Here we go!
Question of the Day
What do you hope to hear in President Obama's State of the Union address tonight?
Note: The State of the Union Open Thread will be published at 8:45 ET, 15 minutes before the address is scheduled to begin. See you then!
Invisibility is Not What I am Fighting For
by Shaker masculine_lady, who shares her home and life with her wife, three children, and a badass cat named Eartha Kitty.
[Content Note: Invisbilizing queer folks.]
This past Sunday, I saw this book in my church bookstore:
I don't really have a lot of info on the content; it's the title "myth" that I am so grumpy about. I want you to know that I am a Grade A Gay when you look at me. If you don't see queer me, you don't see me, and invisibility is not what I am fighting for.
I'm reminded of an interaction I had years ago, when I sat on a "raising awareness about the gays" panel. A woman came up to me afterward and said, "I would've never guessed that you were a...lesbian. You really can't tell by looking!" This was followed by a lot of reassurance that I was a perfectly lovely young lady. I bristled then, and I bristle now.
When you look at me, and you don't see that I am a lesbian, you aren't actually seeing me. You are seeing the version of me that you are comfortable seeing—the non-threatening, not politically queer version of me. You might see my lesbian family, with the good-looking kids and the house and the mini-van and the whatnot. But you do not see who I truly am if you are unwilling to see the parts of me that make me different from you. I do not want my queerness to be invisible,* and my fight for full citizenship is not bound up in proving I am just like you (or anyone, for that matter).
I am a perfectly lovely masculine lady and I don't happen to be queer. I am unstoppably queer.
------------
* I totally understand that there are folks who need, as a matter of safety, to fly under the gaydar. Those folks are a major part of the reason I don't want to be invisible—because I can and they can't. Queer visibility makes the world safer for all of us.
HJR-3 Update
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
So, HJR-3 isn't dead yet, because the Indiana House decided to pass the amended version, which stripped out the sentence banning civil unions, but the Indiana Senate will vote on the non-amended version. If they pass that, then they can send it back to the House—and if the House then votes to pass the non-amended version, it will end up on the ballot this November.
FUCKING FUCK.
So, now, if you're in Indiana, it's time to contact your state senator and ask them to oppose HJR-3.
I have never seen people so determined to be indecent.
"We"
[Content Note: Class-based othering.]
So, I'm reading this piece at Salon by "card-carrying member of the ACLU" John Haggerty, who recounts his experience spending "the entire month of October [watching] Fox News for approximately three hours every day, while at the same time strictly abstaining from any other sources of information about current events." And Haggerty makes some observations about Fox News that might not totally come as a surprise to anyone who's watching Fox News for 30 minutes or so.
That sounds unreasonably snarky, maybe. But I suspect someone without his privileges, i.e. someone among the kind of people routinely and aggressively targeted by Fox News as the People Who Are Ruining America, has a slightly different perspective on the conservative news outlet. It's a very different thing to audit Fox News on the basis of How It Does News Badly and to audit Fox News on the basis of How It Demonizes People Like Me.
So, okay, Haggerty and I aren't coming from the same place. But even acknowledging that profound difference in perspective, we're both (ostensibly) progressives. Which is why this passage felt particularly shocking to me:
Even in my short time watching Fox I found poverty fading from my mind as a problem. I was surprised one day when, during a discussion of deficit reduction (something that they talk about almost constantly), I found myself nodding in agreement that there was room to cut social programs that had already been radically slashed. Fox couldn't convince me to care about the issues they are obsessed with (Obama's treachery and the deficit, mostly), but by simply failing to mention a topic like income inequality, it managed to make me stop caring about the things it would prefer that I ignore.We have forgotten about the suffering all around us because we haven't been reminded of it lately.
I have an optimistic view of Americans. I think we are basically a kind and generous people—that if we are confronted with suffering, we are willing to act, even to sacrifice our own interests, in order to alleviate it. Perhaps, I began to think, we are not becoming progressively crueler and more callous, as it sometimes appears. Perhaps we have simply forgotten about the suffering all around us because we haven't been reminded of it lately.
Who is the "we" and the "us" in that construction?
We know certainly that it is not the people who are actually suffering. All around us.
People who are suffering because of our catastrophically underfunded social safety net, because of high unemployment, because of crushing debt, because of lack of access to healthcare, because of predatory loans and bankruptcy and foreclosure, because we can't agree that people are entitled to food—those people haven't "forgotten" and do not need to be "reminded" of their own suffering.
I know that piece was supposed to make me care about the horrors of Fox News playing some terrible game of "Us vs. Them," but I'm frankly more concerned that "card-carrying members of the ACLU" are still mired in elitist philosophical musings about the Haves' disconnection from the Have-Nots, and blaming that disconnection on the goddamned news.
Film Corner!
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy; homophobia.]
It seems like every time I turn around, our good friend Kirk Cameron is promoting a terrific new movie! There was 2012's Monumental, which was obviously amazing I'm sure even though I didn't see it, and 2013's Unstoppable, which was also obviously spectacular I'm sure even though I didn't see that one, either. I mean, listen, I'm a busy lady with an important schedule of watching Nicolas Cage films. I can't see every damn masterpiece that's released for one day in the cinemaplexes.
Anyway! I hope you are all looking forward to not seeing 2014's Mercy Rule as much as I am!
Like all good trailers, this one opens with a personal message from the filmmaker...
Kirk Cameron, former child star and current Christian Supremacist annoyfuck, appears onscreen at a community baseball field, wearing a Ford Gear Head t-shirt: "I asked over a million of you how you wanted to see my new movie, Mercy Rule—and you told me. So I am not gonna make you wait. You said you wanna see it now; I'm bringing it to ya right now! This is a movie about a family who learns the important lessons of mercy, patience, sacrifice, courage, and trusting god. And you know what makes this movie even more special for me? My wife Chelsea and I are playing [clasps hands] husband and wife in it together. I love that! And guess who else is in it? Bas Rutten, from Here Comes the Boom—you know, TWISTY! [makes a twisting motion with his hand] He plays the coach! And comedian Tim Hawkins—you know, the Chick-Fil-A song guy? This is his very first feature film, and he plays my brother! How great is that? I can't wait for you to see this, so join me on Valentine's Day—watch this movie with your kids, and fall in love with being a family again. All right, here it is—enjoy the world premiere trailer of Mercy Rule."
Holy moly. We haven't even gotten to the actual trailer yet?! I've already had to sit through this fucking guy trying to convince me that Bas Rutten, a secondary character from a Kevin James MMA movie, and Tim Hawkins, some dipshit who writes "comedic" songs about a corporation's institutional bigotry, are celebrities, and we haven't even gotten to the actual trailer yet?!
I MEAN IF BAS RUTTEN AND COMEDIAN TIM HAWKINS HAVEN'T ALREADY SOLD IT, WHAT WILL?!
Logo Onscreen: CAMFAM. Ha ha get it? Cameron + Family = CAMFAM. Did comedian Tim Hawkins come up with that?
Cut to the interior of a home, where Kirk Cameron ("Dad") is standing in the kitchen casually giving a cool lecture to his wife ("Mom"), daughter ("Daughter"), and son ("Son"). The acoustics of this scene indicate the budget on this shit was astronomical. "You know why Pops loved baseball?" he asks, and Mom, Daughter, and Son gaze at him quietly with expectant grins in anticipation of his reply.
"Tell us, Dad!"
He gives them a smug look. Guitar riff. Footage of a little leaguer hitting a baseball. Cut back to Dad. "Everyone's on a team," he explains. Guitar riff. Footage of little leaguers cheering at the dugout fence. Cut back to Dad. "But everyone faces the pitcher alone." Guitar riff. Footage of little league pitchers. Cut back to Dad, giving another smug look. "Every player in that line-up walks to the plate like a champion of an army." (HA HA WHUT.) Guitar riff. Footage of Dad in a suit and tie (sure) leading a little league team onto the pitch. Cut back to dad. "With the whole team heaped up on his shoulders, betting on his bat." (FUCKING HELL WHERE IS THIS GARBAGE METAPHOR GOING? GET TO THE POINT ALREADY.) Guitar music. Footage of kids (boy kids) playing baseball.
MONTAGERY! Dad at a desk, talking to someone. Coach Bas Rutten in a kitchen talking to kids. Some dude (maybe comedian Tim Hawkins?!) in a hat squatting on a couch. The same dude in another scene smiling at who knows what. Son on a bike. Dad, Mom, and Daughter cheering on Son from the stands. Baseball scenes. Coach Bas Rutten laughing. Lady smiling. Mom on phone. Dad popping a treat in his mouth. Family talking. Baseball scenes. Daughter smiling. Son eating a snack. Mom and Dad clinking coffee mugs.
The montage is not over. I want to interrupt my transcript at this point to note that I am not describing these scenes in any less detail than they actually have. It is the most random, lackluster, uninformative montage of images I have ever seen in a movie trailer, equivalent in their banality and their brevity.
Finally, the montagery ends in a tremendously trite and poorly-shot slo-mo scene of Son practicing his pitching against a wooden fence while Daughter watches. Good grief.
Cut back to Dad in the kitchen, who, I think, is finally going to get to his point. "And then you do your best," he says. "You take your swings." Guitar riff. (OH HELL.) Footage of Dad swinging a mallet at his desk at work. "But the rest is outta your control." Baseball is like life. Where Dads coach and Sons play and Moms and Daughters sit on the sidelines and cheer. Or something.
Guitar music. MORE MONTAGERY! Coach Bas Rutten yelling. White people cheering in the stands. Dad holding a microphone, looking like he's probably giving a real stormer of a pep talk. Some guy doing something I literally can't even tell what. Baseball scenes. Dad jumps in slo-mo at the fence in front of the bleachers. Mom blows a kiss while wearing an oven mitt. (LOL OMG LOL.) Dad smiles.
And that is the end of the trailer, for what is apparently a very stupid film about how baseball is like life, if you're a straight white Christian who believes in TRADITIONAL FAMILIES with TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES and has TRADITIONAL VALUES. Which I only know because I already know that's what the film is about, because I certainly didn't get any of that shit from the trailer.
BUT IT'S NOT THE END! Because, as we all know, all good trailers also close with a personal message from the filmmaker...
Cameron, onscreen at the baseball field again: "I am so excited—because Fireproof restored marriages, and I know Mercy Rule will strengthen families. You told me how you wanted the movie, and I'm bringing it to you this way. You said DVD and download. So here's how you can get it right now. You can order the DVD, and I will ship it to your house to arrive by Valentine's Day, so that you can watch it—Friday night movie night!—with your kids. And! It comes with a family study guide. So you can talk with your kids about all the important things in the movie."
Like baseball. And guitars. And Bas Rutten.
Cameron continues: "Number Two: You can walk into a family Christian store anywhere in the country. They heard how you wanted this film, and they loaded up their store. And if you can't wait 'til Valentine's Day, the third option is: Get it right now! You can download and stream it instantly today. And tell your friends. If you do that, you and I together will change the way we bring movies from my family to yours, straight into your home. Thank you, and god bless you."
This guy's a regular Louis CK over here.
But just in case you're still not sold (BUT HOW COULD YOU NOT BE? DID YOU HEAR BAS RUTTEN IS IN IT?), Kirk Cameron did a little cool promoting on his Facebook page:
Well, now that you're standing in front of a flag. SEND ME ONE MILLION COPIES ON BETMAX, SIR.
[H/T to Pajiba for Cameron's FB page promotion.]
Daily Dose of Cute
MetaZelly.
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!
FuckWinter moves south, into parts of the US that are wholly unprepared for this sort of weather. I hope that employers prioritize safety and warmth, and allow people to stay home.
"The minimum wage is going to rise for over 500,000 American workers whether Congress likes it or not. In Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Obama will announce a unilateral executive action to raise the minimum hourly pay that companies that receive federal contracts must offer, a victory for workers who have been walking off the job at federal facilities in Washington D.C. since last spring." I am genuinely happy to hear the minimum wage is being raised for federally subcontracted workers, although $10.10 is still hardly a livable wage, so.
SCOTUS strikes again: "A group of Indiana steelworkers is disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against an attempt to win pay for the time it takes to put on and take off protective gear. The lawsuit was filed by workers from U.S. Steel's Gary Works, arguing their work day was extended by up to two hours because of the time it takes to get dressed with flame-retardant jackets and other items and then travel to their work stations. The Supreme Court was unanimous Monday in ruling in favor of the company."
In news that will surprise no one: "More than a quarter of U.S. families are burdened by having to pay for medical care, and almost one in six struggle to pay health care bills, federal researchers reported on Tuesday. The 2010 Affordable Care Act is designed to reduce the burden by getting health insurance to more Americans. But the report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that even families with health insurance can struggle to pay bills."
"What if the battalions of lawyers, pundits, and politicians have missed the easiest—and possibly best—argument against 'corporate religious liberty rights' in the high-profile legal cases that challenge the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act?" This is a terrific article by Imani Gandy and you should definitely go read it!
"56 Democratic Lawmakers Back Hillary Clinton in 2016." Ha ha I am definitely tired of the 2016 election already, and it is only 2014!
Jonathan "Mike Ehrmantraut" Banks has joined the Breaking Bad "Better Call Saul" prequel series.
And finally: RIP Pete Seeger.
You Are Humorless and Oversensitive
[Content Note: Cissexism; transmisogyny.]
Yesterday, Joss Whedon, he of the urge to rebrand feminism for us, was asked for advice on writing strong female leads in a comic. To which he replied:
Some people quite understandably rejected his cissexist definition of womanhood as lacking "peeny/balls." Eastsidekate has an amazing response here: "An Open Venn Diagram to Joss Whedon." And Aoife has an excellent response here: "Comic Book Anatomies: A Brief Response to Whedon on Real Women."
Whedon's response?
I'm not sure, exactly, what we're meant to take from that. That if a cis person uses a silly euphemism for genitals, then they can't possibly be engaging in cissexism? Because: Nope.
If Whedon really meant just to imply that a strong female character has to be female, he could have said that. Just like he said in the same tweet that a strong female character has to be strong. But he did not say that. He said that she should not have a penis and testicles. That is not the same thing as saying she should be a woman.
And instead of just acknowledging that, he went on the offensive by telling anyone who takes that shit seriously to unfollow him. "No really I insist."
Welp. I'd be happy to, if I were following him in the first place.
Whedon evidently believes that it should be obvious to anyone that he was not being serious, that it was a joke, but where's the punchline? Specifically: Where is the punchline for trans*, intersex, and other women with "peeny/balls"? What's the humor for them in the suggestion that they are not women? What's the humor for men who don't have "peeny/balls"? This is a joke, such as it is, for people who are transphobic.
Perhaps Whedon imagines that it should have been apparent he was being sarcastic—but a cis man engaging in that sort of sarcasm can look indistinguishable from actual bigotry to someone targeted by it.
And, you know, even when a marginalized person does recognize an ostensible ally is engaging in that sort of sarcasm/satire, sometimes it's just not funny when you're routinely targeted by shit that sounds/looks exactly like it. There are lots of times I know a dude is being "ironic" about misogyny, but why is it supposed to be funny or interesting or trenchant to me? It just looks to me like he doesn't understand that I hear/see that shit for real every day of my life.
Why does Whedon think that people who are marginalized by this kind of rhetoric should be obliged to indulge his right to be flippant at their expense?
Perhaps he should consider if it's not that his critics are being too sensitive, but that he has failed to be sensitive enough.
And then maybe he can offer a meaningful apology, instead of resorting to the rankest of silencing tropes by implying that people who are harmed by this kind of language are just humorless and oversensitive.
Nice Instrument. Very Temperature.
Fourteen years ago, I visited Uppsala, Sweden. Uppsala is the closest thing Sweden has to a college town. Think of it as a Swedish Champaign-Urbana. If you haven't been to Champaign-Urbana or don't know much about Sweden, picture Gävle. Uppsala is like Gävle, only instead of a massive Gevalia coffee factory, it has one of Europe's most prestigious universities, and instead of a giant burning straw goat, Uppsala doesn't have a burning anything.
The important thing to know about Uppsala is that the science scene is tight. It's been a while since I've been there, so it's possible that I'll get some of the details wrong, but stay with me. Between my fading memories and Wikipedia, what could go wrong?
The most memorable part of my trip was seeing Celsius's thermometer. Before Celsius invented Celsius (the world's one-and-only means of determining temperature), white folks didn't have a way of telling cold from warm.
"Should I stick my hand in this bonfire?"
"Is today a good day to go wakeboarding on this frozen lake?"
These were mysteries. Occasionally, there was discomfort.
Celsius set forth to rectify this situation. He ripped off Fahrenheit by putting some delicious Mercury into a glass tube. Then, Celsius proceeded to stick his rod in various things and take note of what happened. While that might sound questionable, remember that he spoke Swedish.
Celsius was fucking crushing it. The influence of atmospheric pressure on water's boiling point, the non-influence of atmospheric pressure of water's freezing point-- he nailed it.
Meanwhile, the other player in Uppsala was Carl Linnaeus. I'd like to say that the two were BFFs, but I don't think that was the case. I can't imagine Celsius Snapchatting Linnaeus to be all like "check out my rod!" (Besides, those guys spoke Swedish.)
It's not like Linnaeus would have gotten back to some crusty astronomer about a magic tube. Linnaeus was busy being a biology party boy. Yes, that used to be a thing. These days the kids are all Macklemore this and cinnamon challenge that. Back in the day, Saturday night was all about comparitive botany and systematic taxonomy. Linnaeus invented the 18th century version of Scattergories, and he was having all the people over to his house.
Eventually, Celsius died. You didn't think he was still with us, did you? Anyhow, never one to miss a trend, Linnaeus got himself some thermometers. He was not impressed. He was all:
O_o Very Temperature. Why So Much Degrees?You see, Celsius thought it was a good idea to make the boiling point of water 0 degrees, with the temperature increasing up to water's freezing point of 100 degrees. Why not?
But Celsius wasn't the biology party boy of Uppsala. Linnaeus took his Sharpie and flipped that rod. That, in essence, is why it's -40 at my house right now.
Motherfucking Linnaeus, man.
Crossposted from A Cunt of One's Own
Tonight: The State of the Union
Tonight, President Obama will give his sixth State of the Union address. (There will be an Open Thread here tonight during the address.) He's got a lot of work to do: "68 percent of Americans say the country is either stagnant or worse off since he took office, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Just 31 percent say the country is better off, and a deep pessimism continues to fuel the public's mood. Most respondents used words like 'divided,' 'troubled,' and 'deteriorating' to describe the current state of the nation. On the eve of Tuesday's State of the Union address, more than six-in-10 Americans believe that the nation is headed in the wrong direction and 70 percent are dissatisfied with the economy."
I mean, yeah. A lot of people are really unhappy and disappointed right now. And not just because the Republicans are obstructionist pains in the ass (although that, too), but people aren't stupid, and they know they realize that some of the failure to enact progressive economic policy that actually makes meaningful differences in their lives is because there is "no appetite" for those policies at the White House.
Primarily, policies have been pursued that protect the wealthy and enrich corporations—some of which, like the Affordable Care Act, also help people in the process of being, for example, a giant corporate hand-out to for-profit insurance companies. Which is why the recovery has been terrific for the wealthy and not so great for everyone else. Turns out trickle-down economics still doesn't work!
I live in a state that went blue for Obama in '08, then went back to red in '12. When I talk to people around here about Obama's presidency, generally people like him, but have a sense that he just isn't really as passionate about working class people's needs as his "hope and change" campaign first suggested to them. They aren't angry; they're just disappointed. They're tired.
Anyway. Nothing would make me happier if President Obama plans to maximize use of his bully pulpit to champion real progressive policy and embarrass the shit out of a Republican Party that services no one but the elite. I would love to see him go all in, even if he knows the GOP will thwart him. Because there are a lot of people in this country who feel like no one gives a fuck about them anymore. And the Republicans can't stop him from giving them that.
Question of the Day
We've done this one before, but not for awhile: What is your favorite article of clothing, or accessory, or pair of shoes—the thing that makes you feel great (or as best as you ever feel about yourself, if that's not precisely "great") whenever you wear it?
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny.]
"Since this bill…makes the assumption that women are not capable of making difficult decisions without the aid of politicians requiring an additional three days to think it through, then I can only assume that you're not going to legitimately listen or value the opinions that I would like to state today. Therefore, I'd like to take your recommended waiting period and return on Monday, when I've had time to really think through my decisions…I would like for you to be able to trust in my opinions."—Dina Van Der Zalm, a student at the University of Missouri who's getting her masters in social work, testifying before a Missouri House committee who held a hearing on a proposed 72-hour waiting period for abortions in the state.
Oh snap.
Meanwhile, at the Indiana State House...
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
After already pulling a bunch of bullshit shenanigans to get HRJ-3 to a vote on the House floor, now the Republican-majority Indiana House has moved it to the end of the docket, while opponents sit and wait out the debate. Since it'll take them a few more hours to get to the vote on their garbage nightmare legislation, they've decided to send out for pizzas.
My contempt for this homophobic, self-indulgent, sanctimonious shit cannot be measured on a scale fathomable by human intellect.
UPDATE: The House voted to strike the second sentence of the proposed amendment, which banned civil unions. Since it has been amended, I'm pretty sure that means it cannot go on this year's ballot. OMG. There is lots of cheering at the State House right now.
UPDATE 2: YES! CONFIRMED! Via Freedom Indiana: "The House just approved an amendment to HJR-3 that strips the anti-freedom amendment of the second sentence, which would ban all protections for gay & lesbian families. Even if the Senate approves this version of the bill, because it was amended, it would still have to pass in the 2015 or 2016 legislative session before reaching the ballot."
CHEERS APPLAUSE BLUBS!!!
UPDATE 3: So, here's the deal, for everyone unfamiliar with our zany legislative process: The proposed amendment has to pass two state congressional sessions unamended before it can be put on a ballot for a vote. Because they struck the second sentence, that constitutes a change which resets the clock, meaning it will definitely not be on the ballot this November.
But they are still going to vote on HJR-3 today. If it passes both the House and then the Senate in its amended form, then the proposed amendment to define marriage as between two different-sex people could be put up for a vote next year (if it passes the next legislative session). If it fails today (or in the Senate), then the soonest it could conceivably make the ballot is 2016.
By which time, hopefully there will be absolutely no question about the lack of public support for this shit.
So now we just wait to see how long we've got before we potentially have to fight this again. But, in either case, whether it passes the House vote today or not, unless I'm mistaken, IT'S NOT GOING ON THE BALLOT THIS NOVEMBER.
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYY!!!
UPDATE 4: If it does pass the House, then we will move to petitioning our State Senators to oppose it. Because if they fail to pass it, that also will set the clock back two years. There is more work to be done to make sure this thing never gets to the ballot EVER.
Whut.
NSA and GCHQ target 'leaky' phone apps like Angry Birds to scoop user data:
The National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have been developing capabilities to take advantage of "leaky" smartphone apps, such as the wildly popular Angry Birds game, that transmit users' private information across the internet, according to top secret documents.Oh, well, that's okay, then. (No it's not.)
The data pouring onto communication networks from the new generation of iPhone and Android apps ranges from phone model and screen size to personal details such as age, gender and location. Some apps, the documents state, can share users' most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in the material even sends specific sexual preferences such as whether or not the user may be a swinger.
...Scooping up information the apps are sending about their users allows the agencies to collect large quantities of mobile phone data from their existing mass surveillance tools – such as cable taps, or from international mobile networks – rather than solely from hacking into individual mobile handsets.
Exploiting phone information and location is a high-priority effort for the intelligence agencies, as terrorists and other intelligence targets make substantial use of phones in planning and carrying out their activities, for example by using phones as triggering devices in conflict zones. The NSA has cumulatively spent more than $1bn in its phone targeting efforts.
...The documents do not make it clear how much of the information that can be taken from apps is routinely collected, stored or searched, nor how many users may be affected. The NSA says it does not target Americans and its capabilities are deployed only against "valid foreign intelligence targets".
I honestly do not even know what to say anymore. The breaches of privacy are so vast and so utterly overwhelming and so pervasive that I feel like all I have left is resignation. "So they're basically just as aggressively invasive as anyone's worst fears ever could have been? Oh."
I don't feel good about that. But that's all I got.
I feel more powerless in response to the surveillance state than pretty much anything else.
Chipping Away at Roe in Louisiana
[Content Note: War on agency.]
The Abortioneers: LOUISIANA IS ABOUT TO CLOSE ITS ABORTION CLINICS AND NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT.
Just before Thanksgiving, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) issued new "emergency" regulations that overhauled the existing regulations on abortion clinics. These 21 pages of rules give DHH the authority to immediately shut down a clinic without opportunity for appeal, even for simple infractions. Clinics have stated that they would be unable to meet the burdensome and excessive requirements, and this would lead to the closure of all five clinics in Louisiana.Emphasis original. There are details about a hearing scheduled for this Wednesday, and what you can do to help, at the link.
This is the end game: They don't need for the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe, when they can render it an empty statute.
[H/T to Jess.]
Fat Fashion
[Content Note: Fat bias.]
So, last week necessitated another round of "Fat Bodies: How the Fuck Do They Work?" on Twitter, in response to an article that disappeared some realities about fat bodies for lots of fat women. (I'm not going to link to it, because fuck that and it isn't the point of this post, anyway.) That discussion led to a tangential discussion about plus-size clothing, and the expense and lack of fashionability thereof.
As I noted on Twitter, plus-size clothes that are affordable, fit well, and also cute are so rare for me that I call them the Haley's Comet of fat clothes.
Anyway.
I've been participating on Twitter in Veronica Arreola's very cool #365FeministSelfies project, which I've mentioned a couple of times. Following that discussion, I decided to make yesterday's selfie a pic of (part of) my outfit I'd worn out to a show the night before, accompanied by information on where I'd gotten the individual items, all of which I love:
Comic skirt by Torrid; red rights by We Love Colors; black MaryJanes by Söfft.
The skirt I got on sale (Torrid's online shop regularly has good sales, so it pays to wait if you see something you like), and the shoes I got using a gift certificate Space Cowboy and Space Cowgirl got me for my birthday one year, but 6pm is a good place to find cute sales at discounted prices. Yay!
Lots of fat women struggle to find cute stuff that we like in our sizes. I routinely get emails from other fat women asking where I shop for bras, or where's a good place to buy plus-size coats, or where did I get that sweater or those shoes. I know lots of fat women who want their clothes to be cute as well as functional.
And it's easy to say, "Well, why do you want to conform to fashion trends defined by an industry that is hostile to you, anyway?" but let me just repeat myself:
For fat women, being stylish isn't a luxury. It's often a necessity to get hired, to get access to healthcare, to get treated like a human being.There are, of course, fat women whose lives are structured so that they don't have to concern themselves with looking fashionable, or would sooner risk being discriminated against than play a beauty game that fat women will always lose. And that's okay, and I don't want to invisibilize them.
Fat women have all kinds of narratives about sloppiness, laziness, dirtiness to overcome. Sometimes heels are a crucial part of looking "put together" in a way that sufficiently convinces people that we care about ourselves, that manages to counteract pervasive cultural narratives that fat people don't care about ourselves. That we have "let ourselves go."
Being "put together" is part of the way many of us convey to a judgmental world that we are worth caring about.
I get treated completely differently at a $20 hair salon if I'm dressed up or dressed down. Two totally different experiences. I get treated differently at the doctor's office, and at the emergency room. I can't go to the ER in sweatpants, because I'll get shittier treatment. In an emergency, I have to worry if I am dressed up enough to prove that I deserve respect and care.
And there are fat women for whom conforming to that shitty game as closely as possible is a critical survival tool, and I don't want to invisibilize them, either.
Lots of us straddle both worlds—there are spaces in which we can move looking however we want, and spaces in which we can move where having our full humanity recognized necessitates presenting an image of self-care and self-investment to other people.
And, no matter where a fat woman falls on that spectrum, her ability to comply with cultural expectations is contingent on her financial resources, her skills to make or alter clothes, her particular body shape, access to plus-size retailers, and/or whether she sizes out of even most of the "plus-size" lines, among other things.
There's a lot of shit with which to contend, and every fat women's individual context is different.
To that end, I'm starting what will be a semi-regular thread in which fat women can share pix, make recommendations for clothes they love, ask questions of other fat women about where to locate certain plus-size items, share info about sales, talk about what jeans cut at what retailer best fits their body shapes, discuss how to accessorize neutral colored suits, share stories of going bare-armed for the first time, whatever.
Crucially, I want fat women of all sizes, especially women who find themselves regularly sizing out of standard plus-size lines, to feel welcome in this conversation, and I want no judgment to be levied against fat women who feel obliged, for any reason, to conform to beauty standards.
Have at it in comments! Please make sure if you're soliciting advice, you make it clear you want suggestions—and please be considerate not to offer unsolicited advice. Sometimes people just need to complain and want solidarity, not solutions.
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda, just lying around with her tongue peeking out. Like ya do.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
