070 - Cna I do this without being Sexist?

[captain_slinky]

Trying to check my privilege in writing this, because every time I THINK about what I'n trying to say, it ALWAYS sounds like white male "Mansplaining". Feel free to call me on it if you detect it - only way to make a change is to MAKE a change :)

I used to subscribe to a newsletter called "Geekosystem", and it was AWESOME - a perfect mix of science and nerdy pop-culture headlines for articles that truly interested me, all in a convenient digest form. Rumors about the newest Super Hero movie mingled freely with exciting news from NASA, and profiles of sci-fi authors stood side-by-side with interviews of scientists exploring the boundaries of human existence. Inventions that bridged the gap between sci-fi and sci-fact were spotlighted along with Hollywood roles that challenged traditional perceptions of race and gender.

It was *perfect*. For me, at least.

Then they adopted a "Sister Site" called The Mary Sue - a website that, admittedly, Geekosystem was getting a large chunk of their articles from. The Mary Sue promised "The same types of stories that Geekosystem readers love, from a more feminine perspective". Cool, I'm down with that!

And so for a while it was "Geekosystem & The Mary Sue" coming to my inbox every morning. Now along with my science and pop-culture, I also recieved articles about how the Avengers poster is Sexist (everyone is facing forward except for the one female character, who is posed with her back to us so we can check out her butt). Articles about how Comics and Video Games, traditionally considered to be predominantly male customer bases, are gaining more and more of a female following and they need to take this into account by creating more female characters. I learned about sexual inequality, racial overtones, pride, acceptance, the difference between a Female Character and an EMPOWERING character... it was great! It really opened my eyes!

Then Geekosystem said that they were merging completely with The Mary Sue, and would no longer exist, but their newsletter would carry on through The Mary Sue. The Mary Sue, meanwhile, assured me that things would continue as normal, bringing me the same mash-up of news that appeals to Geeks everywhere that I had come to expect.

For the past several months, it has NOT been anywhere NEAR the same mash-up of news. The vast majority of articles they send me now are things like "Trans, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid Cosplayers On Finding Their Safe Space In Conventions", "Uber Attempts to Give Its Reputation a Lift With a UN Partnership to Hire 1 Million Female Drivers" and "Wonder Woman Has A New Uniform Involving SLEEVES And PANTS" (all taken from this mornings newsletter).

I know that gender and racial equality are HUGE PARTS of the Geek Culture right now, and I am very thankful to have these articles brought to my attention. They also had a few non-gender articles like "This Is An Awesome Opera/Dance Piece Filmed Inside CERN's Large Hadron Collider" and "Watch in Awe as NASA's Next Generation Rocket Scorches the Desert in Its First Test" which are actually just links to articles and videos from OTHER news sites, but for the most part it's... it's not what I signed up for :/

tl;dr - Straight White Male is sad because the wimmin and the queers have taken over his news?

But that's not it, I don't think? I still enjoy The Mary Sue and all their articles, I'm just looking for something that's a bit more - OMG I can't believe I'm using this phrase *here* and *now*, but - "All Inclusive". More science, more cool stuff, more authors and artists who did stuff that WASN'T important to furthering equality and/or inclusion. Maybe an interview with Gail Simone where she DOESN'T get asked about LGBT characters?

So anywho, if you know of a daily newsletter/digest that does that, let me know okay? Thank you, and I hope this didn't come off as too sexist/elitist/privileged, that was not my intent.

Comments

[aurora77]

To start, in case I don't say it enough: You're awesome. And I don't mean anything I say to come off as combative in any form.

It did definitely change, and I do believe they didn't stick to their original promise to Geekosystem readers to frequently post the types of articles that Geekosystem carried.

I will say that, yes, you were right to be aware your privilege. The socially-focused TMS articles simply aren't going to feel as relevant to straight white males. That's not a criticism of you or of straight white males, it's just simply an acknowledgement of reality, and you seem fully aware of that.

However, even I do want to see slightly fewer socially-conscious-focused articles on TMS and more general geek/science articles. I still enjoy the place, and their community is amazing, but I now want something to supplement it. If you do find something, let me know. Especially if it has as well-moderated of a community. I just hope you don't fully give up TMS.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Oh i'd never give up The Mary Sue, I enjoy it greatly! And to be perfectly honest, I never would have signed up for it in the first place if it were *then* what it is *now*, so they successfully bait-n-switched me in to enjoying a product I never knew I wanted or needed :)

I just want something else as well that fills that Geekosystem void for me... Nerdist goes a little overboard with the pop-culture end of things, IFLScience does great on the science end, and between the two I enough tech/gadget info to get by I guess... just left wanting for something in-between.

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

I've never followed TMS all that closely (mostly I get there via shared links) and didn't even know about the other site at all prior to its absorption/this blog post -- what I think is really interesting to read here is that this is the exact opposite of what I read people worrying about when The Mary Sue got sold or whatever. Everything I read was about how its fans were afraid it would get subsumed into its new parent, its voice dimmed, and that it would eventually disappear (a tale as old as time for sites such as TMS in my experience)

While I understand your feelings about wanting more general geekery, this is just an objectively awesome outcome for TMS and socially-conscious geek writing!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Which is why I *can't* unsubscribe - it's an incredible success story! But am I staying for the wrong reasons, and if I am is that really even such a bad thing?

[aurora77]

Well, being that this is the Internet and technology being awesome, you don't have to read every article, just the ones you are actually interested in. I just drop by daily, glance at the headlines and click through to the ones I'm interested in.

[hannah easterson (from livejournal.com)]

I completely understand that. I don't think it's necessarily that you're like, ugh all des wimmon... It's just that you subscribed to a cool geeky newsletter focused on science and media, rather than a cool geeky newsletter focused on feminism and gender studies. There's nothing wrong with being aware of feminism and gender studies and having your eyes opened to the inequalities in geek culture, but sometimes you just wanna know what moons NASA is discovering. That's ok. There's a difference between being aware of, and appreciating privilege and LGBT issues, and reading nothing but.

[aurora77]

Agreed! Long-time The Mary Sue reader here. I really appreciate what they do, but I liked their old balance of articles more. I like that they come at a lot of things from a socially-aware angle, but I'd like to read fewer articles quite so lasered in on it and have a bit more variety. I appreciate that those articles exist, but I want other stuff too.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

...And so here I come to my problem; if I were to subscribe to Good Housekeeping Magazine and they then started sending me Family Circle Magazine in a Good Housekeeping cover instead because they both follow the basic model of Lifestyle, Decorating, Travel and Recipes despite Family Circle being geared towards parents and kids, I'd probably lodge a complaint to let them know I was displeased with this current direction their publication is taking. My complaint would be recorded, and then I would have the option of either keeping my subscription in hopes that my complaint makes some sort of change, or cancelling my subscription because the magazine just isn't really what I signed up for.

With The Mary Sue, though, because of my White Male Privilege, I feel that any complaint I might make would be rightly ridiculed and dismissed as just more homophobic, chauvinistic hatred towards one of the few viable media outlets for this kind of news.

So how do I say "I would like to lodge a complaint and let you know I am displeased with this current direction their publication is taking" without being The Villain? Is that even possible? Even quietly unsubscribing somehow feels like a betrayal :(