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Category Archives: change

On Lady Homophobes.

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by iamgaryallen in about me, change, truth

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feminist, gay, homophobia, international womens day, lady, lady homophobes, love yourself, madonna, what it feels like for a girl, womyn

Liz Lemon: "Being a woman is the worst."

It was International Women’s Day last week (holla at my ladies!) and it made me think about a few things. The first is how irritating I find female homophobes. Before you get on a high horse about me targeting women etc etc etc, hear me out. First and foremost I would like to point out that I am a strident feminist; despite not loving them in the biblical sense (pretty perverted stuff if you ask me and/or actually read the old testament) I could not be a stronger supporter of gender equality.

The problem I have with lady homophobes is that in my view homophobia is intrinsically tied to misogyny. To my way of thinking people are uncomfortable with any change in the gender norms but particularly with the feminization of men. As Madonna (apologies) put it in one of her perhaps slightly less memorable hits:

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
‘Cause it’s OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
‘Cause you think that being a girl is degrading

Perhaps people don’t out and out think that being a girl is degrading, but somewhere ingrained in people is this idea that being a woman is intrinsically less than being a man.

Lady homophobes then cannot be real feminists because if they truly believed in gender equality the queers of the world – who mess with gender norms in ways that people with strict boundaries around them are not wont to handle – wouldn’t bother them in the slightest.

If you’ve known me long enough then you probably see where this post is swiftly heading and that’s that these women don’t really LOVE THEMSELVES. And that’s sad. Women who say they aren’t feminists are, frankly, the worst. I hope this doesn’t feel like I’m blaming the victim but women need to stand up and realize that feminism is not over. Things might be better but there’s still a fight out there. I stand with my ladies every day, but particularly for International Women’s Day.

LOVE YOURSELF!

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death spiral.

09 Monday Mar 2009

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, politics

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2009, collapse, corporate, credit crunch, crisis, depression, downturn, economy, friedman, greed, jobs, north america, recession, trade, white collar crime

so as the economic crisis continues to worsen the world over, i am left wondering why we’re not examing the root causes of the crisis. how is it that we focus so easily on ‘corporate greed’ as an isolated issue but don’t, as a society, examine the roots of this greed and its growth, cancer-like, throughout the world thanks to the spread of american-style – aka friedmanite – economic ‘demcracy?’ seriously, how is that every time something like this happens – and let’s be honest these occurances have been increasing alarmingly since the de-regulation of the reagan era – people seem content to assign blame to a few bad apples who’ve gotten carried away. why isn’t it more obvious that this problem is systemic? de-regulated markets, capital or otherwise, lead to complete disaster, and that is an issue we should all be confronting right now instead of running away from.

instead of throwing money at banks and other industries, the american government should take this oppurtunity to re-structure the markets so that their loans are not further pilfered away by white collar criminals that steal from the poor to prop up their extravagent lifestyles.

this financial collapse could also push north america into a more permanent state of decreased employment in general. in international trade theory we learn that countries trade with each other to take advantage of a comparative advantage in particular industries. what if, after years of buying foreign-made cheap, and disposable, goods and out-sourcing services, north americans have lost their competitive advantage at almost everything except consuming? now that low to semi-skilled jobs have been permanently transferred abroad and the economic crisis is slimming down the rest of the job market we’re left with consumers who are forced to purchase goods at stores such as wal-mart which is largely stocked with foreign-made inexpensive goods which only further pushes jobs overseas. what if north america’s penchant for deal finally comes back and bites us in the ass?

it’s time for change. we recognize that this crisis was caused by debt and yet we’re encouraged to continue spending? that doesn’t make any sense. maybe we need to re-examine the system instead of simply trying to prop it up. spending our way out of this crisis is not the answer.

UPDATE:

i found an interesting article on the bbc website thisafternoon entitled ‘All set for thrift culture?’ which highlighted the problems of our current economic system with respect to saving. honestly, something is wrong with the system if saving for your future is a detriment to the economy. our economy should not be based on people buying useless crap. and don’t even get me started on the GDP.

oh, and a few more links from the bbc:

‘Timeline: Global credit crunch’

‘Waking up to reality in Iceland’

welcome to the new positivity.

19 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, religion, society

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

atheist, church, community, group, love yourself, positivity, priest, religion, volunteer

new positivity symbol

so i was walking home from work today and i was thinking about the idea of church. then i got to thinking about the idea of a church without religion. like a gathering place for people to be thankful for their lives, share their successes and failures, and have a bit of a sing as well. that’s when i came up with the idea for new positivity. not a religion but a loosely nit group of individuals that congregates to celebrate life, loving yourself, and perhaps giving back occasionally.

while i’m an atheist i do think that churches build a certain sense of community among their followers so why shouldn’t atheists create the same type of community for themselves. i’m thinking of a sort of hour long meeting maybe once a month where people can come together but there’s no priest or sermon. there are a few sing-along songs which are positive but not god-related and people get to share their personal trials and tribulations with the group. the group could also commit to volunteering within the community, giving back as a like-minded collection of individuals.

i think it could be fantastic and would certainly be a great way to build community among a group that i think is possibly lacking in that regard. THE NEW POSITIVITY!

LOVE YOURSELF!

new positivity

GO WEST!

09 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, random, television

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2009, job, move, series finale, six feet under, uhaul, vancouver

the promised land

so the combination of having fallon out earlier this week and rewatching the epic series finale of six feet under has got me in a very contemplative mood about my forthcoming move to vancouver. there is a moment in the last episode of six feet under when a bit of a calamity happens with respect to claire’s job offer in new york but nate tells her to ‘go anyway.’ this is kind of how i’m feeling about vancouver at the minute.

the world economy seems to to ripping at the seams and the job market is in a downward spiral of death so i could just do something safe like staying in alberta and hunkering down for the time being but i’m ready to go. i’m scared shitless at the same time as being totally excited. which kind of just makes me more excited in a weird way. like if i’m excited despite being so scared i know it’s the right decision some how? i had a thought the other day, just for a moment, of staying here and it actually quite scared me. i’m so geared up to move that the thought of staying now almost seems foreign. i just re-read the last little bit and i don’t want it to seem like i won’t miss edmonton, and particularly the amazing friends i’ve met here. (i’m getting a bit misty over here – actually now i’m full on crying – hang on a tick)

okay, i’ve got it back together again. fucking six feet under, it always has me crying at the drop of a hat for days. anyway, amazing friends, etc etc (keeping it together). the thing is i’ve just come to the decision that i’m going and it’s all a bit of a countdown now (which also partly explains the tears).

tonight i was online looking at u-haul rentals for the trip. my mum was on about maybe getting a professional mover but i think that is probably going to end up being far too expensive, especially when u-haul is so economical. i suppose i’ll have to drive for like 12 hours, but at the minute i’m swept up in the poetry and cathartic nature of such a drive. i’m sure that if i actually do end up driving i will rue this moment with a passion when i’m holding back fast food vomit and urinating on the side of a road but c’est la vie. 2009 feels like a big adventure and i’m quite excited for it to be honest.

oh, and if anyone knows of a fabulous marketing job in vancouver – or let’s be honest, any job – i’m sure i’d be perfect for it.

click to view full size.

it’s holograms a-kimbo and a black dude is the next president.

11 Tuesday Nov 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, politics

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2008 election, america, anderson cooper, barrack obama, cnn, cold war, democrat, harvey milk, hillary clinton, hologram, john mccain, michelle obama, nbc, neo-liberal, news, president, sarah palin, speech, wolf blitzer

obama (hearts) the gays

so i know the election was last tuesday but to be honest i wanted to let it settle in a little before posting and ensure that i didn’t get swept away by the ongoing ‘obamania.’ i actually ended up watching the coverage on cnn from 4:30 until almost midnight. i just couldn’t look away. actually, the coverage on every other channel was absolute shit, i usually quite like nbc news but even they were crap. also, cnn wasn’t just better than the rest, it was amazing in and of itself. first of all they had sexy ‘mo anderson cooper and the always enjoyable wolf blitzer and furthermore they had a plethora of enjoyable panelists and some killer graphics that included holograms (as mentioned by bobby). i also liked that cnn was quite conservative in calling victories. the media has gotten so jumpy when calling victories in recent years and this new conservatism in that respect was a nice change. obama’s win was a bit of a forgone conclusion from midway through the night but i was glad that he wasn’t called as the winner until the votes from the west coast came in.

so after the win john mccain gave a very good concession speech that was extremely gracious and that was nice except that his bastard supporters kept booing whenever he said obama’s name. in fairness, mccain was having none of it and kept pushing them to shut the fuck up, but it was still quite annoying. sarah palin said nothing which was obviously for the best. obama’s speech was KILLER! first of all, he gave a shout out to the gays, and everyone knows we’re fickle bitches who like to be mentioned. it was nice that the future president clearly values the ‘mos more than worrying what idiotic homophobes think. but yeah, the speech was EPIC. he was excited about victory but made it clear that america has a long way to go and the challenge is far from over – it was nice to hear a politician honestly telling the people that hard times are ahead without sugarcoating it with lies about instant change. it was near perfect but for one minor detail. he didn’t mention hillary. at one point he started talking about ‘a lady’ but then he ended going on about some super-old woman who had voted since the beginning of time and completely ignored the brilliance of the hill. i think it would have been gracious to mention hillary who stumped for him hardcore after losing the democratic nomination but there you go. his team was probably not wanting to associate obama with her on election night which is unfortunate.

hillary clinton

all in all it was an exciting and historic evening although i did keep worrying that obama was going to be shot while he was speaking because even though there was glass around him it was still a very open area. i think there’s a worrying possibility of assassination attempts from crazy rednecks who don’t like the idea of a black president – thank god they’re usually not as organized or committed as al qaeda or he’d be fucked. the harvey milk biopic that’s coming out seems strangely appropriate and i hope obama has some serious security to deal with all the crazies (on a sidenote, MILK looks amazing).

i am quite excited about barrack obama as president for many reasons including the obvious that a person from an ethnic minority is running america for the first time. i am more excited that obama won by promising to re-evaluate the right wing neo-liberal policies that america has been run on for over 30 years. it’s exciting that the first president in memory is talking about more left-leaning social policies and progress for the middle class. perhaps america is finally letting go of cold war paranoia and evaluating social policies on their individual merits rather than whether or not they seem possibly ‘communist’ in nature. this truly would be a giant leap forward for a country that seems forever locked in an ideological battle with a foe that no longer exists. a flush of young and foreign-born voters voted for a change to failed policies of the right and hopefully change is what they’ll get

also, michelle obama rocked it. love her, obviously.
michelle obama

last dance.

25 Saturday Oct 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

autumn, ebay, edmonton, fall, friendship, fringe, jo-ann, season, summer, trevor, vancouver move, wind, winter

since i got back from my trip to england this summer i’ve found myself very contemplative.  at first i thought it was just missing family after being surrounded by a plethora of relatives for three weeks but i soon realized that it is more than that.  it’s a sense that this is my last winter in edmonton.  my last 6 months basically to enjoy this city and the people that inhabit it.

i’m feeling very sentimental at the minute which is also a combination of the above mood and the changing season. i always get a bit sentimental and contemplative as summer gives way to autumn and that gives way to winter. i think it’s the sense that you can actually see time passing in a very real way but i’m not really sure. it’s windy today and i love the wind, it’s like a gusting change, forcing its way through you.

back to leaving edmonton, a warning to my friends: i have a feeling this is going to be a very melodramatic few months as i’m thinking of everything with a certain amount of finality. last dance, and all that. it’s strange, the more i come to terms with leaving edmonton, the more i realize how much i’ll miss it. that’s not to say that i’m not excited about moving, just that the more final that decision becomes, the more i have to deal with saying goodbye to people that are an important part of my life. i know the important ones will still be in my life, but things will obviously have to change. the other night i had a particularly reassuring phone call with jo-ann (and trevor by proxy) during which she was having an ebay crisis but i somehow remained totally involved in the whole thing over the phone line which we both later laughed about.

the other thing , and i never thought i’d say this, is that i’m actually going to miss the city of edmonton. i had never really appreciated edmonton as a city until this year when i spent the summer here. summer makes edmonton. the festivals, folk fest, fringe, the farmers market, and a genuine sense of community. i’m not sure that on a balance, the summer makes up for the winter, but i still now appreciate the city in which i’ve been residing on and of for the past 8 years.

six months to go and suddenly everything feels like an ending. sometimes i’m too dramaful for my own good. it’s probably jo-ann’s fault.

trying to paint a picture.

26 Friday Sep 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, politics, rant

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

america, barrack obama, debate, democrat, joe biden, john mccain, presidential, republican, rudy guiliani, sarah palin, US, USA

so i just watched the US presidential debate and unsurprisingly it was crazy annoying. McCain kept trying to paint Obama as a man who doesn’t have the experience to run the country which was infuriating. infuriating because i understand the argument but McCain has made a plethora of shit decisions as a senator so his record is, on balance, much worse. maybe Obama just hasn’t had the chance to fuck up yet, but McCain has had his chance and should shut the fuck up.

another annoying thing was that Joe Biden was interviewed after the debate but Sarah Palin was ‘unavailable’ so Rudy Guiliani was interviewed for the Rebublicans. Biden was quite respectful but Guiliani just kept saying that McCain ‘schooled’ Obama on foreign policy. BITCH, PLEASE! the Republicans drive me crazy because they are so forceful with they’re language as to say that they’re innately right but the Democrats, and more left-leaning people in general, are always respectful of other ideas and therefore look weak which doesn’t help from a media perspective.

basically i think McCain is a douche and it drives me crazy that anyone would vote for him or his cheerleader bimbo Sarah Palin.

the real disaster is yet to come

21 Sunday Sep 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, rant

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bill maher, credit, crisis, crunch, economy, naomi klein, shock doctine, wall street

naomi klein was on bill maher on september 19th and had the following to say about the current economic crisis:

The disaster is far from over. They’ve actually just relocated. The disaster was on Wall Street and they have moved the disaster to Main Street by accepting those debts and you said they didn’t have to bomb, the bomb has yet to detonate. The bomb is the debt that has now been transferred to the taxpayers so it detonates when, if John McCain becomes president in the midst of an economic crisis and says look we’re in trouble, we have a disaster on our hands, we have to privatize social security, we can’t afford health care, we can’t afford food stamps, we need more deregulation, more privatization. The thesis of the Shock Doctrine is you need a disaster to rationalize these very unpopular policies so the real disaster has yet to come.The real disaster is the debt that is going to explode on the American taxpayers. And then they do economic shock therapy.

They had to step in, but I don’t think they had to step in in the way they did. The reason why the stock market went up on Wall Street today is because it’s Christmas morning. Imagine waking up and being told your credit card debits have been wiped out, your mortgage has been erased. There’s a fairy godmother that has taken care of you. A guardian angel. But actually that’s the taxpayers

scary and brilliant. READ HER BOOK!

here’s the clip from the show.

fuck laissez faire.

21 Sunday Sep 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, rant

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alan greenspan, american, capitalism, credit, crisis, crunch, economy, gdp, laissez faire, milton friedman, naomi klein, shock doctrine, socialism

so the american economy is collapsing like a house of cards and people are still content to bail it out rather than question the foundation of the system. how the fuck did we get here? why aren’t people demanding answers? where’s the dissent? where’s the anger?

FUCK LAISSEZ FAIRE CAPITALISM. it hasn’t worked. people around the world are poor and dying as corporations make record profits off of the suffering of the huddled masses. it’s time for anger and it’s time for action. why do we still think that milton friedman’s ideal of a completely unfettered market is the answer? where has that proven to work? why is alan greenspan still held up as some sort of economic wunderkind? who cares if the GDP is growing if the majority of citizens are losing rather than gaining as a result of it? the world is spiralling out of control as the rich continue to get richer and poor become destitute.

i don’t think that there’s no place for markets but basic social services need to be covered and not privately owned. private ownership should not be the goal for everything on the planet. i honestly don’t get the theory that things will be cheaper in a free market. i’ve never experienced that to be the case. first of all, in the free market goal number one is profit whereas for a public service the goal is to provide the service regardless. if there has to be increasing profit for private firms year on year then how economists can state that prices will go down is beyond me. look at electricity and insurance in alberta. we were promised cheaper rates through privatization and fuck if anyone has seen them.

socialism is such a dirty word in alberta and america and it drives me crazy. it’s this whole post cold war mentality that evil russia is still ready to pounce on us at any minute. FUCK. get a grip. economies that have more left leaning approaches in europe have proven to be much more balanced in the long-term and their citizens experience a much better quality of life. why do we have to measure everything solely by a dollar value? fuck GDP. surely quality of life is a much more important characterisation of a country’s success?

in related reading, this summer i read naomi klein’s ‘the shock doctrine’ and i can safely say it is the best book i’ve ever read. it’s brilliant and i think everyone should read it. below is a short video about the book:

confess!

12 Saturday Apr 2008

Posted by iamgaryallen in change, school

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ecologo

so here is the eco-confessions video for you guys. hope you all like how you look.

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