Oh, I see. Now it’s our fault that we are too stupid to know that beef pink slime is a good thing.
Why didn’t we know that?
Because the beef industry spent decades keeping it a secret. Because the food industry fights labeling that might have allowed customers to make a choice between paying higher prices for slime-free beef versus paying less for beef with what everyone says is a safe food additive.
You see, that won’t do, because customers are morons. They would make the “dumb” choice by paying more for something without an additive they don’t want, just like some of them pay more for organic, or fresh (which is actually usually frozen, thanks to more industry label lobbying), or BPA-free.
If the food industry doesn’t want this kind of reaction to its practices, then it needs to improve its practices, not hide them.
good:
Debates over access to abortion and birth control seemed to dominate the national conversation throughout the Republican primary, but according to a new Pew poll, those issues aren’t a major priority for most voters. For 86 percent of them, it’s still the economy, stupid.
The thing is, I feel like the Republicans strong points are on the economy, jobs, and budget deficit. At least relative to the bottom 5 or so.
(Source: pewresearch)
Extrapolating the approval ratings of individual senators over the entire Congress (http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/12/senate-approval-ratings.html), the overall approval rating would have a spread of +3 (approve-disapprove=3%), but the overall approval rating of Congress is at -68 right now, according to RealClearPolitics.
At first I was confused as to why there would be such a large disparity in these polls. They should be about the same, because if the individuals are making the right decisions (by a 3% margin), then the overall decisions should be just as good. But I think it comes down to this: In terms of how each congressmen is making decisions in regards to their own constituents, they’re doing pretty well. But in terms of all of those decisions coming together to enact changes on a national level, it actually turns out pretty crappy. I think there’s some sociological reasoning that I don’t know enough about that would say that what’s best for the individual isn’t necessarily best for the group, but either way the people taking part in these polls are probably missing that point.
It’s really awesome how Dr. Pepper managed to alienate 52% of the population with one commercial. But why stop there? Why not say: Dr. Pepper is not for black people, Asian people, gay people, Jewish, Muslim, atheists, pretty much anyone who is not a white, straight, American, male. Are you fucking kidding me?
I saw this alluded to somewhere and it made me wonder, is Dr. Pepper just making fun of all the subtle male-based advertising like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max? I mean it is obvious what each of them are doing but Dr. Pepper is being so ridiculous that it makes me feel like it might be a big joke. When I compare this to the Miller Lite commercials, this seems more like a comedy skit and Miller Lite seems more like sincere sexism. But then again, this is an example of American marketing we’re talking about, so I probably shouldn’t be getting my hopes up.
Why I am a Feminist
Posted on March 24, 2012
I’m a Feminist.
I don’t shave my armpits. Or my legs. I don’t have sex with men and I don’t wear a bra. I’m an atheist, am not planning on being a mother, and I never really liked Barbies.
And yes, I am a man.
I started calling myself a feminist during my first year at college. In part, this was in response to meeting so many wonderful well-educated, independent women who seemed afraid to assume the title. Too many times I heard, “Well obviously I think that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men, but I’m not, like, a feminist or anything.”
I started replying, “Well, I’m a feminist.”
I’m not going to rehash all the reasons why people shy away from this label. The Regressive party (Get it? Cause it’s the opposite of progressive!) has managed to infuse the word feminist with an image bra-burning, man-hating and ugly-lesboathiest whiners that somehow has stuck. It’s a myth. Get over it.
This is what feminism means to me:
Women and men must be valued equally in law, society, and economy.
Women must have equal, unalienable rights to their own bodies.
This currently is not the case.
Therefore it is our responsibility to make changes that will bring about this equality, both in official (legislation, policies, etc.) and cultural (ending abuse of women, rape culture, etc) paths.
Women must stand together to support each other and this cause.
Men must stand with them.
I was raised believing in feminist ideas, but in college I started labeling myself, replying, “Well, I’m a feminist” in the hope that in some small way this might start changing the perception of the word from an insult to an honor.
Today, I feel that we have reached a political and cultural climate where being a feminist requires more. Women’s rights are being infringed upon at an ever greater rate and scale. Dozens of states are passing bills that five years ago, my freshman self wouldn’t have believed possible. I thought we had got over this whole abortion thing, like 49 years ago. Maybe it was just political naiveté, but I sincerely thought that these kinds of bills were the struggle of the previous generation and that, like women’s suffrage and interracial marriage, women had won the Right to Chose forever and ever, Roe vs Wade, Amen.
But I was wrong. There are bills being proposed and passing that Require mandatory vaginal probing before abortions (aka state-sanctioned rape). A bill was passed in NH that required doctors to tell women (inaccurately) that abortions cause a higher risk of cancer. (This bill is now under review after being passed.) Bills that require women to view ultrasounds before abortion, yet allow doctors to withhold information about complications with the pregnancy if it might cause the women to decide to get an abortion. And this makes me so angry.
It also makes me want to do something about it. There was a big scandal a while back (centuries ago in the US news cycle) about the hearing before Congress on birth control that featured an all-male panel of experts.
This picture was passed around the internet with various captions, all asking “Where are the women!?” A good question. The one great thing about this assault on women’s rights is that women have mobilized in a bigger way than I can remember. The response to proposed de-funding of Planned Parenthood, the response to vaginal ultrasound bills around the country. Over and over in the past few months we have seen women rallying together and fighting to keep their basic rights and dignity.
But in the middle of all of this we should ask, “Where are the men?”
I don’t know about other men out there, but I’m actually really glad that my sexual partners have access to birth control and the right to chose to have an abortion. Kids are cool. I don’t really want them at the moment. While I belive that more men should be involved in standing up for women’s rights in general, isn’t abortion and birth control something that we should really be getting behind? I see it as a very personal issue for men as well as women. I don’t think there are that many men out there who are going halfsies on their girlfriend/wife/hook up buddy/other’s prescription for hormonal birth control. But I do know that both the man and the women are benefiting from it (leaving aside all the non-contraceptive uses for the pill that are also not covered by insurance)!
If women are “having too much sex” that is causing pregnancies, then men must be (wait, let me do the math for a second…oh yeah!) HAVING THE EXACT SAME AMOUNT of sex. And if men’s insurance premiums are slightly higher to cover this, that’s a good thing. It’s a lot cheaper than a kid.
Women’s rights are not just a women’s issue. As men, we benefit when women are given the same rights, opportunities and respect that we receive. Stand up to sexism. Fight it your government, in your workplace, on the street or in your friend’s rape “joke.” It IS a big deal. And ending repression, discrimination, and violence against women is our responsibility too.
So here is my request to men (and women):
Be a feminist. Say, “I’m a feminist.” Take pride in the label and encourage others to as well.
Until men take an equal stand for gender equality, it just isn’t going to happen.
So we need to get working.
[Edit: Yes, it’s fine with me if you share this post. Please do. My hope is to help spread these ideas and make them more mainstream. If you are inspired to pass it on, go for it! ]
So this entry was a little bit different than my usual topics of sword dancing and adventure. I hope that you enjoyed it anyway. I really hope that you will let me know your thoughts on this one. If you enjoyed this, I would appreciate you passing it along! I think it’s important. I will be posting a sword dance update soon. Until then, let’s ensure that women’s basic rights aren’t taken away. Actually, let’s do that after I post too. -Jeremy
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YES. YES. ALL THE MEDALS.
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