Shakesville

An Unkept Promise

I was just reading this story about continuing protests in Iran, and riot police clashing with demonstrators who have passionately and defiantly ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guard to desist, and this bit just broke my heart:

"Thirty years after the revolution, this is what we get," one man said dejectedly, watching the noisy and chaotic scene as he remembered the birth and the promise of Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.

It reminds me of reading that Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji said in Afshin Molavi's The Soul of Iran (which I've not read) that the revolution "promised us heaven, but...created a hell on earth."

Daily Kitteh

I spent my weekend planting trees. Eight of them in my backyard. The willow below now stands in the sight line between my patio and the neighbor's. It serves to obscure the view between the two houses. Or, as Liss put it upon seeing pictures of the layout "Dear Neighbors: I hate you and don't want to have to look at you. Love, Deeky." That may be a bit harsh: I don't hate them, I just like my privacy. And I think their patio could use a good cleaning.

Less than 30 minutes after getting the willow upright, Kali gives her approval of the new tree:

"Okay, so how to I get down from here?"

In Which I Am Haunted by a Strange Little Man from the '90s and Harassed by Meatballs

This weekend, Kenny Blogginz came over for some Ninja Warrior marathonin' with Iain and me—and he brought with him a terrifying relic of days gone by, which he'd recently rescued from the home of a friend, whose sister had it tacked on her wall once upon a time (sans irony).

At first he merely teased us with glimpses of the artifact…

…and then, oh lord, it was soon becoming all too clear what he'd brought into our midst:

The hideous thing was slowly unfurled:

And then revealed in all its dubious glory:

Why, Maude, why?!

Now, I'm not saying it's definitely related, but when our dinner arrived, the Italian sausage and meatballs we'd ordered (to accompany what turned out to be three metric fucktons of spaghetti Iain and I will be eating every meal for the foreseeable future) were arranged in such a way that I was immediately in need of a fainting couch.

Actual meat.

Lid.
COINCIDENCE?! I think not.

In Shit You Can't Make Up

"Conference" spelled wrong on banner at Pat Buchanan-hosted event for "English-only" advocates:

I'm not suggesting that not being able to spell (or edit) everything correctly makes one a bad person or in any way less than. (Maude knows I make enough mistakes around here!) I am, however, suggesting that the irony inherent to "English-only" fuckwads of the Moral Majority—who do attach superiority to language—misspelling something on their own banner, thus exposing themselves as contemptible according to their own asinine calculations, ought to be hilariously embarrassing enough to make them rethink their position.

Of course, in the grand tradition of conservative double-standards, what would be contemptible—and evidence of Everything Wrong With Multiculturalism ZOMG!—if done by a brown-skinned immigrant is just an honest mistake when done by an upstanding member of the Moral Majority.

What's the Joke Again?

I'm continuing to read and hear arguments about Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming film Brüno that assert the character itself isn't homophobic—while at the same time seeing promotional materials for the film that completely undermine that premise. The New York Times, for example, runs this slideshow, which contains promotional images such as these:

—accompanied by text like:

Ultimately the tension surrounding "Brüno" boils down to the worry that certain viewers won't understand that the joke is on them and will leave the multiplex with their homophobia validated.

Gee, I can't imagine how gay advocates/allies could possibly be worried about that.

[Arriving at the MTV Movie Awards (top left), and arriving at premieres in Berlin (top center), Madrid (top right), Amsterdam (bottom left), London (bottom center), and Paris (bottom right).]

Sacha Baron Cohen wants us to believe that Brüno isn't a central part of the joke, but he composed the character from spare parts of the worst gay stereotypes, promotes the film with images of the character that heavily rely on the premise that anything gay/feminine is inherently absurd, and shows up to public appearances dressed in ass-bearing glittery gold lederhosen.

If the character isn't a central part of the joke, then why is he so easy for homophobes to laugh at?

Something's that really getting the hell under my skin about this movie is the evident total lack of even passing consideration given to the potential powder keg of audiences comprised largely of gay men, who have been overtly reassured that Brüno is a pro-gay movie, and straight homophobic men, who have been implicitly reassured that Brüno is an anti-gay movie.

It seems remarkably irresponsible to me to actively court stamps of approval from gay groups, in order to ensure that gay men will see the film, while also promoting the stereotype of the sexually aggressive predatory gay, which piques precisely the sort of straight homophobic men who invoke the "gay panic" defense after they've beaten or killed a gay man they perceived to be propositioning them.

I can't be the only person who's concerned about bringing these two demographics together to see a film in which it's anything but clear that violent homophobia isn't being endorsed. After all, the film seems quite clearly not to be about exposing homophobia via merely exposing straight men to a gay character, but provoking straight men via sexual aggression into situations in which they feel physically threatened, e.g. crawling into their sleeping bag or dropping your pants in front of them.

Unless we're meant to believe that most gay men are such wanton sex fiends that they would be just fine and dandy with a naked man they hardly know crawling uninvited into their beds or dropping his pants in a professional setting. That's certainly the flipside of the implication that straight men who react with discomfort in such situations are homophobic, as opposed to averse to unwanted sexual aggression.

That's not about homophobia; that's about consent. Or the lack thereof.

Which brings me to another problem with this clusterfucktastrophe: Making Brüno a sexually aggressive gay man not only reinforces one of the most pernicious stereotypes about gay men—which, aside from hardly being gay-positive, also potentially endangers its own gay audience members—but also effectively serves to mask the reality that straight men are the least likely victims and most likely perpetrators of sexual violence, even as the film itself serves as a sort of rape apologia by turning sexual aggression and low-level sexual assault into comedy fodder.

Coupled with the demonization of the feminine as the basis for much of the humor, what's left is quite possibly one of the most dangerous films for gay men, trans men, women, and androgynes—all disproportionately targeted by sexual violence—in recent memory.

And none of them have film crews following them around, or the inherent "off-switch" of playing gay when you're really not, to protect them, unlike the brave social commentator Sacha Baron Cohen is alleged to be.

Spudsy emailed me earlier today (which I am quoting with his permission): "I went to the movies on Saturday and they had a preview for Brüno, and sure as shit, people were laughing at him, not at the supposed exposed homophobia. In fact, they didn't show any of the "homophobes" in the preview; it was all about him acting outrageous."

So…what's the joke again?

Or should I ask: Who's the butt of the joke again?

[Previously on Brüno: One, Two, Three.]

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, shameless pushers of Tim Burton's awesomeness.

Recommended Reading:

Nisi Shawl: Dear Father

Veronica: Sunday at NOW 2009

Dave: If Glenn Beck thinks progressives are toxic, what kind of America does he want?

Latoya: "Fallen Princess" Jasmine Raises Questions about Stereotypes

Lasley: It Was Supposed to Be Funny: Death Fat Contextualized

Chris: Cat vs. Bat

Leave your links in comments...

Krug

In his latest column, Health Care Showdown, Krugman takes on the Democrats who can't wean themselves from the corporate teat:

The Republicans, with a few possible exceptions, have decided to do all they can to make the Obama administration a failure. Their role in the health care debate is purely that of spoilers who keep shouting the old slogans — Government-run health care! Socialism! Europe! — hoping that someone still cares.

...Yet it remains all too possible that health care reform will fail, as it has so many times before. ...The real risk is that health care reform will be undermined by "centrist" Democratic senators who either prevent the passage of a bill or insist on watering down key elements of reform.

...What the balking Democrats seem most determined to do is to kill the public option, either by eliminating it or by carrying out a bait-and-switch, replacing a true public option with something meaningless. For the record, neither regional health cooperatives nor state-level public plans, both of which have been proposed as alternatives, would have the financial stability and bargaining power needed to bring down health care costs.

Whatever may be motivating these Democrats, they don’t seem able to explain their reasons in public.

Thus Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska initially declared that the public option — which, remember, has overwhelming popular support — was a "deal-breaker." Why? Because he didn't think private insurers could compete: "At the end of the day, the public plan wins the day." Um, isn't the purpose of health care reform to protect American citizens, not insurance companies?

Go read the whole thing. As usual, he's spot-on.

Iran Open Thread

Today's big news: Iranian Guards Issue Warning as Vote Errors Are Admitted (emphasis mine).

Threatening to crush dissent, the powerful Revolutionary Guards warned protesters Monday that they would face a "revolutionary confrontation" if they returned to the streets in their challenge to the presidential election results and their defiance of the country's leadership.

The warning, on the Guards' Web site, was issued despite an admission by Iran's most senior panel of election monitors that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters, according to a state television report two days after the country’s supreme leader pronounced the ballot to be fair.

The discrepancies, the most sweeping acknowledged so far by the authorities, could affect some three million ballots of what the government says was an 85 percent turnout numbering 40 million voters.

But the authorities insisted that the discrepancies did not violate Iranian law. The Guardian Council, charged with certifying the election, said it was not clear whether they would decisively change the result.

So, the number of votes in 50 cities surpass the number of voters, but that's no problem, because, according to the council's Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, "voter turnout of above 100% in some cities is a normal phenomenon because there is no legal limitation for people to vote for the presidential elections in another city or province to which people often travel or commute." And that doesn't violate Iranian law? Oof. (More here.)

Steve Benen also notes a few other important goings-on [trigger warning]:

The crackdown on journalists also continued yesterday, with 24 reporters and bloggers taken into custody, including Newsweek's Maziar Bahari.

And the video of "Neda," a young woman who died on a Tehran street after reportedly being shot by Iranian security forces, has quickly become an iconic image and a rallying cry for demonstrators. Time's report argues that her death "may have changed everything."

The painful video is online, but if you haven't seen it, please know that it's extremely disturbing and is most certainly not safe for work.

Please feel free to leave other notable links and info in comments.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Bananaman

Happy Birthday, Portly Dyke!

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
You look like a portly dyyyy-yyyyke!!!
And you've got a portly duke 'tude, too!!!

Happy birthday, grrl!
[Portly gets a cheeseburger birthday cake because at least 60% of our conversations end with: "I'm hungry; I think I'm going to make the Beloved and I some cheeseburgers!"]

Happy Fathers' Day

Papa Shakes and Me, May 1977
Happy Fathers' Day* to all the Shaker fathers and grandfathers and godfathers and uncles and male guardians of various description whose love and care, for the fortunate among us, made us who we are.

--------------------

* Being celebrated in America and some other places today; it is celebrated on other days in other countries.

Summer Sunrise

Welcome to summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Demand MS Reunite Mother & Baby Daughter!

Via BfP, this Request for Action from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA):

Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to her baby girl in November of 2008 at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS. She speaks very little Spanish and no English, as her native language is Chatino, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, Mexico that is spoken by some 50,000 people.

The hospital provided her with an “interpreter” who is from Puerto Rico and does not speak Chatino, the language of the mother. Because of the language barrier and the misunderstanding by the hospital’s interpreter who only spoke Spanish and English, a social worker was called in.

The hospital’s social worker reported “evidence” of abuse and neglect based on the following:

* The “baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;”
* The “mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula.” (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* “She does not speak English which puts baby in danger.”

Ms. Baltazar Cruz’s baby was snatched from her after birth at the hospital and given to an affluent attorney couple from the posh Ocean Springs who cannot have children.

The authorities made no effort to locate an interpreter in her native tongue. MIRA located an interpreter who is fluent in Chatino in Los Angeles CA and has interviewed the mother extensively with the interpreters help. The mother has been accused of being poor and not being able to provide for this child. No one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.

Meanwhile, there is word in the Gulf Coast community that the “parents to be,” have already had a baby shower celebrating the “blessed arrival” of this STOLEN child!

PLEASE MAKE CALLS & WRITE LETTERS DEMANDING THE SAFE RETURN OF BABY & REUNITE WITH HER MOTHER

If you believe this is unjust and outrageous and goes against all moral and religious beliefs and values, please call or write to the presiding Judge and the MS Department of Human Services to STOP this ILLEGAL ADOPTION! Stealing US born babies from immigrant parents is a growing epidemic in the United States. Many Latino parents have lost their children this way!

Honorable Judge Sharon Sigalas
Youth Justice Court of Jackson County
4903 Telephone Rd.
Pascagoula, MS 39567
(228)762-7370

Children’s Justice Act Program
MS Dept. of Human Services
750 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39202
Call (601)359-4499 and ask for Barbara Proctor

For more information please call MIRA at: (601) 968-5182

MIRA Organizing Coordinator
Victoria Cintra at (228) 234-1697 or Organizer Socorro Leos at(228) 731-0831

This made me so angry and reminded me about this article I'd seen some time ago--different circumstances, same disregard for/devaluing of immigrant women's mothering.

The Virtual Pub Is Open

TFIF, Shakers!

Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!

LOL

Someone unearths a 1986 interview in which Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says she's found that male colleagues unconsciously discriminate against women when promoting, because a man in a male-dominated profession, who's had almost exclusively male mentors and peers, will see in male candidates the closest reflection of what they've come to regard as the standard for the job.

Conservative cesspool of journalistic sewage Townhall.com posts the video under the headline "Sotomayor 1986: I Found Men Unconsciously Discriminate Against Women" and with a single line of commentary: "Obviously, this woman has an unchanging worldview."

Hey, dipshits: If misogynist men would change their worldviews, then we could change ours!

And happily would.

Iran Open Thread

So, I've spent much of the afternoon reading a metric fuckton of stuff about the various goings-on in Iran and what our government's response should/n't be, and I'm quite honestly not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said better somewhere else already.

All I really got at the moment is awe at what's happening in Iran, where people are profoundly engaged in a way I find thrilling, scary, and enviable, all at once.

In any case, despite my not having anything brilliant to say, someone else around here almost certainly will, so here's an open thread. Have at it.

Daily Kitteh

"Huh...What?...Snerk...Phbbbt."

News from Shakes Manor

Earlier today, two superbly helpful and extremely nice gentlemen from Cromcrast were sent out to fix mah internetz, and, when they were done, I emailed Iain with an update: "So internet is back up and running. They re-wired the place directly from the pole to the back of the house, and someone will be out to bury the wire (which is better quality wire than we had before) within the next 7-10 days."

To which Iain responded: "Cool. Check this out on your new superduperfast Intertoobz."

LOL. I live with the nerdiest nerd in all of nerddom.

Naturally, that is a compliment.

A Rhetorical Question for President Obama

Is it not possible that, while your administration is under fire (and deservedly so) from LGBTQI rights advocates, perhaps it was not the wisest idea to write a piece for Parade magazine for Fathers' Day that makes sweeping generalizations about fatherless families?

'Cuz, you know, even though it's awesome, seriously awesome, to have a president who can and will speak plainly about the consequences of fathers who abandon their families, and shirk their responsibilities, and aren't emotionally engaged in their children's lives, no less a president who can draw a pointed picture of how endemic paternal absence can devastate entire communities, it sucks eggs when he does it without taking one sentence to note that he's talking about families where fathers have left a hole, and not talking about two-parent families in which both parents have always been women, or two-parent families in which a father has become a mother (or a Maddy), or single-parent families with a single mother by choice and design.

I'm just sayin'.

Again Let Us Contemplate Why There Are Not More Girl Gamers

The print version of the well-known gaming magazine EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) folded earlier this year, and rather than a refund for their subscriptions, its readers have just begun receiving issues of Maxim instead.

It seems that this first replacement issue comes with a note letting subscribers know they can opt for a prorated refund instead of more issues of the not-completely-nude-but-still-smutty men's mag, but this option means little, since they've already sent a message to each and every one of their female subscribers that their only important readers were dudes who like boobies.

Also not wanted: Gay male gamers and feminist straight dudez. But the industry isn't rife with misogyny and homophobia, we SWEARS it!

[Previously: Still Not Wanted: Girl Geeks, Over at Shakes Manor..., Liss Isn't the Only One Who Writes Letters, Fat Princess Greatest Hits, "Women are treated better than men online," says NerdBoobLoot-man, Rape for Sale.]