The Blogaround
This week Kit Whitfield wrote about the entertainment industry, double standards and why nobody ever calls it 'daddy porn' and guilty pleasures and obscure quality
This week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Oppressive Parenting, Dangerous Relationships, Continued References to Bella's Near-Rape)
Twilight: All The Things I Like
Alright, folks, today we're just polishing off Chapter 9. And since I've been feeling like I've been coming off as really negative lately, what with Narnia and Game of Thrones and The Avengers and everything else, and since I really do feel like a fluffy bunny person on the inside (most days) and since there's nothing too egregious left in this chapter but we need to finish it up anyway, this is going to be one of those Nice Twilight days.
(Trigger Warning: Oppressive Parenting, Dangerous Relationships, Continued References to Bella's Near-Rape)
Twilight: All The Things I Like
Alright, folks, today we're just polishing off Chapter 9. And since I've been feeling like I've been coming off as really negative lately, what with Narnia and Game of Thrones and The Avengers and everything else, and since I really do feel like a fluffy bunny person on the inside (most days) and since there's nothing too egregious left in this chapter but we need to finish it up anyway, this is going to be one of those Nice Twilight days.
This week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Cultural Appropriation, Oppressive Religion, Infertility)
Deconstruction: The Allure of Appropriation
I took a DNA test last year.
(Trigger Warning: Cultural Appropriation, Oppressive Religion, Infertility)
Deconstruction: The Allure of Appropriation
I took a DNA test last year.
This week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Religious Violence)
Narnia: Counterpoint The Surrealism Of The Underlying Metaphor
Everything about Susan's character so far has been that of a young woman who exudes love and kindness to friends and family alike; who expends an excess of effort to avoid, mediate, and end disputes; and who never hesitates to get her hands dirty when there's work to be done. Naturally, this is all going to have to change now that we need an Evil Pevensie To Learn A Moral Lesson.
(Trigger Warning: Religious Violence)
Narnia: Counterpoint The Surrealism Of The Underlying Metaphor
Everything about Susan's character so far has been that of a young woman who exudes love and kindness to friends and family alike; who expends an excess of effort to avoid, mediate, and end disputes; and who never hesitates to get her hands dirty when there's work to be done. Naturally, this is all going to have to change now that we need an Evil Pevensie To Learn A Moral Lesson.
Even though she thankfully never lost electricity, Storiteller dealt this week with the aftermath of last week's storms in the Washington D.C. area. In Shannon's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Luck Bike, she talks about a series of mishaps with bike equipment leading up to and following the storm that culminated in one extremely awkward situation. Although many of the downed trees made it difficult to get there, she participated in a pre - Independence Day nighttime community bike ride on Tuesday that she recounts in Fireflies and Angry Storms.
Coleslaw writes: This week I dissected an argument used by a teacher in the film I linked to last week, and decided what we really need is A Cure for Bad Analogies. Continuing with my theme of common logical mistakes, I used a chain of coincidences to show how you must be careful What You Pray For. Telemarketers assure me, This Is Your Last Chance, but alas, it never is. Our city always holds its municipal fireworks show Down By the Water. Hey, we do something better than San Diego!
Laiima reports: this week I wrote about what my garden taught me
Literata wrote about preparing for the long haul in the effort to get her clergy status recognized.
chris the cynic writes: In the past week I wrote about a thunderstorm on the fourth of July, and some of the ways monopolies are able to shut down competition in free markets. And I made an index for April.
The president of my university became the former president of my university on Thursday. Initially I wrote a post just announcing the news and pointing to some of the things I've written on the topic before. Later I wrote a post responding to some of the details. The extremely short version of either post is that it's a good thing for the University of Southern Maine that Selma Botman is gone.
In .hack//Sign: These points of data make a beautiful line I talk about Subaru's search for information, the Silver Knight's attitude, and how .hack//Sign relates to the original .hack games.
The president of my university became the former president of my university on Thursday. Initially I wrote a post just announcing the news and pointing to some of the things I've written on the topic before. Later I wrote a post responding to some of the details. The extremely short version of either post is that it's a good thing for the University of Southern Maine that Selma Botman is gone.
In .hack//Sign: These points of data make a beautiful line I talk about Subaru's search for information, the Silver Knight's attitude, and how .hack//Sign relates to the original .hack games.
Michael Mock reports: This week in Mock Ramblings I wrote:
Notes from the Mad Science Lab: Supervolcano Prevention, Blog Filler: Pre-Independence Day edition, Blog Filler: Independence Day, Proposal: No More Mid-Week Holidays and last but not least, I finished Until the Rainbow with Part Four and Part Five - or, you can start from the beginning.
Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Selfish Love
Edward Cullen's plan is, essentially, to be the polar opposite of the Classic Nice Guy but with all the same essential drawbacks and creepiness.
Twilight: Selfish Love
Edward Cullen's plan is, essentially, to be the polar opposite of the Classic Nice Guy but with all the same essential drawbacks and creepiness.
Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Proselytizing To Sick People
Two days before my surgery, a member of my family wrote me asking if I was "right with God".
Deconstruction: Proselytizing To Sick People
Two days before my surgery, a member of my family wrote me asking if I was "right with God".
In case you missed this
DNSChanger: No, the Internet Isn’t Shutting Down on Monday:
No, the Internet isn’t shutting down. Not even close. What is happening is that the FBI will turn off a couple of servers (really, just two) that it originally set up to thwart the spread of an opportunistic and irritating but otherwise innocuous bit of malware.
And when the two servers do go dark, computers still infected with the malware — currently dependent on those FBI servers to access the Internet — will lose their ability to translate Web addresses into IP addresses. For these people — a number some are calling as high as half a million but that experts place at less than 250,000 worldwide (and well below 70,000 in the U.S.) — that means any network requests made using Web addresses won’t work. [From Time Techland July 6 2012]
The article includes information about checking your computer to determine whether it has been infected.
And on the same topic: What the ‘Internet doomsday’ virus is and how to fix it (The Washington Post, July 5 2012) and FBI’s Plan To Yank DNS Changer Servers Not ‘Doomsday,’ Here’s How To StayOnline (Talking Points Memo, July 6, 2012.)
No, the Internet isn’t shutting down. Not even close. What is happening is that the FBI will turn off a couple of servers (really, just two) that it originally set up to thwart the spread of an opportunistic and irritating but otherwise innocuous bit of malware.
And when the two servers do go dark, computers still infected with the malware — currently dependent on those FBI servers to access the Internet — will lose their ability to translate Web addresses into IP addresses. For these people — a number some are calling as high as half a million but that experts place at less than 250,000 worldwide (and well below 70,000 in the U.S.) — that means any network requests made using Web addresses won’t work. [From Time Techland July 6 2012]
The article includes information about checking your computer to determine whether it has been infected.
And on the same topic: What the ‘Internet doomsday’ virus is and how to fix it (The Washington Post, July 5 2012) and FBI’s Plan To Yank DNS Changer Servers Not ‘Doomsday,’ Here’s How To StayOnline (Talking Points Memo, July 6, 2012.)
Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, Each Donate $100,000 For Marriage Equality:
According to the Associated Press, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, and Ballmer, the company's CEO, have each written $100,000 checks to Washington United for Marriage, a same-sex marriage advocacy group based in Seattle. [From The Huffington Post, July 6 2102]
According to the Associated Press, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, and Ballmer, the company's CEO, have each written $100,000 checks to Washington United for Marriage, a same-sex marriage advocacy group based in Seattle. [From The Huffington Post, July 6 2102]
Things you can do
[From avaaz.org] (Trigger Warning: Rape, suicide and torture):
A teenager named Lal Bibi was kidnapped, raped, tortured and chained to a wall for five days by a gang of powerful Afghan police officers. But she stood up to do what women in Afghanistan are told not to -- she is fighting back, and together we can help her and all Afghan women win justice.
According to deep cultural mandates, as a raped woman, Lal Bibi has been "dishonoured" and will kill herself -- and she publicly says she must, unless her rapists are brought to justice to restore her honour and dignity. Afghanistan's justice system routinely fails to pursue these cases and so far the chief suspects in Lal Bibi's case have not been prosecuted, likely in the hopes that international attention will die down. Every day that passes without the prosecutions pushes Lal Bibi closer to suicide -- but there is hope.
This weekend, the US, UK, Japan and other major donors are expected to pledge 4 billion dollars to Afghanistan -- money that will pay for the very police forces responsible for Lal Bibi’s rape. But an international outcry can shame donor countries into action, conditioning their aid on real action to fight rape and protect women. We don't have much time left.
Sign the petition at Avaaz.
A teenager named Lal Bibi was kidnapped, raped, tortured and chained to a wall for five days by a gang of powerful Afghan police officers. But she stood up to do what women in Afghanistan are told not to -- she is fighting back, and together we can help her and all Afghan women win justice.
According to deep cultural mandates, as a raped woman, Lal Bibi has been "dishonoured" and will kill herself -- and she publicly says she must, unless her rapists are brought to justice to restore her honour and dignity. Afghanistan's justice system routinely fails to pursue these cases and so far the chief suspects in Lal Bibi's case have not been prosecuted, likely in the hopes that international attention will die down. Every day that passes without the prosecutions pushes Lal Bibi closer to suicide -- but there is hope.
This weekend, the US, UK, Japan and other major donors are expected to pledge 4 billion dollars to Afghanistan -- money that will pay for the very police forces responsible for Lal Bibi’s rape. But an international outcry can shame donor countries into action, conditioning their aid on real action to fight rape and protect women. We don't have much time left.
Sign the petition at Avaaz.
--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community
The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.
Having now read a few sentences of Kit's piece (after the initial, "of course they do, that's where the younger partner...oohhh, you mean with scare quotes..." reaction) it reminds me of that one XKCD. "In my porn, people f***." Although I'm given to understand they do in 50 Shades as well, so it's not quite so apt.
Also, go billionaires. Let's see some more of that anti-rightwing money talking.
Posted by: lonespark | Jul 08, 2012 at 04:20 PM
Also, my (parents') backyard has just been teaching me that I really don't want much to do with home ownership. I feel like home ought to be a small few rooms where I go to recharge for my next adventure, whereas things like swimming or gardening or what have you are better done in communal places. I've never really lived in dense urban surroundings, but I'd really like to as soon as practicable.
Posted by: lonespark | Jul 08, 2012 at 04:23 PM
That would be this XKCD:
Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | Jul 08, 2012 at 05:41 PM
Kit's blog was an interesting read, because I've been viewing the term "mommy porn" as a recognition that mothers CAN have an interest in sex, and the reason why there's no "daddy porn" is because porn tends to be geared towards men of all ages. Kinda like how there's no "white history month" since most of the history, that gets studied, of Europe and America tends revolve around white people. Of course that DOES bring up the idea of things being labelled differently towards men and women, which is reminding me of an article I recently read (and got into an argument over) that labelled Bronies and creepy and slightly pedophilic, since it's grown men enjoying a show geared towards girls. There's a connection there, but I need to flesh it out more.
Posted by: Rowen | Jul 09, 2012 at 11:15 AM
I think about the White History Month thing a lot. It seems to me we kind of could use something like Whiteness History Month, where we really do focus on the construction of the supposed mainstream, default identity... Dunno how that relates to moms or porn...
Posted by: lonespark | Jul 09, 2012 at 12:10 PM
I was just talking about that with a friend of mine on Facebook: Why are adult male fans of MLP:FIM seen as creepy and pedophilic, while adult fans of Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Young Justice (all three shows with sizable adult fanbases, though nothing on the order of MLP) are not? And the answer is because MLP is for little girls, and the other three shows are "general" children's shows (i.e., for little boys), and according to The Official Bigot Handbook any male who expresses any interest in anything marketed towards women is either gay or trying to get laid by that work's target market.
Posted by: Froborr | Jul 09, 2012 at 05:16 PM
Ugh, Froborr. I was thinking about that, but seeing it put so starkly...just, ugh. A similar thing goes for same-age stuff: girls who like Batman are just recognizing awesome, boys who like...I dunno, Twilight's not a clear equivalent, but I'm not so up on youth cultural stuff targeted at the female audience... anyway, boys/young men who like girl stuff that appeals to a niche interest should be ashamed, because cooties. It's especially stupid with little kids, because a lot of the bright-colored, shiny/sparkly age appropriate entertainment is more "girly..."
Wait...Regular Show and Adventure Time are mostly kids's shows? I feel old and naive.
Posted by: lonespark | Jul 09, 2012 at 06:22 PM
It's especially stupid with little kids, because a lot of the bright-colored, shiny/sparkly age appropriate entertainment is more "girly..."
I thought boys got primary colors and girls got pink? But you've doubtless been down the toy aisle much more recently than I.
Posted by: MercuryBlue | Jul 09, 2012 at 06:29 PM
Girls now get pink and purple and yellow and some shades of green, but all of it shiny or sparkly.
Which pisses my older daughter, who likes blue and aqua and doesn't like sparkly, off to no end.
Posted by: cjmr, on her son's netbook | Jul 09, 2012 at 06:39 PM
@lonespark: Well, Regular Show is debatable. I have no idea why that's not an Adult Swim show, it would be better, by far, than any other original show they're airing (or have ever aired), and it clearly wants to be one. There's stuff in there that makes me think the censors at Cartoon Network aren't so much asleep as just completely absent.
But yes, they are primarily supposed to be for kids, though decidedly not little kids.
Posted by: Froborr | Jul 09, 2012 at 08:28 PM