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let's not dance this dance
Oct. 17th, 2010 06:15 pmI am in a bad mood today (being a Liverpool fan = despair, but even if we're relegated I'd rather be a Red than anything else ♥), so here are a few things I might've let pass without comment before but am going to bring up now. (Please don't think my concern is any less sincere just because I also happen to be in a bad mood.)
- Hey, everyone, guess what? Hipster racism and liberal sexism are not cool and not okay!
- This includes you, Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, which I had to put down after struggling to like the protagonist (but that's a personal issue) and then coming across a passage where a Haitian character is introduced, upon which the narrative promptly spends the next paragraph establishing her as a racist stereotype (that is probably misogynistic too). Possibly unintentionally. Most often unintentionally! But wow it did not help my bad mood.
- Another thing that is not okay: ableist language. Yes, that means casual usage of words like "retarded" and "lame" and "insane" derogatorily. No, it doesn't bother everyone. But it does bother me and I do find it harmful in contributing to the general dismissive attitude people often have towards people with physical or mental disabilities. If you think saying "that's so gay" is harmful language, so is "that's so lame". Obviously I'm not here to police your language; you can say whatever you want. I'm just pointing out why it might be problematic and hurtful and why I might not like talking to you. Fair?
- I keep seeing people spell Yusuf's name "Yusef" and while apparently either one is an acceptable romanization from the Arabic, it still really bothers me because he's clearly labeled "Yusuf" on IMDB. So I'm gonna go with that being the official spelling of his name. Misspelling it and kind of handwaving it because they're both acceptable spellings is kind of like me telling someone my name is "Mei" and spelled that way - but them spelling it "May" because, whatever, they sound the same so it's the same thing, right? It's particularly problematic, I find, because this kind of thing more often than not happens with ethnic non-standard American names. (Please let's not have a conversation about how someone spells your name "Katie" when it's actually "Caty". My complaint is, I admit, mostly about non-Western names in a primaily Western fandom.)
- ( Cut for discussions about rape. May be triggering. Also spoilers for Inception if you haven't seen it. )
- Hey, everyone, guess what? Hipster racism and liberal sexism are not cool and not okay!
- This includes you, Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, which I had to put down after struggling to like the protagonist (but that's a personal issue) and then coming across a passage where a Haitian character is introduced, upon which the narrative promptly spends the next paragraph establishing her as a racist stereotype (that is probably misogynistic too). Possibly unintentionally. Most often unintentionally! But wow it did not help my bad mood.
- Another thing that is not okay: ableist language. Yes, that means casual usage of words like "retarded" and "lame" and "insane" derogatorily. No, it doesn't bother everyone. But it does bother me and I do find it harmful in contributing to the general dismissive attitude people often have towards people with physical or mental disabilities. If you think saying "that's so gay" is harmful language, so is "that's so lame". Obviously I'm not here to police your language; you can say whatever you want. I'm just pointing out why it might be problematic and hurtful and why I might not like talking to you. Fair?
- I keep seeing people spell Yusuf's name "Yusef" and while apparently either one is an acceptable romanization from the Arabic, it still really bothers me because he's clearly labeled "Yusuf" on IMDB. So I'm gonna go with that being the official spelling of his name. Misspelling it and kind of handwaving it because they're both acceptable spellings is kind of like me telling someone my name is "Mei" and spelled that way - but them spelling it "May" because, whatever, they sound the same so it's the same thing, right? It's particularly problematic, I find, because this kind of thing more often than not happens with ethnic non-standard American names. (Please let's not have a conversation about how someone spells your name "Katie" when it's actually "Caty". My complaint is, I admit, mostly about non-Western names in a primaily Western fandom.)
- ( Cut for discussions about rape. May be triggering. Also spoilers for Inception if you haven't seen it. )
