The XX Factor: What women really think.

The Cute-ocalypse is Coming

Like Lauren, I enjoyed Jim Windolf's insightful attack on cute culture, but I find the otters-holding-hands/Iraq War connection to be a bit of a stretch. Windolf suggests that we're asking for forgiveness through penitential offerings of cuteness, but it's not my impression that most Americans think we need to be forgiven. Maybe popular cuteness is intended "as some sort of correction" to our new status as invaders, but that presupposes a level of remorse I don't really see. Which is not to say cuteness and politics never meet; they certainly do in Japan. Here's Prince Pickles, the rosy-cheeked mascot of Japan's Defense Forces ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

The Dangers of the Cute-R-Net

A post from DoubleX writer Lauren Bans:

Several times a week I walk by the marketing section of my office and see a group of grown men and women in their business-casual attire standing over someone’s computer screen giggling and cooing. Almost daily, I get an e-mail entitled, “SO CUTE I WANTZ TO DIE” or “AHHHHHHZZ! CUTEGASM!” along with a link for, say, a YouTube video of a sweet-faced pug so fat it can’t roll over, or a 4-year-old performing the Single Ladies dance. Most of these videos live up to the adorability claims of their “z”-infested titles. (Apparently bad grammar signifies something is SO cute it’s made one functionally retarded.) Though, admittedly, in order to enjoy the slew of children-dancing-to-Beyonce-videos I’ve been sent, I have to actively forget the gross reality that there are parents behind the camera who have trained their kids to be delightfully adorable circus monkeys for the Internet masses ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

On Watching Neda's Death

Dana, Susannah: Like many Americans, I watched the “Neda video” yesterday. This is, of course, a horribly shorthand way of saying that I opened a video clip that captures a young Iranian woman dying after being shot. The movie is short. It is “graphic,” if by graphic we mean that we see blood, and the violence that can be done to a body. More subtly, and entirely fascinatingly (in the old, sober sense of the world), it captures the moment a person’s life drains out of her body. I have, in the past, always decided not to watch videos like this (Danny Pearl’s execution, say). This time I changed my mind, and it haunted me all last night.

Why has Neda become a symbol of Iranian freedom? Because we witness the sight of her death. That sight, even at a remove (or perhaps because at a remove), is so difficult to hold in mind that we have to transform it. Ironically...(To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Of Course the Neda Video Is a Snuff Movie

Yes, Dana, you're absolutely right that the Neda video, in which a young Iranian woman is shot and killed during the post-election protests, is a snuff movie. "And the fact that 'Neda' is a young and pretty woman" has absolutely played a part in the YouTube clip's rise to infamy. This isn't to diminish the content of it. It is a horrifying, saddening, frantic look at a woman dying in the street.

But I don't think that's exactly what we're talking about here. We're talking about the something else the video becomes when its focus and attendant narrative take on the qualities of martyr and myth. The video becomes something else altogether...(To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Meghan McCain: I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Republican World

Thanks, Jessica, for the YouTube clip of Meghan McCain on Maddow's show last night. Now can I have my IQ points back? From start to finish, it's a profile in Republican idiocy, from mini McCain offering herself up as some type of towheaded neo-poster girl for the right to her faltering faux-platform that consists solely of her picking a fight with Ann Coulter. That's like picking a fight with Hitler. I mean: What? Are we supposed to be impressed she doesn't like the She-Devil? McCain takes Republicans to task for being too extreme and offers her idea of an alternative: "Be more moderate and reach out to people." That's. So. Deep. What's delightful is to see her paired with such a brilliant interviewer. Every word that comes out of Maddow's mouth only serves to make the New Poster Child of the Republican Party appear even stupider. What's a tougher call is that McCain and her commentaries are so insipid, her presence begs for the question: Who's worse? Meghan McCain or Ann Coulter? Tough call, in my opinion. At least Coulter has a brain. What she does with it is the problem.

After "David After Dentist"

Like Sam, I too found "David After Dentist" more charming than creepy when I first saw it: David immediately got filed in the mental category "Awesome Little Kids I'd Like to Hang Out With," alongside Amelie Jr., the Korean "Hey Jude" baby, and Gio Escalante. I worry less that this video is cruel in the here and now and more about what David will think about it when he's a teenager or when he's applying for jobs. Will David be embarrassed? Proud? Will he be like a former child star, who can't walk down the street without someone leaning out of a car window to yell, "DUUUDE, IS THIS GOING TO BE FOREVER?"

What's really scary, though, is the speed at which this video has been remixed and re-posted—there's already a Dr. Katz-style animated version and a Christian Bale mashup. Maybe I'm being primitive about it (they're stealing David's soul when they copy his picture!), but that sort of gives me the heebie-jeebies. Something like "David" is different from, say, a clip of your kid on TV's America's Funniest Home Videos. Web stuff can move around the world so easily, getting copied and reproduced—not to mention archived indefinitely—that it's unnerving. I can make myself forget about this when I'm sharing information about myself. (I'm working on my "25 Random Things About Me" list, so I've been thinking a lot about the nature of my personal privacy threshhold.) But is it ethical when it's your kid? Now that my friends are trickling into their child-bearing years, I see infants all over Facebook. I'm not sure if this is due to the simple fact that since we live a lot of our lives online, it's natural that our kids are coming along, or whether it has something to say about the extent to which we view those kids as extensions of (accessories to?) ourselves. I'm sure that, when I reproduce, I will be putting lots of totally hilarious clips and pictures online. The question is: Will I be mother enough to hesitate before I hit "post"?

Bring on the Kidsploitation!

Oh, Hanna, I beg to differ! I found young David's trip through the post-dental bends to be an awesome example of the Internet-enabled, 21^st-century, DIY version of "Kids Say the Darndest Things." The video isn't, in my opinion, amusing because it's "Ho-ho! Look at the kid acting high!" It's because what David, with the aid of some drugs, is saying to his father's camera is so profound, so eternal, so deeeep. "Is this real life?" "Why is this happening to me?" "Is this gonna be forever?" These are the very questions I ask myself, day in and day out, toiling at my computer, wondering what I'm doing, wanting to know what does it all mean. Hanna, perhaps you might try the animated version? I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the "Is This Real Life?" T-shirts appear in online stores.

If The Dental Surgery Doesn't Hurt You, The YouTube Post Won't, Either

I think the "David After the Dentist" video passes the "appropriate to post" test. This isn't likely to haunt him forever; given how fast kids grow, it won't be long before even his biggest fans wouldn't recognize him on the street. (And since the clip is from last summer, he probably already has enough new front teeth to disguise him.) He's old enough that his dad probably asked and got his permission before posting, and young enough that it's not likely his peers are out there on CollegeHumor.com discovering this clip and laughing behind his back. And the material is harmless enough that I think when David revisits it in a few years, he'll crack up as much as the 3-million-plus who've already watched it on YouTube.

I can see your point, Hanna, that the dad comes off as kind of cruel, the way he's sitting up there laughing and filming while his child suffers. But I feel like it's how the kid—not the blogosphere—interprets what the parent is doing that matters, and David doesn't seem to mind his dad's low-key attitude. In fact, it might be putting him at ease. Of course, this is coming from someone who thinks it's hilarious that my parents used to coo to my sister and me, when we were too young to understand anything beyond tone of voice, "You're such a stupid baby! Awww, look how ugly you are!" Sure if someone were watching (online or otherwise), that would seem awful. But since all we took from it was the affectionate cadence, I think it's genius.

What's the Deal With Paul Krugman?

Wouldn't you love to know the back story on Paul Krugman's column today? Because without knowing that his real beef is that his wife can't stop singing "Yes, we can," or maybe that his idiot nephew won't shut up about how all the cool people are on the O Train, it's all very mysterious: What is he referring to when he says "most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody''? That Obama's supporters are not chill like Hillary Clinton's?

That is a fresh take, definitely, but where did he get the impression that "many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of 'Clinton rules'—the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.'' Then he draws a straight line from there to ... Whitewater? Suggesting what? That if not Obama then those who mindlessly follow him approved of the vast right-wing thing? I'd hate to put this non-sequitur on a par with Krugman's buddy Bush mentioning 9/11 in the same breath with Saddam—but we're all in some danger, aren't we, of mirroring what we loathe?

His least original point, about how "the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality,'' is one I hear all the time from Hillary supporters who claim it is a sign of immaturity to support Obama and that to believe there is any other way of doing business is really to believe in a fairy tale. But thinking that any one group or campaign or party has cornered the market on "most of the venom'' is what seems like kid stuff to me.

Down Under and Dirty

Australia is also in the midst of an election season, though theirs has big two advantages over ours right now.

1. Their parliament election, which will determine whether John Howard remains prime minister or has to move aside in favor of opposition candidate Kevin Rudd, is just a month away.

2. The most embarrassing YouTube video to surface in their election so far features Rudd idly picking at his earwax and then licking his finger. (Watch it here.)

The etiquette breach occurs while one of Rudd’s fellow members of Parliament is droning on something to do with permanent residents. Rudd’s not the only one bored stiff—the redhead sitting in front of him appears to be fighting off sleep, and the woman to his left looks mighty fidgety.

I’m confused, though, about how Aussie blogs and newspapers are reacting. The footage is apparently a few years old and has been on YouTube for months, but it’s only now become an issue. A news site says the 30-second clip “could do more damage to Kevin Rudd's election chances than any policy blitz.” Blogs call it Rudd’s “macaca moment.” Really? I’d be relieved if I saw footage of Barack Obama caught picking his nose, or John McCain trying to surreptitiously rid himself of a wedgie. It’s gross and it’s bad manners, but there’s something endearing about catching politicians in those off-guard, embarrassing moments.