News I Don't Want to Write About

[Content Note: War, reproductive rights legislation, rape culture, violence, misogyny.]

Here is all the news I don't want to write about today!

There is the BIG NEWS that Iran is totally going to attack the US! It's true! Or not! It seems like I've heard this story before: The administration of a first-term president before a hotly contested election says that US intelligence has found that Iraq Iran is developing nuclear capabilities with intent to attack the US and/or US interests, and there are UN weapons inspections, with which Iraq Iran is cooperating, but the belligerent rhetoric of preemptive self-defense keeps getting ratcheted up nonetheless, including accusations of Iraq's Iran's noncompliance with those inspections. THIS IS A FAMILIAR TUNE, SHAKERS!

"Wolf!"—The Boy.

In good news, the New York Times is partying like it's 2003, because they've already got a year of reporting covered c/o search and replace.


There is the news that Michele Bachmann exited the presidential campaign one million dollars in debt. And the news that Rick Perry blew through $15 million in the final months of his campaign, for presumably no purpose other than raising awareness about what a douche he is so he could LOSE FASTER! This is yet another golden opportunity for USians to consider how utterly fucked up it is that we do not have publicly financed elections or limited electoral seasons, and very rich people spend enormous amounts of money to get elected while other politicians who have already been elected argue in fancy buildings about how we don't have any money to provide healthcare, food, and housing to everyone in the country.

There is the news that former Florida Governor Charlie Crist might someday run again for office as a Democrazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Huntsman-Crist for President-VP of Napping!

There is the story about Janet Howell, a Virginia State Senator, who, to Make A Point, attached an amendment to a state mandatory ultrasound abortion bill "that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication." Hardy-har. Suffice it to say I don't find proposing the equivalent of a forced trans-vaginal sonogram law to be amusing, since it's little more than a sophisticated rape joke. I am, I trust it is evident, sympathetic to Howell's intentions, but I cannot get on board with fighting the nonconsensual control of the bodies of women and other people with uteri with a proposal for more of it, rather than less. Coercing a person to undergo an unnecessary vaginal probe to acquire a legal medical procedure is rape, and compelling an anal probe is no different.

There is news about ladies! The US women's soccer league's 2012 season has been cancelled less than 24 hours after the US women's national team qualified for the Olympics. If there's one thing we know how to do in America, it's treat women's sports like absolute shit!

There is the story of a man in Afghanistan, where we've been SPREADING FREEDOM for ten years and counting, who has reportedly strangled his wife after she failed to bear him a son. Three healthy daughters, though. Who now have no mother. Rage. Seethe. Boil.

There is this story about "three regulators [who] did indeed ring warning bells [about the subprime financial crisis]—at the right time, in the right places, and loud enough for other banking and financial system overseers," but were all ignored. Guess what they all have in common? Go on—guess! If you said they were all ladies, give yourself 1,000 points, redeemable at Shakesville's OMFG the Absurd Misogyny in the Year 2012 Shop!

Ladynews Trifecta!

There is, because I want to end on a hopeful note, this story about a potential breakthrough in cancer research and one patient's view of a future.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

Working My Last Nerve

[Content Note: This post contains a discussion of ABC's new sitcom "Work It," which is profoundly misogynist, transphobic, racist, and classist, and also uses rape jokes.]

Last month, Eastsidekate wrote about a new sitcom coming to ABC called "Work It," about, in Kate's words, "dudes who pretend to be chicks so they can get a job, because that's totally how things work in the world."

"Work It" premiered this week, to rave reviews. And by "rave reviews," I mean Deeky and me ranting and raving about what an absolute fuckshite garbage nightmare disaster it is.

LAST NIGHT:

Deeky: I am watching "Work It."

Liss: I am watching a re-run of "Big Bang Theory."

Deeky: Holy fucking god! This is soooo terrible! You MUST watch it! Really. Watch it before it disappears down the memory hole. It's fucking amazing.

Liss: LOL! Okay. I'll put it on when this is over.

Deeky: It is just soooooooo fucking misogynist. Who thinks women behave like that?

Liss: Is it OnDemand?

Deeky: Yes. That's how I'm watching it.

Liss: Ah, found it. Starting it now…

Deeky: Enjoy!

Liss: Thirty seconds in and there's a rape joke. Awesome. "Stop comparing prostate exams to the pinball scene in The Accused." Wow.

Deeky: I know, right?!

Liss: Mancession. Oh dear.

Deeky: LOL!

Liss: "When the women take over, they'll just keep a few men as sex slaves."

Deeky: For cuddling and kissing and talking.

Liss: Not talking. Listening. Even worse!

Deeky: LOL!

Liss: "I'll just go out with my friends and wake you up for sex later." OMG.

Deeky: Oh god. Then how he says "you seem mad"?

Liss: This is so misogynistic.

Deeky: I don't think I've seen such a misogynistic TV show ever.

Liss: I don't think I have, either. And it's so transphobic. Like, it manages to make fun of trans women by playing on the dude-in-the-dress stereotypes (and have you seen the poster for the show? it straight-up plays on trans bathroom panic) while simultaneously disappearing trans people and their experiences by having every woman just axiomatically receive these guys as cis women.

Deeky: Totes. And I refuse to believe that there are people who think women actually behave like this! "All women are saintly wives, annoying dipshits, or sinister cunts. That's the whole spectrum of womanhood for ya!" Who thinks that?!

Liss: And who is this show for?! Men who hate women but love men who dress up like women to get one over on women? Women who hate women and love men who trick women? Men who hate men and love watching shows that make men look like complete fuckos? Who is the audience for this show? WHAT IS GOING ON.

Deeky: I know. And who are we supposed to be rooting for? Everyone on this show is terrible!

Liss: Very terrible and very stupid.

Deeky: Did you like the scene where the boss-lady, who only hires women like the law totally says you're allowed to do, tells the man in the dress that "she's" the smartest person she's interviewed?

Liss: Uh-huh. And all the other (actual) women are stupid. It's like this show is an MRA wank-fantasy of anti-feminism, but all the female solidarity on the show is inexplicably built on hatred of other women? Whut.

Deeky: It's a mess.

Liss: The only thing that is clear is that this show is the worst.

Deeky: LOL!

Liss: And now for the racism: "I'm Puerto Rican—I'd be great at selling drugs."

Deeky: LOL! Yup!

Liss: Plus I love how it's "shameful" to be employed at a fast food place.

Deeky: I know, right?

Liss: This is actually shocking. I am actually shocked.

Deeky: LOL! This show is so unbelievable, isn't it?

Liss: It's gobsmacking. Iain just said it's the best show he's ever seen, lol.

Deeky: It's 2012. How did this get made?!

Liss: Me: "This is the most misogynistic show I've ever seen." Iain: "I dunno. I think the jury's still out on that one." Me: "Nope! I am the jury, the judge, AND the executioner, and I am MURDERING THIS SHOW!" Iain (trying not to laugh): "Well, I think it's interesting on a number of sociological levels." Me: "So is divorce."

Deeky: Tell him his b-hole is interesting on a number of sociological levels.

Liss: He says he's very flattered, lol.

[In case there's any confusion about whether Iain actually enjoyed this plop of dogshit, he did not. He was, in fact, quoting statistics at the show about workplace gender inequality and informing it tersely that the "mancession" is misogynist folklore and 2/3 of all new jobs created are filled by men.]

Deeky: I am kind of in awe that this show exists.

Liss: This show hates women more than Bill Maher.

Deeky: LOLOLOL! I almost made the same joke, braintwinz!

Liss: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! I love how he's the benchmark for woman-hating.

Deeky: Well he is!

Liss: He really is!

[See also: Work It Doesn't Work.]

Gabe and Tycho Still Think Rape Is Hilarious

[Trigger warning for rape culture.]

Once upon a time, two dudes who write a web comic called "Penny Arcade" posted a strip that included a rape joke. Some people objected to this. It got nasty from there, in the same infuriatingly predictable way these things always get nasty. And then it got nastier, and more awful, and uglier, and more horrible, and worser, oof just so horrendo like whoa.

(The whole history is detailed here.)

The only thing that was certain is the only thing that's ever certain, which is that feminist survivors of sexual violence who don't find rape jokes funny are stupid, hypersensitive, rage-seeking missiles who want to censor the world. [sic]

It's funny the reputation feminists have. Because even in spite of being presumed to be a dour, man-hating, pessimistic cynic, I still sort of figured (or hoped) that Gabe and Tycho would, once the din subsided, chew on everything that had been said exhorting them to kinder selves, and maybe eventually get to a place where, even if they never made any sort of public amends, they could internally acknowledge The Point, and be a little more sensitive in future.

Whoooooooooooooooooooooops I am a real dunderhead!

Because last Friday, they ran a guest comic at the center of which was a rape joke and a "comical" image implying non-consensual sexual activity: Their recurrent character the "Fruit Fucker" is forcibly feeding a piece of fruit to Humpty Dumpty (ETA. or HD is wearing a ball gag), who's clad in bondage gear and looks terrified. It's labeled, in big letters: "NON-CONSENSUAL BREAKFAST!"

People objected. Brendan Atkins tweeted: "I'm an Enforcer, I love you guys, but I really hate it when you run rape jokes." To which Gabe responded: "the fruit fucker is a rapist of food. I'm not sure an egg can give consent anyway. Maybe a chicken, but not an egg."

Which seems a pretty weak defense when the joke, such as it is, turns on the word "non-consensual" and the egg being sentient and not giving consent.

I would say this is a terminal case of Not Getting It, if I thought that Gabe and Tycho really don't get it. But I think they do get it. At this point, it's not that they're just being insensitive to survivors who asked them to stop; they're actually being actively hostile to them. Contemptible.