politics

Rant: Your Messed Up Christian Tradition is Fetishizing Little Girls

David-MagnussonPurityI hate to break this news for all the folks writing this story, but Purity Balls aren’t new. This isn’t some fancy modern trend like hipsters or fondu. It’s something right-wing girls and their weird-ass families have concocted to glamorize controlling the sexuality of women and fetishizing the idea of women as little girls.

The first ever official Purity Ball was in the late 1990’s out of Colorado Springs.  Before that, there have been beautiful ceremonies from aristocratic traditions presenting debutant daughters to “society.” Freemasons have a charity and community service focused club and event/ball for it’s International Order of the Rainbow for girls. And I suppose there are always Bat Mitzvahs, celebrating the transition of girls into womanhood with bad DJ’s and enough teenage drama to make Romeo and Juliet want to kill themselves … again.

But unlike all of these coming of age traditions, a Purity Ball is the only one that attempts to repress girls by taking all of those padded bras, the red lipstick and lady-part desires and shoving them deep down where they belong.

All of this, an effort to remind girls that until Daddy gives you away, you’re owned by him. Daddy symbolizes this with a ring for his little girl wear to show her purity for him. His little girl pledges that she’ll never go on a date, kiss a boy, or hold his dirty, sweaty awkward hand. Oh and his little girl gets a pretty frilly white dress to dance in with Daddy. One such Daddy named Ron told his little girl as he placed the ring on her finger:

“This is just a reminder that keeping yourself pure is important. So you keep this on your finger and from this point you are married to the Lord, and your father is your boyfriend.”

Now if you’re a grown ass woman and this is your fetish of choice, then rock on with your bad self. If, however, you’re one of the girls portrayed in the new book by Swedish photographer David Magnusson (as seen in the top right), something ain’t right.

Women, regardless of their age, aren’t owned by men, even their fathers. This kind of thinking is a throwback to the days when having a daughter was devalued over a son.  Yes, there was once an era when girls were seen as property and “given away” by their fathers at their weddings for a price the family paid (dowry). Women were essentially sold to husbands.

As well-intentioned as these misguided fathers might be, claiming that these girls are “owned” by men teaches daughters they are only “things.” By focusing on sex being “sacred,” they’re teaching girls that when they turn out to be like the 95% of the rest of the world that has sex before marriage, that they are now impure and dirty… worthless… and that they have broken a vow with their father… like they cheated on him or something.

That doesn’t make a father loving, compassionate, cautious or over caring. It’s emotional manipulation. And it’s wrong. This breaking news might be hurtful to some, but a man’s penis isn’t that powerful or that important. A man’s penis can’t devalue anyone, in fact no one can devalue you. And if a man chooses to devalue a woman for being powerful enough to own herself, it makes the man nothing more than what he wishes he had – a giant prick.

Virginity-is-a-hoax

H/T: Guttmacher

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This is how Hillary Clinton can win the youth vote in 2016

Seven years ago this past January, then-Senator Barack Obama tripled the youth vote at the Iowa Caucuses. But it didn’t stop there, in South Carolina the youth vote tripled as well. It was just the beginning of what became an election that set records across the country for young people not only voting but volunteering and investing in a candidate and investing in policies that would impact their future.

But why did this powerful voting bloc choose Senator Obama over Senator Clinton? This insider campaign comment from then Team Hillary quoted in the Des Moines Register said it all:

“At least two of Hillary Clinton’s upper-echelon advisers, Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn, were decidedly unimpressed.

“Our people look like caucus-goers,” Grunwald said, “and his people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook.” Penn then added, “Only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state.”

hillary millenialsThe business world is always keen to remind us that the same old strategies by the same old people get you the same old results. The President had the youth of America in his back pocket for years supporting progressive policies across the board. In fact, while the White House was working to pass Obamacare, it was young people, under 30, who approved of the bill with more than 50%. No other generation did that or came close.  But when the Tea Party revolted in the summer leading into the 2010 elections, the Millennial Generation was nowhere to be found, delivering the House of Representatives to Republicans and leaving Democrats scratching their collective heads.

So Congress passes an important piece of legislation yet young people couldn’t be bothered to vote?

hillary millennial“Well,” I recounted the story to a political consultant friend of mine,  “Did they ask them to?” My friend was confused.  “You know,” I said, “did you register them, talk to them about policies that matter to them, serve them ads, knock their doors, GOTV them on Election Day?  Did you ask them to go vote?”  My friend told me about robo calls, direct mail, and a broad campaign with 30 second ads on primetime network TV, and I just shook my head knowing that Democrats really have no clue.

This has long been an issue that those who have worked in the youth space run up against. The brick-wall of party politics, in a way.  Last week, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon did a skit where he talked about the DNC hiring “youthy” staffers to help them with their youth vote this election. I’m sure the funny “dude bro” way he conveyed it isn’t the reality, but there’s a part of me fearful it actually might be.

Here’s the truth, the secret sauce to youth organizing:  The way to win the youth vote….is to talk to young people and ask them for their vote.

Shocking, I know. Millennials are progressive, and any right-wing Republican who wants to try and frame it another way does so at his or her peril.  They support gay marriage (because they have gay friends), they support a woman’s right to choose (regardless of whether or not they personally would have an abortion), they support Social Security and Medicare (even if they don’t think it’ll be there for them when they’re older), and they believe that government can be used as a tool for good (even though right now they don’t like the government very much).

So step one for Hillary is not to discount the youth vote, or Facebook for that matter.  The trick is not to play the “we have to appear to be cool” game ending words in “z” or making politics some kind of app game to talk about politics.  The solution is to talk to young voters about issues that matter to them, hear their concerns, and ask for their vote. Finally, include them in your GOTV campaign.

After all if you build it, they will vote.

(a version of this post also appeared on BNR)

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Here’s What Happened When the White House Let Me Loose With my Camera

The White House is a fortress. Despite a few unfortunate incidents, you don’t get to just pop by for pie and ice cream with VP Biden. Sadly. There is heavy security and for the last 40 years photography on tours has not allowed (except on the Christmas tours).

That made it even more special that Instagram photographers were allowed into the White House for a very special, all access, tour that let us take photos of whatever we want. And yes, yours truly was allowed to tag along.

I’m going to reveal something super that’s a wee bit nerdy about myself. I’m not that starstruck by politicians anymore. Once you’ve done a state-wide office holder’s laundry and folded her underpants, heard a Congresswoman belch louder than your teenage step-brother, or had a U.S. Senator look at your chest instead of your eyes — the thrill is gone.

What continues to inspire me are the artists that work among the political elite in the Beltway. I’m talking about the amazing photographers and photojournalists you see wearing cameras on shoulders, carrying backpacks despite being over 40, and crouching or climbing to capture the perfect shot. These people are putting their own artistic touch on one brief moment in time as it is wiping it’s feet on the welcome mat of history.

White House photographer Pete Souza and his team all do a job that captures something truly remarkable and I am in constant admiration. Truly, embarrassing awe that finds a way to eclipse my old DC cynicism.

By far my favorite was the painting of First Lady Jacquelyn Kennedy with the pink orchids on the table.

It was truly an honor to get to wonder around the White House with Pete Souza:

Here are a few more shots from the adventure:

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From Action Sprout Blog: Can you win the lottery using ActionSprout?

Crossposted from ActionSprout.com
Living Wage MemeYou’ve heard the advertising for the lottery right? “If you don’t play you can’t win!” Well the same is true for ActionSprout actions. If you post something on your page without an action, then you’re not going to get any signers for your actions or new supporters into your database.

Several weeks ago The Harry Potter Alliance page shared a meme that took the internet by storm. With over 76,000 shares and 150,000 likes, the meme advocated for a raise in the minimum wage. Last week ActionSprout’s friends over at OURTIME.org shared the same meme but they didn’t put an ActionSprout action on it until it had reached over 5,000 shares. Just like with Harry Potter Alliance, OURTIME.org had a great response so far, with over 14,000 shares. As I’m writing this they have a total of 3,846 engagements captured (out of the total 5,984 likes, 344 comments and 449 action takers (folk that opted in for email communication). Can you imagine what would have happened if there had been an action link from the start?!

Take a look at Congressman Mike Honda’s campaign page here. One of the great things his team has done is include an action link on just about every single Facebook post. It’s always a good practice to develop “evergreen” actions that you can use regardless of what article or meme you’re sharing. Think about the mission of your organization and what issues are the most important to you. Then when you develop content or you find a good meme or article using the inspire tab, you can put an action link on it to quickly and easily, optimizing your completed actions.

Don’t forget: if you don’t have a link on the content you’re sharing you can’t win the lottery if your content goes viral!”

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Truthiness, Justice, and the Americanish Way

Finally finished my Superman Stephen Colbert painting!
Stephen Colbert Superman painting

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HuffPo’s BS Best Facebook List

Today the Huffington Post did another useless list that categories people that should be “subscribed to” because their Facebook pages are so OMG AWESOME!

So go look at it – no seriously go look.  Can we please, universally agree, that in order to qualify for a decent Facebook page you have to have 1. upgraded to the Facebook Timeline, 2.  have publicly viewed content available, and 3. have a cover photo?  If you don’t have your shit together enough to even be actually managing your Facebook page then you’re undeserving of being on a top 50 list.  Also can we also say that shameless self promotion of Huffington Post writers is also a little humiliating?  I mean come on, I really love Amanda Terkel and she’s deserving but – it’s all just an attempt to generate content to get a bigger audience for the writers and promote their content on HuffPo for bigger readerships and higher ad dollars.

Evidence these recommendations are BS?  First of all Laurin Manning as number 37?  Come on.  She’s far better than half of the people listed above her.  Also, I think a qualification is that you have to actually share something that matters on Facebook at least once a day to qualify as being a valued.  I’m looking at you Bill Frist.

Want to know the best thing about them suggesting you subscribe to Bill Schneider’s feed is?  They might have done a screen cap – of his non-upgraded Facebook Timeline – but they neglected to also show you the rest of the page which features an AWESOME spam photo that has been on his account since April 29th.  Lookin classy Bill!!  Maybe hire a young person to teach you how to run the FaceSpace, eh?

Bill Schneider

I’ll bet Ed Gillespie has a lot of amazing incredible intelligent insights and opinions about politics and policy – ya know for the people who are on his side of the isle.  Thing is… you’re not gonna find them on his Facebook page.  Wanna know why?  Because Ed Gellespie hasn’t posted anything public on his Facebook Timeline since… well… I don’t know because after clicking “more” about 12 times I got bored and quit.  So you want to have an intelligent political conversation with Ed over something he was quoted saying or something he wrote? Try approaching him in a bar instead.

Ed Gillespie

These are just a few of the 50 people who are are a waste of your time.  Thanks so much Huffington Post for taking time to write about how AWESOME these people are instead of giving the spot to people who actually use Facebook the way it should be used.   I can’t wait to see who’s the best Twitter accounts.  Ten bucks they say it’s Brian Williams.  Because OMG his tweets are AWESOME!

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Dear Pinterest Please add Activism (or Politics)

At the suggestion of someone on one of the lists somewhere I am quickly coming around to the idea that the solution for activism and mobilization on Pinterest is to add an activism category. . . so… Please repin my lobbying graphic!

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