Feminism reborn - It's not changed, it's just different

[Merentha]

Oh holy shit. " "At what point must a female senator raise her voice or her hand to be heard over her male colleagues in the room". Fucking masterstroke that lead to cheering for the last 10 minutes that shut down the chamber. Apparently, if you'll try to ignore all the fucking rules to shut down a filibuster, the people in the gallery will filibuster for you. :eek: I am so glad I turned this on.

[karaddin]

And according to that test I'm about 25% male brained. The part I left out when attempting to describe what I'm referring to as brain sex is that this will also determine how your brain responds to testosterone vs estrogen. I'm pretty confident from how mine reacted that I've got a female brain sex.

Now I've done the test though, I can definitely say it's looking at other things - the spatial awareness testing etc is governed by part of the brain that does develop from prior testosterone exposure (which I did have some of) so I've got that stuff but am not neurotypical.

[Gertrude]

Actually, I'm seeing comments in the youtube feed that it was passed but i can't find confirmation one way or the other. Frustrating!

Also, in the scrolling comments, I've seen KHALEESI fly by a couple of times. It's still wierd to me that this is mainstream.

[karaddin]

Whoops just posted on that in the US politics thread. Sounds messy.

[Monday]

Conflicting reports. I think the creeps did it though. Reading people say they stopped the clock with nine mins left? That doesn't sound kosher.

[Merentha]

Posted in the US Pol thread, but basically, going to the courts. Ending the filibuster was incredibly shady, first, and second, it depends on what "the session ends at midnight" means. Do you get to finish a vote already started before midnight? Some Dems are reporting that they never voted on the final vote, yet were recorded as "nay" anyhow, which is also incredibly shitty if true.

edit: And its possible that the vote started after midnight anyhow. Sure looked like that to me.

[Salome the Persian Witch]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/texas-abortion-speech/2458063/

Says it passed, but that Dems and reporters say that voting happened after midnight.

What's scary, is that (at least in Canada) the only times abortions are usually performed past 20 weeks (no Dr. will perform an elective abortion at 24 weeks) is when there are extreme genetic complications and the fetus is not viable, or in extreme medical complications. The trauma of having to have that procedure so late in the pregnancy is devastating enough (especially with lives on the line) - but now... Also, with the new bill, it can shut down 37 of the 42 clinics in Texas. Scary

[Monday]

In case you didn't get enough live streaming...... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sarafperalta (outside the building)

[karaddin]

This is a photo of the Dem Party Chair Hinojosa holding a print out of the time stamp in the Texas Senate system showing it was revised from 26/6 to 25/6

Hinojosa holding up docs showing #txlege changed time stamp on #SB5 vote pic.twitter.com/r7mdQXSu3J

— Becca Aaronson (@becca_aa)

June 26, 2013

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

They've changed the officially recorded timestamps of the vote, to make it before midnight.

Was Christopher Dido linked? http://www.ustream.tv/channel/christopherdido?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=10021075&utm_medium=social Stream from rotunda, I think. In the building but not the chamber itself.

[Monday]

This is a photo of the Dem Party Chair Hinojosa holding a print out of the time stamp in the Texas Senate system showing it was revised from 26/6 to 25/6

https://twitter.com/...9027328/photo/1

I just saw screen caps of that. Shennanigans!

[Gertrude]

No fucking shit. This is making me livid.

[Monday]

They've changed the officially recorded timestamps of the vote, to make it before midnight.

Was Christopher Dido linked? http://www.ustream.t...m_medium=social Stream from rotunda, I think. In the building but not the chamber itself.

Good stream. Something is happening. Big announcement?

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Apparently there's been a closed-door caucus going on, so maybe that's over now. Or they're arresting more people? I have to leave to go to work, and I know that if I start up that feed again now, I'll be here all day.

[Gertrude]

Just announced, the bill is dead! :cheers:

[karaddin]

Well thank fuck for that. Wonder if this shady shit will have been enough to kill it for good.

[john]

What makes you think that twilight is more popular than the sum total of games with negative depictions of women? And what is it about twilight that makes your second statement true?

...

I don't know if there's enough ground on which to make this comparison. In any case, I figure one should analyze and when necessary criticize both twilight and games.

Not seeing any real opportunity cost in targeting both. [And perhaps we agree on this, not trying to put words in your mouth.]

Twilight is pervasive. Everybody's heard about it, including the players of sexist games. And you only need to hear about it to be affected by the sexist miasma, unlike in games where you need direct experience.

It's not particularly sexist in itself, certainly not moreso than a lot of games but I think we should be more critical of things that have a lot of exposure, otherwise the fact of its popularity lends it a respect it doesn't deserve.

[~ZombieWife~]

Cheering with the people of TEXAS tonight, who made their legislature listen. This may seem like something "foolish" or "irritating" to some, but I cannot express (as a woman) what this sort of stand means to me. I simply have no words to express it all.

On the flip side, I'm seeing a lot of "typical white male republican" bullshit already rearing its ugly head in social media. "Filibuster, well, that's just a woman being able to TALK all the time and nobody can shut her up." (Not said in jest.)

I can't wait for these stupid old farts to tell me what I should be thinkin' and doin' bout them manly political happenings.

[Lyanna Stark]

Twilight is pervasive. Everybody's heard about it, including the players of sexist games. And you only need to hear about it to be affected by the sexist miasma, unlike in games where you need direct experience.

It's not particularly sexist in itself, certainly not moreso than a lot of games but I think we should be more critical of things that have a lot of exposure, otherwise the fact of its popularity lends it a respect it doesn't deserve.

Oh yes, everyone heard of it, because it's extremely popular, which also makes it a much bigger target. This is also the main reason it is criticized: not because it's bad, because there are lots of really bad novels out there, but because it is extremely popular and has become a phenomena.

Contrary to you, I don't think its popularity has lent it any respect, on the contrary: it's infamous for being crap, sort of like the literary equivalent to Justin Bieber. Sure, big companies want to milk both for cash, and understandable so, but I don't think that has helped Twilight at all if the aim of it was to be known as great literature. This is not uncommon though, as a lot of video games and movies are equally puerile, dumbed down and sexist as Twilight, and many even more so as they don't even require the skill it needs to actually read a novel of at least a couple hundred pages. At least I can give Twilight that (the novels) it requires actual reading.

Yet Twilight is often singled out as especially harmful, especially wrong and its fans as especially stupid, gullible and juvenile, like in straits' example above of sad 13 year old girls or fat, unpopular people. Instead of slamming the fans of Twilight, I find it more useful to figure out why Twilight is so popular with these segments.

And really, the reason is exactly the same as male gamers' wish fulfillment, only, in this wish fulfillment, the goal is "be loved despite not being perfect", and let me tell you, even as a critical reader, I appreciated he forcefulness of Meyer's hook, when it was placed. The paragraph where Edward bestows his attention on Bella is an absolute and complete wish fulfillment, but instead of having that wish fulfillment consisting of someone's mutilated body, it deals with acceptance and belonging, and of course with pretty looks.

Twilight is sexist, reactionary and harmful, and like the video games, it uses the damsel stereotype to the Nth degree,which puts it side by side with a lot of video games as pandering a reactionary culture. Hence I think both deserve criticism and scorn, but I don't think it's right to necessarily condemn the audiences of these things. After all, they are only buying what is sold to them. You need information and knowledge to resist, and a lot of people are lacking these things.

To come back to the 13 year old girls, I object to them being the targeted group and that they are, en masse, portrayed as brainless idiots. It's unfair and smacks of the same old sexism as the "LOL you throw like a girl". It also means that fans that aren't 13 year old girls get reduced to being the same as a "13 year old girl", and it's meant as an insult, not as compliment (imagine that! "WOW, you are like a 13 year old girl").

EDIT: Regarding the filibuster, I am still reading up on it but WTFBBQ?? I am in awe of the brave woman who stood for 13 hours (if this is really what happened? ).

[TomBadgerlock]

: it's infamous for being crap, sort of like the literary equivalent to Justin Bieber.

Everything that is considered to be the lowest form of entertainment within particular mediums, Justin Bieber in music, Twilight and 50 Shades in literature and so on, have largely female fanbases. I've long since been of the opinion that this "idea" in society that women have inferior tastes exists and is quite pervasive within society.

I doubt there is anyone on this entire forum that could claim a higher degree of musical elitism than me, and yet even I can't understand why Justin Bieber is considered the lowest of the low. The only explanation that I can see is that he is effectively the only high-profile musical "artist" whose audience is probably 90%+ female. Katy Perry, Swift and the likes can claim male fans purely by the basis of being attractive to [heterosexual] men, and probably more important not being attractive to [heterosexual] women. The same goes for Twilight and Fifty Shades. If it's audience is overwhelmingly female the societal attitude toward it automatically tends toward the negative.