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In my reading I come across plenty of things that are sound and commendable. Too many things that are mindlessly banal and/or just awful. Occasionally something that’s novel and thought-provoking. And then once in a while, I encounter something that can really be categorized only as “wha-huh?”

Such is the case with “Smart Girls Wear Short Skirts, Too,” posted by Amanda Marcotte at slate.com’s XX Factor blog. This, apparently, is a response to a NY Times item by Lisa Belkin in which, according to Marcotte, the author “conflates women having sex with men and actual social inequalities between college men and women” and generally bemoans female participation in juvenile sexual antics, or at any rate the nature of that participation.

Having read Belkin’s item at the Times, I generally agree with Marcotte’s criticisms. e.g.

To Belkin, the fact that women dance in their underwear at parties is part of the same pattern that caused a fraternity to circulate an email explaining that women aren’t actually people, as if women could get their people status back by putting more clothes on.  But I think that men are perfectly capable of being turned on by a woman dancing in her underwear while never forgetting that said woman has a family that loves her, a mind of her own, and ambitions that are equal to his.

Quite. Nothing amiss, here; I consider myself a modern and committed feminist and believe in equal opportunity for men, women, and every other category of person to comport themselves how they like and still be treated like human beings. You shouldn’t be leered at or exploited just because you dress like a slut. Just as you shouldn’t be sniggered at or assumed to be somehow “repressed” or “incomplete” because you’re celibate, either. Go with yourself.

So naturally I’m neither troubled nor puzzled by Marcotte promoting a similar standard. Where she loses me is, instead, when she allows that “Belkin is quite right to be upset that men still exert total control over the college social scene, and that young women feel they have to suck up to men or they won’t have a social life at all.” Marcotte ends her post by revisiting this issue, in further but still-confounding detail:

I do think Belkin makes some interesting points about how unfair campus life is to women, who don’t get to share power over orchestrating campus social life.  That women’s relationships with each other are eroded by competing for male attention is a problem, as is that men get to make all the decisions about what to do for fun and the women are just expected to tag along.  But these problems are complicated, and solutions aren’t immediately evident. Plus, the solutions to them would require asking something of men, that they share power and treat women with respect.

What the fuck is she talking about, here? (more…)

To the presumable distress of dictators near and far, the “Arab Spring” appears to be rumbling on, even if its name is more and more awkward, chronologically. As of this week, it seems safe to say that at the very least, Qadaffy’s prospects for hanging onto power are just-above nil. And fears that foreign intervention would prove both messy and ineffective, both, are now giving way to sighs of relief. And, inevitably, to questions about what to make of all this.

Juan Cole has basically said, “this was a valid mission, pursued appropriately and can, up to this point, be called good,” and his opinion carries a lot of weight with me. I find the arguments raised by Cole (and others) as to why this should not be regarded as “Obama’s Iraq” convincing, on their own merits, and I think the established fact that Cole is far from unwilling to criticize Obama is worth something, as well.

Meanwhile, though, I have seen examples of leftish, and libertarian, criticisms of the mission in Libya for further-eroding our Constitution. And my own attitude is rather mixed, on this point.

On one hand, I believe in Constitutional government and, more specifically, in legislative approval before the commander-in-chief can order military action. And more generally, I believe that Obama is by no means perfect, and that measured criticism is valid and indeed important, even from progressives; we can’t let “our guy” off the hook automatically if we’re to stand for anything other than ourselves.

On the other hand, well, reality check, gang. When it comes to presidents circumventing congress to send “troops” abroad, Barack Obama’s contribution has thus far been both minor and very, very late in a historical context. (more…)

It’s been some time since I’ve done one of these posts, and I hadn’t even really intended to be writing any sort of “series,” anyway. But, hey, maybe it’s a decent idea. I can certainly think of a thing or two to say to one state in particular, of late… I actually wrote this up about a week ago and then thought, hm, isn’t this just gratuitous even by SB “standards?” But having given it further reflection, actually: no. The problem is not going away, and may well be getting worse. So, then…

Dear Tejas,

Could you just go the fuck away, at some point here, already?

Seriously, for all that we hear about fucking Texas this, Texas that, Texas Texas Texas all fucking day long day after day week after week all year ’round, what positive contribution to anything has come out of Texas in recent memory?

The Mavericks’ victory in this year’s NBA finals, maybe? I didn’t personally see this as positive, but I realize that many non-Texans nonetheless embraced the Dallas team as America’s sweethearts in spite of being the expensive toy of Mark Cuban, whom most people otherwise agree is a dumbfuck jerk. Aside from myself, there was indeed widespread sentiment that a Mavs victory was desirable, because old Dirk Nowitzki “needed” to get a championship finally, and more importantly because someone needed to prevent the Miami Heat from getting one, because they had been appointed as the “bad guys,” because they seemed to be obnoxious and full of themselves… like, in other words, the entire state of Texas…

Still, for argument’s sake, I’ll grant that the state of Texas was somehow the savior of the NBA this year. Considering all the noise which comes from that particular renegade former province of Mexico, I don’t think “hero of the NBA finals” goes very far. What else does Texas have to its credit?

…yes, that would be the sound of crickets chirping if this were a podcast.

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