The Adventures of Tobasco da Gama

First thing’s first. “Assault” is not the right term for this, but only because it carries a specific legal meaning that requires physical contact. But that doesn’t justify waving away the situation I’m about to discuss as no big deal, because it is.

The Escapist has a news post entitled “Female Gamer ‘Sexually Assaulted’ While Playing PS3“. According to the original posting on the Playstation forum, a female player (the poster’s roommate) was harassed by another, male player, who insisted on following her avatar around and crouching behind her, as if staring at her ass. He didn’t stop after being asked to stop or after the female player (and others present) threatened to report him, which she and several others eventually did.

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So, apparently, an abortion clinic run by Women’s Health Services is moving into an empty building in Brookline, which used to house a Hollywood Video. Some asshats brought up a lawsuit to prevent them from doing so. What may surprise you is the justification:

“If you ever have observed protesters at an abortion clinic, they carry signs, which are alarming in their graphic detail of aborted fetuses. They have life-sized statues of the Virgin Mary, and they usually have somebody dressed as the grim reaper,” said May. “I don’t know how the town could have overlooked the emotional harm that could come to children by allowing the clinic to operate at that location.”

Yes, that’s right. Women’s Health Services can’t put their clinic there because ZOMG ABORTION PROTESTERS ARE SCARY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! As amusing as it might be to hear people call out abortion protesters for the violent, insane motherfuckers they are, this just plain pisses me off. Why are we punishing Women’s Health Services for the actions of a bunch of looney idiots with more hate and free time than good sense? If the protesters are such a goddamned dangerous nuisance, maybe we should, I dunno, do something about them. Like maybe arrest them for vandalism when they break windows or disturbing the peace when they disrupt city council meetings:

The lawsuit notes that protesters have already picketed community meetings held to discuss the clinic’s plans, while vandals smashed several windows at the property shortly after it was announced that it was the possible site of a clinic offering abortions.

It’s tempting to cite free speech and then run screaming from this issue to avoid attracting the attention of the buzzing, angry hornets, but this goes well beyond the protections of the First Amendment. Violence and threats are not free speech, they’re terrorism. There’s no other way to explain it. The anti-abortion nutjobs are using intimidation tactics and vandalism and inciting fear in order to obtain their desired political goal. That’s the textbook definition of terrorism, right there, and it’s about fucking time that we started treating these people like the terrorists they are.

Correction: I originally cited “Planned Parenthood” as the owner of the proposed clinic. This was incorrect. The clinic would actually be run by Women’s Health Services, a local health provider.

I read quite a few of Marvel’s comics, because in my opinion they’ve attracted some of the best writers of superhero fiction in the industry now and because they’ve some some pretty cool teams and heroes. That said, every time I read something Joe Quesada has said, it kinda makes me want to stop reading Marvel comics.

So, for instance, apparently Marvel has announced some “Divas” series about women in comics that looks for all the world like it’ll be Tarot-style “empowerment through gratuitous tits and ass and bondage scenes”. When actual women who actually care about comics criticised the promo materials for the book on those grounds, this is how Joe defended the series:

If you’re [a] Marvel reader and truly feel we’re sexist, then why are you reading our books? Now, perhaps you’re not a Marvel reader, then if that’s the case, I’m not quite sure what you’re criticizing if you don’t read our books?

Circular reasoning, in the true Mighty Marvel Manner!

Go eat a dick, Joe Quesada. You’re lucky that Matt Fraction and Pak & Van Lente work for you, or I’d drop your company’s shit in a heartbeat.

P.s.: Here’s a more detailed accounting of sexism in the comics industry and Joe Quesada’s defence of it.

P.p.s.: I got both of those links from brinstar’s Twitter, via antiheroine.

Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon contributes to creeping me the Hell out with this quote from a book review by a weirdo fundie wife:

[My husband’s] purity is extremely important to me, so I try to meet his needs so that he goes out each day with his cup full.

Seriously, try to read that without going, “EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW!” in your head a few hundred times.

This is part of the whole weird fundie thing where they try to claim that “saving” yourself for marriage (which only applies to women, of course) makes sex way, way better. Of course, in reality, it just makes sex creepy and weird when you talking about keeping your husband’s cup full. Oh, God, I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit having to type that.

Seriously, is there anything these people can’t ruin?

Because I won’t stop until this blog is blocked by every web filter on the planet.

A few days ago, we looked at Kim DuToit, a shining example of masculinity in the same sense that Adolf Hitler is a shining example of being a gigantic asshole. Today, let’s have a glance at, oh, 90% of gamers.

Yup! Still ashamed of my gender!

But the good news for girls is that they really, really don’t need us any more. So they have that going for them.

Because I’m pretty goddamned sick and tired of having to share a gender with complete, flaming assholes like Kim DuToit.

Also, I created a feminism category for the blog, which means I probably should update some of the old posts with it. I actually debated whether to add the category, though, or whether deliberately not creating one would be an amusing meta-protest of the whole bullshit “feminism succeeded, it should go away” meme. Which ought to be so obviously bullshit by now that it probably needs its own Godwin-style rule.