Thorns

Random Links

2023-04-29T02:25:54Z

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part II: They're Not Human

Creative Interventions: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence
Gotta be honest, I only got partway through this, it's a bit repetitive and long winded. Also the attempt at trans inclusion is patchy. But the part I read was really thought provoking and avoided some of the major pitfalls I've seen in other similar toolkits.

And now some things I already posted to tumblr:

A discussion of Camp Which I still don't get, tbh.

mistakes don’t mean you deserve to suffer

The key to co-liberation is that it requires a commitment to and a belief in mutual benefit

the 14 properties of “ur-fascism”

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Miscellaneous links

2020-09-24T06:40:22Z

Dream Boy And The Poison Fans (Transcript) The connection between Xiao Zhan, the actor who played the lead in The Untamed, the AO3 getting banned in China, and the related back-and-forth of fan-groups attacking each other. ffa has some folk who blame him/his management a lot more for what happened (and some who fiercely disagree), I am way too ignorant about China to weigh in but it's all very interesting.

Beyond Authenticity: the Spectre of Han Hegemony On the simplistic discussions around Mulan.

China bars media coverage of Disney's 'Mulan' after Xinjiang backlash.

To me it feels like a lot of Western companies have this overly simplistic, and often racist, idea of what it means to Appeal to Chinese Sensibilities, and end up alienating everyone. I've been getting into Chinese web-novels lately (specifically The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, the m/m fantasy novel that was adapted into the Untamed) and even just from that can tell the situation over there with censorship and social attitudes is really complex.

I know I’m late The author of 'Love, Simon' talks about how being put in the 'problematic straight person profiting from queer experiences' box made it incredibly difficult and painful to navigate figuring out and being open about her bisexuality. 'Own Voices' is all well and good but people apply it in overly rigid ways that end up hurting marginalised writers who don't fit the narrow expectations on Diverse Writing.

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Australian Black Lives Matters Protests

2020-06-02T05:34:33Z

If You're In Australia And Want To Support The Black Lives Matter Movement, Here Are All The Protests You Can Attend

Would not have thought buzzfeed would be the place to get this info, but apparently it is! Thanks to moonvoice for the link, which I haven't seen anywhere else.

(I won't be going myself but maybe it'll be useful for some of you)

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Decolonization in SFF panel at Wiscon

2020-05-24T10:47:56Z

I am at Wiscon online! I posted about the general con experience, including how panels work, at alias_sqbr.

I didn't get to see this panel in person, but I watched the recorded stream and read back over the chat.
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Links Post May 2019

2019-05-04T10:40:00Z

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Links: Race and Culture

2019-03-06T20:30:23Z

Who identifies as a person of colour in Australia?

Yiddish and diasporic Judaism

Facebook Fueled Anti-Refugee Attacks in Germany, New Research Suggests

Colonialist narratives in farming games I actually think they're more talking about survival/exploration games, which are a slightly different genre. A lot of this does apply to farming games too, though.

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Links: Critiques of Social Justice Communities From Within

2019-02-27T07:13:17Z

The Folly of 'Purity Politics'

Language of Appeasement
"By substituting diversity and inclusion rhetoric for transformative efforts to promote equity and justice, colleges have avoided recognizable institutional change"

Intersectional Identity and the Path to Progress

New Meta Newsletter, Signal Boosting, Linking, Dogpiling, and History

Double Standards and Diverse Media

Racism in Fandom & Fandom Discourse

I Helped Create the Milo Trolling Playbook. You Should Stop Playing Right Into It. This is interesting but comes to totally the wrong conclusions, and ignores broader social structures. For example it ignores the effect actions have on Milo versus on social prejudice in general, which the author doesn't seem to actually believe in.

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Vague thoughts on the misremembering of marginalised creators

2018-10-13T09:08:50Z

Inspired by this essay about the misremembering of Captain Kirk, I had some extra thoughts on tumblr and then I had some EXTRA extra thoughts and decided it was probably time for a proper post.
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Thinking about how I blog about racism (and other topics)

2017-08-15T06:58:29Z

(this started out as a reply to this tumblr post)

When I first started posting about social justice online, on my fannish livejournal, I posted about racism a LOT, with lots of self righteous LET ME EXPLAIN A THING. And then two of my non-white(*) friends said it was ruining my blog for them: one because she felt like I was speaking over her experiences, which didn’t match the monolithic How POC Feel Narrative I was ‘explaining’, the other because it was causing my clueless white friends to say racist crap in the comments. I had to fight back a defensive “But DON’T YOU WANT ME TO FIGHT RACISM??” reaction.

Ten years later and I’m still trying to figure out how to discuss racism in ways that actually help fight racism, and make the spaces I control supportive of POC/non-white people, rather than simply making the loudest possible noise about how it’s REALLY BAD YOU GUYS.
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Drawing dark characters in flat colours

2017-08-13T17:34:13Z

I feel weird making a post about this as a super pale white person, but I keep seeing other artists draw dark characters really badly in the sort of flat colouring used in animation and comics etc, and don't know of any better guides. So here's what I've figured out. If people know of better techniques or guides, or if I've inadvertently said something wrong or offensive, please let me know.
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There is no single underlying oppression

2017-03-16T04:32:44Z

(I wanted to argue with someone on twitter and this is way too complex for 140 characters)

A hole a lot of activists seem to fall into is thinking that the axis of oppression they're fighting is the central oppression, the one from all others flow. If people just put their energy into this, the REAL fight, all the others would fall like dominos.

I have seen people argue this about ecomonic inequality, sexism, homophobia, ableism, racism (both in general and against specific ethnic groups), everything. I once read a very compelling argument by bell hooks that the Real Underlying Oppression is against children.

In every case the argument is (a) if you fight X, all the others improve and (b) There is an underlying element of X to all oppressions.

Which is true! But it's true for all of them. Everything is connected. It's all the same struggle. If you battle one, you battle them all. If one becomes worse, all the others become worse too.
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Things I am at capacity for

2016-08-25T05:55:34Z

a) Science fiction by white people, specifically Americans, exploring the complex ethical question of whether or not slavery and/or genocide is actually always bad.
b) Inspiring and/or angry images with no descriptions about the importance of inclusion for disabled people, using a blind person's inspiring achievements as an example of what great things can happen if we just make a small effort towards accessibility. Bonus points if the person posting is themselves disabled, but not visually.

In general I feel like "inspiring visual works about blind people that clearly haven't even considered whether actual blind people can enjoy them" is a whole distinct genre. There's probably, like, people posting inspiring songs about Deaf people to soundcloud without lyrics/art installations up a flight of stairs about wheelchair users etc too, but blind people seem to get it the worst.

*mutters and grumbles*

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seeingcolorcomm: Characters of Colour Fic and Art exchange

2016-05-11T21:15:41Z

seeingcolorcomm, currently open for nominations.

I haven't felt like signing up to exchanges lately but will definitely keep an eye out for pinch hits and treats.

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A decade in online fandom social justice

2016-05-10T13:19:21Z

In which I try to tease some sort of narrative out of the ridiculously long and rambling unabridged version. It's still pretty long, and still very subjective. And I'm still open to criticism and other points of view! Especially since I'm as prone to subconsciously editing history as anyone else.

The tl;dr version is that fandom used to actively stifle discussions of social justice, and then slowly started caring about it. Unfortunately, when fandom cares about something it uses it to attack other fans with different tastes, and social justice has been no exception. I still think things are better overall.
( brief mentions of rape and abuse )

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Looking back on a decade in online fandom social justice: unexpurgated version

2016-05-07T08:39:47Z

This is an incredibly subjective and personal account, with no clear moral or narrative, because that's how it wanted to come out. I then poked at things some more and wrote A decade in online fandom social justice: Abridged, which is a bit more structured and not quite as ridiculously long.

I've been inspired to write this by seeing other fans trying to sell their own, equally subjective narratives that contradict mine as The Objective Truth, and it annoys me. The most recent example is this deeply flawed essay by Franzeska. Here's some criticisms by POC: a thread on ffa wherea POC looks back on their own experiences of lj fandom and Fans Of Colour Are Not To Blame For Fandom's Erasures: A response to That Meta.
( brief discussions of rape, death, and abuse, lots of discussions of bullying, lots and lots and LOTS of words )

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Link dump!

2015-12-19T14:17:32Z

Including some very old links that got mixed up with ones intended for alias_sqbr.

Some interesting discussions on slut shaming in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries yes, from when it had just aired.

A Saami person discusses Frozen

This is how we kill our blacks by thekooriwoman & donayrials

How The Peanuts Comic Strip Got Its First Black Character

Open letter to Australian feminists concerned about sex worker exploitation

Remote Indigenous communities are vital for our fragile ecosystems

Pure Queers

“So What If Your Porn Is Feminist?” So, This.

Fatphobia: A Guide for the Disbeliever

“Where’s My Cut?”: On Unpaid Emotional Labor

Debunking misinformation, without attracting trolls

Women of Japan unite: Examining the contemporary state of feminism

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Sent him an email instead!

2015-10-31T04:53:54Z

Because it's a complex topic and I didn't want to get into a public conversation with the bigots buzzing around him.

And looking at it again now I see a silly spelling mistake /o\ Also JUST after I sent it mooreeffoc pointed out that you can't "fail" an IQ test. But if I'd kept editing much longer I'd have wound myself into an anxious ball and never sent it.
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Considering sending John Scalzi a tweet

2015-10-30T23:25:55Z

He said "Your Halloween reminder that blackface is an IQ test, and if you wear it, you've failed." and my reply would be:

Blackface is awful, but equating low IQ with racism/moral failing is unfair. Esp given it's history http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2007/11/27/the-pseudoscience-of-%E2%80%9Cintelligence%E2%80%9D-testing/

(I found the link via quick google)

But idk, it feels weird bringing it up as a white non American. And while I'm disabled I have a pretty high IQ. Plus of course it could open me up to trolls, unless I send it as a private message.

Hmmm. Will ponder when more awake.

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The long view on gamergate

2014-10-28T05:41:10Z

If my (flawed and shallow) understanding of the history of novels (specifically scifi and YA), comics, and films is any guide, in 20 years:

Video games will be taken more seriously as an art.
There will be room in the marketplace for lots of healthy subgenres appealing to people from all walks of life.
There will still be heaps of cheesy AAA shooters because people like that sort of thing, but there'll also be cross pollination between genres to the betterment of all.
There will specifically be a thriving Indie Game subculture, Indie Game Makers who are taken seriously in mainstream culture and can make a comfortable living etc.
People will remember Gamergate, if they do at all, as a bunch of regressive moustache twirling Luddites who were too hidebound to accept progress and True Art etc.

And the heroes of this new movement, and of the history as people remember it, will be white dudes. They'll make a movie starring John Scalzi as the Brave Male Feminist and Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkesian as the thankful oppressed victims. Brianna Wu will have a cameo played by Dakota Fanning.
There'll be Best MOGAI Games Of 2034 Humble Bundle or whatever, but the Indie Game Artform will for the most part still be a bunch of stories about grizzled white dudes, just...artistically written ones. Maybe some tragic lesbians every now and then, and the Great Classics as taught will include a careful tokenistic sprinkling of games about and by POC, disabled people etc.

Genres outside the Indie Game Artform will be looked down on as Not Real Art, and this condescension will as it happens fall most severely on any genres which just happen to be more popular with women (AAA action games will alosbe dismissed, and middle aged gamergaters will mutter about how they warned everyone this was going to happen and how AAA action games these days lack the masculine energy of the old days. Female fans of AAA action games will mutter someting quite different). Dating sims, for example, will continue to be as looked down on as romance novels.
Independent games which care more about representing neglected POVs and being entertaining than hitting the current Art buttons will be vaguely respected but not paid much attention.

And we'll all keep making and playing the games we like regardless.

(I do actually consider this to be a mostly much better situation than what we have now. But I had a Vision Of The Future and felt like sharing it. Also, yeah, massive generalisations etc, I hope my basic point comes across)

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On being a white feminist anime/manga fan

2014-03-06T02:34:44Z

There's been some discussion on tumblr of the culturally ignorant and thoughtless way white feminists often talk about anime/manga:
the original post, with my transcript, some following discussion.

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, I'm really uncomfortable with the combination of fetishisation/othering and erasure that's applied to Japanese culture in most anime and manga discussions I encounter, and would like to do better. So here are some thoughts on that. (Yeah, I know, ANOTHER WHITE FEMINIST POV /o\)
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Links for the new year

2014-01-28T09:10:44Z

Disability:
Boundaries, limitations, and the hell that is other people.

Gender:
The view that computers are technology but sewing isn't is a sexist stitch-up

Race and culture:
A few disjointed thoughts on other cultures and diversity in SFF
how to follow an eclectic path, minus the cultural appropriation (about paganism)
Why I prefer "black" from "rantings of an aboriginal feminist"

Australian politics:
GetUp! and wave at ‘hot’ climate catastrophe
NICE ONE GEORGE (on the human rights commisioner)

Class:
Cyberlibertarians’ Digital Deletion of the Left (Did I post this already?)
Why we should give free money to everyone
In the Name of Love on "loving what you do"

Disability:
Alt text

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Linkspam wants to be distracted from Australian politics

2013-09-07T12:46:32Z

These have been building up for a while (since May? Really??), in some cases I'm just taking a rough guess as to why I thought a link was worth saving.

( Lotsa links! )

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One Lazy White Artist's Guide to Drawing Dark Skinned and POC Characters

2013-06-03T07:05:45Z

So! A few years ago I realised that not only did I pretty much only draw white people, but that I wasn't sure how to draw anything else. There is a long history of dark skinned people being made to look pale and POC being made to look white in order for them to be more palatable to pale white audiences. So there are ethical as well as artistic reasons to try not to screw this stuff up. I made a post poking at the problem, what have I learned since then?
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Links and some ranting

2013-05-05T09:17:51Z

Hacking at Education: TED, Technology Entrepreneurship, Uncollege, and the Hole in the Wall The anti-social libertarian intellectual emptiness underlying a lot of TED-esque ideas.

On political and value neutral Everything with any message at all has a political subtext.

Why I don't like the dragon argument Points out that "if you can have dragons why can't you have POC" has some unfortunate implications that work against it.

words against communication and Also you get things like... The way worrying about appropriation/stepping on disabled people's toes can stop some people from realising they are disabled themselves. (Not that able bodied people shouldn't worry, just that it's complicated!)

Refusing to have the “What You Did” conversation "1 The ‘what you did’ conversation implies the ‘what you are’ conversation. 2 The ’what you are’ conversation is uncivil and silencing. 3 Therefore, it’s uncivil and silencing to discuss ‘what you did.’"

Frustrations of being a black gamer playing BIOSHOCK INFINITE

Sweatshops still make your clothes

Meet the 28-Year-Old Grad Student Who Just Shook the Global Austerity Movement

Vilification and 'just having a laugh' About the racist jokes in my old Uni's satirical newspaper

Righteous Wroth Rarely Is OMG a criticism of excessive social justice where the group making the criticisms (in this case, women) are the victims of the oppression ostensibly being attacked with too much zeal (eg sexism) I have Thoughts about the very complicated way mental illness (which often creates an inability to behave in the way society demands) interacts with the somewhat narrow sets of behaviours expected of a Good Ally/Activist but am not quite up to articulating them.

$300 for Julia Gillard's NDIS scheme? Please, my wheelchair costs $22,000 Apparently some Australians are ok paying taxes and levies for roads and schools but draw the line at helping disabled people.

And from the hahaha what department...
( Worse than global warming??? #followateen )

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Cleaning out my list of links

2012-12-30T02:05:20Z

I may have already posted some of these, sorry!

Objecting to Objectification A post that really annoyed me. It basically says that queer women shouldn't, say, check out another women's breasts without stopping and thinking seriously about her ~thoughts~ and ~feelings~. Personally I am totally fine with random strangers (regardless of gender!) thinking I'm hot without wondering about my inner life, as long as they treat me like a person should we actually interact.

I really dislike the way ALL sexualisation of women is demonised within certain progressive spaces (while other "sex positive" progressive spaces are more likely to celebrate the sexualisation of women by men), meaning that there is pretty much nowhere it is accepted and normalised for women to sexualise other women. I realise that some women want safe spaces where they don't feel sexualised, but there's a difference between "Please don't sexualise women in this space" and "sexualising women is bad".

A criticism of yarn bombing

Identity should always be part of the gameplay N K Jemisin talking about how oppression and privilege are dealt with in the Dragon Age world. I know some people prefer fantasy worlds with no sexism/racism etc, but personally I tend to enjoy ones which DO have some bigotry as long as it's handled well and in a way that allows for happy endings.

The Naked and the TED A criticism of various books to come out of TED and TED in general.

The missing stair, My friend group has a case of the Creepy Dude. How do we clear that up?, “I am the Lorax, and I speak for the creeps!” Posts on dealing with creepiness (and worse) in other people

Fallacy Watch: No True Klansman Redefining terms like "racism" to refer to attitudes so heinous that nobody actually believes them, thus allowing the speaker to avoid being labelled with the term.

self-care: a buncha links, or something Not all self care can be ~enlightened~ acts like doing activism or eating organic free trade vegetables, but it's still necessary.

Lincoln Against the Radicals "Lincoln is not a movie about Reconstruction, of course; it’s a movie about old white men in beards and wigs heroically working together to save grateful black people."

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