How unacceptable it is to make masculinity look really stupid

Yesterday I wrote about an article by Laura Clawson of Daily Kos that discussed the conservative condemnation of the movie Barbie. After she wrote that article she went out to see the movie. Of course, she discussed it on Kos. Yes, it is funny and touching. And then there’s what the movie says about men.

We’ve all been exposed to slickly packaged feminism-lite over the years. Mocking and critiquing masculinity, though, is much less expected and accepted. ... But it’s not expected from a movie like this. The scenes in which Ken discovers patriarchy, tries to wrap his mind around it, and tries to import it to Barbie Land (or “Kendom,” as he wants to call it), are some of the funniest and freshest parts of “Barbie.” The sheer right-wing rage over the depiction of Ken—a character none of these people had given any thought to in years, if ever—highlights how unacceptable it is to make masculinity look really, really stupid. Gosling’s Ken doesn’t even understand how the patriarchy works—he thinks it involves horses somehow—but he likes what he sees nonetheless.

Remember this is a capitalist product to boost the Barbie brand. Mattel approved all jokes about itself and its product. But it could have done that with a more traditional kids’s movie, rather than this one geared towards adults and is a bit subversive. It is one that says audiences can be feminist and still like Barbie. Also remember those attacking it are doing so to boost their careers, even if they also show how out of step they are. But the attackers also show how fragile and scare they are, always looking for the next thing they claim is oppressing them. Now that Twitter has been rebranded as “X” Mark Sumner of Kos wonders why Musk bought it in the first place. First, about the name change: Since Mark Zuckerberg has trademarked “X” for “software and social media” and Xbox has copyrights for the name in communications. Musk just bought himself a bunch of litigation. In addition most people associate “X” with porn. But back to why he bought it. The technical platform? It’s not all that complicated and he’s doing his best to trash it. The advertising base? He’s trashing that too by scaring them off. The user community? That depended on moderation and he’s trashed that. The brand? He just changed it. Did he buy it for the express purpose of killing it? I’ve heard (and mentioned) this idea. Twitter is a news source not dependent on the corporate news gatekeepers. But Sumner says that gives Musk too much credit – Musk seems more the guy who is clueless. As for all the other things, such as money transfers, Musk says he’s going to add... Musk can’t even keep Twitter running well. Maybe Musk is just ... a twit. Joan McCarter of Kos wrote about McCarthy dealing with the Freedom Caucus in trying to avert a government shutdown in October. It’s not going well. I’ll let you read the details for yourself, though as I read it I kept thinking about what I’ve heard about other supremacists. You give them what they demand and they demand more. Put another way: They do something outrageous. If that goes well, they do something more outrageous. As they keep getting what they want they get more extreme.

Whatever McCarthy does, it will not be enough to appease the extremists. They have no reason to back down—not when they’re getting what they want and being rewarded mightily for it.

McCarter also reported McCarthy went on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News to say the House’s investigation into the Bidens is “rising to the level of impeachment inquiry.”

The “information” McCarthy is referring to, as Mark Sumner wrote last week [and I discussed], consists of: “Seventeen audio tapes that don’t exist; One WhatsApp message that’s a fake; One “informant” who has been dead for over a decade; One “informant” who is on the run from international authorities after skipping bail; One disagreement by a disgruntled IRS employee who thought he deserved a promotion.” But sure, go ahead and do an impeachment. The government is two months—and just 16 legislative work days—away from running out of funding. How can the American people expect the Republican House to do the work of governing when they have this Donald Trump agenda of revenge to carry out?

Kerry Eleveld of Kos, with numbers from Celinda Lake of the Washington Post, discussed some electoral math. About 4 million Gen Z people age into the electorate every year. The oldest Gen Z are 26 now. About 2.5 million elderly Americans die each year. Some of the elections in 2020 and 2022 were decided by very small margins. So even if Biden has a rematch with the nasty guy the electorate will be different, one that is more interested in policies than candidates. And Republicans seemed to have missed the memo about that last point. Davidkc of the Kos community wrote he will soon have to move out of Florida. There is a new law, Protections for Medical Conscience, that allows refusing medical care for “sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs.” And he’s gay. Since he’s approaching retirement and medical needs will likely mount and since he and his husband refuse the closet, leaving is the only safe choice.

Republican lawmakers behind the law claimed that it had absolutely nothing to do with discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. However, the law clearly states that health care providers can't use the law to deny health care based on a patient's race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and Republican lawmakers rejected attempts by Democrats to extend those protections to gender identity and sexuality. That’s a tell right there.

I had reported that Ohio abortion rights groups had submitted enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports that state officials have certified there are enough valid signatures and the proposal will be on the ballot this fall. Now to get past the August vote featuring a different constitutional amendment to raise the threshold to get constitutional amendments approved.