Okay, this here demonstrates that women’s privacy is never guaranteed. Seriously, just don’t wear a skirt in public. Karnythia discusses why this is especially pertinent to women of color.
This article puts Van Jones’ resignation in some kind of context. SAD FACE.
To be honest, I don’t care how you feel about the music Kanye West, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift produce. This incident, however, demonstrates Kanye’s male privilege, Beyonce’s class, and Taylor’s grace. His apology was bogus, and the fact that he didn’t even stay through the whole ceremony shows how rude he is. I can’t imagine getting the first major award of my career and having someone do that, and then do a fake apology where they still insinuate I should not have won it.
Environmentalism meets entrepeneurism in Venezuela.
Bookfruits is looking for submissions for an anthology on sex work! [ETA: Bookfruits is now Lifting Voices!]
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
His apology was bogus
Yeah, that first one was and he was probably drunk when he wrote it. But he took that one down, put up another on his blog, apologized on the Jay Leno show, and called her to apologize.
and the fact that he didn’t even stay through the whole ceremony shows how rude he is.
He didn’t stay because MTV kicked him out.
To be clear, I’m not saying that Kanye is not an asshole (clearly he was), just that you seem to be a bit behind in the news cycle.
wright(Quote) (Reply)
“Seriously, just don’t wear a skirt in public”
And, of course, guess what’s part of the dress code in multiple offices and part of school uniforms!
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
I didn’t know about MTV escorting him out. Did you see these links?
http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/09/14/kanye-west-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you/
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/09/16/why-we-love-to-hate-kanye-black-middle-class-blues/
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/09/14/an-open-letter-to-kanye-west/
Maria V.(Quote) (Reply)
Yup, I and my friends thought the same thing, we figured it was all a set up by Kanye West in order to make someone’s career grow or prevent from going down – that’s Hollywood for you!!! Nothing is ever real expect maybe for some “real life” shows/reality shows, but even those, I’m sure, are edited to a certain extent.
jcjude(Quote) (Reply)
I’ve always found the “upskirt photography” thing really creepy. Really, really fucking creepy.
(That’s all. I wish I had some incisive comment or startling insight, but I got nothin’.)
Pocket Nerd(Quote) (Reply)
Some from this week’s Observer:
- Use of average sized women at London fashion week (w/ commentary), and plans for a fashion show without models: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/20/london-fashion-week-mark-fast http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/20/skinny-models-ica-fashion-show
And there’s a resurgance in Italian feminism: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/20/berlusconi-italian-women-backlash
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
Also remembered two more from the Observer: one columnist explaining why celebrity Katie “Jordan” Price doesn’t want to name her rapist and why women in general don’t; and another criticising middle-and-upper class households for exploiting female migrant labour (both legal and illegal).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/20/katie-price-barbara-ellen-comment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/20/nick-cohen-baroness-scotland
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
Additional (dunno if this can be edited into the last post): the Cohen editorial does have an undercurrent of “your problems aren’t important compared to THESE ones, professional women!”. But the stuff about exploitation of vulnerable women did seem important to bring up.
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
Eek! The site suddenly reformatted while I was catching up with comments! I have 4 problems with it:
Having 2 sidebars that are both on the same side makes it look unbalanced to me.
The mark by comments indicating which one’s I’ve read (i.e. previously loaded on this computer within cookie lifespan) has disappeared.
The font on comments, and in this box, is too small.
Maybe it was like that already and I didn’t notice, but the apostrophes and quote marks in jcjude’s comment are mangled.
Legible Susan(Quote) (Reply)
Oh, and also have a news story about the British Fantasy Society bringing out a book of horror writer interviews that had no female authors in it… and then apologising completely for “blindness” and “lazy sexism” when people pointed out this was dodgy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/22/horror-sexism-fantasy-society
I cannot think of ANY previous time where something like this has happened in publishing, got reported on blogs, and the people responsible said “you’re absolutely right, it was sexist”. I wonder if we’ll ever see its like again?
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
Susan, in the future, please email me your thoughts on the layout rather than posting them in comments where they are not relevant to the topic. I have enlarged the comment box font and replaced the read comments indicator boxes. Thanks for the feedback!
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
On Kanye, I highly recommend Melissa @ Shakesville’s piece:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/09/kanye-west-ruins-vmas-for-two.html
She makes a good point about the cost to Beyonce.
Zahra(Quote) (Reply)