Misogynistic Men on Mondays: Glenn Sacks

In a new segment that I will be starting entitled Misogynistic Men on Mondays, which will cover the issues of Men's Rights Activists(primarily), politicians, and frankly men that piss me off.

Glenn Sacks: executive director of Fathers & Families

This is the man responsible for having "boys are stupid" mechandise pulled from stores.  It still can be found on DavidandGoliathtees.com, but more realistically this is a campaign against one of the only attacks on the male sex but women's clothing is offensive most of the time.  I recall the "who needs brains when you've got these" shirts, dumb blonde tees, thongs with "cha-ching" on them, but no calling boys stupid is a huge problem.  Boys today are not doing as well in school as girls but why do you think that is? Is it because boys are actually stupid? no(though personally I like to pretend that). Boys aren't trying as hard as girls, women have to work twice as hard to get half as far.  So girls are putting in more initiative and the standards might be raised in response, but that does not mean that boys can't do it.

I remember there was a guy, his name was Eric, he and I competed for the best grade from 3rd grade until he stopped caring in 7th.  He was gaining popularity and was slightly overweight and trying to be the "funny fat kid."  He started using drugs and neglecting school work.  Deep down I knew that he was naturally smarter than me, but I worked really hard and we always had gotten the same grades, in the same classes. When he gave up, his grades plummetted and he started making fun of me for trying.  During high school he slimmed down, got more popular and we started being friends again (well not publically, he didn't want to be seen being nice to me). He was a wiz at math but ended up failing Math Analysis(Pre-Calculus) because he would come to class high, I stopped letting him copy my homework and he was distracted by his slacker friends and girlfriend.  He was failing so bad that a perfect score on the final couldn't help him.

The moral of the story is that social pressure to be popular means dumbing yourself down, but only for boys. Women have the social pressure to be on top acedemically and are criticized by their peers for not being smart, boys get the opposite, where the ideal is to slack through life.

Comedians are NOT funny...

I often hear, mostly by my roommate, that I don't like fun.  Well I don't. I'm a feminist and its a fulltime political, religious and personal identity.  At my first college Southwest MN State University I went to two different comedians and both left me outraged. I didn't laugh. Being the type of feminist that I am I have often as of late felt ambivalence towards my sexual orientation(bisexual). I don't feel that I should like men, I hate most of them, but attraction's a tricky thing.  But thats not the point.  This was 4 years ago when I was first coming out.  I went to the comedian(I dont know names) because I was required to go to events for orientation week.  And he states in his "funny" act that he has no problem with being gay or straight, but he hates bisexuals. He calls them greedy and indecisive and all these horrible things and I am left sitting there unbeknownst to anyone hating myself.

The next semester I go to the relay for life walk and they have a comedian. Now remember I am living in Minnesota but am from Virginia. The comedian starts off saying that he is from Virginia so he can say it...that Virginians are obsessed with the confederacy and accused VA of not being that important in the civil war.  Ummm excuse me? We fought the whole goddamn war!

Okay, so that was a long explaination of my hatred of comedians and resistance towards fun and funny.  But my point was when I was youtubing much like my last post I stumbled onto Dane Cook, who in a two minute video blurb insulted gays, blacks and did a backhand on a rape joke pretending that he was sympathetic to rape victims when he losely compares their experience to Halo.  He talks about how the word rape should be banned just because men use it when talking to their friends about Halo...then Cook pretends that he cares saying that women wouldn't appreciate the comparison of rape to Halo.  Well I don't appreciate rape being used in comedy at all no matter how its being used.

Murder Over Words

Alright, so I occasionally (and well more than I should), stumble across rather offensive things on youtube.com. I expect most of it but not this.

 I actually feel dirty posting it on my blog...but since I am about to rip it to shreds, its iight.




It does say spoof in the title so I knew it would be ridiculous, probably just mocking Hillary Duff(not that I don't love her), but just innocent fun, right? Hell no. Not only was there a boy with a wig on that could be a purposefully placed attack on the transgender community but since the creator must be a moron, that would be giving him too much credit. It is an obviously gay stereotyped character who is weak and whiney.  So that's bad...  Then this trans/gay/woman character is killed by being hit with a bat, therefore insinuating violence against the LGBT community.  AHHH!!! I can't take this any more!

To Birth or Not to Birth...why is it your business?

I personally do not ever wish to be an incubator for a parasite that I would then have to birth, possibly with a perverted male gyno, in a hospital that requires genital mutilation during birth or an unnecessary c-section. But that's just me.  I am not about to go around and berate pregnant women about their decision to not abort the fetus.  So why is it when it comes to famous people, we have the "right" to criticize and debate their decisions.  When it comes to Jillian Michaels, a personal trainer on the Biggest Loser, saying that she wants to adopt because she "can't handle doing that to her body," we are all up in arms against her. It's still her choice but of course since she is in the public eye, society thinks it is appropriate to dictate her body.  I am sure that if she were to get pregnant, she would have to come out and say it immediately, or else she would be accused of gaining weight and getting fat.

 The interview that made it possible for society to start nagging and bashing her for her choice to abstain from pregnancy was in a Women's Health magazine which has been picked up on Fox News stating that "babies ruin bodies."  Jillian has described the hurt feeling of being misquoted in response to the article. But more importantly her choice is becoming a moral indiscretion on her part and an attack on mothers and women who may choose to birth.  That's not the case though, her personal behavior is not a statement on her beliefs.  If that was the case how can a man, like say, Rush Limbaugh get married four times and have Elton John, a very out gay man, perform at the ceremony?  That goes against his beliefs but yet his actions say otherwise.  Jillian is not against mothers and since she wants to adopt, she is obviously alright with motherhood as a concept.  She also stated in the same interview that she wants to adopt because it's like she is rescuing something.  But no, she is too shallow to allow her body to change from its perfection.
What's so wrong with a woman wanting to look a certain way? Nothing. Her job relies on how she looks and even if it didn't it is no one's business but her own.  She can have personal body image issues and still be a great motivator. It matters more what she says to other women than what she says to herself.

Commentary on How Sexist Sizeism Affects and IS Affected by Jillian Michaels

Sizeism: is the discrimination or oppression of any person or group of persons based on size or shape of their bodies.  This includes height, weight, body composition and/or proportion.

Jillian Michaels is a well known fitness guru.  She is also a woman who is tough as well as believing in other women.  She motivates as well as intimidates her contestants.  By why? Jillian stands only 5'2 and is often not listened to or believed because of her size.  So instead of just lying down, she spoke up.  She is aggressive and some may even call her heartless, but her strength forces others to find their own.  She may be perpetuating sizeism through her job but she aids in women's resistance against patriarchial control over women's choice.