Monday, September 29, 2008

I love Tina Fey...

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Out of Context

So, the Washington Post Express quoted me on their "we need to fill space" page of the free daily today, but, after showing it to several people, I feel the need to clarify in case someone wanders over here due to that quote...

The quote:
"I find it very interesting that people who want equality in this country are often the biggest losers." kittenswithmittens.blogspot.com reacts to a recent study that shows that men who value traditional gender roles tend to make more money than men who do not.

The meaning:
Okay, so my quote could be read as "people who want equality are lam-O."  Which is not what it meant, clearly, when taken in context (or even if you read the little bit of caption the Express provided)... I meant that our country doesn't equally value those who value equality.  In fact, such people (feminists, humanists, socialists, social justice activists, whatever), are often not only ignored, but also, apparently, underpaid.  It was a play on the words "equal" and "loss" and not meant to in any way support the rewarding of traditional gender roles.

Perhaps I'm being a bit sensitive about being misread, but, well, when it comes to my fight for equality, I want it known that I am 100% unequivocally a feminist, socialist, bleeding-heart liberal.  And I should be treated fairly whether you like that or not.*

*Not that the Express treated me unfairly, just the world in general... J-E-S-U-S, I'm myopically sensitive today...

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Monday, September 22, 2008

Defining Feminism

Sara had a really great comment to my post where Palin's anti-woman policies boggled my mind:

omg. that's ridiculously puke-a-licious. as much as i am a third-waver (championing the widespread use of the "feminist" label), its moments like these that i think... hmmm... perhaps we should enforce a little restriction on the use of this word! seriously.

Like Sara, I, too, want more people (men, women, whatever) to embrace feminism and I certainly don't want Palin to be treated with sexism... but, she's not a feminist.

Here's a great (but long-ish) discussion on this topic:


The Feminist Press' Gloria Jacobs and Feministing.com's Courtney Martin Discuss Sarah Palin from Brian Lehrer Live on Vimeo.

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We still make less...

Emily sent me this link from the Washington Post about the wage gap and its relation to ideas about gender roles... Apparently, feminist men (men that believe in employment equality between men and women) make less than men that subscribe to more "traditional" views of gender roles.  The study doesn't go into the why, but I find it very interesting that people who want equality in this country are often the biggest losers.  Of course, egalitarian women, such as myself, still make less than egalitarian men, proving that no matter what, the gap is gender-only related... and, surprise, surprise, women who believe in the same "traditional" views of gender roles that get rich, powerful men richer, get paid the least of any group. 

Wonder what that means for Palin?

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See, DC is AWESOME!

'Cause we don't suck!  Apparently, DC is so "small town" in nature that it doesn't even qualify as one of the top ten stressful cities in the US!  The criteria was pollution, unemployment, population density, and housing costs.  Seriously, we're not worse than Providence, RI?  Ah, well, I'll just take this as more validation that living in DC doesn't make me any less cool than someone living in NY.  I'm actually just less cool because I read fanfiction and work in a library.

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I mean, I know...

...that our education system has failed us and US history is basically taught as hero worship 101, but... you'd think that most politicians of a certain age would have enough historical perspective to know that when they use the word "uppity" about Barack Obama, THEY BE SAYIN' HARD-EFFIN-CORE RACIST SHITE!!!! 

Oh, wait.  I get it.  They DO know what it means.  Republican Asshats.*

*Yes, I know, I'm not elevating the dialogue by cursing and generalizing, but you know what, my brain exploded the first time I heard someone "legitimately" use this word during this campaign AND IT KEEPS HAPPENING!!!  GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

My heart just broke...

Sesame Street is teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security.  Yes, you heard me right-- HOMELAND SECURITY!!!!!!!! Now, it's not as if I want small children to NOT know how to find Mommy and Daddy (or Mommy and Mommy or Daddy and Daddy or just Daddy or not really my Mommy except by marriage 'cause my real Mommy went away mad, well you get the picture) in an emergency, I just want Sesame Street to remain the wonderful, progressive, diverse, and inclusive show that made me the bleeding heart, hippity-dippity, feminist, pinko-commie leftie that I am today. 

The world would be a much better place.  We wouldn't even need to know where the duct-tape was, 'cause we'd all be huggin' it out.

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I'm too busy...

... at work to write something like this about how I've been feeling this election (and, well, always, growing up in the buckle of the Bible Belt).  Besides, this is a pretty damn good summary if the inanity and inequities of our culture.  So, I'm reprinting the original source here...


THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVILEGE


For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia–you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Written by Tim Wise


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Monday, September 15, 2008

Bosom Buddies

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Like all great pairs...

... beer and pizza, laurel and hardy, beer and mexican food, khakis and polo shirts, beer and chinese food, kirk and spock... there's harry potter and voting!!!

and amen to their "about us"

About Us

Did you ever wish that Harry Potter was real? Well it kind of is. After all, both our worlds face "dark and difficult times":

  • Genocide, Poverty, AIDS, and Global Warming are ignored by our media and governments the way Voldemort's return is ignored by the Ministry and Daily Prophet.
  • People are still discriminated against based on sexuality, race, class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and religion just as the Wizarding World continues to discriminate against Centaurs, Giants, House Elves, Half-Bloods, Muggle borns, Squibs, and Muggles
  • Our governments continue to respond to terror by torturing prisoners (often without trial) just as Sirius Black was tortured by dementors with no trial
  • A Muggle Mindset pervades over our culture-a mindset that values being "perfectly normal, thank you very much" over being interesting, original, loving, and creative

So Harry's world is not very different than ours. And just as in his world, Dumbledore will remain here as long as there are those that are loyal to him. As long as there are those that are aware that the weapon we have is love and that more than ever, it's time to use that weapon.

And so the HP Alliance is dedicated to bringing together Harry Potter fans from everywhere to spread love and fight the Dark Arts in the real world and we need your help!

Help us replace the Dark Arts with love. Help us build the real Dumbledore's Army. Help us create an Alliance in the name of Harry Potter.


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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Okay, the gloves are off...

Sarah Palin, while self-proclaimed feminist mayor, made rape victims pay for their own rape kits

WHAT. THE. FUCK. ?!?!?!?.

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