Blog Archives
Walking while black
17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed on February 26 by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is claiming self-defense, and apparently the police believe him, because he hasn’t been arrested or charged.
That’s about all I know for sure about this. But if you click here you can listen to some of the 911 calls made on that night, and they’re certainly suggestive.
At the time Zimmerman spoke to police, he was in a car and had a loaded gun. He had all the power in this situation. It seems likely that if he’s stayed in the car and stopped following the kid, as he was told to do, this would have been just another case of cops questioning a boy for walking while black. In one of those 911 calls you can hear, in the background, screams for help which go silent after a gunshot.
I’m not going to say that Zimmerman is a murderer. It’s difficult for me to believe that it was self-defense, but I wasn’t there, I don’t know. In a society that has, or at least purports to have, the rule of law it’s not my place to make that judgment, that’s for actual judges and juries to do. Not me, and not the Sanford Police. Justice is clearly not being done, here.
Here’s a link to a Change.org petition to push for prosecution, if you feel like signing.
The Hypocratic Oath in Texas.
By now you may have heard about this week’s Doonesbury storyline, the one that many newspapers aren’t publishing. Here’s a link to the beginning of it, you can click on the strip itself to see a larger image. Just click through and read it.
All done? Good, now read this actual account of an actual woman going through that actual nightmare. Especially if you’re Texan, Republican, or male, don’t make excuses, fucking read it. Imagine it, try to visualize going through that. Imagine someone you love having to do that. Read the rest of this entry
Search the Ides of March
Great to see you everybody! Did you all bring your knives? Julius should be here in a little while, he’s going to be so surprised! While we wait, here are the search engine queries that led people to my blog over the last 30 days. As usual, search terms are bold while my commentary is italic. Read the rest of this entry
Dance with me
A friend sent me a link to the AXIS Dance Company. This innovative dance troupe “paved the way for a powerful contemporary dance form called physically integrated dance.” What this means in practice is that about half of the dancers are physically disabled.
It’s a really neat concept, and they do some very creative things. Until you’ve seen a woman spinning on the wheel of an occupied wheelchair lying on its side, you can’t really appreciate it. While many of the individual movements are fascinating to me, the actual performances don’t really interest me that much. I’m not sure if that’s a stylistic thing or if I’m just too much of a philistine to appreciate them. Read the rest of this entry
Fashion statements
It’s well known that things tend to happen in cycles. Apparently men’s tights are coming back into style now. To be honest, I’m a little angry about that.
Oh, I don’t mind the changing trends of fashion or that something could go from men to women and now both, or that these arrive just as I’m starting to really enjoy loose clothing. No, what really pisses me off is that they’re calling them “mantyhose”. Fucking mantyhose, people!
But, disgust over nomenclature aside, it raises some interesting questions about style. Male fashions separated from hosiery a long time ago, (I think during the 17th century, but I may be mistaken) and most menswear today is just so very different from then. I think it will take a while for the evolution of fashion to reach a point where you’ll see guys wearing them on casual Friday.
Personally, I’d love to see this combined with this. Don’t know what else to wear with that, but black leather and shiny steel comes to mind. Any suggestions?
Untitiled
Today’s topic is burlesque. Specifically, this question a friend tossed at me while I was whining that I didn’t know what to write about.
blog on whether burlesque is a celebration of female sexuality or an objectification of women, and is it really objectification or just good advertising if it’s consensual and it’s the woman herself who is objectifying herself?
On the first part, the short answer is “it depends”. Burlesque is simply too broad a category, taken as a whole, to be classified like this. You’ll find shows that are either, neither, both, or even “reply hazy, try again later”. Worse, celebration & objectification are both subjective concepts with fuzzy edges. Thanks to confirmation bias, watching the same show with different expectations could give radically different opinions. Read the rest of this entry
Hot Water on Wheels
No real point tonight, just some random thoughts strung together. While I was casting around for blog ideas I got a couple that combined in an interesting way. They’re mobile hot tubs, burlesque, and the objectification of women. I just imagine a sort of huge limo with a hot tub and a stage and a camera crew.
On the subject of mobile hot tubs, they sound pretty sweet in a limo or a luxury RV. I don’t think I would enjoy actually driving around in one, but hey you could park it somewhere. Also I really prefer to be outdoors for my hot tubbery, so I kind of like the idea of a self-contained hot tub that you could take camping or something.
I’m too tired for a longer post tonight, so the burlesque will have to wait til tomorrow.
Zombie Dream
So last night I dreamt that there was a zombie plague spreading across the world. This probably has something to do with my company today. Anyways, in the dream it turned out to be not as big a deal as everyone expected, because social instincts didn’t change much. Social animals continued their lives without much change, they’d lose their sex drive and want to eat brains, but their willingness to kill their own kind didn’t change much.
So your average human zombie was a little more resistant to change and didn’t care about sex, but otherwise not very different from the general populace. Go ahead and make your own GOP joke.
I dimly remember an encounter with a zombie version of a large bird of prey, a solitary predator that was extremely aggressive, and attacked us on sight. Someone mentioned that there weren’t any unzombied ones left in the wild, that species had gone over to the undead completely. Seems very sad now, at the time I was too busy keeping track of those talons to think that they were effectively already extinct.
Well, that’s about all I can remember. Have a great day!
The Kiss
She sat in the wheelchair and waited, doubts gnawing at her. She wasn’t sure what to expect, he would arrive any minute and see her in the chair for the first time. She’d been dreading this day as the growing weakness in her legs made walking an increasingly limited resource, finally she could no longer pretend. Even though she’d warned him that this day was coming, quiet fears whispered to her. “Can I still be sexy?”
She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear the door open, and suddenly there he was, closing the door behind him. Their eyes locked and for an instant she thought she saw sadness flicker across his face before he smiled. He stepped forward and knelt before the chair. Looking at his face this close, she was certain that a little sadness tinged his smile, and that made her hesitate. Torn between reaching for him and pulling away, she parted her lips a little. As though taking it as a signal, he leaned forward and kissed her.
Time stopped for a breathless instant and she sat completely still, her eyes closed, her mind focused on the warmth & pressure of his lips. Then she lifted her arms to embrace him and inhaled deeply, smelling soap and aftershave. Suddenly aware of his hands on her back she leaned into him, the kiss growing more intense as she ran fingers up his neck and into his hair. The tips of their tongues touched as his hands slid down her body, curling fingers around her hips and pulling her to him, pressing as much of their bodies against each other as possible. Her legs wrapped around him, holding him with all the strength they could muster. Her fingers contracted, grabbed one handful of shirt and another of hair, and she felt his breath hitch in a tiny shudder as his arms lifted to enfold her.
After what seemed like a long time, the intensity started to wane and they began to relax. Gradually they disentangled themselves and looked into each other’s eyes. She started to say something just as he did, and they both laughed. Her fears at ease, she smiled and pulled him forward for a second kiss.
From the Stars, and #NudePhotoRevolutionary Calender
Couple of neat things.
First, I found this video at Bad Astronomy.
It’s always fascinated me to know that we literally came from stars, and Neil Tyson explains why very clearly. Truly awesome in that the thought inspires genuine awe. Read the rest of this entry
Modern Democracy
So this happened. The president has claimed the power to execute people without trial. The executive branch has been assuming more and more power since I first started really paying attention back in Y2K. The legislative branch seems to have abdicated its responsibilities and spends its time squabbling like spoiled children. The judicial branch is the only one that seems to still be doing its actual job, except for the Supreme Court, which is just weird.
I had thought the executive branch power-grab was just a Bush thing, since I didn’t pay any attention to politics before his presidency. But no, Obama’s doing the same shit Bush did, he’s just being less stupid and obvious about it. He’s abused the state secrets privilege, signed himself the power to detain people indefinitely, and has now claimed the power to kill without any real limits. Bizarrely, the right-wing never mentions any of this, they criticize him for insane shit like not having a long enough birth certificate, “socialism”, or looking too black. I can only assume the authoritarian power grabs are something they approve of.
And I’m probably still going to vote for the bastard, because evil & competent is still far, far better than the alternatives this election.
What the hell happened to this country?
One small battle won.
Here’s a Rolling Stone article from a month ago about the Anoka-Hennepin school district and its war on gay kids, which I have written about before. It’s painful to read, it tells the stories of a handful of victims of that school district in a very personal way. I won’t blame you if you can’t read it in detail. There will not be a test.
I bring this up because there’s been a tiny victory. A lawsuit settled out of court, some concessions to new policies, a cash payment. You can read the details of the settlement here. One member of the school board, Kathy Tingelstad, resigned. She said the settlement was going to cost too much.
Cost too much. Read the rest of this entry
The limits of tolerence
Natalie Reed is facing a problem that I’ve become more and more aware of in the last year or so. Natalie blogs about feminism, atheism, skepticism, and trans/queer rights (and may or may not be a magical unicorn) and she’s facing hostility, even outright bigotry, to each of these issues from people who are nominally her allies on one of the others. It’s almost as if they’re seen as “teams” and if not directly competing with each other, at least arguing over who gets to use the ball-park.
This bit jumped out at me:
A friend of mine once made the grim but terribly accurate observation (in the context of talking about trans women who dismiss the rights or genders of other trans women who are, say, non-op or lesbian) that people only tend to be exactly as tolerant as it takes to accept themselves, and maybe their immediate friends and family, but have a whole lot of trouble extending that principle beyond that circle, to people who they don’t understand, with whom they don’t share the same experiences or identities or priorities.
That feels very accurate to me, though still very confusing. I’m reminded that soon after I posted this I had an acquaintance discreetly ask me if I were intersex because it seemed so unlikely that someone who wasn’t would think to include them. Read the rest of this entry
Codependency in American politics
Had a couple of potential blog posts started when someone linked this on Facebook. The short version is that a negligent school employee (or possibly volunteer) illegally violated a teenager’s medical privacy and let the fact that she took birth control pills become public knowledge. Since every class apparently comes standard with the kind of people whose only joy seems to be causing misery in others, she’s been hearing how she’s a slut who wants to fuck everyone because Rush “Illegal Viagra” Limbaugh said so.
I’ve already written about this a bit, but I thought this was worth passing along because it brings such a human face to the sort of petty cruelty that’s behind this bizarre birth control argument. It also illustrates something genuinely terrifying: People listen to this asshole.
Think of the implications of that. It’s difficult for me to think about it without feeling sure that it must be a symptom of something terribly wrong with our culture, some sickness that we need to understand and cure.
Here’s a short excerpt from a comment by FishOutofWater at the Daily Kos link above:
Limbaugh is an abuser who encourages others to abuse.
This really strikes me as an accurate description not only of Limbaugh, but of many prominent voices of the American right-wing. It really feels like what the Republican party has been turning into. For all the rhetoric about jobs or fiscal responsibility, the actual platforms of the party candidates seem to be almost entirely based on dehumanizing and taking away rights and freedoms from people, while insisting that it’s for their own good, or that the only people it affects aren’t really people.
The loyalty this party inspires baffles me. This isn’t a Ford/Chevy conflict, some harmless name-brand attachment that gets passed down through the family, this is our home, our nation, our society. The choices we make in our government have long-lasting, far-reaching implications. It affects the entire world. This is our future, and the future we leave for our children. The only way it makes any sense to me is a sort of abusive codependency, like the woman who bails her husband out of jail when he’s in there for breaking her arm because his dinner was cold.
Haven’t they hit you enough?
Unable to comply
It looks like Toys R Us won’t have to choose whether or not they’re going to pull the Archie comic featuring gay marriage from their shelves as the American Patriarchy Association has demanded. Because that issue has sold out.
I think that’s pretty cool, but I wanted to touch on this quote:
Homosexuality is a topic which is “too complicated” for children to understand, say the mothers, and “a trip to the toy store turns into a premature discussion on sexual orientation and is completely uncalled for”.
I really don’t see how this is complicated. It seriously doesn’t seem any more complex than heterosexuality. Two men got married, what’s so complicated about that? How hard is it to explain that people love each other?
A nasty little part of me thinks the real problem is that kids aren’t likely to develop any real hostility towards different people this way. That the complicated part is explaining to them why these people should be treated with cruelty. But I’d like to think that people are better than that. That the only real problem is that these parents are uncomfortable with the subject and they don’t want to have to talk about it.
It seems really silly to me. Marriage is the same regardless of the sex of the spouses. If you can explain to a child why a woman would marry a man, surely to explain her marrying a woman you simply give the same explanation. Gay marriage, for all the talk, really is just marriage.
The Adventures of Leo Tarvi 