Both combine to make me bitter.
A couple of nights ago I had dinner with a few friends and one of them turned the TV on afterwards. The show he wanted to watch so desperately is called ‘The Rules of Engagement’ and I had never had the misfortune to encounter it before this night. I hope I never see it again.
There were two plots running through the episode we saw, and both were so chock full of misogyny, I don’t know how anyone can claim women are seen as equal human beings, I honestly don’t.
David Spade, possibly the biggest Giant Baby (TM) to ever walk the Earth, featured in the first. His character had decided he had fallen in love with a woman the first time he saw her, but had no contact info for her. His ‘brilliant’ plan was to ride the elevator in her apartment building for a week til he saw her again. When he did see her again (need I add that she was blonde, gorgeous, thin and had big boobs? I didn’t think so), she freaked out at his stalking and sprayed pepper spray in her eyes. Part of me cheered at a TV show actually depicting stalking having some negative consequences for once.
Then the two men I was watching it with said that his big mistake was mentioning he’d been in the elevator for a week as it made him sound like a stalker. So there’s no problem with the stalking itself, you just have to be sure to hide it from the victim. They also described her as over reacting. Clearly it’s a perfectly normal reaction for a guy who has only seen a woman once to stalk her in an elevator for a week. But for said woman to be scared when confronted with this? Overreacting, of course. I deserve a reward for not ‘over reacting’ to their comments.
The second storyline involved two married couples wherein the men spent the entire twenty minutes demeaning and sidelining their wives just for the sheer fun of it.
The thing about these shows and the way they depict the sexes is, they’re offensive to men and women. If I was a male, I (hope I) would be genuinely appalled at being depicted this way. Honestly, these shows are doing none of us any favours. So it would be nice if the men joined our side for once and did the arguing for us. Might save us the energy to fight for things like reproductive rights and an end to sex slavery.
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Dear Reporters at smh (specifically, Chris Johnston and his editors, but y’all can feel free to pay attention),
When you are reporting on the rape of a child that spanned four years of her life, starting at age 14, it is NOT, under any circumstances whatsoever, ok to report it as a ‘sexual relationship’.
It is rape. It is pedophilia. It is a horrible disgusting thing that should never have been done to somebody, let alone perpetrated by someone in a position of care over the child.
And no, I don’t care if you were merely reporting what the school friends told you. Still not appropriate. It’s not a consenting sexual relationship between two adults. (Also, given that you didn’t use quote marks around the phrase, you can’t claim you’re just reporting a straight quote).
Get your act together smh. This is unacceptable and disappointing.
Sincerely pissed off,
Whyimbitter.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shocking-evidence-at-sex-abuse-hearing/2009/01/13/1231608687771.html
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Corona is joining the list with Ryanair and Nestle.
It’s cheating because I hate beer anyway, but I’ll still do it.
Ok I know beer ads have a long anti women history. I know. And see Corona, I get that you think you were being equal when you tried to have two posters, one with a woman, one with a man. You failed.
I wish I could link to the two posters, but I can’t find pictures of them anywhere. It’s a shame. If anyone reading this is going to be at Ciampino airport anytime soon, take a photo for me please? thanks.
So, the posters. One is of a man in board shorts with a Corona in his hand and his top flying off him in pieces as if it’s been ripped.
The other is of a woman in a top with her jackets doing the same thing as the man’s and two corona bottles being clicked together in front of it.
They both say “Corona: it’s only the beginning”.
so you can clearly see the effort to not bee seen as offensive. Note, they didn’t try not to be offensive, just not to be seen that way. The woman was even left with her top on, all private parts completely covered up.
But there are two bottles in hers. Her strip show is for someone. There is a gaze on her toasting another bottle to the fact that her clothes are coming off. And women being drugged, or purposely fed alcohol to get them blind drunk so they can be raped is a very real and common problem. This ad is not cool. It is also not on the same wavelength as the men’s ad. Not even close.
Nice try Corona, but I see through it. And in my sleep deprived brain at 6am, I still managed to see through it and analyse it out enough to know what disturbed me about those ads. And I’ve never been used in that manner. You failed.
Go join your two new best friends. You won’t be welcome in my house anymore.
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My plane trip from Rome to Frankfurt was the first time I’ve ever flown Ryanair. It will also be the last. Besides being utterly and unforgivably rude to their customers, they are misogynistic. A calendar of their air hostesses in their bikinis? Are you freaking kidding me Ryanair? I don’t care how cheap your tickets are, the cost is too high.
And I don’t care how cheap the services are, being rude to paying customers is unforgivable and uncalled for.
You are now officially on my Grrrlcott list. Say hello to Nestle while you’re there.
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This morning as I drove to work, the tape connected to my mp3 player stopped working again and forced me to listen to the hell that is morning radio. Today they were talking about pre nups and desperately trying to get someone who had one to call in.*
One lady rang in and said that her pregnant daughter had signed a contract to forfeit all rights on the child if the relationship ends. There are so many horrible aspects to this I’m not sure I know where to start. Things have gone sour in said relationship and that poor woman is now stuck with this horrible man because she signed this stupid contract. I’m not sure why she signed it, but to question that falls too far into the ‘victim-blaming’ category so lets not go there.
And please note the wording I’ve used up there. It’s not if she leaves the guy, it’s if the relationship ends. So he can choose to walk away and keep the child at any point, but she is forever stuck with him if she wants access to her own child. THE ONE INSIDE HER. Obviously it won’t be inside her when this becomes a bigger issue, but the point is she’s carrying it for nine freaking months. She’s the one who has to put the most effort into bringing this child into the world and looking after it for at least the first year. It’s arguable who will put the effort in after that, but since he can’t breastfeed, you can guarantee she’ll be doing the work at first.
Does this horrify and anger the rest of you? I wish I knew more details about her so I could help her in whatever way possible.
*Sidenote: they kept saying that there was the celebrity world and the “real” world. Are we all that disconnected? I know they’re talking in metaphors and whatever, but still. Celebrities are real. They live in the real world. It’s a very different environment to where we all live, but it’s still real.
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Today I received an email from my brother that proved once and for all what a humorless feminist I am.
Below the fold and image heavy
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I’ve been meaning to post about this story since I read about it, but every time I’ve tried I’ve come up speechless. (typeless?)
Others have gotten there before me, so go read HellOnHairyLegs and Shakesville
My lack of a proper post on this topic does not mean I’m not thoroughly and utterly disgusted by this entire thing. I just can’t find the words to describe it.
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Wow. Memo to movie makers. We know that men hate us. Women are well aware of it. We do not need to see all levels of misogyny displayed in a feature length film. STOP IT.
Is anyone else getting sick of seeing Giant Babies (TM) playing out their fantasies of misogyny and calling it a ‘movie’?
NOTE: There will be spoilers. STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT IT SPOILED!
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