Merf. Thinking is Hard.

ouyangdan:

jhameia:

whatwillsuffice:

I was having dinner tonight?  And one of my companions made the Very Good Point that for all the handwringing about Twilight, we read some pretty fucked-up narratives as teenagers, most specifically V.C. Andrews.  It seemed at the time the only people who might have gotten their knickers in a knot over that kind of thing was the Jerry Falwell crowd.  And given that all three of us at this dinner had read this book, and nonetheless managed to become psychologically okay individuals who have not married our brothers or rapists, it just seems like maybe all this concern about kids reading dumb shit is kind of… hysterical?  Misplaced?

I realize in some ways this is a reversal of previous things I have said about Twilight.  I reserve the right to hypocrisy when I may have been wrong in the first place.

I’ve seen this argument made here and there, and it does make sense to me. I used to read rape-y romance novels when I was a teen. So I’m reserving the hand-wringing for adult women instead :P

My thoughts are always that kids are reading things and adults aren’t worried about their thoughts on the subject. Not pushing the thoughts on them, but discussing why what they are reading might or might not be right or wrong, or troublesome at the very least. I mean, I am reading The Sword of Truth series right now, and would let Kid read it in a few years, and I would really need to discuss some of that with her, like the disturbing shit about torturing a child that really makes me cry and cringe used to let me know just how bad the bad guy is, just like I would need to discuss how a dude stalking you and dismantling your car, or another one forcing himself on you to prove you really do in fact like him too, are not healthy models for relationships.

I don’t call this hand-wringing…I call it active parenting. But I digress…

Yeah, see, that would be awesome. I would have loved to have had some discussions on stuff I read when I was younger with my parents, but neither of them, nor even any adults I knew, ever seemed interested in my thoughts on such-and-such novels, because they didn’t read the same things, or when they read it, they dismissed it out of hand. 

I’m thinking more of the “OMG OUR GIRLS ARE READING AND LIKING ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS IN ACTIONS WHY IS THIS STUFF GETTING PUBLISHED AND WHY ARE GIRLS BUYING IT?!?!?!” phenomenon. Which I understood, but now the novelty of the outrage is fading and I’m just like “… well you could just talk to them about it.” And it is still fun to flail over the fail within the books themselves, and possible to do this without bashing the readers.

Will you be posting about the Sword of Truth series? I’ve heard it mentioned here and there, but nothing indepth.

Seriously, book publishing/distributing industry, WE HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS BEFORE. WHITEWASHED COVERS WILL MAKE PEOPLE ANGRY.

I read Silver Phoenix a little after it first came out. I bought the hardcover, although I don’t actually like getting hardcovers, because I believe in supporting Asian writers where I see them, and because I think scifi/fantasy is so goddamn whitewashed already, I needed a fucking break from European settings after doing all that steampunk reading (NO, JAY LAKE’S MAINSPRING DOES NOT COUNT). I waited for reviews and when many of them were positive, I got it. I wasn’t too impressed with it, but that’s my ish, because I just didn’t like the fact that the love interest was half-white, and the cover looked kind of Orientalized. However! It was still a Chinese girl! Who looks FIERCE! On the cover of a book released in the States! OMG! Must buy! I was starving - starving - after the whole debacles with Justine Labalestier’s Liar and Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass.

However, this new cover has our very Chinese heroine replaced by… Kristin Kreuk?!?! Who is arguably Asian but can also pass as white? And the costuming isn’t even Chinese?! 

And the new book’s cover isn’t even AMBIGUOUSLY ASIAN - brown hair! Pink-tinted skin! I bet they’re not showing the eyes of the model because then she would be either unmistakably Asian or unmistakably white, so, okay, they can have an argument there. And of course, since we must APPEAL TO AS WIDE A MARKET AS POSSIBLE (because, you know, the market cannot handle not being able to imagine their white selves in the position of an Asian character since sf/f is all about wish fulfillment or something), no more over the top Orientalized images for Fury of the Phoenix! Instead we get a cover that…. has no phoenix, no Asian, no fury. And what the fuck is she wearing? And what the hell is that in her hands? I would expect that from a YA urban fantasy with a white heroine playing with generic exotic artifacts. What, exactly, can I code as Asian in this cover? 

What the hell, book distributors? Silver Phoenix as it was wasn’t good enough for you? Too exotic and alienating for your book buyers? Too Asian? I ordered Silver Phoenix from an indie bookstore, but that’s because I believe in supporting local businesses, but damn! The lack of faith from B&N is severely disappointing! How can anyone begin to argue that Asian fantasy doesn’t sell when Asian fantasy isn’t even given a chance?! 

You guys. I don’t even. This shit is alienating to this Asian sf/f fan. 

RACEFAIL. STILL HAPPENING.

whatwillsuffice:

I was having dinner tonight?  And one of my companions made the Very Good Point that for all the handwringing about Twilight, we read some pretty fucked-up narratives as teenagers, most specifically V.C. Andrews.  It seemed at the time the only people who might have gotten their knickers in a knot over that kind of thing was the Jerry Falwell crowd.  And given that all three of us at this dinner had read this book, and nonetheless managed to become psychologically okay individuals who have not married our brothers or rapists, it just seems like maybe all this concern about kids reading dumb shit is kind of… hysterical?  Misplaced?

I realize in some ways this is a reversal of previous things I have said about Twilight.  I reserve the right to hypocrisy when I may have been wrong in the first place.

I’ve seen this argument made here and there, and it does make sense to me. I used to read rape-y romance novels when I was a teen. So I’m reserving the hand-wringing for adult women instead :P

pensata:

trigger warning: about abuse.

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*hugs* No one should have to go through that, especially not children. Reading your post gutted me and I hope you manage to maintain the relationships your mother is trying to sever your from. 

tiaramerchgirl:

extremelyverynotgood:

That is all.

I swear this should be the basis for my drag king character. Or another one entirely. 

Like a cool chardonnay chilled for a day!

You’re clean and crisp and on display!

PLEASE PICK UP THE PHONE ALREADY. Because your website doesn’t answer my question.

pensata:

fuckyeahhappy:

wetepentz:chancendora:blamebriandales:(via benditlikebeckett)

ouyangdan:

illegalsoul:

blackamazon:

Guyess who has to have her tonsils out ……

MOTHERFLAPPING ARG!?!?!?!!?

shut UP! really? I grew up in the era when they took ‘em just cuz they were there. it’s interesting to know you made it to your twenties with them in tact!

I still have mine too. Doc never would take em’. “Not really the problem…just really in the way of the problem”.

I wish you well, BA!

I don’t have mine, either, and I also thought everyone has to have them out at some point in their childhood, because they’re the “first line of defense” and eventually something really bad happens that they sacrifice themselves to keep the rest of the body alive and strengthen the immune system. XD

Good luck, BA! 

thecurvature:

what will suffice: You’re supposed to alert me to this kind of thing

illegalsoul:

ilykadamen:

…

This is what I think. Maybe it’s because when I was a baby activist (before my 5 years of corporate servitude, let’s admit that for hypocrisy’s sake) I worked mostly in anti-globalization settings, and because we could not “consciousness-raise” via blog this was what we had…

 So yeah, people sitting behind pixels, even people I believe to be in good faith like Cara, whose post was what got me annoyed last night, getting self-righteous about who cares more about poor people here is a little much.  While I admit I’m a little out of touch with the present state of things, let me assure you that the protesters there are a motley crew, many of whom have quite enough working class/immigrant street cred to satisfy the rest of us.

ok, I remember now—when I posted in response to cara—cara THIS is what I was thinking when I read your post—is that the protests are *about* poverty, about “public space” and who owns it, who controls it, it’s about poverty and how a few really rich (mostly) dudes have the right to secretly control the entire fucking world—with no accountability at all—in a way that is mostly devistating for poor people, people in poverty of all types (whether devastated poverty of third world or homeless type poverty in the first world)—and yet how many of us bloggers are there? forcing a challenge to the proceedings, if you will? I’m not saying you can’t be legitimately for the poor if you aren’t there—but rather instead, i don’t think it does well to lose focus on the fact that what is being protested is global strangling of the poor/poverty stricken by a very few very elite people who have no accountability to anybody anywhere…

Right. Well I mean, clearly it’s a disagreement of tactics, but again, it’s a disagreement with a very, very few people. Now that it’s the next day and I’m sober and I’m not really, really angry and what I was reacting to, I wish that I hadn’t brought up the subject without full context. Specifically, I didn’t want to start shit with the particular person who was pissing me off (though they’re not a tumblr user, shit gets back). And if I didn’t want to be specific and clear about the context about what exactly I was reacting to — which I tried to explain a bit better earlier — I shouldn’t have started opening my mouth as though everyone else was just going to be magically on the same page.

I also regret doing so with a climate where so many people are treating the protesters’ actions are being focused on rather than the police violence. That wasn’t what I wanted to do — and I think that a lot of people did get that, or at least I hope so, because I’d be really horrified if everyone who pressed “like” thought that protesters deserve police violence, or that the protester actions that they disagree with are worse than the far more extreme and far more irresponsible and abhorrent actions of police here — but clearly I did inadvertently manage to add to that climate nonetheless, so for that I’m sorry.

ETA: And I never, NEVER meant to indicate that I thought that the actions of people I disagree make police any less responsible for their behavior, or that those I disagree with are responsible for that behavior. I do want to be clear on that, because while I don’t think I made any statements to such effect, a lot of people ARE making the leap between “I think that thing they did is stupid” and “therefore the rest of this is their fault,” and it’s logical to assume that I might be making that leap, too.

Also, what whatwillsuffice said in a different post about things working differently re: class, etc. in Canada from the U.S. is true and important. I don’t honestly think that this truth played a big role in the decisions that were made by the few people I disagree with, but I think the U.S.-centrism on my part is certainly worth my acknowledgment and owning up to, nonetheless.

Ack, okay, I wrote this shortly after getting in the door and I’m on my way right back out the door now, so I don’t know if this says exactly what I want it to say and addresses everything … but I’m sure that if it doesn’t, I’ll find out about it when I get back. ;)

illegalsoul:

seaponies:

garconniere:

i can’t take this shit anymore. there is so much misinformation out there in response to the G20 protests. i’m going to swamp your dashboard with a bunch of links, articles and videos that call attention to WHY people are protesting the G20 and WHY people are pissed off and WHY the mainstream media is only paying attention to two cars set on fire and petty vandalism and blowing things way out of proportion. but first, some of my own thoughts: stop posting pictures of two cop cars that were set on fire. start talking about what the G20 is, and why people are resisting it. THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT.

this is not to try to get you to agree with me. this is to get you to ASK QUESTIONS.

• where are you getting your information from? 
• why are all the headlines “vandals mar g20 protests?”
• why are you so angry that two cop cars were set on fire and a few acts of petty violence committed?
• and for some perspective on that note: why AREN’T you so angry what that same kind of violence (perhaps even more violence) happens during the stanley cup playoffs, the nba finals, the world cup?
• but most importantly, why are between 10 and 15,000 people out in the streets trying to make their voices heard? what are they saying and why aren’t you listening?

people all over facebook, twitter, tumblr, saying this uncritical, completely knee-jerk reaction bullshit, saying useless things like “grow up” and calling protestors “fucktards” and pussies.

quickly, i want to address the million “be safe” and “omg don’t get shot” comments i’ve received. don’t worry about me; i am safe. i occupy a relatively privileged space as a young, “white,” able bodied femme-presenting woman. but know that just because i don’t throw bricks doesn’t mean i might not be subjected to violence at the hands of police. the people you need to worry about are amazing community organizers, like my former co-worker syed hussan, who are targetted because they are a person of colour who won’t shut up, arrested before they even get to the streets. the people you need to worry about are the critical journalists who won’t let themselves be a puppet of the state, like my good friend carmelle wolfson’s partner and colleague, jesse rosenfeld. the people you need to worry about are (peaceful) deaf activists being detained and refused an ASL (american sign language) interpreter. the people you need to worry about are someone who uses a cane to get around and is rushed and attacked without warning by police because they fear he has a weapon.

THIS RESISTANCE IS REAL AND IS HAPPENING FOR A REASON. what is the point of saying “stop it! this is my city!” without asking questions? the reason people are out in the streets is because they love this city! because they are angry to see it reduced to a prison. it is because we are fighting to acknowledge the stolen land we live on and restore justice and rights to indigenous people. the reason we are out in the streets is because we see violence every day, at the hands of police officers, of immigration officers, of our employers, of our neighbours in the streets who say sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist things and who sometimes bash us for being who we are. queer, poor, racialized, disabled, marginalized, oppressed but RESISTING! the reason we are out in the streets is because this violence happens every day; you just happen to see it today because it is on the front page and outside your window.

THINK ABOUT THE ACTIVE VIOLENCE THESE SYSTEMS THAT PEOPLE ARE OUT ON THE STREET RESISTING AND CHALLENGING.

WHY WEREN’T YOU ANGRY when you heard about the 1.3 billion dollar spent on “security?”

WHY WEREN’T YOU ANGRY when you heard about the complete waste of time, energy and money to try and distract world leaders from the fact that there are thousands of people in canada who are not putting up with oppression anymore? who not only want, but NEED these leaders to hear us and to change?

WHY AREN’T YOU ANGRY about the 584 missing indigenous women in canada, who are government is constantly and actively ignoring?

WHY AREN’T YOU ANGRY about all the acts of violence, psychic and physical, institutionalized and legislated, that take place in your backyard and around the world every day?

WHY ARE YOU ANGRY NOW?

the police are afraid of us AND THEY SHOULD BE. they can waste as much money as they want under the guise of “security” and “protection” but the only people who need protection are the protestors. we are the ones being rushed at, intimidated, hurt, shot at, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, struck with batons, beaten, and arrested are protestors. violent ones, yes, but far more peaceful ones. people sitting down. people flashing peace signs. don’t take my word for it: see it yourself.

ANGER CAN BE BEAUTIFUL, PRODUCTIVE, AMAZING. transform your anger into something real. get off your fucking computers and cell phones and look around. get angry and use that anger to change the world, you passive bored assholes.

we will not shut the fuck up.

we will shout the fuck up.

we are everywhere. there are millions of us and we are angry and we have the right to express our anger peacefully, beautiful, amazingly, every fucking day of the week.