Right-wing icon Phyllis Schlafly at her "How to Take Back America" conference last weekend in St. Louis:
I submit to you that the feminist movement is the most dangerous, destructive force in our society today. [...] My analysis is that the gays are about 5% of the attack on marriage in this country, and the feminists are about 95%. [...] I’m talking about drugs, sex, illegitimacy, drop outs, poor grades, run away, suicide, you name it, every social ill comes out of the fatherless home.
She was later presented with the "American Hero of the Century" award. I'm guessing they were talking about the 17th century....
Haircuts. Wands. Sophie is cute. Fantasy film nerdery. This is really just some leftover junk, but since I know we're not the only FANTASY NERDS at Shakesville, I thought a few people might get a kick out of it. Episodes One, Two, Three, Four.
[Also available at Daily Motion. Full transcript below.]
Title Card: Vloggin' with Blogginz
Liss: So…so I noticed that you've got a haircut.
KBlogz: I got a haircut, actually. Um, I don't think anything was done to the, to the business in front, but the party—
Liss: The party in the back is a little shorter!
KBlogz: —in the back is a little bit shorter.
Liss: Aaaand if I can get a little close-up here [zooms in; KBlogz makes a face a la Blue Steel], I'm noticing some beard growth.
KBlogz: Yeah, um—
Liss: Very fancy! [zooms out]
KBlogz: It's to cover up at least half of my face.
[Liss laughs; KBlogz grins]
Liss: But why would you want to cover up your face? It's so cute!
KBlogz: 'Cuz haven't you ever seen Mortal Kombat? And Sub-Zero and Scorpion have their faces covered and they're really cool?
Liss: Mm. That's an excellent point.
KBlogz: But I can't wear a ninja mask in public, so it's gotta be a beard. [rolls eyes]
Liss: True.
KBlogz: Gotta be a beard.
Liss: [laughs] Do you want to show me your wand—and I don't mean that in a dirty way?
KBlogz: Yeah, um— [reaches for recorder case and unzips it] I've been working on this baby for awhile now.
Liss: Did you actually whittle it yourself?
KBlogz: [pulls out "wand," which is clearly a drumstick] No, this actually, um, comes from a drumstick at, from Goodwill.
Liss: Mm!
KBlogz: Salvation Army, actually. [shrugs] But, um, you know, its—its harmonics in the spirit realm were, like, pretty close to what I was going for, and, you know, it was already in the basic shape, you know, and I'm no woodsman. [Liss laughs.] I figured I'd get something easy! [grins]
[Cut to a close-up of KBlogz rubbing Sophie's belly.]
Liss: [singing] Sophie! The cutest cat in all of Cat Land!
[Cut back to KBlogz.]
Liss: So what were you just thinking about?
KBlogz: I was just thinking about The Last Unicorn the other day. I still haven't watched it!
Liss: That's really dumb. We need to get you a copy of that movie.
KBlogz: One DVD for my—for my player.
Liss: Yeah. Maybe Christmas.
KBlogz: Maybe Christmas. [crosses fingers dramatically and makes wishful face]
Liss: I don't have it on DVD, either, or I'd lend it to you—as I've lent you many other movies, such as Dragonslayer [KBlogz counts off films on fingers with wand], and Clash of the Titans, and Brazil, and Time Bandits—
"They try to paint the picture that I was this downtrodden, ugly girl who was unpopular in school and in life, and then I got this role and now I'm awesome. But the truth is that I've been awesome, and then I got this role."—Gabby Sidibe, the star of Precious, a film about a fat teenage girl who is sexually and physically abused at home, and "has a deep need to open up and thrive, which she begins to do with the help of a teacher and an all-girl crew of peers at an alternative school."
In case you were wondering what Andy Williams thought of President Obama, you can wonder no more.
Though, I'm thinking, if you were wondering what the crooner, he of "Moon River" fame, thought of Obama, perhaps it's time to find a hobby. I suggest painting. Acrylics are fun and easy to work with and they mix up real nice.
Anyway, Williams shared his thoughts on his not-so-huckleberry friend in a recent interview with Radio Times:
Don't like him at all. I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are very Left-wing. One is registered as a Communist.
Obama is following Marxist theory. He's taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.
I'm not sure I how "wanting to create a socialist country" equates with "wanting the country to fail," but then again, I have no idea what "huckleberry friend" means either.
And don't even get me started on associating with a "registered" Communist (gasp!). I guess Obama and Williams are not after the same rainbow's end.
Harvey Weinstein: "We're calling on every film-maker we can to help fix this terrible situation. Whether the LA County district attorney's office has its way or not, it is not a story that can have a happy ending. I think Polanski has already paid a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions. The real tragedy is that he will always, till his death, be snubbed and stalked and confronted by people who think the price he has already paid isn't enough."
Debra Winger: "Despite the philistine nature of the collusion that has now occurred, we came to honor Roman Polanski as a great artist. We hope today this latest order will be dropped. It is based on a three-decade-old case that is all but dead except for a minor technicality."
Whoopi Goldberg: "I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape."
Still defensive about the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in myriad diocese in multiple countries, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, read a ridiculously juvenile and bigoted statement following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva during which Keith Porteous Wood, representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, asserted that the church had breached several articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by continuing to cover up sexual abuse of children.
The statement petulantly complained that other religions had problems with sex abuse, too (true, but irrelevant in terms of the Catholic Church's need to account for its endemic sex abuse), that Protestant churches' and Jewish communities' problems were worse than the Catholic Church's problems (probably not true, but also irrelevant), that "only" 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse (there are about 1,500,000 Catholic clergy worldwide; "only" 1.5% of that is still about 2250 22,500 sex predators), and then let loose the unmitigated bigotry against gay men.
In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.
…The statement said that rather than paedophilia, it would "be more correct" to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males.
"Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17."
Okay, first of all, ephebophilia is not specific to people with same-sex attraction. Tomasi's implication that it's a uniquely "homosexual attraction" is patently false. The Catholic Church has been trying to blame its sex abuse problems on gay men since day one, in order to avoid its own responsibility for ordaining and protecting pedophiles, but that shit's been publicly debunked so resoundingly that the Holy See can't just scream "homo priests!" anymore.
So this is their new spin: Gay ephebophiliacs—which not only allows them to do an end-run around accountability for ordaining pedophiles, but also conveniently allows them to do an end-run around accountability for engaging in the vicious homophobia of gay-blaming for the sex abuse scandal for two decades.
And if this bit of rhetorical parsing weren't already pathetic enough in its attempt to redirect blame, it's not even accurate: Ephebophilia is not, in fact, the correct term for people who "sexually engage" with children ages 11-17. Ephebophilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for advanced adolescents; hebephilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for those in early puberty; and pedophilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for pre-pubescent children. Most 11-year-old are not advanced adolescents, and many, especially boys, are still pre-pubescent.
The Catholic Church has a problem with priests who rape children below the age of consent. That is a fact which is not changed by what name it's called. And, at this point, the last thing any thinking person with a conscience wants to hear from the Vatican is a bunch of bullshit technicalities being substituted for any serious acceptance of accountability.
But, as usual, that's all we're gonna get.
[Commenting Guidelines: Please take the time to make sure your criticisms are clearly directed at the Catholic Church leadership and not at "Catholics," many of whom are themselves critical of the failures of Church leadership.]
Whom do you consider to be the most overrated film director of all time?
For reasons delineated in the Polanski thread (and are accompanied by a trigger warning), I find the passion for Lars von Trier's work to be totally inexplicable. It's not just that I find him loathsome as a person (although I do), but his films are just crap. As per usual, I'm told I don't "get" them. Oh, I get them. I just profoundly disagree.
Apolla sent me this post she wrote about the double-standards of being a female rock fan—no less a female rock fan who happens to have a particular ardor for a male artist.
It's a great post, and it really speaks to me, being as I am a woman who loves music and knows a shitload about music, whose formative years and important relationships were defined by a love of music, who counts among her friends many musicians and similarly passionate music-lovers for whom music is closer to a habit than a hobby.
My unrivaled revere for Mozza is legendary around these parts (and beyond)—and for 20 years now, people have been asking me if I fancy him, or assuming I do.
The first time someone accused me of wanting to fuck Moz, we were sitting in my bedroom, bedecked floor to ceiling (and on the ceiling) with Smiths and Morrissey posters, album covers, postcards, magazine covers…and still I was shocked. Fucking Moz had never occurred to me (and not just because he was famous, and gay). My adoration emanated from my intellect and whatever the thing is that some people call a heart or a soul—but decidedly not from my loins.
It's not that I hadn't noticed he's attractive; it's just that his attractiveness was wholly beside the point. Reducing my love and respect for him to something as gauche as a crush—the nerve!
Last year, or the year before, I had a dream in which I made out with Mozza, and it was so shocking that I had to tell Iain about it immediately. He seemed more surprised I'd never had a dream of that persuasion before.
"Do you ever have make-out dreams about John Lennon?" I asked.
by Shaker Quixotess, a fat dreamer who lives in Seattle, misses the bus, and laughs at her own cooking.
I sometimes like to send my friends poetry or song lyrics, if we had a fun time together recently, or if she seems depressed lately, or if I was just thinking of him, or for no particular reason.
The trouble is, many poems that I've found are specific to one type of relationship: romantic or erotic love between two people. Anyone looking for an evocation of that kind of love can find what they want; but I want poems that express a love which is not specific to that type of relationship. For example, I've used /Wild Geese/ by Mary Oliver and the first verse of "Unchained Melody."
Can Shakers recommend poetry, or poets, or songs whose lyrics work as a piece to be read, that deal with love between friends, or that can be read in other contexts than that of the romantic or erotic?
by Shaker Calixti, a twenty-one year old university student in Nebraska, with a tendency to text-rage all over the place.
The other day, when I walked into my English class, I found a stack of ads on my desk and scattered on the other desks in the room.
Someone explain to me, on what planet is it appropriate to equate this:
—and this [image possibly NSFW]:
No, really. The latter is a real ad. Shouldn't be surprising; aren't college-age douchebags kind of Axe's target audience? But walking into an empty classroom and finding these ads on the desk still enraged me.
Why? Because the woman in the ad is portrayed as an object. She's headless, has no identity, and exists as a passive thing to be acted upon ('wash me,' seriously?). She's supposed to be a personification of sex—thin but tan, big boobs, defined waist and hips but very low body fat; she's even got a hipbone visible lest you think her hips and breasts mean she's fat. Because fat women can't be sexy in the Axe universe either.
I know Axe ads have always been sexist and misogynistic, but I think this is the first time I've seen them treat women as literal objects, things to be acted upon, possessing no will of their own. And expected or not, it still pisses me off. These are ads meant to appeal to straight cis men my age ('people' in Axeworld—I guess women, and gay and trans men, just don't exist there, except as 'humour' or objects).
Say it with me, Axe advertisers: Women are not objects.
Aw, who am I kidding? In Axeworld, if I even exist (a fat lesbian? Not likely), I'm an object. Unilever must really not want my money.
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's CifA about Roman Polanski and the narrative that men who produce (what is arguably regarded as) great art are exempt from being decent human beings:
Very few, if any, of the people who have publicly defended Polanski, or who have worked with him, make it their business to champion or associate themselves with admitted child rapists. They make an exception for Polanski for the same reason exceptions have been for other famous, artistic men – directors, writers, actors, comedians, singers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, painters, sculptors, photographers – who have been known to sexually assault women and/or children: Because geniuses get special dispensation.
Because there's only one Roman Polanski.
So goes the breathless defense of the artiste, while the flipside of that particular coin, because thirteen-year-old girls are a dime a dozen, goes unspoken.
France's minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, was quoted as saying: "In the same way as there is a generous America which we love, there is also a certain kind of America which is frightening, and it is this America which has now shown us its face." But for survivors of sexual assault, an America that more highly values art over accountability is frightening – and that pernicious cultural narrative should be frightening to every American for the message it communicates to potential rapists (and actual serial rapists) within the artistic community. Some artists, we tacitly agree, are so important that others must sacrifice for their art, too.
We have long prioritised men's art over women's safety, because there is a belief that a talented man, an auteur with a vision, might change the world, and to truncate that grand possibility with something as bourgeois as justice would be devastating.
I'm not sure what I bought to get this little gem, and it is so rare I actually have and/or use cash anyway, but I found this in my wallet recently. It made me chuckle.
Explains Shaker Gnatalby, who emailed the link to me:
It IS fucking creepy when men just assume that because you exist in the world while female you are open to sexual advances. I get hit on with some frequency while I'm walking to places, and it pisses me off. Am I doing something to suggest that I am open to being hit on? No. I am not out at a pick-up bar, I am not making flirtatious eye contact, I am just existing, as a woman, walking from place to place. That's not flattering; that's patriarchy.
I feel like if xkcd dude, or any of the dudes who hit on me while I'm assuming my blank face of public transportation, considered the possibility that I was a doctor, or a lawyer, or, basically, a human being of any importance beyond a personalized fuck-hole for their enjoyment, they wouldn't feel like it's appropriate to interrupt me in the middle of my fucking commute in order solicit sex.
Spot-on. The interrupting is really the key. Forget flirtatious eye contact; how about some eye contact, any eye contact at all, being considered a requisite, a bare minimum, before deciding to hit on another human being.
I guess it's easy to convince yourself that sort of thing isn't necessary, though, when you believe women play games like: "Ignore the Guy So He'll Hit on You."
Just FYI, Plants vs. Zombies may be the greatest game ever in the history of games. And if you don't believe me, just ask Hurley. I've a couple poorly done screen caps here and here. I found out about this game via Jorge Garcia (AKA Hurely from Lost). Then I saw it at Best Buy. Then Best Buy sent me a "free" ten dollar gift card. Then I played Plants vs. Zombies. A lot.
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