Category Archives: The XX Factor

Roam If You Want To

Posted by Tata on

Today is National Opt-Out Day, for whatever that’s worth. I’m opting out of receiving an unnecessary radiation bath, surrendering my Constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure and foreseeable sexual assault every day by not buying a plane ticket. Pete and I are planning a vacation, so: sorry, airline industry! No ticket money for you! But you won’t miss us, will you? If you did, procedures would probably change tout de suite. No, the police state has plans for us all, such that even I, public transportation’s fervent cheerleader, might find myself persuaded to buy another car someday.

I’m surprised to write those words, but there we are.

My friend Scout observed years ago that statistics indicated 1 in 4 women would be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, “but in my experience that number is reversed.” I agree: in conversation, when you explain what legally constitutes sexual assault, you can watch the terrible light dawn in women’s eyes. Suddenly they know an uncomfortable or traumatic memory is painful for a reason.

The American Cancer Society offers this set of numbers (.pdf):

Estimated New Cancer Cases and Deaths by Sex for All Sites, US, 2010
Estimated New Cases
Both Sexes
All Sites 1,529,560

Male
789,620

Female
739,940

Estimated Deaths
Both Sexes
569,490

Male
299,200

Female
270,290

Last night, Pete and I watched the episode of Modern Marvels called Failed Inventions, that included a segment about radiation and consumer products that were huge mistakes. We should expect to see backscatter scanners join this list of regrettable contraptions with a body count, but what will we say about people now expected by the United States government to endure sexual assault in the name of safety?

The idea born of bed-wetting cowardice, like so many in the last ten years, is monstrous.

That’s When I Fell For

Posted by Tata on

Via Pam, get a load of this.

No, really. I’ll wait. Put up my feet…admire my cats…velcro Swiffer pads to my bunny slippers…Hey, you’re back. Now I have an entirely serious question for you:

WHAT KIND OF FUCKING BRAIN DAMAGE DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE TO VOTE AGAINST YOUR OWN INTERESTS?

No matter what anyone tells you, no matter who shouts about scaaaary brown people, no matter how many buildings blow up or “heroes” fall down on the job, do you or do you not know whose interests dovetail with yours? I do. For the simple reason that Republicans hold everything I am and do in contempt, I will never – repeat – NEVER vote for a Republican. Republicans act in concert to undermine my very existence and because I understand that I will not help them.

Democrats can either earn or lose my vote. It is owed to no one. I’ve registered Green; I feel nothing but disdain for the corporatist Dems.

What I absolutely do not understand is people so oblivious to their own best interests that they go back and forth. No one’s interests change from country club to soup kitchen and back in an election cycle; people who vote like theirs do are fucking morons.

One of my aunts is so upset Black people draw breath that she votes for politicians who help those determined to foreclose on her house. My aunt is an easily manipulated moron, I’m sorry to say.

Somewhere today in my blogospheric travels, I came across a review of the Signorile calls that urged gay readers of that blog to – come on, guys! – don’t vote for the Republicans even though you have buckets of money because – like – because!

I really almost tossed my waffles. The bottom line is GLBT people of any economic stripe shouldn’t vote for Republicans because Republicans on an almost daily basis act to disenfranchise and sometimes deprive GLBT people of life itself. If you’re Black, if you’re a woman, if you’re poor or have been poor or will someday be old, if you work for a living or possess a human body and you vote Republican YOU ARE VOTING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS.

Knock it off, moron!

Outside My Frost-Covered Window

Posted by Tata on

Following up on this, which I admit was a post half-baked at best, comes this:

* That I created a hostile and sexist environment. This is depressing if not insulting. I could only hope people who felt this way would ask anyone who I directly worked with at Tribune, Sirius-XM or anywhere else. I live my life to be respectful, honest, positive, optimistic and fair. There are those who don’t believe that, and again, the only recourse I have is for anyone who doubts that to speak to anyone I have directly worked with or for at any point in my career.

* That I was part of some ex-Clear Channel boys club. I have never worked for Clear Channel. I have known and competed against Randy Michaels for decades, but most of the other Clear Channel people at Tribune I had never met prior to arriving here. In my opinion, once you walk through the doors of Tribune Tower, you are a Tribune employee and your past is not an issue as long as you do good work. I have seen only good work from these folks. I do look at myself as an outspoken, driven and perhaps rebellious type and if that’s a problem in the world of helping re-invent media, then so be it.

A few days after the New York Times published the story that chapped my fabulous ass, Mr. Lee Abrams, then an employee of embattled Tribune Media, sent out a memo featuring videos from the Onion featuring half-naked women. I have seen half-naked women, and I love them to pieces, but unless we work at a strip club, videos of half-naked women have no place in the modern American workplace. That IS creating a hostile, sexist environment. Mr. Abrams deserves our collective boot up his ass for disproving his own point, but proving mine: pigs do not believe they are pigs.

Those of us who are absolutely DONE letting pigs be pigs to us know that when a woman says she feels harassed and unsafe in her work environment, talk is finished. Any I created a hostile and sexist environment. This is depressing if not insulting deserves no dignifying. Motherfucker, mothers know when they’re being fucked. He’s insulted? He has the motherfucking gall to be insulted after he passed around wildly inappropriate videos, then hid behind rock and roll?

You know what? He lost his job because in his estimation women aren’t fully human and their concerns don’t concern him. And I know a bunch of roller derby queens who would happily go fully rock and roll on his old boys’ club ass.

Did the Earth Move For You, Nancy?

Posted by Tata on

Some people will say any fucking thing that comes to their tiny, rigid minds. Witness this for yourself:

This is why I will never forgive the major repro rights orgs for sitting out the health insurance reform debacle. This is why I will probably never fully trust a man. This is why we can never turn another cheek to the rich, because their interests are not ours and cannot be. This is why the prayerful look to me like they spend too much fucking time with their Imaginary Friend. This is why all talk of liberty and freedom is bullshit: because it never means the freedom of women to determine their own destinies. The blatant racism alone leaves me speechless.

If you vote for this horror, you deserve what you get. Your daughters? They deserve better.