Via rm I discovered the comm kinkfreezone and friends... for a fanfic comm that allows high ratings on the fics and includes Slash, Het and Gen; I have never in my whole on-line life seen a more sex-negative fic community.

Wanting to have a community and specific requirements on fic is fine, fun and dandy. Honestly, it is. Wanting to exclude certain criteria that you and others would rather not read, very fine, your prerogative.
That's not the issue.

The issue is with language and the so-called binary of Vanilla and Kink.

For a more lighthearted, yet not, commentary on the list of kinks NOT permitted you can read thingswithwings' entry here. The comments are hilarious.

But oh, where to start... hmm, possibly from the most offensive one: ( So as not to eat your f-list )

Voice fetishization (cracking or broken; husky, low, throaty; purring; accents; whispering close to someone's ear).
Fucking hell! Involuntary reaction is not a kink. No, really. This is possibly the most absurd (not offensive, I've listed things I found particularly offensive) criterion on this list.

That whole list needs a serious language editor, a workshop in sex-positivism and just a little shake-up when it comes to Vanilla/Kink binary - here's a secret... it's NOT!).

Enjoy mocking the whole thing.

Edited to Add: Amazing what going to bed will do.
My comment in now deleted, as are all the other critical comments made on the post - I restrained myself a lot and wanted to be respectful, I may have failed a tad.
Here's my comment for keeps:

This list has extremely problematic and prejudicial language.
Perhaps if you edited it, it would read differently, but as it stands, this is offensive to a whole slew of people who you included as a kink.
Some of these aren't even kinks but literary tropes!
Trope=/=Kink, please learn the difference.

Also, including involuntary bodily reactions? Please, get a clue - also the inclusion of "accents", "uncircumcised penises", "homosocial environmental", "nautical themes", "exoticism" and a big portion of "gender themes" just to name a few is downright, and here are heavy words, racist, xenophobic and over-all queerphobic in general.

Fetishising Vanilla is also a kink, you know.
As I said, get a clue.

I understand and respect the want of specific kind of fic, but that toes a line that isn't just about criteria... this is exclusionary in the extreme.

Here is the Mod's reply:

WOW am I getting sick of repeating myself. Had you actually READ the damn post you would see RIGHT AT THE TOP!!! that it is, in fact, a list of KINKS, TROPES AND CLICHES from fandom!

You can go GET A CLUE sweetheart and get the fuck out of my community.

For serious.
The post itself has been updated, because you know, instead of trying to make the comm a little more inclusive - let's just be all the more offensive and delete the things I dun like!
How dare people get offended and say something about it! Sheesh!

Comic books came to me at a time in which I was searching for belief.

Between the ages of 13 to 15 I was going through a Wiccan/Pagan phase, sad but true, I lived the stereotype. I even have a paper diary in which I wrote down my teenage angst and rage at not being able to be polytheist, not realising I didn't actually believe in any god - because the gods are stories to me.

Mythology, the stories of why we are, who we are; that was what attracted me to the Bible stories, the cosmology of Life after Death in ancient Egypt and incestuous love affairs of ancient Greece.

I can't remember what motivated me to explore religions outside Judaism (I loved the myths before I understood that god was supposed to be more than just a character in a book), possibly because I found and still find, going to shul incredibly boring.
The liturgy can be lovely, but I can't stand the thought of being there just because of (cue the Fiddler) Tradition.

At around that time I was reading Terry Pratchett and found that the philosophy he espouses in Pyramids and Small Gods sat very well with me and my apathetic-yet-literary pursuits.
I also found Good Omens and wasn't that a delight for me, receiving validation in my dislike of religion and being critical of belief at the time¹.
I had no clue who Neil Gaiman was.
I found out.
Enter the Sandman.
It took me four years to collect all ten volumes, as a teen my funds were lacking, of course, so I begged for early birthday presents, loaned money from my brother, just to get my hands on the next Sandman books.
When I realised that Sandman operated in the same world (though a different plain) as DC comics - I began to read Batman again.
Batman, whose villains are so much like himself... he even "dates" them - costume fetish? You bet!

I can now see, looking back and thinking critically upon that very apathetic time of my life, that my need for religion, the search for something bigger than myself - was the search for stories that were bigger than my life... and there ain't nothing bigger than the Endless, the Justice League, the X-Men, V and even the all too fallible Watchmen - post-humanism... oh yes. Now that's transcendent.

I remember reading Season of Mists at 18 and feeling as though my ideas regarding all the gods, faith and world order, laid out in front of me... in vivid colour².

I read "Concerning Mammoths, and Falling Walls" again (the third chapter in Brief Lives) not long after the second Lebanon War and the line Death (our friend, our constant companion in Life) says to the very long-lived man who asks "...I did okay, didn't I?" concerning how long he lived, she says:
"You got a lifetime. No more. No less."

That sentence has been resonating in me for the past three years. It comforts me when I think of my mortality, because we live as long as we do.
And that's it.

Having recently read Gaiman's rendition on the "death of Batman" in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" that line echoed in my mind.
It echoes all the time.

Though slash fiction were my main source of understanding "alternative" sexuality and the fact that I, myself, was not straight, comics empowered me in being outwardly weird - I like the colours... in comics even black is bright.
The dynamics of gender in comics are far more complex that what people think - sure, it's busty women in skin tight (or barely there) costumes and it's muscled men in skin tight (there are bulges) costumes.
You can learn so much about what is idealised and why by reading these people who still hark from that time of pulp-fiction and illicit magazines.

I'm writing this whole spiel because Blognewsarama (my main comic oriented news site) plugged this website:

The A-Z LGBT Comic Book Character Superlist, which is freakin' awesome! This website Queersupe appears to be that much more extensive, in-depth and analytical.

Works for me! Go and explore.

And just to keep with the theme of this somewhat sombre entry; comic books (along with my search for faith through religion) enabled me to doubt, ask questions about the veracity of the stories we tell ourselves (all are real of course) and the ideals upon which they are supported... helped me learn about myself and the stories that make my world the way it is.

Footnotes
(1) I'd just like y'all to know that it took me a long time to come to the conclusion that agnosto-atheism was the best place for me, I really wanted to have some kind of faith that was bigger than me. But my identification with being Jewish is too strong, though historical, cultural and ethnic - religion is a composite in that, and despite being a complete heretic... I cannot remove it from me entirely.
Back to text.

(2)For a long time Bast and Anubis were my closest companions in my dreams and I even bought two little figurines of them... they sit along with the other statuettes in my room, that I collected over the years. I once used them in a ceremony with a bunch of friends - I was still trying to be of belief, faith and religion, but inwardly I was already gone. A hypocritical portion of my life, without a doubt.
Back to text.

When some one links to an article titled The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky on a website called The Spearhead and the Author's nick is Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech; you know you're in for some fun sci-fi critique!

My first thought after reading that diatribe of misogyny, homophobia and exclusionary nostalgia, was pretty uncharitable, petty and mean.
Not even the most "one of the boys/I'm not a feminist" female-geek wouldn be able to consider this person particularly tasteful.
Seeing as he's laying out misogyny and homophobia pretty fucking thick. Without any shame and certainly without any self-reflection.
But That's what cowards do.

I'm reminded of my entry into the comic book world, there are women there (readers that is) and I gravitated to the classics (Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League - yeah, I'm a DC grrl) and to horror-fantasy (DC's Vertigo line; Sandman, Hellblazer, Fables, Lucifer etc).
This is not an odd thing, most people like more than one kind of genre in they chosen form of medium, but I definitely felt the overwhelmed by the amount of boys in this medium and how my reading of the stories being feminist (even before I could articulate why it was feminist - I was 15 when I got into comics) made me iffy about getting into discussion with other Batman fans - many of them, somehow, ignoring the fetish gear he dons in order to fight crime and the only women he's ever been interested in sexually (he doesn't do romance) have been other criminals who wear costumes.
I digress.
( This is cut for length )

Times they are a changing, and guess what, they've been "changing" and "changed" since the mid-60's, you, Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech failed to get on that boat and complaining about us women and queers taking over your genre and taking your jobs in science...
This is not a tree-house club and there are no more Wendy houses.
This is a sandbox - please stop peeing in it.

ETA: I couldn't stop myself. I commented, sans a link to this blog. I don't need to make easier for them to find me.

Cake Wrecks is a cake blog dedicated to aesthetically odd, artistic and just genuinely special looking cakes.
Or as the dub-title says: When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.
.
They look mighty tasty too.

I am not an avid follower, but morin is and zie often shares with me some very good looking entries.

This Sunday Sweet is very special to my heart as it contains things like this:



Very possibly this is something common around Christmas time in the UK as I'm sure the Doctor and his Companion is more popular than the baby Jesus and his Mummy.

Click on the cake for the entire entry and enjoy the beauty of baking and geekery all at once!

Ask me my fannish Top Five Things. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

It may take me a while to reply to this, but I shall and at length, for your pleasure.

Ask away!

Yesterday I went to FantasyCon, the one day summer Convention, the theme was Romance and Love in sci-fi and fantasy, seeing as it fell on the week of Tu b'Av, which is basically the Jewish Valentine Day.

I really needed it.

I wore my Torchwood t-shirt (with Jack and Ianto), there was a lecture on sub-textual romance in Doctor Who (pre-Eccleston... 'Ship wars are woe), which was great and I ended up talking a bunch with the lecturer who is writing her PhD (I think) on the Doctor Who.

I love academic geeks... my people.

There was also a really good lecture on Slash and the way it enables us to appropriate characters and content of media that isn't really representative of, well, us.

The atmosphere of the Con, despite the cosplayers and decorations and the baby Dalek on the floor, was quite sombre because of the shooting last Saturday night. There is a huge amount of intersection between the Con-going audience and participants and the LGBT community. One of the reasons I never felt, until I went to Uni, that I needed a queer community was because I had one in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy community.

I finally broke down and cried quite a lot when I spoke to morin, who I've been friends with since I was in the third grade and who is my BFF. We hung out before we went to the different lectures we had planned and eventually we began to talk about how much it sucked here.
Zie and hir partner have been talking about leaving Israel for a while now, but the past few months since Netanyahu took office and last Saturday being the last straw in a lot of ways, hir saying that really brought it home for me.
I can't think of anything that really good here.
And I started crying.
morin, having known me for such a long time (and possibly being a telepath) came prepared and gave me a bunch of tissues.
I got a bunch of hugs after by many people... a crying Mel is a very miserable looking Mel.
avgboojie even gave me a tentacle filled hug, simply because I hijacked her Cthulhu plushy.

[Southern!Girl] is staying over and I spoke to her about how I felt. Really, this is a very visceral feeling, wanting to say "fuck it", get my degree and fucking leave.
I don't know of any place which is that much better, that I can imagine building a new home in.
I've thought about living elsewhere for a while, being a part of a different place at some point, but I always thought that I'd come back here and live here and just be here.

I'm not wanted here.

Israel is basically a unique blend of the USA and Iran and I feel very little hope for that mix.

I don't know how much more I can tolerate not being tolerated. In this place that I can only see as a negation of everything my parents hoped it would be when they chose to leave South Africa.

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!".
I will then give you five words that remind me of you.
Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

These are the words whereisjoy gave me:
( Gender Studies )

( Israel )

( Activism )

( Torchwood )

( Fangirl )
So, yeah.

The administrator of the original petition organisers (who are now in the process of rebooting) contacted me after I posted
my long spiel on why using a the Kirk/Spock pairing as a "springboard" for LGBTQI representation in Trek, and ostensibly in Sci-Fi more generally, was, well, problematic to put it lightly.

I'm pretty sure he contacted me because of my strong suggestion not to support this homophobic campaign, though I can't say for sure as he hasn't contacted me again after I asked him why he contacted this random angry queer grrl.

He asked me very nicely if I had any advice for him, as the bruhaha of the last week made the entitlement and appropriation issues pretty evident. Not to mention that this brought about a very scary symptom of prejudice regarding LGBT people in fandom.

Seriously people, do we not remember Race!Fail!

I cross posted my entry at starbase_idic and I was happy to get approval from those who commented, though I quickly became irritated with a few who decided to derail the argument into the veracity of the Kirk/Spock pairing.

Something that happened in my LJ as well, I might add.

The point is really not whether there is evidence to support this purely fannish slash pairing, which for the record before anyone decided to come here and shove it down my throat, I agree there is, if you believe that production notes and author commentary have any bearing on canon(1).
The point I'd like to get at is what I explained to the administrator who contacted me:

[...]I think the focus and use of K/S and it's fan history as a vessel is counter productive in the extreme for a few reasons. Namely that [queer] visibility shouldn't be about fan service, which K/S certainly is.

Another reason is that focusing on K/S goes against established canon which is pretty progressive in it's own right, as I mention in my post - woman of colour professional gets together with non-main character hero. I think breaking up a canon pairing in the name of "suddenly we are gay" is counter productive, counter intuitive to the characters and isn't positive queer representation, if anything it looks like the age old trope of "Turning"/"Recruiting".

Aren't we sick of that?
I know I am.
[...]
I use "homophobia" because of the reasons I mention above, of the old tropes that appear to be what this little part of fandom is focusing on.
[...]
I don't think a ship should be used as a spring board for action regarding social change. As a discussion regarding aspects of media, fandom and society, yes, I often discuss meta using ships and fictional characters.

The use of K/S to promote queer visibility in the Trek franchise is counter productive and counter intuitive and changing canon and what is established relationships for the sake of fan service is not good story telling and/or world building, it's a shallow interest in eye candy which isn't equal rights, its fetishization.
[...]

It's been stated before and I'll state it again. Queer people are real. Our problems are real. Media representation has only now begun to evolve beyond Shock! Horror! and/or Accessory for the Straight character. The co-optation of something that really is serious for the purpose of pushing a 'ship and changing the canon for fan service is really quite upsetting.

The idea that Star Trek is the vehicle through which queer representation is going to happen in Sci-Fi is seriously missing the boat. There are queer action heroes in Sci-Fi/Fantasy. They are quite awesome.
Willow and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena and Gabriel from Xena: Warrior Princess and of course, Captain Jack and Ianto from Torchwood.

Damn, I'm derailing myself.

I'd like to remind the people who organise these kind of campaigns to remember the history of LGBT people in the media and media representation.
GLAAD, my friends.
They are not there for nothing.
The wheel has been around for a while.
Like one of commentator's at my post at starbase_idic said in a very nicely worded PM to me, that they were willing to do their part to promote LGBT representation in sci-fi, in any petition, in spite of their relatively small knowledge of LGBT issues.
That they're willing to be an ally.
If you want to be a good ally I suggest you start by educating yourself. There are huge amounts of information out there and it's really not our job to educate you and/or comfort you in your ignorance.
I suggest you read these as a start: this brilliant entry by rm, What do we want from our allies and think about reading the stuff at various LGBTQI organisations.
Just as a starting point, there is a whole lot more than that.

I'm not in the entertainment business. I am not an insider. I am merely a concerned consumer. My advice to the administrator was as follows:

I think it would be a good idea to distance yourself from the brouhaha that started the negative criticism I and others feel it deserves. I think you really need to change the language and truly make the campaign about representation in sci-fi/fantasy media (of which some exists and you really need to remember that - don't forget that just this month was a very well publicised epic featuring a same-sex relationship between the main and third billed character - Torchwood:Children of Earth - Brokeback Mountain is really not what we should be striving to when it comes to media representation) and not just be about pushing a certain show/franchise/'ship as a vessel for an issue that is so much more than that.

Fandom, like real life, is full of prejudice of many kinds. Using it as a springboard, while useful for creating pressure of numbers, if done "qualitatively" can lead to appropriation and entitlement like that seen in some of the discussion over the past week.

When speaking about this to my brother, who is a fellow Trek fan, he wondered if most people weren't basically opposed to Kirk/Spock in general for reasons of a)Them both being men and b)The chain of command.
Well, the latter was pretty much addressed in the new movie as "fraternisation is an issue, but so long as it's dealt with, in any which way, it's okay".

The former reminds me that fandom, like real life, is not actually a safe space.
Us fans have a certain kind of crazy and it makes us forget that we interact with real people, some of them so different from us we cannot imagine that their lives are not fiction.

Just to conclude this post with some petty fannish rambling.

Nearly every attempt the various Star Trek series tried to do concerning sexuality and gender issues in the show were big, big failures.
The Mirror!Universe? Really, really bad.
That TNG episode with the genderless aliens? Did not come across well at all!
The only episode I can think of that showed some kind of positive same-sex desire in Trek is "Rejoined" and there's a reason everyone mentions that episode.
See the aforementioned "only episode".

That's just my own pet peeve.

We are all real. And who we see on screen should be who we are as well, not a Trope.

Don't fucking forget it.

Footnotes:
(1) Personally, I feel that what JKR did regarding Dumbledore and his post-mortem coming out showed very little respect to the fans and little integrity as an author. If that was pertinent information that had to be canonised... why not put it in the bloody books?! As it stands, it didn't retcon anything in the books and pretty much showed old gay men to be manipulative bastards (perhaps paedophiles) who are unable to find love.
Yeah, I'm bitter that she did that. And I really, really dislike Dumbledore.

I've just been told by the BFF who downloaded the 3ed Season of Torchwood for me that it is burned onto a DVD and I should be getting it today.

I'm so freakin' nervous.

Torchwood, the show and the fandom, take up about the same kind of emotional and cerebral space that I thought would never be able to be shared with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to a certain extent Harry Potter.

I've been very good about avoiding spoilers, though I watch various communities and blogs who are TW fandomy, I only got tiny details by osmosis and one big something that I hope doesn't mean what I think it means but I'm keeping my mind open to whatever happens in these five episodes.

I'll talk more at length about "Children of Earth" after I've actually viewed them, I'll even write (a) reaction post(s) before I read any other Meta and/or Fic, though I'm really, really tempted.

I think it's fairly clear that when it comes to which show I prefer, it is Torchwood and not Doctor who that stole my heart - though I love the Doctor and his Companions and will regale to anyone who will (or won't) listen about how fucking awesome New!Who is.

Torchwood however, is something else.

( Spoilers for lots of stuff (not including season 3 of TW as I have not seen it yet) )

I'm really looking forward to "Children on Earth", though I am very scared of what may happen.

I actually have a lot to write about.

However, the home environment is not conducive to writing.

I am distracted by trying to avoid Torchwood spoilers. Soon the "Children of Earth" episode 3 of the third season of TW will air in the UK.

I am trying so hard to avoid them as I plan to marathon the five eps of Saturday/Sunday and finally be able to participate in the discussions, read the fic and write my own bloody meta!

I'll write some for the radio plays as well when I'm over the overwhelming antici(say-it-master)pation... *sigh*.

Props to [Southern!Girl] and the rest of my BFF's for putting up with my huge Fangrrl!Monster.

Y'all know I'm bigger on the inside.

As most of us Torchwood fans know, next week the 3rd season of Torchwood, a five part mini-series called Children of Earth will go on air, much to our delight, happiness and glory because Dude... there has not been new canon in a long, loooong time (I do not include the novels and audio books).

If you recall, the BBC produced a Torchwood Radio Play called Lost Souls to coincide with the day the Large Hadron Collider was switched on, on the 10th of September 2008.

The BBC are just that geeky.

Any way. Because of Lost Souls popularity, the BBC produced three more Torchwood Radio Plays - BBC Radio 4. They are going to be transmitted one day after the other - Today, Tomorrow and Friday.

Now, I can listen to them just fine, because BBC Radio is like any other online radio station. However... I cannot download the plays as I do not live in the UK.

So, I was wondering... if one of my frieds who lives in the UK would download it and then share the file in Megaupload or YouSendit or some other file share website.

I would be eternally grateful. If that doesn't happen, no worries, but I'd really, really appreciate it.

I downloaded it just fine! :D

Thanks you in advance for indulging this crazy, crazy person... I dunno how I'm going to be able to watch the actual mini-series as I do not in fact have any download capabilities and I don't trust myself with torrents.
Yeah, yeah, Luddite me, blah blah.

Today there is new Torchwood.
I'm happy.

And now, back to reading boring things.

My brother sent me an email last night asking me where my review of Star Trek was.
My reply to him was thus:

"I am still squeeing

I need to articulate my thoughts beyond;
OMG Spock!
OMG Kirk!
( Tiny Spoiler )

so... yeah..."

However, I feel that I must first write about my Trek background seeing as it's a huge part of why I so thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In this post I'll give you a quick history - behind a cut so as not to bore you to death - of how Star Trek changed my life no less than Buffy.

Once I have this written down, I'll be able to give you a much better review.

Enjoy the Geekery!

( 'Tis Long! )
And that's that.

It's been two days since the viewing (and now planning on seeing it again) and I think I'm capable of writing the spoilerific review you all deserve to read, including on what was awesome and what really, really wasn't.
Stay tuned!

*Plugging starbase_idic for that reason!

OMG! Am Unable To Be Coherent By How Awesome It Was.

Must Get Icons Pronto!

My First Fandom, Rebooted In Such A Way That Makes Me Write In CAPS!

Will Actually Write Something Worthwhile When I Am Done With SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

That's all for now.

'Kay, so this doesn't look anything like the Sherlock Holmes I read (and co continue to read).
I mean, there's all this sexual innuendo and slashy undertones and Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler) as a beard for Robert Downy Jr (Sherlock Holmes) and Jude Law (Doctor Watson).

Not that I'm complaining mind you. Though I probably will...

It looks to be (and we're also told on the interwebs) character interpretation based and not so much on the Arthur Conan Doyle canon, which makes me wonder it's structured to be a one off or planned to be franchised, because if you look at Iron Man, it was made to be sequeled, as was Batman Begins (oh, Dark Knight, how good you are).

However, I very much enjoy re-imaginings and Sherlock is very much the hero. My brother would argue he's the first Super-Hero, massive intellect as a Superpower, sidekick and the parallel Nemesis.
I tend to disagree, because then what do you call all the classic myths?
The first "Modern" Super-Hero?
I'll think about it.

Regardless, the trailer looks quite awesome as most Guy Ritchie movies tend to look. I very much like RDJ being Sherlock. Being the hero is a good look on him. Jude Law being the side-kick is a bit odd, as I think I'm used to him being the Main or the Villain, 'cause he's tall.
Or at least, taller than RDJ.
The movie just from the trailer looks pretty formulaic; murder/mystery, hero, villain, Establishment/Officialdom antagonism towards the hero, side-kick, femme, villain kidnaps hero/sidekick/femme/two or all of the above, villain is defeated, Establishment/Officialdom deny that hero helped solve the murder/mystery and capture the villain, hero walks into the sunset/fog with sidekick/femme/or both.

I'm still waiting for a Holmes/Bond crossover.
I'm also waiting for Felix Leiter to be the Bond girl boy in the new movies... that would be awesome.
All right, now I'm digressing.
I'll tell you what would be really fantastic... if Sherlock really would walk off arm in arm in arm with Watson and Irene at the end of the movie.
But I have until December to find out.

'Twould appear that there is some contention on the interwebs (and IRL of course) whether sci-fi/fantasy fans and authors of colour exist.

Obviously, you do.

You can prove your existence by a shout out here at deadbrowalking.

Me?
Have I mentioned my peachy ass?

So, who would you Marry, Shag or Throw off a cliff?

I was given the choice of three lovely red heads from st_aurafina.

( Hey there, Red! )

Wanna play?

Via Blognewsarama.

In Japan there is a company called CYBERDINE.
They build exoskeletons called HAL.

The end is nigh...

I had planned to post this last night, but alas, things happened and in reality, I doubt my thought on *yayz* new Canon are that interesting.
Well, you'll get to read it anyway, if you want to be spoiled that is!

I live blogged the ep as I watched it.

Hope you enjoy my impressions as I went by!

( Spoilers! You have been warned! )

All's well that ends well. The Doctor is back in the TARDIS and off to a new adventure that will be airing sometime in November, I think.

All in all not a bad episode. I was expecting something a bit more on the Horror Genre, with a name like Planet of the Dead, I was expecting something like the Library episodes in Season 4, or the Ood episodes in Season 2.

I enjoyed the episode, so much more than "The Next Doctor" which absolutely sucked! My (spoilery) thoughts on that ep to be found here, but it wasn't really the standard of "A Christmas Invasion", "The Runaway Bride" (Donna FT Fucking W!!!!!) and "Voyage of the Damned" (Kylie!!!!).

A few Meta thoughts on this ep not included in my Mystery Theatre 3000 above: ( Don't blame me for being spoiled! )

It would appear that the next adventure "The Waters of Mars" is to be a bit more Horror, what with an impersonal foe and such. Those are always creepy.

---

In relation to this fandom post; I want a Dreamwidth account. I'll probably attain one once the Beta version is up, but having an invite would be awesome! If not because someone out there likes me, but because my Birthday is in a month.

The saga continues.

The bloody Guardian.
Neil posted about Amazon!Fail on his own blog. It has earned a mention on Feministing, in which an Amazon rep specifically says it was not a glitch.

I'm crossing my fingers for The Daily Show.

The issue has moved to Meta as can be read in a fascinating article on the super fantastic website AfterEllen, which I found via rm who herself wrote about the glitch, and I quote:

Computers do what you tell them to. This is a glitch that involved human error, homophobic human error. Amazon needs to issue a clear statement that what happened was against policy, is being corrected, is being investigated and that they enjoy serving a broad spectrum of customers, including those interested in gay and lesbian topics.

Which ties in with the Amazon Rep told Feministing.
Human error.
Not everything can be blamed on the HAL 9000.

The AfterEllen article, titled What Amazon's "Glitch" Says About American Pop Culture.
American Pop Culture, is everyone's pop culture. Despite being Israeli and writing with English spelling and using British slang, my first and foremost frame of reference is Americana.
This is especially true when it comes to LGBT representation and Queer liberation - because despite the British teevee that I watch being very gay-friendly, most of what we watch is written, produced, made by the USA.

And in the USA (and the rest of the world of course), Queers are defined by sex, the having of.
Now it's been a while since behaviour dictated identity, but still you have to admit on teevee, if the character isn't "doing it" with someone of the same sex... how are you going to know... unless they come out.
Which is another issue, of course, the coming out, the declaration, the need to affirm that no, they are not "sisters" and why, yes that is the leading man with that other guy.

At the same time, the double standard is maintained. Straight characters get to have depth and more to them than sex.
Queer characters... not so much as a general rule, certainly on regular network television.

I think it all boils down to visibility and invisibility.
Queer visibility is important, crucial and yeah, I think it's safe to say affirming. At the same time, when the only visibility we get is either as fetish items or "single issue" characters... that says something about how the Queer persona is regarded by pop culture and by default everyone.