Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Even if this year’s Superbowl commercials suck, there’s always this incredibly offensive yet hilarious Guinness ad:
(If anyone knows where or when it was on TV, do let me know. Once again: a student sent me the link, & thanks to her for it.)
Happy Superbowl! Please don’t drink and drive.
Oh, if mass media and marketing to girls has its way, there won’t be any tomboys left at all. Check out this interview with Peggy Orenstein on The Diane Rehm Show about her book Cinderella Ate My Daughter
.
This past week, Republicans wanted to redefine rape to mean only “forcible rape.” To understand how ridiculously insensitive – and ignorant – that is, read Jeanette Freidman’s account of her own rape 37 years ago and why she didn’t have any bruises in the aftermath. They failed, at least, largely due to ongoing pressure such as the #DearJohn campaign that happened on Twitter & focused on getting Boehner’s attention.
I don’t think we would even have to discuss something so heinous if we didn’t already live in a rape culture — where most forms of rape are already ignored or even openly encouraged:
Rape culture is rape being used as a weapon, a tool of war and genocide and oppression. Rape culture is rape being used as a corrective to “cure” queer women. Rape culture is a militarized culture and “the natural product of all wars, everywhere, at all times, in all forms.”Rape culture is 1 in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is encouraging men to use the language of rape to establish dominance over one another (“I’ll make you my bitch”). Rape culture is making rape a ubiquitous part of male-exclusive bonding. Rape culture is ignoring the cavernous need for men’s prison reform in part because the threat of being raped in prison is considered an acceptable deterrent to committing crime, and the threat only works if actual men are actually being raped.
I wish we didn’t.
NCTE and The Task Force released the findings of an extensive survey on the kinds of discrimination faced by trans people in the US. It’s not good news, and anyone who is surprised that it’s not good news hasn’t been paying attention.
Said Mara Keisling, Executive Director of NCTE: “Reading these results is heartbreaking on a personal level—each of these facts and figures represents pain and hardship endured by real people, every single day. This survey is a call to the conscience of every American who believes that everyone has the right to a fair chance to work hard, to have a roof overhead, and to support a family. Equality, not discrimination, is the ideal that Americans believe in, have fought for, and need to apply here.”
You can read the Executive Summary, or the entire survey.
We need a gender-inclusive ENDA.
On March 8th, come out as a feminist for the 1st ever Feminist Coming Out Day. Tell everyone you know that you are one. Then listen to Remy explain exactly why feminism has failed in certain specific ways, and what it could do to correct that failure:
Because I live in Wisconsin where football – or at least Packers – is a state religion, I’ve been poking around the edges of the thing because I don’t get it, and I’m absolutely sure it’s not because I mind beer, yelling, processed foods and funny hats. Beer + yelling + processed foods + funny hats are my idea of a good time, generally speaking.
I came across this sentence the other day. at change.org:
The trafficking of children for sale at the Super Bowl is well documented.
And I was honestly flabbergasted: not surprised, because where men with money gather, children are sold for sexual pleasure. Still, it’s sickening. So many people watch and play football because it’s fun — shoot, even I go to Super Bowl parties! What a way to mess up an otherwise (mostly) harmless sports event.
I’ve (maybe temporarily) re-opened registration for our community forums, the mHB message boards, so have at it if you’ve been wanting to join. We were having (may still have) a spam problem, but *fingers crossed*.
For anyone who’s come here from Your Time With Kim — welcome!
I’ll be interviewed on “Your Time with Kim Iverson” tonight (Tuesday) at 10PM CST. And look! She just had John Gray on her show back in May! I can’t wait to talk about “man caves”. [/sarcasm]
I heard the Toby Lightman on an episode of Bones the other day & the lyrics leapt out at me — as lyrics will when they are so close to what you’re already feeling. In looking for a song to go with it, I wanted Elvis Costello’s cover of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and found instead Via Tania’s — and I’d never heard of her before but was pretty stunned with how gorgeous and different her cover was.
Everyday is a struggle between what I wanna say
And what I should keep to myself
And the words that manage to leave my lips
Don’t hurt me, but they hurt everyone else Continue reading “Two Tune Tuesday: What You (Didn’t) Say”
