LJ gender shenanigans

Check your profile. If you have previously selected "unspecified" for gender on LJ, that has now been changed to "it's personal" (something which I find so annoying, it tempts me to switch my gender on the profile back to female).

For people who would actually choose that option (there are lots of good reasons to not want to reveal your gender online), it's a good option. For people that would prefer "other" and could at least deal with "unspecified" (because adequate choices were not presented) it's an act of non-consensual re-closeting with snarky commentary.

Despite some people saying that LJ has already fixed this so it's changed back to now "other/unspecified" that does not actually seem to be the case. (ETA: it seems to be a "proposed change" but we're not sure of implementation yet).

There is some threading on all of this in news (page 6 of comments) wherein people make many good arguments about why this is a problem and the LJ staff tells us they care as much as we do. In the abstract, surely possible. In reality? Clearly this isn't something that affects them personally or this whole ridiculous thing wouldn't be going on.

elionwyr has a decent round-up: http://elionwyr.livejournal.com/2145058.html

sundries, totally personal edition

Today I went shopping for clothes for my headshot and compcard shoot on Wednesday. I bought my first pair of blue jeans in at least 20 years, and a bunch of tight, ribbed tank tops that make me look about 24 and like I should be on BSG and like I could beat the shit out of you, which was pretty much the plan there. I also bought an olive-green t-shirt (to bring out my hazel eyes, apparently) a cute little nautical theme cropped sweater, a cute little army-esque cropped jacket, a floor length eggplant skirt that can be bustled like woah, a black business shirt and a grey and white stripped woman's dress shirt. All for under $200. I will spend the next 48 hours practicing my smile in the mirror. You think I'm joking. YOU ARE SO WRONG.

Last night Patty and I saw Sam Mendes's production As You Like It at BAM. I really, really enjoyed it (except for that point I always hit with all Shakespeare's comedies where I'm like "I get it, everyone is confused and now they have to fix the mess, FOR FUCK'S SAKE FIX THE MESS ALREADY"). It was very, very Sam though. Central artistic blood spatter? Check. A bunch of red doors? check. Sexualized violence between men? check. I love Sam's work, as a rule though, so I was cool with it, but I suspect it was slightly bewildering to people that aren't fans of his films and were like "um, this is a COMEDY?" Also, Rosalind in male garb was wearing a slightly baggy khaki suit and she was quite blond, and I kept thinking she looked like John Simm. For this I may be going to hell.

After, we ate at L'Express and then went home and finished watching season 1 of Buffy. It's already reaching the point where I look at Patty sometimes and go "that's so Joss." It's a really, really good show, but I'm already sort of conscious of how his formulas are more well-suited to this show than his subsequent projects with which I am familiar.

A thinky thought about Torchwood fandom I had at redstapler during brunch today: Fanfiction is, arguably, largely a Watsonian pursuit. That is, we commit fic, often and in part, to solve issues within the canon as if they are true things within the canon (not a matter of writer error or external interpretation). When Ianto was killed off, large swathes of fandom, not wanting to have to reconcile this as a (Watsonian) truth, immediately switched into a Doylist mode of reaction by trying to analyze what the creators were thinking. Both the Doylist and Watsonian perspectives are, of course, totally useful and interesting, but the Doylist perspective abruptly crashing down on an already emotionally overwhelmed fandom didn't make life more comfortable for anyone, and left (I say this, as a fairly committed Watsonian on all matters) the Watsonians going "Look, we're really sad, but all the controversy amongst the various Doylist factions (was Ianto fridged/is RTD homophobic/didi GDL want off the show/is this about Torchwood America/ad infinitum) is really stressing us out!" Personally, it's still sort of weirding me out, but now that I have this framework, I'm a happier clam.

Looking at someone's pitch for something. I'm often too envious and jealous to do it, but there are a few friends I have what I call "professional poly" relationships with -- i.e., we do the same sort of stuff, but more success for them makes me happy even if it's on my turf and we might even be competitors. Anyway, helping other people take over the world is fun.