also going on this week: trash talk about one of the 1st daughters

[netmouse]

On Thursday the DailyKos pointed out that people were criticising Malia Obama for wearing t-shirts, especially one with a peace sign and talking trash about her in general. The freerepublic.com discussion thread has been pulled, but a number of the comments were captured on the DailyKos site.

I appreciate abydosangel's comments about this, and the connections she gives to other hateful things going on. I've been reading about this trash talk for a couple days and feeling really sad that there are so many cruel and stupid people in this country.

One cynical part of my brain looks at the picture of Malia in the peace T-shirt and wonders if part of this disgusting reaction isn't because she was walking next to a sexy (darker) black guy. "Of course she's a ghetto whore - look who she's hanging out with!" *shakes head*

She's a not-quite-11-year-old girl.

This country, man. It is *so* messed up.

Comparing her picture to one of the pictures linked to in comments of Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow made me laugh though. Such a stark contrast to the collected, tailored style and grace that Malia displays even in her shorts and t-shirt.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

The Freepoid babble about Malia is repulsive, but I fail to see where white feminists discussing rape culture are just as bad.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I'm glad this comment recognizes that you are failing to see something, but I am concerned that you are saying this intending to imply that because you fail to see it, it probably isn't true.

I suspect there may be a history of feminist discussion of which you (and I) are not aware, but which has informed the author's statement. You could ask her if she can clarify her comment, because you don't understand it. I encourage you to do so, if you think you can phrase that question in a respectful, non-dismissive way, recognizing that it's not her responsibility to educate you in order for you to ackowledge that she may have a valid point you don't have sufficient grounding in the topic to appreciate.

I have seen references to a lot of instances to feminist discussions in which white women have discounted the value and voices of women of color, and the experiences they have. Those references tend to lend validity to abydosangel's allusion, in my mind, even though I'm not sure specifically what she's referring to there.

"rape culture" sounds like a specific, almost academic term to me. There was a panel at wiscon about it but I was unable to attend it.