*from writer Clarissa Pinkola Estes, whose books Women Who Run With the Wolves is a must-read for anyone interested in myth, in story, in feminism, in Jungian psychology – so many ways in to this seminal material!! If you haven’t read it, do it, it might just change your mind, or better yet the way you see the world. It certainly did for me. Her wiki page is linked below…
We do not become healers
We came as healers. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become storytellers.
We came as carriers of the stories that
we and our ancestors actually lived. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become artists. We came as artists. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become writers.. dancers.. musicians.. helpers.. peacemakers. We came as such. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not learn to love in this sense. We came as Love. We are Love. Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.
The last time I wore lipstick, it felt as though I were applying cement to my mouth, which makes sense as it was a very cheap Dollar Store purchase. I was attending a Halloween party, dressing up was required – ugh, but okay, I’ll play along. The theme was The Sopranos. I went as Tony Soprano’s dad’s goomar, Fran Felstein, played in the series by Polly Bergen because why not go for someone of mature age? This choice on my part was a deep cut into that classic series, which I loved – but the dressing up was a challenge – one I met by covering myself with a wig, a very lush fur coat (a gift from Johnny Boy Soprano, I assumed), fishnets, and a form fitting black dress, further adorned with feathers at the hem and the end of the sleeves.
Shoot me now.
The lipstick was dead red, meaning a kind of red so unflattering to one’s coloring – or what coloring, at my age, I have left in my skin (not much TBH). Anyway, I could not wait to get that shit – and the cheap-ass foundation I also put on, along with false eyelashes and etc. – off my face. Ick. But this isn’t far from where I have always been on make-up: it clogs the pores, it inadvertently gets on your clothes, it’s expensive and a waste of hard-earned money to boot, the containers are germ magnets, and using it, applying it, removing it, all that jazz takes precious time out of my day, time I would much rather spend reading, writing, fucking, cooking, doing yoga, or eating – among other actual pleasures.
That said, I have two contemporary friends, peers, who are always after me to lipstick up, to y’know, play the feminine messaging game. Ladies – no. Have you met me? I am not interested. The image of poor Tammy Faye Bakker comes to mind – along with a panoply of primarily 1980s females who were consistently over-made-up, overdressed, over perfumed, with over-the-top hair. These women were just over, in every way, demonstrating a hyper-feminine, performative version of being female I could not get behind, although – again, in the 80s – I tried, if half-heartedly.
I loved playing with make-up as a child, emphasis on playing. Having to put on lip-stick daily as armor or – whatever – ick. My grandmother was the most beautiful woman I ever knew, because I loved her – and while I’m pretty sure she owned a compact and might have owned lipstick as well, I never saw her use either one, nor were either of them obviously applied if she did.
Oddly, I suppose, for someone who went into the business of show, make-up has always felt to me like a kind of cheating, a disguise. Fine for playing roles on stage, but afterward – out of the powerful lights that can wash facial features away – no and no and no, thank you. It felt and feels unclean, unnecessary, and when my friends – who I know mean well – get after me to put lipstick on, or something, I give them my best answer in the moment, which is ‘No’. Or, ‘Why’? Or, more to the point, ‘I don’t own a lip stick, although my trusty lip gloss is always at hand.’ Clear and without a hint of sparkle or tint, it’s all I need. It, and moisturizer. And, okay, okay, a spritz of Chanel #5, because that scent is sublime, and I love it.
Female drag of the kind Tammy Faye performed harms women, including Tammy – who died (a few details below) at the very young age of 65 (italicization mine as I am and will remain 39 but 65 seems uncomfortably close at hand – wink, wink, nod, nod). Furthermore, just as the saying goes ‘no one on their death bed thinks, “Gosh, I should’ve spent more time in the office’, I would like to propose the following as another death-bed truism: ‘no one on their death-bed thinks, “Gosh, I should’ve spent more time putting on make-up, doing my hair, getting my seams straight, perfecting my foundation garments, removing body hair, losing weight, etc., etc., etc.”
The list of things we ask women to do in the performance of femaleness is, sadly, endless. Which is kinda the point, ain’t it? Let’s keep those ladies off-kilter with impossible beauty standards, busy with endless bullshit, while we plunder the earth. Ah, the patriarchy! Let’s smash that shit.
I just did a semi-deep dive on poor Tammy Faye Bakker, later Messner. JHFC. What a tumultuous life. At one point both her ex-husband and current husband were in jail for various schemes, frauds, and criminally negligent – mostly financial – behaviors. Wow. Girls. Ladies. Less goop, more books. #NerdsRule
From Tammy’s wiki page: “Despite her background in Christian Fundamentalism, Messner became a gay icon after parting from PTL, appearing in Gay Pride marches with figures such as Lady Bunny and Bruce Villanch. Unlike many American Christian fundamentalists, she “had long refused to denounce homosexuals” and publicly expressed compassion toward, and urged support for Americans with HIV/AIDS when it was still a much-feared and unknown disease. She was benevolently referred to as “the ultimate drag queen,” and said in her last interview with Larry King that, “When I went – when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that.”
Messner’s 11 years with cancer were highly publicized. She was first diagnosed with colon cancer in March 1996, but later revealed she had endured bleeding for a year out of embarrassment at the prospect of seeing a male doctor. The disease went into remission by the end of that year. (Tammy died in 2007)
I have a brother Fred, had an uncle and great uncle Fred and great-grandfather Fred (on both side of the fan-dam-ly!!) – and, absent those beloved humans – I would unquestionably have a dog named Fred. Fred and Betty, imo, are perfect dog names. End of tangent. Fred. Koramatsu. Never heard of him, until earlier today. Hey, I love learning about groovy heroic people, and Fred Koramatsu was certainly that, and his heroism is notable due to the moment we are (again, FFS) in with regards to what and who constitutes a ‘real American’ and who gets to decide.
Fred T. Korematsu was a civil rights icon, even if you’ve never heard of the guy. one of three sons born in Oakland, California to Japanese immigrant parents (a.k.a. a birthright citizens per the 14th Amendment). When the U.S. entered World War II, Fred – who died in 2005 – tried to enlist in both the U.S. National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, but was turned away because of his Japanese ancestry.
In 1942, Fred, then aged 23, refused to go to the government’s concentration camps for Japanese Americans, choosing instead to go on the run and live as a free, loyal American because, shocker!!, he was one. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him in ’44, arguing that mass incarceration was justified due to military necessity.
Following World War II and the release of Japanese Americans from the camps, Korematsu attempted to resume life as an American citizen, but his conviction and notoriety hurt him in gaining employment and other opportunities. He moved to Detroit, where his youngest brother lived, and where he met his eventual wife, Kathryn, a student at Wayne State University. Kathryn, originally from South Carolina, wanted to marry Fred but, at the time, anti-miscegenation laws prohibited interracial marriage in both of their home states, CA and SC. In Michigan, however, their relationship and marriage were legal. Fred and Kathryn married in Detroit before moving to the Bay Area in 1949, a year after the top court in the state of California ended discriminatory, race based, marriage bans. In 1980, President Carter instigated a federal review of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and in June 1983, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded that the decisions to remove people of Japanese ancestry to U.S. prison camps occurred because of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” (Y’think?!!)
During this time, U.C. San Diego’s instructor Peter Irons, together with researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, discovered previously unknown Justice Department documents in government archives. Included were memos written in ‘43 and ‘44 by Edward Ennis, the U.S. Justice Department attorney responsible for supervising the drafting of the government’s brief against Koramatsu in the Supreme Court case. As Ennis searched for evidence to support the Army’s claim of ‘justifiable military necessity’, he instead found the opposite: J. Edgar Hoover, the FCC, the Office of Naval Intelligence and other intelligence agencies declared that in their various assessments Japanese Americans had committed no wrongdoing, and were not a threat. These official reports were never presented to the Supreme Court as they were intentionally suppressed, or destroyed.
On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court of Northern California formally overturned Korematsu’s conviction. It was a pivotal moment in U.S. civil rights history. Mr. Korematsu stood in front of Judge Patel and stated, “According to the Supreme Court decision regarding my case, being an American citizen was not enough. They say you have to look like one, otherwise they say you can’t tell a difference between a loyal and a disloyal American. I thought that this decision was wrong and I still feel that way. As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing. That is if they look like the enemy of our country. Therefore, I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed or color.” Although Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1944 ruling still stands.
Once his conviction was overturned, Fred Koramatsu became an active member of the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations, traveling to D.C. to lobby for the passage of a bill which would grant an official apology from the U.S. government and a token compensation of $20,000 for each surviving Japanese American that was incarcerated. Although President Ronald Reagan initially opposed the legislation, he reversed his position due to political pressure. In August of 1988, President Reagan signed the redress and reparations legislation into law, and in 1998, Fred Koramatsu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from then President Clinton.
After 9/11, Korematsu continued to speak out. In 2003 and ‘04, he filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court for cases appealed before the Supreme Court of the United States, on behalf of Muslim inmates deemed ‘threatening’ to the U.S. government. In the brief, he warned that the government’s extreme national security measures were uncomfortably reminiscent of the past.
*Said our president last month – and yes, the essence of the guy in that he’s a reality TV star, a celebrity, a brand, and not much more, run by his bloated ego, childish spite, and endless pettiness. This piece is from Ian Boothby (who I’d never heard of before, but all hail every single Canadian – he’s a Canuck – in the resistance!!), a writer and comedian who you can find out more about on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Boothby
People are still trying to attack Trump by pointing out his hypocrisy, the incompetence of his staff and the reality that the economy is tanking and his policies have no hope of actually working.
These would be solid hits against any other politician, but they don’t work on Trump. Democrats are like the soldiers still shooting at Godzilla. They do it because it’s all they know how to do but it’s not working and they keep getting stomped on.
They’re attacking him like he’s a politician and he’s not. He never has been.
He’s a celebrity. That’s it. Sometimes he’s a celebrity real estate mogul, sometimes a celebrity reality tv host and sometimes a celebrity president.
Do you remember when The Apprentice was cancelled? You do? Well, good news if you liked it, bad news if you didn’t, it never stopped. It just went global. You’re living in the show right now, Black Mirror style. Nothing he does makes sense as the leader of a country and everything makes perfect sense as a reality show producer.
Everyone he’s hired have no idea how to do their job but are great reality show material. The anti-vax nut in charge of health care? The guy with no experience and a drinking problem in charge of the military? The head of the FBI can’t believe he got the gig and hired an extreme right wing podcaster as his voice of reason? How can you not watch that train wreck? Actually it’s plane crashes but you get it.
It’s a TV show and so all that matters to him are the ratings. He’s said it over and over. After the terrible Zelenskyy meeting the last thing he said was, “This is going to make great TV”. Almost 60,000 Ukrainians dead and he and Vance set up their own Real Housewives scenario where they called Zelenskyy ungrateful, bragged about themselves and made fun of his clothes. Made no sense in reality but perfect sense if your goal is ratings.
Trump is producing a reality show because it one of the only things he knows how to do. And he’s learned that it doesn’t matter how bad things get, he’ll be safe and the show will be renewed as long as there are eyeballs on him interested in what he’s doing. In the world of real life he’s a felon in court answering charges and paying for sexual assault. As long as he’s on TV he’s safe. A million Americans died from a disease he called a hoax because reality wasn’t good for the plot of the show he was producing.
He won the popular vote because doing extreme things is interesting. Keeping things in chaos keeps you the centre of attention. There’s no winning in winning, only in saying you’re about to win. Ratings go down when plot lines are resolved. You can never have a healthcare plan, a great one has to always been a few weeks away. Once something exists it becomes reality and people can judge it. Keep things nuts and all hope in the future and you’re gold.
So how do you beat him? Run a qualified sensible candidate against him? Maybe, reality has the advantage if it actually being real. But you need to weaken him first.
Remember how mad he got at Alec Baldwin’s impression on Saturday Night Live? Really got under his skin. Because Trump is about image and Baldwin’s impression was a counter image that made him look ugly. Baldwin was enough of a celebrity to enter into the only world Trump cares about. It made Trump number two on the call sheet.
The same thing happened with Steve Bannon. The hashtag #PresidentBannon started to trend after a popular editorial cartoon and some Tweets saying Bannon was the one actually in charge and it caused a big split between them. Because Trump can’t be the co-star. He needs to be what he was on The Apprentice, the be all and end all voice of authority and power. Unquestionable. With the final say on all issues. If he’s not, he’s got nothing.
He was furious at Spy magazine for saying he had small hands. So much so he bragged about his penis size in a debate. He has doctors tell people he’s taller than he is and weighs less than he obviously does. He cannot have any shortcomings. He’s a reality show character, and like most of them with the name of a real person but more fiction than an actual person.
So to bring him down you need to attack one thing, his image. You need something fictional with a core of truth that takes the place of the fiction he’s presenting. Like JD Vance having sex with a couch. A stickier narrative than the one they’re putting forth.
The problem with just attacking with the truth is it’s not as interesting or appealing as a good made up story. You need to back up the truth with facts and by the time you do that people have lost interest. It’s what John Oliver has shown, wrap the medicine of the truth in the tasty cheese of jokes and made up scenarios and that pet might actually get better.
The only things that have worked against Trump are image based. Jokes. Memes. Sketches. Cartoons. They’re the first thing you need to do in the boss level of the video game before any of your truth based hits can land and bring them down.
You’re in Season 21 of The Apprentice. Like it or not. Time to be like past Celebrity Apprentice winner Joan Rivers and get mean and hilarious. All that matters is today. No one remembers last week. People write books with the most horrific stories but they might as well take place in the Roman Empire. You’re on the reality show now, make a scene, take focus, mess with his image, it’s all he has. Once that’s gone, he falls.
Queen Meryl – “I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me.” (Mary Louise a.k.a. Meryl Streep, that is)
Queen Helen: “When you’re 16, 30 seems ancient. When you’re 30, 45 seems ancient. When you’re 45, 60 seems ancient. When you’re 60, nothing seems ancient.” (Helen Mirren, that is)
Queen Cher: “Mother told me a couple of years ago, ‘Sweetheart, settle down and marry a rich man.’ I said, ‘Mom, I am a rich man.’” (If you don’t know who Cher is, I can’t help you…)
Queen Adele: “My aim in life is never to be skinny.” (Adele, as in Adele Adkins, the angst chanteuse of our time)
Queen Serena: “I could lose 20 pounds and I’m still going to have these knockers and I’m going to have this ass, and that’s just the way it is.” (Serena Williams, that is)
Queen Gloria: “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.” (Queen Gloriana Steinem, that is)
Queen Gisele: “This trial was a very difficult ordeal. I think first of all of my three children, David, Caroline and Florian. I also think of my grandchildren because they are the future and it is also for them that I have led this fight, as well as my daughters-in-law Aurore and Céline. I also think of all the other families affected by this tragedy. Finally, I think of the unrecognized victims whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know that we share the same fight.I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people who supported me throughout this ordeal. Your testimonies have upset me and I have drawn from them the strength to come back every day. Long days of hearings. I also thank the victims’ aid association for our unwavering support. It has been invaluable to me. To all the journalists who have followed me and followed this case since its inception. I wish to express my gratitude for the faithful, respectful and dignified treatment in which they reported daily on these hearings. To my lawyers, finally, all the gratitude and esteem that I have for them for having accompanied me at each stage of this painful journey. I wanted, by opening the doors of this trial on September 2, that society could take hold of the debates that took place there. I have never regretted this decision. I now have confidence in our ability to collectively seize a future in which each woman and man can live in harmony with respect and mutual understanding. I thank you.” (GISELE PELICOT, she-ro, her full statement after the trial and conviction of her ex-husband and the many other men who assaulted her)
Queen Halle: “Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back I think, I should have followed my instincts. I relied on others to guide me because I thought they knew better. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to trust myself.” (Queen Halle Berry, y’all)
Queen Julia: “Thank you very much Deputy Speaker and I rise to oppose the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition. And in so doing I say to the Leader of the Opposition I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well I hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror. That’s what he needs. Let’s go through the Opposition Leader’s repulsive double standards, repulsive double standards when it comes to misogyny and sexism. We are now supposed to take seriously that the Leader of the Opposition is offended by Mr Slipper’s text messages, when this is the Leader of the Opposition who has said, and this was when he was a minister under the last government – not when he was a student, not when he was in high school – when he was a minister under the last government. He has said, and I quote, in a discussion about women being under-represented in institutions of power in Australia, the interviewer was a man called Stavros. The Leader of the Opposition says “If it’s true, Stavros, that men have more power generally speaking than women, is that a bad thing?” And then a discussion ensues, and another person says “I want my daughter to have as much opportunity as my son.” To which the Leader of the Opposition says “Yeah, I completely agree, but what if men are by physiology or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?” Then ensues another discussion about women’s role in modern society, and the other person participating in the discussion says “I think it’s very hard to deny that there is an under-representation of women,” to which the Leader of the Opposition says, “But now, there’s an assumption that this is a bad thing.” This is the man from whom we’re supposed to take lectures about sexism. And then of course it goes on. I was very offended personally when the Leader of the Opposition, as Minister of Health, said, and I quote, “Abortion is the easy way out.” I was very personally offended by those comments. You said that in March 2004, I suggest you check the records. I was also very offended on behalf of the women of Australia when in the course of this carbon pricing campaign, the Leader of the Opposition said “What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing…” Thank you for that painting of women’s roles in modern Australia. And then of course, I was offended too by the sexism, by the misogyny of the Leader of the Opposition catcalling across this table at me as I sit here as Prime Minister, “If the Prime Minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself…”, something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair. I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said “Ditch the witch.” I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man’s bitch. I was offended by those things. Misogyny, sexism, every day from this Leader of the Opposition. Every day in every way, across the time the Leader of the Opposition has sat in that chair and I’ve sat in this chair. The Leader of the Opposition wants to be taken seriously, apparently he’s woken up after this track record and all of these statements, and he’s woken up and he’s gone “Oh dear, there’s this thing called sexism, oh my lords, there’s this thing called misogyny. Now who’s one of them? Oh, the Speaker must be because that suits my political purpose.” Doesn’t turn a hair about any of his past statements, doesn’t walk into this Parliament and apologise to the women of Australia or to me for the things that have come out of his mouth. But now seeks to use this as a battering ram against someone else. This motion should be rejected and the Leader of the Opposition should think seriously about the role of women in public life.” (Julia Gillard, that is, former Aussie PM)
