The Onion Goes Too Far (or The C Word)

I'm not a fan of the word Cunt.

Inga Musico wrote a book in 1998 called Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. I hated it. That's another blog topic.

This Sunday, satirical masters at the Onion put out a tweet calling the 9 year old Best Actress Nominee Quvenzhane Wallis a Cunt. The tweet read, in part: "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a ... "

Calling a 9 year old girl a cunt isn't funny. Where is the satire in that?

The post was removed an hour later and The Onion issued an apology.

Wendell Pierce called for The Onion to identify the author of the tweet- "Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack on a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous."

For a really great response to this inexplicable tweet check out this post from Bitch Media contributor T.F. Charlton.

The Onion's hurtful Tweet

I Heart Bitch Magazine

There's nothing like a new issue of Bitch Magazine to get rid of my bloggers block. Trust me, it isn't that there aren't enough topics out there- more like there are SO many topics that deserve SO much critical analysis that some of them can be too daunting for me to take on when I'm trying to maintain new posts weekly and give every subject the justice it deserves.

Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture has been around for awhile now. The first issue was published in 1996! As the tag line says the magazine focuses on the way women are being portrayed in the media RIGHT NOW. With the overwhelming amount of issues effecting women- Bitch offers a crucial perspective from the very individuals experiencing them through media outlets. My personal favorite is the books section. Some titles from this new issue: Hip Hop Apsara:Ghosts Past and Present by Anne Elizabeth Moore, After Pornified: How Women are Transforming Pornography and Why it Really Matters by Anne G Sabo and Israel/Palestine And the Queer International by Sarah Schulman.

I suggest joining their "Bee Hive" and giving them a $10-$15 monthly contribution- you get the year free (4 issues) and you are supporting Feminist media!

CHECK IT OUT

I'm Your Present (or Cuts of Meat Dress)

Well it's almost Valentines Day. Those of you with significant others may very well be scrambling to come up with something to give your sweetheart. I can't tell you what a Feminist wants for Valentines Day (you should probably just ask her) BUT, I thought this would be the perfect time to share something I stumbled upon recently that would not make a good Valentines gift.

I do a lot of collages so I am constantly going through old magazines to cut out pictures and the like. While flipping through an old issue of Bust magazine, something in the advertising section jumped out at me. It's called "Cuts of Meat Dress (available in many different colors). Pretty self explanatory. At first I thought that maybe I was missing something about the product that could make my initial reaction of disgust a moot point. But I wasn't and so it didn't. I logged on to Etsy to check out the sellers shop and get a better feel for the space that houses this cut of meat dress. The store/seller is called imyourpresent which I thought was fitting.

I honestly don't get why anyone would want to own this dress. I don't think it's funny or bold or that it makes a statement. At incrediblethings.com the dress is reviewed by Jenni Chasteen who says "The Creme Cuts of Meat dress lets you show off your rack and rump while making a bold (albeit funny) statement that you’re more than just the sum of your parts."

Does it? I don't see how.

One women posted this on her pinterest page under "Things I'm not too fond of."

I'm truly surprised that so many women seem to think that it's a great piece of clothing to wear. I mean- out in public. One recent buyer posted in the feedback: "I now have 3 versions of this dress. I love it so much!"

Not surprisingly the website Meat,Beer and Babes describes the dress like this- "Perfect for the guy who wants a certain piece of meat. The dress is made from light pink jersey and printed with a candy pink shade of ink."

I immediately thought of the post I wrote last Fall entitled Porno For PETA.

Take a look at a PETA campaign ad from several years back here. We can go into the horribleness that is PETA's sexist advertising more another time but think on it for a second while I make my point.

Labeling women's bodies as if they are cuts of meat is gross. It feeds into the dangerous stereotype that women are animalistic beings rather than human beings. What PETA's ad tries to do is make the viewer have an Aha! moment connecting animal meat with women's bodies- seeing how wrong it is to eat our fellow animal and thus has the viewer vowing to never eat another cheeseburger again. But does it have this effect? More likely the viewer is geared towards pairing meat/eating meat with sex and we all know how well sex sells. Diagram a mans body into cuts of meat and the effect changes.

I can't resist- to further disgust yourself with PETA's hatred of human female animals click here.

In conclusion, I have to give this dress a definite thumbs down. Women don't need help isolating and exploiting their "racks, rumps, ribs or shanks"- we already have plenty of that going on without dressing the part for it.