do you even go to this school?

[coyotesuspect]

Because I don't feel like ranting about what I'm actually upset about, have two completely unrelated rants!

To start with! There's a new SPN female character centric comm! Hey, that's great. I mean, we already have kripkes_angels , but yeah, it can be kind of slow. Maybe a new comm will be just the kick in the pants this fandom needs to start writing and talking and iconing for all the awesome female characters show has killed off featured!

Except.

Except.

What is this new comm called?

spnpussypalace.

spn. pussy. palace.

I get it. Supernatural can be terribly misogynistic. Fandom is often even worse. And I hate-hate-hate that any time someone writes or runs an exchange or opens a comm or does an icon challenge or whatever focusing on the female characters, it's a protest. It's seen as a courageous act against a fandom and a show which so exclusively focuses on male characters and male relationships. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. In a fandom which is so predominantly female, being fannish about female characters is seen as deviant. How fucked up is that?

But this is not a rant about fandom's misogyny. That's been well covered.

This is a rant about how calling your women-centric, grrrl power comm "pussy palace" is not going to help anything.

Yes. "Pussy" does not have to be a negative word. We can reclaim it! We can attach power to it! By using the word, we're owning our sexuality! Hell yeah! Fuck yeah! Yay vaginas!

And I understand the impetus- that when disenfranchised groups reclaim a word that has historically been used to degrade and marginalize them, it is powerful. It's taking something which has so long been used to harm and dehumanize and turning it into a statement of both defiance and solidarity.

But guys, guys. That is not what is happening here. If women are being disenfranchised and marginalized in Supernatural fandom, it is because we ourselves- us as women- are doing it. We're not reclaiming anything. Calling something "pussy palace" is not a powerful statement, it is merely a vulgar one.

What we're doing here is looking at Supernatural's women- brave, smart, tough, vulnerable, compassionate, beautiful, inspiring, selfless, selfish, clever, funny, hurt, angry- and asking what's the most important thing about them?

And the answer is Oh! It's what's between their legs.

That is not progress.

That is demeaning.

I am not a pussy. I am not a cunt. I am not a slut or a bitch or a whore. And, unless you're one of my very, very close friends and I understand that it's meant affectionately (because I don't have a problem with reclaiming these words in the context of larger society), you're not allowed to call me any of these things.

Because my gender, because my genitalia, are such a small, insignificant part of who I am, of who any of us are. And it's not feminism and it's not progress and it's not a statement and it's not clever or brave or funny to suggest otherwise.

Onto rant number two, oh hey! It's a political one!

Oh look at that wacky Tea Party! What are they up to now? Aw, they're getting their prized son Rand Paul to be the Republican nominee for Kentucky senator.

Rand (his first name presumably from that loathsome person and poor writer, Ayn Rand) said in his victory speech last night, "I have a message from the Tea Party. Washington is horribly broken. The Tea Party movement is a message to Washington that we are angry and we want to do things differently."

Yes. The American Public (TM) is apparently very frustrated with Washington right now. Of course, the American Public (TM) is always very frustrated with Washington.

But people, my people, what are you so frustrated about?

It's the lack of jobs. It's health care. It's the continuing effects of this depression. It's the fear that we! WE ARE NOT BEING HEARD.

But who? Who is not being heard? Well, according to the NY Times poll, the Teat Party is majority white, middle class, and male. As I often remark, internet, it is is hard out there for a white male. Those poor under represented souls. And I get that. They're scared. The world is changing, and being white, male, and middle class no longer confers quite so many benefits as it once did. (For god's sake, you only have to be two of those things to be president now!) They're losing their privilege, and they're moving into a world they can no longer comprehend, so, like spoiled children, they lash out.

But this is a movement! This is an anger, this is a philosophy which is growing. People ARE worried about jobs and the economy. The government has not done enough! The government has done too much!

The Tea Party's philosophy (as near as I can tell that is has any philosophy that isn't OMG SCARY MUSLIM BLACK MAN IN OFFICE) is fundamentally economically libertarian. It's laizzes-fairre economics. They want a "small government" and "hands off approach to the economy."

Except. Except. Do they not understand? Do those now joining the movement, not realize? It is exactly those kind of policies- that dreadful, destructive thought meme of the market will work itself out- which led to the exact same predatory lending and sketchy business practices that led to the recession. They are trying to vote back in the same people who are responsible for this mess, except this time, they're crazier and angrier. 

The Tea Party movement is intellectually and morally bankrupt. It is a hyper-inflation of the worst aspects of contradictory Republican thinking- that desire for a government which is small enough to not care about your neighbor's health, but is large enough to care about his soul. They can talk all they like about building communities. Their economic policies will hurt any community that isn't already well off. Their idea of a community is one where you pray to the same God and you look the same way and you marry the opposite sex and you do with your body what you're told, girl. 

And maybe I'm being hyperbolic. God knows I often am. But the Tea Party is not just a goofy fringe movement anymore, they're gaining power, and that scares me.

I feel better now.

Comments

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

be still my heart

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

*clings to*

Why does everything suck?

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

Not everything sucks!
You will be home soon!
:D

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

And I will be able to cuddle with my mommy! And my sister will do terrible things to me! :D

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

:D there's no place like home

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

I am going to have so many good sister stories. We'll be sharing a room all summer.