Who says the personal isn't political? Now that the culture wars are waging once more, you can take your army of one out on the town to flaunt your own fabulous "values".
First stop? Go see the new movie about sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, Kinsey: Let's Talk About Sex. The religious right is all up in a lather about the film. According to the Christian Communication Network, "Hundreds of thousands of moviegoers may be taken in by the lie that Christian morality is outdated and repressive." Hmm, let me think about that while I abstain from sex and try to pray my PMS away. Check out more hyperbole at KinseyOutreach.com, and then go sit in the back of the theater sniggering while you make out with your pansexual compadres.
Over at Salon, Rebecca Treister's taking matters into her own hands. She urges blue-staters to shake it off by getting a quickie divorce, watching dark and cynical films, reading banned books and donating them to school libraries,and getting loaded.
Or, if you're still in recovery from your Reagan-inspired binges of the '80s, annoy all those churchgoing masses by getting all pagan on their asses. Get your chakras cleared; try to regress to a past life when scary fundamentalist numbskulls weren't in charge; get your Tarot read for 2008. Primal screaming seems to be a popular pastime around our offices this week as we put our post-election issue to bed; throw your head back and let 'er rip!
Whatever you do, don't spend your weekend obsessively tracking the online debates over whether Bush & Co. stole the election. Researchers, computer scientists, political groups are all working on it. The data will still be there on Monday; no need to ruin a night out by painstakingly creating "scattergrams" of the county-by-county vote totals.
See no red and feel no blue. Vote with your booty; get out there and shake it like it's 1992.
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Jessica Clark is a writer, editor and researcher, with more than 15 years of experience spanning commercial, educational, independent and public media production. Currently she is the Research Director for American University’s Center for Social Media. She also writes a monthly column for PBS’ MediaShift on new directions in public media. She is the author, with Tracy Van Slyke, of Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (2010, New Press).
