So I'm reading this interview with Noorjahar Akbar, a college student and activist in Afghanistan. She's awesome, btw. And it's amazing how the patriarchy is the (same kind of) suck EVERYWHERE. Street harassment! It's women's fault. Rape! It's women's fault.
But that's not all that's the same. Who said:
“Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities. There’s no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down.”
Was it:
A)An anonymous senior official at USAID talking about Afghanistan
B) A Republifucker in any flyover state justifying cutting off planned parenthood
C) A White House spokesperson
D) Any member of "liberal" blogosphere, including but not limited to Cheetoh Eaters
I know, it's so tough. It could be any of them. All of them. Why do they all sound so fucking alike, the douchenoodles of the world?
(The answer is A. Though I am pretty damn sure I remember Obama making similar comments during the Stupak Healthcrap Brouhaha).
No New Tricks. Not a one.
RQ's shared items
Thursday, July 07, 2011
The Patriarchy Has No New Tricks
Everyday Activism
I've noticed that my music playlists have veered hard towards the skinny, white boys in tiny pants lately. That happens sometimes with books and movies too. It's so easy to be swayed by cultural hegemony. It's everywhere. You don't have to look hard. It requires no effort.
So I try to pay attention and be more inclusive when it happens. It is the tiny steps, the little additions of voices and words of people who normally aren't heard from, of being an activist to my core. If the only messages I ever allow into my world are from a privileged point of view, how can I ever understand the unprivileged?
It is so easy to say "I'm not a (insert oppressive group here)". But without action to follow that up, the statement is empty. "I'm not a racist" (but I wouldn't watch a tv show about the dating lives of black women). I'm not a sexist (but I find that all the bands I listen to are men-only). "I'm not a homophobe" (but I'm not watching any of that gay shit).*
Yes, looking for media that includes voices of the others takes a bit more time. It's not easy to find (or make, for that matter) because it doesn't reflect the values and ideas of the dominant class. ON PURPOSE. It's not just a matter of listening to/watching/reading what's good (or considered good- think how many people still read the Big Orange Cheetoh or the apologist farm known as HuffPo).
And let it never be said that I am bossing people into doing things that I am unwilling to do. (Fuck that shit, I'm not bossing anyone. Either you get it or you don't. I ain't here to hold your hand and pet your head and make everything nice for you.)So here's Rye Rye doing a song that has had me sofa-dancing all week.
* All things I have specifically from people claiming "I'm not....."
Who's Surprised
That President Never-Met-A-Republifucker-Idea-I-Don't-Like Obama is willing to cut Social Security?
Anyone? Anyone? Oh yes, well of course the blogger boyz are SHOCKED. But this is totally in character for Obama and not a surprise to those of us who didn't get tingly-leg crushes on the asshat during the election.
Planned Parenthood Stories- A Carnival Repost
Since Republifuckers are so damned determined to lie about what Planned Parenthood does, and since so many of us have used their services, I think we should tell our stories. So here's one (of many) that I have.
When I was a wee unmarried lass of 19 I confirmed that I was pregnant for 10 bucks at PP. But I didn't just pee in a cup. They did a full exam and and then gently asked me if I knew what my options were. I knew from the second I thought I might be up the stick that I was keeping the Kid. When I told the doc, she didn't lecture me about my age or state of non-marriage (as other doctors and nurses would later). She gave a prescription for prenatal vitamins, and told me the possible due date (which would later be nearly a month off because it's not as an exact science as we'd like to believe AND the Kid was, as is his style, 2 weeks fucking late).
She gave me information on how to apply for Medicaid, including the actual forms, so I could get prenatal care straight away and she gave me a paper proving a positive pregnancy test result to include with the forms to speed up the process. At the bottom she scrawled 'Elizabeth has decided to parent'. And that is the moment where I realized the enormity of the CHOICE I made. I decided to parent.
That choice is not often celebrated when the one making it is poor, young, unmarried, not white, diasbled or not neurotypical. Planned Parenthood is the only national organization that I can think of that does the boots on the ground, doctors in the clinics, actual support of women no matter what their choice is. All the feminist theory in the world and theoretical arguments don't amount to jack shit when you don't actually a safe, clean, staffed clinic for poor women and girls (and men and boys) to go to. Choice doesn't mean anything without that.
More carnival stories here.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Assinine Treatment of Poor People, Not Just for Red States!
I've spent the last hour on hold with DSHS. I did the same thing last week. Apparently it's time for my review! Of course, since I moved 2 months ago I had sent in all the review information already (twice, since I didn't get confirmation after sending it in the first time) but I still needed to be reviewed, again.
But I have a crappy mail carrier and never received the review request. I received the notice that I had failed to turn in my review. So I sent in (another) round of review information. And called to make sure everything was kosher. Had a phone interview. Sent in proof of income. Did everything, again, that I was supposed to.
And since it's been a week and I haven't heard anything, I called to make sure we're still getting food stamps on the 8th (otherwise we are FUCKED). First round of phone calls, get hung up on by automated system. Second round of phone calls, get condescended to by call center asshole who doesn't know jack about what she's talking about but does know how to be extra shitty. Finally, get passed on to a supervising case worker who tells me my paperwork has been lost in the ether. She's nice, at least, but we aren't getting food stamps on Friday. She doesn't know when we'll get them. "Sometime, maybe. In the mean time, try a food bank. You've done everything you're supposed to do."
I'm going to go curl up in a ball and sob for a bit.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Indispensable hygiene product
for those of us in thrall to the alcohol-industrial complex: Anti-hangover shower gel. It's wide-awake mornings at Elizabitch HQ from now on.
Dennis Byrne burps a truth
Dennis Byrne, in an anti-gay marriage op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, accidentally blurted out a truth:
[M]arriage, among other things, seeks to protect the lives and rights of women and children in a historically patriarchal society.
Dennis! Yes! You see the light! You're tired of being the asshole who's unfit for mixed company, right? Can we count on your help to dismantle the patriarchy? Sign right here! Hey everybody, good news, we signed up a conservative white guy!
Wait! Dennis? Dennis...?
Oh, hell.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Happy July 4th
Here's everything you ever wanted to know about America in one interaction (story shamelessly stolen from a Dear Friend)
Dear Friend now works as customer service for a cruise company after 3 years of unemployment/ temping. She makes less than a living wage and decidedly less than she did pre-layoff. But it's full-time, permanent, with benefits. It's a unicorn job.
Customer is worrying that they will be "stuck on a boat with nothing to eat but soup and bread for a week". Dear Friend is eating soup and bread, because that is what she can afford for lunch. She eats soup and bread a lot. Soup is cheap. You can make buckets of it and the liquid makes you feel full even if there isn't a ton of calories in it.
America* is a land where rich people complain to poor people and poor people have to listen and respond with cheerfulness. "Of course, you (great pimple on the ass of society) won't be stuck eating just bread and soup. That would be awful".
*I am sure that's true in just about every country. But we like to pretend all our poor people are lazy, government-teat sucking layabouts, not full-time workers.
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Quotations of Chairman Mom
Upon obliging son with iffy aim to clean up around the toilet seat: "If it comes out of your penis, it's your problem, you deal with it."
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Another Rich People Are Assholes Post
Add this to the file containing the trash can shaped outdoor fireplace for the rich jerk who wants to get his (aesthetically and aromatically pleasing) warm on in traditional homeless fashion.
Now, a club for rich people who want to smash shit. No really, that's all it is. Pay a(n undisclosed) membership fee, choose the item of your vexation, get picked up in a limo, dress in fancy smash-stuff attire, and break shit.
Now I'm not going to begrudge someone getting their smash on. I do it to every "gift" (read object d'obligation) sent by a certain stalker. But I'm smashing tacky porcelain spoon rests, not grand fucking pianos. The waste alone is breath taking.
ETA I knew this idea wasn't original. It's part of the plot of The Last Word.
Movie Reviews!!! Hanna! Finally!
It. Was. Made. Of. Win.
I could stop there. But, I am wordy. There may be spoilers.
Hanna is, despite the modern trappings, a good, old-fashioned fairy tale along the lines of most orphan quest stories. There's the tragically dead mother, the wicked step-mother (Cate Blanchett), the well-intentioned but somewhat inept father figure (Eric Bana) and the normal-ish adoptive family that gives the hero of the story a peek at how the rest of the world lives.
It also has some pretty fight scenes (oh fight porn, how do I love thee) and an evil government program. What it doesn't have is a view of any of the female characters as sexy props. There was no "she's sexy evil" or "she's sexy prodigy" or "she's sexy lit professor". I found myself holding my breath, waiting for the busting cleavage/ slow-motion / gunshot scene (you've seen Angelina do this in every action flick she's been in) and it never came. The women in the show weren't asexual either. The road tripping,lit-professing, middle-aged mom (played by Olivia Williams!) has sex, embarrassing to her teenage daughter, but basic matrimonial sex. And Hanna has a couple of sweet teenage moments. But it's all bleedingly normal and not pornified, meant to show the character's humanity and not their breast implants. (Actually we don't see anything but a rocking camper with the mom's scene).
Joe Wright, I am officially on board as a fan. I liked Atonement. You're version of Pride and Prejudice, while not Colin Firth wet-shirt awesome, was a nice way to spend an afternoon. But Hanna is incredible. Well done, sir.
When there's blood on the streets
buy property, is the saying.
Or if you're a completely amoral investment group*, put your money in the four horsemen (war, famine, pestilence and plague).
Kleptocrats be betting on our demise. Fuckers.
Note also that it is giant monoculture farming that turns long-held family farms into "subsistence" farmers at best and unemployed city-dwellers who no longer own their own means of production at worst.
* is there any other kind of investment group? They're all economic vampires, even the "good" ones.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Polite Canadians! Ha!
Moxy Fruvous, Canada's knock off version of They Might Be Giants (I jest, I jest. Not really.) sings about kicking ass. Literally.
Military Contractors Now With Even More Evil!
$350 a month to live in a shipping container in Iraq, work 12 hour days 7 days a week, and get raped by your boss.
Gross. Just fucking disgusting. Though I can't say I am surprised.
h/t to Feminist Philosophers
Link Farming! Vitamin V! Imperialist Holidays!
It's the cusp of the most patriotic of days here in the old USofA. Ugh. I'd be happier spending the weekend in another country (July 4th getting drunk in the alley behind the Pantheon was pretty damn awesome) but I have lovely friends and a hot boyfriend and a kick ass kid and vodka tonic makings. So (as a lovely friend once put it) let's all celebrate Happy Inter-dependance Day!!!!
Sasha says "Fuck you" to uber-privileged feminists who say fuck you to low income women (full disclaimer, I briefly flirted the the New Agenda idea during the primary bull-shit, but there was a better choice than Palin in the election. Namely Cynthia McKinney, who I didn't have to contort or subvert my beliefs to vote for).
Today marks the start of a mass hunger strike at California's Pelican Bay prison over solitary confinement. Yes, we are still using that abysmal tactic. Yes it's still torture. And it's just as bad when it's inflicted on (mostly) men of color as it is when it's inflicted on Bradley Manning.
s.e. smith has a great post up at Tiger Beatdown on austerity in Greece vs. California. Part of me wonders if the urban planners of yesteryear specifically eliminated the town square from American life so that there would be less opportunity for mass protest. We don't have a Tahrir Square here.
Social psychology is pretty damn cool, yo! Try reading these blogs for fun and entertainment. You Are Not So Smart and Tools for Changing the World
It's Canada Day! Go give a Canadian a hard time about their lying meat. Canadian bacon- it's really just ham. (Don't really give Renee a hard time, she's awesome.)
Now, since it is officially afternoon, I can drink a refreshing vodka tonic without being an alcoholic (though what is my excuse for drinking mimosas with brunch?)
Lenin to women: cease your infernal girlish prattle.
The following gem was mined from my choice of in-flight entertainment, “Socialism: A Very Short Introduction” by Michael Newman*. It concerns an exchange between V.I. Lenin and Clara Zetkin, who was in charge of the Communist International Women’s Secretariat.
[S]oon after the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin admonished [Zetkin] for encouraging women members of the Communist Party to discuss sexual matters, rather than the fact that the ‘first state of proletarian dictatorship is battling with the counter-revolutionaries of the whole world.’ He thus told her, ‘I could not believe my ears’ when informed that ‘at the evenings arranged for reading and discussion with working women, sex and marriage problems came first.’
No matter what the movement, guess who gets to take a number and stand in the back of the line? You got it. If you answer "What have our male comrades ever done for us?" with "diddly fucking squat," you win a coupon for your own liberation redeemable after the apocalypse.
To a man, they never get it. The vanishingly few who do (Arthur Silber comes to mind) have experienced marginalization, often in several dimensions, and have generalized from that experience, rather than concluding that Oppressions Can Be Ranked and Mine Comes First. The rest will bully, badger, nag, and blame you, but never treat your political aspirations as anything more than a girlish fit of pique.
________________
The book in question: Socialism: A Very Short Introduction
Please allow me to introduce myself
TRIGGER WARNING: Another "false" rape claim, more open season on women
It seems that the case against the former head of the IMF is about to fall apart because of credibility issues with the complainant. There are reports that she lied on her immigration paperwork about serious issues, such as being raped in her country or origin, and may have been involved with organized crime.
