rm | Apr. 23rd, 2010

An Iranian actress who is openly gay has been denied asylum in the UK, which means she is going to be sent home to be executed. There is a petition to appeal the Home office ruling at the link.

Jesus christ, jet lag. I went to bed at 9:30 last night, claiming it was a nap, had a couple of weird sleepy conversations with Patty when she came to visit me and passed out for real at some point after John Stewart. Blech. I'd like my clock to sync, please.

What will the post-volcano era mean for air travel?

Bamboo above the city.

Long thing about Buffy fandom issues deleted, because like I said, I'm not in the Buffy fandom and I just stumbled into a whole mess of drama with history that involves all sorts of people I know, and since I'm not able to sort it out, I'm pulling the link.

However, the points in my own head from all this I care about are:

1. It's crappy to call "sexism" or "homophobia" or whatever else because you didn't get the story you wanted.
2. It's also crappy to use sexism or sex-negative language to try to silence people in fandom.
3. A complicated world means that sometimes things that look like 1 or 2, aren't.
4. There's no such thing as the truth, especially when it comes to stories.
5. Less hate; more joy.

sparkindarkness has a roundup of anti-LGBTQ violence.

By now you've a presumably all heard about the Lane Bryant ad deemed too sexy for TV; it's like concern trolling by the networks or something.

Anyway, the issue, I suspect, is about "curve" and "jiggle" because those are both items that often get cited in movie ratings stuff too.

Is this a completely evil double standard? Yes.
Is it one with a lot of precedence? Oddly enough, yes, but like I said, it's in film ratings decisions.
Should we be talking about this? Oh yes.
Should people of all genders be pissed off? Yes.
Should this shit stop? Yes and immediately.

But, can we please not use this as a way to condone other types of body policing even if they are less severe/constant/societally detrimental? All body policing is bad.

Look, I have skinny privilege. I get that. I get that when people say negative things about skinny people the overall personal effect on me and people like me is smaller than when people say things about fat people. So my asking you not to do the stuff I'm about to describe below is less societally important. I get that. But I'm going to ask anyway:

When you say "disgusting women with no meat on their bones", "anorexic looking" to mean any skinny person, and otherwise deride people who are built like me as not being "real women" because of their weight -- you're talking about me. And then maybe you'll go, "no, no no, I don't mean you" and that's when I have to say "well, actually you do."

Look, I don't care if the way I look isn't your cup of tea. I don't need it to be. And I don't care if you find me revolting. But a modicum of manners and a world in which one group of people doesn't need to be cut down in order to sing the praises of another, would be awesome.

Because you want to know what I think? The Lane Bryant ad chick is HOT and I don't need to hate on anyone, including myself, to think so. And neither do you.

Last night we watched "Guise will be Guise" and "Darla" on Angel before I passed out. Poor fucking Wesley. He's so incompetent, until he's not thinking and then he's awesome. Also, boy gets around! There was the bleached blond thing a couple of episodes back, and now with the sacrifice chick! I _loved_ her enumerating the sex she'd had and I _loved_ Wesley being all "thank god" about it. It was funny and awkward and true to life, and isn't Welsey a funny creature. So awkward and weird and ridiculous, but apparently his one secret skill is falling into bed with people.

Meanwhile, "Darla" -- OMGWTF, Spike, you actually used to be even more ridiculous! I can barely stand it! Also, that long hair thing, not a good look for Angel.

And from

misfitina: Woman wears men's clothes to prizefight, world gasps. It was, of course, 1910.