jhameia | Entries tagged with rant

So I did my 12 laps yesterday which was good--I almost felt ready for 15 laps, but I think I'll save that for next week because my arm muscles were starting to burn and I don't need them to hurt.

But on this day, there was a couple in the pool. In previous pool business there were a couple of kids in the pool. And I wouldn't care, whatever, it's a pool, it's big, I only need a small bit of it to swim to and fro. And I stick to the same spot as much as possible, and it's pretty obvious I am not moving.

Except for some forsaken reason, these folks do not seem to understand this?? They kept moving into my path, and I have to swim around them. FFS people there's THE REST OF THE FUCKING POOL TO HORSE AROUND IN GET OUT OF MY LANE!!!!!! And this means I have to wait for these idiots to get out of my way before starting my next lap, or swerving, or whatever, because they have no sense of perception that someone else is in the pool, and just, ugh.

thanks to

ardwynna_m I am underslept and having flashbacks to AeriSeph feels due to her fanfic rec and while I don't regret staying up until 4.30 to read it I kind of am angry that I have to read things I have zero interest in because they are "classics" when there are so many amazing writers outside the establishment I could be looking for

also i can't thank her for it because i've been banned from her LJ and this makes me sad because i have no idea why or when this happened =/ whatever happened, ardwynna, i'm sorry.

The issue is not that I'm not providing you with enough information, because frankly you don't NEED to know ALL THE DATES that I have entered the United States, nor do you NEED to know them in this exact format, nor do you NEED to know about my visits in the 1990s to fucking Disneyland. This information does not actually help with the current situation which is that the data entry fields WILL NOT ACCEPT information input into a single year MORE THAN ONCE, because contrary to what your system states, the coding is clearly not allowing me to do so.

AND WHY HAVE YOU WASTED MY FUCKING TIME REQUESTED DATES FOR 2012 WHEN YOU'RE JUST GOING TO FOLLOW UP, TWENTY FOUR HOURS LATER, WITH A REQUEST FOR *ALL* THE DATES?

THIS IS SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING.

I can actually tell that there are like a dozen people going through the emails and NONE of them have been assigned to my problem alone. So basically I'm re-iterating the SAME PROBLEM OVER. AND OVER. AND OVER. AGAIN, to completely fucking different people who cannot grasp the problem.

HOW is it that I have to wait ONE WHOLE DAY just to get ONE EMAIL?

HIRE MORE PEOPLE YOU ASSHOLES.

Shit, I wish I hadn't cut them some slack and just hounded them from the start rather than tried the system over and over again.

I'm keying in data into GLACIER, which is some Amurrcan tax system, which helps the tax people determine how much money they should take out of my scholarship checks. Somewhere in the GLACIER system, I run across this:

For each CALENDAR YEAR between 1986 and your date of arrival that you were previously present in the U.S., please select the calendar year of each Prior Visit and the corresponding Immigration Status and Total Number of Days associated with each Immigration Status. You MUST include ALL Prior Visits to the U.S.

Do these assholes understand how often I have visited the States? No. There is an implicit assumption that we're all dirt poor and couldn't have visited the States often, because there are only 8 lines in which we can enter data.

The fields provided: CALENDAR YEAR, IMMIGRATION STATUS, TOTAL NUMBER OF DAYS

Here is where I'm stuck. I had a B1/B2 visa for the last ten years. Everytime I've entered the States, it's basically an arbitrary decision by the immigration officer whether s/he signs it B1 or B2.

I'm not a fan of lying, so I list down the different immigration statuses:

2012 - B1 - 2
2012 - B2 - 28
2011 - B1 - 15
2011 - B2 - 19
2010 - B1 - 17
2010 - B2 - 3

But guess what happens when I do this?

"GLACIER does not support more than 2 visits in any one year. Please contact the GLACIER Support Center for assistance."

??????????

OK, so GLACIER Support Center. I write 'em and basically explain, yo, I keep getting this error message everytime I follow the instructions. What is up?

....

"Thank you for your email. Please input all visits in F, J, M or Q immigration status. Then please input all visits in all immigration statuses in 2012, 2011, and 2010. If you still need more space, then please email me ALL of your visit information including entry and departure dates and immigration status for each visit."

I'm sorry, but somehow or another this person does not seem to understand my problem. Which is that, I JUST FUCKING DID ALL THAT.

Well, maybe I misunderstood, so I asked again:

None of my prior visits were under F, J, M nor Q immigration status. I have made multiple visits under B1 or B2 statuses and tried to input these visits separately without success (see previous email for the error message I receive). I have also been through US immigration while in transit between Malaysia and Canada. Please advise.

Response?

"As I stated below, please input ALL visits in 2012, 2011 and 2010. You may combine the days you visited and show as one visit."

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO?????

But, calm down, I know how to write to support:

"I have attempted to input ALL visits in 2012, 2011 and 2010 with no success.

The following is the information I have attempted to input:
2012 - B1 - 2
2012 - B2 - 28
2011 - B1 - 15
2011 - B2 - 19
2010 - B1 - 17
2010 - B2 - 3

Please advise if I should disregard the status written in my passport and simply combine all the dates into a single status."

TOO BAD SUPPORT DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE ME BACK:
"Please provide the dates of entry and exit to the U.S. in 2012 including the immigration status. Also, please let us know how long you plan to be in the U.S. in 2012."

I PLAN TO BE SITTIN' IN YOUR COUNTRY FOR A LOONNNG TIME, MOFO. NOW FIX IT SO YA'LL DON'T RIP OFF YOUR OWN TAXPAYER MONEY PAYING TOOLS LIKE YOUR TECH SUPPORT.

And I want to get this DONE so badly, otherwise the financial aid hold on my account won't come off (there's apparently also a technology fee I have to pay, which is stupid).

I'm going to clear my apartment all crabby now.

EDIT:

Just tried entering ONE immigration status per year, and it got through. How stupid is this? WHY do these assholes even bother separating the statuses if the system can't even handle the idea that, OMG! PEOPLE MIGHT ENTER THE COUNTRY MORE THAN ONCE IN THE SAME YEAR WITH DIFFERENT STATUSES.

Hi Lou,

Fan here and hopefully future SFWA member, and I find your lack of knowledge and perspective about this issue appalling.

The USA has a long history of dehumanizing huge swaths of people in order to exploit their labour. Even today in the animal rights movement, there are organizations that use tactics that dehumanize actual people in the name of saving animals. These issues permeate everything, from media representation to political representation, right down to how individuals speak to each other.

Your affection to your companion animals does not in any way elevate them, on any institutional level, to the rank of human beings, many of whom still face obstacles to have any decent quality of life that you have no problem giving your own dogs. Many individuals suffer being thought of as animals, not quite human, on a systemic level, and yet here you are utterly unable to comprehend that perhaps this is a larger issue beyond what you think about your dogs. People are denied citizenship, denied humanity, and denied basic respect, based on their ethnicity, and somehow, Nisi is taking herself "way too seriously" because you don't understand why the ethnic identity movement exists? A movement which has spread to encompass other forms of identity, beyond ethnicity?

What, then, qualifies you to run on a platform that touts "diversity", when you clearly don't understand the concept? What qualifies you to tell a woman of colour, who will face dehumanization on a more regular basis than you, or your dogs, ever will, how she should approach the issue? How dare you, in fact, tell her, a woman who probably has faced more racism in the last month than you have your entire life, that's she's speaking of something esoteric?

As someone who may potentially become a permanent resident of North America, facing immigration issues, it's deeply insulting to see that dogs are granted immediate citizenship over humans. It is deeply enraging to see the hyphen of identity, used and insisted on by so many minority groups to claim just a little piece of America for themselves, trivialized in such a way for animals, because some random dude thinks it's cute and funny.

I strongly urge you, whether you win or not, to research what the term "diversity" means and can truly encompass, so that you can learn for yourself how you are participating in the trivializing and whitewashing of the term, your participation of which perpetuates the racism that permeates the system that people of colour are forced to survive.

Perhaps in that search you will also see how your apology isn't truly an apology. Nisi may have accepted it, but since you clearly don't understand why you're giving it, it doesn't mean much in the long run. I understand the impulse to give the apology; I've done it before. And that's why I can tell you, there is more to apologizing than saying, "if it means that much to you, here are the five letters that make up this word."

ONCE AGAIN, WITH FEELING.

SO my computer has this problem where the battery doesn't last much longer than an hour. Which thus far hasn't been a problem while I write on my couch, because frankly, there is something about this table, and something about this setup, that aggravates me a great deal. I've not been able to get any writing done in this fucking apartment, and I feel like the energy isn't flowing very well. Part of it has to do with the apartment setup, with narrow corridors and awkward corners and shit. I do believe in chi (although not necessarily feng shui) and I feel like there is something with the way the apartment is set up that is preventing energy from flowing as smoothly as it could.

BUT ANYWAY, I've been getting good results typing on my laptop while on the couch, so I was doing that this evening. And usually when I hit a critical level, my laptop warns me. IT WARNS ME!

BUT TONIGHT?

NO IT DIDN'T.

That's about 3000 words, writing on NotePad because that's the software I'm most comfortable with, because it doesn't have a distracting UI, GONE. GONE. GONE! WONDERFUL WORLDBUILDING SCENES, GONE. WONDERFUL EXPOSITION ON MY CHARACTER'S FAMILY LIFE, GONE. WONDERFUL GENDER-NEUTRAL SEX SCENE, GONE.

I AM SO PISSED I am literally HISSING and SNARLING while I pace my hallway (can't pace my living room because it makes too much noise, which adds to my crankiness).

In a word,,hb4 gn rqnklhitwoqbdfiuhdvroitkjn vdwkj b rg3oih wrtlihgrjhvf,m vcx .

So it has been a horrifying trip thus far. I swear, I swore so much this trip that I've never done before, in front of perfectly nice TSA agents, even.

It started with being marked for a closer security check. I've been told that tickets are marked for closer security checks at random, but somehow, it is ALWAYS. ME. I've NEVER seen anybody else besides me in U.S. airports get "randomly" assigned for these checks. There's a mark on the plane ticket, usually "S". I always forget to check for these. I had the choice of a body scanner or a patdown, so I went for the body scanner. This time, I noticed one other woman selected for the scan; I'm pretty sure we were picked before we're both not white.

So there was a delayed flight between Pearson and LA, and I arrived in LA way late, with only 45 minutes to spare in between flights. So I had to run, and ask how to get from one terminal to another. People, LAX has a BUS SYSTEM. Where the BUSES serving the TERMINALS are at the mercy of GENERAL TRAFFIC OUTSIDE. Aside from walking, I cannot think of a worse system. I did manage to get in with maybe 20 or 30 minutes to spare, oh, but guess what? ANOTHER BODY CHECK! I looked at the clock and back at the dude checking my ticket, and asked, "I'm not gonna make this flight, am I?" and he was like ".... no." And I just went "FUCK!"

This time I had no choice but a patdown, just a choice of private versus public. Then I ran and ran to the plane. Managed to catch it, and arrived in San Jose like, 15 minutes after Ay-Leen did. Unfortunately, she thought I got there earlier? So she was already in the hotel XD Since I was on the phone already, while she was at the front desk, she managed to check in.

I hung out to wait for my baggage, and of course it didn't show. But as it turns out, not because it didn't make it to the plane in time! Oh no, the handlers at LAX sent it to baggage claim instead of forwarding it to the other terminal! (I am currently writing this post while sitting in thermal underwear, which is still awkward.)

Shit, ya'll, this trip is expensive. $15 the minimum taxi fare? Fuck me. When I got to the hotel, I then had to wait SEVERAL MINUTES for some folks in front of me to be done at the two open front desks, and I noticed another line building for the other desk and I thought, the first desk that opens up is MINE. If the other people try to go first, I am going to snarl in their face. But the other desk from where I was opened up first and the dude called me over, and he'd been expecting me since he was the one who checked Ay-Leen in.

Internet is $9.95 a day, the cheapest rate for wireless. But I need to at least tell some folks why I'm AWOL since I'm... not used to it. Also, I need to watch My Beautiful Laundrette and today's the freest day for me to do so. So I better get it done. Sigh.

My brother sent me and my dad Amy Chua's racist screed on how her abusive parenting skills are better and inherently Chinese, because he'd "never thought about it that way before" and I had to remind them both that it's racist, Orientalist, and abusive on several levels, plus it's a fucked up, terrible interpretation of Chinese ancestor worship. My dad emailed back laughing and said apparently my mom thinks she had a hand at all in my getting cum laude in my BA.

( cut for personal angry stuff )

IN SUM, FUCK THIS SHIT. I AM GOING TO SCHOOL TO FINISH MY ESSAY FOR NISI, MY PROPOSAL, AND READ JUDITH BUTLER.

Somewhere buried in comments Cat Valente asked "What's so important about steampunk we have to help it along?"

I have no desire to post where my comment won't be noticed, so here it is:

It's not that important, if you frame the question that way.

It just so happens to be that one subgenre which so flagrantly displays Western European hegemony, white supremacy, glorification of imperialism, capitalist consumerism, technophiliac fetish dedicated to destruction... all under the banner of post-modernist irony, post-racial/feminist sensitivities and apolitically harmless fun.

No other subgenre at the moment is such a grandiose example of the spectacle that is capitalist consumerism today. Few other subgenres are so rooted in possible fact that possibilities for unrooting hidden truths are so wide open. No other subgenre is so rooted in deeply personal and cultural histories -- whose history is being altered? Who is being mimicked and glorified as great adventurers? In what other subculture can you dress up and meet people who, not being part of the subculture, say "my grandmother owned something like this"? -- and no other subgenre has been so gaily taken up as such a pleasurable pasttime. No other subgenre has that same potential to interrogate and subvert current narratives -- who can be slave and who can be master? Who is part of the marginalized group that can find its voice? -- and no other subgenre begins from such a problematic space. No other subgenre is so ripe for the myriad of representations of truth to come out and no other subgenre opens itself so openly to the experiences of the marginalized to assert itself not just in the far distance future beyond the stars but right at the kernel of where we all started getting fucked over.

That, at least, is why I care about steampunk. You better believe I'm going to enjoy writing my Qing Dynasty period novel whupping the British by way of airship pirates for introducing and poisoning the population with opium. Just sayin'.

You want to hate on steampunk? Steampunk's not the problem. Imperialism is the problem. White supremacy is the problem. Consumerism is the problem. Implicit, microaggressive racism is the problem. Steampunk's just the aesthetic being run over by the usual bullshit, because, guess what? Of course it's going to be! HELLO CAPITALISM, HOW R U. US OF A SENDS ITS LOVE AS USUAL.

You know what? I'm sick of mainstream steampunk too! I'm sick of white folk running around in pith helmets pretending to be adventurers looking for treasure in the depths of uncharted territory (whose map are you referring to, white folk?) and I am sick of corsets worn on the outside (we get it, ladies are sexy in corsets, now get your Male Gaze offa us) and I am sick of this "anything goes, steampunks love everybody" naivete (even bigots? Do we have to tolerate bigots?) and I am sick of death rays and the Tesla cannon worship (GUYS! EINSTEIN WAS APPALLED AT THE ATOM BOMB FOR A REASON OKAY? and I'm sorry but Agatha's love for death rays falls right into this trap; love the comic, not so hot on the very USian warmongering technophilia reflected in it, reading it for Gil) and I am sick of Orientalist imagery (WHY OH WHY DID PAOLO BACIGALUPI WIN THE FUCKING HUGO?) and I'm sick of generalized statements on how history was like which refuses to engage in the problematic issues of the past (like amandaw once said, "fuckin' nuance, how does it work?") and I am sick of populist lets-vote-for-the-most-visible-pretty-people (the "oh shiny!" factor should only carry us so far).

That doesn't mean I hate steampunk though. It just means I hate rubbishy Boobieships and Titrockets style skiffy. And to be fair, nothing in the world could improve on that, not even my beloved steampunk.

OK I am done hating on the world now.

Have I mentioned I wrote a sequel to Between Islands? I did! I submitted it to Crossed Genres. It's not the sequel I'm planning for Expanded Horizons but if CG doesn't want it I'll send it over

spacehawk's way.

Also, for my CSCT 700 course, I think I'm going to take the readings we did on Jameson and Adorno and apply their anxieties on capitalist consumerism to steampunk (because I can!), drawing on the example of what happened to the punk and goth aesthetics. I'm still wading through a lot of postcolonial and race theories to make sense of how I want to go about my MRP.

And in the middle of all this, Cherie Priest is a terrifically funny person. I look forward to meeting her at Nova Albion. And reading Clementin.

ETA: And to end, a quote on my Tumblr dashboard:

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” -- Mary Anne Radmacher

Look, Rogers, you are charging me for data usage that I CAN'T EVEN USE. Because for some reason your data internet service is not working with my Sony Ericsson phone. Why, I cannot even fathom. And no, your technical support FAQs on your websites DO NOT HELP. They are all for iPhones and Blackberries. WE DO NOT ALL USE IPHONES AND BLACKBERRIES. You are supposed to be on the GSM Network. My phone uses SIM cards that are on the GSM network. By right YOUR FUCKING SERVICE SHOULD GIVE ME INTERNET ON MY PHONE, except for whatever reason, YOUR SERVICE IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH MY SOFTWARE. Which is ridiculous, because all it requires is for your end to be receptive of my phone access without any fucking mumbo jumbo. I suspect part of this is because your fucking monopoly on locked phones wherein people cannot buy a phone without also getting a service provider at the same time means you are lax on creating working relationships with people who don't like your phones BUT WANT TO USE YOUR SERVICE ANYWAY. Because sadly, there isn't another service provider available that's on the GSM network.

And the fucking kicker is that in order to use the internet on my cellphone, which also happens to be the only phone I use, I need to call you from another phone.

Okay. Kek sei. Seems like every time I want to wind down in preparation for something stressful, something pops up that I just cannot ignore.

Recently, Hiroshima held its annual memorial ceremony to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, and for the first time, the U.S.A. sent a delegation to the ceremony. But Japan is angry! Because U.S.A. has offered no apology for the bombing. Over 250,000 people, civilians, died as a result, from the bombing itself, or from the radiation aftereffects.

There are some people who actually believe that just because Japan committed many war crimes itself during WWII, that Japan deserves no apology for the heinous death toll inflicted upon its civilians[1]. Still others believe that because Japan refuses to acknowledge its warcrimes, such as the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March, because there is no outrage over this silence from Japan, that there is no reason to honour Japan's dead.

OK look.

( Cut to save your flist )

Cross-posted to Intersectionality Dreaming

Context for f-list:

fiction_theory: Because writing a book for fun and profit is totally just like what happened at Bataan

miir: Patalim (trigger warning for descriptions of violence)

ithiliana: One reason why anybody using 'PC' bugs the everyloving crap out of me
manifesta @ DW: I can't even think of a title for this (on "mythologizing")

glass_icarus: only our life, our life and its forgetting
troisroyaumes @ DW: On history and memory

miir: Ang di magnasang makaalpas

I already said my piece over in the offending LJ but I can't let this go. This bothers me so much. For the longest while, I was just all ":O IDE" but I've been sitting on this, just getting more and more angry, so if I don't get it out, I think I might burst.
( Cut for long rant )

Cross-posted to DW and Intersectionality Dreaming

OK so I discovered this. RaceFail participants would know who/what I'm talking about.

An authour recently wrote a book as a tribute to his adopted Chinese daughter.

This book has a SEAsian protagonist.

Who is bought and raised to be a courtesan-assassin. ETA:

yeloson reminded me in comments - bought by a white man!

And has several scenes of titillating sex. Lesbian sex. With a character who raises her, even.

The climax occurs when the antagonist is distracted because the protagonist has lesbian sex in front of him and distracts him.

Let's see. Asian = "exotic" trope. Courtesan = "sexualized" trope. Assassin = "dragon lady" trope.

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT IF MY DAD WROTE A STORY LIKE THIS AS A TRIBUTE TO ME I WOULD BE REALLY CREEPED OUT.

The fact that said authour claims to be progressive and can't possibly be racist because he has a Chinese daughter makes this whole thing worse.

But OF COURSE we Asian women need yet another character out there boxing us into exotic sexualized dragon lady narratives. I mean, that's all we're fucking good for, amirite?

I am so fucking heartsick right now that this was published and is available on the market for public consumption as regular fantasy fare.

I just.

... OMG WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE! I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO EXPRESS MY HORROR AT THE SCREWED UP PEOPLE IT PRODUCES!

IDE! AI. DEE. EE.

Fury of the Phoenix's cover:

I went looking through my portfolio, and I'm not even particularly proud of this image but I AM FEELING KIND OF STABBITY ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW:

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.

ETA Do you want to see an example of cover changes done RIGHT? Here, have the Indonesian cover of Adrienne Kress' Alex and the Ironic Gentleman. IF BROWN PEOPLE CAN DO WHITE CHARACTERS JUSTICE, WHY CAN'T WHITE PEOPLE DO THE SAME?

If you spend time whinging about how you fucked up and are sorry for fucking with me for your entertainment, leading the first conversation we've had in months by mocking my current activities, whether faked or not, is probably not a good idea. And worse if you've managed to get a mutual friend to ask me to give you a goddamn fucking chance because I am leaving and should let "bygones be bygones". Fuck that shit, I should not have had to stand through your stupid-ass mock-gagging when telling you about interests important to me and to listen to you mock me for talking about how exhausted I am from travelling, just so I can be civil and give you a chance you clearly don't deserve. But I was civil anyway, and nice to you, and wished you a nice goodbye, and even gave you a hug, because I'm like that, and I shouldn't have to be.

I want those fucking fifteen minutes of my life wasted on being civil on your stupid ass back, asshole.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but if you're going to write a review about Evelyn Evelyn and dismiss the criticism from the people who are facing the oppression that our horrendously ablist culture is bringing up as being "too angry", you're missing the point of feminism, which is, you know, at its very base, anti-oppression. And after days and tens of comments of people pointing out to you how accessibility issues are very real and have effects on lives of actual people, you know, much like how sexism has very real effects on women, which is what feminism addresses, you do not get to say this:

I’d say you’re all more than welcome to come and kick my ass, but I’m afraid my house isn’t wheelchair accessible.

Saying this to people who identify as PWD? This is schoolyard bullying. This is pushing a person smaller than you down to the ground. This is not levity. As a lover of humour, I am deeply insulted and incensed you even call this levity. How dare you? Throwing sand into a person's eyes and laughing is not levity.

It is cruelty.

I'm stumped that the mod of a site called Feminist Review has the gall to allow such a cruel person run rampant. But after all the shit that has broken out in the feminist blogosphere recently, I'm not surprised. Feminists are not free from the sociopathic conditioning that the larger kyriarchal culture breeds in us. This is just another bit in a long line of evidence.

So... this post doesn't actually have a point after I refused to engage in that thread after the mod's first response to me (which amounted to, "oh, but we want to have a dialogue! we just can't make people hold back, that wouldn't be fair! which really means I won't be holding people accountable for playing into oppression!") but I just wanted to say to the FWDs who've been fighting the good fight, you are awesome. And I am so sorry you had to even fight.

That Fail that is RaceBending is so far gone, this is how I'm feeling about the whole goddamn thing:

I'm getting snappy even at my own friends who don't grasp the concept, that's how Fail-ful the bloody fucking thing is.

ETA: An example of me snapping.

Because Ottens continues to be a dipshit:

I feel compelled to tell you this:

I am not offended.

I am contemptuous.

Contemptuous of the fact that you choose to dismiss the very real harm these attitudes propagate on very real people. Contemptuous that you think your entertainment is so much more important than the daily discrimination people who look like me face. Contemptuous of the fact that you think your intent to mean no disrespect actually matters in the face of the hurt you cause. Contemptuous that you insist on defending what we, members of the affected marginalized groups, have said, time and again, is a really harmful idea.

"Offended" isn't the word. Try "angry". Try "baffled". Try "unsurprised at racism". (And able-ism, hey ho!)

But most of all, contemptuous.

ETA: Ottens has used this post as an example of name-calling being targeted at him. This being my personal space, I am not going to apologize for what I say out of very real anger at him being disrespectful towards me and mine. The difference is, I use direct insults, and he blankets his disrespect behind intellectual words and privilege.

So I was reading Starling's post on Schrodinger's Rapist, and this guy has been like, making all these n00b comments on "why cant men approach women isn't that unproductive in breaking down the barriers between women who do you know we're not being unfriendly" BLA BLA BLA you know, typical "I'm a man pls help me understand Feminism 101 despite the several links and 900++ comments" so the nice commenters there tell him to read the (by now) 1000++ strong comments which cover conversations, over and over again, on how to approach women, when NOT to approach women, repetition of "do not approach this woman unless she shows you clear signals that she is open to conversation".

Finally, after some resistance to the arguments and falling back on "I'm an economist" (and therefore he doesn't buy these arguments, although by now, any grown-up can tell that if you expect a reward for behaving like a decent human being you are either a young child or a SOCIOPATH), he throws us this little gem:

I think we’re talking about a problematic systemic condition (that you call rape-culture)

My mind just went BLANK for several seconds and I was like "OMG! After one thousand comments that we have repeatedly told you to read you finally clued on to this? YOU ARE SO CUTE! HOW OLD ARE YOU AGAIN?

Oh man. My mind is reeling.

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Reaching Out

The rest of the world is always there

a brief rant about other people in the pool

(no subject)

No, GLACIER, you don't NEED it

The U.S. Govt creates work for us and refuses to help us make sense of it

So i had to post this

SNARL HISS

Paying $9.95 for today, just to post stuff.

Ugh.

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We Are A Sick Sick World

And while I'm at it

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OK LOOK YOU GUYS

My heart breaks for Silver Phoenix

This is just to say

Not giving context because I don't want to add fuel to the fire.

Bah, I say.

To Borrow A Leaf from Shakesville

LOL BRAIN BREAK!

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October 2017

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