Lucy? You've got some 'splainin' to do!

My stat counter says I'm getting hits from my recent comments, so this is a bit of an explanation of where I'm coming from.

That title has a zillion self-references. To old folks like me, that's a well-known line that Desi Arnez used on the show "I Love Lucy" whenever his wife did something utterly whacked and inane. Because, of course, women are illogical and silly and need to explain their actions patiently to their husbands.. The Cuban accent is emphasized and meant to be highly comical. So we've our sexism wrapped up in a racist accent in order to make white people (the only people who owned TVs at the time) laugh.

I haven't posted on the blog lately, which is primarily a place where I post the fliers and posters I make for activities I'm involved in, because I've gotten wrapped up in an internet discussion occurring over at Pandagon.

For some reason, I just love the heck out of this shit. I am fascinated by exploring issues that contain multiple meaning. I can go on and on about it. I can devote hours of time dissecting and picking out more and more meaning from the subject at hand. It's like those pictures from children's magazines that are ostensibly pictures of children at play. But the artist has inserted other images into the drawing and the contest is to pick out the bird, the hammer, the baseball bat, etc. Or like Hirschfield's caricatures of stars that always contained the letters of his daughter's name, NINA, somewhere in the drawing. I enjoyed looking for Hitchcock's cameo appearance in each one of his movies. I enjoy those pictures that look like a vase when looked at one way but look like two faces when viewed the other.

I used to be involved in TV fandom on the internet and I was always the last poster commenting long after everyone else had given up and said "I don't care about these details any more, Ravenmn. I just want to enjoy the show."

I enjoy books like "Wrapped in Plastic" that examines various aspects of "Twin Peaks". I have books examining the social implications of the OJ Case, Madonna's use of sexuality, the role of women in feminist science fiction, the rise of the female lesbian detective genre. All of these are significant cultural trends that affected people differently and had profound impacts on people's outlook and choices in life.

I like detail and I like the different meanings we take from life and in culture. Also, I'm a white, feminist, anti-imperialist woman engaged in political activism. So this current discussion seems to have met all the criteria to keep me interested long after almost everyone else has given up and gone to bed or back to enjoying the show.

The background

For a good introduction into the controversy that is Burqagate, read Bitch|Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org/2006/09/30/bfp-nails-it/#comments.

Then you can head over to the http://pandagon.net/2006/10/02/wasnt-trying-to-take-a-cheap-shot-though-i-can-see-how-it-came-across-that-way/ I seem to be prolonging into infinity at Pandagon in which Amanda apologies for the image and a circus ensues.

Go and read more

I'm not going to turn this blog into a discussion blog, because it is done much better in other places. So go forth and learn my new visitors. There are valuable lessons to be learned. We are indeed fortunate that this information is being freely shared and available at the click of a button.

http://brownfemipower.com/ Woman of Color Blog

http://blog.pulpculture.org/ Bitch|Lab

http://bintalshamsa.blogspot.com/ My Private Casbah

http://lecolonelchabert.blogspot.com/ Le Colonel Chabert

http://www.slanttruth.com/ Slant Truth

http://guyaneseterror.blogspot.com/ Having Read the Fine Print

http://fetchmemyaxe.blogspot.com/ Fetch Me My Axe