Good morning!

A clear and brilliant analysis on how we as a society, relate or not, to others through our humor. And what it tells us about people through their humor. Very illuminating.

It is simply an outstanding write. Read it, put it down and go back and read it again. What you get out of it will be invaluable.

From Think Progress:

Jason Steed Doesn’t Think Trump Was ‘Just Joking’

Don’t worry: Donald Trump didn’t really tell a bunch of people at a campaign rally to assassinate Hillary Clinton. Everything is fine!

Recall on Tuesday, at a campaign event in Wilmington, N.C., Trump said:

Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.

But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day. If — if Hillary gets to put her judges — right now, we’re tied. You see what’s going on.

Trump later assured America that, though he gave a shout-out to the “Second Amendment” folks, he was really speaking to the power that his followers have at the polls. (“Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendment folks” = apparently not catchy enough for this purpose?) House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to explain away the comments as “just a joke gone bad.”

Over in the “not a joke” camp, we have the Secret Service, which announced in a cryptic, not-super-helpful tweet that they were “aware of the comments,” and prominent democrats, who expressed their horror at what scanned as an invitation to assassinate.

Meanwhile, Jason Steed, an appellate attorney based in Texas, expected Trump would explain away his comments by insisting he was “just joking.” But Steed — who years ago was an English professor who wrote a dissertation on humor theory — believes there is no such thing as “just joking.” So he told his 2100 followers as much:

Steed elaborated on the concept in a series of about two dozen tweets. When we choose to tell a joke, or to laugh at one, we are choosing whether or not we agree with its central idea, values, or perspective. Everyone who laughs at one kind of joke gets to be in on it; everyone who doesn’t is on the outs. Acknowledging or announcing that a joke isn’t funny distances you from its teller. So we clarify and declare, joke by joke, what kind of person we are. Humor is, basically, a sorting hat, and we use it to suss out where we belong, and with whom.

Within 24 hours, Steed’s Twitter essay had gone viral; his follower count more than tripled. I spoke with Steed by phone to talk about how humor works and why jokes are so powerful — even/especially when they aren’t jokes at all.

Your tweets were based on your prediction that Trump would justify his remarks by saying he was “just joking.” And your thesis is, essentially, that there is no such thing as “just joking,” right?

We all joke. We all use humor all the time. It’s part of our lives on a pretty much daily basis. But it’s never meaningless. It’s never “just joking.” There’s always more going on in the humor than we consciously realize or think about. It’s part of how define ourselves, or how we construct our identity as individuals or as groups.

When we laugh and joke together, we’re coming together as a group about something. There’s a kind of agreement about something. If we agree something is funny, we’re not just agreeing it’s funny; we’re agreeing about something underlying the funniness. There are either certain values, ideas, or attitudes that are being conveyed by the humor. So when we join in the humor, we’re joining in with a group that agrees about those things, or is at least open to agreeing about those things. And when we don’t find it funny, we’re in the out-group. We aren’t part of the group that shares that view.

My point is not that humor is good or bad; just that it does this thing, and we should be mindful of what it does. Some people, I think, mistook my tweets as saying there’s something bad about humor. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But it’s always doing this kind of work: It’s simultaneously bringing some people together while excluding other people, or certain ideas or values. It’s always assimilating and alienating, or accepting and rejecting, at the same time.

What we choose to laugh about together says something about who we are, either because we’re laughing at a particular group of people in a way that excludes them from our in-group, or because we’re laughing about a particular idea or value that is part of how we define ourselves, or something along those lines. Which is why I think, ethically, we should be mindful about what we choose to accept as funny and what we choose to join in on.

Part of what seems to be happening here, too, is the fact that Hillary has these identities — liberal, feminist, woman — that are often dismissed as “humorless.” And it seems to give Trump, and people who support him, more authority to accuse her, and her supporters, of not getting the joke. It falls in line with the narrative people already have about her.

Right: “You’re too defensive,” or “you just don’t get it.” “There’s something wrong with you that you can’t just go along with the joke.” And that’s part of the work it’s doing.

We like humor, and it does bring us together with people. So when a joke is told that might be offensive, we have a human desire to be part of the in-group. If you can’t take the joke, if you can’t join in on the humor, then you’re not part of the in-group; there’s something wrong with you. And because we want to be in the in-group, I don’t want to say there’s a coercive thing — that’s too strong. But there’s a kind of force that is involved. There’s social work going on with that.

For the Trump crowd, one of their biggest complaints is about political correctness. And some of what I’m saying smacks of that, right? I’m saying, “We should be careful about certain jokes that might alienate or marginalize certain people or individuals.” So to say, “let’s be careful about joking about assassinating someone,” you’re one of the P.C. police. That’s what I’ve been getting on Twitter!

Is that what most of the response has been like? People accusing you of being the P.C. police?

This has been kind of a crazy 24 hours. I can’t even begin to go through all the mentions and the RTs and responses. So only from what I’ve been able to skim through, I feel like the response has been, two-thirds positive. I spent a couple years thinking hard about this stuff because I was writing a dissertation about how humor works in literature and film and how it constructs identities. I’ve thought through this stuff, and I think most people, obviously, haven’t. But I think the most common reaction seems to be people saying, “You just said what I’ve always thought but didn’t ever articulate.” That’s the most common response. On a gut level, everyone experiences humor where you realize groups are being formed through joking and mockery and those kinds of things. That’s been the bulk of it.

There has been this one-third of respondents that have taken it to mean I want to ban jokes, I’m another member of the P.C. police, or that I can’t take a joke, clearly I have no sense of humor.

Something I come across a lot in my work is, most people consume pop culture for fun. It’s recreation. And if I have something critical to say about a movie, like a big, summer blockbuster-type film — like, “All the female characters are badly written and have nothing of substance to do, and there are virtually zero people of color on screen,” to use a totally rare example — I always hear back from a contingent of people that I’m “ruining it” by thinking about it too hard. And I imagine you are getting that as well: That thinking about humor in this way sucks all the fun out of it.

What’s interesting about that, and what people don’t get, is that I assume that some of what you’re trying to think about and really look hard at is the work that’s being done. You go to watch this movie, and let’s say the representation of gender roles, what you’re really critiquing is how this movie is portraying women. The work that’s being accomplished by the movie is being accomplished more effectively if people don’t think about it. You reinforce the gender roles more effectively if no one stops to ask what you’re doing. Everyone who says, “Don’t think about it so hard,” is basically saying, “We should give up and let it do the thing that it’s doing rather than resist the work that it’s accomplishing.” That you should want to be subconsciously manipulated by everything around you.

In this case with Trump, one of the things that’s odd to me about the “just joking” defense is that, in the room, in the moment, that line didn’t play like a joke at all. No one really laughed.

Humor doesn’t always have to involve laugh-out-loud kinds of responses. Sometimes things are funny but we have this sort of internal pleasure and enjoyment from this funny juxtaposition of two things that don’t go together, but we don’t laugh out loud, necessarily.

When I saw the clip, I mean, the Twitter thing yesterday was really prompted by — I was just anticipating, and assuming, that their explanation for it would be that it was a joke. I think you’re right: It didn’t play like a joke, like a big punchline that everybody laughed at. But it was still kind of an off-the-cuff riff about something that I think, it’s plausible that he could have said, “I was just joking,” even though it’s not a punchline joke. I thought that would be a plausible explanation in an attempt to downplay the seriousness of what he just said. Which is why I wrote this little tweetstorm: because I was anticipating that that would be the explanation.

It turns out, they didn’t explain it that way, which I think is even more troubling. Because one of the ways we use humor is to slow-roll an idea that might be offensive or shocking or troubling: We use humor to introduce those kinds of ideas because we know it might be shocking or inappropriate. We kind of use humor that way.

Or in a more benign way, like if you have a crush on someone, and you put out there as a joke, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we dated…?” just to see if it takes.

That’s what I mean. You’re trying to float the idea in a more safe way, using humor where maybe — you have an out. And that’s what I mean by assimilation and alienation. If they don’t join in and accept it, you can try to say, “I was just joking.” And that’s your defense. “I didn’t really mean it.”

But that’s my point about just joking: There is something that you’re sort of floating. And if they welcome it, if they embrace it, you’re not going to defend yourself by saying you were just joking. You’re opening the door to assimilate that idea and take it further than how you floated it. If he comes back and says he’s just joking, that’s not all that’s happening. He’s floating an idea that, if enough people embrace it, the doors open to actually assimilate the idea: Armed revolt or assassination, whatever idea he’s floating, you’re trying to open the door for people in the in-group to assimilate that idea.

When he says things off-the-cuff, that’s the work that that’s doing: Opening the door for transgressing norms and saying things that we would like to think are unthinkable, but trying to open the door to making them thinkable, which is what a lot of us find troubling about it. And he gets away with it because he does it a lot of times.

I can’t really imagine what the reaction would be if Obama said the same thing.

If Clinton tried to make jokes like that, people would freak out about it. So I think he’s gotten a pass, in a lot of ways. A lot of it is through the primaries, he got away with a lot through the debates with other Republicans who didn’t really stand up to him or take him to task for the crazy stuff he was saying. So this shield developed around him.

To flip the political leanings for a second, it’s like what Jon Stewart was doing on The Daily Show during the Bush years, after 9/11, when it was really taboo to say anything negative about the war in Iraq, to not be supportive of the administration, to be anything but outwardly, wholeheartedly patriotic. And the jokes on that show created this space to say what at the time was fairly transgressive stuff, to be critical of something that was widely accepted.

I think that’s right. I think that’s what humor basically does: It opens up a space for things that you might not normally feel safe saying in a serious way. And if we join in and laugh with it, we’re allowing for the possibility of it being okay. And if we don’t, we’re saying it’s not okay.

And that says something about who we are: If we are a people who think it’s okay to criticize our leaders and what our country is doing, we will join in with that humor and assimilate with those ideas. And if we don’t think that’s okay, we’re going to reject that as not funny and not okay. And it works for criticizing your leaders or criticizing a race. If we want to be a people who think that’s okay to do, we’ll join in with that kind of humor it opens that door. And it works with assassinating people.

Why do you think people tend to get so defensive when called on jokes that don’t go over well with everyone? Or non-jokes, as the case may be here. Why is “it’s just a joke” such a popular reaction when someone questions whether or not a joke was okay to tell?

I think that for some, it’s probably the same people you run into who don’t want to think hard about movies. They don’t want to have to think hard about their jokes. “I’m just trying to go through life and make jokes and not worry about it.” I think that’s a lot of it. And I think there’s probably people who perceive this injustice about who gets to joke and who doesn’t.

The point I would be trying to make is, nobody is saying you can’t tell these kind of jokes or have this kind of humor. It’s really more about being aware of what it is and what it does. It’s more of a nuanced understanding of it. Go ahead and tell a racist joke if you want. You just have to understand that some groups will reject that. You’re choosing to embrace a certain identity, and that might be as a racist. And if that’s fine, go ahead and do that. But you have to be aware that this is what your humor is doing.

*****

Readers:  Yes, you may be fooled by some when they laugh as if they are “in” when they are really “out” and vice versa but you will always be aware of the position or mindset of the one who offers up a particular joke as amusement.

Thoughts? The forum is open.

Blog me.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good Monday morning!

There is so much to blog about when it comes to the Olympics. I made a brief comment about this controversial topic a few days ago. I heard the “booing” toward Yulia Efimova, coming from the audience as she and our American Olympic swimmer Lilly King went head to head for the gold.

The “booing” saddened me because as we all know there are always two sides to a story.  So I did a little research as I think it is only fair to bring up the other side. This write caught my eye.

From The Wash Po:

In vilifying Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, Americans are splashing murky waters

Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova is at the center of Russia’s doping scandal. Here’s what you need to know about her. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Feels good, doesn’t it, to slap water in the face of the rest of the world and go all jingoist? Lilly King kept America strong and pure when she sent a blast of chlorine into the eyes of that Russian criminal mastermind Yulia Efimova and prevented her from melting the earth’s core. Or something like that, right? But there is a disquieting aspect to the narrative going here at the Olympics. It’s not a moment of perfect American moral clarity.

King, 19, is a swaggeringly great swimmer, but the rivalry between her and 24-year-old Efimova in the breaststroke is hardly a simple matter of a clean swimmer prevailing over “drug cheating,” as King put it. The facts of Efimova’s case aren’t nearly so clear cut despite the self-righteous Cold War shunning of her. It’s worth looking a little more closely at the human face of Efimova and maybe even standing in her place for a minute. As she suggested tearfully the other night, “You can just try and understand me, like if you switch you and I.”

[‘I’m not this sweet little girl’: Lilly King, doping sheriff, won’t back down]

For starters, Efimova doesn’t live in Russia; she lives in Los Angeles, where she has trained with Southern Cal Coach Dave Salo since she was 19. He says via email, “She is a sweet kid and not the monster she is being branded.” She was born in the war-torn Chechen capital of Grozny and raised in the Russian swim-club system in Volgodonsk, but in 2011, her coaches feared she was wearied by the grind of the Russian program, so they asked Salo to take her on.

Efimova has two offenses for performance-enhancing on her record, and let’s take a closer look at them. One day in 2013 she went to a local GNC in L.A. and bought a nutritional supplement. Her English was poor, and she didn’t check the contents, which included the banned hormone DHEA. Efimova’s offense was deemed unintentional, and the normal two-year suspension was reduced to 16 months.

No American would do such a thing, right? Actually, as NBC correspondent Alan Abrahamson has pointed out, Efimova’s case was very similar to that of Jessica Hardy, banned for ingesting a tainted supplement in 2008 only to win two medals at London 2012. No one splashed water in Hardy’s face or refused to shake her hand.

Salo has coached American champions from Amanda Beard and Rebecca Soni to Aaron Peirsol and Jason Lezak, and he estimates that “90 percent plus” of all international athletes consume some sort of supplement, though he tries to discourage it.

“I lost the battle a long time ago with regards to athletes believing that they need something” for recovery, etc., he said.

Efimova is deemed a chronic cheat here mainly because of her second offense: testing positive for the heart medication meldonium in the midst of the crisis over the exposure of state-sponsored doping in Russia. Meldonium was in broad use by Eastern European athletes legally until WADA prohibited it in January 2016. This spring, WADA declined to ban more than 200 athletes who tested positive for meldonium after January, including Efimova, because it’s unclear how long it takes to clear the system. It’s quite possible that she obeyed the WADA ban but the medication remained in her system anyhow.

Efimova tried to explain these circumstances in her Olympic post-race news conference as King refused to look at her. Here was Efimova’s account of herself, and you can accept it or not.

“I have once when I made mistakes, and I have been banned for 16 months,” she said. “For second time, it’s not my mistakes. Like, I don’t know why actually I need to explain everybody or not. . . . Like if WADA say, like, tomorrow, stop like yogurt or nicotine or, I don’t know, protein, that every athlete use, and they say tomorrow now it’s on banned list. And you stop. But this is stay [in] your body like six months, and doping control is coming, like, after two months, tested you, and you’re positive. This is your fault?”

Salo has qualms about the inclusion in Rio of Efimova and other Russian swimmers who tested positive and has even indefinitely suspended all international swimmers from his Trojan program. But he does not believe in demonizing them for the systemic practices they were reared with in their federations.

“They are unsuspecting pawns in government or federation directives,” he said. “Yulia is a nice woman with too much talent to need performance enhancing supplementation.”

He believes she took meldonium on the advice of her doctor and observes that Eastern Europeans believe heavy training is bad for the system.

“Apparently most of Eastern European athletes think they have to protect their hearts because training is contraindicated,” he said.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Efimova, it’s hard to see how the American censoriousness against her — or any individual athlete — is a solution to state-sponsored doping. And it’s just begging for anti-American backlash. King is just 19, and you would never want to curb her outspokenness or competitiveness. But it’s worth suggesting to her that a lot of beloved American athletes take supplements and use medical assistance not on the banned list. It’s also worth suggesting that she’s never walked a mile in the shoes of someone born in Grozny in 1992.

“Usually in the Olympic Games, all wars stopping,” Efimova said.

Just before Efimova left Los Angeles for Rio, she saw Salo. Her status had been in question for days and her training in chaos as the International Olympic Committee debated and defaulted on the status of Russian athletes.

“At the last minute they said she would be swimming,” Salo says. “I told her it was going to be hard and that she would not be well received. So be prepared for the hardest racing of her life.”

It’s safe to say the racing was not the hard part.

♀ 🏊🏼♀

Readers: What are your thoughts?

Blog me.

As usual, see you tomorrow.

✌🏽&❤️

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

It’s been an interesting and exciting week watching the Olympics.

I’m also noticing a few “trends”  - Ok, let’s just call it what it is: “Sexism” – out there when it comes to the comments and remarks made about women and their Olympic successes. Olympic swimmer Katinka Hosszu broke the world record in the 400-meter individual medley, and the NBC commentator Dan Hicks makes a comment that Hosszu’s husband/coach, Shane Tusup “is the man responsible.” Really? I remember watching the competition and it seems she won it all by herself.

A few days ago I broached the topic on objectifying women in the Olympics by the media paying more attention to a woman’s appearance than her athletic prowess. Now we’re seeing how women’s successes are undermined, and how they are recognized as a supporting role when they are in reality, the star of the show.

It seems I’m not alone in the “noticing.”

Here’s the write from the Huff Po:

Women, Media Bias And The Olympics

Readers: Let’s recognize the accomplishments our siSTARS are making and give them the kudos they deserve.

Thoughts? The forum is open. Blog me. 

🌟♀🌟

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Happy Saturday morning!

Racism runs deep in our society. Racism slithered into the pool and had it’s day there too.

Here’s the write from the Huff Po:

Simone Manuel’s Olympic Win Is Huge Considering Swimming’s Racist Past

Black people weren’t always welcomed in pools.

Simone Manuel, number one. 

There are levels to Simone Manuel’s epic Olympic win on Thursday. The 20-year-old has become the first black woman to win a gold medal in an individual swimming competition in the history of the Olympics. Tying for the gold medal with Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak, Manuel also set an Olympic record with a time of 52.70.

What the Texas native has managed to accomplish during her time in Rio is most definitely historic ― but it’s also weighted with meaning that extends far beyond the Olympics.

There is an infamous photo from 1964, of a motel manager named James Brock pouring acid into the swimming pool of his Saint Augustine, Florida, motel. Below him, black and white protestors attempting to integrate the segregated pool scream in shock and fear.

Protesters demonstrating in the swimming pool of the Monson Motor Lodge in Saint Augustine, Florida, scream as motel manager James Brock dumps “muriatic acid” into the water.

The photo is a visceral reminder of the everyday realities of segregation in the United States. Black people weren’t even allowed the dignity of cooling off in a pool or at the beach without being segregated and denied access.

According to The Guardian, during the 1920s and ‘30s thousands of luxurious public pools were opened all over America. All of them were segregated. When desegregation began in the ‘50s and ‘60s, government officials withdrew funding for desegregated pools. White pool-goers ultimately fled for the perceived comfort and “safety” of private, segregated pools and the rundown public pools left over for black people were gradually closed down.

Today, there’s a stereotype that many people, including some black people, subscribe to: “Black people can’t swim.” Of course, that isn’t completely true. Many black people, throughout the diaspora, know how to swim.

But what is true is that white people in America are two times more likely to know how to swim than black people. What is true is that black children are three times more likely to die in the water than white children. What is true is that many black people over the course of America’s history have been unable to learn to swim because they have had to contend with a lack of access to safe places to swim, the stigma of swimming being a so-called “white” sport, and generations of older black people passing on their fear of the water to younger generations.

Is it any wonder, then, that in the professional sports world, so few black people (and especially black women) have made it to the Olympic level in swimming? After all, it was only 12 years ago, in 2004, that Martiza Correia McClendon became the first black woman on the U.S. swim team.

“I’m proud to be the first, but I don’t want to be the last,” McClendon said at the time.

What’s a little jarring about Manuel’s historic victory in Rio is the fact that some media outlets have seemed to downplay or ignore its overall significance. As many black Twitter users pointed out on Wednesday, Manuel’s first place position in the 100-meter freestyle semifinal was completely passed over by NBC, with very little acknowledgement (there was an obligatory tweet). The media was criticized for making light of Manuel’s win, focusing more on her opponents and Australian swimmer Cate Campbell.

The athletic accomplishments of young black women like Simone Manuel, like Lia Neal and Ashleigh Johnson (the first black woman to compete in water polo at the Olympics) are vital, their presence in Olympic swimming competitions even more so. They serve as a palpable and important reminder of how far black people have come in the United States after something as simple and necessary as being able to swim was denied to us. Today, we’re not just swimming ― we’re slaying the game.

*****

Readers: Can you imagine someone pouring acid into the pool water? And denied access to the joy of swimming in a pool on a hot summer day? I cannot. I had many a summer growing up swimming in a public pool. Not being able to swim was never a concern of mine. Oh, the things we took for granted that so many others were denied because of cruel and sickening people.

Times have changed but not nearly as much as I wish. The struggle for many is still alive. However, it is great moments like this that warm my heart, knowing that change is possible and is happening. Big Kudos and congrats to Manuel. I HOPE the ripples of her swimming go wide and broad in impacting and inspiring many to follow.

Horace: Of course. And yep…I did notice. Pretty crazy lady. You probably don’t know those people because you have a college degree. Most of those who are voting for Trump are blue-collared with no degree.

Mary: Yes it is old but does that matter? It resurfaced this past late June and because Trump is a nominee for president, I wanted to put it out there again. As Nina stated, “this is not the first most of us have heard of this, and it does speak to his character.” However, this is the first time I have heard of this. I’m surprised that I hadn’t seen this news before. If it’s a first for me, I have a feeling it might be a first for a few others. Hence the reason why I wanted to post it.

That it for me. The forum is open. Blog me.

PS: I have a big family gathering this weekend so I won’t be commenting much for the next two days. I hope you all have a lovely Saturday! Thanks for being here with me.

✌🏽&❤️

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good Morning!

Wow! What an evening last night!

Hands down Simone Biles is the best gymnast we have ever seen. Incredible all around but I must say her floor routine was flawless. I’ve never seen a gymnast reach such incredible heights and make it look so effortless. Simply amazing.

I’m not much of a swimmer, but girl…I so appreciate someone who can, and this girl Simone Manuel stroked it with the best of them and came out a winner. Girls like her no longer need to feel alone in their struggles when they have Manuel to look up too.

Congratulations to them both – So proud of these young girls. What an inspiration they will be to girls like themselves. 

I know that many of you probably watched their successes and read the good news, but I’m a girl, and in the spirit of supporting my siSTARS there is nothing better to post this morning than to share their successes with you here.

From the Huff Po:

Simone Manuel Makes Swimming History In Women’s 100-Meter Freestyle

Simone Manuel celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final.

Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to medal in an individual Olympic swimming event on Thursday after setting an Olympics record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.

In a rare occurrence, Manuel, 20, tied with Canadian Penny Oleksiak, 16. Both finished the race in 52.70 seconds, an Olympics record. Swede Sarah Sjostrom finished third.

Oleksiak’s win is also historic. Born in June 2000, she is the first person to win an individual Olympic gold who has only been alive in this century, The Guardian noted. Manuel and Oleksiakged hug in the pool after tying for gold.

An emotional Manuel spoke about her feat moments after exiting the pool, saying the gold medal was “for all the people after me … who believe they can’t do it.”

“It means a lot, this medal is not just for me. This is for a whole bunch of people who have come before me, and have been an inspiration to me,” Manuel told NBC. “It’s for all the people after me who can’t — who believe they can’t do it. And I just want to be an inspiration to others, that you can do it.”

Manuel picked up a silver medal earlier this week with her teammates in the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

USA Swimming notes that Manuel has been active in the organization’s governance, serving as an athlete representative on a diversity and inclusion committee.

Manuel said in an article posted on the USA Swimming website in February that there wasn’t a great amount of diversity in the pool when she began swimming, until athletes like Cullen Jones and Maritza Correia McClendon made the U.S. Olympic team. She said she sees her role as a female swimmer of color as important for future athletes.

“When I was younger, I didn’t want to be called the black swimmer, or the African-American swimmer, because I was doing what everyone else was doing, so I didn’t see a difference. But I do realize that who I am and what I am doing does carry some weight and can show people that if I can do, they can do it too. And I didn’t really think of anyone relating to the trials and tribulations I went through until people started looking up to me, and I realized others have felt or are feeling alone, too …

A lot of people go through a lot more than I did to lead the way, and I got a lot of support from parents and coaches during those hard times. But that’s what makes it mean more as the sport moves forward and the diversity increases, so other kids don’t have to keep feeling that way ever again.”

Thursday night was yet another epic one for Team USA, as Michael Phelps snagged a history-making 22nd gold in the 200-meter individual medley, and Ryan Murphy won his second gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke.

Simone Manuel, Penny Oleksiak and Sarah Sjostrom with their medals for the 100 meter freestyle.

*****

Simone Biles Isn’t The Next Anyone, She’s ‘The First Simone Biles’

The gymnast is in a league of her own.

Simone Biles signals to the crowd after winning the gold medal in the women’s individual all around final on Thursday.

The breakout star of the U.S. gymnastics team shrugged off comparisons to other Olympic legends after winning the gold medal in the women’s individual all-around on Thursday.

Simone Biles, who at age 19 has been called the best gymnast of all time, won the event in Rio de Janeiro by a massive margin spanning more than two points, ahead of fellow American Aly Raisman.

Perhaps in reference to a slew of sexist commentary at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Biles succinctly noted her legendary feats were an accomplishment all her own and in no way comparable to those of celebrated male athletes.

“I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps,” she told Sporting News after accepting her second gold medal. “I’m the first Simone Biles.”

Her performance on Thursday began with an uncharacteristically shaky start that left her trailing Russian Aliya Mustafina after the vault and bars. But by the end of the third event, the beam rotation, Biles held a commanding lead of more than 1.5 points. She sealed it with an impressive floor routine.

Biles’ celebratory comments come on the heels of several high-profile sexist headlines to emerge in Brazil. An NBC commentator this week compared one of the three-time world champion’s uneven bars routines to that of a man’s.

Other women’s accomplishments have been linked to their husbands and coaches, or celebrated because of their age or recent pregnancies.

While Biles has already made Olympic history, there’s still a lot of medals to be won. The gymnast is still favored to take home a few more golds in three individual events later this week. Viewers can expect to see absurd levels of difficulty and routines packed with skill-after-skill many of her peers won’t even attempt in competition.

As her teammate Raisman said, “Simone’s just in her own league. Whoever gets second place, that’s the winner.”

*****

Readers: Running a bit late as I has already prepared another post for this morning but after last night I had to switch it up. :) On a side note: Yes, I read the write about the racist headline by the Mercury news too regarding Manuel’s Olympic win, (Ugh! All I will say is it was racist and insensitive) but today, I myself, chose to focus the write on the positive. Of course, as usual, all comments are welcomed.

Happy Friday! You know what to do.

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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