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Toongrrl

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There was once a guy, who heard some sounds coming from behind a stone wall. He listened closer and liked what he heard: it was a gal's voice. She sounded very expressive and funny and smart, she lifted up his spirits and he could sense she was inwardly clenching, but he delighted at hearing her laugh. It was like she was letting him in, she was curious as to what they could do to get together. He took a few tools and started chiseling away at that wall, just when he thought he broke through it, he found another, and another, and another. He kept chipping on until he found her, she was equally beautiful and mercurial, quiet and unruly, intelligent and naive. She looked at him, there were tears in her eyes, but they and her mouth were sparkling with happiness just the same. They held one another, her body softening up, he stole a look at his hands: they were bloody and calloused from all that work, but somehow, she was worth it.
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    About a fortnight ago (as some British peeps would say), I saw Battle of the Sexes with some friends, actually it was my second time viewing it. I like the movie that much to see it twice, I am a bit tempted to watch a third time on the big screen. I was captivated, to say the least. My friend pointed out that a lot of movies that get played in our town (without delay, I would add) are usually summer blockbusters, male targeted shoot ‘em ups, rom-coms that are often heteronormative and only have the woman focus on getting a man, horror films, Brokeback Mountain was played but it had a “tragic queer” story, animated fare, and teen barf-fests. Our town is also highly conservative, politically and socially, what it did to Jackie (a film about a revered and traditionally feminine icon who is shown to be flawed and vulnerable) was delay showing in the local theaters at the official release date and only screen it for a limited time after about a month. The same happened with BOTS but upon walking to the screen room, we saw a true gem that was lost in a haystack.

    Battle of the Sexes focuses on the POV of both Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell) as they prepare for the eponymous tennis match that proved to be a huge turning point in the Second Wave of Feminism. The film is also a Coming of Age story and Coming Out story that doesn’t end with a tragedy along with a Sports film. Directed by the team behind Little Miss Sunshine, the film touches on the events with heart and humor; Riggs and King are both shown to be flawed, vulnerable, driven, and talented individuals who struggle with their own demons (his is gambling, while she struggles with her sexuality) as they prepare for that match. Everyone is painted with a sympathetic brush, even if they come off as antagonistic; one prime example is Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) who is shown as homophobic as she is in real life and really counting on Billie Jean’s shame of carrying on an affair with a woman whilst married to work against her in a tennis match they will compete in; the film could have taken the opportunity to paint her as a ogress who is out for Billie Jean, but it didn’t. We see how vulnerable Margaret is amongst the other women players, we see how she driven she is by her sport, we see and are crushed when Bobby beats her in a match called “the Mother’s Day Massacre”, and we see her look pretty hopeful as she watches the penultimate match between her former opponents. We get the sense of a woman who, as much as she’s revered as the indefatigable “The Arm” by her peers, is not able to be chummy with her peers in the Virginia Slims tour and whose best days as a tennis player are behind her.

    Behind every Great Man is a Woman helping him and every woman waits for Prince Charming to come. The film actually reveals that, while most people in 1973 thought this way regarding Gender Roles, the truth was a lot more complicated than that. Of the two women tennis players we see whose lives and marriages are focused on, their husbands are actually taking some traditionally feminine roles in the relationship. Margaret’s husband Barry (James MacKay) not only helps with the bags and cheers his wife from the stands, he is often seen cradling and soothing their infant son while Margaret works out and prepares for her upcoming match. Billie Jean’s husband Larry King (Austin Stowell), not the newscaster, makes it clear how he supports his wife in her chosen career and recognizes her true love will always be tennis and he helps Billie with icing her knees. He is also shown to be fully aware that his wife is attracted to women, even if he doesn’t verbally say a thing to her, and takes both her victories and defeats to heart. You also get that Billie Jean isn’t just guilty due to internalized homophobia but also because she recognizes how supportive and terrific her husband is, in ways that were unusual for the time (in real life, they are close friends and she is even Godmother to one of his children). With Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough), the sexual attraction is very clear and isn’t played for the titillation of a male audience that finds lesbian relationships as a fetish, but is recognized as romantic and a big part of Billie Jean’s own journey. In this particular scene you could, even without the benefit of sight, sense the awkwardness and chemistry when the two women meet.

    Billie Jean meets Marilyn

    That relationship hits a few speed bumps as Marilyn recognizes what she was warned (by Larry, no less) about Billie Jean’s true love being tennis but really comes through for her when she shows up to give Billie Jean a trim, leaving for Houston in the middle of work just to be there to help her boo (cue “awes” from me). In real life, Billie Jean’s and Marilyn’s relationship turned out to be a “Woman Scorned” situation and ended up ugly with a palimony suit; BJ eventually forgave Marilyn for outing her and is currently in a 30 plus year relationship with fellow tennis player Ilana Kloss. Other couples include tennis player/fashion designer Ted Tinling (Alan Cumming) and his partner (don’t know if intimate but the chemistry is perfect) who are in sync with one another’s thoughts and create some luscious outfits for the women players. Bobby Riggs and his wife Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue, yes THAT ONE) get a lot of focus as a couple where the highly capable and strong-minded wife watches in dismay as her husband barely faces his gambling addiction and he plays at being a Misogynist on national television despite her bankrolling his non-tennis career. We see a tough, clear-eyed, fashionable woman who loves her husband but often is disappointed by his lack of self-control and tells him that she is willing to walk away from the marriage even if she’ll whimper once he is out of sight. Bobby is shown as dearly valuing his wife’s approval and being a good family man but doesn’t quite know how to achieve that well. Their later reconciliation is somewhat fictionalized (they actually renew their vows about 20 years after the events of the movie) but is very heartwarming and shows them on the same page. Love is a many splendored (and messy) thing…..

    “No stereotypical nastiness” was one of the reasons my friend listed as what she loved about the film. I did feel a great sense of camaraderie amongst the women in the film and the only competition that flamed between women occurred on the tennis court rather than in everyday social and professional situations. Nothing about who is prettier or uglier or skinnier or more talented; it was women backing each other up and it there were women who seemed doubtful of Billie Jean being able to beat Bobby Riggs due to her being a woman, it was more a reflection of the gender politics in that era and how older generations of women didn’t have a lot of faith in their own gender. Attitudes that were well reflected in the defunct (but still beloved) series Mad Men where women often doubted their own intellects or voiced phrases like “made by a man but simple enough for a woman”, along with projecting a version of “tall poppy syndrome” at any woman who did something like leave a dissatisfying marriage or moved beyond secretarial work in her career. That aside, there is a great sense of women supporting one another, even with very minimal characters and background actors: hairdressers actually congratulating the tennis players on sticking it to the men, women coming out to root for Billie (I’m looking at you “Libbers Not Lobbers” Lady),the quiet cocktail waitress who cringes at the sexism exhibited by the men she waited on and is nervously watching the match as she serves drinks, and even Bobby Riggs’s “Bosom Buddies” (young pretty girls who accompanied Riggs by pulling him on a rickshaw) stayed with Billie’s fans, friends, and family to cheer the champion. Priscilla even tells off Bobby about how his play-acting as a Male Chauvinist pig really affects her and doesn’t harbor any ill will against Billie Jean the way many high-profile wives have against women who are competing against their husbands.

    I could go on about how much I love the women in this film. From their personalities, their bodies, their clothes, their talents, and how flawlessly the actresses have portrayed them. Sounds odd I mentioned bodies, well don’t run away, this is not a Male Gaze appreciation of how the women look. In an age where the right to choose what to do with our bodies as women is being threatened, films like Battle of the Sexes and shows like GLOW (Netflix Series and Original Wrestling Show) are instrumental in reminding women to not only feel beautiful in their bodies but also to feel empowered by what their bodies can do rather than primarily how those bodies look; it also is very important for young women and girls to see a huge diversity of physical appearance in media and not just the same toned and nip-tucked “au naturel” woman with thigh gaps and breasts the size of cantaloupes. Like the women on GLOW and Mad Men, Billie Jean King and her compatriots are not only beautiful (even with the hair length and glasses Howard Cosell), but flesh and blood characters who have a great strength of mind and body. There are women of different shapes walking about in the fabulous costumes from the 1970s (Priscilla Riggs is one prime example of a fashionista). Emma Stone chose to not only dye her hair dark brown and get a bit of sun exposure to resemble Billie Jean in that era (on that note Steve Carell didn’t do shabby in replicating Riggs’s look), but she trained to play tennis and put on 15 lbs. of muscle on her svelte frame. Elisabeth Shue as Priscilla Riggs looks California Blonde 1970s fabulous with her coiffed hair, jumpsuits, pastel pink lipstick accentuating her bronze complexion, and the lines on her face she didn’t have nipped and tucked as to resemble both a woman in her forties and a woman of that era before plastic surgery had gotten more invasive.
    
 Billie Jean, Priscilla, Gladys Heldman (the fabulous Sarah Silverman), Rosie Casals (Natalie Morales), etc. are all forces of nature: strong, capable, outspoken, confident, not without their own vulnerabilities but able to handle any men talking down to them or trying to dominate them (Hint: there is a lot of that). Gladys and Rosie are the “tokens” in this group of women: there are hardly any people of color in the world of tennis in that era, not even a lot in the audience (aside from the massive crowds at the Battle of the Sexes and this woman I will call “Unimpressed Woman in Lime Green”), something that is evident with how Gladys responds to being told she isn’t allowed to be in a lounge (“Is it because I’m a woman or a Jew?”). That prejudice was very widespread at that time, with Jewish Americans not being admitted to different clubs due to their backgrounds; Rosie is the only Latina in the film and as much as we see her being able to clap back at men who condescend to her and Billie, we see her being in an uncomfortable space with Howard Cosells holding her really close to his body while they provide commentary for the final match in the film. We get that sense of how many women were so used to men infringing on their personal space and their lives, something Billie knows all too well when she calls her husband to tell Bobby at midnight that she agrees to his proposition, especially given that Bobby first called her at midnight with said proposition. That is her biggest assertive act done in private.

    So if you want to see women that are in full possession of their bodies and aren’t tripping over everything, bold and nuanced emotions, men exploring their emotional selves, vintage fashions, and women asserting themselves. Go see Battle of the Sexes; even if it isn’t a perfect film, it’s one with a lot of heart. 


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Anyone recognize her? That's right it's Rebecca Gillies from the Bridget Jones series. Well get ready for this review and try not to drink everytime I make a "Mad Men" reference, I cannot be held responsible for any alcohol poisonings. And sex jokes. 

*starts playing "Trapped In the Body of a White Girl*



Once upon a time, a young woman working in tv was re-reading her copy of "Pride & Prejudice", likely watching re-runs of "Just Say Julie", and experiencing one of the many circles of hell for women: dating. She then decided to do a column that was a loose and updated version of P&P on a confused, irritated, ditzy, and insecure young woman whose diary contains more snarks than an entire season of "Daria". This column soon spawned a few books and now three movies: Bridget Jones's Diary. The series became beloved, reviled, or just seen as a movie to watch on a rainy day for many. Bridget was the everywoman that Joan Holloway Harris would loathe at admitting to be, yet sincerely relate to: her apartment is a mess, her family is a mess, she feels fat especially after her daily exposure to a media that seemed to idealize women who'd shop in the American Girl store, she smokes a lot, takes in way less food calories than she should, and got a D in French. Course given her scathing commentary on the media, married peers who think they're hot shit because they got a license that any two heterosexuals in their late teens can get, her demented mom, her clueless as heck dad, absentee brother, nosy family friends, old guys who resemble the neanderthals at McCann-Erickson at the end of Mad Men, guys who are commitment phobic and leave her and her pals hanging, her family and friend drama, two different guys interested in her, snotty rich girls, shitty jobs, shitty bosses, her Mom having an affair and getting arrested for being an accomplice to her boyfriend's theft...you know the little things. She then became a cult sensation.

One of these snotty rich girls was Rebecca Gillies in the first and second books: she often liked to poke at Bridget's insecurities and seemed rather jealous that Bridget can be naturally popular with her peers and in the second book *snaps fingers and shakes head* that trashy witch took Bridget's man! She embodied everything that Bridget wanted to be: super skinny with shiny hair and fat stacks of cash and thus threatened Bridget's security within herself and her relationship with the brilliant yet not-street smart Mark Darcy. I can only imagine the ribbing he got for his failing a spot check and maybe listening to Bridget about this gal.



*Family Guy Cut Away* 
"I told you! What did I tell you? Didn't I tell you? Cause I told ya! Ummmm hmmm! And when did I tell you? A long time ago. And what did I say was going to happen when I told you? Exactly just what happened!"

Man that must've been a ribbing! So just a few years later, the movies were made, Rebecca removed from the first movie and, for some reason, Mark's mom was renamed "Geraldine" instead of Elaine. Maybe she was trying to get away from any association from her scandalous Mother?



Then came the maligned second movie and something interesting happened: Rebecca was split into two. Keeping her nasty personality was Janie Osbourne, who appeared in only one scene and provided some of the conflict that pokes at Bridget's insecurities by talking to Bridget and her Urban Family of Key and Peele's Shakespeare, Shazzer who is Joan to Bridget's Peggy, and Moaning Myrtle about Mark Darcy's new colleague/assistant Rebecca "Becky" Gillies. A wunderkind with a rich Australian daddy, long legs, a law degree of some measure, and is 22. Bridget soon gets suspicious about Mark and this girl who, dog darn it, happens to be excellent at trivia, well coiffed, beautiful, a great skier, thin, and just as sweet as your archetypal Girl Next Door. Obviously this leads to some basic ass rom com plots: Bridget and Mark break up because she's jealous as Hera and he is so closed off in a way that makes Ron Swanson want to sic government surveillance on him, she briefly tries to do a fling with her ex boyfriend and his ex friend Daniel Cleaver while on a business trip, she gets arrested for drug possession accidentally, Mark saves her but makes you wanna shake him, Shazzer reveals his ass loves her, and Bridget chases off to Mark for him to propose.

But something happened in that chase. The kind of twist that Shymalan and Hitchcock are kicking themselves over, take notes M. Night. Bridget runs off to Mark's house with the pretty exterior and the uggggh plain looking interior design....someone get Dorothy Draper out of her grave and decorate this shizz! Focus Toony, okay she sees Rebecca in a cute outfit open the door and mistakenly believes Becky and Mark are an item, Bridget tries to invoke "I Want My Beloved to Be Happy" and Rebecca reveals what's been nagging at her mind throughout the whole movie: she tells Bridget "I don't just like you. I actually like you, like you". 



And kisses her *plays "This Magic Moment"* Yes all *doing happy dance* Rebecca Gillies is a Dyke! Let's celebrate! It turned out her actress Jacinda Barrett was, and still is, a big fan of Renee Zellweger and the first movie; she was an Ascended Fangirl and it was likely that the movie changed the character from her age, personality, and sexuality to depict that admiration. Now I was fourteen when I saw the movie and when I saw that poster I wasn't thinking two hot British guys wrestling one another as a move to see the movie....I was thinking of a pretty, curvy, blonde woman in some tight outfits. Because blue eyed, pouty lipped, blonde Renee Zellweger looked great with the kind of curves that won't be brought back into mainstream beauty until "Mad Men" premiered. But I lived in (still do though knowing more tolerant people now) a homophobic town where "Yes on Prop 8" signs dotted the landscape like Waffle Houses below the Mason-Dixon Line (totally hungry now) and this was an age where many people were apprehensive about social media for teenagers and I didn't even start up a Twitter account until junior college....in 2011. Coming out was risky and so was finding a community and recognition that you weren't some caricature that threatened hetero-normative minded people. If you were a lesbian: you were huge, butch, unfeminine, ugly, and unpleasant to be around. This seemingly minor character changed all that. She was everything girls were raised to admire and emulate, she had the kind of pants size (or trousers for ya Anglophiles) that girls like Bridget wanted....but she really wanted to get in Bridget's pants. Her well cut albeit beige stomach holding pants....But Rebecca was all we felt we should be, and felt all that we felt; and sadly aside from being a conflict ball in the second movie, the world we inhabited in 2004 was a huge conflict for girls like us. 

She also stood as a reminder to Bridget: it's okay. People do love you. The girl you envy for her slim figure might envy your curves...or the man that comes in contact with them. For Bridget's part, she handles her lez fan a lot more gracefully than Joan Holloway did. Compare:





I felt that there was a lot of possibilities for Rebecca: will she find love? Are she and Bridget pals? Will she have to fight off other lezzes off Bridget? Will she have adventures? Is she miserable? Will her career rise? What are her fantasies like? Is she related to Kelly Radner and Fat Amy? Her character was explored in some fanfics, they are a paltry amount but if you want to see, just check out _sfaith's work twitter.com/_sfaith especially the angsty "The Gold Dress" archiveofourown.org/works/5989… . I've done some art work of her. Sadly she won't appear in the third Bridget Jones film that I know of but Jacinda Barrett encourages ya to see it. twitter.com/JacindaBarrett/sta…

Meanwhile I will try to put my jumbled thoughts on another sheet. Until next time, enjoy and bitch. Now lemee put on something for the mood while I do the credits. Hey Bridget, Joan and Peggy invite you for some smokes and drinks. 


 
References:
Mad Men (2007-2015)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)
American Girl Inc.
Daria (1997-2002)
Tv Tropes
Key & Peele (2012-2015)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Parks & Recreation (2009-2015)
Neighbors (2014)
Pitch Perfect 1 & 2 (2012; 2015)
Demi Lovato's "Cool For the Summer" (2015)
Just Say Julie (1989-1992)
The Graduate (1967)
The Drifters's "This Magic Moment" (1960)
Sandlot (1993)

Credits to: 
Familiar Faces
Tegan & Sara
Julie Brown
Mad Men
Bridget Jones
The Drifters
Family Guy
Hey Arnold!
Jacinda Barrett
_sfaith
The Graduate
Me Janus Faced Rebecca Gillies

Thanks to:
Chad Rocco twitter.com/Rblueboy777
Eggsbenni221 twitter.com/eggsbenni221
Demi Lovato
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Credit goes to the Mysterious Mr. Enter and his series "Admirable Animations". mrenter.deviantart.com/



Ever since I was 10, I've watched "As Told By Ginger" and looked forward to every episode. I was perplexed when I couldn't find any high school episodes and was ecstatic to see the DVD release of the finale. Hell, you can tell she inspired me due to the avis I use in my Twitter and Deviant accounts. So Ginger has seen me through my preteen years, junior high, my 13th birthday, and even my 8th grade graduation....and I've hardly found any other cartoons to match up aside from "Daria" and "Hey Arnold!" I can safely say that Ginger deserves to be grouped with relatable and (sometimes) complicated young female characters like the cast of "Girls" and Peggy Olson and Sally Draper of "Mad Men", actually I'd say those shows owe a lot to ATBG, only that said characters often lack a strong figure like Lois Foutley (how is it that L. Griffin is the more well known Mom?). ATBG had character development, characters who were both sophisticated and naive, a lot of laughter, heart, and it wasn't afraid to talk to the audience on their level and with the assumption that viewer is mature and intelligent. Like Ginger, I've had to deal with a break up and getting an operation to get an organ (gallbladder in mine, appendix for Ginger) removed within the same week. Needless to say: even as a twenty-something in reception job working on her Master's, Ginger is still there for me.

So here is "A Lesson In Tightropes", a episode that can be stashed under melodrama yet does so much in the span of 30 minutes (including commercials). The episode starts with Ginger crossing the hallway whilst narrating "Have you ever been struck by the feeling that something is wrong? Nothing in particular, mind you, nothing you can quite put your finger on. Just an overwhelming sense that things in your universe...have well...shifted. And even if the answer is right there staring you straight in the eye, somehow you still don't see it." while greeting upperclasswoman and cheerleader Simone. It cuts to the boys restroom where Darren, her longtime friend and boyfriend is debating on telling the truth about his cheating heart. Then later Ginger jumpstarts band practice and sings a rocking  and angsty version of a song that will be very important in this episode: "Splinter In My Heart" when Darren shows up asking to talk. When Ginger is motormouthing about how they can work it out, Darren spits out that he's seeing Simone and her reaction is heartwrenching.

GINGER: Don't do this! Darren don't! *crying*
DARREN: Ginger, wait!
GINGER: I can try harder...I won't miss a game, I'll be there in the stands cheering you on and....
DARREN: You'll be miserable! Both of us will, it's not who you are.
GINGER:  Who am I?
DARREN: You're Ginger Foutley. And you're opinionated, headstrong, and wonderful....and you think football is stupid and you're probably right! And we fight all the time and things with Simone are just...well...easier.

Not cool dude

So Ginger storms off to her house. Where we cut to the Bishop household where Carl, Ginger's brother, critiques a romance novel that Hoodsey Bishop nicked from his mother's shelf. Darren storms in to see Dodie, Ginger's fair weather gal pal and Hoodsey's sister, where he cries about how he broke up with Ginger and Dodie just mouths shit that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was likely rolling her eyes at ("I made up that theory twerp"). Dodie continues to be useless (thankfully sassy and geeky Macie is around) when Ginger states how her insides exploded (foreshadowing!) while looking at the broken picture frame of her and Darren. Ginger continues moaning...as if in pain; time passes and mother Lois comes in to check on her and notices something is wrong with her napping daughter: her temperature is TOO DAMN HIGH! Her fiance and co-worker, Dr. Dave, calls for an ambulance. Carl and Hoodsey discuss romance novel jargon while Hoodsey's haughty mother Joanne reads a recipe for turkey...in a manner best read by Blanche Devereaux and asks Carl to call home for a ride, just when the ambulance passes.

Ginger is rushed to the operating room with Doctor Dave in charge while Lois waits outside. When Dave assures her she'll be better, Ginger makes a reference to another man in her life who left her.

GINGER: *groggily and dreamily* My Dad used to call me that [Pumpkin].

The screen goes black with a dialogue announcing that she's hemorrhaging. We then get a glorious animated shots and a different tune for "Splinter in my Heart" 

Shots consisting of the camera looking down at Ginger surrounded by persons in white, panning over to a worried Lois in the waiting room, flashbacks to Ginger's birth, her first steps, she riding a swing and transitioning from toddler to tweenhood, Ginger in the operating room thinking of her current life as a band member and songwriter, writing in her diary, the camera pans over pictures kept on the Foutley family mantle, Lois and others in the waiting room, Ginger with her oxygen mask, the clock in her bedroom reading 5:55 pm during a flashback where Darren climbs to her window in better days, and then likely thinking to her future in the city as a young woman at a laundromat where her creation from her "And She Was Gone" poem passes by and Ginger marks an ad reading: "WANTED Ginger Foutley. Must be Opinionated, Headstrong, Wonderful" and sees her preteen self in the washer window. The song ends where she overhears Dave telling Lois that the surgery was a success but she's still weak from fighting the infection, and we get a glimpse of how guilty Lois is just when her ex-husband and Ginger's father, Jonas, comes in. Dave leaves because...awkward.....to leave Lois to explain previous events. This is where Ginger wakes up and shows her insight.

GINGER: Thought that nagging pain in the pit of my stomach was trying to tell me about Darren, turns out it was trying to tell me something about me.

Dr. Dave watches, feeling awkward as his fiance bonds with her daughter and ex. Carl saves him from a nosy old lady where he shows his worry and avoids seeing his deadbeat dad.

CARL: If it's all the same Dave-O, I think I like to stay out here for a while...with you (SUBTEXT: I don't owe my daddy shit, you my real Father).

Simone consoles Darren while in the gift shop, saying this mess wasn't his fault at all. They leave after Darren tosses a note meant for Ginger, given how Darren is afraid to face her. Where we cut to Hoodsey reading a romance novel where a man makes his lover "murmur". Dodie and Macie come bearing gifts and a dorky "get well" song before Dodie spits out "Did you almost die?" and Ginger says that her scar is low enough to wear a bikini. The topic turns to Darren and Ginger asks if he knew what happened and whether he'll visit....while Dodie and Macie try to let her down easy: Darren isn't going to visit and Ginger tries to make the best of it....and let's it be known she is bummed out about this piece of news. This is where I can relate, you wonder if the other person cares and get into another funk. But as this episode points out: it really, really is hell with both parties.

Speaking of relationship drama: Dave goes to talk with Jonas for awkward small talk and about the family, where Jonas addresses the elephant in the bedroom: his failure as a father to Ginger and Carl and a husband to Lois. The fact that David Dave (I know) is a far more reliable father figure and future husband than he'll ever be. Lois finds her atheist son coming out of the chapel where he notices she brought a coffee for her ex and gushes over how he's been so terrific with Ginger. Carl then rants about how Jonas wasn't there for him and Ginger and he's ruining Lois's and Dave's relationship with one another, trying to get back into the fold. Another elephant in the bedroom addressed. Later Lois confesses feeling guilty about how she isn't home enough and worried that her daughter could've died if she was out at work, again another example of the realism captured in ATBG, working moms often are made to feel guilty about holding a job outside the home and worry if they're with their kids enough...no matter how good and loving (as Lois is) as Moms. After consoling her, Dave then asks her if Jonas's attentiveness have attracted her to him again; and while it was comforting to Lois to have her ex around for their daughter, she is not in love and kisses Dave while Carl eavesdrops.

CARL: Now that's romance *satisfied*

We see a custodial staff woman gather garbage, which consists of Darren's discarded letter while Ginger's band-friend Orion comes to visit her. He tells her about how his heart broke, flew, and got put together about the news; Hoodsey comments how Ginger just murmured.

Ginger's old teacher Ms. Zorski comes to visit her and they trash talk Zorski's bitchy teacher cousin at school. Ginger talks to her about the break up and misses being able to talk to him and how he hasn't visited her....could he have stopped caring about her at a point? Same custodial staff comes by and Ginger notices the discarded card which is erroneously given to her (NOT COOL HER IMMUNE SYSTEM IS WEAK LADY) and reads:

DARREN: Dear Ginger, I feel so helpless right now. More than anything, I want to be there for you-but I don't know how. In spite of everything that's happened between us, I just want you to know that...
GINGER: That's it, that's all he wrote, why didn't he finish it? *moaning*
CUSTODIAL LADY: But he did finish it, it just doesn't have an ending. 

And we cut to a shot of Ginger's perplexed expression...foreshadowing something. And we cut to credits.

This episode was actually listed by DeebieDoobie in her countdown of her top 5 episodes and her review noting in the moral: "just because your significant other broke up with you doesn't mean they don't care about you anymore" which is something that really, really needs to be driven home more. 

Well thanks for heading on this journey with me and hope to see you soon when I submit more artwork, it's been an honor to make this emotional journey with you all.
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Guess What?

1 min read
I'm a real person! 
Okay planning some fan art of Peggy Olson and Stan Rizzo from "Mad Men" dressed as different couples. Leave some suggestions : )  
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