This has been making the rounds on some of my favorite blogs. Enjoy, hopefully I'll get to something besides the regular feature this week... or perhaps I should just start making more regular features.
The original of this is down for whatever reason, but some smarty pants put it up on a different name. Check out the man's website, and enjoy!
EDIT: The original is up! Is youtube being weird for anyone else? A lot of videos have been mysteriously "unavailable" to me lately, and this has confirmed my suspicion that it might only be on my end.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Youtube Favorite Fridays
Friday, March 21, 2008
Youtube Favorite Fridays
I think the lists we compile on the internet say a lot about us- our amazon wishlists (I've got a lot of comic books, documentaries and GLBT-themed everything), our recent wikipedia searches (I've got a lot of superheroes, dinosaurs and different schools of feminism), and of course, our favorite youtube videos.
I favorite things on youtube mostly because I want more people to watch them, but I obviously realize that nobody real cares to check my favorites on youtube regularly. So, I thought I'd make them an installment here. Enjoy the first of many Friday Youtube Favorites:
This is a brief video about Jennifer Miller and Circus Amok. She comes to my institution of higher learning every so often, so I've met her in person, and let me tell you, she is one amazing woman with a beard. Yes, it grows there naturally; no, she's not transitioning; yes, she eats fire; yes, she if pretty friggin' hot. Look her up, and don't miss the show if it comes near you.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
What the hell is this, facebook?
Listen, I know facebook isn't exactly a great place for social responsibility, and this one may not even be their fault. It just irked me.
Facebook has specialized advertisements, which means I usually get to see an ad for Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs when I'm checking my friends' notes. Today, however, I was looking at some Harry Potter application, and I get this shit:
What the hell? Who measures themselves? Furthermore, does the kind of person who measures themselves really need to see a picture of measuring tape and the word "fat" when they're checking their facebook? I have a pretty good self-image and this still had me somewhat unsettled. I'm wondering, since a lot of ads are specifically targeted, is this? How would they target this? Women? Hufflepuffs? (Geek tangent: why in the first book are Hufflepuffs loyal, just and fair, but by the fifth book they're "the rest"? Hufflepuffs got fuckin' Mary-Anned.)
Anyway, Facebook isn't exactly proving itself to be a great place for women. Besides this, there's the breastfeeding photo ban, and, well:
Thank you, facebook, for reminding me of my slowly dying faith in humanity. It's great that so many said yes, and it's horrifying so many people said no, and it's downright despicable that this is a serious question.
If you want real horror, though, scroll down a nudge. After some people are having the right reaction, we get to the colorful message boards:
I won't expand on what these delightful threads contain. Let me just reiterate a point I've made before: social justice courses should be a college requirement.
Also, someone let me know if there's a better umbrella term for the wonderful word of gender studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, disability studies and so on. I'd like to know it.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Fuck You, Guinness.
I haven't finished the candidate series. I haven't posted about the Project Runway finale. I'll probably do the former but not the latter. Let me just give you the words running through my head about Christian's collection: isosceles, fungal growth, top-heavy, dirty (dirty-dirty not sexy-dirty), and why-the-fuck-will-puffed-
sleeves-tight-pants-and-ruffles-never-cease-to-amaze-these-
people. The thought "he needs the money" almost soothed me except I remembered he's twenty-one, he's not SUPPOSED to have a nice apartment, especially in New York.
For now, though, I've got ventin' to do.
Fuck. You. Guinness.
Guinness is sponsoring the oh-so-cleverly titled Proposition 3-17, which would affectively turn a religious and cultural holiday into a nationally recognized day for Guinness to make a few extra bucks. Don't even try to tell me that Guinness is doing this for Irish pride- the write up of 3-17 includes some bullshitting about "allow[ing] people to express their Irishness" but ends, predictably, with the suggestion of enjoying "a pint of Guinness stout or two". I know appropriation happens all the time, but alcohol companies are particularly fond of perverting holidays founded by people who stereotypically drink into excuses for drinking, and nothing, nothing else. I'm sure Corona will be all over a petition to officially recognize Cinco De Mayo soon enough.
The text of Proposition 3-17 states that on St. Patrick's Day, "everyone reveals a little bit of their Irish side". Translation: On St. Patrick's day, everyone reveals a bit of their drunken side. There is absolutely no indication on their site of how we're supposed to commemorate St. Patty's Day except through drinking, and the occasional plastic shamrock, the meaning of which is surely a mystery to them. This is not about pride. This is about pushing beer.
Irking me further, Guinness posted people stating "why they signed the petition" on their website:
I think this is the only Saint's day that has ever been described this way. You know, St. Joseph's day, celebrated by and associated with Italians, is two days after St. Patrick's, and I never see anyone on the streets celebrating that one. Nobody drinks themselves stupid or throws big parties on Easter, either, and that seems like it should be a happy occasion. I wonder why?
Again, I'm reading this as being Irish as directly related to one's intake of alcohol, unless she cooks corned beef and cabbage and listens to Celtic music in inordinate amounts every March the seventeenth. Considering the video going along with this quote was filmed in a bar, I doubt it.
Saint Patrick's Day came up in one of my classes a few days ago, and half the people there didn't know who Saint Patrick was, or even if he was a real guy. But on March 17th, I wager, they'll have a headband adorned with glittering shamrocks on springs resting upon their heads and a cool, refreshing Guinness in hand. I'm not saying that we understand the other holidays we do officially recognize (we don't, none of them), I'm just saying, why continue the fucked-up trend? Especially when we understand this holiday through a stereotype.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Does this happen to big name bloggers?
My mom read my love letter to Dennis Kucinich.
She loved it, so she forwarded it.
To Dennis Kucinich.
And the boy wonders why I don't like to tell my parents what I do.
Monday, March 10, 2008
In Which I Realize Deadlines Are The Reason I'm Not A Journalism Major
I know, I know. I set a deadline on the presidential candidates series and didn't meet it. I'm sorry, you five loyal fans, I've been busy. You can check out some of my work over at my school's blog here, the wonderful MCLA webmaster Amy has put up a slide show I made for an event we were both involved in about language and stereotypes. She was also kind enough to let me have a mini-blurb on my feelings about the subject, as well as a plug for the WMST/social justice courses I love oh, so much.
I'm in a course on Stigma and Disability right now (I highly suggest our requied reading, My Body Politic by Simi Linton), and I'm starting to think that social justice courses need to be a requirement instead of elective, or we should at least learn what being transgender is during college orientation. I've heard plenty of people my age that just don't know. Sure, one could argue that an understanding of racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia and so on is not essential to creative writing (though I could/would certainly counter-argue that), but it's essential to understanding human experience (a.k.a. essential to existence).
Rep. Sally Kern, of course would disagree with me on that one. Speaking of language mattering:
via Feministing, that lists the Representative's contact information for the convenience of the outraged.
And here's a direct link to the slide show, in which I draw from Ellen, Dennis, and Mikhaela Reid, amongst others.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
