Sunday, June 12, 2011
Unit Shredders
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From fakebands.com
Unit Shredders, The - From the TV show Roseanne (11/25/95). A riot grrl band mentioned in the "The Getaway, Almost" episode. Midway through a roadtrip to an outlet mall, Roseanne and Jackie pick up a hitchhiker (Jenna Elfman) who is in the band. The Unit Shredders' riotous grrlishness may be a matter for debate, though. First off, they are several years late to the riot grrl party (mainstays Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, and Huggy Bear were already broken up). Plus, Elfman (who is comically credited as "teenager" in the episode) would have been 25 when the show aired. Perhaps The Unit Shredders could have claimed to have been riot wmmmen. Though it was kind of cool that they played a clip of Bikini Kill on a prime-time show.
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You know how you want to like something, but then the medium gets it wrong. Fine example. To make that female character come off like this clueless, gum-chopping, unaware, man-hating idiot is insulting. It's almost like Roseanne and her writers were secretly jealous that they weren't a part of a "revolution". While association seems cool or whatever by talking about it on mainstream TV, they showed it in this bad light and the overall take-away is not ideal. It feels like a women vs girls thing initially with Roseanne and her sister feeling above what the younger generation are doing. Then they start to feel left out. And it's that feeling of being left out that makes them act out. I don't like that message. Then the argument is, "you should be grateful that Bikini Kill was even mentioned in a mainstream show". No, I shouldn't. And that is what needs to change. Overall there is this weird focus on man hate and it's not about that either. It's about strength and doing what you want.
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Genius use of tumblr.
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1 cents:
"Secretly jealous"? UGH. Hate this interpretation.
I watched the entire thing and thought their disucssion was more about the generation gap first and foremost, and feminism as it relates to female musicians, second. Roseanne and Jackie weren't hating on Bikini Kill, they were just saying that they didn't really understand it, and then going on to show the reasons why - they're older, they didn't have many female musicians in their day, etc. etc.
The scene ends with them feeling energized and empowered by the combination of the angry new music and the oppression they dealt with in the past, hence the flipping off the truck driver.
It's also a subtle nod to Thelma and Louise and two women in a car, talking about women, for close to 10 minutes.
All of those things make it a victory, in my opinion.
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