Archive for August, 2009
31 August, 2009
· Filed under life, monday mix, music
I’ve been really bummed out all weekend, y’all. I miss NY. I’d probably miss it less if I could, like, find a job? This time last year, I was a college professor. This time last year, Junot Diaz told me I had the greatest smile ever (swoon). Now I’m…here. Sigh. On one hand, I hated living on such a crappy salary; it made living in NY a nightmare. On the other hand, at least I had a job. As a college professor. [Long story short, I moved back to TX to get certified to teach high school, since living on aforementioned salary sucked. But now I'm jobless.]
Anyway.
The Decemberists’ Radio City show was the last thing I did before leaving NY (literally, I left the next day). So here’s a playlist that reminds me of Decemberists concerts, working at Starbucks after grad school, and that time I gave some dude—a total stranger—a ride to the GW bridge after a Toni Morrison book signing (we talked about how he’d played “16 Military Wives” for his friends, and they thought he was weird).
- The Legionnaire’s Lament
- 16 Military Wives
- The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid
- Song for Myla Goldberg
27 August, 2009
· Filed under feminism, television · Tagged feminist analysis, gender analysis, Mad Men, The Feminine Mystique
*I first started writing this as a comment on PostBourgie (my original ‘Mad Men’ article was cross-posted there), but it got really long and involved, so here’s my response in article form.
First of all, WOW. Half the time, I am craptastic at responding to comments on my own blogs, so post an article of mine on someone else’s blog, and forget it. I just saw those comments at PostBourgie a couple of days ago, practically a whole week after the fact. I suck. I’m sorry.
Needless to say, the commenters on PostBourgie raised some good questions about my ‘Mad Men’ article. While I’m confident that my education has not failed me where feminist history is concerned, one commenter pointed out a hole in my argument where I mention The Feminine Mystique. As he stated in his comment, Friedan was indeed referring to the suburban housewife and not working women like Joan and Peggy. I’m well aware of this fact, but the way I wrote it made it sound like I was lumping in all women of the 60s. I wasn’t; I specifically had Betty and her social class in mind, but I can see why one would think otherwise.
That being said, I still stand by my claim that ‘Mad Men’ isn’t feminist.
I guess the biggest question raised was “What makes a show/movie feminist?” Perhaps this is a copout—and I already know it’s an answer a lot of people won’t like—but I don’t think there’s a clear-cut, definitive answer. No, I don’t think that a feminist TV show/movie requires the “woman is victim–>woman becomes empowered” formula. Sometimes it works out that way, but it’s certainly not the only way to go. However, I think there’s more to it than giving female characters depth (is that really all it takes to be feminist media these days?).
Read the rest of this entry »
26 August, 2009
· Filed under film, say what? · Tagged Arthur Miller, Eli Roth, Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino, Tennessee Williams
“And each chapter, I told Quentin, I feel he’s hit the level in his writing of a Tennessee Williams or an Arthur Miller. He’s transcended screenwriting; certainly, acting classes are going to be performing these scenes for the next one hundred years.” —Eli Roth
Yeahhh…no. I liked Inglourious Basterds, but Death of a Salesman it is not. Then again, this coming from the guy who writes/directs shit like this (NSFW). I can’t stand him.
26 August, 2009
· Filed under art & literature, infinite summer, life · Tagged David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, infinite summer
I feel like I’m a billion pages behind. I got sick this week and spent my days curled up on the couch watching TNT’s endless encore presentations of We Are Marshall, plus a bunch of bad ’90s movies on Netflix.
Also? I’m hitting that wall again. When I started, I was really into this and at times way ahead of the schedule. Then I got behind. Then I got really behind.
Now, whenever a new IS entry pops up on my Google Reader, I’m scared to look because I don’t want to read any spoilers. Imagine my relief when John Green’s Why I’m Behind article popped up. Finally, I could join the community again.
Except: I’m not behind because I’m savoring the moments. I can’t really put my finger on why I’m behind, especially since there is a stack of books that I really want to read right now (I hate reading more than 1 book at a time). I can easily read 1,079 pages in a little over a week—maybe even less—if I put my mind to it. It’s not that I don’t have time; all I have is time as of late. It’s not the vocabulary that slows me down; I’ve ready my share of Rick Moody. No real plot to follow? No problem. The number of characters I have to juggle doesn’t phase me, nor does the non-linear style of writing. Flipping to the end notes does annoy me somewhat, but not always, and certainly not enough to put me off the book.
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26 August, 2009
· Filed under activism, fuck yeah, history · Tagged 19th Amendment, suffragettes, voting rights, women's suffrage
…women got the right to vote when the 19th Amendment went into effect.
Here are some suffragettes on “College Day” picketing the White House three years before the 19th Amendment was ratified. Photographer unknown.
Beginning in January 1917, suffragists began picketing the White House, something that had never been done before. Through cold and snow, rain and wind, each day the suffragettes would show up. As Carrie Chapman Catt had organized her workers around themes, so would Alice Paul. Special days for picketers from different states, a college day, a teacher’s day — even Susan Anthony’s birthday — kept the movement going.
When Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, the pickets continued despite threats of arrest, for the suffragettes had been going strong for almost six months. Not even arrest and jail could stop them. Conditions in the workhouse where they were sent were appalling and the superintendent was belligerent toward them. After large play in newspapers nationwide, protests of their treatment came from around the country, so much so, that those who had been against suffragists previously began supporting their cause. It even became fashionable to picket for suffrage and then serve time in jail. [source]
26 August, 2009
· Filed under US news, body politics, feminism, film, food, general assholery, healthcare fuckery, homophobia, human rights, obama, racial politics, racism, rape, sexism, whatthefuckery, world · Tagged obama, Texas, Florida, adoption ban, King Coal, birthers, Tehran, indoctrination, Mark Lyttle, NASA, Caster Semenya, Julia Child, robots, alcoholism, Martha's Vineyard
24 August, 2009
· Filed under change we can believe in, human rights, obama, torture · Tagged Rendition, torture, ACLU, obama, george w. bush, Amrit Singh, Maher Arar
Surprise, surprise.
via NY Times
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but will monitor their treatment to insure they are not tortured, administration officials said on Monday. [...]
But human rights advocates condemned the decision, saying it would permit the transfer of prisoners to countries with a history of torture and that promises of humane treatment, called “diplomatic assurances,” were no protection against abuse.
“It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration practice of relying on diplomatic assurances, which have been proven completely ineffective in preventing torture,” said Amrit Singh of the American Civil Liberties Union, who tracked rendition cases under President George W. Bush.
She cited the case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian sent in 2002 by the United States to Syria, which offered assurances against torture but beat Mr. Arar with electrical cable anyway.
The Obama task force proposed improved monitoring of treatment of prisoners sent to other countries, but Ms. Singh said the usual method of such monitoring — visits from American or allied consular officials — had also been ineffective. A Canadian consular official visited Mr. Arar several times, but the prisoner was too frightened to tell him about the torture, according to a Canadian investigation of the case.
Change we can believe in, eh?
23 August, 2009
· Filed under life
Against my better judgment, I started a Feminist Texican Twitter account.* See side bar.
I also created an email account, should anyone care to drop me a line. thefeministtexican[at]gmail[dot]com.
*If said account one day mysteriously disappears, it’s because I truly despise Twitter.
