Laneways and Byways

I've been wandering memory lane lately, strolling through the late 90s and feeling all nostalgic. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea to sit down and work my way through episodes of Buffy, a character who is pretty much the same age as me. Funny how the more modern supernatural heroes are largely similar to me in age - must be something about my generation. First Buffy, then Harry Potter and co. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that, although the books came later, Bella Swan was actually born in the late 70s or early 80s as well. But I digress, as ever. From memory, the idea to revisit Sunnydale came from reading an article about a conference Monash University was hosting a couple of weeks back about female superheroes. Buffy was one of the illustrations used.

Watching these brought back all the things that were going on when I watched them the first time round. I'll always associate Buffy with major events, thanks largely to the fact that it was because of Buffy that I saw the second plane go into the World Trade Centre in real time. If I hadn't flicked my TV on to channel 10 for a little late night Buffy, I would have had no idea what had happened until the morning. Of course, the early years of the show were much more fun-filled than the later years. I think by September 11 she must have been defending the world for the fourth or fifth year - I can't remember, now.

But gong back over old ground makes me think I wasn't quite as much of an awkward nerd as I thought I was. Sure, I wasn't kicking butts all over town and looking hot while I was doing it, but neither was I being, say, Willow before she became a witch. I had hair that, on its good days, was as good as Buffy's - and was naturally honey blond, back then when I still saw sunlight on occasion, rather than the roots-showing die job that she often sported. My skirts weren't quite as short, and I never wore pants that looked like they were made of giraffe skin, but many of our other fashion choices matched. And Buffy was made before the size 0 fad hit, so even though she's incredibly fit - and as far as I know, Sarah Michelle Geller really was incredibly, realistically fit thanks to the training required for the role - she doesn't look like a strong breeze would snap her in half. I was just as socially awkward as the characters and, if I didn't have a huge night life, I also had my gang of close friends to see me through. But just as my friends have changed over the years, it seems that Buffy's might change as well.

There's been talk that they will re-make Buffy, new cast and all. It seems that we've hit that point in time where things that I remember loving the first time round are being re-hashed. Buffy. Dirty Dancing. Footloose. Next thing you know, they'll be doing Pretty Woman 2.0. I understand the nostalgia for things, I really do. Hell, I wander through the past quite happily. But do we really need to re-make a perfectly good cultural icon? We all know what happened when they tried to re-do Fame - and if you don't know, then that just proves my point. Sometimes it's better to let the original stand. and Buffy is one of those things that should be left alone, especially given that it's less than a decade since the original hung up her stake.

As a side note, I heard an interesting stat today. Yes, there is such a thing. Apparently, for every hour of television you watch, you lose 22 minutes off the end of your life. How they arrived at this figure, I shudder to think, but what it translates into, as far as I can tell, is that when you watch an hour of commercial television, you basically shorten your life by the same amount as the ad breaks take out of your hour. It's official. Ads are killing us.

You're kidding, right?

I made the mistake of reading the Herald Sun today. It's always a mistake for me to dip into the tabloids. They only end up making me angry. But what can I say, it was the only available reading material at work at lunch today. So I read it, and proceeded to get angry.

See, it seems that the Australian PM has been visiting the other countries in the region, and she took along her partner, who the tabloid in question has patronisingly dubbed 'The First Fella'. I had thought that all the ruckus about having a female prime minister, and an unmarried on with a live-in boyfriend at that, had died down. I figured that the conservatives had resigned themselves to the fact that a woman is just as able to do the job as a man, and that anyone - even the PM - can live in sin if they choose to, without endangering the well being of anybody under their care. After the lashing that Bettina Arndt received following her comments about the relationship between Julia and Tim, a piece of writing that set Australia back about 50 years in most people's opinion, I had thought that it would all die down.

Except now it's flared up again. "Serious" media has commented on the man's dress sense and presentation, as well as her choice of clothing. But today's little stinger took the cake. Because apparently, the fact that Julia took her partner with her on a trip to Muslim countries has made her unsuitable to lead the country. It's supposed to be insensitive, and to have caused all of the leaders to pull out of meetings with them. Yeah, because people who live for politics let somebody's relationship status come between them and a potential route to power. Just as likely a reason for the cancellation of the meetings - which probably wouldn't have been made in the first place if her living situation was truly an issue - was the fact that there was a volcano erupting in Indonesia - a reason also given the Hilary Clinton for not meeting her this week. In Malaysia, the leader is said to have chicken pox. Yes, a potentially life threatening illness for adults, especially difficult for adult men. But no...he's faking it to get out of a meeting with the promiscuous woman who travels - shock, horror! - with her partner.

If she was a man, who installed his mistress as a secretary in order to take her with him on business trips, would there be so much comment? And perhaps the greatest irony is that the people who are criticising her for being insensitive to the Muslim beliefs that prevail in Indonesia and Malaysia are the very same people who attack the backwards world view of Muslims arriving in Australia from the Middle East and North Africa. What the hell, people? I know there are plenty of people who don't agree with living together without being married. Fine, you can have whatever beliefs you choose - that's the luxury of living in a developed, Westernised society. But don't think that it's OK to impose those beliefs on others. And don't think that as Australians, we have to choose our leaders based on the beliefs of countries in our region. Because those beliefs will never match each other perfectly. And at the end of the day, surely our leaders ought to represent our own beliefs? Call me nuts, but just a thought...