Angie Zapata and white-hot hatred

Following, and leading up to, the murder of Angie Zapata, the feminist blogosphere has been experiencing a new round of discussions on OMIGOD trans!!! If you want more context, please read this righteous post by Lisa Harney.

To me, some of the eruptions on the topic are reminiscent of “Reefer Madness” or promos for “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” And that’s why I didn’t want to write about them, and still don’t really want to write about them. Because I am in a screamy kind of mood as it is. There’s nothing new I could possibly add, except for maybe a loud ANGIE ZAPATA SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE.

And yes, I believe that many people in the feminist community hate people like Angie Zapata, though they often hide said hate behind sugary bemusement and/or doe-eyed earnestness. This”if trans people only knew their place, they’d be alright” mentality that makes my blood bubble and steam.

Angie Zapata, a teenager, is dead because someone decided that her place was in the grave. Think about it.

Counting down the days to Fable 2

I’ve been watching the trailer obsessively:

Fairy tales and storytelling and lore not only influence the world of gaming, but, I wager, the opposite effect is also taking place. Five hundred years from now, our lore, what makes it to the ghostly future generations, would have been impacted by Xbox.

Honestly, all those people who say that gaming is for losers who don’t have “real lives” (whatever a “real life” may be), are not seeing the bigger picture.

Fairy tales wedded to gaming create all sorts of discussions: the idea of self-determination, of free will and its limitations (games, like lives, have distinct rules), of the nature of time and how it becomes muddled once you’re sitting on your couch in the 21st century, battling an electronic ghost of a 14th century highwayman (and are you not also, then, a ghost? At least for a moment or two?).

The stories that will follow the first gaming generation will be interesting.

Ev0l P0rn causes men to turn abusive… or does it?

I see this argument crop up a lot. I see it used as evidence that ev0l p0rn must die. I see studies conducted on this stuff (I personally think that they are about as useful as trying to find out whether or not men who use shoe-shine tend to be abusive, but that’s just me).

Now, I happen to like the movie “300.” A lot. It’s not Anita Ekberg splashing in a fountain, and it’s not a dying man whispering “rosebud,” but it’s something. It’s a weird and wicked and profoundly offensive movie, awesome in its sheer crassness and beautiful and lush in its scope, and it’s the sort of thing I happen to like. This won’t get me any invitations to Harold Bloom’s tea-parties, but it’s the truth.

Am I therefore a violent megalomaniac who tosses babies off cliffs? Or, to be more specific, am I inspired to toss babies off cliffs? Should someone come and take my DVD away, for my own good, before, y’know, tragedy strikes?

I’m asking this, because I honestly see no substantial difference between my love for oiled-up Spartans in red speedos and, say, someone’s predilection for Tera Patrick films. If we must get rid of the latter to be a better society, or whatever, might as well get rid of the former.

Now, does p0rn turn men into monsters? Hmmm… Have some of the men I’ve known in this life been jerks? Sure. Abusive jerks? Absolutely. Do I think it had anything to do with the sort of films they watched? No.

Honestly, doesn’t this amount to excusing rapists and violent sociopaths? “Terribly sorry, Your Honour, Tera Patrick made me do it.” Too far-fetched? Think again.

I think the goal of a world without p0rn is wedded to a very idealized view of sexual relations. Identifying and solving the problems of the industry itself is one thing, saying that it should be eradicated is a little too Old Testament for my tastes.

“History will judge us,” said the Cat Behemoth in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. I suppose it will be the same in this case. Who knows? Maybe a thousand years from now, someone will (somehow) read what I wrote here, and think, “what a barbarian!”

If I can do it to the Spartans, it is only fair. šŸ˜‰