Birth or not DOT COM

from cakewrecks.blogspot.com

So Gawker.com  brought this story to my attention and it has really got me reeling.  The basic gist is that a couple in MN have created a website where people can vote on whether or not they keep their baby.  The vote on the website will "heavily influence" their decision.  It's unclear whether their motivations are personal or political, but they are most certainly, to quote South Park (the greatest show of our time)... DUMbDUMbDUMbDUMbDUMb!

I think this website devalues everyone's position on reproductive choices.  Voting for this couple to keep or abort their child as a way for people to voice their pro-life or pro-choice sentiments is illogical.  I think most pro-choice advocates are not sitting around waiting for the chance to counsel every pregnant woman that comes their way to ABORT ABORT ABORT. I also think most pro-lifers are not hoping people like these will give them the option to "save life" via a like/unlike poll button that then allows them to be parents without looking at other options such as adoption. These people obviously have another agenda going and I really hope that it's a stunt and this woman is not really pregnant...b/c I agree with gawker's assessment: THESE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE PARENTS or on the internet...ew gross...can we vote them off the internet?!?!

http://www.birthornot.com/

Adopt-a-word

Thank you fug girls for pointing to me to this site http://www.savethewords.org/ dedicating to saving the English language.  Adopt a word to use so that it doesn't go extinct. I adopted latibule which is a hiding place.  So I'm off to my latibule to go read some more books for FBC!!!

UGGGHHHH

So this is very dated and I'm sure most of you have read this by now...but for those of you who haven't

http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/dating-blog/overweight-couples-on-television

No wonder Fat Activism is necessary.  I don't even like her apology.  While I give her credit for acknowledging her own issues with food/body image and her obvious inability to see others in a healthy light, WHY IS SHE A WRITER FOR A WOMEN'S MAGAZINE!?!?!  This is seriously scary.  I guess we can now see why the images from these magazines are so skewed...so are their creator's minds!!

I also take issue with this because I happen to adore who Melissa McCarthy who plays Molly (and was also on Gilmore girls in a role that didn't focus on her weight and all and HORROR just focused on the characters fun personality!!!) and thinks any guy (or gal) would be lucky to make out with her on or off screen!

HEY MODERATELY OVERWEIGHT WORLD...

THIS IS WHAT MAURA KELLY THINKS OF YOU

The Hiatus

IT'S BRITNEY BITCH!

Well no it's not...but after not writing here for a while I'm hoping my unlikely comeback is just as successful and I regain control over my assets and guardianship of my children...OK?!?! I've had many comments from people who said they miss reading the blog and how much they enjoyed it.  So I've had a renewed spirit.  I need to get the wheel's a spinning on new blog posts, so it'll probably just be article links to start off.  Get ready!!!

Drag Kings in Afghanistan

Interesting article.  I am intrigued looking at how different cultures use cross-dressing, especially when it is to fulfill a societal advantage (i.e. sonless families need son to raise social status) and not in connection with one's sexuality (as we are trained to react in the US). I remember someone telling me that in some part of the world it's not unusual for families without daughters to pick a son to dress up as a girl and help his mother out around the house...but I cannot remember where this happened.  I'm pretty sure Kate was the one telling me this story so she should post an article about that!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/asia/21gender.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1

UGGGHHHHHH

http://www.fitsnews.com/2010/09/14/how-republicans-party/

Dressing up like a confederate soldier for nerdy history reasons...um ok.  Dressing up people whose ancestors were slaves as slaves...NOT OK!  Get it together people!

Happy Anniversary, 19th Amendment!

I'm a day late, but the day that people w/ uteruses were identified as actual, you know, citizens, is worth commemorating.

Sample dialogue

Me: Hey, the last book in a trilogy I'm totally obsessed with is going to come out while I'm visiting you*. Is there a bookstore in town where I can pick it up?

My sister (doubtfully): Well, there's a Christian bookstore...

Me: [Hyperventilating]

* In a small town in Wyoming.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

I've been meaning to post this for a while, and got distracted.  I found this link through sociological images/jezebel and I was quite disturbed.  What I find most intriguing is that the comic talks about homosexuality as an order that simply wasn't followed.  The person's sexuality is stripped of anything personal, and discussed as if they had not followed a minor order.  They talk so objectively and calmly about the offense, yet the consequences are quite dire.  This comic is truly disturbing...and disturbingly recent

http://www.ep.tc/problems/38/cvr.html

Breaking news: Julia's Hunger Games obsession validated in NY Times

See, totally respectable!

(Ok, I wasn't actually feeling anxious about it. But the story's illustration is exactly how I fear I'm going to be as a mother.)

Bella before Edward or a period of time that is now known as BBE

So, after I read Twilight the first time I came away hating Bella.  I found her way too angsty and all too willing to let herself get lost in her relationship with Edward. These traits are to be expected for teenagers, but I don’t want to read books about them and I resent that teenage girls are looking to Bella as a role model.

Well, upon reading it a second time, I made a discovery.  Bella is actually pretty awesome… that is before her relationship with Edward.  She definitely has a Daria vibe going for her…she’s smart, likes to read, doesn’t understand other teenagers, and won’t participate in gym volleyball.  I mean the girl would prefer to go to a book store in Seattle over going to a school dance, which is obviously a way better thing to do, but I wasn’t cool enough in high school to know that…she is and it comes so naturally to her! She also writes about, “whether Shakespeare’s treatment of the female characters is misogynistic.”   Not groundbreaking, but hints at feminism.  Basically, she’s not a typical teenager.  Jessica, Mike, Angela are all the typical teens who Bella is too indifferent to say “no” to being friends with.   They are drawn to her because she’s smart, pretty, and way cooler than all of them.   Bella is not a poser (yet) and is way more comfortable with herself than most teens, yet is still growing and trying to decide who she is.  THIS IS A GREAT CHARACTER TO BEGIN A NOVEL!

Twilight Posts!

Well it's official, I'm half way through Twilight and I'm ready to start posting.  I toyed with different format ideas i.e. writing a Twilight post through the world of Infinite Jest, writing from the POV of my name-sake Jessica in the novels...  However, as I've gone along in the novel different post ideas of come to mind that wouldn't fit into these formats (I do plan on doing individual posts with the above ideas).  So you will get posts as the ideas come to me while I'm reading.  The books and movies are so prolific now that I am not going to worry about spoilers...if you don't want something to be spoiled...go rent the movies.  Look forward to seeing what you all have to say!

Afghanistan

How timely for Austin to pick this subject...not only were there wiki-leaks of war documents, but Time magazine has put this as their cover story

Here are some links to the original story and reactions to this piece:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/38016/response-controversial-time-cover-what-also-happens-if-we-leave-afghanistan

http://jezebel.com/5599482/a-visual-introduction-to-an-afghan-womans-mutilation?skyline=true&s=i

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007269,00.html

http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2010/07/29/time-magazine-once-again-trots-out-the-tired-and-inexcusable-were-in-afghanistan-and-have-to-stay-to-protect-women-mantra/

Young adult novel RAVE

So I'm at best ambivalent about Twilight, and it's what all the kids are reading these days, so I started to worry that there was no good stuff out there for kids to read, and then a friend of Clare's recommended The Hunger Games, and I was in Sacramento visiting family and went to a Borders, and I picked up a copy to read the first couple pages, and then I was in line buying it and then we went to my grandparents' house and instead of, you know, talking to beloved family who I don't see very often, I lay on the living room floor and read it in a breathless gulp.

Then a few days later I went to the Sacramento airport and was pissed to find that none of the bookstores there had the sequel (Catching Fire) but fortunately I had a layover in Minnesota (praises upon Minnesota!) and one of the bookstores there had it. And again with the breathless gulp.

Now I am desolated to report that the third and last book won't be out til August 24th. Nobody should plan on hearing from me on August 24th.

Oh, what's that, you want some details? Well, it's set in a dystopian future US (I guess there's not really any such thing as a dystopian past) where a central government demands tribute from each of 12 Districts each year. The tributes are children, and to punish the Districts for a past rebellion, the children are sent into an arena to kill each other. The main character is a girl from District 12 (which we can deduce is where Appalachia used to be) who volunteers to replace her beloved sister as tribute. And I'm not going to tell you anything else except to say that it is awesome. (Although my extreme love for Fahrenheit 451, Blade Runner, Nineteen Eighty Four, Neuromancer, and other futuristic/dystopian-sci fi-with-political/social-commentary does not make me the most impartial judge.) But it has fantastic characters, a very well-conceived world, excellent plotting - and reading it made me realize that actually, Twilight kind of sucks. (Ha - I didn't mean to do that, but still, funny. I will elaborate on these thoughts later, after Jess is done with Twilight and [hopefully!] I have persuaded her/others to check out these books.)

Julia is so right about GQ...

I love this interview with one of my all time favorite actors...

Infidel

Well, since everyone enjoyed Larry's post on female genital mutilation, I'd thought I'd recommend a book that gives and interesting look into the subject.  Infidel  by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a very interesting and engaging memoir about a Somalian woman who grows up in 
Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, eventually ending up in Holland to become a member of parliament.  
She details her experiences growing up Muslim, her own genital mutilation, arranged marriages,  
integrating into Western culture, and finally giving up on Islam.  She does not hold back on detail or 
her opinion.  This works to create a very interesting read, but can be frustrating when it seems as 
though she generalizes her own experience to represent the experiences of all Muslim women in Africa.  
Either she or her editor wanted to use her experiences educate Westerners on "what happens" 
to women where she's from, but she's not writing about a group of women, she's writing about herself.  
Considering that most Somlian women don't leave the country and those who do don't end up as 
members of parliament, I would say her experience is anything but generalizable. If you can get past 
the "let me educate you Westerners about the horrors of the rest of the world" subtext, it's an exceptional
book about an exceptional person.  I definitely recommend it.

Whoopi Goldberg....Celebrity Apologist

So let me preface this post saying that I am a HUGE fan of Whoopi's acting (Celie in Color Purple is perhaps the most brilliant and touching character ever conceived in literature and film) and from what I can tell I'd probably enjoy sharing some green tea and biscotti with her...I, knowing she doesn't like to drink, show up to her house with some fabulously italian biscotti assuming we were having coffee and then she offers me green tea and politely puts out the biscotti I brought and then we'd laugh and joke about our slightly mismatched pairing and enjoy a simply  marvelous hour of chit chat about what a wonderful person Patrick Swayze is.   LOVE IT!  Anyhoo...with all that being said, I'm not sure about Whoopi's place on the View.  She is definitely supposed to represent liberals, but I also feel she is put into the role of apologist for people's actions.  Her first day on the show, she confusingly explains that she didn't think Michael Vick understood that dog fighting was bad because he is from the deep South and apparently that's what people do here.  She later explains that she doesn't agree with what he did, but that she sees WHY he would think it was OK.  When the group was discussing Roman Polanski being arrested in Switzerland for a crime he never served time for in the US, she feels very passionate about being clear that he didn't commit "rape rape".  She claims later that she was clarifying that she was trying to point out that it was not rape in the sense that he had sex with someone who didn't consent, it was sex with a minor (However the law clearly states that someone on drugs cannot legally consent nor can a minor consent...so for someone so focused on getting the facts straight missed the mark on what the definition of rape is).  Most recently she claims that despite using terms such as "nigger" and "wetback" and blaming all the wars in the world on Jews, Mel Gibson is neither racist nor anti-semitic.  He's just a bonehead, an asshole, and a drunk.  She knows this because he's been in her house with her children. To me it's just like the excuse that someone cannot be racist because they have a black friend.  Now perhaps throwing around phrases like "nigger" and "wetback" or blaming all the worlds wars on Jews does not a bigot make, but I also haven't seen Mel take any action other than going to Whoopi's house for dinner that empowers him to use such words.  The fact that he's using them in a phone call that is pretty much the definition of misogyny, does not lead me to believe he has thoroughly analyzed the power structure of the US that makes all of the things he says so hateful.  I know that Whoopi has her role to play on the View, but I wish she were more thoughtful in how she defends people who have done some pretty bad things.  I also added a Michael Jackson defense clip, not particularly because I disagree with what she says, but because it's another example of her defending someone's actions/behaviors on the basis of him being her friend. (Michael Jackson is the only person she defends who was not proven guilty).

Hey Jess!

Tiger Beatdown did a review of Twilight. I don't know if you want to read it before you finish the books so I'm putting the link here so we can go back to it.

Love you and looking forward to your take on Twilight (and even more, Infinite Jest!)

FGM in the United States

I was sharing this article with Jessica, and she invited me to post in on the FBC blog (does that make me the first male contributor?) It's an interesting follow up to the article just posted about FGM in Iraq.

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement reviewing its stance on Female Genital Mutilation. While the Academy concluded by condemning the practice in general, it did make a controversial suggestion. It recognized a problem in the US with immigrant families who have a strong cultural tradition of female circumcision wanting to take their daughters abroad, or sometimes perform the operation themselves. The Academy suggested that maybe doctors in the United States could be allowed to perform a “ritual nick”, a small cut to draw a drop of blood but not damage the genitals, in order to dissuade families from taking their daughters abroad and performing a more extreme form of mutilation.

The author of this article believed that this was an example of multiculturalism gone too far. He believes that religious freedom and cultural tolerance has gone too far in America. He argues that allowing any form of FGM only legitimizes it, and that it could easily be a slippery slope to allowing full circumcision.

In an interview for NPR, Prof. Dena Davis, consultant to the Academy, defended the policy statement.

She defended it as a choice of the lesser of two evils, and explained that in a public health setting sometimes unsavory choices needed to be made (i.e. providing clean needles for heroin addicts to prevent the spread of HIV). She claims that in Indonesia, this “nick” has now completely replaced traditional female circumcision, and has become totally ceremonial.

She also says that the “ritual nick” is much less extensive than male circumcision, which is completely accepted in our society. According to the Economist article, she claims that it is a double standard to accept western religious ceremonies but forbids Islamic ones.

Prior to reading these articles I did not know a lot about FGM. I was amazed that it had actually only been outlawed in the US in 1996, and that the Academy and others were arguing for this compromise. I think the greater good argument (i.e. heroin needles) is interesting, but I agree it does not justify condoning this practice. Giving addicts needles, or young children condoms (her other example) simply seeks to remove risk from a self destructive activity. FGM is especially horrific because it is something forced on a young child who has no choice in the matter.

I believe in religious freedom, and that women should be allowed for instance to wear a veil if they so choose (provided they are not forced or in any way coerced into wearing it). If adult females under no pressure chose to undergo a religious circumcision, that would be a different matter.

I think a very important difference exists between male and female circumcision. The purpose of the male circumcision is to prevent disease, and it is generally assumed to increase sexual stimulation. The purpose of the female circumcision is to force women to be pure by removing sexual stimulation. Even if this new ritual nick does not actually cause physical harm, it is still a “ritual” focused around the idea that women shouldn’t enjoy sex because that makes them impure.

This is the article

This is Dana Davis defending the policy

This is another good analysis in the economist

following the scary doctor: women and their damn sexuality

How to be be godly, clean and pure, and defend the honor of your family all in one?! just slice!!

SCARY doctor giving steroid to pregnant women to avoid lesbianism

For a recap of this article go here

For the original source go here

Basically an ethically inept physician is performing her own "clinical trial" without IRB approval (Institutional Review Board...required for ANY type of clinical trial/research ).  She is giving patients a steroid nick-named "dex" that has been suggested at preventing unambigious genitalia in fetuses of certain women who have Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (apparently a condition that can cause such things in utero).  However, she's not JUST doing it for this reason.  Apparently she believes it will "cure" homosexuality and bisexuality.  It could also make these fetal females more "girly" and willing to do "girly" things like raise babies and marry husbands (because obviously someone with masculine features male or female is incapable of any of these things).  Here's a sampling of the original article:

Pediatric endocrinologist Maria New, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University, and her long-time collaborator, psychologist Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, of Columbia University, have been tracing evidence for the influence of prenatal androgens in sexual orientation. In a paper entitled “Sexual Orientation in Women with Classical or Non-Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia as a Function of Degree of Prenatal Androgen Excess” published in 2008 in Archives of Sexual Behavior, Meyer-Bahlburg and New (with two others) gather evidence of “a dose-response relationship of androgens with sexual orientation” through a study of women with various forms of CAH.

They specifically point to reasons to believe that it is prenatal androgens that have an impact on the development of sexual orientation. The authors write, "Most women were heterosexual, but the rates of bisexual and homosexual orientation were increased above controls . . . and correlated with the degree of prenatal androgenization."

They go on to suggest that the work might offer some insight into the influence of prenatal hormones on the development of sexual orientation in general. “That this may apply also to sexual orientation in at least a subgroup of women is suggested by the fact that earlier research has repeatedly shown that about one-third of homosexual women have (modestly) increased levels of androgens.” They “conclude that the findings support a sexual-differentiation perspective involving prenatal androgens on the development of sexual orientation.”

Scary stuff!

soccer and sex

the following is the commentary from "MoveAnyMountain" in response to the short article in the link. this is exactly why i love soccer and sex so much.


Eagleton writes: .... that "for the most part football these days is the opium of the people, not to speak of their crack cocaine". And finally he hammers home: "Nobody serious about political change can shirk the fact that the game has to be abolished."

Of course Eagleton is partly speaking ironically with his tongue so far in his cheek it almost made it to Greenland. But in so far as he is serious - and serious about mocking a certain left wing attitude - I think the explanation is simpler:

Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:

'When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?'

That was very true, he thought. There was a direct intimate connexion between chastity and political orthodoxy. For how could the fear, the hatred, and the lunatic credulity which the Party needed in its members be kept at the right pitch, except by bottling down some powerful instinct and using it as a driving force? The sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party had turned it to account.

Lenin gave up listening to the music he loved because it took him away from the Revolution and made him think kind thoughts about other human beings. There is no real need to look far for an explanation of why the Left, when being ironical or not, doesn't like football.

Why are women's magazines such drivel?

I love reading GQ and Esquire b/c in addition to snappy fashion advice, they also publish meaningful articles - for example, this article about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. There was an article about Roger Ebert recently that was moving and interesting and, you know, a consideration of a culturally important person. The most creepily absorbing fiction story I ever read was in an Esquire.

Cosmo and Glamour just publish the same few articles about (straight) sex and clothes and shopping. Wait, I guess they do dedicate a page now to career advice. (Illustrated w/ cartoons. Ugh.) Marie Claire has a token article every month about how much harder women in some other part of the world have it. Vogue and Elle can be counted on for cutting edge updates on... what women with lots of money are doing to their faces to look young forever. Oh, and maybe something about infertility. I do like Bitch and Bust and Curve but find them kind of parochial (and Curve is weirdly affectless and what's the point of putting so many straight women on the cover? I will take 6 covers a year of Margaret Cho, thanks.)

I like clothes. I like frivolity. I like clever and self-confident dating advice. And I like incisive reporting on politics and current events and culture. I'm perfectly happy to get these things from men's magazines if women's magazines won't step it up - but I can't help but feel disappointed every time I see a Cosmo in the supermarket with the same neon shrieking blazed across the cover - most women I know are perfectly capable of thinking 'Oh, I kind of like that purple eyeshadow' AND 'Ugh, what a human tragedy, maybe Congressman Cao needs another phone call from a constituent' WITH THE SAME BRAIN. Come on, women's magazines - cater to the whole woman!

Banning Barbie

Someone telling you not to do something all the time? Then do it. that's the motto here. :)

Follow-Up to Glamour

Well an anonymous commenter (yay...people who aren't my friends are reading) brought to my attention that INSIDE last month's issue of Glamour there really was a wider diversity of body sizes than the cover let on.  I went to the website and this most certainly is the truth.  There were actually TWO different inserts that the cover made me think they were the same.

The size 2, 12, whatever was about this article on the three cover models.

The Curvy, Skinny, It's All good was in reference to this spread, which I will admit DOES show a lot of variety of body types and good tips to buying a conventional bathing suit.  I like that they found a swimsuit that looked good on EVERYONE (although everyone in this photo has a flat tummy pretty much).

So thank you anonymous commenter for the heads up.  Looks like Glamour does have the right idea in terms of content, but are still using old marketing ideas for the cover.

Glamour is all accepting and stuff b/c they'll put a size TWELVER on the cover: It's ALL GOOD

Can you tell which one is size 2, size 12, or whatever?!?!?

I can, but only because I LOVE Chrystal Renn (in the pink) who I know is supposedly the size 12, because she's the world's highest paid plus size model.  This picture was sent to me by my lovely friend Margaret, who very reasonably asked the question "which one is the size 12?" I actually don't think Renn photoshopped here all that much, but just like ME her weight tends to fluctuate and at the moment this picture was taken she may not have been a size 12.  Her rep answers the question here.  Regardless I find it a little annoying that they are claiming to have a wide diversity of body types and bathing suits to fit, when all the women pictured, while obviously having differences, don't really represent variety (of body types, body colors, or taste in bathing suits...where's my one piece?)  Funnily all the women appear to be BOTH curvey and skinny here and would all probably look really good in almost any suit they tried on.

Forever Young Adult

So I just discovered this site and it's way fun to reminisce about what I thought high school was like as a 10 year old.  I LOVE their Sweet Valley High posts.  Check it out!

Infinite Twilight Summer

Well here we are...the beginning of summer.  In my last post I discussed why I didn't want to see Sex and the City 2 based on my critiques of the previous movie. While I still do not plan on seeing it anytime soon (if it comes onto Netflix Watch Instantly...we can talk) I did start thinking about how quick I was to reject something based on past judgments, current reviews, and with no first hand experience.  So with that in mind I have decided to take on a challenge this summer...I am going to read the Twilight series.

Now those of you who know me, know that I criticize, mock, roll my eyes, and probably mention the phrase "Edward is emotionally abusive" almost anytime it is mentioned.  I DID read the first book, but stopped there.  So to be fair, and to really be able to pin down my critique (as well as to give me practice on reading and reporting for this blog using relatively easier material) I am going to read the series and report on  it HERE.  I am going to go in as open minded as possible and try to create reactions that are organic (opposed to going in with fists clenched, ready to draw the first punch).  Not quite sure how I will frame the posts...so you'll have to stay tuned.

To balance this act out I will also be reading Infinite Jest b/c I want to join the Julia and Clare club of being able to read 1000 pages + of the same book.

Wish me luck on this journey

Fangirl rave

I kind of love Tiger Beatdown, and this post is a fine example of why. They're kind of the same idea as Jezebel (commenting on pop culture from a feminist perspective) except approximately 1000% more awesome. (I like Jezebel fine, I just like Tiger Beatdown's longer format and more aggressive, nuanced approach better. Also, they had a guest post recently from The Rejectionist, who I either want to be BFF with or just be, not sure yet.)

Since we're talking movies...

I am a big fan of Alison Bechdel, and here's a reason why:



(i.e. SATC2 is certainly problematic in its own right, but maybe there are bigger structural problems with modern U.S. Entertainment?)

(Entertainment capitalized as a nod to DFW. All FBC members are entitled to roll their eyes at the usual sight of me gushing about him.)

Skinny Model Ad

http://cocoperez.com/2010-05-26-lane-bryant-mocks-skinny-models-in-ads

This ad is awesome! I'm curious to hear what the public response is, probably something about it not being fair to the extremely skinny models who aren't anorexic.

Robert Ebert...HAHA

So, through twitter I've learned Robert Ebert is completely awesome and doesn't give a "thumbs up" to everything.  Here's his truly hilarious review of Sex and the City 2

Sex and the City 2...Why I don't want to see it

First of all...you can read the horrid (for the movie)/hilarious (for me) reviews here.

So to start off, I'm going to be honest and admit that I did not HATE the first Sex and the City (I do HATE the acronym SATC so I will not be using it) Movie.  In fact when I first saw it, I liked it overall.  It was pretty depressing at points, I didn't really relate to the Carrie meltdown that lasts for an entire year,  but I definitely got swept away in nostalgia for the characters I liked in the series and looking at pretty clothing.  I even went so far as to pay $4 for a previously viewed copy of the video in the Blockbuster sales bin.  Fast forward two years and some talks with fellow FBC members, I now have a twinge of  guilt for having derived pleasure from the movie and being completely blind to some of it's major failings.

Happy Birthday To Kill a Mockingbird...Birthday Party?

So I read this article in the New York Times about all the parties going on for the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird.  I feel like we have to jump on the bandwagon and organize an FBC to celebrate the book.  Let's pick a date, plan on re-reading it (or at least watching the movie)!

Also call me a nit-pick but the article mentions Monroeville, AL is also called the "literary capital of Alabama" because Harper Lee grew up there but fails to mention Truman Capote also lived there (NEXT DOOR TO HARPER LEE) which I imagine also adds to its literary posterity.  I've been on quite a Capote kick lately so reading To Kill a Mockingbird this summer works in quite nicely since Harper Lee was working on this during the time she was helping Truman Capote write In Cold Blood.  They were extremely close childhood friends and in To Kill a Mockingbird Scout is meant to represent Lee and Dill is meant to represent Capote.  Capote's first novel Other Voices, Other Rooms also has a character based on Lee. SO MANY CONNECTIONS!!!

Another humorous Disney Princesses image

One of my friends sent me this in a forward a few minutes ago and I thought I'd share since it was not only funny but very related to the last few posts on here - ENJOY!

More on Disney Princesses...

So after posting the pictures of the uber-sexed up Disney Princesses yesterday, I was going to post a follow-up picture of them that always comes up on my stumble upon that always reminds me of our "Fallen Disney Princess" Halloween costumes:

HAH!  I love it...especially Belle with the Beast femur in hand.  And I totally forgot Esmeralda existed!! While I was searching for this picture I came upon a fan page dedicated to art on the Disney Princesses and it reminded me once again the effect these characters have on those of us who group up with them.  I know we've talked about the Disney Princesses in book group already, but I find the iconic nature of them intriguing. There are so many different interpretations and I found it astonishing the different directions these fan artists went.  I'll leave it to you to decide which ones you find made them better/worse after the jump....

Because obviously Disney Princesses aren't sexualized enough...

More HERE

bang head against wall ..repeat if necessary

 INTRODUCTION:
So Melissa has been receiving e-mails from an Argentine Tango group and this is her attempt to get off their e-mail subscriber list...take it away Melissa:

soo, not exactly my finest moment, but i had forgotten who the group was and marked each email as "bulk"' or "spam" before deleting it but they always got through which was why i had repeatedly asked to be removed.

ROGUE SPAM E-MAIL THAT MADE IT THROUGH PROMPTING THIS E-MAIL THREAD TO BE KNOWN AS TANGO FROM HERE ON OUT:

Another chance to dance tango at beautiful Galvez!
A special Sunday has been added this month
... See More
Sunday, April 25
Galvez Restaurant
912 N Peters
6 - 10 pm

Julio and Denise have generously arranged this special evening for:

Alberto's Birthday Celebration

Please join us ~

Visit The Vamp!
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/

Me:
please take me off your mailing list

Tango:
Who are you, and which list do you want to be taken off, please?
We use a tango community based list so you may want to find out why you were included if you are not tango dancer.

We need a new post!

So I am going to talk about a series of books I love with a slightly abashed love.

The Flashman Papers.

The main character is everything a good feminist (indeed, a good person) ought to revile: a cowardly self-centered bully who is openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic.

The problem is, the books are HYSTERICAL. I read the first one in an airport and couldn't stop guffawing; at one point someone came over (I thought he was going to shush me) and said how much he loved the books too. (They are also remarkably thoughtful and brilliantly researched. In fact the first one was taken as non-fiction by a number a reviewers when it first came out.) Flashman is a member of the British Army in the latter half of the 19th century, so he spends time in Afghanistan, India, Borneo, Madagascar, the Crimea, the U.S., etc. - and everywhere he goes, he wins plaudits as a hero while attempting to shirk his duty and fainting of terror and incessantly womanizing and observing everything with a cynical smirk.

If you can put up with an anti-hero as your protagonist, and like getting a different perspective on history, and have the right kind of sense of humour, these books are for you. Again, I LOVE 'em, and will happily lend them out to FBC members.

In Cold Blood

Melissa Blum recommended In Cold Blood by Truman Capote at the last book group.  She accompanied her recommendation with the revelation that many people think that Capote was in love with one of the killers in the book and that reading with this lens was worthwhile (even if you had read the book before).  I took the bait and was quite quickly absorbed into the novel.  I had not read the book before so I was trying to take in as much as could as a firsthand account, while keeping Melissa’s subtext in the back of my mind.  The book was of course, wonderful.  I feel it lives up to the hype of literary masterpiece, while at the same time being a very approachable novel.  On the surface it is very straight forward and a fascinating story, interesting in and of itself before examining the literary technique.  I will admit I had to read more before understanding what was meant by “non-fiction novel”, a genre of literature Capote claims to have invented with this novel.  In 1966 Capote sits for an interview with the New York Times to discuss In Cold Blood (find it here http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-interview.html)  I find it really interesting how Capote describes manipulating non-fiction characters so that his own perspective of them can be understood by readers

SHE-mail!

 

A tip from Jezebel, lead me to an article about John Kelly, a Joni Mitchell female-impersonator who has been performing one-woman shows singing (not lip-syncing) Joni Mitchell songs.  Here's a great article in the LA Times with both Joni Mitchell and John Kelly talking about his most recent show ' Paved Paradise: The Art of Joni Mitchell.'  I am a huge Joni Mitchell fan and I find it an enormous accomplishment Kelly is able to pull off her songs and on-stage demeanor.  I'm also intrigued because I have been watching a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race and Eddie Izzard lately, both make-up heavy and shaving enthusiasts, which is at contrast with  Kelly who stays true to Mitchell with very limited make-up and nothing shaved but the face.   I must confess after watching RuPaul's Drag Race and seeing men look WAY more attractive and made-up than I ever will be makes me feel well...homely.  So it's nice to know that there are female impersonators out there that can appreciate and impersonate the femininity of no-make-up low frills women.  The picture on the post shows Kelly as Joni Mitchell and musician Zecca Esquibel in drag as Georgia O'Keefe (Mitchell and O'Keefe were apparently friends in real life).  It makes me happy to know that you don't have to be glitzy or glamorous to be a drag icon, being awesomely talented is enough!

Book Review: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This book was given to me by mom and it was quite a nice read. Authors Shaffer and Barrows create an charming community in Guernsey that I, along with the protagonist Juliet, long to join. I think I was most enchanted by the fact that the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society follows the same meeting decorum of the FBC: they all read a book that appeals to them, come and pitch their book to the group,  exchange the ones they like, and eat as much food (even during war time) as they can. This book was a bit of a history lesson for me, in that I never knew that the Channel Islands, part of English Commonwealth, were occupied by Germany during WWII. At the center of the novel is the brace Elizabeth McKenna who is quick to stand up to German soliders, stands on principle and as a result becomes a lifeboat for others on the island during the Occumpation of Guernsey. The book is written as a series of letters from an author in London to her editor, her best friend, and the people of Guernsey. While the storyline is quite predictable and superficial, the character development is well done entertaining and overall this book is a delightful read. Once again, I may be biased because I would like to think the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society and FBC are sister groups :)

Love Your Body: The K-12 are the winners in my opinion...

Now Foundation held a poster contest called "Love your Body". The 2010 winners were from four categories: Open (yellow background), College (Curves), High School (cookie-cutter), and Elementary/Middle School (yoga poses).  My personal favorites are the high school and middle/elementary school posters.  It actually gives me hope that the youth "love their bodies" but also know how to express it with wit and whimsy.

Apology for getting up on a soapbox last night.

Last night at book club we talked a bit about a woman in a book we all read (Zeitoun) who is Muslim and wears a headscarf. I'm afraid I may have kind of ranted at people while they were just trying to express their thoughts, so I wanted to share some resources/less heated thoughts:

1. Leila Ahmed is a respected scholar of Islam and Feminism. Here is a link to the chapter on veiling in her seminal work, "Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate", which is both essential and accessible reading on the topic.

2. Lawmakers in Belgium and Canada have been discussing limiting/banning the wearing of the veil. Here is an editorial critical of the Canadian law, and here is an editorial that supports a measure in Britain to ban the niqab.

3. Islam is a complex and diverse religion. Islamic law is based on the Koran (individual chapters of which are called sura) and the hadith, which are traditions about what the Prophet said or did during his lifetime. The hadith were passed down chains of oral transmission and traditionally, jurists (qadi) memorized hadith and their interpretations. To complicate matters, there is one major doctrinal split in Islam (Sunni or Shia; the debate is about how the authority to be the Caliph, or the Prophet's regent, is passed on) and some minor doctrinal splits (Twelver versus Seven Shiites, etc.) and different schools of law (4 major ones in Sunni Islam and lots of minor ones, which would affect how any qadi had learned to interpret specific sura and hadith) and different sects (Sufis, Kharijites, etc.) and syncretism with local traditions all over the world - so really, it is impossible to make any kind of blanket statement about what 'Islam' prescribes for women w/r/t clothing. There are almost as many versions of Islam as there are Muslims.

4. The sura that is most often cited as the basis for veiling charges believers (women and men) to behave modestly. Modesty is obviously a subjective matter. Ideally it would be up to any given believer to decide for him or herself (and only for him or herself) how to behave modestly.

5. There appears to be a relationship between being a majority Muslim place where women are not empowered (Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia) and being a place where women do not have a choice about veiling. I think mandatory veiling is a dependent variable and the important thing is advocating for women's right to education, to hold property, to vote, to run for office, to consent to marriage, etc. I think it is a distraction to talk about mandatory veiling (a symptom) rather than the rights that, fully exercised, will enable women to have meaningful choice about what modesty means for them as individuals.

Book Review: The Help

 I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett last night.  Overall it’s well written, easy to read, and kept me interested.  It did not revolutionize any ideas I had about race relations in 1960’s South or women’s roles in society at the time, but it was a nice story about some interesting women.  Apparently, Stockett’s inspiration for the book was the relationship she had with her housekeeper growing up in Jackson, MS and her desire to become a writer in New York.  The book is written from the narratives of a young white society woman and two black housekeepers.  

Talk About Mixed Messages

Speaking of Netflix...

Last night I watched 'Broken English'. I had high hopes for it - Parker Posey + directed by Zoe Cassavetes (daughter of John 'What's your take on' Cassavetes - so I figured there was a reasonable chance some of the talent was passed on, right?)

(Spoiler alert.)

No! The premise is that Parker Posey's character is young woman in New York who feels desperately single. So basically it's 2 hours of her being mopey and unpleasant to a variety of men, some of whom are also mopey and/or unpleasant (or unaccountably persist in being interested despite her total lack of a personality - most of her lines are some variation on 'I'm so anxious/tired/lame/doomed to be single forever!') Even the way she walks - a kind of knock-kneed, tripping shuffle - is irritating. In the end, of course, a handsome old Frenchman in a bar tells her that she has to love herself before she can find love w/ anyone else, and then she lights a candle meaningfully in a cathedral, and finds true love on the Metro.

I guess... I just wasn't expecting an earth-tones Sex and the City. A black comedy would have been nice. Or an ending that didn't imply that the point and inevitable reward of being at peace w/ yourself is finding someone to love you. Or some kind of indication that there are bigger questions in the world than any one person's marital status. I'm not unsympathetic to the plight of women who worry about finding someone - but I am totally unsympathetic to movies that use PARKER POSEY - a NATIONAL TREASURE - to drably illustrate something that Sarah Jessica Parker, fer Chrissake, has already demonstrated with a lot more pizazz and some actual humour.

Netflix thought I'd like this...

So I recently joined Netflix and I LOVE IT!!!  There are so many "Watch Instantly" options, that the advantage of Blockbuster goes right out the window.  Another great thing that Netflix does for you is recommend movies it thinks you will like, based on movies you already rated.  As a result I came upon:

Låt den rätte komma in (2008) (Let the Right One In)

 

WHERE ARE THE BOOKS?

"So Jessica...why did you start a blog about a book club if you don't post any books on it?"

Well I'm glad you asked that question.  Honestly that's the question/criticism I get about FBC in general from new members coming to FBC for the first time.  People think of a book club and what comes to mind is a group of people reading a book and then coming to discuss said book.  Perhaps it's because we're busy or not motivated or reading too many school books or all of the above, but an underlining principal of FBC is: READ IF YOU WANT.  When forming the group we all felt too busy and too poor to commit ourselves to a book a month, so this was the alternative we came up with: trade books and talk about feminist issues.  As a result our book club is much more heavy on the feminist issues and lighter on the books.  However, my new pledge for the summer is to try and read two books a month and report back on them.  I will be encouraging other FBC members to do the same (not the two book thing, but the reporting back thing).  This way the blog can start to reflect it's namesake as well as the fabulously intelligent women who belong to FBC. 

Stay tuned for our group consensus on Zeitoun...rumor is we will be meeting THIS Sunday to discuss!

April...a bad month for Posting

Hey All,

Sorry about the lags in posting...I'm going to get back on my one a day habit I promise.  So please, keep coming by to read and start posting too!

Legislating Clothing...

In more rape apology news, politicians in India are calling for a ban on bikini's as a response to the rape of foreign women and girls.  The article is at the WIP(The Women's International Perspective).  It brings up some very valid points.  The most obvious being that just because a woman wears a bikini does not legitimize a man raping her, regardless of his cultural upbringing.  I don't care if he's never seen a naked woman and one appears in front of him...it doesn't make the heterosexual male a hormonally charged monster who cannot help himself to the buffet of naked skin.  The way men are described in countries that cover women is insulting, basically equating them to thoughtless sex zombies who at the tiniest glance of female skin will be ready to pounce.

Fun article about the original fly girls

Here is the link. (Also, this is my first post! Yeah! Conquering html!)

The Rush Effect

So in the past month there have been two reputable university newspapers (Princeton and American University) that have published articles by rape apologists.  The focus of both articles are that when women go out and get drunk, flirt, kiss, perhaps go to a guy's bedroom that they are sending signals that they want sex and if they didn't want to have sex with a random guy they should not have gone and done any of these things.  The author's make claims such as, we take precautions with our property and avoid things that would cause them to be lost/stolen/broken , why don't women do that with their bodies?  There is also the perspective that not all women in this situation would feel violated...that they subscribe to "rules" of anonymous sex in which they would not feel violated having drunken sex with a stranger...so why do the ones who don't feel this way get to call this rape and how can men tell these women apart?  I think these articles don't need the time and energy to warrant a lengthy response...as one of the authors says in his own article,

Feminism envisions a bedroom scene in which two amorphous, gender-neutral blobs ask each other “Is this OK with you?” before daring to move their lips any lower on the other’s body. 

GenderFork

I found this awesome website of beautiful photography and quotes called GenderFork.com.
The theme of the website is gender ambiguity and expressing gender along a spectrum.  It's amazing looking through the pictures and having notions feminine and masculine challenged.  At the jump is one of my favorites...

Male Brain vs. Female Brain or How to take scientific studies and manipulate them into social discourse

In an article posted on CNN today "Love, Sex, and the Male Brain" Dr. Louanne Brizendine discusses her new book The Male Brain.  She claims that the physical make-up of the male brain differs from the female brain (ok....I'm with you on that one) and this difference causes men to to oggle big breasted women (sort of losing me here) want sex ALL the time (hmmmm....ok), but eventually leads him to want a mate for life and become an adoring father (wait...what...contradiction much?).  This book is a follow-up to New York Times Bestselling The Female Brain in which Dr. Brizendine discusses the make-up of the female brain and how that causes us to gab so much (the cover is even a telephone cord shaped to look like a brain).   So when I first read the article, I had no trouble getting on board with the fact that the male and female brains are in general different from one and other.  What I have trouble with is the connection between the differing size of certain nerve centers being the cause of certain social behaviors. Apparently I am not alone: http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/003419.html ; http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003894.html ; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Henig.t.html