Gallhammer
On HU
Featured Archive Post: Jones, One of the Jones Boys on visual aliens; characters drawn in a different style than everything around them.
Jack B. on Johnny Ryan and the appeal of bullying.
We’re going to have an indie comics vs. context death match roundtable.
RM Rhodes says stop complaining about Marvel and DC and vote with your feet.
Kailyn Kent on how the romance narrative eats Lucy in A Room With a View.
Richard Cook and I live-blogged the Presidential address on Syria.
Richard Cook with ads of food from comic books.
Me on seeing and not seeing race in the Pixies, Danity Kane, Johnny Ryan and Bloom County.
Chris Gavaler on superhero anatomy then and now.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I wish people would talk about poems rather than poetry.
Also at the Atlantic I talk about the uncomfortable racist roots of anti-interventionism.
At the Chicago Reader I’ve got some previews of upcoming pomo museum shows.
At Splice I explain to the mainstream that black metal does not equal fascism necessarily (just genocide.)
I also argue that morally shaming people for not putting their kids in public school is not a good idea.
Other Links
An excerpt about being an ally to trans women from Julia Serano’s wonderful book Excluded.
Jeet Heer interviewed about his new book about Francoise Mouly.
Interesting piece at Slate refuting the case for charter schools and vouchers.
And Richard Dawkins once again brings shame to atheists everywhere. Thanks, Richard.
As a fan of so much queer theory, I’m surprised that Dawkins’ comment upset you (other than as another opportunity to say you don’t like him, that is). Tolerance of pedophilia is pretty common in those circles. It falls out of a constructivist view of sexuality and gender (I’m not sure it has, too, but I haven’t thought about it much). I believe Sedgwick has made a similar point. And Delaney has out and out promoted pedophilia. Throw in the construction of age group normativity, such as for teenagers and adolescents, and Dawkins’ relativism looks pretty mild by comparison.
“pre-adolescents”
Yeah; queer theory’s flirtation with normalizing pedophelia is not ideal. I actually talk about this in my book (coming soon to theaters near you, etc.)
This article about public shools… well is hits somewhat close to home in a very weird way.
In the same way that the article I’ve recently read that told that people not comfortable with Penny Arcade’s creators’ statements shouldn’t just stop coming to PAX as that will make it a place where the bigots won hit home.
It is an overall question of private interest vs. public good you know? Pull out to make it better for yourself/your loved ones or stay and fight for the change. Moral obligation to not give up and all that.
I have two lesbian acquaintance. Well, a friend and an acquaintance. My friend is about to turn thirty, the acquaintance is twenty one. They argue about state of things, or, to be more specific, about whether it is time to leave. To, well, flee.
We’re Russians.
My acquaintance is sure that it’s the coward’s way out. That they, us, should try to fight what is going on. That leaving is betraying, and no, it’s not bad enough yet. My friend… disagrees. I sometimes think that it may be the generational thing: those that come of age in Putin years might not just see the overall trends, the change of tides in the same way that we do (I myself am a year of Chernobyl child).
But, but, but, but: maybe we are actually giving it up by giving up? How exactly wrong is to demand self-sacrifice, and whhere exactly is the line between demanding and praising?
Wow, that’s horrible — and, yes, a very painful analogy.
I’m not sure I said this, but…the lesbian girl in public school was determined to stay in class for just this reason; she wanted to make gay people visible, and she didn’t want to let the bullies win.
But then she did leave, of course, I think (saw the doc a while ago) because she was struggling with depression and her parents were worried she’d harm herself if she stayed.
I tend to feel like running away from a problem is often really not sufficiently appreciated as a solution. In these cases, it seems like the goal is to destroy gay people; anything you can do to thwart that seems like winning to me. That can mean staying or it can mean leaving, depending on how the situation goes. But, in either case, the folks facing persecution aren’t morally in the wrong. It’s the persecuters who are evil, not the folks they’re targeting.
“Yeah; queer theory’s flirtation with normalizing pedophelia is not ideal.”
Not ideal, or brings shame to queer theorists everywhere?
I’m not even sure Dawkins was doing anything that bad, just saying that such encounters need not destroy one’s life. And what does this have to do with atheism? If anything, he was showing compassion for the priesthood.
If you’re attempting to get me to admit that an off-hand joke is not deeply theoretically sustainable, I’m happy to admit that.
I’m teaching in a Trenton neighborhood/alternative middle school right now, and if you replaced half of every class with academically-prepared kids with involved parents who wanted to learn, it still wouldn’t fix the problem that the school is old and poorly ventilated (hothouse atmosphere); the schedule is set up to minimize the amount of time undisciplined kids spend in the hallways (long periods); and it really only takes 1 or 2 kids with serious behavior problems to disrupt everyone, including the kids who want to learn. YMMV but if I lived in the area and had a kid who was talented but not a social butterfly I wouldn’t send him here.
Whoah…wait, you’re teaching now? I thought you were in London!
Are you teaching science?