"Whazzat?!"
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
"Whazzat?!"
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...
The AP is reporting that Hillary Clinton has won the Iowa Caucus. She is the first female presidential candidate ever to win the Iowa Caucus. Ahem.
Bernie Sanders has called on "the Democratic party to release a raw vote count in Iowa after a nail-biting finish... He threw little light on an unfolding controversy over certain Iowa precincts that did not have enough Democratic party volunteers to report delegate totals for each candidate but did call on officials to take the unusual step of revealing underlying voter totals. Delegates are awarded in the Iowa Democratic contest on a precinct-by-precinct basis, irrespective of the state-wide vote for each candidate. 'I honestly don't know what happened. I know there are some precincts that have still not reported. I can only hope and expect that the count will be honest,' he said. 'I have no idea. Did we win the popular vote? I don't know, but as much information as possible should be made available.' Sanders' campaign director, Jeff Weaver, told reporters he did not 'anticipate we are going to contest' specific results but hoped there would be an investigation into what happened."
[Content Note: Homophobia] Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have pledged, if elected, to pass a vile piece of homophobic legislation in their first 100 days in office. (More bullshit campaign promises that rely on people not understanding how government works.) The First Amendment Defense Act "would allow businesses and individuals to discriminate against gay people in the guise of 'religious liberty.' ...Though the bill's chances are slim, its broad right-wing support ('The bill has 152 co-sponsors in the House and 37 in the Senate—all Republicans but one, Representative Daniel Lipinski of Illinois. It has been endorsed by the Republican National Committee and at least four Republican presidential contenders') should serve as a warning that the fight to retain LGBT rights and protections is far from over and we must continue to be vigilant against efforts to take them away from us."
[CN: Hostility to consent] "Adele has told Donald Trump that he does not have permission to use her songs at campaign rallies after fans expressed their anger that the Presidential hopeful was using the singer's hits as his warm-up music. ...Adele has now broken her silence over the association and made it clear that she does not endorse Trump's use of her music. 'Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning,' a spokesman for the singer told The Independent." The guy's a fucking billionaire and is stealing music.
[CN: Transphobic violence] Goddammit: "After a year that saw a record high number of homicides of transgender women of color, The Austin Chronicle reports that Monica Loera was the first known trans woman to be killed in the United States in 2016. The 43-year-old Latina was shot in the doorway of her Austin home on January 22. But according to Advocate.com, news of her death didn't reach the wider community until recently because both the police report and local media misgendered her, using an outdated and inaccurate name and photo." My condolences to Monica's family, friends, and community.
[CN: Extreme weather] Oh dear: "Heavy snow has disrupted public transport in southern China, stranding tens of thousands of people outside a rail station, police say. The crowd outside Guangzhou station swelled to nearly 100,000 at its peak on Monday night, police said. Central China has experienced some of its coldest weather in years. The rare snow has coincided with the run-up to Chinese New Year—where hundreds of millions of Chinese travel home to see their families." What awful timing, and how scary for the people who are stranded.
[CN: War on agency] Teddy Wilson reports that there have been "147 anti-choice bills introduced in state legislatures during the first month of 2016" and 90% of them have been introduced by white Republicans. Jesus fucking Jones.
[CN: Rape culture] "Bill Cosby arrived in court Tuesday at a hearing where his lawyers are pushing to get the only criminal charges against him dismissed based on what they say is a former district attorney's promise years ago not to prosecute the comedian. ...Former Montgomery County District Attorney, Bruce Castor, testified for the defense at Tuesday's hearing saying he saw 'red flags' in [victim Andrea Constand]'s yearlong delay in reporting her sexual assault, 6ABC News reported. Castor, who has insisted that he had promised Cosby years ago not to prosecute him, also testified that he found inconsistencies in Constand's story." So, basically, because the former prosecutor was garbage, now Cosby argues the current prosecutor shouldn't be allowed to prosecute him. Fucking hell.
Here's Hugh Jackman just being ridiculously adorable talking about his wife again. That guy.
Whoa! "NASA's New Horizons scientific team headquartered at Johns Hopkins University just revealed some intriguing new updates on the amount of water ice potentially on Pluto. [False-color images], derived from infrared light observations by the spacecraft's Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument, shows where the unique spectral features of concentrated water ice are amazingly abundant on Pluto's frigid surface."
And finally! BABY ANTELOPES! I mean.
Fat Fashion
This is your semi-regular thread in which fat women can share pix, make recommendations for clothes they love, ask questions of other fat women about where to locate certain plus-size items, share info about sales, talk about what jeans cut at what retailer best fits their body shapes, discuss how to accessorize neutral colored suits, share stories of going bare-armed for the first time, brag about a cool fashion moment, whatever.
* * *
Shaker Maura in VA emails, which I'm sharing with her permission: "I don't have any other outlet for fat fashion news, so I am sharing with you in case you and our Fat Fashion friends might find this amazing—Woot! is featuring wide calf and extra-wide calf boots today, in medium and wide width sizes."
So heads-up if you're in the market for some boots!
These are my much-loved wide calf faux leather boots, which I got two years ago. At the time, I said: "They are super comfy for walking around, and they are just tight enough to be fine if I'm wearing 'em bare-legged with a skirt, but just loose enough to be fine if I'm wearing 'em over snug jeans. That is definitely one of the benefits of spending a little extra to get boots with precise calf sizing, based on your actual leg measurement and not your shoe size. Whatever magical combination of foot-to-calf ratio on which that calculation is based, I don't have it!"
In that picture, I was wearing them over jeans. And they still fit really well, years after purchase.
Anyway! As always, all subjects related to fat fashion are on topic, but if you want a topic for discussion: Boots! What are your feelings?
Have at it in comments! Please remember to make fat women of all sizes, especially women who find themselves regularly sizing out of standard plus-size lines, welcome in this conversation, and pass no judgment on fat women who want to and/or feel obliged, for any reason, to conform to beauty standards. And please make sure if you're soliciting advice, you make it clear you're seeking suggestions—and please be considerate not to offer unsolicited advice. Sometimes people just need to complain and want solidarity, not solutions.
Can't Fu@#king Win
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
We've talked a lot in this space about the Can't Fucking Win List—that list of contradictory rules for women that means we can never fucking win.
Be pretty. But not too pretty. But definitely don't be ugly. Have confidence. But don't be an arrogant bitch. Have ambition. But not too much ambition that it makes you unlikable. Communicate what you think you deserve. Stop acting like you think you deserve something. Women who are working mothers are terrible because X. Women who are stay-at-home parents are terrible because Y.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Over many years, and countless posts, I've detailed how the rules of the Can't Fucking Win List have been used against Hillary Clinton.
If she shows emotion, she's weak. If she doesn't show emotion, she's cold.
If she expresses anger, she's a hysterical feminist. If she doesn't express anger, she's passionless.
When she declared her 2008 candidacy early, she was an entitled bitch. When she delayed her 2016 announcement, she was a ruthless bitch who was fucking over the men who wanted to run.
Her hairstyle is so hideous; she should change it. Her hairstyle is so hideous; she never should have changed it.
If she doesn't admit she was wrong about something and change her position, she's an establishment jerk who doesn't listen. If she does admit she was wrong about something and changes her position, she's a cynical opportunist.
On and on and on. She can't fucking win.
Although most news outlets still haven't yet declared a Democratic winner in Iowa, NBC News reports: "Clinton Edges Out Sanders in Historically-Close Caucus."
They have projected her to be the first female presidential candidate ever to win the Iowa Caucus, and this is another headline they're currently running about it:
When she wins, it feels like a loss.
Because women can't fucking win, even when we fucking do.
Iowa Caucus Wrap-Up
So, after a day of caucusing-a-go-go in Iowa yesterday, the Democratic side is still too close to call. Either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders will win by the thinnest of margins.
In some places, ties were decided by coin toss, and Clinton reportedly won all five (or six, depending on the source) flips of the coin.
Lots of people are losing their shit that democracy could be decided with the flip of a coin, but the whole caucus format is absurd, with people shouting at each other and trying to convince people to literally move from one side of a room to another, and a breaking a tie with a coin toss might be the least absurd part of it.
I note there are a lot of people who are outraged about settling a tie with a coin toss, but cool with frontloading the primary schedule with disproportionately white states. Ahem.
[ETA. Here's some additional information about those coin tosses, and how they didn't actually matter as much as originally reported.]
After failing to register entirely with caucus-goers, Martin O'Malley has suspended his campaign. Goodbye, East Coast Gavin Newsom!
But all left-leaning people were winners last night, because none of our candidates were Donald Trump!
On the other side of the aisle...
Ted Cruz pulled out a win over Donald Trump, with Marco Rubio having a surprisingly good showing in third place. Mike Huckabee tanked so hard he suspended his campaign. Seeya, shitlord!
After being declared the winner, Cruz gave what is the worst victory speech I believe I've ever heard. He sounded less like a president and more like the principal of a conservative evangelical elementary school, telling the kids about the big field trip to the dump.
Next stop: New Hampshire! One week from today.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker boutet: "What jobs/careers have people told you that you 'should' do?"
I've gotten "teacher" and "therapist" a lot.
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by chips.
Recommended Reading:
Kirsten: [Content Note: Hostility to consent; sexual assault] I Don't Owe Anyone My Body
Jenn: [CN: Racism] The Diversity of the SAG Awards Brought out the Racism of #SAGsSoBlack
Katie: [CN: Rape culture; descriptions of sexual violence] Everything Wrong with Mitch Albom's Rape Survivor Sound Bite
Veronica: [CN: Misogyny; racism; hostility to consent; violence] No Más Bebés Premieres on Independent Lens
TLC: New Legislation to Expand Restroom Access in California
Angry Asian Man: Snowboarder Chloe Kim Wins Second Straight X Games Gold
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Dealing with Dudes, Part Eleventy Million
Below, a supercool exchange I had with a dude on Twitter after someone he followed linked my piece "The Inherent Misogyny of Sanders' Antiestablishmentarianism."
This is, of course, not even the first time this sort of thing has happened. It reminds me of the female scientists who have had their own papers quoted at them by men who were condescendingly lecturing them on their field at professional conferences.
Daily Dose of Cute
Just a perfectly normal way to sleep.
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: Islamophobia] At Think Progress, Beenish Ahmed explains "Why It Matters That Obama Is Finally Visiting an American Mosque: Two-thirds of Republican voters polled and nearly half of all American voters said that they would favor a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the U.S. That level of anti-Muslim sentiment is alarmingly high... Obama's visit to the Islamic Center will will closely follow the Iowa Caucus, and might be a way for Obama to send a strong message about the place of Muslims in America."
[CN: Misogynoir; police brutality; death] Rage seethe boil: A black teenage girl from Kentucky "who died at a juvenile detention center this month was restrained by guards who used a martial arts move and then failed to check on her throughout the night, a new report finds. Police initially said that Gynnya McMillen, 16, died in her sleep at Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabethtown on Jan. 11. But the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting reported on Friday that officers took her down using an 'Aikido restraint' move, didn't check in on her overnight, and waited 11 minutes to give her CPR when they found her unresponsive." And what is supposed to have justified adults using such force on a child? "A state Department of Juvenile Justice spokesman told the Daily News that McMillen refused to take her hooded sweatshirt off when she was booked on a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault on Jan. 10."
[CN: ICE raids; trauma; racism] "The recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Central American asylum seekers have been deemed 'needlessly aggressive and potentially unconstitutional' by a new report [pdf] from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR). 'Families in Fear: The Atlanta Immigration Raids' focuses on the raids that took place in Georgia, the state hit hardest by the first large-scale effort to deport the more than 100,000 families who have fled violence in Central America since last year. The raids, which began January 2, spanned Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, resulting in the detainment of 121 people. Despite previous reports that Central American 'families' were targeted, SPLC states that everyone detained during the sweep was a woman or a child." And a refugee seeking safety.
[CN: Child abuse; death] Well, I just blubbed my face off watching this extraordinary video of two moms meeting for the first time, after one mom whose son died donated his organs and the other mom's daughter received his heart. "That's your baby," said Esther Gonzalez, Jordan's mom, to Heather Clark, Lukas' mom, as she listened to her son's heart beating in Jordan's chest.
YES: "In a landmark decision, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has ruled for the first time that a transgender person is entitled to gender-confirming surgery under Medicare, according to a statement sent to The Advocate by the case's attorney, Ezra Young. Young represents Charlene Lauderdale, a retired master sergeant in the Air Force, a purple heart recipient, and a trans woman who has waited years to receive the trans-affirming health care from the Veterans Administration through an HMO called United Healthcare/AARP Medicare Complete. The HMO now has the right to bring suit against HHS in federal trial court to contest the decision within 30 days. 'This decision sends a clear message. No transgender person may be denied surgical benefits simply because of outdated ideas regarding transgender health care,' says Young in the statement."
[CN: Bullying] What in the everloving fuck is Ted Cruz even doing?! "Ted Cruz's Iowa Mailers Are More Fraudulent Than Everyone Thinks." Basically, his campaign is just pulling numbers out of their asses about people's voting records, and then using those fake numbers to try to shame them in front of their neighbors to bully them into voting. A new low.
In other Republican presidential news: "Bush Doing Whatever It Takes to Stay Relevant." Stay?
OMG this is so cute: Screen Actors Guild Award winner Uzo Aduba: "He asked me to the prom, I said yes. I asked him to SAGs, he said yes." EPIC FRIENDS!
[CN: Scat] "Baltimore Mayor Gives Support for Eight-Foot Monument to Divine, Featuring Dog Poop: ...Baltimore's mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is completely down. The Baltimore Sun quotes her spokesperson, Howard Libit, saying, 'The mayor thinks that the idea sounds divine and looks forward to seeing more details on the proposal.'" Prepare for many pictures of Deeky and I standing in front of this statue.
Wow: "Conservationists have announced the 'amazing discovery' of a previously unknown lion population in a remote north-western region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time. Lions were spotted in the Alatash national park on Ethiopia's border with Sudan, lion conservation group Born Free said. 'The confirmation that lions persist in this area is exciting news,' Born Free Foundation said in a statement. 'With lion numbers in steep decline across most of the African continent, the discovery of previously unconfirmed populations is hugely important.'"
[CN: Bat; worms; video autoplays at link] And finally! A video of a bat being rehabilitated in wildlife rescue gets some yummy mealworms. I know not everyone thinks bats are cute, but I think they are soooooo cute!!!
History's Greatest Monster
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Over the weekend, it was reported that billionaire liberal funder George Soros donated $6 million to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton.
Naturally, this has launched a million ships sailing with the "Establishment Candidate!" banner. That Soros donated to Clinton is PROOF! that she is the establishment candidate.
(Unlike Bernie Sanders, whose campaign is also being fueled by super PAC money, despite popular beliefs to the contrary.)
This is a perfect example of how "establishment" functions as misogynist shorthand. Because "leading Democratic contender gets huge donation from liberal funder" isn't really all that scandalous.
It's only when it's stuffed inside the framing that Clinton, a woman running for an office which has never been held by a woman, is emblematic of the establishment that has disallowed female officeholders, that suddenly support from a prominent liberal funder is evidence of her corruption.
Instead of evidence of her demonstrated competence having earned that level of support.
Yesterday morning, I was reading through the 3,000+ pages of Clinton's State Department emails, released last summer (because what the fuck else would I be doing on a Sunday morning?), and the emails are so revealing.
They draw a picture of a dedicated public servant who has an unfathomably broad knowledge of the world; who is funny, kind, smart, tireless, a good boss; who does the same things that smart women everywhere do—makes self-deprecating jokes, asks instead of demands, is ridiculously accommodating.
She seeks to share credit with her staff. When there is a breakdown in communication that has inconvenienced her twice, she doesn't get angry but asks, simply, "What's up?" She always refers to President Obama as "the POTUS."
I got through less than 20% of the emails, but I came away thinking: If Hillary Clinton were truly representative of the establishment, we'd be pretty damn lucky.
(I am, by the way, not the only person to have had this experience: "I Was One of the Most Ardent Hillary Haters on the Planet…Until I Read Her Emails.)
Here, as but one example, is your establishment candidate and history's greatest monster:
Most of the emails are centered around scheduling, including daily emails detailing her schedule for the day. They are a mile long, exhausting just to read. And still she finds time to read the news and ask if there's any way to help a little girl on the other side of the world.
Here, I will insert the requisite disclaimer that I don't think Hillary Clinton is beyond criticism. I don't think everyone, or anyone, is obliged to like her or trust her. There are plenty of people, and I count myself among them, who have criticisms of Clinton's policies, past and/or present, and who can mount those criticisms without relying on lazy narratives rooted in uninterrogated misogyny.
I don't believe Hillary Clinton is above reproach. But goddammit I do believe she deserves better than to be routinely demeaned with demonstrably unjustifiable characterizations that are indistinguishable from the mendacious shit Rush Limbaugh has been disgorging about her since the 1990s.
And if you fancy yourself a person who thinks we need more women in politics, then you should believe that, too.
Black History Month
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
Today starts Black History Month, and I wanted to open a space for people to share resources—books, films, interviews, music, collections of poetry, art, blogs, speeches, links to events, anything explicitly associated with Black History Month or any content created by black people that has been meaningful to you.
Head to comments with your recommendations!
As a white USian who grew up in a predominantly non-black community, black history, especially as told by black people, was largely concealed from me. What black history I did get, at school and at home, was largely filtered through the lens of white supremacy and white privilege.
I reached 17 without ever encountering the idea that that was a problem.
It is a problem in the historical record, and it is a problem in the record that is being created today. An overwhelmingly white media gets to shape stories, casting black people victimized by white supremacist violence as thugs and demons, black people oppressed by white supremacist neglect and exploitation as moochers and takers, black activists agitating for justice as divisive and dangerous.
The black perspective, the truth, was and is still being written out of history documented and controlled by white people.
Black history is living history. To mark the beginning of this month, I want to reaffirm my commitment to supporting and amplifying the voices of black people who are telling their stories, to regard them as authorities on their own lives and lived experiences, to listen to them and believe them, to respect black people as the definitive sources of their own history.
You Can't Mansplain Away the Berniebros
[Content Note: gaslighting, bullying, harassment]
Readers of this space know that Liss has written about the problems of the Sanders Stans--those Sanders supporters who seem determined to act like the worst MRA trolls in the name of revolution. For months, feminists, racial justice activists, and others critical of Sanders have been dealing with bullying behavior in our Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, our comment sections, our email, and almost any other place the bullies can reach us. (Including, sometimes, offline spaces as well.) There's been doxxing, harassment, sockpuppeting and ratfucking galore.
And in some cases, the targets aren't even people who are supporting Hillary Clinton. Racial justice advocates, in particular, have frequently been quite (justifiably) critical of Hillary Clinton. Yet they get called Clinton shills and met by a swarm of harassment for the mere act of also criticizing Bernie Sanders.
Frankly, the mainstream media has had only tepid interest in covering that story. Months ago, however, the term "Berniebro" was coined by Robinson Meyer, writing in The Atlantic, in order to describe a certain subset of young male Bernie supporters online, and the term has become synonymous with the harassers. Of late larger media is taking more notice; last week no less a than the BBC wrote about Sanders' fans bad online reputation. (I'm quite sure it isn't coincidental that well-known white men like Paul Krugman have been the targets of Berniebullying lately, but whatever.)
Predictably as clockwork, online Bernie supporters are there to mansplain that the Berniebro is all a myth, a racist and sexist one to boot:
The media’s false characterization of the average Sanders supporter as a white male “Bernie Bro” is misleading and offensive...The optics are pretty bad — well-heeled media outlets with brick-and-mortar offices in privileged neighborhoods like Manhattan (Mashable‘s office is located in the Flatiron District) and Washington, DC (The Atlantic is headquartered at the Watergate Hotel) are essentially erasing the contributions of women and people of color to the Bernie Sanders campaign to propagate their own narrative, rendering them as invisible people. This is one of the oldest forms of violence perpetuated by white people of privilege.
Now this is a pretty neat trick in several ways.
1. It sets up a strawperson that no-one is arguing (that the "average Sanders supporter" is the Berniebro) and then debunks it.
2. It centers the Sanders campaign and its supporters as the real victims here.
3. It erases the men of color and women of all races who have actually borne the brunt of this harassment, and who have been talking about it, mischaracterizing us as part of a well-heeled media with swank offices in rich neighborhoods.
4. It then invokes the historical erasure of marginalized people as a silencing technique so that we can't talk about the harassment of marginalized people.
Cool story, bro. Have you considered titling it Gaslight?
On Sunday, Glenn Greenwald decided to weigh in. Truly, when future grandmothers tell tales to children of Epic Mansplaining, this one's going to be the Odyssey of white male privilege. Here is his very first line:
The concoction of the “Bernie Bro” narrative by pro-Clinton journalists has been a potent political tactic – and a journalistic disgrace.
Pro-Clinton journalists. That's where this comes from. Not the bloggers and activists who have been talking about this since at least the last summer.
Here's a hint, Mr. Greenwald: the fact that you are only noticing these stories when big media finally picks it up does not mean it's an invention of big media. It just means you haven't been paying attention. That doesn't bode well for your ability to write meaningfully about the topic.
Greenwald claims that this conspiracy is designed to explain away Sanders support as motivated by sexism, "demonstrated by the fact that men, not women, support Sanders (his supporters are 'bros.')" He also claims the this media lie says that "Sanders supporters are uniquely abusive and misogynistic in their online behavior." He then grumbles:
...a crucial tactical prong of this innuendo is that any attempt to refute it is itself proof of insensitivity to sexism if not sexism itself (as the accusatory reactions to this article will instantly illustrate).
I'll come to the first claims in a moment, but the set-up here is really awesome. If we point out that it's pretty fucking sexist and racist for Greenwald to assume he knows better about online harassment than the people who have experienced it, then that's just PROOF that this is a made-up thing! It's not that we have actual experiences with harassment. It's because talking about sexism is a "tactical prong" of the anti-Sanders media conspiracy.
Glenn, that is not just gaslighting. That's Gaslighting 2: Edwardian Boogaloo.
But there's more. Greenwald generously allows that "pro-Clinton journalists" might get some abuse. But that's probably from a lot of Republicans, because he found a couple of examples of Republicans harassing pro-Clinton women. Okay! Has it not occurred to him that we get shit from Republicans AND ALSO from Sanders stans? That a major news outlet getting a few details mixed up means they haven't been following this too closely either, not that the individuals reporting this are too stupid or deceitful to sort out who's harassing us?
Never mind. He's too busy explaining that women of all races, men of color, and queers of various intersectional identities get a lot of online abuse anyway. Did you know that? What news! Such news. And somehow, that fact negates the particular bullying coming from Sanders stans. 'Splain me, O Muse:
There are countless articles documenting the extra-vitriolic abuse directed at women and minorities for many years before “the Sanders campaign” existed.Pretending that abusive or misogynistic behavior is unique to Sanders supporters is a blatant, manipulative scam, as anyone who ever used the internet before 2015 knows.
Except no one is pretending that, other than in Glenn Greenwald's imagination. What we are doing is explaining that a certain set of Sanders fans have been acting like jerks for a while, and they are still are acting in a way that is despicable, and adds yet another layer of shit to the crap we already get from racists, MRAs, queer-haters, and other online trolls and bullies. We're telling you it is worse than what we've experienced from previous Democratic campaigns, not that it is the only form of harassment out there. We're telling you that the Sanders campaign itself has helped contribute to this atmosphere, by invoking conspiracy theories about email servers and calling Planned parenthood's defenders just part of the Clinton "establishment," giving cover for its supporters to attack Sanders critics as insincere political operatives.
And, you, Glenn Greenwald, are right there along with them now, claiming that instead of airing our frustration with this harassment, we're just furthering anti-Sanders media narrative. Thanks ever so much, buddy.
Here's the thing. Precisely because we've been dealing with this for years, social justice advocates have developed excellent troll-dar and bullshit detectors. When Liss Tweets about easily detectable white male Sanders stans claiming to be black women and ratfucking in our comment section, trust me: she knows whereof she speaks. The shenanigans are ridiculous and despicable.
And rather than assuming that we're lying if we don't give you a detailed description of every single incident, you might consider that we, of necessity, cannot do so. If you expect us to reveal how we combat trolls and stalkers, think again. Glenn Greenwald is right about one thing: harassment didn't start in 2015, and we're pretty sure it's not going to end when this presidential campaign is over. Expecting us to detail how we protect ourselves so that you can make some "objective" judgement about how bad things really are is some mightily privileged nonsense. So, yes, we ask you to trust us when we explain that we have had dealt with a ton of harassment from Sanders stans, and we are tired of it.
Trusting us, though, would mean trusting women's accounts of our own lived experiences. If you'd really like to demonstrate that you're totally not sexist, Mr. Greenwald, you might try that sometime. And while you're at it, you might try listening to the advocates for racial justice who are critical of both major candidates, who have endorsed neither, and who have gotten pushback from supporters on both sides...and still find the Berniebros to be the biggest bullies. That might force you revise this smug bit of wisdom from your Bernie Brodyssey:
If you spend your time praising Clinton and/or criticizing Sanders, of course you personally will experience more anger and vitriol from Sanders supporters than Clinton supporters.Conversely, if you spend your time praising Sanders, you will experience far more anger and vitriol from Clinton supporters.
In a word: nope. If you think that's all that has been going on, politics as usual, then you have really not been paying attention.
Now, for another part of the attempts to mansplain away the Berniebro: the claim that they represent the sum total, or even a majority, of Bernie Sanders' supporters. Maybe somebody, somewhere, has made that claim. I know I haven't.
I know plenty of people in offline life who support Bernie Sanders, and they are perfectly lovely. I know quite a few from exclusively online interactions who are also very nice. Not all of these lovely people are white, nor are they all male. Some of them are Shakers. Some of them are feminists, womanists, or engaged in other forms of social justice advocacy. Most of them have good, thoughtful, considered reasons to support Sanders and make their cases in thoughtful and considered ways. You don't need to prove their existence to me, nor do backflips to prove that these kind, lovely people are the majority of Sanders' supporters. I actually believe that.
But using these good, diverse, thoughtful people as a shield so you can dismiss the bullying is despicable. For the record, many of these good, kind diverse people are actually quite concerned about the harassers and do their best to push back against it. But someone like Greenwald mansplaining to us that #NotAllSandersSupporters are white male assholes is doing absolutely nothing to end the harassment. It's just adding to the problem.
Let me put it this way: if you served me a casserole that was 70% lentils and broccoli, 5% basil leaves, 15% cream sauce, and 10% hogshit, would that fact that it was 90% non-hogshit erase the hogshit's existence? What percentage, exactly, of hogshit is acceptable in a casserole?
Berniebro denialists, your casserole stinks.
But I know, I know. I'm just a hysterical feminist deeply involved in the CONSPIRACY between the mainstream media, the Clinton campaign, Wall Street, competing translations of Homer, and a shadowy cabal of pig lovers. It's all a plot to keep Bernie's revolution down. It's not like you can take my word for it that this online bullying is both real and a real problem.
So maybe take it from the Bernie Sanders campaign:
In fact, top Sanders campaign aides have quietly reached out to senior officials in the Clinton campaign and women like Walsh personally to apologize for Bro behavior. Online, aides are pushing their digital community to police itself and keep the Bros quiet. And some volunteer members of Sanders’s digital army are scrambling into action, reporting offenders and moderating bro-y posts.Still, the Bros break through, and there’s real worry in corners of Sanders-world about it.
...Shortly after Monday night’s Iowa Democratic candidate town hall in Des Moines, Sanders’ director of rapid response, Mike Casca, tweeted a simple but urgent request to the Sanders’s digital cohort. Cool it, he begged. The tweet is now permanently pinned to the top of his feed.
“if you support @berniesanders, please follow the senator’s lead and be respectful when people disagree with you,” he implored.
So riddle me this, dudes. If the Berniebro doesn't exist, why is Bernie's campaign starting to get worried about them?
Here's the thing: I don't want to sink Sanders' campaign as some sort of nefarious Clinton-orchestrated trick. I don't think Liss or anyone else who's shared their experiences of being harassed does either.
We'd just like the harassment to stop. Please. And thank you.
Instead of another column telling us that Berniebros is a media myth or that Berniebullying is unimportant, try listening for a change. Believe me, that will actually help Sanders.
But even more importantly, no matter who wins this election, that will leave a powerful legacy of centering marginalized voices and then giving pushback against those who harass us. That's a goal worthy in and of itself, as anyone who truly supports progressive goals should agree.
So, Berniebro denialists: when you've heard, really heard what we're saying, grab a mop.
And start cleaning this damn shit up.
Iowa Caucus Day!
Today is the Iowa Caucuses, which starts off the 2016 presidential primary season, even though it's a caucus and not a primary!
The most recent polling shows a tight race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side. The fact that it's a caucus format in a predominantly white state may give Sanders the edge.
On the Republican side, it's a tight race between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. The fact that Cruz gave a poor showing in the last GOP debate, and Trump somehow won despite boycotting the event, may give Trump the edge.
The biggest impact that the Iowa Caucus is likely to have, in either party, is to give Sanders some extra momentum if he ekes out the win. That said, it will also probably mean the media gives him significantly more scrutiny than they have thus far, so a win could be a "careful what you wish for" situation for his campaign.
I don't expect that it will matter to the Republican primary at all, frankly. It isn't likely to create any new dynamics in the race, nor is it likely to be a predictor of the ultimate nominee. By way of reminder, Rick Santorum won Iowa last time around, and Mike Huckabee won it the round before that. So, yeah.
Anyway! Let's see what ya got, Iowa caucus-goers!
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 feathers.
Recommended Reading:
Prison Culture: [CN: Carcerality; misogynoir] Marissa Alexander: One Year Later
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred; misogyny] How Fat People Deserve to Be Treated
Tressie: [CN: White supremacy] The Limits of Education Reform: A Road Paved With the "Best Intentions"?
Françoise: Why the Next U.N. Secretary-General Must Be a Woman and a Feminist
Chase: [CN: White supremacy; ciscentrism] How Making a Murderer Erases Race and Gender From the Realities of Injustice
Teresa: Four Reasons Why Grease Is a Feminist Musical
Maddie: This Cosmic Fart Cloud Is on a Collision Course with Our Galaxy
And finally! If you didn't read the item I linked yesterday about Kanye West's Twitter rant, you'll need to check that out so you understand the context for this parody piece by Jesse: Hillary Clinton Just Went in on Bernie Sanders in an Epic Tweetstorm.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The President's Remarks on Advancing Equal Pay
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism.]
Earlier today, I mentioned that President Obama would be announcing some executive action today on advancing equal pay. Here are the remarks he delivered at this afternoon's announcement, as provided by the White House Press Office:
Thank you. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Thank you so much. I heard you all were in the house so I wanted to stop by. (Laughter.)
We've got some important personages here, so let me just call them out. We've got Senator Amy Klobuchar. Where's Amy? There she is. (Applause.) Our outstanding Labor Secretary Tom Perez. (Applause.) The chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Jenny Yang, is here. (Applause.) One of my favorites, the outstanding Billie Jean King is in the house. (Applause.) And of course, Lilly Ledbetter is here. (Applause.) Lilly has just become a dear friend to our family. And I can tell you that she's beloved not just by us but by all the staff that work with her. She's just terrific. As she just mentioned, she was by my side when I signed my first bill into law -- the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And I was looking at a picture of that wonderful event, and she looks the same. (Laughter.) And I don't. (Laughter.)
But while we've got a lot to celebrate that day, we knew that our work wasn't done. We knew we had a lot more to do to close the pay gap between men and women, and ensure that no woman would ever face the kind of discrimination that Lilly faced on the job.
And everybody here knows the numbers, and many of you have experienced it. Today, women account for almost half of the workforce. But the typical woman who works full time still earns 79 cents for every dollar that the typical man does. The gap is even wider for women of color. The typical black working woman makes only 60 cents. The typical Latino woman makes only 55 cents for every dollar a white man earns. And that's not right. We're talking about oftentimes folks doing the same job and being paid differently. And it means that women are not getting the fair shot that we believe every single American deserves.
It doesn't just offend our values. At a time when women are increasingly the breadwinners in our households, paying them less makes it harder for families to cover the necessities like child care or health care, just to pay the bills. It makes it harder for a family to save, harder for families to retire. It means local businesses have customers with less money to spend. So it's not good for our communities. It's not good for our families. It's not good for our businesses. What kind of example does paying women less set for our sons and daughters?
So today, we're taking one more step in the right direction. We are proposing to collect and report pay data by race, ethnicity, and gender from businesses with 100 employees or more. And the goal is to help businesses that are trying to do the right thing, like the ones here today, to get a clearer picture of how they can ensure their employees are being treated equally. A better picture of the data will also help us do a better job enforcing existing equal pay laws.
This won't solve every problem. We've still got to get more women and girls into high-paying fields like science and technology, engineering and math. We've still got to make sure that women are not penalized or held back in the workplace simply for starting a family. Guys, we're responsible for the family thing, too. (Laughter.) And they're already doing more work than we are in getting that thing going. They shouldn't be penalized twice or three times. (Laughter.)
We still need to raise the minimum wage, guarantee sick -- (applause) -- guaranteed paid sick and family leave, fully protecting pregnant workers, finally passing the Paycheck Fairness Act to give workers more tools to fight pay discrimination. (Applause.)
And all of us have to make sure that all of our young girls know that we're invested in their success. And, by the way, I do want to emphasize there are businesses that are doing the right thing. We've got a good friend of ours, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, which is consistently shown as one of the companies people most like to work for. And part of the reason is, is that Marc understands that his company thrives when he is drawing from the entire pool of talent out there and making sure that everybody is having a chance to thrive and succeed at his company. And when people see that, they're working harder and more productive and more enthusiastic. And ultimately, they make more money.
So this is not an either/or proposition; this is a win-win situation proposition if we think about it in the right way. That's part of what Billie Jean taught us so many years ago. I mean, those of you who are tennis fans, let's face it, a lot of times the women's tournaments are more interesting than men's. (Laughter and applause.) And the notion that somehow we would be keeping my daughters or Marc's daughters, or any of your daughters out of opportunity, not allowing them to thrive in every field, not letting them fully participate in every human endeavor -- that's counterproductive. It's not how we're going to build a great future for our country.
So that's why, this May, the White House Council on Women and Girls will lead a day focused on women in America and around the world. And we're going to bring people from all across the country to examine the progress that we've made and the work that remains to give every woman and girl in this country a fair shot at success. And we're going to keep pushing until every single girl has the rights and the opportunities and the freedom to go as far as her dreams will take her.
This will be a long haul. One of the things that I am consistently reminding young people when they're working here in the White House is that social change never happens overnight. It is a slog. And there are times where you just have to chip away and chip away, and then suddenly there may be some breakthroughs. But it's reliant on all of us to keep pushing that boulder up the hill, to just be steady and persistent, and understand that the work that we do today is ultimately going to lead to a better future tomorrow.
And we will not see necessarily all the fruits of that labor. The same way that Lilly described her endeavors -- when she lost that court case, she could have given up, but she didn't. And that spirit is what all of us have to adopt. That's the spirit that built America. That's the spirit that opened up opportunity for so many more people than a generation ago. And that's the spirit that I intend to keep pushing as long as I have the privilege to be in this office.
Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
As always, feel free to comment on both the stuff you liked and the stuff you didn't like.
For the most part, I liked it. Y'all know I'm a broken record on the whole "it's hard for families" and "it's bad for the country" stuff, because yeah that's true, but also JUST PAY WOMEN EQUALLY BECAUSE IT'S THE DECENT THING TO DO.
And I still wish that employers would just be required to make all employees' pay public, because the Ledbetter Act only matters if a woman knows she's making less than her male counterpart(s). But, that said, if employers have to submit the info to the EEOC, and the EEOC actually enforces it, then that will actually take the burden off of female employees. But, that said, I'm wondering how easy it will be for employers to fudge records to make it look as though a female employee isn't entitled to equal pay through creative job descriptions, and/or how likely it will be for employers to even more routinely deny female employees the correct job titles (e.g. continue to call them assistants when they're doing managerial tasks) in order to justify lower salaries.
I HAVE QUESTIONS. Basically. But I'm keen to see how this works out! Because it could work out very well!
Especially if our next president is a Democrat who doesn't immediately unwind this action.
Anyway! A+ women's tennis joke. Which isn't so much a "joke" as a "true observation."
Discuss!
