Rape culture in a nutshell (2013/03/17)
I used to be pretty skeptical of the notion of “rape culture”. The idea that there was a strong cultural bias towards excusing, justifying, and overlooking rape struck me as, frankly, insane. I have since been reminded: Humans are, in fact, generally insane.
[read more...]Sex-obsessed gay guys, privileged white males, and the fallacy of division (2013/03/11)
I was, at one point, derided for attempting to explain intersectionality (the awareness that people might be “privileged” in one category, but “opppressed” in another) to someone who was, I was informed, an autistic female person of color, and thus presumably aware of it. But given that I was explaining it in response to an allegation that white males cannot comprehend oppression, I somehow suspect the awareness had not quite percolated through to application.
[read more...]Jesse talks about the "cure for autism" issue... (2013/03/11)
Occasionally people mention the importance of “curing” autism, and a lot of autistic people usually react with a little concern; while the strangers who would replace us may be very nice people, they are not us.
[read more...]Changes in society and how they affect literature (2013/02/28)
Been reading Raymond Chandler’s writing recently for a Project. So, in the last day, I’ve learned slurs I didn’t know before for gays, blacks, and women. Okay, maybe I’d heard the gay ones before, maybe, but probably not in ten or twenty years, and possibly not as slurs. I definitely didn’t know some of the stereotypes. The ones for blacks? Heck, I couldn’t figure out what half of them were until I’d seen them in enough contexts to pick them up (which took a chapter or two). Women? Pretty easy to guess, but seriously, wow.
[read more...]Humor and apologies... (2013/02/25)
The Onion recently did something they have, so far as I know, never done before in their entire history. They apologized. Specifically, they apologized for a tweet in which they called a nine-year-old girl a “cunt”. Well, okay, that does sort of merit an apology, but I think commentary on this is missing something important.
[read more...]The mosh pit at the Beyonce concert... (2013/02/03)
Beyonce has a concert today, and apparently, in an effort to reduce injuries, they’re trying an experiment where only a fixed number of people can be in the mosh pit at once, they have to wear protective gear, and there’s various rules governing their interactions, with pauses and interruptions to make sure people aren’t getting injured, or that any injuries can get treated before the moshing continues.
[read more...]Life with disabilities: The citibank card in limbo (2013/02/03)
Couple years back, Jesse got a credit card offer. We filled it out and sent it in on a lark; mostly, we wanted to see whether Jesse had a credit rating.
[read more...]Here and now, you are alive. (2013/01/30)
This, right here? This is it. You are alive. You are the one making your choices now. If your choice is to put everything on hold until the future, you can make that choice, but: It’s never going to be then; it’s always going to be now. When you do get to college, life will begin when you graduate. When you graduate, life will begin when you find work. When you find work, life will begin when you start paying off your student loans. Finish paying them off. Get that promotion. As long as you let yourself get tricked into thinking that life is somewhere else, some other time, you’re missing out.
[read more...]How rules break down, and how to use them anyway. (2013/01/28)
The world does not lend itself to simple, absolute rules. Mathematicians have known this for a long time; politicians have never really accepted it. Unfortunately, the mathematicians are right. Perhaps more unfortunately, the politicians are in charge.
[read more...]The doctor with the tattoos... (2013/01/27)
There’s a popular image floating around the ’net of a doctor with tattoos, the gimmick being that when he’s wearing his lab coat, you can’t see any tattoos, and when he’s not, boy, does he have a lot of them.
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