Diversity and The Bachelorette

Once again, we have another season of The Bachelorette, and once again we have no men of color in the house (and no I don't consider Juan, even though he's from Argentina, to represent any kind of diversity). Can someone explain to me why the skanky dating shows on VH-1 have more people of ethnicity than ABC?

Seriously, there must be some educated, asian, latino, and african-american men who want their 15 minutes of fame, and want their chance at Jillian. She's cute, funny, and sweet. I'm beginning to wonder if it's ABC or the bachelors and bachelorettes themselves who put the kibosh on any interracial shenanigans going on at the Mcmansion.

This is 2009 people, the earth will not fall out of the sky if Jillian or one of the Bachelors dates a black or asian chick on the show. And yes, I know Andy picked Tessa who is half-Asian and Byron picked Mary who is Latina, but that's out of how many series of this show? 16? As a black woman ever made it to the hometown dates? Or even past a one on one date?

Given that the California State Supreme Court just upheld the decision against gay marriage in California, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that The Bachelorette is still as whitebread as they come. Still, I can't bring myself to watch Rock of Love 18, just because the show is diverse.

Sigh! I'm hoping that they add an African-American woman to the Real Housewives of New York City. Where is Spike Lee's wife or Chris Rock's wife? They would be amazing.

Guy Movies vs. Girl Movies

Yesterday I posted on Facebook how much I disliked the last Batman movie with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. This morning I was surprised to see that most of the comments were from guys who insisted that I didn't like the movie because I was a woman and it was a guy movie.

WTF?

Seriously? In the year 2009, we are still doing this? My feelings about Batman: The Dark Knight had more to do with the storyline which was interminable and the fact that the movie was so visually dark at times that I couldn't tell what was going on. While I really liked Heath Ledger's approach to The Joker, it wasn't worth sitting through 2 1/2 hours of boredom. Not even Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey 'Two-Faced' Dent made up for the disjointed storyline and Maggie Gyllenhaal was completely wasted. Maggie, go back to independent films where you at least have a character to play.

I got that they were setting up Batman for the next film where he is more of an outlaw and less of a hero, but Christopher Nolan could have tightened up the script considerably to do that. The biggest problem was trying to do the Joker storyline and Two-faced in the same movie along with a mob storyline. Too much plot for one movie. The audience doesn't need two villains, one will do fine, thank you very much.

I really resented the men telling me that I didn't like the movie because I was a woman. I go to see just as many action films as I do chick-movies and independent films. I saw Watchmen a few weeks ago and loved it. Funnily enough it was the same length as Batman: The Dark Knight but it didn't feel like it. Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Rorshach should garner another Oscar nomination for him. It was just as fine as Heath Ledger's in Batman. I read a great deal of graphic novels and not all of them are Catwoman and Wonder Woman. Seriously if I had liked the movie they would have been able to say it was a 'guy' movie or maybe they would have.

Frankly Batman has always been one of my favorite superheroes, precisely because he is not superhuman or comes from another planet like Superman. Batman is human with all the foibles and frailties of humans. Yes, he has a lot of gadgets and wears a really cool suit, but he makes mistakes like everyone and has serious issues. He reminds me of all those tortured heroes that we romance readers love to read about.

So don't tell me that I can't understand a film because it's supposed to be a 'guy' movie. Not unless you want to get kicked in the balls!