 |
Journal | Friends | Calendar | User Info | Memories |
the Jack's Friends
red_eft |
6th November, 2009. 10:29 pm. [NaNoWriMo] Behind, but I'm hoping to catch up by the end of the weekend. Pretty sure I can do it. Comment at Dreamwidth Read Make Notes |
elfwreck |
6th November, 2009. 4:53 pm. Another truth about marriage I was looking for statistics* about same-sex marriage opposition when I ran across this precious article posted back in June. (Warning for extreme sexism and various other acts of privilege.) The author--Sam Schulman--goes on at length about what he objects to about same sex marriage, and what he thinks marriage really is. Bolded sections are emphasis added. The relationship between a same-sex couple, though it involves the enviable joy of living forever with one's soulmate, loyalty, fidelity, warmth, a happy home, shopping, and parenting, is not the same as marriage between a man and a woman, though they enjoy exactly the same cozy virtues. These qualities are awfully nice, but they are emphatically not what marriage fosters, and, even when they do exist, are only a small part of why marriage evolved and what it does.Got that? It's important. He's tackling the key issue of what is marriage, which is absolutely crucial to any non-religious discussion of and why same-sex couples can't have it. Brace yourself... 'cos he hits the same conclusion about "traditional marriage" that I got, only he thinks it's a good thing. Marriage, whatever its particular manifestation in a particular culture or epoch, is essentially about who may and who may not have sexual access to a woman when she becomes an adult, and is also about how her adulthood--and sexual accessibility--is defined.Marriage is not about raising children, or living together and sharing resources, or being a unit in the community. Marriage is about female sexuality--and the control thereof. In case that wasn't obvious from his earlier quotes, he makes sure you understand: This most profound aspect of marriage--protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex--is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage.He also points out that "A same-sex marriage fails utterly to create forbidden relationships." He seems to think they are important--nay, mandatory, because, "without social disapproval of unmarried sex--what kind of madman would seek marriage?" He then goes on to talk about the "kinship" that marriage creates: Even in modern romantic marriages, a groom becomes the hunting or business partner of his father-in-law and a member of his clubs; a bride becomes an ally of her mother-in-law in controlling her husband. There can, of course, be warm relations between families and their children's same-sex partners, but these come about because of liking, sympathy, and the inherent kindness of many people. A wedding between same-sex lovers does not create the fact (or even the feeling) of kinship between a man and his husband's family; a woman and her wife's kin.This kinship is important to him--he says In a world without kinship, women will lose their hard-earned status as sexual beings with personal autonomy and physical security. Children will lose their status as nonsexual beings.That latter seems like a bit of a red herring, and he doesn't explain it well. But it does tie into some of his other points, about marriage and illicit sexuality and the importance of at least giving lip service to the idea of virginity. Marriage, to him, is all about men getting access to women's sexuality, and since same-sex marriage turns that concept on its head, it is wrong.And he doesn't even spend much time grumbling about the "wrongness"--he's bitching about how the inevitible failure of same-sex marriage (because marriage can't survive without illicit sexuality and forced kinship) will destroy the last vestiges of men-owning-women marriage. Umm. Yay? * Stats: Specifically, I was trying to find out if the opposition splits equally along gender lines, or if more men oppose same-sex marriage than women. Any relevant research info would be welcome. This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/280002.html. Read 2 Notes -Make Notes |
ratcreature |
6th November, 2009. 11:45 pm. some quick comments on tv I watched recently ( Criminal Minds spoilers ) ( Friday Night Lights spoilers ) ( Supernatural spoilers ) Make Notes |
skywardprodigal |
5th November, 2009. 8:12 pm. Pics: Meant for first Wednesday ( As seen on TV By Me ) In no particular order, some of these are from Defying Gravity, Ugly Betty, Law & Order UK, The Mentalist, & Fast Forward Make Notes |
copracat |
6th November, 2009. 3:37 am. bounding main, ahoy So, internets, if you were sailing from Mumbai to Gdansk what would be your route: Arabian Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean, English Channel and then what? Do you go left around the big island between Sweden and Denmark or do you go right around the big island through Denmark? For preferences, I'd like the route to be on the Copenhagen side because seeing the little mermaid statue would be most cool and in keeping with the theme of the virtual journey. The Sixth Small Fandom Fest has opened for prompt submissions. Why I love Fred Pohl's blog, reason #56. He starts them like this and it makes me laugh: Quite a few years ago —well, about seventy of them, to be exact —I was the teen-age editor of two professional science-fiction magazines I'm sure I had more to say but it's all slipped from my mind. I think it was getting twitter spam from @barrettfoa's account while watching NCIS: Los Angeles. Creepy, spam dudes! Very creepy. I might have to stop following celeb tweets again, but I think I'm hooked on @llcoolj's affirmation tweets, oh dear. I think I've worked out why I'm calm and uncreeped by @dhewlett. It's because he's got the geek dad uncool that was so charming about wil wheaton until wheaton started exhibiting as a misogynist arsehole which no amount of winning geek-daddery can spackle over. This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. Make Notes |
das_dingsi |
5th November, 2009. 11:30 am. -.- I just read an addme-type post where someone said one of their hobbies was "raping [their] computer". As English is not their first language, I sincerely hope it's a misunderstanding of sorts and not a deliberate attempt to use the word rape in "edgy", "hip", "funny", or "un-pc" ways. Which I disapprove of. * The world and the people in it are pissing me off in lots of other ways, too, but I'm too tired to even list these. Maybe I should just go back to bed. * Eta: I've explained my issues with the usage of the word in casual contexts in this IJ comment. Read 4 Notes -Make Notes |
thete1 |
5th November, 2009. 12:24 am. THANK YOU! OMG, Mystery Fangirl is all paid back and I'm so weebly that I just can't deal. Yes, weebly. So, in thanks for all that you -- and you, and you, and also *you*! -- have done, I'm offering snippets. I'm actually working on four different stories right now and so won't be able to do them immediately, but I promise to try. Rules: DC or Malazan Book of the Fallen. I might be able to manage a Buffyish thing here or a Marvelish thing there, but odds are waaaaay low on that. You can pick one of my icons, or give me a three- or four-word prompt, or two or three character names, or whatever you'd like. Note: I'm about to add a Roy icon to the mix, so keep that in mind. :D No, you don't have to have contributed to ask for a snippet, but if you *did* contribute, I really hope you *will* ask, even if it turns out I can't manage it. *hugs you ALL* From Mystery Fangirl: "I only hope that you all feel like incredibly, wonderfully, extraordinarily kind and virtuous people because that's what you are. None of you had a reason to help me but you did. I will always be grateful." Current mood:  full.Current music: Sufjan Stevens: "Dear Mr. Supercomputer". Read 2 Notes -Make Notes |
ratcreature |
4th November, 2009. 8:50 pm. my rats continue to be adorable They now all come up onto my hand when I put it in the cage, and climb onto me and sit on my shoulder. They now also let me pet them. They are not yet comfortable to be grabbed and picked up, and they haven't yet learned to come when I call either, so I won't let them run outside yet. But they are definitely interested in exploring outside the cage, so I have to be watchful now. In preparation for future playtime I have made a simple enclosure from wooden panels connected with cable binders that I can put up to let them play outside while they are very little without guarding every tiny opening between, beneath or into my furniture, so that may happen soon. Previously I just let tiny ones play in the whole room like adults, but it is just extremely stressful to keep track of them when they are tiny. My last ones squeezed themselves beneath my mattress for example and in all sorts of places, even with me doing my best to block all gaps between walls and furniture and make the room safe. Obviously it's more interesting for them if they can explore the whole room, but they will have to make do for the sake of my nerves. I mean, the size of the enclosure will be all of the center of the room so they can run further than in the cage if they like, and obviously I will put in something for them to climb, and hide, and such for entertainment. I have a large branch now, but I'm looking into whether there are maybe cat scratching tree combos that would maybe work for rats as a more varied playground. I've also seen a kind of ferret play tree in a pet store that looked real nice and good for rats (probably because they are closer in size than cats), but it was quite expensive unfortunately (the ones for cats were too). So I'm still looking for something like that. Finally, I have decided to go with Linus and Leo for the new names I wasn't decided on yet. Make Notes |
das_dingsi |
3rd November, 2009. 4:04 pm. Might be of interest to the people who also post to Dreamwidth Crossposting the link in case they read me here, not there: Info about Dreamwidth's Latest Entries Feature (and how to opt out if needed) Make Notes |
elfwreck |
2nd November, 2009. 10:20 pm. WriSoMiFu I joined ![[info - livejournal.com]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) wrisomifu.I am writing Little Brother fanfic. Because the half a dozen WIPs I already had, just weren't clicking. When I get this done, I'm going to strangle my muse. This is one hellishly ass-backwards way to learn Morse code. This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/279339.html. Make Notes |