Friday Ephemera
The price of happiness. || Postmodern Pong. || Paragliding DJ. || The ideal male body. || Logo of note. || Have you licked your eyes today? || Clearly, his are way stretchier than yours. || The thrill of waxing (or, One Man’s Woes). || Nook-dweller detected. || When autogynephile men get off in ladies’ bathrooms. (Not, needless to say, suitable for work). || And nobody helps. || I’m not entirely sure what’s happening here. || Posh pad. Hit ‘walkthrough’ and turn left. (h/t, Julia) || The joys of public transport, part 4,868. || “It’s time to talk about my pronouns.” Because she’s just so damn fascinating. || The progressive retail experience, parts 440, 441, 442, and 443. || Only recruiting the cream. (h/t, pst314) || A cat’s conscience is at best intermittent. || First contact. || And finally, how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
Also, I now have a Twitter account.
one woman’s point of view
She’s Chinese. Interesting.
how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
She’s over the target.
The dangers of railway tunnels…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/qsz4ix/this_is_why_you_should_never_stay_near_the_exit/
When autogynephile men get off in ladies’ bathrooms.
Oh. My. God.
Morning, all.
She’s over the target.
The line about box office results is, I think, an overstatement, but the rest is pretty solid. And it implies quite a lot about the mindset of the people currently employed to write so many of Marvel’s projects. As I said on Twitter, you could think of it as a how-to guide for alienating a huge chunk of your audience while applauding yourself. And then admiring yourself even more when the customer complains or simply loses interest.
Oh. My. God.
It’s a genre of pornography I was previously unaware of. But remember, it never, ever happens. And when it does, it’s a good thing, you bigot. I don’t often find myself in alignment with strident feminists, but on this point, it’s difficult to demur.
She’s Chinese.
She doesn’t appear to be based on this video discussion with the ‘Critical Drinker’.
She’s Chinese. Interesting.
How so?
I did appreciate her illustrating the connection between wokeness and incompetence – specifically, bad writing. A point that can’t be made often enough.
[ Added: ]
Baggage Claim also touches on the self-regarding and rather anxious in-group culture, often noted here, in which the incompetent are largely shielded from normal feedback, and from many of the normal consequences. And so, if you, an outsider, explain why a given project is poorly written, or tone-deaf, or fundamentally misconceived, you may find yourself being dismissed as merely hating women, or brown people, or gay people or whatever. The incompetents in question will then double-down and claim to be vindicated by your failure to enthuse – because, by hating women and brown people, you’re a bad person. And the incompetents, being impervious, will be given another project, which will also be underwhelming and result in a further alienation of the audience.
Rinse and repeat. Until something gives.
“First contact.”
Reminds me to buy lemons and mayonnaise today…
The progressive retail experience, parts 440, 441, 442, and 443.
I found 443 interesting as technically the UK doesn’t have, or at least to my knowledge it doesn’t have, anything like the $950-dollar bar which has in effect decriminalised occasional daylight robbery.
Then I remembered this news item from the end of last month – Seven in ten Met Police officers failed to make a single arrest in an entire YEAR, new figures reveal – as crime hits highest level in two decades – and it seemed rather less of a surprise.
Still, they have far more important things to be doing as discussed here and here.
Still, they have far more important things to be doing…
As noted before, we’ve gone from the ideal of burly chaps who will apprehend lawbreakers as forcefully as necessary and send them on their way towards the nearest dungeon, to ladies in funny hats who will be terribly sensitive and empathise with our loss, while we get used to the idea that whatever wrong was done to us will most likely go unpunished.
As our host often says, ‘Always respect the Media’.
Headline in The Guardian from 05 August 2022:
Police racial bias played role in UK Covid fines regime, says report
Headline immediately followed by this subheading:
Researchers say institutional racism probably contributed to ‘differential approach’ to enforcement of powers
Which in turn is immediately followed by this first line:
Bias in policing at least partly explains why minority ethnic people were more likely to receive fines for Covid breaches than their white counterparts, research says.
Also later in the report:
An author of the study says the findings show institutional racism probably affected how the pandemic powers were executed in some instances.
Because if there’s one thing we’ve been lacking over the past few years, it’s not enough media reporting provoking racial animus in the general population.
Enjoying rain is racist.
How dare you white devils thieve The Black Experience!
while we get used to the idea that whatever wrong was done to us will most likely go unpunished
There’s a discussion of pretty much exactly in the Triggernometry interview with Harry Miller.
It starts here, at 31.36, when Francis Foster describes the Police response, or rather the lack of it, to a distressing break-in and burglary at his elderly parents home.
I fear that Miller’s advice for what to do in that situation is only partly an exaggeration.
Transgender comedy is clearly no laughing matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukf8qyk1R8M
One does wonder if that individual misread the name on the poster, and thought it was the Edinburgh Cringe festival.
She doesn’t appear to be
I’m curious what her background is then, because her accent is exactly in line with native Chinese speakers that have trained extensively to speak English. There’s a particular set of English phonemes and dipthongs Mandarin/Cantonese doesn’t have, and native Chinese speakers never quite get them idiomatically correct.
I note she mentions something I’ve pointed out repeatedly: male heroes get The Hero’s Journey plots, female heroes get Cinderella plots. This isn’t just MarDisVelNey, just about every Grrrl Powahhh TVshow or film does this. There’s also the Half as Hard, Twice as Good trope, in which a female hero is lauded for achieving fairly mediocre results compared to the male counterparts. I enjoy pointing out that the Frog Brothers have a higher vampire kill to screen time ratio than Buffy Sommers, and that Jim Carrey and William Ragsdale killed master vampires without the benefit of superpowers or a cleanup crew of superpowered sidekicks.
It’s a good video, but I think there’s a forest and trees problem here. You can sum up Phase IV the same way you can sum up Star Wars and most long form television made in the last five years: these properties are aimed at women. What you’re seeing in Phase IV (and Star Wars, and Prey, and just about everything else Disney does) is the 90s-family-sitcom-ization of these properties. Dad dumb, sloppy, stupid/malicious; Mom heroic, smart, contemptuous; kids cool, witty, disrespectful. Those sitcoms were watched overwhelmingly by divorced moms and their children and the writers pandered to their target demographic’s vanities. Same dynamic is now in play. You think Phase IV is bad, watch any episode of Reba or According to Jim.
That works for TV because TV is about selling ad time and women control the majority of household spending. It doesn’t seem to be working for movies, probably because each moviegoer buys their own ticket and alienating half your audience isn’t a good sales strategy.
Transgender comedy is clearly no laughing matter:
Failure to laugh can only be explained by bigotry. Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.
when Francis Foster describes the Police response, or rather the lack of it, to a distressing break-in and burglary at his elderly parents home.
Again, wokeness and incompetence. With needless, low-effort, often facile activities undertaken, and loudly boasted of on social media, seemingly at the expense of basic and necessary functions. And this is the demoralising arrangement to which those supposedly being served – but clearly not – are expected to resign themselves.
Reminds me to buy lemons and mayonnaise today…
No need. Two trees here (Eureka & Meyer) collapsing under the weight. U-Pick.
how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
“We have to stop telling men that there is no difference between competence and misogyny”
That.
First contact
No eyelids. Can we get up a crab-gecko staring contest?
I’ll just leave this here and bubble-wrap the breakables.
One does wonder if that individual misread the name on the poster, and thought it was the Edinburgh Cringe festival.
Someone told him: You won’t get rich, but you’ll get more pie than Soupy Sales.
One does wonder if that individual misread the name on the poster, and thought it was the Edinburgh Cringe festival.
I saw several activists tweeting about how the failure to enthuse was damning evidence of “transphobia” and the audience’s general wickedness. Rather than the – perhaps more obvious – fact that the set was terrible.
On Twitter, eh, David? Anyone at the bar want to run a sweepstake on how long our genial host lasts before he’s suspended?
Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
Anyone at the bar want to run a sweepstake on how long our genial host lasts before he’s suspended?
[ Straightens tie, combs hair, rummages for breath mint. ]
arrogant fucking narcissists

Everytime I see this sort of bullshit I think of this:
Spray and wait until the cops show up. I wonder if it’s available in smaller can format.
I saw several activists tweeting about how the failure to enthuse was damning evidence of “transphobia” and the audience’s general wickedness. Rather than the – perhaps more obvious – fact that the set was terrible.
That. I would be perfectly happy to laugh at a set from a transgender comedian. But in order for me to do that, the set would have to contain something actually worth laughing at.
I would be perfectly happy to laugh at a set from a transgender comedian.
As were the audience, clearly. It’s just that a comedian didn’t turn up.
Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
One of these days they will do it at the wrong location, with the wrong petrol station owner. And, should I end up on the jury of any subsequent trial of said petrol station owner, my verdict will be not guilty.
Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
It should be legal to immediately resort to violence to stop such crimes. And escalate if the criminals resist.
Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
Turnabout is fair play: Why not identify these monsters, and harass them at their homes and workplaces? Vandalize their property? Including their most cherished possessions?
“Reported for transphobia.”
Or, When you’re arguing with people who are mentally ill.
Re the racist enjoyment of rain, a riposte.
“Reported for transphobia.”
I want that on a t-shirt. 😀
Re the racist enjoyment of rain, a riposte.
My reply to the black racist would be, “Why yes, that’s true, you don’t matter. Your toxic existence is unworthy of respect and my life is better when I have no contact with you and people like you.”
I want that on a t-shirt.
It does, I think, touch on the nub of the issue. And it illustrates, in a fairly tidy way, the dynamic of countless other exchanges on the topic.
Or, When you’re arguing with people who are mentally ill.
I laughed. Not sorry.
Marvel: they already made a movie focused on black characters– Black Panther– which was a huge success and even popular in Africa. They already had strong female characters. But the new directors and writers want to replace men as action heroes. Sorry, you misread your audience. This is where feminism goes when it goes off the rails: hatred of men is not attractive to everyone. And getting rid of standards (in this case for movie-making) does not produce billion dollar blockbusters.
I laughed. Not sorry.
The Twitter feed of ‘Amy’, the bestubbled, dysmorphic man who tries to get people banned for stating basic matters of fact, is full of wonders. Lots of random, rather incongruous assertions of his own “hotness” and his “nice underwear.” And I lost count of the repetitions of “Trans women are women” or “Trans girls are girls,” as if it were a magical incantation, as if saying it repeatedly, apropos of nothing, somehow made it true.
One of these days they will do it at the wrong location, with the wrong petrol station owner.
Yeah. I highly doubt that. Do you understand that with every viral like this video it becomes clearer, it reinforces the understanding that they can do whatever TF they want and you just have to accept it? They can walk into your house and take your stuff, they can put you out of business, they can assault and batter you, put you in the hospital and then blame you, charge you for causing the original confrontation. If they can cut the penises off little boys and perform hysterectomies on little girls and nobody doe a damn thing. Doctors either go along or are too afraid to speak up. Doctors. People society actually needs. You are just a worthless piece of nothing compared to them. I guarantee you that if the “wrong petrol station owner” lifts a finger by doing anything “wrong” to these people, he will pay a much higher price than they will.
Yeah. I highly doubt that.
To be fair, my statement was more a hope than an expectation.
as if it were a magical incantation
If you keep saying it, it keeps the suicidal impulses at bay.
Remember that it’s all just a self-destructive coping mechanism created by a damaged psyche to stave off suicide. They’re trying to convince themselves as much as anyone.
Gas station: they really truly believe that they can just shut off oil and we will….do something. Magically. Wish they all lived in a single town so truck drivers could boycot them.
how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
If as opposed to arguing that life is difficult for men and women in different ways, they’re sexually differentiated and it’s ok for them to have sexually differentiated aspirations and standards, the premise is granted that women can and should be equal to men in traditionally male high-status occupations (superhero, quarterback, CEO), then the implication is that we’ve been doing it wrong for all of history, that an enormous wrong has been done to countless generations of girls denied the opportunity that their brothers had to dream of being superheroes or quarterbacks.
If that historical scandal is granted, then the desire for score-settling is understandable and it seems petty to argue that the pendulum has swung too far for a few years compared to thousands of years of oppression. Within that belief system, equality IS superiority: any woman who performs equally to her male peers is actually superior to them because of her additional handicap of stereotype threat/backwards in heels/have to work twice as hard to get half as far/emotional labor of being a representative of my minority and so on.
Remember that it’s all just a self-destructive coping mechanism created by a damaged psyche to stave off suicide. They’re trying to convince themselves as much as anyone.
And so, the more often you’re told the above, and the more loudly you’re told it, the less reason you have to believe that it’s true, or to believe that the person telling you this believes that it’s true.
One for the dark irony file.
Hey, I need that t-shirt! I was reported (well, robo-reported) on Reddit for using a bad word. In a discussion about performance cars, used the word “tranny” in reference to an auto transmission.
Sorry, you misread your audience. This is where feminism goes when it goes off the rails
Completely independent of how well written the stories are, there’s the problem that as large demographic groups men and women like different kinds of entertainment. There just isn’t a very sustainable audience for female action-adventure vehicles. You can get one-offs like Wonder Woman if you tie into a bigger zeitgeist (people went to see WW because it was a big budget comic book movie, not because anyone gives a fig about Wonder Woman as a character).
I have questions about that celebrated English courtesy.
I have other questions, too.