The Scanner-Politics 1/15/09 (40 Musical Obama Supporters Slide-Show; Barbie at 50 [French]; Women and the World; “Obama-Cola The Great National Temperance Beverage”; Tina Brown; WLS Chicago–the Governor Sells Furniture)

By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Yesterday’s post, Hip-Hop Inaugural Events Start TONIGHT (1/14/09)…Ludicras Co-Hosting “Urban Ball” , presented a rundown on the hip-hop events being held leading up to and including Inauguration Day.  Although it dates back to June ’08, today’s nugget gives more insight into the “culture” coming to Washington…and I don’t see much of Jackie-O in this, either.

Here’s the blurb from a site called “Gigwise” which describes a slide show of 40 musical Obama supporters.   Note the obligatory dig at the “old folks”…If there’s one hallmark of the Obama campaign and probably his Presidency, it’s the utter LACK OF RESPECT shown to women, older people, gays, etc. etc. Everyone is fair game to this crowd, if they’re not enthralled by the “magic” of Obama!

40 Music Stars Who Endorse Barack Obama!

We unveil his army of dedicated celebrity supporters…

Failed Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton could only muster up golden-oldies like Barbara Streisand and Sir Elton John to support her campaign, while Barack Obama is very much the man of the musical world with a whole legion of fervent and highly-influential followers. Here we run down the army of musicians who just love Obama…

Go see who we’re supposed to be excited about…

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While we’re on the subject of “old,” especially OLD WOMEN, why not celebrate the 50th birthday of Barbie? I got wind of this via an email I receive from France-Amerique, Le Journal Français des États-Unis. (I’m failing miserably at trying to keep up my French.)

Barbie fête ses 50 ans

Pas une ride, pas un cheveu gris et pas un kilo en trop. Le temps ne semble pas avoir d’effet sur Barbie. Cinquante ans après sa création, la poupée vedette de l’Américain Mattel est plus radieuse que jamais puisqu’elle fête son anniversaire en s’offrant une nouvelle garde-robe.

Barbie fait des envieuses. A 50 ans, la poupée mannequin est encore pulpeuse et au top. Toujours à la pointe de la mode, ses gardes robes et sa plastique parfaite ont fait rêver des générations de jeunes filles et sans doute de petits garçons. Les plus grands noms de la haute couture comme Armani, Dior, Gauthier ou encore Versace l’ont déjà habillé.

(MORE)

You get the gist…time hasn’t affected her, she’s radiant, and she’s been dressed by the likes of Armani, Dior, and Versace.

I bet she’s an Obama supporter!!

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A hat tip to Stray Dogs that Amble In in for this piece on women and what they could mean for the world (and how they’re being blocked) as well as some really cool buttons!!!  The piece is entitled “It is Not about Hillary Anymore, It is about NOT Hillary”

Excerpt:

So, this morning I opened up my “news” from The Confluence. (No thanks on the Yahoo reports from AP fellas.) I got to thinking…. ya know, it’s true… for me…. IT’S JUST NOT ABOUT HILLARY ANY MORE.

No. It is not about Hillary anymore. It is about NOT Hillary. What her absence from the position of POTUS means to me, and the rest of our god-forsaken world. A world so in need of healing and peace.

Do check out both the piece at the Confluence in case you missed it, as well as Stray Dog’s own piece….and check out those buttons which feature the % of women serving as  governors or senators.  Shocking!

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On another serious note, here’s a story that was found by Grail Guardian.  This piece is from a site called Rage Against the Washing Machine/Home of the Boxer Shorts Rebellion.  Blogger Leilla writes from Beverly Hills, California (Click on “User Info” to read her rather interesting profile).

Excerpt from the piece recommend by GG:

Obama-Cola “The Great National Temperance Beverage”

The National Temperance Beverage

Obama-Cola

By JENNIFER MATSUI

In 2004, American voters were offered a choice between two presidential candidates in an elaborately staged “taste test” based on consumer preference for one brand of Cola over the other. More recently, voters were faced with yet another soft drink challenge, but this time it was based on the dominant brand’s ill-advised attempt in 1985 to “mess with success” and re-launch its product under a “new” label. Unlike the Bush/Kerry campaign that pitted competing (but otherwise identical) corporate interests against one another, election 2008 more closely resembled an internal struggle within a single corporate entity.

This time around, GW played the unenviable villain role of the Coca Cola exec responsible for his company’s disastrous decision to tamper with the formula and packaging of a beloved, much touted brand of carbolic soda, while Barak Obama played the dissenting marketing genius who comes to the rescue and restores the poisonous product back to its original flavor. Having put the genie, so to speak, back into the bottle, the whiz kid replaces the despised and disgraced CEO much to the relief of customers and shareholders alike. In this fictionalized retelling of the story, the youthful upstart’s deceptively bold campaign to oust his former boss is launched with the support of his enthusiastic and idealistic marketing team, most of whom were eventually given the pink slip once the new CEO settled into his upper floor suite. McCain’s minor role as hired mouthpiece attempting damage control for the outgoing CEO was a comical and insignificant aside to bigger picture premise of an arrogant and deluded leader being challenged by a charismatic and visionary upstart. Never mind that the “visionary” envisioned nothing more radical than a return to the recent past of putting the requisite amount of high fructose corn syrup in aluminum cans.

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Have you checked out The Daily Beast, the site that was launched in October by former Vanity Fair and The New Yorker editor Tina Brown? (She also had an enjoyable show on MSNBC before it was sold to Obama, Inc.

It’s definitely worth a look-see. It’s a really sharp site with news, culture,  etc.  all presented posted in a really “active” way.  Lots of diverse sources and opinions, too.  Take a look…it’s a lot more fun that Arianna’s Huffing and Puffing site!!! (Warning: Occasionally a little heavy on the “boobs” that the Brits like so much, but overall, the insouciance of the site is really a breath of fresh air….)

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Finally, Chicago Correspondent Leslie comes through with another gem from the local media…in this case, something that was posted on the blog of WLS hosts Don Wade and Roma.  Priceless!!

January 04, 2009

Don Wade & Roma’s Blog  WLS

Can’t Pass Up a Deal Like This!

Used Body Parts (Female)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

A few days ago over at Partizane.com we were “treated” to a couple of really disturbing videos.  The subject of both was how women are presented in advertising. One video was a compilation of images by the GABRIELA NetworkUSA which is described as  “A Philippine-US Women’s Solidarity Mass Organization, est. 1989.”  It’s aim is to empower Filipinas living in the U.S., but the video is a must-see  for every woman. The other video which features images interspersed with a discussion of their impact by Jean Kilbourne is called “Killing Us Softly 3.” (The information on how much advertising we see seems to date from 1999, but the age of the video doesn’t diminish its impact.)

The post which features these videos is called BURN  IT DOWN WOMEN .

I’m old enough to remember when the objectification of women in advertising and other media was a real cause for women’s groups. Sadly, they don’t seem to really care about it now.  Instead, they seem more interested in endorsing misogynistic Presidential candidates and then whining about it.

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For some reason I occasionally get email from the much detested Newsmax, although these days they seem almost sane when compared to the “mainstream media.”  Yesterday, the message was about a calendar, with a sample of what was included inside.

You can see what I saw in my email if you click on this link.  Frankly, it’s a really nice departure from what’s being dished out in advertising and cable stations like VH1, etc. Or a Ludacris video.  Or, worse, what passes as “reporting” on topics of a sexual or “cultural” nature which go for the most exploitative images of women producers can possibly find whenever possible.  Even watching one blonde after another on FOX gets to me, since they are all the same color blonde, it seems, and are made up like Kewpie dolls or older versions of Barbie. They are not individuals, just interchangeable talking mouths.

Now, if you don’t feel like going to the Newsmax store to see what’s there, I’ll give you a small sample.  These calendar pictures seem like a breath of fresh air, not necessarily because they are about Sarah Palin.  Just the range of pictures is a pleasant change, from home to campaign trail to her role as governor, all taken by a Wasilla, Alaska photographer named Judy Patrick who served as Vice Mayor of Wasilla when Palin was Mayor. A real woman doing things she normally does.

One could ask whether this sort of calendar “objectifies” Sarah Palin — does this go beyond admiration into the realm of objectification?  It seems more like a family photo album, but somebody is making money off it; I’m sure the photographer isn’t getting the lion’s share of the profit.  In the mall today, I saw one remaining calendar featuring Obama and his “words of hope.”  Where does that fit in?  Are these calendars just plain vanilla exploitation?  I don’t know…

Ironically, only a few days ago, BBC America repeated the movie “Calendar Girls” (2003) which starred Julie Walters, Helen Mirren, and nearly every older woman I’ve ever seen on Masterpiece Theater.

As you recall, the movie is based on a true story about how a fundraiser dedicated to raising money to purchase something as gift in memory of a late husband mushrooms into an international event.  There are nude older women, posed discreetly behind plants and buns and it’s good fun, but with the additional message of how the increasing hype jeopardizes a friendship.  (The story is highly fictionalized; see the facts, here.)   BUT, when you think about it, a nude woman, young or old, being used to sell more calendars and make more money is still what’s going on.  And the mature women are “girls,” of course.  Acceptable “objectification” for a good cause?? Mmmm…

Then there’s the promotion for the film–now THIS really IS “objectification.”

As Jean Kilbourne mentions in “Killing Us Softly 3,” the absence of the woman’s face is typical of how ads focus on one  body part, rather than the whole person.

Sigh. I feel like I’m in the process of dredging up all the stuff that’s hidden in the gravel on the bottom of the fish tank.  We really need to attend to this, don’t you think???  Hey, NOW…how about returning to reality and helping us out?? Consciousness raising, anyone?

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Last night as I was writing this post, I had “Mr. Roberts” on in the background and noticed the pinup posters on the lockers of all the crew. I remembered how Betty Grable was THE pinup girl during WW II (I also recalled that she died on July 4th…I heard the news on the way to the 4th of July Party thrown by the U.S. Embassy in Rome back in 1973) …Today, this, a “re-make ” of a pin-up calendar in the style of WWII pin-ups.  At least they’ve got clothes on!!!

California Woman Raises Troop Morale, Funds With ‘Pin-Ups for Vets’ Calendar