So How Come Political Correctness Doesn't Extend to Sexism of Women?

Answer me that, folks. In particular, if we're going to ban certain classic cartoons because of offensive racial stereotypes (and yes, the Censored 11 stuff is pretty bad).

Yet we're STILL being exposed to the stereotypical 1950s housewife types in the classic Twilight Zone along with Olive Oyl in the Popeye series, various bitchy housewives in the Looney Tunes cartoons that beat up on cats for daring to eat birds (usually it's Sylvester because he dared to eat Tweety, who's a freaking canary). When you get down to it, there's a ton of sexism in the old cartoons.

I was watching some Popeye cartoons earlier & my husband reminded me of a rant I've not done: I absolutely can't stand Olive Oyl. She epitomizes everything stereotypical & insulting about women. Cartoon Olive, at least. Comic strip Olive is less offensive since she actually knows how to take care of herself.

I thought my husband & I were the only people who hated Olive Oyl until we watched a special feature on one of the Popeye DVDs that came out. Fortunately, the entire era of the cartoons that we wanted was put out on DVD & we got to buy them. One of the women speaking on this particular feature said she hated Olive Oyl as well. I was like "YES! Finally, someone else feels like I do."

So, why my hatred? I'll gladly explain:

If you've seen classic Twilight Zone episodes, you should be familiar with the bitchy and helpless housewives. Apparently, Rod Serling was not good at writing women in his stories. He admitted this in the introduction of one episode (I believe it was from Season 1) that we caught on DVD. Spotting these characters is like spotting pornography: you can't define it but you'll know it when you see it.

I personally watch these women in action on a lot of them & there are some I don't feel any sympathy for. It's like if some guy were married to them, you could hardly blame them for wanting to beat the crap out of them. Now I'm not a supporter of domestic violence but I'd want to beat them since they annoy the shit out of me.

Olive Oyl in the Popeye cartoons is like these women & I'm going to give you numerous examples of why she sucks.

1. She is a fickle bitch. In most of the Popeye cartoons, she's dating Popeye then tosses him aside for Bluto because she thinks Bluto is more suave or has a clean shave or whatever other reason. In real life, she'd be knocking boots with this guy. You know what we call women like that in modern society? A slut. Loose. Plenty of other names that you don't want to be called if you're a woman. I wouldn't find "fickle" flattering, either.

2. She is a total tease. Probably wrote the book on it, in fact. She acts like she's interested & then when Bluto makes his move, she goes all helpless & whines for Popeye. Popeye, of course, always saves her in the cartoons.

You know what Popeye would have done in real life, especially in today's time if some chick was doing this Olive Oyl impression? He'd say "Fuck you, bitch! You wanted Bluto so have fun. Don't come crying to me!" I know real life men would say something similar. Even Superman did in one story, according to my husband the comics expert.

3. She's downright shitty to Popeye in plenty of them. Has zero respect or regard for that relationship & then has no regard for Bluto if she's supposed to be with him. She also laughs her ass off at Popeye's expense in many of them. Classless could be an apt description as well.

"So, you still want to save that bitch?" I ask Popeye in my brain. I wouldn't do shit for you if you had dumped me then laughed at my expense when your new significant other was mean to me. Popeye would have moved on in real life.

4. She's totally & completely helpless. You know what would happen if you went all Bluto on a natural redhead & hopefully most modern women? She'd hit you right in a sensitive area & you'd be traumatized from even thinking about sex for a long time. Maybe even years. No, I don't mean the crotch. There are other sensitive areas that work for both genders & any woman who took a self-defense class knows what they are.

Why is it that she can do a token hit but it means nothing? Why is she so damn helpless? I appreciate a guy intervening if some scumbag is bothering me but don't do it because you think I'm helpless! Unlike cartoon Olive Oyl, I'm not helpless.

Most women aren't Olive Oyl. Yes, I'm sure there are Olive Oyl types around encouraging wannabe rapists to hate & attack us but we have our own ways of dealing with them (wannabe rapists & the Olive Oyl types). If I knew any Olive Oyl sorts myself, I'd definitely handle that. No woman in my family fits that one, that's for sure. That includes me, my policy on date paying notwithstanding.

I had respect for men I dated & have respect for my husband. You wouldn't see me ditching him for some guy with more money, a better car, better clothes, whatever. If some woman is doing that, she's not respectable. If she knows about this guy's private parts, you're definitely better off without her.

I also was not a tease. I never led guys on. I was always honest & probably to a fault. That always pissed me off when guys did it so I felt it was uncool to do that to them. Certainly other women agree with me on this. Plus, I have a healthy sex drive (if Manswers is accurate, it's a natural redhead thing but you can't tell me that only the smallest minority on the planet has a healthy sex drive; otherwise, you'd only see natural redheads with kids & all the people in sex therapy would be natural redheads). Most women aren't frigid or asexual. Those are the people who should do their dating on Christian Mingle or create some new dating site for people like themselves since they don't fit the majority of us.

Furthermore, most of us are adults. We don't expect some guy to save us from a situation we created ourselves. Respectable women operate from a place of truth & don't go leading folk on. They aren't assholes or little kids like Olive Oyl. We don't need some pimp to bail us out & I really hope a pimp wouldn't do that.

Nor do they trash someone they supposedly care about with their new beau & later expect them to do shit for them. Nope, if I've insulted you not only have you deserved it but I'd sure not ask for your help later on.

We've already established my lack of helplessness. I'm also not a fan of helpless people. Actually, I really hate helpless people (that is, the ones who can't claim a medically diagnosed condition & have something so bad, they actually need anti-depressants). For one thing, it's a state of mind. Few people are truly helpless & even the people everyone thinks of as being helpless (those who've lost limbs or senses) are usually functioning better than the rest of us.

For another, I believe in being the change you want to see. If you don't like something, you need to get off your butt & do something to change it or shut up for good about it. You don't get the right to bitch about things you took no steps to change.

Finally, if you truly feel helpless & you aren't suffering from a medically diagnosed case of depression (WebMD diagnoses don't count) why are you still doing the same stuff? Take some personal responsibility for YOUR life & YOUR behavior!!!

Maybe that's the crux of why I'm not an Olive Oyl fan: she lacks personal accountability. You never see her making the connection b/t her actions & people's reactions to her. It's like "Are you that dim?" To me, if you're that dim how do you manage to function from day to day? Can you even walk & chew gum at the same time? Maybe we should euthanize you for your own good. Many people ought to be euthanized for their own good but that's never going to fly until laws are changed.

With all this though, you don't see me or some other women's groups sending down a shit storm on broadcasters or anyone else & demanding them to never show some cartoon because of the sexism to women. You don't see networks censoring that stuff but they'll do it for other groups & most recently have done that for Native Americans (yet, you could still see those stereotypes in old cartoons when they aired in the late '80s & early '90s; I know b/c I saw them personally).

How about some respect for women here? Or better yet, no censorship for anyone? Women, Italians, Irish people, no one else who didn't choose their status in life should get to be fair game while other groups aren't. To even encourage it just furthers racism & causes more problems. Discrimination is discrimination. Why don't you PC cops get that?

If you ask me, the portrayals of women you see to this day just further sexism & ill will toward us. I think it's totally undeserved when it comes to me & probably undeserved for many women. How about the PC police tackle that one instead of setting up barriers to honest discourse & meaningful conversation? Olive Oyl doesn't represent me any more than Mitt Romney represents most of the Republicans I know.

Go Big or Go Home!!!!!

I'm particularly partial to that statement as both an entertainment professional and as an attorney. To me, it means don't bring half-assed effort to what you do. If you're going to do something, put in all your effort. Give it all you have or don't bother wasting people's time!

One of my absolute biggest pet peeves is people who claim to be in support of an issue but then whine about the terminology used or about folks not wanting to be "nice" or "solicitous" to the other side. This particularly galls me in the realm of social protest or dealing with political issues.

Here's an example of the type of statement that pisses me off:

"War is war. What our government and politicians are doing to women is ignorant and unacceptable. Let's not wage wars. THere's too much fucking war in the world. If you all would tone down your headlines and verbiage, I'd be so much more interested, and likely, to read what your saying. The issues are important but, please, stop the violence, stop the hate."

I had to give a response to this moron. Much of what I said has already been expressed here & I will not go into details on my personal views on abortion since that's something you can see in earlier entries. This particular rant is a bit different.

Basically, the reason you can't call me a "tree hugging liberal" is because I'm not anti-war. I'm anti-stupid war. There's a difference. When someone is attacking me, you'd better believe I'm in favor of doing whatever I have to defend myself. You may very well get a war for messing with me or mine. As you may know, I believe committing certain acts means you've forfeited your human rights & should have no expectation that I'll treat you like a human being.

This particular writer pissed me off because she would rather play "friends" with people who literally piss on her rights as a woman instead of being in favor of real action to fix the issue, regardless of any argument or rhetoric used. I guarantee you these politicians didn't think for a moment about what she or any other one of these anti-war tree huggers thought. Why are they bitching about the terminology a group uses to rally people to fight back?

The Malcolm Xs of the world are the ones who made changes stick in terms of injustices. They are the ones who fought & said "no more." Do you think Malcolm X cared about offending someone's PC sensibilities or what some crybaby had to say about any terms he used in speeches?

Sometimes, nice doesn't cut it. I assisted on lobbying work with a former legal client in the past. You could not write passive, "Mother May I" platitudes if you wanted to get a response. You have to be bold, you have to be direct. Think anyone's going to listen if you use soft, cuddly phrases & imagery?

This does NOT mean you curse people out or threaten to hurt them. Anyone who's good at persuasion can make a point without resorting to violence or credible threats. However, you have to start making it personal. You have to remind politicians that they serve the people & are not royalty. As they say, if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.

If you are truly passionate about an issue, you don't run around whining about the use (or lack thereof) of PC terms or act like everyone's your buddy or cares about you as a person. Because, newsflash: plenty of people do not give a shit about you or your position. Look at how much Bloomberg cares about the people's views regarding a Wal-Mart in NYC! Seriously, research this & see what's he's done. Need I say more?

It's a hostile environment & you'd better assume no one respects you as a person. Expect to get brushed off, pushed aside & so forth. If you REALLY care about your cause, you're going to get on board & understand this. You don't let people shove you down & trust has to be earned from you. You follow up & become a pest if you have to. Hey, if you care that much about a cause you don't worry about offending anyone or being people's friends. You're arguing a point & being respected should be far more important than being loved.

If it's my cause, I'm not walking in there like I'm groveling to the king for a bread crumb. I walk in as an equal and someone you'd better take seriously since I'm giving you rational, valid arguments that aren't easily refuted. This is where being a good debator/orator/researcher come in. You bet I'll go for the jugular in a debate. Lawyers have to do that in court; they can't be passive little flowers & fear offending people in making rational arguments. Their clients would feel cheated + the ethics rules require attorneys to "zealously defend clients".

Not "half-assed" or "tepid" defense but "zealous advocacy!!" Even unpopular people are entitled to lawyers, though I wouldn't be qualified to take some of those cases due to personal beliefs.

Going through life as a wimp doesn't help you do anything (yes, that's what these people are, including the author of that remark). I feel people who are so PC obsessed aren't committed to a cause and should just go home. They are also dead inside just like dream killers.

Another Stupid PC Policy

Well, since my car's battery died again (how do city residents deal w/keeping their cars in working order???) & I have to wait to get it jumped off, I have some time on my hands to rant. I've never been a fan of political correctness but just read this today & I have to comment.

Yes, you read right. High schools are now trying to include EVERYONE in their yearbooks multiple times. Sounds like some warm, fuzzy thing right? Because everyone deserves to be in the freaking yearbook!!!

I did a fair amount of activities in high school & did know people on the yearbook. I wouldn't call them close friends but I was friendly enough with them. The girl in charge of the yearbook my senior year told me she had done the layout for a full page ad my parents had bought. I also saw a candid pic that I believe she took since she was a frequent visitor to the site where it was taken; it really sums up my experience that year. By high school, I'd stopped caring who did or didn't like me.

In my senior year, I was just ready to move away & go to college. My goal was to do any activity that struck my interest so I wouldn't have regrets later on. That's why I did stuff like run for Homecoming Queen and be on Academic Competition; if I got to be in the spotlight, I was in. At that point, I knew I wouldn't get booed off the stage since I was getting compliments. I ended up getting a 3rd row entry in my senior yearbook.

Regardless, though I would never have called myself "popular." Known, sure. Popular implied a sense of being liked and I never felt liked by most people. I still don't, in fact.

Overall, I think this is a horrid idea & great example of PC gone stupid.

First off, real life won't give you a trophy just for showing up. You have to get grades in college and law school. Certainly you have to face competition in medical school. Would you want a doctor who only got licensed because of PC bullshit? I certainly wouldn't want that person operating on me or prescribing medication to me. Keep up stuff like this & that's exactly what society will get.

Second, what if you don't want to be in the yearbook? Some people could care less. I didn't really care all that much myself but figured it was one of those things I'd have to deal with as part of doing so many activities.

One comment I read on this story said real life was the same as high school: that who you know is how you get ahead instead of what you know. I think it's more of a combination than one or the other. Some people just elicit respect from others by being who they are, even if you hate their guts. I think I'm one of those since many have told me they admire me for taking stands and being genuine instead of putting on a front for people.

Third, the bullshit of high school doesn't mean a thing afterward. I personally think that if you had to face some adversity, you end up doing a lot better later on than the football star or the head cheerleader. Reality already hit you so you can cope with the hard times & adjusting to the real world. If you were always popular & things came easy to you, then it's going to be a hundred times more difficult. How many times does someone who was tormented in their youth become great & how many football heroes become Al Bundy in their adult lives? In real life, I've seen it a lot.

Getting grades works the same way. I think failure & struggles build character. As long as someone's around to say directly to a victimized person "Don't worry about this bullshit; it will get better," you'll see fewer retaliation measures against people.

If you're reading this & considering your own deadly shooting spree, let me tell you it's much more gratifying to get to tell someone to kiss your ass years later after you've lived out your passion while they live in the past. The lesson on not being nasty to people for no reason comes to life here. People may even grow up & apologize to you later on; that's also gratifying since that's fewer weights on your psyche.

Not to mention maybe you'd get a chance to do what Katy Perry did & make someone look foolish in front of the entire world.

Let me repeat: high school won't mark you for life. Now maybe if you took nudie pics or did something stupid that was posted online, you're going to have more to deal with but enough distance in time and location from those bringing you down & you'll be okay. Going to a major city and meeting different people made a world of difference in my own life.

Find your passion and a place where you fit since life's way too short to trudge around in self-misery.

Parenthood & Making Politics More Interesting

I saw this last night & it just pissed me off.

I don't live in Oklahoma but I'd hope there are some people there who've evolved from a 1950's mentality. So, why does it piss me off that some political candidate is bashing her opponent by saying "I'm a wife & mommy but YOU'VE never been married + haven't got any kids"? Let's dissect this piece by piece:

1. The implication that one is a lesbian by not doing this stuff. For all you know, maybe this other female candidate really enjoys the single life & does a lot of stuff behind closed doors that would constitute political suicide though someone like me would respect her honesty for being herself. Unlike many small minded idiots, I don't feel one's sexual orientation is any of my business and prefer a political candidate who is honest about it vs. the bible thumping hypocrite who hires a gay prostitute.

2. On that same tact, how about coming right out & saying what you mean? If you think people will make the gay leap and you're in a state that you & everyone presumes is stuck in the 1950's mentality, how would it harm you to come right out and say it? Considering the majority of the country is a-okay with denying gay marriage and bitched and whined about gay people having rights of any kind to start with, you're not going to harm yourself any more by being direct than with pissing off childfree & single people. Most people don't seem to care about pissing off New Yorkers and "liberals" so why bother? Just go on Fox news if you want to try justifying this little barb.

For the naked statement itself, here's why it offends me:

3. I got married by choice and actually LOVE my spouse. How many marriages do you see that aren't happy or even well functioning? The divorce rate is still pretty high and the person who made this attack is apparently herself a divorced woman who caused the breakup. You're in no position to tout how marriage is some essential ingredient to being a good politician. If it were, most of us should be running for public office.

4. As for breeding, oh God!! Hey, retard (yes, that's what you are and if you don't have a clinically diagnosed mental impairment then you deserved to be slurred by being called that)! Have you been asleep your entire life? Do you ever read news headlines? Watch television? Work in the courts or with a social services organization? Does the name "Susan Smith" ring a bell?

Popping out a baby doesn't qualify you to do anything!!! You can pop out 100 babies and be the worst parent ever. Look at the Octo Breeding Bitch--does anyone think she should run for political office? What about the other big families with reality shows? You really think being a parent qualifies you to be a politician?

Not having a child requires some responsible conduct on the part of a woman. She has to take birth control, get fixed or get a guy to get fixed since you practically have to hold a doctor at gunpoint to get sterilized if you're a woman without kids. Getting pregnant often doesn't require responsible behavior; there have been countless "oops" pregnancies in the world to back this up.

Not to mention that at least the candidate without children won't be parading them around like show ponies or using them to get out of doing work. I could care less about the child of any public figure unless that child has some real talent & ability on his/her own. I'll have respect for that child if (s)he didn't use family names and connections to get ahead or isn't a jerk to me/my acquaintances-friends-family.

All statements like that do is piss me off as a childfree person who knows better about what works for her life than some busybody parent or doctor who isn't directly affected by such a decision. These childfree people should be using that to rally others as feminist icons or role models for the childfree. In other words, take advantage of it to enlist help from pro-choice groups.

So in light of the sudden notoriety of the Rent Is Too Damn High candidate in NY who's running for governor (I read his platform statement in 2009--interesting but no one's views ever fit all of mine), I have a great idea for making politics much more interesting & getting cynics like me to give a darn: physical grudge matches!!

If you saw the last episode of the first season of "Bored To Death," then you remember when the lead characters were engaged in a boxing match w/their rivals. Could you imagine politicians doing that? The ratings would be through the roof. I also think people would love to see Sarah Palin and other hated political figures get punched in the face.

Another novel idea would be allowing the populace to do this to corrupt politicians. Let's see how great you are when some random person beats you in a physical match!

Of course, you'd need guidelines. Let people train w/equal resources, have some safety measures, no women fighting men, etc. If medically unable to box, maybe just slapping would be okay though my husband thinks no one should get cop-outs from performing their civic duty to beat their opponent fair & square in a physical fight.

In foreign countries, politicians have gotten into physical fights. Look for those wildest fight shows on truTV & such to see them.

If they did that in the House and the Senate, people would start watching government proceedings. Maybe that's why these people don't do stuff like that to make politics more interesting; too many people would watch political proceedings & never re-elect these incumbents who do nothing but line their pockets. Feed the human instinct to watch for blood; you'd make a fortune & then we'd stop having arthritic grandparents running for office. If you aren't there physically (at least reasonably in shape), how are you going to lead people & be scary to enemies? Someone like Schwarzenegger would inspire fear.

Yeah, yeah liabilities and such but why not? Cynics like me don't care & I think meaningful voter turnout would increase dramatically if this happened. It might stop people from not voting for someone b/c it's a "throw away" vote. I'd get a good laugh, at least.