things no one's talking about

[keryx]

Do we not talk much about earthquakes killing tens of thousands of people in south Asia because that happens too often, or are we just asshats? I got all the way to dinner last night & all the way to work this morning without NPR even covering the quake for more than 45 seconds. I realize more local disasters touch us, but this just seemed strange.

Isn't it national coming out day today? I don't have particularly strong feelings about it (as in, be as out as you want whenever you want - if people can be queer and conservative, a day of coming out doesn't serve the political function it could), but I'm still a bit surprised that no one seems to have mentioned it. [ETA: I guess it was just that everyone who was going to mention it lives on the west coast & didn't wake up till noon.]

Except the HRC, which claims I'm so out I could be a fifth golden girl (??) - obviously not true, as I'm pretty sure everyone I work with assumes I'm straight. Even with my Dangerous Lesbian Hair (TM).

I feel like a bad queer sometimes, that I don't demand everyone get over the whole assumed heterosexuality thing, but I'm wary that the Real Lesbians & Gays at work won't like me, either. If only people were actually living in my utopian vision, where your identity can be as much of your own business as you like, and no one ever presumes anything.

Comments

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I think the lack of discussion about the earthquake is because the same problems that are keeping aid from the area (the wholesale destruction of surface roads) is also keeping news reporters out of the area. It's the flow of information that keeps discussion going. Without information, you donate to aid organizations and then there's not much to talk about.

What does dangerous lesbian hair look like? I have what looks like a buzz cut these days (a friend and I joke that I could enlist in the Marines and not have to visit a barber) and I notice that people respond to me differently than they did when I had knee-length hair in a bun. It's really pretty amusing.

[kitty-pitchfork.livejournal.com]

Do we not talk much about earthquakes killing tens of thousands of people in south Asia because that happens too often, or are we just asshats?

THANK YOU!

and yeah, i think it's just your basic, garden-variety Ignorant American Asshattery. who cares if the brown people die! at least then there'll be fewer terrorists, right? right?

[cyprinella]

I also think people are workign on disaster burnout. I was done around about the time I had to get really drunk to quit raving at the walls.

[sheana.livejournal.com]

I think, for me, that's the case as well. It's just been... so so much. It was hard enough for me to articulate anything about the hurricanes here in the US (and I don't think I ever did, online at least)... it's not that I'm not thinking about it, it's just that I don't have the capacity right now to say anything that I feel would matter in the face of so much death and destruction.

That probably sounded really cheesy, but there you have it.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Particularly odd coming from even NPR, ya know? It's the closest we have to a bastion of liberal media.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's an interesting & less damnable perspective on it. Thanks.

Dangerous Lesbian Hair (TM) looks basically like my hair looks in this icon. It's really not lesbianny in any stereotypical way.

[daddi-cade.livejournal.com]

It didn't stop them coptering over LA now, did it? Most people just aren't interested unless it's on their own shore. Therefore, I vote for B. Asshats.

Hello, my name is cutegaychick and I'm a homosexual

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

The problem with being Really Militantly Out is that you don't get to come out to anyone on National Coming Out day.

But dammit! I want Dangerous Lesbian Hair (TM) too! Why do I get stuck with Straight Girl Hair (TM) ???

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

I assume 'we' doesn't automatically include Australians, but there's been similar discussion here. The big difference is that we aren't comparing with a recent national disaster, but with another international disaster: the December 2004 tsumani, which had masses and masses and masses of coverage (much more than Katrina+aftermath got here, although we heard a respectable about that). The "camera crews aren't in" excuse doesn't apply, because the tsumani coverage was nearly continuous when they only had air shots of devastated islands.

To be honest, I think here it's what's called "compassion fatigue", ie everyone is a bit "oh, another natural disaster". People only have space in their brains to give (and perhaps boast about) half their paycheck to a natural disaster so often, and it's not very often.

I don't know what the 'right' answer to this is, in terms of how much time would be a correct amount of time to respond to any given disaster. The tsunami thing got saccharine here, with television specials called "A time to hope" (HOPE?) And as many of us personally know, saturation news coverage can induce actual trauma and depression: noone's sure what the 'correct' amount of sympathy and action is before you're allowed to take a break and give yourself some time to yourself. So people give lots and lots (anxiety and/or money), and then the next time they shut down and do nothing.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

The government there is scrambling for every available copter to take food and blankets to the victims before more people die of exposure.