Feminist Masculinity?

A must-read post by Courtney Martin of Feministing.com titled "What's the Alternative to Tucker Max?" (You know, the dude who wrote that vapid book-turned-movie "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell".) Once more men begin to recognize that sexism and misogyny is a detriment to their own well-being, we can partake in more constructive dialogue and drastically reduce violence in our communities.

Taylor Swift and "Real" Womanhood

I know this song is old, but it still plays relentlessly on the radio so I thought I should finally write my thoughts on it. Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me irks the hell out of me. To save you the pain of listening to the whole thing, I'll give you the gist of its lyrics. Basically, Swift sets up a dichotomous view of young girlhood with the all-too-familiar framework of "Mean Girls" vs. loser freaks (with Swift as the more "deserving" loser freak). With Swift's current fame, she serves as a highly influential role model to so many young women today. She writes her own lyrics and plays the guitar which is refreshing when there are so many mindless Mileys out there. However, Swift should consider re-writing lyrics that don't rely on woman hating so she can instead empower young girls.

In her song, Swift plays the role of T-shirt wearing, "good" music listening, bleacher sitting young girl. This type of young girl is the one who deserves to win Prince Charming. The other girl? Ugh, no way. The other girl wears high heels, short skirts and is captain of the cheer squad-- clearly not a good match for our Prince Charming.

I get Taylor's naive intention, of course. Her attempts to glorify one type of girl over the "sexified" image of a girl we usually see as winning Prince Charming may empower some girls who relate to Taylor's image. However, the catfighting that comes through the song and music video is damaging for all young girls who already feel pressure from society to compete with other women.

When it's all said and done, at the end of Taylor's song, we get one woman validating (or invalidating) another's womanhood. This happens WAY too much today.

With Dove's recent "real" beauty campaign and countless others (including Lane Bryant stores), marketers try to appeal to certain women by stating their beauty is "real"-- implying that others' are not. Once again, I see the naive attempt to empower women who don't relate to the image of stick-thin models we normally see, but is it okay to do that at the expense of the other women who don't necessarily fit the new, "real" definition? Why does empowerment for some women come at the expense of others? When we criticize the fashion industry for only allowing stick-thin models on the runways and in print, it doesn't give us the all-mighty power to deign what "real" womanhood is.

Swift and other capitalist marketers in their attempts to empower "real" women are in effect woman-hating and perpetuating woman-on-woman antagonisms. Epic fail.

(Somewhat) Related Post:

German women's magazine to ban professional models

Blackface once again!!

I've written on the tradition of blackface before. And here, it continues.

"Here's a shot by Mario Sorrenti by the new V magazine. They can call it art, they can call it fashion. But they can't seem to call an actual black model, so let's call it bullshit."

- Dodai of Jezebel

Dig.

Hypermasculinity and Violence in Hip-Hop

Everyone please watch this, if not just for the great content, but because the guy at the end is such a fool. It makes me laugh each time I watch it. LOL.

Via Feministing.

Revolution in America...

I just got through reading Mumia Abu-Jamal's We Want Freedom and it has me thinking a lot about revolution in America. In his book, he speaks about the inherent failures of the Black Panther Party. In short, they didn't bring about transformative revolution in America. They didn't institutionalize socialism. However, he goes into detail about certain successes of the BPP as well. Many of its leaders are in positions of power with Ph.D's, J.D.'s, a few hold public office, etc. Many offshoots of the BPP were formed and are still in existence, albeit much smaller and a lot less recognized. Basically, he writes, revolution is still in the hearts and minds of many and that is the legacy of the BPP today.

I can't help but think-- goddamn. The pigs were successful in dismantling the BPP. Sure, there was internal strife as well, but I had no idea how extensive the COINTELPRO of the FBI (COunter INTELligence PROgram) was (actually, I didn't even know it existed!). Neither did the leaders. Will we ever be able to dissect how much of the internal strife was caused by external forces, by brownmail and snitches?

I think of all of the other struggles put down by government, by the power structure.

I think of Samahang Pilipino. Throughout my time in this student organization, there was constant talk of "the old ways" and how we weren't doing enough, how we were merely repeating traditions given us from the organization's more radical past. I think of all of the other student movements/organizations I was involved with and how it's ended. I've heard too often about student leaders losing radicalization or having to succumb to neutralization in order to pay the bills, in order to get a job upon graduation. I've heard people speak of how hard it is to find a like-minded community outside of college life. Moreover, after participating in a sit-in against the UC Regents raising our student fees, they still raised them. The next year they raised it even more.

I think of community organizations outside school. There are SO many organizations doing such great work. Most of these radical organizations constantly speak about dismantling all forms of oppression-- white, capitalist, hierarchical oppression. If they have these same interests, why is it so difficult to build a single revolution??? Why has there been nothing even close to what the Black Panthers built in our time? Even in college, abundant in its left-leaning activist students, building coalitions is immensely difficult. White anarchist students work very rarely with the student of color organizations. Many times organizations don't even know the other exists.

Why has it been nearly impossible to build a full revolution in America, unlike our Third World brothas and sistas? Is it because of America's unique history? Spelled out, is it because the indigenous people were almost fully extinguished making it impossible for them to work with other oppressed peoples in this country to take power away from the Europeans?

And what does revolution mean today when we are seeing more of our community's faces in positions of power? Not only in government are we seeing key leaders of color in the highest ranks, but in corporate America as well. And what shall we say about the people like Michael Steele, people who are just so fooled or ignorant about their own history?

It would be foolish, however, to ignore the fact that although we are seeing such changes, the vast majority of people with power-- both political and economic-- are white. However, how do these changes affect political discourse? Does this make things easier or harder for activists?

Ironically, however, at this specific moment in time, when our economy seems to be getting worse and worse, when people are losing more and more jobs, when the California education system is seriously on the brink of destruction and capitalism is being blamed in the mainstream for so many of our problems (yes, I would call Michael Moore mainstream), could there be a better time for revolution?

I don't have the answer to any of these questions. Although I'm hopeful about change, I have serious doubts about whether we will ever see truly transformative revolution in this lifetime. I think those who would benefit from tradition and the status quo have been too manipulative and too steadfast in their work to allow radical change.

But how much further will this continue until we do, indeed, "perish like Babylon"?

Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines

The situation is bleak. And the inept government doesn't help the situation either.

Please donate whatever you can. If you are like me though, you have no money to donate. Luckily, however, I just found out that LBC Cargo is sending FREE shipments to the Philippines for in-kind donations!!! So clothes, shoes, towels, blankets... any kind of goods you think people might need right now would help!!!

Disgust w/ Hollywood

Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman (I cant believe this one!), Daren Aronofsky, Martin Scorsese, Gael Garcia Bernal and Woody Allen. All names of people whose work I refuse to support from now on. They believe in the defense of a rapist all in the name of.... art? You disgust me and should be ashamed of yourself.

Take a cue from Chris Rock already. Rape is rape you insular sickos!!!!

Update: Watch this video from Jay Smooth. Intelligent work, once again.