A Little Silence

I realized recently that I'm going about this whole social thing all wrong.  I'm going to spend some time off of facebook to think about how I portray myself and what I say to people in social situations.  I have a feeling that my feelings are not necessarily the best thing to talk about.  The things that are most important to me are irritating and trivial to most other people, so my indignant protests and pleas for justice will only rub people the wrong way.

We're Fighting Oppression in Exactly the Wrong Way

I think I've identified why I feel so uncomfortable saying that I'm a feminist, why I don't feel right when I talk about how white privilege is so harmful.  It presumes that the problem with sexism is sexism, whereas the problem with sexism is oppression.

Racism is not the problem, oppression is the problem.
Sexism is not the problem, oppression is the problem.
Religious discrimination is not the problem, oppression is the problem.
Speciesism is not the problem, oppression is the problem.

For every victory that any particular cause achieves (civil rights, gender equality), another oppressed group loses that much solidarity and momentum, and their plight will become that much more difficult.  The only way for the oppressed to unilaterally find justice is for the oppressed to stand against the *concept* of oppression, by understanding why it exists at all--not why it exists on spectra of gender, race, or religion.  Until we finally address the root of all discrimination and hate, we'll simply sever the ties between the different groups of oppressed people.  Those with less influence will continue to be oppressed, and the formerly oppressed groups will continually fail to recognize that the oppression was not only their own.

Exploitation

Exploitation isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Sure, it has a sour aftertaste and it's appalling to think about.  But people's aversion to funding companies that exploit cheap labor is, I would argue, not morally substantiable.

I want to end poverty in the world.  That's my first priority when it comes to economic policy.  I don't want fairness, I want everybody to have their living essentials paid for, and I want everybody to have equal access to big bucks for hard work.  If the way to do that is through rigorously meritocratic socialism, then so be it.  If the way to do that is through pure democratic communism, I'd be good with that too.  I just don't like that people have to suffer with poverty.  It's a blemish on human civilization, and it's wrong for us to let people suffer at the hands of our society's normal activities.

For this reason, I have an open mind when it comes to the issue of cheap labor.  I'm not strongly espoused to the opinion I have, whereas I strongly believe in the values I based this opinion on (universal freedom from poverty).  I'm no economist; nor are most people who have strong opinions on the matter of whether it's right to patronize companies that outsource to countries where citizens are willing to work for cheap.  And I think that the dialogue is largely misinformed bullshit.

The conclusion that I've come to after thinking about the big picture is this:

Feminism and Kill La Kill?

//Kill La Kill quasi-spoilers ensue.

So I really have no idea what to think of Kill La Kill.  On one hand, its portrayal of women is highly sexualized.  I mean, its portrayal of men is also sexualized, so you could say the whole show is just sexualized, which is true, but it's pretty skewed nonetheless.  So it's definitely fanservice for male otaku, and I feel like that should make me uncomfortable.  But there are certainly statements that are girl-positive.  And in Japan, it seems that a lot of hyper-feminine things are used as leverage points for women to feel more confident.

Politics should be Radical

How I think government should work:

• Pure democracy:  everything is a referendum.  No representatives.  No political leaders.
• Rewrite our Constitution every twenty years

My personal political views:

A few words for Frank Wolf

Francis Lapointe, known as Frank Wolf, was a man inspired by aesthetic beauty.  He was a model.  He spent a lot of time decorating his body.  He shattered conventions of style, and of gender, in an attempt to convey his perception of the corporeal.

On the Internet, including his facebook page, he put himself on display.  He made himself vulnerable to critique, to objectification, to the poring eyes of countless strangers.  Regardless of the obstacles he would have known he would face, it was something that he found meaning in.  He was courageous enough to put himself out on the Internet for this vision.

He was harassed.  He committed suicide.  He was 31 days older than me.  He died at the age of 20.

Furries (A Paper for an Honors Seminar)

Austin Tamutus
Dr. Marianne Dekoven
The Question of The Animal
December 10, 2013

Furries

There is much discourse and dialogue about the relations and parallels between humans and animals.  Many literary works investigate the boundary between humans and other species.  Although not many affirmative statements can be made about the prototypical representation of animals in literature, the liminality of the boundary between humans and nonhumans is addressed, by literature and scientific research, in a predominantly anthropocentric fashion.  Zoomorphism, the reciprocal of anthropomorphism, finds its home in a much different walk of life:  the "furry" subculture, internally known as the "Furry Fandom".  This paper will address the demographics of the furry fandom as preliminary overview, then delve into a review of what the significance of the furry fandom may be, as well as the meaning of how furry artwork and literature use animals and their characteristics to portray characters.