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Who the hell ever invented that trope? The one where you're getting chased by a big monster and oh noez, mortal peril! Until suddenly! A bigger and even more terrifying monster kills the first one! But you're not safe yet! Because then it starts CHASING YOU!!!
This doesn't make sense from any standpoint. You're prey, the proponents of this shortcut to tension say! Small running thing equals food! Except the lie is built right into that argument because oh yes! The bigger creature just killed a much larger and eminently more toothsome morsel than the fleeing party could ever be!
Oh, then they're protecting their territory then! Except you are so relatively small, always, in comparison to big bad monster, that for that particular argument to be taken seriously it would have to be established that the particular creature is just SO unhinged and territorial and aggressive that it attacks anything that moves. Now, this does happen (rarely) in nature, but frankly its so lazy to just assume that big thing will be at all interested in Hero A's tiny, un-threatening ass that I am not at all inclined to give those particular writers the benefit of the doubt.
No one is safe from this sad little cliche; dinosaurs, crocodiles, giant unnamed sea creatures, fangy reptilian land beasts of indeterminate origin, overgrown insectile nightmares...
For god's sake, writers, let the poor creatures eat in peace!
- 14:20 @officialpeta - FUCK YOU PETA re: "Whale" vegitarianism ad. #fuckyoupeta #
Dear Ms. Pyne,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on PETA’s billboard. We apologize for any offense we may have caused; that was not our intent. Please read on to learn how we are moving forward.
The original billboard is being replaced with one that says “GONE. Just Like All the Pounds Lost by People Who Go Vegetarian. GoVeg.com.” It has no provocative artwork, and it stands as a tribute to the people who contacted us after seeing the first billboard and have taken our 30-day Pledge to Be Veg (https://secure.PETA.org/site/Advocacy?cm
We agree that a world where self-esteem is unrelated to body size would be a wonderful place, but we also know that most people feel depressed and embarrassed about their weight and often need some tough love. Our aim was not to insult people who are overweight but to get people talking—and then persuade them to make a simple, positive change for their health. We have heard from people who were offended by our message, and we have been yelled at on talk shows, but we have also heard from overweight people who expressed support for our tactics, including some women whose vegetarian weight-loss journeys we plan to chronicle on our Web site.
While this billboard has caused some people to “shoot the messenger,” it has also created a great debate about the message: that people are eating themselves to death. Americans now eat more than 1 million animals an hour—animals who are raised and killed in appallingly cruel conditions. Something drastic must be done to shake up society’s complacent acceptance of the national obesity epidemic, and we want people to know that they have options: Pills and procedures are not the solution. The human illnesses and animal suffering that a meat-heavy diet causes are completely unnecessary: a pure vegetarian diet is the optimum diet.
We take obesity very seriously indeed, which is why we think it would be cruel not to tell people about how, by going vegetarian, they can help themselves, animals, and the Earth. If change is going to come, someone must stir things up. PETA won’t shy away from doing so. Unless they are truly among the few with an irreversible medical condition, there is no reason for people to be carrying around extra weight. By encouraging people who want to lose weight to go vegetarian instead of resorting to unhealthy fad diets, we hope to offer them a choice that the multimillion-dollar diet industry won’t give them: a long-term strategy for maintaining a healthy weight.
Research has shown that higher body mass index is associated with a greater risk of premature death from all causes. For example, according to the American Heart Association, obesity contributes to heart disease, America’s number one cause of death. The American Dietetic Association says that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity than meat-eaters do. Reputable studies have shown that fad “weight loss” diets don’t work long-term—but going vegetarian does. Studies published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the New England Journal of Medicine have found that vegetarians are far less likely to be overweight than meat eaters are. Obesity is an epidemic, not something that children should grow up accepting as perfectly normal. We want a healthy, humane world, and we think everyone else does too.
All this said, certainly not every single vegetarian is at a healthy weight, as some have suggested our billboard implies. However, there are many more meat-eaters who are obese and unhealthy. For most people, eating low-fat vegetarian meals is an effective way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. But weight loss isn’t the only reason to try a vegetarian diet; we also promote going vegetarian as a great way to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of the top killer diseases. For most people, a low-fat vegetarian diet is an effective prevention strategy.
PETA promotes healthy vegetarian living in many ways, including distributing free copies of our “Vegetarian Starter Kit,” hosting free public food tastings, offering meal plans and thousands of meat-free recipes at http://www.VegCooking.com, and educating people about the meat industry’s disregard for animal welfare (http://www.GoVeg.com/factoryFarming.asp) and its devastating effect on the environment (http://www.GoVeg.com/environment.asp).
To read more about how obesity can be addressed by going vegetarian, please go to http://www.GoVeg.com/obesity.asp. To read vegetarian weight-loss success stories, please visit http://www.GoVeg.com/f-veganweightloss.a
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and for giving us the opportunity to share ours. Not everyone can agree on everything in this world, and, again, if you were offended, we regret that.
Sincerely,
The PETA Staff
Wow. I need some tough love, huh? We fat people have self esteem issues, eh? Well NO SHIT when you go around treating us like we're incapable of reasoned decision making! Fuck you PETA, even more than usual, for making incorrect correlations (to understand how incorrect, pls read http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-real
I sent them a reply citing the above sentiments, although slightly nicer, although I don't know why, and I ended by suggesting that if they find it so hard to stop marginalizing and opressing me, as a fat person, maybe they could imagine me with horns to make it easier.
I'm fat.
Whew! I know, revelation time, right? That's totally hard to say. I'm hearing all the people who would pat me on the back and congratulate me for admitting that and wow, now I can start fixing my problem.
My problem.
As if being fat is like being an alcoholic. As if being fat is like being a chain smoker, or a drug addict, or a freaking *child molester*.
I'm not fat because I'm weak, or because I'm foolish, because I'm lazy or stupid or incapable of "facing reality". The reality that if I stay fat, I'll never have a good job, I'll never get complements, I'll never have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a husband or wife, I'll never be accepted into groups at a party, I'll never be respected for what I say or how I say it, I'll never know what its like to fuck someone and not think about my stomach. I'll never win awards or be influential.
That is a reality most people accept as truth, except its not. Reality. I do have a boyfriend. I do have good friends. I am not lazy, I am not stupid, I am not someone you don't want to know. I'm fat, and this says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT MY LIFE. I am fat, and I may always be fat. I am fat, and I am sick and tired of feeling bad about that.
I can feel bad about eating poorly, or not being active, because those are things that might legitimately impact my health. I can feel bad about being defensive or overly sensitive, because these are things that affect my relationships with other people. I can feel bad about passing up on job opportunities because I'm scared, because I need and want a job, and I deserve to have a life I'm happy about.
I do not deserve to be *made* to feel bad if my eating healthy and exercising does not result in my losing weight. I do not deserve to be made to feel as if I am responsible if people look at my boyfriend differently for being with me. I do not deserve to feel ok if he doesn't want to touch me in public, for fear of being looked at differently (he doesn't do this, but the point must be made.)
I am a healthy fat person. I have perfect blood pressure, I have normal cholesterol, even low for my age group. I have no heart problems, no bone or joint problems, no issues with my circulation or my sugar levels. I do not have diabetes, and I am not at risk for diabetes. I am healthy, and I am fat.
None of this is anybody's business but my own, and someday, I can only pray that it will be the truth, as a woman's body has become her own, or a black person's, or a queer person's. I am fat and I am sick of being a part of the last acceptably discriminated group.
I met Heather under.... strange circumstances. She was the girlfriend of a boy I had been hung up on for a while, though it had mostly tapered out into a sort of distant friendship. I didn't really know who Heather was when I agreed to meet her and the boy for a lovely lunch downtown, and to be fair, I didn't really know her all that well after it either. But one thing led to another, I friended her on Myspace, we exchanged a few comments, and I found that who knew, I kind of liked this person. She was funny. She was down to earth. She liked yarn. Three facts which cements a person in my good column pretty permanently.
So as I got to know Heather, I came to realize that beyond her quite justly deep affection for fiber, she was intelligent and spoke smartly about interesting topics. She played WoW much better than I, and knew more about the real world. I would text her during her long, boring work hours and she always managed to make me laugh. We met a few times in person and I found her easy to get along with, in that way that people are when they listen well and don't judge.
Though I wish those qualities were more common in the population, fact is that they're not, so finding them, along with all her other awesome traits, in one lovely spunky package is what makes Heather a sweet-ass person. Thanks, Heather, for beeing so sweet, in all senses of the word!
That sentence right there is an example of something I've actually said, and of the argument I'm going to make in the context of this post. I find myself often thinking about myself as uninteresting. I have my hobbies, I love what I love, mostly television and movies, and I enjoy the idea of discussing these things with other people. But when it comes to actually writing anything down, I find myself rereading my own words and thinking "this sounds so boring. What a boring life. Why is she telling other people about these boring things?", as if I'm reading words someone else had written. And then I delete my whole post and go to do something else, immersing myself even more into my own head.
This isn't really ok behavior. Its divisory, putting barriers between myself and the rest of the "more interesting" world. It derides me as a person, and it derides the things I enjoy, which in turn derides all the other people who also enjoy those same things.
That sentence didn't come from me, though. It's the voices of a hundred other people I've known, some men, some women, speaking through me, and leading to conclusions that those people didn't really think about when they first turned to me and asked "why don't you get out more? You must be bored sitting by yourself in your room all day." I'm not bored, in fact. I enjoy my life. I enjoy solitary pursuits, and the company of stories through television or movies. I think about things that I watch, and I'm content with my thoughts whether or not they are ever shared with anyone else. I am not bored, and I am not boring, but I think that I am sometimes, simply because other people long ago carelessly tried to put their own thoughts and feelings onto me, without my permission.
All this thinking comes from a post I recently read on a blog I read often, which linked to this article by a well-known feminist writer. A quote;
"It's not like we've never argued, or that I've never had to explain where I'm coming from, but the thing he's always had going for him is that he doesn't want to hurt me. (A sentiment I return, naturally.) And so he's been willing to hear me out when I say: What you're doing is hurting me.
If he hadn't been, our relationship wouldn't exist. If I couldn't say "this behaviour hurts me" and have that matter, I couldn't feel safe.
If I can't trust you not to care when I tell you you've hurt me, how can I trust you at all?
That's the terror underlying this terrible bargain, the secret we don't speak. Or didn't, until I made a little noise and a cacophony of voices rose."
Her article is about all the little ways that men, all sorts of men, in all sorts of women's lives, display casual mysogyny to varying degrees all of the time, and the ways that all that casual hatred has made her into a compulsively cautious person. Every day, thousands, millions, billions of women, independant or not, working or not, married, engaged, in a relationship or not, are subjected to the sort of pervasive hatered against women which men, mysoginist or not, seem to have no trouble expressing. These men don't mean to hurt. They love the women they are speaking to, a lot of the time, and those women love those men, but men still say things which are hurtful and derisive and they don't often realize they are doing it. The problem arises when women, so historically and thoroughly opressed, try to speak out and are slapped down, gently or not, as being hysterical, or overly sensitive, or just plain wrong. I myself have been called overly sensitive more times than I can count. And it makes me feel like shit. Those words leave the mouth of someone I love and immediately, I feel guilt for feeling bad.
I feel guilty for being hurt.
This is not ok. It is not ok that I feel guilty for expressing my feelings. This is how oppression works, not through big acts with chains or laws, but in little words that people use every day, not realizing what they're really saying. I have heard from my own boyfriend more than once, a math major interested in engineering, that my English degree is somehow less worthy than his own scholarly pursuits. He says it jokingly, with a smile on his face, but he says it often, and I have had no luck in convincing him otherwise. Setting aside for a moment the simple importance of having achieved that level of education at all, I am always insulted by the implication that an English degree is useless, or a waste of time. The fact is, a statistical fact, that most 70% of English degrees awarded are given to women. The converse is also true, that NINETY percent (90%) of Engineering and technical degrees are awarded to men. So to deride the worthiness of an English degree, to place it below more scientific or technical pursuits, is to deride the efforts of millions of women. It is a mysogyinst act, conscious and recognized or not.
More than that, however, I feel that an English degree does, in fact, have a purpose, have a real benefit to any person pursuing it. So many problems arise from people saying things and not truly understanding the consequences of their words. They speak and don't know what they're saying, not really, because they haven't taken the time to study the roots of expression, of cliche, or of simple language coventions, like the use of "mankind" to refer to humanity. It is a subtle thing, that application fo gender, but it is real, and it is pervasive, and it *does* say something about the culture that it is the standard in speech.
To pursue the dream of equality, every person must understand what they are saying when they stand up on their soapbox and speak their minds. Without an understanding of language, we are all doomed to repeat cultural and gender slurs through simple uncomprehension, and in a day and age when more people than ever are attaining college level education, that is simply unacceptable. We can do better, and we must.
Go ahead and leave a comment to this post if you want me to tell you why I think you're awesome. You can only do so if you promise to do the same for your own flist, however! Fair is fair!
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar
The above is a really great article that talks about the consequences and reality of infant hyperthermia (child death from leaving them in a locked car). Its an issue that I really hadn't thought much about, beyond being vaguely contemptuous of people who could forget their children anywhere, but this article does a really good job of presenting why that happens, and making the point that it might happen to anyone. Not just a sentimental piece, it has good science and engineering information about causality, like the lack of child-safety devices in cars that might prevent this from happening, and what might actually be happening in the brain when a parent leaves their child in the car accidentally.
Not a happy article. Be cautious about reading this if you are at all depressed or, god forbid, have lost a child, because it doesn't pull any punches. But it makes you think, and the fact that it presents the reasons why, if the car companies would just work together, it could be completely preventable will make you, I hope, as furious as I was when I read that section.
Yes. Go read, link to your friends. This doesn't have to happen, and it shouldn't.
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done within a year. No guarantees when, it will be a total surprise!
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to repost this and play, too. We can all make stuff and make someone's day a little bit brighter!
SOMEBODY BETTER REPLY TO THIS.
Eighty-One Guys, All Of Them That Guy
And by you, I mean people who aren't me. Of course. >.>
It's much easier to delete an obsolete game than it is to donate old clothes to Goodwill, though!!
- Mood:
confused - Music:my newly-synched iPod
*goes back to faffing about punctuation and the placement of two fucking words.*
Huh.
I will have to ponder this SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT.
Shetland fiber in a colorway grouping she calls "Galaxy", each bump with a different planet in mind. 1 oz of each, for 10oz total. How much fun could I have with this? All the possibilities for color groupings on the yarn! Plus, it's *shetland*. I haven't spun with shetland yet, but I've heard rave reviews of it for laceweight spinning, and I definitely think it could be interesting enough to keep me occupied with only my spindle this summer, in Canada. I'm still not sure how I'm going to survive two months without my poor wheel.
Its such a unique dye job, because she didn't start with white fleece, but rather a sort of moorit-grey color, and that comes through on the undyed parts. Makes it look so amazingly sci-fi, to have that gunmetal color in between the subdued dyed shades.
*drools*
Last paper of the semester has been submitted! With any luck, barring the rewrites I know about, I will not have to write academically again until August!!
Of course I have a crapton of creative writing to make up, but WHATEVER. I can do that in between rping on my new timesink ;)
Also, my new clothes that I ordered just last friday should be coming today! That's a lovely turnaround. Also, more rovings, though mostly they are unexpected rovings. Like unexpected sex, only... not. O.o
- 13:07 KILL ME OH GOD THE FILING... MY FINGERS ARE BLEEDING... SEnD HeLp...... #
- 08:20 Froofy coffee drink, I think I looooove you... BUT I WANNA KNOW FOR SURE! #
- 08:48 wow, my day just got *so* much better. Hooray for bosses taking comp days!! #
