Frank Black: "Los Angeles"
The Sashay Project #3: Walk Like a Man
Let Us Reiterate the Series Motto:
Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow!
(Background HERE and HERE -- if you haven't read those yet, this probably won't make much sense.)
I’ve talked some about my relationship with Butchiness in the past, and I will confess that the prospect of adopting a true sashay challenges a lot of the identity I’ve constructed over the years as a butchy-dyke.
There are parts of my butchy walk that seem to be fairly native to me (see the btuchy post I link above for childhood pictures), but there are parts that I definitely know I have affected.
Like when I worked as a carpenter with construction crews comprised completely of men (until I arrived, that is) -- I would walk onto a new work-site with a very distinct gait and stance, relaxing into a more natural-to-me gait and posture only after the men I’d be working with seemed fully convinced that I knew what I was doing.
Many, many, many times I have “butched up” my walk when I walked alone at night in the city, or in some place where I wasn’t completely convinced that I wouldn’t be physically attacked.
When I played softball in a Portland summer league, I definitely butched it all the way up – mostly because I was insecure about my abilities and playing on a team that was 97% butch-identified dykes who were way more "athletic" than I was.
Even just thinking about these times right now, I have a visceral sense-memory of the tightening up and readjusting that this entails.
I tuck my ass under my spine and square my shoulders. I dangle my arms a bit further away from my sides. I compress my neck down toward my traps so it looks thicker, and when I walk -- nothing moves but my arms and legs.
My Beloved has been a massage technician for decades, and she has often commented on the locked pelvises of Western men. This is the pelvis I adopted and emulated, in order to perform My Butchy Walk. (It's like My Little Pony -- but stompier, and in no way pink.)
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the concept of Butchiness for years – on the one hand, I am actually pretty “yang” in my general expression, and I have been that way all my life, as far as I know – I’m kind of attached to thinking of myself as “butch” or “butchy” or “mostly butch”.
On the other hand, the more I’ve become aware of the concept of gender performance in the last twenty years or so, the more I’ve questioned my valuation of my butchiness as it relates to my feminist ethics.
Example: I’ve heard many, many conversations between dykes (of my age, at least), wherein butches have been offended if you implied that they were femme in some way, but I’ve rarely heard conversations wherein femmes bristled if you indicate that they are butch in some way.
I’ve always been aware that, at some level, this relates to the conscious or unconscious adoption of the notion that behavior and qualities associated with the performance of “manhood” are more highly valued than behavior and qualities associated with the performance of “womanhood”.
For me, as a survivor of severe abuse in my early childhood, I know for a fact that I associated all things “manly” with being "in control" and "powerful", and that at least some part of my desire to be perceived as butch/tough was an attempt to adopt that perceived seat of power and control. I’m not saying this is true for every butch, but I know it was true for me.
That’s hard to admit, because I’m terribly, terribly fond of my butch identity (tenuous as it is, sometimes). I think I’m afraid that I’ll have to give it up for Feminist Lent or something.
So, acquiescing to the sashay that my sacrum obviously prefers for hikes and walks right now is a little scary.
Gender identification has been rocky ground for me at many points in my life. I’m one of those dykes who’s always had a “psychic dick”, but who never wanted to “be a man”. As a kid, I never felt like a boy in a girl’s body – but neither did I feel like a girl in a girl’s body. I never really felt like anything – I just felt like me.
I will confess that I resented sprouting bodacious tatas long before anyone else in my class had anything resembling breasts – but for me, this didn’t seem to be about gender – they just got in the fucking way. (Sometimes I’ve wondered if I developed this bubble-butt simply to provide ballast for The Girls.)
I still feel ambivalent about my tits from time to time – they’re lovely, yes, and they are a part of me, but I feel about them the same way I felt about every egg that popped out of my ovaries month after month after month for forty years. When I’d get my period, I’d kind of apologize to that monthly egg -- you know -- like: “Sorry you wasted all that time and energy . . . but don’t expect any sperm next month, either!”
It’s not that I feel like I was born in the wrong body – it’s just that I’ve never really identified with living in a female body very strongly.
So, it’s ironic to me that now, when all those ova have, at last, been spent, and I’m fully Crone-o-fied, my body seems more visibly “female” than ever. My hips and ass are more voluptuous, as are my breasts, and my jaw- and shoulder-lines have softened.
And now, my back tells me that it wants me to sashay.
Fer fuck's sake. Oy gevalt. Oh, maaaaaan!
There’s the tiniest little part of me that worries that I will be betraying my Inner Butch with this new walk.
There are parts of me that caution that I will not be safe if I walk this way. That people will assume things about me that I don’t want them assuming. That I will make myself vulnerable to those who will point at my fat ass and say shit I don’t want to hear. That I will look ridiculous.
That I will look Straight.
When I contemplate the morass of fears (and yes, it all seems to boil down to fear) engendered by a few inches of hip movement, I am, once more, aware of how the tiniest (and seemingly most "natural") acts we perform each day are affected by the fact that we’re soaking in it.
(Series note for the Sashay Project: This is a series of posts that explores the way I locomote through the world and how it is affected by sexism and the gender binary -- people who locomote through the world by means other than walking are welcomed and encouraged to share their insights about how sexism/gender performance might impact how they move through the world.)
Choosy Bodies Choose — uh, not sure yet
University of Adelaide professor Sarah Robertson thinks the likelihood of fertilization is based on chemical communication between a man's sperm and a woman's body, which determines whether it accepts the presence of the sperm by making changes in her immune system.
Robertson says that the assumption in treating infertility has been that if a man's semen tested as normal, that meant there was something wrong with the woman's reproductive system which prevented her from becoming pregnant. Her research suggests that the problem may not lie with either individual, but with compatibility in the signaling between sperm and host.
And a degree of familiarity, in this case, breeds not contempt but greater likelihood of acceptance. A woman's body is more likely to accept the sperm of a man whose semen she has been exposed to for a period of at least three months.
Another factor in whether the sperm is accepted could be whether environmental conditions are favorable for a pregnancy, Robertson says.
Robertson's research has mostly been in mice and pigs thus far, as well as some with human cells. She is currently recruiting female subjects to continue her research in humans.
Despite the fact that the actual research done to this point has not been in women's bodies, some news outlets could not let pass by the opportunity to suggest that men are right when they say "women are too picky". Every good news story needs a hook. There is none more tried and true than, "And another thing that's wrong with women is . . ."
Speaking of Numbers
There's a new Rasmussen poll out that indicating more people think Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president than Obama. She also beats out Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin.
The breakdown:
57% of responders Clinton is qualified to be president, with 34% saying she's not.
Obama earned a 51% for, and 44% against, squeaking just two points above Romney who pulled in a whopping 49% (whut?!) responders saying he's qualified. 32% said no way, and another 20% were unsure. Okay.
Gingrich tips the scales the other way pulling in more nos than yeses: 35% said he's qualified for the presidency, and 48% disagreeing.
Palin, however only pulled in 26%, with more than double, 61%, saying she was unfit to be president.
Funny, the first thing that came to mind when I read the numbers, was the memory of how Clinton spent most of the primary season being told to drop out of the race. For the good of the party. For the good of the country. Which, really, isn't funny at all.
Things Are Looking Up — Also Down and Kind of Sideways
The Pew Research Center did some phone polling for Smithsonian magazine in April and May, questioning U.S. residents about what they expect the next 40 years to bring.
71% of USians believe cancer will be cured by the year 2050. If you're not one of them, you need not necessarily despair about the chances of eliminating the over a hundred different diseases which share that name. Maybe you're one of the 41% who believe that Jesus Christ* will return by then. If that happens, the world war that 58% of USians expect within the next 40 years, the asteroid that 31% of us anticipate, and the whole cancer problem will presumably no longer matter.
Oh, and a big 89% believe a woman will be elected president of the US by 2050, which is no doubt encouraging news for those of you who anticipate living that long. But while only 11% of USians doubt any woman is wise enough to reach that position within the next 40 years, a full 31% don't think you wise Latina women should bother to aim that high, or wise Latinos, either, for that matter.
Respondents were questioned only about which things they thought were likely to occur, not which things they would like to see occur, however, so it's not clear how many of the nearly one-third who thought a Hispanic person would neither definitely nor probably be elected to the U.S. presidency in that time were expressing doubts about the ability of Hispanics to progress to that position and how many were expressing doubt about the willingness of their fellow non-Latin@ USians to vote for a Hispanic. (Hispanic is the designation used in the poll.)
More generally, 68% of those questioned think race relations will be "better" in forty years — exactly the same percentage as gave that response to the same question in 1999. Oddly enough, that's the only response which was not less optimistic in a series of questions about the future of the U.S. asked both then and now. I guess better race relations in the U.S. are always right around the corner. That corner down the road a ways.
A somewhat optimistic note was struck, for those of you not in the U.S., by responses to a new question as to whether the role of the U.S. in the world would be more or less important in 2050 than it is now. 40% thought it would be more important, but 53% thought it would be less so. So who knows? Maybe we'll come on home, start fixing the joint up, and mind our own business for a change.
If J.C. is planning a return trip in the near future, I do think the decent thing to do would be to show up before the world war, so we don't have to have it. But that's my lefty bias showing. No doubt there are many in the U.S. who would find the prospect of a world war entirely agreeable, but who are fervently praying that Jesus comes to get them before a woman is elected to the presidency.
I wonder if he'll ride in on that asteroid?
*I assume we're talking about the one in the bible, not the one formerly resident in Ohio.
via
Dream Journal No. 3
I'm at the dentist, and I'm lying down in a bed. And a spider fell from the ceiling and landed on the blanket. The hygienist (played by one of the techs from my vet's office) handed me a rolled-up newspaper and told me to squash it. So I did. Then I noticed more spider webs hanging above the bed. I got up to get a better look and saw a huge web with like hundreds of spiders. Then a snake slithered across the bed. Eep! Then another! Then another! So I walked out of the examination room, and told the staff I was leaving. But they were having a meeting and paid no attention to me. I apparently left my shoes in back by the bed. Out in the parking lot I see another snake. Except this one is huge. (Hello, Dr. Freud!) Like Anaconda-starring-Ice-Cube huge. A stranger shows up and starts fighting the snake. He punches the snake, and the snake bites him, and he says shit like "bad snake." This thing is his pet. Also, it's the middle of the night for some reason. After a while the man throws the snake into the passenger seat of his truck and drives off. The hygienist shows up, my shoes in hand. I ask her if she saw the snake fight.
[Cross-posted.]
Top Chef Open Thread
Chef Eric Ripert requests the honor of your presence in the Top Chef Open Thread.
Question of the Day
Oops!
Today at the supermarket, I grabbed the requisite bottle of cranberry juice off the shelf, and somehow (they were stacked too close, that's how!) knocked the bottle next to it off the shelf.
Splash! It was "light" cranberry juice, so it would be no big deal, except it got all over my shoe. Argh!
Anyway, I love me some cranberry juice. It's yummery. (Is that even a word? It is now!)
So, what's your favourite type of juice?
(And if you don't/can't/won't drink juice, what is your favourite beverage?)
The Manliest City in America
Looking for somewhere to go on your next mancation? Try Charlotte, NC--deemed by the venerable institution of Judging Such Things, the makers of Combos™--as America's Manliest City. What makes Charlotte so, so manly?
The ranking process changed a little this year, using manly criteria like the number of home improvement stores, steak houses, pickup trucks and motorcycles per capita.Very convenient for Charlotte since the Manliest Manly Men decided they need a festival just for them--DudeFest (emphasis mine):
Last year's rankings were based on criteria such as number of professional sports teams, popularity of power tools, and frequency of monster truck rallies.
DudeFest is committed to producing a high quality, diversified, masculine based, musical experience which attracts a broad audience, loyal supporters and talented preformers in an annual celebration of music and all things Dude; 'a nice guy...a regular sort of person', by re-enforcing the strengths of southern masculinity, grace and respect in our everyday lives. The annual proceeds realized from DudeFest will be used to promote the work and efforts of nonprofit organizations benefitting those in need within the Charlotte community.Chicken wing eating contest? No, no. I believe the standard for measuring a Manly Man is how many 'O' magazines he can rip up at one time. Anyway, back to the city title rankings:
DudeFest Charlotte 2010 presents a variety of bands, a dunking booth, a motorcycle rally, a chicken wing eating contest, Mike's Giant Guitars, beer tasting ($10 add-on). and more
The study is commissioned by COMBOS Brand in partnership with Bert Sperling, the research expert behind the popular "Best Places to Live" studies. The "America's Manliest Cities" study ranks 50 major metropolitan areas.That's right! No hard-working women make so many American cities great places to live! Women as fire fighters, police officers, EMTs, or construction workers? Who has every heard of that? Apparently my city, since we're #50! I've never been so happy to come in last.
According to the study, Charlotte now has chief bragging rights on manliness thanks to its top 10 rankings in the sports, manly lifestyle, manly retail stores, manly occupations and salty snack sales categories.
[...]
In addition to cities improving or declining in returning categories, the change in rankings can also be attributed to a new category this year – manly occupations (fire fighters, police officers, construction workers and EMT personnel).
The manly occupations category was added this year to recognize the hard-working guys that make so many American cities great places to live.
Cactus Play
I took the day off work. I had planned to spend it indoors, playing Xbox, watching Nash Bridges reruns and generally wanking about. But first, I thought I'd mow the lawn, before it got too hot. Well, one thing lead to another, and what was supposed to be my relaxing day off turned into yard work-athon. And the supposed short trip to Homo Depot for some topsoil and mulch, ended with me buying three cacti. Then after I potted those, I went back and bought six more. And, well, there were some extra pots, so I transplanted a couple lilies too.
By the end of the afternoon, I'd not spent a moment playing video games. But I had done this:
That bench was empty this morning.
Not a bad day off after all.
[Cross-posted.]
Daily Dose o' Cute
Dudley, wearing his "Go Team USA" collar.
Iain bought the collar for Dudley at the fundraiser I mentioned here, and, as he was putting it on him, he said, "Looks like these colors DO run!" Which elicited much LOLZ.
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 (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Gender Justice Summit 2010: Overview
I haven't been able to get started on writing the post-con articles yet, because my body went on strike. I'm slowly getting back to movement now, taking care of my knee and my back. This is why I don't go to, say, big sf cons and the like - my body won't take it well.
But I did want to start with a general overview. The conference was called the Gender Justice Summit 2010, sponsored by Oxfam Canada, and as you might guess, was focused on the rights of women in a global context.
To cover the topic, Oxfam invited a number of women from globally Southern countries, such as:
- Rosaline Presence, of South Africa's Women on Farms Project
- Bogaletch (Boge) Gebre, of Ethiopia's Kembatti Mentti Gezzimma-Tope (KMG)
- Rosa Escobar, of Guatemala's Asociación de mujeres en solidaridad
- Jeannette Urquilla, of El Salvador's Organización de Mujeres Salvadoreñas
- Lorena Aguilar, of Costa Rica originally, from the International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Raquel Vásquez, of Guatemala´s Alianza de Mujeres Rurales
- Dorothy Ngoma, ED of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi, and a member of the W-8.
There were also a number of resource people from closer to home, including the dynamic Jessica Yee, founder and ED of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, and some experienced activists from Oxfam's own organization, both Canadian and from abroad.
I wasn't able to attend the Friday sessions, or the opening reception, so my conference began Saturday morning.
So having stayed overnight at my girlfriend's place in Toronto, I showed up in time to catch the morning plenary session (with several of the above as speakers), and then (per the requests from Shakers) decided to attend the dialogue/workshop at which spoke Ms. Presence, Ms. Vásquez, Ms. Aguilar, and Oxfam's Nidhi Tandon - focused on the intersection of food security, women's rights, and climate change.
There was a break for a march and rally around lunchtime. I went through about a third of the march, before my body said "Enough," and I went back to get a bit of a lie down on the grass in the quad.
Several of the same women were again in afternoon sessions, going deeper into the issues raised in the morning, and the specifics of how these affect women in those places: how climate change is changing growing patterns, which is affecting food security, and discussing those issues in smaller groups (my group led by the very insightful Ms. Tandon). We also saw a 17-minute film about a land occupation by the South African Women on Farms Project, which was brilliant and infuriating, and which I hope to be able to bring you soon (technical difficulties got in the way). There was a Central American film scheduled as well, but again technical difficulties. I'm working on tracking down a copy of each of them, and if anyone's got video hosting they'd be willing to offer to these women's orgs, that'd be awesome, because they deserve to be seen.
Saturday night led into an awards ceremony for Oxfam people, and was followed by a very popular musical act (Nomadic Massive - still being much talked about the next day).
On Sunday morning, another large session allowed us to hear from the rest of the southern partners in attendance, followed by a short dialogue session. In this case, I decided to attend the session at which Ms. Yee was speaking on reproductive justice, though it was a tough choice: I really wanted to attend Ms. Ngoma's session as well, on maternal health.
After the session, we had a closing plenary, and the participants were urged to spend the rest of the afternoon over at the People's Summit, a socialist event being held at the same time not far away (and which Shaker TheDom attended!). I had to head off home.
The goal here is to write at least one post about each of the women I mentioned above (each of whom I spoke to with an eye to doing so), as well as a general post recapping some of the really great and the really horrifying things that were covered in the sessions otherwise.
I'll tell you this: it isn't going to be fun or easy reading for those of us in the privileged parts of the world. There are a lot of ways in which we are directly or indirectly contributing to the oppressions of these women, very notably including food security and climate change, and some of the statistics from the maternal health project in Guatemala are seriously grim.
But I think, too, you'll find you're inspired by the power of these women - the things they've accomplished are highly impressive. The W-8, that Ms. Ngoma is a part of, is a fabulous organization, eight women from globally less-privileged nations, each of them a power in women's rights, labour, and/or environmentalism. They are crones of the finest order, and I say that with nothing but respect.
The big feeling I got from the conference was one of hope and energy. There was a high percentage of young women (and some young men) at the conference, and their energy was inspiring and infectious.
That's my general outlook on the con; there'll be a lot more to come as I get the various posts written, but it'll take several days, as in some cases there are pictures I want to find, links to set up, that kind of thing, plus some fact-checking out of my notes. I took 37 pages of handwritten notes over the 11 hours of sessions I attended.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, distributors of Deeky Brand Ricotta Cheese.
Recommended Reading:
Fannie: A Rundown of Olson's "Equality" Prop 8 Closing Arguments and A Rundown of Cooper's "Marriage Defense" Prop 8 Closing Arguments
Andy: New York Passes Long-Awaited Anti-Bullying Bill
Echidne: Gals and Computers
Resistance: Eye on the Media
Audacia: The Reason I Left School: Children of Indian Sex Workers Speak
Dori: I stink. Fucking get over it.
Leave your links in comments...
Petraeus?
Really?
Look, if Joe Lieberman and the National Fucking Review are cheering your decision, are you sure you're still a Democrat?
Shake the Room
So, my partner and I just felt what we both thought was an earthquake. This is odd, because we live in Syracuse. I've heard from other folks in Syracuse who felt it, and some who didn't. I also have a friend in Rochester that felt it.
Thus, my question is: Did you fucking feel that?
Pretty cool. Of course, I live with a geologist, so I'm required to say that. No laughing from those of you near active fault lines* ;)
---
* ETA: The CBC says that there actually is an active fault line in these parts. I'll bet they don't live with a geologist, though.
Cold-Hearted
[Trigger warning for serious fat hatred.]
I have read some unbelievable fat hatred in my day, but this piece by Esther Cepeda in the Chicago Sun-Times just about takes the motherfucking cake. Whoa, hey, whoa! Give that cake back! Cuz I'm fat, get it?! And all fatties do is sit around eating WHOLE CAKES all day! HA HA!
Oh, and force businesses to turn up air conditioning in the summer, apparently:
Join me in rallying against a society that pretends morbid obesity is socially acceptable. Some of us would like to enjoy summer.You'd think that Ms. Smarty Logicpants would use the same awesome powers of deduction that led her to conclude "overbearing air conditioning is because of fat people" to question the solidity of that reasoning, if FAT PEOPLE ARE COLD, TOO.
What am I getting at here? I'm cold! C-O-L-D!!
Cold on a sunny morning when I have to wrap myself like a mummy in my three morning newspapers to stave off hypothermia from the overblown air conditioning that Metra needs to keep its well-padded clientele from melting in its packed cars.
Cold on a pleasantly warm day when I must wear my parka into the supermarket, which blasts the A/C to keep the store at 50 degrees so that all the over-stimulated and over-served customers can buy food without breaking a sweat.
Cold on a hot summer night when my restaurant's water glasses have icicles forming on them because all the already-health-challenged chow hounds are working up a sweat while overdoing it.
Hey, it's not just me. I've seen thick, sturdy women and men -- innocently wearing tank tops or shorts on a hot day -- walk into these same places and immediately shrug their shoulders and cradle their elbows in the universal body language for "Whoa -- why is it so darned cold in here?!"
I am constantly cold in air conditioning, and I was even when I wasn't fat. And I am no special fucking snowflake. Lots of fat people are just as cold as is Cepeda in these situations, where, I'd like to point out, air conditioning gets blasted all summer because the doors are constantly opening and closing and letting in 90°+ air.
Commuter trains also blast air (when it works) because if the trains break down or are held up, as they often are, the air doesn't run, and if it's not already Baltic in there to begin with, passengers are roasting in no time. Grocery stores blast air because their many of their employees are situated by the constantly-opening front doors, as are the customers while waiting in a check-out line, and the rest of the store has to be too cold to keep that area comfortable. Restaurants blast air because they'd rather have a few customers be too cool, especially during off-hours, than a dining room full of uncomfortably hot customers who don't feel like eating anything. When areas get full of people all at once, the room heats up way more quickly than AC can cool it down—unless it's already on full blast. Et cetera.
Restaurants, gyms, high rises, libraries, movie theaters—they're all cold, and there's always a reason.
I'm not Professor HVAC over here; this stuff is self-evident to anyone who takes the two fucking seconds it requires to sort out why it is that businesses may overdo the AC besides the truly laughable contention that it's attributable to "accommodating fatties." Especially when accommodation of fatties is hardly a top priority of Corporate America.
[H/T to Shaker KatherineSpins.]
Contact the Sun-Times here.
Australian Politics: Labor Spillapalooza, 2010
by Shaker NapalmNacey
Something huge is afoot in the state of Australia. As far as politics go, this is as big as it gets here on our little continent. Australian politics can be a little confusing for those not of the Commonwealth nor used to our arse-backwards party names. Just to start you all off, there are two major parties. Labor, which is the supposed left-wing party, and Liberal, which is not liberal at all but actually right-wing. There are a couple of major player smaller parties: Nationals, which represent farming interests and the country folk for the most part, and the Greens, which, like their name suggests, represents the environmentalists, the queers and those that really hate the three other parties. (For the sake of full disclosure, I vote for the Greens. Jostick burning, queer, tree-hugging feminist, right here!).
For the past two years, Kevin Rudd has been our Prime Minister. Kevin got in with unheard of numbers in the polls. People loved him. Really, really loved him and everyone thought he was the dog's bollocks. It looked like Labor could do no wrong. They delivered on their promise to say "Sorry" to the Indigenous Australians for all the shit white settlers rained down upon them, which is a huge improvement on Howard's policy for that, which was basically to turn to the Indigenous Australians and say "Fuck you, it's our country now."
He went to Copenhagen to kick arse for the sake of the environment! Things were awesome! Then, things were not so awesome. He came home, frustrated, and after some months, Labor gave up on the whole Emissions Trading Scheme idea. Their idea was to deal with it after the election. People were Not Happy, Jan.
Liberals realised that nobody wanted to vote for them, even the right-wing douchenozzles that voted them in the last time. Their answer – kick out Malcolm Turnbull (an actually reasonable opposition leader, in that he once upon a time said he supported gay rights) and put in Tony Abbott.
Let me describe Tony Abbott to you. As I explained to Liss in an email, Tony Abbott is like John Howard v2.0: This Time It's Ludicrous. He's even MORE religious than John Howard, he's vocally against abortion, he doesn't "believe" in climate change and he rubs elbows with The Exclusive Brethren. That's sort of like Bush having regular meetings with Fred Phelps. Maybe if Fred Phelps had The Family behind him, so there's added evil. Tony Abbott also wants to bring back WorkChoices (under a new name, of course). WorkChoices is a hugely unpopular scheme that was discarded by the new Labor Government. It gave far too much power to the employers, leaving the employees vulnerable to exploitation. He also thinks that there are a lot of lazy shits on the Disability Pension that need to go get a damned jorb.
Once you expose the rabbit hole of Abbott's policies, it's impossible for you to put your jaw back in place, he is that terrible. It's hard for me to gather the words. As a possible leader for this country, he terrifies the ever-loving fuck out of me. Probably not unlike McCain scared the pants off of those of you in the US. And the current PM now, for those of you in the UK.
Things have been going from bad to worse with Labor, with the Mining Sector up in arms over Rudd's idea to tax their shit. It's fair enough, as a country, we let all sorts of foreign investors in to do what they like with the desert bits with all the minerals (oh, and the nice coasty bits with the pristine reefs and animals, cause they had the temerity to live on top of a rich source of natural gas). And they come here by the buttload because the taxing is so low. Heaven forbid the PM think, "Hey, we need money for hospitals and schools and shit."
Mining companies tend to have heaps of money, and friends in high places. So for three months now, Labor has been dogged by the mainstream media. The only thing keeping the boat at a reasonably even keel is the fact that Tony Abbott keeps opening his mouth and saying fucked up shit.
The problem with Kevin Rudd is that, while his ideas are generally pretty sound, he's terrible at communicating them to the voters. It also doesn't help that a few of his ministers are total buttheads. I'm looking at you, Stephen Conroy. And you, Nicola Roxon.
Now, I'm not huge on the specifics of what went on today. I'm not a political reporter. I just like watching the politicians shout at each other during Question Time and see if I can spot any of them picking their noses or falling asleep. Basically, it's crunch time, and the movers and shakers in the Labor party said, "Okay, enough of this shiz, it's time to get real with Kevin."
Our deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, met with Kevin Rudd today and requested that he "spill the leadership". That's just putting the leadership of the Labor Party under the vote of the rest of the party. Tomorrow, Australia might very well have its first woman PM.
Before this sounds too awesome, this is the thing that really makes me uncomfortable and nervous about the whole mess. Julia Gillard has done this to retain the support of the more right-wing members of the party. Kevin Rudd has been vocal about not leaning any more to the right on the issues of the environment nor asylum seekers. I respect him for that stand, and I wonder what it means to get in bed with the more right-wing party members? Will this be an echo of the watering down of progressive policies that has been seen with the Obama Administration?
To put it in more familiar terms for those more familiar with US politics, this'd be like Obama putting his foot down on, say, abortion. And border security. Then taxing the oil companies. Then everyone freaking the hell out and then Hillary Clinton comes in and takes the fucking presidency by being a little more right-wing than Obama. She'd never do that, and the opposite is kind of happening to you guys, but that's how big it is here.
(One note of further context: Apparently, Rudd had questioned Gillard's loyalty, which totally pissed her off. Which I can understand, as she'd said to the country, "No, I'm not going to contest the leadership". Then he goes and gets a lackey to snoop behind her back. This is seriously thorny!)
A part of me is super friggin' excited about getting our first woman PM. I just wish it wasn't like this. It's well known that Julia Gillard is very left-leaning as a politician. Will she have that shiny, new, hopey-changey appeal to knock Liberal out at the next election? I don't know.
All I know is that Australian politics has been really stressing me the hell out lately and I need a hobby that's kinder to my adrenal glands. Like knitting.
(Related: This has a lot of very clever things to say about the current situation. Not entirely unlike what I said, just with a whole less swearing.)
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NB: It should be noted that I am not a political blogger outside of the personally political. So my knowledge of the intricacies of Australian politics is patchy at best. I'm aware some Aussies here might be able to correct me on stuff and by all means, I welcome them to.
Film Corner!
If there's one thing the world needs, it's this: Judd Apatow to produce female version of 'Hangover'.
Apatow is set to produce "Business Trip," a comedy by Stacey Harman about "a group of women who go on a corporate trip but wind up doing anything but business while on company time," reports Variety. And considering the movie will be produced by Universal Pictures and Benderspink, the latter of which was behind "The Hangover," some say that "Business Trip" will be the female-oriented version of the Warner Bros. hit.Well, if "some say" it, then it must be true!
In any case, it sounds GREAT and I can't WAIT to see it.
By the way, I love the opening paragraph of this story:
Those who thought Judd Apatow's protagonists were all drunk white frat boys, think again - Apatovian romps may have just become equal-opportunity.Yeah, he's apparently branching out from drunk straight white cis dudez to drunk straight white cis ladeez. That's really flexing the old creative muscle, right there. What a genius. GIVE THIS MAN MORE MONEY! LET US BUILD A GIANT TREBUCHET TO LAUNCH ENORMOUS MONEY-BALLS AT HIM! MORE MONEY FOR JUDD APATOW, PLEASE!!!
[H/T to Shaker Scott Madin.]
