Thoughts and prayers, and farting to the wind

(Originally posted to a restricted section at MyMedia, so I can’t link)

School shooting in the UK (Dunbane, 1996): guns banned. Guess how many school shootings since? Guess how many ‘regular’ massacres using guns since?

Massacre in Australia (Port Arthur, 1996): guns banned. Guess how many massacres using guns since?

Side effect in both places: the numbers of suicides reduced drastically, partly because most other ways to kill oneself give the suicide enough time to fear pain, to reflect, etc. that many/most call for help before it’s too late, or get other help instead of trying.

208 school shootings in the US since Columbine in 1999: oh, well, mmm…erm…
58 people killed at a night club in Orlando in 2016: oh, well, drinking, and sex, and homosexuals, and…
58 people killed and over EIGHT HUNDRED INJURED while attending a concert in Las Vegas: so tragic, but…well, the second amendment…and freedom…and that’s just the crazies…and…well…nothing can be done
Mass killings by guns (where at least four people are killed by someone using a gun) have increased steadily for years in the US, and gee, wow, the majority of the people killing people with guns are white AND have a history of domestic violence, but let’s point the finger at mental health instead of misogyny, while at the same time eliminating restrictions to own guns for people with mental health issues.

Because ‘freedom’ and ‘the constitution’ and ‘the sacred right to bear arms’ amirite?

FUCK ALL THAT SHIT AND FUCK THAT ATTITUDE.

edited to add: not even two days later, we have reports of a community college locked down for reports of possible gunfire, on the other side of the continent. February 14, Parkland, Florida.

February 17, Des Moines, Washington. update: apparently, this one was a false alarm. Absolutely believable, but untrue.

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Why is the romance genre inherently feminist?

(Originally posted to the Community section of MyMedia forum)

Because is written mostly* by women for (mostly*) other women, centering mostly* women’s needs, and pleasure, and joy.

And that, sadly (because women are just over half the human population of the planet, and still the immense majority of stories center on the male experience), it’s inherently feminist.

“Romance reminds us that women want, and it celebrates this fact. How sad that that’s subversive, but it is. Also subversive: the idea of women reading books that are escapist delights instead of “bettering” themselves via the male-adjudicated canon or, honestly, doing housework or tending to their kids. Romance novels are political because of, not despite, the fact that they are usually really fucking fun.”

(source: Who Gets a Happily Ever After)

* mostly and not all, because, you know who has embraced genre romance and the opportunity for positive representation it offers? Minorities, particularly those in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Because the idea of joy and love that triumph over the miseries of life is necessary for those to whom the world is already unwelcoming, simply by virtue of being

~ * ~

Please note that the piece linked, at the time I post this, states that Jules Cassidy, from Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series, is a SEAL. He’s not; he was written, from his first appearance on, as an out and proud FBI agent. I’ve contacted the author of the piece, and I hope there will be an edit on this at some point. But if not, now you know.

Biology, social conditioning, sex and pain

(Originally posted to the Community forum at MyMedia)

So.

#MeToo.

Women talking for a few weeks (perhaps just over a month?*) about their experiences with different levels of sexual violence/assault/harassment.

Lo and behold, to most women’s sorrow, yet utter lack of surprise, it turns out the most of the women we know have suffered some sort of sexual violence, and sometimes several different kinds, sometimes more than once over the course of their lives, sometimes at the hands of several different men.

And the natural response, from #notallmen, is to express their dismay that all this outpouring of female suffering…will make their dating lives harder.

That men will become afraid of dating, because “accusations of sexual abuse/domestic partner violence ruin lives!” (I can off the top of my head name at least an even dozen of male celebrities whose professional lives have suffered NO HARM, regardless of how many people bring receipts–hello, Woody Allen, Johnny Depp, Chris Brown, Casey Affleck, Donald Trump, Floyd Maywather, Kobe Bryant, Azis Ansari, Mike Tyson, James Franco, Al Franken, Joel Kramer, Kevin Spacey).

That mostly women accuse men to ‘gain something’ or ‘for revenge’ (the ultimate whine on that vein: Larry Nassar’s letter to the sentencing judge quoting ‘hell hath no fury’).

And, the icing on the WTAF cake: that women should consider/understand/learn about how men cannot control themselves because ‘biology.’ That this is ‘just how men are.’ The pseudo grown up version of ‘boys will be boys,’ if you will.

So, let’s talk biology, social conditioning, and pain.

“What about the meeeeeeeennnnnzzzzzz???????”

Originally posted to the Community section at MyMedia

“Why do you harp so much on all the injustices done to women? What about the MEEEEEENNNNN??????”

Meet Jessica Eaton, who runs a charity exclusively focused on men’s mental health (in the UK), getting zero criticism from either men or women for this, yet gets everything from “you fat c*nt feminist” to rape and death threats for her advocacy against blaming women and girl victims of violence.

Please stop shrugging and waiting for someone else to fix the world.

(Originally posted to a private subforum at MyMedia, so I can’t link)

How I wish I could make everyone who casually reads this pay attention this week, and next week, and every week after, to three very basic things:

Fight for Net Neutrality

Originally posted to the Community section of MyMedia

The fight for equal access to the internet is not limited to ensuring that companies cannot prioritize speed (and price it accordingly).

Because access to the internet has not yet been definitely and permanently classified as a utility, such as water or power, structural access to broadband internet has been largely in the hands of private companies.

Since corporations exist exclusively to make money for stakeholders, no one should be surprised that poor communities in this country have as little access to broadband as some of the poorest countries in the world.

A government’s function, at least in a democracy, is to provide essential services to all its citizens, not only to those who can afford them.

In an increasingly digitized and interconnected world, access to the web is essential. Poor, small, and/or remote communities with no local library branch, or where the existing one is small and poorly funded, benefit enormously from affordable/free access to the internet (as do those same small libraries and schools).

Terry Crews, speaking out

Terry Crews knows from personal experience why sometimes victims of sexual assault and harassment need years, if not decades, before they can speak out–when they can.

To add to the incredible fuckery, we must also consider the racial component. Had this white man assaulted another white man, he would have at the very least gotten a fist to the face. But a black man can’t defend himself in the same way.