An open thread for non-personal stuff. As always with open threads, no trolls, no MRAs, etc.
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Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff: Mid-August 2015 Baghead Party
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The MammothAn open thread for non-personal stuff. As always with open threads, no trolls, no MRAs, etc.
@ EJ(TOO)
Well, managed to polish off my bit of writing by just linking to the woman who had been insulted and her fantastic reply. Yey, another task finished.
Also managed to steal this (with permission) so hooray to women for doing all the work 🙂
http://thisgirldid.com/2015/08/14/want-to-meet-a-real-man/
@Alan:
If we mod in a single ball gag, will that make you happier? 🙂
He, gag me and you’ll make everyone happy.
@EJ (The Other One)
I’ve only used a few at the same time, and my main problem was that whenever I broke a block, it would take a few seconds for it to show up. I like the game either way, though farming mods do seem cool.
@Alan
You are writing about how body-shaming can affect people’s views on exercising, right? The first time I read your sentence, I thought you were writing an article on body-shaming while you were exercising xD
@ Rosa
It’s actually sort of your first interpretation. It’s about a woman who was out running and got abused by somebody driving past.
It ties in with something I’m involved in about getting people more active and the things that put them off. Being judged for not having perfect bodies to begin with is one of them; so that’s what I was trying to write about.
As it happens the woman involved did a brilliant response so I just linked to that 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/excaliburchallengesandtraining/photos/a.1464504933844084.1073741829.1460762834218294/1489487951345782/?type=1&theater
Oh, ok! I have to be honest… I didn’t get the shirt, but this might just be because I don’t run?
Making fun of someone’s weight while they are exercising (besides being wrong for obvious reasons) is so ass-backwards I don’t even know how people who act like that haven’t choke on air yet. “Hey, I think you are wrong for being fat, but also, I think you are wrong for doing something that will help you loose weight. So, what I’m saying is, don’t be fat, but also don’t try not to be fat.”
I can’t really say anything about body-shaming since I fit a size that is “socially acceptable”, but I’ve been harassed just walking down the street before. People in vehicles seem to be bolder, but people who are walking can be more dangerous if they put their minds to it.
@ Rosa
It’s from the saying “No matter how slow you are you’re still lapping everyone on the couch”.
It’s a sort of motivational truism. The two big inhibitors for women taking up exercise are (a) thinking they won’t be capable and (b) the fear of being judged by fitter people so it’s worth making the point that nobody’s expecting you to be an Olympian from the start.
Yeah, women can’t win with logic like that.
@Alan
I understand it now. I actually feel pretty self-conscious when it comes to exercising, not in terms of appearance, but of being judged for not being as athletic as other people.
@ Rosa
That is a big problem, and it’s not merely one of perception. Gyms especially can be very unwelcoming and hierarchical. The ‘cool kids’ hog the machines and the weights etc. and do tend to be very judgmental about people who aren’t all about protein shakes and leg day. That “Do you even lift bro?” is annoyingly common; and it’s not just the blokes (Remember the “What’s your excuse” controversy?)
As counter intuitive as it mat seem though the military fitness Bootcamps aren’t like this. In some ways it might be because it’s a self selecting group of people who don’t like the playground bullying aspect of gyms; but also it’s the emphasis on team work.
When we run the Bootcamps we might stick a woman who wants to lose a few post baby pounds with a soldier going for SF selection. Now obviously they’ll be at different levels of fitness. We get them to do the same stuff though, just maybe different loads. So the soldier might have to do 15 reps of a drill and the woman only 5.
The thing is, they’re both under the same sorts of pressure to succeed in that they both have a goal that’s important to them; and the best way to achieve that goal is to work together and encourage each other. It’s really quite something when you se a 22 year old soldier and a 35 year old woman throwing each other over a 10 foot wall.
EJ:
I’d argue that the first Star Wars didn’t quite so much divorce them from their atrocities as it sanitized them. Consider two scenes from the first film:
Vader and some sort of med-drone entering Leia’s cell with the clear intent of torturing information out of her.
The destruction of Alderaan.
Both of these are very much metaphors for Nazi atrocities, but they’re presented in a ‘clean’ way that makes them not be so uncomfortable for the audience to watch. We didn’t know anyone on Alderaan, just knew there were ‘people’ down there. And we never saw the actual torture, or even any sign of trauma in Leia afterwards.
@ Freemage
As we’ve pointed out before, Star Wars is about a bearded religious fundamentalist radicalising a naïve young farm boy so he would assassinate the head of state (after he gets diverted and sent on a suicide mission to fly into and blow up a large building). To do so he allies with a drug smuggling murderer.
There’s no evidence in the films that the Empire does anything wrong beyond taking some necessary action to degrade terrorist strongholds.
OK now that there isn’t going to be any Mammoth minecrafting for at least awhile is any one interested in playing any other online games?
@Fabe: I’m playing Clicker Heroes, plus some casual games on my tablet at the moment.
http://www.clickerheroes.com/ — looking for a guild here. Might make my own, I got almost 50 rubies collected right now.
Also playing Bakery Story, Restaurant Story (1st and 2nd), Castle Story and Dragon Story (tablet games). http://www.storm8.com/
@Freemage:
That’s a strong point you make.
It occurs to me that Star Wars inverts the Nazi actions and motivations: the Nazis sought power over the world so that nobody could stop them from carrying out atrocities, while the Empire carried out atrocities in order to crush the opposition to them gaining power. One person’s ends are another person’s means.
@Fabe:
Always interested, if you don’t mind that I’m not very good at games*. In particular I’ve wanted to get a Guns of Icarus game together for a while now because teamwork on an airship is great fun.
*(Except the intense mind-crushing strategy games that are basically just a spreadsheet with a GUI: I’m good at those. I did a tumblr LP of Dwarf Fortress that people seemed to like.)
Thinking about it, I have some time on my hands coming up: would people be interested in a LP of another intimidating strategy thing? Crusader Kings 2 or Victoria 2 or something.
Unrelated to anything, I just want to give a shoutout to Pokemon for having an entire class of black female scientist trainers. Goddamn, that is cool.
This dude did great. Also in Montreal. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/malyk-bonnet-teenage-hero-saves-woman-from-kidnapping-1.3191795
@EJ
I’m definitely up for a round or two or ‘guns of Icarus’. We could also try Left4Dead or Portal 2.
Okay. Anyone ever wanted to cuddle a koala? Most of us have at one time or another.
Ever thought about what might happen if a koala wanted to cuddle you?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-16/koala-chases-south-australian-woman-on-quad-bike/6701210
Two of the women part of the pilot program to take the US Army Ranger School have passed. And will graduate this week! A third is in the middle of the second phase.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/politics/women-graduate-army-ranger-course/
Since MM brought up koalas, random funny story from last year: The cat was tearing around the house with his tail bouffed up and I heard something on the roof, so I figured it was a neighbour’s cat or maybe a possum (Aussie, not American) and stepped outside to check… Nope. Koala. ON MY ROOF. I knew we had koalas out in the bush, but smack in the centre of town?
Didn’t chase me though. I think the ol’ feller was too busy wondering where the fuck he was to notice me.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/18/female-composers-a-level-music-syllabus-petition
Oh come on, next thing you know they’ll be asking for a mention of Madame Curie or Ada Lovelace on the Science syllabus!
Whereupon they will not be allowed to actually join the Rangers, because it’s 2015 and we’re still going “I dunno, they might get sand in their vaginas.”
Katz:
Sadly, this is a case of baby steps.