John McCain thinks that calling Hilary Clinton a bitch is part of an "excellent question." More discussion here.

Somebody is finally noticing that the majority of animated characters are boys - even when they are worker bees...which are always female.

And finally, in Seattle, a collection of apartments designed to get chronically alcoholic homeless people off the streets that does NOT require them to stop drinking.

Here is another article about it. Here is their official site.

I support this idea wholeheartedly. Yes, take my taxes, please. Alcoholism is a mental illness like any other, and poverty and homelessness are not likely to help anyone quit. Why deny someone the social supports that keep them off the street because they can't cure their illness alone, or because it isn't cured yet? The idea is inhumane and preposterous.

The quote that really got me is this one:

"Finally, he asks, what kind of equation of humanity is this: Since you refuse to stop drinking, since you refuse to address your disease, you must die on the streets."

(Well, OK, no one who knows me would think that I don't have an opinion.)

In any case, there have been many commentators recently, including allegedly one on NPR that I haven't been able to verify yet, that have said things like, "It's just a noose."

A noose is a symbol of lynching. A symbol used in a ritual of murder, torture, and the enforcement of the idea of white supremacy. For some graphic pictures that help make this point, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching

It isn't just a noose.

http://www.freethejena6.org/

For as long as Youtube will host it, here's the video. It's truly lovely.

If you want to send him a note of thanks, please do so! His website, with contact info, is here.

This video is even more timely to me because over the last few days I have been tinkering with my thoughts on what would be the most effective and exciting research that I would like to pursue in a PhD program. I've toyed with research that would directly address access to higher education in California (locally practical application of my passions) or developing techniques to increase empathy in loaded situations like the middle east (the dreamer's route).

Over the past few days the latter has been mutating a little, and I've begun to think that perhaps I'd really enjoy researching the tipping points for groups in power.

The question is, when do people with power and privilege finally realize that they are holding untenable positions?
What is it that convinced the mayor?
What is it that finally made it clear to white people, or at least to some of us, that the n-word is never funny, that "Separate but Equal" is not?
When did enough men in America realize that women were entitled to vote?
And how does the "tipping" of a small percentage of people spread to the majority of a society? When can it become policy change?
What is the moment, the "face", of comprehension?

Turning the questions to practical future applications: What would be the tipping point to convince the majority of Israelis that they are holding an untenable and immoral position in terms of the Palestinians? How could I influence straight Americans to accept transgendered children as normal and beautiful?

Is there some collection or conjunction of factors that could be described - and then perhaps created - that can be expected to open the eyes of a majority in power that is committing a crime against humanity to see that their position is immoral?

I wonder what's already been done in this arena...

The New York Times has a good editorial here.

I also have sitting on my desk (but haven't read it yet) this book: Can We Talk About Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation, by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I hope that it has some inspiring ideas for me to help change things.

Her previous book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": And Other Conversations about Race , is one of my all-time favorites. Buy it at your local bookstore!

In other disturbing news...

I found out today in an e-mail from Equality California (EqCA) that Four anti-LGBT initiatives were recently filed in Sacramento. From their email:

"All four measures would ask California voters to amend the state constitution to ban marriage for same-sex couples. Two of the initiatives go even further and would void all of California's current domestic partnership rights, which lawmakers, EQCA, community activists and our allies fought so hard to earn."

California's offical website on initiative measures is here.

According to EqCA, they still need to collect signatures before they can be voted on. I pray to anyone who's listening that such signatures will not be collectible; but after prop 22, I don't have my hopes too high for the voters of this great state.

I love this town, I love this parade, I love being queer. Hallelujah and pass the leather boots!

Q. Why did I turn off the movie "V for Vendetta" after 30 minutes?

1. The main female character (and in the first 30 minutes, the only one with any significant lines) is threatened with a brutal rape in the first ten minutes of the movie. She escapes this fate because she is rescued by a masked white man.

This is not a plot that I want to submit myself to watching. Rape is not a casual shorthand for brutality - it is a tactic of war used against women. I don't want to see it casually onscreen as a minor plot point.

2. Unless I missed one when I blinked, every person in the first 30 minutes of the movie was white. (*OK, turns out that there is a convenient 'ethnic cleansing' plot that explains this....but I am not convinced it was necessary.)

3. The violence was unnecessarily graphic.

Q. Why criticize this movie when it's a remake of a comic book? That comic is the original source of any sexism, racism, or violence in the story; the filmmaker was just bringing that story to the screen.

Well, I probably wouldn't buy the comic either, but more to the point, the stories that we tell shape who we are. If all of the powerful anti-Bush movies (as well as, of course, all of the summer blockbusters and the large majority of American movies in general) are also sexist, racist, and violent, then we are telling ourselves - and especially our children - that only white men:

- have the power to beat Bush
- are interesting enough to build a story around
- have the power to stop rape, and only when it serves their purposes

We are telling our children that women:
- are helpless and dependent
- are instantly rendered terrified and helpless by a threat of rape
- do not fight back

We are telling our children that people of color:
- do not exist

Q. Why do I feel the need to criticize a movie that many progressives support as an anti-tyranny, anti-Bush movie? Shouldn't we be supporting art that supports our cause?

I freely admit to having mixed feelings about this. Yes, I do want to support art that supports the causes that are vital to our survival as a species and to general issues of social justice. But I also feel that in order for social justice to proliferate, I need to remind those with more power than I (like V for Vendetta's male white movie director James McTeigue, and white male writers the Wachowski brothers) that just as it's not cool to invade Iraq, it's also not cool to use rape as a quick way to establish a repressive backstory, or to leave out people of color as if they do not exist.

I am tired of watching women be helpless, brutalized, terrified and useless in movies, whether those movies depict the Hulk or the "War on Terror". I am tired of white men getting all of the good lines and all of the good roles. I won't give those directors my money because my power clearly doesn't matter to them.

When I make my hundred million dollars, my movie production company will tell the stories that I feel need telling: of strong women, multicultural societies, people who fight to end racism, etc. The stories we tell shape who we are.

The Mavin Foundation is "the nation's leading organization that builds healthy communities that celebrate and empower mixed heritage people and families."

They have a great website and also a magazine. I love their positive and constructive articles on multi-racial identity, activities, empowerment, family issues, and more.

Some examples of articles in the magazine:

Hawai'i as mixed-race immersion therapy
The [im]possibility of [multi]racial + [homo]sexual border crossing
One box does not fit all: UC Regent's suggested policy change sparks a heated debate
Mixed Recognition: Canada's Metis continue their fight for constitutional rights
Mixed Blood Native Americans: First nation reflections on being mixed
Understanding transracial adoption
The Mexipino Experience: A personal reflection & history of a multiehtnic community in San Diego, California
Report on the 8th Annual National Student Conference on the Mixed Race Experience

Check it out!

Read this article today in the New York Times about the controversy surrounding the newest Newberry Award-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky. Librarians and parents alike are appalled that the nine- to twelve-year-old audience for this book (about a strong and gifted girl, no less!) would be exposed to the word "scrotum" in the first page.

To quote the New York Times, here is the context of this frightening and shockingly corrosive word:

The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

What a wonderful way to capture the experience of a bright child learning about life! I am so frustrated by this kind of knee-jerk paranoia in this country. Why would you deny a child the correct name for a perfectly normal part of the human body? Are we supposed to tell little boys it's a hooha (oh, no, sorry, that's actually a vagina, if you live in Florida) and keep little girls from knowing anything at all about male anatomy until they get married?

Please. If anyone has a good idea for changing this country from a puritan state to a place where we learn about healthy bodies, and treasure them, at all ages, let me know.

Congratulations to all of you on your stellar careers! It is truly exciting to see a woman, a person of color, and a man who dares to speak of poverty as the three top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Perhaps in the next election I will see this country returned to the values that I, and a majority of Americans, hold dear: compassion, fiscal health, environmental health, health care and quality of our lives, and America standing as a beacon for international stability, for a start!

However, we have not yet won. I believe we will, if we can convince swing voters of the truth: that we have the best interest of all Americans at heart. With that in mind, I have a radical proposal that I hope you will all consider very carefully:

I beg of you to completely refrain from any negative statements or ads about each other in the coming campaign. You read that right: completely refrain.

Although I'm pretty sure that my political preferences are more progressive than those of any of you, any of you would be better than a Republican. I don't think I need to remind you that the survival of the human species depends on environmental choices in the next five years which the Republican party has shown no interest in making.

I suggest using that as a touchstone: all three of you will be more powerful than any of you alone in swaying popular taste to supporting democratic ideas. Let's work together to say, "It doesn't matter to us which one of us you vote for. What we need is for any one of us to be elected. American needs a Democratic President. We all have varying strengths and resumes which you can see on our websites. But we all believe in each other's abilities to be the next great president, and we trust America to vote for the Democrat that they feel best about."

I ask you to ask yourselves, which would you prefer? Your Democratic opponent as president, or a Republican?

Please, let's use our collective campaign money to change the world, together. Put the good of the country ahead of your individual careers, and leave the name-calling against Democrats to Republicans. I believe that a united, positive front will do a great deal to court voters, and that a negative one will push them away, which we cannot afford. I beg you to test my theory. The fate of our civilization lies in your hands.

Sincerely,

Lythande

It's beautifully spelled out here at Americablog.com, so I recommend that you head over there and read the whole post.
Short version: Snickers (and parent company Mars, inc.) created a many-layered series of candy bar ads for the Superbowl and for the upcoming Daytona 500 that were startlingly homophobic.

How startlingly, you ask?

Well, here is a screenshot of a man drinking motor oil - a suicidal activity - as a remedy for accidentally touching lips with another man.

Or, alternatively, one could undo accidental gay touching with brutal violence, such as slamming a man under a car hood:

or beating him in the stomach with a wrench:

Apparently thinking they were being funny, Mars created an ad where two "butch" men, desperate to eat a snickers, end up eating the same bar and then being deeply disturbed when their lips accidentally touch. In the version aired during the actual Superbowl, they recoil in disgust and (apparently) start ripping out their chest hair. Homophobic, yes, but not graphically violent.

No, that content was apparently saved for the Snickers website. It's down now (thank you, HRC!) but apparently there was lots of additional content, including:

- alternate endings where, in the sequences that include the images above, the men drank motor oil or antifreeze to "undo" their moment of intimacy, beat each other with wrenches, or slammed each other under hoods of cars. Sure - it's definitely better to be dead than gay!

- and perhaps worst of all, what is apparently real footage of Bears and Colts football players reacting to the "gay" content of the ad. Here's a sample screenshot:

And people wonder why LGBTQ teens have a suicide rate four times that of kids who don't identify as queer.

I am so, so sickened. Please let Snickers/Mars know how you feel.

IMPEACH HIM, Nancy.

We are at the bottom of the exclamation point!! It was a wonderful time! The weather was astoundingly calm and sunny, especially for a beach in Ess Eff. Parkas and hot drinks went untouched. People were passing out pastries and playing guitars.

When we all lay down to spell out the letters it got quiet and restful and I was tempted just to close my eyes and dream. My feet were wrapped around my partner's ears to make a perfectly straight side of the exclamation point; my head on a pile of sweaters in the sand.

A news crew was asking the pointless question, Do you think the country has the stomach for an impeachment? It isn't about whether we have the stomach. In a moral and ethical country, if someone appears to have broken the law, you hold them accountable. It doesn't matter if that's going to be hard. It's what you have to do.

Studio Ghibli, under the direction of Hayao Miyazaki, has produced several excellent animated features that star strong, independent, and non-sexualized women. The best part is that these women and girls actually stay strong throughout the films instead of becoming helpless and needing to be rescued by men at the climax. (For just a few of the countless examples of this frustrating archetype, see Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Liz Sherman in Hellboy, Susan Calvin in I, Robot, etc...).

Many of Miyazaki's films also have anti-war and pro-environment themes, and all are exquisitely animated!

I think my favorite is Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind. The main characters include two "princesses" who carry their titles and their ethics very differently, and both are strong and active agents of their fates. (No Disney princesses here!) The character of Nausicaa is a joy to watch - smart, joyful, gifted, persistent, hugely ethical and caring. Plus the movie is thrilling, with exciting action, and characters I cared about. (For those of you who like scene-chewing cameos, listen for Uma Thurman, Patrick Stewart, Chris Sarandon, and, wonder of wonders, Mark Hamill on the soundtrack.)

I've also enjoyed:

- My Neighbor Totoro. This one is a lovely, simple story of two little girls' friendships with a benevolent forest spirit. What I like is that the girls' father believes in the spirit, too, thus avoiding the usual frustrating tension between parents and prococious children in movies about the supernatural. It's also a lovely, gentle tale with only minor stupid plot contrivances - mostly they just have a good time. The girls are very believably created. Watch for a really neat cross between a cat and a bus!

- Spirited Away is the story of Sen, a spoiled girl who saves her parents from an enchantment by becoming a chambermaid in a magical resort for the gods. (It's better than it sounds!) This film has some scenes of real beauty, especially a sequence where Sen rides a train across a floodplain. Suzanne Pleshette is great in a dual role as two powerful witches. And it's great to watch Sen become a strong, inventive, and powerful force.

- Perhaps the most well-known of Miyazaki's films in America is Princess Mononoke. It's been a long time since I saw this one, but I remember a strong heroine, some great commentary on the grey areas of environmentalism vs. polluting technology, and beautiful cello music on the soundtrack.

- Howl's Moving Castle stands out for its heroine's particular battle: she is "cursed" with old age, but I seem to remember that she comes to find a lot of joy and solidity in her new "old" body. And how many animated films have you seen recently that starred a powerful, interesting, spirited grey-haired woman?