Rise of the NewsMommies


So why didn’t CBS choose a woman like Nina Totenberg, Lesley Stahl, Christiane Amanpour as its evening news anchor? They’re too threatening.
But not Katie Couric. Columnist Valerie Takahama hypothesizes that Couric was picked not because she’s an outstanding journalist, but precisely because she isn’t. Or at least she isn’t perceived that way. Apparently we Americans want to hear our news from a perky NewsMommy, not Tom Brokaw with lipstick and a wig.

Pamela Ezell, an assistant professor of English at Chapman University and a television producer, points to Couric’s personal tragedy and the sense that she rose to the challenges of coping and recovery as central to her popularity.
“She’s had ...


So why didn’t CBS choose a woman like Nina Totenberg, Lesley Stahl, Christiane Amanpour as its evening news anchor? They’re too threatening.
But not Katie Couric. Columnist Valerie ...

Violent hate crime in Texas

I’m so upset right now, I can’t even deal with writing. Just read.

Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl at a party in Spring, Texas, authorities said.
The attackers forced the boy out of the house party, beat him and sodomized him with a metal pipe, shouting epithets “associated with being Hispanic,” said Lt. John Martin with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.

And fucking assholes have the nerve to say that racism is an “ugly memory.�
Via Echidne.

I’m so upset right now, I can’t even deal with writing. Just read.

Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl ...

Women-only train cars in Brazil

Rio De Janeiro just started to run women-only subway cars this week…they’re pink striped.
How Brazilian women actually feel about the sex-segregated cars is something that remains to be seen. A Reuters headline screams Women applaud no-men, pink-striped metro cars, but another article says that women aren’t fans:

“Separation (of the sexes) is a throwback to my grandmother’s era. It’s a big step backward in the fight for women’s equality,” said Rogeria Peixoto, head of a Brazilian women’s group.

I know I’ve said this before, but whatever: while I understand the need for immediate safety concerns, putting the responsibility on women not to get harassed rather than on the men to stop harassing is really problematic.

Rio De Janeiro just started to run women-only subway cars this week…they’re pink striped.
How Brazilian women actually feel about the sex-segregated cars is something that remains to be seen. A Reuters headline screams Women ...

Tony Snow: Racism is a thing of the past


You know, I didn’t even want to comment on Fox News pundit Tony Snow being tapped as the new White House press secretary. I mean, it’s just too easy.
But then I saw this quote from Snow over at Pandagon:

“Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.�


Because seriously, who knows more about the prevalence (or apparently absence) of racism that Mr. Snow? What an idiot.


You know, I didn’t even want to comment on Fox News pundit Tony Snow being tapped as the new White House press secretary. I mean, it’s just too easy.
But then I ...

Professor and students charged with destroying anti-choice display

Sally Jacobsen, the Northern Kentucky University professor who was put on leave for encouraging her students to destroy an anti-choice display, has been charged along with her students with criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and criminal solicitation. Yikes.

Jacobsen is accused of encouraging her students to dismantle a display of 400 crosses that were set up by a campus anti-abortion group. The crosses were supposed to symbolize aborted fetuses.
The six students were charged with criminal mischief and theft by unlawful taking.

Originally there was some confusion as to if Jacobsen took part in the destruction or just urged her students to do so. Apparently though, the student newspaper published pics of her destroying the display. ...

Sally Jacobsen, the Northern Kentucky University professor who was put on leave for encouraging her students to destroy an anti-choice display, has been charged along with her students with criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking ...

Intersectionality and the politics of white feminism.

Blac(k)ademic has a very articulate post up about a comment that she received when guest-blogging at Alas, A Blog and in my eyes really brings out how mainstream feminism is in fact still dominated by whiteness, despite so much work done by feminists of color, third world/black feminists and anti-racist white feminists. Mainstream understandings of feminisms (in many cases, far be it for me to essentialize here) still show to be obsessed with the reduction of issues, in this case the belief that gender could possibly *trump* race.
nubian says…

…it is ridiculous to lay claim to the idea that all women are oppressed on equal terms, simply because they are women. obviously, oppression is more complicated than ...

Blac(k)ademic has a very articulate post up about a comment that she received when guest-blogging at Alas, A Blog and in my eyes really brings out how mainstream feminism is in fact still dominated by ...

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