Why America is Number One

Disclaimer:  The title is sarcastic.

I've been watching a lot of Olympics lately - that's the only sort of sports this hipster will watch.  And yeah, the idea that if we all get together and play sports every four/two years, we'll get rid of war and all live together in peace is stupid and naive.  But I like that (for the most part), the Olympics are a time when the world can gather together and celebrate our common humanity by kicking each other's asses at sports.

Watching the Olympics, it's hard not to notice that America always gets the most medals (unless China beats us).  It's great for our national pride and convincing us that we are simply better than other countries.  Obviously, that's not true, but it still begs the question, why does America win at everything (except table tennis and handball)?

1.  Size

First of all, America is a big country.  Note that our main rival in the medal count is China.  If, say, 1% of the world's population is a potential Olympic athlete, then there are going to be a lot more in the USA than say, Grenada (who just won their first Olympic medal thanks to runner Kirani James).

So then why is India not up there in the medal count, while countries like Germany, Japan, and of course Great Britain, are?  The answer, with my new background in queer theory and attention to marginalization issues, is simple.

2.  Economics

Now, hold on a second, my patriotic fellow citizens object.  Money can't buy talent!  Well, no...but it takes money to foster talent.  It takes money to be able to have the leisure time to practice a sport, rather than try to eke out a living.  It takes money to buy equipment, and it takes money to hire a coach.  It takes more money to hire a better coach.  The American runner with no legs?  A wonderful success story, but what do those prosthetics cost in a country that until recently had no federal healthcare?

[Edit:  I'm stupid.  He's from South Africa.  A white man from South Africa.  So concepts of racial and economic privilege still apply; just ignore what I said about healthcare.]
3.  The Land of Opportunity?

American also attracts athletes and coaches from other countries.  Did you hear about the Cameroonians who went missing?  Cameroon has an estimated 30% unemployment rate.  Can you blame them for wanting to get the hell out?  Also, there is a recurring story of "This athlete trains in the US, but competes with her/his home country for the Olympics."  I believe that is the case with Kirani James.  I wonder, though, how many athletes don't go back to their home country?  How many coaches take jobs in America because that is where they can get the best facilities and the most economic support?

I started out with a very pessimistic intent to claim that America was buying Olympic gold, and that the world has been corrupted by unchecked capitalism (don't get me wrong, I love capitalism, but no system is perfect).  But it occurred to me that yes, we have better economic opportunities for athletes than other countries - and is that really so terrible?  I'm fully cynical when it comes to the American dream, but we have created a country where it is relatively easy to become an Olympic athlete, as long as you have the talent and the drive.  And certainly we have people held back by economic circumstances even within this country (again, cynical of American dream), but the fact that we have as much space as we do to create Olympic athletes...it really doesn't seem so terrible, from that angle.

So what am I to do?  I suppose that if warring countries can compete side-by-side peacefully, I can let my cynicism and idealism coexist peacefully.

Now it's time to go back to watching the Games.  And the Croatian water polo team.  (Yes, I'm a lesbian, but those speedos...LOL.)

I'm Proud To Be Minnesotan

On Sunday I went to Twin Cities Gay Pride.  (Or LGBTQA...whatever).  This is the first time in my life I have attended a gay event of this magnitude, and the first time in my hometown.

My brother's reaction:  "Yeah, I think I'll sit out."
My dad's reaction:  "Just don't go running off to the Gay 90's  (local gay bar)."
My mom's reaction:  "Sounds fun.  Maybe I'll come too."

Here I have to add a little tangent about books (because it's me, after all).  One of my biggest frustrations with gay-themed teen books from the nineties is that they are all coming out stories (or staying in stories, but those seem to be a fading trend), and very few of them offer any sort of picture of what it is actually like to be out and gay to your family.  In other words, I'm sailing blind.

So to my brother I can say, It's okay, I don't blame you for trying to retain your heterosexual male dignity, to my dad, Umm, I'm not of age and you know I don't like to drink anyway, and to my mom...well.

I had agreed to meet with a friend from college at Pride, and I like to keep my college life and home life separate.  It's just so weird when they intersect.  I was also in my independent teenager  mode, and did not want my mom in my life any more than was absolutely necessary.

But.

How many gay people do you know whose parents are not only willing but actually want to go to Pride with them?  At least among my immediate circle of friends, the answer is depressingly few.  The world is changing, but it has not changed so much that I can take my family's unconditional love and acceptance for granted.  I know too many people in too many situations.

So in the end, I did go with my mom (I needed her to drive me anyway).  Because it is not just the gays that we are celebrating at Pride.  It is our place in the world, a place where we can be free to be who we are, and the people who make that world possible - not just gay people, but our neighbors and friends and families who love us.

It gets better.

Not even in the course of your individual life, but the enitre course of the world is getting better.  Let's stick around and see just how good it can get.

The Post in Which I Talk About Gay Marriage

So right now Minnesota's government is discussing a ban on gay marriage.

I, unfortunately, am not registered to vote in Minnesota, and so have confined my activities to getting entangled in a comment war on Facebook.  At least my friend who originally posted this is an ally.  A good ally. 

See, a recurring motif of the people who commented was "I have gay friends, but I don't think gay people should get married because the Bible says no."  I am not going to argue the religious aspect.  I do not care what you do in the privacy of your own home - and honestly, people with those opinions aren't going to change them unless they want to.  What bothers me is the hypocrisy. 

If you can look someone in the eye and tell them that you never want them to get married, are you truly their friend?  If you tell your friends that it's okay that they are gay, but you are trying to "change yourself for God," do you think they really believe that you are okay with the gay?  And if you say it's okay for people to be gay, as long as they don't get married, then are you really approving of the gay?

It also bugs me how people think they can just say anything, as long as they follow it with "But I have gay friends, so I'm not homophobic."  Do you think your gay friends approve of your favorite complaint being "That's so gay!"  Do you think a piece of their souls does not quietly wilt every time they hear that phrase? 

Back to marriage.

I think our society has progressed to the point where homophobia is for the most part frowned upon.  Most people will say they don't mind gay people in theory; what other people do in the privacy of their home is their own business.  But being gay is not confined to the privacy of one's own home.  You take it with you to school, to work, to parties, to the grocery store, to the dentist, to the voting booth.

Being married is not confined to the privacy of your own home.  You display the ring for the world to see.  Women go from Miss to Mrs.  In casual conversation, the second question after "How are you?" is "How is your significant other/family?"  You go together to neighborhood get-togethers and family obligations.  When you fill out forms and surveys, you check the box labelled "Married."

That is why gay marriage is frowned upon by apparent non-homophobes.  Gay is okay, as long as no one sees it.  Marriage is far too in your face.  Let's just go back to the subculture of the 1950's.

The problem with people who do not use logic to back up their arguments is that it is impossible to use logic to counter them.

And so now that I have a proverbial bruise from proverbially banging my head against the wall, I leave you with the reason more people should know German:

Lyrics and translation to follow in next post.

Deconstructions

I predict that within 10 years, Hollywood will have made a movie about Osama bin Laden's death.  It makes a great story, after all.  Those rugged, underdog, freedom-loving Americans taking down that evil warlord.

And now for something (almost) completely different.

We know the formulas.  We know what to expect from your typical action movie, romantic comedy, superhero movie, or fairy tale.  That is why "historical" based movies (as well as movies that come from books, or in fact any other source material) suffer so badly.  They have to be shoehorned into the mold, often distorted beyond recognition.

However, there has been a recent trend among moviemakers and novel writers of deconstructing the familiar motifs.  With varying degrees of success.  Superhero stories with a sympathetic villain, for instance.  Or fractured fairy tales.  These deconstructions fall into three types.

1)  Satirical deconstruction, in which the story is written using the formula in order to make fun of itself.  Slapstick comedy.

2)  Brutal Deconstruction, in which the story is shown to have a darker, often gorier side.  Keyword, ick.

3)  Practical Deconstruction, in which the story is played straight, but tries to act more realistic.  Focus on characters.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, I have a long list of examples.

The main culprits for the formula/deconstruction trap are variants of the Hero's Journey - namely, Superheroes, Fairy Tales, and fantasy literature.  For instance, a satirical deconstruction of the superhero genre would be...well take your pick.  I have not seen "Kick-Ass," but from the trailers I believe it one of these.  What I am familiar with is the film "Mystery Men."  A ragtag group of heroes with some awkward superpowers defeat a not very memorable villain.  Played for laughs.

A brutal deconstruction, on the other hand, is Watchmen, both the film and the graphic novel. No superpowers, just the silly costumes and crime-fighting.  The characters are set along a scale of pathetic idealist to villain who kind of has a point.

The closest thing to a practical deconstruction that I am familiar with is "The Incredibles."  Yes, it follows the typical superhero pattern, but it has a few deconstructive elements.  It might almost be considered a family drama. 

Now for Fairy Tales.  You know what I'm going to say.  Yep.  Shrek (Note that "Fairy Tale" in this sense is more of the Disneyfied version, rather than actual folk legends).  In fact, Shrek was created by a disgruntled former Disney employee and is essentially a declaration of war on the entire Disney franchise.  Need I say more?

A brutal deconstruction is, without a doubt, Gregory Maguire.  Author of Wicked.  No, not the musical - that got re-Disneyfied until it wasn't sure what it was supposed to be anymore and sucked.  Good music, though. 

A practical deconstruction is harder to pin down.  I have not seen "Enchanted," so cannot offer any opinion on that.  Perhaps "Ever After."  She marries the prince after talking and having an actual relationship with him, and becomes a princess to actually take care of the people in the kingdom.

And of course my passion, fantasy.  You may have gathered by now that as much as I love this genre, I love to hate it as well. 

Terry Pratchett is definitely the iconic satirical deconstructor.  I have only read one of his books, so I don't have much to say about it, but there isn't really that much to say.

Brutal deconstructions of fantasy have been gaining in popularity.  Terry Goodkind was the first one I have been aware of.  Before he went all crazy anti-socialist and still thought he was writing a fantasy epic.  Very...detailed battle scenes.  Other writers such as Mercedes Lackey sometimes attempt to do this, and heap misfortune and trauma upon their characters, but somehow at the end, all the important people get to ride away on their pretty white horse with seemingly no lasting psychological harm.  This is a case of Failed Deconstruction.

My very favorite books ever - The Last Rune series, by Mark Anthony - is a practical deconstruction of fantasy.  In fact, it is hardly a deconstruction at all.  The story is played completely straight, with the ordinary protagonist from the Real World becoming the prophecized Hero who has to save the Pseudo-Medieval European Fantasyland from a Dark Lord.  The reasons that this series is not cliche garbage are many and subtle, so I will only mention one:  Anthony treats his characters like real people.  All of them.  He also (okay, two) strikes a very delicate balance between "Good always wins," and "The world sucks."

What did any of this have to do with bin Laden? 

The key to a practical deconstruction is making the story realistic, which also has the effect of making the story complex.  But complex stories don't make money.  When we go see a movie for an afternoon's entertainment, we want to be entertained.  We don't want to think.  That is why formulas are so useful.  The audience already knows what is going to happen and can enjoy the movie without any major worries. 

Bin Laden's death changes nothing, and I don't have to know anything about politics to be certain of that.  Al-Qaeda is not going to fall apart like the army of orcs at the end of Lord of the Rings.  But America is so locked into our ideals/formulas/tropes/narratives that we fail to realize that.  Real life is a messy and boring deconstruction of fiction that nobody wants to read.