Look what I found while I was looking for my passport...
This is obviously a forgery. It's Holland J. Cramer, and Marjorie was 38 at the time, not 36. Somebody really needs to do some better research.
HT to WTF Is It Now??
Crossposted.
The Awful Truth
Totally Trucknutz
The below image was held up at a totally clusterfucktastrophied townhall meeting on healthcare hosted by Representative John Dingell (D-MI) in Romulus, MI last night:
Without a trace of irony.
The hat tip goes to Attaturk, who says:
We live in a culture where one side is led by rational accommodationists who want to get along and the other, smaller side, led by a delusional, angry, id who want the majority to surrender. Millions of people "hoped", if nothing else, the tenor of politics would be improved only to find that racist, bigoted messages and implications to violence are more prevalent and more tolerated.Steve Benen and Think Progress have more on other townhall events that were disrupted last night. Also see Krugman and Steven Pearlstein.
A moment of perspective: The people who are currently going completely apeshit about spending federal funds to provide healthcare to every American citizen are the same people who cheered on an almost trillion-dollar war of choice which has left hundreds of thousands of people wounded or dead. They are also the same people who call themselves "pro-life," and the vast majority of them subscribe to a religion whose central figure spent an enormous amount of time exhorting kindness, admonishing his followers to care for the poor, and healing the sick.
They have no coherent ideology. They are simply mad with a voracious brand of self-interest designed by people who don't care about them.
What The Hell?
Mama Shakes, Liss, The Shakesfather
Nice matching track suits.
Special Friday bonus WTH:
Love the socks.
[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, MamaCarrie, Temeraire, somebodyoranother, and goldengirl.]
Question of the Day
Who is your favorite band/musical artist/composer and which one song would you recommend to someone who'd never heard their work before?
Hi, my name is Melissa, and I'm a broken record.
Of course everyone who's been reading this blog for three seconds knows that my favorite band is The Smiths, and I have recommended them to many people over the years. Generally, before I recommend the single song on which someone will begin hir Smiths journey, I already have a feel for the type of music zie likes, and I choose the introductory track on that basis.
But, failing the ability to customize a choice, I would probably go with The Queen Is Dead, which combines fine Mozza vocals, archetypically cheeky and subversive lyrics, one of Marr's finest guitar pieces, and a classic performance by the always-underrated rhythm section of Rourke and Joyce to make for a timeless and eminently likable track.
In a more impertinent mood: Death of a Disco Dancer.
(Making a single recommendation for Mozza's solo career would be nigh impossible for me. I'd probably pluck something obscure right out of the thin air, like Let the Right One In.)
Glenn Beck Jokes About Poisoning Nancy Pelosi
Earlier today:
Paraphrase: Glenn Beck imagines what it would be like to attend a fundraising party at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's house. Someone sits at his desk with a cardboard cutout of Pelosi's face over theirs; he offers "Pelosi" a glass of wine and barks at her, "Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!" He laughs. "I really just wanted to thank you for having me over here to wine country, though to be invited I thought I had to be a major Democratic donor or a longtime friend of yours, which I'm not. Uh, by the way, I put poison in your—no, I, uh…" He then goes on to make a bunch of tired "limousine liberal" jokes, like, "Hey, is that Sean Penn over there?"
So, yeah. He was obviously real sincere about that whole "discouraging violence" thing.
[Via Media Matters.]
RIP John Hughes
John Hughes, who wrote and/or directed such iconic films of the '80s as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck, as well as the "Vacation" and "Home Alone" movies, has died at age 59.
Prolific film writer and director John Hughes ... died of a heart attack while walking in Manhattan on Thursday, his spokesman said. He was 59.Hughes' oeuvre was such a big part of my childhood, and while, as an adult, I've come to find some of the themes in his films problematic (example), there are many characters in his films with which I still strongly identify and about whom I still feel quite affectionate.
...His spokesman said Hughes was visiting friends in New York when he died.
In the last decade, Hughes had largely turned his back on Hollywood to run a farm in northern Illinois. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, two sons and four grandchildren.
Allusions to and quotes from his films still pepper my conversation with my generational cohort to this day, and I've found that to be true across gender, sexuality, and racial lines. Almost all my friends of a similar age, irrespective of their individual backgrounds, seem to be fluent in Hughes. The privilege which divided the (white) kids in his films was almost always privilege in the classic sense: Class privilege. Cliquishness stood in for wider social divisions, and the themes of being inside or outside spoke strongly even to many people who didn't find people who looked like themselves in his films.
There was never a fat girl to be found, but they somehow spoke to my feelings, my angst, about being a fat goth girl all the same.
Which is not to apologize for his failures re: inclusion. It is only, in this moment, to note that he managed, despite that failure, to speak to people beyond those who closely mirrored his protagonists.
His films will ever remain, for all their flaws, an indelible part of my life. And many others' lives, I expect.
RIP Mr. Hughes. I'm going to go hang a Cabaret Voltaire poster on my wall in your honor.
Impossibly Beautiful
Clarkson performing on Good Morning America, July 31:
[Click to embiggen.]
I don't guess that anyone here is going to presume I'm suggesting Clarkson looks anything but awesome in that second candid shot, but lest I give anyone the wrong impression: She looks awesome. I have no criticism of Clarkson at all. I do, however, have a little issue with (repeat offender) Self.
Especially given that Self purports to celebrate women of all shapes and sizes—even as its editor admits unapologetically that Clarkson was Photoshopped and tries to diminish the impact of such a decision:
"Yes, of course we do post-production corrections on our images," Editor-in-Chief Lucy Danziger tells ET. Airbrushing images is an industry standard, and the mag stands behind its decision.Sure, okay, but it doesn't actually show what she looks like.
"SELF magazine inspires and informs our 6 million readers each month to reach their all around best," Lucy adds. "Kelly Clarkson exudes confidence, and is a great role model for women of all sizes and stages of their life. She works out and is strong and healthy, and our picture shows her confidence and beauty."
Is the irony of their cover model not looking like herself on the cover of Self magazine, which ostensibly promotes accepting oneself, really lost on the editors? Danziger insists: "We love this cover and we love Kelly Clarkson." In fact, we love her so much we couldn't possibly allow her to actually look like her grotesque self on the cover of our magazine, because she's obviously deluded about how she looks! So deluded, she thinks she looks fine, the poor dear!
"My happy weight changes," she tells SELF. "Sometimes I eat more; sometimes I play more. I'll be different sizes all the time. When people talk about my weight, I'm like, 'You seem to have a problem with it; I don't. I'm fine!' I've never felt uncomfortable on the red carpet or anything."Despite every attempt to make her feel like total shit about herself.
------------------------
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, Thirty-Four.]
Photo of the Day
Your New Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.
Or, she will be, anyway, after she's sworn in—which will happen in the next couple of days.
Voting largely along party lines, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court. She will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court.She was confirmed by a vote of 68 to 31; all of the Democrats voted for her (except for Senator Kennedy, who was not present), and the extra Republican votes came from (what passes for) the GOP's moderates: Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, George Voinovich of Ohio, Kit Bond of Missouri, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Linsday Graham of South Carolina, and Dick Lugar of Indiana (thank you, Senator Lugar!), and Mel Martinez of Florida.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was expected to administer the oath of office to Judge Sotomayor, 55, in the next few days, with a formal ceremony likely in September. She succeeds Justice David H. Souter, who retired in June.
Shaker Scott Madin emailed the link to this post at FiveThirtyEight, in which Nate Silver notes that of all nine Republican Senators, only one has a state with a significant Latin@ population (Mel Martinez; Florida has a 16.8% Latin@ population). The other GOP Senators from states with significant Latin@ constituencies, all 20% or more of the state population, voted against Sotomayor: John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Jon Kyl and John McCain of Arizona, and John Ensign of Nevada.
Excellent strategery.
Especially since there was never any compelling reason to vote against Sotomayor. Wevs.
I Beg You...
...to read every word of The Last Abortion Doctor. It is long, and so you will some time to read the whole thing, but it needs to be read.
Thank you, Dr. Hern.
[H/T to Shaker Tessrae.]
Duh of the Day
Time magazine catches up to what fat activists have been saying for years: Exercise can always make you healthier, but it can't always make you thinner.
And probably won't.
I particularly like this gem at the end of the article, by the way:
Some research has found that the obese already "exercise" more than most of the rest of us. In May, Dr. Arn Eliasson of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center reported the results of a small study that found that overweight people actually expend significantly more calories every day than people of normal weight — 3,064 vs. 2,080. He isn't the first researcher to reach this conclusion. As science writer Gary Taubes noted in his 2007 book Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health, "The obese tend to expend more energy than lean people of comparable height, sex, and bone structure, which means their metabolism is typically burning off more calories rather than less."Really?! You mean harrumphing around my extra weight makes me burn more calories?! Sort of just like someone 100 pounds lighter would burn more calories if they suddenly started carrying 100 pounds of weights around with them?! Gee, I never would have imagined that!
File Under: Things Fatties with Functioning Brains Have Been Pointing Out for Years but Were Drowned Out by the "CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT!!! IT'S SCIENCE!!!eleventy!" Chorus.
ZOMG
[Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson and co-CEO, with his sister Lisa, of the still-thriving Jim Henson Company] told us that [a big-screen film of] "Fraggle Rock" is "still in very active development. Very active development. That has a very strong script."Unlike, say, the forthcoming Ghostbusters III, which feels to me, rightly or wrongly, more like a group of creatively bankrupt hasbeens plundering my childhood for greens fees from their dotage, the prospect of new installments of old favorites from the Henson Company excites me—mainly because I strongly suspect the Hensons wouldn't even start the projects in earnest without being confident they'll recapture the imaginative exuberance that made the originals great.
..."We have a 'Dark Crystal' sequel, called 'The Power of the Dark Crystal.' It has a very strong script." More emphasis. I like that, Mr. Henson. Enthusiasm. It's infectious. I'm already excited about these projects, and hearing your comments only amplifies that.
"Both of those projects... are very close to going into pre-production," Henson said. "They're both really ready to go. [The studio is] just [in the process of] putting together the final finance pieces and the final distribution pieces."
So there you have it. "Fraggle Rock"? Happening. "The Power of the Dark Crystal"? Happening.
From the Mailbag
Shaker The Sea Hag forwards this post about a writer whose experience is wildly different when he's presumed to be a woman. The SeaHag warns (and rightly so) that the end is a little problematic, but it's still worth a read, with that caveat.
Shaker BrianG sends the link to this BuzzFeed thread with the note: "So tell me, which is worse: the list of stereotypical 'men don't leave the seat down, tee-hee!' complaints or the doodz in the comments saying 'you ladeez just get uglier as you age so be nice if you wanna hang onto a man'?" I'm going to call a tie.
Shaker The Bald Soprano emails this article about "Baubotanik," or "building botany," in which structures are built using living trees. Supercool!
Shakers InfamousQBert and Becky send articles, respectively here and here, the latter by the author herself, about the image of a white girl being used on the cover of a book whose protagonist is a black girl.
Shaker CH forwards this Career Builder/CNN article about odd or inappropriate things said at job interviews. CH notes many of them are not particularly strange at all, and many of them are considered funny for dubious reasons. Referencing one about a woman who inquires about a potential employer's breast-pumping room (which did exist), CH says: "LOLZ! A woman betrays in interest in the company's accommodations for mothers of young children, then realizes her mistake and assures the interviewer that she has no immediate plans to become a mother (because she wants the job). What a 'weird' thing to say in a job interview! I don't know why this stupid little article hit me so hard — maybe it was the tone of unbridled, compassionless glee at the hapless job candidates who do things like ask about benefits or reveal that they're going through hard times. At a time when so many people are looking for work, it seems in bad taste." Indeed.
Shaker SamanthaB sends this piece about UN worker Lubna Hussein, "who was taken into police custody with 10 other women, all accused of violating Article 152 of Sudanese law, which prohibits women from wearing pants in public."
Shaker Margosita emails this article with the wry note: "A man takes his wife last name and doesn't lose his entire identity. Shocking!" Will wonders never cease?
Shaker SamanthaB also writes: "The Cambridge Journal has a FASCINATING piece up, 'Images of Black Americans,' which explores stereotypes and how they relate to perceptions of Obama. Briefly addressed are stereotypical perceptions of professional women, but it was the really the last section of the piece, on habituation and the process of overcoming stereotypes, that hit me as particularly important to women and to affirmative action generally."
Shaker Farore sends the link to this June episode of "This American Life," in which is featured, as Farore describes, "an interview, in Act Two, with Lynndie England (the American servicewoman shown posing in the Abu Ghraib prison photos) and some in-depth discussion of what happened at the prison. However, the interview takes a rather strange slant; while Lynndie is talking about a manipulative and, from the sound of it, potentially abusive relationship with one of her co-workers (and I believe her superior? I'm not sure about American army ranks), the interviewer refers to her experience as 'a love story' and talks about the whole thing in rather wishy-washy 'romantic' terms."
Shaker BlueRidge forwards this Amnesty International action item about Nicaragua's total ban on abortions. Amnesty International is urging the Nicaraguan authorities to:• Immediately repeal the law that bans all forms of abortion.
"Send a letter to the President of the National Assembly in Nicaragua calling for the total ban on abortion in the country to be lifted" here.
• Guarantee safe and accessible abortion services for rape victims and women whose lives or health would be at risk from the continuation of pregnancy.
• Protect the freedom of speech of those who speak out against the law and offer comprehensive support to the women and girls affected by the law.
Quote of the Day
"I don't fear death; I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice. I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring."—Afghan women's rights activist Malalai Joya. Blub.
I highly recommend reading the entire article. Thanks so much to Shaker EvilTammy for sending it along.
It Doesn't Work
This really isn't a surprise:
Using therapy to try to turn gay people straight has no basis in science and can actually be harmful, the American Psychological Association says.I can't speak for every other LGBT person in the world, but I've never had any doubt that I was born gay and that any attempt to try to make me straight would be, um, fruitless. I don't think it's any different than being born left-handed or blue-eyed, and while you can teach yourself to be right-handed and you can put in contact lenses to make your eyes brown, you can't change what's hard-wired at the factory, so why try? All it will do is lead to confusion, frustration, unhappiness and grief. I know far too many people who, for whatever reason -- social, religious, familial -- tried to stop being homosexual and ended up in unhappy marriages and, in at least one case, criminal behavior that landed him in federal prison. I have seen alcohol and drug abuse among closeted and repressed friends and colleagues who used them as methods to try to escape the reality of their life as a homosexual. (By the way, to me there's a difference between being gay and being homosexual. You're homosexual if you are attracted to people of your own gender. You're gay if you accept it and make it a dimension of your life beyond the bedroom...or the closet.)
At a conference in Toronto Wednesday, the organization voted by a margin of 125 to four to adopt a report (PDF) which concludes that attempts to “convert” homosexual people to heterosexuality can produce negative results, including depression and suicide attempts.
The homophobia industry, largely made up of religious fundamentalists, has exploited "conversion therapy" to their own end. There's a lot of money to be made in the business, either by parents who are afraid that their teenaged son is too interested in theatre for his own good or their daughter likes to change the oil in the family Plymouth, or men and women who, after years of being good little boys and girls and attending church or temple and the Christmas cotillion and trying desperately to fit into the heteronormative social structure, make one last attempt to please others or fit themselves into the narrow world that is demanded of them. The converters point to the statistics of the alleged high incidence of alcohol and drug abuse and say that it proves being gay is wrong, and either ignoring the fact that perhaps it might be them and their condemnation and denial of equality in law and society that might be a contributing factor, or they are willfully exploiting it for their own ends.
The religious converters refuse to accept the idea that being gay is something you're born with for several reasons. I suppose there are those who sincerely believe that it is a choice, but forgive my cynicism if I think it's more because they know that if they admit that being gay is a God-given trait, they have no basis for their homophobia. God is perfect, therefore anything he creates cannot be flawed -- at least until after they are born -- so God turning out homosexuals as if they were just another variety means that being gay is no different than any other innate trait. And there goes their target -- they need someone to rail against to justify their holiness, use as a scapegoat for all the troubles in the world, and most importantly, to use as a fund-raising cash cow: "The homos are teaching in your local high school! Send us money!" There's also the fundamentalists' fixation on the sexual element of being gay; it's all they think about. Most people -- gay or straight -- are aware of their attraction towards other people long before they are aware of their sexual functions, so to say that being gay is all about sex tells me that the gay-bashers are the ones who have the issues.
Frankly, we don't need the APA to tell us that conversion therapy is wrong both as a medical or a psychological treatment. The assumption that there is something wrong with being homosexual is both immoral and unethical. You are what you are, and to deny it to yourself or anyone else is an affront to humanity and the infinite diversity that makes us who and what we are.
Crossposted.
Two Dudes and a Webcam!
In comments of my post about the tragic end of "Mouthpiece Theater," Shaker John Cain linked to this parody, which is absolutely, hilariously spot-on. I did a transcript for those who can't view/hear the video, which is below.
[Two dudes in bathrobes holding beers try to figure out if camera is on, then settle in to start the show.]
Dude #1: Hi! Welcome to the Washington Post!
Voiceover: Two Dudes and a Webcam! From Washington Post dot com. Journalism didn't work out; we'll try this instead.
Dude #2: Welcome back to the Dan Froomkin Memorial Studio. We're two dudes and a webcam.
Dude #1: What happens when the spirit of viral video meets journalism?
Dude #2: I'll tell ya what happens: Trenchant hilariousness! Did you know that if your hand is bigger than your face, you've got cancer?
Dude #1: I did not know that. [puts hand in front of face]
Dude #2: Yeah! [smacks Dude #1's hand into his face in a familiar grade-school gag] Ha ha ha! You just got POSTED!
[They make rock'n'roll hand gestures; text on screen: You've been Post'd!]
Voiceover: You've been posted! From WaPo. Are we viral yet? Please say we're viral.
Dude #1: That's right. We're going through the major political figures of the day and we're finding out who's doing a'ight and who's gettin' the post!
Dude #2: We're gettin' all up in their face, journalistic-style!
Dude #1: First up for the WaPost comedy treatment: Senator Byrd.
Dude #2: OLD!
Dude #1: If Senator Byrd were a whiskey, he'd be Old Grand-Dad.
Dude #2: What up, Byrd? You just got POSTED!
[They make rock'n'roll hand gestures and stick out their tongues and scream; text on screen: You've been Post'd!]
Voiceover: You've been posted! From WaPo. Desperately trying to figure out what the internet wants from us since 2008.
Dude #1: Next up: Dennis Kucinich.
Dude #2: SHORT!
Dude #1: Short! Dude is short!
Dude #2: You know, if he were a famous jazz saxophonist and composer, he'd be Wayne Shorter.
[They high five.]
Dude #1: Posted!
Dude #2: Oww!
Voiceover: You've been posted! From WaPo. No, we're not terribly ashamed of what we've become. Why?
Dude #1: And Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State.
Dude #2: What a bitch!
[They both fake-laugh uproariously, then start scream-laughing, then just screaming. Dude #1 spins in his chair. Dude #2 starts acting like an ape. Dude #1 starts chowing down on a raw piece of meat. Dude #2 starts swilling beer and spitting it out. Dude #1 manically rubs his face on the seat of his chair. Dude #2 mimics an ape grabbing its own shit and throwing it. Cut to picture of the Washington Post building. Cut back to dudes, who look emotionally spent.]
Dude #1: God, that was brilliant. No context—just putting it out there. In your face, Clinton!
Dude #2: Yeah, that was so insightful and trenchant I think beer shot out my nose.
Dude #1: Trenchant as hell, man.
Dude #2: Mm. [sighs contentedly]
Dude #1: Join us next week when we analyze international relations by comparing emergent refugee populations to Jack Black movies and different types of weed.
Dude #2: The Post isn't stuffy anymore.
Dude #1: Come visit our online chat, where you can find David Ignatius on World of Warcraft. He's a level 60 paladin!
Voiceover: Two dudes and a webcam! From Washington Post dot com. Inadvertently revealing the dark heart of our dying industry, two minutes at a time.
"Mouthpiece Theater" Drops Its Curtain Forevah
Last Friday, I wrote about a charming episode of the Washington Post's "Mouthpiece Theater," a glorified vlog featuring WaPo reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza dressed up in smoking jackets and trying to be funny while commenting on the news, in which they mused about what types of beer different public officials would drink and suggested Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's brew of choice ought to be "Mad Bitch."
At the time I noted: "I'd love to hear the Washington Post explain how they feel confident their reporters are giving balanced coverage to female public figures when they're willing to unabashedly use sexist slurs in public."
Unsurprisingly, that question has not been answered. Instead, they just shitcanned "Mouthpiece Theater."
Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, which prompted him to pull the latest episode from the paper's Web site Friday night. The Post staffers who appeared in the videos, Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza, agreed with the decision and apologized in separate interviews.And, then, naturally, totally undermined their apologies by accusing the people who complained of being oversensitive hysterics who ruin everything!
As for the dozen videos they have made in what was designed as a summer tryout, "it's clear there was an audience for it out there, but not large enough to justify all the grief," Milbank said. "My strength is in observational, in-the-field stuff, and that's what I should do. I'm sorry about the reaction it's caused, but I think it's important to experiment. The real risk to newspapers is not that they take too many risks, but that they don't take enough risks."Emphasis mine. Cillizza added that "people have every right to be offended." Gee, thanks. He also notes in his own piece about the video that he learned "name-calling is never the stuff of good comedy" (give that man a cookie) and says: "I can only hope that those who have enjoyed reading the Fix, following me on Twitter and Facebook and watching my occasional television appearances can follow the age-old maxim: to err human, to forgive divine."
...Both men, who frequently appear on television, became high-profile targets, particularly among left-leaning bloggers but also on such outlets as Twitter.
"It's a brutal world out there in the blogosphere," Milbank said. "I'm often surprised by the ferocity out there, but I probably shouldn't be."
Now, I used to get the Fix delivered via email, and I've canceled it and will no longer be reading it. It's not a matter of forgiveness or lack of forgiveness; it's about the fact that I don't believe a journalist who uses a misogynist slur and just brushes it off as a joke gone wrong, who comes no closer to a genuine self-examination than "the content in last Friday's video as it was inconsistent not only with the Post brand but, more important and personal to me, the Fix brand which I have worked so hard to cultivate," is someone I can trust to report fairly on half the population.
Someone who doesn't know on his own that it's profoundly inappropriate to call the Secretary of State a mad bitch clearly has some deeply internalized shit that he needs to work out, and I don't see that happening here. In fact, what I see happening here is the usual sweeping of Important White Men's bigotry under the proverbial carpet, with tired justifications that reflect an antipathy toward acknowledging privilege:
Signaling that their standing at The Post remains unaffected, Brauchli praised both reporters. He called Cillizza "an enormous talent and someone who is closely followed and admired by a lot of journalists and people in politics. .... Dana writes a terrific, very funny and usually very popular column on Page 2. He's an equal-opportunity offender, and from time to time everyone's mad at him."Well, if you're talented and popular, who cares if you're a misogynist, right?
Anyone who still uses the term "equal-opportunity offender" needs help. There's no such thing, because people in this country don't have actual equal opportunities yet. And until they do, making fun of women for being "bitches" is never going to be "equal" to making fun of men for anything.
That disparity is a basic concept one must grasp in order to have even the most rudimentary understanding of how institutional prejudice functions in this country. That it's a concept which evidently remains elusive for the WaPo's Executive Editor is, quite frankly, frightening.
And it doesn't say much for their ability to cover fairly any marginalized people.
Contact the Washington Post's ombudsman.
