Nevermind the Mastermind: More Spoilers Too

A friend persuaded me
to go back to the nickelodeon
and see _The Family Stone_.

She thinks we need to see more chick flicks.
At full price.
On the big screen.
Yuk.

But, because I don't get out enough,
I've been sentenced to humor her.

Well, I enjoyed the film--
[a film's success must be all about expectations,
because my expectations were zilch].

The only scene I want to share
my thoughts about is perhaps
the most pivitol scene in the flick:

Diane Keaton, who is simply marvelous--as
always--in her role as the mother,
has cancer (naturally in this genre).
She lays in bed with her partner
and finally admits in a moving scene
that she is scared,
scared of leaving her children alone.
When they begin to make love,
she unbuttons her blouse--

and admittedly, my first thought:

"No! Don't show old boobies!"

***Why would a women's studies teacher continue
to have such thoughts? The cultural ideology
is meshed into our "instincts."***

But instead of Diane Keaton's "old boobies,"
we learn what type of cancer she has--breast cancer.

The scar from her mastectomy is simple and clean;
he reaches for her as if she still had her breast
and they kiss passionately with tears in their eyes.

What I do _love_ is the fact that older actresses
are taking on roles that reveal their aging bodies
to audiences in new ways. Diane Keaton never looked
more beautiful to me than in that moment.

Is our culture reshaping how we see
and value the spectrum of women's bodies?
I think so.
Another quick example: Jamie Lee Curtis.
After popping the myth of _True Lies_,
she made _Christmas with the Cranks_.

Not only did she wear that awful holiday vest--
quite popular in the mid-west--
but she consented to several full body shots
in a bikini
without airbrushing.
That takes courage. To me, that's an American woman.