While I am in a bad mood

[deelaundry]

Here is a post in which I criticize the public statements of certain actors.

Lisa Edelstein has complained about fans harassing boyfriends of hers, because the fans want her to be with Hugh Laurie instead. That is a more than fair complaint, and any fans doing that need a life, and probably psychiatric attention.

With that said, she needs to stop egging people on by talking about how do-able she finds Hugh Laurie. The latest is an Ausiello interview in which she "jokes" about showing Hugh herself naked and asking which parts she needs to tone up in case they have a sex scene together (even though, as she says, the parts won't be seen on TV).

Such talk makes you sound like a person of loose morals, dear.

Lest you think I only scorn women for acting like horndogs, Robert Sean Leonard similarly grossed me out during an old interview, in which he said he enjoyed rehearsing for The Music Man with the chorus because the teenaged girls were hot. Ew, dude. Some thoughts should stay in your head.

Comments

[poorfrances.livejournal.com]

The irony is that is not only completely unnecessary professionally to say stuff like that, but it's denigrating to not only herself but Hugh Laurie. I've never seen HL be remotely sexist, in fact he's always spoken of LE with the greatest respect and praised her as an actor, etc. He's uncomfortable being called a sex symbol himself and has gone on record with being uncomfortable with her stripping scene from "House's Head." So for LE to go on, even jokingly, in interviews like that about how sexy HL is, her getting naked for him, etc. strikes me as odd when it's well established he finds that sort of talk uncomfortable. In fact, sometimes he's sitting right next to her at the time and is visibly uncomfortable. Whether she's joking or not, it seems in poor taste.

And on a general feminist note, it strikes me as very "I just took my first women's studies course in college, let me show you it" to think that us women are all a part of some magical sisterhood where we shouldn't criticize each other (like we're supposed to fall into line because we all have vaginas, how sexist is that?). I'm with you Dee (and, goes without saying, thyroidstorm) in that if a man says something sexist I'll call him on it, and if a woman does it I'll call him on it. I find LE charming and talented and have actually been confused for awhile about why she she seems so eager to play up Cuddy as a sex object in interviews (I thought the interviews which basically talked nothing about her stripping scenes - and the scene itself - fairly yucky) when it's not only unnecessary but detrimental to her job as the character! Cuddy at least USED to be unique on television: a smart, funny female executive character that was in control.

And any person making comments like that about their real-life committed co-star - who is uncomfortable with sexy talk - is whorish, whether they have a vagina or not. If there is anything to do "as feminists," it is to call out other women when they act like that. There's no need for it, in general or in this specific case, and maybe if people (particularly female viewers or fans) let it be known that we'd rather hear the actresses talk about their characters or the show rather than sex scenes or their bodies, they'd get the point. Rather than debating whether anything should be said should at all - women aren't a mass of sheeplike victims and we call out each other if we want to. You can better believe that if a male star said those things about his female coworker, we'd be hearing a huge uproar and a lot worse terms than "whore!"

We're coming off an election where one party had a female nominee for president and the other party also had a woman on the ticket. The Speaker of the House is a woman. We have a female Secretary of State who is being succeeded by another woman into the position. Etc. etc. Female executives are not strange new things, and a woman in a business suit is not looked at as some alien from another planet. Cuddy was a smart and interesting character - and a lot more interesting - when she was House's boss and equal rather than dancing on stripper pole. And Lisa E. is a lot more interesting when she takes herself seriously as an actress, or when she's funny and charming, etc. rather than when she's mock drooling over her co-star or talking about her abs.

[spoggly.livejournal.com]

O lol, you can't grasp the point either. It's cool, don't worry about it. And fwiw, it's not ~*~lol feminism 101~*~ to say that women shouldn't tear other women down by using demeaning language (which =/= criticizing each other).