Following up on the Greatest American Band, what's the greatest British band?
If you don't already know my answer to this question, you really haven't been paying attention!
Question of the Day
Hardballz
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's Comment is free America, "Counting out women," about Chris Matthews' predictably misogynist reaction to the news that the stimulus package contained (past tense*) funding for family planning, and how his misogyny renders him manifestly unfit to do his job:
Yesterday's show was no exception, as Matthews discussed the stimulus package (or, as he calls it here, Obama's "big package") with Robert Wexler, a Democratic congressman from Florida, complaining that the money allocated for family planning is just a bunch of "odds and ends and cats and dogs".Read the whole thing here.Congressman Wexler why isn't it just, why isn't it just what we thought it was going to be...infrastructure, roads, bridges, stuff that everybody agrees on needs to be fixed and creates real jobs for real people that pay decent salaries. Why don't we spend all the money on that stuff that people can see rather than all these odds and ends and cats and dogs?According to Matthews, the only thing "real people" can "see" are infrastructure projects and the jobs they create – which, as has been pointed out by Linda Hirshman and discussed by Echidne here, are jobs that will disproportionately benefit men. Funding for family planning (arguably) primarily benefits women, rendering it, in Matthews' estimation, a pointless waste of money.
..."It sounds a little like China," he notes, conflating the Democrats' plan to provide women a breadth of reproductive choices with a state-mandated reproductive limitation which has resulted in the mass murder and abandonment of female infants.
It's like a crêpe of misogyny, double the deliciousness, with a flaky pancake of ignorance wrapped around a gooey inside of unapologetic enmity.
--------------------
* This was written this morning—although I'm pleased, ahem, to report that Matthews has spent this afternoon making the same stupid noises even after the funding has been ripped out.
Iconic Bush
U.S. President George W. Bush re-enters the White House East room to say goodbye to staff and friends after his primetime address in Washington, January 15, 2009. Bush on Thursday defended his actions to avert a collapse of the financial system and protect America from another terrorist attack as he mounted a farewell bid to polish his troubled legacy. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)A final iconic image of Bush from my favorite White House photographer, Jason Reed.
The image comes from this New York Times collection of images of Bush throughout his presidency, which is really worth a look for many reasons, some amusing and some heartbreaking.
[Passed on by Shaker Smadin, who hat tips Vance at Edge of the West.]
How to Break My Heart
by Shaker SapphireCate
When I was 20, I weighed 175 pounds. By 23 I was hovering around 145. Now (with the help of cheddar and chocolate) I can keep my weight up around 130. Losing all that weight wasn't my choice and happened without effort, illness or intent – I hit adulthood and my metabolism sped up and ran away with my DD boobs. When I was 16, I thought being a size 4 would fix all my problems; but, as a size 4, I can no longer shut my eyes and picture myself.
I have lost my internal image of myself and that is deeply, deeply unsettling.
My unexpected shrinking is the lens through which I read this column. Lucy Cavendish, food editor of the Observer (the Guardian on Sunday) Newspaper, describes exactly the same feelings of loss of self-image I have, the same feeling like your outside doesn't match the picture of you in your head, when she says:
I feel like a thin person - a thin but fit person, someone who can leap high and then flee like a gazelle - who has had layers of flab put round me.The column I wish she had written would have touched on her bouts of anorexia brought on by insecurity and emotional upheaval only to turn to how her love of the sensual pleasures afforded by her job enriched her relationships with her family and herself. Instead, she has penned a heartbreaking 1000 words which seem like nothing so much as an effort to put herself back into the mindset where not eating made sense.
I want to cry when I read sentences like this:
In fact, in April 2001 when I became the editor of this magazine and before I actually had to admit to being a happy glutton, I thought I was pretty trim. I was a size 12. When I went clothes shopping, it never occurred to me that I might not be able to fit into things. But editing OFM changed all that, mainly because it let me do that exact thing I have always wanted to do, which is to eat.As a reader, I cannot reconcile the woman who describes rabbit-and-polenta-gasms (in such glowing terms that I can practically see the food steaming in front of me) with the one who looks into her future and sees vegetable soup and Weight Watchers meetings stretching out to infinity. I cannot stand that our society is one in which women learn from childhood to judge themselves inferior, to deny their desires, to ignore the voices of the people who love them.
Lucy Cavendish is clearly aware that her current weight fixation is deeply rooted, but she is not self-aware enough to listen to her own child:
Sometimes, when he catches me looking at myself in the mirror, he says, "You are not fat, Mum. Why do you worry so much when you look so pretty?"Every time my partner catches me looking in the mirror worrying about my shrinking boobs, my visible ribs or my sharp hip bones, he kisses whatever part of me is causing me to fret. He tells me I am beautiful. After 3 years, I am starting to believe him.
One's outside changing before one's inside can recalculate a familiar image of self is really, really disorienting. None of us working through that process need to have it exponentially complicated by the exterior pressures of what we "should" look like, "should" eat, and "should" feel about ourselves. The internal struggle is enough without the external expectations.
External acceptance helps.
And because it helps, I hope Lucy Cavendish's son is as persistent and as repetitive, because I am sure she is as pretty as he thinks, and she (and I and you and all the other women whose bodies don't look the way we think they should) deserves that rabbit and polenta, that cheese, that wine.
I want to thank Liss for inviting me to write this guest post – I am an infrequent commenter (but religious reader) at Shakesville. This community renews my hope for the future on a daily if not hourly basis.
What?
Normally, I like xkcd. I went to check it out today and was left with "Huh?", so I emailed Liss and asked her what she thought. She didn't get it either.
Check today's out here.
So, I'll ask you all what I asked Liss: Is there some actual humor there that I'm missing?
Feminism 101: Girl Math
1 girl = Acceptable token.
1 girl + 1 girl = Catfight.
1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl = Slippery slope.
1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl = Emasculating vortex.
1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl + 1 girl = War zone.
[This post inspired by the ongoing and increasingly ludicrous media-created competition between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, who, I'm guessing, don't give a flying flip about each other, but are nonetheless cast as opponents, rivals, veritable nemeses because our culture provides so precious few narratives about women in shared spaces, about female allies, about women who deeply love other women, about sisterhood. And its lovely, lovely benefits.]
Did you know...
It takes three white men to equal the intellect of one Michele Norris.
Or that Michele Norris breaks the news just by thinking about it.
Find these facts and more at Michele Norris Facts--a tribute to award-winning journalist and host of NPR's All Things Considered, Michele Norris, and a send-up of the "facts" about one of Shakesville's favorite culture warriors, Chuck Norris.
The last person to mis-pronounce Michele Norris’ first name was shot in the face by Dick Cheney. True story.
What is it With Republicans...
...that they're not happy with anything unless they've figured out some new way to fuck over the poor?
WASHINGTON – House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.As dday points out:
Several officials said a final decision was expected on Tuesday, coinciding with Obama's scheduled visit to the Capitol for separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans.
The provision has emerged as a point of contention among Republicans, who criticize it as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy.
The report is that Obama personally called Henry Waxman, who has jurisdiction over the provision, and told him to ditch it. So now we're listening to Republicans who have no imagination and don't understand the economy. Family planning is a demand-based service that requires staffing. That means jobs. Jobs that now won't be created or will be eliminated by the states because it makes Republicans feel icky.Not to mention the fact that financially stable families might, you know, spend and stimulate the economy. Nope, not gonna happen. But, hey, the bill is still full of ineffective corporate tax breaks.
At least $23.8 billion in corporate tax breaks have been included in the $825 billion economic recovery package in order to win backing from key business groups and their Congressional allies, even though the team that put the legislation together believes the breaks have little value in stimulating the economy and creating jobs.You know, all of those people that have our best interests in mind.
Top beneficiaries include banks, telecommunication companies, railroads and oil, hotels, casinos, and both commercial and residential real estate firms.
The New York Post reports today that Citgroup — the recent recipient of a $45 billion government bailout — is about to receive a brand new $50 million corporate jet:Fuck these Republicans.The French-made luxury jet seats up to 12 in a plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center, according to Dassault’s sales literature. … There are just nine of these top-of-the-line models in the United States, with Dassault’s European factory churning out three to four 7Xs a month.
“Why should I help you when what you write will be used to the detriment of our company?” replied Bill McNamee, head of CitiFlight Inc., the subsidiary that manages Citigroup’s corporate fleet, when asked to comment about the new 7X.
Secret Muslim!!!!!11!eleventy-one!!!
This morning, President Barack Hussein Obama chose the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news satellite channel for "his first formal television interview as president," during which he said his "job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy."
The interview underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the previous administration.Naturally, rightwing heads are exploding.
...Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."
...Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.
The new president said he felt it was important to "get engaged right away" in the Middle East and had directed [his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell] to talk to "all the major parties involved." His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview.
"What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama told the interviewer.
Gee, these aren't the first signs of OBAMA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME we're seeing, are they?
Heh.
Oh, Snap!
My Congressional Boyfriend, Rep. John Conyers, has subpoenaed Karl Rove, "requiring him to testify regarding his role in the Bush Administration's politicization of the Department of Justice, including the US Attorney firings and the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman."
Mr. Rove has previously refused to appear in response to a Judiciary Committee subpoena, claiming that even former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. That "absolute immunity" position was supported by then-President Bush, but it has been rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates and President Obama has previously dismissed the claim as "completely misguided."That whole "executive privilege, schmexecutive schmivilege" thing is going to get real relevant real quick, Shakers.
"I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today's action is an important step along the way," said Mr. Conyers. Noting that the change in administration may impact the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove in this long-running dispute, Mr. Conyers added "Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it's time for him to talk."
Shaxicon
Back in December, I asked for everyone to note what they'd like to see included/defined in the Shaxicon: A Shakesville Compendium for N00bs. I'm about to get started on this project in earnest, so please see the compilation below (and the existing list here) and let me know if there's anything I've forgotten.
At the end is a shorter list of terms not specific/unique to Shakes which we nonetheless use a lot. Please feel free to make suggestions for terms that should be included there, too.
All In
Assdrip
Blub
Boob Pistol of Disdain
Bowl of Farts
Clusterfucktastrophe
Drip of Dogwank
Fainting Couch/Pearl Clutching/Mint Julip/Smelling Salts
Fauxgressive
Flounce/Echo Flounce/Epic Flounce
Fooking Hoff oon a fooking Tschoosday.
Fuckneck
Gaypocalypse
Here, there is only pie.
Hey your gay
Heyyy! Everybody! [Gibberish]! Wooo!
I am Spartacus.
I jizz in my pants.
Kumbaya, bitchez.
Learn to logic
lol your gay
lol/sob
Maude
Misogybag
MREWYB
Nieztschean bake sales
o.oP
OFFS
Orientrollism
Pathetic Anger Bread
Petulant's Kitty Bible Dip
President Mondo Fucko
Retrofuck Jackhole
Ronpaulbuxxx
Roomba
Sodomy Squadron
Stinkabetes
Take your complaints to the management /Julius
Teaspooning
That's some Benjamin Buttons shit!
The Cult of the Feminazi Cooter
This is gay, your all gay.
titty-wrap hugs {{{OTWHRecipientO}}}
Trigger/Triggering/Trigger Warning
Vagynomite
Venus Fly Vagina
Who monitors your bevis?
--------------------------------------
Bingo
FA
FSM
I am aware of all internet traditions.
IIRC
IMO
MRA
Nice Guy
POC/WOC
Series of tubes.
Teh
The Internet/The Google
Troll/trolling
YMMV
In Which a Professional Urologist Calls My Partner a “Sissy” for Eating Yogurt
Okay, I was sitting here writing Something Completely Different when Melissa’s Quote of the Day appeared. Then my partner L. came home with a ridiculous tale of how Dr. S., a urologist who often has lunch in one of the restaurants L. manages, laughed at him and called him a “sissy” for eating yogurt.
Yogurt isn’t manly man food. Yogurt is woman food!
L. also informs me that colorful or decorative food items such as parsley, orange slices, or other garnishes are also not considered properly “manly” by many of his customers—some even specify that no garnish should appear on their strong, manly plates.
I don’t know if Dr. S. has really internalized the “yogurt = woman food” message from advertising, or if he was merely using a popular cultural trope to take a sideswipe at L.’s masculinity. What I do know is that whenever L. calls out Dr. S.’s frequent sexist and/or ultra-rightwing comments, Dr. S. has no response ready and can only splutter and change the subject. So, I think the “sissy” comment was retribution; that Dr. S.'s weapon of choice was the old impugn-his-masculinity gambit; and that he just used food to do it.
Here’s the take-home message: when someone calls your gender conformity into question, it is always about control. That person is trying to control you or to feel more in control hirself. I am trying to think of an exception from my experience, and I can’t come up with one. So, while it’s easy to laugh at Dr. S. and his sissy-yogurt nonsense, it’s important to remember that nobody who makes this kind of “joke” is ever really “just” joking.
And, since no reference to the feminization of yogurt is complete without Sarah Haskins’s Target Women: Yogurt Edition, here it is (transcript is below the fold, and it’s pretty long):
Intro: Sexy... clean...cool...fun...healthy...young...underpants! Target: Women!
Announcer: Marketing has gotten so sophisticated these days that advertisers can aim for 19-year-old males with one year of college education who love cheese but hate rap music and live in Montana. Then there are some demographics that advertisers still like to hit with the obvious bat. Like, an entire gender. Here’s Sarah Haskins with Target: Women.
Haskins: Hey! Why am I holding all this yogurt? Because I’m a woman! And Yogurt is the official food of women. Thanks. Just turn on your TV day or night—but mostly day, unless you’re watching Lifetime—and there’s gonna be some ladies just chilling out, eating some yogurt, and appealing to our Inner Woman, to get us to do it too.
Commercial:
Woman A: Mmm. This is good!
Woman B: No. This is really good
Woman A: This is like, private island good
Woman B: No, this is like, long massage good!
Woman A: First kiss good!
Woman B: Shoe-shopping good!
Haskins: Say more stuff I generically relate to, then go to a wedding!
Second Commercial, same actresses:
Woman B: This is like cute best man good.
Woman A: No—this is like burning this dress good!
Woman B: Never having to stand in line at the ladies’ room good.
Woman A: Not catching the bouquet good!
Haskins: It’s Who-serves-yogurt-at-their-wedding good! It’s substitute-for-human-experience good. It’s being first woman president good (to HRC) Eat it!
Voice-over: Yogurt can do anything!
Haskins: Yogurt-eaters come from every race, but just one socioeconomic class: the class that wears gray hoodies; it’s that “I have a Master’s, but then I got married” look. These ladies are on diets.
Kitchen Commercial:
Yogurt woman: My diet? Well, yesterday I had an Apple Turnover. Well, that, and Boston Cream Pie, White Chocolate Strawberry...
Dry-cleaners’ Commercial:
Yogurt woman:...The Apple Turnover, and the White Chocolate Strawberry, and the Key Lime Pie!
Haskins: Get it? It’s not real food—it’s yogurt! The dry-cleaning lady doesn’t get it!
Dry-cleaning lady: So, you need them let out?
Yogurt woman: No, in!
Dry-cleaning lady: Out?
Yogurt woman: No, in!
Haskins: Who’s on first? Yogurt is!
VO: Yogurt power!
Haskins: But, maybe after you eat all 12 flavors, you feel a little, ehhhh...? Don’t worry; Jamie Lee Curtis understands.
Jamie Lee: First, the bad news: 87% of this country suffers from digestive issues like occasional irregularity.
Haskins: She read that in Blue Paper Daily! But now Jamie, tell me the good news!
Jamie Lee: But now the good news—I just discovered a yogurt called Activia that can help.
Man’s VO: With the natural culture Bifidus regularis, Activia, eaten every day is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in just 2 weeks.
Haskins: It makes your insides, go out! And if you’ve opened the refrigerator of a woman over 40 lately, just move over that half-eaten rotisserie chicken and yes, you’ll se Activia. It’s very popular. So popular, that everyone else decided to make one. There’s Fiber One, and then there’s YoPlus, the funnest yogurt ever.
Woman’s commercial voice over: When you feel good inside, you feel good all over. Try YoPlus for ten days, and you might just feel like—
Haskins: I’m gonna shit my pants!
VO: That’s good—And Bad!
Haskins: MMmmmm—yogurt! What else could a woman possibly need?
Quote of the Day
"It's a guy's world. You can't get it at home; you can't get it at your workplace anymore. But you can get it at Twin Peaks."—Front Burner Restaurants CEO Randy DeWitt, whose Twin Peaks restaurant chain is fixing to give Hooters' a run for its money ($997 million in sales last year alone) with its "imaginary story" about "a guy and a girl in a mountain hunting lodge," menu of manly food like "burgers, steaks, and wings," décor featuring "river rocks and mounted trophy animals," and waitresses dressed in "flannel shirts tied at the waist and shorts."
Isn't it good to know there are still heroes willing to provide havens on this Maude-forsaken earth where men are allowed to treat women as sex objects with impunity, the way God Mother Nature The PatriarchyTM intended?
[H/T to Shaker Constant Comment, who asks, "Is it really 2009?" I believe so—at least in some parts of the country.]
lol your climate policies
It's like a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps unraveling...and unraveling...and unraveling...
President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for new rules to force auto makers to produce more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars.Of course they did. To which Obama responded: "I won. Shut the fuck up."
The president told the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider immediately a request by California to impose its own strict limits on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for contributing to global warming.
..."The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Obama said at the White House, taking a stab at his predecessor's policies.
"California has shown bold and bipartisan leadership through its effort to 21st century standards. And over a dozen states have followed its lead."
Obama's directive, which is likely to result in a formal change in coming months, could prompt as many as 18 states to follow California's lead by putting into effect tailpipe emissions standards that are tougher than federal requirements.
The president directed the Department of Transportation to move forward with setting vehicle fuel efficiency standards for model year 2011 by March, giving automakers an 18-month period to prepare.
...Democratic lawmakers in Washington hailed the measure as a step toward energy independence and clean air, but some Republicans accused him of setting back the struggling U.S. auto industry.
This Blog is Full of Mayhem and Foolishness! MMM!
Since I've had to write a couple of posts about women-hating already today, I thought I'd take a moment to do a little woman-loving teaspooning…
Shakers, can we talk about how much I totally love Niecy Nash?
If she looks familiar, but you can't quite put your finger on whence you know her, it could be as Bernie's tragic sister Benita on The Bernie Mac Show, or perhaps it's as Deputy Raineesha Williams on Comedy Central's Reno 911, whose allure and talent are only rivaled by her glorious (prosthetic) bum.
Then again, it could be as the delectably sassy host of Clean House on the Style network, where she is equal parts conduit for our vicarious horror at uncontained clutter and compassionate psychologist, getting down to the underlying reasons why the clutter has been allowed to run amok and overtake the lives into which she's been invited for a day or two to help facilitate a Cntl + Alt + Delete on a ginormous life mess.
And if you don't recognize her, what I can tell you about Niecy Nash is this: She's awesome. Hilarious, clever, and wildly charismatic. I just love to watch her. She is joyful, and she makes me grin.
She also gives good interview:
Tony Cox: Your voluptuousness—that's a good thing, but is it also a burden for you?I love her. That is all.
Niecy Nash: No, I mean, it's what is it—what are you gonna do? … I mean, even when I was, you know, I lost 45 pounds a few years ago, and, you know, up, down, whatever. You know, I'm just happy to be here another day. The outer wrappings are gonna do what they're gonna do, you know what I mean? And there's always gonna be somebody who like it!
Killing Women Is Totally Hot. And Cute!
Just ask the makers of Wode perfume, who are marketing their product, which features the pointless novelty of briefly turning the skin blue on contact before the color disappears, using the following images:
[Click to embiggen.]
The whole vanishing pigment business is so inane, so utterly without reason or purpose, that it's entirely possible for me to imagine that the imagery came first and the ooh-blue-now-you-see-it-now-it's-gone hook followed thereafter.
Either way, I continue to be amazed by the nonchalance in using overt and suggestive images of sexualized violence against women to sell products—especially to sell products to women.
Relatedly, Shaker Angelos recently sent me the link to this item:
Aside from what I'm going to guess are the fairly obvious problems with pitching an item of clothing that declares a woman's body a crime scene, in a culture where as many as 1 out of 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes, this product is being sold on a website I won't link called Girlz Lyfe, which otherwise hawks kitschy gear that appeals to the "grown-up girl" set—lots of childish pink toys and accessories, adorned with kittens and ladybugs and shaped like hearts, the plastic crap that's increasingly being sold to young women on the premise that it's "cute" to portray oneself as a vulnerable child rather than a strong woman. (You won't threaten potential suitors with a Hello Kitty keychain!)
Finding a crime scene scarf among the girlish toys is profoundly disconcerting, not because sexual assault is not a part of many girls' childhoods—unfortunately, I know that to not be the case—but because it's offered as just another "cute" accessory. Dress yourself up as a pre-pubescent victim of violent crime by pairing our crime scene scarf with our teddy bear backpack and ballerina hairpin!
Shudder.
A Culture of Violence Against Women: We're soaking in it.
