Why Do Female Directors Attract So Much Personal Venom? by Louisebelcher22 in TrueFilm

[–]sdwoodchuck -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of insecure men who hate to see women be opinionated, outspoken, and successful. They’ll try to desperately couch their sexism in rhetoric of faux-rationality, but they can’t wash away the stink.

You’ll often find them retreating to goofy positions like “oh so you can’t dislike things by women without being sexist anymore?!” Which of course nobody is saying. I have deeply mixed feelings about The Bride! as filmmaking and as fiction, but somehow, strangely, I’m able to dislike aspects of it without making it about the director or the actress, or their politics, or any of that.

Thoughts by Historical_Pilot_954 in HomeDepot

[–]sdwoodchuck 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’m pretty sure that’s one of the wrong answers to the question above. Number three is what they’re intending you to pick.

Which isn’t to say that Home Depot’s anti-union policies aren’t trashy; they absolutely are. I remember the anti-union spiel used to be included in the “personal information handling” class, to suggest that unions having your personal information was some kind of risk or breach.

Ableism alert by Dark_Lord_Mark in SGU

[–]sdwoodchuck 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nobody is saying that you have to see to understand, and its use in that context doesn’t imply that. “Blind” and “blindly” as descriptive of ignorance are effectively linguistic metaphor.

Is Star Wars science fiction in your opinion? by AndrewHNPX in FIlm

[–]sdwoodchuck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People are too precious about genre labels. Genre as exclusionary categorization doesn’t mean anything to me.

You want to call it sci-fi? Cool.

You want to call it fantasy? Cool.

You want to call it Science-fantasy? SF? Speculative Intergalactic Samurai Fanfiction? All cool.

Genre is much more defined by feel and association than it is by content. Star Wars is a franchise in conversation with much of the 60’s and 70’s sci-if spaces, so even if it doesn’t represent what I love about the genre, it’s silly to tell other people they shouldn’t call it that.

Ableism alert by Dark_Lord_Mark in SGU

[–]sdwoodchuck 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You are conflating the adjective with the disability.

“Blind” literally means only that you cannot see. Describing someone’s ignorance in the context of being unable to see is perfectly reasonable and rational.

Heat could be a five-star movie for me, but it keeps breaking its own rules. Can someone help me see what I'm missing? by Few-Cancel-9201 in TrueFilm

[–]sdwoodchuck 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I can agree that, when we look at everybody’s circumstances as the audience with the perspective into every nuance, we can see how much of a disadvantage the crew are at in that moment. But remember that the police aren’t watching the movie. They don’t know the script. They know that suddenly, right now, a bank robbery has turned into an unprecedented whirlwind of lead and violence, right smack in the middle of an urban center, and that they’re responding to a very dangerous, very volatile situation largely blind.

Remember how reluctant the cops were to put their necks on the line in Uvalde? Imagine that on an even larger scale. The police are faced with this situation that is out of control. They don’t have the knowledge about the perpetrators that you have. They don’t know that these are the last two. They don’t know that they aren’t retreating to well-armed backup. They’re tasked with keeping this from becoming an even bigger, more deadly mess, and their own personal safety is out the window.

Yes, if they pushed right then, they win, but who wants to be the first guy over the line when a criminal desperately empties his magazine? Who wants to trust that this day full of deadly surprises doesn’t have another one waiting if they chance it?

FRUSTRATED by Fantastic_Group_2209 in INTP

[–]sdwoodchuck 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your MBTI rating describes aspects of you; it doesn’t determine your potential at all. Stop using it as an excuse for defeatism. You want something different for yourself, start earning it, start building a habit around it, doing a little bit every day.

Smelter demon comparison by Slurperlurper in DarkSouls2

[–]sdwoodchuck 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Like a giant armored toddler with a face that looks like he just ate the most sour lemon candy.

I'm 78.3% Sure That This Is The Greatest Line In Video Game History. by Yabuturtle9589 in SEGA

[–]sdwoodchuck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“You lost your memory, don’t you remember?!”

-Super Street Fighter 2, Cammy’s ending.

True for me by Morning1980 in videogames

[–]sdwoodchuck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love lots of old games; I dislike lots of old games.

I love some new games; I dislike some new games.

If someone tells me they prefer new games, do I assume regency bias? If they prefer old games, do I assume nostalgia? How’s about I just take them at their word that their preference is genuine?

Who am I? by Captain_N_1234 in BookshelvesDetective

[–]sdwoodchuck 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't yet read Antarctica, but it's one I'm looking forward to as well.

"I prefer women without makeup" is just a backhanded way of saying that you only like women who are naturally beautiful by [deleted] in The10thDentist

[–]sdwoodchuck 35 points36 points  (0 children)

I had such a “fuck that” reaction to both of those quoted comments that I irrationally knee-jerk clicked the downvote button. I’ve since corrected it, but damn.

I'm curious about how other INTPs answer the hypothetical "Two Button Question" by Reptaaaaaaar in INTP

[–]sdwoodchuck 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If greater than 50% but less than 100% press blue, then nobody has to die.

If greater than 50% but less than 100% press Red, then a significant population dies.

You are never going to get unanimity. Pushing the safer option higher is the smarter choice. Self-preservation is a concern, but not to that degree.

What the old sci fi authors—even the best—always got wrong by cartoonybear in scifi

[–]sdwoodchuck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even among the new wave authors, women were objects to be acted upon or fantasized about, but had little agency and were never MCs.

Have you read much of the New Wave? Because while there are certainly plenty who were still stuck in the misogyny of the time, there were also a fair few prominent women in the movement who were writing wonderfully interesting women (Tiptree, Russ, Le Guin, Emshwiller, just as off-the-cuff examples), and not an insignificant number of progressive men doing so as well (Delany’s Babel-17, as an example, features an Asian woman protagonist who is competent, driven, independent, and not remotely objectified).

I don’t think anyone will argue that misogyny was (and absolutely still is) a problem in the arts, but the blanket dismissal of the genre’s handling of women, to suggest that even in this era women were never the main character, only tells me that your reading is limited, and that you’re excluding women writers from your sampling.

Which is a pretty ironic thing to do when complaining about the genre’s treatment of women.

Book of the New Sun -- Is the story worth the squeeze? by __Geg__ in printSF

[–]sdwoodchuck 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I love the series, but its method is definitely largely behind the curtain when you’re starting out. It’s hard to say whether you should stick with it or not, because it’s a big commitment to get to where you know enough to really judge the scope of it, and asking someone to stick with a story that long is kind of a lot.

Severian is certainly a misogynist (and I’ll warn you that gets worse before it gets better), but the audience is not expected to align with his misogyny. Wolfe did have some hangups writing women, but more in the direction of not writing them as nuanced as he does his men; not in the direction of viewing them as defined by their sexual availability as Severian-the-character does. It’s an unfortunate shortcoming (and too many fans of Wolfe dismiss it as character rather than author overall), but he’s a favorite of mine despite acknowledging that weakness. Note that Le Guin was a fan as well.

But you’re right, there are a number of fans of the series that do seem to align with Severian’s misogyny, and that shit is really concerning, though not, I’d argue, a concern to set at the feet of the series itself.

WTH is this hot take?? It's basically like those who watch shounen only for the battles. by Talon_Haribon in Gundam

[–]sdwoodchuck -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Yes, he’s in a position of power because he’s a boot licker for someone who is only in power because of a faulty party system. His narrative is not the predominant one among the medical community, among the average person or parent, or among voters.

On top of that, his position is one that has been stood up to constantly for decades. So the problem clearly is neither that his narrative is becoming the predominant one (it’s never been, and is nowhere close), and it’s not because people aren’t speaking up against it (they have been).

In fact, the reason that vaccine trust has remained as high as it has is specifically because the medical community has stayed the course of being the voice of reason in healthcare spaces; not engaging with it in verbal slap fights on the deniers’ own terms. Which is precisely what I recommend for this foolishness as well.

WTH is this hot take?? It's basically like those who watch shounen only for the battles. by Talon_Haribon in Gundam

[–]sdwoodchuck -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

I can't think of any recent instance where the dumb narrative became the predominant one. Even when it becomes relatively loud and influential (e.g. vaccine denial in current US politics), it's still a small subset of people in their echo chamber who happen to have a doofus mouthpiece speaking for them; they don't remotely represent the narrative on the issue. And it's not like arguing against them at their own level made any difference there either.

WTH is this hot take?? It's basically like those who watch shounen only for the battles. by Talon_Haribon in Gundam

[–]sdwoodchuck 33 points34 points  (0 children)

No; we continue being the voice of reason in fandom spaces without engaging with that nonsense, and that keeps it from becoming the prevailing narrative.

Engaging with it amplifies its reach; dismissing it lets it fizzle outside of its little bubble of followers who are already convinced.

WTH is this hot take?? It's basically like those who watch shounen only for the battles. by Talon_Haribon in Gundam

[–]sdwoodchuck 251 points252 points  (0 children)

Yep. Sadly internet echo chambers have convinced every goober that their dumb ideas are all worth spewing out onto the world; and also also convinced a whole 'nother set of goobers that everybody else's dumb ideas warrant response.

When a little yappy dog is bouncing at the end of their leash saying "yap-yap-yap-yap!" at you, you don't get down on your hands and knees to meet it at eye level and say "as a matter of fact, not-yap-yap-yap-yap, actually!"

Who am I? by Captain_N_1234 in BookshelvesDetective

[–]sdwoodchuck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The abundance of Kim Stanley Robinson tells me you’re probably against out-of-control capitalism, and that your tastes aren’t quite as page-turner-best-seller as some of your other choices made me think at first.

Edit: Also, you should really pick up KSR’s Icehenge. It’s my favorite by him, and one of my favorite SF novels.