*
The story in Rolling Stone about homeless gay teens is a real gut punch, also, YES:
“LGBT advocacy groups don’t want to talk about religion,” says Mitchell Gold, founder of Faith in America. “One, they don’t want to come across as anti-religion. And two, they just aren’t familiar with it. But the number-one hurdle to LGBT equality is religious based bigotry. The face of the gay-rights movement shouldn’t be what I call ’40-year-old well-moisturized couples.’ The face of the gay-rights movement should be a 15-year-old kid that’s been thrown out of his house and taught that he’s a sinner.”
*
Well, that’s fantastic for Detroit.
*
I’m pretty sure that the take-home from this story is “desperate people, do not take your bleeding, cramping female friend or relative to the hospital, because it’s 1954 and you or they will go to jail.”
*
Catholics are totally into getting it right, but MAN do their schools fire some pregnant lesbians:
Mullen’s views are consistent with those held by young Catholics today. Over 70 percent of Catholics ages 18-30 agree or strongly agree that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry, while 74 percent believe same-sex female couples can raise a child as well as a male-female couple can, according to Andrew L. Whitehead, a Clemson University professor who studied General Social Survey data.
While young Catholics are especially open, American Catholics as a whole have dramatically changed their beliefs in the past 25 years. Based on Whitehead’s analysis, in 1988 only 19.3 percent of American Catholics either agreed or strongly agreed that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry. By 2012, 56.7 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that they should have the right to do so. Across all years, Catholics are more accepting of gay marriage than the general American population.
*
This is not Trailer Park Boys, this is a Serious Weed Operation, man:
The size and sophistication of his fallen empire were unprecedented, those who chased him say. Starting in the mid-2000s, Mr. Cournoyer managed the shipment of man-size bales of hydroponically grown pot across the border on motorboats and snowmobiles. Nearly $1 billion of his cash was laundered through the Sinaloa drug cartel or was ferried back to Canada in pickup trucks equipped with secret traps in their radios and gas tanks.
*
I hope he goes the fuck to jail for a long time:
By allegedly focusing on poor black women with criminal records, Holtzclaw kept himself from being caught — until he met J.L., a black woman who was just passing through the neighborhood he patrolled. “Not only is this individual stopping women who fit a profile of members of our society who are confronted rightly or wrongly by police officers all the time,” said the prosecutor, Gieger. “He identifies a vulnerable society that without exception except one have an attitude for ‘What good is it gonna do? He’s a police officer. Who’s going to believe me?’”
*
Willie Nelson is perfect:
He got a text from Annie. The bus was waiting down the hill. He needed to head to a local movie theater to make an appearance at a screening for a low-budget Austin holiday film in which he plays a Father Christmas-like figure.
“I just like to keep moving,” he said. “I could lie down and go to sleep and not go anywhere or do anything, real easy. I’m lazy. I have to make myself do it. But once I do, I’m happy.”
*
I also have a lot of love in my heart for John Waters, who has NEVER steered me wrong on a book recommendation (not, like, personalized book recommendations for yours truly, just that he often mentions great books) and who is a great writer and a great interviewee:
Q. What do you like about your early films?
A. The Kennedy assassination scene in “Eat Your Makeup” is kind of ballsy. And I really give my parents credit, because we filmed it in front of their house, and there was Divine crawling out of the car in the bloody Chanel suit. And they tried to understand, and I look back on that and realize how incredibly loving that was. At the time, I didn’t realize it.
Q. Your parents were very supportive, but they never saw “Pink Flamingos,” right?
A. They never saw it. My father paid for it, and I was very touched when he died, and we went to the safe deposit box, and he had the little things I sent him from the road — $50, $100 [payback notes]. But they were also mortified. The only time they weren’t was at the opening night of “Hairspray” on Broadway, and Harvey Fierstein’s mother came to them and said, “Didn’t we raise terrific sons?” And my mother just started sobbing. That is a loaded question. Luckily I did get to tell my mom about this retrospective, and she was very proud. One lived to be 90, the other 91. They had a happy, great marriage. I don’t know why I’m so weird.
*
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
“We need to make reading cool again. If you go home with someone and they don’t have any books, don’t fuck ’em.” — John Waters
Probably my favorite thing about JW is that he is just such a huge book nerd. This quote is from his standup DVD, This Filthy World, which is well worth picking up if you’ve never seen it.
And is also on Netflix iirc!
This is tacked on to the end of that article about a mother getting prison time for providing an abortion pill to her pregnant teenage daughter:
The Pennsylvania case follows the prosecution of a Florida man who pleaded guilty to tricking his girlfriend into taking an abortion pill. He was sentenced in January to 13 years in prison and $28,500 restitution. In June, Florida toughened state law to allow for prosecutions in the death of non-viable fetuses.
How the FUCK is that relevant or related? Also what the fuck does that last sentence mean, Florida? What the fuck is wrong with all these people?
This article is a super effective way to get my lather up this early on a Monday morning, if you can’t tell.
I had to look into exactly what was illegal about what the mom did (it seemed unlikely that she was getting such a long sentence merely for buying pills on the Internet). Apparently, PA passed a law that makes it illegal for ANYONE but a doctor to perform an abortion.
So I guess the Florida thing is related in that both states have utterly idiotic laws re: abortion and we should burn them down.
Sounds legit. I’ll go get the flamethrower.
I remember what it was like not to live in a state I continually felt like apologizing for. It was nice.
That said, as a resident of PA I shall act as a sleeper agent and burn things down from the inside.
I’m in Kentucky. We do what we can where we are, because the other option is just to abandon these places and leave them for the sea, which will leave us without such vital resources as bourbon and cream cheese (I am not up on my Important Pennsylvania Resources).
Important Pennsylvania Resources:
Soft pretzels baked in Fishtown. That scent was the only reason to get out of bed on a Saturday morning, the years I lived a few blocks from that bakery.
And pierogies. I miss Philadelphia this morning. And I’m hungry.
Those sound like super Important Pennsylvania Resources. And now I want a pretzel.
Fishtown is a streetcar ride away from my house–now trying to convince my girlfriend pretzels for dinner is a good idea.
It is ALWAYS a good idea.
My info is from the 90s, but in case nothing’s changed, be aware that the bakery did not sell to the public. They sold only in bulk, wholesale. But every Fishtown street corner had people selling paper bags of pretzels, baked that day. If you’re more squeamish than I am, just microwave the pretzels to kill any sweaty-vendor germs. Microwave *in* the bag for best results.
There was a teen boy who would ride his bike down my street on Saturday mornings shouting, “Pretzels! Get your fresh pretzels!” If the windows were open, I was already awake from the bakery scent, but never dressed that early. That boy got to see every bathrobe I owned in those five years. He learned to wait for me to get down the stairs. I’d buy a bag of 5-for-the-price-of-4 every week.
Back then, the Fishtown bakery supplied all of Philadelphia’s soft pretzels. Do they still?
You know, I’m actually not sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they still did? I’ve only been a Philadelphian (Philadelphite?) for a year and change at this point, so I’m still in the discovering-things stage of living here.
However, this has been a long enough residency to develop Opinions about cheesesteaks, so.
Weren’t we just talking about the pumpkin/cream cheese breakfast log last week? Important PA resource. I wish I could get my folks to export one to the west coast for me.
YES I was in that thread extolling the virtues of Giant Eagle pumpkin cookies. My aunt in eastern PA makes a divine pumpkin cream cheese roll.
WHAT IS THIS MADNESS, please explain “pumpkin cream cheese roll” and instruct me on how to procure or create the most perfect specimen possible please
I have never made one myself, but how hard could it be? Imagine you are making a jelly roll, except that in this case, the cake part is a soft, spongy pumpkin-spice cake. Now imagine the “jelly” part is a mixture of cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar. Roll, slice, devour.
Precisely! It’s also sometimes made without the pumpkin element, just as a spice cake roll, with maybe some nuts in the filling. You keep it in the fridge and it gets all cool and creamy and, best of all, you can eat it for breakfast because cream cheese.
…I must have one. Does anyone happen to have a recipe or am I going to have to go to Pennsylvania, obtain one, devour it, and reverse-engineer it?
Maybe this one: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/starrs-pum…
or this one (seems a bit fussier but has actual reviews and such) http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pumpkin-gi…
There’s a banana version here, too: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2013/10/09/ba…
gobs, perogies, snyder’s of hanover sourdough nuggets, selinsgrove brew pub. umm……there’s probably more.
Yes, there is more. So much more. I’m even more hungry now. And you’re not helping. 😉
I remember when Pennsylvania wasn’t Alabama North. I grew up there.
That tacked on ending rubbed me the wrong way, too. I felt it was included to suggest “Ooh, see? Abortion pills are wrong because ANYONE can get their hands on them to commit MURDER”.
Like my neighbour is fond of saying when he becomes depressed/exasperated over something: Fuck me running.
…like a… gun?
But we NEED our guns!
Flames on the side of my face.
Rapist Cop needs to fall off a thousand bridges.
but OMG SERENA WILLIAMS this headline alone: “Serena Williams powered past Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-3 in just an hour and fifteen minutes to win her 18th Grand Slam title”
It’s getting to the point where I’m just starting to think white dudes just should not be allowed to be cops anymore, full stop.
RE: Serena (!!!!) I saw a…commercial, maybe? Like a YouTube ad, I guess, although I can’t find it now. Anyway, she was working out like doing squats against one of those giant ab-workout balls holding a medicine ball in front of her and GUH! She is my fitness goal/general inspirational human being. She is SO STRONG AND AMAZING. [emoji with heart eyes]
“It’s getting to the point where I’m just starting to think white dudes just should not be allowed to be cops anymore, full stop.”
I don’t disagree, but Holtzclaw isn’t white. His mother is Japanese or of Japanese descent. So, I’d strike the “white” from that and just agree that we cis-dudes should not be cops for, like, a century. Then maybe we can try again.
Yeah, I noticed that after reading through the rest of the article. And George Zimmerman isn’t white either, so you’re right and I agree with this plan.
I was actually talking to a friend of mine about Ferguson the other day, and he said that he’d just gone back to visit his hometown, and he noticed that all of the racist shitbags he knew in high school, almost to a one, are now cops. Ugh.
A few years ago, I was watching Serena in some tournament on TV, and one of my son’s female friends was idly watching with me, while waiting for my son and his girlfriend to get ready to go out. She said, of Serena, “Look at her thighs!”, and I said, “I know! Isn’t she amazing?” I glanced over at her, and she was looking very puzzled. Her remark had apparently not been complimentary. I hope I gave her something to think about.
“Look at how powerful and muscular her thighs are! That’s part of how she excels in her sport! She could crush your head like a melon!”
SERENA WILLIAMS AAAAAHHHHH I love the Williams sisters so much. I love that they proved every awful goddamn racist wrong who said black girls couldn’t play tennis, or they were too muscly, or whatever bullshit was thrown their way. I also love how she and Carline Wozniacki are great friends and went out on the town after the match. MY LOVE IS BOUNDLESS I CAN’T EVEN.
Also, did anyone see the adorable proposal of Martina Navratilova to her girlfriend (now fianceé)?? Adorable.
THE BEST:
WHAT are you kidding who hair flips when they’re being proposed to AND ITS ON CAMERA too cute
THEY’VE GOT THEIRS
Ugh, I have such mixed feelings about Serena. She is great! She is by far the best server in the history of the women’s game, and probably is in the top 5 when you add in the men too. And she is the fiercest competitor in the game; when she’s playing well, she is unbeatable. BUT – she is a consistently bad sport when she’s not winning. Threatening linespeople, failing to acknowledge opponents’ play, etc. She’s definitely a role model in the “I’m strong and badass and I don’t have to be built like a waif” sense, and has most definitely broken down a LOT of barriers…but in terms of on-court behavior, not so much.
I agree to some extent, but I also think we (tennis-watchers?) have a double standard when it comes to poor sportsmanship and on-court antics. I can’t help thinking about how much John McEnroe’s behavior was (and still is) excused as him having a “hot temper” and being a very competitive individual, but the same pass is not given to Serena, or really any woman who gets angry on the court. Honestly, I don’t like seeing that kind of behavior from anyone, but I think we have to measure men and women’s behavior as being equally vitriolic if we’re going to call anyone out on it.
Oh, absolutely agree. The most recent example I can think of on the men’s side is Lleyton Hewitt and his horrifically racist comments towards a linesman at the US Open when he was playing James Blake, which I think was in 2001. I have actively rooted against Hewitt ever since. I also think that it’s totally unacceptable that McEnroe now profits off of his outbursts, while Serena almost certainly never will.
I do generally root for Serena, though yesterday I was rooting for Wozniacki given the epic shitstorm she has so graciously weathered this summer.
I JUST LOVE JOHN WATERS SO MUCH.
Word on the street is John Waters is one of the nicest celebrities to his fans, in person. (I hear from Baltimoreans, anyway.)
HE IS. I am from Baltimore, and he is our Patron Saint. We share the same favorite bar (Club Charles) and he is the loveliest gentleman ever. I was raised on his movies (and like any good Baltimorean know that the musical version of Hairspray, while fun, is a goddamn sanitized travesty compared to the courage and weirdness of the film).
San Franciscans too! He takes the bus from a stop near mine and is always willing to chat with people.
I used to see him sometimes at the train station. I never wanted to bother him so I didn’t say anything, but the fact is, John Waters takes Amtrak so you know he’s good people.
Absolutely. This is why we love Joe Biden.
He really is.
you guys have heard his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air about hitchhiking across the country, right?? it is so good and entertaining.
link
He is very kind. When I met him during college the only piece of paper I had with me was my passport, so he said something about it probably being illegal and happily signed the last page. I need to get my passport renewed now and I’ll probably say I lost the old one rather than turning in the one with the autograph.
Barbara Webb, from the Catholic teachers article, is actually friend of a friend of my college roommate, so I heard about her story a couple weeks ago when it first happened.
I personally work for a Catholic higher-ed institute and they don’t even offer maternity leave to hetero mothers. Nor does our health insurance cover anything remotely related to reproductive health (can’t get HBC to treat PCOS, no fertility drugs, IUDs are right out).
The bottom line is that the Catholic church needs to grow up and get it together. Enrollment in Catholic schools and membership in Catholic parishes is dropping precipitously and it’s becoming clear they are not going to recover the ground they’ve lost in the U.S. unless they start to make some changes.
Also, I feel like the Catholic Church can’t talk out one side of its mouth about being pro-family and then deny maternity leave and reproductive health care on the other side. Not that that’s ever stopped anyone from doing so, naturally. And of course, this isn’t a strictly Catholic issue either.
The irony of “be fruitful and multiply but don’t expect us to lift a damn finger to make that easier for you” is not lost on my or my colleagues. 🙁
You wouldn’t need maternity leave if you didn’t insist on working, you know. Silly women.
Well, not working for pay. Silly women should be working all the time *at home*. There’s always something to clean at home. And there should always be food cooking. You know, for all those kids. Another baby every year.
No, I’m sure that they wouldn’t want women to work only in the home.
Church dinners aren’t going to cook themselves, after all.
When my mom was 17, she was at mass, and apparently the priest spent part of the sermon talking about how birth control was wrong, and then later in the same service there was an appeal to help hungry children, and she said it was that day that she decided she was no longer a Catholic.
Our parish priest once told my mom that contraception as a moral choice was essentially up to her and my dad. He refused to bring the fire and brimstone. He was a very kind man. Could he have gone further? Maybe but it was 40 years ago.
Definitely an exception to the rule, though. Wish there were more like him.
The parish priest who converted me back in 2001 was like that about couples living together before marriage. He thought it was a good idea. He also gave me the following penance: “Throw a dinner party and enjoy yourself.” This was during Lent. He moved on, though, in a parish restructuring. The guy who came after was by-the-book and I stopped going.
I think there’s a very strong mentality of “you don’t need BC and maternity leave because children are the duty of a married couple but mostly the woman’s responsibility” – but also a distinct prosperity gospel creep that wants to ignore the economic reality of needing 2 working adults in favor of asking people to just trust that God will make everything okay, and if he doesn’t you’re not faithing hard enough. It’s getting to the point where the only people the Church has left are the hardcore believers who will fall for that line of nonsense, so why bother to cater to anyone but them (and their wallets)?
(NB: I am very, very bitter about Catholicism because my family are a bunch of conservative Catholic lunatics who look askance at the liberalism of Vatican II. The best Catholic I know is gay and in a mixed-faith relationship, and I wish everyone could be more like him.)
> a bunch of conservative Catholic lunatics who look askance at the liberalism of Vatican II.
Did you mean: “the parish I grew up in”?
I wish the Catholic church would make like the Scouts and split into Priests and Nuns, officially – so tired of people defending Catholicism by referencing its “social justice mission” when the people who actually do most of that work (i.e. largely nuns) risk harassment, excommunication, no support as they age, etc. Just admit that you’d like to go back to Renaissance Italy, close the gates of Vatican City, and let the world move on without you.
Ohmygod Nun Scouts.
I want–no, I NEED art of this glorious thing.
Welp, I see the GOP’s master plan is proceeding apace. ETA: at what point are pitchforks and torches an acceptable response to the war on women? Is it soon? It feels like soon.
I say we shape our torches like extremely anatomically correct penises and SET THEM ON FIRE. I’m going for subtlety.
Now I’m imagining like a giant paper-mâché parade float of a glorious naked woman with a flame-thrower mounted between her legs. Like a dragon, only with vaginas. The fire-breathing womb!
Uggghhh every time I see a picture of that Holtzclaw guy, I’m like, “Ewwww he literally looks like a penis who has been turned into a person” and also, “I hope he goes the fuck to jail for a very long time.”
Oh my god, he totally does.
Oof, I SO don’t agree with this statement though: “[People] have not grasped the severity of the case,” Douglas said. “I don’t look at this gentleman as a sex offender or a rapist. I look at him as a racist, because he racially profiled and targeted African-American women.”
Um, how about he’s a sex offender AND a racist, because by saying he’s just a racist you are completely downplaying the sexual nature of his crimes and suggesting that that’s not also important.
He can be both! That’s a thing that can happen! Come on, Douglas.
What. How is that worse exactly? I mean, yes, racism is bad, but actually causing physical harm to someone is worse. It would be the same thing if the cop that shot Michael Brown believed all women should be kept in the kitchen. I mean yeah that’s a shitty opinion but also he killed someone.
FURTHER. I hate, hate, hate the defense that “oh all these women were whores and drug users and therefore what he did to them doesn’t matter/they deserved it.” What a bunch of horrible people.
No, no, they didn’t *deserve it* because they were whores and drug users. That’s just what makes them lie for no particular reason in order to hurt nice police officers with even nicer sisters. The whoring explains it all, don’t you see?
And the lady who plays dominos on the weekends is lying because…the media. Look, shut up, okay?
I’d say he was a perfect example of ‘potato with eyes’, but that would be insulting to potatoes.
his EYES. do you think he’s permanently concussed?
I don’t think this was your intent, but this statement seems kinda racist…
def not my intent! thanks for pointing out. To be clear: reference to his strangely dazed look and football career, not his Japanese heritage.
omg all the evidence, the gps tracking, him looking up the women’s records and yet he still ‘vehemently denies’ every allegation… my heart and brain hurt from trying to understand
I wish I felt that way about his looks! My problem is that my first thought when seeing his pictures is “that guy is hot!”, which makes me hate myself…
LGBT advocacy groups don’t want to talk about religion… they just aren’t familiar with it.
I grew up in a church, and I learned quickly in college that even I don’t know how to talk to many Christians about it. My church was marching in the local Pride parade for as long as I can remember, and I learned in my teen years how prima facie dumb it was to claim the Sodom story was about gayness, and how Leviticus says all sorts of crazy things (as instructions to the priestly class preparing for rituals). But when I started talking to those who had been raised in more evangelical churches, I realized my entire set of language was different, and we were just talking past each other.
I’m glad Faith In America is doing this stuff, but has anyone known examples of this discussion happening successfully? More specifically, someone writing/speaking on this in the correct “code switch” for evangelicals? I’d really love to learn more about how this is actually working within sister faiths (in order to better speak out against it, of course).
I’m also reading through this, written by FIA, and it’s helping answer my questions a bit, at least in understanding the ways bigotry can sit in the brain. But I feel like my attempts to use their talking points before – “lots of interpretations of the Bible/other protestant denominations don’t condemn this anymore” – have usually fallen short, since I feel like a lot of folks see, for example, my denomination’s teachings as not “true christianity”.
http://www.faithinamerica.org/2010-2/wp-content/u…
An example of someone speaking in “Evangelical language” to Evangelicals would be Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian (http://www.matthewvines.com/). It goes the proof-texting route. I, personally, found it quite reassuring at one point but have since moved beyond the need to justify my own existence by proof-texting and at this point consider adhering to a strict Evangelical strategy of biblical literalism and nitpicking certain verses to be… misguided. There is so much more wrong with the Evangelical view of sex than just that.
So people like Matthew Vines can be a stepping stone, but I do honestly think that the real progress comes from a paradigm shift, and I have no idea how to effect that. In my own life, it’s come from listening to all the myriad narratives that don’t fit the prescribed ones, and there’s no way to condense that.
Thanks for the rec, I will check him out!
I definitely agree on the paradigm shift thing. I’ve been through a couple of them in the past decade myself; I know fairly well the path from “racism was mostly defeated years ago, only a little cleanup remains” to “LOLnope!”, or from “what is this weird ‘patriarchy’ construct these gender studies navel-gazing academy-types keep making up” to “oh, hey, look at how this whole system is related in a way that almost takes on a self-perpetuating sentience of its own.” But since I’ve never been much exposed to point A in this one, I really can’t see what the first steps are on the path to point B.
So, again, thanks for the insight on this one!
You might check out Rachel Held Evan’s blog. She has become something of a lightning rod for conservative Evangelicals mad about women being people and gays being people. She’s an Evangelical writing about feminism and advocating for queer rights*, which is a very distinct thing from an Episcopalian or liberal Presbyterian writing about the same topics because the language around the theology and relationship to scripture are different.
Another good book for arguing with inveterate prooftexters (or just because it’s interesting) is Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden, in which a Classics scholar looks at Paul’s writing in the context of the first century CE Roman world. It highlights the ways in which he really was revolutionary, but also limited by his time, and why stopping at those limitations is to be false to Paul’s central message.
*She’s straight and married. Every so often as a straight woman, I wonder how she sounds to people who aren’t straight.
I… maybe could benefit from any interpretation of Paul other than “dude with the BIGGEST possible stick up his butt somehow gains prophet-level status”. So thanks!
My denomination (Anglican/Episcopal) got pretty intense over same-sex marriage in Canada (at least in my city). A lot of the churches I attended were very very outspoken about their support for it, and being as inclusive and welcoming as possible. And then other parishes were very much against, and split off from the church/diocese. Of course, Anglicans also had parishes splitting off in the ’70s/’80s over the ordination of women.
So, it was kind of fun church-hopping and seeing how radically different churches blocks away from each other would be.
There’s a huge number of groups doing this and it’s irresponsible for that Faith In America spokesperson to imply they are somehow standing alone in this field, or that the gay community isn’t active on this.
Here’s one great list: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/24/gay-frie…
Here’s the Religion and Faith page from the Human Rights Council which contains a ton of information from many angles: http://www.hrc.org/topics/religion-faith
I know a lot of folks are working at the intersection of religion & LGBTQ. My childhood congregation was a More Light Presbyterian one, part of the effort to build as many open & affirming faith communities as possible. It means I also know how the calvinist/reformed theological tradition, historically-informed exegesis and the PCUSA’s Book of Confessions can call us to a life of service, grace and humility that doesn’t spend too much time obsessing over what Paul did or didn’t say about “abominations”. But the flip side, as I mentioned above, is that I have almost no exposure to the versions of christianity that attempt to anchor bigotry in textual literalism. (Quietly googles “textproofing” based on other commenters’ use of it.)
Hence my interest in learning more about the groups working specifically in this area. It is super-obnoxious for FIA to claim they’re alone in that particular spectrum of space if they aren’t, but I also haven’t heard of any of the broadly-focused LGBTQ groups, HRC included (especially?), putting together much messaging in the same worldview or “language” as the bigotry-pushing religious folks.
the denomination I love but no longer find myself at home in is how shall we say, not acting on this very well. but! if you are menno, you can check out pink menno activism. they give me hope. church leaders of my denomination of mennonites (there are legion) do not.
Throw me in prison now, PA, I would do the same thing for my daughter. Also PA, you can buy Plan B over the internet from Amazon; are you going to throw Jeff Bezos in prison? This is BS. It is time for the torches and pitchforks.
My understanding is that PA law states that only physicians can perform abortions; Plan B is emergency contraception, which is not an abortion (and thus is not impacted by this law).
And then I woke up and saw that TMZ leaked the Ray Rice video.
Apparently one of the 49ers is under investigation for beating a woman at a party but he’s playing until they’ve completed their investigation. I heard that during the game, turned to my husband and said, “The NFL just does not give a fuck about women, do they?”
Here’s a fun roundup of all the reasons the NFL sucks:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep…
Excellent link. Thanks.
That’s a really good roundup — thank you!
One thing they missed was how horribly NFL cheerleaders are treated/paid.
well, good? news on that front in as the Raiders have been forced to pay 1.2 million in back pay to their cheerleaders,
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/09/05/356389…
“The Raiders announced before the 2014-2015 season that they will now pay cheerleaders the minimum wage and will also bring their practices into line with state law. The team will pay cheerleaders bi-weekly instead of at the end of the season and will pay overtime for celebrity appearances and other events that were previously uncompensated”
Oh, good. They’re paying them minimum wage now. Way to do as little as possible to meet State law.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. I just… YOU ARE AN NFL TEAM. YOU CAN AFFORD TO PAY THEM MORE THAN MIMIMUM WAGE.
Have you seen the tweet the Baltimore Ravens posted? https://twitter.com/Ravens/status/469918292061061…
“Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.”
GRRRR!!
Ah yes, the critical role of “existing” and “being a woman.” How dare she!
Oh my actual fucking god, and why am I not surprised at all by this?
A+ use of giffing. Also, this is generally how I feel…oh, about 5 minutes after waking up each morning. #banmen #banthefuckingNFL
I’m a Ravens fan, and now I’m rapidly rethinking: 1) being a Ravens fan and 2) being an NFL fan. I’m a big Bmore homer and this town loves the football team, so that would be.. weird. Some people online are talking about burning his jersey in front of the stadium by the statue of Johnny Unitas.
I’m thinking about maybe soccer but somehow I think these dynamics might be endemic to sports? Not sure.
ETA: also I’m a bit beside myself from the few fans who are like “well she forgave him and married him, so they’re figuring it out?” NO THAT IS NOT HOW ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS WORK
I heartily recommend the new women’s soccer league! The Washington team was really good this year, and their home field is actually in Maryland.
I loooooove soccer, but you are correct that it has a lot of similar problems re: violence and capitalism and sexism and so on (FIFA and the Premier League are both pretty fucked up). Watching the women is such a nice change from wanting to Burn It All Down.
Dude, even before the video came out, watching this weekend was so conflicting. I kind of tuned out at points (especially because my team is, as you know, the one from Washington, and they suck at football, among many, many other things). I enjoyed basically none of it. It was weird and it sucked, and my Ravens friends, men and women alike, seemed to feel the same way.
I’ve been much more uncomfortable with the hits after reading a slew of articles re. pain med usage and everything during the offseason. And I hear you re. yesterday; my dude and I were watching NFL on our respective screens (he’s a Washington fan too) and there was a lot of exasperated yelling coming out of my apt.
I just wrote on the contact form for the Ravens website that they need to apologize for the way the handled everything, cut Ray Rice, get some goddamned training on relationships (or whatever you would use to describe that) or else they’re losing a fan. I know it’s ultimately meaningless but I want them to know the fanbase is pissed.
meanwhile.. Orioles MAGIC? ^^;
Yeah, I’d really like to see them cut him. Haven’t heard anything to make me think they will though (maybe if he starts playing badly, they’ll cut him and try to take retroactive credit, this is the NFL after all). It’s amazing to me how much my opinion of the Ravens organization has changed in such a quick and drastic way.
Yes, let’s just focus on baseball, baseball forever (because nothing is ever corrupt in baseball).
re. baseball: I know, hahaha… -_-; If it ends up that JJ Hardy actually beats kids or something similar, I may give up on mainstream sports altogether and go back to only focusing on USA rugby news and weightlifting. >.<
I don’t remember Ray Rice doing particularly well last year, but honestly for the last year + yesterday’s game, we’ve been doing a really shitty job with the running game so I don’t know which one affected the other. I don’t really care either, I want him gone, and I want the org to apologize.
Jayson Werth hides puppies in his beard and snacks on them during the late innings. Helps with bat speed.
I keep wondering whether some NGO could be persuaded to do a study on how (if?) the Washington team name is preventing the growth of a future fan base. In DC, with so many of us (especially the millenials) being transplants, I feel like the dynamics of whether or not to start rooting for the local team or staying with your hometown one is so weird. That said, I know I saw a lot of my peers get excited for the Nats’ playoffs run last year, and a bunch of my hockey-focused friends will take at least secondary patronage for the Caps.
But I can’t imagine a single friend taking up the banner of the Washington Potatoes under its current name, let alone bringing up their kids to be fans. And if that’s true on an empirically demonstrable scale, how much will it affect the ticket-buying fan base twenty years from now?
(Official disclaimer: this is a point somewhat tangential to the rest of the many, many things wrong with sticking to the current name)
I would love to see that as well. It could be a great rejoinder to the irritating/BS response of “they won’t change the name bc the branding changes means lost revenue.” OR IT COULD MEAN MORE FANS, SHITHEAD
Sorry, I like watching football but at the same time the orgs are the worst.
Frazz (gocomics.com/frazz) has a good idea: Current name is racist, but not necessary to change the name. Can lose the racism by changing the *mascot* to a sunburned leprechaun.
I love it.
Well, it looks like their merchandise sales are way down. So that’s a start.
http://deadspin.com/washingtons-merchandise-sales…
The Orioles are having a pretty great season! Maybe you could learn to love baseball?
Oh, man, I am way ahead of you on that one! (Our magic number is 12!!)
It’s just that NFL is also a fall/winter routine in my house, and I’m starting to revisit that. I started off playing women’s rugby so I do like contact sports.. baseball is great but it’s.. different. Same thing with soccer. There’s professional men’s rugby out there but I’m not invested in any of the overseas clubs, and I do follow US men’s and women’s rugby at a bit of a distance now that I and my husband don’t play anymore.
Yeah, I’m also a Ravens fan and it sucks. My sister posted a picture on Facebook of my 2 year old neice wearing a Rice jersey to the game yesterday and it made me so uncomfortable to see that name emblazoned on a cute little girl’s body.
And the Ravens have cut Ray Rice. Good. (By the way, NFL, now would be a great time to start supporting some education and outreach on intimate and domestic partner violence.)
Just came here to post the same, and sad that while I’m not really surprised, it’s only because what other choice did they really have? Sigh. And yes to everything else you said.
Also, gotta love ESPN going right into how the Ravens will at least save some salary cap room now, so that was one reason they “could” do this. I just…I can’t.
Correction: Apparently, they take a salary cap hit. I got a little carried away with all the angry and wasn’t paying enough attention, apologies.
Yeah, exactly. This strikes me as the minimum they could do- and that’s only after evidence came out that couldn’t possibly be explained away or ignored. I am not a fan of TMZ, but if they hadn’t leaked that video, I have no doubt Rice would still be on the team.
I’m glad they did, but good lord do I hope his wife has a safe place to stay, far far away from him 🙁
I got the news on the TV while volunteering at a blood drive for the first time with what seemed like a perfectly nice man and then when I made a positive but pretty neutral comment about it, he said (i am not kidding) “Well, sometimes men lose control.” (eta: the context was clear that he thought there shouldn’t be serious consequences) UM EXCUSE ME. I managed to evenly say, “That’s no excuse” and was so happy that a male donor backed me up! I’m getting madder the longer I think about it. #bansomemen #outforblood
My mother, who once underwent an illegal abortion by means of an awl*, would probably like a word with some Pennsylvania lawmakers.
* just one of the many joys of growing up in Communist Romania (TM)
*speechless with horror*
unfortunately this movie was pretty realistic
Wow. Your mom is a hero. I don’t know any Romanian from the Ceausescu era who got out without some kind of horror story but an awl? I hope that she’s been able to live a good life since leaving.
I think that as far as Ceausescu-era horror stories go, this one is pretty mild 🙁 It ended well, though! Somehow she escaped serious complications, had a kickass kid (me), we all moved to the frozen wasteland of Canada, we have almost all our own teeth, etc.
Dude then props to you all! I have heard other horror stories, but there is something about the awl that is freaking me out. Abortions with tools used to happen in my native land (I’m also an immigrant to Canada) but that was in the 60s, which feels like a different era.
DREAMS COMING TRUE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/nyregion/new-se…
I want that app and I want it now.
I’m gonna be the baddest lady cab driver in the Bronx.
If you’re mad about Daniel Holtzclaw, please sign this petition asking that his bail be revoked: https://www.change.org/p/gov-mary-fallin-revoke-t…
The lack of mass outrage around this case (like, all the internet feminists I know are mad but it’s not making the news) is very worrying to me. This dude did an unthinkably horrible thing, and he profiled black women because he knew society didn’t care about them, and I just feel such a need to show him that he’s wrong and people do care.
I signed. Thanks for the link.
In today’s Dear Prudence: someone is shocked that their 13-year-old daughter is reading erotic fanfiction.
“I’m guessing that the writers of this series didn’t think their most avid fans would be teenage girls!” Okay Prudie you obviously know nothing about fanfic OR teenage girls.
This also makes me mad because if a 13 year old boy got his hands on a dirty magazine or videos online, no one would be SURPRISED. The parents would (hopefully) want to talk to him about it but they would not be aghast at his interest.
Parental web browser searches in my household meant that my brother got caught with his searches, and I didn’t.
Pages and pages of fanfiction.net looked totally innocuous. And this way back when the NC-17 stuff still existed on the site. There was some pretty hardcore stuff that was later deleted.
I read my first smutty fanfic when I was fourteen (I mean I’d read fanfic WITH sex before that but it was mostly fade to black) and printed it off so that I could show it to my friends. Apparently I was behind the curve, because most people I know started in their tweens.
Okay, that might be Prudie’s most clueless line ever, and that is saying a lot.
PRUDIE
I was *waiting* for a Toastie to bring this up! I was reading the comments (I KNOW I KNOW I COULDN’T HELP IT) and p much everyone was being super reasonable? I was very pleasantly surprised!
I am laughing so hard at this letter in general. That handwringing parent will stop nothing. If the daughter is banned from reading fic online she’s just gonna start writing it herself (if she hasn’t already). She’s discovered fanfic already. There is no turning back.
When I was 14/15, during an argument, my mom said something about “the disgusting things I found on the computer” and how she had never thought her daughter could write an awful story like that. I was like “k but… which one though?” I think maybe it was the Bellatrix/Hermione dungeon fic.
In hindsight I should have made more of an effort to hide the stuff.
look at how adorable this comment is
God bless and keep her.
I laughed so hard at this, because who is that fanfic for BESIDES teenage girls?
I wish I had known fanfic was a thing when I was of the burgeoning hormones age. Maybe it would’ve saved me from all those Harlequins…
Ditto! I grew up in a pretty rural area and didn’t have much internet access until I was 18 or so (at which point I discovered fanfic and never looked back) but before that, I read dozens (hundreds?) of romance novels, and for the most part I was not reading for plot. It helped that I volunteered at the tiny local library whose largest sections were children’s books and romance, and therefore was able to “check out” books by just…taking them off the shelf and putting them back discreetly the next time I had a shift. No paper trail for me!
I want to share some beauty to balance all the shit today. This film premiered at TIFF over the weekend, stars Geraldine Chaplin, filmed in my favorite place in the whole world (Samana, Dominican Republic) http://vimeo.com/104147716
I feel the link roundup (the world?) is getting shittier and shittier anyway. I feel deeply called to start a blog about something like: positive feminist changes made this week. Because let’s not forget, a movement doesn’t only need the stick of outrage, but to really keep going it also needs the carrot of result. Looking at & being outraged by the negative is good to spark us up, but it can turn into feeling clobbered over the head and/or being faced with an Unsurmountable Thing, which will in turn lead to despondency and giving up.
Important Good Omens news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/…
SO EXCITED. Especially after listening to the delightful radio version of Neverwhere (starring everyone, because why not).
QUESTION where did you FIND the radio Neverwhere?! I looked for it online when it came out to no avail!
When it came out it was available for a while on the BBC Radio website. It’s not region locked, but it does expire a few weeks after it airs. You can buy it on audible/amazon now though.
Thank you
Oooh Louise Brealey will be in it! Yay!
I love her, she’s not only a delight on Sherlock but also such a rad Twitter feminist.
I know this is a bit of a tangent and kind of late but the interview about Len that was linked in the Serena Williams article really cleared a lot of things up for me and I’d like to recommend it.
Can we talk about how Detroit’s fire departments are using Rube Goldberg Machines as makeshift alarms? SODA CANS ON FAX MACHINES.
Attention: people with All The Money: maybe send some to these nice people, they are doing their best but they really do deserve ACTUAL ALARMS.
How many strawgays can Mitchell Gold cram into one self-serving narrative?
“LGBT advocacy groups don’t want to talk about religion.”
Except for Dan Savage, GLADD, the coverage in the mainstream and alternative press about Ex-Gay ministries, every single marriage equality article, the impact of the Hobby Lobby case, documentaries such as “Trembling Before God”, Funny or Die Skits about Prop 8 and special episodes in fiction and non-fiction. Except for all that, no one’s talking about it.
“One, they don’t want to come across as anti-religion. And two, they just aren’t familiar with it.”
About 5 seconds on Google leads one to huge list of religious gay advocacy groups:
Believe Out Loud
Al-Fatiha Foundation
Dignity USA
Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
Reconciling Ministries Network
UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns
More can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/24/gay-frie…
“But the number-one hurdle to LGBT equality is religious based bigotry.”
An arguable point, but one the gay community recognizes.
“The face of the gay-rights movement shouldn’t be what I call ’40-year-old well-moisturized couples.'”
It’s not. Pretty much a central point of gay activism since Stonewall is showing the face of gay rights is diverse. Even with racism, the movement has been somewhat better at confronting its own failures than other activism.
5. “The face of the gay-rights movement should be a 15-year-old kid that’s been thrown out of his house and taught that he’s a sinner.”
Homeless gay teens has long been a central concern among activists and gay rights have long been an issue among advocates for homeless teens. This is not new. The issue of gay teens becoming homeless has been a plot point for so much fiction, mainstream and otherwise, it’s almost a trope.
The article mentions San Francisco State University’s Family Acceptance Project which has been studying the issue of homeless teens and religion’s impact on acceptance since 2002.
When a significant project with wide acceptance within social work and gay activists has existed for 12 years, saying gay people aren’t address this is erasing all that work.
Now, it makes a better story for Mitchell Gold and Rolling Stone to erase all this hard work and awareness because a special rebel narrative flatters both the importance of the article and Gold. It may be great when he’s shilling for donations, but that mythical “well-moisturized” strawgay is erasing and insulting a large number of people, religious and not.
The Toast should know better. Just because one is ignorant about these things does not mean they don’t exist.
thankyou
the denomination I love but no longer find myself at home in is how shall we say, not acting on this very well. but! if you are menno, you can check out pink menno activism. they give me hope. church leaders of my denomination of mennonites (there are legion) do not.
thankyou
I'm just going to leave this here in the hope that a tiny donkey will help to mitigate all the awful things in the world. http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/PHOTOS-Britain…
(he's only the size of a wellington boot though, so cut him some slack if things don't get better overnight)
Margaret Mead says seeing parents and partners growing to overcome their prejudices is one of the great pleasures of middle age.
My mom's theological explanation for this (she's a preacher's kid who's devoted her life to serious religious study): people have a lot of trouble accepting the existence of Grace. We don't want God's love and forgiveness of us to be unconditional, because if we haven't earned it, it can be taken away. So we have to convince ourselves we've earned our place in heaven; unfortunately, that belief often requires us to define other people as less deserving of salvation than we are, and therefore deserving of abuse.
So really, your standard "bully abuses because he doesn't believe in himself," but on a universal, religious level.
This blew my mind. As the grandchild of Calvinist preachers on both sides of the family (both of my parents were PKs) and a convert to Catholicism, I can't believe I've never heard it explained this way, so THANK YOU.
If you want a random suggestion from an internet stranger (which you are not obligated to want):
One alternative to confrontation might be to just quietly ask for them to change the topic. Something along the lines of "(family member), you know that we feel very differently about this subject. For everyone's peace of mind and a pleasant visit, let's find something else to talk about." It'll be very helpful if you have something else queued up to suggest (do they love to talk about their ailments, aches and pains? ask about a family member who isn't present? comment on something new they've done with the place? something that they love to ramble out) It'd be a way to at least not have to sit through the ugliness.
Of course, some families would see that request as a challenge to escalate the subject, so it's just a question of whether you can firmly enforce/repeat/be willing to walk out of the room for the "no talking about it" rule for longer than they can throw a temper tantrum about it. (If they're tantrum-throwing types, which they might not be.)
Wow, Alex. Thanks for sharing. I'm so glad your wife beat the odds. Thank you.
That'd be nice 🙂