sundries

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.

Infinitus query - awkward? turtle? you and me?

Is there a straight cis-gendered person who writes and/or reads slash fanfiction planning on attending Infinitus who might be interested in working on a programming proposal with me about slash, fetishization, misogyny and the whole kit-and-kaboodle of AWKWARD?

Man, I make shit sound appealing, don't I?