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.

(More below the fold…)

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

The terra-ist fist jab!

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.

(More below the fold…)

‘Cause it takes a real maverick to condemn genocide:

After enduring criticism for weeks months [seriously, LA Times, where the fuck have y'all been!?], John McCain broke Thursday with two controversial televangelists whose endorsements he once trumpeted in a bid to win support from religious conservatives.

At a late-afternoon rally in Stockton, McCain said he rejected the endorsement of John Hagee after learning of a recording in which the San Antonio pastor portrayed Adolf Hitler as being sent by God to force Jews “to come back to the land of Israel.”

McCain said he had not been aware of the comments — which were made in a sermon in the late 1990s and turned up recently on the Internet — when Hagee endorsed him in February.

In context (because it only gets better in context), Hagee’s Holocaust-hearting sermon goes something like this:

Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: “‘And they the hunters should hunt them,’ that will be the Jews. ‘From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.’ If that doesn’t describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can’t see that.”

He goes on: “Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

“Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

(More below the fold…)

Bah.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Under a huge tent just outside the medical unit at Camp Liberty, shielded from the blazing sun, soldiers watch and cheer as two men at a time get their heads shaved. Clumps of hair fall to the hot sand below.

But they’re not just fighting the Iraqi heat. They’re showing solidarity with sick kids they don’t even know.

It started with a dare on St. Patrick’s Day 2000, when two guys shaved their heads to support children with cancer. Thus was born the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. In eight years, the awareness and fundraising organization says, events have taken place in 18 countries and the United States, “raising over $34 million and shaving more than 46,000 heads.”

Maj. Stephen Roberts knows a lot about bald heads. He’s a pediatric oncologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. And he’s seen a lot of his young patients lose their hair to chemotherapy.

The kids he guides through treatment don’t seem fazed by it. “They’re just amazing, inspiring kids,” Roberts said. “They’re going through something more difficult than most of us can imagine and they do it with a level of grace and strength that I don’t think I could match.”

This year, Roberts planned to participate back home in Washington, but he deployed to Iraq. So he organized the shearing on the base.

Sounds like a nice feel-good story, right? Wrong.

Back in Iraq, the female soldiers can’t participate; Army regulations don’t allow shaved heads for women. But that doesn’t stop them from cheering the guys on — or making donations.

Fucking awesome. So first the patriarchy doesn’t want teh wimmins in the military because our lady bits will distract the men and cause them to rape us through sheer lust and sexual frustration. Then they object to us looking too masculine, too unladylike….you know, fitting in with the guys. We’re not even cool enough to show solidarity with kids with cancer (I thought we were supposedly the nurturing sex, yo!). Those uppity bitches, just who do they think they are?!!1! Next thing you know, they’ll be demanding to wear pantaloons and shit.

And don’t you just love how strong, competent military women have been reduced to cheerleaders for teh menz? IBTP.

Preemptive strike: Yes, I think the ban on earrings for men is ridiculous, too. If one sex is allowed earrings, then both sexes should be allowed earrings. But it isn’t an example of misandry, but homophobia. So there, MRAs.

UPDATE, 1:30 PM:

It occurred to me while doing Tae Bo this afternoon that the topic of women of color and “black hair” didn’t even enter my mind when I wrote this post. So let’s discuss.

Firstly, Why Tae Bo?, you ask. There’s an African American women in the DVD I’m using, and she’s got closely cropped hair. (Not to mention, a kickass physique that I totally envy.) So, given the “the politics of having kinky hair,” as Pam phrases it, what of WOC and the military? Are women with kinky hair allowed “manly” cuts, or are they expected to wear it to the collar? And if they’re required to keep it longish, what constitutes “neat” (which also appears to be in the military regs)? Would Cynthia McKinney’s so-called “wild” hair (an even more appalling description, which I refuse to quote, can be found here) be a grounds for a court-martial? Just how does the military square the intersection of sexist and racism they’ve created here? (Rhetorical question; they don’t.)

I’d also like to apologize for failing to recognize this in my original post. Sheer white privilege on my part. No, I definitely don’t want a cookie; how about a cracker instead? Perhaps a water cracker…those are English, right? Can’t get any whiter than a water cracker.

On the bright side, maybe this will inspire a bit of empathy the next time Shane gets flummoxed during a discussion of vagina-stuff.

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Tagged: cancer hair beauty combat military war iraq feminism misogyny sexism homophobia

Via PZ, I found a link to GOD’s new blog, Stuff God Hates. It’s kind of like Stuff White People Like but, um, funnier. God hates everything, you see, even though He created damn near all of it.

The reason I prefer SGH over SWPL? Well, as other veg*ns have already complained, SWPL reinforces the stereotypes that veg*nism – or, more simply, giving a flying fuck about creatures other than yourself – is a white thing. As if no veg*ns are persons of color, and veg*n diets may only consist of uber-expensive faux meat products. (Beans and rice, anyone?) See, for example, here, here and here. God, on the other paw, hates us all. His ghostwriter (because, let’s be honest, ain’t no way God has time to blog) also seems to be more consistently satirical than the white dude over at SWPL.

Just look at God’s full list of dislikes to date:

#22 St. Patrick’s Cathedral
#21 Asia
#20 Cats
#19 Nine-Eleven Conspiracy Theorists
#18 Dancing
#17 Snitches
#16 Dick Franing
#15 Science
#14 American Idol
#13 Cops
#12 Blasphemy
#11 Being Crucified
#10 Hillary Clinton
#9 The Pope-Mobile
#8 Anal
#7 Women
#6 ‘The Virgin’ Mary
#5 Onions on Pizza
#4 Patrick Swayze
#3 Foreskins
#2 Africa
#1 Desperate People Begging For Help

(More below the fold…)

Via Elaine, I discovered that today is Bloggers Unite: Human Rights day…and a bit belatedly, at that. Since it’s almost midnight, and I need to get to bed like 30 minutes ago, I thought I might post three very specific actions you can take on behalf of human rights causes. (For more resources, check out my Get Active! page. Keep scrolling for the human rights resources…they’re there, I swear.)

1. Write Yahoo! to protest their aiding and abetting in human rights violations.

Via Amnesty International: “Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, is serving a ten-year prison sentence for sending an email to the U.S. Yahoo! helped put him there. They provided information to the Chinese Government, which led to his unjust imprisonment. Yahoo! needs to hear from people like you and me in droves. Corporations like Yahoo! are very sensitive to public outcry. We must tell Yahoo! that we won’t stand for violating privacy and ask them to use their influence to secure Shi Tao’s release.”

2. Save Darfur

Visit www.savedarfur.org to learn more about the conflict in Darfur and take action. Two good places to start: the current initiatives (Urge China to help end genocide; Secure helicopters for the Darfur peacekeepers; and Get peacekeepers get on the ground) and activist resources pages.

3. Infiltrate a vegan potluck.

Waste the FBI’s anti-terra funding on TVP chili and chocolate-on-chocolate vegan cupcakes (they’re taking over the world, dontchaknow?), have a terra-ific veg*n time and report back nothing. It’s a win-win, my ski-masked friends.

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Tagged: human rights civil liberties bloggers unite save darfur yahoo green is the new red green scare genocide