Misogyny in America, Round #4

My friend Natalie recently introduced me to Current.com, the media website for which she works. It's very cool, and VERY necessary - I think it shows that democratic media is still possible in today's world of corporate media conglomerates. It also facilitates dialogue and discourse about current events and issues, which ensures that slanted news stories aren't just getting forced down our throats.

Unfortunately, the platform for open dialogue also allows some bigotry and ignorance to take some of the Internet limelight. I stumbled across the following comment in response to this video:

Women making peace?

Women want to rip eachother's hair out when another woman is wearing the same dress at the party.

I can already see her slashing the national security advisor's tires at first disgreement.

Clinton smoking wasn't the bad part. Things like NAFTA and ridiculously high minority jail rates for petty offenses had something to do with Billy not being a perfect president. Not going to war doesn't make a great president. He was a god compared to GW, though. I've had enough Clinton/Bush in my life.

I sill love you woman/women.

I couldn't hold my tongue after reading that one. My response:

shanesbaby... Your response is one of the most sexist things I've read in ages. "Women want to rip eachother's hair out when another woman is wearing the same dress at the party"? Seriously? It's statistically proven that men are 10x more likely than women to commit murder, and they are 9x as likely to end up in prison. Our current world political system is driven by the "masculine" ideals of militarization, intimidation, and self-interest, and just look where that has gotten us. A "feminine" approach to world politics, emphasizing cooperation and compassion over a belligerent pursuit of self-interest, could definitely do our world a lot of good. However, the overwhelming presence of hyper-masculinity in world affairs has, and will continue to, prevent a more compassionate breed of global interaction by disseminating these myths that women are more "driven by emotion" than men.

Some people! And the most incredible thing about this ridiculously sexist and ignorant commenter?

It was a WOMAN.... YIKES.

[EDIT]: To clarify, my belief that we need more "feminine" compassion in American politics does NOT mean I believe Hillary Clinton represents those values. SHAbang.

Brace Yo'self

Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers - New York Times

I've been whining about this for months, so it's interesting and kind of gratifying to finally see it in the Times. Americans have been living in a bubble of price distortion for way too long, and it will be interesting to see the fall-out.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to a turn away from over-sized SUV's and McMansions. The glorification of gluttony here is disgusting. But, it will be equally interesting to see how this affects the business and living decisions of China and the smaller Southeast Asian countries. A decrease in oil consumption could have some very profound positive effects - unless, of course, they just burn more coal. Um um I was trying to keep this short because I have to go read some contemporary French literature, so I'm just going to bullet-point my train of thought:

- Neo-liberal economics: actually zero-sum?
- How is this affecting US-owned MNC's?
- Wages & labor: turn back to regional production/consumption economics?
- Blame Bush