Shank and File

I can’t stand listening to adults talk about children and bullying. They continually tell...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:21:00 -0400

I can’t stand listening to adults talk about children and bullying. They continually tell kids what they can do if they see bullying, how to handle a bully, who they should tell if they are being bullied. Never is there any discussion of “What can I do to make sure my child isn’t bullying others?” The thing that I don’t understand about bullying in schools is not that children are dicks to each other, it is that people are raising kids who do not understand why bullying is wrong.

I don’t care if you think it is the ‘nature’ of human beings to exclude, taunt, chide, and be cruel to each other (even though I think arguing about the ‘nature’ of people in general is sort of, intellectually, a failure). The fact is that grown adults let their children go to school everyday thinking it is okay to be an asshole. I am bullied by other adults pretty much all the time (although not through variety beatings, name calling, or public embarrassment, but through them trying to force me to bend to their will) so I can see why this happens. I think the main problem is that parents are not teaching their children what is probably the single most important lesson of life: that other people have feelings.

Children who have serious neglect and abuse in their early years of life have extreme difficulty grasping this concept, and often leash out and hurt animals, other children, their family members, etc to try and reconcile their own pain. Adults like to pretend that every child who bullies others is obviously from a terrible abusive family, which is absolutely ridiculous. There are just as many (if not more) affluent and middle class bullies. Just because someone isn’t poor and put literally the bare minimum of care into raising a child to not be psychologically disturbed, that hardly means their child is incapable of maliciousness. They’re still going to be influenced by shitty things. What do people think facebook is teaching their kids? School never ends once you have an online community where you can say anything you want without face to face consequences. If someone has failed to cultivate a sense of empathy, they are going to act accordingly.

The oversimplification that people seem to make of almost everything these days is so absurd. “Why do kids bully?” “THEY JUST DO. THAT IS WHAT THEY DO WHEN THEY GET TOGETHER.” No, actually, no one just ‘does’ anything, and it is beyond disturbing that no one actually thinks about reasons why something might be a certain way. Kind of like how, in light of the Olympics, I have heard people say “No one wants to watch women’s sports, that is why they are not popular.” No, the reason they are not popular is because people have been culturally predisposed to think that women are not capable of being good or interesting athletes. Unless it is beach volleyball, because bitches be wearing bikinis. Athletics don’t reward women for being beautiful, they reward them for skill- which is at total odds with a culture that rewards women for being beautiful and much less for skill. Less conventionally attractive women are allowed to be star athletes, but men haven’t been conditioned to actually care about women’s talents, they’ve been conditioned to care about how satisfying watching the women is for them. But anyway.

Kids are going to bully because we live in a culture full of fucking narcissists who fail to teach them that they have the power to cause other people pain, and that other people’s feelings are just as important as theirs. It bothers me that people think bullying isn’t THEIR problem. It IS your problem if you’re not explicitly making it known to your child that their actions affect other people.

but seriously last saturday morning van halen’s ‘jump’ was playing really loud...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:17:04 -0400

but seriously

last saturday morning van halen’s ‘jump’ was playing really loud while i was throwing up in the bathroom at work, and i dont think anything has ever made me feel like my whole life is a fucking joke more than that moment.

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Wed, 16 May 2012 00:01:22 -0400

nice girls

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:15:00 -0400

One time a guy asked me if I was a virgin, like he was hoping i was. how creepy. once i got over the shock of someone actually asking me that, i told him no, of course i wasnt. he was disappointed and said, “but… I thought American girls were different. I thought you were a nice girl.”

A nice girl. what would make me a nice girl? if i didnt have sex? so would i also be a nice girl if i was a virgin who drank the blood of first born children? i’m pretty sure in order to be a ‘nice girl’ you have to not be a slut but it is okay to slut shame other girls. that is why taylor swift is a nice girl, right? which reminds me, you probably have to be white to be a nice girl. i mean, yeah. you have to smile and not say anything that might be substantive or argumentative or, like, thoughtful. if you come out with some kind of feminist-y shit you are not a nice girl, because feminism is such a DRAG, ugh. and most feminists are ugly, duh- they’re just jealous that men don’t like them! a quiet, constantly pleasant, virginal conventionally attractive girl is probably what being a ‘nice girl’ actually means. but it’s just some meaningless throw away phrase right? of course.

This whole idea of ‘nice girls’ makes me want to vomit. on a guy. because women aren’t supposed to have all of those gross bodily functions. it’s natural for men to let their body do what it does, but for women it is unacceptable- we are dainty creatures and our sweat and menstrual blood is unclean and wrong! and men should NEVER have to see any of that! ugh, they deal with enough inconveniences from us, don’t they? we are always going on about our problems and making up drama, wanting to be treated like princesses (whatever the fuck that means). we bore men with our stories, they don’t want to listen to us talk!

I also like that the equivalent of this term- a ‘nice guy’ is usually meant to be a guy who has enough tolerance for a woman that he can deign to treat her like a goddamn human being for awhile, even if he really just wants to sleep with her. yeah, the ‘nice guy’ always turns out to be great and really values women for their intellect and humor.

theatombomb: Scarborough

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:32:34 -0400

theatombomb:

Scarborough

pete is my favorite.

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:39:20 -0400

pete is my favorite.

the really irritating thing is when people go on about film adaptations of novels and how...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:22:46 -0400

the really irritating thing is when people go on about film adaptations of novels and how ‘they left too much out!’ ugh. please. a film is a different medium than a novel is. what is great about both of them is that they can do specific things that other forms of media can’t.

with a novel you can get the nuanced back story, the explanations that float into other memories and streams of consciousness, you get word play and analogies that are poetic and interesting. ‘she had blisters from sighing’ is a line that perfectly captures what a novel can do that a film cannot.

with a film, you can be shown things rather than explicitly told, it gives you the option of being subtle and clever in a different way. you can create images and situations that squeeze the true essence and meaning of a novel without doing a literal translation, which can be lengthy and not interesting to watch. simplifying text is necessary for a successful film adaptation. for a film to just be a literal play by play of a book would be convoluted, interrupted, boring, and also terrible. a film cannot ever put you into someone’s head the same way text can, it cannot deliver the same things. film has to use its own strengths to interpret text in a suiting way.

can you imagine if a harry potter novel had been reproduced in a literal manner? even pretending that in some unbelievable way it was within normal running time, it’s written in first person. so, do you use voiceover for nearly the entire thing? no, that’s ridiculous. and film narration is shit anyway. so now you have the task of showing everything from harry’s perspective without the narration, which is impossible to do without condensing, shifting, and adding to the original storyline. look, there’s a reason that jo rowling didn’t write anything about harry waking up in the middle of the night to stomach cramping diarrhea. obviously no one wants to read about that, let alone in the middle of an ongoing storyline. it stops the flow, is unnecessary, boring, gross. small details of a novel become that way when translated to film. if you cannot enjoy an adaptation that thinks broadly, you are missing the point.

i think the hunger games was an incredibly good adaptation. no, it didnt take too many artistic risks, but the ones it did fit well. nothing about it felt forced or disloyal to the fiction, and it was particularly clever at what it chose to add to the story- the asides between the president and the head gamesmaker, the games ‘lab’, the condensed caves arc, the district 11 riot. all of these additions were very good at getting across the main points at the heart of the story. pithy summarization in the right places and with the right themes is more valuable than getting every detail right.

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Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:53:08 -0500

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Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:04:33 -0500

kinsey-x: Buy ALL the girl scout cookies.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:43:06 -0500

kinsey-x:

Buy ALL the girl scout cookies.

How I want to live my life.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:24:44 -0500

How I want to live my life.

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Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:16:25 -0500

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Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:09:20 -0500

Subtitles TOOK OUR JERBS

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:25:02 -0500

ivan2034 1 January 2012 02:45PM

Why do Americans always “re-make” everything? Oh yea, most of them can’t read can they?

This comment was following the Guardian’s review of David Fincher’s ~~Men Who Hate Women~~ Girl With A Particular Tattoo That Might Sound Sexy Or Something And Not Threaten Dumb People.

I’ve heard this particular comment many times— “Why do Americans have to remake foreign films just because they don’t want to read subtitles?” Cause we’re just a bunch of assholes discovering fire between watching American idol (aka POP IDOL, XFACTOR, BRITAINS GOT TALENT- THANKS UK) episodes and tanning appointments (where does Jon Boehner tan, by the way? Need to get my orange on). WE SUCK. WE HATE READING. but the UK is obviously far superior to us on that point, aren’t you guys? You’re all rapidly blundering through classic literature and no one is watching The Only Way Is Essex.

The stereotype of fat Americans eating at McDonald’s and driving their SUVs and hating muslims and laughing at Two and a Half Men isn’t far-fetched, it’s disgustingly real. I completely acknowledge this. I’m not the biggest fan cheering on America and promoting my FREEDOM which all yall obviously just DONT UNDERSTAND because youre JEALOUS of the greatest country on EARTH which was given to us by GOD so we’re totally free to pillage and rape it for all it’s worth etc etc. I’ve grown up surrounded by the fucktards who say these things, and have pissed many of them off, had threats called into my house due to my parent’s visible support for the democratic party in a small community of bible beaters, had the family car keyed (i definitely was against the ‘jesus was a liberal’ bumper sticker to begin with), and was actively called “yankee bitch” in high school (which I didn’t think happened anymore after 1880 but MY MISTAKE).

I loathe most of American culture, but I, like EVERYONE ELSE who hates what the last decade has done to the world and would love to work to make positive change, also actively like and participate in things I know are stupid, like shopping (because i NEED to have things that i don’t even know I want yet) & paying to watch the latest Twilight movie (because they’re hilarious and give me insight into why so many young girls are anti-feminist morons). I’m not above that shit. But I do find myself often worn down in jaded hopelessness about the future due to things like turning on the television, talking to people at work about anything that actually matters, and reading comments on the internet.

Britain dislikes America. THIS IS NOT NEWS. I went to University in the UK and spent a lot of time there pursuing a long distance relationship that was way too expensive for us to maintain. I know how often just revealing my (bland, newscaster, standard american) accent could create trouble, and occasionally cause people to be incredibly rude to me. The UK hates America for politics, our lack of empathy and intellectuality, but also because our worst bits of culture have invaded and raped their own. Every aspect of UK life has started to become Americanized, you can ask anyone, they’re bitter as hell about it. Every bad tv show they have is a remake of an American one (or was originally inspired by an American show and upon airing then inspired US to remake it into an EVEN SHITTIER show). Where do you think CHAVS came from?! The re-interpretation of shitty American culture. The trickle down into Britain and the filter it has drained through has created something really… weird, to be honest.

JLO, some late 90s chav inspo

the best chav EVER

I asked everyone why Katie Price was famous, no one knows.

I definitely understand the hatred of a cultural identity being swept away for the import of a new, dumbed down, plastic boob loving one. It is sad and frustrating. Everyday. And at the same time, I find myself irritated at the ignorance of how it has happened. Does anyone honestly think that the poor, fat Americans made you import all of our stupid shit to your country? They may support the horrible pandering crap that has become our pop culture, but who is to blame for the strange imitation of it that has taken place? Corporations run this country, bleed the under privileged dry, keep them spread out because the cost of living in an urban or richly cultural area is far too expensive for them, and then since they’ve created a mass society devoid of any kind of nation-wide political consciousness (hey, sound familiar, Britain? remember that thing called COLONIALISM?), the average American buys whatever it is fed without question. And when it is fed to the UK, I don’t see any problems with it being eaten up just the same. By this logic, everyone in the UK must also be a poor fat mcdonald’s and taylor swift loving asshole, but you take the bus a lot more.

What does any of this have to do with Fincher’s American remake of Stieg Larsson’s Swedish book turned film? Fincher’s version is good. Really good. It’s not necessarily comparable to the also excellent Swedish film. I don’t think it is a mark of incompetence to want to re-imagine something, or for English speakers to want to see a revision of a story they appreciate from a closer cultural standpoint. It may be indulgent. Another commenter on the Guardian’s review mentions that this is basically like complaining someone has made a new Shakespeare adaptation (which is maybe a BIT higher on the totem than Larsson’s Millennium trilogy in the works of great literature, but Shakespeare also never wrote a woman character as fierce as Lisbeth without having her tamed or shamed).

But the fact is, I don’t care if anyone dislikes this film (although, uh, it says something about you probably). I care about the fact that people who want to be considered world citizens are idiotic enough to just claim it was created because Americans are too stupid and lazy to read subtitles— and use this as an excuse to talk about how pathetic underprivileged American are— rather than (the obvious) that it would MAKE A LOT OF ALREADY RICH PEOPLE MONEY, which is kind of a problem these days? and the English really need to get over how much they hate Americans if they’re going to continuously import American culture like it is their BUSINESS these days.

i just. hate. IDIOTIC PEOPLE. im sorry. okay. im sorry that i can be judgmental and tend to...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:01:01 -0500

i just. hate. IDIOTIC PEOPLE. im sorry. okay. im sorry that i can be judgmental and tend to complain a lot about stuff i dont like and that im so cynical. im not actually fucking sorry! but i am “sorry.” about all that.

but i dont see why when shit in the world is this dumb that people should just act like everything is OKAY and not TOTALLY EMBARRASSING and FUCKING LAME. exactly WHY are people not embarrassed about the things they like/do and not having any taste, and HOW are people not throwing things and freaking their shit over how stupid everything that is shoved down their throats is?! they are just content to actually be told what to like and how to act and they just do it and dont notice how totally devoid of anything meaningful or interesting or creative or intelligent it is? like im just supposed to be happy that i cant go a whole day in public without taylor swift invading my fucking life? because she is EVERYWHERE and i just want her to GO AWAY. SO BAD. i know i wrote before about why she sucks, i could write more about it. but i just want her to go.away.forever. i want all of this horrifying stuff im constantly bombarded with to a-bomb itself into nothingness. i mean, Whitney ??? WTF.

and i really want people who claim sexism doesn’t exist anymore to be shattered into pieces by reading a goddamn book or finding out factual information or observing everyday actions and thinking about where they actually stem from because sexism is, i dont know, the foundation of our society and how people interact? i want girls who claim they are “NOT feminists!” to be slapped in the face with some fucking information about ~*feminism*~. look, im glad you think claiming not to be a feminist will make you more attractive to the male gender because then they wont think you are ‘crazy’ or ‘irritating’ or ‘serious.’ at least then youre sort of getting an idea about how men treat women and believe they should behave. GIRLS ARE SOOO ANNOYING, UGH! IM NOT LIKE A REGULAR GIRL, IM A COOL GIRL (PLEASE LIKE ME). WOMEN ARE JUST PARANOID CRAZEBALL MACHINES AND WE NEED TO STOP HASSLING MEN WITH THIS ~*FEMINIST*~ STUFF! WOMEN NEED TO BEHAVE IN WAYS THAT MAKE DUDES LIKE US! i think one thing in my life that was actually really awesome was in my 11th grade english class, my really young awesome male teacher asked for anyone who was a feminist to raise their hand. i think 2 people did. he was like, “really? because did you know that being a feminist really just means NOT HATING WOMEN?!”

but LOL whatevs i must just be ugly and need male attention to be angry about stuff like that!

my favorite scene from Mad Men is when Joan’s husband is like “you have no idea what it’s like to want something your whole life and not get it!” and then she just smashes a vase over his head.

Normal Dude Things

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:59:48 -0500

one thing that really really pisses me off (i think we are up to #8135739 on the things i hate list) is how it is acceptable for young men to be dirty and disorganized. the dirty and disorganized part isn’t the part that really pisses me off (although i am disturbed by lack of cleanliness- not that i am the CLEANEST person in the WORLD, but i’d say i am cleaner than 75% of the people i have ever lived with), it’s the ‘acceptable’ part. it’s like it’s acceptable for guys to be disgusting because their whole lives they’ve been taught that *GIRLS* are the ones who clean things, leading to their derelict behavior just being a ‘normal dude thing.’ it’s only a fucking ‘normal dude thing’ because you grew up in a culture where women aren’t supposed to have any interests or hobbies or be bread winners and therefore their time is disposable and they can spend it doing stuff like tidying and generally TAKING CARE OF THINGS. but men have INTERESTS and REAL THINGS TO DO unlike women so they don’t have ‘time’ to clean, obviously!

all cleaning products on tv are CLEARLY advertised towards women (with some like Mr Clean even being generous enough to give women a sexy bald roided out pirate dude on the bottle to fantasize about while they’re scrubbing their lives away). i can’t fucking stand anytime an ad for a cleaning product comes on and its always Mom washing her greasy burned casserole plate that fed the hungry junior soccer team! Mom dancing with the swiffer like tom cruise in risky business, go on with your bad self girl! Mom busting those soiled laundry stains in half the time- now that she has a spot remover she has real independence, women’s lib fuck yeah! also let’s not forget about ‘feminine hygiene’ products in which women have a *special* fucking need to be clean, as seen in Girl smiling to herself about how FRESH her naturally dirty and gross vagina smells now! (which is then followed by Dude has girls that want to fuck him because he’s *showered*!)

it’s like your mother always cleaned up all of your shit and nagged you about it, and once you’ve moved out your girlfriend is the one who nags and cleans. and its just normal because GIRLS ARE JUST CLEAN BY NATURE, THEY’D JUST RATHER SPEND THEIR TIME NOT DOING AWESOME THINGS. and GOD FORBID a girl is *messy*, it is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. mostly to other females but also to men if the not cleaning involves their shit. haven’t done your laundry in a month because you haven’t run out of underwear and the machine in your building only takes $10 and $20 bills (like mine)? -are you M or F? if M: that’s totally fine! go have a beer and relax! if F: HOW DO YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF? GTFO! …there are many girls who are seriously disgusting, i am aware. and, aside from my natural disposition of being repulsed by living in filth, i sort of want to say more power to them for not giving a shit. but women are SUPPOSED to be neat and organized and clean or it’s not ATTRACTIVE to men! it’s okay for them to be dirty, they’re just being GUYS!

i can so see a dude reading that and being like “no, i like a girl who isn’t so nit-picky and obsessed with cleanliness! i like her to be messy and disorganized and quirky and a FREE SPIRIT like kirsten dunst in some early 2000s movie or something!”

oh really? okay so how about this free spirit leaving pubes and body hair and piss on the floor of the bathroom when you come over? and how about she spills food all over the stove and leaves it to crust over for months? a totally clogged sink full of dishes and rotting food? a sticky floor covered in trash? or maybe she vomits on the carpet somewhere and doesnt really ever clean it up? sheets that could rip in half they’re so stiff with semen? because sure as fucking HELL i have seen all of these as ‘normal dude things!’ but if a girl did this a guy would never tolerate it. pretty sure you still want a free spirit who takes care of her living space, dudes.

i believe in washing things and sanitizing surfaces and keeping shit not gross. i just do. i think everyone should. but dont you just love how most times when you go to an apartment full of dudes it is FUCKING UNLIVABLE? even professional dudes. crusted grossness everywhere and just general unkempt ridiculousness? (okay obviously there ARE clean guys, many of them, this is a FACT… but an unreliable one) it pisses me off because it’s just like so INGRAINED in boys that they don’t have to spend their time taking care of shit because someone else (*ahem*) will do it for them. oh right, they just aren’t used to living on their own! awwww… they dont have mom around anymore, they dont know what to do! i’m honestly supposed to accept that they ‘just dont care’ about cleanliness as much as girls do? -they don’t care because they dont THINK about it because they were never made to have to! for fuck’s sake!

i dont really want to keep going on about this ‘normal dude thing!’ category and what goes in it, like how rape could probably qualify by considering how common it is. most of the time when i hear men argue about a ‘normal woman thing!’ it’s utter crap. “women can get out of trouble with cops if they FLIRT because theyre PRETTY! HOW IS THAT FAIR?!” oh ok so because a cop may want to fuck us- MAY want to, that’s the first part, because if the woman doesnt happen to be the cops standard of ‘fuckable’ then she is pretty much worthless and gets the ticket, right?- we’re supposed to be grateful that a person of law enforcement will look at us and think some variation of “oh she has nice tits, maybe if she shows some more cleave and she gives me a bit more of what i want out of this interaction, i’ll ignore her committing this traffic violation. women are just bad drivers! we all know that!” any kind of ‘normal woman thing’ is usually just a shitty effect of ‘normal dude thing.’ like waxing your snatch is a normal woman thing, because it’s a normal dude thing for guys to not like any body hair on a woman, which is caused by People Who Told Us That Was Normal, like porn stars and celebrities and other intellectuals whom we should all really be listening to.

maybe if people weren’t currently like, the kind of beings who cheered about mentally disabled and racially discriminated individuals being executed by rick perry or made ‘american idol’ exist, i would feel more hopeful about things? maybe i wouldn’t feel so irritated and disturbed about people if they weren’t so easily influenced by the lowest common denominator of total thoughtless bullshit? i don’t know.