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Jul

14

Now that’s more like it, New Yorker

Filed Under Culture, Elections, Flip, Media, Politics, Writing | 17 Comments

Courtesy of Mary Hodder, hattip again to Jay Rosen’s tweet.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:31 pm July 14th, 2008 in Culture, Elections, Flip, Media, Politics, Writing | 17 Comments 

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Jul

14

Haveil Havalim #173 (Carnival of Jewish Blogs) now posted

Filed Under Blogging, Carnivals, Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Politics, Writing | Comments Off

I didn’t actually feel that any of my posts this week were Haveil Havalim #173-worthy, but the purveyor, Jack, did – thank you, Jack.

The post of mine which he chose is about immigration, ICE raids and the general ignorance of the topic by the presidential candidates of late.  However, what I really was thinking about when I wrote that piece was the raid in May at a kosher meat plant in Iowa. No employer is immune from using immigrants as a shield for profit but I don’t actually know what was going on there, even though, on its face, it’s incredibly disturbing.

Here’s a recent report about a lawsuit filed by the detained workers which was voluntarily dismissed from federal court and here’s an article about what Agriprocessor is saying.

Other than what I’ve read on the Internet in these articles, I know nothing about the situation.  Please, comment if you know more.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:41 pm July 14th, 2008 in Blogging, Carnivals, Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Politics, Writing | Comments Off 

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Jul

14

Attend BlogHer ’08 in Second Life July 18-19, CNN Ireport sponsors

Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, BlogHer, Media, Resources, Tech, Women | Comments Off

My session is going to be in real life, but if you want to be a part of BlogHer ’08, you can still register for it in Second Life:

This year we are thrilled to have CNN.com Ireport sponsor our parallel conference in Second Life, hosting all of our keynotes, sessions, and programming.

Our Second Life exclusive sessions are once again on the agenda, as is the popular ‘cocktail’ party so you can dance the night away right along with all the community members in California.

Registration is open- just make sure you can download and run Second Life on your computer.

Once you’ve registered, you can attend BlogHer Office Hours (listed below) at the CNN Ireport Hub in Second Life and the team will help teach you how to walk, get dressed, and even raise a virtual toast.

I haven’t tried SL for about two years now – I created some avatar but kept walking into inanimate objects.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:05 am July 14th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, BlogHer, Media, Resources, Tech, Women | Comments Off 

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Jul

14

Why calling out is rooting out: Clinton-New Republic & Obamas-New Yorker

Filed Under Barack Obama, Blogging, Campaigning, Civil Rights, Culture, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Humor, Media, Politics, Race, Sexism, Social Issues, WH2008, Writing | 19 Comments

We had a major league tug of war over whether this New Republic cover of Hillary Clinton was misogynistic.

Some of the comments in my thread about the photo:

“All in all bloody brilliant I’d say.”

“…the magazine’s just having a little fun, getting a rise out of you,…”

My post even inspired this post, Hillary Fans and Apologists Risk Diluting Meaning of Misogyny and the comments there involved a very robust dialogue.  The concern was that by calling out that cover as offensive and misogynistic, I was diluting the impact I could ever have when I might want to call out something that is, in the opinion of others, “really misogynistic” – whatever that might be.

Well, now we have this cover from the July 21 New Yorker:


And plenty of people are willing to call it offensive and racist.

As do I and as well they should.

Every time. Every. Blasted. Time.

Should people calling it out on behalf of Obama be told that they risk diluting the concept and blinding themselves to real racism by calling out this particular cover? I sure as hell wouldn’t tell them that.  Because there should be no tolerance at any level.

When you pull out a dandelion, do you just take the flower itself, or even just the green stem and up?  No – you have to take out the roots below the ground.

And the same is true of racism and sexism and all the other isms that propagate fear.

In this interview with New Yorker editor, David Remnick, he says that the image is supposed to be a way of compiling and making fun of all the accusations and smears of the Obamas that are intended to cause fear in the voters.

What I think it does is hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama’s — both Obamas’ — past, and their politics. I can’t speak for anyone else’s interpretations, all I can say is that it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama’s supposed “lack of patriotism” or his being “soft on terrorism” or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office.

…

The fact is, it’s not a satire about Obama – it’s a satire about the distortions and misconceptions and prejudices about Obama.

But if that was the objective, then what the cover should have done is skewer the people who propagate distortions and misconceptions and prejudices in the first place – not the very people already being demonized.  As Kevin Drum says (hattip to Jay Rosen’s tweet) the only way to have made this fair is the way a too-gentle on McCain media would never do it:

If artist Barry Blitt had some real cojones, he would have drawn the same cover but shown it as a gigantic word bubble coming out of John McCain’s mouth — implying, you see, that this is how McCain wants the world to view Obama. But he didn’t. Because that would have been unfair. And McCain would have complained about it. And for some reason, the risk that a failed satire would unfairly defame McCain is somehow seen as worse than the risk that a failed satire would unfairly defame Obama.

Absolutely. Read more

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:40 am July 14th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Blogging, Campaigning, Civil Rights, Culture, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Humor, Media, Politics, Race, Sexism, Social Issues, WH2008, Writing | 19 Comments 

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Jul

14

A world, and a press, without women

Filed Under Blogging, Business, Civil Rights, Culture, Flip, Gender, Media, Politics, Sexism, Social Issues, Women | 2 Comments

Have you ever imagined a world without women?  What if there were only men?

A Google search on “a world without women” brings up a lot of results. So here’s my contribution:

What if editors were only allowed to publish stories about men? Since women aren’t at the top now anyway, maybe we should tell them that they can’t write about us.

And think about which topics would get covered and how – war, sports, and rhetoric – maybe a few other things?

But no coming home from war to wives or girlfriends or mothers.  No celebrating after a win in the midst of NASCAR groupies and no stump speeches about reproductive rights or, goodness, equal pay between the genders. Ack – no stories about Christie Brinkley and her fourth divorce, or Miley Cyrus or Anne Hathaway.  Of course you also wouldn’t have Marie Pasteur or Mother Theresa or Melissa Etheridge either.

Who would be on the cover of People magazine 52 weeks of the year?  You can only do Sexiest Bachelor Alive so many times a year.

Why would I suggest such a thing? Which clearly I haven’t thought out (definitely looking for input in the comments)?

Here are some reasons:

Twenty bloggers we want to see in bikinis

Top 10 Female bloggers for Playboy

Vagina Hero

There’s never been a great woman artist

There are no great female nonfiction writers

There are no great female intellectuals

And of course, women aren’t funny

Jessica Wakeman offers this at Salon.com re: why these lists bother some of us:

For those of us trying to earn and hold onto respect, hottie roundups are more of the same-old bullshit where women with impressive lists of accomplishments are treated with that much less than their male counterparts. When women bloggers are afforded less respect than is deserved by their journalism/tech peers who should know better, it’s an ice-water-on-the-face reminder that a factor in a woman’s worth is how she falls in line with conventional beauty standards (called the “the male gaze” in gender studies — although Ariel Levy’s “Female Chauvinist Pigs” aptly explained how it’s not just men perpetuating the problem). In other words, should we pity the fat-fingered, greasy-skinned, stringy-haired coding genius? Or is she lucky enough to be exempt from this hoopla?

Oh – and that thing re: world without women? The men still have the same sexual desires. There are just no women.

It would be unfair for me to not include two positive lists that came out recently: Top 50 Female bloggers (kudos to Anita Campbell, BlogHer and several others for getting noted, but it’s very obviously short on WOC – I noticed immediately) and 100 Awesome Webmast Blogs by and for Women and if you google “top 100 women” you’ll find plenty of lists that have been compiled but sadly, reinforcing my frustration, here are the first returns:

Top 100 Sexiest Women and How Many Have Tattoos — By Vince Hemingson

A quick look at the Top 100 list reveals that one of the things that many of the women picked have in common is body art, i.e. tattoos! …
www.vanishingtattoo.com/top100_women_tattoos.htm – 18k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

The Top 100 most searched for women | MSN Hotlist

Hotlist presents MSN UK’s Top 100 most searched for women featuring Britney Spears, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton and many, many more| MSN Hotlist.
hotlist.uk.msn.com/2007/top-100-women-2008.aspx – 35k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

THEN followed by:

Top 100 Women July 2008 FIDE Top players archive

FIDE – World Chess Federation, Online ratings, individual calculations.
ratings.fide.com/toparc.phtml?cod=130 – 31k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

GAME INDUSTRY’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN : Next Generation …

Sep 11, 2006 … I’ve read the top 100 women in the industry on this site which is great .. but I have a question … why is it that the majority of games …
www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3783&Itemid=2 – 67k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

Top 100 Women Artists

A top site list of women artists websites from around the world.
www.root-top.com/topsite/womenartist/in.php?ID=178 – 3k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this

Sigh.  Maybe it was just a harmonic convergence this week.  I saw a lot of tweets indicating that bloggers of major, productive and well-written blogs were feeling a lot like me.  Summer. Vacation.  Need it. Now.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:29 am July 14th, 2008 in Blogging, Business, Civil Rights, Culture, Flip, Gender, Media, Politics, Sexism, Social Issues, Women | 2 Comments 

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