Tea Bagging

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I don't think I even need to comment on this. Holy fuck nuts. Laughing my ASS off.

Don't Watch This if You're a Hypochondriac and Have the Flu

You know, I have the flu. I guess it's better than a brain worm. But at least then I'd have a new friend! Do you think you can keep creepy parasite worms in jars as pets?

Via The Trouble with Spikol, where Liz Spikol and her trusty intern Becca Trabin always have interesting things to say about the brain, mental illness, and cute animals.

Tuesday Review: Bitch Magazine

This is more of a rave than a review, but I figured it counts.

If you spend any time in the feminist blog-o-sphere, you already know that Bitch Magazine has been in trouble. They've been holding a donation drive to raise enough money to put out their next issue (which they did, thank god) but there is a big question about how they will create sustainable strategies to keep going as an independent magazine.



If you're convinced already, donate here to help them keep things going. Subscriptions give them money and get you the magazine, and like they said even small amounts help. I'm not exactly rolling in cash on my work break, and I gave my $20.

Bitch is a wonderful magazine. I've been reading it since I was a freshman three years ago, and it's one of the things that made me feel comfortable to start calling myself a feminist.

Yep, that's right. For about six months at the end of high school, I was one of those "I'm not a feminist, but..." types. You know, finish the sentence with any variety of "I believe in equal rights for men and women." If you read my blog, you already know that I'm still not 100% satisfied with the word "feminist," but I do proudly and loudly identify as one. I am definitely an activist and strongly believe in sex equality. I am a feminist.

Bitch also introduced me to sex-positive feminism. They ran an article about the different kinds of feminism, followed by an interview with sex-positive heroine Susie Bright. It was the first time I had encountered anyone who had an ethical, activist, intellectual interest in sex, who thought it was a legitimate thing to be interested in.

I pretty much cried with relief. I got on the phone with my then-boyfriend and told him all about it. I'd been enduring the slut label for years and it hadn't occurred to me that there were other people around like me. There were people I could look up to, people I could learn from.

Bitch prints all kinds of feminist pop culture goodness: essays analyzing movies, books, and music, interviews of pertinent people, discussion of various feminist movements (because there are many), etc. They are probably the most important feminist voice in the last decade.

So Bitch is a winner, check them out and help them stick around!

Print News

I read the newspaper today. This isn't completely remarkable, but it's not something I do every day. I get the New York Times emails and I scan the headlines. Whoopie.

Now, though, I'm back at my parents' house and they get the print version of the San Francisco Chronicle, so I actually sat down at breakfast and read through most of it. I didn't read every article, but I looked through the whole thing.

You know that accent people on news shows put on? The one that sounds excessively pleasant and strangely modulated? I could hear that going in my head. The news is written so formally, the voice in my head as I'm reading (yes, I hear the words I read) might as well be from a computer robot. You know, those ones online you can play with and make them say funny things in different accents.

In print news, they edit their quotes. To be grammatically correct and everything, to make sure it all is perfect. They do it in magazines, too. And I always find myself re-editing them in my head as I read to try and figure out what the person actually said. It's usually pretty easy to tell, and the original quote usually flows much better than the oddly formal edited one.

I hate that silly formal English. As the author of a column, it's really annoying when they change my nicely flowing slightly casual writing into this stilted, old-fashioned crap. I bet it's one of the reasons that the news has trouble reaching young readers (and viewers). It's a really unappealing tone of language.

Now, I know they're striving for balanced, objective reporting, but does "perfect" grammar really effect that? Yes, having a standardized language could in theory make news seem more objective, but that language can still be manipulated to favor a bias. It simply promotes the illusion of objectivity. I think objectivity is bullshit anyway, but I'll write more about that later.

I just think that if they used words and phrasings that are more casual and commonplace, they might do a better job of reaching their audience.