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I'm taking a Relaxy Day today, because I'm feeling kind of burnt out, and I've been watching sports on One. I watched a baseball game, which was a lot more interesting than I expected, and now there's netball, which I actually really like playing and therefore am more likely to like watching (and I do quite like watching netball, although not as much as I do some sports I've never actually played, like rugby and AFL).
But I just had a moment of terrible sympthetic embarrassment. A little profile piece was done on one of the NSW players and her relationship with her little sister... and then they cut to her sister, sitting in the stands, chair-dancing to the pre-game music. Dorkily, but adorably.
And then the poor kid realised she was on camera, and stopped dancing, looking hideously embarrassed and uncomfortable, because she's a teenage girl who just got caught chair-dancing to cheesy music because she was, clearly, happy and enjoying herself and then she wasn't and it just seems so unfair.
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Yay, netball. Go Swifts. (Because they're playing against a New Zealand team, and I don't know, because Liz Ellis played for the Swifts and I ♥ Liz Ellis. She is awesome.)
I'm vaguely reading links, though, and I've been coming across references of outrage to people ignoring moderately skanky race issues in certain shows - at least one of which I really, really like. I do that, sometimes. If I really like a show, I'll just choose not to think about it on that kind of level.
The thing is, there's the argument that this is an expression of Privilege, but the thing is... while I recognise that argument, it's not universal, I think. Because I do exactly the same thing with shows that have qualities I enjoy but have skanky issues that apply to me.
Skanky issues with the non-heterosexual? Unless it's blatantly homophobic, if I really want to, I can ignore that and still enjoy the show. (This has, on occasion, applied to Supernatural, even.)
Skanky issues with white people? Has cropped up once or twice in shows I watch (yes, really - bear in mind that almost all the TV shows I watch currently are Japanese). I don't care. (This one is quite possibly a blatant exercise of privilege, but whatever.)
Skanky issues with women? Alllll over some shows I watch - but I don't care. Take, say, Garo. It has uber-questionable issues with women. It also has hot guys in fantastic outfits and truly excellent swordfighting and monsters and did I mention the truly excellent swordfighting? By hot guys? Oh, I am shallow, shallow, shallow, but I want swordfighting and monsters and it's up to me to decide where and how much things I want outweigh things I don't.
The thing is, though, and this is important: That doesn't make me wrong when I do care, or if I choose to keep loving the show while bringing up the skanky issues here and there. And it doesn't mean the issues don't exist, and it doesn't mean that if someone else does have a problem with it, and can't watch show X because of that, that they're over-reacting. I allocate my emotional resources my way, and I choose not to get worked up about things that will otherwise bring me enjoyment, even if, in principle, I will care about and argue against those things. Everyone's spoon count is different and everyone's spoon costs are different.
But this, you see, is why "I asked !single.minority.person about it, and they said it was okay!" is not a valid argument, ever. One person thinking something is okay does not speak for everyone. (And don't try to use me for that, because I have a high likelihood of saying something like: "No, that's actually hideously misogynistic. I just watch it anyway because, dude, have you seen the fight scenes/hotness of his sword/motorcycle/car/coat?" I am shallow but not stupid, and I can compartmentalise my political analysis from my squee fairly well in a lot of cases..)
Other people are also, often, less distracted by hot boys and shiny swords/motorbikes/cars and may not have my personal love of hot, evil babes in skimpy clothing. (Blame Xena fandom, and Callisto in particular...)
Also, in a moment that displays some kind of shocking prejudice that I can't identify, I was surprised to see a black woman in a high-level netball team (Sonia Mkoloma, who plays for the Canterbury Tactix and co-captains England), and then was unsurprised again when I looked her up and found out she's English. On some level I expect netball teams to be white-dominated and basketball teams to be black-dominated. Is this a cultural expectation, or me uncovering a hidden pocket of hideous racism in myself, or, you know, an extrapolation from observed data, leading me to make the base assumption that netball diehards will be Anglo, because it's just such an Anglo sport?
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This afternoon I bought a guitar stand. I've been increasingly worried about leaning my guitar against the wall - for the risk of damage both to the guitar and the wall. So I took a ride into town and bought a stand, and I am very pleased with it. (And with myself for working out how to put it together.) It even has a little seatbelt for the guitar at the neck holding point.
I've been practicing daily with the guitar. Still only working with two chords - Am and Em - but I'm ready to move on, I think, because I'm getting to those two reliably and reasonably fast, even without looking, when I practice changing between the two.
I'd work on it now, but my fingertips are very sore from playing earlier. I know they'll toughen up in time, but I don't want to put myself into agonies before they do, so it's daily but not to excess.
In other news, my computer seems to be running very hot. I don't have that much running, but the fan is going like gangbusters and it's very warm under my hands.
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