Month: November 2009

The latest incident in the ongoing Sarah Palin hullaballoo is the charges of sexism being levelled at Newsweek for their cover story, critical of Palin, which uses a shot from a spread Palin did for Runner’s World magazine earlier this year.

And you know what? Palin and her supporters are RIGHT.

Sure, she agreed to the shoot in the first place — but it was a shoot for a fluff piece promoting women’s health in an athletics magazine. It was all about the context. Is it a bit “beauty queen?” Sure — but again, it wasn’t ever intended as anything other than “I’m a runner, here’s my running gear — women should excercise!” Hard to really criticize someone for that, even if you think (as I do) that they’re an emblem of everything that’s wrong with neoconservatism.

Newsweek sought out that photo. Purchased it from the photo bureau that owned the rights. They specifically set out to pick a photo that portrayed her as unserious, frivilous — as a problem. So, what did they go for? They went for a pin-up shot of a woman showing off her body.

I’m sorry, but even if you can’t stand Sarah Palin (and believe me, I can’t) — that’s bullshit. That’s exactly the same thing as the “Hillary Nutcrackers” which were selling around the country during the Presidential Primaries. Belittling her on the basis of her gender.

Going after her in a sexist attack is not only wrong, but it also is a massively stupid thing to do: It gives her and her supporters fuel for the whole “Palin as Victim” thing, which they have used to keep her from any tough questions regarding her qualifications or positions. This is a woman who almost made it to the office of Vice President of the United States without ever having to answer unfiltered questions about her political positions or plans. This sort of gender-based smear makes it only more likely that real attempts at journalism will be painted with the “liberal media attack dog” brush.

It also ignores the very real threat that she poses, as an example of empty-suited populist demagoguery — she, like Bush before her, is an unqualified know-nothing used as a figurehead and a mouthpiece for some very sinister neocon power-players, to enact their agenda in the guise of “Aw Shucks, Jus’ Folks” classism. There’s a word for the corporate-conservative agenda, kids — Fascism. And ignoring that reality, especially while engaging in really nasty gender-based attacks, is unbelievably irresponsible.

Newsweek not only commits blatant sexism here, they abdicate their most essential responsibility as journalists. Folks on the Left should be pointing this out, just as much as critics on the Right.

John Scalzi on publishing, circa 2005 (via a post today in Chris Roberson’s blog):

“Listen to me now: Writers are not in the publishing industry. The publishing industry exists to handle the output of writers and distribute it in an effective and hopefully profitable way; however it does not necessarily follow that writer’s only option is the publishing industry, especially not now. Congruent to this: Books aren’t the only option. I write books, but you know what? I’m not a book writer, any more than a musician is an LP musician or an MP3 musician. The book is the container. It’s not destiny.”

Quite clever, that Mr. Scalzi.

Posted here for my own reminder.

Ars Technica has an article up about why DJ Hero has flopped. (122K copies sold, across 4 platforms)

It’s an OK article — but painful to read in its cluelessness. Cluelessness which, in fact, demonstrates the biggest point that it misses in discussing why the game has failed to appeal to the largely white upper-middle-class console gaming audience. That point: Cultural disconnect.

The closest they get to pointing out the obvious is where they say “You don’t know any of these songs” — pointing out that the games “credibility may hurt it — including artists like Afrika Bambaataa may excite hip-hop fans, but that’s not a name that’s going to energize every gamer who sees it on the back of the box in a game store.” Which is a bit like saying that including Wayne Rooney on a FIFA cover means nothing to people who aren’t soccer fans — the correct response to which (after Duh, I mean) is to point out that non-fans are not the target audience.

…and here we have the problem. The target audience for DJ Hero — fans of turntablism and hip-hop — are not largely present in the core audience for console games, mostly for socioeconomic reasons.

I mean, hell — the entire development of turntables and samples as instruments, the entire creation of DJ culture and hip-hop as a fucking GENRE was spurred by poverty and using what you had at hand to make music. Using old records on turntables because you had them, because going out and buying musical instruments was *expensive*.

Ars Technica (and the makers of the game, for that matter), appear to either forgotten that, or never knew it in the first place. Now, watching AT stumble over itself trying to understand why the game didn’t fly off the shelves is more than just painful in its avoidance of the obvious…

It’s embarrassing.