Hosted by a pint of Bitter.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Quote of the Day
"Speaker Pelosi likes to call the Republicans the 'Party of No.' Some of us, we don't like the way that sounds. It hurts our feelings."—Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is apparently trying out some new comedy material at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
I Write Letters
Dear Animal Rights Group That Shall Not Be Named,
I must say, you have outdone yourself. Because this shit right here:
[Click to enlarge.]
takes my breath away. You have a bit of everything going on here. I mean, obviously this ad can appeal to a variety of people, most notably people:
Who liken poor mothers to animals.
Who are proponents of negative eugenics and forced sterilization.
Who believe poor mothers and their children are burdens on "taxpayers."
Who believe only certain women should have children, and who see the birth of children to some mothers as an "epidemic," or a "problem" or any of those other negative terms.
You know, the old sympathetic me might have been tempted to believe maybe, since you keep producing such horrible ads, you don't know the background of some of this stuff you invoke. Then I remembered some wise words from Sarah M.:
[They know] they are operating within potent historical narratives—without a history of the objectification/subjugation of women, or slavery and racism, their imagery wouldn’t be nearly as powerful.I suspect you're reaching people whom you might not envision as your target audience, but really, we can't tell.
Sincerely,
elle
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
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.]
Oh Dear
I always love it (where "love" = hate with the fiery passion of ten thousand suns) when a female writer tries to prove she's not a "man-hating feminist" by writing some ridiculously misogynist shit like "women really ARE hypocrites who only say they want nice guys but really pursue bad boys who treat them like crap."
I will never fail to be amused by the irony that it's feminist women who are least likely to resemble that stereotype, and anti-feminist men (i.e. Nice GuysTM) who are most likely to complain about its universality among straight women.
More Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning.]
1. CNN—Yemeni child bride dies of internal bleeding: "A 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding following intercourse three days after she was married off to an older man, the United Nations Children's Fund said. The girl was married to a man at least twice her age."
No. She did not die of internal bleeding following intercourse; she died of internal bleeding following rape.
I don't give a shit if the editors insist from here to kingdom come and back again that they can't use the word "rape" because that's a legal term blah blah. "Intercourse" is effectively a legal term, too, given that it implies enthusiastic consent, which a 12-year-old child cannot give, irrespective of what the laws may say in Yemen.
"Following sexual activity" would be an appropriate term to use, if legal considerations prevent the use of any language that implies assault.
2. Shaker Cassie forwards this story about the ongoing (eight years and counting) victim-blaming bullshit from the accused men in the Haidl Gang Rape case, which has been a textbook example (in the worst textbook for the worst class ever) of how the rape culture and its narratives are utilized by defendants in rape cases. The content of the piece is good, but the flippant tone (and ugh! that last line! are you kidding me?!) is not great.
3. Shaker Jae forwards this article by singer Andrew WK, which includes a track he wrote and recorded at 17 and eventually resulted in a retraining order. The lyrics, which include lines such as "You are my destiny; I'll make you fall in love with me" and "Harm: That's what you're in for if you don't open your door," were written for a 14-year-old girl about whom WK now writes:
She consumed me with both lust and hatred – lust, because I was truly drawn to her beauty and soft skin, and hatred because she rarely spoke to me, wouldn't look at me much and never gave me a chance to show her my deep affections.
Crush, obsession. Potato, potahto.
...[I wrote the song] when my crush was at its absolute height.
WK says he's now making the song public because "Three months ago, I was advised by my personal manager and life coach to finally let people hear it, to resolve the nightmare [of having had a juvenile restraining order put on me, which lasted until I was 21]." Yes, well, it's important to resolve that nightmare for you, and definitely the best way to do it is to make public the stalker song you wrote for a woman who will surely be thrilled to hear it again and revisit the time she had to put out a restraining order on the man who threatened to "make her" love him. What great closure for her!
But then, she doesn't have an album to promote, so who cares about her, right?
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of the Spudsy Brand Clangerator.
Recommended Reading:
Andy: Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to Retire This Summer
I like Ezra's idea for his replacement!
Helen: Petition Pelosi to Move ENDA
Steve: Wrong Question, Right Answer
Super Hussy: In Which a Blogger Watches Erykah Badu's "Window Seat" Video with Her 5-Year-Old Daughter
Resistance: Things That Make You Go 'Hmmm...'
Angry Asian Man: "Chink": A Bad Choice of Words
Leave your links in comments...
Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning.]
So. A singer named Kiely Williams, who used to be one of The Cheetah Girls ("Who are The Cheetah Girls? I'm OLD!"—Melissa McEwan), released a single earlier this year called "Spectacular," about which two things are notable: 1. It's terrible. 2. It's about (what is colloquially known as) a date rape.
Except, hey, who cares about being raped if the "sex is spectacular," amirite?
Last night I was drunk / I don't remember much / But what I do constant pictures / That's how gone I was / But he was tall and he was buying / So I gave him a trying / Said he was built like a stallion / And the man wasn't lying / [Refrain] Last I remember / I was face down, ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off / Even though I'm not sure of his name / He could get it again if he wanted / 'Cause the sex was spectacular / The sex was spectacular / The sex was spectacular / The sex was spectacular / sing-songy sex noises [End Refrain] / So it was the morning after / I couldn't get home faster / Doing the walk of shame / In the same clothes from yesterday / I think he pulled a track out / When he was blowing my back out / What was I drinking / I can't believe I blacked out / [Refrain] / You can say what you want but / You can call me a slut but / What he did to me last night felt so good / I must have been on drugs / I hope he used a rubber / Or I'mma be in trouble / Promise I don't remember / Except for rolling over / Give it to me, give it to me / Ooh baby what a ride ride / Oh ride ride / So smooth like the beats / I like the heat / Ooh baby what a night night / Right right / [Refrain]Following the song's release, some fuddy-duddy hysterics pointed out the song was sort of enormously inappropriate with its implicit message that rape is defined by whether "the sex" was hot rather than the presence or absence of consent, and, because I am the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, you know I'm high-fiving them for what is obviously just an attempt to deliberately misconstrue a PERFECTLY NICE SONG in order to ruin the life of its performer because she's not performing family-friendly Disney songs anymore, especially when she's the voice of a generation (of sluts, of which she isn't one).
Kiely isn't going to stand for that nonsense!
So, it has been quite a day. [laughs] You know, um, the "Spectacular" video, I think, has made quite a splash, to say the least. But, since everyone else has given their two cents, I thought it was time for me to share mine.Well, there are also two notable things about this video: 1. Kiely is as terrible an actress as she is a singer. 2. It confirms that the rape culture is alive and well, including all its associated silencing techniques like my all-time favorite, "Art exists in a void."
First, I just want to say: No! This video is not condoning date rape. [gestures and makes an expression like "What the fuck? How could anyone come to THAT conclusion?!"] The song isn't condoning date rape. [shrugs] It's just not. I really just want to say that, you know, sometimes, to me, music can be as simple as, as a story relayed, or imagined, or elaborated on. Not every song has a, a greater message to the world. Not every song is "We Are the World"! [laughs] It's a great song, but sometimes a song can just be "I kissed a girl and I liked it." [shrugs] That's great, too, you know?
I think a lot of the confusion—and maybe it's not confusion; it's more this [pauses; furrows brow]…this kind of outrage—it, I think it stems from my years being a Cheetah Girl. So, let's address that: Yes, I still believe in girl power. Yes, I still believe that young women should follow their dreams and stay true to themselves and their friends. But I also do know a lot of twenty-somethings who go out and get a little bit too drunk and go home with a guy whose name they can't quite remember. [makes "that's the unfortunate truth" face] It's not my idea of a perfect Saturday night, no, but it does happen. A lot. And maybe it's something that we all do need to talk about more.
Look, if you don't like the video, that's fine. You don't have to; it's a free country. But don't shoot the messenger. All right. All love, guys. [blows kiss]
It would be hilarious, were it not so tragic, that she invokes Katy Perry's loathsome gay-dabbling anthem as evidence of a song without cultural significance, despite the fact that its supporters hold it up as evidence of LGB solidarity and its detractors hold it up as evidence of straight performers who casually appropriate aspects of being gay in a manner that ultimately reinforces the idea that being gay is merely a "lifestyle." There's almost no one who regards the controversial song as having no message, or impact.
And only after mounting the argument that her song is just a song—geez!—she then veers wildly in the other direction, arguing that she's speaking TRUTH about young women's lives, even though she isn't one of those women, hell no, and maybe we should be having an important conversation about the issue she addresses in her song that totally doesn't have a message.
WHY ARE YOU TAKING THIS SONG SO SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU SHOULD BE OUT HAVING SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE SERIOUS ISSUE IN MY SONG THAT I DON'T WANT YOU TO TAKE SERIOUSLY EXCEPT WHEN I'M TRYING TO DEFLECT CRITICISM ABOUT HOW IT DOESN'T TAKE THE ISSUE OF RAPE SERIOUSLY?! WHICH YOU SHOULD!
All of these logical contortions to avoid looking reality in the face and admitting: Fuck, my single is a super-heinous song about rape. I'm so sorry.
Because her song isn't, after all, about a "twenty-something who goes out and gets a little bit too drunk and goes home with a guy whose name she can't quite remember." Her song is about a woman who "dozed off" and "blacked out" and "must have been on drugs" because she can't even remember whether the man she was with used a condom. That's not a booze-fueled one-night-stand. That's a rape.
Even if someone is sober enough to consent and gives enthusiastic consent for sexual activity (an issue around which the song skirts), continuing to "have sex" with a sleeping or unconscious person is rape. Consent can be withdrawn at any point during a sexual act, and ergo the ability to withdraw consent is part of a consensual sex act. Consent isn't an on-off switch. Consent is an active entity.
The idea that saying "yes" means saying yes to everything no matter what happens is a narrative of the rape culture.
Partners are present. Once they cease to be present, they are no longer partners, but victims.
This is what is described in "Spectacular." And no one needs to look for a deeper meaning to find that what's described in the song is rape. This isn't about trying to extricate a "greater message" from a "simple" pop song, as Kiely argues her critics are doing. It's right there in the lyrics.
Kiely was right about one thing, though: What happens in the song does happen a lot. To my endless grief and regret.
[Via Videogum.]
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Malcolm McLaren: "Buffalo Gals"
Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols and all-around musical guru, died of cancer at his home yesterday in New York. He was 64. RIP, Malcolm.
Have I Ever Mentioned That I Hate Newt Gingrich?
Okay, I may have mentioned it once or twice or twelve thousand times.
The former Speaker of the House, who oversaw 1994's Contract with America and the subsequent Republican-led witch-hunt of President Clinton, is a presumed Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential race, and he appears to have begun his campaign at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference yesterday.
AP—Gingrich: Gingrich: Obama is 'most radical president ever':
Gingrich reminded conservative activists why he was one of the nation's most polarizing leaders in the 1990s, opening the Southern Republican Leadership Conference with a biting assessment of Obama's policies.Would that Obama were the most radical president in American history, and not the second coming of Lyndon Johnson.
"The most radical president in American history has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people: 'I run a machine. I own Washington and there's nothing you can do about it,'" Gingrich said. He urged his fellow Republicans to stop what he called Obama's "secular, socialist machine."
CBS—Newt Gingrich: We Need a President, Not an Athlete:
"What we need is a president, not an athlete," Gingrich said during a question and answer period after his speech. He added: "Shooting three point shots may be clever, but it doesn't put anybody to work."Mm-hmm. That's definitely something he'd say about a white president. And big words coming from a guy who (seriously) took to the podium for his speech to (I shit you not) "Eye of the Tiger."
Salon—Gingrich: Say yes to government shutdowns!:
The theme of Newt Gingrich's speech Thursday night at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference was supposed to be "the party of yes." Republicans, tarred for a year as knee-jerk obstructionists, should instead talk about what they're for. "There are many things that we can say yes to," the former House speaker told his audience.That is an actual quote from his actual speech: "I'm tired of finding new ways to help people who aren't working; I want to find ways to help people who are working."
But the plan that Gingrich got the most applause from, as he tried to rally a few thousand GOP activists to say "yes," involved just saying no in a different way. "When we win control of the House and Senate this fall, stage one of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund any more," he said. ... In other words, shut down the government.
...That won't be all the new GOP says "yes" to, though. "A Republican Congress and Republican president in January 2013 will repeal every radical bill passed by this administration," he said. And once that's done, they'll get around to cutting taxes, deregulating commerce, encouraging more public prayer and shrinking government at every level from the local school board to the federal bureaucracy. (And also cutting benefits for the poor: "I'm tired of finding new ways to help people who aren't working; I want to find ways to help people who are working.")
I don't know if I've ever seen a more shameless, unapologetic, naked enthusiasm for social Darwinism from a presumed presidential candidate.
Gingrich just explicitly advocated a job policy based on the theory of survival of the fittest, but Obama's the radical. Okay.
Maude on Seven, I really hate this guy.
[Related Reading: Call Me Citizen Asshole.]
Stupak to Retire
Buh-bye. And after all the other bullshit drama he's caused, he now leaves his seat in play for a possible Republican takeover.
Not that anyone would be able to tell the difference.
[H/T to Shaker SamanthaB.]
Update: Paws Here
Just a very short update to yesterday's post about the animal shelter in Edinburgh: I heard this morning from (it's so hard not to call her a plucky heroine!) Rachel, who wrote the letter. She said they'd had a really wonderful response to the post, that she and her volunteers were feeling much more optimistic - and stronger - today because of your help, Shakers.
Well-teaspooned, folks. You make me proud to be associated with you.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Quixotess, via email: When in your life have two wrongs made a right (or two failures made a success)?
Blog Note
Yup. Disqus is messed up. Not showing the correct number of comments, and the threads are ignoring preferred settings (e.g. "Oldest First," chosen in the drop-down menu at the top of a thread).
That's not something we can control, but we've got a help ticket open with Disqus, and hopefully it will be resolved soon.
My apologies, and thanks for your patience.
Quote of the Day
"I could give a flying crap about the political process. We're an entertainment company."—Glenn Beck, in a Forbes profile of his media empire, which is currently bringing in $32 million annually.
