I was very unimpressed with some rumours I read within hours of the announcement that Sarah Palin was running for VP on the McCain ticket: to whit, rumours that infant Trig was in fact not her son but was instead… Read More ›
media
old, new, social, global, cross platforms etc.
Wringing every last drop out of that coverage
What a joke. Channel 7 currently is showing footage of a plane taxi-ing on a runway as its Breaking News. And cutting away to a woman in the terminal who has baked some muffins to give to her sister when… Read More ›
Practical aid for remote indigenous communities: subsidise freight charges for fresh food, for a start?
Some focus in the SMH today on the high cost of fresh food in remote communities, where in at least one community in WA, Mulan, so high are the basic living costs that many simply go hungry for a couple… Read More ›
Fun with blogs and Christian Kerr, who doesn’t understand them
Christian Kerr was never my favourite Crikey! contributor back in the day, so I wasn’t especially aware of his opinion on many issues due to mostly skipping his byline (basically I avoided anything by him that was not straight political… Read More ›
Friday Hoyden: Germaine Greer
I found this image on this media release page at the Southern Cross University website, which uses it to illustrate promotional information for “An Evening With Germaine Greer” that took place in early 2008. I chose it because it is… Read More ›
In other important news, you will get wet if you walk in the rain
An ad on telly for some sort of “oil candle” that uses, as its tagline, as if this is a super-duper high tech feature, “WHEN THE OIL RUNS OUT, IT STOPS BURNING”. So very unlike the home life of our… Read More ›
Now this is what I call a netroots base
Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner Sean Tevis’ innovative method of raising internet fundraising in his venture to oust and replace his current State Representative (basically equivalent to one of… Read More ›
UK Criminal Compensation Authority Blaming Rape Victims
Under guidelines meant to minimise compensation payouts for people who “contribute to their own ordeal during a criminal incident”, such as people taking part in the crime, or offering provocation for an attack, certain bureaucrats decided that women being out in the world socialising in a perfectly legal fashion were liable for provoking their own rapes, and cut their compensation payouts accordingly. Public outcry has meant that the decision has been reversed, but how could they have been so wrong headed in the first place?
It could be something to do with the way that the media reports rape, of course. Melissa reports [trigger warnings], and then responds to a typical Daily Mail women-blaming op-ed (the pictorial juxtaposition has to be seen to be believed):
The piece itself is just unrelentingly infuriating, as its male author offers up gems like:
But why are women so worried about their looks?
I took a lot of flak in a recent discussion elsewhere for suggesting that women who have cosmetic enhancement surgery might be responding to just a little bit more than their own psychological insecurities about attracting a mate – that there might actually be some much larger social issues about why women choose to be surgically enhanced i.e. that it’s not just about getting sex, even if the surgery they are having is aimed at increasing their sexual appeal (by certain widely acknowledged to be fucked up standards).
Here’s just one high-profile example of how women are trained from a very young age to believe that their looks matter more than anything else about them, not just when it comes to finding a sexual partner, but also in terms of recognition and reward in other aspects of life:
More classic sexist advertising
Wonder whether it generated any outrage when originally published? Nah, it’s “just a joke”
Hoyden About Town 