Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker TheDeviantE: "Who is your favorite 'unknown' (or 'under-appreciated') figure from history (aka dead) and why?"
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by flattened pennies.
Recommended reading:
Tressie: Bulletproof Big Mommas: Black Women Cannot Stop Bullets #atl [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of gun violence, and dehumanizing racist/misogynist narratives.]
Sharona: Results of Congressional "Fishing Expedition" Show Abortion Is Already Highly Regulated, Overwhelmingly Safe
Brittany: You Have No Idea [Content Note: The post at this link describes feelings experienced by the author and many other survivors of sexual violence.]
Flavia: Some Thoughts about Sexual Normativity in Food Writing [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of heterocentrism, ablism, and food withholding.]
Alan: American Workers Have Seen a "Lost Decade" in Wage Growth
FMF News: Indonesian Official Proposes Virginity Test for Access to Education [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of misogyny and sexual assault.]
Jamilah: The Washington, D.C., Football Team Didn't Exactly Approve This Shirt [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of racism and Native appropriation and racist/appropriative imagery.]
And last but not least! I feel a little weird putting this in the blogaround, because there is something very nice about me personally in it (thank you, Jess! I love you!), but I think everyone here is pretty well aware that: 1. Jessica Luther and I are friends; and 2. Jessica Luther is super fucking awesome and a fierce activist and generally amazing. So please know I am linking this because of her, not because she mentions me.
Danielle Nelson interviews Jessica Luther: Listen, Fight and Grow a Thick Skin. Read it read it read it!!!
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
The Onion Fails Again, Or Why Sexual Abuse Is Not a Joke
by Shaker Mary, who can be found fighting the good fight on Twitter: @OHTheMaryD.
[Content Note: Rape jokes; misogynist slur; discussion of sexual violence statistics.]
On Tuesday, August 20th, The Onion ran a piece titled, "Adolescent Girl Reaching Age Where She Starts Exploring Stepfather's Body." Yes, it is as horrible as you think it is. I refuse to link to the original article, but here's the gist:
"It can be awkward and even a little scary for an adolescent girl when she experiences all these strange new feelings and starts to notice the sexual desires of her mother's husband…"In trying to use satire to critique the way the media covers sex abuse cases, The Onion focused on a fictional victim, sexualized young girls, and missed the mark completely. This can be added to the list of failures from a publication that thought it was the height of satire to call a 9-year-old Black girl a "cunt".
[…]
"But it's all part of growing up, and she should know that she is taking a very important step in life. It won't be long before her childhood is gone forever." Denton added that if the eighth-grader is confused or troubled by such experiences, she should try talking to friends her age who are going through the exact same thing.
A 13-year-old in a sexual relationship with an adult is nothing to joke about. Incest is a very real and hellish experience that far too many people either have or are currently living through and to satirize that is not only offensive, it's disgusting and dangerous.
The rape and sexual abuse of children is not a joke.
It's not a joke when, according to the Administration for Children and Families, 18.5% of 9- to 11-year-olds, 26.3% of 12- to 14-year-olds, and 21.8% of 15- to 17-year-olds are sexually abused (these are conservative estimates, since sexual abuse is one of the most underreported crimes).
It's not a joke when, according to the American Psychological Association, 30% of the perpetrators of child sexual abuse are family members and the presence of a stepfather in the home doubles the risk of sexual victimization for girls.
It's not a joke when children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse then non-disabled children.
We live in a society where news reporters go on national TV and lament the lost "promising futures" of convicted rapists and say very little about the teenage girl who was brutalized by them. Where, in a small town in Indiana, a pregnant 14-year-old is called a "slut" and a "whore" by her neighbors just because she's a rape victim.
We, as a society, already fail to treat rape and sexual assault/abuse claims with the gravity they deserve, continually shifting the blame off the perpetrators and blaming the victim. We have no business satirizing something that is already not taken seriously.
Shakers Are Neat
I just got back from lunch with Shakers Talonas and The_Great_Indoors, who are visiting relatives in the area. We had an excellent time. I love meeting Shakers whom I've known for years, but never met. Which is weird. But you know what I mean.
Thank you so much for lunch, Talonas and The_Great_Indoors! It was lovely to meet you.
Shakers are neat.
Daily Dose of Cute
Yesterday, while I was chatting on the phone with Spudsy, I managed to snap a couple of pictures of Tilsy that show off her goofy side. Don't let the regal photos fool you: This is her true personality!
"What?"
lol this cat
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In The News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
[Content Note: Guns] The NRA has amassed a database of tens of millions of the nation's gun owners, while publicly advocating against a government registry. Ha ha whooooooops! "That database has been built through years of acquiring gun permit registration lists from state and county offices, gathering names of new owners from the thousands of gun-safety classes taught by NRA-certified instructors and by buying lists of attendees of gun shows, subscribers to gun magazines and more... NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam declined to discuss the group's name-gathering methods or what it does with its vast pool of data about millions of non-member gun owners. Asked what becomes of the class rosters for safety classes when instructors turn them in, he replied: 'That's not any of your business.'"
[CN: War] Syrian opposition activists report that chemical weapons attacks delivered via rockets launched at the Damascus suburbs have killed or injured hundreds of people.
Whistleblower Pfc B. Manning has been sentenced to 35 years. Laila Lalami observes: "That's 35 years more than the people who started the Iraq War." Tim Ireland observes it's "more than 3 times the maximum sentence faced by anyone involved in Abu Ghraib torture."
[CN: Violence; incitement] Michigan Republican Representative Kerry Bentivolio says it would be "a dream come true" to see President Obama impeached. As Shaker Mod aforalpha noted here, these calls for impeachment do not exist in a void: "Someone tried to send the president a ricin-laced letter. Someone else shot a window in the residential area of the white house. There was a widely publicized foiled assassination plot. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. I think the repeated calls for impeachment represent a refusal to accept his legitimacy as president, which is harmful rhetoric that feeds the violent rage of those who would harm the president and his family."
Republicans can't handle the healthcare truth.
[CN: Rape culture] Dr. Phil is fucking terrible. Exhibit A: Tweeting yesterday: "If a girl is drunk, is it OK to have sex with her? Reply yes or no to @drphil #teensaccused."
A fundamentalist preacher chose THE PERFECT photo for the cover of his self-published ebook.
[CN: Racism] Obviously, conservatives have some terrific theories about the Obamas' new dog.
Bored and Strapped
[Content Note: Gun violence; death.]
Christopher Lane, a college baseball player from Australia going to school in Oklahoma, was out jogging while visiting his girlfriend's hometown when three teenage boys shot him in the back. Lane died of the gunshot(s).
Police Chief Danny Ford says Lane was randomly targeted by the teens who were "bored."
"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: 'There's our target,'" Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said, 'We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.'"The three teenagers, 15-year-old James Francis Edwards Jr., 16-year-old Chancey Allen Luna, and 17-year-old Michael Dewayne Jones, have been charged [note: video begins to play automatically at link] with first-degree murder (Edwards and Luna) and being an accessory after the fact and using a vehicle during the discharge of weapon (Jones).
He said they followed the 22-year-old Lane, a student from Melbourne attending college on a baseball scholarship, in a car and shot him in the back before driving off.
Ford told the television station KOCO in Oklahoma City that one of the teens said they shot Lane for "the fun of it."
My sincere condolences to Lane's family, friends, teammates, and coaches.
Everything about this case is terrible.
Last weekend, my old friend Todd was visiting, and we were talking with another old friend over drinks about all the stupid stuff we did as teenagers, because we grew up in a small midwestern town that provided absolutely nothing to do for teenagers. We didn't get into much trouble (the worst thing we ever did was put a slice of pizza in the town library's overnight return slot), but mostly that's because we found ways of amusing ourselves (making silly movies; obsessing over music) that didn't put us in the eyeline of bored cops. If we'd been more inclined to skateboard or do donuts in the K-Mart parking lot, we might have gotten ourselves into more trouble.
My point is, it's easy to get into trouble when you're a bored kid in a small town. Even when you don't have access to a gun.
I'm not saying the gun (allegedly) turned these kids into the sort of empathy-free nightmare zones who think murder is an acceptable pastime when you're bored. I'm saying that among a lot of bored teenagers in a lot of small towns, there are going to be some kids who treat that chronic boredom with troublemaking, and among them are going to be kids whose troublemaking includes violent behavior. So maybe enough with the easy access to guns.
ENOUGH.
Also She Has Cooties
[Content Note: Misogyny; ablist language.]
This article in the Washington Post explains why President Obama and his economic team favor the loathsome Larry Summers over the competent Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke at the Fed. You see, it turns out "there are some aspects of how she operates that are different from the qualities that Obama insiders favor."
It is definitely just a coincidence that many of those "aspects of how she operates" sound a lot like misogynist dog whistles.
And, gee, if anyone is wondering why it is that the economy is totally fucked up, maybe this has something to do with it:
A second, and related, reason that Yellen's leadership style isn't a great mesh with the Obamaites is also one of her strengths. She is always meticulously prepared, a careful and systematic thinker who chooses her words carefully. In a Fed policy committee meeting or a gathering of international central bankers, she typically scripts herself in advance and reads those prepared comments.Who wants some boring old prepared lady when they're used to cool flyboys buzzing the tower? Or whatever.
She is methodical, not manic. And the prevailing style of the White House insiders advising on the decision leans a bit more toward manic. Geithner, for example, jumps from meeting to meeting, from hearing to phone call, without so much as a set of talking points to work from.
See also: Echidne and Digby. Atrios is succinct.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Nice_Shirt: "What business or service doesn't exist now (to your knowledge) but totally should?"
Blah Blah Blah
I'm very interested in what Bill Kristol has to say about Sarah Palin's political fortunes, especially because he is definitely right about everything always.
Photo of the Day
Just a perfect picture of actresses Amy Poehler and Aubrey Plaza gazing at each other at a premiere last night. I cannot look at that picture and feel anything but happy.
The Backdrop of My Womanhood
[Content Note: Misogyny; violence; self-harm; hostility to privacy, agency, and consent. NB: I am speaking about my personal experience as a woman in this piece. Other women's experiences may be different; some men and nonbinary people may share some of these experiences, which are not limited to womanhood.]
Today, I have read three stories about how USian women and other people with uteri can perform medical or surgical abortions on themselves, or one another, if they cannot access abortion clinics. These are stories that once upon a time I never imagined I would read in my lifetime, except as part of a historical chronicle of the dark days before Roe.
I fear becoming pregnant. I fear needing and being unable to access abortion, even if my life depends on it.
This fear is part of the backdrop of my womanhood.
Today, I read this piece by Pamela Jones about closing down her website because of digital invasions into our privacy. She excerpts Janna Malamud Smith's Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life, which argues that privacy is central to human dignity. And then she says: "I can't stay online personally without losing my humanness, now that I know that ensuring privacy online is impossible."
I fear the invasions of my privacy, when so much of my life is lived online. When so much of my work challenges the very encroachments upon our privacy, whether via surveillance or the denial of bodily autonomy.
This fear is part of the backdrop of my womanhood.
What creeping may be going on through the back doors of my virtual properties is, on the average day, the least of my concerns. I am primarily consumed with threats of violence being done to me, with my address and phone numbers and photos of my home being posted online, with orchestrated campaigns of trouble-making in comments, with my photo being misused by bigots or turned into a pornographic joke or threat or both. The harassment that is the cost of being a woman online, which sometimes makes me fearful.
This fear is part of the backdrop of my womanhood.
I am advised, by people who imagine that rape prevention is the responsibility of potential victims and survivors, that I must be careful what I wear, how I wear it, how I carry yourself, where I walk, when I walk there, with whom I walk, whom I trust, what I do, where I do it, with whom I do it, what I drink, how much I drink, whether I make eye contact, if I'm alone, if I'm with a stranger, if I'm in a group, if I'm in a group of strangers, if it's dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if I'm carrying something, how I carry it, what kind of shoes I'm wearing in case I have to run, what kind of purse I carry, what jewelry I wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people I sleep with, what kind of people I sleep with, who my friends are, to whom I give my number, who's around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment or condo or house where I can see who's at the door before they can see me, to check before I open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch my back always be aware of my surroundings and never let my guard down for a moment lest I be sexually assaulted and if I am and didn't follow all the rules it's my fault, which I already know firsthand from having been raped and seeing about 1 in 6 of my female friends and about 1 in 10 of my male friends going through it and getting victim-blamed, at least once and frequently more.
I am persistently terrorized by the ever-present possibility of sexual assault that I am tasked with preventing and the knowledge, the first-hand knowledge branded into my memory like a scar that never quite heals from the sizzle of the iron that left it, that if I am harmed, there will likely be no one there to advocate for justice on my behalf, no matter how loudly I shout nor how deeply I dig my own fingernails into my skin to escape the agony of injustice and neglect for a blissful moment of self-directed pain.
I fear being hurt again, and I fear being a failure at surviving.
This fear is part of the backdrop of my womanhood.
I fear being denied medical care, being misdiagnosed, being refused by emergency crews, being told I must lose weight as a condition of care, because I am fat. I fear dying because of fat hatred.
This fear is part of the backdrop of my womanhood.
These are not my only fears. I fear hurting people, I fear letting people down, I fear war being waged in my name, I fear climate change and drought and losing someone I love and choking on a sandwich. Lots of stuff.
But these are the fears that feel permanently attached to my womanhood, because of entrenched oppressions that privileged people refuse to let go.
And I want to share them, I want to say that I am afraid sometimes, because I want the people with those privileges to know at what expense to the rest of us they maintain them, and because I want the people with my marginalizations (and others I do not share) to know that they are not alone when they feel afraid, too.
I'm not fucking stone, but you don't have to be stone to be strong.
* * *
For all my friends and compatriots, known and unknown to me, who need strength in this moment.
Quote of the Day
"It's a good question."—Republican Senator Ted Cruz, in response to being asked why President Obama hasn't been impeached yet. Because he is a genius and a paragon of decency, like everyone else in his party.
[Note: I know all about the Ted Cruz "I'll renounce my Canadian citizenship" stuff, but let's set that aside here. Birtherism is bullshit and conservative birthers are hypocrites. Settled. The end.]
Pot Is Legal in Washington State Now...
...so why wouldn't a Seattle cop helpfully offer directions to Hempfest to a bunch of lost stoners?
Make sure you scroll all the way down to see Seattle PD's Twitter exchange with @JMZldrm.
[H/T to Misty.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelda lying half on my lap, as usual, snoozing contentedly while I scratch her chin. If I stop touching her for even a moment, her eyes come open and she gives me an aggrieved and desperate look, until I resume affection. Which of course I do, because how can I resist that face? And why would I want to?
Dudley lying beside his crate in a typically silly position, because he spilled the water that was inside his crate while playing with his rope toy inside the crate. Like ya do. Even though there is a whole house in which to play where you will not be knocking over water.
* * *
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
