John

As is frequently (REALLY frequently) the case, firecat has said something far more articulately and concisely than I feel currently able to say it. She's also kind enough to let me just gank her words to speak for me:

I really wish people who get defensive about hearing that there is racism/ablism in some entertainment product they enjoyed would figure out that if someone points out the racism/ablism, it doesn't automatically mean "and if you enjoyed the movie/book, and/or didn't notice the racism/ablism, you're a horrible bad person."

I do look for racism/ablism in movies, because it helps me become more aware of racism/ablism in me and the rest of my life, and I think being aware of it is a good thing.

I'm not sure how the race of an actor can be a metaphor, deliberate or not. But metaphors can certainly be racist.

I tend not to enter into discussions about works I haven't seen or read (unless invited), but I certainly enter into metadiscussions about the discussions.

In this case, although I haven't seen the movie, I have seen the preview, and that is racist/ablist enough. I don't have to see the whole movie to know that's part of what's going on.

And the preview told me the whole plot of the movie because I've seen so many other "what these people need is a honky named Marty Stu" movies and "a disabled person isn't a real person until they get a functioning body" movies, and those genres exist because of the racism/ablism in my society.

I've just finished my autumn term essay and, as ever, The Discussion has happened in our house. The Discussion stems from the fact that my partner and I have totally different approaches to writing. He's one of those appalling and lucky people who do the research, have a think then sit down and write a whole paper in one go without any real planning. It'll be ready in plenty of time for the deadline. I sit firmly in the other camp: I read around the subject, picking up anything that looks interesting and possible connected. I probably do twice as much research as I need to. Then I sift through the research for the bits that are really relevent to the topic. I write out plans. Possibly at this stage I go away and do a bit more reading to fill in any gaps. All the while my deadline come creeping ever closer. Finally I sit down to write. The blank page stares back at me mockingly. So I make a cup of tea. I jot down bullet points. I stare at the screen some more. I check my word limit. More screen staring. More tea. Possibly I go for a walk to get some fresh air. I threaten to throw the computer out of the window. My partner leaves the room/flat/city in frustration. Eventually, close to tears, I start typing. Some time later I realise that my partner has been asleep for hours, it's some ungodly time of the morning and I have the half-finished remains of dinner and several cups of tea littered around me, but the majority of the dratted thing has been drafted. From there it's just a matter of a conclusion and editing, which I can usually expand or contract to fit the amount of time left before the deadline.

Naturally my dearest one can't fathom why it is that I get so upset by the process. "Why" he asks "do you spend so much energy getting angry about not writing, when you could use it far better if you just wrote any old garbage and then went back to edit it?" It's usually around this point that I threaten to throw books at him. I've tried to explain several times that my brain just doesn't work the way his does. He works on the production side of publishing and is he's very good at thinking A>B>C>D>paper. My thought process is more like one of those scatter diagrams: lots of apparently unconnected things gradually being filtered and grouped into a cohesive whole. To him this is a madly inefficient way of working, to me it's just life.

How do you write? Does it cause domestic strife?

So apparently, if one sees Avatar and thinks it's racist and ablist, one is looking for racism/ablism. Also, the race of the actors is a deliberate metaphor, so it can't possibly be racism.

Discuss.

(And on top of that, if one evaluates a good number of people's reviews and decide the work is problematic (*waves at vito*), the person is completely misinformed, shouldn't enter discussions about this, and the only way they're worth listening to is if they go watch the movie. Sorry. It didn't work with "The Passion of the Christ", and it's not working now. Cameron isn't getting a cent from me, no matter how many of my friends think I'm facile for saying so.)

Mods: Please feel free to remove my post if it's not appropriate.

I've been accepted to a conference as an independent scholar. I'm trying to register, but I'm not sure what to call myself: 

Professor/Professional
or
Retired/Unemployed

While I do work, I'm not working as an academic or teacher (nor am I enrolled in graduate school), and it's half priced if I select Unemployed. Of course, I don't want to be dishonest, but I'm paying for all of this out of pocket, so it certainly makes a big difference.

Thanks!

I sometimes wonder about what it says about my level of feminism when I can have a day like today* and still feel like I've done nothing all day. Maybe it just means my glass-half-full drive is on HIGH, since after all, I did want a day to do nothing all day.





(* Cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the family; washed dishes; called around to find a vet to check to see if the found cat is chipped; posted to lists to try to find the cat's owner; called and made dinner reservations for the kid's birthday; etc.)

Does anyone know of one?

PS Tried article_request, and this community was recommended to me. Will be grateful!

+Please remove if inappropriate+

Hi,

I've tried searching online, but is there a particular way (MLA if it exists) for conference proceedings published in a CDROM only?

Thanks!

Congratulations to this week's winners!

dr_karma First Place




hits_ofsunshine Second Place




_kyri Third Place





This week's theme starts now - "Revolution"


Next week's theme will be... "Extinct"

Good things about this Christmas Day:

1) The traditional leftovers and playing-with-new-toys phase of the holidays. I love it.

2) Mythbusters marathon!

3) Visiting family are gone and we have our house back

4) I love my awesome presents. Among them? An SD card that means I can take 720 high-quality photos on my digicam instead of 9, the aforementioned bread bags, and a really thoughtful gift of my special shampoo from the kid.

5) No one killed anyone. Yay for avoiding prison!

6) I had an utterly lazy day. Did a few dishes, but not all of them. Beyond that, it was just eating and watching TV. It was delicious.

So we opened sogwife's presents early, because she's heading to her family's in a bit.

Gather 'round, foodies -- especially bread-bakers -- and see what the amazing sogwife made for me. From scratch!!

My bread is going to be so happy now! (Note the choice of embroidery on the larger/squarer, just-right-for-a-round-loaf bag. Is that awesome and hilarious or what?)

1 (fa la la): My beaversoncrack list is starting to have lines through it, yay.

2 (merry merry): The kid woke in a good mood, asked to talk to her grandmother (they used to hate each other), ate a big bowl of hot cereal, and is now making sweet-potato pie while I eat my breakfast. Her parents were going to call last night with their hotel-room phone number but didn't, so we're waiting on them to call. I don't expect that to happen before noon.

3 (ho ho ho): My mother has plane tickets to Philadelphia, where a big ice storm is on its way. Poor mom!

4 (deck the halls): I am being benevolent, and ignoring the pro-Republican "christmas greeting" glurge my mother sent me in email today. This is not actually virtue; it's self-preservation.

5 (o come, all ye faithful) Had a nice talk with the kid about the difference between blood family and chosen family. I think she likes these concepts.

6) (glo-o-o-ria) Have a wonderful time if you're celebrating; have a wonderful time if you're not. Much love!

The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students's 14th annual conference will take place January 15th to the 17th at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. As usual the conference will be held over a weekend, and co-hosted by a campus Hillel, the NUJLS leadership conference features workshops, services, community building, and social time. This year's keynotes are Rabbi Bradley Artsen, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and comedian Dana Goldberg!

We welcome students from all sorts of backgrounds (religious, not, newly out, not, liberal to conservative, and more). Workshops, speakers, and text studies address such topics as Judaism and homosexuality, activism, relationships, ethics, coming out, and politics. Last year more than one hundred students came from across the United States and Canada to participate, and we anticipate a similar turnout this year! Registration ($80) includes meals (all kosher), housing, and all conference events. Travel and registrations subsidies are available upon request (in the registration form). View past schedules and register at http://www.nujlsonline.org/conferenceinfo.html

Again, the stress is staying manageable. Hope it's the same for you. I helped sogwife with the stuff for her family's thing tomorrow (made toffee; chopped waldorf salad stuff), and she took the kid to spend some of her birthday money on christmas gifts for her parents. So I've had an hour or more of solitude, and most everything is done (could roll out the pie crust tonight, but may wait until tomorrow; ditto doing the dishes, but I've got incentive to do them tonight, as it makes cooking the next day easier).

Tomorrow's menu (listing everything so I make sure I have what I need):

Deviled eggs if I get around to it (because someotherguy and wtfpotatoes adore them and have been the heroes of the revolution lately)
Ham (Safeway brought the wrong kind, a spiral-sliced one, but that'll be fine. Not worth stressing over.)
Gravy (mom's weird pineapple ham concoction; the family likes/expects it)
Smashed red potatoes ('cause they don't need peeling!) with lots of butter and cream
Corn with butter/salt/pepper
Zucchini (if I'm up for it, I'll stuff them; otherwise, sauteed in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper)
Sweet potato pie (the kid is making that)
Fresh whipped cream (can do ahead tomorrow once there's room in the fridge, and keep in a strainer to stabilize)

My mom always does holiday dinners early (2 or 3 is normal for her), but I prefer my dinners in the evening, so I'm doing it at regular time. That gives me all day to futz, so really, there's nothing to stress over.

1) I think the Places I Slept in 2009 thing will be easy: Oakland, San Diego. I think that's it, unless you count naps in San Leandro.

2) The kid and her dad are off playing video games at the laundromat, because I couldn't find an arcade nearby. Her mom is out on a smoke break.

3) I've made my first food-processor pie crust. It's resting in the fridge. It's for the kid's sweet-potato pie for tomorrow. Next, I'll start a batch of toffee for sogwife's family do. I think I'm gonna save mashing the potatoes for tomorrow, because I don't really have very much fridge space. And then I think I'm done for the night.

4) Today has been a LOT less stressful than I thought it would be, but I'm still pretty wasted, and I think I may also have some kind of intestinal thing, because I got a little nauseated a couple hours ago and it hasn't abated. Bleah.

How's everyone doing? If you are celebrating something this week, how's *that* going? I am so grateful that I've had you to natter to this week. It's made a difference.

...aka the-coming-of-age-story? I've had 3 different professors pronounce it very different and I'd like to know what is the most common way of pronouncing it.

Just spoke to the kid on the phone (glad I sent her with my cellphone). She's with her parents in Chinatown, having lunch at a place that's "really neat, but the prices are kinda high on some things". Sounds like she's having a good time; I'm very glad.