I remember the first time I looked at the Olympics through a critical lens. Beijing 2008. And I’m not alone; almost everyone remembers the media harping on the Chinese government for literally building a wall around the “slums”, separating the rich from the poor in such an obvious, tactless maneuver. But of course with the anti-China pro-western mentality we’ve been raised to possess, this was almost expected. China has a history of violating international human rights agreements, so it’s only “natural” that they should continue these practices even when the public eye is staring them down.
Archive for February, 2010
Mid-Olympics Commentary
Posted in Activisim, tagged class, COHRE, geography, George Monbiot, homelessness, human rights, journalism, media, olympics, protest, socio-political on February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The politics of space and queerness in “The Wire”
Posted in Pop Culture, Television, tagged class, gender, geography, HBO, race, sexuality, socio-political, The Wire, WIR on February 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday was a Level II Snow Emergency here in central Ohio, which meant no work for me and no school for my partner! Snow days are so crazy here. They literally take the buzz out of the city and it sort of mutes everything. It’s a little bit beautiful.
Regardless, we were up early, fully intending to get to work/class on time, coffee buzz significantly on its way, and too excited to go back to sleep (which is rare for me, but I blame the coffee). So we decided to stroll over to our favorite video rental store and get season one of The Wire. And yes, we watched all 13 episodes. In a row. Maybe 5 minutes pee break in between… My laziness disgusts me, too. However, I did make some observations about the show that I’d love to share, but be warned I’ve *only* watched season 1 so no spoilers, please!
Tranforming the Interview Question
Posted in Pop Culture, Television, tagged abortion, democratic party, documentary, Howard Dean, journalism, language, pro-choice on February 12, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Last week on PBS’s program NOW, they tried to bring awareness to the increasing anti-abortion support of the Democratic Party, highlighting the Stupak ammendment in the will-it-ever-happen health care reform bill and some great responses from NARAL, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, Howard Dean, and particularly awesome clips of the Clinic Manager of the Allentown Women’s Center. All-in-all some good discussion on the political climate.
The headline “Democrats and the New Politics of Abortion” was set against the story of a young, poor woman named Tina in Allentown, PA deciding to have a surgical abortion procedure at her local women’s clinic. Just on the surface, this story is truly empowering to watch: a woman is allowing the cameras to document her decision making process, from counseling to recovery, and did not even ask to have her face blurred as the other women in the clinic requested. Go a step further–listen to Tina tell her story–and you are convinced that she is confident in her decision, and ridiculously brave to let us in on her life.
