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Archive: April, 2010
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So I'm reading one of the most horrifying stories to come out of New Jersey/anywhere in a while, posted on Phawker (via the Associated Press), about a 7-year-old girl who was gang-raped by as many as seven men, after being sold to these men by her 15-year-old stepsister.
Sad, sad, sad world, right?
And then I look to the image (see above) that Phawker ed Jonathan Valania posted to accompany the story. Wait, what? is he likening this 15-year-old who sold her own sister away to become a sex slave as someone who should go and brush her shoulders off???
Now look, we could get into a long discussion here about how Jay-Z and every other rapper since the beginning of time has glorified pimps, and how that's not cool. But the fact is, in the context of Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," "pimp" is a metaphor and the phrase "ladies is pimps, too" is an empowering statement, one of solidarity. No one who commits such a heinous crime as that mentioned above should be compared to a woman who deserves to brush her shoulders off.
Which is long way of saying that, essentially, Phawker's post creeped me the fuck out. Worse yet, it isn't the first time.
As much as rappers would like you to pretend that the word "pimp" doesn not mean a pimp, the story of the public housing child gang rape involves a teen pimp who sells a little girl. Not quite so fun to blast that rap song now, is it?
Nah, I agree that glorifying pimps anywhere is bad, Cleanup. All I meant was that the discussion over rappers doing it has been had many times before, and I just didn't feel the need to reiterate it at this time. And I do think that, in a weird way, Jay-Z probably meant that specific lyric ("ladies is pimps, too") to be empowering and pro-women.
Actually, the fact that Phawker de facto celebrated a teen pimp, by likening her to a woman in a song lyric that itself glorifies pimps further is meta mindfuck.
And I suppose, in that way, Phawker could have been posting that image ironically. If that's true, I'd still argue that it's damaging to do so, because I seriously doubt many people would "get" it.In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: Good grief. Your reaction to a story about a 15-year-old pimping out her 7-year-old stepsister for a gangrape is to complain about the graphic I grabbed off of Google Images to accompany the story? That's like hearing about the Holocaust and complaining that the striped pajamas the Jews had to wear in the concentration camps made their asses look big. Also, if you keep roasting marshmallows at Joey Sweeney's bonfire of the inanities you are only going to get burned. Trust me on this. In the immortal words of Animal House's Dean Wormer: Fat, drunk and Sweeney is no way to go through life, son.
Few people have recognized the 15-year-old girl as a victim too. She's a minor, and that qualifies as statutory rape. Her role in her sister's rape may be sensational but an abused teen's actions aren't the same thing as the adult men who took sick, sick actions on both these children.
Not really buying that analogy, Jon. The image accompanying the story is a commentary on that story. And, in this case it signals a callous disregard for a tragic event. Don't think it's really what you intended, but it was a funky choice of images, to say the least. Oh, and Holly's the last person I'd accuse of being a sycophant. Trust me, son.
You'd think they'd learn. Back in 2005, as reported by City Paper's Nicole Sarrubbo, the developers behind ye Old City Parkominium, in an attempt to drum up interest in their condo-style parking garage, put fliers designed to look like parking violations on the windshields of cars parked in Old City. As you can imagine, people were pissed.
When Ryan Wexelblatt walked out to his car two Thursday mornings ago, he could not believe what he saw: Every single car on Wood Street had a Philadelphia Parking Authority ticket on its windshield. Confused, he picked the "ticket" off his windshield and opened it. Lo and behold, the "ticket" was really a flier for the Old City "Parkominium," encouraging residents to purchase a space and not let "another ticket ruin your day." Wexelblatt was outraged: "It literally was the most obnoxious thing I had ever seen."
This morning, mild-mannered CP production director Michael Polimeno walked in, as incensed as a mild-mannered production director gets, having found this flier on his window this morning:
Before he realized it was, in fact, not a parking violation but a PRETZEL Violation, Michael said he experienced several stages of disbelief rage, deep embarrassment, shame before he realized he'd been the victim of a dubious bait and switch on the part of Philly Pretzel Factory, whose deals were listed on the back of the flier.
"Will I ever forget the name Philly Pretzel Factory?" asked Michael. "No."
He suggested, however, that his lasting memories may not exactly be fond ones.
[...] DEPARTMENT OF DIRTY TRICKS: Parking violation-style fliers still חοt сοοƖ ... [...]
fixed! Looks like our circa-2005 copy desk could have used an idiom cop of it own.
"Low and behold"?! Seriously?!
Christine Adkins here with your morning fix:
Toll booth workers are going to get nicer! At least thats the hope, after the NJ Turnpike forces collectors to take mandatory customer service courses. Also, click here for a veritable treasure trove of NJ Turnpike complaints.
April Fools Day is here, so get ready for apps that help practical jokers make the best of this holiday.
Haiti just received more aid, this time its over $10 billion from international donors via the UNs conference Towards a New Future for Haiti.
Natives on both sides arent fans of the proposed marriage between Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricket player Shoaib Malik. The announcement sparked protests, many citizens publicly burning photos of the international stars.
Thoughts on the newest Apple invention, the iPad? Let em rip folks.
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