Over the counter, over the hill

Oh noz. If Sarah Haskins, who just turned 30, is old, what does that make us baby boomers?

I know: The target market for Big Pharma.

With this ring, I thee dread

Tuesday, while driving home from Montreal, I caught part of CBC Radio One's Definitely Not the Opera. Probably a repeat. The topic du jour was ''man-bashing,'' as in the portrayal of males as idiots on commercials.

Unfortunately the signal cut out somewhere between Cornwall and Brockville, so I didn't hear it all. Too bad. There must have been hours of Broadsides-like fun on the show. (Joke!) I will dig out the podcast when I have a moment.

Anyway ...

Today, I stumbled on Sarah Haskin's latest -- ''Doofy Husbands.'' Very apropos.

Enjoy.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: I have been thinking about these ads and why they are proliferating.

For years, women were subjected to ''I'm such a ninny I can't bake a pie'' commercials. Now it's turnabout time.

Not that that justifies the bashing. It's just that women make most of the buying decisions -- and these commercials obviously work or the ad industry wouldn't be churning them out.

Which should make you wonder: What is it about their view of men that women can relate to? What message do they send to men about how they are supposed to behave around the house?  And to what extent are they responsible for creating doofus husbands who think this is the way they are supposed to act?

Prematurely Born-again Christian

On the run. Enjoy.

New! Improved!

From BBC's BAFTA-winning comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look, now in its third season, a look at sexism in advertising.

H/t to Facebook and Twitter friend Francesca Dobbyn.

Rape juice

Finally getting around to those David Letterman ''jokes'' about Sarah Palin's daughters, and the war between feminist groups, right-wingers, liberals, the Palins and Letterman himself that continues, still, endlessly, ridiculously, as if there's nothing more important happening in the world.

The late night comic continues to use the feud to jack up his ratings and the Alaskan governor uses it to increase her media exposure ...

To recap:

Monday night, in joking about Palin's trip to New York City, Letterman said she'd shopped for make-up at Bloomingdale's to update her ''slutty flight attendant look'' and also cracked about her teenaged daughter.

Letterman said “an awkward moment” occurred for Palin when, “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by (Yankee third baseman) Alex Rodriguez.”

Without naming her, the joke seemed to refer to Palin’s 18-year-old daughter Bristol, an unwed mother.

Roll the tape:

Trouble was that Palin brought her middle daughter Willow, 14, to the game, not 18 year old mother Bristol, who is now a spokesperson for abstinence, sponsored by Candie's, maker of sexy clothes for preteens and teens.

Todd Palin issued a statement that said “any ’jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable.”

And Sarah Palin charged Letterman with “sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity.”

Never mind that the joke was just as much about Rodriguez' promiscuity. That also goes for another joke linking Bristol with disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, whose predilection for very young sex workers brought him down.

Anyway, because we're talking about the US, where what passes for news is almost always a joke, the controversy exploded all over computer and TV screens, with Palin capitalizing on Letterman's tasteless joke to further her own political career.

This just goaded Letterman, after a half-hearted apology on Wednesday night, to take it even further.

And on and on it goes.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

RATINGS for everyone! YAY!

Yesterday, the feminist organization National Organization of Women condemned Letterman, surprising right-wingers who had been asking their usual ''Where are the feminists?'' question. You know, like they did when G. Gordon Liddy mused on air about Supreme Court appointee Sonia Sotomayor's menstrual cycle  which they didn't -- just like they didn't care when Hillary Clinton was being savaged.

Here's NOW on the subject:

After two nights of "jokes" at the expense of Palin and her family, Letterman tried to explain himself and offer something of an apology. On his June 10 show, Letterman said he was referring to Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol -- not the 14-year-old daughter who actually accompanied Palin on her New York trip. Letterman said "I recognize that these are ugly" jokes. NOW agrees. Comedians in search of a laugh should really know better than to snicker about men having sex with teenage girls (or young women) less than half their age.

The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days -- it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" -- yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician's appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as "the Tiffany Network" (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.

While I find Palin's political opportunism distasteful -- after all, she is exploiting her children (again) to score points -- I agree Letterman went way out of line on Willow.

Had he been clear that he was referring to Bristol, I would call it fair game. That's because she's public, she is using her pregnancy to build a career and, let's not forget, Rodriguez' is no saint.

And ''slutty flight attendant look?'' What's that supposed to mean? 

Better he should have joked about how the Palins racked up those bills when they were last let loose in Bloomingdale's.

The story still has juice, which these clowns will all continue to squeeze.

Pathetic.

So how was your day?

From a reader. Thought I'd share.

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pyjamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.

The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.

Proceeding into the hall, he found the coat hanger been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.

In the front room the TV was blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, and the fridge door was wide open.

Dog food was spilled all over the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife.

He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.

He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door.

As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor..

Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls..

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pyjamas, reading a novel.

She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?'

She again smiled and answered, ''You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?''

''Yes,'' was his incredulous reply.

She answered, ''Well, today I didn't do it.''

From the fet-o-files

I am occasionally attacked for using the term ''anti-choice'' instead of ''pro-life'' to describe the pro-forced pregnancy types.

But I have never bothered to describe the onslaught from the fetophiles for you, dear readers.

Today the one, the only, the inimitable, the great, JJ has.

You have to go read it.

UPPITY DATE: I edited this post to fix the link which was not working, as commenter mouthyorange so kindly pointed out.

The thing is, back then, it was like that

From my favourite blog right now, the insane Blame It on the Voices, a page from the not-so-distant past:

And some people don't get why we middle-aged feminists worry?

UPPITY WOMEN DATE: Sociological Images did some digging and guess what? This is not a spoof.

it turns out it’s real–the images are from a book called I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl!, written by Whitney Darrow. You can buy it used on Amazon for the bargain price of $269, if you want to be sure your kids don’t get confused about their roles.

Except that maybe it is?

From School Libraries, published by the American Association of School Libraries, 1969:  ”This warmly humorous book makes everybody glad they are what they are.”

From The Horn Book Magazine, 1970:  ”He’s glad he’s a boy and she’s glad she’s a girl.  In this warmly humorous book, they tell each other why and conclude that the best reason of all is — because they need each other!”

From the “Books for Children” section in Childhood Education, 1970:  ”Simple drawings with line captions designed to help the young child discover his or her appropriate sex role.”

Makes no difference really because, like I said, back then, it really was like that.

She was asking for it

Okay, tricky one:

Punky burlesquey Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer pens and performs an in-your-face happy-dance music video about a girl who gets drunk, gets date-raped, gets abortion and gets an autographed photo of her favourite band, Oasis, in the mail so she's totally happy -- and is surprised that mainstream outlets are balking at playing it.

Come on. Seriously? She's surprised?

But here's the thing: It seems the issue is not about the song being about abortion and date rape. It's because the video doesn't show enough regret, sadness, guilt, contrition, shame, and all the other things girls should show when they party too hearty, get raped, get pregnant and get abortions.

Which is a whole different matter.

You see, when a girl goes through all that, it's because she asked for it (drinking too much). That means she should bear her child and Scarlet Letter with regret, sadness, guilt, contrition, shame etc. etc.

Ho-ho-whore.

As Palmer wrote for The Huffington Post:

The song is not a lecture... it's a reflection, a character sketch. As I was walking over to the BBC the other day and my rep mentioned that they might not let me play "Oasis" on the air, I suggested that I might be allowed to play it if I just slowed it down and played it in a minor key. Think about it: if they heard the same lyrics against the backdrop of a very sad and lilting piano, maybe with some tear-jerking strings thrown in for good measure, would they take issue?

Imagine these lyrics to the tune of "Strange Fruit", or "Yesterday":

"When I got my abortion / I brought along my boyfriend / we got there an hour before the appointment / and outside the building / were all these annoying fundamentalist Christians / we tried to ignore them"...

Would this make radio happy? Maybe. It would be within a context they could rely on, feel safe in, write off. "Of course she's sad! She had an abortion! Abortion is sad!"

I think it makes people uncomfortable to hear the truth about a very real and sick situation. If you don't know, or have never encountered, a teenager who is going through intense heavy experiences (like rape, abortion, eating disorders, abuse, you-name-it) and is laughing these things off like they don't matter, then you are not alive and awake and living on this planet.

This song is about denial; it's about a girl who can't find it in herself to take her situation seriously. That girl exists everywhere. You probably know her. You've probably met her. You might be her.

<SNIP>

Humor saves us. Humor is one of the strongest weapons that human beings have against suffering, death and fear.

I could try to win points by talking about how I've been date raped (I have been, when I was 20) or how I have every right to joke about this if I want to because I've had an abortion myself (I have, when I was 17, complete with fundamentalist Christian protesters shouting at me), but I actually don't believe those experiences should lend me any credibility, any more so than I believe the director of Life is Beautiful had to have been at Auschwitz in order to direct that film.

In the US in 1996, about 1.3 million women had an abortion, half of them under the age of 25. And I can assure you, there were approximately 1.3 million different reactions, experiences and stories behind those abortions. Countless girls have been raped or date-raped. Are we allowed to talk about it, joke about it, turn it over from every side and try to figure out our own confused reaction to it? Or is that just too icky, uncomfortable... and shameful?

Or should we just cry about it demurely and hope that the proper reaction, the one that society deems appropriate, will make things go away?

Apparently.

Let me tell you: Despite what anti-choicers say, almost no woman in her right mind has an abortion the way she has a leg wax. It is a wrenching decision to make and you never forget having made that choice.

But, for the vast majority of women, the feeling they get afterwards is not self-loathing or shame, or joy and jubilation.

It is relief.

You're not a Nazi. Not a slut. Not to be judged.

Tip of the red hat to reader Katherine Ridgley!

Bitchslapped

Right-wing performance artiste Ann Coulter supports forced forced abortions on unmarried women who get pregnant!

Here she is getting smacked around by the ladies of ABC's The View today:

Coulter is doing a media tour to promote her latest book which is full of her usual slanders, half-truths and outright falsehoods. But this time, instead of just going for politicians and liberals, she attacks single mothers, as if single mothers don't suffer enough stigmatization.

"Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and social outcasts," she writes, claiming that all of society's ills can be attributed to the fact that ''liberals hate marriage.'' The crime rate is directly linked to the rise in illegitimate births, she insists.

So what's the answer, Ann?

Force widows to give up their kids? Make unhappy couples stay together? Make single women who get pregnant have abortions? Lock up all the unmarried ladies?

Hmm. There's an idea. Coulter herself is a bachelorette.

P.S. This is also a good case for bringing home the troops.