Need a break from working/writing/reading at your computer?

CHECK THIS OUT!

(It’s awesome and earns the full caps.)

From Carrie Brownstein’s NPR blog Monitor Mix comes the following entry from Tobi Vail (the main reason I started playing drums), former Bikini Kill drummer, current Kill Rock Stars staff member, current drummer of The Old Haunts and singer of Spider and the Webs, activist, zine creator, former girlfriend of Kurt Cobain, creator of the tape label Bumpidee, and much more — anyway, the point is that I am always excited to read anything she writes and I loved this post.

Like countless others, I watched Britney Spears’ meltdown in early 2007 with an obsessive eye. What did it mean that her decline had been allowed to get to this point? Princess Diana-style paparazzi filmed her cracking up, and we watched it on YouTube. Clearly, she was losing her grip on reality, and there was a lot of money invested in her career, but maybe something else was happening beyond substance abuse and mental illness.

I found it particularly intriguing that her freak-out was so tied to her image; we watched, glued to our screens, as she said, “I don’t want anyone touching me. I’m tired of everyone touching me” and demanded to be allowed to tear out her own hair extensions, bit by bit. When no one would help her, she took clippers and shaved her own head. Obviously, she wasn’t in a good frame of mind to be making any kind of decision. But isn’t it interesting that, as a female performer, what she wanted control over was her own body; her image?

Beth Ditto, lead singer from queer indie-disco group The Gossip, read this as an act of defiance, saying, “I’m loving it. If you think what her hair meant to her and what it meant to a generation of little girls — she really did turn out a generation of little Britneys.” Ditto concluded, “For this to happen is one of the most radical things ever.” She went on to acknowledge that Spears was not in a healthy place, but noted that “it can be amazing and empowering” to get to that point. Any girl who has ever felt tempted to shave her head, or gone for a year or a lifetime without wearing makeup, knows how liberating this can feel, especially when you’re young.

All of this brings up the question of how women, and especially female performers, are judged on the basis of looks; how our bodies are mediated by the marketplace. This is true even in indie and underground bands, and is definitely the case in pop music. If the mainstreaming of porn has meant more stripper-dancing in music videos — starting with heavy metal, moving to hip-hop and and settling in Top 40 –it has also meant that female artists are pressured to become those naked ladies in their own videos. Madonna and Lady Gaga seem to be the rare exception to this rule by opting to comment on objectification as a part of the performance.

While some female performers may experience sexual objectification as empowering, it may not be that simple. As long as we live in a society that uses sex to sell things, this is going to be tricky for women. It might make you feel powerful to look hot in your video, but it also sets a precedent that other female artists will feel a need to live up to (diet, plastic surgery), and it encourages music fans to think of you in terms of your body rather than your work.

While I agree that music is sexual, especially when you can dance to it, I also think that women are in a tough place when it comes to this stuff. A lot of double-standards are at work. As an older female-musician friend of mine pointed out, it isn’t necessarily liberating or radical to see women in music using their bodies to sell records. I think this becomes clearer as we get older and are no longer considered attractive. Does this mean that our music is no longer good? No, but it does make it harder to sell.

As long as the music industry focuses on image, women are going to find themselves in a double-bind. Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon recently said, “The idea of women empowering themselves by becoming sexual objects is backward. It seemed brilliant at one point, but it had really bad ramifications. Things lose their context so quickly.”

I agree, but what are we supposed to do about it? I tend to think that our best bet is to insist that we are sexy, regardless of whether or not our bodies fit into the narrow, limited ideal for feminine beauty in our culture — young, tall, thin, light-skinned, European nose, straight hair and so on. This is why it’s so awesome to see Beth Ditto (a self-proclaimed fat-positive, queer woman) gain success on her own terms, without dieting or altering the way she looks to cater to a mainstream ideal.

By insisting that she’s sexy just the way she is, Ditto demands we acknowledge that there are more kinds of female bodies than just the skinny, weak-looking, classically feminine type. She is strong and curvy and confident. She is powerful and beautiful. On top of that, she isn’t interested in men and couldn’t care less if they find her attractive. For this — and because she sings like a punk-rock Aaliyah — Beth Ditto is my hero. I just hope she’s able to make friends with Britney before it’s too late.

I was catching up on some NY Times reading today and came across this Nov. 5 editorial by Nicholas Kristof and was inspired to share, because I think it’s really important (and surprising) reading:

The moment of truth for health care is at hand, and the distortion that perhaps gets the most traction is this:

We have the greatest health care system in the world. Sure, it has flaws, but it saves lives in ways that other countries can only dream of. Abroad, people sit on waiting lists for months, so why should we squander billions of dollars to mess with a system that is the envy of the world? As Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama puts it, President Obama’s plans amount to “the first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known.”

That self-aggrandizing delusion may be the single greatest myth in the health care debate. In fact, America’s health care system is worse than Slov—er, oops, more on that later.

The United States ranks 31st in life expectancy (tied with Kuwait and Chile), according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births) and 34th in maternal mortality. A child in the United States is two-and-a-half times as likely to die by age 5 as in Singapore or Sweden, and an American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as a woman in Ireland.

Canadians live longer than Americans do after kidney transplants and after dialysis, and that may be typical of cross-border differences. One review examined 10 studies of how the American and Canadian systems dealt with various medical issues. The United States did better in two, Canada did better in five and in three they were similar or it was difficult to determine.

Yet another study, cited in a recent report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute, looked at how well 19 developed countries succeeded in avoiding “preventable deaths,” such as those where a disease could be cured or forestalled. What Senator Shelby called “the best health care system” ranked in last place.

The figures are even worse for members of minority groups. An African-American in New Orleans has a shorter life expectancy than the average person in Vietnam or Honduras.

I regularly receive heartbreaking e-mails from readers simultaneously combating the predations of disease and insurers. One correspondent, Linda, told me how she had been diagnosed earlier this year with abdominal and bladder cancer — leading to battles with her insurance company.

“I will never forget standing outside the chemo treatment room knowing that the medication needed to save my life was only a few feet away, but that because I had private insurance it wasn’t available to me,” Linda wrote. “I read a comment from someone saying that they didn’t want a faceless government bureaucrat deciding if they would or would not get treatment. Well, a faceless bureaucrat from my private insurance made the decision that I wouldn’t get treatment and that I wasn’t worth saving.”

It’s true that Americans have shorter waits to see medical specialists than in most countries, although waits in Germany are shorter than in the United States. But citizens of other countries get longer hospital stays and more medication than Americans do because our insurance companies evict people from hospitals as soon as they can stagger out of bed.

For example, in the United States, 90 percent of hernia surgery is performed on an outpatient basis. In Britain, only 40 percent is, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute.

Likewise, Americans take 10 percent fewer drugs than citizens in other countries — but pay 118 percent more per pill that they do take, McKinsey said.

Opponents of reform assert that the wretched statistics in the United States are simply a consequence of unhealthy lifestyles and a diverse population with pockets of poverty. It’s true that America suffers more from obesity than other countries. But McKinsey found that over all, the disease burden in Europe is higher than in the United States, probably because Americans smoke less and because the American population is younger.

Moreover, there is one American health statistic that is strikingly above average: life expectancy for Americans who have already reached the age of 65. At that point, they can expect to live longer than the average in industrialized countries. That’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare. Suddenly, a diverse population with pockets of poverty is no longer such a drawback.

That brings me to an apology.

In several columns, I’ve noted indignantly that we have worse health statistics than Slovenia. For example, I noted that an American child is twice as likely to die in its first year as a Slovenian child. The tone — worse than Slovenia! — gravely offended Slovenians. They resent having their fine universal health coverage compared with the notoriously dysfunctional American system.

As far as I can tell, every Slovenian has written to me. Twice. So, to all you Slovenians, I apologize profusely for the invidious comparison of our health systems. Yet I still don’t see anything wrong with us Americans aspiring for health care every bit as good as yours.

Kristof followed up with another great column on Nov. 11 titled “America’s Defining Choice,” comparing the choice of what’s better to spend $100 billion dollars on: health care and the war of Afghanistan, a choice he examines because these two pressing issues both have bills equaling that amount in Congress.

Kate Hall, former Mika Miko drummer, is in a new band called Dunes. You can listen to them here if you’d like.

I’ve been really into this song as of late: Antonia Jane by Lightning Dust.

I spelled lightning l-i-g-h-t-e-n-i-n-g once in second grade and I’m still embarrassed by (and think about) that mistake.

Matt McCormick’s debut feature film, starring Carrie Brownstein and James Mercer.

Some Days are Better than Others (trailer) from matt mccormick on Vimeo.

is getting her own show on CNN according to this Variety article. Awesome! I was a fan even before Rory Gilmore was.

Speaking of politics and cultural affairs, this joint session of Congress is intense; they’re quite a rowdy bunch in the House. I did however appreciate Nancy Pelosi’s immediate angry glare at the guy who yelled “(You?) Lie!” Some of these politicians need to go back to Emily Post School of Manners.

Finished this weekend: This American Life Season 1 and Veronica Mars Season 2.