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Quicksilver thoughts, oft-bitten tongue
27 July 2008 @ 08:18 am
27 July 2008 @ 05:15 pm
Andrea Dworkin
I've found it saddening to see the sometimes dismissive attitude with which Andrea Dworkin is treated these days, so I wrote this about why, as a 22-year-old Australian feminist, Andrea Dworkin is important to my life.
She died, on April 9th 2005. Which is around the time that I took my first Sexual Politics class, with Sheila Jeffreys, who is also important to my life. That class opened my eyes, and dropped my feelings into place, like a peg into a hole. It brought my thoughts and beliefs about all things "feminism" (and I wouldn't have used that word before) into sharp focus. It made me realise that this was real, that it wasn't just me. It is now part of who I am.
I wrote my honours thesis on pornography, and Andrea Dworkin became important to me on another level. She writes beautifully and honestly and passionately – she crafts that kind of quote that you have to quote, not paraphrase. I read bits and pieces of Letters From a War Zone and it adds to the person that I am, like good writing should, like Kurt Vonnegut does, like Helen Garner does, like Shakespeare does.
Andrea Dworkin is also important to my life because she encapsulates the misunderstandings in our society about feminism. Sheila does this too. Even the picture of Andrea on the front cover of my copy of Letters becomes a part of this. Catharine MacKinnon is stately and dignified-looking and Gloria Steinem is downright beautiful, and, aesthetically, they fit with the idea of successful, intelligent women. Andrea Dworkin, as she appears in black and white on my book, is fat. And hairy, with thick, bushy eyebrows. She looks grumpy and unkempt, and she's wearing overalls and a padded, quilted jacket. Her legs are apart as she stands.
She's not a palatable feminist.
So people say that she was a man hater. She wasn't:
"I don't believe rape is inevitable or natural. If I did, I would have no reason to be here. If I did, my political practice would be different than it is. Have you ever wondered why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It's not because theres a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence."
They say that she was a lesbian separatist, and that she claimed that all heterosexual intercourse was rape. She wasn't, and she didn't. She loved a man, in fact, for a long time. His name was John Stoltenberg. They were married in 1998.
They say that she was angry and militant and cranky. Maybe she was. She'd lived through atrocities too numerous to mention. Here's a short history of her pain, from Germaine Greer:
"She first came to public notice in 1965 when newspapers all over the world ran the story of how she was so brutally examined by officials at the New York women’s correctional centre where she was taken after being arrested at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration that she bled for two weeks. She later told of how she was raped in a cinema at the age of 9, prostituted herself for a living in her twenties, was for five years married to a Dutch anarchist who abused her and was drug-raped by staff in a Paris hotel in 1999."
Liberal feminists again and again condemn her – and MacKinnon as well, but mostly Dworkin, because she's an easier target – for "doing more harm than good", for bringing too much "negativity" into the women's movement, for focussing on the bad instead of the good.
Dworkin wrote – and I'm quoting her quoting Robin Morgan – that she did the "atrocity work" in the women's movement. She tackled the dirty, painful and unappealing subjects. This can be "negative" and upsetting to read. To borrow her own idiom, she was on the front line. As Catharine MacKinnon wrote in her obituary:
"She stood with, and therefore for, sexually abused women. So she was treated as they are treated, denigrated as they are denigrated. She was the intellectual shock troops, the artistic heavy artillery of the women’s movement in our time. She took its heaviest hits."
I have learnt from Dworkin's writing, and from my interaction with Sheila, that this condemned "negativity" does not stem in any way from pessimism. Quite the opposite, in fact.
These women look at the shit in the world, the shit that is heaped upon women – and surely all political persuasions will agree, at least, that there is a lot of shit. They look at this pain and horror and injustice with unclouded eyes, they stare it right in the face, they acknowledge and document and critique it.
And instead of washing their hands of the situation, instead of saying there's too much rape, too much abuse, too much degradation and pornography and violence and oppression, they hope.
Women activists like Andrea and Sheila know, more than anyone else, perhaps, the extent of the raw pain that women suffer. And yet they still believe that this world can change so much that that pain can be eradicated. They believe that there is enough strength and goodness in humanity to overcome this shit.
Now, isn't that the ultimate in optimism?
Catharine MacKinnon said upon the death of Andrea Dworkin, "It feels like the north pole is gone now."
Dworkin's writing is still the north pole of my feminism. She informs it, and me, and continually.
I'm glad that she was.
27 July 2008 @ 04:27 pm
Mixed bag
27 July 2008 @ 05:56 am
Sunday, July 27, 2008
27 July 2008 @ 03:22 pm
Anthology, non-paying
Hello everyone. I've used this journal so often to get great tips for places to submit to, so thanks for that! :) I'm currently attempting to put together an anthology as a fundraising exercise and hope it's okay to post the details here. While the anthology isn't going to be speculative fiction *only*, most authors who've sent me queries so far will be writing spec-fic.
The anthology is non-paying, but we do hope people will be interested enough in the project concept to donate stories. Please let me know if you need more information or want to talk about a particular idea you have for a story.
THE FAT MAN AT THE END OF THE WORLD
The BHMFFA Connection is currently looking for stories between 3000-5000 approx for a collection of fat-positive fiction centred around fat men. These stories can cover any genre, but must clearly have at least one fat male lead character, if not more. Stories which include fat women are strongly encouraged, especially if the fat women are in powerful or sexy roles. Depending on submission volume, stories which are centred around fat women may be considered for a upcoming collection on fat women fiction.
( Further details )
The anthology is non-paying, but we do hope people will be interested enough in the project concept to donate stories. Please let me know if you need more information or want to talk about a particular idea you have for a story.
THE FAT MAN AT THE END OF THE WORLD
The BHMFFA Connection is currently looking for stories between 3000-5000 approx for a collection of fat-positive fiction centred around fat men. These stories can cover any genre, but must clearly have at least one fat male lead character, if not more. Stories which include fat women are strongly encouraged, especially if the fat women are in powerful or sexy roles. Depending on submission volume, stories which are centred around fat women may be considered for a upcoming collection on fat women fiction.
( Further details )
27 July 2008 @ 12:33 am
The Boys teach us all about the value of the CBLDF.
Current Mood: devious
26 July 2008 @ 11:45 pm
Least I Could Do dream sequence, and a request
27 July 2008 @ 12:23 am
26 July 2008 @ 11:51 pm
Weekend Update for July 26
Put Together by Scorpia
(This was compiled earlier today and posted to the yahoo group, so I'm just adding it here too. If you added your story after this was made, it will have to be listed on next week's.)
------------ -----
Random Challenge
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( New chapters this week )
Please remember to review!
Thanks,
Scorpia
(This was compiled earlier today and posted to the yahoo group, so I'm just adding it here too. If you added your story after this was made, it will have to be listed on next week's.)
------------ -----
Random Challenge
------------ -----
- Laughing Together
by Kristeh
Challenge Summary: Have you seen the old pic from behind-the-scenes
of Goblet of Fire? The one that shows Harry, Ron, and Snape in the
Great Hall laughing together? (The director guy is in the pic, too,
but we'll just ignore him. If you haven't seen it, google 'pic of
Harry and Snape laughing', check out the gallery at Veritiserum, or
join my group and see it in miscellaneous photos.) So the challenge
is to write a story that explains that scene. Have fun!
Respond the Challenge Here!
( New chapters this week )
Please remember to review!
Thanks,
Scorpia
26 July 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Trauma Medicine by Kispexi2 (NC-17)
26 July 2008 @ 11:37 pm
Helpless by Mickis (PG-13)
Fandom: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Pairing: None
Length: 3,624 words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Web Site: Stealthy Stories
Why this must be read:
It's an interesting premise, although one not entirely supported by canon. Raphael and Donatello are on their way home after a night at Casey's when they find themselves in a showdown against a freaked out kid with a gun. Facing off against that kind of firepower throws them and shows them how helpless they can really be against their enemies, even with all their training. Now, they've faced guns in canon a hundred times before, but the kid does have the drop on them, and they are in a tight spot. Raphael's reaction is true to form and very real, but it's Donatello's actions that really make the story for me.
"I said, put down the gun," Don repeated, his voice still calm as he spoke, although Raph could tell he was anything but calm; his entire being seemed to tremble with fear.
The boy turned back to look at Raph, the desperation in his eyes having transformed into panic, the tears running down his face gone dry.
"I'm serious," Donatello urged, raising his hand a little higher, holding the gun a little tighter. "Put it down."
Helpless by Mickis
Pairing: None
Length: 3,624 words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Web Site: Stealthy Stories
Why this must be read:
It's an interesting premise, although one not entirely supported by canon. Raphael and Donatello are on their way home after a night at Casey's when they find themselves in a showdown against a freaked out kid with a gun. Facing off against that kind of firepower throws them and shows them how helpless they can really be against their enemies, even with all their training. Now, they've faced guns in canon a hundred times before, but the kid does have the drop on them, and they are in a tight spot. Raphael's reaction is true to form and very real, but it's Donatello's actions that really make the story for me.
"I said, put down the gun," Don repeated, his voice still calm as he spoke, although Raph could tell he was anything but calm; his entire being seemed to tremble with fear.
The boy turned back to look at Raph, the desperation in his eyes having transformed into panic, the tears running down his face gone dry.
"I'm serious," Donatello urged, raising his hand a little higher, holding the gun a little tighter. "Put it down."
Helpless by Mickis
26 July 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Revenge of the Tumbleweeds
26 July 2008 @ 11:20 pm
Prototype by Littlefurryguy & Ghostwriter (PG-13)
Fandom: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Pairing: None
Length: 2,640 words
Author on LJ:![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
littlefurryguy
Author's Web Site: Littlefurryguy's FF.net page
Why this must be read:
Because it's the end of the world and no one knows why. This is a scene from a much longer story, and the only thing wrong with this fic is that it isn't 500 pages long.
One day everything started to die. And when it was over, only the guys were left.
Prototype by Littlefurryguy and Ghostwriter
Pairing: None
Length: 2,640 words
Author on LJ:
littlefurryguyAuthor's Web Site: Littlefurryguy's FF.net page
Why this must be read:
Because it's the end of the world and no one knows why. This is a scene from a much longer story, and the only thing wrong with this fic is that it isn't 500 pages long.
One day everything started to die. And when it was over, only the guys were left.
Prototype by Littlefurryguy and Ghostwriter
26 July 2008 @ 10:59 pm
Watermelon, by Poisonivory
Fandom: NEWSIES
Pairing: Sarah, Jack/David (with Jack/Sarah references)
Length: 1,700-ish
Author on LJ:poisonivory
Author Website: PoisonIvory's Profile at The Refuge
Why this must be read:
By far, the most abused, neglected, and otherwise maligned character in the whole of Newsies fandom is Sarah Jacobs. She's the only teenage girl in the movie, and she's the character who ends up kissing Jack Kelly in the end, angering a good portion of the Jack/David slashers and Jack het shippers alike (as well as, inexplicably, a lot of the rest of the fandom).
But this author isn't content to ignore, bash, or dismiss Sarah, as many authors have. Instead, she puts us in Sarah's head. She lets us see how she views Jack and David. And she makes her more of a likeable, three-dimensional character than the movie even attempts to create.
This fic is set in the modern day, but it feels just like something that would have happened a few years after the movie, if the movie existed in a time when a gay couple could ask someone to be a surrogate mother. And that's what this fic is about - Jack and David asking Sarah to be their surrogate, and Sarah experiencing all the thoughts, memories, and feelings that accompany her decision. It's real and raw, and Sarah is far from good and perfect, but she's flawed in a believable, sympathetic way. Plus, the prose is lyrical and lovely, the bits of memory are beautifully rendered and fleshed-out, and the characterization feels spot-on for these three characters (as well as the rest of the Jacobs family). There is nothing at all that I can criticize about this story, and as an example of Jack/David fic that handles the Sarah question responsibly, sympathetically, and realisitically, it deserves to be read by all and sundry.
Watermelon
Pairing: Sarah, Jack/David (with Jack/Sarah references)
Length: 1,700-ish
Author on LJ:
poisonivoryAuthor Website: PoisonIvory's Profile at The Refuge
Why this must be read:
By far, the most abused, neglected, and otherwise maligned character in the whole of Newsies fandom is Sarah Jacobs. She's the only teenage girl in the movie, and she's the character who ends up kissing Jack Kelly in the end, angering a good portion of the Jack/David slashers and Jack het shippers alike (as well as, inexplicably, a lot of the rest of the fandom).
But this author isn't content to ignore, bash, or dismiss Sarah, as many authors have. Instead, she puts us in Sarah's head. She lets us see how she views Jack and David. And she makes her more of a likeable, three-dimensional character than the movie even attempts to create.
This fic is set in the modern day, but it feels just like something that would have happened a few years after the movie, if the movie existed in a time when a gay couple could ask someone to be a surrogate mother. And that's what this fic is about - Jack and David asking Sarah to be their surrogate, and Sarah experiencing all the thoughts, memories, and feelings that accompany her decision. It's real and raw, and Sarah is far from good and perfect, but she's flawed in a believable, sympathetic way. Plus, the prose is lyrical and lovely, the bits of memory are beautifully rendered and fleshed-out, and the characterization feels spot-on for these three characters (as well as the rest of the Jacobs family). There is nothing at all that I can criticize about this story, and as an example of Jack/David fic that handles the Sarah question responsibly, sympathetically, and realisitically, it deserves to be read by all and sundry.
Watermelon
26 July 2008 @ 09:46 pm
Superman #108
26 July 2008 @ 10:08 pm
Spiritish Day
This morning, I performed my first handfasting (that is, I officiated at one, as opposed to attended or was handfasted to someone else). We had a pretty lovely time, lovelips and I, performing a non-traditional ceremony for a rather non-traditional couple that I know through some of my summer work. I used my (gradually becoming) traditional framework that I use for my summer rites, and asked for guardians of the quarters (east/air, south/fire, west/water, north/earth). Then we had a reading, and the couple gave their oaths. lovelips did some drumming, and I consecrated a dipper of water with the power of the elements for them to drink as the blessing. They lit a unity candle, and a number of additional candles as symbols of the forces they thought were going to make their magic work. It was not a legal ceremony, because they have family to appease in another part of the country, but I think this ceremony mattered more.
This afternoon,lovelips and I went to the co-op, and the farmers' market. We're going to make pesto again tomorrow, and save it for this winter (probably). The stuff we had tonight was so delicious, though; it may be very hard to save it all the way to winter.
This evening, we had a bunch of folks here for a little potluck for my birthday. Afterwards, we did some hula-hooping, and then we did fire-spinning. I taught a new friend of our Quiet Corner Burners group to breathe fire, and learned just how many different elements you have to keep track of, and know that you've said to someone — about not breathing too many times in one night, about using Ultra-Pure, about breathing with the wind rather than against it, and so on. He did good, but I also got to breathe myself a few times. I also lit up my staff three times, and I also got to spin a hula-hoop with fire elements for a few minutes before it went out.
We also had a conversation over dinner about Justices of the Peace (J.P.s), ordination from the Universal Life Church (ULC), and Connecticut law which can put a minister of the ULC in jail or forced to pay a $500 fine and have the weddings he/she performs nullified if they're challenged in court. With that in mind, I think that I should look into the legal processes a little more, but I'm thinking I should have my ULC 'ordination' certified by the town, and then work with J and C and A and some other folks I know about designing our ULC process for handfastings, weddings, etc., and protecting ourselves a little more carefully. I think today's handfasting was the first, and the last, I'll do without some sort of more clearly articulated process.
I'm feeling a call toward 'ordination' or 'initiation' of some sort. I had a visitation that I'll have to talk about some other occasion, but someone stopped me on the road the other day and harangued me about my relationship to Spirit. And this couple today originally asked me to do this legally, and I had to say "no, I can't do that". And while I've been doing the Munay-Ki rites withlovelips's direction, it doesn't feel the same as doing some sort of formal initiation process. I have to figure out how and whether to do some sort of process for myself. It bears thinking on.
lovelips and I, performing a non-traditional ceremony for a rather non-traditional couple that I know through some of my summer work. I used my (gradually becoming) traditional framework that I use for my summer rites, and asked for guardians of the quarters (east/air, south/fire, west/water, north/earth). Then we had a reading, and the couple gave their oaths. lovelips did some drumming, and I consecrated a dipper of water with the power of the elements for them to drink as the blessing. They lit a unity candle, and a number of additional candles as symbols of the forces they thought were going to make their magic work. It was not a legal ceremony, because they have family to appease in another part of the country, but I think this ceremony mattered more.This afternoon,
lovelips and I went to the co-op, and the farmers' market. We're going to make pesto again tomorrow, and save it for this winter (probably). The stuff we had tonight was so delicious, though; it may be very hard to save it all the way to winter.This evening, we had a bunch of folks here for a little potluck for my birthday. Afterwards, we did some hula-hooping, and then we did fire-spinning. I taught a new friend of our Quiet Corner Burners group to breathe fire, and learned just how many different elements you have to keep track of, and know that you've said to someone — about not breathing too many times in one night, about using Ultra-Pure, about breathing with the wind rather than against it, and so on. He did good, but I also got to breathe myself a few times. I also lit up my staff three times, and I also got to spin a hula-hoop with fire elements for a few minutes before it went out.
We also had a conversation over dinner about Justices of the Peace (J.P.s), ordination from the Universal Life Church (ULC), and Connecticut law which can put a minister of the ULC in jail or forced to pay a $500 fine and have the weddings he/she performs nullified if they're challenged in court. With that in mind, I think that I should look into the legal processes a little more, but I'm thinking I should have my ULC 'ordination' certified by the town, and then work with J and C and A and some other folks I know about designing our ULC process for handfastings, weddings, etc., and protecting ourselves a little more carefully. I think today's handfasting was the first, and the last, I'll do without some sort of more clearly articulated process.
I'm feeling a call toward 'ordination' or 'initiation' of some sort. I had a visitation that I'll have to talk about some other occasion, but someone stopped me on the road the other day and harangued me about my relationship to Spirit. And this couple today originally asked me to do this legally, and I had to say "no, I can't do that". And while I've been doing the Munay-Ki rites with
lovelips's direction, it doesn't feel the same as doing some sort of formal initiation process. I have to figure out how and whether to do some sort of process for myself. It bears thinking on.26 July 2008 @ 07:16 pm
Most Amazing Team Up On The Internet
26 July 2008 @ 10:31 pm
Read this one, the other part I put up today, first. This is just a short action sequence.
( FOB: Also into cats. )
( FOB: Also into cats. )
26 July 2008 @ 08:56 pm
X-Men shorts Update and some Top 10
26 July 2008 @ 10:10 pm
Guess where Gerard was today...that's right, Comic Con.
( MCR/FOB: Drugs can fix most things, even Comic Con. )
I would say I don't endorse doing drugs, but that's a complete lie.
( MCR/FOB: Drugs can fix most things, even Comic Con. )
I would say I don't endorse doing drugs, but that's a complete lie.