May 2008 – Feministe

Poor Geraldine Ferraro

She just can’t open her mouth without being accused of racism. That must be really tough. Kinda like those poor guys who just can’t say anything without crazy-ass feminists jumping down their throats. I mean, having people criticize you is way more difficult than being subjected to actual racism or sexism.

As for Reagan Democrats, how Clinton was treated is not their issue. They are more concerned with how they have been treated. Since March, when I was accused of being racist for a statement I made about the influence of blacks on Obama’s historic campaign, people have been stopping me to express a common sentiment: If you’re white you can’t open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama’s playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They’re not upset with Obama because he’s black; they’re upset because they don’t expect to be treated fairly because they’re white. It’s not racism that is driving them, it’s racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don’t believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory “Our Time Has Come” they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.

And racial resentment has nothing to do with racism, right? Just like MRAs have nothing to do with sexism.

Clinton did face a ton of sexism during the campaign, from both the mainstream media and American voters. That is unacceptable, and it needs to be called out over and over and over again. But for the 9,000th time, this is not the Battle of Oppressions. We can talk about the sexism Clinton faces without making racist (or racism-apologist) comments about Obama. The arguments Ferraro makes about racial resentment on the part of “Reagan Democrats”? Those same arguments get made about Hillary Clinton, except they’re cloaked in “concern” about the Average American Male not voting for a female candidate because he thinks she won’t represent his interests. This isn’t rocket science.

And Ferraro puts her foot even further into her mouth when she tries to make the case that Obama comes across as too elitist:

Whom he chooses for his vice president makes no difference to them. That he is pro-choice means little. Learning more about his bio doesn’t do it. They don’t identify with someone who has gone to Columbia and Harvard Law School and is married to a Princeton-Harvard Law graduate. His experience with an educated single mother and being raised by middle class grandparents is not something they can empathize with. They may lack a formal higher education, but they’re not stupid. What they’re waiting for is assurance that an Obama administration won’t leave them behind.

So if these unwashed, uneducated masses of Middle American voters (nice totally non-elitist assumptions there, eh?) don’t identify with people who attended elite educational institutions or who grew up in middle-class families, why in the world would Hillary Clinton be any more appealing?

Can this election just be over already?

Iowan Abortion Stories Project

Judith from the Emma Goldman Clinic, a non-profit feminist health clinic in Iowa City, emailed me about a project they’re undertaking. They are looking for women who have faced financial barriers while seeking an abortion in Iowa to share their stories. The stories will then be used towards work on a project that could result in greater financial access to abortion for women in the state. You can choose to tell your story anonymously or publicly, and can find more information here. Consider taking part if you’ve had this experience, or passing it along if you know another woman who has.

“Natural Habitats”

This comment came from an article in the Independent:

While I’m glad for the chance to see them in their natural habitat, I really fear for them. Now that their existence is known, they’re likely to be “helped” to the point of extinction. Illnesses that are common and mild to us are enough to kill indiginous tribes. Many are unable to digest the food we eat without a lot of discomfort. No good will come of contacting them.

I’m sure more good will come from talking about them as if they’re a rare species of animal.

To be clear, I also think indigenous people should be left alone, at least when they’re making it clear that they don’t want outsiders coming in. But we can make that argument without treating them like savages or weird curiosities.

Webb for VP? NO.

Lots of self-styled progressives have suggested that Jim Webb would be a good choice for Obama’s VP pick. Kathy G explains why Webb is the wrong choice — especially for women.

Picking another Southern white dude is not the answer — especially when that Southern white dude is a former Republican (he worked in the Reagan administration) who remains conservative, and who launched all-out assaults on women. Sure, he lends some foreign policy credibility, but he also attacked women in the military, painting them as pampered sluts who are bringing our boys down. In the same article, he implies that rape and intimate partner violence are “the price we are paying … for the realignment of sexual roles.” Yes, the article is 30 years old. Yes, Webb has recently said it was an “overreach” — when he was running for office and it became clear that women’s votes could make or break the campaign.

I don’t like him, I don’t trust him, and I think it’s about time the Democrats stopped assuming that sticking a conservative white Southern dude in the second chair is the key to winning the election. It’s a slap in the face to the party’s base; it doesn’t work; and it undermines Obama’s message of change.

Let’s hope they turn their sights elsewhere.

Sexism Sells – But We’re Not Buying It

Jacki, can you see it yet?

via Women’s Media Center

I guess there was a point to that stupid LGBT acronym after all

Large organizations, splatteringly inclusive research studies, and vague gay-friendly position papers love to trot out “LGBT” all the time. A lot of time they even spell it out, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.” It’s such a ridiculously common phrase now that it’s turned into noise obscuring signals; you can search for “transgender” on Google, on various websites, or in long documents put out by gay orgs, and sometimes half the hits you get are for this phrase. It’s meaningless in part because it’s a catch-all for “gayness” that often doesn’t have anything to do with the “B” and the “T.” As trans activists and bisexual advocates have been pointing out for years, plastering “LGBT” all over documents or names of things doesn’t guarantee at all that anyone is actually being inclusive of trans and bi people and issues.

But it turns out that the inclusion of T in “LGBT” and of “transgender in its expanded form are really useful for one particular purpose: it makes the heads of right-wing idiots explode.

Shame on Dennis Hastert for joining tranny lobbyist firm

Did Denny Hastert Join a Tranny Lobby Firm?

(Also note, by the way, that they’re keeping Christian Siriano company in use of tacky, derogatory slang. I hope you all get by now that “tranny” is almost always a slur when used by non-trans people.)

I found these links via Wolfrum at Shakesville, and it looks like the information was originally from Open Left. Check out the glaring difference in how the issue’s framed by Open Left and what happened when the right-wing noticed it. Matt Stoller points out the hypocrisy of revolving door politics, especially with regard to gay rights. But the wingnuts are simply obsessed with the fact that anyone even said the word “transgender.” The appearance of that foulest of head-explodey words can be traced back to nerve, the sheer audacity, that this lobbying firm would include sentences like this in their corporate policy:

Dickstein Shapiro’s innovative solutions and superior client service come from the talent and diversity of our attorneys and staff. Our Firm has a steadfast commitment to fostering a diverse work environment in which racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals enjoy an atmosphere of inclusion and respect.

Help Bloggers get to AMC

The Allied Media Conference is coming up, and a great many bloggers would like to go but are short on funds to get there. Head over to Donna’s place if you can offer some financial assistance — she has a whole list of women who want to go to AMC. (Those of you lucky dogs who don’t need your stimulus checks? This would be a good place to donate).

Any of you going to any of the big blog/media conferences (AMC, BlogHer, Netroots Nation) this year? I’m sadly missing them all because I’m studying for the Bar. Ah well, maybe next year…

Friday Random Ten – the I Thought Law School Was Supposed To Be Over edition

First, a video, because I’ve been playing this song on repeat while I study and it’s stuck in my head:

1. Voxtrot – Your Biggest Fan
2. Bonnie Rate – I Can’t Make You Love Me
3. Cat Stevens – Oh Very Young
4. The War On Drugs – Buenos Aires Beach
5. Tom Waits – Lost in the Harbour
6. Franz Ferdinand – Come On Home
7. The Cure – More Than This
8. Bright Eyes – Spent on Rainy Days
9. The Gossip – Yr Mangled Heart
10. Ryan Adams – World War 24

And a Friday video, dedicated to David Brooks:

Feministing Party TONIGHT!

Click the invite for a larger image.

Come celebrate Jessica’s new book* and Feministing‘s 4th anniversary. I’m definitely going to be there, so if you can make it, come say hi!

Tonight (Friday), 9pm, at the Black Door in Chelsea (127 W 26th St, btwn 6th and 7th aves). The party is in the back room.

You can also reads an excerpt of Jessica’s book at AlterNet.

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*FYI for readers: Jessica’s book is published by Seal Press (although it was finished before the Seal editors made their two most recent major gaffes). Because of certain (incredibly offensive) actions by Seal and its editors, some bloggers are boycotting the press. You can all read up on the controversy and make up your own minds about whether or not you want to join the boycott.

The Sorrows of Race and Gender in the 2008 Election

Just read it. Jensen is spot-on. A taste:

My sorrow comes from the recognition that the radical analyses of the feminist and civil-rights movements — the core insights of those movements that made it possible when I was young to imagine real liberation — are no longer recognized as a part of the conversation in the dominant political culture of the United States. It’s not just that such analyses have not been universally adopted — it would be naïve to think that in a few decades too many dramatic changes could be put into place, after all — but that they have been pushed even further to the margins, almost completely out of public view.