[A]s a feminist, a writer, and a gentlewoman of fortune, I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role, even though I have occasional trouble crossing the road, and even though I did swoon the teeniest tiniest bit when I realized it was him. I think that's lazy storytelling, and I'm sure Ryan Gosling would agree with me.Why did the feminist cross the road? To swoon into the arms of a movie star, tweet about it, inspire intense envy, and then to hit those already slammed by envy a second time with the news that they are antifeminist for seeing her as a damsel in distress when she was really thinking deep thoughts about feminism.
April 5, 2012
Journalist "thinking about... birth control and the importance of reproductive freedom" steps in front of a moving car, is saved by Ryan Gosling...
... and is now annoyed that — after she tweeted about her encounter with the cinematic dreamboat — people are going on about his being such a hero, thus casting her in the retrograde role of damsel in distress.
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...I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role...
Not complete without a foot stomp and a head toss.
Wow, being a feminist is tough.
Is this real? This is just a goof, right?
"I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role"
Fate cares not for your refusal, it casts who and how it casts.
Preach it, Sister Althouse.
Her demand to be the center of attention is circular. She is the beginning of the story, and she is the the end of the story.
As for a man. Who needs them. Well, a fish about to be hit by a bicycle, that's who.
I say she was thinking about ironing and new ways to be submissive in bed.
As a feminist, a writer and a gentlewoman of fortune. . .
"I am woman! Hear me roar!" she screams into the wind.
The Edwardians called this type of harridan a modern woman, and didn't mean it as a compliment.
OT - I think I'm going to go offline for the week now. A blessed Easter and a gut shabbos to all.
I'm going to try very hard to forget I ever read this, because if I ever see a woman about to get hit by a car, and I remember reading that quote, I'm going to hesitate.
Really, that article does nothing to improve my impression of feminism, at least how the writer casts it. She's a ditzy chick, always losing her keys and not watching for traffic. Seems an independent type woman would be able to take care of herself.
Guess not.
...I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role...
How about nasty shrew?
Sometimes an onion ring is just an onion ring.
You have made a tag for "annoyingness."
We had better start behaving.
She was thinking about what she might pick up that would make the dinner extra special, the one she is planning for her hubby sweetcakes when he comes home. He works so hard and deserves the best. She knows he like Rice Krispies and she knows he also really really really likes pork chops so she was thinking about that, putting Rice Krispies with pork chops.
BLAM
I'm going to try very hard to forget I ever read this, because if I ever see a woman about to get hit by a car, and I remember reading that quote, I'm going to hesitate.
RG is reading this thinking "This is the thanks I get?"
Laurie Penny is lucky that many around her are aware of their surroundings and have the decency to protect her from her own carelessness. Not-so-lucky is any other absent minded person who might need to depend on Ms. Laurie Penny. They will get flattened by a truck while Laurie daydreams about important stuff.
Yet another one of these femibitches who can't stand not being THE center of attention. Let me tell you girl - you are NOT all that.
So if the man was not a movie star he might not have merit mention at all.
My strong sense of self and independent spirit swept me up, and delivered me to safety.
I'm just thankful they saved the the little white man in her underwear. I know he was totally paying attention and tried to warn her, but you know she told him to mind his own business.
That really is one fine fine fine fine FINE looking man. OOPS!--just ran into my computer screen. But it was SOOOOO worth it.
She can't even bring herself to just say thank you. Bet she's a really fun date.
If only he had saved you from that haircut.
I don't need you!
I don't need anyone!
(Except this movie star.)
Thank you for finally offering up a reason to dislike Mr Gosling - saving this ingrate.
He's still dreamy though.
Get me a police sketch artist, and I'll bet just through stereotypical guessing, I can come close to describing her pony-tailed, thick rimmed glasses, neutered, back-pack toting 'boyfriend'.
An illustrative definition of bitch.
Her problem is she's trying to go against Fate and evolution, as well as her sisters' emotional plumbing.
Men are men and women are women and the Feminists can't stand it.
traditionalguy said...
Preach it, Sister Althouse.
Her demand to be the center of attention is circular. She is the beginning of the story, and she is the the end of the story.
If he hadn't acted, she really would have been the end of the story.
In short, it was ok for her to swoon the teeniest, tiniest bit when it wasn't public knowledge.
Swooning is a private joy, I suppose.
I just want to say that I am confident enough in my own feminism to be willing to swoon and blushingly express sincere gratitude should Mr. Gosling--or any man, really--wish to save me from becomin at one with the pavement. OK, I might blush MORE if it IS Mr. Gosling, or even a vague lookalike, but my basic statement stands.
She describes herself as "kind of an idiot" and then by the end objects to being framed as a ditz.
Tell us which it is, confused one.
"neutered, back-pack toting 'boyfriend'."
Hey, watch it! I don't even know her.
Fate cares not for your refusal, it casts who and how it casts.
Yes. Ms. Penny may put in her two cents worth but refusing to accept reality makes her the fool. "Fate cares not" if you're a feminist or someone nice, it'll squish you like a bug when it wishes.
Laurie Penny, I hereby cast you in the role of boring female supporting character. In your script you’ll see it as “Damsel in distress”. Not many lines, sorry. And those you do have are trite and inconsequential to the plot, sorry again. There. Done. Now what are you going to do about? Actually, it was very easy. You’re not being cast against type, if you know what I mean.
And I see that you describe yourself as a “gentlewoman of fortune”. I can’t say what notion you connect with that string of words in your pretty little head, but a gentleman of fortune is not something a gentleman ought to aspire to. Such men are usually thieves, cutthroats and vagabonds. A few characters from classic fiction have been called themselves such, and most of them were dirty, lazy, drunken wharf rats like Israel Hands and George Merry. Is that who you had in mind?
It is human nature to hate having to be helped.
Who's the female equivalent of Ryan Gosling?
I can say, I would not feel threatened with becoming a stock character if she kept me from being run over.
From Ms. Penny's Twitter feed:
Also very important to note that there has been no official response from Gosling's team yet. 4 hours ago
I'm leaving Twitter until all this bloody fuss dies down. Honestly, it would have been less trouble to get run over. 4 hours ago
"I'm sick of all this bloody fuss! And why won't Ryan call me?!"
Well she did thank the guy and says nice things about him. And she does have a good point that celebrity worship has risen to an insane level. She's ostensibly addressing people who think actors and musicians are per se interesting and live for the "stars: they're just like us" section of Dumbshit Magazine. OTOH, her third or fourth generation femnism seems to compel her to presume stupid things, like that the rest of us care about how she is perceived. So there's that.
Women.
Maybe the little white man in her underwear was merely an annoying itch.
Silly woman, she needs to embrace the center and revel in it. Every woman likes a helping hand now and again.
So it appears that a real feminist only crosses the road to marry Meade and then blog about it.
Funny, I came across the name Laurie Penny just a short while ago here, where there's lots of good stuff by her, like this: "It has to be war… The cracks in capitalism are getting wider, and if we are smart enough and brave enough we can force those cracks open until the whole thing shakes. We are the new left: precarious, rootless, ruthless, entitled, digitally enabled, and we are beginning to set the agenda…. The narrative of class transcendence held up to the superstructure of free-market ideology. Now that narrative is collapsing, threatening to bring the whole thing crashing down. So let it come down. There is more than enough room for us to build new lives in the rubble."
The blogger, David Thompson, says: "I’m guessing Laurie’s on the upswing of her manic-depressive cycle." Ha, ha, and maybe something to keep in mind while reading her.
If your comment about this is anything less than profuse praise towards Mr. Gosling for being such a doll as to save your life than your comment is wrong, 'feminist' journalist lady. Sheesh.
The irony is by displacing attention from the preservation of her life, she is denigrating her own dignity. By downplaying the altruistic (i.e. voluntary) act of another human begin, she is also denigrating his dignity.
I suppose there are some people in this world who cannot help but be offended. If they could, they would either have a world unto themselves, or rule over individuals deemed less worthy than themselves.
She needs to step back and respect individual dignity, hers and others.
I would just be glad that I didn't get hit by a car.
The rest is the common affectation of making a big fuss about oneself. Basically harmless, and therefore not deplorable.
I ate lunch today, but no one famous happened by, so I could not tweet anything dramatic about it.
It involved rice, in case you were wondering.
"We are the new left: precarious, rootless, ruthless, entitled, digitally enabled, and we are beginning to set the agenda…. "
Okay, fuck it, she's an idiot. The only "agenda" she's ever set or ever will set was the agenda at an Occupy meeting and it was probably down-twinkled by 78 percent of the attendees. "The new left" my aunt fanny. How many "new lefts" do we have to put up with? How many "new lefts" does it take to cobble together an ideology that doesn't ultimately look exactly like the old left? Still counting? This silly superficial self-involved twit has no real world experience or wisdom to speak of and is simply repeating notions that she learned, probably very recently, in college. Notions that were old and tired in 1979 and are on a respirator now. Pull the plug.
I also got dressed this morning, which also lacked a movie star.
It involved pants, in case you were wondering.
“Whenever I see a feminist lady slip and fall while crossing the street, my first instinct is to laugh. But then I think, what if I was an ant, and she fell on me. Then it wouldn't seem quite so funny.”
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
Oh, now, Pogo, you'll always be a star to , even if your lunch was boring and you've never rescued me. So cheer up! : )
"to *me*"
Aren't the republicans the real stars of this story with Goslin costarring and a nobody extra?
SkyNet has become self-aware.
FemNet, not so much.
Kind of you to say, reader.
Actually, my pants were rather exciting, but I'll leave that for another day.
Man opens door for woman. Woman tweets about it. People respond with applause that chivalry is still alive. Woman gets annoyed that a man gets complemented, so declares she could have opened the door her own damn self!
Pink wig - good taste - NOT. Thanks but no thanks, Ryan Gosling. I am a first class writer and my favorite subject is me.
Go back in PennyRed's Twitter feed to read her excruciatingly funny effusions of passion back when OWS was at its height; gosh. She flew to NYC three times? more often? to be part of History... managed to get arrested once, I think.
Ok, lets see if that thing with stepping in front of a moving car suddenly becoming super weird feminine when she is saved by a movie star works.. (on a feminist perspective mind you)..
As opposed to now Supreme Kagan.. who not only once but "a couple of times when she was so focused on her work, she would park her car and leave it running overnight. She just forgot to turn it off."
Saved by Movie Star because she was immersed in deep thought.. or leave car running overnight because she was immersed in deep thought?
Well, at least she was able to witness some act of police cruelty-- I can't even recall the name of the park just at the moment.
He could save me anytime.
I'm not to liberated for that!!!!
Vicki from Pasadena
Where exactly was this street, and what time of day was it? I will be waiting...
Ryan be-still-my-heart....
My first thought was, "Who is Ryan Gosling? Wasn't he that guy on the reality show who was married to the woman with multiple babies who dumped him for having an affair?" Then I checked IMDB. Not that guy, but I still don't recognize the man. Have to say, he is very good looking, though. And he must not be as self-absorbed as one often assumes actors to be since he was aware enough to save a stranger from a car on a crowded street. Heck, I would probably be too self-absorbed to notice anything like that in time to act.
Pogo,
"Actually, my pants were rather exciting'
Oh, another one of those caught-in-the-zipper incidents? :-)
She should try to cross the street in Riyadh thinking ...
But since she's here she should hike herself over to Wal-Mart. $10 or less.
"It involved pants, in case you were wondering." - Pogo
We were wondering. And we are grateful.
Here is how the lady describes herself, from her own web site:
Laurie Penny is, in no particular order: a journalist, an author, a feminist, a Londoner, a reprobate, an activist, a hedonist, a drinker of too much tea, a believer in the ultimate goodness of human beings, twenty-five years old, and a reformed smoker.
She attended Oxford, where she earned a First in Insufferability.
So, a true feminist tells the world how she was saved by a man and then is pissed off that the world approves of a man saving her ? Meanwhile, the dude who did the good deed says nothing, but continues to act like a decent person willing to help out strangers (he broke up a fight last year). Modern feminism cares not for humans caring for other humans on an equal basis, looking out for those in need of help, it cares only for feelings of feminine superiority!
I had to Google Ryan Gosling. I was dragged to The Notebook like every other man that saw it, but I have no recollection of him. The movie was horrible, with lots of sad poignant moments that women seem to love in their movies. There was not one explosion or gun fight, so I suspect it wasn't directed by Michael Bey. It did have Rockford, but his dad Rocky was missing. Beyond that I have never seen the mans "work".
But that doubles the amount I have seen from this self described feminist.
How ironic that when a feminist dusts off her sense of humor and brings it out in public, no one sees it.
Churchill was badly injured in the 20's crossing a NYC street because he looked the wrong way.
The real heroes I've met in America are risking everything to make sure that the United States doesn't slide further into bigotry, inequality and violence
Not sure to whom she's referring--the police? Prison guards?
Gosling looks like a woman's idea of a really good looking man--meaning that with the right clothes, hair and makeup, he could pass for a woman. See Brad Pitt, young Leonard DeCaprio.
I can't tell if they're making the WV easier, or my brain has been permanently twisted so they're now more readable to me.
Gosling looks like a woman's idea of a really good looking man
Laugh out f'in'loud, Ralph.
This is a contender for inclusion in my personal list of the top 10 best lines *evah* here at Althouse.
Also, DiCaprio? Oh, puh-leeze. Spare me.
Gosling looks like a woman's idea of a really good looking man.
As opposed to whose idea, Ralph? Who ever is behind that idea no doubt is an expert on sexual aesthetics for all, and heaven knows we all could use that education.
So, give!
Why did the Feminist cross the road?
To blow Bill Clinton. Hey, thats what she SAID! I'm just applying it.
This seems to be done, but PennyRed is one of my favorite online amusements so I'll add this from Damian Thompson's Saturday column in the Telegraph.
"It has the makings of such a sweet story: Ryan Gosling, Hollywood heartthrob, grabs a young British woman just as she’s about to be run over in New York. But there’s a twist: the girl went online to scold Americans for being celebrity-obsessed and to reveal that she looked the wrong way because she was thinking about “the importance of reproductive freedom to women’s rights”. America, meet Laurie Penny, described by New York magazine as “one of those Leftie-types who are so sanctimonious they make you want to vote Republican out of sheer spite”. True, but her teenage priggishness is a source of great merriment to many of her readers. Thank you, Ryan, for preserving a national treasure."
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