Chef Eric Ripert requests the honor of your presence in the Top Chef Open Thread.
Top Chef Open Thread
Chef Eric Ripert requests the honor of your presence in the Top Chef Open Thread.
Question of the Day
What's the next movie on your Netflix queue?
(Naturally, you don't have to actually subscribe to Netflix to answer the question. It's really just about the next movie you plan to watch, in whatever fashion.)
Discussion Thread: Dexamethasone and "Fixing" Broken Girls
Recently Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder called our attention to a terrible medical malfeasance regarding FGC at Cornell University. They are now, with their colleague Anne Tamar-Mattis, sending up flares about the use of dexamethasone, "a risky Class C steroid," which is apparently being offered (I use the word advisedly) to pregnant women whose female fetuses are suspected of having a form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which can result in "ambiguous" or "masculinized" genitalia.
And that's not all:
One group of researchers, however, seems to be suggesting that prenatal dex also might prevent affected girls from turning out to be homosexual or bisexual.Further, these women might have a disproportionate and "abnormal" interest in "men's occupations and games." The authors of this piece note the irony of "one of the first women pediatric endocrinologists and a member of the National Academy of Sciences constructing women who go into 'men's' fields as 'abnormal'," and conclude the article thus:
...They specifically point to reasons to believe that it is prenatal androgens that have an impact on the development of sexual orientation. The authors write, "Most women were heterosexual, but the rates of bisexual and homosexual orientation were increased above controls ... and correlated with the degree of prenatal androgenization."
...And it isn't just that many women with CAH have a lower interest, compared to other women, in having sex with men. In another paper entitled "What Causes Low Rates of Child-Bearing in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?" Meyer-Bahlburg writes that "CAH women as a group have a lower interest than controls in getting married and performing the traditional child-care/housewife role. As children, they show an unusually low interest in engaging in maternal play with baby dolls, and their interest in caring for infants, the frequency of daydreams or fantasies of pregnancy and motherhood, or the expressed wish of experiencing pregnancy and having children of their own appear to be relatively low in all age groups."
In the same article, Meyer-Bahlburg suggests that treatments with prenatal dexamethasone might cause these girls' behavior to be closer to the expectation of heterosexual norms: "Long term follow-up studies of the behavioral outcome will show whether dexamethasone treatment also prevents the effects of prenatal androgens on brain and behavior."
Needless to say, we do not think it reasonable or just to use medicine to try to prevent homosexual and bisexual orientations. Nor do we think it reasonable to use medicine to prevent uppity women, like the sort who might raise just these kinds of alarms. Consider that our declaration of our conflict of interest.Suffice it to say, for my part, I share their contempt.
A couple of brief notes:
1. I feel obliged to point out that there's no objective reason to solve the "problem(s)" of atypical genitals, bi- or homosexuality, women who are single and/or childless by choice, or in some other way deviate from the kyriarchal narratives of what "normal womanhood" should look like. It is because of our rigid heteronormative gender binary, and the prejudices that arise therefrom, that these things are "problems," but the privileges we confer are arbitrary, based on collective inventions, and they can be changed. It is enormously frustrating when scientists treat natural variation as a problem to be solved, and necessarily deny humans' capacity for ideological adaptation in order to sustain that pretense.
2. Similarly frustrating is the discordance in which Alice Dreger could be so right on calling out this shit, and yet so wrong in defending J. Michael Bailey's transsexual dichotomy theories as merely saying "unpopular things." (Autumn's got more in her archives.) That's not really here nor there in terms of the particular piece being discussed, but it's certainly a failure that needs to be acknowledged in this space.
[H/T to Shaker Tia.]
Texting! With Liss and Deeky!
Moments ago.
Liss: Is the fucking day over yet?
Deeky: Yeah, pretty much.
Liss: LOL!
Deeky: It's almost five. Fuck this day.
Liss: Seriously. I'm so bored and low-level agitated.
Deeky: You should buy a punching bag.
Liss: I wouldn't even punch it with the mood I'm in. I'd just glower at it with contempt.
Deeky: LOL!
Is This What We Call A Backlash?
Today's headlines:
Montana GOP Releases Antigay Platform
Carrie Prejean to Opposite Marry at Prop 8 Supporter's Hotel
R.I. Gov Vetoes Hate-Crimes Bill
NH GOP Congressional Candidate Bob Giuda Compares Gay Marriage to Marrying 'Men and Sheep', 'Women and Dogs'
Australian PM Repeats Gay Marriage Opposition
Wisconsin Supreme Court Votes 7-0 to Uphold Ban on Gay Marriage
Income Tax Fairness Stripped from N.Y. Budget Bill
When I was discussing this with Liss earlier, she respoded: "If it's not, it's only because there hasn't been enough forward (ho)momentum in terms of actually legalizing same-sex marriage (as opposed to the surge in public support for it) to justify calling this a backlash. Grumble. Spit. Snarl. It's more like a bunch of bigoted fucks thrashing around desperately in anticipation of losing a battle they were never going to win anyway."
Yeah, that about says it all.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Shaker Help Request
Shaker M emails:
I have a question that I was wondering if you could answer or post on Shakesville. I have this amazing, wonderful, sensitive little boy - he's 8 - who had a great teacher this last year who led him to really develop his commitment to the environment. (We have a rockin' elementary school.)Have at it, Shakers!
Anyway, yesterday afternoon my husband came in from work and he and I began updating each other on the latest awful things we'd heard about the oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico. My little boy was in the kitchen, reading at the counter, and a few minutes later I realized he was absolutely weeping. I went to ask him what was wrong and saw that he was also shaking like a leaf... anyway, he finally managed to tell me, "I'm scared of the oil spill." I felt dreadful for frightening him so. The only thing that made him feel better at all was when I told him we could try to donate money or time or whatever to an organization working to fight / contain / negate the disaster... we live in New Mexico, so we probably can't help clean oily birds.
So, as a reader of your blog, it struck me that you or members of your community might have suggestions about concrete ways we can help. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, and make my little guy a bit less scared.
13-Year-Old Girl Humiliated for Being Insufficiently USian
In an increasingly familiar fit of the nationalistic racism I'll call Illegal Alarmism, a 13-year-old US citizen of Mexican heritage was marched in front of her class and accused of being an undocumented immigrant by her teacher for wearing a Team Mexico football shirt.
[Diana Aviles] said the teacher singled out her daughter in front of the class and accused of her being an illegal immigrant while the girl was wearing the shirt for the World Cup soccer tournament.Hmm. I wonder if she would have apologized if the girl had been an undocumented immigrant—because what the teacher did wouldn't have been acceptable even if she hadn't been denying her student's citizenry. (For a whole lot of reasons, not least of which is that a 13-year-old doesn't become an undocumented immigrant by her own design.)
"Basically, she put her down in front of the whole class," Aviles said Thursday.
Aviles said she and her daughter are U.S. citizens. The teacher later apologized.
And, in addition to wondering why anyone would ever try to turn someone's immigration status into an insult, as if the rest of us have some choice over where we're born and what opportunities we're given, I also wonder why the fuck anyone who holds such an absurd opinion and works in the public sector serving children, among whom might be undocumented immigrants or the children of undocumented immigrants, would express that view as if it has any business existing outside the confines of an impenetrably bigoted head.
Aviles said her family visits an orphanage in Mexico, and so they bought a "Mexico" shirt. The family also tried to buy a "USA" shirt, but none were available, she said.I just feel bad that she even had to say this, as if there would be something wrong with wanting a football strip other than Team USA's. Iain—who, rest assured, has proven his sufficient USianness by purchasing a Team USA jersey already—has commented several times that he likes the strips of other countries as we watch World Cup matches. If they weren't ridiculously expensive, he'd no doubt have jerseys from all over the world.
Which, frankly, strikes me as way more "American" (fist-bump the melting pot!) than humiliating a child, no less erroneously so, for the grievous sin of not having been born here.
[H/T to Shaker Maria, who notes: "If you value your sanity/faith in humanity, don't read the comments. However, if you read Spanish, it's worth glancing through the comments on the Spanish-language version of the story, if only because the contrast is amusing."]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Deeky's Giant Gardening Gloves.
Recommended Reading:
Curgoth: Authoritarian Apologism and the Logical Fallacy [TW for reference to rape]
Cara: Scotland Anti-Rape Ad Tackles "She Was Asking For It" Myth [TW for rape]
Lesley: Huge, Episode 1: Goonies never say die. [TW for discussions of disordered eating]
Resistance: Freedom for...?
Shark-fu: Pondering Opposition...
Tigtog: Climbing Uluru and Disrespect
Andy: Australia's New Prime Minister Confirms She's Against Gay Marriage
Leave your links in comments...
Deadly Violence at San Francisco Pride
[Trigger warning for violent homophobia.]
In a development in a story that isn't getting much national media attention for reasons I can't imagine (ahem), Ed Perkins, the man who was arrested on suspicion of firing seven shots into a crowd Saturday night at a San Francisco Pride event, killing 19-year-old Stephen Powell and injuring two others, has been released after investigators determined that "none of the seven shots fired into the crowd were from Perkins' weapon, and no witnesses were able to put Perkins at the scene," even though he was only in custody because "he was found near the crime scene in possession of a .357-caliber revolver."
(Of course, we all know that "near the crime scene" has a different definition when the suspect is a man of color, which could explain the seeming discrepancy.)
Earlier, police had believed Perkins to be one of at least two people involved, which was underlined by two more people being shot at the vigil for the first victim. But now police have released Perkins and are classifying the follow-up violence as a retaliatory gang shooting.
The picture that's emerging seems to be that Powell was killed (by members of his gang? a rival gang? a homophobic neighbor's or friend's or family member's gang?) for attending a Pride event, and things escalated from there in the way that gang violence tends to do. But at the root of it is this: Someone seems to have killed Stephen Powell because he was, or they believed him to be, gay.
The killer remains free.
[H/T to Cait.]
Sometimes What You Really Need Is a Potahto
Do you think Sens. Tom Coburn and Mitch McConnell have yellow ribbons on their vehicles? I'm sure they would be willing to go to that length to "support our troops" — unless it clashes with the color of their no doubt fine vehicles. Supporting the troops is one thing, but that degree of shared sacrifice is asking a lot of freedom-loving patriots.
But it would require no personal sacrifice on their parts to vote for the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act (.pdf).
This bill, S. 1237, was originally introduced (with a somewhat different name) by Sen. Patty Murray of Washington on June 11, 2009. It has taken a year to get it through the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and to the full Senate for approval.
Approval which was denied it yesterday by Sen. McConnell, objecting to the unanimous consent for it which Sen. Murray had requested, on behalf of his fellow Republican, Sen. Coburn.
Sen. Coburn, it seems, is concerned. He is concerned about how the government would pay for the services authorized under this bill, especially since he believes the government should be taking in far less revenue. He supports eliminating the Estate Tax. He supports continuing tax reductions for the wealthy enacted during the Bush administration.
In fact, he supports eliminating the federal Income Tax altogether and replacing it with the Fair Tax, a national sales tax under which every U.S. resident, regardless of race, creed, gender — or income — would pay exactly the same amount of tax on things they freely chose to buy. What could be fairer than that?
But even before we reach this utopia in which the rich person stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the poor person in being taxed as equals, we need to cut spending. So we cannot afford the grants to support job training, counseling, child care services and placement services, including job readiness and literacy and skills training, to facilities and programs which provide services dedicated to homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children, nor the special needs grants to improve their care at VA and other facilities, which Sen. Murray's bill would provide.
In a Senate speech on June 22 urging passage of her bill, Sen. Murray said:supporting our veterans shouldn’t be about politics—it should be about what kind of country we want the United States to be. And about what our priorities are as a nation.
This bill is not dead. Sen. Murray has promised to "continue fighting." So, no doubt, will Sen. Coburn.
In his second inaugural address in 1865, President Lincoln said our nation had an obligation to "care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."
Well, in 2010, I believe we not only need to care for HIM—we need to care for HER. And for his and her families.
Some people think politics is irrelevant to their lives, because politicians are all alike. Certainly it can look that way, given the generous capacity for acting in a weaselly and self-serving manner which seems endemic to the species. It's been many a long year since I admired a politician.
That's why it makes sense to me to concentrate on working on behalf of, not politicians or political parties, but specific policies. Politicians are only as useful as the policies they can be induced to support.
Yesterday, Sen. Murray was concerned. Sen. Coburn was concerned. Sen. Mitchell was concerned on Sen. Coburn's behalf, since Sen. Coburn and his concern were evidently required elsewhere.
There was one difference. The senators were not concerned about the same things.
Via
The OFFS Awards: Kathleen Parker
With honorable mention to today's runner-up, the Washington Post, who inexplicably continue to pay Kathleen Parker to write this fetid shit:
If Bill Clinton was our first black president, as Toni Morrison once proclaimed, then Barack Obama may be our first woman president.Oh my aching sides. The old "don't get violent with me, gender police!" chestnut never stops being heeeeelarious.
Phew. That was fun. Now, if you'll just keep those hatchets holstered and hear me out.
The rest of the piece is the usual patented Parker poppycock: Men and women are different in stereotypes whose respective Venn diagrams do not overlap (because one is on Mars and one is on Venus, amirite? HIGH FIVES!), Obama has feminine traits, therefore he's a woman, and women are stupid, which is why he's a failure, and we totes need a Real Woman, namely a conservative one who acts like a man, in that there Oval Office.
Blah blah blah.
Never mind the threadbare gendered analysis and the so-old-they-fart-dust [/spudsy] stereotypes on which it's based; Parker's ridiculous contention that Obama is the first female president isn't even fresh.
Kathleen Parker's column, this jalopy called. It wants its old, tired, and brokedown back.
Doctor Who Open Thread: S5E10: Vincent and the Doctor
Good $LOCAL_TIME_EXPRESSION, Shakers, and welcome to the Open Thread for (new) Season 5, Episode 10 of Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor.
Please be careful to avoid spoilers for upcoming episodes, as many of those in the thread are watching on the North American broadcast schedule, which is running three or four weeks behind the UK's one. Be aware that any and all Doctor Who media appearing before S5E10 are explicitly on-topic, and that there may be spoilers within for any of it.
My take, o my Whonatic friends, on this episode is that it was FRAKKIN' BRILLIANT.
I'll leave more, including spoilers, in the comments.
NQDTR Discussion Thread – W100630
Hiya, Shakers, past time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!
This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report – W100630
Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco...
Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.
If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.
Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.
Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!
ô,ôP
I Write Letters
Dear CNN.com:
It's really swell of you to offer a Gay in America section for Pride Month and all, but I was already uncomfortable with how much "Gays—They're Just Like Normal Straight People!" content was comprising the section (although I shouldn't be surprised you don't know how to write about gay families that don't have/want kids, since you don't even really know how to write about straight families that don't have/want kids), and that was before I saw the "Conversation" topic "Gay Couples as Parents?"
First of all, let's talk about the question mark. There are like gerjillions of same-sex couples openly (and frequently uncontroversially) parenting kids in the US already, and have been for decades, with various degrees of legal and cultural support in different locations. And there are gerjillions of adults who have parents who came out later in life, after producing children within an opposite-sex marriage. And there are multiple studies showing that same-sex parents make as good (or better) parents on average as opposite-sex parents, which only exist because researchers have had access to loads of kids with gay parents.
So, gay couples are parents. Period. No question mark required.
But, of course, the reason it's there is because this is a conversation, and you're inviting people to share their opinions on gay parenting. Which is a dubious way of honoring Pride Month in any case, no less when the solicitation of opinions is written in a way that explicitly excludes gay parents (emphasis mine):
How do you feel about gay couples having a family? Should they be allowed to adopt and be foster parents? What if you had a gay member of your family and they decided to have a baby through adoption, surrogacy or sperm donor? How would you react to it? Share your comments below.These are not questions designed to invite gay parents to share their opinions on gay parenting. These are questions designed to invite straight people to pontificate about a subject that should be none of their fucking business, but is because of the undeserved privilege that is continually reinforced by shit like asking straight people to weigh in on gay parenting in a way that deliberately excludes lesbians and gay men and bisexuals from the conversation.
If the objective was to challenge the marginalization of LGBs, I'm afraid we have a raging case of the megafails here, CNN. If, however, the objective was to engage in the same tired old habit of pandering to the delicate sensibilities of the intractably bigoted, then grab your codpieces and go stand in front of a Mission Accomplished banner on an aircraft carrier, bitchez, 'cuz that shit is solid.
Please do better.
Love,
Liss
Question of the Day
Where would you like to retire to?
I think, if i had my druthers, when it came to retire, I'd head to Prague. It's European, without being Paris (nothing against Parisians), it's smaller, but not provincial. It's got great architecture, and history and it's run head-on into the modern world. That's sort of typified by this photo I snapped while there:
You've Done It Again, Bachmann
Award-winning Professor of Smartology and Minnesota Congressperson Michele Bachmann is taking our Treasury Secretary and President to task for their devious plan to embrangle the US in a global economy which is "one short step to joining political unity and then you would have literally, a one world government."
President Obama is trying to bind the United States into a global economy where all of our nations come together in a global economy. I don't want the United States to be in a global economy where, where our economic future is bound to that of Zimbabwe. I can't, we can't necessarily trust the decisions that are being made financially in other countries.She's so right. Thank Maude that a global economy in which our economy is affected by events outwith our borders doesn't already exist!
Now, about that plan to stop other countries sending us their goddamn weather...
Rinse. Repeat.
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse and joking about rape.]
Some dingaling with buttplugs for brains* writes a glib comment about a priest who allegedly "inappropriately touched" women and girls for as long as four decades:
This is sad to say, but it's almost refreshing to read about a priest accused of good, old-fashioned heterosexual perviness.Ho ho ho.
The dreadful stuff between priests and boys has been going on for so long that I almost forgot that some priests have more mainstream sexual hangups.
Again, I say, it's time for a married priesthood.
There's so much wrong there in those three short sentence, I could spend the next two hours unpacking all the rape culture narratives that got pinged—that sexual assault is just "perviness," that sexual assault of women/girls is just a "mainstream sexual hangup," that priests who target children exclusively target boys or girls, that if we don't hear about female victims there must not be any, that there's such a thing as "good, old-fashioned" sexual assault, that married men don't sexually assault anyone, etc. etc. etc.—but what's most disturbing is the author's contention that it could be "refreshing" to read about the sexual assault of women/girls (or anyone else) for any reason.
Of course you already know what happens next, don't you?
People with a modicum of decency quite rightly call out the columnist for his incomprehensibly flippant remark.
Columnist responds with classic non-apology, which wouldn't even be necessary if survivors and/or anti-rape advocates weren't such humorless assholes:
If you have to explain humor, it has failed. My attempt here at some sardonic humor has obviously failed with a number of readers. I apologize. No offense was intended -- except toward pervy priests of any persuasion.See, the thing is, jokes that diminish the gravity of sexual assault don't offend predators; they offend victims. Perpetrators are perfectly happy to have torpid, incurious, disconnected wankstains perpetuate an environment in which they can create more victims every day, because we can't be bothered to take sexual assault seriously.
------------------------------
* With my apologies to buttplugs.
The Habit of Summer Reading: 12 weeks, 13 books
Twelve weeks lie between today and September 21st. I am going to read an average of a book per week between now and then. There are thirteen books planned because I have started a few already.
When I was in high school, we had a summer reading list each year. On the first day of class in September, our English and social studies teachers gave essay tests on the material. Manchild in the Promised Land, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Good Earth, Rebecca, and A Separate Peace kept us in the habit of reading, no matter how many other summer commitments we had. In "The Nature and Aim of Fiction", Flannery O'Connor writes that "[t]he scientist has the habit of science; the artist, the habit of art." So it must be, too, with the reader.
But my reading is sloppy these days. I read various books all at once, never quite finishing any of them. I see the same pattern reflected in other areas of my life. Time to go back to high school.
Below is my summer reading list as it stands now. I thought that if I wrote it down, I'd have to follow through.
At the very least, this list will fill me with an irresistible urge to read all the books I have that are not on this list. Either way, I complete some books.
Many thanks to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, AbeBooks, and to the friends and family who have given me books or gift cards over the past six months or so. I'm finally going to catch up on my reading!
(Names link to writers' blogs or faculty pages where available. Titles link to synopses at Powell's dot com.)
Batuman, Elif, The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who read Them (in progress)
Danticat, Edwidge, Krik? Krak!
Diski, Jenny, The Sixties: Big Ideas/Small Books (in progress)
Fox, Paula, Desperate Characters
Karkazis, Katrina, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience
Longmore, Paul K., Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability
MarÃas, Javier, Corazón Tan Blanco/A Heart So White (translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa) (in progress)
Martin, Emily, Bipolar Expeditions (in progress)
Mockett, Marie Mutsuki, Picking Bones From Ash
Packer, ZZ, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Skloot, Rebecca, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Stott, Rebecca, Ghostwalk (in progress). I'm looking forward to The Coral Thief after this one!
Wailoo, Keith and Pemberton, Stephen, The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine : Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis, and Sickle Cell Disease
Feel free to share what you are reading and/or planning to read in comments.
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning.]
"You know, I'm a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things."—Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, explaining why she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and/or incest.
Yes, making laws to ensure no one interferes with "God's plan" is a terrific idea. I eagerly await Candidate Angle's proposal to criminalize hospitals and medicine.
As an aside, if an anthropomorphic god with a "plan" for every human being existed, and Angle's version of that god were accurate, and that god actively used rape as a way to execute parts of its "plan," then I would seek commune with that god strictly for the purpose of rejecting it outright, strongly preferring on principle an eternal consignment to hellfire than even inadvertently conveying an infinitesimal moment of confusion as to my position.
Pamela Gorman is a Great American
Check this shit out, you collection of tree-hugging limousine liberals, pinko Commies, dope fiends, queerbaits, ladyboys, fat chicks, feminazi castrators, and assorted freaks: Pamela Gorman, who is running for congress of Arizona or something, is the greatest American since Dale Peterson. She'd probably be even greater if I didn't have to deduct points owing to her being a chick and all. But I can't break the rules of Butch Pornstache's Great Patriot Analysisizer for anyone, no matter how hot they are.
Male Voiceover: [over picture of the Capitol Building next to the text "2010"] This year, a lot of folks think this is our best shot at changing Congress. [over video of Arizona congressional candidate Pamela Gorman standing outside, her hair blowing in the wind; she is young, white, and conventionally beautiful] 'Course, that all depends on the caliber of our candidates.Anyways, this is who I'm voting for. 'Cuz this is what politics is about, just like the founding fathers said. Taxes are for dumbasses, that's why that shit ain't in the declaration of independence.
[Cut to four seconds of video of Gorman firing a machine gun.]
Male Voiceover: [over footage of Gorman at a microphone at some townhall-style meeting] Meet Pamela Gorman, candidate for Congress in Arizona 3. [over beauty shot of Gorman with mountains in background] Conservative Christian, and a pretty fair shot!
[Cut to four seconds of video of Gorman firing a hand gun.]
Male Voiceover: [over video of Gorman inside, wearing a business suit with a flag lapel pin; a graphic of the word "taxes" underneath a red strikethrough appears beside her] The insiders in the State Senate wanted to have her hide when she fought against their plan for higher taxes.
[Cut to video of Gorman aiming the hand gun at the word "taxes" and taking a single shot; the word flies offscreen.]
Male Voiceover: [over footage of Gorman shooting the machine gun, and then showing a young man how to aim the hand gun, then shooting the hand gun again herself] But Gorman—she can take care of herself. Rated 100% by the NRA, conservative Pamela Gorman is always right on target.
Pamela Gorman: [over beauty shot, accompanied by "Pamela Gorman for Congress"] I'm Pamela Gorman, and I approve this message.
[Cut to more footage of Gorman shooting the machine gun.]
You all know I'm pro-nunchuck, but I'm also pro-gun, and I would totally hate taxes if I paid them. My hard-earned weed dealing money will not be used to pay for some art queer to take pictures of his boyfriend dressed up like Jesus and then display the prints in a hollowed out console TV and tell me it's an important commentary on the nature of modern religion or whatever. Don't get me wrong—I love art as much as the next dude; I got like 5 Thomas Kinkades and a bunch of nice artistic shit I got when my stepmom Cheryl was doing Home Interiors. But I don't think the government should be paying for that stuff. If those artsy-fartsy types need money, they can borrow some from Michael Angelo. Dude must be rolling in it after painting that big church.
I mean, my friend Harry Sachs makes shitloads, and all's he paints is nature scenes on the sides of vans.
What my weed dealing money does buy is commemorative shell casings engraved with Pamela Gorman's name. These fuckers are going to be collectable, especially when she ends up in the White House. It'll be like one of those Joe the Plumber books. You know it, and I know it. My ex-wife/fiancée Tammy don't know it. She's all pissed at me, because I spent our honeymoon savings on this business venture. She don't know shit about business, cause she's a chick, and doesn't realize I'm sitting on a gold mine. But whatever. I may be broke now. But that's temporary.
And what's more important, anyways—going to the Ponderosa Sun Club in Roseland, or helping Pamela Gorman get to the White House…?
Don't even answer that. It's wrecktorial.
[Previously by Butch Pornstache: Happy Taxes and Teabags Day, I'm a Proud Teabagger and Real American, Men and Trucks and Shit, Cats and Shit, Books and Cupcakes and Shit, Ron Swanson Kicks Butt, Dale Peterson is a Great American, I'm a Man and I Enjoy Mancations.]
Impossibly Beautiful
Now for dogs!
[Click to embiggen.]
That terribly, terribly photoshopped shit actually appears on the Ralph Lauren website. Along with another terribly, terribly photoshopped image of the same forlorn dog, who evidently looks less forlorn than the original pooch cast to suffer through a photo shoot clad in a Ralph Lauren shirt.
"Get me the head of a Labrador! This filthy mutt has no papers and is too fat!"
It's not like sticking the head of a Lab onto what looks like the short, squat body of a bulldog is objectively a big deal (although it's so poorly done that RL ought to be embarrassed)—but there is something I find bitterly amusing about the fact that RL treats its canine and female models with the same contemptuous indifference: If one part isn't right, just replace it with another. They're all the same, anyway.
[Impossibly Beautiful: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40., 41, 42.]
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
An Open Letter to NBC
Dear NBC,
When I was a 10 year-old closeted lesbian, I knew I would grow up to do one of two things with my life. Either I'd be a newspaper reporter, or a comedienne. I mention this, because I need you to understand that each day for the last 21 years has been an exercise in waking up, brushing my teeth, going out into the world, and watching a piece of me die.
While convalescing from a brain injury, I realized that I had never really watched Last Comic Standing, and resolved to do so. This involves something I cared about, and would undoubtedly not crush my soul.
Would you believe it that there are a number of people out there who are pretty funny, and dare I say, good at stand up comedy? And that some of them were on your show? Or that stand up is kinda hard? I know this because you were kind enough to put together a couple of episodes of awful auditions.
A couple of observations:
1) 'I'm a hyper-masculine jerk who doesn't like anyone' is somewhat less funny in person than it is on stage.
2) If your judges were going to give only 1 of yesterday's 5 slots in the finals to a woman, it probably shouldn't have gone to that chick with the routine about how she's afraid she'll find herself dating some overly sensitive feminist guy who has ambiguous genitalia, wants her to feel good about herself, and will make her soup. Of course, as Greg Giraldo pointed out, the audience did seem to think she was attractive, which makes it really hard to get laughs.
Going out into the world and watching a piece of me die.
Assuming General Electric cares about my well-being, here's a suggestion. Hire Eddie Izzard, Bob Newhart, Betty White, and Lily Tomlin. After that, it's all gravy. Betty White could display sexual agency. People could bring in antiques for Eddie Izzard to appraise. Bob Newhart and Lily Tomlin could make fart jokes as far as I care; they're really funny people.
Either that, or you could go with the pilots of Two-and-a-Half Seinfelds and How I Met Mencia. I really don't care anymore.
Surprise
Austerity isn't working.
Good thing all the Professor Moneyheads at the G20 are ignoring inconvenient facts in order to prioritize deficit reduction. Otherwise, a smart economic idea might accidentally be put into action.
Also see: Krug and Atrios.
Update on Suspiciously Sitting While Black and Autistic
(TW for references to violence)
My previous post about 18-year-old Neli Latson described the series of events which led to his being beaten, jailed, and faced with serious criminal charges simply because someone found "suspicious" the sight of a young, black, autistic man sitting on the grass waiting for the library to open. So suspicious did that seem to this person that they imagined a "possible", though non-existent, gun in his possession.
A number of Shakers were very interested in Neli's plight, and wanted to know what they could do to help. Neli's mom, Lisa Alexander, has begun an email campaign to try to bring attention from the news media to her son's situation. At her website, A Voice for Neli, she has compiled a long list of email addresses of news people, along with an email which you can copy and paste to send to them.
And here you will find a video Lisa made on a recent visit to Neli in the institution where he's been placed for a 30-day mental health evaluation. In this video, Neli tells the story of how he was vilified, assaulted and arrested, then assaulted some more.
It. Will. Make. You. Sick. Trigger Warning on this video for descriptions of violence (not graphic), racism, misogyny and despicable inhumanity. But by all means watch it if you can, and share far and wide Neli's story and Lisa's email campaign on his behalf.
Human Rights Violations at the G20
[Trigger warning for sexual assault and homophobia.]
Shaker GimliGirl sent me the link to the below video (for which I've also provided a transcript), which shows journalist Amy Miller recounting her experience being detained at the G20 summit this weekend in Toronto. It is a harrowing retelling, in which she bears witness to young people being brutalized by police and young women being sexually assaulted under the auspices of "security." GimliGirl emails:
I've been following the G20 protests very closely in my local media (CTV News) as well as via Twitter for a more 'on the ground' feel of what's been happening. Other than the Black Bloc, it's good to hear that most of the protestors in T.dot were well behaved despite police interference like shutting down the free speech zone and bottle-necking marchers into specific, ineffective for protest, areas. It's not good to hear that two (at least) of our Charter rights were suspended down in Toronto though; our right to freedom of assembly and our right to free speech, as well as our right to travel without having to identify ourselves/be detained. These rights were similarly suspended during the Olympics this past winter in Vancouver but there was a lot less of an outcry (as far as I know.) I'm deeply ashamed of my Prime Minister and Premier Dalton McGuinty for their choice of actions surrounding the G8 and G20 summits, the amount of money spent on these events, and especially the Toronto Police response to protesters both benign and violent. Naomi Klein has a lot to say about what's happened with the G8/20 and she says it better than I ever could.
My name's Amy Miller. I was detained yesterday at approximately noon. I was with Adam [gestures to colleague standing behind her] as well as one other colleague; we were on our way to cover the Jail Solidarity Action. On the way, we stopped because we saw a group of young people being detained and being searched, so we wanted to see what was happening.Shaker Gabriel also forwarded this video in which 18-year-old Dan Hamilton recounts being detained for twenty-six hours, where he was first held in a cell with about 40 other men where there was no toilet privacy, and was then moved to a "dog pen" with his boyfriend when he said he was gay. All the gay detainees were said to have been segregated for their "safety," but, as Hamilton explains, the only homophobic people in the building were the police themselves.
As Adam recounted, we were—he was quickly taken down, and the same thing happened to me; I was throttled at the neck and held down, and then I was detained for nearly thirteen hours. I was placed in a cell at the Toronto Film Studio, and I was in a cell with twenty-five other young women for approximately thirteen hours.
Throughout the time that I was detained, I was told many statements that I find repulsive and completely inappropriate and what I view as threats. I was told I was going to be raped; I was told I was going to be gang-banged; I was told that they were going to make sure that I was never going to want to act as a "journalist" [she does air quotes] again, by making sure that I would be repeatedly raped while I was in jail.
When I was in the detention center, I saw numerous young women who were completely strip-searched, who weren't strip-searched by officers—male—who were strip-searched my male officers, and one young woman, when she was coming out, she was completely traumatized, said that she had had a finger put up her, and I find this completely unacceptable, and I hope that people will investigate this, because from what I saw, in the cell, from the women who were coming out, who were being strip-searched, they were definitely traumatized, and there was very much violence that was targeted toward young women.
While I was detained, it was very obvious that there was profiling going on; it was primarily young people, under the age of 25, who don't know their rights, or who have less knowledge of their rights, who were being told all kinds of different things. And so we—we had stopped to cover it because these were young people who were being detained and searched and who didn't know what was going on, who were just wanting to get onto their bus back to Montreal, and, despite having my press pass on me the whole time, it was quickly ripped off of me; I was throttled down, and then, next thing you know, I was being cuffed and put in one of the wagons.
Contact the premier here.
How Do You Say Congrats in Icelandic?
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and her partner, writer Jónina Leósdóttir, were married on Sunday, the day gay marriage became legal in Iceland. There was no ceremony, the couple simply applied to have the partnership they had registered in 2002 converted to a marriage under the new law. That law was passed without dissent by Iceland's parliament on June 11.
Jóhanna* became the first openly lesbian head of state on acceding to the position of Prime Minister in 2009. Now she is the first head of state to be married to a same-sex partner. All happiness to them.
*Wikipedia says the Prime Minister (when not referred to by title) is properly called "Jóhanna", not "Ms. Sigurðardottir", as the second name is a patronymic/matronymic and not a family name.
Via
Cold War Kids
FBI arrests 10 accused of working as Russian spies (and I just heard a report on CNN a few minutes ago that an 11th has been arrested):
FBI agents arrested 10 people on charges that they spent years in the United States as spies for Russia, taking on fake identities and trying to ferret out intelligence about U.S. policy and secrets by making connections to think tanks and government officials, the Justice Department said Monday.How retro!
...The operation, referred to by U.S. investigators as "the Illegals program," was aimed at placing spies in nongovernmental jobs, such as at think tanks, where they could glean information from policymakers and Washington-connected insiders without attracting attention.
Whether it succeeded was unclear Monday. Federal law enforcement officials portrayed their operation as a spectacular counterintelligence success that uncovered a group of spies capable of doing great damage to U.S. national security. "I can't remember a case where we've been able to arrest 10 intelligence officers from a foreign country in one fell swoop," one official said. "This network in the United States has now been completely compromised."
Seen
"WIENER WINNER OUT! Kobayashi won't compete in hot dog contest."
Prediction: Deeky and I will use the phrase "wiener winner" in text messages to one another somewhere between 87 and one billion times today.
Question of the Day
What has made you grin today?
A few things, but at the moment, I am in the middle of a full-tilt swoon because I just put on Mozza's "To Me You Are a Work of Art," after having not heard it for a very long time.
[Lyrics here.]
Once Upon a Time…
…I worked with two guys we'll call Chad and Thad.
(This was indeed at the same place where I also worked with Tim and Doug—I wasn't kidding when I said I could write a magnum opus about that place.)
Chad and Thad were not their real names, but they both had four-letter first names that were fairly common names for dudes of their cohort (slightly older than I, so they'd be about 40 now). They were also both male, white, straight, cisgender, without visible disabilities, thin, blond, and blue (or green) eyed, and approximately the same height. They both worked in the same department and shared similar interests in working out, drinking, and getting laid.
I nonetheless never had any trouble telling Chad and Thad apart, despite their many superficial commonalities.
Both Chad and Thad, however, had difficulty distinguishing between my coworker (and close friend) Miller and I. That was something else they shared in common—an inability to speak to one of us with certainty about to whom they were speaking.
Miller and I are both female, white, straight, cisgender, without visible disabilities, brown-haired (though different shades), blue-eyed, and almost exactly the same height. There were other women in the firm who met the same approximate description, but Chad and Thad never confused them for us, or us for them—only Miller and I for one another.
Miller and I lived in the same neighborhood, too, but I suspect that was not the characteristic that we shared in common—and did not share in common with the other similar ladies at the firm—which caused Chad's and Thad's inability to tell us apart.
I suspect the thing that set us apart, and made us the same, was that we were both fat.
At the time, we were about the same weight. Miller is now thinner, and I am now fatter—but back in the days of Chad and Thad being unable to differentiate between the two of us, we had a pretty similar body shape. We didn't dress alike, and we didn't wear our hair the same way, but I don't think those were details that Chad and Thad could be bothered to discern; they simply viewed each of us as a featureless blob whose unfuckability rendered our individuality superfluous.
"I'm not Miller; I'm Melissa," was a sentence I uttered approximately two dozen times in the two years (or so) that spanned their total employment.
"Oh, sorry," one would murmur, the nicer of the two, who at least had the sense to look embarrassed. The other would look aggravated by my insistence on asserting my personhood, and once snapped at me, on a day I happened to be wearing my specs rather than the contacts I typically wore back then, "You should wear your glasses if you want me to be able to tell you apart."
My sister, who inherited the squarer face and slanted eyes and luscious lips from my father's side of the family, and I, who inherited a perfectly spherical head and round eyes and impossibly thin lips from my mother's side of the family, have been told our whole lives that we look like twins. We do not look like twins; in fact, we have cousins whom my sister more closely resembles than she resembles me.
If we were not both fat, people would probably remark with surprise that we are sisters. But being fat has rendered our differences invisible.
Other fat women have the same experience.
It is an experience that will, of course, be particularly recognizable to women of color (and probably men, too) who have worked in a predominantly white environment with one other woman of the same ethnicity. (Or one presumed to be the same: I had a teacher who could not distinguish between two classmates, even though Tram was Vietnamese and Kim was Korean, and they looked nothing alike.)
And because there exist in the world individuals who might have occasionally mixed up Chad and Thad, or two men very much like them, there are undoubtedly people who feel obliged to conjure other reasons for privileged people not to be able to tell two vaguely similar marginalized people apart. Surely there had to be, or at least could be, some other reason underlying Chad's and Thad's shared perplexity, they will think.
But a lifetime of being not seen because of being fat has taught me the difference between someone who simply doesn't recognize me and someone who doesn't see me.
After getting new specs—ones I kept for 10 years and was still wearing in my old author pic—I wore them to work. I'd recently had my hair cut off into a short bob, too. Chad saw me in the hall at work and said, "Well, you're looking all artsy-fartsy lately."
I squinted at him. "What?"
"You're looking different. It's good, though—now I can tell you and Miller apart."
Thank you for sticking some recognizable accessories onto your nondescript fat blobbiness. It really helps me out.
I stared at him for a moment, with a mixture of disbelief, pity, and contempt—and then I just walked away.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Protestantism FTW!
Cotton Mather and Protestantism in general is pretty chill. As a result, the United States is finally a post-religious, post-racial, post-feminist meritocracy, as evidenced by Elena Kagan and the Ivy League. It's like how Branch Rickey signaled the end of racism by signing Jackie Robinson, only even more magical. So the next time you're not being discriminated against, thank Pat Robertson. So insinuates some white Harvard law professor who went to Oxford, Cambridge and Yale, and presumably got a gig writing occasional op-ed pieces for the Times on account of merit.
Okay, I'm being sarcastic. To tone it down just a bit, as far as I can tell, Noah Feldman is saying that things these days are better for (certain) Jews and Catholics (which is an oddly Blues Brothers-ish approach to religious diversity in the US, if you ask me), as evidenced by the composition of the Supreme Court. He then goes on to argue that this is a BFD (I'm happy for them? And for the nation?).
Feldman then goes on to give Protestantism the credit for select good things about colonial America, which aside from being the rhetorical equivalent of giving Catholicism the credit for select good things about the Vatican, and water the credit for select good things about the ocean, tends to erase Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other constitutionally crafty types.
Away He Goes
I went to the dog park this weekend determined to get some decent still shots of Dudz doing his greyhound thing, not merely because I love the challenge of trying to photograph him in motion, but because a handful of Shakers have requested still shots of his running. So, armed with my trusty camera and steely resolve, I got a few decent snaps of a gleefully accommodating dog.
The pictures taken of him from the back really show the mechanics of his running. I absolutely love this picture of him mid-flight; one could almost imagine his feet were in the grass, were it not for the shadow beneath him.
Meanwhile, the pictures taken of him from the front and sides reveal the sheer love of running he has. He is a grin on four legs.
Below are two short slideshows (8 and 9 pix, respectively) of my best mechanical pix from the back and best überjoy pix from the front.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Dudley's Running Shoes, for people and dogs who like to run fast.
Recommended Reading:
Bree: Fat Hatin' from C. Everett Koop
Deborah: Justice Is Only for White People
SleepyDumpling: You Just Can't Know
Mar: Me and Samuel Beckett and Homophobia in the Caribbean
Kyle: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Outbreed 'Em
Mo Pie: Harry Potter Ride Turns Away Fat Riders
Andy: [video] Illinois Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias on Equality (Key Quote: "We are going to look back at this issue and be embarrassed and disgusted at the fact that we didn't let two people who love each other get married. It's as simple as that, folks.")
Leave your links in comments...
Texting! With Liss and Deeky!
Spudsy:
[Image of Ghostbuster key covers.]
Deeky: How many of those did you buy?
Spudsy: Just one. I don't think they;ll fit on my keys, LOL. I tried sending you that pic this weekend, did you get it?
Deeky: Yes, I have two copies now
Spudsy: It's worth two. Two copies of AWESOME.
Deeky: LOL! Which one did you buy?
Spudsy: Both are included on the card, the No Ghosts logo and Stay Puft.
Deeky: Oh, I see.
Spudsy: Bustin' makes me feel good.
Deeky: LOL! Speaking of which, is that new Ghostbusters game any good?
Spudsy: Do you even need to ask? YES.
Deeky: Yes, I need to ask! What platform do you have? Besides your shoes, Elton.
Spudsy: PS3. Like all cool people.
Deeky: But you're not cool!
Spudsy: I'm totally fucking cool. Just no one will admit it.
Deeky: Maybe they would if you laid off the bow ties a little.
Spudsy: Bow ties are cool.
Deeky: Okay, Pee-wee.
Swell
In a ruling more in keeping with the slow construction of a conservative utopia where all your problems can be solved by an invisible hand holding a gun, SCOTUS also ruled this morning that Chicago's handgun law is unconstitutional because, according to the Court's majority, "It is clear that the Framers…counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty."
And that's still relevant 200 years later, despite the fact that the Framers, as ingenuous as they were, did not envision a country of 300 million+ people where almost everyone is literate and almost every adult can vote. Nor did they imagine handguns, which didn't fucking exist.
I'm too aggravated to write a thoughtful post about this decision, so I'm going to go ahead and direct you in Echidne's direction, where, as ever, the thoughtfulness flows like a river of flowy liquid thoughts.
"But haven't you heard—the law doesn't apply to us!"
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse.]
SCOTUS made surprisingly decent decision this morning:
The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia.In case you're understandably wondering how it could even be in question whether a US priest would stand trial in US courts for US crimes committed in the US against US residents, the Vatican was essentially arguing diplomatic immunity, claiming that priests are immune as Vatican state employees under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases.
The federal appeals court cited one of the exceptions to that Act, "ruling the lawsuit has sufficiently alleged that [accused priest Reverend Andrew Ronan] was an employee of the Vatican acting within the scope of his employment under Oregon law." SCOTUS agreed.
There is another lawsuit pending in Kentucky in which the Vatican claims US bishops are employees of the Holy See and thus immune from prosecution. Let us hope the SCOTUS is as similarly disinclined to make an exception for the bishops as they were for the priests.
Meanwhile, over in Europe where the history comes from [/izzard] , the Vatican is positively "indignant" that Belgian police investigating sex abuse allegations had the unmitigated temerity to, um, investigate.
Of particular concern is Belgian police having drilled small holes into the tombs of two Belgian cardinals at Mechelen cathedral, to send in cameras in search of hidden documents, a part of the investigation that was carried out "after someone mentioned [to investigators that] work had recently been carried out on the grave's exterior."
In a statement, the Vatican called the search—which also resulted in the seizure of "nearly 500 files and a computer from the offices of a Church commission investigating allegations of sex abuse"—a "violation" of both the graves and the "confidentiality of precisely those victims for whom the raids were carried out."
Somehow, I'm not feeling any sympathy that the Church feels "violated" by an investigation into a global sex abuse problem it conspired to conceal for more than a century.
And their affected concern for survivors is revolting. I would hope that no one yet suffers from the misapprehension that the Catholic Church is more concerned for protecting survivors' confidentiality than for protecting the anonymity of its abusive priests.
[H/Ts to Shakers Constant Comment and TehKenny.]
Florida Netroots Awards 2010
The voting is open for the Florida Netroots Awards. Go here to vote.
Bark Bark Woof Woof has been nominated in two areas: "Best National Blog -- Blogs written by Floridians that cover primarily national politics," and "Best Series" for "Question of the Day."
(There is no requirement that you have to live in Florida to be eligible to vote. Just ask my mom.)
I'm Mustang Bobby, and I approved this message.
A Confession
When I read stuff like this, there is always a part of my brain thinking, "But...this is all just a game we made up, right? If everyone around the world is getting fubared by this game, let's stop playing it and make up a new game with better rules!"—because even though I know it's not that simple, it is nonetheless weird to me when people, even very smart people, talk about the international economy like it's something that just exists without identifiable genesis or discernible reason or any ability to change it, like air or David Hasselhoff.
Funny, Heartbreaking and Provocative
That's fat people for ya!
Funny? 99.99% of the world's would-be comics can't be wrong, can they?
And heartbreaking — well, what a waste of potential! Especially if the fatty is a teenage girl; I mean, she has such a pretty face, amirite? It's a shame, when you consider that there surely is, for every fat girl with a pretty face, some sad young thing who fails to meet the prevailing standard of prettiness in her locale despite being virtuously slender. That girl could have put this otherwise wasted pretty face to good use — heartbreaking!
As for provocative — some of these fat folk fail to be properly ashamed of themselves! Some might even reject the notion that practitioners of Bodily Correctness, both public and private, appoint themselves to the task out of concern for the health of others — now there's a provocative notion!
Funny, heartbreaking and provocative is also how the ABC Family channel describes their new show Huge, which is based on a book of the same name by Sasha Paley. The show, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central, is about seven teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp called 'Victory'.
"The implication," says Ginia Bellafante, who reviewed the show for the NY Times, "is that no one has truly come here by choice — parents or the insidious culture of thinness at large have militaristically exerted their pressures." Although Bellafante maintains a careful tone throughout, one does detect the eye-rolling behind the I-don't-want-you-fat-people-emailing-me words.
Ms. Bellafante chooses to begin her review with several paragraphs on the subject of "gainer blogs", implying that people perversely directing their efforts to gaining rather than losing weight are the heart of the fat acceptance community, which she further mischaracterizes in order to bolster her dismissal of it as a "fringe movement", clearly unworthy of being part of the august social institution which is "hourlong dramatic television." Nevertheless, Ms. Bellafante believes, the show "stands in some sympathy with a rebellion mounted against so many hours of 'The Biggest Loser.' "
So here's your sympathy, fatties — now put down that snack and listen up! Yeah, we know you've got that hidden stash of candy, Will, why else would you be fat? And we know you're going to feed it to the other campers, the ones who are really trying, because you want them to stay fat, too!
"Will" is Willamina, played by Nikki Blonsky, whom Bellafante characterizes as "the apparent embodiment of the spirit of fat pride". Because that is what fat pride is about, campers! Sneaking candy! The show's website says that Will's "sardonic and rebellious nature make her a menace to some and revolutionary to others." Hey, one person fighting for the freedom to not hate her body is another person's candy-sneaking terrorist! Or something.
But as Ms. Bellafante points outin truth the series can go only so far because a real sanctioning of teenage obesity would feel like a renewed condoning of the subprime mortgage market.
Wow, that's deep.
So, supporting the idea that people should simply mind their own business about other people's bodies is equivalent to supporting elaborate financial schemes in which you induce people to invest every penny they can scrape together in the purchase of a home through an intricately structured contract which they don't understand but which you, as the professional, assure them they can afford, withholding from them the knowledge that once you have them roped in you will be bundling that mortgage with a bunch of others and selling it to some more suckers, while knowing that the basis for their accepting your counsel as to what they can afford is that they think you are the one they will owe their money to and that you will want it repaid and therefore would not mislead them about what they can afford.
My, yes, Ms. Bellafante, that is some deep shit, there.
Fortunately, the ABC Family Channel seems prepared to avoid this moral quagmire. A section of the show's website, under the heading "Live Huge" promises to provide "tips on how to eat nutritious snacks and meals, add exercise into your busy life, and build a stronger, more positive sense of self -- because living a healthy life means having healthy self-esteem too!"
Which could, wonderfully, be supportive of HAES, but sounds more like: Fattiez! We love you just the way you are! Come watch our show! Just as you are! Then we'll tell you how to not be that way! Or, we love you as you are because we know you can be different! Is there a more seductive message than that to a young person who does not love hirself as zie is?
In any case, one suspects Ms. Bellafante sees this as coddling, as well as something worse: The waste of an entire hour of her dramatic-television-watching time, which could otherwise be spent watching people Ms. Bellafante finds more attractive, and can watch without that painfully constricting girdle-of-verbal-repression she must don in fear of those prideful, vindictive fatties.
Forty-one years
This morning marks the forty-first anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion.
I was hoping to do some sort of long-assed post about intersectionality, civil rights, and Sylvia Rivera. Instead, I just want to point out that Rivera (and Marsha P. Johnson, and others) are the reason for the season, as all the kids like to say these days. Rivera has my undying admiration for (among other things) publicly admitting to throwing the second* Molotov cocktail at the Stonewall.
Because I love violent metaphors like Godzilla hates mass transit**, I assume the War On Pride and Queer Assimilation will be won by fabulous floats in the shape of bricks.
--
* I do have a source for this. I apologize for not being able to get a transcript together, but Rivera did a 25-minute 2001 interview on GenderTalk, where she talked about murder, transphobia, Stonewall, and activism in general.
** A simile, I know.
NY Archbishop Undermines Message of Gay-Friendly Parish
Oh, Catholic Church—you never cease to amaze.
For 12 years, parishioners from the gay-friendly St. Francix Xavier Roman Catholic Church in NYC have marched in NYC's Gay Pride Parade with a banner and pamphlets advertising that their parish is welcoming of same-sex couples. But this year, they marched with a blank banner after Archbishop Timothy Dolan told the church's pastor, Reverend Joe Costantino, to keep the church's name out of it.
But it's not because the Catholic Church hates gay people! No, no no—it's because the good archbishop was merely "concerned the church might be seen as endorsing some elements of the gay pride march that may advocate a promiscuous lifestyle."
Parishioners decided to march with a blank banner and t-shirts bearing the church's name instead. The archbishop had no comment.
In all honesty, I don't understand being so culturally connected to Catholicism (or any religion, or any organization) that I would abide such contemptible treatment to stay affiliated with the agents of my marginalization. But I understand that there are people who are that connected, and I hope their admirably saucy insolence brings them some measure of satisfaction after what I imagine was another devastating blow in the fight against ostracization from one of the most intractably homophobic institutions on the planet.
Just like Jesus always wanted for Pride month.
Movies I Steadfastly Refuse to Netflix
I was desperately trying to find something to watch last night, and quite unexpectedly came across the least appealing opening clause of a film synopsis:
Jilted by his girlfriend....
Since I'm sure somewhere in the world, this is an actual Netflix category, permit me to break it down:
Jilted. Dumped?
By. Drat! A preposition. Moving on.....
His. Yay! Male perspective!
Girlfriend. Girlfriend? Maybe this guy's bi, but it's almost as if Hollywood is letting straight folks make movies about themselves. At least the jilted by their girlfriends segment. Yawn.
I swear on the "souls" of a thousand Seacrests that there's nothing the least bit unusual with the rest of the synopsis, either.
Hot Fun in the Summertime
[Image reads: Cornhole Tournament This Saturday 5:00 P.M.]
How's this work? Is it a round-robin type thing? Brackets? How is a winner determined? Are there different divisions for pitchers and catchers? Are you penalized for barebacking? And where do I sign up?
[Cross-posted.]
RIP Senator Robert Byrd
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia, the longest-serving member of the US Congress in history, who served 51 years in the Senate following 6 years in the House, has died at age 92.
Senator Byrd, who was known for his robust speech-making and vast institutional memory, leaves what I'll politely describe as a complicated legacy. He was essentially a Dixiecrat who never turned Republican; he was a member of the KKK when he started his political career in the 1940s, and he filibustered against the Civil Rights Act and other civil rights legislation, on the basis that such legislation infringed on States' Rights—the same bullshit that Democrats, Byrd himself among them, have used to justify failing to support LGBTQI rights in recent years. He supported the Vietnam War, and he was a fan of bipartisan compromise (i.e. acting like a Republican) literally before Barack Obama was even born.
In later years (which is still some 40 years ago—dude was around forever), he had a change of heart about civil rights legislation and began to throw his support behind it. He also changed his mind about interventionist warfare and was a critic of the Iraq War before it became fashionable in the Beltway.
I never got a good feel for Byrd; I can't say I ever really had a guess one way or another whether he was to be respected as a man who learned from his mistakes, or disdained as a man whose principles changed based on political expediency.
Maybe the truth is that there was a little bit of both the penitent and the opportunist to Senator Byrd.
West Virgina currently has a Democratic governor, but whether he appoints Byrd's replacement depends on when the seat vacancy is declared. If it before this Saturday, there will be a special election held to elect Byrd's replacement; if the declaration is made next week, Governor Joe Manchin will pick Byrd's successor. Reportedly, Manchin wants the seat himself, but will not appoint himself, so look for him to appoint a place-holder to keep the seat warm until the next election.
[Note: Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of Senator Byrd's work and life in this thread.]
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