Like An Open Letter

Dear Karen Healey,

You are a credit to your race. The fact that you can understand self-identification, white privilege, the after image affects of white colonialization, and several other aspects of race theory and the fight for social justice and equality is amazing. And it says to me that your parents were also credits to Caucasoids everywhere.

I've been most impressed by your ability to empathize as well as to access and analyze critical information and recently I was even more impressed with your ability, despite your heterosexual leanings, to comprehend straight and cisgender privilege and entitlement. What wonderful Hetero-Cis Caucasoid genes!

Never before have I met someone with such pale, fragile skin, with near no protection against harmful UV rays, and thus really no natural niche on our dear planet, who also had an obviously fully functional and philosophizing mental muscle. What empathy! What compassion so unexpectedly fruitful in someone of your race and sexual desire proclivities!

Sadly, as the days pass, I lose hope of ever meeting any more Caucasiods of Exception, like yourself.

But at least I did meet you and can remind myself it is not necessarily a facet of straight whiteness to be stupid, anti-social, greedy, selfish and over-emotional.

Sincerely, Your Black Gay Friend
- Willow

*________*

Oh dear, I've just been reminded that my dear Healey doesn't count towards Cacasoid Exceptionality, just like Kirk-In-The-Box doesn't count, because she has experience with non-neurotypicality.

Well damn. I really don't know any Exceptional Caucasoids at all. *frowny face*

Hollywood Wants Child Rapist Freed

About another group of entitled white assholes whinging and crying and pissing tears to get their own way?

Roman Polanski raped and violated A CHILD.

That is a vile act. That is an immoral act. That is possibly an anti-social act. And it is also an illegal act.

And all this hue and cry is, is yet another set of hot air trying to get a white man off the consequences of his actions. In other words, I agree with this Salon Article.

And I would very much like to point out that if Polaski was a non-white male, it wouldn't matter how many years had passed. For his violation of not just a white woman, but a white girl-child, for drugging and sodomizing her - a helpless white girl-child, he would not have escaped justice for the past 30 years.

Even in 1977 and 1978, someone would have shot him, or beat him near to death. He would never have had the chance he did to plead guilty. His guilt would have been assumed and white outrage would have been FELT on his body.

If Roman Polanski was a black man, there would be NO QUESTION as to why even 30 years later the case was still being pursued.

If Roman Polanski was a black man there would be no consideration given to whether the child's mother was a pushy stage mother; to whether the child had really said no; or even to her own current wish to avoid media attention.

This is a list of the Film Industry / Hollywood types who're signing a petition to free him. It's pushed me to simply give up on the Western American/European Film Industry. I've already discussed all the racism going on in 'Hollywood' and now here comes sexism at absolute full strength, intertwined.

Roman Polanski RAPED AND VIOLATED A CHILD.

A CHILD.

And I note that no one is wondering about what other opportunities he may have had to do this in the past 30 years; how many other children he may have harmed - what sense of power over them he may have wielded knowing he'd already done it once, got caught and escaped. I am surprised and disgusted to learn he's fathered two children of his own. And I note no one is wondering what he may have taught them.

Roman Polanski SEXUALLY VIOLATED A CHILD

He is a SELF CONFESSED CHILD RAPIST.

He has NOT DENIED HIS ACTIONS.

He is A SEX OFFENDER.


He is someone who should be on the list that people check to find out how safe their neighbourhoods are. He is someone who has violated society's most precious resource - its children and who then FLED JUSTICE and FLED SOCIETY'S SANCTIONS AGAINST HIM.

If you can cheer when Batman brings a man back from Tokyo to face Gotham's court systems, then you better as hell recognize that POLANSKI is a real life similar criminal.

For the record, by the way, the whole Spiderman, Chameleon, rape of Peter Parker's roommate? The reason that representation is so despicable, is because shit like that helps foster a climate where people make excuses for rapists. A petition to free Poleaski is Rape Culture displayed at its finest.

And right now I seriously wish this world had a Marv or a John Hartigan to take away Polanski's weapons.

On Isms & Idiots (Part 3)

This, also needs it's own post.

THE SUBMISSION DATES FOR THE LAMDA LITERAY AWARDS IS: OCT 1 (2009) - DEC 1 (2009).

I repeat, the submission period for the Lamda Literary Award is from October the first, in the year 2009 to December the first, in the year 2009.

The link above takes you directly to the guidelines, where the dates are plain plain plain. Here is a c/p of the wording one would find on that site:

SUBMISSION PROCESS
Books submitted for consideration will be accepted between October 1 and December 1, 2009.

In no way. No form. AT ALL. Has anyone submitted ANY DAMN THING in this year, 2009, only to be told after the fact that guidelines/rules/requirements had changed.

No matter how the ranting, raving, hair pulling, spoiled, white women brats go on. No matter how they carry on. No matter how much homophobia and racist bullshit spill from their lips, while chipping their teeth brown.

In no way. EVER. Has any kind of switcheroo been pulled!

IN NO WAY.

The only thing that may be commented on, that would be TRUTH, is that the guideline changes came a little late.

Of course, when an individual is having a privilege tantrum, the truth is less than a buzzing fly. Inconsequential and off putting to the drama they're trying to create to prove their silk stocking, pearl wearing, hair flouncing, fan cooling, church lady shock and horror at being told they do. not. qualify. for. something.

Y'know, it's fried chicken and lemonade while the Strange Fruit hang from trees, all over again. It's quilting bees and bake sales to raise money for missionaries to convert the black and brown heathens.

It's the reverse of the normal way of things, where the majority dictates and the minority is just grateful to still have all its teeth, to not be bleeding from the ass, brutalized and imprisoned.

Personally as a gay woman, I don't care how "popular" and en vogue these individuals make gay sex. Or how accepting they think they're making the gay lifestyle. If acceptance and popularity only go so far as making them happy, like any other trend, or new dress or fresh dish - I'd rather be unpopular and make headways that recognize my life as my life and not their fucking toy.

A toy they're willing to lie about, in order to steal (cause it ain't something that ever belonged to them to start with). Might and hue and cry do not create ownership or membership.

2009's Privilege Fail continues. And at the center as fucking always are over privileged white women authors.

Have. Mercy.

On Isms & Idiots (Part 2)

 
Continued from here:

And for the people who're saying the real problem they have with this sudden change is because, there was never this distinction before? And it was apparently done because some gay writers have had a problem with (so many) straights winning the Lamba?

OF COURSE GAY WRITERS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.

They should.

They're entitled.

The straight female writers who've pushed their way into queer spaces have not gone through queer experience. So what that they feel comfortable writing gay characters. They're coming from a position of privilege, one that's built on all the work queer individuals and their allies for civil rights have done in the past thirty something years.

A bunch of straight women writing primarily for more straight women have ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE in an award system of queer lit about queer experience. Because what they're writing is not queer experience. It's not. It just isn't.

Yes, no doubt there are exceptions of skill, but as a whole, it's a whole bunch of fantasy with kink and emotional intimacy and projection - as much as YAOI is. The problem is not that people have been writing wonderful and well crafted books but they just HAPPEN to be straight and now - oooh, discrimination!

The PROBLEM is that straights have every fucking thing else. And for every submission by a straight author, there's one less submission by a queer author to be considered. And when it comes to an award and recognition system that was originally set up to say "Here, we're queer, and we're going to write about our lives because our lives are deserving. Our lives count. Our stories count!" It's just plain fucked up and wrong to have the spotlight appropriated by people who are not a part of that struggle.

And no, writing about two men in love, or two men having sex DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU PART OF THE STRUGGLE. It makes you a consumer and possible voyeur just like the guy who draws sexy Asian chicks isn't suddenly a part of the fight for Asian American Social Justice Media Recognition.

I'm so the hell tired of these whiny individuals not even being grateful for the ally-ship they've been automatically awarded by the awards foundation. Yes, ally-ship and yes awarded. Lamda has treated these individuals as grown-ups; compassionate, understanding, queer ally grownups. And instead they get a bunch of brats who only see what they want and can't have and who, whether they intend it or not, are behaving as if submitting to and possibly receiving a Lammie - getting a purple Lamda COOKIE - is more important than encouraging and supporting the growth of queer writers willing to write queer experience.

They're behaving exactly like people who are NOT ALLIES. Who, past their consumption of the other/ of the exotic, have no intention of doing a damn thing to bring those others into their sphere; to bring recognition to the problems those others face.

They're proving exactly why steps needed to be taken to make said awards once again part of the creative expression of a struggle for equality and recognition as more than object. They're proving WHY there's a need for more tales that promote gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals as human beings with unique points of views and experiences told from a queer point of view.

And PS: Sexism is not Cissexism. Misogyny is not Transphobia. Anti Feminist Thoughts are not Racist Thoughts. It is all NOT exactly the same, no matter if the person being oppressive and domineering and pompous looks the same; no matter if the person is the same. Each bit of oppression is different, by itself, a unique entity. This is why each has its own name. And claiming otherwise is the real comparison of apples and oranges and chocolate bars.

On Isms: The Lambda Awards, Homophobia, Privilege & Racism

If it weren't for the Original Poster's use of this:

No one would have WORD ONE to say about the NAACP giving an award to African-American authors for writing books about the African-American experience. And that's because we're not morons -- we as a culture realize that a book by Toni Morrison about African-American characters says something very different about the African-American experience than a similar book, no matter how heartfelt and well researched by Anne Rice or any other white author.

I would agree with Belleweather near 95%. After all they point out the co-opting and white woman's tears going on as concerns gay identity and the double-standard of many of these individuals wanting some kind of queer identity for seeming perks, as if they were fifteen year old white boys heavily into rap, wearing baggy pants and eager to call black women bitches and hoes - who of course would pee themselves red if they faced, as reality, any of the heavy gang fantasy their rap star idols discuss.

Unfortunately, the OP hit the one thing that makes me shake my head sigh, roll my eyes, and almost immediately regard the speaker as an idiot; that is the old "No One Would Treat Black People Like This!" full of bullshit trope - as if racism has been dead, buried, and partially digested by worms, when that reality is a crack pipe dream.

As evidence I point to this incident in May of 2009, yes, that's right, yet another moment of 2009's racefail.

EditorialAnonymous posted this bullshit:

...Who among us thinks Coretta Scott King is a pretty awesome person? Who among us thinks it's a great thing that the CSK award got started?

Everyone? That's what I thought.

Now, who among us thinks it's still a good idea?
Who among us thinks it's getting highly ironic that an award started in an effort to honor and continue Dr. King's efforts in working for peace and civil rights only honors one race? ...

If the CSK were in charge, male writers wouldn't be able to comment on what it's like to be a woman. The CSK is saying that you cannot understand what it is to be black in America unless you are black.

Giving an award for creating art about the experience of race is a wonderful thing. But giving an award for creating art and being a particular race?

That's racism in action.

Ain't nothing in this world so sure as a white person defining what racism is, what it isn't and writing in a voting box for reverse racism as a three in one / hat trick / unholy trinity of white privilege and aversive racism.

And that philosophy goes the same for other isms.

You see the wailing and rending of garments, holding breath until their faces go blue, toddler foot stomping and wall kicking, throwing their toys around, threatening to break them and other misbehaving going on among straight female m/m writers and their allies/supporters is, simply, a symptom of the continual disregard of anything that isn't straight, white and male.

People who have the ability to understand the concept of privilege, private space, safe space, recognition among peers, etc are people who can spread that concept across more than one area of life. That is, people who understand the concept of social imbalance, social justice and the means to reach from one end of the spectrum to the other are individuals who won't be acting like spoilt 5 year olds in need of a good spanking. These are people who live intersectional lives, observing all points where their own spheres touch others and where other people's spheres overlap yet again with various points in the world around them; And ready and willing to be chastized if they miss a spot.

It is actually NOT surprising that individuals who haven't paused to consider whether or not they've (begun to or have) co-opted something, be it a genre, or an area of publishing, would become incensed at being told "Actually your self empowerment with sexuality and erotica is all well and good, but we'd like to keep this space about GLBT authors writing about GLBT experiences" and taking it to mean that they are being discriminated against.

How dare anyone try to take away from them the right to be as imperialistic, sadistic, anti-social, selfish and self-absorbed as any close-minded, Euro-centric/Euro-descended white male in his prime (prime meaning at the height of his colonizing, political, socio-political and financial earnings power).

And after all it is not their fault that non heterosexuals, non cisgendered individuals as well as non-whites have that much more space to cross to reach the heady power of white-cis-het-maleness. That's not their problem.

In the struggle for equality, it's every group for itself, after all. And on top of that equality means being up there with white-het-cis-maleness NOT, everyone on the same and level playing field, each valuing what the other can contribute.

The thing that boggles me personally, is that it would be so damn easy for the predominately female writers, writing male/male romance for female readers to set up their own damn awards; it would recognize best usages of acknowledged tropes in that genre and a host of other things that would not be recognized in a queer lit award for queer authors writing about queer experience.

It's not even as if they don't have a model. Yaoi is popular. Yaoi is being more and more understood as romance manga involving male characters but catering to female readers. There are people who ask all the time about prose novels that are yaoi. Surely the female authors who're writing all male characters involved in erotica could fit themselves into a western version of that; just as the female authors who focus on the romance between male characters could emulate aspects of the Shounen-Ai/Boys Love sub-genre.

Everyone would have a place at the table, without elbows even bumping. But maybe true equality is just too hard.



ETA / Continuation: On Isms & Idiots (Part 2)
 

The Stupid - I've Had It. Damn.

O blow me down sideways Hurricane Of Conception of Reality.

I have been soooooooooooooooooooo stupid. So absolutely, unthinking, non-perceiving and non analytical. Here I've been, shaking my head, sighing and learning to let go of childhood iconic characters, lamenting the change and twist in storytelling and missing the damn bloody obvious.

The big two aren't really about storytelling anymore. At least they're as much about storytelling as television and television is basically bringing the eyes of consumers to product placements and psychological warfare that states 'you are what you buy/you are how look/you are what you own'.

So I guess the real question to ponder, if I want to ponder things, is what ads are in the floppy issues these days? What products are comics promoting? I'm going to take a guess right now that there will be obvious ads for game systems and games themselves; gore and half naked women and storytelling as a thin bridge between getting to kill lots of stuff and/or act recklessly with violence and certain other less publically desirable behaviors.

Bring the eyeballs to the product right?

And no doubt the big two sell themselves as holding the scrotums and jelly filled optical sacks of males of a certain age and race; a desired demographic. To try and change that demographic would mean having to market themselves to new advertisers - advertisers who don't hold an interest in just what comes out to hold the attention of coveted consumers, but who also have their fingers in or hold out bauble bags of money for other tie in productions beside the magazine style comic issues themselves.

If they're selling themselves as the gateway into the heads and wallets of boys and men a certain age, they can't, not in this current age, also claim to have the wallets of girls and women. It'd make them look divided and undecided and wavering on target. And what advertiser wants to risk their ad being exposed to the wrong audience and having the wrong brands there sending the wrong messages.

Huh, maybe Minx was always doomed to failure because it was putting out product as TPB and the advertisers weren't getting to stick their fingers in and scoop girl eyeballs. Hmm, maybe that made Minx an experiment from the start. Something that was always meant to be seen as an experiment and one which was started for additional hype other than the obvious.

And Warner Brothers and Disney, now both of the big two are part of the what, 4 or 5 mega media conglomerates moving the world to buy buy buy. Cross marketing is going to be further all over the place. Disney bought a marketshare of eyeballs.

I could thump myself on the forehead.

Culture fiefdoms, conquest, advertising as the matrix, heavy emphasis on gender difference in order to promote the right values of products per demographic thus hypersexualization, shallow perceptions of self/character and strict gender constructs.

I have been soooooooo stupid.

No, worse than stupid. I wonder if girl gamer, girl superhero comic reader eyeballs are sold as a kind of bonus bumper crop - free gift with purchase.

Damn.

Manga: Love @ First Sight

What am I missing?

I must be missing something, something cultural when it comes to Manga and Falling In Love and Confessions. I keep rolling my eyes and feeling ancient as I overflow with disbelief over all this 'fall in love at first sight / first look'.

I keep wondering: Do they mean 'OMG I'm finding someone physically attractive this is a big deal!!!' ? And if so, why is it a big deal? Of course my questioning / this interpretation assumes that there's something subtle in the kanji, maybe something different between the way a word is used generally and how it is understood when spoken and what it means when written or SOMETHING.

Because how superficial is it to have all these romances running on a plotline of 'My attraction to someone's physical appearance equals falling in love'.

Is it an age gap thing? Did I just miss the bus where physical attraction and sexual stirrings became, a close feeling of bonding or ties to another individual wherein their happiness is equal to your happiness? Does someone have the moment that changed happened captured for posterity on film or something?

I've finally caught a clue that kissing is or at least is accepted culturally to be a big deal in Japan (and possibly the other nations in that region), especially one's first kiss - far more so than what I'd observed about American culture. Or at least American culture when I was growing up. These days it seems the big deal is about 'pedophile bait's first blow job'. But y'know, I'm not about to get into the sexualization of childhood right now. That's a rant of a different colour for another day.

But I will pause to say: { Apparently WHITE TEENAGERS ARE SOLD CAUSAL SEXUALITY as relevant to their lives. It's just the white teenagers are all sold that lifestyle as the thing to do among trust fund babies. Having not read the books, I don't know if any penis veins were involved. I also don't know what if any agency the female characters have when it comes to sex or whether or not they face sexual abuse.}

But, moving past that - or wait, are these things connected? Superficial declarations of love based on physical appearance tied with hypersexualized marketing techniques creating a hypersexualized world?

When a character in a manga claims to have fallen in love with another character, at first sight, is that 'fallen in love with' equal to when people claim love of objects? As in "The moment I saw that sweater/jeans/jewelry/commodity I absolutely fell in love with it and had to have it."

In which case, can someone clue me in on the manga where girls do this and boys become the objects? Because what I've seen so far is what I'd called crushes on teachers or senpai's (older students) with suggestions the girl in question has been watching the individual for a while so presumably there is some attraction to the personality being presented and the girl's nerves stem from confessing interest in more than friendship - breaking the polite established status quo.

Which by the way seems normal, even when it's phrased as a confession, because I guess it is a confession of harbouring more than aquaintence or friend type feelings.

But let's jump back a bit. Because confession of feelings needs the feelings themselves to form in the first place. And again I'm seeing an awful lot of male characters say things like:

• "From the moment I saw you..."


• "You were the girl on the corner/on the tv/in the library/ who never smiled and I have loved you since..."


• "I'm in trouble. I met a girl today and now I'm in love..."

What cultural cues am I missing here? Am I supposed to be reading that as lust no matter what a translator or scanlator says? Am I missing cultural societal cues that would reinforce the concept of a love based on physical attraction? Thus setting up social standards that girls are passive and pretty and if they're passive and pretty/cute enough boys will come to them based on physical attraction?

Which might be a little different from Americanized (Westernized?) thin and sexy - but not by much.

Are there many different words in Japan that mean love? With variations and gradations based on object or person and how much? If so, why isn't that notated? Do translators think it's somehow romantic to have someone looking shallow and arousal focused?

This will be the oddest reason ever for me to attempt to learn Japanese - especially given my own personal frustration with languages.

[Comments On]

Willow Has A Batman Moment

I wanted to make a note of the art, of Thomas and Martha Wayne as Bruce's foundation; the legs he stands on. As well as their deaths being the foundation of Batman. All that combined with Seditious Greed, Capricious Madness, Compromise With Despair and Survival Selfishness; Penguin, Joker, Harvey and Catwoman - hovering in the background like projected internal demons, while Batman protects Gotham's families, Gotham's careless moments, and Innocence.

It's a very effective and evocative piece to me. There's even some mirror in mirror symbolic womb representation. I should get around to finding out who drew it at some point.

In Consumer Society Only White People Have Worth

Platinum Studios¹ apparently has the Disney Media Machinery looking at one of its properties as a vehicle for a young Disney star. Racebending ensues.

Poof! By the magic of insistent marketing engineers, an Asian hero becomes White, most likely because the world of marketing believes white sells, everything else cuts into profit. And as we all know when Disney does a movie there are posters, McDonald tie-ins, soda promotions, t-shirts and toys, other paraphernalia in the Disney stores, an animated tv pilot in the wings - to further grasp the magical demographic of future 18-35 year old white males who are assumed to have more money than girls, women, minorities and anyone over fifty. They're also assumed to be more open to brand imprinting for life long brand loyalty.

Of course this attitude totally confuses in terms of the live action of Avatar:TLA (from whence we get the term racebending) because Nickolodeon and thus Paramount seemed to be doing pretty well already with toys, books and artwork about Asian characters. But then again, I'm not in charge of a multi-billion dollar enterprise, so my perspective on 'doing well' and 'profitable' is more than likely small.

No doubt racebending Aang quadruples perspective market share or something like that. Just like Tommy Zhou becoming Yet Another White Man Doing Asian Martial Arts Better Than Asians - while undoubtedly being more spiritual, noble and heroic than Asian peoples equals more sh*t to sell in a self perpetuating storytelling product selling culture.

No doubt someone will want to point or comment about Tyler Perry or say that Asians need to make their own stuff. To which I say pre-emptively now: The Gatekeepers Of The Film Industry Are White Men Who Grew Up In Segregation & Who Prioritize Profit Over Morals, Art or Citizenship.

Also note how Perry's success comes from a Mammy figure with a gun and representing black American culture and people as insular and separate and the scope is very traditional. The women are 'strong' and 'self sacrificing' and the men are dutiful, wistful, hardworking 'hands'. That's not telling black stories, that's telling white stories about blacks.

______
1. Platinum Studios was last rumored to be near bankruptcy, it gave up WOWIO to another business also transferring the debts it owes various comic artists. To say that marketing plays only a mild or even a traditionally expected role in the decision to whitewash and disnefy is to be swimming in reckless denial; That is, unless your value of 'traditional' includes profit geared, self perpetuating racism.

Actually Jackass, It's Important BECAUSE it's Fiction

This entry is for me, for my realizations. It started out as a letter to a friend but then I realized that I wanted to note it as part of: The Conversation I Want To Have. Or rather I wanted to note it as part of why PoC/Non Whites need to have that particular conversation.

I've spent the past two days or so reading transcripts/watching & listening to recordings on Media Studies. One click from Sociological Images led me to the Media Education Foundation, Jean Kilbourne and George Gerbner.

Now I've known that media fans, especially PoC media fans are savvy. And spending time at this website brought the point home to me. It also brought up Racefail 09 and several arguments about just who is qualified to analyze popular culture and media.

Back then I found myself thinking a lot that there's a difference between book learning and intelligence, but not having a word for it. Today I know the difference is simply vocabulary. When one enters 'the hallowed halls of higher education' one becomes part of a clique. That clique has specific slang, predecessors, mentors, mores, systems and norms.

In Racefail 09, as in many past conversations among media fans about racism, sexism, disablism, cissexism, heteronormatism and the need for intersectionality, the vocabulary word that might have been missing was Cultivation; or rather Cultivation of Culture.

Which is that media/the stories we are told, represent a type of life stability and the more people partake of these particular stories the more they're 'cultivated' to see those stories as being true reflections of life. There is no before and after, there is no particular way to prove affect, because from the time we are born (or introduced to it) electronic media tells society that THIS is the way the world is; THIS being however the medium chooses to describe the world. And then it reinforces that view by showing more examples. And these examples are the same for everyone; society is shown the same images juxtaposed against the same narratives, as something to share; as something everyone knows.

In other words "It's just fiction. It's just entertainment. It's just for fun." is the battle-cry of the stupid, unaware, deluded and willfully malicious. No matter what vocabulary is or isn't used, the argument consistently being made by minorities of the mainstream is that the stories we tell ourselves matter.

And the reason they matter is that they are the not so invisible threads that hold a culture/society together. Stories are the glue that binds us; they are the windows to the soul of society itself. And if those stories erase and minimize various peoples, then the culture erases and minimizes them.

In fact among varied non white indigenous groups, wherein storytelling has always played a major part of their identity, the awareness of being minimized and erased, even if they don't have the vocabulary to describe it as such, is likely FELT and simply known. It is visceral.

      Example: History is a story. And the concept of the victors writing history is the concept of the victors telling the story of the past from their point of view, minimizing and/or erasing contributions made by those they deemed enemy.

Television as the central mode of electronic media combines picture tales with story-telling narrative. It is powerful. It is important. Television and movies say: THIS IS HOW THE WORLD IS. And for far too long that world has been solely or majority white.

• It has also said: all indians wear buckskin, feathers, live in teepees, say how and dance around campfires.



• It has also said: everyone is heterosexual and those who aren't are deviants.



• It has also said: black people are ignorant savages who were saved by civilization despite being lazy, prone to chemical abuse and sex focused.



• It has also said: real women are < insert various and often contradictory messages here > and that 'women' are white.


etc...

So the next time someone talks about Rape Culture or Racist Culture or Homophobic Culture or Heterocentrist Culture or Transphobic Culture or Cissexist Culture and of course of Misogynistic Culture - remember that they are discussing the stories society has told itself and is still telling itself. They are discussing the images and narrative that are repeated over and over again to create a sense of collective knowledge that those representations are true to life.

Marvel - ONLY STRANGER RAPE IS REAL RAPE

Was it really only last night I told Kirk of Box In The Box that I'd have to stop reading him because OMG WTF VOMIT! Seems to happen anytime he mentions Marvel and Spiderman.

And tonight, I start checking my feeds, of which his journal is included automatically and boom tacka boom Marvel + Rape Culture = A OK!

So now DISNEY + MARVEL + RAPE CULTURE = A OK.

Don't believe me? Kirk has the scoop of Marvel writer, Frank La Vente saying:

My understanding of the definition of rape is that it requires force or the threat of force, so no. Using deception to trick someone into granting consent isn't quite the same thing.

Which is not to say it isn't a horrible, evil, reprehensible thing that Chameleon did. He is a bad man.

He insults paraplegics and dips people in acid too.

...


I'm too disgusted to list examples of what, apparently, this writer, this human being walking about interacting with real live human women, apparently doesn't see as rape.

Marvel = Rape Culture. It is succinct and explains much.

Apparently I'll only enjoy the Marvel Universe again when everyone currently working there drops dead. It seems this is not the superhero comics production generation that can learn and grow, mature and change.

And if there is such casual oppression and disregard for fifty percent of the population, then it seems I've been crazy to believe Marvel could do better on issues of race.

Regarding the victim in that plotline being a woman of colour by the way? All I can say is Sara Baartman.

Question

Given that the links I see about current comics canon Spiderman is the universe readers are currently seeing in Marvelverse the Evil/ Dark Mirror Dimension Marvelverse?

I haven't seen mentions of that on blogs, but as I've been trying hard to avoid - I could have missed it.

Meanwhile I'm having odd moments of non stop laughter at the thought of Disney now being associated (especially in search engines) with such things as:


1. Tigra snuff film

2. "Chameleon +rapist peter parker" or "chameleon rapist peter parker"

________

Do you think this is what Disney intended when they bought a ready made market for 'boys' ?

Sexualized death, rape and puppydog tails?

PS: I forgot the mention the whole Peter + Chameleon thing makes me want to snap my legs closed tight and buy an anti rape chasity type device, possibly along with a stun gun and handy penknife for castration. The next time a woman goes to a comic con and mentions gropage, I'm going to be nodding and asking if the dude was a Marvel fan.

How Not To Write About Africa

Signal boost from Black Girl On Mars & DV.

Shucky ducky quack quack.

ETA:Full essay here.

Transphobia & Stupidity

Re: Those Scientists Behaving Badly. Looks like someone got their degree out of a crackerjack box.

Ogi_Ogas Quote:

Well, slash is kind of the female equivalent of the straight male interest in transsexuals. That is, the opposite of what culture would predict. So it probably reflects a more direct subcortical effect...

Followed by this quote:

I'm sensitive to your thoughts about the term "tranny," but that's the term they use for themselves and also the term used by people who love them (as people); at least in the adult industry. It wouldn't be appropriate to describe a transsexual outside the industry; at least, I'd be reluctant to use it. But hearing your reaction, I won't use that term at all any more.

He later begins using the term 'shemale'.

But perhaps this ALL can be explained on learning more about the book these faux socioscientists have sold. The book they're supposedly exposing their stupidity and prejudice for; RULE 34: WHAT NETPORN TEACHES US ABOUT THE BRAIN.

Hmmm. That explains so much doesn't it, from their presuppositions in search of vague data to fudge, to their terminology, to their point of view on objectification.

ETA: Perhaps their 'loose' views and terminolog usage has something to do with Boston University going 'GTFO'. Meaning they have as much FOR SCIENCE backing as someone on the corner who asks for your underpants because 'they're conducting a study'. It's all arm chair sensational psychology and Penguin book contract dreams.

*____*

I have learned something from all of this, though. It never before occurred to me that there are swathes of the public who only experience the concept of trans individuals, lesbians or black women and men via the vehicle of porn. If I think that there are white people who only ever see Luscious Lesbians, who're just straight women who are bored, of course they'd wouldn't understand real lesbians. And if they only ever see black women via porn, of course they'll be surprised to pull back the stub of their arm from when they tried to touch one of us. And if all they ever see is porn where white men get smacked to a corner so black men can hoard all the white women, that would explain a lot of their 'black men = evil'.

Of course tv, far less porn, is seriously removed from real life. But there are a lot of idiots who live carefully segregated lives, who just might not realize that.

*____*

One a related note, Kalinara of Pretty Fizzy Paradise, caught a clue and has edited/updated the post she made about crossdressing.
 

Free Racism 101 Homework

1. Go here and note this conversation with an ig'nant cracker ass misguided white person.

2. Take notes on what she does. List them ALL.

3. Freebie: She's wrong.

4. See if you can figure out why.

5. Bonus: The Original Poster is also full of privileged, racist, white caked shit. Figure out why for a gold star.

Note: Neither Willow nor The Negro Community actually give out gold stars. Also actual minorities may want to skip iteration number 70 bajillion on 'Tone!'