Thoughts On The Difference Between The Samantha Bee And Roseanne Barr Controversies

There is not a day that goes by, recently, where some celebrity is in trouble for putting their foot in their mouth.

Earlier this week, despite the massive ratings and profits for the network from the first season of the Roseanne reboot, the show was cancelled. The show’s star and titular actor, Roseanne Barr made a rather nasty and racist comment about Valerie Jarrett, a political adviser to former President Obama on Twitter. This social media faux pas forced the network to cancel the show.

Last night,  during her weekly show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee host Samantha Bee referred to first daughter Ivanka Trump as a c**t.

While both comments are inexcusable, as I see it, there is a difference, which must be observed in context. Roseanne’s social media history is littered with outrageous claims and statements that are far from politically correct.

Samantha Bee is a comedian who uses her show to talk about the issues that we are dealing with. During this specific segment, she was talking about the children who arrive at our borders with their parents seeking asylum. These children are then taken from their parents by the government. The point of the segment was to point out that Ivanka, like the rest of those who work for and cater to you know who, are tone-deaf to the real issues that America is dealing with today.

Ultimately, this scandal will fade into our collective cultural history and another will take its place soon enough. I just wonder, that when these scandals fade into memory, will we be able to come together as a country or will we be torn apart forever?

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Little Women Character Review: Margaret “Marmee” March

*Warning: This post contains spoilers in regards to the narrative and characters from the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Read at your own risk if you have not read the book or have seen any of the adaptations.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

In this series of weekly blog posts, I will examine character using the characters from Little Women to explore how writers can create fully dimensional, human characters that audiences and readers can relate to.

A girl’s first role model is her mother. More than providing food, shelter, warmth and clean clothes, a good mother does her best to guide and teach her daughter as she grows up. In Little Women, Margaret March, the mother of the titular heroines is known to her daughters are Marmee.

When the audience is introduced to Marmee, she is for all intents and purposes, a single parent raising four teenage girls. With her husband is fighting for the Union, Marmee is doing the best she can with limited resources.  While she is a practical woman who completely understands what needs to be done to keep her family going, she is not without a heart. Early on the in the novel, at Marmee’s request, the family gives their Christmas dinner to another family who has much less than they have.

In a certain sense, Marmee is a modern mother. She is not a helicopter parent, and allows daughters to make mistakes, even when she knows the mistakes are preventable. While she completely understands that her girls must marry one day, Marmee is not the matchmaking mama who throws her daughters at every eligible man in sight. She wants them to have solid marriages to men who respect and love her girls in the way that they deserve to be respected and loved. She also wants her girls to stand on their own two feet, well, as much as they could in the 1860’s.

To sum it up: In creating Marmee, Alcott understood the impact a mother has on her daughter. While Marmee, like anyone, has her weaknesses and difficulties, she does her best as a mother. Many times in fiction, especially classic fiction, mothers are dead, forever embarrassing their children or emotionally absent as a parent. Alcott broke the mold, creating a mother who while thoroughly human, is being the best parent she can be. That is what any reader or child could ask for.

Throwback Thursday-Click (2006)

Life for most of us is busy. Between our jobs, our families and everything else that is going on, we forget to breathe and enjoy being alive.

In the 2006 movie, Click, Ben Newman (Adam Sandler) is trying to achieve a work/life balance, but that is seeming more impossible as the days go on. In order to receive a very desirable promotion, Ben is working his tail off for his hard to please boss, Ammer (David Hasselhoff). But that means less time with his wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and their family. He wishes for a remote to control his life. Enter Morty (Christopher Walker) a salesman who sells Ben the remote he desires. Ben thinks he can control the remote, but then remote turns on him.

Growing out of the various man-child characters that made him a star, Sandler proves that he has grown as an actor. While he can easily play comedy,he shows that he has the chops to play a mature character going on a mature journey.

I recommend it.