Reaching Out

I have a TON of links for you this weekend, dear readers!

First, a great deal of abuse has been hurled at Lou Jing, a Shanghai girl who participated in a reality show, Let's Go! Oriental Angels -- because she is half-black and it shows. ChinaGeeks (which I think I'll have to add to my blogroll) has a discussion on the appalling racism Lou Jing faced. Here is a video interview with Lou Jing. Thank goodness for transcripts. (h/t jolantru for tweeting)

Harper's "Canada Has No History of Colonialism" Fail
Recently, at the G20 summit, Canadian PM Stephen Harper went on record talking about how wonderful Canada is, how other countries would like to be Canada, and also, Canada "has no history of colonialism". D: Whut? Canada's history is based on colonialism. Shit, some Canadian institutions still run on old colonial practices. Click for the Racialicious open thread on this fail.

"Straight Allies Bitching about Oppression of New Lambda Awards Restrictions" Fail
Yes, there is an award given out for fiction featuring GLBTQ characters and issues. I never knew this until recently. Anyway, restrictions were suddenly imposed on this year's Lamba Literary Foundation award - only authours identifying as GLBTQ could win them. Now, this came somewhere in the middle of the whole thing so understandably, it was upsetting. But how upsetting is this to straight "allies"? Upsetting enough to compare the new restrictions to lynching, segregation, hate crimes, et al. Here's a further explanation on why this kerfuffle is made of Fail. For further reactions, please check out this linkspam

The "Free Roman Polanski" Fail
Surely you must have heard about this by now, but allow me to summarize for those who haven't. In 1977, Roman Polanski, famous Hollywood director, during the filming of Chinatown, asked a 13-year-old girl to come over to a friend's house for a photoshoot. During which time, he plied her with champagne, fed her a quaalude, then proceeded to rape her over her protestations. He was arrested, pled guilty to the charges of rape, spent 40-odd days in jail, and then fled America before he was sentenced. Due to stupid international laws regarding criminals and stuff, he couldn't be arrested in France where he's been in all this while. Recently, at a film festival in Switzerland - one country which said would extridite him if he got there - he was arrested. Huge outcry followed, with a lot of Fail, with some nonsensical bullshit defending Polanski like Whoopi Goldberg's "it's rape, but it's not rape-rape." (This, in particular, burned, because I'm a huge fan of Goldberg's. A petition to free Polanski was drawn up with big-name Hollywood actors signing it.

So, here're transcripts from the 1977 guilty plea, Polanski's own reaction over the media circus surrounding his arrest, which clearly demonstrates his lack of remorse, and a link to Google Books on further lack of remorse from Polanski.

Here's an editorial on the whole affair. Melissa McEwan nicely encapsulates the whole things at Comment Is Free on why the outcry from Hollywood is telling of the rape culture perpetuated. Kate Harding has a reminder for them: Polanski raped a child. There was a movie-documentary made about Polanski's arrest, which has been pointed out to be unashamed rape apologia. One of the lawyers interviewd for the movie has admitted to lying on camera. His reason? He was told it would air in France, not America. Polanski also had promised to pay $500k to his victim in a 1993 settlement, but never did.

The response has been RAEG-ful: here is a list of people who have signed the petition to free Polanski. Names included: Natalie Portman, Tilda Swinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Monica Belucci, Terry Gilliam, Guillermo del Toro. Here's a link listing people who're on record saying they don't support Polanski. Their awesome names include: Luc Besson, Neil Gaiman, Lisa Kudrow, Bill Maher (wtf?) and Jay Smooth. And of course, Eve Ensler. Chris Rock, as misogynistic as some of his acts can be, can still be coherent about the fact that this act was rape. Filmmaker Allison Anders, who I'd never heard of until now, has a guest-post on how art is not enough to justify Polanski's crime.

From the blogosphere? little light has a little puzzle activity time over at Feministe for people unconvinced that Polanski should be charged for rape. Lauren tackles the "GET OVER IT" sentiment - namely, how we can't "just get over it". Jennifer Kesler of the Hathor Legacy reminds is that the point of this trial is to judge his actions, not whether he was an amazing artist. She also has something to say about the "it's rape, but not rape-rape" nonsense. Talullah Mankiller tackles Roman Polanski's claim that his victim looked older than she was (but he knew she was still 13, just a couple of weeks away from 14, as if that makes a difference, and still raped her anyway).

When the victim came out saying she wanted to put it to rest, all of Polanski's defenders started co-opting her words. Melissa McEwan points out, his defenders are pretending to give a shit about the victim when all they want to do is protect the rapist. Finally, an article from Kate Harding comparing the reactions to Dakota Fanning's involvement in a rape scene in the movie Hounddog, for which she, her parents and the filmmaker were shamed for depicting a young girl on the big screen in a sexual assault scene -- and how suddenly, when Polanski actually, physically raped a child, everyone comes to Polanski's defense:

In many cases, there's overlap between two of the most common defenses of him: "He only pled guilty to sex with a minor, not non-consensual sex," and "We should listen to what the victim says -- she doesn't want him prosecuted!" We should listen to what the victim says now, as a 45-year-old woman, when it fits with the narrative that Polanski's already suffered enough and shouldn't endure further indignities. But what about listening to what the victim said then, at 13? What about listening to her testimony that she said no, that she asked him to stop, as he raped her orally, vaginally and anally? Some people are making very curious arguments about when, exactly, it's important to listen to the victim.

And when I consider that alongside people's refusal to listen to what Dakota Fanning said at 13 about her decision to play the lead in "Hounddog," her reasons for doing it, her distinct lack of traumatization, and her pride in providing a voice for actual victims, I can only conclude that as a society, we're just not much interested in listening to 13-year-old girls' thoughts on what they do with their own bodies, and what's done to them.

It really rings true, what Melissa McEwan wrote and I'll paraphrase here: there's only one Roman Polanski, and thirteen-year-old girls are a dime a dozen.

Evil may be borne out by smart, cunning, intelligent people, but cruelty is born of flat-out stupidity. It comes from a place of ignorance.




h/t kiwi_grrl

So like I promised, here's an analysis of President Barack Obama's speech at the Inauguration Ceremony, and while I can't say these are true for all his speeches, there is a pattern to this particular speech which makes it very powerful, and you should be able to find it in most charismatic speeches through the ages.

( Clickies for MOAR! )

Shakeville has a whole slew of videos and transcripts. LOL @ Prz O messing up a little =D But he does it with such equanamity!

But I said I'd post the video and transcript of Rev. Lowery's benediction when it was up, and sure enough, it is. Well, it was a while back, but I was, you know, sleeping.



( Transcript below the cut )

I don't know if I've ever read a more moving prayer than this one. Heck, I don't know if I've ever seen a more moving ending to a prayer. He was even inclusive of red, yellow, brown. Blub. Blub. Blub. Say what one will of religion, that is one institution that brings out the spirituality in people, fer realz, and Rev. Lowery's prayer does its best.

From an English major with some interest in linguistics and grammar and rhetoric.

Obama's speeches tend toward parallel structures in how he arranges his sentences. Not only that, but they're sometimes triple phrases too.

Will elaborate more when I get the time. Or if anybody asks.

Now that we've got Obama into the White House, let's have a look at the local ballot measures, in particular Proposition 8 (in California, banning gay marriage) and Measure 11 (South Dakota, limiting abortion).

So far, it looks like

YES TO 8? WTF?

YES TO 11? WTF?

YES TO BANNING GAY MARRIAGE (yes, Arizona and California and Florida)

YES TO BANNING GAY COUPLES FROM ADOPTING (fuck you, Arkansas)

YES TO LIMITING ABORTION (South Dakota, leaning towards No in California)

NO TO HIRING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (fuck you too, Arizona, why won't anyone remember that white people were once illegal immigrants, too??)

Not all the precincts have reported in yet, but still, this is mind-boggling!

It's live-blogging commentary with the Feministe ladies tonight!

From Bitch Phd:

So we have a "No on 8" sign in our yard, naturally, and our neighborhood has mostly older kids rather than younger ones.

Every. Group. Of teenage trick-or-treaters that came by? Said "I LOVE YOUR SIGN! NO ON 8!"

Mr. B. would ask them if they were old enough to vote yet, and none of them were. But it gives one hope for the future.

I also notice that someone's idea of a holiday prank was pulling the "Yes on 8" sign in our neighbors' yard. Snerk.


Please, please please please don't let Prop 8 pass.