![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Steampunk, books, cake and minor epiphany
Aug. 9th, 2008 09:31 amMan, there are so many good links on and coming out of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ibarw.
Anyway: Anyone who's interesting in Steampunk should check out this discussion, since as well as getting somewhat into some of the underlying racism it also has very pretty pictures, plus some cool ideas.
Two IBARW posts about australia: By strangedave and on a similar theme Australia doesn't have racism? (Actually![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tielan's whole race tag has a lot of interesting stuff)
Also from her lj, and in order to inspire the engaged couples on my flist: Cake Wrecks
I have joined50books_poc, since it nicely dovetails with my desire to read a wider variety of good books, and be better educated. I have a list of books to reserve at the library, assuming I get around to getting out of the house before it closes...
I had a sudden (probably rather obvious) thought last night: a common tactic of those trying to derail/dismiss discussions about some injustice (from feminism to animal rights and the environment) is "Why are you picking on this one minor injustice A instead of focussing on major injustice B?"
There's a lot of good rebuttals to this, one of which is that the people making this argument almost certainly are doing less to fight injustice B than the person they're criticising.
But I think one motivation for using this argument is: "I am aware that B is a problem, and deep down think I should do more to fix it. This makes me feel guilty. If you are right, and A is also a problem, then I need to feel guilty about that too. And probably lots of other stuff. And I don't feel like feeling even more bad! Life is hard enough as it is!" Which isn't a very good argument, but it isn't deliberately trolling either, just...selfish I guess.
(I decided this post was too chatty and vague to count towards IBARW)
ibarw. Anyway: Anyone who's interesting in Steampunk should check out this discussion, since as well as getting somewhat into some of the underlying racism it also has very pretty pictures, plus some cool ideas.
Two IBARW posts about australia: By strangedave and on a similar theme Australia doesn't have racism? (Actually
tielan's whole race tag has a lot of interesting stuff)Also from her lj, and in order to inspire the engaged couples on my flist: Cake Wrecks
I have joined
50books_poc, since it nicely dovetails with my desire to read a wider variety of good books, and be better educated. I have a list of books to reserve at the library, assuming I get around to getting out of the house before it closes...I had a sudden (probably rather obvious) thought last night: a common tactic of those trying to derail/dismiss discussions about some injustice (from feminism to animal rights and the environment) is "Why are you picking on this one minor injustice A instead of focussing on major injustice B?"
There's a lot of good rebuttals to this, one of which is that the people making this argument almost certainly are doing less to fight injustice B than the person they're criticising.
But I think one motivation for using this argument is: "I am aware that B is a problem, and deep down think I should do more to fix it. This makes me feel guilty. If you are right, and A is also a problem, then I need to feel guilty about that too. And probably lots of other stuff. And I don't feel like feeling even more bad! Life is hard enough as it is!" Which isn't a very good argument, but it isn't deliberately trolling either, just...selfish I guess.
(I decided this post was too chatty and vague to count towards IBARW)
The icky wobbly greyness of my brain
Jul. 15th, 2008 09:07 pmSo, I've been thinking for quite a while about writing a "Why I'm an antiracist" post along the lines of my why I'm a feminist one. Partly to explain because people have asked, and also to get it straight in my head.
Some of the reasons are reasonably straight-forward and reasonable1, but I had a rather unpleasant epiphany about it today. Namely, I think one of the reasons I focus on race in particular, instead of other "-isms" I'm not personally oppressed by like homophobia, is because in some ways it's easy.
( In which I poke at my brain and am dismayed at what I find )
Some of the reasons are reasonably straight-forward and reasonable1, but I had a rather unpleasant epiphany about it today. Namely, I think one of the reasons I focus on race in particular, instead of other "-isms" I'm not personally oppressed by like homophobia, is because in some ways it's easy.
( In which I poke at my brain and am dismayed at what I find )
Epiphany about fans
Nov. 10th, 2007 03:39 pmSo I've read a bunch of online fannish arguments where people go "These sorts of fans are crazy" and give examples, and then talk about the way fans should actually think, and end up conflating "Crazy fans" and "People whose attitudes are rational, but different to mine". And I had thought about where one should draw the line.
( Some of these things are not like the others... )
( Some of these things are not like the others... )
Yet another probably erroneous epiphany
Aug. 8th, 2007 06:44 pmThis is based very much on my experiences as an Australian and reading english period works like Jane Austen and Dorothy L Sayers. Also while I'm feeling better than I was earlier today it's probably still pretty garbled! I wouldn't have posted till later but hey, ibarw and it means I can replace my insanely long reply to this post with a link to this one :)
Anyway, some thoughts on how sexism and classism differ inherently from racism and homophobia. I'm not putting them in a heirachy of badness, just saying they're different, though of course a lot of the same issues of privilige and othering etc apply. People suck in pretty consistent ways :(
( Read more... )
ibarw and it means I can replace my insanely long reply to this post with a link to this one :)Anyway, some thoughts on how sexism and classism differ inherently from racism and homophobia. I'm not putting them in a heirachy of badness, just saying they're different, though of course a lot of the same issues of privilige and othering etc apply. People suck in pretty consistent ways :(
( Read more... )
