Alas, a Blog | Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about.

Left-wing racist misogynists (a mea culpa)

Posted on January 12, 2005 by Ampersand

About a year ago, I blogged about the deluge of right-wing hate mail received by Margaret Cho, “mostly criticizing Cho for being fat, Asian and female, traits that are considered grievous flaws by some right-wingers.”

I stand by that post. But I can’t stand by an assumption I made while I wrote it. At some level, I smugly assumed such an outpouring of blatant racist misogyny would only come from the right. I didn’t think about it (if I had thought, I would have realized I was being ridiculous), but I thoughtlessly assumed it.

I am reminded of this today because Michelle Malkin, an Asian-American, right-wing pundit, has put quotes from some of her hate mail online. (Link via comments at LTF). A few samples:

Hi Self hating flat nosed Filipino Bitch! As we used to refer to your kind – little brown Fucking Machines. Looks like this little LBFM learned to whore in a different way to make some pesos. How sweet.

* * *

Surely you are a big put-on. Did some minor Republican operative purchase a mail-order bride and train her to do this?

* * *

Malkin, you’re a dumb fucking whore. You’re a philipino piece of shit who should be wiping my ass. Go back to the massage parlor. Sucky sucky long time. How dare you thing you have any right to express any opinions in this country. You’re a joke. Go back to nursing school. Whore.

I don’t want to make this “all about me.” The main issue here is obviously the racism and sexism that still exists and boils up with what I can only call stunning assholishness when a woman of color who speaks her mind is combined with the ease and facelessness of email.

But it’s also important that lefties (and especially the feminist, anti-racist left) be aware of stuff like this, lest we fall into smug, easy assumptions, as I did a year ago. There’s no shortage of vile, racist, woman-hating assholes on the left.

It's not offensive because I say it's not

Posted on January 12, 2005 by Ampersand

White Wolf Games has a new game out – “Ghetto!”

The idea is, you role-play a Nazi in the Warsaw ghetto of 1942. Your goal is to slap down the Jews, or “Kikes,” and pick out the agitators and leaders to be shipped to the Treblinka mass-murder camp. What fun! You also earn points by picking out the pretty Jewesses to force them to be your whores to survive, and then beating the hell out of them if they don’t cooperate. It’s really cool!

Oh, and remember: if you like being politically correct & never laughing, don’t buy this game. Remember, just saying “this isn’t for you if you’re PC” automatically makes all criticisms of racism and woman-hating moot. We don’t have to think about the moral implications of our actions and publications at all; we just have to say that anyone who criticizes us lacks humor.

(Thanks to “Alas” reader Karpad for the pointer.)

UPDATE: I’d better make it clear – this post is a parody. To see what it’s a parody of, you have to follow the link.

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 65 Comments

Stay in your place, you stupid normals: The politics of The Incredibles

Posted on January 12, 2005 by Ampersand

I really enjoyed The Incredibles, because it was beautifully animated, decently written and had great action sequences. (So shoot me, sometimes my mind likes candy.) But at the same time, I thought its politics were pretty regressive, and vaguely thought I’d write a post on it. I didn’t, but thankfully I don’t have to, because Sally of Prednisone Nation did such a great job.

Here’s my fave bit:

…Fundamentally, this is a movie about the social role of talented people. I read a review today that said that it was a polemic against mediocrity, but I don’t think that’s right at all. The movie’s real target is not mediocrity but equality. Some people, according to The Incredibles, are just born better than the rest of us. This superiority is innate and inherited: superheroes make up a kind of master race. The movie doesn’t just suggest that it’s destructive to stifle talented people; it also derides the notion that everyone has talents that should be celebrated, and it raises and dismisses the idea that ordinary people could make their way into the elect. You don’t choose to be a superhero; you can’t earn it through ingenuity or hard work. You’re either born super or you’re not.

An unstated but necessary corollary to the idea of an innately superior group of superheroes is the notion that they will always use this power for the common good. Otherwise, we might have to confront the pesky notion that powerful elites might use their strength to oppress others. It’s not that it’s impossible for ordinary people to become super-talented: with the help of his inventions, the villain becomes an equal match for any member of the Incredible family. The problem seems to be that it’s unnatural to elevate people who are destined to be ordinary; it messes with the proper order of things. When given extraordinary power, normal people will be corrupted. Only those born superheroes can be trusted to use their powers for good. This movie says that powerful, hereditary elites are good for society not because they’re more talented but because they’re more moral. It’s a nineteenth or even eighteenth-century version of how society should be ordered: it’s a celebration of natural aristocracy and the concept of knowing your place.

Another unstated but clear assumption is that real, important powers are physical, not mental. The Incredibles’ powers all reside in the body: they can lift, throw, contort, run, or disappear. There’s no thinking involved. In fact, Mrs. Incredible tells Violet that in case of an emergency, she should not think. Thinking just trips Violet up, and she’s more effective when she shuts her brain off and just acts. The villain of the piece, on the other hand, is depicted as that comic-book cliche, a genius inventor. His powers reside in his mind, and he is capable of creating machines that could give everyone extraordinary powers. This mental prowess, however, is not a super power. His ability to design and create makes him an imposter, not a superhero. His intelligence is a destructive force, while the Incredibles’ bodily strength is a force for good. The movie suggests that the whole society should mirror the social hierarchy of your typical high school: the football players should lord it over the losers in the chess club.

Read the whole thing.

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 26 Comments

The origins and definitions of "gender feminism" and "equity feminism"

Posted on January 12, 2005 by Ampersand

(This is the first of three posts on “equity feminism” and “gender feminism.” Part two is here; part three is here).

As folks have been discussing a bit in this “Alas” thread, conservatives tend to divide feminists into two categories: “gender feminists” and “equity feminists.”

These terms were coined by Christina Hoff Sommers, in her anti-feminist classic Who Stole Feminism?. Here’s how Hoff Sommers introduced the term “gender feminists”:

The gender feminists (as I shall call them) believe that all our institutions, from the state to the family to the grade schools, perpetuate male dominance. … Gender feminists are constantly on the lookout for the smoking gun, the telling fact that will drive home to the public how profoundly the system is rigged against women. To rally women to their cause, it is not enough to remind us that many brutal and selfish men harm women. They must persuade us that the system itself sanctions male brutality. They must convince us that the oppression of women, sustained from generation to generation, is a structural feature of our society.

In contrast, equity feminists are those who (in Hoff Sommer’s view) derive their feminism from the suffragettes. Here’s Hoff Sommers’ first mention of “equity” feminism:

The traditional, classically liberal, humanistic feminism that was initiated more than 150 years ago was very different. It has a specific agenda, demanding for women the same rights before the law that men enjoyed. The suffrage had to be won, and the laws regarding property, marriage, divorce, and child custody had to be made equitable. More recently, abortion rights had to be protected. The old mainstream feminism concentrated on legal reforms. …

Most American women subscribe philosophically to that older “First Wave” kind of feminism whose main goal is equity, especially in politics and education. A First Wave, “mainstream,” or “equity” feminist wants for women what she wants for everyone: fair treatment, without discrimination.

Note that the definitions are already a bit incoherent; although Hoff Sommers is trying to create two opposed categories, her definitions leave a lot of room for overlap. There is no contradiction, for example, between believing that “system is profoundly rigged against women” (gender feminists) and wanting “fair treatment, without discrimination, for everyone” (equity feminists).

Ignoring the incoherence for a while, the two key differences in Hoff Sommers formulation seem to be that “gender feminists” believe that sexism against women is a widespread problem, found in virtually all our society’s institutions. In contrast, “equity feminists” apparently think that feminism’s only proper concern is legal equality – a goal that has been, to a significant extent, achieved in the USA – and there is absolutely no cultural or systemic bias against women.

(Note, by the way, that the dictionary definition of feminism – which I’d phrase as “the movement organized around belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes” – is closer to “gender” than “equity” feminism, since its conception of equality is far broader than simple legal equality.)

(This is the first of three posts on “equity feminism” and “gender feminism.” Part two is here; part three is here).

Posted in Anti-feminists and their pals, Christina Hoff Sommers, Feminism, sexism, etc | 18 Comments

"Comic book" for Illegal Mexican Immigrants turns out to be a pamphlet

Posted on January 12, 2005 by Ampersand

As a cartoonist, I was intrigued and excited to read on World Net Daily (a right-wing news site) that “The government of Mexico is raising eyebrows with a new comic book offering advice on how to cross the border into the U.S. illegally.” (Hat tip: Animate Matters).

Imagine my disappointment when I did a little searching and discovered that the comic book in question is really more of a prose pamphlet with comic-book-style illustrations. Doesn’t World Net Daily realize that to be a true comic book, the pamphlet would have to feature images in deliberate sequence forming a narrative?

Scroll to the bottom of this page to read the pamphlet (translations are included). To my eye, the illustrations seem to have a strong Neal Adams influence, with touches of Al Williamson as well (look at the folds on the Dad’s blue shirt in the page on domestic violence, for example). A bit too much superhero influence – look at how overly buff the shirtless guys crossing the river are, for example, or the woman’s ridiculously tight dress on the “you have rights!” page.

Still, a good first effort. I hope the Mexican government expands into publishing full-fledged comics in the future.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, International issues | 2 Comments

Koufax awards!

Posted on January 10, 2005 by Ampersand

What with one thing and another, I’ve been too busy to check out the Koufax awards, which are once again being administrated by “too much work, too little reward is our game” Wampum.

I just did, and I’m flattered to say that “Alas” has been nominated (at least in this round) for Best Indie Blog, Best Group Blog, Best Single Issue Blog, and in addition I’ve been nominated for Best Writing. So, yay us.

(If you think “Alas” deserves it, please do follow the above links and vote for us!)

Keep watching – they still haven’t gotten to the “best post” and “funniest post” nominations, which are always a lot of fun just as a guide to good posts to read.

Posted in Whatever | 3 Comments

CEO Pay (cartoon for Dollars and Sense)

Posted on January 10, 2005 by Ampersand

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like | 11 Comments

CSS Follies, part 2

Posted on January 8, 2005 by Ampersand

Well, things are looking up since my last post.

Dylan Thurston pointed out that I could rescue several recent posts by going to Google’s catche. Thanks, Dylan! (Google didn’t catche the comments, alas. Which is sad, because a couple of those discussions were really good.)
I got the sidebar to look okay in IE.
At RaynDragon’s suggestion, I made the top graphic (the screaming “Alas” dude) into a link back to the front of the blog. Thanks, Rayn!
JennHi told me how to get rid of the horrible annoying horizontal scroll! Huzzah! Thanks, JennHi!
I got the brick-red at the top of the blog to bleed all the way to the margins in Opera (although not in IE or Firefox). Since Opera is what I use to read “Alas,” and I doubt anyone other than me cares, I can live with that. (What worked was removing all the padding from the “body” attribute).
Stephen Bounds explained to me that ” ‘padding’ adds space within the current layout box, while ‘margin’ adds space outside that box,” which is probably the single most useful thing anyone’s ever told me about laying out in CSS. Knowing that made playing around with how the sidebar and main text are laid out much easier. Thanks, Stephen.
The “sidebar overlap” problem rather mysteriously fixed itself, at least in the three browsers I’m using on a Windows machine.

I still have a lot to do on the blogroll, and all the little bighead drawings need to be restored, but in the meanwhile we seem to have a fully functioning, acceptable-looking “Alas.”

Three questions. First of all, does “Alas” look wrong or awful (more so than usual, I mean) to any readers out there? I know not everyone is using IE, Opera or Firefox on a Widows machine. (Although, really, I can’ t recommend Opera highly enough.)

Second, apparently the RSS feed isn’t working. Since I don’t know a thing about RSS, I haven’t a clue how to fix it, but I’ll try to work on it. But if anyone knows what’s wrong, please give me a shout-out.

And third, what do you folks think of the “most recent by…” feature added to the “recent comments” list on the sidebar? It’s kinda neat to know who the most recent poster was, but on the other hand the “recent posts” list isn’t as tidy looking as it was and take up twice as much space. Anyone have a preference?

In the meanwhile, suggestions are quite welcome – about RSS, and also about any CSS or layout tweaking.

Posted in Site and Admin Stuff | 16 Comments

Switching over to WordPress

Posted on January 7, 2005 by Ampersand

The worst problem: All posts and comments posted to “Alas” after December 30th have been utterly lost, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. Many apologies to everyone who wrote a post or a comment during that period.

The good news: It’s still rough around the edges, but “Alas” is back online and working. That’s good, isn’t it?

Once I learn the system, having switched to WordPress should give me a lot more spam-blocking options. Also, the “it takes two minutes to post a comment” problem appears to have been fixed by the change.

The continuing frustrations: Have I mentioned how much I loathe working with CSS? I know it can do wonderful things, but html was so much easier to work with.

Anyhow, I’m going to continue poking at the CSS and index file, and playing with WordPress, and maybe someday the blog will look right again. I’ll restore the blogroll sometime in the next several days.

In the meanwhile, my experience is that “Alas” readers (collectively) usually know a lot more than me. (Not that it’s difficult to know more than me.) I’ll be very grateful if you have any suggestions regarding:

Why does the sidebar look okay in Opera and Mozilla but horrible in IE?
How can I get the brick-red color at the top to extend all the way to the top and left side?
Why is the blog always slightly wider than the window, regardless of how wide the window is?
Why does the sidebar overlap the top banner in Mozilla and IE, no matter what I set the “#menu” “top” setting to? (Opera seems to be the only browser that pays any attention to that setting at all; I have it set to 260px currently).
Is there any advantage to me in using WordPress’s built-in “sidebar links” function, rather than just putting raw html in the index file?
Is there any way I as admin can edit who authored a post in WordPress? Although WordPress successfully imported all old MT blog entries – which is more than MT can say – it didn’t correctly guess the author on all of them.
Got any tweaking suggestions?

Any advice would be appreciated. If you like, you can view a .txt document of the css file here, and of the index file here.

Posted in Site and Admin Stuff | 13 Comments

"Alas, a Blog" will return!

Posted on January 6, 2005 by Ampersand

As you can see, “Alas” has been taken down by technical difficulties again.

I am determined to lick these problems once and for all (or at least for a good long time). “Alas” will be down for a day or two while I re-set it up, this time using “WordPress.” But it will be back – this time with working comments and less spam.

Thanks to everyone for being patient!

Posted in Site and Admin Stuff | 6 Comments