This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Liss' Sparkly Slings, for fashionable sufferers of Teaspoon Elbow.
Recommended Reading:
Tigtog: It's White Ribbon Day
Resistance: I Remember.
Laura: Great, Now Demi Moore's Torso Is Missing
Cara: U.S. Sailor Acquitted of Rape, Despite Admission of Physical Force
Jill: Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better…
Renee: Seth Macfarlane Attacks Trans Women on the Cleveland Show
Leave your links in comments...
Wednesday Blogaround
Anti-Gay Legislation in Uganda
Teaspoons up, Shakers, I've got a letter-writing opportunity for you.
The government of Uganda has proposed a new law which would make being gay in the African country a crime, punishable by up to life in prison.
The addresses for Ugandan foreign missions, embassies and consulates can be found here.
Please remember that when addressing diplomats, it is wise to use appropriate language, or risk having your message discarded, unread by anyone with decision-making power.
ô,ôP
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning.]
"Critics like Australian sociologist Michael Flood say that men's rights movements reflect the tactics of domestic abusers themselves, minimizing existing violence, calling it mutual, and discrediting victims. MRA groups downplay national abuse rates, just as abusers downplay their personal battery; they wage campaigns dismissing most allegations as false, as abusers claim partners are lying about being hit; and they depict the violence as mutual—part of an epidemic of wife-on-husband abuse—as individual batterers rationalize their behavior by saying that the violence was reciprocal. Additionally, MRA groups' predictions of future violence by fed-up men wronged by the family-law system seem an obvious additional correlation, with the threat of violence seemingly intended to intimidate a community, like a fearful spouse, into compliance. MRA critics say the organizational recapitulation of abusive tactics should be no surprise, considering the wealth of movement leaders with records or accusations of violence, abuse, harassment, or failure to pay child support."—From Kathryn Joyce's "Men's Rights" Groups Have Become Frighteningly Effective. Sent to me by Shaker Timm, who hat tips Slacktivist.
Self-identified MRAs and/or men regurgitating MRA rhetoric are, alongside "pro-life" Christians, my most vicious emailers, who regularly pepper their missives with rape threats and sexually violent imagery. They are little more than a thronging conglomeration of aggressively angry bullies, loosely bound by a collective interest in crushing anyone who poses even the most insignificant threat to their perceived right to male privilege. There is no principle behind the "men's rights" movement, unless one imagines "entitlement to abuse women" to be a principle.
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report
(Today's edition of the NQDTR brought to you by Shaxco, brewers of "Fifth of Firth of Forth", a fine pale ale)
Here we go again, Shakers, time to lay it out there: show us how your teaspoon shines!
ô,ôP
I've read some of the discussion thread - my disability has been giving me a bad time the last couple of days, so I've not had as much vertical time as I'd like, and had to use what I had for work - but not all of it. My own inclination seems to be toward the "no congrats but add a discussion post at some frequency" option, but I want to finish reading the thread first.
So let's carry on with the tight focus rule, and hopefully by Friday I'll have been able to get through the whole thread. My apologies for the delays.
The idea here is to comment with acts of teaspooning that you've seen or done in the last couple of days.
Remember: 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. In fact, just posting here about your teaspooning activity? That is a teaspoon too. And there's no scale for determining whether something is or isn`t a teaspoon - no sizism here!
What the Hell?
Shaker ChelseaWantsOut.
Who is, I assume, making paper snowflakes.
(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
[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, molliecat, Aestas, catvoncat, Filthy Grandeur, Shelly, Mighty Doll, IraeNicole, sevenhelz, the Shaker Halloween Special, Mistress Sparkletoes, Neilleast, NapalmNacey, and Rowan_Bristol.]
SYTYCD Open Thread
Great night last night. I enjoyed almost every performance, although Ashleigh and Jakob really stole the night with two amazing numbers. First, their Sonya-choreographed lyrical jazz routine:
—and then their amazing cha-cha choreographed by Jean-Marc and France Généreux:
I really loved seeing Ashleigh be so confident in her own element. What an enormous difference when there's a ballroom number with an actual ballroom dancer! Not that the other dancers don't normally do really well, but Ashleigh just brought it to a whole other level for me (for all the technical reasons Mary Murphy elucidates).
My other favorites of the night were Ellenore & Ryan, both of whose numbers were spectacular. Loved their Carla Heiney-choreographed Lindy Hop:
—and then loved their Broadway routine choreographed by Spencer Liff:
And, as ever, Kathryn and Legacy. Their Sonya-choreographed performance was awesome:
If Mollee and Nathan, who annoy the absolutely hell out of me, went home, I honestly would be happy with whomever won out of the entire Top 10. (Actually, it's really just Nathan.) But I don't think that's going to happen. I expect that we'll be saying goodbye to Noelle and Victor tonight.
[Thanks very much to Vance for some of the videos.]
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me
Bail Offer for Roman Polanski Is Approved:
The Associated Press is reporting that a Swiss court has approved Roman Polanski's offer to be released from prison on a $4.5 million bail. Under the terms of the offer, Mr. Polanski will be kept under house arrest and monitored electronically at his Swiss chalet.I don't even know what to say anymore. I just hope the poor dear can survive the heinous imprisonment at his Swiss chalet.
The Swiss Justice Ministry told The A.P. that it will keep Mr. Polanski in jail until it decides whether to appeal his release to that country's supreme court. The Swiss Criminal Court said it still considered Mr. Polanski a high flight risk, but that the new bail offer was significant enough to offset those concerns.
No matter how horrible, though, I'm totally sure that he won't flee from a country with an extradition treaty, because he's proven time and again what an upstanding citizen he is.
[Thanks to Anna, via email, for the heads-up.]
I Get Letters
After my missive to Method yesterday morning, I received the following reply yesterday evening:
Dear Melissa,I don't believe I've ever received such a condescending and dismissive reply from any corporate entity (which is really saying something). "I want to apologize for any distress you have experienced due to our video." As if my letter had reported that the video sent me to the fucking fainting couch clutching my pearls. Jesus.
Thank you for contacting us and for sharing your story. I assure you that we are, in fact, reading your e-mails. I also spent a good deal of time on your blog today reading your posting as well as the subsequent comments.
I want to apologize for any distress you have experienced due to our video. We have received a number of comments mirroring your sentiments, and we are taking them very seriously.
As a company that makes eco-friendly soap and cleaning products, we believe people have the right to know what is inside the cleaning products they use, and our goal with this video was to connect people to their local representatives and Congress people to affect change.
We are sorry if we have lost your business, and more importantly, your respect.
In no way does Method tolerate harassment, assault or violence against women, nor do we feel that our video encourages these behaviors.
As with all media messages, people will interpret our video in different ways. In no way are we undermining your experience with the video. We understand you feel our choices were unacceptable. We currently do not plan to remove the video, as we stand by the goal of this campaign: to raise awareness about the dirty chemicals often found in traditional cleaning products.
We are truly sorry for any offense or pain the video has caused you.
anna
president of the method fan club:: people against dirty
phone: 866.9.method
And more of this garbage: "In no way does Method tolerate harassment, assault or violence against women, nor do we feel that our video encourages these behaviors."
Maybe on some other planet in another dimension that makes sense, but here, on this planet and in this dimension, where we have logic, claiming that you don't "tolerate harassment, assault, or violence against women," in the same breath as you defend an ad which uses imagery of a woman being harassed and assaulted to sell your product, is what is generally called manifest horseshit.
Method may "feel" that their video doesn't encourage those behaviors, but, as several commenters who received the same boilerplate language in their replies have pointed out, a glance at the comments associated with this video at other sites showed that to be patently false, as commenters whoop and holler about how awesome and hilarious the video is and launch into chants of "Loofah! Loofah!" recreating exactly the objectionable behavior in the video.
Comments at YouTube so blatantly discredited Method's line of bullshit about how their video doesn't encourage those behaviors that they simply closed comments, but keep telling the same lie.
The reality is that the video diminishes the gravity of sexual assault and harassment by equating it with the much less serious issue of having chemical residue in one's bathtub. And in the sense that diminishing the gravity of sexual assault and harassment feeds the rape culture in which they're tolerated, the video does indeed obliquely encourage these behaviors—because spaces in which criminality is tolerated, criminality is tacitly encouraged.
Hence: "Loofah! Loofah!" in comments threads.
Finally, there is this: "We currently do not plan to remove the video, as we stand by the goal of this campaign: to raise awareness about the dirty chemicals often found in traditional cleaning products." Which is effectively an admission that they know the content is heinous, but it's getting them so much free publicity that they don't give a fuck.
I refer you back to their simultaneous claim that they don't "tolerate harassment, assault, or violence against women." Even as they trade on it.
Even as they use sexual assault survivors and anti-rape advocates to give them free publicity.
Because that passage is also a thank-you to me. Thanks for the free publicity, chump. Good thing there are people like you in the world who care so fervently about survivors that you'll blog about our advert and save us a marketing budget. We're not pulling the ad—so what are you going to do about it?
That's Method's position. That's their principled stance on sexual harassment and assault: The survivors are a pretty damn useful resource to make awful videos go viral.
And my choice was to participate in that exploitation, or be silent.
Tell me again, Anna, how Method doesn't "tolerate harassment, assault, or violence against women." Tell me with a straight face, even as Method revictimizes survivors of sexual assault by forcing them to give time and attention to a video that promotes it, or keep silent about a video that promotes it.
Tell me again how "truly sorry" you are "for any offense or pain the video has caused" me, but how profoundly grateful you are for my exploitable contempt, how very useful is my willingness to spend my days teaspooning the rape culture so no woman ever has to suffer the same fate as I did, how helpful my having been raped has ultimately been to your goal of raising awareness about chemicals.
Tell me again. I'd love to hear more about how principled and sorry you are.
Malalai Joya on Afghanistan
by Shaker Corrie
At this link is an interview with Malalai Joya, the youngest woman ever elected to the Afghan parliament, who was later suspended from her position for criticizing the government and has since survived four assassination attempts. The interview aired Nov. 18 on Canada AM, a national morning news show on the CTV network. Joya was (and still is) on a tour of Canada, talking about her book and how we can end the war in Afghanistan. It just popped into mind when reading Liss' post yesterday morning on the potential for Obama to escalate in Afghanistan.
When I see someone as eloquent as Joya talk about Canadians and other NATO troops as an occupying force, it is pretty clear that "more troops" is definitely not a solution to any problem. Of particular note: When she offers condolences to those Canadian moms who lost their children in Afghanistan, but urges them to "change your sorrows, your tears, to the strength. Raise your voice against the wrong policy of your government, because democracy never came by barrel of gun, by war, by cluster bomb."
A transcript is below.Beverly Thomson (co-host of Canada AM): She has survived four assassination attempts and at 25 years old she was the youngest person elected to Afghanistan's new parliament, only to be suspended for criticising the government. A Woman among Warlords is Malalai Joya's story of life in Afghanistan, and we welcome her into our Canada AM studios this morning.
It's – it's such a compelling account, to read what you have done at such a young age, I have to ask, when you decided and how you decided to do this because you knew you could, and would, get into trouble even to try to educate yourself and other girls.
Malalai Joya: Because we believe that no nation can donate liberation to another nation and woman's right is not a bunch of beautiful flowers that someone gift us. We must do sacrifices, accept risks, and try our best to achieve these values and to struggle – as always I am saying I don't fear death, I fear political silence against injustice.
BT: Now, you had to hide, even books, under your burqa, because of what might happen to you if they found out you were educating people…
MJ: Yeah, in the period of Taliban, it was risky, to avoid the Taliban, but today's situation is as catastrophic as it was under the domination of Taliban in most of provinces of Afghanistan. And today, by presence of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, that rape cases against women, domestic violence, acid attacks, killing of women increasing rapidly, because after 9/11 tragedy, a photocopy of the Taliban, these misogynist warlords wear suit and tie, talking about democracy – they come in power. That's why the situation for men and women, especially for the women and children, is getting worse.
BT: You thought that you could make a difference by getting elected to Parliament – and you did. Then you served there, an- but then they kicked you out, essentially.
MJ: Yeah, I think in my life history I know enough about mockery of democracy, and mockery of war on terror in Afghanistan, because in the period of Taliban, at that dark time, it was risky, but now, even with burqa, bodyguard, not safe – changing safehouse to safehouses. And now not only me, most of my people, they squashed between two powerful enemies. From the sky, occupation forces bombing, killing civilians, most of them women and children under the name of Taliban, in the ground, Taliban and warlords together continue with their fascism. So, the withdrawal of one enemy, it is much easier to fight one instead of two! But now, my country, under the banner of woman's rights, human rights, democracy, has been occupied. In Canada government they say we want to stay there until 2011—
BT: Uh-huh.
MJ: —and my people don't want them to be that much more as this eight years they were not honest for my people, and they followed the wrong policy of the US government, which is war crime. So they must leave my country now!
BT: You write in your book, “we are not a helpless country, we have been able to manage our own affairs, and women's rights have not always been in such a terrible state.”
MJ: Yeah, the only difference between Taliban period with now is that all of these crimes against women are happening under the name of democracy. Canadian, great people, know about misogynist law these fundamentalists recently made against Shia women in Afghanistan. And this law, despite national and international condemnation even has been signed by Hamid Karzai – this shameless puppet man who did compromise – that's all he do, compromise. And now his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, in Kandahar province, he is in power, and my people call him a "small Bush". The New York Times recently wrote that he's receiving millions of dollars by CIA, and also he is a famous drug trafficker. And Canada [I believe she meant to say Kandahar] is a province that where Canada has troops – that's why we believe that Canada, and also other NATO countries who follow the wrong policy of the US, they just waste their taxpayer money in Afghanistan, and the blood of their soldiers. And now they surge more troops in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama, because his foreign policy is quite similar, the wrong policy of criminal Bush. And he want to decrease power of the Taliban, also to join (?) the government as a moderate. Well, we have no moderate Talib – he must support democratic minded people of my country while we have a lot, like other countries. At least my people say if Mr Obama really honest, he must say apologize to my people and try to bring criminal Bush to the International Criminal Court for the war crime he committed. But Canada government still follow the wrong policy of the US government, I say condolences to those Canadian mom—
BT: Mm-hmm.
MJ: —who lost their son, daughter in my country, but please, change your sorrows, your tears, to the strength. Raise your voice against the wrong policy of your government, because democracy never come by barrel of gun, by war, by cluster bomb. And now, US government is start war in Pakistan as well. At least situation of Iraq, in Afghanistan prove this claim, that democracy never come by war.
BT: Malalai Joya, thank you for coming in.
MJ: Thank you, thanks for your support, but when we say the withdrawal of the troops, but my message to great, justice-loving people of Canada is that men and women please join your hands with us, we need your educational support, humanitarian support, we need your honest helping hand; we never want occupation. Occupation can never bring liberation. I'm sure they will face with resistance of my people if they do not leave voluntarily.
BT: The name of the book – A Woman among Warlords by Malalai Joya.
Question of the Day
The logical follow-up to yesterday's QotD: What is the worst thing you've ever eaten?
Caption This Photo
Hils, check it out: I just tweeted @joebiden "i kno ur playing mineswpr again. get back 2 work or ill give ur job 2 dodd!"
Reminder: Women Are Half the Population
So, Mark Halperin and his editors over at Time thought this was an appropriate image to use of Senator Mary Landrieu's (D-LA):
If you can't see the image (care of Media Matters), or can't believe what you're seeing, it's an image of Senator Landrieu Photoshopped to resemble the iconic semen-hair scene from the film There's Something About Mary, under the headline "There's (Still) Something About Mary." As Morgan points out over at Media Matters, the image is:
part of a broader, sexist right-wing narrative that the U.S. Senator from Louisiana is, as Glenn Beck put it yesterday, "a high-class prostitute" engaged in "hookin'" -- all because she lobbied Senate leadership for expanded Medicaid funding for Louisiana in the Senate health care bill in what was characterized by the media as an exchange for her "yea" vote to proceed with floor debate on the bill.For the record, that narrative about Landrieu isn't even fact-based: What she got in return for her vote was a promise to rectify a federal government failure after Hurricane Katrina, not some kind of special gift that no one else is getting.
Not to be left out, Rush Limbaugh got in on the action yesterday too, declaring that Landrieu "may be the most expensive prostitute in the history of prostitution."
Which doesn't mean this picture would have been appropriate if she had gotten some special sweetener in exchange for her vote.
I'll just reiterate what I said when Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza were pulling similar bullshit: I'd love to hear Time explain how they feel confident their contributors are giving balanced coverage to female public figures when they consider the above acceptable commentary.
Yes, the image was pulled, but Mark Halperin thought it was appropriate to publish. Why on earth should I, or anyone else, trust that his internalized misogyny isn't affecting his ability to objectively cover half the population? Why are the Time editors trusting him with that responsibility?
Email Time.
Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning.]
Shaker Arthur Lipp-Bonewits emails: "One of the blogs I follow that isn't a feminist blog is Regretsy, which posts dreadful finds on Etsy.com. Today, they posted this. It's a body pillow meant to imitate a Roofie. I think that's all that really needs to be said."
At the link you will find a possibly NSFW image advertising said item, which features a naked* woman sleeping atop the the body pillow, which is labeled Rohypnol. The image reads: "Take one of these...and I'll see you in the morning."
And, yeah. That's all that really needs to be said.
-------------------
* Who I'm fairly certain has been Photoshopped to be naked, given the skin discoloration exactly where a bra and panties, or bikini, would cover her breast and buttock, adding an extra layer of gross to this epic fuckery.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
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, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73. 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.
Assvertising
Following on the heels of yesterday's thread about a craptastical jewelry advert, here's another one I loathe with the fiery passion of ten thousand suns (thanks to Shaker Erin W for locating video for me):
[Man who has apparently just been shopping and returned to his car sets down Jared Jewelers bag on passenger seat. The camera cuts to the navigation system on his dashboard.]IIRC, in the version I actually saw on television, there's another two seconds or so that show Dave driving away, as if to make clear that the lady navigation system is doing her job now that she's been given a diamond necklace. You know—just like how Dave's wife will do her chores once he gives her a diamond necklace.
Navigation System Speaking in Female Voice: Navigation System activated. Oh, look—he went to Jared.
Man: [looking around confusedly] Excuse me?
NS: What's in the bag, Dave?
Man: A…diamond necklace…? [He leans in and looks at the navigation system, as if investigating for a hidden camera.]
NS: May I see it?
Man: [laughing] Uh, can I just get directions, please? Heh heh.
NS: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
[His face falls; the doors lock on the car and he looks around frantically.]
Female Voiceover: [over images of diamond jewelry] The Hearts Desire Collection at Jared uses only ideal-cut diamonds to best see the diamonds' true inner fire.
Man: [camera from perspective of navigation system] Now can we go?
NS: Oh, Dave. [cut to image of him putting diamond necklace around navigation system] You shouldn't have.
Voiceover: Jared—the galleria of jewelry.
Special disgusto points to Jared for the door-locking scene, because women are totes rabbit-boiling psycho bitchez when they don't get what they want, amirite?
[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, Eighty-One, Eighty-Two, Eighty-Three, Eighty-Four, Eighty-Five, Eighty-Six, Eighty-Seven, Eighty-Eight.]
Quote of the Day
"Like all great public issues, the health care debate is fundamentally a debate about values. It's a debate about what kind of country we want America to be. ... Reform would make us a more decent society, but also a less vibrant one. ... America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one."—David Brooks, who, in case it's not clear, is suggesting that becoming more decent, civilized, and sedate at the cost of our vibrancy, raggedness, and unforgiving nature is a bad thing.
Rarely do I read something that so succinctly demonstrates why I am a progressive and not a conservative.
