Today in Rape Culture

[Trigger warning.]

Shaker samanthab sent me a New York Times article, headlined "French Ad Shocks, but Will It Stop Young Smokers?" the first paragraph of which reads: "A new French antismoking advertisement aimed at the young that plays off a pornographic stereotype has gotten more attention than even its creators intended, and critics suggest that it offends common decency and creates a false analogy between oral sex and smoking."

Which is only accurate if you think "oral sex" is a euphemism for sexual assault.

The slogan is bland enough: "To smoke is to be a slave to tobacco." But it accompanies photographs of an older man, his torso seen from the side, pushing down on the head of a teenage girl with a cigarette in her mouth. Her eyes are at belt level, glancing upward fearfully. The cigarette appears to emerge from the adult's trousers.

Two other ads show young men in the same position as the girl, though the adult is wearing a suit jacket and a watch.
The ads are viewable here.

At minimum, if one inexplicably imagines, despite the reluctant and fearful expressions on the models' faces and the heavy, directive hand on their heads, that the analogical sex act is consensual, it appears to be statutory rape. But even that is an absurd stretch, given that the tagline of the ad equates smoking/the analogical sex act with being enslaved—which explicitly excludes the possibility of consent.

Florence Montreynaud, the feminist president of La Meute des Chiennes de Garde [the Pack of Female Watchdogs], which identifies and opposes symbols of sexual violence in films and advertising in France, said the ads are "unbearable" and "shocking [in their] banalization of sexual violence." And despite being "a longtime member of Droits des Non-fumeurs [Nonsmokers' Rights]," the anti-smoking group that created the ad, she strongly objects to the campaign: "I'm appalled. It's a poverty of imagination. When people have no ideas, they use female bodies." Indeed so.

Meanwhile, Gérard Audureau, the president of Droits des Non-fumeurs, defends the ad by saying, "Using sex is a way to get [young people's] attention. And if it's necessary to shock, let's shock."

Except, of course, that what's being shown in the ad doesn't look like "sex." It looks like sexual assault.

And thus necessarily implies that, like not smoking, not being sexually assaulted is simply a matter of making the choice not to.

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Proud Mama

Arachnophobia warning!

I'm putting this video below a fold, because even the still image would probably freak out arachnophobes.

I, on the other hand—being the sort of spider aficionado who has invited, just to get a closer look, anything from common house spiders to tarantulas crawl on her (the teensy, quick, scampering ones make me screech-giggle when they scurry across or near me, but tarantulas are super mellow)—think this video of a female wolf spider with babies on her back is amazing.


[Via Chris.]

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Open Thread


Hosted by Hoodoo.

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Question of the Day

[We've done this one before, but it's one of my favorites, so I'm doing it again…]

Who will play you in Shakesville: The Movie?

Looks-wise, the obvious choice is Dawn French, to whom I am nearly identical in height and weight, and probably not dissimilar in temperament. She's 17 years older than I, but I won't complain if she won't.

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Quote of the Day

"John Yoo is a moral vacuum, but he is also a constitutional law professor at one of the nation's top law schools and a former Supreme Court clerk. ... So when John Yoo claims that the President is not bound by Congressional limits, he is not simply ignorant or misunderstanding the law. He is lying."Ian Millhiser, on former Bush administration legal adviser John Yoo, who famously made the case for the use of torture tactics on detainees, and who is now busily making the public argument that the US president can justifiably "massacre" entire villages of civilians in wartime because "the government places those decisions in the president, and if the Congress doesn't like it they can cut off funds for it or they can impeach him."

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Help Amelia

Jill:

Amelia, a 27-year-old Nicaraguan woman, has a ten-year-old daughter. She also has cancer and desperately needs treatment, but is being denied care because she's pregnant. Abortion is entirely illegal in Nicaragua, even in a case like Amelia's where she needs a therapeutic abortion to save her life. In Amelia's case, it's not just abortion that is being denied — it's treatment for the cancer as well, since such treatment could harm the fetus. Amelia might die and her ten-year-old daughter may be left without her mother because of "pro-life" orthodoxy.

Women's groups are asking for help. Please visit RH Reality Check to see the full list of contacts – and please, send emails and spread the word.
I'll also recommend to USians (as always) writing to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to urge diplomatic pressure. We've got a feminist Secretary of State who makes women's issues a global priority; let us not be afraid to solicit her help! Sample letter:

Dear Secretary Clinton:

I have recently become aware that Amelia, a pregnant Nicaraguan woman and mother to a 10-year-old daughter who is being denied a therapeutic abortion and effective cancer treatment to save her life, because abortion is completely illegal in Nicaragua.

Women's groups in Nicaragua and international organizations working with them have asked people to immediately contact the chair and vice-chair of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as Nicaraguan government officials.

As I am aware of and resoundingly support your advocacy on behalf of women worldwide, I am hopeful that there will be a swift response from the US State Department on Amelia's behalf.

Sincerely,
Melissa McEwan
Indiana

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Mighty Whities

Hmm. Does anyone else notice anything peculiar that the gentlemen featured in Details' "Next Generation of Hollywood's Leading Men" gallery all appear to have in common...?

It's a veritable rainbow of conformity!

[H/T to Andy.]

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Assvertising

Shaker Gretchen emailed me about this new Snickers ad, in which white dudebros just aren't themselves when they're hungry. They're divas!


[Transcript below.]

One of the things I like most about this ad, ahem, is its implication that only divas complain about being too hot or having someone kick the back of their seats. The premise is reliant on, and simultaneously perpetuates, the gendered narratives about suffering and communication. Men are stoic, and suffer in silence. Women, on the other hand, are whiny complainers.

Men endure.

Bitches bitch.

The gutting irony of admonishing a man to "stick this candy bar in your mouth and stop acting like such a woman" is that the persistent message that being a man means eating shitty food puts men who strictly adhere to this "Junkfood manly! Vegetables girly!" narrative in greater risk of needing medical care later in life, while the persistent message that men suffer in silence makes those same men less likely to seek that care.

That's some real man-hating garbage, right there. And it sure ain't the responsibility of feminists, despite the fact that we're the ones with the reputation as man-haters.
[Four people are in a car on a road trip: One young black man (driving), one young dark-haired white man (passenger seat), one young ginger-haired white man (driver's side backseat), and Aretha Franklin.]

Franklin: Can we turn the AC up? [fans self] I'm dying back here.

Dark-Haired White Man: It's on. Can't you feel it?

Franklin: [slaps Dark-Haired White Man upside the head] Can you feel that?

Black Man: Oh-ooh!

Ginger-Haired White Man: [offers Franklin a Snickers bar] Jeff, eat a Snickers, please.

Franklin: [grabs Snickers] Why?

Ginger-Haired White Man: Every time you get hungry, you turn into a diva. Just eat it so we can all coexist—

Franklin: [unwraps Sinckers bar] Ooh, I turn into a diva!

Black Man: Mm-hmm!

Dark-Haired White Man: Put it in your system, crankypants.

Franklin: [starts to eat Snickers] Okay.

Black Man: Thank you.

[Franklin turns into a young fair-haired white man.]

Ginger-Haired White Man: Better?

Fair-Haired White Man: Better.

[Dark-Haired White Man turns into Liza Minelli.]

Minelli: Will you get your knees outta the back of my seat?

Fair-Haired White Man: Whoa-oo!

Voiceover (and text onscreen): You're not you when you're hungry. Snickers satisfies.
[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, 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, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100.]

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Bingo with Bayh

by Shaker koach

Apparently now that Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) is leaving the Senate, he can't stop yapping about the partisanship and gridlock gripping Washington and causing good centrists like him to search out employment elsewhere.

CNN has posted a short story recapping Senator Evan Bayh's appearance on State of the Union, and some of Bayh's remarks are priceless—meaning that I wouldn't pay a penny for them.

"Our politics in Congress has become tribal in some ways. We have the tribe of the Democrats and tribe of the Republicans," Bayh said.
This sort of "tribalism" argument angers me, wherever I stumble across it, as if societies organized into tribes are inherently combative and incapable of cooperation for the greater good. There's a further implication that only modern, civilized (white) folks know how to get along, how to work together, how to solve problems, how to be reasonable—even as it simultaneously ignores that modern, civilized (white) folks have tribes of their own, organized around ideas, religions, hobbies, heritage, particular kinds of wealth and access.

And Bayh doesn't stop there.
In discussing partisanship, [Republican and former House member Susan] Molinari said that "women have a tendency to band together a little bit more than the men."

Bayh interjected: "It's testosterone poisoning; it's not our fault."
This exchange is not only misogynistic—only women are capable of communicating and working together, suggesting that they are incapable of being tough and standing strong on their issues—but also insulting to men, as the flip side, of course, is that men are only capable of fighting and posturing, not getting along and solving problems.

But there's more in Bayh's statement: "It's not our fault." So now he's refusing responsibility, blaming the lack of problem-solving on testosterone. You know, it's amazing just how powerful testosterone must be. Of course, I don't really get it, with my poor lady-brain worrying about how to band together, but gosh, testosterone sure seems important and powerful. It's also amusing that Bayh claims poisoning, as if one could have too much testosterone.

A lot of Bayh's colleagues have too much of something—but I'm going to go with "privilege," rather than testosterone.

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This Health Care Porridge is Just Right

John Boehner, in October 2009, on why the proposed health care legislation sucks:

"All you need to know is there are 1,990 pages," Boehner said. "That should tell you everything."
John Boehner yesterday on why the proposed health care legislation sucks:
"The White House's 'plan' consists of an 11-page outline, which has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office or posted online as legislative text. So they want to reorganize one-sixth of the United States' economy with a document shorter than a comic book, and they're complaining that they can't find our plan on their own website? C'mon," said [Boehner's] spokesman, Michael Steel, in an email to reporters.
I'm sure that at some point, the GOP will unveil their new Goldilocks algorithm to determine the precise number of pages necessary for successful health care reform legislation.

So, the real question is: How many pages do we need for single payer?

[H/T to ThinkProgress.]

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Daily Kitteh



It's exhausting being this cute.

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The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report – T230210

Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of the new and improved Shaxicon!

Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.

If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.

Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.

Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!

Ă´,Ă´P

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NQDTR Discussion Thread – T230210

Hiya, Shakers, time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!

This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.

You may notice I've moved this sentence:

If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already.

I don't say removed, because I'm not sure about that yet.

So far, we haven't really had a problem with having threads becoming unwieldy here, and I'm wondering whether people would be more okay with relaxing this thread (not the NQDTR itself!) to allow those congratulatory/admiring comments. Feel free to have this discussion in this post - maybe if you're posting in response to this question, indicate as such at the top of the comment (say, label it "Metadiscussion" or something), so we don't make the thread unusable for its actual purpose. :)

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime



Hugh Cornwell: "Another Kind of Love"

(Directed by Jan Ĺ vankmajer, just FYI.)

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Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"



Blank

See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.

[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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And Sometimes HR Has To Get Involved

The saga continues:


"DO NOT remove or alter any postings on this board! If it continues, the board will be removed. The person/s responsible, if caught, will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination."

See also: here and here.

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Shakesfilk! (sorta)

In response to a friend's difficulties with getting a certain coder to finish up some work he's much overdue on, I volunteered to take on the chastising:

A SCENE between ARTHUR, KING OF THE CODERS, and FRENCHY MCFROMAGE, a project manager

FM: I'm the Project Manager! Why do you think I have this outRAGEous PDA, you silly code-monkey?

AKC: But what are you doing in THIS office?

FM: Mind your own business!

AKC: If you will not give us more time to complete the CMS, we shall have to take that time by force!

FM: You don't frighten us, coding pigdogs! Go and boil your DLLs, son of an artsy person! I blow a DOS-attack at you, so called Arthur King and all your silly code-wrigghets!

FM sends multiple spammy e-mails to AKC, including at least six copies of the Nigerian scam, and a particularly impressive penis-enlargement offer with pictures.

CUT to excerpt from sirgalahad, in a comment to arthurkingcoder's post:

SG: What a strange person!

CUT back to conversation between AKC and FM:

AKC: Hey, come on now, let's not-

FM: I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty-headed iMac cooling-fan CMS developer-person!

I E-MAIL MY FARTS TO INFO@YOURDOMAIN!

YOUR ALMA MATER WAS A HAMSTER, AND YOUR ALGORITHMS SMELL OF ELDERBERRIES!

NOW CODE, OR I SHALL TAUNT YOU A SECOND TIME!

(a brief time later)

FM: Fetchez la vache.

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I'm So Excited I Just Bipartisaned in My Pants!

In Passage of Jobs Measure, a Glimpse of Bipartisanship:

Five Republican senators broke ranks with their party on Monday to advance a $15 billion job-creation measure put forward by Democrats, a rare bipartisan breakthrough after months in which Republicans had held together to a remarkable degree in an effort to thwart President Obama's agenda.

..."Today, jobs triumphed over politics," said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California.

...Mr. Obama, who will be meeting with Republicans later this week on health care, praised the Senate action. ... "The American people want to see Washington put aside partisan differences and make progress on jobs, and today the Senate took one important step forward in doing that," he said.

..."I hope this is a beginning of a new day here in the Senate," [Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader] said after the vote.
Gag me with a teaspoon. Instead of genuflecting before the five stinking Republicans who voted for the bill for cloture to start debate on the bill, I'd rather see the Democrats, and especially the President, note how remarkable it is that more of the GOP didn't vote in favor, given that its centerpiece was tax cuts and credits for businesses, which is ostensibly a key conservative principle.
Besides [a $13 billion plan to give companies who hire unemployed Americans a payroll tax exemption on those employees through the end of this year, and a $1,000 tax credit to employers who keep new workers on the payroll for at least for 52 weeks], the bill would also extend a tax break, included in last year's stimulus package, to encourage business to make capital expenditures. The provision would allow businesses to write off up to $250,000 in capital investments in 2010 rather than depreciating the costs over time.
When Republicans won't vote for that shit en masse, it's not time to congratulate the few who will; it's time to call out the majority who won't as unprincipled obstructionists who don't stand for anything anymore, except pointless belligerence.

And maybe it's time to reconsider whether building legislation around desperate ploys to garner Republican support is really worth it for five fucking votes.

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Bread and Teaspoons Twenty-Three

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 (theoretically) 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.

Also remember, if you’re running or part of a small business, you’re encouraged to drop links here for that. I’m happy to see Shakers makin’ their own way in whatever manner that is.


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. My company website is found here.

You can contact me for business purposes through my business address, cait@cogitantes.net.


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.

The last several Bread and Teaspoons: Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty-One. Twenty-Two.

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This is stomach-turning.

[Trigger warning.]

Delaware pediatrician accused of sexually abusing patients (good on CNN for not using a euphemism in that headline): Delaware pediatrician, Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, who has been practicing in Delaware for more than a decade, has been indicted on 471 felony counts in the alleged sexual abuse of his patients, 103 children, all but one of whom were girls. The charges include, but are not limited to, rape and sexual exploitation of a child, endangering child welfare, and assault. Bradley also has medical licenses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida, where officials have been notified so investigations can begin there, too.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden told CNN Radio the indictment is based on "video and digital evidence" seized from Bradley's home and medical practice in December. Authorities have not ruled out additional charges, he added.

"The reality is that as a prosecutor, the rules prohibit me from telling you exactly how I feel -- and I'm feeling a great deal today," Biden said.

...Bradley's attorney, Eugene Maurer Jr., said he would base his client's defense on mental health.

"Most of the evidence in this case comes from videotapes -- it's kind of hard to argue with videotapes," Maurer said, adding, "The issue in this case is going to come down to his mental health at the time."
Sexual predators of various stripes have tried mental impairment defenses before, but it's tough to argue that someone was under duress on somewhere between 103-471 separate occasions. Juries and jurists don't buy it, nor should they.

I nonetheless shudder every time I see such a defense being used, because I am terrified of the precedent that a "not guilty by reason of mental defect" verdict could potentially set in a case like this. Let us hope that the defense fails once again, on behalf of survivors everywhere, and particularly on behalf of Bradley's victims.

Because of the silence surrounding sexual assault in this culture, we don't have established words of condolence for its survivors. I always feel like saying, "I'm sorry for your loss." Loss of safety. Loss of security. Loss of whatever solid sense of self you had in your life before someone stole it from you.

I'm so sorry for what happened to you. No, what was done to you.

I don't know what to say, what to offer, to Bradley's victims, besides this: I wish you peace and justice.

[H/T to Shaker Catherine.]

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