Saturday, January 29, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

"So as Spiegelman read the record from the board’s meeting, he focused on their stated issues with stark imagery, as well as strong language."

Posted: 29 Jan 2022 03:58 AM PST

"Spiegelman's mother died by suicide when he was 20, and in 'Maus,' he depicts how his father discovered her lifeless body, unclothed in a bathtub. Spiegelman also laughs in reaction to a board member bringing up the author's past comics contributions to Playboy magazine when assessing the anthropomorphic nudity in 'Maus,' which includes stripped-down concentration camp prisoners. Spiegelman acknowledges that the voices who spoke at the meeting weren't 'monolithic by any means.' One instructional supervisor spoke of "Maus" as an anchor book to begin teaching the Holocaust to children: 'I am very passionate about history, and I would hate to rob our kids of this opportunity.' The member also noted: 'Mr. Spiegelman did his very best to depict his mother passing away.'"

From "Art Spiegelman sees the new ban of his book 'Maus' as a 'red alert'" (WaPo).

Background: "A school district in Tennessee banned the use of 'Maus,' a Pulitzer-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, in its middle school classes, citing the work's profanity and nudity in a 10-to-0 vote. As leaders in conservative areas across the country push for more control over the way history is taught, the McMinn County school board expressed concern that the expletives in 'Maus' were inappropriate for eighth-graders. Members also said Art Spiegelman's illustrations showing nudity — which depict Holocaust victims forced to strip during their internment in Nazi concentration camps — were improper."

"I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives."

Posted: 29 Jan 2022 03:27 AM PST

"I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue." 

Said a statement at the website of Joni Mitchell, quoted in "Joni Mitchell pulls music from Spotify, saying she stands with Neil Young in covid protest" (WaPo).

Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post but in a statement a Spotify spokesperson told The Post earlier this week regarding Young: "We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic."

Neil is a big loss, and Joni is an even bigger loss — much bigger — for us Spotify users. To boycott for censorship — to withhold yourself to gain withholding from others — it's a nasty business. Once you get started, where do you end? Freedom of speech is the better choice, perhaps more understandable to Americans than Canadians, but Americans have been losing our grip on the concept in recent years. 

Did Joni make this decision personally? Is she really doing this sort of thing these days? I remember when she was so busy being free.

John McWhorter says "It’s Time to End Race-Based Affirmative Action."

Posted: 29 Jan 2022 02:41 AM PST

 That seems very important! Let's read:

When affirmative action was put into practice around a half-century ago, with legalized segregation so recent, it was reasonable to think of being Black as a shorthand for being disadvantaged, whatever a Black person's socioeconomic status was.... I think a mature America is now in a position to extend the moral sophistication of affirmative action to disadvantaged people of all races or ethnicities, especially since, as a whole, Black America would still benefit substantially....

Whether we're mature or not, the legal basis for upholding affirmative action in the higher education admissions process has been "diversity." And McWhorter attacks this concept. For one thing, his own children have led an upper-middle-class, privileged life.

And I will never forget a line from a guidebook that Black students at Harvard wrote two decades ago: "We are not here to provide diversity training for Kate and Timmy."...

"Diversity" has become one of those terms (and ideas) that makes us feel cozy inside, like freshly baked blueberry muffins and "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But how would you feel about looking a Black undergraduate in the eye and saying, "A lot of the reason we wanted you here, on our campus, is your differences from most of the other students and the life lessons they can learn from them"?

Someone says, "I want my kids to interact with Black students before they go out into the world." I ask, "Just what was it about Black people that you were hoping your kids would learn?"

Yes, it's quite clear — if you look straight at it — that the diversity rationale for affirmative action is about the benefit to the whole student body, that is, to the mostly white students who are admitted. The black students are used as a means to an end, and the end is something quite vague and — as McWhorter demonstrates — actually embarrassing to say clearly.

He ends with this question:

How would you feel about your kids being admitted to a university because of their "diverseness" from other kids rather than, well, their selves?

"The traditional understanding of [feminism] as a movement for women’s rights is, alas, tainted by the fact that only very embarrassing and uncool people would..."

Posted: 29 Jan 2022 02:16 AM PST

"... use the word 'woman' in its ordinary sense these days. (In Penny's moral universe, one of the worst criticisms you can make of something is that it's 'embarrassing.') So Sexual Revolution cycles through ungainly formulations such as 'women and femmes,' 'women and queer people,' and 'people who can become pregnant.' Roughly translated, these mean 'women and anyone who wears make-up,' 'women and anyone who claims to be mildly kinky,' and 'the people formerly known as women.' In what sense these groupings make a plausible political class is never explained... When there is an attempt at a concrete description of what a 'woman' is, the result is inadvertently appalling: 'To traditional conservatives, everyone who has a uterus is a woman, and therefore someone whose sexuality is by definition subject to state control.' So that's what a woman is: someone whose sexuality is by definition subject to state control. Who would want to be one of those? Not Penny, or at least not now there are more exciting labels to opt into. 'I identify as genderqueer myself,' we are informed.... Because whatever you're doing, it's important to remember that Penny is doing something much more exciting and avant-garde.... Penny claims not to be a woman, and claims furthermore that women have no shared qualities as a group, so why identify with feminism at all?"

From "Sexual Revolution by Laurie Penny review — feminism with the women cut out/This blogger's book is a modish muddle, says Sarah Ditum" (London Times).

"[Y]oung girls and old women have exactly the same style aesthetic: they just don’t give a f***."

Posted: 29 Jan 2022 01:57 AM PST

"Obviously some older women prefer to be 'chic' or 'athletic' or 'sexy.' But for me, the classic older woman – the one I plan to be – is walking around in a purple dress, leggings and thermally insulated boots, topped with a large, ratty leopard-skin hat that looks as if it might have a robin's nest in it. She may or may not be pushing an elderly dog in a pram. That well-established Grey Gardens/eccentric old lady/Mad Cat Woman vibe is generally regarded to be one of the lowest-status looks a woman can assume.... For me, however, it's actually the highest status look – it's someone who is absolutely done with trying to look 'put together,' fashionable or sexy. It's someone done with caring what anyone else thinks and who has returned, in their old age, to the freedom they had when they were four, five or six. Other people's voices – fashion editors, other girls, boys – haven't got in their head yet. Or – 60 years after they made a 7-year-old girl suddenly want to get a crop-top from Brandy Melville 'because that's what all the other girls are wearing' – they have finally been exorcised."

From "Caitlin Moran: Vogue's fashion tips are all wrong/My style icons are little girls and old ladies" (London Times).

I had to look up Brandy Melville. It's a clothing store. Here. It doesn't look particularly challenging. Indeed, it would be easy to put together a Grey Gardens/eccentric old lady/Mad Cat Woman look from the things on offer there.

At the Friday Night Cafe…

Posted: 28 Jan 2022 03:50 PM PST

 … you can talk about whatever you want.
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