What does VP stand for?

by: MTwarthog

Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 16:39:02 PM MST

You know that used feeling you get when your guy stops taking you out for dates, but still thinks he can call and come over at closing time?  That's what Sarah Palin makes me feel like.  She and her vagina are being used to mock woman and puppet conservative values, and they expect me to cheer about it.  If it was a guy, I would kick him to the curb and find a new man.  I hope voters do the same.

Creatures of illusion

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 13:02:08 PM MST

Merian truly spawned across many disciplines: art, science, printing and literature, even adventure.

It's with disappointment then, that I heard that the exhibit would be reviewed by the Los Angeles Times...in its "Home" section.

Kinda' reminds me of the opening of Virgina Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," in which she's contemplating a topic she's been assigned - "women and fiction" - on the campus of Oxford University. Only she's chased by a beadle from the park where she sat musing by the river, and denied entrance to the university library to do research...because she's a woman.

That's the thing with sexism today, isn't it? It isn't heavy-handed, but still puts up a velvet rope to steer women away from serious topics. Get out of line, and the beadle shouts at you.

Speaking of Woolf, I've written out a couple of interesting quotes from the same book below the fold...

Idle Clinton-related thoughts

by: Jay Stevens

Fri May 30, 2008 at 12:37:34 PM MST

"You're not going to write that we're a bunch of hysterical women trying to create havoc, are you?"

The tone is part weary, part sarcastic, and a little bit plaintive. The words themselves -- spoken by one organizer of this weekend's planned demonstration outside the hotel where the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee is set to (maybe) decide the fate of Michigan and Florida's much-disputed delegates -- reflect the widespread sense of persecution that is currently felt among some prominent Democratic activists and fundraisers.

Largely female and supportive of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, these political actors look upon a contest they view as essentially tied and are dumbfounded by the vitriol being directed not only Clinton's way, but at their own efforts to "count every vote" in all the Democratic primaries.

It's fair to say that these women believe they're doing the right thing. They don't believe they're gaming the system to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination - although that's what it looks like to the rest of us. (In fact, my opinion is that that's exactly what it would be: party bigwigs handing the nomination to the candidate that lost the election.)

The point here is that these Clinton supporters - and the ones that we know - are sincere in their beliefs. They're not shallow, superficial, inauthentic, devious, ruthless, hysterical, or faux anything. They have an argument they believe to have merit.

"Don't you want to have a different kind of discourse here?"

by: Jay Stevens

Sat May 17, 2008 at 21:23:00 PM MST

That's all I have to say about the response to Anna's post yesterday about the misogyny that dogged Hillary Clinton's campaign even before there was an official campaign.

See, the thing is, I think Anna was dead-on. There's a language out there reserved for Hillary Clinton that's unmistakably gender-based, destructive and sexist, it's generally -- and wrongly so, IMHO -- accepted in society, and it's also coming from progressive corners.

Bill Moyers did a segment on this very topic, wa-a-a-a-y back in the Dark Ages of December 2007 when he interviewed Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. The stuff about Clinton starts at the 6:50 mark.

It's a fantastic interview, one that discusses the language and treatment of the presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, outside the realm of politics.

That's the key, isn't it? It's hard to distinguish hostility driven by negative imagery of Clinton as a woman, from her and President Clinton's involvement and actions, say, in the DLC. This conversation does a very good job of separating Clinton from politics, and simply examines the discourse that has grown around Clinton, and what that means for the state of discourse on the Internet in general.

Watch it.

Some excerpts below the fold...

Write the Christmas story for Pretty Bird Woman House

by: Andy Ternay

Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 06:40:13 AM MST

A frightened woman on the Standing Rock Reservation feels her pregnant belly and checks the weather. It's below freezing. Should she stay and get beaten again or flee? There's no money for a hotel. She can't stay but she can't risk the lethal cold.  

She has called Pretty Bird Woman House women's shelter, but their building was destroyed by arson. They have no place for her. Georgia Little Shield, Director of Pretty Bird Woman House promised to try shelters on neighboring reservations and see if there was room. The woman feels the baby kick as she stares at the phone, not daring to hope. It rings.

"It's Georgia," says the lady on the phone.

"There's room in another shelter?" asks the woman.

A long silence follows,then Georgia says, "We'll work something out. Let's get you safe. Okay?"

Another Christmas; and a expectant mother with nowhere to go. But there is good news: The ending to this story has not been written. You will write the ending.

On Clinton bashing

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 21:28:01 PM MST

Bitch is a word I use culturally to describe any woman who is strong, angry, uncompromising and, often, uninterested in pleasing men. I use it for the woman who has a better job than a man and doesn't apologise for it. I use it for the woman who doesn't back down from a confrontation.

So let's not be disingenuous. Of course it's a bad word. As a culture, we've done everything possible to make sure of that, starting with a mindset that deems powerful women to be scary, angry and unfeminine - and sees uncompromising speech from women as anathema to a tidy, well-run world.

[snip]

When people call Clinton a bitch, it's an expression of pure sexism - a hope that they can shut up not only one woman but every woman who dares to be assertive. Simply put: if you don't like Clinton 's stance on healthcare, there are plenty of ways to say so without invoking her gender.

[snip]

My own definition of the term being what it is, I can confidently say that I want my next president to be a bitch, and that goes for men and women. Outspoken? Check. Commanding? Indeed. Unworried about pleasing everybody? Sure. And guess what? I'm not even sure that person is Hillary Clinton.

Zeisler is co-founder of the magazine, "Bitch." Here's a short, and good, interview.

This is Mind-Boggling

by: Matt Singer

Tue May 29, 2007 at 16:34:00 PM MST

The decision was made in a case where a woman started off receiving comparable pay but slowly dipped well below what even the worst-paid man in a comparable position was paid. This wasn't a single decision in other words, it was a cumulative number of decisions.

According to Scott Lemieux, a professor of this stuff at Hunter College, this means that the court is basically saying that discriminatory pay is not a problem under statute, just the decision to pay in a discriminatory matter.

All in all -- crazy stuff, as far as I can tell.

Scott's right, though -- this is the sort of issue Congress can address very easily. They should do so.