[Trigger warning.]
Iranian actress appeals against UK Home Office deportation decision: "An openly-gay actress from Iran is campaigning against the Home Office's decision to refuse her asylum, this week, because she will face execution in her homeland. Kiana Firouz, 26, has sought residency in Britain on the grounds that her sexuality is considered illegal and immoral under Islamic law. According to legislation in Iran, the punishment for lesbian sex is 100 lashes. If the act is repeated three times and punishment is enforced each time, the death sentence will apply on the fourth occasion. But the Home Office refused her request for asylum earlier this month, despite acknowledging her appeal was legitimate."
Sign the petition to support Kiana Firouz here.
This follows on the heels of the news that Britain—along with Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—has been, according to Amnesty International, "forcibly repatriating Iraqis to 'extremely dangerous' parts of the country, in breach of United Nations guidelines." Many of the deportees are gay men, and women of any sexuality who have been accused of "un-Islamic" behavior.
Lend your voice to help save at least one woman from this fate. Support Kiana Firouz.
[H/T to CaitieCat.]
Action Item
Important Announcement
I hate him for all the years he sat beside Adam Carolla doing "Loveline" while Carolla slut-shamed young women and made "jokes" about bitches, fatties, trannies, and fags; I hate him for exploiting addicts and survivors in his loathsome "Celebrity Rehab," "Sex Rehab," and "Sober House" shows on VH1; I hate him for thinking it's appropriate to put a violent addict (Tom Sizemore) and an addict he victimized (Heidi Fleiss) into the same residential treatment; I hate him for his sanctimonious moralizing at teen moms on MTV and for always—always—taking the side of a young mother's parents or boyfriend, unless that boyfriend is demonstrably abusive, at which point he goes on the attack with the victim-blaming; I hate him for his comments about Lindsay Lohan and the other shit he talks about people he doesn't know like he graduated from the Dr. Bill Frist School of Diagnosing People Via the Teevee; I hate him for his stupid books, especially this one; I hate him for being a naked misogynist; I hate him for being a ridiculous, embarrassing, obvious star-fucker, who is literally so stupid he thinks knowing Andy Dick makes you cool; I hate him for his evident vanity and arrogance and self-righteousness, which is insufferable enough in a regular person, but downright evil when unapologetically put on display by a doctor among people who are desperate for help and compassion; and most of all I hate him for his smug face with its contrived expressions of empathy.
Just SHUT UP, Dr. Drew. Just shut up.
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.]
Rock Notes
The first two Katrina and the Waves albums have been reissued. With bonus tracks. For some reason.
The world is officially useless now.
[Cross-posted.]
Seen
I had yet another freaking doctor's appointment today, because I've contracted some horrendous respiratory infection that won't go away and I sound like a one-woman tuberculosis ward. (I swear I caught it the last time I was at the doctor, because no one else I know has it!) One prescription for antibiotics later, I was on my way home when I saw the following church sign:
"God is perfect. Only man makes mistakes."
What comfort to survivors of natural disasters, disease, injury, and trauma, I thought.
Roethlisberger Follow-Up
[Trigger warning]
Here's a link to details on the initial report of rape by the victim.
The responding officer that night is quoted as saying, "We have a problem, this drunken [expletive], drunk off her ass, is accusing Ben of rape. ... There is no way it could have happened."
It's a pretty textbook case of why rape is so rarely reported, so rarely prosecuted, so rare to get a conviction.
Read the whole thing.
Meanwhile...
Roethlisberger issued this statement yesterday:
The Commissioner's decision to suspend me speaks clearly that more is expected of me. I am accountable for the consequences of my actions. Though I have committed no crime, I regret that I have fallen short of the values instilled in me by my family. I will not appeal the suspension and will comply with what is asked of me ─ and more.Emphasis mine.
Missing games will be devastating for me. I am sorry to let down my teammates and the entire Steelers fan base. I am disappointed that I have reached this point and will not put myself in this situation again.
I appreciate the opportunities that I have been given in my life and will make the necessary improvements.
Strange wording there, no? "I have committed no crime." He didn't deny raping his victim, he didn't even deny "having sex" with her. He just didn't commit a crime.
And missing a few games is "devastating." Hey, I'm no athlete, but I do know I'd be far more devastated if someone accused me of rape than if I missed a couple football games. But that's just me.
Discuss.
Quote of the Day
"This is Alabama—we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it."—Tim James, Republican gubernatorial candidate in Alabama.
I'm Tim James. Why do our politicians make us give driver's license exams in twelve languages? This is Alabama—we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it. We're only giving that test in English, if I'm governor. Maybe it's the businessman in me, but we'll save money. And it make sense. [Three second pause.] Does it to you?Via Marc Ambinder, who notes: "Mr. James explains that exams in a multitude of language may endear people to the 'Rachel Maddow' crowd, but he's going to fight against political correctness. Besides, he says, it's a public safety issue because traffic signs are in English. There's a little wrinkle here: there's a reason why Alabama has its exams in many different languages, and if the governor changes the rules, the state could lose billions of dollars in federal transportation funding."
[Commenting Guidelines: Please refrain from sweeping generalizations about Alabama, Alabamans, the South, and/or Southerners. This isn't about a region; it's about a political and social ideology which may be more prevalent in some areas but nonetheless exists all over the country. It's possible to talk about that ideology without regional smears.]
I Write Letters
Dear English-Speaking World:
Pursuant to my earlier letter regarding the cessation of your use of the terms "man's man" and "ladies' man," I would also like to request that you jettison the following from your vocabularies: "He's all boy" and "She's all girl."
These terms are used to refer to children, anywhere from infancy to about 10 years of age, who are regarded as conforming nicely to the sex- and gender stereotypes prescribed by The PatriarchyTM. Sometimes, their use is only as pernicious as reinforcing an exclusionary narrative like all male humans like sports or all female humans like fashion.
"I see your son Joe there is playing with a ball."
"Yes, he's all boy!"
"I see Jane likes to carry around her mother's old purse."
"Yes, she's all girl!"
Sometimes, however, they are as nefarious as justifying and/or reinforcing negative behaviors typically associated with one sex.
"I see Jane stomps her feet and cries when she doesn't get what she wants."
"Yes, she loves to throw tantrums—she's all girl!"
"I see Joe often breaks his toys almost immediately after getting them out of the box."
"Yes, he's so rough and destructive—he's all boy!"
In either case, the terms (much like "man's man") create a tremendously limited definition of both sexes. To inextricably associate being "all boy" with toy trucks and tumult, and being "all girl" with dollies and diffidence, limits both the boys who like trucks and girls who like dollies and the boys and girls who don't, the latter of whom are not somehow "partially" girl and boy, or not girl and boy at all.
Our insistence on reducing children to these incomplete and hopelessly retrograde definitions of sex and gender does them no favors. And, besides that, it's about as sophisticated as believing girls really are made of sugar and spice and everything nice and boys of snakes and snails and puppy dogs' tails. Surely, we're cleverer than that.
That is not to suggest that, by some combination of nature and nurture, boys and girls are not different creatures, or to argue for androgynous silver unitards that bespeak the superfluity of sex and gender. This is not really a letter about the differences, or sameness, between girls and boys at all. (For that, you can go here.) This letter is about broadening the scope of what is acceptably female and what is acceptably male, by first and foremost not limiting those spectrums in the first place.
This letter is about the idea that a boy who loves his Easy-Bake Oven is boy, too. And about the idea that a girl who dresses up in her dad's clothes
—is girl, too.
It's also about not defining masculinity in contradistinction to femininity (and vice versa), which can have [trigger warning] disastrous consequences. And it's about having respect for people who loudly, proudly, aren't all boy or all girl, but a bit of each, by nature or design, whose bodies or minds or personal aesthetic reject the binary. It's about rejecting the idea that men are women are so different that we come from different planets, that we are so different we're practically different species, that we are separate and unequal.
This letter asks you to reject othering language.
All boy, after all, means no girl. And what could be more othering than saying you're no part of me, and I'm no part of you?
Thank you and have a nice day.
Love,
Liss
[Originally published November 25, 2008.]
I Write Letters
Dear English-Speaking World:
Please stop using the phrase "Joe's a man's man," effective immediately.
When you use that odious idiom, you are implicitly suggesting that any man who is not in Joe's peer group, by virtue of, say, his sexual orientation, gender expression, lack of the requisite physical aptitude for team sports, love of Luigi Illica librettos, and/or aversion to bullying, is also not a man.
And we can all see how silly that is, now, can't we?
If you mean to communicate that a particular man is very popular with other men who are just like him, then you can say: "Joe is very popular with other men who are just like him."
If you mean to communicate that a particular man is very popular with lots of different kinds of men, then you can say: "Joe is very popular with lots of different kinds of men."
If, upon consideration, you realize that Joe is popular not just with men at all, but with women, too, and not just in that "ladies' man" kind of way, then you can say: "Joe is very popular."
And if, upon consideration, you realize that what you meant to communicate all along is that Joe is an embodiment of the stereotype of a straight, white, beer-guzzling, sports-obsessed, dodo-brained, porn-loving homophobe who substitutes rape jokes for a real sense of humor and claims he can use the n-word because his college roommate was black, then you can say: "Joe is a douche."
Thank you and have a nice day.
Love,
Liss
P.S. Ixnay the use of "ladies' man," too. Thanks.
[Originally published November 24, 2008.]
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Phledge: What's the most profound way in which your mind has been changed? How did that happen?
Certainly the most profound way in which my mind has been changed is that I was raised to be a god-believer, and once was (at least ostensibly, although I'm not sure it ever really "took"), but I am now an atheist. How did that happen? THE DEVIL, that's how!
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.]
Good
Wal-Mart to Face Massive Class Action Suit:
A sharply divided federal appeals court on Monday exposed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to billions of dollars in legal damages when it ruled a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination over pay for female workers can go to trial.I'm sure you'll be positively SHOCKED to hear that Wal-Mart has been "fiercely" fighting the lawsuit since it was first brought in 2001. Their novel argument, which was rejected by the court, was that "the number of litigants that the lawsuit purports to represent is too big to defend."
In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the world's largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs and that female employees receive fewer promotions and have to wait longer for those promotions than male counterparts.
We've discriminated against SO MANY WOMEN you can't possibly let this case go forward!
Fail.
[H/T to Shaker SamanthaB.]
Quote of the Day
"What has [Obama] done that is different? I think he's done exactly what George Bush was doing, except to the times of a thousand. I mean we're talking about a progressive. And George Bush was a progressive. It's the difference between a steam train and the space shuttle."—Professional dipshit Glenn Beck.
I want to live on the planet where we've had two progressive presidents in the row.
Or even one.
Huh, Part the Wev
Well, it's been a whole month since the last "We Expected Hillary Rodham Clinton to Be a Wild Psycho-Bitch But It Turns Out She's Kinda Awesome" Story, so we were overdue for another one.
Unlike the WaPo, which couldn't discern the "unifying vision" of Clinton's leadership, the Independent notes:
She may be a diplomat now, but remains a politician too – a very accomplished one. Unlike her predecessors, with the possible exception of Powell, Hillary has a global name recognition that enables her to speak not just to her peers in the chancelleries, but the population at large.Which is not to say the article is without its groan-inducing flaws. My favorite:
In fact an informal "Clinton Doctrine" is discernable. She is the ideal exponent of "smart power", of the US leading by the example of what is most attractive about that country, not because of its military might. The fight against poverty, the struggle for human rights and in particular women's rights, are Hillary issues. Her fame and gender put her in an extraordinarily strong position to promote these issues, which may prove her most enduring legacy.
She performed with her customary authority and command of the facts, as well as the sense of humour, often overlooked, that is another of her trademarks.Yeah. "Often overlooked." By the same media outlets now each publishing their version of the same story which details how SURPRISINGLY not the devil Hillary Clinton is.
It's almost like they overlooked a lot of stuff or something.
[H/T to Shaker GayAsXmas.]
