What We Missed
Is feminist art "the most important artistic movement since World War II"?
American Apparel does it again.
Mom Refuses C-Section, Baby Taken Away (More at National Advocates for Pregnant Women)
Family Guy will take on abortion - whether it will be aired is another story.
Ain't That a Shame (author has her book cover "white washed")
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Assiya Rafiq truly is a hero. It takes people like her to make things change. I sincerely hope she wins the case.
from napw
We are, however, very disappointed that the Court upheld the finding of abuse and neglect against the mother based on "additional evidence." In fact, the "additional" evidence is inextricably linked to the hospital's attempt to coerce Ms. M. into giving consent for unnecessary cesarean surgery and other interventions during labor and delivery. The decision repeatedly indicates that child welfare workers and hospital staff are presumed to be credible witnesses with significant expertise, while pregnant women's decision-making is effectively dismissed as uninformed or irrational. Moreover, as with many other child welfare interventions, an initial report to child welfare authorities that has no foundation too often becomes the excuse for massive invasions of family privacy, giving child welfare authorities license, in effect, to fish for any information that might be used to justify their intervention in the first place.
argh!! im gobsmacked. godammit, this pisses me off.
Dov Charney ought to fire himself from my personal point of view - I can't believe this guy, but I'm not suprised. Remeber when American Apparel used to be all that becausethey were ethical ?
Ugh. Hate American Apparel. Thanks for the heads up, I responded on my blog.
Words cannot describe how much I do NOT want to see Family Guy "take on" the sensitive topic of abortion. While I do watch the show on occasion (not much recently...the "jokes" about domestic violence and date rape are a bit of a turn-off), I really don't think there's any way to make abortion humorous.
Family Guy "took on" abstinence-only education a while back, and it was great. We even showed it at a Law Students for Choice meeting. While Family Guy isn't for everyone, it is often really great about taking on an issue in such a way that it exposes the true stupidity of the conservative stance in a way that sitcoms just can't do.
I don't think FG will make abortion humorous as much as it will make "pro-lifers" the butt of some very, very humorous jokes.
Oh, I forgot about that episode...that one was brilliant!
I'm sure they'll make some much-needed jokes about the insanity of picketers at abortion clinics, but I sort of think there's room for teasing/commentary on both the "pro-life" and "pro-choice" extremes.
I agree with the room for teasing on both sides. I just think that FG will make fun of the pro-life side because of the political bent of the show. However, I would love to see equal opportunity lambasting.
It's funny that you should mention that episode, as "rape as humor" discussions have been popping up a lot lately. This was, of course, the episode where Lois reacts to Peter's abstinence vow by forcibly having sex with him while he begs her to stop and claws at the floor. Of course, that wasn't the first time Lois raped Peter, nor is he the only man that's been raped on Family Guy, so if nothing else, at least Seth is even-handed with his inappropriate humor.
They will definitely make pro-lifers the butt of the joke. I bet we can look forward to a storyline that presents abortion as a reasonable decision. Did anyone see the episode where Brian can't find a girlfriend, and Lois sets him up with someone at a halloween party, and she comes dressed all bloodied-up as "a victim of the liberal agenda" and then explains that she's an aborted fetus? Brian, the voice of liberalism and progressive politics on the show, is disgusted by her.
But all the same, Family Guy is one of those shows that thinks it can get away with racist, sexist jokes because it has a liberal bent. So I anticipate this episode would have a strong pro-choice message, but will involve alot of jokes about irresponsible sluts getting knocked up or, even more likely, women being ugly and saggy and fat when they're pregnant/after giving birth. ESPECIALLY if the character who gets pregnant is Meg. So I bet we can expect the show to be full of pro-choice fuzzy feelings, but it won't be a misogyny-free message.
Even liberal progressive Brian can be a sexist jerk. There was one episode where he had a bulimic girlfriend but said it made her look "hot", and in the episode where Meg gets upset that he's an atheist, his argument to her for there being no God was to put her down as much as the rest of the family does, saying things like "If there was a God, why did he give you a fat ass and ugly face and make no one love you?"
I wonder if Seth MacFarlane would be one of those guys who considers themselves liberal but is blindly very misogynist, and when you point it out to them they get all indignant.
Even liberal progressive Brian can be a sexist jerk. There was one episode where he had a bulimic girlfriend but said it made her look "hot", and in the episode where Meg gets upset that he's an atheist, his argument to her for there being no God was to put her down as much as the rest of the family does, saying things like "If there was a God, why did he give you a fat ass and ugly face and make no one love you?"
I wonder if Seth MacFarlane would be one of those guys who considers themselves liberal but is blindly very misogynist, and when you point it out to them they get all indignant.
Yeah I know; I remember both those episodes. I didn't mean to imply he's kind or considerate or even remotely a feminist; just that he's a "liberal" according to contemporary political discours. As I said, they're bound to screw the episode up that could have the potential to be quite enlightening. We'll probably see Brian at a pro-choice rally, holding up a pro-choice sign, making fun of the fat butch beside him and saying something like "What does she care about abortions? She'll never get pregnant, no one would fuck that cow." It will be pro-choice but it will miss the point.
And I think he (Seth Macfarlane) might be one of those guys, if we assume his personal ideologies are laced into every episode. Did you see the "feminist" episode? It was the stupidest, laziest, most unoriginal depiction of feminism and the types of women who are feminists that you could possibly expect. Feminists just whine and nag about sexual harrassment, go to women's retreats and talk about their feelings, and hate both men and stay-at-home mothers. Yawn.
American Apparel, really??? Sadly not surprising, but ultimately disappointing. I won't be setting foot in that store again.
Assiya Rafiq is a true hero - a brave, impressive young woman. I hope Assiya and her family get the justice they deserve.
Also from The Root: Beauty, the Brush, and Black Girl Pain. Really troubling. I related to this so much, and I'm sure many other women of color do too.
I think the Family Guy abortion episode would be good. Family Guy is good at making fun of right-wing propoganda like absintinince only education, anti-gay marriage, war recruitment methods, etc. So although Family Guy can be pretty tasteless, it is also satirical :)
Yeah but abortion is on a whole nother level of controversy. The only one willing to go near it so far is Sacha Baron Cohen. Also, plenty of sources that have no trouble satirizing conservative propaganda in normal times, suddenly seem to have problems if it involves taking a pro-feminist stance. We'll have to see.
If they even mention the word abortion, it's a win. :P
Actually South Park has done some jokes about abortion, fetuses, stem cell, etc.
True about the whole nother level of controversy. I've only ever seen abortion handled positively twice on TV; once was on an episode of the original version of Degrassi, a Canadian cult classic teen soap, and the other (which I remember more clearly) was a subplot of Six Feet Under in the third or fourth season. Claire got an abortion. It was hands-down the most daring treatment of abortion I think I've ever seen in a fictional plotline; she wasn't punished for it by the scriptwriters and never expressed any regret, it even proved to be a bonding experience between Claire and Brenda.
But for a comedic show to feature abortion in a plotline is a whole other bag of worms. I think it's a great idea, and I have plenty of problems with FG, but I have to give them credit for being unapologetic about their views. I don't think they'll half-ass this message. The episode will be a full-tilt pro-choice message, it's hard for me to envision it otherwise. But as I said above--I'm sure they'll still manage to misogynize it.
I guess Don Charney should be firing himself- after all, he is not conventionally attractive.
Joan
Oh, too easy.
American Apparel...you're the only store that makes clothes to fit my gangly ass. Stop ruining things for me. GAH.
It's unlikely that Assiya Rafiq will get justice. Mukhtar Mai still hasn't!
More on NJ baby stealing case on Salon.com
I posted about this in community feministing - which sparked some interesting though brief responses. I think the case raises important questions but not the ones I initially thought... see the post to get a fuller picture of this case (some useful links there from commenters who pulled me up on the details of this story):
http://community.feministing.com/2009/07/a-woman-in-labour-iscan-be-inc.html
I posted this comment in your community post, but wanted to share it here as well:
Having worked on these kinds of cases before, I want to stress how important it is for feminists not to think of issues in silos, as the Salon author does. In this case, reproductive rights is intimately connected to both a long history of society (and especially the legal system) characterizing women who challenge authority as "mentally ill" AND a punitive, arbitrary, class and race-based child welfare system (please see "Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare" by Dorothy Roberts).
When the Salon author flippantly states that "this woman isn't the poster girl for reproductive rights" she is explicitly rejecting an intersectional analysis in this case and basically telling VM that "we don't want you and 'your issues' in the movement.
LN8o - I'm just replying here to similar comment at the original community post. I think you are entirely right about the Salon piece.
I must also say that the more I read about and understand this case (including the full court record) the more concerned about it I become. Other posters comented on how the DYFS seemed to meet VM half way to aggressive responses. This case is not about refusing a c-section, it is most particularly about the reproductive rights of people with psychiatric illness. Such rights include different expectations, different supports and different treatment of a woman who is (rightfully) off medication during and just after pregnancy. Strange behaviour should be expected, and isn't proof that VM cannot be a good parent.
Yes VM raises more complex issues for the reproductive rights movement, and yes she deserves our support.
The only American Apparel clothing I have consists to t-shirts for bands that happen to be printed on their shirts - and if given the option I will ALWAYS go for someone else.
Last year when I was job hunting I walked by an AA with a now hiring sign so I figured what the hell and went in for an application. What I got (other than sneered at) was a slip of paper with an email address and instructions to send my resume. That's not a problem. The issue was that with my resume they wanted two pictures of me to "see my look" and compare it to their "aesthetic." I'm fat, and they have only stick-thin hipsters working at their stores. I was tempted to send in my resume with my pictures, then send in an identical resume with a different name and pictures of a tall skinny hipster just to see if they called that person instead of the real me. I'm pretty sure asking for pictures before hiring someone is blatantly illegal.
"The only American Apparel clothing I have consists to t-shirts for bands that happen to be printed on their shirts - and if given the option I will ALWAYS go for someone else..."
When I was trying to re-find the blog link below, I found out about Alternative Apparel and then found some stuff comparing the two companies (pretty much "AltA outsources to China!" vs. "AmA is sexist!" with not much yet on AmA's latest scummy hiring policy):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22alternative+apparel%22+%22american+apparel%22
"...I'm pretty sure asking for pictures before hiring someone is blatantly illegal."
That reminded me of this comment on Gawker:
PopCultureSavant said on 07/27/09
"I have a friend who worked for Abercrombie and apparently you're hired as a model, not a salesperson, which allows them to discriminate based on looks."
Re: Mother has child taken away after C Section refusal
article:
The court's decision cites hospital records that describe the mother, V.M., as "combative," "uncooperative," "erratic," "noncompliant," "irrational" and "inappropriate."
HOW many times are we going to call women "crazy" in other, more "professional" terms when they express the right to bodily autonomy? I can't say how angry I am over this. NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO CUT WOMEN OPEN w/o consent. WTF is wrong with our medical childbirth culture that they think this is ok?
This week seems to be chock full of misogyny!
Here are updates to the article on Assiya Rafiq's case:
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/helping-assiya-and-mukhtar/
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/an-update-on-assiya/