One effect of living within the ideological bubble of the Men’s Rights movement is what you might call ideological inflation: MRAs start off believing, for example, that women don’t face discrimination today, in the developed world — an idea that’s wrong enough to start with. But then, surrounded by other delusional MRAs who reinforce their every wrong notion, the denizens of the Men’s Rights bubble come to believe that women haven’t ever been discriminated against anywhere and at any time in the history of the world. (You may recall those evil cavewomen who sat around eating prehistoric bon bons while the men hunted the mammoth to feed them.)
And that leads to things like the following video, in which the FeMRA video maker who calls herself The Wooly Bumblebee declares war on a pair of “Misandric Pants” she bought for her daughter by accident.
Yep, that’s right, she’s furious because one fucking percent of the proceeds made from selling these pants goes to a charity fighting against the very real discrimination and oppression that girls face all over the globe. You know, like being denied educations because they’re girls. Like being forced into child marriages with adult men. Like being forced into prostitution as children. That sort of thing.
Apparently girls don’t suffer from being repeatedly raped as children. But boys are totally oppressed because a tiny portion of the profits from a pair of pants goes to a charity that talks about, and tries to do something about, the shit girls have to endure because they are girls.
@ heathenbee
And to tie this in with the other thread (and an issue that’s disturbing to me as I watch it unfold), the Savile investigation in the UK – as much as obviously there’s a lot of blame to be directed at Savile and it’s only fair that his victims now be given an opportunity to seek justice, Savile himself was only part of the problem. The bigger problem was the fact that so many institutions – hospitals, child-focused charities, schools, the BBC – colluded with him and enabled him to abuse kids. This is why it bothers me so much to see people (mostly men offended that people are speaking ill of Savile after his death) trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug, because the fact that, say, Barnardos colluded in giving a person known to be dodgy access to kids just because he was famous is about as clear an example of “we are the real monsters” as it gets.
Same thing with the rape case in India. Yes, there are specific elements going on in India that make crimes like that very common there, but all the people trying to say “well it’s just India, stuff like that doesn’t happen here so let’s not talk about it”? Bullshit. No society is exempt from misogyny, so let’s not pat ourselves on the back too much.
I somehow feel like I’m in a Doctor Seuss book.
The word “bobbin” makes me think of rabbits, so I would have said Beatrix Potter.
Yeah, I want to get into spinning but I worry it will become another obbsessive pastime where I’ll never have enough hours in the day to complete all the projects I want to.
Ideally, if I take up spinning, it will be to spin my own flosses for embroidery and crewel work.
lightcastle: KittySnide – Maison du Futaille (who makes Sortilege) will ship to the US in certain areas. They used to ship to Chicago, for instance, but only by the case for restaurant ordering, so you had to get friends together to buy in bulk. They may have eased up on this since.
I can get it (in New Jersey) over the counter, though only in 375ml bottles.
Pillow in hell: Have a Turkish. The plying issue with spindles isn’t so much getting the yarn off (though a Turkish gives a nice center pull package, not really a ball, more a flattened diamond), as much as it is a case of being able to easily get the yarns onto something.
Since the cop is usually large enough that doubling the mass is impractical, plying onto a spindle requires having larger spindles for plying (and the tension is hard to maintain). That’s why andean, and navajo play are basically a sort of finger crochet.
But a schact, or a louet (I’m partial to schact, though I recommend taking a needle file and adding at least one, [I like two] extra notch to the whorl), of light weight, is the way to go. You don’t want a spindle that was mounted on a dowel, because they warp. You want one which was turned on a lathe.
I don’t think one needs a top/bottom whorl spindle (and the level of debate on that can get into religious territory), just one you like working with. If you want to spin lightweight yarns (e.g. floss) you are better off with a spindle, and a very light (rim-weighted) one, or a chakra, or takhti.
How does one blockquote here?
The bigger problem was the fact that so many institutions – hospitals, child-focused charities, schools, the BBC – colluded with him and enabled him to abuse kids.
This is the case far too often, sadly.
@pecunium – The 375 bottle is the default, although you can get it at 750 now. I’m not surprised it has gradually become more available, it has always been popular. I do like some of their other liqueurs.
Blockquotes are [blockquote] [/blocquote] but with the signs instead of brackets.
They are also minions of Basement Cat.
Hmm, yes, well make that [/blockquote] with a K at the end!
And as usual the greater than/lesser than arrows don’t want to show up in text.
lightcastle: When we went to the SAQ in Hull we bought 750s. So that was what I was used to.
So many comments! 😀 First, ithiliana: congratulations on puppies! You are awesome for rescueing them! I concur on the probably-has-some-chi assessment, as they both have the typical protruding forehead and very pronounced stop of chihuahuas. But with much less googly eyes, phew. ^_^
polliwog: my sympathies! I would like more accurate ratings on movies too, kthx. I don’t know what differences there are between ratings in NZ and the US but there is a “sadistic violence” label here which I think can be useful. Personally I am deeply angry there isn’t a “sexual violence” label. They label sex, they label violence – I am quite fine with both these things! Can I watch sexual assault scenes with consequences? Fuck no, and I am learning to believe myself that I shouldn’t try.
I loved Pan’s Labyrinth because of the realistic violence personally. I get so fucking sick of fake violence, that guy was an amazing sadist. I somehow find realistic violence cathartic where sexual violence leaves me a wreck. *shrug*
TRIGGER WARNING: talking about rape
Yeah, I watched that when I was about 13 or 14. Not cool. I could handle the domestic violence but the child rape was horrific. At the end I couldn’t stop laughing when he got the shit beaten out of him. I was too young. Now I’m older I find the post-drunk fight rape almost more disturbing because I didn’t necessarily identify it when I first watched it.
Once Were Warriors gives me really weird feelings because I’m Maori but appear white, was raised pretty white though some of my extended family isn’t. My heritage is important to me but I can’t see myself getting involved for lots of reasons. I also have a deep abiding hatred of gang members though I can understand fully how you end up in that situation. So yeah, quite intense for me.
Re: Doctor Who episode Blink (to jump back to something WAY earlier in the thread) I don’t get why Moffatt have him saying this stuff about time being so complicated and hard to understand (it’s this timey-whimey wiggly stuff or whatever he says). I mean, that’s the ONE Who episode where time travelling makes SENSE. The time-line is one-dimensional, it is what it is, and there’s backwards causation as well as forwards. Easy-peasy! In all other Who stories there’s “the past” which you sometimes mustn’t “change” by your actions, and then there’s “the present” where you can always do what you want, and “the future”, and seriously, if you can travel back and forth, by what measure do you even decide what counts as what? And it’s completely illogical to talk about changing the past, as if the past was FIRST this way and THEN that way, since that would mean that the past in the past was one way and the past in the present is another way…
This whole mess doesn’t bother me at all btw, I think it’s one the things you just have to accept to watch Doctor Who. But it was funny that the ONE time they make a script where time-travelling is all logical, they point out how weird it is.
Not to mention the whole business of River’s and the Doctor’s time lines going in opposite directions … I mean, what? You do that, what’s your excuse for saying there are things you can’t do with time travel?
@Cassandra, yes, I know what you mean exactly. The Savile case has gotten little coverage here, but my insomnia means I usually listen to the BBC overnight so I’m familiar. But we’ve had the similarly ghastly Sandusky case, with the same shitty under-the-carpet and buck-passing BS, and all the sports glorifying “he’s a hero it would wreck the institution” sickness that can only happen in the US : / And the Waste of Flesh himself is sitting in jail, still claiming to be the innocent victim. I’m glad I didn’t know about reddit and the MRA movement back when it broke (and I happened to be living in central PA at the time, so I was well aware of how idolized both he and the program are, it’s really scary), because I would have been an obsessed ball of internet fury getting nothing done but ranting back…
Wooly Bumblebee’s daughter is no worse off than the children of male feminists.
Oh, Once Were Warriors . That was difficult to watch. I remember telling someone I thought it was worth seeing, but I couldn’t say I *enjoyed* the film.
@Dvärghundspossen – Moffat actually really likes to tie up his casuality in pretty closed knots like that. I do think he felt he had to explain why it isn’t always like that in all the stories, though, hence the Timey Wimey ball bit.
@Kitteh’s Unpaid Help – The River thing is one of those unforunate bits where he got over clever. It is clear they are not in exact reverse order, they are just generally snarled. The only absolute is that his first encounter with her is her last. Everything else is not in reverse order. But he put that line in, and now kind of seems to feel beholden to it for no good reason.
Re: US movie ratings — the weirdest part might be that video games do have labels for sexual violence versus language versus nudity. Got bored waiting for my brother to pick a game, we’ve even got a partial nudity label that implied that full nudity, briefly, was partial nudity. As hilarious as that was, I spawns pleased to see useful ratings of wtf sort of “rated for adults” they meant.
Because yeah, I play BloodRayne for fucks sake, clearly realistic violence doesn’t bother me much. Had to pass on a game of nearly 8 bit simplicity that the not-an-ex recommended because the premise of an abused, kid hiding in the wall (and near as ze or wiki could guess, dying in there) was Too Fucking Much.
Useful ratings are useful, and I clearly need coffee >.<
Re: Blink — “timey whimey wibbley wobbly stuff” is at least a great quote for those times it barely makes sense *cough* Pandorica *cough*
Pedantic Who comment — his first kiss is also implied to be her last. Ut clearly her first meeting is not his last (lol saving Hilter, whoops!)
What.
Are you guys watching the same show I’m watching?
For what it’s worth, I have actually enjoyed most of the episodes with 11 in them.
I’m a Yank, and I’ve seen more than NuWho. Hell, I was watching Classic Who before it became popular, when the only channel that would run it was PBS. If I could come up with a clever play on “hipster” referencing the show, I would. So there.
Shoot! Forgot I was many pages behind.
@Kitteh’s:
Curse you, blockquotes! I will make you rue the day you were programmed!
@Falconer, blockquotes are the evil.
If you guys can’t make ’em work, I ain’t even tryin’ : /
Falconer — I was referring to last year’s Christmas special. It literally goes “mother…ship…we need a MOTHER SHIP!”