Iran: the homo-free zone?

You know how scary conservatives are always yammering about "If you don't like America go to Iraq"?

Well I have a suggestion for them. You should head over to Iran. You won't have to worry about homos anymore-- cause IRAN DOESN'T HAVE 'EM.



(I love the audience reaction).

Hooray!

This perked me up on a gloomy Wednesday.



Stolen from Feministe.

THIS is domestic violence

This is for all you trolls out there who try and blame it on the woman.

Be aware-- this video is explicit and disturbing.



Stolen from pandagon

WTF?

John Kerry, I expected more of you!

Why did no one do anything? I may not agree with what he was saying, but this man had every right to ask his question!


THIS IS SICK.



UPDATE:

In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way,” Kerry said in a statement. “I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody.”

“I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building,” he continued. “I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.”

Proof...

that the media is part of an unspoken campaign to objectify women's bodies in new and disgusting ways.

Some slick ad exec thought this was the perfect way to hit their target audience of young men.

If I was a young man, I'd be offended. Maybe you like football, maybe you like boobs but do you need them together?

I HATE THIS COMMERCIAL.

From the paper that brought you "Rape is magical"

Central Connecticut State University is having a rough year, publicity wise. Once again the students are protesting the collegiate newspaper, the Recorder. First it was John Petroski. Now it's this truly offensive cartoon.


*click to enlarge the hate*

Now what brilliant person thought this was funny?

More Britney?

Another great look at this mess

Britney Spears is officially a feminist issue

Has Britney bashing gone too far?

(click on image to view terrible news clip)

This proves it. Britney Spears is my new poster girl for: "THE NEED FOR FEMINISM." You'd think with two female commentators, this clip wouldn't be so god awful, but it is.

MSNBC Anchor, Chris Jansing speaks to Courtney Hazlett (OK magazine) on the "Britney bombs at the VMA" story. This segment is all over the place and at the end Jansing is aware she's crossed the major stupidity line.

The two women start by dissing Brit's clothes.... "or lack thereof." And out comes the blaming,

"Well she chose this outfit – she didn't feel the outfit MTV picked out was sexy or skimpy enough. She's the one who decided to go on in little more than bedazzled undergarments."

But later in the show, Hazlett admits that Britney has often been "judged less on singing and more on dancing and sex appeal."

So we judge her on sex appeal but condemn her for putting on bedazzled undergarments and dancing around?

Well according to Hazlett and Jansing, the reason the outfit is an issue is "she didn't have the body for the outfit."

While one anchor comments that maybe this is better body image for young women -- not having to be stick thin, Hazlett comes back with this bitchy retort:

If we’re looking to Britney spears to be a shining example to girls, I think body image is the least of our problems!

You claim to work for a celebrity news magazine and you still think people look to Spears for "role model" behavior? Get with the times.

Hazlett goes on to give us this pearl of wisdom:

It's time to stop being so afraid of saying someone's body doesn’t suit a certain outfit. It's not doing Britney Spears or anyone else down the line any good.

When has our culture ever been kind to women we perceive as being fat? Ever peaked through a fashion magazine where rounder women in tight clothes are portrayed under the huge bold word "DON'T" and have black bars over their eyes?

Then to further the hypocrisy the women start taking shots at Spears outfit from the "But she's a mom!" angle.

Jansing says: "I don’t look at that outfit and think mom. That's just me."

Well what do you want? Do you want her serving up the sexy or dressing "like a mom" (find me that uniform, please). I guess when Spears was young and skinny and professing her virginity it was all good to see her in bedazzled underwear?





But now motherhood and a few extra pounds means she needs ... AN APRON...

No shit!!! That's what Jansing suggests:

"Where’s the apron that’s what I want to know? Why isn’t she in the … never mind I’m gonna get in trouble for that."

YEAH YOU THINK? Where's the apron? Are you frickin kidding me? And "why isn't she in the...." in the WHAT? THE KITCHEN? Is that where you were going? Cause, last time I checked you're working on TV! Do you have kids? Cause if you do, you better get your butt back in the kitchen. At least Jansing has the where-with-all to realize what a dumbass comment it was because she immediately throws out the obligatory "moms can be whatever they want" statement.

Well, if that were true, Britney could be a pop star who can writhe in moan in sparkly panties and you wouldn't give two craps about whether or not she has kids. But she's a mom now, not a teenager, so she better quit turning us on?

This is the ultimate virgin/mother/whore complex come to life.

And for the record, her performance was awful, I don't like the song and I think she does need to get her crap together. That aside I'm so, SO, SO sick of the way the media is gleefully discussing this issue. I look forward to the ACTUAL news story on how "Britney bashing HAS gone too far."

Plus size makes you sub-human?

I will acknowledge some truth right now:

Being slimmer, eating right and working out is healthier for you.
Anyone working towards those goals has my support and respect.

However, can we acknowledge these truths without demonizing people of a larger size? I mean, really?

This story on CNN could have been positive. An unhappy, overweight woman loses 110 pounds! No easy task since she did so without the intervention of surgery or pills. However, upon closer inspection of this story, my heart really sank.

"Friends asked my husband to e-mail them a picture of us. Later, I discovered that he had sent them an old photograph taken when I was much smaller. Even though he loved me, he was embarrassed at how much weight I had gained."

It's not that her husband was sad that her health might be in jeopardy or that her self-confidence might be failing-- it was the fact that she didn't fit the conventional image of beauty and he couldn't show off her photo?

Okay at this point in the story I figured I may be overreacting. Then came this...

"When I finally reached my goal (weight), my wedding ring was two sizes too big. I had already had it resized twice and the jeweler was hesitant that I might lose more weight. Rather than resize it, my husband bought me a new beautiful diamond ring and when he gave it to me he said this was a renewal of our wedding vows," she recalled.

Red flag #2: Renewal of wedding vows? A big shiny ring? Why not a "congrats for getting hot again" banner? It just seems odd -- as if saying-- this is what is holding our marriage back together.

Twitchell says her husband keeps telling people that he's got his wife back.

Uhhhh-- where was she before? You realize she was the same person, just heavier right?

Again, I realize being trim and healthy is a wonderful thing but I'm sick of demonizing people who dare to be plus size and even *gasp* seem to be okay with their plus size figures. We paint fatness as this repulsive, marriage-ending disease for which women should hide their faces in shame.

It's one thing if you're unhappy in your skin and trying to lose weight but I'd like to see more big, beautiful women acting like this:

What do you think?

Remember that nice guy, John Petroski? He wrote an article for his student paper about how magical rape was-- and what a great thing it was for the ugly girls out there? You can read the full article here but I wouldn't recommend it if you just ate lunch.

Facebook has a group dedicated to shaming Petroski (it boasts nearly 2 thousand peeps) and yet Petroski is a member. He often makes overtures that "everyone in it is stupid" and he is "never coming back." Yet it seems there is little else to occupy his time.

He recently posted this video from the Onion as proof that we just didn't get his funny, funny joke.


Missing Girl Probably Raped

Well for once, Petroski and I agree on something. I don't find the news clip that funny. But to be fair, I work with sexual assault victims and their families on a daily basis. So trying to find some humor in these situations is a stretch for me.

However, the Onion is directing its criticism at the media. A media which often likes to spotlight stories of beautiful, young, white women and become foam-at-the-mouth excited talking about all the sordid details of their death. The Onion clip also makes fun of the lack of tact exhibited by news media when trying to get the "money shot" of the crying, pleading parents.

For example, I chuckled (although it was a sad, hallow one-- nothing like how you'd laugh at say, animal bloopers) when then news anchor made a comment along the lines of, "Would it comfort you to think that your daughter died quickly rather than being raped over and over?"

This is very clearly a satire of a shameful, calculated media who try to get ratings by selling the stories of brutalized women.

Now here's a sampling of Petroski's piece:

Take ugly women, for example. If it weren’t for rape, how would they ever know the joy of intercourse with a man who isn’t drunk? In a society as plastic-conscious as our own, are we really to believe that some man would ever sleep with a girl resembling a wildebeest if he didn’t have a few schnapps in him? Of course he wouldn’t, at least no self-respecting man would, but therein lies the beauty of rape. No self-respecting man would rape in the first place, so ugly women are guaranteed a romp with not only a sober man, but a bad boy too, and we all know how much ladies like the bad boy.

What is he hoping to accomplish with this "joke"?

Petroski isn't attacking media or people's morbid fascination with sex crimes-- he's mocking the victims of sexual assault and anyone who dares to take the crime of rape seriously.

Far from a vile act, rape is a magical experience that benefits society as a whole.

At the end of his mockery, Petroski hints that this is really about the media,

But if there is one bread and butter reason for why rape should not only be accepted, but even endorsed, it is because our news editors are in dire need of interesting stories for our front page.

If this is his attempt to pull an "Onion" he's failed miserably. You can't write an article where 80% of the subject matter is mocking a serious and heinous crime and also attacking any victim of this crime with a mentality that it's really "all in good fun for the victims." And then try to salvage the piece with a one-note comment at the end of "I remind you this is satire about the media because they think rape is interesting."

After all the fallout from this article, you'd think Petroski would learn something but he's determined to prove he's funny. It's just the rest of the world that doesn't get it. I'd like to live in his fantasy world, it must be such a easy place to delude yourself.

Pointing out the hypocrisy

They interview Ann from Feministing-- awesome!
Note to Southwest: I will NEVER fly your airline AGAIN.

One more reason to be scared

Police break up anti-war meeting in Washington

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mounted police charged in to break up an outdoor press conference and demonstration against the Iraq war in Washington on Thursday, arresting three people, organizers and an AFP reporter said.

"The police suppressed the press conference. In the middle of the speeches, they grabbed the podium" erected in a park in front of the White House for the small gathering, Brian Becker, national organizer of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, told AFP.

"Then, mounted police charged the media present to disperse them," Becker said.

The charge caused a peaceful crowd of some 20 journalists and four or five protestors to scatter in terror, an AFP correspondent at the event in Lafayette Square said. No one appeared to have been hurt.

Three people -- Tina Richards, the mother of a marine who did two tours of duty in Iraq; Adam Kokesh, a leader of the Iraq Veterans Against the War group; and lawyer Ian Thompson, who is an organizer for ANSWER in Los Angeles -- were arrested, Becker said.

"A petition calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, allegedly carrying one million signatures and endorsed by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, will also be submitted to officials during the week's activities."
The ANSWER coalition is trying to rally support for an anti-war demonstration in Washington that is due to take place on September 15.

Last month, the movement was threatened with a fine of at least 10,000 dollars unless it removed posters in the city announcing the September 15 march.

Washington city authorities have said the posters had to come down because they were stuck on with adhesive that did not meet city regulations.

"At our demonstration today we were showing the media that the paste we use conforms to the rules," Becker said.

"One of our activists was making a speech when the police barged in and grabbed the podium. At that point, Tina Richards started to put up a poster, so they arrested her and two others."

"This strategy of suppression has not worked. We expect many tens of thousands of people" in Washington for the September 15 anti-war demonstration, he said.

The march has been timed to coincide with the release of a report by the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and will be part of a week of protests led by veterans of the Iraq war.

A petition calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, allegedly carrying one million signatures and endorsed by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, will also be submitted to officials during the week's activities, ANSWER has told AFP.

Newsflash, Bush: War never "kicks ass"

Another reason I can't stand our president.

A great football win kicks ass
Frozen Yogurt kicks ass
Rock concerts kick ass


But the disruption of a country
millions of refugees
war-torn poverty,
countless dead civilians
and the loss of our nation's sons and daughters in military conflict that began on LIES

DOES NOT

"kick ass"


What a freakin' tool.

Your seat cushion can double as a cover for your slutty, shameful body

Feministing broke this unreal story.

Apparently this outfit is so offensive that Southwest felt they could remove this woman, Kyla Ebbert from the plane to lecture her on her innapropriate clothing.

She arrived at Lindbergh Field wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.

Really how dare a woman wear a skirt and tank top in 100+ degree weather. The flight attendedant gave Ebbert a chance to change but she was without luggage and had to fight for her right to stay aboard the plane with legs showing.

Ebbert says several flight attendants overheard the conversation and, after an embarrassing walk down the aisle, she took her seat and spread a blanket over her lap. She kept her composure until the plane landed, when she called her mother and broke down.

It just makes me sick. Visit feministing for more including a great photo of what Southwest airlines used to consider appropriate dress for flight attendants --- as one commenter points out-- I guess it's okay for woman to dress provactively as long as it's corporate (read: men) set the rules.

Gross

Ever see an ad and just think--- are you freaking kidding me? The one below showed an animated cartoon woman shedding pounds. Isn't that nice? Cause nothing beats shrinking down to fit properly into your bikini top and tiny white ruffled skirt.

And I bet you a million dollars no pill is gonna work like this either. But damn it we gotta hold onto the dream of conformity.