“The man is the biggest of all the donkeys.”

via the new york times: hymen restoration surgery. the story at least attempts to explore the complexity of the reasoning behind the decision to roll one's odometer "back to 'zero,'" but this reader couldn't help shuddering at the idea of going through that kind of pain, again, on purpose, on a wedding night. my own virginity was lost as i fell off a bike at age thirteen, and holy shit. it's my privilege that allows me to say this, but: never again.

good lord, that hurt.

let me just answer you by saying: no.

is racism over? this has been coming up in student conversations for some of my colleagues, and frankly, it's jaw-dropping. i talked with an acquaintance at length about her anyone-but-obama stance regarding the upcoming election--she was a clinton supporter, but was willing to defect to the GOP rather than vote for obama--and was greatly dismayed. the talking point seems to be that no one makes blanket judgments based on any longer race, or will cop to an absolute racial hatred, and what remains (assuming these more overt hatreds have been quelled, which seems unlikely) is something other than racism.

the pundits linked above say "it's race, not racism," something like "racially influenced judgment" rather than racism itself, and "it's the unfamiliarity" (a lack of experiential knowledge as opposed to a hatred). i feel like i'm explicating the obvious a little, but isn't saying you're afraid a black presidential candidate will "bring in farrakhan" (what does that mean, anyway? a cabinet position? a telephone call? a golf lunch? "bring him in" to do what?) because you've been persuaded by a media frenzy that he associates with crazy-go-nuts race radicals . . . isn't that a little . . . racist? if we call it "racially influenced judgement," has the nature of the behaviour really changed?

if someone has to be a card-carrying white supremacist to qualify as racist, then i guess a bunch of us are relieved to know we're in the clear. i've been pointing to project implicit as evidence of the deeply entrenched racism even the very nicest of us have going on, but it doesn't seem to make much difference to those i encounter who insist that since they abjure the klan, racism has been vanquished. insert laughable mission accomplished banner here.

neoliberalism in rolling stone.

insight into "market stalinism" and an incipient police state (via jason grote, whose 1001 i will be seeing tomorrow night):

>>American commentators like CNN's Jack Cafferty dismiss the Chinese as "the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." But nobody told the people of Shenzhen, who are busily putting on a 24-hour-a-day show called "America" — a pirated version of the original, only with flashier design, higher profits and less complaining.<<

this is scary stuff, but there's a sort of cold-war era feeling about the construction of china as the new bogeyman that's a little weird-tasting. i don't heart the panopticon anymore than anyone else does, but:

>>Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric.<<

hmm.

i haven't seen

the sex and the city movie, but i did read anthony lane's paternalistic and off-putting review in the new yorker, accompanied with the above drawing of the witches from macbeth, i mean crazy murderous dolls, i mean difficultly gendered asylum inmates on a daytrip to saks.



i didn't like the series for a long time, mostly because i felt alienated by all the conspicuous consumption and because of a nebulous beef about it not being quite feminist enough. after i moved to and away from new york, though, i started watching it on re-runs, i think because some of the new york stuff made sense after living there (although i was still torqued by watching these women navigate it with the lubrication that wealth provides without ever acknowledging their privilege) and because, faults aside, watching a television show that really was about four adult, more or less single women--admittedly all white, straight, beautiful and moneyed--who ate pizza and had sex and made mistakes was so unusual. there's a lot not to like about the series and it doesn't take much snooping, but i'll admit that the simple fact of the protagonists was enough for SATC to win DVR space.

professor dolan? are you taking requests? we'd love to hear what you think.

jane mcgonigal online, in new york.

video of mcgonigal's talk at the "Stories From The Near-Future" conference thrown by the new yorker, and dates for her upcoming big game stuff, including the june 7 stop in central park.

i know i already alerted about the gaming in new york, but i just wish so much i could be there. if you're at all tempted, please go. for the sake of the weary angeleno whose quarter isn't quite over yet.

learning to be real.

this appears to be making the PS rounds: training for those who aspire to reality television stardom.

>>Every week thousands of people audition for Reality TV shows, the competition is fierce and the odds of making it past the first round of submissions are very slim. BUT if you are lucky enough to be noticed and fortunate enough to be called in, will you be able handle the pressure of this once in a lifetime opportunity?<<

i was just reading something recently about how conception of celebrity in the united states has historically been hard to reconcile with itself. there's a performative aspect to celebrity, of course, and a strong myth of open access--the actress discovered at the drug store soda fountain, etc. but when that sort of stuff happens, this writer was pointing out, often the myth overlies a strong sense that those who become famous do so because of a certain birthright, an inherent quality. makes the proposition of reality television--of manipulated actuality as spectacle, of "undeserved" fame or folks being famous-for-being-famous--seem sticky in a new way. or at least it did for me.