oh aye

Here has been my method lately of going through the inception_kink comments.

"Ooooh, 44 seems like a nice number, let's look at that page!"

Which is to say, there is no method at all.

Also, fire_at_wi11 directed me towards this LOVELY PHOTO ( which is under a cut for sanity's sake. )

I have recently discovered two awesome things. The first is thanks to Tumblr, since I saw a picture of Martin Freeman on what was obviously a British quiz show, but I'd never seen it before. After some sleuthing, I found that it was called "What You Were Watching" or something similar, and it's FANTASTIC. So funny. But I suppose it does depend on the panel, much like many other British quiz shows.

The other thing sprang from THAT show, because the basic premise is that they review absolutely awful TV and then make fun of it (OMG MY FAVORITE ACTIVITY) and they talked about this show called "Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum." Yeah, you know about my ban against reality shows? This is an exception. Because, it's just like, it's a total trainwreck to watch, but it's done in such a way that you know the contestants are trying and some of them actually have redeeming qualities (well, okay, one). So that's basically what I've been watching today. Good stuff.

I didn't get to see Scott Pilgrim like originally planned, but I might be able to go see it once I get back to school. Two of my friends are in New York (by the way, WTF? I haven't seen one of them in over six months, and they didn't even tell me about their meeting up?) and were planning on seeing it with another friend right before school. So they might have already seen it by the time I get there, which would suck because I hate going to see a movie that I know will be a huge group thing with people who have already seen it. But, you know, at least I'll get to see it.

UMMMMMMMM nothing else, I suppose.

I missed something today. Something huge. I am rarely, if ever, serious on this journal. Hell, I'm rarely anything on this journal or serious in real life. But this is just too big an issue, too upsetting to ignore or not discuss.

This story was posted on the spn_j2_bigbang today.

Okay. So.

The author has issued a public apology. There have been many comments and discussions both in the threads for the story and the SPN anonmeme and on countless journals, as I can imagine. This was brought to my attention by faunaana who stated her opinion very intelligently and gracefully. Most major points have been gathered in this post while fic quotes have been copied and pasted here. It's a lot to go through, and I admit, I didn't make it all the way through myself (it's late and I've had a long day), but I think some very interesting perspectives are brought up about exactly why this is story is as offensive as it is.

Is it:
a) the exploitation of a country and its people who are deep in suffering and mourning to facilitate gay sex between two fictionalized versions of real people?
b) the propagation of racist stereotypes that pervade the media?
c) the author's ignorance and "I didn't mean to offend!" intent not being enough to excuse the fact that she did, in fact, offend? Greatly? Or is it
d) all of the above.

I'm going with D. This is all wrong. It's all just too fucking wrong. I am pretty much in deep shock at this. I must be having a reaction, because I'm writing about it, but I don't actually feel anything. Whatever, enough about me. I'm missing the point.

Of the quotes I did read, this one stuck out at me:

- Abraham watched the cab turn into traffic, then turned to grin at Jared. “Jensen say I bad driver,” he said. “But American drivers crazy.”

Jared laughed. “He wasn’t American, Abraham,” he said, grinning back.

Probably not the least offensive comment out there, admittedly. The author did much worse work. But this stuck out at me because I hadn't seen it covered in discussion yet, and I wanted to take some time to do so. I want all the bases covered.

What exactly makes her think that someone who was not born in American isn't American?
This is obviously a different issue than the majority of what's being discussed. Perhaps I'm misreading the quote. But the fact that Jared simply assumes that since a person of any color other than white is driving a taxi, they must not be a citizen, they must not live here, they must not belong here. What the actual fuck? My rage is just so intense right now. As soon as someone says to me "I am American" that is their nationality. I don't care if they have their license, or a green card, or any legal permission to belong in this country. If they identify as one of us, they are one of us. It's as simple as that. Of course, this applies to any country of your choice, I'm simply describing the problem as it is written in the story. Maybe the driver wasn't American. Maybe he hated this country, couldn't wait to get out, or maybe he was planning on strapping a bomb under his car seat and making his way toward Times Square. But there is NO. WAY. that anyone has a right to assume something about someone's identity or character or nationality from a five second blip while they drive into traffic. It's just. It's too inexcusable for words.

Why are all people who aren't American inherently bad drivers?
This is more about the propagation of stereotypes. Both the black man and the man in the cab can't drive? And white people can freely make jokes about it? And this is...why? It's pretty clear what the answer to this is, but I really don't think that the question is asked often enough. Maybe if the author took a second to sit back and think for a second, or one of her beta's was curious or brave enough to ask questions they might not have liked the answer to, fandom wouldn't be in this situation. Why does no one ask questions? What's wrong with being devil's advocate? Groupthink is the opposite of what we want, and you'd think that in a nation that prides itself on individuality we would be more willing to respectfully disagree with each other out in the open. It would be the writer's personal problem, and that's that. But now it isn't. Now fandom deals with this, and discusses it (as it should be discussed - it's not a burden, but an opportunity), and comes up with all the reasons why this story is wrong. Because there are SO many reasons. So fucking many.

I'm aware I'm leaning heavily on pathos here because, surprise surprise, research, facts, and reasoning are not my strong points. But this is something that I feel, that I think now needs to be addressed in fandom that will hopefully reflect in our real lives as well. I didn't really talk about the true issue, I know. Admittedly, I'm skirting the issue instead of facing it head on because I'm currently too angry, and feel like I know too little about the situation. It's late, and I will hopefully take tomorrow to educate myself. There are millions of different opinions, ranging across the board, and there are always varying degrees of right and wrong (in this case, the writer happens to be VERY wrong). I hope people read this, I really do, I hope people read this and see what's happening and do something about it, but this isn't about what I want. It's about the story and pictures that got posted and what fandom is going to do about it in response. It's about the writer who needs to learn that not every idea is a good idea, and not everything in books, movies, television and radio is true.

P.S. Someone on the anon meme pointed out that they don't care whether the privileged white writer grows in self-discovery and gets closer enlightenment, just like the characters in her story. But I really don't see the point in just shutting someone up because you can't deal with racism in your fandom. If you don't want racism in fandom, you have to have a fandom without racist people. If they decide to be quiet, that doesn't make them any less racist, it just makes them silent racists, and that's not any better at all. I agree that not everything has to be about the white man learning about himself and becoming a truer person yadda yadda yadda, but we need to discuss these things, and we need to figure out why someone believes and thinks the way they do. That way, we can fight/correct/do something about it. We're not going to get that if we simply kick them out of fandom. Okay. I've said my piece. Goodnight.

I realize that a lot of people don't want to click on links or what have you (lazy bitches), so I decided to start reposting. all my Bonded by Madness entries over here. I'll probably do this for tonight's Glee as well if I'm up late at night. Keep in mind that I wrote this a week ago, so that's why all the language is in present tense. To make things easier, I split the post up into three lj-cut sections. On the blog I'm able to use footnotes, but I can't be assed to figure out how (and even, if) it's possible over here. So suck it.

I think that starts things off on a good enough note.

Tonight was one of those episodes. You know, the one where they take a common word and then have all the songs in the episode have that word in the title. Sort of like what I was doing with my radio show. All last year. Why don't I have a job yet?

I liked this episode, it was directed by Joss Whedon, had Neil Patrick Harris and had a handful of memorable and well-made songs and dance numbers. I'm keeping the intro short for soon to be very obvious reasons.

( Songs )
( Quotes )
( & Notes )

( Footnotes )

And this is the second night in a row that I haven't written in my ten-year journal. I should get on that.

( Re-Watching The Three Doctors )

Okay, so....I know that I'm not the most wanky person out there, and this is NOT what I intend to start when I'm posting this, it's just that I think people should have the right to post their opinions on things, and this is just mine.

( On Second Thought, This Should Be Under A Cut )

( If you're tired of hearing about wank, you should probably skip this. )

In other news, F MAJOR CAN GO DIE IN A FIERY DEATH BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY I CAN GET MY LITTLE FINGER TO PRESS DOWN ON THOSE TWO CHORDS WHILE MY OTHERS ARE PRESSING DOWN AS WELL. IT JUST WILL. NOT. WORK.

LA LA LA LA I'M GOING TO NEW YORK TOMORROW, AND THE SQUEAN/BEEGEE WILL BE EPIC FOR ALL ETERNITY.

Oh dude. Okay, so since I have no school today, it's 5:00 and I'm still in my pajamas. WHATEVER. What's really exciting is that I just saw this movie from 1999 called Mystery Men and it is AMAZING. Seriously. According to an IMDB account, it came out the same weekend as "The Sixth Sense" and "Dick", so obviously 1999 was the only year to go see movies.

I have a feeling that MM already has a huge cult following, but I had no idea about it. It has a bunch of amazing actors in it, like Ben Stiller, William H.Macy and Janeane Garofalo (I think I seriously have a girl-crush on this actress. She's amazing, but I can never quite remember the other movies I've seen her in.) But wait, the wonders of IMDB! She was in Romy and Michele's and 200 Cigarettes (I love that movie. And not only because Paul Rudd is in it). Oh, and Dogma, which I haven't seen...YET!

Okay, so I'm just super-excited. Sometimes I get this way after I see a movie that I'm completely in love with. Also, I'm probably on a sugar-high. WHATEVER! It's amazing! You have to go see it! EEEEEEE.

P.S. SUPERNATURAL!