So, here's the thing: I am not an expert on disability advocacy, and I am not a great ally to people with disabilities, myself included. Not only do I hold myself to absurd standards to which I'd hold no one else when it comes to my anxiety disorder, but, over the past two years, I've developed an inflammatory disorder (chronic chondritis, affecting cartilage from my ears to my toes) that I ignore at my own peril and constantly make even worse because I'm so pissed at having a life-limiting physical disability that I pretend I don't have one until I am in so much pain that it literally hurts to breathe.
Point is: I don't have a lot of smart things to say about disability, even though (and maybe definitely for sure because) I am a person with disabilities. I'm not happy about that fact, but there it is.
I do, however, have a very basic recommendation re: interacting with people with disabilities that I want to share: If your family member, friend, or colleague has a disability, remember that zie has this disability.
Seriously. That's it. Remember that zie is a person with a disability.
(Provided, of course, one is not oneself a person with a disability that affects memory.)
I can't emphasize how important remembering is. To have to repeatedly remind someone who ostensibly cares about you that you have a disability is aggravating as hell. More than that, it puts people with disabilities into the awkward position of having to disclose our disabilities over and over (and over and over and over and over), which is tedious and can be humiliating, depending on the circumstances in which one is obliged to disclose personal information we expected you'd remember.
Failing to internalize the existence of a family member's, friend's, or colleague's disability also communicates to that person that you don't care enough about them to remember an important aspect of hir life, or simply don't give a fuck about hir disability. Additionally, many invisible disabilities carry with them narratives of "imagined" distress; some even have a history of being classified as psychosomatic disorders (especially if they're disorders found primarily in women). So "forgetting" carries a very real possibility of playing into narratives that suggest the disability isn't "real," or that your family member, friend, or colleague is "pretending" to be disabled.
I trust I don't need to explain in any sort of exacting detail what it feels like to be a person with a disability who is accused, explicitly or implicitly, of inventing a disorder. It feels shitty.
Failing to remember, thus obliging someone to repeatedly disclose a disability, also risks making that person feel like they're "talking too much" about hir disability, or "complaining." Many people with disabilities have experienced criticism for talking about their disabilities, or have been on the receiving end of exasperation expressed by someone who doesn't want to hear about it, for various reasons ranging from personal discomfort with difficult subjects to naked hostility to people with disabilities.
We often struggle to strike a balance between making sure people around us are aware of our disabilities and not playing into perceptions of attention-seeking, and "forgetting" makes finding that balance all the more difficult.
There have been all kinds of things written, by very smart people, about being sensitive to people with disabilities, and not saying things like "Hope you feel better soon!" to someone who isn't actually capable of "feeling better," and not recommending remedies or offering medical advice unsolicited, and not comparing your head cold to Sjögren's syndrome, and not making jokes like, "That picture's so sweet I've got diabetes now!", and not using ableist language, and making accommodations for accessibility, etc.
Practicing all of those very smart ideas about how to be a reliable ally to people with disabilities starts with the very basic step of remembering.
And in the moments when you do forget, be honest about that shit. It happens.
For the record, "Oh, I always forget because you don't look sick!" isn't a compliment. It's a deflection. And it's a tacit indictment of our failure to meet your stereotypes of disability. That ain't cool.
It isn't our job to "look sick." It's your job to remember.
Disability 101: Remembering
Quote of the Day
[Content note: racism, misogyny, female genital cutting, representations of violence against black women]
"The moment that cake was presented; the moment that cake was eaten; the moment that cake caused joy and excitement, re-opening the marvel that white Europeans felt at exploiting African women’s bodies—specifically, the sexualized celebration, the entrapment, the cutting of the genitalia of the Sara Baartman-like black body, the ethics of the artist comes into serious question, even if not the art itself, for the sake of 'art', for the sake of non-censorship. Racism was propped up in its ugliest form, facilitated by a Black artist and perpetuated on the representation of the body of a Black female."
--"An Open Letter from African women to the Minister of Culture: The Venus Hottentot Cake," posted at Black Feminists UK.
It is a thoroughly devastating response to defenses of the racist, misogynist, "Hottentot Venus"-style performance art staged by Afro-Swedish artist Makode Aj Linde and attended by Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, Sweden's Minister of Culture. You're encouraged to read the whole thing; it's extremely powerful.
Today in Conservative Projection
[Content Note: Reproductive rights and anti-choice shenanigans.]
The great Molly Ivins once said (and I'm paraphrasing here, because I can't find the exact quote) that if you ever want to know what conservatives are doing, just listen to what they're accusing progressives of doing.
That was a keen insight about projection.
One of the things of which conservatives are incessantly accusing progressives is insinuating themselves into conservative spaces to spy or shit-stir or or engage in some other nefarious business. Except, you know, when Max Blumenthal or Alexandra Pelosi "infiltrates" an NRA convention or CPAC to film conservatives in their natural habitats, they generally don't go in with secret cameras pretending to be someone they're not. On the other hand:
A string of suspicious incidents at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country has given the organization reason to believe that anti-abortion activists are targeting it in a new organized sting operation.Of course, sure, that's understandable—we wouldn't want to spoil the BIG SHITTY DISHONEST SURPRISE!
According to Planned Parenthood spokesperson Chloe Cooney, clinics in at least 11 states have reported two dozen or more "hoax visits" over the past several weeks, in which a woman walks into a clinic, claims to be pregnant and asks a particular pattern of provocative questions about sex-selective abortions, such as how soon she can find out the gender of the fetus, by what means and whether she can schedule an abortion if she's having a girl.
While patient privacy laws prohibit Planned Parenthood from offering specific details about the visits and where they occurred, Cooney told The Huffington Post that the incidents are so unusual and so similar to each other that they have raised concerns among the organization's executives that the visits are being recorded as part of a concerted anti-Planned Parenthood campaign.
"For years opponents of reproductive health and Planned Parenthood have engaged in secret videotaping tactics with fictitious patient scenarios and selective editing in an attempt to promote misinformation about Planned Parenthood and our services," Cooney said. "As with the prior instances, we anticipate that once again this group, likely in coordination with a broad range of anti-abortion leaders, will soon launch a propaganda campaign with the goal of discrediting Planned Parenthood, and, ultimately, restricting women's health."
The most likely group behind the campaign, Planned Parenthood suspects, is anti-abortion activist group Live Action, which has a history of paying actors to walk into Planned Parenthood clinics and act out various controversial scenarios in an attempt to catch the family planning provider's staffers doing something illegal or immoral on tape. A recent operation involved actors posing as pimps and prostitutes engaged in human trafficking and seeking birth control, STD testing and other family planning services. HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported in February 2011 that Live Action heavily edited the videos they gathered to alter the meaning of conversations and falsely imply that Planned Parenthood is complicit in sex trafficking, but conservative lawmakers and media outlets cited the group's videos in numerous subsequent political attacks against the family planning provider.
While Planned Parenthood has no proof that Live Action is behind the current series of encounters, Cooney said the group is the most coordinated in their operations and that the recent string of incidents "follows their pattern exactly."
Kate Bryan, a spokesperson for Live Action, would not confirm whether the group was behind the newest Planned Parenthood sting. "As you can understand, Live Action does not comment on any investigations until after public release," she said.
Teaspoon by teaspoon, she reminds herself through gritted teeth, but nonetheless seethes at the reality that it is very hard to win a battle of principles with a totally unscrupulous opponent.
BushQuotes!
Chapter 3, page 25: "Criminologists warn of a new generation of 'super predators'—kids who are fatherless, godless, fearless, and jobless."
You know, I actually know a few people who are "fatherless, godless, fearless, and jobless," and none of them have cooked international intel and lied to the global community in order to start a war of choice that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured, or displaced.
Just saying.
[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.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Look at that face! How am I supposed to get anything done with that adorable face plaintively staring at me? I cannot even deal with how cute she is. You should see her in person, waggling her little roundy butt with a big grin on her face, twitching her Dorito ears. She is irresistibly adorable.
(True Fact: I think every dog on the planet is the cutest dog on the planet.)
lol your definition of sexism
From a review I just read of the garbage film Think Like a Man, based on Steve Harvey's garbage book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: "[The film is based on] comedian Steve Harvey's Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, an advice tome that would be sexist except for the fact that it treats men like simple mutts in need of training."
Ha ha whoooooooooooooops that is very sexist! Treating both women and men like total garbage by relying on tired stereotypes that aspire to be gender essentialist claptap does not magically make something "not sexist" by virtue of the faux parity of false equivalence. It is merely an easily observable example of how the Patriarchy takes a rather dim view of most men, too.
Hey, you know who actually doesn't regard men as dogs, babies, or nincompoops, but instead respects their agency and capacity to rise above kyriarchal socialization...?
If you said "man-hating feminists," give yourself 1,000 points!
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by pencils.
Recommended Reading:
Digby: The Problem Is That the United States Is an Empire
Steve: Just Like Bush, But "Updated"
Anonymous: Why I Didn't Report My Rape [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of sexual violence, rape culture, and victim-blaming narratives.]
Andrea: One Woman's Story Highlights Texas Women Left in Limbo as Legal Battle Over Planned Parenthood Begins
Helen: ENDA Again
Pam: Letters to the Editor Brigade Against North Carolina's Amendment One
Sarah: Singapore's Giant Supertrees: The Ultimate Vertical Gardens
Katie: Capital Punishment: Doesn't Work and Takes Place Mostly in Texas
Andy: Gay-Hating Preachers Silenced by Gaga Flash Mob at Phoenix Pride
Erin: Reproduction & Abortion Week: October Baby [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of adoption and anti-choice abortion narratives.]
Erik: Darren Aronofsky's Noah
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Number of the Day
50%: The percentage of young college graduates in the US who are either un- or underemployed.
The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.Just like everyone needed to get a mortgage and buy a house a decade ago, now everyone needs to get student loans and buy an education. There's always some fucking one-size-fits-all solution being peddled to USians to mask the realities that our economy is a house of cards, the population has gone lopsided as Baby Boomers age, there just aren't enough jobs anymore, and there's a cavernous class divide facilitated by middle class-destroying economic policies that are promoted by politicians in both parties even as they propose individual solutions on how to get and stay in the middle class. Buy a house! (Whoops.) Buy an education! (Whoops.)
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.
Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.
...While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.
Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.
...[The situation] highlights a widening but little-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more than ever, the choices that young adults make earlier in life — level of schooling, academic field and training, where to attend college, how to pay for it — are having long-lasting financial impact.
Individual solutions to systemic problems don't work, and telling young people to get an education at any cost, when the cost demonstrably includes for many of them fucking their adult lives before they've even started, is an individual solution to a systemic problem that's about trade policies, taxation, demographics, domestic spending priorities, and a whole host of other lumbering national issues over which an entire generation of young people has no control, no less any one individual young person.
What power the people had has been sold away.
US voters have sold away their standard of living, their quality of education, their jobs, their worker protections, their civil liberties, their social safety net, their national security, their environment, their economy, their very democracy itself—all in exchange for the gossamer promise of individual success, even though a society of disconnected individuals without responsibility for one another isn't a society at all.
And so the younger generation is left a broken nation, told to make their way with mortgaged bootstraps, to which has been pinned a notice of foreclosure.
Primarily Horrendo
GOOD MORNING! (Or whatever!) That image is also not a Photoshop: It's just a straight-up image of a program for the Franklin County Lincoln Day Dinner in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, which has images of its namesake Abraham Lincoln on the cover and its featured speaker Mitt Romney on the back. PERFECT. Forget all that bookends crap—the real heir to Honest Abe is Lying-Ass Mitt.
True Fact: If Mitt Romney grew a beard and made a stovepipe hat his signature fashion item, he would definitely lose this election even harder.
Speaking of Mitt Romney losing—
—the AP reports that President Barack Obama is doing well in the swing states: "The improving economy is swinging the pendulum in [Obama's] favor in the 14 states where the presidential election will likely be decided. Recent polls have shown Obama gaining an edge over his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, in several so-called swing states—those that are considered up for grabs."
Also: Obama continues to lead by a wide margin in their favorability ratings, despite the fact that Mitt Romney gets more than twice as much positive coverage as President Obama. Whooooooops no one likes you, Mitt Romney!
Eliza Dushku USED to like you, but she don't no more! And you know what they say: As goes Dushku, so goes America!
In veep news, my garbage governor, Mitch Daniels, really doesn't want to be Mitt's running mate lulz: If asked to join the ticket, "I think I would demand reconsideration and send Mr. Romney a list of people I think could suit better." (Actual quote.)
Naturally, my top secret inside sources managed to get me a copy of Mitch Daniels' notebook, so we could see who's on his list:
Speaking of Senator Rob Portman, that's who Mitt Romney should select as his running mate if he wants to win Ohio, according to "an informal survey of more than half of the Republican State Chairmen and national committee people at this weekend's State Chairman meeting at a resort" in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"From those assholes' mouths to Mitt Romney's ears!"—Rob Portman.
And finally! Jon Huntsman (remember him?!) says that his party is garbage. (I'm paraphrasing, but not by much.) Yeah, Huntsman. We are aware.
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Photo of the Day
France's Foreign Affairs minister Alain Juppe, center, stands by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 4th left, during a group photo at the meeting with Western and Arab foreign ministers at the ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris Thursday, April 19, 2012. [AP Photo]How many photos do you think have been taken of Hillary Clinton standing in a room full of men in dark suits, in which she's the only visible woman? I'm guessing something like a million.
Open Thread
This week's open threads have been brought to you by turtles.
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!
And don't forget to tip your bartender!
BushQuotes!
Chapter 3, page 24: "There had been speculation that I might run [for governor of Texas] in 1990, but I had been busy with our new baseball team and nothing ever came of it."
The Fates did not pick him up from the Rangers' outfield and deliver him directly into the governor's mansion that year, so being carried on the wings of privilege into the halls of power without so much as the expenditure of effort it takes to want something would have to wait until another year.
Also: Baseball.
No, I really really really wasn't joking about the fact that this piece of shit should have been titled Privilege and Balls.
[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.]
Film Corner!
[Content Note: Police brutality; rape culture.]
Below, the trailer for the EAGERLY ANTICIPATED Magic Mike, a film which is supposedly based on Channing Tatum's former career as a male stripper? Or something? I guess? But in this movie the guy wants to make furniture? Not be an actor? You know what, I'm not going to think about this too hard. Here is the official description of the film:
A dramatic comedy set in the world of male strippers, "Magic Mike" is directed by Academy Award® winner Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic") and stars Channing Tatum in the title role. The film follows Mike as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. Also starring Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, Joe Mangianello, Olivia Munn, Riley Keough, Cody Horn and Adam Rodriguez. "Magic Mike" hits theaters June 29.Sounds terrific! Roll the video!
Ominous music. Two cops arrive at a house where a party is going on. A young woman answers the door nervously. "Good evening. You live here?" asks Officer Channing Tatum, shining a flashlight in the young woman's face. "Yeah," she replies nervously. He backs her into the house and announces that they've been getting complaints of noise and underage drinking.
More ominous music. Officer C-Tates tells everyone to sit down. He pushes up behind the young woman and pins her against the mantle. "You don't have anything sharp on you that I can stick myself with, do you?" The girl replies, "No," nervously. "Good," says Officer C-Tates, ripping off his pants. "Cuz I do!" The one million white girls in the house scream! WOOOOOOOOOOO! Party music!
Ha ha now those terrifying scenes of what looked like imminent police brutality are HILARIOUS! Wheeeeeee!
Officer C-Tates, who I'm BEGINNING TO SUSPECT ISN'T EVEN A REAL POLICE OFFICER YOU GUYS, is a stripped named Magic Mike and he has lots of money. Cash business. He also has lots of fans, and all of them are hot women. This is definitely what being a male stripper is like FOR SURE.
Over a montage of Magic Mike doing his stripper-breakdancing-gymnastics magic routine (sure) for lots of screaming women, we get some Male Stripper 101: "You are the husband that they never had! You are that dreamboat guy that never came along!" That is good information. I often fantasize about being married to a Cirque du Soleil rope-spinning dreamboat stripper who spits fire while breakdancing in a castoff costume from Solarbabies. This movie knows me, y'all.
"But Mike wants something more." O RLY? That's weird. I've never heard of a man who wants more than money and women before. I bet a MEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST wrote this movie to challenge the pervasive assumption, mostly held by MAN-HATING FEMINISTS, that men want more than wealth and fucking ladies! THANK GOD.
What more does Magic C-Tates want? He wants wealth from making fancy customized furniture and wants to fuck A SPECIFIC LADY, who is obviously his friend's sister no doy. See, feminists, this is why you need men to tell men's stories: So they can break down stereotypes about men wanting money and women, when what they really want is money and a woman.
Requisite montage of Magic C-Tates and Desirable Sister getting to know each other, not liking each other, kind of liking each other, flirting, and oh yeeeeeahhhhhh she's gonna nurture his ass into a fulfilling career and true love! BUT WAIT! What is this STUNNING REVERSAL? She just can't deal with his "lifestyle"! OH NO!
Oh, look, here's Matthew McConaughey, whose presence literally makes this film perfect.
Also: This film is so yellow. I think it might have been filmed through a butterscotch wrapper.
Magic Mike! Dancing its way into a theater near you this summer.
Whooops Your Tax-Exempt Status
[Content Note: Christian supremacy, appropriation of Jewish oppression]
Well, it has certainly been quite the week for privileged, patriarchal Christian assholes, hasn't it? You may recall Roman Catholic Bishop Jenky of Peoria, Illinois who, as described in this space, while speaking from the pulpit of his cathedral compared Obama to Bismarck, Clemenceau, Stalin, and some other guy. Who was it? Seems like it was somebody big. Oh yeah! Hitler!
Turns out that not only does the Anti-Defamation League take issue with the Holocaust being appropriated by privileged Christian leaders to complain about birth control pills, the IRS may have some investigating to do:
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, alleges that a fiery homily by Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky last Sunday effectively urged Catholics to vote against Obama in the 2012 presidential election ... “To be sure, Jenky never utters the words ‘Do not vote for Obama,’ ” Lynn wrote. “But the Internal Revenue Code makes it clear that statements need not be this explicit to run afoul of the law.While I have no doubt that Jenky and other Catholic bishops like him will escape without serious penalty, it's nice to see that their blatant attempts to turn Catholic pulpits into Fox-News-with-incense are not going completely unchallenged.
[Commenting Guidelines: Please take the time to make sure any criticisms are clearly directed at the Catholic Church leadership and not at "Catholics," many of whom are themselves critical of the failures of Church leadership.]
The Parks and Rec Open Thread
"Are you talking about this one? This one right here? Yes, that is a pig."
OMG. Thank Maude for the return of Parks and Recreation! That was the longest hiatus EVER! (No it wasn't.) (But it felt like it.)
[Spoilers are Voting Knope herein...]
Okay, I could not even stop laughing when Leslie adopted all the animals. (Ben: "What's your game plan here, m'dear?" LOL FOREVER!) Mainly because Iain, upon the reveal, said with a raised brow: "That's exactly what you would do in that situation." Me, snickering: "What on earth would make you say that?" Iain, giving a great, heaving sigh: "Long experience." Ahhhhhahahahahaha!!!
There was A LOT I loved about this episode, and I'll get to the Swansonpoints in a moment, but I also have to give a special highlight to Tom giving April the picture of the little girl with her adopted puhhhhhhhhhppy. "If Leslie taught me anything, it's that, yes, 98% of the time this job is frustrating and you hit brick walls. But the other 2%? It's stuff like this kid and that puppy." Blub.
I bet that kid and her puppy are jumping for life.
Amenities! True Fact: Rolling around with scATX in impossibly soft blankets on Tom Haverford's bed is now on my bucket list. Yes, I know Tom is a fictional character, but whatever, I don't even have a bucket list! "Hey, honey! Good morning! How did you sleep? I adopted 32 cats and dogs. Do you want pancakes?" "I'll stand." "What—this cat was in Boogie Nights?!" (Also: Donna's reaction shot to that? PRICELESS.) "My one reservation about you as a coworker was that you seem inflexible, and merely by agreeing to an activity you're not interested in, you showed flexibility." (I kind of love Chris Traeger.) "In a week, we have a debate. And your guy, Bobby Newport, is gonna have to show up, and he's gonna have to open his mouth. And I'm gonna kick his ass." HIGH FIVES! Everything else. Five-cat record. A bigger bottle would break the rules. Enticing the dogs to play poker. Gyro. Whiskey. All of it.Discuss.
Daily Dose of Cute
"Could you pay attention, please? I might need you to translate some of the more
convoluted plot-points into Cat for me later. Kthx. Also, what's 'bazinga' mean?"
