Immigration:
Arizona's next move: deny birth certificates to babies born (in the U.S.) to illegal immigrant parents. Seriously. Because if they get a birth certificate proving they're born here, then their parents can't be shipped out, seeing as they have a family member who's a citizen. These people will stop at nothing.
A bunch of immigrant workers have been arrested in a raid on an Arizona Sizzler restaurant. Which is notable because WTF, Sizzlers is still in business? Damn. There used to be one in Seattle years ago but so many people got food poisoning there it closed down. But the real point of this new story is that no management personnel for Sizzler have been arrested, despite an alleged policy of hiring undocumented or illegally documented workers. So we raid the restaurant, arrest the workers, and wave cheerfully to the management staff as we leave. Sound right?
The oil spill:
BP is experiencing some political and financial pressure. Of course, it can always dodge a great deal of economic responsibility for this by declaring bankruptcy, right? But where's Transocean in all of this? I don't think I've heard anything about their liability in this debacle. And beyond the companies at work, why isn't there a major media uproar about the steady deregulation and erosion of safety and environmental standards that led up to this? Interesting question, no?
Politics:
Apparently it's The Year of The Republican Woman in California, or just The Year of the Woman in general. And the recent success experienced by a number of female politicians has people wondering what this has to do with feminism. Does increased success by female politicians have to be seen as a good thing from a feminist perspective even if most of the politicians in question are conservatives advancing decidedly anti-woman positions? Please. During times of political and social backlash, colluders will always experience success. Is it a good thing in general that conservatives seem to be warming up to the idea of a woman who's not barefoot and pregnant, or at least financially dependent on a man? I guess. But more than anything, this seems to me like an opportunistic strategy rather than an ideological shift. If using a person who's good at appealing to people and building consensus through the use of sound bites and clever but dishonest rhetorical tricks and big hair and nice tits to sway voters to your side counts as an ideological shift then, OK. It's just not exactly the kind of ideological shift feminists had in mind.
"why isn't there a major media uproar about the steady deregulation and erosion of safety and environmental standards that led up to this?"
ReplyDelete...and why is there conversation around using less oil?
The ultra-conservative female politicians thing is really odd. But I think there's a difference between wanting women to succeed and make it into positions of power and wanting people with pro-woman policies to make it into positions of power. Ideally these would be one and the same, but it's an imperfect world.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this whole thing about it being feminist to support a woman no matter what she says or does is bullshit. Of course we want women in positions of power. But not anti-woman colluders.
ReplyDelete"It's just not exactly the kind of ideological shift feminists had in mind."
ReplyDeleteWord.
Well, I'm no big fan of conservatives, but I respect them and their viewpoints even while disagreeing vehemently. That's why I'm happy to see that women are getting more of a voice in the conservative movement. Besides, the policies they advocate may be "anti-women," but they're women too. What they believe matters just as much as what we believe.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I just want to say that I think it's very misogynistic to assume that another woman is using "big tits" to sway people.
ReplyDeleteMiriam,
ReplyDeleteI agree. That was a reference to one of the top reasons conservative men gave for supporting Sarah Palin in a recent poll.
I also agree that it's a good thing to have more female politicians in both parties. But I disagree that this signals some kind of feminist victory when the majority of them are advancing anti-woman policies. Colluders are colluders no matter what size and shape they come in. I also disagree with the suggestion that this means feminism has accomplished its goal and we can all go home now.
I'm displeased by any person with anti-woman policies being in a position of power. I could give a flying fuck what their gender is.
ReplyDelete