Why I am Sick of Television

For me, the last recent opportunity for political outrage was the Obama/McCain election. I became addicted to Keith Olbermann - whose indignant rants were always mollifying - I fought with friends and acquaintances on Facebook, and I truly believed that if McCain and Palin won the election, America as I knew it would be destroyed.

All that emotion -patriotism, fear, and outrage were absolutely exhausting, and I temporarily swore off politics in November of 2008.

Then came the health care debate.

This time around, I have refused to get up-in-arms about any of the issues - I definitely wanted health care reform, but was not concerned that the world would end if it failed. I am excited to see it passed, and to see Obama sign it into law, but my excitement has been somewhat dampened by the hyperbole and hysteria of the other side.


The public is always susceptible to media messaging, and it's been disheartening to hear people with a LOT of influence (Limbaugh and Beck are the two that stand out in this case) using their influence to incite. I know that this happens on both sides, but the level of extreme and hateful things being said by the Right seems unprecedented to me. Encouraging people to do anything in their power to destroy and "crush" the Left. Saying irrational things like "Progressiveness is a Cancer that must be destroyed" - or - "these socialists must be wiped out" - or - "This is the end of prosperity in America forever." Comparing Obama to Hitler (when it seems to me that calling a group of people "a cancer" is closer to Hitler-talk than anything Obama has ever said.)

It's talk that gets people off the actual issues, encourages radicalism and violence, and whips America into a frenzy. Using words like "socialism" "communism" and "fascism" in this debate to describe what really comes down to extra regulations on insurance companies, is such a divisive and at best, unhelpful way for people who supposedly "love America" to behave. It gets us away from working toward common goals (even if our methods of achieving those goals differ) and puts us in this "us or them" mindset where nothing can ever be accomplished.

And they say I'm dangerous for the future of the country.

It's Not You, It's Them. Really. It's Them.

I am continually surprised by how poorly NBC does in the ratings, when they have some of the best shows on TV. All I can conclude is that there are a lot of idiots out there who don't appreciate a good thing unless it hits them over the head, shoves them into a bag, locks them into a trunk, and drives them into the river. Until then, they'll stick to Fox thanks.

NBC offers the following:

The Office:



30Rock:



Parks and Rec:



Community:



And the cherry on the top -



Conan O'Brien.

How can a line up like this fail?!

It just kills me to see Fox killing NBC week after week when Fox is obviously controlled by special interests during the day, and then offers tired, stereotypical programming that takes little risk in the evening (think American Idol.)

Even people who have been made rich by Fox knows they suck.

It's Too Damn Early For This Shit

The above clip bothers me for SEVERAL reasons - some of which are my own quirks (i.e. I am principally opposed to the long standing tradition of dudes asking fathers for their daughter's hand in marriage) but some of which are valid gripes.

For example, in what era do 30 year old women live at home, move directly from their father's house to their husband's house, and have a curfew of any kind? Is it really still "normal" that a woman's living arrangements are dictated by which man is overseeing her well-being? And if we were really going to chastise this woman for being out late, was it absolutely essential to the plot that Dad was the one doing the chastising? Does Mom play some kind of role in all of this, or is the whole marriage situation truly just a transfer between Dad and Todd?

The tribe of married women over at The Nest found this commercial absolutely adorable, and didn't understand the obvious issues with it. I guess that means our culture is still full of people who drive big trucks, keep their American flag next to their Bible on the nightstand, and think that Daddies are responsible for their Little Baby Girls until their Little Baby Girls find a husband and become his problem.

Maybe this upsets me more than normal because I just got engaged and am still struggling with the societal implications of being a "married woman," but at the very least I had hoped we were past the point as a society where patriarchy is endearing enough to sell coffee.

I did some research, and discovered that Folgers has been making sexist commercials for decades. In the one below, the husband actually shakes his finger in his wife's face for sucking at her wifely coffee-making duties (as opposed to thanking her for the effort, or just making his own damn coffee!) What's even more ridiculous is that the nice man at the drug store has to illustrate what a mountain looks like, otherwise the concept of mountain grown coffee would have gone right over her pretty little crappy-coffee-making head.




And if that wasn't obnoxious enough, here's another example. If this is where Folgers began, I guess I shoulda just been glad that Dad could make his own coffee while negotiating the details of his daughter's future.

Stony Ponderings from Talk Radio

I feel like I’ve been hearing a lot of anti-girl propaganda lately, mostly through the tv, radio, and advertisements I read. (The fact that I notice that sort of thing and am mildly bothered by it always makes me wonder if I’ve been brainwashed by a gender studies class or something.) Really though, it’s sort of taboo now-a-days to worry about being treated unfairly as a woman, lest you be labeled a “feminist” by the wrong people, or annoy people who don’t give 2 shits about the issue anyway.

But then, I don’t think equal legality is really the problem most of us deal with today, it’s more of a problem with perception.

Common example – women’s sports are pointless unless someone is naked.

I’m sure that is probably offensive to the women who put just as much work into sports as the men do, but then I am also sure that that opinion is pretty universal, at least for most people I talk to who are not female athletes.

Perfect example - when Stanford College Women’s bball (totally the local college) made it to the final 8 and the chick from Live 105 was talking about it, she was totally shut down by the guys on the show who immediately ran a poll to see if people cared about girls’ sports. When Stanford girls made the final 4 – no mention of it the next day in Ravie’s Sports Update. Sad.

Though I can recognize this low moment for women’s athletics, I have to say that I am not really interested in sports, naked or clothed. So, I'm the wrong person to argue that issue.

In my own life, I think that I am treated as an intelligent being and unhindered from most endeavors in spite of the boobs and the vagina. However, I also think the semi-misogynistic undercurrent in a lot of media DOES exist in more ways than one, and I think it gives lot of women (and if I am going to be totally fair, a lot of men) the idea that there is a defined role for them in society before they even give things a go, or tells them that “normal” men and women are a certain way. And I am not a fan of that at all.

For example, today, I was in my car driving to work, smoking some herb, and I was listening to Live 105 (the anti-girls sports station). For some reason (and I’ve noticed this in both San Luis Obispo, and now in the bay area) rock stations are super conservative, super biased towards men, and super anti-me – even though I am positive I am not the only liberal/girl/stoner chick that listens to alternative/rock on the radio and likes hilarious convo in the morning.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much an example of what you hear in between songs for a lot of the day:

Commercial one:

A Kragen Auto Parts commercial led by some toolish guy instructing a toolish sounding crew of guys that “If we can lift the toilet seat, she can put it down!” and “I refuse to eat Chick Food” (like chocolate?)

Of course, the last cheer - “Real Men buy auto parts from Kragen!”

Commercial two:

Two fun-loving guys talking about going to the Cochella concert, and then the girlfriend gets in the way and says no, so they have to settle for hearing it Live from the Blue Room (what the commercial was actually for.) Of course, the commercial ends with the girlfriend’s voice yelling at the poor guy to pick up his stuff (that’s a reeeal common theme in commercials – the idea of the nagging girlfriend ruining things for the fun-loving guy and his crazy crew.)

End of Commercials:

Morning Show comes back on – hosts talking about how all they want in a phone-screener is a hot chick- and how they don’t care if she’s smart, because no hot chicks are smart, only good for 1 thing, yada yada yada . . .

ok, I zoned out for a bit after that. Really though, if I paid attention while listening to the radio, I would be offended a million times a day. But then I am good at tuning things out.

Call me crazy, whether its unintentionally or pretty insidiously, I think there are still a lot of ads, shows, etc. that perpetuate the ideas that girls are lame - it sucks to be lame. Really, that is my beef with the whole thing - I'm a girl, does that mean I am automatically lamed! Why does my gender have to be the one singled out for lameness just because people want to sell shit to guys?

Lunch break over - no conclusions drawn. Damn.