Delicious LiveJournal Links for 7-14-2008

• Current Configuration: Essential Life Lesson #1: Over is Right, Under is Wrong
  How to hang toilet paper properly. No. Really. If you don't do it this way you're made of wrong.
  (tags: funny toilet engineering)
• Why dying is forbidden in the Arctic
  It is forbidden to die in the Arctic town of Longyearbyen. Should you have the misfortune to fall gravely ill, you can expect to be despatched by aeroplane or ship to another part of Norway to end your days.
  (tags: arctic culture death)

Responding to the responses to my response

With advice from octopoid_horror, surliminal, random_redhead and others, here are some more questions. There seemed to be a feeling that I wasn't placing things into a wider context, getting the other side of the story, etc. and hopefully this will get it out of my head so I can stop annoying you with more thoughts on the subject and return to pictures of kittens snuggling up to squid.

[Poll #1223236]

Oh for fuck's sake

I know that some people on my friends list read the doctorwho community. Some of them like the mods, some of them don't. Some of them, apparently, take the whole thing far too fucking seriously, and rather than just leaving to find somewhere more conducive to their timelord related chat, have taken to being horribly offensive.

Now, I've no problem with satire, and with people pointing out the deficencies of others through amusing, over the top language. But when it comes to people taking the lj name of seph_hazard (who I have a lot of time for, and has put a huge amount of time into several projects I've seen - and has always had time for other people) and come up with the ever so witty slut_hazard, frankly, that steps over the line into misogyny and horrific sexism.

Anyone that thinks that this is reasonable behaviour can remove themselves from my friendslist now. If you don't think it's reasonable behaviour, and you know one or more of the people behind this offensive bollocks then have a quiet word and let them know that this is the 21st century, and sexist comments about women's sex lives is not something that decent people will put up with.

Bigoted language

I was questioned, through email, as to why it was worse to use sexist language to attack someone than it was to simply attack someone.

And the answer is that sexist language reinforces norms that say it's ok to nasty to women. And racist argument reinforces norms that say it's ok to be nasty to people that look different. And homophobic (or heterophobic - is there a combined term?) language reinforces norms that say it's ok to be nasty to people that find people attractive of the same (or different) gender.

It's one thing to say "I hate this person, and I will say nasty things about them." and another to say "I hate this person, and I will say nasty things about them in such a way as to indicate that all people like them should be treated as less than entirely human."

Norms matter. The social atmosphere matters. If you want to call someone an idiot, feel free - it's a free country, and you're entitled to your opinion. Bigoted language is far more insidious.