Last night, Obama eloquently addressed Newtown, CT and the nation, after the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school last Friday. He asked, “can we honestly say we are doing enough to keep our children safe from harm,” concluding, no, we are not doing enough. After recounting the four times we’ve come together during his presidency around a mass shooting, he said, things have to change, “These tragedies must end and to end them we must change.” He acknowledged that no single law or set of laws will stop tragedies and atrocities all together, but we can at least try, in fact, it is our duty to try.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M1gSsm5xlKQ#!
It is a compelling and important speech, but we’ll have to work together to hold him accountable to actually make the changes we need. While pro-gun blowhards are claiming Obama’s speech is “politicizing this tragedy,” he actually barely said what he needed to say about gun violence.
Irrespective, of how you and I feel or what our personal politics might be, it’s time to make some common sense conclusions based on the information we have on hand about gun violence rates and access to arms. As Adam Gopnick writes in the New Yorker,
Gun massacres have happened many times in many countries, and in every other country, gun laws have been tightened to reflect the tragedy and the tragic knowledge of its citizens afterward. In every other country, gun massacres have subsequently become rare. In America alone, gun massacres, most often of children, happen with hideous regularity, and they happen with hideous regularity because guns are hideously and regularly available.
It is time for a non-partisan movement to keep our communities safe and do what we can to reduce the rate of gun violence in the world–end of story.
ESPN announcers drool over quarterback’s girlfriend, illustrate football’s culture of entitlement
Originally posted in Feministing
So there was a big football game yesterday. And while I boycotted it, apparently ESPN announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger had some time between plays to devote to ogling the Alabama quarterback’s girlfriend. Some real classy stuff:
“When you’re a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn, I’ll admit that, but she’s also Miss Alabama, and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. Wow, I’m telling ya, you quarterbacks, you get all the good looking women. What a beautiful woman! Whoa! So if you’re a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops.”
This is some pretty standard objectification. So common–especially in the sports world–it’s almost not worth commenting on. Except that we’ve had occasion to illustrate posts with a photo of a girl holding a sign saying “I am more important than football” not once but twice this week.
So, now seems like a good time to point out that this bullshit is part of the rape culture that directly enables assaults like those in Steubenville and Notre Dame. As Travis Waldron writes, “It’s a culture that views women as nothing more than chattel, a commodity to be won by the best player even if she isn’t a willing participant. It fosters a sense of entitlement to women and their bodies that only ingrains the rape and violence culture deeper into the game.” Read More »