December 7, 2012

"Monsters: Planned Parenthood tells teens ‘look your best’ after being beaten with these make-up tips."

Twitchy is aghast... after not getting it.

Do I really need to explain? Maybe I do, because those people are so dumb... or maybe only playing dumb. Let me take an intelligence test over here. You've got to watch the video first: here. Now, here's the test:

Did Twitchy understand the video it condemns as shameful?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

47 comments:

Lyssa said...

I can't watch the video right now (so I'll refrain from participating in the survey), but I assume that it's intended as tongue in cheek.

That said, I recall when I was in college and went to the local health department to get birth control, the staff there was making a really big deal out of how great Depo-Provara (a shot administered every 3 months instead of a daily pill) was for women who had abusive lovers, since it was easier for them to hide that they were on birth control.

So, since learning that the health department was in the business of helping women maintain their abusive relationships, this wouldn't shock me too much.

pdug said...

Yeah, but its the kind of tongue-in-cheek that usually gets the panties at Jezebel and Shakespearsister all in a bunch so good for them for calling them on it too. What no "trigger warning"

BTW, what is the statistical breakdown on how many boyfriends were slapped or intentionally hurt, and a slap wont give you abrasions and a black eye like that either, so kudos to PP for lumping everything in one category for purposes of crisis-mongering.

Anonymous said...

Make-up tips are usually too lightweight to do much damage no matter how savagely you're beaten with them.

pdug said...

shakesville: sorry, not shakepearsister.

Unknown said...

I think they get it, and are pretending not to, but I'm not sure what the motive is.

PatHMV said...

I get the point of the ad, but I fear that the target audience will not.

Lyssa, I don't know that I would condemn the health department there. From my time in the DA's office, I learned that a great many women will go to great lengths to stay in abusive relationships, no matter how much help and counseling is offered to them. The health department is trying to offer tools to the women who are intent in staying in those relationships (for whatever reason). It would be more cruel for the health department to NOT inform those women about this available helpful tool. A lot of do-gooder people who want to help victims of domestic violence sometimes want to insist in only helping on THEIR terms, which in its own way is every bit as controlling and domineering as the woman's abusive lover.

pdug said...

Oh LOOK> here is the recent report.


and recently (since 2005), the number of MALES teens who are hit or slaped is HIGHER than then number of females.

http://www.childrenssafetynetwork.org/sites/childrenssafetynetwork.org/files/TeenDatingViolenceasaPublicHealthIssue.pdf

Where are *their* makeup tips?

Matt Sablan said...

Even on the Twitchy link they mention that the ad ends with "Don't cover up," so I think it is more saying that they failed at getting a good idea across. I dunno; the ad seems... eh. A nice attempt, but I think there are some things where a tongue in cheek satire may not be the best route to take.

PatHMV said...

I'd add that Twitchy is not criticizing the video itself, really. They acknowledge that the video is from a legitimate anti-domestic violence group in the UK. A careful reading shows that Twitchy is condemning how Planned Parenthood presented and promoted the video. Easy to miss this, since they spend most of their time describing the video itself, and very little time describing in any detail the context by which Planned Parenthood linked to it. I tried to find the PP site they were talking about, but could not. Not sure if that's because Twitchy got the links wrong or because PP has taken down the allegedly offending page.

AHL said...

This video stops hiding women of abuse. Women for ages have been covering up signs of beatings, so to promote a video about make-up tips creates more interesting discussion than, "She should leave her partner." If a woman is having a hard time leaving a bad relationship, depo-provera is a way she can protect herself from constant contact with the father, poverty, and custody battles until she has the outside support she needs to leave, which may include police protection.

LoafingOaf said...

I think they understood it but are being propagandists as usual. That's why they don't link directly to the video, but rather to a site summarizing the video and spinning things. Twitchy figures most of their readers won't look at more than that.

Speaking of the right wing blogosphere, they're already upset this morning that employment numbers grew more than expected. I guess they're still hoping and praying for bad news for America, even after the election.

Matt Sablan said...

Twitchy is doing what the left Daily Kos and the like routinely do: Shooting from the hip and jumping to conclusions without giving their opponents the benefit of the doubt.

But, that's -part- of their reason for being, to create a counter-balance to the sort of media that Googles the names of criminals and mistakenly claims them to be members of the Tea Party. It's sort of a performance art/parody.

rehajm said...

People are so dumb. They can't always recognize satire, irony, sarcasm or dry humor in electronic communications.

If only there were some way to symbolize these devices when communicating in electronic media. :-(

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Oaf- It's good to know that you folks on the progressive left don't care that in Obama's America, people are losing their jobs. Maybe tax hikes will help? You don't seem to care about economics or corruption.
In fact you folks on the left are nothing but bad faith economic illiterates.
Just make daddy warbucks pay. That will solve everything.

You don't seem to care about government waste either.

Oaf - Do you care that Obama laughed at his own "shovel ready jobs" program? Do you know where all that stimulus money went? Do you care?

Deirdre Mundy said...

Well, there is the issue that PP has a past record of covering up abuse by NOT reporting abortions where underaged girls were impregnated by older men (technically statutory rape) or incestuous abusers.

It's Ironic that PP is saying not to cover up abuse when THEY ROUTINELY DO IT THEMSELVES, as long as the abuser is willing to give them the $500 to erase the evidence of his crime.

Meanwhile, if this was between a girl and her doctor instead of a girl, an abuser, and an abortion clinic, she might actually stand a chance of getting help.

PP- making it easier to treat women of all ages as garbage....

Matt Sablan said...

Unemployment is back over 8%; I'd say that's a good reason to be upset. That's before we do what we normally did while Bush was president and talk about the under-employed, those who have given up working, or looking at the unemployment among specific communities, such as minorities.

But, yes. I suppose that there's some silver linings out there.

Matt Sablan said...

Ah, there's a new-new job report today.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Don't cover it up... and call the police.

Anonymous said...

Twitchy was criticizing how Planned Parenthood framed the video, not the video itself. They clearly understood and acknowledged that the video was not made by Planned Parenthood and was intended to help prevent domestic violence. Some of the people quoted in the article missed the point (when I read it last night, I wished that Twitchy had specifically highlighted how they were wrong), but Twitchy did not.

Known Unknown said...

Paul should write Twitchy's headlines, since they are incapable of constructing an accurate sentence.

Bob Ellison said...

Well, Professor, you tipped me off, for one, just in your presentation of the question. I can't help thinking that the Twitchy author did something I've been guilty of over and over again: drawing a quick conclusion based on a way-too-short assessment of the evidence. There's got to be a phrase for that...shooting from the hip? No. Can't think of the proper cliche.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Speaking of being beaten up. Does anybody care?

Matt Sablan said...

Though, this reminds me, in part, of all the people crying out: "Aspirin isn't a contraceptive, and it certainly doesn't work if you put it between your knees! It's meant to be ingested!"

Sometimes, people just don't get jokes.

Bob Ellison said...

"Going off half-cocked".

We need a new phrase for this. Something Twitter- and blog-based, with FaceBook awareness. I propose "TwitBooking" as a verb.

damikesc said...

Speaking of the right wing blogosphere, they're already upset this morning that employment numbers grew more than expected. I guess they're still hoping and praying for bad news for America, even after the election.

Funny how reputable independent sources found a nearly 1% unemployment rate growth --- but the Feds found a drop.

I bet the Feds are more honest and all.

firstHat said...

Obviously the folks at twitchy didn't watch the whole thing, which act is not automatically ignorant. I think you miss the point that much of what PP does and who they were at their very foundations is generally so monstrous that those of us who really know about it will expect the worst of it.

Writ Small said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aridog said...

AprilApple said...

Speaking of being beaten up. Does anybody care?

Great link. As one with years of experience, military and federal, I can assure you it is all very true...de rigueur in fact. Both parties' crews do it ... it IS the Washington DC "way."

Writ Small said...

Quoted from the link:

The video, which is from a legitimate organziation (sic) fighting against domestic violence, does end with “don’t cover it up.”

But the way Planned Parenthood framed it, the message is just the opposite: “You probably had it coming, girls. May as well try to doll yourselves up afterward.” Appalling.

But, what else can one expect from an organization that routinely aids and abets the purposeful selective aborting of female babies, and covers up statuatory (sic) rape? Twitter users who have a moral compass are rightly outraged.


The answer to the quiz is at the end of the article, quote above, and as of this posting it is not the choice with the most votes. Irony.

Wince said...

I think the ad would have been more persuasive if the subject had been shown slowly removing make-up to reveal the abuse that she had effectively covered-up with make-up.

For most teens, the take-away from this video was way too instructional, the final message tangential, if noticeable at all.

Rather than the purported narrative, at best it shows two paths you can follow: one easy (hide it) and one completely uncertain written over a black background (don't hide it).

Another hipster PSA video fail.

Known Unknown said...

Oaf-

This is still a problem, no?

bagoh20 said...

I think they are pretending not to get it, but they have a point in that the likely effect of the ad will probably be to help more abuse be hidden than stopped. If it gets viewed widely, it won't likely stop much abuse, but thousands of victims will learn better how to cover it up, try to, and feel it's the way to handle it.

Typical lefty unintended consequences. The producers where more interested in being cute and getting noticed than they were in being effective at stopping abuse.

Consequently, I think the Twitchy people are right, even if their attacks on PP's motives are wrong. What matters is the result, and more girls will cover up their abuse now.

In this case, PP isn't being evil - just stupid and narcissistic. The result is still evil.

bagoh20 said...

What was taught by the video? I didn't see anything that told a girl how to stop the abuse, just how to hide it. And, the victim in the video made hiding it seem smart and cool. As public service it's just dumb as a stump.

Geoff Matthews said...

I think that pduggie has it right. We'd like to see PP play be the rules that their supporters hold their opponents to.
Not gonna happen though.

FleetUSA said...

This plays to the stereotypical Irish drunken man mauling a poor lass who doesn't have the brains to leave her man earlier. Terrible.

edutcher said...

The problem is, women who are in abusive relationships know it long before the beating starts.

They need to be told to get the Hell out at the first sign, not wait until after they're hit.

Nomennovum said...

Yes, Twitchy understood the ad and, yes, the ad is shameful. A shamful example of needless male-bashing. 50% of domestic violence is against the man.

To hell with PP.

Seeing Red said...

--Speaking of the right wing blogosphere, they're already upset this morning that employment numbers grew more than expected. I guess they're still hoping and praying for bad news for America, even after the election---


HUH?

Zero Hedge:

Confused why the unemployment rate dropped? The same, favorite BLS adjustment - a drop in the labor force participation rate which declined by 0.2% to 63.6% once again, as the number of people out of the labor increased by over 540K to 88,883,000.


As a commenter said:

Labor force participation has dropped ... again. So employment improved among the survivors.



Brian Brown said...

LoafingOaf said...
Speaking of the right wing blogosphere, they're already upset this morning that employment numbers grew more than expected



Um, "Not in labor force" surged by 542,000 so if the labor force participation rate was just back where it was in November 2011, the unemployment rate would be 8.3%.

At job growth pace of past 2 years, US wont return to pre-recession employment levels until after 2025

Dumbshit.

Seeing Red said...

This just might be a problem, too, Oaf:

The Bundesbank revised the 2013 German growth from 1.6% to .4%.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It is very poorly conceived video. I understand what they are tying to convey. "Don't be abused. Get out of the relationship. Don't cover the abuse up."

But the delivery of the concept really sucked.

Aridog said...

Regarding the video...what EDH and Bagoh2o said covers it for me. "Dumb as a stump" fits perfectly.

Regarding on the unemployment and new jobs stats...more hogwash as usual. when you have a measurement system that lets "unemployment" figures decrease when people just drop out of the market, you have the prescription for bullshit understatement every time.

Hell of a system,eh whot?! Get enough people to give up looking for work, when they have worked in the recent past, and sho' nuff, ...we have zero unemployment. Perfect.

And not one single itty bitty new job is necessary. No worries now, eh?

damikesc said...

after not getting it.

Why should conservatives try to "get it"?

Progressives have worked wonders taking obvious jokes and acting as if they were somebody's true intentions.

Why should they receive benefit of the doubt?

This is still a problem, no?

Under Obama, that's a feature, not a bug.

Make them all beggars. They're easier to please.

Crunchy Frog said...

So, since learning that the health department was in the business of helping women maintain their abusive relationships, this wouldn't shock me too much.

The health department was in the business of keeping women in abusive relationships alive long enough for them to make the decision to get out of them. Calling the cops, social workers, getting a worthless restraining order and the like doesn't help if the woman is too scared to press charges. All it does is piss the guy off more that he had to spend a weekend in the pokey.

Now the bitch is really in for it.

My mother-in-law was in such a relationship. She finally screwed up the courage to get the hell out (with the younguns) and left town to stay with her sister. After three weeks of frantic phone calls, her POS boyfriend finally did the world a favor and blew his brains out. I didn't find out how bad it was until after the fact.

Probably a good thing - I might just now be getting out of prison.

Amartel said...

Q: Why is Planned Parenthood making videos about how to cover up bruises from being beaten?
A: To generate positive publicity/marketing which distracts from their central purpose of being an abortion business.

Q: Whose fault is it if Planned Parenthood's marketing is easily misinterpreted and exploited by opponents of abortion?
A: P___nned _______hood.
Abortion opponents do not exactly keep a low profile so it's not like exploitation of stupid Planned Parenthood videos is an unanticipated development.

Isn't calling it "Planned Parenthood" kind of disingenuous? Shouldn't it be "Unplanned Parenthood" or "Unparenthood"? How about "Abortions R Us"? Planned Parenthood has been caught in several outright lies (just that I've heard about) recently. They are definitely disingenuous and count on low info voters/customers to support their agenda. And they get government funding.
Is it shameful and stupid and disingenuous when Twitchy advances its agenda but not when "PP" does the same thing? Does this depend on whether you are Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? It shouldn't!

Dante said...

I think the ad would have been more persuasive if the subject had been shown slowly removing make-up to reveal the abuse that she had effectively covered-up with make-up.

I like that idea! It might be hard to do, though, because you would probably need an actually beaten person.

Dante said...

I think twitchy understood the Ad, understood it had good intentions, realized it was a monstrous Ad, and also used it to further slam PP.