“Beyond the Hills”: A lesbian exorcism in the middle of nowhere

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:01:00 +0000

An intense and mesmerizing fable of misguided faith, thwarted romance and confused sexuality set in a remote Christian convent, “Beyond the Hills” is a long way from being an easy or conventionally uplifting viewing experience. But if you can adjust to its long, observational takes, deliberately slow pace and refusal to answer normative plot questions about good and evil or crime and punishment, this new feature from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu will stick with you as one of the year’s most powerful films.

Does “The Feminine Mystique” still matter?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE is the Tupac Shakur of literary feminism, reincarnated at least once every decade with new insights that engender old beefs while at the same time serving as a reminder of why it’s a classic. Indeed, the book’s legacy often takes the form of whatever the written equivalent of an earworm is, its ideas setting up lifelong camp in (largely female) brains absent any real effort or study. Several years ago, Stephanie Coontz began writing a history of how The Feminine Mystique had impacted a generation of women; the result, 2011’s A Strange Stirring, found that many who had believed they’d read the book realized that, in fact, they hadn’t: they had simply absorbed it by osmosis. Similarly, those holding vehemently antifeminist beliefs considered the book an unforgivably radical text, full of screeds against everything from marital rape to — you guessed it — the tyranny of brassieres. Writes Coontz, “When they tried to explain the gap between what they ‘remembered’ and what I told them the book actually said, they usually decided that the title had conjured up such a vivid image in their minds that over time they had come to believe they had read it.”

Salon.com > Lesbianism

“Beyond the Hills”: A lesbian exorcism in the middle of nowhere

Does “The Feminine Mystique” still matter?