In Trump's World

In Trump's World:
Obama: Kenyan
LeBron James: dumb
Don Lemon: dumb
Maxine Waters: low IQ
black countries: shitholes
black athletes: SOBs
Black tenants: unwelcome
Black workers: lazy
Central Park 5: guilty
Mexicans: rapists
Muslims: terrorists
Indians: fake
Nazis: very fine people

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 4, 2018

The Barilla Boycott (Updated)

Poor Guido Barilla, he has had a hell of a long weekend due to his big mouth and airing his thoughtless bigotry.

One would think that chairpersons of large International companies had staffers to coach them and guide them at every step, especially when meeting the media, but somehow it is refreshing to sometimes actually hear one of them speak his honest opinion, even if it is to the detriment of his family and their business.

The guardian.com.uk has this brilliant summary of how it all started going sour for poor Guido on Thursday:

Guido Barilla, who controls the fourth-generation Barilla Group family business with his two brothers, sparked outrage among activists, consumers and some politicians when he said he would not consider using a gay family to advertise Barilla pasta.

"For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company," he told Italian radio on Wednesday evening. "I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals who have the right to do what they want without bothering others … [but] I don't see things like they do and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family."

Asked what effect he thought his attitude would have on gay consumers of pasta, Barilla said: "Well, if they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don't like it and they don't like what we say they will … eat another."

In response, Aurelio Mancuso, chairman of Equality Italia, accused Barilla of being deliberately provocative. "Accepting the invitation of Barilla's owner to not eat his pasta, we are launching a boycott campaign against all his products," he added.

Although poor Guido, his family and the company have since worked tirelessly trying to rectify his faux pas with a written statement and a video of poor Guido being forced to read the statement (both posted prominently on the company website), these attempts however don't have the same honest ring to them as when he spoke from his heart. They therefore fail miserably in convincing anyone.

Bock in SecondLife recommends all its readers (gays and straight allies) to follow the recommendation of poor Guido Barilla himself and refrain from purchasing any products belonging to that particular group of bigoted misogynists and homophobes. I am joining the Barilla boycott and will certainly not be forcing my pink money on products from a company that doesn't accept me and my kind. The thing I will miss most due to this decision is actually not the pasta, but my preferred "knäckebröd" (the Swedish hard-rye crisp bread) from Wasa.

The brands in the Barilla Group are
Barilla,
Mulino Bianco,
Voiello,
Pavesi,
Academia Barilla,
Wasa,
Harry’s (France and Russia),
Misko (Greece), 

Filiz (Turkey),
Yemina and 

Vesta (Mexico)
---

Update September 30, 2013
Josh Rimer, a Canadian YouTube Marketer, has made a parody of poor Guido's insincere apology. My thanks to Anonymous for informing me about it in the comments to this post.

The Swedish Hijab-Rebellion

A pregnant Muslim woman was recently knocked down on a street in Stockholm and had her headscarf ("hijab") pulled off by the assailant. Following the assault women who wear the veil testified that they are often subjected to name-calling and harassment of the most vile kind, both Islamophobic and misogynistic.

The incident lead to the so called "hijab-rebellion", in which women from all walks of Swedish society, wishing to show solidarity and "normalize" the wearing of hijab, started posting pictures of themselves in veils on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You name it, it was everywhere.

This "rebellion" lead to a counteraction from a combination of strange bedfellows, militant feminists and xenophobic ultranationalists on the far right of the political spectrum. They claim that the hijab is a sign of a patriarchal cultural and religious tradition of male oppression and control of women and is a tool to curtail women's freedom to dress as they chose and to express their sexuality. They also claim that it is counterproductive to integration as it creates barriers against the surrounding majority culture. Some even go so far as to say, that by wearing the veil in a Western culture the women are doing exactly the opposite of what they claim they wish to achieve, i.e not to draw attention to themselves.

Throughout Europe we are also receiving reports that young Muslim women are starting to don the veil for various reasons, some as a political statement or as a protest against the exploitation of female nudity in the Western cultures. There may be even more reasons.

I find myself a bit lost in all the rhetoric. As far as I am concerned the hijab in itself is most definitely a powerful symbol of male oppression and control and of a traditional chastity culture. However, I wouldn't dream of ever trying to regulate what a woman may or may not wear, just as I would not wish to regulate the length of her skirts or infringe on her complete right to her own body and sexuality.

Any woman should be allowed to dress as she chooses, for whatever reason. Just live with it and accept it!

Dedication

This is to all the hateful trolls in first life, in SecondLife, in all other virtual worlds and last but not least in the blogosphere, especially the one that lately - for unclear reasons - called me a misogynist.

I know I should not post two songs back-to-back but I stumbled across this and here you have it...

(I tried finding an uncensored version of this particular video but without success, if you know where I can find it please tell me!)