Billy Ocean ~ “Lover Boy”
I think here is an example of an artist with a sci-fi video merely because sci-fi was trendy. It plays into a lot of tropes, and doesn’t subvert or surprise me. It references popular, iconic images from Star Wars and the fantasy genre. I think this one was more about the money than the message.
Tropes: intergalactic cantina, solitary hero, knight, white horse on a beach (can’t help thinking of the Old Spice commercials), damsel in distress
The one female/woman-appearing character is very pale white, with the most “normal” features, and red hair (see notes about red head in “Many Moons”). The video cuts to her several times when Billy sings “I want to be your lover,” which makes it clear she represents the object of interest (I hesitate to say affection) of the song. She resembles Kira, the female gelfling and love interest in The Dark Crystal.
Then the lone male hero/lone ranger/bounty hunter/knight on the white horse drags her away protesting to ride away with him across the beach. It looks more like an abduction than a rescue. She in no way expresses physical or verbal consent to go with him.
The cave bar inarguably resembles the intergalactic cantinas from Star Wars, a den of thieves where characters from all over the galaxy meet over questionable vittles and drinks to discuss illegal business. The cantina as a setting allows for interspecies mingling (if you read into this, interracial, mixed gender mingling).
In the Superman universe the Kryptonian criminals Zod, Ursa and Non are imprisoned in the highest security prison known to the Kryptonians in the days before their sudden but inevitable collision with their sun. The Phantom Zone traps a prisoner in a dimension which is barren of anything but where they do not age or die. in the video, Billy Ocean appears to be trapped in something very similar, and though he is not struggling to get out, it begs noting that he is imprisoned in the highest know security facility known to the Kryptonians.This cube/zone also plays on the trope of going through a mirror to another dimension (see analysis of Laura Mvula’s “It’s Alright”).
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Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be talked about in mainstream news, the rap that gets in national news is always the rap music that perpetuates misogyny that is most obscene in its lyrics and then this comes to stand for what rap is. Really its for me the perfect paradigm of colonialism, that is to say, we think of rap music as a little third-world country, that young white consumers are able to go to and take out of it whatever they want. We would have to acknowledge that what young white consumers, primarily male, oftentimes suburban, most got energized by in rap music was misogyny, obscenity, pugilistic eroticism and therefore that form of rap began to make the largest sums of money.
bell hooks, cultural criticism — rap: authentic expression or market construct?
BAM. there it is.
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(via rapidfireredhead)
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Jon Hamm Is Being Treated Like an Actress. He Hates It➜
I’m sure we all feel very sorry that the cis-male actor portraying a womanizer-no-one-can-hate-because-he-is-so-f*cking-dashing has to suffer from the objectification usually reserved for female actresses. Very, very sorry.
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Students protest over transgender student's 'special treatment'➜
“Femininity is depicted as weakness, the sapping of strength, yet masculinity is so fragile that apparently even the slightest brush with the feminine destroys it.” - Gwen Sharp
I’m not feeling articulate right now. But this needs to be addressed. Can some please offer a critique of the framing and biased nature of this news article?
(via projectqueer)
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➜I’m totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I’m so happy she really cares about her female fans. She’s not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls. I don’t care if she calls herself a feminist or not. There is something that she’s doing that feels feminist to me in that she really seems to have a lot of control over what her career is doing. She’s 23. People say she’s dating all these guys. Well, yeah, she’s a young person and is dating all these people ’cause that’s what you do when you’re young. John Mayer can fuck 84 people in one day and nobody calls him a slut. I think that’s the subtext of some of the things she’s said recently.
–Kathleen Hanna via thefrisky.com
A message for all you Taylor Swift haters. Let’s stop always pinning it on the gal for being the “crazy” one in the relationship. You don’t have to like her, or her music (which is all you can really have an opinion on since all we know of her is from the tabloids); just don’t hate on her. I wouldn’t go as far as to say all of her lyrics are feminist, but there are so many other things to hate more, like socioeconomic inequality, racism, trans misogyny, etc…now if you can point out severely problematic content in her lyrics, then we can talk. I’m always up for a friendly, healthy debate.
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Former sex trafficking victim shines light on dark underworld of Super Bowl
Feb. 1 2013
Amid the parties and fun of Super Bowl 2013, authorities say, there is a dark underworld of girls and women being forced into the sex trade. Sitting in the festive lobby of a New Orleans hotel, festooned with San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens decorations, Clemmie Greenlee, a former victim of sex trafficking from Nashville, recalled being brought to cities around the South to prostitute for those attending such large-scale events.
For Greenlee’s pimps, the influx of people provided a massive money-making opportunity.
“When they come to these kinds of events, the first thing you’re told is how many you’re gonna perform a day,” she said Friday. “You’ve got to go through 25 men a day, or you’re going through 50 of them. When they give you that number, you better make that number.”
Having been abducted and gang-raped by her captors at age 12, Greenlee said, she was one of about eight girls controlled by a ring of pimps, men who injected them with heroin and, at times, kept them handcuffed to beds. For trying to run away, she was once stabbed in the back.
Now 53, Greenlee works at Eden House in Uptown New Orleans, the first shelter for sex-trafficking victims in Louisiana; the center opened in October 2012.
“If you don’t make that number (of sex customers), you’re going to dearly, dearly, severely pay for it,” Greenlee said. “I mean with beatings, I mean with over and over rapings. With just straight torture. The worst torture they put on you is when they make you watch the other girl get tortured because of your mistake.”
Sex and Super Bowls
In the past year, authorities in Louisiana have been working to raise awareness about the rampant sex trafficking that has historically accompanied the Super Bowl. While there is a widespread perception that human trafficking is a problem only in foreign countries, data from the U.S. Department of Justice show the average American prostitute begins working between the ages of 12 and 14.
Established in 2006, the Louisiana Human Trafficking Task Force, comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, plus faith-based and nongovernmental organizations, has been meeting regularly to try to increase trafficking arrests and rescue the victims.
As a tourist destination, New Orleans attracts sex workers year-round, said Bryan Cox, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in New Orleans. But many of those young women are not here by choice. So, in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, both outreach and undercover efforts have ramped up.
Those efforts have paid off to some degree already. As of Thursday, at least eight men had been booked with sex trafficking and five female victims had been rescued from their clutches, Cox said, noting that such cases are investigated jointly by the New Orleans Police Department, State Police, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, among others.
Two of the women, ages 21 and 24, were brought to Covenant House, a homeless shelter for young people at the edge of the French Quarter, according to executive director James Kelly. After taking a shower and spending the night, however, the women left without accepting the services Kelly and others were trying to offer them.
“We believe they went back to turning tricks,” Kelly said. “We did our best to try to care for them and try to get them to stay, but they were 21 and 24, and there was no way we could force them to stay, and neither could the FBI.”
Such behavior is common, Greenlee said, noting that she had repeatedly returned to her captors after stays in the hospital or jail, mainly out of fear. She said many times, the women are brainwashed; they believe they have no other options, no future to pursue.
“They’re terrified,” she said. “You can say you’re going to save us, you can say we don’t have to worry about the pimps no more. We already know what power they have shown us. So either you come back to them, or you find out two days later they either got your grandmother or they just broke your little baby’s arm.
“There’s no such thing as we want to go back to these guys,” she said. “We do not feel that no one — not even the law — can protect us, and we do not want to die. I’d rather live in that misery and pain than to die.”
Messages on bars of soap
Aside from police sting operations, advocacy groups and local police agencies have been trying to combat the problem by handing out pamphlets to local hotel concierges, bartenders and club bouncers, asking them to be on the lookout for women who appear fearful and show signs of being controlled by the men they’re with. One of the signs a woman is being trafficked is that she is not allowed to speak for herself, advocates say.
Some groups have been handing out to hotels bars of soap that have a sex trafficking hotline phone number on them, hoping that women who are desperate to escape will see the number on the soap bar and take a chance on a phone call that could save them. Other groups have been providing strip clubs with posters that urge people to call in tips.
For Greenlee, her chance at a turnaround came from a similar help card in Nashville. Having run away from her captors in her 30s, she said, they did not chase after her because she had “aged out.” Living in an abandoned house in Nashville, shooting heroin with other junkies and prostituting herself, she had lost all hope of a normal life.
But one woman, a former sex worker who knew Greenlee and had graduated from Magdalene House, a safe house program in Nashville — the philosophy of which Eden House was based on — visited Greenlee almost weekly. She would leave little cards with the Magdalene House telephone number on them. But having given up, Greenlee shunned the woman and her cards.
After about five months of cards piling up, one day Greenlee woke up and realized she needed to take the chance. She was 42 years old. “I went to the phone and I pulled out some of them 99 pieces of paper that girl had left.
“The one thing I had in my head was, ‘If I learn how to live and heal, I can get back and get those girls. I can go back and tell people what they do to us,’” she said. “I’m not ashamed of what done happened to me. I don’t care if I never get a husband. It just don’t make no sense that we had to go through this.”
“It’s not as easy as saying, ‘Call this number, escape,’” said Kara Van De Carr, executive director of Eden House. “But women who have hit rock bottom and realize they’re going to die in that lifestyle will try anything to get out.”
Authorities urge those who suspect trafficking to contact local police or the Department of Homeland Security at 1.866.347.2423. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center also staffs a toll-free 24-hour hotline at 888-373-7888.
Trigger Warning. But a story that needs to be told and shared.
(via mysunshinesammy)
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Guest Post: Femme Privilege Does Not Exist
A beautiful counter-argument to “femme privilege” and “femme passing,” phrases so often used to make femmes ashamed or feel inadequate. I really like how Cyrée uses “femme erasure” rather than “femme invisibility.” It’s not that we are invisible, it’s that we are constantly misread through cissexism and prejudice in a way that erases us.
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Men get to feel hornier because they’re socially supported in this. The whole of society is geared toward titillating men and discouraging female sexual desire. It’s inherent to the Nice Guy® complaint, where men are entitled to feel physical attraction, but a woman who wants more than “nice” is shallow. It’s evident in the way men and women dress, with women always mindful to wear stuff that makes them sexually attractive, whereas men have the opposite problem, and have to avoid being too sexualized lest they seem feminine. Naked women are draped over every inch of public space, and the internet is full of visually interesting porn for men, but our society barely can imagine what it would be like to try to attract a female eye. Men seem hornier in no small part because their sexuality is celebrated and codified. It’s easy for men to know right away how to be sexual, whereas women are still largely expected to figure it out for themselves—-and even that’s a recent invention, because pre-feminism, women were mostly just expected to do what men wanted.
But even with the small amount of freedom we have, it’s worth noting that a 30-year-old woman who admitted obliquely to having had non-procreative sex in Congress created a month long, nationwide scandal. Until that kind of pressure disappears completely, we can’t even begin to measure what the “natural”, unadulterated female sexuality would look like, and how it would compare to the celebrated and constantly titillated male sexuality.
Either way, stop blaming sex for misogyny. If all men wanted was women to fuck them more, the English language wouldn’t even have the word “slut” in it.
Amanda Marcotte, Misogyny isn’t caused by male horniness, on David Wong’s article 5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women (via ellielamothe)
The last line!
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How men sit vs women
I absolutely hate this. These men think they are literally allowed to push women out of their space. Such an enormous sense of entitlement!
And this is exactly why I hate men sitting next to me on the bus.
So many great memories! *sarcasm* Now imagine that guy in the photo basically sitting half-way on your lap and thereby pushing you up against the window while you try to study for university.
i really didn’t realize this was a thing until i started regularly riding public transportation
and yes
it is a thing
movethefuckoverbro.tumblr.com until they learn
Reason the millionth I want a car. I’m sick of being obligated to share my public space (including conversational space and physical space, as illustrated by the picture) with strangers.
Seeing this elicited so many feelings for me. I’m keeping the great, provoking commentary from above, but would like to also add that if a woman were sitting like that, even if she were wearing jeans as well, this would be seen as vulgar (because her crotch area would be “exposed”) or unladylike (read: masculine).
Lastly, going back to the whole “not taking up space” idea: if a woman is in this sort of situation, no matter what she’s trying to do or how crammed she is, this is something she is supposed to tolerate and accept. Her comfort doesn’t matter, nor her space or voice.
this whole thing actually makes me so mad I can’t respond properly.
This also makes me think about how it’s so frequently men who give me shit about taking up too much space as a fat woman, but then they sit like this. It’s fucking disgusting.
you all have no idea, every single time i ride the bus i convince myself that that day is the day i start closeyourFUCKINGmalelegs.tumblr.com and post all the pictures i have taken of entitled men and their goddamn legs all over the place
public transportation is really a wonderful place to see male privilege directly in action. not all men on a given bus sit like their dicks are just too big for them to possibly keep their legs shut but look at every person being an inconsiderate douchebag on that bus, i guarantee you it’s a man.
And then it’s so insidious, I’ll be sitting next to a guy who’s taking up a bunch of space and suddenly realized that I’m leaned over and scrunched up, maybe with my legs out in the aisle, and I’m like….wait, how did this happen? I did this without thinking about it? Usually when I realize I’m being way too accommodating, I try to assert my space.
And dudes get MAD AS HELL when you assert your space doe.
Be all “MY FEET ARE ON THE FLOOR YOU ARE BEING A BITCH” and shit…
Oh I fucking hate this. It’s something I always pay attention to on public transit. Mostly because I have a tendency to sit with my legs open and notice when I’ve made myself more compact to accommodate dudes or when other women have, so now I make a conscious effort not to.
Honestly, there’s unique pleasure to be found in claiming space as yours and refusing to give it up.
Also the bolded.
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“Let me tell you some things. I used to investigate child abuse and neglect. I can tell you how to stop the vast majority of abortion in the world. First, make knowledge and access to contraception widely available. Start teaching kids before they hit puberty. Teach them about domestic violence and coercion, and teach them not to coerce and rape. Create a strong, loving community where women and girls feel safe and supported in times of need. Because guess what? They aren’t. You know what happens to babies born under such circumstances? They get hurt, unnecessarily. They get sick, unnecessarily. They get removed from parents who love them but who are unprepared for the burden of a child. Resources? Honey, we try. There aren’t enough resources anywhere. There are waiting lists, and promises, and maybes. If the government itself can’t hook people up, what makes you think an impoverished single mom can handle it? Abolish poverty. Do you have any idea how much childcare costs? Daycare can cost as much or more than monthly rent. They may be inadequately staffed. Getting a private nanny is a nice idea, but they don’t come cheap either. Relatives? Do they own a car? Does the bus run at the right times? Do they have jobs of their own they need to work just to keep the lights on? Are they going to stick around until you get off you convenience store shift at 4 AM? Do they have criminal histories that will make them unsuitable as caregivers when CPS pokes around? You gonna pay for that? Who’s going to pay for that? End rape. I know your type errs on the side of blaming the woman, but I’ve seen little girls who’ve barely gotten their periods pregnant because somebody thought raping preteens was an awesome idea. You want to put a child through that? Or someone with a mental or physical inability for whom pregnancy would be frightening, painful or even life-threatening? I’ve seen nonverbal kids who had their feet sliced up by caregivers for no fucking reason at all, you think sexual abuse doesn’t happen either? You say there’s lots of couples who want to adopt. Kiddo, what they want to adopt are healthy white babies, preferably untainted by the wombs and genetics of women with alcohol or drug dependencies. I’ve seen the kids they don’t want, who almost no one wants. You people focus only on the happy pink babies, the gigglers, the ones who grow and grow with no trouble. Those are not the kids who linger in foster care. Those are certainly not the older kids and teenagers who age out of foster care and then are thrown out in the streets, usually with an array of medical and mental health issues. Are they too old to count? And yeah, I’ve seen the babies, little hand-sized things barely clinging to life. There’s no glory, no wonder there. There is no wonder in a pregnant woman with five dollars to her name, so deep in depression you wonder if she’ll be alive in a week. Therapy costs money. Medicine costs money. Food, clothes, electricity cost money. Government assistance is a pittance; poverty drives women and girls into situations where they are forced to rely on people who abuse them to survive. (I’ve been up in more hospitals than I can count.) In each and every dark pit of desperation, I have never seen a pro-lifer. I ain’t never seen them babysitting, scrubbing floors, bringing over goods, handing mom $50 bucks a month or driving her to the pediatrician. I ain’t never seen them sitting up for hours with an autistic child who screams and rages so his mother can get some sleep while she rests up from working 14-hour days. I don’t see them fixing leaks in rundown houses or playing with a kid while the police prepare to interview her about her sexual abuse. They’re not paying for the funerals of babies and children who died after birth, when they truly do become independent organisms. And the crazy thing is they think they’ve already done their job, because the child was born! Aphids give birth, girl. It’s no miracle. You want to speak for the weak? Get off your high horse and get your hands dirty helping the poor, the isolated, the ill and mentally ill women and mothers and their children who already breathe the dirty air. You are doing nothing, absolutely nothing, for children. You don’t have a flea’s comprehension of injustice. You are not doing shit for life until you get in there and fight that darkness. Until you understand that abortion is salvation in a world like ours. Does that sound too hard? Do you really think suffering post-birth is more permissible, less worthy of outrage? “Pro-life” is simply a philosophy in which the only life worth saving is the one that can be saved by punishing a woman.”
— In reply to a ‘pro-life’ blogger: STFU, Conservatives: When I say I’m pro-life… (via grrrltalk)
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via speakfortheweak➜
