Some things really do Require Only Hate

[nihilistic_kid]

Two posts today with a similar theme came to my attention. One by Ferrett Steinmetz suggests that antipathy toward Twilight and Justin Bieber is due to deep-rooted misogyny. The other, by Jason Sandford suggests that the popular genre of paranormal romance is being suppressed via "false categorization."Both authors are male writers of short stories

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I tend to think of Ferrett as the King of the Neckbeards, a title which he would, of course, either completely disown, or mistake for a good thing.

[wyldemusick]

N ah, that would be Harry Knowles. Who is, unlike Ferrett, striving towards the light of maturity.

[catvalente]

I think Ferrett has been striving. He has matured a lot over the last several years, and I think this post was meant to be part of that striving toward the light.

That I side with Nick on the issue doesn't mean I support kicking sand in F's face.

[scalzi]

"Ferrett was also the founder of the ill-fated open source boob project."

That's not my recollection, having been at the convention and knowing some of the women who participated. My understanding was that it was undertaken by women who were at the convention (not as an official part of the convention, it should be noted). Ferrett commented on the event and enthusiastically (but rather ill-advisedly) speculated on the desirability of porting it elsewhere on his LJ. Which is where he got in trouble.

[yendi]

*nod* He clarified the original post here.

[nihilistic_kid]

The first person to muse about boobs isn't given a gender. Nor is who generated the buttons revealed. Neither is true open-source, not any more than letting anyone use and change my software is if they fly out to my house and sit at my PC. I will adjust it though, for clarity.

[ironed_orchid]

Chief propagandist is a good edit, and definitely accurate.

[catvalente]

This is a pretty amazing piece. Hats off.

[icecreamempress]

No kings, no princes. No queens, no princesses. Except Xena--she stays.

What Mr. Scalzi said about Ferrett being the gospeller of the OSB Project rather than its inventor is accurate, I think. It wasn't that it was his idea--it was that he embraced the idea in such a creepily condescending way that he should wince over. Of course the St. Paul of any idea, good or bad, is always a million times worse than the Jesus of same, and this was a horrible idea.

[gwendolynclare]

Thanks for this. From a feminist standpoint, Twilight-hatedom is a much less disturbing social phenomenon than the fact it became wildly popular in the first place.

[icecreamempress]

Well, I think both things are worth considering. There was a lot of "anything fourteen-year-old girls like must be bad" rhetoric out there which needed cluebatting, even though I am of the school of "wow, what are we telling fourteen-year-old girls about love and romance that this horrible stalkery shit seems appealing to them?" myself.

[gwendolynclare]

You're right -- I certainly would prefer that, instead of criticizing the girls, more adults would ask, "oh dear god, what are we doing wrong?"

Idolizing a protagonist who gets pregnant, married, and dead at the age of 18 certainly isn't an inherent quality of adolescent girls. It's a product of what society teaches them to value.

[nihilistic_kid]

Hmm, life urge, death wish, and sex with the parent! Sounds like a normal subconscious to me!