Things I can post about…

Well, there is lots going on in my life right now but I can’t post about it - at least not yet.

So, what is there to talk about? Well, music for one thing. I have discovered some really good new music - much by accident. I was listening to the CBC yesterday on my way home from the grocery store because there was nothing to eat in this house (even though the cupboards are overflowing…but that is another story) and Stephen Quinn played a song by Dustin Bentall. I thought I would hate it…but I loved it! He played Crash Hard. I had to buy it from iTunes immediately. I don’t know about the rest of the CD but if this is the kind of music he is putting out at 22 he has a bright, bright future ahead of him. I also downloaded Mercy by Duffy. This song has been going through my head since I saw her on Ellen. (Yes, I have to admit it, since I have been off sick I have been watching Ellen and much to the chagrin of Deb and Angelina she has exposed me to music they would prefer I did not listen too…but that is for another blog). You can see Duffy’s video for Mercy here.

What else - how about some dog updates. Piper seems to have calmed down and she is no longer playing ‘bowling for blind dogs.’ Keifer has discovered the garbage can again - which sucks. However he has been doing really well learning to ‘come’ at the park when there are distractions around. He really is quite smart and learns quickly. Much to Deb’s surprise he showed some interest in fetching a ball the other day. Mabel’s leg is looking much better with the antibiotics. She is being a very good girl and keeping it clean while not overdoing it. However she is way too smart for us. We are having to give her antibiotics and she is spitting them out and pulling them out of everything we put them in. Thankfully we only have 4 more days.

We are going to visit my mother for a couple of days next week. I am going to be installing a new computer for her at Radium. She is still running a Win 98SE machine and it is not meeting her needs anymore. I always think these will go relatively easy. I hope that is the case. My worst fear is dealing with setting up her internet connection with Telus. They have assured me that we do not need a new disk for Vista but I remain skeptical.

Oh, I caught the tail end of the Scripps Spelling Bee yesterday. All I can say is holy shit those kids are smart. I have an excellent vocabulary and a Masters degree and I had not heard of 98% of the words those kids were spelling. Totally blew me away. Congratulations to Sameer Mishra!!!

Is it really getting worse (and other items from the blogosphere)?

In light of my difficulties with the CBC (to which no one has yet responded) I have been asking feminist women I know if things seem to be getting worse. By ‘things’ I mean racism, sexism, open misogyny, sizism, ableism etc. The general consensus seems to be yes, it is getting worse. Then I started asking why. Why are things getting worse? We have a good economy and relative prosperity - if you belong to one of the privileged groups. The answer that seemed to make the most sense to me was war. Our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan. American and the ‘coalition of the willing’ are losing soldiers in Iraq with no end in sight. The number civilian casualties in Iraq is huge. Oh, and there is genocide going on in Darfur.

It seems that being fat is one area where many people feel that it is ok to discriminate. A woman in Britain, who weighed 245 pounds died because the paramedics were too busy cracking fat jokes to actually get her to the hospital. I would bet that many professional athletes (think football players) might weigh 245 pounds. I fail to understand why they could not move her to the hospital.

Still on the issue of weight there was a study released that did not make the media. Why is this you ask? Well, because it did not confirm general beliefs about healthy eating. In a nutshell, there was an 8 year study done on post-menopausal which tried to determine the benefits of healthy eating. The split the women into 2 groups - one group followed a low fat, ‘healthy’ diet and the other group ate what they wanted. They found no statistical difference in rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer etc. Another surprising result was that there was no difference in weight. Yup, that’s right. While the healthy eating group initially lost some weight they had gained it back years before the end of the study. What does all this mean? I am not really sure. I would say that for most people weight is not a simple matter.

One more interesting thing about weight. One blogger has completed a BMI project. Basically, she took pictures of women and calculated their BMI. It really shows that the BMI is an inaccurate and arbitrary measurement. Fascinating.

From Shakespeare’s Sister: Did you know that “when sexual arousal reaches a certain point, the person goes insane?” This is quite the little gem of misogyny and homophobia from Oral Roberts. And we wonder why American Republicans are so screwed up they have no idea when they are engaging in homosexual behaviour.

One other update: Mr. Lube did send me a cheque to reimburse me for the cab ride home after they drained my transmission by mistake.

My Battle with the CBC

I am an avid CBC listener. I have it on in the car and in my office all day. When there is programming I am not fond of I listen to other CBC programs via podcast. Generally speaking, CBC programming is excellent and non-offensive. Lately there seems to be a change.

I was listening to On The Coast, the afternoon show from 3-6 every day. On September 13, Belle Purie was interviewing Grant Lawrence who is the host of a CBC Radio 3 podcast that focuses on new music. He was talking about a band called Said the Whale who sing a song called “On the Banks of English Bay.” He then went on to say that whales don’t beach themselves on English Bay unless you count his ex-girlfriend.

Being the feminist I am, I took great offense to this and fired off an email to the CBC decrying this blatant misogyny on the CBC. I received an email back from producer Karen Burgess promising to listen to the clip. I then advised her that while she was listening to clips she might also want to listen to the “google trends” piece that aired the next day as the misogynistic crap continued. I still have not heard back from Ms. Burgess.

Yesterday, Grant Lawrence was at it again. In a clip discussing Rufus Wainwright (I am still unclear how he was able to insult women given his topic) he said that Rufus was going to give them some ‘fabulous fall fashion tips.’ He should have stopped there. He goes on to add that Jenna Chow can do it for the girls. Now, unless Jenna Chow has become a fashion consultant for pre-pubescent females I have no idea to which group he was referring.

Representations of people in media are crucial. The CBC, as Canada’s publicly funded broadcaster, has an extra responsibility to ensure that all groups it discusses are represented accurately. Then there are the blatant misogynistic comments that we cannot let slide. I am unclear why the CBC seems to think this is alright. Perhaps they think they are appealing to younger, more hip audience and that somehow it is ok to sacrifice women. We need to let them know that this is not alright with us.