General Internet Recommendations. Or: What, in Cyberspace, is making me happy right now.

[capri0mni]

So: my rant against awareness ribbons started getting comments right away, and giving me all sorts of ideas (and social permission) for Anti-Pity designs for my Zazzle store.

But.

Those ribbons are surprisingly tricky to draw, and thinking about them, and what they represent (mostly, what they represent), is making me cranky.

So I am now taking a deliberate break and posting about things that make me un-cranky.

If I recall correctly, I think I have jesse_the_k to thank for this, but if not, I hope you know who you are:

Rolling around in my head
The author of this blog has worked as a counselor for folks with disabilities for 30 years; four years ago, he became disabled, and writes about the new insights that has given him. Currently, he's working around the Canada giving workshops on how to defend yourself against bullying. He updates daily, and his posts are a usually happy blend of Deep, Srs Bznz. and Silly bznz. And he writes well.

Ill Doctrine A video blog by New York City rapper, Jay Smooth. No, he doesn't do transcripts (Boo!), and I keep telling myself that I'll type them up. But even after a sixth or seventh viewing in a row, I keep getting so swept up in what he's saying that I actually forget to type.

So that's a bit of fail on my part. But it does make me happy, and that's what this post is about...

So, um, forgive my fail? and have this video on how to tell people they sound racist (a strategy that would also work for other ____-isms, too), from the height of the most recent Presidential campaign:

Comments

[darryl_van_horne]

Here, this might be helpful:

http://rubberstamping.about.com/od/shapetemplates/ss/AwarenessRibbonTemplate_2.htm

[chasingrainbows]

Oh gosh darn it, that's what I get for not logging in my mundane account. PLEASE IGNORE THE SHAMELESS PAUL GROSSNESS HERE.

[capri0mni]

Heh. I was wondering who that random person was,

Thanks for the link. I'll probably use it at some point soon. The design I was trying to draw orignially was a little cartoon me, buried up to my nose in a pile of many, many different colors of "awareness" ribbons, and that meant drawing them tiny and over and over again, and my pencil was getting stubby, and my good light was fading, and.... yeah. That was cranky making. I'll go at it again tomorrow, probably.

I'm still kind of hurt / scared that enough people think something as vague as "permanant disability" is enough of a horror to have a ribbon for it -- oh, noes! Some things we can't cure! What a tragedy!

[Also, annoyed that that "permanant disability" ribbon happens to be one of my favorite colors, that I'd ordinarily love to wear (Burgandy). And now, I'll probably be all self-conscious about it.]

[chasingrainbows]

My fault for having multiple tabs open. Why yes I do like to pretend I am possibly, maybe some sort of masculine entity of Wild Magic that traditional organised religion likes to classify as The Devil. >.>

That could prove useful for cutting, copying and pasting on all over, in that case.

I blame the 'Support the Troops' yellow ribbon magnets for starting that mess. I shudder every time I see one.

[chasingrainbows]

And I should probably add that I love Jay Smooth, and his cat too. He's spot on about this stuff. The problem is, often the person you're trying to call on something only ever tends to see the word 'racist' and flips out, even if you do make the distinction that what they SAID was probably racist, rather than calling them racist.

[capri0mni]

This is what I wrote in response to ghost_light, over on the "other side":

"...Of course, the first "ribbon campaign" that I ever remember was the anti-nuclear war/ international peace movement. My mother and I spent many sessions together making them: folding upside-down 'V's (no loop) from small snips of ribbon, the same blue as the UN flag, and sticking them on safety pins so people could wear them on their lapels at peace rallies. I don't know who came up with the symbolism, but the upside down V was specificly chosen to represent how the nuclear arms race, and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, could only lead to un-Victory.

And then, around the time that these ribbons were starting to be recognized, AIDS hit, and the activists working on that cause borrowed the ribbon idea, but made it their own color and design (adding the loop), and then, it was adapted for breast cancer, etc."

(That was about 1980, during Reagan's first term).

Then, came the first Iraq war in '91, and people were tying yellow ribbons around anything vertical that would hold still (after that Tony Orlando and Dawn song -- even though that song was actually about a convict getting out of jail for an unspecified crime). And then, some yahoo conflated the two symbols and it all went Plfflltghfththth!!

I mean, when it started out, back in the day, showing your support for disarmament and sufferers of AIDS were both equally socially radical. And it does kind of make me heartsick that something my mother and I did together as quiet symbols of Peaceful protest has become something so militant and hateful (Yes, Autism Speaks, I'm looking at you).

[chasingrainbows]

And sadly not the first time a symbol or idea has been coopted by others and repurposed for such. :/

[capri0mni]

No. But this time, for me, it feels personal (especially the anti-cp and "permanant disability" ones).

[chasingrainbows]

Oh, of course it is. It's very personal. And very upsetting as a result.

[capri0mni]

I think I'll write up a post, soon, about all the good awareness ribbons did, back in the day, and how, a generation or so, ago, they were a subtle, powerful way to actually raise awareness.

But how they've morphed into something very different, now: as an implement of patronizing, pitying attitudes, and social shaming.

Sort of like how the immune system is a very good thing, but if the body's checks and balances fail, it can lead to very, very bad things -- like juvenile diabetes and fibromialgia and all that.

[chasingrainbows]

There's also this sense of "LOOK AT ME I'M TOTALLY AN ALLY, LOOK HOW AWESOME I AM FOR DISPLAYING THIS MASS PRODUCED PIECE OF CHINESE MANUFACTURED CRAP, GIVE ME ALLY COOKIES NOW" going on.

[capri0mni]

LOL! This. Totally.

Some of the slogans I'm thinking of doing for my store:

"You want to show your support? Put down the Ribbon, and listen to me!

"Wear an Invisible Ribbon -- Find the Cure for Pityitus!"

"My Life =/= Your Fashion Accessory!"

[chasingrainbows]

How about, "You want to support me? STOP TALKING and LISTEN."

I like the last one a lot.

[capri0mni]

I like the last one a lot

Thanks. Thanks to a post trouble put up yesterday, pointing out the ugliness over in TV Tropes where people are complaining in comments about how people with disabilities are like robots in Uncanny Valley -- "It's like they're almost human and I'm disgusted by them!" -- I've put aside the ribbon design for now, and working on a trucker hat design (mesh hat with a foam front) that reads: "Yes, I can understand you (even your subtext!)"

Because, Damn! you would not believe the insulting, dehumanizing, things people say about folks with disabilities when the disabled people are sitting right there in front of them, because obviously they're too retarded to understand, anyway.

[chasingrainbows]

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but honestly, given the way at least one of my partner's own family members behaved towards him and his TG status over the phone with him, telling him he should be on Jerry fucking Springer because he was a freak? Nope, not surprised in the least. People are by and large selfish assholes.

[capri0mni]

Yeah, I don't really mind when random assholes are spewing s#*t. It's when "Special Ed" teachers are spewing this about their students that I want to start throwing things..

[trouble]

I had an email conversation with Jay Smooth about a year and a half ago where he swore up and down that providing transcripts was important to him and he'd start doing it soon. So.

If you go here: http://www.illdoctrine.com/2008/07/how_to_tell_people_they_sound.html and search for "transcript", someone else has written one.

(I mean, I assume it's that video. My computer crashes whenever I try to watch videos right now.)

[capri0mni]

Yup. That's the one.

My brain is basically shut for business until I sleep and wake up again, so I'll try again when there is fresh light coming through my office window.