Rancide

I'm so unbelievably upset that Team Texas didn't blow past the cheerleaders in that food delivery challenge so that they, and not the cheerleaders, could have been the ones diving for fish this week.* I couldn't stand their entitled bro asses, but I'd take ANYTHING at this point to get rid of Justin the Mentally Unstable. *Yes, I realize Texas was not technically eliminated that week, but the speed bump from hell they received for last place essentially sealed their fate in the week that followed and would almost certainly have done in the cheerleaders if they'd gotten it instead.

I don't know that I agree with this. For example, I personally would not wear a hijab. Not that I think TAR would ever go to a country where cultural sensitivities mandated a hijab, but still. I don't have a problem with women wearing them by choice, but wearing one would never, ever be my choice, even if that meant I got treated poorly by the locals as a result. If the cheerleaders, or any other women, want to wear tight (by Indian standards) T-shirts in India, I support them in that. It might be considered rude by some locals, but racers are rude in all sorts of ways that production does nothing about, and it certainly wouldn't give anyone license to sexually assault them. But I don't get the sense that the female racers' attire is a choice, and that's where production and I part ways. It seems like participants get a hot weather and cold weather outfit, and in "modest" countries, the cold weather outfit is expected to double for a "modest" outfit, no matter how not-cold it might be or how not actually modest the outfit might be. It was obviously sweltering in India, but the non-Tiffany one of the cheerleaders was still wearing her jacket. I'm guessing it's not because she was cold.

I also love visiting India, and I agree that jerks are jerks and are found in all parts of the globe, but as a single woman I disagree strongly with the implication that large cities in India are no different in their treatment of and/or no more or less dangerous for single women than are large cities in the U.S. I've lived in large cities in the U.S. basically my entire adult life, and I've absolutely been touched/caressed/groped/grabbed by disgusting men while walking in public spaces in the United States but with nowhere near the frequency that it happens to me while walking in public spaces in India. There are many, many, many wonderful people in India, an I am in no way suggesting that "India" or "Indian people" should be held responsible for or associated with the behavior of the worst segments of its society, but equating the nature and degree of the street harassment problem in India with the nature and degree of street harassment problem in the U.S. is simply, from my personal experience, not justified. I partially blame the show for how uncomfortable female racers are routinely made to feel in India. Give the women some damn clothes. Or at least the option of putting on some damn clothes. India is a free and open country where women (and men) can where what they like, but that doesn't change the fact that different cultures have different standards of modesty, and just like the race wouldn't require women to go traipsing around New York City in bikinis (even though it's unquestionably legal and everyone should absolutely have the right to do so free from harassment if they want), they shouldn't mandate tight T-shirts and form-fitting track pants for women in India. This isn't to excuse the behavior of the men who harassed the cheerleaders, to blame the cheerleaders themselves for the behavior of others, or to suggest they would have been 100% problem-free if they'd been dressed in looser-fitting clothes, but only to suggest that the decision to complete a leg while engaging in the functional equivalent of a slut walk should be the decision of the walkers and not the decision of the production staff.

The whole show is "strictly imaginary." Isn't that the point of the whole show? That everyone's connection with "reality" (whatever that is anyway) is filtered through imagination? That no one has access to the "truth"? I don't get the implication that one viewer's take on Noah is "imaginary" while what we're seeing on the screen, i.e. his own take on himself, is non-imaginary. Yeah, I think Noah is dangerously narcissistic in ways that include lacking perspective on women's responses to him. And yeah, I think that's a recipe for rape. I do not trust his ability to be a faithful observer and reporter of how into him (or not into him) or how into a sexual encounter (or not into a sexual encounter) a woman is. Sue me.

Why does it have to be from this episode? A guy who rapes women is a rapist, even if he doesn't happen to be raping anyone at this particular second.

I feel sorry for any woman Noah hits on. Rapey-overtones sleezeball. Gross.

This. I can see Eden showing up for the business-related purpose of discussing the video and self-centered hornball Noah making a gross and unwanted pass at her because, you know, he's gross and self-centered and assumes any woman who shows up at his hotel room must want to fuck him. Particularly any woman he's attracted to. I can also see Eden--a skilled PR professional who no doubt has tons of experience deflecting unwanted advances from gross, entitled men--turning him down with enough tact and grace ("I don't mix personal and professional") that gross Noah didn't realize that he was in fact being rejected for being, well, gross. Dating back to episode 1, Noah's pretty consistently believed that any attractive woman speaking to him was coming on to him. Allison has just been the only one stupid--or vulnerable--enough to bite. I felt sorry for Eden.

I'm a week behind but still wanted to chime in to say "Good for Jake!" Also, he looked fine in that suit. Someone finally has my respect on this show. Unfortunately, it's never going to last because the only way to keep it will be to continue to tell Olivia to go fuck herself each and every time she tries to come crawling back to him. And we all know, especially after last week, that that's never going to happen.

How low-budget can this show get? When the Lexus guy showed up, I thought he was going to award the winner a new car. But, no. He just wanted to announce that the contestants got to drive the 20 blocks from the workroom to Bryant Park in 2 cars among the 4 of them? Seriously?

I apologize if my post was taken to imply that all dancers are gay. I didn't mean to say that, and I don't believe it to be true. What I was trying to say was that gay men are a very real part of the male dance community (and a very real part of the male non-dance community for that matter) and very much not a real part of the male pro dancers on this show, and I find that problematic. But I also don't think there's anything wrong with being gay or that anyone should be offended to be perceived as gay, so... I don't know Keo's actual orientation care for that matter. He's just the only pro I can think of (other than Louis) who doesn't seem to be going out of his way to communicate his heterosexuality to the world or having the show go out of its way to communicate it for him.

This show is still really reactionary in a lot of ways, not just limited to race. Like, the fact that we still seem to be pretending that there are an abundance of straight male ballroom dancers. There's a reason why throughout the history of this show virtually all of the female pros on this show have been either American or from countries where English is the first language spoken, whereas the majority of male pros have not. Derek is obviously a legitimately good dancer and has 100% earned his place on the show, but I feel like half the falling all over him, particularly in the beginning, came from his unique status as one of the few demo-friendly, straight-presenting American males qualified to be a pro on this show. Ditto Mark. How many out or gay-presenting male pros has this show had? Louis? Keo? Anyone else? And Louis sort of gets a pass because of his status in the dance world, which the show wanted to cash in on in the early days to give itself some cred. I wish the show would give up the ghost on this one. It's 2015, and I think the country is ready to acknowledge that gay men are part of the dance community, too. I think the country can also deal with the fact that couples can have dance chemistry without wanting to sleep with each other.

I get the joke here, and I'm not a fan of Allison's presence on this show, but a) I'm sure her doctor is aware of her profession and has approved her level of physical activity, b) pregnant women already get so much judgment from society about every minute aspect of their behavior, from staying up too late, to drinking coffee, to standing too close to smokers, that really, does anything else need to be added to it? I'm glad Allison is gone. Also glad the show had a pregnant dancer on it. Pregnancy is a normal human state, and--barring some sort of personal medical complications--for 99.9% of all women there's no reason it should interfere with successful performance of one's job.

Fitz/Olivia is ripping off Meredith/Derek too much with the sudden and unexplained cold feet. This relationship ceased to be interesting long ago. Glad Jake finally told Liv to go fuck herself.

Woah, what happened? I fell asleep and woke up in my high school French class. Which I flunked. I thought this episode was kind of boring. Two height challenges and two challenges that involved making fun of Americans' inability to pronounce other languages? Meh.

I always assume the kids seem like such nightmares because we're only seeing them from the perspective of their overwhelmed and/or emotionally unstable parent(s). I doubt Tummyache was actually writhing on the floor in pain. A lot of normal, responsible parents have a hard time maintaining perspective when potential medical situations with their kids are involved. Clueless Noah with zero problem solving skills shares the sense of panic but lacks any actual parenting skills that would teach him what to do about it. Including lacking awareness of the fact that a kid that age is capable of a) checking his own appendix, b) knowing the difference between being dangerously ill or just suffering from gas, c) monitoring his own health situation with supervision, etc. I feel like the kids are "whining" and "backtalking" all the time because Noah is so self-absorbed that any amount of normal kid-like imperfection that intrudes on his life is perceived by him as a huge, obnoxious, outrageous deal. They're usually less obnoxious in Helen's version, except for the oldest, but teenage mother/daughter crap gets under everyone's skin, and Helen, too, is starting to be in over her head.

I'm going to guess it wasn't the amount that Bindi weighs that caused problems with the lift. Bindi isn't built like a waif, but I also don't even think she's 5 feet tall. She just can't weigh that much as an absolute matter. Probably poor initial hand positioning or lack of sufficient abdominal support by Bindi. That particular lift requires an extraordinary amount of balance, and if the person being lifted has any sort of unequal weight distribution, the lifter is going to struggle a lot to try to keep it centered because he's going to have to use brute strength to overcome the fact that the object being lifted is off-balance. Imagine lifting a half-empty barrel of water or sack of flour over your head and then trying to keep it balanced as the water/flour rolls from end to end. Takes a lot more strength than lifting, say, a barbell of equal weight. That lift clearly did not go as planned, but honestly, props to Derek for keeping it together. I'd have bailed long before my arms started to shake like that. That didn't look like it could be good for his back.

Probably the same way waiters can tell who is going to be a pain in their ass even before they sit down. Service industry skills! Maybe wishful thinking, but she seemed to have near 100% success with face-blasting the teams I find most annoying. Team Texas and James Earl's mom seemed particularly "blessed."

I really hope the face-spitting is not an actual traditional blessing but really an elaborate joke on gullible tourists looking to have an "authentic" "African" experience. It did seem as though some of them got it more full-on in the face than others. I'm going to imagine that wasn't an accident.

Emma needs to fix her roots. Two social phenomena I can't wait to see the end of: 1) the closet, 2) speculating about who is in it.

This. The first "watch me choose you" worked because it was whiny Fitz getting off his butt and actually doing something other than throwing himself a pity party and making excuses for his own poor behavior. This was... giving Fitz the opportunity to continue his pity party and make excuses for his own poor behavior. I'm way, way team Jake over team Fitz (though I don't much care for either of them), but I wish Jake would get off his ass and tell Olivia that he's not interested in being her emotional blankie whenever the man she really wants can't bring himself to step up to the plate. Olivia's previous behavior towards Jake seemed like she was genuinely torn. Now it just seems abusive and cruel.

Swapnil seems to have been most people's choice around here for this season's hottie, but at this point I'm pretty much only watching to gawk at Edmond. I think he's gorgeous. Talent-wise, he's not Christian Siriano, but he also almost never produces anything what-were-you-thinking ugly, and among this bunch, that's about the best that can be hoped for. And he's gorgeous.

Did Chris really call Matt fat? I would have said they were about the same size. Chris remains the least self-aware person on the planet.

The only thing I'm going to miss about Tyler is the pretty. Even those hideous face tattoos didn't ruin it for me.

I swear, Nunez is like a domestic abuser. He's such an asshole most of the time, and then he's sweet to the Down's syndrome kids and gives Duffy a really gorgeous smile, and I forget for a minute that he has no redeeming human qualities and needs repeatedly to be punched in the face. Please don't do that to me again, show. Thanks. I was disappointed that with the exception of Matt, who totally deserved it, the judges didn't talk much about placement. For the majority of the tattoos, all we saw during the critique was the close-up of the image as the person's neck was stretched out with the chin up. During the human canvas jury discussion where all the tattoos were visible as they sat around discussing, a lot of the ones that looked fine to me when all you could see was the image looked really terrible when seen in the context of the person's whole head/neck/shoulder area. Cruzman's birdcage, in particular, looked really aesthetically unappealing to me when viewed from a distance. It looked like a giant tarantula was sitting on her neck. Even Duffy's, which I thought was gorgeous close up, sort of looked to me like her canvas either had a beard or had vomited on herself and it was rolling down her neck. I didn't like Tyler's either when I saw it on canvas in the jury room. Meanwhile, while I continue to loathe Chris and think his tattoo looked bad up close, I don't think he was wrong that out of all of them, his fit her body the best. It really seemed to go with the shape and contour of the human neck the best from what I could see when they were sitting around talking.

All mine have cups. I've seen some that don't, but yes, in my experience they're usually pretty heavy-duty nylon/lycra that hold the boobs in place. Same concept applies to sports bras. I guess there are some micro-string bikinis that are literally a piece of string with two triangles and no support, but I tend to think of those as the exclusive province of women with breast implants. Implants, despite the best attempts of the best surgeons, just doesn't hang, move, and react in the same way as breast tissue.