Faux Real

But Tell Us How You Really Feel: But the thing to realize is that when we’re intimidated away from telling our stories by the abuse and sexist stereotypes, we’ve been deprived of feminism’s best rhetorical weapon. Stories are how people link the personal and the political, which is why our political enemies are hell bent on depriving us of those stories.

Cissies and Malcontents: Cisgender is not a word chosen to replace an existing term. There is no traditional self-designation for “people who are not transgendered.” Cisgender is a term created to describe a group so used to thinking of itself as the default that it had no term to describe itself. There’s “transgendered” (or “transsexual,” or “trans,” or “he-she,” or “shemale,” or “freak,”) and then there’s…everyone else. There’s [normal]. Sort of like before heterosexuals were heterosexual. There were the tommies and sapphists and sodomites who engaged in unnatural perversions and there were normal men and women doing what men and women are supposed to do. Sexuality wasn’t a set of orientations, just a single rule.

Oliphant’s Children: As sickened as I was by Imus’s remarks, I’m more disgusted by how some of our leading media figures, people like Tim Russert and Howard Fineman who like to think of themselves as serious opinion leaders, and professed progressives, like Tom Oliphant, reacted to it. I’ve never been a fan of sycophants, but to watch these people kiss that racist pig’s ass in the service of their own naked ambition introduced me to a level of disgust I didn’t dream existed.

Your Standard Sucks (The White Lens VI): And Imus, here’s why YOU suck when you feed these memes: Using “nappy” as an insult is saying “Being what you naturally are is ugly.” It’s not even that you are appropriating the contracted “Ho” and using that to hate on Black women by calling them “Whores.” Although that is vile enough, puto.

Markos Moulitsas is an Idiot: Activists often get death threats when people who support the status quo find those activists effective. Kos does not believe death threats exist, never having seen one. Drawing of the obvious conclusions has been left as an exercise for the reader.

Thought: So my question is, what did racists use to justify their racist statements before hip hop? Well, I guess there was Richard Pryor, who said nigger fairly frequently. Was that it? Were there no racist statements by white people before Richard Pryor made it ok?

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speak for black women?: I’ve not been very appreciative of black “leaders” responses to Don Imus’s recent diatribe. Since when were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “speakers” or advocates for black women (or women of color in general)? You mean to tell me that there isn’t not one black feminist/leader who has an opinion on this?

Bloggingheads on the Blogroll Purge: It’s not unusual to work for a business in which one has no say. People do it every day, clock out, collect their paychecks and go home to their lives. But is there such a thing as a community in which one has no say, or a community one works for without much benefit? Is there really any such thing as a movement with these qualities? (And you can say that the degree to which Kos can help get Democrats elected is a benefit to everyone, but I ask again “What kind of Democrats?”)

Did ya hear? The NY Times thinks you’re a big sissy!: Either you get quack psychologists like those at Exodus or Richard Cohen or Paul Cameron trying to sell their cures that have no chance at working or you get studies like these that assume that being queer is naturally inferior and set out to explain it using the stereotype of the age.

Physicians Versus Fantasists: Since January 1, 2004, the approximately 230,000 women who have gained access to abortion care in Texas did so only after being provided with this information, either in its printed form or online. Far from fighting “tooth and nail” to keep women from seeing this publication, physicians in Texas make very sure that a woman is provided with it at least 24 hours before an abortion procedure — if only because a doctor is subject to criminal charges if he or she doesn’t duly propagandize a patient as the law requires.

Why Lauren Loves Healthcare: Every single person that we talked to about our frustrations; nurses, student nurses, friends and acquaintances, blamed all the failures of our system on one thing. Who or what is it, you ask, Grasshopper? THE POOR PEOPLE AND THEIR MEDICAID.

P&G builds a market for eating disorders: Just saw this ad from a new campaign promoting the laxative Metamucil and nearly lost my lunch. Procter & Gamble, which markets Metamucil, has repositioned the brand and is now pitching it with the slogan, “Beautify Your Inside.” Now, I’m not the gambling type but if P&G isn’t targeting anorexics, bulimics, and other weight-obsessed women with this campaign, you can have my house.

Extras:
Porn for Designers
How Stella Lost Her Damn Mind
Marvin Gaye’s Anthem
Duke Lacrosse Players Cleared of All Charges
Thoughts on the Duke Lacrosse Players Being Cleared
Warren Chisum and “Women Who Try Things On Their Own”
Itty Bitty Titty Committee, the movie