Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Happy Holidays! Hate Crimes and Homophobia as We Transition into 2009. . .

Proposition 8 passed in California.  This week the Pope referred to the need for an "ecology of man" to save the world from homosexuality as tantamount to that of saving the rainforest. AND our messianic president-elect chose homophobic Christian phenom Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.  Oh yeah -- and a 28 year-old San Francisco woman was brutally gang-raped and beaten because of her sexuality.  That story didn't quite make the CNN headlines this morning.  AP reported today that after being verbally harrassed due to her lesbian identity, the woman endured what Police Lt. Mark Gagan described as "beyond fathomable" and that "the level of trauma - physical and emotional - [she] suffered is extreme."  Lisa Leff reported:

The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the other men.

When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later.


 Scarcely a month ago, I waxed both optimistic and surprisingly patriotic as I watched Obama deliver his acceptance speech.  And I can't say that the sentiment has entirely worn off.  It hasn't.  But I can't shake the icky creepy-crawliness that the overwhelming idealism circulating post-election is little more than a temporary analgesic, falsely numbing the country  just long enough for the momentum to wear off.  We are not so stoned that we are completely insensitive - empty pockets across the country attest to that; yet there is something very seductive in aggrandizing the potential for change solely because of the new administration's diverse appearance.   I write this to remind myself as much as anyone:  2009 still looks better than 2008.  I can't deny that.  But 2009 still begins in a country that unequally distributes access to citizenship based on race, class, gender, and sexuality.  As a good friend of mine says so frequently, "You can't gild a turd."  Things still suck.  Yet there was an undeniable sign of political movement this fall.  My fear is that it will simply be a transient phenomenon.  My hope is that it won't. 

And the signs in that department aren't necessarily dismal.  It's looking like Proposition 8 might be overturned as early as March and the economy is bad enough to keep people tuned in.  It's hard to ignore the loss of nearly 300,000 jobs in November. There is a personal-political component to unemployment that defies otherwise divisive categories.  But in that same way, it is extremely important to remember the personal-political face of all forms of discrimination that exist across the country.  Nationwide homophobia is not only reflected in measures such as Prop 8, but in the real and daily harm done to members of the LGBTQ community like that of today's story out of San Francisco.  A woman was raped.  Multiple times.  The acknowledgment of Proposition 8's unconstitutionality does not signal the end of homophobia.  Barack Obama's election does not signal the end of racism.  We still have lots to do and far to go.

-- Andrea

Friday, December 19, 2008

Feministing Represents: CWGS Director Dr. Lisa Johnson Gets Holiday Shout-Out!!!


Courtney Martin, book editor for the popular online blog Feministing, donned some holiday spirit with her "Not Oprah's Book Club," offering gift ideas for a feminist-friendly shopping list.  Number two of her five picks? That's right -- Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box by our very own Dr. Lisa Johnson!!!!!  Martin writes:

If you know a sucker for any of the following--Six Feet Under, the Sopranos, vampires--then you may want to pick up this awesome anthology for them, published over the pond by I.B. Tauris Press. Johnson, the Director for the Center for Women's Studies at the University of South Carolina-Upstate, brings together a range of totally intriguing and theoretically rigorous essays on the intersection between popular television and new feminisms. 

She [Johnson] introduces: 

As riddled with stereotypes as media culture admittedly is, television can also provide rare insight into alternative ways of living in the world. The small screen paradoxically provides a broader horizon. For rural adolescents, television can be the sole window into big-city subjects like homosexuality, singlehood-by-choice, multiculturalism, and, I'm not kidding, existentialism--my philosophy minor may well have stemmed from a certain episode of Family Ties in which Alex's little sister, Jennifer, reads Kierkegaard at the kitchen table. 

Gotta love that.

As one of the readings in Upstate's Feminist Theory and Methods course a few years back (which Professor Tuttle-Bell will be offering this spring. . . hint. . . hint. . .), Jane Puts It in a Box remains of the most influential texts for me in my own (ongoing/ never-ending) love affair with feminist and queer media criticism.  So I have to agree with Courtney Martin that the book just kicks some major ass.  The essays run the gamut of television interests, covering everything from The Sopranos (our own Dr. Johnson's treatment of gangster feminism!) to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even The Bachelor (Katherine Martin's remarkably fresh and insightful approach to the series from the angle of critical heterosexuality studies).  Jane Puts It in a Box is smart, sexy, and approachable while completely edgy in its theoretical content.  A real tour de force, if you will (I am really trying to refrain from inserting an emoticon right here. . . ergh. . . ack. . . oh, self-discipline!!!!).  Phew -- made it sans winking, tongue-stuck-out smiley face. . . 

But let us all just revel in some holiday joy at such exciting publicity.  Take a moment.  Savor it.  Ahhh. . .  Sigh. . .  Thank you, Courtney Martin at Feministing and a huge congratulations to Dr. Johnson on the spotlight!!! 

-- Andrea

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Urban Outfitters, Nahhhh... THEY Wouldn't?!?!

Before I go any further, please note the sarcastic nature of the post's title if you haven't already.  I can't get all self-righteous and say I haven't bought a shirt dress or two laden with faded-out panda bears, but I also can't say that I'm proud of myself for it neither.  So as we're all (or many of us, anyhoo) strapped for cash this holiday season and counting our pretty pennies, I thought I'd go ahead and hop on the wagon by sharing just one more reason why Urban Outfitters kinda sucks and isn't worth the money we youngsters might spend there.  They once again walked the fine, sometimes apparently indiscernible line that has characterized their t-shirt campaigns, which often use controversial slogans and logos that push the boundaries between hipster and hate.  The Advocate reported the story earlier today:

Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters removed "I Support Same-Sex Marriage" shirts from its stores after they had been on sale for only a week. The publicly traded clothing chain blamed the removal of the shirts on bad press, but according to Racked, the negative publicity consisted of only one blog post. 

The shirts' designer, Tara Littman, told Racked, "With quite a few pro-Obama shirts in their store and even some anti-McCain products, this clearly isn't a company that has a problem being politically aligned, so why?" 

Urban Outfitters chairman Richard Hayne is known as a conservative -- he's donated thousands of dollars to right-wing causes, including the campaigns of homophobic former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. When asked in 2003 what his own views were about homosexuality, Hayne told the Philadelphia Weekly, "I have my own opinion, but I am not going to share it." (Broverman, Advocate.com)

Interestingly enough, the article doesn't note that replacing Hayne last year was openly-gay Glen Senk.  In a 2008 Fast Company interview, Senk defined his take on branding and worldview as "A healthy respect for individuality. High touch instead of high tech. Intelligent. Honest. Passionate. Artful. Nice. A respect for technology."  Verdict's still out on whether he's going to apply that perspective.  But it just seems, I dunno, a little weird that after all the slogans that did receive bad press (and lots of it), that it is one providing a message of positive, political inclusion that gets pulled after a single week.  

On the flip side, however, must say that I'm not sure how surprised or saddened I am by the news.  Given Urban Outfitters' tendency toward iconography and the cult-of-fashion, can't say I'm truly boo-hoo-ing over one less political fetishization.  AND why not take this opportunity to actually go to the real designer?  They're often plagiarized so well that no one who actually buys the UO rip-offs has a clue that there ever was a real designer.  So if you're interested, check out the website for Support Shirts and designer Tara Littman where you can still purchase the pulled t-shirts.

-- Andrea