femminista: thoughts of a feminist rhetorician

The internet is an amazing rabbit hole. You follow a path of links and they lead you to a place that you didn't know existed (yet are unsurprised to find). As it turns out, the rape culture reality that exists in the F2F fleshy world is thriving and prospering in its cyber-counterpart. In researching the attacks of Anonyomous, whose aim is not explicitly anti-feminist and anti-woman (although it clearly is if you look at actions and statements; in other words, Anonymous doesn't have a centralized mission statement that is hostile towards women), I found a plethora of blogs who are outwardly hateful in ways that make me incredibly sad. I'm alternately stunned and disappointed, shocked and resigned, angered and saddened by these blogs and websites.

Will the news stations start reporting the news instead of promoting debates as though they were promoting a wrestling match? I turn on MSNBC tonight and I'm appalled within the first minutes of listening. Am I appalled by deaths in Iraq, embassies being bombed, people starving? No. Because none of those things were mentioned. Instead, I hear about the "face-off" between Barack and Hillary. I read "which Clinton will show up." I hear about how the election has already been decided. Oh, yeah, and I've been exhorted to watch the "post-game" show. Wait a second. In what way does choosing the future leader of this country seem analogous to a football game? To whom is this a game?

you put the season premieres of tv shows in your iCal calendar

NPR Morning Edition doesn't start up until 5am and since I'm up at 4am, well I have to get my news fix somewhere.  Tomorrow morning I'll think twice before tuning my television to CNN Headline News. Here's why: