Jezebel
clips
Posts Tagged “
Sexism
”
Walking While Female
Monica Gonzalez; a 40-year-old grandmother and resident of Brooklyn is fighting her arrest for prostitution last November. Gonzalez, who suffered an asthma attack earlier that day, was on her way to the hospital a few blocks from her house when cops stopped her and arrested her on charges of prostitution, claiming that she was carrying a condom and had previously been arrested for prostitution. Gonzalez had no prior history of arrest and says that she was not carrying a condom. But what does the officer who arrested her care? Women of color don't have medical issues that warrant late-night walks to emergency rooms! [NY Daily News]
Why Is Venture Capital Still A Boy's Club?
So goes the headline of a Forbes story I didn't read because I know the answer already, which is to say most business ideas men think up are stupid, and only men want to invest in them, which is how the motto of the venture capital world became "if just one of the 10 companies I invested in makes it to an IPO, I still get rich!" which like, doesn't really appeal to a woman's sense of purpose and also is sort of the whole problem with American capitalism. If you don't believe me, read this, or, for a more visual explanation, click the pic for some venture capital joke T-shirts that convey the same point. [Valleywag]
clips
girl talk
Did Your Parents' Pop Culture Turn You Into A Feminist?
It's come to my attention over the past several days that I am perceived as a "bad feminist." Some readers seem to think I am some sort of woman-hater who only values the opinions of dudes. (Those readers are not dudes.) Um, this is really really not the case. But the realization prompted some soul-searching, because I remember a time just over 20 years ago when I felt outlandishly offended by sexism, mostly because of my immersion in the schlock pop culture of my parents' generation. There was, for starters, the lyrics of the Beach Boys song "California Girls," and further, that such a musical act would receive the endorsement of such a distinguished entertainment property as Full House. More »
Women's Work
Back in the "good" old days, "Charlie" was a convenient plot device to turn a gender stereotype (teacher and student) on its head before the characters got down to business. These days, she's a whole cadre of mostly behind-the-scenes counterinsurgency professionals, toiling to save the world through the development a new kind of defense capability that "emphasizes economy of force, intimate knowledge of host populations and politico-economic incentives to win that population's allegiance." But if you take nothing else away from the article besides the name of one of the women who might one day be the first female Secretary of Defense, please check out the part about how the early practitioners reached back and gave a hand up to those women behind them. Then ask yourself who's behind you, and how you can help. [Washington Independent]
The Weekly Standard is not exactly the place we'd normally expect to find a lesson on the historical and ideological unity of the movements to end institutionalized racism and sexism, but times are weird and last week's issue of the conservative journal looked at the lives of both abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the anti-Islam feminist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. From the biracial background to the teetotaling to the claims that he got "elitist" in his old age, the life of Douglass could probably more easily be said to parallel Barack Obama's, but then it wouldn't be the Weekly Standard, it would be some 8th grade term paper. The point is, both crusaders get some pretty rad sentences in. Click the cover for inspiring quotes! [Weekly Standard]
This is a T-shirt, one of 12 currently available for sale on Amazon.com, for that extra special rape-y Christian boy in your life. Click on the picture to read it's slogan in all it's hateful, rape-promoting glory: "Anti-Abortion! But Pro-Date-Rape." Then click here to file a complaint against the (multiple) sellers and look here for contact information for Investor Relations. [Amazon.com]
Wooden Legs
Mario Philippona is a sculptor, who, according to InventorSpot, "loves the female form." This is why he creates shelves, tables and bookcases out of wood — but designed to look like ladies' legs or breasts. Philippona calls his pieces "erotica with a wink." Perhaps because the women have high heels, yet no heads? It's called objectification, dude. Which is dehumanization. Which, in this case, is sexist, not sexy. (Click for more pictures.) [InventorSpot]
Women & violence
Does Feminism Carry A Gun?
In the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (i.e., the D.C. gun ban case), Megan McArdle at The Atlantic mused "I don't understand why more feminists don't push for widespread gun ownership." Well, other than the fairly obvious overlap between feminists and liberals (who tend to not be the biggest fans of guns) as well as plenty of statistics that show gun ownership by woman doesn't do that much to prevent violence against women — and that the whole idea that it does is a myth cooked up by gun companies to sell us all guns — I guess I'm at a loss, too. More »
Missdemeanors
"[Alli Sims] Is So Fuckin' Doughy You Wouldn't Be Surprised If You Walked In On Britney Trying To Eat Her Leg"
Welcome back to our weekly examination of the Crimes Against Womanity committed by gossip bloggers and the virtual wristslaps we issue out to our grammatically and creatively-challenged web friends. In this edition, we give Alli Sims (Britney's former assistant and aspiring pop-star), Brooke Hogan, Jennifer Garner, Britney Spears, and Rock of Love 2's Daisy de la Hoya. More »
intramural (bad) sports
•Related: Hill, Yes! O., No! [Washington Post]
When Spite Trumps Common Sense, A Resentful Clinton Supporter Is There
The six weeks since Cynthia Ruccia announced that sexism would force her to support John McCain in the general election haven't, as many had hoped, made her any more reasonable. Like many a Clintonista, Ruccia — the co-founder of Women For Fair Politics who appeared on Larry King Live last night (see clip above left) — is still spitting mad and not going to take it anymore: she's going to vote for John McCain! See, John promised her personally that he'll appoint lots of women to jobs in his Administration (you know, like how Bush appointed feminist leaders Christine Todd Whitman, Ann Veneman, Elaine Chao, Condoleezza Rice, Mary Peters and Margaret Spellings to his Cabinet) and that trumps the cunt thing, reproductive rights and other issues that Ruccia, a lifelong Democrat, holds dear. Because in the battle to combat sexism in the media, it's important to show that women have a voice that can be used to show that Clinton supporters are crazy, spiteful bitches who will sell out their own political ideals to nurse a grudge. Way to strike a blow for us ladies, Cynthia!•Related: Hill, Yes! O., No! [Washington Post]
"Jokes" About Domestic Violence Are Never Funny
For a candidate who's trying to woo women voters, John McCain sure acts like a sexist piece of crap sometimes. In an wide-ranging interview yesterday with the Las Vegas Sun, he was asked why didn't appoint the scandal-plagued piece-of-sexist-crap governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, to be his state chair. The reporter asked, "Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?" and McCain responded: (Chuckling) "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago…" That's the kind of humor that will get the P.U.M.A.'s growling, for sure. [Las Vegas Sun]
purple prose
1980s Romance Novels: Hair-Raising, Lip-Mashing Horror Shows
A few years ago, I became fascinated by the Harlequin romances produced in the late 70s and early 80s. In what I can only assume was a backlash against the feminist movement and increasingly independent portrayals of women, these romances contained an appallingly misogynistic bent made even more disturbing when you think that they were written both for and by women. The plots feature doormat heroines and sadistic, domineering males who see through their feeble protests and know that 'no' means 'yes.' Sometimes a woman has a career (see: A Passionate Appeal, about warring lawyers) but the 'hero' always manages to break through this shell to the soft, feminine woman beneath. For reasons that have never been clear to me, there are a lot of fake engagements in these books, as well as pretend marriages (for legal purposes) and mock-up affairs (generally to arouse jealousy.) Invariably these deceptions turn out to be elaborate ruses perpetrated by the man to trick the woman into marrying him, since he's been in love with her all along, even though he seemed cynical and abusive. A lip-mashing kiss follows.
More »
opinion leaders
For Better Or Worse, Maureen Dowd, Peggy Noonan Speak For Us All
Do you like Maureen Dowd? Do you think she accurately represents your views or, even, some views of women other than your own? How about Peggy Noonan? Not so much, huh? Well, you're going to be hard-pressed to find other women on your Op-Ed pages, according to a new study from Rutgers University, which shows that Op-Ed writers are overwhelmingly male. Does that sound familiar? It sounds really familiar to me. More »
Patriotic colors
Calling Michelle Obama An Angry Black Woman Makes Black Women Angry
The historic moment we're experiencing — in which a black man could be the president of the United States of America — has lead to a colossal conundrum: What are we going to do about Michelle Obama? Over on Salon, Erin Aubry Kaplan eloquently explains why some conservatives don't "get" Ms. Obama: "She went to Princeton, excelled, retained her racial conscience but also eventually commanded a six-figure salary. All of this confuses white people mightily, far more than Barack's biracial status. In their frame of reference, Michelle has no reason to be angry and every reason to be content." Of course, she's being painted as that go-to stereotype: The Angry Black Woman. Kaplan points out: "It's interesting, by the way, how John McCain's hotheaded ways are admired as part of his so-called maverick qualities, a willingness to follow his passions and go against the grain; it's part of his essential Americanness. Michelle Obama's candor, by contrast, is seen as entirely foreign and not a little threatening." More »
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And Try Not To Be A Woman
Although this picture shows 1 female and 4 male former members of our Armed Forces — which is more or less the ratio of women to men in the U.S. military today — it is not the ratio of lesbians to gay men discharged from the military because of sexual orientation. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which defends members of the military accused of homosexuality, released a study that nearly half of the soldiers discharged under the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell-Just-Don't-Be-Gay-At-All policy last year were women. In the meantime, the military has doubled the number of waivers it granted to recruits convicted of violent felonies (including rape), and relaxed its standards on education, physical fitness and criminal records for recruits. Apparently, it's cool if you're an fat, pot-smoking rapist without a high school education, but don't you dare be a lesbian. Not in this man's Army. [NY Times, SLDN]
We wanted to bring your attention to New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt's column in which he examined his paper's record on sexism and Hillary Clinton. While mostly an examination of all the sexist things Maureen Dowd has said about Clinton (and way in which she insulted Obama by calling him girly), Hoyt did agree with criticisms of the Times' coverage of Hillary's laugh and its incessant need to specify that she was wearing pants. Jason Zengerle of The New Republic strongly disagrees that calling attention to Clinton's attire is sexist. Um, the whole point of calling it a pantsuit instead of a "suit" is to call attention to the fact that the supposed norm for a woman is a skirt. Because, you know, a woman's place is in a skirt or something. [NY Times, The New Republic]
sexism and the election
