Category: National Offend a Feminist Week

Progressive Feminist Amanda Marcotte Is OK With Female Genital Mutilation

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You can’t make this stuff up:

Wow, I rarely find myself disagreeing with PZ, Melissa, and Samhita, but I have to say that I don’t really see the problem with the American Academy of Pediatrics advising doctors to offer a “ritual nick” in lieu of the more serious forms of female circumcision that are often on offer in some other parts of the world. The practice is something that is done in modern places that want to have a link to tradition without actually doing any real harm to little girls, from what I understand. All they do is prick your genitals, or make a small cut that heals over, but nothing is removed. You’re basically scratching the girl. It’s not awesome . . . but comparing it to more severe forms of female circumcision troubles me.

In guessing why Marcotte doesn’t object to the “ritual nick,” I postulate either:

  • A. She’s got that whole blame-America/white-guilt mindset going on, where she can’t object to even the most barbaric practice, so long as it is practiced by America’s enemies;

OR . . .

  • B. She has enough gential piercings herself that she sets off metal detectors at the airport.

Quite possibly both. Anyway, hat-tip to Dennis the Peasant.

Alaina Podmorow Is To Laura Sjoberg As Joe The Plumber Is To Obama

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by Smitty

American Power takes National Offend A Feminist Week quite seriously, relating an incident wherein he quoted Alaina Podmorow, a 13 year old Afghan girl actually supporting the cause of oppressed young women.

Laura Sjoberg, like any ivory tower authoritarian or Barack Obama, is having none of this.

This is not to take anything away from the very bright, very passionate “little woman” whose blog post was appropriated on American Power. Her passionate writing is clearly intelligent, well beyond her years, and a valid and important point of view.

That said, it is, of course, not all there is to the issue. One cannot expect someone who has not yet had a college education to dig through decades and even centuries of theorizing and empirical work on gender relations in political and social life, and certainly activism on behalf of women, in whatever form, is far preferable to the sort of apathy that seems to be largely endemic in younger people now.

Alaina’s current thesis,

Education=peace

cannot be congratulated without a heavy dose of condescension. Alaina cannot be allowed to question whether the work of the academic behind the curtain adds much value, or, indeed perpetuates the problem as much as the racism industrial complex does those of skin tone.  Alaina, similar to Joe, is not worthy of dialog.

Not having perused Sjoberg’s work, e.g. “Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives”, I’ll withhold judgement.  But, having suffered through a bit of such navel gazing academic writing within the last decade, here is something I learned. A colon in the title of an academic paper is symbolic of the vampiric puncture wound left upon the neck of the reader, sucking life after the fashion of this paragraph:

Whatever is in Melanie Butler’s Masters Thesis (which, however excellent it might be, is not “the” statement of postcolonial feminism), it remains, in my opinion, crucially important to look at the complexities of providing aid, generally and in this specific case, especially as relates to the power relationship between the “aid givers” and those who are “aided.” In fact, I don’t know why it is so hard for us to envision that sometimes people offer people “help” they do not want and do not see as helpful (christian evangelism, anyone?)

Brevity.

Again, Laura Sjoberg (I hope) exceeds the stereotype of the academic, just as I hope(d) Barack would exceed the stereotype of the banana  republic thug, and failed in Joe’s case.  Donald at American Power is sort of a Rush Limbaugh in this equation, enabling the dialog and getting hammered for threatening the narrative.

Update: The Daley Gator calls attention to this fine post, which offers a fine solution to the Elisabeth/Erin fued.

OMG! Calling Michelle Malkin! Kindergarten Girls Gone Wild?

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RicketyClick responded to National Offend a Feminist Week by asking where’s the feminist outrage over this video of little girls in skimpy outfits dancing to Beyonce’s “Single Lady.”

Any attempt to describe this creepazoid video fails due to the inadequacy of language. A few of the more printable YouTube comments:

“The parents should be hanged by their thumbs.”

“Holy s—. What the bloody hell were these girls’ parents thinking?”

“Omfg is this a f—ing pedophile organization?? wtf is wrong with people.”

Yeah, it’s enough to make “family values” people cuss. RicketyClick notes that this was a performance at “World of Dance,” sponsored by Paul Mitchell beauty products, and quotes Roissy in DC:

I really wonder what goes through the minds of parents who would skank up their five year old daughters. . . . I bet single moms are more prone to doing this sort of experimentation with their bastard spawn.

Disturbing commentary about a disturbing phenomenon. Beyond its satirical value, National Offend a Feminist Week sometimes provokes discussion of serious issues and this is certainly one of those. This particular discussion, however, deserves a much larger and more serious venue.

Short of asking John Walsh to investigate the choreographer and costume director of this “World of Dance” travesty, I can think of nothing better than to call it to the attention of Michelle Malkin, who has so often decried the “Girls Gone Wild” culture.

Happy Mother’s Day, America.

UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier dubs it “Future Pole Dancer Club of America.”

UPDATE II: Andrew Lawton at Strictly Right:

As can be seen in the video, Paul Mitchell (the hair company) was a key sponsor of the event. I called their holding company, John Paul Mitchell Systems for comment from their media relations department. It took me two hours to find out who I needed to talk to, let alone get a hold of them. With some further sleuthing, I found out that Paul Mitchell has shut down their phone lines to incoming calls today.

“Shut down their phone lines”? Just keep calling, people.

Paul Mitchell customer service:

1-800-793-8790

Austerity Measures Cause Unrest

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No, I’m not talking about the riots in Greece. I’m talking about what economic analysts call an unexpected near-term budgetary shortfall at the Other McCain household. The “unrest” is Mrs. Other McCain’s concern about unpaid bills.  The IMF isn’t going to bail me out and, unlike the Greek parliament, I don’t have a riot squad to protect me.

Brief explanation: In April, I entered into a fee-for-service arrangement with an organization that had promised to send me a check on May 1. However, there was a change of personnel at the organization, in which payroll duties were reassigned to a young lady who failed to complete the necessary paperwork in a timely manner.

After waiting all week for the check, this morning I called the organization and spoke to a friend who explained this unfortunate situation:

FRIEND: “. . . So you won’t get paid until May 13.”
ME: “Because the girl didn’t do the paperwork?”
FRIEND: “Right.”
ME: “I hope you’ll see to it that she is properly spanked.”
FRIEND: “That’s probably not in my job description.”
ME: “But you’re going to be smiling about that mental image the rest of the day, aren’t you?”
FRIEND: [Laughs] “Uh, yeah.”
ME: “You’re welcome.”

Alas, gladdening the hearts of my friends doesn’t pay the bills, and the electric company won’t accept naughty humor in lieu of cash.

However, some readers have been wondering how best to celebrate National Offend a Feminist Week, and hitting the tip jar today would certainly be appropriate.

Think about it. Somewhere today there’s a young lady in an office who is responsible for my temporary financial distress.

And she has no idea why her boss keeps smiling like a goofy kid.

If that’s not worth $20 in the tip jar, what ever could be?

Bob Belvedere Cancels Peru Trip

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The Camp of the Saints blogger had been planning an expedition — a mission of mercy — to the rural village where Julia Manihauri lived:

A Peruvian mother of four was trapped in her bed for six months because of her giant breasts.
Julia Manihuari’s chest grew to a gigantic N cup after the birth of her third son seven years ago — leaving her unable to move, The Sun reported.
“It was awful,” she said. “If I tried to get up I would faint because my breasts were so heavy.”
Doctors believe she was suffering from a rare condition known as gigantomastia . . .

Bob Belvedere, founder of the Gigantomastia Society — dedicated to the study of this rare condition and the support of its victims — had already booked a flight to Lima. And then tragedy struck:

Surgeons had to cut 35 pounds of flesh from Manihuari’s breasts, fearing they could squash her lungs and kill her.
Manihuari emerged as a size 34B after the six-hour operation.

Belvedere and the Gigantomastia Society are now demanding that the White House designate the Peruvian surgeons as terrorists: “This is a crime against humanity. Guantanamo’s too good for these butchers.”

Ladies, if you believe you may be afflicted with gigantomastia, contact Bob Belvedere. You shouldn’t have to suffer alone . . .

Feminists We’re Not Out To Offend

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by Smitty

The doughty Pamela Geller has a post with 88 miles of raw courage on an important topic:

International human rights and women’s rights leaders, attorneys, scholars, columnists, Iranian human rights activists, media figures, women in the arts, and other prominent women have joined a nationwide campaign to urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce the recent election of Iran to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Just to be perfectly clear, this blog totally supports Pamela and anyone else standing up to tyranny.

The targets of the National Offend a Feminist Week, in stark contrast, are the gutless mewlers who have attacked Western civilization and human rights to coddle up to the parade of thugs who hate us.

How will Hillary break on the issue? It remains to be seen. In general, she has to respect the organization chart, which puts Barack over her. However, if she retains significant Presidential aspirations, then it might be time to make like the 112th Congress and disobey.

Put down those clubs. It was a good pun.