Shakesville

Good One

Hey, remember when I mentioned that the Fox affiliate in Orlando had referred to the National Socialist Movement, a Neo-Nazi organization, as a "civil rights group"...? Of course you do! It was just this morning!

Anyway! The affiliate has now reposted the item with the following Editor's Note:

Editor's Note: The report originally published Saturday inadvertently referred to the National Socialist Movement as a civil rights group. We intended to refer to them as a "self-proclaimed" civil rights group.

Oh ha ha that's okay then!

Media types please take note: If you should ever have wont to write about me for any reason, I would like to be referred to as the "self-proclaimed queen of the multiverse."

I mean, as long as self-proclaiming something makes it okay—nay, makes it your obligation—to print, then I am GOING FOR IT.

[Via.]

So, So Good

Despite the unfortunate headline (which she almost certainly did not write herself) and the use of an ablist term in the final paragraph, this piece by actor Ashley Judd about the public speculation about her appearance is amazing.

This abnormal obsession with women's faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.

...News outlets with whom I do serious work, such as publishing op-eds about preventing HIV, empowering poor youth worldwide, and conflict mineral mining in Democratic Republic of Congo, all ran this "story" without checking with my office first for verification, or offering me the dignity of the opportunity to comment. It's an indictment of them that they would even consider the content printable, and that they, too, without using time-honored journalistic standards, would perpetuate with un-edifying delight such blatantly gendered, ageist, and mean-spirited content.

I hope the sharing of my thoughts can generate a new conversation: Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place? How, and why, did people participate? [...] I ask especially how we can leverage strong female-to-female alliances to confront and change that there is no winning here as women. It doesn't actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance. We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others—and in my case, to the actual public. (I am also aware that inevitably some will comment that because I am a creative person, I have abdicated my right to a distinction between my public and private selves, an additional, albeit related, track of highly distorted thinking that will have to be addressed at another time).

If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that it is a feminist one, because it has been misogynistic from the start.

Go read the whole thing.

In our profoundly sick culture of judgment, one of the most important—so simple, so difficult—bits of social justice teaspooning we can all do is simply refuse to judge other people's appearance, which has ramifications both culturally and personally.

Judgment is, at its roots, projection—evaluating people's deviations from a standard we endorse. We are thus quick to see our own "flaws" in others. Judgment reinforces our own shortcomings, reflects our perceived failures back to us, makes it difficult to love ourselves when we see our own supposed defects everywhere we look.

Loving ourselves, "flaws" and all, is an integral part of dismantling the rigid tyranny of the Beauty Standard, because by embracing our Less Than Perfectness, we refute the obligation to conform to any standard that purports to be universally attainable and demand we be judged by a measure of our own making.

And we grant ourselves the right to be happy in who we are.

It's funny how much easier it is to grant that right to everyone else having once gifted it to yourself.

Letting go of the culturally-imposed compulsion to judge everyone is hugely freeing—a gift to ourselves that makes self-acceptance a helluva lot easier, and a gift to everyone else who steps into our gazes, to whom we can extend the same generosity and esteem.

The most important thing I have ever done for my own sense of value, the most profound kindness I have ever offered to myself, is to take a long look at the deeply unreasonable, inherently condemnatory, nakedly cruel, worth-suberverting, kyriarchy-entrenching, target-moving, can't-fucking-win Beauty Standard in its impossibly unachievable face and tell it to fuck off.

Daily Dose of Cute

Walking in the garden this morning:

image of Dudley the Greyhound and Zelda the Black-and-Tan Mutt walking along a garden path

image of Dudley the Greyhound and Zelda the Black-and-Tan Mutt walking along a garden path

And begging for a treat afterwards:

image of Dudley and Zelda sitting in the kitchen doorway, begging for treats

image of Dudley and Zelda sitting in the kitchen doorway, begging for treats

Aww

Would you like to read about eight dogs who saved their owners' lives? Sure, why not, right? Well, here ya go!

It's neat how many of those stories are about rescue dogs.

BushQuotes!

Chapter 2, page 15: "My first memories are of Midland, and when I think of growing up there, baseball comes to mind first. We were always organizing a game, in the schoolyard, or in the buffalo wallow behind my house on Sentinel Street. We played for hours, until our mothers would pull us away. I remember Mother yelling over the fence, insisting I had to come home for dinner, right now. Sometimes, on weekends, my dad would join us, impressing my friends by catching the ball behind his back."

Ha ha what a charming anecdote! I especially love the part about how his dad's a superhero and his mom's a harridan. FOLKSY!

[From George Bush's A Charge to Keep, gifted to me by Deeky, because he hates me. In the US, all people who plan to run for president write a shitty book. (Some are less shitty than others, by which I mean the Democrats' books.) A Charge to Keep was George W. Bush's shitty I-wanna-be-president book, published in 1999. I am blogging one random quote per page every day until I have either made my way through the book or lost it behind a couch.]

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by mint.

Recommended Reading:

CEPR: Three New Briefs Confirm It: The Minimum Wage Is Way Too Low

Scarecrow: Good News for Women: Dem Leader Cleaver Says There's No GOP War on You

Pam: North Carolina's Amendment One: 10 Facts You Need to Know [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion about homophobic legislation.]

Seafly: Feminist Makes Transphobic Jokes about Bombing Planned Parenthood [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion about violent transphobic "jokes" and imagery.]

Fannie: Boys Need Boy Food [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of gender essentialism.]

Jim: You'll Probably Ignore Me Because I'm An Evil Straight White Dude, But…

Andrea: Racialicious Crush of the Week: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Atrios is hunting for the Wanker of the Decade. Will Saletan is a strong contender.

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

Trayvon Martin Updates

[Content Note: Violence; racism; victim-blaming.]

The most amazing (not in a good way) thing I have read the past few days is the Fox Orlando affiliate's coverage of the National Socialist Movement, a Neo-Nazi organization, which has been conducting armed patrols of the streets of Sanford, Florida, the town in which Trayvon Marting was killed by George Zimmerman, in order to "keep white people safe." The article has since been removed without explanation, but at the top of this screen cap of the error page, you can still see the headline reflected in the lingering URL:

screen cap of Fox site with URL indicating the headline was 'Civil Rights Group Patrolling Sanford'

"Civil Rights Group Patrolling Sanford." Sure. Everyone knows the Neo-Nazis are definitely a "civil rights group." Yikes.

Judd at Think Progress has a clip of the report that aired here.

Welcome to Post-Racial America, where up is down, green is purple, hoodies make for justifiable homicide, and Neo-Nazis are a civil rights group. Fuuuuuuuuuck.

Recommended Reading:

Fox Detroit: Michigan Construction Sign Displayed Racial Slur Directed at Trayvon Martin.

CNN: Students Protest as Decision Awaited in Trayvon Martin Shooting.

Time: The Problem with the 'Some of My Best Friends Are Black' Defense.

Quote of the Day

“[A] hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers. But the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not go go go. Now they’re 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn’t discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person. What you’ve got to look at, and Ann Coulter has looked at this, is you have to break it down by married and unmarried. Once you break it down by married and unmarried, the differential disappears. [...] You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.” -- Wisconsin state senator Glenn Grothman (R-Eprehensible) explaining his support of the repeal of Wisconsin's Equal Pay Law. According to the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health:

The Equal Pay Enforcement Act became law in July 2009. The purpose of the law is to provide a stronger enforcement mechanism for violations of pay and workplace discrimination by allowing victims to plead their case in the less costly state circuit system rather than having to try to get their cases heard by federal courts. It also provides stronger penalties for employers who were found guilty of discrimination.

Gov. Scott Walker signed the repeal last week.

I don't even know where to start with what all is wrong with Grothman's bloviating horseshit, though perhaps with this: in Wisconsin, women earn approximately 75 cents for every dollar a man earns. Which is two cents less than the national average of 77 cents.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

The Honeydrippers: "Sea of Love"

Number of the Day

[Content Note: Sexual violence.]

17.3: The percentage of young women in grades 9 through 12 who have been raped in Indiana, which has the highest rate of sexual violence in the nation.

In Indiana, girls have a higher chance of becoming the victim of sexual assault than almost any other place in the country.

As WBBM Newsradio's Michele Fiore reports, 10.5 percent of all American high school-age girls have been forced into sexual intercourse, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the rate vastly exceeds the national average in Indiana, where 17.3 percent of girls in grades 9 through 12 have been raped.

Kinsey Institute Director for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction Julie Heiman told the Bloomington, Ind., Herald-Times that she was "shocked" at the statistics.

Welcome to Indiana, where rape against girls is so prevalent that it shocks even people who are experts in sex and crimes of sexual violence.

The Herald-Times also pointed out that researching the issue is a challenge, given that up to 50 percent of sexual assaults against women are never reported, and Indiana is one of three states – along with Mississippi and New Mexico – where law enforcement is not required to report sexual violence to the FBI.

And where, at least in my personal experience, mandated reporting of sexual violence against female students is treated more like a suggestion than a responsibility.

I will also note that Indiana leads the nation in abortion restrictions. That's relevant, of course, because some of those many rapes will result in pregnancies, but, less obviously, it's also relevant because it underlines that Indiana is a state that is hostile to women, to female autonomy, to female agency, and to the concept of consent.

It is not a coincidence that the state with the highest number of restrictions on a legal medical procedure accessed exclusively by women and other people with uteri is also the state with the highest rate of rape against young women. Both are the inevitable result of systemic indifference to the basic feminist principle of trusting women to make the best decisions for themselves and then respecting those decisions.

There is flatly not meaningful equality for women in Indiana.

Primarily Horrendo

GOOD MORNING! Is everyone maintaining stratospheric levels of enthusiasm for this delightfully endless Republican primary?! I SURE HOPE SO! If your excitement is feeling a little wilty this morning, maybe this ACTUAL AP WIRE PHOTO of Mitt Romney will help get your democratic juices pumping again:

extreme close-up of Mitt Romney's face

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney listens while greeting people in the audience at a campaign event in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, Thursday, April 5, 2012. [AP Photo]

Why? Why is that a news photo? "The one thing America still does not know about Mitt Romney is HOW BIG HIS NOSE PORES ARE! Let's clinch the exclusive on that!"—The AP.

Give them ALL the Pulitzers! All of them!

In other Mitt Romney news, Romney "has started to raise general election funds for his 2012 bid under the assumption he will be the party's eventual nominee." That's a good assumption! Well done, Mitt Romney! "The campaign is also moving to set up joint fundraising committees with the Republican National Committee that would allow Romney donors to contribute as much as $75,000 per person to his campaign by giving to the RNC, state parties and the official campaign account." That's SO MUCH free speech! Thanks, Supreme Court!

Speaking of Mitt Romney and shitloads of money: "Mitt Romney faces a daunting to-do list as he transitions into the role of likely Republican presidential nominee. Among the tasks: Raise as much money as possible for the general election campaign against President Barack Obama." Ha ha good point! Mitt Romney wants money! Lots and lots of money! (Hey, remember Calloway? What ever happened to Calloway?!) So you should definitely give him some. (No you shouldn't.)

Luckily for Mitt Romney (and definitely not us), he will be getting help from American Crossroads, the biggest of the Republican Super-PACs (again: thanks, SCOTUS!) which "is planning to begin its first major anti-Obama advertising blitz of the year." That should be fun! I can't wait to hear all about how Obama is a socialist commie Muslim from Kenya who was born on the moon or whatever!

Speaking of what a HUGE MUSLIM President Obama is, you should read his suuuuuuper Muslimy Easter address here. "For me, and for countless other Christians, Easter weekend is a time to reflect and rejoice. Yesterday, many of us took a few quiet moments to try and fathom the tremendous sacrifice Jesus made for all of us. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the resurrection of a savior who died so that we might live.... Christ's triumph over death holds special meaning for Christians. But all of us, no matter how or whether we believe, can identify with elements of His story. The triumph of hope over despair. Of faith over doubt. The notion that there is something out there that is bigger than ourselves. These beliefs help unite Americans of all faiths and backgrounds. They shape our values and guide our work. They put our lives in perspective."

OMG I'm practically Muslim now just from READING THAT!

Also: I'm really beginning to think that the conservatives who whine incessantly about a "war on Christians" have a point. Obviously the United States hates Christians and their traditions, especially its Muslim president who cannot stop talking about Jesus Christ.

Hey! Speaking of President Obama never, ever pandering to Christians at all, do you remember when he invited megachurch icon Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation, even though Rick Warren is a gross homophobe, rank misogynist, extreme anti-choicer, and general jerkbag? Good times, good times. Well, anyway, Obama's BFF Warren is now giving fun interviews in which he says things like: "Most people would not think they're better off economically than they were four years ago." and "I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation." and "The only way to get people out of poverty is J-O-B-S. Create jobs. To create wealth, not to subsidize wealth."

Ha ha I hope President Obama invites him back again! That would be SO COOL.

image of President Barack Obama with a consternated face

image of President Barack Obama with a consternated face

In other President Obama news: It's "Game On" in Chicago!

Finally: Something something Ron Paul. And Newt Gingrich blah blah wev. While Rick Santorum farrrrrrrrrt.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

RIP Mike Wallace

image of Mike Wallace Veteran newsman Mike Wallace has died at age 93. CBS, the network at which Wallace was a fixture for decades, remembers Wallace here. His New York Times obit is here. Andy remembers some of Wallace's early work here, "an investigation into homosexuality in America hosted by Mike Wallace and aired in 1967. Given the era in which it was produced, it's admirably open-minded: gayfolk, at least male ones, are allowed to speak their pieces freely and at length."

If you knew nothing about Mike Wallace, I would convey him to you by recalling a little interview he gave to the Boston Globe in 2005, specifically one question and one answer, which have stuck in my mind all these years:

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. ... The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. ... Why do you think they nominated you? ... Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

Mike Wallace was tenacious. I admire tenacity.

[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about Wallace, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]

Open Thread

Hosted by an erect-crested penguin meeting a rescued baby La Plata river dolphin.
[Andres Stapff/Reuters via WaPo.]

Sunday Shuffle

Walk The Moon; Anna Sun
Here is the non-acoustic version.

How about you?

Open Thread

image of the interior of a long-abandoned post office, in which green flora is starting to grow

Hosted by an abandoned post office in Gary, IN being reclaimed by nature.

[Image care of Shutterstock.]

Open Thread

image of sand dudes and a wooden fence at the edge of Lake Michigan

Hosted by the Indiana Dunes.

[Image care of Shutterstock.]

Open Thread

image of Lake Michigan in the afternoon with the sun glinting off the water

Hosted by Lake Michigan.

Question of the Day

Since today is Space Cowboy's birthday, and this is one of his favorite QotDs (because of his own wonderfully detailed answer): How did you find your way to Shakesville?

(Or, if you're a long-time Shaker, to Shakespeare's Sister.)

Blog Note

Tomorrow is Good Friday, which is a sort of holiday in the US, mostly since the market is closed, because Jesus didn't love anything more than money. (True fact.)

Thus, Iain is off tomorrow, so I'm going to take the day, too. I could also just use a couple of days off, because I haven't had a day in which I wasn't working on some part(s) of the blog for about a month now.

So we're off tomorrow, although there will be a lightly moderated Open Thread, and we'll be back Monday. If this is a holiday weekend for you, enjoy your holiday, and, if not, enjoy your weekend!

An Observation About Bootstraps

In the conservative lexicon, ownership is good, and there's no dirtier word than entitlement. Throughout this endless Republican primary, the idea that entitlement programs like Social Security and universal healthcare (to which we unfortunately do not have anything close, despite the caterwauling about "Obamacare") are THE WORST and individualism and self-governance are THE BEST has been a rather prominent theme, because BOOTSTRAPS.

Which are the thingies conservatives wave around to distract our attention primarily from the existence of privilege and prejudice, but also from the reality that entitlement programs are not, actually, the "wealth redistribution" programs they assert them to be. To hear conservatives tell it, entitlement programs are some kind of wealth-punishing equalizer, as opposed to components of a fraying safety net that is often the only thing keeping low- or no-wage earners from falling off the edge.

I'll leave aside for now the tropes about the legions of straw-people who could be earning a livable wage at an awesome job but inexplicably choose not to work, living high on the hog off our generous welfare system. Suffice it to say, that is abject nonsense, and being poor is one of the most difficult things to be in this country. Poverty is not for lazy people.

My present concern is with the working poor, and the way they are regarded by the architects of the Ownership Society.

Those men—and they are indeed almost all men, most of whose lives have been dictated by inherent privilege and family connections, which we're not meant to note while admiring their shiny bootstraps—believe quite firmly, and without seemingly a trace of irony or compunction, that one gets what one deserves in life. From the imposing height of their handsomely recompensed sinecures, they will assert with the particular condescending authority bestowed only by unearned success that, with a little hard work, anyone can be a productive member of their magnificent Ownership Society.

Now, I don't feel inclined to get into a whole Marxist discussion about the means of production here, but what these insufferable, vainglorious, classist captains of self-aggrandizing bullshit seem never to grasp, or possibly just acknowledge, is that if you want to live in a capitalist society that gives you the opportunity to get nasty rich, then we can't all be wealthy. And if you want to be the kind of person who doesn't pump your own gas, or make your own sandwiches, or clean your own house, or manicure your own fingernails, or drain your own dog's anal glands, or build your own car elevator, then there are going to have to be people who fill all those jobs.

And most of those professional, hard-working people will put in at least 40 hours a week, or more, and even still, many of them won't be given healthcare benefits, and many of them won't earn enough money to feed a family, and many of them won't be able to save as much as they'll need for their retirement.

People who honorably dedicate their time, energy, and talents to jobs that might not pay well are indeed entitled to something—to not work their whole lives only to find themselves poverty-stricken, or hungry, or homeless after one small (or not small) medical crisis. And if we're not going to ensure that every job comes with a livable wage, access to affordable healthcare, and retirement benefits, then we've got to provide a robust and well-funded social safety net.

I don't think that's asking for much, in exchange for a lifetime of providing service to their chosen vocation.

Though I grant it's certainly easier to scream BOOTSTRAPS! and carelessly assert that people who don't have everything they need just aren't trying hard enough.

Funny how the Grand Advocates of Hard Work are always the ones making the easy arguments.

[Originally published in similar form January 26, 2011.]