Sue Katz: Consenting Adult

Amy: Did sexism kill her?

I realize that I’m quite late in seeing the documentary “Amy.” Other reviews have lauded the filmmaker Asif Kapadia (“Senna”) and his unique documentary style. Many have called the film heartbreaking and bittersweet and powerful and dark and sad and complicated. The two words used to describe Amy are talented and tragic. I agree with all of that.

The film arcs her from teenage days joking with her two best friends through explosive fame, a nasty boyfriend/husband, a relentless exploitative press, and brutal addiction and eating disorders. And at the intersection of the bulimia and the alcohol, she died.

As the film progresses, Amy shrinks. Quite literally. And she is increasingly surrounded by big men who smother and cushion and enclose her. Her dad, manager, bandmates – all big guys who define the borders of her vision. She can’t see past them, can’t get around them. She is tiny.

Everyone in the business who is negotiating for or with her, who is guiding her career, who is fencing her into a performance schedule that she resists, who is collaborating with her musically – they’re all men. The whole business world that is making a living off of her talent: they’re all men. Not all of them are bad guys, but that’s not the point. Her girlfriends (and her original loving manager) refuse to enable her substance misuse, and while constantly assuring her that they’re there for her when she wants them, they cannot break through the wall of testosterone surrounding Amy.

Without her girlfriends, Amy is doubly vulnerable. Her team fails to shield her from the invasive flash of the paparazzi (portrayed so aggressively in the film that I felt assaulted) – either they don’t know how or they don’t mind the attention. No one shows rigorous concern about her health. Her mother says that she has never been able to discipline or direct Amy. “I’m weak,” she whines. Amy’s egotistical father loves, too much, the ricochet of her fame onto himself.

The music business is notoriously sexist, ridiculously male-dominated, and often disrespectful to talented women who would like a place at the table. If Amy could have worked with women producers, promoters, and musicians, would she have been kidnapped while unconscious and taken to a stage in Belgrade that she didn’t want to be on but which her bodyguards wouldn’t let her off? Would she have been forced to go on the road when what she needed was shelter and safety and a time to work on her writing?

Throughout the film I felt like the sexism of the industry, the exclusion of women from a fair share of the crucial roles, and the resulting masculine culture Amy had to cope with must have added in a disastrous way to her other troubles. Discrimination kills in many ways.

Here's the official trailer:

 

What Stays With Me After the GOP Debate

I admit that I wasted two precious hours of my life watching this disgusting display, and as always, the most disturbing aspect was the reaction of the audience, cheering for the most spiteful, ugly statements.

Here’s what sticks, in no particular order:

The demonization of Planned Parenthood is beyond my comprehension. I simply cannot understand it. It feels like pure woman-hatred. The Republican ability to promote the lie that it is an abortion machine (3% of their work is related to abortions) and to erase their crucial role in providing health services to women blows me away.

These men conclude that it is now irrefutable that life begins at conception and that zygotes are covered as citizens by the Constitution. At the same time, they oppose abortions even to save the life of the mother. This is a profound and potentially fatal form of misogyny.

All the Jesus-ing. They really, really do believe that this is a Christian nation full of only Christians. There was actually a question about what God told each candidate to do. And they didn’t even seem mortified to have to answer. They were all in good strong contact with God, who must be a very busy deity and a bit of a micro-manager.

The fear-mongering was a constant – centered on either Muslims or brown immigrants. We need big walls on the border; jihad against America is hanging over our heads. This despite the evidence that home-grown armed white men are our particular terrorist scourge. To a man (sic), these candidates believe the country is endangered, falling apart, under threat, hated worldwide (well, that’s true), and all because of Obama/Clinton.

It’s the medium, not the message. Trump can be as incoherent and mean and contradictory as he wants: it’s the triumphant hyper-masculine way he speaks that draws such adulation. It’s the arrogant confidence of the rich white man who doesn’t give a shit what people think that the audience admires.

The sociopathic fabrications and their voracious consumption from GOP fans boggles my mind. They need to have a fact-checker sitting at the “journalist” table, one who has the right to interrupt the flow of bullshit.

And then there was Mike Huckabee, obviously an expert on the role of the military. When asked about the preparations to include transgender personnel, he said, “The army is not a social experiment… The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.” This more or less echoed the general tone of the event: gross, dumb dickheadery.