Pen-Elayne on the Web

Quotables

Yeah, another "link dump" but with a twist this time to entice you to, as one says, read the whole thing:

Another level of this incident, and perhaps the most critical, is the blatant disdain, and self-hatred, for womanhood. To denigrate mothers and their lives with their children, is to diminish womanhood. This is not to say that womanhood is defined and validated by motherhood. Certainly, bearing and caring for children is one of the central and biological roles of women. However, it is not the only crole, but it is within the rich experiences of female lives.

- Grace Davis, A thorn in the bouquet that was BlogHer, 2006 version.

I am tired, dead tired, of men standing around with that "who farted?" look on their faces whenever the subject of rape comes up. It wasn't me! It was some other guy. Some crazy guy. Some guy I've never met. Some guy I don't know. Well, okay, I knew him; he was my buddy. But, gosh, what's a guy to do?

- Ilyka Damen, Yes, It Is and Yes, You Can

And, along the same lines,

It boils down to entitlement and a sense of ownership. Women--especially foreign, brown women--are property, mere objects to be used, abused, defiled, or cared for. We are placed on pedastals or thrown in the gutter, but what men do to us is never the fault of men. It's stress! It's what we were wearing! It's emasculation (since being a man means dominating and abusing people).

- Sheelzebub, Not stress. Colonialism, brutality and entitlement.

On the other hand, the dirty-hippies-for-peace metaphor might still have mileage in it. You could argue that the vitriolic bloggers are just like those flower-kissing weirdos of the past, and that they will destroy, destroy!, the Democratic party. Unless they don't matter at all, of course.

- Echidne, posting at Eschaton, on Understanding Liberal/Progressive Political Blogs: Polite Advice for Mainstream Journalists

And at the risk of bruising the delicate sensibilities of anyone in mainstream comics, I got news for you, bub, it isn’t exactly the most woman friendly field on earth. We’re sure there are many well intentioned and dedicated people trying to change that even as we speak, but that record stands. It’s just a tough field in general — we know of one line aimed at women that’s underway that doesn’t even have any women writing it.

- Heidi MacDonald, Fight! Simone vs Bendis!

By the way, can you tell me the last time there was a non-sexy female hero? The men can be sexy or hideous as heroes, but both heroines and villainesses have to be alluring. Also, when was the last time a comic book male looked past a hideous freakishness to see a potential lover the way women often are expected to do? Seriously, if you know, please tell me.

- Sheryl Schopfer, Is this really a good business model?

It was all just so disappointing to me. I remember having a table at the last three (and first Wizard World) Chicago Cons. Artists Alley had folks like Brian Biggs, Roberta Gregory, Cherise Mericle, and other really amazing indy artists. I would walk the aisles and just find so many cool comics. We sold cases of Manya and Max & Lily books. It was so fun and energizing. I liked comics back then. Now? Ugh.

- Kris Dresen's review of Wizard World Chicago.

AP: Why is the idea of a person being harrassed by their superpowered ex, who claims to be a hero while also being a creepy stalker, a subject for a comedy movie?

Thurman: Because the ex is a girl. The idea of women being empowered to do anything is laughable anyway, and so the idea that she might horrifically abuse those powers to threaten and abuse her ex-boyfriend is just utterly hilarious! And it's just as well that in our glorious patriarchy most women don't have any power at all, much less superpowers, because if they did those crazy bitches would just make men's lives hell with their just basic lack of control and just blowing a casket all the time! Just, basically.

- Karen Healey's "Karen Filter," Look! Up In The Sky! It's A Flying Vagina!

Blogs, gossip sites and the ability to circulate rumors -- and evidence -- is clearly what is driving the MSM to finally address the issue. When mainstream publications and broadcast media continue the heteronormative default when the buzz on the 'Net is 180 degrees from it, that destroys their credibility. It looks as though they are conspiring to hide some kind of "dirty little secret" when the truth is already circulating elsewhere.

- Pam Spaulding, Handling -- or not handling -- gay rumors

Why shut the pipe now? The timing of a sudden inspection and fix of a decade-long problem has a suspicious smell. A precipitous shutdown in mid-summer, in the middle of Middle East war(s), is guaranteed to raise prices and reap monster profits for BP. The price of crude jumped $2.22 a barrel on the shutdown news to over $76. How lucky for BP which sells four million barrels of oil a day. Had BP completed its inspection and repairs a couple years back — say, after Dan Lawn’s tenth warning — the oil market would have hardly noticed.

- Greg Palast, BRITISH PETROLEUM'S "SMART PIG": The Brilliantly Profitable Timing of the Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown

A two-fer from Lance Mannion:

And suddenly I couldn't deny it anymore. I'd been trying, for the sake of Al Gore, to pretend to myself that Lieberman wasn't what he was, a toady to Republicans, but that's what he was.

It was more important to him in that debate that Dick Cheney like him than that he take-down Dick Cheney.

- from Independent Man

Rowling is a first rate storyteller, whatever you think of her prose style or of the stories she’s chosen to tell, and I happen to think highly of both. She doesn’t do anything gratuitously. Everything she writes serves to move the story along and develop her themes. She is not the kind of sentimentalist hack who kills off characters just to make readers cry or give her hero a reason to seek vengeance.

- from Bring me the broomstick of Harry Potter!

Then, there you were in Minority Report, a film for which I had no love at all, my pet, except for the opportunity it granted me to broaden my hopes for you that much more. You could hold your own against a certified star, and effortlessly upstage him. My heart opened a bit more with Phone Booth and The Recruit —not great films, but fun enough, and you were, I reluctantly admitted, captivating, even in films that did not aspire to greatness. Still, I was not wholly convinced, but then—then, Colin darling—was A Home at the End of the World. And you slayed me.

- Shakespeare's Sister, channeling her inner Heidi MacDonald in Averting the End of the Affair

Enjoy, all!