Because I don’t concentrate on multiple things (in this instance, blogs), I’ve been neglecting this one and my LJ in favor of a new WordPress blog. Warning: High Level of Opinionated Content. Reader Discretion Advised.
This, however I wanted to share. It’s a video called “In My Language“, written by A M Baggs, who writes this blog.
Watch it, and find out what it means to communicate.
Charlotte Allen over at IWF defended her use of “crying rape” in a headline as having a neutral connotation, thus:
Just to clarify: The expression “crying rape” (like “crying murder” or “crying theft”) doesn’t mean the accuser is necessarily a liar. It just means she’s an accuser.
“Crying rape” does not bring the phrases “crying murder” or “crying theft” immediately to my mind (in fact, I’d never heard them used before Ms. Allen did so) but instead, evokes the phrase “crying wolf” from Aesop’s fable, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf“.
This most definitely does not have a neutral connotation, but a negative one: that of a false claim.
To be completely anal about it, I will do the most heinous of acts and consult a dictionary of the English language:
The Idioms section of The Free Dictionary:
Not satisfied? How about these:
Incidentally, I did Google both “crying murder” and “crying theft“, and the connotations were generally negative.
Compare this with some of the phrases captured when googling “crying rape“:
And those are just three of the top ten hits. Imagine if I went through all 130,000 of them.
I’d say there is substantial evidence that the phrase “crying rape” is not as neutral as you make out, Ms. Allen. That may be your intention, but I don’t think that’s how many people interpret it.
You would be correct if you insisted that “the lion’s share” does mean all of it, but if you insist on that meaning, who will now understand you? … Do not be so right that you will be misunderstood. Language is what we make of it by a language convention. — John Ciardi
Kudos to Kampire of All Girl Army for the best description of White Male (Heterosexual) (Middle/Upper Class) (Cisgendered) Privilege I’ve read, ever.
It goes:
Privilege is starting a race with the best car and not even knowing it.
And in case you don’t know what Privilege means, here’s some reading that should enlighten you.
This post will be updated occasionally, to include more lovely places in which you may inform yourself, dear reader.
Thursday, April 5th is “Blog Against Sexual Violence” Day. I’m planning on participating. I missed Blog Against Racism day (by finding out about it the day of) and I’m not going to let that happen again. Not for something this important.
General warning: Things may get a little up-close and personal with this project; I’m not sure yet. I have some personal experience with this, and I’m not sure how much I’ll share.
We’ll see how it goes.
You might remember, not so long ago, I blogged in response to a certain video I’d seen, one that decried rape for the crime it is. Of course, this was on YouTube, and a certain vehement anti-feminist (known here now as “ol’ V-boy”) had made some outrageous claims, using statistics and lots of exclamation points.
Well, this self-same vehement anti-feminist has seen fit to comment on this blog, once as with his usual inflammatory statements, which use the very same techniques and exhibit the same faulty reasoning/argumentation that I mentioned in my post.
He also saw fit to try and lure me/my readers into visiting his site anyway, by using someone else’s username to post a comment, someone whom I respect and admire, and who runs a feminist blogging community herself.
Unfortunately for ol’ V, I am neither angry nor stupid.
Because I’ve had time to see that V-boy is simply out to get other people angry, of course those being the feminists he believes to be out for the destruction of half of the species. News flash: only the truth hurts. Unsubstantiated statistics and comments based on assumptions that feminism = “WE ARE LESBIAN MENZHATERZ!!!!11eleven” are not going to annoy me in the slightest.
I can see them for the angry rant that they are, and I don’t have to take anyone else’s opinions personally.
As for trying to trick me (or WordPress) into approving his comment, apparently he doesn’t realize that
1) email and web addresses are visible to those moderating comments
and
2) I’m smart enough to compare IP addresses.
So, V-boy, should you attempt to rant here again, you are hereby notified that your comments will not be approved unless they are 1) pertinent and 2) civil.
So I’m reading along in a web comic called Earthsong, much beloved by me, when I stumble upon this page:
And I hadn’t even noticed!
Needless to say, this comic comes highly recommended. Gorgeous art, clever and at times comedic storytelling, epic adventure (so far), and, of course, Strong Female (And Male, and Neuter!) Characters.
I heart it, muchly.
Quiz time: Where did I find this picture? If you had to guess where it came from, what would you guess?
‘Cause me, I’d never have believed it came from an article like this one in the NYT Magazine. Not one detailing how many, many women soldiers come back from Iraq and other active duty locations with PTSD because they were raped by fellow soldiers.
To be fair, I didn’t find this one myself. Via Twisty, where much good discussion is already taking place.
I have many things to say to all this, all of which stretch my creative cursing ability.
In reading a comment on Thinking Girl’s blog about the difference between women’s and men’s acceptable approaches to turning interested parties down, I was reminded of a story my parents told me about when they were dating in college (ca. 1970) that perfectly illustrates the point:
———
M was being harassed by Some Unwelcome Guy (SUG), and she’d tried numerous times to get SUG to Leave Her the Hell Alone. D said to her: “Well, why don’t you just tell him to fuck off?”
To which M’s reply: “What???!!!! I can’t tell him that!!!!”
——–
This story is usually used to illustrate my mom’s relative innocence in college; I think it displays the patriarchy-approved gender-appropriate methods of Turning Someone Down quite effectively.
If this doesn’t qualify me for Geekdom™, I don’t know what will:
Indexed. I’ve spent nearly all of the past two hours looking at the archives.
On a blog I’ve begun reading of late the author announced a while back that the organization of a community blog dedicated to talking about sex is now in the works.
This sounds like an absolutely fantastic idea to me. As a person who’s had, erm… issues with sex, I’m all for a place like this.
My summarizing skills have fallen to an all-time low tonight, so please just go to the site (linky above!) and have a look. If you’re interested and qualified, they’re also looking for contributors.
