sundries

[rm]

As some people noticed, cleolinda linked the other day to my piece about the fetishization and diserespect towards both gay people and gay characters in fandom. This happened in the midst of the CoE craziness (which had its relevance, surely, especially in light of the line from the original post that was used for the link -- that was sort of great, I was rather proud of that quip), and I hadn't gotten around to mentioning that I was glad more people saw the piece, but also disturbed by some of the derailing that showed up with the new influx of readers ("you're too sensitive"). Today, one of the posters who wanted to bring up the issues I raised at a con panel reported back on the results, which were disheartening to say the least. Don't yell at her, as her panel audience is not her fault, but I wanted to underline how real the problem is thanks to her reportage.

Meanwhile, there was a post about LGBT discomfort with content in Torchwood: Children of Earth, which I seriously disagreed with here. My comment is on page 2. Obviously the whole thing contains epic spoilers. The original commenter has, what I feel, is a reasonable point of view I disagreed with. However, some of the comments are illuminating as regards the paragraph previous to this, as they are filled with random examples of misogyny and more than a few straight women informing us they were only there for the queer and they feel betrayed.

*Sigh* I feel... very defeated.

Meanwhile laurab1 links us to a gay soldier's story because of whatever homophobic idiocy she's encountered in fandom this week (not sure what it was, but that was the set up of her choosing to link).

In response to all the fuckery going on in the over-the-top and art-negative and sincerely just human rudeness fail-y reactions to CoE (hate it if you want, but don't harass or threaten writers) blackbird_song had a bit of chat with James Moran and has organized a little charity drive benefiting Children in Need and Cancer Research UK. If you've got a few extra bucks and want to say "no, this behavior was not okay," you can do both at once. Particular kudos for her, because of the way her own opinion on the CoE material and reactions evolved and for doing something constructive. Details and the vaguest of spoilers are here.

This piece by extrafancyganza is the greatest piece of Torchwood fan art ever. Rec'ed by xtricks and entirely SFW and spoiler-free.

Things I don't need: people's shitty ex-husbands friending me on Facebook.

Things I also don't need: residual virus drama on office computer that makes me hesitant to do things I need to do involving online banking and travel arrangements; I think I'll wait 'til I get home.

Comments

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

I had the same feelings about feminism and queer identity awareness a couple of weeks back, but people talked me around. It feels like a loosing battle. But so long as you keep living your life as best you can figure to be right, keep putting the message out there you're a force in the right direction, change is long coming and hard won. If we can only educate, inform or liberate one person in 500, that's still one in 500 more than would be reached otherwise.

This perked me up a little http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/07/new_feature_con_1

And the choir turn up because they like to hear you preach, and they like to sing along and sometimes make up their own songs, too.