Things I Miss Friday: not being appalled and angry

This week I finally told two of my coworkers that I'm pregnant and, of course, they asked me how I was doing/feeling.  My normal answer for this is that I feel really great and I've been pretty happy throughout the pregnancy - happier and less moody than I tended to be on a regular pre-pregnancy/on hormonal birth control basis.

So I have to wonder how I'd be feeling if some of the things I've read this week happened pre-pregnancy, because I've really been getting steamed up about a few things this week.

Our national bloviating douche, Rush Limbaugh, has the honor of the first two of this week's three irritations.

1 - Rush Limbaugh is a misogynistic jackass.  (Oh, you knew that already?)

Limbaugh was a judge for the Miss America pageant last week (I just have to skip over all that is wrong with that statement or else this post will go on for days).  He was on, what else, Fox and Friends to discuss this and, apparently, the state of women - wherein he said this:

"Oh, I’m a huge supporter of women. What I’m not a supporter of is liberalism. Feminism is what I oppose, and feminism has led women astray. I love women. I don’t know where all this got started. I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it."

Excuse me while I go barf violently.  YOU CANNOT SUPPORT WOMEN AND NOT SUPPORT FEMINISM.  And since when is it okay to say how you love women, especially their asses, AND NOT HAVE ANYONE SAY ANYTHING IN RESPONSE???

This makes me so angry that I actually am having slight chest pains right now thinking about it.  I understand that people in the media entertainment are going to say things just for shock value and ratings, but they should not be allowed to say harmful things and not have to answer for it.

Okay, deep breath.  Okay, two deep breaths.  Onto . . .

2. Rush Limbaugh is a lying-makes-things-up-as-he-goes-along jackass.  (Oh, you knew that, too?)

Limbaugh believes that President Obama's law school professors wrote his law review articles:

"I think this is the first time in his life that there’s not a professor around to turn his C into an A or to write the law review article for him he can’t write. He’s totally exposed and there’s nobody to make it better. I think he’s been covered for all his life. The fact that his agenda failed this year is the best thing that could have happened to this country."

Can you weep and fume at the same time?  It must be possible, because that's where I'm at.  Like Obama or not, the one thing that I have seen no sane people disagree with is that he's a good writer and orator (disclosure: I think he's a great writer and orator - probably the best we have seen/will see for quite some time).  The notion that he needed his professors to turn Cs into As or write articles for him is incredibly preposterous.  AND, let's say you don't believe the President is an accomplished writer; as a college professor and graduate school student, I can add that the likelihood of something like this EVER occurring is so remotely, remarkably slim - especially in law school.  Could there be a group of people more aware of the legal ramifications of such behavior?

I simply have a hard time reconciling the idea that there are no repercussions for this type of blatant lying and misogyny in "the media" (I really don't even want to call them just plain media anymore).  There's always been sensationalism and we've always laughed at publications like The Enquirer and the Weekly World News but now it's mainstream news organizations LYING on a regular (seemingly daily) basis.  I just flat-out don't know what to do with this.

3. Boycott Diesel clothing and write them an email explaining that sexual exploitation should not sell clothes.

Our third aggravation of the week comes from clothing company Diesel.  They have a new campaign entitled "Be Stupid," which is supposed to encourage teens and young adults to not be afraid to "be stupid" - by which they mean to be fearless, be willing to make mistakes, and anti-perfectionist.  But, then wouldn't that be smart??

But besides that, the cornerstone ad for the campaign shows a young woman flashing her breasts at a security camera.  Because that's fearless?

And, to boot, it says, "Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls."  Because, 1 - you need balls to be brave (hi misogyny AGAIN), and 2 - you simply can't be smart AND brave.  All of those explorers and inventors and innovators must have been a huge slew of dumb-dumbs, I guess.  (Auuuuugh.)

It's DUMB, for sure - they got that part right.  And it's a mistake - a mistake to fall for the patriarchal, misogynistic idea that flashing your breasts whenever you want is an empowering move.  Yes, loving your body is empowering.  Yes, claiming your breasts as a beautiful part of you that you are free to share as you wish is empowering and smart.  But I do not believe for a single, solitary moment that all of the encouraged flashing in our current culture is meant to empower girls.  Simply, no.  It's exploiting them under the guise of empowerment.

To see the ad (it's so offensive to me that I simply didn't want to post the picture here) and the WeAreTheRealDeal take on it as well as get the contact information for who to complain about this ad to, go to Heather (mamav)'s post about it on WeAreTheRealDeal.

Sigh.  This is such a downer of a post for a Friday, I know.  Fridays should be all, "Yay, weekend!" but it's just not today.  Plus, I have to work tomorrow so that makes it feel less weekend-y.  I promise I'm in a better mood than this post suggests - but these things make me angry and I feel like they shouldn't go unmentioned.