Culture
“The Cliched Family in Television”; a demonstration that satire has never been out of style (“Cut, dammit, cut!”, hee).
“Would you feed your own kid the same food you donate to food pantries?” at spoonfedblog.net. Considering discussion of what the poor and working class “should” eat often contains a lot of orthorexic asshatery, I thought this was good article – and a good discussion featured in comments. P.S. I hate brown rice, having had to eat a LOT of it growing up.
“Class, Privilege and Black Friday” by Black Girl in Maine
“At the end of the day, we all want good food, a warm house, clothing, love and maybe even a few extras however we define those extras, for some it’s iGadgets, Kitchen-Aid mixers and so on…yet who are we to judge someone else’s desires? Yet our ability to have these things will depend in large part on where we sit on the socio-economic ladder and even a decision of whether or not to brave crowds on Black Friday versus shopping on Cyber Monday from the comforts of our home and or office will depend on what we have access to. Just some food from thought from a lifetime card carrying member of the working class.”
“Fat-com: is that a thing?” at What Tami Said
Tami is on-point, funny, and completely correct. It would be a small and lovely justice if television writers, producers, and executives would read her piece, hang their heads, apologize for their suck-itude – and do better.
“Hobbits Are White, But Should We Pretend Otherwise?” at PostBourgie
You know, I’m going to vote Yes, We Should, or rather that originally non-diverse works do not suffer from casting actors of color but there is a lot to gain in doing so; there are plenty of white male actors getting big bucks and the pick of scripts and it’s okay to level the playing field.
“Humpday Hate: The Anti-Christmas Carol.” also at PostBourgie; seriously, there are holiday songs that should have languished and died long ago.
Human Rights
Long overdue: a few articles on birth rape. The first is a great 101 sent in by reader Kat: “What Feminists Should Know About Birth Rape”. An excerpt:
“Even though most women are choosing to invite trained professionals to their births, they still have an expectation of respectful and kind treatment. Despite where women give birth and how many medical procedures they may choose in the process, all women deserve to make their own choices and control their own bodies during childbirth. Every woman has an expectation of kind treatment, of decision making power, and of her legal right to informed consent and refusal. When those expectations are not met and she is assaulted and violated, she has the right to call her experience whatever she thinks describes it accurately.”
The second is from The F-Word at the UK and delves a little deeper: “‘It’s not RAPE rape’” by Amity Reed. Excerpt:
“Claiming that birth rape is an inappropriate term and ridiculing or dismissing women who choose to use it is incredibly insulting to those who identify with it. Much like you wouldn’t tell a woman who says she was raped while on a date with a guy she liked that she is exaggerating, that he probably didn’t mean it, that it isn’t ‘real’ rape if she went with him willingly or flirted with him, nor should women who feel they were raped while giving birth be disbelieved or discredited. “ (What’s sad is of course, many DO excuse date and acquaintance rape as “not real rape”, but Amity is speaking to those who in general hold better views – except, apparently, when it comes to bio-moms.)
I wouldn’t call my first birth a “birth rape” (and it’s my prerogative what I call it, as it is for the women who do use that term) but it is definitely in that arena. I’d like to write more on the subject at some point.
Consumerism
I want three yards of this So. Very. Much.
“world’s smallest postal service: holiday 2010”; adorable!
Celebration
“Opening the Door to a Simpler, Greener, Healthier, Happier Holiday Season” by Wendy Priesnitz
If you celebrate a faith-tradition holiday or honor the season changes, this article is full of restorative thought and ideas on how to reclaim the time and activities that keep so many, so busy, every year.
Help
A very local artisan creamery is being subject to product-seizure- and regulations are being pushed that would continue to stress independent, small foodstuffs by what is likely unfair and unnecessary legislation. You can help the Estrella Farm here.
Fashion
“make it look like you’re always receding” LULZLULZ
Craft
Patterns by Figgys is having a 25% off sale from December 2nd through the 20th. Use the code PDF2010 at their big cartel shop. I’ve sewn with many of their patterns (and, full disclosure although most my readers already know this, am currently working at pattern testing for their upcoming book) and they are fabulous!
Heather at SwissArmyWife.net is offering one of my items in her giveaway; you have two more days to enter!
Random
My favorite tweet of the week.
MST3K melon, from the Department of Win
This just in: ONE OF THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
And – finally – time for a little discussion. First, watch this: Journey – Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (Official Music Video)Journey
And now, tell me, what’s YOUR favorite part of this classic video? I mean there’s so much to choose from. For me, it’s a tie between the pants (rumor is Journey had an magic EnTightening prototype) and the overly telegraphed emotive lipsync moves so drastic it would appear the vid director was not only appealing to hearing-challenged viewers but also those who’ve literally never experienced human emotion & don’t know how to identify it.
But that floating wall keyboard is pretty fucking awesome, too.
I want to want to support Estrella, but what I haven’t seen is their response to the violations cited in the August FDA inspection report. Wood shelves I understand. Lack of hairnets, aprons, adequate handwashing, wiping the trier on a dirty rag, etc. Are those lies? Is it a misunderstanding? I don’t doubt in any way that the government does some shitty shit in favoring giant producers over the little guy, but those kinds of things aren’t ok no matter who is doing them. Maybe they have responded and I’ve missed it? So far nothing from The PNW Cheese Project, who has been covering this thoroughly.
@Paige
I don’t know every detail of Estrella’s story but I personally KNOW them, as in they were at our Food, Inc. event, and I have visited their farm and seen them about. Given that and the struggling economy I see around me day in and day out, it personalizes it quite a bit. The article I posted talks about the huge communications gap and intent issues between regulatory agencies and “the little guy”; having worked in an industrial facility and with regulatory behemoths I think this is very serious business indeed. I have a hard time believing a family who’s working as hard as they do would be all dirty-ragging it JUST to be dicks and I have a hard time believing the FDA actually wants to help them succeed and I have a hard time believing the NYT article is fair and balanced and I have a hard time believing this isn’t incredibly hard on the family personally in a way that might devastate their business.
But then I’m a paranoid women’s libber leftist pinko commie. Hee.
Yeah, we’re both coming at it from slightly different places. I believe all of those things too but then I see the ways in which the state (of Oregon, anyway) regulatory agencies handle the farm where I work (hands-on, helpful, boatloads of AWESOME), and (second hand, admittedly) comments made to my farm owners by the Estrellas and many (most) other raw cheesemakers in the NW in regard to the way they view any government intervention at all and something seems amiss.
@Paige
Aspects of the story seem amiss to me as well. Maybe you’ve had good luck at your farm with reg. agencies and maybe the Estrellas have had bad. Working with regulatory agencies before I know it’s kind of harrowing. It would be awesome if you’d come visit and tour the farm. I went a couple years ago.
You didn’t weigh in on the Journey video. FROWNY FACE
Journey: Not playing, wtf? Though the ad played just fine. Pfft. The Onion video, though. !!!
Basically all I’m saying is that I’m not finding a space to discuss this in between “GOV’T TRAMPLES LITTLE GUY” and “ZOMG EVER HEARD OF PASTEURIZATION??!!?”, and I want it.
@Paige
You’re finding a space to discuss it here. With all six of my other readers, hee.
When I donate food I always donate stuff that I would eat (or feed to my kids). It just seems like the right thing to do. The same goes for donating other items. My choice to do that may have emerged from childhood memories of when our house burned down (I was 12 or 13). After the initial feelings of loss, my strongest memory is of the simple toiletries provided to us by the Red Cross. I’ve never valued a toothbrush so much in my life. It really IS like receiving a gift.
It’s funny that you mention the floating keyboard as it was my favorite part. It even gave me an excellent idea for a great way to store and use ours in our new class room.
My second favorite part was trying to figure out why the woman (with such awesome 80’s hair) was strutting up and down the docks in heels and a leather skirt (plot-wise I mean…I understand the true “why”). I found it even less plausible that a woman would dream about doing that. She did seem to be sleeping in a very natural position though.
I haven’t had a chance to read all of the links yet (busy day) – I only read the first one about birth rape. If you’re going to write about your experience, I’d love to hear about it. I’ve got my own thoughts on it that I’m working up a post on. Basically, I agree that it’s a woman’s choice what she calls her experience but I think that using the term rape prevents any opportunity for health care providers to change the way things are done, since they would write any woman off as hysterical. I talked about it with my husband to get his medical opinion and he agreed that the word rape used in that context is likely to shut down any communication that might have been possible between victims and the health care providers. He did, however, acknowledge that this behavior didn’t surprise him based on his experience with OB docs and when I related some of the instances from the comments on the article, he said those docs were out of line.
I’m looking forward to a free moment when I can read some of the other links.
@Jen
I hear you: and I am not only pro-dialogue but rather gifted at it I do think. But in brief, for my part in response to your concerns, I think the OB community is already demonstrating the profound lack of respect and trust of women – check statistics to confirm – so further policing what words women should or shouldn’t use, among other things, supports concepts that women and their birth activist support network are being too dramatic, too fussy, too lazy, too uninvolved, too overinvolved, etc etc. and they need to do better or be “nicer” or more tactful in order to get what they want (as opposed to the USian medical community addressing grave issues of maternal and infant mortality, c-section rate, etc). Nothing new here as people notoriously police when women (and men, but to a far lesser extent) are “allowed” to use the term “rape” in every circumstance.
@Kidsync
I had hair just like that lady, in the years ’88 an ’89. You’re right her getup was a bit odd for longshoring. You know I was just watching Iron Man and Gwynneth Paltrow’s character Pepper Potts is wearing these (awesome) stilettos at the end of the film and running around on a series of grated industrial catwalks – hello, NOT possible, AT ALL.
Thru my daughter’s new FB account I went through a lot of the pictures you’ve been posting. AWESOME is all I’ll say on that!
@kelly
Thanks! Posting photos is becoming an addiction for me I’m afraid. I think it’s mostly because I love writing captions for them. Family and old friends seem to get a kick out of them too, “I didn’t know you had THAT picture!” Good times.
I liked your captions as well as the photos. I laughed out loud and everything!
“as long as she didn’t wear backless dresses, no one would even *see* the gaping hole!”. Snort.
@christina
I know… [ shudder! ]