Literate Perversions

  • Home
  • Speak Out!
  • Writing
    • Times Square: A History of Sin
    • God Is A Bullet
    • Looking At My Cock
    • Two Women, One Year, and Hep C
    • Beautiful Scars
    • The St. James Infirmary: A Safe Medical Haven for Sex Workers
    • Sexy Beasts! A Look at Vampires in Porn
    • Review: The Good Old Naughty Days
    • Fencesitter Blues
    • The Barbary Coast
    • Review: Roman Sex
    • Sex and Death in Four Colors

We Need to Fight the (Police) Unions For Justice in Law Enforcement

By Chris Hall
December 22, 2015

Tweet
police brutality 2015 photo

Photo by Elvert Barnes

Very rarely — in fact, almost never — would I say that a union has “too much power.” The last time I can remember thinking that was sometime back in the late 90s, when there started being public discussion of terms of the San Francisco MUNI drivers’ contract, which allowed them a certain number of days per month when they could just decide not to come in to work, without even notifying their supervisor.

That may have been silly, but the effects of police unions on the ability of the people to have a voice in their local law enforcement is terrifying. The fact that white people have been conned into a mindless worship of the police is a huge problem, but so also are the contracts that give police officers rights that go far beyond anything that regular citizens have. Check out the facts in this piece from Mother Jones for some of the dirty facts:

The police reform advocates who have long argued that cops shouldn’t be allowed to investigate themselves for wrongdoing now have some new data to back them up. Earlier this month, four activists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement launched Check the Police, a database of police union contracts from departments in 50 cities. After scrutinizing the documents, the project’s creators identified four key provisions by which the contracts shield officers from accountability, or receive rights and courtesies not available to most civilian suspects. These common provisions stipulate:
1. That an accused officer cannot be interrogated within 24 hours of an incident.

2. That complaints be expunged from an officer’s personnel file and destroyed after five years

3. That complaints against an officer submitted more than 180 days after the contested incident be disqualified, along with complaints that require more than a year to investigate.

4. That civilian oversight boards are severely limited in their ability to penalize officers.Police union contracts in Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Seattle include all four of these provisions. Many of the municipal contracts also mandate that officers involved in shootings receive paid leave.

Photo by Elvert Barnes

Tweet

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: black lives matter, civil rights, police brutality, Sandra Bland, unions

Hooray for Femme Superheroes: Supergirl’s Skirt is Badass

By Chris Hall
December 14, 2015
Leave a Comment

Tweet

cbs-supergirl-full-body-shot

I’ve been enjoying the new Supergirl series much more than I expected. There are a few places where it’s overdone, but that’s to be expected in any show while it’s still finding its legs. One of the things that I love is the costume: It actually looks like it can stand up to intense battles with robots or aliens and the stresses of high-speed flight. The fact that the costumes no longer look incredibly silly on screen is a big part of why the modern crop of superhero media can actually be taken seriously.

[Read more…]

Tweet

Filed Under: Comics (and Comix), Featured, Feminism, Gender, Pop Culture Tagged With: comic books, supergirl, the mary sue, tv

Infographic: Police are Threats to Sex Workers, Not Protection

By Chris Hall
December 14, 2015
Leave a Comment

Tweet
(CC) Eliya Selihub

(CC) Eliya Selihub

Whenever you see the mainstream media talk about “helping” sex workers, it almost invariably involves the police in some way. If you didn’t realize that was bullshit before, the last couple of years of news stories should have given you some kind of inkling. Just this week, Oklahoma Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted for raping at least 13 black women while on duty. It should be painfully obvious to all but the most obtuse that going to the police is helpful for only a small fragment of United States citizens, and to many, it’s highly risky. The answer to the question “Who guards the guardians?” is a plaintive “No one.”

[Read more…]

Tweet

Filed Under: Featured, Politics, Sex and Gender, Sex Work Tagged With: sex workers' rights, sex-workers, SWOP

A Song Stripped Naked: The Be Good Tanyas Version of “Waiting Around to Die”

By Chris Hall
August 28, 2015
Leave a Comment

Tweet

The "Be Good Tanyas" (originally from Vancouver, BC) performing at Knox United Church in Calgary, Alberta on December 7th, 2006. They have previously played in Calgary at the Folk Fest and are much loved all over Canada, especially in Guelph. ; )

For some reason, I’ve had this song in my head for the entire week: The Be Good Tanyas version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die.” I first heard it months ago, when I started watching Breaking Bad on Netflix. The song is used to excellent effect in the third episode of the second season, “Bit By a Dead Bee.”

But for some reason, it started haunting me, coming into my skull over the last week or so. I’ve always loved Van Zandt’s version, and I always will. The beauty of this version is that like most good covers, they don’t try to imitate Van Zandt. They just drill down and find the emotional core of it. It feels naked, like there’s nothing standing between you and the narrator’s fatalism.

“Waiting Around to Die” is about abuse: first in relationships, then through drugs. Van Zandt was legendary for his self-destruction through drug and alcohol abuse. I don’t know enough about his family life to speak on how much experience he had with events like the one portrayed in the second verse.

But this is about the Be Good Tanyas, not Townes Van Zandt. I can’t quite describe why it’s dug so deep into my head recently; sometime songs just do that to me. This isn’t a depression thing, although the matter-of-fact fatalism depicted in the lyrics and the music is a very real, very familiar thing to me. I’ve been mildly depressed lately, but living generally seems like something that’s both good and doable. I play music compulsively as a soundtrack to my life, and sometimes a song just grabs hold and won’t let go.

If I were forced to say why this one now, I would say it’s that naked quality that’s so compelling. There’s something really beautiful about the plainness and unobscured emotion. Unlike a lot of songs that only mimic fatalism or depression, it doesn’t wallow. It simply lays that sense of resignation out on the table like a hand of cards that aren’t even worth a bluff any more.

This may not be Townes Van Zandt’s definitive version of “Waiting Around to Die,” but it’s the first one I ever heard, and still the one that shows up in my playlists most often. Take a listen for comparison.

Tweet

Filed Under: Depression, Featured, Music Tagged With: Be Good Tanyas, Breaking Bad, country music, depression, folk music, Townes Van Zandt

Steven Pressfield and Impostor’s Syndrome

By Chris Hall
April 24, 2015
Leave a Comment

Tweet

I don’t actually know who Steven Pressfield is, but this quote sums up a lot of my deepest fears, and the monologues that go through my head all the time. Frankly, I often have a hard time believing that anyone looks at my writing with anything other than kind indulgence. I do ask myself this question — Constantly. The trick is that although my brain understands the truth of Pressfield’s quote, my gut doesn’t quite buy it.

Steven Pressfield quote: "If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends) 'Am I REALLY a writer? Am I REALLY an artist?' Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is *wildly* self confident. The real one is scared to death."

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends) ‘Am I REALLY a writer? Am I REALLY an artist?’ Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is *wildly* self confident. The real one is scared to death.” — Steven Pressfield “The War of Art”

-30-

Tweet

Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: fears, quotes, steven pressfield, Writing

When a Song Becomes a Threat: SAE and “Speech”

By Chris Hall
March 15, 2015
Leave a Comment

Tweet
noose photo

Photo by theglobalpanorama

I’m pretty sure that although intent might not be magic, we white people must surely be magic. The proof is in the media response to the SAE lynching chant. Most of it magically turns white racism into something that’s black peoples’ fault. That’s amazing. It can’t be done with rationality or anything else of this world, so it must be magic. For an antidote to all that, here’s a great summary by Ellie Mystal on how the words of the chant go beyond simply being “speech” and turn into a threat when looked at through black history:

Now, I get how a white listener wouldn’t take the threat as a true threat. They weren’t threatening Eugene Volokh. And, I don’t know, maybe when white people are by themselves, they talk like this and they all understand that they don’t actually intend to solicit a lynch mob to go after the black people on campus. Who knows what you say when I’m not around. Maybe white people are just used to chants about hanging people from trees, and intuitively know that the drunk frat boys weren’t serious?

But that’s not really an objective reading of the situation, at least if we dispense with the notion that the white perspective is the only objective one. Objectively, a bus of drunk white people were singing about hanging people. Buses of drunk white people singing about hanging folks is a true threat, because sometimes buses of drunk white people then actually go out and hang people. IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE.

In fact, I’m getting pretty sick of white people telling me how I’m supposed to perceive threats from white people. Of course I perceive the chant as an attempt to solicit a criminal act. How could I not? Don’t most hate crimes committed against African-Americans start with drunk douchebags talking about n***ers?

Tweet

Filed Under: Asides, Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: fraternities, lynching, racism, SAE fraternity, white supremacy

Feminist Batwoman Explains It All: Quit Calling Things “First World Problems”

By Chris Hall
November 16, 2014
Leave a Comment

Tweet
Cell phones and makeup aren't exclusive to the US and Europe. Starvation and police brutality aren't just "third-world problems" either.

Cell phones and makeup aren’t just things here in the US. Starvation and police brutality aren’t just “third-world problems” either.

I have always loathed the term “First-World problems” for more reasons than can be expressed properly here. This post by Feminist Batwoman on Tumblr is a thing of beauty that really articulates how it enshrines some really bad misconceptions about what life is like in the so-called “third world.”:

If you’re ever tempted to say “first world problems,” do me a favor, and pull down a map. Tell me EXACTLY where the “third world” is. Make sure you correctly identify Switzerland as part of the third world, and Turkey as part of the First World. Don’t forget that Djibouti is a part of the first world.

Literally sit down and learn what “third world” means and why people from nonwestern nations  think it’s a total bullshit term.

Second: you think people in the so-called third world don’t care about shit like makeup, and love, and technology? You think they don’t care about internet harassment? You think women over there don’t care about street harassment? You think they don’t care about fashion and clothes? You think they don’t care about music and video games?

Because THEY DO.

Right now, there is a woman in burundi teaching herself how to do a cut-crease eyeshadow look. Guaranteed.

“Third world” nations have fashion shows and fashion magazines. They care about street harassment. They care about the internet. They play video games. They know more about anime than your sorry ass every will. And the idea of “first world problems,” which makes it sound like all women in “third world” nations are dealing with starvation, rape, war, acid attacks etc.

Is bullshit.

Rank.

Bullshit.

Women in Iran spend shitloads of money on makeup. Women in the DRC don’t just care about rape. Rape – the ONE THING westerners can be expected to know about women in Congo-Kinshasa – ranks NUMBER FOUR on the list of issues women in Congo want addressed. Political participation is number 1. Economic empowerment is number 2. Women in India are passionate about information technology, and you know what they hate? Coming to the United States, where Indian women in STEM are suddenly considered LESS GOOD than their male colleagues.  My friends in Senegal taught ME how to download movies off the internet. Zimbabwe has a fashion week.  [More. Read the whole fucking thing.]

The terms “first world” and “third world” are confusing, especially since they’ve been functionally obsolete in their original meaning since the end of the Cold War. They evolved as a way to describe the divisions between capitalist and communist countries and their respective allies: The “First World” was the United States and its allied countries; the “Second World” was the USSR, the People’s Republic of China, and the countries aligned with them; the “Third World” was the countries that were aligned with neither. Just as elections are fought over the moderate middle, the Cold War was fought mostly in the Third World, especially when it turned into actual war, instead of the metaphorical kind.

Now, its meaning is rather ambiguous at best, and functionally means little more than “countries that are brown and poor.”

Tweet

Filed Under: Featured, Politics, Quotables Tagged With: colonialism, First World Problems, language, social justice, Tumblr

Amanda Marcotte: Our Country Has Value Because The People Have Value

By Chris Hall
November 12, 2014
Leave a Comment

Tweet

By: James G. Milles

Conservatives got their panties into a bunch because Bruce Springsteen played CCR’s “Fortunate Son,” at a concert for veterans. The song famously mocks leaders and members of the privileged classes who expect other people to fight their wars for them in the name of patriotism. Amanda Marcotte has a better definition of patriotism:

Washington Post gathered up a couple of tweets by people complaining about the song being played at “patriotic” events. Again, it’s interesting how the concept of being a “patriot” is tied up in the idea that we should just want some wars, because yea wars! But I would like to offer another definition of a patriot: Someone who believes that her country has value because the people in it have value. Which means that you defend the right of soldiers to live and argue strenuously against going to war unless it is truly necessary. Which is what Springsteen was doing.

Tweet

Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: Amanda Marcotte, Bruce Springsteen, Patriotism, Veteran's Day

GamerGate’s Pathology in Less Than 140 Characters

By Chris Hall
November 5, 2014
Leave a Comment

Tweet

This is essentially what you’re saying if you’re a GamerGate supporter:

Tweet by @Hello_Tailor: "Should women be allowed to create and play video games without fear of being murdered in real life? Let's hear both sides of the story."Hello Tailor nails it beautifully. Even if we steelman1  Gamergate up the wazoo and accept that it’s really about ethics in journalism, the reality is that in the end, they’ve accomplished nothing more than inflict terrorism and fear.

There’s also a meta-statement to this tweet: A lot of people took it for the real thing. That’s not an indication that people are stupid, but it is a perfect demonstration of how severely out of control Gamergate has gotten. If you’ve been keeping track, it’s not that hard to believe that the ‘gaters would say something like this.

Sometime, there just aren’t two sides. We’re taught to believe otherwise, but sometimes staying neutral and acting like both sides are worthy of equal consideration is the same as teaming up with the bad guys.


  1. Steelmanning is the opposite of strawmanning an argument; instead of addressing the weakest form of your opponent’s argument, you argue against the best possible form of their argument. To my knowledge, the term was coined by Chana Messinger. In Gamergate’s case, of course, in order to steelman you have to dive straight into the realm of fantasy. ↩

Tweet

Filed Under: Featured, Feminism, Gaming Tagged With: feminism, gamergate, gender

Joe Morton is Evil?!? Does Not Compute

By Chris Hall
November 2, 2014
Leave a Comment

Tweet

One of the reasons I finally surrendered and started watching Scandal was I heard that Joe Morton had a role on it. Now that we’ve hit season three, I’m having a really hard time thinking of Joe Morton as evil. The man could read the phone book and make it into a major dramatic performance, but in all his roles, there’s always been a fundamental decency to his characters. Even when he seemed like he was kind of a dick, as in Lone Star, there was still the sense that he was trying to do the right thing.

Joe Morton

Joe Morton

At the very least, Morton’s characters never seemed like the kind of people who would toss you into a hole for months on end because you refused to torture and kill someone else.

Rowan Pope (Joe Morton): Not the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley -- or even in a brightly-lit, comfortable room with lots of people around.

Rowan Pope (Joe Morton): Not the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley — or even in a brightly-lit, comfortable room with lots of people around.

Scandal is definitely filling my need for extreme, paranoid conspiracy theory. I know a lot of people might look down on it for being unrealistic and sensationalistic, but seriously — once you’ve accepted that the Republican President has an openly gay Chief of Staff who’s married to another man, you’ve pretty much given up any commitment to realism.

Tweet

Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: Joe Morton, Olivia Pope, Rowan Pope, scandal, television

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 27
  • Next Page »

Recent Posts

  • We Need to Fight the (Police) Unions For Justice in Law Enforcement
  • Hooray for Femme Superheroes: Supergirl’s Skirt is Badass
  • Infographic: Police are Threats to Sex Workers, Not Protection
  • A Song Stripped Naked: The Be Good Tanyas Version of “Waiting Around to Die”
  • Steven Pressfield and Impostor’s Syndrome

Copyright © 2021 ·Metro Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

✖

Cancel reply

Connect with:
Google Twitter Yahoo! Tumblr Windows Live

Cancel