Friday Linkspam

[coraa]

...This is an experiment! But I keep seeing links I'd like to share, and then I don't do it, because I can't write a whole post around them. So instead, linkspam, with comments.



Got Medieval: The Staffordshire Marginalia
A wonderful analysis of the stylized animal figures in some of the pieces unearthed from the Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon hoard, including a discussion of the evolution of depictions of animals. Very interesting.

Jackie Kessler: The Day After: Harlequin Blinks
The best summary of the Harlequin-dips-their-toe-in-the-vanity-press-pool debacle that I've seen yet.

AUTHORS: Wow. That’s a lot of money. And you said my book won’t even be in the bookstores. Or distributed at all.

HARLEQUIN: Right! And it won’t have the Harlequin name, or have Harlequin editors work with you, or have Harlequin marketing and publicity to help promote your book!

AUTHORS: At least I keep all the profits, after I pay for everything up front, right?

HARLEQUIN: Heck, no! You keep only 50% of the net. We need something for our trouble of lending our brand name to Horizons and steering you toward it, through our website and our rejection letter.

AUTHORS: So why did you encourage me in your rejection letter to get my book published by Harlequin Horizons?

HARLEQUIN: Just because your book wasn’t good enough for Harlequin to pay you for it, that doesn’t mean it’s not good enough for you to pay us for it!

shadesong: Why I don't intend to see "Avatar"
(Referring, this time, to the upcoming James Cameron movie.) Personally, I'm torn. The movie looks gorgeous, and I kind of want to admire the pretty. But the combination of Noble Savages (complete with Gorgeous Savage Princess) and What These People Need Is A Honky? Eerk.

Choose Your Own Adventure: One Book, Many Readings
An analysis of the structure of Choose Your Own Adventure books. I really liked these as a child, and seeing the way they were structured, and the way they developed over time, is cool.

Jezebel: Requiem for the History Channel: A Nerd's Rant

Yes, I know: before it was all-Hitler, all the time. If you were lucky, you got a dash of Churchill, or maybe a few re-enactors running onto a battle field. Historians talked. Voiceovers intoned. Hitler's final days approached inexorably, while an actor who didn't really resembled him gesticulated wildly. Sometimes we saw the holy land or a weathered piece of parchment. You know, the History Channel!

Now, the network is beyond parody. The viewing public is, the programmers seem to feel, unwilling to watch anything that doesn't involve Da Vinci-Code-style speculation, cryptic pseudo-historians, and, whenever possible, the paranormal. Three times in the past week I tried to find a comforting educational program. I was presented with Ancients Behaving Badly, something about Lord of the Rings involving what looked like a reenactment of the movies, and Ancient Aliens, respectively. Take a smattering of shows from the current schedule: Nostradamus Effect: Satan's Army; MysteryQuest: The Lost City of Atlantis; Fort Knox: Secrets Revealed and UFO Hunters: The Silencers. I never thought I'd be so glad to run across Civil War Journal: Stonewall Jackson.

Says it all, really.

By way of cofax7: Vanity Fair: Letterman and Me

At this moment, there are more females serving on the United States Supreme Court than there are writing for Late Show with David Letterman, The Jay Leno Show, and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien combined. Out of the 50 or so comedy writers working on these programs, exactly zero are women. It would be funny if it weren’t true.

By way of a lot of people: Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work

1. Don’t put drugs in people’s drinks in order to control their behavior.
2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!
3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!

The Adult Privilege Checklist
While I usually find privilege checklists useful and eye-opening, and I would usually prefer to have my own privilege pointed out to me (even though it's uncomfortable), this one seemed... problematic. a) I find it problematic to talk about 'childhood' as if 2 years old was the same as 4 years old was the same as 8 years old was the same as 12 years old. Two-year-olds really do need to be directed to do things for their own good in ways that would be inappropriate for an adult, or even a twelve-year-old. b) I find it problematic to lump genuinely abusive behaviors -- such as beating a child -- with things like telling children to go to bed 'because I say so.' Even if you think the latter is bad (which, to be honest, I don't; if my parents had had a reasoned discussion with me every time I wanted to stay up late, I would've spent a lot of time falling asleep in class), it's not at all the same thing. c) I find it problematic to consider childhood, which you really will grow out of (literally!), as a similar type of unprivileged position as, e.g., race, or sexual orientation, in the same way that I think that a usually-able person with the flu is not in the same position as someone with chronic fatigue syndrome. d) I find it really, really, really problematic to add more to the long societal tradition of telling parents (and by that, most usually, one means mothers) that they're Doing It Wrong. Parents get told that enough. In summary: remembering what it was like to be a kid? Good perspective. But this list just doesn't work for me, at all.

Liquid Story Binder Tutorials: Setting Up for Brainstorming, Setting Up for Plotters, and Setting Up for Pantsers
Liquid Story Binder is the closest thing I as a PC user can find to the Mac's much-vaunted Scrivener, but it's got one hell of a learning curve. These are the best tutorials I've found for basic getting started.

Recipes: Fruitcake for the Future, Giant Tuna or Salmon Tartare, Nutella Pocket Cookies, Apple Cider Doughnuts

Comments

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

Re: The Adult Privilege Checklist

You know, there were a couple that I found unreasonable, but by and large I found myself agreeing with that. It could be because I came from an abusive/neglectful home, and even my dad's home (where I lived age 15-18) was an authoritarian-parenting-style home, which was rather awkward for a teenager who had been taking care of her woman-child mother, paying bills, etc. View some of these "well duh you can't do that" items from the point of view of a teenager: I was not allowed to attend the college I wanted to, I was held to arbitrary rules and told "Because I said so."

I didn't read it as mommy-blaming at all, actually. If anything, it seemed directed mostly toward the kind of people who say "Get that kid out of here" when a child is being loud in a public place. The ones related to parenting... well, I just see that more as "understand why your child might be upset in this situation" than "you should do this differently." Or at least that's my take-home message.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Well, yes -- many of them are inappropriate for a teenager. But a child? And that was at the heart of my issue with it. What age is it talking about? Two, four, six, eight, ten? Twelve? Sixteen? What? And in not defining that, it allows one to move the goalposts all around.

When I was a teenager, my parents let me stay up as late as I wanted, and then I suffered the consequences in math class the next day, and eventually learned something. But at five, no, they didn't do that; they sent me to bed. And that's why I think the list is useless -- and scolding.

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a nod to age-propriety would be useful.

You gotta wonder what kind of entitled brat would result if people tried to minimize these adult "privileges."

[coraa.livejournal.com]

If it was about teenagers, I'd have much less of a problem with it -- there's a transition point where one needs to start treating a teenager like an adult, if nothing else so that they can learn how to be an adult while they still have a safety net. But I'll tell a three-year-old "you're going to bed because I say it's bedtime" with nary a pang of guilt. And, in fact, I think a lot of the dilemma of parenting is in that nuance: when do you stop saying, "you're going to bed because it's bedtime" and start saying, "stay up as long as you want, but if you oversleep, I'm not writing you an excuse note"?

(Yeah, I do wonder -- how would someone who never heard a 'because I say so' deal with things like 'you have to wear a button-down shirt to work because I-your-boss say so'? I mean, not that we ought to train people to bow to authority by any means, but on the other hand, there's a point at which it's useful to train them to pick their battles....)

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

I've figured out what separates the things that bother me from the things that don't: she's muddling together the truly "oppressive" (her word, from the preamble) with "things that might upset a child but must be done for their own good."

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Right, exactly. And mixing the two is just... odd, to me.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The adult privilege checklist has a few elements that do deal with what I think of as privilege, but some only apply to teenagers or older children, like voting or the right to an abortion, and others are about child abuse -- overlapping but different issues. Others can clearly only apply to very young children, like being picked up and carried, or being too young to speak understandably, and are not, in my opinion, examples of either privilege or abuse. There's no differentiation between things that are necessary for children, which may be oppressive for teens. (ie, choice of medical treatments.)

Mixing up all these very separate issues makes the whole thing an exercise in the surreal.

1. I am not legally allowed to vote, even though government makes decisions about me and people like me.

Good point if applied to teenagers, but without that... seriously, we want five-year-olds to have the right to vote?

2. If I need a caregiver, he or she will not be my peer.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Teenagers do babysit younger children. If taken literally, it would be extremely dangerous and abusive to have six-year-olds be the lone caretakers for other six-year-olds.

4. If I am behaving in a way others do not like (or my caregiver has decided they no longer wish to be in a certain place), it is considered acceptable to physically pick me up and forcibly remove me from the area/situation.

And thank God for that! Yeah, I can see how a parent could misuse that, but are they seriously saying that parents should never do that to a three-year-old pitching a tantrum in a restaurant?

5. I am almost always dependent on others for my economic support.

I just don't see this as having the same meaning when applied to a child as it would have for an adult.

1. I do not get to make choices about family finances, when to spend money and on what.

Ditto. And again, possibly a legit issue for teenagers, but I am picturing a five-year-old vetoing a new car in favor of a fire truck.

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

Yes, this!

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

1. I do not get to make choices about family finances, when to spend money and on what.

Ditto. And again, possibly a legit issue for teenagers, but I am picturing a five-year-old vetoing a new car in favor of a fire truck.

You know, while I don't think kids (esp small kids) should have any real power in family finances, I do think it's incredibly bizarre and more than a little detrimental that most American families keep financial info secret from their kids. I would say the majority of people I know got out into the "real world" (at whatever age that transition took place) not really knowing the value of money and having to figure out personal finance for themselves. It might not be a HORRIBLE idea to explain to a kid, "Mommy and daddy have to buy a new car. What do you think of this one? This one costs more than that one," and scale the conversation up as age-appropriate.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. Financial illiteracy is a huge problem, and a big part of that is the bizarre secrecy surrounding finances.

(Paychecks: the new sex!)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I do agree with this. I think that letting them see the state of the family finances, and giving them some idea of the choices one makes, slated to a child's ability to understand, is a good idea. (Holy run-on sentence, batman.)

I guess I think there's a difference between 'input on elements of purchases and a view of the family finances' and 'choices about family finances.' I interpreted the latter to mean 'significant, even equal, say,' and no, I don't think that's something that's reasonable to expect for a child (especially a small one). If what they meant was some degree of input slated to a child's ability to understand, well, yes, that's reasonable, although I'm not sure that the lack of, say, input into the car color or the furniture is something I would term oppression. (And of course, a teenager ought to have some say, in the way that a child doesn't necessarily need to. There's such a huge difference between six and sixteen....)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly!

One of the things about children is that they actually are, in a literal sense, less capable of autonomy and agency. It's just true -- a five-year-old is of course dependent on others for their economic support, because they can't earn a living legally in this country. (And I really doubt that repealing child labor laws would make things less oppressive for children. Um, I doubt that a lot.) I just... I honestly don't think that small children have the same ability to reason and prioritize that a teenager or adult (or even an older child) does, and I'm not going to feel bad for overruling my six-year-old if I want to buy vegetables and she wants to buy candy. I'm just not.

And the way the list is written makes it clear that it's not just an oversight that it doesn't specify an age or age range. I think there is very little, if any, overlap between the need to get an abortion and the time period when it's socially acceptable to be picked up and carried. So obviously the list is intended to mean both toddlers and teenagers, and it just... yeah. Makes it a bizarre read.

And of course (do I even need to say this?) I think that child abuse is horrific and wrong and should be stopped, and I strongly support no-parental-notification on abortions for teenage girls, and so on, but it's very, very weird to see that alongside "I am not allowed to hold down a full-time job at age five."

(And good lord, yes, if a toddler is screaming in a store, it's wonderful that he or she can be picked up and removed outside until he/she calms down.)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

1. I do not get to make choices about family finances, when to spend money and on what.

I have to weigh in on that. I was consulted. I was definitely consulted which colour my Mum's new car should be when I was five (I would not have had the overriding vote, but I had a voice). I was consulted on furniture, and colours, and (some, but not all) clothes... and I am grateful to my mother that she treated me as someone whose opinion counted as long as I can remember.

Of *course* I didn't have a great deal of weight in those discussions - but I had input. And I was probably easier to live with as a consequence. I also didn't feel a great need to rebel as a teenager - I'd already had a vote in a great amount of areas, and if I had good arguments, they were taken into account.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I had some input once I was a teenager - I remember making a strong argument over which house to rent. Though I did get vetoed, my parents explained why (the owner was making unreasonable demands.)

I think all that's a good idea. But "when to spend money" is an odd thing to consult a child about, as opposed to letting a child have input in elements of purchases. Again, even that would be reasonable for a teenager.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

My brother and I also had input into many family decisions that would affect us, such as where we went on holiday. In the end our parents, who after all were paying for it, had the final decision, but they did listen to our views whenever possible.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I think that _being heard_ is the important aspect. I would not, for instance, want to spend my holiday with a family member who hates every moment of it - I might have gotten my will, but it would not be much of a holiday! So asking what everybody wants, and trying to find ways to make it happen is important - I guess I see it as social glue.

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

I present to you, the kitty-owner privilege checklist. This is a list of oppressive things that most cat owners do as a general rule but are very unfortunate to the oppressed cat and must be kept in mind at all times! After careful consideration, I have transcribed the list into English instead of the native lolCat language, to further provide the perspective of the true oppressed group. Please, send this to all cat owners so they may see the errors of their ways.

As a cat:

1) I am not legally allowed to vote, even though the government makes decisions about me wearing this stupid collar.
2) If I need a caregiver, you never just leave the entire food bag open on the floor for me and my sister to take care of things ourselves.
3) If I am behaving in a way other do not like, it is considered acceptable to physical pick me up, move me to another situation, or simply start making me dance in the air in a random spastic fashion.
4) If I am angry or upset, since it's been at least 30 minutes since you last fed me, this is often not taken seriously and I an often condescended and patronized.
5) I do not get to make choices about family finances, when to spend money and on what.
6) I am routinely ignored, told to be quiet and it is considered acceptable to talk over me or interrupt me while I am speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking.
7) I cannot be 'noisier/more active than average' in a public place without people questioning my right to be in that place. Like that time when I was rescuing that perfectly good fish from the trash can.
8) [Item omitted since that cats can't figure out what it even means]
9) I do not have free choice with my language. It's always meow this and meow that.
10) If I am suffering from mental health problems, I am often dismissed and have them put down to fact that 'I'm a cat and everyone knows cat's are just crazy and there's no help for it'.
11) Adults feel it is their right to touch me (tousle my hair, pinch my cheek) without my permission.
12) The media often describes people like me as lazy, ignorant or criminal. [editors Note: yeah, I didn't actually feel I needed to change this one at all]
13) People often make decisions on my behalf and tell me that they know better than I do what I want to eat or whether I want rabies shots.
14) Light switches, windows, sinks and toilets are not usually positioned for someone my size to be able to reach easily.
15) If my wait time for food or entertainment feels unreasonable, and I complain, people will generally not be understanding and apologetic. [Editors note: Um, yeah, this one too]
16) I might not understand the unspoken rules of interacting in public spaces - they walked into my personal space, I can hiss at them, right?
17) I may not be able to speak my native language with fluency and am often not understood by others. Look, is 'food, food, food, poop, poop, poop' that hard to understand?
18) I am not usually given a choice about my place of training (or whether to participate in training). I mean, really, why'd you put the litter box THERE...
19)If I am feeling ill, I am reliant upon my caregiver to arrange this for me, Medical professionals often ignore me entirely, choosing instead to speak to my caregiver only about my needs, and I am not able to make my own medical decisions. And don't even get me started on reproductive freedom. You don't want to know what they did to me.
20) I might not be able to attend to my bodily needs (housing, food, water, toileting, health needs, taking myself to bed) without relying on someone else to assist me, and they never clean the catbox out promptly enough.
21) I am apparently not given a choice about which religion my household follows, since people haven't been bowing to me recently.
22) If I do not wish to spend time with my stinky sister, I am not usually given the choice to avoid them.
23) My sexual development is often not explained to me and rather actively and forcibly, without my permission, might I add, discouraged.
24) My belongings can be taken from me (often by my adult caregiver) and this is not viewed as theft. And then when I ask for them back, they maliciously dangle them right outside my reach, forcing me to dance for their amusement the sick sick people.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure Alys and Cordelia feel very oppressed. ;)

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

//dies Oh, that's good.

[eepmirva.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I was thinking writing this list too while reading the kids stuff??? Oh, and my cats love this list! Socks especially would like to point out that cat food, cat treats, and oatmeal should be moved to places she can get into so she can feed herself whenever she wants it, as she finds the schedule of food twice a day, treats only when she isn't annoying me (and is willing to dance for them!) and oatmeal never (unless I'm too slow to stop her) to be QUITE annoying!

Oh, and I don't think the list includes transportation - my cats find it VERY unfair that they get dumped into a crate and put in the car and driven for 10 hrs about twice a year to go on trips! They HATE the car with a passion! They would like to never again leave our apartment, thank you very much! Except for when they want to go outside to chase down a squirrel!

[ceph.livejournal.com]

The "adult privilege" list is indeed deeply weird, mostly because I can't imagine what the author thinks ought to be done differently about things like "I am dependent on others for my economic support" or "The world is not generally sized to fit me." (Hell, I'd be happy if the world were built on a bit smaller scale, myself, but that would be pretty hard on Ben.) (I suppose a privilege need not necessarily represent something that has to be fixed--sometimes the important thing is just to be aware that you have the privilege, even if there's nothing to be done about it--but still.)

The list seems to be implying that we should accord children all the rights of adults, but rights are inevitably attached to responsibilities. Small children are not capable of supporting themselves or keeping themselves safe, and moreover frequently engage in behavior that would get an adult ostracized or locked up.

Mostly I find the whole thing a bit disturbing, because I think a child raised according to the sentiments of the list would not be a happy child, nor a pleasant one with whom to interact.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems like two big problems with it.

First, while some things on privilege lists aren't fixable by the individual who realizes the privilege (for instance, I can't, myself, stop shopkeepers who treat black people like shoplifters, although I can do things like choose not to patronize stores where I see that happening), it's at least clear that having that happen is a bad thing, and that having it stop would be a good thing even if I can't make it happen. But with some of the things on this list, I'm not sure it would be a good thing to have them change. I don't think that making five-year-olds capable of supporting themselves economically would be a good thing. I just don't. So yeah, maybe being able to hold down a full-time job is a privilege for me (and it certainly is when you compare me to employable adults who can't get a similar job because of racial or economic or similar discrimination) but I'm not sure how that's supposed to change my attitude or behavior, you know? I mean, even if I remind myself when I see a friend's child, "Now, self, remember that this poor being cannot work a full time job," I'm not sure what that would change.

And the other is... well, so, you have a toddler who flings themselves down in an aisle of Target and begins to shriek at the top of their lungs. Certainly, if they were adults, I could not pick them up bodily and carry them out of the store. But... if they were adults, security would do it, and quite possibly there would be jail time or a fine involved. So... what?

I guess this circles around to the first point. I do not think that it would be good for the child to believe that they had a say in every purchase made by someone close to them, that they could throw a tantrum without being stopped, that they could demand food or entertainment at will, that they could support themselves economically, that they could choose whether to go to the doctor or the dentist and when. It's not just that it would be impossibly difficult for the caretakers (and older siblings, and teachers, and random people at the mall...) to deal with that, it would be bad for them. While children are often underestimated, it's just plain true that small children don't have the skills and knowledge to fully take care of themselves, or to make good long-term choices; absolutely as a child I would have refused vaccinations and dentist visits, and absolutely now I think it was good my mother made me. By rights, children should be given more and more autonomy and agency as they get older, and teenagers should have a lot more than four-year-olds, but flinging too much autonomy and agency at them too young is pretty bad.

I'm not sure what my point is, but I agree that the whole list is deeply bizarre.

EDIT: OMG, I talk too much!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

(Actually, I'd love to see a wider variety of sizes/heights of things -- and more adjustableness -- in general; in addition to children, it would help short people, tall people, people in wheelchairs, etc.)

[clairebaxter.livejournal.com]

Yes, and there are little things that can really make a difference too. At Delridge library they always have a stool under the water fountain, so it's really easy for Eleanor to climb up for a drink. At Southwest they don't, so she has to ask me, wait until I'm ready, and I have to hold her up while she drinks. It seems like more places could have, say, those stepstools (so that my mother-in-law don't need to climb the shelves at the grocery store when there's something on the top shelf).

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

See my 'campaigning' icon, which is only partly in jest.

I'm a tall person. (5'10, so not excessively tall.) I cannot sit very long on a standard-height chair; much less at midget-sized 'standardised' computer desks with draw-out keyboard area which is *far* too low. I also cannot work for long at low worktops, and if I ever have a house with a kitchen in need of remodelling and the budget to do it, I will raise them to a height that is *comfortable for me* and sod resale value.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

This is all v interesting (including the discussion in comments), but PC-Scrivener tutorial -- awesome! I envy Mac people their Scriveners.

[ghostlove.livejournal.com]

I'm the person who wrote the Adult Privilege Checklist, with help from other people in the feminist and children's rights community. I think the point of the list has been missed somewhat. It's not intended in a "these are the things that should definitely be changed" way, but a "these are ways we as adults are generally privileged over children and we should be mindful of them" way. So not a list of things that are wrong necessarily, just of privileges we have that children do not.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

It makes more sense from that perspective, but I think that the way the introduction frames these as indicators of oppression confuses the point. Oppression is generally used as a term for things that are wrong and changeable, not for things that are, perhaps, unfortunate and frustrating but not wrong. I think it's that framing -- that I would be oppressing a small child by insisting they go to the dentist or refusing to let them take a full-time job -- that has made people incredulous and defensive.