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My New Book!
My New Book!

Saturday, February 24, 2018

February 24-25, 2018: Crowd-sourced Anti-Favorites



[One of my favorite crowd-sourced posts each year is the culmination of my week of post-Valentine’s anti-favorites. Here are the grievances aired by my fellow AmericanStudiers—add yours in comments, fellow gripers!]
Kathleen Morrissey writes, “I’m griping with the ACLU atm. While the organization was involved in very noble policy and cultural movements, their insistence on being nonpartisan allows for some horrible things. For example, they were aligned with the NRA against the Obama administration’s rule (that individuals who collect Social Security for mental illness would be banned from owning firearms) simply because it was ‘unconstitutional.’ The ACLU’s fundamentalist devotion to the Constitution in equal parts makes it a problematic thing that only sometimes falls on the right side of history.”
AnneMarie Donahue nominates, “Tonya MF-ing HARDING!!!! I love her, I hate her, I want to high five her (sometimes to the hand... sometimes to the face with a chair...) She's a phenomenal athlete. She's a black eye to my sport. She's a feminist icon. She's a laughing stock of women's sports. She's just everything! She's ALL THE THINGS. That movie was so.... pedestrian... to know her is to have all the feelz. … First women to do a triple triple combo in competition. … Youngest US athlete to podium at international level … Could land a quad loop in practice. …. Threw it all away. Because we had a society that 1. treated abuse like it was the victim's fault; 2. believed that in FS looks came first (no, they WERE actually part of your score sheet and still are); 3. wasn't set up to really invest in women's sports as actual athletics and not a ice show.”
Other non-favorites:
On Twitter, Nervous Hooleelya writes, “Ugh, Moby Dick. #unpopularopinions #whogavemeaPhDinEnglish.” She adds, “Oooh, and A Separate Peace. Can I just push Finny myself? It would be much more satisfying.”
Dan Schneider Tweets, “Attila the Hun- overrated killer; First Folio- overrated plays; David McCullough- overrated Adams.”
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Other anti-favorites you’d share?

4 comments:

  1. I'm spending the year reading as if it were 1918 (www.myyearin1918.com). My 1918 anti-favorite is Dorothy Dix's Mirandy series in Good Housekeeping magazine. Dix pretends to be an African-American woman giving advice along these lines: “Ef you ’grees wid a woman ‘bout her husban’s faults an’ weaknesses she is lak enough to up an’ lambast you wid de fust thing dat is handy."

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    1. Yikes! Thanks for the comment and addition, Mary. I look forward to checking out your blog!

      Ben

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    2. Thanks! If you have any favorites (or anti-favorites) from that era, I'd love to hear about them.

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  2. I'm officially the crazy person of this post. Congrats to me. :) I love Tonya, always will. She's the villain we all deserve.

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