Friday!

[shadesong]

Administration
Happy birthday to fmh!

Happy early birthday to ivymcallister and my birthday buddies ladyseaand shugenja, who advance a year over the weekend!

*moves her token to 34*

Medical
The bulk of the snot goblins' occupation has shifted to my head. There are some holdouts clogging and rattling around and harrumphing in my lungs, still. But I am functional.

Party!
One amendment: As felisdemenswon't be doing the scavenger hunt, Elayna and I will split up and each join one of the other teams. I'll let her choose.

Shayara
Wrote what could be a decent intro and am getting feedback. Artists, please get me stuff as soon as you can - I want to launch on Sunday, and my weekend will be busy as hell, so I'd love to put up as much as I can in advance!

WisCon
I will be attending my first WisCon this year! Who here's going?

More on Rape Culture
Just have to draw your attention to one more thing - David & Goliath t-shirt that says "NO MEANS NO (well maybe if I'm drunk)". Bloody hell, y'all.Check it out here,and I urge you to write to David & Goliath telling that this is not freakin' funny.

Link Soup
* Oooh.More Evangelion?
* Strange phenomena.
* Elegant skyscrapers.

Daily Science
NIDCD researchers believe that they have identified the cognitive neural substrate of jazz improvisation...It was found that the improvised condition was characterized by reduced activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain thought to be involved in the planning, organization and execution of behaviours. The implication is that deactivation activity in this area underlies the spontaneity required for the musicians' improvisation.

Friday memage!
Wearing: Am half asleep in Tigger pajamas.
Reading: Metrophage, by Richard Kadrey; Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine by John Abramson
Elayna is Reading:Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Writing: essay, "Flying Lessons" (the March WTD - outlining it), Shayara. February has been mega crunch time so far as writing goes. March will be significantly less crazymaking.
Plans
Oh, crap, dude. Writing stuff. Finishing the tidying. Getting whoever shows up here first to take me food shopping. Bacchanalia, scavenger hunt, et cetera

Note: If you want custom Wyrding Studios work, e-mail kythryne AT wyrdingstudios.com so she'll bring the right stuff! She's not bringing the whole inventory.

ZOMG birthday.

Comments

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

T-shirt: Holy crap.

---

Dear David & Goliath Customer Service Team,

Your company seems like it's generally pretty cool and funny, so I'm struggling to understand how exactly the "No means No - well maybe if I'm drunk" t-shirt made it to release.

Given some statistics for the USA say 25% of women will *report* rape or sexual assault at some point in their lives - and we can probably assume more aren't reporting it - I wonder how many of your staff have themselves been raped, or have a daughter or sister or wife or girlfriend or mother (or son or brother or husband or boyfriend since of course it isn't just women that it happens to) who have been?

And of that subset of your staff who have had rape in their life, and of the subset of *them* who reported it to the police and went through the legal system, how many of *them* do you think might have been accused in court of wanting it, asking for it, causing their own rape? How many rape cases do you think get at least partially decided because juries and judges still seem to somehow think that alcohol reduces a woman's right to not be raped? How many rapes do you think occur because the rapists somehow picked up this idea?

How many more do you think might happen with your t-shirt telling people that maybe a woman's just joking when she says no, that with every drink a woman has she is voluntarily and knowingly signing away her right to not be raped?

I really wonder what answers you might get if you did an anonymous poll of all your staff about how many of them have had rape in their lives where alcohol was used to excuse or defend the rape.

I really hope you change your mind on this t-shirt. It isn't cool. It isn't funny. I hope you're a bit chilled to think this t-shirt might, just possibly, conceivably, ever, result in a rape that might not otherwise have happened. Even one more would be too many. Please don't be part of the problem.

Regards,

[australian_joe]

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

May I use your wording in my own complaint letter? I'm so angry about that shirt I can't phrase a coherent complaint letter that doesn't contain vast amounts of profanity. It's okay if you'd rather I wait till I'm calm enough to compose my own words, though.

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

No problem at all! I think the letters/emails have more impact if they're not just a straight copy & paste, but I certainly don't put any conditions on it. Use as much or as little as helps you.

I wanted to reach them without being dismissed as an angry crank. Maybe it worked. Good luck with your one.

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've edited it as such, adding my own touches:

Dear Customer Service Team:

Your company makes funny shirts, most of the time, and I've bought several of them in the past. However, I'm struggling to understand how exactly the "No means No - well maybe if I'm drunk" t-shirt made it to release.

Given some statistics for the USA say 25% of women will *report* rape or sexual assault at some point in their lives - and we can probably assume more aren't reporting it. I'm one of those women - I was sexually assaulted at age 16, by someone who slipped a drug into the Coca-Cola I was drinking when I wasn't looking. I can only imagine that members of your own staff have had this happen.

And of that subset of your staff who have had rape in their life, and of the subset of those women - or men - who reported it to the police and went through the legal system, how many of those people do you think might have been accused in court of wanting it, asking for it, causing their own rape?

How many rape cases do you think get at least partially decided because juries and judges still seem to somehow think that alcohol reduces a woman's right to not be raped? How many rapes do you think occur because the rapists somehow picked up this idea?

How many more do you think might happen with your t-shirt telling people that maybe a woman's just joking when she says no, that with every drink a woman has she is voluntarily and knowingly signing away her right to not be raped? I can only imagine.

I really hope you change your mind on this t-shirt. It isn't cool. It isn't funny, and because of it, I will no longer be buying any products from your company, and will encourage others to do the same. Please don't contribute to the rape culture in this country.

Regards,
jennifer

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they'll try to brazen it out. I wonder how much more trouble they'll bring down on themselves if they try to claim "but it was just a joke".

Thank you for writing to them!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Excellent letter. And - they've taken down the shirt!

[ron_newman]

Cool! You've done good.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

If you get a response, I'd be happy to see it...

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

Not a bad idea. I'll either post it here, or in my own LJ unlocked with a link here, as shadesong prefers. Assuming I get one.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Update: They took it down!

(And: Excellent letter!)

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

Woo! (And thank you.)

[angryvixen.livejournal.com]

I do believe we now need to write them and THANK them for being speedy about doing the right thing. I was coming here to get the link to write my own angry letter when I saw your update. Letting a company know we appreciate their taking the proper action is just as important as letting them know we are not pleased!

My letter after the fact...

[angryvixen.livejournal.com]

I came home from work, fully intending to write a letter of complaint about the t-shirt your site was selling that read "No Means No - well, maybe if I'm drunk". I went to the site I originally saw the link on and was pleased to see an update stating you had already pulled the t-shirt off your site. Knowing full well that companies do not often take the high road and do the right thing, I thought it was still important to e-mail you and thank you for your speedy remedy of the situation.

I hope that in the future you will not release that shirt again, after all the dust has settled from this instance. I hope you will be more conscientious of the items you place for sale through your company.

Thank you again for taking such quick action in this matter. You are a company that I now have a higher regard for, despite the initial lack in judgment you showed by selling the t-shirt in the first place.

Thank you for your time,
(my name here)