What is your least favorite euphemism/slur for "woman"?
There are a lot I don't like (and some I do: I have a ridiculous love for "broad," especially when another womanist/feminist woman refers to me affectionately as a broad), but the one that makes my teeth absolutely grind is the dog/fox dichotomy, i.e. an ugly/unsexy woman is a "dog" and a beautiful/sexy woman is a fox. Ugh.
Question of the Day
Rachel Zoe
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
'Sugarbabe' favors negotiated infidelity.
I don't guess I will surprise anyone here by saying I wholly and enthusiastically support every person's right to define the unique boundaries of their relationship(s), and I do not subscribe to the notion that there is one "right way" to do romantic and/or sexual relationships. I don't even believe romantic partnerships need to be sexual to "count," nor do I believe that romantic partnerships that are sexual need to be monogamous.
But are you shitting me with this shit?
Hill says, that of course it's every woman's right to refuse to have sex when she's not in the mood or has a headache. However, expecting men to cope on their own with no outlet whatsoever is shortsighted and cruel, says Hill.Huh. Now, see, I would argue that having a relationship "according to your man's biology" (sure) is an "outdated social norm." But I'm just kooky that way.
..."If you're talking about sexual needs honestly with your partner, you get better at communicating with each other, you get better with honesty," says Hill. "Everything is out in the open and you have an honest relationship according to your man's biology, not according to some outdated social norms."
Impossibly Beautiful
[Trigger warning for discussions of body size, body hatred, and image manipulation.]
[Click images to embiggen.]
On the left: Singer Katy Perry holding a media conference on Aug. 2 in the rooftop pool of the Marina Bay Sands SkyPark in Singapore, where she's performing at the open-air music festival Singfest 2010. [Reuters] On the right: Katy Perry on the cover of Rolling Stone. [Image via.]
The airbrushing out of her "belly" is not merely terribly done; it's also just the most ridiculous body-hostile bullshit. I can't count the number of female friends I have seen grabbing at their waists while sitting down and lamenting, frequently with unbearably sad expressions of self-loathing, that they were "fat" because their slender stomachs pooched almost imperceptibly when they sat down, like human bodies are designed to do.
These pictures are lies. They are not images of women whose bodies are "better." They are images of women whose bodies have been Photoshopped.
The real Katy Perry is beautiful. The Rolling Stone covergirl Katy Perry is Impossibly Beautiful.
------------------------
Please note: There are quite obviously legitimate criticisms to be made about Perry's work, but that is not the subject of this post and such comments will be considered off-topic.
By way of reminder: Comments that try to suss out what changes, exactly, were made, and even comments noting that, for example, the removal of laugh lines because they are ZOMG wrinkles actually robs a face of its character or humanity, are welcome. Discussions of how "she looks handsomer/hotter/better in the candid picture" and associated commentary (which would certainly make me feel like shit if I were the person being discussed) are not. So please comment in keeping with the series' intent, implicit in which is the question: If no one can ever be beautiful enough, then to what end is the pursuit of an elusive perfection?
[Impossibly Beautiful: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40., 41, 42, 43.]
Mavericky!
John McCain is a courageous maverick with an unwavering commitment to concrete principles. And he'll tell you how he feels about repealing the 14th amendment as soon as he knows which way the wind is blowing:
In the final moments of a morning press conference about the stimulus, cohosted by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), McCain asked for one final question from reporters...which happened to be about the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship. McCain abruptly ended the press conference.That heady mix of bravery, patriotism, steadfast principles, and Old Spice you smell...? It's John McCain. Get a whiff of that, bitchez.
"We're talking about the stimulus right now," McCain said, before darting off to the elevators down the hall from the Senate studio, where he again declined to take a question. Reporters eventually caught up with McCain in the basement of the Capitol, where he was walking toward to the man-operated train connecting the Senate with the Russell office building.
TPMDC asked, "Do you support the Minority Leader's push for hearings into the repeal of birthright citizenship?"
"Sure, why not?" McCain said briefly.
"Do you support the idea itself?"
"I support the idea of having hearings," McCain said.
"Do you have a problem with the 14th amendment?" another reporter asked.
"You're changing the constitution of the United States," McCain said. "I support the concept of holding hearings."
"I support the concept of holding hearings," McCain repeated, turning to the rail car conductor.
"Let's go!" he snapped.
"I don't have anything to add to that."
Propaganda 101
Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) on freedom of the press:
We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported.Excuse me, Ms. Angle, we have Granma holding on Line 1.
Melissa McEwan at Portly's "Madwoman at Play"
Hey Shakers! Just a heads up -- tonight on my Madwoman at Play Ustream program (5 pm Pacific), I'll be talking with Melissa about our respective wacky newspaper features (mine, the Port Townsend Leader Police Blotter, and hers, the Gary Post-Tribune "Quicklys") -- plus fun-facts about Melissa and pigeons with poop-nests.
You can watch the show live tonight at 5 pm, or see the recorded version until Friday at www.madwomanatplay.com (I'll be posting a transcript of the show here sometime tomorrow afternoon).
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.]
Quote of the Day
Glenn Beck, very smart historian:
Divine Providence leads one to be humble. Manifest Destiny leads one to be arrogant. It leads one to say, "Get the hell out of my way; I'm on a mission from God!" And that's what this country is going through. That's what this country—from Andrew Jackson, it led to us wiping out the Indians; it led to, um, the Democratically-led, Democratically-led, Reconstruction; it led to the Democratically-led, um, uh, separation of the races—Woodrow Wilson, I will not drink out of a drinking fountain with a black man, um, that's a—that's quite an amazing story.[Commenting Guidelines: The usual. Disablist comments musing about Beck's psychological state or outright calling him crazy, nuts, deranged, delusional, unstable, a lunatic, in need of commitment, etc. are both unwelcome and not on-topic. I have a mental disorder, for example. It doesn't make me a lying rightwing dipshit.]
It's been the story from the beginning with progressives. That arrogance was already in America, and then they added the European arrogance, and then they added a little bit of socialism, and then they added a little bit of Fabian Society, and they came up with this great progressive idea which led to eugenics, which led to, uh, Davenport, working—an American! Trying to tell people here that "This is where we're going. We gotta just weed out the stupid people." It led to Walter Lippmann (?), a guy who is absolutely studied by every journalist and praised by every journalist in America—and as a great man! Saying that the American people are stupid! Now if we could just weed some of the stupidity out; if we could just breed a better voter.
Davenport took it so far that even during World War II, while we were fighting the Nazis, he kept lines open to the Nazis to help them with their eugenics! Translation: The Holocaust. American progressives did it. Arrogance.
You Have Died of Dysentery.
Transcript below...
[Opening montage of 'frontier' people working]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Their dreams were dying in Independence, Missouri.
Man in Blue Flannel Shirt (talking to another man in black hat): Folks 'round here are takin' the trail to Oregon. (close up to Blue Flannel Man) I reckon' we ought to do the same.
(cut to close up of man in blue shirt, black suspenders & blond woman)
Man in blue shirt and suspenders: (exclaims) Oregon Trail?!
Man in black hat: (sarcastic and unenthused) We could die of boredom.
Woman in white bonnet: We could LEARN a thing or two.
Blond Woman: You won't learn anything.
[Scene Change]
[People packing up wagons]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: They packed up and left the only home they've ever known.
Man (used to have black hat): Paw (referring to man in blue flannel) thinks he knows everything. I can't WAIT to start my new life in Oregon.
Woman: (snotty and derisive) What new life? You're going to be a carpenter. Just. Like. Him.
Man: (yelling) NOBODY WANTS TO BE THE CARPENTER!
[Scene Change] Opening credit.
Blue Flannel Man:(to shopkeeper) I'll take four oxen and all the bullets sixteen hundred dollars will get me.
Shopkeeper: Want any food or spare parts? Each person will consume--
Blue Flannel Man: (cuts him off) No, Shopkeep. Just the bullets. Just. the. bullets.
[Goodbye Montage]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Now they'll learn quickly that the trail is no game.
[Running in the dessert]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: (ominous) It's survival.
Man by Fire: (evil laugh) This trail is filled with thieves. (shot of man in prison) Injuns. (people on horses in stereotypical outfits) And horror I dare not say. (stampeding buffalo) You will die on this trail...just like Ol' Poop Face. (Poop Face's grave marker) (evil laughter)
[Scene Change]
(Man shoots buffalo)
Man: (excited) Paw! I shot me another one! That's over fourteen hundred pounds of meat!
Paw: (shaking something disgusting) But son. We can only carry back ten pounds.
[Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Ride the adventure!]
Woman: (running over to man shitting in the bushes) Get outta that brush! You're going to get a snakebite!
[Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Ride the DRAMA!]
Blue Flannel Man: Get down here and help me concoct this [garbled]--
Man White Shirt: Dad I told you, I don't want to be a carpenter! I wanna be a BANKER!
Blue Flannel Man: (shrieking) A BANKERS NOT GONNA HELP ME FORD THIS RIVER!
(fighting)
[Scene Change...rafting]
[Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Ride the trail!]
Woman in red shirt: (exasperated) How did your brother get dysentery?!
Man sitting on a fence: Ow! (farts) Ow! Ow!
[Montage]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: In the first film based on the educational video game...
[More montage]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover of Blue Flannel Shirt Man: We knew that this would be difficult. Not many people would get there. (Mac & Cheese's grave marker pan)
(up close) Blue Flannel Man: But we will make it!
[More inspirational montage]
[Title and credit]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: The Oregon Trail.
[Man walking off with hat held high]
Dramatic Movie Trailer Voiceover: Coming Soon.
[End credits]
Rep. Eric Cantor is a mendacious, obfuscating jerk.
Not news. Still, it's amazing to watch the linguistic contortions here as he tries to evade acknowledging that extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy continues to worsen the deficit. Quite genuinely, at this point Republicans are having to defend their policies by denying basic math.
Savannah Guthrie: Well, well, look, I mean, Democrats may not want to do spending cuts, and Republicans don't want to touch taxes; would you acknowledge, though, it may be a policy judgment you have made—but will you just simply acknowledge that passing these tax cuts worsens the budget deficit problem? I mean, you can't deny that, right?
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA): Savannah, Savannah, let's look at it through the prism of the working families who are seeking jobs and the small businesspeople who are creating them. It's not—it's not a tax cut they're looking for, they don't want a tax hike.
Guthrie: But that wasn't my question.
Cantor: And that's the situation—the prism, the prism through which these people are looking at it. I mean, come on now, you can't hike their taxes and expect them to create jobs.
Guthrie: Right. Yeah, we get that. I just—I just was wondering if you had a—if you had any dispute with the notion that it does exacerbate the deficit picture.
Cantor: What I—what I said in the beginning is, um, if you have less revenues coming into the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you're gonna dig the hole deeper. But you also have to understand, if the priority is to get people back to work, is to start growing this economy again, uh, then you don't want to make it more expensive for job creators. You don't wanna hike their taxes so that they won't hire people. I mean, that's the fundamental, uh, decision here. Do you wanna make it more expensive for small businesspeople right now, and no, I don't think you do.
Update to Emergency Care While Trans
A brief update to eastsidekate's post from last Friday about an Indiana teaching hospital refusing care to a trans person with clearly emergent symptoms: Change.org has started a letter-writing campaign to sort the hospital out sharpish. I encourage any Shakers who are in a position to do so to let the hospital know we're watching.
The second shift ain't harmful, ladies
Ah, economics Economix :laser graphics!: we meet again.
It turns out there was this big study about how working moms don't break their babies. That's good news, I guess.
I see a couple of issues, though:
The article is written as if the status quo is unchangeable. There are places in this world where mothers get a full year of maternity leave. When our daughter was born, we had to take out a loan just to cover the cost of my partner's 6 weeks of partial pay maternity leave, plus a few more weeks of unpaid leave. It doesn't have to be this way.
The article (I don't know about the research paper) does speculate that black mothers may be more likely than white mothers to have extended kin networks to help look after newborns (they don't present any data to back this up). So, it looks like researchers have caught on to the idea that there may be alternatives to the mother providing all the care. But they don't really run with it.
Perhaps there's a second (or third) mother? Maybe the mother is single? Perhaps there isn't a mother? Anyhoo, let's run with the current conservative paradigm for USian nuclear families. The mother might have a job, the mother should care for the kid, presumably clean the house, cook the meals.... Mother, mother, mother...
A commenter named Kate (turns out there's more than one of us) hits on the obvious point that couple consist of two people. It's 2010 and the men are still watching ballsports on the couch? Really?!?!
Ageism, Classism, and Minimum Wage
by Shaker PlusSizedWomanist
Hello, Shakers. PlusSizedWomanist here to share a little bit of how classism and ageism affect me and other young people like me. A little background: I'm a 21-year-old, plus-sized woman of color who works for minimum wage as a cashier at my local grocery store. I'm a full-time college student studying nursing, and I most definitely plan on incorporating HAES into every single care plan I make. Intros aside, let's begin…
I was casually reading the Chicago Sun Times when I came across this lovely number here: Richard Roeper wrote an article about the Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady's notion that the state minimum wage should be lowered to $7.25 an hour, and asked for readers to submit their thoughts.
Let's just brace ourselves for the amount of clusterfuckery that's about to be read, shall we? *pause* Ready? Ok. Here we go.
First, we have the LOVELY comment from R.J.:R.J.: I thought minimum wage was a starting place, a foot in the door, 'Let me show you what I can do.'
Hear that, people surviving off minimum wage long-term? Apparently, you don't have the desire to move up from the level that you are now, despite working your ass off for 8+ hours a day, 5+ days a week. Not. A. Single. Ounce. Of. Desire to move up.
I thought minimum wage was a way to hire new people who desire to move up from that level. Minimum wage is not structured to sustain a family, rent, car note, food and a cell phone.
Next up is Richard Crane:Richard Crane: The reason to cut the minimum wage is so that people who don't have jobs can have jobs. Some income is better than none.
So if you're barely making it as it is with your meager income, you should be frickin GRATEFUL that you get anything at all, you whiny so-and-sos!!!
Then, we have a Mr. John Hochbaum:John Hochbaum: The minimum wage is damaging to business and jobs. You cannot dictate pay. We're better served allowing the market to set pay.
Yep. So let's have a closer look at this, shall we?
People on the low end of the pay scale are usually teenagers; the $8.50 rate will box out many teenagers from securing jobs. If a company was allowed to pay someone $6 an hour, many more people will work. Low income jobs are not meant for the breadwinner of a family. In today's market if you can't earn $10-$11 an hour you have to be a complete failure. Rewarding failure doesn't inspire people to make themselves better.
1. If you are the breadwinner, you cannot be working a minimum wage job, because that's just not what breadwinners do! They WIN BREAD for goodness sakes!
2. If you cannot get a job that pays over $10, then you are being rewarded for failure by having a living standard set for you. Because only people who WORK deserve to have a living standard. So those people who work 2 jobs just to make ends meet just aren't pulling those bootstraps up fast enough!
Don't you guys just LOVE classism?
And FINALLY, we get to the LOVELY Mister Ed Schubert of Northbrook, who owns his own business:Ed Schubert, Northbrook: I own a Dairy Queen. You are right; one can't live on minimum wage. But if we have to pay a 14-, 15- or 16-year-old $8.25 in our business, we can't pay older persons more. It should be about $5.50 for the kids that we have to teach -- we have to teach them how to work, how to be on time, and what work is all about. Kids from 18-20 should get $7.75-$9.25, and those 21 and over should get $10.25 and up. The state and feds need to look at that idea. People that are older need to make more, NOT THE KIDS DOING DRUGS. Until then you will see more and more businesses going out of business!!!
Look alive folks! We've got a full-fledged privileged ASSHOLE in our midst!!! Now let's examine how much bullshittery is in this little paragraph here:
I've been here for 36 years and it's getting harder ever day. [Recently] a person that worked for me 25 years ago came in and asked me for a job. I told him yes but I can pay only $8.25 an hour until I know if he is going to work out.
1. Young people are inherently irresponsible, lazy and incompetent little hoodlums, and thus they do not know the value of work, therefore they should be paid less, despite doing the same work, simply because they are young and have to be taught… WHAT? Thank you VERY much Mr. Schubert of Northbrook for completely paint brushing all young people as such. We really appreciate that you view us in such a derogatory manner.
I am not some lazy incompetent little 'kid,' Mr. Schubert. This summer, when I went job-hunting for the summer, I got my young plus-sized ass up, got my resume together, printed off 150 copies, borrowed a suit from my grandmother and went to nearly every major shopping facility within in the Chicagoland area. I filled out job applications left and right, with over 70 major stores having my application and resume on file. Know how many called me back? 2. TWO. And I'm lucky as hell that I got the job I got. Majority of the stores I went to required at LEAST 2-3 years of experience, and these were ENTRY LEVEL positions. Now what I want to know is, if these positions are those that are supposed to be entry level, why is there an experience requirement? That right there eliminates a hell of a lot of possibilities for young people, seeing as 9 times out of 10, we've not had the chance to work a register/stock room/etc. because of said requirements!
2. Young people are apparently tireless, and should be grateful when someone gives us grueling work, because it's "teaching us what work is all about." Because young people aren't REAL people, anyways, since we are all so lazy, shiftless, and incompetent. This oxymoronic mentality of us being lazy/tireless is the root of a lot of intergenerational angst.
My peers and I frequently hear comments like, "You can't be tired/in pain/in distress! You're YOUNG!" Bullshit. I work on my feet for 8 hours a day bagging heavy groceries into carts with little time to sit down, while also dealing with people commanding me to smile every 10 minutes. I'm young. And I'm TIRED. You don't get to tell me I'm not.
When someone dismisses my reality with, "You're young," they are really saying "Your distress can't be real because of your age," which is not merely wrong, but ageist.
3. Young people are apparently all devoid of any responsibilities whatsoever. It's not like young people pay rent/buy groceries/pay bills at all. The only thing we do is BUY DRUGS!!!eleventy!1 LOTS OF THEM! So it's not like I'm paying my phone bill or buying groceries with my meager paycheck. Nope, you've totally figured me out, Schubert. I'm wasting my entire check on DRUGS. Every time. LOLSOB.
Overall, those comments made me absolutely furious at the lack of compassion and the amount of privilege people have when it comes to the working poor, and especially the young working poor. And the sad thing is, these compassionless and privileged mindsets are what become law. With that said, I'm asking the Shakers to help out. Teaspoon time, folks. Contact Bill Brady and let him know that minimum wage should NOT be lowered.
Bill Brady's campaign offices:
Chicago: 1201 N. Clark, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60610 (312) 846-1649
Bloomington: 2203 Eastland Drive, Suite 3, Bloomington, IL 61704 (309) 664-8544
Springfield: 500 W Monroe Street, First Floor NE, Springfield, IL 62704 (217) 241-9830
You can also email him here.
Tony Abbott Makes Rape Joke; MSM frames it as "sexist gaffe".
by Shaker Napalmnacey
[Trigger warning for minimization of sexual assault.]
So, Tony Abbott is totally going after the women's vote! Check this out!
The Australian: Tony trips at paid parental leave launch with 'no' gaffe.*
On a day that the Coalition was devoting to winning the women's vote, Mr Abbott questioned whether when Julia Gillard says no, she really means it.It's just a world, a galaxy, an entire universe of "inappropriate". He's equating an entire party's decision on how to proceed during the election campaign with a tired, misogynistic, down-right dangerous rape culture trope about women's ability to make decisions about their sexual behaviour.
Mr Abbott has knocked back the Prime Minister's offer for a debate on the economy, saying she initially refused his request for three debates and had changed her mind because she was now in panic mode.
"Are you suggesting to me that when it comes to Julia, no doesn't mean no?" he said.
Mr Abbott repeated the comment a number of times.
How dare he?! How friggin' dare he? Would he ever, ever stoop to making a joke like that about a male PM? He didn't just make this joke once — it's a part of his campaign repertoire; he said it repeatedly, obviously very pleased with this line and hoping it'll hit the front pages and be used against Julia Gillard.
What really pisses me off about this soundbite is that he also refers to her as Julia, rather than Ms. Gillard or 'the Prime Minister'. In this particular instance, it's stripping her of her authority. It comes off to me as a very targeted, cruel and disrespectful. It's not just making fun of her decision-making. It's an underhanded, sneaky way to strip her of her agency, her professionalism and her personhood. In his mind, there is nothing worse than a woman that "gets herself raped", and he framed our Prime Minister in that narrative because it was the most damaging thing he could think of.
If this doesn't expose the cold-hearted, calculating and dangerous man he is, I don't know what will. Keep talking like this Tony Abbott, keep showing us your true colours.
It'll help with the women's vote, totally. /sarcasm.
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The Sydney Morning Herald has a slightly more critical article here, accompanied by a poll asking: "Do you think Tony Abbott's comments were inappropriate?" Currently, 55% of respondents have answered "No."
And Prime Minister Julia Gilliard responds here: "Mr Abbott's words are a matter for Mr Abbott."
[Cross-posted at Hoyden About Town.]
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* [As an aside, the link to that article in The Australian's search returns appears to be broken. Right now, the link returns the user to the front page of The Australian, where the top headline is "Nothing sexual in 'no' comment: Abbott" (yeah, sure) which links to this story, headlined "Tony Abbott accuses Labor of 'vicious smear' over Gillard 'no' comment reaction." Ugh.—Liss]
Question of the Day
It's hot here. 106° F. Technically and theologically speaking, that is hotter than Lucifer's taint. It's so hot, I've had to get out my ice buttplug just to cool down. And it's not working! I'm feeling very frustrated at the moment.
So. What do you do to beat the heat, Shakers?
VA Healthcare Challenge Can Proceed
A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that the state of Virginia could proceed with its challenge to President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law, a setback that will force the White House to defend its reforms in the middle of a tough congressional election campaign.Suffice it to say that I am not a kneejerk defender of the administration's insurance mandate, but this lawsuit is complete crap. As Steve Benen notes, "Folks who never seemed especially troubled by mandatory auto insurance or mandatory flood insurance in some parts of the country have now concluded that a health care mandate is the most offensive idea they've ever heard. It's the basis of GOP litigation, and ballot measures at the state level touted by right-wing activists."
In the opening salvo of the legal fight, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson refused to dismiss the state's lawsuit, which argued the requirement that its residents must have health insurance is unconstitutional and conflicts with state law.
Hudson, who noted that his ruling was only an initial step, decided the issue the state raised -- whether forcing residents to buy something, namely healthcare, is constitutional -- had not been fully tested in court and was ripe for review.
I don't like the healthcare insurance mandate, either—but that's because I support socialized healthcare, not because I'm a hypocritical shit like the government-employed Republicans who happily accept the taxpayer-funded health coverage that comes with their jobs while running their mouths off about bootstraps and rugged individualism.
