Whenever I think to myself,

"Is it just me, or . . .", it is never just me. Janeane Garofalo, who recently played a caricature of a women's studies professor on Greek, crystallizes the TEA party movement for me:

"Let's be honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about. They don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism, straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks."

For additional coverage, here are some articles:

appreciate opportunities to release their repressed racism in public, by Macon D, stuff white people do.


10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs, by Nico Pitney, The Huffington Post.

.

A Separate Peace

I recently had a conversation with someone about coming-of-age novels, like the above mentioned book by John Knowles. I expressed to him that during middle school and upper school, I was required to read my fill of said novels, which, I lamented, were almost always about boys. Specifically, white, American or British, heterosexual boys. He innocently replied that coming-of-age novels have universal stories about growing up, implying that these stories should be relatable to anyone who reads them.

Oh really?

What I wanted to do then was give him a two to five-minute presentation on white heterosexual male privilege, including references to the exclusively-male cast of Lord of the Flies, the misogyny present in The Chocolate War and in its sequel, and everything Superbad, along with an appendix on contemporary gender studies and Reviving Ophelia.

What I did was say, "Hmm."

Why didn't I say something more scathing, or at least more verbose? In the words of Avril Lavigne, he was a boy, I was a girl; can I make it anymore obvious? I wanted to be likeable, instead of being my usual "too much".

Additionally, a month ago I had a conversation with an entirely different gentleman about an entirely different subject. Specifically, this second person thought that it had been an unwise move for a certain Fortune 500 company to purchase a certain television network. I disagreed, stating that it was a overdue power move that the company needed to make to control distribution. He then said that I was picking on him. I said that I was sharing my opinion. Later, another gentleman applauded my words . . . by saying that he was glad that I had been "combative".

:(

I know none of those gentlemen was trying to confuzzle me or hurt my feelings. Yet as a black woman, I walk this tightrope of misconceptions and expectations from all sides that few people I know can understand. This balancing act fosters personal fear, doubt and anxiety.

Today I spent my part of my afternoon listening to a panel about being a multiple minority, or more precisely, about being in multiple oppressed groups. For instance, being a black lady like myself. Or being a gay Filipino individual like Alec Mapa or the animated Rick Brocka. The message to take away from the panelists was a positive one: let other people get to know you as a person, and they will stop seeing you a simply a minority. Just be the best you that you can be. No, my mother was not on the panel.

That sentiment is easy to say and difficult to practice. It also doesn't provide you with any solace when you know that expressing an opinion can get you labeled as angry witch. Whereas that same opinion expressed by a (paler) gentleman gets him labeled as an assertive leader. The sentiment "it is was it is" does not make you feel any less isolated when you experience a situations that no one you know is going through because you are literally the only one currently going through it at the moment.

This why I watched Girlfriends before it was canceled. This is why I listen to Frangela on the radio (when they are not preempted by sports) and why I ask that they write a book about their career. This is why I want the new Wanda Sykes talk show on Fox to succeed. I need role models. There are events and issues and humor and pain that are specific to being an overeducated black woman in business, in comedy (Hey, I think I'm funny), in life that other people don't completely get. It helps to know that someone else has been there before, or is still there now.

You know what would help? More coming-of-age stories about girls. It would be a start.

.

Clever comedians selling frozen "healthy" food:

It's good to see two funny women over forty still working on the TV.

.

"What about fetuses with guns?"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - Illinois' 18th - Aaron Schock
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

It's so cute when they try to answer grown-up questions. And by "they", I mean Republicans like Aaron Schock, the current US Representative for the 18th district of Illinois.

Stephen Colbert: Tell me about the Fightin' 18th.

Aaron Schock: Tell you about what?

Colbert: The Fightin' 18th.

Schock: The Fightin' 18th? What's the Fightin' 18th?

Colbert: Do you not represent the 18th district of Illinois?

Schock: Yes?

Colbert: Tell me about the Fightin' 18th.

Schock: You mean like tell you about my district?

[Has Aaron never watched The Colbert Report, including the segment on which he is appearing, called "Better Know a District"?]

Colbert: It sounds better to say the Fightin' 18th.

Oy vey. If Representative Schock is truly "the new face of the Republican party" (what happened to Bobby Jindal?), then we can all sleep easy.

There were also few quotes which, when taken out of context, can sound dirty, especially if you were already objectifying Representative Schock, as I was. Is he more than "just a pretty face, hair and body"? Readers, I suggest you watch the video and decide for yourselves.

Either way, I don't do Republicans; they are weird. I envision Republicans on a spectrum of, at best, misguided, and at worse, evil/Dick Cheney. He shot an old man in the face!

Colbert: Is there a spanking machine.

Schock: No spanking machine in Congress.

If only there were.

Colbert: It's a simple question. I think your constituents deserve to know. Do you or do you not have six-pack abs?

Schock: Well, you know, as soon as I say that, and then I get out of shape, you're going to use it against me. So, you know.

Colbert: You're implying that I am so taken with you right now. You're just implying that I am going to stay obsessed with your abs, sir. And yes. I'm not saying there's no chemistry here. But I'm saying I'm keeping this professional. All right? And I'd wish you do the same.

I wish he wouldn't.

Colbert: Congressman, thank you for taking the time to shock and awe me.

Thank you, indeed.

.

A little to the left, please.

Those dogs look so happy. Maybe I need some Pup-peroni.

.

Seriously? Do people not get what taxes are for?

Today, Wednesday, April 15, 2009, is National TEA Party Day, which I just learned about, and which I am now mocking. www.TEApartyday.com.

From the site:

On April 15, be part of the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party rally in your community

On the day you pay your taxes, Wednesday, April 15, join others across the country and in your hometown who will be participating in TAX Day TEA party rallies in front of their city halls. The TAX Day TEA party rally will begin at 12 noon. See this video - the momentum is growing!

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

• vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
  
• are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
• consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
• want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
• punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
• admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
• run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
• want government controlled health care?
• want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
• refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
• appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
• want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
• want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
• want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
• take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

If so, participate in the TAX Day TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.

Bring your cell phone and call Congress and the president while attending the TAX Day TEA party rally (Representative and Senators, 202-224-3121; President, 202-456-1414). Tell Every American about this effort by forwarding this invitation to your friends. Together we can make a difference.

How are government controlled health care (which millions of people already have, including those employed by the government), secret ballots in union elections, illegal immigration, child pornography and abortions related to taxes? Who are these people? Do they not drive on government-funded roads or appreciate the government-funded police and fire departments?

Readers, if you or someone you know is attending a TEA party today unironically, please leave a comment!

.

"Hey, I know you. Lance Armstrong!"

Zac Efron's Pool Party from Zac Efron

Thank goodness I do not have an Uncle Hank. Though I would like to hang out with Lance Bass.

.

I cannot process this animal feces anymore.

[Big angry baby head!]

Is Date Rape Funny? Seth Rogen Explains It All For You, by Margaret, Jezebel.

You wouldn't know it from watching the commercials playing constantly on TV, but in Observe & Report Ronnie (Seth Rogen) date rapes Brandi (Anna Faris) after taking her out to dinner, and today, bloggers are talking about it.

It surprises me how many posts I have generated on Seth Rogen, and that most of those posts are about the misogyny of his projects. This is the same Seth Rogen whom I was first introduced to in the beloved Freaks and Geeks. I now refer to Mr. Rogen in my head as "that f-ing f-er who can eat bleep and go bleep himself. Bleephole."

Sady at Tiger Beatdown does the research and says it all so I don't have to, emphases mine: Um.

Anyway, I could spend a little while talking about how even though this comedy is going to be intentionally dark and edgy and scary and weird, and even though I know representation is not the same as perpetuation, and even though as a lady I am somehow always supposed to be a "good sport" and "understanding," because it's not as if women could look back on the history of the world and note that it has been pretty much exclusively male-dominated, and the history of art and note that it too has been pretty much exclusively male-dominated, and note when looking at art produced by men within a male-dominated culture that a whole lot of it reflects and perpetuates male domination, because that would mean they are just terrible people who cannot hear the Music of the Spheres nor hear the Eternal Human Verities within this canon that kind of perpetually excludes or insults or misrepresents them, this is fucked up. I could talk about how I am a person who routinely makes jokes about her own experience of sexual assault, and has maybe the least mature or gentle sense of humor in the world, and I still feel that the whole "dumb bitch gets raped by comic hero" thing is indescribably foul, and yeah, maybe I could "give it a chance," maybe I could try to be "fair" about this, but maybe I just have better things to do than watch a movie that might be about a woman who gets a deserved raping, maybe I've reached the precise point at which I cannot be a "good sport" any longer and that is the point at which I am asked to pay ten fucking dollars plus however much a soda is these days for a movie that may very well insult me and every woman who's ever had an unwanted dick shoved into her body. I could talk about how, even though I got warned in advance, even though I won't be seeing the movie, the incredible frequency of rape and sexual assault in our society means that many, many victims of rape will see it, and the PTSD that often accompanies rape will mean that, for a joke, for some dipshit filmmaker's attempt at being edgy, they are going to experience all of the pain and psychological trauma associated with that experience, they are going to feel that rape all over again, there, in their seats, in the theater, and they are going to pay for the experience, and if they try to talk about what that filmmaker did to them it's probably going to get sidetracked into some conversation about the Sanctity of Art which is invariably given more consideration than their actual lives.

I could talk about all of that, but I won't. These conversations last so long and always seem to involve some guy calling me "oversensitive" or accusing me of making shit up or otherwise calling my perceptions invalid because they conflict with his own or just saying that I'm pissy and not funny and mean, and all of it makes me so tired, you guys, so unbelievably tired of stating basic facts that pretty much everyone with a shred of decency should comprehend but most people and/or movie studios and/or acclaimed Artists of Our Times just fucking don't. So, nope, not getting into it. I'm just going to enjoy the fact that I am, apparently, psychic. Because, of all the many things this is, it is not even remotely surprising.

.

AmazonFail, or, Dirty!

[Yes, that is Tom Everett Scott, best known as Zack Morris's sidekick in Dead Man on Campus. And that movie where he played a young Tom Hanks.]

Amazon Follies, by Mark R. Probst.

Amazon under fire for perceived anti-gay policy, by Andrea James, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

AmazonFail: A Twitter movement in action, by C. A. Bridges, Daytona Beach News-Journal Online.

Online censorship? Amazon strips ranking of Gay and Lesbian books, by Mari Kurisato, Denver Internet Examiner. Emphases mine.

One of the most powerful indicators of how a book is doing sales wise and can be a leading factor for generating or killing interest in a book. Though many factors go into the sales ranking system, the primary driving factor has been sales-number of books sold. Using that method, a shopper could look at similar titles within a genre and see which books were generating sales. The method however, now seems altered, in a manner that feels similar to the unsavory practice of banning books.

Amazon isn't actually no longer selling the books, of course, but it is delisting “adult” titles from the sales ranking system. Which would seem like a fine policy, if it were applied equally. But as an online petition points out the following publications remain on the sales ranking system:

-Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds by Chronicle Books (pictures of over 600 naked women)
--Rosemary Rogers' Sweet Savage Love" (explicit heterosexual romance);
--Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Wolf and the Dove (explicit heterosexual romance);
--Bertrice Smal's Skye o'Malley which are all explicit heterosexual romances
--and Alan Moore's Lost Girls (which is a very explicit sexual graphic novel)

while the following LGBT books have been removed:

--Radclyffe Hill's classic novel about lesbians in Victorian times, The Well of Loneliness, and which contains not one sentence of sexual description;
--Mark R Probst's YA novel The Filly about a young man in the wild West discovering that he's gay (gay romance, no sex);
--Charlie Cochrane's Lessons in Love (gay romance with no sex);
--The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience, edited by Louis-George Tin (non-fiction, history and social issues);
--and Homophobia: A History by Bryan Fone (non-fiction, focus on history and the forms prejudice against homosexuality has taken over the years).

Overall, the sales rank delisting may seem like a minor issue, but it can have a very serious impact for publishers and authors of lesser known works which depend on the sales ranking to get noticed and help spread the word. Amazon pulls unranked books from search results.

Do not worry, hetero Amazon users: 9 1/2 Weeks, Wild Orchid, SuicideGirls: Beauty Redefined, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale and XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits are still available on Amazon for purchase and rating.

.

"Well, there's not a lot of elections in China."

Texas lawmaker suggests Asians adopt easier names, by R.G. Ratcliffe, Houston & Texas News.

A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with."

The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.

The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?" Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: "Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"

Well my peace. "You and your citizens"? Isn't she talking about Americans? Whose citizens does she think these people are?

Here are two comments that explain some of my thoughts on the situation, sic implied:

By suggesting that Asian-Americans adopt names that are easier for "Americans" to deal with, she implies that Asian-Americans are not "American" by separating the terms. While that may not have been her intent, it was the consequence she should have expected, assuming she is adequately educated of course.

- danieln92000

[ . . . ] that women is keep saying, "You and your people", "easier for us". so it's You vs. US? that woman has already set her mind that Asian-Americans are not part of Americans.

- sangjai90

Also, Toby is an easy-to-pronounce American name, dating back to the good old colonial days of the United States. I'd bet Representative Brown finds it much easier to deal with than Kunta Kinte.

.

She doesn't get paid?

Mad About Michelle, by Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Emphases mine.

Just after the election Rebecca Traister wrote a terrific piece in Salon lamenting the "momification" of Michelle Obama. Probably it was inevitable: "In part because of the legacy left her by Hillary and her detractors," Traister observed, "powerful couples must now tread as far as possible from the 'two for one' talk, lest the female half get smacked with a nutcracker." Besides, there was that Angry Black Woman image to banish. It might have been politically necessary, and for all I know Michelle Obama is having the time of her life--unlike most professional women who take (let's hope) eight years off, she doesn't have to worry about the cost to her career. Some days I think just being a highly visible admirable black woman is a social cause all by itself, given how little of that side of black life most white Americans see. Still, there's something depressing about the joy and relief with which the high-end media have greeted Michelle's makeover from accomplished professional and outspoken social critic to new-traditionalist homebody. They're not only not ready for Hillary Clinton, they're apparently not even ready for Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the American Prospect, Dana Goldstein recently argued that being first lady should be treated like the job it is and awarded a salary. Michelle is "a public face of the Obama administration," working behind the scenes to rally support for her husband's programs--and she endures a schedule of ceremonial duties and photo ops that would put most women on Prozac and that are not optional. She can't decide to skip dinner with the Democratic chairmen of Congressional committees and watch TV with the girls instead. If first ladies were paid--Goldstein suggests that the money could come from lowering the president's $400,000 salary--we might respect them more.

Meanwhile, we should be counting ourselves lucky that Michelle Obama is working for free and let her wear whatever she wants.

I don't think the First Lady's salary should come from cutting the President's salary. I'm sure our national budget could do with a few less $400 ashtrays. Michelle Obama's salary from her last job as head of community affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals was $273,618. That is equivalent to 685 ashtrays. Or half the cost of a Tomahawk missile.

It would be a bargain, considering that the First Lady probably does the jobs of at least ten people combined. At an average Washington, DC, salary of $72,000 (as of April 9 2009), the position of First Lady would be worth $720,000. That's new math for you. Plus, everyone at the White House--excluding the children, the dog, and Grandma--is on salary except for Michelle Obama. Yet she has one of the biggest jobs there. How far we have come.

.

Musings from a black woman: I'm wise,

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Morally Bankrupt
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

but I'm not sassy. (The funny is at 1:51.) No wonder I'm not on TV.

.

But who will teach Professor Modi's classes?

Oh my God they killed Kutner. Bastards!, by abhi at Sepia Mutiny.

Kal Penn goes from 'House' to the White House, by Thomas Conner, Chicago Sun-Times.

I don't even watch House, but instead of killing off Kal's character, couldn't the writers have had him get a job at the White House? Less morbid, yet cheeky.

.

My six-word memoir:

Underappreciating myself, yet amazing everyone else.

(Present tense since I'm still here.)

You can read it here, too.

.

Sean Maguire is working again!

Krod Mandoon	Thurs, 10p / 9c
Krod Mandoon Series Preview
comedycentral.com
Matt Lucas Kevin Hart Sean Mcguire

Is that an American accent? I thought Sean Maguire always played British.

John Cho is working. Eddie Kaye Thomas is working. Jason George is working? I did not know that. Is Eli Stone still on? And Lauren Stamile is still working, too.

Good for you, cast of Off Centre. Like so many shows on The WB, it left too soon. I'm looking at you, Grosse Pointe.

.

"I'm sorry. I just love my country."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10/31 Project
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

"And I love the musical Rent." But not the movie version. Chris Columbus never fails to disappoint me with his schmaltz.

Sign me up for the 10/31 Project. Though I can never figure out a clever costume to wear.

.

Apparently The Boston Globe has never heard of HBCUs.

The new cool kids, by Meghan Irons at The Boston Globe. Emphases mine.

Part of a rising counterculture, smart, black teenagers are flexing their intelligence instead of hiding it . . .

As for the Obama effect, [16-year-old Darnell Normil of Hyde Park] said: "Once he became president, it put pressure on me to work hard and strive more."

Youth trend specialists say groups like the Du Bois Society are part of a rising counterculture that is aiming to break the stigma among black kids that being smart is uncool.

"This is not the culture of low expectations" anymore, said Neil Howe, historian, demographer, and co-author of "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation." "What's new is the fact that you have these growing islands of active resistance, the refusal to accept that."

The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, who co-founded the Du Bois Society in 2001 with his wife, Jacqueline, and facilitators of the program say their aim is to build young leaders by breaking down the "social isolation and feelings of conspicuousness" often associated with high-achieving black kids.

"One of the developments of the last 40 years has been the evolution of an antiintellectual culture that . . . rejected academic achievement as at best corny and at worst white," said Rivers. "What we are really dealing with in the Du Bois Society is not others' opinions of our kids, but their opinions of themselves, of each other, and of their culture. Our objective is to transform their image of themselves. . . . The fact that between 25 and 30 black students come together on a Saturday morning to study the work of such a distinguished collection of scholars is in and of itself revolutionary."

Smart kids, no matter their color, are nothing new. Many have triumphed against insurmountable odds - single parents, broken homes, crime, and poverty - to develop businesses, head establishments, govern a state, or lead a nation.

But some have paid the price as kids, suffering ridicule and rejection by their peers. In past years, and perhaps even now, smart black kids would hide their good grades and proper diction under a cloak of souped-up bravado, high fashion, and slang.

That is changing. Now, perhaps riding on the rise of prominent post-civil rights black leaders including Obama, more and more black kids are stepping up the smart quotient with a new level of pride . . .

Author E. Kinney Zalesne calls them "black super-achievers," teens rising under the radar and shattering stereotypes.

Lord Harry the Judge. I hope my single mother knows that she has been an "insurmountable odd." All she ever did for me is give me clothes and shelter, put food on our family, and pay for 17+ years of private school. According to The Boston Globe, that is equivalent to crime.

Does Ms. Irons think that the characters on A Different World, The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and those many other shows featuring educated black youths (I can't think any either) came from an LSD trip? No. They were based on actual black people who go to school and learn, just like everyone else.

BostonSuperMommy expresses some of my sentiments about the article, emphases mine:

I find this article to be offensive. There may be some with this ridiculous shame about being "smart" but it is not representative of the entire black community, nor can one even claim it represents the majority. As a matter of fact, I feel that this article is another unfortunate media tool that is perpetrating a negative view of black children in education. There are certainly issues in the black community (most communities have issues) but being ashamed of being smart is not the biggest challenge to educational achievement. Some of the comments that are showing up here are horribly racist. These misguided readers are actually buying this garbage and will now have strengthened misconceptions about black students--with the exception of the 35 you are giving kudos to. Shame on you Boston Globe for printing such nonsense and feeding the racism that is already well rooted in our city! I guess my 2 children for whom we paid thousands upon thousands to attend independent private school before they tested into the exam schools will have to bear the burden of the racism and ignorance perpetrated against black children by this widely circulated article. This newspaper owes the black community an apology. This article is disgusting.

Ms. Irons should read Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham. The book is completely up its own behind with elitism and snobbery, but it does present a side of American history that many Americans know nothing about, i.e. wealthy and/or educated black people. How else could there be a continuing network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities that has lasted for over 170 years? President Obama hasn't been in the White House for that long, so black people must have figured this education thing at some point before he got elected.

.

I absolutely love Murder, She Wrote.

The ones with Seth Hazlitt are still my favorites. Ooh, and the ones with Jessica's nephew Grady, too. He keeps picking the wrong women and the wrong employers.

.

"You've got a gift, my friend. Don't hide that in a bushel basket."

Jokes.com
Wanda Sykes - Politically Correct
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

My two videos of the day. "Hot Pockets!"

.

What the who what now?

Advertisements for Themselves, by Erica Orden, New York Magazine via The Black Snob.

Madison Avenue is scrambling to adjust to a new era, when the most admired people in America are a black family. To reflect this reality, talent scouts are on the hunt for models who look like the Obama children, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10.

"People are looking for girls who resemble them," says Charlie Winfield, the head booker at FunnyFace Today.

Tali Lev, an agent with the Gilla Roos agency, keeps links to her "Sasha" and "Malia" model lists on her desktop for easy access. "Photographers even want them for their portfolios."

Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens, says the First Daughters are tough subjects to match. "It’s a very specific age and a very specific ethnicity, so there aren’t that many girls that would necessarily fit the bill."

A very specific ethnicity? These girls are not Jessica Alba or Rosario Dawson or Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel. They are 3/4 black, like most black people in the United States are, if you look far back enough and count up all the pieces.

How hard is it to find tiny black children in New York City? Maybe Ms. Wallach could import them direct from the manufacturer.

.

The Girls of Rock and Roll

I spent some of my weekend watching Girls Rock!, which was great. It only took me a year to finally watch it. Readers, you should watch Girls Rock!, too. It is available for rental and for purchase. So get on that.

One of the funniest parts of the movie is during the closing credits. Laura, one of the main girls featured, is talking about her experience. She was adopted from Korea by white parents in Oklahoma, which I've heard is the San Francisco of the Midwest. Oh, it's not. Oh. I thought it was bad enough growing up in St. Thomas trying to explain to other people my concerted fixation on Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood. I think it would be much harder to be the only Asian girl in your town who is into death metal.

Anyhoodle, here is what happened while Laura was talking to the camera:

Laura: If I'm ever, like, in a position where I can help other Asian women especially feel comfortable about themselves. We're different, but it doesn't mean it's bad.

Guy behind the camera: What if we told you that the more you were in this movie, the more it might help Asian girls to feel better about themselves?

Laura: What if I told you that we should, like, have a dramatic reenactment?

Guy: But then a dramatic reenactment would be against the whole point, 'cause isn't the whole point to show Asian girls, "You should be comfortable with yourself"? So why should we have somebody else play you? [He laughs.] Isn't that kinda against the whole reasoning that you're saying?

Laura: Here comes the white man holding me down again.

Guy: [laughs some more]

Laura: Since I was shipped to America to build a railroad, I've been experiencing this, and I don't have to take it.

Hee! That would so be me on camera, worrying that I wouldn't fly in Peoria.

.

"The lady will have two tickets to the gun show!"

Not a real gun show; Alec Baldwin's 25-year-old arms.

If only I had bubble problems, my life would be dreamy.

Don't get on Jon Hamm's motorcycle, Liz Lemon!

.

Be you. Do what you do.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - Mississippi, Talk Shows & SciFi

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Mark Sanford
NASA Name Contest

Sci Fi becomes 'Syfy'...sigh., Entertainment Weekly.

Even SCI-FI Channel Embarrassed To Admit It Watches SCI-FI Channel; Changes Name To "Syfy", Best Week Ever.

Sci Fi Channel rebranding itself as Syfy. What's next?, Canada.com. International representation!

Note to Sci Fi parent company NBC Universal: Don't change the name of one of your most recognizable networks to an abbreviation for an STD. I didn't think anyone could appear less clever than the writers of Britney's latest single, but Sci Fi President Dave Howe has done it. Congratulations. You now look more attention-seeking and desperate than the creators of a song called "If You Seek Amy."

.

Et tu, Dora?

The new Dora, by Miriam at Feministing.

This is not good. It is telling that I identify with a round girl who carries a backpack and has a monkey for a friend, more than with a skinny girl whose new defining characteristics are bouncy hair, jewelry and leggings. Leggings are not pants. What kind of adventures can a kid have in non-functional ballet slippers? Ugh.

That reminds me; I should get a monkey friend. Real or imaginary, either or.

.

"Here comes the Funcooker!"

I hope my workplace never gets that bad.

.

Neither of them is Hawaiian,

but one is half Samoan (and Canadian!) and the other is partially Japanese. The Japanese one still isn't any part black, so I don't know why he continues to play Barack Obama; I don't think he is channeling the President's white side.

Anyway, the dialogue and setup is funny. I hope that is an actual Hawaiian song.

.

"If I had only followed CNBC's advice, I'd have a million dollars today . . . "

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

" . . . provided I'd started with a hundred million dollars."

Who continues to listen to these financial pundits, and why do they still have television shows? If this is not a clear example of white male privilege, I don't what is.

.

Debatable

Sarah Haskins declares Twitter war on Jimmy Fallon, by Jessica at Feministing.

That video does look familiar. Even if Jimmy has never watched Current TV, I'm sure at least one of his writers has heard of Sarah Haskins and has seen her work.

The worst part of the situation is that the video is not funny. It only highlights the fact that there is only one woman with a late night talk show (and unfortunately one black guy). There are plenty of funny women--who have experience, as well as large audiences with potential for growth--who would be great late night talk show hosts. Yet the guy who couldn't get through an SNL sketch without laughing gets a 12:35 slot on NBC.

If you're reading this, Mr. Fallon, hello! Thanks for visiting my blog!

.

As a potential member

of the one in six, or possibly one in three, I present you with a Public Service Announcement:

There is no such thing as gray rape.

It doesn't matter if you have known a person for six years or for six minutes. As I have stated before, if you have sexual intercourse with someone without that person's consent, it is rape. It doesn't matter if the two of you have had sexual relations for months, or if you have never met before. It doesn't matter if you think you're a good person. Sex without consent is rape. In the words of a prolific comedian who has taken the time to hone his craft quite effectively over the years,

Whatever you’re doing is what you are, everybody. If you’re boozing, you’re an alcoholic. If you’re raping, you’re a rapist. Who cares what your core is?

For further clarification on this topic, please consult the following articles:

Call it what it is., and "Gray rape," cont'd..., both by Ann at Feministing.


Also, rape jokes are not funny. Ever. Those attempts at humor--anecdotes usually shared by men to amuse other men--sound a lot different to the ears of 50% of the population. Especially when that 50% is more likely to be attacked, simply because we were born female.

.

Bianca, this is your life!

Fashion's invisible woman, by Emili Vesilind, LA Times via some other blog post I can't find now.

When it comes to shopping, the average American man has it made. At 189.8 pounds and a size 44 regular jacket, he can wear Abercrombie & Fitch, American Apparel or Armani. Department stores, mall retailers and designer boutiques all cater to his physique -- even when it's saddled with love handles, a sagging chest or a moderate paunch. In menswear, shlubby is accommodated.

But the average U.S. woman, who's 162.9 pounds and wears a size 14, is treated like an anomaly by apparel brands and retailers -- who seem to assume that no one over size 10 follows fashion's capricious trends.

Capricious trends like finding a suit at Macy's. Not all of the stores carry suits in plus sizes, because larger women don't work in corporate settings or in professional positions ever.

Fashion-forward boutiques such as Maxfield and Fred Segal rarely stock anything over a size 10, and in designer shops, sizes beyond 6 or 8 are often hidden like contraband in the "back." Department stores typically offer tiny sections with only 20 or so brands that fit sizes 14 and up -- compared with the 900-plus brands they carry in their regular women's wear departments.

. . . plus-size clothing is largely relegated to the Internet, where customers who already have a complicated relationship with clothes are unable to see, touch or try on merchandise.

. . . Americans are getting larger, and 62% of females are already categorized as overweight. But the relationship between the fashion industry and fuller-figure women is at a standoff, marked by suspicion, prejudice and low expectations on both sides. The fear of fat is so ingrained in designers and retailers that even among those who've successfully tapped the market, talking plus-size often feels taboo. The fraught relationship between fashion and plus-size is far from new, but seems particularly confounding in a time when retailers are pulling out all the stops to bring in business. Carrying a range of sizes that includes the average female would seem like a good place to start.

I agree; it would be a good place to start. A place to continue would be airplane seats. When the population is getting bigger and also spending less money on air travel, airlines could afford to make accommodations more spacious and comfortable. I don't need my entire lower body to go numb from compression in a tiny space.

It's a which-came-first scenario, Cohen said. Because plus-size women have been ignored for years, they've stopped actively looking for shopping opportunities. But when retailers bring savvy style to the plus-size game (as Gap Inc. did with its short-lived concept, Forth & Towne, which carried fashion-forward clothing for career women in sizes 2 to 20), they often shutter their efforts before they have a chance to bloom.

"Retailers don't have the patience to allow it to evolve," he added. "This is a market that's been underserved for 50 years. Customers are saying, 'For 50 years, you've ignored me and now you expect me to react to it instantaneously?' No."

That's how I feel about many things, most recently about video games for girls and women. Or actually, any media for girls and women. You can't put out a store like Forth and Towne, or a show like Campus Ladies, or a women's radio network like Greenstone and expect it to be an immediate hit. Building a sustainable audience takes time, especially when the people controlling the methods of distribution are not women.

.

"I'm from Roosevelt, Long Island. It's not the projects."

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Michael Steele Gets Served

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Ha ha! Oh dear. It's sad when even black people don't realize that not every black person is from "the projects", or from "Blackville". I'm sure Chuck D gained his street cred while he was studying graphic design at Adelphi University. It looks like a rough campus.

I can see how one could get confused if you got all of your information about black people by watching TV. For instance, if you turned to CNBC to enjoy a show like Newbos: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass, hosted by Lee Hawkins, you would leave with the impression that the only wealthy black people of note (except for Oprah) are all men who are involved with the entertainment industry in some way and/or have jewelry for teeth. Yes, it was that bad.

The documentary offers behind-the-marquee stories on several high-profile Newbos, including NBA superstar LeBron James, Major League All-Star Torii Hunter, The Williams brothers of Cash Money Records, Dallas Cowboy star Terrell Owens, billionaire entrepreneur and Newbo pioneer Bob Johnson and musician, Multiplatinum gospel star Kirk Franklin, and television network owner Wyclef Jean.

Terrell Owens? Really? You couldn't find anyone else a little less controversial, Mr. Hawkins? As Black Enterprise's Alfred Edmond, Jr., put it:

When did CNBC start airing MTV Cribs?

I can only look forward to this summer's Black in America 2: Electric Boogaloo. Because the first installment was so good.

.

Michael Steele has finally caught up with Mitt Romney.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Challenges Michael Steele

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Where are these "urban suburban hip-hop settings"? Maybe it's the corner where Dave Chappelle met Wayne Brady.

.

Le sigh.

Andy Samberg Breaks Caricature, by Joshua David Stein, Out.

Click through to see the behind the scenes video of the cover shoot.

.

"Do you want to go count our gold?"

Hee! And, eh.

.