Hey Bitch Flicks readers! I’m flattered and excited that I have been invited to become a weekly contributor. Looking forward to having another forum on which to express my rather passionately opinionated thoughts!
I discovered Bitch Flicks rather by accident last year. My preferred social network is Twitter, which I have used as the primary outlet for my musings (okay, they’re mostly rants, and profane ones at that). Reports on the “unexpected” success of Bridesmaids made me sarcastically tweet that the only people who were shocked by its success were Hollywood execs who just found out that A) Women exist and B) We don’t actually like Kate Hudson movies. The BF editors retweeted it, I discovered their blog, and since I was already an enthusiastic consumer of other feminist blogs I dove right into their archives, and eventually became a contributor. My previous posts for Bitch Flicks include “You Say Princess Like It’s A Bad Thing,” (on Disney Princesses) “The Dancer’s Dilemma,” (on Dirty Dancing’s approach to illegal abortion) and “The Feminism of Sailor Moon.” (On…the feminism of Sailor Moon.)
I am a lifelong film enthusiast, but my particular passion is animation. (I like live action television too, but I’m fairly picky) Since a young age I have obsessively consumed animation in all forms, whether they be slapstick cartoons like Looney Tunes or abstract experiments like Begone Dull Care. I am particularly interested in American animation (Chuck Jones is my hero), but I have some interest in Canadian (particularly the short films distributed by the National Film Board of Canada) and Japanese animation (mostly from the 90s) as well. It is a pet peeve of mine when people refer to animation as a genre rather than a medium, or, even worse, to assume that all animation is for children – so don’t do it! 😉
My favourite live action films include the Back to the Future trilogy, Pleasantville, Network, All About Eve, Casablanca, Dirty Dancing, Help!, Meet Me In St. Louis, Shadow of a Doubt, Sense and Sensibility, The Third Man, The Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Chicago, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Groundhog Day, and The Addams Family (and Addams Family Values).
Favourite animated films include Duck Amuck, What’s Opera Doc, Spirited Away, Bambi, Long Haired Hare,The Incredibles, Princess Mononoke, A Corny Concerto, Rabbit Fire, Snow-White, Beauty and the Beast, Somewhere In Dreamland, The Little Mermaid, Coraline, and the Sailor Moon R Movie.
Favourite television shows (both live action and animated) include Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Futurama, Animaniacs, The Muppet Show, Clone High, ReBoot, Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Slayers, Cadfael, Mythbusters, Pride & Prejudice BBC, Game Center CX, Community, Downton Abbey, Firefly, Star Trek (and TNG).
More formal background information:
Myrna Waldron is a feminist blogger who takes a more informal, geeky, and humorous approach to analysis. Her personal blog is The Soapboxing Geek, and her Twitter is @SoapboxingGeek. The nom de plume refers to her tendency to get up on her soapbox, especially about geeky things. She blogs and tweets regularly about pop culture, video games, film/tv/animation, literature, music, and politics. Her general approach to feminism includes an enthusiastic support for reproductive rights, LGBTQI rights, analysis of sexism and gender roles in the media, and advocacy for body positivity.
She has studied English at York University, where she has also dabbled in film studies. Her particular area of interests in English include Romantic literature, genre literature such as fantasy, science fiction and mystery, pop culture literature such as graphic novels, media studies, and an approach to film studies using analysis techniques derived from English literature. Although very close to achieving her BA, she was forced to temporarily cease her studies due to the progression of a recent diagnosis of fibromyalgia & ankylosing spondylitis. She has turned to blogging and tweeting as a way to keep her mind sharp and to continue to develop her writing abilities. She hopes someday to return to university, change her degree to include a film minor, and eventually attend graduate studies with the intent of becoming an animation historian.
She currently lives, has lived, and will live, in Toronto.