Use this thread to post whatever you want. It’s anarchy, I tell you, anarchy!
Self-linking is just blogging with someone you love, so go for it.
* * *
- A post about a study of the way multiracial people put together their own identities.
- If only rich people had voted, McCain would have won the election overwhelmingly. If only poor people voted, Obama would have won even more overwhelmingly.
- You can now watch all of Sita Sings The Blues online! Thank you, PBS. (Just to warn folks: Not a good choice if you can’t stand works that veer into cultural appropriation, however.)
- Womanist Musings interviews Melissa of Shakesville.
- The Pudge Police are Coming!
- The Tarnished Beauties of Blackwell, Oklahoma. Do you like old portrait photos? ‘Cause I do.
- Bear McCreary, who composes the music for “Battlestar Galactica,” has written a long and enjoyable description of everything he did for the episode “Someone To Watch Over Me.”
- Comparing old and new editions of “The Joy of Cooking” Much more interesting than I would have guessed.
- Teen Beaten By Police Speaks Out
- FAIR has a good piece arguing that the way the media talks about Obama’s race, mainly reveals a lot about how people in the media think of race.
- Netanyahu refuses to accept Palestine’s right to exist. And, relatedly, Palestinians Now Allowed To Eat Pasta. Also, Hamas got everything Hamas wanted.
- Man executed because of a stubborn, horrible judge and a computer crash.
- The Aboriginal News Group is a new “international grassroots collaboration of First Nations blog-journalists.” Link via
- Brits use fataphobic, ineffective scare tactics to try and frighten children into being thin.
- Whoops! I just had a positive link to the Rudd Center. So, to make up for it, read this post at Fat Chicks Rule!, because the Rudd Center likes to counterbalance its good points with suckiness.
- More on disability phobia and the BBC children show host.
Barbie Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Doll named worst toy of the year.
I mean, who EVER thought that would be a good idea?
Next year: Stoya Barbie Special Release!
I actually have the same edition of Joy of Cooking she uses in that post. It is quite the trip down memory lane (to memories of before I was born), but what was particularly funny to me is I have actually used the game recipes and tips they’re making fun of over there. Yes, I have cooked peccary, though round these parts we call it javelina. And yes, you do have to be very careful of the gland.
The Ableist Bunnies of Doom. You couldn’t make it up.
I am so annoyed. I really liked Lindt and MacDonald’s and after today I can’t eat either of them.
Chocolate company donates to ableist, eugenics supporting “charity”.
http://blog.markfoster.name/2009/03/03/a-boycott/
I Thought I Wanted An Apple Cinnamon Muffin, But It Turns Out I Just Want To Eat Babies
I just posted this, about VH1’s new show “Tough Love” and movies/books like “He’s Just Not That Into You” trying to create a strawwoman narrative that all women are desperate, pathetic, and baby hungry.
A 1960s Paramount cartoon about a guy who’s nice to other people while being a jerk to his wife. I, uh, don’t know what to say about this. What do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtmb5qsPVs
From the same studio, a cartoon about a guy who tries to kill his wife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evg2TmDOWIQ
Because I like talking about old, obscure cartoons.
Hal Duncan sums up a huge number of my problems with Battlestar Galactica — and particularly with the recent mutiny plotline — and articulates them so much better than I ever could have hoped to do so here.
Much of the essay gets into territory I’m not sure that I agree with — the BSG premise as Holocaust, for example, or the Cylons as “bugs” — but when it comes to the laziness of the show’s approach to genuine dissent, Duncan nails it.
For example, on the mutiny plotline:
And on the series as a whole:
I still love BSG. But this essay took everything about the show that drives me absolutely crazy with frustrated rage, and put it all out there. Really, I think he nailed each and every one of my annoyance points about this show, and articulated them beautifully. Kudos to Duncan.
Read the whole thing here
Girl/Boy” and unpacking gender: A look at why it is important to talk to children about the gender binary and why it is important to use the correct pronoun at all times.
Black in America and Gay: A look at a documentary that focuses on Blacks that identify as GLBTQI
Queerty and Prop 8 racism: Looking at the appropriation of Jim Crow images to push gay marriage.
Scans_Daily – the biggest woman-centric community in mainstream comics fandom – has been TOSsed by their hosts, Livejournal, and the event has spawned a lot of talk about both the copyright wank that caused this (instigated by a writer who, to put the cherry on top, was butthurt over s_d members calling out his sexism), and about the fragility of women’s spaces in pop culture fandom. Two highlights:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/03/just-past-the-horizon-the-male-space-is-just-better-hidden/ – fanatically hung up on the whole PIRACY thing but makes some wonderful points:
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/03/04/interview-the-scans-daily-moderators/ – an interview with two of s_d’s mods:
Former members and other gawkers are congregating and shooting the shit here.
http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/02/ombudsmen/
Scott Kurtz is doing a mash-up of Watchmen and moribund newspaper comics to celebrate the coming movie. It’s cute.
Holy shit, scans_daily got TOSsed?!
I was never into comics fandom, so it wasn’t a place I frequented, but I was certainly aware of its importance — as well as its remarkable facility for attracting annoying (and almost inevitably male) trolls who Simply Did Not Get It.
To my mind, the Lisa Fortuner piece to which you linked is mistaken in the extent to which it minimizes the role that gender plays in these sorts of decisions. However, this–
–is dead on. Indeed, I feel that sums up a lot of the hostility that online fandom tends to reap from outsiders — and particularly male outsiders — who stumble upon it all unawares.
Sigh. At any rate, a very sad event for women’s fandom, to be sure.
*nods* Much agreed, Elkins. While there were those trolls, there was nowhere else I knew of where you could start a massive communal conversation about sexism – or about slashy subtext – in comics without wading through nothing but over-defensive male reaction shots.
The problem with minimising the issue of female spaces isn’t about this event per se. It’s that it has left women who like comics with nowhere to go. If the whole of comics fandom was open to women then it would be reasonable to talk about the TOSsing while ignoring that aspect, but we don’t live in that world, do we?
Pingback: NOT IN THE NEW JOY OF COOKING - The Public Interest : WTVC Newschannel9.com
What do we do about works of art that engage in harmful stereotyping, but we don’t want to get rid of the art?
What do we do about works of art that engage in harmful stereotyping, but we don’t want to get rid of the art?
DaisyDeadhead – yeah, that’s always a tricky question…
I mean, you could always have some preachy little warning, but that would probably get really, really tired really really fast. Then again, we have little text warnings before violent and sexually-charged media, so would it really hurt to say “this movie is really damned old, and reflects the culture of its day” or something? Idunno. You damned well know that conservatives would scream “war on classics” at that… but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.
Although Fagin is consistently my favourite character in every production of Oliver I’ve ever seen, so that colours my view a bit.
/really, really loves Haldeman’s “The Forever War” despite the homophobia.
A post on how future tech might impact gender.
Both Danny and I have been talking about dealing with an emotional man in public (like if a guy is crying in public). The pertinent question was should a man offer him help? Would a male offer of help make the situation worse? Check out the the posts @ Danny’s place here: What Would You Do? and at Gender Critics here: Male Reaction to Male Problems
Here’s a post on how technology might affect gender issues
Gender Technolgy and the Future
I’m responding to a comment by Cerberus from another thread.
(Are you a reader of the comic book Cerebus, which was named after Cerberus? Just curious. Cerebus is incredibly misogynistic — so much so that it sucks — but before it went over the edge it was very good.)
You’re right, I exaggerated. Sorry about that. You’ve posted about 20 times, and there have been one or two occasions before the one where I commented, where you seemed to be being a bit rude to other comment-writers. However, none of those times were any big deal; nearly everyone skirts close to the edge now and then.
I frankly don’t believe that either Robert or RonF has ever said what you claimed (“all the comments talking about how rape isn’t a big deal and feminists deserve to die”). And I understand that you were angry, but that’s an extraordinary accusation to make — both of Robert and Ron, and of me and the other mods here that we’d let that go. I really wish you’d retract that claim; I think it’s a lie, and a mean one.
That said: It’s true that I let some people with right-wing views post here, although it’s not true that I treat them more kindly than I treat other posters. I think it’s valuable to be able to have my own views subjected to criticism from those who don’t agree with me politically — especially views that, while wrong, are still acceptable within mainstream political discourse in the US — and it’s also valuable to try and maintain human relationships with people I disagree with.
So that’s what I’m attempting to do. I’m aware that it’s not a perfect system, and I’ve gotten an incredible amount of shit for it over the years (resulting in my short fuse on the subject when I think people are lying about what I do let through), but that’s my motive. Since you asked.
(I should also acknowlege, other mods here have disagreed with me on this, or think that I’ve given some right-wing posters too much slack.)
I have noticed your good-faith effort, and I really appreciate it. I hope you stick around and keep on commenting.
Thanks for de-escalating our exchange; I appreciate that too.
–Amp
PG has explained your moderation policy to me and I realize where I overstepped my bounds. I disagree on the underlying philosophy, I would side that you allow your right-wing commentators to harass neutrals and create an unsafe space, however, that is meaningless and unimportant. Above all else this is your space and that above all else should be respected. That should be respected in all forums as I and other commentators are guests and shouldn’t expect to be tolerated or catered to at the expense of the host. This is not sarcasm, this is me being earnest about this and I’m really sorry I screwed up and hope you’ll forgive me. I was not used to a civility-based commenting style and made ill-advised assumptions based on your free speech tolerance of right wing guests.
On the specific accusation I made. I’ll just state that I used hyperbole. I do not wish to go further into it as I don’t see the discussion going favorably especially as regards my mistake today in disobeying your commenting policy.
On Cerebus. I hate Dave Sim. Deeply. I would go on, but I’m honestly afraid I’d run afoul of the commenting policy again. Let us just leave it at the fact that he chose to use the name he did unfortunate and this nym has had personal significance for me long before I ever heard of his work and pertains only to the mythical hound of ancient lore for reasons that are personal.
Unsurprisingly, the Vatican thinks the washing machine is the modern invention that has done most to liberate women. Much more surprisingly, the Daily Mail asked 6 women what they thought was the 20th century invention that had done the most to liberate women, and while two talked about stuff in relation to sex (chardonnay and the dimmer switch), none talked about reliable birth control. Most of the others were about “now it’s much easier to cook, clean and care for children.”
An ad which presents a transgender character in a good light. I thought it would be better appreciated and much more noticed here than on my own, much neglected blog.
Orange County (CA) Supervisors vote to cut Planned Parenthood funding because they do abortions.
I blogged about my hike up this mountain and seeing a work crew work of men supervised by one fire captain and remembered thinking, if this is a prison crew where’s the security? Well, it turned out one escaped and it took the fire captain a while to notice. I and other women had jogged and walked past the group and one made a derogatory comment about women and others laughed. It was odd because I’ve seen work crews with more supervision and they don’t interact outside of their crew.
Inmate escapes and Internal Affairs and Field operations as roommates
258, which didn’t seem that high to me but apparently is higher than any of the groups that were above the overall “mean.” Maybe just my extreme disagreement with the idea that personhood begins at conception, or that there is anything wrong with same-sex attraction.
Does anyone else here read OOTS and/or Erfworld? Have you noticed how dark they are lately?
Yes and yes. V has officially gone Dark Willow.
With regards to the posting about rich vs. poor voting patterns in the recent election; $150K/yr = rich?
Approximately 95% of Americans earn less than $150,000 a year. I’d say that being in the top 5% is one reasonable definition of rich.
Of course, there are other definitions that would say that only the top 1%, or the top .01%, count as really rich. “Rich” is a subjective term.
Plus, a significant portion of the people in the category “$150,000 a year or higher” earned more than $150,000 a year.
Finally, is there any reason to doubt that the general statistical trend (the more money one has, the more likely one is to vote Republican) would also be true at $500,000 a year (or whatever number you consider rich)?
$150K/yr = rich?
Depends on cost of living in your area. $150k is rich in my hometown. It’s upper middle class where I live now. I am glad, incidentally, that the Obama housing plan recognizes this disparity and is raising the limit on what’s considered a “jumbo” loan for certain geographic areas. $750k buys you a McMansion in Katy, TX; it buys you a 2 bed 1 bath apartment in a lot of Manhattan.
I don’t like Erfword, but I read OOTS. I’m wishing for more comedy. And also some wrapping-up-of-current thread rather than creating-yet-more-plot-twists. Though I suppose Dark V could wrap everything up pretty quickly if the author chooses to let him use his powers that way.
(I’d say hir for V but it seems like they’ve given up the gender ambiguity, what with the drawing of V’s spouse looking just like they tend to draw female characters. I suppose they could be non-hetero, but it seems a stretch.)
I guess it depends on what you mean by rich. This Wikipedia page has a lot of different graphs breaking down income distribution. As far as I can tell, earning $150K or more a year put you in the top 5 percent. Earning $91K or more puts you in the top quintile.
I’m reminded of a little experiment one of my political science professors did. It was a big intro class, maybe 150 students. He had everyone write how much their parents made each year and what class we considered ourselves (no names) on a scrap of paper and hand it in. The vast majority of the students wrote that they were middle class, with the lowest “middle class” household income being $25K/yr and the highest “middle class” household income being $200K/yr.
Mandolin,
OOTS female characters pretty much all have clearly delineated breasts, don’t they? V’s spouse is drawn with a square torso, both in the scene in page 629 and in the most recent page. V’s spouse does have a pony tail, which I’m not sure if we have ever seen on a male character in OOTS, but V is also long haired, which pretty much no (other?) male OOTS characters are. All OOTS characters who aren’t dressed in costumes in which the lower body clothing are specifically designated seem to have lower bodies that are clothed identically regardless of gender, so V’s spouse’s square lower body carries no gender information (actually, female characters in OOTS seem to mostly have rounded lower bodies, so V’s spouse’s lower torso seems to be more masculine than feminine in OOTS iconography). So the hair is feminine, the torso is masculine, and the lower torso is neutral or masculine.
In terms of language, V’s spouse continues to be referred to in non-gendered terms, so I think the artist still intends for V and hir spouse to be gender-ambiguous.
I have relatives that live NW of Indianapolis. I personally live in the SW suburbs of Chicago, about 20 miles out of town. My income would buy me twice the home near my relatives than it does here, and other prices (gas, food, etc.) are lower there than they are here. But if I moved there my income would likely be lower as well. It’s a little nebulous to define “standard of living” – after all, there’s reasons why more people choose to live near Chicago than near Indianapolis. But from a purely financial viewpoint I’d probably be at least as well off and likely a little better off there even with a lower income.
All of which is to agree with PG. It seems to me that “rich” or “poor” or “middle class” might well be better measured by your living standard than the amount of money it takes to achieve it.
It seems to me that “rich” or “poor” or “middle class” might well be better measured by your living standard than the amount of money it takes to achieve it.
Yes. Although even that is further complicated by children: do you have a higher living standard if you have children? A child certainly feels like an unaffordable luxury for my family right now: both of us work long hours and live in a 600 sq ft studio so we can be close to work.
If you’re interested in comparing costs of living among various metropolitan areas (they don’t even try to compare metro to small town), check out Center for an Urban Future, which calculated that $50k in Houston (where my sister lives) is equivalent to $123k in Manhattan in terms of standard of living.
That’s been casually understood for years, anyway. People in NYC would be infuriated when national firms gave the same salary increase to all their non-NYC offices. My classmates who took jobs in places like Texas bought houses, BMWs and have a stay at home spouse; those who stayed in NYC have roommates. On the other hand, no one forces you to live in any particular place, so it’s silly to complain that other people get a better deal from the private sector. I just want the government to recognize these disparities.
I wasn’t referring to the dark stuff about V and demons, I was referring to the dark stuff about ABD and the comments about slaughtering her (?) kids.
I didn’t see V’s spouse as being female. But that’s probably because I’m just trained to think that elves have long hair (LOTR, etc) and it seems like that’s the only indicator.
After one too many posts about Watchmen, the erudite folks at Edge of the American West start writing poems about squid. (Read comments, too.)
From the comments of Hal Duncan’s post on why BSG sucks that Elkins linked to above (the post itself is much kinder to the show than this comment (also by the post author), but Elkins already quoted a bunch of the awesomeness of the OP):