It kicked ass 15

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1. 

   JackH Posted 9:17 am
   13 Nov 2006

   I'm not quite sure this is such a great thing...There's another stereotype of environmentalists out there - that of young, urban, white yuppies/hipsters.  And that stereotype seems to be on full display here.  
   Let's be honest - outside of America's most famous drug addict, Rush Limbaugh, not many people take seriously the image of environmentalists as tree-hugging, patchouli-drenched hippies (although that's an accurate stereotype of your average jam-band follower).  There's another stereotype of environmentalists out there - that of urban white yuppies/hipsters who are in love with their own righteousness (except they love Stephen Colbert and David Cross, so that means they can't be accused of humorlessness).  And that stereotype seems to be on full display here.  Give the hot people about 10 years, substantial male-pattern baldness, and a few pot bellies from all that vegan food, and you're looking at South Park's "Smug Alert" episode and the Seattle Weekly's "Ask An Uptight Seattleite".
   Environmentalism has to be a big tent, and what I worry about is that "lifestyle environmentalism" just transforms it into another status marker or, even worse, a faddish rebelliousness that will get tossed overboard for the next hip thing, a la Thomas Frank's "The Conquest of Cool" and the recent book "A Nation of Rebels".  The future of environmentalism isn't with the beautiful people ghettoizing themselves inside small urban enclaves.  Let me rephrase that - a successful environmentalism isn't going to be based on the beautiful people ghettoizing themselves in a few urban enclaves.  

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2. 

   amazingdrx Posted 3:27 pm
   13 Nov 2006

   Excellent!Make it glamorous Grist!  Good job.  That's how trends are made trendy.
   
   http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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3. 

   caniscandida Posted 3:48 pm
   13 Nov 2006

   excellence, and glamour, hurray!I am not paying attention to what anyone is saying at this point, I am so bowled over by that darling, adorable flash in dear David's eyes.
   
   Chickens are our cousins!
   
   So are other sensitive animals!
   
   Enough is enough!
   
   No more factory farms!

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4. 

   amazingdrx Posted 11:20 pm
   13 Nov 2006

   Yep CanisHe fits in well with the beautiful people.  Good for him, good for our not quite as hopeless (after this election) cause!!
   
   http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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5. 

   kmp Posted 12:09 am
   14 Nov 2006

   JackHBeing fabulous is well... fabulous.  Give us a break, will you?  People want to be fabulous.  We may not be appealing to a 62 year-old Ohio matron, but we are appealing to her 16 year-old granddaughter.
   If people want to be fabulous, and being 'green' is seen as being fabulous, and more people jump on the green bandwagon in order to be fabulous....  isn't that simply fabulous?
   Kaela

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6. 

   pbearden47 Posted 4:10 am
   14 Nov 2006

   SF & GristI think in San Francisco you might expect young, urban & hot.  The environmental tent is large and covers a wide range of people, including a bunch of old farts from the 60s who read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.  Heck Teddy Roosevelt cared about saving the wild spaces in his time.
   The pictures are great & I think Dave is incredibly good looking.  And I'm really objective.  More power to Grist.
   
   Aunt Phyllis

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7. 

   nmparks Posted 4:33 am
   14 Nov 2006

   San Francisco partyLighten up, Jack H.! We finally have things to celebrate, so why dis a jubilant eco-gathering? Grist covers enviros of all stripes and colors and their causes around the world. If the SF shindig didn't encompass them all, so what? Who has time and energy to fret over the image thing? As a middle-aged eco-trooper, I rejoice in the blossoming trend that says it's cool--err, hot--to be green and SEEN as green. Hats off to Grist for making it fun! Everyday I get to chuckle at wit along with the grit served up by Grist. I can't count the times it's kept me from going catotonic over the news. I only wish I coulda been there in SF to toast with some of that organic red wine...    
   
   the future's here-it's our to make or break!

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8. 

   JackH Posted 6:30 am
   14 Nov 2006

   The perfect storm of self-satisfactionI think y'all are the ones who need to lighten up a little.  You're acting like I said something obscene about Rosa Parks or Gandhi.  It wasn't a March on Washington - it was a party.  Calm down.  Don't be so defensive.  
   The original post went on at length about how wonderful it was that this party "defied stereotypes".  I merely pointed out that, in reality, it seemed to actually confirm some far more widely held stereotypes (i.e., lily-white, San Francisco, gentrified urban, hipster-leaning, affluent, etc).  It's real nice and all to want environmentalism to be "fabulous", but fashions change.  What's fabulous today is laughable tomorrow.  Do you really want to go the route of turning environmentalism into another class marker, a status symbol?  I'd say that is precisely the stereotype most widely held about environmentalists today, not some 60s-era picture of sandals and patchouli flogged to death by aging conservative radio talk show hosts.
   That's all I'm gonna say about this - it's great you had a nice party.  But when people go on about how it defied stereotypes, as if somehow it's a great moral and political event, don't act shocked if some people don't quite buy it.  

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9. 

   caniscandida Posted 6:53 am
   14 Nov 2006

   "lily-white"?; "gentrified"?Green LA Girl, who I believe writes to us from time to time, might be surprised to hear herself compared to a lily.  And as for "gentrified," well, they let David Roberts in the door, didn't they, wearing nothing more to cover his nakedness than a green T-shirt.
   
   Chickens are our cousins!
   
   So are other sensitive animals!
   
   Enough is enough!
   
   No more factory farms!

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10. 

    willa Posted 11:57 am
    14 Nov 2006

    Why is it...that it's always some dude and "his lovely wife"?  It's even worse than "the lovely and talented [woman's name]".  I do get that you were generally commenting on the hotness (and David, I'll second the comments about your own hotness!), and that's fine, but...
    The little joke about how it's actually the "cute, charming" chick who's responsible for something and the dude who's her sidekick...well, that doesn't do much to make up for it.  nor does the fact that she's the only woman you mention who's doing something more meaningful than blogging.  Surely there must have been women there who actually run companies, or are scientists, or what have you?  Maybe they weren't cute and charming enough for you to chat them up?
    I'm sorry, I'm in a really bad mood, and don't have the energy to put this in a nicer way, but I think it needs to be said.

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11. 

    psradd Posted 12:21 pm
    14 Nov 2006

    PARTY!I wish I could have been there--I agree that the organic red wine would have been up my alley.  Sometimes it's good for like-minded folks to get together, meet new people, and celebrate some success.  Having GRIST in our lives is one of those successes. I may not be 60 and from Ohio but I'm a 58 yr. old Virginia matron and there's more of us out chuckling with you young whipper-snappers over GRIST than you can imagine.

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12. 

    amazingdrx Posted 3:06 am
    15 Nov 2006

    It's a kinder....Gentler  sexism willa.  Stealthy isn't it!?
    Too bad Laurie David didn't attend.   The real glam star of the movement.  Daryl Hannah ought to have come too.  Oh well.
    Grist will penetrate further and further  into the stratosphere of eco-politics.  Faith based reality?  Hehey.
    
    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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13. 

    mihan Posted 4:21 am
    15 Nov 2006

    lovely spousesI just refer to everyone's spouse as "lovely." As in, "Michelle, your lovely spouse is on the phone; dinner is ready." Saves time, is complimentary to everyone, and is gender-neutral.

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14. 

    bookerly Posted 8:37 pm
    15 Nov 2006

    As an ex-sfer
    
      I thought the crowd was too white and too yuppie as well (SF is one of the most DIVERSE cities in the world, and the general looks didn't reflect that).
      As for those folks who thought JackH was wrong to point this out, get real.
      He was merely stating what most of the EJ folks would say (and I didn't see many of them and there are lots in SF!! (unless like me they have all fled)).
      Sorry to rain on your parade, but practice some real diversity and watch those clouds go away!!
    patrick

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15. 

    bookerly Posted 4:59 pm
    16 Nov 2006

    BTW
    
      I don't blame GRIST for the party composition, after all, they are guests in SF.
      Nor do I begrudge folks for having a good time...
      The plaint is not to poop the party but to wish for a large mroe fun.... er diverse crowd (grin).
      And Willa is right... I remember going to a party given by an SF liberal (they would say left, I won't ) mag, and everyone had to sign in, and part of signing in was declaring who you "were" (so they could make sure they didn't miss anyone important).  The staff helped write it all down, and there were lots of "wifes" and "girlfriends" listed.  One irritated person wrote "sleeps with **" under his name to the applause of several of us.
      It was the last time I went to such a party (not that I was invited so often... nor did I give them any more money (back in the days when I had an income)).
      (When asked I lied about who I was, and was therefore ignored by the gliterati... not that if I had told them it would have mattered... I prefer the beer and veggie burrito crowd myself.)
    pace,
    patrick

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