Catharsis

So I've lived through 6 leap years. I didn't notice my first, because I was 2, but there was another one when I was 6 (first grade - might have noticed that), 10 (that would have been fifth grade, I should have noticed that one), 14 (9th grade, can kind of remember what a normal day in 9th grade was like), 18 (freshman year in college, that was a weird time), 22 (brain injury recovery, hooray), and now 26 and this is the first time I've heard of this idiotic shit about women "being able" to propose marriage ONLY on Leap Day.

I guess this is also where all that Sadie Hawkins crap comes from too. Apparently, in the 5th century, women had a similar problem with the idiotic gender rules. Some saint or whatever raised a legitimate complaint that women were sick and tired of not being able to figure out when and where men would ask them for marriage. They were completely at the mercy of some idiot's whim. Annoying today, annoying then. So, when St. Patrick heard the complaint, he insulted women by saying that yeah, they could take control of their own destiny and ask about marriage, but only 0.06% of the time, ie, on Leap Day. Fuck you, St. Patrick, you can kiss my entire ass and all of the asses of all of the women that ever existed since your time. due to the patriarchical bullshit you promoted just so that men could feel special by controlling other people's bodies. We can never go back to this bullshit.

Not White does not mean Not Misogynist

Not a very profound insight, I know, but sometimes, I forget. I forget that non-white guys are not necessarily less misogynistic than their white peers. They might be, because they are more likely to have faced discrimination, but that isn't a given that they'll be able to relate that to sexism. Some may even be using their race as a cover for their misogynism, thats what I'm starting to see.

The stories about guys have been played out

So many main characters, even if bumbling idiots, are there because they are supposed to be the one the audience relates to. If those characters are never female (and they rarely are, or those that are are so perfect as to be impossible), we never really relate to a female character. We get the feeling that the female is "the other" or abnormal, even if we are female. Regardless of the portrayal, if the main characters are always male, rather than just half of the time, then the media will remain sexist.

And from now on, when a new clever movie comes out starring a guy, I will consider it cliched. If writers really want to be creative, they need to start writing about women in a recognizable, flawed way, i.e. the way we really are.

Lets hope this continues into the future

Boys Treat Girls Like People: Thanks to Feminism

Thanks, Government

On Monday, I read "The Fear Factory" in Rolling Stone. From what I understood, the government is letting arrested salespeople from the black-market narcotic industry feed the ideas of disaffected young people that have vague affections for Islam and dislike for the US. Ordinarily, these people wouldn't have the means to do anything. One was practically homeless. But the "agent" comes in and befriends them. He feeds their ideas and suddenly, homeless men have a laptop and Google Earth. Later, this friend has "a connection" for some grenades to throw at the place that they cased together, with the agent's car. Then bang, the bust happens, and all the idiots in the media tell us that yay, another terrorist plot foiled. Because we really do not want some crazy throwing a grenade in a mall and killing a dozen or more people.

And meanwhile, in the same damn state, a real terrorist does just that, but with a gun, not a grenade, and we had no idea it where it came from.

Thanks for arresting drug dealers and putting them to work to keep me safe, I bet those dead people at NIU really appreciate all your work.