"OMG!!! I think he's gay!!!" - part 3
Because two panics were not enough, because men and boys should face abuse and violence for doing something different, the Third Panic is upon us all...
There will be
mantyhose ("The exposure to these fabrics and colors are homosexualizing this manly man!", says the team of scientific researchers)...there will be
fifth-grade boys doing double dutch ("He must be pushed down the stairs! For America! For masculinity!", says the group of immature schoolchildren)...and just when you think that's all, the truth will emerge...
Oh My God!!! I think he's gay!!! - part 3 - Victims of the Bullies[/end movie trailer voice (and add tie-in videogame footage that involves bloody-horned-unicorn-riding-grim-reapers-with-chainsaw-maces)]
Perhaps I should know better by now, but why is it that such bullshit marginalization of men that participate in 'girly' things is so tolerated, yet when simpering wimps like
Johannes Mehserle shoot normal guys like Oscar Grant, we don't go making fun of them by calling them Joanne and making limp-wristed caricatures to drive home the point that stuff like this should not be considered manly? Isn't using the threats of harassment and violence to keep men from doing certain things the right thing to do? Then it should be perfectly fine to humiliate idiots like said simpering wimp above and anyone else that does the same thing. If we're lucky, no policeman in his right mind would dare shoot a black man in such an unjustified way out of fear of having their manhood questioned, since having your manhood questioned is the worst thing that could happen to us fragile, delicate, unstable men. That of course assumes the above-mentioned shame tactic is both effective and properly applied...
Maybe shaming men and boys out of 'girly' things isn't very effective since for every one that gets beaten to death and featured in the news (if they're that lucky), another one will appear and do
something they're not supposed to do. Maybe if the bloodthirsty, psychopathic masses that can pick on people minding their own business were to turn their anger on just a fraction of the people at the top that are directly responsible for our current economic crisis, said people at the top would clearly get the message not to fuck with those they're supposed to serve if they want to continue to be seen as the proper, upstanding men we're supposed to take them for (and not get pushed down the stairs at their jobs by blue-collar thugs).
Unfortunately, I look back at the idiocy that such "hey, men aren't allowed to do that! get 'em!" attitudes produce and dreadfully look forward to the idiocy that it will bring in the future, knowing well that for all the freedom and choice I'm supposed to have in life, my options are limited to either acting and looking like I have the power that men are supposed to have or to take abuse from some moron who thinks he has power.
Labels: annoyances, posted in windows
Post-Election LOL-a-thon
All those voters out there who gave Obama such a electoral victory that he got twice as much votes as McCain didn't need my help to do it, no siree. Judging by a couple conversations I overheard while on the bus, there were enough voters who supported him just to have a black man as President with not much of an idea of
what he's done. A week later after the election and I haven't heard anyone bring up details on Barack's past...or Michelle's for that matter. It wouldn't be so freakishly amusing in the latter case except I've heard so much more about Michelle Obama supposedly being a fashion savant or something to that effect. So, just what do I see when I finally hunt down a story about this famous red and black dress from election night?
It's a
bland if not ugly dress, and here I am wondering if maybe my sense of fashion is more fucked up than I think it is, since I am a straight guy and it's not a straight guy's job to be into what constitutes the latest in style. Maybe I'm biased since the only other fashionably dressed member of royalty I have for quick reference in the back of my head is Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear...
with a dress so pretty...
I don't care that this scene was added to the anime and not in the original game...because I didn't get to see it that much when I played.Whatever the reason, it could simply be yet another Obama-related pop-culture meme, like the
Joebama fanfic, the bastardization of
"What 'bout my star?" into
"Obama star", and other things I'm sure I have yet to see. Thankfully, I've not spotted any Obama-themed
"Motteke! Serafuku!" or
"Hare Hare Yukai" dances yet, so I have that much more sanity to hang on to...
Labels: anime, politics, posted in windows
Knock The Vote
Back when I turned 18 in 2000 and registered to vote for the first time, I had no idea that I would be as...jaded (is this the word I'm looking for here) toward the election process. Even back when my voting decisions were influenced by my grandparents and they made a habit of mocking campaign ads on television, I didn't think some negativity about the candidates would put me in the mind state that I've spent the last few months in. After eliminating "bitterness concerning the candidates I've voted for" and "expecting candidate X from Y for office Z to be a near-perfect person" as possible reasons, the conclusion that I've arrived at is that the presidential candidates and the scandals plaguing them are simply laughable when not outright scary.
What do I mean by that? Well, let's take the news that yet another high-ranking Republican was
revealed to be a fag. Incrementing the "outed gay Republicans" counter by one isn't as amusing as the fact that the people this guy runs with happen to not really like gays. What I find laughable about this is that it comes after Palin being picked as McCain's VP and everyone who's paid enough attention knows that she's been endorsed by
Focus on the Family some bunch of far-right crazies. If it weren't for the fact that I don't believe these bastards actually know biblical morality beyond anything that can be used to whip up sexual panics, I'd be flabbergasted that McCain still hasn't proven himself to be 'maverick' enough to renounce
his support for amnesty. Not even when the economy is definitely under pressure to the point of calling off his campaign for it.
While I'm sure Obama was supposed to be some great inspirational
black figure back when the primaries were the next big event, that's all but gone for me now. Though I didn't care about the "radical black preacher" crap from earlier this year, this whole
connection-to-a-terrorrist thing represents a new low. It's a low that may very well cast unfair suspicion toward any future black presidential candidates all because Obama didn't have the sense to consider this before taking that first direct step toward being the Democrats' choice for president. As for Biden, all my lazy ass needs to know about him for now is that he has given us proof that men and women will not be treated equally under law - otherwise know as
VAWA. Apparently it's okay to have mandatory minimums for drug use, very harsh sentences against men who batter women, and women receiving lighter sentences for violent crime, yet we need an unconstitutional law that serves as proof that equality is not what's really being sought?
I may just be unnecessarily negative about all this, and I do realize that some people in the past have risked a lot for people like me to be able to vote. Unfortunately, I fear they must be turning in their graves if not cursing us from purgatory for selecting lunatics to run for the highest and most important office in the country. Far from the 'hope' Obama tries so hard to symbolize, I hope looking back on this election, I'll wonder why I didn't beg a few
yaoi fangirls to make Ted Haggard x Karl Rove (for lack of a better couple)
doujins and mass mail the damned things to every Republican official everytime one of them is outed. After hoping I never see said doujins in my life, I'll wonder if the public gets the irony of thinking anime is a fad for kids and losers when the two women that have captured so much attention are essentially a
meganekko and a
tsundere even though those words will never be used to describe them in mainstream discussion. It sure would beat memories of a massive economic breakdown and catastrophic war against half of the Middle East going hand in hand. That and I wouldn't feel so...dirty knowing that October 4 sticks more in my mind as the day that the first
Tales of the Abyss animation episode will be out rather than the last day to register to vote according to a volunteer that I met on the way to work a few days ago.
Given a choice between rolling on the floor and laughing at the election proceedings and deciding who to vote for as the next President of the United States, I'm heavily inclined toward the former, since McCain and Obama just haven't convinced me enough that either of them are deserving of my vote, let alone that election politics is actually about trying to do what's best for the country and not just being a ruse meant to deceive the common voter.
Labels: anime, politics, posted in windows
Hollywood And Its Discontents
Call me an inexperienced youngin, but upon reading about a supposed
deficit of heroism in Hollywood, skepticism was my first reaction. Though apparently all of these superhero films seem to do good in terms of sales regardless of how many people claim to be sick of them (Dark Knight FTW!), it seems that they're not about real heroism so much as about how removed from reality they are. I'm sure it should be obvious to the most casual of observers that superhero movies cannot portray anything real so much as offer a parable or lesson as the crude, coarse, modern equivalent of (insert classical genre format here). Were this the only point the author tried to make, the article could be written off as one of the less harmful pieces of trend journalism. Unfortunately, the issues of 'victim' and 'whistleblower' heroes are introduced and for me at least, the article went downhill from there.
"The point of all three of the kinds of hero in which Hollywood has specialized over the last 35 years has been to make sure that heroism can continue to exist only on a plane far removed from the daily lives of the audience."
To say it is far removed from the daily audience's lives is unnecessary at best and false at worst. If these kinds of heroism were that far removed from daily life, then I would not have read so many articles from journalist and non-journalist alike on things like: how Obama/McCain will fuck up the country if elected president, the importance of having some political representative fight against gay marriage/global warming/immigration/sexualization of children, or why it's important for victims of rape/child abuse/censorship to speak up and do something about it. Such heated subjects clearly invite victims and whistleblowers fighting the corrupt systems that make these things possible. Whatever historical context may have created these archetypes in current cinema and culture, to deny it has close connection to its audience's lives heavily suggests that pop culture should only focus on the stereotypical concerns of the middle class, which would make pop culture slightly less self-absorbed than it is now. Other than that, the denial is there to expose a blind spot that an author older and wiser than 25-year old me should not have.
One response to the article linked above does get some things right that the original missed. Once again though, it goes downhill when trying to explain the victim and whistle-blower hero as if it were confined solely to the concerns of Hollywood:
"If you're Stephen Gaghan, or Joss Whedon, or Alan Ball (AMERICAN BEAUTY) and you actually care that a studio exec was rude to you, or cheated you out of an extra million that was due you (leaving you only $8 million on the deal), and that forms your whole social environment, then yes, of course your view of heroes would be either nihilistic, middle-class society rejecting anti-heroes, or whistle-blowers who show "how corrupt the system is." Of course Hollywood is corrupt. But Hollywood is not America."
Wrong, due to the example I gave in the larger paragraph above. True, you may not want to think of someone who shares your politics is a 'victim' or 'whistle-blower', but when you see a pundit on TV or read one of their articles on a website acting as if society will turn unbearably more evil if their talking point is not heeded, they are trying to be that hero themselves or hoping someone else will fill the role. Just because such a person doesn't explicitly reject middle-class values (or properly embody them for that matter) doesn't make this problem all about Hollywood and the egomaniacs that exist there.
"...Which leaves the cartoon/superhero as the only venue for heroism, and that far removed from both ordinary society, but embodying the "Big Man" jerk-style personal behaviors that Hollywood writers and producers have adopted as the norm."
This is an even bigger blind spot than before, simply because pretending that the "Big Man" jerk is only adopted as the norm by Hollywood requires lots of concentration. I don't think I'd have nearly enough strength of mind to ignore the fact that there are more women attracted to jerks until it's time to play victim - while
despising the weakness of guys that don't act big enough, or that presidental election coverage has repeatedly forgone focusing on the candidates' real views and plans to feverishly point out how
'unmanly' one's behaviors are. I know damned well that the American public likes its men to at least act big, if only to reassure them that large numbers of men won't undergo testicle shrinkage followed by a preference for some things 'girly'. Nevermind that somehow our ancestors and others around the world today somehow manage(d) to have bigger concerns than feeling a need to constantly reassure others that they're real men (is it that easy for some to forget?)...
One other problem that both of the authors miss is that to really drive their respective points home, all they had to do was invoke the dread specter of "Liberal Hollywood" and how it has ruined nearly everything. From there, it's only a hop, step, and a skip away to imply that if liberals and their problems were removed from Hollywood, it would once again be an arbiter of all that is right and moral. For that extra jolt of silliness, they could even explain why people should look to Hollywood of all places for examples of heroism rather than to non-fiction books and real people. It sure as hell would've made things more understandable than simply pointing the finger at Hollywood and blaming away.
Labels: article coverage, posted in windows
The Comic-Con 2008 Post
...now with less to say than the 2006 Comic-Con posts and not indexed by time...
Whether it comes from convention-goer fatigue or the fact that I was only there for one and one-third days this time, I'm almost thinking that this was not a very impressive event this year. Highlights of Saturday (since all that really happened for me on Friday was getting Lego Street Fighter figures after volunteering with the blood drive) include:
- Actually playing a match of Street Fighter IV long enough to find that Chun-Li's projectile attack is now a back->forward move instead of a 180 degree motion - after losing round 1 and blocking like hell against a Sagat player for the first half of round 2. Along with that change, the last hit of her multiple-kick super combo apparently has a backflip added on to it, though that may have only been at the highest gauge level.
- Watching other people play the new Ghostbusters game, Crysis Warhead, the Warhammer MMO, and some other things I don't remember yet.
- Playing the next Castlevaina game on DS (which I found to be better than Castlevania Judgment), Megaman 9, Soul Calibur IV (the only thing really gathering crowds at Namco's booth), and the new Bionic Commando.
- Wondering whether or not to buy a few things and in the end leaving almost empty-handed:
- The Revoltech Yotsuba figure (at page bottom on the right) - declined since I wanted the sold-out Danboard figure (at page bottom on the left) more.
- Something of Yuki Nagato - declined since the only thing I found that wasn't in the "mystery prize" category was $30 and the booth didn't take debit.
- The Mythbusters panel, where the hosts answered a few questions and showed some clips of next season's stuff and of "sobering up myths" (including a slow-mo slap to the face and very bad results from running on a treadmill while drunk).
- The Masquerade, while slightly different than the last time I saw it, was still entertaining enough with "Nintendont's Brawl: The Musical" among other things. I only wish we could've seen the remains of the costume that spontaneously combusted or at least been told what it was...
Labels: announcements, posted in windows, videogames
Tales of The Last Hope...XIII
Why, oh why did I not take E3 into account back when I was feeling buyer's remorse over that XBox 360 purchase? Even though I couldn't have predicted
Final Fantasy 13 no longer being a PlayStation 3 exclusive (or wouldn't have been willing to believe it), the fact that tri-Ace was already working on
Infinite Undiscovery (hopefully the game will be better than the title) could've been a good clue that
Star Ocean: The Last Hope would also be on XBox 360 - and maybe even another Valkyrie Profile in a few years - had I been clear minded enough to see it.
Though such news was uplifting for me, a roommate that just bought a PS3 mainly for FF13 was a bit disappointed, though at least
Versus 13 wasn't also announced for the 360. I should've told him not to feel so bummed unless Kingdom Hearts 3 (and you just
know there'll be one once the DS and PSP games are released) also loses PS3 exclusivity...or never gets it to begin with.
Though the demos for Tales of Vesperia and Too Human are now available for download, I'll either have to wait a few days or upgrade my Live account to gold status since silver members don't always get first access to new stuff. I'd rather wait since buying a gold membership that's not going to be used often isn't very appealing. Hell, the $8 toward a 1-month membership will be better spent on ToV as soon as 1)It's released and I have the money for it, 2)It gets good enough reviews, and 3)I'm sure it won't get in the way of my current Tales of the Abyss playthrough of about 15 hours.
Labels: posted in windows, videogames
This Testicle Will Self-Destruct In Five Seconds
Of all the things society can get away with, threatening a man's sexuality has to be one of the most idiotic, especially when the issue at hand isn't something as serious as
endocrine disruption or
excessive drug use but a goddamned summer movie that appeals mostly to women called Sex In The City. Simply not having enough interest in the movie or the show it's based doesn't seem to be enough for some people though, and so we get one "gay panic"
article of several along with quite a few
confused commenters not quite getting that gay men and women aren't the only targets being aimed at or that it isn't about men not being the center of attention. One such commenter also asks if Sex In The City turns men gay, can Iron Man turn a woman lesbian. It's a nice question, except that if there were a flood of articles on the internet daring to assert such a thing, it would clearly be labeled in no small part of the blogosphere as misogynist, homophobic, etc. in far larger numbers that what's going on here since that's what happens when enough women don't like what an article says about them (one thing to remember about the Forbes.com article concerning career women). In the meantime, we get to pretend that men can easily turn gay and deserve nothing but mockery for it without any more than a murmur of misandry in the crowd, much in the way that the spell checker picks up misogyny but not misandry.
Since I'm in a cynical mood as usual, I'll go so far as to call these gay panic articles for what I see them as - word of mouth marketing. Even if that was all it was, I don't see exactly why it was necessary to take this approach when one thing Sex And The City already had going for it was that the leading stars were female (despite the "gay men in drag" snark from
a NY Times piece) in a summer season where most movies are supposed to be male-dominated. Oiling up the hype machine with the ol' sex anxiety snake oil wasn't necessary for anything besides subsidizing the snake oil salesmen and getting frustrated consumers to see SATC just because they're pissed off at what some article writer suggests about some peoples' sexuality. If
'Wall-E' beating out 'Wanted' in the first week is any indication of a trend, maybe the fact that
SATC also got #1 over Indiana Jones in it's opening week points to a trend of moviegoers not being that interested in action movies when given a choice between it and another genre. If that's the case, then this is sufficient enough of an explanation for me as to how this summer's movies can be expected to do (and why the videogame industry is still raking it in), though it doesn't immediately invite ridiculous attacks on heterosexual male sexuality, and I guess that's not as important to some people.
Labels: annoyances, posted in windows
