The P-Word and What Do We Do About It?

I just read this awesome article by John Scalzi presenting a somewhat overly simple yet incredibly eloquent analogy to explain how privilege works in society. Go read it. (Yes, it's a really simple analogy, that's why it's an analogy and not a treatise on the subject. Rhetoric is a thing we use to communicate; let's not get all huffy and post-structuralist on it just yet).

In the comments, there's this common theme of "ok, so I get it [sort of], now what do you want me to do about it?" and to those comments, my first reaction is - I don't think you actually grok what the man just wrote, so maybe... read it again and then we can chat? Maybe? This comment of course comes on the heels of those who totally do not get it at all (ever) who then point out how people with 'higher difficulty settings' complain too much... and it's like, who here is complaining? Oh wait. I remember. You guys at the easy difficulty settings are whining about how hard it is to know what to do or how even though it's easier for you, you still don't automatically win... or something? I don't actually know what those folks are complaining about.

So, now that folks have read it [again] and the grok is sinking in to the brain, we are still left with the question: What do we, as members of a society*, do about privilege? And, what role, if any, do those of us at varying difficulty levels have to play in the games of others who may be playing on a harder setting?

I therefore submit the Bee-Approved Action Plan:

Avengers! (Spoilers for all the movies ever!)

Like everyone else on the internet, I saw the Avengers this weekend and loved it.

The Spoiler Free Review: The script was good - lots of funny moments and the dialog and plot actually made sense! Chris Hemsworth continues to be very pretty and Black Widow is so BA and awesome, it's not even funny. This is also the first Marvel movie featuring Pepper Potts wherein she is not a dingbat - in the comics, Pepper is pretty sweet and at least in this movie, they let her have lines that an adult woman with self-respect would actually say. They also gave Bruce Banner a personality/motivation outside of being the Hulk which was exciting.

I left the theater wanting to see the movie again and really wanting them to make a Black Widow movie. Black Widow in Iron Man 2 is a hot chick in a painted on costume pretending to kick asses; Black Widow in The Avengers movie is a scarily BA spy with mad skills who is awesome and who has a reason to be kicking so much ass.

The Spoiler-full Review (for serious, don't read this if you haven't already seen the movie):

Oh, Racism!

I find it really, really hard to believe that so many Tea-Party types are angry at Obama for his policies and not because he's black.

At first, I thought... well, yes, some people are really racist (racists come in all colors/shapes/sizes and against all colors/shapes/sizes even their own) and yes, some people are really stupid, and yes, some rich people benefit a lot from other people being stupid and racist - but, I thought to myself, most Americans can't be that bad.

Now, however, I'm just not that sure.

A Good Day

The past 24 hours have been really nice.

Friday after work, we got all dolled up for a "Hoity Toity" Edwardian Dinner party with friends. In case you were wondering, maternity Edwardian garb is a hard look to pull off but I think I managed with a long dress (out of stretchy fabric so it hung nicely on the ever-growing belly), velvet 3/4 sleeve shrug, elbow length gloves, a long strand of pearls, earings, a bracelet (worn over the gloves, of course), and a poofy bun complete with pearled comb. Boybee wore his black suit with a red shirt, gold and black vest (it's awesome and from a vampire costume he had made for him back in the day), a black bow tie, and he had his hair slicked. No pictures, but I assure you that we looked marvelous. Everyone got silly names and titles (I was a Marquise and Boybee was a Colonel), dinner was served on china with silver flatware and goblets. It was all very silly and fun, after dinner we shared in our love for Gilbert and Sulivan and the Simpsons (especially this!).

Saturday, I slept in, ate breakfast, woke up Boybee and then took the cats to the vet. No worries, they're healthy as can be, but it was time for their annual shots. After bringing my poor babies home, we did some chores (laundry and clearing out the library so that Boybee can paint while I'm away for work), and then off to Target to create a baby registry. Registering for baby stuff was not nearly as fun as registering for our wedding - mainly because we have no clue what we want for a baby. We put a few things that we liked on the registry and hopefully anyone who wants to buy us things will buy us things that they think are cute or will be useful.

We then headed to Smoothie King, got delicious smoothies and took a walk around our alma mater's campus which is probably my favorite place to take a walk in this city. It's gorgeous and looks exactly like what I imagine a university should look like, plus it's a smoke free zone and we can reminisce about our early courtship. Our walk ended by one of our favorite middle eastern restaurants so of course we got hummus, shish tauk, and lamb kabob for dinner. How could we not?!

Now, I think we'll watch a two part episode of Star Trek Voyager and make an early night of it. All in all, a pretty fantastic weekend so far.

Two Articles That I Like and One That Has Me Thinking

Feminism, ZIonism and Bears!* Oh My!

A Milestone

Last night, I had some friends over. We ordered pizza, ate TWO KINDS OF CAKE, and played a bunch of games. This was not the milestone referred to in the title of this post, though two kinds of cake makes any gathering grand. We played Sentinels of the Multiverse and beat Citizen Dawn on advanced mode without letting her flip!

This Canadian will fuck you up.

Even the amazing feat was not the milestone! I was a member of a team that achieved this once before - mainly because I think the only way to beat her on advanced is to keep her from flipping because... ouch!* No, the milestone in my life was that for the first time EVER, I won a game of Apples to Apples! It came down to a tie breaker between two of us, so everyone else judged on the verb "Spunky" we each submitted one card chosen from our hands and then top decked the second card we submitted as a randomizer. I won with Carnival Workers - totally Spunky. :P

I am very proud of myself. 

*I've often thought though that if you could get her to flip by turn three (which is the earliest she could) and making the priority being mitigating damage to heros and building up reserves until she flips back, but there are more unknowns and potential environment traps when you let her flip.

I am pregnant/alive/successful today, because of birth control

I am pregnant today because when I was 16 years old, my dad brought me to the OBGYN and my doctor (who I hope to have deliver my baby this summer!) put me on hormonal birth control.