vanitashaze | Entries tagged with america the brave

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1. Terrorist Arabs! Mystical Indian beliefs = cannibalism! Promiscuous but gorgeous black woman who serves as a contest for two white guys! (And, admittedly, gets them back in the end.) Hitting suspect over the head in complete violation of the law!

The first season of Bones is so BAAAAAAAADDDDDD!!!!

Thank God it improved so drastically over the next few seasons. The characters, too - Bones is apparently one of those shows where the characters are better off for knowing each other, which is not too uncommon in television (SGA, SG-1, White Collar - the ultimate obverse of this would be Supernatural), but damn, this is probably the most overt case I've ever seen. Especially Brennan, Booth, and Hodgins. Wow.

2. As of this past weekend, New York City was crowded, dirty, noisy, and extremely impolite. AND I LOVED IT.

Current Music: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Little Dawn

So I just had a really infuriating argument about all of Glee's SERIOUSLY PROBLEMATIC PROBLEMS (of which I could go on forever, but I won't, because this show makes me go AAAAAAAARGGH) with a friend who was convinced that Glee was "fluff"; that I was "taking it too seriously"; that it was a "coincidence" that the main storylines went to white, straight characters (and hey! Gay characters and disabled characters and characters of color exist! So obviously my argument is groundless); that the writers weren't racist (and sexist, and ablist, and homophobic), and if they were, it was because they "didn't know how to handle so many storylines", or (my personal favorite) "because they wanted good ratings, and nobody watches shows about gay people/black people/asian people/disabled people/women".

And this a good friend. Someone I really like. And who could not accept that it was a problem that Glee had problems.

!!!!!

Then I read this, and that made it a little better, at least in regards to the Brittany/Santana storyline. So that's something.

Current Music: Interpol - Pace Is the Trick

So, posted the question about small-town lesbians in the 1980s to

little_details (thank you,

nekosensei!), and... wow. Answers are really not pleasant, and you really get a sense of where the old-school gay activists are coming from. I feel like there's a disconnect in the gay rights movement - a generation gap of sorts, between the old-school activists (militant, segregationist, radical gay identity) and the newer-school folks (not militant, not segregationist; "it's not about sexuality, it's about equality"; especially gays & lesbians) who really de-emphasize the gay part. I mean, I'm definitely of the latter school of thought. For instance, it's always a little weird to see someone waving a rainbow flag; emotionally, at least, it seems a little bit like hanging the bloody sheets out of your window. (Intellectually, it's more complex, but that's my gut reaction.) And you know what, I'd prefer not to go through life as HEY LOOK HERE COMES THE LESBIAN, though of course to some degree I will. But damn, I can understand why there was that fierce... well, pride, if it came out of this.

All I can say is, thank fucking God for being born in 1992.

However, this poses a problem. Because, see, the fic I want to write (even though it's for the

lgbtfest) isn't about the fact that it's a lesbian affair; it's about love, and loss, and aftermaths, and all sorts of shit, but not that. Except, the lesbian thing seems so fucking HUGE I feel like I have to address it, significantly.

Thoughts? Advice? Brick to the head?

Current Music: No Speed Limit - Ruby

I've searched through my library and used my meagre Google-fu to no avail, so I'm putting this out here: Does anyone know anything about female homosexuality - attitudes about lesbians from straight people, attitudes about lesbians from lesbians, culture, dress/mannerisms, etc. - in the late 1970s to mid 1980s? Keeping in mind, the characters I'm juggling are working- to lower-middle-class women in rural areas who wouldn't be involved (or possibly, even all that aware/concerned with) the women's movement or the gay rights movement, and who come from close-knit, probably conservative - but not necessarily Christian - families. They're probably not going to be "out" in any way, and they're staying in the above-described communities, not moving into places with a gay... er, area? Scene? Whatever, you get it.

Also, bisexuality, particularly female bisexuality. What was happening with the attitudes towards that, both within the gay community and the larger society? I know this was the beginning of the bisexual backlash among the male gay community, but information about female homosexuality is (unsurprisingly) sparse, and female homosexuality outside of the context of the lesbian community / gay rights movement / women's movement is even sparser.

Meta or personal experiences welcomed with gratitude, but I'll also take recs for any movies, books, tv shows, or pretty much anything else you can think of that's relevant and set in this period. (Thanks!)

Courtesy of

sheafrotherdon:

OH MY GOD EW CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS. This is not the first time that secularism has been sacrificed in the Texas Textbook Debates, but this is definitely one of the scariest examples I've seen yet. There are so many things I could say about the new curriculum - how it's likely going to be sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, religiously discriminatory, just discriminatory in general, and oh yeah, PARTISAN BRAINWASHING - but I think this shit is self-explanatory, and there's just way too much fail to properly document. Really, I think one of their fellow Republicans said it best: "Guys, you're rewriting history now!" Though this bit deserves a special notice for sheer RAGE INDUCING FAIL:

McLeroy moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics."

In conclusion: Yuck.

ETA:

Current Music: Hair (New Broadway Cast) - Aquarius Goodnights / Ain't Got No / Yip Up the Sun

As if the passing of Prop. 8 wasn't enough, now the esteemed Ken Starr is apparently trying to nullify the 18,000 marriages that took place before the Court decision. (Say it with me, now: bastard.) I mean, seriously, people? We're still on this? Really?

The point is, there's a campaign. And a video. Which is rather heartbreaking, and Regina Spektor, and, yeah. Watch it. Sign it. Send it on to as many people as you can, because maybe your name and email and zip code will never make it to the California Courts, but it has to mean something. It must.

(Interestingly enough, though, they seem to be taking the route a la Milk - focus on the people effected, rather than obscure bullshit about "protecting freedoms". Which is good, says I. It is much easier to shoot a paper target in the back than it is your next-door neighbor. Or, at least, most next-door neighbors. Some I would happily shoot anywhere.)

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Sarah Fimm - Be What You Wanna Be

Cool.
- The new House episode
- Radiohead concert! I didn't go, but a friend did, and she said it was awesome. (She was under the awning, but apparently many people were not. Sorry, huddled masses. But at least you were there.)
- The fact that at this very moment, I have the mascot of the DC*Rollergirls working on my drains. And I got to talk with him.

Not Cool.
- Earthquakes in China
- How 13's bisexuality is made into a cheap joke. I realize that in House, everything from race to weight to gender is mockable, but lately they seem to be distancing themselves from their Big Massive 13 Reveal Campaign by ignoring the Hutchinson's thing and making fun of her Tarzan streak. Newsflash, House writers: there is more to a person than their sexual identity. Learn it, or ~~Freedom the bisexual guinea pig~~ most of the people on my f-list will bite you.
- This. What the fuck, America? This is not Stalin's Russia.

Don't listen to what they say, kids. The really cool people DON'T VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DRUG PEOPLE WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Or refuse their psychiatric meds. Or just generally fuck up as much as Homeland Security does.

Current Mood: infuriated
Current Music: Radiohead - Reckoner