Question of the Day
Who played your favorite film deity? Morgan Freeman as God in the Bruce and Evan Almighties? Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ? Alanis Morissette as God in Dogma? Ursula Andress as Aphrodite in Clash of the Titans?
Interpreting the question literally, I suppose I'd cast my vote for George Burns in the Oh God trilogy, which I thought was hilarious when I was a kid (though I suppose I might be horrified if I watched them now). Interpreting it figuratively, I've got to go with Vincent D'Onofrio as Thor in Adventures in Babysitting.
It Doesn't Wash Off
The memo about post-racial America didn't get to The Valley Swim Club in northeast Philadelphia.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.The president of the club issued a statement that didn't help matters much.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.Paging Dr. Freud...
I'm pretty sure that there are a few lawyers among the membership of The Valley Swim Club. That's good, because they're going to need one.
Cross-posted.
Quote of the Day
"[Rep. Steve King (R-IA)]'s lone vote against acknowledging the role slaves played in the construction of the United States Capitol is a slap in the face to the very sacrifices and contributions African Americans made to our nation. This is the latest in a long line of erratic behavior from King that has made him an embarrassment to Iowans and to the Republican Party."—DCCC national press secretary Ryan Rudominer, on King's latest foray into the totally fucking absurd, which he ludicrously tried to justify by claiming he was somehow defending "America's Christian heritage" (which he natch also referred to as "our Judeo-Christian heritage").
Wonkette gets 1,000 points for the best headline on King's idiocy: "Lone Fartsack Votes Against Resolution to Thank Slaves for Building the Capitol."
Daily Kitteh
"Look into my eyes...you are getting sleepy...
but not so sleepy that you can't scratch my head!"
(That image is not Photoshopped, btw. The flash just reflected really weirdly in her lovely green eyes.)
Feel the Homomentum!
Shaker Daphne emails and Shaker Scott Madin leaves in comments the news that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed a lawsuit in federal court suing the federal government on the basis that the "Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit."
I have written probably two dozen times over the last five years about how this very conflict was inevitable, given both parties' "states' rights" punt on same-sex marriage. There are too many federal rights conferred by marriage, and access to benefits contingent on marriage, for a state-by-state hodgepodge of marriage statuses to be built while the federal government stays out of it.
I can't say I'm remotely disappointed to find we may well be finally on the brink of what is almost certainly the final battle in same-sex marriage equality.
Rape Is Hilarious
[Strong trigger warning.]
Some rape jokes are just so hilarious, you have to have them permanently inked onto your body.
From Buzzfeed's collection of 16 Bad Michael Jackson Tattoos.
I can't begin to relate to the sort of thinking that finds the possibility of Michael Jackson having been a pedophile some kind of grand joke—and this tat is certainly played for a joke; note that it's Macaulay Culkin making his comedic Home Alone face who's cast as the victim here. I cannot wrap my head around the ability, nor the evident urge, to find humor in sexual assault.
I have already heard the joke that the results of Michael Jackson's autopsy are in and have shown he died of food poisoning—from "eating an eight-year-old wiener."
The person who told me this joke laughed, as did the other person to whom it was told. I said, "Really? A rape joke?"
The teller of the joke was embarrassed and apologetic and said by way of explanation, "I didn't even think about that aspect of it."
Thing is, there is no other aspect.
We are just indoctrinated to find funny the idea of a man raping a child, as long as it's presented with a clever play on words or a silly image. Our culture is so thick with it, there are people who will put this joke on their flesh, forever, and others who will pass along the image of it without a modicum of alarm.
[Rape is Hilarious: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two.]
In Case You Were Wondering...
...if Jeb Bush is really as big an asshole as his brother, he is. They are assholes in different ways, but both assholes all the same.
Dems Moving on DADT
Someone get me to the fainting couch; I do believe I'm being overwhelmed with a case of the vapors! All these Dems acting so tough and flashing scandalous glimpses of spine!
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has taken up the mantle as the chief opponent of "Don't ask, don't tell" in Congress, and he's confident the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military will get its first full committee hearing in a decade and a half this session.You know what the best thing about this is? It totally calls Obama's bluff. He's justified his administration's lack of full-throated leadership on DADT by punting the issue back to Congress and saying he'll sign a repeal if they send it his way. So Murphy—who is himself an Iraq War veteran, rendering moot any claim he just doesn't understand military culture—has basically decided he's going to go forth and force Obama to hold to his promise.
Murphy, a second-term Democrat, will be lead sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal "Don't ask, don't tell" — a policy first passed by Congress and signed into law under President Bill Clinton.
"It's our job," Murphy said of a repeal. "This was an act of Congress in 1993 and it will take an act of Congress" to reverse it.
On Wednesday, Murphy joined the Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers United and other gay-rights organizations in launching a new national push to reverse the policy.Go get 'em.
No Senate equivalent has been introduced, though Murphy says he has been encouraged by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), either of whom may introduce the measure.
"We will have the votes in the House. I can't speak for the Senate," Murphy said. But, he cautioned, "It's going to take a few months."
I'm Such an Idiot
Here I was thinking that the lovely Diane Kruger, who was famously plucked from near-obscurity to play the war-inducingly beautiful Helen in 2004's Troy, and has since co-starred in the Oscar-nominated Joyeux Noël and in the box office smashes National Treasure and its sequel as the fiendishly clever and capable Abigail Chase, among other films, is responsible for her own successful career as an autonomous, self-determining being.
But it turns out she belongs to Quentin Tarantino and wasn't worth shit until he "found" her.
Text: "The Call Back: That bad-boy auteur Quentin Tarantino auditions his newest find, Diane Kruger."
This image is even more unsettling, for a variety of reasons.
Weirdly, nothing in Tarantino's interview is remotely related to this framing. As per usual, he talks about himself more than anything else; the only passing mention of Kruger is in a question he's asked. And in an interview with Kruger, linked from the piece, she notes that she had to beg for an audition with Tarantino, who didn't originally want to see her because he didn't believe she was really German, and then had to fly to Berlin for an audition after he was unable to work with his first-choice actress.
In other words, he didn't "find" her at all, but her persistence and tenacity and hard work (she memorized 30 pages in German and English for the audition) paid off.
So the framing is wholly a construction of the Times' evident inability to talk about a man and a woman in a professional relationship without turning her into his property. Nice.
Yeah, This Makes Total Sense
Last month, Hudson News, "which operates more than 500 newsstands in major cities, airports and train stations—including New York's Grand Central Terminal," announced it would be treating the GQ cover featuring Sacha Baron Cohen as Brüno like porn, "covering up the bottom half of the July cover" in its displays. And so it has:
Of course, as Gawker discovered, this has made for some "interesting juxtapositions."
In this picture taken near Grand Central Station is an as-the-good-lord-made-her Bar Refaeli on the cover of Esquire. At right is dirty, dirty pornography.Because, duh, women's bodies are meant to be objectified and ogled, but doing the same to men's bodies is pervy and grody!
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud distributors of Deeky's Water Features for Beautiful Gardens.
Recommended Reading:
Tami: Can a "Chocolate City" Catch a Break?
Mannion: Tell me what she did to deserve this kind of humiliation?
Gwen: Is It Romance, or Stalking?
Amanda: Perfect
Dorothy: A Holy Mackerel Story
Fillyjonk and Sweet Machine: Hidden Plus Sizes on Etsy
Leave your links in comments...
From the You Can't Make This Shit Up Files
So there's this lovely little story about the Obamas in Russia at CNN, and how Sasha and Malia are excited about the trip, and how much the President enjoys having the First Lady and First Daughters with him:
Asked if having his daughters joining his wife on a high-profile trip helps take the edge off the tough diplomatic negotiations, Obama told CNN it's fantastic to have his girls "being able to see the world and then report back to us on what they are seeing" on the trip, which included the daughters getting to check out the Kremlin.Tres cute! I mean, forget for a moment that he's a politician who can drive ya batshit nutz: That's just sweet as hell.
"You know it makes a huge difference," said the president. "The girls are just a joy. And then Michelle just, she's always — she's a star at home and abroad."
Cue the conservative wankstains in the comments there, who immediately start griping up a storm about the taxpayer dollars that are spent on accommodating travel for the Obama girls. Not only are these the same people who didn't make a peep when Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress were going through taxpayer cash like it was weed at Phish gig, but they're also the same people who can't stop saying "Family Values" as though they're the passwords to heaven.
Which means, according to my calculations, that Conservative Family Values means spending loads of dosh to bomb Muslim children, and gnashing teeth in protest of spending money to make sure the President can spend time with his children.
All righty then. As long as we understand each other.
And the No-prize goes to...
Marvel itself! Yes, that's right, Marvel Comics, you get to win one of your very own fabulous NO-PRIZES!
But what did they do to earn such a fabulous no-prize? Here it is. Go read it. I'll wait.
/crosses arms, surveys room, watches cars go by/
Back now? Good. Settle in, boys & girls, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
"Marvel wants to help you look stylish!"*
That's the promise. And the pictures seem to suggest it too: Look, there are costumes for adults and kids, for, let's see, all kinds of heroes! I mean, see, there are costumes for Captain America - that's good for you white** boys/men - and, um, Hulk, he's green, y'see, so of course that's perfect for a white boy or man, too, and then there's Iron Man, he's ideal for a white boy or man to play, and we've also got Ghost Rider, which is...well, it's perfect for a white boy or man.
Now I know you're thinking, "But, but, I have this friend? And, she's, like, a she, with ladybits and chestbumps and everything - although they don't look much like the chestbumps on most of the women superheroes, I hope that won't be a problem! And (this is the weird part) she actually likes comic books! So, I'm sure you've got some great costumes for her, right?"
Absolutely, Billy! Why come right on over here, to where we have the things for girls and women. Here, I'll quote it, it's too deliciously pro-women to leave hidden:For the young ladies out there, Marvel has partnered with Lotta Luv to create some awesome lip glosses and lip balms. They're available at over 500 Claire's stores nationwide, in a variety of flavors like cotton candy, cherry, vanilla and bubble gum. Inspired by 1950s pop art, the eye-catching packaging has romantic comic imagery and high contrasting colors. These lip balms and glosses are targeted for females eight and older, and while it's aimed at younger girls, let's face it, you can never be too old to wear such fun make-up.
Douglas Miller, Licensing Coordinator for Lotta Luv, says: "Unlike the majority of lip glosses or balms, these pop out on the shelf with bright color and fun graphics. The artwork from Marvel archives instantly draws the customer to the product as opposed to a generic non branded item. The juicy flavors and unique components on the square lip balms are also out of the ordinary.""With a branded line of make-up from Marvel, girls will be able to feel as if they are going from ordinary to extraordinary just like the super hero characters in the stories, " he explained. "There is also such a nostalgic undertone that either young or older girls are drawn towards because of the long history and brand behind the name Marvel."
So...what kind of awesome powers do the girls get to portray? How do they get to enjoy their favourite Marvel heroes?
The lip glosses come in an assortment of yummy flavors and give the lips a shiny tint; just the right amount of color for summer. For less sheen, the lip balms are a great way to keep your lips perfectly pouty.
With LIP MAKEUP, of course! And not just any lip gloss, but with bright colours and fun graphics (TOTALLY unlike all the other lip balms on the market, you're right there, Mr. Miller, glad to see you've done your research so carefully). Archived Marvel artwork - we don't even get new art - will draw us in, unlike generic (boo!) lip balm.
Gosh, I can feel the excitement in my ladybits already: "girls will be able to feel as if they are going from ordinary to extraordinary just like the super hero characters in the stories"! I'm getting all verklempt.
And notice, it's not like we only get one product. Oh, no, not just lip gloss for us! No, we also get lip balm, so we can keep our lips "perfectly pouty" (did I mention this is explicitly marketed to girls 8 and up?).
-=-=-
Okay, now it's time to get to the serious snark. That was just the warmup.
There is a very good reason there are no costumes mentioned here for girls. Can anyone guess what it is? It starts with an I...regular series here on Shakesville...that's right, it's Impossibly Beautiful for the loss!
See, with the costumes of men superheroes, we see muscle pads, inflatable bodies, and (this is crucial) covered bodies. Had a look at any of the costumes on any women capes lately? How do you make costumes drawn to make the heroes look like silicon-stuffed strippers fit actual women? Well, of course, you don't, because (back to the male gaze here), who'd want to look at some fat woman in a costume meant for a stripper, am I right?
Not to mention, what kind of seriously advanced structural engineering would you need to make a real woman look anything like the titanic-breasted figures put forward as "women" in Marvel's books?
Not to mention, what kind of sick fucking company would make their hypersexualized women's costumes available for girls?
Look, it's not news that comic companies can be a massive failboat of failing failure when it comes to, oh, getting their heads out of their asses - er, I mean, out of the Dark Ages when it comes to recognizing that there are women who like comics too. No woman who likes comics would find this surprising.
But this article/advertisement (sent out, btw, as the HEADLINE article on this week's Marvel Pulse e-mail newsletter) really makes clear how little time Marvel has for their women readers/fans. They couldn't include ads for costumes for us: it's next-to-impossible for any real woman*** to fit in any reasonable way at all into the costumes their artists put women heroes into.
So the boys get to have their fantasy dressup fun, and girls get shafted again. Good thing girls don't read comics, huh, am I right?
Thanks, Marvel, for illustrating that it may be 2009 out here, but on Fifth Avenue it's still somewhere in the early 60s, before that icky women's lib stuff started up. "They still call it that out there, don't they, women's lib?" asked Marvel's managing editor, in the interview I conducted with him in my head (I figured if that's good enough research for Marvel, it's good enough for me).
This was a failboat of Galactus-like proportions, Marvel. Better rally the heroes round and see if you can unfail your failness.
Good luck with that.
* Yes, I did see that the article and the pictures were both taken by women. Sadly, "I've got ladybits" is not a recognized defence against being misogynist.
** I'm not going to touch the also-evident racism here, but OMG is there also-evident racism here. Whitewashing ftl! I'm surprised they didn't have a white guy dressed in blackface as Luke Cage or the Black Panther...
*** By "real" women, I do not, in any way, mean "not trans" women - I mean "real" as in "might be reasonably found to exist on this planet".
What The Hell?
Mama Shakes
My mother made the dress, which I thought was gorgeous! But all I can think now is "What the hell is with the black hat and veil? What the hell is with those cat eye glasses? Why do I look almost as old there as I do now? What the Hell?!" I'm sure the Shakers will have many lovely comments on the very 60s decor also. That couch I'm sitting on is the one still downstairs with a slipcover that--you guessed it--my mother made![See also: Deeky, Liss, evilsciencechick, katecontinued, ClumsyKisses, Mistress Sparkletoes, Liiiz, and Reedme.]
Democrats Suddenly Realize They're In Charge
After White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel shot his mouth off yesterday about the "negotiable" path to healthcare reform, which seemed to include the possibility of a fat giveaway to Big Insurance, the Democratic Congressional Caucus finally emerged from its languid hibernation, shook off their slumber, and awoke to the realization that they're running the fucking country.
Bam:
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the 77-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, fired off a letter to President Barack Obama warning him against dropping a public insurance option from health care reform plans.Pow:
Grijalva described the "alarm and dismay" he felt after reading a Wall Street Journal story that cites White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offering support for a "trigger" mechanism, under which a public plan option is only part of health care if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own.
"I want to be crystal clear that any such trigger for a strong public plan option is a non-starter with a majority of the Members of the Progressive Caucus," Grijalva said.
"Moreover, I consider it unacceptable for any of the cost savings that you are negotiating with hospitals and other sectors of the health care industry to be made contingent upon a robust public plan option not being included in the final legislation," Grijalva continued.
Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) warned Emanuel that he would lose the caucus' votes if the White House compromised on the issue and included a "trigger" that could delay a public insurance plan indefinitely. The trigger idea is backed by conservative Democrats but is anathema to liberals.Biff:
"We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game," Woolsey said she told Emanuel. "People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went so far as to insist that some Senate Democrats would vote against any proposal that didn't include a strong government-run option.Come on, Dems. You can do it!
..."Emanuel is dead wrong," Sanders said. "The triggers are meaningless. The American people have shown in poll after poll their contempt for private health insurance companies. They don't trust them and for good reason."
Turn Left at the Vatican
The economy must be in pretty tough shape if it is getting appeals for divine intervention. But that must be the case because the pope has issued an encyclical on the global economy.
Pope Benedict XVI today called for reforming the United Nations and establishing a "true world political authority" with "real teeth" to manage the global economy with God-centered ethics.Spread the wealth? New world order? Disarmament? Food security? Peace? Sounds suspiciously like a lefty to me. I can imagine that the tea-baggers are already lining up to get their passports so they can head off to Rome to demonstrate in St. Peter's Square, funny hats and offensive t-shirts and all.
In his third encyclical, a major teaching, released as the G-8 summit begins in Italy, the pope says such an authority is urgently needed to end the current worldwide financial crisis. It should "revive" damaged economies, reach toward "disarmament, food security and peace," protect the environment and "regulate migration."
Benedict writes, "The market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak."
Other highlights include strengthening labor unions, environmental protection, ethics in financial markets, elimination of world hunger, and -- of course -- uterus control for women. (After all, he's still the pope.) This is all built around a "God-centered" global economy.
The "true world political authority" that Benedict calls for should keep solutions as simple and local as possible but still create solidarity for the common good.So I guess that makes God a community organizer.
The pope is unable to offer "technical solutions" to the world economy, but he's heavy on the idea of religion being a guiding force:
[H]e asserts that religion has a role in the public square. His very specific suggestions on the economy, ecology and justice are addressed not just to Catholics, but to everyone, from heads of state to household shoppers.I don't have a problem with the Catholic Church offering economic suggestions -- although the Church never really "suggests;" it commands, and everyone, Catholic or otherwise, basically takes them as they see fit -- but one of the problems with this or any religious group offering real-world advice is that they're often at odds with reality. If we're to have a "God-centered economy," we need to either all be gods, or we have to agree on whose god we're going to center it on. Knowing human frailty as it is, the god we usually listen to is the one inside us that says, "What's in it for me." And the Vatican, with its own economic troubles thanks to its own greed and all too human failings, is hardly in a position to do little more than issue encyclicals.
Cross-posted.
