Apple Cider

Pretty okay - going to watch TV all night, have a full weekend of recording and editing podcasts and video games.

Gender neutral pronouns mean that they exist for genders outside of the "binary", specifically, and yes, calling attention to someone's gender by using a pronoun that fits them is what they want - it's specifically saying "this is the pronoun that suits me and my gender." Gender neutral doesn't mean literally "free from gender" but rather "not he/him or she/her" which is how we've codified gender (so only 2, though many people who are GQ and otherwise still use he/she) in our language thus far.

I know that "dumb Tumblr stuff" is the tack a lot of the Internet community takes, particularly anyone from quadrants that get a lot of their jokes from Reddit, 4chan or Something Awful but honestly? There's a lot of people on Tumblr, from teens to adults and while some of it is weird and eye-roll worthy, teens grow up into being adults. I never had Tumblr when I was a teen. I grew up being bisexual and cobbling together what that meant fairly alone, because the Internet was still pretty new back then. If people write weird stuff on there and grow out it or stick with it, whatever, that's their right to. And brushing all of that aside as "dumb Tumblr stuff" negates that they are still people who have feelings. I really hate that Tumblr has become some sort of ideological catch-all for the sector of the internet that people still feel okay with shitting all over because it doesn't conform to a large part of the culture that was determined by straight white dudes, I guess? I can't think of any way other than that to put it but it kinda infuriates me because people use it as an excuse to shit on people who, despite using language or coming up with stuff that feels really ridiculous to you, are still probably pretty vulnerable. By the way? Most gender neutral pronouns being discussed here were developed in one form or another in the 70s, 80s, not Tumblr. But gender neutral pronouns in standard English have been circulating since the 1700s.

I use Safeshark Hosting for all of my sites, he charges 14/month (which is slightly higher but the service he provides is pretty top shelf) or 12/month if you pay for a year.

The Teen Witch rap is singularly one of the best moments captured on video.

Yeah, that's what frustrates me so much about MRA garbage is that it flat out ignores feminists work on defining and supporting men hurt by toxic masculinity, rape culture, and squarely blames women for...things that they've benefited from and supported for a very long time. Oh, okay.

RE: Norma and her mom I found this actually really plausible as someone with a really nitpicky/highly critical mother. Norma's mom poo-pooing her food, despite the narrative of the show saying it's really good either implies that Norma's mom is unable to see her daughter as good in any way, even when the evidence very openly presents itself as otherwise, or she's just a really bad food critic. I am opting to see it more like the former, since it also gives me this idea that Twin Peaks requires you to sort of be willing to love the place, like Norma's mom is the anti-Cooper in that way. She's so deluded by her own self-assured taste that she can't see how good the pie is, etc, while Cooper just wholeheartedly stumbles on its greatness because of the way he perceives Twin Peaks with enthusiasm and positivity. The irony in this is that Norma's mom has apparently bad taste in men.

Again, I'm cis so take this with a grain of salt but a lot of my remarks were born from the idea that you're "not trans" unless you want to go through a lengthy process of XYZ surgeries or feel dysphoria, which admittedly a lot of people don't want or feel. How gender (or rather, sex) is assigned at birth is due to genitalia but that doesn't mean that all trans people need/want to change their genitalia in order to feel like the gender they are. This is why the fixation on it by cis people is really weird/invasive - people asking trans folks if they "got the surgery (referring to genitalia)" or if they have X or Y when it's not their business and not related to what gender they present as. It's also why there's a movement to not make certain body parts essential to a gender - you can be a woman without a uterus or vagina, for example (which includes cis women who don't have them, but also trans women!) If anything, that's the biggest takeaway here is moving towards a world where someone's gender isn't immediately tied to what genitalia they have or other physical characteristics but how they feel they are. Some trans people want "top" surgery, some don't, some take hormones, some don't, some have bottom surgery, some don't, some get facial surgery - all of it is what people feel comfortable with or what is needed for them to look the way they want to.

Well we had talked to eachother a tiny bit on Twitter, I think. We were both WoW bloggers at that juncture, but I had no idea she was super into feminism at the time. Yeah, it was pretty wild.

Why don't you two do a podcast together?

1.) Women have very little in the way of support systems to access when something terrible happens to us, especially marginalized women like trans or WoC. 2.) Men being hurt is usually the product of patriarchy and it would follow naturally that they would ALSO want to deconstruct patriarchy and yet many don't, so when "feminists" bring this up, I know where their actual loyalties sit. 3.) It's not the idea that women are natural victims, it's that we are factually victims, with actual statistics to prove it, and this obscures the fact that most often, men are the aggressors. It's a smoke shroud. 4.) Rape culture is actually the idea that our societal values and promotes a lack of consent towards EVERYONE, not just women, but everyone, hence why male rape victims aren't believed and things like compulsory sexuality (which is a part of patriarchy that hurts men) exist. Basically factual feminist sounds like "Women who support MRA values" and not actually feminism at all.

I literally went onto Twitter and asked "hey would anyone be interested in starting a WoW and feminism podcast" and that's when Tzufit stepped up and said yes, we didn't know eachother very well at the time. But honestly, go with someone you have similar interests with or can bounce off of really well. Podcast hosts with no chemistry is like listening to nails on a chalkboard. So, picking a friend that you know has the same interests as you isn't a bad bet.

If you ever want tips, let me know, I can DM you a writeup or something!

That's also the other thing about controversies - the timespan for them is incredibly short. It's one of the reasons I like that I keep our editing turn around short (record on Saturdays, release on Tuesdays) but still, a lot of times, it's hard to record once a week and get it out and still cover things timely to a week! One of the rigors of having less free time to record and edit, unfortunately Sorry, I keep turning this into Podcasting Theory 101. Also thank you, Undermind9! I actually edit in 1.40x speed because I hate the way my voice sounds (because I have a naturally low voice) so I like hearing us sound like chipmunks. Merus - Hardcore History sounds like its right up my alley, thanks for the suggestion.

It's not always "wrong genitalia" (and there's a HUGE amount of fixation on trans folk's genitalia which is weird) Dysphoria is more that your body doesn't always match how you feel it should look for how you conceptualize your own gender identity. Not all trans people have dysphoria, by the way. It's just that you feel your assigned gender doesn't match what gender you are. Something my friend said is that even if you are cis, sit down and think about your gender for a while and if it's something that's "you" rather than taking being cis for granted. Even though I'm a cis woman, it still feels good to sit and think "does 'being a woman' still feel like something I am?" and it is! But if it started not to be, might be a time to think about that at length.

I seriously thought that was intentional.

you cull Justice Points and I will put you back on the shit list, Super Biased Man.

Ah yeah, I am left alone literally all day at work so I have all the time in the world to listen to very long podcast episodes.

Farscape legitimately was one of the best sci-fi series I've ever seen as someone who is not as into sci-fi stuff vs. fantasy (which is rife with its own issues regarding women characters) and I watched it throughout college when there was a real lack of female characters I identified with on any level. If it makes you feel better Danielle, I've gravitated towards sexy, lithe women who are cunning and whatnot as part of my queer identity - see my early crushes on Cheetara, Catwoman, Faye Valentine. So I don't think you're weird at all.

I use they/their when it is someone's pronouns (quite a few non-binary people use they/their/them) or when their gender is unknown to me. A good way to get into this habit is to stop explicitly gendering people you don't know - random people you talk about who you assume their gender based on their appearance or name or manner. It is incredibly hard to do and takes me a moment every time of catching myself. But it's worth it as we should slowly be moving away from assuming someone's gender unless it is stated - obviously this is harder in person because there's no convenient social media profile with someone's pronouns. I have just gotten into the habit of asking people's pronouns if the situation calls for it, which is a pretty respectful thing to do.

This is why Sansa's so compelling to me: she's actively sheltered in a romantic notion that's more closer to how I was as a teen girl and in that world in particular? Almost radical. I don't know, I have a huge soft spot for women who use traditionally feminine pursuits and mechanisms to navigate a world and to recognize that they have value.

Spawn on Me Podcast had a really amazing discussion about race (specifically anti-blackness) in the games industry with Evan Narcisse this week, you need to listen to it: http://thespawnpointblog.com/spawn-episode-50/ Long but really, really good. RE: Isometric and talking about controversies in the gaming sphere This is one of the reasons we try to mix it up on Justice Points, mostly because people expect feminists to just break down outrage generating stuff and we get tired of that. So while we personally get mad about stuff, it's a lot better use of our time and our audience's attention span to promote or highlight critical conversations or work. Though I think some things are still worth jawing about, not everything is important enough, I think.

I was a teen girl once. I can't fault Sansa for being sheltered from a world that is terrible or being naive or whatever. She was like, what, 12 when the books started? Cmon now.

I'm an unabashed Sansa lover. People who hate her need to check themselves as to why - she's absolutely part of this spectrum of women trying to navigate an entirely hostile political situation in a multitude of ways and she's playing the game the way it was meant to be played to be a survivor. It's really awesome.

I have liked a lot of masculine/strong women, it's just in context unfortunately it's often the only kind of male creators think to make. I'm totally digging any women characters that I see that are morally grey, vulnerable, clever, etc. Even though they are both really villainous in some ways - Claire Underwood and Fish Mooney come to mind. But those are TV shows vs. comics where strength is a huge advantage, but I love women who are really flawed and complex but still sympathetic in some way. I think there's just room for every type of woman out there (even strong ones!)