(no subject)
* At least thirty are dead in a surprise volcanic eruption in Japan that was ongoing as of this writing.
* "The Twisted World of Sexual Organs:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc.com/earth/bespoke/story/20140908-twisted-world-of-sexual-organs/index.html
* "Firelight talk of the Kalahari Bushmen: Did tales told over fires aid our social and cultural evolution?:" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922152809.htm
* I understand intellectually that '50's nostalgia is about those with the most privilege hungering for a time when they had all the privilege and didn't have to share a drop. It is utterly alien to me. Why would I want to live in a time where my values were considered abhorrent and my very identity was labelled deviant and literally criminalized? I'm furious that the Republicans are bringing back Jim Crow, why would I want to be fighting that all over again from scratch when the battle not to slide back is so fucking hard? Why would I want to go back to square one on Women's Rights, when the battle to stop Republicans dragging us back to coat hangers etc. is so fucking hard? Do we really want to go back on all off the cultural, civil, and human rights progress we've made in the last 60 years? I say no.
Republicans say yes, but that's not all they want. They explicitly want to drag us back to 1850 in pretty much every realm of society, but that's a much longer rant.
The thing the rise of TV Shows like Mad Men and Masters of Sex brings home to me is how wildly unattractive that sexual dynamic, that version of idealized masculinity and femininity are to me. I pretty much hate everything about that time and that culture except the tax code. Oh there were unconventional women, like Virginia Johnson. Hell, my Maternal line has always specialized in strong, intelligent, unconventional women who took no shit from the culture or men in their lives. The women of my families have always swam up stream, bucking gender roles and expectations. I have more than a century and a half of sold proof, and family legend stretching back further. That doesn't mean it was easy to be a bad Victorian, a bad Edwardian, a bad 1950's house wife. It didn't make my mother's life easier, though it made it more fulfilling. I'm a stubborn cuss, and I definitely cut my own swathe, not having much truck with gender or social conventions. I picked my own path. If I were of my Mother or Grandmother's generation, odds were, I'd have done the same: set my sights on what I wanted and started fighting my way to get there, as my parents and grandparents and Great Grandparents, did, back to Great Great Grandmother Rachel and beyond. That doesn't mean I'd want to, given my druthers. I am a creature of my time, and change isn't happening fast enough as it is, and the retrograde change pulling us backwards to the 50's (1950's or 1850's regardless) fills me with endless anger. I want a better world, not a worse one. I don't want to have to refight the battles of generations past. I want to fight new ones to make things better for everyone, not holding actions against the rising reactionary dark.
I have no nostalgia. I do not want my Grandmother's world back, nor the one of two centuries ago. I do not want the world of my youth and prime back (though I would not say no to a body healthy and strong as I had), I haven't forgotten the Plague or Reagan or Thatcher, or the way it felt to awaken to a loud explosion the year before the Wall fell to wonder for a few brief seconds if i was about to become a silhouette on a wall. Why the fuck would I want all that back? Why would I want constant on the job sexual harassment back? Why would I want a world back where people were dying and their partners and agency were ripped from them? Why would I want any of it back except the sex and the ability to run and fight and dance? The world and I have changed. A whole lot of things have happened good and bad. I'd rather play a new hand than obsess over old ones. I'd rather see what's around the corner than fight a nightmarish forever war in which we only go backward.
Fuck nostalgia and the horse it road in on. Fuck the republican vision of their perfect world of never ending privilege for the wealthy white straight cis man and screw the rest of us. I'll throw my lot in with the uncertain future any day over a stiffing past that was never really the heaven they dress it up as even for those that won the privilege lottery.
* "Ayn Rand's Buffy The Vampire Slayer:" http://the-toast.net/2014/09/26/ayn-rands-buffy-vampire-slayer/
* Attn: Djinni. I broadly side with the lions on this one. "Do Tigers Like MARMITE?:"
* "This Woman Made A Death Star Dress. All Other Dresses Are Inferior.:" http://io9.com/this-woman-made-a-death-star-dress-all-other-dresses-a-164011762
* It is ebay time again, Two days, three no bid:
BPAL: MADAGASCAN VANILLA RUM and LAWFUL: 5 ML: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-MADAGASCAN-VANILLA-RUM-and-LAWFUL-Partials-/301323254409?pt=fragrance&hash=item462843fa89
BPAL: HOT BUTTERED RUM and MR. VANDEMAR Partials: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-HOT-BUTTERED-RUM-and-MR-VANDEMAR-Partials-/301323278556?
BPAL: JOHNATHAN HARKER 2006 (LE, Halloweenie): http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-JOHNATHAN-HARKER-2006-LE-Halloweenie-/301323296412?
THE BURYING-GROUND 2013 (LE, Yule, Miskatonic Valley: The Festival):: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-THE-BURYING-GROUND-and-WEZWANIE-/301323305482?
LUNAR ECLIPSE 2013 (Lunacy, LE): http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-LUNAR-ECLIPSE-2013-Lunacy-LE-/301323313994?
* Fundraiser to Help Us Pay Back Rent and Insurance: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/470318.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
* "The Twisted World of Sexual Organs:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc.com/earth/bespoke/story/20140908-twisted-world-of-sexual-organs/index.html
* "Firelight talk of the Kalahari Bushmen: Did tales told over fires aid our social and cultural evolution?:" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922152809.htm
* I understand intellectually that '50's nostalgia is about those with the most privilege hungering for a time when they had all the privilege and didn't have to share a drop. It is utterly alien to me. Why would I want to live in a time where my values were considered abhorrent and my very identity was labelled deviant and literally criminalized? I'm furious that the Republicans are bringing back Jim Crow, why would I want to be fighting that all over again from scratch when the battle not to slide back is so fucking hard? Why would I want to go back to square one on Women's Rights, when the battle to stop Republicans dragging us back to coat hangers etc. is so fucking hard? Do we really want to go back on all off the cultural, civil, and human rights progress we've made in the last 60 years? I say no.
Republicans say yes, but that's not all they want. They explicitly want to drag us back to 1850 in pretty much every realm of society, but that's a much longer rant.
The thing the rise of TV Shows like Mad Men and Masters of Sex brings home to me is how wildly unattractive that sexual dynamic, that version of idealized masculinity and femininity are to me. I pretty much hate everything about that time and that culture except the tax code. Oh there were unconventional women, like Virginia Johnson. Hell, my Maternal line has always specialized in strong, intelligent, unconventional women who took no shit from the culture or men in their lives. The women of my families have always swam up stream, bucking gender roles and expectations. I have more than a century and a half of sold proof, and family legend stretching back further. That doesn't mean it was easy to be a bad Victorian, a bad Edwardian, a bad 1950's house wife. It didn't make my mother's life easier, though it made it more fulfilling. I'm a stubborn cuss, and I definitely cut my own swathe, not having much truck with gender or social conventions. I picked my own path. If I were of my Mother or Grandmother's generation, odds were, I'd have done the same: set my sights on what I wanted and started fighting my way to get there, as my parents and grandparents and Great Grandparents, did, back to Great Great Grandmother Rachel and beyond. That doesn't mean I'd want to, given my druthers. I am a creature of my time, and change isn't happening fast enough as it is, and the retrograde change pulling us backwards to the 50's (1950's or 1850's regardless) fills me with endless anger. I want a better world, not a worse one. I don't want to have to refight the battles of generations past. I want to fight new ones to make things better for everyone, not holding actions against the rising reactionary dark.
I have no nostalgia. I do not want my Grandmother's world back, nor the one of two centuries ago. I do not want the world of my youth and prime back (though I would not say no to a body healthy and strong as I had), I haven't forgotten the Plague or Reagan or Thatcher, or the way it felt to awaken to a loud explosion the year before the Wall fell to wonder for a few brief seconds if i was about to become a silhouette on a wall. Why the fuck would I want all that back? Why would I want constant on the job sexual harassment back? Why would I want a world back where people were dying and their partners and agency were ripped from them? Why would I want any of it back except the sex and the ability to run and fight and dance? The world and I have changed. A whole lot of things have happened good and bad. I'd rather play a new hand than obsess over old ones. I'd rather see what's around the corner than fight a nightmarish forever war in which we only go backward.
Fuck nostalgia and the horse it road in on. Fuck the republican vision of their perfect world of never ending privilege for the wealthy white straight cis man and screw the rest of us. I'll throw my lot in with the uncertain future any day over a stiffing past that was never really the heaven they dress it up as even for those that won the privilege lottery.
* "Ayn Rand's Buffy The Vampire Slayer:" http://the-toast.net/2014/09/26/ayn-rands-buffy-vampire-slayer/
* Attn: Djinni. I broadly side with the lions on this one. "Do Tigers Like MARMITE?:"
Click to view* "This Woman Made A Death Star Dress. All Other Dresses Are Inferior.:" http://io9.com/this-woman-made-a-death-star-dress-all-other-dresses-a-164011762
* It is ebay time again, Two days, three no bid:
BPAL: MADAGASCAN VANILLA RUM and LAWFUL: 5 ML: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-MADAGASCAN-VANILLA-RUM-and-LAWFUL-Partials-/301323254409?pt=fragrance&hash=item462843fa89
BPAL: HOT BUTTERED RUM and MR. VANDEMAR Partials: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-HOT-BUTTERED-RUM-and-MR-VANDEMAR-Partials-/301323278556?
BPAL: JOHNATHAN HARKER 2006 (LE, Halloweenie): http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-JOHNATHAN-HARKER-2006-LE-Halloweenie-/301323296412?
THE BURYING-GROUND 2013 (LE, Yule, Miskatonic Valley: The Festival):: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-THE-BURYING-GROUND-and-WEZWANIE-/301323305482?
LUNAR ECLIPSE 2013 (Lunacy, LE): http://www.ebay.com/itm/BPAL-LUNAR-ECLIPSE-2013-Lunacy-LE-/301323313994?
* Fundraiser to Help Us Pay Back Rent and Insurance: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/470318.html. Please comment there using OpenID.