Critic Cal

The main thing I knew about the film  Finding Dory  before I belatedly got round to watching it was that it featured (dun dun daaaa...) a lesbian couple . The reason I knew this was that some Christians got very vocally very upset about it in the run-up to its release. I say 'featured' ... Given the strength and volume of the outcry (none of which I cared to read in any detail [1]) I was on the lookout from the start for Pixar's controversially courageous nod to diversity. Would it be that Dory falls in love with another lady-fish? or that the parents she's looking for turn out to be two moms? And then, about halfway through, there was this bit with two women walking along next to each other. And one of the women happened to have (to quote a disgruntled  Ellen DeGeneres ) "a very bad short haircut". And my heart sank, watching it, with the horrified suspicion that this was it . This was the controversial edge of 'representation'. This was what got

Card shops have a lot to answer for. It pains me to think how many frustrated, fruitless hours I've frittered, failing to find cards which send messages I'm OK to sign my name to, before settling on ones that (by way of damage limitation) say as little as possible. You see, I'm not sure that I want to help colour-code babies, or teach kids to be pirates/princesses; suggestions that ageing is something to be ashamed of dismay me; I'm more inclined to pray for blessing than to wish for luck; it seems to me that alcohol is best enjoyed in moderation, most of us don't really need more sugar in our diets, and enslavement to consumerism is lamentable, not whimsical; I've a dad who can't bear football, beer, cricket, cars, golf or rock music, a husband who can't bear bad copy, and a sister whose brains and compassion are way more impressive and worth celebrating than her shoe collection (and she has quite a shoe collection). Blank cards it is then ... except