sundries

[rm]

Hope Witsell was not a whore.

She didn't play a dangerous game. Her sexuality was not immoral. She did not rob herself of her own childhood.

She did, however, kill herself.

Bullying kills. Sex negativity kills. Misogyny kills. Not the Internet (hell, sometimes the Internet can help you get justice). Not a teenager being a teenager. Not taking your clothes off. Not wanting approval. Not new technology.

I will say this over and over again. Bullying is not just a childhood phenomena (workplace bullying happens ALL THE TIME, and geez, we're all on the Internet, yeah?) nor is it one of those things kids just need to learn to deal with (I do agree our society is too protective of children, bullying is not a part of this in my mind), nor is it something the child who is targeted should be blamed for. Additionally, adults should not participate in bullying children. Should be obvious right? It wasn't obvious in my own childhood and apparently it's still not.

Hope Witsell was not a whore.

There's a reason plants eat zombies.

People who are non-guests but hoping/expecting to be on Gallifrey panels: have you heard anything? Should I have heard anything? I did contact through the Gally form after there was a notice about it on GB, and I know some of you mentioned me to the powers that be prior to that, but ... I worry.

legionseagle raised some good points (by referencing the most logically off and poorly researched meta I think I've ever read -- but I skip a lot) with me in my last sundries post about the Infinitus proposal. I think it's something I'm still capable of doing, but not necessarily in the crunchy timeframe that paper is going to get because of the rest of the 2010 landscape. I'm trying to formulate some cogent thoughts on whether the HP universe is really about love as JKR and much of the text claims. I see a lot more duty than love. And while you can do your duty out of love, this disturbs me. Particularly, I am still stuck on -- will perhaps always be stuck on -- Kreacher talking about drinking the liquid in the cave. He is asked why he did not die. And he says it is because his master had asked (ordered) him to come back. It is, I believe, the single darkest, most horrifying moment in the whole series. And I want to talk about it.

Infinitus really wants queer content because of the whole gay Dumbledore thing, but other than the Snape/female heroism paper I've given twice now, I've got nothing.

Argh!

Alun Vega has very graciously sent me a bunch of high res pics of the Ianto memorial for my paper research for Bristol.

I hate this campaign. I wrote Dockers to tell them so. They wrote me back about how it's designed to get men to celebrate their manhood through khakis and they're sorry it didn't resonate with me. Oppressive gender conformity, the association of feminine traits with childhood, the completely false claim that we live in a genderless society, and the aspersions on androgyny, do more than "not resonate" with me, they offend me. If you wish to contact them yourselves, you can do so with this form.

I have all sorts of problems with HRC (mostly, but not entirely, related to trans issues) but their 2010 Buying for Equality Guide is informative.

Because it seemed likely to fail, the New Jersey vote on gay marriage has been cancelled. We are, it seems, in retreat.

I miss ConSweet, but I have a couple more things that have to be finished first before I can go back to it. But I heard a song today and thought "hah, I miss Evan." Strange feeling. At least it's not a disturbing feeling. Very glad he finally found a life of his own in my head.

CultureGeek Reader's Choice Awards.

Police shoot and kill illegal street vendor in Times Square accused of intimidating tourists with CD scam.

reannon links us to an interesting article about whether the increase in Oscar nominees will get SF/F films out of the "technical ghetto." I hate that the number of nominees has been expanded, and I don't think it'll change much. Lots of SF/F stuff is just blowing up things in a brave new world, but lots of great films have been not recognized over the years, and I expect that to continue for a while yet. The geeks may have inherited the earth, but lots of people who have gotten the memo would like to take it back.

I've not made our cards yet. Or done any holiday shopping. Or, like ANYTHING.

Comments

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

I was unaware of the Dockers thing until just now. Dude. WTF. The attempts to move towards gender equality are TOTALLY to blame for misbehaving children and poor little old ladies, dontcha know?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I hate this campaign.

Ugh, me too - I back-buttoned after about a split-second.

For one - erm, way to alienate a potential buyer: who's to say that women won't wear Dockers too? (I bought a pair of men's work-trousers from one of those army-navy stores when I needed something that wouldn't mind a bit of paint and elbow-grease for amateur-theatrical purposes.)

For another - way to insult the intelligence of the men who are proposing to buy the product for themselves. Blech.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Dockers also makes a woman's line. Also they are owned by Levi & Strauss.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Aha. (I should've guessed.)

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Their women's trousers are awful.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I have never had such a visceral reaction to an ad before. I'm having to calm my stomach down to keep from vomiting.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Send them a note, then I will perhaps not be alone in the wilderness.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I would if I could find a contact addy on their site... maybe I'm just being dense.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's a huge pain to find: http://us.dockers.com/helpdesk/index.jsp?display=store&subdisplay=contact

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

I did.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Done. And thank you for the link.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Done.

"Forgive my bluntness, but your "Wear the Pants" campaign is both stupid and offensive. Lattes, apparently, make men gay -- or, worse, female? Our society is genderless? Your tissue-thin, wedgie-inducing wrinkle-the-first-time-you-sit-down-in-them trousers are going to induce maturity? I'm sure you mean this to be funny, but basically it's one girl humping a drainpipe away from being an Axe body spray ad.

The best thing I ever did with a pair of Dockers was rip the seams open and remake them into a skirt."

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing with a pair of dockers once ... but it was by accident. Dockers have a tendency to instantly shred and wear out in the inner thigh area. Any kind of chafing and the life expectancy of the pants can be measured in weeks.

[amara-1783.livejournal.com]

Done. What an appalling ad. Thanks for the link.

The response from Dockers...

[amara-1783.livejournal.com]

Thank you for contacting Customer Service at www.dockersstore.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.


Sincerely,

Sonia S.
Customer Service Representative
Customer Service at www.dockersstore.com

If you have additional questions, please visit our online Help Desk.

Re: The response from Dockers...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahhahahaha, that's even more ridiculous than the one I got.

Re: The response from Dockers...

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

Well, at least they're not canned responses..I got this:
~~~
Thank you for contacting Customer Service at www.dockersstore.com.

We sincerely apologize if our recent ad offended you. We appreciate the feedback and opinions of all our customers. We will forward your comments to our corporate office.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you, and
thank you again for contacting Customer Service at www.dockersstore.com.

Sincerely,

Re: The response from Dockers...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I got pretty much the same thing:

Sarah here from Levi's(r).  Thanks for checking in with us.

The Dockers(r) "Wear The Pants" campaign is intended to give men a reason to love their khakis, the focus of this campaign.  We apologize if our efforts did not resonate with you.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.  We'll definitely pass them along to our Marketing colleagues who pay close attention to consumer feedback.

Re: The response from Dockers...

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

I just got that one, too.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

I'd rather celebrate my manhood by putting on a ruffled cocktail dress than a pair of dockers. Yes, generic, shapeless, trousers in a color so neutral it makes Finland looks like Bush II on a week long meth binge are all about MANHOOD.

And I'd look far better in the dress. Since moving out of the city I've noticed all those hills have done wonders for my calves.

Besides, there are only two groups of people who have any business wearing khaki, physicists and paleontologists on a dig.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

I'd rather celebrate my manhood by putting on a ruffled cocktail dress than a pair of dockers.

WIN!!!

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

This last month has felt like it's been all sex ed all the time with my 10 year old daughter because she's been asking all sorts of questions and I'm going to give her the best answers I can so should she need to deal with something like Hope had to (whether she takes photos of herself of one of it's her friends' who take photos of themselves) she both knows she's got support and has a better clue of what to do.

Hope's parents disgust me. They failed their daughter in so many ways.

I hope the talks I'm having with kidlet are sticking. That she's learning that her body isn't shameful and how to cope with the double standards and be a decent person and not hide her intelligence and not hate guys even though too many are dorks, and...and...and...

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Hats off to you. Your daughter is very fortunate.

[marcmagus]

Much of my wardrobe is currently Dockers and Levi's jeans, partly because for a long time they had an outlet store in a really convenient location, and partly because they used to fit me in a way I liked.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm sending them a note about how this ad campaign is endangering their repeat business relationship with a previously satisfied customer in the demographic they think they're targetting with this ad.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I was both bullied and shunned for most of secondary school. When my parents found out, my father's reaction was that I had clearly brought this on myself and to deal with it. My school's reaction was to give the girls a rap on the wrist, like that would stop it. It never really stopped.

That poor girl was failed so many ways by so many people. I don't care what people say: having to drag yourself to school Monday to Friday, for years and years, under those conditions--the last thing it could ever be is a fucking character building experience.

[count-to-seven.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to have the phrase "celebrate their manhood through khakis" rattling around my brain for a good while.

Edit: Thank you for the contact form link.

[splix.livejournal.com]

Gross.

Here's the contact info page for Dockers. They bury it deep.

http://us.dockers.com/helpdesk/index.jsp?display=store&subdisplay=contact

[argentla.livejournal.com]

I hate this campaign. I wrote Dockers to tell them so.

Just the landing page has made me very twitchy, too.

[angelcityblues.livejournal.com]

Re: Hope Witsell: Yes.

[cozzene.livejournal.com]

I linked to this for the bullying bit at my page.

[graene.livejournal.com]

mail sent to dockers, advising them they would not be getting my planned purchase next week.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I still remember being hit in the head with a rock during middle school, and the boy who tried to rape me in the middle of the lunch area during lunch period as some of the most awful moments of my life. They are all the more awful because the adults around me told me it was my fault, that those boys couldn't be blamed for wanting to hurt me.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

Re. Hope Witsell: it's really incredible how much society punishes girls and women for being sexual.

I wrote a complaint to Dockers as well. That ad campaign is vile.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the linkage regarding Hope - signal has been boosted.
And the Dockers thing..augh! Thank you for the heads up.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

I will say this over and over again. Bullying is not just a childhood phenomena (workplace bullying happens ALL THE TIME, and geez, we're all on the Internet, yeah?) nor is it one of those things kids just need to learn to deal with (I do agree our society is too protective of children, bullying is not a part of this in my mind), nor is it something the child who is targeted should be blamed for. Additionally, adults should not participate in bullying children. Should be obvious right? It wasn't obvious in my own childhood and apparently it's still not.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, to this. I think the key thing here is that the term "bullying" is often used to obfuscate the fact that what is going on is abuse, pure and simple. It is not something that can be ignored or dropped, it is about people being hurt and humiliated at the hands of others.

[shipchan.livejournal.com]

'Infinitus really wants queer content because of the whole gay Dumbledore thing, but other than the Snape/female heroism paper I've given twice now, I've got nothing.'

Which why I'm semi spiting them and doing a panel on gender instead of sexuality. But, I mean, at least they want stuff on queer theory, even if it is just for Dumbledore.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

Good gods that ad campaign really *is* horrid.

Thanks for the contact link...sent them a nastygram.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

Dockers: Having its ad campaigns mocked since 1991!

As seen on an episode of Seinfeld...

[ydnic.livejournal.com]

DOCKERS FAIL.

Ugh. I guess I won't be getting any of those for my DH for Yule. :P

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

Wow, that Dockers campaign is pretty fucking irritating.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the Dockers ad - they make most of the pants I wear and I just sent them a fairly sternly worded comment in which I mentioned this fact.

As for Hope Witsell's suicide - the incident is a tragedy and the reaction about "sexting" is impressively misguided. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm childfree and have never wanted children, but I remain baffled about so many adults over-reactions to teenage sexuality, while also ignoring major problems like bullying. I remember being 14 and bullied, do most adults suddenly forget this fact when dealing with teens?

[sykii.livejournal.com]

This article on the recent campaign referred to Dockers as "pleated patriarchy pants," which is fun to say.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I'm lost here .... how exactly do you reclaim your manhood by buying pants?

This is one of my biggest problems with the advertising game : the concept that you can bring about emotional and/or social change by consuming a product. It's total bullshit, and it's demeaning to anyone with a brain.

This on top of the backhanded comments about sexuality, gender roles, and stereotypes.

It makes me sad that some people somewhere are actually convinced to buy pants based on this.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Not just any pants ... SACRED BEIGE PANTS! Their beige awfulness is your uniform for the life of the eternal low paying cube! :P Forget robes or military coats, funny hats or special aprons - the most holy of pants are BEIGE!

Sorry. I got carried away. Hahaha.

[sethg]

Well, if you buy the pants and you don’t feel your manhood, umm, reclaimed, there’s an obvious solution: buy more pants!

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Re Times Square article :

what really blows my mind is that the article clearly says he pulled a mac-10 and fired a few rounds ( before it jammed. Mac-10 is the lol of guns ) and then the cop shot him.

so basically guy whips out a semi auto in Times Square and lights off a few rounds before being taken down by the NYPD.

Read the comments on the story ... people are assuming, or not reading , or not capable of reading .... and going off as if the cop just shot him for being an illegal street vendor!

People scare me. This is why.

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

As a teacher-type there's one thing I have zero tolerance for- organized bullying in any form. And if there's a next time when I have to kick ass and take names-that one's for you, Hope.

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Re the Dockers ad...I'm blown away by it for a different reason. Cuz, well, in my little world khakis are for those latte-sipping, never-got-out-of-boyhood men, the androgynous (and not in a hot way) men, the genderless men, the men who NEVER get dirt on their hands and GOD FORBID NOT ON THEIR KHAKI PANTS, the men who never get splashed with the blood of an animal they hunted down and killed to feed their WOMAN, the men who provide their misbehaving children with therapy rather than discipline, the men who are too busy on their cell phones to their hair dressers to notice the little old lady on the sidewalk.

Ok, I'm being a little snarky here, but seriously -- they're trying to sell KHAKIS as being the pant of the "manly" virtues they themselves are implying here?