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November 10, 2006
Election Roundup & Goodbye to Anchal
Reading the papers these days is actually kind of exciting. A woman speaker of the house? Rumsfeld resigning? Democratic control of Congress? We're feeling a little ― dare we say it ― hopeful. Here's an election roundup of a few races Hyphen editors have been following and how they turned out.
In Virginia's senate race, Democrat Jim Webb wins over Republican George Allen, who, you may remember, pretended that he didn't know that macaca was not a nice thing to call someone. Now the Democrats have control of Congress. Is that karma or what?
Tan Nguyen of Orange County lost the race for the 47th Congressional District. Nguyen, a Republican, made headlines when his campaign sent threatening flyers to Latino voters stating that "if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." (Um, not true. Citizens, immigrant or not, can vote.) I'd say his career is pretty much over. Aspiring politicians, take note: Don't mail out intimidating notes. Then don't not own up to it. (We're not stupid.) And then blame it on an unidentified someone else. Then fire and rehire (huh?) that mystery person.
Bobby Jindal, a Republican congressman from Louisiana was re-elected.
In a local Bay Area race, Jane Kim has won a seat on San Francisco's school board. Story here in the SF Chronicle about Jane and two other women of color joining the board ― though the story mistakenly says Jane is Chinese American. Hello? Her last name is Kim? Just because she worked at the Chinatown Community Development Center doesn't mean she's Chinese. (They've fixed the mistake on the online version, now). Full disclosure: we know Jane and think she's rad.
Here's a weird thing that's been hitting the blogs lately. MSNBC's Chris Matthews was commenting on a video of Hillary Clinton at her victory rally. The video shows Clinton clapping with the crowd as she walks towards the microphone and Matthews said, "And that clapping. I just don't get it. It's not appealing. It's Chinese or something. I mean, what is this applauding yourself thing all about? I don't get it."
Um, I just don't get you, Chris. What is that supposed to mean exactly? Chinese people are full of themselves? Chinese people are weird? As this story in Salon asks: What's so unappealing about being Chinese? Video here.
And in other important news about competitive races, Anchal was booted off of America's Next Top Model this week, leaving only 5 young ladies in the running to become America's Next Top Model. Anchal spent much of her appearance on this last episode sulking, half-heartedly attempting the challenges, and being insecure about the way she looks. In an earlier episode a representative from a modeling agency said she didn't like Anchal's body, and she's been spiraling in low self esteem ever since. She actually thinks that she's fat. Granted, Anchal had all sorts of self image problems from day one, when she showed up at casting wearing blue contact lenses and has said repeatedly that she doesn't think of herself as beautiful while Tyra is always saying that Anchal might be too beautiful to be a model (whatever that means).
I really hated to see Anchal go this way, all insecure and petrified. But her lump-on-a-log attitude was wearing thin. I wanted her to grow a personality and be the same fed-up, bad-ass Anchal we saw putting the slapdown on the supremely immature Monique. Represent, girl! Then again, she's only 19. I wasn't exactly brimming with self confidence and free of body image issues at 19 either.
Damn, this is such a warped show. As this blogger notes "ANTM is not sure how it likes its beautiful women: strong and bitchy or suffering and insecure? To resolve this dilemma, it just levels them all into abject puddles, just to be safe. Suffering and insecure chicks, after all, are easier to control." And yet I keep watching it...
Posted by Melissa at November 10, 2006 11:19 AM
Not too harp, but can everyone please note the ease with which Hyphen's editor-in-chief went from analyzing election results to analyzing reality television. This is why she's our fearless leader.
Posted by: Neela at November 13, 2006 1:09 PM
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