Dear South Park Slope PD: Women Aren't Children

South Slope Park police judge women's clothing, warn them they're encouraging a rapist with "easy access"

Lauren, a South Slope resident, was walking home three blocks from the gym on Monday when she was stopped.

The 25-year-old, who did not want her last name to be used, was wearing shorts and a T-shirt when she claims a police officer asked if she would stop and talk to him. He also stopped two other women wearing dresses.

According to Lauren, the officer asked if they knew what was going on in the neighborhood. When they answered in the affirmative, he asked if they knew what the guy was looking for.

"He pointed at my outfit and said, 'Don't you think your shorts are a little short?'" she recalled. "He pointed at their dresses and said they were showing a lot of skin."

He said that such clothing could make the suspect think he had "easy access," said Lauren.

She said the officer explained that "you're exactly the kind of girl this guy is targeting."

Asked whether officers were warning women against wearing shorts or skirts, the New York City Police Department responded in no time.

"Officers are not telling women what not to wear—there's a TV series that does that," quipped Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne in an email. "They are simply pointing out that as part of the pattern involving one or more men that the assailant(s) have targeted women wearing skirts."

Note to the NYPD: It should be apparent by now that commenting on women's clothing is not a good idea, no matter how good the intention.

So it should come as no surprise that a grass-roots group formed in the wake of the attacks, Safe Slope, has criticized this alleged tactic—among other things—in an open letter posted on its website and Facebook page.

Jessica Silk, one of Safe Slope's founders, called such interaction with police "completely inappropriate."

"There have been reports that the women attacked were all wearing skirts," she said. "Unfortunately this might be a common link between the women that were attacked but the message shouldn't be that you shouldn't wear a skirt. The message should be that, 'Here are ways that you can protect yourself.'"

Lauren said she's been surprised by the male responses to the incident—including from her own father. She said the consensus among men is that while it was inappropriate for the officer to broach such a topic, they all think he has a point.

Oh FOR FUCKS SAKE. >_< Police: ur doing it wrong. And I get what they're trying to do. And I also understand that in this case it appears the rapist they are trying to catch does have a type (and is the stranger danger kind of rapist). It's the way they're doing it. >_<;;

Women aren't children. Release the profile of the rapist's targets, and let women decide what we should do. We're not idiots. If we hear that a rapist is targeting only women in skirts, we can make our own decisions on whether we want to wear a skirt or shorts when we go out. -_- For that matter, how short is too short? Like are LONG skirts ok? Will he not rape me if the skirt is 2 inches higher? Can ppl sue the police if they wear pants and get raped neways?

If you think women might not notice the profile, and you rly want to warn ppl, these same police officers that are right now being the clothing police can talk to ALL ppl in the area, men and women, regardless of dress, about the rapist, his type, and etc.. I mean isn't that in general a good idea? First off, like I said, what if that's NOT his type? If you honestly mean to warn ppl, it's stupid to ignore ppl that could still be targets. And again, what if the women get raped neways? The police are using their positions as authorities on the subject to imply that you'll be safe based on how you're dressed and that might give ppl a false sense of security. Is that going to make ppl more safe?

And both men and women should be aware if there's a person running around the area assaulting ppl. Again, if it's such a danger that you feel you need to send police out to tell ppl, tell ALL ppl and give them ALL the info and LET THEM DECIDE HOW TO LIVE THEIR LIVES!

Also, what if there's a rapist targeting Asian women? I've been harassed by Asianphiles before... will the police start stopping Asian women telling us we look too Asian? We should change our hairstyles, or wear sunglasses, or makeup or something? -_- I can just imagine it... "ma'am, don't you think your bangs make you look a little too Asian? You look a bit like a delicate Asian flower to me. Tsk tsk..."

e_e

Women aren't children. Don't treat us like we are.

A great piece by Laura Hudson on how women are portrayed in superhero comics and wtf is wrong w/ it

I know it's been said before, but we can't say this stuff enough, because the problem still happens, the defenses still come in, and every so often we'll get ppl (like that CBR piece of "but men get objectified too!") who will say "everything's all right folks!" and the ppl who defend and fuel this stuff will smile and nod and feel everything is a-ok. :\

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/

So it can't be said enough :D And this is a great great piece by Laura Hudson about why the recent Catwoman and Starfire depictions aren't "empowering" even though they're being veiled in a "WOMEN ARE SEXUALLY LIBERATED!" guise. And why she's sick of the way comics portray female heroes and draw and write female heroes, and how it's not about the female characters at all, but about the assumed hetero male audience that's viewing and reading them. >:\ (As I said in my previous blog post, this also seems to be pretty insulting to hetero men because it assumes they WANT to view their heroic fantasy co-heroes this way)

Though, I could go without "chicks with dicks" -_- Plz? Well meaning or not,that phrase has a lot of historical BS w/ trans ppl, and surely there are better phrases >_> Besides, the problem isn't that women are being written w/ the voice of a man, b/c women and men aren't different species, the problem (as Laura is highlighting) is that women are being written as a different species BY men, so it'snot rly "woman w/ a man's voice" is "women w/ the voice of a sexual object of a specific hetero male fantasy" >_<;; And before we forget... these characters are CREATIONS. This is something that a lot of ppl seem to get lost in when arguing or defending this stuff. None of these characters are REAL! >_<;; Any backstory, personality traits, cultural things of alien cultures, etc etc... are ALL MADE UP. And so is how the characters react to them. So the "OH STARFIRE HAD RECENT ENCOUNTERS WITH SLAVERY SO SHE'S LIKE THIS NOW" thing... well the slavery was made up... so is how she reacts to it... >_>

Nobody is attacking Starfire, the PERSON, b/c Starfire DOESN'T EXIST! They're critiquing the AUTHOR and the ARTIST, who ARE real people. And the attitudes of the company that consistantly pumps out imagery and characters that are like this. It's the same as any other stylistic and creative choice that can be analyzed, critiqued and found wanting. It's one thing to be judging me on the way I dress, or how I react to my PTSD for instance... it's another if I was a MADE UP CHARACTER and my life and history and everything was MADE UP... in the first scenario, you're criticizing a real person for their own body autonomy...in the second you're critiquing a fictional work, and the author behind it, and their choices.

And in the context of superhero comics, that context is CLAIMED to be selling POWER FANTASIES, and for female heroes, claiming to be selling power fantasies to WOMEN. And in this way, the "sexually liberated" thing also cuts both ways. You can't defend yourself as writing depictions that are powerful to women, when it's WOMEN WHO ARE TELLING YOU THOSE DEPICTIONS ARE NOT POWERFUL OR INSPIRING!

Esp since, as Laura said... so many women have grown up being told by society, and ppl they encounter in day to day life, that all we're good for is sexual objects for men, and that our bodies and how sexy they are to men, are all that matter... and then we open up the pages of our supposed heroic fantasies, and we find that in fact, even to be a hero, the most important thing is how sexy we are to men -_-;;

It's so ridiculous, and I'm so glad that Laura and others are, again, speaking up about this, b/c as I said, it can't ever be said enough.

Not until it changes neways. xD

(and as a bit of shameless self promotion, if you don't believe Laura about the ridic ways women are drawn and portrayed in comics, check out Escher Girls, which provides a nice little archive of this stuff xD )

How not to harass an Asian girl

This video is amazing, and also so sadly true :( I've gotten a lot of those >:\ A lot of guys srsly seem to think we're either food, or think that we exist to cook them food, or that that they like East Asian food makes them... special or something -_-

The other thing that rly bugs me is when they try to guess at our ethnicity or ask us "where are you from" -_- I always answer Toronto. And when they say no really WHERE ARE YOU FROM, I answer Toronto >_> And when they ask what country I say Canada xD I know what they mean, but if you don't know how to say "what's your ethnic background" (which I still am annoyed that this matters to ppl who don't know me) then I'm not going to humour you. >:\

Oh... and once on an airplane, I had a guy ask me "what are you?" and "are you mixed" after I stared at him -_-;; He explained that he has a Chinese co-worker, a Korean co-worker and a Japanese co-worker and I don't look like any of them, so therefore I can't be any of those ethnicities -_-;; Cuz y'know, I don't look like THREE PEOPLE YOU KNOW, therefore I must be some other mysterious and new type of Asian person!

-_-

Gross gross gross xD

Neways, watch the video, it's great xD

I started a tumblr! :D

Escher Girls: Float like a butterfly, Sting like a WTF!?

That's my new tumblr! It's for all of those pictures we've all seen in fantasy art, comic books and video game art where women are in action poses that are IMPOSSIBLE b/c the artist needed to show a part of hers that wouldn't be visible normally. xD

I hope ppl get a kick out of it xD

Please spread it around and submit stuff if you can! :D

Thanks! :D

Toronto Star writer doesn't like Chinese moon cake, decides to write a racist, generalizing, offensive screed about it

The Toronto Star has decided they don't want Chinese readers any more

What the hell!? >:O It's one thing to be a food critic and critique a restaurant, or a dish in the restaurant... but not only is he criticizing the food in general (like you criticize a restaurant's pizza, not I HATE ALL PIZZA), he's extrapolating HIS tastes onto EVERYBODY, acting like it's universal, and insulting the culture too >:O

Argh >:\ And yeah, just cuz he's Chinese doesn't mean it's okay either, and it rly comes off as him as the token Chinese guy that goes "yeah white ppl! We think this food sucks too!" (which is also insulting to white ppl >:\ )

The Chinese make the worst desserts.

There, I’ve said it.

Everyone knows we make great food. But it’s the ending that’s a crushing disappointment.

Um.. STFU... first off, that's your opinion... secondly... rly... ALL our desserts? -_-;; Fine.. w/e... YOUR opinion... why is this an article...?

If you’ve ever been to a 10-course banquet ending in you slurping sugary red bean soup, you’ll know what I mean. Who ever thought that putting sugar in a can of Libby’s beans could be called dessert?

Who thinks putting raw dough, deli meat, a block of cheese in a bowl of tomato sauce would taste good huh? -_- That's as much like pizza, as sugar in a can of beans is moon cake >:O

On the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, my family celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. Next to the Chinese New Year, this is the busiest time of year for Chinese grocery stores, as most people will be buying mooncakes.

Learn more about mooncakes here

Now don’t get too excited. I said mooncake, not space cake.

I believe we are the only culture that thinks putting a whole preserved salted egg in a pastry filled with lotus seed, red bean paste and a touch of lard could be called a treat.

He's not funny either -_-;; Also... sure if you break down ANY food to it's ingredients you can make it sound weird -_-; Also if you consider western ideas of food "normal" then nething that differs will be "weird"... but that's a case of bias, not some objective idea of "ew" >:|

And so, kudos to us, because if we can create a dessert out of salted duck egg, then it is only a matter of time before China really rules the world. Spaghetti and fireworks were just the start.

I know there are many of you out there who will write me semi-threatening letters saying that you actually like mooncake. And worse, that I’ve betrayed my ethnicity by even considering the notion that mooncakes are not yummy.

Clever! He knows he's gonna be called a racist asshat, and he's making sure we know... he knows... o_O Also the WONDERFUL strawman there e_e Nobody is mad at you b/c YOU don't like mooncake, ppl are mad at you b/c you're making GENERALIZATIONS and decided that EVERYBODY feels like you do, plus the mocking of our culture >:\ I dun think you're a traitor, just a racist asshat and a terrible writer xD

Mooncakes are the Chinese equivalent of the fruitcake. People give them as gifts because they’re obligated to, and then wind up eating a thousand calories of red bean paste.

Then they hate themselves. Or maybe that’s just me.

It's just you. And no it's not. First off, ppl DO like fruitcake, but more importantly, fruitcake DOES have a social narrative and stigma in western culture of being unedible and something ppl just pass around. Mooncake does not. And I hate how he's essentially misleading non-Chinese ppl reading this by claiming this when it's NOT TRUE. Mooncake isn't a running joke in Chinese culture the way fruitcake is, and ppl actually buy them w/ the intention of EATING them. -_-

Also you're NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT THE WHOLE THING! xD You eat SLICES. Just cuz it's the size of your palm doesn't mean you eat it like a muffin! And can we STOP obsessing over calories. As if no other culture has calorically rich desserts or treats -_-;;

I’ve had my share over the years. Doing research for this article I had to scarf a few down. The salt of the duck egg is an interesting contrast to the sweetness of the lotus paste.

Like stinky tofu and durian, mooncakes are an acquired taste and it’s not the first thing on your list when you think, “let’s go have a fancy dessert.”

If you are thinking, however, “let’s go eat a pound of lard” and wash it down with Jasmine tea, then you would be on the right track. Then it seems I really am in the minority.

He can't just admit that it's his personal taste can he? It HAS to be "NO NO IT'S OBJECTIVE JUST THINK ABOUT IT!" -_-;; Again, you don't eat the whole thing... and again, break down A LOT of food and you're gonna usually get down to "eat lard" or "eat a bunch of sugar" or etc -_-;;

Mooncakes aren't an acquired taste for a lot of ppl, but.. w/e... this is him extrapolating his feelings onto everybody else again xD And again, what's THOUGHT OF as a dessert is dependent on the culture and cultural ideas and norms. Just b/c western white ppl don't think of it as a dessert doesn't mean NOBODY ELSE does -_- He rly is playing this "Chinese person confirming to white people that their standards are the default" thing to the hilt isn't he? >:O

Millions of people buy mooncake each year creating a massive industry that dwarfs the GDP of Delaware.

But what really bugs me is how this whole mooncake gift-giving tradition is getting out of hand.

Mooncakes used to come in humble cardboard boxes. Next they were sold in tin, which was a giant leap forward.

Now they come in elaborate velvet-lined containers fit for jewellery. Some of them come in boxes the size of mausoleums.

If I died tomorrow, I would happily have my ashes displayed in a mooncake box. They are that nice. (Well, maybe not the Hello Kitty Special Mooncake box, but you know what I mean.)

I'm unsure what his point was of saying that lots of ppl buy mooncake a year. Canadians and Americans buy millions of pumpkins a year. That might seem to some even more ridic to spend money on than a tasty dessert. Is he going to point out how much money is spent on those a year and mock it? o_O

What's wrong w/ the tin!? They're pretty and you can keep the box and use it to hold stuff! :D (I hold my Magic cards in one xD ) And secondly... so WHY is it being in fancy boxes a bad thing? :3 At this point it's a tradition, and they make the gift giving thing even more fun, and I love seeing the different boxes around this time of year :D At this point I'm confused. Does he just hate the TASTE of the food, or like everything about it, including apparently screaming about the tins they come in o_O

Cookies come in very nice boxes too. Especially during Christmas, when you see all sorts of nice cookie tins that people give as gifts. What's the difference? o_O Or is that NORMAL cuz it's in the "default" western culture? >_o

Kowtowing to the mother-in-law gets more difficult each year because it means buying the most elaborate mooncake possible.

This year some stores offer a huge 8-inch mooncake fit for an emperor. It also has eight egg yolks. Eight is a lucky number for Chinese folk, since it sounds like “prosperity.”

Eight egg yolks will also likely pack enough calories to put the recipient in a coma. But it comes in a box that would put Tiffany & Co. to shame, and you will need at least two bellhops to carry it to the door.

A handy tip: If you don’t have to impress the relatives, you can pick up a package of four mooncakes for about $11 from Costco.

And if you can wait until after Sept. 12, when it’s no longer kosher to give them away as a gift, many will be half price or less in stores. So you can buy twice as many and enjoy double the calories.

And don’t say I didn’t warn you about the double egg yolk.

Nobody is forcing you to be married to a person or family who likes something you apparently hate with your heart and soul e_e;; Also... DON'T EAT THE EGG YOLKS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO! Omg.. okay I HATE the yolks... and what do I do? I DON'T EAT THEM! And ffs, stop stressing about the calories! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO EAT IT AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO EAT THE ENTIRE THING!

This rly is just "I hate this food and it's NOT JUST ME, it's OBJECTIVE and I'm gonna convince EVERYBODY to hate it too!" -_-

My family DOES buy mooncakes after also, b/c they are tasty and they like to eat slices of it as a little after dinner snack. But yeah, let's remind ppl of calories -_- I wonder what Mr. Judgementalpants is eating and if he knows just how gross it is if you break down it's ingredients and how fattening it is if he eats like 5x the portions most ppl do? o_O

By the way, all those non-Asian folk saying they like mooncake? Yeah, they were just being polite.

And finally that... the kicker.

I think I speak for all of my non-Asian friends when I say: "f- you asshole" >:\

First, if my friends don't like a food, they'll tell me. Even if the food is cultural, nobody expects everybody to like EVERYTHING, and I think most ppl who aren't this article writer understand this -_-

Secondly, so now, after speaking for Chinese ppl, now you're speaking for non-Chinese ppl? o_O I think there are a TON who disagree w/ you and aren't going to give you the "Good Chinese Person" headpat you desperately seem to be craving -_-;;

What was the Star thinking? xD Are they going to publish other articles now ripping a traditional food of a culture that has both cultural and historical significance? >_>

And just for funsies, here's the Toronto Star's contact info:

lettertoed@thestar.ca to write a letter to the Toronto Star

and

publiced@thestar.ca to write to the Public Editor of the Star

edit: To clarify, he's NOT a food critic (he's just a regular reporter). But he IS Chinese, and I think this is the Star's attempt at "insider humour", except it fails cuz a) it's not funny b) it's not even playing into a narrative we have in our culture (unlike fruitcake in Western culture xD ) and c) it's to a majority audience that's not "inside" -_-

Also as my friend is pointing out he seems to be conflating the various kinds of moon cake TOGETHER into one xD

Manhunter apparently makes an awesome rogue after a little paint :3

Today, my friend Snail Chimera found a bunch of 50 cent figurines and bought some including one of Manhunter! :D She didn't know who Manhunter is but thought she looked cool and the pose looked cool so she got it, and then turned it into a Rogue for future RPG stuffs! :D (this is a realm I know nothing about xD )

Neways I thought it was rly cool so I wanted to share it! :D Cool, b/c she saw Manhunter (who rocks) and got her even tho she didn't know who she is... cool b/c Manhunter has an awesome pose... and cool b/c the resulting paintjob is awesome! :D Also cool b/c Snail is cool :D

So neways here are the before and after pix! :D (more are on her tumblr, linked above :3 )

Ami Churchill and Summer Turner present: Superboy and Power Boy xD

On the subject of artistic portrayals of female heroes in superhero comics, yesterday, b/c I was showing some friends how terrible Ian Churchill's Supergirl art was way back when, I ended up showing them the letter by Eddie Berganza of DC begging us to read Supergirl too xD And in it was that line where he said that Powerboy was meant to be a "mimbo" and that he was being dressed like female heroes.. except... as me and my friends noted... he wasn't. xD (for one he had long pants, for another he had body hair) So, me and my friend Summer Snow decided to create what a male version of their costumes might look like (factoring in the differences in male and female modesty in our society) and Summer came up w/ Power Boy and I came up w/ Superboy as a counter (complete w/ boyish face, like Churchill's Supergirl, and smoooooth legs... xD (I deliberately tried to ape how Churchill was drawing SG, but I dun think his arms are thin enough, or maybe I just need to figure out how to draw more muscle definition xD

NEWAYS... now we just need to draw them attempting to punch each other in ridic poses xD (that picture makes less and less sense the more you look at it xD for one... try making Kara's pose... her chest and breasts are going one way, her legs and head are going the other xD also they aren't rly succeeding in hitting each other... xD plus, as Summer points out... Supergirl is going up and Power Girl is going down xD )

OR we can have them fighting in this other impossible pose XD Apparently those 2 cannot fight w/o Supergirl's spine being twisted every which way xD

My power fantasy body is for punching not for posing

(Note: this post is about the general trends in "mainstream" comics art, and is not talking about artists like Alex Ross or Renato Guedes :3 )

So a CBR contributor has written a piece about how men are objectified too in superhero comics and how what's the big deal about women being idealized also? >_>;

This is prolly gonna be a post where I link to other posts I've written b/c it's stuff I've said before. xD But first off, I actually do think it's problematic if women are reading comics and telling their partners to work out to get an athletic build >_> It's problematic directing women to fit idealized ideas of beauty, and it's problematic for men too -_-

However, if you were to tell a woman to change to fit the body of a female superhero... what would you say? It wouldn't just be get fit... in fact if she's to fit a lot of the depictions of female heroes, getting fit would be BAD, b/c she'd gain muscle... and possibly lose size in parts that superhero comics seem to LOVE exaggerating on women. xD

It'd be... get thin... get implants... get breasts that are weightless w/o a bra... -_-

The thing that's missing is that men ARE being idealized in superhero comics... they're being ATHLETICALLY idealized. It's a power fantasy, so they're depicted as physically powerful, athletic...

Women are being SEXUALLY idealized. They're drawn as pornstars, or supermodels. They're not drawn as athletes. Usually, at best, they'll have a fit body and breasts that look like implants (or can only be achieved via implants IRL). -_-; At worst they look like this.

And I know ppl will say "but men are sexually idealized too!" Well yus... but it's incidental. It happens that our societal ideals for athleticism and sexuality for men are one and the same (for reasons that aren't going to be discussed in this post xD ), so while it's true that the way superheroic men are depicted may be appealing to the hetero female "gaze", it's incidental (and also, stuff such as bulges are generally omitted, so it's not trying to accentuate the sexual, it just happens to accentuate stuff like muscles).

This is even more obvious when you look at comic art from the 90s, or art drawn by artists who greatly exaggerate the musculature on male heroes. Rather than getting giant muscular men, and giant muscular women, you get giant muscular men, and thinner women, w/ prominent breasts and hips. :\ (and broken spines)

If all things were equal, then surely the women would be super muscular too... or the men would have exaggerated penis bulges or something right? o_O

Another example of the different ways we "idealize" men and women in comics... Superman and Supergirl. The excuse for Superman's body is that he becomes naturally athletic and muscular b/c of the yellow sun feeding into his Kryptonian body... and that's also the excuse I hear from defensive fans about why Supergirl looks like this: that she gets the ideal body too. Except that's not the ideal human female body, at least not if we're talking about building muscle and etc... Unless Kryptonian DNA is somehow reading North American beauty standards or something -_-;; And yes, Churchill draws her w/ muscle, but her arms are so thin, if you factored in the muscle, her bones must be the size of drinking straws -_-;; And that's not even getting into how thin her ankles are. Again, if fair is fair, she should be a pretty built girl.

Personally, I would prefer way more diversity of bodies in both men and women, BUT if we are going w/ ideals, is there a problem if Wonder Woman was built like one of the Williams sisters or Dara Torres? Or if Supergirl had a body like Samantha Stosur or Lolo Jones or even Maria Sharapova? Or Miss Marvel had the body of Perdita Felicien. It's not like these aren't attractive ppl... but it'd also be more sensible a body for a female superhero to have, and it'd make way more sense for a power fantasy. :]

Cuz that's the other part. Yes it's all unrealistic, yes it's about imagining ourselves as them. But that's the big fallacy. When girls and women imagine ourselves to be strong, it doesn't necessarily mean we imagine ourselves to look like porn stars, or imagine that we need size DD or E cup breasts, or wish that we had giant breasts that didn't need a bra or wish to be super thin -_-;; I know that society loves to push the idea that all women want to strive to this idea, and SHOULD want to, and therefore a lot of ppl get the idea that the most important things in our lives must always be to want to be sexy, but even putting away the issue of whether or not it SHOULD be, it often ISN'T -_-;;

Just like when boys imagine themselves as superheroes, they're not thinking about how their penis size relates, neither are women thinking of our cup size when we imagine ourselves punching robots, or saving people :] And I think it's MUCH easier to imagine yourself as a hero when the body MAKES SENSE for heroing. I know for me and the friends I've talked to, this is certainly true. :] If I imagine myself as Supergirl, thinking of myself in a fit, athletic body makes way more sense and doesn't cause a cognitive disconnect, than imagining myself emaciated, or having a round bubble butt and big breasts and pouty lips, etc...

And that's not even getting into the costumes or the poses (often impossible, to show both butt and boobs even if it makes fight scenes make no sense) or the panel perspectives or the way female heroes are posed when they're defeated or captured. -_-;; Or the whole fridging thing. :\ (plus that creators create and use "ugly" and "deformed" or "monstrous" male heroes more often than female, and also give them romantic interests despite their physical "issues")

Yes, men are idealized in comics too, but idealized as heroes, as athletes, as having physically strong and built bodies. They are power fantasies first and foremost, for boys and for men. :) Unfortunately, female heroes are not idealized in the same way :\ They're idealized as sexual fantasies first, often aimed also at (presumed to be hetero) men and boys, and not as power fantasies for women, and not w/ bodies built first and foremost for those power fantasies :\ At best they play into the narrative in society that all women must desire, even in the realms of power fantasies, to be beautiful and slender, with round butts and big breasts, or w/ a supermodels build. At worst, they play into the idea that superhero power fantasies are the realm of hetero men, and that women exist in that realm only to be fantasy girlfriends or sex objects. -_-;; (this also is insulting to men as it implies that they do not want to read stories where women are athletic, powerfully built counterparts, and partners :\ )

As I've said before. Women want to be heroes too. And when I imagine myself ripping open my shirt, it's the big red S underneath I imagine revealing, not the obligatory bra-less gravity-defying DDs vacuum-sealed under my top. xD

For more reading (that I've written, I'm too tired atm to go finding other great articles on other blogs, but suggestions are welcome xD ) on the subject:

http://ami-rants.blogspot.com/2011/04/random-ami-thoughts-on-different-female.html

http://ami-rants.blogspot.com/2007/01/under-my-shirt-is-big-red-s-just-like.html

http://ami-rants.blogspot.com/2007/08/supergirl.html

http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/?p=107

Okay Annapolis Zachary’s Jewelers, repeat after me: Domestic Abuse is NOT FUCKING FUNNY

WHAT THE FUCK!? (massive DV trigger warnings)

Just the ad here (in case they remove it w/o an apology or something) (again MASSIVE DV trigger warnings)

ARGH

Um... no... just fuck NO

And again, no it's not "funny" just cuz it's a guy... DV of men is a big f-ing deal too and it's not fucking funny >:O

I'm getting pretty f-ing sick of DV being used as a joke in ads in general (I just blogged about an equally unfunny horrible DV hairdresser ad) >:\

Just... UGH... this is SO FUCKING DISGUSTING! >:O

Thankfully they've provided contact info for us!

Annapolis Zachary’s Jewelers
100 Main St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-266-5555
sales@zacharysjewelers.com
www.zacharysjewelers.com/guysonly
www.twitter.com/keithzacharys

Right there.. Twitter or email this place and let them know this ad is not f-ing okay, that DV is not funny, that no violence against husbands isn't funny either, and that ad is incredibly offensive and trivializes DV survivors and DV in general >:O

This is NOT FUCKING OKAY.

Let them know.

FOX Sports thinks racism is hilarious -_-;;

FOX Sports thinks Asian accents + ignorance of football = comedy gold >_<



Just watching it makes me feel ill >:\

(Also ppl who speak Chinese will get why that one student said "fighting" cuz of the other meanings of the same word)

I wanna give him a Stone Cold Stunner and then toast cokes over him >:|

And this week in Cis News...

Thanks to Trish I have now discovered cisgendered news which I think is the greatest thing evar xD (it's redoing news stories about cis ppl the way they would be reported if the person were trans)

I find it does help highlight just how irrelevant so many of the details and fascination about trans ppl, our genitals, our transition, our medical status, etc are in mainstream news reporting :]