FAIL:
Two young mothers were given ultrasounds in a packed room at the [Ohio] Statehouse as part of a House committee meeting Wednesday. The heartbeat of a fetus at 15 weeks gestation was easily detected. The heartbeat in a fetus of nine weeks gestation was difficult to detect.Whoooooooops. LULZ.
Ducia Hamm of Ashland Care Center said the unusual approach was needed to show the effect of the bill. She said a "picture is worth a thousand words."
I think this video by Anita Sarkeesian does a fantastic job of giving a compact, example-crammed discussion of how popular films reflect patriarchal focii. (Full transcript HERE)
As I watched it, I was also struck by the fact that these "most celebrated" films are also overwhelmingly focused on the stories of white, able-bodied, cisgender, straight people who tend to be middle class or above -- and how the few films that featured dis-enfranchised people nearly all rely on memes of the Magical Disadvantaged Person whose worth is directly related to the benefits they bring to the privileged (Magical Negro in Driving Miss Daisy, Magical Autistic Man in Rain Man, Magical Developmentally-Disabled Man in Forrest Gump, etc.), or boot-strapping underdogs whose triumph is inevitably measured according to kyriarchal standards (Slum Dog Millionaire).
This is one of those videos that I'm putting in my "Here -- watch this" tool bag for those annoying times when people insist that we are living in a post-sexist (or post-whatever) world.
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of the upcoming unauthorized biography, James Franco, Because James Franco: What—Did You Think This Book Would Be About Someone Else? You're So Weird.
Recommended Reading:
The Chronicle Review: #JamesFrancoFacts [Thanks to each of the many Shakers who sent this in!]
Sarah: On Women, Bylines, and Bestsellers
Tami: Triggering, Tokenism, or Erasure
Brian: Satisfactioning Ourselves
kirbybits: Staying Alive in a Broken Reality [TW for sexual violence, disordered eating, and self-harm]
Resistance: Ida Keeling
And Happy One-Year Blogiversary to the Crunk Feminist Collective!
Leave your links in comments...
[Trigger warning for rape, rape apologia, and victim blaming]
Last week, I [TW] wrote about Manitoba Justice Robert Dewar, who has an obvious problem with victim blaming.
The Winnipeg Free Press reports:
[Following the Free Press' previous coverage of the case,] politicians of all stripes joined student and feminist groups and those who work with sexual assault victims in decrying the comments. Many said they feared Dewar’s remarks - which included "sex was in the air" the night the woman was raped - would deter other victims from coming forward in the future.And now for the really good part:
By Friday afternoon, the judicial council, which has authority over more than 1,100 federally appointed judges, had already received "several" complaints about Dewar’s handling of the case, according to a spokeswoman. She said it is the council's policy not to disclose the names of complainants.
Earlier in the day, more than 100 women and men held a noisy protest outside the downtown Law Courts building. They chanted "yes means yes and no means no," and waved signs sporting an array of messages including, 'Clumsy, ignorant judge,' and 'FYI, Dewar, this is the 21st century.'
Many who attended the demonstration called on the judge to apologize for his remarks and to resign.
Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal issued a written statement Tuesday afternoon saying Justice Robert Dewar will continue sitting on the bench but with a limited caseload.
[Judge Dewar] will stop handling criminal cases "of a sexual nature" pending an ongoing federal review.
This is a very interesting, occasionally infuriating, and very funny article about the film industry's creative bankruptcy. Here is an excerpt:
Inception was not a brand, which is why nobody with a marketing background is too eager to go find the next Inception—although ironically, any studio in town would eagerly green-light Inception 2. On the other hand, as you read this, the person who gave the go-ahead to Fast Five, the (I hate to prejudge, but...) utterly unnecessary fifth installment in the Vin Diesel–Paul Walker epic The Fast and the Furious, is sleeping soundly right now, possibly even at his desk. On June 10, 2011, he will bestow on several thousand screens a product that people have already purchased four times before. How can it miss?Now go read the whole thing.
Of course, it can miss; can't-miss movies miss all the time. But when a movie that everyone agrees is pre-sold falls on its face, the dullness of the idea itself never gets the blame. Because the idea that familiarity might actually work against a movie, were it to take hold in Hollywood, would be so annihilating to the studio ecosystem that it would have to be rebuilt from the ground up. Give the people what they don't know they want yet is a recipe for more terror than Hollywood can accommodate.
And while that bland assembly-line ethos hasn't affected the small handful of terrific American movies that reach screens every year, it's been absolutely devastating for the stuff in the middle—that whole tier of movies that used to reside in quality somewhere below, say, There Will Be Blood but well north of Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? It's your run-of-the-mill hey-what's-playing-tonight movie—the kind of film about which you should be able to say, "That was nothing special, but it was okay"—that has suffered most from Hollywood's collective inattention/indifference to the basic virtues of story development. If films like The Bounty Hunter and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time define the new "okay," then the system is, not to put too fine a point on it, in very deep shit.
You've probably heard about the protests in Wisconsin (and Ohio, and elsewhere). You may have heard that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker just announced his budget. There are people renting hotel rooms in Rockford, too! (Okay that wasn't fair. Thank you for Cheap Trick and for being the R in REO Speedwagon.) However, if you've been watching TV, you may have missed the other drama in Madison.
On Monday, Wisconsin effectively closed the state Capitol. This made it hard for folks to return to collect things they thought were safely in the hands of the handful of holdouts-- things like important medical supplies. It also made it difficult for journalists, Supreme Court justices, and Democratic Assemblymembers to get inside.
Lobbyists, on the other hand, didn't appear to face this difficulty. That's certainly interesting, considering that lobbyists are folks who get paid to represent the interests of people who are too busy (or lazy) to make it down to the Capitol themselves.
Yesterday, AFSCME succeeded in getting a restraining order against the new restrictions on access to the Capitol.
The state responded thusly:The Department of Administration today did receive a temporary injunction requiring the department to open the Wisconsin State Capitol to members of the public during business hours and when governmental matters, including hearings, are being conducted. The policies that DOA currently has in place are in compliance with this order. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. today at the Dane County Circuit Court, Branch 3, before Judge Albert.
In other words, Judge Albert was concerned enough about the new policy that he ordered the state to suspend it until he could rule on its legality. The state countered that since they felt their new policy was legal, they were going to ignore the restraining order. Interesting, that.
This announcement followed an even more fascinating pronouncement from the Capitol Police:The King Street entrance to the Capitol has become congested. Capitol police request the assistance of the people in the area. People in the area of King Street need to exit the immediate area so that we can facilitate the public entry into the building.
There is a court hearing at the Dane County Court House at 2:15 PM and after this hearing we hope to be able to clarify policies on entrance into the Capitol.
I don't like it when strangers on the internet use the term "Orwellian", but, uh, that announcement only makes sense if the word "public" has a brand new meaning.
At 4 pm (I still haven't figured out what happened at the 2:15 public hearing, not that it appeared to have mattered), Governor Walker gave his budget address to a gallery packed with supporters. Members of the public (or people, at least) that had been holding out in the Capitol for days were here.
Rumor has it that these supporters entered through the steam tunnels. This has been hard to confirm, given that the one reporter who followed up on the story was met with terse men who appeared to be protecting the tunnels.
This is a news story. I know its popular in progressive circles to talk about things like Citizens United and access to government, but what's happened in Wisconsin this week takes things to a whole new level. The governor of Wisconsin appears to be using his power to commandeer law enforcement personnel to keep people he disagrees with from participating in government, while allowing his friends access-- and he's done so in violation of a court order.
I recall when President Clinton lied to Congress about oral sex. That was pretty much the main show on TV in 1998. Maybe it's just me, but I think what's going on in Madison is a tad more important, let alone interesting.
by Shaker Time-Machine, a feminist, fat acceptance advocate, ginormous Doctor Who fan, film student, and terribly busy intern living in LA and trying feverishly to graduate.
[Trigger warning for rape culture and discussions of rape jokes. This post originally appeared in similar form as a comment at Shakesville.]
Following is a primer for men who are interested in learning more about the practical effects of rape humor. Most of the information in this piece is, as always, generally applicable, but this has been written to be most accessible for men in keeping with the objective of the series. Additionally, this post in particular is addressed to men, not because women don't rape and women don't make/laugh at rape jokes and not because men can't be raped, but because, by nature of the existing gender disparity, men are in a unique position to be taken seriously when they raise objections to casual language and humor regarding rape. Men are also in a unique position to prove to rapists and douchebags that not all men rape or take rape lightly by being able to embody living proof of that fact.
To all those men who don't think the rape jokes are a problem:
I get it—you're a decent guy. I can even believe it. You've never raped anybody. You would NEVER rape anybody. You're upset that all these feminists are trying to accuse you of doing something, or connect you to doing something, that, as far as you're concerned, you've never done and would never condone.
And they've told you about triggers, and PTSD, and how one in six women is a survivor, and you get it. You do. But you can't let every time someone gets all upset get in the way of you having a good time, right? Especially when it doesn't mean anything. Rape jokes have never made YOU go out and rape someone. They never would; they never could. You just don't see how it matters.
I'm going to tell you how it does matter. And I tell you this because I genuinely believe you mean it when you say you don't want to hurt anybody, and that it's important to you to do your best to be a decent and good person, and that you don't see the harm. And I genuinely believe you when you say you would never associate with a rapist and you think rape really is a very bad thing.
Here is why I refuse to take rape jokes sitting down…
Because 6% of college-aged men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word "rape" isn't used in the description of the act—and that's the conservative estimate. Other sources double that number (pdf).
A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That's not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?
Rapists do.
They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.
Virtually all rapists genuinely believe that all men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantly reaffirmed in their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like them by things like rape jokes, that dismiss and normalize the idea of rape.
If one in twenty guys (or more) is a real and true rapist, and you have any amount of social activity with other guys like yourself, then it is almost a statistical certainty that one time hanging out with friends and their friends, playing Halo with a bunch of guys online, in a WoW guild, in a pick-up game of basketball, at a bar, or elsewhere, you were talking to a rapist. Not your fault. You can't tell a rapist apart any better than anyone else can. It's not like they announce themselves.
But, here's the thing. It's very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another, someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn't mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed.
Or maybe you didn't laugh. Maybe it just wasn't a very funny joke. So maybe you just didn't say anything at all.
And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed? When you were silent?
That rapist who was in the group with you, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades.
You. The rapist's comrade.
And if that doesn't make you feel sick to your stomach, if that doesn't make you want to throw up, if that doesn't disturb you or bother you or make you feel like maybe you should at least consider not participating in that kind of humor anymore, not abiding it in your presence, not greeting it with silence...
Well, maybe you aren't as opposed to rapists as you claim.
-------------------------------------
Note: A quick and simple rule for language and behavior if you want to be a decent person: Ask yourself, who is more likely to be made to feel comfortable around me based on whatever I'm about to say/do? Rape survivors? Or rapists? Who is more likely to be made to feel uncomfortable? If you're doing something that is more likely to make rapists feel comfortable and/or rape survivors feel uncomfortable, then don't do it!
The cockles of my heart, they are warmed!
When children read to him, Danny does not criticise or correct their pronunciation. He just nods and pricks up an ear, although sometimes he closes his eyes and appears not to be listening.The picture at the link is adorable, and the caption slays me: "Some children show the dog the pictures as they read." And this: "When Danny goes to sleep I tell the children that he's dreaming about their story." OMG. DEAD OF CUTE.
Danny is a greyhound and a novel way of encouraging pupils at Oakhill primary school in Tamworth, Staffordshire, to read aloud. A "listening dog", he is part of a scheme that originated in the US called Reading Education Assistance Dogs (Read).
"It helps with their self-esteem in reading out loud because he is non-judgmental," says the dog's owner, Tony Nevett, who has a degree in animal-assisted therapy. "He doesn't judge them and he doesn't laugh at them."
Yesterday, I wrote about the circus sideshow legislative session in Ohio at which a fetus embryo was scheduled to "testify" on an abortion bill.
This morning, I see that, in fact, TWO embryos (or one embryo and one fetus) are scheduled to "testify."
Two fetuses will be presented as witnesses before an Ohio legislative committee that is hearing a bill to outlaw abortions after the first heartbeat can be detected inside a woman's womb.I know it's a losing battle to try to insert logic into this carnival of fuckery, but surely the fact that THE WOMEN "have agreed to be scanned," as opposed to the embryos, underlines exactly why this entire stunt is total bullshit.
The fetuses will appear live and in color before the committee on a video screen projecting ultrasound images taken from their pregnant mothers' bodies. Janet Folger Porter, head of Faith2Action, an anti-abortion group, said the fetuses will be the youngest witnesses to ever testify when they come in front of the House Health and Aging Committee Wednesday morning.
"Lawmakers are going to be able to see as well as hear the babies' heartbeats," said Porter. "We think this is going to do a lot to keep other babies' heartbeats going in Ohio." She said two Ohio women -- one nine weeks and the other 11 weeks pregnant -- have agreed to be scanned with ultrasound machines for the hearing.
Ohio already bans what critics of the procedure call partial birth abortions as well as requiring parental consent for minors in most cases and a 24-hour waiting period before abortions can be performed.This slow erosion of the right guaranteed by Roe is exactly what I was talking about during the last presidential election, when I was being harangued about how I couldn't see that Obama would PROTECT ROE!!!!eleventy! It's not incidental that he appointed two Supreme Court justices who will presumably defend Roe, but it's also not incidental that Roe is being rendered an empty statute on the state level across the country, and he can't be arsed to even issue a press release about it.
...The heartbeat bill is one of four bills restricting abortions in Ohio that will get hearings Wednesday before the House committee. The others would ban abortions after 20 weeks, make it more difficult for minors to get a judge's permission to get an abortion without parental consent and prohibit abortion coverage in health-care plans offered by the state under the new federal health-care law.
What kitchen gadget do you covet?
I looooooooove kitchen gadgets, so I pretty much covet all of them. But the most extravagant and absurd kitchen gadget that I covet is the SousVide Supreme Water Oven, which I will probably never be able to afford (nor justify purchasing, even if I could) in my life, lol.
Disqus is glitchy again. If you're getting a "system error" message when you try to comment, it's not just you. Comments just aren't showing up at the moment.
It's not something we can control on our end. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon. My apologies for the inconvenience.
UPDATE: Looks like it's working again now. If you're still having problems, fire me an(other) email.
I CAN'T WAIT to see Something Borrowed, you guys!
Video Description: Ginnifer Goodwin is a white college girl, who is obviously a nerd because she has brown hair and wears glasses. She likes a boy. He is Colin Egglesfield. He is cute. Her best friend is Kate Hudson, who is obviously sexy because she has blonde hair and self-confidence. She tells the cute boy to ask Ginnifer Goodwin on a date, and when Ginnifer Goodwin embarrassedly insists they're JUST FRIENDS! Kate Hudson then tells the cute boy to ask HER out on a date, in order that she might PROVE A POINT in the most hurtful possible way to the girl who is inexplicably her best friend. The cute boy is apparently from Mars and thus has no idea that Ginnifer Goodwin has a crush on him, also because she DOESN'T TELL HIM, so he dates her best friend.Oh god, Kate Hudson. Oh god, Ginnifer Goodwin. Oh god, John Krasinski. Colin Egglesfield, I don't even know who you are but OH GOD.
Fast forward and now it's six years later and the horrible Kate Hudson and Colin Egglesfield, who is obviously wonderful by virtue of his being from Mars, are getting married, and Ginnifer Goodwin, who I'm guessing (although it's not clear from the trailer) is now working as an executive martyr at Masochist Corp., is still totes BFFs with them. Kate Hudson is horrible. Scenes of her being horrible at her wedding dress fitting and at Ginnifer Goodwin's 30th birthday party. John Krasinski says something sarcastic about Kate Hudson being horrible.
Whoooooooops Ginnifer Goodwin gets drunk and sleeps with Colin Egglesfield. Who tells her he "wasn't that drunk" when they did it. Hmm. Isn't there a name for that? Well, nevermind! He's from Mars. Things are different there. He is SO WONDERFUL.
Kate Hudson is so terrible. John Krasinski is so sarcastic. Kate Hudson is pretty sure she loves Colin Egglesfield. John Krasinski sagely notes that Kate Hudson is horrible and Ginnifer Goodwin is dishonest about her feelings. Colin Egglesfield has doubts. Kate Hudson is a bridezilla. Ginnifer Goodwin tells her no. I am Spartacus, or whatever.
Former Speaker of the House and Professional Dirtbag Newt Gingrich (R-Eprehensible) is reportedly going to announce his intent to explore a 2012 candidacy later this week:
Confidants close to the former House speaker say he will announce his intention to form a presidential exploratory committee before on Thursday in Atlanta.Barfola.
Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler would only say that the former speaker will make an announcement by the end of the week on forming a presidential exploratory committee. But friends of Gingrich say he has already made up his mind.
..."2010 was the appetizer. 2012 is the entrée," Gingrich told an enthusiastic crowd at CPAC earlier this month. He will instantly be a force. He's tireless, full of ideas and one of the most well-known Republicans in the country. Nearly two decades ago, Gingrich led the last Republican revolution, drafting the "Contract with America" that swept House Republicans into power in 1994.
[Trigger warning for anti-Semitism, racism.]
Speaking of execrable anti-Semitic tirades from despicable shits, John Galliano has been fired from Dior after unleashing an anti-Semitic and anti-Asian rant last week and then being caught on camera espousing his love for Hitler.
This, of course, is the same asshole whose 2000 collection was "inspired by the homeless," featuring "coats exquisitely tailored with broken stitches, contrasted with soaring romantic evening gowns shown in a rose garden in the Bois de Boulogne," and whose 2005 collection, for which he used models of all different shapes, sizes, and ages, was widely lauded as "courageous," but read to me more as a creatively threadbare project by an undergraduate art student obsessed with the Victorian freakshow.
I don't generally regard appropriating marginalized people's struggles and bodies to sell high-priced consumables as "genius," but, then again, I don't have a sense of humor either.
Again: Priorities.
[Trigger warning for violence, abuse, harassment, misogyny, and racism.]
"None of these incidents [of violence against women] got Mr. Sheen fired from his lucrative day job as a sitcom star, not even suspended. What did? He insulted his boss. ... So the message from CBS and Warner Brothers seems clear: abuse yourself and the women around you to your heart's content, but do not attack the golden goose."—David Carr, in the New York Times.
Sheen did more than merely insult his boss; he unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade against him. Which actually only underlines Carr's point about Who's Important: Even using racist epithets wasn't a fireable offense, until they were directed at a man who makes lots of money for CBS and Warner Brothers.
Carr's piece only addresses the incidents of violence against women during the run of Two and a Half Men, but Sheen's history of abuse extends back decades:
[Sheen's third wife, Brooke Mueller, who called 911 on Christmas morning to report Sheen having threatened her with a knife] claimed he told her, "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you. I have ex-police I can hire who know how to get the job done, and they won't leave any trace." Police also noted the appearance of red marks on her neck, which she said occurred while Sheen was holding her down with the knife to her throat.Now that Sheen's been sidelined, I guess fans of men who abuse women will have to get their fix by watching Mike Tyson's new show on Animal Planet.
Mueller's statements are remarkably consistent with Sheen's ex-wife Denise Richards' accounts of the actor's behavior, including an incident where he told her "I hope you fucking die, bitch. You are fucking with the wrong guy," and threatened to have her killed. Sheen also served two years' probation for a 1996 assault on then-girlfriend Brittany Ashland. In 1995, he settled a case out of court with a woman who claimed he'd hit her when she refused to have sex with him. And in 1990, in an incident deemed an accident, he shot his fiance Kelly Preston in the arm.
[Trigger warning for fat hatred, objectification, body shaming.]
This is a blind item going around the gossip/celebrity blogs today:
This actor, known mostly for his great hair and good looks over his acting ability, might surround himself with stick thin supermodels at times, but we're told he has a 'big girl fetish.' He scours the internet for listings and photos of lovely, big, and curvaceous women and hooks up with them whenever possible!Oh, Blind Item. How depressing are you? Let me count the ways.
