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Okay…but I get to be on top!

Tracie loved revisiting the 1988 Penny Marshall-helmed film Big this week. Tom Hanks’ performance of a 12-year-old boy wearing a grown man’s body is laugh-out-loud funny, and the film asks some profoundly important questions about how grownups can hold onto their childlike joy and wonder. But the love story between Hanks’ Josh Baskin and Elizabeth Perkins’ Susan–an actual adult woman–never sat well with either Guy girl. The sisters discuss how this film would not work if it were gender-swapped, why it seems to reinforce the idea that women should mother their romantic partners, and their theory that the sexual and romantic component of the story was potentially from studio meddling.

No need to ask Zoltar for a wish–just plug in your headphones and take a listen.

CW: Discussions of grooming

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy!

This week, the 1993 film Groundhog Day is the vehicle for Emily to talk about the three most taboo subjects: religion, politics, and money. Not only is Bill Murray’s Phil Connors a favorite of scholars and commentators who talk about religion and film, he also has some interesting lessons to teach us about working for political change against huge obstacles. (Also, Emily’s a money nerd, and the truth is everything can be about money–especially when you’ve written a mini-viral article for Fast Company about it.) The Guy sisters hypothesize that part of what makes the movie successful and noteworthy to multiple religious faith traditions is the way in which the filmmakers took their craft seriously (though not themselves), from the precision of filming all of the repeat moments on the same day to the elegance of Phil’s Groundhog-Day-acquired artistic skills being music and ice sculpting: creative pursuits whose products are inherently ephemeral.

Deep Thoughts is great for the car, but don’t drive angry!

Mentioned in this episode:

https://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2016/10/groundhog-day-all-over-again-kol-nidrei.html

https://www.insidehook.com/film/strange-religious-afterlife-groundhog-day

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/style/groundhog-almighty.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oE4._WLu.sCewpVSfvOz0&smid=url-share

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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The next thing you know, you're strung out on bedspreads.

One of the rare childhood films that the Guy Girls remember watching with both their mom and their dad, the 1983 John Hughes film Mr. Mom was in some ways an incredible progressive look at gendered work. There were only 6 (as in, one less than seven) self-reported stay-at-home dads in the U.S. in 1983, so Michael Keaton’s Jack Butler journey from incompetent, unemployed, and resentful primary parent to master homemaker and better dad truly was revolutionary. But as Tracie points out this week, the movie still carries outdated assumptions about the cost of being a woman in public (sexual harassment that is never punished), the inherent rivalries between women (because they always be fighting over a man), and the invisibility of women’s labor (unless and until a man has to do it).

Curl up with your woobie and take a listen!

Mentioned in this episode:
The Politics of Housework by Pat Mainardi

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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I admire its purity. A survivor…unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

After many references in previous episodes, on this week’s show, the Guy Girls finally tackle the iconic 1979 film Alien. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece gave Tracie and Emily a role model in Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver to be smart, tough, vulnerable, and right. While many commentators have explored the ways this film works as an allegory for rape and loss of bodily autonomy, Emily’s analysis takes it a little deeper, comparing the words and actions of the villainous science officer Ash to the modern anti-abortion movement. Both focus on protecting potential life–while treating the very real humans who will be harmed as entirely expendable.

Throw on your headphones, save the cat, and take a listen…

CW: Discussions of rape, forced birth, and loss of bodily autonomy

Mentioned in this episode
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473709/trivia/?ref_=tt_dyk_trv
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantage_Point_(film)#:~:text=In%20the%20original%20script%2C%20Rex,the%20film%20a%20strong%20female.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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We’re reasonable Guy(girl)s, but we’ve just experienced some very unreasonable things!

The 1986 film Big Trouble In Little China elicits some deep thoughts from Tracie in this week’s episode. The interwebs ask whether BTILC is woke or problematic, and we suggest the answer is ‘yes.' While the campy depictions of Chinese and Chinese-American culture are over-the-top and dripping with stereotypes, they do not make their subject the butt of the joke, and in fact seem to be winking at the audience. At the same time, Jack Burton (Kurt Russel) thinks he’s the hero, but he is very much Wang Chi’s (Dennis Dun) sidekick. In fact, Jack is so ineffective as a hero he spends most of the key fight scene unconscious and instead of a romantic and passionate kiss, he receives a face-wipe after defeating the big bad. It’s a delightful subversion of the heroic, manly white hero we’ve been conditioned to expect.

This is gonna take crackerjack timing, don’t wait to press play!

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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“I’ll have what she’s having.”

On this week’s episode of Deep Thoughts, the Guy sisters revisit the iconic 1989 rom/com When Harry Met Sally. Even though Meg Ryan’s Sally Albright offers a badass portrayal of a happy spinster who makes no apologies for wanting what she wants, a young Emily instead internalized the idea that being “high maintenance” was a sin. Though the story does offer some important pushback against the confidently wrong pronouncements made by Billy Crystal’s Harry Burns, Crystal’s performance is so funny and charming that it’s very easy to overlook his misogyny. On the bright side, Sally provides an excellent demonstration of just how easy it is to fake an orgasm.

Throw on those headphones…because when you realize you want to spend the next hour listening to a podcast episode, you want the next hour to start as soon as possible!

Mentioned in this episode:
https://youtu.be/TuNcyWIUEf4?si=bh_bMe8hlA5eDq26
https://farragomagazine.com/article/farrago/on-the-everlasting-charm-of-when-harry-met-sally/
https://jwa.org/blog/five-most-feminist-moments-from-when-harry-met-sally
https://www.womaninrevolt.com/second-thoughts-harry-from-when-harry-met-sally/
https://www.vulture.com/2012/10/when-harry-met-sally-is-bad-for-ladies.html
https://www.movienight.ink/p/when-harry-met-sally

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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Light the lamp, not the rat!

Just in time for Christmas, the Guy Girls welcome Emily’s dear friend Erika Plank Hagan to the show to discuss The Muppet Christmas Carol. There’s a reason this musical (and surprisingly faithful) adaptation of the Dickens morality tale is so beloved: not only does Michael Caine act his face off with his Muppet co-stars, but the framing of Gonzo playing Charles Dickens allowed Brian Henson to go all-in on the frightening aspects of the story without losing the littlest viewers. Erika shares how this film is often included in Episcopal sermons (Dickens was a Church of England guy), how the Disney executive’s decision to remove a song in the middle of the film is a storytelling travesty, and why bringing a raw turkey to someone’s house on Christmas day is just plain rude.

Whether you’re here for the story or for the food, throw on your earbuds and take a listen!

Mentioned in this episode:
Antisemitic trope of Jews as spiders

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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That's U.S., not you ass!

The Guy girls remember the 1982 Richard Pryor film The Toy with a great deal of fondness, in part because it was on heavy rotation in the Guy household through their childhood. But a film about a billionaire’s young son “purchasing” a black man to be his toy for the week has some pretty chilling implications that the movie itself doesn’t do enough to acknowledge.

In this week’s episode, Tracie shares how rewatching this movie in 2024 is both better and worse than she expected. It’s better because Richard Pryor is a delightful and talented center for the movie. And it’s worse because the film lets the villainous U.S. Bates, played by Jackie Gleason, get away with truly reprehensible behavior without real consequence and gives him a happy ending that he doesn’t earn. While the film is an indictment of capitalism, it also reinforces the idea that being nice to oppressors is how to secure human rights.

Take a listen–just beware the piranhas!

Mentioned in this episode:

The commentator who led to Tracie’s “fractal” insight

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls