[Content Note: Rape culture.]
"The views expressed were offensive. Rape is rape. And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about doesn't make sense to the American people."—President Barack Obama, in response to Rep. Todd Akin's gross and scientifically inaccurate rape apologia.
I pretty much love this—although, the truth is, Akin's horseshit does, in fact, "make sense" to lots of American people. What I wish the President would have said is that it doesn't make sense to decent American people.
[H/T to Shaker melody1228, in comments.]
Quote of the Day
Breaking Bad Open Thread
^^^ That's pretty much the exact look on my face the whole time I'm watching this show.
Last night's episode will be discussed in spoileriffic detail, so if you don't want any spoilers, please take your green beans almondine into another room.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly, her tail a blur of wagging as I approach her for a snuggle.
Dudz, his head tucked under a pillow because the living room was too bright for his nap.
Dudley really needs his own sleeping mask, because he is constantly on the search for Things to Stick His Head Under when he's ready for a hard sleep and we have the unmitigated temerity to have lights on and/or shades undrawn. When he can't find anything, he will give long-suffering sighs, then look at us meaningfully, as if to say, "Can you please do something about the light in here?" He's such a divo.
Zelda, on the other hand, will sleep anytime, anywhere. Just like me.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by science.
Recommended Reading:
[Content Note for rape culture on this entire section] On Akin's "legitimate rape" comments and how they fit into larger anti-choice and rape apologist narratives, and other things:
Garance: A Canard That Will Not Die: 'Legitimate Rape' Doesn't Cause Pregnancy
Pam: Congressman Todd Akin Has Opinions
Kate: Rep. Todd Akin: Wrong, But Not Alone
David: Akin's Comments about Rape and Pregnancy Common Among Anti-Choice Movement
Scott: Defending Akin
Chloe: A Thank You Note for Todd Akin
Ben: Fox Lets Rove Discuss Akin Rape Comments Without Disclosing His Conflict of Interest
And other recommended stuff...
Margaret: Congressional Republicans Called Out for Skinny-dipping in Holy Land
moyazb: America breeds terrorists. And they are white not brown. [Content Note: Racism; terrorism.]
Resistance: Update: Valley Swim Club [Content Note: Racism.]
Atrios: Oh Lordy The Conventions Are Almost Here
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Cool Ticket You've Got There, Republicans
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
Team Ro-Ry quickly distanced itself from Rep. Akin's gross comments about "legitimate rape," and, this morning, candidate Romney himself called Akin's comments "insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong. Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive," but, as Ian Millhiser notes at Think Progress:
Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term "forcible rape."[NB: Not only women get pregnant via rape.]
...Although a version of this bill passed the GOP-controlled House, the "forcible rape" language was eventually removed due to widespread public outcry. Paul Ryan, however, believes that the "forcible rape" language does not actually go far enough to force women to carry their rapist's baby. Ryan believes that abortion should be illegal in all cases except for "cases in which a doctor deems an abortion necessary to save the mother's life." So rape survivors are out of luck.
Team Ry-Ro can distance itself from Akin from here to the Romney Moon Compound and back, but the fact is that one-half of that team has engaged in precisely the same sort of survivor-hostile rape-ranking as Akin's, and he didn't do it in an interview: He did it as an official co-sponsor of legislation that sought to codify rape apologia into federal law.
How is that not "insulting, inexcusable, wrong, and offensive," one wonders?
* * *
In other news today...
The Republican convention will be as terrible as ever. Donald Trump will be given a key role at the convention, just to keep it classy. Paul Ryan is an unserious man. And Team Obama plays hardball on the economy.
Legitimate rape. Birthers at the GOP convention. Nothing but a constant stream of bullshit and lies. Every presidential election, I say it's the worst one I've ever seen. And every time, that's accurate.
Worst election ever.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Tracks of the 1990s. Go!
Note: They can be covers and they don't have to have been released as singles, but they have do have been tracks released during the '90s.
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Cool Party You've Got There, Republicans
[Content Note: Rape culture; reproductive rights.]
So, over the weekend, Republican Senate candidate and current Congressional representative from Missouri Todd Akin, who is running against Democratic incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill, defended during an interview his anti-choice position even in cases of rape by saying:
"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare," Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."In response to the resulting firestorm, Akin claims that he "misspoke," of course: "In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it's clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year."
Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario — when the supposed natural protections against unwanted pregnancy fail — abortion should still not be a legal option for the rape victim.
"Let's assume that maybe that didn't work, or something," Akin said. "I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."
Listen, buster: You don't get to claim that you've got empathy for women who are raped while also denying them the right to terminate a pregnancy resulting from rape. You're a woman-hating nightmare who uses inflammatory language like "attacking the child" to describe terminating an unwanted pregnancy, and you clearly have about as much empathy for survivors as the fuckheads who raped us in the first place.
And if Representative Akin doesn't enjoy being compared to a rapist, then perhaps he shouldn't be publicly and repeatedly defending his desire to force women to use our bodies the way he wants us to use them, irrespective of our consent.
In his statement explaining that he "misspoke," Akin calls rapists "the lowest of the low in our society," without a trace of irony. Personally, I'm really hard-pressed to see why I should be any less contemptuous of a man who sits at a big mahogany desk in Washington making decisions about my body without my consent than I should be of a man who used physical force to make decisions about my body without my consent.
Undoubtedly, the good Congressman would be outraged and horrified to be compared, even obliquely, to sexual predators.
As well he should be. I am horrified to have to make it. But anyone who holds the position that zie should be able to legislate away my bodily autonomy and supersede my consent about what happens to my body shouldn't be too goddamned surprised by the comparison.
Lowest of the low indeed.
* * *
Last night, when we were talking about this guy and his shitty comments, Iain snarled, "What century is this guy from?" To which I replied, "Considering that throughout history, conquering men would rape women with the specific intent of impregnating them, I would say it's a very modern convention to indulge the pretense that violent rape cannot result in pregnancy."
The Republican Party: Willfully less enlightened than raping marauders, in order to defend their anti-choice position.
* * *
So, yeah. Akin's a d-bag and his "science," such as it is, is demonstrable garbage. (Good thing he sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Congress obviously has the best men on the case!) He's promoting faulty theories by doctors who should lose their licenses if they're not wholly constructed fantasies who practice medicine exclusively in Akin's terrible brainpan.
He's also a rape apologist.
Setting apart some category of "legitimate rape," as opposed to all the rest of the rape, which isn't really legitimate, presumably because the victims "asked for it," in some way or another, or because it was only sorta rape, by virtue of the victim being a sex worker or a seductive child or her rapist's wife, is classic rape apologia.
Men like Akin don't define rape by the lack of consent. They define rape by its victims. They have a detailed vision of the perfect rape victim: A traditionally pretty young, virtuous, straight, cis, white Christian woman, who was raped by a stranger in the bushes while she was walking home from her job as a nurse or a teacher or some other caregiving profession in her conservative wardrobe and sensible shoes. She was left suitably bruised to prove her rape, but not so much that it will permanently ruin her luminous beauty. A perfect victim of the most terrible crime.
Women who are coming home from bars a little bit (or a lot) tipsy; woman who are wearing revealing clothing; women who are sluts; women who are unattractive; women of color; trans* women; lesbians; women who are sex workers; wives; girlfriends; coworkers; acquaintances; girls on the brink of womanhood—these are women who are not "legitimately" raped. That is not a comprehensive list.
These women, the ones who deviate from Akin & Co.'s detailed vision of the perfect rape victim, most of us, are not "legitimately" raped. We "cry" rape. We "claim" rape. We are torn to shreds in the public sphere for failing to conform to the model of the perfect, acceptable victim of legitimate rape.
We're the women who try to ruin good men's lives by making vindictive accusations.
Akin claims to have empathy for us. What a terrible fucking joke. No one who has a modicum of empathy for survivors of rape tacitly silences us by setting apart as "legitimate" only the rapes that virtually never happen.
You can donate to Senator Claire McCaskill here.
Open Thread
Hosted by a vintage Shure Microphone.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by voice amplification equipment. Coincidentally, this week was also the launch of Flyover Feminism (and I swear to Jeebus Melissa didn't tell me about it before it launched!), which is another great way to get your voice heard.
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!
Today in Paul Ryan Stands in Front of Something
Here's some news you may or may not care about. Please enjoy it, or do not enjoy it, as you see fit. Whatever makes you happy. Have a lovely day. Or evening.
Greg Sargent: Romney Advisers Confirm It: We're Running a 'Just Trust Me' Campaign.
Harsha Nahata: Analysis: Paul Ryan Voted to Add $6.8 Trillion to the Federal Debt.
Zeke Miller: Obama Campaign Launches First Ad Attacking Romney-Ryan on Medicare.
Barack Obama, Nerd-in-Chief
Have you been wondering how President Obama would answer the perennial nerd question, "What superpower do you want?"
OF COURSE YOU HAVE!
Fortunately, this vital query has been asked and answered:
"It's kind of a weird superpower, but if I had something that I could immediately wish for, I would love to be able to speak any language," the president said.Sometimes, I do kinda love the guy.
"Now, that's a weird superpower—it might not come in handy to rescue folks from a burning building," he added. "But I've always wished that whatever country I went to, wherever I met somebody who spoke a different language, that I could right away speak their language."
"I'm a big believer in making connections with people. But if it's like an 'Avengers' superpower, then I think the whole flying thing is pretty good," he said. "You can't beat just kinda swooping around. That looks like it'd be fun."
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Movie Quotes. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
This is a real thing in the world.
[Content Note: Violent rhetoric; racism.]
Above, an image of a billboard in Elkhart, Indiana, paid for by a local Tea Party outfit, which features an image of Navy Seals accompanied by the text: "The Navy Seals removed one threat to America...the voters must remove the other."
We the People of Marshall and Fulton counties, the Tea Partiers responsible for the billboard, are naturally asserting, despite the fact that the billboard clearly compares President Obama to Osama bin Laden and tacitly suggests voters should "remove" President Obama the way Navy Seals "removed" bin Laden, that it's simply a Get Out the Vote initiative.
Uh-huh.
In the Elkhart Truth, local Tom Butler says if the group intends to encourage voting, then "that's what they should say. They're adding militaristic jingoism." Excellent point, Tom Butler!
I don't guess I need to point out that conflating President Obama with an Islamic terrorist and saying he's an equivalent threat to the nation is not only wildly wrong and profoundly inappropriate, but also a racist dog-whistle. Where the dog-whistle has been replaced with a megaphone.
[H/T to Digby.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda is a playful cat. She is talkative and silly and irascible and loves to play with toys. When she was younger, she would play fetch for hours with a balled up piece of tinfoil. But nothing, and I mean nothing, brings out the ferocious play-cat in Tils like a piece of ribbon. She will play with a string or a bungee or a bit of rope, but she goes absolutely wild for ribbons.
Recently, Iain bought me a little gifty which came wrapped in a yellow ribbon. I gave it to Matilda, who naturally went bananas. This video is after I'd already been playing with her for probably half an hour straight.
Video Description: Matilda sits next to me on the couch, batting and grabbing and biting at a piece of yellow ribbon I'm dangling at her. When she manages to get it away, I reach for it, and she nips at my hand in its defense, even though she wants me to grab it and keep playing. She rolls around goofily. When I let her keep the ribbon, she plays with it a little on her own, but looks at me plaintively to KEEP PLAYING! Then she turns away pitiably. The video ends.
I played with her with that thing for probably another hour. For days, she carried it around like it was a magical scepter. Eventually, it started getting manky, and Iain threw it away. She promptly tore a pink ribbon handle off a gift bag that was in my office, lol.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by jade.
Recommended Reading:
Renee: The Microaggressions We Live With [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion and description of sexual assault.]
Tom: Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against [Content Note: The post at this link includes disablist language and a reference to torture.]
Tracie: Mother of Transgender Toddler Gets a Lesson in Love [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of transphobia and gender essentialism; it also makes brief reference to the "trapped in another body" frame, which some find objectionable.]
Jeremy: No labels. No claims. No editorializing. Just Tony Perkins' record. [Content Note: The post at this link is a compilation of FRC's Tony Perkins gross homophobic quotes and policy endorsements.]
Steve: Just Erase the Word
Latoya: Eva Longoria Talks Social Justice in Lucky
Angela: Fat as Rebellion: My Fat Says "Fuck You" [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of fat bias, misogyny, and disordered eating.]
Andrew: Geraldo Asks Whether Homeland Security Is Controlled by 'Lesbian Cabal'
Angry Asian Man: Seoul Sausage on The Great Food Truck Race
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Quote of the Day
"We broadly asked people in the private sector to think of serving in government as a form of public service."—Bob White, a longtime friend of Mitt Romney who chaired his gubernatorial transition in Massachusetts, in an interview about Romney's presidential transition plan if he wins the election.
It's so cool that they want "people in the private sector" (i.e. corporate executives and board members) to be key parts of their administration, just like every other stinking administration including the present one. That's working out really great for America.
Yay for all of us, I'm sure.
But the best part of that quote, for my money (PUN INTENDED), is how asking corporate d-bags to write the rules for the nation is framed as an appeal to their altruistic natures. Ha ha sure. Because they never reap any personal benefits from making decisions like whether companies in which they hold significant stock shares get massive contracts from the federal government. Definitely not. They FOR SURE divest all those potential profit-making opportunities, and then absolutely don't sail out public service into seven-figure "advisory" sinecures.
Ahem.
[H/T to Shaker Brunocerous.]
