The BBC's Women of the Year, month by month.
One of these things is not like the other ones.
The BBC released its list of Faces of the Year for 2011, which is one thing. Their choice for a woman to represent December is another. It's a panda. Named Sweetie.
Sweetie, along with her fellow giant panda Sunshine, was welcomed at Edinburgh airport with cheers and bagpipes after the pair's 11-hour journey from Chengdu in western China. Their arrival is the culmination of five years of lobbying by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the British government. Even the four pilots wore kilts in the pandas' honour. The pandas are on loan for a decade at a cost of £600,000 per year. Zoo bosses are hoping that Sweetie will produce cubs during that time.
No disrespect to Sweetie and the cubs her bosses at the zoo hope she'll produce, but we're trusting you folks can help with another suggestion for the list, maybe even a human. Pick a woman who did something notable in December, please, and hit the comments.
P.S. In case you're wondering, everyone on the men's list was a human.
(H/t Leah McElrath)
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her historic LGBT speech in Geneva.
Good choice - or Elizabeth Warren for her honesty and effort for common people
Any number of activists in the Middle East would be appropriate. Razan Ghazzawi (@RedRazan) was arrested in Syria for her activism under her real name and who, now released, continues to work for a free Syria. Manal Hassan (@Manal), an Egyptian activist who continued to campaign for the end of military trials for civilians in Egypt even when her own husband Alaa Abd El Fattah (@alaa) was arrested & imprisoned. Manal was 9 months pregnant at the time and gave birth to the couple's first child while Alaa was in prison, a baby boy named Khaled after Khaled Said, the young man tortured and killed by the Egyptian Army whose death served as a catalyst for the Egyptian Revolution.
Both more historically significant than a panda. And I love pandas.
Leah McElrath (aka @alphaleah on Twitter)
Who are these people? The only ones I recognize are Princess Kate and Michelle Bachman??????????? Princess Kate, I understand. Michelle Bachman??????????? Other than being possibly the nut of the year, what great stands has she taken for the world, for the country, or for women (other than calling total submission to a man "respect"). The panda even beats her out.
That's Pippa Middleton.
left to right: Gabrielle Giffords, Adele, Eman al-Obeidi, Pippa Middleton (top), Nafissatou Diallo, Li Na, Princess Charlene, Michele Bachmann (middle), President Dilma Rousseff, the Duchess of Alba, Corporal Kelsey de Santis, Sweetie the panda (bottom).
Thanks, Brian. There are a few I should have known (like Gabrielle Giffords) and I even messed up on Princess Charlene. Thank heaven for people like you who know these things and can educate the behind the times people like me.
While I truly appreciate your information, I would still love to know why Michelle Bachman is there, when Hillary Clinton isn't. Just wondering.
I've got three for you: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakel Karman.
Um, I dunno, but how 'bout Kate Middleton's "Amazing Fashion Evolution" and "Best Fashion Moments of 2011" for TIME'S 2011 Person of the Year Runner Up? I can't think of anything more relevant!
But there's this: Elizabeth Warren nominated by TIME as someone who mattered in Dec. 2011. That's nice. I don't think I've taken note of her apparel, but perhaps it should be more interesting.
I nominate Mónica G. Prieto, as an outstanding woman of 2011. Reporting from Homs, Syria in December for Periodismo Humano (link to her latest video report) http://snup.us/mjc
hmm, last time i checked humans weren't an endangered species. giant pandas are.
Sure you don't want to reconsider?
In many parts of the world, women are.
Hands down: Elizabeth Warren!
I nominate Chaz Bono.
I'm assuming you are just being sarcastic or something. Because of course you know that Chaz doesn't qualify because Chaz is male. It doesn't matter if Chastity was a female...Chaz is male, completely. I know, I should have just disregarded your comment but sometimes the meanness and sarcasm I see and hear every day gets to me and I need to shine some fresh light on it. It's for my own sanity.
Chaz is genetically female, and nothing can change that.
Human sexuality is far from girl-or-boy, and how you feel in your mind is the best indicator of sexual identification, but surgery and hormone therapy do not affect genetics. Chaz is a female with surgical and hormonal alterations, who identifies as male. Many of us agree that this is an acceptable form of self expression, while some do not.
Either way, Chaz is not "male, completely", and is not an appropriate nominee.
I thought gender was not supposed to matter - equal rights and all that. I mean, was the Time Magazine protester of the year a man or woman? I think there were more men in the streets of Egypt than there were women, so it's unfair of them to portray something that is not accurate - it hurts the pride of the boys in Egypt and Libya to have their sex under-represented in major media propaganda
There are two lists. One for females and one for males. Where does that place Chaz?
That was sort of the point I was making. Why all the score-keeping based on genitalia?
because we're human, and humans like to classify, categorize, pigeon-hole, and box. Gender is a simple and convenient marker.
Flame bait.
Yes, I know that. The question was about why the Maddow blog made a point out of something that is trivial
Why are you making a point out of something that is trivial? Oh yes, to flame bait.
not sure what you mean by trivial and flame bait. My point is that the Maddow blog is pretending that something which is trivial isn't. maybe that makes my point trivial too, but i don't think so
flame bait - you'll have to help with that one - probably an insult, and i'm not familiar with that vocabulary
Intentionally misgendering a transgender person is inflammatory. Calling a transgender man a woman is akin to calling a gay person a fag. You've chosen to make the point that, in your personal opinion, this is a trivial topic by making a derogatory comment about a trans person. Which was sure to draw the ire of people who value equality or at least the idea of not going out of your way to be crude and insulting. That is flame baiting, and you know it.
I'm sure you're grown up enough to realize that people have different values and different opinions as to what's important. If this was truly a trivial topic you would've just ignored it. I frequently skip over reading articles that aren't important to me, as do most people. But you didn't skip over it. You felt it was important enough to leave your two cents and be rude about it, and to keep coming back to read the replies. Which shows you do care about this topic.
Flames delivered.
Thanks for the information, Grr. I (and I presume many other of us who are outside the issue) didn't know that the comment was inflammatory or insulting.
Is there a catagory for "just didn't know" and didn't mean to offend? Not all of us are up to date on every issue and truly don't want to set any one off. We have to rely on your gentle education to learn the boundaries. Thank you for bringing us into propriety. It does help.
Another vote for Hillary Clinton for her UN speech.
I wish I could remember the name of the Egyptian woman who was beaten for jumping in to defend one of the protesters
How about the THREE women who won the Nobel Peace Prize? Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakel Karman.
That picture for October is terrifying.
Who the F*^k is the Duchess of Alba?!!!!! What in the world did this woman do to be put on this list other than maybe be an advertisement for bad plastic surgery?
It was something to do with marrying a much younger man and giving her estate away - but I don't remember exactly what it was. Scary, isn't she?
Gabby Giffords for sure - but why did they include Pippa and not Kate?? VERY strange.
Because Kate gets honors for being a 2011 fashion statement = TIME Person of the Year Runner Up. Now if that isn't the ultimate media distraction.
I'm wondering if Don Draper came up with the list? The lady Panda is for sure the most egregious pick. But not the only issue. The majority of the women seem to have been included for either: A. being associated with a wedding B. being associated with sexual harassment/rape. Huh.
The whole thing is frivolous. There are more important issues to discuss on maddowblog. Who cares what the BBC thinks anyway?
Ruthel Frank, the 84-year-old woman from Brokaw, WI who may not be eligible to vote in the next election because of our insane Voter ID law
I like the suggestions of either Hilary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren but my choice would definitely be the beautiful Iranian lady who was shot and killed when the Persian people tried to rise up against the horrible, oppressive regime under which they exist (as opposed to really "living" in freedom.) I don't remember her name but I believe her death was in some ways a turning point in bringing on the Arab Spring. I also don't remember f this occurred in 2011 or 2010-so much has happened in so short a time...
I too choose Hillary Clinton. For any number of reasons. I voted for Barack Obama, but Hillary would make one hell of a president! She should have won in 2012 and Obama could take over in 2016. Hindsight...
How could she have won in 2012 when that election hasn't even taken place?
Michelle Obama should have made the list somewhere. Also, obvious snuff to Kate Middleton.
I agree with Patty T. on the Iranian woman who was shot.
If not, then Rosa Curling.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/23/legal-action-over-taxman-s-deal-with-goldman-sachs-115875-23655408/
It's not just that this is insulting to women, but someone over at BBC doesn't know that a woman is a female human. A female Panda is called a sow.
This is not insulting, did you get upset 2 years ago when a fish made the men's list? or last year when a cartoon pig made the women's list? if so can you please direct me to the posts you wrote to display your outrage over those lists?
I don't think they should put a fish or a cartoon on what is supposed to be a list of influential people either.
I hardly consider this to be "outrage", but perhaps you are inferring it as such because you are more sensitive than I. That's okay, but I hope you don't come across one of my posts where I really am outraged because I might just make you cry. I can be a jerk at times, especially when I have the day off and it's raining.
It's not a list of "influential" people though. It is just a list of headline makers.
I vote for the woman in the blue bra. Even if she has refused to come forward, she is a symbol for tens of thousands, if not millions of people.