Yes, one more Broadsheet article for the day. Anyone who knows me knows that I can not stand Bratz Dolls. They look like prostitutes. I'm also not fond of Barbie. So when I read about the Barbie v. Bratz lawsuit, my first thought was, let them fight to the death. Um, and how's that for trivia, Barbie has a middle and last name.
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Barbie vs. Bratz XVII: The Reckoning
Brace yourself, America: The enduring struggle between the forces of Barbie and the forces of Bratz is gearing up for a final, epic battle -- albeit not fought on the blood-stained field of Golgotha but on the more traditional terrain of the courtroom.
Mattel, which first introduced the world to the miracle of structural engineering known as Barbie Millicent Roberts in 1959, is suing the living daylights out of Bratz creator Carter Bryant, a former Mattel employee, on the grounds of copyright infringement. Looks like there's only room for one lushly proportioned polyurethane poppet in town.
And in no uncertain terms! Wait till you see the frantic internal Mattel memos released as part of the court documents, describing the success of the Bratz brand as "a rival-led Barbie genocide." Yes, the G-word, conjuring horrible images of shaven-headed Skippers corralled in Barbie prison-of-war camps being terrorized by machete-wielding Bratz dolls (or maybe that was just my sister and me). Not content to let Barbie have the last word, MGA memos counter that Mattel planned to "litigate to the death" (italics mine) and that "this is a war, and sides must be taken."
It's interesting to note the context of these memos -- written in 2003, as the nation geared up for war and the militaristic language of "you're either with us or against us" was at its peak. But in 2008, with all of us sadder and wiser, all parties would do well to remember that most little girls have the sense not to view inanimate objects as role models, and instead think of the fate that eventually befalls the vast majority of these toys, Barbie and Bratz alike: They wind up bald, naked and covered in dog slobber in a pile beneath the bed, condemned forever to a dollie Gitmo of their owner's creation.
I think Barbie herself said it best: "Pizza party, anyone?"
-- Rachel Shukert
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The revolutionary idea of the day is. . .
people should be able to marry whomever they choose! I'm a blogging fool today, but couldn't resist posting this article from Broadsheet:
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Quote of the day: Mildred Loving
"We loved each other and got married. We are not marrying the state. The law should allow a person to marry anyone he wants."
-- Mildred Loving on her court challenge to Virginia's anti-interracial-marriage law, as quoted by the Washington Evening Star in 1965. The Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that Mildred, an African-American, and her husband, Richard, who was white, had the right to marry, legalizing interracial marriage throughout the country.
Loving died on Monday at age 68, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. She was predeceased by her husband, who died in a car accident in 1975, in which Mildred was also injured. Before their successful court battle, the couple was arrested and forced to move out of the state of Virginia to avoid jail time for the crime of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth."
Publicity shy, Loving gave few interviews late in life. Yet she did make a statement last year on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling to voice her support for gays' and lesbians' right to marry, according to the New York Times. Every June 12, the anniversary of the ruling, events mark Loving Day to celebrate the legalization of marriage by interracial couples.
-- Katharine Mieszkowski
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Quote of the day: Mildred Loving
"We loved each other and got married. We are not marrying the state. The law should allow a person to marry anyone he wants."
-- Mildred Loving on her court challenge to Virginia's anti-interracial-marriage law, as quoted by the Washington Evening Star in 1965. The Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that Mildred, an African-American, and her husband, Richard, who was white, had the right to marry, legalizing interracial marriage throughout the country.
Loving died on Monday at age 68, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. She was predeceased by her husband, who died in a car accident in 1975, in which Mildred was also injured. Before their successful court battle, the couple was arrested and forced to move out of the state of Virginia to avoid jail time for the crime of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth."
Publicity shy, Loving gave few interviews late in life. Yet she did make a statement last year on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling to voice her support for gays' and lesbians' right to marry, according to the New York Times. Every June 12, the anniversary of the ruling, events mark Loving Day to celebrate the legalization of marriage by interracial couples.
-- Katharine Mieszkowski
Birth control nightmare. . .
This is a quote I read in the Planned Parenthood e-newsletter:
"To talk of condoms as 'safe sex' is a form of Russian roulette ... The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom." — Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for the Family, who unscientifically argued against condom use in the developing world. He died on April 20 at age 72.
For the love of God. Like it's not bad enough just to tell people to respect the sanctity of sperm, this guy took it on himself to spread blatant misinformation about condoms. : (
"To talk of condoms as 'safe sex' is a form of Russian roulette ... The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom." — Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for the Family, who unscientifically argued against condom use in the developing world. He died on April 20 at age 72.
For the love of God. Like it's not bad enough just to tell people to respect the sanctity of sperm, this guy took it on himself to spread blatant misinformation about condoms. : (
Sex ed: forbidden?
So, I understand that my employer expects all computer use to be work related. I get that certain social networking sites are blocked simply because they offer the option of "chat/messaging" even though some actual "chat/messaging" programs are not blocked. I even get that some random sites I've attempted to access in the context of research are blocked because of perceived content (pornography etc.). But, why, specifically is "Sex Education" listed as a reason to block a site? If the forbidden topic were "You're at Work So You Don't Need to Be Looking this Up Here", I could understand. But to click on an article about Planned Parenthood's philanthropic work in Peru and be blocked because I might learn something about the birds and the bees (of which we have both here at my esteemed place of employ) seems ridiculous.
Of course, I also feel that it is ludicrous that certain sites are blocked because of "Gay/Lesbian Issues". What kind of crazed conservative developed this firewall? I can access the hateful, bigoted "Family Research Council", but heaven forbid I try to check out who's on the mainstage at St. Louis' Pridefest.
I just don't get it.
Of course, I also feel that it is ludicrous that certain sites are blocked because of "Gay/Lesbian Issues". What kind of crazed conservative developed this firewall? I can access the hateful, bigoted "Family Research Council", but heaven forbid I try to check out who's on the mainstage at St. Louis' Pridefest.
I just don't get it.
Crime Update
I was feeling crazed about the upsurge of crime, shootings in particular, in close proximity to my home. And, to add to this aggravation, I can find NO information about the latest incident which occured early in the morning on Sunday, April 27th.
The information I can gather is that 3 men left a local bar and in the process of walking home were held-up. Two of the men were shot with one of them critically injured. The incident occured about two blocks from my house. I am going to e-mail a staffer in the public relations department for further details, but I am amazed that I can not find ANY information from a single news outlet.
I will try to update this post when I find out the story.
The information I can gather is that 3 men left a local bar and in the process of walking home were held-up. Two of the men were shot with one of them critically injured. The incident occured about two blocks from my house. I am going to e-mail a staffer in the public relations department for further details, but I am amazed that I can not find ANY information from a single news outlet.
I will try to update this post when I find out the story.
Monday, May 5, 2008
I'm no arbiter of moral justice. . .
but what the hell is wrong with people? This whole Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair photo thing us ut-ter-ly ridiculous. Girls who have grown up playing with prostitutes, oh, I'm sorry "Bratz dolls" are now feeling some bizarre moral superiority over a chic showing her back in a wierd, artsy, gay magazine. I mean, really, who reads Vanity Fair that will get a hard on for one square foot of fifteen year old flesh?
I feel slightly torn. I wish there was such a thing as decency and simple modesty. But I do not believe that one "artistic" photo can give any actual bearing on a person's real life. The fact of the matter is that our lives are our own and I wish that Miss Miley had told Disney to blow it out their asses. She could quit what she's doing RIGHT now and live like royalty for the rest of her life. When will it be too late to get out from under the commercial thumb of her creators? How many kids have gone away to college and self-destructed in the vacuum of freedom their parents' had sheltered them from?
Where do we get this puritanical sense of righteousness? I suppose part of this comes back to the whole "girls are mean" thing that's been so prevalent as of the last several years. When do we stand up and say stop? You have no right to pass judgement. You need to begin to make decisions about your own life, shallow and sheltered as it may be, way before you can destroy someone else's. Just cut it the fuck out.
As for the photo of Miley and dear old dad referenced in this other Broadsheet post, whoa, super creepy.
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Girls on Miley Cyrus: She's a slut
There comes word today of what teenage girls really think about Miley Cyrus after the scandal over her bedsheet photo shoot: They say she's a "slut" and "whore." In today's New York Times, reporter Susan Dominus talks with a handful of New York City girls about the controversial Vanity Fair photos. The teenagers -- many wearing skimpy skirts, cleavage-framing dresses and tight baby tees, and painted with glitter and Barbie-esque blush -- describe Cyrus using words usually reserved for tagging the locker of the girl rumored to have slept with half the high school football team. Dominus frames their response perfectly:
Dressing sexy, as she and so many of her classmates do, was one thing. Dressing in bedding, seemingly otherwise unclothed, was apparently quite another: contemptible, an actual evocation of sex itself. It's a paradigm about this generation of teenage girls that's perplexing to anyone who's aged out of it: They exude sexuality, even as they've internalized a language of shame and anger around it, a language that makes anyone who crosses some ever finer line of appropriate behavior a slut or a whore.
-- Tracy Clark-Flory
I feel slightly torn. I wish there was such a thing as decency and simple modesty. But I do not believe that one "artistic" photo can give any actual bearing on a person's real life. The fact of the matter is that our lives are our own and I wish that Miss Miley had told Disney to blow it out their asses. She could quit what she's doing RIGHT now and live like royalty for the rest of her life. When will it be too late to get out from under the commercial thumb of her creators? How many kids have gone away to college and self-destructed in the vacuum of freedom their parents' had sheltered them from?
Where do we get this puritanical sense of righteousness? I suppose part of this comes back to the whole "girls are mean" thing that's been so prevalent as of the last several years. When do we stand up and say stop? You have no right to pass judgement. You need to begin to make decisions about your own life, shallow and sheltered as it may be, way before you can destroy someone else's. Just cut it the fuck out.
As for the photo of Miley and dear old dad referenced in this other Broadsheet post, whoa, super creepy.
_________________________________________________________________
Girls on Miley Cyrus: She's a slut
There comes word today of what teenage girls really think about Miley Cyrus after the scandal over her bedsheet photo shoot: They say she's a "slut" and "whore." In today's New York Times, reporter Susan Dominus talks with a handful of New York City girls about the controversial Vanity Fair photos. The teenagers -- many wearing skimpy skirts, cleavage-framing dresses and tight baby tees, and painted with glitter and Barbie-esque blush -- describe Cyrus using words usually reserved for tagging the locker of the girl rumored to have slept with half the high school football team. Dominus frames their response perfectly:
Dressing sexy, as she and so many of her classmates do, was one thing. Dressing in bedding, seemingly otherwise unclothed, was apparently quite another: contemptible, an actual evocation of sex itself. It's a paradigm about this generation of teenage girls that's perplexing to anyone who's aged out of it: They exude sexuality, even as they've internalized a language of shame and anger around it, a language that makes anyone who crosses some ever finer line of appropriate behavior a slut or a whore.
-- Tracy Clark-Flory
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