Pope denounces New Yorker cover
Just kidding. But I bet you would’ve believed me, right?
This thing is turning into one of those kabuki theatre type deals, where everybody feels like they have to line up in the hall and prove their good-citizen credentials with a ritual condemnation of Whatever The Heinous Thing Is. People are scrambling to get their denunciations in before the story winds down; at last check the governor of New York had just made it under the wire.
Jon Stewart is the only major media figure who’s making any goddamn sense:
By the way, the Feminist Majority Foundation is now officially a joke. Ellie Fucking Smeal didn’t send a single fucking “action alert” during all the months that Hillary was being crucified, but now she’s sending us all a Very Important Message about the New Yorker cover which is, I shit you not, “racism and sexism at its worst.” At its worst? Are you fucking kidding me?
I think I’m going to start telling people I belong to the feminist wing of the feminist movement.
16 Responses to “Pope denounces New Yorker cover”
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Roxie says:
You go, Violet! I love that “feminist wing of the feminist movement” line — Perfect.
We’ve got America’s greatest political satirist evah, Mark Twain, weighing in on the New Yorker kerfuffle over at my blog right now, if you’ll forgive a little blog-whoring. The post is here:
http://roxies-world.blogspot.c.....eties.html
July 17th, 2008 at 3:13 pm EST -
Gayle says:
“racism and sexism at its worst.”
Would anyone care to explain how the cover is sexist? I don’t get that part.
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Steven Mather says:
Well stated. I am reminded of Reverend Niemoller. They were not ready to fight for Hillary when it mattered and, in this regard, they were not ready to fight for women in general, so there is no one left to join their cause.
Feminism, when it suits one’s needs, is not feminism.
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Violet says:
Would anyone care to explain how the cover is sexist? I don’t get that part.
Me either.
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Happenstance says:
Would anyone care to explain how the cover is sexist? I don’t get that part.
Sexism is a Very Bad Thing. And this cover is also a Very Bad Thing (because it offends the followers of King Change The New Messiah, hallowed be his name). Ergo…
Looks like “feminism” has joined “progressive” in the Lexicon Of Political Terms That Apparently No Longer Mean What They Once Meant.
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Violet says:
I actually googled “how is the New Yorker cover sexist?” I shouldn’t do things like that, because every time I read comments about this silly cartoon I’m overwhelmed by the Great Stupid out there. I should start a file of people’s ideas for how the cover could have been “better satire.” Like this one:
“If the authors of this misogynstic, sexist and racist piece of purile propaganda really wanted to be satirical why then did they not have a cartoon featuring white men and have them proclaiming their presumed superiority to other ethnic groups and women in general.”
Don’t quit your day job.
But back to the sexist thing. I wonder if some of it isn’t simple ignorance. For example this:
“Could you tell me what the point of Michelle’s curly afro is?”
The Afro is because she’s supposed to look like Angela Davis, famous radical. And Angela Davis was one-of-a-kind; hardly a stereotype.
I thought Angela Davis was cool as shit when I was a kid.
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FemB4Dem says:
I have quizzed lots of women today. None could come up with any reason why the cover should be considered sexist. Short and simple — it portrays Michelle as a powerful woman. That is not sexism. It may be other things, but it’s not sexist, and for the Feminist Majority and NOW to go crazy over it is entirely puzzling to me. But then, their conduct throughout the primary season was baffling too.
BTW — love “the feminist wing of the feminist movement” line.
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sister of ye says:
Well, count me as someone who doesn’t think the cartoon worked on its purported purpose of lampooning right-wing fearmonging about the Obamas.
I think a much more on-point way to read it is ridiculing the idea that the Obamas stand for anything other than their own self-promotion. I’m old enough to remember 1960s radicals. Agree with their ideology and methods or not, you knew they were sincere about wanting to rectify the wrongs in society.
Well, except for rich-kid revolutionaries like the Obamas’ buddy Bill Ayers, who happily killed working-class authority figures like cops, then ran back to daddy to pull his ass out of the fire. Because if he’d killed someone with real power in the system like, oh, his father, who would have paid for his lawyers?
And I, too, tip my hat to you on the “feminist wing of the feminist movement” line. So true, alas.
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Ciccina says:
I love the “feminist wing of the feminist movement” line too. Violet, I think you are spot-on about the Angela Davis reference. I actually gave Blitt props for remembering Angela Davis and using her as a reference point. Frankly, I think its a compliment (but I don’t mean this as an implicit criticism of Michelle; its just that I think of Ms. Davis as a kind of mythical radical goddess figure).
I only became a member of NOW for the first time in June. And here its mid-July and I’m regretting it already.
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atheist woman says:
The only reason the Feminist Majority Foundation and NOW are all over this is because they got sick of being portrayed as racist old white women who lost the clue. Of course, now to me they just look like they lost the clue, but it isn’t me they are trying to win over anymore. Which worries me, considering that I am well a feminist.
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ea says:
1. Part of the satire is the portrayal of Michelle Obama in the guise of an Angela Davis-type persona. Not even close.
2. “feminist wing of the feminist movement” funny, but points out that Howard Dean actually said something funny, intelligent, and relevant once.
3. Fact check — The only people injured by Weather Underground actions were the three Weatherman members who died when working on a bomb that exploded prematurely. Part of the code, as it were, was that only uninhabited offices or structures were to be targeted, e.g., Army recruiting office, after hours. Also, warnings were sent in advance. Feel free to disagree with tactics, but let’s not propagate misinformation. There is no leg to stand on, figuratively speaking, if you complain when someone else does it but do it yourself.
4. Maybe there is a new definition for sexism (re: cover), and we old wave feminists didn’t get the memo. BTW, I prefer to call myself a womanist. Don’t remember where I got that, or I would give the appropriate hat tip (¿from the late 70s or early 80s?).
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Ciccina says:
@ athiest woman: I think you’re exactly right.
What I find tiresome is that they do things like this to be “good allies” with the other progressive groups…. because somehow after all these years they STILL haven’t figured out that the cool kids don’t want them hanging around. And no amount of “me too!” is going to change that. Needless to say there are more than enough sexist-and-racist representations of women of color out there that they could be naming and shaming - but no.
Meanwhile NOW’s media gallery of sexist and misogynist anti-Hillary clips is stagnating just a few weeks after they started it; they seem to have lost interest in adding to it.
They are so…. inadequate.
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egalia says:
atheist woman says:
The only reason the Feminist Majority Foundation and NOW are all over this is because they got sick of being portrayed as racist old white women who lost the clue.
So true. It’s hard being so blatantly cast out of the ‘progressive’ community. I waited all through the primary for NOW & FMF to show some fire and passion and stand up and fight for Hillary. Now they have fire and passion for Obama? This is the most depressing election of my lifetime.
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Violet says:
It’s hard being so blatantly cast out of the ‘progressive’ community.
It burns, doesn’t it? The “progressive” community decided that feminism was no longer part of being a progressive — misogyny would be fine instead — and what do FMF and NOW and NARAL do? Fall all over themselves to stop being feminists so they can still eat at the same table with the kewl kidz.
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Greenconsciousness says:
“Ellie Fucking Smeal”
Good One - My thought exactly!
and her version of Ms is also an anti Semitic male left joke as to what is good for women (most but not all of the time). The saving grace is the women who write into the letters column - and when you can hear authentic women’s voices Ms seems worth the price. But too often I find I am reading the boy’s talking points thinly disguised with the word woman thrown in now and then.
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Greenconsciousness says:
EA
The WeatherMEN never hurt anyone is a sick joke. The violence and tolerance for violence they promoted spawned/created the SLA; funded and sheltered it. This resulted in kidnapping and RAPE. Also spawned the bombing at UW-Madison when I was a student there. Killed another student. Bla bla bla to “after hours and 2 min warnings “oops our mistake you’re dead -too bad. The WeatherMEN were self indulgent misogynist males and wannabe male women who preached fascism. Our way or the highway. They still exist in the left today and in the anti abortionist movement on the right. They killed the peace movement. They are not like the ALF so do not even try to make the same arguments. They are like the ELF who celebrate with pig roasts and who have more FBI agents as members than they do anyone else. The WeatherMEN loved the culture of violence and machismo just as the Panthers eventually did. Angela Davis was betrayed by this culture and it’s rape tolerance as were so many other women.
You really don’t need a WeatherMAN to know which way the wind BLOWS.
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