Ray Bradbury is dead. I never had the honor of meeting him, but his books changed my life: the dystopian fever-dream of Fahrenheit 451; the elegaic, melancholic, nostalgic joy of Dandelion Wine; Something Wicked This Way Comes, which forever left me afraid of merry-go-rounds; Zen and the Art of Writing, for my money the best writing book ever written except possibly Stephen King’s On Writing. When I think of voice, I think Ray Bradbury: childlike but not childish; dreamy in the way actual dreams are, creatures of the id, often terrifying, usually strange, always with their own internal logic; his rhythms and his precise way with an adjective, indescribable and forever recognizable. He also had the second-best title in all of science fiction, that is, “Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed.” I particularly recommend Neil Gaiman‘s and Cleolinda‘s obituaries.
Boggle is an owl. Boggle also loves you. He is concerned about you and wants you to love yourself even though you are depressed/anxious/dealing with an abusive person/whatever. Honestly, this shit is almost as good for a depression day as Calming Manatee.
Trigger warning for rape. Brian Hanson, a survivor of rape, draws a comic discussing his experiences and rape jokes. Sad, but powerful. Highly recommended.
A genderqueer transmasculine person of color explores how to redefine masculinity and black masculinity through the process of transition.
I would like to present the greatest personal ad of all time. My friend Summer has gotten upset at this ad because Zelda’s costume is really hard to make and white and it is very inconsiderate to expect someone to ruin their costume in a random Craigslist hookup.
I have seriously had this on my “write a post about” list since it came out and then I realized there was no point because Clarisse has said it all already in the original article.. It’s about kink, and 50 Shades of Grey, and Fight Club, and consent. Is cool.
Trigger warning for rape. Have you read Cliff Pervocracy’s writing on consent culture? If not, you should. Consent culture is a fascinating reframing of the discourse around rape culture to talk about not just what to avoid but what to seek.
Better Myths would like to inform you that Hamlet sucks at revenge and also that eaves are being dropped all over the place, mostly on innocent bystanders. (Content note: Use of the r-word, stigmatization of mental illness. For fuck’s sake, people, stop putting kyriarchal shit in your funny shit so I can recommend it with a clean conscience.)
Sociological Images has created a Pinterest of feminine products marketed to men with hyper-masculinity. NSWATM has covered this approximately eleventy billion times and I’m getting rather bored of it, so I’m glad someone else is.
A gay crossdresser (the author of the article theorizes he is trans and uses female pronouns, but I see no reason we shouldn’t respect Brandon’s stated identity) who has worn female clothing throughout high school has been allowed to wear a dress to his graduation. High-five to the school involved for allowing people to wear whatever clothing they like regardless of their gender, and frowny faces to the people who made him skip prom for fear of ‘drama.’ Fuck them.
Hat tip to Alexander. Keeling Pilaro, a field hockey player banned from the girls’ team for being male and a “too dominant player,” has been allowed to continue playing upon a decision that his continued participation would not have averse effects on the girls who play. Let the boy play field hockey, for fuck’s sake; I see no reason, if there isn’t a team for one gender, that people of that gender who want to play in the team of another gender shouldn’t be allowed.
Hat tip to None. An interesting article on male sexuality and queerness and porn and the Internet. Not sure what I feel about it, which is possibly a sign of genuine originality.
ProPublica investigates the historically low rates of presidential pardons. Like nearly all aspects of the prison-industrial complex, the presidential pardon system disproportionately affects men.
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J. C. Penney’s Father’s Day ad with real-life gay fathers. D’awwwwwwww.
TW for rape. Obama has reaffirmed his commitment to ending prison rape; to this end, the Prison Rape Elimination Act now applies to the Department of Homeland Security, which among other things runs the immigration detention facilities. This is half “yay” and half “what the fuck, prison rape requirements didn’t apply to immigration facilities?”
TW for bullying. A man discusses his manboobs and our culture’s hatred of men whose bodies don’t fit binary gender norms.
A sensitive exploration of how racialized objectification drove the male soul artist D’Angelo from the business.
My actress girlfriend Kristen Stewart is the cutest imaginary dyke ever.
A hilarious and sad conversation with a sister’s kid about whether having a cat makes you gay.
The top five plastic surgeries men get.
Thanks for linking my Post, Oz! I can tell the nephew he’s gonna be famous lol.
I found a Boggle Fail:
Person: Am I really not a bad person?
Boggle: I don’t think so.
Double negative are a pain. Boggle called someone a bad person. And this children is why you don’t do double negatives.
I wouldn’t read it that way. It’s not so much a fail as it is ambiguous without any context, because it’s not clear whether it’s responding to the “not” or “bad” part or both at once. A response of “I think so” would have the exact same problem. A completely unambiguous response would be something like “I don’t think you are one.” Unless you’re referring to the “not a bad person” part being a double negative as being the problem. It’s actually *not* one. Sure, the word “bad” has negative connotations in ordinary speech, but it’s not actually a semantic… Read more »
A small post on the use of rape as a scare tactic to keep troubled youth out of prison. Of course by youth I mean young men.
(http://dannyscorneroftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/05/scaring-people-with-rape.html)
When your massive church organization gets shut down by a kid with a notepad you might want to rethink things.
(http://dannyscorneroftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/05/good-young-man-indeed-stage-7.html)
I’m glad that this place doesn’t link to manboobz anymore, or else the entirely justified and necessary essay mentioned might have been a bit awkward. Also I like Boggle a bit more than calming manatee, it seems more consistantly awesome.
Can we share Miss Stewart, Ozy? I just want to take her home, tell her she’s gorgeous (cos it’s not like both she and Charlize Theron could be badass hotties, it has to be a sexy/uggo competition) and stare at her with hearts in my eyes as she talks about how much she and RPattz loathe Twilight.
And I was so relieved at the rape jokes comic. I need them to not go insane over my abuse, but I also need them to be Mel Brooks-esque, intelligent and silly.