Highway in the Mind

“Whether the Andrea Gail rolls, pitch-poles, or gets driven down, she winds up, one way or another, in a position from which she cannot recover. Among marine architects this is known as the zero-moment point – the point of no return.” –Sebastian Junger, “The Perfect Storm”

Posts like this aren’t my usual fare, but there’s a lot of readers on Tumblr. So y’all might be interested – or, if not, you really should be.

On Monday, this went down:

That’s the bloodless, matter-of-fact, ho-hum business event way of describing it. Let me paint you a different picture.

On Monday morning, every single Barnes & Noble location – that’s 781 stores – told their full-time employees to pack up and leave. The eliminated positions were as follows: the head cashiers (those are the people responsible for handling the money), the receiving managers (the people responsible for bringing in product and making sure it goes where it should), the digital leads (the people responsible for solving Nook problems), the newsstand leads (the people responsible for distributing the magazines), and the bargain leads (the people responsible for keeping up the massive discount sections). A few of the larger stores were able to spare their head cashiers and their receiving managers, but not many.

Just about everyone lost between 3 and 7 employees. The unofficial numbers put the total around 1,800 people.

People.

We’re not talking post-holiday culling of seasonal workers. This was the Red Wedding. Every person laid off was a full-time employee. These were people for whom Barnes & Noble was a career. Most of them had given 5, 10, 20 years to the company. In most cases it was their sole source of income.

There was no warning.

But it gets worse.

*While the main focus will be on the YA genre in this post, these tropes do apply to other literature genres as well* 

The United States continues to embarrass.

The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the treatment of female migrants in detention centers.

The most telling moment of the trip, the women told reporters on Friday, was when they visited an abortion clinic in Alabama and experienced the hostile political climate around women’s reproductive rights.

“We were harassed. There were two vigilante men waiting to insult us,” said Frances Raday, the delegate from the U.K. The men repeatedly shouted, “You’re murdering children!” at them as soon as they neared the clinic, even though Raday said they are clearly past childbearing age.

“It’s a kind of terrorism,” added Eleonora Zielinska, the delegate from Poland. “To us, it was shocking.”

In most European countries, she explained, abortions are performed at general doctors’ offices and hospitals that offer all kinds of other health services, so there aren’t protesters waiting to heckle the women who enter.

The women discovered during their visit that women in the United States have “missing rights” compared to the rest of the world. For instance, the U.S. is one of three countries in the world that does not guarantee women paid maternity leave. The U.N. suggests that countries guarantee at least 14 weeks of paid parental leave. Some countries go further – Iceland requires five months paid leave for each parent, and an additional two months to be shared between them.

“The lack of accommodation in the workplace to women’s pregnancy, birth and post-natal needs is shocking,” Raday said. “Unthinkable in any society, and certainly one of the richest societies in the world.”

Akkadian

Arabic

Aramaic

Church Slavonic

Egyptian (hieroglyphics and Demotic)

Elamite

Ethiopic (Ge’ez)

Etruscan

Gaulish

Georgian

Gothic

Greek

Hebrew

Hittite

Latin

Mayan (various related languages/dialects)

Old Chinese

Old English

Old French

Old Frisian

Old High German

Old Irish

Old Norse

Old Persian

Old Turkic

Sanskrit

Sumerian

Syriac

Ugaritic

Yeaaaaaa I’ve seen a total of like 2 blogs say that seriously, and I’m not unconvinced they were troll blogs made by discoursers trying to start drama.

But honestly, when aces use language like “sex is gross,” they are expressing their personal experience with it as well as expressing disgust with a society that sexualizes EVERYTHING. Its no more serious than when I say all straight people are gross.

That’s not to say that there are no bad asexual people, just like there are bad LGBT people too. Any given community is trying to weed out the bad people, but that’s no basis for acceptance into a community, man.

This is like me saying “I’d accept all lesbians as inherently LGBT if they weren’t TERFs.“ 

What I’ve noticed about these ‘#MakeCapBi’ hashtags, and the many text posts about getting Steve a boyfriend, is that a lot of the time, it doesn’t come from people WANTING representation, but from people wanting to push their own shipping agenda forward.

Usually, at the expense of female characters.

#MakeCapBi isn’t about wanting Steve to be bisexual, it’s about wanting him to be in a relationship with Bucky. It wants to replace the Steve/Sharon relationship with a Steve/Bucky relationship, because Steve/Sharon is ‘forced’, ‘unnecessary heterosexuality’.

Forget the fact that Sharon and Steve have been interacting in 2 out of 3 Captain America movies or anything! And that she and Steve have a substantial relationship in the comics! All of a sudden it’s ‘don’t kiss your ex’s niece, Steve’ ‘it’s disgusting that they’d have Steve kissing his ex’s niece but not him getting a boyfriend’.

The ‘Sharon deserves better’ crew are the same people who are completely willing to refer to her as nothing but ‘Steve’s ex’s niece’, completely willing to diminish Sharon’s character in order to maker her a punchline in faux social justice posts that are really just bitter Steve/Bucky fans whining.

Everyone is a social justice warrior when it comes to fighting for two white dudes to fuck, but they’re perfectly content to stand idly by in a fandom space COMPLETELY toxic to female characters. Steve can’t build something with a woman HIS OWN AGE, who he feels an emotional connection to, without a thousand people writing bitter posts about ‘forced romance’, but everyone is perfectly okay with the rampant racism in MCU fandom. 

People are SO sensitive about Steve kissing Sharon ONCE, but waited until three white Chrises were the leads of the MCU before noticing that… maybe MCU casting is “a bit white”.

Been criticizing DC for not being diverse enough?

NOW IS THE TIME TO PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE IT’S WORTH (if you can afford to).

Here is a list of new titles that DC has launched as of June and July, as well as titles that could use the boost in sales. 

These are led by POC, women, and/or LGBT+ characters.

Black Canary 

Catwoman 

Cyborg 

Constantine: The Hellblazer 

DC Bombshells 

Dr. Fate 

Gotham Academy 

Midnighter 

Prez 

Robin: Son of Batman 

Starfire 

Sensation Comics ft Wonder Woman

We Are Robin 

Remember that for physical copies, it is best to tell your local comic store to put the titles on your pull list.

Comicchron doesn’t count digital sales or non-Diamond retailers, but these sales are pretty worrying, ESPECIALLY if the standard drop happens for the second issues. Midnighter debuted at 31k, Prez at 28k, Dr Fate at 35k, Constantine: Hellblazer at 38k, Black Canary at 40k. We Are Robin and Starfire are most definitely the safest ones, debuting at 51k and 46k respectively.

Prez’s sales were so bad they split a 12 issue mini into two six issue minis instead. And if the standard drop at #2 occurs for many of these, then who knows, they might have to get cancelled before the guaranteed 12 issues are up or they might get split into two minis as well.

PLEASE buy these if you can. Not only are they led by minorities, but many are DRAWN or WRITTEN by minorities too. And many of these books are FANTASTIC in quality as well. And there are even more series written or drawn by minorities whose books are team books or books not led by minorities, such as Secret Six or Omega Men.

One more thing to add: DC has done many minority led books or very diverse team books in the past yet they had to cancel them pre maturely due to low sales, even if they were fantastic. Demon Knights, Vibe, and Voodoo are examples of this. DC has also been able to put out more issues than they really should have on some book (i.e. since sales were so low), pre New 52 Manhunter and Blue Beetle, and Demon Knights being examples of this.

Yoooo so this kind of snuck up on people this week, but issue one of the new Doctor Fate book dropped yesterday and I gotta say, it’s darned fun and would be a shame if people overlooked this comic. 

Khalid Nelson (originally announced as Khalid Nassour), an Egyptian-American city kid studying to be a doctor is called upon as the next in line to wear the helmet of Fate. 

The book itself is a very different play on the traditional Doctor Fate. There is a very deep concentration on Egyptian mystical history and its connection to the helmet, opening up a world of potential heroes and villains that have rarely been explored in DC. The same way Wonder Woman has always had the pantheon of potential Greek Gods, now we are opened up to the worlds of Anubis and Bastet. 

The art and physical tone of the book is very reminiscent of an older, (think graduate student), Kamala Khan. There’s a little less excited energy than that of the current Ms. Marvel book, but considering the difference in characters that’s not surprising. 

The charm of the family dynamics and this confused would-be-hero are lovely and have the potential to expand into a really stunning book. It’s cool to see that DC is taking a well known character (traditionally caucasian) and creating more diversity where it is sorely needed. 

Nebulae by  Fabian Oefner

I think that, in part, the anger of oppressed people is often a form of grieving. It is possible to grieve for not only a person, but for lost dreams and broken idealism as well.

We grieve for many things: for the normalcy and fair treatment society promised us but which we do not have; for the relationships that we lose due to bigotry and unacceptance; for the futures we hoped for but which were drasticaly altered; and for the past as we look back and realize the harm that was done to us.

When I realized I was aromantic, I went through what can be best described as “mourning a future I could never have.” I had been raised from birth to expect to fall in love and form a romantic relationship that made me happy in ways other relationships could not. I wanted it very much, because I had been told that I needed it, and that my life would be lonely and incomplete without it. I had so many expectations for myself and my future based around that.

And then I realized that future could never happen. Not because aromantics can’t have happy romantic relationships, but because Iwould not feel what I thought I should feel, romantic love. And, as countless people and media had taught me, a person who could not love romantically was barely even human. Romance is assumed to be not just universal to humans, but an essential and defining quality that makes us human. And, last year, I realized I couldn’t feel it. So I grieved.

Want more?  Don’t forget that Thor offers himself to save an entire town of people he doesn’t even know, and that a couple of years later Jane runs through a library screaming at people to get away from Malekith and his ships as they ravage Greenwich.  And what the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps banding together to save an entire planet?  Tony Stark sending his precious armor to save Pepper, then ordering her to remove Maya from the battle zone before thinking of himself?  Bruce Banner going underground to heal people in the most literal sense?  Sharon Carter taking the extra second to kick the launch technician’s chair out from under him just in time to prevent Crossbones from blowing him to hell?  All those poor doomed SHIELD agents trying to take on STRIKE teams with hand guns to prevent those helicarriers from getting intot he air?

Best of all, after spending two years working beside Cap and going on the lam with him, Black Widow, the most morally ambiguous character of them all, shouts “Get out of the way!  RUN!” as she flees for her life from the Winter Soldier.  This is a woman who a worldwide reputation for black ops, and even she puts non-combatants above her own life.

It’s one of the things I love best about Marvel:  their characters are more than muscle and speed and grandstanding against impossible odds.  They have heart and soul and spirit, and every single one of them, without exception, is willing to take the extra second or two to protect the innocent and the defenseless even if it means their own lives.  There’s a moral core there that the Superman of Man of Steel lacks, and it’s a reason why these movies are so popular:

We know in our bones that if we lived in their universe, they’d do what true heroes do, and they’d save us.  

Superman, at least in Man of Steel, doesn’t.  

1- an elementary-aged Clark Kent lifts a school bus full of his peers out of a river at great risk to his personal identity. This isn’t the Marvel cinematic universe where you go “oh I’m an alien” and the whole human race just goes oh cool, superheroes, we learned about this in 1945; this is an ET situation where they may or may not roll you away for dissection and exposing yourself to your entire grade school class leaves that totally in their hands.

2- When the planet is threatened, Clark hands himself over TO US. He’s already got flight, so he could easily just fly up into the atmosphere and try and deal with Zod or hell punch a hole in the ship and get the element of surprise, he’s certainly capable of breaching their ships hulls. But he doesn’t, he surrenders himself to humanity so that humanity gets the credit for handing him over, to protect the planet, to give US the choice about how best to save ourselves because he’s not a messiah or savior, he’s just one of us who can do more than most. If Lois hadn’t saved him, that would have meant GIVING HIS LIFE to protect the planet.

3- When the fight in Smallville begins, he instructs citizens to go back inside, he stops fights he’s losing in order to catch falling soliders in mid-air, he throws down with not one but two opponents who clearly outmatch him in terms of skill, and everything is actually not too bad until the military shows up and blows up the block. If you’re paying any attention to Cavill’s performance, you’ll notice that Clark is ALWAYS aware of bystanders. His ability to do anything about it when he’s being used as a projectile is obviously limited.

4- Superman HAS a team, they are just not all blessed with combat skills or firepower. You will notice that Tony and Thor don’t do a lot of rescuing civilians in the Avengers fight, that makes sense because they are more valuable elsewhere, they are better situated to take the fight to the skies where the innocent people aren’t. Superman’s team consists of Lois Lane, Colonel Nathan Hardy, General Swanwick, and Dr. Emil Hamilton. Two out of the four members of his team LAY DOWN THEIR LIVES during this battle to defend the earth, to prevent further casualties. Lois provides the plan, Swanwick provides the manpower, Hardy not once but twice enters a fight he has no chance of winning in order to gain the tactical advantage, and Hamilton saves everyone by figuring out the alien technology.

5- Colonel Hardy and a plane full of military personnel give their lives to save their planet because everyone in the Superman universe has the capacity to be a hero, because they were bound by duty, brave as hell, and inspired to greatness. THAT’S why Man of Steel is a more faithful adaptation of the comic books than any media to come before it, and if you don’t like that about it, you probably don’t like Superman.

6- This seems pretty obvious but it’s possible due to the flimsy criticisms I’ve been seeing that nobody caught it- Clark isn’t in the first fight. The terraforming machine that is punching Metropolis flat is both the cause of the destruction and not something he can do anything about while he’s trying to stop it on the literal other side of the planet. For all the complaining about how OP this character is, you would think people would be pleased to see some reasonable limitations put on the character in this film, but apparently there’s no winning so I won’t even get into it. Superman ain’t there. He can’t be there to get down on one knee and adorably wipe the soot and tears off the cheek of an orphan because he is too busy saving the world.

7- There are SO MANY heroes in the first half of the Metropolis battle. They are people; they are people in uniform, doing their job incredibly well the way that heroic people in uniform often do their job incredibly well. They are normal people like Perry White who struggle against ridiculous odds to save an intern, and people like Steve Lombard who decide to offer what feeble help they can on the off chance they can risk their lives saving someone else. We see these people doing, trying, succeeding, failing, and they don’t have supernatural powers and they don’t have government spy training, and they are wearing uniforms and not costumes so maybe they are easy to miss. Go back and check it out- they are there, and they are so important.

8- People die. People die terribly, people die on-screen, bodies are picked up in the air and hurled back into the ground. It’s is terrible and horrifying to watch, and it doesn’t feel good. Here’s a thought though, should it? Should it feel good to watch a scene of battle, a scene with innocent bystanders, a scene where people are losing their lives to an invading alien force, senselessly? Because it happened in the Avengers, and as evidenced by the memorials in the final scenes, it happened A LOT, the casualties were large and memorable to the people of New York, and maybe for the tone of that particular movie that was sufficient, but Man of Steel is not- this might be shocking, hold on- Man of Steel is not The Avengers. It doesn’t want to be, it wants to be a different kind of movie, and that’s okay. Man of Steel doesn’t want you to be ever ever be comfortable with the violence. So you will see people die, you will see the horrors of war, and you will feel uncomfortable, but I for one learned something about the nature of violence. I’m not sure what I learned from the battle in New York.

9- Superman is not in charge of the final battle with Zod. This is a huge sticking point for naysayers, so I’m going to say it again: Superman is not in charge in the final battle with Zod. He is outmatched and outclassed. He is a farm boy fighting a military General and even if he were out to kill Zod from moment one of the fight (he’s trying to find an alternative, because killing someone, even a not human someone, is a serious thing- again, we’re not taking violence lightly here) he would still be getting his ass kicked. I don’t understand how being used as a wrecking ball by Zod translates into “not caring” about the human casualties. I don’t get it, I don’t know how to refute it because it makes zero sense to me. Like I’m sure that Clark Kent the character feels super terrible in the aftermath about the various people Zod was able to kill while fighting with him, but that doesn’t mean he should feel terrible or responsible. Like if someone picks me up and throws me at you, are you going to yell at me? I hope not. The last moments of this fight are him giving up his clean hands to SAVE INNOCENT BYSTANDERS. Even Zod knows from limited contact with Clark that his biggest weakness is his desire to prevent bloodshed, but somehow that didn’t penetrate a huge number of viewers. I don’t get it, I truly don’t understand.

(Warning for victim-blaming mention, sexual harassment mention, gendered slurs and an ableist slur below.)

A few things internalized misogyny does to women:

Makes them believe that stereotypes about men and women are true.

Teaches them to police other women’s behavior in a way that supports patriarchy.

Turns women against each other by encouraging them to see other women as shallow, superficial, vain, unintelligent, manipulative, “cr*zy,” “b**chy,” or “sl*tty.” (Overlaps with ableism and sex-shaming here.)

Makes them believe that misogynistic shaming or punishing of women is just and deserved (e.g. victim-blaming a woman who has been sexually harassed).

Makes them believe that stereotypically “feminine” things are worthy of being mocked or despised.

Makes women seek to be “not like other girls,” and to seek approval from men, when it would be better to demand that all girls be treated with respect.

Things internalized misogyny does NOT do to women:

Makes them feel like they’re actually a gender different from “female,” or like they have no gender. (Edit: An anon tells me that one person they know has experienced this due to “an intersection of ableism and misogyny.” Without further details, I can’t confirm it, but I’ll grant that there may be exceptions like this that I’m not aware of.)

Society wants you to not question the gender that’s been assigned to you, because once gender becomes uncertain then gender roles can’t be enforced. There’s no pressure on you to stop identifying as a woman, but there’s a ton of pressure on you to keep identifying as your assigned gender.