what is really getting to me is the assumptions

And the continuing saga of MJ the Comiquette continues.

Gakked from devildoll

EW's Popwatch reports in and, God help and preserve us, Fox News. No, really.

Also possible appearance on Inside Edition tonight. Did anyone see it? *hopeful*

There are no words for how utterly amazing this is.



As it might encourage trolling.

Also, I am now remembering why I don't date, thanks to pages eight, nine, and ten of DD's lj. Some of the comments are funny, some are kind of incoherent, and some make me sad, that there are people in the world who have never, ever been in visual range of a real woman who was able to talk. Tragic.

I--you know, despite that, the overall negative response to the statue surprised me. Granted, I'm mostly hitting blogs of my own people here, but I've read everything linked off of When Fangirls Attack. What I now *wish* I had done is save links to the really interesting ones.

However, I did bring it up with a woman at work and she disageed entirely, which turned into an interesting discussion. I didn't agree with a lot of her points, but her background is very different from mine and I could see where she was coming from. I honestly can't do justice to her views, but they were very well expressed and, to me, pretty reasonable. Which had the side benefit of making me less--cranky would be such an understatement--with the online version, though honestly, there were few ljs or blogs that covered an opposing viewpoint without resorting to the "hysterical" fangirls argument or the "more important things" argument, which Jesus H, I work state funded assistance for people in poverty. I know exactly, to the dollar amount on the FPIL and allotments for TANF and for that matter, the income limits on the low income subsidy for Medicare Part D, how many more important things there are. And I just trotted out credentials, Jesus, but the thing is?

I, and the rest of the people protesting, shouldn't have to.

And it just--the trolls were annoying but they're trolls, blink and forget them; I can't take seriously anyone who uses netspeak and talks about rape with five exclamation points. The ones I got annoyed with seemed to be under the impression that no one they were addressing had jobs, or did community service, or had any kind of participation in anything else. Which begs the question of why they assumed that off the bat, because honestly, people online--from my observation--tend to be *more* active online in things like this because they also assist social issues and services in their offline lives as well. They help at homeless shelters or rape conseling sites or volunteer for different organizations, contribute money to different causes. I think sometimes, one contributes to the other, makes it easier, or natural to extend that to other areas.

Which to compare it to my work; I have one client who is homeless and needs food stamps and housing assistance. I have another with a crappy job and also needs food stamps and housing assistance. One's situation is far more dire. I can help both. I don't have to choose. In fact, in a single day, I can get a lot of these situations fixed or sent to the people who can fix them. Maybe even more than two. Maybe forty. Maybe if my phone stats are anything to go by, two hundred and fifty a week, ranging from healthcare to battered women to children needing Medicaid to referring to the local agency that handles housing and employment assistance to the elderly who can't figure out how that Medicare Part D thing works. Then I go home and bully Child into doing his homework.

And surprise, surpise, I can also say the MJ statuette is breathtaking in its sheer tastelessness and the images it presents and not take a thing away from the others. Imagine that.

Comments

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think you're right, with qualifiers. But--yeah.

I think also it was easier with her because it was face to face and not subject to the vagaries of textual communication between fundamental strangers. And that's probably what makes me the most pissed with the trolls--it stripped away the ability of either side to be able to make their point without recrimation or worry of retaliation. And frankly, it introduced too much emotion into the equation, the wrong kind; the focus moved from "why is this offensive?" and "This is why." to responding to personal attacks constantly. I mean, seriously, death threats, rape jokes, feminazi--it was confirming the worst stereotyped behavior of comicfen. Humiliating too, because I'm fannish and whether I like it or not, these are my distant fannish cousins showing up at the barbecue. They're not just the face of comic fandom, they can easily be thought of as the face of *fandom* in some circles.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I think also it was easier with her because it was face to face and not subject to the vagaries of textual communication between fundamental strangers.

Yes. I'm afraid that recent bad experiences have made me conclude that most of these social issues simply can't be discussed online in public posts. They can be ranted about, and frequently are, which does serve a useful function of consciousness raising, but they can't be discussed in any meaningful way. The dehumanising effect of the internet makes it impossible. It is such a shame because the internet, as an international community with a huge fund of different life experiences, should be such a rich source for interesting discussion. But there have been a lot of these types of kerfuffle recently in fandom - about sexuality, race, feminism - and in each case it very quickly became black and white. One group set up a self-policing boundary so that only those in agreement or trolls could get through, and anyone who tried to get through with a more moderate disagreement was greeted as a troll by default and very quickly either lost their temper and started to insult back or left in disgust. I'm not quite sure how the situation starts because I only ever find these things via metafandom so I'm never around at the very beginning.

They're not just the face of comic fandom, they can easily be thought of as the face of *fandom* in some circles.
I doubt anyone who didn't already know a fair bit about fandom would ever get to hear of their activities, so they aren't besmirching fandom generally for anyone who doesn't have ready access to a more balanced overview.