The Sweetest Taboo - A Sade Love Thread

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Bait and switch! No offense to Sade, but I think the real sweetest taboo is abortion.

[FindingNamo]

Oooh. I love this thread. I have been wondering if kade.ivy is pronounced "khar-day.eeeveee"?

Also, I know everybody watched "1776" tonight but I don't have TCM and I have been so bummed by the Supreme Court affirming that a woman's body is not her own, that I chose to watch Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake." My god, the scene where the cops show up during the engagement party and Imelda Staunton turns to the camera, and, well, I am having a hard time finding words to describe the remarkable acting job she did in complete silence and near stillness. It was better than ANY special effect that cost a billion dollars.

The movie was about abortion in the '50s.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I think it might be pronounced AbbyNormal?

The Hobby Lobby thing just shows why we need a single-payer healthcare system. Of course, Jesus people get to object to their tax dollars "paying for abortions" but I can't recall getting to opt-out of my tax dollars paying for wars I don't support.

Remember John Adams, the poster? Wasn't he a gay libertarian?

[FindingNamo]

I think they use the word "centrist" now. Hahaha!

Did you ever see the movie "Our Time" with Pamela Sue Martin? I went to see it in a movie theater thinking it was going to be an American Graffiti-like nostalgic romp but it took a turn to look at illegal abortions and man, did it blindside me. And elevated my 13 year old consciousness.

That and Maude.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

When I lived in New York in my early 20s I went to the Museum if Television & Radio to watch the Maude abortion episodes.

Tina Turner had a great anecdote about abortion in her book, that was unfortunately not in the movie. Near the end of her marriage to Ike she becomes pregnant by him again. Coincidentally, at the same time he's impregnated one of their backup dancers. Tina says something to her like, "You can do whatever you want darling, but I'm not having another one of that man's children."

[FindingNamo]

I recommend "Our Time" for people who haven't seen it. But it's a tear-jerker.

And also the current "Obvious Child."

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I'm seeing that on Sunday!

[FindingNamo]

You know what? I never liked Sade very much. I'm glad I clicked on this thread anyway.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Me either. I was hoping the wordplay might allow this thread to go under the radar. I don't know if it's just abortion, or irreverence abut abortion, or ME being irreverent about abortion, but something weird happens around here when the subject cones up.

[FindingNamo]

I totally appreciate the radar avoidance.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

In Splendor in the Grass Warren Beatty's mother refers to it as "one of those awful operations."

[EricMontreal22]

Agnes Nixon has talked about when she wrote Erica Kane's abortion in the very early 70s for All My Children (the first legal one on American TV,) that the network received such hate mail that the ABC Daytime execs insisted Erica be "punished" and then "redeemed" by it turning out that she got a bad infection during the surgery--which was, as Agnes said, completely against what she wanted to point out that now, now that it was legal, it was a safe, viable surgery, but they had to go with the story anyway.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Apparently, Apple has never even heard of the word!

[FindingNamo]

Caught up on a Fresh Air podcast with Jenny Slate and the woman who wrote the movie and whose whose last name I wouldn't be able to spell even if I weren't at a brewery right now. Even Slate felt it necessary to do a bit of a disclaimer about the subject.

[EricMontreal22]

She was interviewed on CBC radio about that movie, as well, and made a joke that thank God it was Canadian so she didn't have to warn or somehow justify the subject matter.

It really is strange to me what an issue it's become again. Bla bla bla soap operas again, but, since in the past decade or longer as ratings pummel they shows have gotten more conservative (counter productively, IMHO,) abortion is never given a story even in a rape situation, and if it is VERY briefly mentioned they go out of their way to use any euphemism possible as even the word abortion seems to be out of bounds now...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I'm going to see Obvious Child tomorrow for sure! I think I'm gonna drop an ru-486 before it starts!

[FindingNamo]

That's right baby because TODAY that's still legal.

[EricMontreal22]

See it before it's rated NC-17...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I'm perusing the few bad reviews of Obvious Child and I can't help but notice most of the critiques seem to be that we never see Donna struggle with the decision. Lack of gravitas about it, etc. I can't believe people miss the point that she doesn't *have* to agonize over the decision. I can't be the only person who has known women who did NOT agonize over their decision to have an abortion.

The Chicago Reader reviewer saves this bon mot for a comment under his review:

The protagonist is definitely not ready for motherhood. Unfortunately, motherhood is ready for her.

Good lord.




Chicago Reader

[FindingNamo]

SPOILER

I would have liked it better if Gaby Hoffman also went with her.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I didn't even realize that until you said that. I remember Hunky McDreamboat asking Gaby's permission to go with them, but I didn't realize she wasn't there until just now.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I just watched the trailer for Obvious Child and I really want to see it again.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Mississippi’s Only Abortion Clinic: Still Standing