zvi likes tv

Some links, some thoughtful and some less so

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:41:00 GMT

“Blood libel”: How language evolves and spreads within online worlds CW Anderson at niemanjournalismlab_feed

The Mama Bear's Tale (also about Palin's use of the term blood libel), by M.S. for democracyinamerica_feed (a The Economist blog)

Flooding by facetofcathy

Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History, MP3 of an interview of Heather Ann Thompson by Khalil G. Muhammad for the Journal of American History Podcast (gacked from tanehisicoates_feed)

My new purse!. It treads that fine 80s' border between AMAZING and tacky.

3_ships stories were posted last week and author names have been added to I Saw Three Ships 2010. I wrote Twist to Fit for Amadi, which is White Collar Neal/Peter/Elizabeth. I didn't assign myself a story this year: I knew there would be a pinch hit I should (would need) to take, and I knew there was a pinch hitter who wanted to make up for dropping out last year who I could just give someone's original assignment. However, I think not having an assignment of my own to think about, so that my entire experience of the exchange was either drudge work or rushing with a deadline breathing down my neck, made this the least enjoyable round for me to date. I will not make that mistake again.

How to Not Succeed with Women someecards blog

booksontheknob_feed free or low cost ebooks. There's a lot business junk and Christian publishers keep giving random stuff away, but so does Samhain, and also they sometimes list individual authors giving stuff on Smashwords.

I feel like anatsuno's resolution for public critique and jekesta's lament for oldskool first time slash are in conversation with each other, and may also be related, in part, to the dispersal of a certain section of media fandom from LiveJournal to other venues, e.g. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Dreamwidth, etc.) But I'm not entirely sure how.

Please, please, please ask me a question to answer on Soundcloud.

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On language and who gets to be a real Westerner

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:48:11 GMT

Twelve generations from now, people like me will still be writing posts like this. by helens78

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Awesome is not the word I would use

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:59:41 GMT

A Person Paper on Purity in Language by Douglas R. Hofstadter was recommended and received by some people on my network as an awesome work on sexism in language.

It's shocking and effective, I'll give you that. If you're the sort of person who doesn't understand why, in English, using masculine terms is not gender-neutral and using feminine forms of words is generally using the diminutive, then an essay which argues that using artificial white-racialized forms is inclusive of all races and artificial black-racialized forms is simply seeking clarity is a bracing wake up call.

But it's effective because sexism and racism play out differently in our unreconstructed language, not because language is not used to maintain racial hierarchies. And one of the ways that kyriarchy is denied by quote-unquote progressive social justice fighters is by pretending that because an attack on the a axis of injustice wouldn't have worked if used on the z axis, this is evidence that members of group a are the last social group against which discrimination is acceptable.

Look, as a poor fat black dyke (who is actually still of fairly sound mind and body, and having just hit the age sweet spot where I am neither, young, old, nor middle-aged), you are not in the last group of people other people feel socially superior to in ways that are supported by societal power. Your blues just ain't like mine, and I would really appreciate it if you did not dissect frogs in order to explain the anatomy of salamanders.

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Gender. Language. AI. And evil software that is bad

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:50:12 GMT

Because the phrasing isn't trans-specific, it's easily read as not including trans people, because gender is often written/read/understood as binary. That is the issue with the failure of inclusiveness in the diversity statement, further conversation revealed.

I confess, there is a dark prescriptivist corner of my soul which finds "gender identity and gender expression" an inelegant phrase, the meaning of which should be encompassed by "gender" (if only the rest of the world would BOW DOWN TO MY GENIUS.) But that's not going to happen. Seriously though, queer people of all types need to look up "pithy turns of phrase" and "colorful language" and start applying it to our rallying cries. LGBTQ (is there an I on the end of that now? I seem to think there's an I, but hell if I know what it might stand for. Ah, my friend the Internet informs me that I means Intersex) makes me want to cry. It is completely unpronounceable, only decipherable if you already know what it means, constantly expanding, and leaves out non-monogamists and leather people, who have usefully overlapping concerns, even when they're cisgendered heterosexuals. Although maybe what we're defining ourselves as not is cisgendered heterosexuals.

Other phrases which I could cheerfully throw down a hole this year: "throw under a bus", "make it your own", "artist", "you can really sing". This list heavily influenced by the watching of American Idol. (Save the rocker! Put the Go in Gokey! Mrs. Anoop Desai!) Okay, the last one is not a rallying cry, it's just me. (It would be really neat if my default icon (the Weemee with the bunny slippers and the TV) were redone with a picture of Anoop on the tv and the words Mrs. Anoop Desai on it. Possibly in sparkly pink letters. Possibly putting a gold ring on my little cartoon fingers! *makes big eyes of entreaty*)

Speaking of Anoop and AI, I feel that Anoop's performance was hampered by the fact that he chose an actual disco song to peform, as was clearly not required by the rules, see She Works Hard for the Money. Disco songs are basically the repetition of one long hook after another, having neither melody nor story to make them interesting to listen to. Disco is strictly a dancing music. He should have chosen MacArthur Park to perform, of course, and he would have shown up Adam's weepy, screechy ballad with his emotastic discourse on baking, weather, and the negative interactions thereof.

Allison was faboo if decidedly not stylish, Chris was his usual solid rework into really good smooth jazz, Gokey and Lil sucked ass, and I don't actually care about Matt, except in the sense that a vote for him is a vote against (boring, shouty) Gokey.

Speaking of social injustice (okay, I wasn't really, and I'm not actually about to, but I felt that some sort of transition was called for, and also, I appear hyped on sugar from my banana peanutbutter chocolate drink)….

What was I saying? Oh yes. I've gotten multiple reports of people dumping their LJ/IJ friends for talking too much about/promoting DWO and sending nasty notes detailing the reason for the lesions* break up.

Look, I'm a total believer in defriending amnesty, and defriending/unsubscring from people because they choose to talk all the damn time about something one does not want to hear about, either because one thinks the subject is bad or one's friends views on it are bad or one is hearing about it too much from other sources is fine.

Telling people they are bad people for being interested in software one doesn't like is voluntarily putting on a tinhat and joining the ranks of those who interpret Elijah Woods' clothing for secret declarations of love, declare that the beatiful Blaise Zabini is no longer beautiful because he is black, or think it's appropriate to ask people who work in television about the sex they should be having with their costars.

Let me tell you a secret. Even though I use Ubuntu, I don't think people who use Microsoft are the spawn of the devil. The fact that my text editors of choice are gvim and gedit does not mean people who use Emacs are deluded, dirty, or dangerous. Having your main webpresence be Myspace or Facebook does not make you a bad wrong person, even if it does mean that I will almost never interact with you over the internet.

So, you know, hate Dreamwidth. Worry that it will bring the splintering of fandom instead of increased federation and fandom independence from a single platform. Mock Denise for having been on LJ Abuse. But don't roll up on people who have chosen to move their journals as if they've started sacrificing babies. Because it makes you sound like one of those kinds of fans: the ones that have chosen to leave the reality-based community.

*Sorry, sorry. Reason for the lesions is a line from a Gym Class Heroes song. Go back to text.

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zvi likes tv

Some links, some thoughtful and some less so

On language and who gets to be a *real* Westerner

Awesome is not the word I would use

Gender. Language. AI. And evil software that is bad

On language and who gets to be a real Westerner