dev_chieftain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-06-19 10:47 am
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-06-19 10:47 am
A couple of articles and thoughts and ohay, Round Two has begun!
1. The Invisible War apparently comes out on June 22 (same day as Brave). Unlike Brave, The Invisible War is a documentary about rape in the military so, I'm gonna guess not family-friendly fun.
On the one hand, I think it's really important that people acknowledge how common and awful rape is, and how the threat of it hangs like a pendulum over the heads of so many people. I get frustrated with talking about this subject because the people who already agree keep agreeing and the people who don't care or would rather pretend it's not real keep continuing to do so. A documentary like this is an opportunity to address this subject without having to talk till I'm blue in the face.
On the other hand, the movie doesn't have a Wikipedia page, or at least, it's not hitting the top page of results for the film. In an odd way this makes it feel more difficult to get a bearing on what the movie is. Wikipedia is pretty ubiquitous as a resource for me; if I want to know the details of something, and to have a few handy links to other sources, wikipedia is where I look for. It's also a 'documentary', which Michael Moore's backwards, bullying practices have definitely taught me to be skeptical about. A documentary that is trying to convince you of a point is just a persuasive essay turned to film; the only documentaries I feel comfortable watching without questioning rigorously are documentaries that are completely comfortable with themselves-- documentaries that have nothing to prove.
Well, this is definitely a story that is about proving the existence of something people would rather deny. I want to just believe it up front because I know the statistics and they're staggering. But I also don't really think it's a good idea to trust a movie with an obvious agenda at face-value, and I especially don't feel comfortable with the idea of actively questioning and picking apart the documentary to make sure it's as legitimate as possible before defending it. I don't feel comfortable with potentially questioning whether rape victims' horrible trauma is legitimate because the problem in our society is that people ALWAYS question the legitimacy of rape and sexual assault victims' testimony, instead of trusting that yes, I know what happened to my own body, thanks. It's ridiculous-- it's like asking if a stab wound is REALLY a stab wound, because didn't I just back into a pointy stick and not get stabbed?
And the biggest problem is, I cry over documentaries. I cried over Bowling for Columbine and Danny's probably going to find it hilarious, but I cried over Fahrenheit 911. In both cases it was out of grief for the people who actually suffered, and anger at the people who were taking advantage of that suffering and televising it, using it for their own personal aims. I cried over a documentary about that horrible cult family in Kansas-- for these children who were clearly going to be brought up trapped in the same family. What a nightmare. I cried over that. I cry when I see sad things, I cried when I saw a student film documenting the brutality of the Phoenix Police Force against prostitutes, and sexual assault against women addicted to meth here in the state. (That was the most depressing student film ever. And I guess it could be counted as a documentary.)
I want to support this film and the idea of exposing what a big problem rape is, but I don't have it in me right now to be wrung through emotionally and watch women relate the utter fucking HOPELESSNESS that they felt, and FEEL, because of the injustice they were and ARE forced to live with every day. So, just, maybe later, and it's probably important to keep in mind for then, but not right now. I can't.
2. So What If I'm A Woman: Let Me Play the Damn Game is still depressing, though thankfully the article is just covering sexism in the workplace / video games industry and not anything to do with rape particularly.
As someone who: a) found, downloaded, played and beat Eversion on a whim this weekend before recommending it to Danny; b) is handling the design and story for a video game project (while Danny handles the programming); c) hates modern shooters because of vertical access but loves Wolfenstein 3D era shooters just fine, I really sympathize with the author of the article. I can't stand the fact that people would ever treat me this way, but they do.
Happens in D&D sometimes; the guys will all argue that it's because I'm relatively new, but relatively new here now means about six or seven years of playing experience. At what point does one stop being "relatively new"? I won't let it pass if I can pinpoint it in social interactions. Sometimes it'll be something as simple as interrupting a guy who interrupts me while I'm asking a question about the specific requirements of a game campaign and explaining right back at them: "NO. I understand just fine that these feats do this, and this number will be affected. I am asking you whether, for this specific game, X feat will be permitted or required. Yes, or no?"
It doesn't always work, but does more often than not. I consider myself lucky for that.
3. And here's a positive article to soothe the ache of the previous two. This kind of attitude makes me hopeful that I won't be the ignored minority in a crowd.
Supporting women's rights to choose to do whatever they want for their health is extremely important to me. It's as important as a woman's right to feel. I can't tell you how many times a guy has said to me-- probably innocently, trying to share a sweet sentiment or something-- one of the following:
"You should smile more!"
"I think you're even prettier when you smile."
"I like to hear girls laughing."
"It makes me happy to see you happy."
"I just want you to be able to be happy."
"I just don't like to see you all stressed out."
This is one of those really awkward ones because it's meant as a compliment, but can feel like a sanction, a lot of the time. The first is most obvious, but basically, when someone says something like this, they're conveying a subtle sentiment that you shouldn't ever be anything but happy; and further, that if you made it clear you were happy by smiling all the time, that'd make it easier to see that you were happy, so they'd like that.
Obviously, I don't feel threatened by these sentiments, and I understand the well-meaning behind them. It's pretty wonderful to have friends who genuinely want to see to their friends' happiness; but when that happiness becomes a condition of continued friendship, it can get a little awkward. You mean if I'm human and have a bad day, you're going to disapprove and be annoyed about it? You mean if I don't smile and laugh all the time, and maintain a normal expression instead, you're going to feel like I'm not happy enough? That I'm not enjoying myself enough? Sure, smiling takes fewer muscles than frowning, but the natural state of the face is what we call a 'blank' expression. Smiling still takes effort!
Little choices matter, like being able to go around not-smiling and not be called names and badgered and bothered for it (though people of any gender are certainly capable of such antics and neither men nor women should be singled out as being more prone to it-- it's a type of personality, and it's pervasive). So if it can sometimes-- not always, but sometimes get to me when people don't offer support of my right to just sit around without smiling purposefully and forcedly to show that I Really Am Having A Most Lovely Time, Mister Darcy!, I think it's totally crappy that ladies who make the choice to get an abortion have to put up with active shunning and the like for making that choice. If it's not your body, what right have you to make the final decision about what's done with it? We grant people the right to decide how you dispose of their body in their will regardless of gender, why should we deny those rights to women until they're dead? That's just bogus.
I think treating abortion like a big scary thing is detrimental to everyone. I've had friends who've had abortions and you know what? I'm proud of them. It was the smart thing to do for the SAKE of that child. If a parent, or if parents, hopefully, are not ready for children yet, they are not ready. Only THEY can make that decision. And making someone a parent who doesn't want to be? That's just unwise and unfair. It's like an active effort to keep the poor poorer.
4. Thoughts on Sleeping Beauty. I watched a documentary about it yesterday that had been linked on Kate Beaton's tumblr. I enjoy watching the documentaries for animated films, but I've admittedly seen more about Disney's Sleeping Beauty than most films. That particular one's on my mind because I've undertaken a writing project to do a story about Maleficent as a fully-developed character with a desire to pursue a romantic relationship with Aurora.
I've always loved this movie more than the rest because of the animation. I also pretty much solidly love dragons and thus I loved Maleficent, who is the coolest of the cool. I actually have a pretty big soft spot for the fairies, and I like Philip and Aurora. I even like Aurora's dad (I'd include her mom, but she's not enough of a character to really get to know her). A lot of folks have complained about the Disney fairy tale movies; I know a lot of people don't like the princesses, either because of the Disney Princess line (understandable) or because they don't like the way the princesses represent womanhood, femininity, role models for little girls, etc.
Not going to argue one way or the other on these things, at least not today. What I'd really hope is that people can look past that stuff and see that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both are pretty much the masterpieces of Disney's studio-- like, the biggest, raddest pieces they ever made, visually, that were the most wild-- during his lifetime. The other movies were still cool in their own ways, but Snow White was a pretty incredible undertaking and Sleeping Beauty was the next project of the same level of intensity and perfectionism at work. (It could be argued that Mary Poppins falls into line as the third of these films that Disney had personal influence on, but I'm a little bit on the fence about that one. I feel like that's a case where P. L. Travers may have been a bit harsh in response to the whole process, but that she had a right to, and that Disney and company should have conducted themselves more respectfully and chose not to-- possibly BECAUSE Travers was a woman in the 60's. Pretty hard to say 'yup, they did good!' when I can also point to Travers and say, 'despite having minimal control over the end product and being repeatedly lied to about whether or not Disney and company would follow her outlined requirements re: the movie of the books, Travers was able to keep one very important detail intact-- that Mary Poppins and Bert were NOT in a romantic relationship'. I'm pretty proud of her for that.
There's no point to these musings really. They're just musings!
5. Round Two of the RangersUnited contest has begun! We're getting slightly more time this round, so I've started planning. Once I know for sure about a couple of details I'm going to give myself a schedule and try to keep it less grueling so I can get a greater amount of work done with less creative exhaustion than last time, haha! But I'm excited.
On the one hand, I think it's really important that people acknowledge how common and awful rape is, and how the threat of it hangs like a pendulum over the heads of so many people. I get frustrated with talking about this subject because the people who already agree keep agreeing and the people who don't care or would rather pretend it's not real keep continuing to do so. A documentary like this is an opportunity to address this subject without having to talk till I'm blue in the face.
On the other hand, the movie doesn't have a Wikipedia page, or at least, it's not hitting the top page of results for the film. In an odd way this makes it feel more difficult to get a bearing on what the movie is. Wikipedia is pretty ubiquitous as a resource for me; if I want to know the details of something, and to have a few handy links to other sources, wikipedia is where I look for. It's also a 'documentary', which Michael Moore's backwards, bullying practices have definitely taught me to be skeptical about. A documentary that is trying to convince you of a point is just a persuasive essay turned to film; the only documentaries I feel comfortable watching without questioning rigorously are documentaries that are completely comfortable with themselves-- documentaries that have nothing to prove.
Well, this is definitely a story that is about proving the existence of something people would rather deny. I want to just believe it up front because I know the statistics and they're staggering. But I also don't really think it's a good idea to trust a movie with an obvious agenda at face-value, and I especially don't feel comfortable with the idea of actively questioning and picking apart the documentary to make sure it's as legitimate as possible before defending it. I don't feel comfortable with potentially questioning whether rape victims' horrible trauma is legitimate because the problem in our society is that people ALWAYS question the legitimacy of rape and sexual assault victims' testimony, instead of trusting that yes, I know what happened to my own body, thanks. It's ridiculous-- it's like asking if a stab wound is REALLY a stab wound, because didn't I just back into a pointy stick and not get stabbed?
And the biggest problem is, I cry over documentaries. I cried over Bowling for Columbine and Danny's probably going to find it hilarious, but I cried over Fahrenheit 911. In both cases it was out of grief for the people who actually suffered, and anger at the people who were taking advantage of that suffering and televising it, using it for their own personal aims. I cried over a documentary about that horrible cult family in Kansas-- for these children who were clearly going to be brought up trapped in the same family. What a nightmare. I cried over that. I cry when I see sad things, I cried when I saw a student film documenting the brutality of the Phoenix Police Force against prostitutes, and sexual assault against women addicted to meth here in the state. (That was the most depressing student film ever. And I guess it could be counted as a documentary.)
I want to support this film and the idea of exposing what a big problem rape is, but I don't have it in me right now to be wrung through emotionally and watch women relate the utter fucking HOPELESSNESS that they felt, and FEEL, because of the injustice they were and ARE forced to live with every day. So, just, maybe later, and it's probably important to keep in mind for then, but not right now. I can't.
2. So What If I'm A Woman: Let Me Play the Damn Game is still depressing, though thankfully the article is just covering sexism in the workplace / video games industry and not anything to do with rape particularly.
As someone who: a) found, downloaded, played and beat Eversion on a whim this weekend before recommending it to Danny; b) is handling the design and story for a video game project (while Danny handles the programming); c) hates modern shooters because of vertical access but loves Wolfenstein 3D era shooters just fine, I really sympathize with the author of the article. I can't stand the fact that people would ever treat me this way, but they do.
Happens in D&D sometimes; the guys will all argue that it's because I'm relatively new, but relatively new here now means about six or seven years of playing experience. At what point does one stop being "relatively new"? I won't let it pass if I can pinpoint it in social interactions. Sometimes it'll be something as simple as interrupting a guy who interrupts me while I'm asking a question about the specific requirements of a game campaign and explaining right back at them: "NO. I understand just fine that these feats do this, and this number will be affected. I am asking you whether, for this specific game, X feat will be permitted or required. Yes, or no?"
It doesn't always work, but does more often than not. I consider myself lucky for that.
3. And here's a positive article to soothe the ache of the previous two. This kind of attitude makes me hopeful that I won't be the ignored minority in a crowd.
Supporting women's rights to choose to do whatever they want for their health is extremely important to me. It's as important as a woman's right to feel. I can't tell you how many times a guy has said to me-- probably innocently, trying to share a sweet sentiment or something-- one of the following:
"You should smile more!"
"I think you're even prettier when you smile."
"I like to hear girls laughing."
"It makes me happy to see you happy."
"I just want you to be able to be happy."
"I just don't like to see you all stressed out."
This is one of those really awkward ones because it's meant as a compliment, but can feel like a sanction, a lot of the time. The first is most obvious, but basically, when someone says something like this, they're conveying a subtle sentiment that you shouldn't ever be anything but happy; and further, that if you made it clear you were happy by smiling all the time, that'd make it easier to see that you were happy, so they'd like that.
Obviously, I don't feel threatened by these sentiments, and I understand the well-meaning behind them. It's pretty wonderful to have friends who genuinely want to see to their friends' happiness; but when that happiness becomes a condition of continued friendship, it can get a little awkward. You mean if I'm human and have a bad day, you're going to disapprove and be annoyed about it? You mean if I don't smile and laugh all the time, and maintain a normal expression instead, you're going to feel like I'm not happy enough? That I'm not enjoying myself enough? Sure, smiling takes fewer muscles than frowning, but the natural state of the face is what we call a 'blank' expression. Smiling still takes effort!
Little choices matter, like being able to go around not-smiling and not be called names and badgered and bothered for it (though people of any gender are certainly capable of such antics and neither men nor women should be singled out as being more prone to it-- it's a type of personality, and it's pervasive). So if it can sometimes-- not always, but sometimes get to me when people don't offer support of my right to just sit around without smiling purposefully and forcedly to show that I Really Am Having A Most Lovely Time, Mister Darcy!, I think it's totally crappy that ladies who make the choice to get an abortion have to put up with active shunning and the like for making that choice. If it's not your body, what right have you to make the final decision about what's done with it? We grant people the right to decide how you dispose of their body in their will regardless of gender, why should we deny those rights to women until they're dead? That's just bogus.
I think treating abortion like a big scary thing is detrimental to everyone. I've had friends who've had abortions and you know what? I'm proud of them. It was the smart thing to do for the SAKE of that child. If a parent, or if parents, hopefully, are not ready for children yet, they are not ready. Only THEY can make that decision. And making someone a parent who doesn't want to be? That's just unwise and unfair. It's like an active effort to keep the poor poorer.
4. Thoughts on Sleeping Beauty. I watched a documentary about it yesterday that had been linked on Kate Beaton's tumblr. I enjoy watching the documentaries for animated films, but I've admittedly seen more about Disney's Sleeping Beauty than most films. That particular one's on my mind because I've undertaken a writing project to do a story about Maleficent as a fully-developed character with a desire to pursue a romantic relationship with Aurora.
I've always loved this movie more than the rest because of the animation. I also pretty much solidly love dragons and thus I loved Maleficent, who is the coolest of the cool. I actually have a pretty big soft spot for the fairies, and I like Philip and Aurora. I even like Aurora's dad (I'd include her mom, but she's not enough of a character to really get to know her). A lot of folks have complained about the Disney fairy tale movies; I know a lot of people don't like the princesses, either because of the Disney Princess line (understandable) or because they don't like the way the princesses represent womanhood, femininity, role models for little girls, etc.
Not going to argue one way or the other on these things, at least not today. What I'd really hope is that people can look past that stuff and see that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both are pretty much the masterpieces of Disney's studio-- like, the biggest, raddest pieces they ever made, visually, that were the most wild-- during his lifetime. The other movies were still cool in their own ways, but Snow White was a pretty incredible undertaking and Sleeping Beauty was the next project of the same level of intensity and perfectionism at work. (It could be argued that Mary Poppins falls into line as the third of these films that Disney had personal influence on, but I'm a little bit on the fence about that one. I feel like that's a case where P. L. Travers may have been a bit harsh in response to the whole process, but that she had a right to, and that Disney and company should have conducted themselves more respectfully and chose not to-- possibly BECAUSE Travers was a woman in the 60's. Pretty hard to say 'yup, they did good!' when I can also point to Travers and say, 'despite having minimal control over the end product and being repeatedly lied to about whether or not Disney and company would follow her outlined requirements re: the movie of the books, Travers was able to keep one very important detail intact-- that Mary Poppins and Bert were NOT in a romantic relationship'. I'm pretty proud of her for that.
There's no point to these musings really. They're just musings!
5. Round Two of the RangersUnited contest has begun! We're getting slightly more time this round, so I've started planning. Once I know for sure about a couple of details I'm going to give myself a schedule and try to keep it less grueling so I can get a greater amount of work done with less creative exhaustion than last time, haha! But I'm excited.