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I haven't written anything about the election for a while- and by election I do of course mean the democratic primary. In short, I'm getting kind of sick of it. You probably are too. Admit it. And the worst thing is we all have six more months of the longest presidential election in American history before the fate of our nation is decided. Now don't get me wrong; I am not trying to negate the importance of this contest. I am just 1) getting impatient waiting for this ass hat to leave, and 2) kind of bored. Not much new is being said (with this notable exception)- I feel like we are in a stale mate. And the longer it continues, the more we lose focus on what should be everyone's main goal- beating McCain. But enough of this self-indulgent rant.
Hillary won West Virginia, meaning we have who knows how much longer of this bickering, which is only weakening the party. Total bummer, in other words. This swing-state, electoral college crap seems so nonsensical at times. Why can't we just rely on the popular vote? And that ends my two cents on the latest in primary happenings.
This is a great news piece. Apparently a high school in Texas wants to ban a German text book because there are some naked ladies in the background of one photo. Heaven forbid we teach our kids about other cultures that don't have an eerily repressive view of sexuality!
There was so much uproar from parents who are upset that their kids saw a tiny image of... what? a nipple? maybe the mons pubis? that the school board is considering banning the book. If they decide to keep the German texts in circulation, they plan on covering the offending photos with stickers in order to censor the naughty bits. Seriously.
There are so many problems with this bizarre little piece, I don't even know where to begin! A few thoughts:
1. If any of these Texan high school students haven't seen a picture of a naked woman (at least in pictures), we should be worried. The human body is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about- especially naked women.
2. What kind of message is this sending to female students? That their bodies are dirty and should be hidden. There's a healthy message for today's young women!
3. Do parents and school officials really believe that this tiny little text book photo is going to inspire their teens to go out and have lots of unprotected sex? I think the repercussions of censoring this image are far less healthy than allowing teen-aged people to see some side boob.
4. When a class of German students discovered the image in class, they began giggling uncomfortably. Methinks the school board should be worrying more about health class (read: comprehensive sex education) and less about German class.
Geez, only in Texas, right? This story brings to mind an absolutely classic David Cross bit (the only bald man I'll ever love) about former attorney general John Ashcroft. When Ashcroft was in the justice department, he insisted on covering up the supple, stone breasts of a naked Lady Justice. "Dirty titties! You should be ashamed of those things- put cloth on them!"
Via Jezebel.
I only scored two out of five correct. Test your knowledge here!
. . . and check out the creepy comment under the post titled "An Open Letter to Johnny Vegas." Pulling up a woman's skirt and touching her underneath after she repeatedly tells you not to is NOT sexual assault? I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from someone who considers the stunt funny. Mick's creepy comment is just another example of the prevalence of the rape culture, and the persistent need for feminism.
In an effort to increase traffic to the blog, I've been trying to add links to share posts on different media. First up? Digg it! If you like what you read, go on and digg it!
PS- If anyone knows how to make the button smaller, leave tips on comments. I'm still learning how to navigate all this tech stuff.
This story in today's NY Times is promising. However, we are still not doing enough as a nation to curb emissions. Let's take the necessary next step and outlaw SUVs and other cars with terrible fuel standards!
Yeah, I have never heard of him either. But this story caught my eye, and I became outraged. So outraged, in fact, that I decided to write him a letter and tell him that I think he's a disgusting human being. What drives me to have such an extreme hatred of some second rate British comedian of whom I have never heard, you might ask. Apparently "Vegas" sexually assaulted a nineteen-year-old woman on stag- and called it a joke. Here's a link to the Guardian post where it was first reported (Wikipedia credits it as such, for what that's worth).
Anyways, back to this letter: Five minutes of google and MySpace searching yielded no address or website to which I could send Johnny Vegas my thoughts about his little joke. Not wanting to waste any more time on it, I decided that posting it here would suffice. Here goes:
Mr. Vegas;
Today, I read about your recent comedy act, where you had six audience members carry a young woman (barely legal, at eighteen or nineteen) on to the stage, where you fondled her breasts, pulled up her skirt, and fingered her through her underwear. Mr. Vegas, you are a rapist and it is a travesty on part of the British legal system that you are not being prosecuted. I am disturbed beyond words that anyone would consider the public sexual assault of a young woman to be comedic. You should be black-balled for life- for the good of the public (actually, you should spend some time in jail). I think you are scum.
Sincerely,
EW
According to Feministing.com (my favorite feminist news source), last week was Reproductive Justice Week of Action. Lately, I have been doing some work in the field of reproductive justice. OWI is casually working with Choice USA, a national reproductive rights action group founded by Gloria Steinem. We’re participating in a campaign to lower the price of birth control on college campuses. Last week we collected another hundred or so petition signatures, and educated many more students about the new law that is responsible for the price hike.
I am also part of an advisory committee that is helping to plan Choice USA’s national conference. In July, Choice is hosting a four-day training workshop and membership conference focusing on reproductive justice. Through participating in the advisory committee, I recently got a gig on their blog team, Choice Words. My focus in women’s studies is human sexuality, so I am going to do an advice column on sexual health.
Although my career right now is in politics, I am glad to have an opportunity to advocate on behalf of reproductive justice. Not enough people realize the fragile state of reproductive freedom in America; it is important to continue fighting to protect these rights.
Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary last week. I’m rather disappointed about in her victory for several reasons. First and foremost, the longer this bitter contest continues, the more it will continue to divide people. Obviously, supporters on both sides continue to grow more impassioned. But beyond that there is a rift in the feminist community between second wave Hillary supporters and third wave Obama supporters. I think that the longer we go without a candidate, the harder it will be to heal the rift. Will we repeat the mistakes of 1968 and wind up with McCain in the house?
Here’s another thing that concerns me: in just about two weeks, I will begin working on the campaign trail. I will be running a canvassing office in Chicago, working to promote progressive candidates at the state and national levels. Since the progressive candidate is still up in the air, we will have to begin simply arguing against McCain. Personally, I would rather run a campaign in favor of someone, focusing on her positives, than run one against an individual, focusing on her negatives. I have done canvassing and call center work on congressional and gubernatorial elections for the last two years, and one theme that I hear often is how disillusioned the average American is with negative campaigning. Running a campaign against McCain and not in favor of Obama or Clinton will likely decrease our support. Kerry ran as the anti-Republican candidate in 2004, and I believe it ultimately harmed him.
Finally, I think that based on voter trends over the last two presidential elections, the youth vote is absolutely crucial to winning the presidency. Youth are mobilized like never before- and behind the charismatic junior senator from Illinois. If Clinton takes the nomination in a coup at convention, many of these youth are going to be disenfranchised, probably resulting in reduced support for the democratic candidate. Again, this feeds my nagging suspicion that we will not win back the White House is Clinton gets the nomination.
Obama is still ahead in delegates- and he is winning substantially by total number of votes. We were all outraged in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote but not the presidency. By that logic, shouldn’t Obama get our nomination? Ultimately, I believe that we need to focus our energy, and keep our eyes on the prize- winning back the White House. Although I am just an amateur pundit, I really think that Obaba is the candidate most likely to win that prize.
*As a side note, I am currently about halfway through Obama's early memoirs, Dreams from my Father. I think it's an honest, interesting look at race relations in the United States.
Other suggested reading on the topic:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith, and Caucasia, by Danzy Senna.
Okay. I realize that I have been neglectful of the ol' blog lately, but it's been a hectic time. Graduation is just around the corner, which means that finals week is slowly descending over Bowling Green. AND I am moving out of state two days after graduation. AND I had three papers due this week (two down, one to go), including one really long one. AND I want to spend time with my friends before I leave. In other words, I've been really, really busy. But I do have some interesting topics lined up, as well as some good news!
Here's something I've been thinking about lately: I wrote a term paper for Society and the Environment (which I may or may not link to) about media representation of environmentalists. Yeah, I'm that dorky. Anyways, it included a media analysis of one of my all-time favorite shows: Weeds. I don't watch a lot of television- we only have movies at my house (which is different; film and television are very different mediums, in my opinion). But Weeds is *as good as* Arrested Development. And that is the highest praise I can give a situation comedy.
A brief summary: Nancy Botwin is a widowed mother of two teen boys who starts selling marijuana after her husband dies unexpectedly. She does fairly well, and soon begins growing her own strand with the help of her partner (and possible new love interest!), Conrad. She is helped by a quirky band of middle-aged male professionals who, coincidentally, all hit the ganj (including a brilliantly cast Kevin Nealon as her shady accountant/ city councilman!).
Not only is Weeds brilliantly done, I think it is a totally progressive show as well. First off, Agrestic is an eco-friendly community. Nancy drives a Prius, as does the gangsta U-Turn. She is also the head of the healthy children committee for the Agrestic PTA, where we see her arguing in favor of organic foods and juices.
Second point, the show features diverse characters. I am fairly certain that they feature the youngest openly gay character in television history; Nancy's rival, the evil Celia, has a twelve year old lesbian daughter. Isabelle is also the spokesmodel for "Huskeroo," a line of plus-sized clothes for prepubescent girls with a very fat-positive marketing campaign. (Side note: in the third season, Isabelle develops a friendship with Shane, Nancy's younger son. The relationship that ensues is probably the best writing for children I've ever seen). Silas, Nancy's elder son, has a deaf girlfriend for nearly two seasons as well. I think Andy, the wacky uncle, also loses some toes, now that I think about it (which becomes his ticket into the porn industry). Additionally, Shane, the younger son, is super liberal and expresses his anti-American sentiments during uber-religious summer school classes.
Third point, Nancy is a successful female in a male dominated industry. And she's totally bad-ass. I could keep poorly re-enacting stories and sub-plots, but you should just watch the show.
*Here's the good news: I am going to start blogging over at Choice USA's blog, Choice Words! I'm totally excited for the opportunity to join Choice's blog team (which, coincidentally, includes my good friend and fellow BG feminist Hannah). I'll be blogging primarily about sexual health and I'd really like to do a sex advice column eventually, so if you have any related questions be sure to send them my way.
