This Shizzzzzz is Ricockulous
"Ordinary ... is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary."
Last night I listened to Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC, because I had to give her the benefit of the doubt and listen to her ideas. While I was listening, I became more and more angry, more and more bewildered that our political power systems seem to believe that a tokenistic approach to diversity in politics will inspire people to switch their politics and vote one way or the other.
"Tokenism refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or vice versa) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Instead, their difference may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous."
Many people believe that Barack Obama's campaign is one of a person who is hell bent on furthering his career, or advancing some agenda based on diverse characteristics or personal history. I believe differently, and see the Obama campaign as a different or unique approach to politics as usual. It is a campaign of different thought, new ideas, progressive movements and a true desire to regain the great qualities of American history and ideals. Some people would call the Democratic Party's nomination of him as tokenistic, when it is not.
However, when the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin and market her as a "hockey mom", a hunter, a gun shooter, a maverick, etc. etc. they seek to brand her as the greatest political Barbie doll ever created. When I heard her speak, my mind's eye saw a woman wearing camo, drinking Bud Light and talking trash at a tiny bar against someone who comes from outside and challenges her to a drinking contest. When she talked about how great it was that Alaska was full of natural resources to sell to the rest of the US and the world, it made me sick and angry that politicians would so obviously manipulate and craft a personality that fit their own interests so perfectly.
Abortion rights? How can we fight against a woman who does not "believe" in abortion rights? Men are one thing, women another.
Drilling in ANWR? How can we fight against a woman who is the governor of that state and has a vested, corrupt interest in bringing more money into her local coffer? How can we fight against a woman who apparently sees her state as a money making machine and not America's last true wilderness?
Miranda rights? How can we fight against a person who believes that the fundamental right to receive legal representation regardless of crime is not applicable to certain people? How long until the definition of who is protected by law begins to change?
When I thought about my future, about the world of my adulthood, the problems and ideas of feminism were always in the forefront. I have always thought about things in relation to the dynamics between power structures and those who do not have control but desperately seek it. When I think about Sarah Palin, I find the idea to be the antithesis of feminism; as if the Panopticon was watching down on us in our prison yard, wandering aimless and afraid, and put a token up on the stage. A token to say, this is what you have always wanted, and now I have given it to you. And now I wonder: what happens next? If we, as a country, had one chance in a million to change our perspectives and effect a real transformation of thought and action, and if the power structures responded by giving us a Barbie in the form of Sarah Palin, then what is the future of power and of relationships? Do we truly relate, or do we just talk at each other till we're blue in the face, yell and scream and moan and groan until the exhaustion overwhelms us? What do we, young people, the future generation who will inherit all the mess of our parents, do? What change can we truly effect?
It seems that every step forward is met by a giant brick wall to hold us back in the form of laws or of personhoods propped up by governments to satiate our base desires and leave us unable to complain in the normal pathways. We are forced to create something different.
So what will it look like? What will it sound like? How do we start creating something outside of our sphere? I strongly believe that Audre Lorde was exactly right and years before her time when she wrote in Sister Outsider that you cannot dismantle the master's house using the master's tools. We are at this threshold, and it is time.
Barbies are famous for looking beautiful, having stylish clothes, good looking Kens beside them, and for saying and perpetuating ideas like "Math is Hard". Fuck this Barbie Doll.
Let it not be that this situation reminds me of too many science fiction books, especially one in particular. When does science fiction become fact? What do we do when it does?
"Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
"The crimes of others are a secret language among us. Through them we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all."
Last night I listened to Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC, because I had to give her the benefit of the doubt and listen to her ideas. While I was listening, I became more and more angry, more and more bewildered that our political power systems seem to believe that a tokenistic approach to diversity in politics will inspire people to switch their politics and vote one way or the other.
"Tokenism refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or vice versa) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Instead, their difference may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous."
Many people believe that Barack Obama's campaign is one of a person who is hell bent on furthering his career, or advancing some agenda based on diverse characteristics or personal history. I believe differently, and see the Obama campaign as a different or unique approach to politics as usual. It is a campaign of different thought, new ideas, progressive movements and a true desire to regain the great qualities of American history and ideals. Some people would call the Democratic Party's nomination of him as tokenistic, when it is not.
However, when the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin and market her as a "hockey mom", a hunter, a gun shooter, a maverick, etc. etc. they seek to brand her as the greatest political Barbie doll ever created. When I heard her speak, my mind's eye saw a woman wearing camo, drinking Bud Light and talking trash at a tiny bar against someone who comes from outside and challenges her to a drinking contest. When she talked about how great it was that Alaska was full of natural resources to sell to the rest of the US and the world, it made me sick and angry that politicians would so obviously manipulate and craft a personality that fit their own interests so perfectly.
Abortion rights? How can we fight against a woman who does not "believe" in abortion rights? Men are one thing, women another.
Drilling in ANWR? How can we fight against a woman who is the governor of that state and has a vested, corrupt interest in bringing more money into her local coffer? How can we fight against a woman who apparently sees her state as a money making machine and not America's last true wilderness?
Miranda rights? How can we fight against a person who believes that the fundamental right to receive legal representation regardless of crime is not applicable to certain people? How long until the definition of who is protected by law begins to change?
When I thought about my future, about the world of my adulthood, the problems and ideas of feminism were always in the forefront. I have always thought about things in relation to the dynamics between power structures and those who do not have control but desperately seek it. When I think about Sarah Palin, I find the idea to be the antithesis of feminism; as if the Panopticon was watching down on us in our prison yard, wandering aimless and afraid, and put a token up on the stage. A token to say, this is what you have always wanted, and now I have given it to you. And now I wonder: what happens next? If we, as a country, had one chance in a million to change our perspectives and effect a real transformation of thought and action, and if the power structures responded by giving us a Barbie in the form of Sarah Palin, then what is the future of power and of relationships? Do we truly relate, or do we just talk at each other till we're blue in the face, yell and scream and moan and groan until the exhaustion overwhelms us? What do we, young people, the future generation who will inherit all the mess of our parents, do? What change can we truly effect?
It seems that every step forward is met by a giant brick wall to hold us back in the form of laws or of personhoods propped up by governments to satiate our base desires and leave us unable to complain in the normal pathways. We are forced to create something different.
So what will it look like? What will it sound like? How do we start creating something outside of our sphere? I strongly believe that Audre Lorde was exactly right and years before her time when she wrote in Sister Outsider that you cannot dismantle the master's house using the master's tools. We are at this threshold, and it is time.
Barbies are famous for looking beautiful, having stylish clothes, good looking Kens beside them, and for saying and perpetuating ideas like "Math is Hard". Fuck this Barbie Doll.
Let it not be that this situation reminds me of too many science fiction books, especially one in particular. When does science fiction become fact? What do we do when it does?
"Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
"The crimes of others are a secret language among us. Through them we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all."