Sometimes all it takes is some Magnetic Fields to see the subtext.
People are obsessed with the relationship between Breaking Bad’s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. A friend who I turned onto the show told me last summer that he thought Walt was in love with Jesse. I don’t actually think that is the case, but as my friend made his case, I realized that the show makes their relationship ambiguous enough to lend itself to that interpretation.
So, I present to you, Breaking Bad: a tragic gay love story
Last night, I visited my parents for dinner and then watched the…season… no… series… [come on Katie! You can do it!]… finale [sniffles] of Breaking Bad. Though I told my mom not to watch the finale and to instead watch the entire series from the beginning, she watched the final episode with me. During the particularly moving scene between Walter and Skylar, my mom said, “This is all about lack of health care. The undoing of the social fabric. It’s so sad.”
Was she right? There has been some debate of the issue. Not surprisingly, some conservatives argue that teachers receive some of the best benefits and can’t complain. Others argue that the same thing would have happened under socialized medicine. But as Barbara Friedland points out,
Often they, teachers-police-fire fighters- are forced into HMO’s. HMO’s do not usually like paying for expensive medical expertise and treatments. And what if White gets fired because he is too sick to continue to work. There goes the heath coverage.
Also, if you haven’t watched BB, conservative columnists, you missed the point. White, fictional character, made very little as a chemistry teacher in Albuquerque. He was concerned about how his family would survive after he died. So let’s pay teachers more and hedge fund managers less.
Also and again. America needs to provide healthcare to all citizens. Because if fictional Walter White died soon after his disease was diagnosed, he would have left an infant daughter or one about to be born. And a special needs teenager. How would the widow provide coverage for them?
And consider the images (and analysis) below the jump, which imagine what life would have looked like for Walter White, had he not lived in the United States. And check back later today for my Breaking Bad video mash-up.
This is what writer and artist Christopher Keelty thinks Breaking Bad outside the U.S. would look like.
Lest you think Keelty hasn’t given seriously considered the issues, he lays out why Breaking Bad is a tragedy which results from two failed U.S. policies: health care and the war on drugs.
Also, check out this meme of what life would have looked like for a Canadian Walter White. I guess for the sake of television, we should be happy the social safety nets in the United States are so insufficient.
Iran’s Rouhani says the Holocaust happened. Probs. Not that he’s a historian. Iran also adopts law allowing men to marry their adopted daughters as young as 13. It’s good for one Jew.
Canadian writer and U of T Prof David Gillmour won’t teach any women. Or gays. Or Chinese. Or Canadians. Which would include him. He only wants a guy’s guy.
Boy-on-boy and girl-on-girl kissing in the same of LGBTQI rights is a cliche by now, something activists like to experiment with and dabble in. But it’s still hot, especially, when it’s Italian-on-Italian kissing in support of legislation which would penalize homophobia and transphobia. Which, is why I’m posting this video of members of Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S) Party staging a kiss-in during a parliamentary debate on Thursday on a law that would ban certain discrimination against LGBTQI people. The more timid members of the party opted to hug each other or hold signs. The bill passed the lower house. So I guess it worked! Now it just needs to pass the Senate. For some LGBTQI activists, the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Some context, for those who don’t speak Italian: The person speaking during most of the video is named Silvia Giordano, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. This protest is happening because, right now, same-sex couples living in Italy have no shared rights to property, social security and inheritance. They also can’t get married. A rough translation of what Giordano is saying:
“Mr. President (of the House of Deputies), beyond the thousands of excuses and quibbles, we’re talking here of matters of the heart, of feelings, of emotions. Because a kiss and a hug have not and will never hurt anyone. In fact, they are part of what contributes most to making us human. We want to make that clear. And so we’re going to pull back the veil and to demonstrate that there is truly nothing to be afraid of. And we, Mr. President, are not afraid.”
The deputies, members of the M5S party, then hold up signs protesting a political compromise that’s restricting the rights of LGBT Italians — while the rest turn to their colleagues and demonstrate just how unscary a kiss is.
The best line, though, comes from the President of the Chamber at the end. He can be heard saying, “Onorevole Nuti, se ha finito di baciare il collega, faccia ritirare quei cartelli,” which translates to:
“Honorable Mr. Nuti, if you’ve finished kissing your colleague, please take down those signs.”
When I saw the following headline, I thought I had accidentally stumbled onto The Onion website:
Formal complaints over sexism should be last resort for women: The negative impact of formal reporting outweighs any benefits, writes a lawyer. Instead, define your boundaries early on.
But no, I was on The Guardian’s website, in a section called “Women in Leadership,” no less. Since Women in Leadership defines itself as a “community” which “discuss[es] the lack of women at the top and what we can do to change this,” I was sure that the op-ed they posted on Tuesday wasn’t as sexist and ridiculous as it seemed. So, I read the whole thing, waiting for the moment when the author would reveal that she was being sarcastic and satirical in saying, basically, don’t complain about sexism, just stop doing things that provoke men to treat you in a sexist way, you dumb cow! But that moment never came.
The Op-ed’s author, UK lawyer Vanessa James, is right to point out that the legal protections granted in theory to women do not necessarily shield women from sexual harassment or from reprisals against them for complaining about said discrimination. Yet her take-away is reactionary and stunning: since you can get in trouble for filing a greivance about sexual harassment, don’t do it. Instead, make sure you’re not sexually harassed. How do women get themselves sexually harassed, you ask? A few ways.
“Some women find themselves engaging in behaviour that they may not be comfortable with to make them ‘popular’ at work. There are women who want to engage in banter and other ‘stereotypical’ male behaviour such as colourful language.”
“a female employee who instigates sexist jokes has demonstrated to others that she enjoys risqué banter and so once that boundary is broken down she has to be comfortable with that behaviour in her working relationships.”
“If you do not define your own boundaries then you cannot expect others to be able to either. A great example is the ‘lap dancing club with male clients’ analogy. If a women is genuinely comfortable with entering the club then fine, but it is painful to hear a female college say she found the experience ‘liberating’ when she in fact did not. Colleagues will make judgments on her boundaries for having attended.”
To her credit, James acknowledges that it’s “unfair that women have to think so deeply about these issues and analyse themselves when it is the men (and occasionally other women) who exhibit misogynistic behaviour.” But ultimately, James concludes, it’s up to women to stop men from harassing us: “However, it is the reality of our society that these issues exist. If you are a woman seeking career progression and success, it is more important that you do what you can to avoid having to present a formal grievance, or at least know that when you do you are clear that the behaviour was outside your boundaries.”
One of my favorite parts of James’s retro-chic argument is the idea that mysoginists who sexually harass women have any regard or awareness whatsoever for the boundaries women establish. I guess I’ve never met this more emo, touchy feely (in both senses) sexual harasser. Does he, for instance, think about a woman’s boundaries before he decides to tell her what nice breasts she has? Does he ask himself “will she be OK with my telling her that if she wants a raise she’ll need to felate me. Is that within her boundaries? I’m trying to remember if she ever told me a dirty joke. Because if she did, she’s totally down.” Does he play Ani di Franco and Dar Williams spotify playlists as he engages in the sexual harassment he has so considerately contemplated?
The great news is that this advice works for rape-avoidance too!
Given that rape survivors often face humiliation, intimidation, disbelief, and hostility from law enforcement and the criminal justice system in general, is the solution not to report rape? Should women just focus on setting boundaries that prevent their rapes in the first place? Does that mean no dirty jokes, no flirting, no short skirts, no leaving the house? This seems like the logical conclusion. In all seriousness, the advice James doles out isn’t that surprising, given the nature of her work. The Guardian just says she’s a lawyer at SA Law. But if you look at her website, she boasts that she has successfully defended corporations from being sued for discriminating and bullying against workers based on their gender, sexual-orientation, disabilities, and race. So, I guess it makes sense that a woman who makes her living defending employers who are accused of pay discrimination, abuse, and prejudice, wouldn’t have the best advice for women. Well, that’s not entirely fair. I’m sure she’s an equal opportunity offender, whose advice for LGBTI people, people of color, and people with disabilities is just as sound.
I have to admit, though I probably I shouldn’t be, I was shocked when I read that nearly half of the pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.But I learned that, and much more, from these facts, figures and infographics from the Guttmacher Institute. Check them out.
Of course, many of the people who oppose abortion either don’t believe in contraception or don’t believe in funding it. Do they realize they are advocating policies that contribute to the rise in abortion? Just wondering.
[this is satire, fyi. But the comments from Bloomberg are, sadly, genuine.]
What’s wrong with this picture above? A lot…
If mayoral candidate Bill DeBlasio weren’t racist, he would do the right thing and never appear publicly with his black wife and/ or their two bi-racial children. This is the logic of current mayor, stop and frisk defender and well-known anti-racist champion Mike Bloomberg. During an interview with New York Magazine, Bloomie said that DeBlasio is running a “class warfare”-based and “racist” campaign, by “making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing.”
Bloomberg is totally right. It is pretty obvious that DeBlasio is using his family for racist ends. Yeah, I mean the first racist thing DeBlasio did was making the mistake of marrying a woman who is black. But if DeBlasio weren’t racist, he would hide the fact that his family is inter-racial. He could literally and physically hide his non-all-white relatives. To do this he could keep said relatives at home all of the time. This would require homeschooling. Or he could have a white stunt-family that he appeared in public with. Or he could have his real family appear in video and print ads, but use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro to change their skin color. The fact that DeBlasio has not taken any of these measures is extremely racist.
Of course, DeBlasio claims that Bloomberg’s accusations of racism and class warfare are disturbing. Responding to Bloomberg’s comments, DeBlasio said,
“I’m exceedingly proud of my family… They are each and every one strong and independent and make their own decisions. And we all have proceeded as a family together, and it’s been an extraordinarily positive experience for us. So all I can say is I hope the mayor will reconsider what he said. I hope he’ll realize that it was inappropriate. And I think the people of this city are ready for us to move forward together.”
Countering the allegation that she was a prop, DeBlasio’s wife Chirlane McCray said, “Do I look like an inanimate object or a tool? I walk, I talk, I make my own decisions.” And their daughter Chiara added, “Everything I do for the campaign is my decision. And I think that, or at least I suspect… 20 years ago my dad did not know he was running for mayor and he did not seek to marry a black woman to put her on display.” But can we really trust the judgement of a woman who is married to a racist. Or the judgement of a young woman, who was raised by a racist father?
Also offended by Bloomberg’s comments (because the truth hurts) was novelist Juno Diaz. In an ad for DeBlasio, Diaz says, “Mayor Bloomberg seems to think that showing up in a photo with your black wife is ‘racist.’ When Bloomberg looks at a photograph of de Blasio’s family, he thinks racism. Me, I just think New York.” But how can we trust the analysis of well-known racist Diaz? If you don’t know what racism I’m talking about, shame on you. I shouldn’t have to do your homework for you. You should know about Diaz’s notorious record* of racism.
* OK, he has no record of racism.
In all seriousness, Bloomberg’s out of touch statements most likely reveal the billionaire’s anxiety over the probability that DeBlasio will defeat Bloomie’s protege Christine Quinn. And if you want to say how much Quinn and Bloomberg heart each other, check out the video below. [full disclosure: I worked on it].
In an age of religious strife and division, it is truly heart-warming to how organized religions, regardless of their denomination, can share in the wonderful tradition of undermining science and education. As many know, the Christian religious right frequently rears its head to oppose teaching things like evolution, or the Age of Enlightenment, or how not to get pregnant, or how not to get an STI. But did you know Jews do it too? Well, now you do.
The Israeli Ministry of education, in an extremely pro-education move, has asked text book publishers to remove chapters on little not-so-importanty things like human reproduction, safe sex and contraception from science textbooks used in state religious junior high schools. Thank god, students will now be sheltered from inappropriate language like:
“Every month (during the woman’s period of fertility) one of her ova (the egg cells) ripens and is released from the ovary where it was created. This stage is called ovulation … Only if a sperm cell reaches the fallopian tube during those days will fertilization occur.”
Sadly, students in non-religious schools will still be exposed to this garbage. Because for the first time ever, different textbooks will be used in religious and secular Israeli state schools! Now, that’s progress!
At first, the changes requested by the ministry were fairly minor. But eventually, the alterations became so drastic that publishers who had originally agreed to them are now infuriated and some are backing out of the deal: “The ministry capitulated to one of the most extremist factions of the religious public,” said one publishing executive. They’re not the only people upset that students at Israel’s religious junior high schools won’t be seeing scandalous things like illustrations of sperm or ova or learning about gross things like… I can barely write it out… hold on… OK, I’m back from throwing up… menstruation.
Zahava Gal-On, the Chairwoman of the Israeli left-wing Zionist political party said the ministry’s plan to “to censor ‘damaging’ topics from the curriculum in state-religious schools, such as the human reproductive system or references to the female body, is not only ridiculous, but also worrying. More than 200,000 children today are in the state-religious education system, which is 200,000 future citizens of the State of Israel who will grow up with ignorance and with the sense that the human body, or to be more specific, the body of the woman, is something dirty.” Gal-On argues that human reproduction and women’s bodies are not shameful, “but that the education system is something very shameful.”
And those of you concerned about others disciplines aren’t being sufficiently stifled by religion, you’ll be happy to know that the Education Ministry has also altered the Hebrew language textbooks: all women represented now wear head coverings, and all the girls wear skirts.
Just one more infographic on Labor Day. Earlier I blogged about the people Labor Day matters to. But I realized, I didn’t explain the origins of the holiday. So, here you go. An actual text post is coming soon!
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
katiehalper.com 