backofbuseleven

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By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

What About Russell Brand’s Performance at the VMAs?

In all the Kanye West/Taylor Swift kerfuffle, we seem to have let Russell Brand’s disgusting jokes slide. In the beginning of the show, Brand addressed the rumors about Lady Gaga’s sex. He said that the rumors were sexist, because people assumed that a woman with such a strong and confident expression of sexuality must really be a man. What great insight, right? That all went to crap when he ended that bit with this,

And if I pull her leotard to one side and find something a little extra there, I will just make it stiff and hang my hat on it.

He knows the rumors aren’t true and, more importantly, totally sexist. But then he reignites the rumor by implying that maybe the rumors are true after all. Either put the rumors to bed, or don’t talk about them at all. Don’t send mixed messages like that. If that wasn’t enough, he later made another really offensive “joke.” This was directed at Megan Fox of Transformers fame:

“She has admitted she is a little bit cuckoo upstairs and I have trained in psychiatry. So, Megan, if you do have a little dizzy spell, love, I could probably slip you a little pill. You can go and have a lie down in my dressing room. You might get some crazy dreams about being visited by a scarecrow, a perfumed weirdo leaning over you. But let me tell you, that’s a common side-effect. Megan, take your medicine.”

Uh, ...

By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

Bryan Safi explores gay commercials

Bryan Safi is an Infomania contributor who doesn’t get much play on Feministing for some reason. He’s at least as cool as Sarah Haskins! He has a bi-weekly segment on the show called That’s Gay. Here’s the latest episode, in which Bryan talks about the gay versions of some popular commercials.
I’ve noticed some of the gay symbols in the commercials Bryan talks about, like the guy wearing the Human Rights Campaign shirt and the guy wearing the rainbow shirt with his maybe-gay partner in the Progressive car insurance ad. When I first saw these commercials, I thought progress was being made. Not so much.

By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

Latisse: For When Your Eyelashes Aren’t Good Enough

When is having “inadequate or not enough eyelashes” a medical condition that should be treated with prescription drugs? When it’s labeled hypotrichosis, a condition in which hair does not grow at all in places where it’s supposed to. Eyelashes function as little brooms for our eyeballs that sweep away dust and dead skin cells. They also grant wishes*. That’s why people with hypotrichosis need Latisse, a prescription liquid that people with this terrible affliction dab on their eyelids to make eyelashes grow where there were no eyelashes before.

Cue Brooke Shields. I bet you didn’t even know that Brooke Shields never had eyelashes until about 16 weeks before the above commercial was filmed. That’s because she uses Latisse, and also because ...

By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

FOX & Friends of Racism

If this clip weren’t from Fox & Friends, I would think this was totally unbelievable. After his co-host reported on a study from Finland that shows married people have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, host Brian Kilmeade enlightens us:

We keep marrying other species and other ethnics and — The problem is the Swedes have pure genes because they marry other Swedes because that’s the rule. Finland — Finns marry other Finns so they have a pure society. In America, we marry everybody. We marry Italians and Irish. It does not apply to us.

And you thought he was going to say that’s why no gay civilizations have survived. But seriously. WTF. And you know that he thinks ...

By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

Girl Vs. Woman: Where Do We Draw the Line?

Britney Spears might have been onto something when she sang “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman.” I mean, it’s pretty clear that a 4-year-old female is a girl, and an 83-year-old female is a woman. But I’ve had trouble articulating the differences between girls and women, especially when it comes to teens, and when that change happens. I do see Girl vs. Woman as a feminist issue, since “girl” is often used as a diminutive or pejorative when referring to a woman of any age who does something dumb or ultra-feminine or when she’s a victim. There even seems to be some confusion here at the Feministing community over when to use

By backofbuseleven • 14 years ago

On the Supreme Court, Representation Matters

This is a long one, so I’ll try to be as charming as possible to make it easier on you.

I get a zillion action alerts in my inbox every week. So every Monday, I post a bunch of links to online petitions on my blog. A couple of weeks ago, one of the petitions I linked to was from NOW urging President Obama to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. And the shit storm begins.

Some guy: I’m curious. If you’re all about “equality”, why should I “urge” Obama to appoint a woman? I would urge him to appoint the most qualified person for the position, regardless of gender. Appointing a woman for the sake of having a woman on ...

This is a long one, so I’ll try to be as charming as possible to make it easier on you.

I get a zillion action alerts in my inbox every week. So every Monday, I post a bunch ...

By backofbuseleven • 15 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck You, Sarah Palin

Even though it’s early Saturday morning and I’m tired, I still have to give a giant Friday Feminist Fuck You to Sarah Palin for invoking the anti-choice argument that pisses me off the most at a recent Right to Life rally:

I can look at a scared, embarrassed unwed teenager carrying a child, and I can look at a desperate adoptive parent’s eyes, see their longing for a child, and I can know for sure, Vanderburgh Right to Life, you are doing the right thing, because you are planting those seeds, reminding us that children are meant as perfect gifts, not as burdens.

In other less convoluted words, Sarah Palin is suggesting that women have children they don’t want so that ...

By backofbuseleven • 15 years ago

Thank You, Dan Schneider

I’d like to take this Thursday to thank kids’ show creator and producer Dan Schneider. Yes, I’m 24 years old. And yes, I still watch Nickelodeon. But I think being more educated and having more life experience than I did when I was a kid makes me appreciate the broader messages about family that are evident in three of Dan Schneider’s most recent Nickelodeon shows, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly.

There are two common factors in all three of these shows. The first is that all of the kids in these shows are exceptionally talented and intelligent (in one way or another). The other is that none of the characters live in a traditional family. Allow me to break ...