These are the times that try men’s Scrolls.
(1) Dilbert is still not at work on his sci-fi novel.
(2) Blogger and Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik is opening a new venue for her writing:
I am founding this space for all of us: It’s called GrokNation.
Do you know what it means to grok something? Grok is an old-school sci-fi term from the 1961 book “Stranger in a Strange Land.” It means to fully grasp something in the deepest way possible.
I want to be able to reach all kinds of people with my thinking and writing, and while I will still continue to write for Kveller about Jewish parenting, GrokNation will be the place where I share my thoughts about being an actress on “The Big Bang Theory,” being a scientist and a vegan mom, being an unusual woman because I am an actress and a scientist and a vegan mom, and everything in between. Eventually, I want GrokNation to become a place for voices other than mine, but we are just starting out so it may take some time!
(3) Rachel Bloom, known to fans for her Hugo-nominated music video “F*** Me, Ray Bradbury”, has been busy charming TV critics in advance of the October 12 premiere of her sitcom Crazy Ex Girlfriend.
When it organically was revealed that literally every single present “Crazy Ex” actor can professionally tap dance, Bloom’s co-star and four-time tap champ Donna Lynne Champlin challenged the journalists in attendance to ask all the other casts we come across this tour that same question, and see if any other show comes close….
Showrunner Aline Brosh McKenna and Bloom also masterfully handled — or at least deflected — sincere topics, such as the use of the potentially pejorative “Crazy” in the title, which could have been bait for a less comfortable group.
(4) In World War II, dozens of radio operators in Scituate, Rhode Island dialed into enemy conversations worldwide:
The Chopmist Hill listening post soon became the largest and most successful of a nationwide network of 13 similar installations. Its ability to eavesdrop on German radio transmissions in North Africa, for instance, was so precise that technicians could actually listen in on tank-to-tank communications within Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s infamous Afrika Korps.
The Germans’ battlefield strategy was then relayed to the British, who under Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery eventually defeated Rommel at El Alamein.
(5) With the Worldcon coming to town next week, the Spokane Spokesman-Review brings locals up to speed about the Sad Puppies:
It also arrives amid controversy.
Fans at Worldcon vote for the winners of the annual Hugo Awards. Regarded as some of the most prestigious honors in sci-fi and fantasy writing, the Hugos have been bestowed upon such names as Kurt Vonnegut and Portland novelist Ursula K. Le Guin. The Hugos have been awarded every year since 1955.
This year’s Hugos are mired in a present-day argument instead of a futuristic struggle.
A group of authors who call themselves the “Sad Puppies” is accused of strong-arming Hugo organizers to insert three authors on the shortlist of nominees. The group’s leaders contend the Hugos are too often awarded to what they call the “literati elite” and predisposed to affirmative action rather than less pretentious and more deserving writing.
Critics call the “Sad Puppies” a right-wing group supportive of the writings of white men and averse to the growing diversity of the genre. Martin has chimed in with a long series of blog posts, saying the controversy has “broken” the awards and “plunged all fandom into war.”
The controversy “has resulted in more people interested in Worldcon than would have been interested before,” said Tom Whitmore, a Seattle massage therapist and Worldcon volunteer who’s helping promote and organize the not-for-profit event. “We’ve followed our own rules, and we’re going ahead with our own rules, and that’s that.”
(6) Even those who have been following the Puppies from day one need a map. Aaron Pound, who Lou Antonelli tried to get fired from his job as a government attorney, summarizes all the Antonelli news from then til yesterday on Dreaming About Other Worlds.
Despite my tweeting on my personal twitter account, Antonelli took it upon himself to track down my work e-mail and phone number, first e-mailing a poorly thought out threat to come down to my workplace and do something or other, and then telephoning my office to confirm I was employed there.
(7) Natalie Luhrs’ chronicle of Antonelli’s offenses, “Pattern Matching: Lou Antonelli and the Sad Puppies”, characterizes them as she feels they deserve.
I think it bears emphasizing that by making a false report to police about David Gerrold, Lou Antonelli placed every single attending member of Worldcon in danger. This is reprehensible. The fact that David Gerrold forgave Antonelli for this is between the two of them; Gerrold does not get to accept Antonelli’s apology on behalf of the rest of the convention membership and to its staff and volunteers….
His modus operandi seems to be to incite an incident or seek one out, become abusive in some manner, and then only apologize if the target is high profile enough or if enough high profile people notice that he’s being abusive. His apology will contain a lot of language that deflects responsibility for his actions off him and onto other people or communities. Lather, rinse, repeat. If he goes after you and you don’t make noise about it or if someone doesn’t make noise on your behalf, or if you’re not particularly high profile, you’re not going to get even an attempt at an apology….
(8) In a separate post, “Some Members are More Equal than Others”, Luhrs makes her case against Sasquan’s decision not to ban Antonelli from attending.
One of Gerrold’s quoted reasons is that Antonelli “deserves” to be able to attend the Hugo Awards because he’s a nominee.
The message I’m getting from Sasquan is that if you apologize enough, if you can convince the person you’ve harassed into accepting your apology, and if you’ve been nominated for an award, Codes of Conduct don’t apply to you. Especially if you’ve promised to be on your very best behavior and not do it again.
(9) But Antonelli has not been left to face the music completely alone. Amanda S. Green on According To Hoyt argues the way he’s being treated is out of proportion, and compares his critics to the storybook folk who claimed “The sky is falling!”
At least that is the way it might seem if you were paying much attention to those very vocal few who have made it their life’s mission to denigrate anyone who might even remotely be associated with Sad Puppies 3. Oh how they have rallied these last few days to not only vilify Lou Antonelli but, even in the face of the one man who could reasonably be seen as having an issue with him accepting his apology, they continue to attack and demonize him. This has resulted in at least one contract being cancelled for Mr. Antonelli and even that is not enough to satisfy those who have taken to social media to attack him.
And, like with so much of what the Anti-Puppy crowd has done these last few months, they have taken Antonelli’s actions and blown them out of proportion. Specifically, Antonelli sent a letter to the Spokane Police Department expressing concerns not so much about what David Gerrold might personally do but what some of those who follow him on social media might do. Was it a wise move on Antonelli’s part? No. But, to be honest, with some of the vitriol I have seen from both sides of the fence the last few months, I can understand why he might have felt concerned.
(10) There will be no comic relief at the end today! Because Stephen King knows how to take a horror and make it verse.
How's this for a Trump campaign slogan: IF YOU'RE WHITE, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! ANY OTHER HUE, I DON'T TRUST YOU.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 5, 2015
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Nigel.]
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I suggest a whirlpool named Z.
…no reason.
It’s the Gamergate definition of ‘someone saying something about me I don’t like’. You can try and walk these folks through the actual legal definition but it won’t compute.
Ironically, the exact same people will completely lose their shit when someone criticises something that they’ve said… ‘Muh free speech!’
Camestros
You have completely omitted Sparta from your map. Having spent much of today noticing the complete absence of Spartan remains, and having had to make do with climbing up a mountain to a World Heritage site of a 13th century fort subsequently taken by the Byzantines, and the Turks, before it was taken by the Greeks again, plus a palace and a couple of monasteries, it is obvious to me that your omission of Sparta is typical gamma rabit behaviour.
The manly men who lead the puppies would have climbed that mountain, before writing to the police force abut the dangers of gamma rabits…
Ugh. That time I said we should accept Lou’s apology? Yeah; ignore me. I didn’t know he made a habit of harassment.
I forgot to mention that there were kittens at the monasteries, so obviously the rule about no female animals on Mount Athos doesn’t apply in the rest of Greece…
Sparta. What is it about the Puppies that makes them see a bunch of superstitious, anti-business, helot oppressing rentiers with iron money as role models?
A repressed longing for the rampant gay sex aspect?
Hoyt gives the Puppy State of the Nation address.
It’s like an agonising greatest hits reel, filtered through her unique perspective of events. She’s actually quite coherent for once (Marxists! count: 1) and kicks off with the claim that removing supporting memberships was a serious proposal, then claims that EPH will require slates, not prevent them.
Then it’s a whistlestop tour through puppy history, illustrated with out-of-context screen shots and bizarre conflations of different events, culminating in identifying a clearly satirical website as an attempt to trick potential puppies.
Mark –
Huh, I didn’t know she wrote Alt History Fic.
Kurt Busiek at 12:03 pm:
That needs to be a river, surely?
ETA: And today’s xkcd is genre appropriate.
Well, there were certainly comments made about removing Hugo voting rights from supporting members of Worldcon, but there was never, ever a serious proposal floated to that effect because the vast majority of fans made it clear they didn’t want that to happen. Therefore, it hasn’t and won’t, contrary to what Pascoe had asserted:
It’s accepted wisdom at this point that a move to limit voting to attending memberships will be advanced at the WSFS business meeting at Sasquan.
Mark: It just feels like it fell on me from nowhere!
And mad props to Sarah for managing to write this whole thing without a single link to “Vile 770.”
Mike, if I had photoshop skills, I’d offer you a masthead logo of Kurt Weill 770. Alas, I don’t.
Time to bust out The Pixel Scrolled Peeress?
@Soon Lee,
What is the Jewelry God? The joke on this one sailed right by me. I recognized the other references.
@World Weary: Ybeq bs gur Evatf.
World Weary, I missed that one too. So please don’t feel like an idiot when I tell you that it’s (rot13) Gur Ybeq bs gur Evatf.
And Laertes beat me to it, my precious…
It’s like an agonising greatest hits reel, filtered through her unique perspective of events.
Never fear, the comment section devolves into incoherence almost immediately.
Mike Glyer –
It’s Fowl 770. In this darkest timeline you appear to be keeper of a website which trains 5th rate SJW trolls (maybe goblins at that point) to spread the sacred seeds of The Narrative in the comment sections of different sites.
Also, chickens.
Re: RedWombat’s post on August 12, 2015 at 7:56 am:
“There’s another handful who I’d class as…mm….aggressively decent people who would try to give the benefit of the doubt to a bear currently chewing off their left arm.”
That reminds me of the story of Timothy Treadwell. He stated in interviews that he wouldn’t mind being eaten by a bear. But according to the audio recordings from the moment that a bear was actually eating him, his views changed somewhat: he begged for his girlfriend to hit the bear and save his life. (Unfortunately, a frying pan was insufficient to discourage a hungry bear, and it ate both of them.)
I say this not to be making light of a death, but that this has always stuck with me as an object lesson in how something that sounds okay in theory can be a very different prospect when it is actually happening.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell
http://askville.amazon.com/othe-timothy-treadwell-audio-tape/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=12027945
@Mark
They got to transphobia in the comment section within minutes, talking about Brianna Wu. Gotta respect the consistency of their fans.
The point is kind of moot because David Gerrold is American but has anyone considered that an action like Lou Antonelli’s letter to the police might result in people (non-US attendants) being denied entry into the US? (People have been denied entry for a lot less.)
I know if that were me I would think twice about spending the money for an international flight only to find out I was denied entry once I hit immigration. Or hiring a lawyer and dealing with the US-embassy to find out if I could travel to the US or not. Sounds like a very effective tool to ban non-US-participants (writers, artists, bloggers).
They got to transphobia in the comment section within minutes, talking about Brianna Wu.
I’ve always been left wondering if Brianna is actually trans, or if this is just a Breitbart driven attempt to come up with something they think they can smear her with. Given that the claim originated from GG darling Yiannopoulos, I have serious doubts about its veracity.
If she hasn’t disclosed, then it’s none of anyone’s business. She’s a woman either way, period.
@Aaron
I’ve never seen anything that wasn’t GG tainted to support it, but I also don’t really care if she is or not. The fact that Hoyt and her friends seem to think it is some kind of smear against her is telling just what kind of people they are.
I’ve never seen anything that wasn’t GG tainted to support it
Me either. I saw of the claim was an article by Yiannopoulos, who is deep in the GG trenches, and who wrote the article after Brianna had become vocal about GG.
Whether she is or not is, as Gabriel notes, not really anyone’s business. And I also find it telling that Hoyt and her crew consider it to be a smear to call Brianna trans.
That said, I would be surprised if it is true, as Brianna seems to be fairly open about her past (for example talking about how her parents funded her first company when she was still in college). If she is not trans, then that would make the layer of nasty the invention of something to try to smear someone with, which is not worse than, but is different from, the layer of nasty that is involuntarily outing a trans person against their will.
@Aaron
Worst possible typo. I meant to say ‘that wasn’t GG tainted’.
Worst possible typo. I meant to say ‘that wasn’t GG tainted’.
I saw you edited it, and edited my own comment in turn.
Wu’s response to being called transgendered
Not sure why that crowd is obsessed over Wu one way or another, only it seems like they can’t help themselves from bringing her up.
@Matt: An excellent answer from Brianna. I am reminded of Johnny Galecki’s response when asked why he never acts to refute the persistent rumors that he is gay. “I’ve never really addressed those rumors because I figured, ‘Why defend yourself against something that is not offensive’?”
Ms. Wu has stated in the past that she believes saying yay or nay at this point is pointless, as they will believe whatever they want to believe, and any attempt at denial may come across as a rejection of the trans community (by treating it if it was a bad thing that would need denying), which she vehemently doesn’t want to do, so she’s just ignoring the claims entirely.
…and Matt Y beat me to it.
Thanks Laertes and Casey!
Some Rot-13 on Seveneves. Anyone who has read it, please feel free to respond. There were paragraphs brakes when I typed it into the Rot-13 encrypter but they all went away. Next time, one paragraph at a time…
V rawblrq zbfg bs gur ortvaavat frpgvba bs gur obbx, ohg V gubhtug vg sryy ncneg arne gur raq bs gung frpgvba jurer jr tb sebz 300 fheivibef ba gur Raqhenapr gb 27. V gubhtug gung gur cneg jurer gurl nyy jnagrq gb trargvpnyyl ratvarre gurve puvyqera sbe nalguvat bgure guna ryvzvangvat xabja trargvp qrsrpgf pbzcyrgryl haoryvrinoyr frrvat nf gurl jrer svtugvat sbe gur irel rkvfgrapr bs gur uhzna enpr. Nyfb, jr unir nyernql unq erny-yvsr rknzcyrf bs jbzra cnfg gur ntr bs zrabcnhfr ornevat puvyqera gung jrer perngrq jvgu qbangrq rttf. V qvqa’g haqrefgnaq jul, jura Zbven vf cynlvat trargvp ratvarre naljnl, fur qvqa’g hfr cnegf bs gur QAN bs rnpu bs gur jbzra gb perngr rnpu puvyq, gurerol ryvzvangvat gur crefbany qvfyvxr bs gur inevbhf Rirf sebz orvat cnffrq ba gb gur arkg trarengvba. V nyfb unq gb sbepr zlfrys gb svavfu gur frpbaq frpgvba 5,000 lrnef sbejneq. V xrcg obhapvat bss bs vg. Vg cvpxrq hc sbe zr yngre ba, ohg V whfg arire oryvrirq gur jbeyq gung ur perngrq. Guvf vf gur svefg Fgrcurafba obbx gung V unir ernq jurer gur punenpgrevmngvba jnf bayl fb-fb, naq abg snagnfgvp. V jnf qvfnccbvagrq. Lrg V unir ernq pbzzragf sebz bguref nobhg ubj gurl srry vg vf gur orfg obbx bs gur lrne fb sne. Jurgure lbh ybirq be ungrq vg, V jbhyq ybir urnevat jul.
Aaron –
It’s only offensive in how f’n stupid it is. For one thing, they can’t even get straight which male they’re declaring she was previously, having both insinuated she was a James Flynt and a Bruce Freeman(the former from Brietbart the latter from Encyclopedia Dramatica), of which Freeman is a transgender woman named Brianna but comes from Maine and not Mississippi but she once had a lawyer with the last name of Wu so if you hold your breath for 4 minutes it all makes sense.
If I was her I’d leave it alone as well, it’s not an insult and the people using it show just how gullible and transphobic they are, or how stupid they think their audience must be.
Well, there’s an exercise in frustration. I tried to answer that moron at SFSignal with some additional info on First Nations and Native American people and SFF, because everyone else had adequately covered his idiocy re: black people, and it will not take my comment because captcha stupidity. It gave me the question 3 + () = eleven, but would not accept 8 or 08 as an answer, and only allowed 2 characters, so the word eight was not viable (I tried it anyway). I even tried 9 and 7. The question never changed, either, with refreshing, leaving the site, leaving and returning to the internet (which also, on this machine, meant losing my comment entirely, even from copy-paste.) Usually there’s a way to get a new captcha…?
Grflesrghargh.
Oh, we are back to “Can someone please buy dictionaries to the people that support the Puppies so they can finally learn what some words mean?”. Today’s word of choice: libel. Apparently it means something else in Puppyland.
@ World Weary
V unq gur fnzr fbeg bs ceboyrz. Ybirq gur ortvaavat, jnf irel vairfgrq va vg, fng guebhtu n YBG bs grpuabqhzcntr (frzv-vagrerfgrq, V’z abg n crefba jvgu n ybg bs uneq-fpvrapr xabjyrqtr fb n ybg bs vg fbeg bs jrag va n “abq, abq, V’yy gnxr lbhe jbeq sbe vg” fbeg bs jnl.) Vg jnf n irel tbbq frghc naq V jnf ernyyl ybbxvat sbejneq gb gur cnlbss… ohg gura vg fhqqrayl EHFURQ.
Pybhq Nex – abcr! Pybhq Nex vf tbar, jbbfu!
Zvffvba gb Znef – ab bar xabjf! Arire urneq sebz ntnva!
Vmml – fhzznevmrq nf “yvsr fhpxrq, rirelbar qvrq.”
Naq gura, whfg nf vg jnf trggvat crefbany naq vagrerfgvat ntnva… jbbfu! 5000 lrnef va gur shgher! Jvgu n fhzznel gung whfg yrsg zr tbvat “Jnvg, V jnagrq gb FRR gung!” nf zber grpuabqhzcvat juvmmrq ol.
Fnzr guvat unccrarq jvgu gur onpx unys. Nyy gur frghc jnf irel vagrerfgvat, gur enprf jrer vagrerfgvat (gubhtu n yvggyr erzvavfprag bs BFP’f “Zrzbel bs Rnegu” frevrf va gur fgehpgher) naq V jnf vagrerfgrq va gur cerfragrq punenpgref.
Gura… jbbfu! Enaqbz orgenlny ol rknpgyl gur punenpgre lbh rkcrpg! Jbbfu, gur punenpgre lbh’ir tbggra gur zbfg CBI sebz gheaf vagb n arj punenpgre naq nccneragyl qrirybcrq fhcrecbjref ohg lbh qba’g trg gb nccerpvngr nal bs vg! Jbbfu, 2 arj enprf naq n ovt pbasyvpg vagebqhprq! Naq… phegnvaf!
V jnf vzzrafryl sehfgengrq jvgu vg. Vg jnf qrsvavgryl oenva-tenool naq V qribherq vg, ohg V jnf yrsg irel ntteningrq ng gur raq. Vg sryg yvxr n 4-obbx frevrf jurer V tbg gur svefg abiry, fxvccrq gur arkg 2 naq gura tbg unys bs gur ynfg bar. Fb sehfgengvat. Vg sryg yvxr Fgrcuraffba jnf zhpu zber vagrerfgrq va cerfragvat arng vqrnf naq grpuabybtvpny gurbevrf guna va gryyvat na npghny fgbel.
…nyfb vs nal phygher fubhyq unir unq srznyr nf gur qrsnhyg cebabha? Lrnu.
Jba’g or ba zl Uhtb yvfg. Sryy qbja va gur fgbelgryyvat qrcnegzrag n yvggyr gbb uneq sbe zr.
RedWombat on August 12, 2015 at 12:13 pm said:
I am reminded that in fiber spinning, we refer to the yarn produced by a spinning wheel or spindle spun clockwise as having a “Z-twist“, because when you look at the yarn from the side, you see a diagonal that slants like the middle of the letter Z. Spin the spindle counter-clockwise, and you get “S-twist.”
What relevance this has to the conversation is left as an exercise to the conspiracy theorist, because heck if I know. Whirlpools are twisty, that’s all I’ve got.
@ Gabriel F.
V unq uvtu ubcrf sbe gur obbx orpnhfr Fgrcurafba vf zl ebbzzngr’f snibevgr nhgube, naq V jnf fb fbeebjshy ng gur svpgvbany raq bs gur jbeyq.
V rfcrpvnyyl yvxr lbhe qrfpevcgvba gung jr jrer ernqvat cnegf bayl bs n zhygv-obbx frevrf. Zna, gubfr vasbqhzcf whfg tbg zber naq zber naablvat. V qvqa’g arrq cntrf bs rkcynangvbaf ba ubj gur nzobgf jbexrq.
Lrf, gur Nznmvat Xnguerr jnf irel naablvat, rira gubhtu V jnfa’g gung vagrerfgrq va Xngu Gjb gb ortva jvgu.
Naq gur cbvag gung Qe. Uh’f fgengrtl jbhyq unir jbexrq vs ur unq orra fcrnxvat gb crbcyr sebz n phygher jurer gurl unq gb trg nybat? Ubj vf orvat genccrq qrrc haqretebhaq ba n oheavat cynarg jvgu ab ngzbfcurer qrirybc n phygher jurer trggvat nybat vf abg n uvtu cevbevgl? V pbhyq tb ba naq ba jvgu ubj Fgrcurafba’f ernfbavat ba rirelguvat frrzrq gb fgbc znxvat frafr bapr gurl jrer qbja gb 27. V’z xvaq bs jbaqrevat vs ur sryg ur jnf qrgrezvarq gb unir n “unccl” raqvat ol fubjvat gung nyy guerr tebhcf fheivirq?
V jnf irel qvfnccbvagrq. Vg jba’g znxr zl yvfg rvgure.
V jbhyq fgvyy or vagrerfgrq va urnevat sebz bguref jub ybirq gur obbx naq pbhyq gryy hf jul.
That’s a fine sentiment, but is it offensive to discuss whether a public figure is transgendered when you believe there’s nothing wrong with it?
Expecting a cone of silence to drop down when the subject comes up reminds me of the days when reporting on a celebrity’s sex life had different rules about straights (tell me more!) and gays (how dare you!). The straights got mentions of the spouse and kids. The gays got none of that, aside perhaps from a veiled mention to a “longtime companion” in an obit.
I’ve assumed Wu is transgendered and thought GamerGate treating that fact like something scurrilous was another of its repulsive acts.
(sigh). Just gone midnight here, I’m finally almost caught up with the comments, and you point me at a brand new Sarah Hoyt rant – sorry, carefully argued analysis to enchant & enlighten me. Have to save that for tomorrow when I can do it justice.
I did, however, have time to note this contribution in the comments to the Amanda Green item:
Given that Gallo’s “insults” were part of an attempt to describe the SPs/RPs to somebody who’d never heard of them at that point, the only way this argument can make sense to anyone with two brain cells to rub together is if she’s suggesting that the boycott was organised by right-wingers and neo-Nazis who felt insulted by being compared to Puppies.
Evidence for the fossilisation of the canine brain while the rest of the organism remains alive and apparently functioning normally continues to accumulate.
rcade said
Offensive may be the wrong word: it shouldn’t be a big deal, but we live in a world where people are fired, disowned, and even murdered for being trans. A friend of mine has a private twitter feed because she doesn’t feel up to the stress of being publicly trans there. I know that’s why her feed is private because she said so. If someone hasn’t publicly identified as trans, that should be respected: it’s one of a number of facts about a person that should not, in a better world, be shameful, but that people may have good reasons not to publish in the actual world we live in.
“Trans” may also just be an inadequate term to describe her experience of herself.
The other day a lot of people reported seeing pictures in the Dublin Comic Con post appearing sideways. I believe I have now stripped the EXIF data from all of them (except Agent Carter) and it would be helpful to know if that has eliminated the problem for those of you who experienced it. Here is the link — https://file770.com/?p=24285
Sideways still for me Mike. Safari on ios8
After all the chatter, I have this urge to read God Stalk. I just do ebooks these days. Does this link correspond to what people have been talking about?
@cmm
If someone had told me early on that Tom Cruise’s character starts off like a caricature of the cocky jackass Tom Cruise usually plays and then gets killed repeatedly and creatively (beginning with having his face and head melted)–that would have been an excellent “but Tom Cruise…” counter argument. I might have gone to the theater to see that! (I really don’t like him.)
I hear for the latest Mission: Impossible movie, they strapped him to the outside of an actual jet airplane as it took off. If for the next one they’re planning on strapping him to the outside of a spacebound rocket as it blasts off…yeah, I’d pay good money to see that. I’d pay to see that if it’s the only thing that happens in the entire movie.
Pictures still sideways for me on Windows 8, in Opera and Chrome.
@ rcade
Yes. It is. Because questioning whether other people’s gender presentation is valid is offensive.
Also, it’s not “transgendered,” it’s not a verb, no one transgendered her. She would BE transgender.
@ World Weary
Vg’f jbegu abgvat gung nccneragyl gur cbfg-5000-lrne frggvat jnf nccneragyl zrnag sbe n ivqrb tnzr, juvpu jnf jul nyy gur qrfpevcgvbaf bs gur enprf, cynprf naq jrncba grpu jnf fb vzcbegnag. Bapr V ernq gung, vg nyy pyvpxrq naq V gubhtug url… gung JBHYQ or n arng ZZB gb cynl va. V whfg trarenyyl jnag orggre guna ZZB-yber sebz n abiry.
V qvqa’g yvxr Fabjpenfu rvgure, fb V jnf fhecevfrq gb trg fhpxrq vagb guvf bar fb uneq. V’z whfg znq gurer jnfa’g zhpu npghny fgbel va vg, orpnhfr vg QVQ fhpx zr va.
That tragic situation is a good argument for not disclosing (or spreading) that a non-public figure is transgendered. But that might also fall under the principle that any private person’s sexual orientation or sex life is inappropriate to discuss beyond what that person has publicly shared.
When someone is a public figure, as Brianna Wu is in gaming where she does frequent speaking engagements, I wouldn’t consider a discussion like the one we’re having here to be any more inappropriate than talking about whether Mike Glyer is married.
Maybe it depends on why it’s being discussed. Here, it came up because of some transphobic insults directed at Wu in the comments on Sarah A. Hoyt’s blog. It would be difficult to condemn that without the issue coming up of whether she’s transgendered.