Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Bart Janssen,
So why can’t we encourage teenagers to glory in their bodies instead of shaming them into hiding them because someone might look. The problem is not the teenager it is the person looking with evil intent.
Quite, and I know this term raised all kinds of hackles but you know what… when we tell young people (and not just women) that their bodies are the problem not harassing pervs there’s a whole lot of slut-shaming up in the room.
But I’d like to walk this out a step further. Yes, I’m entirely capable of figuratively walking and chewing gum at the same time. I can frankly appreciate a pretty piece of man-ass and know there’s a line between flirting and being creepy and still respecting the boundaries in the relationship I go home to at the end of the day. (Reader’s Digest version: Look with your eyes not with your hands. And always always take “no” and “dude, you’re creeping me out” as a definitive answer.)
Katie Roiphe tells me I’m meant to be appalled by the latest BDSM novel sweeping the interwebs. I’ve read it. I was appalled. By the writing. (Seriously, it’s awful.) But I’m not perplexed (as a feminist) by people enjoying submissive sex. I’m perplexed that anyone else cares what someone is reading on their kindle to get off.
Totally agree with you re: the literary merits of Fifty Shades of Grey. Sorry, prose that bad is an automatic boner killer. But not for the first time, I'm shocked (but not surprised) that people like Rophie are so, well... damn unsophisticated about the idea that our fantasy life is NOT directly congruent with our waking ones. And fuck you Freud, women's sexual fantasies aren't automatically symptomatic of pathology. Really. Promise.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Scott Chris,
(ie is freedom to live life comfortably also a right you should lose when sent to prison?)
Quite, Scott - but isn't it funny how the strident "let 'em stew in their own shit" brigade aren't quite so militant when white, middle-class Anzacs find themselves on the receiving end of that kind of penology in places like Bangkwang Central Prison (a.k.a. The Bangkok Hilton). Funny how it's not so attractive to certain people when foreign governments don't consider decent food, hygiene and basic health care a high priority for foreigners who break their laws.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Russell Brown,
Parts of the above are pretty damning, if not exactly out of kilter with the present government’s style.
What's wrong with the traditional strategy of ignoring unwanted advice; sacking the bearer of inconvenient evidence and when all else fails publicly assassinating the poor boob's character? Seems to be ample precedent, foreign and domestic, for anyone who has the gall to be "soft on drugs" (i.e. even whispers that the status quo doesn't work, and disproportionately targets the poor and minorities while eroding civil rights to no good end.)
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Ben, I think it’s purely and simply that vengeance is an element in any penal code. There has to be some element of revenge in order that people are satisfied enough that they don’t try to get revenge themselves.
Sure – you don’t deprive people of their freedom and reputation purely for the shits and giggles. In theory, it is retributive as well as a deterrent to any further wrong-doing, but feeding the prison-industrial complex isn’t the only way to have that effect. I know shaming and social stigma are unfashionable terms, but I suspect there are more than a few young five-finger discounters who’d testify that it works. :)
ETA: More seriously, did I want brutal, bloody and terminal vengeance on the mongrel drink-driver who was responsible for the death of my foster sister? Bet your arse. Would I be chuffed if he was still rotting in a dungeon that makes Abu Ghraib look like a penthouse suite at The Ritz? Not proud to say it, but hell yes.
A society of laws is supposed to act as a curb on the worse, most atavistic instincts of people like me. At least, please God, let it ever be so.
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There seems to be no shortage of criticism based around a premise that prisoners are treated to proper meals and “flat screen TVs” whilst victims are often left out in the cold to suffer with whatever fate left them
Please adjust bullshit filters for anecdata, but I know someone who changed his tune on the idea that our prisons are Club (Over-)Fed resorts after eighteen months regularly visiting his son while detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to andin,
But none of our cultures/ideas are sacrosanct we have to allow internal as well as external criticism to happen. And that goes right down to the individual. Ring fencing ideas, parts of ourselves well, not sure of the real benefits. Other than you can get all cozy inside.
That was a splendid job of taking down an argument nobody was making, as far as I can tell. I'm not actually trying to repress your speech here - and my book of "special permission" slip must still be in the post, but it would be nice if you were a little less condescending with it.
In one of those delightful PAS synchronicities, I've got Marilynne Robinson's essay collection When I Was A Child I Read Books on the nightstand. It includes this essay, which is long but repays careful reading and consideration.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Russell Brown,
You don’t change the curriculum for them, but you do make it possible for them to pray, as the belief with which they have been raised requires.
What, you mean actually walk the talk about living in a pluralistic society? Crazy talk there, Brown!
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
I’m not saying it was a *good* attitude for me to have. It’s basically a manifestation of the classic human assumption that other people hold the same attitudes they do unless there are strong signals otherwise. A number of circumstances in my life have meant that this particular assumption was not a bad one most of the time, thus reinforcing it. But those are the sort of assumptions that trip you up the worst in edge cases, so it’s better that it’s taken a few knocks.
Sure, and I didn't mean to a dick in your general direction. I find it hard to imagine you being really obnoxious about anything and I certainly didn't mean to devalue or wave off your own experience.
Believe it or not I can argue about anything except religion. It's a very intimate and complex part of my life, and I don't really like using it as cocktail party argument fodder.
And you're right, we all make assumption like that. It's character-forming to be on the receiving end, now and them. :)
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
Living in America has been quite useful for ironing out my internal "X is religious? But they seemed so *normal*!" response.
And people wonder why I've got a fair amount of scar tissue on the inside of my bottom lip.
So every time McCroskrie appears in the media from now on, Satan pulls the wings off an angel. Got it.
I don't know what the hell Satan does for shits and giggles, but McCoskrie has a distant and hostile relationship with truth, good taste and common decency. More than enough to go on with.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Russell Brown,
What it's more down to is the bad habit of going to rentaquotes like McCroskie, op-ed factories like Maxim and freaks like Tamaki.
Sure, and I think I could have made it a lot clearer that I'm certainly not in the camp that thinks there's some kind of secular media "war on religion". Before September 11 2001, I suspect there were a hell of a lot of journalists who knew sweet f.a. about Islam because it never crossed their minds that it would ever be relevant to know. Some cashed the reality check, others still haven't.
A lot of my issues are just the failure to practice Round Reporting 101. Develop a wide range of sources (including at least on disinterested expert you can run things by) and make the effort to educate yourself. If nothing else, building your own knowledge base calibrates your bullshit detector because someone is going to try and play you sometime.
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