Some reflections on…. DANCE FLOOR POLITICS! :dramatic echo voice:
Someone you know is a criminal… and their rights matter.
This right here? Is the legacy of child abuse. If you are at all moved by this, I recommend finding a local organization that works to stop child sexual abuse. STOPCSA is a national one.
Why Latinas are PISSED about Dirty Girls.
Female game director killed in hit and run.
Men don’t need to remember you said no, teehee.
The Carl Brandon Society is having a fundraiser — every dollar you donate will be matched by SF3!!!
What are your thoughts on “Burqa Woman?”
Cat Rambo has a kick-ass story up at Tor.com.
ENSIGN SUE MUST DIE!
School officials refuse to allow a disabled child to bring his service dog into school.
From the Other Anne:
Read this and cry. Oddly enough, BoingBoing linked to it. Unsurprisingly commenters proceeded to not talk about how terrible rape is and how to get men to stop raping globally, but a weird political argument full of concern trolling and gems like “Haiti didn’t help us with Katrina, why should we help them now?” So don’t go to BoingBoing, I guess I’m saying. It was depressing. Though in a different way from the article.
Also from the Other Anne:
I read this and felt really, really torn. Because, at once, I hate that stupid word. “The ‘N’ Word.” On the other hand, beyond being a book I remember really enjoying, which was a rare event with me and the “classics” I read in school, I have issues with reformatting history, which I feel this is, in a sense. If we edit out the words of
historical novels, especially in this book where race and status is a major theme, does that change the meaning of the book too much? Why not use original versions but teach WHY exactly those words are Not Okay, Not Even A Little instead of sidestepping that (IMO) important lesson?
I’m not entirely sure where I stand on this issue, though. I haven’t really had the time to think it all the way through. But it’s the kind of issue that seems like it needs to be discussed.
Anyway, cheers! Happy new Year!
Whoa. Petticoats were much more hardcore than I thought.
Autism study –> HUGE FAKE.
If you’re unemployed… you’re kind of screwed.
This man hid a bomb in a sex toy.
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
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I’m not sure there’s anything inherently misogynistic about Mary Sue, when it’s used for its intended purpose — describing characters, usually author-inserts, whose intrusion into an existing setting destroys the characterization of everyone else. Robin Hood, Luke Skywalker, Aragorn, and Harry Potter aren’t Sues, but it’s got nothing to do with their gender, and everything to do with the fact that they’re not the only interesting characters in their stories (…well, I’m not sure about Robin Hood, but a lot of people prefer Han Solo to Luke, large portions of the Harry Potter fandom focus on characters who aren’t Harry, and Aragorn wasn’t even the protagonist of Lord of the Rings).
Of course, the current usage tends to be “female character I don’t like,” which is very misogynistic and frustrates me to no end.
Ikkin(Quote) (Reply)
I thought a douche was something a woman should *not* cleanse her vagina with?
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
Re: Douche
Well YEAH, but the point is that douches were originally designed as vaginal cleansers that rid ladypartz of “feminine odor” (via Lysol).
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
I’m open to being corrected for douche — I’ve been using it for a while, and have always been under the impression it was “ok” because of how douches make you itch/sick because of disrupting your PH balance, but haven’t heard that it was misogynistic. I really just need a solid, monosyllabic word for people I don’t like.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
since douche and douchebag generally refers to guys of the arrogant, spoiled, selfish, ignorant-of-their-privilege persuasion, I’d say that douches literal and not are tools of the patriarchy and something no woman should want near their vaginae. Therefore…
Maybe I’m just putting too much thought into it.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
This isn’t to do with anything you’ve posted but it’s something you might be interested in.
There was a thread on a mainly teen filled forum I’m on, and it was about a transgender person cutting off her testicles. Everyone was saying general things that showed a lack of understanding. One of the comments asked why didn’t she cut her penis off too, and I said maybe she was hoping that the nerves could be used on a new clitoris.
When I clicked post, I noticed that the word clitoris was asterisked out. Testicles and penis were fine. When I commented saying that I feel insulted that it’s considered a dirty word (and I put gaps in so that they could see the word I was talking about), I got a warning PM because I ‘got around the filter’. *sigh*.
TheEclipse(Quote) (Reply)
Well, sort of. As I posted above, any dog needs a handler, and even if they are trained, they are unlikely to be useful unless the handler is able to handle them properly. Dogs are pack animals, and work under that mentality. The dog handler is the “leader” of the pack. (Watch “the dog whisperer” if you want to see the difference a good handler can make).
Service dogs are not magic. They need to be trained, and they need to be used properly. A kind functioning at the level of a kindergartener seems unlikely to be able to handle a dog adequately, but not knowing the dog or the kid it’s impossible for me to say. However, from the article we do know that this student is in “a special ed classroom”, which gives us some clues both about that student, and the other kids in his class. We’re not talking about normally developing kids here, and between both that student and the other kids around him, it’s entirely possible that having a dog (without a handler) in the mix could be un-useful. It might be dangerous, or more likely it might make LEARNING very difficult in that classroom.
To me, it sounds like a very difficult situation for the school district, where they have to balance the needs of the student with the service dog against the needs of the other kids in the class, and the teacher’s ability to teach in that situation. Without knowing the specifics it’s impossible for me to say more.
Melissa(Quote) (Reply)
I totally get the intent to apply the term equally to nasty males and females. In limited settings where everyone shares certain values (i.e., hanging out with your friends or something), that usage can actually be a form of owning the word and changing the concepts behind it, IMO. I think that’s what M.C. intended.
However, Hathor gets many thousands of visitors every month, and statistically, we can be assured some of them will infer exactly what Attackfish describes. Therefore, we do ban the use of the word. (Our comment policy details this.)
As for “douche”, I’ve actually been reading up on it lately. I haven’t found any good arguments for why it is misogynistic. I consider douches an attack on femaleness: one more way we’re supposed to feel shamed into trying to “correct” our disgustingly un-male natural state. Therefore, I personally don’t consider it misogynistic, but like Maria, am open to being corrected.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
I tossed a line through “bitch” and left another comment in the thread about why it IS actually not an okay usage, but that I do understand what you were trying to put across.
No worries.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
I don’t use it because I have been told by a number of black friends that just coming across the word in any context is fairly triggering for them. Therefore, fuck the sanctity of citations: there are other ways to have the conversations without causing unnecessary pain to human beings. Some flash literary concept just cannot be more important than the feelings of a disenfranchised group of people.
This just triggered another high school memory: we had to read portions of the book allowed. One of the girls (white) who got a section in which that word appears refused to say it. The teacher explained all these nice ivory tower reasons why she should read it, and the girl got pretty agitated about it. But in the end, she said something like, “I have never said that word in my life, and I don’t intend to ever, for any reason.” The teacher finally just let her skip the damn word.
Should a black kid be expected to read that word aloud or say it when discussing the novel in class? It is not just a nasty word for black people. It’s a word for people some cops feel they can conveniently frame when they want to close a case or shield the important person who really committed it. It’s a word for someone a mob could LYNCH without repercussion in the United States until the 1960s. It’s a word for a type of woman considered especially fair/easy game by rapists. It’s not ancient history. It’s not equivalent to most other racial slurs. The word very much invokes the long-term dehumanization of an entire people based on skin color.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
I imagine the boy’s seizures (up to 20/day) are pretty disruptive to the classroom and the teacher’s ability to teach, too. I’d think anything that speeds his recovery from them would be helpful, and that needs to be considered on balance. So:
The dog can get to the boy within a handful of seconds of when a seizure begins, give him a treatment and even call 911 from a special phone he wears. The teacher would need 30-45 seconds to get to him, and the special ed nature of the class makes me think the teacher would appreciate the help. Those seconds, the article says, could make a difference in the boy’s chance of survival. Surely that’s worth finding a way to accommodate.
The article does NOT remotely suggest there had actually been any problems with the dog, and that would seem a very odd omission if there had actually been problems. The school was just enforcing a regulation to the letter, when there are solutions available, and other schools have managed to implement them.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
The thing about Robin Hood, Luke Skywalker, Aragorn Arathornion (yes I’m a geek), and Harry Potter is that they don’t break the rules of their own setting. Neither do Maid Marian, Princess Leia, Lady Galadriel, or Nurse Pomfrey.
Mary Sue elicits responses from the existing characters in the story that she should not be able to get. Mary Sue can put on sloppy Muggle clothes with a rude saying on the front, slouch into the compartment on the Hogwarts Express that was claimed by Draco Malfoy’s gang, and sit there whining about her rotten life to a bunch of kids who never saw her before, and they will listen. Mary Sue can live in Grimmauld Place right under the noses of the Order of the Phoenix until she chooses to reveal herself. Molly Weasley can hint as broadly as possible that this girl is Voldemort’s daughter and Harry Potter will still tell her the sad details of his childhood right after they are introduced. Prince Vegeta, Destroyer of Planets, will let her call him Veggie. Piccolo Daimao will want to have sex with her. (His species reproduces by fission, for those who are getting lost.)
I haven’t read as much Gary Stu, but I get the impression that he gets to have sex with a lot of women who wouldn’t consider him ever and he also gets to lecture a lot of people about bravery and military strategy who know a hell of a lot more about both than he ever will. Oh, and he gets to shoot whatever he likes at whoever he doesn’t like.
Jenny Islander(Quote) (Reply)
Predictably, most of the comments are against making the change, a lot of them screaming “censorship” (which it isn’t, since unchanged editions are freely available).
Personally, I have a lot of antipathy to the idea of changing words, but then I’m never going to have a word like that used against me.
Then I read one comment:
The term “nigger” was not meant to be detrimental to the Negro race in the ‘old days’. It was used in the South and that was simply their way of speaking back then.
… and if that’s really the case (I wouldn’t know), then surely replacing it with a word that hasn’t inherited the same harmful power is more akin to translation than censorship. After all, plenty of people claim to have read and understood Tolstoy without knowing a single word of Russian, and I’ve not seen rendering the Canterbury Tales in modern rather than middle English decried as censoring Chaucer.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Where I said “changing words,” I meant changing them in a literary text as is being discussed here. With of course the subsequent caveats.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
I’ve heard that argument, and it MAY be true, but I don’t thing it’s something you can substantiate either way. But yeah, like you say, then that would REALLY make changing the word no biggie.
The fact is, there is NO REASON this book is considered essential to high school reading lists. If we drop it, the problem goes away. It’s not the greatest book ever. It’s not the only example of any particular thing. It’s no loss at all.
What we have here is white people thinking it’s a good way to teach white kids about how white folks used to be racist but are ALL BETTER NOW, when in fact, that racism still totally absolutely exists, so this is all a big stinking pile of horseshit.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
On the other hand, a href=http://www.womanist-musings.com/2011/01/removing-nigger-from-huckelberry-finn.html>this is what Renee of Womansist Musings says about it.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
I SUCK!!!
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Exactly *nod nod* Properly used, the term Mary Sue can refer to either gender, and believe me, male Mary Sues pop up from time to time.
Unfortunately a lot of times the term isn’t properly used and is applied to original character generally in fanfiction, no matter if they fit the definition or not, and tends to be bandied about mostly against female characters it’s true.
Occasionally it’s applied to cannon characters, but the biggest example I can think of was male, and already mentioned. Westley Crusher.
Mintywolf(Quote) (Reply)
Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bears. She invents EVERYTHING, including doggystyle sex.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
ARGH, I think of that series and all that comes to mind is the “Biggus Dickus” trope. XS
Isn’t she also TTLY HAWT (by modern human standards) but ugly by cave-people standards?
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Yes, which is SO TRAGIC, even more so than the constant rapes from Broud. And she maths better than anyone, is a kick ass hunter, memorizes all the roots, learns sewing, learns to put stitches into people for wounds, I think invents weaving, and also is the first to figure out that sex makes babies.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
I wouldn’t say that “no one” “ever” complains about male Mary Sues (also known as Gary Stu, Marty Stu and the like). There are plenty of those characters out there and plenty of people complain about characters like Wesley Crusher.
I would however agree that male Sues are less likely to be called out on their “Sue-ness” than female ones cause male roles are usually embodying tropes that are so common within their genres that the audience doesn’t even notice it. Most action heroes are pretty much God Mode Sues or Macho Sues but instead of calling them Sues they are admired for being badass.
Sabrina(Quote) (Reply)
She also domesticates animals and invents the slingshot. And, if memory serves, the hand drill method of generating fire, though she’s at least not the only one to do that.
And I think she’s the blondest and fairest of them all, even after she runs into other Sapiens, because who else but the whitest character could accomplish so much?
(Oh, and her true love’s name is Jondalar, which totally sounds like a slang name for the penis).
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Someone in Harry Potter fandom developed four Suewarts Houses that work pretty well as a classification for Sues and Stus in all fandoms. The names are problematic, however. The houses, and the fantasies they serve, are:
HOUSE SPARKLIPOO: Universal love and admiration are the Sparklipoo’s reasons for being. Exotically beautiful, gorgeously dressed, super-talented, ultra-compassionate, the best listener, etc, etc. People who say they like Mary Sues, IME, are generally referring to Sparklipoos.
HOUSE BITCHIWITCH: The polar opposite of Sparklipoo, Bitchiwitches are consumed with sorrow, rage, and/or overwhelming angst and they express them freely. They smart off to authority figures, tell their sad life stories to hot protagonists, and beat up characters the author doesn’t like. Generally annoying even when they don’t dress the part (dark colors and lots of eyeliner, or loudly colored hair and rude T-shirts).
HOUSE TOOTSITRAMP: All libido, all the time. Dresses how the author would dress if she dared (or could get it past her parents). Has lots and lots and LOTS of sex and completely derails the existing plot. Tootsitramps written by virgins who didn’t do their research can be funny. Tootsitramps can also be extremely creepy. The most infamous fics in a fandom tend to be Tootsitramps.
HOUSE QANONREIP: For existing characters who are co-opted by fanfic writers. Sometimes they act out the author’s fantasies of what zie would do if zie had the character’s powers/looks/money. Other times they are crutches for people who really want to write romances or school stories or what have you, but don’t want to let go of their favorite fandom.
Moving the Suewarts Houses to another fandom: If Legolas meets a Sparklipoo, she listens compassionately to his sad story of life with his brutal alcoholic father and then provides healing sex. If he meets a Bitchiwitch, she probably brushes him off with a snotty paragraph about his sheltered life in Mirkwood because she is too busy beating up that kitten-eating villain Boromir. A Tootsitramp probably meets him at a masked ball in Mirkwood and drags him off to the palace gardens for lots of anonymous hot sex. If he stumbles into House Qanonreip, he ends up dressed like a stereotypical damsel in distress so that he can be rescued and introduced to wild pleasures by Aragorn (while Arwen, that harpy, schemes to destroy their love).
Jenny Islander(Quote) (Reply)
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