What the Hell?



Shaker Aestas

Native of the Yarnanpapersak tribe.

(If you've a ridiculous and/or embarrassing photo of yourself from your youth, please send it to shakerwhatthehell_at_yahoo_dot_com. I'll post them up as part of our series called What The Hell? so everyone can laugh at with you.)

[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, goldengirl, Liss (again), summerwing, yeomanpip, Susan811, bbl, Deeky (Part II), A Daily Shakesville Fan, Sami_J, liberalandproud Temeraire: Redux, Mama Shakes II, Bonus Deeky, OuyangDan, J.Goff, Iain, Talonas, The Great Indoors, gogo, kiwi_a, em_and_ink, Tik_bev, phdintraining, Deeky Freakhands, busydani, Jenny Anne, rowmyboat, DesertRose, Steve/Pido, Anne Onymous, phredrika, The Last of the Famous International Deekys, Iain, Another Mustang Bobby, mkp-hearts-nyc, Arvan, Norbizness, Electrasteph, SteffaB, and molliecat.]

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Open Thread



Hosted by the cast of Emergency!

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

The Brady Bunch

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Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker Gingerkid as the bookend to this one from last Thursday: Of what song do you never tire, no matter how many times you hear it?

For me, it's any Smiths/Morrissey song. I've written on more than one occasion that I listen to the albums over and over and over again without ever remotely tiring of them, and my friends laugh at me and marvel at the astonishing but apparent fact that I am inexplicably not sick of songs I've heard thousands of times. I can't explain it. The songs are now as familiar, as much a part of me, as my own thoughts. I've been told I sing them in my sleep.

For my non-Moz answer, I will say Nina Simone singing "Sinnerman." I could listen to that on a loop all day long and never tire of it.

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Assvertising

[Trigger warning.]

Shaker Alek emailed me about "this terrifying Toyota ad campaign, in which they hired people to harass and terrorize potential customers. It's unbelievable. All to sell the Matrix."

Unbelievable is the right word. Even with all the advertising fail I see on a regular basis, this is truly gobsmacking:

A bizarre "terror marketing campaign" for the vehicle, produced by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and creative studio Mekanism, harassed consumers via personalized e-mails. One target is taking Toyota to court.

Last year, Amber Duick received a series of nine e-mails from a fictitious character dreamed up by the campaign (complete with a MySpace page). The character told Amber he was coming to stay at her house to avoid the cops, and even sent her a motel bill for $78.92. According to AdAge, Duick was so frightened that she slept with a machete and mace near her bed.

The last email Duick received included a video that notified her how she had been fooled, and explained that this was an effort to market the Matrix. The campaign, which targeted thousands of consumers, invited people to nominate their friends to be victims of the prank, which is how consumers' personal information was acquired.

...The video invited viewers to "Pick one of our maniacs to mess with their heads for five straight days while you sit back and watch it all go down."
Says Stephanie: "Maybe it's just me, but those who were nominated as a target might want to find some new friends." Says I: What would make Toyota, or anyone else, think this would appeal more to actual friends than to people who want to harass the targets of the campaign? Toyota essentially offered to be the middle-man for stalkers, bullies, and other assorted assholes. There's no reason to believe that no one took them up on such a generous offer.

Megafail.

[Assvertising: 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, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy, Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Seventy-Six, Seventy-Seven, Seventy-Eight, Seventy-Nine, Eighty.]

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Important Announcement

Joe Lieberman is still totes an asshole.

[I expect I'll be making this announcement approximately once a month for the foreseeable future.]

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Queer Cakery: Taste the homomentum!

by Shaker diagirlical, a queer, feminist, vegan cake-baking metalhead/philosophy PhD student.

A couple weeks ago, during an 8-hour-long Rock Band 2 practice, my dyke metal/hardcore/punk/Fleetwood Mac cover band made our drummer a 3-week-belated birthday cake.

She wanted a rainbow cake inspired by the Magical Rainbow Tower of Dreams. I decided to pass up the "ten layers of multi-coloured chocolate chip sponge cake" in favour of the incredibly delicious golden vanilla cupcake recipe from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook—which I highly, highly recommend for anyone (including non-vegans) with an interest in cupcakes.

And then I added my own special touches.


This is the gayest thing I've ever eaten, and that includes other women's vaginas. It was both deliciously gay and gayly delicious.

To make your very own Big Gay Rainbow Cake:

The recipe makes about a dozen cupcakes, which translates into two 6" round cakes. We separated the batter out into 6 different bowls and then used decorating paste colours to mix red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. We layered the colours in the cake in that colour order as well in case they mixed together where they touched, but they didn't. I very carefully poured each colour layer down on top of the other, 3 colour layers to a cake layer. (Try to get each colour covered by the next colour layer during the pouring because if you try to use a spoon or something to even out the layer after it's poured, you'll probably end up mixing the layers.) We cheated and used a can of prepared frosting, then dipped chopsticks in the decorating paste to make the swirls.

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Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"



Blank

Strips One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47. In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman and a biracial queerbait telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.

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Healthcare Bill Passes out of Committee

CNN: "The Senate Finance Committee passed a long-awaited $829 billion health care bill Tuesday by a 14-9 vote. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was the lone committee member to cross party lines, breaking with other Republicans to vote for the measure. All the committee's Democrats supported the bill."

It did not include a public option.

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I Officially Quit the World

Because it's not enough that women are expected to celebrate Halloween by dressing like the stripper version of any costume—You can't be a nurse; you've got to be a SEXY nurse! You can't be a witch; you've got to be a SEXY witch! You can't be a cat; you've got to be a SEX KITTEN! You can't be a schoolteacher; you've got to be a SEXY Catholic schoolgirl!—now your dog has to wear a "sexy" costume, too!


Rape culture is a holiday in which men are encouraged to dress up like monsters who bite and suck and kill and devour, and women are encouraged to dress up like sex objects and children. And so are their dogs.

UPDATE: Deeky emails:
Mind meld! While you were writing your costume post I was actually at the mall snapping pictures of Spencer's dreadfully misogynist costume display. Seriously, check this shit out. Every single costume in that window is hyper-sexualized. You've got the airline pilot, Captain Layover, there on the right. Get it? Captain Layover. And in the background there's the sexy... ummm... Mexican woman (That's a twofer: racist and sexist!), the sexy Scot and the sexy sailor. Awesome. Oh, but check out the sexy cabbie. See what her top says? Free rides. For fuck's sake. Free rides? Really? And look at the background there too. It's lingerie for sale. Not even costumes. Just underwear. Hustler brand underwear at that.

And that's just looking in their display window from the food court.

Inside was costume after sexy costume of low cut, miniskirt based costumes. This one was my favorite. Because what's sexier than being a child murderer?

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Bread and Teaspoons Ten

Good morning (unless it isn't where you are, in which case I wish you Good $TIME_PERIOD), and welcome to this week's installment of Shakesville's networking post, Bread and Teaspoons*.

This is a weekly post, usually Tuesdays, providing a spot for Shakers to network a little with one another, see if we can help each other out some.


Here's how it works: There should be four sorts of comments here.

1) You comment here with any details of work you're seeking: where, what, that sort of thing. You give an e-mail address at which you can be reached - feel free to set up a special e-mail for it, if you don't want to post your regular one for the world to spam - and if another Shaker has a lead, they can contact you directly to pass it along.

A work-seeking comment should include:

  • - a short summary of the skillset you're seeking work with;

  • - a short summary of your experience

  • - where you're looking for work to happen

  • - your contact e-mail
Please do NOT include information such as your full name or telephone number, as this is and will remain a public post, and once posted, there's no taking it back (because it'll be spidered by a search engine, not because we don't want you to).

It is explicitly alright to comment to this each week with similar info.

For example, I might post a comment saying:

I'm a professional translator of French, German and Russian, with nearly 17 years of experience. I'm looking for basically any translation job, academic, commercial, personal, genealogical, you name it, with one exception: I do not currently have certification, so if you need a certified translator (usually for legal docs: birth certificates, divorce decrees, wills), you need someone else.

I am also available as a writer or editor, for academic, journalistic, creative, marketing-oriented or any other type of written communication. Basically, if you'll pay me, I'll write or edit it.

You can contact me for business purposes through my business address, translatey.caitie@translateycaitie.com.
**

2) The second type of comment would be task offering: if you've got a job you think might suit someone here, consider posting it as a comment. Use the same guidelines as above: give general information here, and specific information when you exchange e-mails. An offered task might look something like this:

I have a doctoral thesis which needs proofing and editing by Thursday, is anyone available? You can reach me at ABDShaker@shakesville.miskatonic.edu.

3) The third kind of comment I'd love to see is success stories! We’d love to know when this works out, and people actually find some employment through our efforts. If you feel like sharing, tell us how it worked out for you. :)

**NEW CATEGORY ADDED**

4) If you’re a progressive working for or running a small business and would like to include a pointer to your business, you may do so. If you’ve never otherwise posted before here (i.e., you’re a lurker), I may check in with you to be certain you’re a Shaker and not a spammer. If it turns into a spamfest, or we start getting businesses that are of dubious progressive credentials, we may need to revisit this one, but let’s give it a try.

So, that's what we'd like to see.

What we do NOT want to see:
  • - recommendations/references, even for other Shakers - leave those for the contact phase of your negotiation

  • - rates info - again, leave this for the contact phase of your negotiation; we don't want to encourage bidding wars between Shakers

  • - illegal employment - whatever we may think of a given law against a certain activity, we don't want to put Shakesville in any awkward spots legally

  • - links to job search, agency or other sites - this is meant to be Shaker-to-Shaker, here, not a spamming point for other sites; only link to sites which are yours
So there. Have at it, Shakers, for Bread and Teaspoons!

Important disclaimers: Shakesville makes no endorsement or claim as to the capabilities of anyone commenting to this post, and anyone considering hiring someone should be prepared to treat it like any other business situation: DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. We're not doing any screening of this, so you'll want to make sure you check references, use safe-payment procedures (e.g., ask for a deposit), all the things you'd do when working with any stranger on the Internet. While this is intended for Shakers in general, remember that there is no real obstacle to being able to comment here, and do the things you need to do to keep yourself safe.

* As might be evident, this is an intentional reference to Bread and Roses, a longtime slogan of the left. In this case, though, my hope is that if we achieve steady bread, we will use it to power our teaspoon use.

** Now, don't go writing to that one yet, because that's not my actual domain name (which I've not got running yet, but should soon), and I'm only using it as an example (though it happens to be true). The e-mail listed for me under Contributors works just fine for now, if you've got something for me.

The last several Bread and Teaspoons: Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

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Daily Kitteh



I am Supercat.

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Quote of the Day

"When history calls, history calls."Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, informing her Republican colleagues that she would be voting for the Democratic health care bill when the Senate Finance Committee votes on it today.

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You Go, Grrl: Ruth Frith

The oldest female athlete at the World Masters Games in Sydney has broken a world record in the shot put -- at the age of 100.

All eyes were on Ruth Frith, from Brisbane, as she arrived for day two of the World Masters Games, hoping to win gold in the shot put and feeling pretty confident as she was the only competitor in the over-100s category.

But her 4.07 metre (13 ft 4.2 in) throw on Sunday didn't just win her gold, but also broke a world record.

"As long as I didn't foul I was going to win it," Frith told Reuters Television.

The great-grandmother is also a keen hammer and javelin thrower and believes other pensioners should follow her example.

Frith trains five days a week, regularly lifting 35 kg (77 lb) weights. She doesn't drink or smoke and she doesn't eat vegetables either, claiming she hasn't liked them since she was young. (link)

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The Trials and Travails of Transness: Trans-Sexualization

by Shaker Alexmac, a transgender woman studying at the University of Florida.

[Part 6 in an ongoing series: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5.]

I am sorry for the long delay since the last installment of this series, but I hope you enjoy or at least learn something new. The topic this time is the sexualization of trans women, which was spurred by this article, which illustrates beautifully the ways in which trans women are sexualized and fetishized. Luckily, Julia Serano dedicated a chapter in her book to this very topic (which is where I got the title from). She notes that, "trans women are objectified, because our bodies and our persons are female." The sexualization of trans women ultimately comes from plain old sexism. Our transness just makes us more objectifable women. This is one of the reasons why I feel that cisgender feminists should help defend transgender women, because we all face the same bigotry against femaleness.

We can first see how the media sexualizes trans women and removes our agency in multiple ways. The first way is via the "deceiver" trope where trans women are portrayed as luring and tricking men. This came be seen in movies like the Crying Game or Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Another negative stereotype is the trans woman as sex worker. While many trans women are forced into sex work in order to survive and pay for transition, it is often the only way that trans women are portrayed in media. When trans women are not being portrayed as sex workers then they are shown putting on make up or having the "surgery." A sad fact so common that such scenes are then used in many trans documentary drinking games. These depictions in the media make cissexual people only associate trans women with sex and not see us as people.

Another way we are sexualized is similar to the logic used by people who call women with a short skirt or extra cleavage are "asking" for sex. Julia Serano explains that an extremely popular assumption is that, "trans women transform ourselves into women to invite male sexualization and sexual advances." This is probably due to sexualization in the media as already discussed and by the prevalence of "tranny" porn, which brings us back to the article that started off this whole post.

Men view us as primarily sexual objects, but not women who they want to carry on a relationship with. This toxic secret admirer dynamic further marginalizes trans women as other and less than cis women. As trans women are just starting to come out many of them are often looking for validation of their identity and can be targets for men who want a "tranny" experience. I know personally, I was propositioned twice by these tranny chasers, when I was just accepting that I was transsexual and wanting to be validated as a woman.

Psychologists further support this view that trans women are "asking for it" in a number of different ways. The most glaring example is that gender identity disorder (GID) which is the diagnosis that allows a trans person to transition is placed in with sexual paraphilias like necrophilia and pedophilia. Additionally, trans women are the subject of pet theories like autogynephilia, which is defined by an erotic interest in the thought or image of oneself as a woman. This theory is prominently featured in the pseudo science book The Man Who Would be Queen, written by Michael Bailey. Recent studies have found autogynephilia occuring in 93% of cis women, which is really not surprising, because the theory itself is a farce driven by bigotry.

Sexualization of trans women has the same goals as sexualization of cis women; we are stripped of our sexual agency and put into the position of victims or prey for men. We face our own set of issues related to negative portrayals in the media and by porn. These often center on the genitalia of trans women and depict us as more objectifiable women. There is a reason that mostly heterosexual men watch tranny porn. While the article tries to depict the interest in tranny porn as some sort of sexual revolution, it is more like meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

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THUNDERDOME!!

This is gonna get good.

There have been indications that Rush Limbaugh is growing jealous of Glenn Beck’s success. Limbaugh recently suggested to Politico that Beck’s promotion of the 9/12 march was “cheap and disingenuous.” In the second part of her interview with Limbaugh, NBC’s Jamie Gangel asked the hate radio host what he thinks of Glenn Beck. Limbaugh responded somewhat defensively:
GANGEL: Glenn Beck — do you worry about the new guy on the block?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: No. Look, in 1988, I’m the only national conservative voice. Now look at conservative media. Look what I have spawned. Glenn Beck to me is right on daddy-o. Glenn Beck is a result of my success.
"Spawned?" Eew.

Also: "Right on daddy-o?" Well, 23-skiddoo to you too, Rush.

Also Also: Yo. Is there anything more hilarious than Republicans attempting slang?

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Carol Brady, Tech Support

For those of you out there who have struggled with new-fangled gadgets and electronics (especially if you didn't grow up as computer savvy as some), here's the story of a lovely lady who can help.

Growing up, the sextet of stepsiblings on The Brady Bunch could always count on their TV mom Carol Brady to talk them through a number of awkward adolescent predicaments: broken noses, schoolyard bullies, first dates and general teenage angst.

Now she’s helping a new audience through a whole new set of problems—by providing tech support for aging adults.

The FloH Club is a tech-support hotline geared towards older adults who want to become more comfortable using the Web and connected devices, but aren’t exactly sure how.

Florence Henderson, who dropped by the New York Times offices on Monday to talk about her new service, said she was motivated to start a tech-support service for aging adults after realizing that she didn’t know how to do anything with a cellphone other than make a call.

“I didn’t grow up with this technology,” she said. “It’s like learning a new language.”

Now, as a proficient text-messenger, Skyper and active member on Facebook, she wants to help others learn to do the same.
Now I know who I'm going to call the next time someone calls me to help them with their computer or printer...

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Wow.

Why bother with dogwhistles anymore?

Update: The raccoon shown in the picture is more than likely Ms. Bruce's "pet," (or, a raccoon that "won't leave her alone") as listed in her biography; I'm sure the excuse will be that this is just a harmless joke showing a cute picture of her pet. "I'm just saying that if they'll award the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama, they'll give it to anyone, or anything!" Interesting that she didn't use a picture of her dog or cat, also listed in her biography, hmm? There's always that little bit of convenient "I'm not a racist" wiggle room.

This is a national radio host, folks.

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Photo of the Day

Elinor Ostrom celebrates winning the Nobel Prize in economics at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana October 12, 2009. Ostrom, a U.S. academic who proved that communities can trump state control and corporations became the first woman to win the Nobel prize in economics on Monday, sharing it with an expert on conflict resolution. [Via.]

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Nobel Prize in Economics Goes to Woman for First Time Ever

And she's from my home state, too! Woot!

The prize committee cited Elinor Ostrom, 76, at Indiana University, and Oliver E. Williamson, 77, at the University of California, Berkeley, for work done over long careers. Ms. Ostrom is the first woman to receive the economics prize in the 41-year history of the award. She is a political scientist, not an economist, and in honoring her, the judges seemed to suggest that economics should be thought of as an interdisciplinary field rather than a pure science governed by mathematics.

"This award is part of the merging of the social sciences," said Robert Shiller, a Yale University economist. "Economics has been too isolated and too stuck on the view that markets are efficient and self-regulating. It has derailed our thinking."

...Ms. Ostrom's work deals in the concept of "commons" shared by a number of people who earn their living from a common resource and have a stake, therefore, in preserving it. Her most recent research has focused on relatively small forests in undeveloped countries. Groups of people share the right to harvest lumber from a particular forest, and so they have a stake in making sure the forest survives.

"When local users of a forest have a long-term perspective, they are more likely to monitor each other's use of the land, developing rules for behavior," Ms. Ostrom said in an interview. "It is an area that standard market theory does not touch."

...Ms. Ostrom concluded in her research that the "tragedy of the commons" was an inaccurate concept. Particularly in 17th- and 18th-century England and Scotland, the concept described villagers' overgrazing of their herds on the village commons, thereby destroying it as pasture.

The solution often invoked was to convert the commons to private property, on the ground that self-interested owners would protect their pasture land.

"Conservatives used the tragedy of the commons to argue for property rights, and efficiency was achieved as people were thrown off the commons," said Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University, a Nobel laureate in economics himself. "But the effects of throwing a lot of people out of their livelihood were enormous. What Ostrom has demonstrated is the existence of social control mechanisms that regulate the use of commons without having to resort to property rights."
Paul Krugman has more on the work being done my Dr. Ostrom and Dr. Williamson here.

By the way, kudos to the Times for including this important piece of information on Dr. Ostrom: "Often working with her husband, Vincent, 90, who is a professor emeritus at Indiana..." No word on what role Dr. Williamson's wife has played in his research, if any.

[H/T to Shaker Scott Madin.]

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