Old friends, new places!

Humphrey saw a few of his old friends today, visiting Doggie Do's on Sheppard at Cocksfield. He spent his time behind the camera today, though, to capture some great memories on film. When he walked in, he first saw Angela, the human he likes very, very much! But behind here were some canine surprises!

All the little dogs hang their jackets on labelled hooks when they come inside - so civilized!

There were so many places to run, hide, and nap! It's hard to see all the dogs present.

Jello was happy to see Humphrey - being a Maltese dog, he had a *lot* to say to his old pal! Woof!

Mia was a coquette, as always, and played hard-to-get. It's tough being the only girl! Even daycare is patriarchal.

Murphy was sure to remind everyone *not* to take his treats and toys - especially you, Oliver!

And as always, Oliver made Humphrey laugh...a lot. Here he is, chortling at his own silliness.

Chicks, flicks, and more microagressions

Despite being the canine persuasion, Humphrey is not what you’d call outdoorsy. He’d much rather spend an afternoon sprawled on his favorite chaisse with a bag of Humpty Dumpty Party Mix and some good television shows (including, of course CTV News).

With all his recent contemplation of microagression, he’s found himself applying the Bechdel Test to his viewing to identify gender bias. Now, the Bechdel Test (created by Liz Wallace and popularized by artist Alison Bechdel who featured it in a comic) is pretty simple to use. To pass it, the movie or television program….

1. must have at least two women characters with names…
2. who talk to each other…
3. about something other than a man.

Sounds simple, right? But surprisingly few movies pass this threshold!

Humphrey’s highly unscientific tests have actually confirmed others’ research and reporting – that there’s a lot of gender bias in the media!

Of course, passing or failing the test is no guarantee of good gender representation but it is indicative of problems. And those problems, are of course, the acts of microagression he talked about in a previous post.

 
In the past week, he has applied the test to New Girl, Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, Big Bang Theory, The New Normal, and 30 Rock. Most of these shows are predominantly about women – and yet, they didn’t pass! Think about it - even shows with strong women, like 30 Rock, are reduced to un-Bechdel discussions because of patriarchal structures. For instance, the recent storyline in which Tina Fey's character was involved in presidential politics meant that most of the dialogue (especially with Jenna) centred around presidential candidates that are men. Had the presential candidates been women, it might have passed! Similarly, in the recent New Normal, several of the conversations among women were about Jesus - again, the patriarchal structure of the religion meant that the conversation necessarily failed the Bechdel test.

Humphrey will keep on watching his favorite stories - but with a far more critical eye.

Humphrey's bone to pick with J.Crew

Humphrey looks forward to the arrival of the colorful J.Crew catalogues passed his way every couple of months. For the past year or so, he has been fascinated by the unique styling and color combinations! But he has begun to notice a trend…and now he has a bone to pick with J. Crew.

Now, on the one hand, he is impressed with the creativedirector Jenna Lyons, whose personal style is said to be reflected in the retailer’s rebranding. She posed for some gender atypical catalogue photos, including painting her son’s nails (which stirred up quite a bit of controversy in 2011)! Their deliciously appealing catalogues are master-minded by Gayle Spannaus, the company’s fashion director and head women’s stylist.

But Humphrey noticed something alarming in the past year's catalogues…

 

The male models are not only named, but their careers are listed! November 2012’s catalogue features Joe Carlucci, Contemporary Art Business Dealer; Armando Cabral, Shoe Designer and Model; Spencer Lyons, Financial Advocacy Director; Justin Marquis, Photographer; snow-roofed Pedro Gomez, Artist (in the photo above). They are different colors, shapes and sizes, and some even have snow on the roofs!

Humphrey flipped back to the beginning, searching for the women’s names and careers. He searched. And searched. He got a magnifying glass and searched some more in case there was fine print. Nothing! Not one name, nor a single career! But he did notice uniformity in their makeup and hair.

As a critical feminist canine, Humphrey gave this some thought. The message he was receiving was that if you’re a man, of course you have a name, an identity, a job, and your physical appearance can be diverse and imperfect. But if you’re a woman in the J.Crew world, your only worth is your appearance – and a very specific one at that. Don’t bother with a name or a career or accomplishments. Just look pretty and do what you’re told.

And just as he was drawing his conclusions, the Winter 2013 issue of Fashion (the magazine) arrived – featuring an interview with Gayle Spannaus herself! He noticed two rather interesting statements that confirmed his suspicions: “I had a very specific instinct for what the J.Crew girl should be,” the woman (who has name! Gayle!) said. And, “I will never work with a girl with plucked eyebrows.”

The sum total of Gayle Spannous’ direction, Humphrey realized, are acts of microagression on women. That’s a big word for a little dog! What could it mean?

For those new to this concept, Chester Pierce coined the term ‘microaggression’ in 1970 to describe how specific interactions between genders (and other points of intersectionality) can be interpreted as mostly non-physical aggression. Just as regular-sized aggression and assault are two different things, so are microaggression and microassault.

Gender microassaults are forms of overt sexism, like being called a “girl” when you’re old enough to be a grandmother, a man refusing to wash dishes because it’s women’s work, or men’s unwanted sexual advances toward women. Acts of microaggresion are far more subtle, like the nameless models in the J.Crew catalogue when their male counterparts are celebrated as humans. Another example is a female doctor is mistaken for a nurse at the hospital (with the message that women should be in nurturant jobs, not competent enough to be doctors).

Microaggressions usually seem like no big deal. Each event, observation and experience posted is not significant or shocking. Usually, the aggressor doesn’t intend to hurt others and isn’t even aware of the consequences. But, their slow accumulation of microaggessions over time adds up, and has important outcomes. A Psychology Today article cites this example to show how acts of microaggression influence women’s standard of living and quality of life: White American males constitute only 33% of the population. Yet, they occupy approximately 80% of tenured positions in higher education (something Humphrey’s guardian wishes for!), 80%-85% of federal elected officials, and a whopping 92% of Forbes 400 executive CEO-level positions.

Humphrey’s observation about the J.Crew catalogue by itself may not seem like a big deal. But he is worried that his female guardian, being exposed to yet another instance of microaggression, will continue to feel a little less, and keeps her that much further away from making tenure. On the flip side, as Humphrey reported earlier, there is definitely a social benefit to providing public examples of women in nontraditional positions!

 

He hopes J.Crew will reconsider their strategy of microagressions, which he realizes are probably not intentional on the part of Gayle Spannaus and her colleagues. Nonetheless, he believes he could appreciate a nap on their soft, soft cashmere sweaters with a lot less guilt if they would change their ways.

Neo-Soviet Romanticization?

Zdravstvuj comrades! Humphrey has noticed a recent trend, and officially coins the term to describe it here: neo-Soviet romanticization.

Readers will surely recall that he reported on the debut of Arquiste's odd fragrance, Aleksander, designed to recreate the olfactory sensations of Pushkin's last day. Then, this week Banana Republic's new Anna Karenina capsule collection dropped - a far cry from last year's capitalism-gone-wild Mad Men capsule collection! Now, Humphrey knows that these are examples of romanticizing pre-Soviet Russian icons.

Detail from BR's website

He took these things to be coincidence. But then today, the news reported that Russian president Vladmir Putin thanked presidential candidate Mitt Romney for proving "the correctness of [Russia's] approach to missile defence." The statement was made after Romney named Russia as America's "number one geo political foe."

Now if that's not romanticizing the Cold War, Humphrey has no idea what is!

Then, Humphrey made his second trip to the market for groceries this week. The first time, shelves were empty, he had to wait in line for a rain check for parmagiano reggiano, then wait again in yet another line to pay for a piece of bread that happened to be in stock. Everyone spoke Russian and he had little idea what was going on (this is a frequent occurance in Willowdale).

Upon his return to the store today to use his rain check, the other things he needed were not in stock! So again, he made his way to end of the loooong rain check line, and of course had difficulty getting what he needed since his Russian is a little rusty. Then back to the loooooong payment line to cash in his rain check on the reggiano. Fortunately, they took hard currency since he was completely out of rubles.

Just as he was getting into his car - which might as well be a Lada - it dawned on him! Late capitalism in North America is just simulacra of Soviet-style society! And those who own the means of production (Banana Republic, Arquiste, Holt Renfrew, Mitt Romney) are making efforts to romanticize all things Soviet (and Russian, since North Americans probably don't know the differnce) to gain compliance via nostalgia!

In keeping with this new trend, Humphrey decided to feign the attitude of a Russian poet, quietly brooding and staring out the window into the abyss, the air freckled with gray sleet on that cold, dark afternoon.