The world’s sole remaining super power gets a healthcare system. Channel 10 pushes the heteronormative agenda. And Barry O’Farrell invents an entirely new criminal justice system based on who knows what.
Hello, possums! It’s late, but here’s an episode of The 9pm Edict.
You can listen to this episode below. But if you want them all, subscribe to the podcast feed, or even subscribe automatically in iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:29 — 7.8MB)
For more information on what I discussed tonight, check out The 7pm Project, Barry O’Farrell’s anti-graffiti plan, and pretty much any news outlet about Obama’s healthcare plan.
If you’d like to comment on this episode, please add your comment below, or Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.
[Credits: The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian, Edict fanfare by neonaeon, all from The Freesound Project. Photograph of Stilgherrian taken 29 March 2009 by misswired, used by permission.]
Look, I’m not denying that they obviously listen in to the Edict religiously at precisely whatever time you put it up, but weren’t the 7pm people there first?
The only way to beat TV people is to think like them. Just launch “The Edict, first at 5” and then go to bed a bit earlier.
@Phil D: Surely you’re not suggesting that something in the Edict might not be entirely accurate? I do like The Edict, first at 5 though. Maybe that’s the approach for series 2, once the sponsorship millions start rolling in…
Best. Edict. Ever.
That is all.
@Eric TF Bat: Orly? What was so special about this one? Or do you mean just the Rdict itself at the end? Personally I thought it was a bit obvious… YMMV.
Regarding 7pm project; Are you being ironic, or is your gaydar’s ironic mode broken? I heard a gay choreographer telling dancers that on stage with a woman they have a certain role to play…
Yay to Barry stuff, Boo to your edict. Fuck American conservatives, not America.
@Glengyron: I think there has to be a certain amount of mystery and ambiguity in life, don’t you?
Hetronormative is the opposite of someone saying I don’t care about your daily gender-identity, but wear this mask while playing this game.
In fact, could there be something that illustrates the performative nature of gender more than dance? Everyone knows gender is projected by the way they dance.
Anyway, So You Think You Can Dance is about as interesting as watching a cat cough up fur balls.
Yes, the edict. I mean, the Edict was good too, but after the build up, and with the expectation that the edict at the end of the Edict would be as erudite as all the previous ones, the unexpected brevity was comedy gold. And really, you couldn’t have put it better with any number more words.
@Glengyron: I think we may be talking at a tangent here. If a man is dancing, however he is dancing, then he is “dancing like a man”, because he is a man. If a man is dancing with a woman, then to suggest that he must therefore dance in a certain way “because he’s a man” and must dance as if he has a certain implied relationship with that woman — whether social, sexually, psychological or with regard to power or even just because certain stereotypical dance moves are preferred — is to reinforce a specific, relatively narrow view of how men and women should interact. Dominant male, submissive female. This is wrong. It is wrong socially. It is dull and unimaginative choreographically.
Eric TF Bat: Timing is the essence of comedy. Apparently.
No, gender is socially and culturally constructed. Having a dick doesn’t actually make you dance leading a female, you need culture to tell you that’s how it’s ‘meant to go’.
Dancing is about playing a role. Consider the two men that were on ‘Strictly come Dancing’ for example, when doing paired dancing their roles were split by gender.
Given the discussion revolves around being ‘butch’ I think you’re missing the fact that they’re quite happily ‘playing’ gender. When you understand gender is a game to be played it’s quite liberating. [I notice a certain @ApostrophePong finds it hilarious when people can’t work him out, rather than horrifying for example]. (Just quietly… I don’t think there’s a whole lot of homophobia amongst professional male dancers… but there are certainly plenty of gay men with restrictive ideas about being ‘manly’).
Anyway, gender is performed in dance pretty obviously, and as for whether a reality TV series on network television is dull and unimaginative with a particularly poor idea of the artistic merit of dance… no contest.