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Sep. 18th, 2016 04:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "Dear Fellow Guys….stop hitting on women at work. Let me explain.:" http://satyrday.tumblr.com/post/150045471961/dear-fellow-guysstop-hitting-on-women-at-work#notes
* "Dr. Oz Asks Donald Trump to Diagnose Himself :"
* "The Trump Foundation Needs Your Help:"
* "A Polite Reminder From The Late Show About Polls:"
* If you were wondering what happened with the car, it was going to be an 800.00-900.00 repair job. They do not take payment by installment, nor could they store the car until he could raise the money. As a result, he had to pay to have it towed home. We are out the money for that. I've been having to cover household and pet things alone and so have been hemorrhaging money on things like gas and cat food. He's now behind on the bills he covers in lieu of rent. So why did we move the car in the first place? They were repainting parking here and we had to move his brakeless car. It was a tow it or lose it situation, and it'd be 3000.00-4000.00 to get a used car, so as he was having to pay to tow it anyway, we gambled on towing it somewhere useful. We lost.
* "The Mysteries of V.F.D. Continue:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/mysteries-v-f-d-asoue-books-7-9/
* Queer Ancient Egypt and Archeologist Bias: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/150568133047/aeacustero-samandriel-kendrajk
* "Russian Tsars as @dril tweets:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/150567260352/russian-tsars-as-dril-tweets
* TNG 3 Rewatch:
- "The Offspring." No wonder I always loved Data. Picard: "I would like to have been consulted." Data: "I have not observed anyone else consulting you about their procreation, Captain." This is another episode centering around personhood and reproductive choice and as a result is another one if anything more relevant now than it was when it was filmed. I've talked about how relevant the data Personhood issue is to trans people in particular but also to every group that isn't a cis white straight man in this country. Check out this exchange. Deanna: "Why didn't you give it a more human look, Data?" Data: "I have decided to allow my child to choose its own sex and appearance." Pretty good for 1990. Unfortunately this is still TNG with it's generally fucked up gender issues, so of course Lal's forced into the gender binary. Sigh.
I think it's interesting that Picard, who had been a strong advocate for Data's personhood in season two is all male privilegy about Data's right to reproduce and the personhood of any offspring data might have. This is a really good critique of the way a lot of straight white cis liberal men will have a liberal stand on a particular issue or issues and even friends who are part of an effected minority, but never do the work to further examine their privilege, other less in the news issues or forms of oppression, or even extend their liberalism to people they don't know personally. Picard here is analogous to people who say something bigoted and then try to back pedal with the wincingly bigoted, "I didn't mean you; you're one of the good ones." *shudder* I've talked a lot about what was wrong with TNG, but one of the things I think they did right was making Picard likeable and well meaning, but flawed. It's one of the things I love about the Black Sail's version of Jack Rackham as well. It would be so much easier to make Picard always on the right side of an issue, and they periodically deliberately choose not to, showing the limitations people often have realistically.
I think there is an element of Ableism in Picard's response to Data's choice to reproduce. Watching his one on one interview with Data in which Data kept being perfectly reasonable, and Picard sounded... well, a lot like I've seen neurotypical people behave around reproductive issues for people on the spectrum or the way I've seen able bodied people behave around people with various disabilities reproducing. It was hard to watch to be honest. Data has clearly taken Picard at his word that he believes data is a Person. Data is behaving like a person and as he points out has followed all Starfleet regulations. He also seems to have gone above and beyond what most organic type people bother to do as far as seriously considering parenting strategies before reproducing in a way that reminds me very much of my parents reading all those parenting books and having long discussions about discipline strategies and how they planned to raise me before they went about getting pregnant. Data is doing everything he possibly can to do this properly and has taken Picard at his word that Picard considers him a valuable member of the crew and not a tool or and object. Alas, Picard pretty clearly considers him less than a full human, and I think Picard's head in hands frustration is because in his heart of hearts he's a suspicion that he's in the wrong because of it. He can't clearly articulate his objection, because his objection boils down to a belief that Data is not fully human and that Picard believes that means someone more human should get veto power over Data's reproductive choices which is... eeew, and I think Picard knows how gross that is which is why he can't bring himself to say it to Data's face.
And, look, I get the untested technology aspect here. The thing is, I've had some at own risk, non-standard, gender related surgery that can best be described as botched. I live with experimental technology in the flesh every damned day. The risk was my choice and I own the results. I think Data's choice to reproduce falls into this category, just like the first in vitro fertilization, just like the first trans woman to try experimental hormones and surgery. Data may not be reproducing inside his body, but I'd argue the pattern transfer is analogous to parthenogenesis or perhaps the way betta fish reproduce outside their bodies, but the male tends and guards the eggs and fry until they are ready to swim free. I also feel that the choice to do with your body as you will, whether it be alteration or reproduction by any means needs to be a personal choice that doesn't involve Gatekeeping authorities.
I really like that Wesley Crusher is the advocate for sending Lal to school and normal socialization. The interaction is brief, but the way he talks to Data suggests that by this point, he does see Data as a full person and as Lal's father. It fits, and it's a nice little moment for Wesley. I honestly think most of the strong negative response people had was to the uneven and annoyingly written first season Wesley, and people didn't reassess over time based on character growth and less awkward writing. Maybe I had an advantage coming in during season three. Maybe this is why back in 1991, I was the one in the room arguing that it wasn't Wil Wheaton's fault they didn't like the character. The worst moments are mostly season One, so I saw them later. I looked at Wesley Crusher and saw that the acting was good and consistent, and my vocalized at the time suspicion was that Wil Wheaton was acting the part as written to the best of his and likely anyone's ability, and that perhaps this was the problem. I turned my glare entirely on Rodenberry and the the writers. I continue to think I like the character better this time around. Maybe eight years of teaching teenagers mellowed me.
It was nice to see Picard, for all his internalized whatever -ism best fits, came through when Starfleet called to take Lal away as an "it" to be experimented instead of a "she" best left in the custody of her father. The thing where Starfleet threatens to take Data's daughter from him because he is different before they even look at them together is and has been all to real for so many Indigenous, deaf, LGBTQIA people, and parents with autism. The brutality of those in authority to people who don't fit a particular norm is woven all through our culture and our history. Kidnapping children away from loving families to abusive white Boarding Schools where children were beaten for speaking their language, having their braids cut, being fed maggots and vomit and the like, and occasionally being tied to stakes on the beach so when the tide rose it would mostly cover them, is all living memory for the coastal tribes here. I still remember my Mom mediating in a custody case between a trans woman and her dangerously abusive ex back when I was a teen, where the legal inclination was to give the ex full custody despite her police record because of transphobia. I remember too many cases to list of nasty grandparents swooping in to steal children out of loving lesbian homes. I've seen friends on the spectrum parent beautifully despite the scecpticism and assholery of neurotypicals. I know this is a battle the deaf community had to fight for decades. As with the dehumanizing treatment of Data in Series 2, I'm finding all this a little too distressingly real. It was good to see that when faced with the Admiral's worse bigotry Picard backs Data and Lal and asks her what she wants instead of just assuming. Progress.
The accessibility issues around Lal's schooling sure remind me of a battle a friend of mine had with the school district over the treatment of her very intelligent child with autism. I'm not getting into details, but it makes me sad that even in Star Trek they are not set up to deal with an intelligent and academically advanced who has trouble understanding body language and the dynamics of social interaction. Shouldn't they be better than this? We sure should be. Why is it that teacher isn't trained to handle this sort of thing and especially given species and cultural diversity in the Federation, why don't they have curriculum structure for teaching social rules and helping to integrate people with varying social rules into one classroom? Shouldn't that be standard for children on a ship with a diplomatic/exploration mandate? The laughing with vs. laughing at conversation hurts my heart and is all to real. The Beverly Crusher/Data parenting conversation was beautiful and the sort of thing that makes me want to grab people dealing with children by the labels and beg them to watch.
I think the school situation and the stealing children away thing more proof that the Federation is a dystopia if you dig a past the shiny orderly supposedly tolerant surface.
- "Sins of the Father." Ah, the Klingon exchange officer. This episode inspired me to make a Klingon exchange officer in a TNG table top game. My character was the only one who came out of the resulting Court Martial with my career intact. Anyway, this episode is good on things like culture clash and command style which are and always have been relevant to my interests, though taken with the Riker exchange episode and that horrible first season planet of primative black people fighting over the white woman episode (*shudder*), I have a lot of qualms about the way he show depicts cultures of non-white people relative to the Federation. The Klingon politics set up here run all the way through the rest of TNG and DS9. The Sacrifice Worf makes here is beautiful, and cuts to the bone.
******
* Louisiana is having a major flooding disaster, the worst disaster in this country since Sandy. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.comhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/07/28/asia/indonesia-drug-executions/
* "Dr. Oz Asks Donald Trump to Diagnose Himself :"
* "The Trump Foundation Needs Your Help:"
* "A Polite Reminder From The Late Show About Polls:"
* If you were wondering what happened with the car, it was going to be an 800.00-900.00 repair job. They do not take payment by installment, nor could they store the car until he could raise the money. As a result, he had to pay to have it towed home. We are out the money for that. I've been having to cover household and pet things alone and so have been hemorrhaging money on things like gas and cat food. He's now behind on the bills he covers in lieu of rent. So why did we move the car in the first place? They were repainting parking here and we had to move his brakeless car. It was a tow it or lose it situation, and it'd be 3000.00-4000.00 to get a used car, so as he was having to pay to tow it anyway, we gambled on towing it somewhere useful. We lost.
* "The Mysteries of V.F.D. Continue:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/mysteries-v-f-d-asoue-books-7-9/
* Queer Ancient Egypt and Archeologist Bias: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/150568133047/aeacustero-samandriel-kendrajk
* "Russian Tsars as @dril tweets:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/150567260352/russian-tsars-as-dril-tweets
* TNG 3 Rewatch:
- "The Offspring." No wonder I always loved Data. Picard: "I would like to have been consulted." Data: "I have not observed anyone else consulting you about their procreation, Captain." This is another episode centering around personhood and reproductive choice and as a result is another one if anything more relevant now than it was when it was filmed. I've talked about how relevant the data Personhood issue is to trans people in particular but also to every group that isn't a cis white straight man in this country. Check out this exchange. Deanna: "Why didn't you give it a more human look, Data?" Data: "I have decided to allow my child to choose its own sex and appearance." Pretty good for 1990. Unfortunately this is still TNG with it's generally fucked up gender issues, so of course Lal's forced into the gender binary. Sigh.
I think it's interesting that Picard, who had been a strong advocate for Data's personhood in season two is all male privilegy about Data's right to reproduce and the personhood of any offspring data might have. This is a really good critique of the way a lot of straight white cis liberal men will have a liberal stand on a particular issue or issues and even friends who are part of an effected minority, but never do the work to further examine their privilege, other less in the news issues or forms of oppression, or even extend their liberalism to people they don't know personally. Picard here is analogous to people who say something bigoted and then try to back pedal with the wincingly bigoted, "I didn't mean you; you're one of the good ones." *shudder* I've talked a lot about what was wrong with TNG, but one of the things I think they did right was making Picard likeable and well meaning, but flawed. It's one of the things I love about the Black Sail's version of Jack Rackham as well. It would be so much easier to make Picard always on the right side of an issue, and they periodically deliberately choose not to, showing the limitations people often have realistically.
I think there is an element of Ableism in Picard's response to Data's choice to reproduce. Watching his one on one interview with Data in which Data kept being perfectly reasonable, and Picard sounded... well, a lot like I've seen neurotypical people behave around reproductive issues for people on the spectrum or the way I've seen able bodied people behave around people with various disabilities reproducing. It was hard to watch to be honest. Data has clearly taken Picard at his word that he believes data is a Person. Data is behaving like a person and as he points out has followed all Starfleet regulations. He also seems to have gone above and beyond what most organic type people bother to do as far as seriously considering parenting strategies before reproducing in a way that reminds me very much of my parents reading all those parenting books and having long discussions about discipline strategies and how they planned to raise me before they went about getting pregnant. Data is doing everything he possibly can to do this properly and has taken Picard at his word that Picard considers him a valuable member of the crew and not a tool or and object. Alas, Picard pretty clearly considers him less than a full human, and I think Picard's head in hands frustration is because in his heart of hearts he's a suspicion that he's in the wrong because of it. He can't clearly articulate his objection, because his objection boils down to a belief that Data is not fully human and that Picard believes that means someone more human should get veto power over Data's reproductive choices which is... eeew, and I think Picard knows how gross that is which is why he can't bring himself to say it to Data's face.
And, look, I get the untested technology aspect here. The thing is, I've had some at own risk, non-standard, gender related surgery that can best be described as botched. I live with experimental technology in the flesh every damned day. The risk was my choice and I own the results. I think Data's choice to reproduce falls into this category, just like the first in vitro fertilization, just like the first trans woman to try experimental hormones and surgery. Data may not be reproducing inside his body, but I'd argue the pattern transfer is analogous to parthenogenesis or perhaps the way betta fish reproduce outside their bodies, but the male tends and guards the eggs and fry until they are ready to swim free. I also feel that the choice to do with your body as you will, whether it be alteration or reproduction by any means needs to be a personal choice that doesn't involve Gatekeeping authorities.
I really like that Wesley Crusher is the advocate for sending Lal to school and normal socialization. The interaction is brief, but the way he talks to Data suggests that by this point, he does see Data as a full person and as Lal's father. It fits, and it's a nice little moment for Wesley. I honestly think most of the strong negative response people had was to the uneven and annoyingly written first season Wesley, and people didn't reassess over time based on character growth and less awkward writing. Maybe I had an advantage coming in during season three. Maybe this is why back in 1991, I was the one in the room arguing that it wasn't Wil Wheaton's fault they didn't like the character. The worst moments are mostly season One, so I saw them later. I looked at Wesley Crusher and saw that the acting was good and consistent, and my vocalized at the time suspicion was that Wil Wheaton was acting the part as written to the best of his and likely anyone's ability, and that perhaps this was the problem. I turned my glare entirely on Rodenberry and the the writers. I continue to think I like the character better this time around. Maybe eight years of teaching teenagers mellowed me.
It was nice to see Picard, for all his internalized whatever -ism best fits, came through when Starfleet called to take Lal away as an "it" to be experimented instead of a "she" best left in the custody of her father. The thing where Starfleet threatens to take Data's daughter from him because he is different before they even look at them together is and has been all to real for so many Indigenous, deaf, LGBTQIA people, and parents with autism. The brutality of those in authority to people who don't fit a particular norm is woven all through our culture and our history. Kidnapping children away from loving families to abusive white Boarding Schools where children were beaten for speaking their language, having their braids cut, being fed maggots and vomit and the like, and occasionally being tied to stakes on the beach so when the tide rose it would mostly cover them, is all living memory for the coastal tribes here. I still remember my Mom mediating in a custody case between a trans woman and her dangerously abusive ex back when I was a teen, where the legal inclination was to give the ex full custody despite her police record because of transphobia. I remember too many cases to list of nasty grandparents swooping in to steal children out of loving lesbian homes. I've seen friends on the spectrum parent beautifully despite the scecpticism and assholery of neurotypicals. I know this is a battle the deaf community had to fight for decades. As with the dehumanizing treatment of Data in Series 2, I'm finding all this a little too distressingly real. It was good to see that when faced with the Admiral's worse bigotry Picard backs Data and Lal and asks her what she wants instead of just assuming. Progress.
The accessibility issues around Lal's schooling sure remind me of a battle a friend of mine had with the school district over the treatment of her very intelligent child with autism. I'm not getting into details, but it makes me sad that even in Star Trek they are not set up to deal with an intelligent and academically advanced who has trouble understanding body language and the dynamics of social interaction. Shouldn't they be better than this? We sure should be. Why is it that teacher isn't trained to handle this sort of thing and especially given species and cultural diversity in the Federation, why don't they have curriculum structure for teaching social rules and helping to integrate people with varying social rules into one classroom? Shouldn't that be standard for children on a ship with a diplomatic/exploration mandate? The laughing with vs. laughing at conversation hurts my heart and is all to real. The Beverly Crusher/Data parenting conversation was beautiful and the sort of thing that makes me want to grab people dealing with children by the labels and beg them to watch.
I think the school situation and the stealing children away thing more proof that the Federation is a dystopia if you dig a past the shiny orderly supposedly tolerant surface.
- "Sins of the Father." Ah, the Klingon exchange officer. This episode inspired me to make a Klingon exchange officer in a TNG table top game. My character was the only one who came out of the resulting Court Martial with my career intact. Anyway, this episode is good on things like culture clash and command style which are and always have been relevant to my interests, though taken with the Riker exchange episode and that horrible first season planet of primative black people fighting over the white woman episode (*shudder*), I have a lot of qualms about the way he show depicts cultures of non-white people relative to the Federation. The Klingon politics set up here run all the way through the rest of TNG and DS9. The Sacrifice Worf makes here is beautiful, and cuts to the bone.
******
* Louisiana is having a major flooding disaster, the worst disaster in this country since Sandy. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.comhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/07/28/asia/indonesia-drug-executions/