"Not Your Mother's" is the new "New Black".

What the fucking fuck, Sunkist/IMW Agency.  These are in fact my mother's grapefruit.  These are in fact the same grapefruit as grapefruit have been since 1875 when they were accidentally invented by an orange and a pomelo tree requiting their sweet yet tangy forbidden love.

The ALLCAPs MODERN grapefruit is the same fucking grapefruit our mothers ate, the exact same one.

And do you know what does in fact smell distinctly of the era when my mother was a wee girl.  This patronizing princessification of a fruit, replete with every stereotypic bullshit women have had to put up with since... well, long before grapefruit were invented.

IMW has decided to: "Modernize Grapefruit and make it more relevant to today’s health-conscious young woman [because their mothers, by contrast were surprisingly pro-death-and-disease]. In addition, make the message fun and engaging [and not at all pseudo-scientific gender-stereotyped bullshit], and develop a campaign to educate [those ignorant] women that grapefruit is more than a diet…it’s a Superfood [Holy random capital letter, Batman. That word doesn't actually mean fuck all but they are too dumb to notice, right?]. IMW created an integrated marketing program that featured new health benefits targeted to the segment: full of antioxidants and vitamins; promotes heart health [in unspecified ways]; may reduce the risk of certain cancers [or, you know, may not]; and promotes healthy skin [because all gals really care about is not getting zits or wrinkles, right?]."

Skating pretty close to making an FDA-forbidden health claim right there. What next? Not your Dad's grapefruit.  How would that go: "Modernize Grapefruit and make it more relevant to today’s fitness-conscious young men. In addition, make the message fun and engaging, and develop a campaign to educate men that grapefruit is more than an mixed martial arts training regime …it’s an Aphrodisiac. IMW created an integrated marketing program that featured new health benefits targeted to the segment: full of fiber and riboflavins; promotes charisma; may reduce the risk of baldness; and promotes healthy beard growth."

It's time for Americans to Stop Saying "Coed"

francisco_osorio / Foter / CC BY

Upon moving to America I started noticing that both formally and informally women were being referred to as "coeds".  I did not have a faintest idea why. 

I looked it up and it is defined as "A female student at a coeducational institution" and dates from before 1878.  Which makes some kind of sense because in the Victorian era this would have been a new-fangled thing worthy of (probably derogatory) comment.

But do you know what we now call females that go to tertiary institutions that do not discriminate against their gender?  Students.  We call them students. 

Their presence at an institution of higher learning that men also attend does not require explanation, justification, or comment. It is quite literally unremarkable.  Or at least it should be.

We continue to not know how to deal with domestic violence against men

A recent story about the Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk presents very common scenario.  I have seen this happen myself, first hand, and over and over. A statement is made about domestic violence.  A comment is made that the statement or initiative embraces only female victims.  Adjustments are made, but very shortly afterwards the gender bias of the DV community reasserts itself.

Domestic violence is, as Palaszczuk notes, one area in which gender is relevant in that there is often a dynamic where the  "issue is the attitude men have to women as their possessions". But gender is also at play when men are victims and the seriousness of their situation is not respected, their experience is not validated, and there may be little of no help available to them as male victims because services and shelters in the area accommodate only females.

Palaszczuk's argument seems to be that we should essentially ignore, or resist paying undue attention, to male victims because they are a minority.  When Australia long history of discrimination should sure teach us that ignoring the plight of vulnerable minorities is a mistake that the government just keep on making. Any initiative to address domestic violence must accommodate male victims as equally 'valid' victims of this crime with equal access to assistance.

Have you ever really looked at the Battleship game box?

A game for all ages, but not both sexes.  

Those dishes aren't going to do themselves.

Seriously?

This title from the Express only makes sense if you assume men want-slash-deserve jobs more than women. Which is fucking ridiculous.

Their title:
A quarter of men jobless as more women go to work

My title for the same story:
One third of women jobless.

JCPenney and what little girls are made of

The first two pictures from JCP's new 're-branding'

Girls are made of:
pink, high heels, romance, jewelry, pussy cats

Boys are made of:
blue, uniforms, noise, outdoors, happy

Meanwhile in New Zealand

Alasdair Thompson, chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers' Association (EMA), had an explanation for why women earn less then men.

Apparently it is because: "Women take more sick leave than men," due to their "monthly sick problems".

If you live on this planet and in this millennium you may have trouble understanding what this time-traveler from the Victorian era is referring to, specifically menstruation. He seems to think women routinely take days off when menstruating.

I imagine he is also concerned about the females' voluminous petticoats getting caught in the looms.

It seems that this asshat is going to resign.

My heart bleeds for him.

Perhaps I should take the day off.

O'Reilly's Last Laugh

An employment tribunal found that when the BBC fired a female "Countryfile" presenter (one of four women fired) because of her age, but retained a similarly aged male, their actions were not sexist.  The seem to feel that either agism is a trump bigotry, or that agism only applies to women? 

In any case, they were found to be ageist. The show moved to prime time and executives clearly decided that age does not go before beauty when they dumped Miriam O'Reilly (53) a 25-year BBC veteran. That decision will cost them something in the range of tens of thousands of dollars.

I am Sexist

I really am; I honestly think we all are to some extent both against woman and men.  We marinade in our culture and no matter what you want to think or feel, it does get in. 

For example this morning I was scanning the middle of an article about a member of congress being quizzed on possibly breaking ethics rule.  This was the picture. I caught myself making an assumption about which one was a member of congress.  (Hint, it's the one on the left.)

In one of those stabbing little ironies the story on the facing page was about how San Francisco ban on affirmative action was upheld.  Specifically that to return to an affirmative action program one would have to show that the city "purposefully and intentionally discriminated."  The problem being that you don't have to be purposeful or intentional to discriminate--and those who do discriminate overtly are usually smart enough to lie about it.

Speed Opinion

People saying the movie Avatar is racist need to be given a chill pill and some water in a Captain Obvious mug* to wash it down with. Avatar** is racist like Barbarella is sexist. It's not accidental, its not all bad, and its a fun way to spend an hour or three. And yes, I know how to spell Barbarella because I can see my Barbarella poster from here.

*I feel the strange urge to open a Cafe Press store and offer a "Thank you, Captain Obvious" mug. It would probably be a better use of my time than a point by point fisking of the "Avatar is teh ebil" arguments being made online.

**Totally worth paying extra to see in 3D at a 'Gold Class' cinema.

See also:

Avatar language 'based on Maori'

Earth to Schleich

I confess, I like Schleich toys. Or as I prefer to call them Schleich plastic vinyl scale models.

But, anyway. I have one message for Schleich.

You see this figure depicting a woman who is apparently married to a farmer, jointly owns a farm with him, lives on that farm and is doing farm work? This is not a "farmers wife", this is a farmer who just happens to be female.

Wake up and smell the equality.

Somerset Witch project

I picked up a copy of the craft magazine Somerset Studio. One of the Halloween projects shown is a silhouette of the black house with various vintage and antique pictures of women in the windows and an orange background. A small excerpt with one example is shown in the cover (right). The artist describes the house as "occupied by a coven of diabolic witches".

All of the pictures are middle-aged or older, without cosmetics or fancily styled hair, and most have serious expressions. This is, of course, standard for portrait photography from the turn of the last century--when most women were capable of crafts rather more demanding than can accomplished with a hot glue gun and a stencil set. But all they are, in the eyes of this artist, are witches.

Never mind that they are, or were, ordinary, real people. Never mind the historical role of witchcraft accusations as a way of vilifying and even murdering unacceptably independent, unconventional or inconvenient women. Smiling, young, blonde, beautiful, heavily styled women are good. Older, serious, brunette, average looking, plainly dressed women are witches.

Some things never change.

The Food of Love

This blog is about things I like. It is about words, and language, and books. It is a female-ness, being a woman. (Being a man is, I am sure, pretty damn cool too--but it just wasn't how I came out this time around). It is about other things that are basically good things: food, music, television, pop culture and the occasional rant. Because ranting about things that are annoying or ludicrous, but essentially unimportant, is one of life's true pleasures.

But sometimes I come across something that is the pure and utter dark side of all of these things. Like a bill being passed into law in Afghanistan that removes all rights of custody from mothers, does not allow them to work without a husband's permission, and allows a husband to refuse to give his spouse food until she consents to sex. The selfish use of force can spoil anything. It says motherhood is unimportant, food is a weapon, a woman is a sexual amenity without free will, marriage is slavery and the law is a mechanism for the oppression of the vulnerable.

This is so saddening and perverse I cannot even enjoy complaining about it. Because it is not unimportant. It cuts to the heart of what we should be as people. Men and women. This law suggests not only a horrible role for women but a terrible identity for men and I do not see why either would tolerate such a law, let alone write, support, vote for or celebrate it.

I am grateful not to live under such a law which would make the independence I experience as a single professional woman literally impossible. But I should not blithely enjoy my status without aome gratitude, and some obligations. My pleasures are allowed to me as a virtue of my culture, not the birth right of every human being. It makes me realise that each of my pleasures (freedom from oppression, education and literacy, self-determination, ample food) is also a privilege, and not one to be taken for granted.

LOLfail

See also:
Women are Teachable! (who knew?)

Women are Teachable! (who knew?)

[click to enlarge]

Mrs Misses

I had two calls tonight from utility companies. The first was a mistake as it was a service I don't use. It went like this:

"Can I speak to the person in the household that pays the XXXX bill."
"I don't pay that bill."
"Can I speak to your husband then?"
"I don't pay that bill. A bill from that company doesn't come to this address."
"So who pays that bill."
"Nobody, I am not one of you customers."

The second was a company trying to tell me something unnecessary about a minor change in their terms of service, it went like this.

"I am calling about your XXXX service."
"Yes, okay."
"So is this Mrs XXX."
"Actually Dr. XXX"
"Dr. XXX?"
"Yes."
[silent pause]
"I am calling about your XXXX service."
"So I gather."

Seriously. Is this still the type of script phone staff are being given? Out-dated much?

Male Chauvinist Pig slaughter

The decision by the Egyptian authorities to slaughter all of the pigs in the country is stupid on many different levels--and with a sexist little twist. It seems that the culling outstripped the capacity of slaughterhouses to use any kind of humane methods.

"Only the males are killed in accordance with the rules," said journalist Heba Nasreddin, while "the piglets and sows are hit with an iron bar and left to bleed to death."

So when it comes to non-halal animals it seems women and children come last?

Smells Like Over-Extending a Brand

Genki Wear is releasing three Star Trek perfumes with a retro vibe in more way than one.

Tiberious: be a hot guy, be a Captain! (Boldly Go).

Red Shirt: be a dude who is totally about to die (Because Tomorrow May Never Come).

And for women (not pictured)... Pon Farr: (Drive Him Crazy)

Because women aren't captains, or monster bait, the are something men fight to win like some kind of scented trophy.

Janeway would not be amused.



See also:
Would You Date A Guy Who … Wears Star Trek Cologne?
Star Trek cologne coming in April
Eau de nerd
39b7199b06dc2de63d3c94ce96c51dac

Sexism Win=FAIL

At Failblog. Posted on International Woman's Day for an extra dose of bad timing fail.


see more pwn and owned pictures

Ax Men

I like the shows on the History channel about crab fishermen, the ice road trucker series was not quite as good, the one about loggers is another notch down but still worth watching. There was an Ax Men marathon today, getting ready for the new series. As reality shows these ones have a higher reality to show ratio than most. The testosterone overload is all part of the fun of getting some kind of feel for who these people are and what they do. It is like the flip side of that pageant Mom show.

But History channel could you please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please refrain from playing the ad for the show where the guy goes on about how a chainsaw is like a woman 5 times in one day. 1) I am already watching a marathon session of the show and so ads seem rather a waste of time and 2) by using that staged clip repeatedly rather than any others you appear to endorse it as a network rather than just observe it as a journalist. (And 3) if I see that clip one more time I will be a live demonstration of how a woman can be a lot like a chainsaw.)