Inspired by my previous post... You have been given total creative freedom, unlimited time, and the artistic talents of the amazing Gene Ha (that is, if you require them; if you are, like myself, artistically challenged).
What trailblazing, transgressive, weird, and/or wonderful superhero do you create?
Question of the Day
If Only Someone Would Make This Film for Realz
Meredith at io9 reports:
In a desperate attempt to stay relevant, director Uwe Boll is making a ridiculously offensive fatsploitation movie called Blubberella. "She will kick major ass - with her major ass."Honestly, I'm just disappointed by another iteration of treating the idea of a fat female superhero as so thoroughly absurd and wildly implausible that it could never be anything but a punchline.
...Boll is doing what he does best — pathetically poking the masses hoping to generate an angry, free PR machine. But the honest-to-goodness truth is that this film will most likely be so wretched (both in theory and in execution) that hopefully it will just die out on its own, in development hell. Until then, we're bracing ourselves for a barrage of classless jokes about weight from the house of Boll. What do you all think? Does Blubberella make you angry, or just sad once you find out who's attached to direct?
You want incomparable courage and legendary fortitude? I got your courage and fortitude right here: It remains a radical act to be a fat and happy woman in America. If you're fat, you're not only meant to be unhappy, but deeply ashamed of yourself, projecting at all times an apologetic nature, indicative of your everlasting remorse for having wrought your monstrous self upon the world. You are certainly not meant to be bold, or assertive, or confident—and should you manage to overcome the constant drumbeat of messages that you are ugly and unsexy and have earned equally society's disdain and your own self-hatred, should you forget your place and walk into the world one day with your head held high, you are to be reminded by the cow-calls and contemptuous looks of perfect strangers that you are not supposed to have self-esteem; you don't deserve it. Being publicly fat and happy is hard; being publicly, shamelessly, unshakably fat and happy is an act of both will and bravery.
Yeah, what a hilariously improbable idea that a fat woman could be a superhero, when she requires supernatural strength just to get through every goddamn day.
[H/T to Shaker Erin W.]
Quote of the Day
"The most you can expect is two years of good old-fashioned gridlock."—Representative Rob Bishop (R-Utah), a vice chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, promising nothing but undiluted obstructionism if (when) the GOP retakes the House.
Oh Fuck! Mayor Bloomberg
He's such! a fucking jer-rk
Three term New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come out in favor of the two-term limit he successfully fought to overturn way back in 2008.
First, this plays into a long and disturbing tradition of political exceptionalism, from court-packing (it might not mean what you think it does) to Spitzerism. So hooray for that.
Second, at the risk of Godwining out, this is how things go to hell in a hurry. But-but-but 2008 was practically the end of NYC, and Mayor Bloomberg was the only person in a financial capital of over 8 million people that knew enough about finance to do whatever it is he does. I know. It's just like how in light of OMG POST 9/11 REALITIES it's totes essential to suspend certain civil liberties for certain people. Look, I'm not generally a fan of term limits, but uh, altering the structure of government to respond to annually scheduled perceived emergencies isn't exactly like declaring a snow day.
FYI
[Previous FYI: Rick Astley; Eddie Murphy; The Eurythmics; Eddie Rabbit; Sinéad O'Connor; Was (Not Was); Bon Jovi; Kenny Rogers; Bobby McFerrin; Starship; Dead or Alive; Right Said Fred; Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians; Salt n Pepa; Nelson; The Cure; The Soup Dragons; Europe/BushCo; Elton John; Eddie Money; Human League; Glenn Frey, Van Halen, Alanis Morissette. Hint: They're better if you click 'em!]
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.]
No, That's Not What You Think It Is
[Click image to embiggen.]
Meet The World's Largest Gummy Worm. Yum!
Three pounds, 128 times bigger than a traditional gummy worm, 4000 calories, 5" circumference, made in the USA, from delicious gummy liquid. It's also ribbed, for some reason.
There's a video at the link, which I haven't seen. Diabetics should, presumably, avoid viewing.
[Via Andy.]
Daily Dose o' Cute
Dudley, at the dog park.
The Mayor of Dudlington had a rough weekend, as he had to make a trip to the vet [grossness warning] to get an abscessed anal gland expressed. Poor Mr. Doodles did not know how to express (pun intended) to the resident Two-Legsies that he had butt distress, so there was a good week of uncharacteristic leash-pulling on walks (which in retrospect translates to: "Please hurry! I need to get away from my butt!") before some excessive licking at the affected area finally clued me in to what was going on.
Now not only is Dudley's butt back in shipshape order, but he gets unprecedented globs of peanut butter twice a day (and has yet to notice the antibiotic pills encased therein), which makes life EVEN BETTER.
As if they knew it would just be cruel to add insult to injury, his kitteh sisters welcomed him home from the vet with curious but friendly sniffs, eschewing the "Eww! You were at the STINKY PLACE!" hissing they inevitably give each other.
And Dudz is back to walking gently on the leash, right at one's side, no longer feeling the burning need to escape the stalking terror of his own ass.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
Because it's almost really good. And then you get to this part [trigger warning for fat hatred and body/food policing]:
Kiki McLean pointedly tells me that one of the things that she most admires about [Senator Kirsten Gillibrand] is "the way she balances being a senator with her husband and her little boys." As much as I hate to make too much of it, I said, I can't help being impressed by somebody who lost 40 pounds while doing this job. "OK," says McLean, "this is a killer because I have fought weight my entire life, and she is completely disciplined about this. She was at my home for dinner recently, and she focused on the salad and the fruit. We can laugh about it and I can be jealous of her, but I think it's a tremendous demonstration of discipline and the fact that she knows she has to be in the best health, so that she can be the best mom and the best senator."Wow.
And no doubt remain attractive to her husband of nine years, who is two years younger than she is.
Considering all the references to how very much like Hillary Clinton, the senator whose vacated seat Gillibrand now fills, Gillibrand is—starting with the headline "In Hillary's Footsteps"—I'm really amazed that Jonathan Van Meter left me hanging about whether Gillibrand is similarly "cursed with cankles." Come on, Vogue—this is important stuff!
[Via Irin.]
WHUT.
Sure. Why not.
If you share a name with someone famous — like, say, 35-year-old pinball geek Justin Bieber of Jacksonville, Fla., or one of the five Betty Whites in Boston, MA — you might soon be getting a call from somebody at CBS. The network has teamed with 51 Minds (the company behind such critically beloved VH1 fare as I Love New York and Rock of Love) for a new reality project dubbed The Same Name. The basic premise of the show revolves around finding regular folks whose names happen to be the same as celebs, and then having the two temporarily trade lives.Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go legally change my name to Barack Obama, so I can apply for the show. Get ready for THE DAY OF A THOUSAND WACKY EXECUTIVE ORDERS!!!
Where "wacky" = "progressive."
(TW for sexual violence: I'm also totes going to submit Iain's name (close enough!) so that he can spend a day working on a novel about a privileged man whose life is thrown into upheaval because a woman he fancies has been raped, threatened with rape, or is already dead. Perhaps he can rewrite whatever his famous name-sharer has been working on to include a female protagonist who has motivations other than trauma, and then there might exist an Ian McEwan novel I actually enjoy reading!)
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of the upcoming Deeky W. Gashlycrumb confessional, I Was a Teenage Wizard.
Recommended Reading:
[TW for racism, misogyny, and bullying] Anonymous at the University of Venus: An Unspoken Threat
[TW for discussion of bullying] rboylorn: "Words Hurt": A (Personal) Reflection on Bullying as Verbal Violence
[TW for misogyny] Historiann: Poor Ken: Only Girls Will Play With Him!
[TW for homophobia] Steve: Reinstated Oregon Teacher Seth Stambaugh Talks to Towleroad
[TW for homophobia] LeMew: This Is What Support of DADT Amounts To
[TW for transphobia and homophobia] Autumn: More "Truth" On "Sex Change Operations"?
[TW for sexual violence] There is a new blog project, SoulSpeakOut, collecting the stories of survivors, who are invited to share their stories via prose, poetry, artwork, or other creative expression, either by name, pseudonymously, or anonymously. Visit SoulSpeakOut here.
Leave your links in comments...
How's the view from the sideline?
There's currently a four-way gubernatorial race in Rhode Island, featuring Obama bipartipal Lincoln Chafee, a(nother) Republican, some guy, and Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank Caprio, a Democrat. Caprio, the Democrat indicated that he wouldn't mind if Obama endorsed him. Instead, the Obama administration announced it wouldn't be endorsing anyone.
Caprio, being a man after my own heart, told Obama to "shove it", and also:
"accused the president of 'treating [Rhode Island progressives] like an ATM machine,' and ignoring Rhode Island during springtime flooding that swept through the state."
It is unclear whether or not Caprio reminded Obama that "it is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election", but that strikes me as a logical next step.
Actual Headline
Gay voters angry at Democrats could sway election. Let the scapegoating begin!
Two things:
1. I definitely love how this is just about "gay voters," casually ignoring the fact that a huge majority of Americans support the repeal of DADT and there are literally MILLIONS of reliable Democratic not-gay (straight, bi, asexual) voters who are pissed about this, too. Admittedly, that fact does undermine the "special rights" and "hysterical minority who don't understand how politics work" narratives that are the key to diminishing any civil rights movement and establishing scapegoats.
2. Supposing for a moment that it's true that gay voters (and their allies) are so angry at Democrats that they alone (without the help of alienated female voters and/or trans voters and/or poor voters and/or other underserved constituencies) could sway the election, the headline is still misleading: It's ultimately the Democrats who failed to deliver on promises made to a sizable and politically active constituency who will sway the election, if gay voters (and their allies) don't show up on Election Day.
To revisit a familiar post from the last election season: When someone engages in divisive behavior, any resulting division is their responsibility.
It is, simply, not the duty of any person who is repeatedly subjected to alienating language, images, behaviors, and/or legislation to nonetheless never complain and pledge fealty from the margins. If voters from marginalized populations are valued, then they should not be demeaned-and if they are demeaned, they should not be expected to pretend it does not matter.
The fucking end.
[Commenting Guidelines: This is a post about politicking and narratives, not about voting. If you are going to respond to this post by talking about voting, please familiarize yourself with Shakesville's policy about voting discussions, and utilize "I" language. By way of reminder, "I think you should vote this way" does not count.]
More Evidence of Abusive Priest Shuffling Emerges
[Trigger warning for sexual violence and clergy abuse.]
Just like Jesus would do:
Nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed Catholic church documents have been made public and showed that the Diocese of San Diego long knew about abusive priests, some of whom were shuffled from parish to parish despite credible complaints against them.In addition to the priest who was helped out of the country by the Catholic Church, there are other deeply troubling cases:
...The records are from the personnel files of 48 priests who were either credibly accused or convicted of sexual abuse or were named in a civil lawsuit. They include a decades-old case in which a priest under police investigation was allowed to leave the U.S. after the diocese intervened.
...The files show what the diocese knew about abusive priests, starting decades before any allegations became public, and that some church leaders moved priests around or overseas despite credible complaints against them.
Another case outlined in the files involves the Rev. Robert Nikliborc, who was sent to a psychiatric treatment facility in the 1950s after the diocese received complaints, then became director of a Roman Catholic residential facility for troubled boys called Boystown of the Desert in Banning, Calif.At a news conference, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, Anthony DeMarco, urged "all Catholics" to look at the released documents: "These documents demonstrate years and years and decades of concerted action that has allowed this community's children to be victimized, and it is not until the community looks at these documents that this cycle is ever going to be ended."
...The papers also contain documents from the files of Rev. Anthony Rodrigue. In 1976, a group of parents at Rodrigue's parish in Heber, Calif., complained he had molested their children, according to court documents.
The priest was sent to a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts for treatment but was put back in ministry despite the recommendations of those who treated him.
Rodrigue later admitted he had molested between four to five children a year over a span of 22 years, said Irwin Zalkin, an attorney for the plaintiffs. About 30 people filed lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse against the priest, who died within the last year, he said.
"He was probably one of the most prolific abusers in this diocese. ... And they knew about this guy from his days in the seminary but kept him in ministry," Zalkin said.
I get what he's saying, but still: No. The cycle will be ended when the Catholic Church stops being a sanctuary for pedophiles. The cycle will be ended when the Catholic Church stops prioritizing its reputation over the sexual assault of children. The cycle must be ended by the victimizers, not the victims.
[H/T to Shaker Lena.]
Mel Gibson "Furious"
[Trigger warning for references to sexual assault and domestic violence.]
After getting, and then losing, a cameo in The Hangover 2, Mel Gibson is reportedly "furious" (how uncharacteristic of him, ahem) that he was given the boot (and replaced by Liam Neeson, sigh). As has been widely reported, some members of the cast were apparently unhappy at the prospect of working with Mel, for various reasons. Mel doesn't get it.
"He doesn't understand why Mike Tyson, a drug user who turned his life around, was given a chance while Mel was kicked to the curb. Everybody deserves a second chance," an insider told the New York Post.Gibson has a point, even though Tyson was hardly just "a drug user who turned his life around." Tyson is a convicted rapist who has also assaulted former partners and bit the ear of a competitor.
I am incredibly curious why the cast members (*cough* Zach Galifianakis *cough*) who objected so bitterly to Gibson's cameo had no problem with Tyson's. Perhaps it is, as I suggested in comments, that it's possible Galifianakis objected to Mike Tyson, too, but, it wasn't, ironically, until the wild success of The Hangover that he had the leverage to object in a way that made a difference. (Although one notes if he did object, his paycheck was more important than appearing in a vehicle helping to rehabilitate a violent and dangerous man.)
Or perhaps it is, as I have noted before, the widespread belief that Tyson was unfairly convicted, because, in the rape culture, there are no guilty famous men. The "innocence" of famous men who are accused of rape is typically established by their almost universal acquittal, a form of "proof" rooted in the premise that men who are convicted will be presumed guilty. But they are not, of which Tyson is a prime example. Despite having been convicted and serving prison time, he's still not regarded as a rapist: He was railroaded.
Whatever the reason, it does indeed seem like a double-standard that Tyson was welcomed with open arms and Gibson was not.
Although, unlike Mel Gibson, I don't believe that hypocrisy earns him his cameo. I believe it further indicts the decision to have given one to Tyson.
Open Thread
Hosted by a glass armonica.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by unusual musical instruments.
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!
