The Race and Gender Split: videos, cartoons and a pocket guide to Obamabots

It started with a rumor that the Obama campaign was hiring 400 bloggers to woo Hillary’s online supporters.

Clinton supporters, already unhappy about misogyny in the mainstream media, were not amused. Said Cannonfire–

“Obama volunteers are being told to ratchet down the anti-Hillary hate, because someone in the campaign realizes Hillary Clinton supporters are not very likely to support Obama if he becomes the nominee. Which means, of course, that Obama controlled the Hillary-hate in the first place. His was the hand on the spigot.”

The hate in the blogosphere has been palpable, perpetrated by anonymous bloggers identifying themselves as Obama supporters who pasted the same misogynistic hate messages and Obama campaign chants in the comment sections of political articles. Clinton supporters have dubbed them “obamabots”.

Like a battered wife, they’ll be back.

Says Lavender Liberal:

Notice something? For about three days after his supporters declared Barack Obama the “presumptive nominee”… the constant bashing… suddenly subsided, to be replaced by sickeningly cloying calls for “unity” and “graciousness,” ’cause, after all, “we’re all Democrats.”

Why did the obamabots stop posting their cut and paste messages? Could it be, as Lavender Liberal suggests, that

“The Big Giant Head at Obama Central texted new marching orders to the cell phones (or perhaps directly into the brain-chip implants) of all Obamaniacs simultaneously”?

Or maybe it was encoded into the Edwards endorsement of Obama ? The bots were watching all the news services–we know they were following the speech, because they were posting nasty messages whenever a news service didn’t publish something about the Edwards endorsement instantaneously enough for their demands. When Edwards mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name, about 1:20 minutes into the speech, there were boos all around. Then Edwards made the “we are a stronger party, because Hillary Clinton is a Democrat” comments. Then the obambots stopped pasting their venom.

The Lavender Liberal, bracing for the expected change in online tactics, created a pocket guide, based on the cycle of domestic violence model:

Another Hillary forum prints its own unprintable reply below the fold (NSFW). One visitor posts a link to Jo Jo singing “Too little, too late”, another to Carole King’s “It’s too late baby”. Some blogs–and radio stations–are talking about a Obama boycott, a boycott of NBC, and whether to vote for McCain or write-in Hillary’s name. Many are expressing disappointment over NARAL, an organization that Hillary Clinton took some political heat for in giving them her support in 1999.

At Hillaryresponders.com they are planning a DC rally for the May 31 rules committee and chatting about a million woman march on the Democratic convention in Denver. A new video from GeekLove08 declares “Make your vote count, vote Republican”, and includes scenes from the riot-torn 1968 Democratic Convention. The names of Howard Dean and Donna Brazile are invoked over and over, and not in a good way.

Even the political blogs have become divided. One poster who reports an abundance of “obamatons” on Huffington Post says any comments favorable to Clinton are taken down by a moderator within an hour of posting. MoveOn is said to be a huge fundraising machine for Obama.

Probably the most sensible thing that has been said all week came from Bill Clinton talking informally after a campaign event. He said we not only need to unite the nation with regards to race and gender, but also by income and geographical location.

And don’t forget the earlier–and in my opinion the best–video mashup of political campaign hate and anti-woman vitriol. The soundtrack has Hillary’s China speech about the value of women.

Links: Election hate speech–are you “terribly sexist”?

Interesting links on the subject of sexism, and some tests to see if you’re sexist:

Misogyny I won’t miss by Marie Cocco in the Washington Times–a review of election ’08 hate speech

Hey Obama boys, Back off already! Rebecca Traister in Salon “Young women are growing increasingly frustrated with the fanatical support of Barack and gleeful bashing of Hillary.”–a narrative of the increasing cultural split and increasing split in the Democratic party.

The Male Privelege Checklist

Our Racist, Sexist Selves in the NYT

Campaigning while female –the Hillary wrinkle picture that guys were passing around on their cellphones last winter

Online psychological tests:

The ambivalent sexism inventory-answer 22 questions and see your score

U of C shooter test-target practice, distinguish between a criminal and a black

Harvard battery of psychological tests-list of tests

Video

Anti-woman media images from this campaign

Don’t call me Sweetie: t-shirts, buttons, and magnets

When journalist Peggy Agar asked presidential candidate Barack Obama what he was going to do about Michigan plants closing, his answer was “hold on one second, Sweetie”. She–and Michigan–are still waiting.

Dismissive or disrespectful?

The nation’s economy–and a professional journalist–both deserve a better answer than “don’t worry your pretty little head about it”.

No more “sweetie”.

You can call me “sweetie”…

when I can call you “boy”.

T-shirts, magnets, stickers, and buttons, that say “no dismissiveness” in no uncertain terms. Items have either a “No sweetie” symbol or a “You can call me ‘sweetie’ when I can call you ‘boy’” slogan.

Here’s the Geek design, the code for the end of a format:

The velvet hand in the iron glove–with hearts:

Or Goth–with skull and crossbones:

Or the international symbol–a circle with a red line through the word “sweetie”:

Would someone get Peggy Agar a makeover?

Everyone who saw Barack Obama call Peggy Agar “sweetie” on Detroit’s WXYZ Channel 7, wanted to see the face that went with the voice.

I’m trying to think of a way to say this that doesn’t sound either brutal or deeply shallow and I can’t think of one. So I’ll just come out and say it. Peggy Agar needs a makeover.

Yes, I’m blond too, and a little heavier than I would like to be (who isn’t), but I’m not on television. Peggy Agar is.

First of all, that red jacket. Blonds, at least natural blonds with our completion type ( I think I’m a “winter”) can’t wear that shade of red. Cinnamon red, okay. Brick red. Salmon red. Not scarlet. Let the Asians wear scarlet–we just can’t pull it off. And what’s the matter with more conservative colors–gray, black, blue, navy? We can wear those colors–they show off our faces. They disguise less-than-perfect figures.

Then there’s the hair. I once met a guy who they said “combed his hair with firecrackers”. I can’t begin to figure out what’s wrong with Ms. Agar’s hair, maybe the part…? She needs to start out with a good basic cut, that’s for sure. Short enough to fall naturally instead of bunching up, but long enough not to make her look heavier.

Remember back when Oprah had a “face made for radio”? Ewww. But she’s presentable now, very presentable. And her wardrobe–an even worse disaster!!!! Oprah has no taste whatsoever, but she doesn’t need taste. She has talent and she has money and she has People. She can use her time to do what she does best, then pay someone else to do her appearance.

I have never seen Peggy Agar before–maybe she was just having a Bad Hair Day–but I can see this much. She has voice and she has presence. But she doesn’t have People.

Here is my advice for Peggy Agar:

Your fifteen minutes of fame is not over yet. You’ve got about ten minutes left. The Obama people owe you one, big time, and one day soon you may be able to collect.

Here’s what you do. Get some People. Hair People, makeup People, personal trainer People. People who know how to make you look good on camera. Can you find out who does Ellen? Hillary? Maybe they will do it as a promotion?

Oooh! Oooh! Maybe Tyra would do you. “Fierce walk, fierce walk!” I love Tyra.

Figure out how to write it off as a business expense. It is. Then have fun with it. It’s your life. Enjoy it. Try the stuff they give you, no matter how bizarre. I think Ellen did a segment like this when she was starting out–they had her as motorcycle mama, soccer mom, etc.

Then think about what’s wrong about the Obama campaign, and what he and his surrogates need to learn to be an effective President or Vice President for ALL the American people, including women. I want to hear you ask him the tough questions. Whether he thinks women should worry their pretty little heads about having careers. The feminization of poverty. How he would incorporate women into his staff. Would he have cutsie little Monica-type interns and flirt with them the way he does with the female voters, or would he take them seriously? Bill Clinton has had to defend the racist charges against him time and again. Obama needs to do the same with sexism. Then think of where you want your career path to go next–do you want to be the next Charlie Rose? the next Baba Wawa? –and ask Obama some of those kind of questions too. Sort of a national resume tryout.

Maybe the WXYZ could hype it a bit and solicit better questions from Detroit viewers, or have the voters use their cellphones to vote on questions they want to see Obama answer. Or solicit questions from the Clinton campaign just for equal time.

I don’t live anywhere near Detroit, but believe me, if Peggy Agar can pull off that interview with Barack Obama, I will be looking for it on the internet.

Oh, and I hear the Senator’s wife calls him “stinky” as a term of endearment…..hee, hee …. are you thinking what I’m thinking….

Okay, so that’s my free advice. You can decide if it’s worth what you paid for it.

Hate: the change you have been waiting for

I don’t usually write about politics, except as it touches matters of culture. Who said what in the daily back and forth is not usually all that interesting except to those whose careers rise and fall by it.

But the Democratic primary race has been getting a bit freaky. If you read the comments sections of the major news feeds, and even some mainstream media sources, you will see a dark, hating side of human nature that wants to degrade and hurt women.

Who are they? They claim to be Obama supporters. I know for a fact some of them are.
Here is one example from a progressive blog I know to be supporting Senator Obama:

It was accompanied by the slogan, “Babe, either you go quietly or we send in the Flying Monkeys.”

“Babe?” “Go”? “Flying Monkeys”? And an image of a witch?

No, I’m not going to give a link. It could be from any number of sources–they’re all over the place now. But the writer is apparently so enamored of his candidate that his willing to use a tripple whammy of name calling, condescending epithets, and threats of bodily harm, so say nothing of trying to stop a democratic free election.

All this in the name of a candidate who claims to be able to end divisiveness and bring people together.

I don’t see much possibility of any candidate bringing about all this hoped-for change, unless it is as the candidate says: “You are the change you’ve been waiting for,” and the followers themselves are expected to bring about the change. In that case, the prospect is doomed. That campaign seems to be attracting nothing but haters.