Update, 1/22/09:

Now that this post is making the rounds (which is to say, a few bloggers have mentioned it – lolz on me!), I want to make the following clarifications:

1) As I said at Change.org, I don’t think Obama is a misogynist. In calling his “girly dog” remark sexist, I’m not grouping him with hardcore misogynists like Ann Coulter, Joe Francis, Rick Warren and the like. Rather, I think that Obama occasionally engages in the sort of casual, softcore sexism that’s all too common among men (and women!) who have been raised in a culture steeped in misogyny. An occasional slip is understandable and excusable – after all, we’re all socialized with certain prejudices, which we have to unlearn – but only if you’re willing to recognize, apologize and learn from it.

Here, Mrs. Obama offered her husband several opportunities to reconsider his comments – and he didn’t. To me, his failure to recognize how this gendered stereotype might offend his wife and daughters is worse than the comments themselves.

2) Upon re-reading the post, I see that I conflated “small dogs” with “girly dogs” – my bad! While I think there’s a strong correlation between a dog’s size and his/her perceived “girly”-ness, there are exceptions. The standard poodle, for example, is a larger breed, but might be considered “girly,” inasmuch as it’s “high maintenance” (i.e., is rather well groomed). “Girly doesn’t necessarily equal “small,” but the two are somewhat related.

Nor do I have a problem with Obama preferring a large dog; indeed, as some have pointed out, large dogs are overrepresented in shelters, at least in some areas of the country, and thus it might do more good for Obama to adopt a large breed. That’s fine by me – but he can do so without denigrating “girly” dogs (and, by extension, actual girls and women).

3) Enumerating the consequences of gender-based stereotypes and insults on human men and women is well beyond the scope of this blog.

However, if you:

a) Don’t understand why the term “girly” might be perceived as an insult, and a gender-based one at that;

b) Don’t see the links between misogyny and homophobia; and/or

c) Don’t recognize the practical, real-world effects of gender stereotypes and gendered slurs on men and women (and girls and boys), or understand how men and women (and girls and boys) receive different, gendered socialization, then

I highly recommend adding some feminist blogs to your reading list. For a primer, start with Finally, a feminism 101 blog. As far as non-AR feminist blogs go, I also like Shakespeare’s Sister and Feministe, both of which are relatively light on speciesism.

If you think I need to “lighten up” or “get over myself,” you really need to do some feminist homework!

4) Finally, I’d like to add that the term “girly dog” also invokes class and race stereotypes. When you think of the quintessential “girly dog” and her “owner,” probably you think of a small, white, yappy, puffy little dog with bows in her perfectly groomed hair. The dog – being a lap dog, as Obama also said – is most likely pictured lounging on the lap of an equally perfectly groomed woman, who is either prissy and “diva”-ish, like Paris Hilton (another blogger’s term and example), or older and regally respectable, like Ms. Walters. Either way, she’s white and upper-class. At least, that’s my take on the term.

—————–

Oy. After months of equivocating on the dog issue, the Obama family has announced that they’ve narrowed their choice down to two breeds: the Labradoodle and the Portuguese Water Dog. Unfortunately, as Adopt-a-Pet.com reports, while these are not the only two “hypoallergenic” breeds available, they are harder to find on animal adoption websites:

You recently signed Adopt-a-Pet.com‘s petition on www.Presidential-Pooch-Pardon.com asking Barack Obama to adopt a shelter dog. He is interested in adopting, but has narrowed his search to uncommon breeds that are difficult to find in a shelter. Now, on the President-Elect’s website, there’s a section where people can vote for their favorite ideas, and the top vote-getting ideas will be directly seen by Obama. One of the animal shelter workers who posts pets for adoption on Adopt-a-Pet.com has posted an idea urging the president to consider finding a mixed breed dog with the right individual traits that meets his family’s needs.

You can make a huge difference by voting one more time here. If this is your first time on the site, you’ll be asked to create an account, which is super simple. After you create your account, click the link above again to locate the suggestion.

Thank you for being part of this non-partisan effort to promote homeless pet adoption please spread the word to your friends!

Indeed, a search of Petfinder for “Labradoodle” currently turns up zero results, while “Portuguese Water Dog” uncovers seven purebred dogs.

Additionally, in selecting a purebred dog, the Obamas are practically inviting greedy breeders to cash in on their (hopefully) compassionate choice by sexually exploiting and selling the “Obama dog.” (Doubly so if they adopt a breed that’s hard to find through adoption routes.) A mixed breed or mutt – particularly one of unknown heritage, which can’t easily be reproduced – would help minimize this risk.

Also on the Obama dog front, Adopt-a-Pet.com has some crazy cute graphics you can download, encouraging the Obamas to adopt a mutt.

They’re available at muttslikeme.adoptapet.com, which is a riff on Obama’s observation that “A lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

(More below the fold…)

Hat tip to my lil’ sis, who sent me a link to this video the other day.

CBS News reports on “The Animal Odd Couple”:

The so-called “odd couple” in this story is Tarra (an elephant) and Bella (a dog), both residents of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

I say “so-called” because interspecies friendships aren’t exactly unheard of; heck, according to the AVMA, 43,021,000 American households “own” dogs, 37,460,000 “own” cats, 4,453,000 “own” birds and 2,087,000 “own” horses. While many of these relationships are more akin to that of master/slave, these numbers still allow for quite a few cross-species friendships between human and non-human animals. Personally, I count Ralphie, Peedee, O-Ren, Kaylee and Jayne among my bestest of friends.

Oh, but wait! In common parlance, humans aren’t considered “animals” – so interspecies friendships in which one half of the pair is human doesn’t register as an “odd” “animal” couple. Well, allow me to deconstruct further.

When 37.2% of U.S. households include at least one dog, and 32.4% include one or more cats, there’s bound to be some crossover. Interspecies friendships, in fact, aren’t as uncommon as you might think, human-animal relationships aside. Just Google “interspecies friendships” and you’ll get an idea of how rich and social the lives of non-human animals can be, especially when lived without human interference (such as isolating them from other non-human animals).

Of course, pachyderm/canine relationships are still somewhat odd, inasmuch as domesticated dogs and elephants don’t normally come into contact with one another. But you get my drift, yeah? – Namely, just because we (as in, the collective “we”) don’t take the time or effort to recognize the complexity of a species’ needs, desires and interactions, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

We simply choose not to see the “humanizing” characteristics in non-human animals:

Because Dog forbid we recognize how closely animal sentience mirrors our own.

(More below the fold…)

In audio clips posted on their website, Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church preaches that, for one Christian to divorce another Christian is a sin – even if one of the so-called Christians is physically abusing his (or her!) partner.

On whether women can divorce an abusive spouse (question #32):

I’d always rather choose a short-term pain and find God’s solution for long-term gain than try and find a short-term solution that’s going to involve long-term pain. … [In scripture] adultery is one [reason for divorce] and abandonment is a second. I wish there were a third in scripture. Having been involved as a pastor in situations of abuse there’s something in me that wishes there was a Bible verse that says if they abuse you in this and such kind of way then you have a right to leave them. … If you’re in this kind of situation I strongly recommend that you take advantage of our lay counseling ministers. Go in and talk to someone and let them minister to you. And the advice that we give is not divorce but separation.

On whether a woman has to stay in a “miserable” marriage (question #31):

The Bible answer is yes. Does God expect me to stay in a miserable marriage, and why would he do that to me? I often say to people when they’re facing this decision, really, you’re choosing your pain in this moment because it’s going to be painful either way. If you stay in your marriage there is the opportunity for reconciliation and for the loss of pain, but there is going to be short-term pain on the way there. … There is lifelong pain in divorce. … I wish there was a way to say there is a choice here where you’re not going to have pain but there is pain in relationships. Now, God understands that… He can be with us in our pain and he can comfort us, he can strengthen us, he can give us perspective. He can also give us wisdom. Does God expect me to live with this pain? No. I think he expects us to ask for wisdom to do the things that would cause the pain to begin to be solved. … The Bible says the husband is to sacrifice for his wife and the wife is to respect her husband and if that doesn’t happen you have the right to keep pushing for that.

According to Warren’s teachings, abused women have no right to divorce their abusers.

(More below the fold…)

If my blogging seems a bit light as of late, that’s because you’ve been looking in the wrong place. Over the past few months, I’ve been spending more and more of my free/internets time at easyVegan.info, my animal advocacy blog. In particular, I’ve found myself increasingly interested in intersecting and parallel oppressions, i.e., the many ways in which violence against non-human animals is related and linked to violence against women, children, people of color, etc. (Blame it on the ever-infuriating PETA kerfluffles, natch.) Since I used to blog about this topic infrequently, I’d usually crosspost liberally between here and there. But too much crossposting makes me feel like a cheater, so I’m getting more selective with the copy and paste functions. If this topic interests you, then, you should definitely add easyVegan.info to your reading list.

Speaking of crossposting, after 8+ months, I’ve finally updated the Get Active! page. The list of resources had more than quadrupled; even I can’t believe how many mailing lists I’m on. Check it out, and let me know if I missed anyone.

Now for the random awesomeness!

These blogs, which I am seriously digging: Animal Person; Invisible Voices; Sociological Images; On Human-Nonhuman Relations; SuperWeed; and Animal Rights @ Change.org. And Elaine’s new project, Selling Compassion, sounds quite promising.

Cara’s Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis series (final post here).

Stephen Colbert, back from vacation. And with co-host Alan Colmes, to boot!

Jon Stewart’s ‘Strip Maul’/Gaza analogy.

The soft-serve ice cream maker that mommy gifted me for FSMas. Now I just need to find some vegan recipes. I’m off to an ok start with A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise and this list at VegWeb. Additional suggestions, anyone?

Ellen the miniature American Eskimo dog

who totally resembles this weird, cuddly little cryptid.

WANT.

11 days left in Bush’s term, 12 days ’till inauguration and 13 days until the Season Five premiere of Lost.

Decidedly NOT awesome: the last item on the above list is the one which most excites me.

—————-

Tagged: link love the internets cryptid dog canine freecycle site admin blogs blogging

Shane and I, discussing the Tina Fey Vanity Fair cover this morning:

Me: So Tina Fey had to lose a bunch of weight before they’d put her on SNL. Apparently she was too fat and horrid to appear before the general public.

Shane: When was Tina Fey ever “fat”?

Me: Back when she “just” wrote for SNL. She’s about my size, 5’4″, and she used to weigh 150, which is 5 pounds more than I weighed at my heaviest. Now she’s 120. [...]

Me: Isn’t that bullshit? Liz Lemon loves food, but she doesn’t have the body of a woman who looks like she loves food. And you can’t say it’s because Tina Fey has a high metabolism, because she used to be a “fat chick.” So here you have Alec Baldwin with his middle-aged drunkard bloat, and that’s fine. But Liz Lemon, no, unless she looks borderline anorexic, that shit just won’t fly. And you don’t see NBC sending Alec Baldwin out to promote 30 Rock in a mankini. [gesturing to aforementioned cover]

Shane: Borderline anorexic? You’re 5’4″ and 120 pounds, if not less.

Me: Yeah, but my thighs are way fatter than hers.

Meh.

—————–

Tagged: tina fey 30 rock liz lemon vanity fair alec baldwin beauty misogyny sexism

I could not make this shit up if I tried:

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus.

And:

The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.” [...]

The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.

Police have acknowledged that the monitoring, which took place during the administration of [Maryland's] then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), spiraled out of control, with an undercover trooper spending 14 months infiltrating peaceful protest groups. Troopers have said they inappropriately labeled 53 individuals as terrorists in their database, information that was shared with federal authorities. But the new documents reveal a far more expansive set of police targets and indicate that police did not close some files until late 2007.

The surveillance ended with no arrests and no evidence of violent sedition. Instead, troopers are preparing to purge files and say they are expecting lawsuits.

Which leads to the obvious question – if the state government expects to enter litigation with its own citizens, why on dog’s green earth are they “purging files,” i.e. evidence?

And also, who’s terrorizing who, again?

—————–

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare war on terra green scare civil liberties maryland peta

It’s been a long week, especially for our cat Ozzy. He went to the vet on Monday with a blockage in his urinary tract, and returned home yesterday, with a gaping hole where his penis used to be. Well, not gaping so much as sewn almost completely shut. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how he manages to squeeze anything through it.

To add insult to injury, his entire backside is shaved, from his belly on down to his ass. He looks as though he just finished filming some kitty fetish porn.

On second thought, my week doesn’t seem so shitty after all. Relatively speaking. The little bugger had me worried, yo!

(And no, I’m not posting a photo of his bald tush. Shane won’t let me.)

————-

Tagged: cat feline ozzy my furbabies