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Happy Thanksgiving and/or Thursday! Open Thread

Happy Thanksgiving, to everyone who celebrates it! And a very merry Thursday to everyone who doesn’t.

Because I haven’t provided a health update in a while (outside of the comments) I just wanted to reassure everyone that I am still here, and still trying to sort through a bunch of medical issues with the help of assorted doctors, some very competent and others not so much.

The issues I’m facing aren’t lifethreatening, but they are still debilitating enough to keep me from regular posting here. Sorry to be so vague; I’ll offer more details once some of these issues are sorted out a bit more. I’ll return to posting as soon as I am able but I cannot predict when that will be.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support. Thanks!

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Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

@Brony

I concur with your assessment. I was mulling things over last night and posted some tweets on the matter to get my thoughts in order, and one thing that not a lot of the new reports or think pieces (and I read and retweeted an excellent one about mental health in the adult entertainment industry) were mentioning is that if you think about it, August Ames was pretty much the face of the multi-billion dollar porn industry. She was the #9 most-searched name on PornHub according to one article. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a 23-year-old woman with depression. Another actress tweeted out a montage of some of the body-shaming that Ames received throughout her career; about her acne scars, about her lips, about her weight. You should have seen the chain of other female performers all chiming in to say they get it too, all the time.

I gotta wonder if anyone that young is capable of coming to grips with that level of influence and responsibility, particularly under the most intense personal scrutiny. What she probably thought was a passing explanation of a personal decision reached thousands of fans and colleagues in an instant. Her colleagues who called her out probably didn’t realize their influence either and an angry-hot take or two has a whole fanbase ready to dog-pile.

We all know the porn world has problems. Huge problems. I have to imagine that her attitude towards performers that have done gay porn have to have been influenced by the attitudes of others around the industry. I’d be very surprised if it was an opinion Ames had based on outdated misconceptions about HIV. I’m actually curious to read what industry insiders have to say in the days and months ahead, but… the tragedy of this whole situation is just so overwhelming. I struggle just to find lessons in it.

My hope is that this will spur some change in the industry. Unlike in the 90s when Savannah committed suicide after she received facial injuries in a car crash, social media has brought performers and their fans so close that one of the industry giants passing in this manner won’t be forgotten easily. Other performers demanding better mental health protection and the dismantling of stigma can go a long way.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

@weirdwoodtreehugger:

To be fair to MSNBC, sarcasm – like Sender’s tweet that he “hopes” his dsughter be raped by “and old man with great mise en scene (sp?)” – often doesn’t work on the internet, for two reasons.

First, sarcasm relies a lot on tone of voice and context, which is often missing, especially on twitter.

Second, no matter how obviously sarcastic or satirical you think you made your point, someone out there really believes just what you wrote.

Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
6 years ago

@ Kat;

Reading the tweestorm that followed Ames’ tweet, one of the replies said something (memory failure, here) about “waiting to hear that she (Ames) had taken a cyanide pill”….

Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

@Weird Eddie

That was the one that stuck out to me the most (of the ones highlighted in the news stories). I think that was one of the gay porn actors that tweeted that hideous tweet at her. He’s being roundly criticized for that abusive comment, although IIRC, he’s not accepting any moral culpability for fans that might have taken their cues from him.

Redsilkphoenix: Jetpack Vixen, Agent of the FemiNest Collective; Keeper of a Hell Toupee, and all-around Intergalactic Meanie
Redsilkphoenix: Jetpack Vixen, Agent of the FemiNest Collective; Keeper of a Hell Toupee, and all-around Intergalactic Meanie
6 years ago

@Valetin,

Thanks for the info. I’ve bookmarked it on my phone for later translating on a computer. Though I have to wonder why they couldn’t remove that one body and give it a proper burial. Identify it and give the family closure and all.

Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

Going back to hockey a second, I was floored that I didn’t know this!

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/hockey/former-canada-us-womens-hockey-captains-welcome-baby-1.4400077

I had no idea that Caroline Ouellette and Julie Chu were married! That is just so wild… I’ve watched them compete against each other in so many Olympic medal games and seeing their first child together was just the most adorable thing!

I wish them both all the best!

(Side note: You know there’s a toxic masculinity problem when all but two of the names under LGBT ice hockey players on Wikipedia are women.)

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
6 years ago

@Shadowplay and Valentin – thank you! (I didn’t realise that David’s twitter activity shows up in the sidebar …? I don’t seem to see it anywhere, but don’t know if that’s down to my wonky eyes or my wonky browser or what)

tim gueguen
6 years ago

Following up Hu’s On First’s post about The Family International, it’s the group that used to be known as the Children of God. Some of you may recognise that name if you’re fans of the early Fleetwood Mac, as that was the group Jeremy Spencer joined when he abruptly left the band in February of 1971. He’s still a member of the group.

Mooncustafer
Mooncustafer
6 years ago

families were united. Even though we had slavery

How united were the families torn apart by being sold to separate plantations?!

Nequam
Nequam
6 years ago

You think he gave two shits about nonwhite families? How adorable.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
6 years ago

Uh, Nequam … did you really mean to put Mooncustafer down? When that was exactly the point they were making.
(my apologies if I’m mis-reading the idiom there; it sounds like a put-down, but maybe it’s not?)

Shadowplay
6 years ago

There’s a reason I dislike the New Yorker, other than their frequent naval gaving from the inside:

Al Franken’s Resignation and the Selective Force of #MeToo

Me want to smack something hard. Preferably Al Franken.

Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
6 years ago

@Arctic Ape,

Finnish history lesson (abridged) is much appreciated, thank you! I know a bit about Russian history but I’m embarrassed to admit I forget that Finland was tied up with Russia back then. And they never mention it on Horrible Histories 😛

Enjoy your light dusting of snow you horribly lucky snow-having-person. It looks like summer has finally decided to settle in here, so I’ll just be melting for the next few months (and not in a fun way).

Valentin - Emigrantski Ragamuffin
Valentin - Emigrantski Ragamuffin
6 years ago

@redsilkpheonix

I think they can’t take out the body because it is too far inside. but they say the body is 19 and female. I don’t know how they identified this without her name or documents or without professionals. it is all too much rumours – but true there is bodies and missing people.

Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
6 years ago

@Shadowplay,

Going by the headline, I initially thought that this NYT article was doing the same thing as the New Yorker article you mentioned, but it’s focused on why Harvey W. and not Woody Allen – from Dylan Farrow.

Re August Ames – I saw a discussion on Twitter about this just after Katamount posted on it. 23 years old, bloody hell. What a waste 🙁

Shadowplay
6 years ago

@Mish

Never understood Woody Allen getting a pass for being a total abusive tosser (and irrespective of Dylan, there’s plenty of evidence) – then again, I do think his movies are complete self indulgent crap made for the bubblewrap set. 😛

Wrong is wrong. There’s no justification, no “whataboutism,” no “It was a different time” even, that makes a wrong right. It’s what pissed me off so much about the Franken article. Total whataboutism, zero contrition.

Though I have to admit one thing (from your article link) – I’d get into bed with the kids all the time (rather, I’d usually get into my bed and be swarmed with a pile of kids). Used to be the only way to get the little sods to sleep some nights, especially when I’d just got home from a spell abroad and they were wall bouncing at Dad being home. 🙂

Shadowplay
6 years ago

Sorry for DP, missed edit window but saw this and thought it was worth sharing:

Congress reeling from sexual harassment deluge

One thing stood out for me:

With no clear roadmap for how to deal with such topics, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other leaders are responding to the allegations on a case-by-case basis — and on the fly.

Say what? They don’t have a “roadmap?” Sure, they’re pols and need satnav, a focus group and a full support team to find their arses with one hand, never mind both, but come on.
Hows about, maybe, USING THE SAME DAMNED PROCEDURES YOU’VE DESIGNED FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE THAT WORK FOR YOU!!!

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
6 years ago

Hi all

Some of you know a bugbear of mine is when guys do the thing about how men are naturally superior fighters than women. They’re never willing though to put their money where their mouth is. However it’s finally happened (assuming he turns up). If anyone wants to help…

https://www.gofundme.com/anna-dempster-vs-internet-troll

Kevin
Kevin
6 years ago

@Alan
Hmm, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs comes to mind…

Shadowplay
6 years ago

@Alan

He’ll bail. They always bail – all mouth and trousers.

Kevin
Kevin
6 years ago

@Alan
I can’t resist mentioning the Dahomey Amazons…the troll probably never heard of them.

Kevin
Kevin
6 years ago

@Shadowplay
Sorry in advance, can’t resist wordplay either – all mouth and no trousers with his a**e on display for all to see.

Shadowplay
6 years ago

@Kevin 😛

I have a fondness for the ladies of the YPJ and YJE. Good people, solid fighters and know how to have fun.

Moggie
Moggie
6 years ago

That troll has put an unhealthy amount of thought into beating up women.

Shadowplay
6 years ago

Another dip into the archives: Remember Christopher Cantwell, AKA the Crying Nazi?

He was released on $25,000 bond on Thursday, with an ankle tag requirement.

Law is slooooooow. Not that I’m terribly upset at him having to spend a couple months inside, pre-trial, on general principles.

@Moggie – an unhealthy amount of fantasising. Not seeing any evidence of thought. 😛

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