Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

Colleagues,

 

I find the juxtaposition of these two articles, and the sources, fascinating...

 

The Huffington Post

Posted: October 13, 2010 11:50 AM

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-katz/linda-mcmahon-smacks-down_b_7604
65.html> Linda McMahon Smacks Down Women

By Jackson Katz

It is mind-boggling that the voters of Connecticut would even consider
electing the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment to high political
office -- until you realize what an abysmal job the news media have done of
holding her accountable for the actual product she produced.

Make no mistake about it: until Linda McMahon decided to run as a Republican
for the United States Senate, she was one-half of one of the most culturally
destructive, and blatantly misogynistic, business partnerships in the
history of popular entertainment. Under Linda and her husband Vince
McMahon's leadership, the WWE has featured some of the most brutal, violent
and hateful depictions of women in all of media culture over the past twenty
years.

But incredibly, the rampant misogyny of McMahon's WWE has gotten scant
coverage during this fall's U.S. senate campaign in Connecticut. Political
reporters have largely rolled over and bought the McMahon campaign line that
what goes on in professional wrestling is only entertainment, that the WWE
has gotten more family-friendly in recent years, and that we should all just
lighten up and focus on what really matters about Linda McMahon's
stewardship of the WWE: her savvy business skills and experience.

Last weekend Christiane Amanpour came close, but nowhere have I seen a
political reporter ask McMahon, point blank, whether she thinks misogyny and
violence against women are "only entertainment."

This is a remarkable omission given how strategically -- and relentlessly --
Linda McMahon's campaign has been trying to appeal explicitly to women
voters. It is especially hypocritical and cynical that McMahon is fashioning
herself as a strong woman business leader when her core business -- the one
whose profits fuel her campaign -- has so shamelessly sold men's violence
against women as just another form of popular entertainment for the masses.
And let's be clear: a huge percentage of the WWE's audience consists of
kids.

Most people aren't familiar enough with what actually goes on in
professional wrestling to know just how badly women are treated in WWE
narratives. The less you've actually watched of the WWE, the more likely you
are to have only some vague impression of this "sports entertainment"
spectacle as a more or less ridiculous and fictional circus of cartoonish,
steroid-infused brutes strutting their stuff and smashing chairs over each
other's heads. But the fact is that while glib commentators on the political
chat shows make jokes about smackdowns and wrestlers' buffoonish posturing,
under McMahon and her husband's leadership, the WWE has
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJRq3cQnEE> brought the routine
brutalization of women to new lows on prime time cable television.

The WWE does have women wrestlers, who are typically strong and sculpted
athletes -- even if their primary objective is to rip other women wrestlers'
clothes off in what amount to highly sexualized "catfights." But until
recently, most women in the WWE played roles, such as wrestlers'
girlfriends, where their character was set up to be ridiculed, sexually
harassed, and mock raped.

One notorious plot line in the early 2000s featured Linda McMahon's daughter
Stephanie playing a domestic violence victim, and the audience was
positioned to cheer on her scripted (and real-life) husband, the wrestler
Triple H, as he openly threatened her with further violence. Another
sequence where Vince McMahon orders a woman wrestler to strip, get on her
knees and bark like a dog was, in the words of University of Massachusetts
communication professor Sut Jhally, "some of the most disturbing television
that has ever been produced."

Don't take my word for all of this. Check out
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJRq3cQnEE> this clip on YouTube that I
posted from the educational video Wrestling With Manhood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJRq3cQnEE
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJRq3cQnEE&feature=player_embedded>
&feature=player_embedded[Blogger note: I was a featured presenter in the
film.] But be forewarned: this clip is not for the faint of heart. There is
a disclaimer at the beginning of the full 60-minute video because of the
disturbingly violent sexual content. And by all means, forward the clip
along to as many friends as you can, especially if they live in Connecticut.
Because contrary to the premium Linda McMahon places on entertainment,
democracy isn't a spectator sport, and the voters of Connecticut -- women
and men -- shouldn't allow her to run away from her record as CEO of the
WWE.

A society that respects women needs to elect leaders who care more about
women's lives than they do about their or their company's bottom line.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Brandy Reveals Why She Hasn't Had Sex in Years

On 'Dancing With the Stars,' Brandy admitted she hasn't been intimate with a man for six years -- now she tells Life & Style why.

"I haven't been with a man seriously and in love in six years. And, honestly, I tend to abstain if I'm not in a relationship," Brandy says.

Although it hasn't actually been a full six years, the singer says, "It's been a long time. We're talking years."

Brandy has tried getting back in the dating game, though. "I actually went on a blind date a couple months ago that was very interesting but nothing serious."

There was a time when Brandy had a thing for rapper Flo Rida. "I was very interested in him. I mean, how can you not be -- he's very attractive. But there was just something about us that didn't click."

Last week, Howard Stern took major issue with Brandy's 'Dancing' partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy getting a little too ... comfortable, we'll say, with the singer. "This guy is yelling at her, giving her the business about how she has to work harder," Stern said. "She's being a good sport about it, pretending like this actually matters if they're dancing the f***ing samba correctly. All of the sudden, while he's training her he starts smacking her on the ass."

"This guy is training a woman, a black woman," a perturbed Stern added. "You know when a man walks by a woman and makes a sound like she's a fine horse? He's smacking her on the ass like she's his personal property, like back in the slave days. I was astounded they were showing this on TV."

Regards,
Brett A. Sokolow
Brett A. Sokolow, J.D.
Attorney-At-Law


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