creepy quotes 'R' us

"You know what, I am never going to quit speaking on behalf of the unborn." 

Randy Neugebauer (R - TX), on his anti-choice efforts to represent the humanoid-looking cluster of cells growing inside women's bodies. And yes, this is also the guy who called Bart Stupak a baby-killer on the House floor (I still don't get it... anyone?).

the book club

This is where books with good intentions go wrong.
From Margaret McGuire's The Quotable Douchebag...
Keep in mind, though, that this book is condemning (and not endorsing) these quotes. Also keep in mind that I had to specify that (I'll bring it up later in Problem #3).

Problem #1: The "Ignore Him, He's Just Stupid" Take

I know, right? We can thank Clayton Williams, the Republican candidate for governor of Texas in 1990, for this gem. There's not much I can say about the quote itself, except for the fact that twenty years later, we still hear this kind of hopeless stupidity from people in positions of authority that really can't afford it (actually, we're the ones who can't afford it). The danger here is the Just Another argument: it's just another racist, it's just another misogynist, or it's just another crazy and misinformed person. That may be true on an individual scale, but these ideas are reflective of the cultural climate that we live in, and the widespread availability of misogyny. These attitudes towards rape weren't plucked out of thin air, but were readily available and purchased by Williams from the cues that we drop and the equations that we write about women. Williams is responsible for the articulation, but the rest of us are neck-deep in a society that produces and endorses the blueprints of his logic.

(Continued with problem #2 and #3...)

language matters

A right-on post about language, and why it's a big deal.
Something that is so often ignored, so often discredited.
Hint hint, word work..

On calling female athletes 'girls', and why we shouldn't shrug this off as just-plain-vanilla semantics:

"The language of any culture not only reflects the ideological biases that characterize it; it replicates and reinforces them.  And while the attempt to oppose this particular phenomenon of calling, in all spheres of society, adult women "girls"... seems now to be regarded as an irrelevant or passé "old wave" concern, reality... reveals it to be more urgent than ever.  What we need be attuned to is the fact that the way we speak is, to some extent, inextricable from the way we act, both as individuals and as a society.  That men - and women - persist in calling adult females "girls," cannot, legitimately, be decoupled from such disturbing cultural trends as the media sexualization of increasingly younger girls, or from the rise of eternal prepubescence (slim, hairless) as the expected standard of adult women's bodies, nor, ultimately, even from such horrors as honor killings and aerobics room shooting sprees."

at women's expense

A good message... but did we really have to make it memorable/dignified at the "guilty" girl's expense? Because calling someone out isn't enough-- you also have to insult their clothing (cue humiliation factor) to make it a worthy punch. It is a relief to see celebrities acknowledging the grammar behind discrimination, but was belittling female relationships (and making cattiness not only trendy but also righteous) really the path to take? Let's move away from sacrificing young women for the sake of righteous causes-- being a woman does not come second to being a moral person.

A nudge to PETA (save the animals first) and American Apparel (save sweat-shop laborers first) as well. Because we can always dignify women later-- only if it's trendy and boob-related, though.

2.13.2010

It really, really pisses me off being on this feminist island. I have so much respect for feminist authors and activists that are out there, taking the hate mail, explaining themselves over and over again, and just being torn apart viciously by all the smug little Anonymouses of the internet. This rant is inspired by the hollow comments posted by my housemate (see "word work" post below). I deleted the worst of them, but the arrogance just pisses me off beyond belief. Sure, every writer gets questioned, challenged, and criticized harshly, but most of these anti-feminist comments on other blogs are just outright personal attacks from people that a) don't think outside of their own bubbles of privilege, b) don't understand how to chew an idea before swallowing it, b) are so blinded by a concrete wall of traditional thinking that they can't imagine the possibility of a world outside that wall. Or, better yet, the possibility of a world without the wall.

Here is a brilliant collection on Feministing.com of all the cemented crap that people think about feminists (and women in general, actually): http://www.feministing.com/anti-feminist-mailbag/

Superbowlshit

My friend Matt and I watched the Superbowl together, calling out the commercials and noting whenever a blatantly misogynistic commercial made someone laugh. Seriously? Thank god for this experience, or I would've thought I was sitting on my lonely feminist island again (I think any feminist will be all-too-familiar with the island syndrome). Some of my favorite call-outs of Superbowl ridiculosity below...

amazies