sundries

[rm]

Folks, sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I don't have all the data, sometimes the answers aren't clear cut. I often assemble these sundries as I'm going through my day, which particularly means the "sometimes I don't have all the data" thing comes into play a lot. There are also lots of cases where I feel information should be out there, even if it's not information I feel qualified to make a thorough judgment on.

Anyway, last night (when I had no Internet! it's broken at home again) rosefox alerted me to this thread regarding an ICFA-related scholarship opportunity for PoC. Talk about: 1. me not having all the data at first (yikes!), 2. the situation not being clear cut (more opportunity for more people; GOH is Nalo Hopkinson vs. ugly RaceFail history) and 3. Me being entirely not qualified to say how anyone should proceed as a I am not an ICFA member/participant, a person offering a scholarship, or a PoC.

So! There's a scholarship opportunity. And there's some important concerns about it. And now you have links to both. As always, I appreciate when you guys have got more than I've got on things and can help me fail better.

Meanwhile! Patty and I are seeing Quartett at BAM tonight. It's based on Dangerous Liasons.

Link from keori: Alan Grayson truly gets how and why politics should be theater.

Bath & Bodyworks employee fired for being Wiccan. Thanks to hughcasey for the thorough write-up.

Large Hadron Collider now felled by birds and baguettes! No, really. Via firefly_124.

"Kiss me where I can't" -- Gilded Age Monuments and Secrets.

WHUT?

Apparently only men tell important stories. Wait, haven't I heard this before? From unpublished exes of mine that wanted my career to be as non-existent as their own?

via lipsum: What the whole God, guns and gays thing is really about -- one particular construction of masculinity as an excuse for irrational, fear-based behavior.

Instead of The Innocence Project's results being taken seriously, the involved students grades have now been subpoenaed to find out the "real motivation" for their justice-related work. Northwestern is refusing to comply.

LGBTQ issues that should be on everyone's radar right now? ENDA. Sadly, I imagine it will be a tougher sell in a bad economy -- the evil gays may take your job. Also, a moment of rage: President Obama, where are you? If you are such a strong advocate for my rights why not even one mention on the Maine situation? Why no emails to Dems in Maine before the vote?

I'm totally worried about how this whole Ft. Hood shooting thing is going to play out. We should probably be discussing the mental health of our soldiers, but instead, I (and many others) worried that it will just be one more excuse for anti-Islam rhetoric. On another note, the civilian police officer who stopped the shooter happens to be a woman.

I'm glad Precious is getting good reviews.

I am up to 7,247 words on ConSweet. The quality of some of my writing is going downhill, because I haven't figure out how to do everything I need to do, but the quality of my first draft writing is actually usually much higher than first draft quality, so me actually writing a first draft and Getting Shit Done is probably fine. Oddest thing current in book: a shopping cart full of pineapples.

via feyandstrange: Doctor Who cufflinks. The rubber Dalek ones are supercute I think. Ianto cosplayers, note Cybermen cufflinks; yes, I fucking dare you!

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

As a male (of any race) you have a chance of being accused of rape , and regardless if you did it or not you are considered guilty and ostracized for life. This does not excuse rape, and I have been known to support the death penalty for rape ( yes it was a knee jerk reaction after a close friend was raped , and I recognize that ) but it cuts both ways. False rape accusations are not something a male can recover from - ever just like a woman never recovers from being raped - ever.

Most recent statistics I've seen seem to indicate a woman stands a 1 in 6 chances of being raped in her lifetime (I'm assuming, based on nothing other than human nature, that 1 in 6 men are certainly not rapists and that the statistic is the result of repeat offenders). I don't know what the statistics are for false rape accusations, but I have a hard time getting my head around the possibility that they could be nearly as high.

While I will agree that false accusations of rape do cause permanent reputational damage and associated emotional anguish (and sometimes worse, there's certainly been a few guys released from death row on some rape and murder things that DNA later showed they didn't do), I think the experience of being raped and being accused of rape are different, in that a man falsely accused of rape, especially if he doesn't remain in one community all his life, will not necessarily have to deal with this bit of personal backstory with every single person he encounters forever; a woman who has been raped, well.... Finally, however, as someone who has neither been raped nor falsely accused there of, I am in fact pontificating from afar.

As far as the joke goes, as a straight white male I find it prejudicial. If you think about it, that joke could be seen as "deliberate debasing of other people because they are are a threat to your beliefs".

If the punchline had been " None, they hire a Mexican to do it " would it still be funny? What about " None, that's what a woman is for " ? They all convey a similar negative stereotype.

I think this is fair assessment, in the sense that the joke is not fair or useful. Certainly jokes like this distort meaningful discussions of privilege, which is real and harmful, both in the latent crap it brings to society (discussions like this that are upsetting for all concerned) and the ability to abuse privilege that many, but not all, members of privilege groups engage in.

The fact is most people have places where they are privileged and where they are not. I have white privilege. And I have skinny privilege. As a woman I have the privilege of people not responding to me with physical fear.

However, as a woman, a gay person, and a person with an invisible illness there are lots of ways my voice and experience are ignored and disrespected and that I am subsequently put at risk because of.

You get a certain degree of privilege because you're a white dude. You loose a certain degree of privilege because you often speak up for the oppressed and you're a big guy.

It's all math, and we're all allowed to be angry about it, but I try to keep in mind that no matter how oppressed I am, that doesn't take away from someone else's different experiences of oppression as well.

(OMG, sorry for my constant editing, but I don't want to muddy the issue or be a douchebag because I can't spell/type).

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I think the experience of being raped and being accused of rape are different,

I agree completely. Again, I was trying to show two sides, not say that either one is worse than the other.

I try to keep in mind that no matter how oppressed I am, that doesn't take away from someone else's different experiences of oppression as well.

the ability to abuse privilege that many, but not all, members of privilege groups engage in.


I try to do the same thing, and I appreciate and value the fact that you look at it that way. At the end of the day I feel that if I am to be given this privilege or held accountable for having it without choice, then at the very least I should be recognized as a person who has learned not to abuse it. By saying learned , I mean that I have made my mistakes, but learned and grown from them.