LGBTAitp 27: Of Shoes, and Ships, and Sealing Wax

[Asta Kask]

I thought 'neurotypical' was the in vogue term? Which would be shortened to "typicals" or "typos".

There should be a term for a non-Aspie. I mean, not all non-Aspies are neurotypicals.

[Lix Lorn]

It's something like a hug machine:

xD

Lixie, can I get membership in your harem if I sing you a special song?

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Well, I ain't evil, I'm just good lookin'
Start a little fire, and baby start cookin'
I'm a hungry man
But I don't want pizza
I'll blow down your house
And then I'm gonna eat ya

Bring you to a simmer
Right on time
Run my greasy fingers
Up your greasy spine

You don't want to talk
So baby shut up
And let me drink the wine from your fur tea cup
Velcro candy, sticky sweet
Make my tattoos melt in the heat
Well, I ain't no veggie
Like my flesh on the bone
Alive and lickin' on your ice cream cone

Weren't you in already? xD

[Asta Kask]

No I believe I had you wearing a dog collar sitting by my dark throne and being scratched behind the ear.

[Coidzor]

This blog has brought me to tears. Just when I thought I was done reading it, I had a spike of anger and started to cry through a rather frustrated face.

I hope that there's some way to help such people, but I am not the one to do so.

It is. Saw her at a convention. There was another man there, I forgot his name. He's an influential member of Autism culture, which is why it's ticking me off that I forgot his name! Anyways, he called people with Asperger's Syndrome "Aspies", which is my go-to name for people diagnosed with AS now. I keep trying to get "Autsies" or "Auties" to work, but I always feel like I'm calling someone Australian.

I don't really have a name for normal people. I've tried "generic" and "neurotypical", but it never felt right. The best name just hit me though: John Does and Jane Does. Military terms never fit so right in my daily life.

I cannot think of a way to pronounce "autsies" that doesn't sound... unfortunate, and Auties is way too close to a type of car. :/

John Doe is more associated with law enforcement and coroner's offices than the military from what I've seen of popular culture, and "neurotypical" or whatever identifying term is appropriate are the way of it.

It's something like a hug machine:

Only en masse, yes?

[Lix Lorn]

No I believe I had you wearing a dog collar sitting by my dark throne and being scratched behind the ear.

That's several shades better. Can we keep that?

[Triscuitable]

xD

You'd be surprised how helpful that is to autistic children who don't like direct contact. I for one, appreciate hugs upon consent. Otherwise I tend to panic or back away. I'd much less laugh and more smile warmly.

I hope that there's some way to help such people, but I am not the one to do so.

I just hope that the end result is that he's happy. But I feel this can only end horribly.

I cannot think of a way to pronounce "autsies" that doesn't sound... unfortunate, and Auties is way too close to a type of car. :/

Exactly; as I said, it never sounded right.

John Doe is more associated with law enforcement and coroner's offices than the military from what I've seen of popular culture, and "neurotypical" or whatever identifying term is appropriate are the way of it.

John Doe is a term for missing or unidentified persons. It's basically the catch-all term for men. When you refer to a John Doe, you're generally talking about a normal guy. Jane Doe is the same, but refers to women.

[Coidzor]

I just hope that the end result is that he's happy. But I feel this can only end horribly.

One can only hope. Though I don't hope much, as I'm rather more fatalistic in my pessimism as to the chances of men in such a situation coming from such a background.

John Doe is a term for missing or unidentified persons. It's basically the catch-all term for men. When you refer to a John Doe, you're generally talking about a normal guy. Jane Doe is the same, but refers to women.

I already knew this. I was mostly just indirectly questioning why you seemed to be calling it a military term.

[Triscuitable]

One can only hope. Though I don't hope much, as I'm rather more fatalistic in my pessimism as to the chances of men in such a situation coming from such a background.

One of Gawker's editors is gay (maybe it was a letter from a reader, but I'm pretty sure it was an editor), but happily married to a woman. He's known her since they were children, and they now have a daughter. He's discussed that he's in love with her, that they have sex, and that he's following this lifestyle because of his beliefs.

I think he's hurting himself because of these decisions. Regardless, I'm not him, so I don't know what it feels like. It's his choice. Yes, this is a case where being straight is a lifestyle choice. Take that, anti-gay activists!

[Coidzor]

One of Gawker's editors is gay (maybe it was a letter from a reader, but I'm pretty sure it was an editor), but happily married to a woman. He's known her since they were children, and they now have a daughter. He's discussed that he's in love with her, that they have sex, and that he's following this lifestyle because of his beliefs.

I think he's hurting himself because of these decisions. Regardless, I'm not him, so I don't know what it feels like. It's his choice. Yes, this is a case where being straight is a lifestyle choice. Take that, anti-gay activists!

That doesn't so much help my pessimism so much as confirm a small part of it, but ok.

[SiuiS]

I think you can do that? There's a trans* friend of mine who uses a Facebook account under her chosen name, has her sex (because of course, Facebook doesn't differentiate ) listed as female, posts pictures of herself, etc., so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for you to make an account under a female persona...

No, my trouble is that I strictly use an iPhone, which means my account will be indelibly linked to my phone number, my GPS location, my device's contract and my device's activation account and iTunes account. It is like using Google actually; I get emails from people, an making things up here, the email says "Richard Custer ([email protected]) sent you a message", because somewhere, that person put their real name, even so far back as the mailing address of their amazon.com account they made a decade ago and linked to their Gmail account or something.

And by oppressive measures, I mean that Facebook enforces weird rules. I can't view things on my phone or computer without logging in to a Facebook roads picked account, it redirects me from a facebook profile to a 'sign in please' page. And it keeps track of where people sign in from, even so much as having other people able to check in and say "oh this photo was taken up in Utah" for me. Facebook is potentially devastating to any sense of privacy, and I cannot trust my hardware to comply when it is preprogrammed to work with certain software things against me.

Anyway, I just use my real first name (read: my chosen one :P), a made-up last name and absolutely no personal information whatsoever aside from stuff I have no choice but to have (and those are neither public nor even slightly detailed). There's one picture of me, but it's... Very unlikely that anyone I know would find it, especially considering how vague my location is and my avoidance of friending family members (the ones I tell totally understand).

I dislike friending people who aren't friends, personally. And I have a bad experience with MySpace; made a dummy account to pad out one of the games that required friends to cooperate, right? And I signed in to that account by accident and saw a bunch of messages from guys who all followed the pattern I telling me I was pretty, laughe about how I never sai anything back they must not be important haha, and then got verbally abusive. I quietly deleted everything and never went back.

Names aren't a problem though. I plan on shifting my current name just a touch, so I already have some prep work down for the eventual fall out. Including why is go for something as simple as Allen -> Ellen, or the like.

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Indeed. It's seriously messed-up how obsessed most cultures are with punishment. Like that somehow fixes the wrong or at least diminishes it (while also never being excessive or unnecessary)... Sometimes I wonder how common it would be if more people understood consent properly, if the energy directed and telling people not to rape were used to tell them how not to. Not to say that would stop it all, admittedly. :/

It's actually not bad in and of itself. It serves two purposes, really. Having a listed, well known punishment is a deterrent to stop people who want their jollies but don't want to be punished that bad. It also sets precedent that people who perform a crime knew there was a sanction against it, knew there was a punishment, and chose to act poorly anyway. Willful disobedience of the law is worse than an accident, so framing it so it is obviously willful enables more efficient punishment.

The problem only arises when punishment doesn't work. Someone breaks the rules, and I'd you don't punish them then the rule no longer exists. But I'd they get punished and keep at it, punishment will not suffice. So while sitting on your laurels and saying "it's cool, we will punish people who misbehave" is an incomplete method of establishing order, it's not completely bonkers. There needs to be an eye towards solving the cause as well as mitigating the symptoms, but I think it's better to have punishment and no cure than cure and no punishment.

Sure he wasn't being silly?

Yeah, we had some discussions about things like that he we really mad at all his gay friends who referred to themselves as women, too. It was interesting.

In other news, my mom smelled my nail polish the other day. She never uses it, though, so I was able to play dumb. That did make her a little... Twitchy, though (yesterday she smelled something that I couldn't and accused me of doing drugs, shortly before asking me if I was growing my nails out to be "a Dracula" (note that I've grown them out since I was in grade school, I just wasn't able to take good enough care of them to get them this long until somewhat recently)). o.O


~Bianca

As an aside, I love it when people misconstrue Dracula for a creature type, rather than an individual. My favorite use so far is "I feel like I have been beaten with a Dracula by king Kong".

Your parents though... Yeesh.

Yeah, after having read it, I realized that what came across in my paragraph there, was not really what I was trying to say. It isn't that we only have one person out there that will love us, or anything of the sort. But there is someone out there for us. Does that make sense? I have always been of the opinion that love is going to take the reins and you will end up loving whoever you are meant to love, men, women, both, neither.....whatever. My point, which I tent to not make very eloquently, is that love is always a possibility, and it will reach out and punch you right in the face, usually when you are least expecting it. Like you said, much better than I, don't follow the Yellow Brick Road, go down that red one that everyone forgets about....

Also, thank you for putting my words in a better order than I did.

aye, sorry about that. I know that's not how you meant it. I suppose that's how privilege works? It frames your thoughts such that your manners of speech and representation belie other possibilities. I would blame you coming across that way not on you, but on society which insists on these things so stringently. I used your post as a springboard because I felt it was relevant. I'm sorry for basically calling you out vocally on such a minor, and imagined, slight.

A drug addicted Dracula! You horrible, horrible... good-looking monster, you.

Seriously though, hope your mom doesn't freak too much.

"dude, smoke this!"
"oh cool! How much?"
"for you kid? Free."
"okay. So uh, why are you giving me drugs?"
"I'm thirsty, is all."
"what?"
"nothing, nothing. Don't you fret that sweet little neck of yours. Hey, need a light?"

I prefer the classic nosferatu. Did you know that one of the first 'modern' vampires, Carmilla, was a lesbian?

I did know that! At the time, vampire stories we're basically porn. They used intimations and a nod towards sensual pleasure as a stand in for lewdness and debauchery. Dracula loses some of his credibility when you realize he is a gigolo metaphor.

Which is too bad, when you consider Carmilla is basically the story of the best slumber party ever.

I have heard of that, but has yet to find the story.

I still need to dig more into the classics (only read Dracula by Bram Stoker so far), but I prefer the vampires of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so far. Still suffer from the odd inability to touch crosses, but entertaining and less childishly illogical than the Voivode of Wallachia was in the book. ^_^

Did like the Count's beard, though. Made me imagine a vampire Alan Moore. X3

I dunno. It all makes perfect sense, of you are willing to accept the premises as true. I'm against Buffy simply because a stake through the heart Gould not cause combustion. That's silly.

Unfortunately, while the book was fabulously written, and kept me from remembering anything else I read or did or thought during that time, for such was the Count's embrace; whenever I think of Dracula the fits to come to mind is that old man's silly haircut in the movie from the 90s.

Such a silly, silly haircut.

Wait, what does she think a "Dracula" is? Does she mean vampire? Does she mean goth or emo? Do vampires have long nails? I'm confused!

I've heard that a person I know turns out to be trans, but in a kind of adorable move, their significant other also turns out to be trans. So they swapped presented genders, and apparently also discussed just swapping their given names. I don't know if they did or not, I'm not very close to her (I knew her from LARPing ages ago). Unfortunately, I don't know her new name, so I have to refer to her by her old name, which sounds really strange now I know it's wrong cause it's like "[boy-name] has her holidays".

That is the best story.

I never think people are TRYING to upset me more, it's just that it's not a very helpful thing to say.

But they have every reason to think it is helpful. That's what sucks.

Phew, got a steady connection back. Backreading will proceed soon.

On the current subject of forget that, I've started writing a novel somehow, and I've not even backread everything yet.

I'm not sure how this whole epehmeral rewards thing on the Internet goes. Do I offer cookies? Do we assume you obtain '1 Internet' from a misunderstanding about someone winning the Internet being taken out of proper light?

I think a high five shall do. /)

I should found the country of Autstralia now.

Nah, then they would be confused with Oughtstralia. I wouldnt be surprised if you've never heard of them, they have literally nothing noteworthy about them as a country.

[Coidzor]

It's actually not bad in and of itself. It serves two purposes, really. Having a listed, well known punishment is a deterrent to stop people who want their jollies but don't want to be punished that bad. It also sets precedent that people who perform a crime knew there was a sanction against it, knew there was a punishment, and chose to act poorly anyway. Willful disobedience of the law is worse than an accident, so framing it so it is obviously willful enables more efficient punishment.

The problem only arises when punishment doesn't work. Someone breaks the rules, and I'd you don't punish them then the rule no longer exists. But I'd they get punished and keep at it, punishment will not suffice. So while sitting on your laurels and saying "it's cool, we will punish people who misbehave" is an incomplete method of establishing order, it's not completely bonkers. There needs to be an eye towards solving the cause as well as mitigating the symptoms, but I think it's better to have punishment and no cure than cure and no punishment.

Well now you're getting into both moral and political philosophy, which are two separate quagmires that are even less fun when you combine the both of them.

And kind of arguing an odd position considering what has been said.

[noparlpf]

If the issue were solved, a punishment wouldn't be necessary.

[Lix Lorn]

But they have every reason to think it is helpful. That's what sucks.

Waiting looks like a brief few moments for someone on the other side of it. For the person still waiting it's several small eternities.

[Saposhiente]

One of Gawker's editors is gay (maybe it was a letter from a reader, but I'm pretty sure it was an editor), but happily married to a woman. He's known her since they were children, and they now have a daughter. He's discussed that he's in love with her, that they have sex, and that he's following this lifestyle because of his beliefs.

I think he's hurting himself because of these decisions. Regardless, I'm not him, so I don't know what it feels like. It's his choice. Yes, this is a case where being straight is a lifestyle choice. Take that, anti-gay activists!

Well of course there's the whole spectrum, where there are no 100% gays nor 100% straights; perhaps his wife is his one-in-a-thousand female attraction.

[Triscuitable]

Nah, then they would be confused with Oughtstralia. I wouldnt be surprised if you've never heard of them, they have literally nothing noteworthy about them as a country.

This includes them not being a country?

[Astrella]

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

[Arachu]

NO! bad Matthew, bad! I will not condone these thoughts. Vampires are awesome, fearsome, strong, powerful and look good in latex when portrayed by kate Beckinsale. They are nothing like fairies. (so no sparkling, no living in the woods)

It would be nice to have more latex about.

Good nose, your parent has. Sure it is not them who bears the blood of the dragon's child? Certainly would explain why one would refer to the possibility of there being more than one. Vlad III Dracula's children did not inherit the name, after all.

My parents are almost opposite of that, they would not care that I smelt odd (Other than suggesting I shower) but they both dislike long nails regardless of gender. ^_^'

In her defense, she was smelling the fumes from un-dried polish, which built up quite a bit because of how the basement mostly ventilates through upstairs (I knew that would happen if I didn't space the nails out, but I did it one hand at a time anyway >.<). That said... Er, she seems to have decided that I've done/will do drugs. As has my dad. Because there's so much gang activity in the middle of someone else's corn field, and also the basement door is so quiet.

Wait, what does she think a "Dracula" is? Does she mean vampire? Does she mean goth or emo? Do vampires have long nails? I'm confused!

Considering how similar her reaction was to when I got absurdly sensitive to sunlight for no apparent reason, that first one is actually plausible.

I've heard that a person I know turns out to be trans, but in a kind of adorable move, their significant other also turns out to be trans. So they swapped presented genders, and apparently also discussed just swapping their given names. I don't know if they did or not, I'm not very close to her (I knew her from LARPing ages ago). Unfortunately, I don't know her new name, so I have to refer to her by her old name, which sounds really strange now I know it's wrong cause it's like "[boy-name] has her holidays".

X3

No, my trouble is that I strictly use an iPhone, which means my account will be indelibly linked to my phone number, my GPS location, my device's contract and my device's activation account and iTunes account. It is like using Google actually; I get emails from people, an making things up here, the email says "Richard Custer ([email protected]) sent you a message", because somewhere, that person put their real name, even so far back as the mailing address of their amazon.com account they made a decade ago and linked to their Gmail account or something.

@.@

I dislike friending people who aren't friends, personally. And I have a bad experience with MySpace; made a dummy account to pad out one of the games that required friends to cooperate, right? And I signed in to that account by accident and saw a bunch of messages from guys who all followed the pattern I telling me I was pretty, laughe about how I never sai anything back they must not be important haha, and then got verbally abusive. I quietly deleted everything and never went back.

*Hugs!*

It's actually not bad in and of itself. It serves two purposes, really. Having a listed, well known punishment is a deterrent to stop people who want their jollies but don't want to be punished that bad. It also sets precedent that people who perform a crime knew there was a sanction against it, knew there was a punishment, and chose to act poorly anyway. Willful disobedience of the law is worse than an accident, so framing it so it is obviously willful enables more efficient punishment.

Good point... That doesn't change that some people actually think non-consent explicitly involves saying "no" or even fighting back, though.

The problem only arises when punishment doesn't work. Someone breaks the rules, and I'd you don't punish them then the rule no longer exists. But I'd they get punished and keep at it, punishment will not suffice. So while sitting on your laurels and saying "it's cool, we will punish people who misbehave" is an incomplete method of establishing order, it's not completely bonkers. There needs to be an eye towards solving the cause as well as mitigating the symptoms, but I think it's better to have punishment and no cure than cure and no punishment.

People keep doing it, though. Clearly punishment isn't enough. Besides, if all that stops someone from doing something is the belief that they'll get caught, what stops them when it seems like they won't?

As an aside, I love it when people misconstrue Dracula for a creature type, rather than an individual. My favorite use so far is "I feel like I have been beaten with a Dracula by king Kong".

*Decides to steal that expression*

"dude, smoke this!"
"oh cool! How much?"
"for you kid? Free."
"okay. So uh, why are you giving me drugs?"
"I'm thirsty, is all."
"what?"
"nothing, nothing. Don't you fret that sweet little neck of yours. Hey, need a light?"

XD

I did know that! At the time, vampire stories we're basically porn. They used intimations and a nod towards sensual pleasure as a stand in for lewdness and debauchery. Dracula loses some of his credibility when you realize he is a gigolo metaphor.

Which is too bad, when you consider Carmilla is basically the story of the best slumber party ever.

Oh my. That makes quite a bit of sense. @.@

I dunno. It all makes perfect sense, of you are willing to accept the premises as true. I'm against Buffy simply because a stake through the heart Gould not cause combustion. That's silly.

Unfortunately, while the book was fabulously written, and kept me from remembering anything else I read or did or thought during that time, for such was the Count's embrace; whenever I think of Dracula the fits to come to mind is that old man's silly haircut in the movie from the 90s.

Such a silly, silly haircut.

It makes sense if the heart or something near it is preventing combustion somehow. As to the haircut, dude was immortal, that could've been "in" when he was a kid.

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

D: *Hugs!*


~Bianca

[turkishproverb]

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

*hugs sooooooooooooo tight*

[Mina Kobold]

"dude, smoke this!"
"oh cool! How much?"
"for you kid? Free."
"okay. So uh, why are you giving me drugs?"
"I'm thirsty, is all."
"what?"
"nothing, nothing. Don't you fret that sweet little neck of yours. Hey, need a light?"

After the Van Helsing incident, the Count would have to keep a low profile... The drug trade must be the Vampires' true source of blood, the Red Cross is just a distraction! O_O

I dunno. It all makes perfect sense, of you are willing to accept the premises as true. I'm against Buffy simply because a stake through the heart Gould not cause combustion. That's silly.

Unfortunately, while the book was fabulously written, and kept me from remembering anything else I read or did or thought during that time, for such was the Count's embrace; whenever I think of Dracula the fits to come to mind is that old man's silly haircut in the movie from the 90s.

Such a silly, silly haircut.

Oh, I agree. The mechanics are perfectly internally consistent, I was referring to the actual mentality of Stoker's Vampires. Van Helsing states that they are like children in mind and most of them act accordingly. Dracula is pretty much the only Vampire who can make long conversations and even they are pretty simple-minded and easily out-smarted. It just seems so non-threatening to me. ^_^'

The disintegrate, actually. They turn to dust upon staking, not ash. Usually that would be because of decomposition symbolically catching up, but in Buffy that does indeed need another explanation. I personally go with the cause being that stabbing the heart disrupts or kills the demon which possess them, thus tearing their now-normal corpses apart. :3

The book was decent, but terribly misogynistic, in my opinion. I have never seen that film, however...

*Looks it up*

I-What... Haircut. @_o

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

*Hugs*

[SiuiS]

Well now you're getting into both moral and political philosophy, which are two separate quagmires that are even less fun when you combine the both of them.

I don't quite see what I said as a moral argument. I know moral arguments could be made involving the topic, but I tried to keep it to a purely intellectual statement. When I include my own feelings on the subject, you get a different response.

And kind of arguing an odd position considering what has been said.

Well yes, it is a case of which p these two choices sucks the least in the interim.

If the issue were solved, a punishment wouldn't be necessary.

Case by case basis though. Humanity is not a condition to be cured. On its surface, 1 person commuting a violent crim and being punished, preventing another from perpetuating the same crime, is 'better' than two people committing violent crimes and being rehabilitated afterwards.

This includes them not being a country?

It was a joke based off of your own allusion of autstralia, an a pun off of ought meaning zero, although I think I bungled the spelling.

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

I... Oh man. Oh no. That sucks. That really sucks. And... None of it means a darn thing does it? It doesn't matter a lick if anyone there supports transgender rights or made rousing speeches on the subject I every moonstruck one of them voted down what they themselves stood for.


This is phenomenally depressing.

Good point... That doesn't change that some people actually think non-consent explicitly involves saying "no" or even fighting back, though.

I always hoped the highly publicized instances of judges saying lack of Denial is not consent, along with a basic understanding of the language, would get there. But you're right. It doesn't stop that. Hopefully, education about such topics can stop it though.

People keep doing it, though. Clearly punishment isn't enough. Besides, if all that stops someone from doing something is the belief that they'll get caught, what stops them when it seems like they won't?

Of course. People keep being Born. Stuff that my parents don't do because of events before my birth, I do willynilly. A single instance of makin things clear won't solve anything. Not that I suggest a single course of action; I suggest all the courses of action.

As for your last bit, it's more than just belief they will get caught. It's a game of fear and needs to be played well and doesn't work the same on everyone, nor is it the best possible choice. Unfortunately, believing they won't get caught is what we have now, and we are still segueing away from "she dressed like she wanted it" and there's an entire subculture devoted to downplaying the criminality, apparently. I dunno. After that school thing my faith in humanity is shaken. I don't think there is a good response short of violent reprogramming right now.

*Decides to steal that expression*

You can thank B-MO from adventure time for that one

Oh, I agree. The mechanics are perfectly internally consistent, I was referring to the actual mentality of Stoker's Vampires. Van Helsing states that they are like children in mind and most of them act accordingly. Dracula is pretty much the only Vampire who can make long conversations and even they are pretty simple-minded and easily out-smarted. It just seems so non-threatening to me. ^_^'

I loved that bit. It always made so much sense to me; a vampire is a strictly alien being, and not the brightest. Only after years of subtle conditioning could Dracula escape the confines of his self imposed exile, and reclaim a sliver of human ingenuity. As for outsmarting, well, at the end of ye conversation that smart human is about 70kg of normal, while Dracula is still a supernatural apex predator. Outsmarting only goes so far

The disintegrate, actually. They turn to dust upon staking, not ash. Usually that would be because of decomposition symbolically catching up, but in Buffy that does indeed need another explanation. I personally go with the cause being that stabbing the heart disrupts or kills the demon which possess them, thus tearing their now-normal corpses apart. :3

They are demons? I confess to disliking Buffy and related shows enough not to bother with them. Charmed is particularly high on my unnecessary dislike list.

The book was decent, but terribly misogynistic, in my opinion. I have never seen that film, however...

*Looks it up*

I-What... Haircut. @_o

The book was great, writing wise. Misogynistic, yes, bu that's a side of the culture at the time. I like to think of it as a moral Crux. Every man there wanted to be in dracula's shoes. Power. Women. Fear. And all it cost was your soul... That sort of contrast between moral and immoral was the point. Only cleaving to human ideals made them any better. They were no less wicked than the monster Rey chased, but they sought to contain it and better themselves. Dracula reveled in it. this makes it somewhat palatable. Everyone was fallible. That's the point.

*Hugs*

Yeah...

[noparlpf]

Remember what I posted yesterday? Guess it isn't happening.

Well bugger. That's crappy. We should start a counter-petition.

[Asta Kask]

I did know that! At the time, vampire stories we're basically porn. They used intimations and a nod towards sensual pleasure as a stand in for lewdness and debauchery. Dracula loses some of his credibility when you realize he is a gigolo metaphor.

Which is too bad, when you consider Carmilla is basically the story of the best slumber party ever.

Now we film a version with Kate Beckinsale and Christina Hendricks and watch Celtic's head explode!

As for the school - yes, it's sad but I don't think anyone would even have bothered trying twenty years ago. Society is going in the right direction, even if it's two steps forward and one step back.

Edit: Found picture of Helio's first pole dancing lesson

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Apparently some of her friends are having problems with the concept.

[Mina Kobold]

I loved that bit. It always made so much sense to me; a vampire is a strictly alien being, and not the brightest. Only after years of subtle conditioning could Dracula escape the confines of his self imposed exile, and reclaim a sliver of human ingenuity. As for outsmarting, well, at the end of ye conversation that smart human is about 70kg of normal, while Dracula is still a supernatural apex predator. Outsmarting only goes so far

It can work, but the book just seemed to want me to consider them harmless babies who can be distracted by shouting "Look! A distraction!" rather than any kind of predator.
I think it might have been Van Helsing's exposition that ruined it, though. Dracula could have come of like an inhuman monster who could kill you in seconds, but at no point is that showed and Van Helsing keeps saying that the Vampires are like children and that Dracula needed to see people move boxes for months before realising "Hey, maybe I can move them!"

Sorry. ^_^'

They are demons? I confess to disliking Buffy and related shows enough not to bother with them. Charmed is particularly high on my unnecessary dislike list.

A demon takes over, yes. It has the same memories and some of the personality of the human, but is completely without remorse or empathy. I am not sure if the demon existed previously, though.

Any particular reason to disliking it? I can certainly see that it is not for everybody, just curious.

The book was great, writing wise. Misogynistic, yes, bu that's a side of the culture at the time. I like to think of it as a moral Crux. Every man there wanted to be in dracula's shoes. Power. Women. Fear. And all it cost was your soul... That sort of contrast between moral and immoral was the point. Only cleaving to human ideals made them any better. They were no less wicked than the monster Rey chased, but they sought to contain it and better themselves. Dracula reveled in it. this makes it somewhat palatable. Everyone was fallible. That's the point.

Perhaps, but I found it particularly obnoxious about it. I admit to have read only little from the era, but what I have read tend to either have no mention of gender having any importance (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) or made fun of it ("The Importance of Being Earnest", which mentions the term "Equality of the sexes") so I might have come at it from a wrong angle. Sorry. ^_^'

Never really caught that metaphor, but that was probably for the same reason. I really need to get started on researching Victorian culture.

[Astrella]

Well bugger. That's crappy. We should start a counter-petition.

There's one.

[Asta Kask]

There's one.

Broken Link.

But I have the right one...

[noparlpf]

Broken Link.

But I have the right one...

Both work for me.

[Asta Kask]

And now both work for me?

[Lady Serpentine]

A demon takes over, yes. It has the same memories and some of the personality of the human, but is completely without remorse or empathy. I am not sure if the demon existed previously, though.

Spoiler

Show

Huh. Interesting... I had not known that. Makes what was done to Angel rather more confusing, though.

Perhaps, but I found it particularly obnoxious about it. I admit to have read only little from the era, but what I have read tend to either have no mention of gender having any importance (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) or made fun of it ("The Importance of Being Earnest", which mentions the term "Equality of the sexes") so I might have come at it from a wrong angle. Sorry. ^_^'

It did sort of beat one over the head with it, yes. Partly, as I recall, because it seemed like Mina had considerably more potential as a character than was ever developed, and apparently got plot-related stupidity about halfway through the book, and partly because it was continually presenting it as normal and good.

Also, I wasn't hallucinating when I read that full immersion in running water could kill vampires, right? Because I ended up mentioning that in an essay I had to write on it, and someone said that it wasn't in the book...

[Zorg]

Make sure you watch the whole thing.

[noparlpf]

Make sure you watch the whole thing.

Saw that. Thought it was brilliant.