Posts Written by

By nettlesyrup • 14 years ago

Letterman rape/pregnancy jokes about Palin girls

Apparently, David Letterman thinks it’s funny to describe Sarah Palin as ‘a slutty flight attendant’ and make jokes about her daughter getting ‘knocked up.’
‘The Alaskan governor was there for a baseball game and to be honoured by a special needs group, accompanied by Willow, 14.
“One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game,” Letterman then quipped on-air.
“During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”‘
Once more, from the top: it’s not okay to make rape jokes about someone just because they happen to be right-wing.
I’m British, and don’t particularly like Palin, or know Letterman at all, but this still pissed me off. His defense is that he was ‘talking about Bristol, not Willow.’ But even so, it’s still a pretty bad joke.
By nettlesyrup • 14 years ago

Are surprise strippers a bit of fun, or harrassment?

The other night, I was in a bar, and at the next table was a group of young women. They were dressed up, and it turned out it was one girl’s birthday. We figured this out because somebody, I assume her friends, had hired this guy to turn up and do a whole number on her. It was a basic strip session during which everything came off, including underwear, and this young woman whose birthday it was was relentlessly and aggressively groped. She looked constantly embarrassed and freaked out as he was grinding against her and shoving his hand up her skirt, but she was trying to go along with it. The entire place was loving it too, cheering all ...

The other night, I was in a bar, and at the next table was a group of young women. They were dressed up, and it turned out it was one girl’s birthday. We figured this out because ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

Josef Fritzl pleads guilty, gets life in prison

As you will all have heard by now…
Though I’m glad he’s been given life in prison, I’ve been really annoyed by the way this case has been handled. Apparently the nail in the coffin was that he murdered one of Elisabeth’s twin sons by letting him die when he could’ve saved him, and then burning the remains. Without this charge, apparently Fritzl may not have got life. The baby death was what all the recent news stories have been focused on, as if 3,000 counts of rape don’t merit a life sentence on their own.
Still, at least this case is done and hopefully the family can start to put their lives together.

As you will all have heard by now…
Though I’m glad he’s been given life in prison, I’ve been really annoyed by the way this case has been handled. Apparently the nail in the coffin was ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

Our domestic violence project for IWD

I’ve been at university a while, but I’ve found feminist activism slightly lacking on campus. There’s some wonderful people who are feminists, and a general feminist attitude in the social science department where I spend a lot of my time. However, there are no feminist groups here, and my university, which was one of the last in Britain to have a Gender Studies department, has just abolished it as a subject because no one was taking it. So last saturday, when I heard a local group were doing something for International Women’s Day on the subject of domestic violence, I knew I had to do it. Some family members and some friends have been victims of domestic violence, and I’ve ...

I’ve been at university a while, but I’ve found feminist activism slightly lacking on campus. There’s some wonderful people who are feminists, and a general feminist attitude in the social science department where I spend a lot ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

Freaky/cool music video

Sia’s ‘Buttons’ music video features her face contorted by a variety of methods, such as tape, clothes pegs and stockings. At the end she shows her real face. I thought this was a remarkable video, completely breaking conventional images of women in music videos and making fun of methods used to force the appearance into something else.

Lyrics here.

Sia’s ‘Buttons’ music video features her face contorted by a variety of methods, such as tape, clothes pegs and stockings. At the end she shows her real face. I thought this was a remarkable video, completely ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

‘Man wants kidney back from cheating wife’

Horrible. He gave her a kidney several years ago, now he wants it back because he’s fallen out with this woman, even if it kills her, or an unaffordable ‘cash equivalent’. I sincerely hope he doesn’t win this case. It’s her kidney now, he gave it to her without any kind of contract which said he could have it back some time. Just the same as he had to give his consent to have a kidney removed when it was living inside him, she should have to give her consent to have it removed, too, now it’s living in her.
Of course, the MRAs are all over this, saying that he has a right to ‘his’ kidney, and that ...

Horrible. He gave her a kidney several years ago, now he wants it back because he’s fallen out with this woman, even if it kills her, or an unaffordable ‘cash equivalent’. I sincerely hope he doesn’t ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

Britney’s ‘Womanizer’ video

I must admit to a guilty enjoyment of Britney Spears’s song ‘Womanizer’. It’s catchy and I like to listen to it after I’ve been out and a jerk tries it on with me.
But the video I have slight objections to… my objection is not that Britney appears apparently naked. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem with it is that at first, the characters portrayed seem to be powerful, independent women. But look closer, and the video just reinforces old patriarchal ideas, and perpetuates dangerous myths about sexuality.
Popular culture portrays an image of maculinity that implies that men should always want sex, always be ‘horny’ and that they should never turn down sex because it’s ...

I must admit to a guilty enjoyment of Britney Spears’s song ‘Womanizer’. It’s catchy and I like to listen to it after I’ve been out and a jerk tries it on with me.
But the video ...
By nettlesyrup • 15 years ago

Conservative ‘Doctor’ says: Wanting equality is a mental illness!

This is pretty funny, or pretty dismal, depending on how you look at it. Somebody called Lyle Rossiter, who some conservatives are calling a ‘top psychiatrist’ and an ‘eminent doctor’, that ‘Liberals are clinically mad’. If you follow the link you’ll see he’s written a book about it, subtitled ‘The psychological causes of political madness.’ Here’s a quote from Rossiter:

‘A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation’s citizens, corrupts their character ...

This is pretty funny, or pretty dismal, depending on how you look at it. Somebody called Lyle Rossiter, who some conservatives are calling a ‘top psychiatrist’ and an ‘eminent doctor’, that ‘Liberals are clinically mad’. If ...

Load More