Join Mensa? No thanks, the SCA takes up too much of my time as it is.
And for what it's worth, I don't normally write essays like that. I don't run around telling people I'm smarter than them, because I don't care. What I do care about is that kids are having their lives made miserable, and I like to write, so I gave my perspective. Sheesh.
Yeah, sounds a lot like what happened to my friends and I when we complained about a jock who basically thought that the junior high girls were his personal harem. (He was a high school senior.) NOTHING was ever done about it. I went to a counselor, and she didn't really believe me and broke confidentiality on me, and the jock followed me around for two weeks threatening my life, and all the other little gossips started asking me if I'd had an abortion. Ugh.
The real kicker was that my mom called ME a slut because he had tried to get me to sleep with him.
Being called names and having lunch money taken (although they suck) is NOT the same thing as being thrown up against a wall and threatened with rape, having slime dumped into your locker, or being beaten up and THEN suspended even though you didn't fight back.
Typical high school for me and my friends.
If you think we're just bitching about being called names, perhaps you need to read more clearly.
So the only thing wrong with us is that we don't "fit in," and otherwise we're overprivilged whiners?
I think not.
The gay-community parallels are perfectly appropriate here. In fact, "faggot" and "sissy" and "dyke" are typical insults directed at outsider kids, even if they are straight.
Many les/bi/gays are born in "priviliged" families, and some homophobe or other is always eager to kick around statistics that "prove" gay people earn more than straight people. (No, not all gay people, fools, just the ones comfortable enough to tell some random stranger that they are gay.)
As it happens, the suffering of the different and intelligent is nothing new. I'm a third-generation Hellmouth survivor: My grandfather suffered literal physical abuse at the hands of the nuns at his Catholic school because he's left handed. My mother, the smartest kid by far in her class, was denied the chance to be an exchange student because "she's just a steelworker's daughter." I've discussed my own experiences previously -- suffice it to say that I'm well aware of the cruelty of peers and teachers, having lived through it.
If you like, you can go read Oh No, Not Again!, which was my original reaction to Littleton, and Confessions of a Redhead, my follow-up after seeing Star Wars. The second one might not make much sense unless you're familiar with the Chronicles of Amber, though.
Maybe it's time to write another essay, and send it someplace where it'll do some good. Like the Village Voice, which I would have expected to have had better sense.
1. More characters, and hence more female characters.
The ratio is not all that different, admittedly. But I just don't like Leia. I'd rather there have been NO major female characters in SW than have to watch her fall in love with Han Solo and start acting like a silly little girl.
Uhura is just so much cooler:)
2. Face it, there's more to like (or hate, as the case may be). An actual TV series, more movies, etc. The thing that has always freaked me out about the SW-obsessed is the comparatively tiny amount of stuff they're obsessing over.
3. SW is, bottom line, a children's story. Its target audience is little kids, especially little boys. Not that this is bad, but it doesn't do all that much for the argument that SW fans are "smarter" than ST fans.
Admittedly, it can be nice to not have to think for a little while, but it's not my thing. I like ST's metaphoric dealing with a whole bunch of contemporary issues MUCH better than SW's black-and-white, good vs. evil and that's that type of storyline.
... that, once this all turns out to be unworkable by normal means (and it will!), Aussie ISPs and/or the government don't decide, say, to just install CyberSITTER and be done with it.
Especially not that particular program. Of course, just before the filters go up, everyone could go access PeaceFire first, which apparently breaks their software. *smirk*
I went to a high school with a nationally-ranked marching band. We had one teacher and his wife who concentrated on the band. And band was a "big thing" in our school, but even then athletics overshadowed it. (Of course, many of the athletes were also in the band.)
There's also the small matter of how difficult it is to get funding for a non-Big Deal Sport. In most schools, football DOES get a huge amount of funding in comparison with, say, field hockey or the cross-country team.
As for the Academic League, well, isn't academics what school is supposed to be for????
The problem is that this idea has NIL to do with the Big Deal sports in high school. I'd be content with banning football and cheerleading, and possibly basketball, baseball and hockey (depending on the school). In other words, the Big Deal sports. Those seem to be the ones that really cause the problems.
Alternatively, I'd be content with taking sports programs out of the schools entirely, and having them be community leagues instead.
I'd even be somewhat happier if the eligibility rules for student athletes were STRICTLY enforced (in my school, if you were failing more than one class, you couldn't play... but it wasn't enforced too well, and kids were getting passes just so they could play).
The problems with athletic teams are many:
1. Kids get out of all kinds of time at school to go play sports. Admittedly, they get out of school for other things on occasion as well, but sports tends to draw more time than most others. Worse, kids concentrate on athletics instead of academics, which is a bad thing unless you're one of the tiny minority who makes it to the big leagues.
2. The Big Deal team sports teach little if anything about personal fitness that is useful later in life. Individual and small group sports (track and field, tennis, fencing, swimming) are much more likely to stay with you later in life.
3. Foolish parents who will vote "yes" on athletic funding and "no" on funding for, say, the school band, or even badly needed building repairs.
4. Schools that hire teachers based on what sports they can coach, not how well they teach. I hope I don't have to explain what a bad idea this is.
And these are just the problems I can think of early on a Monday morning....
School sports don't necessarily have to stay out forever. But some kind of "de-tox" seems to me to be a good idea.:)
Yes, the guys could be jerks who don't realize they're married. Yes, the women could be miserable bitches who are failing to be understanding.
But perhaps it's a bit of both? Or perhaps simple incompatibility?
Speaking from personal experience... I know that I could never again date a non-SCAdian, because the SCA takes up so much of my time. Not to mention, the last non-SCAdian I dated accused me of being in a cult. *sigh*
That said, the people who think having never seen SW is blasphemous need to get lives. I don't think non-SCAdians are lesser human beings; I DO think that my involvement with the SCA is an important enough part of my life that I couldn't be in a relationship with someone who didn't share that with me. (Then again, I started seeing my boyfriend at Pennsic, so that's not a problem.) If Star Wars fandom (or anything else) has the same meaning to someone, it is perfectly reasonable to wish a SO to share in that.
However, one of the most disturbing things about obsessed people is the tendency to look upon the non-obsessed as lesser life-forms. This is BAD. Certainly, it has no place in a relationship.
Spending more money than you can afford on Star Wars toys seems to be past that point.
Spending so much time on an obsession that you flunk out of college is also past that point (not to do with the article, just obsessions in general).
Is adversely affecting your relationship with a SO past that point? Depends on the circumstance. If the SO used to be neutral or slightly into the obsession, and you've made him/her sick of it, there is generally a problem. IMHO, of course.
No, just try dating someone you actually have things in common with. Works wonders, you know.
FWIW, most of the feminists I know don't like Ally McBeal et al. either.
People can get fanatical about anything - TV shows, movies, books, roleplaying games, religion, whatever. *shrug* I know people who have never missed an episode of X-files, I know people who have followed Phish to other countries, and I know people who own six different copies of the Chronicles of Amber.
Anyway, if she's driving you nuts with her fanaticism about her shows, you don't have to stay with her. There are women out there who don't watch them or like them.
Re:What the...Star Wars obsession limited to males
on
Star Wars Widows
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· Score: 1
As opposed to the original trilogy being heavily biased against females, in case you hadn't noticed?
Has a lot to do with why women, even those who otherwise like sci-fi, don't generally seem to get into the whole SW thing. It's certainly why I've always liked Star Trek better than Star Wars! *shrug*
And as for "religion," it's not a religion. It's a bad caricature of most of the world's major religions, all rolled into one. Not that this is stopping people from scrolling pagan groups with nonsense about "the Dark Side" at the moment. *sigh*
... maybe there wouldn't be so many Star Wars widows if the original movies had had the sense to include a main female character other than Leia, who spends the original trilogy with her spine disintegrating.
Having been dragged to TPM by my boyfriend last night, I can honestly say that this was improved this time around. But it doesn't make up entirely for having had to sit through the originals multiple times and endure the endless discussions of exactly what is in stock toy-wise at Toys R Us (he works there).
Then again, he puts up with my Amber obsession; I guess I can deal with his SW obsession, and even joke about it a bit. (Anakin Skywalker, shadow of Brand?? *grin*)
And what makes you think that people go INTO journalism to make money in the first place? There's something called idealism, and it tends to drive us in the beginning.
Unfortunately, it's the same thing that does seem to kill off the good ones in the end....:/
Judging by YOUR logic, though, we should all be Web designers and let the world fall apart around us as there are suddenly no teachers/reporters/lawyers/whatever. Well, if everyone was a Web designer, it'd stop being worth so much money NOW WOULDN'T IT?
I was a journalism major in college (yes, this stuff does take education), and what you are saying is simply not the case. In my experience, the average journalist is:
1. Under incredible amounts of time pressure. If a newscast is coming up and you need news, it is a bit too easy to take a story and just run with it. Not that this should happen, but sometimes it does.
2. Constrained by being allowed "X" amount of space (in print media) or time (in a radio or TV newscast) for a story.
3. Under increasing pressure to conform to the ethics of the mega-media-corps, like Gannet and its chain of McPapers.
Not to mention, even the best journalists there are still make mistakes. The entity known as "Woodstein" screwed up and ran with a story or two that it shouldn't have, but overall it's a damn good thing those guys were there to do what they did.
Actually, there's a point:
4. This generation's newbie journalists all want to be the next "Woodstein." Hell, I know I did. But after things like the Monica Lewinsky scandal, I don't have the stomach for it.:P
[And if you don't know who and what I mean by "Woodstein," you are really off base in trying to criticize journalists at all!]
I used to work for a bank, and the Budweiser Frogs Virus Alert showed up there.
I patiently explained to the rest of my department that this was a hoax, and there was no way in hell that all this scary stuff could actually happen. I also e-mailed a friend who goes to my alma mater, whose fiance is a sysadmin there, for further backup on this.
The response of one of my co-workers? "Well, I'll take the word of the president of Company XYZ [I forget what it was exactly] over a bunch of snotty college kids any day!"
Pity she didn't realize that said "snotty college kids" actually KNOW SOMETHING about the 'net.
*chuckles* Was her face ever red a few days later when the "This is a hoax!" e-mail was sent from Information Security. *smirk*
What disturbs me the most about the hype is that it has gone WAY the hell out of its target audience: little kids, especially little boys. Women's magazines are doing fashion articles based on Queen Amidala. WHY?! Lucas is on the cover of major news magazines. WHY?
This is a kids' story, folks. What little there is in the way of "larger Truths" in it have been distorted beyond all recognition. And supposed adults are eating it all up just because it's called "Star Wars."
I can't wait until this week is over, and I can put being dragged by my Yoda-worshipping friends behind me.:)
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Join Mensa? No thanks, the SCA takes up too much of my time as it is.
And for what it's worth, I don't normally write essays like that. I don't run around telling people I'm smarter than them, because I don't care. What I do care about is that kids are having their lives made miserable, and I like to write, so I gave my perspective. Sheesh.
Yeah, sounds a lot like what happened to my friends and I when we complained about a jock who basically thought that the junior high girls were his personal harem. (He was a high school senior.) NOTHING was ever done about it. I went to a counselor, and she didn't really believe me and broke confidentiality on me, and the jock followed me around for two weeks threatening my life, and all the other little gossips started asking me if I'd had an abortion. Ugh.
The real kicker was that my mom called ME a slut because he had tried to get me to sleep with him.
Being called names and having lunch money taken (although they suck) is NOT the same thing as being thrown up against a wall and threatened with rape, having slime dumped into your locker, or being beaten up and THEN suspended even though you didn't fight back.
Typical high school for me and my friends.
If you think we're just bitching about being called names, perhaps you need to read more clearly.
*shrug*
So the only thing wrong with us is that we don't "fit in," and otherwise we're overprivilged whiners?
I think not.
The gay-community parallels are perfectly appropriate here. In fact, "faggot" and "sissy" and "dyke" are typical insults directed at outsider kids, even if they are straight.
Many les/bi/gays are born in "priviliged" families, and some homophobe or other is always eager to kick around statistics that "prove" gay people earn more than straight people. (No, not all gay people, fools, just the ones comfortable enough to tell some random stranger that they are gay.)
As it happens, the suffering of the different and intelligent is nothing new. I'm a third-generation Hellmouth survivor: My grandfather suffered literal physical abuse at the hands of the nuns at his Catholic school because he's left handed. My mother, the smartest kid by far in her class, was denied the chance to be an exchange student because "she's just a steelworker's daughter." I've discussed my own experiences previously -- suffice it to say that I'm well aware of the cruelty of peers and teachers, having lived through it.
If you like, you can go read Oh No, Not Again!, which was my original reaction to Littleton, and Confessions of a Redhead, my follow-up after seeing Star Wars. The second one might not make much sense unless you're familiar with the Chronicles of Amber, though.
Maybe it's time to write another essay, and send it someplace where it'll do some good. Like the Village Voice, which I would have expected to have had better sense.
*disgusted sigh*
... at least this kid wasn't wearing a trenchcoat.
*wry smile*
Oh, and this happened the day after the new Star Wars movie opened. Anyone rushing to blame SW yet?
Didn't think so.
1. More characters, and hence more female characters.
The ratio is not all that different, admittedly. But I just don't like Leia. I'd rather there have been NO major female characters in SW than have to watch her fall in love with Han Solo and start acting like a silly little girl.
Uhura is just so much cooler
2. Face it, there's more to like (or hate, as the case may be). An actual TV series, more movies, etc. The thing that has always freaked me out about the SW-obsessed is the comparatively tiny amount of stuff they're obsessing over.
3. SW is, bottom line, a children's story. Its target audience is little kids, especially little boys. Not that this is bad, but it doesn't do all that much for the argument that SW fans are "smarter" than ST fans.
Admittedly, it can be nice to not have to think for a little while, but it's not my thing. I like ST's metaphoric dealing with a whole bunch of contemporary issues MUCH better than SW's black-and-white, good vs. evil and that's that type of storyline.
Just opinion, of course.
... that, once this all turns out to be unworkable by normal means (and it will!), Aussie ISPs and/or the government don't decide, say, to just install CyberSITTER and be done with it.
Especially not that particular program. Of course, just before the filters go up, everyone could go access PeaceFire first, which apparently breaks their software. *smirk*
I went to a high school with a nationally-ranked marching band. We had one teacher and his wife who concentrated on the band. And band was a "big thing" in our school, but even then athletics overshadowed it. (Of course, many of the athletes were also in the band.)
There's also the small matter of how difficult it is to get funding for a non-Big Deal Sport. In most schools, football DOES get a huge amount of funding in comparison with, say, field hockey or the cross-country team.
As for the Academic League, well, isn't academics what school is supposed to be for????
Oh no, sexual abuse is no exception to that.
Been there, had that done to me
Of course, that (especially if done by an athlete) gets dismissed with "He's just flirting, what's wrong with you?"
The problem isn't with the idea of sportsmanship.
The problem is that this idea has NIL to do with the Big Deal sports in high school. I'd be content with banning football and cheerleading, and possibly basketball, baseball and hockey (depending on the school). In other words, the Big Deal sports. Those seem to be the ones that really cause the problems.
Alternatively, I'd be content with taking sports programs out of the schools entirely, and having them be community leagues instead.
I'd even be somewhat happier if the eligibility rules for student athletes were STRICTLY enforced (in my school, if you were failing more than one class, you couldn't play
The problems with athletic teams are many:
1. Kids get out of all kinds of time at school to go play sports. Admittedly, they get out of school for other things on occasion as well, but sports tends to draw more time than most others. Worse, kids concentrate on athletics instead of academics, which is a bad thing unless you're one of the tiny minority who makes it to the big leagues.
2. The Big Deal team sports teach little if anything about personal fitness that is useful later in life. Individual and small group sports (track and field, tennis, fencing, swimming) are much more likely to stay with you later in life.
3. Foolish parents who will vote "yes" on athletic funding and "no" on funding for, say, the school band, or even badly needed building repairs.
4. Schools that hire teachers based on what sports they can coach, not how well they teach. I hope I don't have to explain what a bad idea this is.
And these are just the problems I can think of early on a Monday morning
School sports don't necessarily have to stay out forever. But some kind of "de-tox" seems to me to be a good idea.
Amidala's only 14 -- Anakin's 9, IIRC.
Won't matter much in a few years.
One out of four, I can handle (though arguably the droids and Obi-Wan are pretty major as well).
What bothers me is this: since she IS the one out of four, it would be nice if she didn't turn into a jellyfish when she falls in love with Han. Blah.
Yes, the guys could be jerks who don't realize they're married. Yes, the women could be miserable bitches who are failing to be understanding.
But perhaps it's a bit of both? Or perhaps simple incompatibility?
Speaking from personal experience
That said, the people who think having never seen SW is blasphemous need to get lives. I don't think non-SCAdians are lesser human beings; I DO think that my involvement with the SCA is an important enough part of my life that I couldn't be in a relationship with someone who didn't share that with me. (Then again, I started seeing my boyfriend at Pennsic, so that's not a problem.) If Star Wars fandom (or anything else) has the same meaning to someone, it is perfectly reasonable to wish a SO to share in that.
However, one of the most disturbing things about obsessed people is the tendency to look upon the non-obsessed as lesser life-forms. This is BAD. Certainly, it has no place in a relationship.
... but some people are past that point.
Spending more money than you can afford on Star Wars toys seems to be past that point.
Spending so much time on an obsession that you flunk out of college is also past that point (not to do with the article, just obsessions in general).
Is adversely affecting your relationship with a SO past that point? Depends on the circumstance. If the SO used to be neutral or slightly into the obsession, and you've made him/her sick of it, there is generally a problem.
IMHO, of course.
No, just try dating someone you actually have things in common with. Works wonders, you know.
FWIW, most of the feminists I know don't like Ally McBeal et al. either.
People can get fanatical about anything - TV shows, movies, books, roleplaying games, religion, whatever. *shrug* I know people who have never missed an episode of X-files, I know people who have followed Phish to other countries, and I know people who own six different copies of the Chronicles of Amber.
Anyway, if she's driving you nuts with her fanaticism about her shows, you don't have to stay with her. There are women out there who don't watch them or like them.
As opposed to the original trilogy being heavily biased against females, in case you hadn't noticed?
Has a lot to do with why women, even those who otherwise like sci-fi, don't generally seem to get into the whole SW thing. It's certainly why I've always liked Star Trek better than Star Wars!
*shrug*
And as for "religion," it's not a religion. It's a bad caricature of most of the world's major religions, all rolled into one. Not that this is stopping people from scrolling pagan groups with nonsense about "the Dark Side" at the moment. *sigh*
I'll be much happier when this fuss dies down.
That *is* very cool. Then again, Benedict's better than Obi-Wan IMHO.
And well, doesn't anyone else think it's more than coincidence that Brand's son Rinaldo uses the name LUKE when he's on Shadow Earth?
It just fits far too well.
... maybe there wouldn't be so many Star Wars widows if the original movies had had the sense to include a main female character other than Leia, who spends the original trilogy with her spine disintegrating.
Having been dragged to TPM by my boyfriend last night, I can honestly say that this was improved this time around. But it doesn't make up entirely for having had to sit through the originals multiple times and endure the endless discussions of exactly what is in stock toy-wise at Toys R Us (he works there).
Then again, he puts up with my Amber obsession; I guess I can deal with his SW obsession, and even joke about it a bit. (Anakin Skywalker, shadow of Brand?? *grin*)
*chuckles*
Well, that's one way for businessfolk unlucky enough to have a Web connection at work to get in a quickie-net-fix. And probably its main use.
I know I used to run to the library's public short-term (15 minute max) terminals when I worked at a non-web-enabled bank.
And what makes you think that people go INTO journalism to make money in the first place? There's something called idealism, and it tends to drive us in the beginning.
Unfortunately, it's the same thing that does seem to kill off the good ones in the end
Judging by YOUR logic, though, we should all be Web designers and let the world fall apart around us as there are suddenly no teachers/reporters/lawyers/whatever. Well, if everyone was a Web designer, it'd stop being worth so much money NOW WOULDN'T IT?
I was a journalism major in college (yes, this stuff does take education), and what you are saying is simply not the case. In my experience, the average journalist is:
:P
1. Under incredible amounts of time pressure. If a newscast is coming up and you need news, it is a bit too easy to take a story and just run with it. Not that this should happen, but sometimes it does.
2. Constrained by being allowed "X" amount of space (in print media) or time (in a radio or TV newscast) for a story.
3. Under increasing pressure to conform to the ethics of the mega-media-corps, like Gannet and its chain of McPapers.
Not to mention, even the best journalists there are still make mistakes. The entity known as "Woodstein" screwed up and ran with a story or two that it shouldn't have, but overall it's a damn good thing those guys were there to do what they did.
Actually, there's a point:
4. This generation's newbie journalists all want to be the next "Woodstein." Hell, I know I did. But after things like the Monica Lewinsky scandal, I don't have the stomach for it.
[And if you don't know who and what I mean by "Woodstein," you are really off base in trying to criticize journalists at all!]
Incidentally, the word is gullIble.
I used to work for a bank, and the Budweiser Frogs Virus Alert showed up there.
I patiently explained to the rest of my department that this was a hoax, and there was no way in hell that all this scary stuff could actually happen. I also e-mailed a friend who goes to my alma mater, whose fiance is a sysadmin there, for further backup on this.
The response of one of my co-workers? "Well, I'll take the word of the president of Company XYZ [I forget what it was exactly] over a bunch of snotty college kids any day!"
Pity she didn't realize that said "snotty college kids" actually KNOW SOMETHING about the 'net.
*chuckles* Was her face ever red a few days later when the "This is a hoax!" e-mail was sent from Information Security. *smirk*
Yes, very classy.
I wish I was there to see it in person.
Would that all student pranks were this clever, and this well-received.
[I need to send this one to my dad -- he used to do that kind of thing in college
I remember that experiment. Funny how that works.
Of course, what would be yet more entertaining along the lines of www.HeilBuchannan.com etc would be having links to some more liberal sites.
Didn't the NAACP or someone do that with www.kkk.com??
I have to say that I agree with you. Well said.
What disturbs me the most about the hype is that it has gone WAY the hell out of its target audience: little kids, especially little boys. Women's magazines are doing fashion articles based on Queen Amidala. WHY?! Lucas is on the cover of major news magazines. WHY?
This is a kids' story, folks. What little there is in the way of "larger Truths" in it have been distorted beyond all recognition. And supposed adults are eating it all up just because it's called "Star Wars."
I can't wait until this week is over, and I can put being dragged by my Yoda-worshipping friends behind me.