The atheist roundtable is now scheduled for Thursday August 30. We still haven't heard back from a few people about whether they're happy to sign off on the final versions we've e-mailed them, but it's really past time we got this published, so this is a heads-up: if we haven't heard from you by the time the post is due up, we're going to pull your piece rather than run the risk of publishing something without the author's permission. (We can put it back in later, so this isn't a ban, just a warning that we're only putting approved stuff on the site.) So everyone please check your e-mails.iting for a few final confirmations. Would all contributors please check their e-mails in case we've sent you a question?
The Blogaround
Deconstruction: Legitimate Rapes
(Content Note: Rape, Personal Descriptions of Rape)
This week I am not writing about Twilight. Not because I don't want to write about Twilight, but because there is something more important that I need to address in this moment.
Deconstruction: The Many Faces of Appropriation
(Content Note: Liking Problematic Art, Cultural Appropriation, Discussion of Geekdom and Pagan/Wiccan Communities, Religious Discrimination Against Men and Trans People)
One issue I'm running into again and again is that labeling something individually as "cultural appropriation" (or not) is not nearly as simple or easy as we would perhaps like it to be. And I'm starting to wonder if, outside the really egregious examples, some cultural appropriation ends up being "in the eye of the beholder" in the same way that Problematic Art sometimes is.
Deconstruction: Depression Diaries and It's Okay To Be Sad
(Content Note: Depression)
One of the things I've noticed in my fight with medication-induced depression is how Knowing I'm Depressed isn't some kind of magic bullet for treatment. And in fact sometimes it makes it harder.
My normal computer is currently being repaired, I'm not sure yet if that will have an effect upon my output.
I haven't had a chance to sit down and write a post about it yet, but I did want to point out that I did have a much better than normal day this week thanks to going to Winona's post-ordinary-season all-ages-can-come Family Camp for a day. (If you have the money and male children, I recommend looking into the normal camp, if you have the money and female children there is a sister camp.) I wish we'd been able to spend more than a day at family camp this year. Anyway, I talk so much about the bad days, it seems like I should call out the good as well.
I saw a problem with a hanging house plant as a metaphor for my life.
It's a Thing for some category names to fit in the category that they name. Reading one of my usual message boards left me thinking Oh, Good, Something New to Worry About. (By the way, you don't really need to follow the link in the post, which goes to a thread on Tiger Droppings about how you store glassware, to understand my post. I point this out because while that thread is safe enough, TD is frequently not, by Slacktiverse standards, or for that matter, by a lot of message board standards.)
Finally, if there is one thing you would not expect to find on a home decorating reality TV show, It's a Plot. So why do they have them?
Twilight Themes: Unconditional Love
(Content Note: Cheating in Relationships, Imprinting on Children)
As many of you are no doubt aware, the tabloids exploded this week over the news that Robert Pattinson (the actor who plays Edward Cullen in Twilight) left his shared home with Kristen Stewart (the actress who plays Bella in Twilight) after a "cheating scandal".
Deconstruction: Consent 101
(Content Note: Rape, Love Spells, Non-Consensual Drugging, 'Humorous' Swearing (YMMV) )
Every so often, I forget that what seems perfectly obvious to me is not perfectly obvious to everyone else on the planet. So here are my feelings about consent. These feelings seems like pretty basic Feminism 101 to me, but here they are anyway.
Animation: Tarzan
It's strange to watch something like this -- something that plays the Tarzan story straight -- and then watch George of the Jungle, which is far more comedic and yet manages to be more serious. Same Disney label, two years prior, and with a heroine that talks in a baby-talk cadence most of the movie... and yet it ended up being more friendly to women and people of color than this movie.
In case you missed this
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Apropos of nothing except it's one reason I've been fairly quiet lately: Today I finished the first draft of my first ever academic article for publication.
Posted by: Froborr | Aug 26, 2012 at 02:58 AM
W00T!
Posted by: Lonespark | Aug 26, 2012 at 05:57 AM
yay, Froborr!
Posted by: cjmr, on her son's netbook | Aug 26, 2012 at 09:39 AM
Wahoo!
Posted by: chris the cynic (on a borrowed netbook) | Aug 26, 2012 at 01:46 PM
Congratulations, Froborr! :D
Posted by: Nenya | Aug 27, 2012 at 02:30 AM
Indeed, congrats Froborr. I'm not jealous, no, not even a little bit. (Ok, maybe a little bit.)
Posted by: Mike Timonin | Aug 27, 2012 at 10:33 AM
Thanks, all. I find I keep looking over my shoulder for the Academic Police, same as when I do panels like Analyzing Anime 101, but moreso: "You have a BA!" they'll cry as they beat me with their ribboned truncheons (the colors of the ribbon denote their field of study). "Imposter! You have no business doing this kind of thing!"
Posted by: Froborr | Aug 27, 2012 at 02:10 PM