Men's accident rates climb with women's hemlines: U.K. study finds skimpy outfits distract male drivers—"The London Telegraph said the study by car insurance company Sheilas' Wheels claims men get into more accidents in the summer because they are distracted by women's skimpy outfits."
Provided the claim is true (about which I have grave doubts) that (straight/bi?) men get into more accidents in the summer because they're too busy ogling women wearing skimpy outfits perfectly acceptable clothing for hot weather, the appropriate framing here would not be "Study finds skimpy outfits distract male drivers" but "Study finds straight male drivers' objectification of women has dangerous consequences."
Suffice it to say that it is no coincidence the passive framing ("skimpy outfits distract male drivers"), which tacitly blames the (wearers of) the outfits, is reminiscent of the passive structure we use to speak of sexual assault ("she got raped"). It's the same old shit used to disappear male accountability and implicitly blame women for, fuck, everything.
[H/T to Shaker Jean.]
Fixed That For You
Target: Backlash
Last Thursday, I wrote about Target's $150k contribution to MN Forward, a Republican front group run by former staff of outgoing Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty which actively supports anti-gay State Representative Tom Emmer as the GOP nominee to succeed Pawlenty. Target's CEO Gregg Steinhafel has been spinning like a record baby, right round round round, trying to justify the donation, but LGBQs and their allies aren't having it—and the backlash has begun, including a Facebook group called "Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics."
And Randi Reitan, a mother and grandmother from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, staged her own protest over the weekend by doing her regular shopping trip to Target, and then returning all the items, telling the manager why she bought each item, who it was for, and why they wouldn't want her giving her money to a store that supports institutionalized homophobia.
[Transcript below.]
For his part, Emmer, who supports the continued denial of LGBQs their equal rights, whines: "The sad part to me is, I thought we were supposed to be able to exercise our rights of free speech. We're supposed to celebrate the fact that we have different perspectives. And it doesn't seem like that's what this is about. This seems to be more personal and we've got to get over that."
No matter how many times I run headlong into it, I cannot wrap my head around the staggering fuckloads of unexamined privilege that allow someone to argue that denying people equality based on their intrinsic characteristics shouldn't be "personal."
[Via.]
[Footage of the exterior of a Target store, labeled "Target Store: July 27, 2010." Footage of a middle-aged white woman, Randi Reitan of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, holding a cut-up Target card in her hands, labeled "$226 Target sale ends like this." As the camera zooms in on the shredded card, she says, "Now I'll go home and call them and make sure that that card was cancelled. The camera cuts to Reitan's face as she stands outside the store. Across the bottom of the screen, the following text scrolls: "One woman's protest of a $150,000 contribution given by Target to a group supporting Tom Emmer's gubernatorial campaign."]
Reitan: Hi, I'm Randi Reitan, and I'm here today to go shopping at Target for the last time. I'm a mother, and I'm a grandmother, and I use Target a lot; I've enjoyed shopping at Target. But last week when I heard that Target decided to give a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Tom Emmer for his political race for governor, I just [shakes head] was shocked. The Target I knew was a Target that embraced its gay employees. It was, um, the Target that showed up at Pride.
[Footage of Reitan walking into the store; pushing a red Target cart around; checking out with a cartful of items including laundry detergent and children's clothes; running her Target card through at check-out, labeled "The sale. $226 charged to Target card."; walking out of the store and swinging her cart around and walking back in, labeled "Merchandise returned in protest."; speaking to a Target employee, a young white woman, at the returns counter.]
Reitan: Um, you sponsored Pride in June— [edit] Every year, HRC has a wonderful dinner—
[Another Target employee, a middle-aged white woman, interrupts and says, "To take pictures at Target, you have to have, um, an approval." Reitan continues to speak to the other employee at the returns counter, waiting for the manager. Edit. Footage of Reitan returning items, followed by footage of her walking out of the store. Cut to Reitan standing outside the store.]
Reitan: It took a long time for the manager to actually come, uh, to visit with me, but I didn't want to return the items until she was there so she could see what I had purchased. I shared with her why I had bought each item, and who they were for, and why that person wouldn't want me to have bought them at a Target store. Um. A number of the items were for my grandchildren, and they love their Uncle Jake so much, and Jake is gay. And they wouldn't want to have things coming from a store [gets choked up; takes deep breath] that contrib— contributes to a campaign [pauses] that would have a governor candidate with the anti-gay views that Tom Emmer has.
[Cut to Reitan explaining the cut-up Target card in her hands.]
Reitan: —a pair of sewing scissors out of my purse, and I cut it up. [edit] Today I went in and I spent two hundred and twenty-six dollars and thirty-two cents. They've lost that two hundred, twenty-six dollars and thirty-two cents, and they've lost every purchase from my family. [edit] What's important in life is people. I love the people in my life. I love them more than any thing that I can buy at this store. I'm going to boycott Target until they make this right.
Facts Schmacts
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Eally?!), who appeared yesterday on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, doesn't need your stinking facts:
WALLACE: Congressman — a number of top economists say what we need is more economic stimulus.Boehner, along with many of his Republican colleagues, who also don't go in much for facts, believe that the key to job growth is extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
BOEHNER: Well, I don't need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people, because they've been asking the question now for 18 months, "Where are the jobs?"
He is incorrect.
A Fishing Stream Runs Through It
I'm on vacation in Ohio visiting my parents. Note: This post contains descriptions and images of fishing. We catch only what we will eat.
Dad and I went down to his little fishing club near Fremont yesterday. It's an old club with a well-established creek system that snakes through the property, so basically all you have to do is step out onto the shady banks and cast your line in.
Fly fishing is a delicate skill that requires a lot of experience to get it right. I have tried on several occasions to master it, but I lack both the fine motor skills and the depth perception to get it right. The most I've ever caught with a fly rod is a tree, my leg, and my dad's hat. So this time I went along as the creel-bearer and the photographer.
My father's fishing rod is a work of art; a split bamboo pole with delicate features but the flexibility and strength far beyond its appearance. My father also has many years of fishing, first as a boy with his father, then in places like Colorado, Idaho, and Michigan where it is more than just a sport but a ritual of art and strategy. Casting the line just so the fly lands exactly where you want it requires the touch and skill of a conductor coaxing the music from an orchestra, and even tying the fly on the leader requires a jeweler's touch, not to mention the magnifying glass.
My father is color-blind and I have no depth perception; plus, I am nearsighted even with reading glasses. The leader we were using was the thickness of spider-web. Much hilarity ensued, but we did eventually get the fly tied on and went out to the stream.
On the second or third cast, a good-sized trout struck the line, and me being the assistant, promptly stepped in with the net and we landed it. Within moments it was in the creel, the fly cleaned, and back to the water went the mighty fisherman.
An hour or so went by without any further interest evinced by the fish in our lure. Even appeals to the Fishing Gods didn't work.
My theory is that word spread quickly among the piscean population: "Hey, Fred got snagged by the little yellow bug! Stay away!" So we changed the lure to a black ant and a thicker leader. This one was a rope compared to the first one, and we were able to get it tied on with only one of us embedding the hook in our thumb. True to form, on the second cast, we had another good-sized trout, and the creel was now carrying two home from the quest.
And that was it. More casting, more disinterested fish, so after three hours on the banks of the stream, we had a very pleasant lunch and conversation with some fellow fisherman and came home. And tonight we will dine on the catch.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm not much of a fisherman, but I don't go for the fishing. I go to be with my dad and doing something that he loves.
Cross-posted.
Open Thread
Hosted byThelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and SKM.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by more favorite album covers
of the Shakesville contributors.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Summer in Indiana
[Northwest Indiana, July 2010.]
There's an amusement park in Monticello, Indiana whose slogan, and jingle in the adverts they've run every summer since '85 or so, is: "There's more than corn in Indiana!" This is a True Fact. There are also soybeans.
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.]
Priorities
Ezra:
In order to get less Medicaid and teacher funding than we actually need, we're cutting food stamps by $6.7 billion (and closing some foreign tax loopholes, rescinding some spending decisions and changing Medicaid's drug pricing).Current Department of Defense budget, including spending on "overseas contingency operations" for Fiscal Year 2010: $663.8 billion.
…Democrats needed to offset spending on two worthy, important programs. So they're cutting another important, worthy program [the cost of which, during the recession, has ballooned from an expected $20 billion to about $65 billion because the number of people who needed help skyrocketed to more than 40 million]. But you really can't think of a worse program to cut than SNAP. SNAP is an extraordinarily well-targeted stimulus. It goes to poor households, for something they need to buy. According to Mark Zandi's numbers, it's literally the most stimulative way to spend a dollar: Better than state and local aid, or unemployment insurance. You get more than $1.70 of economic activity for each buck you put in.
There's a part of me that wants to use this to knock down the canard that government is full of obvious waste and inefficiency. Democrats don't like to cut food stamps, and they'd avoid it if they thought they could. Budget rhetoric is full of easy choices, but budgets are about hard choices, and this is a hard, and ugly, choice.
But this is also a question of priorities, of what gets cut. Bernie Sanders put up an amendment last month to cut about $35 billion in oil and gas subsidies. It failed. Republicans are arguing to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich with no offsets, and they may well succeed. But food assistance for poor families? You can get the votes to slash those.
If defense-related expenditures budgeted by departments other than Defense are included, the US will spend, in total, between $800 billion and $1 trillion in FY2010 on defense.
And we're slashing the budget for food stamps.
Daily Dose o' Cute
Video Description: Dudley being silly and playful, doing the greyhound spin. He does this almost every day when Iain gets home, before they go on their evening walk, and occasionally before we head out to the dog park. He won't do it at the dog park—only in a small space, which apparently makes it much more fun!
Also more fun: When I march in a circle and hum. When I act like he's not even there (i.e. not looking at him, sans camera), he goes absolutely wild play-bowing and trying to get my attention. Loop-Chase with Iain is also a huge hit.
Olivia watches this all with great interest (from her perch in the background). Matilda usually strolls away disgusted by such a display of undignified buffoonery, and Sophie is still trying to figure out how to get involved in all the fun spinning!
Still pix of doggie-boy and the girls are below the fold.
"Welcome to my cat condo. May I offer you a mimosa?"
"What the fuck is he doing?"
"I have no idea."
Sophs and KBlogz confab about an important business venture.
"Hi!"
Emergency Care While Trans
[Strong trigger warning for transphobia]
A few days ago, Bilerico posted a [TW for discussions of transphobia in the post and problematic comments]disturbing interview with Erin Vaught, an Indiana woman who had the turpitude to go to the emergency room, on account of how she had "coughed up almost a cup of blood."
The woman in question is a trans woman, so her story takes a depressingly predictable turn:
On Sunday I coughed almost a cup of blood and decided to go to the E.R. The doc told me if I had to go to the E.R. to go to Muncie rather than New Castle, as they would be more tolerant being a bigger city and a university hospital.
Been there, done that. It our case, it's because the nearest hospital has repeatedly demonstrated its suckitude when it comes to treating lesbians (at least my partner and I) with health conditions. Thankfully, there are other options reasonably nearby. Such is the privilege of owning a car and living in a city of 150,000.
Sadly, going to Muncie didn't appear to help things for Ms. Vaught and her family. Believable but extraordinarily disturbing transphobia after the fold.
More from Ms. Vaught:
One nurse finally asked, "So is it a he or a she? Or a he-she?"
So my wife said to the nurse, "She is my wife, not an it."
To which the nurse replied with a chuckle, "Well, what do you want me to say? I can't tell. Until I know then he is an it. Now I know, and I know he is a he."
[The nurse later]...asked a series of bizarre questions. "Do you ever feel so angry you might lose control?" "Are you able to buy groceries every week?" "Do you ever feel overwhelmed?" "Have you ever thought about suicide?" We were confused and still are.
She said, "Well, we don't know how to go about treating someone with your condition."
I responded, "I don't even know my condition. That's why I'm here!"
She replied, "No. Your other condition. The transvestite thing."
Rage. Seethe. Smash.
If only this was a unique story. Robert Eads and Tyra Hunter are two trans people whose stories are widely told in trans circles, but only because they died as a result of transphobia. I pretty much expect medical providers [strong TW for transphobia and violence]to hesitate before giving me emergency treatment, should they discover I'm trans. It's something I'll try to block out of my mind tonight when I go to enjoy a dangerous hobby of mine in small town Upstate New York. Of course, it's something I always try to block out of my mind.
I really can't say anything else that hasn't been said a bazillion times before; it's just too tiring to keep addressing the issue of why people shouldn't kill my trans family. We don't have a choice on when and where we need medical care, and as long as incidents like this one are common, none of us is safe.
Via. Article from today's Muncie Star Press.
Today in Don't Give A Shit
Know what I don't care about? Chelsea Clinton's upcoming wedding (apparently tomorrow). Know what else I don't care about? How much it costs total and/or what every item they have for it costs.
I am, however, fairly sure that if the Clintons (and, really, it's only about the Clintons in this case isn't it?) did not choose to do/say/pay for whatever they are, they'd be raked over the coals for not doing it, too.
Friday Blogaround
(Strong trigger warning for violence on the first two links. Both posts show the same photo of a victim of vicious brutality, and the second briefly describes the violent acts against the woman pictured.)
Matthew Yglesias takes issue with the dubious premise of Time's cover story in Nobody is Helping Aisha.
Scatx of Speaker's Corner has further thoughts about both Time's handling of the cover, and the idea that the U.S. is conducting its war policy in Afghanistan with women's rights in mind: The Cover of TIME: What's Shocking?
While you're over at scatx's place, you might as well check this out: In Texas, Be a Man, because, um, no, thank you.
Ansel Herz at mediahacker has some advice for journalists who drop by Haiti for their earthquake aftermath story: How to Write about Haiti
Phil Cohen of Family Inequality points out two errors: treating the results of a statistical study as specifically applicable to all individuals, and depriving teens of the opportunity to hang out due to generalized fears that They Are Just Trouble Waiting to Happen: Police Your Teens, Or Else?
Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report reminds us — and specifically today's black political leaders — that the economic marginalization of communities of color which links violence at home and violence abroad must still be addressed: You Can't Stop the Violence in Ghetto Streets Without Stopping the Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Elsewhere.
Andy has the sweet and happy pix at towleroad. Congrats to José y Miguel, and to Ernesto y Alejandro! Photos: First Gay Couples Wed In Argentina Under New Law
Please share your links, to your own posts or others', in comments.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
From the Psychology Today blog "The View from Venus" (ugh), the tagline for which is "Beyond spanx and stilettos" (ugh), comes the delightful piece "Trading Roses for Weeds" (ugh), which is subtitled, I shit you not, "Figuring out what women really want may require ignoring what they actually say." UGH.
There is a metric fuckton of ugh-inducing ughery in this piece, but my favorite, ahem, sheerly by virtue of its serendipitous nature, is its author's curious (but not unusual) inability to discern the difference between romance and stalking.
[H/T to Shaker Somebodyoranother.]
Gorillaz North American Tour Dates
Tour dates for Gorillaz first ever world tour were announced today. Here are the North American dates:
October 3rd, Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
October 5th, Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, CT
October 6th, Agganis Arena, Boston, MA
October 8th, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
October 10th, Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
October 11th, Patriot Center, Washington, DC
October 13th, Fox Theatre, Detroit, MI
October 14th, Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
October 16th, UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL
October 17th, Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
October 19th, Toyota Center, Houston, TX
October 20th, Verizon Theatre, Dallas, TX
October 22nd, Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX
October 24th, Wells Fargo Theatre, Denver, CO
October 26th, Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
October 27th, Gibson Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA
October 30th, Oracle Arena Oakland, CA
November 2nd, Key Arena, Seattle, WA
November 3rd, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
Worldwide tour dates and ticketing info here. See ya there, Shakers!
[Cross-posted.]
Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning for descriptions of sexual assault.]
Submitted without comment:
A 17-year-old girl reported to Berwyn police in 2003 that her doctor, Ricardo Arze, had pulled off her clothes and sexually assaulted her in his exam room, state records show.This story is so blatantly horrible I can think of nothing insightful to say that would not already be manifestly evident to anyone with a functional conscience.
Two years later, another patient reported to Berwyn police that Arze had placed his hands on her breasts, breathed heavily on her neck and tried to touch her genitals, claiming it would help treat depression, according to a police report.
Not until 2007 -- after at least four women had filed complaints -- did police launch the investigation that led to Arze being charged with sexually assaulting patients and having his license suspended, records show.
By that time, the family physician had allegedly assaulted at least 21 women and girls at his Arze Doctors Center in Berwyn, according to criminal and civil complaints that outline attacks stretching at least to 2000.
...That police had received allegations against Arze as early as 2003 came as a shock to one of the women who reported being abused by him in 2007.
"I am disgusted," she said of law enforcement. "They should investigate why they didn't do anything. They were accomplices."
The women said they continue to suffer trauma from the incidents. They cannot see male doctors. One has recurring dreams about her alleged attack.
Arze, who is scheduled to be in court Aug. 16, won't lose his medical license for good even if convicted of all the sexual assault and battery of patient charges.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has interpreted the state Medical Practice Act to mean that it cannot permanently revoke a physician's license unless a doctor has been twice convicted of felonies involving controlled substances or public aid offenses.
A Tribune review uncovered 16 convicted sex offenders who have held Illinois medical licenses within the past 15 years. Not one had his license permanently revoked. One doctor convicted of sexually abusing a patient was never disciplined by the state in any way.
[H/T to Shaker Loquamani.]
"Scraping and Clawing"
On the one hand, Republicans can't stop criticizing President Obama and the Democrats on the basis that they are not doing enough to quickly create more jobs, routinely calling the stimulus a failure in terms of job-creation.
On the other hand, Republicans don't mind ignoring their own rap to reflexively accuse US workers of being lazy shits in order to criticize the Dems for wanting to extend unemployment benefits.
Greg Sargent is keeping a running tally of what he calls the "Let Them Eat Want Ads" Caucus, and Think Progress notes that the latest promulgator of the "Lazy Shits" meme is Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Eprehensible), who is currently angling for the GOP nomination in Tennessee's gubernatorial race:
Wamp, speaking off the floor of the U.S. House in Washington where he had gone for key congressional votes today, said small business, the [National Federation of Independent Business] and he as governor "must resist… any more mandates to small business to help the unemployed -- that we have continued to extend on a federal level, I think, unemployment compensation so long that there's disincentives for people to actually re-enter the workforce or go out and look for a job.I won't even waste my time addressing at length the mendacious fuckery that is asserting unemployment payments to be a disincentive against finding permanent work. It's patent nonsense—and anyone who's ever been on unemployment, or knows anyone who has, understands that it's nonsense. Forget the fact that unemployment payments are a steep reduction in income, especially if they're being gobbled up by COBRA payments to retain healthcare coverage; they are also, even when extended, a finite source of income. I don't believe I've ever known a single person receiving unemployment compensation who sat back on hir laurels instead of proactively job-hunting.
"And this is creating a culture of dependence which we do not need. We want people out there scraping and clawing and looking for work and not just sitting back waiting. And so we've got to not allow any more mandates."
But suppose for a moment that these (straw) people actually exist in vast numbers: Are there legions of employers with oodles of unfilled positions, desperate for a workforce that just refuses to apply for work because of their phat unemployment checks? No.
You know who is being picky at the moment? Employers. Because they can be, because there are millions of people out of work, and that's an opportunity for them to find the best worker for the lowest rate.
It's also an opportunity for them to routinely turn applicants away on the basis of having too much experience, or on the suspicion that someone overqualified will jump ship as soon as the economy picks up again (as if that's likely to happen overnight).
And, best yet, it's an opportunity for them to require existing employees to absorb the work of vacated positions, instead of refilling the positions. With the constant threat of losing their jobs in a shitty economy hanging over the heads of workers, they'll work harder, longer, do more for less, just to retain their jobs. And lots of unscrupulous employers are exploiting this to the fullest, running their businesses on skeleton crews of people who don't dare complain lest they lose the terrible jobs they desperately hate and face the even worse fate of unemployment.
Employment is down, wages are down, but efficiency and profits are up.
But funny how Republicans aren't publicly lambasting employers for using a bad economy and endemic unemployment to maximize profits, for being deliberately stingy with job creation because it's actually in their financial interest to overload existing employees in a market that favors employers.
Did I say funny? I meant typical.
The temerity of a Republican saying that US workers need to "scrape and claw" for work, as if they don't do that even when they're working is beyond contempt. All US workers do is scrape and claw, while the corporations for which they work get richer and richer.
Wamp should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for suggesting that it is US workers who need to work yet harder. Of course, being ashamed of oneself requires a sense of decency, and I've seen precious little evidence of such a thing among Republicans for quite some time.
