[ your pun here ]

July 21, 2011 3:06 PM

Amp Radio Calgary's controversial "Breast Summer Contest Ever", which provoked complaints to the Ad Standards Council and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, has awarded its prize of $10,000 towards breast augmentation surgery to Avery Mitchell, a 23-year-old transgendered woman. Mitchell received 76% online votes in the contest, supported by notorious "boobies"-loving website FARK.com.
posted by Zozo (27 comments total)

That sounds like the kind of thing the people at Fark would do.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:08 PM on July 21, 2011

Good for her.
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:14 PM on July 21, 2011 [7 favorites]

I'm not really sure why this result is supposed to have silenced critics of the contest, as the second link's headline alleges. I mean, it's a nice result, but the process (and the holding in the first place) of the contest remains objectionable.
posted by kenko at 3:16 PM on July 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

Fark is still a thing, huh? Boy, that takes me back to 1998, whiling away the hours at my first white-collar job.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:18 PM on July 21, 2011 [5 favorites]

Seconding the amazement that Fark still exists.
posted by splatta at 3:19 PM on July 21, 2011

Still a bit of a sleazy contest in the first place. The whole premise of the thing wasn't exactly to help improve acceptance of transgendered people.

Up next: mob with torches and pitchforks only wants to invite Frankenstein's monster to a marshmallow roast.
posted by GuyZero at 3:24 PM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

How lovely for Ms. Mitchell.

On the one hand, this kind of thing is sort of crass. On the other hand it offends priggish bores, which I've always held as a great reason to be for something.
posted by atrazine at 3:24 PM on July 21, 2011 [8 favorites]

"If I had been forced to vote, I probably would've voted for her," said Jennie Palmer, host of feminist talk show Yeah What She Said on CJSW.

Palmer, of course, didn't vote as she vocally opposed the contest and wrote a lengthy blog criticizing it for adding to the pressure on women to strive for perfect bodies.

Here's the blog post and here's the radio show.
posted by ODiV at 3:32 PM on July 21, 2011

"That sounds like the kind of thing the people at Fark would do."

It is and we did (yes, I was one of those Farkers). Good for Avery. "Behold the power of Fark" we like to say and it's cool to see that "power" used for good.
posted by MikeMc at 3:37 PM on July 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Behold the power of fart" is something I say after I've had a quality breakfast burrito and manage to clear everyone out of the room.

Oh, what? "fark"? ends with a K? I'm sorry. I misheard you.

Nevermind.
posted by hippybear at 3:53 PM on July 21, 2011

Fark is still around and as popular as ever. It's no MetaFilter of course, but it works as an irreverent oddball news portal. The comments are less infuriating than Reddit's, too; they're less prone to stupid in-jokes, self-congratulation, threadshitting/babysitting submitters, and all that other stuff anyone who reads Reddit is going to know and hate. The commenters also seem wittier and more cynical.
(Disclaimer: TotalFark might be worse; I don't subscribe. Also, I only read a tiny fraction of Reddit.)
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:06 PM on July 21, 2011

I've been using Fark for....wow, 8 years. It's a good place. There are a lot of good image memes there (I started a less-used one based on a TSG mugshot), a lot of truly funny stunt posters, and the occasional spectacular flameout of a person who takes the political discussion seriously.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 4:09 PM on July 21, 2011

But back on topic, this is fantastic. It was the best possible outcome for this meathead contest.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:12 PM on July 21, 2011

(I started a less-used one based on a TSG mugshot)

Not to keep straying off topic but...which meme might that be?
posted by MikeMc at 4:19 PM on July 21, 2011

and if it's "less used"... is it truly a meme?
posted by hippybear at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2011

Globe & Mail coverage.

CTV coverage.¹

My thinking is that this is the best possible result from a not very good game. Good for her!

1:Incidentally, the original version of the CTV story referred to Avery as 'he'. Reading it I was surprised; that's not the preferred nomenclature from what I knew, but I'm no expert. Then in her interview she expressly asked not to be called he. I used their contact form, and within two hours I got back an email saying it's been fixed and thanking me for the notice. (Partial) progress?!
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:49 PM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like Fark; I think of it as kind of a "pulse of America" kind of thing given its rather diverse commentators.
posted by digitalprimate at 4:55 PM on July 21, 2011

1:Incidentally, the original version of the CTV story referred to Avery as 'he'. Reading it I was surprised; that's not the preferred nomenclature from what I knew, but I'm no expert. Then in her interview she expressly asked not to be called he. I used their contact form, and within two hours I got back an email saying it's been fixed and thanking me for the notice. (Partial) progress?!

I was watching a program on TV the other day on, I think, HLN and they kept referring to transgendered women using male pronouns. I was taken aback and very confused (and annoyed). Then I remembered that I live in something a liberal environment (or I surround myself with mostly liberal-minded people, at least). Weirdly, the next program on the same channel also involved transgendered women, but it used the proper, female pronouns.

On a related note, I got a message on Facebook from a friend in Calgary who asked me to vote in the Breast Summer Ever contest for a friend of hers. I stopped laughing when I realized that it was a real contest and not a parody of the sort of crass things that radio stations often do to increase their ratings. If I'd known about Avery, I'd have voted for her (instead, I voted for no one).
posted by asnider at 4:55 PM on July 21, 2011

The point that can't be overlooked is that Calgary (and Alberta in general) is a socially conservative place. Back in the 90s being a gay teacher was enough for people to bring out the pitchforks. That this isn't a big deal shows it's getting better all the time here.
posted by Calzephyr at 5:25 PM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was a Total Farker years back, early '00s and went to a few meetups (got my Total paid for by strangers for doing something stupid irl) and this sounds exactly like something Fark would/could do.

I'm (pleasantly) surprised that Fark backed a transgendered woman. Good to know that Fark has grown up a little.

Then again, I haven't read the thread so... I could be bitterly disappointed.

--

The point that can't be overlooked is that Calgary (and Alberta in general) is a socially conservative place.

Certainly. However, they elected Naheed Nenshi as mayor. Is he an oreo (as in, visible ethnic minority on the outside, good ol' Albertan boy on the inside), did he have a really great platform, or did his opposition just suck really bad?
posted by porpoise at 9:01 PM on July 21, 2011

Here is a link to the story I was thinking of - I was on my phone so I couldn't look it up right away - http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_0063.htm
posted by Calzephyr at 9:07 PM on July 21, 2011

Certainly. However, they elected Naheed Nenshi as mayor. Is he an oreo (as in, visible ethnic minority on the outside, good ol' Albertan boy on the inside), did he have a really great platform, or did his opposition just suck really bad?

He simply had better ideas than the rest; I wouldn't say they sucked that bad. He also mobilized and motivated people to vote. The two closest candidates to him were a local broadcaster whose platform was rather vague, and an alderman who was just more of the same old, same old. I think Albertans tend to like politicians that are characters and have a spirit of entrepreneurship to them. Plus I think people realized that the city government was in dire need of some accountability, transparency and new thinking to solve the city's problems.

I'm appalled to hear the term Oreo :S Nenshi is simply a wonderful person and gets people excited and optimistic. My friend and I had our picture taken with him recently at a pancake breakfast. A bunch of teenagers clamored all over him to get their picture taken, which gave us time to catch up. When was the last time you saw a bunch of teenagers go nuts to meet the mayor? It was heartwarming :-)
posted by Calzephyr at 9:14 PM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

for whatever reason, i've never cried at the internet as hard as i cried when she won.

i think things are changing. yeah... still crying.
posted by Tennyson D'San at 10:01 PM on July 21, 2011

Terrific. I just moved back to BC after living in Calgary for 7 years and I have to echo the sentiment that there's a lot of really progressive people and things going on in Calgary. It's not a simple cowboy town at all. There are a lot of very liberally-minded people living in Alberta.

This is really a fantastic result, given that it appears that the whole arc of the contest was vastly different than what was originally intended. It has surely humbled all those involved, I would think.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:22 PM on July 21, 2011 [3 favorites]

However, they elected Naheed Nenshi as mayor. Is he an oreo (as in, visible ethnic minority on the outside, good ol' Albertan boy on the inside), did he have a really great platform, or did his opposition just suck really bad?

Oh my God. Educate your fucking self.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:28 PM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was thrilled when I heard about this; I mean, I was depressed that a radio station thought that Calgary was a good market for such a retrograde promotion, but I was really happy that Avery won with a landslide. Some combination of Farkers and Calgarians is clearly more enlightened than I had previously assumed. (Also somewhat notable is that one of the other three finalists was Lindsey, the woman who wanted a reduction.)

As a semi-related aside, Nenshi will be the first mayor to be the Grand Marshal of Calgary Pride this September; of course, he doesn't have a cottage to go to. Bit by bit, I hope Calgary continues to lose the conservative mindset.

The depressing part is that gender reassignment surgery isn't covered by our health care system. It was stopped in 2009, allegedly to save $700,000 in health care costs. Oddly, when GRS was reinstituted in Ontario in 2008, it was expected to cost $200,000 a year, despite the fact that Ontario has four times our population.

But it's saving me 19 cents a year, so there's that.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 12:03 AM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fark is not to be underestimated.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:53 AM on July 22, 2011