His Amulet Failed Him
Via Captain Nemo in the comments, a tale of woe and trauma from party person Mr Jordan Bennett:
Okay so I had the most DISGUSTING INVALIDATING experience at Heaven nightclub last night,
Hey, I visited Heaven one evening in the early 90s. I’ve seen what can happen.
a place where I am meant to feel free and accepted.
A big gay club for today’s downtrodden homosexual. There is, though, the small matter of security checks. For weapons and such.
Queuing to enter the club it splits into 2 lines- MAN and WOMAN – to be checked by seperate [sic] people.
Sharp-eyed readers may have an inkling of what’s coming.
I am non-binary so OF COURSE I’m gonna queue in the women’s line in sheer protest of where I know they would expect me to queue based on my appearance.
But of course. Let’s call it intersectional decision-making. Or a contrived, rather needy, excuse for drama.
I wait to be checked nervously and then one of the security staff rudely gestures me to the other line for men. I then kindly tell them that I am non-binary whilst highlighting the pronouns on my earrings which clearly say ‘They/Them’
Sadly, however, said earrings had lost their talismanic powers:
They carried on refusing me access, repeatedly saying this side was for ‘women only’. I shamefully walk to the other side. The two distinctly separate box-like detectors for each queue added to the prison-like atmosphere. I felt invalidated and embarrassed.
Habitual self-involvement can do that, I suppose.
whilst highlighting the pronouns on my earrings which clearly say ‘They/Them’
‘Clearly’.
Bah – I was writing my comment when David switched the posts. Re-posting to the proper location.
In the comments to the above Twit thread, some would point out that there are two human sexes, and that the the entrance lines were being frisked by bouncers, so females may not want to be frisked by, or to frisk, males. Then the very next comment would be “there are more than two genders!”.
Whatever happened to Follow Teh Science(tm)! Believe in Science! Gender may be a social construct, but sex is biological. Good grief there completely different internal organs and different gametes produced by each sex. There is far more difference inside and out between males and females than there are between the races, and yet you can’t be trans-race no matter how hard you believe. Nor, apparently, can you be trans-weight – anorexics have body dysphoria as real as any of the transgender crowd, but no one is rushing to give them diet pills or perform bariatric surgery on them.
Is there any fate worse than having security personnel treat your boutique delusion unseriously?
Hey, I visited Heaven one evening in the early 90s. I’ve seen what can happen.
Do tell…
Why didn’t he just form his own queue of one…IN THE MIDDLE!
Bouncers need a chuckle occasionally.
boutique delusion
I may have to borrow that.
so females may not want to be frisked by, or to frisk, males.
Mr. Bennett sounds like that he’s part of the Jessica* Yaniv LARPing crowd — just another guy who gets off forcing females to touch him but now can screaming “TERF” and “Transphobia” when they refuse to go along.
For those who missed it, more magical earrings.
Because, obviously, we have nothing better to do than scrutinise other people’s piercings.
BTW … Happy Columbus Day
The Husband went to our local mailbox store Saturday to pick up a package and post some mail. New employee behind the counter while the owner is out for surgery. Husband inquires “Are you open Monday, Columbus Day?”
“No and that’s Indigenous People’s Day, NOT Columbus Day. I’m part one of them.”
And she was serious. In my experience, people like her are woefully ignorant of actual history.
“I felt invalidated and embarrassed.”
Oh please. If this incident even happened at all–and that’s a big if–he got the exact response he craved and provoked, and then raced to a social media fainting couch to exploit it.
Is there any fate worse than having security personnel treat your boutique delusion unseriously?
Unserious person gets treated unseriously. News at 11.
The pronoun earring magic talisman was the giveaway. But – since they’ve gotten their way on just about everything else, why not try for the Guess My Gender trifecta, woe unto you if you get it wrong (and you will get it wrong)?
…he got the exact response he craved and provoked, and then raced to a social media fainting couch to exploit it.
Bingo!
Mr. Bennett sounds like that he’s part of the Jessica* Yaniv LARPing crowd…but now can screaming “TERF” and “Transphobia” when they refuse to go along.
Same same with this clod who has apparently been trying to get Dave Chappell cancelled.
Aren’t they ghastly?
Very much related, and best blog title for the subject — https://moonbattery.com/transsexuals-are-to-women-what-blackface-is-to-blacks/
boutique delusion
Band name?
How on earth were those bouncers able to tell? Did someone tip them off beforehand?
The pronoun earring magic talisman was the giveaway.
I call cultural appropriation. As David has documented, hoop earrings, earrings in general? belong to the Blax People’s Culture. I expect Jordan Bennett to report for regrooving.
Ooh, another thing I’ve linked to has made its way above the line for a fisking. I didn’t expect that this morning when I posted the link.
Ooh, another thing I’ve linked to has made its way above the line
This is a switched-on, fully interactive joint.
This is a switched-on, fully interactive joint.
I know. It’s happened before (I think this is the third or fourth time), but it’s rare enough that it’s still something exciting rather than something pedestrian.
Psst! Hey, sahib, want to buy some dirty videos? I’ve got really feelthy ones: women eating pizza!
It’s really wild: She spills tomato sauce on her burka!
I thought Jordan Bennett’s little hissy fit was so funny and entertaining, I had to check his twitter history to see if this was a parody account. It isn’t. At least, not intentionally.
Art Institute of Chicago fires all 122 docents (unpaid volunteers) because they are not “diverse” (nearly all are white).
Good.
he got the exact response he craved and provoked, and then raced to a social media fainting couch to exploit it.
It does rather smell like performative indignation for the benefit of an audience, Mr Bennett having contrived a situation in which to play the role. I’m pretty sure that the sex of venue security staff is expected to match that of customers during any pat-downs – there are almost certainly regulations regarding this – and hence the customary division into two queues. That this detail has seemingly escaped Mr Bennett, or at least been seized on as an opportunity for “sheer protest,” is perhaps unsurprising, give his apparent need for attention, ideally in the form of victimhood.
Mr Bennett inhabits the world of musical theatre, hence, one assumes, the flair for drama.
A big gay club for today’s downtrodden homosexual.
Snort. 😀
Snort. 😀
Well, poking through Mr Bennett’s Twitter feed is faintly wearying. I mean, you can’t miss the glib leftist politics, embraced without question as an off-the-peg identity; the narcissism and whininess; musical fucking theatre… It’s Generic Cartoon Homosexual all the way down.
It’s Generic Cartoon Homosexual all the way down.
Pinocchio was a puppet who wanted to be a real boy. Bennett is a boy who wants to be a cartoon.
The two distinctly separate box-like detectors for each queue added to the prison-like atmosphere.
If Boy Bennett had any damn sense, he would be focusing his outraged attention on the need for such detectors and security guards.
Speaking of cartoons, good news, everyone, DC goes AC, or AC and DC.
Can’t tell the players without a scorecard.
Speaking of cartoons, good news, everyone, DC goes AC, or AC and DC.
The gay Superman is the son of the original Superman and Lois Lane? Have they read Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by Larry Niven, in which he considers the dangers to a woman of sex with a being that can tear her in two without even noticing? Not to mention what happens to her when a super-powered fetus decides to move around a bit …
Looks like Bennett has restricted access to the tweets in question. How stunning and brave.
They carried on refusing me access, repeatedly saying this side was for ‘women only’.
Fair enough. Bennett does not claim to be a woman, so why should he/she/whatever be in their queue?
Hey, I visited Heaven one evening in the early 90s. I’ve seen what can happen.
I visited in the early noughties. There was a lot of queueing involved. Luckily there was also lots of pills and (eventually) techno….
I visited in the early noughties. There was a lot of queueing involved.
All good-hearted people know that clubbing peaked in 91/92. Obviously.
Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by Larry Niven – The video
Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by Larry Niven – The video
A video that did not need to be made. The essay was amusing in a fanzine sort of way. The video is not so much amusing as sick and nihilistic.
The video
Exactly, though I suppose if one is willing to suspend belief that Kryptonian DNA is compatible with human DNA, one could suspend belief that Superman can control his involuntary muscle reactions.
However, though I make no claim that I am hep to the wacky antics of today’s cats and kittens, I am having a hard time suspending belief that they are saying, “Golly whillikers! Come on gang, let’s hop in Porgy’s car, put the two tones to the floorboard and head on down to Pop’s Sodium Shop! There is a new bi Superman out today!”
Meanwhile, in other news of unbelievable things, this is awkward.
first milk goes bad then it turns evil. (Via.)
Why the pyramids are not polished and smooth.
Art Institute of Chicago fires all 122 docents (unpaid volunteers) because they are not “diverse” (nearly all are white).
One of the comments below the linked article about the firings opines that minority children visiting the museum need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
One wonders if white children visiting the museum have similar needs? Perhaps that is the point. If you don’t have white children visiting, why have white docents.
More to the point, if the contents of the museum do not “reflect the lived experience” of its visitors and staff it is time to retire the passively viewed Euro-focused art and to reimagine the museum space as a venue for contemporary cultural expression and antiracism.
In other news: The University of Michigan recently suspended Bright Sheng, a Pulitzer-winning professor of composition, for showing Othello starring Laurence Olivier in the title role.
https://reason.com/2021/10/08/bright-sheng-university-of-michigan-othello-racism/
World Socialists quickly jumped to defend Sheng from this “right wing” attack:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/she1-o11.html
The new cadre of part-time paid ($25/hour) staff will certainly unionize.
A video that did not need to be made.
Ha ha ha. Are you sure you’re on the right site?
one could suspend belief that Superman can control his involuntary muscle reactions
You don’t have to. This was explicitly shown multiple times during the Golden Age.
Superman isn’t human, so the writers can say anything they want about how his biology works. Plus he’s a goddamn cartoon character. Niven’s essay is the equivalent of a zoologist writing “as a leporodist, I can assure you that Bugs Bunny’s erect posture and locomotion is entirely impossible given the conformation of a lagomorph’s hind legs”.
DC goes AC
Comic books have become everything Fredric Wertham warned us about.
It doesn’t really matter. Comic book superheroes are the 20th century hero myths, and as such it’s only the iconic origin stories and great battles that resonate; everything else is just filling page count and will be forgotten about until the next continuity reboot.
Superman isn’t human, so the writers can say anything they want about how his biology works. Plus he’s a goddamn cartoon character. Niven’s essay is the equivalent of a zoologist writing “as a lepidopterist, I can assure you that
I’m sure that Niven, as an avid comics fan, was fully aware of this and had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
It’s Generic Cartoon Homosexual all the way down.
I wonder if that is getting to the root of the discontent, further to the apt description of Heaven as a big gay club for today’s downtrodden homosexual. In the Bad Old Days, Mr. Bennet’s playacting of Generic Cartoon Homosexual may have been good for some derision from the normies, and thus earned him some victim points. But now hardly anyone bats an eye at Gay anymore, and worse, Gay White Male is almost as bad as Straight White Male for earning victim points. I’m going to guess, given his presentation, that he wants nothing to do with being female, so full-on Trans is out. But Non-Binary is the perfect way for the wannabe Oppressed to catch a little of that Trans victim glory.
Art Institute of Chicago fires all 122 docents (unpaid volunteers) because they are not “diverse” (nearly all are white).
Whatever loathsome imbecile made this decision deserves to burn in hell.
And speaking of all things imbecilic …
minority children visiting the museum need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
But why?
The claims is as unconvincing now, and in this context, as it was when I first came across what must be decades ago in the context of feminist activism.
I also find it not a little disturbing how it’s now being talked about in the context of policing.
In what universe could anyone with any probity whatever become convinced that black neighbourhoods need black police, Asian neighbourhoods need Asian police and so on and fancy themselves a progressive at the same time?
It’s literally perverse that the same kinds of people who would recoil at the name “Jared Taylor” as if stung by a particularly irate hornet, are apparently not only comfortable with but even approving of such moves when this is, pretty much, exactly what Taylor is advocating for.
How can anyone be that fucking idiotic?
How can anyone be that fucking idiotic?
It’s how one indicates how smart one is. Something of a qualifier to teach at universities or even primary school. “Idiotic” is to believe normal things. Anyone can believe normal things. Why would believing normal things, using common sense, qualify you to be an educator?
I remember trying to explain this to my parents but they wouldn’t buy it either. But that’s just the way it is whether one chooses to believe it or not.
Speaking of idiotic…did I get this here?. I don’t think I got this here but if I did get this here, damn you. And if I didn’t get this here, I give it to you because…well it just makes up for whatever similar thing I get here next. It just makes common sense. Equity and all.
But that’s the purpose of a museum – to allow me to see and experience things that are outside of my “lived experience.”
Why the contents should reflect anything about the staff is a mystery – the institution is not there for their benefit: in fact, it’s the other way ’round.
One of the comments below the linked article about the firings opines that minority children visiting the museum need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
The museum’s docents are nearly all white and female.
The museum’s guards and other staff are nearly all black.
Problem solved. 😉
Also: The museum’s visitors are nearly all white and Asian. Very few blacks visit except as part of school field trips. I suspect this gives a clue as to why there are zero or virtually zero black docents: Very, very few black Chicagoans are interested in the museum.
minority children visiting the museum need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
But why?
In part this is a consequence of the failure of liberalism: The eradication of legal and customary barriers to blacks was supposed to quickly result in a society in which the racial makeup of all professions and interests would match that of society. That did not happen, so the left had to find “reasons” which did not call into question the left’s assumptions.
Holy Cow!
One of the comments below the linked article about the firings opines that minority children visiting the museum need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
The volunteer staff in cultural venues here on the Soggy Isle are mostly middle-aged, middle-class, posh-ish women. It’s what they do-
I suspect it is the same throughout in the West. I have often thought that these are women whose grandmothers, in a more religious age, ensured that their local churches were cleaned and decorated and always bedecked with flowers.
We have seen that this Chicago nonsense is part of a pattern. In Britain, the same crap has damaged the National Trust. Galleries and museums are “decolonising”.
Already “problematic” statues- which are really art in the streets, squares and parks- have been removed in Britain and North America.
The next step, inevitably, will be the removal of much of the art in the galleries.
The objective is not to make any of this more accessible to blacks or any other group. The objective is to remove any celebration of the art, artefacts or architecture of western civilisation (whether that be secular or Christian).
Holy Cow!
I don’t generally follow Rotten tomatoes these days as I have largely given up on new films- there are plenty of classics that I can watch.
Am I mistaken in my impression that the divergence between critics and audience ratings has grown wider in recent years?
the divergence between critics and audience ratings has grown wider
I’m not a religious tomato-watcher, but I’d say so yes, particularly with respect to culturally “sensitive” movies. This is the largest diversion I’ve yet seen though.
But that’s the purpose of a museum – to allow me to see and experience things that are outside of my “lived experience.”
See also, academia.
Comic books have become everything Fredric Wertham warned us about.
And the way the left finds racism, patriarchy, etc. ad nauseam, in everything (except in their own politicians), they have become Wertham.
I’m sure that Niven, as an avid comics fan, was fully aware of this
I don’t agree. Remember, the genesis of the Wild Cards anthology series was a bunch of science fiction authors wanting to do superheroes “right” because they weren’t “believable” in the comics.
The essay doesn’t hold up, whether you think he’s joking or being serious, because he makes several crucial category errors. It’s like a comedian doing an entire riff on how no one takes Ralph Dibny seriously because he’s black.
(As an aside the essay would work perfectly if it were about, say, Steve Rogers; Rogers is human, was subjected to a process that increased his physical strength to effectively superhuman levels, and he’s been depicted as being sexually active without the inevitable complications being addressed.)
I don’t agree. Remember, the genesis of the Wild Cards anthology series was a bunch of science fiction authors wanting to do superheroes “right” because they weren’t “believable” in the comics.
I don’t really know anything about that series, so I cannot comment.
The essay doesn’t hold up, whether you think he’s joking or being serious, because he makes several crucial category errors. It’s like a comedian doing an entire riff on how no one takes Ralph Dibny seriously because he’s black.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about Ralph Dibney–in fact I have only a very superficial knowledge of comics. So what crucial category errors did Niven make? It’s been decades since I read the essay. I only remember that Niven said he loved comics as a kid and this was why he inserted comic references in some of his stories.
Am I mistaken in my impression that the divergence between critics and audience ratings has grown wider in recent years?
A number of bloggers have said just that.
I don’t agree. Remember, the genesis of the Wild Cards anthology…
In the anthology I first read it in, the introductory text makes clear that the essay is an exercise in, as I believe they say in David’s fay realm, “taking the piss.” It is not meant to stand up to any kind of serious analysis, just to inspire a chuckle. Which it did, at least in me.
The volunteer staff in cultural venues here on the Soggy Isle are mostly middle-aged, middle-class, posh-ish women. It’s what they do.
Indeed. I’ve just been away Ooop North for a long weekend with a group of friends whose idea of fun involves trudging round museums, country houses, Georgian theatres (well, one Georgian theatre in Richmond: the tour was actually very interesting) and anywhere else where there are tour guides or volunteer stewards. Every one of the latter was indeed a middle-aged, middle-class woman, and they did an excellent job. The visitors were more varied – men, women and a few (reluctant) children, and judging by their accents, of almost all social classes. None of them, however, seemed worried or annoyed by the consistent non-diversity of the stewards and guides: just impressed by their knowledge and willingness to help.
as I believe they say in David’s fay realm
“O see ye not yon narrow road So thick beset wi’ thorns and briers? That is the path of Righteousness, Though after it but few inquires.
And see ye not yon braid, braid road That lies across the lily leven? That is the path of Wickedness, Though some call it the Road to Heaven.
And see ye not yon bonny road That winds about yon fernie brae? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae.”
No mention, though, of dusty sausage rolls. Or stern-visaged henchlesbians, for that matter. Perhaps Faerie has had some…upgrades…in the last five hundred years.
Looks like Bennett has restricted access to the tweets in question. How stunning and brave.
The Wayback Machine still has his original tweets (at least for the moment).
https://web.archive.org/web/20211010113942/https://twitter.com/jordxnbennett/status/1447164876636438531
He was outraged … but not outraged enough to pass on being treated like cattle (of whatever sex) in order to enter a frickin’ nightclub. I would have bowed out right at the security lines (assuming I’d ever been cajoled into getting that far).
Regarding this is awkward
The Kid says: ““The most exciting part was definitely meeting Vice President Harris. There’s nothing that can top that. Like honestly, she just sat us down. She’s super charismatic. She’s everything that I ever thought of her, plus more,” he said . “She made me feel like one of her peers, and at the time, I felt super important. I was talking to her face to face.” Bernardino’s talent agency shared a montage on Instagram.”
Just, wow. This poor boy is meat for some charismatic psychopath’s casting couch.
Harris needed a better script and a lot more rehearsals. That performance was embarrassing.
what crucial category errors did Niven make
He explicitly states in the opening paragraphs that Superman is not human, and that Kryptonian biology can’t be compared to human biology. He actually uses a “marsupials and mammals look very similar but are crucially different in their reproductive biology” analogy. He then goes on to base his entire essay on the presumption that Kryptonians sexually reproduce and react during orgasm exactly the same way humans do, but with more force. It’s the equivalent of saying “mammals and marsupials are almost indistinguishable, but their reproductive biology is very different and OMG IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A KANGAROO TO GIVE BIRTH A SIX MONTH OLD JOEY CAN’T FIT THROUGH THE BIRTH CANAL LOL”
It is not meant to stand up to any kind of serious analysis, just to inspire a chuckle.
That brother Ralph Dibney can’t get a fair shake. The man be keeping him down.
If you need a more contemporary analogy, consider any Seinfeld routine, any of which are based on Jerry Seinfeld apparently being borderline-retarded-ignorant about how the world around him works.
OK, now I’m totally confused. Are y’all trying to tell me that if Superman eats a hot dog, THEN it’s a sandwich? Because that’s what I’m picking up from all of this. Or am I overthinking things again?
In the anthology I first read it in, the introductory text makes clear that the essay is an exercise in, as I believe they say in David’s fay realm, “taking the piss.” It is not meant to stand up to any kind of serious analysis, just to inspire a chuckle.
I have that anthology, buried somewhere in piles of books. It was reprinted in the more recent anthology N-Space, in which Niven writes that “but my venture into xenofertility was only party conversation until Bjo Trimble made me type it up”. That sounds like “taking the piss”: It’s just fun, not to be taken too seriously.
Remember when the New Yorker was not pathologically politicized shite? It was always pretentiously lit’rary and snobbish in a New York way, but the left has made it unbearable:
“These days, we understand Thoreau to have been a nonpracticing gay man, whose retreat to his weatherized cabana at Walden was… an anti-heteronormative broadside.”
Via Ann Althouse, who comments “How did I miss the development of this understanding that Thoreau was “a nonpracticing gay man”? If he’s nonpracticing, and he didn’t talk about it, whence the idea that he was gay? Doesn’t that erase asexuality?”
From several commenters on her blog:
“This piece is of the same genre of those claiming Lincoln was gay because lawyers following the Circuit in Illinois at the time often shared the same bed.”
…
“The most salient points from the literature and humanities courses I took while a Yale undergrad can be summarized as follows:
1) Every author, poet, philosopher, or artist of note was LGBTQetc, whether they knew it or not.
2) Anything longer than it was wide represented a penis, and anything concave represented a vagina.”
…
“People projecting their sexual insecurities onto long-dead historical figures is so trite and boring.”
Add “political obsessions” to “sexual insecurities”.
If you need a more contemporary analogy, consider any Seinfeld routine, any of which are based on Jerry Seinfeld apparently being borderline-retarded-ignorant about how the world around him works.
One can have fun deliberately ignoring the clear meaning of something to ascribe some more amusing significance. You know you’re doing that, the people listening to you also know, and it’s all just innocent fun that is not meant to be taken at all seriously.
I’m transitioning to a male timberwolf. I’ll be protected by the endangered species act.
Am I mistaken in my impression that the divergence between critics and audience ratings has grown wider in recent years?
I’m annoyed that Wikipedia assumes a RT score has any validity or meaning. It’s bad enough we believe award shows and prizes represent an accurate critical judgment, but at least we can say “according to the Nobel Prize committee, Hemingway was given the prize because the head of the judging panel was retiring and we thought it would be a nice thing to do” (true, BTW).
But RT is not an organized collective of critics. There’s no institutional body. You can dial phone numbers at random and collect callers’ opinion into a percentage, and it would have as much validity as a Rotten Tomatoes score.
Future Daily Mail headline: Guerrilla Docents Occupy Art Institute of Chicago! Visitors surprised when innocent grannies expound to bystanders on works of art. Security called by managers, but turned back by crowds eagerly listening to informed commentary. Police use tear gas to clear gallery, arrest grannies for felony trespass.
Future Daily Mail headline…
…while the paid docents scoff “why they want to know about this sheet anyway?”
@ComputerLabRat
“Nor, apparently, can you be trans-weight – anorexics have body dysphoria as real as any of the transgender crowd, but no one is rushing to give them diet pills or perform bariatric surgery on them.”
Heh (well, no…). I’ve been saying this for some time. Also, let’s not overlook those who (I’m not making this up) identify as blind or amputees. Where’s their surgery?
Also, let’s not overlook those who (I’m not making this up) identify as blind or amputees. Where’s their surgery?
I think the trans-abled – trans-disabled? – crowd has actually gained some traction in getting stuff lopped off. I mean if surgeons are going to perform mastectomies at the drop of a hat, because some women are convinced their breasts shouldn’t be there, why not amputations for people convinced their arms or legs shouldn’t be there? The trans-race thing hasn’t taken off because the race grifter rice bowls are huge and they aren’t about to share, but anorexics, who have been around as long as transgenders have, haven’t joined the trans mafia that I know of. I’m not sure why.