Parked in the fields
All night
So many years ago,
We saw
A lake beside us
When the moon rose.
I remember

Leaving that ancient car
Together. I remember
Standing in the white grass
Beside it. We groped
Our way together
Downhill in the bright
Incredible light

Beginning to wonder
Whether it could be lake
Or fog
We saw, our heads
Ringing under the stars we walked
To where it would have wet our feet
Had it been water.

– George Oppen

[Found in Bobbie Louise Hawkins' contribution to the George Oppen feature in Jacket: http://jacketmagazine.com/36/oppen-hawkins.shtml]

Earlier that day, chatting for a few minutes on the live-blog at vivirlatino.com, I joked about what should be Obama’s theme song if he won, so, without further ado:

It’s like I waited my whole life…

No, it is not ‘Celebration’ by Kool and the Gang. Give me a little credit and play the damn video click the link! (Sorry, can’t embed it.)

A ton of information to process here [click here for the large size], but this is what I’m thinking about:

In California, young people (18-29) voted against Prop 8. Hope! (Hope, also, because the margin voting for Prop 8 was 52%, versus 62% eight years ago the last time this was on the ballot and passed.)

But also, more concretely, in terms of moving forward — 70% of black voters voted for Prop 8. This is in comparison to 53% of Latino voters who supported the ban, mirroring the state overall, and Asian voters and white voters, who voted 51% against the proposition. Why?

Do religious beliefs play a role? Sure. Obama not directly endorsing gay marriage? Maybe. What those numbers really tell us, though, is that the No on 8 campaign didn’t connect to minority voters, and particularly African-American voters, in a meaningful way. Look at Prop 4. Do you think socially conservative families — of whatever background — are digging on the idea of teen confidentiality for abortion services? Of course not. That’s why the No on Prop 4 campaign focused on teen safety and the worst-case scenario of teens whose lives and homes could be jeopardized by parental notification (just take a gander at their website to see what I mean). Looking at the numbers, it seems that this argument at least had an impact on the black community, which still voted in favor of the proposition, but by a much lower percentage (51%).

No on 8′s campaign focused on the premise (I call it a fact) that Prop 8 is ‘unfair, unecessary and wrong’. Yes, but that is not an argument that reaches across experiences and moves voters who are not already supportive of gay marriage. There is a reason that communities of color see gay marriage as a ‘white issue’, and I think that also speaks to a need to reach out more to LGBT communities of color and make sure they are part of the process.

These are my first, tentative, thoughts on what to question and consider as we move forward from the passage of Prop 8 — and in terms of organizing/campaign strategies in general. Luckily, Pam Spaulding has a more reasoned, detailed argument on the subject. (I avoid comments like the plague these days but if you have any resistance to what she writes, read the comment thread. Every question/defensive reaction is there with responses.) [h/t harrietsdaughter for the link]

ETA:  I realize this post could be read to mean that I think Prop 8 didn’t pass because of black voters.  No; I could just as easily written about married people or folks over the age of 65, who both voted for Prop 8 in larger numbers according to the exit polls.  This post at the LJ community debunkingwhite points out how the results themselves a larger-than-average margin of error.  That said — I still think the goals and processes of large-scale campaigning/organizing efforts will benefit by recognizing/listening to, rather than ‘targeting’, POC.  (See also La Macha’s post @ VivirLatino.)

To everyone today reveling in last night’s presidential victory — congratulations! To everyone who may feel tempted to tell me that this ban is a temporary setback, give me a week or two.  Believe me, all I want is to get to that hopeful place where Sudy and Joan find themselves today.

Everything she says is like a blueprint for what absolutely must be present in our conversations about progressive organizing and alliances after today’s elections in the US.  If I have time I might try to transcribe some of it later.  Meantime, if you can’t listen to the interview you can read another interview with Clemente here:  http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2008/11/01/znet-vote-your-values-an-interview-with-rosa-clemente/

For those who aren’t in California, or for those of you who are still pondering, here are two resources for your consideration:

CA Green Party Recommendations:  http://www.cagreens.org/elections/2008/Propositions.081104.shtml

Courage Campaign Recommendations: http://www.couragecampaign.org/2008VoterGuide

CA residents — how did you vote?  Why?  (If you feel comfortable sharing, of course.)  Which propositions do you think represent an historic step (in either direction) for us?

Seems like every woman you try to save ends up dead… or deeply resentful. Maybe you should retire. – Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992)

The Dark Knight, perhaps the most anticipated of 2008’s summer blockbusters, opened on July 18 and had the biggest opening weekend in movie history, earning more than $155M. The DVD is slated to be released December 9, just in time for the Christmas rush.  Even if you haven’t seen the film [spoilers spoilers spoilers to come] though, its commercials set the scene: Christian Bale’s troubled and arrogant Bruce Wayne against Heath Ledger’s even more troubled and arrogant Joker. While I found myself absorbed and troubled by a complicated look at the mythology of heroes and manhood, as well as a great summer action flick, I had to ask: Where’s Catwoman? Where’s the reality check on the Gender Trope Parade of our comic book blockbusters?

This summer, as in others, we had plenty of familiar, troubled heroes struggling with the burden of Masculinity, Inc: saving lives and safeguarding the status quo. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight. –each collides with the extreme consequences of their heroic potential. Luckily, in their universe, heroes get a standard-issue Feminine Counterpart, women who are passionate but, more importantly, compassionate; committed to justice but, first and foremost, committed to their men. These women remain true to their genesis in postwar/Cold War paranoia and idealized gender roles. Tony Starks/Iron Man has Pepper Potts, Bruce Banner/Hulk has Betty Ross, and in the latest installments in the Batman franchise, Bruce Wayne/Batman has Rachel Dawes. Instead of Catwoman/Selena Kyle, whose character in 1992’s Batman Returns inhabits the marginal space between lady & tramp, Rachel Dawes is a woman whose simplistic views of justice keep her at a pedestal-appropriate distance from the film’s more complicated hero. She’s also mercifully killed off before her new dude shows how flimsy a concept ‘justice’ can be in the face of tragedy. But while the heroes get to question and push against (and, of course, ultimately endorse) their conceptions of masculinity, without a Catwoman to push back, the women of these films are simply supportive spectators.

To some extent this trend reflects what Susan Faludi discusses in her recent book The Terror Dream, in which men are heroes and women need saving. Post-9/11, there’s a perceived need for cultural mythology that re-centers the country’s image in strength and justice after that tragic and disturbing de-centering. This leads to stories in which the tragic hero must sacrifice other aspects of his humanity in favor of heroism for the greater good. These also tend to be stories in which other characters’ struggles are minimized or nonexistent. About midway into Batman Returns, released 16 years ago, Selina Kyle (as herself, not Catwoman) catches sight of herself in a store window and ask her reflection, “What are you doing?” In today’s Gotham, Rachel Dawes asks that question of Batman – not herself.

What makes The Dark Knight worth talking about (besides its many problems, including a true dive into sentimentality and yet another appearance of the Magical Negro in the social experiment the Joker conducts on the two ferries) is, of course, the Joker.  How many sequels take on their predecessor’s very premise?  [Note: I'd love some examples!]  Batman Begins focused entirely on Wayne’s metamorphosis from Brat to Bat.  In The Dark Knight, the Joker mocks the concept of an origin story.  He tells two different versions of How I Got My Scars and is interrupted later (by Batman) as he’s about to tell another.  During his brief, choreographed stay in the police station we learn that he’s deliberately obscured any traces of an identity.  What we learn of him relates entirely to his obsession with Batman, with the ultimate masculine persona.  This extends beyond their conflicting views on law and order and into their costumes: Batman wears a sculpted chestplate; the Joker wears make-up and, at one point, drag.  The result is a sexy, bloody pas de deux that, because this is a blockbuster, ends with a boring monologue by Commissioner Gordon on making sacrifices, including the (obviously temporary) sacrifice of a good public image, in the name of that other, more nebulous good.  Gordon’s speech hits a false note — as does the ferry standoff — because by this point the Joker has thrown such cheap and easy dichotomies into question.

All well and good.  But where is Ms. Dawes in all this?  Dead.  She’s made the real sacrifice, right?  She died so that we could see Harvey Dent flip his shit and prove that Bruce Wayne is, finally, the better man — that there is no easy way to win.  It’s that kind of character resolution that makes me crave Catwoman, who (in Burton’s film) literally shreds the comfortable, inviting feminine pillow on which a wounded hero might rest his weary head.  She’s the awkward, frazzled secretary turned villain with a thing for leather and animals — but neither role fits.  You can’t forget Pfeiffer’s dry-as-a-bone intonation as she comes home (after what should have been her murder by her boss, Max Shreck) and announces ‘Honey, I’m home… oh, right.  I forgot.  I’m not married’.  Then she attacks her frilly bachelorette’s flat with scissors and black spraypaint.  Over the course of the film Selina Kyle/Catwoman continues to unravel — but even unmasked, with a few lives left, she resists resolution.

Catwoman: Bruce… I would – I would love to live with you in your castle… forever, just like in a fairy tale.
[Batman caresses the back of her head]
Catwoman: [She claws Batman on the cheek] I just couldn’t live with myself, so don’t pretend this is a happy ending!

A note: Although I focus on the Batman franchise, I’m keenly aware of the 2004 film Catwoman, which was a critical and commercial flop, mainly because it focused on the Sexy Crime Cat to the detriment of any plot.

(note: That the judges were three women somehow bewildered me, in much the same way that some of the Abu Ghraib torturers are women bewildered me. Is this what the pioneers of feminism envisioned? As Angela Davis points out, by now the term equal opportunity has been twisted to often simply mean equal access to the instruments of oppression.)

“Proteus (Torture and Bewilderment)”, Nick Flynn, Tin House #37

The above is taken from an essay in which the author confronts his guilt (as an American) about the use of torture as a tool by the American military. After winning a PEN award for his memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, he becomes disgusted to share the winners’ circle with a dude who condones torture in his book (The End of Faith, by Sam Harris) about atheism, because Muslims are the worst of all and must be stopped– in Flynn’s presentation of the book, at least. I haven’t read either so I can’t tell you. And actually I don’t care. I’m just giving you enough context so you know who the judges mentioned in the quote are — the three women are Dorothy Gallagher, Wendy Gimbel and Amy Wilentz — and what they judged, apparently, so poorly, as to disgrace ‘the pioneers of feminism’.

I’m wondering who he means, exactly, when he references these pioneers (I won’t even pretend to ask which feminism he means). Certainly not Angela Davis herself, whose work (I’m thinking in particular here of her book of essays Women, Race and Class) debunks much of the mythology about the “First Wave” and what their feminism meant with regards to people of color or working people. So maybe he means those famous advocates of women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Of course the fun part about the women’s suffrage movement is that its most prominent leaders were pissed that freedmen were allowed to vote before women. It should have been ladies first, you know, because ladies are wives and mothers and will bring their compassion and caring into the voting booth.

Are these the pioneers in question? I’m just guessing, since he’s so bewildered that some women don’t live up to our title as the fairer sex. Funny, isn’t it, that this argument (I like to call it the Victorian Hangover) is what spurred high-profile suffragettes to some of their nastiest moments — support of reactionary Jim Crow laws and rejection of the movement’s roots in abolitionist activism.

I wasn’t too surprised, though, to read this just a few paragraphs later:

After the award and the book reviews and the judges’ citation [on why they selected the Harris book] I told my friend Claudia that I was feeling a little nuts, as if I was seeing something that everyone else insisted wasn’t there.

That’s how black people feel all the time, Claudia said with a shrug.

Phew! I guess he really gets it then.

Avid readers, I ask:  Are you fucking kidding me?!

Prince Hotness 

or Prince Bad Hair Day?

Maybe we could compare hatwear… yanno, just to level the playing field.

Can anyone guess whose influences include Michael Jackson?

How about… AEROSMITH?!

Okay, but at least in that last one he looks better.

I will say that these dudes are probably about even in terms of overall group hotness (or lack thereof):

‘N Sync

Guns N’ Roses

They also both lose points for that “N with the apostrophe any damn place thing.”  Vom.

Too bad this isn’t a dance off, because my baby would have this in the bag.  But can we leave this to the music?  I mean, do we really wanna go there?

Ha, you don’t have a choice!  Let’s watch JT dancin’ on the ceilin’ for a minute.

My blog, so I’m posting the one GNR song I can stand.  Yeah yeah, you know what that means.

I’m sorry, I fell asleep.  Is Slash even in that one?

Well, folks, it’s in your hands now.  But hey — BFP — next hot off, let’s try for two actual hot people, yeah?  Just to keep it interesting, I mean.