Rot in Pestilence to that child-beating enemy of free speech!
I grew up in rural Missouri and it was not a good fit. When I was 15 I had a subscription to Teen. They folded and my subscription was finished with the first issues of Sassy. What a godsend! I was weird, smart girl who loved music and fashion but had extremely limited resources. Sassy had so much of what I was missing. I love that I bought my first Replacements album, having never heard them. But I read about them in Sassy so they had to be good, right? Of course they were! And they’re still one of my favorite bands.
I kept renewing my subscription through high school and college. I went to the U of Missouri with journalism dreams that Sassy bolstered. I wanted to write like Kim and Christina. It only took me 35ish years to get there. Thanks, Jane! 😊
Sassy will always be loved and remembered for shaping a generation of smart, independent, open-minded young women, but this idiot's name has already been forgotten. May his karma bring him everything he richly deserves.
What a waste of human form. I hate that he had the power to end Sassy. So sorry this happened to you and your groundbreaking magazine, that you and so many others put so much into. <3
Thank you so much. We really did work hard for it. I remember when this all was happening talking to some of the writers and saying it's OK that we won't have Sassy magazine around for decades to keep pushing for change – as long as people look back on it and remember the messages in it while it lasted. Which is pretty much exactly what happened.
Dr. James Dobson and his bullshit newsletter/radio show/public speaking/books on faith-based child-rearing turned me into a 14-yr-old feminist in the 80s, for which I am grateful. Sassy saved my life and made me the horny Gen X crone I am today, but I'll never forgive this motherfucker. This "psychologist's" whole message was that kids needed to be hit by their parents in order to teach them obedience to their fathers, both earthly and heavenly. Kid crimes? Talking back, saying the lord's name in vain, falling asleep in church, listening to Prince, asking questions, going in the forbidden room, sneaking downstairs on Christmas morning before anyone else is awake to see if Santa came, just being a kid. He was obsessed with spanking and taught a generation of evangelicals that it should be done with an object that isn't your hand (which we associate with love). The parents at our church all used a thick wooden paddles with holes (for maximum speed and impact) and followed Dobson's instructions. Here's one: if a child cries for more than five minutes after corporal punishment, they should be given more of the same punishment until they learn to stop crying (disassociate). He counseled that you should start physical discipline at 15 MONTHS old ("Pain is a marvelous purifier"); the babies don't get the paddle but it escalates with age. When does it end? When they get too tall and can fight back. It sucks that Jimmy Dobson was on the earth as long as he was, what a cross to bear for generations of children and the frustrated adult podcasters they grew up to become. Fuck that guy.
‘Dobson's mother was intolerant of "SASSINESS" and would strike her child with whatever object came to hand, including a shoe or belt; she once gave Dobson a "massive blow" with a girdle outfitted with straps and buckles.’
May he rest in the rosy bottomed glow of eternal girdle beatings in hell.
My mom got me a subscription to Sassy because it was the only fashion magazine she felt had depth, character, and was a good influence for an impressionable junior high kid. It was a portal, pathway, and guidebook to the world I wanted to inhabit. Thank you for bringing Sassy to the world! Its spirit lives on in all of us.
Oh, this makes me so so happy and your mom sounds amazing. I hear so many stories of parents who prevented their daughters from reading it, so hearing yours about your mom championing it is hopeful and awesome.
Also: The fact that sassy lives on in you is all I could ever have hoped for. Thank you for saying it so beautifully.
OMG, you mentioned Women Aglow. My mother was always going to their meetings. Didn't think about them for years until she brought them up when I visited a few weeks ago.
It really is cathartic to see just how many people are celebrating this monster's death.
I've never met anyone who had even heard of Women Aglow, much less knew someone who was part of it. I want to know so much more about it. That was my only ever encounter with them. What era was she part of it or is she still? Does it still exist? Man I'm so glad you left this comment.
Several years ago, my aunt (RIP) gave my mother one of those laser cut books for their 50th anniversary. You know, one of those things where the pages are cut into a word—Cain—that shows when the book is shelved backwards and the pages fanned a bit. Mom was livid. They’d known her for 57 years and somehow thought that defacing a book (and shelving it backwards) was an appropriate gift for their 50th anniversary. I talked her down from the ledge. Tried to help her see that my aunt was thinking of her, combining what she loved (decorating) with what mom loved (books). She snorted, then turned the book over so I could see the spine. It was some marriage book, by James Dobson.
I should also add that she’s the one who gave me a Sassy subscription back when I was 12. One of the many reasons she was considered a wild eyed hippie/socialist, and (worse) a feminist, by the extended family. (TBF, she is both.)
R. I. wild-hippie P. to that amazing-sounding aunt! I feel like you got some good stuff from her via nature and nature and I'm so happy to have all of that now here on AJPT. Thank you, Celia's aunt!
I hate dancing and I go out of my way to avoid it at all costs... But I will happily do a jig on this motherfucker's grave.
Thank you! And I am the worst singer in the world, so I will sing along!
I was going to say the opposite of R.I.P is “work in war” but sounds like he did that while living so … rot in hell?
I like it. It has an appropriately gutteral tone too when shouted again and again, as one does on occasions like this one.
Rot in Pestilence to that child-beating enemy of free speech!
I grew up in rural Missouri and it was not a good fit. When I was 15 I had a subscription to Teen. They folded and my subscription was finished with the first issues of Sassy. What a godsend! I was weird, smart girl who loved music and fashion but had extremely limited resources. Sassy had so much of what I was missing. I love that I bought my first Replacements album, having never heard them. But I read about them in Sassy so they had to be good, right? Of course they were! And they’re still one of my favorite bands.
I kept renewing my subscription through high school and college. I went to the U of Missouri with journalism dreams that Sassy bolstered. I wanted to write like Kim and Christina. It only took me 35ish years to get there. Thanks, Jane! 😊
Hey Dead Dobson? You failed.
"Dead Dobson, you failed."- man we sure trained you well as a writer.
That subscription was way more worth while than J School.
Ha ha. I'm so happy to have helped. And to reap the benefits of your great writing now.
Rest in Piss has been popular on my feed today.
It’s nice how many people are celebrating the death of this bigot and all around awful person.
Whoopi Goldberg once said, “My momma said speak good of the dead.
He dead. GOOD!”
That's hilarious! Perfect time to use that one.
Sassy will always be loved and remembered for shaping a generation of smart, independent, open-minded young women, but this idiot's name has already been forgotten. May his karma bring him everything he richly deserves.
What a waste of human form. I hate that he had the power to end Sassy. So sorry this happened to you and your groundbreaking magazine, that you and so many others put so much into. <3
Thank you so much. We really did work hard for it. I remember when this all was happening talking to some of the writers and saying it's OK that we won't have Sassy magazine around for decades to keep pushing for change – as long as people look back on it and remember the messages in it while it lasted. Which is pretty much exactly what happened.
❤️
Dr. James Dobson and his bullshit newsletter/radio show/public speaking/books on faith-based child-rearing turned me into a 14-yr-old feminist in the 80s, for which I am grateful. Sassy saved my life and made me the horny Gen X crone I am today, but I'll never forgive this motherfucker. This "psychologist's" whole message was that kids needed to be hit by their parents in order to teach them obedience to their fathers, both earthly and heavenly. Kid crimes? Talking back, saying the lord's name in vain, falling asleep in church, listening to Prince, asking questions, going in the forbidden room, sneaking downstairs on Christmas morning before anyone else is awake to see if Santa came, just being a kid. He was obsessed with spanking and taught a generation of evangelicals that it should be done with an object that isn't your hand (which we associate with love). The parents at our church all used a thick wooden paddles with holes (for maximum speed and impact) and followed Dobson's instructions. Here's one: if a child cries for more than five minutes after corporal punishment, they should be given more of the same punishment until they learn to stop crying (disassociate). He counseled that you should start physical discipline at 15 MONTHS old ("Pain is a marvelous purifier"); the babies don't get the paddle but it escalates with age. When does it end? When they get too tall and can fight back. It sucks that Jimmy Dobson was on the earth as long as he was, what a cross to bear for generations of children and the frustrated adult podcasters they grew up to become. Fuck that guy.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/8Ow_DYwsZHU
I love that! Singing along right now.
I hope he spends eternity eating the corn out of Satan’s shit.
Did you just make that up out of your own head?
Does a duck duck?
I really appreciate you, Duck. Weird creative minds get me through. Love, Big Daddy
From his Wikipedia page:
‘Dobson's mother was intolerant of "SASSINESS" and would strike her child with whatever object came to hand, including a shoe or belt; she once gave Dobson a "massive blow" with a girdle outfitted with straps and buckles.’
May he rest in the rosy bottomed glow of eternal girdle beatings in hell.
Wow!! So I guess even my title kind of rubbed him the wrong way.
There's an I Hate James Dobson podcast for us.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-hate-james-dobson/id1736366398
TBNS = Too Bad, Not Sad.
Nice!
My mom got me a subscription to Sassy because it was the only fashion magazine she felt had depth, character, and was a good influence for an impressionable junior high kid. It was a portal, pathway, and guidebook to the world I wanted to inhabit. Thank you for bringing Sassy to the world! Its spirit lives on in all of us.
Oh, this makes me so so happy and your mom sounds amazing. I hear so many stories of parents who prevented their daughters from reading it, so hearing yours about your mom championing it is hopeful and awesome.
Also: The fact that sassy lives on in you is all I could ever have hoped for. Thank you for saying it so beautifully.
OMG, you mentioned Women Aglow. My mother was always going to their meetings. Didn't think about them for years until she brought them up when I visited a few weeks ago.
It really is cathartic to see just how many people are celebrating this monster's death.
I've never met anyone who had even heard of Women Aglow, much less knew someone who was part of it. I want to know so much more about it. That was my only ever encounter with them. What era was she part of it or is she still? Does it still exist? Man I'm so glad you left this comment.
I think it still exists but I don't she's been connected in a while; she was mostly in it in the 1980s and 90s.
That's right when I had my encounter with them. Starting in 1988 through at least 1990. What a connection we have!
May his memory be a warning.
Several years ago, my aunt (RIP) gave my mother one of those laser cut books for their 50th anniversary. You know, one of those things where the pages are cut into a word—Cain—that shows when the book is shelved backwards and the pages fanned a bit. Mom was livid. They’d known her for 57 years and somehow thought that defacing a book (and shelving it backwards) was an appropriate gift for their 50th anniversary. I talked her down from the ledge. Tried to help her see that my aunt was thinking of her, combining what she loved (decorating) with what mom loved (books). She snorted, then turned the book over so I could see the spine. It was some marriage book, by James Dobson.
I should also add that she’s the one who gave me a Sassy subscription back when I was 12. One of the many reasons she was considered a wild eyed hippie/socialist, and (worse) a feminist, by the extended family. (TBF, she is both.)
R. I. wild-hippie P. to that amazing-sounding aunt! I feel like you got some good stuff from her via nature and nature and I'm so happy to have all of that now here on AJPT. Thank you, Celia's aunt!