Wang Chung: "Everybody Have Fun Tonight"
Oh Dear
[Trigger warning for fat hatred, weight loss talk, heterocentrism.]
Behold an advert for the upcoming CW television series "Shedding for the Wedding," in which couples compete to lose weight for their nuptials. Hosted by recent loser-of-weight actress Sara Rue.
Voiceover (over images of couples competing in physical challenges like racing while carrying wedding cakes): Wednesday, February 23rd, from the executive producer of "The Biggest Loser"...It's when she announces her weight loss and holds up her ring. UGH. Love belongs to thin people! Gross.
Cut to Rue being interviewed: "Shedding for the Wedding" is about couples trying to get in shape for their fantasy dream wedding.
Cut to female contestant getting fitted for wedding gown: I feel really nice!
Cut back to Rue: I know what these contestants are gonna go through. I lost 50 pounds and (holds up hand to reveal diamond engagement ring) I'm engaged!
Cut to couple in matching costumes looking at each other. Him: Love you. Her: I love you.
Cut back to Rue: I can only imagine what a bond these couples are gonna have.
Voiceover (over graphic of scale with one pink footprint and one blue footprint, which morphs into wedding cake): "Shedding for the Wedding." Wednesday, February 23rd, on the CW.
The Porn King with a Heart of Gold
[Trigger warning for sexual coercion, exploitation, dehumanization.]
HistGeek_1 emails (which I am publishing with his permission):
I just found this article and it made me wretch and I thought this was something that the brilliant minds of Shakesville should discuss. In effect, Nadya Suleman (disappeared as "Octomom" in the title) may see her mortgage sold to "porn kingpin" Steve Hirsch. Here's the really sick part: "Hirsch told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's not trying to pressure Suleman into porn, but he would use her housing woes to start a conversation that brings her to work for Vivid."For further perspective, Hirsch has already made repeated offers to Suleman, for as much as $1 million, to appear in one of his porn videos, and she has repeatedly declined. So this guy's already been harassing her to try to coerce her to do porn for him, and now he's trying to buy her mortgage for leverage.
Seriously, that is some fucked up shit right there.
Which, naturally, he denies: "There'd be no pressure on her. We're not looking to foreclose on the note, but if nothing else it would give us opportunity to meet with her. She's made it clear she doesn't want to do an adult movie. Maybe there are other things we could do that she would be interested in."
Sure. Just out of the goodness of the porn king's heart, I guess.
This is the culture in which we live: A woman is being publicly coerced to do pornography, and it's not a national outrage, but fodder for a casual wire item which culminates in a rehashing of her financial situation, thus implicitly suggesting the porn king is doing her a favor by offering her exploitative work she doesn't want in exchange for not foreclosing on her house.
Why, he's practically a hero.
[Commenting Guidelines: Nadya Suleman's reproductive choices are none of our business, not up for debate, and off-topic for this thread or any other.]
So...
...the wacky weather continues in NWI. We're apparently seeing out 2010 with a thunderstorm.
Zuh?
Question of the Day
Will you be making any New Year resolutions?
I never make New Year resolutions, because I know myself well enough to acknowledge I only do what I need to do when I'm ready to do it, and arbitrary dates don't help me get there any damn faster, lol.
Facts About Women
Jay Herrod knows some facts about women that he'd like to share with other men, who may or may not know these facts about women:
Here are some things men may or may not know about women, which are: Number One! Women may forgive, BUT never forget. Number Two! Start giving a woman, say, flowers too often, and she will think a man is up to something. Number Three! The only way a man can win an argument with a woman is when she lets him. Number Four! Women talk just as dirty as men. Number Five! All women have a set pattern; figure it out, and a man can figure her out. Number Six! During courtship, a woman will let a man chase her to be sure he wants her. Number Seven! Not all blonde-haired women are dumb and stupid. Number Eight! Women are just as smart as men. Number Nine! A man cannot hide something from a woman in her house, because she knows when something has been moved and is out of place. Number Ten! Most women hate to be ignored.If you like what you've heard, you'll be thrilled to hear that Jay Herrod has announced his candidacy for US president.
Now I have a question no woman I have asked has been able to answer: Why do women wear pretty underwear and bras under their clothes no one can see?
That's it! This is Jay Herrod. Thank ya.
[Via.]
Question for the Gamers
Read this headline: Brazil to build 'underwater cities' to drill for oil.
Can I see a show of hands for how many of you immediately thought of what's below the fold?
Image Description: Screen grab from the video game Bioshock.
This Would Be Even More Exciting If the US Had Socialized Healthcare
...thus insuring (or at least making more likely) that everyone would have equal access to it:
Two US companies this year broke new ground by winning regulatory approval to start the first experiments using embryonic stem cells on humans [with] spinal cord injury and blindness.Neat. I'm totes gonna keep a spare kidney in the glovebox of my flying car.
The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the human body, opening a path toward eliminating such ills as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even [aging].
...[Bob Lanza, chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology] said the advances, while they still face rigorous testing, offer promise toward treating a host of diseases, and could one day eliminate the need for amputation of limbs, blood transfusions and transplants from strangers.
"Some time in the future, perhaps in the lifetime of most of your readers, you'll get in an accident and lose a kidney and they will take a skin cell and just grow you up a new organ," said Lanza. "That field is just roaring ahead."
(I also look forward to the day when we can get an article about medical advances without ableist language. Wheeeee!)
Indiana Shakers
I would've sworn I felt the wee rumble of a distant earthquake this morning. And so I did.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck just before 8 a.m. ET and was three miles deep. The USGS initially reported that the quake had registered a 4.2 magnitude, but later revised the estimate. Its epicenter was located about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, and 50 miles north of Indianapolis.We're about 100 miles north of there, and it was reportedly felt in four states beyond Indiana. The epicenter of the last big earthquake we had, in 2008, was much closer. There was, thankfully, no house-swaying this time; just the vague thump of reverberating seismic grumpiness.
Living in northwest Indiana was perilous enough when we only had tornadoes, lightning storms, floods, lake effect snow, and a climate that swings from a thousand percent humidity in the summer to Siberian nightmare tundra in the winter. We really don't need earthquakes, too.
I blame Mitch Daniels.
Random YouTubery: No No No
Video Description: A baby sits in a bathtub; hir parents ask hir questions from offscreen and zie keeps answering no, shaking hir head and grinning. [Via.]
Baby: No! Dad: Did you have a good Christmas? Baby: No! Dad: Do you love your mommy? Baby: No! Dad: Do you love your daddy? Baby: No no no! Dad: Do you love your Uncle [inaudible]? Baby: No! Dad: Do you love your grandparents? Baby: No no no! Mom: Do you want a million dollars? Baby: No no! Dad: Do you love your ducky? Baby: No no no no! Mom: Do you want to go ni-night? Baby: NO NO! Dad: Do you love bathtime? Baby: No no! Dad: Is there anything you like? Baby: No no!
RIP Geraldine Doyle
Geraldine Doyle, who was the inspiration for the WWII "Rosie the Riveter" poster, has died at age 86.
For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.In addition to lending her likeness to Rosie, Ms. Doyle was a cellist, a wife, and a mother.
Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.
But the woman in the patriotic poster was never named Rosie, nor was she a riveter. All along it was Mrs. Doyle, who after graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a job at a metal factory, her family said.
One day, a photographer representing United Press International came to her factory and captured Mrs. Doyle leaning over a piece of machinery and wearing a red and white polka-dot bandanna over her hair.
In early 1942, the Westinghouse Corp. commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce several morale-boosting posters to be displayed inside its buildings. The project was funded by the government as a way to motivate workers and perhaps recruit new ones for the war effort.
Smitten with the UPI photo, Miller reportedly was said to have decided to base one of his posters on the anonymous, slender metal worker - Mrs. Doyle.
For four decades, this fact escaped Mrs. Doyle, who shortly after the photo was taken left her job at the factory.
...In 1984, Mrs. Doyle and her family came across an article in Modern Maturity magazine, a former AARP publication, that connected her UPI photo with Miller's wartime poster.
..."You're not supposed to have too much pride, but I can't help have some in that poster," Mrs. Doyle told the Lansing State Journal in 2002. "It's just sad I didn't know it was me sooner."
[H/T to Deeks.]
Quote of the Day
"Everyone was so worried about who was going to want to see Black Swan. I remember them being like, 'How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do you get girls to a thriller?' And the answer is a lesbian scene. Everyone wants to see that."—Natalie Portman.
Um. I don't even know where to begin with that.
I love the embedded heterocentrism in the gender essentialism—because of course the embedded qualifier is how to get straight guys to a ballet movie. Give 'em a little lesbo action! Between two straight ladies! Ugh.
And since when don't women like thrillers...? Every woman I know, irrespective of her sexual orientation, likes good thrillers, and it doesn't take Dykesploitation Cinema to get us to the theater.
Mississippi to Release the Scott Sisters
[Trigger warning for racism]
Happy Thursday!
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has ordered the release of Jamie and Gladys Scott, who [TW] have served 16 years for supposedly robbing a man of $11.
Jamie Scott has developed end stage renal failure. In addition to granting both sisters their freedom, this action will allow Gladys Scott to donate a kidney to her sister.
Barbour decided to suspend the sentence, stating "the Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society." [Emphasis mine]
I suppose coming from [TW] this guy, that's pretty close to a love letter.
Judging from the press release, I'm willing to bet that community pressure was the reason Barbour granted the Scott Sisters their freedom.
I wish Jamie and Gladys well, and send my wishes for good health.
[H/t: Shaker Tabitha Rose]
The Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2010
Jon Swift (aka Al Weisel), a brilliant blogger and satirist, and sometime contributor to Shakesville, used to wrap up each year by asking as many bloggers as he could contact to submit their best posts of the year for a massive roundup of awesome writing.
Weisel died earlier this year, and, in his honor, Batocchio of Vagabond Scholar has compiled a Jon Swift Memorial Roundup.
There's lots of good stuff there.
The piece I submitted is Within Our Souls. I don't know that it's precisely the best thing I've written all year, but it was a piece that meant a lot to me.
