Ella Fitzgerald: "You Make Me Feel So Young"
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround is brought to you by eagles.
Recommended Reading:
Dayna: [Content Note: Misogyny; white supremacy] On Gawker's Problem with Women
Julia: [CN: Bigotry; privilege; policing] How to Write a "Political Correctness Run Amok" Article
Angus: [CN: Racism; racist slur; privilege; policing] Petulant, Hyper-Sensitive, Censorious, Orwellian Activists, 1954
Shena: [CN: War on agency; violence against women. NB: Not only women need access to abortion.] Brazil's Conservatives Attempt to Further Restrict Abortion
Imani: [CN: Racism; violence] Chris Christie Should Remember the 'Lawlessness' in His Own Backyard
Shane: Ocean's Eleven: The Women Of Colour Cast
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Common Fears
[Content Note: Refugee crisis; Islamophobia.]
I have been updating my earlier post as more and more governors have said they will not accept Syrian refugees in their states, and/or demanded better vetting, as if the vetting already being done isn't the best it can possibly be given the circumstances.
But in case you haven't been following the updates, here is where we are at the moment: More than a dozen governors have now said they will not accept Syrian refugees: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas.
All of this horseshit is based on the fear that among the refugees will be sneaky terrorists. And, sure, that's a possibility. But the vast majority of refugees are people who share the fear of IS. They are refugees explicitly because they have been living under the daily terror of the exact sort of attacks that these governors are afraid will be perpetrated in their states.
And instead of focusing on these common fears we share with the refugees, people are eliding it altogether to instead fearmonger about how the refugees might themselves be terrorists.
I don't even know what the fuck to say, except to repeat that I really love, ahem, the chutzpah of crowing about "Christian values" while turning our backs on the people who have suffered the most at the hands of the terrorists we fear. I'm not sure "No room at the inn!" was meant to be the takeaway of the central story in the New Testament.
The President underlined the revolting irony at his press conference earlier today:
President Obama had sharp words Monday for current and would-be political leaders who have since stoked fear about the danger of Syrian refugees following the tragedy in France.Frankly, if you're scared of IS, that's the reason to welcome refugees. You don't need another one. Because they are scared of IS, too.
Obama said that people fleeing Syria "are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife." He pointedly countered suggestions that the United States should distinguish between Christian and Muslim migrants, calling it "shameful" and saying, "That's not American. It's not who we are."
He commended German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her "courageous stance" on welcoming refugees, as well as the G20 for affirming "that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism."
President Obama on IS
[Content Note: Terrorism.]
Earlier today, President Obama held a press conference on IS while attending the G-20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. Below is a compilation clip from that press conference, in which he details what the US strategy will be in response to ongoing attacks:
ISIL is the face of evil. Our goal, as I've said many times, is to degrade and ultimately to destroy this barbaric terrorist organization.After President Obama had explained what the US' strategy would be and why it would not change, CNN Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta was called on and asked the President: "Earlier, when you said that you had not underestimated ISIS' abilities, ah, this is an organization that you once described as a JV [junior varsity] tea, uh, that evolved into a force that is now occupying territory in Iraq and Syria, and is now able to use that territory as safe haven to launch attacks in other parts of the world. How is—how is that not underestimating their capabilities and how is that contained, quite frankly? And I think a lot of Americans have this frustration that they see the United States has the greatest military in the world; it has the backing of nearly every other country in the world when it comes to taking on ISIS. I guess the question is, if you'll forgive the language, is why can't we take out these bastards?"
As I outlined this fall at the United Nations, we have a comprehensive strategy using all elements of our power: Military, intelligence, economic, development, and the strength of our communities. We have always understood that this would be a long-term campaign. There will be setbacks, and there will be successes.
The terrible events in Paris were obviously a terrible and sickening setback. Even as we grieve with our French friends, however, we can't lose sight that there has been progress being made.
[edit] And so while we are very clear-eyed about the very, very difficult road still ahead, the United States, in partnership with our coalition, is going to remain relentless on all fronts: Military, humanitarian, and diplomatic. We have the right strategy, and we're gonna see it through.
[edit] There will be an intensification of the strategy that we put forward, but the strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work. Ah, but as I said from the start, it's going to take time. Ah, and what's been interesting is, in the aftermath of Paris, as I listened to those who suggest, uh, something else needs to be done, typically the things they suggest need to be done are things we are already doing.
Ah, the one exception is that there have been a few who've suggested that we should put large numbers of US troops on the ground. Uh, and keep in mind that, you know, we have the finest military in the world, and we have the finest military minds in the world. And I've been meeting with them intensively for years now, discussing these various options.
And it is not just my view, but the view of my closet military and civilian advisors, that that would be a mistake.
Not because our military could not march into Mosul or Raqqa or Ramadi and temporarily clear out ISIL, but because we would see a repetition of what we've seen before, which is—if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance, and who are pushing back against ideological extremes—that they resurface. Unless we're prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.
To which the President replied: "Well, Jim, I just—I just spent the last three questions answering that very question, uh, so I don't know what more you want me to add. Um, I think I've described very specifically what our strategy is, and I've described very specifically why we do not pursue some of the other strategies that have been suggested."
Basically, unless President Obama says "SEND IN THE TROOPS!" he will be accused of not even considering sending in the troops, no matter how many times he, or anyone else, explains that's not a wise or effective idea.
And he knows this. So he continued:
"If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan."I certainly don't love talk about terrorists that uses a frame of good vs. evil (which leaves no space for legitimate criticisms of our strategy made by civilians in the region), and I'm honestly not sure that the strategy the US is using is objectively the best one (although I'm certain it's the better option between the current strategy and sending in troops), but I am really in favor of and goddamn grateful for the President pushing back hard on the idea that an easy answer exists and the notion that he should pursue military strategies just for the purpose of giving people the satisfaction of a visible and immediate response.
"If they think somehow their advisers are better than the Chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them," Obama said. "And we can have that debate. But what I'm not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people and to protect the people in the region who are getting killed and to protect our allies and people like France. I'm too busy for that."
..."So we are going to continue to pursue the strategy that has the best chance of working," he said, "even though it does not offer the satisfaction, I guess, of a neat headline or an immediate resolution."
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda ain't having it, so don't even try.
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 (other) stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Severe burns; descriptions of surgery; images of injury and surgical healing at link] This is an amazing story about another recipient of a face transplant, whose life has been changed by the revolutionary surgery: "A volunteer firefighter badly burned in a 2001 blaze has received the most extensive face transplant ever, covering his skull and much of his neck, a New York hospital announced Monday. The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center [and lasted 26 hours]. The patient, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison, is still undergoing physical therapy at the hospital but plans to return home to Senatobia, Mississippi, in time for Thanksgiving. ...The donor was 26-year-old New York artist and competitive bicyclist David P. Rodebaugh. He had died of injuries from a biking accident on a Brooklyn street. ...A native of the Columbus, Ohio, area, he had signed up to donate organs. His mother gave permission to use his face, noting that Rodebaugh had always wanted to be a firefighter." Blub.
[CN: War on agency. NB: Not only women need access to abortion.] The Supreme Court has agreed to take on a major abortion case: "The Supreme Court will likely hear the case Whole Woman's Health v. Cole in 2016. The case challenges two provisions of Texas' omnibus abortion law, known as HB2. The first provision, which has already forced more than half of the clinics in the state to close, requires providers to secure hospital admitting privileges. The second provision forces clinics to fulfill costly, medically unnecessary ambulatory surgical center (ASC) requirements. Both the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have spoken out against both the ASC and admitting privileges requirements as medically unnecessary. Without any medical justification, all these laws seek to do is make it increasingly difficult-or even impossible-for a woman to get an abortion. 'We are confident the court will recognize that these laws are a sham and stop these political attacks on women's rights, dignity, and access to safe, legal essential health care,' said Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Whole Woman's Health and other providers in the case."
I wish I shared Northup's confidence. I hope that SCOTUS will do the right thing, but I am frightened that they won't. Relatedly, here is Jessica Mason Pieklo: "Justice Kennedy Can Save Roe, But Will He?"
In other terrifying news, the GOP is doing their damnedest to permanently lock Democrats out of policymaking: "Given the Federalist Society's influence among Republican lawmakers—especially the kind of Republican lawmaker who wears judicial robes—it is very likely that many of their proposals will be implemented if the 2016 election gives the GOP control of all three branches of government. It should be noted, moreover, that their proposals to hobble federal agencies are likely to give a structural advantage to Republicans that could very well become permanent. Republicans would still be capable of implementing their preferred policies, while Democrats would struggle to do the same even in the immediate wake of an electoral victory."
[CN: Disablism; addiction; privacy violations] Um: "As death rates from painkillers spike across the country, many experts are trying to stop the problem at its source: the doctor's office. ...Since 2012, Massachusetts and 23 other states have passed laws requiring doctors to, under certain circumstances, check patients' names in databases that track how and where they fill prescriptions for controlled substances. And now a new report, released on Monday morning by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that doctors in every state should be required to use these databases, also known as 'prescription drug monitoring programs,' or PDMPs. ...So far, evidence suggests that these programs work. Shortly after Kentucky mandated PDMP use among physicians, rates of 'doctor-shopping' went down and the number of people seeking addiction treatment went up." But: "While these databases are seen as a public health win, they're controversial because of the potential for law enforcement to go on fishing expeditions (in many states they need an open investigation, but no warrant, to access the data)."
Do you want a preview of Adele's second single? Well, here you go! Spoiler Alert: IT'S AMAZING.
And finally! Redonkulously adorz photos of a baby penguin named Elmer "for the glue used to repair its shell, which cracked during incubation." Omg.
And Again
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]
In Minneapolis, a black man was shot by police, two officers are on paid leave, protesters are demanding justice, and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting.
Jason Sole, chair of the Minneapolis NAACP's criminal justice committee, said many black residents of north Minneapolis are upset.Clark is on life support after being shot in the head, and some of his family members have told media that they've been informed he is brain-dead.
"We have been saying for a significant amount of time that Minneapolis is one bullet away from Ferguson," he said referring to the shooting by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri last year of black 18-year-old Michael Brown, which sparked nationwide protests. "That bullet was fired last night. We want justice immediately," Sole told Minnesota Public Radio News.
The shooting happened after police said they were called to north Minneapolis at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday for a report of an assault. When they arrived, the man had returned and was interfering with paramedics who were assisting the victim, police said. Officers tried to calm him, but there was a struggle.
At some point, an officer fired at least once, hitting the man, police said. Witnesses told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that there was a big crowd at the scene, and bystanders became agitated as police pushed them back. Some witnesses said police used a chemical irritant on the crowd.
Authorities have declined to release the man's name, but the Minneapolis NAACP cited family members and witnesses in identifying him as Jamar Clark.
The victim with whose medical care he was interfering was reportedly his girlfriend, and police have alleged that he assaulted her. Even if this accurate, the punishment for assault is not death.
And, as always, there is disagreement between the police version and witnesses on the scene: "Accounts from some witnesses that the man was handcuffed when he was shot sparked outrage. Police said their preliminary investigation shows the man was not handcuffed but the investigation is ongoing."
I don't imagine that Clark is going to recover, although I hope I am wrong. My sympathy to his family, friends, and community.
I cannot, and don't want to, speak for other survivors of intimate partner abuse, so I want to be clear that I am speaking only for myself here: The police were indifferent to my being harmed, and I was angry about that. But I would have been devastated if the police had responded only to gravely injure and/or kill the man who harmed me. The guilt of that would have crushed me.
Women who want justice and safety, and who do not want their attackers dead, need to feel as though they can call police without risking their attackers' lives. We shouldn't be obliged, in an already traumatic situation, to calculate whether the abuse is so bad that we are willing to potentially feel responsible if calling the police means summoning our abuser's executioner.
That should never figure into a woman's decision to call police for help.
Yet here we are.
Democratic Debate Wrap-Up
[Content Note: Terrorism.]
There was another Democratic debate Saturday night in Iowa. I have no idea why they scheduled a debate for a Saturday night, unless the goal was to have people not watch it, which I didn't.
Here is a complete transcript of the debate.
Perhaps the biggest story to emerge from that debate was a Bernie Sanders campaign strategist flipping out over the last-minute changes to the debate format as a result of the bombing in Paris.
After being informed the agenda of Saturday night's debate on CBS had been shifted in light of the siege of Paris, a top Sanders aide "threw a fit" during a conference call with producers and other campaign staffers, a staffer for a rival campaign told Yahoo News. The aide's concern: Expecting a presidential candidate to shift focus due to an unanticipated international incident isn't fair.The Sanders campaign later declared victory, with Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver telling CNN: "We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful. We ended up prevailing."
"It was a little bit of a bizarre scene," the staffer told Yahoo News. "The Sanders representative, you know, really laid into CBS and basically ... kind of threw, like, a little bit of a fit and said, 'You are trying to turn this into a foreign policy debate. That's not what any of us agreed to. How can you change the terms of the debate, you know, on the day of the debate. That's not right.'"
Another source told CNN that the aide, identified as strategist Mark Longabaugh, was greeted with stunned silence after the outburst.
"Once CBS informed the campaigns the debate was going to kick off with a focus on the attacks in Paris last night, [Longabaugh] completely lost it," the source said. "He threw a fit for several minutes."
It seems like a pyrrhic victory, though, given that the job of a president is to respond to crises, and Sanders now looks like he doesn't have the flexibility or expertise to swiftly respond to a foreign policy crisis.
I mean, complaining that it isn't fair to "expect a presidential candidate to shift focus due to an unanticipated international incident" is absurd. The President of the United States has to shift focus due to unanticipated crises all the time. If Sanders can't handle it in a debate, how are we supposed to feel confident he can handle it in the Oval Office?
This might well just be a case of Sanders' team making him look bad, without an explicit directive from the candidate, in which case: It's not the first time Jeff Weaver has done that. Much more of this garbage from Weaver and I'm going to start questioning Sanders' judgment keeping him on as campaign manager.
On the IS Attacks
[Content Note: Terrorism; violence; death; religious extremism; white supremacy; Islamophobia.]
Late last week, the Islamic State (IS) carried out bombings in Beirut, Baghdad, and Paris. This is a thread for discussion and information-sharing on the bombings and subsequent events; although links may contain images of violence, please keep this an image-free space as you discuss and share. Thank you.
In Beirut, Lebanon, two bombers killed "at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 others in a predominantly Shia area" in the southern part of the city. "'Soldiers of the Caliphate' were responsible for the attack, according to a statement allegedly posted by ISIL, which was published a few hours after Thursday's blasts. ...The bombings came at a busy time in the evening when the streets were full of families gathering after work."
In Baghdad, Iraq: "The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide blast and a roadside bombing that targeted Shiites in Baghdad on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding dozens. The suicide bomber struck a memorial service held for a Shiite militia fighter killed in battle against the Islamic State in the Baghdad suburb of Hay al-Amal, a police official said. That explosion killed 21 people and wounded at least 46, he said. Also on Friday in Baghdad, a roadside bomb detonated at a Shiite shrine in Sadr City, killing at least five people and wounding 15, police officials said. Since the emergence of Islamic State extremists, attacks in Baghdad have taken place almost daily, with roadside bombs, suicide blasts and assassinations targeting Iraqi forces and government officials, causing significant civilian casualties."
In Paris, France, six attacks in the city and suburbs, including a siege at a concert hall in which attendees were held hostage for two hours, 129 people were killed and dozens wounded by at least eight men, seven of whom blew themselves up during the attacks. Seven others have been arrested in connection with planning the attacks.
The attacks "were concentrated in the center of Paris, on the Right Bank. These are places and streets that burst with life on a Friday evening. It is where young and hip Parisians gather to drink and socialize. Le Carillon, La Belle Equipe, Le Petit Cambodge: these are ordinary neighborhood joints where you meet your buddies for a quick 'demi' of watery French beer or a snack before going out somewhere else. ...This is not the side of Paris seen by tourists or business travelers; rather, it’s an area where actual Parisians and people from the banlieues hang out and mix together. ...The attackers, whomever they may be and whatever their motives, went after the heart of progressive Paris. They did not attack the more touristy Champs-Elysées or Notre Dame, or the more bourgeois and conservative left bank, where most of the government ministries are located."
The reason for that is clear, from IS own literature: They are seeking to "destroy the 'grayzone' of coexistence between Muslims & [non-Muslims in] the West." They want to provoke non-Muslim Westerners into Islamophobia and violent retribution, and force non-radical Muslims to choose sides.
The disproportionate attention on and concern for Paris, to the exclusion of concern for the people of Beirut and Baghdad, as well as the daily terror being wreaked by IS in Syria, facilitates the very division IS is seeking to cause: In the New York Times piece "Beirut, Also the Site of Deadly Attacks, Feels Forgotten," Elie Fares, a Lebanese doctor, is quoted observing: "When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colors of their flag. When my people died, they did not send the world into mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."
IS also seeks to draw Western countries into further military confrontations, in the hope of depleting resources, radicalizing civilian Muslim populations in targeted areas, and fulfill prophecies about war with apostates. This piece in the Atlantic is a long but very important read about IS' objectives and motivations, and why it isn't helpful to say that IS aren't "real" Muslims. They are not representative of Muslims, and it is wretched bigotry to suggest that they are, but it is also catastrophically unhelpful to dismiss them with a No True Scotsman fallacy that suggests they aren't Muslims at all. Their ideology is squarely centered in a particular (and deeply odious) interpretation of Islam, and comprehending their objectives and motivations necessitates understanding their specific religious motivations, in addition to the other cultural and economic motivations that underwrite radical terrorism.
Because of profound misunderstandings of IS, the military response to IS continues to play directly into their hands: "France retaliates with 'massive' airstrike against ISIS in Syria."
Further, because one of the Paris bombers is believed to have made his way into the country with refugees, there is now an alarming amount of reactionary rhetoric regarding the refugees, in both France and the US.
[CN: Videos may autoplay at both links] As but two of many examples: French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said that the state of emergency in France should allow for the more rapid dissolution of mosques "where hate is preached." And, in the US: "The governors of Alabama and Michigan said Sunday that they would not resettle any refugees from Syria in their states, amid reports that at least one of the Paris attackers slipped through Europe's immigration system and concerns about 'gaping holes' impacting America's screening process."
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says that the US' refugee efforts should prioritize Christians: "We should focus our efforts as it relates to the Christians that are being slaughtered. ...This is a threat against Western civilization, and we need to lead. The United States has pulled back and when we pull back, voids are filled. And they're filled now by Islamic terrorism that threatens our country."
And Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz echoed Bush's suggestion that we should only extend refuge to Christians, adding that "There is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror." Which, of course, is total horseshit.
This is dangerous and mendacious rhetoric. IS' primary target has been and continues to be Muslims they view as apostates.
I don't know what the solution is to containing IS. But I do know this: Military strikes that continue to kill civilians, xenophobic fearmongering, and shutting our door to refugees who are trying to escape the same people subjecting them to the same terroristic violence is not an answer. It's an escalation.
My sincerest condolences to those who have lost family, friends, neighbors, and/or colleagues in the IS attacks. I am so sorry. I am so sad and so angry for you. My sympathy to everyone in the communities which have been terrorized and continue to be terrorized, as well as to Muslims—and Sikhs and other people presumed to be Muslim—who will be targeted for violent retribution, for something they did not do.
I am not a praying person, and I am not sure I would know for what to pray even if I were. Even what we call "peace" tends to come at a price that many innocent people would have to pay.
Update 1: Also recommended: "After Paris Attacks, Critics Warn Against 'Wars of Vengeance'."
UPDATE 2: [CN: Video may autoplay at link] Alabama and Michigan have now been joined by Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Indiana in saying they will refuse to accept Syrian refugees.
UPDATE 3: Massachusetts' Governor also says "he's opposed to allowing more Syrian refugees into Massachusetts in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris. The Republican said Monday the safety and security of the people of Massachusetts are his first priority and he would have to know a lot more about the federal government's refugee vetting process before allowing them into the state."
UPDATE 4: Also recommended: "Us Against Them, Part Whatever."
UPDATE 5: [CN: Video may autoplay at link] More than a dozen governors have now said they will not accept Syrian refugees: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas have all said they either flatly won't take in refugees and/or want better vetting of refugees before they will accept them.
UPDATE 6: "French leaders vowed Monday to exact justice from Islamic State militants behind last week's carnage in Paris, as European authorities intensified efforts to untangle the plot behind the worst violence on French soil in more than a half century. ...By late Monday, French and Belgian officials had conducted more than 160 raids, arrested more than 20 suspects and seized weapons as they sought to identify others involved in planning the attacks, and to pinpoint links between attackers and the Islamic State’s leaders in Syria and Iraq."
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!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by bloomers.
Recommended Reading:
Jenn: [Content Note: Racism; respectability politics] We're Done Being Polite: A Reflection on the Mizzou Protests
Tressie: [CN: Racism; silencing] Fascism
Eduardo: [CN: Racism; white supremacy] The White Racial Innocence Game
Jon: The 800 Pound Donkey in the GOP Debates
stavvers: Protect Our Poor White Boys from the Evils of Trigger Warnings
Veronica: 20 Years of Swallowing Down That Jagged Little Pill
Shane: [CN: Racism; assault; privilege] The Politics Of Sport: The English Football Hero
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
"Most of these sexual assaults are women waking up the next morning with a guilt complex. That ain't rape, that's being stupid. When the dust settles, it was all consensual. ...They're about as much a rape as a goat roping."—Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Police Chief Bryan Golden, who was "suspended for shocking statements about sexual assault" but "is back on the job." Because of course he is.
Again: Think of this shitlord the next time you hear some asshole arguing that survivors of sexual violence should be compelled to report their assaults to police.
On That Project Runway Reunion Special
[Content Note: Fat hatred; emotional auditing; bullying; spoilers for the last season of Project Runway.]
This season of Project Runway had a first: A fat woman doing plus-size designing, who won the season with a plus-size runway show.
It also had a whole lot of fat hating along the way.
Project Runway is no stranger to fat hatred. Virtually every season, there is a "real woman" runway challenge, during which at least one designer gets "stuck" with a fat woman and bitterly complains about how they don't know how to design for a fat female body.
This season, the winner, Ashley Nell Tipton, was subjected to overt fat hatred, with some of the runners-up (and many fans of the other finalists) suggesting that the only reason she won was because the show wanted to be "politically correct"; fat hatred masquerading as solidarity, in the form of compliments about how "brave" Ashley was for doing plus-size fashion; and fat hatred that the vast majority of thin people will Occam's Big Paisley Tie into anything else, but fat women recognize as the unique form of bullying to which we're subjected every day of our lives.
Ashley was consistently underestimated, right until the final moments of the season, though she started out the season winning two challenges out of the gate. That in itself is recognizable to a lot of fat women. We are received as less competent, less capable, less smart than our thin counterparts. As I have previously noted:
Fat people are stupid. This is a narrative that gets transmitted all the time. We are too stupid to understand our own bodies. We are too stupid to be engaged in our own healthcare. We are too stupid to make "good choices." We are too stupid to understand how weight loss works. There is a website called "You Are Fat Because You're Stupid." If we are content in our bodies, we are too stupid to realize we should be embarrassed of ourselves and filled with self-loathing. Multiple studies have been funded purporting to find a link between "obesity and stupidity." Surveys have found there is job discrimination based on employers' assumption that fat applicants aren't as smart. If a filmmaker or showrunner wants to indicate that a character is soooooo stupid, there's a pretty good chance that character will be fat. The caricature of the Stupid Middle-American is always fat. Adorably daft animated characters in children's stories are usually fat. If there's a good-hearted but simple-minded (male) character in a fantasy series, odds are on fat.Because of this presumption of stupidity, fat women (in particular) are reflexively viewed by many thin people as lacking talent, lacking skill, unthreatening. And thus, we are underestimated.
"Fat and stupid" go together like a fat horse and a stupid carriage.
This particular prejudice has played out in my life over and over. If I deal with someone (who isn't a rank misogynist) about, say, a problem with a utility bill on the phone, I'm treated like a capable and intelligent person. If I deal with someone in person, I am more likely than not going to be treated like I am immensely stupid, right down to a slow, condescending speech pattern reflective of a presumption I cannot understand any words with more than two syllables.
But, like I said, Ashley quickly won two challenges, providing some evidence she might be a threat, despite being fat. And so it was that a group challenge had Ashley chosen dead last, despite the fact that she was leading the field in wins.
Host Heidi Klum called out how absurd it was that she'd been picked last. Ashley was clearly upset by it. The team on which she ended up, an all-female team, were immediately hostile toward her. Not only was she a threat, and upending their expectations of a fat girl being an easy defeat, but they'd been called out on their prejudice, though as obliquely as possible.
During the challenge, the one woman on the team who was not treating Ashley like shit—Laurie, a black woman—tipped Ashley, who is Latina, that the rest of the women on the team, all of them thin and white, were plotting to throw her under the bus on the runway. And that is exactly what happened. Every last one of them, when asked who should go home, named Ashley.
On the runway, guest judge Kelly Osbourne called them out, telling them it seemed like a "bitchfest." In the holding room, where the designers waited while the judges deliberated, a gay male contestant told the women they were behaving like "mean girls," while Ashley quietly cried.
Ashley did not go home. Because she did not have the worst design.
There were smaller incidents throughout the season, right up to and including the finale, when one of the thin white women, Kelly, who was the eventual runner-up, was disproportionately suspicious of Ashley who was helping her get a stain out of her garment. I watched Ashley do the Helpful Fat Girl thing, the thing I have done so many times in my life, helping out someone who wouldn't give us the time of fucking day, because being nice and being useful is how we petition for acceptance, and then watched as that someone regarded her with distrust and was so nasty about it she had to admit to Ashley that she had been wrong about her motives.
Which brings us to the reunion special, which aired last night and [video autoplays at link] included a segment in which Tim Gunn moderated, with hopeless cowardice, a conversation about the aforementioned "mean girls" challenge.
And it was an absolutely perfect and terrible encapsulation of the dynamic that has defined every situation in which I am the only fat woman in a group of women among whom there is some competition, either real or imagined.
The thin white women, who had ganged up on Ashley, had all the Totally Reasonable explanations for why they'd ganged up on her. In fact, they hadn't even ganged up on her! They each had their own reasons. They weren't acting as a group, despite the fact that Laurie had heard them plotting to throw Ashley under the bus. It's not that they hate Ashley; it's just that Ashley was the worst, in all of their individual and totally not coordinated nor compromised by fat hatred opinions!
(And despite the fact that the judges disagreed.)
And not only that, but anyone who says otherwise is a huge jerk! The man who came to Ashley's defense and called them mean girls is a jerk! But you know who the biggest jerk is? ASHLEY! For failing to defend them.
Laurie then shouts at them to imagine how she was feeling after they'd all just tried to get her eliminated, to underscore the manifest absurdity of their contention that she should have been defending them in that moment.
To which Kelly replies that if someone had called Ashley a bully (what a neat example!), she would have defended her. Imagine, she shot back, how she felt having been called a mean girl.
I need thin women who want to be effective allies to fat women to watch this scene. I need you to understand that this is what thin women do to fat women over and over and over, and how the issue of fatness is never addressed, not explicitly. It's just a fat woman being bullied, then being called a bully when she fails to defend the thin women who harmed her.
I also need thin women who want to be effective allies to fat women to understand that the theme running throughout this segment, and the entirety of the reunion special, about how Ashley is "emotional" and how she was always crying, is a thing used routinely against fat women, too.
Because there are a lot of fat women who do cry easily. There are a lot of women of any size, and a lot of men, who cry easily, too. But their reasons are not necessarily the same as many or most of the fat women who cry easily.
On the reunion special, one of the thin white women observes that, even though all of them were overwhelmed and emotional, Ashley was the only one who was crying. As if that's an individual character flaw, and as if it's a coincidence.
The thing is, by the time a fat Latina woman gets to a point in her day where she may be experiencing the same level of overwhelmed emotionality as her colleagues, she's not only navigated all the same misogynist bullshit that any other woman has, and all the same racist bullshit that any other person of color has, she's also navigated an extraordinary level of fat hatred.
These are the things a fat woman must navigate every day, dozens of which she may encounter before she gets to the point where she is faced with the same demanding tasks as her colleagues. She has expended eleventy metric fucktons of emotional energy just navigating a world that hates her, and maybe she doesn't have as much left over as a thin person who hasn't had to navigate any of it.
So maybe she cries.
Maybe she cries because that's what she needs to do in order to keep her shit together enough to keep working, to work twice as hard as the thin women who don't have to overcome the prejudices she does, so that she can fucking win.
And even when she does, those women will then turn around and sneer that she only won because she is fat, because she caters to fat women. As if there's ever been a prize for doing something swell for fat women.
Even winning isn't enough to put paid the fat hatred.
Frankly, that makes me cry, too.
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie, doing her Olivia impression.
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: Marginalization; video may autoplay at third link] More student action is taking place and yielding consequences on college campuses across the US: Mary Spellman, the Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College, resigned yesterday, following "student protests at the college, where many demanded more inclusive programs for what they call marginalized students, which include students of color, LGBT students, disabled students and low-income students." And at Georgetown, students "announced at a solidarity demonstration on Thursday, Nov. 12 that they are to begin a sit-in outside University President John DeGioia’s office on Friday morning to continue until administrators change the name of Mulledy Hall," which was "named for a former university president who sold 272 slaves to Louisiana in 1838 in order to raise money to pay off university debts." And at Virginia Commonwealth University, "student activists marched into the school president's office Thursday morning to demand the university increase the number of black professors and offer more cultural training on campus."
Meanwhile, a bunch of shitlords furiously pen hot takes about the left's intolerance and student's fragility, because they can't deal with evidence of emergent resistance to the status quo serving as the foundation on which their ivory towers are built.
Also: Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, now president of Purdue University, continues to be a fucking nightmare.
[CN: War on agency] In other campus news: "A University of Missouri doctoral student is defying an anti-choice legislator by continuing her research on the effects of the state's newly enacted 72-hour forced waiting period for abortions. The student, Lindsay Ruhr, told Al Jazeera that she stands by her research. 'I feel that my research is objective, and that the whole point of my research is to understand how this policy affects women. Whether this policy is having a harmful or beneficial effect, we don't know,' Ruhr said. ...The controversy surrounding Ruhr's research started last month, when state Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) sent an October 30 letter to the university's chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, saying that Ruhr's research seemed like a 'marketing aid for Planned Parenthood.'" For fuck's sake.
[CN: Class warfare; worker exploitation; food insecurity] And from another front in the revolution: "Tired of being left to rely on the charity of others to feed their families, Walmart workers around the country are launching two weeks of fasting in the run-up to Thanksgiving to demand livable wages and full-time schedules. 'I've had to forgo meals so my boys would have enough to eat,' Walmart associate Jasmine Dixon said Thursday on a press call organized by OUR Walmart. 'If it wasn't for food stamps I don't know what I would do.' ...'My mother grew up during the Depression and she passed along lessons on how to get through hard times. They're lessons I use today while working at Walmart,' [Walmart associate Nancy Reynolds] told reporters Thursday. 'A lot of times I've had to get chicken nuggets because that's all the money I had,' Reynolds said. She described splitting an order of nuggets in the break room at Walmart 'because my coworkers were hungry.'"
I would really love to hear Walmart executives explain how the company can justify six members of the Walton family holding as much wealth as the entire bottom thirty percent of the US population, while it pays its employees so little that they can't afford to eat.
Welp: "In new shock poll, Sanders has landslides over both Trump and Bush: In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by a landslide margin of 12 percentage points, 53 to 41. In the McClatchy poll, Sanders also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) by a landslide margin of 10 points, 51 to 41." That's not a "shock" to me. Trump and Bush are terrible fucking candidates.
[CN: Nukes] Whoooooooops: "The Kremlin says secret plans for a Russian long-range nuclear torpedo—called 'Status-6'—should not have appeared on Russian TV news. The leak happened during a report on state-run Channel One about President Vladimir Putin meeting military chiefs in the city of Sochi. One general was seen studying a diagram of the 'devastating' torpedo system. Launched by a submarine, it would create 'wide areas of radioactive contamination,' the document says. ...'In future we will undoubtedly take preventive measures so this does not happen again,' said Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov."
[CN: Death; references to self-harm] This is an amazing story recounting Salvador Alvarenga's 14 months lost at sea, the loss of his shipmate, his eventual rescue, and his survival.
[CN: Racism] "Organizers seat woman behind Trump 'because she's black'—so she silently protests by reading her book." This woman is terrific, the white couple who scolded her are assholes, and Donald Trump is the worst.
Neat! "Pulsar spotted outside the Milky Way is one of the most energetic ever seen: Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, which create pulsed emissions as their magnetic fields sweep across the line of sight with Earth. Generally, these are detected as radio wavelengths. But in rare cases, the environment around the pulsar is energetic enough to create gamma rays. Now, researchers have used these gamma rays to spot the first one of these seen outside our own galaxy. The pulsar is the most luminous ever seen at these wavelengths, with each pulse outputting 1036 ergs—a bit over 1015 megatons."
Big news, fellow haggis-heads! "Traditional haggis could soon be back on US menus amid rethink of lamb imports."
And finally! Thank you to each and every person who sent me the story about Otto the Skateboarding Bulldog, who marked Guinness World Records Day 2015 by setting "the record for longest human tunnel travelled through by a skateboarding dog." Congratulations, Otto! You should also get some kind of award for canine patience with human silliness! And for MAXIMUM CUTENESS!
Again with This Guy
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; guns; death.]
Last month, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty's office released two reports from outside investigators which asserted that Officer Tim Loehmann, who killed Tamir Rice, had "acted reasonably in deciding last year to shoot when he confronted the 12-year-old boy carrying what turned out to be a replica gun." Then, earlier this week, McGinty accused the Rice family "of being 'economically motivated' in their pursuit to bring the officer responsible to trial."
I wrote on Monday: "There is no way this guy is fit to oversee this investigation and possible trial."
Further proving the point, McGinty's office has now "released another expert opinion which describes the actions of the officer involved as 'objectively reasonable.'"
The new expert opinion, written by W Ken Katsaris, a veteran law enforcement trainer from Florida, also argues that while Rice's death in November 2014 was a "tragedy," it would "also be a tragedy" if officer Timothy Loehmann lost his job.Rage seethe boil.
...Katsaris concluded: "This unquestionably was a tragic loss of life, but to compound the tragedy by labeling the officers conduct as anything but objectively reasonable would also be a tragedy, albeit not carrying with it the consequences of the loss of life, only the possibility of loss of career."
Madison, the attorney for Rice's father, described this final observation as, "insensitive at the least."
The first time McGinty released expert reports, I wrote: "I don't see any reason at all for publicly disclosing these reports except to exploit that influence on behalf of a killer cop." Which is the case Tamir Rice's family has been making over and over:
Lawyers for the Rice family told the Guardian that McGinty's decision to continue to drip feed expert opinions before the grand jury process was completed was a "complete evil misuse" of the process.This much is patently clear. And yet, incredibly, McGinty defends his decision to publicly release these expert reports by claiming that he's engaging in transparency: "McGinty defended the decision to release Katsaris's expert opinion before the grand jury process had concluded, arguing in a statement on Thursday that it represented a 'more open and transparent protocol.' The investigation into Rice's death was the most thorough inquiry in the county's history 'and there has never before been such an open process.' He added that the investigation was still gathering evidence."
"It's apparent that these efforts are to justify his [McGinty's] true intent; to inoculate the public and brace them for the ultimate decision, which is that there's not going to be any indictment out of the grand jury," said attorney Walter Madison, who represents Rice's father Leonard Warner.
"I believe it is a complete evil misuse of a grand jury process he's converted into a private, secret trial designed to exonerate these officers."
That investigators are still gathering evidence is an indictment of his decision to release these inflammatory reports, not a justification for it.
This is not justice. This is a farce, in service of white supremacy.
Party of Big Ideas
OMG LOLOLOLOLOL:
Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.Scott Lemieux: "Hard to see any flaws in this trial balloon." Haha indeed! It's a perfect plan! And it sounds even better the second time around!
Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands.
...According to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney — despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.
Mitt Romney couldn't win his party's nomination in 2008. He couldn't win the presidency in 2012. I guess the only thing that's left is to not win the presidency even harder in 2016.
The one wee fly in the ointment is that he doesn't want to run. Maybe they can just haul Bob Dole's old bones onto the stage for one more shot at glory!
The most hilarious and terrifying thing from this article, however, is not the fact that the best idea the Republican elite has is to run Mitt Romney again. It's the fact that they realize Trump and Carson are such terrible candidates that some of them actually prefer the idea of a Hillary Clinton presidency:
The apprehension among some party elites goes beyond electability, according to one Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the worries.The only thing more terrifying than nominating a ludicrous jerk who can't beat Hillary is nominating a ludicrous jerk who can.
"We're potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn't fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job," this strategist said. "It's not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?"
Cool party you've got there, Republicans.
