Back in January NPR earned the FAIL Award for All Around Bullshittery in Reporting (retroactive...since I just made it up) with their failtastic piece about relationships in which the woman in the breadwinner and the man is not that they called "Modern Marriages: The Rise Of The Sugar Mama".
Just a bit ago I caught a tweeted headline that made me go all "ORLY?":
Husbands Who Earn Less Than Wives Are More Likely To CheatThough not an intentional follow-up, it may as well be.
In short:
About 7 percent of men and 3 percent of women cheated in the study's six-year period.
[...]
In her research, Munsch [Christin, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Cornell University and author of study] looked at data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth taken from 2002 to 2007. She focused on married and cohabitating 18- to 28-year-olds who were together for longer than a year.
It's speculated in the article and study that perhaps men cheat more because it makes them feel more "manly" because they feel emasculated by being the lesser-earning partner.
However, I'd like to call your attention to this gem of reporting right here:
Freeloading men aren't the only troublemakers. [...]
That's right: "freeloading". Men (and presumably women) who earn less (per headline)--which would mean they are, in fact, employed--or are not earning money at all (hello, stay-at-home parent) are
freeloaders. FAIL x10000 there, NPR.
And so we meet again, Patriarchy. I saw your rather obvious hand in writing that January article that called women who earned more than their partners "Sugar Mamas" and intoned DOOOOOM!™ to those relationships. I see you here saying men who earn less than their partners are "freeloaders" and "losers" or of "lower moral character" (per comments on article) and intoning more DOOOOOM!™. Insulting women, insulting men, threatening relationships with prophesies of shite...STFU already, seriously. And NPR? WTF? Just stop.
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1. Ross Douthat has crumpled-up newspapers, beard trimmings, and coffee grounds where his thinking parts should be.
2. The New York Times continues to publish the nonsensical scribblings of a man who has detritus occupying his brainpan.
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This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud distributors of Potter's Black and White Formal Wear for Gentleman Kittehs.
Recommended Reading:
Fannie: Prop 8: We Won, Now What?
[TW for misogyny] Jaded16: This Is Why I Gave Up On Newspapers — A Rant To Ad Nauseum
Mike: 'Scott Pilgrim' Versus Itself
Adrienne: Random Appropriation of the Day: Totem Cups
[TW for gender-normative fuckery] Cover Awards: Drink, Play, Fuck
Andy: World's Only Documented Albino Humpback Whale Reappears
Leave your links in comments...
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Deeky: Oy. Why am I in a meeting?
Liss: Because meetings are funtimes.
Deeky: No. They are not. Playing with my b-hole is funtimes. Meetings, not so much.
Liss: LOL!
Deeky: This just sucks. I need an escape chute.
Liss: Can you use your own butthole as a wormhole to another dimension?
Deeky: I have no idea. But I sure as fuck would be willing to try it. Do I need a crystal buttplug or something?
Liss: Try to wriggle into your own b-hole and zip yourself over to my place, Dr. Who-style.
Deeky: LOL! p.s. How hilarious is it that everyone is having an in-depth and serious conversation about SFA, and I'm talking with you about my butthole?
Liss: I don't even know what SFA is, and I can guarantee with absolute certainty I'd rather talk about your butthole than whatever it is.
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While Deeky was busily spotting this beauty near him, I snapped the below shot of new welcoming banners hung in a neighboring town.
[The image is of an American flag, billowing behind the stern-looking bust of a bald eagle, with a note saying: "Welcome to [redacted]."]
"I don't know about you sniveling wussies, but we're PATRIOTS in this here town!"
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"An aging population will eventually (over the course of the next 20 years) cause the cost of paying Social Security benefits to rise from its current 4.8 percent of G.D.P. to about 6 percent of G.D.P. To give you some perspective, that's a significantly smaller increase than the rise in defense spending since 2001, which Washington certainly didn't consider a crisis, or even a reason to rethink some of the Bush tax cuts."—Paul Krugman, with some much-needed, and sure to be ignored, perspective on the OH NOES! SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS!!!!eleventy!!!1!!, a horrible little bit of alarmism that will almost certainly result in terrible policy, because even lots of Democrats are too craven to stand in defense of the US' most successful social program these days.
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From the Miami Herald:
A central Florida man has been charged with DUI for driving a lawn mower drunk.
Marion County Sheriff's Office spotted Richard Paschen driving the red lawn mower with a cup of beer sitting in the cup holder Friday night. He told Deputy Gary Miller he'd had "a pretty good bit" to drink and had gotten lost on his way home. Paschen refused a breath test.
Paschen has had several DUIs and his driver's license has been suspended.
It's a good thing he didn't hit a Deere.
(
Cross-posted.)
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[Trigger warning for sexual violence.]
A CNN investigation has found that a man accused of raping a colleague, both of whom were hired by BP to assist in the Gulf clean-up, was a convicted sex offender who had failed to register for the sex offender registry. Which would have shown up in a background check. If BP had done them.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd told CNN he was shocked when he met with the head of BP security for the area several weeks before the alleged rape took place. He said the BP representative told him that only drug screenings, not background checks, were being conducted on the cleanup workers.
"I said, 'You're kidding me.' He said, 'No.' He said, 'There's so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it.' And I said, 'Well, that's not good at all.' "
Byrd said he told the BP official that "you're going to have every type of person coming in here looking for a job, and you're going to have the criminal element in here, and we're not going to know who we're dealing with if we don't do background checks on these people."
"It's sad because you got a victim now by a sex offender, and he's in our jail. Had we have known this, he would have been arrested before the crime could have been committed," said Byrd, who also said that if asked, his department would have done the background checks for free.
The woman who reported the rape has since been laid off. Her attorney, Adam Miller, says: "She gave up her housing where she was living to come here. Now she's been raped, she doesn't have a job, and everybody walked away."
BP issued a statement blaming the subcontractor who failed to do the background check, despite the fact that BP did not make criminal background checks a requirement of the contract.
Hard to believe such a corporation could be so criminally negligent during the clean-up of a massive environmental disaster caused by their criminal negligence.
I wish the survivor at the center of this story peace and justice.
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CNN: Still single? What's the matter with you?
As ever, it's difficult to choose what my favorite part of this masterpiece is, because there are so many priceless, sparkling gems from which to choose.
In the What's Not Said category, I'll vote for the glaring omission of even a cursory mention that many women are single by choice.
In the What's Said category, I'll vote for the requisite "all women suck (and married women are even worse)" passage:
Myriad messages from sundry sources proclaim that, yes, I'm doing it all wrong. ...I feel myself beginning to cave -- who am I kidding? I can't refute this arsenal of why-I'm-dateless data. I guess they're right. It is my fault I'm still single! ... All I have to do is identify and correct the character flaw (or two or three) that repels the good ones, and then I, too, will find Mr. Right, just like all my married friends!
Which is precisely where the logic breaks down.
Think about it. If single women possess imperfections and eccentricities which prevent us from snagging a man, then such personality shortcomings would appear much less frequently in the population of happily married women, right? Sure. Ask any husband -- he'll tell you. Wives show a full range of kinks and idiosyncrasies, just like the rest of us.
Furthermore, many of my happily married girlfriends exhibit extreme versions of the very traits that supposedly stymie my success. If my neurotic nature so utterly repels the fellas, how is it my Xanax-popping neighbor has a husband, 3 children, a garage full of anti-bacterial gel to pacify her OCD? If I'm so horribly controlling, how did my bossy, domineering sorority sister badger her man down the aisle before the age of 24?
Wow.
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This is, for those who have requested it, your bi-monthly reminder* to donate to Shakesville.
Asking for donations** is difficult for me, partly because I've got an innate aversion to asking for anything, and partly because these threads are frequently critical and stressful. But it's also one of the most feminist acts I do here.
So. Here's the reminder.
You can donate once by clicking the button in the righthand sidebar, or set up a monthly subscription here. We first made the Subscribe to Shakesville page available last March, which means most of the subscriptions are running out and have to be renewed if you want to keep your subscription active.
Let me reiterate, once again, that I don't want anyone to feel obliged to contribute financially, especially if money is tight. Aside from valuing feminist work, the other goal of fundraising is so Iain and I don't have to struggle on behalf of the blog, and I don't want anyone else to struggle themselves in exchange. There is a big enough readership that neither should have to happen.
I also want say thank you, so very much, to each of you who donates or has donated, whether monthly or as a one-off. I am profoundly grateful—and I don't take a single cent for granted. I've not the words to express the depth of my appreciation, besides these: This community couldn't exist without that support, truly. Thank you.
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* I know there are people who resent these reminders, but there are also people who appreciate them, so I've now taken to doing them every other month, in the hopes that will make a good compromise.
** Why I ask for donations is explained here.
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The leading contenders for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination,
according to a new CNN poll. The five dingalings pictured are, from left to right: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul. Fine choices, all! [Getty Images]
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