Lingual Tremors

WTF: Hipster (?) Racism

Holy Crap.  Or rather, holy "what were you thinking" racist tchotchke!  Off Our Pedestals has a searing commentary on the ways in which hipsters often claim historical images from the past as "ironic" decor.  The decor in question is a thimble figurine of a mammy which appears on a blog as part of "a few of my favorite things."  More specifically, "Emancipatia, the anti-drunk-dialing mammy thimble" who speaks in a faux Gone With the Wind-era racist twang: ""Now Miss Sarah, you know you don' wanna be callin' that boy!" 

Read Off Our Pedestal's take and make sure to read the comment thread, which is very interesting, especially when Emancipatia's owner (language intended) shows up.  I have to say I agree with Sheezlebub's take. 

Wonder Woman Underoos and Poison: The Best Feminist Recruiting Tools Yet...

Calling all wannabe feminists:  Join us, fight sexist injustice, get underoos and poison!

So, if you haven't seen it, Kristen Schaal did a hilarious piece on the Jon Stewart show about sexist media coverage in the Clinton campaign.  Apparently, all women have poison and wear Wonder Woman underoos when fighting injustice.  There are really hilarious moments here:  "misogyny is like jazz:  women know it when they hear it" and "freedom tears."  The Indigo Girls soundtrack to the strip show, along with "good thing she's not going to be president or there'd be garbage bags full of testicles all over America." 

Hilarious.  Watch it.  Then buy some underoos at amazon.  Hat tip:  TGW.

Do you speak Sprenchlin?

So, tonight over dinner, we were bored & invented Sprenchlin:  Spanish, French + Latin, mixed together.  Here are the rules:  fuse together 3 word sentences, with one word in each target language (any order).

Je quiero omnia mundi (I want the whole world); Je gusto Caesar (I like Caesar); Ego  t'aime  pan (I love bread).

Have fun!

Love,
The Linguals

Whimsy at the Whitney

We went to the Whitney Biennial the first weekend it opened in New York and I've thought about it all spring.  The biennial has become an annual tradition in the Lingual household.  It's something that we talk about for the intervening years between shows and often sets the standard by which we experience other shows. 

This year's biennial has already been panned (NYTimes, The New Yorker), and I'm surprised.  The first two biennials I saw (2004 and 2006) were distinctly political--taking on large themes.  I thought they were great (and they were my introduction to New York art).  This year's biennial was distinctly different; it was whimsical and apolitical.  Now, I'm a big fan of political art (see my Sex and the City post from earlier this week), but the Whitney Biennial left me wondering:  do we need a little whimsy?

Where past shows have been dominated by overtly political themes, this year's show was not.  My three favorite pieces were:

• Mika Rottenberg's Cheese (2007)
  • A video installation with multiple monitors that retold the Rapunzel story, based on sisters with long hair who milk goats to make cheese.
• Javier Tellez's Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those of Us Who See (2007)
  • An amazing film that captures several blind people describing an elephant as they touch it.
• Olaf Breuning's Home 2 (2007)
  • A bizarre film about the world's most culturally insensitive tourist.

Usually, I skip the videos.  Lingual Y and I disagree about this.  He often watches all of the videos, where I am more interested in the photographs and sculptures.  This time, however, the videos, more than the other pieces, really captured my imagination.  Put together, this series of three films really challenges everyday reality.  In Cheese, the sisters use their hair to make the cheese (a complex series of milking and straining the milk through their long hair).  In Letter on the Blind... we "see" an elephant as if for the first time through strikingly intimate camera angles as the blind touch and describe the elephant.  Unsettlingly, the film is shot in an empty swimming pool in urban & angsty Brooklyn.  The gritty urban background, coupled with the detailed shots of the elephant and the blind people's hands, was amazing.  And, Home 2 was disturbing, funny, and weird as a "tourist" made his way through several different exotic locations, poking fun at "bad tourists" as he made every faux pas possible.

Each of these pieces was unexpected.  The thing about political art is that too often, it doesn't lead to larger truths.  It often preaches to the already converted, offering some wryly intellectual or painfully explicit commentary on the present.  Instead, these three pieces were whimsical in their approach and they made you see the world in new and unexpected ways.  Yet, in their whimsy, they were not devoid of thought.  I have carried these pieces with me in my imagination and memory for months since seeing them.  The description "blind people in an empty pool with an elephant" sounds like the precursor to a bad joke;  instead, Letter on the Blind... was one of the most haunting pieces I've seen recently.  The depth and texture of the film was almost 3D as you tried to imagine what they were feeling.

I think people are tired.  I think they are tired of the war, tired of a bad presidency, tired of politics, tired of the economy, tired of all of the ways our society seems to be falling apart at the seams.  And, instead of capturing that ennui and melancholy, the Whitney Biennial challenged us to see the world a little differently, a little more whimsically, and to be open to the unexpected.   

More!

Forget the art, what were they wearing?
Who goes to the museum?
Cerebral Challenge
Ramshackle Riddle

New Yorkers: ACTION ALERT--Call the Governor.

You have 15 seconds for lgbtq rights:

Governor Patterson has said that NY will recognize legal same-sex marriages from other states and countries.

He's doing a poll on whether people support it. If you're interested in taking 15 seconds to lodge your support, just call 1-518-474-8390. You will talk to a live person from the Governor's office during business hours or leave a phone message after that. Just say 'I support the Governor's directive on honoring same-sex marriages,' then give them your 5 digit (New York) zip code.

It's fast, it's easy and worth your time!

xo,
Lingual X

Better Than Nothing? Think "Sexual Rosary..."

Holy sexual rosary!  Okay, here's cultural complexity at its best.   What do you do if you can't take birth control pills, have religious objections to medical birth control, or don't have access to advanced birth control like pills or shots, or even condoms?  UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is supporting a program in West Africa that distributes "Cycle Beads," a visual way to keep track of fertile days in the menstrual cycle.

The deluxe beads come in aqua, mauve and copper.  The regular ones are brown and white.  You count the beads to keep track of your cycle.  Of course you recognize this as the rhythm method (and feminists everywhere scream danger! danger!).  However, it's been updated by researchers at Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health.  (I will remind you that Georgetown is a Catholic, Jesuit institution, so their institute for reproductive health focuses on research that supports Catholic doctrine).

The article from UNFPA describes the program in Senegal and points to some of the advantages and disadvantages in using cycle beads (for example, a husband's willingness to cooperate).

Now, here's the thing:  on the one hand, I'd argue for full access to a range of birth control and family planning choices.   On the other hand, when contraception choices are limited, perhaps cycle beads are better than nothing.  In fact, I think they are better than nothing.  UNFPA is clearly invested in family planning and helping women to make choices about a healthy family size and about their own lives and energy as mothers.  So, even if a woman becomes pregnant while using the cycle beads, she is already more aware of the concept of family planning, which could then lead to social and political reform for greater choices.

However, the idea of cycle beads is also controversial and a stop gap measure, rather than a true move towards sexual equality.  And, of course, it doesn't sufficiently address the rampant HIV infection rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Senegal, where the article is focused, is a Muslim country with a low rate of HIV infection.  Senegal is a very interesting study in a social, cultural, political, and religious response to HIV and AIDS.  Muslim and Christian leaders have been incredibly proactive in spreading accurate information about HIV/AIDS prevention.  The government has worked hard to raise awareness, to monitor official prostitutes, and to provide medication and treatment to those who have HIV.  Youth peer educators walk the streets handing out information and condoms.  It's really quite a picture of progress.  However, that's not necessarily a full picture.  In 2006, in Dakar, rates of HIV infection among sex workers were at almost 21% and in Ziguinchor at almost 30%.  One needs only to look at the history of the spread of HIV infection to know that HIV will travel from the sex workers to the husbands to the wives... 

And, since the cycle beads depend on a husband's cooperation anyway, then perhaps condoms would be the best choice, especially given the fact that the government supports the use of them and they are accessible.
 

The Big Fat Hillary Post You've Been Asking For: I'm Not Ready To Make Nice

I get it.  You want to know what I think about Hillary Clinton conceding the Democratic party's nomination for president to Barack Obama.  You can stop with the "whaddaya think" e-mails already.  Here goes.  I'm angry. I'm not ready to make nice.  And I'll vote for whomever I damn well please.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is the picture from today's concession speech:

Hillary is smart.  Hillary is tough.  And, Hillary is an inspiration to the generations who follow in her footsteps.  For those of you who cross country ski, you know that breaking a trail for those who follow you is a tough role to have on a trip.  Hillary has created a fine trail for the rest of us to follow.

But as we watched her do so, her struggles mirrored our own struggles.  The sexism she confronted was our own battle for equality, our own battle to be taken seriously, our own battle to break through all of the glass ceilings that lie in our way, our own battle to demand a government that represents us, or own battle to feel truly represented. 

How can you truly say thank you to Hillary for that? 

In her concession speech yesterday, Clinton said:

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of.  I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to leave all children brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and their mothers. 

The 2008 contest for the Democratic nomination was eye-opening at best, and a horrific testament to our current misogyny as a nation at its worst.  On one level, I feel like I just watched a woman get bitch-slapped by the world for 16 months.  The great "Hillary smack down" took the form of:  the sexist husbandry of the media, the hypocrisy of the rhetoric of "equality" and "change," the farce of a liberal community that fought dirty on-line battles, and the rampant verbal diarrhea that exposed a national fabric built on resentment of women and the gains women have made in the twentieth century.

Moreover, the nomination revealed a deeply fractured feminist community split by race, age, political affiliation, class, sexuality, and relationship to motherhood.  We are not a sisterhood united for a better world.  We are a bitchy sorority willing to sacrifice one of our own to the gods of popular opinion.

And all of the "wow, Hillary's just swell!"  and "Didn't she run a great campaign" news items of the past week aren't going to assuage my anger any time soon.  It's a disingenuous attempt to pander to the angry feminist vote.  Those bloggers and news commentators and fellow candidates who now seek to compliment Hillary on a campaign well run after trashing her in one of the dirtiest election seasons ever can, in my humble opinion, take a long walk off a short cliff, leaping to their own deaths like the bunch of lemmings they are.

I think it's going to take some time to digest the election, but here are some preliminary thoughts:

Whither Goes Roe...New York Need Not Follow

Our good friends, the ivied nonet of justice, in their April 2007 decision to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, paved the way for an assault on reproductive health.  Under the Bush administration, we have seen unprecedented, in a post Roe world, bans and restrictions on abortion. 

New York's Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, introduced by Governor Spitzer, would guarantee New York's pro-choice stance, regardless of federal restrictions.

Why do we need such legislation?  NARAL New York's fact sheet explains:

"In 1970, New York introduced one of the first laws in the United States decriminalizing abortion. New York modified its penal code and made it legal for doctors to perform abortions.

The law was visionary then, but today it is outdated and confusing. Current law does not contain the foundations upon which Roe was decided, including the fundamental right of women to make private medical decisions, nor does it take into account how abortion care is now provided. Much has changed since the 1970’s, and New York needs an up-to-date law that protects a woman’s fundamental right to abortion. 

The Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection will codify New York’s longstanding support of reproductive freedom, while ensuring that New York State is prepared if the right to choose is threatened by a weakening of Roe or further federal encroachments."

This legislation is critical to ensure continued access to reproductive medicine for New York's women.  This legislation will also ensure that New York would remain a safe haven for women. 

How can you help?
1.  Inform yourself about the act and the protections it would provide.
2.  Talk about it with your friends, family, colleagues.
3.  Volunteer to help NARAL
4.  Give money to NARAL New York
For more information on actions you can take, click here.

Here's a new video about the importance of the act:

In Defense of Fluff: Sex and the City--A Little Bit O' What You Need

**Spoiler Alert** Do not read this post if you intend to see the film **Spoiler Alert**

Grab a martini glass and put your feet up for a little girl talk. 

Here it is people:  I loved the Sex and the City movie.  LOVED. IT.  Are you shocked?  Can't quite see me as part of the cosmo sippin' Manhattan girl gone wild crowd?  Well, here's the thing.  I'm not, but the movie is a great big ball of fluffy wrapping around the complexities of everyday life.  Call it a nice prescription for what ails you.  A big pink martini for a bad day. 

Make Your Own Shrinky Dinks (!)

Reduce.  Reuse.  Recycle.

Make your own Shrinky Dinks.

People:  you know you are getting these for X-mas.

Hat tip to Jules for the link!