This should not have been a debate.

My right to safety is not a discussion.

To put this into perspective, could you imagine if Kamau held a "debate" about New York's Stop-and-Frisk policy between asked a white male officer from the NYPD and a black male victim of police molestation? "We need the ability to continue verbally harassing people after we have physically violated their civil liberties. It's comedy!"

And Kamau was right about that moderator. What was up with that guy?

For all of the people who have ever asked, "Is it really worse for women on the internet than it is for men?", or, "Is it really worse for women in comedy than it is for men?", the unequivocal answer remains, "YES, OF COURSE IT IS!" Whenever a woman stands up and speaks, especially for the rights of women, she is immediately a target for attack, even when people agree with what she is saying.

For a big drop in the even bigger bucket of proof, here's a link to what happened to Lindy West after the "debate":

If Comedy Has No Lady Problem, Why Am I Getting So Many Rape Threats?, Jezebel.


.

So much cuteness, I can't stand it!

Aaahhh!

Update: look over here at this:

I'm Biracial, and That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal. Trust Me. by Meagan Hatcher-Mays, Jezebel.


.

This topic makes me sad,

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

but having the discussion makes me glad. It's important to talk about difficult subjects, even if they make some people uncomfortable. In the words of Leslie Bennetts, author of The Feminine Mistake, "The facts don't change just because you refuse to look at them."

via Jezebel, "The Heartbreaking Reality Of Being A Dark-Skinned Black Woman"


.

"You don't even think about it. You just do!"

Well, I don't. Too much hype, not enough usefulness.

Maybe the iPad isn't appealing to me because I don't want to watch the latest Star Trek remake on my lap. Or because the people behind this "magical and revolutionary product" don't exactly reflect me.

"I don't have to change myself to fit the product. It fits me."

Of course it fits you, Jony Ive, Senior Vice President of Design at Apple. You made the product, along with a bunch of guys who look like you and live the same Apple-tastic lifestyle that you do. Setting aside the moneyed white male aspect of the design team, did anyone on the team consider making the iPad unbreakable or waterproof? That would fit me and my lady lifestyle.

.

"Needs more Jaleesa."

Sinbad Politely Requests That You Do Not Refer to It As a Comeback, Vulture via Jezebel.

My favorite part of the interview:

When you were doing Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger, did you foresee a political career for him?

He was always going to run for some kind of office. I wish he had not! I liked Arnold as an entertainer. He did a lot of things as an activist. He had a fitness program for kids I was involved with because of him. I just think right now as governor, man, he screwed up the education system out here. He cut the summer program. With summer school now, it takes you seven years to finish college.

And in honor of Black History Month:

How has the landscape changed for African-Americans on television since you first started out?

I don’t think the landscape has changed much at all. We’re in another wasteland. It’s a shame that we’re even having this conversation in 2010. It’s like they’re discovering new colors. Now the new flavor is Latin. Next new flavor will probably be Asian. It’s a shame they can’t figure out that, it’s all, it’s all the same thing. It’s all actors. Look at this country, even with a black president … it sparked a revolution on the Republican side that’s funny as hell. They give themselves code names — the Tea Party, the Real America. I crack up. My thing is this: Not much has changed in Hollywood. Hollywood’s not a progressive place. Everyone likes to think that Hollywood is hip, but it’s not hip at all. Black actors, black actresses, they’re fighting to find parts. Name me five black actresses working right now.

Um, off the top of my head …

You can’t.

I can!

1. Regina King on Southland

2. Wanda Sykes on The New Adventures of Old Christine

3. Niecy Nash on Clean House

4. S. Epatha Merkerson on Law & Order

5. Keke Palmer on True Jackson, VP

That was not easy. What is Dawnn Lewis doing these days?

And yes, readers, at the top of this post, that is Ray J in the poster for The Sinbad Show. The same Ray J who gave us a second season of this:

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

.

It's 2009, Mattel,

and Disney, too. Way to include black characters in a movie with outdated animation, while keeping the rest of your current slate of movies as pale as ever. Including Prince of Persia, and the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean coming in 2011? Really? I've never been to Persia, but I have been to the Caribbean, and I've seen some colorful people there.

Back to Mattel. I read this post on Jezebel--"Dear Mattel: This Is How How You Make Barbie More Diverse"--after I read another post on Jezebel, and the following post on Feministing: Real Talk about Barbie: When experience and narrative don't match up, by Ann referencing Latoya. Emphases mine.

Did Barbie impact me personally? Not really - I wasn't inclined to play with dolls, and I was conditioned to recognize when I was being sold something. I learned from a very early age that white beauty isn't the only beauty and there was no reason to feel bad about some white doll thing when there were so many other cool things in the world.

But that was my experience.

My cousin, who had dozens of Barbies and their cars and their dreamhouses thinks Barbies are wonderful toys for her four year old daughter. My cousin jokingly describes herself as looking for a Ken (we are both moving into our late 20s) and keeps her hair long and relaxed.

Unlike my cousin, I never hid under a towel at the pool to keep my skin from turning darker.

And unlike some of my friends, I never felt that sting of being passed over to play with Barbies because there weren't enough black one's to go around. I didn't walk around with a towel on my head swinging it around as if it was long flowing hair, and I didn't (as described in a seventeen magazine article that was published when I was still in the age range to read it) pump out lotion and leave it on my skin pretending I looked white.

I never felt that pain that one of my friends felt when her classmates teased her about having dark skin and short hair, even though it was relaxed and she used a variety of products to try to make it grow.

And I never felt the kind of pain one of my other friends felt when she went up to her white crush and confessed her feelings, only to have him reply "But...you're black." All the parental affirmation in the world was not helping then.

When you have children, you are their primary example. For a while. And then they go to school, they socialize with others, they pick up words, ideas, actions that you never would have dreamed they would. Some of my friends had color struck parents. And some of my friends just got caught up in a glossy, aspirational, media saturated world that paints a very clear picture of who in our society is beautiful and wanted and who is not. Barbie is a part of that. Hollywood is a part of that. TV is a part of that. Advertising is a part of that. And it is relentless and endless.

It might not make sense to some of you who have not felt the sting of feeling entire pieces of your identity excluded from view and representation. Who take for granted that while you may not relate to Blake Lively or Lauren Conrad that you can always turn on the television and see someone of your race and your gender doing all kinds of activities and seen in all sorts of contexts.

If you felt like you could relate heavily to Daria and Jane but you were still thankful for the one time Jodie made a speech about being the only black kid at Lawndale, if you watched The Craft because it was awesome, but you always remember that it was Rochelle who got told that her "little nappy hairs" looked like "pubic hairs" or you just realized that the only "role"for black girls in society was as the silent/funny/pathetic side kick in a white girl's story then you understand.

I still identify with Daria more than Jodie, because although Jodie was black and ambitious (like me!), Daria was well-read and ostracized by her classmates due to her honest points-of-view (like me!). I liked that Jodie wasn't anyone's sassy black friend. Her character had development and a purpose, like most of the characters in Daria did, regardless of gender. Those people had distinct, meaningful personalities.

That's one of the things I don't like about The Office. I was happy about the "Scott's Tots" episode this week, because who doesn't like dancing children who are going to college? I liked that Erin was featured more in this episode, although she was functioning as a less cynical version of the old Pam, conscripted to assist Michael in another embarrassing endeavor.



I don't like how Pam has transformed from Fancy New Beesly--the aspiring artist who is taking charge of her life--to Pam Halpert--Jim's wife/baby mama who traded her art career for a position as a mediocre salesperson in a bankrupt paper company.

I don't like that you can count the colorful people at Dunder Mifflin on one hand, and if you blink, you'll miss them. I don't like that the women on the show haven't been humorous on their own in a while. I don't like that all of Michael's love interests have been carbon copies of Steve Carell's blond wife (who now goes by Nancy Carell), with no discernible personalities of their own aside from their inexplicable infatuation with Michael. Though I did like crazy Jan and her baby created from super sperm.

This is probably why both Sherri and Parks and Recreation have grown me, with their somewhat diverse casts and their funny female characters. Although, they could both use some more, or any, Asian and Latino people.

In conclusion, I need some black friends to talk with about the above issues. Or, if you're not black, but you would still like to talk with me, let me know. I'm a nice lady!

.

I agree, Amanda.

In his review of Chris Rock's latest film Good Hair, Brian Prisco of Pajiba wrote the following. Emphases mine:

Good Hair follows a smart path from a simple question: what does it mean for a black person to have good hair? Make no mistake, this question — and this film — is meant for a black audience. That’s not to say a person of a different race couldn’t enjoy or appreciate it, but Rock is making the active decision to put the question to his people for his people.

Then there was Bob Cannon's concern in his review for Moviefone:

The question is, can a film this ethnocentric cross enough racial and social lines to approach the box office numbers of Michael Moore, the gold standard in successful documentary filmmaking?

Oh, was that the question?

My first reaction was, I have never seen a review of any of the majority of American movies that states, "this film is meant for a white audience," even though that statement would be accurate. Chris Rock, along with any other multi-million earning black performer, is not successful solely because of a black audience. Case in point: the first people I ever heard quoting Chris Rock in my presence were two white male teenagers in the late 90s. I don't think any of my black female friends have ever quoted Chris Rock to me.

My second reaction was akin to the feelings of Margaret from Jezebel. Emphases mine:

Almost every critic praises Good Hair, but for the most part, their reviews stick to a summary of the film and analysis of Rock as host/narrator. Several say they found themselves surprised by the information presented - possibly because, judging from photos found online, none of them reviewers actually have black hair. While this latter fact doesn't disqualify them from critiquing the quality of the film, the reviews do come from an outsider's perspective, like The New York Times' take, which notes, "One of the happy consequences of Good Hair should be a radical increase in white-woman empathy for their black sisters."

However, unlike Margaret, I do think that the reviewers' lack of black hair, or more precisely, their lack of knowledge about and historical perspective on black hair, does disqualify them from accurate critiquing the quality of the film. For instance, when Brian writes the following,

There’s a heartrending scene where Rock interviews five high school girls about what it means to look successful. Four of the girls are overweight with shiny straight tresses, and one adorable gal who looks like a young Jill Scott sits in the center with a subdued Afro. The larger girls then use her as an example — “no offense, you look cute but…” — of how to look unprofessional. As the girls explain how women with Afros don’t look trustworthy or successful and how they imply a disregard for rules or proper fashion, the camera pans in on the young girl quietly sitting sadly.

he doesn't notice that Chris Rock doesn't bother to question who decides what is "trustworthy or successful" or what is in "proper fashion." It's not like black women are running Fortune 500 companies. Okay, except for one Ursula Burns, who seems to have been successful in her ascent to the top of Xerox. And her hair also happens to be natural.

Also, thanks for the "overweight" qualifier. Always relevant when writing about black women.

Or when Brian writes,

Rock bookends his movie with the Bronner Brothers International Hair Show in Atlanta, GA. Having seen Blow Dry, I knew that hairstylists would go to ape-shit lengths to sculpt Barbies like a Food Network Cake Challenge. Having also seen Stomp the Yard, Drumline, and Snaps, I should have known that black people would take this to levels of sublime showoffsmanship which would make a peacock blush. But you’ve also seen those films and shows. Can you blame them? That shit’s bananas. (I don’t speak jive.)

he shows his behind by asserting that he knows black people because he saw and Stomp the Yard and Drumline? In the words of Angry Asian Man, that's racist! FYI, I don't speak jive either, turkey.

As if I know about white people because I saw Fired Up or Juno or Never Been Kissed. If Brian or Bob, or any reviewer, had mentioned School Daze, I would give them partial credit. Brian also neglects to mention Jason Griggers, the blindingly white stylist in the movie, who is favored to win the hair styling competition.

So who is the Amanda starring in the title of this post? She is one of the people who commented under Brian's review, and I share her sentiments. Emphases mine:

. . . My only concern is that you (apparently) asserted that the movie is meant for a black audience, basically just because it focuses on the cult of Good Hair as it relates to black people. (That is, if my interpretation of those paragraphs is correct.)

I'd like to offer that it would be valuable for all races and ethnicities to see a film like this so that we can understand the very particular effect that the "straight hair ideal" has on black women. In my humble opinion, saying that this movie is only for black people is a disservice to the message of the film. Good Hair might very well have a message of empowerment that is intended for a black audience, but I think that it is equally if not more important for other races/ethnicities - I'm going to venture that it's particularly important for whites - to see the time and effort black women spend on their hair. We need to have our eyes opened to the fact that society's projection of straight hair as more beautiful and professional is inherently discriminatory, and it forces black women to spend outrageous amounts of money at salons if they want to be taken seriously - both as professionals and as *beautiful* women.

If only blacks see this film, they may feel empowered, and they may experience some kind of epiphany about their relationships with their hair. Maybe. I can't claim to know, as I'm not black myself. But it is not up to black people to change society's perceptions about their hair - it's up to everyone else. That's why I think that the message is best received by people of all racial and ethnic groups, not just by a black audience.

And here is another comment I enjoyed, under Margaret's review:

@nyc-caribbean-ragazza: "I was talking to a friend of mine (black) who wondered if Chris Rock explained to his daughter that the reason her hair did not look like Mommy's is because Mommy wears a weave."

What. You. Said.
Times like, a kabillion.

It just staggers me the way everyone, including Mr. Documentary himself -- and I've met him, and he's cool, and can you tell, I'm really really disappointed -- is manifestly, steadfastly, resolutely ignoring this.

Considering that their two daughters were prominently featured, Malaak Compton-Rock, Chris Rock's wife, was glaringly absent from the film. I wouldn't assume she has a weave, but her hair has definitely been straightened. Chris never talks about his wife in the film, nor does he talk about his own decision to marry a black woman, not who has natural hair, but who has straightened hair. His decision comes off as hypocritical, considering the lengths he goes to in the film to show how harmful the straightening process can be, and how exploitative the weave business is. As Beet at Feministing Community puts it,

. . . it seems Chris Rock is criticizing black women who modify their hair to look straight yet he hardly even dents the larger issue of beauty standards shaped by society that constrict black women and contribute to their "need" to do this in the first place. This movie can be used as a reason to criticize black women who wear a weave but it doesn't really answer the question that if black women wore their hair more naturally, would they be accepted? . . .

I will leave you with this quote from actor Tracie Thoms, whose hair I would love to have growing out of my head:

"To keep my hair the same texture as it grows out of my head is looked at as revolutionary. Why is that?"

Why indeed. :|


Ooh, here is my favorite part of the movie:

Chris Rock: How old were you the first time you got a relaxer?

Maya Angelou: Ooh god. About 70.

Chris Rock: 70?

Maya Angelou: Mmhmm.

Chris Rock: You went your whole life?

Maya Angelou: Not my whole life. I'm still alive!

.

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.

.

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.

.

Girls on Film

How come guys talk so much when they have nothing to say, and girls have plenty to say, but no-one will listen?

Where's Our Stand By Me?, by hortense, Jezebel.

I have always loved My Girl 2. It was set in LA, the city I was obsessed with as a teenager. It starred Austin O'Brien, who was no Macaulay Culkin, but still carried his own in the movie. And it had a self-possessed young female protagonist who made enlightened statements like this:

I don't think anybody should change their names [when they get married]. That way you can always find them when you need them.

Yet now, the supposedly clever, edgy girls we get in movies think that embryos have fingernails and when sparkly vampires tell you to stay away from them, they really like you.

So disappointing and sad. And by "sad", I mean horribly distasteful considering the exponential growth of the number of poverty-stricken people in the United States and across the world.

.

Somebody was in Emergency, Somebody just got out of Jail

I considered reserving judgment about this situation until more evidence was in. However, as I read through the comments on Defamer and Racialicious and Jezebel and other blogs, I thought of the West Wing episode that inspired the name of this post.

Rihanna had to be hospitalized due to her injuries, including a black eye as well as "a swollen split lip and two red and purple contusions on either side of her forehead." Chris Brown is free after posting bail, with no reported injuries. Unless Rihanna fell out of Chris's car during a high speed chase, rolled down a hill and waved her fingers at a hungry animal, I don't know what other evidence is necessary to determine that something very wrong happened early Sunday morning.

I never downloaded or purchased any Chris Brown songs, so I don't have any to delete or destroy.

.

I can finally talk with most of my friends.

How did we communicate before Barack Obama? Oh yeah, through television.

Talk About Race? Relax, It’s O.K., by Sarah Kershaw, New York Times via Jezebel.

. . . over the last few months, both Mr. Rice and Ms. Knox, who live in Washington, have been struck by the slight easing of these examples of what psychologists describe as "interracial anxiety" between blacks and whites. That is because there is a now an omnipresent icebreaker: Barack Obama.

"There’s a more readily accessible conduit into the conversation about race if it begins with Barack Obama," said Mr. Rice, the executive director of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials — International, a professional law enforcement group. "In my experience over the last few months, it’s easier because it’ll begin with who he is, the differences between his parents, what he had to deal with." . . .

. . . "Before Obama, there was always this thing — 'He's a black doctor,'" Mr. Jackson said. “But now I’m going to be a physician who also happens to be black. That’s become the perception now, which is really nice." . . .

. . . On the morning after the election, Kristin Rothballer, 36, who lives in San Francisco, kissed her female partner goodbye on the train while commuting to work. A black woman who sat down next to her turned and said she was sorry that Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, looked like it was going to pass.

"We grabbed hands," Ms. Rothballer recalled. "And I said, 'Well, I really want to congratulate you because we have a black president and that’s amazing.'"

"Our conversation then almost became about the fact that we were having the conversation," she said.

Something moved her to apologize to the black woman for slavery. [Readers, do not do this.]

"For two strangers riding a train to Oakland to have that conversation about race, it wouldn't have been possible if Obama hadn't been elected," she said. 'I always felt open with my colleagues, but to say to a stranger on the train, 'Hey, I’m sorry about slavery,' that just doesn’t happen."

It's too bad that with Bill Richardson gone, I still can't talk with my Latino friends. I doubt I'll ever be able to talk with my Asian friends, or to my friends who don't fit into the ethnic roles designated by the U.S. Census.

Also, this article was in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times. I guess black is the new black. Oy.

.

"Am I integrating this school?"

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

Ordinary Pupils

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Hee! And, so sad. :(

.

Seriously, CW?

The CW's New Shows Are Lacking In Color, Jezebel via Racialicious.

'Privileged': The kids are all white, and kind of shallow, too, USA Today.

Bring it on...It's already been broughton!, Stephanie's Soap Box.

The first two links are self-explanatory. In the third one, Stephanie laments that she didn't see the murder of "Q" (the troublemaker with a heart of gold) coming on One Tree Hill. Coincidentally, Q is one of the only nonwhite people on One Tree Hill. I haven't watched an entire episode since Season Two, but I think Skills is still there. So now there is one left.

What can I say that I haven't said before? Oh yes. As I think back to the old 90210, glaringly white though it may have been, in retrospect, the original series looks inspired compared to this latest rip-off of The OC.

.

In Women's News Today

Daria Takes Aim At Jane Magazine, by Slut Machine at Jezebel, via Feministing. Hooray for Daria! The comments led me here. Yippee!

WNBA rookies work on their game faces, by the linster at AfterEllen. Feministing also wrote about this story last month, but the linster points out the inherent homophobia along with the sexism involved.

The AfterEllen article led me to these poignant articles on how the American mainstream media dealt with Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign:

Woman in Charge, Women Who Charge, by Judith Warner at The New York Times.

and

Hating Hillary, by Andrew Stephen at New Statesman.

I have a whole heap to say about the people who let out the hate in their hearts during the Democratic Primary Season. People who won't be satisfied until Senator Clinton grovels at Senator Obama's feet, then leaves the country--nay, the planet(!) and begins her life anew on Mars. People who actually repeated this image on the news, not to condemn its existence, but to lament the loss of Senator Clinton as a late-night talk show punching bag. For now, I leave you with this statement from Feministe's Jill:

I know many women (and men) today are mourning the fact that the female candidate didn’t get her historic moment. I am mourning that too. And again, Melissa says it better than I could. Women are hurting, and our confidence in our “allies” and in our fellow progressives has been thoroughly challenged.

See The Daily Kos for evidence of those so-called "progressives", who often consider 51% of the population a special interest group.

.

Someone's cruising for a bruising.

I started reading here: Allies Talking. Then I read this: An Open Letter to Jezebel, which included this--The True Story Of One Epic Day Nerds Groped Free--which was in response to this--The Open-Source Boob Project.

So I wondered what Feministing had to say, and I found this: Women's bodies: Just like open-source software!. I found a Nipsey Russell of responses here: Dear sir: I believe your patriarchy is showing.

In conclusion, my favorite reaction was this: A Modest Proposal, by misia.

As we all know, many women long to give a swift kick in the balls to some male person or other. Yet all too often women are prohibited from doing so.

Sometimes this is due to our culture's repressive attitudes toward female violence or because of societal pressure for women to behave in "ladylike" and feminine ways. At times women must censor themselves from administering a good solid boot to the greater masculine crotch due to historically justified fear of reprisal. At yet other times it is nothing more or less than men's self-serving, self-glorifying attitudes toward their precious little patriarchal testicles that lead them to cravenly avoid supporting women's emotional and political expression.

All in all, we live in a culture that routinely prohibits women this useful and healthy outlet for the outrage that almost every women eventually feels as a result of living in a sexist patriarchal society. Indeed, we live in a culture which punishes women for even thinking or talking about expressing their rage in this way.

This must change, and men, who after all have an obligation to help redress thousands of years of unearned patriarchal privilege, also have a moral obligation to help solve this problem.

To this end, we propose a community-based Open Source Swift Kick to the Balls Project.

Like other Open Source projects, the Open Source Swift Kick to the Balls Project (OSSKBP) relies on a wide pool of volunteers working together for the common good.

The Project has very simple parameters and it basically works like this:

Men who are open to being given a swift kick in the balls need do nothing. Women will simply assume that any man not clearly indicating his position vis-a-vis being kicked in the balls with an approved OSSKBP badge or pin is open to being kicked in the balls, as any progressive, free-thinking, feminist man ought to be, by any woman who wishes to do so . . .

.

On Valentine's Day Eve

This morning I was feeling bummed because I am alone, as I have been for the past 26 years. And like Josh's mom, someone had the nerve to ask me what I had planned for tomorrow. As if I were going out on the town with the same imaginary person who had impregnated me with the food baby that my mother thought I was carrying at Christmas.

(I should really have a blog post to link to there. To make a long story short, last Christmas Eve my mother finally noticed my poochy tummy that I had been complaining to her about for a month. Then she said to me with a straight face, "Your belly is protruding. It looks like you're pregnant. Are you?")

Later I felt better when one of my friends emailed me today with positive, supportive thoughts. Also, other people in my were nice to me, and they made my day happy. :)

~

In unrelated news, I found this on Defamer: The Cosby Kids Reunite On Oprah, on Jezebel.

Quoi?! No one told me about this development. This was a total Black History Moment, and none of the advertising bothered to target me. Hello!

.

Same problem, different day.

I just had to click on the link on the Defamer home page: Book Report: Teenage Girls Are Seeing Red, on Jezebel.

Last night, there was a reading and party for Red, a collection of essays by teenage girls. So what exactly is going on with teenage girls today? They're pissed! Basically nothing's changed, 'cause we were some angst-y ass teens...

That seems cool, right? Except that every girl and woman featured in the photo gallery on the Jezebel page is white or some kind of light-skinned. Somehow it makes Gossip Girl look like the United Nations. Commenter Newlywed muses:

i guess brown girls don't have any place in pre-pubescent literary works...why isn't there even a token? :(

It's the same sentiment others have expressed during the debut of the book How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time. Well, I can't find them right now, but they were mentioned briefly in the book. Maybe it was in the Summer 2007 issue of Bitch magazine. This halifax_slasher person shares some of my views:

. . . Like all teen magazines, Sassy was forced to provide so-called complementary copy (Ed. note: read this article by Gloria Steinem) for its advertisers, shilling their products in alleged articles. And although Sassy prided itself in getting away from the "bland, blonde" cover models of other teen magazines, its cover models were beautiful skinny girls who were occasionally "ethnic." I suppose in the field of magazines this may seem progressive (considering Cosmo has something like one black cover model every decade or so), but it still teaches us what girls are for . . .

Most the content inside the magazine was also written for, by and about "indie" white people. The magazine wasn't as subversive and rebellious as the editors deluded themselves into believing it was. Similarly, it's great that the book Red is written by teenage girls; but if those girls are all white, and quite possibly all upper-middle class, it's not a progressive movement at all.
.

Good old-fashioned American values

in Switzerland:

Black Sheep, by Jill at Feministe.

Automatic for the sheeple, by The New Meat, via Feministe.

Swiss Fury at Foreigners Boiling Over, by Molly Moore, Washington Post Foreign Service, via Racialicious.

Clickety-click on the links for the anti-immigrant horror.

#

Back in the US of A:

Teen Boys Love Implants Almost As Much As They Hate Period Bloods, Reports Cosmo Girl! at Jezebel, via Feministe.

And, Just when you thought they couldn’t get any lower…, by Jill at Feministe, a story that I originally heard about this afternoon on The Randi Rhodes Show.

#

I wonder which blogs I will read and link to tomorrow.

Things that amused me today

Ha! Ha! Ha! I Can’t Believe How Funny This Sitcom Is!, by The Laugh Track from How I Met Your Mother, on The Onion.

Also from The Onion, No One Admits To Singing, Writing, Producing Nation's No. 1 Song.

Don't stick your tape to Pookie or Ray-Ray, by Ann, on Feministing.

Finally, a series of posts that made me frown, in order of appearance on Jezebel:

Here's Our Winner! 'Redbook' Shatters Our 'Faith' In Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God.

The Annotated Guide To Making Faith Hill 'Hot'.

Faith Hill's 'Redbook' Photoshop Chop: Why We're Pissed.

Happy reading!