stupid

I really shouldn't blog when I'm lonely...but sometimes I just want out of this, right now, more than anything.
I wish I wasn't so quick to get frustrated, angry, upset, raging.
I wish I could learn not to put myself through the shit that I do.
I wish I could keep friends and learn to stop sabotaging that by backing out to be by myself for another night.
I wish I had enough money that I could stop backing out for monetary reasons!
I wish I didn't get stupid ideas in my head - therefore bypassing that moment where I come to understand they're completely fucking ridiculous. Way to make a fool of yourself Tash.
I wish that when I let down my defenses, I'd stop getting burned.
-----------------------------
I wish Mike Patton were here right now.
And that he had some salt and vinegar chips, a bottle of vodka and some large speakers.
Actually, I kinda wish I was in a club, dancing, with my eyes closed, and millions of people around me, and it's so loud my ears are ringing but at least I don't feel abandoned.

Wired Women

Tonight I attended the Game On talk titled Wired Women, held at the State Library of Queensland. It was being held as part of the Game On exhibition currently showing at the library.
It was facilitated by Jane Turner and the speakers were awesome, although their introductions were so long and I was just so excited to be there that I may be wrong in their job descriptions.
Associate Professor Ruth Christie is from QUT and from what I gather she works in a function to encourage people into the IT, science and engineering industries, and I know that she has a much more important job, but I really suck at taking notes (my pen was outta ink). Hannah Crosby works as an artist and designer for THQ Australia. She offered a lot of views of the artistic side of game creation, and she was very well versed in how games and gaming affect society - very well spoken. I was really interested in Penny Sweetser though, who works for 2K Australia and again I hate this phrase but - from what I gather, she majors in AI, and works in that side of game production.

Throughout the talk they discussed the topics of the lack of women with careers in the gaming industry and why this might be, and women who play games and the effect that a broadening appeal of games has to people (not just women).

Regarding the lack of women with careers in gaming, it became clear that the industry is not exactly well publicised as a career choice - both Penny and Hannah said they both had no idea you could even HAVE a job like that, until they basically fell into it. Ruth talked about how the jobs are readily available, but there is such a low percentage of girls who are taking the university courses that would make those jobs available to them. She said that the gaming industry simply cannot attract women into it. On the way home, the friend who I went with spoke with me about this - we both work in offices on the same street as game studios and yet would never have even realised that they exist in such abundance. Perhaps different could be said of America, but for us we always thought it was just an American thing, that kind of job wouldn't exist in Australia - but there's the proof right down the road from us. This definitely speaks about the publicising (or lack thereof) of the gaming industry. Ruth suggested more "Open Days" for school children so that they can realise this kind of career DOES exist - she believes that is the age that you need to capture someone's imagination for it.

My favourite speaker was Penny Sweetser. For every discussion of what games appeal to "normal women" or how some games are not marketed to "normal women", she was always quick to say, well, I'm a normal woman, and I play these games. She made one excellent point by saying "as long as a game doesn't actively alienate women, there are going to be women who want to play it".
When somebody remarked about the ol' glass ceiling in a gaming career for women, she countered that there was none, the gaming industry is extremely receptive of women, it's not just a boy's club, they want that diversity because many different viewpoints and backgrounds will help to create a great game.
I loved that for Penny, nothing was really about being a "woman in gaming" like it was some kind of badge or label. The final question, when asked how do they all keep passionate in their professions, she simply answered "I just love games."

There was great discussion about how women are portrayed in video games, and Lara Croft was mentioned. Hannah said that she only minded "when a character's bra size is bigger than their IQ" and stated that she thinks that gaming is about escapism and women players want to have that element that they could be or wish they were this person - just like men do. If you think about it, when are the characters in "guy's games" ever effeminate little boys?
My friend and I talked later about how when playing a game that allows you to choose what gender you are, we often pick women - don't know what this says about us, although in general I prefer to play games where your character is pre-determined. As an aside, that reminds me of an excellent post I read today over at Shakesville written by Melissa McEwan where it's mentioned how kick-ass the female characters have become in fighter-arcade style games. Ling Xiaoyu FTW King of Iron Fist Tournament!

All in all, I enjoyed the talk immensely. I liked that it was more focused on the career side of the gaming industry and how it is open to women - I was pretty inspired to run out of the room and go finish my IT course.

The talk was recorded and should be available shortly on the State Library website. I'll come back and update when it does get put up. In the meantime, some generous soul should head to Steam and gift me Left 4 Dead. Love you.

GTFO

My pet peeve for today:

People on myspace and facebook who state in their profile that they hate technology and have no interest in it. You have no idea how many times I have read this on friend's pages. And they espouse it like it's some kind of high moral standpoint, or like other people will agree with them.
"This technology thing, I just have no time for it."

Hey people, if you don't like technology so much, GET THE FUCK OFF THE INTERNET!

Here she comes

Today I was obsessed with two articles on Jezebel (I live there).
The first topic was pageantry - the article is called Miss America: Empowering or Embarassing? I've always struggled to figure out why exactly it was that pageants made me feel so uncomfortable. What I love most about Jezebel is that I can go there with an unformed opinion yet a vague leaning, read the discussions and come away with a more informed view. The commenters have many different viewpoints, experiences and histories, which makes for awesome debates.
On the pageantry topic, I do find it demeaning. Pageants these days are often rewarded with scholarships and contestants not only have to look pretty, but also be involved in community work and choose a charity to volunteer for. That's lovely.
The fact is, in the end, this isn't a Nice Person contest. The modern portrayal of pageants as a platform of volunteering, intelligence, and further education does seem like a total lie. Because the judging criteria is not based on that.
Two comments that particularly stuck with me:
"If this were a high status, desirable thing to do, men would be doing it and trying to prevent women from doing it. They aren't."
"There's nothing feminist about taking part in a contest that privileges conventionally attractive women over those who are not."

Next, the What Do Women Want? article! Man, were all my favourite blogs totally ripping this apart today. Instead of trying to say anything new, which I would fail at anyway, I'm just going to link to a whole bunch of great pieces regarding it.
Jezebel's post
Feministing
Feministe (very awesome)
Violet Blue (I love Violet Blue)

So go at it, read them all, from professional awesome-bloggers, instead of little old me.

In other news, tomorrow night I'm going to a talk called Wired Women, at the State Library. It's about where the diversification of the gaming industry might take future game play. I'm pretty excited about that. Thursday I will be having my first singing lesson and I have no idea what to expect and I'm kind of nervous because, let's face it, it's been a while and my voice sucks. But I guess that's the point of taking lessons.

Anyway...good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.

Haha!

Dear internet, make your own Sexmap: http://www.humansexmap.com/

I'm pretty sure it's Sunday night and I've been drinking vodka and OJ since 2 this afternoon. Tomorrow is Australia Day which I don't really celebrate because we are a colony of convicts and I don't like to celebrate bogan culture. So I'm getting drunk today which means I'll have my hangover tomorrow instead of on Tuesday when I have to work. In case you didn't know...
I don't much like "Australian" culture. I may be wrong (and drunk) but I see it as parading to be multicultural at the same time as being totally racist, sexist and culturally un-inclusive, although I'm pretty sure that's not a word. I will cede that Australia is a great place to live, even if the weather shits me, and I'm quite free compared to many other countries. And Hugh Jackman.
I see it as a good place to commit murder a la our friend Ivan Milat. There are miles of uninhabited land, so I see Australia as a land of opportunity...to bury someone.
My apologies to any total Ozzies (TM) but you have to admit...our country is totally ripe for joking about. Which is why we are so free!
Aussie aussie aussie Oi Oi Oi.

Doubt *spoilers*

I went to see the movie Doubt last night, originally a play by John Patrick Shanley, starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, you can click here for a trailer, and here's the synopsis from IMDB:

It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father
Flynn, is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been
fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who
believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are
sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its
first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent,
shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is
paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a
personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now,
without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into
a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community
with irrevocable consequence.

So now you know what it's about, if you haven't seen it, please turn back now, as the rest of this post I'm going to be discussing my interpretation and it's going to ruin the movie for you. Not even in a small way that you'll get over, but a quite obvious way where you pretty much won't forgive me. So don't do that to yourself. Come back later after you've seen it, which I HIGHLY recommend, because it is the most powerful drama I've seen in a long time. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

------------------SPOILERS---------------------

The central theme of this movie is doubt versus certainty, the director plays a headgame with the audience, and has said that he wants the audience to experience doubt, as it is superior to certainty.

My reaction to Sister Aloysius (Streep) and Father Flynn (Hoffman) was my favourite experience of the movie, as the relationship Father Flynn may have with Donald is completely unknown - you are whipped to and fro believing that a character is "good" or "bad".

Sister Aloysius is cranky and vicious in her quest to out Father Flynn, which is completely unfounded except for her belief that he has done wrong. Father Flynn is gentle and plying, but brief scenes made me uncomfortable and suspicious that he may be acting inappropriately, as well as his vague evasive answers to the nuns when questioned.

Their climactic encounter in her office is an amazing scene in which I loved Sister Aloysius. She "steps away from God" to make sure that the right thing is done - she lies.
Father Flynn taunts her many times with his nonchalant authority over her. He shouts that she "has taken vows, obedience being one! You answer to us!"
She replies, "I will step outside the church if that's what needs to be done, till the door should shut behind me! I will do what needs to be done, though I'm damned to Hell! You should understand that, or you will mistake me. "

Finally, the last scene reveals to us that Father has resigned. Sister Aloysius has reported him to the Monsignor who has demoted and chastised her and promoted the Father to pastor of another district, giving him pretty much free reign and to be answerable to no one.
She has taken on the "old boys club", as shown by the earlier juxtaposed scenes of the silent, austere nuns and the rowdy, drunk priests eating dinner separately. She has taken them on and lost.

I believe it is this that causes her to break down in front of Sister James and proclaim that she has her doubts. In the end her doubt that Father Flynn had done wrong never waivered, even though all those around her didn't believe. To her, his resignation was his confession, though it could have also been the path of least resistance when faced with a woman with such strong beliefs.

Her belief in God and the church, and the church's chain of command is not separate until the end. She is under the thumb of a dishonourable male heirarchy who would brush such sinister accusations under the carpet - causing her to doubt her place in the church and ultimately her faith.

Two other ideas that I found interesting were that Father Flynn could be gay, and also that he could be molesting many other children unknown.
In a heartbreaking scene with Sister A and Donald's mother, it is revealed that Donald is gay. Could Father Flynn also be gay, and just protecting Donald from bullies?
There are a few other strange scenes with two of the other boys that made me wonder if they are not also being molested, just reacting differently than Donald. Where Donald's reaction is one of love and adoration for Father Flynn, another boy, William London is shown flinching and reacting with anger towards Father Flynn every scene, though this storyline is never investigated.

Apparently the director only told Hoffman whether or not his character was guilty. I think this strategy worked amazingly - he is at times natural and nice to make you believe him, and at others, vague and arrogant enough to make you have no doubt about his guilt. Meryl Streep's performance is amazing, her inflexible "dragon lady" is too hard to sympathise with, even though her quest is noble and right.

Since there is no real conclusion to the movie, your opinion of it becomes sort of a personality test. Do you think he did it, or not?

As for me, I believe Father Flynn is guilty, but I love that considering it over and over never fails to make me doubt that - the entire premise.

Nightmares

My boyfriend keeps waking me up in the dark morning to tell me that he dreamt I cheated on him again. It's happened about 7 times now and I feel bad for him. When I was with my last boyfriend, I used to dream at least once a week that he would cheat on me. And even though I knew he never had or would, they upset me more than is rational. I guess it didn't help that when I told him, he only laughed at me.
I just googled dream interpretations and the best I could find was this:

dreaming about catching your boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse with another partner probably indicates a deep seated anxiety on your part, either worry about your appearance, doubts about your attractiveness, or just generalized anxiety about the future.

After a recent spate of break-ups of people I know, I've thought about my nightmare scenario that stems from my total insecurity in relationships. Yep, I said it.
It goes like this: while together, you develop this incurable insecurity regarding a girl he knows. He calls her his best friend, they hang out a lot, they have a "past" that he hints at, he talks about how great she is, offset by the fact that he never tells you how great you are. You realise she's never around when you are. You try and get over it and feel guilty the whole time.
Eventually you break up, for unrelated reasons.
A couple days later, they're together, confirming all your deepest darkest fears.
I heard someone say once, "it's not when he's talking about someone else that you should worry. It's when he stops."
THIS is my nightmare scenario. It has happened to me once, but all the recent breakups made me think of it again and how it's a horrible feeling that you were right in your insecurities.

Having said that, thinking of all the heart-breaking ways relationships can end, or go wrong, or hurt or not even begin...I'm more than thankful for what I have. It's not perfect, nothing ever is. But I've never laughed so hard, and I've never learnt so much. At the same time as having someone there for me, I've never felt so independent within a relationship. I hope we keep changing and movin' and shakin' and surprising and smiling with each other. And I hope he stops dreaming about me cheating on him, cause it upsets me too.

Hard to Define

Last week there was a really great post on Jezebel called Close Encounters: When The Nice Guy Down The Street Makes You Uncomfortable. Here's an excerpt, but I recommend a read of the article, and the multitude of comments from readers.

The other day I was talking with a friend who said she had a problem. "Not a big
problem, but it's bothering me." She explained that she frequents a 24-hour
market near her apartment and that lately the guy who works there has been
making her uncomfortable. "I think I was just too friendly," she said. She added
that she felt guilty. "He's nice; it's not threatening; I even think he's
married - it's just a lot of 'I've missed your pretty smile,' and 'you haven't
been in this week' — and I kind of dread going in there!" I knew exactly what
she meant. But when I tried to explain the situation to a male friend, he looked
at me blankly. "Does he insult her?" No. "Is he inappropriate?" Not exactly.
"He's just being friendly? What's the problem." The 'problem' of course, is that
as women we're vulnerable in ways guys can't appreciate. Sure, they can
comprehend that catcalling is offensive and that pervs rubbing against you on
the subway is disgusting. But they can't understand the smaller things you need
to guard against, day in and day out, that you can't be too friendly, because it
just leaves you...open.

I feel like this every single day. It's the reason I wear sunglasses at all times and walk faster than everyone else around me, wear headphones and read a book simultaneously, it's why the one time I thought I was being followed home, I walked around the block until I was sure I was alone. It's why I don't go to the corner store on Saturdays because the guy who works on that day told me to come in every Saturday just so he could see me. It's why I ignore every friend request because of the guy 20 years older than me who used to serve me coffee two years ago found me on Myspace and asked me out on a date.

I asked someone I know - a boy - to read the article because I wanted them to know that it's true and I do feel like that. They told me it was petty to complain - petty to feel upset about these "encounters". Which made me more upset than I probably should have been.

But at what point am I no longer being petty when I am upset about these things? At what point am I "justified" in complaining? Could it be that when the guy at work calls me sweetness and I complain, that's petty, but I have to wait until the day I catch him leering at me (hypothetical here) to be justified in being upset about it?

Some people do not understand social boundaries, for lack of a better term. If someone is invading my space, or forcing me into an unwanted, often inappropriate conversation, if I feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, I will not pity them or feel bad when I tell them to leave me alone. You cannot excuse someone who is not picking up on my blatant cues that I don't want to talk. When I'm sitting at the bus stop wearing headphones and reading, does it really look like I'm in the mood to be chatted up?

I guess the person I asked may not understand this feeling, because maybe it's never escalated to something more, and they've never had the urge to break into a frantic run just because there's someone walking a little too closely behind you. Maybe they've never felt the sick feeling in the bottom of your stomach when you realise the man behind the counter is leering at your boobs...and it's not like you can hide them. Is this my fault, did I wear something too revealing?

I'm most likely never going to stop feeling this way, and telling me it's petty is not exactly helping. I guess it was just nice to have somebody put the feeling in words - to know that I'm not being narcisstic, people everywhere feel like this. Why so prevalent?

As for me...I'm investing in a burqa.

Rat king

I now own seasons 1 & 2 of the greatest TV show of all time...30 Rock.

I've been watching it pretty much non-stop, and really, all I want to put out there right now is my favourite quote that I laughed at non-stop for five minutes, had to rewind and laugh at all over again. Dennis is just so macho and over the top lying and it's freaking hilarious. Also I want to pledge my undying love for Dean Winters. Dayum.

Jack: You enjoy that restaurant?

Dennis: No, I think I was right about that place. We saw a whole nest of rats when we were leaving.

Liz: No, we didn't.

Dennis: I didn't tell you because I knew you'd freak out. Actually, I think I saw a rat king.

Cerie: What's a rat king?

Frank: Oh, it's when a buncha rats are crammed into a tiny space and their tails get all tangled up; and they can't even pull apart.

Dennis: And it gets awesome. Eventually, their bodies fuse together and they form a multi-headed live rat king and we saw one.

Out on a Limb

I NEVER join classes. I have a huge fear of being in a class situation and making a total fool of myself. I even have a fear of humiliating myself in front of a teacher in a one-on-one situation. It's why I do Open Learning Tafe instead of just going to classes.
But this year I've enrolled in singing lessons and now this morning I just signed up for circus class!
The singing lessons are one-on-one in a private studio, which I'm much more comfortable doing. I've had singing lessons before but not for a few years, and my voice is pretty raggedy. I lost my voice twice last year so I'm pretty keen to build it back up again.

I was at the Game On exhibition at the State Library yesterday (which was fucking awesome, more later) and there's also currently a circus exhibition on there as well, so I grabbed a couple of brochures and decided to go back on the weekend.
One of the brochures was from Circa, who run training classes. And the more I thought about joining one of the classes, the more nervous I got. I pretty much just fretted about it all night and tried to come up with reasons why it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to do, or how I wouldn't be suited to it.
Then I thought, fuck it. I need to stop limiting myself over stupid fears. I WANT some cool skills. I already hula-hoop like a fiend, I want to be able to use my body well...for art!
So I rang up this morning and booked myself into the Conditioning class, which is sort of a pre-requisite for all the other classes. After this I'm interested in the Aerials class - trapeze, cloudswing, webs. Perhaps from there I might be able to go on and do burlesque, a secret dream of mine. I'm so fucking excited!!

About the Game On exhibition - it's on till mid-February and if you have ANY spare time at all, GO! There's two floors filled with games for you to play if you can elbow the kids out of the way. There's Pong, arcade machines, Ataris, Nintendos, a table full of handheld consoles, a Pokemon room, Dance Dance Revolution, X-Boxes, Playstations, Dooooom, fucking EVERYTHING. There's a little Rock Band stage set up with a projector where my two little brothers drew a bit of a crowd with their awesome rendition of Nirvana's In Bloom. There's also workshops like animation, how-to-draw-anime, game soundtracks, that kind of thing. So have a look on Qtix and look for anything under the heading "Game On". All held at the State Library at South Bank.
And if you miss it, there will be a big void in your soul that you won't ever be able to fill.

Ahem, also my apologies for the many capitalised words in this post. I'm excited.

No ifs, ands or butts

This one's a few days late, but here is the 2008 wrap-up video for Target:Women starring my biggest girlcrush ever, Sarah Haskins. I've pretty much never known love until she came along.

PLEASE watch it! Target Women is Sarah's show on Current TV where she takes on mainstream media representations of women in advertising. Awesome ones to watch are the segments on bridal shows, cleaning ads, Twilight and poop. No one is funnier than Sarah Haskins. Perfect comedic timing? She has it.

Speaking of Twilight here's a cool albeit very long article from Bitch magazine taking a look at the way Twilight portrays abstinence and the totally unhealthy relationship between the two main characters, which is probably not a good thing to be portraying to gajillions of impressionable teenage girls. I haven't seen/read Twilight, and I don't really plan to. I've read a couple of articles about it in the same vein as this, and it pretty much seems like shitty fluff fiction with a bad message that stalking a girl is okay if you're a hot vampire. Also now I've read this cracked article of Twilight condensed, I won't ever have to read it or see the movie! I will say I am intrigued in the way I was about Harry Potter when I was younger - what is causing this mass hysteria?
Man do I ever hate Victorian upperclass vampires. I would say go read Anne Rice, but I'd rather have fantasies about a heterosexual vampire than go through fucking Interview with a Vampire again. That shit was latent and made me fear turning every page in case I'd stumble upon some vampire anal sex. I'm just not into it, sorry Anne.
I guess I'll stick to Stephen King. At the least he knows how to shove a good sex scene in the middle of a scary book.
Addendum re Robert Pattinson...
I would still hit that like the fist of a terrifying and mighty deity.

Horror Babes

I'm enamoured with babes in horror movies. I'm not talking about the ones whose clothes seem to come off so easily, who trip over constantly (are you drunk?), who scream and squeal and do things that make you yell at the screen in frustration. By the way, is there any other genre that produces as many ouraged cries of "HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU, DUMBASS!" as the world of horror? No, today I'm talking about the heroines of horror. While they also may not wear much clothing at times, they still kick ass, still get scared, but ultimately keep their wits and save the day. Alternatively, I've included a few here who are the incarnation of evil! Enjoy:

Ana (played by Sarah Polley) in Dawn of the Dead The main female protagonist of this DotD remake, Ana's a nurse who is consistently the voice of reason throughout the movie. She gets the honour of killing Steve-the-douchebag-turned-zombie (yay!) and is never pushed out of the action.


Sarah (played by Lori Cardille) in Day of the Dead Day of the Dead is the third in Romero's five Living Dead movies, this one set in a military bunker with characters who may be the last people left alive on earth - one of which being a scientist named Sarah, the only woman in the movie, aside from the dead ones. Being the only woman in the bunker, she has to be tough. Tougher than her boyfriend anyway, who has a breakdown after his arm is amputated and totally ruins everyone's shit, while Sarah leaves him and escapes with the other non-deranged people.


Selena (played by Naomie Harris) in 28 Days Later She's lasted 28 days since the rage virus spread and she has no qualms with immediately killing anyone she believes to be infected.


Carrie (played by Sissy Spacek) The quiet outcast who snaps on prom night after being humiliated and massacres everyone with her telekinetic powers. The book was written by Stephen King, who is my god for always writing not only the best books ever, but the best and strongest female characters - but that's another post.


Mrs Voorhees (played by Betsy Palmer) in Friday the 13th The entire movie the identity of the killer is so ambiguous until finally it's revealed - the middle-aged mother of a boy who drowned at the camp years before, bent on revenge. Nevermind that the kids she's killing aren't responsible for Jason's death, let's kill em all anyway!


The Monster's Mate (played by Elsa Lanchester) in Bride of Frankenstein My personal favourite - the Bride, created solely for the purpose of being Frankenstein's mate, is brought to life. Upon seeing her betrothed, she screams and rejects him.


Cherry Darling (played by Rose McGowan) in Planet Terror She has a gun...for a leg. Do I need to say much more? Go-go dancer leads a ragtag group to infiltrate an army barracks, does all the work for them, then proceeds to restart civilisation on her own after the dude she was fucking goes and dies. ALL WITH ONLY ONE LEG.


Leeloo (played by Milla Jovovich) in the The Fifth Element Milla kicks ass in every movie she's ever in, and although there should be a heads up to Alice from Resident Evil, my favourite character of hers is Leeloo, who is the Fifth Element that along with the four stones will create the ultimate weapon to destroy the Great Evil. So...there you go.

Amanda (played by Shawnee Smith) in the Saw series Amanda is John Kramer's first surviving victim who becomes his apprentice before going on to become a fully-fledged graduate of the school of Jigsaw.


Kate Fuller (played by Juliette Lewis) in From Dusk Till Dawn Juliette Lewis kicks monumental amounts of ass, but for this post I decided to pass up Mallory Knox and go with Kate Fuller. Watching her go from sweet little girl to vampire killer is pretty awesome, not to mention being one of the last two left alive. Even if Seth does dump her at the end. It wouldn't have worked out.


Dawn O'Keefe (played by Jess Weixler) in Teeth This movie straight-up ruled harder than anything ever, and everyone should see it. Dawn is a high-school girl who has pledged abstinence until marriage, that is until her "nice boyfriend" rapes her and dies in the process because Dawn has vagina dentata!! Teeth is an excellent black comedy although there is one scene that made me completely uneasy, and it had nothing to do with people's weeners being chomped off.


Honourable mentions, though they fall under a sci-fi banner more than horror I think, no list would be complete without the awesome:

Special Agent Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) in The X-Files Ohh how I love you Scully, you voice of reason you. She is the skeptic to Mulder's believer. I love it more than anything when she gets her gun out, or lays the smack-down on someone, and those case reports she types out at the end of the episodes?! Let's just say that my love for Scully runs deep.


Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) in the Alien series All hail Ripley! If you can't figure out why Ripley was the last on this list and why I really don't have to say anything here, then you need to get off your computer and go watch Alien, then consider how much you wish you were that awesome. "Get away from her YOU BITCH"