(Trigger warning for dehumanization)
The Illinois Department of Public Health has begun running new PSA ads in the Chicago area (and perhaps elsewhere) in a new anti-HIV, or should I say, anti-people-with-HIV campaign. Their clever little tagline is "He's the 1." (I suppose using a number instead of the word makes it more "hip.") The image is below the fold, but for those of you who are unable to see the image, it basically consists of four cutout sections of male faces of differing races and skin tones, connected together to form a monstrous single "face." The text states "He's the 1 that could infect you."*
So, where to begin?
1. The combined facial expressions of each person making up this combined image are certainly threatening. Add to that the "he's the one that could infect you" text, and the IDPH more or less casts men with HIV in the role of predators. As if the majority of men with HIV are out there, intentionally spreading the virus, and you're next.
2. Note the use of "that" instead of "who." Add that to this threatening, monstrous face (the fact that one eye is placed significantly lower than the other is not, I believe, unintentional, invoking historical depictions of Igor, Quasimodo, and other "deformed" characters whose appearance is meant to be menacing), and the dehumanization of people with HIV is complete.
3. As Melissa pointed out when I sent her the link to the ad, this campaign completely ignores HIV reinfection, concentrating solely on first-time infections. Reinfection is incredibly fucking serious, and this ad completely erases the threat for those already infected with HIV.
4. Way to erase women, IDPH! Have we forgotten so quickly that women, and women of color in particular, are the group with the highest number of new infections?
5. ADAP (AIDS drug assistance program) funds are in serious jeopardy in Illinois; recipients are now being re-evaluated every six months rather than every year, and we may have to go to a waiting list. So... cut money for life-saving medications, but I wonder how much of this money must have gone into this campaign; if they paid for the design, and if they paid to buy full-page ads in every gay paper in the city, as well as street poster advertisements.
6. This is exactly the kind of stigmatizing bullshit that keeps people from going to get tested for HIV in the first place.
7. Fearmongering campaigns don't work.
8. By running this ad in all of the gay publications, as well as posters in gay neighborhoods, this was certainly an excellent way to make HIV a "gay disease" again! Bravo.
I'm sure I could come up with eight more things that are wrong with this, but I'm too pissed off right now. Wait, one more... I can't believe they raffled off a fucking iPad in conjunction with this steaming pile of FAIL. I'm hearing that many HIV agencies and LGBTQI organizations in the Chicago area are already voicing their outrage over these ads. Good. If you'd like to contact the IDPH and let them know you don't appreciate this ad campaign, their contact information is here.
* The text at the very bottom of the poster proudly announces "Paid for by the Illinois Department of Public Health." I hope they're ready to own this huge lapse in judgement, compassion and taste.
PSA FAIL
I Am Not a Bunsen Burner
In March, I wrote about an Emory University study that found "intestinal bacteria may contribute to obesity and metabolic syndrome." Now, another study at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has similarly found "that people with gut bacteria that causes a high amount of methane gas tend to have higher body mass index."
It's well known that there is great individual variation in bacteria in the gut. Genetics, foods, antibiotics and other factors can cause change in that bacteria. Bacteria help to break down food and produce various types of gas, such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. Different people will produce different types of gas.This is, quite obviously, terrible news for sanctimonious fat-shaming thin people, as it potentially deals a terrible blow to their precarious conviction of moral superiority which is carefully maintained almost exclusively via a reliance on shouting "CALORIES IN! CALORIES OUT!" at fatties.
Dr. Mark Pimentel and his colleagues at Cedars gave 58 people a breath test to measure methane gas. About 20% of the participants tested positive for methane. Those people also had a body mass index up to 7 points higher than patients who did not show the presence of methane. It's possible that methane from methane-producing gut bacteria can slow down digestion and increase the uptake of calories, the authors said. The study was presented Wednesday at the Digestive Disease Week annual meeting in New Orleans.
Other studies are hinting at this connection too. An interesting story in Thursday's issue of MIT Technology Review, "You are your bacteria," discusses the role of gut bacteria variation among individuals and how that bacteria can be altered and play a role in disease.
It is, however, good news for everyone with a passing interest in a fact-based reality.
Buh-Bye, Facebook
Facebook Glitch Brings New Privacy Worries: "On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations. ... Although Facebook quickly moved to close the security hole on Wednesday, the breach heightened a feeling among many users that it was becoming hard to trust the service to protect their personal information."
Ugh. I just...every time I read something like that, I get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach because I can't help thinking of all the people who exploit security breaches like that to get access to people they want to hurt. I readily admit the stalking in my personal history colors my perspective, and I'm certainly not suggesting everyone (or anyone) else should share my perspective, but it's impossible for me to trust social networking media that encourages users to treat its databases as a reservoir for extremely intimate information.
I just deactivated my Facebook account (which I never look at, anyway, and which I should have done a long time ago, since its founder's a misogynist asshat). And it felt like a relief.
Hmm
[Trigger warning for domestic violence.]
So there's this asshole named Danny Dyer, a 10¢ celebrity who writes (wrote) an advice column for the British men's magazine Zoo, and he's been sacked from the gig after he advised a heartbroken ex-boyfriend who wrote seeking counsel: "I'd suggest going out on a rampage with the boys, getting on the booze and smashing anything that moves. Then, when some bird falls for you, you can turn the tables and break her heart. Of course, the other option is to cut your ex's face, and then no one will want her."
Somehow, this swell advice made it into print, via what Zoo is claiming was "an extremely regrettable production error," which I believe translates roughly into: "We had no idea that everyone would get so upset about a little disfigurement joke! Sheesh!"
Which, in some twisted way, is understandable, given that Danny Dyer's hot advice has previously included the suggestion to a correspondent who complained about his girlfriend's abundance of pubic hair: "Maybe set light to the muff hair. That stuff goes up quick, like a thatched roof."
Why, one wonders, was advising setting a woman on fire met with yawning indifference, but advising slashing her face resulted in massive blowback, Dyer's immediate dismissal, an apology and a donation to Women's Aid from the magazine, and their promise to dedicate the space where his next column would have run to awareness-raising about domestic violence…?
Don't misunderstand me: I believe the reaction to his slashing advice was spot-on. I'm just wondering why his ignition advice did not elicit the same reaction.
Maybe it was just a matter of this recent affront catching the attention of the right information maven, from whose network spread an infectious indignity. Maybe.
Or maybe not. Because it hasn't escaped my notice that the advocated cruelty which was ignored admonished a man to violently take care of a woman's unruly public hair (enforcing the Beauty Standard), whereas the advocated cruelty that sparked outrage admonished a man to violently ruin a woman's face (subverting the Beauty Standard).
It's certainly interesting, that.
Of course, it's entirely possible, ahem, that's just a coincidence.
UK Election (Not Quite) Final Results
Running off the BBC reportage, with 16 seats left to declare, the totals are:
Conservatives: 299
Labour: 254
Liberal Democrats: 54
Others: 27 (Scots and Welsh nationalists, Sinn Fein and other NI parties, and the Greens' leader)
With a total of 642 seats in play (there are 650 total, but four are taken by the traditionally neutral Speaker and deputies, and another four are held by Sinn Fein, which doesn't take up its seats in the Westminster Parliament, leaving 642), the majority number is 322.
For those who don't know, the Westminster Parliamentary system provides that the party with the most seats is invited to form a government, ideally with more than half the voting seats. No party has done this, meaning a few possible outcomes:
1) The Conservatives could try to hold a minority government, as in fact is currently the case here in Canada. This would mean they'd be the government, but they'd be a government which had to cope with the fact that they'd need to put compromises in their legislation to win support from other parties.
2) Either the Conservatives or Labour could form a partnership with the Liberal Democrats. If the Lib Dems partner with the Conservatives, their coalition would be sufficient to hold a majority, but the Lib Dems would hopefully soften the right-wing agenda of the Tories. This might also include a shift toward a more proportional system of voting, something long favoured by the smaller parties, as the First Past the Post system tends to favour the bigger, established parties. For example, Labour and the Lib Dems had roughly similar proportions of the popular vote, but the distribution of that vote means that Labour have five times the number of seats, compared to the Lib Dems.
At the moment, and possibly for the coming several days, the government will be in some chaos, as the various parties jockey and negotiate to try and come to a conclusion about what kind of government will be formed.
Traditionally and constitutionally, the incumbent party is given the first chance to form a government which will hold the confidence of Parliament, which would mean Labour (under current PM Gordon Brown) would have the first go. If they can't, then other parties will be invited to try.
The Tories, unsurprisingly, have been making a lot of self-serving noise about the "moral right" to try and form a government, but given they only received 37% of the popular vote, it's hard to see this as a mandate of any sort - nearly two-thirds of Britons voted for someone else!
It's still very tight, very tense, and will be for some time.
(Note: I won't be around to monitor this thread much; I'm off to Buffalo this morning, as my partner is visiting for the weekend and I need to pick her up from the Flugplatz.)
UK Election, Widespread Disenfranchisement
Among the many, many stories this morning in the aftermath of the UK's General Election, are a number of stories of disenfranchisement: people not allowed to vote because of poor organization at the polling stations, chaos and protests and poor decision-making all around in what will be a close and contentious election (thus magnifying the effect of disenfranchisement).
One such is here on Livejournal, from jady_lady, a woman who is blind* recounting her difficulties with poorly-trained staff making it so that her ballot was very likely spoiled.
If you have links to other stories of disenfranchisement in the UK General Election of 2010, please give links below, so that progressivists in the UK can lend their teaspoons to the cause.
* Her self-identification.
Question of the Day
Following up on yesterday's QotD: What's the last book you tried reading more than once, and just couldn't finish it?
Normally, if I try a book and can't get into it after a serious attempt, I don't pick it back up again. I think I may have read the first bit of James Joyce's Ulysses on two different occasions, and both times chucked it aside with a heaving sigh of exasperation. Just no.
UK Election Open Thread Part 2
Starting a new thread to watch this fascinatingly close election, with what are now looking to be some truly appallingly poor choices being made by staff at the polls: stations where there weren't enough ballots, stations where people were turned away because the clock had gone 10, protests, and likely legal challenges.
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.]
Afternoon WHUT
Here's a superweird article about Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps, and his history as a successful civil rights attorney back in the day.
All righty then.
Radical Feminist Agenda
You know all those man-hating commercials that MRAs (and other highly privileged characters who blame man-hating on feminism or "the feminization of society" or some variation thereof) are always complaining about...? Like basically every single slice-of-kyriarchal-heaven Superbowl advert, for example...?
Yeah. I'm sure you'll be SHOCKED to hear that they're created almost exclusively by white men.
Pass me the smelling salts, Bertha.
First, Do No Harm
[Trigger warning for female genital cutting.]
PZ reports that the American Academy of Pediatrics has proposed a "compromise" on female genital cutting, suggesting a "ritual nick," a minor incision of the clitoris to satisfy the urge to ritualistically disfigure a female child's genitals in order to control her sexuality.
See, this way, people can honor that awesome tradition without actually removing part or all of the genitalia. Everyone gets a little something: Girls get only a little heinous physical and psychological trauma, and their guardians get to practice their violent misogyny, just in a slightly less violent way. Yay for compromise!
*takes deep breaths; resists the urge to smash everything in sight*
FGC is a human rights violation. It has no medical purpose, and its cultural rationale is steeped in gender inequality. There is no reason to tolerate even this proposed alternative version of the procedure in a culture with an ostensible belief in gender equality.
Insert the 10,000 posts I've written about consent and autonomy here.
And, despite the AAP's claim that endorsing nicking will be a deterrent, Equality Now rightly notes that advocating a more minor version of the procedure will almost certainly mean that "mothers who have until now resisted community pressure and not subjected their daughters to FGM in the U.S., in part because of the anti-FGM law, could be forced under the AAP guidelines to ask pediatricians to 'nick' their daughters' clitorises if it is legally permitted."
They are actually robbing mothers, adult women who are under enormous pressure to visit upon their American daughters a trauma they could not avoid, of the best argument they've got in their arsenal if they want to shield and protect their daughters.
Go here to take action.
[H/T to Shaker Ann. Please Note: PZ frames the use of the term "female genital cutting," instead of the more common "female genital mutilation," as a bit of pandering to the ritual's practitioners. This is not accurate. The change in language respects the experiences and self-images of women who have survived the procedure and do not view themselves as "mutilated." It is not accommodating the perpetrators, but respecting their victims. "Cutting" is an accurate description, and it is the preferred nomenclature for this thread.]
My Prayer for Today
Since the President has called on me to pray today, even though a federal judge has declared the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, I feel it is my civic duty to offer the following spiritual appeal in accordance with my own faith and conscience:
Dear DUC:
Please restore my national government to a state of integrity wherein it respects its own founding documents.
Also, please assure that monkeys fly out of my ass.
Have a shpadoinkle day!
Portly
Quote of the Day
"Karl has always said: People call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we're really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. Now, he wants to get more serious."—An anonymous organizer of "a massive fundraising, organizing and advertising machine" built by Republican architects (such as Karl Rove) to connect powerful conservative operatives and donors with the explicit goal of recapturing Congress and the White House.
Shiver.
Things are about to get even uglier.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Martin Denny: "Quiet Village"
Yma Sumac: "Ataypura"
Esquivel: "Jalousie/Sentimental Journey"
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Teaspoon
[Trigger warning for attempted violence.]
These ladies are All In:
Five female students, including one who had recently completed a self-defense class, jumped to the aid of a fellow student, grabbing her knife-wielding attacker and holding him until police officers arrived at Husson University [in Bangor, Maine], officials said yesterday.The assailant has been charged with attempted murder and violating a protection order, among other charges.
The student with newly acquired skills lunged for the hand holding a knife, while fellow students grabbed the man's other limbs and wrestled him to the ground, police said.
Officers responding to the report of a domestic fight at 7:40 a.m. arrived to find 45-year-old Horst Wolk of Bangor subdued on the pavement. A campus officer cuffed him, and city police hauled him away.
John Michaud, professor of legal studies, heard the commotion and saw a pile of people on the pavement, while more women stood by, ready to jump in.
"I was very impressed by the students," Michaud said. "How many times do you hear about people walking by incidents like this? These young ladies weren't going to walk past this incident." He said the young women disarmed the suspect and "had the situation well in hand."
How many times do you hear about people walking by incidents like this? Lots. Lots and lots and lots and lots.
And I also hear about
So the fact that these women jumped in, and the fact that they weren't assaulted for their efforts at the scene and aren't being punished after the fact, but being recognized as the heroes that they are, makes me very happy indeed.
[H/T to Shaker theZissilent. Related Reading: All In, Heroes, "No matter what the consequences were, we were going to do what was right.", Not My Problem, Five Good Samaritans Rescue Woman from Assault, Five Reasons Why "Teach Women Self-Defense" Isn't a Comprehensive Solution to Rape, "You Think That Was Assault?", Bullied to Death by Misogynists, LIRR Train Crew "All In" Against Rape, Richmond Rape Case: 911 Caller Was Another Teenage Girl, Victim Blaming-a-Go-Go, Today in Rape Culture.]
