tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26278550235217700722024-02-07T01:46:49.921-06:00From Austin to A&MWhat happens when a liberal feminist atheist moves to College Station, TXCourtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-14586983328260480492013-03-05T18:47:00.000-06:002013-03-05T18:47:01.942-06:00Help! I'm... a feminist romance reader?<i>This post was written by guest writer Adrienne. She is attending Texas A&M for her Ph.D., where her specialty is detective fiction. She's also a reader of romance.</i> <br />
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So so sorry for the long delay. I'm done with the move and have my life back!<br />
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Like many other women, I grew up reading romance novels. My family are all very heavy readers, and amidst all types of books, my mother read romances. One of my few fairly useless super powers is the ability to read way too quickly for my own good (my ability to resist mosquitoes is far far more useful). I never could check out enough books from the library, and so I started picking up my parent's books. Eventually my mother discovered and tried to stop my romance nabbing ways.<br />
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Now, I'm fairly sure that the reason my mother got upset that I was reading them was because of the *gasp* sexual content. And years later, I regret reading the novels and would never recommend most romances to young girls, but not for the same reason as my mother. These novels gave me a completely unrealistic and unhealthy outlook on sex, myself, and relationships. I do think that readers of romance have a far more complex relationship with the subject matter than previously imagined.<sup>1</sup> Subject matter and ideology is not consumed uncritically. Women frequently twist and turn content to create a more realistic or more personal fantasy. I do not want to suggest that my experience was the same as all young girl's when reading romances, or that my experience was wholly naive, shallow, or one-leveled, and yet it was and probably still is a damaging experience. The romance novels reflect and create (in a nice circle as most literature does) cultural norms and expectations about love, relationships, and sex.<br />
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Let me summarize the romance: once upon a time, there was a very special woman who was going through some difficult problems, and she met a very special man who had something missing from his life. They met, gave each other what the other was lacking (for the woman- usually some type of fix to her problem, for the man- usually teaching him to love), they had sublime awesome sex, and lived happily ever after for the rest of their lives.<br />
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I'm being both mean and nice in my description, I think. I'm purposefully leaving out many of the most problematic and sexist aspects in order to describe as many types of romances as possible and in some delusional attempt to be fair. I'm also very aware that I'm leaving out many of the ways romance subvert or attempt to subvert gender roles, patriarchy, and traditional relationships.<br />
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The lessons that I learned from the hundreds of romances I read? 1) that an individual is incomplete, 2) I'm only important because I'm super special (a princess, a sad orphan abandoned by everyone and now chased by someone powerful and evil, a slave with super brain powers and the heart of gold, etc), 3) that sex is perfect and completely mind blowing (and man was I excited about this), 4) that love is only real if it's forever, and 5) that my future partner has to continually sweep me off my feet. If I wanted to be really and truly honest with myself, I would say that I still struggle with each and every one of these concepts even though my head understands that all of them are complete and utter bullshit. On the upside, I think contemporary romance novels (specifically certain types like chick lit and paranormal) are trying (keyword: trying) to combat a few of these: specifically 1, 2, and 4.<br />
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I'm going to use Sandra Booth's sub-genre summaries to explore movements from the 70s onward. The traditional romance prominent in the 1970s and frequently returned to through the decades has an amoral stock hero and a virginal and virtuous heroine.<sup>2</sup> This reinforces gender stereotypes and promotes a culture in which un-angelic women (adventurous, sexual, etc) are bad women and therefore undeserving of protection from rape (frequently "asking for it").<sup>3</sup><br />
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Romance frequently makes force, coercion, or men's lack of sexual control sexy and romantic. And that's so dangerous. Obvious, right? Apparently not. Yes, it is a fantasy. And as many critics have said- it's important to think of this as a fantasy and to accept that women don't uncritically consume this. But these are published and consumed in a rape culture. We don't usually fantasize about things completely related OR completely unrelated to us.<br />
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Romance in the 80s began to more frequently lessen gender stereotypes and weaken these rape myths. The hero moved from being amoral to "following the heroine's moral 'norm'" (96). Paranormal romance and humorous feminist romance began to emerge in large numbers during the 90s. Originally (as Sandra Booth contends) the paranormal was a regressive return to angel/monster dichotomy<sup>4</sup> and humorous romance was the successful feminist and anti-patriarchal romance sub-genre.<br />
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I'm happy to say, that I think paranormal is slowly becoming a sub-genre in which some of the most exciting queer or feminist romances can currently be found. One of the reasons that paranormal is such a hopeful and interesting place for progressive work is the desire (and semi-ability) to create a social structure outside of normal (aka heteronormative patriarchal) structure. Society can have totally different rules- e.g. it can be matriarchal or androgynous.<br />
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Although Lynn Coddington wants us to believe that romances aren't "formulaic" and are wrongly assumed to be "universally badly written," I only partially agree with her (62). As with most popular culture, there is an erroneous assumption that romance isn't art and therefore isn't well written. That's utter crap. And crap a lot of us believe. Our dear blog mistress (and my dear friend) Courtney recently told me how surprised she was to enjoy Gail Carriger's parasol series because she assumed most of "that type" of fiction was badly written. There are many romance authors that are beautiful writers. But not formulaic? I just don't buy it. I've read thousands. And while yes... there are some surprises, some diversity... publishers still pay very close attention to what is in demand and what formula is currently popular. There are formulas. And when we read that formula over and over again, surely we start to believe and internalize the formula. For Coddington, "Romances are not all the same. They do not construct gender relations in uniform way, and they do not tell trivial stories. They represent a range of possible gender constructions," and I call bullshit (66). That range of possibilities only cover a few feet on a mile long continuum of gender constructions. And the idea that we've created some possibilities for women so we can stop is a very damaging and complacent place.<br />
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But there are some romance novels that I applaud. Because this is long already, I'm going to pick three from paranormal detective/romance that I'm excited about. I'd love readers to respond with other genres, sub-genres, and/or specific authors which respond to the issues I've raised in this post.<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Laurell K.Hamilton</span>. I found Guilty Pleasures in the young adult section of my library when I was in jr. high . I've been a fan ever since. Although problematic in many ways (writing, editing, etc), I applaud her for creating a powerful female who has frequently focused on her job. They're decidedly non-monogamous, they definitely challenge concepts about the monster/angel dichotomy, and they're sexy. Packed full of all different sorts of sex. I actually wish reader response wouldn't jump so frequently on the "OMG she's a slut" bandwagon. I wish the books were more glbtia friendly (although there seems to be a nice move that way). And I hold my breath because the baby discussion has come up a few times now. Child free by choice... please don't leave me now. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
One of my favorites is <span style="font-weight: bold;">Charlaine Harris</span>'s works- all of them not just the Sookie Stackhouse series. The trend to not have one relationship, not be happily ever after, is one of the most successful and prevalent in recent work. In the Sookie series, she dates, it doesn't work, they break up. She's single sometimes, and she's in different relationships other times. It's a nice pattern, a realistic pattern. The Grave series deals with issues of incest, questions social stigmas in relationships, and plays with the concept of female community and female victimhood. The Shakespeare series very purposefully focuses on abuse.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kim Harrison</span>'s Rachel Morgan series. This series deals with questions of class, race, gender, sexual orientation galore. Talk about novels that question authority, structural patriarchy, and male power. They also have interesting sexual dynamics, and create not just a strong heroine but a strong community of characters. There is continuously more of a focus on peer and friend relationships over romantic relationships. </blockquote>
These definitely fight misconceptions about love and relationships that I raised earlier including that love is forever and that an individual is incomplete without a partner. Paranormal romances are definitely not good at addressing the "special" problem (paranormal heroines are usually the only vampire/werewolf hybrid or the long lost fairie or the alien queen), but other types of romances have more successfully addressed this. I would also like to see more novels that portrays sex as realistic - less "holy crap mindblowing can't think of anything during sex but that sex is awesome." We all know that sometimes in the middle of sex we think "Oh shit, is the oven on?", and that's okay.<br />
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As I've been thinking about and reading up on romance, I've discovered that romances also helped me learn that 1) I can be an empowered woman, 2) I can be sex-positive, 3) women can be subjects and women-focused, and 4) women's bodies are beautiful. I'm excited and hopeful for a positive progression that leans towards these lessons with less of the negativity that for so long has accompanied the romance.<br />
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I also applaud romance for being a genre written by women for women. And romance is a wonderfully give and take process.<sup>5</sup> Indeed, the few blogs of romance authors that I check out occasionally, have a far more interactive author/fan base than the general literature/fiction author has.<br />
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I want more out of the romance genre. And I want other fans and authors to understand and want more as well. We deserve it.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Further reading on being a feminist romance reader:</span><br />
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There are a number of resources about being a feminist and a romance reader like Kay Mussell's interview: <a href="http://www.likesbooks.com/mussell.html">Are Feminism & Romance Novels Incompatible</a> , <a href="http://www.likesbooks.com/quick16.html">Catherine Asaro's response to the same question</a>, <a href="http://collegecandy.com/2008/03/22/in-defence-of-romance-novels-part-one/">College Candy's Defense of Romance Novels</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/">Smart Bitches Trashy Books</a> has taken up this issue a number of times including <a href="http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/feminism_is_a_dirty_word/">Feminism is a Dirty Word</a> and their book <a href="http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/book/">Beyond Heaving Bosoms</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Notes</span><br />
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<sup>1</sup> This has been suggested in work on the romance genre by scholars such as Lynn Coddington, Janice Radway, and Laura Kinsale.<br />
<sup>2</sup> Sandra Booth explains that the traditional romance "acts as a vehicle to display the heroine's virtue... The hero [amoral and unstoppable] acts as a foil to the heroine who is presented as the moral 'norm.' Because she must assert and protect her virtue, the heroine in the traditional romance is often presented as passive, self-sacrificing, and virginal" (94-95).<br />
<sup>3</sup> Also Tania Modelski points out that "The myth that men are unable to control their sexual drive beyond a point and that women lead men on- and so deserve what they get- by accepting romantic or sexual overtures from them is a myth that has all too often proved lethal to women" (17).<br />
<sup>4</sup> The construct where the heroine is angelic and perfect, and the hero is monstrous and violent. Very Beauty and the Beast esque. Only we know that the Beast really is a monster and doesn't have this shining heart of gold.<br />
<sup>5</sup> Lee Tabin-McClain points out that "Romance formulae differ from earlier generic patterns in that they change based on intensive publisher research into reader preference... other aspects of romance fiction give it a sense of a collective authorship" (296).<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">References</span><br />
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Booth, Sandra. "Paradox in Popular Romances of the 1990s: The Paranormal Versus Feminist Humor." <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradoxa </span>3 (1997): 94-106.<br />
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Coddington, Lynn. "Wavering Between Worlds: Feminist Influences in the Romance Genre." <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradoxa </span>3 (1997): 58-77.<br />
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Modleski, Tania. "My Life as a Romance Reader." <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradoxa </span>3 (1997): 15-28.<br />
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Modleski, Tania. "My Life as a Romance Writer." <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradoxa </span>4 (1998): 134-147.<br />
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Tobin-McClain, Lee. "Paranormal Romance: Secrets of the Female Fantastic." <span style="font-style: italic;">Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts </span>11 (2000): 294-306.Adriennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08528685395824023291noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-62593122267635172332011-07-10T17:46:00.000-05:002011-07-10T17:46:39.051-05:00New website is serious business.<span class="toptitle"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I've moved! I have my own website now, <a href="http://www.austintotamu.com/">www.austintotamu.com</a>. </span></span></b></span><br />
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<span class="toptitle"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">This site will remain live as an archive, so feel free to browse. If you'd like to contact me, see the link on the new site.</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span class="toptitle"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cheers!</span></span></b></span>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-64567715582149462362011-07-01T16:35:00.003-05:002011-11-22T23:21:58.166-06:00Steampunk, Tech, and TARDISes: A Cosplay Tale<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cross-posted at <a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2011/07/01/steampunk-tech-and-tardises-a-cosplay-tale/">Geek Feminism</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So the idea of my cosplay project (which I have completed a big chunk of, but am putting on the shelf for a bit, so that I can mull it over in my subconscious) was pretty simple. Most people give these very simplistic answers about their motivations for their cosplay: it's fun, it's for the pure love of the show, it's about hanging out with other fans, I like the character, I like the character's costume, etc. I suspect, like most fan scholars, that something more complicated than those reasons go into cosplayers' decision-making. So I chose a particular cosplay trend—women cosplaying as the Doctor—and tried to get beyond those reasons, both through interviewing and by "reading" the costumes. Which, of course, has all got me thinking about my own motivations and decisions in the cosplay I wore to Gally. Obviously, the premise of my project is that cosplayers don't necessarily consciously know all the reasons they make the decisions they make in their cosplay, and I don't consider myself an exception to that premise. In fact, I knew I wasn't sure what it was about a steampunk TARDIS dress that held such a fascination with me. I only knew, as I told a friend at the time, that if I could dress as the TARDIS and wear a bustle at the same time, I'd be a happy lady.</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkDW5l18lXGKz6tiM_xajg4AUCKlsOSjYt_3EaokmKifH_rQ-WM9JP6QnJlrol1CFqxdJapMzPZxTJR2e8TUS710GowAiAuHkHE5Qs0rdAEn15BaHjGeolx6ka_QNadlrIQ-4OKN0sAdU/s1600/176244_1892459598086_1439415559_32163140_2478542_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkDW5l18lXGKz6tiM_xajg4AUCKlsOSjYt_3EaokmKifH_rQ-WM9JP6QnJlrol1CFqxdJapMzPZxTJR2e8TUS710GowAiAuHkHE5Qs0rdAEn15BaHjGeolx6ka_QNadlrIQ-4OKN0sAdU/s640/176244_1892459598086_1439415559_32163140_2478542_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Bustle time! Me in my steampunk TARDIS dress at Gally 2010. The dress consists of a white button up shirt, navy blue corset with appliqued windows, navy blue skirt with panels and a screen-printed "POLICE TELEPHONE" sign, navy blue bustle, and black headband with "POLICE PUBLIC PHONE BOX" painted in white.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I started this project, I thought that my motivations for the TARDIS dress were mostly gender-related. After all, gender is something I think about a lot. When I met another TARDIS dress cosplayer at Gally, Niki la Teer, we chatted about how many TARDIS cosplays are not just women, but women wearing very <i>femme</i> costumes. I asked her if she interprets the TARDIS as female, and she said the TARDIS would be </span></div><blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<i><b>definitely</b> </i>female. [...] The way the Doctor talks about the TARDIS, talks <i><b>to</b> </i>the TARDIS. Assuming the Doctor is straight, of course, you never know." </span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My own cosplay was very femme, and I share Niki's interpretation. Obviously, the TARDIS as female (and romantic companion of the Doctor) is now canon, with the wonderful Neil Gaiman episode "The Doctor's Wife." But this is an obvious example of one of my hypotheses in my project: namely, that cosplayers' costumes and choices reflect their personal interpretations of <i>Doctor Who</i>. In this case, we can surmise that women dressing as femme TARDISes interpret the TARDIS as a femme woman.</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4HvkJY63mJgE8ZrA7CrOvmDbgKrJ9uY1AOj1CHlQtWIijDGofBd225NYzdTbUvWs1pcSp61pPR8XrT0VMwcTAy9EB47e5vOX-K2ITntLy5Pr1BQ_JJvsaoYK4311X_dxI9oWQKFPdjM/s1600/DSCF0212.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4HvkJY63mJgE8ZrA7CrOvmDbgKrJ9uY1AOj1CHlQtWIijDGofBd225NYzdTbUvWs1pcSp61pPR8XrT0VMwcTAy9EB47e5vOX-K2ITntLy5Pr1BQ_JJvsaoYK4311X_dxI9oWQKFPdjM/s640/DSCF0212.JPG" width="472" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Me and Niki la Teer at Gally 2010. Niki is wearing a bright blue 50s-style flare dress, with repeating panels on all sides, topped by a navy-trimmed white cropped jacket. Not pictured is her cute hat, which is a pillbox designed to look like the light on the top of the TARDIS.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Niki dressed as a 50s-style TARDIS because that's the period from which the police box originated. As someone whose research interests mostly lie in the contemporary manifestations of the 19th century (mostly contemporary Jane Austens and neo-Victorianisms), steampunk is naturally fascinating to me. But I don't think this fascination is the reason I chose steampunk, or a Victorian-esque design for my TARDIS cosplay. What is it about steampunk and <i>Doctor Who</i> that seemed to combine so deliciously? And why the TARDIS? Why didn't I opt for a steampunk femme 10th Doctor (an option I considered briefly)? The answer seems to lie in the steampunk aesthetic itself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So what is steampunk? What defines its aesthetic? Annoyingly, steampunk defies definition. One part Victorianism, one part science fiction, one part magic, and found in literary and material manifestations, in costuming/fashion, in film and in graphic novels, steampunk seems easy to identify and hard to define; á la Justice Potter Stewart, we know it when we see it. Or when we are faced with <a href="http://beatonna.livejournal.com/135788.html?thread=10064236">an overabundance of cogs</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n-Dwd6EZC44/Tf5kKE8q81I/AAAAAAAAAVk/O6eZggP7j7o/s1600/datamancerlaptop-foot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n-Dwd6EZC44/Tf5kKE8q81I/AAAAAAAAAVk/O6eZggP7j7o/s400/datamancerlaptop-foot.jpg" width="315" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Brass and wood steampunk laptop with turn key and brass pedestal feet, modded by <a href="http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm">Datamancer</a>. </b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">My favorite (non) definition of steampunk comes from Rachel A. Bowser and Brian Croxall, in their introduction to the special issue of <i>Neo-Victorian Studies</i> on steampunk. They claims that steampunk "seems precisely to illustrate, and perhaps even perform, a kind of cultural memory work, wherein our projections and fantasies about the Victorian era meet the tropes and techniques of science fiction, to produce a genre that revels in anachronism while exposing history's overlapping layers" (1). What does that mean, exactly? Steampunk is, firstly, not about the Victorian era (or the American 19th century, an increasingly popular setting in steampunk), but about a nostalgic vision of that era, populated by our "projections and fantasies." That's why steampunk costumers do things that would seem utterly bizarre to actual Victorians, like wear dresses made of all one fabric and color, or wear their corsets on the outside. Steampunk presents a romantic view of the past. Further, steampunk is not just historical fiction, a category that's been around for a much longer time, but Victorian nostalgia mixed with the "tropes and techniques of science fiction." This is appropriate, since science as an institution and science fiction as a distinct literary category both came into being in England in the late Victorian era. But the key part of this definition is this: "a genre that revels in anachronism while <span style="background-color: white;">exposing history's overlapping layers." Steampunk <i>is</i>,</span> according to Bowser and Croxall, anachronism, temporal hybridity. Steampunk, in all its manifestations, is about blending historical time periods. According to Bowser and Croxall, it</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"asks us, perhaps via its material culture even more than through its fictional instantiations, to consider the apparent disjunction of a turn-key starter and a laptop computer. Then steampunk asks us to look harder and apprehend their aesthetic compatibility. Calling it aesthetic compatibility may, in fact, understate the point. In the laptop, modded by the technical artist Datamancer (Richard R. Nagy), the compatibility is operational: turning the key actually boots the machine. We might say steampunk takes the paradigm one step further and asks what happens when the markers of various time periods are estranged from their contexts and made simultaneous. [...] The point of modding your laptop to look like a turn-of-the-previous-century machine is not to create an object so radically mashed-up that one cannot discern its functionality, but to discover their aesthetic commonalities, to blend them in a way that verges on cancelling [sic] the difference" (6-7). </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Basically, then, steampunk takes the past and combines it with the present, precisely to erase the differences between the two. "This approach to temporality," Bowser and Croxall claim, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">"has the simultaneous and paradoxical effect of minimising the categorical differences between time periods. Steampunk illuminates the compatibility of laptops and brass, of steam engines and nanotechnology. Steampunk insists, in other words, on our continuing status as 'other Victorians' and does so in part through a manipulation of temporality that in its very machinations invokes the temporal revisions and reversals of the Victorian era" (10). Our belief that we are like the Victorians is what makes steampunk so very appealing; it projects a compatibility between us and the Victorians, between our culture and the (Western) culture(s) of the 19th century, between our technology and the inventions of the Victorian era.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T68qTZ67H6c/TguWfOIfwXI/AAAAAAAAAWA/8ITiHfsG10o/s1600/52313.png.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T68qTZ67H6c/TguWfOIfwXI/AAAAAAAAAWA/8ITiHfsG10o/s400/52313.png.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Promo shot for "The Next Doctor," picturing Mrs. Hartigan in a red Victorian gown with parasol, the Doctor, the "next" Doctor (Jackson Lake) in a red patterned vest, gold cravat, and tan overcoat, and Rosita (his assistant) in a brown and gold patterned dress over white shirtsleeves.</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><i>Doctor Who</i> is a show that, similarly, revels in temporal anachronism. This is a show that likes to take us back to the past and remind us of our compatibility with that past. Russell T. Davies's era, in particular, rather enjoyed jaunts to the past, and had a love affair with the Victorian era. Notable examples of traveling into the past in the RTD era are "The Unquiet Dead" (1869), "The Empty Child" (London, the Blitz), "The Girl in the Fireplace" (France, 1727), "Tooth and Claw" (Scottish moors, 1879), "The Shakespeare Code" (London, 1599), "The Daleks in Manhattan" (New York City, 1930), "Human Nature" (England, 1913), "The Fires of Pompeii" (Pompeii, 79), and "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (England, 1926). Going back in time is not intended to alienate the audience from the past. Rather, these episodes are characterized (like steampunk) by multiple anachronisms, multiple simultaneous meanings, and play. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5nyj1pZPQFk/TguWh2ED7sI/AAAAAAAAAWE/UA6CNvbWXio/s1600/cyberking02sm.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5nyj1pZPQFk/TguWh2ED7sI/AAAAAAAAAWE/UA6CNvbWXio/s400/cyberking02sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-krbTs3FL9ZA/TguWiLgYbhI/AAAAAAAAAWI/XgN8tKutj9E/s1600/cyberking15sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-krbTs3FL9ZA/TguWiLgYbhI/AAAAAAAAAWI/XgN8tKutj9E/s400/cyberking15sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Giant steam-powered Cyberking, rampaging the city of London and coming into contact with the TARDIS hot air balloon.</b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
</b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Further, the hero/ines of steampunk are usually tinkerers, inventors, and adventurers, all categories into which the Doctor undoubtedly fits. The compatibility of steampunk with <i>Doctor Who</i> is something that even the writers seemed to recognize in the production of "The Next Doctor," set in London in the 19th century, in which the Doctor finds himself once again fighting the Cybermen, who construct a giant steam-powered Cyberking. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In this episode, <i>Doctor Who</i> becomes translated in a steampunk version of itself, in which the Doctor carries an actual screwdriver, flies in a hot air balloon, and wears a spiffy vest and cravat. He fights the same enemies, but they are now steam-powered. <i>Doctor Who</i> works in the steampunk mode because that mode and its own normal operations are very similar; the tinkerer/inventor Doctor is not that different from most steampunk hero/ines and anachronism is definitional to both.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But, as I pointed out, a steampunk <i>TARDIS</i> seemed so much better to me than a steampunk Doctor (although I'm still considering a steampunk femme 10th Doctor for another con). That may be because the most important thing in steampunk is not the bustles or the brown, but the <i>tech</i>. Steampunk has been described as a response to modern technology that has become sleek, small, and boring, exemplified by the iPhone or iPod. Contemporary technology is not only boring, it's a black box. It's outside gives no clue as to what it does or how it works, and it's impenetrable. Not literally, obviously, but our own culture makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the layman to tinker with hir own tech. DRMs, EULAs, and warranties all reflect a certain attitude about how appropriate it is to bust open your technology and mess around with it, and the non-mechanical nature of tech like iPods, computers, and cell phones make it difficult for most people to learn how to tinker with it anyway. This isn't just frustrating, it alienates people from the tech that literally shapes many people's lives. As I mentioned before, steampunk hero/ines are usually tinkerers; Bowser and Croxall argue that the high-adventuring hero/ines of steampunk "not only [...] build their own devices, but also [...] discover and develop the science behind them" (20). Steampunk "stages a rejection of received notions about how technology should be treated and who should discover, make, or modify it" (21).</span></span></span> <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1Y-C-QbJzc/Tg48UqnUxpI/AAAAAAAAAWU/d42voXn06Xg/s1600/tardis-console-tardis-4029221-1024-768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1Y-C-QbJzc/Tg48UqnUxpI/AAAAAAAAAWU/d42voXn06Xg/s400/tardis-console-tardis-4029221-1024-768.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The inside of the TARDIS from the Russell T. Davies era of the show.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Steampunk, then, remakes and reimagines technology. The cogs everywhere in steampunk art and attire are not merely decorative (even when they are decorative), but signal to the importance that mechanical and visible tech in the steampunk aesthetic. Steampunk tech is big, bulky, and its works are highly visible, with cogs, gears, and inner workings proudly on display. This tech is no black box. Scott Westerfield, author of <i>Leviathan</i>, claims that "the Internet is global and seemingly omniscient, while iPods and phones are all microscopic workings encased in plastic blobjects. [...] Compare that to a steam engine, where you can watch the pistons move and feel the heat of its boilers. I think we miss that visceral appeal of the machine" (qtd. in Grossman). Tech in steampunk becomes not just visible and workable, but <i>difficult</i>. Sean Orlando of Kinetic Steam Works claims that steampunk is for "people who want to struggle, lift and heave their technology" (Farivar). Apple gives us toys that are silver, slick, easy to use, and difficult to tinker with. Steampunk gives us something different: tech that is bronze, dirty, difficult, dangerous, and endlessly tinkerable. </span></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8FJwGqQS2Tc/Tg48SFvRVYI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/UFLan-kVZiI/s1600/2010+Tardis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8FJwGqQS2Tc/Tg48SFvRVYI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/UFLan-kVZiI/s400/2010+Tardis.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The inside of the TARDIS for the current <i>Doctor Who</i> era.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If that's the case, then my choice of the TARDIS is no surprise, particularly when I think about how <i>important </i>I thought it was to sew some gold and silver clock parts onto the skirt and the white shirt. (I finished the costume right before<i> </i>the con, literally in the hotel, so I haven't finished this detail yet.) The TARDIS is not a <i>perfect </i>example of the steampunk aesthetic, since its many visible parts are a bit inscrutable to human companions, but it is steampunk to the Doctor. It's a very manual machine, requiring a lot of running around the console and pushing buttons, flipping large switches, and occasionally giving it a good thump, and it's parts are all highly visible, with so many knobs, buttons, and curiosities about. (This is true about both the TARDISes from the new series, though the 9th and 10th Doctors' TARDISes have more of a steampunk aesthetic in color scheme, since the machine has more faded, rather than shiny, colors, and is more navy, rather than bright, on the outside and bronze on the inside..) Further, we can see it work in the same way we can see the steam engine's pistons work. When the Doctor finally flips the switch, the movement in the center of the console and the loud noise the machine makes are both radical departures from the way our modern technology works. The TARDIS is certainly visceral, dangerous, and tangible in a way that a smartphone simply can't be.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is not all to argue that <i>Doctor Who</i> is steampunk. In fact, I don't think that is true. Rather, I think <i>Doctor Who</i> is compatible with steampunk, and shares some of its aesthetic concerns. The Doctor is easily reimagined as a steampunk hero, and the TARDIS as steampunk technology. They both use the past to understand the present and future, and tend to collapse the categorical differences between time periods. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The best part is not that they are compatible, though, but that my interpretation of them <i>as </i>compatible is visible in my cosplay and my thought process as I constructed it. Every choice I made reflected the ways in which I thought steampunk and <i>Doctor Who</i> meshed and the ways in which I thought they didn't. (For example, I didn't wear spats or heels, but black TOMS shoes, since the 10th Doctor wears Converse shoes, and that, at least for footwear, function and comfort are more important in <i>Doctor Who</i> than prettiness.) Cosplay has the potential to show us much more than what characters a cosplayer likes, identifies with, or appreciates the costumes of. It can tell us more than "I love <i>Doctor Who</i>." If we look hard enough, we can read whole arguments and interpretations in cosplay. Fashion, after all, speaks volumes.</span></span><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Works Cited</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bowser, Rachel A., and Brian Croxall. "Introduction: Industrial Evolution." <i>Neo-Victorian Studies </i>3.1 (2010): 1-45. <i>Neo-Victorian Studies</i>. Web. 17 June 2011. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Farivar, Cyrus. "Steampunk Brings Victorian Flair to the 21st Century." <i>NPR. </i>All Things Considered<i>. </i>National Public Radio, 6 February 2008. Web. Accessed 17 June 2011.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grossman, Lev. "Steampunk: Reclaiming Tech for the Masses." <i>Time Magazine</i>. Time Inc., 14 December 2009. Web. Accessed 17 June 2011.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">la Teer, Niki. Personal interview. 19 February 2011. </span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-71158674705261335322011-06-22T17:23:00.000-05:002011-06-22T17:23:54.504-05:00Text size change<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Hey all. I'm going to start publishing my posts in a larger font. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">I noticed my original font was <i>tiny</i>, and I wanted</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"> to make the blog more accessible to those who have trouble seeing small fonts. I'll be going back over the next week or so to republish all my old posts in the larger font. Cheers!</span>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-77814460173180118122011-06-18T14:11:00.002-05:002011-06-22T17:24:15.394-05:00Well, goddamnit.<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So, I haven't been around. Again. I'm sorry about that. I promised you a Doctor Who post! And a Doctor Who post you shall have. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Right now, I'm looking forward to homelessness at the end of next month (assuming I can even pay my rent next month, and my electricity isn't cut off at the end of this one). So, I've been doing a lot of crying. And hoping I can ask friends for money instead of my mother, because she'll be just <i>awful</i> about it. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I told my friends I'm not moving to Austin after all because I met a boy, because it's partially true, and because "I'm too broke to eat, much less move" sounded so much more pathetic. I'm about to have a master's degree! I was supposed to be upwardly mobile. Instead I'm looking at poverty worse than when I was growing up. Thanks, graduate school. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I've been doing a lot of crying and not a lot of writing. Doctor Who post on the finale of this season (because, dude, WHUT) and ALSO a post about my Gally costume and steampunk aesthetics (more exciting than it sounds!) super soon.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-72178507906918122022011-05-28T14:51:00.001-05:002011-06-22T17:25:04.035-05:00Texas A&M does not offer protection to LGBT employees<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dude. Apparently, Texas A&M does not offer discrimination protection to their LGBT employees. It's a goddamn tragedy. Garrett Nichols s<a href="http://signon.org/sign/texas-am-protect-lgbt?source=s.fb&r_by=221581">et up a petition</a> to ask them to fix this deficiency: </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div id="to-target"><span style="font-size: large;">To be delivered to: Dr. R. Bowen Loftin, President, Lt. General Joe Weber, Vice President of Student Affairs, Vickie Spillars, Executive Secretary to the Board of Regents, Dr. Christine Stanley, Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity, Dr. Karan L. Watson, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Michael Benedik, Speaker of the Faculty Senate and Dr. Antonio Cepeda-Benito, Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost</span></div><div id="pet-statement"><span style="font-size: large;">“Include sexual orientation and gender identity in Texas A&M's official employment non-discrimination policies.”</span></div></blockquote><div id="pet-explain" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Texas A&M's current employment non-discrimination policy does not protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. It is the only Tier 1 institution in the state of Texas that does not offer these protections. (Both the University of Texas and University of Houston include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies, and UT also includes gender identity.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The administration at Texas A&M has expressed its verbal support of the LGBT community on this campus. We're calling on the administration to stand behind their words and officially protect this population from employment discrimination and harassment on the basis sexual orientation or gender identity. </span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">You don't have to be a student or associated with Texas A&M to sign, so go do it!</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-35627796196156478162011-05-27T21:10:00.005-05:002011-06-22T17:32:48.215-05:00A&M administration silent as anti-GLBT rhetoric flies<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cross-posted at <a href="http://www.leftofcollegestation.com/2011/05/guest-blogger-texas-administration.html">Left of College Station</a>. </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">We ask that the administration address the recent series of events surrounding the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender (GLBT) community on campus. We, as faculty, condemn the recent TAMU Student Senate Bill 63-106 (Sexual Education Equality in Funding Bill). <b>By suggesting that students seeking guidance from the GLBT Resource Center are not represented by the terms 'family,' 'tradition,' or 'values,' this bill blatantly goes against Texas A&M's commitment to a diverse, unified campus that incorporates multiple perspectives as part of Aggie tradition and values.</b> Other recent events--such as the secret recording and then broadcasting of GLBT meetings on YouTube--ostracize GLBT students form the safe space that the TAMU campus should be for all students. <b>Such events, and TAMU administration's silence in the wake of these events, reflect the institutional forces that limit the representation of and support for historically marginalized and disempowered groups in our university.</b> We acknowledge that these current events have incited a sense of fear and mistrust among the GLBT community. We reach out with empathy to all those affected and remain committed to addressing injustice as members of the campus community and as anthropologists. Further, <b>we hold the administration accountable</b> for addressing this issue in a timely manner. </span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">-Statement unanimously approved by the faculty of the Department of Anthropology in May, from<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63386452@N03/5766809632/in/photostream"> a memo</a> to the upper administration at Texas A&M University, May 10 (emphasis added)</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NwGlBwq7TIA/TdrAD05h2AI/AAAAAAAAAUE/7itKHWC2wm8/s1600/206746_10150152905626198_34429236197_7043946_7540060_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NwGlBwq7TIA/TdrAD05h2AI/AAAAAAAAAUE/7itKHWC2wm8/s400/206746_10150152905626198_34429236197_7043946_7540060_n.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A&M students holding a sign reading "We are all part of the Aggie family" at the "Hands Across Aggieland" Unity March on April 15. (From the Texas A&M GLBT Resource Center <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TAMUGLBTRESOURCECENTER?sk=info">Facebook page</a>)</b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">Following the groundswell of support from faculty, staff, and students in the Department of English, and with the advice and support of the department's directors and diversity committee, I am writing to endorse the statement of the Anthropology faculty in the memo addressed to you on May 10 concerning support for the Texas A&M Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Resource Center in particular and more generally the GLBT community on our campus and the call for a positive response from the upper administration that affirms a re-commitment to diversity inclusive of sexuality and gender differences. The GLBT community, as a growing part of the Aggie family, deserves the support of our higher administrators, as well as our support at the departmental level. [...] Many members of the English department have expressed a desire to sign a petition in support of this position as well, but in the interest of acting quickly, I have decided not to collect those signatures at this time. Please note that many others do not feel that they can safely sign their names to such a petition.<b> Let us hope for a future when the feelings of vulnerability that these silent ones experience will be dispelled by a campus community known for its civility, tolerance, and respect.</b></span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">-<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63386452@N03/5766264527/in/photostream">Memo</a> from the head of the Department of English, Dr. Killingsworth, to the upper administration at Texas A&M University, May 12 (emphasis added)</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7QXcPA_QWX0/TdrAF4OmfQI/AAAAAAAAAUI/etelE7YMDiM/s1600/206968_10150152247636198_34429236197_7038340_1731102_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7QXcPA_QWX0/TdrAF4OmfQI/AAAAAAAAAUI/etelE7YMDiM/s400/206968_10150152247636198_34429236197_7038340_1731102_n.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>An A&M student at the GLBT Resource Center's "gay? fine by me." t-shirt giveaway on the National Day of Silence, April 20. (From the Texas A&M GLBT Resource Center's <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TAMUGLBTRESOURCECENTER?sk=info">Facebook page</a>)</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">You may think of me as a faggot, a queer, a poof, a fairy, or a dirty homo. You may think that I will certainly die of AIDS…some of you may even think that I should die because of it. I know people on this campus and in this community who think that I deserve the death penalty for being gay. That is the reality of being gay on this campus, Senators. Even if a GLBT man or woman never once experiences outright discrimination, the knowledge that if it weren’t for Texas politeness they almost certainly would stays with them. It is fear, a constant awareness that we have to have when we’re on a date or walking across campus, an undercurrent of uncertainty about how people will react to us holding hands, wearing a GLBTAggies t-shirt, or standing in front of an Aggie Allies table by the Academic Building.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is why the GLBT Resource Center is essential. It was part of what kept me alive a year ago, having a community where I knew I could find support, be able to talk to people who knew what I was going through and had the funding and resources to help get me (and every other person who visits the center, gay or straight) the information and support that they need to make it through a day, a week, a year, a lifetime.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">Because guess what Senators? <b>Somehow, most of us still love Texas A&M. Despite everything, we still bleed maroon.</b> That’s why we are still here, why we haven’t just up and left, packed our bags, and hit the road for California or New York. The people who work at the GLBT resource center could have just given up years ago; it would have been easier. GLBT Aggies and their allies are still bettering this campus through our involvement in the student body. <b>But we will continue to fight to be recognized fully as Aggies, despite the Student Senate’s clear position that we are not.</b></span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;"> -from an <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/open-letter-student-senate-texas-signed-an-aggie-more-1073791.html/comment-page-1#comment-30426">open letter</a> to the Texas A&M Student Senate, signed "An Aggie No More" (emphasis added)</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WyigPyMyVdo/Tdq7j-4U8NI/AAAAAAAAAUA/io0C_na0EW4/s1600/Aggie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WyigPyMyVdo/Tdq7j-4U8NI/AAAAAAAAAUA/io0C_na0EW4/s400/Aggie.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption"><h6 class="wp-caption-dd"><span style="font-size: small;">A&M student holding a sign reading "Hate is not an Aggie value" at the "Hands Across Aggieland" Unity March on April 15. (From <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/open-letter-student-senate-texas-signed-an-aggie-more-1073791.html">Dallas Voice</a>)</span> </h6></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You may have heard of of the Texas House of Representatives passing a bill, introduced by Wayne Christian, that would require any public school with a GLBT student center<span style="line-height: 115%;">—or any center </span>"for students focused on gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transsexual, transgender, gender questioning, or other gender identity issues"<span style="line-height: 115%;">—to have an equally funded center on "traditional values." While the supporters claim that they are only requiring equal time and funding for all sexualities, critics argue that the goal of this bill is to shut down university funding of GLBT centers altogether. Universities, after all, are all facing hard financial cuts, and the bill effectively forces them to choose between shutting down GLBT student centers or increasing expenses by funding two centers. And according to <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/25/texas_house_votes_to_require_colleges_with_sexuality_centers_to_promote_traditional_values_too">Inside Higher Ed</a>, "the Young Conservatives of Texas, a group that worked with Christian on the legislation, did so with the hope that public colleges would respond to a law, if the bill passes, by ending support for existing centers." Supporters claim that GLBT centers preach the values of homosexuality, and make it difficult for students with "traditional values" to feel accepted on campuses. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The preposterous nature of the implicit claim of this bill</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">—that is, that straight students with "traditional values" are unrepresented and marginalized, just as much as GLBTQI students</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">—is captured by a column at the <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/component/k2/item/17682-what-would-christian-do">Texas Observer</a> that begins</span> </span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Imagine the plight of the heterosexual student stepping on to a college campus for the first time. How will he fit in? Should he tell his new roommate about his alternative hetero lifestyle? Will he be bullied, just like he was in high school, where he was mercilessly teased for being a sexual deviant? Where does a straight person turn?</span></blockquote></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is not a reality for straight students. Heteronormativity is <i>everywhere</i> on college campuses, which is precisely why GLBT student centers exist. They are there to support GLBTQI students who face harassment and ostracization, precisely because homophobia is tacitly accepted by fellow students, faculty, coaches, and administration at most universities. There is a culture on campus that believes homosexuality is wrong, immoral, deviant, and chosen, and that culture is <i>mainstream</i>. It is sometimes clever and sneaky, to avoid accusations of outright bigotry, but it does not have to hide. It rears its head in the classroom, in the campus bookstore, in the local bars and restaurants, in the university policies and administrative action and inaction. Homophobia is institutional and societal, which is why GLBT student centers are vital to combating it.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What this bill intends is to cut off <i>one more avenu</i>e for gay students who are depressed and/or harassed, to make it <i>just that much harder</i> to find justice when they are discriminated against, by their peers, their professors, or their school. These students don't have that much institutional power, and this bill is attempting to take away the small bit they do have, so that the mainstream university culture, of homophobia and heteronormativity, is unchallenged and unchanged.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is all particularly true at Texas A&M, where outright homophobia, racism, and misogyny, are so common as to be unremarkable, and where "tradition" is a buzzword used to keep marginalized groups in their place. The Princeton Review ranked Texas A&M <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/login3.aspx?RDN=1">the 17th most LGBT-unfriendly university in the country</a>.** In 2008, the Department of Student Life Studies did <a href="http://studentlifestudies.tamu.edu/sites/studentlifestudies.tamu.edu/files/results/highlights/155-highlight.pdf">a study on the campus climate</a> (which refers to the general attitudes toward diversity) at A&M and found that 70% of gay or bisexual students (as opposed to 2% of straight students) have felt uncomfortable at Texas A&M because of someone's reaction to their sexual orientation. The comments from straight students, however, are the most telling:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Having grown up with mostly women and being a male, I have picked up a few effeminate mannerisms which prompts some males to depict me as "gay" or "fruity", which is not the case. (Senior Hispanic male) </span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">If I were gay I would not feel safe unless I hid that fact on campus. (Senior White female) </span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">A&M is not a safe place to be gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or queer. These students recognize the culture of heteronormativity that exists at A&M, and the dangers of counteracting it, whether through your behavior (acting "fruity"), your sexual choices, or your identity. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is clear that A&M is not in need of a "traditional values" center, and that its straight students do not face institutional and widespread oppression that needs to be countered with a center that would "encourage chastity or marriage between male and female students."* Seriously. If you were to sit in on one of my classes this last year, you'd have heard students call a woman a "prostitute" for wearing pink high heels, suggest that "men always want sex, and women never do," claim that it's "a compliment" for a woman to be catcalled by a stranger, argue that abortion should be illegal because women should "face the consequences" of sex, and that it is okay for men to browbeat women to make them shut up. And when that crap comes up in the classroom, I'm usually the only one to counter it. Which means either a) all of my students believe that heteronormative rapey nonsense or b) they are too scared to speak up. I know that a) is definitely not true, and I also know that I do everything I can to make sure that b) isn't true either. But I can only do so much in a classroom when those students know that an entire university tradition and history and tacit administration approval leave them vulnerable if they step outside of heteronormative value systems. Encouragement from a teacher can't overcome teasing, harassment, and ostracization from fellow students, and many of my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_Corps">Corps students</a> have actually told me that they don't feel they can say things in class because it could get them harassed by their fellow members or in trouble with their section leaders. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Normal" at A&M is being politically conservative, and being a "real Aggie" means supporting heteronormative conservative politics and values. "Traditional values center" could describe almost every building on campus, including the student health center.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2t0kIMmneFc/Td3xAK834MI/AAAAAAAAAUM/E00bT04jPBc/s1600/IMG_20110419_200445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2t0kIMmneFc/Td3xAK834MI/AAAAAAAAAUM/E00bT04jPBc/s640/IMG_20110419_200445.jpg" width="478" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Bumper stickers on a Texas A&M student's car, reading "Keep College Station Normal" and "Real Aggies Choose Life."</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In late April, the Texas A&M Student Senate passed SB 63-106, the so-called "Sexual Education Equality in Funding Bill."*** This bill formerly supported Wayne Christian's amendment in the state budget, and proposed that the funding for the A&M GLBT Resource Center be halved, and allocated to fund a center on "traditional sexual education." Further, the bill claimed to speak on behalf of A&M students. It's weird, because the Student Senate bill seems to argue that the problem here is not one of political agendas, in which a dichotomy between "traditional values" and "not hating on the gays" is the main concern (like the Christian amendment), but focuses instead on "sex education." As if the main function of the GLBT Resource Center is provide sex education for queer people, and this needs to be "countered" by offering sex education for "traditional values" people. (Nevermind the whole lotta people on campus who are neither of those things.) </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This misconception may be because of the smear campaign the Texas Aggie Conservatives (<a href="http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/33535179.html">yes</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtUHvJY4Yw">those </a><a href="http://www.aggieconservatives.org/files/Islam%20-%20Oppression%20of%20Women.pdf">Texas Aggie</a> <a href="http://www.aggieconservatives.org/files/Islam%20-%20Lying%20to%20the%20Infidel.pdf">Conservatives</a>) have launched against the GLBT Resource Center since Wayne Christian's amendment became a thing. TAC is all for this Student Senate bill, and to prove it, they secretly taped an event on "butt play" in March, hosted and funded by the GLBT Resource Center, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h9A7T7UoH1w">put it on the internet</a> (heavily edited, of course) and proceeded to call it "pornographic" and thus inappropriate for a student group. (And, of course, since we are adults, <a href="http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/orgmanual/recognition#responsibilities">there is absolutely nothing in the school's rules</a> <a href="http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/orgmanual/policies">about pornography and funded student organizations</a>. So go to hell, TAC.) From the <a href="http://tamu.campusreform.org/group/blog/texas-am-hosts-pornographic-sex-seminar">TAC blog</a>:<b> </b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;">Is this really an appropriate use of university funds, mandatory student fees, taxpayer dollars, facilities, and donor contributions to Texas A&M University? Do A&M donors have any idea how their money is being spent?</b></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Um, <i>yes it's appropriate </i>for university-recognized organizations to spend their money however the fuck they want to. That's kind of how it works. For example, if TAC, as a university-recognized organization, wanted to invite <a href="http://www.thebatt.com/news/jihad-watch-director-discusses-the-religion-of-peace-argument-1.1775677">an Islamophobic speaker to campus</a>, to talk about how dangerous Islam is, they should be allowed, and the university should allow them to use university facilities to do so. (Unless, of course, the university believed the speaker would be participating in hate speech or endangering the Muslim community on campus.) The point is, TAC doesn't get to arbitrarily decide that A&M won't fund and recognize groups that have seminars/speakers on what they personally find gross, like butt sex. (By the way, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h9A7T7UoH1w">the video of the seminar they posted</a> was <i>so fucking tame. </i>It was merely about how to engage in anal play while being safe and not hurting anyone.) I mean, I find TAC to be utterly abhorrent, and really fucking offensive, but that doesn't mean I should demand that A&M pull their recognition or funding. (They claim they get no university funding, which may or may not be true, but as a recognized group they <b>do</b> get privileges like the use of A&M facilities, which has monetary value, comped by student fees.) So when <a href="http://tamu.campusreform.org/group/80/blog/texas-am-student-senate-pushes-equal-gltb-and-family-values-funding">TAC claims with outrage</a> that </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Most Texas A&M students do not support the GLBT agenda, yet they are forced to pay for the GLBT activism center through mandatory student fees. </span></b></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">all I have to say is, no shit. I don't support <i>your</i> agenda, TAC, but I still pay for your privileges with my student fees. That's how it fucking works. When the university picks and chooses what organizations get funding based on their political or ideological agendas, <b>that violates their commitment to <a href="http://www.campusspeech.org/student_fees/southworth/viewpoint_neutrality">viewpoint neutrality funding</a></b>, which you <i>claim</i> to support by supporting the Student Senate bill.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The problem is that idea that politically conservative is "normal" at A&M. This is what allows TAC, the Student Senate, and various other A&M students to believe that their outrage about "alternative" or "deviant" sexual practices are something that the school should pay attention to. They are right, because they are "real Aggies." Because they are what A&M is <i>supposed </i>to be. Because they are normal, and everyone else is not. That's what caused student Bryan Neale to post this on the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tamustudentsenate">Texas A&M Student Senate Facebook page</a> on April 24:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span data-jsid="text" style="font-size: large;">The fact of the matter is that A&M has always been known as a conservative university. That makes us different than 99% of colleges in the US. A lot of aggies past and present love that about A&M. The majority of Aggies are conservative, so a resource center for them is a great way to spread awareness on a number of issues.<b> Frankly, the LGBT group is lucky to receive any kind of funding or recognition at all. </b>(emphasis added)</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That last bit is important. Students like Neale think that the conservative politics <i>should direct the actions of the university</i>, and if you aren't conservative, you're <b>lucky</b> that the university even listens to your needs. So if you want to counter homophobia, do it on your own time and money, and don't do it on campus. If you want to create a resource center that gives queer students a haven in a university full of discriminatory harassment, fuck you. Because you don't count. You aren't real Aggies. And <i>that</i>, that dichotomy between "real" and legitimate A&M students and those that are different and don't count, is <i>precisely</i> what is wrong with the culture here at A&M. <i>That </i>is what our administration should be discouraging and countering <i>every goddamn day</i>. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbJqARozKr4/TeBK-yExvBI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/bxw2AD7PhRU/s1600/8924_151516932753_151515027753_3500515_4461159_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbJqARozKr4/TeBK-yExvBI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/bxw2AD7PhRU/s400/8924_151516932753_151515027753_3500515_4461159_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A black outline of an A&M Corps member playing a marching drum, surrounded by rays of rainbow colors.</b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br />
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</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">On May 10, the Department of Anthropology sent <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63386452@N03/5766809632/in/photostream">a memo to the upper administration</a>, criticizing them for their inaction after all this anti-GLBT activity. They condemned the Student Senate bill and stated that the bill and other actions (like TAC's secret taping of the seminar) made the campus an unsafe place for GLBT students. The <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63386452@N03/5766264527/in/photostream">head of the English department sent a memo</a> seconding the Department of Anthropology's sentiments, and I know that a petition signed by faculty and graduate students is also under way in the English department. The <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JGPeQLQwGLsJ:psychology.tamu.edu/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com">Department of Psychology</a> and the <a href="http://wgst.tamu.edu/glbt.html">Women's and Gender Studies program faculty and staff</a> have also publicly supported the GLBT community and the Department of Anthropology's memo. The Graduate Student Council (GSC) passed Resolution F2011.11 on May 11:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas:</b> The Texas House of Representatives has passed the Texas Budget bill, HB 1 with Amendment 143, “Funding of Student Centers for Family and Traditional Values” (sponsored by Representative Wayne Christian), that requires Texas public colleges and universities, if they use state funds to support “a gender and sexuality center,” to provide equal funding to support a “family and traditional values center”;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The term “family and traditional values” is not defined by HB1 or Amendment 143 and is therefore difficult to promote and/or implement such education beyond services currently provided at Texas A&M University (through, for example, courses, current counseling services, and health care services);"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The term “family and traditional values” implies a false dichotomy that suggests “family and traditional values” and the GLBT community are mutually exclusive; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The Policy Institute of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force commissioned a Campus Climate Assessment Project which found that, of the respondents: 19% fear for their physical safety on campus, 51% have concealed their sexual identity to avoid intimidation, and 34% have avoided disclosing their orientation or identity to an instructor, supervisor, TA, or administrator due to fears of negative consequences, harassment, or discrimination; and that 36% of GLBT undergraduate students had experienced harassment in the past year;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The Princeton Review’s “The 373 Best Colleges: 2011 Edition” found Texas A&M University the 17th most “LGBT-unfriendly” campus in the United States;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The GLBT community at Texas A&M University (including students, faculty, staff and administrators) has been a historically marginalized and traditionally underrepresented group that faces distinctive challenges, therefore requiring mandated assistance and education to fulfill the Texas A&M University anti-discrimination policy;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: Texas A&M University’s Diversity Plan states, “Our commitment to diversity, broadly speaking, encourages respect for individual differences. Respectful treatment of others affirms and encourages individuals to take pride in their identity and results in the inclusion of all in the ‘Aggie Family.’ The Aggie family <i>is </i>diverse. Diversity involves an exploration of individual differences in a safe, positive, welcoming, and nurturing academic environment.”;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>And, </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whereas</b>: The Texas A&M University Statement on Harassment and Discrimination prohibits “discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, or veteran status”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Therefore,</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Let it be</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resolved:</b> That the Graduate Student Council of Texas A&M University, on behalf of the graduate student body, does not support the passing of HB 1 with Amendment 143 and strongly encourages the Texas Legislature to remove the “Funding of Student Centers for Family and Traditional Values” budget amendment;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Let it be</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resolved: </b>That it is the opinion of the Graduate Student Council of Texas A&M University, on behalf of the graduate student body, that <i>if</i> HB 1 is passed by the legislature with Amendment 143, <i>then</i> current Texas Governor Rick Perry should veto the “Funding of Student Centers for Family and Traditional Values” budget amendment; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Let it be</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resolved: </b>That the Graduate Student Council of Texas A&M University, on behalf of the graduate student body, requests that Texas A&M University continue to provide funding and support for the GLBT Resource Center;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Let it be</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resolved:</b> That the Graduate Student Council of Texas A&M University, on behalf of the graduate student body, requests that President R. Bowen Loftin and other university officials continue their support of diversity efforts in accordance with Texas A&M University’s Statement on Harassment and Discrimination and Texas A&M University’s Diversity Plan.</span></div></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Basically, huge chunks of the university's faculty, staff, and graduate students have gone on record to oppose the Student Senate bill and Wayne Christian's amendment, pledge their support for the Texas A&M GLBT Resource Center, and (this is important) chide (directly and indirectly) the upper administration for their silence and inaction during this whole debacle. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The administration's response was essentially a non-response. You can read the message from General Weber <a href="http://studentaffairs.tamu.edu/node/308">here</a>, but it basically says nothing except, "We support you, but only if the law doesn't tell us not to. Have a good summer!" The "Wait...WHAT???" Blog <a href="http://thewaitwhatblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/texas-administrators-finally-respond-to.html">states it well</a>: </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It seems that university administrators are, in fact, not willing to publicly and adequately address the specific instances of anti-GLBT hate that have occurred in the last several weeks. While we appreciate Weber and Parrott taking the time to meet with all of us yesterday, we also wonder if our fears, hopes, and concerns really got through to them. Lip service "public support" is nearly as harmful as institutional silence (which is what we have experienced up to this point).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">[...]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And speaking of content, the message from Weber -- as many at the meeting yesterday feared might happen -- glazes over GLBT issues merely as issues of diversity on campus. While GLBT individuals do contribute to the diverse community at Texas A&M, the fact is that some who are vocally anti-GLBT do not see it this way. They see the GLBT "lifestyle" as perverse and in complete contradiction with University core values and missions. Beyond the mention of the acronym GLBT a few times, Weber's message does little to address the real issue: hatred toward GLBT people.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> While the statements from various departments, and the GSC resolution, all directly address the issue of homophobia and anti-GLBT rhetoric and behavior, the administration seems unwilling to do so. They don't want to go on record, it seems, supporting GLBT students, nor do they seem to want to <i>do</i> anything to change the hostile, unwelcoming, unsafe environment that A&M is for many GLBT students, faculty, and staff. This is flat-out unacceptable. We clearly have a problem here, and it isn't being addressed. Frankly, I think the administration is being cowardly, and the GLBT population here is going to pay the price for their cowardice. Apparently, the <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/lege-update-antigay-amendment-apparently-removed-texas-senates-version-budget-1075512.html">Christian amendment is not in the Senate version of the budget</a>, but even that is true, and the budget does not contain the amendment when it passes, that won't change the fact that TAC and other A&M students have engaged in hateful anti-GLBT rhetoric, and the administration has done nothing about it. It doesn't change the homophobic environment on campus, or make A&M a safer place.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">o o o</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">*Also, WTF. Encourage marriage between male and female students? Is it really appropriate for ANY center at a university to "encourage" marriage at 20 years old? If a "traditional values" center were to do awesome things like give safe sex seminars or seminars on consent geared towards straight kids, that would awesome. (Yes, I know that wouldn't happen.) But apparently all a hetero center can offer is abstinence and "get married as soon as possible." So a hetero center wouldn't even benefit most hetero students, because they aren't virgins or want to get married <i>after</i> they graduate from college. Seriously, fuck that noise.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">** </span><span style="font-size: large;">You have to create a free account to access that link.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** The Student Senate site is apparently under construction, so I couldn't find the link and full text of this bill. I will keep an eye on it, though, and link it when it goes back up. If you click on the Left of College Station link at the top, though, a helpful commenter put up the full text.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-26694262456262772852011-04-01T12:09:00.004-05:002011-06-22T17:31:20.898-05:00Volunteers needed for a study on Doctor Who cosplay<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ7gvT3HqvY82fIb9dtP0i-lczIYns6GHWDgkz2xaidPv6r0_RhOCEQ7IlJ7pRtnYPMQBkqQ7SCUcVavOGhEM_V8F_erFtkEAqB1Fhd_cBvZ7JhH2ZGpHNLRys25EedOjR0lLRqV8jog/s1600/5468973266_1081a4151d_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ7gvT3HqvY82fIb9dtP0i-lczIYns6GHWDgkz2xaidPv6r0_RhOCEQ7IlJ7pRtnYPMQBkqQ7SCUcVavOGhEM_V8F_erFtkEAqB1Fhd_cBvZ7JhH2ZGpHNLRys25EedOjR0lLRqV8jog/s640/5468973266_1081a4151d_b.jpg" width="425" /></a></b></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>squirrely TONKS as a femme!Eighth Doctor, photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/thericketandoo/">The Ricketandoo</a></b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The image of the obsessive, socially inept, immature science fiction fan is a familiar one. Popular conceptions of fans (in particular "Trekkies") are generally unflattering: the fan is incapable of separating reality from fantasy, a brainless consumer of program merchandise, and devoted to the memorization of worthless knowledge and trivia. Of course, fans know that this stereotype, while partially based in reality (we all have known <i>one of those </i>fans), does not represent the vast majority and extraordinary diversity of most science fiction fan communities. In particular, scholars like Henry Jenkins have overturned the stereotype that fan activities are fundamentally <i>non-productive</i>. What I mean by this is that this stereotype paints the SF fan as slavish to the interpretations and idea produced by other authors, namely the authors of the SF program. Even the fan activities that seem obviously productive and creative, like writing fan fiction or cosplaying, are usually depicted as mindless copying or appropriation of others' creative products. Fan fiction is not considered "real literature;" it's merely the re-mix of others' ideas. Cosplay is merely the copying (sometimes obsessively) of the work of costume designers. However, work has shown that fan activities like the writing of fan fiction are creative and productive, even if they are not necessarily counter-cultural or counter to the ideas and interpretations put forth by the program's authors. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I'm interested in how fan activities are productive, and how they create readings of the primary text (in this case, <i>Doctor Who</i>) and/or the fan community. In this study, I will focus on cosplay, which I see as reflective on both <i>Doctor Who</i> and the fan community/ies to which the cosplayer belongs. Because of the small scale of this current project, I will be looking in particular at the axis of gender in <i>Doctor Who </i>cosplay, focusing on the trend of <a href="http://www.geekachicas.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=doctors-in-dresses-femme-doctors.html&Itemid=55">"femme"</a> <a href="http://austintotamu.blogspot.com/2010/05/cosplay-race-ability-and-gender-or-who.html">Doctors</a> (and the related trend of female fans crossplaying as the Doctor). The purpose of this research is to identify the rhetoric of femme Doctor cosplay and Doctor crossplay. My main research questions are: How are these cosplayers reflecting on and talking back to <i>Doctor Who</i>? How are they reflecting on and talking back to the fan community/ies? What does their cosplay have to say about gender in both of those spheres? How does the cosplay communicate these ideas and interpretations?</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In order to complete this research, I will be conducting interviews with cosplayers about their creations, as well as collecting pictures of their cosplay. The interviews can be over the phone, Skype, or email, whichever you prefer, and are designed to last 15-20 minutes. If you've ever done a cosplay that you believe to be relevant to my research, in particular a femme or crossplay Doctor, I would love to interview you! Please contact me at austintotamu@gmail.com or in the comments to volunteer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Your identity in all write-ups of this research will be protected. You can choose how you are identified, whether by your real name, your online handle, or a pseudonym chosen by you.)</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-10809100673837347872011-03-24T19:03:00.003-05:002011-06-22T17:33:05.044-05:00Frankly, I'm relieved.<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I got my last rejection letter in the mail today, from University of Illinois. I had applied to Ph.D. programs last semester in a bit of a haze, still trying to cope with the Kevin nonsense that I wrote about here, still trying to piece my life back together after the break-up, not really sure what I wanted. And as this semester started, I felt my priorities shifting. Graduate school is pretty great, don't get me wrong. Where else can I be relatively financially secure (in debt, sure, but I eat and pay rent) for doing the things that I love, like teaching freshmen why rhetoric is important and writing essays about literature and cosplay? But there is a fundamental lack of perspective in academia. There's this weird culture here that makes it difficult to imagine yourself anywhere else, because the idea is that being a professor is the highest of goals, and if you end up doing anything else, you've either been unable to cut it or you've settled for something lesser. Which is fucking ridiculous, obviously.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is not a place that encourages mental health. Sure, you can negotiate the profound ableist culture of the university, but you have to want to. And I'm not sure that I'm willing to be even slightly miserable for so long right now. I'm prioritizing my happiness right now, and my health, and the university is not the place for me to do that. I've been struggling here for the past year, and it's been a rocky year, so maybe after I take some time off, I'll want to come back, from a better place. But for the moment I need a breather. So this summer I'll be moving to Austin, and will not be in school for the first time in my life.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Getting nine rejection letters was still hard, no one likes rejection. And, frankly, I think I'm pretty good and some of those programs are stupid to let me go. But I'm relieved I wasn't accepted somewhere amazing. I kind of doubt my ability to say no to them, and I don't doubt how miserable I would be, moving thousands of miles away from any semblance of a support system, to start a four-year (at least) project I'm not positive I want. So rejection saved me from making a terrible decision, and I'm really excited about this new chapter of my life, and confident that graduate school is always a choice I could make later. I won't worry myself about what comes next for a while. I've been thinking long-term my whole life, and I'm ready for a little living by the seat of my pants.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-B3eTuAc3C6E/TYva5joPoII/AAAAAAAAATg/HLuwN8010KU/s1600/68732825-celebration-toast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-B3eTuAc3C6E/TYva5joPoII/AAAAAAAAATg/HLuwN8010KU/s400/68732825-celebration-toast.jpg" width="400" /></a>Leaving graduate school, though, means that my writing will become even more important to me. I think I'll be devoting more time to this blog than I have in the past (gone are the days of me disappearing for a month because of finals, after this semester is over), and my pipe dream is to break into freelancing. One of the reasons I was rejected from all those schools, I'm sure, is that I was not shy about the fact that I wanted to focus on science fiction fan cultures and pop culture. I could have made my application more conservative, painted myself as a Victorianist with a weird interest in science and science fiction, but that's simply not the case anymore, and I didn't want to end up somewhere where they wouldn't let me write papers about Doctor Who cosplay and the manifestations of Victorian culture in steampunk fashion. Honestly, I couldn't be happy only doing those things here, on the side of my life. So I emphasized them in my applications, and I'm pretty sure academia just isn't ready to consider those legitimate interests. So we'll see if I can make any money writing about those things elsewhere. For now, even focusing on doing them here sounds more satisfying than seeing when I can squeeze my interests into a seminar paper every now and then.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I've had a few friends doubting whether they should express sympathy or congratulations for my rejections. I say go with congratulations. I'm really excited about this new chapter in my life, and none of my options have been closed. And I get to move from College Station back to Austin (only, for real this time), and totally reverse the title of this blog. :)</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-16179318853276111022011-01-20T16:24:00.001-06:002011-06-22T17:33:14.720-05:00Checking in.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TTi19HmdYoI/AAAAAAAAATY/khezGql8pUc/s1600/1235010527TJVGqmp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TTi19HmdYoI/AAAAAAAAATY/khezGql8pUc/s320/1235010527TJVGqmp.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Hey folks! I am, in fact, still alive, and plan to continue blogging. I've been feeling like I'm not being heard in my personal life lately, and I think that has contributed to this break in writing. But I am returning soon! With all my usual snark! Thanks to you folks who kept following me through the rough patch. I hope new-and-improved Courtney is worth the wait.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-90800732601120421552010-12-07T12:43:00.002-06:002011-09-10T08:44:50.750-05:00Shitty things that happen to me.<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So a thing happened over the break. It was awful and continues to be awful. And I am having a hard time talking about it, so I'm going to try and write it down.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Trigger warning. The following post describes threatened gun violence and a serious lack of respect for physical boundaries.</b> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanksgiving break was more awkward this year than usual. Mom and Kevin (my stepdad) have been having problems lately, and from what I could tell before all the shit went down, it seems to stem primarily from the fact that they are living where Mom wants to live. When they got married, Kevin wanted to live in the country, despite the fact that my mother likes cities. So they moved to the country. To the middle of fucking nowhere. You have to drive 30 minutes to get to a grocery store, and Mom commuted 30 minutes every day to work as a recruiter in a warehouse. She didn't like it much, but when you live in the middle of nowhere, you take what you can get. Kevin worked for himself at home. Then this year, I don't know why or what was discussed, but they kept the house in the middle of nowhere and rented one in Dallas. (It's about a 2-hour drive, so the thought was that the middle-of-nowhere house could be for holidays and occasional weekends.) Mom returned to her old job in Dallas, which she likes much more, and she was ecstatic about the move and their new house. Kevin has apparently been miserable in Dallas. He doesn't like his job, he doesn't like the city, and has just done everything he can to make her miserable, too. They've been fighting constantly.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I go visit, and it's awkward, like it always is with Kevin, because he is always weird about me being around. I think that part of it is that I always stick up for Mom when I think she's right (and more often than not, that's the case). He acts like we gang up on him or something. He also doesn't seem a big fan of me thinking <i>I'm</i> right about anything either, because he's got this inferiority complex and thinks that college-educated people just sit around making fun of and judging non-college-educate people. Anyway, the break goes okay, I spend a lot of time with Mom, and it's fun, and we drink wine and shop and do the things we do around Thanksgiving. A couple of days after Thanksgiving, we drive to middle-of-nowhere house, and hang out and drink wine. Kevin doesn't drink. After Mom walks inside to go to the bathroom, Kevin gets up and sits next to me and puffs himself up and says, "But I don't know why it doesn't chap your ass that your taxes pay for bums living under a bridge in Dallas." This statement was only tangentially related to what we were talking about. A couple of things: I was tipsy, and Kevin was not. Kevin is also a big fan of trying to be bigger than you when he argues with you, and gets up in your space, and does not fucking listen. We've had the Kevin-thinks-all-poor-people-are-totally-undeserving conversation. And it ended with me in tears. So he could predict what was going to happen. But I'm tipsy, and he pissed me off by bringing it up, so I argue with him instead of doing the smart thing, which would be telling him we are not talking about this. And he baits me, and tells me that he <i>knows</i> all poor people/homeless people are undeserving because of people that he knows. And won't listen to me when I tell him that most homeless people are vets, disabled, or single mothers. Numbers don't matter! Kevin has his opinions and anecdotes! Whatever. So I get in tears again, and I tell him I am not having this conversation anymore, and just because he doesn't have compassion for other people doesn't mean he can antagonize me for having it. I walk off. It is obvious why I walk off; he is not listening, he is acting as though my emotional reaction is completely illegitimate (and a sign of the illegitimacy of my argument), and we are getting nowhere except me being upset. You know, because of my silly lady-feelings.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I wash my face and go sit in the front yard. We had been in the backyard, so I hear Kevin and Mom yelling. Then Mom comes and yells at me because THERE IS A MIDDLE GROUND AND NEITHER OF US ARE WILLING TO SEE IT. Which is ridiculous, since my parents have NO IDEA where I stand on particular welfare issues. They don't actually give a shit, because they just know I don't disagree with their counter-factual assertions that most homeless people are lazy and deserve to starve to death.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">After yelling at me, Mom goes back to yell at Kevin. I'm texting my friends a mile a minute, and call Adrienne, who calms me down a bit, and when I come back (it's been about 15 minutes or so), Mom and Kevin are STILL fighting outside. So I walk up, and I'm still, you know, angry, and tell them to please stop yelling about me, and just fucking talk to me. And Kevin says, "We're not yelling about you! We're talking about getting divorced BECAUSE of you!" And well, I've heard that one before. So I said, "No. You aren't allowed to say that. I've heard that from my father before, and he was just as full of shit as you are. Your problems with Mom are not my fault." And he was not happy about that response. We get into it, and Mom is pissed at me for yelling at him, and he's pissed at me for standing up for myself, and I'm pissed at Mom for not standing up for me or even listening, and pissed at Kevin for being a complete asshole without once recognizing the power dynamic in our relationship that makes every. fucking. disagreement. difficult. So he stands up and keeps getting in my space. And, dude. I had a verbally abusive father. He tried to physically intimidate me all the time. He knew that he would win every argument because he could, and he knew that he could just stand close to me to threaten me with violence. It didn't matter if he had any intention of actually hitting me, he just wanted me to know that he could. And so I back up. Multiple times. And I push Kevin away and I tell him to stop getting close to me. And he backs me up against a fence and puts his hands on my shoulders. At this point, I'm not even listening to what he says because my brain is in panic-mode. And I tell him to stop physically intimidating me (which upsets him) and to stop touching me, at which point he gets this horrified look on his face and sits down in the truck with the door open.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mom yells at me, telling me, "He just wanted to hug you!" As if that made it better? I repeatedly told him to get off, and back up, and even pushed him back. I DON'T CARE WHAT HIS INTENTIONS WERE. I get to decide when I am touched, and that includes hugging. And instead of asking, "Can I hug you?" he continued to ignore my obvious distress and my desire for him to back the fuck off, because he thought that his good intentions and desires superseded my right to not be touched when I don't want to be. IF he had asked, I would have said no. I didn't want him to be hugging me any more than I wanted him to physically threaten me. I WANTED HIM AWAY. But my mother and him both acted like I was being irrational and crazy. And I tried to explain (very distressed, so I'm sure I wasn't entirely coherent) that he was <i>triggering</i> me, that I wanted him away to he would stop triggering me, and my mother said, "You think your bullshit is more important than anything." I have honestly never wanted to slap her as much as I did in that moment. It hurt to hear her say that, to know that she thinks my desire for bodily autonomy is just my irrational reaction to abuse. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And we aren't even to the bad part of the evening. At this point, emotions high, Kevin pulls out a gun. As far as I can tell, a loaded gun. (I don't know that much about guns.) And he fucking cocks it. My mother's reaction was puzzling, because while he is just holding the gun next to him, I think it's pointed more at us than at him, though it's not being aimed. She starts crying harder and screaming at him not to hurt himself. So I gather that this has happened before. The asshole has threatened self-harm with a loaded fucking gun to manipulate my mother <i>more than fucking once</i>. I'm more scared than angry, though, so I back up several feet (If he had shot it, very likely it would have hit one of us, because the trajectory of the bullet would have passed through him and we were standing in its way.) and yell at him to stop. He says to Mom, "She [he means me] accused me of being a pervert!" That, of course, didn't happen, but I think Kevin thinks I only have the right to say "no" to sexual touch, and thus my "no" meant that I <i>thought</i> it was sexual touch. I thought no such thing, and as I've never been sexually assaulted, by my father or anyone else, I was completely baffled by his interpretation of what just happened. But, you know, there's a <i>loaded gun being held by an overemotional and obviously unhinged man</i>, so I say whatever it is he wants me to say. I'm sorry, don't hurt yourself, we're only worried about you. I didn't mean any of it, but I was scared to death he was going to a) shoot himself, scar his son and my mother forever, and she would blame herself for the rest of her life or b) shoot me or my mother. He yelled and freaked out and waved it around until Mom finally got him to relinquish it, and she hands it to me (OH GOD, I thought, I don't even know how to make it uncocked! I just set it down in the grass next to me) and hugs him. And he gets out of the car and HUGS ME. And I'm so relieved that he isn't threatening violence anymore, and scared that if I get upset with him he'll freak out again, that I let him, and I keep saying "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I think I meant it at the time--I'm fairly used to men convincing me that their crazy and violence is my fault.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then he sits me down, since Mom has stormed off inside and said "I don't have to put up with this shit anymore" (truer words), and tries to have a heart-to-heart with me. I'm still, again, scared and emotional and upset, so I let him think we've made up, and I tell him he needs to go apologize. He is honestly baffled. "Don't you think she should apologize, too?" (Um, NO. You just held a LOADED GUN in our vicinity and threatened violence. NO, SHE DOESN'T NEED TO APOLOGIZE.) And I just look at him, aware that I can't even address how fucking not-in-the-pale his actions were, because who knows what will set him off again? And he tells me he's not happy, and shouldn't she care about him being happy? He goes inside and fights with her and comes out and she wants to leave. And so I am, of course, relieved we are leaving and I help her pack and she is upset, and she asks me to get him to talk to her again. So I go tell him, and he asks me if I care if they make up. I look him in the eye and tell him the truth; I only care that she is happy (and safe, but I didn't say that). He looks angry, which scares the hell out of me.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, after much debating on Mom's part, we leave. About 10 minutes away, she asks me to take her back. I didn't know what to do, so I pull her over and tell her I can't go back there, because I'm afraid for my safety and for hers. "That thing with the gun--has that happened before?" She nods at me and says, "He would never hurt us." "On purpose, Mom. Do you think that was normal?" "No, he needs help. It's not normal." "Mom, it's <i>dangerous</i>. And it's manipulative." "But he might hurt himself if I don't go back, and it will be my fault." "NO. That would not be <i>your fault</i>. That would be <i>his fault</i>. All you have done is argue with him, and that does not warrant that kind of reaction." Finally, kind of reluctantly, she agreed to go on with me to Dallas.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Next morning, she asked me if I was okay. No, I'm not okay. "Why not?" "Because, Mom. I'm afraid for you, and I think that you are normalizing behavior that is manipulative and abusive. If that had been my boyfriend, you would have called the cops and forcibly made me leave that relationship. I can't and won't do that, though I do regret not calling the cops." And I know I shouldn't have said that. I knew it when I said it. But I needed her to hear that this was abuse. That threatening to kill yourself is emotionally manipulative, and the result is that she are <i>too scared to leave</i>. That is not okay. But what I needed her to hear and what she needed to hear were probably different, which is why I don't have any idea what to say to her now. I love her, and I'm scared for her, and I want her to be happy and safe. And I don't think she is either of those things now, and I wish she would decide to divorce him. I would be there for her, and would be her go-between, and go with her to the courthouse, and help her hire someone to move his shit out. I could be amazing at that. But instead I am sitting at home wondering if she wants to talk to me when I don't know if I can, <i>doing fucking nothing</i> to fix this situation. Because I can't fix it. And it's killing me.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-56031839216198413882010-12-05T22:07:00.005-06:002011-06-29T15:15:23.923-05:00Teaching composition: How do we make students conceptualize themselves as writers?<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the risk of a very boring lead-in to this post, here's a thing I wrote for class! We had to write a kind of "what I learned this semester" assignment for my pedagogy class, after teaching according to the prescribed syllabus. So I thought I'd share it with you guys and get your thoughts, especially since I haven't been posting lately. So enjoy!</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The main goal of a writing teacher is to improve her students' writing, but in order for this to happen, an instructor must convince her students that they are <i>writers</i>, not merely students, engineers, scientists, or mathematicians taking a writing course. By doing so, she can be more confident that her students will get something more meaningful and lasting from her class than a passing grade. In the worksheets that my students filled out at the beginning of the semester, most students indicated that what they would gain from my class was a basic competency in writing for their future professions. Those that find the class relevant only think it is relevant for their future professional life (and perhaps for the rest of their undergraduate careers). One student wrote, “My boss one day will expect me to write well, and will judge me on my writing ability, so I hope to improve my grammar and writing for my future job.” While there is nothing wrong with this personal goal, nor is it problematic for a writing teacher to indicate to her students that professionals are often expected to write in the course of their jobs, students will be more successful and will get more out of a writing course if they see writing as a skill they will use, and already use, outside of the classroom and the workplace.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Almost all students are writers before they enter a freshman composition course. They write emails; on a myriad of internet sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal, and blogs; in the margins of books; in notes, letters, and birthday cards; in diaries and journals; in school newspapers or yearbooks; and some even write fiction or poetry. They belong to discourse communities before they enter academia; they attend church, belong to clubs and organizations, volunteer, belong to service or social justice groups and communities. While students often think that a composition course will only help them to participate in the discourse communities to which they are newly inducted (academia and their respective professional fields), relating a composition course to the discourse communities to which students already belong should be a responsibility of a writing instructor, and doing so will help students to invest in the course beyond their commitment to learning grammar or getting a passing grade. Many of my students have told me that they do not see the relevance of my class to their lives, usually in response to my comments on their essays asking them to be engaged and interested in their writing. Indeed, how can I expect them to be engaged when the assignments are easier for them to complete successfully if they do not care about the topic at all? Assignments that ask them to be objective and without bias are difficult enough at their age, but I also think they are counter-productive when made high-risk major grades. There are ways to teach our students to summarize fairly and without overt bias, but basing a major assignment on those skills made my students feel as though their positions did not matter. After the first two assignments, which explicitly forbid students from making their positions their arguments, many of my students were cautious about sharing their positions in the third paper. More than once I heard in class: “So, we're allowed to state our opinions?” Because I had been teaching them to make arguments that could not reveal their positions, my students did not know how to conceptualize their positions <i>as</i> positions, supported with reasoning and argumentation, as opposed to opinions, mere statements of unsupported preference. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Further, these two assignments forced me to ban the word “bias” from my students' papers. All semester, I have struggled to convey to my students that everything written includes some bias, and thus to use the word as a weapon is not in good faith. Their use of the word “bias” in this way is partly a result of a cultural preference for objectivity, but our emphasis in ENGL 104 on objectivity in the first two major assignments does not help. By demanding essays that refrain from stating positions, and calling this objectivity, I produced students that believed arguing for a position is biased and illegitimate. And because my students did not argue for a position until the fourth paper, I was only able to talk with them about being fair, as opposed to objective, in arguing for a position for a few weeks. They did not receive almost any practice in this, despite the fact that this skill is just as important as avoiding overt bias when necessary. In fact, in most discourse communities, arguing for positions in a fair way is far more useful than summarizing objectively or analyzing without overt bias. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another way that writing courses often do not position students as writers outside the classroom is by not allowing for revision. In most discourse communities, revision is an important part of the writing process, and if the community does not allow for outright revision, then it allows for responses, dialogue, qualifications, and corrections. Only in academia (and then only at the undergraduate level) is the draft turned in on a deadline a final one, graded with no chance for discussion, revision, or correction. This process decontextualizes student writing, and makes assignments unrelated to the discourse communities in which our students participate, where most texts are not utterly final and finite. Further, not allowing for revision does not encourage (or, as is sometimes necessary, force) students to draft multiple times, a process necessary for successful writing.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The solution to these problems is assignments that allow my students to participate in different discourse communities. In such a project, I would elicit from each student a discourse community to which they already belong (a church congregation, a blogging community, a school newspaper, an activist community) and have them work with me to produce a writing assignment positioned within that community. The first part of this project would be a fair, researched summary of the characteristics of the discourse community, while the second part would involve making an argument within that community. Because I think students should participate in and take responsibility for their own education, students would be responsible for working with me to create a rubric for assessing their assignment, based in part on the first part of the assignment. Both portions of this assignment would allow for revision after the draft is turned in. If students are unhappy with their final product (or their grade), they would have the option to revise.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This type of assignment would result in several positive outcomes. First, by having students identify discourse communities to which they already belong, it would position my students as writers outside the classroom. They would be encouraged to be invested in the assignment and in themselves as writers within a particular discourse community outside of a professional or academic sphere, which would likely result in their greater commitment to improving their writing beyond the desire for a good grade. Second, it would reduce the emphasis on objectivity that the current syllabus has, and introduce my students to position arguments, those arguments my current students have called “opinions” and “biased” all semester, much earlier. Third, it would allow for and encourage revision, indicating the vital role this part of the writing process plays. This would also allow for a discussion of how texts in other discourse communities allow for revision, discussion, response, and correction, and thus position students' writing as not merely anchored in academic or professional discourses. Last, this type of assignment would position other discourse communities as comparable and just as legitimate as the academic discourse community, to which the remaining course assignments would be written. The course would thus avoid the preference for privileged discourses, and the delegitimization of underprivileged discourses, that is found in both the university and in our larger culture.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is the responsibility of the writing instructor to teach students to write, but to what end? Students who enter a freshman composition course should not be given only the option of becoming a better academic writer, but also a better writer within the discourse communities to which they already belong. The composition course should be an opportunity to become a better academic writer, a better blogger, a better editorial writer, a better Twitter-er, a better activist writer, a better newspaper column writer. Without that opportunity, what a student does in a composition classroom is unlikely to stick with her, unlikely to translate outside the walls of the university, and unlikely to give her the sense that she is capable of creating change through her writing.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-52029575481544628842010-11-01T11:06:00.005-05:002011-06-29T15:17:46.173-05:00A quick post about The Walking Dead<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7lEMX4zSI/AAAAAAAAATM/Ri55TvZSjSI/s1600/AMC-Zombie-Grass-WM-560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" nx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7lEMX4zSI/AAAAAAAAATM/Ri55TvZSjSI/s400/AMC-Zombie-Grass-WM-560.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The makeup for this show: phenomenal.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cross posted at <a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2010/11/01/a-quick-post-about-the-walking-dead/">Geek Feminism</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like any good geek, I love me some zombies. So of course I tuned in last night to AMC's new zombie show, <a href="http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/">The Walking Dead</a>. And I found myself disappointed. <b>Spoilers ahoy! </b>(NB: I haven't read the graphic novel. This is just a review of the pilot that aired last night.)</span></div><a name='more'></a><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The show starts with our hero, Rick, and his misogynistic partner, Shane, talking about how women and men are different. This conversations seems to function solely to tell us that Shane is a bit of a prick, Rick is a genuinely <i>good guy</i> (which I didn't really buy), and Lori, Rick's wife, is a bitch. Basically, it took about ten minutes for me to realize I was probably going to blog about this show, and not in a good way.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The dudes, who are police officers, get into a shootout, Rick is shot, and then we see Shane bringing him flowers in the hospital. (He assures us that he didn't pick them out himself, however. That's for sissy ladies. And he's not gay or anything gross.) Rick wakes up, the flowers are dead, and the hospital is full of corpses and ruin. I did like the set up here; Rick has no fucking clue what it going on, and he's still injured, so he basically cowers home, where he discovers his empty house and runs into Morgan and his young son, Duane. Their family was heading to the refugee camp in Atlanta when Morgan's wife became infected and got all zombified. She still hangs about, and they can't leave with her haunting them. Morgan wants to "put her down" and even attempts to in this episode, but he can't. </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, Rick and Morgan arm themselves, keep open a line of communication, and Rick sets off for Atlanta, where he thinks his wife Lori and son Carl have headed. We find out that Lori and Carl are with Shane (and Lori is <i>with </i>Shane) outside of the city, because it's been overrun with zombies. Rick runs into the city on a horse (looking straight out of a zombie videogame), gets his horse eaten by zombies, and takes an incredible amount of time to seal himself up in a tank. (Seriously, this guy must have the lowest amount of adrenaline ever present in a human being. He moves like molasses.)</span></div></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7jcE-KQcI/AAAAAAAAATA/gAFPz6Jqtgg/s1600/Episode-1-Rick-Horse-Hordes-760.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" nx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7jcE-KQcI/AAAAAAAAATA/gAFPz6Jqtgg/s400/Episode-1-Rick-Horse-Hordes-760.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>In case you missed it, he's a goddamn cowboy.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So far, I liked the story okay, and it seems promising for the character development of the people the show seems to care about. Unfortunately, none of those characters are ladies, who existed in this pilot for the sole purpose of helping to advance <i>dude </i>characters' development. Morgan's wife is <a href="http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/">in the refrigerator</a>, gets absolutely no characterization (not even after the fact), and the only reason we even care about her is that Morgan and Duane are all traumatized by this. She gets a lot of face time in this episode solely because she's been stuffed in the fridge, and we're supposed to see her (rather pretty for a zombie) face through Morgan's eyes. And the only other lady character with a name is Lori, who gets very little screen time, and most of that is devoted to kissing Shane, presumably so we can see how whorey she is, since she got over her husband faster than it took for him to heal from a gunshot wound. And perhaps I'm being too harsh on the writers here; they may not want us to judge her so quickly. But it's difficult to tell, since that is basically the <i>only</i> thing she does onscreen, and the conversation in the beginning of the episode is intended to make us think she's a bitch. She doesn't ever get a side in that conversation, and we don't get to hear about what happened from another party, because she doesn't actually matter. She exists solely to develop Rick and Shane for us, and doesn't exist outside of those relationships.</span><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7je2pz_2I/AAAAAAAAATE/wkflYE1SKXk/s1600/Episode-1-WalkersA-760.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" nx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TM7je2pz_2I/AAAAAAAAATE/wkflYE1SKXk/s400/Episode-1-WalkersA-760.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Get me out of the refrigerator!</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This episode failed the Bechdel test <i>hard, </i>despite being an hour and a half long, and a fucking zombie movie, not a rom com. It could easily have included two women talking about practically <i>anything</i>, including zombies and survival, if they were feeling uncreative. But it didn't, because it would have had to have two women talking on screen at the same time. And that, apparently, was too fucking difficult. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think this show could get better. According to their <a href="http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/cast/">cast of characters</a>, there are at least some women playing a part in the show later. Significantly less than men, but they're there. Possibly, then, they will get some personalities and perhaps even plot lines not connected to their dudes and romantic relationships. But I was really disappointed by the premiere, and am not feeling particularly optimistic. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Attention <i>The Walking Dead</i> writers: women are not plot devices. And we don't like watching shows that don't think women matter as characters. Fix it.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading (will be updated): </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<a href="http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2010/10/31/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-ask-about-zombies-answered/">Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Zombies, Answered</a>." From Science, Not Fiction.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-63022083875563535042010-10-23T02:11:00.002-05:002011-06-29T15:18:01.400-05:00Sometimes the Batt is hilariously infuriating...<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like <a href="http://www.thebatt.com/sports/the-perfect-aggie-1.1721989">this article</a> about a sophomore football player: </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At first glance, Ryan Swope is the atypical Aggie - with shaggy blonde hair [you know, gay] and an Austin background [see? totally gay], he fits the College Station stereotype of Longhorns [Batt writers don't know how college works. Living <i>in Austin</i> makes you a Longhorn! Also having a particular kind of hair.].</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Does this newspaper just not have an editor?</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-82197524732972439112010-10-11T15:00:00.002-05:002011-06-29T15:18:26.382-05:00Privileged college students and "hobos": Exactly alike?<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So usually the Battalion is boring. But when it decides to spice up the boring with offensive, it goes all-out. One of this week's issues features <a href="http://www.thebatt.com/opinion/student-or-hobo-1.1675281">an opinion piece comparing college students and "hobos."</a> Yes, you read that right. Because privileged college students and homeless people are exactly alike! And comparing them is hi-larious! And "hobo" is a totally not-offensive, not-dehumanizing term!</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was only thinking about how I could eat my lunch and study at the library, but the lack of a home base made me feel like a vagabond. I gave the subject more thought and realized most college students demonstrate the habits of hobos.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ahahaha! Get it? College students are just like hobos because they lack a "home base." Never mind that they have <i>homes</i>. That's not what being homeless is about! It's about napping outside!</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many off-campus dwellers find themselves in situations similar to this: a full day of classes while running on two hours of sleep simply will not cut it. What's a college student to do? We nap. Anywhere and everywhere we can: outside, inside, on park benches, on the stairs, in class, on couches in the library, on the grassy knoll, in quiet areas or loud. It is possible to find nappers in the most obscure places on campus.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We could debate about whether this author meant something different by using the word "hobo" instead of "homeless." <i>Hobo</i> implies some choice in lifestyle as well as carrying a slightly romantic air. That we've romanticized the "tramp" or "hobo" is in itself problematic; it allows things like this article to imply that homeless people <i>choose</i> to be homeless, or enjoy being homeless. It elides the systemic inequalities in our country that lead to crippling poverty and homelessness. It elides the fact that the vast majority of homeless people are single women with children, by putting forth the image of the "hobo," a carefree, wandering man. And the comparison of the homeless with college students assumes, incorrectly, that there's no such thing as a homeless college student. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What this article actually says is offensive enough, but what it elides makes it reprehensible.</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It isn't easy to live the life of a college student, or a hobo, but it will not last forever. Unless you decide to further your education, a job after graduation will give you a bit more stability. The job you so desire will give you a constant influx of cash that will hopefully allow you to keep your cool in the presence of free food, while wearing clean clothes on a regular basis. Rest assured, this lifestyle is temporary.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This conclusion is horrifying. Let's not talk about <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128778321">actual homeless</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/07/AR2009120702414_pf.html">college</a> <a href="http://www.progressive.org/node/718">students</a>, for whom sleeping in the library is not just a convenient alternative to going to your dorm or apartment, but one of very few undesirable options. For whom getting something to eat, a place to shower, or a place to sleep are a struggle, all on top of keeping up with schoolwork and paying for tuition. This could have been a thoughtful article, one that pointed out that joking about being "homeless" because you're broke (not poor) and nap on campus is incredibly insensitive and offensive. It could have motioned toward the fact that A&M likely has its own homeless students, who have few resources in dealing with their struggle. Instead it emphasizes that your own "hobo" lifestyle in college is temporary (and thus humorous!). By celebrating the financial security of the upwardly mobile (and, for the most part, already middle- or upper-middle-class) students of A&M, this piece has a problematic takeaway: Your privilege means you can make jokes about whatever you want, because serious downers like homelessness and poverty don't touch your life. It's not a problem if it's not your problem.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you're homeless in the Bryan/College Station area, contact <a href="http://www.familypromisebcs.org/">Family Promise</a> or <a href="http://www.twincitymission.org/bridge.shtml">Twin City Mission</a>. (Feel free to list other resources in the comments.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You can contact the opinion editor for the Batt, Ian McPhail, at <a href="mailto:opinion@thebatt.com">opinion@thebatt.com</a>, or the general editor, Matt Woolbright, at <a href="mailto:editor@thebatt.com">editor@thebatt.com</a>.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-41419689496585012252010-10-06T00:19:00.005-05:002011-11-22T23:22:03.211-06:00Connecting with female characters in geek television<div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cross-posted at <a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2010/10/05/connecting-with-female-characters-in-geek-television/">Geek Feminism</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">s. e. smith wrote this amazing post a while back at Bitch's Push(back) at the Intersections: "<a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/pushback-at-the-intersections-i-just-dont-like-that-many-female-characters">I Just Don't Like That Many Female Characters</a>." And I read it and was like, "OMG GEEK CULTURE." Because, <i>really</i>:</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">'I just don't really like many female characters, you know?'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I see this coming up again and again in discussions about pop culture; this is an attitude I myself once embraced and espoused, like it was a badge of honor to dislike most female characters. I thought I was being oh-so-edgy and critiquing female characters when really I was engaging in an age-old form of misogyny, where people prove how progressive they are by saying they hate women.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I know, it sounds weird. But there is a thing that happens where some feminists declare themselves firmly to be 'one of the guys.' I'm not sure if it's a defensive tactic, designed to flip some attitudes about feminism and feminists, or if there is a genuine belief that being feminist means 'being one of the guys.' Once you are 'one of the guys,' you of course need to prove it by bashing on women, because this is what 'guys' do, yes? So you say that you don't really 'connect with' or 'like' female characters you encounter in pop culture. </span></blockquote></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">If feminists feel pressure to be accepted as "one of the guys," imagine how geek women feel, particularly early in their lives, when they often feel isolated from one another.</span></blockquote></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This tendency to dislike female character reminds me of another "being one of the guys" strategy: I often meet women who tell me proudly, "I just don't get along with women.* All of my best friends have been guys." These women also often think that this fact actually makes them progressive (because nothing's more radical than failing to create female-centric relationships!). And most of the women I've known who say this are geeks. It's actually one of the reasons it took so long for me to become friends with geeks, because "I don't get along with women" is dealbreaker for me<i>. </i>Any woman who says this is either a) telling me that I can never expect more than perfunctory friendship with them or b) inviting me to denigrate women as well, as the basis of our friendship. And no thank you. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Which is not, of course, to say that these ladies are horrible people. Women who refuse to connect with other women, fictional or real, are not <i>causing </i>the problem, but <i>perpetuating </i>it, because they've bought patriarchal narratives about women hook, line, and sinker. They seek connections with men, because men are the rational, smarter set, and by doing so they feel required to malign their own genders, because, as smith points out, "bashing on women" is just what dudes do. But loving other women, connecting with other women, is one of the most radical feminist act one can perform. And I think that goes for fictional characters, too, especially since I know that my personal path to feminism would have been greatly hindered if it weren't for Xena and Buffy.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So it hurts my heart when geeks inexplicably "hate" female characters on geek shows. Indeed, the two examples smith uses are actually from geeky/fantasy/SF shows: <i>True Blood </i>and <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>. It seems like misogynist write-offs of female characters are disturbingly prevalent in allegedly progressive fan cultures (like the overtly feminist <i>Buffy</i>), and the ones that have been pissing me off lately are, of course, Doctor Who-related. A sizeable part of DW and Torchwood fandoms has a lot of ire for female characters from these series. The two I want to focus on, in part because hatred of these characters is well-represented in both fan communitities, are Gwen Cooper (from <i>Torchwood</i>) and River Song (from <i>Doctor Who</i>).</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">[Spoilers for season 5 of <i>Doctor Who</i> and <i>Torchwood: Children of Earth</i> (season 3) below the fold.]</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">[<b>Trigger warning</b> for imagined violence against female characters, slut-shaming, and other misogynistic language.]</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><a name='more'></a><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gwen Cooper</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TJZZFHYPhAI/AAAAAAAAASM/M39tY4QrE6U/s1600/myles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" qx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TJZZFHYPhAI/AAAAAAAAASM/M39tY4QrE6U/s400/myles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Now, Gwen is not perfect on this show. For that matter, <i>neither is anyone else</i>. Everyone on this show is flawed, most of them quite seriously. Under the stress and weirdness of working for Torchwood, Gwen is dismissive of her partner, Rhys, and then cheats on him with a fellow Torchwood employee, Owen. And, throughout the entire series, she's in love with Jack (who the fuck isn't), but marries Rhys anyway. So, Gwen has some personal failings. Compared with the failings of the other major characters, in particular Owen's unfeeling libertine ways and Jack's stringing along Ianto and <i>sacrificing his own grandson</i>, however, Gwen is about right in the middle of the Torchwood-employees-are-bad-people bell curve. However, unlike most of the other characters, a sizeable minority of fans violently <i>hate </i>her, to the extent that there is an <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/antigwenallies">Anti-Gwen Alliance</a> on LJ, complete with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS9C5B5S87k">youtube video</a>. People call her things like "<a href="http://www.fanpop.com/spots/gwack-vs-janto/articles/14490/title/gwack-omg">a selfish stupid slutty little gap toothed bitch who should die a very painfull death</a>." So what the fuck is up?</span><br />
<br />
</div></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pda9PKyqmw&feature=related">She's ugly</a></i>. If you think this, and also think that it is a legitimate reason to hate a (female) character, you're a douche. I mean, not only <a href="http://blog.newsok.com/television/files/2010/06/Eve-Myles-Torchwood.jpg">are</a> <a href="http://www.glogster.com/media/2/2/34/22/2342252.jpg">you</a> <a href="http://gallifreyanembassy.org/portal/mediagallery/mediaobjects/disp/b/be2d52f2f1fed81cdb961c3e7882dacd.jpg">wrong</a>, judging female characters solely on whether you want to fuck them or whether they live up to unrealistic standards of beauty makes you a misogynist, even if you're a lady. (More on this with River Song.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>She's whiny</i>. From smith:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">People who claim not to like female characters often have difficulty explaining why exactly. Take a character like Buffy, who is called 'whiny' for having opinions and not being shy about them, for occasionally being vulnerable and frightened and sad. It couldn't possibly be because her friends repeatedly fuck her over, she was yanked out of heaven to save her friends' butts, she's been burdened with huge responsibility, and she's constantly taken for granted, right? She couldn't possibly have any reason to be angry and to speak up about it, just like Tara has no reason to be angry either. Nope, they're both just whiny women. Write off, move on.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">THIS. People who call Gwen whiny don't feel the need to explain why. And if they do, they hate Gwen because she <i>acts like a woman</i> (because, ew, who would want that?). From a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204613066&topic=6885">Facebook thread</a> about hating Gwen:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yeah, I don't really watch Dr. Who, but I got the impression that Rose was a lot like Gwen, and I can't for the life of me understand why the writers like characters like this. I just find them so irritating. I don't get why women have to be all sappy in shows. Why can't there be more women like Xena or Ellen from Supernatural, strong without the sappy. I tend to like women characters better when writers don't feel like they have to make them all soft and whiney, because I just don't think that's really embracing feminism. It's keeping girls in the whiney category and keeping guys as the strong ones who don't whine a lot.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In other words, if producers would make female characters MORE LIKE MEN, then they would be less annoying. That, apparently, is feminism. Women who have <i>feelings</i> and express them are "all sappy" and "soft." Because, <i>gross</i>, right? smith again:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Much of this baseless hatred of women characters seems to be a reflection of internalized self-hatred. Being 'emotional,' for example, is a trait that society says is not acceptable for women, and thus expressions of emotion on the part of women characters are condemned. People will sometimes hide behind claims of 'stereotyping' to criticize women characters, arguing that the characters reinforce problematic ideas about women while little realizing that they themselves are reinforcing those ideas; people who claim that characters like Tara [from Buffy] are 'too emotional' and that this feeds ideas about 'hysteria' and women don't seem to recognize that they are reflecting a commonly held social attitude, that women should not be emotional. They ignore the very real reasons for Tara to be upset; seeing your lover shot and lying in a pool of his own blood, for example, is a very emotional experience. </span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Calling women who express their emotions sappy and whiny doesn't make you a feminist. Capitulating to sexist stereotypes about proper behavior, painting everything "feminine," like having emotions, as "soft" and "sappy," as <i>not legitimate</i>, is exactly the opposite of feminism, and doesn't do women any favors.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>She's a slut</i>. This one is particularly precious, because most Gwen-haters love Jack, the sluttiest** of all DW-related characters. People seem personally offended that Gwen is a threat to Jack and Ianto's relationship (obviously, before Ianto died in CoE), as if that particular flirtation is all about Gwen being a home-wrecker. We see that Jack both initiates and encourages their flirtations, as well as his tendency to rather unfeelingly brush off Ianto whenever Ianto tries to define their relationship or ask for committment from Jack. The image that Gwen-haters seem to have, of a happy, committed gay couple and a bitch trying to wreck it, is a constructed fantasy, one created for the sole purpose of maligning Gwen.<i> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>She's smug</i>. Don't women know they should never act like they know anything? Gwen is often accused of acting too much <a href="http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/captain-jack-finds-a-home-starz-picks-up-torchwood.php">like a know-it-all</a>:</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Can they kill Gwen in episode one? Please? I promise I'll watch all 10 episodes live if they do.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I just can't stand the smug bitch. Oh, look at me. I never get hurt, am loved by everybody, and have an adorable caring husband who loves me unconditionally even though I'm a raging knowitall bitch. Fuck. I'd prefer Ianto's sister coming back to join the force over more Gwen. </span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Anyone want to play a guessing game? <i>Who else </i>can we think of that never gets hurt, is loved by everybody, and has an adorable caring partner who loves hir despite hir serious committment issues? Oh RIGHT. <i>Jack fucking Harkness</i>. And while he certainly gets his share of being called "smug" on the internet, it's not by people who call<i> Gwen</i> smug. It's cool for him to act like he knows everything (and, of course, he does act like that), presumably because his penis gives him magical not-annoying powers. This is the real problem with hating Gwen: she and Jack are quite alike, and not by accident. But behaviors we find acceptable in men are simply not okay in women. And even if Gwen doesn't act like Jack, and goes around acting like a lady with her lady-feelings, she's still considered whiny and annoying by the fans. There is no winning this game.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>River Song</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TJZZFvhDuCI/AAAAAAAAASU/W3zL0zTexi8/s1600/BigBang27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" qx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TJZZFvhDuCI/AAAAAAAAASU/W3zL0zTexi8/s400/BigBang27.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">People that hate River Song confuse me sometimes more than people who hate Gwen. Which isn't to say that Gwen-hate makes more sense, because if you hate severely flawed characters, WHY ARE YOU WATCHING TORCHWOOD, but River gives them a lot less to work with. Not that it matters, because it appears that folks draw from the same store of justifications when it comes to hating lady-characters. <a href="http://amplicate.com/hate/river?sort=featured">From Amplicate</a>:</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">she is just so fuckin smug! she looks about 50 (especially in the weeping angels episodes) and shes still teasing the poor doctor about what they used her handcuffs for *shudder* i wouldnt mind seeing david tennant or matt smith use them but with her!! *shudder of disgust*. and she always calls him pretty boy and sweetie. it makes me sick, seriously. and i ABSOLUTELY HATE it when she says 'spoilers' in that smug voice of hers. and in dr who confidential she had to thow herself right ontop of poor matt, i bet she loved that, especially when she put her knee into matts groin continuously, which even matt admitted she did. and she was giggling away, probably fantasizing about using her handcuffs with matt.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sorry, this might be a bit harsh, but i just had to say how i much i hate the pig.</span></blockquote></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Even though River is a <i>very different</i> character than Gwen, we get the same string of reasons to hate her: she's ugly, she's a slut, and she's smug. Let's deal with the ugly thing first. Because, again, it makes you a douchebag, particularly when you only think someone's ugly because she "looks about 50"*** and especially when <a href="http://img24.imageshack.us/i/corday08.jpg/">she's</a> <a href="http://www.tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/River.png">clearly</a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPHMBSmDhVKyTJWWGNBFbY8WaUByiZyTRt1WqS96xd_PvLWzLRqPlkuIo3IhVM5sZKS1Ib2Qc76dceWOeqLM0crBYtx32AE2FzTLY0cjxe3sD7oBbdlqZRK8ixof5ZVMl-m39wQGF4v5tH/s1600/Alex+Kingston+lower+res_-thumb-480x719.jpg">gorgeous</a>. I keep pointing this out, not because conventional beauty actually matters to liking a character, but because these characters are, for the most part, <i>conventionally beautiful</i>. So by arguing that these conventionally beautiful actresses are "ugly," fans capitulate to an unrealistic and problematic standard of beauty for women, one that insists that the <a href="http://feministing.com/2010/08/03/the-gap-wants-you-to-cover-up-your-ugly-legs/">great majority</a> <a href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/03/really-cosmo.html">of women</a> (<a href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/04/impossibly-beautiful_21.html">including actresses and models!</a>) <a href="http://feministing.com/2010/03/19/pretty-ugly-can-we-please-stop-pretending-that-beautiful-women-arent-beautiful/">will never actually</a> <a href="http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/12/05/another-reminder-of-those-impossible-standards/">be beautiful</a>, but <a href="http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/04/06/shaming-women-into-adhering-to-beauty-standards/">must continually</a> <a href="http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/2006/07/16/good-hair-kinky-hair/">strive</a> <a href="http://feministing.com/2006/08/10/internalized_colonization_beau/">for it</a>. One that causes <a href="http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/07/10/the-lasting-impacts-of-objectification/">real harm</a>. One that is used to<a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=beauty_myths"> police women who presume to attain any power or agency</a>. Which is all to say, it is not a legitimate complaint to say that you hate a female character because she doesn't match your definition of fuckable or beautiful. Period.</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes River also gets called "whiny," but more often people seem to have a problem with her "smugness," because female characters are in a double bind, just like actual women, <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/publication/83/the-double-bind-dilemma-for-women-in-leadership-damned-if-you-do-doomed-if-you-dont">whether in positions</a> <a href="http://feministing.com/2010/08/13/sexism-is-not-surprising-it-is-however-stupid/">of leadership</a> or <a href="http://feministing.com/2007/05/21/damned_if_you_do_damned_if_you/">just on the street</a>. Act like a woman (like you have gross lady-feelings), and you're a whiny twit. Act like a man (like you know things), and you're a smug bitch. <a href="http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/doctor-her-moffat-talks-next-doctor-who-series-and-more.php">Observe</a>:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I already REALLY don't like River Song (and just why that is I still haven't figured out) but she has been the closest thing, personality-wise, to a female "Doctor" I've seen thus far, and she makes me want to punch her in the neck.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Because only a dude can get away with acting like the Doctor. It's violence-inducing when a woman does it. Like Gwen and Jack, River and the Doctor are judged differently for having the same characteristics. Acting like the leading men is not okay for female characters, but neither is it okay for them to "act like women," because then they're whiny and girly. <i>They simply can't win</i>, which is sort of the point. Hating female characters doesn't have anything to do with some magical combination of characteristics that make female characters likeable. Rather, it has to do with misogyny and capitulating to a sexist culture, in order to show one's credibility in that culture. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You may have noted the excessive imaginative violence in the hatred of these two characters. Fans often <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/117173">imagine the deaths</a> <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6001737/1/The_Thousand_Deaths_of_River_Song">of these characters</a> (preferably painful) or imagine inflicting violence on them ("she makes me want to punch her in the neck"). This is disturbing, and can be explained by the ways in which geeks feel more pressure to over-act hypermasculinity. Geek boys are often picked on or bullied in school for being beta males, and geek men usually continue to feel undervalued because of their perceived lack of "manliness." Their reaction to this bullying is very often <i>not</i> to subvert the patriarchal masculinity standards that they fail to meet, but to overcompensate for this lack by participating more enthusiastically in misogynistic and homophobic behaviors and language. And women who exist in this culture, and want to be accepted by these geek men, will also often capitulate with misogyny as well, and show their credibility in part by refusing to connect with female characters in television. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">smith asks us:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is so frightening about women characters who display emotions? What is so terrifying about storylines that center women?</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Indeed. So let's, as geeks, start to value women, in all their complexity and variety, instead of deciding prematurely that any woman is only worthy of our contempt. There's nothing scary about accepting that women, fictional and real, are human beings.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">__________________________________________</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">*Actually, they usually say "girls."</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">**I don't approve of the judgmental connotations the word "slut" carries with it. By using it, I'm just mimicking the language used by haters, not agreeing with the slut-shaming.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">***Fuck, what is wrong with people? Are we really okay with the idea that women are just utterly unfuckable past the age of 30 or 40 or 50? I mean, <i>really</i>?</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-26342114030185280292010-10-02T14:08:00.003-05:002011-06-29T15:40:39.163-05:00Learning Curve...<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>My friend Rena wrote this post recently, about how her recent exposure to feminism has helped her to learn some things about healthy relationships. She's a lovely lady, and I hope you enjoy! (Courtney)</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cross-posted from <a href="http://www.ktarian.com/?p=57">JMBL</a>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Having just ended a relationship, I thought it might be a good idea to catalogue what this relationship taught me. Well, I was also partially inspired by another blog post I read.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This relationship taught me a lot about what I like and don't like... and what I want and don't want. Aside from personal preferences though, I also learned a few things about what a good relationship <i>should </i>be.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Relationships are built on trust and communication.</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, I've always known that, really. It was one of my keywords back when I was 18, before I got married. Yet, I think I didn't pay enough attention to it . This applies really to any relationship: friends, lovers, family... the quality of the relationship will depend on the level of communication and trust.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The confusing part for me this time around was attempting to figure out how to make this work with someone who had some rather fundamental differences in belief. Yes, I believe it's possible for two people to not believe in exactly the same things, or necessarily be passionate about the same things, and still have a healthy relationship. It's something I had no previous experience with though, since my only previous relationship was with someone who shared all of my fundamental beliefs. I think that hesitation and confusion led me to be far more forgiving of some things than I ought to have been.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Warning Sign #1: No respect for Boundaries</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of the things that this experience really drove home for me was that someone who can't respect boundaries is not someone I ever want to be in a relationship with. When they ask me about things that make me cry, and know that this causes me distress, yet continue to ask and to push, that's a sign that they care less about hurting me than about what they want. When they ask me to do something to which I clearly say no, and continue to ask again and again, until I finally say yes, that's a sign that they're going to push for what they want, regardless of what might be best for me. When I clearly state that something is not okay, and they try to do it anyway, then claim they have forgotten... it's more likely a sign that they care more about what they want than about showing me respect.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Warning Sign #2: Reluctance to Clarify</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, a really great quote about how to clarify what you want from someone else before you enter into a non-exclusive relationship (though I think some of these things would be good to talk about before entering into an exclusive relationship also):</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I always set down at the outset - what does the other person want to be told, or not, about other partners? How do we handle mutual friends, and who can get told, or can nobody? How much notice is needed before showing up? What things, sexually, are off-limits? Does the intimacy end at the bedroom door - all affection becomes friendly once outside it - or are we holding hands walking down the street and kissing on street corners? What labels or answers do we feel comfortable giving when other people ask? And the biggest agreement, which is if anyone's feelings change, the other person gets told immediately - whether it's growing disinterested or falling in love. Either one can make everything end badly.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(It's a great <a href="http://unnaturalforces.blogspot.com/2010/08/sex-post-or-gayle-figures-some-shit-out.html">post</a>, but please be warned if you go to read it, that some of the content may be triggering for rape victims.) When I read this post, it made me realize that there were several things I hadn't asked that I probably should have. Being in a relationship where the lines are fuzzy and you are often confused is a sign that you need to clarify. Reluctance on the part of the other person to make those clarifications is definitely a warning sign. Asking and receiving no response may be a sign that you need to get out.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Warning Sign #3: No Response to Feedback</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">With me, I was in a situation very different from any situation I'd ever experienced before. This really drove home the need to be able to give feedback and have that listened to and responded to. Yes, response is crucial. See my last <a href="http://www.ktarian.com/?p=54">post</a>. Effective communication <i>requires </i>feedback. If I say something and get no response, I don't know if I was clearly understood. Good relationships require you to be able to both give and receive this kind of feedback, because good relationships are all about figuring out what works for all parties involved. There is no generic template here. Each pairing of people entering into relationships have their own unique preferences and issues. When someone cannot, or is not willing to, discuss feedback issues, that's a warning sign that they may not really care about that feedback.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Warning Sign #4: You Can't Take What I Say Literally</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Everyone jokes around sometimes and uses sarcasm or irony to mock things. Sometimes. When I find myself needing to reverse the meaning of about half of what someone is saying though, that starts to become a problem. When their manner of joking is to frequently insult me, though they clearly intend it to be taken as a joke, I start to wonder if it's really a joke. And then I found this:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our culture tells men constantly that <a href="http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/01/24/are-you-turning-your-boyfriend-into-a-girlie-man/">women emasculate you</a>, that <a href="http://www.feministing.com/archives/009661.html">they're gross and icky</a>, that <a href="http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/02/26/women-ruining-everything-since-the-beginning-of-humanity/">they ruin everything</a>, that <a href="http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/01/04/the-violent-romantic-comedy/">they deserve violence and punishment</a>, that<a href="http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/03/13/marital-bliss-for-him-anyway/%5D">they ruin your life once you're married</a>, that <i>they deserve to be hated.</i> And you and your buddies joking about how women are only good for sex and cooking are <b>not fucking helping</b>.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In this <a href="http://austintotamu.blogspot.com/2010/03/science-fiction-geek-culture-and-sexism.html">post</a>, Courtney links to another <a href="http://kateharding.net/2007/04/14/on-being-a-no-name-blogger-using-her-real-name/">post</a> that has much more eloquent things to say about the issue than I ever could. The point though? The point is that just because you didn't <i>really </i>mean it, or just because you <i>intended </i>your words to be taken as a joke - doesn't mean that they were. When someone you're in a relationship with tells you that the solution to this is that you need to lighten up and realize that they are not serious/joking most of the time, that's a warning sign. The real solution? They need to work on clearer communication. Maybe they should learn to say what they <i>actually </i>mean instead of wanting other people to always understand that they do NOT mean what they are <i>actually </i>saying. It might even be a warning sign that they DO mean what they are actually saying, and that calling it a joke, or saying, "I would never actually mean that!" is merely an excuse to cover their butt.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Warning Sign #5: I'm Going to Tell You What I Am; That Makes it Okay.</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here's my last thing to keep in mind for the future. I recently read this <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/09/28/this-week-in-sexual-harassment-defenses-but-have-you-noticed-you-are-hot-though/">article</a>:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the “I’m Such A Dick” Gambit. And before we proceed, it is time to discuss. For the “I’m Such a Dick” Gambit, aside from being the world’s Number One Most Popular Rhetorical Device To Open Your Sexist Op-Ed With, is also one of the more fearsome and annoying weapons of psychological warfare in existence.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I really HIGHLY recommend the article. Because here's the thing: When someone tells you that they are a bastard, they're often doing it to manipulate you.</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m such a dick! Do you not find me charming?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We have already established that this person is an asshole; he admits to it. We’ve also established that being an asshole is funny and cool. Your choices are to laugh along, congratulate him on his discernment — wow, people who aren’t Dick really ARE losers, aren’t they? — or RUIN EVERYTHING FOREVER BECAUSE YOU’RE MEAN AND HATE FUN. Magically, by admitting that he is a total prick sometimes, Dick has managed to leave <i>you, </i>the person who objects to his behavior, holding the bag.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Saying what they are is a ploy to take away our ability to object to their behavior.</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(And if the confession <i>is</i> made with any degree of sadness, watch out. Chances are that you are dealing with a Level Two Dick, or “Pity Dick,” who is shielded from critique by his own poor self-esteem, forged from the fires of Hell into an unstoppable weapon that lets him get away with<i> basically anything, </i>because if you’re mean he might cry.)</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our response might even be to defend them: "No, you're not a bastard. You're just human." Now we've just given them permission to continue acting like a bastard. So when someone starts saying something along the lines of, "I'm such a bastard," it may be a warning sign that they actually ARE a bastard. Feeling bad is different from <i>being </i>bad.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Epilogue</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think I still have a lot to learn about how to have a healthy relationship with someone who doesn't share all of my fundamental beliefs. At the very least though, I've learned a lot about what to watch out for, and how to identify behaviors that are not simply differences in belief, but warning signs that this is not a person I can have a healthy relationship with, regardless of beliefs.</span></div>Renahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08494525153208589503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-81664132581378673642010-09-25T09:05:00.002-05:002011-06-29T15:31:11.141-05:00Quote of the Day<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://thedisenchantedworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/nice-guy-state-of-mind.html">On geeks and Nice Guys<sup>TM</sup></a>:</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Getting people past an individualized approach to sexism is hard enough most of the time -- it's that much harder when the people in question believe that they, too, have been persecuted (as "beta males") and thus know just as much about the topic as women. Let me be clear: geek men often do suffer by virtue of failing to live up to hegemonic masculinity. However, they are nonetheless still men with all of the privilege this entails, even if their patriarchal dividend is slightly smaller than that of some other men.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-Matt K, <a href="http://thedisenchantedworld.blogspot.com/">The Disenchanted World</a></span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-46377936058414940082010-09-20T09:17:00.001-05:002011-06-29T15:30:12.427-05:00Quote of the day<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"You know, conservatives always talk about how they want to <a closure_uid_rgm99h="953" href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/04/rank-and-file-bigotry.html" target="_blank">return to some magical Golden Age of America</a>, circa 1945 to 1960, and I say we start with bringing back the 80%+ tax rate that the wealthiest Americans paid at that time. Yay for nostalgia."</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-Melissa McEwan at <a href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-keep-my-bootstraps-on-display-in.html">Shakesville</a></span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-18286421018943350672010-09-20T08:46:00.001-05:002011-06-29T15:31:46.963-05:00An unscheduled personal break<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So, Ryan and I broke up, which is why the end of my blogging break was followed by zero posts. My heart is a little broken, so it may take me a bit to get myself together and writing again. Just wanted to let you guys know I haven't forgotten about you, and I'll be back soon.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-74476043043111313102010-09-06T08:00:00.005-05:002011-06-29T15:32:10.596-05:00Some links for you.<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I don't know how cleansing this break was. A lot of it was me saying to myself, "ergh, I just don't care about the internet today." Which may sound like nothing, but "the internet" is the community in which I participate to make up for the fact that I have few friends in real life. So I did connect a bit more with them these past couple of weeks, and even made a few new ones. (It's fall, so there's new blood in the department. I'm pretty excited about that.) But I've just been feeling sort of apathetic and ungrounded. Clearly, all those folks who say the internet makes you less sociable and breaks up community are stupid. But I'm back! So let's get me out of this funk with a linkspam.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, because I like starting with <b>Doctor Who</b>, I ran across <a href="http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/12/fixing-doctor-who-season-five-edition/">this article</a> at <b>Overthinking It</b> in which the author perfectly identifies why season 5 is just not doing it for me--a lack of thematic consistency. So <a href="http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/12/fixing-doctor-who-season-five-edition/">ze re-writes the season to give that consistency</a>, and it's actually pretty fucking amazing. It's also a long read, so bookmark it for later if you need to.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another longish read about Doctor Who is the beginning of <b>Ryan</b>'s fanfic, featuring the ginger Doctor. Yeah, you heard that right.<a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6292690/1/Leena_and_Red_and_Those_Who_Never_Were"> "Leena and Red and Those Who Never Were."</a> It's a million times better than every NuWho book I've ever read, which is a lot of them. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There were a number of fantastic posts about gaming, women, and sexism the last couple of weeks. It was kicked off by <b>Pewter</b>'s <a href="http://mentalshaman.com/2010/08/04/i-dont-see-your-problem-sexism-world-of-warcraft-and-geekery/">"I Don't See Your Problem: Sexism, World of Warcraft, and Geekery"</a> at <b>The Mental Shaman</b>. She also has a <a href="http://mentalshaman.com/2010/08/06/sexism-wow-responses-and-relevant-reading/">round-up of responses and related posts</a> up at her blog. Related: <a href="http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=2721">"Ain't I a Gamer?"</a> at the <b>Border House</b> and <b>Quin</b>'s <a href="http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=2781">"Daughter of Zero Queens: Roleplaying as Resistance"</a> (<i>really</i> recommended), as at the <b>Border House</b>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Geek Feminism Blog</b> also put up a post about <a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2010/08/24/myth-of-white-male-geek-rationality/">"The Myth of White Male Geek Rationality"</a> recently. It is, like, everything I've ever wanted to say to scientists, but with less swearing.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">From<b> Julian Abagond</b> at <b>Sociological Images</b>, the perennial question I've heard in the gaming and anime worlds: <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/30/guest-post-why-do-the-japanese-draw-themselves-as-white/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SociologicalImagesSeeingIsBelieving+%28Sociological+Images%3A+Seeing+Is+Believing%29">"Why Do the Japanese Draw Themselves as White?"</a> The answer: <i>they don't</i>. We only think we do because we assume white as default. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://unnaturalforces.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-defense-of-being-crazy.html">"In Defense of Being Crazy":</a> <b>Gayle</b> talks about the importance of self-identification and language use in that process. (Full disclosure: I am actually a big fan of, and have a lot of respect for, both Gayle and s.e. smith from FWD.)</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sexist Beatdown</b> is back! <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/09/01/sexist-beatdown-when-a-tornado-meets-a-volcano-meets-a-g-chat-client-edition/">Amanda and Sady talk about Eminem, Rihanna, and domestic violence</a>. Awesomeness, as it always does with them, ensues.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This <a href="http://www.leftycartoons.com/street-harassment/">lovely comic</a> from <b>Ampersand</b> illustrates the sexism behind street harassment and the oft-repeated response that women should take it as a compliment:</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TIJkl8349BI/AAAAAAAAARE/9sFkh2JCNXM/s1600/street_harassment1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TIJkl8349BI/AAAAAAAAARE/9sFkh2JCNXM/s640/street_harassment1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I actually got catcalled on the street the other day. I was walking from my apartment to the corner store to get some cokes at about 9 or 9:30, and some dude called out, "Hey baby." (I couldn't see him, because our street is poorly lit. Presumably because there are no sidewalks.) I ignored him. "Hey sexy lady. Come over here!" I walked faster, and I was scared and pissed, because I immediately thought, maybe I should have brought Ryan with me. <i>To walk 2 blocks</i>. It was humiliating to think, even for a second. Fuck.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Via <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/30/advice-for-girls-from-beauty-and-the-beast/"><b>Sociological Images</b></a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuk-h2ZYNJU">this amazing video</a>:</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Uuk-h2ZYNJU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Uuk-h2ZYNJU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Transcript:</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">(A pretty thin woman in a yellow dress in from of a fake pink castle interior.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you find a man who's big and hairy and beastly and it seems like he wants to hurt you, buuut he's got a lot of money and a really big house, stick it out, you can change him. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">(She does a little dance as the title "Advice for Young Girls From a Cartoon Princess" appears in chunky hot pink letter.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Desire is when a man wants you so much that he's willing to yell at you and beat down your door and tell you if you don't eat with him, you don't eat at all. It also kinda means he wants you to be skinny. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">There was once a really hot, successful man who was very goal-oriented and extremely popular who wanted to marry me, but I didn't feel like it was enough of a challenge. Never settle for something that doesn't feel like it's a challenge.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I don't like the term "beastiality;" it sounds...blegh. I like the term "interspeciality" because it sounds like "special." </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Find a man who wants to imprison you with his love. The longer that you're trapped with the same person, it will start to feel like home. Stockholm! </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">You don't need to have fancy people friends. Things around your house can be your friends. Don't just sit on furniture--talk to it. Candlesticks are <i>really</i> good at love advice because they're French! </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The key to love is to tolerate everything. Oh god...everything. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The lesson here is beauty is in the eye of the beholder--as long as the woman is good looking.</span></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Um, YOU'RE WELCOME. This was one of my favorite Disney movies growing up. (I used to have a Beauty and the Beast <i>tent</i> set up on my bed, that I <i>slept in</i>. Maybe this is why I'm claustrophobic.) So I love this video inordinately. </span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-72880097049827237602010-09-04T22:13:00.002-05:002011-06-29T15:32:56.760-05:00Cuties<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://unnaturalforces.blogspot.com/2010/09/azrou-helps-me-change-sheets-part.html">Gayle's pictures of her adorable cat</a> playing in the sheets inspired me to show you my babies, since I never have. Here's Captain Pusspants, my big squishy:</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigGkrBgK9dUKUd74l49UO7lZsMwqF8WmjyCUtswaVVo6IJTOpDzrV-Rj1VIOfQgWlE9bT25LPVTkwd-QkFENBGT_YzE1O475R_FQlDGV1VS18ODK9InTVxATSfB-cTozyfnLT5aLQPD6s/s1600/2010-04-11+15.17.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigGkrBgK9dUKUd74l49UO7lZsMwqF8WmjyCUtswaVVo6IJTOpDzrV-Rj1VIOfQgWlE9bT25LPVTkwd-QkFENBGT_YzE1O475R_FQlDGV1VS18ODK9InTVxATSfB-cTozyfnLT5aLQPD6s/s400/2010-04-11+15.17.02.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Get that camera out of my face, woman!</b></span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jLhvJIm0Z8mvBgIv7OdPGaw92JI4yqZQh6oZDaKy8EMh4v78SNcEoYs8ohJe7LoxDzJJ4zPPLAcnnP3QgVNJoaV4RukZClBVh9Z9DI3YjayRGe679cWEpqeHc2IpVkOjWsdq8v6cM64/s1600/2010-04-28+10.45.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jLhvJIm0Z8mvBgIv7OdPGaw92JI4yqZQh6oZDaKy8EMh4v78SNcEoYs8ohJe7LoxDzJJ4zPPLAcnnP3QgVNJoaV4RukZClBVh9Z9DI3YjayRGe679cWEpqeHc2IpVkOjWsdq8v6cM64/s400/2010-04-28+10.45.06.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>I love books.</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAXckOHVxSQeGVrSij7KbhGslTTeV0cxKnBlB2q5k-WJ1XS_UrGYt_V-GhVuMjA_A2WPvT47GBYTiCm_TS9ztnlJDQtTrGC98nKP4jm4IiA5hBYrN0cRi7ReDHPfUUJw8MfzB1frgtrk/s1600/2010-04-30+15.49.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAXckOHVxSQeGVrSij7KbhGslTTeV0cxKnBlB2q5k-WJ1XS_UrGYt_V-GhVuMjA_A2WPvT47GBYTiCm_TS9ztnlJDQtTrGC98nKP4jm4IiA5hBYrN0cRi7ReDHPfUUJw8MfzB1frgtrk/s400/2010-04-30+15.49.59.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The desk is where kitties belong.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lucy (short for Lucilla Marjoribanks) doesn't like me taking pictures of her.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgASdSvr9ItP7cqkzuYxitwhr8wIjVUY3-xzAUKW0r5UCBnzXyrn0mCcdyE6SiyJWQi_WbL9Pj8M9nhkWokItrLb8V0ty32hUlD2oI5zD_g3C4YlCjp1JpbUAM8G1tKgA51Pf80dpZoJ_A/s1600/2010-06-16+12.04.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgASdSvr9ItP7cqkzuYxitwhr8wIjVUY3-xzAUKW0r5UCBnzXyrn0mCcdyE6SiyJWQi_WbL9Pj8M9nhkWokItrLb8V0ty32hUlD2oI5zD_g3C4YlCjp1JpbUAM8G1tKgA51Pf80dpZoJ_A/s400/2010-06-16+12.04.06.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Hi there.</b></span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-88689779174727338492010-08-26T12:33:00.001-05:002011-06-29T15:33:40.575-05:00Guest post at The Rejectionist<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/THakb0P0KWI/AAAAAAAAAQs/J1F7dIpl8OE/s1600/Paul2CC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/THakb0P0KWI/AAAAAAAAAQs/J1F7dIpl8OE/s400/Paul2CC.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am just a linker lately. I have <a href="http://www.therejectionist.com/2010/08/special-guest-post-how-i-almost-didnt.html">a guest post up (with an astoundingly long title) at The Rejectionist</a>, talking about how one can be a feminist lady and a Victorian science fiction academic at the same time. My life is full of negotiations, it seems. <a href="http://www.therejectionist.com/2010/08/special-guest-post-how-i-almost-didnt.html">So go read it!</a> And if you don't read The Rejectionist already, you should. It's rather fab.</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also, the Daleks would have been so much scarier if they were more like the Martians in this picture. Machine bodies that aren't clunky! Creepy-ass tentacles that actually do things! Daleks would so get owned by the Martians.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-49907587882805979872010-08-21T11:45:00.001-05:002011-06-29T15:33:48.997-05:00A break<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We need one. And, since my lower back decided to make it unbelievably painful for me to sit at the computer, walk, or do any-fucking-thing, today is a good day to start. Adrienne's off to Burning Man soon (envy!) and I need to be getting into school-is-about-to-start-I-have-prepared-nothing panic mode soon. So we'll be taking off a couple weeks from blogging, though I'll drop in every once in a while with links or pithy remarks. Enjoy the end of summer, folks! We'll see you when it's over.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627855023521770072.post-20591020631429261952010-08-20T12:00:00.002-05:002011-06-29T15:36:42.744-05:00She Geek: Women and Self-Labeling in Online Geek Communities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(The following is a project I did for my sociolinguistics course, and I thought you guys might like it. Enjoy!)</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My intent in this project was to examine the labeling of female-oriented geek spaces on the internet. What I found was that self-labeling of geek women often defeats the potentially subversive act of creating a female-oriented geek community.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I would argue that the mere creation or and participation in geek communities labeled “for women” are aggressive acts towards male-dominated geek culture. One of the reasons we can see these communities as a challenge to mainstream geek culture is the still-prevailing myth of internet neutrality.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This myth argues that since we are “disembodied” on the internet, everyone begins on equal ground. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bodies don't matter in cyberspace. This is not how it works in real life, however, particularly in geek spaces. It is true that until you mark yourself as Other than the privileged class—male, heterosexual, cisgendered, abled, middle-class, and white—you will be assumed to be those things. However, this will not protect you from hate speech or sexist, racist, and homophobic “jokes,” since geek communities often engage in these forms of discourse. Even objecting to these discursive acts, without revealing the state of one's own body, will immediately mark you as Other, and leave you vulnerable to harassment and denigration. By labeling their spaces as for women, female geeks challenge the neutrality myth, by making their female bodies conspicuous and by demonstrating a need for safe cyberspaces for women.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In a study of the language of male gamers playing within a Quake server, Natasha Christensen claims that </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Even though the world of cyberspace allows for the possibility that gender can be transformed, men in Jeff's Quake Server continue to relate to each other in ways which support male dominance and heterosexual male superiority. [...] In the bodiless realm of cyberspace, it is fascinating to note that men who are able to create an alternate world where masculinity is defined differently do not take this opportunity. Instead, real life is mimicked not only by taking on the physical attributes of strength, but also by using ways of talk that emphasize aggression and sexual dominance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">[…]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, in the same way that sports and war help to perpetuate the concept of male dominance through physical strength, the Quake server also promotes the idea of success through aggression and violence. [...] Sports and war games became a way for white middle class men to fight their fears of social feminization. At the turn of this century, online computer games are being used in the same manner. Computer geeks who are especially vulnerable to the accusations of being less than manly are able both through the actions and discourse on Quake to demonstrate the qualities required of hegemonic masculinity. Emphasis is placed on the strength of the masculine body while discourse sets the players apart from anything that is feminine.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The same patriarchal standards that put women at a disadvantage also disadvantage computer and other geeks. Often, geeks cite an experience of growing up with bullying and teasing, precisely because they do not live up to hegemonic masculinity. Instead of using cyberspace to fight against hegemonic masculinity, however, geek men often use it to buttress those standards and fulfill them discursively instead of physically. This is precisely why geek women find online geek spaces—necessarily discursive spaces—to be so unwelcoming and hostile. And it is through alternative discourse, whether blogging or forum writing or fanfiction, that women challenge this culture of hypermasculinity. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">By marking their spaces as “for women,” even while inviting men, female geeks mark themselves as physical bodies just as conclusively as the homophobic and misogynistic discourse of Quake players marks their bodies as male. And by doing so, women respond to and challenge both the hypermasculine discourse prevalent in online geek spaces and the myth of the neutral, disembodied cyber subject.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Geek Culture & Its Discontents</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Matthew S. S. Johnson writes in “Public Writing in Gaming Spaces” that </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gamers who participate in writing activities, including blogs, strategy guides, walkthroughs, fanfic, and forums, “foster their own sense of agency through active participation in and frequent contribution to gaming communities in the form of written texts. Collectively, they not only gain influence over other gamers participating in games or game-related community projects, but also over the production companies who produce the software that originally inspired them” (271).</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Johnson argues that these online gaming writing projects are an example of civic participation and public writing. I would like to expand his argument to include similar writing projects in all geek fandoms. One of the most common reasons that fans cite for joining writing projects like blogs and forums is that they wish to join a like-minded community. When women join geek communities and find gendered hostility, joining or forming a female-oriented alternative spaces is not only a reaction to male-dominated communities, but a civic response to them. Forming a Livejournal group for geek women is, I would argue, a move to challenge and change the mainstream geek communities. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We can see this desire to gain civic agency through discursive acts in many minority geek writings. Garland Grey, for example, writes in <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/07/28/cause-im-nerdcore-like-that-toward-a-subversive-geek-identity/">'Cause I'm Nerdcore Like That: Toward a Subversive Geek Identity</a>,</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Writing our own comics, and blogs and forming our own communities gives us strength. When confronted with the cultural purity police, the ones who swoop in to Geeksplain to us, we can answer from a position of solidarity. We can create safe spaces of our own. Spaces where we can debate and discuss the ways Science Fiction comments on society’s treatment of The Other, spaces where our voices aren’t drowned out by simplistic fanaticism. A place where, for instance, a group of people can watch one of the X-Men movies and someone can, during one of the many scenes where Cyclops and Wolverine are having tense arguments about who is better for Jean Gray [...] simply scream out GAWWWWD JUST KISS ALREADY! BROKEBACK THAT SHIT! and not have people get all middle school about it.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Garland argues that by creating separate discursive spaces, like queer-oriented or female-oriented forums, subversive geeks can create their own authority, one strong enough to stand up to the mainstream, white, male, cisgendered geek authority. His example, in which fans can “scream out” a reference to queer subtext, indicates that what non-mainstream geeks need is a space to speak without worrying about hegemonic gender and sexuality standards. Unlike the highly-policed Quake server, then, geek women (and geeks of color, disabled geeks, queer geeks, trans geeks) need a space of free discourse, in order to change the larger geek culture.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So, what does the labeling of these communities do for this potentially subversive discursive project? Let's move on to my data collection and results.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Methodology</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My data came from Livejournal, which I chose because it is an online community with a reputation for being more female-friendly than other places online, and thus attracts more women-oriented communities and female geeks to join them.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I used a series of search words intended to bring up mainstream groups that self-identify as geeky or nerdy. This series was as follows: geek, nerd, science fiction/sci fi,Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, comic book/graphic novel, fantasy, Lord of the Rings, gaming/gamer, World of Warcraft. To collect my data, I went systematically through each the search results for each search term and identified the groups meant for women. Each group then needed to fulfill a number of criteria to be included.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Criteria</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I only included groups whose titles indicated that they are intended for women. I excluded groups that hinted toward a female focus (like <i>Squee Corner</i>) without explicitly stating that focus. This was mostly to avoid ambiguity. The point of this project is to see how women label themselves when they create geek communities for themselves. Thus I can only count groups that explicitly label themselves “for women.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">To avoid groups that do not attract members or activity, each group must have at least 3 posts. However, the activity does not have to be recent.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If the group is intended to sell something, it will only be counted if the description indicates that the creator/seller herself is a geek.I only included one result that was intended to sell a product, because the creator clearly intended to create a community of geek women, while also selling her geek-inspired jewelry. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Method</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once I collected the groups that fit the criteria, I counted the gendered words (e.g. girl(s), women, female, heroine(s), ladies) in the titles <i>and</i> subtitles of all the communities for women. If the title and subtitle repeat a gendered word (like <i>Geek Girls Anon: Because Geek Girls Need Love Too</i>), the word is only counted once for that title. If the title and subtitle contain multiple gendered words, I counted each word once for that title (for example, <i>Warhammer Online Ladies: Female Gamers</i> counts as 1 example of <i>ladies</i> and 1 example of <i>female</i>).</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Results</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I found 52 Livejournal communities that fit the criteria, with the following breakdown: 18 general geek and nerd, 4 general science fiction, 5 Star Wars, 2 science fiction/fantasy, 1 fantasy, 2 Lord of the Rings, 16 gaming, 4 World of Warcraft.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TGuVuqiOkMI/AAAAAAAAAQo/8ru4DExrx48/s1600/graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j3DXXSL4bbk/TGuVuqiOkMI/AAAAAAAAAQo/8ru4DExrx48/s400/graph.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">The 52 Livejournal groups had 55 labels. <i>Girl</i> makes up almost 40% of these labels, significantly more than any other label. Considering the great variety of gendered terms used by geek women, the popularity of <i>girl</i> is surprising. So why do geek women choose to label themselves girls so often? None of the groups' profiles indicated that these groups were for anything other than adult women, yet they consistently describe themselves as geek girls.</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If the creation of separatist spaces is a radical and civic act, why do women choose the label <i>girl </i>so often? I think that the label of <i>girl </i>can be harmful to the project of challenging geek culture, and that it is often chosen specifically for that property. </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Feminism & Female Aggression</b></span> </div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: medium; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8663593.stm">an article on the BBC News site</a> covering the worldwide phenomenon of Girl Geek Dinners, a networking organization for women with careers or personal interest in technology, the author reports that Girl Geek Dinners rejects the label of feminism. Said one of the organizers:</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">In a sense [Geek Girl Dinners] is a feminist movement as it aspires to a lot of the same ideals but I don't want it to be seen as something that is feminist as this can be seen as something marginal or negative.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>We're not trying to be radical or disruptive</b>, but to show that women have a place in technology. [emphasis mine]</span></blockquote></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While Geek Girl Dinners is not active on Livejournal, the attitude shown here seems commonplace in communities intended for geek women. Geek women often don't want to rock the boat, and see the political element of making an all-female geek community to be “radical” and “disruptive.” We can see this pattern in some of the profiles of the Livejournal communities labeled with <i>girl</i>, which we'll look at next. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">From <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/girlgamers/profile">Girl Gamers</a>: </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I created this community so that girl gamers could find each other and talk about gaming with people who take them seriously- not because of some imaginary hatred for the male gender. Some of my favorite people are boys; but any girl gamer will tell you that it's difficult to talk games (I mean *really* talk games) with a guy. It's just a fact of life. We love you, for honest. Try not to feel so threatened, aye? ;)</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This entire paragraph is meant to display non-aggression—the reference to “some imaginary hatred for the male gender,” “some of my favorite people are boys,” “we love you, for honest,” and “try not to feel so threatened, aye?” Even the winking smiley face at the end is intended to communicate that this group is not meant to intimidate geek men. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">From <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/geekgirlchic/profile">Geek Girl Chic</a>: </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a rating community for Geeks with Chic. It's open to Females and Males alike, despite the name of the community. I thought I better open it up to both sexes, can't have me being sexist now can we?</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This one is slightly sarcastic, but since the groups actually allows both men and women to join, it still communicates that the group is not threatening to the male-domination of geek culture. Out of the 52 groups on Livejournal, a <i>full quarter</i> of them explicitly invite men to join, indicating that these groups' desire to appear non-threatening to male geeks. The use of the label <i>girl</i> is, I believe, related to this desire. <i>Girl </i>indicates immaturity, non-threatening femininity, and a lack of aggression. Because of the powerful statement that all-female geek communities make in their mere existence, geek women who don't want to be “radical” or “disruptive” use tactics such as labeling themselves girls or chicks or fangirls, as well as describing themselves in non-threatening ways and inviting men to join their communities. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I don't want to shut out the possibility that geek women can reclaim the label <i>girl</i> and use it in a way that does not connote non-threatening, or challenges and plays with the damaging stereotypes imposed by male geeks, in much the same way that geek women use the terms estrogen brigade and fangirl. However, while it is possible for women to effectively claim the label <i>girl</i>, when this labeling is coupled with other tactics of non-aggression, it counteracts the subversive potential of geek communities oriented toward women. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Refusing Heteronormativity?</b></span> </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There's another, less depressing answer to the question, “Why do geek women call themselves girls?” That answer is that some geek women are refusing to participate in the heterosexual matrix. In a study of nerd girls in a California high school, Mary Bucholtz notes that </span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Refusal to participate in the heterosexual matrix is also linked to the flouting of conventional displays of femininity and masculinity. […] Nerd girls do not wear revealing clothing, and although sometimes they may wear items decorated with Sesame Street characters or other emblems of childhood, these do not exhibit the combination of infantilization and sexualization evoked by the clothing of the cool white girls. […] (123).</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bucholtz notes that nerd girls in high school reject conventional femininity in their clothing choices, and while they embrace “childish” fashion, their doing so does not correspond with a sexualization. It is possible that some of the Livejournal groups that use <i>girl</i> to describe themselves are doing so in the same vein; by using <i>girl</i>, they are rejecting the conventional femininity connoted with the words <i>ladies</i> or <i>women</i>, but also rejecting the sexualized connotation of <i>girl</i>, one that links <i>girl</i> with submissiveness and non-aggression. Considering the widespread objectification and sexualization of women in male-dominated geek culture, calling oneself a girl can be a radical act in itself, refusing to be considered a female body ready for sexual appropriation by one's subculture. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The ways in which geek women label themselves is complex and multi-layered, and deserves further study. Looking at the ways in which geek women self-label could throw light on how women in more mainstream culture react to the negative connotations of female gender labels, and on the coping mechanisms of women who exist in male-dominated subcultures. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">See also: Angie's <a href="http://angiek42.blogspot.com/2010/07/girl-vs-woman-great-debate.html">Girl vs. Woman: The Great Debate</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Works Cited </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bucholtz, Mary. “Geek the Girl: Language, Femininity, and Female Nerds.” <i>Gender and Belief Systems: Proceedings of the 4th Berkeley Women and Language Conference.</i> Ed. Natasha Warner, Jocelyn Ahlers, Leela Bilmes, Monica Oliver, Suzanne Wertheim, and Melinda Chen. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group, 1998. Print. 119-131.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christensen, Natasha Chen. “Geek at Play: Doing Masculinity in an Online Gaming Site.”<i> Reconstruction</i> 6.1 (2006): n.p. <i>Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture</i>. Reconstruction, 2006. Web. 5 August 2010.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Geek Girl Chic.” Community profile for geekgirlchic. <i>Livejournal</i>. geekgirlchic, 10 September 2006. Web. 8 August 2010. http://community.livejournal.com/geekgirlchic/profile</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Girlgamer’s Journal.” Community profile for girlgamers. <i>Livejournal</i>. girlgamers, 1 August 2010. Web. 8 August 2010. http://community.livejournal.com/girlgamers/profile</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grey, Garland. “‘Cause I’m Nerdcore Like That: Toward a Subversive Geek Identity.” <i>Tiger Beatdown</i>. Tiger Beatdown, 28 July 2010. Web. 3 August 2010.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Johnson, Matthew S. S. “Public Writing in Gaming Spaces.” <i>Computers and Composition</i> 25 (2008): 270-283. ScienceDirect. Web. 6 August 2010.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Knowles, Jamillah. “Girl Geek Appeal: Women’s Movement Online.” <i>BBC News</i>. BBC, 7 May 2010. Web. 8 August 2010.</span></div>Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17351518605068734277noreply@blogger.com8