Jezebel
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Patriotic colors
sexism and the election
Michelle Obama And The Place Of A First Lady
As we have previously noted, the Obama campaign has begun its Michelle Make-Over Tour which seems intended to inoculate her against the charges once leveled at Hillary Clinton — namely, that she is bitchy, entitled, power-mad, etc.. You know, attacks like these, which also go after stereotypes about African-Americans. And, on the one hand, I applaud the well-timed vaccination because obviously people are going to think certain things about her and say lots of crap about her and I prefer that Barack Obama win and certainly that he not lose because people think his wife's a bitch. But this Columbia Journalism Review article made me wonder: Are we and are they giving too much of what is great about Michelle Obama away in service of not losing because of it? More »
sexism and the election
Michelle Obama Is Going To Be In For It
While a senior at Princeton University, Michelle Obama wrote her thesis on "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community." That thesis was, for months, the subject of speculation until the campaign released it in February, after which it was lambasted by many on the right (I'm only going to link to one article because the rest are even more nauseating in their ignorance) for being an example of Michelle's supposed reverse racism blah blah blah. The Boston Globe this weekend has a long piece about Michelle's collegiate experience in which she was one of 94 black students in a class of 1,141. Most of the students, by all accounts, felt pretty marginalized and she described the experience thusly: "I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong." Naturally, to some on the right (who have never once been in the minority), this means she some sort of activist type out for black separatism or whatever those types of crazy people think about people who write about feeling marginalized when they, you know, probably are. Anyway, but this is always how it begins, right? If you can't make voters dislike the candidate, make sure they know he's got a smart wife, it means he's obviously pussy-whipped. More »
crappy hour
Obama: Gotta Get That Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Another week, another Friday Crappy Hour in which the lesser-known Crappyist Megan (of Glamocracy) is forced to beg for someone to write it with her so that she can avoid talking to herself online like she does in real life. Luckily, Spencer Ackerman (of the Washington Independent and the newly-launched Attackerman) is as big an intellectual whore as I ever was despite having never been a lobbyist. We talk about how the New Yorker loves to quote bloggers but never by name, campaign sex, how W. cock-blocked Spencer more-than-just-metaphorically in November 2000 and how the Hamas endorsement of Obama is just part of the vast right-wing conspiracy or something. Guess Obama's got some other dirt to brush off his shoulder. More »
news roundup
MLK Flip-Flopper John McCain Gets Booed In Memphis
- The McCain strategist who thought it was a brilliant idea to have him give a speech at the Lorraine Motel on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination to apologize for having voted against MLK Day should probably not keep his job. [CBS News]
- The advance staffer who gave the world the image of an African-American man holding an umbrella over McCain during the speech needs to go, too. [HuffPo]
- Hillary Clinton's speechwriters, who wrote a speech that, for once, actually played to her oratorical skills, should stay. The guy who decided to coin the phrase "Poverty Czar"? Probably not. [NY Times]
- Oooh, blind item: which one of you lesbian, bonerkilling commentwhores was dragged out of a Hillary event in Los Angeles? Fess up! [Breitbart]
hear them roar
Formidable Females Weigh In On Hillary, Women In New Newsweek
Talk about "thirty ways of looking at Hillary": There is slew of female-penned articles in the new Newsweek about Hillary Clinton, gender, what the Democratic presidential candidate means to post-menopausal women, 20-somethings, "tae kwon do moms", pre-teen meth abusers... even that elusive centaur demographic. (Joke.) Sound familiar? It should! After all, the what-Hillary-means-to-women story has been done to death. But Newsweek does have some worthwhile nuggets, starting with Tina Brown's insightful essay about boomer women and how they are ignored by America's "relentless youth culture." Of course, the former New Yorker editrix can't resist planting a few underminery jibes at Hillary — she calls Clinton "inspiringly pedestrian" — but, by in large, Brown is sympathetic to Hillary's plight as whipping girl in a culture that vilifies aging females. More »
I'm a writer for an advertising agency in Boston, but I grew up in Philadelphia and I am still registered to vote in Montgomery County. I'm no superdelegate, but my vote come April is sure to matter in this primary season. I wrote this "formal endorsement" of the Illinois senator, highlighting his "interracialness (ha, is that a word!?) as a gateway to the American Dream. For all of us.The article will be printed in Philly Daily News on either 3/12 or 3/13.
http://ryanbarrett.typepad.com/cheapthrills/2008/03/who-is-the-amer.html
This man, Jose Oritiz, was arrested last Thursday outside Murderdelphia for stabbing his brother-in-law, Sean Shurelds, in the abdomen. They'd just watched the Democratic debate, and Shureldz was railing against Hillary. "Obama was not a realist," Ortiz retorted. And then brandished a knife. No word on whether Shureldz is out of the hospital. Ortiz is apparently a registered Republican. [The Smoking Gun]
clips
Tim Gunn: Elected Officials Make Appalling Fashion Choices
Tim Gunn never ceases to amaze. Project Runway's father hen showed up on last night's Daily Show, where he and Jon Stewart discussed the show, fashion, and fashion week, and Gunn totally won Stewart over; you could feel the love! Gunn also had winning views about the upcoming elections — specifically, how the candidates are dressing themselves. After the jump, read Tim's musings on the problems of politics and style in an interview he gave to Newsweek. We're anxiously awaiting primary results, but in the meantime: Tim Gunn for President, please! More »
politics of style
When It Comes To Politics, Do Clothes Make The Man?
Super Tuesday is tomorrow! Will the aesthetics, not the ideas, of the assembled candidates affect how you vote? (Are you voting???) After all, even the mainstream press is focusing on the candidates' fashions, and we don't just mean the female candidates. Hillary, of course, gets a shout out — International Herald Tribune writer Suzy Menkes points outthat Clinton, a fan of the pantsuit, may be headed for hard times ahead as dresses and skirts will dominate this spring — but the real losers this time, are the men, specifically the Republican contenders. In fact, John McCain's Bill Cosby sweaters and Mitt Romney's rolled-up shirt-sleeves are now officially part of the "national dialogue"! After the jump, what some half-wit "experts" employed by Reuters have to say about the male candidates and their sartorial choices. More »
news roundup
McCain Wins Rudy!
- Oh yeah, and Florida too. Wonder if Giuliani has any of those $9.11 donations left to inject into the old guy's campaign coffers? [AP]
- Hillary wins Florida too but feminists don't believe in beauty contests...or...um. [Wash Post]
- An alternative way to bask in the success of the troop surge this eve, if you have HBO. [Wash Post]
- The question isn't whether Gore wants to endorse Obama, but whether he "has the self-control" not to. [NY Mag]
- The question isn't whether Carter doesn't find Obama "titillating", but...titillating, really Jim? [WSJ]
- Two-month-old in China becomes World's youngest political prisoner! [NYT]
- Lynn Spears and her prodigal spawn: like something out of the Redneck Bible! [US Weekly]
- Could an individual be more deserving of riches than Corey Delaney? [Reuters]
On The View this morning, Sherri Shepherd recounted her close call of almost missing the cutoff for registering to vote via absentee ballot for the election in November. (Shepherd resides in New York, but is a California resident.) And apparently this is the first time that Sherri will be voting...ever! Having turned 18 in 1985, the now-41-year-old has missed out on the past five presidential elections because she "never knew the dates or anything." She said it was important to vote in this one, though, because otherwise, she wouldn't have a right to complain on The View about whomever is elected for an entire year. (She probably meant to say "four years.")
the personal is political
Young Feminists Can't Decide Between Obama & Clinton
At Wellesley college, Hillary Clinton's alma mater, young women are split on the Clinton vs. Obama issue, The Washington Post reports. For instance: Katie Chanpong and Aubre Carreon Aguilar are both feminists and political activists. "If you're a woman, you vote for Hillary because of what it means to women everywhere," says Ms. Chanpong, a sophomore. Ms. Aguilar, a senior, says: "If I'm supposed to vote for Hillary just because I'm a woman, that's kind of sexist." The female-only school finds many of its students are having to decide what it means to be a feminist, writes Eli Saslow. "Do you vote for a woman to shatter the glass ceiling and further the cause? Or do you make an empowered, individual decision that is not confined by gender?" Ona Keller, the co-president of Wellesley College Democrats, is "hard-core Wellesley." She wears vintage ERA T-shirts, calls incoming students first-years instead of freshmen. "Everybody who knows me thinks of me as a feminist," Ms. Keller says. "Nobody imagined I wouldn't vote for Clinton." More »
punditry pause
What Were New Hampshire Women Thinking When They Picked Hillary? Who Knows?
My grandfather, who died 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 91, hated Hillary Clinton. He was a yellow dog democrat but the first time she ran for Senate in New York State, he abstained because he couldn't vote Republican, and he couldn't bring himself to vote for a woman whose persona he so desperately despised. Mind you, my grandfather was born in 1913 and unfortunately held some deeply sexist beliefs. He hated her because she was too ambitious — he found her shrill and obnoxious and he found her bid for power distasteful. My grandfather was generally quiet and mild mannered and rarely spoke ill of anyone, but his visceral, irrational dislike of Hillary was palpable. All of which is a long winded and self-indulgent way of saying that men are just as emotional and capricious when choosing candidates as women are. I don't rule out the possibility that the women of New Hampshire, as Maureen Dowd et. al., are saying, voted for Hillary last night because she cried. What I will say is that none of us were there in the voting booth with them, and all the excessive, frenzied speculation as to what her tears meant for womanity and for the country and possibly for the world, is mostly a lot of hot air. More »
"It's undoubtedly boring and hackneyed and feminaz-y to suggest that a woman in the public eye cannot win. But it's also difficult to conclude anything different as we watch the way that Clinton is alternately sexualized and then transformed into an ugly succubus of shriveled power as this race unfolds. No wonder she's a little puffy." —Salon's Rebecca Traister on the widespread criticism of Hillary Clinton's not-so-fresh face. [Salon]
the politics of style
Hillary Clinton's Hair Part (Sorta) Matches Her Politics
Eight years ago in weird, possibly bullshit "studies", anthropologists came to the conclusion that a left-handed part in the hair is both more common on men and a way to call attention, subconsciously, to the left (rational, analytical, supposedly manly) side of the brain. (Their findings follow that women who part their hair on the left are so-called "tough" chicks, often battling it out in male-dominated industries.) A part on the right of a man's head however, signals both eccentricity and a need to show off. (A right-handed part on a woman is a sign of femininity, caring, and nurturing.) As for those with no part? "Balanced, trustworthy, and wise." In the interest of political "science" (and as a way to combat boredom on a slow, Friday afternoon) we decided to take a page from our sister site Wonkette and put the country's current presidential candidates and their spouses to the test, to see who, uh, parts which way. Join us, won't you, in the gallery which begins below?
The woman with the best makeup wins in Bratz world! Babble.com points us to the "educational" Bratz "Election Perfection" version of the Quantum LeapPad learning system, which seems like it's a computerized sort of notebook filled with learning games. Kids today with their technology! Anyway, the Bratzified LeapPad is apparently teaching decimals through the story of "Superstylin' Sasha" running for class president. "Join the girls as they mix their own makeup, design the best fashions, study up on women in leadership and go on a shopping trip — all to help Sasha win the election," the LeapPad website boasts. Hopefully the skankified Bratz can learn a lesson about leadership AND tasteful makeup from Hillary's pretty purple eyeshadow [Babble]
broadsides
Short Men More Likely To, Uh, Cruise For Little Boys
- Short men are more likely to be pedophiles, according to a new Canadian study. Maybe they're just looking for someone their own size? Kidding. [NEWS.com.au]
- At least there's one Supreme Court Justice who will stand up for the rights of women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has cautioned that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, such a decision "would have a devastating impact on poor women." [Feministing]
- This is kind of awesome. A radiology facility in Orlando is hosting mammogram soirees in order to encourage women to get their breasts checked. [CBS News]
- According to the UN secretary general, violence against women in post-conflict nations has reached "pandemic proportions." This is no surprise to anyone who read about those absurdly gruesome rapes in the Congo. [International Herald Tribune]
