post of random stuff
1) Netflix has lowered their subscription prices. When does a company ever lower its prices? I am happy. Also, I discovered the "Watch Now" option--with my subscription I get 18 free hours of online movie-watching per month. This means I can watch my beloved Red Dwarf reruns whenever the mood strikes me. I'd forgotten how witty Rimmer can be. *loves him* (And yes, I mean Rimmer, not Lister. Whom I also love, but Rimmer is often funnier.)
2) I bought comics yesterday, but I am meh about all of them. Even X-Factor. Except for the bits of X-Factor that seriously annoyed me, but that's another post.
3) Also yesterday, I read Michael Nava's novel Goldenboy, which is part of a mystery series featuring gay defense attorney Henry Rios. Somehow I'd never read this one despite adoring the other books in the series.
There's a charming romantic subplot which fascinates me because of how the lovers, both men, behave. They declare their love for each other after a single night together. They have sex in the bathtub by candlelight. They cuddle. In short, they do everything that many fandom folks insist Men Don't Do.
Which isn't to say that every male character would do those things. But men aren't all the same. Some of 'em are real romantic softies. (Love poetry? Pretty much invented by men. Which, yes, happened because writing of any kind was dominated by men until the twentieth century, but still.)
We do a disservice to our characters, and to ourselves as feminists (we are all feminists here, right?) if we reinscribe the stereotype that all men are inarticulate, emotionally-incompetent lumps of testosterone. That idea isn't only bad for men, it's bad for women, because it essentially gives men a free pass to act like jerks on the grounds that they can't help it. (And I don't just mean in romantic relationships, either--I mean men as fathers and brothers and sons, friends and co-workers. So it's not just a problem for straight women.)
4) There's a very thoughtful review of Deathly Hallows here at Asking the Wrong Questions, one of my favorite blogs. Abigail Nussbaum takes a good hard look at the politics of the books, which is something I haven't seen much outside of hardcore fandom. (Spoilers for DH, of course, and also vague and incidental spoilers for A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
5) Finally, my poll on reading and commenting is providing very interesting results. So I wanted to say a couple of things to anybody who reads my posts:
Comments on fic are loved. A brief comment that just says "I liked this story" is a million times better, as far as I'm concerned, than silence.
Constructive criticism of fic is welcome. Always.
Please don't feel reluctant to comment if I don't know you. I make posts public because I want people to read and reply to them. I like to have discussions and to bounce ideas back and forth. Plus, LJ is pretty much my social life, and the more the merrier. (Unlike IRL, where more people = Kit goes away and hides.)
*****
2) I bought comics yesterday, but I am meh about all of them. Even X-Factor. Except for the bits of X-Factor that seriously annoyed me, but that's another post.
3) Also yesterday, I read Michael Nava's novel Goldenboy, which is part of a mystery series featuring gay defense attorney Henry Rios. Somehow I'd never read this one despite adoring the other books in the series.
There's a charming romantic subplot which fascinates me because of how the lovers, both men, behave. They declare their love for each other after a single night together. They have sex in the bathtub by candlelight. They cuddle. In short, they do everything that many fandom folks insist Men Don't Do.
Which isn't to say that every male character would do those things. But men aren't all the same. Some of 'em are real romantic softies. (Love poetry? Pretty much invented by men. Which, yes, happened because writing of any kind was dominated by men until the twentieth century, but still.)
We do a disservice to our characters, and to ourselves as feminists (we are all feminists here, right?) if we reinscribe the stereotype that all men are inarticulate, emotionally-incompetent lumps of testosterone. That idea isn't only bad for men, it's bad for women, because it essentially gives men a free pass to act like jerks on the grounds that they can't help it. (And I don't just mean in romantic relationships, either--I mean men as fathers and brothers and sons, friends and co-workers. So it's not just a problem for straight women.)
4) There's a very thoughtful review of Deathly Hallows here at Asking the Wrong Questions, one of my favorite blogs. Abigail Nussbaum takes a good hard look at the politics of the books, which is something I haven't seen much outside of hardcore fandom. (Spoilers for DH, of course, and also vague and incidental spoilers for A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
5) Finally, my poll on reading and commenting is providing very interesting results. So I wanted to say a couple of things to anybody who reads my posts:
Comments on fic are loved. A brief comment that just says "I liked this story" is a million times better, as far as I'm concerned, than silence.
Constructive criticism of fic is welcome. Always.
Please don't feel reluctant to comment if I don't know you. I make posts public because I want people to read and reply to them. I like to have discussions and to bounce ideas back and forth. Plus, LJ is pretty much my social life, and the more the merrier. (Unlike IRL, where more people = Kit goes away and hides.)
*****