"It is a law of nature that whatever is big in the US becomes big in the UK a short while later...'I hate conservatives, but I really hate liberals.'"

While a little older, this piece was interesting because of the two points that it drove home for me:

One, America is the cultural leader and while we still take "cue"'s from across the pond, Great Britain follows us just as much, and if not more. Two, the younger generation of Americans, those that could vote just last time or maybe will start next time, are just as fed up with the liberal party as they are with the conservatives.

As far as number one goes, it makes sense to me. We follow European trends and we like to think that things in Europe are hip and new and cool, but they follow us as well. It's not just about the clothes, but the TV shows and the movies and the parties and the drugs. No one group - american or european - leads continuously in this. We play off each other, each trying to come up with something bigger and better. This is all done with media, the ideas and styles crossing the thousands of miles through movies and TV. I think at this point and time we don't even realize how intertwined our culture's are – it's just a part of life.

Number two is a little more complicated. There are a lot of youths that don't like Bush or his policies or his wars. But a lot of these same kids want nothing to do with the liberal party either, fed up with their inability to pull together or win an election or get their laws passed. I don't know if this means we'll eventually pick sides and join the rat race, or if we'll fight the system and come up with a different way to get what we want done. In any case, it doesn't speak well of our politicians if the people they're supposed to be recruiting as voters want nothing to do with them. I think that this is driven home by the media's constant message of "look what these people are doing wrong!" on both sides. There isn't a whole lot of them doing their job well – we don't usually care, then. All we see is when they screw up and the shit is about to hit the fan.

"No voting qualification ...shall...deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."

There is a law, passed by congress, that says "No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." And now the Republicans are up in arms because it names names. It says, in specific, the states that, at the time it was written, they were having trouble in. And low and behold, those are the states that there still IS trouble in.

It doesn't matter that this was written 41 years ago. It doesn't matter that it names names. If someone wants to bicker points, they should pull out the fact that while at one point and time, there was need for their name to be there, there isn't one anymore and that they've reformed. Whether or not that is true is completely inconsequential - they can still do it and still get away with it and still look like they aren't racists assholes.

To me, not passing this law, is kind of like it taking nearly 40 years for the anti-discrimination law to pass in Washington state. Maybe it wasn't race specific - that was already in place - but there should never be any upheaval over anti-discrimination laws. This just doesn't make sense. Are they trying to PROVE they're bigots? That they think they're better than others?

Because that's all their managing to do. Stuck pigs squeal loudest, indeed.

"..states must adjust their congressional district lines every 10 years...In Texas the boundaries were redrawn twice after the 2000 census..."

Um, wow. Okay. This was not the ruling that I had expected, no matter who Bush just put into the court. Gerrymandering is illegal. Everyone should know this as it's something that is taught to us again and again in jr high and high school social studies classes. Despite that this is stated in the constitution, the courts still ruled that DeLay's blatant gerrymandering, which scattered several minorities until they have no voice, was legal.

They gave a variety of reasons for each district line they left redrawn. None of them really agreeing on any of them, all of which spanned nearly 120 pages of reasoning. This is good news to me - it means they couldn't decide, as a whole, if what had happened was right for the same reasons. Sadly, they all still felt it was right for the plan to happen.

I don't know if they think that the americans are stupid, or just don't care. Maybe they think that we think so lowly of Texans that we will just role our eyes and go "figures." In either case, I don't think that's true. One group of people are already taking specific lines back to court and people across the nation are asking for better and more concise reasons that gerrymandering, in any form, is considered legal.

This tells me two things about the american culture: that our politicians are getting grabby and think that they can get away with far more than they should be able to (not that we didn't know that) and that the american people need to stand up to them and bring them back under their control.

"Perfect equality ... is held as a statement of superiority."

Um, hello. Before I start my blog on the piece, I think it needs a little bit of an explanation for those who aren't to deep into the internet culture (or this part of it). This piece is a meta post. Meta, in this context, is basically a long essay/article about something, written by common people, some of whom are well educated, some of whom aren't. Usually researched, not always well. Sometimes edited but not always. Sometimes equally balanced but really not usually. This is a very awesome piece, on gender equality and male privilege in fandom and in life. Fandom is basically the batshit crazies of a fanbase, though not all of them are batshit. Just the more vocal ones, and the ones people who aren't in the fandom see.

Also, this is hosted on livejournal, which features nested comments. This means it's VERY easy to follow comment threads, instead of searching for replies (like you have to here). Similar to the differences between Polychronic and Monochronic time, like we discussed in class, one goes until it's finished, the other is very linear. I'd recommend taking the time to read some of the replies (you might have to skim for the ones that are either long or have tons of replies), because the essay doesn't end there. It's expanded and belabored and defended by the author and others all through out the comments.

More background info: in most places online, females must identify themselves as females to be known as such. It's how the world as we know it works. This isn't much of an arguable point - go into most major sites (that aren't exclusively for girls) with a uniform, genderless name and you'll be called a guy. Believe me, it happens to me most of the time I start somewhere new. Online fandom is different. There are certainly many many many guys out there in fandom, but for the most part they stick to visual fandom and women stick to written fandom. As women, we have carved out a niche for ourselves in the written world, and over the last 10 years, in this part of fandom it has slowly been the norm to assume that everyone is female first. And this, sadly, is where the problems arise.

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I've had this piece 'memoried' on livejournal for months now. Exactly 3 days after it was posted, since I placed it there directly after commenting. This piece is one of those pieces that makes you stop and go "Yeah, experienced that". It's not a huge statement, nor something that really surprised anyone (except the guys, sadly). And as fandom, or the part of fandom this was posted to, is nearly 100% girls, we all had this in mind, just not as articulate as the author, who told us that she was glad she could put that degree in rhetoric to good use for once.

Despite that this isn't a huge claim, it's a huge issue. As many of the members of this corner of fandom are, or were at some point and time, gamers, most of us had had very similar experiences. And most of us were more than willing to share. Sadly, because this is so highly populated with girls, we really do do the "holy shit, you're a guy!?!" bit when we find out there is indeed a male at the table with us. That's not to say we don't like them, and that we don't associate with them, or that we don't think they're smart enough to hold a conversation with us - it's simply that they aren't there, or they choose to stay firmly an "it".

This is very telling of the current generation's culture. The internet plays such a huge role in our lives, and yet for every contact we make with someone through it, we are trusting them to tell us who and what they are. Slowly we are beginning to form norms for each "type" of person online, though they are ever evolving. In some places on the internet it is assumed that you are male unless you specifically say so. In fandom, and especially on livejournal, it is assumed you're female.

The reaction that guys have to this "hfbded says: PLEASE, like I'm female! what do you take me for?!" illustrates the point of this essay perfectly. Males, when they come into our corner of fandom, which they have to know is predominately female or gay (because sometimes it feels like the number of posts exclaiming over a guys looks have to out number all others 10 to one), get MAD at us because we didn't just KNOW that they're male. They expect us to KNOW with out them TELLING US. But if we were to go to the board they frequent on sports, we HAVE to tell people we're female, because how the hell are they supposed to know?

Cerata says it all, through out the essay and the responses. Some other people bring up several good points. But I think the one thing that sticks out the most is that MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF FEMINSIM.

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please ignore all people saying anything remotely sounding like the words "fandom" and "wank" in the same comment. Unless you're actually a part of it, it's going to sail right over your head.

before and after the end of the world - "I'll take you for-ever. For never. What ever!"

This is for SOC/CMU 150: multicultural communications. Feel free to read it and look around, but it's not my main blog and I may forget about it when this class is over. Or not. Who knows, right? I'm a college student. I'm allowed to change my mind :)