that's what she said

Privelege and Activism

2009-03-09T02:29:00.004-04:00

Last Friday, I attended a Commission on the Status of Women parallel NGO event put on by ILGA and RSFL called, ‘The rights of invisible women - the human rights of lesbian and bisexual women.’ While it was about sexism within the LGBTI movement internationally and the intersectionalities of homophobia and sexism for lesbians, bisexual women, gender-non-conforming women, and transgender women in society generally, the discussion tended to focus more often than not on violence against these women. The amazing speakers discussed a variety of things, including many specific cases and dynamics of this violence and the gender dynamics within one particular LGBTI group.

The room that this event was held in was pretty small, and there were maybe 40 people there total. CSW parallel events have a pretty wide range in size and I’ve been to ones with maybe 15 people and ones with 100, but I went to another LGBT focused one last year on the Yogyakarta Principles and you couldn’t even fit all the people into the room—there wasn’t even standing room. Even at a women-oriented event like the Commission on the Status of Women, queer events about women specifically are apparently less popular. Who would’ve thunk?

Anyhow, during the question-and-answer period, one woman, an Anglican priest, stood up with a sheet of paper with an IGLHRC press release printed on it. It was about a 3 day conference happening in Uganda featuring a number of American anti-gay speakers. It is run by a Ugandan organization whose mission is, the "restoration of Ugandan family values and morals." It opposes access to safe, legal abortions. It also opposes the use of condoms and promotes abstinence-only programming as its approach to HIV prevention. It makes the sensationalized claim that homosexuality is "spreading like wildfire in schools." The event organizers have invited parents, teachers, government workers, politicians, counselors and faith leaders. It is important to note that in Uganda, senior government officials have called for the arrest and deportation of homosexuals, causing extensive persecution and violence against LGBT people. She asked the speakers what she, and other religious leaders, could do to counter these kinds of efforts.

One of the speakers looked deeply uncomfortable and spoke a little about the situation, for those who had not heard, and then said something to the effect of,

“And even now, people representing these anti-gay organizations are in this room with us, taking notes on what we’re saying.”

She then told that woman and anyone else interested to speak with her privately after the discussion.

This moment really shook me up, even though I’m well aware that there is extensive spying between pro- and anti-LGBT and reproductive rights groups, because all of a sudden I had to ask myself, ‘is this nice young girl sitting next to me someone who hates people like me?’ because I didn’t know who she was. Everyone had gone around the room when we started and said who we are and what organization we were from, but being a relative newbie, I only knew some of them and only knew some of the people. I also had to worry that people thought the spy was me because I was taking notes and when I introduced myself I just said I was a ‘student’ because I’m not officially with any group except the one I’m interning at, and I wasn’t there on their behalf.

Anyhow, it was deeply unsettling to think that I was less than four meters away from someone who was part of these groups that were specifically supporting the state-sponsored injury and death of gay people in Uganda, and all over the world. It made me feel less safe than I have in a long time, and at the same time deeply privileged that this was one of the scarier experiences I’ve faced as a politically active bisexual woman.

I don't mean scary in the physical sense--I didn't fear for my life or safety, exactly. But when I enter a room, especially a small room, full of out queer people and staunch allies I feel an intensely strong sense of safety and comradeship, and that bubble of comfort was abruptly pierced by this realization. I am now hyper-aware how how much of that bubble was the product of a whole mess of my privileges, which isn't to say it was a bad thing, but perhaps it was distorting of my view of the world.

Only two days previous I had been at a different parallel event about women in power and politics in central Asia and one of the other attendees, sitting next to me, was this girl/young woman roughly my age. The last speaker on this truly amazing panel was a middle-aged woman from Pakistan, who had a really depressing and upsetting account of the state and future possibilities of women in political life in Pakistan. She made a comment about having, personally, to balance fear of attack with continuing her political and feminist work. The girl next to me chimed in that she was also from Pakistan and that she was constantly having to weigh her desire to do this work with her desire to survive. It was profoundly humbling.

I am so damn lucky in the relatively mild homophobia, biphobia, and sexism I have faced in my life, and that I have the freedom and leisure to attend and participate in events like this one and do this kind of work.

Ur Doin it Rong

2008-11-09T15:55:00.005-05:00

I am... annoyed, to say the least.

I just got an e-mail from my school OutLaw group advertising an Anti-Prop 8 protest in New York. I saw the subject line and was like "OOO Fun!" You see, I LOVE the idea of LGB and allied folks getting together for a political parade, unlike the celebratory Pride events of the summer, and showing how deadly serious we are about our rights.

However.

I read further and I realized that the protest was occurring at a Mormon Temple and just... no. No.

Look, I understand and am equally dismayed that the Mormon church was financially behind a lot of support for Yes on 8, individuals and leadership alike. I do. It sucks.

But?

1) Protesting someone's place of worship is just tacky.

2) Protesting that church in New York is far too removed from the situation to be helpful.

3) The entire thing defeats the damn purpose of changing people's minds. No, really. The only positive thing that can come out of protesting SPECIFICALLY Mormons is drawing attention to the fact of the financial support for Yes on 8, something that I don't think is particularly unknown or disputed AND something that likely won't change if attention is drawn to it. If anything, it will get stronger.

4) Look. A LOT of people voted for and financially contributed to Yes on Prop 8. Not just Mormons. Not just Black people. White people. Catholics. Straight people. Probably the odd self-hating LGB person. Tons of diverse people voted for it and tons of people donated to it. You can't just blame a tiny subsection.

5) I understand the philosophy that you shouldn't have to persuade people to treat you equally but the fact is, we do. Protesting the very people whose minds we want to change, rather than, say, the system that allows people from out of state (such as myself) to donate to a state measure campaign is counterproductive.

If this protest were to change, and take its focus away from someone else's religion, I'm there. I'm so there. But as it is, right now? I can't.

(ETA: I don't mean to say we should respect a religion's claims that it is their right to hate gay people or whatnot. Just that I don't think it is productive to protest something that people say is their religious belief. I mean, how likely are you to change your mind about something you believe if people come up to you with signs and anger? And that's what we want to do, right? Change people's minds? Am I wrong about this?)

Good luck to everyone there, I guess.

ETA: I was fretting so much about this that I e-mailed the guy who fwded the announcement explaining my concerns and asking him to let me know if he heard about any non-mormon-focused protests, and he wrote me back and we debated the issue a bit. He has similar concerns but is more optimistic about the protest being specific to the institution rather than the temple itself or Mormons in general. I responded that theoretically such a protest could be possible, but that the folks organizing this protest were calling for mainstream media coverage and that I was pretty sure the narrative presented to the public would be "Gays protest Mormons," which would be counterproductive and hard to control. He agreed, and told me that he was friends with the person organizing it and had e-mailed him about these concerns. I feel slightly better now, even if it probably won't change anything.

Simply,

2008-09-27T02:16:00.002-04:00

Existential Thoughts About Israel And The Debate Of Doom

2008-09-27T00:52:00.009-04:00

Questions that are left swirling around my drunken mind post-debate:

1. Should I feel this ashamed about not knowing the difference between 'tactic' and 'strategy'?

2. If the CBS poll is correct (that undecided voters who watched the debate favored Obama), how much did McCain's incredible stunt of douchebaggery pre-debate play into it?

3. Why did the man-bracelet incite Obama's most aggressive response of the night?

4. Um, why so possessive of Kissinger? And Reagan, Obama, really?

5. Why would Obama bring up the fact that his father is foreign-born hot off the tail of McCain's "I AM America, and I loves the veterans" shpiel? Why? Why??

6. Did it seem to digress into an "I love America, you hates it," "No I love America, you hates it!" "ZOMG it was the terrorists that collapsed our economy! Destroy them!" fest?

7. Does anyone else feel like McCain is going to self-impose the nickname, "The Punisher," sometime before the end of the debates?

8. Why was McCain so afraid of this supposed table Obama was going to be sitting at with dictators, even after Obama made it clear that none of these crazy men would be given access to hot tea during negotiations?

9. What would Sartre think of Israel's existential crises?

10. How on earth did McCain win the first "HI HILLARY SUPPORTERS!" mention of the night?

11. How did Obama manage to align himself more with Bush than McCain until about 30 minutes into the debate???

12. Why can Obama's blurb that was supposed to be about America losing competitiveness in the world be better summarized by: "The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!"

Jonathan Safran Foer illuminated by Slate

2008-09-26T13:21:00.005-04:00

The amazing Jonathan Safran Foer is interviewed by Slate.com.

To Paraphrase:

"I'm not an intellectual. No, seriously."

"My writing is like sex. No, seriously."

I have a bad feeling about this...

2008-08-24T20:09:00.006-04:00

Wired's Star Wars timeline—added to and maintained entirely by its readers. I was extremely disappointed to see that someone else had already plotted the Star Wars Christmas Special.

My Favourite Game

2008-08-17T00:19:00.006-04:00

Best Star Wars 'That's What She Said!' Moments

A New Hope

"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
"She's the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy."
"Watch your mouth kid"
"Into the garbage chute, flyboy."

The Empire Strikes Back

"I've isolated the reverse power flux coupling!"
"Will he finish what he begins?"
"Would it help if I got out and pushed?"
"Hurry up, goldenrod, or your gonna be a permanent resident!"

Return Of The Jedi

"Good. I hate long waits."
"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side."
"Well, short help is better than no help at all..."

2008-08-16T23:35:00.001-04:00

A message from Sarah Silverman.

Star Wars - The Clone Wars (3am reaction post)

2008-08-15T11:18:00.004-04:00

First of all, before you read my response to this flick, please read this as it sums up my personal Star Wars philosophy in every possible way.

SpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilers

1. Being a bit of a purist, I was not a big fan of the sounds over the LucasFilm logo and the "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away" but I'll let them slide. I cannot, however, let the narrated set-up slide. They could have at least put the text there! I mean, I understand it's a kid's movie (ostensibly) and theoretically (American) kids can't read, but... dude. It's Star Wars. It HAS to open with an overly political, slightly confusing, epic set-up in three yellow text blocks that fade slllloooowwwwllly into the stars. It has to. That having been said, had they just put what they said into those blocks, it would have been a damn-solid opener. Also? I really really need this new tricked-out version of the theme song.

2. War: (Good god, y'all) What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! (Sing it again!) This depiction of battles did better than any single other Star Wars movie, imho, in showing the moral dimensions of war realistically. The clones were given their due, I think, and I had to cringe at how violent and ugly their deaths were, but how unglorified the whole matter was. That opening battle did NOT seem like a kid's movie, guys. It was pretty horrifying. What I really, really, really liked was how individualized they made the clones. Oddball, Cody, and Rex all had very distinct personalities, it seemed, and when we saw a bunch of the troops with their helmets off we saw that even though they were all clones of Jango Fett (probably the best cartoon depiction of a prequel actor, actually) they all had different hair styles and colours. They were all individuals, like all soldiers, and you couldn't ignore their deaths and conscious sacrifices (Rex, in particular) as the duty of identical, nameless, faceless, cannon-fodder.

What added another layer to the whole thing--and this may have been unintentional--was the increased sentience of the battle-droids. In The Phantom Menace they were barely sentient and their humour came from their machine-logic being unable to cope with the Jedi and other creative beings. They were the quintessential cannon-fodder. In this, however, they were the comic relief in that they were really stupid and gullible, but they were very self-aware as well (case in point? When Ventress throws the one droid over the cliff in frustration he cries out 'whhhhyyyyyyyy?' on the way down. Very existential!) Additionally, one of the key traitors was that green droid at the monastary who lies, saying he was a prisoner, to escape destruction and facilitate the trap, but then gets busted at the transport. We never see him following orders, or any other droid identical to him. He may be a droid, but for all intents and purposes, he is an individual being with free will and personality like every other being. When Ashuka (sp?) decapitates him I worried that she was treading too close to the dark side. This wasn't addressed, of course, but ambiguous morality is the subtext of the whole film, and I think it's a bit implied. But I digress...

This film doesn't let you feel good that at least the Jedi survive, like Attack of the Clones does. You understand Anakin feeling like a right bastard for letting Rex down, but then Rex turns it right around and lets him off the moral hook, agreeing that the objective of the mission is what is important, not one soldier's life. So we have sentient, individualized droids fighting sentient, individualized clones and of course you have to root for the good guy, but that gets extra-complicated by the fact that the good guys look more like stormtroopers than the clones we see in Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith, so all of a sudden you are forced to recognize all the deaths on the hands of our heroes in the original trilogy.

This is a round about way of getting to the point that the message of this movie, if there is one, is that all actors in war have agency, from the soldiers on up, and it's only when you look at the big picture, the history--the over-arcs of the two trilogies--that this agency is invisible in the shadows of the ultimate elite of the heroes and villains.

3. Sexism: Um. Well. At least no one died in childbirth for lack of the will to live? But seriously, I actually had very few beefs with Ashuka, but the ones I had bugged the FUCK out of me. First of all, we FINALLY have a characterized female Jedi and her job is to rescue and care for a baby?!?!?!?! FOR REALSIES? Second, what the fuck is up with Anakin's random-ass nickname for her. Yeah she calls him 'sky guy' but, um, at least his name is Skywalker. His came out of fucking nowhere and just demeaned her, I think. Call her Padawan like everyone else, dude. Or, you know, her name! Three, um, naked and skinny and elongated much? Also? Anime eyes. I mean, maybe she's not human and is supposed to look like that but... not addressed. Four, "Artoo-y"? Really???? I mean, I know how having a vagina makes you want to cutify everything always, but at least pick something that isn't already the epitome of cute to begin with. Also, it just sounded like she was saying 'R2E' which doesn't even make sense.

Other than that though, I quite liked the character. She was a great match for Anakin because she is so much like him, and a way for him to show that he has actually changed and bettered under Obi-Wan's tutelage. Also, I think it's a bit humbling for him to see that for 'normal' Jedi (ones who aren't conceived by the midichlorians or whatnot) his psycho-tactics are not actually as advised as he might have thought in the past. In contrast, however, I also think she shows him that he has developed into a Jedi whose style is quite distinct from that of Obi-Wan's but that is still respected in some way by Yoda & co. I wonder how she dies...

4. Racism. Oh Star Wars, why why why must you always 'orientalize' your minor evil characters. Your good-guy music was all alt-rock and marching bands and your ominous, mysterious bad-gal music was all aboriginal and Indian. Seriously? If you're gonna pull a new style of music into the score for the film, at least spread it out a bit for thematic coherency and to not further other non-western culture in the Star Wars canon.

5. Zero the Hutt. Just... wtf. I seriously do not know what to make of that. Was it homophobic? Was it a really awesome nod to the fact that Hutts change sex when they're pregnant? Was it an homage to something I'm not clear on? Was Zero the Hutt really an effeminate southern gentleman? Someone please explain it to me because I have no freaking clue.

6. Animation: 80% freaking awesome and 20% cringe-worthy. The thing is, that the prequels were so heavily animated that unless a scene closed in on a character's face, it looked like normal Star Wars. So, when it did go in for the close-up, the expressionless, stylized faces (however good at capturing the likeness of the original actors) were jarring, every single time. I could deal with the flat delivery because, well, it's Star Wars and that's not what's important ever anyway. But the lack of expressions and the weirdly long legs bothered me. Oh well. Obi-Wan was still hot. Shut up. I know it wasn't Ewan. But somehow, my brain doesn't care. When he lost his saber and STILL fought of Ventress? HAWT. I applauded, and so did one of the other eight people in the theatre.

7. Self-referencing and in-jokes: they rocked them. The visual quotes were STUNNING and yet subtle. When they showed crashed transport, open and empty in the Tatooine desert with the Jawas gathering in front of it looking exactly like one of the first scenes of A New Hope I gasped. Also, I think the initial fight scene where Anakin uses one of the big-evil-gun-things to trip the other, it was a nice subtle reference to Empire in the battle of Hoth and the AT-ATs. I think they even threw in a few EU references in there (don't have my books with me, so I can't check, but the monks that Ashuka mentions outside the monastery? Aren't those the ones that take-over Jabba's palace and have brains in jars and robotic spider-legs? Maybe?) just to make me happy. However, they did Tatooine justice like whoa, but really short-changed the other planets. Also? I really loved the parallel of having Padme approach a Hutt in disguise a la Princess Leia.

8. Plot: Not bad, actually. Yeah the Hutt-baby bit was kind of dumb, but at least they all acknowledged that it was and that they had to do it for political purposes. What I want to know, though, is why they didn't make use of the fact that Anakin used to be owned by a Hutt to their advantage to further convince Jabba that Anakin was coming to kill him. So obvious, guys!

9. I'll tell you what. The best damn delivery in the whole movie? Anthony Daniels as Threepio, per usual. His tiny moment of glory felt more like the original trilogy than pretty much anything else.

10. What can I say, though. It's Star Wars. It is. There is almost no critique I can make of this film that I can't and haven't made of any of the trilogy. It holds up the mythology to my satisfaction, and gives me some character and story points to chew over. I can't honestly say whether or not I'm going to think of this as proper canon in my head or relegate it to the place in my head where I keep the novelizations (but not the EU. Shut up, I'm contrary.) as an almost-AU. I have to think on it more. But either way, I approve this message.

IMDB Teaser Tag of the day:

2008-04-13T18:12:00.002-04:00

"Partially disabled medical student Dr. Donald Blake discovers his heretofore unknown alter ego, the Norse warrior, Thor."

Who wouldn't want to see this movie?

Writer's Strike

2007-12-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

So it seems that Conan O'Brien and Letterman are going to be returning sans writers at the beginning of January. While I hope this has the effect of demonstrating the extreme importance of writers to shows that seem less scripted, than, say, Weeds or 30 Rock (side note: Can we put Mary Louise Parker and Tina Fey in a room together with the instructions 'be awesome' and see what happens? I think we should do that), the effect of giving a loud voice to people who clearly support the WGA's strike, and the benefit of getting a lot of staff members paid as soon as possible, it doesn't seem like a good idea.

Okay, maybe putting on ONE episode of these shows might be entertaining from the 'train wreck' perspective, but other than that? It's gonna be embarrassing and while it's not exactly scabbing (since they'd have WGA permission), any perceived breaking of ranks is not going to be a good thing.

Now I'm hearing rumours that my boyz Jon and Stephen (shut up, let me live in my delusions) might in for the same treatment a few days later.

Comedy Central says no decision has been made on whether Stewart and Stephen Colbert will return, and a writer on one of the shows told us they are unaware of any plans. But we hear that all "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" employees -- except for writers -- been told to show up for work Jan. 7, whether a strike is resolved or not, and we find this plausible.

The Daily Show and, to a greater extent, The Colbert Report are highly scripted shows. I really can't imagine an non-written episode being anything more than a two minute interview with, say, Will Smith (who is in I Am Legend and also recently said he'd like to run for President someday! IMAGINE THAT INTERVIEW, people!), and twenty minutes of Jon Stewart standing there going, 'Wait, really? For real?' or maybe just reading the New York Times to us all. I'm not saying I wouldn't watch it or the Report (which I envision as 22 minutes of Stephen Colbert running back and forth, high-fiving the audience) but, really, AMPTP, do you actually want to give a mouthpiece to a man who tore George Bush a new one to his face while he's mad at you?

No, I thought not. Now pay up...Fine, be that way.

Another side note: Someone needs to poll a bunch of young people about the news over the past month and see if they know what's going on (they do). Maybe people would finally stop trying to claim that all young people only get their news from the Daily Show.

Anyhow, if we're gonna go with unscripted television, let's really go with it! I'm not talking reality tv (that's just written by non-union writers!), I'm suggesting unscripted episodes of everything from Heroes (and by 'Heroes' I mean, 'wet mostly-naked Sylar') to House (and by 'House' I mean 'Hugh Laurie being British'), to Law and Order (and by 'Law and Order' I mean 'Jessie L. Martin reading a Crim. Pro. textbook to me') to How I Met Your Mother (and by 'How I Met Your Mother' I mean 'NPH and Jason Segel singing songs at me'). None of these people have to recite any scripts, just hang out and do whatever else it is they do best, much like the Late Night TV hosts will be forced to do. Of course those writers will still be out of work. But at least they'd be entertained?

Because I am Smarter than My Sister

2007-12-17T16:23:00.000-05:00

http://xkcd.com/270/

2007-12-17T13:56:00.001-05:00

http://xkcd.com/270/