…I listened to a podcast of Dan Savage’s on which Ira Glass [of This American Life fame] was a guest, and oh my God…it was like a symphony of irritatingness. Two self-congratulatory, smug, recursive assholes thinking they’re the wittiest thing since [insert really witty thing here]. Dan Savage is quickly becoming a so-bad-it’s-good pleasure.
Posts from January 2012
Once Upon a Time racism…
So the only character of color in Storybrooke [Sidney the newspaperman] has his origins as the "Genie of Agrabah," some sort of pseudo-Arabian stereotype? Way to reinforce that POC are exotic, you stupid show. >:(
1.3: “Interrogation”
The third ep of Me and My Muses!
Continue reading 1.3: “Interrogation”
1.2: “Hello, Lucian”
The second ep of Me and My Muses.
Techniques of Pleasure by Margot Weiss
So Margot Weiss wrote an ethnographic study of San Fran's kinky scene, Techniques of Pleasure, finding it much more conservative and less transgressive than it would like to believe itself. Weiss challenges BDSM's portrayal of itself [see review/interview in Salon], saying that:
It's not diverse. Weiss finds that, at least in San Fran, the community is boringly white in its racial homogeneity.
It's not wild. Strict rules govern scenes.
It's not transcendent. It's mired in consumerism [all those special toys!] and reproducing societal inequities.
I'm definitely interested in reading this analysis. In parting, I leave you with one of my favorite Onion articles: S&M Couple Won't Stop Droning On About Their Fetishes.
A new 1:6 scale saga: Me and My Muses
From the creator of the beloved Boston vampire melodrama Love Has Fangs comes a new serial starring 1:6 scale dolls: Me and My Muses. With new eps every Monday, Me and My Muses follows the adventures of Ellery Langrock, a young queer woman, and the various magical and sexy characters inside her head. Episode 1.1: "Introduction" is below. Please give me a comment; they make me happy!
Doll meetup, 01/14/12: Barahan
Doll meetup, 01/14/12: Sardonix
Doll meetup, 01/14/12: Noodge
Doll meetup, 01/14/12: all dolls
vermont chick and I met in the Koolvord Room of Brownell Library, Essex Junction, yesterday. She brought her new Iplehouse Barahan, and I brought Sardonix and Noodge. I took 200 pictures [primarily because my hands were shaking], mostly of her Barahan, since he is so handsome, with his serene smirk. Below, pictures of Barahan, Sardonix and Noodge.
Work It dies!!
ABC cancels Work It after 2 eps only! Good riddance! Good riddance!!
Work It, episode 2
Summary: Jerkwad protagonists Lee and Angel actually go on sales calls. Angel gets results by stereotypically flirting and playing up "feminine" mannerisms. Lee gets jealous and accusatory, then tries the flirty style to great failure. Meanwhile Angel gets a date with one of the doctors he was selling to.
Analysis: Oh God, I can feel my will to watch draining away as I watch this show. I feel my mouth hardening into a permanent cringe. I thought that the collective scorn and criticism of the Internet and the known world would force this show back into the dank hole of "isms" whence it came, but apparently not.
The transphobia…because Lee can't describe how Angel looks as a woman without mocking him for stereotypically masculine traits such as big biceps and a broad chin!
The sexism and misogyny…because this episode just assumes without question that women using their sexuality in the workplace to get what they want is acceptable and appropriate!
The slut shaming…because Lee can't express his jealousy of Angel's success without intimating that Angel is a whore!
The trivialization of date rape…because Angel was going to drug his doctor date if the date put any moves on him!
The homophobia…because God forbid that two men touch in an affectionate or intimate manner!
Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list of prejudices evinced in Work It. The stupidity is multi-dimensional, much the same way as Dan Savage's bigotry, and no one entry can comprehend it all…maybe a series.
My favorite response to Work It was someone's tweet saying, "I think ABC left out a letter when they described this as 'the new hit show!'" LOL!
Stuff Cis People Say To Trans People
"Eric, what are you doing in my house?!? Oh my God!!"
Sexism on a customer service line
So today I called Dental Dental of Illinois' customer service hotline to try to find out which type of Delta Dental I had. One of the first questions that the rep asked me, even before my name or ID number, was, "Who's the holder of the policy, your husband?"
Let's break that down…
The rep knew nothing about me, not even my name or my ID number, no personal information, except for that I sounded stereotypically feminine. He therefore automatically assumed that:
a) I was a woman.
b) I was heterosexual.
c) I was married.
d) I did not have insurance under my own name.
I can understand assumption a), but were any of the others warranted? NO! What stupidity!
P.S. MY HUSBAND?!?!?!?!?!? What husband?
Work It is a racist turd.
Besides being horrible for reasons I enumerated previously in my first two entries about Work It [1, 2], ABC's comedy about two men impersonating women to get sales jobs, the show is also racist as heck. Arturo of Racialicious discusses the show's racist crack about Puerto Ricans automatically being good at selling drugs, how this line has stirred criticism around the country and how the star who said the line has not responded at all. ABC, cancel this rotten mess!
Reasons that Dan Savage is a shit.
Dan Savage, a gay male advice columnist who writes for the Seattle Stranger, has some cachet among liberals/Democrats/progressives as being queer-friendly, pro-kink and open-minded, but he still has lots of privilege as a thin, white, rich, cis, married, U.S. man. I’ve collected several criticisms of his advice which should make you think long and hard before calling this columnist helpful, progressive and open-minded. In no particular order…here they are…
Continue reading Reasons that Dan Savage is a shit.
Confession
There is nothing quite so pleasing as a newly filled gas tank, unless it is a newly filled larder!
A review of the first episode of Work It
Earlier I wrote about ABC's new sitcom Work It, in which two men impersonate women to get jobs at a sales company. I just caught the first episode of this dung heap on Hulu. I am here to report that I stand by my earlier comments about all the show's prejudices and to report that it was, besides being offensive on many levels, poorly written with unfunny jokes, unoriginal characters and lazy execution.
A few especially stupid and offensive moments stood out for me after my cursory viewing:
1. In an early conversation in a bar, the laid-off protagonist commiserates with his two laid-off friends, a mechanic and a shuttle driver. The shuttle driver describes the recession as a "mancession," insists that women are "taking over" and predicts that soon men will only be kept around as "sex slaves" if women continue asserting their dominance. This character is factually incorrect; there is no mancession; women are not taking over, and the joke about "sex slaves" makes light of sexual abuse and rape. While the shuttle driver clearly serves as the "stupid comic relief friend" archetype, no one corrects him or calls him out on his behavior, thus reinforcing the idea that his false interpretation of events is acceptable.
2. While I have detailed earlier how the entire show is transphobic, one especially transphobic moment caught my eye. In a flashback scene where the protagonist, now impersonating a woman, tells the mechanic "how he does it," a saleswoman is shown at a counter. She sees someone off-camera and screams and recoils. The camera then shows the protagonist with makeup all over his face [including lipstick on his teeth, blech], imploring the saleswoman, "Help me, please…help me!" The laugh track resounds.
Now is the saleswoman [and the laugh track] laughing at a generally bad application of makeup or a man in drag? It doesn't really matter because the show is mocking the protagonist, who dares to "look bad" in makeup. The show thus looks down on the protagonist's gender presentation in that scene, allowing the interpretation that the saleswoman shrieks because of the "incongruity" in a stereotypically masculine-presenting person wearing makeup, a stereotypically feminine accessory. The rigid implicit heteronormative bias of the saleswoman's shocked scream militates against anyone who dares to deviate from traditional stereotypical masc/fem gender presentations.
I really hate this show. It's bad, and it's offensive.
“Barbie Trashes Her Dream House”
Carrie Becker did a series of 1:6 dioramas entitled "Barbie Trashes Her Dream House," in which 1:6 scenes were made to look as if taken over by messy hoarders. While some miniatures she used were Rement, others she made by hand. Check out the whole detailed set on Flickr!
This wig…
…is the best pink wig in the history of the world [in hot pink — scroll down to see]!
Katie Perry Barbie with cupcake dress
Look at all those little cupcakes! I'm impressed, and I don't even care for Katie Perry.
Confession III
I hate open-toed shoes with the fiery passion of 10,000 suns. Sandals, however, are fine.
1:6 tombstones
I’m on a quest to find 1:6 tombstones. I need to make a 1:6 cemetery set for Ellery to hang out in and write in her diary in.
I could design some in PhotoShop Elements and print them out on a color printer, but I don’t want to make them because I am lazy. I typed in “miniature cemetery” and “miniature tombstones” and “miniature headstones,” etc., into search engines, but all I came up with were 1:12 miniatures. Too small! I eventually had the genius idea of trying Halloween decorations [“halloween miniature cemetery”]. But, at 9.75″ tall, the tombstones were more like 1:3 scale than 1:6 scale.
Rats! Thinking about what objects might be the appropriate size, I came up with magnets and salt and pepper shakers. A search of “tombstone” on Etsy revealed many salt and pepper shakers of the appropriate size. I decided against these because they all had silly poems about “Here lies Pepper/Salt” on them that would not have contributed to the realism.
Finally I discovered these tombstone magnets by Dellamorte Co., “curators of the reliquary macabre.” Each of the 3 magnets are around 3″ high, their silhouettes and symbols drawn directly from those I have seen on 17th and 18th century graves in places around Massachusetts. While they don’t have epitaphs, the magnets do have Latin admonitions common to tombstones of that era, all about the shortness of life and inevitability of death. While there are fewer of these ornate graves in Vermont [where Me and My Muses is set] than in, say, Massachusetts, these magnets look suitably sepulchral and about the right size [maybe a little small?], so I got them.
Further bulletins as events warrant!
EDIT: Well, shit. “Tabletop tombstone” in the search engine gets me all kinds of appropriately sized resin or plastic tombstones. I was just using imprecise keywords!!