Nacey didn't say if this was taken on Halloween or not. I'm guessing not.
(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.)
Zombie Hello Kitty wishes you a happy birthday. Rrrrrowrrrr!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu! Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu! You're a totes giant aaaaaaaasshoooooooole! And a dork through and throuuuuuuugh!
An ellegant cake for the beautiful, wise, and wonderful Ms. Elle...
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu! Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu! You look like a two-fisted smasher of the kyriarchal agendaaaaaaaaa! And you smell like one toooooooo!
Currently airing on C-SPAN2. The live stream is here if you want to watch but don't have C-SPAN2 on your cable/satellite system. (Or don't have cable/satellite at all.)
As I write this, Orrin Hatch (R-1950) is talking about abortion, and my teeth are grinding together so hard I feel like I may spontaneously generate a new universe between my molars.
"If they were put in front of me I'd probably watch it."—Billy Arnone, Carrie Prejean's brother, on his sister's sex tapes, in an interview with Radar Online, during which, btw, he was wearing a t-shirt reading "Loose Lips."
Seriously: WTF? I don't even know how to deal with that.
I know this makes me the Queen of Obvious Statements, but there is something deeply, deeply wrong with our culture.
Part One: Shaker Richard Gadsen emails about this theater review in The Guardian, in which Mark Lawson wonders if he should have walked out on a play in which there was objectionable content about sexual assault:
It's a rightly angry play and I shared the writer's rage, until a moment when it turned against him. A young woman, Dora, is raped by three of her classmates in turn. The characters look back on the action of the past – from either old age or the afterlife, depending on their luck – and Dora's reflections on this violation are: "I screamed, but I could feel myself getting wet … I felt a pleasure I'd never known … I'd been raped by that pack of savages and I'd actually felt pleasure."
My first reaction was to hope for a mishearing caused by the actress's mumbling or my ageing ears. But the published text was on my knee and the lines had been crisply delivered as written. I have never believed in censorship, but it struck me that these words, though possibly tolerable if spoken as personal testimony in a documentary, have no justification when given by a male writer to a female fictional character because they appear to validate one of the nastiest and most discredited of male fantasies. Even more queasily, the speech is an incidental detail, irrelevant to the main business of the play.
Lawson reports that no other reviewers have noted the passage that angered him, despite the fact that "there was angry discussion among women in the audience the night I went."
Women (and men) can become physically aroused while being sexually assaulted. But Lawson's point is well-made: It is a very different thing for an actual survivor to report such an event, and quite another for a male playwright to put it in the mouth of a female character, with no evident purpose or relevance to the central plot.
The dialogue could have a conceivable rationale—if, for example, the play were about a rape trial in which a defense attorney were trying to use evidence of a victim's arousal to discredit the accusation of sexual assault (which has happened in real life). But stuck in randomly, it serves the exact function that Lawson describes, "to validate one of the nastiest and most discredited of male fantasies," that women secretly enjoy rape.
Part Two: Shaker Keeks emails about this dreadful post at Waiter Rant, in which "Waiter" compares no one helping Kitty Genovese while she was being raped and murdered to everyone thinking someone else is leaving the tip at a restaurant. Seriously.
Now I'm not making light of Ms. Genovese's murder, but if you've ever watched a large party in a restaurant divvy up a bill you'll see the same "diffusion of responsibility" thing at work. In many cases patrons think the host or the "other guy" is going to leave the tip so they don't throw in. The result? The waiter often gets a bad tip or no tip at all.
You gotta love someone who can, with a straight face, follow "I'm not making light of Ms. Genovese's murder" with a comparison of her murder to being stiffed on a tip.
Here's the thing: It's possible to explain diffusion of responsibility without invoking the gruesome attack on Kitty Genovese. For example: "You know how everyone in a workplace always thinks someone else is going to throw spoiled crap out of the refrigerator?" See how easy that is? No equating rape-murder with something not even in the same galaxy required.
Part Three: Shaker Katecontinued emails about this PSA about chemical cleaners, which was approvingly posted at TreeHugger with the note that it's "hilarious."
Musical jingle, as if a typical cleaning commercial, as cartoon bubbles race around bathtub grinning and a woman watches them contentedly, bopping to the tune: Shiny Suds / We're Shiny Suds / We shine like only Shiny Suds / Shiny Suds do a shinetastic job / A shinetastic job!
[edit; the same woman is walking into the bathroom clad in only a bathrobe; she yells over her shoulder "Breakfast in 20!" just before closing the bathroom door to indicate it's the next morning; she takes off her robe, yawns, and pulls back the shower curtain, where the Shiny Suds are still hanging out]
Shiny Suds [all male voices]: Morning!
Woman: What the f-?! [she jumps back and wraps herself in the shower curtain]
Leader of Shiny Suds [deep male voice]: You forgotten us already? [the Shiny Suds laugh]
Woman: Why are you still here?
Leader of Shiny Suds: We're still here because you sprayed us here.
Another of the Shiny Suds: We're chemical residue left over from your cleaner.
Another One: Made from toxic ingredients. We give you the impression of clean-
Another One: -and then we get to watch you clean! [the Shiny Suds laugh]
Leader of Shiny Suds: Now, if you please...
Another One: Scrubsy-dubsy, baby.
[Woman looks freaked out and reluctant.]
Another One: You don't wanna be late for work! Awwww.
Another One: Get in the tub, please.
[edit; woman is now in shower, washing herself, with her arms tight, to try to keep her breasts covered; the Shiny Suds are shouting and leering]
Shiny Suds: Oh, yeah! Woo! You know you want it! Wow! Look at you! [she balances on one leg to hide her genitals] That's doing wonders for your core!
[cut to close-up of Shiny Suds gawking up at her, panting]
Leader of Shiny Suds: Use the loofah.
Shiny Suds: LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! LOOFAH! [she reaches down and quickly grabs the loofah] Wooooooooooo! Yeah! Woo! All right!
[They celebrate by singing the Shiny Suds jingle, as we see the woman through the shower curtain, crouching and trying to keep herself covered while she cleans herself.]
Text Onscreen: You deserve to know what chemicals are in your cleaners. Support the Household Product Labeling Acts.
[Woman drops loofah. One of the Shiny Suds says, "Oopsy-daisy!" When she reaches down for it, they whoop.]
The Chicagoland Meet-Up is this Sunday! If you want to come and/or need any information about time, location, directions, parking, public transportation, etc. email me, or our organizing guru Red Sonja (at sonja1023-at-gmail-dot-com).
Also: Anyone coming from southern Indiana/northern Kentucky direction besides Screaming Lemur, or anyone who would if they had someone with whom to travel? If so, let me know!
We discussed Will Phillips, the adorable 10-year-old Arkansas kid who is refusing to say the Pledge in class because he recognizes that there actually is "liberty and justice for all," in a thread earlier in the week, but there hasn't been a main-page post and I'm getting lots of emails about him. He is just about the cutest thing ever, so here's the video, with transcript below. Enjoy!
John Roberts, CNN Anchor: A 10-year-old boy from Arkansas is taking a stand by sitting down. Will Philips is refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag in his fifth grade classroom until there really is, as the pledge says, liberty and justice for all. That is, he says, until gays and lesbians have equal rights. Joining us now in an exclusive interview are Will Phillips and his father, Jay. They're in West Fork, Arkansas for us this morning. Will and Jay, good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being with us. And Will, let me ask you first of all, when did you decide that you weren't going to stand up and recite the pledge?
Will Phillips: I decided that I was going to do that the weekend before when I did it. Um, I was analyzing the meanings of it, because I want to be a lawyer.
Roberts: Mm-hmm. All right. So what did you decide in "analyzing the meanings of it" that caused you not to stand up and recite the pledge?
Will Phillips: Well, I looked at the end and it said "with liberty and justice for all." And there really isn't liberty and justice for all. There's—um, uh, gays and lesbians can't marry.
Roberts: Mm-hmm.
Will Phillips: Um, uh, there's still a lot of racism and sexism in the world, um, yeah.
Roberts: All right. So you, so you think that the country isn't living up to the ideals of the pledge and you took it upon yourself to sit down and not recite the pledge of allegiance until the country comes in line with, to embody the ideals that are embodied in the pledge?
Will Phillips: Yes!
Roberts: All right. So, your teacher, who is a substitute teacher at the time, was giving you some grief about not standing up. And this went on for a few days. What did you eventually say to that teacher?
Will Phillips: I eventually very solemnly with a little bit of malice in my voice said, "Ma'am, with all due respect, you can go jump off a bridge."
[Roberts chuckles; Jay Phillips rolls his eyes and covers his face in an amusing way.]
Roberts: [trying not to laugh] You said, solemnly, with a little bit of malice in your voice, maybe you can go jump off a bridge. And we saw your dad, Jay, put his face in his hands just then. That obviously, Jay, earned him a trip to the principal's office, and you were contacted after that; what did you think when you heard what was going on there at school?
Jay Phillips [Will's father]: Well, my, my initial response was, uh, measured and considered, thoughtful and was—uh, he's dead. That's it. He's, he's doomed! [Phillips is obviously kidding and Roberts laughs.] Uh, however, when I got home and I talked to him, the more I heard from him, the more it became apparent that this wasn't a typical act of juvenile delinquency. This was a very atypical act of juvenile delinquency. He, uh, he just made it clear that he sat for four days and, uh, took brunt of the criticism. And reminded her that it was his first amendment right and that he didn't have to stand or say the pledge. And on the fourth day, he lost his temper. Now, he did apologize in writing to the teacher and we really, really want to emphasize that we have a wonderful school district, a wonderful town. This is a great community and that the teacher, in our opinion, was just trying to—
Roberts: Gotcha.
Jay Phillips: —to handle what probably to her seemed like a student who was trying to give the, uh, fill-in teacher a hard time.
Roberts: Gotcha. All right. Let's bring in Will here again. Will, why is this issue so important to you that you would commit, as your dad said, this atypical act of juvenile delinquency?
Will Phillips: Because I have many— I've grown up with a lot of people and good friends with a lot of people that are gay and I really—I think they should have the rights all people should. And I'm not going to swear that they do.
Roberts: So, so what's the reaction been from your fellow students at school to you not standing up for the pledge and the views that you hold about this issue?
Will Phillips: Not very good. They've, um, taken from what I said an assumption that I'm gay and in the halls and the cafeteria, I've been repeatedly called a gay wad.
Roberts: A gay wad. What's a gay wad?
Will Phillips: I really don't know. It's a discriminatory name for homosexuals.
Roberts: Okay. All right. Well, Jay, were you prepared—this has obviously gone well beyond the school; this is the sort of thing as you know gains the attention of the national media—were you prepared for the type of reaction, both positive and negative, that your son's actions have precipitated?
Jay Phillips: Well, actually, uh, before we heard from anybody, my first thought was oh, my god, this is the type of thing you see on CNN. [Roberts laughs.] And I sat down and talked to him and I said, uh, you know, you realize there's potentially severe ramifications to this. And we ran through everything and his words to me were that if there was a chance to talk to the local newspaper or something like that, that he wanted—he saw it as an opportunity to, uh, raise awareness and for education and he was very, very clear in that he felt that just because he's 10 years old doesn't mean he doesn't have opinions—
Roberts: Right.
Jay Phillips: —it doesn't mean he doesn't have rights and doesn't mean that he can't make a difference.
Roberts: He does seem to have very strong opinions, we should say, and obviously they are very reasoned out. We should say that he's an extraordinarily bright child. He skipped the fourth grade, went right from the third grade to the fifth grade. But Will, as we prepare to leave you here, what will it take for you to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance? And I ask this question based on what we saw in the off-year election just a couple of weeks ago: A same-sex marriage initiative was put to the test, put to the voters in the state of Maine, and every state across the nation where it has been put to the voters, it has gone down to defeat. So, the Democratic process is taking place here; it seems to be something that voters at large do not support. So what will it take for you to return to saying the pledge?
Will Phillips: For there to truly be liberty and justice for all.
Roberts: And what does that entail?
Will Phillips: That entails everyone being able to marry.
Roberts: All right. Will Phillips, Jay Phillips, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll keep watching the story. It's certainly an interesting one.
[Roberts waits for Will to say something; Jay nudges him and Will nods sagely. There is laughter in the studio.]
Roberts: Wow. He's got his arguments down.
Kiran Chetry, CNN Anchor: He does. He's a really, really well-spoken little kid.
Roberts: He is and he is certainly impassioned about this as well.
There's too much stuff to parse here. Among other things, I'm not sure when these folks are going to actually break any of the non laws they're complaining about (call me when the federal government compels the Orthodox Church in America to perform abortions, or to pay taxes). I also wonder what will happen if any of these folks break any laws. Are they really ready to go to jail? I suppose Chuck Colson already has experience as a political prisoner. /snark.
My inquiry yesterday into listener submissions for a special edition of Radio Shakesville seems to have generated some real interest. Awesome. Totally awesome.
(I will be posting up info on how and where to submit your contributions after the holidays. So get your recordings together now. Unless you're a procastinator, in which case, don't. Wevs.)
And as sad as I am that there may not be a tuba sonata sent in, let me be clear: Any and all submissions are welcome. Lo-fi, hi-fi, refried, covers, originals, mash-ups, audio collages, poems, rants, classical, jazz, disco, country, or even your rap about H1N1. I'm not excluding anything at this point. I'll listen to whatever you're willing to send.
And for anyone who is shy or thinks they're just not up to snuff, give this a whirl:
[I'm posting this today at CaitieCat's request, because she's on the road today, headed this way. Woot!]
Time for another opportunity to show off your mad teaspoonin' skillz, Shakers! Drop into comments your recent act(s) of teaspooning.
ô,ôP
Caitie's Reminder: "The teaspoon is an indivisible unit. If you done some, you done a whole teaspoonsworth. Be proud of your acts, no matter how small they seem, because that's how teaspoons work: little by little, the ocean gets emptied. And there's no scale for determining whether something is or isn't a teaspoon - no sizism here!"
[We're sticking with the "no congratulations" rule for now, until Caitie's had a chance to go through this thread, in which comments are still welcome.]
Media Matters has noticed that prominent members of the conservative media sure love using "rape" as a metaphor (note the number of times it's used to accuse progressives of "raping" their fellow Americans):
It's not just the guys, either: Ann Coulter, for example, is fond of saying that God gave humans the earth to "rape it."
Let's do this again, shall we? The appropriate use of the word rape is to describe the act of forcing or coercing a person into a nonconsensual sex act. The End.
This is, by the way, a lesson not a few fauxgressives could take to heart, too.
Title Card: Why are so many media conservatives so obsessed with rape?
Rush Limbaugh [on video clip]: Well, isn't this good?! Get ready to get gang-raped again folks!
Rush Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled June 5, 2006]: Let me just put it in graphic terms. It is gonna be a gang rape. There is going to be a gang rape by a Democratic Party—
Michael Savage [audio clip from his radio show, labeled June 16, 2008]: —mental rape that's going on. The children's minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia. That's my position! They're raping our children's minds!
Glenn Beck [on video clip]: —you know, pretty much raping the pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor—
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled January 13, 2006]: It's nothing other than a government-sanctioned rape.
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled May 27, 2009]: We need somebody on the Supreme Court who can understand how people in the private sector are getting raped by this administration.
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled January 22, 2009]: Obama said "You get up there, and you rape 'em."
Neal Boortz [audio clip from his radio show, labeled June 30, 2009]: They're gonna rape us. They're gonna bend us over, and nail us, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled May 6, 2009]: He thinks these people should have something for nothing because they have been raped! The union people and the disadvantaged, the downtrodden, the poor, have effectively been raped by American capitalism.
Beck [audio clip from his radio show, labeled November 19, 2009]: People in New York, you're being raped by your government. Raped!
Savage [audio clip from his radio show, labeled April 20, 2009]: Obama is raping America. Obama is raping our values. Obama is raping our democracy.
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled June 24, 2009]: He's like a lotta other dictators. He's got the private sector, and he thinks it's always gonna be there to be raped!
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled July 1, 2009]: The way you get all this stuff done, if you're Obama, is you simply insult the intelligence of the average American, call whatever you're gonna— You could legalize rape and call it the "consumer something" and it would pass.
Savage [audio clip from his radio show, labeled August 5, 2008]: —the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America—
Limbaugh [audio clip from his radio show, labeled July 1, 2009]: Likewise you could legalize rape and call it the Civil Rights Act of 2009 and it would probably pass.
Savage [audio clip from his radio show, labeled August 5, 2008]: The Statue of Liberty is crying; she's been raped and disheveled. Raped and disheveled by illegal aliens! But you turn on the cable news networks? Missing children, rape. Rape, missing children, missing children, rape. Rape, missing children, rape, missing children, missing children, rape! How about missing country and the rape of a nation? Why don't they cover the real story?
Beck [on video clip]: We're the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] "No, no—help me!" [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski.
Title Card: Media Matters for America. mediamatters.org
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
