Social Justice

[clyde]

We like it, right?

[clyde]

This article contains a lot of resources for beginning to talk about how disabilities are presented in science-fiction. I haven't read through them yet, but coming across it reminded me of the many times I've almost made this thread.

http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/?p=1081

For those short on time, I thought this link was exceptionally worthwhile:

http://tiahbeautement.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/02/10/on-better/

[GraysonEvans]

I think so, like, I like it a lot.

 

Though I think something to remember is just because you claim to be an ally doesn't always mean you are actually acting like one.More often then not you could be actually making it worse.

[clyde]

I think so, like, I like it a lot.

Though I think something to remember is just because you claim to be an ally doesn't always mean you are actually acting like one.More often then not you could be actually making it worse.

How is that?

[MrHoatzin]

Sometimes white dudes need to shut up?

[juv3nal]

Also sometimes, for instance, retweeting something may draw unwanted attention. It's easy to get in the frame of mind "erry one needs to know and be outraged about this heinous thing that happened," but sometimes the person(s) to whom it happened would rather it be forgotten, despite their potentionally non-private speaking about it on twitter.

[miffy495]

Yeah, I have a friend who will take up any cause that comes in front of him with such fervor that many people have learned to tune him out. When you are willing to put equal time into arguing for actual social justice issues as you are to "THE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN BATMAN MOVIES ARE ANTI-WORKER", you may be over-doing it.

 

I am more the ally who will allow those actually affected to say their piece and do most of my speaking up when the person who needs speaking to will need to hear it from a fellow white guy. The "Dude, not cool" type. Also, I use my position as a teacher to reinforce things in kids that will help them to not be horrible people in the future. I'm all subtle and stuff, rather than ranting on social media like the aforementioned friend. He means well, and his heart is in the right place, but he is a very overbearing person and will likely do more to put off people than convince them.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Well I mean in the latest Batman movie Occupy Wall Street are the bad guys.

[miffy495]

I didn't say he was wrong, just that this cause does not require as much frothing devotion as some others.

[Mangela Lansbury]

Allies sometimes try to speak for, not with, a group. I've been guilty of this myself and I've gotten mad at people for doing it to me. It's good to be an ally, but it's important to know that sometimes you should probably just shut up.

 

Allies also sometimes try to impose their values on the group they say they're working with. The dequeerification of queer culture and subsequent sweeping under the rug of, for instance, higher rates of drug abuse in LGBT communities is one way you can see this and discussions of Femen's activities in the Middle East and South Asia are another. Again, it's good to be an ally, but do your best to accept and understand the group you're an ally of and work in their best interest.

[GraysonEvans]

Like, if you want to be an ally, ask how you can help. Don't assume that the act of trying to help is always 100% beneficially. Being an ally means understanding that none of this is about you.

[namman siggins]

Allies sometimes try to speak for, not with, a group. I've been guilty of this myself and I've gotten mad at people for doing it to me. It's good to be an ally, but it's important to know that sometimes you should probably just shut up.

 

Allies also sometimes try to impose their values on the group they say they're working with. The dequeerification of queer culture and subsequent sweeping under the rug of, for instance, higher rates of drug abuse in LGBT communities is one way you can see this and discussions of Femen's activities in the Middle East and South Asia are another. Again, it's good to be an ally, but do your best to accept and understand the group you're an ally of and work in their best interest.

Me too especially when it comes to feminism. There are times where I need to shut the fuck up and listen or shut up.

 

I get pissed too when people try to talk about Trans* or genderqueer and how it relates to me and the same goes when issues about being a Mexican or Latin American in America.

 

Some articles I've enjoyed reading recently 

 

Women in Sci-fi or lack their of:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/aug/08/science-fiction-invisible-women-recognition-status

 

And a nice essay on Lovecraft and his rampant racism:

 

http://www.racialicious.com/2014/05/28/the-n-word-through-the-ages-the-madness-of-hp-lovecraft/

[clyde]

I'm hoping to discuss Totem's Sound with y'all. It's free and available for Windows and Mac (and Linux?). I think it took me about an hour to complete.

A list of controls are nowhere to be found. Took me a while to find out that 'x' changes equipped item and 'c' uses it.

 

[tegan]

Only nineties kids will remember white supremacy!

 

(the “Nite of Nickelodeon Nostalgic Nonsense!” mentioned in the article has since been cancelled specifically because of this guy)

[Bjorn]

Holy oblivious bigot Batman!  I kind of wish there was video of that interview.  I was sure it couldn't get any worse, then I'd read the next paragraph.

[Nachimir]

The bit where he claims having an Indian character voiced by an Indian actor is equivalent to blackface: wow :0 

[tegan]

I actually think the best thing about this guy is his amazon page.

 

From Mathew Klickstein comes a new classic of erotic horror: Oliver Maxwell is demented, depraved, and disturbed. He's also one of the most caring young men you could ever hope to meet. In his own words, he both loves and hates women with equal intensity, confessing, "Some I hate so much, I have to see them naked." If you think Oliver Maxwell is complicated, just wait until you read about his sex life...

 

When this conflicted milquetoast discovers a stranger sprawled out and unconscious in an alleyway one night, he decides to take her home with him to "nurture her back to health and consciousness."

Oliver soon realizes that in order to take care of his mysteriously cataleptic housemate - the sudsy bubble baths, the muscle massages, the incessant combing of her silken blonde hair - he will need to indulge in extracurricular sexual diversions to keep from inflicting himself on her tender, vulnerable body.

 

There begins a litany of progressively perverted episodes for a man whose fantasies might be others' nightmares... and vice versa. For Oliver Maxwell (and the various paramours he comes upon during his nocturnal meanderings), experimentation is only the beginning. He craves the fear as much as the fantasy, and knows he's not the only one. Along the way, Oliver finds his lost angel in a coma might not be as innocent as he presupposed...

Publisher's note: "Rag Doll," is a work of fantasy containing horror and erotic themes that some readers might find disturbing. All characters in Rag Doll are of adult (18+) age

.

[clyde]

Here's an article talking about how the author's personal racial context has affected the challenges they see in steam-punk and the anti-racist opportunities they see in it.

http://ht.ly/EbXy3

[BadHat]

I've been devouring all of filmcrithulk's old stuff and I'm currently part way through his gigantic article about rape culture - http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/14/we-need-to-change-how-we-talk-about-rape/

 

Anyone have thoughts on this? I'll admit to being pretty ignorant on the topic. This seems like a good primer from someone with deep personal experience of the effects of rape, but he also uses a lot of emotionally charged language (not that I blame him) which makes it seem more like an appeal than an explanation at times. But then that's kind of his thing I guess, same with his fantastic gamergate article.

[BobbyBesar]

Only nineties kids will remember white supremacy!

 

(the “Nite of Nickelodeon Nostalgic Nonsense!” mentioned in the article has since been cancelled specifically because of this guy)

That's actually interesting as an illustration of how completely somebody can internalize white privilege, seemingly without being aware of the concept.

[clyde]

I've been devouring all of filmcrithulk's old stuff and I'm currently part way through his gigantic article about rape culture - http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/14/we-need-to-change-how-we-talk-about-rape/

Anyone have thoughts on this? I'll admit to being pretty ignorant on the topic. This seems like a good primer from someone with deep personal experience of the effects of rape, but he also uses a lot of emotionally charged language (not that I blame him) which makes it seem more like an appeal than an explanation at times. But then that's kind of his thing I guess, same with his fantastic gamergate article.

I'm enjoying the article, but my phone is having a really hard time with it (crashing and stuff); I made it about half-way through. It's very informative for me. I thought that the rant enumerating how pervasive the potential of danger for women was enlightening; I disagree that the male-on-male metaphor was worthwhile though. I'm getting a lot out of how the author paints a larger atmosphere of attitudes and network of biased systems that a victim is expected to navigate through in order to gain justice (and by doing so, possibly proving their innocence as fucked up as that is).

I get the author's main point that these instructive pieces of advice can contribute to the difficulty the victims face after the attack. That is a reasonable concern and one that I'm grateful for them pointing out. But I think that the author is missing an important point: many women need to feel that they have some amount of control over prevention. Of course if that prevention fails, it is not their own fault. I have no doubt that the trauma of rape is compounded by opinions about the logistics of the methods used to reduce risk by the victim's peers and the victim themself. But avoidance of some things by an individual is going to decrease the likelihood of them being raped.

The solution to rape is going to be a systemic solution and it win't be any individual's personal responsibility. But while we make efforts to solve the problem by reforming systems, women need to have any amount of power to influence the situation as they can afford. If avoidance is one, then that's their decision to act upon and I think that pragmatic advice is of limited use, but still probably useful. The article helps point out how much care is needed when sharing said advice though. This is a great article. I hope to finish it on my desktop computer.

[BadHat]

I found the man-on-man thing a little troubling too (not in a homophobic way, I guess just discomfort at how it could be misinterpreted or used as a way to discredit his argument by people unwilling to hear it?), but I also understand that appealing to people on this level is difficult, as he points out. On a recent Thumbs cast, they point out that for a man to understand how invasive man-on-woman sexual assault is, they'd have to be interacted with by an alien in ways that "hadn't even been conceived of yet for your gender," or something like that. I feel like this is pretty illustrative of how difficult it is for me, as a man, to even imagine a reality in which this could happen to me. Man-on-man assault, unfortunately, is the closest thing there is.

 

On your second point, I think this is where his point about individual vs. cultural advice comes in. It is absolutely responsible to advise people to avoid potentially dangerous situations, and for women (or whoever) to be able to take that advice on board and use it to make informed decisions. But in a culture where victim blaming is commonplace, and the advice is often disseminated in the least thoughtful or compassionate way possible (often from people in positions of authority, I even recall an incident where a police chief publicly advised women to "just not dress that way"), that advice is far less helpful to the individual woman than it is damaging to the culture at large. Is there a way to disseminate advice like this without poisoning the well? Maybe, if it's delivered with a sensitivity to the larger issues at hand. But are we (or, specifically, you yanks) ready to take that information on board as a culture?

[twmac]

Only nineties kids will remember white supremacy!

 

(the “Nite of Nickelodeon Nostalgic Nonsense!” mentioned in the article has since been cancelled specifically because of this guy)

 

At first I thought he was going somewhere interesting, like campaigning for more diversity in front of and behind the camera. But no, it went back to the age old 'why make him Indian just for the sake of making him Indian'.

 

There is a nugget of something in there (I believe that the debate was brought up when discussing the ethnicity of the character in Firewatch) but it is buried under a ton of bullshit that makes no sense.

[clyde]

On your second point, I think this is where his point about individual vs. cultural advice comes in. It is absolutely responsible to advise people to avoid potentially dangerous situations, and for women (or whoever) to be able to take that advice on board and use it to make informed decisions. But in a culture where victim blaming is commonplace, and the advice is often disseminated in the least thoughtful or compassionate way possible (often from people in positions of authority, I even recall an incident where a police chief publicly advised women to "just not dress that way"), that advice is far less helpful to the individual woman than it is damaging to the culture at large. Is there a way to disseminate advice like this without poisoning the well? Maybe, if it's delivered with a sensitivity to the larger issues at hand.

The way I was reading the part about how women are worried about their dad finding out was that the women often view their rape as a failure to enact the father's instructions on how to lower risk-factors. So like: dad always told me not to get drunk around a bunch of guys; I got drunk around a bunch of guys; dad is going to think that it was my fault because I didn't do what he said to prevent it. So in this reading, even though the advice is not from a centralized authority, it is still having the effect of victim-blaming. It's quite a problem and I'm glad the author is helping us investigate it because I haven't been able to think this deeply about it before.

But are we (or, specifically, you yanks) ready to take that information on board as a culture?

Where do you live that rape isn't an epidemic?

[Dewar]

Only nineties kids will remember white supremacy!

 

(the “Nite of Nickelodeon Nostalgic Nonsense!” mentioned in the article has since been cancelled specifically because of this guy)

 

Follow up (much more positive) article to that - http://flavorwire.com/485077/flavorwire-interview-clarissa-explains-it-all-creator-mitchell-kriegman-on-the-shows-legacy-hubcaps-and-gender-politics