The Blood is The Life 15-08-2012

[miss_s_b]

• Straw Feminists
  (tags: )
  
• The Women Who've Transformed A Mars Rover Into A Sassy Social Superstar - Forbes
  (tags: )
  
• Sexual harassment in the gaming world: a real life problem for female gamers. - Slate Magazine
  (tags: )
  
• BBC News - Saudi Arabia opposes .gay internet domain name
  Also .wine, .vodka and .sucks
  (tags: )
  
  
• London 2012: we've glimpsed another kind of Britain, so let's fight for it | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian
  One comment worth reading: "It's the media, of which you are a part, that feeds us this constant torrent of negativity. The media that constantly tells us we're crap, that our day is over, that we need to come to terms with our patheticness. It's the media that churns out shit like Big Brother and offers us revolting reality TV "celebrities", third-rate talent show winners who... haven't an ounce of creativity, egomaniac footballers who are as thick as pigshit... The fucking awful, sneering, endlessly miserabilist media. In the tabloids it's all celebrities, football, moral panics and bombast. In the broadsheets, it's all worthy types like Toynbee endlessly banging on about the awfulness of Britain. You people have almost killed this country with the evil, despicable culture of doom-mongering you've created around you. I truly hope that you've seen the light, and that sufficient of your fellow media practitioners (across all media, not only newspapers) have done the same
  (tags: )
  
  
• Not just shit but dangerous « Chris T-T on the Closing Ceremony
  I'm with whoever it was on twitter who said that the closing ceremony was Danny Boyle's Wonderful Life - this was what Clarence the angel was showing him the world would be like if he wasn't here. I got cross with the racism and the objectification of women (not just in the fashion bit, but throughout) and the laziness of the playlist and the cutting out of all the interesting bits of the songs. I will give props to Jessie J, though, who actually sang live and did it well. If Paul Rodgers fears for his job, well, so much the better.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Work Capability Assessment – Year 3 call for evidence - DWP
  If you've been subject to a WCA, do please fill this in.
  (tags: )
  
  
• real feminists don't gaze at males
  I very much approve of the Amanda Palmer school of feminism.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Freddie For A Day
  Is coming up soon.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Official Queen T-shirts Sale at Universal Music
  (tags: )
  

Comments

[drunkwriter]

I know I've mentioned before the shame I feel for my entire gender when I blithely roll a female character in this or that online rpg just because, and receive all sorts of hideous gender-based abuse.

Now it's got to the point where it's just put me off online gaming, really. Annakarina got pretty high level on WoW, but one day I just got fed up with being propositioned by dwarf hunters, and logged out. I have a PS3, Wii and gaming laptop with all sorts of goshwow multiplayer potential and I just can't be bothered with huge elements of gaming culture.

It's really sad that technology which enables you to be anyone and do anything within a virtual construct is being used to reinforce such mundane gender expectations.

Rocksmith sounds totally awesome. The sort of thing that might prod me into picking up my abandoned guitaring.

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, I was thinking that about Rocksmith.

As for the other stuff, well, it's what prompted me to abandon online RPGs pretty sharpish after looking into them.

* shrug *

There's only so many fronts one can fight on, you know?

[drunkwriter]

Guess so.

I might tune up the guitar this evening. I have a lack of anything better to do having finished a short story last night.

[etoile]

I've been really "lucky" and not got much grief for being a female gamer, most likely because on the WoW server I play on, everyone assumes female characters are played by guys anyway.

The problems I've had have mostly come from people immediately changing how they engage with me once they find out I am female - if you were friends with someone before the vagina revelation, now you've been flirting with them. Help somebody out? You want them in your pants... it gets very tiring, very quickly :(

[miss_s_b]

I suspect it does.

* hug *

[jo]

I totally loved the closing ceremonies - as did everyone else I know. My sister called them "the best EVAH" on Twitter. I think whoever wrote that really needs to lighten up. Seriously - what a party pooper! Closing ceremonies are always naff - did you not watch the mess that was Vancouver's in 2010? The William Shatner stuff? The giant, inflated moose, RCMP and hockey players? Christ on a stick - compared to that, the London one was a 5-star performance!