*cringes*

[tikistitch]

So, last week we were like, PRIMARIES ARE OVER YAY!!

No more pie fights, we could finally join hands and sing campfire songs and whatever.

Well, that lasted for about 5 seconds.



This is the Barack Obama sock monkey.

Yeah, really.

It's the talk of the intarwebs today. These guys are checking out who's behind the site. Maybe there's malice aforethought, or maybe it's just the results of cousins marrying.

Speaking of cousins marrying, we come to Fox News....



We're not happy about this, but we called it: they're going after Michelle. Because sexism yay.

So, this next five months is going to be like watching the last 10 minutes of Bamboozled, only instead of just going on and on and on, it's gonna be FIVE FUCKING MONTHS of us crawling under the table to hide from the sheer yawning chasm of horrible.

Comments

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Wait, I'm feeling slow today -- is the sock monkey a good thing? Bad thing? Is there a racial implication I'm totally missing?

[twotone]

I think it's because "monkey" and "ape" imagery is used in racist depictions of black people as sub-human jungle creatures? There may be a secondary insinuation that Obama is a "sock puppet" that is manipulated by others.

NOTE: most of my education about African American issues comes from The Boondocks animated series, plus The Daily Show.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Shades of the social Darwinism nonsense!

... but... monkeys are cute....


It's hard to pick up on these things when you're raised by Sesame Street. And, I suppose, the Etsy/indie/DIY scene that promotes stuff like Superhero Cthulu and devil-horned rubber ducks to the point of over-saturation.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Depicting African-Americans as monkeys or apes is racist.

See, for example:

http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/overview.htm
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/menu.htm

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did read heaps on the historical psuedo-science claiming Africans were like monkeys and less "evolved" than the magical white people, but I'm too much a child of the "Yay! Let's save the rainforest!" 1990s to make the association with a sock monkey in our current era. I mean, I used to have a riot grrl sock monkey...

I mean, I wouldn't be completely surprised if the creator was just... oblivious. Not a prudent marketing move, obviously, but not necessarily ill-intentioned.

[twotone]

I'm horrified and confused by the "baby mama" thing. Isn't that a term specifically created for people who aren't married? Plus, isn't it twice as long as the word "wife"? Plus, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH FOX NEWS SERIOUSLY

PS: "TERRORIST FIST JAB" WTF

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH FOX NEWS SERIOUSLY

It kind of blips you into capslock, doesn't it? The stupid, I mean?

[twotone]

FOX NEWS ARGH

You know, I'm a faithful Daily Show/Colbert Report viewer, and I get a chuckle whenever people fail to pick up on the satire. I think, "How can they NOT realize this is hyperbole, a ridiculous over-the-top parody of stereotyped far-right punditry?"

And then Fox News does something like this, or they show a clip of O'Reilly/that scary blond chick/whatever, and I gnash my teeth and wail at the madness of the world.

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Calling Michelle Obama's baby momma??? Hello, racist much Faux News? Why don't we start talking about the fact that John McCain's marriage started as an extramarital affair while we're at it? Cuz, you know, if that sort of shit happens while he's in office, we'll surely impeach him, right?

Grrrr. Someday in the bright and shiny future, maybe politics will be about politics again. Maybe.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I think the lesson (which we learned again during the primaries) is that sexism sells, but if you want to be racist, it makes people uncomfortable, so you need to be sneaky about it. (Reagan used to be the master of this, with all his "states rights" bloviating.) So, IMHO, this is Faux News trying to sneak one by. And failing. It would be helpful if anyone left at that network had half a brain.

[sublate.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for them to mention the fact that Barack has fathered a black child.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

*rotfl*

Though I probably shouldn't laugh - there's probably Fox News drones even now trying to figure out how to play that one.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

God almighty. I'm surprised they didn't put a little noose around its neck.

Even more fail: it's not a goddamned sock monkey if it isn't made from socks.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

BTW, the "baby mama" stuff and all? Hideous. But then, we all know Fox News is just... insane. I really can't believe it airs half the time.

I think I'm just too young to "get" a sock monkey thing, though. I just see monkey, and monkey = cute! It's like, this one time I get in trouble at work for saying "sucks," which I compleeeeeeetely didn't know used to have a sexual overtone? I polled all the other workers under 25, and none of us knew it meant anything but, well, "sucks." At least I am the doe-eyed future!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

*rotfl* Sweetie, *what* did you think the suckers were sucking on?? Kids these days!

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

I don't know! The situation just... sucks! I guess in the eighties it bit, but what the situation bit, no one knows. I mean, what the heck was "bodacious" supposed to mean? How far was "far out"? Slang isn't supposed to make sense!

I literally had no clue until I was getting disciplined. Thankfully, as everyone else shared my cluelessness, I ended up not getting in trouble.

It's the fault of a generation! Context changes!

Appropriate icon

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

(PS: I'm still not entirely clear... is it supposed to be sucking on a butt, or on a penis? Cory always thought it was eggs, but I just thought it was some metaphysical concept of suck.)

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Also, just curious: why do you find the "baby mama" stuff worse than the Obama monkey? Baby mama is simply a term for an unwed mother, something that shouldn't be a stigma, after all?

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Perhaps because of the context of the times: like I said, I had absolutely zero association with monkeys being anything other than, well, monkeys. And considering the fairly pro-Obama site and, if blogging is to be believed, positive intent of the creators... eh. It's just not triggering my "OMG CONSPIRACY" meter unless something more sinister than "cuddly toy to support the future president" comes to light. I'm not willing to condemn it all solely on the basis that they live in Utah, because, yeah, I wouldn't have made the association. In some possible alternate reality that I cared about political candidates and was still in college, I could see wanting to buy an Obama monkey/promoting them, because sock monkeys are hip and cool. Wildlife is hip and cool.

Whereas "baby mama" is pretty blatant use of slang that's been overused in the last few years to sound "black," and quite frankly, an inappropriate thing to call a wife. Black people don't have wives, they have baby mamas! Just like the 40-Year-Old Virgin told us, black people don't get married before having children ever! Hilarious! Yo homies!

That, and the fact the source is Fox News, does trigger my conspiracy meter. I mean, hell, if Jon Stewart used it, we'd all know it was a HAHA JOKE (I can't bring myself to imagine Colbert even delivering the line) but Fox? Prior bad acts would be admissible in this case.

It's pretty eye-roll-inducing, but on the other hand, I generally don't really pay attention to Fox News for this very reason. When was the last time they published something, you know, not insane?

[sinderellah.livejournal.com]

But... when there were all those comparisons of George W.Bush and apes, that's NOT racist because he's white? http://www.bushorchimp.com/
Gosh you Americans... you confuzzle me sometimes!!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Comparing George Bush to a monkey is an insult to monkey-kind.

[girlontheleft.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of this contest-winning Mr. T sock monkey from Craftster... which maybe displayed a certain lack of cluefulness, but not malice.

But the lack of a lumpy, heathered-grey McSockMonCain doll here to accompany this one makes the real intent pretty obvious in this case.

Meanwhile, I just listened to Pat Robertson describe Obama as "exotic." (You wanna know what's really exotic? Panama!)

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I just listened to Pat Robertson describe Obama as "exotic."

Good lord. I hadn't heard that one. That's our Rev. Pat, always good for a laugh.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

And then there's the rather embarrasing early Warner Bros. cartoon character, Bosko. Read about him on Wikipedia here. He was a Mickey Mouse imitator who was supposed to be a little black boy.

Bosko and his girlfriend, Honey, made a cameo appearance in an episode of TINY TOON ADVENTURES, except they were depicted as having doglike ears, which they didn't have in the original cartoons.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Did you see the part where they mention Mickey Mouse is based on a minstrel show character? That's astounding!