Laughter Through Tears

Disability in SFF: Not a Link Roundup

Fri, 05 Feb 2016 11:14:43 GMT

Casil has immersed herself fully in a flawed understanding of disability that I tend to think of as the “character balance” fallacy. In a tabletop RPG, character types are generally written to be balanced, so that each player will have a fun and interesting experience. A swordfighter might be better at up-close combat but vulnerable to magical attacks, for example, while a mage might have the ability to shoot long-distance firebolts but be unable to wear much armor. Ideally, characters have equal advantages and disadvantages. Some games even have systems where you can “buy” advantages with disadvantages. Want more points to spend on more impressive spells? Find something that will make your character’s life more difficult, and maybe you can make that work.

Excerpted from Human flaws and disability: NOT the same thing by Tili Sokolov, because it struck me that it was an unusual but apropos perspective. I got there via Jim Hines' No, We’re Not All Disabled, a very even-toned takedown of the original blog post in question. Note that the original post, which Hines quotes extensively, is the kind of ablist bullshit that makes a weird vein pop in my forehead, so. Content note to those who don't need that toxicity in their lives on a Friday afternoon.

Now this just reminds me that I need to write more about "how (not to) write disability" and I've been putting it off.

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Destiny and Volition

Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:10:46 GMT

Now and then I deal with a section in a book that upsets me so much I have to seriously evaluate whether I want to keep reading it. It happened to me twice, recently; once, with Jacqueline Carey's Naamah's Curse, and the second time, with Robin Hobb's Blood of Dragons (just now). Because I'm stubborn, I tend to try to delay this moment as long as possible. Invariably, this turns out to be a grave error. Someday I will be able to train myself to put the book down before I'm so angry that I can barely restrain myself from tearing it to shreds.

As the ancient elven saying goes, this is not a book to be set aside lightly.

( Read more... )

I worked nearly an hour on this entry and I'm still nervous about it so I might as well just hit post.

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Entertaining Myself in the Dim Hours of Early Evening

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:58:47 GMT

Browsing free romance e-book summaries is endlessly more satisfying when Jailbreak the Matriarchy is installed.

Inspired by Book Depository's big sale on books that no one wants.

ETA: Case in point, some choice extracts:

"[W]illing to risk his life <...> even if it means giving himself over to a woman he's never met."

"Two sisters want to possess him."

"He’s a fiery-tempered fighter pilot..." (that's more than enough, really)

"A lifetime of sheltering makes him reckless."

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Badge

Wed, 29 May 2013 07:34:31 GMT

I posted "the Margaret Atwood" on a thread about geek dating and my comment received two downvotes. I shall wear them with pride.

Then they went on to talk about how pretty girls never have any problems. #misandry4lyfe

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I Hate Reading About Masculinity

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:22:04 GMT

I can write a lot of things into the seminar paper I'm (ostensibly) working on, but I don't think I can get away with making the argument that psychiatry speciously groups together homosexuality, male bisexuality, female gender dysphoria, and straight male crossdressing -- merely because all of these are equally threatening to the modern conception of heterosexual masculinity.

Snippet behind the cut.

( I have no idea what I'm doing, this is what flailing in the dark looks like. )

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Sinfest

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:37:24 GMT

I've been reading the Sinfest archives in reverse. This is a thing I do with webcomics to make them more entertaining. Picking out the details of ongoing storylines and piecing together when they started and how they developed becomes like a scavenger hunt. The most recent strips of Sinfest were very interesting, going about a year back. Before that, things start getting depressing.

For example: A girl apologizes to her guy friend because she used to be a cock-tease but now she's reformed. The saddest part? This takes place during an otherwise quite interesting discussion of the "friend zone" construct. Prior to this, the same girl "causes" a million men to be damned to hell by turning around and letting them see her ass. Later she gets a royalties check from the devil. Then this.

IDEK, maybe I should stop reading and spare myself. Stick to the newer, less regurgitated strips.

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The Perils of Academia, Or Something

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:17:14 GMT

This week has been weird.

I just... don't know what I'm feeling anymore. Am I panicking? Am I anxious? Am I complacent? Am I having a breakdown? Am I physically ill? Have I got my shit together? Am I turning my life around? Am I giving up too easily? Am I clinging to something obsolete and worthless? Is my life moving forward, straying or stagnating?

I wish I could take a magical certainty pill. I guess that's the attraction of games. They give you limited options so you basically always know what you should be doing.

The guy I had to talk to today just couldn't figure out why I spent forty five minutes talking about classes and exams when he asked me about my life. He also couldn't seem to grasp why I was so concerned with my financial future. I guess he was expecting something along the lines of 'This is my plan for having a penis inside of me and later also babies' or something along those lines.

School. Work. Making something of my life. Achieving something tangible. Securing my future. These are not odd goals for a woman of almost twenty eight.

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Jailbreaking it

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:21:56 GMT

I installed Jailbreak the Patriarchy based on an article on Autostraddle thinking that I would probably cave and remove it immediately but ASDFGHJKL; it makes reading IO9 so tolerable I wish I could install it on TV shows.

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Work vs. Play

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 06:29:26 GMT

Should I allow myself to get subsumed in emotion today, and work on my class assignments tomorrow, or the other way around?

Yes, I am still wading in the miasma of uncontrollable erupting feelings that this spring has decided to land on me. No, I don't know how or why. Yes, I am trying to find a more long-term solution for the matter, but it is hard.

Last night I went out to a "lights show" with my brother, but it was sort of a disaster. I had a big panic attack.

I wish my grades more often reflected my level of interest in the material I learned. Sometimes they do, but not enough. Especially this semester, when I basically loved almost all my classes, but I feel like outside factors got in the way and I won't score very well. Sometimes I feel judged by vague external forces with no name. I guess that's an anxiety thing.

Earlier this week, my knee got fucked up right before pilates. The second half of the week I was kind of a mess and that makes buses and trains complicated because I have to sit diagonally. My knee won't go to ninety degrees when it's pretty badly off. This also triggers the "everyone is silently judging me" reaction.

Video games and comics have decided to be ass this week, and I can't really deal with it but I will feel cowardly if I ignore it. The Lara Croft things especially brings up a lot of crap that I seriously don't know how to process at this juncture. Ugh everyone please stop this forever, haven't we already been through this dance enough times?

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WHAT. WHAT IS THIS EVEN. I CANNOT.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:05:23 GMT

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE NO FEMALE DWARVES IN DRAGON AGE II. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BULLFUCKERY I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS SHIT.

FUCK.

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Race and Fandom Redux

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:25:53 GMT

So I hear some Hunger Games fans have gone all Blaise Zabini on the fandom's ass after watching the film.

How fucking depressing.

Anyway I totally want to watch the movie because it sounds fluffy and fun. I do have that damn neuro lab tomorrow, though, so I don't know if I'll have the energy to go out on Thursday night. Bluh. Tomorrow will be bad, I have ten straight hours of class with only one free period. Also I cooked food for the whole week but it's already almost run out, I have to do some cooking tonight or something. Which means I have to stop for groceries on the way back from the library.

And I will apparently need to buy the Cognitive Neuroscience book, because checking it out from the library every time I need it simply won't work.

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Loofah Gloves Only

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:08:33 GMT

Is it wrong that I'm sort of excited that last night's Big Bang Theory ep made a no homo joke about women?

Related, I could probably write a whole thing about failed lesbian subtext on TV. Even if I have only two examples.

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whoa.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:54:07 GMT

Gloria Steinem on Chelsea Lately. Whoa.

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Accessibility & My Experience

Sun, 15 May 2011 16:29:14 GMT

So. This fonsfaq thing is a thing, and marina has most magnanimously put up a post for questions about Israel. These are difficult questions! And very interesting ones!

Marina gave a long answer about disability laws, and some things regarding military service. I wanted to write something a little more personal, and possibly drop some anecdotes.

I am going to ramble like there's no tomorrow.

( I have a chronic illness. )

( I am a university student. )

When it comes down to it, I don't think Israel is that different from other places to be ill or disabled in. Doctors will be exhausting, strangers also. Places like clinics and hospitals, and government offices, are more likely to be accessible than other types of places, like restaurants, places of work or entertainment venues. Yuppie neighborhoods like my current one are more likely to have accessible businesses than places like my old neighborhood, which was populated by students, religious families and work immigrants. Laws for the rights of people with disabilities both exist and are insufficient. People are people -- it's hard to predict ahead of time whether they'll be exhausting or forthcoming.

I have been writing this entry for more than an hour and I rambled much worse than I feared. Here, have a jazzy performance of an Israeli lullaby:

( YouTube video )

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Game of Thrones

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:09:20 GMT

I have Thoughts on Game of Thrones 1x1-2.

( Read more... )

Whoops I got paleontology on your epic fantasy.

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TDOR

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 11:24:21 GMT

Today is the twelfth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. The LGBT Association in Israel had a march on Thursday. Apparently about 70 people attended, I don't know whether to think that's a lot or a little.

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Sauce which is Awesome

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:51:31 GMT

I am tired of school and I have a headache, so let us have some awesome stuff.

For National Coming Out Day, FYLGBT had a post entitled Growing Up Gay in 666: Fred Phelps in Retrospect, which is fascinating and sort of terrifying, and well worth a read.

nextian made an awesome post called the female character Yenta meme where people recommend awesome stuff with awesome ladies to each other. Sharing the love is always cool, and it's interesting to see what people are into. I posted here even though I already have a reading list a mile long, because I am greedy.

As a sort of down payment, I'd like to throw out some names of stuff I like with awesome ladies in it, and say something about why they're awesome: ( Cut for list of epic rambling )

Hey, it turns out I have less stamina for this than I thought. Maybe I'll do more tomorrow, or on the weekend. On the upside? My headache is mostly gone.

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I will post about something other than exams, I swear

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:07:41 GMT

I am one rat lordosis essay away from sporking my eyes out. ( Read more... )

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Linkspam says: "Ow."

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:15:19 GMT

To avoid thinking about my unruly joints and confronting my doctor with a List of Questions, have a little linkspam. These are some of the links I preemptively kept open yesterday afternoon, so that I would have something to amuse myself during a three hour lecture with no internet. All in all, there were about a dozen, and one of them was a bust because it was the summary of a review and not the review itself. :(

femslash10! I am considering signing up, but I don't know about the listed fandoms. I will scrutinize the comments and decide.

Kate Harding has Evo Psych and Icky Girls, a guest blogger's awesome takedown of one of those dubious, prejudiced and all-around embarrassing to science evolutionary psychology studies. The same dubious researcher is featured on Queerty, with a study about fag hags and self-esteem, which is frankly embarrassing in its quality.

A relationship chart of esteemed personages from IO9, which includes Queen Victoria, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Pablo Picasso, Leon Trotsky and, of course, Kevin Bacon.

Fuck, yeah, tattoos and biology.

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Grr. Argh.

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:21:17 GMT

I am too tired and cranky and generally upset to post about how certain authors feel about psychiatric medications and so-called "artistic temperaments". Suffice it to say, I am not well pleased. More comprehensive coverage can be found here. This sucks especially, since this time it's hit one of my favorite authors. Ugh.

Playing around with evil sims is much more relaxing. Do you know what qualifies for evil among sims? Ineffectually "masterminding plots" and stealing candy from babies, which makes them cry, but which they would not otherwise be able to, you know, eat. Sometimes they glow red. They don't mind unlit rooms or haunted graveyards. Sim evil is much more benign than human good.

Tomorrow: vampires vs. elves.

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Homeowners' Manual

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:04:00 GMT

This linkspamming is becoming a habit.

I am very looking forward to this movie, because how often do you get films about pagan astronomer ladies? Even though it will likely be less fascinating than her actual life, and much more dramatized, and the trailed is just ~lolarious~.

Another lady scientist they should make a movie about: Saint Hildegard von Bingen. I first heard of her when I was reading up on the early history of geology (my dad is a geologist) and she was one of the first people in Medieval Europe to collect and catalog minerals and the like. She was also remarkable on many other levels, and it appears she had her fingers in just about every science and art that was available to her.

Out of all possible X meets Y premises, X-Men meets Little House on the Prairie wins. Especially when it looks like this.

I haven't read this review of Persuasion all the way through yet, but so far I've found it fascinating and insightful.

When you describe a book that "opens with a dispute over how much of a father's body should be eaten by each family member", it makes me want to read it.

shiegra wrote about vampires, heroines and sex in a way that compelled me to subscribe to her. I was compelled.

I swear I will finish that meta post sometime soon. No, I don't know why I'm suddenly fascinated by vampires, I just am.

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They're gonna crucify me

Tue, 25 May 2010 21:26:07 GMT

I am avoiding thinking about how the next four weeks are going to be hell on wheels, so have some random links:

I know I've become the world's fastest-declining Daily Squee addict, but the fennec fox and the capybara are exceptionally squee, even for me. Trufax: were it not for the various ludicrous Facebook games I play, I wouldn't even know what a fennec fox is.

FEMINIST HULK makes an exception for bell hooks. I am the last person in the interblags to know about feminist Hulk. And here is the actual twitter account.

I've been following fuck yeah, bisexuals for a while. I am always, always hungry for more bi blogs, and Tumblr puts a wealth of queerness at my fingertips. {o/

Cupcakes are a wonderful theme for tattoos, and I approve.

My excellent friend Hez visits Greece for the second time, basks in the sunny weather, and finds time to muse about international relations, tourism and the different approaches to archeology. Because apparently I have awesome taste in friends.

My brother finally got me to watch Across the Universe, which he is slightly obsessed with it. I'd seen some from the beginning and end, but my favorite parts are in the middle, so I didn't get the full experience. I Want You (She's So Heavy) was my favorite, both in the musical adaptation, in the story behind it, and in the choreography. It also got the song stuck in my head, so fair warning.

No matter how many times I visit My Food Looks Funny, Chrome will not save it in my history. It's so weird.

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Augh.

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:15:58 GMT

So exhausted constantly. Hope it's the heat (32C high today) and not something drastic.

The presentation went all right, I knew the material a lot better than last time and so was only typically nervous. I misspoke a few times, but it was only (what I have just looked up and learned is called in English) metathesis. I got a couple of compliments too, even though most people don't really listen that much. The article chain we were working on was pretty interesting. I posted to pfc about the first one. I consider that my contribution to 3W4DW, since I post to this journal exclusively, so this "content" doesn't count.

Today I got blood drawn and now I have to try and put off my doctor's appointment by a week or so, because there's no way my bloodwork will be done on time. Tomorrow night is the Students' Day show, which should be super-awesome because they brought Kool and the Gang, and it's absurdly cheap for an international caliber show. Next week is Shavuot and I am looking at cool recipes for dairy-related products.

Oh! I almost forgot why I meant to post to begin with. My social psychology lecturer totally redeemed herself in today's class, where she very gently and evenly went off about positive thinking theory. She basically said that she doesn't know what merit it has, but that saying that people get/stay sick because they aren't thinking positively enough is victim blaming. ♥ Dr. R.

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Things That Will Have to Wait

Sat, 01 May 2010 15:01:59 GMT

Here is a list of things that will have to wait until I've finished my bacteriophage lab report:

1. Blogging against disablism day, reading and relinking thereof.
2. My Dreamwidth bloggaversary, which is either today or tomorrow.
3. Posting to pfc, which I have been putting off for about a week and a half.
4. Pants. I seriously need new pants.
5. Reading comics. I am sadly behind and don't have time to catch up.
6. Replying to comments? I don't even remember if I'm behind or not.
7. Going to the market to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables, not to mention other non-approximate food.

Here is a list of things that can't wait until I finish my lab report:

1. Statistics homework, due Monday afternoon. Pairs assignment.
2. 3/4 page summary of an article about "anger and the behavioral approach system", due, as a presentation, in two weeks. Group assignment.

I swear I will post about something more interesting than school, someday soon.

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Your Yucky Body

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:10:21 GMT

The Boiling Point: Your Yucky Body.

Don't miss: Lucy Loser! The inspirational tough love show about a perky plus-size gal whose hubby humiliates her into dramatic mouth removal surgery! From the producers of the big fat reality hit "Puke Your A** Off!"

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