Females

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16
Nov 08

Bitches Gone Wild: The Motrin Drama

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

Can you say stupid with a slice of WTF?

Last night, my Twitter started going off with angry tweets regarding an ad on the Motrin website.  I can’t show you the ad because it’s been pulled.  Let me describe it:

It was a way too long video with a voiceover of some whiny mom complaining about something.  The words she was saying were being tossed acrossed the screen in what was probably some misdirected attempt at hipness.  After I woke from a nap, the woman was still droning on and she started talking about how she uses a carrier (which somehow is painful)  to make her look like an “official mommy”.

Let the shitstorm begin.

All day long, as I checked into various social media sites, women with too much time on their hands were writing overwrought posts talking about the ad was ‘insulting’.  To whom, was unclear.  Some moms were offended by it because they were adoptive parents.  Some because their kids were older.  Some because they never use(d) a carrier with their babies.  Others because they know that if worn right a carrier isn’t painful at all. But they were insulted and seeking vengeance.

Insulted.

Mommy bloggers you won the internets today.  Your prize?

Later this afternoon, childless people, men and those who have lives walked into this dust up trying to figure out the problem with the ad.  Most of them realized quickly that the ad wasn’t anything to get upset about and moved on with their lives.  Sadly, the mommy bloggers didn’t. They were making videos y’all.  Videos.

THUD.

A few hours ago, the Motrin website went down.  Crazed mommy bloggers cyber-high-fived one another.  That’ll show Motrin.  Mess with us and our faux outrage.

Well, Motrin finally responded and was a lot nicer than I would have been if I were doing the PR for the company:

We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website. It will take longer, unfortunately, for it to be removed from magazine print as it is currently on newstands and in distribution.

-Kathy

Kathy Widmer
VP of Marketing – Pain, Pediatrics, GI, Specialty
McNeil Consumer Healthcare

So now there’s even more vindication, but even worse, the masturbatory “See what Social Media can do?” posts are going up.  It’s like a Daisy chain gone bad.  And this is why I don’t call myself a mommy blogger.  This is why I try to stay away from mom blogs.  This is why some people shouldn’t be allowed to use a fucking computer.

I will say that I am extremely jealous at the swift and angry reaction of these women.  Just think of what they could do if they organized to help the poverty-stricken or cure real injustices in the world.  I wish everything in my life was so perfect that I would have the luxury to get all agitated over a damn ad.

Barack Obama / Entertainment / Females / GOP / Social Media / elections 2008 — Comments
3
Sep 08

Sarah Palin’s national debut

Considering that all the speeches we saw tonight were disjointed messes, it was only natural that Palin’s speech would follow the trend.

Considering that all the speeches we saw tonight were chock full of blatant lies the records of the candidates, it was only natural that Palin’s speech would follow the trend.

Considering that Palin was a virtual unknown 5 days ago, the speech she needed to give to win over America, was not given tonight.  Instead, we got a red meat speech geared toward corporate and the fringe “religious” right.  In other words, tonight was another wasted night at the Republican National Convention.  Palin needed to introduce herself to America and assauge our fears that she was a credible pick for the VP slot.  Unfortunately, she turned herself into that friend you bring to a party who proceeds to insult everyone else at the party and their mamas.

While this made for great political theater in the Xcel Center and on TV, the reality is that instead of looking tough, she came off catty and shallow.  That’s very unfortunate and as a female, it was offensive and embarrassing.  Palin’s speech tonight put a very public and demeaning face on female executives across the country.

For someone with no national experience she touted what little experience she does have as more than Obama or Biden.  The only problem is that McCain’s experience is similar to Biden’s only less.  How do you walk that back?  How does the GOP, logically, say “Well, she has more experience than the Democrats, but not enough experience to be President.”?  How do you convince me that a person who left a town of 6000 with a $22M deficit is responsible?  How do you convince America that she’s a “reformer” when she not only asked for, but kept the earmarks McCain deplores and she lied about denying?

I wish I could be happy that the RNC finally broke it’s own cathedral high glass ceiling by nominating a female for Vice President.  But like with Hillary Clinton, it’s the wrong woman for the job.  There are many female Republicans who are not only part of the mainstream, but are smart, efficient capable females who would appeal not just to the fringe “religious” base of the GOP,  but to a wider swath of the electorate; moderate Democrats and Republicans and many independents.

As I looked in on blogs, twitter and friendfeed during her speech, I heard the same refrain from most of the Republicans, “This woman is scary.”  They felt insulted that her speech mocking Obama also mocked them for their actions.  They felt insulted that instead of telling us what they would do without lies and fear, they just repeated the GOP actions of lies and fear.  They felt insulted that because they live in big cities, they seem no longer welcome in their own party.

I want to thank Gov. Palin.  Tonight’s speech could have been very good and impressive.  Clearly, that’s not what the GOP was going for and the speeches leading up to hers proved that.  But what her speech did do was not only convince a lot of Republicans and Independents that the GOP is no longer for them, but she also energized the Democratic base.

Barack Obama / Democrats / Election 2008 / Females / Hillary Clinton / Politics / Race / Women / elections 2008 — Comments
19
May 08

Hillary Clinton & Karl Rove = BFF?

One more thing to add to the list of crazy the Clinton’s are doing: Clinton cited Karl Rove as a reason to stay in the race. Not like bringing him up like he’s the boogeyman, but…

“Just today I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by – of all people – Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate,” said Clinton. “Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.”

Yikes.

*****

That’s desperation…that makes this morning’s stupid memo from the Clinton’s campaign this seem brilliant. See, the Clinton’s released a memo that said that Sen. Obama better not declare victory in Iowa tomorrow night. Only problem is that declaring victory was never the plan. In fact, for the past week Obama has been shutting down all talk of declaring victory in Iowa and this morning news all over the place held that the Obama campaign was not going to Iowa for a victory dance.

But “facts” and “reality” have a funny way of avoiding the Clinton’s like they were Republicans or something. 3 hours after all the news reports and blog reports of Obama NOT declaring victory were posted, the Clinton’s released a intellectually deficient memo demanding Obama not declare victory in Iowa. The more cynical among us believe the Clinton’s did that so that win Obama, as planned, does not declare victory in Iowa they can puff up their chests for their deluded supporters and say, “We did that.”

Idiots.

******

I’ve been reading a lot about all the sexism Sen. Clinton has endured and her supporters are laying it directly on the feet of Obama in some fucktarded twist of logic. Ironically, many of these women make incredibly racist remarks regarding Obama, but I guess grrrl power supersedes bigotry in this case. It’s impossible to talk about the sexism from the media and ignorant assholes that Clinton has received without mentioning the racism that Obama has received not just from the GOP and the media, but more importantly from the Clinton’s and their supposed Democrat supporters. One quote from a white woman supporting Clinton blew it off, as “there’s more of us (women) than them (black people), so why make us mad?” You know, that’s their mindset right? If anything, this election has vindicated my view on old school, white, intellectual feminists. I never thought much of them before and as I’ve mentioned, I know that when they talk about women, they’re not including me. Still, considering how much I’ve been dismissed because of that view, it’s nice to proven right. But I’m not going to get into that.

We can see the double standards at work here. I’ve mentioned how Clinton plays that annoying girl on the schoolyard who hits a boy because she knows that boys shouldn’t hit girls, yet whines the boys want to ignore her. Hillary Clinton gave a talk at a women’s group back in April and no one batted an eye. Yet, we know that Obama couldn’t be seen speaking to the NAACP or at Tavis Smiley’s Strokefest State of the Black Union, because of his skin color. Clinton talks about women all the time in her speeches; she mentions old women who want to vote for her so they can see a female president before they die or moms bringing their daughters to see her because she could be president. Yet, I’ve seen or read many of Obama’s speeches and we don’t get stories of old black men telling Obama they’re voting for him because they want to see a black president before they die, we don’t get stories of moms bringing their sons to see him because he could be president. And if he did tell those stories, do you think the bigots on news sites and blogs would let that slide? Do you think the media would let that slide? Booman put into words exactly what I’ve been trying to say the past 5 months:

My overall view is that Hillary Clinton succeeded in convincing the American people that she was the presumptive frontrunner, which means that people were able to picture a woman president without much resistance. That frontrunner status was so ingrained that I think it actually hurt her campaign, as people rejected a coronation. Meanwhile, the black community displayed a lot of resistance to the idea of a black president. This was evidenced by the slowness with which they rallied around Obama. Prior to his victory in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa, the polls showed Clinton running even or ahead among blacks in South Carolina. In other words, Obama had a harder time getting people to accept the idea of a black president than Clinton had getting people to accept the idea of a female president.

The Clintons have consistently tried to convince people that a black man is unelectable (whether they sincerely believe it or not), while the Obama campaign has never to my knowledge tried to convince people that a woman is unelectable. The Clinton campaign has used a million and one excuses for their losses, including that certain states have too many black people in them. The Obama campaign did not make the converse argument to explain why they lost any states until West Virginia.

emphasis mine

Remember this the next time people tell you that voting against Clinton is sexist. I would say include “voting against Obama is racist”, but the only people I see saying that are Clinton supporters, so I’m going to assume it’s a talking point of the Clinton’s campaign.

Barack Obama / Females / Hillary Clinton / Women — Comments
14
May 08

ELECTION ’08: Battle of the pro-choice endorsements

NARAL endorsed Sen. Obama today and in bizarro world that made EMILYs List mad.  They went and played the Evan Bayh card:

“I think it is tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton — who held up the nomination of a FDA commissioner in order to force approval of Plan B and who spoke so eloquently during the Supreme Court nomination about the importance of protecting Roe vs. Wade — to not give her the courtesy to finish the final three weeks of the primary process,” said Emily’s List president Ellen Malcolm. “It certainly must be disconcerting for elected leaders who stand up for reproductive rights and expect the choice community will stand with them.”

You got that? Malcom, president of EMILYs List, is mad that NARAL chose to give an endorsement as things are winding down.

<blank stare>

Are you kidding me?

Maybe Ms. Malcom forgot why EMILYs List is around. Their stated goal is to help underfunded and unknown female pro-choice politicians get elected. Besides being female and pro-choice, exactly how was Clinton underfunded and unknown? Did NARAL put out a statement shaming EMILYs List for not living up to their mission statement?

It’s bullshit like this that makes me glad that I stopped donating to EMILYs List.

Election 2008 / Females / Politics — Comments
16
Apr 08

The Future First Lady

Is it wrong that a little part of me is only supporting Obama because of his wife?

If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right…

Females — Comments
10
Mar 08

A vote for women bloggers

You know it’s Women’s History Month right? No matter if you were born with ovaries or got resleeved, this month is for you. Poke around your local women’s groups or check your email and I’m sure that you’ve received invitation after invitation to hear various women speak on various issues.

March always makes me glad to be a woman in LA. I have invitations to hear Latinas speak on economics and female empowerment, a couple of my transgender friends are giving speeches on books they’ve written. Famous women from around the world drop into LA colleges, bookstores and libraries to gives talks on femaleness.

Yet, while I know how lucky I am, there are women out there who don’t have the time or inclination to get involved. They don’t see themselves as part of this group. They call themselves ‘soccer moms’ or whatever label the media adopted from whatever political group. They don’t see Women’s History Month as relevant in their lives. Some of these women are bloggers. Despite the fact that they’d probably do anything to get out of attending a dyke panel on Organic Living for Your Urban Family (March 18th!), they more than likely have a lot in common with the women attending.

These SheBloggers quietly tap away at their keyboards sharing slivers of their lives online. Some of them focus solely on their family. Many of them blog as a way to deal with those little wrenches life tosses us, whether it’s a sick child, being a working mom or dealing with a divorce, they add their voices to the Women’s Experience. Sometimes, you read one of these women and you want everyone to know about her.

I’ve had this badge on my site for almost a week now. This is your chance to vote for your favorite female blogger. Women Voices, Women Vote is doing this to make women’s voices heard. Voting has been going on all month and the last day to nominate your favorite female blogger is March 21st. After that, you’ll be able to vote for the finalist among the top 10.

It’s time that women’s voices get heard in the blogosphere.

Barack Obama / Election 2008 / Females / Politics — Comments
3
Feb 08

ELECTION ’08: UCLA Obama Rally

Wow. What an experience. I’m glad I went, though I should have left the little girl at home. She wanted to leave before it started! I took 107 photos, so I’ll just post some of them here an tell you what’s happening as we go along.

First off, considering that it’s raining and it’s Super Bowl Sunday and it’s Los Angeles AND UCLA is on the westside, I was very, very shocked at the turnout. Especially among black people. I spoke to people who said they went to the early service today to attend this rally. We got there around 10:30am, but considering the seating issues, we could have just showed up at 1 and been on time.

Here’s the famous vendor everyone in LA has a photo of. Funniest thing, the shirt he’s wearing says “He’s black and I’m proud”. I counted about 19 little (8 and younger) white kids wearing that shirt today.

Here’s crowd shot:

When we first came in, they told us to sit on the other side of the gym, which is very strange. Usually you’re forced to fill up the behind the speakers sections first. Then we all got in there and the section behind the speakers was empty. Then they told us to go over there. Bleeech. What made it lamer was that they kept saying, “You’ll be on TV!” like that’s a selling point.

(To the fat black lady in the gray pants and black sweater chasing down the Asian chick handing out signs, thanks for making my daughter cry. When you stole the sign I had asked for, even though you had 3 already, I was asking for her. She kept asking me “Why that lady take my sign?” Thank you very much for being the one blight on the day were everyone was treating her so nicely.)

If I have on complaint it’s the seating people. They were very rude and in typical LA fashion acted like they were bouncers at the hottest club on the planet. Bleeech. One lady had gone to the bathroom and was trying to get back to her stuff. The asshole there wouldn’t let her through. Stupid.

Gloria Romero came to talk. Even though she’s wearing her trademark red, it took me awhile to realize that was her.

Norma Torres, Mayor of Pomona came afterwards. She gave a good speech and was followed by the head of Women for Obama – Los Angeles and Buffy, the Obama field campaign manager. I don’t know Buffy’s last name, but everyone knows Buffy. She introduced a lady who is 93 years old.

They also played the will.i.am video I linked to last night. Some people had never seen it before, as it had just come out the night before. Everyone was cheering and I had to explain to an older couple near me that it wasn’t an Obama campaign piece. The lady then said, “That’s the highest rated YouTube video right now!” and the crowd went nuts. Then I had to explain what YouTube was.

Karen Bass followed and she gave a rousing speech in favor of Obama. In turn,one of the Obama campaign’s national co-chair’s whose name is escaping me right now and she introduced Caroline Kennedy:

Caroline Kennedy read her endorsement gave her speech and got off a funny. She said, “It’s so nice to be able introduce someone other than my uncle Teddy.” and then introduced Oprah Winfrey, who rocked the house.

I couldn’t believe how big an applause she got. Then she gave her speech and it was mind-blowing and awesome. She said that those who told her that she was a traitor to her gender bugged her. She said, “I’ve been a woman all my life, but the point is that I’m a free woman and I can make any choice I want.” Then she said, “Then there were those narrow-minded people who said I’m only endorsing Obama because he’s black.” And she went on about how that was insulting and she wasn’t “endorsing Obama because he’s black. [She's] endorsing him because he’s brilliant.” Cheers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfzFmYoZajY&rel=1]

The video isn’t great, but the words are clear and it seems to be shot not far from where we were sitting.

Then came Michelle Obama, with none other than Stevie Wonder.

WOW…considering that the Obama campaign has been using Stevie Wonder songs, I had wondered if he gave his blessing. Today there’s no doubt. Wonder talked about how he had supported the Clinton’s in their first two WH bids and Sen. Clinton in her Senate bid, but this time he decided to do it differently.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWL1G8iu32g&rel=1]

Then Michelle Obama spoke. Now, I completely understand why everyone says, “Go see her speak.” The woman is brilliant. I’ve seen clips of her giving speeches and her and there and I have a total girl-crush on her. Man…her speech was funny, delightful, inspiring, energizing, brilliant, awesome…I’m not even going to run out of out adjectives. I would absolutely adore to see her as First Lady. She will be the first First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt who could inspire a nation to do better, to be better.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1J54St7ZYY&rel=1]

Then Mrs. Obama said, that there was someone she wanted to have come on as a last minute thing. She said that this woman was someone who some of the people on stage knew and that we knew her too. In my mind, I thought, “I just know it’s not Maria Shriver.” Then she said, “I’m pleased to introduce the First Lady of Cali–” and the crowd went balls out nuts!

Yeah. Maria Shriver, wife of our idiot Governor endorsed Sen. Obama today and I was there. Oh my goodness. It was such an amazing moment.

Ha! Snagged a video off BooMan Tribune:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62_ajoKkuHA&rel=1&border=1]

Needless to say, I’m pretty happy to have gone.

In the parking garage, I spoke to a photographer who was also pretty stunned at the event. He said, “All us photographers were like, ‘Blah, blah, photo of Oprah, Caroline, Michelle…And WHOA Maria Shriver?!?!?’ That blew my mind. It was a smart move.” I said, “Yeah, they just pushed a rally that should have been a blurb into the news cycle leading up to Super Tuesday.” He smiled, “Bingo. People are gonna talk about this.” It’s always amusing to me to see the press get stunned.

UPDATE:

Females — Comments
14
Dec 07

Female president

As may be obvious, I don’t want Sen. Clinton to be president. Ever. That being said, I won’t be unhappy if she wins and I will vote for her if she’s the nominee. But I’m sick and tired of people saying “America isn’t ready for a female president”. Granted, most of those people are of the tub o’ lard, small penis persuasion, they’re sexist most certainly and most definitely Republican mouthpieces. (I highly suggest you don’t click those links unless you got some Brain Bleach nearby or a will for stupidity.)

Still, you’ve got to wonder what is about America that these blowhardinous nutjobs don’t think we’re ready to have a female leader. Loads of other countries have had female leaders. England had Thatcher, Germany has Merkel. There was Bhutto in India and the Philippines have had many female presidents. Even Argentina has elected their first female president (who was recently first lady).

Their protests are a study in sexism and misogyny. No argument is too stupid, vacuous or improbable for those folks. They spend inordinate amounts of time and energy putting down women in general, elected female Democrats specifically and then spout nonsense. Their mindless listeners will only regurgitate numbnuttery without using any critical thinking skills or questioning why. This creates an irrational cycle, where the listeners call up, parroting the lines they just heard on the radio or read on a blog, and the hosts puff up, “See! American speaks!”.

Yeah, so tell me again why “American isn’t ready for a female president”.

Females / Women — Comments
26
Oct 07

Space history is made

Today, Harmony–a new living area, carried by Discovery to the International Space Station is to be attached. Not only was this the beginning of an historic spacewalk, but it was the first time two female commanders met in space.

The shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday and linked up with the space station Thursday. It was the first time two female commanders met in space: Retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy is commander of Discovery, while Peggy Whitson is the station’s skipper.
(LAT).

That’s pretty neat. Col. Melroy has an impressive resume, and in addition to be a test pilot, also hopes to be one of the next astronauts on the moon when NASA does in next lunar landing. Peggy Whitson PhD. also has a kickass resume if the number of initials in it is any indication. But check out her Wikipedia bio and you can see all the Mission patches she’s accrued. Her first space mission, she stayed aboard the ISS. Cool!

Congratulations ladies and great job being wonderful role models to millions of little girls around the world.

Females / idiocy — Comments
11
Oct 07

‘Tis the season…

If you’re a female and your idea of a creative costume for Halloween is “sexy [noun]“, you’re an idiot.

If you can look back at every single Halloween costumes from HS on to today and it was “sexy- something” or a baby AND you’re over 30, well you’re just a sad, sad, sad person. AND you’re still an idiot.

I miss the days of seeing interesting costumes. Sexy Pirate? Yeah, you and 500 other overweight floozies who think this is a sure chance to get laid. Sexy Nurse? Yawn. That was probably cool until 1974. Sexy Policewoman? Right. You’re not a whore. Sexy Angel? That just screams “toilet paper”.

I’m just saying…try to do something interesting and that most certainly does not include you dressing up as Frodo while your S.O is Gandalf.