I was going to merely post a comment in response to DogGone's outstanding article on Chicks with Guns. But, hey, I'm vain (albeit always correct) and I want to showcase my thoughts.Here's the deal: one could easily produce a coffee table book featuring handsome, successful-looking men against a background of gorgeous scenery as they rhapsodize about the virtues of child molestation.
There's no question Ms McCrum is an extremely gifted artist. However, there's a strong element of cherry-picking at play. She's selected women who could appear as models for Chanel or The Gap or Elle. She isn't showing the norm-the rednecks living in trailer parks and flying the Confederate flag as they demand Obama's birth certificate. Convicted felon and psychopath G. Gordon Liddy made money off the same idea--that one could photograph women and guns and generate some cash.
Leni Riefenstahl was a gifted filmmaker and artist as well. From an aesthetic perspective, her movie, Triumph of the Will was a masterpiece.
JadeGold, it looks to me like an All female Armed America, which should be a best-seller for all the gunloon wankers out there. Armed America was a bit more of a freak show given the author's personal interests, but this looks a bit more attractive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Democommie that I see a high degree of cognitive dissonance in someone's asserting that with nobody else in the house they will keep a loaded gun at the ready, while insisting that when they have young, defenseless people in the house they will not do so.
and that it's just plain stupid.
Jadegold, I found your post quite amusing. I'm curious, however, as to the basis of your statement that the normal gunowner is a "redneck living in a trailer park flying the Confederate flag and demanding Obama's birth certificate." I'd love to see the study that was the basis of that statement. I must be outside the norm, as I am a gunowner, but live in a suburban neighborhood, don't fly the Confederate flag and am not a "birther". Nor does my lovely, 24 yr. old guntoting daughter fit your stereotype. Or perhaps just this once you're (to use your own words) not only vain but not always correct.
ReplyDelete'Tis a sad reflection on our educational system when folks don't understand simple concepts such as "norm."
ReplyDeleteThe point you opt to miss is that Ms McCrum has selected what are essentially models for her photography--they don't reflect real life any more than your average commercial where the hausfraus shopping in the Safeway all resemble Victoria's Secret models.
And who's to say you and yours aren't living in a trailer park?
Jadegold, I do understand the definition of a "norm" quite well. My question was only indirectly related to the book, as you well know. You are simply avoiding responding to my question. I was questioning your basis for defining the "norm" for gun owners as you did. What research are you basing your statement on? My personal emperical experience would indicate that the "norm" for gun owners is something other than what you claim it is. Is your statement about gun owners based on your life experience? Or are you simply pronouncing your own biases as fact without support or substantiation? As for "Who's to say you and yours aren't living in a trailer park?"... I say so. I have no need to lie, to you or anyone else.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of young, healthy, wealthy suburbanite hockey moms who are packin' heat. I'm going to guess, however that considering the other demographics of gun ownership that the Southern Traitor in a Doublwide exemplar is more numerous.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that the Liddy Calendar Project is old but did anyone else notice that about 2/3 of the models had their fingers inside the trigger guard or on the trigger itself. The young lady with what looks like a .38, which she is pointing at her own thigh--finger on the trigger--is particularly, um, stupid looking.
JT, Why do you expect JadeGold to produce "research" when you yourself use your own personal experience?
ReplyDeleteWhat research are you basing your statement on? My personal emperical experience would indicate that the "norm" for gun owners is something other than what you claim it is.
Shouldn't you have to produce research too?
MikeB, the next sentence in my comment after what you quoted was "Is your statement about gun owners based on your life experience?" I'm OK with that as a basis for evaluation. If the answer is "I've met a number of gun owners and they were all jerks"... well, I would be sorry that such would be the case and that would be very different from my experience. But I certainly couldn't argue with it, as my basis for assessment is also personal experience. If the answer is "I don't know any gun owners, I just think that's the way they are."... that would perhaps not be so convincing. I would like to tell you, I've never visited this site before. I found it because the "The Truth About Guns" site posted your piece about taking your son to the carnival and when I read it, I found it both well written and thought provoking. So I followed the link to this site to see what else was here. I think I was expecting to find something "outside the norm", material that would challenge my opinions and attitudes without the stereotyping that is all too common on sites both pro and con gun ownership. So reading the comment by Jadegold was, for lack of a better word, disappointing. Or perhaps "jarring" would be a better term. It wasn't what I expected. Perhaps my expectations were unreasonable. It has been an interesting visit, at any rate.
ReplyDelete"Is your statement about gun owners based on your life experience?" I'm OK with that as a basis for evaluation. If the answer is "I've met a number of gun owners and they were all jerks"... well, I would be sorry that such would be the case and that would be very different from my experience."
ReplyDeleteCan I play?
Howzabout if we base our opinions on what can be gleaned from the internetztoobz? I can find multiply incidents, within minutes, on any given day in this country of people being harmed or killed by someone "accidentally" or deliberately using a firearm. Contrast that with the number of people who use their hands, their fists, their cars or other instruments to maim and murder.
the numbers pale.
JT, thanks for the visit to our blog. I hope we hear more from you because the compliment you gave me about that post I made on TTAG, that it was well-written and thought-provoking, I think goes double for you. In these three comments I find you're writing ability extremely advanced. I appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteHowever by picking on Jadegold's remark about the "norm," you seem to want a type-of haggling contest about what percentage of gun owners are "the norm-the rednecks living in trailer parks and flying the Confederate flag as they demand Obama's birth certificate."
By contesting that, I suppose you're saying the redneck stereotype is only a minor fraction of the whole. Am I right about that?
Can we agree that "gun owners" are made up an many different types? Can we also agree that Jadegold's "norm" is a type that is well represented?
The post was about the Chicks with Guns attempt to deny this diversity. You don't think that picture-book defines the "norm," do you?