bigbywolfe

Man of Steel which there are problems with as others identified in the specific thread.
 
Pacific Rim. Monsters vs Giant Robots for the win.

The sixth episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I haven't seen these before, and I'm really enjoying the interaction of the characters.

A film that deals with a rather unique form of conflict resolution. King Kong vs Godzilla. Wonderful.

Serenity. Nuff said.
Closely Observed Trains the foreign language Oscar winner from 1966. From Czechoslovakia comes the tale of an apprentice signalman as the Second World War draws to a close. Brilliant.
Wrestlemania 29. C M Punk vs the Undertaker is good but a bit too much emphasis on Cena vs The Rock.

Ant Warfare!

I just finished Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. It had superheroes and zombies! What more could you want?
 
It really was an exciting and compelling book. It was a fast read, and truly a lot of fun. I loved the character of St. George.

[h=5]So there I was, eating my breakfast, while the love-of-my-life was on her laptop...
 
Her: ::watching the Google-doodle:: Oh, look! It must be Henry Ford's birthday.
Me: ::blinking in disbelief, trying to figure out if she's trolling me or something:: Huh?
Her: I mean, they've got an assembly line going, and he pioneered that.
Me: Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb, here, and assume that the doodle might have something to do with it being Mother's Day today!
Her: Oooohhh![/h]

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 
For some reason, a memory popped into my head.
 
Many years ago, I was participating in an Air Force briefing/orientation on this sort of topic. I was paired off with a young airman and one of the scenarios we were given to discuss involved complimentary but inappropriate comments made by a male airman about a female airman's appearance. The young man wasn't seeing the problem. I asked "Would you say something like that to a woman who was your commanding officer?" He said no, and I asked why not. He said "It wouldn't be respectful." So I asked "If it's not respectful to say to your commanding officer, what makes you think it's respectful to say it to someone you outrank?"
 
Seeing the understanding in his eyes was like watching a light go on. He got it - respect is for everyone.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
regularly disrespected by my palindromedary

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
Sigh. That's what I get for making an off-the-cuff comment. OK, in more depth:
 
Sloppiness in one area - in this case biology - is often an indicator of sloppiness overall. At the very least, it should be regarded as a warning sign. And phrases like "The truth is that men may be doomed, not because of their genes but because of their brains. Or to be more precise, the innate biology of males may be at odds with the modern world that they inhabit" are not only garbage biology (where do men's brains come from if not their genes? If this effect is "innate" then by definition it's genetic. If it's not genetic, then it can't be innate) but are, by definition, not US-specific. If these tendencies are innate, they apply to all men, everywhere.
 
Conversely, if they don't apply to all men everywhere - and as I pointed out, they don't - then they are not innate. Like I said, sloppy. And essentially meaningless. My comment about the conclusions of the book not applying generally was inspired by that sort of fluff.
 
Now if the sloppy, meaningless fluff was only restricted to biology, then maybe there'd be more meat here. Alas ... one of the over-riding themes is that this is a pan-cultural (in the US anyway, though the actual discussion is not very nuanced) phenomenon. Statements about how this decline "cuts across all ages, races and socio-economic groups" abound. The discussion is about how women are outpacing men - educationally, at work, in pay, etc.
 
So how do the real numbers stack up? Well, here they are. And they don't match the rhetoric very well. Far from a decline cutting across all racial and socio-economic groups, the ratio of high school graduation rates between genders among whites has been unchanged since they started recording data on the topic. Indeed, the only groups where high school graduation rates have changed are among pacific islanders and Asians (where boys now do better than girls, a reversal from 40 years ago and the exact opposite of what The Decline of Men is trying to say) and Hispanics, who show the opposite trend (more girls graduate high school than boys - also a reversal from 40 years ago). If you look at college graduates, a higher percentage of men graduate than women among whites and Asians, while the reverse is true among Hispanics and blacks.
 
A more detailed breakdown of the 2010 data shows that boys are slightly more likely to drop out of high school than girls, but at college, men are as likely to graduate with a bachelors degree and slightly more likely to get an advanced degree. When it comes to educational achievement, ethnicity, and regional differences prove to be far more important than gender. You can get more data on education in the US than most people will ever want here.
 
So much for "cuts across all ages, races and socio-economic groups". Like I said, sloppy.
 
So what about pay, and employment? Well, now that women are in the workforce in numbers comparable to men, it turns out the same economic forces that have ravaged mens' incomes are now ravaging womens' . So how do things stack up financially? In the end it's all about the benjamins, after all. And here's the numbers Far from "outstripping men" over the last 20 years women have gone from earning 1/2 as much as men, to 2/3rds as much. Yay. Sarcasm aside, I guess that's still progress. You can see why that is: women (regardless of race) dominate the very lowest rungs of the income ladder and men (especially white men) dominate the upper rungs. The breakdown by age suggests that this disparity is age-linked, so things might improve in the future.
 
If you look at the actual numbers, suddenly men don't seem to be in decline at all.
 
But I don't think the book is entirely worthless, because even if it's sloppily researched and most of its claims are dubious, if not spurious, it does reflect the current zeitgeist. The data might say that men - especially white men - are doing pretty damn well. And as a whole, they are. But if you dig deeper into the figures, the terms "as a whole" hides the fact that some men are doing very well, and others not so well at all. Charles Murray, of all people, makes this case (in fact, I became aware the book we are discussing now as part of the huge debate over Murray's book Coming Apart) though he probably didn't mean to. In the US, the working class and lower-middle class male is doing poorly - regardless of ethnicity. So is the working class female, if you look at the numbers, but the difference between those two has been squeezed, so that it's smaller than it used to be. To a guy under pressure economically, the fact that "some people, somewhere" are making out like bandits, may add to his general sense of grievance, but it's also pretty abstract. But when people he can directly compare his situation with - say, the lady next door - are doing better than they used to, even if it's still not as good as him ... well, I can see how that might look threatening. And that group - working class and lower middle class - makes up a substantial chunk of the population. You can see their unease and growing fear in today's politics.
 
So The Decline of Men might be sloppily-researched polemic, but it's an interesting look into the kinds of things that are worrying a lot of men.
 
cheers, Mark

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 
First, I want to apologize fort his post. It may come off less clear and empathetic than I want it to.
 

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
No. That is exactly the kind of language that, even if offered in jest, is demeaning and unhelpful, just like saying "Being raped sucks, but at least you're alive afterwards and can heal from the experience."
 
Leaving aside the issues of what happens after death (and therefore whether the murder is "over" for the victim)- it's never over for the friends and family of the victim.
 
They are both horrendous, monstrous acts that should be confronted and prevented at every turn. And they should never be compared in a game of one upmanship. To do so diminishes the human dignity of all involved, including the speaker.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
Thanks for the link.
 
I think it makes my point about doing all of the right things and getting attacked anyways (ie Opportunistic Rape)

 
Damn, the more I read the article the more chilling it becomes.
 
Again, I agree that women should know how to defend themselves. Everyone should know the basics, heck it should probably be taught in Phys ED in the Senior year of High School.
 
I also don't see the harm in instilling in our male children that it is not ok to force a women to have sex or to "take advantage" of an incapacitated woman. Perhaps it will help prevent more opportunistic rapes (ie Date Rapes). Yeah, it won't have much effect on those who are "evil", but who knows. It may not work, but again it definitely wont work if it isn't tried.
 
perhaps we can get back to talking about Sexism in general.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
NO, it is NOT.
 
EMPHATICALLY NOT.
 
It is a grave disservice to paint advocates of crime prevention and avoidance training and self defense as victim blamers. In fact, it's ass-backwards. The reason for promoting awareness and self defense is to help people avoid being victims. PEOPLE. Not just women. Everybody should at least learn basic crime prevention and learn how to not look like a victim. Self defense is another matter. Many people don't have the stomach for physical conflict, and that's a personal issue.
 
However, when you say "It's not that easy for most women to fight back. Remember that most women are much smaller than the average male and not as strong," you are promoting a VICTIM MINDSET. You do not have to win to defend against rape. You should NEVER allow anyone to take you to a secondary location, because your chance of dying skyrockets; it's an almost certain death. No matter if you think you can win or not, you can delay and you can make noise, and possibly save your life. Do you know how many girls and women have died because of this mindset, because when threatened by a male, they gave in and allowed themselves to be taken to a secondary location???
 
You know what the sad part is? ALL of this is simple stuff. All of the required behaviors can be learned. They may not save you, but they can damned sure decrease your odds of becoming a victim.
 
I'm goddamned sick of people twisting the argument on preserving one's life and securing one's person to one based on gender. This is not about gender. This is about realizing that there are evil people in this world and learning to avoid them and prevent them from doing you harm.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

I learned that from my parents. It's called "manners".

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
Sounds like a great comic shop, but this last line has me chuckling at the totally OT idea of a mash-up between your comic shop and your tattooist.
 
"Can Spidey defeat the Green Goblin? Find out on the next exciting bicep!"

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
This is entirely out of the context of whatever the discussion on that other board may have been, and in the context of cold, hard reality.
 
Everyone, including women, should be taught both how to avoid trouble, and how to defend themselves in the first place. Because the world isn't always a nice place.
 
My brother, who lives in an upscale area in NJ, has three lovely daughters. They're now 18, 17, and 13. They're all very bright girls, academically and socially adept, and my brother has made an effort from an early age to both provide for them and make sure they're safe. They've been all taken martial arts and self defense training, but haven't made a hobby of it (they're all into dance heavily). They've all been required to go everywhere with a large group of friends, and since high school this has included about half their school's football and wrestling teams. They've been trained to keep the parents informed of their destinations and locations at all times, and to have cell phones on them at all times. They don't hang out in any particularly dangerous locations.
 
About a week and a half ago, my eldest niece, despite all of this, left her group with her boyfriend and went to sit on a pier with him overlooking a river walk. Six other kids their age, four male and two female, approached them from behind and started throwing large rocks at them. The first throw hit my niece about halfway between her eye and her temple, and gave her a serious concussion. Fortunately, her and her boyfriend realized she was seriously injured and did the smart thing and withdrew to get medical attention. Fortunately, the little monsters that attacked them were satisfied with a brief stoning, and laughed as they very casually strolled off. The police in that area have 12 units available in a four square mile radius, four cars on the road at any one time. They were utterly incapable of preventing the incident, even though a unit was only a block away, and when that officer was notified, he utterly failed to properly report the incident and canvas the area for the little bastards.
 
So, while the onus may be on the bad guys not to be bad, it's entirely naive to rely on the kindness of thugs and low lives.
 
I really wish my niece hadn't had to have this lesson literally drilled into her head this way.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

Sounds like an "is/ought" problem.
 
Women ought not to have to fear sexual assault. In a good world, in a just world, in a right world, they wouldn't. There would not be predators seeking to prey on anyone they percieved as weak or vulnerable. I think most everyone can agree on that.
 
Unfortunately, we don't live in a just, good, or right world. People have to protect themselves from the predators. This is not to place blame on the victim. The aggressor is responsible for his own actions. But women have to be aware that sexual assault can happen, and they should be prepared to defend themselves if at all possible.
 
The world ought to not be that way, but the world is that way. So we dream and work towards how the world ought to be, while still living in the world as it is.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 
I think there are multiple elements to this mindset:
1. A lot of geeks tend to be poorly socialized, period. More to the point, they often have little to no socialization experience with adult women, let alone women who share their geek interests.
2. Ego and arrogance and geekier-than-thou elitism are a commonplace among the geek community, IME. Or, at least, "there's one in every crowd". This will be exacerbated in the presence of a perceived "noob"(even if that perception is wildly inaccurate).
3. Some guys never really grow up when it comes to women. For a lot of male geeks, every day is another day in junior high school, when girls would walk by and alternately either mock them or ignore them. So they have this kind of built-in unresolved/misdirected rage/resentment thing going on. Compounding this, the sexual hangups of some male geeks are legendary. They turn women(or some niche subset) into sexual fetish objects and become almost completely incapable of relating to them as people, let alone people who share their interests.
4. Related to all this, because they knew few or no girls who were interested in geek stuff--and perhaps the only ones who kinda sorta were had geek boyfriends--they grew to regard women as "geek dilletantes"[sic] and therefore unworthy of the respect they would give a "fellow" male geek.
 
The best way to counter it is to rebuff them directly, lay out your "Geek CV", give them a few pointers on how to address you(along with whatever choice words may come to mind), and in the case of geeks in customer service positions, talk to their boss about their attitude problem. You really shouldn't have to do that, but sometimes a good swift kick is what some folks need to get right.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 
I agree that the HERO Boards are astoundingly open, well-mannered, and cool.
 
I also agree with everything that the author said in the article.
 
Theres a game store here in my town, and Id been there many times over the years Ive lived here. The guy who is usually behind the counter isnt exactly what Id call a "friend" of mine, but he was a genial business acquaintance. Hed say "hi" to me and be generally helpful, and my attitude toward him was generally positive, overall.
 
And then I heard a female friend of mine, who is absolutely a legitimate Gamer Girl (shes been gaming since the late 70s / early 80s), say some angry things about the "jerk who works at [insert Store Name Here]".
 
I said "You dont mean [Name], do you? The guy with the glasses? hes always been cool to me..."
 
"Of COURSE hes cool to YOU! Youre a guy, and you spend like $100 a month in there!"*
*(This is an exagerration on her part, but an understandable one) (And may also be completely accurate)
 
Apparently she had gone in a few times with her husband, and had noticed that he was kind of generally dismissive of her. But recently she had gone in by herself, because she knew that something she was interested in had either just come out, or was just about to, and wanted to pick it up if it was available, or put it on order if it was not.
 
Just like in the article, this guy basically ignored her for a little over half an hour, until she practically grabbed him by the arm and said "AHEM!"
 
And just as was described, he treated her in an AMAZINGLY condescending fashion, and at one point said something that was so patronizing and dismissive of her (because she, as a woman, COULDNT be a "real gamer") that she felt that she needed to spell out for this guy that SHE HAS BEEN PLAYING ROLE-PLAYING GAMES AND READING COMICS LITERALLY SINCE BEFORE THIS ASSHAT WAS BORN. And that she was furious at her treatment of her. And that she would not be coming back here again.
 
I was gobsmacked to hear all of this; the guy she described was like... the goatee-wearing Mirror-Mirror universe version of the guy I (thought I) knew.
 
And THEN, as I was saying "Are you SURE its [Name]?!?", another of my female gamer friends who was there at the table said, "Oh yes. Definitely. Hes done that to me too. I absolutely hate that guy." And then told us of HER several bad encounters with the little creep.
 
Ive since checked with every female gamer /comics fan I know in the area, and they ALL say that he treats them, and all women, like they are unwelcome aliens; simple-minded creatures who cant possibly undertsand the complexities of HIS world of comics and RPGs (poor things *pat pat pat*)
 
Needless to say, I have stopped going to that shop, and have advocated that my friends also stop going there. Instead I drive up to "The City" (about 30 miles away) to do my shopping at a place called "Games HQ", where to my knowledge they do not have that kind of B.S. attitude.
 
Sidebar 1: I HATE those "get in the kitchen" jokes. They arent funny, and they actually just seem to exacerbate the exact problem we are talking about. I know Pattern Ghost was speaking in jest, but its sad how many people who make those "jokes" are not.
 
 
Sidebar 2: I avoided using the name of the store and the name of the guy, because I dont want the Hero Forum to be open to any kind of legal action in case the guy reads this. I named Games HQ because I have only good and positive things to say about them, which I think makes it OK to name them directly).

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

Yeah, I get that. I only make those kinds of jokes with people I know very well or even intimately. I would not dream of cracking wise, in that manner, to somebody I know very informally and only through a forum.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster
 

I don't suppose you can translate any of this?