[Content Note: Misogyny; choice policing; judgment; rape culture.]
In case you have ever inexplicably thought, "I'm not sure if I'm actually hating Dr. Drew, who is definitely the worst, at maximum intensity," let me direct you to Part One of the Teen Mom 2: Finale Special which aired last night on MTV.
After every season of the show finishes, Dr. Drew hosts the four teen moms (and their current and former partners, and/or parents) in a studio, where he looks at clips from the season and then makes jokes about their crying and then shames the fuck out of them while absolutely not listening to anything they're saying.
Further, he continually badgers the young mothers about how they don't understand how hard it is to be a dude, hectors them for being ungrateful, and frames abuse dynamics as "immaturity" while berating their failure to demonstrate sufficient appreciation for the people who abuse them.
He is aggressively unethical, smug, and cruel to young women who put their lives on display in the hope of educating other young women about their experiences and serving as self-aware cautionary tales.
And he ends the show by saying things like, "Pregnancy is absolutely preventable," despite the fact that rape and reproductive coercion are things that exist in the world, to which young women are particularly vulnerable.
I detest him with the red hot fiery passion of ten thousand suns.
Dr. Drew: You are the fucking worst.
[Note: There are valid criticisms to be made about the Teen Mom series, and its progenitor, 16 and Pregnant, but those are not on-topic for this thread.]
This F#@king Guy
Daily Dose of Cute
"It's raining! Lightly! And we've been out here for like 10 seconds!
OH THE HUMANITY! Please let us in!"
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by sauerkraut.
Recommended Reading:
Libby Anne: [Content Note: Sex abuse; purity culture; misogyny; Christian Supremacy. There is background for this post in today's In the News.] Michael Farris, Patriarchy, and Doug Phillips: An Expose
Arturo: [CN: Racism; police misconduct. There is background for this post in yesterday's In the News.] Will ESPN Tell Doug Glanville's Story?
Justice for Shanesha: "I Read All My Cards, Emails, and Letters."
Andy: [CN: Homophobia] Louisiana Votes to Keep Unconstitutional Law Criminalizing Sodomy
BYP: [CN: Racist eliminationism; racism apologia; disablism] Man Who Tried to Hire KKK to Kill Neighbor Gets Lenient Sentence
Trudy: [CN: Sexuality and feminist policing; white supremacy] On Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Asking: "Why Shouldn't Women Own Their Sexuality?"
Jamilah: The Maya Rudolph Show Already Looks Amazing
Filamena: Dangers Untold: A LARP for Girls and Others
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Aughra's Orrery: My New Tattoo
[Content Note: There is an image of a fresh tattoo with a little bit of visible blood on it below the fold.]
Welp, I wasn't going to post about this until it was all done, but then Spudsy went and posted Aughra as the host of today's Open Thread, and she is one of my favorite film characters of all time, so I couldn't resist!
Iain got me a tattoo for Christmas, but, over the holiday, my tattoo artist, Lui, was busily preparing to open his own new shop, so I had to wait awhile before I could finally get it. Last month, we finally got started.
I went in to see him about what I wanted, which was Aughra's orrery from The Dark Crystal. I watched that movie ON A LOOP when I was a kid (and I still watch it as an adult), and one of my favorite scenes has always been when Jen visits Aughra and sees her massive orrery, which represents "everything in the heavens. Moving as the heavens move. Suns, moons, stars—yes! The angle of eternity."
I was always fascinated with Aughra's orrery, because it's awesome. (As a kid I was fascinated with it because cooooooool, and as an adult I'm fascinated with it because cooooooool—and also because I'm so impressed with the design and production of it, especially for a kids' movie.) And I loved the idea of it as a tattoo, because it represents the Dark Crystal universe, the whole story of survival and community and reconciling the good and bad parts of self.
Anyway! So, even though Lui is a tremendously talented artist, I had no idea if Lui would even be able to create a piece inspired by Aughra's orrery, because I didn't have any great images of it. All I had for reference were basically some shitty screen caps of a YouTube video.
But, a few days after our consultation, he sent me this drawing:
I excitedly forwarded it to Deeky, who responded: "HOLY FUCKBALLZ!!!!!!!!!" Which was pretty much my reaction, too, lol.
I mean, that, right there, is why I go to Lui.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Disaster; death] Almost 300 people are still missing after a ferry carrying 459 people capsized off the shore of South Korea. "The ferry, carrying mainly school students, was travelling from the port of Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. A major rescue effort is under way, involving dozens of ships and helicopters. Those brought to safety were taken to a nearby island. ...There are fears this could turn out to be South Korea's biggest maritime disaster for more than 20 years, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Seoul." So terribly sad. I haven't yet been able to locate any numbers or websites made available for inquiries about survivors, possibly because they've not been set up yet. Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave info in comments, as and when you see it.
[CN: Racism; Islamophobia; police misconduct] This is good news: "The New York Police Department has ended a program that sent plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop and spy on individuals, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The unit, known to many as the Demographics Unit, would track where people ate, prayed and shopped, according to the Times. The police mapped neighborhoods and kept detailed files on where people in traditional Islamic clothing went both in and out of the city."
BUT. As the ACLU points out, the Demographic Unit was not the only means by which the NYPD has engaged in unconstitutional surveillance of Muslims: "Before we celebrate the end of bias-based policing, we need to ensure that the other abusive tactics employed by the NYPD meet the same fate as the unit."
[CN: Fat bias] Another terrible blow for the people who love to shout "CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT!" at fat people: "For a long time scientists thought ghrelin levels fluctuated in response to nutrients that the ghrelin met in the stomach. So put in a big meal, ghrelin responds one way; put in a small snack and it responds another way. But that's not what Crum found in her milkshake study. If you believed you were drinking the indulgent shake, she says, your body responded as if you had consumed much more. ...[T]he usual metabolic model—calories in and calories out—might need some rethinking, because it doesn't account in any way for our beliefs about our food."
[CN: Guns] Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to take on the NRA. Good luck with all that. (Normally I'm not so defeatist, but I just don't think there's enough political will to take on the NRA, no matter how much money urges otherwise. I hope I'm wrong, though!)
[CN: Sexual violence; clergy abuse; descriptions of abuse at link] Doug Phillips, one of the most prominent leaders of the Quiverfull movement, has been sued by a woman whom he victimized for years. Anyone who is shocked by sex abuse inside a movement that reduces women to nothing but breeding machines for men is kidding themselves about how crucial bodily autonomy and sexual agency are as resistance to rape culture. I hope this brave survivor wins her case, and I wish her justice and peace.
Researchers are close to developing artificial blood: "The technique highlights the prospect of a limitless supply of manufactured type-O blood, free of disease and compatible with all patients." Whoa.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found that USians increasingly prefer Democrats to Republicans on healthcare. Welp, I guess that's just the kind of good fortune that ACTUALLY HAVING A PLAN buys ya!
It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters
[Content Note: Misogyny; objectification. NB: Not only women can get pregnant and breastfeed.]
Republican Alaska state representative Shelley Hughes has apologized after sending out a press release promoting her resolution encouraging hospitals to promote breastfeeding under the subject line: "Smart and Sexy: Legislature Encourages Hospitals to Promote Breastfeeding."
"My intent was to draw attention to this incredibly important issue. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of attention I hoped to receive. I take full responsibility for the headline. I apologize for the poor choice of words, and am sorry if I offended anyone," she said in a statement.The "poor choice of words." She's sorry "if" she offended anyone. Perfect.
Amanda Coyne, who first noted the press release, writes: "It's unclear if either of the two press secretaries, who are both men, wrote the release or if it came directly from Hughes's office. The press office wasn't available late Monday night, and nobody at Hughes's office answered the phone. It's also unclear for whom breastfeeding is supposed to be sexy: The baby? The mother? The viewer?"
So, basically, this is the Republican position on reproduction (which disappears people who aren't women from the reproductive process altogether): Women's bodies are nothing more than "hosts" to incubate babies, and the breasts they use to nourish babies are nothing more than titillating sex objects. Cool.
All of which is to say nothing of the fact that this legislation seems to imply that new mothers are selfish nincompoops who refuse to breastfeed (much like how abortion-seeking women are selfish nincompoops who refuse to take responsibility for their slutty ways), ignoring the structural barriers for many new mothers, like a lack of paid family leave from jobs that provide no meaningful accommodations for breastfeeding women.
This is a real thing in the world.
[Content Note: Misogyny; rape culture; patriarchal tropes.]
This article (DoNotLink used) is a few days old, but I only just saw it this morning, care of Dan Solomon. Its actual, for real, not satirical headline is: "18 Things Females Seem to Not Understand (Because, Female Privilege)."
LOL FOREVER.
Right from the title, it's terrific. "Females," as if we are livestock, or wild animals being observed in our natural habits on a nature documentary.
And "female privilege," because sure. That definitely exists.
Which, of course, is not to say that no woman, anywhere, ever, has any privilege. Most of us have some situational and/or relative privilege. But that does not constitute something amounting to "female privilege."
Which is something that becomes pretty obvious when you read the author's list of 18 alleged examples of "female privilege" and find absolutely zero of them being evidence of anything but patriarchal tropes, misogyny, and a deflection of accountability for personal behavior.
I could spend the next ten years of my life writing a detailed rebuttal to every one of these 18 assertions, but, as it happens, I've spent the last ten years of my life writing this blog, which is pretty much a detailed rebuttal to every one of these 18 assertions. So I'll just quickly make three observations:
1. If you are a man who cannot approach a woman without being called "creepy" or engage in sexual activities without being accused of rape, the problem is you, not "female privilege." There are plenty of men who navigate relationships with women without getting called creepy or accused of rape. These men, however, respect women as their fully human equals; they don't write embarrassing pieces sneering about women "arrogantly believing that sexism only applies to women."
2. "Female privilege is not having to take your career seriously because you can depend on marrying someone who makes more money than you do." Congratulations. You are precisely as sophisticated in your thinking as Phyllis Schlafly, who is one of the most irrelevant, discredited, retrofuck commentators in modern culture.
3. As I've written many times before: It ain't women who are the primary gatekeepers of bullshit like King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. It's other men. About the last place on earth you'll find active feminists is in the executive offices of mainstream studios. If you are a man who has a problem with how men are portrayed in pop culture, take it up with the men who shape it. This is but one example of the many places for which the pouting purveyors of "female privilege" fairytales should redirect their ire in the direction of the patriarchy.
Have at it in comments.
Question of the Day
By popular request, again: What are you currently reading? Would you recommend it?
Photo of the Day
From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day for 15 April 2014: Austrian wildlife photographer Josef Gelernter took this picture of a panda playing with her cub in a swing at Vienna Zoo, Austria. [Josef Gelernter / Caters News]I MEAN!!!
This May Be the Best Thing You Read All Day
Ashol-Pan may be the only girl in Mongolia who hunts with a golden eagle. She is 13 years old, and she is amazing.
Photograph by Asher Svidensky. There are many more photos, and more of the story, at the link.
[H/T to Iain and Shaker Brunocerous.]
Discussion Thread: Validation
What piece of validation do you find yourself needing to hear most often? Something you already know, intellectually, but, for whatever reason, need the reminder in the form of a compliment, a reassurance, someone else "giving you permission" to believe or do or feel.
It could be anything, from your appearance to your talents to your right to express anger. Maybe it's multiple things. Maybe it's only certain things in certain contexts.
Have at it.
[As always, please don't pass judgment on other people's comments. What might seem to you to be "superficial" or "unnecessary" or whatever may have a personal context for the person who needs to hear it that is well outside your personal experience. Also: We don't task individuals with solving systemic problems in this space, and insecurities born of a culture that does its damnedest to instill them is not a sign of weakness.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie, the wee dragon cat.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Misogyny; gender essentialism; heterocentrism.]
"While women prefer to HAVE a higher-earning partner, men generally prefer to BE the higher-earning partner in a relationship. This simple but profound difference between the sexes has powerful consequences for the so-called pay gap. Suppose the pay gap between men and women were magically eliminated. If that happened, simple arithmetic suggests that half of women would be unable to find what they regard as a suitable mate. ...The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap."—Professional antifeminist dipshit Phyllis Schlafly, in an op-ed published by the Christian Post.
I've said this many times before, but I know very few couples—whether different-sex or same-sex couples—especially of my cohort or younger, for whom the "primary breadwinner" role has remained static over the course of their relationships.
There have been times in our relationship when I've been the sole or primary earner; there have been times in our relationship when Iain has been the sole or primary earner. In my experience, we're not remotely unique in that way.
And, despite being a different-sex couple, it's never been an issue between us, because neither of us has antiquated notions about gender and earning.
Schlafly has always been wrong about sex, sexuality, and gender. And she is wrong in a way that actively undermines the health of relationships in a modern culture.
Please Support Shakesville
This is, for those who have requested it, your bi-monthly reminder to donate to Shakesville and an important fundraiser to keep Shakesville going.
If you have appreciated being able to tune into Shakesville for coverage of breaking stories, for a safe and image-free space to discuss acts of public violence, for getting distilled news about politics or other news, for recaps of your favorite show, or for whatever else you appreciate at Shakesville, whether it's the moderation, the community in Open Threads, Film Corner, video transcripts, the blogarounds, or anything else, please remember that Shakesville is run exclusively on donations. I would certainly appreciate your support, if you can afford to chip in. The donation link is in the sidebar to the right. Or click here.
I also want say thank you, so very much, to each of you who donates or has donated, whether monthly or as a one-off. I am profoundly grateful—and I don't take a single cent for granted. I've not the words to express the depth of my appreciation, besides these: This community couldn't exist without that support, truly. Thank you.
My thanks as well to everyone who contributes to the space in other ways, whether as a regular contributor, a moderator, a guest contributor, a transcriber, and/or as someone who takes the time to send me the occasional note of support and encouragement. This community couldn't exist without you, either.
[Further explanation of fundraising is here. Please note that I don't want anyone to feel obliged to contribute financially, especially if money is tight. Aside from valuing feminist work, the other goal of fundraising is so Iain and I don't have to struggle on behalf of the blog, and I don't want anyone else to struggle themselves in exchange. There is a big enough readership that neither should have to happen.]
TV Corner: Cosmos
Does anyone want to talk about the new Cosmos series hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH!
I know haters gotta hate—and boy oh boy have they been a-hating!—but I don't care that it's not perfect, because there are so many things that I love about it.
I was and am a huge fan of Carl Sagan's original version, and it doesn't demean or diminish his version at all to value and enjoy this one. In fact, Neil deGrasse Tyson's story about meeting with Sagan, and how Sagan inspired and encouraged him, and OMG NOW HE IS HOSTING COSMOS, was one of my favorite scenes in the series so far, among many terrific scenes. I don't know how that scene didn't warm even the darkest and coldest of dark, cold hearts!
Frankly, I can only imagine the wonder with which Sagan would have viewed this new series, given the CGI that's possible today. One of the things that makes this version really wonderful in its own way is that it's just beautiful to watch.
The end of the episode in which the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies collide? Breathtaking. Spectacular. Lovely.
Iain and I look forward to the show every week, and there's always something in each episode that sparks an interesting conversation which tumbles across time and space and subjects.
I am also a major fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson's snark, lol.
Honestly, the only thing I don't like about the show is that it makes me sad I don't have a gyroscopic spaceship of my own.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Rape culture] As today is Tax Day in the US, here is our annual reminder for assholes that to describe what has "been done to you" by the IRS and/or US Government by requiring you to pay taxes is not "rape." Thank you and have a nice day.
[CN: Terrorism; gun violence; death; racism] Today is the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing. There will be many moving pieces in the media today about the survivors, and about the first responders, and about a city that is recovering from a grave trauma. And, without diminishing the importance of those stories, I want to also recommend this piece [cn: appropriative "blindness" language], about the violence in Boston that doesn't get recognized in the same way, the victims who aren't mourned in the same way.
[CN: School violence] The teenager who stabbed classmates and a school security guard last week reportedly made threatening calls to two classmates the night before the stabbing. Also: A bunch of video game stuff was found at the alleged attacker's home. News.
[CN: Terrorism; antisemitism] Frazier Glenn Cross, who killed three people at Jewish centers earlier this week, will likely be charged with a hate crime, but not with a terrorist act.
[CN: Transphobia; misogynoir] Monica Jones is a social work student at Arizona State University and a black trans activist who was arrested and "convicted through controversial anti-prostitution programme she fought against." Here is why it is important to #StandwithMonica.
[CN: Racism; profiling; police harassment] Former Chicago Cub Doug Glanville writes a powerful piece about being racially profiled in his own driveway in Hartford, Connecticut: "He'd been outside his jurisdiction—the representative from internal affairs had confirmed this. That meant a police officer from another town had come to my house, approached me while I was shoveling my own driveway, and—without any introduction—asked me a very presumptuous question. All of this had put me in an extremely vulnerable situation. In one moment, I went from being an ordinary father and husband, carrying out a simple household chore, to a suspect offering a defense. The inquiry had forced me to check my tone, to avoid sounding smug even when I was stating the obvious: that I was shoveling the driveway because the house belonged to me."
[CN: War; violence] Ukraine Moves Against Separatists as Medvedev Evokes Civil War: "The government in Kiev started the operation after fighting between its forces and pro-Russian separatists turned deadly this week. The U.S. and the European Union also deliberated deepening sanctions against Russia, which they blame for stoking the unrest, as Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin remained at odds over who was at fault."
India's Supreme Court has issued "a landmark verdict recognizing transgender rights as human rights, saying people can identify themselves as a third gender on official documents. ...Previously, transgender Indians could only identify themselves as male or female in all official documents. The decision was praised as giving relief to the estimated 3 million Indians who are transgender. The court noted that it was the right of every human being to choose their gender while granting rights to those who identify themselves as neither male nor female. 'All documents will now have a third category marked 'transgender.' This verdict has come as a great relief for all of us. Today I am proud to be an Indian,' said Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a transgender activist who, along with a legal agency, had petitioned the court."
[Note: The language and culture of the third sex in India differs in some ways from the Western paradigm. Also: Trans Indians have the option to identify as male or female if they have sex-reassignment surgery, which does still leave a problem for people who want to identify as male or female but don't want or can't afford surgery.]
Welp: "New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer." Welcome to America 2.0.
All right then: "For a moment, it seemed like Google and Facebook were about to pursue two different techniques to deliver internet signals from the sky: Google with weather balloons, and Facebook with high-flying drones. But now, it seems that Google will own drones as well. Google has just bought Titan Aerospace, the very company that Facebook was rumored to be acquiring."
And finally: Here is a ridiculously adorable story about a mama cat adopting a baby squirrel. I mean.
"Blood Moon" Eclipse
In case you missed the eclipse last night, either because you're not in a part of the world where it was visible or because you had better things to do (like sleep), here is a neat composite image via NBC News:
And if you regretted missing this one, don't fear:
The last total lunar eclipse took place in December 2011, but Tuesday's eclipse kicked off a string of four such events, known as a tetrad. The series is dictated by a recurrence of the right orbital parameters every six months or so. The other three eclipses in the set are due on Oct. 8, and then next year on April 4 and Sept. 28.This week is also a great time to scan the skies for Mars, which is the closest it's been to Earth since 2007.
"The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are visible for all or parts of the USA," eclipse expert Fred Espenak said in a NASA preview.
...Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are visible to half the world at the same time. This time around, North America was prime territory, but portions of the eclipse could be seen from parts of South America, Europe and Asia just before sunrise, and parts of Asia and the Pacific just after sunset.
