Why isn't 'Batgirl' a valid career choice?

On Saturday, April 25th, thousands of people worldwide, including myself, were abducted. See how we survived ...

In the past week I have seen young women (several of them, of different age groups, social groups and backgrounds) do the following:

• Blame a victim of abuse for her abuse, because she may have done something at some point to anger her abuser
• Claim that certain kinds of women "deserve to be raped"
• Fawn over a convicted criminal who is flirting with his fans from behind bars, saying that it's so sweet that he called his female fans "hot."

This is the tip of the iceberg of the things I see from young women these days.  And by that I don't just mean all you young 'uns running around Buzznet, I mean from my own age group as well.  I see this disturbing trend where-in women are more than willing, even eager, to blame our own gender for problems, to call ourselves weak and stupid, to find ourselves incapable of surviving on our own, to turn on each other over body image or boys and to "put each other in our places."

In other words: the patriarchy can sit back and relax, they've trained us to rip at each other's throats enough that they don't have to work to maintain the status quo of "social norms."

And girls, it hurts me.  It seriously hurts me.  Because being a girl is something that seriously kicks ass, it's fucking fantastic, and the fact that it almost seems that we're being taught that it's something shameful, or something that you can only do in a "particular" way...that's messed up.  It's selling ourselves short.

And yes, yes, before any of you start screaming "OMG, BUT THINK OF THE BOYS!  BOYS HAVE IT BAD TOO!!!!  IF YOU DON'T THINK OF THE BOYS, YOU'RE OPPRESSING THEM!": you don't think social norms and gender roles hurt men, too?  You don't think the same sort of stereotyping that feminists fight against isn't anti-male?  Because feminism, as I've ranted before and will rant again, is about equality.  No matter what propaganda you've been handed otherwise, no matter how the media has portrayed it, no matter how many female supremacists masquerading as feminsts you've met. Feminism is about equality.

And so I did some thinking.  And while I was looking up information on women in music, I came across a bunch of information on the Riot Grrl movement.  It was women who were sick of the sexism rampant in the punk scene who took matters into their own hands.  Via their own bands and home printed 'zines, these girls called for a movement, for a literal girl riot. The "grrl" spelling is meant to refer to a growling sound: the sort of vocals you hear in punk music and/or the sort of growling that needed to be done about the situation.

One of the things published in these underground 'zines was a Riot Grrl Manifesto.  After looking it up, I found a few points made in it that all of us girls, even if you're not into the Riot Grrl music, really can and should take to heart:

• BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can't play our instruments, in the face of "authorities" who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and
• BECAUSE we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't.
• BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary "reverse sexists" AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.
• BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock "you can do anything" idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.
• BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
• BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
• BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.
• BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.
• BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

And now, if I might add one of my own:

BECAUSE the girls of the past, the girls of the present and the girls of the future are worth it.

Hey kids!  Look, it's Little Suzie Scene!  Hi Suzie!

Today, Suzie is logging onto Buzznet.  But oh no!  She's found a post where someone says that something SHE likes isn't good! 

Suzie, what are you going to do?

No, Suzie!  Wait!  Suicide is NEVER the answer!  Especially over INTERNET DRAMAZ.

What else could Suzie do to solve this?  She could leave a comment!

Suzie thinks that if she leaves this comment, all the haterz will see her point and will come around and love the thing that she loves as much as she loves it in her loving way of loving love.

Only, they don't.  Instead, the haterz decide to respond with these, like, responses.  With links.  And SARCASM!  That's not fair :(

So, Suzie goes to her own blog:

And then the big bad moderator comes around and says you can't make fun of people with herpes and polio.  Even if she didn't really swear bad!!!!  He's just a big meanie who probably wishes he was as hot as those guys in that band :(

So, Suzie decides to express herself with deep camwhoring with a long winded explanation of how it's not fair that people won't let her be herself and they're just like all those bitchy cheerleaders at her school.  And they all lived happily ever after.

Okay, they didn't actually live happily ever after until she either grew the hell up or got banned for using abusive language.  But if she'd just camwhored in the first place, it would have saved her and the rest of us a lot of trouble.

In closing:

So, William Beckett and Demi Lovato wrote a song together.

THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS BLOG IS REALLY ABOUT, SO READ THE REST OF IT BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT AND COMMENT.

Anyway, there was this reaction from a lot of William's fans that this mean, somehow, The Academy Is... would forever be tied to/associated with Disney.  Because a member of their band had worked on a song with a girl who happens to be a Disney star.  This means that forever and ever The Academy Is... would be nothing more than a bubblegum pop group a la the Jonas Brothers and suddenly Sisky Biz would start bringing up his virginity ring in every interview.

Now, I would normally hope I didn't have to point out that the whole idea of that happening is utterly ridiculous.  But just in case you need further proof?  Here are some musicians and musical acts who have worked with Disney before.  And I can assure you, when people hear about them/see them, Disney is hardly the first thing that pops into their minds.

Celine Dion:

She performed the radio single version of "Beauty and the Beast," the theme song from, duh, Beauty and the Beast.

Christina Aguilera:

Aside from being a former Mouskateer, Christina also performed the radio single version of "Reflection" from the movie Mulan.

Sir Elton John:

Performed radio single versions of "The Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," both from The Lion King

Vanessa Williams

Performed the radio single version of "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas

And while we're talking soundtracks?  Guess who appeared on the Anniversary Edition Soundtrack for The Nightmare Before Christmas (which, yes, is a Disney film)?

Oh, and this guy:

Oh yeah.  When I hear "Marilyn Manson" the first thing I think of is Disney.  Boy howdy!

Want more?  Okay:

The Barenaked Ladies

Credited as "BNL," the group performed "One Little Slip" for the movie Chicken Little.

Oh, and here's a guy EVERYBODY immediately associates with Disney:

ELVIS PRESLEY

No?  But, wait, didn't they use a bunch of his music in the movie Lilo and Stitch?

Okay, you might say, but that's doing music for a soundtrack!  That's totally different!

Fine, what about musicians who have been IN Disney movies?  Like say, Billy Joel and Bette Midler?

Because both of them provided voices for the movie Oliver and Company.

Hell, Midler even starred in a live action Disney movie, Hocus Pocus (which is one of the best Halloween movies ever, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

You know who else was in a Disney live action movie?  One of these guys:

Those are the Rolling Stones.  One of THE most influential rock groups in history.  And they are definitely NOT an act you'd associate with Disney.  But, Keith Richards also did this:

Yep, he cameo'd in Pirates of the Carribean 3 as Jack Sparrow's father.

Oh, but wait, you say.  You LIKE those Disney animated films and the live action movies!  So working with a Disney pop princess is TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

Right, because the fact is: you don't like her.  So the situation here isn't really The Academy Is... will forever be a Disney property, but that William Beckett is friends with someone you don't like.  Someone many of you have never even met but feel the need to massively hate on.  Look, you don't have to like her, you don't have to like that William is working with her, you don't have to listen to that song.  But here's the thing: You don't have to go after him on Twitter or on his blog telling him how disgusted you are by him working with Demi.  You don't need to bemoan it as the end of the world as you know it, or at least the end of the scene.  And you DON'T have to blame it all on Disney.

After all, Disney gave Aerosmith their own roller coaster.  And Aerosmith still sings about going down on a girl during her period.  Disney DOESN'T ruin everything.

It was the Tweet heard 'round the scene: William Beckett of The Academy Is... has announced he collaborated with Disney star Demi Lovato on a song for her second album. Read more...

Hey gang, you know I don't usually ask favors or stuff like that, but here's the deal:

My friend Nick, known around these parts as NicholasDanger, is in this band called Robots and Racecars. They're pretty awesome.  And they're in a contest where they could win a chance to play at Bamboozle.  That's right, THE Bamboozle, the same festival that No Doubt and Fall Out Boy are headlining this year.  It's kind of a huge chance for them.

So, if you wanna help them out with that, head over to The Break Contest site and vote for them!  I know they'll appreciate it!

Go ahead, re-read the title of the blog again.  No, it's not a mistake.  Even though Gym Class Heroes only released The Quilt last year, drummer Matt McGinley has dropped the news that the band is already thinking about their next release. Read more...

The following post will contain spoilers for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.  Normally for something like this I'd say MAJOR spoilers, but apparently Michael Bay would disagree with me.

The sequel to 2007's hit film based on the toy and cartoon franchise won't actually hit theatres until June, but Michael Bay apparently felt the need to share some news with fans very early.  And not just "Optimus Prime is awesome" sort of news, but news about the death of a character.

If you don't want to know any more?  You should stop reading right now. If you so choose, read on...

Alex "Singer" DeLeon of The Cab has kept fans pretty amused with his updates to his blog at Tumblr.  He's used it to discuss touring as well as the thoughts, feelings and meanings behind the songs on The Cab's breakout CD Whisper War.

But now, DeLeon has done something even cooler with his blog: he's posted a snippet of a new song. Get at it...

So, every year on the first Saturday in April, the University of Pittsburgh closes down Bigelow Blvd. between Forbes and Fifth Avenue.  This serves two purposes:

1. Massively messing up traffic patterns through Oakland
2. Allowing Pitt to throw a huge party complete with a free concert

In past years, Pitt has gotten acts like Hawthorne Heights, Bif Naked, Ben Folds and Jason Mraz.  And this year, they didn't disappoint because they got The Academy Is... to headline the show! Come take a look...

Just last week, we had news about the new Cobra Starship CD.  And with that news came what we thought at the time to be a tentative album track, "Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We're Famous." Read more... and go listen...