sexism on the internet

i found this comic on facebook through bitch magazine. i don't know who writer/drawer gabby is, but this comic is the most awesome one i've seen! i love it. it's so true.

i tried different ways to post it here, but either it took over the entire page or it wasn't readable, so you'll just have to trust me and click the link. please click the link!

link (this is where i found it).

update: aaaaand, some context.

kathleen hanna tv

this clip with an interview of kathleen hanna (via her blog) actually made me shed a tear or two at one point. you have to guess where yourself. watch it! it's great, and kathleen hanna is great!

little plastic castle

some days ani difranco tells the story best.

in a coffee shop in a city
which is every coffee shop in every city
on a day which is every day
i picked up a magazine
which is every magazine
read a story, and then forgot it right away

they say goldfish have no memory
i guess their lives are much like mine
and the little plastic castle
is a surprise every time
and it's hard to say if they're happy
but they don't seem much to mind

from the shape of your shaved head
i recognized your silhouette
as you walked out of the sun and sat down
and the sight of your sleepy smile
eclipsed all the other people
as they paused to sneer at the two girls
from out of town

i said, look at you this morning
you are, by far, the cutest
but be careful getting coffee
i think these people wanna shoot us
or maybe there's some kinda local competition here
to see who can be the rudest

people talk
about my image
like i come in two dimensions
like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind
like what i happen to be wearing
the day that someone takes a picture
is my new statement for all of womankind

i wish they could see us now
in leather bras and rubber shorts
like some ridiculous new team uniform
for some ridiculous new sport
quick someone call the girl police
and file a report

in a coffee shop in a city
which is every coffee shop in every city
on a day which is every day

when i grow up

i hope you've seen i put a save bitch banner up to the left, but in case you use a feeder and never actually see my pretty little display of fun info and links, here's one more, just for you! (it almost fits too!)



i read bitch magazine as often as i can get my hands on it, which is not always cos they don't sell it in too many places here (pressbyrån centralen!) and i'm not as organized as i may seem (ahem), but i do love it. so i support it! cos the thing is, they have problems with funding and we all know what it's like in the world of publication; small, narrow magazines get put out of business while big, "broad" magazines thrive. this is why all magazines are the same.

don't tell me you haven't noticed.

so i'm putting my 5 cents in. buy the magazine, or give them a few bucks, ok? thanks!

now.

for something equally important. you know what i got in the mail today? this!



juliana hatfield's brand new memoir! it's called when i grow up and it's pretty! here, see for your self! [här på adlibris.se] now, i'm off to read it. see you when i'm done! (look! it's in the ny times.)

following the rules

tried to watch a scanner darkly yesterday. this is a movie that in theory really appeals to me - sci-fi, based on a novel by philip k dick, really interesting theoretical plot, directed by linklater, starring both rory cochrane (the only reason i still don't hate csi miami), woody harrelson and winona ryder - but after nearly an hour i was bored to hell! and still couldn't make out what the fuck this movie was about. and it definitely didn't pass the bechdel rule. no two women were ever even in the same frame.

so instead we watched emmet's mark, which was ok, no more no less. incidentally; it starred khandi alexander, also in csi miami. i wonder if someone's trying to tell me something. (i stopped watching it in its 5th season cos it just got worse and worse and more and more stupid stereotypic and horrible. otherwise i'm a fan of the csi series.) come to think of it, this movie was a lot like a really long episode of a police/crime tv series. anyway, the movie didn't pass the rule either, if not one no-name woman saying "hi, how's it going" to another counts as a conversation. didn't think so.

a.m. notes

i baked. a tried a new recipe. hybrid rye and wheat buns. they turned out great, and delicious! especially with cheese and marmalade. so i had my midnight snack and was supposed to go to bed after that, but, well. here we are.

read about the bechdel rule today, on bitch ph.d. it goes like this;

The rule is that movies should have 1) at least two women, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man.

sounds like a good useful instrument to make gender stereotyping and the practice to marginalize women clearer. cos you think, hey, of course a lot of movies will pass this rule. yeah, well, try it and you'll see. really, it's ridiculous. we're in the 21st century and it's not a given that two women in a movie actually talk to each other about something other than men.

i did see one film that passes the rule this weekend, the hours. i don't know why i haven't seen it before, i've even had the dvd sitting on my shelf for at least six months, but no. however, it was awesome! i loved it. beautiful, depressing - i mean in a good way, actually taking depression and being suicidal seriously - great characters. i haven't read enough of virginia woolf, i should really do that. also, nicole kidman's acting is awesome, i mean the acting over all in this film is great, but nicole's is just mind-blowing. she's SO good.

i got a package of ordered cds today, from the swedish a west side fabrication label. a great indie label! last week when i got into a nostalgic mood after buying and listening to this compilation from the label, i realized i was in love with backfish and so i ordered what the label had by them. good idea, cos all of it was really good! and i also have a crush on the label's mail-order now cos besides being quick and not expensive they sent me 5 singles extra, for free! all 5 was by other small bands from the same period as what i had ordered, so rather than just sending promotional stuff by their new bands (which i guess some label do) they must have thought "she seems to like the 90s, let's give her more 90s and maybe she'll like it too and order more!". and what do you know, i think it worked. i will definitely order more from them.

give it a listen! here's backfish's video fashion mania, not one of their better songs from what i think. there're also a few listenable pieces here.

now i'm waiting for the other packages to arrive, with even more new music. at least for my ears. i can't wait! i want it now!

quoting without context

i regularly read the i blame the patriarchy blog, as seen linked to the right. today i obviously stuck gold with a post from last week. i like this following part so much i simply have to quote it, but i'm far too tired to write something about it (the post i'm linking to, not the story behind it) myself, so, by all means, read it yourselves. you won't regret it, i promise.

That’s the thing about patriarchy. It does the defining, not you. That’s what makes it the dominant paradigm. You can abstain from sex, you can fuck your way across the universe, you can be a stone butch dyke with a utility belt, you can get your boobs amputated and your uterus ripped out, you can be sex-neutral in your own crackpot mind, you can be ugly or hawt, you can be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, you can even age out of desirability, but you will always be defined in terms of, and used according to, that which the dominant culture describes as your essence: sex. Or, as you are alternately defined: a receptacle for the perpetuation of male supremacy.