What epithet or stereotype used against a demographic group of which you're a member most sets your teeth to grinding?
Intersectional slurs or caricatures are also welcome (for lack of a better word). For instance, I frequently find "fat cunt" in my inbox, which is a succinct (if totally ineffective, unless causing me to laugh was the intent) double-jab.
...And to answer the question myself, pretty much any gender-determinative stereotype that treats as self-evident women's inherent inferiority to men drives me right up one wall and down the other.
"Women aren't funny." "Women are weak." "Women aren't rational." "Women are hypersensitive." All it takes is three words to send me from zero to SMASH.
Question of the Day
Over the Edge
[Trigger warning.]
Anyone who's been reading Shakesville for more than about five seconds is well aware of my disdain for cruel humor under the guise of "edginess" or "irony."
My teeth are grinding so hard after reading this [TW] I feel like I may spontaneously generate a new universe between my molars.
The trigger warning on the external link is for graphic images of violence, and although I will note that sparkymonster is not using the images in an exploitative way, the images are nonetheless profoundly upsetting.
So if you are reluctant to click through, given the nature of the post, here are the basics, care of sparkymonster:
Amanda Palmer of the "Dresden Dolls" and "Evelyn/Evelyn" fame decided to talk about her dislike of Lady Gaga last night on twitter. Among other things, Gaga is a sell out, is just like Justin Bieber, and Palmer really dislikes the product placement in "Telephone".That pretty much says it all, right there.
Then Amanda Palmer shared this:
ironic product placement is only ok if you take no money & beyond that give all the income to something ironic. like the Klan.Let me just repeat. Something ironic. like the Klan.
...For an example of irony in racism that is not rage inducing, remember that the Southern Poverty Law Center successfully sued the crap out of the KKK and basically bankrupted them. So now the Southern Poverty Law Center does their anti-racist work with the KKK's money.
[H/T to Tigtog. Related Reading: Annaham and Sady and Lauredhel.]
Quote of the Day
"It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain."—Republican Representative Eric Cantor, champion dipshit, admonishing the Democrats not to speak publicly about threats and violence directed at members of Congress, because talking about them "can very easily fan the flames."
Good point. That's why the Republicans have been totes hush-hush about 9/11.
Suffice it to say, I disagree strongly that silence about terrorism and/or hate crimes is the best way to ensure such acts don't happen anymore. And I also disagree strongly that any mention of such acts, irrespective of context or purpose, is de facto opportunistic.
But I'm not surprised to find that a Republican can't make such distinctions.
Anthrax Scares: Also Not Terrorism
Never really was, as I recall.
In today's news:
Authorities are investigating a package with white powder and an angry letter that referenced the health care legislation that was sent to Congressman ]Anthony] Weiner's ... office today.And:
The letter said the Congressman should "drop dead" and complained about the historic health care legislation passed by Congress this week.
At least four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas were struck and at least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threats, including obscenity-laced phone messages, congressional leaders have said. No arrests have been reported.And:
The House's No. 3 Republican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, said at a brief news conference Thursday that someone fired a bullet through a window of his campaign office in Richmond this week and he has received threatening e-mails.I fear someone will be hurt or killed before this is all over.
Shaker Help Request
by Shaker The White Lady
Hello, Shakers! I'm here to ask for your help.
Ever since I was a little girl, I've been going to the same dentist. The premises are on the first floor of a tenement row…and the only way up to them is down a narrow hall, and up an equally narrow spiral staircase. Even if there were a lift up to the dentist, or maybe one of those electric chair lifts that go up the stairs, the hall would be too narrow to allow a person using a wheelchair to navigate it.
I even remember a time when they were redoing the reception of the surgery, and so to get in and out of the building, patients had to make use of a fire escape which was even more narrow and twisty than the usual stair. (I should probably point out that all this is from my own perspective as someone who has extreme difficulty in navigating spiral staircases – other patients may have experienced things differently.)
The surgery is an accessibility nightmare on so many levels, from the ones I just mentioned (no access for wheelchair users/crutch users/people who are too unsteady on their feet to attempt a spiral staircase), to the complete lack of Braille information, to the fact that, once a patient manages to reach the reception area, there are more steps (steep ones, I might add) leading to different facilities within the surgery. The staff realise this, and are vocal in their complaints about it, which is why I am asking for your help now.
After about five years (or more, don't quote me on that), the surgery has finally managed to purchase the property immediately below it. Patients are being encouraged to hand in their views on what they want, whether it be new treatments rooms, more space for cosmetic/dental surgery, etc. When I saw the news about the new premises, it occurred to me that this could be a brilliant opportunity to lift my teaspoon, and at least try to get some (of the unfortunately many) accessibility issues solved.
I know that the surgery is planning to have a new, bigger reception area downstairs, and I am under the impression that they plan to install a lift, but other than that, I have no information. So I'm turning the floor over to you, Shakers. Tell me what you would like to see in this new, hopefully improved dentist surgery.
Here you will find information about the basic access required under the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, but it is only basic access. In the comments, please leave everything you can think of, from wheelchair ramps to flashing fire alarms that suit both people who are deaf, and people who have epilepsy.
Thank you in advance! I'll let you know how it goes.
Shakesfilk of a Foreshadow-color! Well, Really, of Announceyness!
CC: When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the one who's driving westerly
SKM: When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the one goan more northwest than she
CC: When I get there yes I know I'm gonna be
I'll be stayin’ with some friends in Illinois*
SKM: And when I get there yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the one who’s makin’ all the noise*
CC: Well I will drive 500 miles
SKM: And I will drive 500 more
Both: And we’ll be the twain who drove 1000 miles
To come through that pub door
As it turns out, both our beloved mod and contributor SKM and Your Humble Narrator will be making it to Chicago for this weekend's meetup after all. I'll be attending with my dear friend the_pixie_mouse, and staying with a Shaker not far from the fabled pub. I'm not sure of SKM's particular plans in that area, but I know she's coming in from her city, which is about the same distance from Chicago as mine - just short of 500 miles.
And if you're thinking you're going to hear us sing a duet, you need to cut back on your hallucinogen intake. :)
* Shh, it's okay. *shows poetic licence*
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
[Background.]
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.]
NQDTR Discussion Thread – R100325
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. 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 – if not, then go for it! If you look at it from the right angle, praising someone's teaspoon can be one in itself.
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.
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report – R100325
Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, sponsors of Shakesville Meetups in Chicago!
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. Don’t feel you have to minimize your accomplishments here. You can and should feel pride in every single act you undertake to improve the human condition, even those you don’t tell us about. Doing good things can be an enjoyable end in itself.
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!
ô,ôP
He's An Artiste!
Shakers, let us now have a conversation about James Franco's TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE short story in Esquire: "Just Before the Black."
In 3,000 words, he manages to cram in racism, misogyny, homophobia, disablism, rape references, and some serious fat hatred. He literally uses the word fat nine times (nine times!) in 3,000 words, as well as "large," "blubbery," "lardass," "slug," and several charming metaphors like "his weight spreads from his belly across the seat, like it was a plastic sack full of liquid, rolling in layers upon itself."
And yet, somehow, I'm still most horrified by the fact that he included this line:
"The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow-color."
Which I have literally been LOLLING about for like ten straight minutes.
Save Me from Myself, Skinny Jesus Chef!
Thank Maude for the British—because, without Kim and Aggie teaching us how to clean our homes, and Jo Frost teaching us how to raise our kids, and Victoria Stilwell teaching us how to control our dogs, and Trinny and Susannah teaching us how to dress ourselves, and Simon Cowell teaching us how to sing, and Nigel Lithgoe teaching us how to dance, Americans would be naked, cultureless beasts who lived in garbage heaps with feral children and wild dogs.
This is all true.
The latest Brit in the British How-To Invasion is "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver, whose new show I Hate Fat People Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution features Oliver traveling to Huntington, West Virginia—the Obesitiest Place in the Multiverse!—where he was determined to use his "magic" to help Huntington's Fatties get less fat. I mean, healthier!
The reality series based on this generous thin martyr giving up his time to help stupid fat people premieres tomorrow night. But! By the magic of the internetz, you can watch it here right now!
If you can't view the video, here's a quick summary: Headless fatties? Check. Enormous food stock footage? Check. OHNOES Obesity CrisisTM? Check. Being fat is ugly? Check. Fat people are lazy? Check. Fat people are stupid? Check. Fat people are sick? Check. DEATHFAT? Check. Mother-blaming for fat kids? Check. Fat as a moral failure? Check. Religious shaming of fat? Check. Fat people don't have "the tools" to not be fat? Check. Fat people need a skinny savior? Checkity-check-check!
I want to note that there is, buried somewhere beneath the 10 metric fucktons of fat-shaming (and not an incidental dose of misogyny, for good measure), information about healthful eating (e.g. not eating any fresh veg, ever, isn't good for anyone), but this is information that could be delivered without a scene in which a mother of four whose husband is gone three weeks a month is told that she's killing her children while she's weeping at her kitchen table.
The premiere episode has absolutely zero structural critique, not even a passing comment about the reason that millions of mothers feed their kids processed foods is because it's cheap and fast, which is a pretty good solution for people who are short on money and time.
Oliver places the responsibility for unhealthful eating exclusively at the feet of the individual, seemingly without concern for the cultural dynamics that inform individual choices. The extent of the explanation provided for why someone might choose to stock their freezer with frozen pizzas is that they're lazy and/or don't know any better.
And then he wonders why he isn't greeted by the citizens of Huntington with open arms.
At the end of the episode, a newspaper article comes out in which Oliver's evident contempt for the community has been reported. Oliver claims his words were taken out of context; the people with whom he's been working to revamp elementary school meals don't believe him—and understandably so, given that he's been a patronizing ass to them.
In the final scene, Oliver speaks directly to the camera, and he is crying, wiping tears from his eyes as he throws himself a little pity party:
It's quite hard to cut through negativity, always. And defensiveness. You know, I'm giving up massive time that is really compromising my family—because I care! You know, um, the tough thing for me [exhales deeply] is they don't understand me, 'cuz they don't know why I'm here. [sniffs] They don't even know what I've done, the things I've done in the last ten years! And I'm just doing it 'cuz it feels right [sniffs], and when I do things that feels right, magic happens! [sniffs; shakes his head disbelievingly] I've done some amazing things, you know? And that's when I follow my heart. And when I never follow my heart, I always get it wrong.Wow.
Look, I'm gonna be really honest: You do live in an amazing country. You put people on the moon! You live in an amazing country. And so do I, you know? And, right now in time, is a moment where we're all confused about how brilliant we are and how technically advanced we are, and that is fighting with what once made our countries great, which is family, community, being together, and something honestly as simple as putting a few ingredients together and sitting your family or your friends or your girlfriend or your mother-in-law around that table and breaking bread. And if you think that's not important, then shame on you!
In an interview to promote the show, Oliver says, "You can't really blame the parents when the whole culture and the whole horizon of food is all the same." Which is an interesting comment from someone who chose a scene where he's telling a mother she's killing her kids for the premiere episode of his show.
That underlines a key problem with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: He doesn't want to be seen as the guy who blames parents for killing their kids and shaming fat people for being fat—but there he is in his show, blaming parents for killing their kids and shaming fat people for being fat. Oops.
And, on top of it, he ends the premiere episode by crying because those goddamn fat ingrates don't appreciate him.
Reportedly, Huntington eventually warmed up to Oliver, but I don't think I'll be sticking around to watch that happy ending unfold.
And, for the record, Mr. Oliver, the "whole horizon of food" is actually not all the same in the US: In some places, things are much, much worse.
It All Depends on What You Mean by "Safer"
[Trigger warning.]
A security guard at Heathrow Airport was issued a harassment warning after he "ogled" a female colleague who walked through a body scanner. The body scanners:
were introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports to check for concealed weapons and explosives following the failed Christmas Day bomb plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a jet over Detroit in the United States.They're supposed to be a security/safety measure designed to reassure passengers.
But, this incident and learning what, exactly, the machines reveal, make the scanners seem decidedly unsafe. Another article described them in this way:
The full-body scanners take "naked" images, revealing everything under someone's clothes - including a clear outline of genitals.They violate a very basic sense of privacy and they allow that violation to be repeated over and over everyday.
We learned of this case because the security guard made "lewd" comments to his co-worker after she was scanned and she reported it. What about all the guards who might "ogle" in silence? And I, at least, feel quite insecure, knowing that my body could be on display, to someone I don't know, in a manner I didn't choose. That is the price I must pay to travel? I think it's a bit steep.
Last fall, I re-read a piece by Angela Davis (or maybe I heard her say it), in which she noted how we have increasingly problematic definitions of what will "keep us safe." Her focus was our (U.S.) fascination with locking people up to make us "safer." I've also heard Alexis Pauline Gumbs speak to our reliance on defense and force to make us feel safe rather than things like education, eradication of poverty, community building, and being good global citizens. I think we increasingly face the questions of how to define safety and how much (and who) are we willing to trade in the name of being safe?"
H/T to Shaker TheBaldSoprano
Catholic Church Fails To Protect Children (Again)
[Trigger-warning.]
This is real fucked up:
Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the churchI really wish I could say something insightful or compelling here, but the above just about covers it. Of course, my favourite part is this little nugget:
The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.
The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974.
In 1993, with complaints about Father Murphy landing on his desk, [Wisconsin] Archbishop Weakland hired a social worker specializing in treating sexual offenders to evaluate him. After four days of interviews, the social worker said that Father Murphy had admitted his acts, had probably molested about 200 boys and felt no remorse.
Father Murphy not only was never tried or disciplined by the church’s own justice system, but also got a pass from the police and prosecutors who ignored reports from his victims, according to the documents and interviews with victims. Three successive archbishops in Wisconsin were told that Father Murphy was sexually abusing children, the documents show, but never reported it to criminal or civil authorities.
[Emphasis mine.]
[T]he effort to dismiss Father Murphy came to a sudden halt after the priest appealed to Cardinal Ratzinger for leniency.That's right. The Vatican, under the direction of a future Pope, stopped it's own internal investigation and failed to involve local authorities to protect an admitted child molester. Jebus fucking Christ...
Feel the Hopey Changeyness!
Pentagon prepares to relax enforcement of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Ooh, relax enforcement. How sexy! How progressive! How totally not good enough.
The Pentagon is scheduled to announce Thursday that it will relax enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" rules that prevent gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military, a decision that officials described as a temporary measure until Congress can take permanent action.Good on the Pentagon for doing what they can. But, it's like, how fucking hard is it to get this shit done already? Infuriatingly, this is yet another example of where Obama won't be a fucking leader. If the Democratic president told Democratically-led Congress to get it done now, they'd get it done now. But he's all, "Um whut? Well, hey, it's up to Congress! Don't look at me!"
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce that the military will no longer investigate the sexual orientation of service members based on anonymous complaints, will restrict testimony from third parties and will require high-ranking officers to review all cases, sources familiar with the changes said.
And the thing that's really irksome is that this is the perfect time to do it, when everyone's paying attention to healthcare. Instead, let's drag it out and then claim we can't do it six months from now because it's TOO CLOSE TO ELECTIONS! And everyone knows that getting reelected is way more important than PRINCIPLES!
[Cue someone patronizingly explaining to me How Politics Works, without a trace of irony that Obama was elected on the explicit promise to change How Politics Works. It would be hilarious, if it weren't so goddamn tragic.]
Important Announcement
Joe Biden is the only adult in America who uses "the f word." SCANDALOUS! He's a horrible human being! Worse even than the last vice president, who outed a CIA agent and condoned torture! We should talk about Joe Biden's potty mouth FOREVER!!!
FOREVER!!111!!!!!!1!!eleventy!!!1!
Question of the Day
Since Hollywood has officially given up, and is now just remaking old films and television shows... What movie or television show would you like to see remade?
And why? And got any good casting ideas? Etc.
What made me think of this question actually was posting an obit for Robert Culp. I loved The Greatest American Hero as a kid (and do still, actually), and I was just thinking about how that's a television show I wouldn't mind seeing remade.
And I would totes cast Jorge Gargia in the lead role. And Ken Leung as Agent [Maxwell]. Or vice versa.
RIP Robert Culp
Actor Robert Culp, star of the television series I, Spy and The Greatest American Hero, as well as about a zillion other things, has died at age 79 after reportedly falling during a walk and hitting his head.
Culp also had starring roles in such films as "The Castaway Cowboy," "Golden Girl," "Turk 182!" and "Big Bad Mama II."It's a fairly reliable generational predictor whether one recalls Culp more vividly as CIA Agent Kelly Robinson or FBI Agent Bill Maxwell. Believe it or not, it's just meeeeee...
His teaming with Cosby, however, was likely his best remembered role.
Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that "I Spy" aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.
"I was the proudest man around," he said in a 1977 interview.
Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.
[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about Culp, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]
