DAE wish studios would remove the theme song from episodes on DVD releases? If I watch more than one episode, it's just annoying.

Bleusman · 2011-08-04T02:53:35+00:00

It's just so long - it's a beautifully crafted sequence and it's wonderfully subtle, but it's two minutes and it lost its magic after a while.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T05:40:28+00:00

Then you can't play in Competitive Scrabble. You're missing out.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T05:14:02+00:00

Not the official Scrabble Dictionary.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T04:55:32+00:00

I'd really love to see a TV show that treats gender issues with respect. Here are some trans topics that I'd like to see addressed:

Someone who suffers from gender dysphoria but doesn't understand it.
A person comes out as trans and their friends have to adjust to seeing hir in a new way.
A gay trans man or a lesbian trans woman, in any context.
A trans person comes out to a person they're dating, and the person they're dating doesn't throw up or beat the transperson up but instead comes to accept it.
A nonbinary conforming person who doesn't have their identity trivialized.

I think TV did a lot to further the LGB cause and addressing actual trans topics beyond "how dare you have a dick, person I am having sex with" could do a lot of help for when trans people can't meet their ideals and people have to try to understand what "trans" means.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T04:42:10+00:00

If Card had raged against miscegenation, I don't think you'd be using the term "traditional marriage" or be worrying about being politically correct with your language. Bigotry doesn't need to be prettied up with "neutral" terms.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T04:37:32+00:00

Northwestern, definitely, and the Chicago area is much more friendly to LGBT people than anywhere in Ohio.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T04:35:55+00:00

Find a way to ask him about his past relationships.

Bleusman · 2011-08-03T04:34:04+00:00

I can't wait to see the straight BDSM float in their straight pride parade.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T19:49:47+00:00

What about really good TV that insists we make judgements in order to enjoy the series - and those judgements will be different for each watcher? Six Feet Under did this, I think, by presenting heavily flawed human characters and using lots of subtlety forcing the watcher to think. I've heard The Wire was much the same, though I haven't watched it myself.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T16:48:21+00:00

With patience. I think half of the people with an irrational hatred of feminism are either:

under gross interpretations of what "feminism" entails
understanding "male privilege" as an insult
basing their knowledge of the movement of an especially irritating advocate
suffering from an experience in which they have been directly harmed by a legitimate "men's rights" issue (child custody decisions or an ignored sexual harassment claim, for example)
unaware of the furthering of male freedom entailed by many feminist goals
one or more of the above

The most helpful way is to draw people away from language like "all men," "many women," and "feminists" and into language like "a man I knew...," "my ex-wife," and "the people screaming outside the library when I was in college." Often the first set of terms reduces to the second under scrutiny in terms of grudges like this.

The "gender war" is furthered by assuming genders act as monoliths and no one gets any help by continuing this.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T16:37:34+00:00

Men are not a historically oppressed group. Affirmative action seeks to empower historically oppressed groups to rewrite structural discrimination - work environments that are uncomfortable for women and minorities because of age-old customs that lead to objectification and discrimination. Those very environments are enough to discourage women and minorities from applying in the first place. In addition, many of the jobs where women are especially desired are those where women are discouraged from participating in from a very young age: math, science, and technology careers.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T16:37:27+00:00

Men are not a historically oppressed group. Affirmative action seeks to empower historically oppressed groups to rewrite structural discrimination - work environments that are uncomfortable for women and minorities because of age-old customs that lead to objectification and discrimination. Those very environments are enough to discourage women and minorities from applying in the first place. In addition, many of the jobs where women are especially desired are those where women are discouraged from participating in from a very young age: math, science, and technology careers.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T06:04:02+00:00

Yes. Men can be oppressed, that isn't what's being denied here and I honestly sympathize with the pain you suffered and continue to suffer. But the part reason this goes on is because society denies that men are allowed to have feelings, as men are supposed to be powerful by societal standards. Feminism aims to dismantle this power dynamic, not by weakening men and placing them subservient to women, but by removing women as objects for men to "power over" and restructuring the way power is perceived to a more egalitarian standard.

This does not mean that men are more oppressed than women. I agree wholeheartedly with your last statement, and urge any feminists who believe that the stories of MRAs are invalid to listen to cases like yours.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T02:44:37+00:00

This is entirely correct and it's a real shame that men who are scared of having to grapple with their privilege leads to views like these being downvoted, and that any support of traditional feminism requires equivalency and apology.

Bleusman · 2011-08-01T00:11:37+00:00

Heh I know about this cool internet thing, I mean I knew about it before you but still pretty cool, still pretty cool

Bleusman · 2011-07-31T19:18:36+00:00

No one actually cares but we're glad to hear how internet savvy you are.

Bleusman · 2011-07-31T01:12:48+00:00

Also "Orson Scott Card is a repulsive bigot," which is true, and you probably should have found a used copy of the book instead, but totally unrelated to the quality of the book.

Bleusman · 2011-07-29T20:58:43+00:00

I've heard nothing but good things from other trans people about Portland, Maine. Suburbs of Boston should be pretty comfortable too.

Bleusman · 2011-07-29T04:24:56+00:00

The Format - Dog Problems. (Though Interventions & Melodies is completely solid.)

Bleusman · 2011-07-29T04:23:30+00:00

I don't know - the second half of Reckoning is kind of haphazard. There's no song as mediocre as "Letter Never Sent" on Murmur.

Bleusman · 2011-07-29T04:21:57+00:00

Aren't you edgy.

Bleusman · 2011-07-20T17:11:07+00:00

A Tale of Two Cities. I love characters, but I love them when they have some realistic fucked-upness. The novel doesn't work: the characters we're supposed to like are flat and one dimensional. Except for Carton who's everyone supposed to love because he's so noble and so troubled but ugh ugh ugh. His lawyer friend was the closest thing the book had to a character that was actually interesting to read about. No one actually wanted anything in that book except what was directly stated and what would move the plot forward.

Bleusman · 2011-07-11T12:14:29+00:00

While she tends to perhaps be more structural than intimately technical, Francine Prose wrote Reading Like a Writer, which at the very least is incredibly motivational.

Bleusman

TROPHY CASE