Friday...

One of the things I hate being told is that "This is the way X is so you will just need to accept it."

It's a bullshit statement and if everyone just accepted the way things were we'd still all be living in caves banging rocks together. Change happens because people want to move beyond the constraints of the now into something better. Women got the right to vote because a small group demanded change and started a movement that we are still fighting for to this day. Slavery was abolished, religious freedoms are more widely accepted and so on but all these changes came about because someone somewhere said hey hang on a minute this isn't right and fought against the status quo.

Telling me to accept things the way they are, telling me that my fight is useless because things are the way they are and they won't change no matter what I do is a red fucking flag.

You know what it's a bullshit statement from a scared majority who don't want things to change because they are perfectly happy with the way things are, they way things run in their favour and change scares the shit out of them.

When I played Star wars Galaxies I railed vehemently against the "NO TRADE" aspect of the game and time and again got told I should just give it up it's never going to change. Well I and the group of people fighting this with me didn't give up and eventually we won. The no trade items were reverted back to tradable. It may have only been a game but what it showed me was that no matter what other people say if you, as a human, want change to come, you have to fight for it and you have to be stubborn and persevere.

And this is how I feel about sexism and the objectification of women. Yes sex sells, though not as much as it used to. Women,  well people actually, are slowly growing tired of this. And men, smart men see through it. I get that some males of the species are led by the lower brain but I and many others don't buy into this BS that this is THE ONLY way to sell stuff, to entice guys to read books or get them interested in a particular subject / object / etc.... I think most men are actually smarter than that.

In the world of Sci-fi and Fantasy the myth that it's a totally male dominated arena is slowly being busted. Girls and women are a huge force to be reckoned with and while it may be that the jocks with cocks think they rule the roost I think they'd be surprised. Women spend a lot of money on books, clothes and toys and if there were more items available I think they'd see how much more they could make if they start marketing and catering to the female market as well. Until then I will fight for it. I will push against the norm. I won't accept that I have to take what's given even if it puts women down or marginalizes them simply because (some) men prefer tits and ass to well written, well thought out, strong female characters. I get this is an uphill battle, I get I may not see significant change in my lifetime but that doesn't mean I won't rail against it anyway.

So telling me that this is the way things are and it's never going to change is only going to strengthen my resolve to initiate and fight for change.  I know change is scary but it's worth it in the end.

ps. I also tend to get testy when people say I can't do something because I'm a girl and I've fought this one long and hard as well but this would be another post for another day. 

so I'm wordy...

I read a book while on the trip to Frankfurt. Coding Isis by David Roys. It was a free kindle so I had it on my ipod for the trip. It started off really well, a murder, a set up, mystery some mayhem but round about 2/3rds into the book I was starting to go... huh? He introduces a character, Wyn,  who serves no real purpose. I kept waiting for this guy to do something but he doesn't. Is he a bad guy? is he a good guy? Will he have to die to protect the wife? will he turn out to be a spy? Is he an alien from Mars? No seriously he has no purpose. If he wasn't in the book I wouldn't miss him and the fact that I notice this at all telly you how annoying this was, how noticeable the characters lack of purpose was. Yeah I know he was there to keep the wife say, but he doesn't because there's never a threat to the wife. She was never in danger.  It made me think of Chuck Wendig and a bunch of other authors who have written how to write advice. They tell you you no matter how minor the character they must serve a purpose. Every character thinks he / she is the most important being in the galaxy.

When the character of Wyn departs I was left with a distinctly WTF expression. I actually asked myself out loud, why the hell were you even there? And it annoyed me. The ending of the book did that as well. What started out so well ended far too quickly. I like happy endings, happy endings are good but a REALLY great book leaves you with questions as well. Leaves you with I want more. That was a great end but I want a lot more. This book ended with a slamming door and I could care less about what happens next which is sad because it started off really well. The bad guy dies horribly, the good guy wins the day and the faithful wife stays faithful. okay... next. Why am I writing about this? Well because it annoyed the crap out of me. I hate it when a book starts off well and then goes belly up. Like someone told the author okay you have to wrap this up in the next ten pages or else, oh and by the way we want you to add a guy named ( ---) because.... what ever. yeah. blah.

It seems to me that so many writers ( including movies tv etc) start out of the gate really well but when it comes to closure they seem to have some issues. 

On the other scale of things is Kiefer Sutherland's new TV show Touch.

I like tv shows that think outside the box a bit. Sadly these are exactly the kinds of TV shows that don't last. I am hoping this one does. This is a show about connections. About how we, as humans, are all inexplicably tied together and what we do matters. I've been saying this for a really long time. We make choices and those choices have consequences. As a single human being I have no idea how far anything I do or say goes. It's like tossing a pebble into a pond the ripples keep going.

This particular show managed to give me goosebumps right out of the box. It's a little bit magical, a little bit mystical and a whole lot about humanity needing to connect. To be noticed, to be loved. And that's the bottom line.

The internet has made it so much easier to connect the globe. We are able to communicate on such a level that's never been seen before. It's making some people very scared and once the majority of the globe figures out how to wield this power of communication effectively I think we will see a massive shift in how stuff gets done. It's already happening but the powers that be are terrified and work hard to block it at any cost.

So anyway, this show... which tells the story of a father trying to communicate with his autistic son. This is a rich complex show, it weaves stories like tangled piles of string. We get tiny glimpses into lives of others and then we move onward. I like when martin gets it. That a-hah moment. It's wonderful, it gives me goosebumps.

I personally like this show because it's about good things.  About how we need each other and should try to help each other way more than we do. It's a very positive show so far. So I hope it doesn't get canned. I do so think we need far more of smart shows like this than moronic reality tv.