Last I heard of Sue-Ann, she was living in rustic seclusion with her girlfriend and being diabetic (the main reason why she didn't end up competing). She now holds the only slightly dubious distinction of being the only person to have appeared on both Kath & Kim and Compass, where she did a doco on gay and lesbian Mormons.

On a weirder note – how cool to see “Monkey” as played by Jet Li in the 80's-tastic action movie from last year 'the Forbidden Kingdom'. Missed opportunity however with Jackie Chan in the film – sadly, not playing 'Horse' who was a dragon that now thinks he's a man – despite being a pretty good match for that 70's actor!

I think the way cross-gender roles are played out in Japanese and Chinese theatre isn't traditionally panto-esque, at least not in the way we think of panto here. How I wish Western theatre was as casual about males and females playing *serious* roles of other genders, as in the blissfully glorious Takarazuka Revue in Japan, wherein women play all the parts. Those shows display a kind of androgyny and female masculinity that is almost entirely absent from the media here.

Harking back to that discussion on Henrie whats-her-name who came out with “Lesbiany”, and how much of a @#!&%! she was, I might actually start watching TV again if there was a chance that someone like Sue Ann Post, Hannah Gadsby or Lea DeLaria might actually have a leading role in a show. The bland, vacuous anodyne androids on display now ensure that listening to Boxcutters is as close to watching Aussie TV as I get.

I remember being mildly confused by Tripitaka's gender when I originally watched Monkey, but thought he was pretty cute either way. When I watched it again a few years later and realised that yes, he was indeed played by a lady, I just thought of it as classic panto.

I'm also not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Re the new Doctor Who assistant: an interesting point was made on another blog that perhaps the BBC are chasing the Twilight demographic with the latest casting? They certainly both look the part.

<img src=”http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45840000/jpg/_45840965_who_bbc226b.jpg” />

<img src=”http://gnostalgia.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/matt-smith-as-doctor-who-001.jpg” />

John, you may think that A Question Of Sport “didn't work”, but plenty of viewers in the UK thought, and still think, otherwise. 39 years and still kicking goals (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE) is pretty bloody good. And I could have sworn that I watched it on the ABC here for a while, but I can't find any record of it on teh interwebs. It must have been in another dimension, or perhaps I was in England at the time. I watched it in the time of Ian Botham – I'm not really into sport, except the occasional roundball game, but he was always entertaining.

As for the violence in the show, well, again, that's Japan. Children's shows there are generally allowed to have far more blood and gore than us pissweak Aussies. One of the most successful kids shows in Japan is an anime called Detective Conan, which has been going now for 13 years and has well over 500 episodes and counting. It?s a murder mystery series featuring some very grisly death and mayhem that would never pass on children's TV here. Yet there's far more actual juvenile crime here than in Japan. But correlations between media violence and actual violence is a dead horse that doesn't need any more beating here, without even taking into account the various vastly different social and cultural factors that play into it (Though I?m always happy to have that discussion of anyone else cares to).

Monkey used to be on during G-rated children's viewing timeslots on the ABC, but the current Australian DVD's are rated MA15+, for ?Medium Level Violence and Adult Themes?. Which means it is now technically a CRIME to let children watch the show. It reminds when ET was re-released a few years ago, it was reclassified as PG, up from the original G rating. The content hadn't changed, but apparently 25-odd years later it was now too ?intense? for the younger kiddies. Bizarre. So now Monkey is deemed too violent for children to watch at all? Just another example of the increasing pussification of our culture, and underestimating what kids can handle, I say. I mean, c?mon, my mother took me to the cinema to see The Silence of the Lambs when I was 11. She knew I could handle it. And I actually dragged my dad to see The Exorcist III when I was 10, and he was more frightened by it than I was! Sheesh! Kids these days are way too soft. Or so their parents seem to think.

Anyway, as for the beautiful Masako Nastume as Tripitaka. Very sad to hear she died so young. Golly, she sure was hot. I remember being a little confused about that whole thing as a kid, but anything that makes kids think about gender issues is a good thing.