sigelphoenix

In keeping with my earlier post on self-education about privilege, I bring you proof that education is neither hard to find, nor hard to understand.

-How (heterosexual?) men should act around women in public. Short, to the point, and not nearly as hard as anti-feminist whiners would make it out to be.

-A book excerpt (Jackson Katz, woo!) explaining how men's and women's general understandings of sexual assault are fundamentally different.

-Why the 'you're just overreacting' response to accusations of sexual harassment is bullshit. (Amanda's analysis also applies to racist/homophobic/etc. harassment.)

-Why the 'it's your fault for not stopping it' response to accusations of sexual harassment is also bullshit. (I highly, highly recommend reading this post, as well as the personal anecdotes in the comments. I guarantee that any woman who has experienced sexual harassment will recognize herself in them. And Happy's explanation of why women generally respond the way they do is right on.)

-On a different subject, why the 'but there are _____ people who act like this' defense of stereotypes in fiction is bullshit. If you ever worry about relying on stereotypes in your own creations (I know I do), read it. Learn it. Do it.

Dear stupid rich people in my neighborhood,

I accept the fact that you must maintain meticulously manicured and bright green lawns, as if this will somehow impress people with how rich and bored you are (a practice, let me say, that I have never understood). I accept the fact that you will use gallons of water in support of this goal.

Do remember, though, that you water vegetation in the morning when the water is less likely to be sucked away by evaporation. Ideally, this means you'll have your sprinklers on at dawn. I will even accept having them on at 11 this morning, when I left for work.

However. 5:00 in the afternoon of a bright, hot summer day? Such that I have to see several houses blithely wasting water as I come home from work?

Okay, I get it. You're rich. You don't care about saving water. Just stop wasting the resources that the rest of us need to use, okay?

No love,
me

P.S. I may be PMSing, but that doesn't make you any less of a fuckwit.