February 10, 2023

Please don't comment "meow" as some of you did on yesterday's post about what Majorie Taylor Greene wore to the SOTU.

That would be sexist.

I'm reading "Melanie Lynskey Responds to America's Next Top Model Winner Adrianne Curry's Critique of Her Body in The Last of Us/'I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly,' the actor tweeted" (Vanity Fair):
On Wednesday, the America's Next Top Model cycle 1 winner responded to a photo of the actor, critiquing her appearance as not being befitting of her role in the post-apocalyptic TV series The Last of Us. She wrote in a since-deleted tweet, “her body says life of luxury...not post apocolyptic [sic] warlord.” She added, “where is Linda Hamilton when you need her?,” referring to the Terminator star. Lynskey saw the social media message before the model deleted it, screenshotting the exchange and tweeting it out with the caption, “Firstly—this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us.” She added, “And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.”

"FEDRA" is an acronym. You need to know the show to get it. Or look it up

"SMART" not an acronym. Lynskey is just yelling. I recommend not yelling that you're smart. It's too...


She's right about henchmen, though.

And I love Melanie Lynskey. But I can't watch "The Last of Us." I've tried 3 times to get through the first episode, but I just cannot watch long sequences of terrified people attempting to drive or walk through chaotic street scenes, especially when I'm required to worry about the welfare of a child. It's not at all entertaining to me, and I even feel bad about the existence of people who do eat up that sort of thing, which is the only reason such large portions of it are served.

ADDED: I'd blog about "henchmen," but I already did that in 2020, when Nancy Pelosi called Trump supporters "henchmen." Excerpt:
The word "henchman" apparently comes from the Icelandic word for "groom" — a keeper of horses. According to the OED, it has meant "a high-ranking male servant" or "a loyal (male) follower" or "A devoted or zealous (male) political supporter, a partisan" or "a person (usually a man) engaged by a politician to further his or her interests by corrupt or unscrupulous means" or "A male subordinate to a criminal or villain, esp. one who obeys his leader unquestioningly and is prepared to engage in violence or crime on his behalf; an accomplice, heavy, or sidekick."

44 comments:

Patrick said...

Harvard admissions dept asked me if I thought I was smart. I replied "I'm fucking smart." Who am I?

Bob Boyd said...

She's built like a brick hospital.

Kai Akker said...

Cattiness doesn't exist in the Althouse universe?

Achilles said...

The things that people associate with women's appearance and their intelligence overlap with "muscly" to a large degree.

When someone sees a woman and makes all of the normal prejudgments based on appearance intelligence is associated with how the woman, or male for that matter, appears.

Fat people are generally considered less intelligent in appearance. Soft looking people with lower muscle tone look and generally are soft which correlates with less disciplined and less intelligent.

Part of the reason for that is fat people generally are less intelligent.

There are also direct correlations between physical activity both in intensity and duration with the health of the person's brain and neurological systems that are readily apparent in your physical appearance.

Lazy is not smart nor does it appear so.

Achilles said...

Please don't comment "meow" as some of you did on yesterday's post about what Majorie Taylor Greene wore to the SOTU.

That would be sexist.


Is this an attempt at subtle humor?

A splooge stooge wants to know.

Beasts of England said...

Meow.

gilbar said...

Yowl! hiss! is that okay?

rhhardin said...

Stereotypical female behavior is complaining about stereotyping. White guys don't do it.

tim in vermont said...

Noted. Sorry.

Michael K said...

It's kind of interesting that millennials and gen Z types are so interested in these disaster films and TV series. "Game of Thrones" was recommended to my by one of my kids. It seems they have internalized the decline meme about society and even civilization. I can remember some of World War II and there was never such despair. The Climate scam seems to be behind much of it.

Ice Nine said...

I guess the idea is that Miss Supermodel is "slyly" letting us know that (the beautiful) Melanie Lynskey's body is...eww, ick...just a little too pudgy for her taste. It would be of course.

I love Melanie Lynskey and like her bod as well. She has that cute, wholesome Mollie Hemingway look and vibe and it's hard to go wrong with that.

Go eat your daily ration of greens, Adrianne, then strike a pose and STFU.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Tacocat.

Wince said...

The Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) is the main authority in the U.S. following the outbreak of the Cordyceps fungus, a military arm of the government that has essentially replaced it.

Cordyceps fungus is a military arm of the government that has replaced FEDRA?

mezzrow said...

I even feel bad about the existence of people who do eat up that sort of thing, which is the only reason such large portions of it are served.
This.

Once felt, this feeling cannot be unfelt, and I sometimes wonder if these people are even part of the same species as me. Then I feel bad about coming to that conclusion and wonder if the problem is mine. Then I conclude that there are some things you just can't sweep away.

Do. Not. Want. Life is too short to indulge this. Here's my back.

MayBee said...

My husband and I are watching The Last of Us. There are long stretches I can't look at because of the spores and the long things. That grosses me way out.

But when I saw Melanie Lynsey, I did kind of chuckle. I said to my husband "She finally got a role where she just wears a big poncho, and she was thrilled to have a set where she could just *eat*"

Ann Althouse said...

@Wince

Excellent grammar humor

n.n said...

Actor? Her? Transgender, trans-social, or trans-semantic?

narciso said...

she was in that charlie sheen vehicle and that showtime series about teen cannibals,

Quaestor said...

Our invention exchange project is a series about the zombies who consume zombie-themed schlock like The Last of Us.

[Rise: Dark screen voiceover.]

We call them Streamers, the once-human husks who shamble mindlessly from the TV to the Facebook chatrooms and back again while consuming tons of Cool Ranch Doritos and organic chai.

We must fight them, my friends and I, both the transphobic Streamers and the Haunty Lads, the quasi-governmental militia working for the Triune Republic of Upper Penisula Michigan (Provisional), aka T.R.U.M.P., supposedly sent to save us from the Streamers. This is our story...

[Cue: theme music and opening credits]

What do you think, sirs?

Iman said...

Lynskey studied under Stanislavsky von Pillsbury. No fleas on her.

mtp said...

I have this same beef all the time. E.g., Sam Tarley. Years of living the enforced Spartan existence on the wall and the guy is still 50 lb overweight. Really? How?

They plug in random actors that don't make any sense into roles--pleasantly plump Spartans, 125 lb woman ass-kickers, and then just angrily demand we suspend disbelief.

Iman said...

“she was in that charlie sheen vehicle”

A Fiat 500 Abarth?

Iman said...

She’s a fat tub of goo!

Joe Smith said...

She's tough and smart and makes good decisions because other people wrote her character that way.

And she does look too well-fed.

The writers should kill her off and replace her with a trans actor.

Kate said...

Watch episode three of the Last of Us. You don't need context from the earlier episodes to understand it. It's almost a stand-alone story.

Michael said...

Am I the only one to note that "Melanie Lynskey" sounds like "Monica Lewinsky"? Apropos of nothing; I am not aware of the former woman. Ack! the first one mentioned, not the "former woman." Things are so complicated these days.

Freeman Hunt said...

I can't imagine wanting to watch this. I'll be chilling on my satellite out in space.

Freeman Hunt said...

This and that rapey elf show.

JPS said...

You tell us not to say "Meow" and I think of this scene from Super Troopers:

The Cat Game

And of the briefing when a major snuck a subtle "right meow" into his briefing to a two-star, while the rest of us made an effort not to crack up like the other trooper. To this day I suspect the general picked up on the reference, appreciated it, and kept a poker face.

Ice Nine said...

>Kate said...
Watch episode three of the Last of Us. You don't need context from the earlier episodes to understand it. It's almost a stand-alone story.<

Yeah, it was quite a poignant story. Well done drama without zombie nonsense. I just gave the show a look-see and was getting ready to stop watching after the third episode because I didn't want to watch ep after ep of zombies jumping out from behind doors and all that bit. But the quality of Ep3 convinced me that there might be something more to it. And now that I know that Melanie Lynskey is in it, I'll definitely check out a few more (although she definitely is looking pretty rough in the show pix of her that I've seen).

Ann Althouse said...

"Watch episode three of the Last of Us. You don't need context from the earlier episodes to understand it. It's almost a stand-alone story."

Okay, thanks. I probably will.

Ann Althouse said...

I really hated the stuff in Episode 1 where they got in the car and there was all this traffic and wondering what to do when there's a lot of traffic and then driving off road and going this place and that and then there are people in front of their car so they sorta-kinda run them down but not in a really gruesome way because we need to be on their side and then, as in all car ride movies, they have to get out of the car for some reason and one of the characters has to be carried... So tedious and storyless! Just dumb transportation while being very afraid. Blecch!

Ann Althouse said...

"zombies jumping out from behind doors and all that bit"

I hate reliance on startling. It's such a cheap scare. But do I want to be really scared, in some deep, soul-shaking manner? No! What is the point? The world is already scary. I don't need actors looking terrified to feel something.

Gulistan said...

I echo what others have said about Episode 3. Another reason to catch that episode: a great performance from Murray Bartlett who played Armond on season 1 of White Lotus.

walter said...

I defer to Rachel "Dick" Levine on such matters.

Ann Althouse said...

“ a great performance from Murray Bartlett who played Armond on season 1 of White Lotus.”

I know, that’s why I’ve tried to force myself to keep watching. Will try skipping ahead.

KellyM said...

I think Melanie Lynskey looks great in that pic, but YMMV. Was surprised to find out she's a Kiwi. Never an accent slip on "Two and a Half Men' that I can recall.

veni vidi vici said...

"I'm SMART!!!!1!!"

Nope; she dumb.

Lynskey (who I had to google with "Last of Us" included in the search b/c her only name mentioned in clip above only brings up bicycles (a subtle dig that perhaps she was once the town bicycle, perhaps?) has the puffy look of the boxer whose face has been used as punching bag in a too-long career in the ring.

Bunkypotatohead said...

“Other than getting to work with creative geniuses who I respect and admire (Neil & Craig) the thing that excited me most about doing #TheLastOfUs is that my casting suggested the possibility of a future in which people start listening to the person with the best ideas,” she wrote. “Not the coolest or the toughest person. The organizer. The person who knows where everything is. The person who is doing the planning. The person who can multitask. The one who’s decisive.”

So we need to go through an apocalypse to get to this point? Our selection of presidents in my lifetime is not encouraging.

Known Unknown said...

Miaow?

Dr Weevil said...

Some of us (maybe not many) find the FEDRA reference confusing. Fedra is the Italian and Spanish spelling of Phaedra, the mythological character who fell in love with her virginal stepson Hippolytus. He rejected her advances, she left a letter saying he had raped her and then killed herself, her husband Theseus cursed him and he was attacked by a bull from the sea and dragged to death by his own terrified horses. The myth inspired three excellent plays: Euripides' Hippolytus, Seneca's Phaedra, and Racine's Phèdre, also a couple of operas named Fedra.

Smilin' Jack said...

FEDRA, SHMEDRA. Linda Hamilton defeated Skynet, and looked hot doing it.

n.n said...

Sexism. Diversity writ large. Women wear different pussy hats. While some meow, others purrr. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #TakeAKnee

n.n said...

the mythological character who fell in love with her virginal stepson Hippolytus. He rejected her advances, she left a letter saying he had raped her and then killed herself

Religious myths. #LoveWins