Nuts, Bolts

• Sam and I went to see "Knocked Up" last Friday.  It looked good.  And it made me laugh, a lot, but I have to admit it left me slightly uneasy.  I can't really explain why I say that, except that I could feel that I hadn't really loved it, and couldn't voice why.  Partly it was the way the relationship came together, partly it was the ending, and then I didn't quite buy that this girl would be an entertainment reporter for E!  I couldn't believe that someone like her would want that job.  Whatever that says about me, fine, but it was a problem for me.  And then I read an article in Slate about the movie, and its problem with women, and it really hit home.  I couldn't understand that girl because she wasn't like a real girl.  Her motives are never examined, and she never says the word abortion.  Her mother tries to convince her not to have the baby, but the girl never wavers in her desire to have the child, even though she cries mightily while dealing with and processing the news of the pregnancy.  She never tells her mom why she wants the baby.  She never tells the boy why she's keeping it.  As far as the movie shows, she never even admits to herself that abortion is a legal, safe, and completely understandable option for her.  It just felt wrong.  It felt like a betrayal of her, as a characterization.  It felt unfair of Judd Apatow.  And look, it wasn't a serious movie.  It was a comedy, and maybe I'm expecting too much.  But when you're dealing with a topic like this...and anyway, who says we can't have fully developed female characters in comedies?  Why not?  I read another review of the movie somewhere (can't remember where) which trumpeted how fully this movie meets the 'Mo' movie standard (two women main characters, talking about something other than men) and I don't remember it very strongly as having done so.  If I remember correctly, that review was also full of praise for Apatow for showing women in a true light.  But I'm not so sure I agree with that praise.  Either way, the movie left me with a slightly sour taste in my mouth, and though Sam has been telling people it was awesome, I'm not so sure I could.  I'm happy to tell people that I laughed, the movie was very funny.  It was.  But I also want to tell them that I have reservations.  That all was not well with it.
• Switching gears completely.  I don't know if you're aware of this whole case of the woman prosecutor from DuPage county (Jane Radostits) who died in an accident earlier this year.  She died presumably because she was drinking and driving, with a blood alcohol level thrice what it should be.  The whole case is newsworthy both because of the tragedy, but also because she prosecuted hard, and talked loudly and indignantly about the need for offenders--drinkers and drivers--to be punished harshly.  To put it mildly, it seems Ms. Radostits was a hyprocrite.  She did the very thing she railed against in court and in the press.  It's sad, it is.  But she broke the law, and she did it to the detriment of herself (and another, who though not killed, is injured).  She broke the law in a grave manner.  This is not a misdemeanor.  Drinking and driving kills, and she proved it.  A story in the Tribune today really illustrates how much of a problem D&D is.  The prosecutors in DuPage county have been told that drinking and driving will be punished harshly, because they are being held to a higher standard.  Excuse me?  D&D is against the law.  It's not a higher standard to have to obey that law--it's a standard that every single person in this country has to follow, prosecutor or not.  Lawmaker or not.  People who break the law should be punished.  That's it.  I feel very strongly about D&D, and I know my sister does too.  The issue has ended friendships in my life, and I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having even one drink and driving; I am unhappy when people in my life, family do it.  I think it's partly that I was raised in the era when all the crackdowns on it were starting, and so I take it as an absolute wrong.  Of all the bad things you can do, to me, that is the worst.  You are endangering the lives of too many people--yourself, your passengers, others on the road--to make D&D one of those laws that everyone shrugs off--oh, that law, pshaw.  Higher standard my ass.  A higher standard would be asking them not to go to places where people are drinking, knowing they'll get into cars later (concerts, games, bars, restaurants--nearly impossible, no?).  A higher standard would mandate no drinking ever.  Those are higher standards.  It's stupid and insane to ask that no drinking and driving on the part of those prosecutors is a higher standard, because no, that's the very basic standard.  Okay, I feel better.