Alternate Universes 50

I was thinking thoughts about the media's treatment of celebrities--specifically female celebrities, prompted by the treatment of Megan Fox.

They at once expect and demand these celebrities to surrender private lives and display their desires, tastes, thoughts and opinions, and at the same time demand that these thoughts, tastes and opinions fall in line with the media's image of 'acceptable.' And I think we're all familiar with the media's image of acceptable--racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, the list goes on--so when Megan Fox shows that she's not only comfortable with her sexuality but not a demure/contained/controlled woman, they reject her. Spectacularly. And all those either threatened or sheeplike enough to follow do, and there's a huge percent of the population that is sheeplike in its adherence to 'the TV said so' or threatened by a sexy young woman who knows her own mind and is honest about it.

Whatever. She's awesome.

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Kink Bingo's December challenge: ohhh, it is so good to me. Yuletide fandoms up for grabs!

...although, as I look through them, they are slightly less delicious than last round. Last round I was looking through the leftover prompts and I kept going 'ooh, I haven't thought of that one in ages but I sure could write it!' Still, plenty of yum.

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Someone writes a whole huge essay titled The Lust Arc = IchiHime FAIL which, among other priceless gems of logic, claims that because soppy displays of concern were not made in the midst of a battleground, they TOTES DON'T CARE ABOUT EACH ENOUGH (FOR ME).

I'm not going to address the shipping, because I don't really 'ship in this series and I don't care. What I am going to address if the fact that because a young woman who made an enormously brave choice to sacrifice herself asked for help after an extended period of time where she was isolated, threatened, terrified and had her head fucked with, they explicitly equate her with evil cannibalistic spirits.

I cannot believe I ever even skim the surface of this fandom. I am also not capable of resounding-enough rude gestures over the internet. But it is, in my elegance and eloquence, all I have to offer, because I am still trying not to dissolve into obscenities over rage-inducing things.

I REALLY REALLY NEED SOMETHING LESS RAGE-INDUCING. SOMETHING. ANYTHING.

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Ask Amy tells rape victims they did it to themselves. Any words I would have for this are obscene and full of hate, and I'm trying to cut down on that.

Mike Briggs eloquently debunks the popular arguments supporting piracy one by one.

an NYT article on female desire.

Patrick Stewart on domestic violence. Beautiful.

fiction_theory's lovely post about and containing links concerning the relationships between agents and new writers. Specifically it contains a link to this remark by an agent:

I rejected a manuscript that I had been seriously considering last week because upon a cursory online search, I found a LiveJournal post by the author badmouthing me and several of my colleagues for what she thought were excessive response times. Well, that blog post cost her representation from at least one agent. (OH, and it was a LOCKED LiveJournal post. You do know that Google Reader doesn't respect locked posts, right? Well, you do now.)

I feel like 'mind your damn manners jesus christ' should be sort of an acknowledged constant--ever heard of common courtesy, people? Especially in this type of scenario when you are asking a stranger to take a leap of faith. But entitlement, I have noted, is heavy in many young in America.

Also LOCKED POSTS ARE UNPROTECTED AAAAAAAH **terrified**

ETA: Falconesse with the math behind Harlequin’s vanity press: how many books you’d have to sell to break even, hidden costs, and the like. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to self-publish, vanity publish, or get published.

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Glee: Hairography

So let me get this straight: those precious abled Glee kids singing over another choir is supposed to be fucking heartwarming?

You know what would happen outside of TV land, if you just started singing over another choir's performance? Nothing good, let me assure you. How fucking rude and entitled can these people be? So now treating performers with complete disrespect and undermining their efforts is 'progressive?' Fuck you, Glee.

Not to mention my disgust with the epilepsy joke.

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Legend of the Seeker: now with 500% more delicious femslash! APPROVED. Okay, it's all subtext, but let me dream.



I've been reading books about World War II and the Vietnam war. Not the most pleasant, upbeat or rejuvenating of subject material. I feel a little worn out.

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Procrastination: it does beautiful or maybe just crazy things.

bishoptoqueen: a fan community for old school Anita Blake. Because I miss her. Probably no one will join but what the hell, it'll be fun to play in.

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Apropos of exactly nothing, this is my Anita Blake.

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NAME A FANDOM AND I'LL TELL YOU MY:

• One True Pairing Ship
• Canon Ship
• "If this happens I'll stab my eyes out with a spork" Ship
• "You are one sick bastard" Ship
• "I dabble a little" Ship
• "It's like a car crash" Ship
• "Tickles my fancy but not sold just yet" Ship
• "Makes no canon sense but why the hell not" Ship
• "Everyone else loves it but I just don't feel it" Ship

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"That's because I love you." She looked both mutinous and mulish at the same time. "But don't let it give you any ideas. I'm my father's daughter, and I won't just throw myself away on just any wandering evil spirit. I'll expect some assurances, something more in the line of a settlement than just a lot of airy promises."

I LOVE HER

SO MUCH

&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts&hearts &hearts

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Review - Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body is a tale of two movies, not of maintext versus subtext but two seperate movies fighting for dominance in which, ultimately, the oft-told (and tired) conventional one wins.

This basically sums up my feelings with the movie.

I enjoyed a lot of it. The actresses were very good--Megan Fox gave a lot to the character that the script didn't--and the visuals were pretty cool, but in the end it was just as disappointing as I expected it to be, if not more. That's a good review, though, without much spoilers, so if you're curious...

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I got a whole bunch of books today. Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and two lovely, gorgeous, mouth-watering Lilith Saintcrow books. And two completely new ones!

One novel about a girl who loves the ocean very very much who finds out she's not quite human and her town isn't quite normal and is happy about it (and is also pretty neat, from my readings so far) and one novel about a highly proper Victorian spinster who kills vampires and compares their deaths to a souffle going flat. It is awesome so far.

All is well.

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In my Astronomy lab today, we devolved into a discussion of reality, and time as a measure, and the theory about how if we as 3-dimensional objects cast 2-dimensional shadows, we could be 3-dimensional shadows of 4-dimensional objects.

I--

AWESOME

I CANNOT STOP SMILING

THAT CONCEPT MAKES ME SO HAPPY

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I know it was naive. I know it was foolish. I haven't even read the books all the way through myself! But I honestly thought my shock and horror at Stephenie Meyer was tapped out; that she had gotten all of her 'WHAT THE FUCKING HELL NOOOOO's out of me.

I was wrong. Mark of Buzznet has been reviewing Twilight, and it's a fairly stress-reducing ride, at least for those that have read the books previously and are just relieved to see somebody sane react. The gifs help.

Then we get to chapter thirteen of Eclipse, where I thank the lords I didn't read it and we get to read SMeyer writing about how Mexicans are violent awful people (as opposed to the "civilized" north), and how being a vampire automatically makes you white.

Gods above and below, how the hell is this woman too fucking stupid to understand how offensive she is?

Picked up from randomsome1

I need to purge my brain of this ugliness.

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Simon Woods did a decent job of making Octavian seem, if not actually regretful, conscious and even concerned in his own way, of the damage he realizes he's done to his mother and sister. He's still about as shit at social interaction as he was as a child. 'How's Octavia?' YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW, BUCKO. Too bad you totally screwed them over, huh? Kind of burnt your bridges there, honey. And his behavior after the dinner--was that the first time he realized exactly what his position with them was? It doesn't seem possible.

I did love that little interaction with Octavian:
'No, I was all sweetness and light with her.'
'Yes, that is your most disheartening manner.'

BECAUSE IT KIND OF IS.

Cleopatra's portrayal is a major fail, and the portrayal of the Egyptian court is contemptibly ridiculous.

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Neither Fictional nor Real:

So, Hollywood. Take a power structure of people who are willfully ignorant and unwilling to deal with people as people, as well as making concentrated efforts to keep us from having access to venues to tell our stories.

The argument "it's only fiction" really can only apply if you have context to understand the difference between fiction and reality. And, it's also interesting that we're not allowed to tell EITHER our fictions OR our realities, but that others get the right to do that for us, and seem amazed as if we stepped out of a comic book or something when we demand the right to tell our stories.

And it's always interesting how one group profits in reality for making fantasy about another and that group is never us.

Television Without Pity - But Racism is Dandy!

Not that I ever expected well of a site that Supernatural is heavily connected with, but hey. This is pretty nasty.

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All mental points awarded to Rome are revoked. Totally, permanently and irrevocably revoked. Infinite, infinite fail.

I mean, there were some hints previously. The conspicuous casting of Eirene vs Gaia, the skewed amount of white to darker characters in villainous/antagonist roles, the gender!fail inherent in Vorena's portrayal--she's made a prostitute, her attempt to reclaim her sexuality leads to terrible things, and she's redeemed by swearing herself chaste to a goddess. (Oh screw you, show.) Not to mention Atia's obsession with the bottom feeder.

And now their portrayal of Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was a powerful, political, canny queen, reputedly the only Ptolomeic ruler to have actually learnt the Egyptian language. She and Egypt did not exist merely as some subnote to Rome, as some ~exotic~ place all about debauchery and corruption of those fine Roman men. I was nearly nauseated at the whole scene where she had to be 'schooled' by some condescending bastard of a Roman soldier--a woman who grew up in a cutthroat family, ascended to the throne at eighteen, raised a rebellion and won an alliance that raised her once more to the throne, a woman who is intimately familiar with murderous politics.

And yet in Rome, somehow she turns into a completely amoral, depraved druggie who proclaims herself a 'slave' of Caesar and then seems to have nothing to do but sleep with and be rabidly possessive of Anthony as opposed to, say, running her country.

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Name your 15 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms. Picked up from lucifuge5 I HAVE LOTS MORE. But these are the ones that came into mind first. I also narrowed it down by picking only the ones that had definite, confirmed basis in canon.

1. Chiara/The Bear (The Wolf King)
2. Regeane/Maeniel (The Silver Wolf)
3. Leetah/Cutter (Elfquest)
4. Dante Valentine/Tierce Japhrimel (Working for the Devil)
5. Chihiro/Haku (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)
6. Sunshine/Constantine (Sunshine)
7. Jill Kismet/Saul (Dante Valentine)
8. Kamiya Kaoru/Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
9. Allen Walker/Rinali Li (D.Grayman)
10. Jaenelle Angelline/Daemon Sadi (Black Jewels)
11. Keiko Yukimura/Yusuke Urameshi (YuYu Hakusho)
12. Kaylin Neya/Severn (Michelle Sagara's Cast series)
13. Bonnie McCullough/Damon Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries)
14. Vesper Lynd/James Bond (Casino Royale)
15. Anita Blake/her awesome (early Anita Blake books)
...what do you mean, that doesn't count? Okay, fine, have an extra: 16. Sesshoumaru/Rin (Inuyasha)

...apparently I like a lot of relationships where there's equality, but the girls are unequivocably in charge. Especially when the boys are a bit dangerous/amoral/etc.

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On rewatching Transformers: God, Sam is such a fucking sleaze. We're supposed to be rooting for some asshole who would dump his friend in the middle of nowhere just so he can make the moves on some complete stranger?

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Okay, so. I've tried to restraint my anger with the Rome fandom to a few tamped-down comments here and there. But it's not going away, so here's my space to scream and rage a bit. Feel free to ignore this post.

( Read more... )

Not that there isn't a perfectly simple explanation. There is! And it's that in fandom, manly angst takes precedence over women's actual suffering and trauma.

SCREW YOU ALL.

ETA: ...I feel a little better now.

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