I hate men because I did not get a prom date and I was a whore in school.
New Year’s resolutions:
1. Cultivate female friendships
2. Band together to kill all men— Emily McCombs (@msemilymccombs) December 29, 2017
McCombs, who serves as the “Editorial Director of Parents” for HuffPo, previously wrote an article in November titled, “I Don’t Know If I Can Raise A Good Man.”
In the post, she talks about her own son, saying, “(o)f course, we all want to raise feminist sons. I wrote an article a few months ago detailing the ways I try to do just that. But my efforts are starting to seem like grains of sand against a steady wave-crash of misogyny and rape culture.”
She continues, “In my previous article, I wrote, ‘In my sweat-soaked, sit-straight-up-in-bed feminist nightmares, I can imagine a future in which my own spawn makes some woman feel as voiceless as the boys in my high school once did, a world in which he blithely argues against the existence of male privilege and shit-talks the latest all-female remake on Twitter.’ Lately, I can imagine it even more clearly.”
McCombs’ has also tweeted similarly inflammatory anti-male sentiments in the past:
Emily McCombs
“Filed my nails into sharp little points last night so that I may spear and devour the hearts of men.”
Little boys are sweet. They hold hands with each other and tell secrets, their tears come as easily as their giggles. Little boys want nothing more than love and be loved. Then toxic masculinity slams down on them like the giant mousetrap from that game “Mouse Trap” and everything changes.
As a feminist mom to a 5-year-old boy, I fear the day when the “man” part kicks in.
In my sweat-soaked, sit-straight-up-in-bed feminist nightmares, I can imagine a future in which my own spawn makes some woman feel as voiceless as the boys in my high school once did, a world in which he blithely argues against the existence of male privilege and shit-talks the latest all-female remake on Twitter. Especially when he picks up gender stereotypes from other kids like they’re a case of pink-eye in a bouncy castle.
Raising a feminist son isn’t easy. Hell, being a feminist isn’t always easy. I’ve had over 20 years of practice and I still deliver perfectly valid requests to my employees like they’re questions. If a full-time internet feminist like me isn’t immune to society’s subtle and not-so-subtle assaults on the value of my gender, I certainly can’t expect my child to seamlessly tune out the noise during his formative years.
But that’s why they call it the good fight. And in the war for my son’s feminist soul, here are the battles I’ve picked.
1. I teach him that no means no.
When I was 14 years old, I was sexually assaulted by a group of teenage boys. Although it may be more comfortable to imagine them as monsters, the boys who sexually assaulted me were actually just regular boys like my son. Boys who may not have even thought they were doing anything so wrong that day that altered the course of the rest of my life.
What might have been different were all boys taught, clearly and simply, over and over, that “no” always means “no?”
If I accomplish anything as a mother, it will be teaching my son to respect the bodily autonomy of others.
At his age, that means clearly defining boundaries when it comes to touching and play. “Everyone is in charge of their own body” could be on our family crest. My son likes to be tickled, but the minute he says stop, I stop, even when he’s giggling in excited anticipation. If he doesn’t want a kiss or a hug, I don’t give him one, no matter how much I want to grab him and smooch his eminently kissable face. As someone whose “no” was once violated, it’s important to me that he understand that his “no” holds weight. He also knows that if we are touching another person in any way, and they say “no,” we stop immediately. No matter what.
2. I teach him body positivity.
Not only do I want my son to grow up with a healthy body image, I want him to grow up to be respectful of women’s bodies, and to question patriarchal beauty standards.
In talking to my son about fat, I’ve been following the example of Allison Kimmey, a mom we wrote about recently because she posted on Instagram about her response when her daughter called her fat.
Like Kimmey, I tell my son that everybody has fat on their bodies to protect their muscles and give their bodies energy. I tell him that some people have more or less fat but that doesn’t make them better or worse. I tell him that we focus on whether our bodies are strong and healthy and not how much fat they have.
I also try to model a positive attitude toward my own body and avoid negative self-talk in front of my son. If he grows up seeing my curvaceous body as strong and beautiful, I hope that will be reflected in the way he views other women’s bodies.
3. I teach him to feel his feelings.
Toxic masculinity teaches my son that boys don’t cry, that he can’t be vulnerable or sad, and that he can’t express his feelings out loud.
As a future man, my son needs to know how to sit with a feeling, express one, and let it go. I try not to ever say “Don’t cry,” or “Everything’s OK.” Instead, I mirror his feelings back to him ― “Yes, it’s sad when we have to say goodbye to our friends. That would make me sad, too” or “I can see that you’re feeling angry right now.”
When our beta fish, Boonga Boonga, died recently, I held my son when he cried, told him it was OK to be sad and to cry for as long as he needed to. I told him, “When hard things happen, you have to have the feelings and feel them even though it hurts.”
I taught him that if you feel the feelings, they hurt less and less over time. And we practiced checking in with each other, saying, “How are you feeling now, Mom?” “I’m happy to be with you, and sad about Boonga Boonga’s death. How about you?”
Teaching him to hurt is part of parenting an emotionally healthy boy.
4. I show him that women are strong.
As a single mom, there are a lot of situations where I’ve had to just “figure it out” ― whether it’s how to hook up a video game system or which screwdriver to use to change the batteries in a remote control truck. It means that my son sees me (and, at other times, his single dad) doing all kinds of household work, not dividing it along gender lines.
Sons of single mothers “usually have a lot of respect for their accomplishments,” according to Tim King, founder of Urban Prep Academies for low-income, African-American boys, as quoted in the NY Times. Maybe the “figure it out effect” is partly why.
My son also sees me doing the breadwinning for our household, which according to one study, means he’ll spend more time on housework and child care as an adult. Whether you work outside the home or not, there are lots of different ways to exhibit your (formidable) strength to your sons.
My voice is pretty loud, but I’m still just one of many, many influential voices, some of whom are telling him that pink is for girls and trucks are for boys, that Wonder Woman isn’t as cool as whatever third-string male superhero he’s into that day.
Maybe I can’t convince my son that Wonder Woman is cool, but I can be my own kind of Wonder Woman ― a strong, competent female role model.
Tramps have been silent on the perverts in Hollywood but now they can’t shut up.
America is falling out of love with the movies, and that is only because Hollywood fell out of love with us first.
Attendance Hits 22-Year Low
In 1995, the American population was 266 million. Today’s population has increased by almost 60 million, to 325 million. Nevertheless, despite a 22% increase, movie attendance in 2017 is exactly where it was in 1995. With just 1.26 billion tickets sold, a 4 percent decrease over last year, the left-wing Los Angeles Times reports that movie attendance has hit a 22 year low.
The news is not all bad. With price increases, overall ticket sales should only be about 2 percent behind last year. The international box office should see an increase of 2 percent. The bad news, however, is very bad…
The Shrinking Box Office Pie Creates Big Winners and Even Bigger Losers
To begin with, 51 percent of 2017’s total box office revenue was gobbled up by just 20 titles, leaving 145 wide releases to split up the rest. Two studios, Disney and Warner Bros., ate up 40 percent of the pie.
Hell yes we are idiots.
The Serial-Killing of Golden Geese Franchises
The worst news, though, is the 2016 and 2017 deaths of a number of franchises, which represent the golden geese of Tinseltown, the irreplaceable brands vitally necessary in an industry releasing fewer and fewer titles while becoming more and more dependent on $250 million all-in gambles that require a global take of $600 million just to break even.
Dead or faltering franchises include — Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner, Cars, Alien, xXx, Underworld, Resident Evil, Smurfs, Justice League, Saw, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Star Trek, Independence Day, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Divergent, Ice Age, Jack Reacher, The Da Vinci Code.
Franchises that exploded on take-off include — The Mummy, King Arthur, The Dark Tower, Valerian.
Oh, and 2017 also lost an entire genre — the R-rated comedy.
The Rare Breed of the Movie Star Is Getting Rarer
Also damaged are a number of once-reliable actors who could at least ensure a respectable opening.
Matt Damon has three epic flops on his résumé this year, Downsizing (a catastrophe that opened wide Friday and will not clear $10 million), Suburbicon (total gross $5.7 million), and The Great Wall ($45 million). Damon had already lost the goodwill of Red America with his obnoxious politics. His recent statements downplaying Hollywood’s sexual misconduct scandal have probably cost him everyone else.
Add to that list Jennifer Lawrence, whose big, ignorant, bigoted mouth has turned her into box office poison. This year’s Mother! was a massive flop that opened to just $7.5 million and topped out at $17 million. Last year, her big-budget Christmas release, Passengers, crashed and burned with just a $14.8 million opening. X-Men: Apocalypse, Joy, and the final two chapters of the Hunger Games series all under-performed.
After the surprise success of Trainwreck, Amy Schumer seemed poised to own the comedy box office, but her own polarizing, ignorant mouth appears to have undone her career before it really began. Despite co-starring with the much-beloved Goldie Hawn in Snatched, the $42 million comedy lost tens of millions with a total worldwide gross of just $61 million.
Thank You For Your Service wisely hid Schumer’s participation, but word still leaked, and it is not unreasonable to believe that had something to do with its box office humiliation of just $9.4 million.
Star Wars Stumbles
Even The Last Jedi, while still a smash, is under-performing. After eight days, the eighth chapter in the iconic franchise has grossed an impressive $321 million, but that is $120 million behind The Force Awakens, and even trails Jurassic World by $4 million.
The Last Jedi looks to be on pace to squeak over $600 million domestic, some $300-plus million behind its predecessor. Moreover, when you adjust for inflation, chapter eight will fall way behind the much derided prequel, ThePhantom Menace ($807 million), and way behind The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi ($877 million and $840 million, respectively).
Hollywood is a Den of Sex Abusers, Enablers, and Victims
Already we know of 108 alleged monsters in Harveywood, the talent drain is already unlike anything the industry has ever seen, and the scandal feels as though it is still only at the end of the beginning.
Yes this idiot thinks that minorities are to damn stupid to think for themselves.
I’m sure this Hillary supporter has hot sauce in her purse right?
Two professors from San Diego State University claim in a new book that farmers’ markets in urban areas are weed-like “white spaces” responsible for oppression.
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Fernando J Bosco are part of an anthology released this month titled “Just Green Enough.” The work, published by Routledge, claims there is a correlation between the “whiteness of farmers’ markets” and gentrification.
“Farmers’ markets are often white spaces where the food consumption habits of white people are normalized,” the SDSU professors write, the education watchdog Campus Reform reported Wednesday.
The geology professors claim that 44 percent of San Diego’s farmers’ markets cater to “households from higher socio-economic backgrounds,” which raises property values and “[displaces] low-income residents and people of color.”
“The most insidious part of this gentrification process is that alternative food initiatives work against the community activists and residents who first mobilized to fight environmental injustices and provide these amenities but have significantly less political and economic clout than developers and real estate professionals,” the academics write.
The authors claim that negative externalities of “white habitus” formed at farmers’ markets can be managed through “inclusive steps that balance new initiatives and neighborhood stability to make cities ‘just green enough.’”
Why Don’t The Homosexuals Ever Go After Allah and The Muslims?
Swarthmore College, founded by Quakers, is offering courses in “queering the Bible” and “queering God.” The courses were first reported by Campus Reform.
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“Queering the Bible” is a one-credit class that surveys “queer and trans readings of biblical texts.”
“By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches, this class destabilizes long held assumptions about what the Bible – and religion – says about gender and sexuality,” the course description reads.
The school’s religion department is also teaching a class that questions the sexuality of the Almighty called, “Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology.”
“The God of the Bible and later Jewish and Christian literature is distinctively masculine, definitely male. Or is He?” the course description reads. “If we can point out places in traditional writings where God is nurturing, forgiving, and loving, does that mean that God is feminine, or female?”
Key themes of that particular class include exploring the “tensions between feminist and queer theology” and examines “feminist and queer writings about God.”
Critics blasted the college’s religion courses and suggested they were meant to undermine Christianity.
“This is about sanitizing and neutralizing the prohibitions on homosexual acts that Scripture unequivocally condemns,” one observer noted online.
The president of Truett-McConnell University, a conservative Christian school in Georgia, accused Swarthmore of prostituting the Bible.
“If there were a list entitled, “Best Snowflake Colleges in America,” I am quite certain that Swarthmore College would be near the top of the list,” Dr. Emir Caner told the Todd Starnes Radio Show. “Keep in mind, this is an institution of higher learning that has produced such ‘accomplished’ politicians as failed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.”
“While I am not surprised that lost people would so prostitute Scripture, perhaps there is a rainbow at the end of the storm when the student comes across John 3:16 and recognizes God’s unconditional love for them through Jesus Christ,” Caner said. “Perhaps such an open-minded student will recognize the conviction of the Holy Spirit over the noise of liberal indoctrination, bow their knee to the One True Living God and be transformed.”
Dr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas and a spiritual advisor to President Trump, warned about the spiritual dangers of twisting God’s word.
“In suggesting that God is ‘queer’ Swarthmore College is guilty of nothing short of modern day idolatry,” Jeffress told the Todd Starnes Radio Show.
“When you read the Bible you will discover that God reserved His harshest condemnation for individuals and nations that practiced idolatry – creating an imaginary god who conformed to a culture’s immorality,” Jeffress said.
Swarthmore College did not return my calls seeking comment. Nor did they respond to a question about whether they had read the Book of Revelation, Chapter 22, Verse 19.
I also inquired about whether the religion department will be offering courses on “Queering Mohammed” or “Queering the Koran.”
Something tells me they won’t be respond to that query either.
Every Damn Things Seems To Trigger Me And So What If I Love Bernie Sanders.
While most of us are spending the day opening gifts and hanging out with family and friends, some are determined to find everything wrong with Christmas.
According to some on the left, here are five problematic things about Christmas:
Mistletoe:
Some feminists decided that the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe promotes a “rape culture,” with one feminist Twitter account writing that under the mistletoe, “male misogynistic tendencies to manifest themselves in reality.”
It is likely that the anti-mistletoe campaign started as a prank on feminists, but many feminists actually joined in earnestly.
‘Sexist’ Christmas Songs:
Feminist website Bustle has previously assembled a list of “sexist” Christmas songs. In the article titled, “8 Christmas Songs That Are Totally, Terribly Sexist,” Kadeen Griffins lists classics like, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
She writes that “(s)ome of your favorite Christmas songs are kind of really sexist,” and that these Christmas songs “reek of a bit of antifeminism.”
1. “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” Has anyone ever actually listened to the lyrics of “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”? That song is terrible! Thankfully, I don’t hear them playing it on the radio much, but the fact that it’s a novelty song that has been around since the ’70s doesn’t change the fact that it details a poor woman’s drunken death. To my knowledge, Santa doesn’t even get in trouble for it — unless you count in that TV film, wherein Grandma survives and Santa was framed.
Most Offensive Lyric: “It’s not Christmas without Grandma. All the family’s dressed in black. And we just can’t help but wonder, should we open up her gifts or send them back?” Priorities, much?
2. “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
To be fair, I’ve already written a separate article about how “All I Want For Christmas Is You” could stand to be more feminist. And by written a separate article, I mean I rewrote the song entirely. However, despite being one of my personal favorite Christmas songs, I don’t like the idea that the woman narrating the song doesn’t want anything for the holidays except a man — and that she’s relying on another man (Santa Claus) to get the aforementioned man for her.
Most Offensive Lyric: “Santa, won’t you bring me the one I really need? Won’t you please bring my baby to me?”
We are going to go eat and throw-up, then we will say I’m triggered.
3. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
The fact that we have an entire song devoted to a woman’s infidelity — with Santa Claus, no less — but no such fun Christmas carol for a guy — despite Mrs. Claus being a thing — really says it all. (And giving this classic Christmas song another listen reveals that there might be something a little more insidious than simple infidelity at play. The child who snuck out of bed and witnessed this alleged instance of cheating apparently thinks it would be hilarious to report this back to Dad… for some reason.)
Most Offensive Lyric: “Oh, what a laugh it would have been if Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night!” Um.
4. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
Listen, I understand that it’s a traditional fact that guys like to play with guns and girls like to play with dolls (or something), but we don’t need to reinforce gender stereotypes in our Christmas carols, okay? Update yourself to the modern century, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!” Let’s have the boys put aside the pistols and the girls put aside the dolls and roll out some gender neutral gifts, shall we?
Most Offensive Lyric: “A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots Is the wish of Barney and Ben. Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk is the hope of Janice and Jen.”
5. “Santa Baby”
I mean, the entire song is essentially someone trying to seduce Santa Claus in order to get a bunch of Christmas presents. Male or female — though the song is traditionally sung by females and directly references being a “good girl” — it’s still a bit awkward to be breathily requesting that Santa get you cars and rings because you called him baby. All the women who independent, throw your hands up at me!
Most Offensive Lyric: “Think of all the fun I’ve missed. Think of all the fellas that I haven’t kissed. Next year I could be just as good… if you’d check off my Christmas list.” Sigh.
6. “Twelve Days of Christmas”
o be fair, “Twelve Days of Christmas” and I have always had problems with one another, mainly because when I was a child I had no idea what they were talking about with some of the items my “true love” was giving to me for Christmas. However, now that I am an adult, I realize how weird and awful it is that my true love is sending me people for Christmas, let alone crowds of people. Take back your ten lords a’ leaping, sir! I’m not into slavery.
Most Offensive Lyric: “On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: eight maids a’ milking…” a.k.a. the exact moment my true love started sending me people.
7. “Santa Tell Me”
“Santa Tell Me” might have only just come out, but, yes, I’m going to call it out for sexism. Don’t get me wrong. I love Ariana Grande’s latest Christmas hit and I’ve listened to it several times since its debut. However, I have to be the one to reiterate something that many Christmas songs don’t seem to realize: you don’t need to be in love with someone, or in a romantic relationship, to feel happy or fulfilled this Christmas. Say it loud, say it proud. Can someone please write a song about that? (Taylor Swift, I’m looking at you.)
Most Offensive Lyric: “Now I need someone to hold, be my fire in the cold.”
8. “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” is a Christmas song so problematic that many covers just outright change the lyrics. You know why. You knowwhy. If you don’t know why, let me be the one to ruin this for you: there’s a line that subtly references the female singer being drugged by the male singer. That alone makes the entire song ten times creepier and ten times more sexist than it would be otherwise, hence why that line is frequently removed.
Most Offensive Lyric: “The neighbors might think… (Baby, it’s bad out there.) Say, what’s in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there.)” Cue shuddering.
‘Racist’ Jingle Bells Song:
Boston University professor Kyna Hamill recently wrote about “Jingle Bells” and its supposed racism, Fox News reports.
She writes that the song has “racist origins,” pointing to its performances in blackface from the 1800s.
She also writes, “Although ‘One Horse Open Sleigh,’ for most of its singers and listeners, may have eluded its racialized past and taken its place in the seemingly unproblematic romanticization of a normal ‘white’ Christmas, attention to the circumstances of its performance history enables reflection on its problematic role in the construction of blackness and whiteness in the United States.”
Wrapped Gifts:
According to a“Religious Diversity and Holidays” memo given to some University of Minnesota students and staff, “bows/wrapped gifts” are not “appropriate.”
I know I am a professional victim.
Also listed as not appropriate on that list is Santa Claus, bells, doves, and menorahs, The College Fix reports.
Hallmark Christmas movies:
Some have taken issue with Hallmark Christmas movies, as they are full of largely white and straight people.
An article published to Slate.com bleats that the movies, “brim with white heterosexuals who exclusively, emphatically, and endlessly bellow “Merry Christmas” to every lumberjack and labradoodle they pass. They’re centered on beauty-pageant heroines and strong-jawed heroes with white-nationalist haircuts.”
It continued, “There are occasional sightings of Christmas sweater–wearing black people, but they exist only to cheer on the dreams of the white leads, and everyone on Trump’s naughty list—Muslims, gay people, feminists—has never crossed the snowcapped green-screen mountains to taint these quaint Christmas villages. “Santa Just Is White” seems to be etched into every Hallmark movie’s town seal.”
Salon.com also wrote an article about the movies, saying the Hallmark channel gives a “homogeneous view of the holiday,” that’s “leaving minority actors out in the cold.”
In all seriousness, go hangout with your friends and family. Merry Christmas.
Richland County deputies are investigating an incident where one person was shot and later died.
Deputies say they were called to the McDonald’s located at 7011 Parklane Road around 4 a.m. following an argument that led to a person being shot outside in the restaurant’s parking lot.
The victim, identified as James K. Copeland III, 30, of Cumming, GA, was taken to Palmetto Health Richland in critical condition but later died.
Detectives say Sultan Battle was the man who shot Copeland, but the sheriff’s department and the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office ruled the incident a justifiable homicide.
Battle has been charged with kidnapping and armed robbery for the moments leading up to the shooting. Detectives say Battle met a woman at the Quality Inn at 8140 Two Notch Road with the intent to have sex with and rob her. Battle stole cash and a cell phone from the victim and ran away.
The victim called an acquaintance and they tracked the phone down to the McDonald’s on Parklane Road. The victim’s friend demanded the stolen items back from Sultan and pulled a gun on him. Sultan pointed a gun at him in return and shot him.
Battle is booked to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center where he will await a bond hearing.
