Via the Arizona chapter of the Sierra Club, by way of Deb at Invisible Voices, an eloquent illustration of intersecting “isms.” In this case, racism/xenophobia (”ZOMG! ILLEGAL ALIENZ!!!1!!1!”) and speciesism (”ZUH? THERE ARE ANIMALS ON TEH BORDER?”):
This is part seven in a nine-part series on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. A full TOC, complete with links for easy navigation, is included at the bottom of each post.
Spoiler alert: Danger ahead, oh the horra! Plot spoilers abound! If you haven’t yet read the book, consider yourself warned. In fact, back away from this blog asap, go borrow The Handmaid’s Tale from your local library, and come back when you’re done. We’ll still be on the internets, promise.
Dear Dystopian Deniers
Perhaps the most widespread criticism I’ve seen of The Handmaid’s Tale is that it is improbable, unrealistic, a stretch of the imagination.
To wit:
Not Realistic Enough to be Scary; [A]lthough there were a great deal of things about this book that touched me and made me think, I found it simply unbelievable that anyone, male or female, would have tolerated this social system for very long.
Handmaid Tale…; Atwood made this society where it is supposed to be the future, yet women are still being repressed by male dominated society. Theocracy should have been eliminated by this point in time.
Trite and unrealistic.; This book in no way convinced me that American society would end up in the bizarre ‘1984′-like ripoff presented here. To even suggest this as the logical future is completely shortsighted and ignores all advances women have made towards equality in the past hundred years or so.
…and my personal favorite, from “a female conservative”:
Intriguing, but Unlikely; Several of the other reviewers argue that Atwood’s vision is not at all farfetched because of the state of women in Islamic countries. Exactly! I had the same thought in the back of my head the whole time I was reading this book. It is so-called Islamic countries in the Middle East and not Western nations where women are limited to lives as wives and mothers and where the sanctity of the individual is not respected. Had Atwood set her novel in present-day Iran or Iraq, it would ring true in a way that setting it in near-future-day America does not. We have a centuries-old tradition of respecting individual rights in America.
Shorter female conservative: It’s the darkies who are bigots, silly!
Or: What slavery?
Via Noemi @ Vegans of Color, PETA’s latest publicity stunt: pro-vegan ads on, of all places, the US-Mexico border fence:
While many view the contentious border fence as a government fiasco, an animal rights group sees a rare opportunity.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans today to announce an unusual marketing pitch to the U.S. government: Rent us space on the fence for billboards warning illegal border crossers there is more to fear than the Border Patrol.
The billboards, in English and Spanish, would offer the caution: “If the Border Patrol Doesn’t Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will — Go Vegan.”
“We think that Mexicans and other immigrants should be warned if they cross into the U.S. they are putting their health at risk by leaving behind a healthier, staple diet of corn tortillas, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables,” said Lindsay Rajt, assistant manager of PETA’s vegan campaigns.
The Department of Homeland Security is working to meet a deadline to complete 670 miles of fencing and other barriers on the Southwest border by Dec. 31. The fencing operation has run into stiff opposition by landowners fighting government efforts to obtain their land through condemnation.
PETA says its billboards would picture “fit and trim” Mexicans in their own country, where their diet is more in line with the group’s mission. Another image on the sign would portray obese American children and adults “gorging on meaty, fat- and cholesterol-packed American food.”
PETA’S offer to the feds is expected to arrive in a letter to Border Patrol officials today.
But a government spokesman in Washington said the request will be rejected because it would limit visibility through the fence. And Border Patrol does not allow advertising on its property or installations, the officials added.
“The fencing being put in place is, in many cases, mesh fencing to allow our officers to see what’s happening on the other side and to better secure the border,” said Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
One property owner on the Texas-Mexico border laughed at PETA’s proposal.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Noel Benavides, who is contesting the construction of a fence dividing his family’s 145-acre ranch in Roma on the Rio Grande. “I can’t see the point of something like that.”
But Rajt said the rent money they’d pay would help offset the huge costs of the fencing — and the advertising message “might even be frightening enough to deter people from crossing into the U.S.”
PETA has often been criticized for its aggressive animal rights crusades. It’s used billboards to push many of its controversial positions such as “Buck Cruelty: Say NO to horse-drawn carriage rides” or “Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse.”
The most shocking revelation to come out of the mini-kerfluffle over Toby “we’ll put a boot in your ass / it’s the American way” Keith’s ode to lynching? Not that a man who prides himself on being “White Trash With Money” is, at best, an ignorant fuckwit (or, at worst, a racist fuckwit); nor that he managed to pull Willie Nelson (!) down into the muck too; but rather, that Keith “holds the distinction of being the only musical artist to have received a five star rating from Stephen Colbert on I-Tunes.”
Suffering through Stephen’s fanboy drooling over Keith was bad enough, but imagining him air guitaring along to racist and misogynist ditties like Getcha Some, The Taliban Song and - of course - Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue? Well, that just breaks my heart. Or puts a boot in my ass. Whichever is more painful, I guess.
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Tagged: the colbert report stephen colbert toby keith willie nelson racism lynching beer for my horses
Video via stuff white people do, by way of Bitch Ph.D.
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Tagged: john mccain 2008 elections war othering the g-word racism xenophobia video Irwin Tang
This is part three in a nine-part series on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. A full TOC, complete with links for easy navigation, is included at the bottom of each post.
Spoiler alert: Danger ahead, oh the horra! Plot spoilers abound! If you haven’t yet read the book, consider yourself warned. In fact, back away from this blog asap, go borrow The Handmaid’s Tale from your local library, and come back when you’re done. We’ll still be on the internets, promise.
Race, Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation: Gilead is a Society of Isms
In addition to being a misogynistic society, Gilead is also a racist and homophobic society. Unlike misogyny, however, The Handmaid’s Tale is notable for what it does not say about race and homosexuality.
In her narration, Kate very rarely mentions race. When describing people, skin color is almost never explicitly referenced. Through subtle clues, we can discern that many of the main characters in The Handmaid’s Tale are white: Kate describes her brown hair, the Commander’s silver hair, Serena Joy’s blond hair, Nick’s angular French facial features, Ofglen’s pink, plump face, Janine’s pink nose. Nameless Guardians have peach-colored mustaches and pale faces. Gilead is overwhelmingly white - except for its laborers. Rita and Cora, Commander Fred’s Marthas, are women of color. We know this of Rita because Kate describes her “brown arm”, but can only assume this of Cora.
Kate describes Marthas as women whose previous work in the domestic sphere has instilled in them a compliant, subservient nature. Wiki defines Marthas as “infertile women whose compliant nature and domestic skills recommend them to a life of domestic servitude.” (I’m paraphrasing Kate’s description, as I was unable to locate the exact quote.) While there’s some speculation as to whether Marthas are African Americans - thus conjuring America’s history of slavery - it’s unclear whether all the Marthas share the same race and ethnicity, or if any women of color who are appropriately subservient and compliant are given the option of working as Marthas as opposed to dying in The Colonies. It is my impression that Rita and Cora are Latinas, based on Rita’s “brown arms” and their first names. Additionally, while I was unable to locate the demographics of domestic workers in the U.S., Diana Vellos claims that “Latinas today constitute the largest category of women entering the domestic labor force in the United States. Many of these women are undocumented workers.”
Whatever their heritage, it seems as though Marthas are the only people of color living in Gilead. Most likely, any other non-white Americans were killed or sent to The Colonies as manual laborers.
I’m paraphrasing, of course.
Video and petition here.
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Tagged: michelle obama 2008 elections video petition msm racism misogyny
I’m seriously (SRSLY!!!!1!!!1!) getting burned out on politics, but this shit is too good to pass up. At the risk of blowing the same horn ad nauseum, some link love. Or hate, would probably be a more accurate description.
Let the blaming commence!
And the Hillary Sexism Watch rolls on! Part 107: Just a Pair of Titz Edition
The Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch is at Part 55. I’ll send you to Part 54 for the backlinks.
Also, from Gina of What About Our Daughters?, Michelle Obama Watch:
Michelle Obama Watch is a nonpartisan effort to monitor the media’s treatment and depiction of Michelle Obama, the most visible African American woman in popular culture. Michelle Obama Watch will become the repository of the good, the bad, the ugly and the indifferent.
I’d like to close my eyes and think that they’ll only be able to fill the site with unicorns, soy ice cream, talking puppies and other good stuff, but we all know that ain’t gonna be the case. More likely a whole lotta of bad and ugly.
Exhibit #1: Michelle is “Obama’s Baby Mama!”, according to Faux Newz. (Via.)
I’m a low-hanging fruit. No, for reals:
I’m surprised they missed the opportunity for a melon joke.
(The time was ripe, you know what I’m sayin’?!? As in girls have boobies! ZOMG breasteses! Wait, what was I saying again?)
Trying to keep it classy, I guess.
For calling out the media’s misogyny vis-à-vis Hillary Clinton, douchebag extraordinaire Keith Olbermann hits Katie Couric with a nice dose of…
…misogyny! How fitting.
Jay Leno - who, despite not being a member of the MSM, is a fuckwit all the same - “quipped that Senator Hillary Clinton would offer Obama a lap dance in exchange for the Vice Presidency.” NOW has more. (Via.)
Finally, in a slightly more uplifting piece, Dr. Socks writes about teh wimmins’ newfound leverage. Go, read, now.
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Tagged: 2008 elections hillary clinton barack obama michelle obama misogyny racism msm politics video link love
FWIW, here’s Hill’s non-apology:
Today, June 10, at the opening of her show, Hill gave a weak apology, claiming that while people thought she was suggesting the Obamas were doing a “terrorist fist jab,” she was really just reporting how it “had been characterized in the media.”
Uh, yeah. How it “had been [mis]characterized in the media”…by xenophobes and racists like E.D. Hill. Ahem.
Personally, I thought it was frikkin’ adorable.
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Tagged: media matters msm 2008 elections barack obama michelle obama racism xenophobia war on terra terrorist fist jab faux news e.d. hill video
I’m bogged down with implosion-inducing allergies, so I thought I might recycle share this review of Bordertown that I posted on Amazon a few months ago. I agree with Melissa at Women & Hollywood - it’s not the best movie, but still worth a look.
Disposable women, disposable society
Loosely based on several of the many Ciudad Juárez murders, BORDERTOWN is two parts docudrama/political commentary and two parts suspense/thriller. Though the subject of the film is an important one, the movie does suffer from a few major flaws.
Most likely, you’ve heard little or nothing about the 15-year serial killing spree(s) in the neighboring Mexican cities of Juárez and Chihuahua. Probably you’ve read a short article, maybe buried in the back of the “international” section of your local paper, about the latest death toll. Maybe you’ve seen a few pieces over the years, each giving rise to an eerie sense of déjà vu: “Haven’t I read this before? Didn’t the police already catch this killer? Surely this is a different case…”
Between 1993 and the present day, at least 400 women, primarily employed in the maquiladoras established along the Mexican/American border, have been found dead. Raped, murdered, strangled, mutilated. Dumped like trash. Another 5,000+ women are reported missing. Most likely they are dead, but their families will never know, can never rest, because there is no outcry, no investigation, no justice. Government corruption, police incompetence, and international indifference have all conspired against justice. After all, these are poor brown women we are talking about. Disposable women in a disposable society.
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