In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Tag: Technology

Drummer girls and plastic pedals

“Drummer girls are hot.” It should almost be cliche now, or one would hope. There have been quite a few female drummer role models around for years now: Kate Shellenbach, Meg White, Claudia Gonson and the 9-year old Rachel Trachtenburg all spring to mind, not to mention the classic heartthrob that made me gasp “whoa…. she is sooooo coool” when I was 11:

I’d like to assume that the macho rock days are mostly gone, but it wasn’t too long ago that a percussion-pounding lady I used to date would constantly get stopped at the door because bouncers on the Lower East Side didn’t believe she was the drummer in a band with four guys. Sadly, I’m sure those attitudes still persist in some circles. So… I actually don’t have any exciting media links to share with you about women being stereotyped as bass players or otherwise dismissed in the music industry. I mostly wanted to talk about Rock Band, the fantasy make-believe land where I’ve been playing a lot of drums lately, and generally pretending to be Watts. (I looked it up, and Watts has no first name! Nice.)

Read More…Read More…

And the word of the year is…

w00t! Wait a second… the Merriam-Webster word of the year is w00t?

Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to ”w00t.”

”W00t,” a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher’s online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.

Right. OK, so I play a lot of online games–and have since the early 90s, which is when I remember first seeing people type “w00t!” after something good happened in the game. And I realize this whole “word of the year” thing is not much more a press-release opportunity anyway, based on an online poll; last year’s word was Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a whole bunch of gamers mobilized to vote for “w00t.” But as frivolous as it is, the news coverage kind of makes me cringe. It’s halfway to suggesting that “w00t” should actually be in the dictionary, which would make me bury my face in my hands.

I mean… I really love the fact that languages are living, evolving entities that change over time. I even wrote papers on diachronic linguistics and online language patterns when I was in school, and I’m one of those rare people who doesn’t think “ebonics” is a ridiculous or morally bankrupt idea at all. I’ve never been part of the William Safire school of thought that we ought to turn up our nose at incorrect usage and raise an eyebrow in a genteel manner at new words that might not stick around.

Still, though… w00t? Come on. I’ve said it myself any number of times, but it’s not even that great of a slang term. I suppose I wouldn’t have put pfft in the dictionary either, and apparently that’s in there. (Well… I would have defined it as “2. An interjection used to express disdain or dismissal.”) Maybe I’m just getting all twitchy at the thought of l33t speak words, all mixed up numbers and letters and punctuation, finding their way into the dictionary? Maybe I’m just remembering all the annoying gamer dudes yelling that while greedily scooping up their latest helm or gauntlets or gigantic sword or whatever. And maybe I’m just getting old and boring!

I did find this very amusing post on the origins of w00t–the comments are especially entertaining. (If you are a huge nerd.) For the record, I’m definitely with the people arguing that the current usage originated in hacker culture, spread via UNIX and early text-based online games (of which there are few if any written records), and then maybe gained wider currency and broader meanings after “Whoot! There It Is” became a popular refrain.

Feministing is for everybody

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Feministing has always been a leader for the feminist blogs, and they seem to have out-done themselves again: They’re turning into a community site with diaries, blogs, personal profiles, and much more. If you have some extra cash to spare, you may want to consider throwing it their way, as these upgrades don’t come cheap.

Big congrats to the Feministing ladies for these new developments. And as always, thanks for paving the way!

Well, at least it’s not pink

When Marie Claire asked Mia Kim from Popgadget to design a “ShePhone” — a women’s version of an iPhone — she didn’t go the typical route and slap a pink coat of paint on a product and charge more for it. But that’s not to say she* and Marie Claire didn’t girlie it up:

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That’s right, folks: apparently being a woman is so stressful that we must have Xanax and booze at the ready at all times, and be prepared to fuck (with others or ourselves) at a moment’s notice, and then pee on our phone to take a pregnancy test if those condoms stored near a hot battery didn’t hold up.

Honestly, the only thing on here that I’d like to see put on a real phone is the breathalyzer, and I find the corkscrew kind of amusing in a Swiss-Army-knife kind of way. But this just reinforces the message that women are fluffy, don’t care about quality electronics, and are poor delicate dears who can’t cope with life. And given Marie Claire’s demographics, I’d say that this was reinforcing the message that single women are this way, in particular.

And, yes, I get that it’s a joke. It’s just not funny. Whoohoo, stereotypes!
__________

*Kim defends the ShePhone, which she says she didn’t have final control over, at Wired:

I’m being dubbed the “designer” of this concept phone, but other than a few of the interface features, I can’t say I had anything to do with the finished product. But after the initial surprise- you know what, I’m not bothered. I’m happy to see that anything about technology is in a traditional women’s magazine. It’s still a lot less salacious than anything that would be in T3 Magazine.

It’s funny, because I started Popgadget to combat the whole image of women only using gadgets so we could stick them in our cleavage, but the sexist marketing imagery is so pervasive that people still think “women+tech = sex toy”.

But there’s a lot of interest- negative and positive- so just you wait- we’ll have it on the market by next X-mas. We’re looking for male models who can wear deep décolletage for our ad campaign.

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Via Susi Weaser at DollyMix.

Can’t say I’m terribly sympathetic

Thousands upon thousands of people line up all day to shell out $599 for an iPhone.

Two months later, Apple drops the price $200.

The thousands upon thousands of people who lined up all day to shell out $599 for an iPhone are none too pleased about this development.

Neither is the stock market, which drops Apple’s stock price after this news.

Apple, reluctantly, offers a $100 store credit to the thousands upon thousands of people who lined up all day to shell out $599 for an iPhone. But Steve Jobs is rather put out about it:

But while Mr. Jobs’s letter ended with an apology, its tone was not overly apologetic.

The Apple chief defended his decision to drop the price in preparation for the holiday season. As for those who buy products at a premium only to see the prices fall, he said, “This is life in the technology lane.”

Translation: “Suckers.”

An Open Letter

Dear Michael Skube,

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: Bloggers do not want your job.

You seem to be under the impression that bloggers want to do away with the journalistic establishment, and that we want to replace it with an internet free-for-all. That may be what the right-wing, Fox-worshipping dingbats over at Instapundit or TownHall are fighting for, but for the most part, progressive bloggers don’t want to see the end of CNN or the New York Times or Newsweek. We just want you to do your job. Bloggers are a lot of things, but for the most part, we aren’t reporters. We don’t have the resources that you have, or the institutional support. We’re critics, commentators, vultures who pick apart and criticize and sometimes build on the work that you do. We occasionally break stories, and sometimes we cover events, but many of us are decidedly partisan and don’t bother to feign neutrality. Some of us do report, and do try to adhere to traditional journalistic ethics. Most of us don’t. That’s ok. And, God help me for quoting Markos, but he’s right when he says that “We need to keep the media honest, but as an institution, it’s important that they exist and do their job well.”

So please, chill. We aren’t going to hurt you. We aren’t threatening your livelihood. We just want you to get your shit together and use your resources and your legitimacy to gather information and disperse it. Throughout the course of the current administration, you’ve been fucking up (see, for example, Iraq). We want you to do better. We aren’t just a bunch of crazy bored people who are out to get you. We’re also not going away any time soon, so you should probably do away with the backhanded, catty insults and perhaps consider taking us a little more seriously. After all, we are your traditional readership — the difference is that the playing field has become a teeny bit more even, and now we’re able to talk back instead of just listening to you talk down. I know it’s not as fun as playing The Reporter to his minions, but it could help you to do a better job.

Or you can keep writing us off as angry, self-important hippies who somehow stumbled out of the commune and into an internet cafe. Whatever works.

Love,
Jill

How to Stop a Blog War.

Whatever you do, don’t ask the BlogWarBot!

I’ve been weighing the different approaches being advocated in the comments threads about the recent attacks, and I’m torn. From where I sit, both sides (respond vs. ignore) have good arguments, as well as flaws in their positions.

And then it occurred to me — who better to help me understand the true nature of a blog war than the BlogWarBot, which can respond only with logic and who cannot feel threatened or angry.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go so well:

BlogWarBot: Hi, I’m BlogWarBot. Are you on my side or THAT side?
Guest: It depends. Are you a feminist or a bored and hateful teenager?
BlogWarBot: You seem way too interested in whether or not I’m a feminist or a bored and hateful teenager.
Guest: Well, it matters quite a bit.
BlogWarBot: So if I might ask, what’s your take on that last blog spat?
Guest: That’s what I’ve come to ask you about, BlogWarBot.
BlogWarBot: Sure, ask ask ask. Meanwhile, a million species go extinct every second.
Guest: Don’t get testy. I need to know: what’s the best way to stop these attacks? Should we respond with resolve, or just ignore them?
BlogWarBot: You’re trolling me, aren’t you?
Guest: Not even a little bit.
BlogWarBot: Your keyboard says ‘no,’ but your eyes say ‘I’m a big ol’ troll.’
Guest: Ah. I see. So you’re a bored and hateful teenager after all.
BlogWarBot: And I suppose you know all about being a bored and hateful teenager after all.
Guest: Not as much as you do, apparently.
BlogWarBot: Lemme guess. You’re a Libertarian.
Guest: No, I told you. I’m a feminist.
BlogWarBot: Do you think I care about your being a feminist?
Guest: We’re done here, Anonymous.
BlogWarBot: While I’m thinking of it: Are you registered to vote?

Dang. Looks like we’re going to have to sort it out some other how, kids.

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

I was poking around Slate.com earlier and noticed a curious “line of the day”

See it right there in the middle there? “The top searches that begin with ‘my girlfriend is’: a bitch, pregnant, crazy, hot, fat, depressed, getting fat.” What’s the article about you might ask? The Google toolbar and Google Suggest, Google’s feature where you begin typing in your search and it gives you completion suggestions.

So we have an article which is about understanding what people are looking for and we illustrate it with a healthy dose of misogyny. Now, in fairness, the “my boyfriend is” searches aren’t all that flattering (an asshole, an alcoholic, depressed, mean, married, hot.) Neither are the ones about “my mom is”, although by far the creepiest to me is “my mom is hot”. But neither of these are the quote of the day. Instead of highlighting the novel or weird search terms, Slate opts for calling attention to the stuff that makes my skin crawl.

There’s nothing inherently vile about the search terms. They’re perfectly civil (mostly) on their face, but the implications are nauseating. “My girlfriend is getting fat” leads to pages which encourage you, either in the alternative or in combination, to belittle your significant other, try and control her food intake, take her hiking and to other activities, or to buy her clothes a size too small as a hint. “My girlfriend is a bitch” leads you to charming testimonials from men who are eager to agree.

A lot of the time, misogyny is frighteningly mundane and unremarked upon. At the same time, calling attention to it here feel weird somehow; that Slate is letting its male readers know that yes, other men are just like you. I’m not necessarily convinced of this interpretation, but the quote in question doesn’t come until the 12th paragraph in and on the second page. If you’re like me and *hate* Slate’s decision to go to multi-page posts, you’d miss it if you couldn’t be bothered to click through. Is it new that men will call their girlfriends bitches? Or think they’re crazy? The author isn’t even pointing out any implications the fact that these are the top suggestions, which leads me to feel more like a validation that I think is necessary. [Front-paging the quote, that is, not including the example.]

Google suggest also tells you more about the depressing state of -isms and -phobias than you’d probably care to know. In the interests of science, I also played around with it for a few minutes. Begin a search for “Mexicans are…” and the top three responses are stupid, dirty, and dumb. “Gays are” suggests evil, bad, and disgusting. “Women are” gives you evil, from Venus, and (not third, but still my favorite) like tea bags*. And there is a reason that there are no longer any suggestions at all for “blacks are”. Tells you great things about your average Google user, huh?

*This is a reference to Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous remark that a woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. (I’d not heard this line before and sat here thinking “Women steep and produce yummy liquid goodness? Who knew?”)