This blog is:

- a personal space used for contemplation and creative writing
- feminist
- sex positive
- philosophical
- pro-sex worker rights
- anti-racist
- LGBTQ-friendly
- pro-choice
- anti-misogynist
- pro-full disclosure sex education
- anti-gender constructs
- pro-equal party/community parenting
- anti-troll

So, castusalbuscor, jdp17 and myself went to see Mamma Mia tonight. I wasn't too looking forward to it because the basic premise of the movie sounded really stupid: girl's gonna get married, wants her father to give her away, so she has to figure out who he is. Riiiiiiiight... you're off to celebrate a new beginning in your life and you need your absent dad to give you away? That's lame, so not-empowering, and decidedly unfeminist. So yeah, the ABBA songs were what I went for...

( WARNING: SPOILERS GALORE! )

h/t to caitlin_chan

Firstly, I'd like to say that I think Legally Blonde was an awesome movie. It devastated blond and misogynist jokes and I think it was first movie I ever watched with a truly empowered female who was self-confident, creative, witty, and fun. Elle taught me it was okay to be a girly girl and still be in academia at the same time. I know a whole wack of people who're like "yeah, I know, Legally Blonde, sad and ew, eh?"

But having a Legally Blonde musical out on Broadway makes me infinitely happier than having Disney's High School Musical come to Neptune next year as our big show -_-

Secondly, what an awesome song. So witty, so silly. Of course it plays on all sorts of gender tropes, but cute nonetheless.

Thirdly, what AWESOME EDITING. Look at how well all the clips fit in together! Like at .35 - .40, right after "is he gaaaaaaay, or European!"
[Clip of someone freaking out]
[clip of people looking at something interestedly] "ooohhhhhh..."

1.12 - 1.14 has a chorus of girls sitting around, which is also brilliantly lip-synched.

And while Tamaki metamorphosizes into a drag queen, the chorus yells "GAY! GAY GAY GAY GAY!" and everything stands still at 1.41 where he's sweeping a girl off her feet --- "DAMMIT!"

The coda is perfect, switching between the main lip-syncher and the crowds XD

Brilliant, brilliantly done.

Fourthly, I think I shall check out Ouran High School Host Club. I've heard of it before, of course, but I wiki-ed it after watching this video. Apparently, a "host club" takes from a "hostess club", where women entertain men after-hours by getting them to drink. They're modern-day geishas, basically. A "host club", therefore, is a place where men entertain women.

There're all sorts of problematic things that can happen of course: illegal employment, sexual assault, and most obviously, drinking problems, since hosts are expected to drink as much as their customers.

But a club where men are expected to entertain the whims of women (and gay men) is a really delightful notion, and having it accepted enough to be written in a high school setting is interesting. I don't understand why the Japanese won't take their own cultural cues and just start accepting gender equality and non-traditional ways already.

Anyway, obviously, this anime and manga have been set as "shoujo" stories - which is a shame but I guess boys just don't like that kind of thing, eh? eh? *nudge*

Hope you enjoyed the clip!

On Saturday or Sunday evening, I was hanging out on the stage of the mainstage tent, and watching the piano tuner get to work. He's got a neat little gizmo to help him tune the thing, although he doesn't really pay attention to it. I asked him a few questions, and he said, "I can't really tell you right now because I need this done ASAP" (the next show was in half an hour) "but I'm here at 8 in the morning and I can show you then." And I said yes, and I have to do the info desk at 8.30am anyway. But he only comes at 8.30, when I'm hooked at the info desk.

Today, he came looking for tickets and he remembered his offer, and I promised that Saturday morning, I would come see him.

This evening, I went to the Cathedral Church of All Saints (that name never fails to amuse) for a performance by a trio - Sri Lanka-born pianist Dinuk Wijeratne, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and New Jersey table drummer Mayookh Bhaumik.

And, well, wow.

( Read more... )

If you're a Final Fantasy VII fan, which I was, back in the day, despite having never played the darn thing, I have a present for you.

It's a fanfic written by a Lori MacDonald back in FF VII's heyday, and it's fucking hilarious. Perfect comedy. Cleverly written.

It's called Grief Counseling. I hope you like it. Myself, I cannot stop laughing, and I have to walk away from the computer every few paragraphs.

Adding my voice to the current blogosphere on the disgusting cretin that is Kyle Payne.

I refuse to link to his blog because he's refuse.

Renegade Evolution brings to our attention the evil thing that is Kyle Payne.

Who is this fuck that's got you angry, Jha? you may ask.

Well, this man is a self-proclaimed feminist. He's worked as a counsellor for sexual assault victims, has research anti-porn movements, and basically is anti-porn, because well, I know some of you probably think porn is bad, for a variety of reasons. He, like Robert Jensen, spends his time discussing men's masculinity identity, and educating men on their roles to combat the culture that advocates sexual violence.

He sounds cool on the surface, doesn't he?

Well, the man is a rapist.

Using his authourity as a resident advisor, he broke into the room of a female student while she was unconscious, assaulted her, and photographed her, without her consent.

Through investigation it was found that Payne, on January 3rd of 2007, was serving as RA for Buena Vista University when he attended to an intoxicated 18-year-old female student in her dorm room. He allegedly physically assaulted her while she was unconscious and video taped the act and downloaded the images onto his laptop.

Another newspiece on him:
In documents filed with the court, Payne agrees that "with an intent to arouse my sexual desire, I photographed and filmed Jane Doe and her breast without her consent." A portion of the plea agreement stating that Payne was of sound mind when the incident took place in early 2007 was stricken from the document, leaving only the portion where Payne agrees that he is currently of sound mind.

Students and staff from BVU weight in here.

RenEv has more linkage to different places discussing this asshole, if you're interested.

Jeff Fecke from Shakesville identifies why this is so problematic:

People often misread the statement "every man is a potential rapist" to mean "every man is a rapist," or "every man would rape if given the chance," or "every man wants to commit rape." That is not what the phrase means. What it means is that because of the way rape culture operates, women must identify every man as a potential rapist, knowing full well that most aren't. Because rapists don't hang signs around their neck proclaiming themselves as such, because rapists don't act like evil bastards all the time, because rapists indeed can comport themselves as friendly, helpful, even feminist, women must be on their guard until they believe that they have learned enough about a man that they can trust him. And even then, it's a leap of faith, as anyone who's experienced acquaintance rape can tell you.

In a previous entry, I asked about reactions towards new knowledge of assault and confessing about previous experiences. It was an interesting question I'd asked myself a while back, after reading figleaf's "What Rape Culture Means to Me", in which he explores how criminal the act of rape is.

There's a lot of talk about how to punish rapists, and some of us can get really creative on punishing rapists. It's very "eye for an eye"-esque, in which we're pretty much as cruel to the perpetrators of crime as they are towards their victims. Why else would prison systems where wrongful deaths happen? How else could we allow Abu Ghraib to have happened?

figleaf wrote:

... I firmly believed that only the most heinous punishments should be reserved for rapists. Castrations? Sure. Eyes burned out with rusty, salt-encrusted tongs? Why not. Penis nailed to a stump, the stump set on fire, and leaving them with nothing but a hatchet? I didn't make that one up but I agreed vigorously when it was proposed as "letting them off easy."

And if I could feel that way about it (all without knowing anyone who had *disclosed* that she'd been raped) then how could I *possibly* be part of rape culture?

And then?

And then...

And then in 1981, when I was 26, in a first-year journalism class, I interviewed a campus rape crisis counsellor who brought me up to date (I'd been a peer crisis/sex-ed counsellor ten years earlier but a *heck* of a lot of thought and action went into issues during that time. And then, partly due to outreach efforts and partly due feminist advocacy for rape prevention policies, women I knew started coming forward with their stories.

And the more I started seeing it as a crime and not sex, and the more I started associating it with real people who'd suffered real violence?

The less I wanted to concoct ever newer, ever more lurid punishments and...

And the more I just wanted it to stop. By any means necessary, sure, but by only those means *necessary.*

( Read more... )

Haligonians are probably aware of the place where I live: Oxford and Allan St. Both are pretty long streets: Oxford reaches from North St. all the way to South St, which is several blocks. Allan St. is at least three blocks long.

( More on Running )

Let's meditate on the word "fat". It has all sorts of negative connotations. The opposite of it is "skinny". Between "skinny" and "fat", obviously "skinny" has the more desirable - possibly because being skinny means you have an excuse to consume more, but being fat means you consume too much, you greedy little bitchstickwhoresuckingourplanetdryrarr. When we grow up, we get this a lot. We internalize the message that if we're fat, somehow, it's our own fucking fault, and we're worthless, stupid, lazy, if we're fat. Being fat is BAD. ( Read more... )

p.s. This is a fat-acceptance post. Any anti-fat comments will be deleted. =) Fankyoo.

UPDATE: So I realized what an ass I was to forget that I potentially have assault survivors on my f-list. The only decent thing to do would be to put:

TRIGGER WARNING!!!!

1) If you found out someone close to you had been raped / molested / harassed, what would you do?

2) If you had been raped / molested / harassed, who would you tell or NOT tell? Why / why not?

If you HAVE been in these scenarios in the past, and would rather not talk about it, I'll understand. These questions are directed mostly at those who haven't had these experiences (particularly the men).


This is just a segue into another topic for discussion. More tomorrow.

And people think I don't have a sense of humour. My dad keeps telling me to "lighten up".

Here's a funny.

I stole this from divabat who got it from Facebook, and I found it interesting enough to respond to. It's basically a checklist of whether or not you're a "3rd culture kid", which means a child who was born one place, and spent a significant amount of time elsewhere. So it becomes hard for them to identify with a single culture.

Mind you, I have a difficult time identifying with both Canadian and Malaysian cultures not because I grew up one place and settled in another (I did have a one-year stint in Singapore, during which time I moved three times, and changed school thrice, and I ended up feeling like I was going to move again another time. Imagine my surprise when I finished high school and realized I hadn't moved at all during that time.) Most of my misfittiness comes from personality quirks which render me strange whether I'm in Malaysia or Canada. I would like to say something neat like "I'm too liberal for Malaysia and too conservative for Canada"; unfortunately, I'm still too liberal in my values for Canada. It's true when it comes to my peers, though. But again, that's more my personality than anything else: I'm too open for my Malaysian peers, and too serious for my Canadian peers. However, in both cases, I'm too serious, too uptight.

Anyways. ( Onwards to the checklist. )

It took me three days to watch this movie, yanno. ( Spoilers. Although, this movie is so darn old, they shouldn't be spoilers anymore. )

You must know Matt Harding. He's famous for dancing all over the world. He's travelled to more continents than possibly anybody else on the planet. Not only that, he's danced on more continents than possibly anybody else on the planet.

This was Matt in 2005. Stride Gum thought this was a brilliant idea, and gave him money for another trip. So he did another one in 2006. This, too, was brilliant.

Anyway, I would now like to hug this video.



The video starts out normally enough: Matt dancing his goofy goober dance in a few different places, all of which are more or less VERY different from each other.

Then at 0:51, something incredible happens -

People rush in, in several different locations, from either sides of the camera, rushing in, to dance with Matt on screen. The crowds are large, the cheers are loud, and the crowds aren't there to mob Matt; they all start dancing a goober dance too. In some locations, like Papua New Guinea and India, Matt's dancing with local dancers (the shot of him with the Indian dancers is rather fun as it looks pretty well choreographed!). As usual, he gets a number of children to dance with him.

It's a rush of humanity, and Matt's infamy has brought all these strangers together. Different continents, different countries, different shapes and sizes, different skin colours, different ages. Couple this with incredible music, and it's a killer recipe for wonderfulness.

As I said over at Shakespeare's Sister, everytime I see the Matt Dancing videos, I'm reminded that there's just one world, and it's got a wide variety of people, places, and civilizations, and it's all on one planet. It's awesome because he's practically bringing the whole world to us in one video, and fun because he's dancing in all of those places, no matter where.

In this video, it's one world, with so many people, DANCING. And everybody's happy and having fun. Matt's gone off to reach a HUGE variety of people to come dance with him on camera, wherever they are, whoever they are. In four minutes, there aren't boundaries, just, well, just PEOPLE, from all over the world. Dancing. It shows that no matter our differences, we're still people, living on the same planet. The backgrounds are different, the clothes are different, the skin colours are different - and yet we're all the same.

And I just can't express how awe-inspiring it is that this message is being communicated, even unintentionally, through a goofy dance, happening all over the world.


Oh, and another cool thing about the goober dance is that it's something he does naturally and comfortably. He knows it looks stupid, but he doesn't care. Isn't that neat? A person who doesn't feel the need to drink before he dances. How novel!

Yeap! Dr. Henry Morgentaler is among the 75 named to received the Order of Canada, by Governer General Michelle Jean herself! (Another reason why she rocks)

Of course, the anti-choicers are throwing a hissy fit about this.

The Campaign Life Coalition said it is dreadful that a man who spent his life performing abortions should be honoured. The coalition is urging other Order of Canada recipients to return their medals in protest.

"If Morgentaler had any integrity, he would refuse the medal," Mary Ellen Douglas of the coalition said in a news release. "This presentation should be given to people who have made Canada a better place to live and the elimination of thousands of human beings who would have contributed to the future of Canada is a disgrace, not an honour."

Yeah, well, go have your little quiverfulls and leave him alone.

A bit more on Morgentaler:

Now 85, Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, opened his first abortion clinic in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures, which were illegal at the time.

Morgentaler, a trained family physician, argued that access to abortion was a basic human right and women should not have to risk death at the hands of an untrained professional in order to end their pregnancies.

Morgentaler's clinics were constantly raided, and one in Toronto was firebombed. Morgentaler was arrested several times and spent months in jail as he fought his case at all court levels in Canada.

His victory came on Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law. That law, which required a woman who wanted an abortion to appeal to a three-doctor hospital abortion committee, was declared unconstitutional.

Hooray!

So, I finished watching Star Trek: The Original Series, Season One, yesterday, and I gotta say, I'm more than impressed with the concept of Star Trek now. Of course, I'm a big fan of the Voyager series, and while Enterprise was a bit of a flop, I appreciated what it tried to do.

I have mixed feelings about OS, mostly because even while it was hugely-groundbreaking, there were still attitudes and actions which I felt were inappropriate for such a distant vision of mankind, but then, it WAS the 60's, so I think I can forgive them. Nonetheless, Captain Kirk is still something of an asshole to me.

I just LOVE the backstage stories of ST, which are discussed in the bonus features.

( More ST Ramblings )

I watched a movie called Caramel the other day. It's listed in IMDB as "Sukkar Banat". It's genre'd as a romantic comedy/drama. I think that's a bit of a misnomer.

It was a one-night rental - really popular. It's in Arabic (Lebanese), set in modern-day Beirut, with English or French subtitles. The plot? About five women, three of whom work in a beauty salon. Two of them are hairdressers, one is the esthetician. The fourth woman is a much older woman, working as a small-time actress. The fifth woman is a seamstress, living with a very old, almost senile woman.

And the camera follows them closely about their lives: how they interact with others, what they do, how they react to different things. One of them is constantly being called from work by a boyfriend who is already married. She meets the wife one day, and has to realize that he's never going to leave his marriage, that she's just a sideshow, and get over it. Another girl is getting married and the second half of the movie shows her getting surgery to restore her hymen. The seamstress has the possibility of being courted by a similarly old man. (The ending to her story broke my heart but made me happy at the same time, because it's surprising and sweet, even though it's not the traditional romantic ending.) There's even a hint of lesbianism, with the butch-looking hairdresser interacting with a beautiful client she's obviously attracted to.

The camera lingers over small details, like the act of washing a client's hair, or the esthetician mixing the caramel for waxing, and taking a slow, long bite. Of the anxiety in the faces, of the dances and songs they sing. Of waiting. Because so much of a woman's life is, traditionally, about waiting - waiting to be married, waiting for the man to come home, waiting to give birth, waiting for the children to grow up, waiting for death.

I normally don't notice these sorts of things - to me, these domestic stories are always framed by something bigger, more epic. In a male-dominated society, these domestic moments are only supplementary: rarely the focus.

There's usually a big deal made in feminist circles about "women's stories". It's a big deal because we never hear them without a man stepping in to say, "well, that doesn't matter - it's TRIVIAL". Or a man comes in and reframes it in a male context. You may not notice it, but when a girl starts talking about something relating to her, we're less likely to listen to her than if a guy were to start talking about the same thing. In epic stories, women are more than likely to take a back seat in narratives, whether as a main character or even narrating voice. Only in romance novels, but in THOSE, the narrative is framed around a MALE!

Women's stories include female-only experiences, such as menstruation, domestic work (gender construct, to be sure, but nevertheless, female) and behind-the-scenes micro-level narratives. They can also be female-dominated experiences, such as as victims of rape and violence (which is a bit of a misnomer, since violence is also a male problem; but violence against women is especially ignored).

Take for example Sex And The City. There's a reason why so many people hate it. I don't like it myself (loved the movie, though) and I doubt I'd have the patience to. But HOW people hate it is equally important. A lot of feminist blogs have done great jobs picking apart reviews of SATC so I won't bother, but the summary is, a lot of these reviews are aimed at shutting up those women, because their stories don't matter.

Now, it sucks that for most part, women's stories revolve around, well, men. Even things we do for ourselves, in some way, somehow, relate to men. Our trials with menstruation usually has to do with us learning how to fucking deal with it so we can function in society. And by extension, men. Our trials and tribulations in love are usually about men. Even our dressing and grooming habits - for the longest time, dressing yourself up, making up, grooming... the end goal is to please men. These days it's okay to do these things for yourself - just be prepared to be called a superficial, spendthrift bitch who's too obsessed with her own looks =)

But it IS refreshing to watch/read a narrative about women, from a woman's perspective.

And that is why Caramel is such a satisfying movie. The only male story in this is that of the policeman who falls in love with the esthetician, even though she annoys him through parking violations and refusing to wear her seatbelt. It's a man's story, but it's goaled towards a woman, framed around a woman, recognized and recognizing that it is secondary. He's never shown off doing man-things, hanging out with his friends, doing HIS thing, because for the purpose of this narrative, his story is about... well, her.



(There is a transcript of sorts for those who can't understand French or Arabic at the youtube page for it.)

This recognizance of his secondary role is particularly obvious when he finally plucks the courage to take up an offer from one of the hairdressers to come in for service after helping her out. The esthetician gauges him with a professional eye, seeing him as a client first and foremost, although slowly, becomes aware of his interest in her. The camera direction lovingly, even teasingly watches her give her recommendation of what to do to his face: she points at the sideburns, tickles the faint unibrow area, passes a manicured nail in front of his nosehairs, disturbing a moustache hair or two. And then, decision of what to do to him made, she leans over him, their faces close, and she gets to work on him.

And although camera scenes with him are his story, a male story, SHE is never far away, much like how in so many so-called female narratives written by men, the main female character is never far away from some other male character. Much like how in so many of women's stories, it revolves around some man - in this, the policeman's story revolves around this woman.

It doesn't end with a revelation - it's not an over-arching plot like that. It's a snippet of life, a vignette of domesticity. About people getting on with their lives - love, fear, restraint, disappointment, anger, frustration, desire, kindness, joy. It's a look deep into stories of people who we could possibly know, and recognize ourselves inside, as part of our everyday lives.

Because life is like caramel. It's a bit of a pain to cook (well, to me it would be, 'cos I don't go in for that cooking thing), it's sweet, it's sticky, hard to chew, gets stuck on your teeth. When used for waxing, it's painful, even though we love the end results. It's a lot of things, not just one thing.

Here's a clip from the movie with the main soundtrack, "Sukkar Ya Banat":



I had to ask castusalbuscor what "banat" meant, and it means "girl" - which I should have known (Malaysians, our equivalent is "binte"; same consonant sounds). I didn't get the reference of "sugar the girl" until he told me that caramel IS used for waxing. I probably might've gotten it sooner if I waxed, haha. (You girls might hate me, but I don't. My leg hairs are so smooth they're practically not there.)

Here's another song which is sung in the movie by one of the girls, except in soundtrack form here. It's called "Mrayte ya Mrayte" (Mirror, oh Mirror):



Lyrics as translated by one of the lovely youtubers ( under the cut )

Anyways, my recommendation is that you go pick this movie up NOW.

You know what would be such a snotty, bourgeoisie thing to do? And this isn't the first time I've considered this.

Opening an intellectual salon.

You know, like in those old (European) days where the well-off would gather in each others salons and entertain each other with talk. Beethoven - or some musican - plays in the corner, as a peer showing off his latest musical composition. Discussing the latest books, ideas, and politics. Meeting friends of friends and getting to know more people, opening up networks. It's like a social evening for adults, except it happens often because we apparently don't have enough to do. It's like a night out to the local coffeeshop, except it's BYOD or the host offers the coffee and drinks. A place where people can come to open dialog and listen in.

Snobby, elitist and almost insular? Maybe. Probably. But if the host does it right, then it could open doors that people wouldn't have considered opening. It could be an exercise in how far we can go with free speech before it degenerates into hate speech, and how free we are before we realize censorship needs to step in before it escalates from words into violence.

Ah, to be a lady of leisure someday...

So, there's another pro-lifer thread going on at Pandagon (some woman thinks Barak Obama is a baby-killing Arab) and someone succintly explained why the anti-choice position is so prevalent all over and left in place by those in power:

Comment #1: After birth they’re no good until they’re old enough to join the army.

Comment #2 following this train of thought: They’re also good for keeping their parents in line. If the working poor have multiple kids waiting at home, and they’re not guaranteed health care, food, et cetera, by a just and fair society, then those kids’ survival is dependent on the parents’ income, which is dependent on the parents’ jobs, which can be made dependent on the parents not rocking the boat, unionizing and demanding living wages and fair labor practices.

Long sentence? Yes. Lots of clauses. But unless you're stupid and can't parse well, it's hard to miss its meaning. It's a very dense sentence, idea-wise, but a great summary nonetheless.

I don't know why People. Can't. Get. IT!!!!

I'll admit that I've never played a SINGLE Final Fantasy, so writing FF VII fanfiction was kinda bizarre on my part way back when. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Square games.

Anyway, while youtubing, I was looking for an English version of Anastasia's If I Can Learn To Do It - Don Bluth's Anastasia, that is, where two conmen try to train a girl into believing she's the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and turns out she really, and by that time she's reunited with her family, one of the conmen has fallen in love with her. It's a fun movie, all in all. Historically inaccurate, but fun.

One of the catchiest songs has to be this one, in which Dimitri (former kitchenboy who helped the Duchess dowager and Anastasia escape during the Revolution) and Vladimir (a former court member? Can't remember) teach Anya (who's lost her memory of her royal childhood) how to behave like royalty.

It's set to Kingdom Hearts clips, and it's very clever, and I cracked up, so you might too.

From the Star newspaper:

---

KLANG: Stray puppies are ending up as meals for foreign construction workers keen on reducing their food bills.

Indonesian construction worker Wagang Saring said the high prices of food and the need to send as much money to families back home had forced him and his friends to eat pooches.

“Puppies are the best as their meat is tender,” said the 37-year-old Saring. “The meat gives us energy to work at construction sites. Three puppies will do for five men.”

Saring was approached by The Star at a petrol kiosk in Bukit Tinggi after he was seen hitting a puppy with a piece of wood.

He knocked out the puppy with two blows and carried it back to his kongsi where his friends had already built a fire.

Fellow Indonesian worker Marcel Jeheta, 30, said the large number of stray dogs in Klang provided ample supply of meat.

Jeheta, who comes from Flores Island, said dog meat was a popular source of protein back home.

“Dog meat is widely eaten in Flores Island and we continue the practice in Malaysia,” he said.

A check around the construction site found many dogs, mostly females, that appeared to have littered recently . But there were no puppies in sight.

Cleaner Suriyati Norsalim, 40, from central Jawa, was quick to point out that only some Indonesians ate dog meat.

“Only those from Flores Island, who are not Muslims, and some non-Muslim Bataks (from Sumatra) eat dog meat,” she added.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thu, 25, who works at a factory in Klang, said she noticed her countrymen eating more dog meat recently.

She said dog meat was a popular delicacy in Vietnam.

Animal welfare activist Sabrina Yeap said dog eating was gaining momentum among foreign workers because there was no law against it. “It is not illegal and so no action can be taken against those who do so,” she added.

Yeap, who manages the canine sanctuary Furry Friends Farm, said it was time the Government banned dog eating as it involved inhumane killing methods.

---

Seriously?

Why the HELL is this a big deal? Dogs are animals. People eat animals. Ergo, people eat dogs. Period. Granted, dogs are also companion animals, but they can also be eaten. Who the hell are we to tell people what they can or cannot eat? Excepting Muslim and Jewish halal and kosher laws, which are in place for a damned good reason, usually relating to health and hygiene. But this brouhaha over killing dogs isn't a health or hygiene issue, it's a moral and aesthetic issue. Dogs are cute. We know that. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be killed for their meat. We eat lambs too. No one's calling for a banning of mutton.

And let's face it, two blows to the head is a bit messy (personally, just a single blow should be able to do it, but it DOES splatter), but as far as that goes, if two blows to a puppy's brain is inhumane, what about bleeding cows to death? If that's inhumane, what about slaughterhouses all over the world which house cows in really unhealthy, unhygienic spaces, for the sole purpose of killing them as soon as they reach a certain weight? What about housing chickens in coops too small in order for them to do nothing but lay eggs? THAT's inhumane.

If we're so squeamish about dog-eating, banning dog-eating isn't going to help things any. These men are eating dogs because THEY HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. They're poor! We don't have minimum wage in Malaysia in order for them to afford other choices! What's wrong with them making the best of a bad situation and using what little resources they have to get cheap food? We don't exactly see employers offering to feed these workers very often.

So these dogs aren't being killed humanely (although to be honest, I have NO idea what 'humane killing' of an animal is like. Somehow or another, you've got to kill it), but they ARE a legitimate, cheap source of sustanence. These men are not going to steal food as a result, and they're no drain on us either, since we all know Malaysian Muslims hate dogs anyway.

When our pigs faced the JE virus, due to poor pig-farming methods and other things out of farmers' control, did we call for a ban on pig? No. I've seen goats wandering all over eating all sorts of garbage - did we call for a ban on goat meat and milk? No. Puppies are bred purely for entertainment purposes and abandoned or neglected very quickly by impulse buyers shopping in giant pet stores - do we call for a closure of these petstores? No. In fact, dogs are usually kept around for the sole purpose of guarding the house. Is this ideal for dogs? No. Do we give a shit? No. Why? Because obviously, keeping dogs around to guard the house benefits us. But eating the cute widdle puppies makes us squeamish, so we call for a ban on eating dogs.

Malaysia is one of the top five Asian nations that violates refugee rights, is currently the laughingstock of feminist blogs for having states that ban lipstick and heels and is undergoing political rifts due to citizen recognition of government corruption... and dog-eating makes the headlines when it's our treatment of Indonesian workers which should.

Excuse me while I go boil myself another bowl of rabbit soup.


H/T to yiliang for the link.