Question of the Day
What is the best gift you've never gotten? By that I don't mean the most expensive, indulgent luxury item you can imagine, but some little thing that any old friend or lover could buy you without much trouble or unreasonable expense, which would be perfect for you, but no one's ever thought to buy it.
A spice rack. I love to cook, but no one's ever really clacked onto that as a gift-giving idea for me, in spite of the fact that I constantly have spice bottles laying all over my kitchen counter.
Photo of the Day
U.S. President Barack Obama presents cupcakes with a candle to Hearst White House columnist Helen Thomas in honor of her birthday in the James Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, August 4, 2009. Thomas, who turns 89 years old today, shares the same birthday as Obama, who is 48 years old. [via]Bonus pix below...
Too cute for words.
Oh my. Let me leave you two alone for your birthday sexytimes!
Happy Birthday, Hel and Bar!
The Trials and Travails of Transness: Trans-Misogyny
by Shaker Alexmac, a transgender woman studying at the University of Florida.
[Part 4 in an ongoing series. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here; Part 3 is here.]
[Trigger Warning]
In this post I am going to deal with the intersection of transphobia and traditional sexism which impacts trans women most strongly. Julia Serano terms this intersection to be trans-misogyny. This synergistic (in a bad way) relationship can be seen in the pay gap between MTF and FTM transsexuals. You can also look at the much higher death rate for trans feminine spectrum people versus trans masculine people at the Transgender Day of Remembrance site. Unfortunately, there has not been very much research into the state of the transgender community and specifically trans feminine spectrum people.
We should first look at trans-misogyny in feminist communities. There is a long and proud history of trans-misogyny in the feminist community stretching back at least to Jaynice Raymond's The Transsexual Empire, published in 1979 with this wonderful quote:All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, and appropriating this body for themselves. [...] Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive.
It continues today in trans woman exclusion at the Michigan "woman's" music festival and places like Lu's pharmacy (also see here).
The transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist feeds off woman's true energy source, i.e. her woman-identified self. It is he who recognises that if female spirit, mind, creativity and sexuality exist anywhere in a powerful way it is here, among lesbian-feminists.
I contend that the problem with transsexualism would best be served by morally mandating it out of existence.
Media treatment of trans women often comes in the two flavors that I described in my first post—"pathetic tranny" or "deceptive tranny." From the pathetic tranny archetype can come the horrible men in the bathrooms slur. You see, trans women are just men in dresses who want to rape little girls. Also popular in this category is men in drag, oftentimes with facial hair and deep voices. We trans women are just crazy "men" who think they are women. (See also: Buffalo Bill.) The opposite depiction is that we are deceivers and something disgusting, as can be seen in this wonderful clip. These tropes can often be found at the same time, as seen in this article about the murder of a trans woman Stewart, more than 6 feet tall, was known to wear stylish, provocative outfits with towering high heels, neighbors said.
This post really only skims the surface, but I am feeling too triggered by all the wonderful links I have been finding. There are many more cases of trans-misogyny from psychologists and GID, to "autogynephilia" theory and the depictions of trans women in porn as "chicks with dicks." Society has special venom for trans women, because we are "traitors" to male privilege. We suffer from regular sexism if we are read as women and worse if we are read as trans. My next post in this series will talk about some constructive things you can do to help trans people and hopefully be a bit more up-beat.
Stewart also apparently had undergone surgery to give him larger breasts and other female characteristics, neighbors said.
"She looked like a girl but when she turned around, you knew it was a man," a 17-year-old neighbor said. "She had a big jaw and an Adam's apple."
Daily Kitteh
Livsy loves to nap on my Bumblebee Field Bag (procured via the Rainbow Swirlz Etsy shop), and, for reasons unknown, she frequently smooshes her adorable wee face right up against the turn clasp.
That doesn't look comfortable, Livs.
Bonus Kitteh: I defy anyone to look at these redonkulously cute, pink-padded paws and not feel their heart melt like hot buttah.
Feets!
The Power of the Clenis
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" freeing two jailed American journalists after talks with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.Full story here. Nice work, ex-President!
Beet Season Birthday Cake
It’s beet season. Time to celebrate the plant that cooled Roman fevers, sustained Marie Curie’s education, and inspired one of the more memorable American novels of the past twenty-five years.*
This particular beet season Tuesday is also the birthday of our own illustrious Kenny Bloggins, our President, Shaker CJ_in_VA, and my nephew N. (UPDATE: Xerophyte points out in comments that it is also Helen Thomas's birthday, and Obama gave her cupcakes).
Good thing I made a beet birthday cake:
Beet chocolate cake with chocolate-coffee glaze and slivered almonds. Recipe by Harry Eastwood, though she garnishes hers with fresh rose petals. Photo by SKM
This recipe appeared recently on the Lifetime network's cringeworthy Cook Yourself Thin (CYT). I watched CYT initially because I recognized one of the chefs, Candice Kumai, from Season One of Top Chef.
I have mixed feelings about Cook Yourself Thin, to say the least. The chefs are highly skilled, the recipes are simple and practical and the food ends up looking pretty tasty. However, CYT is sexist. Harry Eastwood’s bio written for the UK version of the show breaks its back trying to downplay her competence, and that mood permeates the U.S. version as well. The chefs refer to one another as "girls". And in the CYT universe, women do all the cooking. CYT is also classist: it assumes that everyone can simply replace prepared foods with fresh alternatives made at home, ignoring the access issues Melissa has written about before. Worst of all, CYT unquestionably makes food into a moral issue. “Sinful”, “shameful”, “without guilt” and “virtuous” are some common food descriptors on CYT. Furthermore, the CYT chefs mingle this language of sin with the language of science (e.g. by putting up calculations on the screen for how many calories a given client is “allowed” to eat per day in order to achieve her virtuous weight loss). Thus, the show is directly in line with the faux-rational fat-hating that leads to nonsense like "sin" taxes on "bad" foods.
But I had beets, the need for a cake, and a lot of curiosity, so I cringed through the moralizing and took down Harry Eastwood's recipe. I was intrigued: can you replace butter with grated raw beets in a cake batter and get an acceptable texture? What will the color be like? Will beets’ earthy bitterness support the coffee and chocolate, or overwhelm them?
In short, you can replace butter with beets, though I think the cake's tenderness would be improved by two tablespoons of melted butter folded into the batter at the last second, as with a genoise.
The color looks like this before the cocoa/flour mixture is added, but pretty much like a regular cocoa-based chocolate cake after baking.
But the flavor is the really clever part. Coffee and dark chocolate both have pronounced bitter notes, which envelop the bitterness of the beets quite well. In turn, the sweet earthy taste of the beets adds a subtle complexity without standing out as "beety". My partner, who will not accept sweetened vegetables in any form (no carrot cake, no pumpkin pie, no zucchini bread), pronounced the cake a triumph and even had it for breakfast this morning. I failed to mention the beets to him, and I hope he won't be too shocked upon reading this.
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a 10-inch spring-form pan by lining it with baking parchment.
dry ingredients:
¼ cup ground almonds (I ground blanched almonds in the food processor)
1 ½ cups self-rising flour
5 Tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
wet ingredients:
3 eggs
¾ cup sugar
4 oz. raw beet, peeled and finely grated
4 oz. low-fat buttermilk
2 Tablespoons strong coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
N.B. I don’t have any self-rising flour, so I mixed my own from all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt: 1 ½ teaspoons of aluminum-free baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt per cup of flour. I use aluminum-free baking powder because it does not have the potentially bitter, tinny taste of regular baking powder. I used Rumford.
Combine dry ingredients and stir well.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until very light, almost to a ribbon but not quite (5-7 minutes on medium speed if you have an electric mixer). Add the beets and combine well. Add the buttermilk, coffee, and vanilla. Finally, add the dry ingredients, mixing well but not over-working the batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes before unmolding.
for the chocolate glaze:
Melt in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot (not boiling) water:
½ cup dark chocolate
Stir in vigorously:
2 Tablespoons strong coffee
2 tablespoons honey
Working with chocolate can be tricky. If you add enough liquid and stir vigorously, the glaze should be fine. For more about tempering chocolate and adding liquid to it, see chocomap's info. For more on the physics of chocolate, see Cosmic Variance.
the watercolor at the top of the post is by Sally Jacobs.
*Tom Robbins writes his novels by picking a first sentence and going from there, one sentence at a time. Here is how he begins his fourth novel:
The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.
--Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume, 1984
Wow
Below is the trailer for the upcoming Tucker Max movie, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. If you don't know who Tucker Max is, well, this should give you a pretty splendid introduction to his particular brand of professional wankstainery.
[Dudebro approaches young woman kneeling at an aquarium, looking in and scratching the glass; kneels down beside her.]Aaaaaaaand that was all I could stand to transcribe in any real detail. The rest of the trailer is scenes of dudebros planning to go to some T0T3S AW3S0ME!!! strip club three hours away, followed by montage of strip club antics, including Dudebro #2 being asked what his porn name is and answering "Scott Peterson," because killing womminz is high-larious! Then comes more montageyness, followed by Dudebro #2 asking, "Are you saying that Magic Johnson is black and has AIDS—and has it better than me?!"
Dudebro: Whatcha doin'?
Woman: I'm talking to the turtles.
Dudebro: Are they telling you to kill that fat girl behind us? [motions with head to a fat blond woman sitting at the bar, minding her own business, chatting with a friend] 'Cuz that's what they're telling me to do.
[Woman looks disgusted; stands and walks away.]
Dudebro: What?! How can you be mad about that? Fat girls aren't real people.
What? You don't find straight white dudez dehumanizing men of color and women funny?! What are you—humorless or something?
I don't even know what to say anymore. I really don't.
[Via Gawker.]
What I Want For My Birthday
When I saw that picture, I laughed for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. [That may be because I find labeling vampires as draculas to be the funniest thing ever.]
Anybuffy, I hope someone gets me this sexy tee to make this the best Twilight-themed birthday I've had in 3 years!!!
Target: Netbookz
Hey assholes, it's Kenny Blogginz here, back with another one of my beloved Blogginz Electronics Discussion Threads!!!!
Now, everyone who's anyone knows that I know fuck-all about computers and electronics. My strengths lie in magic, Advanced Blartology, and making shit up.
Anyblart, it's time for a new computer in Blogginz Bog, and I wanted to get some of your opinions on the pros and cons of netbooks. Keep'st thou in mind, however, that I will still have use of my traditional Gentleman's Compaq, which has sufficient memory for such essentials as iTunes and Diablo II.
So, Shakers: What say ye on the subject of netbookery?
RIP Naomi Sims
Naomi Sims, often called the first black supermodel, has died at age 61.
Naomi Sims, whose appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is Beautiful movement, and who went on to design successful collections of wigs and cosmetics for black women under her name, died Saturday in Newark. She was 61 and lived in Newark.Sims was a trailblazer in the truest sense, creating opportunities for herself when none were offered, and eventually became a successful model "in high demand, modeling for top designers like Halston, Teal Traina, Fernando Sánchez and Giorgio di Sant'Angelo, and standing at the vanguard of a fashion movement for black models that would give rise to runway stars of the 1970s, including Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn and Beverly Johnson."
..."Naomi was the first [black supermodel]," the designer Halston told The New York Times in 1974. "She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers."
Ms. Sims often said childhood insecurities and a painful upbringing — living in foster homes, towering over her classmates and living in a largely poor white neighborhood in Pittsburgh — had inspired her to strive to become "somebody really important" at a time when cultural perceptions of black Americans were being challenged by the civil rights movement and a renewed stress on racial pride.
After five years, she gave up modeling and started a wig-making business with styles designed for black women. It eventually expanded into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty.RIP Ms. Sims.
Quote of the Day
"I was in shock at what they said. They called me evil, mean and [a] plastic surgery whore and disgusting. I kept saying to myself, 'How do they know so much about me?'"—Joan Rivers, on her Comedy Central Roast.
There are plenty of legitimate feminist criticisms to be made of some of Joan Rivers' material (e.g. use of sexist slurs), and there's a hell of a lot to admire about her, too (e.g. marching with the Women's Strike Coalition to the New York Mayor's residence to advocate for abortion and childcare services)—and I do admire her for those things. I have what I can only describe as a laugh-cringe relationship with Joan.
She's one of the most quick-witted and clever performers I've ever seen, and I have always loved, in particular, the sense of humor she's had about herself.
Impossibly Beautiful
Jennifer Aniston, on the cover of the September issue of Elle, appears to have been in some sort of tragic neck accident. Or maybe a head accident. I'm not really sure. But something ain't right. They're clearly only connected by a thin thread of Photoshop.
Meanwhile, in case you've forgotten what Jennifer Anison actually looks like...
Left: At a New York screening of the deplorable Management in May. Right: On the cover of WTF Weekly.
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By way of reminder: Comments that try to suss out what changes, exactly, were made, and even comments noting that, for example, the removal of laugh lines because they are ZOMG wrinkles actually robs a face of its character or humanity, are welcome. Discussions of how "she looks prettier/hotter/better in the candid picture" and associated commentary (which would certainly make me feel like shit if I were the person being discussed) are not. So please comment in keeping with the series' intent, implicit in which is the question: If no one can ever be beautiful enough, then to what end is the pursuit of an elusive perfection?
[Impossibly Beautiful: 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, Thirty-Three.]
...Starring Deeky!
Liss graces us with another wonderful poster manipulation, starring me, AKA Deeky, AKA your favourite blogger in Hollywood and the world.
Cinema Paradeekio
p.s. How come you didn't add me into the lower part where I would be kissing that hot guy?
Evil Fatties
Actual Headline: Tough love for fat people: Tax their food to pay for healthcare.
Tough love. As opposed to all that sensitive, compassionate, unconditional love we've been getting over the years.
Tax their food. Because you know how all fatties eat is junk food. That's why they're fat lulz! I personally live on a steady diet of Doritos and Jolt Cola.*
Actual Opening Paragraph: "When historians look back to identify the pivotal moments in the nation's struggle against obesity, they might point to the current period as the moment when those who influenced opinion and made public policy decided it was time to take the gloves off."
Take the gloves off. And start rhetorically punching the fuck out of fatties, which will make a change from the gentle, thoughtful, and totally not shameful way people have been talking to fatties for years.
Actual Point of Article: Tax the food fatties eat to help pay for the crushing cost of medical care because their fatty-fat fatbodies strain the healthcare system blah blah yawn.
The thing is, even if this were an idea rooted in sound science (which it isn't), it's still based on the assumption that "fat-taxable" food is primarily consumed by fat people—and, not only so, but that fat people's diets are comprised mostly of "fat-taxable" foods (hence, prohibitive costs will force a significant change in diet which will miraculously work its instant skinny-making magic).
Here's the problem: My lunch today was brown rice with salmon and mushrooms, paired with a Diet Pepsi with lime. My breakfast was a bowl of Cheerios with soy milk. My dinner last night was mixed fresh fruit (cantaloupe, strawberries, blackberries, and grapes). I had a little ice cream, too. Dinner the night before was a salad with grilled chicken and a low-fat Italian dressing, with a Diet Dr. Pepper. Etc. And I'm still fat! More to the point, the only remotely "fat-taxable" item I consumed is some ice cream.
I don't eat a perfect diet by any means (and there are other times I'd be embarrassed to post what I'd eaten in the past few days, lol, sometimes just because of asstacular randomness and sometimes because of lack of healthfulness—sometimes both), but even a 10-30% tax on junk food isn't going to so radically change my diet (even at its absolute worst) that it would suddenly make me not-fat.
Which is not to say that there couldn't be a legitimate argument made in favor of a general "health tax" on food with no nutritional value. As I've said before, there are plenty of people who routinely drink regular soda and eat junk food like it's going out of style (like my old acquaintance, the McDonald's franchisee), but who aren't obese and never will be, by virtue of some magical combination of genetics, body chemistry, and/or disease that goes undiagnosed because someone who eats "too much bad stuff" and gets fat is a horrible glutton who is to be deeply pitied and presumed to need medical attention immediately, but someone who eats "too much bad stuff" and stays thin is a lucky so-and-so who is to be deeply envied and presumed healthy.
Even if they're not.
Framing this sort of thing as a fat v. thin issue (where fat = unhealthy and thin = healthy) is bullshit—and counterproductive, demonizing bullshit at that.
Not to mention the obnoxious insistence on insisting that fat is a moral issue, by using terms like "sinful food tax," as if "obesity tax" isn't bad enough already. And, best yet, the repeated use of the term "intervention," because all fatties obviously have eating disorders—which, btw, if true, would make prohibitively taxing junk food approximately as effective in solving "the obesity crisis" as the "war on drugs" has been in solving drug addiction.
There's so much fail here, it's rather spectacular. And I'll just note that the author of this megamess, Melissa Healy, is not just some random ding-a-ling, but "a staff writer for the Health section reporting from Washington D.C." who's been writing about health issues since 2003.
Wonder not why the conversation about fat in this country is so deeply fucked, when this is evidently the best the experts in the media have to offer.
[H/T to Shaker ChelseaWantsOut.]
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* This is not true.
Happy Birthday, Kenny Blogginz!!!
Today, Shakers, Kenny Blogginz departs the familiar environs of Teenz Korner and makes for the uncertain shores of the wild and untamed lands known as American Manhood. Yes, that's right—today our own adorable little KBlogz turns TWENTY YEARS OLD!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a Great American Paaaaatriooooot!
And you smell like one, too!
(Old Spice + gun powder.)
Happy Birthday, KBlogz!!! You're all growed up!
"Why Not?"
[Trigger warning.]
In one of the most appallingly stupid columns ever penned on the alleged "folly" of hate-crime laws, Richard Cohen says blithely: "Rape, though, is not a hate crime. Why not?"
Well, Mr. Cohen, I suspect there are a lot of answers to that question, all of which have merit and varying degrees of relevance—like, for example, the extraordinary number of people who consider rape a compliment—but perhaps the most important of these many reasons is the fact that the people tasked with making hate crimes law are overwhelmingly male* and ergo: 1.) Significantly less likely to be victims of rape; and 2.) Almost totally unlikely to have lived a life being told to be careful what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you're alone, if you're with a stranger, if you're in a group, if you're in a group of strangers, if it's dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you're carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you're wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who's around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who's at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch your back always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn't follow all the rules it's your fault, which you probably already know firsthand from seeing about 1 in 6 of your girlfriends going through it and getting victim-blamed, at least once and frequently more.
In other words, most of the people tasked with making hate crimes law don't live their lives quietly but persistently terrorized by the ever-present possibility of sexual assault.
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* As of 2009, 441 members of Congress are male (83%) and 92 are female (17%). Six states have never sent a woman to the House. Twenty-seven states have never sent a woman to the Senate.
[H/T to Mustang Bobby.]
What The Hell?
Shaker Temeraire
What the hell is with the moustache, d'Artagnan? What the hell is with the sloppy bleach job?? What the hell is with the kiddie pool behind you??? What the hell????
[See also: Deeky, Liss, evilsciencechick, katecontinued, ClumsyKisses, Mistress Sparkletoes, Liiiz, Reedme, Mama Shakes, Mustang Bobby, RedSonja, MomTFH, Portly Dyke, SteffaB, Icca, Christina, Orangelion03, Car, Siobhan, InfamousQBert, Maud, Rikibeth, MishaRN, CLD, Cheezwiz, and MamaCarrie.]
Why Fat Princess is better than feminism!!1!1!!
I feel so chastened, as a feminist. I didn't realize there were such acute, keen-edged minds out there, so ready to outshine my poor ladybranez.
Liss pointed me, with deep respect and sadness, to this post, wherein the purpose of feminism is pointed out to be completely false, and Fat Princess is shown to be just a cruelly accurate portrayal of reality.
Apparently, the only reason we deluded feminists don't like it is because, yes, we're jealous. We only wish we could be as cool as Fat Princess, and have all the douchehounds boys like us.
There's a cruel picture of me, as a feminist, right there in the post, too - but to be fair, I had just woken up, and hadn't had a chance to make myself attractive to men yet. I can't do a thing with my giant horns when I've just gotten out of bed.
Silly me, thinking morning tea was more important than my appearance. On the other hand, at least I know that I'll always have friends in rocks.
But I guess I shouldn't keep all the joy to myself, at having finally found out the true way of things. I'll give you a small taste (yes, just a little taste of that old, computer-generated swagger - sorry, listening to Art of Noise, stuff leaks over). Actually, since I'm just so, so impressed by the astonishing logic skills of the writer, I'll just sum it up here for you. For the whole brilliance, you'll have to go over there and read it yourself - but prepare to be skooled old-style, feminists, because this guy's TOTES got our number (which I'm having changed to something unlisted as soon as I hit post).
Fat Princess, compared to feminism:
I think the summary says it best, though:The team at Titan Studios made a fun, funny game without worrying about whether or not some hypersensitive retards would get upset and look for evidence of misogyny that simply isn't there.
Nope. No misogyny there, nope. Glad we cleared that up.
Stay tuned for more endless explanations of why Fat Princess really isn't a bad thing at all, nope, it's really making our poor womanly lives better. Thank Maud for Fat Princess - else, what would we entertain ourselves with? How could we learn the Awful Truth from a troll without Fat Princess for guidance?
I feel (ho ho, I feel a jolly fat joke coming on!) enlightened. Geddit? Geddit? I'm fat, so it's funny, amirite?
