were not Caylee. Neither were the children described in this post.
Signal Boost: CeCe needs books!
Signal Boost: Cast your vote for Plant a Row!
Signal Boost: The Florida Great Pyr Rescue has some dogs available.
Signal Boost: Pablo Wapsi needs some help!
SIGNAL BOOST: FLY MY PRETTIES! DEFEND JANE YOLEN!
Queer youth beaten to death.
Is it bad that this makes me want to watch Pretty Little Liars?
Oh sweet merciful Jesus…!!! SLAVE EARRINGS?
More on Libya.
NO TOUCHING.
We need to train more abortion providers.
Images of kids with some neat historical context.
From MC:
I know you guys already linked to the documentary “My big breasts and me”, but I think you haven’t linked to the MTV version “I don’t like my large breasts”:
http://www.mtv.com/shows/
While I prefer the first one, I found it very helpful that the second mentioned that there are stores with clothes for different cup sizes.
And for something else completely: Circumstance!
http://www.takepart.com/
That movie? It looks AMAZING.
From Kim:
Hello, I came across these today, one is a forum topic asking male gamers who choose to play female characters to discuss why they do so, after the first few comments with the typical answer (staring at a girl’s ass is preferable to staring at a guy’s) it starts to get
really interesting:
http://www.escapistmagazine.
“When playing as a male avatar, I almost always project myself through them. Even if I make a middle aged heavily scarred black man, I still project my own personality into them and it can be difficult to do especially evil things. I keep thinking “What would I do?”
But when playing as a female, I feel much more disconnected from my avatar, and feels as if she is her own character who makes her own decisions. In this case, it’s much easier for me to think “What would SHE do?” “
The second link is a brief article regarding relationships in games, it manages to quickly touch on objectification, fridge women, and
token female characters. I was quite impressed with how much Yahtzee managed to pack into this article considering how brief it is:
“There are the games that depict the commencement of a relationship, but this is rarely shown as anything other than an appropriate ”reward” for the hero’s actions, which is just objectifying the love interest again. Rarely is time given to the compatibility of feelings between the two or to explore the feasibility of a partnership in the long term.”
Interesting link on geek girls and self objectification… not a lot of talk about race, tho.
What’s missing from “pro-feminist” hip hop? Swagger, apparently.
How to write about aboriginal Australia.
LGBT couples and Star Wars
And then it got weird.
I forgot to say this yesterday, but….
RIP Aaliyah.
More on rape and the military
{ 56 comments… read them below or add one }
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… were not Caylee.
*Shivers* I don’t know what else to say.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
SunlessNick,
This. I read it last night and had a pit in my stomach for a LONG time after that.
sbg(Quote) (Reply)
I just made a donation to the Romona Moore legal fund on behalf of the site. I also asked that they let us know if there’s anything we can do to provide some publicity or anything.
The NYPD aided and abetted a serial killer. People think that friend of Sherrice Iverson’s rapist/killer was horrible for not fulfilling a moral duty to prevent her death or at least report it. But the cops have both a legal and moral duty to investigate crimes, and look what they did. Assholes.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
The Good Men Project is such a failure boat. I had no idea that Drake was so pro-feminist since the only song of his I have on my iPod is about him not planning to call any of the girls he sweet-talks at mall meet-and-greets. Seems kinda like jerk-face behavior.
Somebody in the comments section over there also thinks Kanye is sexist but pro-feminist. How does that work?
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
I had to stop reading the “not Caylee” article. How truly sickening. Best wishes for the family and I hope their lawsuit succeeds. It really says something about our society when the people supposed to protect all of us turn their backs on some of us.
I’m not about to wade in there to check this theory, but I’ve found that many people think feminist = sexist against men. Using that definition, Kanye would be sexist against two sexes.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
LOL! So would that make him a straight-up, across-the-board sexist/misanthrope?
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
They might think he doesn’t like “weak” or “bad” women — he’s pretty critical in his twitter feed about women who sleep around, women who have kids and expect child support from their partner, etc etc. He DOES appear to like and support “exceptional females” like Katy Perry (who he’s collaborated with and who I wrote about here: http://thehathorlegacy.com/one-of-the-boys-katy-perry/) and Nicki Minaj (who he’s also colloborated with and who others have written on as well: http://www.racialicious.com/2010/04/08/quoted-menda-francois-on-nicki-minaj-and-feminist-contradictions-in-hardcore-female-rap/ )
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
I think this is one of the places stuff like the Spotlight On… series has great potential for. We can’t do much besides donate and raise their profile, ya know?
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
This is an aside but I’d also like to add that when I heard the phrase “pro-feminist hip-hop” I was expecting to read something about feminist women hip hop artists and some dork complaining that they’re not into macho posturing bullshit to be taken seriously.
Instead I got a guy basically saying “because Drake doesn’t spew explicitly misogynist garbage like ‘I done raped the game young/you could call it statutory’ and ‘I stuck my dick inside this life until that bitch came’[/gives Kanye the side-eye] that makes him pro-feminist…and I still don’t like him ‘cuz he’s not enough into macho posturing bullshit.”
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Those Casey links are just…I don’t even. I don’t know how anyone can feel protected by the police when there are so many horrifying stories about them and women civilians of any race, black men…it would be nice to, for once, go a single week without hearing a story like that.
Also, as a kid I ADORED Jane Yolen! The Pit Dragon trilogy was my favorite, to the point where I emailed her to beg her to write a fourth and giving her an “idea” for it–which was, as you may imagine, really terrible since I was like nine. She responded very patiently, though.
Thank you for the links!
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
Maria,
Right. I think this story should be a Spotlight On post.
On NPR today, someone with the LAPD was talking about some program they’re doing to help show kids in marginalized neighborhoods that the police are there for them (I think? didn’t hear it from the start). A caller – a black lady – said that she knew several young black men who were husbands, fathers, employed, and had never been in trouble with the law. Except, somehow in their teen years, they were pegged by LAPD cops as gang-bangers. The police have harassed them continuously ever since. The most recent incident occurred when one of them was having a barbecue in the front yard for his child’s birthday, and a cop stopped by and asked “how dare you” have a barbecue in the front yard. The man from LAPD said that either the men should make a complaint to the police – or the caller could. Or if they didn’t trust the police, to call the Inspector General (not sure who that is, I think they addressed it before I tuned in).
Coming on top of the Romona Moore story, all I could think was: if you’re white, you really don’t live on the same planet as black Americans do. You hear about the horrible race crimes, but you don’t always hear the daily, less dramatic hassles that happen to people of different colors from you, or different classes, etc. Getting followed by security guards in shops. Getting pulled over for being in certain neighborhoods after dark.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
When you say “in trouble with the law”, do you mean they’ve never committed a crime? Because I thought the phrase meant never in trouble with the police and it sounds like they have quite a few problems with the police.
Of course, I come from a background that does not have the luxury of automatically assuming the cops are on the side of angels, so hearing that one is in trouble with the police does not have the same connotations of guilt to my mind that I’ve observed in others.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
I can’t speak for Jennifer Kesler, but as a middle class white person, I would definitely interpret the phrase “in trouble with the law” to mean “has done something criminal”. I think the difference in our interpretations pretty clearly demonstrates just who is being protected by the police.
I couldn’t finish the first story in one go, though I did make myself wade through it in the end. That’s just…sick. And I don’t just mean the murderers.
Jaynie(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
“Trouble with the law” was the caller’s phrase. It’s my experience that most people, including those who have the least reason to trust police, use that phrase to mean “arrested/investigated/suspected.” This usage may indeed come from a privileged perspective, but I think the rather vague phrase has almost become like a euphemism or idiom for being investigated by police for specific crimes. That’s not the case in this instance: the police don’t seem to have any crime to connect these guys to, yet they’re just sure they’ve done, uh, something, or are going to do something, or something. The caller seemed to be implying these men had done not one thing to give the police that impression.
Other than being black, of course, and maybe growing up in a particular neighborhood or something.
A side note which might shed some light: there was a recent hunger strike in Cali prisons by men kept in SHUs (solitary housing units) in what they claim were inhumane conditions. You got into a SHU by having the contact info of a gang member in your address book, or being in ANY WAY AT ALL, according to the prison, associated with a gang member. The only way out of a SHU and back into the general population was to “renounce” the gang by ratting them out. Which is (a) really dangerous if you know anything worth talking about, since these gangs have gotten to prisoners before and (b) impossible if you don’t really know anything and only had that name via a friend of a friend of a girlfriend of an uncle. The paranoia level of the prisons came across as seriously bizarre. After the strike ended (by the prisoners being carted off and fed intravenously – they carried it on for WEEKS), the prisons said they MIGHT start requiring both gang affiliation AND actually doing something wrong before putting someone in the SHU. Meaning, if you have a gang affiliation AND stab someone in the cafeteria, you go to the SHU.
So, is law enforcement in California in general so concerned about gangs that they might hassle anyone who’s ever so much as unwittingly given street directions to a gang member? My guess is these young men the caller was talking about had perhaps known some gang members as teens – in some neighborhoods and schools, I gather it’s difficult NOT to have any associations with gang members. But if that’s all the cops have – that and skin color – then we have a problem.
And I think we do have a problem. I… am not prepared to discuss my reasons for saying this, as they’re vague and totally based on senses of things I can’t explain… but I think race relations in L.A. might be heading toward one of their infamous boiling points again. And I do think the establishment is a very big part of that problem.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
That post about the Romona Moore Defense Fund…I hadn’t even heard about it until now. Thank you. I’m trying to get the word out on tumblr: http://ebbywaffle.tumblr.com/post/9479649849/spread-the-word-romona-moore-legal-defense-fund
Casey,
I know, right? I was all excited about pro-women rappers out there and all I got was ‘NEEDS MORE SWAGGER’ out of it. And also, though Drake doesn’t do a lot of the mainstream stuff(not as much as others anyways) I don’t know how anyone could fix their fingers to even type that he’s ‘pro-feminist’. I could be missing something, however.
Ebb(Quote) (Reply)
While I laughed for a long time at the Gaddafi (Qaddafi?) and Condoleezza Rice article, I can’t help but wonder about how everyone’s framing the story. Every article I’ve seen frames it as if it’s just another one of those odd stories, just something to laugh about for the day, no big deal. Yet, I have a stinking suspicion that had she been a white woman, there would have been absolute OUTRAGE.
Maybe I’m just paranoid. While it *is* an awkward situation, it really isn’t that big of a deal.
Sue(Quote) (Reply)
Sue,
I once received a letter from a man I exchanged no more than five words with the whole time he lived where I worked, filled with all sorts of weird things like him hoping I enjoyed the clothes he left for me in his room, how much he missed seeing me and most especially my glasses, how he was but one member in my fandom, now from afar.
It was … VERY disconcerting. Now times that a million and I’d imagine that’s how Condoleezza might feel. I think there’d still be an element of OMGWHATLOL to it if it were a prominent white woman, but yes, probably outrage as well.
sbg(Quote) (Reply)
I appreciate Kim’s link to that “Why do you male gamers play as female characters?” thread but I just couldn’t wade through all the “HURR DURR DAT ASS” comments to get through anything of potential substance, especially when I stumbled across this comment only 2 or three pages in…
aaaaaand I’m out. Sorry.
I was also surprised at how good Yahtzee’s article was since his “bitter dumped guy” misogyny from his Sims review is what turned me off of ever watching him again then again that was like a year or two ago, maybe I should give him another shot.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
The fact that the Ramona Moore Legal Defense Fund needs to exist is disgraceful. The details behind it, and the situation in Cleveland, are just horrific. I’m having trouble even processing that these events happened, let alone the negligent behavior of the authorities. Thank you so much for telling us about it. I’m going to spread the word on my own social networks.
Pretty Little Liars is one of my guilty pleasure shows. I’ve nicknamed it “Desperate High-Schoolers” because it’s so ridiculously melodramatic, but I can’t seem to stop watching because it’s so darn entertaining. The comment thread at AfterEllen makes a really good point, though. The group who got General Mills to pull their sponsorship from the show are only concerned with its positive portrayal of teenage lesbians. They completely overlook the fact that other characters have: committed murder, committed adultery, lied to police, engaged in statutory rape, broken doctor-patient confidentiality, engaged in stalking and harassment, and promoted underage drinking. ::facepalm:: Interestingly enough, a couple of the commenters wrote to CM and got a response indicating they’d actually pulled their ads because of the stalking and age-inappropriate relationships. That seems like a much better reason (to me anyway) for the parent company of Betty Crocker and Pilsbury. It sounds like the FFA is twisting GM’s decision to suit their own purposes.
Robin(Quote) (Reply)
Just thought this might be interesting as a sort of counterpart to the guys playing as girls thing; a thread on the Escapist asking girls if and why they pretend to be guys online.
Most of the responses seem, almost inevitably, to be ‘Yes, to avoid harassment’. One person put up a video of her or someone else being harassed while playing TF2, and it’s just icky. ._.
(Not sure how links and such work here, so I’m just using HTML.)
SarahSyna(Quote) (Reply)
Link here
Crap, I buggered up the HTML.
SarahSyna(Quote) (Reply)
This post really irritated me, mostly because a woman trying to start a “girls” only clan with no real “political affiliation” or “social ideology” is what caused the Starcraft 2 snafu in the first place (and who the hell are the Silicone Sisters?).
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Casey,
According to Google, Silicon Sisters (note the lack of an e) are the first female owned and run game studio in Canada. They apparently make tween and teen games. I have never heard of them.
SarahSyna(Quote) (Reply)
SarahSyna,
Oh I see! I googled the PROPERLY SPELLED Silicon Sisters and it sounds really cool…however, the only game I could find on there was a tarot card playing thing, which makes me think they only do stuff like dress-up games and whatnot (not that there’s anything WRONG with that but pretty much every girl-centric game site on the web is about dating or playing dress-up or cooking or horoscopes).
And now that I know what SS really is, the undercurrent of oblivious misogyny in that post I quoted is quite unnerving.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Just read the LGBT Star Wars article. Bullshit there’s no queerness in Star Wars. They can have interspecies romance and even frickin’ twincest (yes, in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye Luke and Leia flirt openly) but gawd forbid two men get together. Whatever. 12yo me wanted to be a Jedi Knight despite no female Jedi, so she probably wouldn’t have changed her mind because there aren’t any queer Jedi. Maybe when they make the next trilogy for my children’s generation they’ll throw a few queers into the background like they did for women in the prequel trilogy.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
I’d be shocked. It didn’t even occur to Lucas to do something other than a traditional 20th century American wedding in #2. He’s just not one for thinking outside the box.
Also, the fandom enjoyed (ha!) a hostile takeover by fundamentalist Christians intent on silencing ANY fanfic references to LGBT and atheism and whatever else offended them, and Lucas’ use of a faux-science virgin birth for Anakin suggests to me that he didn’t have any problem with the direction they chose to take.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
These people don’t understand how fanfic works, apparently. In my own fanon, there have always been multitudes of female Jedi. That’s the whole point of fanfic, personalizing the universe and fixing what problems you see. Besides which – atheism? Really? The only religion in the actual movies is the Force, which is on the atheist side of deism. “Trust the non-sentient field of magic, oh yeah and a couple of ghosts” is pretty damn close. Actually, I take that back: “a-theism” = no god(s), which there aren’t, so de facto Star Wars is atheistic.
Although now I am cracking up at the vision of Jesus Christ as Darth Vader.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
Oh, no, they got how it worked. The problem was Lucas. Lucasfilm issued tons of Cease & Desist orders to fanfic authors from the 70s to the 90s, even when they clearly weren’t making money. I was on a GEnie board (anyone remember those?) where everyone was in character – some using film characters, others using their own originals – and we were all hanging out in the cantina, where no one was allowed to be evil or good (neutral territory). It was hilarious: characters were forming bands, for pete’s sake. And then GEnie for the C&D from Lucasfilm: it was okay, so long as we didn’t use original characters.
Finally, the US Supreme Court ruled that as long as fanfic authors didn’t profit, and didn’t cause a loss to the creators, it was okay. Lucasfilm let up after that, but the forum I linked to in my last comment did not. They felt homosexuality was disrespectful to Lucas’ vision. It got kind of absurd after TPM came out, because some people assumed if it wasn’t weird for Padme to run a planet at age 13, then it couldn’t be too weird if she was having sex. So they’d write stories like this, thinking they were being very true to Lucas’ vision (and I can’t really argue with them!), and get in trouble with the forum owners. As for atheism, I wasn’t clear: I guess it was okay in fanfic, but if YOU said that you were an atheist, you could get banned from the forum. That eventually got better in the 2000s, after they apparently came to understand that destroying all of Christendom was actually not the only conceivable motive one might have for stating one’s atheistic stance.
Sorry. I have a long, complicated relationship with SW and Lucas. It was love-hate for many years, and then the prequels came out and the love died.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
Yeah, I hear you. Star Wars was a huge part of my childhood (I wasn’t around when they were first released, but they were some of the few pop culture films allowed past the homeschooling screen), but as an adult I see so many flaws. The only way I can keep loving it is to maintain a personal canon (where Leia has just as much right to be the last/first of the Jedi as Luke does) and keep that divorced from Lucas’ canon. Because there’s no way I could love Lucas’ vision.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Glad to see I’m not the only one who finds Lucas’s direction he took Star Wars in retrograde and weirdly conservative.
Science fiction and fantasy, people! It doesn’t HAVE to resemble stereotypical-1950′s America!! Think outside the box!
Jennifer Kesler,
The virgin birth thing killed me. Really? Really?!? It would have been so much more powerful if Anakin’s father had died or left them. Or maybe if Anakin was the product of rape because HIS MOTHER WAS A SLAVE and so was Anakin and Lucas’s glossing over that fact just irked me. “Gee whiz, mister, I’m the cutest, happiest slave-moppet ever!” -Anakin
Lucas has no idea about the harsh realities of slavery so his decision to make them slaves just smacked of “well, I need to give them the poorest most downtrodden backstory I can think of. BAM, slavery!”
I could write a whole book on how Lucas flubbed the whole Anakin arc, though. Sweet Space Jesus, it was terrible. It’s like something I would have written in freshman year of high school.
JT(Quote) (Reply)
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