February 26, 2014 · 2:52 am

Policing sex education in college

This week is sexland at Humboldt State University.  A similar event in Tennessee garnered the condemnation of the state legislature. 

For real?  

The most important issue in a whole state is whether college students learn more about sex?   

The student-initiated educational event is a pretty good example of the leftist backlash that comes in the era of the internet.  I think it is a kind of resistance to the political policing when the club would lose their budget and then have private donors refund them in 48 hours. 

We were defunded last year — two-thirds of our budget was taken away from us about two and a half weeks before the event, and we had to raise about $11,000 back. And we did that in less than 48 hours, because support came in from across the nation …

Last year was much more difficult working with the university. This year they’re being more supportive.

via GOP’s war on “hookup culture”: Tennessee Republicans enraged by college Sex Week – Salon.com.

Organizer Brianna Rader is interviewed in Salon and gives a great example of flipping the expectations of thoughtful conservatives:

How did you end up co-sponsoring an event with one of the Christian groups on campus?

We had an event last year called “Religion and Sexuality” … One of the guys that sat on that panel was the director of Cru, which is a more conservative Christian organization. And he was nervous at first, but we tried to get him to understand where we were coming from. And he actually really loved the event, and he loved that we were able to talk about these complicated issues … in a frank and open manner. And so we talked to him again this year, and we said: Hey, would you like to do more with us? And he really loved the idea. And so he proposed bringing these speakers from Colorado in, who he was familiar with, and running an event with us [“Long-Term Intimacy: Commitment and Sex”] …

We’re not promoting, like, one sexual lifestyle. We’re just promoting sex-positivity. Which means that is inclusive of abstinence and all different beliefs.

via GOP’s war on “hookup culture”: Tennessee Republicans enraged by college Sex Week – Salon.com.

Thanks to the organizers who promote dialogue, healthy sexuality, consent and safe-sex.  Salute to Salon and Josh Eidelson for the cool interview.  And of course, I found the link at Feministing‘s Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet. 

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February 21, 2014 · 2:56 am

Women intellectuals under attack . . . on the internets!

The interwebs are structurally sexist – with whole areas where women are disrespected and policed through abuse and threats of violence.

Recently some academic dude wrote some article suggesting that professors  learn about twitter and blogging.  A good reminder to “ask the other question” (Matsuda) when Gwendolyn Beetham points out the risks to women who enter the internet public sphere.

In fact, I cannot think of a prominent woman in the public sphere who has not been the target of sexism, usually in the form of being threatened with sexual assault, which in the case of women of color undoubtedly takes a racist tone.  Amongst countless others, recent incidents of female public scholars who have had these experiences include Mary Beard (@wmarybeard), who was threatened with rape and having her home bombed via Twitter, and Brittney Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk), who was physically threatened while speaking on a panel at the Brecht Forum in New York. If you’d like to do your own test of this, read the comments of any article published by a woman in a mainstream news media outlet – or read almost any mainstream account of women in the public sphere. Indeed, as Mary Beard recently stated in a talk at the British Museum (recounted in The Guardian ), the very real, and very negative, push-back against women who enter the public sphere is nothing new in Western culture: it extends all the way back to Homer.  Although not surprising, it is nevertheless disappointing that Kristof and others continue to ignore the risks that women have faced when entering the public sphere for the past two millennia.

via Women and Public Scholarship | Inside Higher Ed.

Thanks to Feministing’s Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet for the link.

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February 19, 2014 · 2:16 am

Food, authenticity and cultural appropriation

Thanks to Bitch Media for the comic frame.

Shing Yin Khor has a wonderful comic about cultural appropriation and food at Bitch Media.  Five stars.

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February 18, 2014 · 1:21 am

Curren$y at the drive in

Curren$y has a new mix tape available for download called The Drive in Theatre. I recommend it.  The record is a return to loose jazz loops and picturesque raps set over Godfather samples.   Add in a ton of potent guest verses and The Drive in Theatre went right to the CD player of my automobile.

“Godfather Four” with Action Bronson is pretty strong.  So is “E.T.” (a collaboration with B-Real) that gives Curren$y a chance to talk the lifestyles of the rich and stoned and B-Real a chance to confirm his own Godfather status. “Vintage Vineyard,” “Stolen,” “El Camino,” are all solid portraits of the elite life.

“Grew up in this” matches Spitta with Gary Indiana’s Freddie Gibbs (the hardman’s hardman) and Young Roddy.  The result are three nice verses about struggling.

Check out The Drive in Theatre it’s a strong effort and worth downloading.

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February 15, 2014 · 1:25 am

Cannibal capitalism: Chief Keef and rehab

I’m interested in the idea that folks would become famous because they harmed themselves or allowed someone else to harm them on camera.  I’ve been calling it cannibal capitalism – as a means of describing this wide scope on popular media.    Cannibal in the sense that viewers consume of the body of another human being who is on camera taking years off of their life

Chief Keef is in rehab for ganja and let’s loose with some great insights about how unpleasant it is.

Nestled inside a nondescript beach house, one of hip-hop’s most controversial rising stars is holed up in court-ordered rehab, and he’s feeling frustrated and alone.

“It’s like being locked up,” Chief Keef, 18, tells Billboard, in his first interview since he entered rehab. “And when I’m locked up, I don’t want anybody to come see me. I won’t let my family come here. I haven’t seen my 2-year-old daughter.”

via Chief Keef Talks Rehab, ‘Bang 3’ Album & Learning How to Surf | Billboard.

Cannibal Capitalism is best thought of as a pattern of mediated communication about morality.  Along with viewing people getting hurt and enjoying it (Jackass, NFL, Ultimate Fighting) we also get the moral commentary from the narrators and participants about that suffering.

Part of the narration of morality that comes with hip hop and cannibal capitalism is a kind of racism+classism+paternalism.  When the articles were popping about Odd Future, the dominant story was just how naughty they were and emphasizing the difficulties they got into.  Very little conversation about music, and heavy emphasis on the disciplining of (usually) young black men.

The quote from the Billboard article is the opening passage.  Do you think it invites a kind of moral judgement?  Do you wonder what this rapper did to get this punishment?  Is it framed in a way to encourage you to read it as an omniscient person who hasn’t had this kind of difficulty, shaking your head in faux-sympathy?

There is no doubt that Chief Keef is at the core of a major moral panic.  One part of the division is the fascinating language used to divide people up.  Richard Sherman and the significance of the representation of thug:

I wonder if the exciting pleasure of the music and imagery of Chief Keef experiencing suffering, particularly mapping up to the discipline and punish strategy of suffering/redemption (recycled) is part of the appeal?

Public consumption of rap stars and their back stories usually includes a kind of nefarious sharing of information.  I went over to my buddies house and we listened to music and also to a 5 minute rant from KRS-ONE threatening some dude over a van robbery.

Hip hop fans are usually fiends for gossip, and interested in the music, culture, language and well, anything of our favorite musicians.

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February 8, 2014 · 5:22 pm

Freestyle rhetorical analysis: Top Chef 11 finale

Rhetoric is a lived art — we use it in all of our discussions when we make arguments.  When we write stuff down or record our words, they can be analyzed.  There is mass critical discontent about the winner of Season 11 of Top Chef.  In the scrutiny of a single television episode, quite a few folks have made visible pathways of arguments presented in the TV show.  Salute to freestyle pop culture rhetorical analysis!

Consider the breakdown of the faux-humility presented by contestant Nicholas in Entertainment Weekly by Stephen Lee:

Back in the stew room, Nicholas infuriated me by saying to Nina, “Well, it didn’t happen.” Nina: “What?” Nicholas: “I had to be perfect to beat you.” Just in case anyone was mistaking that for humility, it was NOT. That’s Nicholas trying to look like the underdog so that if he lost, he could just shrug sadly, but if he won, he could do that whole dropped-jaw thing and make it look like some dramatic come-from-behind victory.

via ‘Top Chef’ season finale: An unsavory winner | Season 11 Episode 17 | EW.com.

 

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February 4, 2014 · 4:25 am

Law and Order: rape and culture

Salute to the well-argued piece about Law and Order: SVU from the perspective of a survivor of sexual assault.  From Stacey Mae Fowles:

Any rape survivor who has watched her rapist live out his life in relative bliss, while hers is a wreckage of fear and mistrust, will tell you that justice is a fiction we all consent to. While she struggles through the slow tedium of recovery others live in willful ignorance, believing that some sort of redemption is possible. The survivor lives a life redefined by the actions of another—every victory against him, every loss endured in his shadow.

via “The Truth Is Embarrassing”: Olivia Benson and the Timeline of Trauma.

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January 30, 2014 · 5:19 am

Waka Flocka Flame mean girls scene

In the Waka / Gucci contrast I’ve noted before that Waka holds the Snoop Dogg path of long-term success. Despite releasing albums like Flockavelli where he is splattered with blood.

Waka simultaneously seems to be welcome in the pop culture sphere.  In some ways because of his bloody rhyme content and choice of representation and his willingness to play a role in the phone scene from mean girls.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/997405/throwback-theater-mean-girls.jhtml#id=1721274

 

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January 28, 2014 · 12:52 am

Graffiti deterrence: SABE KST

Vice has a cool interview with SABE KST. about is perspective on the evolution of bombing.  I like the graphic stories from old graffiti writers.  SABE has an epic story about graffiti beef going bad:

Aside from commodification, how has the game changed since?

A lot of the writers I grew up with gave it up for different reasons. Either they can’t get up in the middle of the night to go bombing, or they have a boss and a wife, or can’t afford to get locked up. I think it’s a privilege that I’m able to keep writing, so I exercise that liberty whenever I can. Probably the most notable change is the drastic drop in violence. Looking back, I was involved in some pretty serious beefs back then.

How serious?

A friend of mine cut this other kid’s ear off with hatchet over some graffiti nonsense. I was 17 at the time and we lived together in a two-story house in the Bronx. He was one of those kids who didn’t really think about the consequences of his actions and didn’t make a big deal about it. But, I knew for a fact that this kid would come around eventually, so I went out and came back with an M16 assault rifle.

How’d you manage that?

A mutual friend put me in touch with a guy who I guess you can call a good Samaritan. He let me borrow the rifle which he apparently stole from a military base. The guy literally had an empty apartment full of guns and grenades. This was in 1995.

This doesn’t seem so far-fetched. This kid ever come looking for closure?

Yeah, sure enough. And the kid came with his crew. I went outside to talk to them since my friend wanted a fair fight with the kid, but they kept insisting on jumping him. So he grabbed the rifle and lit up the whole block from the top of our stoop. It was like a movie. Everybody started hitting the corner and I ran down the block until I felt this cold heat.

So you caught a stray?

Yeah… Once everyone scattered and I saw the blood, I knew I was shot. And once my friend realized he just ran—he threw the gun in the backyard and took off. When the police discovered the weapon, his prints were all over it and he ended up doing two years. Like I said, he never really thought anything through. Luckily the bullet missed my heart and got lodged in my solar plexus.

via Conceptual Vandalism with Sabe Kst | VICE United States.

A few thoughts:

– this is the quintessential moral panic about graffiti, including the friend who just doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions.  “cut a kid’s ear off with a hatchet . . .”  whoa.

– It is exactly the kind of tantalizing story told in graffiti magazines and books.

– I wonder why the public service announcements in our health education are focused so heavily on the negative consequences of the actions they are trying to prevent, when that seems to be the kind of war story used the most often for authenticity within the subculture?

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