Planned Parenthood of New York City is hosting Body Politic 08 events, the next one is Rack 'Em Up For Choice from 6:00 to 9:00 on April 8 at Steinway Cafe Billiards in Astoria, Queens.
Go.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Body Politic '08
Because 6 Is The New 14.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who read the occasional Sweet Valley High book (and, you know, played the board game and read the spinoff books). The series started in 1983 and ran for about 20 years and inspired multiple spinoffs. They are now being re-released, but with certain changes.
As I'm sure we all remember, in every frickin' SVH book we had to hear how the beautiful and lovely blond twins were "a perfect size 6." Well, in order to further their already amazing blond perfection, in the re-release the twins will now be "a perfect size 4." Because, you know, it wasn't damaging enough to girls to hear that a 6 was "perfect," so making perfection smaller seemed like a good idea. I have an idea, let's go ahead and make them a size 0, and make the school's "fat girl" Lois Waller a massive size 10 or something equally damaging.
Also, the twins no longer share a Fiat. Now it's a Jeep. Why an SUV is cooler than a Fiat, I don't know.
Plus, Elizabeth is now the editor of the school website instead of the school paper. Because high schools have completely done away with print newspapers.
I have a sick desire to reread these books. I know how awful and stereotypical and damaging they are; it's like a car accident, I can't look away.
I guess I could go to the LiveJournal group dedicated to snarking the books.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Women, Action, and the Media
(I stole the image from Feministing because I couldn't find it anywhere else)
In case you missed me, I was in Boston all weekend for the Women, Action, and the Media (WAM) conference. It's a conference for women in the media (duh?) to gather and discuss issues and concerns and what needs to be done. It was held at the Stata Center at MIT.
Side Note: The Stata Center is really cool looking. Have a picture:
I'm going to do a full recap of the weekend at another time. I'm really tired right now.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
We're Better Than You. And We Know It.
According to the The New York Times, feminists are more open to different body types.
It does mention that feminists and non-feminists found the same woman most attractive, and that she was slightly underweight. But generally, feminists had a more open view of attractiveness when it comes to the overweight.
Because apparently it's a revelation that we ample-figured ladies can be attractive, too.
Yeah, I'm *Totes* Not Buying This One.
Allegedly, the results of a Gallup poll indicate that if Obama were the Democratic nominee, 28% of Clinton supporters would vote for McCain. And 19% of Obama supporters would vote for McCain over Clinton.
So yeah, I really doubt that.
I mean let's think about this logically. Clinton and Obama are ideologically very similar if you look at their voting records and platforms. Focusing on issues that are important to me, both would be fine. Both are pro-choice and earned a 100% rating from NARAL, both have plans to get us out of Iraq, both have a idea for healthcare, etc. McCain's record on all of these things (which I'm not going to link to, because I don't want to be the reason anyone pukes up their dinner) is abysmal. He's anti-choice (and anti-woman, essentially), pro-war (he's said staying in Iraq for a century would be fine by him), and panders to the wealthy (which means healthcare reform is right out).
You'd have to be ridiculously stupid to vote for a candidate with a 180 degree difference from yourself because your favorite wasn't nominated. Especially when there's a candidate with a nearly identical ideology to your favorite just waiting to be voted for.
This kind of poll is incredibly fallible anyway. There's also the fact that people may say those things NOW, but come Election Day there's no way they'd actually pull the lever for McCain.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
This Is Why You Need To Sell Your SUV
A chunk of Antarctica approximately the size of Connecticut is teetering dangerously close to breaking off.
Seeing as how I live in one of the cities that will be engulfed by seawater if/when the ice caps melt, I'm not so thrilled about this.
Besides, I take the subway. This isn't my mess.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Gubernatorial Sex > People Losing Their Homes
David Paterson admitted today that both he and his wife have had extramarital affairs, both at the same time when they were going through a rough time in their relationship.
I understand why he would come forward and say this. He's a politician, so at some point someone would probably drag this into the spotlight, and by being forthright with the information he sets an example of honesty that, after recent events, the state of New York sorely needs. So as not to be the butt of too many jokes.
But seriously, why do we even need to know? As long as he does a good job as Governor, I genuinely don't care what he does in his own time. It's not illegal, it doesn't put anyone's life in danger, and it has no bearing on his job! Who are we to judge someone else's private life? Who are we to look into someone else's relationship and use it to determine their fitness for a given profession?
There was a comment left on the New York Times website that was great. It was written by Vivek Chandran and is as follows:
"If say my wife and kid got run by a car .. and I rushed them to hospital.. I’m looking for the best doctor to ensure that my wife and kid get the best medical care possible. Once I find the best doctor .. I do not ask him for his credit history, whether he is gay or straight or whether he has had an extra marital affair. I only look for competence. Similarly I expect only competence from my janitor, my garbage collection person, the baggage handler at the airport, the grocery clerk. When all of us as people do not look for morality but competence in all our transactions with other people .. why do we looks for morality just in the Governor .. who is a provide of another service for all of us."
I literally copied and pasted that, so all errors, grammatical or otherwise, were made by the original poster.
Also, some infidelity statistics for you (taken from various internet sites via Google):
-22 percent of married men have strayed at least once during their married lives.
-14 percent of married women have had affairs at least once during their married lives.
-50 percent of Americans say President Clinton's adultery makes his moral standard "about the same as the average married man," according to a Time-CNN poll.
-17 percent of divorces in the United States are caused by infidelity.
-Affairs affect one of every 2.7 couples
-Ten percent of extramarital affairs last one day, 10 percent last more than one day but less than a month, 50 percent last more than a month but less than a year, but 40 percent last two or more years. Few extramarital affairs last more than four years.
-75% of men and 65% of women admit to having sex with people they work with. (I include this because Paterson admits to having an affair with someone who worked in a different department at the NY Capitol)
-Percentage of marriages that last after an affair has been admitted to or discovered: 31%
Bottom line, someone's private life and relationships have nothing to do with their ability to do their job.
I think we should pay attention to how many people lost money because of the collapse of Bear Stearns. Or how when we were concerned about Spitzer's little whore problem, one of Bush's cronies was spending over $200 billion to bail out predatory banks and lenders?
But no. We are much more concerned about what's happening in someone's pants.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
My PSA About The Return of TV
Well, with the end of the Writers' Strike a few weeks ago, shows are back in production.
Click to find out when your favorite shows come back on.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Candidates and Choice
Hillary Clinton: good, pro-choice. NARAL rating: 100% (rated since 2001)
Barack Obama: good, pro-choice. NARAL rating: 100% (rated since 2005)
John McCain: you probably don't want to know. *runs screaming into the night...or Canada* NARAL rating: 0% (rated since 1987, there were 4 years he did not score zero: 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, where he was either 5% or 10%)
We need a pro-choice President. There is no question about it.
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