Mar 18

SR

Posted on by

Fear is a message. But it isn’t always a useful one.

A lot of early feminist internet writing stressed fears, maybe most famously a now-offline piece called “Schrödinger’s Rapist” that was about the reluctance to talk to strange men in public. This was not a bad piece, but, like a lot of pieces from around that time, got steadily expected to do more and more work it couldn’t really do, and was never meant to. It was trying to explain to men why a woman might give them the cold shoulder and became, instead, a kind of total explanation of how women feel when men talk to them all the time.

It did; that piece became the excuse a lot of women used for why they treated men like garbage all the time. “Because every man might be a rapist, I am now going to treat them all horribly! It’s my right and duty as a feminist!”

I mean, terrible people of both genders are always going to find an excuse to treat others poorly, but that piece was the excuse for a whole lot of women to let their inner sociopath out. It was disappointing to see because I thought it was a good piece, for what it was. But misapplied, it was harmful.

Mar 18

Somely Fans

Posted on by

What a fun song! It’s a few years old now, but glad the liberal fear of sex and their absurd prudishness hasn’t take over everything everywhere.

Don’t have time to write an entire exegesis on how this differs from the performative sexuality of “WAP,” and even though I think the lyrics of WAP are funny, that song leaves all sensuality behind for a catalog of fetishes and a list of “what I will do for various fees on my OnlyFans site.” It’s not celebratory or lustful — it’s more of a consumer wishlist.

“La dalle,” however, is about lust and is far more sensual and interesting and feels like sex actually works. “Ravenous” is a better elucidation of that craving, that hunger, of pure lust. In reality, no woman (nearly) sits around thinking about her wet-ass pussy, especially in the act, in the moment — just as no man in the moment thinks about his hard cock. That’s all for the page, for show, for a silly song that’s neutralizing of desire while ostentatiously aspiring to be its exponent. “La dalle” uses the metaphor of food for sex, and though that’s common in songs it’s also quite apropos because unlike what modern liberals believe, sex is just as vital for human flourishing and its own way is just as essential as food. I don’t think that link of sustenance to sex is at all a mistake on L.E.J.’s part. They know what they are playing at.

“WAP” is the algorithmic obverse of prudishness, another aspect of that disconnected and alienating future of screen sex, combined with terror of the real fleshy sweaty act, while “La dalle” is playful and in its controlled choreography of strings and waiters (in the video) and uses this antonymic juxtaposition to further highlight the strength of those unconstrained urges and how they function in non-algorithmically-contaminated human psyches.

Mar 18

Radio Voice

Posted on by

I like listening to radio people in French! They speak so clearly compared to others that I don’t have to rewind constantly to catch something.

Mar 17

Gun Comp

Posted on by

I wonder if one of the reasons guns became the go-to badass weapon in the minds of insecure American (mostly) men is that you can be obese and out of shape and still fire a gun? Guns as a sort of Fat Acceptance weapon for inadequate men.

Being a real badass would involve practicing an actual martial art, or archery, or even learning how to build something. Guns are easy; even a 400 pound complete uncoordinated moron can fire a Glock. (Usually not well, but the thing will go “bang bang” for anyone.) I bet that’s a huge part of their appeal — they allow the mediocre to have some cachet of their power.

Reminds me, as soon as I am vaccinated, I am going to try my hand at archery. Should be fun if nothing else.