Humor site grasps the essence of misogyny. Sort of.

It’s official.

A humor website is not only funnier, but smarter and more aware than most mainstream news sites.
This article from Cracked is proof men are capable of understanding what a fucked up world this is for women.  Sort of.  Dude backs up his reasoning with phony evo-psych arguments and really doesn’t seem to get why the concept of beauty is oppressive when applied to human beings, and his only conclusion seems to be, “Sorry we’re such pigs, ladies.”

There’s another M.K. on the internet who takes apart the article named above in more detail.

Flawed as it is, this is far more awareness of misogyny than you’ll get from most other media outlets.

Art Quote of the Day: Bridget Riley

Blaze Study (1962) by Bridget Riley. Source

There will always be people born with talent, with gifts, with minds that seek new experiences, generation after generation.

 

— Bridget Riley, who just became the first woman to win the Sikkens art prize

Exiled stars in a misogyny-free astronomy news story

Supermassive black hole illustration via NASAJPL

Experimenting with RedOrbit’s reblog function, I discovered this story about hypervelocity stars, informally known as exiled stars.   You’ve probably noticed that I’m fond enough of exiled stars to name my blog after ’em.  Both astronomers mentioned in the story are women. Also, there’s some neat animated graphics that show how exiled stars are cast out of the galaxy by black holes.

Support women in science and see neat space stuff.  Double win.

Astronomers Find Hypervelocity Stars Ejected From The Galactic Core (via redOrbit)

It’s very difficult to kick a star out of the galaxy. In fact, the primary mechanism that astronomers have come up with that can give a star the two-million-plus mile-per-hour kick it takes requires a close encounter with the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core. So far astronomers have…

Invigorating internet feminism. We need more of that.

Composition in Red and Black by Tin Tin Sann.

Okay.  I didn’t really need to see this today.  I really, really didn’t.

Blogging about feminism (particularly the no-nonsense kind) comes with unpleasant consequences, such as getting dumped by most of your so-called friends and trashed by pretty much everyone who feels threatened by your views, which means pretty much everyone.  And that’s unpleasant to wake up to every morning when you’d rather be out looking at heatwarming nature crap.  None of us has the energy to battle for fully human status every moment of every day.

But the world still hates women and it is still smooshing our humanity down to nothing, and our culture is full of oppressive tropes that only facilitate the smooshing, and even other women think it’s okay to do things that smoosh us even more, and we need to do something about this before we’re all smooshed.

The patriarchy-blaming torch; it is ours to carry.  I hope to set many male-supremacist farms alight.  Care to join me?

Inclusivity: a rant

Unconscious Anxiety by Chiharu Shiota, 2009

Women who believe that women deserve fully human status, but don’t want to call themselves feminists for fear of the withering glare of male disapproval.

Women who listen to feminism being trashed as the territory of humorless old prudes who don’t want anybody to have any fun.  They nod and smile along, and then pipe up with, “But I’M pretty!  I’M sexy!  I love men!”

Women who are passionately opposed to racism, classism, gender essentialism, and every other form of marginalization that exists…but still think that feminism is a dirty word, Andrea Dworkin was a monster, and radfems just go too far.

Believers in social justice who want to include everybody.  Except those who are too serious about the idea that women are people, not decorative penis holsters.

Radical feminists are the most demonized female demographic.  ‘Hairy, humorless dyke’ is a running joke among Dude Nation.  Libfems and funfems, their kissing cousins, are very happy to let us take the stigma and abuse while they rush to assure dudes that they aren’t like us, not really.

They are all about including marginalized groups…except us.  Us, they are only too ready to throw under the patriarchal bus.

Go on, embrace everyone under that big-tent philosophy, except those who actually want to free you.  Then wonder why women are still fighting for abortion rights 40 years after Roe vs. Wade.

Spot the Misogyny: Paul O’Grady

One prominent Catholic for whom O’Grady reserves particular venom is erstwhile cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe, who recently spoke at the Conservative Party Conference fringe meeting for opponents of equal marriage. “What does she know about love or marriage?” O’Grady glares, with a glint of mischief. “She’s an eternal virgin. She’ll have on her tombstone, ‘Return to sender, unopened’

From this article which didn’t allow comments:

If a man who is known for making a lot of funny and smart comments makes personal attacks about a woman he doesn’t like,  does that make it okay?  What if he’s gay and she’s a homophobic bigot?  Does that make it okay for him to use his male privilege to attack her on the basis of her gender?

Is it okay to imply that women are only relevant if they’re of sexual use to men?

Hell no, it’s not.   It’s not like taking apart ignorant ideas is difficult.  It’s just easier and more satisfying to make it a personal attack.   Easier, more satisfying, but lazy and cowardly too.

O’Grady should confine his criticisms to Widdecombe’s opinions, not her gender or sexual practices real or imagined.

Sundays with Clyfford Still: My half-assed tribute

So I just spent a week or so as the involuntary guest of the government of a small Balkan country.  They were rash enough to allow me the use of a set of watercolors.

Those who haven’t much experience with painting might not know this, but watercolors are actually the hardest kind of paint to master.   That free, spontaneous look they have?  Takes a ton of planning, practice, and “saving whites”.  Oils are a cinch by comparison.  With oils, you can scrape off your mistakes before they dry.

Anyway, here’s one of my prison paintings, entitled “Half-Assed Tribute to Clyfford Still”.

Half-Assed Tribute to Clyfford Still, by M.K. Hajdin

The photo quality is half-assed, too.  Just to keep up with the half-assed spirit of things.

Dickbag Quote of the Day: Not Extremely Feminist Or Anything

If we’re all made of star stuff, why isn’t Dude Nation any brighter?

I am proud to call myself “feminist”, but not the extremist kind.

— Some Deluded Dude

“Because I believe in justice!  But only slightly.”

Classic example of why men are not feminists, no matter what they claim to be.

Quote of the day: Liberalism and banality in the media

Variations in Air Pressure by Helen Ferguson Crawford

I developed conventional liberal politics in reaction to the conventional conservative politics of my father and his generation. But in a more basic sense, I grew up depoliticized — like most contemporary Americans, I was never taught to analyze systems and structures of power, and so my banal liberal positions seemed like cutting edge critique to me. After college I worked as a journalist at mainstream newspapers, which further retarded my ability to think critically about power; reporters who don’t have a political consciousness coming into the field are unlikely to develop one in an industry that claims neutrality but is fanatically devoted to the conventional wisdom.

 — Robert Jensen

    This is from Jensen’s piece “Consciousness Rising, World Fading”, and you can read more about it here on Julian Real’s excellent social-justice blog.

Happy birthday, Richard Jobson

Happy birthday to Richard Jobson, punk hero of my childhood, who was born on this day in 1960.   Please join me in wishing him many happy returns.

And for your enjoyment, here is my personal favorite Armoury Show video.  It’s from a show called The Tube in 1985.

The gold lame!  The hat!  The GUM!

You have not lived until you have seen this.

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