Designated Sidekick

For the record: I am opposed to the Open Source Boob Project because the entitlement principles that underpin it, and the attitudes that seek to validate a view women are property or code are reprehensible, wrongheaded, and thoroughly counter to my belief as a feminist.

I have a moderate suggestion.

Let’s put our male entitled view of women’s bodies as our property to use, modify, open source and otherwise interact with into a neatly closed source wrapper, bundle it in DRM, load it on an iPod and repeatedly strike our narrow minded selves in the face until the bleeding starts, and continue until the ability to stand upright stops. Then let’s have a good hard consideration of the idea that what we’re suggesting is utterly unacceptable conduct, and then let’s retrace our steps, say “Fuck, that was stupid”, apologize for the mindset that lent itself to believing that we have any rights to touch another person, or to request it of strangers, and then learn, evolve as a species and move forward.

That goes double for the first one of you to tell me that I’m taking this too seriously. You know why I take this seriously? Because it’s serious. If you don’t think it’s serious, you’ve not been on the receiving end, or you’ve not thought through the consequences of being on the receiving end.

Accosting a random stranger to ask for a grope is an utterly fucking reprehensibly aggresive and hostile action. It is a validation of the belief that women are property, then men are graced with some right to ask a women, and that there’s some form of magical mystical power dynamic off-switch that means if you asked, then hey, none of the rest of society’s pressure on women to conform apply. Let’s not forget the various dynamics of social pressure, group dynamics, and the need for conformity and belonging, and how there’s a long long history of that being used to put pressure on women. Particularly if the women would be made to feel outsiders in the first place.

As for the fundamental idea that it’s okay if you ask, and that asking isn’t a threat? That has been dealt with by society, listed as workplace harassment if they’re employed at the same place as you.

So, repeat after me

Women are not code.

Breasts are not open source.

Verbal harassment is not harmless

This is not acceptable.

If you can’t follow the logic, I’d recommend reading around the experiences of people who have been sexual harassed, bullied, forced to leave their jobs, threatened for the crime of having breasts, and generally treated as disposable playtoys for overentitled men. Then ask yourself if you’re willing to support the consequences of those actions by supporting this particular movement. If you don’t like those consequences happening, then here’s where a stand can be taken, opposition mustered, voiced and raised.

It’s not acceptable, I do not support it, and I will not support it.

ETA: There has been a retraction and apology posted on the original post.  Someone want to tell me that shouting doesn’t have a place? Guess what convinced the change of heart - loud, obvious vocal dissent.

“Wonderland” is a 2D adventure MMORPG based on several ancient South American and Pacific Island cultures; the mysterious Mayans, the huge stone statues of Easter Island and much more combine to form unique quests filled with fascinating elements that our players will experience throughout the game.

I’m struggling to see how a selection of fairly cliche looking anime characters match up with Easter Island, Mayans and South America. Sure, there’s a small Pacific Island called Japan, but really, what gives with the character set for the proposed storyline of the game?   Seriously, WTF?

Source: WikipediaI figured I’d do an occasional run on my favourite comic book characters who don’t always see a huge amount of headline space.

Starting the series, is War Machine.  I’ll be watching Iron Man 2 in the hope that War Machine gets a decent role.

Who: War Machine (James Rupert Rhodes)

House: Marvel Comics
Moment: In the animated Iron Man series, James Rhodes was struggling with claustrophobia and still showed up to work the Iron Man / War machine suits.  Plus, as an African American pilot, and offsider for Tony Stark, he was given the WarMachine which was the heavy firepower armour.  Sure, the spin off series of the WarMachine comic suffered cross-over-itis, and the usual “Replace Armour with Alien” emergency plot device, but still, War Machine is in my list as a favourite, and he’s a reason for me to hang out for Iron Man 2: The Quickening.

Dear Patriarchy

I remember when you were young, hip and subtle. This? Not so subtle.

Given the rest of Quantum Mechanix posters are heavily stylized, and this is the only photo realistic one in the set, and the only one in the set to feature a female figure, it don’t take much to get the other message being sent here. Women are bad, Battlestar Galactica told me so. This is from an official merchandiser for the Battlestar Galactica series as well, so it’s quality assured Patriarchy Produce.
What’s also missing from the poster set is the recognition of the existence of Kara Starbuck. You want to tell me that the ace hotshot pilot in the fleet isn’t a recruiting mechanism worthy of their own poster? Especially as merchandise to sell to the fanbase of the TV series?

DS

Two unknown guys and a moth
(Image via Wikipedia)

Lisa Fortuna mentions there’s no Wonder Woman cartoon, and it occurred to me, that I wasn’t immediately keen to see a Wonder Woman cartoon produced. Which, given my loyalty to ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, wasn’t entirely something that made sense to me.

I thought about it for a bit, and what struck me wasn’t that I didn’t want a Wonder Woman cartoon - I wanted there to be more than one go-to female lead for a Saturday morning cartoon. The DC male usual suspects list has expanded from the go-to team of Batman and Superman to include Green Arrow and Blue Beetle. So why just stick with a cartoon Amazon when there’s options for a go-to team from Zatanna, Black Canary, Huntress, Spoiler, Misfit, Barda, Supergirl, Raven, Starfire, Arrowette, Mia/Speedy(II) cartoon, Fire, Ice, or Barbara Gordon (either Batgirl or Oracle)

And then it struck me, that I could hear the auto-counterargument of “But nobody knows who [$female_character] is…” as the reflexive beat down. True, few outside of the comic book circles know Arrowette, Speedy, Fire, Ice et al… just like the way few outside of the game know this chap called Blue Beetle. I like the Blue Beetles (more Ted and Jamie, less so Dan) but outside of fandom, who’s really heard of the Blue Beetle? At least Green Arrow was on Smallville but so was Black Canary.

Beetle? His push will come from the cartoon. So I say it’s time to give the push to some less recognized female characters. I mean, imagine a set up of Brave and Bold II: Oracle, Black Canary and Zatanna.

How much literal, figurative and animated ass would this line up kick?