Archive for Politics

Dell hates women

Via Sociological Images I find this delightful Dell website for women computer shoppers.

Apparently women shopping for computers care about (1) style– whether or not it matches their outfits, (2) how light it is to carry around when they hang out with equally-coordinated friends and their laptops, and (3) the ability to check movie times, and restaurant directions whenever you need to.

It takes 3 clicks to even get to anything about the actual computers’ processor speed, RAM, hard drive capacity etc.

I am so offended.

You know what? I’d like computer accessories in different colors. I hate that my wheeled laptop case was only available in black. That I tote around a black laptop with a gray mouse in a square black case. Color is good. Style is good.

Why do I have to choose between INCREDIBLY DUMBED DOWN and ugly and utilitarian? Are geek men so fearful of feminization that color must be banned?

I can choose color and styling details on my car while still shopping for safety, reliability, horsepower, and gas mileage. I should be able to choose color and styling on my laptop without being made to sit in the girl corner.

Amazon responds

Here’s the whole thing, from Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener:

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Please help: Amazon’s crazy new policy

This has been all over the Internet in the past 24 hours. Amazon has “de-listed” hundreds of gay and lesbian books from it’s sales ranks.

Please sign this petition protesting this decision.

I’m sick of the economy

Who isn’t?

But seriously, it’s all I hear about. It’s all I read about. The radio has gone to 24-hour-economy. CNN probably has an Economy Logo.

And obviously this is an important story, arguably the most important story right now. But you know what? It’s not the only story.

We’re still at war in two countries, peace has not yet been achieved in Middle East, and the situation in Darfur is still dire. The battle for civil rights continues, reproductive freedom is still being chipped away at, and gay marriage is still not legal in most states. Many Americans lack healthcare, global climate change is an increasing crisis, and there are cute kittens caught in trees right this very moment.

I get it. Economy. But please tell me something else too.

Normal business travelers

There’s a commercial I’ve been hearing on the radio for some kind of premium for business travelers. I am not the best advertising audience in my pre-caffeinated state; I don’t know which hotel chain is being advertised, but it’s something about a free stay after ten stays.

And the spin is, hey, you’re being rewarded for things business travelers already do. So “it’s like being rewarded for wearing a tie. Or like being rewarded for shaving. Or like being rewarded for putting on pants.”

What do these things have in common. Umm….I know!

They’re things male business travelers do.

Now I grant you, female business travelers often put on pants. But they also often put on pantyhose. And makeup. And that wasn’t in the commercial.

Once again, the default person is male. And you know what? I must have heard that commercial ten times before I realized the problem. Because “the patriarchy, you’re soaking in it.” Because I, too, think of the default person as male, despite a lifetime of feminism. Sigh.

Obama versus Vader

I kid you not. These action figures are Teh Awesome. (h/t House Next Door)

obamavader

Toddlers in Washington

So the Republicans demand changes from Obama in the economic stimulus plan, which he (unwisely) concedes on after reaching out to them, and then they vote 100% against. Because they want tax cuts for high-income Americans. A policy proven, proven I say, to work have contributed to causing a major recession. One hundred percent of House Republicans decided that saying no to economic recovery and standing by failed policies was the essence of party loyalty.

Meanwhile, the Ledbetter Bill passed the Senate, with only five Republicans voting for it, including the only four women Republicans in the Senate (in the House, only 3 of 169 voting Republicans voted yea). On the radio this morning, I learned that Ledbetter’s campaign ad for Barack Obama polled as one of the most effective ads of the campaign, and the single most effective “negative” ad. Which means there 202 Republicans who are so utterly opposed to equal pay for women that they are willing to risk going on record, knowing for a fact that such record has had a strongly impact on campaign results.

They’re toddlers. They’re pouty, foot-stampy, hold-their-breaths-until-they-all-turn-blue toddlers. Our President says “Yes We Can” and they say “No We Won’t!” (And add “So There!”)

I know that the more-intelligent-than-me President Obama has a grand scheme about bipartisanship and outreach and a new era in Washington and all, but I don’t see how an intelligent and fair-minded spirit of bipartisanship can work while the toddlers are having a tantrum. Possibly a time out chair is in order.

Blog for Choice 2009

Blog for Choice

This is a hopeful time to blog for choice. President Obama (I love saying that!) supports a woman’s right to choose. It says so right here. It also says that he supports policies to help prevent unintended pregnancies. It also says he wants to strengthen domestic violence laws.

It’s all interconnected. We can’t talk about a woman’s reproductive freedom without pausing to acknowledge that a woman is a full and equal human, and that reproductive freedom is human freedom. But that mean ol’ patriarchy rears its head. As long as domestic violence and rape are constants, as reality or threat, in the life of every woman, women are not free. As long as we accept these inequities as normal, or minimize their importance, it will remain far, far too easy to take women’s freedoms away.

Look, it’s like this. If the culture says we are less than equal, then how hard is it really to pass laws that restrict our freedom? Or treat us as addle-headed children who don’t understand our own choices? So when we work to make women’s lives better, y’know, as if they mattered, we strengthen reproductive choice because we normalize the idea that women are and should be free.

So my hope for the Obama presidency is that it advocates and legislates, in every possible way, the notion that women are people.

How strange that it’s something that even has to be asked for.

I am overwhelmed by the coolness and professionalism and dignity and…

Just look.

The Do-Something Congress

They can’t stand up to funding Bush’s war in Iraq. They can’t stand up to oppose telecom immunity for illegal spying. They can’t stand up to carte blanche money thrown at the financial industry as a bail-out. But they can By God stand up to Roland Burris being seated as a senator.

I am so proud.