#for example how to just be Around without feeling unproductive with threads and the like. be fine with Writing Slow TM (rp and dms alike)

[desalvar]

ayo i'm not dead!

[markiafc]

so, a thought about how the star wars fandom tackles sw & buddhism.

people love making meta on this with zero focalization, which results in meta that’s shallow, insubstantial, and unproductive.

buddhism is an ancient giant of a religion, it’s massive and old and incredibly diverse. there are two (or three, or four, depending who you ask) main branches of buddhism, hundreds of sects under each, numbers of subsects under said sects. then throw in the many buddhist movements throughout history, and we get an extraordinary amount of buddhist schools. naturally, their beliefs and practices would be distinct to one another, fusing with the region’s pre-existing ideologies, developing to accommodate their own societal and cultural matters, changing across long histories as the locals undergo their own struggles. 

if meta is to be made, isn’t it natural that awareness should be given to what the term ‘buddhism’ even means in your meta?

like, star wars canon itself is pretty ambiguous on this too. it’s true. there’s no official mention detailing where and what was borrowed over. but we do know star wars was inspired off japanese films featuring samurai, so there’s reason to believe sw canon works off bushido / 武士道, which also indicates zen buddhism. which also also indicates mahayana buddhism / 大乘. (it also also also indicates daoism, confucianism and more but we’re only talking about buddhism here.) and there. that’s a designated playing field with infinite potential. 

you don’t need to be hyper-specific. you can, of course, generalize things. but if your sources are cursory, then meaningful insight is a pipe dream.

eg. let’s talk about 法印 / dharmamudra / dharma seals

from this sole concept of dharma seals, we have:

三法印 / the three dharma seals

derived from the text:《大智度论》/  the treatise on the great perfection of wisdom

the three seals being:

诸行无常

“all 行 / sankhara / formations are impermanent”

诸法无我

“all 法 / dharma / buddhist ways have no self”

涅槃寂静

“nirvana is calm / quiet / peace”

三法印 / the three marks of existence

tmk this is the non-mahayana version

derived from a different text + is grounded in a different buddhist school of thought (possibly theravada...?)

lies outside of my area of expertise orz

so taken from the wiki, it states

sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā

"all saṅkhāras (conditioned things) are impermanent”

sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā

"all saṅkhāras are unsatisfactory”

sabbe dhammā anattā

"all dharmas (conditioned or unconditioned things) are not self"

四法印 / the four dharma seals

is basically a re-interpretation slash alternative of 三法印 / the three dharma seals where a fourth seal is added

derived from the text:《增一阿含经》卷18 / ekottaragama sutra, section 18

the quote: “ 一切诸行无常，是谓初法本末，如来之所说；一切诸行苦，是谓第二法本末，如来之所说；一切诸行无我，是谓第三法本末，如来之所说；涅槃为永寂，是谓第四法本末，如来之所说。是谓，诸贤，四法本末，如来之所说“

and for short:

一切行无常

“every 行 / sankhara / formations is impermanent”

一切行苦

“every 行 / sankhara / formations is suffering”

一切法无我

“every 法 / dharma / buddhist way has no self”

涅槃寂静

“nirvana is to surpass / go beyond everything”

五法印 / the five dharma seals

this is also outside of my expertise, there’s only a handful things i know about it but nothing in depth

is another re-interpretation slash alternative of 四法印 / the four dharma seals where a fifth seal is added

it tacks on the idea of emptiness, that gets expounded in the《维摩诘所说经》/  vimalakirtinirdesa sutra

the five seals being:

诸行无常

“all 行 / sankhara / formations are impermanent”

诸法无我

“all 法 / dharma / buddhist ways have no self”

色即是空

“the 色 / rupa / physical / external / tangible is empty”

寂静涅盘

“nirvana is calm / quiet / peace”

真空妙有

it’s something along the lines of  “true emptiness is...” (?)

another thing i’m not familiar with so i’m unable to translate

this is not an exhaustive or educational list on 法印 / dharmamudra / dharma seals, of course. but from this alone, it’s evident there are a number of versions for just this (1) concept. the same seal with the exact same phrasing of “涅槃寂静” can be understood as “nirvana is calm / quiet / peace” or “nirvana is to surpass / go beyond everything”. all versions of the dharma seals share similar and repeated ideas, such as “诸行无常; all 行 / sankhara / formations are impermanent”, but that does not make all these versions the same. even the two different forms of 三法印 / the three dharma seals mentioned share very similar ideas and the exact same title, but they still differ greatly depending on the branches of buddhism it exists under. 

none of them listed can be mistaken for the other. they each came about and continue to exist for their own intents and purposes, and are used in practice in various ways too. this is in spite of how similar the lines stated may seem, repeated or no.

if you want to comment or dig into anything, you have to be aware of what a dharma seal is and which interpretation of the seals you’re thinking of and why this? there are so many different and nuanced understandings of the dharma seals, why would you look into three dharma seals instead of the five dharma seals? because the five dharma seals re-contextualizes it all with a greater focus on emptiness? now how would that change the lines repeated in both variants? simply picking out what in star wars resembles a dharma seal will bring you nowhere.

a lot of buddhism works this way, where it’s essentially the same thing echoed all over the place. but so much of it is at the same time distinct, and different. because what matters is the interpretations and the applications. the why of why this variant exists, how is it used, what makes it different will be what brings forth insight and meaningful conclusions.

the tens of thousands of meta love throwing around 八正道 / the eightfold path and 四圣谛 / the four noble truths in their observations, while providing a blanket definition, a surface explanation to the vague one-liners. but without a focus and the full context of the concept at hand, it’ll never be anything more than saying x = y. you’ll never be able to go beyond one for one comparisons and parallels. and for an american franchise made by and for americans, a one for one parallel between star wars and actual buddhism simply does. not. exist. the entire resulting meta would be worthless because it is wrong. 

examples of a lack of focalisation leading to meta that says nothing includes this tumblr post and this twitter thread (what’s the point of telling me dooku’s name equates to duhkha that means suffering, it’s an observation that goes nowhere and is unproductive. what is the point.)

examples also include the dharma of star wars by matthew bortolin, where he makes simple comparisons, takes a general buddhist concept and slaps it with a selected aspect of star wars. and then explains how it is the same while giving zero insight to anything star wars or irl buddhism. 

like at one point, he brings up the concept of 蕴 / skandha / aggregates?

Buddhists further subdivide mental elements, bringing the total number of aggregates that comprise a sentient being to five: (1) physical form or body, (2) feeling, (3) perception, (4) mental formations, and (5) consciousness.

and goes down the list to explain each, while using a star wars analogy (which is already demeaning and weird to do, because why would you use an american and appropriating franchise as a case study for anything buddhist, especially so when your purpose is to be a primer for buddhist philosophies first). 

but alongside the concept of 五蕴 / five aggregates, he never makes a peep about 十二处 / twelve ayatana or 十八界 / eighteen dhatavah, which are concepts that come hand in hand with the five aggregates. 

why. just why? when these concepts, in practice and when discussed by actual buddhists, are so tightly woven together, they are a package deal! they literally belong in one big web, as you can see below. 

the five aggregates, inclusive of twelve ayatana, inclusive of eighteen dhatavah. there's so much overlap and interweaving connections. the combination is the full idea, is the full picture, is the complete purpose of 五蕴 / five aggregates concept.

matthew bortolin also has a major issue with terminology.

at many occasions, he straight up uses the phrases & words star wars made up for their fictional universe to explain buddhism. it’s terms lifted right out of the movie lines like yoda’s “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” and he proceeds to adopt the structure and progression described in that line to teach buddhism as well. or he uses the term “dark side” to explain buddhist concepts of suffering when the “dark side” does not exist in buddhism, it is not a buddhist concept at all. he uses terms a white man made up for his white man movie to directly explain buddhism, a religion that exists in real life. which is very, very, very strange at best. deeply problematic and disgusting ignorance at worst. 

and sometimes he just says things like this:

Buddhist philosophers describe three types of desire that, when grasped or rejected, cause suffering. The three types are desire for things that are pleasant to experience, desire for something to not be the way it is, and the desire to have more or to be more.

which includes no terminology, as far as i can tell. i have no idea what he’s talking about. is he referring to the three types of 贪爱 / tanha / desire? is he talking about the 三毒 / the three poisons? i will never know. what he references is too vague, too general, too meaningless.

but tying this back to the original point: he introduces a buddhism that has no focalisation, and no awareness for the thousands of different interpretations.

matthew himself is a part of 十四項正念修習 / thich nhat hanh’s order of interbeing, a buddhist school under 禅宗 / zen buddhism. and they have their own main beliefs and concepts called the fourteen mindfulness trainings. but funnily enough, these fourteen ideals never make an appearance in his book. 

what does make it into the book are generic buddhist terms like nirvana, dharma, karma, samsara. the sanskrit terms suggesting he’s either referring to buddhism in its most broad and non-specific form, or theravada canon (whereas using the chinese terms would have signaled to me straight away that he’s tackling mahayana buddhism). 

he describes mindfulness and meditation, but that is yet again an all-inclusive buddhist trait. it indicates nothing. he also goes on to mention 八正道 / the eightfold path and 四圣谛 / the four noble truths, as well as 四正勤 / four right exertions, and gives a general textbook explanation with no nuance or meaningful wisdom. he does mention 二谛 / the two truths which was the only thing that was recognizably mahayana focused, but even then it went nowhere.

the use of sanskrit terms, plus the mess of vague buddhist concepts and explanations and the sudden (1) mention of a mahayana concept is... confusing. the buddhism he presents is scattered all over the place. it jumps from one big umbrella to another. i have no idea if he’s aware that clear distinctions exist within buddhism. it’s as if anything goes as long as it’s under the universal label of buddhism. which is, of course, exactly the case. the answer to ‘why this?’ is simply because it is buddhist.

he presents an incredibly blurred image where nothing substantial can be made out. though nothing he says in his book is wrong (other than the afterword where he proceeds to rationalise how a strictly non-violent religion like buddhism can sometimes allow murder and violence, yes, buddhists can have a little murder if they think it’s right, as a treat), nothing about it is right either. there’s simply no substance to it, so it falls in the grey area where no judgement can be placed upon it. nothing can be said about it, it sparks no discussion. it is very simply, utterly nothing.

thanks for nothing, matthew.

and everyone else who has proudly made buddhist & sw meta that serve no other purpose but to stroke your own ego.

[your-favorite-closeted-bi]

My point was, the cows are not killed

To Obtain The Milk

If they are killed for being unproductive that is a problem with the industry. Like i said its flawed. Although the cows that are not profitable in that sector are still made use of. They are used for breeding or meat. They dont die all on their own, they are killed and 3 years is the lowest, it can be as high as 10:

I agree that the conditions need to be improved. Cows get sick from shitty conditions on farms and i think that farmers have a responsibility to do better.

i looked up what you said about jerking off bulls (i hate that i had to say that sentance thats in my search history now) and i found suprisingly little. The best i could find without spending an absurd amount of time thinking about bull masturbation is a vice article saying they masturbate themselves and a reddit thread which was inconclusive. I dont think i have to say that neither of those are entirely reputable sources so im leaving that point up in the air.

for the slaughterhouses thing. I recognize that that would be hard. I understand it. But once again. Sadly. Animals dying for meat is the natural order of things. Slaughterhouses are awful. I think we should find ways to artificially grow meat from cells in a lab or such. But until then, this is the best solution we have. Many animals like dogs or cats and humans before vegans need meat as part of a heathy diet. Theres not much that can be done about that. For humans some can substitute but others cant.

On the last part . I interact with the posts because they show up in my feed and i feel like i need to counteract misinformation when i see it and speak my mind on important topics.

and on being guilt tripped. Something is guilt tripping (for me at least) when information is provided that is intended to sway your view that is not relevant to the current discussion, not the full picture, or not true. For example, if you see an article about children with cancer and it tells the story of some of the kids, i think that’s reasonable, they are (hopefully) true, they tell the full story and they are relevant to the topic.

where do i say “but me” or “i dont want to” i would love to know.

i know about vegan food. Ive been allergic to eggs for most of my life (recently the allergy has become less severe so now i can eat baked eggs) so vegan food was the safest option. And let me just say. A lot of it sucks. I had to spend years finding one recipe for cookies, one for cakes for birthdays and such. Its hard. Its expensive, and its time consuming. Not everyone can do that.

i care about animals, people, and the environment. I want to help. I truly hope that one day we can find a way to produce synthetic animal products that taste consistently as good as the real ones and arent ludicrously expensive and prohibitively hard to find. Specifically meat. I could live without that. But i think the problem is mostly with the industry and not the product itself in most cases. Its not that i “dont want to feel bad” i m just tired of people like you acting like its all of our moral obligation to not eat anythIng that comes from animals. Im happy that you can afford to do that and it makes you happy.

i. Am. Happy. For. You.

but the thing is a lot of us cant. some of us are trying not to die. some of us have bigger problems. When vegans say stuff like “animals are the only descriminated against minority/most discriminated against minority” it just shows how ignorant you are. Most of the vegans i see online (at least the very loud ones, i know many who are actually quite pleasant to be around) are mid 20-something white guys. And i think that really shows a lot.

i think we need to sort out our differences with humans first and stop commiting hate crimes and wars and genocides over petty things. Then we can talk about cows.

a vegan person, gaining literally zero benefits for advocating for veganism: go vegan

tumblr: oh wow the militant PROPAGANDA

dairy farmer, whose income depends on people buying dairy products: dairy is good actually

tumblr: THIS. this ^^ finally someone said it!!!

[perfectirishgifts]

The Art Of Asynchronous: Optimizing Efficiency In Remote Teams

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/the-art-of-asynchronous-optimizing-efficiency-in-remote-teams/

The Art Of Asynchronous: Optimizing Efficiency In Remote Teams

Since the pandemic began, organizations have struggled to convert remote operations to a more sustainable model. A major contributing factor comes from a deep reliance on real-time,  synchronous communication, compensating for lack of structure, visibility into work, and self-management skills. Synchronous communication may be getting in the way of your organization’s success may include calendars full of meetings, workforce burnout, long-hours worked across time zones, inefficiency, and decreased productivity. The most successful remote organizations are able to maneuver between asynchronous and synchronous communication and collaboration, optimizing for efficiency, inclusivity, and wellbeing. 

The most successful remote organizations are able to maneuver between asynchronous and synchronous … [] communication and collaboration, optimizing for efficiency, inclusivity, and wellbeing.

What is Asynchronous Communication? 

Asynchronous communication is defined by messages that aren’t shared or received in real-time. Common ways teams experience asynchronous communication and collaboration are through a string of threads in email, project management systems, customer relationship management and content management systems, messaging tools, shared documents and digital whiteboards, and video recording tools. One pitfall many teams face is using asynchronous channels in real-time, classic examples are dropping everything to respond to non-urgent messages or emails, creating a vicious cycle of reactive work and unproductivity. The challenge for organizations is both in setting standardized rules and expectations for communication and enforcing them. 

What are the Benefits of Asynchronous Communication?

Building an organization-wide communication strategy that maximizes asynchronous methods brings lasting benefits to companies of all sizes. With reduced reliance on synchronous meetings and messaging to get work done, workforces see increased productivity, time for deep work, and thoughtful responses, while enabling a more seamless employee experience regardless of location and time zone. These benefits create a more inclusive and supportive environment allowing for both introverts and extroverts to contribute equally, and allows individuals to optimize their workday for their own personal efficiency preferences, not needing to be as tied to dedicated 9-5 hours. 

“The criteria can feel blurry while deciding when a conversation should be moved from async to sync or vice versa. The trick is in not forcing it and finding an optimal balance between the two. If before a meeting you retrieve updates on task completions, project statuses, blockers or additional context then real-time communications can be reserved for topics that benefit from immediate exchanges such as brainstorming, problem-solving, or decision-making,” says Tariq Rauf, CEO and Founder of Qatalog, a work hub that asynchronously funnels tools, people, projects and goals together under one digital roof. “Discoverability can also eliminate dependency on sync communications, and unlock new levels of collaboration. Too many team leaders forget this. Making documents, goals or processes accessible across teams is a simple but powerful collaboration habit because it allows colleagues to discover information relevant to their work, on their own time, without disrupting productivity and flow.”

Helen Kupp, Product & Strategy Leader at Slack’s Future Forum shares how to make flexible schedules work for teams, “For many people, 9-to-5 workdays, regular meetings, and ‘always on’ interactions were never the right work environment. It resulted in burnout among women with children, barriers to advancement among underrepresented employees, and other issues. That’s become truer than ever in the pandemic. Rather than being chained to a day full of back to back meetings, asynchronous communication and work puts individuals back in the driver seat — in control of when to engage in content and messages from others, and when to instead carve out time for deep focus work. That balance is key to productivity. More importantly, each individual’s situation is different. I’m a mom to a new baby, so my most efficient deep focus time may be different from yours. Asynchronous allows us to tailor work to each individual’s optimal work situation, and unlocking productivity.”

What are Best Practices to Optimize for Asynchronous Communication? 

Given the reliance asynchronous puts on tooling, it’s important that organizations are intentional in not overwhelming their workforce and infrastructure with a sea of apps, creating information and communication silos, and wasted expense. 

Asynchronous tends to rely on written communication, so it’s important to both screen for written communication skills and train the workforce on improvement. Video recording tools like Loom help the sender provide verbal and visual context, supplementing written communications with a high context, human-centered opportunity to collaborate and connect asynchronously.  

Plenty of tasks and meetings can be moved to asynchronous channels, but should we be reliant on asynchronous only? No, there is still a time and place for synchronous. Work should be organized into three categories: 

Type 1: Synchronous & Collaborative

The work that we’re used to doing together in an office should now be reserved for interactive tasks that will be more valuable with real-time engagement between multiple team members on a phone or video call — scenarios in which producing a result together is urgent, a conversation that will be enhanced by active listening, or thinking quickly on your feet as a group. For example, performance reviews, group brainstorming, trust-building activities, team decision making, and strategic planning. 

Type 2: Asynchronous & Collaborative

In asynchronous and collaborative communication, a two-way exchange is expected, just not at the same time. Messages are made accessible to all by sharing openly across tools, channels, tasks and projects. For organizations that see the value transparency has on overall success, the vast majority of asynchronous communication often falls into this category. 

“Status meetings is a simple but powerful example of asynchronous communication. Our Future Forum research showed that teams that moved status meetings from live meetings into asynchronous, written updates actually scored higher on sense of belonging than those teams who kept the live meetings. That’s because asynchronous updates do a couple of different things. First, it signals that live team time is reserved for higher value team-building activities. Second, it makes the updates & information more accessible to everyone on the team — they can consume the information, ask questions, and provide feedback in a deeper, richer way than in a quick sync meeting”, says Helen Kupp. 

Type 3: Asynchronous & Independent

Messages that aren’t intended to have a response fall into asynchronous and independent. Routine status updates, and FYI’s are great examples of things that are better done independently to guard for people’s time, and being done asynchronously provides for another benefit, recorded information that can be easily referenced any time it’s needed, leading to more self-managed teams, and less taps on the virtual shoulder. 

“Discoverability can unlock new types of collaboration. Specifically, making documents, updates, goals or processes accessible across an organization can allow colleagues to discover new information relevant to their work, on their own time. If someone comes back from vacation and they need to catch-up on everything, they’re likely to seek updates across teams and projects. For some items, they’ll want to turn on a tap instead of a firehose. So, rather than schedule meetings to retrieve updates, asynchronous communication can give them a chance to review updates at their own pace”, says Tariq Rauf. Read more about Qatalog’s tips for sharing updates effectively. 

Bottom line, asynchronous messages can wait… so let them. Organizations need to set and articulate clear expectations in employee handbooks and communication charters that give workers structure for response time on various types of messages, so they can better self-manage their time, tasks, and energy. “Many of the norms and rituals of how we work together are unintentionally office-centric. The basic assumption is that everyone is working in the same place, at the same times. And honestly, when most companies were forced to make the shift to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic, many of the issues & challenges we were seeing around burnout, increase hours and meetings, etc. were from the fact that companies weren’t intentional about the change and mainly lifted & shifted old office practices onto videoconference”, says Helen Kupp. 

Teams that differentiate and navigate between using asynchronous and synchronous communication instead of defaulting to real-time connectivity, have success in increasing productivity, and wellbeing in a remote environment. With some creativity, intention, and dedication, organizations are often surprised at how much synchronous work can effectively be replaced with asynchronous communication and collaboration, leading to happier, more productive teams that experience higher quality synchronous time together than ever before, no matter where they are located.

From Careers in Perfectirishgifts

[elyzabethmarie17]

*Music as a Means of Explaining Gender Identity*

Artifact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71LewgKrpkchttps://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/grace/youdontownme.html

Since it first entered the world of music, rap music has consistently had themes of violence, money, and negative attitudes towards women--calling them “hoes” and other vulgar terms. This kind of music generally mirrored a society that did not respect women in many ways but even as that kind of attitude began to change, rappers continued this thread of disrespect in their music. However, more recently, many artists have been pushing to break down this culture in rap music and to combat stereotypes about women that are often referenced in these songs. In this paper, I set out to answer the question: What gender/sexuality norm is constructed or undone in this artifact? How is it rhetorically done and/or how does it promote a dominant ideology over a marginalized group or push back against the ideology or gender norms? Is it productive/unproductive (ethical/unethical)?

 To answer this question, I will be discussing one of these songs that was written to empower women rather than to stereotype or disrespect them. In 1963 Lesley Gore first recorded the song ‘You Don’t Own Me’ which was later modified and used in the movie ‘Suicide Squad’ that came out in 2016. This song was recorded by Grace and rapper G-Eazy and deconstructs the idea that women need a man to take care of them and instead paints women as being powerful and confident by juxtaposing Grace’s words of “you don’t own me”  with what G-Eazy says about how he wants to take care of her. This is both productive and ethical because it promotes the truth that women can be just as successful as men in a musical form that is often devoted to objectifying women. 

In her piece ‘Undoing Gender’, Judith Butler expresses the importance of being able to be considered as human even when it is at the price of being able to live our truths. She explains that the desire to be recognized as a human being has the potential to trump the desire to live the life you want to live (Butler,p 2-3). For example, many people stay in the closet because of fear that they will be viewed as less human by those they love (or not) if they were to come out. Butler also says that some people feel the need to remain “less than intelligible” because the norms that would be placed on one if they identify as one thing or another are simply unbearable (Butler p3). Ultimately, what all this means is that gender is a human construct that is created every day by ascribing to and rejecting different norms in order to both maintain some level of self but also to hold onto the possibility of being recognized as the fullest level of human by those around us. In terms of music, this can be manifested in the songs we listen to and how we relate to the world through music--for example, how the music makes us feel.

Right at the beginning of the song, G-Eazy begins by rapping “but I’m Gerald and I can always have just what I want. She’s the baddest I would love to flaunt.” This immediately gives the sense that Gerald (G-Eazy) believes that because he is a famous and talented rapper that he can have whatever he wants, including women. This is prototypical of rappers in their songs as previously mentioned.  He is once again showing the disrespect that men have for women by saying that he can have whatever he wants and that what he wants is to flaunt this girl that he has labeled as being a badass. This particular line might make a woman feel objectified or that she does not have worth unless a man believes she does. As Butler would explain, this kind of recognition as human is something that all people strive towards, and if we are made to believe that women can only receive that kind of recognition from men, then we will be seeking that recognition in any and all contexts. 

Another line later in the song that he says is “She's the baddest, straight up vicious, texting her asking her if she's alone and if she'd sent some pictures, she said no (what)” In this line, he is suggesting that he asked the girl for some inappropriate photos to which she said no, and he is both surprised and frustrated by this fact. Here again, we can see stereotypes and objectification but the desire to be recognized has changed a little. There is still the obvious belief that women should have a man to give them worth, but the tables have begun to turn a little as the girl is referenced as having said “no” to G-Eazy when he asked for these pictures of her. In terms of what Butler said about gender being a relation that is constructed daily by rejecting or ascribing to certain norms, the woman here is deciding that she does not want to ascribe to the norm of desiring a man to give her worth. Rather, she seems to want to find her worth from somewhere else; so the question now becomes how much humanity she can maintain in the eyes of the world. 

Finally, in between all of these lines by G-Eazy where she is being objectified and disrespected, the female artist in the song, Grace, sings the words “You don't own me

I'm not just one of your many toys. You don't own me. Don't say I can't go with other boys.” followed by “Don't tell me what to do, and don't tell me what to say. Please, when I go out with you, don't put me on display.” which contradicts everything that the rapper was saying before and instead is empowering to the female. Here, Grace completely fights back against the belief that a woman always needs a man to take care of her or that all women want to be with a rich man who will spoil her and show her off to everyone. She is instead finding her worth in herself which is a nearly complete one-eighty  from what society at large has expected of her. Instead of ascribing to the norms that society places on her in an effort to be viewed as just as human as the next person, Grace is ascribing to totally different norms and building her own version of her gender without worrying about how others will see her.

This is important because as seen in Butler, gender is something that is built based on what norms people ascribe to and what norms are prescribed as being “female” or “male” gender norms. In our society, when someone does not ascribe to one or the other, they can be viewed as less human than those who do. Another potential roadblock is for people who do not conform to “their” gender norms--a feminine male or masculine female often gets labeled as “snowflake” or “bossy.” Sandra C. Zichermann explains in her thesis that music can help to create an identity, and while the identity she discusses is race, it can easily be applied to gender as well (Zichermann p14). She explains that there are several different levels to this; the first being that blackness is created only by race. The second level is that blackness is created instead by social class status, and the third is that blackness may be a state of mind (Zichermann p14). This idea that it can be viewed as a state of mind is exemplified by the group ‘Young Black Teenagers’ which is an all-white hip hop group that are of the belief that blackness is nothing but a state of mind (Zichermann p14). 

This same framework can be connected to gender. It can be looked at as a spectrum as well with people in all different places. For example, there will be some people on the one end who see gender as something that can only be determined by which sex organs a person was born with. Then, on the other side you have people who believe gender to be a state of mind of sorts, which is more in line with how Butler describes it. If one looks at gender through this lens and then looks back at the song, it is much easier to see how music can change the way people feel about themselves in terms of their gender. This can be explained by the fact that people want to be recognized. Certain lyrics, such as the ones spoken by G-Eazy in the song ‘You Don’t Own Me’ can make women feel as if they are not being recognized which could lead to negative feelings about their femininity. But, if the lyrics are more like the ones that Grace sings, those same people might feel more recognized and empowered to be themselves which leads to a sense of pride in their femininity rather than shame. 

From this rhetorical angle it is clear to see how music can shape gender in a way that is extremely impactful for people. The song ‘You Don’t Own Me’ is a clear explanation of that impact because the lyrics are from both ends of the spectrum so that one can see both sides of the coin in one place and compare them to each other. This song ethically expresses the empowerment of women and femininity by breaking down stereotypes through a platform that is more often used to do the exact opposite. 

Works Cited:

Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York, Routledge, 2004.

Zichermann, Sandra C. The Effects of Hip-Hop and Rap on Young Women in Academia. 2013. Toronto

    University, PhD thesis.

[asfeedin]

“Grown Woman Weight”: The Concept That Helped Me Embrace My Curves

I arrived at Georgia Southern University in 2005 weighing 105 pounds, in size 00 low-rise jeans (the horror) and a size DD bra. It wasn’t until around sophomore year of college that I finally started to gain weight, and I was thrilled at the idea of my bottom half finally catching up to my top half. Grown woman weight, as I would soon come to know it, was seen as a beautiful thing, and as a Black girl from Atlanta, I saw full hips, thick thighs and big butts as a source of pride long before J. Lo and Kim Kardashian made them acceptable assets to the mainstream.

With this in mind, I was excited at the prospect of developing curves—that is, until I allowed other people to make me feel self-conscious. It didn’t take long for me to transform into one of those people who was obsessed with her weight.

One holiday weekend, while working at my very part-time job at Lady Foot Locker, I was venting to a coworker about worries that my weight was starting to get out of control, my former feelings of pride now a deep insecurity. A moment later, someone who had overheard my worries interjected to reassure me: “You’re just putting on your grown woman weight. That’s all that is,” she insisted. I found great comfort in that phrase, and I still do today. It symbolized progress, and meant that my body was shifting from that of a young girl to a woman. It made me realize the changes I was going through were natural, and not anything to be ashamed of. 

Fast-forward to 2020, and I was recently reminded of this experience when I came across a Twitter thread started by influencer Tayler Rayne, asking her followers to share their own grown woman weight photos. I scrolled through the thread of beautiful, confident, curvy women celebrating weight gain as an achievement, and the photos gave me a true sense of empowerment. I think back and wish my younger self had been able to see such positive examples of women embracing their changing bodies.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t been quite so lucky back then, and the shame of gaining weight really took its toll on me. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I suffered tremendously from depression throughout my college years. I’d always been someone who felt things very deeply and experienced occasional bouts of sadness, but being away from home, ill-equipped for the social pressures of the school, my issues were taken to new heights. I started partying hard, and eating just as hard to soothe my sadness.

I I found myself desperate for the approval of others, and I entered into a relationship during my senior year. The guy had admired me for years, and when my body started to look different than that of the girl he’d lusted over from afar, he wasn’t shy about letting me know it. His comments didn’t motivate me to eat less; instead, they left me paralyzed as my confidence sunk even lower. I felt ashamed of how my body was changing, and I coped with my shame by eating, which only perpetuated the unbreakable cycle.

Jessica Wilkins.

My coping mechanisms of eating and drinking—plus my penchant for toxic relationships—were all things I took with me well after graduation. As my negative behavior continued, so did my weight gain. A few months before my 25th birthday in 2012, I began a meal replacement program (recommended by a doctor) and barely had to work out before dropping down to my goal weight of 130lbs. Everyone was so proud of me, and the external validation gave me enough momentary confidence to apply to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

I got accepted and made the big move, but found quickly that a temporary fix for my overall issues wouldn’t be enough. I still didn’t have the proper coping mechanisms to deal with the daily highs and lows that came with just being a human being, especially one in a new, unfamiliar place. I often felt victimized, like the world was picking on me specifically. So I slowly abandoned my strict diet, and the weight came back on with a vengeance.

Jessica Wilkins.

It took about four years of struggling in New York before I finally got a job that allowed me to afford therapy. I started to identify and unlearn my unproductive thinking patterns and depressive triggers, and to relearn healthier coping mechanisms like journaling and meditation. Still, even with all this progress, I found myself wishing that I could get my trim, freshman-year-of-college body back.

This, it turned out, was an unrealistic expectation. As we age, our metabolisms slow down and our bodies change. We can never really fully go back, but we can walk forward into a new normal, one that’s in alignment with a healthier overall version of ourselves. Once I started embracing my grown woman weight, accepting this became easier, even exciting.

Therapy changed my entire perspective, allowing me to focus on how I felt as a whole as opposed to overthinking my external appearance. We tend to associate health and happiness with fit, beautiful bodies, sometimes without intending to at all. Even though I know they meant well, the friends and family who had celebrated my previous weight loss had no idea that the my accomplishment was really a facade, one that hid a very sad and broken spirit. Weight loss isn’t always a victorious accomplishment. Often, a person is still suffering emotionally on the inside.

Jessica Wilkins.

My journey to a healthier body could only truly be actualized by first treating myself with the compassion, kindness, and acceptance I deserved. That said, one thing I simply couldn’t come to peace with was my bra size—an H at my largest. I started to develop major back and shoulder problems because according to my doctor, my breasts were literally too big for my body. I’m only 5’2 for crying out loud! I made the decision to get a breast reduction and it was life-changing. I felt like I could see more of myself, and once I didn’t have to wear three sports bras to do a single jumping jack, working out became far less of a hassle.

Earlier this year, I started documenting my wellness journey and sharing it online. I knew many other women were struggling with feelings of inadequacy associated with weight gain and loss, and I felt compelled to share how focusing on fixing my mental health and outlook, not my appearance, was what helped me through dark times.

Seeing that “grown woman weight” Twitter thread reminded me that, always, my priority is to be well, not thin. Since 2005, I’ve gained about 70 pounds. To some people, that’s not much at all, and to others it’s a significant number. That said, what matters is how I feel about it, and to be honest, I’ve have never felt better about myself in my life. I was proud to contribute my own Before and After images to Tayler Rayne’s thread. My grown woman weight is a sign of survival, a physical representation of my growth and overcoming past hardships. I carry my weight like a badge of honor, not a source of shame, and I’m never looking back.

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Tags: concept, Curves, Embrace, grown, Helped, weight, WOMAN

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[jackblankhsh]

Wise Fool:  Steak Lady, and Strawberry Jelly

Giving advice is a tricky thing.  Does one base recommendations on personal experience, or empirical research? Perhaps a careful amalgamation of the two, but even that balanced approach leaves open the worry of how to tell if advice is actually any good.  Though the most important question is why am I giving advice?

 Ever since high school people have come to me for advice.  Why?  I have no idea.  The best guess I can manage is that many people vent their problems in the form of a question. They aren't actually seeking advice, just asking for it in order to indirectly bring up a particular issue.  The main reason I say that is because most people don't need advice, they need someone to support the idea they already have in mind.  

 See, if you end up in a situation because of the choices you've made it's hard to listen to yourself since whatever dilemma you're facing feels like your fault.  In a bad relationship?  You got yourself in it, so can you really trust your idea how to get out of it?  Of course you can, but it doesn't hurt to have a voice outside your head saying, "Do what you think is right."  

 And yes, there are certainly occasions where folks have personal problems which make it hard for them to trust their own inner Abby (i.e. social anxiety, depression, alcoholism, etc.); however, that's why I said "most people."  Yet, even those genuinely seeking advice aren't looking for someone to tell them what to do.  They're looking for options they can't see because of mental blinders.  

 All that said, I also know I have the reputation of being that person who will say your girlfriend is annoying, your boyfriend is cheating on you, and if your Pops beats you, well, he's gotta sleep sometime, and when he does you wail on him with a bat until he's paralyzed.  Other side of that coin, I rarely take things seriously which means bringing a thin silver thread to many situations:  the upside to chemotherapy is that you'll save money not having to get haircuts {rimshot}.  Hey, sometimes people need a laugh more than advice.  

 As such, it recently came up among friends that I should try my hand at the question-and-answer column.  So here we go.

 #

 "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't..."

-- Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life

 Dear Wise Fool,

 Today I was cleaning my apartment (ok really it was more like collecting dishes around the apartment and putting it in the sink to pretend I'm not actually a garbage person). As a reward for not being total garbage, I ate a big steak (yes, that's it because I can't cook much else) and I realized that I am currently a 30 year old single woman living like a 26 year post-college man.  Should I be worried?

 Sincerely,

Steak Lady

 Dear Steak Lady,

 First off, how you clean your apartment is between you and whatever tasty conception of divinity you embrace, whether it be original recipe Jesus, or kaiseki Shinto -- Shinto:  the Asian faith Westerners haven't co-opted (praise Kukulkan).  The point being:  at least make sure there's a path.  To where? Preferably one exit, but try for the bathroom, bed, and/or fridge.  These can serve as game trails for hunting rats if you ever wake up in a maze of your own filth, unable to leave the apartment, feeding on whatever critters live in the clutter as well as the naive deliver personnel who foolishly wander inside.

 Second, hell yeah reward steak.  You should always treat yourself when you accomplish tasks, especially the ones you don't want to do.  Rewards are incentives.  You're more likely to do something again if your brain is under the impression there's some kind of pleasurable cause and effect.  After all, no one would have sex if it felt like getting gut punched... some might, but that's another topic.

 As to your main concern, the real question is are you comfortable with your situation?  So many people try to contort their lives based on the misconception that by a certain point in life a person should be at point {blank}, as if life is lived according to timetables.  If at 30 you're living like a post-college 26 year old man, worry should only exist if you can't pay your bills, the CDC has quarantined your apartment, or the homeless see you on the street and give you change. Life is all about finding a comfortable groove.  Some folks spend their whole existence struggling to achieve that, and many often don't.

 Yet, keep in mind that human existence is incredibly malleable.  The fact you're expressing concerns suggests a worry perhaps there are things this lifestyle is preventing you from doing.  If that's the case then make changes.  I recommend eating that steak with a knife and fork to start.  The barehanded, tooth and claw method of most mid-twenty males is appealing, and saves on dishwashing, but embracing some of civilization's innovations is a good way to start appreciating life from a different angle.  Think of a new routine like a new outfit.  Try it on, and if it doesn't feel right, you can always hang it up in the closet to show people, "See, I wore that once.  Didn't like it.  Who wants a handful of ice cream?"

 Ultimately, I say if you're comfortable then stick with how you're living until it isn't making you happy.  Don't let the apartment get too junky because your surroundings can affect your mood -- cleaning up a bit can provide a sense of accomplishment on otherwise unproductive days.  (I'm speaking from experience on that last bit.)  The truth is life has no settings, certainly nothing permanent.  This may be how you're living now, but in a few years everything might've changed without you even doing a thing.  Just remember, whatever happens, to keep yourself open to possibilities and be as happy as possible... because you'll be dead one day, and your concern on that occasion won't be the dirty dishes on the shelf. Live the way that makes you happy -- no meth, I can't stress that enough -- and if you aren't happy then make changes.

 Respectfully,

Wise Fool

 P.S.  here's a simple bachelor grade recipe to augment that steak:

 Ingredients:

One can Campbell's chicken rice soup.

One jar salsa.

Minute rice.

Shredded cheese of your choice.

Tortillas.

 Directions:

Pour soup into pot.  Refill empty can with minute rice, pour into pot; refill empty can with water, pour into pot.  Bring to boil.  Cover and reduce heat to simmer.  Let sit five minutes.

 Cute steak into strips.  Fry in pan. When nearing desired temperature (i.e. medium rare) add rice and desired amount of salsa to pan.  Stir, heating until bubbling.

 Serve on tortillas with desired amount of cheese sprinkled on top.  Heat of meal will melt the cheese.

 Serves:  1 to make-your-own-ya-want-some.

 #

 Dear Wise Fool,

 My friend wants to know if strawberry jelly is actually a lubricant.

 Sincerely,

Asking for a friend who isn't me

 Dear "Friend" of a Jelly pervert,

 I take all the questions I'm asked with the seriousness of a surgeon about to crack open a child's skull, and scoop out brain cancer.  So when I saw this inquiry I knew better than to assume this might be a strictly sexually inclined question.  

 In that regard the answer is no.  If your "friend" is attempting to lube anything mechanical with strawberry jelly you can safely categorize them using the taxon dim fuck wit.  All their suggestions regarding anything mechanical should henceforth be taken with a pinch of salt, by which I mean blow a pinch of salt in their eye whenever they start spouting dim fuck wit nonsense.  

 However, sexually speaking the question becomes a shade more complicated.  Strawberry jelly can be used as a playful alternative to conventional sex lubes, but if used as such should only be applied externally. Greasy up a dick about to plunge into a hole is not a good idea.  Just because something can safely go in your stomach doesn't mean it can healthily enter other orifices.  Swords are one example.  Speaking of which, if I stabbed you, and started pouring honey in the wound (I hope) you wouldn't think, "Well, at least now I'm full of sweetness."  Obviously you already were full of sweetness otherwise I wouldn't have stabbed you with a maple tap.  But I digress... the point is strawberry jelly isn't meant for internal use. It contains sugar which can foster a variety of infections, and even a minimal amount of stickiness will only be counterproductive.  

 Your "friend" would be better off investigating the myriad varieties of strawberry flavored lubricants designed specifically for sexual purposes.  Like those intended to mitigate the unpleasant flavors stemming from ass to mouth.  Yet, I don't wish to discourage anyone from enjoying experimentation.  For instance, if slathering your lady's vagina with strawberry jelly like a piece of dry toast is the only way you can enjoy eating it then by all means let that jelly loose.  

 To recap:  is strawberry jelly lubricant?

 Not for anything mechanical you dim fuck wit.  However, it can be a playful addition to external sexy sex sexiness.  

 Hungry for toast,

Wise Fool

 #

 If you, or your friends, or "friends" have any questions they'd like answered, write to honestyisnotcontagious (AT) hotmail.com.  In the subject line please write WISE FOOL: {your alias}, so we don't filter it into trash.  We want to decide if it's trash.  Remember to keep things anonymous.  Also be aware, any advice is just a suggestion.  Ultimately, and for legal reasons, what you do is what you choose to do. Additionally, though your questions will be regarded seriously they will be answered with varying degrees of sarcasm in the interest of humor.  

[gamergirlsexperience-blog]

Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is? Gaming Rhetoric as Gender Capital

On May 15, 2012 popular science fiction writer John Scalzi published a post to his blog Whatever entitled Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting That There Is.”

I learned about Scalzi as did many non-fans, through John Schwartz’s admiring New York Times piece published July 6, 2012, which cited two influential and eloquent blog posts he had written that had gone viral: “Being Poor” and “Straight White Male.” (Read “Being Poor.” It will break your heart, as will the hundreds of comments from readers who share their personal narratives of the unique humiliations of poverty. Here’s one: “Being poor is fighting with someone you love because they misplaced a $15 dollar check.”)

As Schwartz writes, Scalzi posts to Whatever almost every day, and the blog gets over 50,000 hits a day. Scalzi covers a huge variety of topics, but these two posts on poverty, race, class, and gender have reached the widest audience and generated the most commentary and controversy because he writes from a position of absolutely unassailable white geek masculinity as a popular science fiction writer. Media fandom has taken on a newfound social currency as an indicator of masculinity in the post-internet age, and producers of sci-fi “canons” such as Scalzi have correspondingly become bigger dogs in the popular culture sphere. Scalzi skillfully deploys the cultural capital he enjoys as a much-admired and widely read science fiction writer as a means to assert a new form of patriarchal power — geek masculinity — and he employs the rhetoric of gaming to solidify his authority with male readers, for whom digital games have become a form of social capital

Scalzi exercises a great deal of thoughtful and expert control over reader participation; he has an elaborate commenting policy, in which he reserves the right to delete or “mallet” posts that he finds offensive, and he has been known to shut down comment threads when they get too long or feel unproductive to him. However, even he expressed surprise at how controversial the “Straight White Male” piece proved to be. He published two follow-ups to the piece responding to the thousands of mostly-angry responses he received specifically from white male readers. In the second of these he wrote that it has “been fun and interesting watching the Intarweebs basically explode over it, especially the subclass of Straight White Males who cannot abide the idea that their lives play out on a fundamentally lower difficulty setting than everyone else’s, and have spun themselves up in tight, angry circles because I dared to suggest that they do.”

The “Straight White Male” piece is short, sweet, and eloquent. It’s easy to see why it went viral. It employs the discourse of video gaming, one assumed to come naturally to “dudes,” Scalzi’s stated intended audience, as a metaphor for explaining how race and gender confer automatic, unasked-for, mechanical advantages on players who are lucky enough to be born white and male. Just like the difficulty level one chooses while playing a game, these advantages gradually become invisible as the player becomes immersed in the game. What does become noticeable are deviations from this norm–when a quest is “too hard” the player may become aware of the difficulty setting that they chose, but otherwise that decision as a decision fades into the background. This is, indeed, how privilege works in “real life.”

The term “game mechanic” doesn’t appear in the piece but it underlies the argument throughout, explaining how points that a player can spend on advantages like “talent,” “wealth,” “charisma,” and “intelligence” are distributed by “the computer,” and that players must “deal with them,” just like they must in real life. This argument makes racism and sexism seem socially neutral, mechanical, structural, and not a personal act of aggression or oppression perpetrated upon one person by another. In short, they are institutional, invisible, “mechanical,” always business, never personal. Indeed, as Scalzi states at the beginning of the piece, his purpose in using gaming as a metaphor for life was to avoid the use of the term “privilege” altogether, since straight white men react badly to it. As he writes, “So, the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word “privilege,” in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?”

Indeed, Scalzi’s argument is successful because it allows his privileged readers to abstract themselves from the equation and see understand racial and gender privilege not as something that they are “doing,” but rather as a structural benefit that they receive without trying. All gamers understand that the ludic world is above all constructed, in the most literal sense. If a boss or a monster kills you, you cannot take it personally — likewise, if you pick up a rare epic weapon, you cannot really claim credit for having “earned” it since it’s a programmed part of the environment. Scalzi understands above all that his readers cannot tolerate the feeling of being blamed for their privilege. Explaining race and gender as a structural advantage, an aspect of a made environment that was designed to reward some types and punish others, lets white male readers hold themselves blameless for their own advantages.

Many of Scalzi’s critics object that his metaphor isn’t perfect, since some games do let players choose many aspects of their identities, and game mechanics and difficulty settings work differently in different games. Nonetheless, the basic premise — that difficulty settings create a pervasive experience of ease or hardship and affects every aspect of a gamer’s experience, just as do race and gender — certainly help us understand how privilege works in “real life.”

However, the way that this argument works perpetuates the notion that men are automatic members of geek and gamer culture (which many men are not) and that women aren’t. As a man, Scalzi employs the discourse of gaming–leveling, “points,” dump stats–as a technique to appeal, specifically, to straight white men like himself, who “like women.” (And presumably don’t want to see them oppressed; cranky women just aren’t as fun for men to be around!). Heteronormative white masculinity is equated with expert, fan knowledge of gaming mechanics, structures, discourses–what Mia Consalvo has dubbed “gaming capital” in her excellent study of games and cheating. Scalzi employs this language’s value as a system of signification marked as inherently masculine. Gaming discourse becomes a male backchannel.

This technique is very effective because gaming capital is in fact aspirational for many young male players, as much a goal as it is a reality. Masculinity is performed by the display of technical knowledge, and gaming is the most recent iteration of this form of social display. Gaming itself becomes a mark of privilege within symbolic discourse. Even men who have no idea what “dump stats” are hailed by this argument because gaming capital is assumed to be intrinsically masculine. As George Lipsitz, another white male critic of white male privilege, puts it in his writing on the possessive investment in whiteness, the “dump stat” of gaming discourse is difference itself.

In an example of publishing on the lowest difficulty setting, Scalzi’s essay got much more play on the Interwebz than postings on this topic by any female games or science fiction blogger. While digital media and publishing have definitely changed the way that feminist scholars work by giving us more and faster outlets to publish for a public audience, there is no doubt that we are working at the highest difficulty setting. Most of us don’t have 50,000 readers, and are not popular science fiction authors with ties to the television industry: not that most men are either, but some men are, and no women are. Scalzi would be the first person to acknowledge this.

As Scalzi puts it, “the player who plays on the “Gay Minority Female” setting? Hardcore.”  Women of color gamers who publicly identify with the culture of gaming find themselves shunned, mocked, and generally treated in ways that are far worse than one could find in almost any other social context. Aisha Tyler, an African American actress who has appeared on television programs like 24, found out what it meant to be perceived as an intruder to “gamer culture.” After she emceed the Ubisoft demo at the Electronic Entertainment Expo more commonly known as E3, the largest and most important gaming industry conference, the backlash against her presence on social media like NeoGAF, YouTube and Twitter started with the terms “annoying fucking bitch” and went on in a similar vein. As Kotaku noted in “Aisha Tyler Rants ‘I’ve Been a Gamer Since Before You Could Read’” The trollery directed at her exemplifies a troubling problem at the core of nerd culture. A hardcore base wants respect and recognition for the merits of whatever they love, be it comics, games or something else. But when someone they perceive as an outsider professes to share this love, the pitchforks come out.

Tyler responded with a beautifully written essay (not a rant!) on her Facebook page. She writes

“I go to E3 each year because I love video games. Because new titles still get me high. Because I still love getting swag. Love wearing my gamer pride on my sleeve. People ask me what console I play. Motherfucker, ALL of them.”

Aisha Tyler’s presence at E3 presenting for Ubisoft constitutes a black, female claim to gaming capital. It is hardcore, to use Scalzi’s term, and immensely threatening. It is abundantly apparent that the more gaming capital becomes identified with white masculinity, the more bitter the battle over its distribution, possession, and circulation will become. As gaming culture becomes more heavily capitalized both economically and symbolically, it becomes both more important for women to gain positions of power as critics, makers, and players, and more likely that it will be denied.

Gaming space is part and parcel of what George Lipsitz calls the “white spatial imaginary,” and the stakes for keeping women and people of color out are the same as they were during redlining, blockbusting, and other techniques to police movement and claims to space in America. As George Lipsitz writes in How Racism Takes Place, “because whiteness rarely speaks its names or admits to its advantages, it requires the construction of devalued and even demonized Blackness to be credible and legitimate. Although the white spatial imaginary originates mainly in appeals to the financial interests of whites rather than to simple fears of otherness, over times it produces a fearful relationship to the specter of Blackness.” (37). Google Books categorizes this book under “Business and Economics.” Word.

Feminist scholars have been at the forefront of giving scholarly legitimation to the existence of virtual community through their ethnographic and theoretical academic writing. T.L. Taylor, Sherry Turkle, Sandy Stone, Lori Kendall, Tom Boellstorff, and Bonnie Nardi have wonderful monographs to this end. Most traditional anthropologists and sociologists were hostile to this idea when these works were published, yet today there is wide agreement that online communities create real affective environments with real economic value. The battle to legitimate online community as an area of study has been won; today we know that online community is real by the sound of keystrokes and game controller buttons as players enter their credit card numbers into their computers or consoles to purchase time in World of Warcraft or Xbox Live. However, though most agree that racism and sexism absolutely permeate game culture and the online and offline communities and narratives that constitute it, few seem to care, and even straight white males like Scalzi who write about it publicly are castigated. (For an antidote to this, Mary Flanagan’s book Critical Play. Seriously).

Though some of his thousands of readers may have violently disagreed with him, Scalzi was read and taken seriously. When a woman of color gamer like Aisha Tyler appears in public to talk about games, she is not taken seriously. She has to defend her credibility as a gamer, something that Scalzi is not asked to do. While commenters argued with his interpretation of how game mechanics worked, nobody claimed that he had never played them, a charge with which Tyler, despite her very public profile as a gamer, had to contend.

It’s one thing to say that women and non-whites are playing “the game of life” in hardcore mode — woman of color feminism has been telling us this for years. (See Grace Hong’s work on the Combahee River Collective in her powerful and rigorous monograph Ruptures of Capital). And even the popular press has taken note of the egregious state of gaming for women and minorities: this August the New York Times published an article entitled “In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real.” I wish that there were both more outrage and more analysis as to the causes, practices, and effects of games in the white spatial imaginary, but I don’t fault the Times. Journalists are good at describing problems more quickly than academics are (though in this case the Times is many years late: even NPR beat them to this story by two years, which is saying something), but they don’t have the luxury of time to devote to deeper and more detailed writing. Journalists are good at bringing public awareness to problems like gaming’s pervasive racism, sexism, and homophobia, but awareness isn’t enough. It’s our job as feminist scholars, teachers, writers, and gamers to document, analyze, and theorize the white patriarchy that is so vigorously resurgent in games while never forgetting who profits here.

—-CITATION—- Nakamura, L. (2012) Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is? Gaming Rhetoric as Gender Capital. Ada: a Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 1. doi:10.7264/N37P8W9V