quotes he has said I will love terminator and aliens for my whole life. I saw Terminator 2 when I was 9 and was Sarah Connor for Halloween every year wearing a wife-beater tank top, cargo pants and my mom french braided my hair. And "get away from her bitch!" uttered by Ellen Ripley is the best thing ever said in a movie. I love sci fi and action and when I was a little girl watching Jean Claude Van Dam movies with my brothers and they finally showed me those movies I felt like they were made for me.

Also what's so bad about writing lines for males and then turning the character female. Starbuck in the new Battlestar Galactica?????? #jamescameron
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
Okay, so which wife was Kathryn Bigelow, then? One, or four?
'Cause I liked all her* movies.

*Point Break, Strange Days #jamescameron
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ozu
10/23/09

@Rooo sez BISH PLZ: Definitely check out 'The Hurt Locker', easily her best since probably 'Strange Days'.

And of course 'Strange Days' was written by Cameron.
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ promoted this comment Edited by ozu at 10/23/09 3:04 PM ozu was starred ozu was unstarred

Rooo sez BISH PLZ
10/23/09

@ozu: Thank you! #jamescameron
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shoroko
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
As much as I'd like to believe men could just generally identify with women characters, this kind of approach is at least still a step above pigeonholing women into stereotypes or plot devices for male characters, and/or leaving them devoid of any characterization at all.

But I'll be the first to acknowledge that I don't like that my bar has become that low. #jamescameron
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syncsound001
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
From what I've read (sorry, can't cite source right now), the decision to be in her skivvies at the end of Alien was Sigourney Weaver's. In fact, I believe she originally wanted to be completely nude, to confront the creature in the most vulnerable state she could think of. Does anyone else remember this interview?
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Diziet_Sma
10/22/09

@syncsound001: No, but that's kind of awesome. She would have done a Viggo Mortensen 30 years before Cronenberg thought of it! #jamescameron
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Understater
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
Don't like the guy or most of the films he's made (especially recent stuff), but I don't get what's so outrageous about the titular quote. He has in fact given us two very strong, intelligent and memorable female characters: Ripley and Sarah Connor. Exactly how he conjured them up should be considered irrelevant. #jamescameron
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thatsrealbutter
10/22/09

@Understater: With you on Sarah Connor, but Ripley was Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott. And Alien kicked Aliens' ass! (ducks head) #jamescameron
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Diziet_Sma
10/22/09

@thatsrealbutter: Totally agree. The first Alien is a superior movie. #jamescameron
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NerD: Blattella
10/22/09

@Diziet_Sma: @thatsrealbutter: Actually, Ridley Scott's decision to make Ripley the last survivor was done at the last minute.

Cameron made her a badass. #jamescameron
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BytheSea
10/22/09

@NerD: Blattella: And in the initial script, Ripley was a man. #jamescameron
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HarpMadness
10/22/09

@BytheSea: Right, but Ridley Scott cast Weaver in the role. I think Scott gets Ripley. She was kick-ass throughout the first film. Being the lone survivor wasn't really what made her a great character. #jamescameron
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snobographer
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
"How are you supposed to know? Fucking men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death..."

Written for a man.^ #jamescameron
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cand86
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
I tend to really love female characters who were originally written as male (or, as I've started thinking of them- as "characters written as not female", since that's all it really means).

Claudette on "The Shield" was written as a guy, and I absolutely adored her! #jamescameron
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tiredfairy
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
In certain contexts, what he said isn't necessarily a bad idea. Such as a writing exercise, to force you to look at dialog and recognize when you're writing for the character, and when you're writing for a gender/ethnicity/other based on stereotypes you have of them. It's one of the reasons romcoms bother me so much. Everyone, including the men, have stereotypical conversations about stereotypical issues/concerns/gender ideas. They don't have conversations. Sometimes you need that for the plot to advance, but a lot of the time you don't. Women talk about more things than men, men talk about more things than sports and women.

I think, when you're talking about action movies, people usually make the mistake of writing women as a cliche of a "strong" woman and not a person who is strong and happens to be a woman. It's one of the reasons I like Sarah Connor's progression from the first film to the second. And also why I do like Ripley in Aliens. You don't have to deny the feminine to write a great character...but not a lot of writers seem to know that.

I find it interesting that Sci-Fi is one of the few genre's that still has better and more varied female characters than most other genre's. From Ripley to Connor, Buffy to Xena, Roslin to Starbuck, River to Kaylee...and now Olivia on Fringe. I don't turn to much that's mainstream for diverse female characters, really. I go to genre fictions like sci-fi and horror. They're not perfect, but I'll take them over romcoms. #jamescameron
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TallyCola
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
And, does anybody else ever mentally edit the male heroes in action films to be women? I've been doing it since I was a little girl. I remember being like 10 and some of us were watching Backdraft and I asked my friends if they ever just pretended all the firefighters were women and they looked like me like I was crazy. But I do it for almost every movie. #jamescameron
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TallyCola
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
"You write dialogue for a guy and then change the name."

This is actually really good advice. You wouldn't believe how many young *female* writers I meet who say they don't know how to write women, because they are used to female characters being, like he says, handbags. When almost all the female characters you read and see are horrifically written, it's really easy to think you can't write them, especially when they only exist in terms of the male hero. Writing a male hero and then just changing the names often *doesn't change the story at all* and gives the world an interesting woman character (unless it was just badly written to begin with. Which often, it is.)

And that is, famously, how Ripley came into being.
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Cafezinha promoted this comment Edited by TallyCola at 10/22/09 5:52 PM TallyCola was starred TallyCola was unstarred

XxAmandaxX
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
vry wmn wh ss ths st s thr ft, gly, lnly, r wns lt f cts... #jmscmrn</s
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la.donna.pietra
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
He gave us the following lines of dialogue:

"Hey, Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"

"No. Have you?"

And for that, I will forgive him a lot. #jamescameron
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CecilMcCecil
10/22/09

@la.donna.pietra: Because the worst insult to a man is to compare him to a woman.

Think about that.

I guess all us Jezebels are just not as good as men. #jamescameron
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tiredfairy
10/22/09

@la.donna.pietra: Me too. God, I love that movie...and I love Ripley. #jamescameron
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la.donna.pietra
10/22/09

@CecilMcCecil: I interpreted it rather differently. He insulted her first; she's just throwing it back at him in context. Given how much of a badass Vasquez' character is (and how much the other male Marines appreciate her combat abilities), there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a woman or being compared to a woman... especially in a film where all the men are dead near the end.

You can take a lot of things away from the gender issues portrayed in Aliens, but the notion that women are inferior to men is not one of them. #jamescameron
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snobographer
10/22/09

@la.donna.pietra: I'll give it a pass because he impugned her gender compliance first, but normally insults of the 'you're just a big ol' girl' variety totally squick me. #jamescameron
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la.donna.pietra
10/22/09

@snobographer: I'm usually not crazy about them either, but in the context of 1) a movie in which both the protagonist and antagonist are female, 2) the stereotypical super-macho military environment, and 3) a scene in which the woman speaking is exhibiting crazy feats of upper-body strength, I think it becomes a lot more complicated. Only big ol' girls survive this movie. #jamescameron
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tiredfairy
10/22/09

@CecilMcCecil: First, they're Marines. I think it's likely the Marines would still be pretty macho centric, even in the far flung future. So I think that was mirroring an attitude that currently exists.

And she says it in retort to Hudson, after his comment, which is gendered. Her's actually isn't. She says "No, have you?" in response to being asked if she's ever been mistaken for a man. I suppose you could assume she means that he's weak like a woman, but I don't get that from it at all. More like he's sub-human, not feminine. His character is routinely shown as incompetent and stupid, not womanly. And considering that there are 4 women in a movie, all on par with the men in terms of strength, capability, and intelligence...I don't think that comparison holds up.

Plus, a film can have those kinds of comments or even jokes without condoning them. It doesn't mean the movie is saying women are weak. #jamescameron
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salthegeek
10/22/09

In reply to “You Write Dialogue For A Guy And Then Change The Name.”
Hate to say it but you kinda have to be an ass in filmmaking, other wise you'll be a pushover.
Mostly because the suits see a film as a product. #jamescameron
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