This blogaround brought to you by shark costumes.
Recommended Reading:
The Feminist Griote: [Content Note: Discussion of racism/white supremacy] A Guide to Allyship & Interracial Friendships
Jess: [CN: Violence; misogyny; racism] It Makes Sense That the Super Bowl Ended in a Fight
ICTMN Staff: [CN: Racism/racist imagery] Sweet Racism: Gummy Bear Maker Pulls Imperialist Blackface Candy
Digby: [CN: Classism] The Lazy Moochers of the 47%
Kyler: [CN: Homophobia] Vlogger's High School Threatened to Expel Him for Being Gay
Aura: [CN: Racism; anti-immigrant sentiment] Activists Challenge Santa Barbara Newspaper's Use of the I-Word
Diamond: [CN: Racism; police brutality; death] Officer Responsible for Death of 7-Year-Old Will Not Be Retried
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Monday Blogaround
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
Here comes Budgetfuck 2015! "President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programs to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans." And here's the talking point: When the President "'devotes his time and energy to talking about the new tax-and-spend policies that progressives like and Republicans universally oppose, he signals to Congress that he is once again looking to argue rather than to legislate,' said Keith Hennessey, a former economic adviser to Republican President George W. Bush." Obama is the divisive one. Rinse and repeat forever. *headdesk*
[Content Note: War; violence] I hope for the best and fear the worst: "South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel commander Riek Machar signed another ceasefire agreement on Monday, edging them closer to a final deal to end a 15-month conflict that has ravaged the world's newest country, mediators said. African diplomatic sources said the agreement, which has not been made public, sets out how the two leaders would share power once they formed an interim government. It is proposed Kiir would remain president while Machar would become vice president. After four days of intense negotiations, the warring sides also agreed to abide by a ceasefire deal which was signed in January 2014 but is frequently violated. The rebels, however, said many more details need to be ironed out before the deal can be labelled a 'power-sharing' agreement. The government and rebels have previously signed at least three peace deals which were broken quickly."
[CN: Homophobia; video may autoplay at link] Mike Huckabee is really on a fucking roll lately: "Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee says expecting Christians to accept same-sex marriage is 'like asking someone who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli.' He also called homosexuality part of a lifestyle, like drinking and swearing." I guess that makes people in same-sex relationships "trashy," too, huh? Btw, someone pass Mike Huckabee a note that gay Christians exist.
[CN: Health crisis] This is so sad: "Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of late US singer Whitney Houston, is in hospital in an unknown condition after being found unresponsive in a bathtub. Medical privacy laws mean information is restricted, but unconfirmed reports said she was in a medically induced coma to reduce swelling on the brain. ...The incident happened less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Whitney Houston's death. The singer was found dead in February 2012, aged 48, in a bath in a hotel in Los Angeles." I feel so hard for Bobbi Kristina, and for her family and friends.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Nationwide says their super depressing and exploitative Superbowl advert wasn't about hawking insurance: "The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance. We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us-the safety and well being of our children." Okay, players.
[CN: Spoiler for The Boy Next Door] LOLOLOL FOREVER: "In the movie, J.Lo, achieving high levels of buff and polish while sporting nerd glasses, plays Claire, a high school classics teacher. Claire has a one-night stand with the mysterious 'boy' next door, Noah, played by Ryan Guzman. Part of the attraction is that Noah (not a boy at all but a man, honey, 19 and hot) loves the classics, too! They have some groundbreaking debates about Hector and honor and how classic rock is also full of poets, like Dylan and Led Zeppelin. And then, the moment arrives—the moment when the movie spreads its wings and reveals its truest self: Noah gives Claire a gift. A first edition of the Iliad."
Adorbz!!! Bella the Cocker Spaniel is learning a new trick every day for a year to raise money an organization that helps people with disabilities train their pets to assist them with tasks. ♥
"That Can Be So Boring. Well, Not Anymore!"
[Content Note: Send-up of misogyny.]
My favorite Superbowl commercial was this parody of a Totino's Pizza Roll advert, aired on Saturday Night Live this weekend:
Video Desscription: Four men—three white men and a black man—sit in a living room watching a ballgame. An array of snacks and beer is arranged on a coffee table in front of them. They cheer for a play. One of the men's wives, a white woman wearing a pink sweater, comes in with a huge smile on her face, bearing a plate of Totino's Pizza Rolls. "Who's ready for some more Totino's Pizza Rolls?" she asks cheerfully, setting down the plate. The men all make enthusiastic sounds. "Thanks, honey," says her husband. "You're the best."
"Anything for my hungry guys!" she says, crossing her arms and smiling satisfactorily. Her husband jerks his thumb toward the kitchen. "Now, get outta here, you—the game's on!" he tells her. "Okay, sweetheart," she replies. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." She smiles and walks away as the men cheer for another play.
Cut to the kitchen, where she speaks directly to the camera: "When it comes to the big game, I love feeding my hungry guys. But...now what?" She smiles tersely. "I normally just sit in the kitchen, waiting for them to ask for more delicious Totino's Pizza Rolls. But that can be so boring. Well, not anymore! Introducing Totino's new Superbowl Activity Pack—for Women!" She holds up a package full of colorful toys, which reads: "Learn! Play! Grow! For grown women ages 5 & up."
She opens the package and starts taking out the crappy little plastic toys. "It's full of fun little puzzles and games to keep my mind active and learning, while I wait back here." Big smile as the men cheer in the other room. "My hungry guys aren't the only ones having fun today. With my Superbowl Activity Pack for Women, I can spin a little top." Spins top. "Connect the dots." Completes the easiest connect the dot picture of a bee (and squeals excitedly "Oh look at the little bee!"). "Do a word search." Circles HAT in a nine-letter word search (and happily exclaims "Hat! I found hat!"). "Count my own money." Counts out Monopoly money. "And plenty of other activities I can drop at a moment's notice."
She plays with a tiny ball and paddle. "Honey, we're out of pizza rolls!" her husband shouts from the living room. "Comin' right up!" she calls cheerfully, settling down the paddle.
Cut to the living room, where she's setting down another plate of Totino's Pizza Rolls, and the men make excited noises as they reach for them. "Look, honey—it's a little bee," she says, showing her husband the connect the dots drawing. "Yeah, we're also out of beers, when you get a second," he says. "Anything for my hungry guys!" she says with a smile.
As she walks away, one of the men says, "Hey, does your wife wanna watch the game with us?" Her husband replies, "No, she's good. She's got her little activity pack." In the kitchen, the wife smacks a gooey hand against the fridge door.
Cut the the wife playing with a rubber ball on the floor. "If I get hungry," she says, "my activity pack comes with one little Totino—just for me!" She eats the one tiny pizza roll.
The men cheer in the living room. She walks back in and asks, "Is the game almost over?" Her husband replies, "No—it's still the first quarter."
She struggles to maintain her smile. "Well, I...already did that whole activity pack that you gave me." Her husband says, "Well, open another one then."
"Okay!" she says. "Anything for my hungry g—"
"GO!" shouts her husband.
She grins gruesomely and walks away.
"The Totino's Superbowl Activity Pack. For grown women ages 5 & up."
* * *
LOLOLOLOLOL FOREVERRRRRR. This is, of course, not just a perfect send-up of Totino's commercials—which are a particularly egregious repeat offender in the "wife/mom will do anything for her hungry boys!" genre, but of an entire category of snack commercials which feature wives/moms who seem to exist for no other reason than to provide a steady stream of tasty treats for their hungry boys. Perfect.
Rah Rah Ballsports Go Team!
So, did you watch the Superbowl yesterday? Did you also think it was the worst ending ever in Superbowl history? If not, I bet you are a Patriots fan!
Iain and I watched it, only because the weather ruined our annual tradition of being the only people at the movie theater on Superbowl Sunday. It's always enjoyable to watch American football with Iain, because he hates it soooo much! Which makes for lots of amusing commentary!
I am very interested in Marshawn Lynch as a person, though, so it was fun to watch him play and root for him and DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON WHY HE WASN'T GIVEN THE BALL WITH 20 SECONDS LEFT OMG THIS IS WHY I DON'T WATCH SPORTS.
This was my one and only Superbowl tweet last night:
Anyway. The best part of the whole night, except presumably for Patriots fans, was obviously this:
"We're gonna need a bigger barrrrrrrrf!"
I don't even know. Something something fireworks.
Even the ads were disappointing last night. I didn't love any of them, and the ad by Coke about how Coca-Cola is going to turn the internet into a place full of love just enraged me. Fuck you, Coke!
There are lots of ads to discuss, though, if you are so inclined, including the NFL's weaksauce PSA about domestic violence, for which I have all the contempt in the world the end.
The game, the halftime show, the ads, the annoying dude at the Superbowl Party you attended, whatever: Discuss!
Snow
Well, as you might have heard, the Chicago area got hit with quite a bit of snow over the last 24 hours. And it's still coming down. We are buried, and roads are bad.
We lost power for a couple of hours yesterday, but, once it came back on, it stayed on. Though it's flickering again this morning, so I'm desperately hoping we don't lose it again.
I am completely knackered, because our next-door neighbor was snow-blowing his driveway until 2am last night, and his driveway is right on the other side of our bedroom wall. He wasn't being an inconsiderate jerk, btw: He works rotating shifts at the mill, and that was the only time he was home to do it. So I'm not mad at all; I'm just very tired.
Anyway! How's it going by you? Everyone doing all right?
Open Thread
Hosted by a Highland cow.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by animals with impressive horns.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
OMGOMGOMG Photo of the Day
A Chihuahua has become best pals with a giant Neapolitan mastiff who is 120 times his weight. Little Digby is just five weeks old and weighs half a kilo. He was found shivering and dehydrated, cowering in a blanket between two rubbish bins beside flats in North London. He's teamed up with Nero, even though she towers above him, at the Southridge RSPCA Animal Centre at South Mimms, Hertfordshire. [Photo via.]Jesus Jones, that is just about the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by rye bread.
Recommended Reading:
Mariah: [Content Note: Misogyny; antifeminism; sexual abuse; domestic violence; misogynist terrorism] Mad Men: Inside the Men's Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned
Mustang Bobby: [CN: Homophobia; racism; misogyny] Nice Try
CBPP: Helping Eligible Workers Claim the EITC
Digby: The Greatest Country in the World
Kyler: [CN: Transphobia] White House Petition for 'Leelah's Law' Banning Conversion Therapy Reaches 100,000 Goal
Jamilah: The Breakout Film at Sundance About Trans Sex Workers Was Shot on an iPhone
David: Sculptures of Sea Monsters from Old Maps
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged.
Daily Dose of Cute
Olivia, sound asleep with her paw on her head.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Still Misogyny
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
This is something that came up in comments here, as well as in a conversation I was having with friends elsewhere: The men who object to the all-female Ghostbusters remake on some principle ostensibly other than misogyny.
Generally, their stated objections are something along the lines of the entertainment industry's creative bankruptcy for doing another remake (even though this isn't a remake), or how any reboot, no matter who's starring in it, negates the original Ghostbusters universe.
Or it's this or it's that, but whatever it is, it's definitely not about female Ghostbusters.
Except: It really is about female Ghostbusters.
Creative bankruptcy is a relevant argument when a film is being remade without meaningfully changing or improving it. That is not something that can said about a remake which elevates marginalized characters to central roles.
Well, it can be said—but only if you erase all cultural meaning regarding visibility and inclusion.
Leaving aside altogether arguments about whether reboots actually do "negate" preexisting iterations, the original Ghostbusters universe was one that contained no women in central heroic roles. Maybe that's a universe that needs negating.
It's hard to see how wishing to uphold a universe devoid of heroic women is anything but misogyny.
Passive, if not active.
Naturally, it's possible to express bigotry unconsciously, because of the internalized biases with which we're all socialized, but I haven't personally seen a whole lot of that with regard to negative reactions to this movie. Instead, I'm seeing a lot of men expressing pretty evident misogyny, wrapped in thin claims of objecting for some other reason.
But at the root of all these allegedly not misogynistic reasons lies misogyny.
It may be unexamined misogyny, but it's misogyny all the same.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Eddie Rabbit: "I Love a Rainy Night"
This week's TMNS brought to you by the hits of 1981.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Misogyny] Hey, remember when Mike Huckabee, who is a human nightmare concealed behind a goofy grin, said that women who curse in the workplace are "trashy"? Well, even conservative women were unhappy with that garbage: "[Fox News host Megyn Kelly] waited until the end of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's interview to serve the outspoken presidential hopeful an unwelcome reality check. 'I do have news for you before I let you go,' Kelly told Huckabee on her show, The Kelly File, on Wednesday night. 'We are not only swearing. We're drinking, we're smoking, we're having premarital sex with birth control before we go to work, and sometimes boss around a bunch of men. [Huckabee] laughed but was clearly taken aback. 'I just don't want to hear that,' he joked." Hahaha FUCK YOU AGAIN. Guess what? If you "don't want to hear" about the basic lives of women, then you aren't fit to be president of a nation, half of whose people are women. Asshole.
Imani Gandy explores "Congressman Tim Ryan's Abortion Stance Switcheroo." I'm definitely with Imani on this one: "Whether he will follow up his abortion switcheroo with some concrete action—especially now that Republicans control Congress and seem intent on regulating the contents of every person's uterus—remains to be seen. Still, I welcome his change of heart with a full-throttled 'Hooray!'—at least for now."
Cuban President Raul Castro said that the "process of normalising bilateral relations" between Cuba and the US is dependent on the US giving "back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base." And that ain't gonna happen. Welp.
[CN: Death penalty; disablism; descriptions of violence at link] Despite the fact that the Supreme Court has banned executions of people with significant intellectual disabilities, Texas executed Robert Ladd last night, citing its absurd Steinbeck standard for establishing the severity of intellectual disabilities.
John McCain, one of the nastiest men to ever haunt the halls of Congress (which is really saying something), said that CodePink protesters who called former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger a war criminal were "low-life scum." Seriously. "I've been a member of this committee for many years, and I have never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just took place. ...You know, you're going to have to shut up, or I'm going to have you arrested. Get out of here, you low-life scum." Christ.
[CN: Misogyny] Gee, I hope the poor NFL can find the money for this: "A California state representative who is a former college cheerleader this week introduced legislation that would legally classify the state's NFL cheerleaders as employees, making them subject to state minimum wage and employment laws." Billionaires paying women less than minimum wage. For fuck's sake.
[CN: Transphobia] Cisgender Transparent creator Jill Soloway posted images mocking Bruce Jenner on her Facebook page, accompanied by the text: "I couldn't not. Someone sent it to me. Tell me it's wrong and I'll take it down." She couldn't not be transphobic! Gross.
In good news: Meet the Radical Brownies! "The Radical Brownies, a social justice-oriented version of the Girl Scouts, was set up only a few weeks ago to 'empower young girls of colour to step into their collective power, brilliance and leadership to make the world a more radical place'. The group of 12 girls are not affiliated to the Girl Guide movement and there are no badges for hostessing. Instead, the members, aged between eight and 12 years old, learn about black history, civil rights and social justice; their reward system includes a 'Black Lives Matter' badge and lessons in sustainable agriculture for a 'Food Justice' badge. 'Radical Beauty,' 'Radical Self-Love,' and 'LGBT Ally' badges are also on the curriculum."
Do you want a picture of your own face on your morning toast? Well, if you've got $75, you are in luck!
And finally: Icelandic Horses!
This F@#king Guy
[Content Note: Domestic violence; misogyny; racism; murder.]
George Zimmerman is a fucking case study on male entitlement and lack of accountability. He literally got away with murder, after a lifetime of his parents and authorities failing to hold him accountable for hurting people. And, even now, he continues to escape meaningful consequences for his violent behavior toward people who don't share his privilege:
George Zimmerman won't be prosecuted on aggravated assault and domestic violence charges for an incident involving his girlfriend earlier this month, the Florida State Attorney's Office said Friday. The office said it reviewed reports and statements provided after Zimmerman's arrest on Jan. 9 and determined no formal charges should be filed. State Attorney Phil Archer said in a statement that "the subsequent recantation by the victim of her initial statement along with new documents provided by the victim and her attorney precludes my office from proceeding further."Poor soul. What terrible luck to have been repeatedly charged with domestic violence. And I'm sure our hearts all bleed for the "rough time" he's been having since murdering a teenager in cold blood.
Police say Zimmerman threw a wine bottle at his girlfriend during the alleged assault at his Lake Mary home. His lawyer told reporters that while the 31-year-old "has not been lucky with the ladies," he has also had a "rough time" since he was acquitted in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2013.
The State Attorney dropped the charges because the woman who is dating Zimmerman didn't want to proceed with the case, despite the fact that Zimmerman has a documented history of intimidating and threatening women with whom he's involved.
This should be a huge red flag to police and prosecutors; if she tries to leave him now, it could be extremely dangerous for her. He is a very dangerous man, and he's already gotten away with murder once.
Instead, off he goes to his freedom once again. And his lawyer flippantly quips about how he's unlucky with the ladies.
I'd suggest that the ladies have been rather unlucky with him.
And so was Trayvon Martin.
WhoooooooooopsMitt!
Never mind, Mitt Romney actually announced via conference call to the billionaires who would have been funding his presidential run that he is not going to run after all! The AP:
Three weeks after unexpectedly saying he was considering a third campaign for the White House, the former Massachusetts governor told members of his staff during a Friday conference call that he is out of race.Oh SNAP! Your page in the billionaires' scrapbook of political puppets has been TURNED, Mitt Romney!
Romney jumped back into the presidential discussion on Jan. 10, when he told a small group of former donors in New York that he was eyeing another White House run.
But in the days since, as Romney tried to rally support for another campaign, he discovered that several of his past supporters and major fundraisers had defected to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Said one this week in an interview with The Associated Press, "I have turned the page."
But please stand by in case Jeb Bush totally fucks it up.
Mitt 4 Least Worst!
Mitt Romney will reportedly be speaking to his "senior donors" later today, to tell them that's he's running for president. Of course he will. Because nothing says "man of the people" more than announcing via private call to billionaires that you're running for president.
The reinvention is going great, in other words.
Soon it will be official: Mitt Romney will be running for president and the 2016 primary will be GO. What a great day for us all. WHAT A GREAT DAY FOR AMERICA.
