Dear Ogi,

[rm]

I have fears, and none of them are you, or the exposure of what turns my crank or how I express myself. You don't even know me (and whatever it is you think I am, I am not), so how dare you call me and my tribe cowards and then take your ball and slink off home. There's really no greater insult, not just to the people you claim you were trying to engage, but to yourself. Generally speaking, I think shame is an ugly and useless emotion, and then things like this happen, and I realize I hope you have a lot of it, not because you deserve it, but because it's the only thing that would explain the viciousness and irrationality of your actions.

*

(What am I talking about? I'm talking about ogi_ogas's assertion that "'some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits' compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large." Context here: http://shaggirl.livejournal.com/190980.html)

*sigh*

Comments

[amberite2112.livejournal.com]

"'some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits' compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large."

says more about the speaker than anyone else, i think.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I'm not so good at decifering academic language, but that was my interpretation.

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

So suddenly his shame about the transsexual porn on his harddrive is science now?

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

^what she said

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

*cues music* We have a winner!

some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits means we think with out *brains*.[1] Alert the media!

[1] or not, in Ogi's case.

[sethg]

Projection: it's not just a river in Egypt.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

I totally hope that "subcorticals" becomes the new sex pollen - want to explain why McCoy and chekov are making out? It's their subcorticals!

[garlicfiend.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your ongoing coverage and involvement in this, such as it was. As a transwoman, so much about all this was triggering for me (and impossibly, it kept getting worse as it went along) but I am really glad to see that fandom rose up and tore them a new one for this. I think people contacting BU and his agent made a real difference, even if he won't admit it.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Heheh, well it happened faster than we expected, but we expected it. From a research point of view, it's already a smashing success...

For a given value of success? So freaking terrifying. Jeez.

[ckd]

I think the given value of "smashing" is the part that really needs adjustment.

I'm a literalist on this one.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I just took a shower, but then I followed the link, read the passages from his e-mails that shaggirl posted in her LJ, and now I feel all greasy.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Gawd, this guy needs to just get over whatever hangups he has about his kinks and stop projecting it onto the rest of us.

Re: Newsflash to Ogi

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I am a woman and I am a lesbian. My entire life is therefore already exposed to the public for its consumption, judgment, and titillation at my expense.
Oh yes. Beautifully said. The guy needs to own his kink and get over it. (except that slash-reading lesbians obviously don't exist!)

Re: Newsflash to Ogi

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

What you said + a million!

Re: Newsflash to Ogi

[5251962.livejournal.com]

I am a woman and I am nonsexual. Same story, different dynamic.
Being expected to help someone understand what does, or, in my case does not float my boat annoys me shitless. Since when do we owe some asshole an explaination, or a defense of something that personal?



Also, oogi is definitely an appropriate word for this person.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Wow... just wow... Honestly he sounded like someone with blinders and rose-colored glasses on. The way she said he was taking out the "sabotage" posts sounds basically like he was just plain tossing any and all that didn't agree with his theory regardless if the number against was larger. And I really don't get the whole "...despite fearing exposure to society at large" considering at the Potter events the Harry/Draco far outnumber the fans of the hetero pairings, and they certainly aren't afraid to admit to reading it.

What's more disturbing was that last note by him at the bottom that mentioned he was going to wait for things to die down and try something like this again in the future just to study the backlash.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

You know, it's interesting that he seems to think that we do this "despite fearing exposure", but does not think that means he should, you know, respect privacy when doing a survey. ::facepalm::

[kadairk.livejournal.com]

I've only been marginally following this story, but this hypothesis of ogi_ogas' has me wondering if he is researching from a neurobiological/neurochemical perspective, or from a social science perspective? Not that it matters, his research methodologies are flawed; he's fallen victim to the human tendency to have a belief and work backward from there to support it; thus his stated rejection of results that don't fit his premise (this is why it's almost pointless to argue health care reform, or abortion rights, for example. People, in general, take a position and eliminate any information that does not support their stance.) True science involves postulating an idea, modifying the hypothesis and LEARNING from the research done. This man does not strike me as a scientist.

I'm curious to know where I would fit in his research, as a person society would identify as a heterosexual woman, who "seeks out" BOTH slash and transsexuals. And my fear of "exposure to society at large" has nothing to do with my sexuality and everything to do with my gender. I learned a long time ago to be afraid of exposure to society because I am a woman. Society is a dangerous place for me. It views me as inferior, it rapes and abuses me, it tells me that I have to have children and then blames me for how I raise them. What society thinks of my sex life and fantasies is much less terrifying to me than what society thinks of ME as a human being.

And am I the only one who noticed his assertion that the fandom is the far left? (He makes a comment about seeing how he's treated by the far right.) While I'll admit to being far left, I'm not sure the entire fandom is left leaning (another assumption about the group he is "studying"), but really the question is ... what does politics have to do with any of this anyway?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Politics is a lot of thing, but I think his assumption that fandom is coming from the Far-Left because of the Post-Modernist discourse that's coming from fans de-constructing his assumptions and telling him that his coming from a position of blind privilege.
Language that can commonly be found in certain Leftist circles... so, go figure.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

That's probably some of it - also, being from the USA (and having an American-centric POV, as evidenced by the cast of some of his survey questions) he may simply not be aware that some of the commenters come from countries where the political centre is to the left of his?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Or even more far-right that his...
Still, it makes him look silly and very uninformed about the world at large, not just fandom.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Tru dat.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

He emphatically insists that this "study" is not social; he certainly has no training in social sciences. On the other hand, he's also not a neurochemist, and isn't looking at anything on a chemical or biological level. His previous research has not involved human subjects, and has largely involved data mining.

The political comment made me wonder, too. Your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's what he's really hoping to accomplish.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Not much to add, 'cause you say it beautifully, but I think this very NSFW Fanart should be shared (http://alchemia.dreamwidth.org/10226.html) and spread far and wide!

[gatheringrivers]

"'some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits' compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large."

The hell? Are they on crack? No, don't answer that... people really need to get over their hangups...

[jumpuphigh.livejournal.com]

despite fearing exposure to society at large
*raises hand*
My RL/fandom life has become so blurred that I'm not quite sure there is a dividing line at this point. I stand proud with who I am and don't need some yahoos trying to tell me that I fear something which I don't.

Idjuts.

[drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com]

This is so strange. From shaggirl's post, it sounds like the claim of a scientific brain study is a front, and his book is really about what happens when he provokes online fans by triggering their (our) defenses. His mention of comparing queer/slash fans' responses with the far right made me think he has something similar planned for them, oh joy. Overall, he sounds like he derives enjoyment from people's emotional responses and has a disturbing lack of empathy for the actual pain and real lives behind the online personas. I wonder if he'll shrivel up if people stop paying him attention.

I can't beat myself up too badly for having filled out the survey right away, since my data of completely bisexual, no fic writing, and appreciation of pairings of all flavors can't yield any satisfaction to him.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

That's what I've been wondering--my one problem with that hypothesis is that I'm not sure Penguin would make a false book announcement (all the information about the book came from Penguin, not Ogas, as far as I can tell). I'm still puzzling over how to connect a book on "netporn and the human brain" to "fandom and the far right." I'm planning on googling his name periodically to see where else he shows up in the next few months to see if I can figure it out.

[lorem_ipsum]

Ogi: Personally, I've been the recipient of massive flaming on a larger scale than this

LOL. Raise your hand if you're surprised.

...I didn't think so. I just hope he continues to experience real-life consequences from this-- not because I care if he suffers, but because he's obviously going to write crap that will be damaging to society if it doesn't get debunked.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

I suspect he has -- insofar as his agent has taken Three Giant Steps Back from this steaming pile of burning fuckmuppetry.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

"some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits' compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large."

It's pretty obvious what Oogie is afraid of, but why is he projecting it on to me?

[fragiletender.livejournal.com]

Yeah, think it's pretty damn obvious who the coward is here and it sure as shit isn't fandom!

[natf.livejournal.com]

I notice that ogi_ogas is so scared of LJ and fandom that he has deleted his LJ… ;-p

[elf]

This post has been included in a linkspam roundup.