tag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965A Meaningless TitleDavid NewgreenDavid Newgreen2013-09-07T14:07:54Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965:177590Quotes From the Abyss2013-09-07T14:07:54Z2013-09-07T14:07:54Zdepressedpublic0Things Tony Abbott, newly elected Prime Minister, has said over the years:<br /><br />"If we’re honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband … you find that he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he’s employing someone while he is in fact a boss." - 2002<br /><br />"I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak." - 2009<br /><br />"I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons" - 2010<br /><br />"Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia." - 2010<br /><br />"Climate change is absolute crap" - 2010<br /><br />"Now, I know that there are some Aboriginal people who aren’t happy with Australia Day. For them it remains Invasion Day. I think a better view is the view of Noel Pearson, who has said that Aboriginal people have much to celebrate in this country’s British Heritage." - 2010<br /><br />"There may not be a great job for them [Aborigines] but whatever there is, they just have to do it, and if it’s picking up rubbish around the community, it just has to be done." - 2010<br /><br />But, hey, at least he'll stop the boats, right?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=4thofeleven&ditemid=177590" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965:166571Truly Shocking2012-11-25T07:46:55Z2012-11-25T07:46:55Zpublic0<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: smaller;">SWEDEN'S largest toy chain has pictured boys holding baby dolls and girls playing with swords and guns in its Christmas catalogue.<br /> - </span><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/world/genderneutral-toy-catalogues-leave-the-boy-holding-the-baby-20121124-2a0g6.html"><span style="font-size: smaller;">The Age</span></a></div><br />That this would be suprising enough to be worth reporting on in the modern world is... just plain depressing.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=4thofeleven&ditemid=166571" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965:164644The Best Thing to Happen in Australian Politics in a Long Time...2012-10-09T15:46:22Z2012-10-09T15:46:22Zpublic0<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-09/gillard-vs-abbott-on-the-slipper-affair/4303618">Julia Gillard calls Abbott on his mysoginy, double standards, and general ass-holery</a><br /><br />Hopefully people will listen to this, and Abbott's pathetic attempts to improve his image with women without ever altering his nasty attitudes or behavior will be seen as the sham they are...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=4thofeleven&ditemid=164644" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965:156114Black Widows2012-04-05T10:36:15Z2012-04-05T10:36:15Zpublic0So here’s an interesting thing: the new DC comics reboot of Wonder Woman has made some… changes to the Amazons. Normally an idealistic utopia of immortals focused to a greater or lesser degree on consensual bondage, the Amazons now...<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: smaller;">…go to sea every once in a while to force men to procreate with them. When they are done with the unsuspecting sailors, they murder them and dump their bodies overboard. Nine months later, some have daughters and are very happy while the rest give up their sons to be sold into slavery…(<a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/wonder-woman-comics-and-the-violation-of-the-amazons#">link</a>)<br /><br /></span></div>So, yeah, bit of a change in theme there. <br /><br /><br />What’s interesting is that this is, apparently, part of a storyline that tries to bring the elements of Greek mythology that have always vaguely been in the background of the comic back to the forefront. Except.<br /><br />Well, except that’s not how the Amazons reproduced in mythology. In Greek mythology, traditionally the Amazons had a deal worked out with an all-male tribe, the Gargareans. Every year or so, they met up, had lots of sex, and any male children from the last year would be turned over to their fathers to be raised by them. That’s it. No murder, no rape, nothing like that at all.<br /><br />I find it faintly astonishing that the ancient Greeks – the <em>ancient Greeks </em>– could conceive of an all-female society existing that wasn’t determined to go out and kill all the menz, but that a twenty-first century western comic writer apparently can’t.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=4thofeleven&ditemid=156114" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-05:594965:131502Review: Sucker Punch2011-04-10T04:50:16Z2011-04-10T04:50:16Zpublic0<span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://4thofeleven.dreamwidth.org/131502.html#cutid1">What to make of a film like this?</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=4thofeleven&ditemid=131502" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments