"My pockets are fat!"—Gwen DeVoe, former athlete and model, current fashion-show producer and event planner, and founder of Full-Figured Fashion Week, who "stepped onto a runway in Manhattan [last] week and made a pitch to retailers for the plus-size woman," noting that "Every curvy girl that has a dollar is willing to spend that dollar."
What I like about this quote is how it underlines so pointedly the depth of entrenched fat hatred in this culture. We are as consumerist, greedy, market-driven a capitalist culture as exists on the planet, in which needs are created just to sell products to serve those conjured needs, and yet the existing, vast, easily identified market of fat fashion remains almost totally untapped, even despite its demographic's pleas for product.
(You can read a good interview with DeVoe here.)
Quote of the Day
Happy Birthday, Portly Dyke!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
You look like a portly dyyyy-yyyyke!!!
And you've got a portly duke 'tude, too!!!
Happy birthday, grrl!
Open Thread
Hosted by a yarn bowl.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by things made from felt.
At the Gender Justice Summit 2010
Just a quick note before I head to the afternoon session, I chose the Food Security path as a number of you suggested, and it's been very interesting. Several speakers from the global South spoke with great intensity and feeling about the difficulties they experience, and what we in the North can do about it.
Anyway, I'm off back to the session now. I've met one Shaker today, someone who's never been able to post for some unknown reason (technical, I mean).
Have a good Saturday (or Sunday if you're there already *waves to Shakers on the other side of the world*)!
Edit: Finished the afternoon session, now for a short visit to the reception, then home to my hosts' for a rest. I should have a good several days' worth of material to write on, much of great interest, I expect.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
And yes, I see I added an extra "o" in saloon. LOL. Wevs.
I'm too lazy to fix it now, so enjoy my knuckleheadery!
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
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 (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Take Action for Kyrgyz Refugees
by Shaker WhiningGirl
[Trigger Warning for sexual assault.]
Over the past few days, I've been reading about the worsening situation in southern Kyrgyzstan, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have been displaced. The situation for them is dire, and the UN today issued a report that more than a million people have been caught up in the Kyrgyz violence.
A bit of background: Kyrgyzstan is a relatively small, mountainous Central Asian nation located between China, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Tajikistan. In April, Kyrgyzstan's president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was ousted by a collation of opposition leaders, demanding more transparency in the corrupt government. Violence and rioting spread across the country, but the violence quieted down on April 15th when Bakiyev resigned and left the country (he is now in Belarus).
(Of note: Bakiyev himself took power after the "mostly peaceful" Tulip Revolution of 2005 after the Kyrgyz believed elections had been rigged in favor of Askar Akayev.)
Violence escalated again earlier this month in the southern part of the country, near the cities of Osh and Jalalabad, long home to a significant minority population of ethnic Uzbeks and home to Bakiyev's strongest supporters. The source of the conflict along ethnic lines is incredibly complicated and too nuanced to go into completely (even articles that purport to boil the situation down, such as this one, are deeply flawed). Both countries are former Soviet countries and as such, many Uzbeks were forcibly moved from Uzbekistan into Kyrgyzstan during the Soviet period. The Uzbeks of the region were, very generally speaking, more prosperous and owned more land than the Kyrgyz and tensions between the two groups in the region have been set off before, most notably during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991.
The current violence in Osh has specifically targeted the ethnic Uzbek minority, and there are some reports that the violence was sparked by supporters of Bakiev, or even possibly by Bakiev himself, in order to disrupt the planned referendum on June 27th on a new constitution. Chaos means the country would be unable to move forward and make steps toward representative government and democracy, something the Kyrgyz people have long fought for.
Currently, ethnic Uzbeks are being shot at and forced from their homes by soldiers in the south of the country. Many have said they thought the soldiers were coming to protect them, and instead found themselves being shot at and their homes burned.
More disturbingly, there are many reports of rape perpetrated by these soldiers on Uzbek women and girls in yet another instance of rape used as a weapon against an ethnic minority.Uzbeks interviewed by Associated Press journalists in Osh, the country's second-largest city, said that on one street alone, ethnic Kyrgyz men sexually assaulted and beat more than 10 Uzbek women and girls, including some pregnant women and children as young as 12.
The interim president, Roza Otunbayeva, has asked Moscow for military help in quieting the riots, but Russia will only send humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watched has called on the UN Security Council to act, saying protection is "urgently" needed.
Matlyuba Akramova showed journalists a 16-year-old relative who appeared to be in a state of shock, and said she had been hiding in the attic as Kyrgyz mobs beat her father in their home in the Cheryomushki neighborhood.
Akramova said that when the girl came downstairs to bandage her father's head, another group of attackers sexually assaulted her in front of him.
The UN itself is calling the situation for the refugees in camps near the Uzbek border "dire," and, while Uzbekistan has responded and supplies are being air-lifted, both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are very poor countries with an infrastructure not set up to handle hundreds of thousands of refugees (at last report, the UN is estimating there are 400,000 people currently without the ability to return to their homes).
These refugees need aid and they need it now. The UN High Council on Refugees has set up an emergency fund for Kyrgyz refugees that provides shelter and medical aid for the injured and assaulted. You can donate directly to this fund here.
Another way to donate to relief efforts in Kyrgyzstan that is being recommended by my contacts in Osh is through the April Fund set up in conjunction with the Kyrgyz Club of New York.
All of us with an interest in the region are hoping the planned referendum will end the active violence, but recovery for the country may take years.
[Note from Liss: This situation is reminiscent of the unrest in Guinea last year, in which Secretary Clinton's immediate involvement was great. She has reportedly told Uzbek President Islam Karimov that "the current unrest in Kyrgyzstan and the humanitarian problems of refugees and the population of the country's stricken regions remain high on the U.S. agenda." All the same, it never hurts to make your voice heard and let the State Department know that you urge their continued attention on this situation, with additional support to survivors of sexual violence.]
For the Losties
Desmond's Facebook page. LOL.
I miss you, Lost.
[My thanks to the lovely Norbizness for sending that along.]
Wow
[Trigger warning for execution by death penalty.]
I'm pretty sure the only thing that could have made Utah's execution by firing squad of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner more fucking awesome was Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff tweeting out news of the event.
"I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims."
That tweet was followed shortly thereafter by: "We will be streaming live my press conference as soon as I'm told Gardner is dead. Watch it at www.attorneygeneral.Utah.gov/live.html."
Jesus.
I'm not inherently against the idea of using Twitter, or any other technology, to convey information about grave events. Particularly in a crisis—the aftermath of a natural disaster, say—the capability to send and share information quickly can be invaluable, can be life-saving.
But, you know, something about reducing an announcement about the decision to end another human being's life to 140 characters, and follow it up with an advertisement for a political event, strikes me as not being at all in the same conceptual galaxy.
So I'm this Queer Derby Chick
I'm sure I'll have occasion to expound upon all the things I love about roller derby. Over the next two plus weeks, I'll hopefully have the good fortune to skate in two (or even three!) pride parades, and play in a fabulously queer bout. This would be appear to be an opportune time to share some of the reasons that I, a queer woman, love derby.
The main reason that my hobby is what it is is that it's freakin' awesome. Plenty of folks (myself included) have deep, emotional connections to things they do, but I don't want to fall into the trap of treating every personal action as a profound act of healing or whatever.
Still, here's a story:
I was interviewing for a job doing research work at a field station; walking transects through bogs and marshes in the middle of summer, etc,. One of the folks asking the questions wanted to know whether I was tough enough to do this sort of work. So, I responded by telling him about hiking through everywhere, about walking on mats of vegetation floating above nearly freezing water, about strapping a fifty pound backpack onto my hundred-and-thirty pound frame on the hottest day of the year, donning a respirator, gloves, long-sleeved shirt and pants to spray pesticide along rocky trails. That sort of thing. After which, with a glazed look, this guy said something to the effect of 'yes, but have you done anything tough? We're looking for someone tough.' The two of us repeated the cycle for what seemed like five minutes.
The next day, I was talking to my advisor (who I swear to this day is one of the smartest and sweetest guys on the planet). 'Did you know that if you wear a skirt, people will think you're not tough?' 'Really? That seems far-fetched. Are you sure you didn't just misunderstand things?'
I don't like that story so much.
Back to derby. When I finally dragged myself to a bout back in Madison (go Mad Rollin' Dolls!), I was amazed. In part, the sport was awesome, although I didn't really figure that all out until I started actually playing. What initially caught my eye was the crowd. Here there were players' parents, grandparents, and small children, bikers, creepy guys (they're everywhere), and every 5th queer person I knew in town, all hanging out together, and having a fabulous time watching amazing skaters, divas in platform heels, and some guy in S&M gear (one of many mascots). At halftime, there was belly dancing. Or drag kings. Or school age children trying to hit various mascots with foam clubs. Where had this been all my life, and why hadn't the president of it issued me a personal invitation?
When I moved out East, I started playing. I certainly didn't feel like a badass. Partly, this was due to the fact that I couldn't roller skate (by which, I mean that I typically held on to the wall). In time, I got to know my teammates, and I slowly learned how to skate (and in turn, play). I don't know that folks who meet us outside derby consider most of us tough, despite the fact that, y'know, we are.
Derby girls (and yes, we call ourselves girls... perhaps that's another post) get to pick out alter egos. I've seen Annie Cockledeux, I've skated against Emma Scoldman (uniform number: 0 gods, 0 masters), and been entertained by the fabulous Miss Ida Feltersnatch. It's a playful sport. Derby girls wear as much (or as little) makeup as we feel like it, and show as much (or as little) skin as we feel like. Much to my surprise, there are a lot of folks that seem genuinely intimidated by us. Aside from occasionally getting harassed by minor authority figures (A pack of women wearing stripy socks! Send me reinforcements before it's too late!), it's actually been a pretty common experience for strangers to tell me I'm tough, or otherwise seem a bit overwhelmed by my wiry frame towering over them, dripping glitter and sweat in their general direction.
These are not reactions that I, or most women, get outside of roller derby. Particularly, as a trans woman, and as a femme lesbian, I revel in all of it.
In addition to the many, many levels on which I understand the actual sport, I have another reason for loving derby. There are five players on each team. It's abundantly clear that (unless the ref messed up and called a penalty on one or more of your teammates) that there are four women out there who have your back. It also becomes clear pretty quickly that there are five women out there who want to fuck your shit up. They will try to do so. Repeatedly.
I have learned to get back up. I am very good at getting back up. When I step onto the track, I get thrown around, hit, kicked (it's not supposed to happen, but wev) and generally put on the ground. I have learned: 1) to fight to stay up, and 2) to get the fuck back up. When I'm at home, fans cheer me when I get back up, something that didn't really happen in my life a few years ago. Regardless of where I'm skating, at the end of the controlled violence, there are hugs, beer, and food. Again, compared to my run as a queer woman, the hugs and beer are a welcome change of pace. It may be violent, but it's still a game. A game among family.
I Think I Need a Fedora Now
So, this weekend I'll be in Toronto, attending OXFAM's Gender Justice Summit 2010 on your behalf, as a blogger from Shakesville. I get a Media badge and everything. Though, sadly, I have no fedora in which to stick a card with the big letters P R E S S, as generations of movies have taught me is the standard garb of the ink-stained wretch. I will have to dress, instead, as a pixel-stained wretch, I suppose.
Well, I'll be at the Saturday morning and afternoon, and the Sunday morning. Physically, that's all I can manage. And at the rally on Saturday afternoon. And I'll be taking along my camera, and my laptop (though I don't tweet, being no kind of small bird, and thus you must wait until Monday for my report, unless I have the energy on Saturday night).
What I want from you, Shakers, is for you to have a look at the program linked above, and let me know which of the offerings (from Saturday morning to Sunday lunch) I should attend - which ones are you most interested in hearing from/about?
I'm open to whichever you would rather I went to, if you have a preference. If you don't, I'll probably pick the one with the fewest attendees.
If you happen to be attending the conference yourself, or will be in the area of Ryerson University and want to maybe get a quick bevvy, e-mail me, and we'll see if we can manage it. Or you can take your chance and wander around. I'm not hard to spot, as not that many folk use canes, and the other people that do rarely wear stripey knee socks.
That's my weekend, anyway. :)
I'm a Man and I Enjoy Mancations
All right, you collection of tree-hugging limousine liberals, pinko Commies, dope fiends, queerbaits, ladyboys, fat chicks, feminazi castrators, and assorted freaks: You wanna talk about mancations? Let's talk about mancations.
The last vacation I took was when me and my stepmom Cheryl went down to Branson to meet some of our high school friends for a sorta reunion. Mostly it was a bunch of Choraleer dorks that Cheryl knew from her days singing Hall & Oates medleys while dressed in some poofy-sleeve shit that looks like it was made from my Uncle Frank's track pants. She's still got that crap in her closet, too.
Anyways, the whole weekend was a total bust, because, first of all, the hotel was shitty—it didn't even have water in the outdoor pool, so I was just like running around in there, which was totally boring after about ten minutes—and every time the guys wanted to have some man fun, the women would start driving us crazy with all the whining. "Will you stop shooting your guns off in the parking lot? We can't even hear the TV!" Blah blah blah. "Will you stop prank calling the front desk and ordering 'titties' from room service? You're gonna get us kicked out!" Nah nah nah. Like that.
So you see why I don't go on vacations anymore. Now I go on MANCATIONS.
Me and my friend Dick Balzac, and his cousins Rod and Peter, who are a coupla real stand-up guys, take a week once every year to get away, just the four of us dudes. Dick's got a great cabin in Kentucky—well, it's actually not a cabin, but this RV he was living in after his divorce…? Anyways, it broke down there once in these woods just outside Big Bone Lick State Park, and he never fixed it and no one ever hauled it away, so it's basically like our secret getaway and shit.
Yeah, so we head down the second week of July every year, which is when Boone County puts on their annual Sausagefest, a celebration of sausage-making and whatnot. Maaaaaaaan, it is great. Just four guys chowing down on sausage, like Real Men.
And there's plenty of other manly shit to do, too. We go buck hunting—them guys use pansy shit like bows and rifles, but I hunt armed only with my wolf-like senses and a pair of nunchucks. We never caught anything, though, but whatever. Also, we catch frogs in jam jars and race remote control cars and set off fireworks and…what else?...kick stuff. I dunno. There's a lot of fun stuff to do!
Dick and Rod and Pete like to do this Civil War reenacting while we're down there sometimes, but I don't really get into that, so I use that time to go down to the Pick-A-Part and wrestle old wrecked cars, so I can brush up on my transformer-bustin' skills. Just in case, man. Just in case.
Oh, this one time I found a $20 bill on the front seat of an old F150. That's the kind of awesome stuff that never happens when chicks are around.
So you can see why I am a huge fan of the mancation. It's a real escape from the nagging I gotta listen to all the time from Cheryl and from my ex-wife/fiancée Tammy, not to mention the daily grind of selling weed and ammo out of the garage. And there's shitloads of male bonding, too. I never experience the joy of having my ass slapped by other men anymore, not since I quit BMX racing, and when Dick gives me a manfriendly punch in the balls and I wrassle him to the floor and spit in his mouth, it makes me nostalgic for the days when my dad used to lunge at me, then give me a coupla real good punches to the arm while screaming "TWO FOR FLINCHING, FAIRY!" That's real love, right there. Unsullied manlove.
The only thing that sucks about mancations is that there's no one to clean up after us. I have to admit, it's kind of nice to get back home and eat off a plate that ain't crusted with days-old sausage juice.
Pornstache: Out.
[Previously by Butch Pornstache: Happy Taxes and Teabags Day, I'm a Proud Teabagger and Real American, Men and Trucks and Shit, Cats and Shit, Books and Cupcakes and Shit, Ron Swanson Kicks Butt, Dale Peterson is a Great American.]
A Movie Review: Grown-Ups
(in lieu of the half-dozen important posts I could and should be making, I offer this bit of fluff that came to me)
There's a new movie coming out, Grown-Ups. Now, no progressive could fail to be thrilled that it will star the comedy stylings of not only noted empath and sensitive comedian Adam Sandler, but also such nuanced and capable actors as Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider. With a cast like that, how could it fail to be a piece of awe-inspiring beauty, of heart-rending insight into the human condition?
Really, I just want to congratulate the director, Dennis Dugan, for assembling this talented ensemble to examine an area of human life which is critically under-examined in modern popular culture: the man-child, and his bromantic relations. This is a sincere, innovative and ultimately uplifting story about five men who behave like children, when freed of the horrid adult-conforming lifestyle which would be forced upon them by humourless bitches, as so often happens.
I'm sure some pedantic, humourless feminist "film reviewer" will come along to pan this wonderful film, imposing her hairy-legged man-hating agenda, insisting that there are enough movies about this topic already. Nonsense, I say, NONSENSE! What the world needs is more movies about (white hetero cis currently abled) men (and a sassy Black friend, how post-racial is that, am I rite, bros?), as this is obviously an area which is chronically ignored in our ultra-feminized, post-racial culture.
I urge everyone to camp out to see this movie the instant it opens. In fact, I think we should have a write-in campaign to make them release the movie at midnight of the Thursday, so we don't have to wait all the way to Friday night for it.
In other news, Happy Opposite Day, everyone.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of Butch Pornstache's Very Manly Guide to Very Manly Mancations.
Recommended Reading:
Angry Asian Man: Help Teri Li Find a Bone Marrow Match
Latoya: Punching People and the Perils of Increased Police Presence
Jenn: Will Media Report FL Shooting As Gender-Based Hate Crime?
Rachel: Obesity and Fun Sexy Time
Fannie: Dude Just Tells It Like It Is Without Knowing WTF He's Talking About, Part 4,222,153
Andy: Michele Bachmann to BP: Don't Let Obama Make You Look 'Evil'
Mannion: The Tattooed Attorney
Leave your links in comments...
Good News for Trafficking Survivors
[Trigger warning for references to trafficking.]
This is such amazing news:
Late yesterday, the New York State Senate passed legislation, already approved by the Assembly last month, to allow survivors of commercial sex trafficking to clear their records of prostitution-related crimes by vacating their convictions. Governor Paterson is expected to sign the bill (A.7670/S.4429) into law, amending New York State Criminal Procedure Law.Yes, yes the rest of the country should do that.
The vote came the day after Secretary of State Hilary Clinton released the State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons" report, which for the first time included an assessment of trafficking in the U.S. and acknowledged the U.S. as "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution."
"All too often, victims of sex trafficking are arrested for and convicted of prostitution-related crimes long before they are able to exit their coercive circumstances," said Sienna Baskin, staff attorney at the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. "This landmark legislation will allow these survivors to start over with a clean slate. By leaving behind any criminal record, they can avoid undeserved red flags and any stigma associated with their past exploitation. New York is creating a model that will help stop the justice system from treating these survivors as criminals. The rest of the country should follow New York's leadership."
So, apart from granting survivors freedom from the substantial burden created by criminal records, giving them an immeasurably better chance to rebuild their lives, this legislation will also ensure that more people survive in the first place and are able to remain free:
"Our clients include women trafficked into commercial sex who were arrested more than 10 times. Their fears of retribution prevented them from informing law enforcement about their exploitation," added Baskin. "A criminal record for prostitution is a barrier to their recovery, especially when a potential employer asks these survivors to explain their convictions. These women have suffered enough and simply want to move on with their lives by finding a good job and a safe place to live, or applying for immigration status. With that economic security, we believe this bill will help these women escape being victimized or coerced again."Joy joy joy.
[H/T to Shaker tehkenny.]
Good News in Reproductive Health
An FDA panel of 11 people, nine of whom are women, has unanimously recommended that the FDA approve Ella, a government-developed drug that can prevent pregnancy for up to five days after unprotected PIV sex.
[Ella] appears to be more effective than Plan B, a morning-after pill now available over the counter to women 18 and older that gradually loses efficacy after intercourse and can be taken at latest three days after sex. Ella, by contrast, works just as well on the fifth day as the first after sex.If approved for sale, Ella would first be made available only by prescription. Plan B has now been available without a prescription since 2006.
Ella blocks the effects of progesterone, a female hormone that spurs ovulation. It is a chemical relative to RU-486, the abortion pill.
Naturally, there had to be some bullshit at the hearing:
[S]ome mystery remains over exactly how it works. That mystery spurred a fierce debate outside the committee over whether it should be considered an abortion drug, a debate that prompted the posting of several uniformed police officers around the meeting room.Well, if the president of Hand-Wringing Misogynists of America says it, it must be true! Fuck you, SCIENCE!
…The dispute is whether the drug works by delaying ovulation (as the pill's manufacturer claims) or by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterus (as anti-abortion advocates say).
Dr. Jeffrey Bray, a pharmacologist at the Food and Drug Administration, said that ella may do both.
…Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group, called ella an unsafe abortion pill that men might slip to unsuspecting women.
"With ella, women will be enticed to buy a poorly tested abortion pill in the guise of a morning-after pill," she said.
By the way, with regard to Wright's claim that "men might slip Ella to unsuspecting women," like everything else, she's got it precisely backwards: Reproductive coercion is a serious and insufficiently addressed problem, but the central issue is not men who try to keep their partners from getting pregnant; it's men who sabotage their partners' birth control in order that they become pregnant and thus connected for life if a child is born.
If Wright were really concerned about women, and of course she isn't, she would support making available every option for women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, which include those caused by partner abuse.
[H/T to Shaker Samanthab.]
