The Orphanage

At the behest of John Lamb, the Professor and I went to see The Orphanage tonight.  I had this theory that I would be less scared because, not understanding Spanish, I’d be concentrating more on the words on the screen than on the creepy images on the screen, but apparently this director is big on creepy laughing children and strange knocking and few words, so I had little refuge.

In fact, I’ll admit, I was the first person to scream.

I don’t want to give too much away, but it was visually stunning, scary as hell, and horrifying on a whole lot of levels.  I was not the only person crying by the end of it.

The scene with the medium was extraordinary and very creepy and one of those things I hope to see ripped off in horror movies for years to come.

Whew.

I still have the heebie-jeebies.

Urgent Memo

To: John Lamb, Hispanic Nashville Notebook

From: Aunt B.

Re: The Orphanage

______________________________________________

AAAAAAaaaaiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaa–

aayayayaaaiiaiaiia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you trying to kill me?

Admitting Whiteness

Bint Alshamsa has a great post about the need to decenter whiteness in feminism and I’d like to just think about it from the other side for a few minutes.  I don’t really want to take issue with what Alshamsa’s saying, because her larger point is spot on, but I do want to say a little bit about this:

However, the problem is, when women of color do take the time to try and educate white women, the white women just aren’t willing to try and see outside of their whiteness.

It’s not a main point to what she’s saying, but it seems to me that it’s an assertion that requires a yes/but/and and that said yes/but/and doesn’t need to be directed at women of color, but at white women.

Because it’s exactly at this juncture where we pull that whole “I don’t see myself as having a race; I don’t see race” bullshit that we think is so magnanimous and non-racist, but which other people experiences as us saying “Our experience is the default.  What happens to us is what happens to everyone!”

See, because we are both at the point where a lot of white women just aren’t willing to try and see outside of their whiteness

and

We aren’t even at the point where most white women are willing to acknowledge that they are white and that being white means something, not even in terms of privilege, but in terms of a loosely shared culture and experiences and world-view.  And I’m not sure why that is, exactly.

Well, I mean, I have my guesses.  I think that, for the most part, we’re afraid that talking about what it means to be white borders too closely discussions of White Pride and overtly racist discussions about why white people rule and the rest of the world droolz.  And most people would rather not be caught up in conversations more fitting for Klan rallies.

But the strategy we perpetuate instead–that we have no unique race and thus no unique experiences brought about because of our race–both makes us look like we’re either stupid or liars and also ends up being racist because we then act like our specifically white experience is the universal experience.

And, so what we end up with is a situation where non-white people can plainly see that the denial of difference based on our different experiences because of how we’re racially marked in a racist culture is a recognizably white way of getting by in America, while we white people, with the exception of admitted racists, continue to deny that we have any recognizably white ways of getting by in the world.

We white people need to get over this.  We need to learn how to talk frankly about what it means to be white, how whiteness is constructed in our culture, how it’s perpetuated, how it’s recognized, how it’s wielded against others.

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that we have to first admit that we’re white–that ours isn’t the universal experience, but a specifically raced experience of the world–so that we can then see the ways in which we don’t get beyond our whiteness when interacting with the world.

I think the fear is that admitting that we’re white makes our whiteness into a huge issue, but really, admitting that we’re white is the first step in making it a much smaller issue.

——

I hope it’s apparent that I’m using “white” and “race” to mean malleable, social constructs which are incredibly powerful and not a collection of biological traits.  First, using biology to talk about what it means to have a race ends up being kind of useless.  And second, I don’t know of anyone who has any problem admitting that they have biological traits that (might seem to) mark them as “white.”  I’m talking about getting people to recognize that they are operating under a set of concerns dictated, in part, by social constructs linked to perceived skin color.

In Which I Admit a Slight Failing and a Weird Triumph

Slight Failing

The more other bloggers I read talk about politics, the less I understand.  Hitlary–I can figure that out.  Democommies.  Rethuglicans. Republicraps.  I can suss those out.  But I just read some people talking about the Cosa Nostra in terms of Congress and hell if I could tell who they meant.  Is it too much to ask for a glossary?

Weird Triumph

Apparently, I smell exceptional today, because all of my coworkers have come into my office to sniff me and remark about how wonderful I smell.  I finally had to make my intern leave.  But there’s no reason for me to smell particularly good.  Same soap as always.  Same hair junk.  I even forgot lotion this morning, I was in such a hurry to get out the door.

I have refrained from farting this morning, but can that really make that big a difference?

Conservatives & Liberals

I was just thinking that, in our state, it’s weird that conservatives are pushing for voters showing ID in order to reduce voter fraud and it’s liberals who are pushing for there to be some kind of printed receipt when you vote so that people have some assurance the computers have really recorded their votes as voted?

It’s just interesting to see where both groups assume the most massive fraud takes place.

And it seems to me to suggest a tit for tat solution.

Reason Number 104 Why I Love Ghosthunters

On an episode last night, the new girl was sent down to check out a creepy basement, to act as a lure for any spirits that, I guess, wanted to see a pretty girl in a creepy basement.

And she snarkily said that she was going to get a t-shirt that said “Bait.”

And then she climbed into some kind of holding area, using a chair, and sat in there to do some EVP work.  Then, we hear her cries for help on the radio and Jason and Grant go running down to help her and it turns out that the help she needs is just that she can’t get back out of the holding area.

Grant gets in to help her and then he, too, is stuck.

And so Belail gets in to help them and they get out okay, but then He’s stuck…

Okay, not that part, but I just found the whole think kind of charming and funny and goofy and a perfect illustration of how Ghost Hunters differs from Paranormal State.