Tabitha King Brilliantly Called Out The Sexist Media

If you’ve ever read a Stephen King book, any of them, you’ll know what a critical role his wife Tabitha played in helping to launch his writing career. And Tabitha is an accomplished author all on her own, with eight novels and two non-fiction books out there, so she is not simply “Stephen King’s wife.” 

At least to most people; but, after Stephen and Tabitha King made a major charitable donation to the New England Historic Genealogical Society—oh, and the gift was Tabitha King’s idea—the couple was thanked with headlines and notifications like this:

“Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society.”

And so Stephen King took to Facebook to post a letter Tabitha had penned:

My wife is rightly pissed by headlines like this: “Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society.” The gift was her original idea, and she has a name: TABITHA KING. Her response follows.

“Dear Editors (married to a wife or a husband):In recent media coverage of a gift that my husband (ironic usage) and I made to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, we became Stephen King and his wife.

Wife is a relationship or status. It is not an identity.

You could have made other choices. You could have referred to me as Of Stephen. Or His Old Lady. Or His-Ball-And-Chain.

I have sons. You could have referred to me as Mother-of-Novelists. I have a daughter but wouldn’t it be just silly to refer to me as Mother-of-Clergy?

I’m seventy. I thought I would give you permission, if “Of Tabitha” predeceases me, to title my obituary, Relick of Stephen King.

In the meantime, you might consider the unconscious condescension in your style book, and give women their names.”

True, Stephen King does get most of the publicity, but should that mean Tabitha is just his wife, a nameless part of his life? Stephen and Tabitha King have been active in politics and supporting the arts for decades, and their contributions will live on long after they’re gone, but they are the contributions of Stephen and Tabitha King.

And this isn’t simply political correctness, this is about acknowledging a person for being more that “the spouse of”; she is half of the Kings and she deserves that recognition. As do all women; they aren’t appendages and afterthoughts and wives.

I was raised by a father and a mother and mu mother wasn’t just my father’s wife, nor he simply my mother’s husband. My mother was a nurse, a teacher, a cook, an artist, a source of love and compassion, an example of how to treat people, accept people, understand people. She wasn’t just the wife of my father, she was her own person, like Tabitha King.

We need to remember that because, if I have my way, and if my dream comes true, one day women will run the world.

PS This is Tabitha King, in her own right.

Good

The Funny Papers

Darrin Bell, Michael de Adder, Andy Marlette, Marc Murphy, Kevin Siers, Clay Bennett, Marian Kamensky, David Horsey, Michael Ramirez

Grown Men Could Learn Something From Nico

Emily Nash is sixteen and an avid golfer; she recently finished a Massachusetts high school golf tournament competition, where she was the only girl playing, with the best score.

Good for her, but ... rules set by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association prevented her from getting the first-place trophy because ... wait for it ... she’s a girl. The girl with the best score; the best one playing; but not good enough for a trophy because she doesn’t have a penis. Oh, and let’s not forget that Emily’s score, again, the best score, was used to contribute to her school’s overall team score, but she was not recognized as an individual player, again, because of her gender.

Luckily, Nico Ciolino, who got the second-best score, and received the championship trophy instead, because he’s male, is more aware and grown-up than the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association:

“I felt a little bit awkward. It felt like I cheated in a sense because I didn’t win and I got the trophy. It didn’t feel right with me. I felt bad. It’s so hard winning tournaments. … It’s just so tough when you finally win and you get the results that you worked so hard for and then it’s like, ‘Oh wait, you can’t win. You’re a girl.’”

And so he offered the trophy to Emily, who was touched by his gesture ... 

“He came over and said he didn’t win the tournament, that I did. It was really nice of him and respectful”

 ... but politely declined.

Nico says:

“I like to call myself a good golfer, but it’s very hard to win in the tournaments I play in, so it’s very hard for me to kind of say, you know, give up the trophy ... But I knew that she deserved it. She beat me fair and square. It was the right thing to do. She won. It didn’t mind me that she was a girl. We played from the same tees. We played in the same conditions.”

Again, too bad the adults running the tournament were as, well, aware, as Nico.

Soulful

Let's Talk About Race, Baby... Again ... With, Perhaps, A Little Sexism Thrown In

Out in Parma, Missouri, the town elected a new mayor and shortly after the election results came in, five of the town’s six police officers resigned.

Oh, the new mayor, Tyrus Byrd, is African American … and female.

Byrd, the town’s African American female mayor, was sworn in after she beat incumbent Randall Ramsey. Ramsey had served as mayor of Parma for 37 years under two terms.

Parma says those five police officers resigned citing "safety concerns;" the town’s city attorney, clerk and water treatment supervisor also quit.

Mayor-elect Byrd, said she was unaware of the situation and plans to ask questions about the "safety concerns" during her swearing-in ceremony, though she says her first order of business will be to clean up the city.

I’m guessing losing five asshat police officers who didn’t bother to give her a chance is a good way to start.

As for the townspeople of Parma, they’re okay with the sudden resignations, and happily point out that the town was probably over-staffed with police officers anyway.

“I think it was pretty dirty the way they all quit without giving her a chance, but I don’t think they hurt the town by quitting, because who needs six police for 740 people?” — Parma resident Martha Miller

As for why the police and three other city employees resigned, Mayor Tyrus Byrd is still trying to figure that out because there are no resignation letters to be found  and that the computers were cleared.

It sounds to me like the election of Mayor Byrd is the best thing for Parma, if police quit over an election, and suddenly any evidence of their tenure is erased from memory.

Oh, and good luck to those police officers getting jobs elsewhere; I mean, explain they’re sudden departure on a resume … explain why they quit with no notice …. Explain why no one has their resignation letters.

As I said, it's probably for the better for Parma that these asshats hit the bricks.

sources:

HuffPo

KFVS 12

Raw Story

WSMV

photo sources:

CDA News

St. Louis Sun-Times

Random Musings

Sometimes all you need is a really good eye for detail.

Tell that to South Carolina's Rock Hill Herald newspaper, which placed an ad for Nichols Store gun shop right next to the story about last Friday's Newton school shooting. 

To be fair, the newspaper immediately issued an apology, explaining that the layout for the page was determined prior to the shooting, but, still, one wonders how no one noticed the two things before the paper went to press.

But then, maybe, considering the sharp rise in gun sales after the shootings, maybe it was a savvy marketing ploy?

Brian and Mary Lohse, of Iowa, recently won a $202 million Powerball lottery and decided to spend $3 million of their winnings to build a new football stadium for their son's high school team, The Blue Jays.

Nice, no?

Well, maybe not so much when you consider that included in their generous donation was the stipulation that the opponents' locker room must be pink, to, as Mary Lohse said of her scheme, inspired by the University of Iowa visitor’s locker room of the same color: "I was sort of half joking and half not I suppose, but they said they’d do it. It’s supposed to put them in a certain soft frame of mind … it will certainly give all the players something to talk about."

Pink.

Oh. Girly; like the other teams are girls?

Mary Lohse is kind of sexist I guess, except.....

Pink. Maybe a little gay.

You know, cuz The Gays don't play foot ball and if they did they couldn't beat a team of real men like the one Mary Lohse's son plays for.

Perhaps a few gay slurs on the walls are in order?

Fox "News" is still keeping up with all the important news of the day.

The Newtown shootings?

Hmmm, no.

The impending fiscal cliff?

Not so much.

Interviewing "Santa" so he can talk about the ALLEGED War On Christmas?

Indeed.

Fox & friends hosts Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy had a live interview with "Santa" who talked about the hardships of being Santa Claus these days:

"You know, I never had a problem being Santa Claus, but there was a time a few years back when suddenly I started showing up at Christmas parties and was told that they were having holiday parties. So therefore, they didn’t need a Santa anymore. And it was about that time, that was the time when I think the Surgeon General said Santa should lay off the cookies and start picking up more carrots and broccoli." 

Here's the deal: you wanna say Merry Christmas? Say it. Say Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Fesitivus or Happy Holidays. Say whatever you like.

But, what's the big deal of calling the party a "Holiday" party? That means it's inclusive of every religious, or non-religious belief, and since when is being inclusive a bad thing? And why do so many people want to inflict their religious beliefs on everyone else?

Not very Christ-like.

Me? I say Happy Holidays, and I say Merry Christmas to those who say it to me. I say Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. But, if I don't know you, I might say have a nice holiday.

All right....touchy subject: Gun control.

Earlier this week, I posted about the Newtown shootings and my own personal beliefs about guns and gun control [see Unfathomable]. As I said, I don't like guns so I don't have any. But, also as I said, if you want guns, for hunting, or protection, then I would never tell you that you cannot have them.

But, I have a problem with assault weapons. How is an assault weapon good for sport? Firing off massive amounts of ammunition isn't sport. And it isn't right for hunting, either, as firing an assault weapon at a dear or a duck or, whatever it is you're hunting, only serves to basically obliterate your prey. Also, an intruder breaks into your house and you fire an assault weapon and blow out half your living room at the same time you are riddling the intruder with bullets.

That’s overkill. Kill. In my opinion. So, if someone can explain to me why anyone has a need--and I’m deliberately not saying "right"--to an assault weapon, and can do so without being a jackass, please explain. Also, someone commented on my post that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Huh?

How many mass murders have we had in this country? There have been thirty-one, since Columbine in 1999. And yet we continue to say that arming people will stop this from happening.

It hasn't, so maybe try a new tactic?

There have been seventy people killed in mass shootings this year alone in the U.S., and some seventy-two people injured in those shooting as well. There were 47,500 murders from firearms in the U.S. between the years 2001-2005 alone – and nearly 8 in 10 of these murders involved a handgun.

What I’m saying is this: the idea that solving the problem of school/mall/street shootings by arming more people doesn't work, because if it did, we'd be seeing less of these horrific acts, not more, so why not look at a different solution? I know most people who have guns are responsible gun-owners, but we need to worry about those who aren't responsible; those who have arsenals, and for what reason they have them. Those who have assault weapons and why. Those who don't properly control their own guns, by keeping them locked up when not in use so they can't be taken by someone with a grudge or someone with a mental illness or someone who just thinks shooting guns at people is fun.

Continuing a rant brought on by the discussions on violence.....

It isn't TV that caused a young man to walk into a school and start shooting, because if that was the case, we'd be seeing this every single day, all day.

I love 'Dexter' and 'Homeland' so why am I not a serial killer-slash-terrorist?

It isn't violent video games and it isn't autism or Asperger Syndrome, because, again, we'd be seeing shootings every day.

It might be a combination of all of the above, coupled with the idea of the ease at which people can buy guns, the way some people handle their guns, by not keeping them locked up, but it isn't 'Dexter' or a video game or the new Tom Cruise movie.

Settle down.

Also, since this topic won't go away.....

Enough, media, enough.

Enough interviewing every Tom, Dick or Famewhore who wants to be on TV talking about the Newtown shootings and how and why it happened.

NBC ran in interview with a divorce lawyer who spoke about how the divorce of Adam Lanza's parents might have played a part in the shooting. This "lawyer" didn't represent either of the Lanza's in their divorce but, you know, he's a divorce lawyer so he knows all about it.

Stop interviewing babysitters and the people down the block and stop with the whole "he seemed like a nice kid, kind of a loner" reporting.

In this day and age with all of us on computers and iPads and iPhones and really not paying any attention to one another, we all seem like nice people, though maybe kind of like a loner.

That doesn't make us mass murderers either.

So, media, quit trying to turn every little iota of gossip into "news" about the tragedy.

It's enough.

Now, let's take a moment to remember those we lost, because that’s what matters. We lost twenty children, one of whom might have grown up and found the cure for cancer, or AIDS, or solved the issue of global warming, or been on TV and made us laugh or smile or think.

We lost the future last week, and we lost a number of teachers who work toward making the future happen.

That's what's important....