Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leaping A Day

Leaping A Day

So you're probably wondering why we have an extra day in the month today. Instead of typing it all out and confusing you, I'm just going to let this video confuse you.



I'm pretty sure that you're even more confused now than you were before. What's even more confusing is the whole lure around this one magical day every four years in how women can and should act...

Historically though, leap day, February 29th was a day that the partriachy got a day off. For it is Sadie Hawkins day. A day when women can do crazy things, such as asking guys out, without social pressures getting in the way of things.




It's the one day every four years when ladies are allowed to play the prsuer in romantic relationships and ask the men out on a date. In fact, it also extends to marriage proposals. Women can ask a men to marry them on this day and if they refuse, they need to get her a gift of some kind. Why this isn't being exploited by more, I do not know.

It's been celebrated since the 1700's and wasn't always celebrated on the 29th. Mainly because women probably wanted to ask men out more than once every four years. And now, since it's an every day thing for women to ask men out, it has turned into more of a day for women to get down and propose to those commitment fearing boyfriends of theirs.

Which I guess is pretty entertaining. If not a bit amusing in itself. So hey, on this day smash the patriarchy and go out and ask some guy out.. or even more, to marry you.

Black History Month's Extra Day

Black History Month's Extra Day

It's pretty sad that Black History month only last the shortest month of the year. I mean, that's pretty fucked up in general. Though still not as fucked up as what sort of exploitations happen during the month. I mean, just look at how they advertise this very related to black history month product..



It's really just very confusing altogether that we such poor and blind sight towards the past. Especially with marketing and trying to avoid the whole racism issue. But hey, at least it's not as bad as it was in the past...



God damn, for something that makes you clean, soap ads in the past made you feel nothing but completely dirty. This next one is just appalling.



That kid's face says it all. And by says it all, I mean "Are you goddamned serious?" I think it's high tide to take it all back. To switch the shoes in all this. Isn't that right, Banksy..



Let us just say that every month we should honor those who came before us and made a change. Black history month or any other month should be constant reminders of what we did wrong in the past so that we don't do it again in the future.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Oscar Aftermath

Oscar Aftermath

You know, I didn't get a chance to actually write much about the Oscars. Mainly, I guess, because I didn't much care for them this year. Then again, what year do I actually give a shit about them?

For example, the worst documentary won the best documentary category. The winner: A documentary on an underdog football team who look to reverse their fortunes with coach Bill Courtney..

Opposed to the losers which were about;

What does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It is a masterpiece in the cinema of war.

A rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.'

A further investigation into the arrest of three teenagers convicted of killing three young boys in Arkansas who spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released after new DNA evidence indicated they may be innocent.
Yeah, they went for the feel good version.

Aside from the fact that Billy Crystal looked like Kim Jung il's embalmed corpse on stage,

Though I guess we should get on to the bigger fish in the room. That blasted Best Picture category. I hadn't been following the Oscars at all this year, so I wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but I was surprised to see that The Help got nominated for anything. But I guess I can say that it's the same reason The Blind Side was nominated.

So what's the problem with The Help? It reaffirms the whole Mammies in Hollywood. Just look at this shit;
Yet The Help (film) is being lauded, when it contains Minny reciting stereotypical dialogue like this:
“Frying chicken make you tend to feel better about life.” and “Minny don’t burn no chicken.”
Jesus Christ! But with The Help losing, maybe now Hollywood will make less mammy and white person saves all minorities movies. Thank you, The Artist.

Glory praise and hallelujah, the Academy once again shows that they like masturbating to its own existence even more than telling itself it's not racist. I sort of knew that the Artist was going to sweep this sucker up. There wasn't any two ways about it.

The whole show just showcased that the majority of the movies it praised reinforced how Hollywood only peddles in shitty, petty escapism. But again, this should come as a surprise to no one.

It's always been a self-congratulatory million dollar pat on the back and chance for celebrities to be in the news paper the next day during a slow ad season. It'll also push more DVD sales as folks try to stay relevant with whatever is trending to keep up that water cooler talk. It's very rare that a film last the test of time.

Critics were raving about how Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was robbed that one year and the only thing I can remember about that movie was that there were some wire fu fights in some trees.

Then again, 98% of the Oscar voting panel are white old men. So I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that I don't agree with them very much. It's just a matter that it takes a damn long time to be inducted into the academy. And considering the current rates of minorities and women advancing in the industry, it's not likely to get any better... ever.
February's Final Day

Oh, did you think that February was going to go out today without anything more than a whimper? Think again! Because we still have one-more-day of it. But still, I just found these sort of pin-up calendar art for the year and I figured I would post it.



Yeah, slow news day...

Monday, February 27, 2012

Just The Tip

Just The Tip

So this has been making its rounds on the internet and well, it should make you pretty appalled.



Can anyone pull some CSI crazy trick and remove those black marks? I mean, I've tried putting my head extremely close to the monitor in an attempt to figure it out.. only to find out that they ate at this chain.. http://foxrc.com/ Or maybe it's this place True Food Kitchen

But hey, now that you got that info, it's time to like, go beat that gentleman to death with some type of club. Then again, what am I really going to do? I guess I could order a shit ton of pizzas to his house.

But if I do that, then it's just going to fuck over the Pizza driver. Dead pizzas like that come out of paychecks sometimes. So perhaps I should just firebomb him. And instead of pizzas to him, I'll just order a pizza for myself and cry whilst eating it.

So it'll be a normal night in at home for me.

If I really wanted to find the motherfucker, I'd just go to the Newport beach area and ask Breanna, his server who got the shitty tip, what the homeboy's info is and then make him eat a hand grenade or something...

The real insult to injury is the "Get a real job" comment. That's just so fucked. How about if he gets the only real job... you know, being a revolutionary. He should take that tip and shoot the bougie scum and surf off into the sunset.

And to be clear, the only jobs are revolution and posting on the internet. Two things I do and do well. Sadly, they are both mutually exclusive. So if you'll excuse me, I need to go post the 10,000 pictures of kittens looking confused.

What kind of real job is the dude expecting people to get? Perhaps the real job that doesn't involve knowing how to round up. Besides that, what kind of server doesn't charge gratuity on the bill itself when it reaches $133. I mean, it should be common sense to plaster it on the price tag at that point.

I also shouldn't look at the Men's Rights Advocacy Forum because it'll just get me really mad to see postings pointing out that she did a lousy job waiting that customer and thus she's just some entitled bitch.

And with that, I'll just go drink to numb the pain of this shitty world, but here - enjoy this picture..

Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Oscars

For 364 days of the year, Hollywood is all about cranking out that money generating piece of shit film. But one one night it's all about celebrating those pieces of shit as if they are fine art. Then the Academy banned a certain someone from the red carpet festivities...




And then they caved and allowed it. So there you go. The most interesting aspect of the fucking Oscars and it's already done with..

Act of Valor

Act of Valor

I'm pretty sure that I'll get a wave of "Why do you hate America" responses for this blog post, but then again it is a day that ends in Y, so what else is new with that? Have you've seen this trailer being pumped out on your television, typically during sports or other manly shows;



Holy shit, if you didn't just throw up I have to wonder why we're friends. It looks so bad and generically American that I can't grasp the concept other than some hollywood executive decided that a movie comprised entirely of Modern Warfare cut scenes would do gangbusters in the box office.

But at this point they should just release god damn Red Dawn 2 if they wanted a film that circle jerks America so god damn much. And why did they hold it back? Well, take a look at the pictures from the set;



I kind of want one of those posters, to be honest. I wouldn't mind our new overlords coming in and collecting on how much we owe them. Then again, I do need to get some Rosetta stone lessons in before they do come in.

It was a film about China invading the U.S. but people got mad so they changed it to North Korea coming in. Which doesn't make as much sense as China. But hey, gotta keep our money train going by not upsetting them.

They did make the change in post to making it North Korea, so it's not like they need to reshoot anything or, like, recast Korean actors in place of the original Chinese ones, because as we all know, Hollywood doesn't know or even care that there's a difference in how one looks over the other.

In fact, it seems like Hollywood and America don't care about much in terms of respect. Take a look at this following item that you can wear on your torso now.



Yeah.. I'm not sure what the fuck to say anymore about it. When is the fucking last time someone said "my ninja"? Well, someone saying it unironically, of course. It's been at least 5 fuckin' years. Haven't the juggalos pretty much embraced that and thus why no one else should be saying anything like it?

Either way, fuck that. ugh. Fuck all of this.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

No Parking - Drone Strike Zone

No Parking - Drone Strike Zone

Now that we're past that emotional nonsense day Valentine's day, can we get on to bigger and better issues? Namely how government is seeping in more and more into your life. Take for example those unmanned predator drones.



Oh yeah, you thought they were a great idea at first. It means one less soldier in the field potentially dying. The flip side was that it made war and the act of killing an enemy nothing more than the action and repercussion that you would get from killing someone on Xbox or PS3.

That's the sad truth of it. The further you extend yourself away from being right there in front of a man you just shot, the less of a person you become and that kill becomes even less meaningful. It just makes the life of others feel like some computer game and that's really tragic. Not to mention that the rate of kills on those predator drones is about 1 terrorist for every 15 civilians that are killed by a drone strike.



So perhaps it's only fitting that drones have been approved to fly over our own nation. Gotta keep it on a tight leash, after all. Well, some people weren't looking forward to that idea and they decided to put up what you'll eventually see in the future... A Drone Strike Zone Warning Signs

Several weeks ago, a 28-year-old Army vet, who had worked with drones during two tours in Iraq and is now a radical art student in New York, came up with a creative act of protest to raise awareness around the growing use of drones domestically by police forces across the country.

In last week’s New Yorker, over the course of several nights, the veteran (who remains anonymous) and a few friends posted eleven unusual street signs around New York City, which is apparently investigating using drones as a law enforcement tool.

Designed to look exactly like official street signs, the fake NYPD signs had several different messages: “ATTENTION: Drone Activity in Progress,” or “ATTENTION: Local Statutes Enforced by Drones,” or “ATTENTION: Authorized Drone Strike Zone, 8am-8pm, Including Sunday.”

Near each sign, they also stenciled a quote from a Founding Father, such as a warning from Ben Franklin that seems particularly apropos: “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”


And here I was hoping drones had achieved sentience and decided they couldn't handle being the tools of murder, so they just would go ahead and unionized or something.



I'm sure that everyone knew that these were pranks, right? There was no way 'drone strike zone' was ever a serious thing. I mean, domestic use of drones is very real, of course. And more than likely coming our way sooner rather than later, but a 'drone strike zone'? Yeah, perhaps I don't have my tin foil hat on too tightly tonight.

But then again, your average American will see agitprop drone strike zone posters and suddenly feel slightly safer none the wiser, but hey, if it makes you feel slightly safer and you're able to carry on with your day, then why not try them every now and then?



It is, after all, like some sort of robot cop. I mean, I know that name sounds so ridiculous. Like it'd be a movie or something. Robot..... Cop.... You know, they would call it Botcop or something, knowing Hollywood.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Black History Month Has Its Lows As Well

Black History Month Has Its Lows As Well

Who said black history month was all about taking those achievements of making a break through in black history and showing them off. It's also about reflecting on the lows. In some cases, those lows can get pretty god damn low...

What's even more sad is that those lows aren't always just stuck in the past. We're constantly making new ones every day. Just look at this latest situation that I just want to shake my head at..



It's a side-by-side photo of Coretta Scott King with her daughter, which was taken at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's funeral, and being placed next to a picture of Michelle Obama and Sasha Obama at the president's nominating convention. The caption below it reads: "One black man died for another black man to win."


http://rolandmartinr...ack-man-to-win/

I repeat that again, One black man died for another black man to win.. and become a general tool of neo-liberal capitalism and the massive security state.

But really, of all things, why the fuck would they quote William Shakespeare? I guess he's the symbolic of the White Man's appropriation of black culture.

What that one man died so another could win just tells me that two black men became tokens of post-racial white supremacy and color blindness for white people to believe progress has truly been achieved and feel better about themselves. Because in the end, that's all that really happened.

Though that doesn't have the same ring to it. How about this one, Two black men walk into a bar. One of them dies so the other one can win...

No wait. Two black men walk into a bar. One of them dies so the other can be the president and kill sand people in the desert.

Then again, all this commentary was by Roland Martin, who was suspended by CNN for his homopobic tweets during the super bowl. Oh, didn't you know?
Roland Martin shocked viewers when he tweeted that any male fans of David Beckham’s underwear commercial for H&M were not “real bruhs.”

“If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl” he added.
He also made fun of a New England Patriots player earlier in the day who arrived wearing a pink jump suit.
“He needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass” he quipped.
But anyhow, yeah. I guess it just comes down to the simple logic that One black man who protested and spoke out for non-violent solutions died for another black man to kill in the name of the country in endless wars over nothing..

Maybe I should just become as cold and take part in some of the same training that these folks have gone through back in the day so that shit like this wouldn't effect me so..



School for black civil rights activists; young girl being trained to not react to smoke being blown in her face, 1960

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Coming Up A Little Short

Coming Up A Little Short

Not much to say about this, but shorties gotta get a lift..








You should feel bad about yourself while others feel better about you.. Yes, buy our stupid shit and wear our ugly ass shoes.

It's like they took their name from a product used by truck owners with genital insecurity.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

You Know, FUCK PETA

You Know, FUCK PETA

I know I constantly am proclaiming that Peta sucks and what not, but this time I really mean fuck them hard in their asses. Just take a look at their latest ad campaign to turn people vegan



Why hey, thanks Peta. I see what you're getting at. Animals deserve dignity and respect, exploit women instead. We should take away from all this that violence against animals is no laughing matter, but violence against women on the other hand....

She looks... really really sad in that video. But I guess that's to be expected to have that level of sadness as being a natural response to being raped by one's boyfriend/anyone at all. I mean, what the fuck Peta.

And while we're here, since when is "knocked the bottom out of me" a euphemism for good sex? Hell, I have never even heard that phrase before in my life. Did they just take some other euphemism and make a euphemism for that euphemism?



Not to mention the cool copy work done as well. "Bring it like a tantric porn star," I mean, what the fuck? No one should be surprised given their attitudes towards women that they think male porn stars are a model of sexual prowess for some reason. But hey, apparently that's the name of the website they have going for this project. bwvaktboom

It's as if Peta read the Sexual Politics of Meat and decided the point to take home was that patriarchy is cool as long as you're not eating meat, which.... isn't the point at all. But hey, it's a dive bar as options... or maybe I'll be walking into a hipster joint. Either way, I'm getting drunk after writing this story.

Because, really. Standard condoms are no match for your vegan boyfriend's high-caliber finishing moves! Who the fuck wrote this shit?



I mean, if there's one thing you can feel like this taught you anything, it's that you don't need to be Vegan to do it better, as the Peta folks have told you and I'm sure you now doubt your abilities. They also have no basis against being completely racist to each other or anything.

What about that diabetic Peta head. You know, the one that is using insulin taken from pigs to stay alive. I believe that she was confronted on the whole issue and her response was simply "the animals needed me to live until recombinant insulin was available" Yeah.. I can't even think about coming close to such a perfect response than that.

It's really gotten to the point that the Onion parody once again just becomes a bit of reality..



Sadly, when the world is farce, the comedians become its prophets. It should also be noted that Peta kills a shit ton of animals yearly in their god forsaken shit hole shelters under the idea that they're better that way to be put out of the misery..

They used to drive down from their main shelters to isolated rural poor black towns where nobody would bother looking to dump their kills in dumpsters until they got caught a couple of years back.
Roberts said he became involved in the case on May 19, 2005 after being dispatched to an area behind the Piggly Wiggly Supermarket in Ahoskie's New Market Shopping Center. There he was met by Kevin Wrenn of D&E Properties, a local firm that handles the maintenance of the shopping center. During his early morning rounds disposing of trash, Wrenn had discovered what appeared to be some sort of animal in a trash bag that was tossed in the dumpster behind Piggly Wiggly.

"I immediately noticed a strong odor coming from the dumpster," Roberts said.

Probing inside the dumpster, Roberts discovered 20, heavy duty trash bags. He eventually discovered a total of 21 dead dogs inside those bags.

After using the Town of Ahoskie's help to bury the dogs at the town's old landfill, Roberts told Asbell he launched an investigation of how the dead dogs wound-up in an Ahoskie dumpster. He said he checked with the local animal hospitals and animal shelters to inquire of how they discarded of dead animals.

Two weeks later (June 2, 2005) dead animals – 17 dogs and three cats – were discovered within 20 bags in the same dumpster. Photographing the dead animals, Roberts took those photographs to Bertie County Animal Control Officer Barry Anderson from whom Roberts had learned was working with PETA through an agreement to come to the Bertie shelter to collect unwanted, unclaimed animals. Anderson told Roberts he could not positively identify the animals by the photos.

Another report of dead animals found in the same dumpster came in on June 9. Eighteen bags containing 20 dead dogs were discovered.

On this particular occasion, Roberts said he contacted Anderson who drove to Ahoskie and, prior to burial, identified the animals as coming from the Bertie shelter.

From that point, Roberts said he became suspicious of PETA's possible involvement in the case.

Through conversations with Anderson, Roberts understood that PETA workers came to the Bertie shelter every Wednesday to pick-up animals. Each of the dumpster discoveries to that point were always on Thursday mornings.

So yeah.. FUCK PETA.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Are All Men Pedo-Bears?

Are All Men Pedo-Bears?

Yes! For the first time a documentary examines the global impact of pedophilia from a cultural and professional perspective.

We live in a society that condemns pedophiles, though biological instinct and world cultures throughout history suggest that an attraction to adolescents is as natural as it is unavoidable. The fashion industry on the one hand sexualizes ever-younger girls while those who act on these instincts are reviled. The apparent hypocrisy at the heart of society forces the question:



Hmm, why yes. Let's put an airbrushed picture of a girl that perfectly matches the infatilised beauty standards of the early 21st century in a context that demands looking and attraction and then shout "GOTCHA! She's only 14, take a seat sir" that will certainly lead to a deeper understanding of the pathological sexuality of pedophilia.

Also, am I seeing things or does the bottom of that poster really say "Interviews with DICK SWAAB". Because if it does, man did they just nail everything down too perfectly.

So let's see this trailer and what all the fuss is about with this little documentary....



Welp, that some shit right there.

I'm confused. Is the movie's point "Deep down we're all really pedophiles, stop getting mad about it"? Wow. They should release it as a double feature with hard candy. It's just strange that they're going about this and just saying that eventually we will all just accept pedophilia as okay because it's natural.

No, I'm afraid I don't think that will happen you sick fucks. Or maybe they're just pointing out that the infantilisation of standards of female beauty is a perfectly natural bio-truth and that no, all men are not pedophiles. But man, does that trailer make it sound like it.

Because if it was trying to justify pedophilia as anything remotely close to natural then I don't know, America. I just don't know about you. This whole idea that human sexuality evolved in paleolithic period as virile hunter gatherers acted on their impulses and attractions to smooth surfaces aksjdalskjalkfjlksjlfalfldjlfdas;k

GAH! Fuck that, I can't even finish that sentence because it's all sorts of fucked.

Then again, it's hard to blame them though, I mean pedophiles are probably the most demonized group in America. And hey, maybe it's not like they choose to be pedophiles, right? Just like I can't help but be attracted to red heads. Even if it's not genetic, it's the who nurture vs. nature argument. I grew up with this thing for red heads. These people had some sort of fucked up trauma in their life via their parents or other force that made them sexually stunted with that.

Besides, they're the group that gets brought up when people are trying to come up with comparisons to make gay marriage look bad. These pedo-bears probably hate themselves all day, every day for their entire lives.

So I guess the question still remains, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Pedophiles!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Who Markets The Watchmen

Who Markets The Watchmen

I have my reservations on the Watchmen Prequels, as you may have noticed in previous post. But now that I'm seeing DC's attempt at creating "Before Watchmen" merchandise, I can't stop from laughing.

Because really, just look at this thing..


You can tell it's from the prequel because of the jaunty spring in Rorschach's step. I'm a little confused why he's walking over a picket sign, I didn't think he was protesting back then.

"Streaks on the china! Never mattered before. Who cared? When you drop kicked your jacket, as you came through the door, no one glared! But sometimes things get turned around and NO ONE SPAAAARED! All hands look out beloooow, there's a change in the status quoo-ooo-oo. Gonna need all the help that WE CAN GET! According to our new arrival, life is more than mere survival! We just might live the good life yet."

The worse thing about that statue is how much it looks just like....



Why yes, it appears that haters are indeed going to hate.

The thing that worries me most about this project isn't the Leo hater gonna hate pose, but that the buzz in the store I go to and quite a few others is "Thank god JMS is on one of these." My god. What the fuck happened to the man.

Then after all that I hear people saying things like "ugh Darwyn Cooke? Why couldn't they get Geoff Johns to write this!?"

Then again, people say this shit all the time about other books, but then again I'm desensitized to it all by now. But hey, if you're wondering why he isn't involved with this, it's rather simple - It's because Watchmen wasn't done during the Silver age. Maybe they wouldn't allow him to replace Doc Manhattan with Allen Adam, the real Doc Manhattan the fans demanded back.

Anyhow, here's some Darwyn Cooke art for the minutemen.



If there's a Watchmen book that's going to be any good, it has to be me putting my money on that one. Do you know why? Because the Minutemen weren't developed nearly as much as the rest of the cast, so Cooke is going to have a lot of room to spread his wings there.

The worse though. Man, I can't decide. I feel as if Ozymadias will probably be bad because I never really got him as a character to begin with.

Or maybe it's going to be Rorschach. Mostly because the chief complaint about these books being made seems to be that they're not adding anything to the story, and Rorschach is probably the character who, more than any other, has nothing left to say.

In Watchmen we saw his arc be pretty much shown completely from start to finish. Which means that "Before Watchmen: Rorschach" is going to consist of nothing but fight scenes to pander to everyone who found him super-badass and missed the point of him being a psycho.

None of those could be worse than Dr. Manhattan though. Mainly because JMS will just jump to telling us the secret history of Manhattan's origin, thus ruining the whole thing for everyone.

Oh yeah, and if you people are still on the fence on if this good or bad, you should probably read this article that goes into the major arguments and rebuts the most stupid ones.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

It Gets Better..

It Gets Better..

So apparently it gets better for those of you who are suffering numerous beatings and abuse because of your sexuality...



Which is ironic because trans-sex workers of color are amongst the highest incarcerated and profiled by the S.F. Police department. How that makes sense with this video? Well, because the police are utter assholes and you should probably never trust one.

I just feel bad for these gay and lesbian folks going through that and then ending up as part of a violent discriminatory institution themselves. It's not like the "It gets better" movement is anything more than some shitty liberalism. So this sort of thing isn't much of a departure.

I'm just wondering how long until comments are disabled on that video.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Yellow Cake Is A Lie

The Yellow Cake Is A Lie

I'm sure you're tired of me typing and I'm tired of ranting. But hey, let's kick our shoes off and enjoy these two flicks.



and let's mellow the fuck out now..



Okay, I need to lay off the drugs and/or just stick to the alcohol..

Friday, February 17, 2012

Blues and Black History Month

Blues and Black History Month

In an attempt to get you know fully experience black history month beyond Rosa Parks and MLK, here's some lesser known black historical figures.

You may have seen the play, but Ma Rainey was a blues singer who was awesome and during her time 1880s - 1925s did scandalous things like... talk about her sexuality!!! especially in the song



Take notice to the double entendres. She is also the mother of blues. She made a ton of white folks angry by not putting up with their shit when they tried to get her to sign record contracts, making sure she was paid her due. Just take a listen to the song, it's really good.

Also, if you've never read it, Angela Davis's book, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday is an excellent historical analysis of the little known things about the blues women, for instance, she talks about how "Ma" Rainey was bisexual and challenged a lot of gender conventions of the time through her music.

Here's part of the first chapter

Like most forms of popular music, African-American blues lyrics talk about love. What is distinctive about the blues, however, particularly in relation to other American popular musical forms of the 1920s and 1930s is their intellectual independence and representational freedom. One of the most obvious ways in which blues lyrics deviated from that era's established popular musical culture was their provocative and pervasive sexual--including homosexual--imagery.

By contrast, the popular song formulas of the period demanded saccharine and idealized nonsexual depictions of heterosexual love relationships. Those aspects of lived love relationships that were not compatible with the dominant, etherealized ideology of love--such as extramarital relationships, domestic violence, and the ephemerality of many sexual partnerships--were largely banished from the established popular musical culture. Yet these very themes pervade the blues. What is even more striking is the fact that initially the professional performers of this music--the most widely heard individual purveyors of the blues--were women. Bessie Smith earned the title "Empress of the Blues" not least through the sale of three-quarters of a million copies of her first record.

And a little more, why not.
The blues did not entirely escape the influences that shaped the role of romantic love in the popular songs of the dominant culture. Nevertheless, the incorporation of personal relationships into the blues has its own historical meanings and social and political resonances. Love was not represented as an idealized realm to which unfulfilled dreams of happiness were relegated. The historical African-American vision of individual sexual love linked it inextricably with possibilities of social freedom in the economic and political realms. Unfreedom during slavery involved, among other things, a prohibition of freely chosen, enduring family relationships. Because slaves were legally defined as commodities, women of childbearing age were valued in accordance with their breeding potential and were often forced to copulate with men--viewed as "bucks"--chosen by their owners for the sole purpose of producing valuable progeny. Moreover, direct sexual exploitation of African women by their white masters was a constant feature of slavery. What tenuous permanence in familial relationships the slaves did manage to construct was always subject to the whim of their masters and the potential profits to be reaped from sale. The suffering caused by forced ruptures of slave families has been abundantly documented.

Given this context, it is understandable that the personal and sexual dimensions of freedom acquired an expansive importance, especially since the economic and political components of freedom were largely denied to black people in the aftermath of slavery. The focus on sexual love in blues music was thus quite different in meaning from the prevailing idealization of romantic love in mainstream popular music. For recently emancipated slaves, freely chosen sexual love became a mediator between historical disappointment and the new social realities of an evolving African-American community. Ralph Ellison alludes to this dimension of the blues. I think, when he notes "their mysteriousness ... their ability to imply far more than they state outright and their capacity to make the details of sex convey meanings which touch on the metaphysical."
Sexuality was central in both men's and women's blues. During the earliest phases of their history, blues were essentially a male phenomenon. The archetypal blues singer was a solitary wandering man accompanied by his banjo or guitar, and, in the words of blues scholar Giles Oakley, his principal theme "is the sexual relationship. Almost all other themes, leaving town, train rides, work trouble, general dissatisfaction, sooner or later revert to the central concern." In women's blues. which became a crucial element of the rising black entertainment industry, there was an even more pronounced emphasis on love and sexuality.

The representations of love and sexuality in women's blues often blatantly contradicted mainstream ideological assumptions regarding women and being in love. They also challenged the notion that women's "place" was in the domestic sphere. Such notions were based on the social realities. of middle-class white women's lives, but were incongruously applied to all women, regardless of race or class. This led to inevitable contradictions between prevailing social expectations and black women's social realities. Women of that era were expected to seek fulfillment within the confines of marriage, with their husbands functioning as providers and their children as evidence of their worth as human beings. The sparsity of allusions to marriage and domesticity in women's blues therefore becomes highly significant.

In Bessie Smith's rendition of "Sam Jones Blues," which contains one of the few commentaries on marriage to be found in her body of work, the subject is acknowledged only in relation to its dissolution. Her performance of this song satirically accentuates the contrast between the dominant cultural construction of marriage and the stance of economic independence black women were compelled to assume for their sheer survival
So there, you get to learn something new every day and get exposed to something you wouldn't normally learn from your generic white-person teachings of Black History Month.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Death From Above

Death From Above

By now you know that your death will eventually come from above. Here's a little preview of it in its early stages;



I have to say that in terms of ways to go out, this one actually looks pretty cool. I mean, yeah. It's death being certain. Most of all from above in the form of robotic little droids that do the masters bidding. But then what are you going to do? There's money in this sort of shit. Especially when there's the potential for military contracts.

Which does make one wonder how long until the Army uses this as a specialized weapon. Oh, who am I kidding. they already have it under the microscope..

But you don't need them glasses to know not to do any of these things. Mainly because you have common sense opposed to those who don't know how to use this.. they perhaps need some stern talking to.

Though all is forgiven once you see this following clip...
In fact...


Yuuuuuup. That's all folks. wrap it up. Though, I guess we could put it to good use and have it as a means of production.. right? That seems logical on every level, doesn't it? Just look at them in action;





But of course we'll just use them to bomb children in third world countries. If only these new generations of drone machines would be so cool if they weren't used by the powerful to do awful things all the time. I say we should re-purpose all DOD tools into art exhibitions.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Separate... But Equal?

Separate... But Equal?

Happy Black History Month - Did you know that schools are more segregated now than they were back in the 60's when whites and colors had to use different drinking fountains? Oh, sadly, it's true.

America’s schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s. More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we need to radically rethink the meaning of “school choice.”

So much depends on a yellow bus, winding its way across the North Carolina landscape.

For decades, this was how Wake County integrated its schools. Buses would pick up public school students in largely minority communities along the Raleigh Beltline; in affluent Cary, a Raleigh suburb; in dozens of small towns and unincorporated communities around this fast growing state capital.

Most of the students would travel to schools not far from home. But every year, a few would cross the county to a new school, in a neighborhood very different from their own.

The system won Wake County praise from many integration advocates — but locally, people were less enchanted. In late 2008, a wave of anti-busing sentiment swept in new school board members who promised to support neighborhood schools and keep kids closer to home.

.....

Today, one-third of black students attend school in places where the black population is more than 90 percent. A little less than half of white students attend schools that are more than 90 percent white. One-third of all black and Latino students attend high-poverty schools (where more than 75 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch); only 4 percent of white children do.

Things have been better, and not so long ago. In 1990 more than 40 percent of black students in the South were attending majority-white schools. Today, fewer than 30 percent of students do — roughly the same percentage as in the late 1960s, when many districts were still refusing to implement 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education.


I highly advise reading the whole article. It's really pretty good. But isn't it pretty sad and shocking that American schools are more segregated today than they were at the time of Brown v. Board? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.



Generally speaking, Charter schools are the new shit for minorities and many of them are very heavily segregated. They are also great ways to funnel huge amounts of money more or less directly into private hands, though some of them are run honestly.

Over all, the fundamental problem with charters is that their central premise is contradictory and impossible. A charter school is supposed to be a public school with additional possibility to experiment and break from restrictive school boards and teachers' union contracts to get better education outcomes (note how the very language I'm framing this in sees education as a service-commodity). So they are supposed to be subject to more direct local control with less political interference.

The problem is that the reason we have school boards is to centralize all the back-office work of payroll, logistics, accounting, and administration. And small charter schools cannot sustain themselves and their own back-office operations without consolidating into larger charter companies.



So at the end of the day they get reorganized under the various large charter management companies that are springing up, and you have all the problems that theory posits is associated with school boards - but now these school boards are not subject to local political control but are instead regional or nationwide for-profit or nonprofit (not that that makes a difference: the NFL is a nonprofit organization) corporations. So you lose all accountability.

If you look at who sits on the boards of most charter schools, there might be a handful of prominent locals (sometimes church leaders or more often real estate developers) and then the rest of the board will be employees of the charter management organization. Frequently these are used as ways to goldbrick, double-bill, or simply impose the will of the management organization on the in-name independent charter school.

Ironically enough even the national organization representing charter management companies is aware of the huge problems facing its industry: there is massive corruption and graft, which usually becomes most pronounced in GED and special ed programs where usually management companies will spend maybe a third of their per-student allocation on education and pocket the rest.

But hey, maybe it's pretty "cool" that we're dismantling the public education system, supposedly the backbone of a democratic society...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Pizza Huttin'

Pizza Huttin'

I'm not sure how I can describe this next bit of oddity.. other than that it's just really strange that anyone would think this was a viable ad campaign. But sure enough, for only $10,010 dollars, you can propose to your girlfriend and get a $10 pizza in the process..



I just don't know what to say about this. Well, I do. But do I really want to? I guess you may be confused by the idea that there would be a videographer there.. But it's more than likely to record the proposal. You know, for when they inevitable make a commercial about it afterward showing how couples bond over Pizza Hut.

And maybe it's just me, but a $10 pizza really doesn't seem like a great bargain when you're stuck with this whole wedding proposal in the bag. I guess it doesn't get any classier than that. I'm sure all you lady readers out there are wondering why your man hasn't done this for you just yet.

You know, some nice flowers, some sweet fireworks show, free pizza, free ring to eventually pawn off and video proof of how stupid this moron is with all the people at Pizza Hutt mocking him on his #1 video on youtube. Which you will be apart of.

Just think of that sweet sweet youtube money!

Though, you now, in Pizza Hut's credit, at least they are using a ruby instead of a diamond. It's really helpful considering the amount of hands those slave laborers are losing daily due to the piss poor work conditions.

Or maybe they just made it a ruby so that it could sort of act as imaging for the pepperoni or pizza sauce theme of this whole thing and not because diamonds are completely evil in every stretch of the imagination. Horrible things they are and the cause of the death of thousands.

Then again, rubies are also evil rocks made from the death of thousands. So you only need to look into the Burmese example to see why. Then again, what commodity is this whole "it's evil, let's not touch it" can we say this for. Let's face it, death and pain come to everyone for every bite of enjoyment you take.

So.. I guess you know what to do - BRING DOWN CAPITALISM!

No wait.. that's just silly and sarcastic..

V-Day is Pretty Racist

V-Day is Pretty Racist

When you stop to think of it, Valentine's day is pretty sexist. Men are expected to buy all this shit like flowers, candy, cards and other what not and women are expected, in exchange for these goods, to provide a service that is of sexual nature.

Anyhow. I figured I would avoid a bitter blog for the holiday this year because really, fuck it. I'm going to go get a drink. Maybe/hopefully shoot some pool or something and just chill the fuck out and avoid the V-day madness. If anything, I'm taking it back for me. But what would this collection of odd be without the oddities. And so here's some really fucked up Valentines day cards.



Nothing says love like having it forced..



We call this.. forced entry and rape.



Wow. Frigid bitch? Get back in the kitchen and cook a pot roast, woman!



I don't.. even want to know.



Nothing says lovin' like hunting your significant other. I guess man is the most dangerous game..



Teaching kids to bind their loved ones early.



Holy fuck. I mean, seriously?



Aw, look. It's a card for hipsters.



You know, the hipsters that are totally racist in every possible way.



Yeah. No words.

This last one is pretty clearly the one that I was referring to in the title. But hey, enjoy...



FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Valentine Volcano

Valentine Volcano

Valentine's is just a day or two away and let's be honest, it makes you do stupid things. Though one thing I hope it doesn't make you do is go out and try one of these...



Because if you're like me, you're probably wondering what that is..

The answer is that it's a woman. Don't worry, I can understand why you wouldn't be familiar... Oooooh snap!

But really, it's the volcano of love, you idiot. Can't you read? Oh, excuse me. It's really a VOLCANO of LOVE.

I know, I didn't answer what exactly it is by that either. To be honest, I don't know what it is. But I do know that there's a Hello Kitty in a HOOTERS shirt right there on the bottom... so that has to mean quality, right?

Vaginal Cream Prevents AIDS

Vaginal Gel: Great for HIV

With tomorrow being the day you get down and dirty and touching on the subject a little yesterday, I figure it's time to do a public service announcement that you so rightfully deserve... The pushing for Vaginal gel..
Scientists say vaginal gel cuts HIV-infections by half
Women in the trial are said to have used the gel largely as directed A vaginal gel has significantly cut the rate of women contracting HIV from infected partners in an experiment in South Africa, researchers said.

They said the gel, containing Aids drug tenofovir, cut infection rates among 889 women by 50% after one year of use, and by 39% after two and a half years.

If the results are confirmed it would be the first time that a microbicidal gel has been shown to be effective.

Such a gel could be a defence for women whose partners refuse to wear condoms.

New ways of curbing the spread of HIV are badly needed, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 60% of those infected with the virus are women.

Many women are often forced to take part in unsafe sex, and are biologically more vulnerable to HIV infection than men, making a gel they apply an attractive option.

Welcoming the results, UN agencies said they would convene an expert consultation in South Africa next month to discuss the next steps with the product.

'Just pennies'

The results of the three-year study, which was completed by the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa), are being presented at an international aids conference in Vienna and were published on Monday by the US magazine Science.


An easy-to-use microbicidal gel proven to significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection would be a very important breakthrough in the fight to control the spread of HIV/Aids.

The best way to minimise the risk of infection during sex is to use a condom - but this is not an option for many women around the world who find it difficult to insist that a man take the necessary precautions.

As a result, women have become particularly vulnerable to infection in recent years and in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the Aids pandemic is most severe, they make up nearly 60% of those who are infected with the virus.

To compound the problem, science has shown that women are biologically more at risk of infection than men.

An effective gel would finally give women the chance to do something to protect themselves from infection - to take control of their own sexual health.

However, several earlier trials have produced disappointing results, and even the results of the latest trial - impressive though they are - underline that a gel is far from a fail-safe form of protection.

The latest results also need to replicated in a much bigger trial.

But provided a gel could be made widely accessible to women in some of the world's poorest countries, where it is needed the most, it could help to transform many lives for the better.
The gel was found to be both safe and acceptable when used once in the 12 hours before sex and once in the 12 hours after sex by women aged 18 to 40 years.

Salim Abdool Karim, one of the two leading co-researchers, told reporters in Vienna that the 889 women involved in the trial, conducted in the coastal city of Durban and a remote rural village, had largely used the gel as directed.

They were also given condoms and advice about sexually transmitted diseases, and tested for HIV once a month.

After 30 months, 98 women became infected with HIV - 38 in the group that got tenofovir in the gel and 60 in the group that got placebos.

"We showed a 39% lower incidence of HIV in the tenofovir group," Dr Karim said.

Tenofovir, he added, lowered the risk of infection by 50% at 12 months but then the efficacy declined.

Women who used the gel more consistently were much less likely to be infected, he said.

He added that he did not know how much each dose would cost but said the applicators and gel cost "just pennies".

"Boy, have we been doing the happy dance," Dr Karim, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, said.

'Hope for women'

"It's the first time we've ever seen any microbicide give a positive result that you could say was statistically significant," said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The researchers say women who used the gel also showed a significant reduction in genital herpes, a common sexually transmitted infection, which itself increases the risk of HIV infection.

The UN's HIV/Aids agency noted that nearly 20 years of research had gone into microbicides that can be controlled by a woman, independent of her partner.

"We are giving hope to women," said Mr Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAids.

"For the first time we have seen results for a woman-initiated and controlled HIV prevention option."

A microbicide, he said, would be a "powerful option for the prevention revolution and help us break the trajectory of the Aids epidemic".

Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, welcomed Caprisa's findings.

"We look forward in seeing these results confirmed," she said.

"Once they have been shown to be safe and effective, WHO will work with countries and partners to accelerate access to these products
It's good news for Africa, great news for Pharm companies around the world. Then again, we could carry on with the mentality of who cares, as I'm sure there will be a HIV vaccine out there within 5 years anyway.. right?

Though I'm sure the Vatican wills till not allow the use of it and more poor black people will die anyway. You know, because religion told them not to.

But hey, it should come as a huge shock to everyone that a gel that minimizes tearing and therefor open sores might prevent HIV transmissions. I know, totally shocking in every way possible. You mean that all these rapes that happen that lead to HIV outbreaks can be avoided completely with some gel? How about we make a "no-rape" gel?

There's a little thing called foreplay for all you motherfuckers who aren't having sex via rape but just need to stick it in. Oh wait, it goes back to that religious study that if they're wet, they'll get knocked up. Check.

I'm a bit confused on why I even bother anymore. At these rates every African is going to be dead as hell anyway. Except for the rare statistical few who have some evolutionary quirk of complete immunity. Because chances are good that if you were born in Africa, one terrible affection or another will get you.

But hey, maybe then we'll actually treat them like the rarest and most valuable orchids in our greenhouse once their numbers go completely down.

There was also some serious research suggesting that lemon juice works as well as, if not better than this gel, but of course you can't patent lemons, so why not create this thing. Oh yeah, and there's that whole "putting lemon juice up your hooha thing every time you want to fuck, so I guess that's out of the question.

Besides, after a while, wouldn't the lemon juice dehydrate the vagina anyway? Then again, I'm not a lemon doctor so what do I know? Though I hear tale that it's a traditional contraceptive measure in some places, so apparently any discomfort is minor enough that some people are willing to put up with it... which leads me to say that that's one sour puss!


But hey, maybe a better defense against HIV and Aids is abstinence...

Something to think about, wouldn't you say?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Getting Catholics Wet For Valentines Day

Getting Catholics Wet For Valentines Day

Doesn't that title just sound so dirty? But let's be serious here for a moment. There's nothing more disturbing than the fact that the following mentality actually exist;
"If a woman is dry, the sperm will die. If a woman is wet, a baby she may get!"
Sadly, this is true. Yes, according to a study of sex education materials used in Texas public school, it's all true...
According to a new study of sex education materials used in Texas public school classes, almost ten percent of Texas school districts mix inappropriate religious content in their sexuality education instruction. Not surprisingly, the particular expression of religion that dominates in Texas secondary schools is Christianity, primarily beliefs held in fundamentalist Protestant traditions. Some of this content is explicitly and pervasively religious in nature, like a program used in three districts, whose Web site states:
We can be born again of The Almighty Himself. We then take on His character with all of its resultant self-control, benefits, and great responsibility. You will be amazed when the "sperm" of His Spirit connects with the "ovum/egg" of your spirit and you become a "new person" with His character. How? Read about it in your Bible.
Other materials provide a strict religious test for dating, telling students that they cannot date anyone who is not a Christian. A student handout from a Central Texas district provides an example of this type of religious discrimination:
For a Christian, this is the time where he or she would find out if their potential marriage partner is also a believer in Christ. The Bible warns us that believers and unbelievers should not team up, because those living in the light (of Christ) and those living in darkness cannot live in harmony. (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)
Another district provides students with a handout entitled "Things to look for in a mate." First on the list: How they relate to God. Is Jesus their first love? Trying to impress people or serve God?


Then we have this report over from ABC NEWS
After a decade of declining pregnancies among teenagers, the rate of teenage pregnancy increased by 3 percent in 2006 as 750,000 women younger than 20 became pregnant, according to a report released by the Guttmacher Institute.

And as pregnancies increased, so did births. In 2006, there were 42 births per 1,000 U.S. teenage girls, which was 4 percent higher than 2005. However abortions in this age group increased by 1 percent from 2005 to 2006.
...
A breakdown by state, revealed that New Mexico had the highest teenage pregnancy rate, followed by Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Mississippi.

Conversely, the lowest teenage pregnancy rate was in New Hampshire -- 33 pregnancies per 1,000 -- followed by Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

...

Texas had the highest rate of births to teenage mothers -- 62 per 1,000 -- and New York had the highest rate of abortions among teenagers at 41 per 1,000.

Hmm, Are they brothers or something? When you think about it, the quote in the first story is really disturbing because I know that some kids are going to read that and try to ram it in before she gets warmed up and then finish really quickly before she gets wet.. you know, just so that a baby won't be made. Not to mention that it will be the worst sex ever. Oh those poor girls. I feel bad for you...

First for living in Texas. Second for the even worse than usual teenage sex you will be having.

Those poor girls.

To be honest, when I read the4 title I was really hoping it would be for an abstinence only education story and now that that's kind of sort of accurate, I just kind of feel sad and empty. But let's be honest, I don't think hardcore Christians have to worry about getting a girl wet. I mean, not with some trusted astroglide on their side. Or you can go old school and stick to the classic advice of;
you've got to lick it
before you stick it

you've got to pump it
before you hump it

you've got to work it
before you jerk it
But really, it's pretty depressing how horribly downtrodden woman are in terms of sexuality. All of this astroglide stuff is just really sad. Though, when a guy's sexual arousal fails to trigger, you've got nothing at all except some little blue pills. Though dry sex still has to be pretty god damn painful.. right Wikipedia? Pretty damn depressing indeed.

Maybe there's money to be made in all of this. I'm going to write an adult's book - You know, like a children's book but for the opposite, and it will be called "Everybody fucks".

As it's pretty clear that more and more adults are just fucking retarded when it comes to issues like sex and it just carries over to the next generation of clueless non-sex havers. As it stands, the terrorist have it all wrong. No need to bomb America, all you have to do is just make some pamphlets with definitions of "oral sex", "labia", and "clitoris" and Americans will just shit themselves to death when they see them.

As a whole, religious leads to stupid ignorant irrational shit. It really shouldn't be all that surprising.



I would just suggest these kids have drunk sex. But then again, drunk sex is pretty fucking bad. It's really boring and way too empty. In your head you think you're laying down some pipes like a professional, but in reality you're just half humping her with your stumpy sweaty boner (whiskey dick!) and she can't wait until you get off her wit your scent of Marlboro lights and MGD. Because as an alcoholic, I can tell you first hand, that craft beer double IPA - It's not doing your breath any favors. Not to mention what a bitter beer will do to your system in terms of the taste of everything you produce.. if you catch my drift.

I do have to say that as an outside observer, and if you're not interested in having sex that night, getting drunk or seeing your partner attempt to be sexy while intoxicated is something altogether. I remember this one time on Valentine's day, my date got really really drunk. It was so fun to see her come out in some lingerie and then stumble, get sick and run back to the bathroom to puke. Oh how romantic.

She was later tucked in and nothing happen, because I do firmly stand by the position that if you're too drunk to not be fully aware of it, then what's the point? They're not going to enjoy it.. hell, even remember it. It's going to be awkward the next morning and you get huge brownie points for not taking advantage of the situation.

Not to mention that it's just the right thing to do in that situation.

Scary enough, did you know that astroglide is a frequent present and piece of discussion at evangelical bachelorette parties.. I'm actually being serious here.. And it's not a gag gift either, it's one that is given with the advice of "You'll need this honey!"

Many brides should also plan their suicide at that very moment. Wouldn't you when faced with this option of once you give yourself to your husband in the eyes of God, then you are expected to put out any time he wants because, why else is he manning it up out there for you, with his fancy job. You ain't paying him back for that by just staying at the house cleaning up, you can't make a full day's work out of that! You need to start sexin' asap, gurl. Especially so that you can get pregnant and start earning your keep. So get that cum all up inside you for your family's sake..
"I can't wait to find a girl and marry her so I can finally have sex"
-3/4 of the guys I knew at the catholic high school in town

But back to the original story, remember folks, if a woman is dry, you can marinate her in olive oil with herbs to soften her up and diversify her flavor before adding to pizza, pasta, etc. The next piece from the original article also surprised me...
According to a new study of sex education materials used in Texas public school classes, almost ten percent of Texas school districts mix inappropriate religious content in their sexuality education instruction.
I'm really surprised that it's actually that low. I guess progress does come to Texas eventually.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Porn

Porn

With it being the month of February and that usually means Valentine's day is right here a good day or two away, I think we should touch on a serious subject. Porn.

Yeah, that's right. Porn.

Here is a rare chance to see the transformation from regular kid off the street to the all dolled up "sex worker" with it being relatively safe for work footage.



Before you click it though, I'd like to give a minor intro:
I find them most interesting because the sex industry is tremendous and really loved in this country, but everyone involved is viewed as a total whore. Despite women being the de facto stars, they're essentially treated as passive objects. It's also interesting that they take place during the makeup process which shows how ridiculous the beauty standards can be.Most of them aren't entirely focused but they ask about views from their hometown, their reasons for getting in the industry, etc. My biggest issue is that sometimes the dude wants to talk about what kind of acts they'll do on screen and I don't give a shit about that or find it worth posting about. They are definitely far from perfect, but it's hard to look up interviews of sex workers without stumbling through a million shitty, shallow PR interviews about how they just love their fans, and these are a bit more substantive. Also he does ask those stupid intro questions ("were you abused" etc), but I think he does to dispel the notions that a damaged psyche is necessary to enjoy sex work. I could be projecting a bit though.

Anyway, the dichotomy between the obsession over the industry and the treatment of the workers is what I find really interesting because it's essentially an extreme version of "regular" life. Women in general are idolized as sex objects (as long as they meet society's beauty standards) but it's just that, objects and not partners. There's more to it than that, but at its base it's like a weird magnification of societal attitudes at large. I think porn is a really fucked industry, but my general feeling is that it's not intrinsically sex work that causes that, but external factors, like societal influence.

Society in general doesn't have anything even approaching a healthy attitude towards women or sex and it seems unsurprising that in an industry that revolves around the two you're going to have even more issues. That being said, the porn industry has a particularly poor record of women being abused, both physically and mentally (I forget if this interview mentions it, but my understanding is that it's at least slightly better than it used to be, not that that's some great accomplishment) and is very patriarchal. More to the point, there's some logic behind the idea that you absolutely cannot last in the industry without actually enjoying sex and I wonder how that affects our view point on it. Society already has deemed it bad if woman enjoy sex, let alone to get paid for it? What is this nonsense!

There's some crossover here with discussion of my hate towards capitalism because of how the industry can force women into acts that they simply aren't interested in. There's another interview with a woman who talks about how her fans want her to do scene xyz and how that affects her. Ultimately it is her decision, but she can get forced into it if she wants to remain successful, and that's awful (welcome to capitalism etc).

It's a weird totem pole of sorts, at the bottom and middle you do shit shoots for assholes who are misogynist idiots, and at the top you get to choose what you do because you're in demand (Hey, the plus side of capitalism!). Anyway, there's probably a million things to discuss with these thoughts and there's a very large possibility that I am totally wrong, and I'm okay with that, I'd just like to know why!

This interview involves a bit of that (about half the length of the first one



I forget where, but she talks about how fans on her twitter are continually asking for a specific type of scene, one that she's not really interested in or whatever but that she feels compelled to do. I believe it's this interview anyway. It's also an interesting video because she talks about how sex work has been a very redemptive thing for her (there's probably a bit more to read into this). I think it also covers interracial stuff a bit which plays into intersectionality quite a bit because interracial porn is racist and sexist as fuck.

Again, yeah. these interviews are pretty bad, but it's really hard to find anything even remotely decent as far as interviews go in this industry that doesn't just feel like more pillow talk to sell a dvd. Especially since the interviewer is pretty much the definition of a creepy asshole.

Near the end of that interview the guy asks the girl if she would do bestiality stuff, mentions that it used to be legal until recently in the Netherlands and says something to the effect of "if it's legal we'll film it". This gives me the feeling that there's a lot of pressure on women in the porn industry to do all sorts of sick shit that they don't want to. Maybe it would be better to have a state monopoly for porn (or the whole sex industry in general), so as to prevent porn producers from competing in production of fucked up shit that nobody wants to do.

Then again, my understanding of the attempt to establish porn and erotica as separate categories is really just to put fourth the concept that you can depict sex and sexuality in a non-exploitative manner.

Yeah, I guess everyone is just trying to justify to themselves in this basic idea that retreating into the happy hooker fantasy or any variant of that so that you can say to yourself "but my porn is okay!" is, at best, monstrously callous when talking about an industry that regularly rapes and tortures people... And all for your enjoyment. Then again, how many Chinese children did you put to suffer for that iPhone?

You can't really say they're HAPPY to do these things. Who in their right mind would be? So while I can accept the fact that some of these people don't automatically hate having sex, you can't say that they are happy simply because they put a smile on for the camera. Remember, it's basically an essential part of their jobs to look as happy as possible.

Then again, I'm guessing that it's the same people that go around thinking women are happy to be subservient in every social situation, and happy to be shunted into limited career paths, and happy to be objectified, and happy to be pressured into sex, and happy to be told to smile when they walk down the street because a pretty woman should always happy, dammit!.

Look, as a man and while I have a lot of feminist leanings, this little self-examination that I'm writing to you to do about your collective kink, is probably like a colorblind person trying to deduce what a field of flowers really looks like. I have no idea the levels of objectification women go through on a daily basis. In some ways I'm actually glad about that, otherwise I would lose that last inch of hope I have in humanity.

I present this to you for more reasons than just to open your eyes to what a sex worker actually does and how they prepare themselves for the selling of themselves. If there's one thing to take away from this, it's probably that you should be concerned on what you're viewing does to you.

I'm probably more concerned about the harm to myself and my sexuality from watching porn. Even the most "ethical" porn can still give you weird ideas about what's to be expected in sex, and how to relate to woman and all that jazz.