Bad Day - Stephen Colbert and the Pagans

It's been a bad day, news wise. How am I supposed to get through the holidays, the rest of the Bush administration, not to mention the war news and the next election, without Stephen Colbert?

Someone asked me the other day why I like him so much. Here's a good description of the man:

... an aversion to tyranny; advocacy of an unbridled free press; wry, homespun humor; humility, or at least the appearance of it, in dealing with others; idealism as well as realism in foreign policy; willingness to compromise; and tolerance of contrary views, particularly in religion. Such traits enhance social capital and should "distinguish America...in the messy struggles that confront a new century." (1)

Oh, and he's Pagan friendly:

"When Colbert was a student in Chicago, he studied improvisation with the legendary Del Close. Close was a personality so unpredictable that he has been called “the Ted Kaczynski of modern comedy”; before he died, in 1999, he bequeathed his skull to the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago. His hope was that he could play Yorick into eternity. As the artistic director of the ImprovOlympic, he had a legacy at least as memorable. “One of the great things about Del was that he was a pagan,” Colbert said. “When he was teaching, he would take out this pentagram necklace that he wore and flash it at you,” he continued. “I’ve been to my share of new-moon celebrations." - New Yorker article on Stephen Colbert

(sigh) I want my Daily Show. I want my Colbert Report. Oh, and I'd like my civil rights, back, as well.

Set some rules.
Don't worry if the rule makes sense,
the important thing is that it's a rule.
Arbitrary rules teach kids discipline,
if every rule made sense
they wouldn't be learning respect for authority,
they'd be learning logic.
- Stephen Colbert (from I Am America And So Can You)

Come on, folks! Pay the writers fairly for their work, and let's all get back to making fun of things, lest our eyes fill with so many tears that we can't see our way clear to make change.

Yours,

Sia

(1) Walter Issacson writing about Ben Franklin.

Links:

Interview with Stephen Colbert

The Colbert Report

Related Articles:

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Honorary Pagans

The Daily Show Writers Explain the Strike To Us

Joss Whedon: Honorary Pagan

The man who gave us witty, brave, conflicted Buffy and the sexy, kick ass gals of Firefly has something he wants to say:

What is wrong with women?

I mean wrong. Physically. Spiritually. Something unnatural, something destructive, something that needs to be corrected. How did more than half the people in the world come out incorrectly? I have spent a good part of my life trying to do that math, and I’m no closer to a viable equation. And I have yet to find a culture that doesn’t buy into it. Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.

Goddess Bless Joss Whedon. I hereby dub him an Honorary Pagan.

Pass it on.

And do check out the link he gives to Equality Now. As Whedon says,

...it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself. I’ve always had a bent towards apocalyptic fiction, and I’m beginning to understand why. I look and I see the earth in flames. Her face was nothing but red.

For more on this issue, read an earlier post titled: Recovering From Our Culture: Why Words Matter

Note: I first saw this link at Hecate's (AKA She Who See's All) blog. Thank you, H.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Kestryl Angell is a Pagan writer to watch. She is proving to be a resonant voice for common sense. So far she has posted several articles at The Witches Voice. (see links below).

Teachers take note; you might want to point your students towards these four essays:

On Being A "Plain Clothes" Witch

Taking It To the Pentagram

Seperation Anxiety ....or Growth?

The Power of Words

Sia

Photo: Actress Gina Torres (Amazon Extraordinaire ) as Zoe in Firefly

Off the Shelf

Firefly: The Complete Series (DVD) - Joss Whedon (Creator)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale - James B. South (Editor

Tit for Tat or What Would Sekhmet Do?

Today we have a story of tit for tat....or is it the other way around?

My thanks go out to devildoll at Live Journal (who noted this outré version of Mary Jane) and to logansrogue (who drew the Spiderman/Peter Parker companion piece) for giving me a very good laugh on a Monday morning. As women we sometimes become desensitized to the constant, commercial use of our bodies-as-objects in order to sell anything under the sun. I find it interesting (and heartening) to see how outraged these young women got at seeing one of their fictional heroines treated in this way. Good for them.

Today I want a new bumper sticker. It should say: What Would Sekhmet Do? Like a lot of Pagans, I'm very comfortable with nudity. But I have to wonder, why is she doing his laundry? Ah, the ideal woman: She picks up after him just like his mom, but she looks like a stripper while she does it. It's.....so very 60's. One would think that this Mary Jane was serving on the original Enterprise.

For more on the subject of Mary Jane, and her place in the plot of Spiderman III, see Spiders, Sluts and Misogynists by Justin Nisly. (1) Also check out this website: Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy & Utopia

And now for something completely different A story about Leonard Nimoy and his second book of photographs, all taken of large, curvy women. You can read more about this in Alas A Blog, and in Big Fat Blog.


His-story:

A discussion over at The Wildhunt Blog on Ronald Hutton's new book, and a comment there by Hecate reminded me of this poem by Monique Wittig. I first encountered it (and the writer) in college:

There was a time
when you were not a slave,
remember that

You walked alone,
full of laughter,
you bathed bare-bellied.

You may have lost all recollection of it,
remember...

You say there are not words to describe it,
you say it does not exist.
but remember,
make an effort to remember,
or, failing that,
invent.

Not everyone is a fan of Hutton's. I suggest that you read more than one book on early Britain, and decide for yourself. Personally, I think that Triumph of the Moon is one of the best books ever written about the development of modern Pagan culture.

Her-story:

Since we are once again on the subject of women, imagery, and self esteem check out Why Women Need a Goddess by Carol P. Christ.

Enjoy,

Sia

Update 5/17/07:

Fox has picked up the story and quoted an article by blogger Sleestak titled Mary Jane, The Other White Meat.

Note: For those among us who love words here is a note, and yet another note on the origin of the phrase "Tit for Tat".

Off the Shelf:

Fiction:
Desiree by Annemarie Seliniko A merchant's daughter makes history...and then some. Based on a true story.

History:
The Hysteric's Revenge: French Women Writers at the Fin De Siecle by Rachel Mesch, lecturer in the French Department at Barnard College.

Druids: A History by Ronald Hutton (just published)

Art: This is a photo of a Halloween ornament in my collection. We call her Miss Thing.