"Honey, the only reason I beat on you is 'cause you had an abortion"

Referencing this article.

A New Zeland columnist has declared that:

The number one cause of abuse against women and children is abortion.

By having an abortion, women have opened the door to violence and are basically reaping what they sow.

But that's not all. He also says:

The second major cause of violence against women and children is the belief held by too many women that they should not just be equal to men but, in all but physical appurtenances, are the same.

...The assumption by so many women of the roles traditionally exclusive to men has left many men in confusion, frustration and anxiety, and more are lashing out because they feel their maleness is under threat.

"He writes as if this is a reasonable response to womens social and political gains."

Bah.

Sexist pig.

Ja Ne~
Nikori

What is WRONG with the world?

Referencing this article.

This jist of this article is that on Black Friday, shoppers broke down the doors of a Wal Mart and trampled seasonal employee Jdimytai Damour to death. And to top everything off, people kept shopping when they were trying to do an investigation, saying that "they've been in line since yesterday morning".

One blogger comments, "We love things more then we love people."

Disgusting.

You would think that, with all the crap with the economy going on (is it a depression or only a recession?), people would show more... I don't know, restraint? Or something?

Bah.

What do you all thing?

Ja Ne~
Nikori

Obama's National Security Team

Referencing this article, linked to from feministing.

President-Elect Obama has recently announced his National Security team. They are:

Retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones as his national security adviser, Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.

Oh, and did I mention that Hillary Clinton was Obama's pick as Secretary of State? He called her an "American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence."

I'm trying to decide if this is a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer... but I digress.

The post continues:

only does it indicate that President Elect Obama will use his "first" to create lots of others, but it is really exciting that it's happening specifically with regards to security--an issue so often masculinized in popular and political culture. As we feminists know, national and international security is about more than military might, but also includes poverty alleviation, diplomacy and negotiation, and increasing women's power through out the world.

What do you all think?

Ja Ne~
<3>

Twilight

So, speaking of Twilight...

Twilight is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and has sold enough money just in ticket *presales* to cover the cost of making the movie- $38 million dollars, in case you were curious.

To understand why this is so big, you have to check out the list of highest grossing movies of all time. Of the list of 100, not one of them is directed by a woman. Some animated movies- Shrek and Happy Feet, for instance- had women as co-directors, but not one of them has only a woman as a director.

For Twilight to break into the list, and to be the first live-action movie to be directed by a woman on the "Top 100" list, it needs to gross more then $187 million dollars.

I'm pretty sure that it will do that before the end of November.

After all, it earned over $70 million in its first weekend (making the top four spot for the highest grossing movies in November, beat only by the first, second, and fourth Harry Potter movies). In the first day, the movie grossed $35.9 million- the second largest opening day total for a movie released in November (the number one movie was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005 with $40.1 million dollars), with $7 million of that just from the midnight showing on Thursday night.

What do you all think?

Ja Ne~
<3 Nikori

Hot Bods

So, I went and saw Twilight yesterday. It was amazing! SQUEE EDWARD CULLEN!!!

*ahem*

Now that my fangirl moment has past, let's move on. I saw this commercial thing during the previews.

Now, it seems to me as if this commercial is using men's bodies to sell products, instead of a woman's body.

Or, is it using a bit of reverse psychology? Use this cologne (I think that's what Bods is anyway), and girls with think that you look like these totally ripped men?

What do you all think?

Ja Ne~
<3 Nikori

The Sleepwalking Defense?

Well, first things first! Let me apoligize for being so inactive recently. I have been uber busy with school and work (I actually pulled an all-nighter the other week. It wasn't pretty, even with the aid of copious amounts of caffeine) and haven't had a chance to post! Bah.

But anyway... I saw this post on feministing.com, and it just pisses me off so much that I can't see straight.

Basically, it says how a man was aquitted for raping a woman because he insisted "he had been asleep and had no idea what he was doing. " Mrs. McKenna (the victim) said that this left her feeling "shocked and degraded".

Apparently, this isn't just a one-time deal- this defense has been poping up with increasing frequency. In another case, a man's defense is the fact that the woman he raped was sleepwalking and it could have been consensual.

Could have been consensual?

Personally, I think this is a load of bullshit.

This even has a name, too. The act of carrying out sexually violent acts in your sleep is called "sexsomnia." Like the author of the post, I prefer the term "rapesomnia" instead- the very word sex implies consent.

What do you all think?

Ja Ne~
<3 Nikori

The Princess and the Frog

Our recent discussions and readings about race in class made me think of this.

As you may or may not know, Disney has yet another princess movie coming out. It's called The Princess and the Frog.

This is the storyline given on the Movie's web page:

From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty
Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment and discovery with a
trumpet playing alligator, a love sick Cajun firefly, and a host of other
charming characters at every turn.
Source: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

A little background info on the movie: it's set in New Orleans French Quarter during the Jazz Age. What do you think of the setting? America never had official princesses, after all.

The main character is a princess named Tiana. She is the first black "Disney Princess", and will join the ranks of Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Aurora sometime in 2009. There have been Disney princesses since the dawn of animation- in 1937, to be exact, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So, why has it taken until now for there to be a black main character in an animated Disney movie?

And going along that thought, are there any black characters in any other Disney movies? I don't remember any off hand. I know that Kingdom Hearts- a video game collaboration between Disney and Square Enix- had no black characters, even though several characters from Final Fantasy (most notable Barrett Wallace from Final Fantasy VII) were black.

What do you all think?

Ja ne
~ Nikori