Month: January 2007

Male responsibility in ending the cycle of discrimination

tekanji

A real life example and another reasons why men need to call other men out on their shit. This is an area that women cannot make any progress in because we’re not part of the male homosocial group.

In her post, Distinguished Schmuck Visits, Misbehaves, Zuska relates an incident of sexual discrimination that happened to a female science professor while her male colleague looked on in horror. The guy, of course, only waited until after the discriminator had left to say something about it. Zuska says that it isn’t good enough and gives an example of how it should have gone down.

She then goes onto say this:

Sadly, few men think like this. They need training. They need training to the effect that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR INTERRUPTING THE CYCLE OF DISCRIMINATION. It’s not all on our shoulders to figure out the solutions. They have to figure out how to re-socialize each other. They are plenty good at socializing each other how to be Real Men and How To Be Macho and How Not To Be A Wimp And A Pussy. They are perfectly capable of letting each other know when one of them has Behaved Like A Faggot, You Wuss. They are good at reminding each other Not To Cry Like A Little Girl. Clearly, they do have this mechanism built in for communicating to each other expected norms for male social behavior. So I don’t think it’s asking all that much to expect the more enlightened among them to start using that mechanism to pressure the dolts, schmucks, and morons to start acting like decent human beings, even if they can’t be made to think like such.

So, to all you would-be REAL Nice Guys (TM) out there (and this can go for REAL Nice People (TM) too — whites, straights, cisgendered people, etc), take heed of this. You want to be a REAL nice person? You gotta do your part to mold socialization because if seeing discrimination makes you feel uncomfortable, think how the person being discriminated against feels.

Via She’s Such a Geek! Blog.

Beyond Pro-Choice: What about consent?

tekanji

I have long held that no one — even those defined as “persons” by science and the law — has the right to use my body without my consent. Therefore, even if I did believe that personhood begins at conception (which science doesn’t support and neither do I) it still wouldn’t change my pro-choice stance. I do not believe it’s anyone’s decision but my own whether or not to put my health at risk for another being or potential being.

And I’m not alone. The Pro-Consent Coalition is a pro-choice organization that takes exactly this frame to the abortion debate. From their site:

Consent is very powerful. It is fundamental in deciding whether the rights to liberty and bodily integrity have been violated, and therefore need government protection. Even life-saving, beneficial surgeries cannot be performed without consent. By adding Consent to Choice, there would be public funding for termination of non-consensual pregnancies. Choice, based on the privacy promise in the Constitution, can never achieve that support.

Via feminist LJ.

BK commercial redux: It's not about the burgers

tekanji

About half a year ago I wrote about the infamous Burger King commercial and I haven’t stopped getting shit about it. Even more so because it’s apparently on the air again. Most of them I just delete, but there has been one sitting in my moderation queue for more than a week now.

daisy wrote:

As a married women, I saw this commercial and asked what my husband thought. He had a laugh and I asked how he wasn’t offended. He simply said, why do guys play football, wrestle with friends, or eat huge burgers. Boys will be boys. He left me with that thought and I agreed. This commercial is targetted at men, let them enjoy it, and let them eat their meat.

I probably should have let it pass without comment, but the whole “let them eat their meat” was borderline minimizing, as the implication is “you shouldn’t bother raising issue about this kind of issue.”

But, then, today I was reading an entry by Jill of Feministe on PETA’s politics where she discusses the connection between meat and masculinity. Ariel, who is not only a vegan but has done research into the intersection of vegetarianism and feminism, would probably the better candidate to discuss this issue, but I’ll do my best to convey more clearly this time why this issue is an issue not because of the burgers, but rather because it’s perpetuating a destructive view of masculinity. Continue reading

Blog For Choice Day – Links, and a story of my own.

arielladrake

So, January 22 was Blog for Choice Day, and aside from a slight gripe about the US-centrism of the choice of date (the anniversary of Roe v. Wade), talking about the importance of reproductive freedom is, well, important. And there’s a bunch of excellent posts that were made.

And hey, I’ve never been good with dates and deadlines that don’t involve grades, and all that better late than never stuff, so I’m going to start off with something a bit more personal. Particularly since this year’s topic was ‘Why you’re pro-choice’

Really, the list of reasons why I support reproductive freedom is pretty damn long, and much of it is covered by some of the wonderful people below, so I’m just going to outline a few, some of which are quite personal. Continue reading

Good Idea, Bad Idea: Girlfriend List Satire

tekanji

I am a huge fan of satire. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” was a delightful read. Irony is my bread and butter and I appreciate it when people can use it to great effect. But, therein lies the rub: most people can’t use it to great effect. Most people can’t even use it properly. Heck, I’m not even sure that I could effectively satirize something, which is one reason why I stick to only short bursts of sarcasm.

And yet one of the most common responses I get when I criticize a girlfriend list is that it’s a “joke”, a “satire”. That may be so, but for the satire to succeed then it needs to be more than vicious criticism of something, it needs to question a person’s assumptions about the nature of the subject at hand. Because otherwise what you’re left with is a piece of vitriol that is offensive without being thought provoking. Continue reading

New Blog: First Woman

tekanji

Ragnell has created a new group blog: First Woman.

In her own words:

Saturday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton officially announced her candidacy for President.

[…]

So, I’m finally starting a political blog, so I can follow the media coverage and the public reaction to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and examine the sexist attitudes that surface during the Democratic primaries (and beyond, should she get the nomination). I’ll also probably blog about how people regard other women in American Politics.

If no sexist attitudes surface, this should be the last post of the blog.

More likely, though, there will be way too much sexism for one person or one blog to analyze.

If you want to help out with the blog, she’s requested that you get in touch with her. More details here.

Report on Violence Involving Sexual Minorities in Japan

tekanji

I was recently made aware of a report from the Institute for Global Health by Anthony S. DiStefano documenting violence involving sexual minorities in Japan in 2003-2004. The report, entitled Report on Violence Involving Sexual Minorities in Japan, is available in both English and Japanese.

This study aimed to determine whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in Japan experience violence: 1) directed against them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity (i.e., bashing); 2) occurring within intimate partner dyads; 3) by or against family members; and 4) toward the self. Additional goals were to identify the perceived health impacts of such violence, describe how these issues are defined and understood within the Japanese context, characterize the socio-cultural environment that influences the occurrence of violence, and identify specific areas of inquiry that future studies can examine in further depth.

Via the feminist LJ.

Some things you may not know about me

tekanji

So, I’ve been tagged for a meme. I get tagged occasionally and usually don’t give in, but I decided to give it a go this time. Maybe I’m just trying to avoid doing a real post or thinking about how school’s going to start up again in few days.

So, without further ado, here are 5 things you might not know about me.

1. I like the colour pink.

Those of you who have read the My Voodoo series will know that my laptop (sadly now in the shop for power problems, which I will write about later) is the pinkiest pink that ever pinked. People who see it often remark, “Your laptop’s pink!!” To look at me, or hear me talk, you’d never think I’d like pink. But I do.

Truth be told, when I was younger I hated it just because of the fluffy pink femininity that it represented. And then one day (about the same time when I was examining my own rejection, and subsequent degradation, of the feminine) I was like, “You know, the only reason I don’t like pink is because I’m not supposed to like it. And that’s the crappiest reason ever not to like pink. Because I think it’s a cool colour.” And so I stopped pretending to not like pink.

2. I’m writing a novel.

And I have written one to completion already. I was trying to get it published, but due to personal differences with my co-writer that got permanently shelved. Oh well. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish this one, as I work incredibly slowly. But, hey, crazier things have happened.

3. I have osteopenia.

Which means that I’m in the beginning stages of osteoporosis and have a similar bone mass to my mother. Right now I’m taking calcium pills and having it monitored once a year. There’s been no significant change from last year, so it’s probable that I never formed up to the normal bone structure. Especially since I was put on a high dose of synthroid when I was younger (because of my thyroid condition) and that is known to leach calcium from your bones. Joy!

4. I sleep with Tails every night.

Yes, I have a stuffed Tails doll (he’s a character from the video game series Sonic the Hedgehog for those of you heretics who don’t know). I took him to Japan with me and now he sleeps with me every night. Although he’s kind of dirty and could use a wash.

5. I’m going to WisCon!

That’s right. All of you going to WisCon this year will have the golden opportunity to meet me, the glorious and wonderful, the clearly awe-inspiring, best blogger that you’ve ever read. Ever. How lucky those of you there will be!

Well, that’s it. Nothing more to see. I’m risking the wrath of the Meme Gods and not tagging anyone because I have no blog friends because I’m too lazy to check who in my blog friend group has yet to be tagged. Yes, you may all revile me for my serious breach of etiquette.

Good Children and Better Women: Lessons Learned from Nanny McPhee

lake-desire

On New Year’s Eve, tekanji and I watched Nanny McPhee, a British fantasy movie for children. In the film, the magical Nanny McPhee comes to the Brown Estate to help Cedric Brown, widower and mortician, manage his seven unruly children, free of charge. Since the death of their mother, the Brown children have driven away seventeen nannies.

Nanny McPhee is a movie that tells both women and children how they ought to be. I want to analyze the messages in this film because I’m interested in the power dynamics between children and adults. Even powerful people were children once. I’ll explore some of the lessons I “learned” from this movie in this post.

Continue reading

Google and Racial Stereotypes

tekanji

I’ve just been alerted to a post on Tricia Wang’s eponymous blog called Search Algorithms as Revealing of Social Stereotypes.

From the post:

I performed the original google image search just on “Asian women,” “American women,” and “Asian American women” for a presentation on stereotypes and identities of Asian American Youth. I want to demonstrate the pervasive stereotypes of Asian women – just how hyper-hyper sexualized they are. And it’s interesting to show that when you Google image search – there is no hierarchies of approval that the images have to go through like for traditional media (newspapers, TV shows and etc, where images usually become racialized in the approval process. SO for Google searches – it’s just based on algorithms on what users are clicking through and page ranking based on how many sites point to the webpage – which all determines the relevancy of the answers to the search query.

Via She’s Such a Geek!.