Personal opinions are expressed here which are not endorsed by any workplace of which I am a part.
https://t.co/QVonS7OWmM
May 3, 2022 • 35 tweets • 7 min read
A particularly cruel and unnecessary part of the recent racist set of events re: the book review of The Bright Ages is that many people have assumed Dr MRO ~brought it on herself by "seeking clout" i.e. speaking about her experience. It's misreading hypervisibility as power.
Misreading hypervisibility this way presumes that presence equals acceptance (it does not), that there can be no white norm if this presence exists (uh, wrong), and that hypervisibility equals power and this power will inevitably be misused (visbility is not the same as power).
May 1, 2022 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
I'm always wary of people who call talking about invisible bias made visible 'histrionics' or the like, largely because I've been on the other side of it. I've had the points I've made about raced nationalisms repeatedly called 'less essential' to critical reading, even when not.
And so much of it happens through editorial processes and how we talk about them, through quiet suggestions to read more generously, to offer softer critique, to be more acceptable to the status quo by being more accepting of it. I've had entire decades of discomfort.
Mar 6, 2022 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Dad is finally watching No Time To Die and explaining to me how sexy Daniel Craig looks in his tux, though not as sexy as the tux Vesper Lynd makes him wear. He'squoting "there are tuxes and *tuxes*" and giggling to himself.
I'm having him decide who he prefers as the better Bond: Roger Moore or Daniel Craig. (His favourite is still Sean Connery). After several grimaces and thoughtful faces and I've been informed he will "make the right choice" at the end of this film.
Jan 13, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Some days science reporting is amazingly weird and it makes me so happy. "... a new discovery reveals some planets might look more like a potato." inverse.com/science/egg-sh…
Petition to rename the big bang "that spicy planetary potat mash."
Jan 11, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Immense amounts of 'what the actual fuck' here. Firstly, genders outside the binary have always existed. TERF claims that trans, non-binary, and agender identities are somehow colonial is so much ahistorical bullshit, I don't even know where to start.
And yes, Vaishnavi Sundar is transphobic, has been transphobic for actual years. Just. NO.
Nov 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This panel on decolonial approaches is... messy, at best. I'm deeply suspicious of any approach that by default assumes precolonial cultures lacked violences or oppression and want to mythologise them in ways that fail to acknowledge contemporary contexts and community needs.
If we're unwilling to acknowledge the complexity of precolonial cultures as histories that are also messy, what we're pretending (at best) to reclaim is a myth, and usually one prone to co-option by particular forms of nativism. I'm very wary of this turn to almost fetishization.
Nov 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I don't know how often I have to say this but: it's totally okay to admit that you're not well-versed enough on a topic to have anything of worth to add or publish. It's not false modesty to admit a genuine limitation, and it's okay to learn things at a pace that works for you.
I am so often confused by the resistance to this. It's okay to just be interested in a field without publishing in it or positioning oneself as cutting-edge, particularly if there's nothing of worth added by one's contribution. Not everything needs a contribution and that's fine.
Oct 23, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
I can't say I'm surprised. I've held for a long time now that the OTW is effectively somewhere between overt white supremacists and a ridiculously apt example of Bonilla-Silva's theorisation of racism without the racists (i.e. I'm too progressive/ nice to be/ know a racist).
Not for nothing, but the assumption that antiracist work is erasure/ censorship/ is coming from "outsiders" & not those in fannish communities is absolutely white supremacy. Literally look at dog whistle discussions of CRT or any attempt to decenter whiteness; it's right here.
Oct 19, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
#LRT A reminder that Adani has been so heavily involved in environmental destruction across multiple countries that this claim to be invested in renewable energy is (mediocre) PR at best. For anyone looking for a starter on this, here you go: adaniwatch.org
We should remember that Adani's sponsorship of the Science Museum is hardly the most ridiculous thing we've heard, as he is seeking to speak at COP26 - a fact that almost everyone with an ounce of common sense has called a blatant attempt at greenwashing. marketforces.org.au/adani-must-not…
Oct 16, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Taking a break from writing tonight. Settled in with my yuzu tea and listening to this lecture by Tanya Titchkosky:
As she's discusses accessible toilets, I'm flashing back to my own ex-institution that added in one accessible toilet (for the NAAC points) but insisted on keeping it locked with the key in the principal's office. Despite all my efforts, I could not get them to leave it unlocked.
Sep 8, 2021 • 54 tweets • 10 min read
I've just read the standfast and am already headdesking.
"Within three to six years, he imagined ships being repurposed as floating medical clinics." THIS IS ALREADY A THING. THEY HAVE BEEN A THING SINCE WWI.
Aug 22, 2021 • 321 tweets • >60 min read
Pondering the ramifications of livetweeting my watch of #TheGreenKnight. How horny is too horny for main? Cause we're going to approach that event horizon VERY rapidly, friends. Lockdown has been a LONG dry spell.
Oh, I really like this mix of lute with the percussion of the water dropping! Nice. #TheGreenKnight
