Taste matters: why I should have known better than to use GoDaddy

Years ago I registered several domain names.  They were a lot cheaper then, and because I didn't want to think about which registrar to use, I went with the cheapest and most popular one: GoDaddy.

I did it despite their stupid, vaguely patriarchal name.  I did it even despite the blatantly sexist advertisements.  I told myself that they were just doing what they had to do to bring in customers, that it really didn't matter.  I silenced my doubts and gave them my money.

Since then, GoDaddy's behaviour has been increasingly tacky, insulting, and just plain bad for the Internet and its users.  I'm moving all of my domains onto another registrar, and although it is a pain in the neck, it's the right thing to do.  The lesson for me is that taste matters.  If a company seems distasteful to you initially, they're likely to offend you later — and they'll be doing it with your money.

Enjoli, for the woman that does it all

Back in the heady days of the late 1970s, feminism morphed from a fringe movement to a popular crusade. Helen Reddy sang I Am Woman and women sang along. Support for the Equal Rights Amendment reached its high water mark, and Gloria Steinem was a rock star. Women were earning $.69 for each dollar earned by their male counterparts, and were demanding compensation for household work.

In that heady climate of 1978, marketers decided to tap into the image of the all-capable woman:

♪ I can put the wash on the line, feed the kids, get dressed, pass out the kisses and get to work by five to nine, 'cuz I'm a woman – Enjoli ♫

Charles of the Ritz creates Enjoli, the new 8-hour perfume for the 24 hour woman.

♪ I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never never never let you forget you're a man. 'cuz I'm a woman. Enjoli! ♫

The feminist revolution was repackaged as slavery: women are strong, subservient, hard-working sex kittens that smell great – for eight hours! Long-lasting perfume really is such an important issue: women work 20% more than men, and if they want to hold on to a man so they can raise the children, make the money, and serve him sexually, they have to smell the part: 24 hours a day.

Bechdel's law: women as props in film

Charlie Stross wrote today about what he calls "Bechdel's Law" on movies:

1. Does it have at least two women in it,
2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man.

I immediately thought about Iron Man, which we saw last night and greatly enjoyed – and of course it fails the test. So does basically every single film made in Hollywood: the only exceptions that come to mind are Sex and the City (which I haven't seen yet, but I presume they talk about anal beads or something other than Mr. Big at least sometimes), The Hours, Mamma Mia!, and maybe Notes on a Scandal... and I'm done – as far as I know, that's it.

Alison Bechdel's blog features the 1985 cartoon where The Rule entered the mass consciousness, and explains the origin. I've been a big fan of Dykes To Watch Out For since I was just a wee budding queer, reading Southern Voice (the "Lesbian Home Journal" on actual newsprint) and scratching my head over Mo (who irritated me greatly). Bechdel has always stayed on my mind over the years, her characters sticking to me even more than Ethan Green (which became a movie?!?) and Hothead Paisan. Bechdel's Fun Home was also a fantastic read.

But back to the subject at hand. Stross continues:

From now on I intend to start applying this test to my fiction before I embarrass myself in public. And (I realize this is offering up a huge hostage to future fortune) if anyone ever offers me a movie or TV deal, I am going to hold out for a clause in the contract requiring a scene lasting at least 30 seconds per hour of running time that passes Bechdel's test. Because? What hurts my fellow humans hurts me, and I can in conscience no more lend my implicit support to an anti-feminist backlash than I can lend my silence to a racist or homophobic campaign.

What a guy. Not only do I greatly enjoy his books, I think he's a swell person, and I think his response to Bechdel's Law is a very good idea. Maybe this could spread to other authors? Hel-lo, writing workshops everywhere?