December 11 2008
Facelifts for the Dead and Other Choice Links
posted by Ana Samways at 10:56 am
Viral marketing: Flight of the Conchords are asking fans to send own lip-synch videos of their hit “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros” rap and the best will end up being played on the show. Go here. Here’s one from My Damn Channel.
Facelifts for the dead: “A funeral is their last major event and they want to look good for it. I’ve even had people say, ‘I want you to get rid of my wrinkles and make me look younger’,” says one funeral director. “I’ve had people mention that they want their breasts to look perky when they’re dead,” says another. Read full story with news video here.
Oops! Accidentally texting Dad about sex has become very popular on Digg and as such, has spawned and even funnier parody.
So outrageous was NZ Herald columnist Garth George’s use of Nia Glassie’s death to push his Christian pro-life agenda and the assertion that abortion caused child abuse, he has been flamed on feministing.com. George wrote about it in this week’s column. However, he has chosen to reproduce only the angry comments, which are part and parcel of this new media, but he hasn’t quoted the blogger’s original post, nor the other, more well-mannered comments. For a more balanced perspective, read the Feministing post here.
Picture this: The Avenging Unicorn playset.
Handy advice: Joe Bonomo, a Hollywood stuntman in the silent action serials of the 1920s & 30s, developed a nice, although odd sideline, writing the Bonomo Library of Handy Pocket Manuals, including Become Lovelier After Forty, How to Find Your Man and Simplify Your Housekeeping.
Video: How condoms are made.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’m so incredibly embarrassed by Garth George. I hope people reading the feministing blog know that NZ men don’t condone violence against women.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:49 am
THANK YOU Ana, for saying what I was thinking about the Garth George piece/response. I came to it via Jezebel, and I was one of the ones who wrote a well mannered response. His smug “hey world, this is the militant feminazis you’ve spawned” BS reply was pretty much what I thought he’d do anyway. Gah. How does this man still have a job?!
December 15th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I thought the Garth George piece had an interesting point to make. At what point do we start and stop caring how we treat human life?
December 15th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Kat I Don’t really understand what you mean since having abortion legal means we do care about human life. We care about a woman’s right to choose what she does with her life. We care about her rights as a human being.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Kat: People stop caring about life at the point where men like Garth George think it’s appropriate to justify giving a woman the bash.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Grant L:
to explain my position I think it is difficult to say we are “caring for human life” by aborting human lives. Many people would probably say my anti-abortion stance is merely my “pro-life Christian agenda” but I can assure you it’s actually a reasoned stance.
Many babies who are aborted are at the same stage of gestation where if they were born naturally most parents and doctors would do everything in their power to keep the baby alive. It is completely illogical to argue that just because the mother has the right to choose what to do with her body she can therefore choose to kill a life that in slightly different circumstances might be protected and loved.
Where do we draw the line? And if we don’t protect life when it is most vulnerable, what sort of a society are we setting up to protect life when it is 3 years old, or 6, or 21, 60 or 100?
I think that’s what George was saying in his editorial and he has a point.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Kat: That is not the point at all in his editorial. He was using child abuse and abortion to justify that it was ok to smack women around to keep them in their place.
Abortion is a completely separate issue, and it should be a personal choice. We don’t go into your home or your reproductive system and tell you how to live your lives, so we’d appreciate it if you stayed out of ours.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Biscuit: I’m sorry if you read my comment as interfering in your life. I was actually interested in a reasoned debate.
I thought George’s article was not JUSTIFYING child abuse or violence against women – it was saying we should not condone ANY sort of abuse, against any sort of person.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:18 am
“The assumption by so many women of the roles traditionally exclusive to men has left many men in confusion, frustration and anxiety, and more are lashing out because they feel their maleness is under threat.”
I don’t know, that quote sounds like a whole lot of “Those Uppity Wimmen! How dare they emasculate me!”
There is no possibility of “reasoned debate” when the anti-abortionists think it’s perfectly acceptable to take away a human being’s rights and choices. I’ll quite happily sit down and discuss it through when anti-abortionists agree that a woman’s value to society and community is more than just being a baby factory.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Kat – If you don’t like abortion don’t have one.
December 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Condoms: “They may be small and simple, but using them is big and clever!”