Shakesville

Question of the Day

What is your earliest memory of positive interaction with an animal?

(By which I mean a non-human animal.)

My earliest memory full-stop is crawling behind my parents' couch after the white cat they had when I was born. In fact, my first word was "cat."

I also have very early memories of feeding and petting our neighbors' horse, Todie. I remember one time he bit my finger (accidentally, of course), and I tried so hard not to cry, because I was afraid if my mom knew he'd hurt me, I wouldn't be able to see him anymore.

image of me as a toddler feeding a brown and white pony at a fence

Yes, that's my wee diaper-sagged ass feeding carrots to Todie. I was about thirteen months old in that photo, which was taken the summer of 1975. My mom and I used to walk down to the pasture, which was maybe 100 yards from our house, and it always seemed like the longest walk in the world, because I couldn't wait to see Todie, and his small companion pony Princess.

[Originally posted October 12, 2011.]

2FA, #20

comic strip in which Liss & Deeky are having the following conversation: Deeky: Ever watch Shipping Wars? Liss: No. What channel? Deeky: Arts & Entertainment. Obvs. It's hilarious. Everyone's always talking about loads. Liss: Found it. [seven minutes passes] After seven minutes of this, I'd never trust any of these bozos to ship my turds down the toilet. Deeky: LOL! Right?

From an actual text conversation this weekend. Which, for the record, ended with my saying, "I am angry this show exists," to which Deeky replied, "LOLOLOL my work here is done."

Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Racist imagery; Christian supremacy.]

"I know you are hearing a lot recently about whether or not these 11 million individuals become legal, that these are 11 million voters that automatically vote for a democrat or a liberal. Don't drink the Koolaid! How do I know that? Because 7 out of 10 individuals that come to Christ, that have a religious conversion experience to Christianity in America today, are of Hispanic descent. …We have to put some salsa sauce on the top of the conservative movement!"—Sam Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Road to the Majority Conference" this weekend.

Runner-up quote, care of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, at the same conference: "There is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide." Okay, player.

Honorable mention goes to Jeb Bush: "Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity."

That sounds like quite a conference!

On Patton Oswalt's "Rape Joke Epiphany"

[Content Note: Rape culture; rape-related "humor."]

Everyone in the multiverse (and thanks to each and every one of you) has emailed me about comedian Patton Oswalt's "reversal" on rape jokes, which he published Friday, buried at the end of a long post about professional thievery, heckling, and rape jokes. Because the subject of rape jokes is one on which I've spilled a lot of digital ink, a lot of people are quite reasonably wondering what I think about it.

Well, I have a few thoughts.

I'm relieved—for all the reasons that have been well-documented in this space—that there is a popular comedian who (ostensibly) won't be telling rape jokes anymore. At least not ones that make survivors a punchline.

What follows will inevitably be interpreted, by those inclined to take it that way, as the insufficient gratitude of an angry feminist who is never satisfied, which I cannot control. But Oswalt says he is listening, and I see no reason not to take him at his word and offer my criticism.

Because there is a big hole in the middle of his piece—a big hole where no acknowledgment of the rape jokes he has told and an apology for those harmful jokes should be. If he now understands, as is his assertion, the harm caused by the telling of rape jokes that normalize rape and potentially trigger survivors, surely a meaningful reversal must include accountability.

He talks about Daniel Tosh's rape joke, and his reactions to it, and his defenses of rape jokes. But he does not say, straightforwardly, "I told rape jokes. And I am sorry I did that, now that I see the harm that they cause." Instead, he merely offers, "I'm a man. I get to be wrong. And I get to change."

And there is some bit of dishonesty in his claims that he never really got it until now, because at the end of an extended sequence in Comedians of Comedy, in which he assumes the persona of a murderer and rapist, talking to the camera/audience as if to his victim, he falls out of character and says, "Please cut the camera off. I just creeped myself out." It isn't that Patton Oswalt wasn't familiar with the rape culture previous to this moment: He was, like all privileged men, intimately familiar with its tropes and narratives. It's just that he was acting as a purveyor and defender of the rape culture. He was able to identify with rapists, but not survivors.

There is no neutral in the rape culture.

To this point, he was not merely insensitive out of ignorance; he was an agent of the rape culture who told jokes upholding that culture and who tried to discredit critics using well-worn tactics deployed by defenders of the rape culture. He says he was doing it as a comic—"This was about censorship, and the limits of comedy, and the freedom to create and fuck up while you hone what you create."—but, irrespective of the motivations and context of his deployment of silencing strategies, he was effectively (if not intentionally) doing it as a useful tool of the rape culture.

More is owed than "whoops."

I am a survivor of rape, and I have held myself accountable for perpetuating the rape culture: "I have done it. I have perpetuated the rape culture. We have all done it. We were born into it, and we were all socialized to have contempt for consent." One of many examples.

There is no shame in acknowledging we have expressed hostility for consent in one way or another. This is how trust is restored and maintained.

But Oswalt never quite gets there.

And while I certainly appreciate that Oswalt has has some change of heart and mind, this is A Big Problem:

There is a collective consciousness that can detect the presence (and approach) of something good or bad, in society or the world, before any hard "evidence" exists. It's happening now with the concept of "rape culture." Which, by the way, isn't a concept. It's a reality. I'm just not the one who's going to bring it into focus. But I've read enough viewpoints, and spoken to enough of my female friends (comedians and non-comedians) to know it isn't some vaporous hysteria, some false meme or convenient catch-phrase.

There is only no evidence of the rape culture if one discredits the lived experience of millions and millions of women (and men) who experience the prolific manifestations of the rape culture every goddamn day of our lives. Not to put too fine a point on it, but only in rape cases are victims of the crime not considered reliable eyewitnesses to their own victimization. Discrediting women as unreliable narrators, setting aside "evidence" as something that only Totally Objective Arbiters (ahem) can assess after filtering information through their Validity Prisms, is a key tool of the rape culture.

I realize Oswalt set "evidence" in scare quotes, but he follows it immediately by a reassurance that he has Objectively Determined After Speaking to Women that the rape culture isn't "some vaporous hysteria, some false meme or convenient catch-phrase." As opposed to, I dunno, all the other stuff feminists whinge about. Like the rape culture. Until he decided it wasn't.

Two of the most crucial means by which the rape culture will be dismantled are: Accountability and empowering all women (not just the Exceptional Women in one's life) as credible reporters on our lived experiences. I wish I had seen some trace of each in this well-circulated epiphany.

No cookies today, I'm afraid.

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by catnip.

Recommended Reading:

Declan: NSA Spying Flap Extends to Contents of U.S. Phone Calls [Via Susie.]

Ian: Al Gore: NSA Surveillance Programs Violate the Constitution

Grace: When Dudebros Protest Too Much [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism and misogyny.]

Dr. Kamela Heyward-Rotimi reviews Sikivu Hutchinson's Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels.

Janet: Not All Memoirs Are Created Equal: The Gatekeeping of Trans Women of Color's Stories [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of transmisogyny and abuse. Via Trudy.]

Maya: Cool Street Art Alert: "Women do not owe you their time or conversation."

Kyler: Children's Museum Demands Apology for Outcry Over Telling Gay Couple They're Not a Family [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of homophobia and victim-blaming.]

Nicole: The Self Care Corner: Intentional Boredom

Finally: Yesterday, Pam Spaulding posted yesterday that she's shuttering Pam's House Blend after nine years. I met Pam back when we were just blog commenters, before either of us started our own blogs months apart in 2004. She was an early confidante and ally, and there were a lot of times, early in the beginnings of this space, that it would have been difficult to keep going without her support and friendship. We started the now-defunct Big Brass Blog together; we gave each other technical and design help (Pam gave me crucial assistance in basic HTML; I didn't even know how to code a link when I started); and, although we both got busy with building our own individual spaces, I still read PHB every day, and Pam Spaulding will always be my original bloggrrl. I am in awe of the work she has done at Pam's House Blend, and all the contributions she's made to advancing LGBT rights and making sure marginalized voices are part of the nation's political conversation.

All the cheers for Pam Spaulding. ♥

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Adrian Zmed & The T-Birds: "Prowlin'"

America 2.0: State IDs and Facial Recognition

All your faces belong to us:

The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.

The facial databases have grown rapidly in recent years and generally operate with few legal safeguards beyond the requirement that searches are conducted for "law enforcement purposes." Amid rising concern about the National Security Agency's high-tech surveillance aimed at foreigners, it is these state-level facial-recognition programs that more typically involve American citizens.

The most widely used systems were honed on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq as soldiers sought to identify insurgents. The increasingly widespread deployment of the technology in the United States has helped police find murderers, bank robbers and drug dealers, many of whom leave behind images on surveillance videos or social-media sites that can be compared against official photo databases.

But law enforcement use of such facial searches is blurring the traditional boundaries between criminal and non-criminal databases, putting images of people never arrested in what amount to perpetual digital lineups. The most advanced systems allow police to run searches from laptop computers in their patrol cars and offer access to the FBI and other federal authorities.

Such open access has caused a backlash in some of the few states where there has been a public debate. As the databases grow larger and increasingly connected across jurisdictional boundaries, critics warn that authorities are developing what amounts to a national identification system — based on the distinct geography of each human face.

...Thirty-seven states now use facial-recognition technology in their driver's-license registries, a Washington Post review found. At least 26 of those allow state, local or federal law enforcement agencies to search — or request searches — of photo databases in an attempt to learn the identities of people considered relevant to investigations.

Terrific!

Naturally, Indiana—my state of residence—is one of the 26 states which have facial-recognition systems and let police search or request searches. Indiana is also one of the states that has a voter ID law, so if you want to vote, you have to have a photo ID. Cool.

When I recently had to get my driver's license renewed, I wasn't allowed to wear my glasses for the photo (which isn't new), despite the fact I always wear glasses, and they were way more particular about the way my hair fell: It couldn't even touch my eyebrows. I said, "This feels like a mugshot." Said a BMV employee with a nervous chuckle, "It kind of is."

In The News

[Content note: Racism, homophobia, misogyny]

Adrian Zmed Wants You To Know All About This Stuff:

A study has revealed that gay marriage has no impact on opposite-sex marriage rates. Whut? This needed to be studied? Okay!

Pakistan ranks second in the world, after similarly gay-intolerant Kenya, for volume of searches for the search term "gay sex pics." Okay!

Also, follow my Twitter for "gay sex pics." (Please don't follow me.)

Speaking of the man of steel: Warner Bros. Studios is aggressively marketing their new film to Christian pastors and producing special film trailers that focus on the faith-friendly angles of the movie.

So, basically, the whole Zimmerman family is a nightmare.

Here is a translation of a bill that's in the process of approval in the Brazilian Congress that creates the Statute of the Unborn.

Japan's Eco Cycle Anti-Seismic Underground Bicycle Park is super neat.

A new New Zealand law might allow for low risk designer drugs. Get your e-shrooms on, Hobbits!

One person was killed and several others were injured in an explosion at a south Louisiana chemical plant, only miles from where another blast the previous day led to the deaths of two plant workers.

Whenever someone mentions Fox and Friends I almost immediately think of Fassbinder. Is that normal?

Daily Dose of Cute

image of Matilda the Cat looking up into the ether

Matilda sees a ghost.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

Jess and Liss Talk About Mike Tyson

[Content Note: Rape culture; domestic abuse; assault.]

Jessica Luther, aka scATX, aka my friend Jess, does a weekly podcast for her sports blog, Power Forward. This week, she interviewed me for a conversation about The Redemption of Mike Tyson, following his appearance at the Tonys and a new profile at ESPN.

We talk about a whole bunch of stuff: Mike Tyson, redemption narratives, white savior tropes, rape culture narratives, the dehumanization of all-sinner and all-saint stories, media responsibility, cultural priorities, and pigeons.

It's a really great conversation, and I hope you'll listen to it.

Also! Subscribe to Jess' podcast generally, because it's superb. You don't have to be a sports fan. Just a fan of interesting conversations.

Your American News Media

Don't ever let it be said the US doesn't have the best news anywhere. The greats of political science and whatnot have been making the rounds. I mean, just making the fuck out of em.

Deep thinker Russell Brand (yes, that Russell Brand) discussed the NSA Scandal on CNN. Obviously.

Meanwhile, Lou Ferrigno gave his opinion on Edward Snowden to Fox News. No doy.

That's almost too serious, right? So CNN decided to lighten things up:

Game of Phones! Get it? You get it. We all get it.
[H/T to Eastsidekate for the bottom photo.]

Message of Steel

image of Henry Cavill as Superman in 'Man of Steel'

[Content Note: Spoilers for the new Superman movie, Man of Steel.]

So, when I first saw teasers for the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, about a thousand years ago, I had zero interest in seeing the film. I loved the Christopher Reeve films when I was a kid, but Superman has never been an especially compelling character for me, because he's too powerful. Who would win in a battle between Superman and literally anyone else in the universe? Superman. I get it. He's really, really super.

(No need to inform me of Superman's canon losses. I know!)

But Iain wanted to see it, so I went along, with pretty low expectations. And I liked it! I liked it a lot.

(Even despite the heavy-handed Jesus imagery. Superman has been sent as a babe to save humankind and be raised by mortal parents while being guided by the spirit of his otherworldly father? I get it. He's really, really like Jesus! And I got it even without the stained glass Jesus and crucifixion poses!)

I liked the extended opening seen on Krypton, and I thought the Kryptonian aesthetic was well-developed and visually interesting. Lots of cool '70s design references, but with a strong, updated viewpoint. I liked the story. I liked the casting of all the supporting characters. (When Christopher Meloni came onscreen, Iain did the Law & Order "Dun-duhn!" under his breath and totally made me laugh.) I liked that Lois Lane was a Pulitzer Prize winner. I liked Michael Shannon as Zod. I liked the implicit environmental message. I liked the way that Henry Cavill played Superman: It was an understated performance, and he didn't get too angsty or too steely. (Pun intended.)

I liked the scene of Superman as a boy, being overwhelmed by all the information coming at him at once because of his x-ray vision and super-hearing and all his other super-senses. I liked his having to learn how to filter and focus. It seems like that might be a very meaningful scene for a lot of neuroatypical kids and kids with various information processing disorders.

There are things I didn't like, too. The dialogue after Superman's and Lois' first kiss is terrible. The fight in Metropolis goes a building too far. Did I mention Superman is Jesus? But there was a lot more to like than not like.

Inevitably, because director Zack Snyder has tried, with dubious success, to make a feminist action film before, here has been much discussion about whether Man of Steel is a feminist film, and most of that discussion has naturally centered around the primary female action characters: Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Faora-Ul (Antje Traue), both of whom are pretty great.

I've read fewer examinations of Martha Kent, played spectacularly by Diane Lane. Which is interesting, because the character is more fully realized here than in any other film in the franchise. Ditto Lara Lor-Van, played equally well by Ayelet Zurer. The disinterest in the mother characters as part of feminist critiques is a whole other post unto itself, I suppose.

Anyway. In the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and thirteen, I am pretty damn reluctant to call any film "feminist" that can't pass the Bechdel Test. And Man of Steel doesn't. If there are two female characters who talk to each other at all, it's not significant enough to remember. Or matter. (EDIT: I remembered Lois and Faora do have a chat about a breathing apparatus.) There's no scene in Man of Steel that even rises to the level of Queen Gorgo's ultimate act in Snyder's 300.

Still. The thing about Man of Steel is that is that Superman has a choice. He can choose to reveal himself, or not. He can choose to trust humankind, or not. Humankind can choose to trust him, or not. Zod does not have a choice. He was engineered to be a warrior, and he was born to be a warrior, and he was raised to be a warrior, and that is all he knows.

In one key scene, after Superman has chosen to reveal himself, members of the US military choose to trust him, slowly lowering their guns. In another key scene, Zod explains he cannot make any other choice but to defend the survival of his people at any cost.

The word choice is used a lot. And, in the end, choice—meaningful choice—is what makes the difference. Choice is the ultimate evolution. Choice saves the world.

CHOICE SAVES THE WORLD.

In the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and thirteen, in the middle of a raging war on agency that intersects across multiple populations of marginalized people, I am pretty damn reluctant to not call any film "feminist" that centers the importance of choice.

So is Man of Steel feminist? No. And yes.

Did you see it? What did you think?

Today in Rape Culture

[Content Note: Descriptions of sexual assault; victim-blaming.]

On Friday night, two suburban Chicago firefighters were arrested after trying to rape an incapacitated woman at a party. Here is what happened, according to Assistant State's Attorney Bridget O'Brien:

Haas and Buhle were at a party early Friday morning at a home on the 3900 block of West 109th Street in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood. The victim and her boyfriend were visiting from out of town and didn't know Haas or Buhle. The woman had too much to drink and her boyfriend took her upstairs to lie down in a bedroom. He stayed with her for a while then left the bedroom door open and went back to the party. Haas and Buhle allegedly told the other guests they were leaving and went upstairs. Later, the victim's boyfriend went to check on his girlfriend and found Haas standing in front of the now-closed bedroom door.
The boyfriend opened the door and allegedly saw Buhle in a "push-up stance" on top of the victim. Buhle's pants were down and the previously clothed victim was naked from the waist down. The boyfriend screamed and Buhle tried to flee, but he was caught and detained until police arrived and arrested him in the early morning hours Friday.

And here is what happened according to the accused rapist:

Buhle told police the victim "had been making eyes at me," and had invited him upstairs. He also told police she had removed her own pants.

I have previously observed that no one is more intimately familiar with the rape culture, and how to exploit it to his advantage, than a rapist. Here, despite a witness and a party full of people who detained him because they knew he had tried to rape an unconscious woman while his friend stood guard at the door, Buhle still works the same old rape apologia: She was asking for it; she wanted it; she consented with her eyes. And when she asserts otherwise? Just another case of He Said; She Said.

No one works the rape culture like a rapist.

Fortunately, it doesn't sound like Assistant State's Attorney Bridget O'Brien is inclined to let him get away with it.

[H/T to Jordan.]

These Chicagoans Matter, Too

[Content Note: Gun violence.]

Over the weekend in Chicago, 46 people were shot, 7 of whom were killed. [Video begins playing automatically at link.] The youngest of those killed was a teenage boy.

Much of the violence happened in areas of Chicago that have gang activity. All of the victims identified so far are young men of color. One of the dead was shot by police, after, according to police, pointing "a 9-millimeter handgun in their direction after bailing from a moving car and falling."

These facts do not make for a narrative that invites empathy in a culture that justifies lack of investment and compassion for certain parts of the city on the basis that they are inherent, irrevocably violent. We justify neglect of communities with endemic impoverishment and lack of opportunity by pointing to evidence of impoverishment and lack of opportunity as supposed evidence of fundamental flaws intrinsic to the community, rather than the inevitable result of putting fairytales about bootstraps where money, education, jobs, and basic human respect should be.

Multiple deaths from multiple incidents of gun violence also don't make for easy narratives about "lone gunmen" who are "crazy," who act in a void outside of culture. Multiple deaths from multiple incidents of gun violence indict our culture of violence, indict our inaction and apathy, and thus we look away.

There's no one on the news saying the victims of gun violence in Chicago are angels. They get caveats:

Social worker Emily Runyan, who lived in the neighborhood and befriended Rivera's family, was recently working to enroll Rivera in the city's One Summer Chicago teen jobs program.

"I don't want to memorialize him because he made some bad choices, but Kevin was a kind, quiet and sensitive kid," Runyan said. "I truly believe he wanted more for his life, but was a victim of many things."

Kevin Rivera was 16 years old.

These Chicagoans matter, too. They matter to the people who loved them. They matter to those of us who don't value victims of gun violence by how much privilege they have. They should matter to their country.

Open Thread

Hosted by toast.

Open Thread

Hosted by a short-eared owl.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by owlz. (Typo and I'm leaving it.)

Open Thread

Hosted by a thoughtful spotted owl.

The Virtual Pub Is Open

image of a pub Photoshopped to be named 'The Angsty Greyhound Inn'

[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!)

"I had this amazing horse in my life, and I needed to be there for him like he was there for me."

[Content Note: Injury; illness.]

Do you want to read a nice story about a retired racehorse named Gotta Good Feeling and the woman who rescued him? Well, here you go. And grab the tissues.

Tweet of the Day

My first #selfie w my mom @HillaryClinton back stage at #CGIAmerica. #ProudDaughter pic.twitter.com/84sEBHsRGn
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) June 14, 2013

The image is a picture of Chelsea Clinton and Hillary Clinton taking a picture of themselves; both of them are grinning broadly.

LOVE.

[H/T to Alison.]