Lissiel's Journal

This post was almost titled "I would hit that in a New York Second". Cause, um, WOW.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_EfVtiUBSc&feature=channel

Also, Tokyo Hotel?


...I am not learning German now. T.T Who said German guys could be hot now? And he's a twin. Cripes.

/Edit: Oh man. IOWA got marriage equality before we did? Fail, California. Faaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiil. -_-;

So, Cal made a post a few days ago about gender-expression and naturalization in the context of role-play. I didn't comment there, because it didn't seem appropriate to a post that was mostly talking about one person's individual feelings on the subject? But I've been thinking a lot about what xie said, and I think I'd like to tl;dr about it as well, a little bit.

( Femininity, Performance, Pleasure, and the Teal Deer )

And now, to make up for the tl;dr, have a pic of Finn begging at the picnic I had with my family this morning. <3

Went to con this weekend. It was pretty fun. I got to hang out with L and Kiwi and Cadence, who are awesome and with whom I had a lot of fun. I think L telling me about discussing whether she'd published any novels with her grandfather was kind of hilarious and one of the highlights of the con for me. I also attended a couple of really interesting panels--the ones on internalized misogyny and classic plot structure stand out in particular as really entertaining. Probably would have been more fun if I'd gone with a friend, but T mentioned she might be interested in going next year, so... hmm. Pond put up her writeup already, with a pic of the four of us in P3 cosplay which--wow, I look really fat next to kiwi. I'm kind of weirded out by that. But we look awesome as a group, so. :D

Er. What else? It's kind of a blur for me, to be honest. There was a lot of sitting up in the video room/library until roughly four and then getting up at seven for early panels. (I finally saw a bit of the live-action Antique Bakery, which apparently aired in japan and then fell off the face of the internet, too, which was exciting.)

My puppy spent the whole time I was gone, according to mike, curled up in his little nook by the door, making the misery face. And then FLIPPED OUT when I got home, spinning in circles, knocked me down and sat on me until I'd pet him for like half an hour. It was pretty cute.

Now I'm home safe and have only the absurdly huge piles of homework I didn't do last friday. *grin* Laters, all.

/edit: There are moments when I love my generation. Truly.

I can't remember the source, but there's some sci-fi story I've read where the conclusion reads along the lines of "They could withstand the fiecest of our weapons, they could defeat us intellectually, but in the end, I think they died of sheer culture shock" - the looks on the faces of the scientologists when faced with a crowd in which a lone voice shouts:

"I HEAR TOM CRUISE HATES MUDKIPS!"

(all) "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

... how do you fight that?

How do you, ideologically speaking, defeat a crowd that is enthusiastically demanding that you "DO A BARREL ROLL! DO A BARREL ROLL!!" ?

Friday is the Day of Silence, where students and faculty refuse to speak to call attention to the year-long silencing of GBTL people in educational situations by mocking, harrassment, and violence. Probably I will participate (though given how my throat feels, I'm not talking enough to make it much of a gesture anyway), and I thought--I don't know how many people who read this are still in school, but I thought I'd let people know about it anyway.

The wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postgenderism#Postgenderism

The idea, basically and as I understand it, is put forth that given future technology it will be possible and desirable that gender will be optional for all people; either different sexes/genders would be erased from the species entirely or that an individual would be able to freely choose and change their sex/gender. Some thoughts:

1. An important and influential work in this regard was socialist feminist Donna Haraway's essay, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. In this work, Haraway is intepreted as arguing that women would only be freed from their biological restraints when their reproductive obligations were dispensed with. In other words, women will only achieve true liberation once they become postbiological organisms, or postgendered. However, Haraway has publicly stated that her use of the word "post-gender" has been grossly misinterpreted.

Firstly, this interpretation smacks of greater hate of female-ness than any kind of currently existing misogyny. Women can only be considered equal when they stop being women? Uh. Hmm. I'd like to read this book, see if some other interpretation presents itself, but I mean. Anyone who wants to say that women and womanhood as a concept are somehow inherently lesser, ugly, to be destroyed and avoided is just... I'm glad to be a woman, I enjoy it, I think femininity has qualities that are better and more appealing than masculinity for a lot of things, and that losing either would be really really sad and diminishing to the human experience. I like androgyny as a concept, but not as the only allowed or the only valued option.

2. Given the potential for advanced assistive reproductive options, postgenderists believe that sex for reproductive purposes will eventually either become entirely unnecessary or that all human beings will have the ability, if they so choose, to both carry a pregnancy to term and father a child, placing the entire need for gender distinctions and gender differences into question.

On the other hand, keeping our current(or similar) concepts of masculinity and femininity, along with easily mutable sex-assignment presents some interesting problems; when anyone can choose to be either female or male at any time, will hierarchical social systems just find another criteria on which to rank people? Will, as in many cultures with homosexual peoples, people be stigmatized based on which role they choose, or be expected to take different roles at different times of their lives?

3."It is also thought that posthuman space will be more virtual than real. Individuals may consist of uploaded minds living as data patterns on supercomputers or users engaged in completely immersive virtual realities. Postgenderists contend that these types of existences are not gender-specific thus allowing individuals to morph their virtual appearances and sexuality at will."

Quoted for most excellent coolness. <3 We've all seen programs like second-life, or virtual woman, where people interact through customizable avatars with both other avatars and with programs exhibiting some level of artificial intelligence. Some of you might have seen the headtracking for VR display video involving pretty ridiculously awesome graphics effects. Given these kinds of technologies--advancing all the time and gaining rapidly in availability and popularity--this is not as far off as some of the other options. This is more like the second option, but involves less attachment to physical realities and more to theoretical constructions of gender and self.


Some Questions:
1. If it were possible to do away with gender as a concept, would you want to? If so, would you want the resulting humans to be perfectly androgynous, or more aligned to the masculine, or to the feminine?

2. If it were possible to freely and frequently change physical sex, would you want to? Would you be comfortable with a partner/partners who could/did?

3. If you could participate in a fully realistic virtual social environment wherein gender was mutable and not linked to physicality, would you want to? Would you be comfortable with a partner/partners in such a construct?

Uhhhhhhn. D:

You guys. I've had ONE WEEK of japanese classes. Four class periods. In that time, we've already had three quizzes, learned twenty kanji and done 17 pages of written homework- not counting the reading or grammar-notes to study.

There are no trauma-faces bad enough to express how bad I am going to DIE this semester.

Also, Dear self: I'm really tired of this tummy being ticky biz. If I'm going to get sick, can I please just get sick already rather than this back-and-forth nonsense? No love, Me.

/Edit: (Aren't you guys glad I don't keep making new posts for this stuff?)


Ohno, Jun, honeys, you're in the middle of a dirt road through a big field in hicksville, decorating a cake, wearing a pink wifebeater and matching baby-pink trucker hat. D: I don't even... HOW ARE YOU TWO NOT DEAD? Honestly. You need to pay your security people more.

Arashi's upcoming single PV:

They call it "HAPPINESS" for a reason. The face I'm making right now looks something like this :D or more like XD. Cause, leader getting shoved out of the frame! Aiba trying to eat Nino's head! Sho makes tea! I have no idea what Ohno and Nino are doing about twenty seconds in, but it looks vaguely dirty! THERE ARE PUPPIES. YOU GUYS.

Invalid video URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KLD5l8VNSw

How are you all not totally head-over-heels for this band yet??? SRSLY GUYS.

EDIT: Translations from an interview on their last single "Love So Sweet", and adlkjsadgfhg, how did I miss these?

Jun:
The info in a sweet mail from Nino is a secret between only you two.
When Nino was away from Japan filming “Letters from Iwo Jima,” I got a really sweet mail from him. The contents…? That’s secret. (*grin*) Anyway, the contents were short but filled with emotion. Vice versa, because we were separated, I think I too got accustomed to that and included those emotions, and thought, ”There are more important things than words.”
Sho:
After we finished filming the “Love So Sweet” PV, it was late at night, but when we went back to the dressing room, everyone celebrated my birthday. And there was a really sweet chocolate cake and… is this story no good? (*grin*) It’s embarrassing! Talking about your sweet side… (TV guide: The story’s no good.) Well then, I’ll give you an extra piece of information. At that time we were relaxing almost naked. I’m done! (*grin*) Please look forward to seeing us as mannequins in the next PV!

I would like my tinfoil-hat now plz.