Let’s talk about sex, love, body dysmorphic disorder, and self-acceptance. This Sunday our very special in-studio guests will be author Monah Li (Beauty and the Feast – a Hollywood Memoir of Binging, Purging and Healing), gender writer and commentator Yashar Ali, and SG’s Red, White and Femme post-feminist columnist Darrah de jour. Prostitute and porn star turned academic and sexologist Annie Sprinkle – who has much to say on the subject of our society’s fat-phobia – will also be calling in.
Tune in to the world’s leading naked radio show for two hours of totally awesome tunes and extreme conversation – and don’t let yo momma listen in!
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“I’m not going to talk to you when you’re acting this way.”
Whenever I ask my women friends about this phrase and what it means when they hear it from the men in their lives, they always have a strong reaction. One of frustration, anger, and annoyance.
You know how it makes you ultimately feel. This statement is about communication, a way to shut down the potential conversation that should happen. Men typically use this phrase as a way to avoid an uncomfortable or awkward moment — usually a situation in which they are being held accountable for their actions.
More significantly, this phrase is about taking control. When someone says this sentence, they are defining the situation on their terms — a man’s terms.
It’s gaslighting. But this phrase is related to a larger issue I’m exploring: why is the tone, tenor, nature, path, and dynamics of the relationships (and not just romantic relationships) that women have with men, so often on the man’s terms?
The man setting the terms of a relationship may seem obvious when we think of romantic relationships, or perhaps, even work dynamics, but I want to engage in a larger exploration about all the kinds of relationships that women have with men, from male relatives, to male friends and co-workers.
Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…
By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.
Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.
When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.
(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)
“Why wouldnt I want to play music until I was 80?” – Exene Cervenka
Exene Cervenka is the gold standard for what all punk rock musicians should be. She is uncompromising, self deprecating and a real renaissance woman. She of course came to fame in the 1970s with the seminal punk band X. Since then Exene has had numerous other bands and her latest, Exene Cervenka & Original Sinners, has just released their second album titled Sev7en. It features Jason Edge and members of the band The 7 Shot Screamers.
Employees of Target and Best Buy are voicing their opinions, trying to get a message across to the CEOs of their companies before they’re robbed of their time with family. One in particular, Anthony Hardwick of Omaha, NE, has voiced his displeasure at his employer, Target, and has become the featured petition on Change.org. And while I’m writing this blurb, the petition has just jumped up from a staggering 170,000 to 180,000 signatures of its 200,000 goal. A similar petition inspired by Hardwick’s, posted by Rick Melaragni of Tampa, FL, concerning Best Buy’s opening hours is currently sitting at 14,550 of its 15,000 goal.
“A midnight opening robs the hourly and in-store salary workers of time off with their families on Thanksgiving Day. By opening the doors at midnight, Target and Best Buy is requiring team members to be in the store by 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation — all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night’s rest on Thanksgiving! Any team member not present for their shift will receive a final warning, or termination of their employment.”
While all’s quiet on the Target front, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn writes a heart warming message to Employees and Customers saying*:
“Our customers and employees are, first and foremost, people. We acknowledge that each one is an individual with hopes, dreams, passions, talents, experiences, cultures, faith and loved ones. People don’t celebrate a ‘Happy Holiday’ – they have their own cultural, religious and family traditions. So, why shouldn’t we value and embrace that same level of individuality during the Holidays?”
Thank YOU Brian! It’s always so touching to see a CEO open his mouth wide enough just in case he may need to have a Thanksgiving foot for dinner with a side of trimmins’.
So what does this mean for those hard working hourly employees of corporate America? Thanksgiving breakfast, black out curtains, no booze (since getting a DUI on the way to work would make for a whole different kind of Black Friday!), and beddie bye at noon-o-clock so the board can eat meat, slog brew, and belch their American spirit to the tune of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and ESPN’s Thursday Night Football — all for one hour of over time.
If you would like to join Anthony’s cause you can do so at www.change.org.
*Since time of writing, Brian Dunn has deleted his own post on his Corp Blog as quoted above and replaced it with another expressing his thanks to the company and his employees for sacrificing their holiday for the company.
**UPDATE**
#OCCUPY SANTA ANA STAGE AN IN-STORE FLASH MOB IN PROTEST OF BLACK FRIDAY WORKING HOURS:
