Nature Leseul ([info]nleseul) wrote,
@ 2008-07-25 21:14:00
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Current location:Arkansas
Current mood: tired

Arkansas is still made of fail; and the W signal
Today I saw a flyer in the drive-thru window of a local bank for a pool party in the area, one which offered not only "summer fun," but also "God's word." Most of the text on the flyer consisted of a list of rules for the party. From memory, they included:


  • Only dark-colored shirts and long pants or skirts are to be worn. No white t-shirts.
  • No spaghetti straps or crop-tops.
  • Modest dress required!
  • Swimsuits may not be worn, except under clothing.


And in other news, George Bush is just like Batman. And it's not entirely untrue, really; it makes one wonder whether American culture is really doing such a good thing by celebrating pragmatic, consequentialist anti-heroes like Batman and Jack Bauer. The difference between superhero movies and the real world, unfortunately, is that you don't know who the bad guys are before you start torturing them.

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[info]xzarakizraiia
2008-07-26 03:07 am UTC (link)
It is tricky to enjoy films like Batman and 300 when they can be pretty easily interpreted to support tactics like those employed by Dubya... but I keep enjoying them for the same reasons that I enjoy violent video games and find myself still thinking that violence is wrong and, usually, a bad way to resolve conflicts.

I believe that Batman appeals to us because we all wish, sometimes, that defeating the bad guys was that simple. If there really were superheroes we could implicitly trust (there aren't) and villains really were that easy to identify and kill with no collateral damage (he mentions LoTR; when have we had to face an enemy where as obviously evil as a giant flaming eye? WWII may count, but we still didn't come out of that as shiny and pure as the elves), things were be different. They'd be easy. But they aren't, so it's a fantasy. The right-wingers just don't realize how unrealistic that fantasy is.

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[info]xzarakizraiia
2008-07-26 03:22 am UTC (link)
I just realized that this is actually pretty relevant to my (as of now unwritten) rant about how male dom/fem sub kink isn't inherently sexist, and, when practiced in a safe, sane and consensual manner (as the kink community emphasizes) is probably a hell of a lot less sexist than the power dynamics in your average hetero relationship. This was brought about when I was reading some feminist blogs about high heels and I got linked over to a post about fetish boots. To me, fetishwear is an entirely different territory, because these boots are not being sold at Macy's to every woman as the norm- they're opt-in for the people who want their mobility restricted. They know what they're getting themselves into. Is this related to the general, and more problematic, trend of women's footwear being painful and restrictive (and that heels are expected in the workplace)? Of course it is. But I tend to assume a certain level of self-awareness that redeems the existence of fetish boots. I mean, obviously there are sexist scumbags in the kink community as well (as there are in every community), but I think that the core values are more egalitarian than in the world at large because it's the only way to establish meaningful consent in power exchange, and they know that power exchange is exactly what they're doing.

The common thread between those two topics is my belief that understanding what you're doing, and why you like the things you like, can go a long way in making them okay. Acknowledging the difference between fantasy (you like watching Batman torture the Joker/humiliating your slave girl in a scene) and reality (you don't want your government to torture people at Guantanamo Bay/you respect your partner as a human being) makes such a huge difference. People sometimes think that I overanalyze things... I think that people don't analyze them enough =P Thinking is good for you!

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[info]nleseul
2008-07-26 03:27 am UTC (link)
Are you writing long LJ comments instead of class-related essays again? :-P

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[info]nleseul
2008-07-26 03:50 am UTC (link)
You know, I had a similar discussion with [info]dorklord07 on [info]thisisjessa's post about "I Kissed a Girl" the other day. I'm not sure if you saw it or not, but he thought the song was going to encourage confused teenage girls to emulate its rather unserious, irresponsible approach to girl-girl relationships; and I maintained that even the average teenage girl is intelligent enough to give more thought to its message than that.

But while I tend to have trust in the ability of ordinary people to think critically about media—certainly to the extent of being able to distinguish between fantasy and reality—that article does give me some pause. Maybe there really are people out there stupid enough to think that Batman's approach to criminals is something to be imitated as-is in the real world. It's particularly scary to me, since I do feel like a part of the abusive relationship towards power that American authority figures sometimes seem to have is a result of their desire to be badass like Batman or Jack Bauer.

Of course, the interesting thing about the new Batman movie is that it's really not so clear that Batman actually defeated the bad guy. The only things Batman really has going for him are technology, complex planning, and brute strength and intimidation. The intimidation tactic works very well on typical criminals, since they're basically cowardly people making essentially rational decisions. The trouble is when it works too well, and the streets are cleared of that kind of criminal. That clears the way for people like the Joker, who aren't essentially rational, and can't be intimidated. In the scene where Batman has the Joker alone in the interrogation room, Batman is completely powerless. There is nothing he can do to the Joker, since the Joker does not know fear.

And, in the War on Terror or Possibly for Oil, the people we're fighting are, for the most part, not mean little crooks who run away at a show of strength. Some of them are religious nutters who literally believe that they are going to be rewarded with seventy-two raisins if they endure American torture and become martyred. Even the more sane ones are still patriots who see themselves fighting for the freedom of their country, or the safety of their family, or the preservation of their culture. People who believe in a cause are much more difficult to intimidate. Plenty of American heroes—John McCain, for example—were tortured by our enemies and didn't give in; why should we expect that the heroes of another culture would do it any more readily?

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Modest Swimsuits
(Anonymous)
2008-07-26 09:12 am UTC (link)
Modest Full Cover Swimsuits are available to buy from:
- modestswimsuits.co.uk
 (http://modestswimsuits.co.uk)

Shipping Worldwide


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