mercuriosity, posts by tag: ♀ - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
04 February 2011 @ 11:27 pm
Why I will no longer be reading Penny Arcade. (See also Offended Is the Worst Thing to Be, and posts linked therein.)
I've been uncomfortable with the content of Penny Arcade plenty of times before. There are lots of reasons it's taken me this long to finally reach a point where I'm no longer willing to read the strip. First, it's just generally hard to break long-standing habits. But second, and more important in this case, it's particularly hard to break habits where to do so is to admit complicity in past wrongs. It's hard to excise the words "retarded" or "lame" from your vocabulary of insults because to do so is to admit that you have perpetuated harm in the past by using those words. It's hard for me to stop reading PA because to do so is to admit to all the times in the past that I've looked the other way.
It's also hard to give up something that one has derived a lot of enjoyment from. I've been a fan and loyal reader of PA for many years, since long before I had any awareness of feminism or rape culture. But complacency is not an excuse for complicity. And one benefit of being as "sensitive" as I've become since learning to Give A Shit is that I find it increasingly easy to give up sources of entertainment that have problematic content--because I find myself less and less entertained by them in the first place. This isn't a sign of my diminishing sense of humor; it's a sign of heightened standards.
After 10 years+ of reading every strip, I will no longer be reading Penny Arcade, and the only chagrin I feel about that decision is that it took this long for me to reach my limit.
[Note: I am so not interested in defending my decision or arguing about the merits of PA or rape jokes. If you've read, at minimum, the two posts linked above, and you still want to leave a comment that is defensive of PA, its creators, your own decision to keep reading, or whatevs, do us both a favor and DON'T.]
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31 January 2011 @ 08:20 pm
Re: H.R.3, the No
Taxpayer Funding for Abortion
Bodily Autonomy for Women Act:
Chipping Away at Roe...and the Definition of Rape
There are so many rape culture tropes being served here, I could frankly spend the entire day documenting the innumerable manifestations of misogynistic fuckery at work here.
But instead I'm going to focus on but one truly shocking aspect of this proposed legislation which probably won't get a whole lot of attention: The proposed law effectively, if not by design, gives veto control over terminating pregnancies resulting from rape to the rapist.
See also #dearjohn: No On 3, for things you can do to express your extreme displeasure with this proposed legislation.
Re: Egypt:
Washington's Sudden Embrace of Al Jazeera Won't Erase Past US Crimes Against the Network
For people who have followed Al Jazeera's history with the US, the fact that it is now perceived by the White House and the American public as a force for democracy and freedom is an ironic, some would say hypocritical, development. The contrast between Washington's posture toward al Jazeera from the Bush era to the Obama presidency could not be more stark.
Re: Puerto Rico:
Protests and Arrests Continue at the University of Puerto Rico
This is a struggle that has been going on for months with very little coverage in the U.S. media even though Puerto Rico is a colony of the U.S. I ask again, were this happening at a university in Indiana, would it be so ignored?
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07 January 2011 @ 05:44 pm
This article in the NYT, which reports on the findings of a study of the effect of women's tears on men's arousal levels, is a steaming pile of heterocentrist and gender essentialist claptrap.
The NYT is not alone; this oh-so-exciting story has been picked up on by just about every major news outlet, because it makes for GREAT HEADLINES. Here's a blog post which rounds up some of these headlines:
- Women’s tears are a real turn off for men, new research claims
- Women’s tears tank men’s libido
- In Women’s Tears, a Chemical That Says, ‘Not Tonight, Dear’
- Tears in Her Eyes: A Turnoff for Guys?
- A woman’s tears can cripple the male libido, new study finds Perhaps the best one is from MSNBC (of course!): Stop the waterworks, ladies. Crying Chicks aren’t sexy.
This is what passes for science reporting in our society. I would weep in despair, but that might turn off teh menz, and we can't have that.
I would also like to point out that while the popular media are definitely capable of ruining a story all by themselves, all too often, they receive help from the researchers' own interpretations of the results. From the NYT article:
"Chemical signaling is a form of language," said one of the researchers, Dr. Noam Sobel, a professor of neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. "Basically what we've found is the chemo-signaling word for 'no' — or at least 'not now.'"
[...]
Another thought, he said, is that the effect of tears evolved in part to coincide with menstrual cycles.
Isn't it funny how "thoughts" like this, which fit neatly into dominant cultural narratives about gendered behavior, are so often presented without the slightest shred of evidence? The only slight, refreshing whiff of common sense in the midst of this festering dung heap comes from Dr. Martha McClintock, who herself has studied pheromones and behavior:
"Oh, please," she said. "Do we know that women cry more often during menstruation?"
She said it was "premature to speculate about the evolutionary function" of chemo-signaling in tears, adding: "I have no doubt that it affected sexuality as they report, but I would be very surprised if it doesn’t turn out to affect other emotions in other contexts. Maybe it's affecting some deeper, more fundamental psychological process that drives the effect that they're reporting."
How refreshing! How reasonable! How--oh, I don't know--SCIENTIFIC. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for good news. Get back to your crying, woman, let the men talk about gendered behavior:
[Dr. Robert Provine, psychologist/neuroscientist at UMD:] "That tears are de-arousing would not be a surprise to most men. I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than go see a tear-jerker."
Because he's a MAN, get it? Ha. Ha. Ha. Why aren't you laughing??
A thought: If this is the best we can expect from our scientists, is it really any surprise we don't expect more from our science reporting?
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08 November 2009 @ 10:49 pm
Guys, can we talk about Gabourey Sidibe for a moment??
The more I read about this girl, the more I love her.
"They try to paint the picture that I was this downtrodden, ugly girl who was unpopular in school and in life, and then I got this role and now I’m awesome," says the actress. "But the truth is that I've been awesome, and then I got this role."
(Skip the annoying comments from the director about it being "bizarre" that she should be comfortable in her body, WTF.)
“I think people look at me and don’t expect much. Even though, I expect a whole lot.”
And how awesome is this picture? (From an interview by her costar, Mo'Nique; you can also see Sidibe's audition tape and a trailer for the film at that link.)
She is just so kickass and full of confidence, and the fact that this totally flies in the face of everyone's expectations (à la Susan Boyle?) fills me with a mean sort of glee.
I really, really want to see this film, but based on the effect the trailer had on me, I'm fairly certain I'd make a big embarrassing mess out of myself in the theater. I'll have to go with someone who's tolerant of my used tissues piling up around their feet.
06 October 2009 @ 02:29 pm
Sexual violence against women is systemically used as a tool of political suppression. (In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women Are Prey)
It costs more to be poor. (Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees)
(*Note: I'm not being sarcastic about the NYT writing about these topics; they're definitely news_worthy_, they're just not new to anyone who's been paying attention.)
10 September 2009 @ 05:36 pm
I just saw an ad for a movie called Sorority Row. Even though it's just a newspaper ad, just still pictures, I could tell at a glance that it was yet more Hollywood horror porn. Terrified-looking young women, eyeliner and mascara streaking down their beautiful faces, pink-glossed lips stretched open in silent, frozen screams. How is this considered "just" a horror movie? How is it that a movie containing, say, consensual sex between adults will receive exactly the same rating as a movie that sexualizes and sensationalizes slicing and dicing of women?
what the fuck what the fuck what the fuuuuuck
I am so sick of this shit. And I feel like I say that too much, but sometimes there's just nothing else to say when images keep punching me in the face.
ETA: We got internet set up this morning, and I totally meant to post a long, contentful update instead of explosive rage. Just had to get the throwing up out of the way; real update will come later.
There's an excellent discussion of rape, and the responsibility men have to fight it in 
cereta's journal. The comments are formidable, and I haven't read them all, but I felt compelled to toss in my two cents anyway.
rachelmanija added a list of rape myths for men (and women) to check their thought patterns against. Unfortunately, it got jumped on by a few "how dare you say those heinous things about men!!!!111" commenters, and now I kind of want to punch things.
Current Music: Nina Simone, "Feelin' Good"
Lovelorn Psychotic, Dangerously Violent Iraqi Men Call on a Wartime Skill
Fixed that for you, NYT.
Since it's apparently a day for things I'm sick of, here's another one: the characterization of men who commit violence against women as "heartbroken" or "spurned suitors" instead of the dangerous, violent criminals they are.
I've been thinking of home a lot these past few days. I kind of wish I wouldn't. Because I'm doing OK at the moment, I'm not unhappy here--but I think of home and get pangs all the same. It isn't fair.
And while we're on the subject of things that make me cry: an essay. A gynecologist recounts cases of fixing the damage from attempted abortions before Roe vs. Wade.
Tags: ♀
Current Music: Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Ordinary Town