Our first blogospheric Friday Hoyden. Liss provides an extraordinary service to the readers of Shakesville, having created and maintained a safe space for progressive discussion as well as ensuring lots of fun. Yet she’s doing it tough, because she earns no income from this (some of you may remember how a dream job was torpedoed).
The special community that is Shakesville owes everything to Melissa’s dedication. Looking at my own lightblogging the last few weeks, due to other things in life getting in the way. the time she dedicates to her blogging community awes me. Just Read This. And then, if you can, donate something to cover the costs of keeping Shakesville running. I’m off to do that myself right now.
Categories: arts & entertainment, ethics & philosophy, Politics
Are cultural politics worse than no politics at all? 
On the averting of civil unrest and slime on the carpet 
It’s time. 
Hoyden About Town 
*cheers* Liss is made of awesome, puppies and vinegar*. A brilliant Hoyden choice.
* In the nicest possible way. An somewhat-aged balsamic, perhaps.
Or maybe caramelised balsamic?
Liss is indeed an amazing woman. PD’s post was a real eye-opener, so much goes on behind the scenes and I, like many others, had only the vaguest idea.
Such a great choice for Friday Hoyden!
Or that vinegar toffee you pour into paper cupcake holders.
I really. must. do something about my total inability to send money over the internet, due to my refusal to own a credit card. I see they have things like iTunes cards only more like a faux-Visa now at the post office. Is that right? Can they be used for Amazon, Paypal and whatever? I also think they’re not amenable to part payment once you have a leftover bit on the card – that has to be used up or forfeited. I was suspicious that that was a bank trick to hoover up people’s spare money if they can’t be bothered finding an item for, say, exactly $7.35. Chucking the end bits at one’s favourite bloggers would be an ideal way to circumvent the bastards and encourage blogging. Or am I misunderstanding the way these things work?
Helen, we have credit cards but pay off the entire debt within the interest-free period each month, so we are horrible horrible free-loaders on the banks.
Once upon a time I used to have a VISA debit card, too, that just took funds from my savings account. If they still exist they strike me as particularly useful for Internetty things.
I also don’t know whether one can do a Netbank transaction to set up a balance in one’s PayPal account. Strikes me as something that would be technically feasible, but I don’t know whether they’ve implemented such a feature.
You can hook Paypal up to any regular bank account, or get cards that work on the Visa system but actually only in credit. Credit cards are generally a good choice because their consumer protections are better than bank accounts’ or Paypal’s. The fake Visa cards work, but I believe the fees are a bit high?
You can get a credit card with a two to five hundred dollar limit or something, and just pay it off each month. (Also good for establishing a credit rating.)
Congrats to Shakesville’s Melissa indeed!
Here in the US, it’s advised not to use debit cards over the intarweb, because if the info was to be stolen, the money is real and harder to get back should someone make fraudulent charges.
Hear, hear! Great choice, hoyds.
I love Shakesville – it’s my kind of place. Feminist, thoughtful, not afraid to call itself out when it goes wrong, gutsy enough to call the sexism on Sarah Palin even while loathing what Palin stood for. And – OMG SHOEZ! It’s my point of entry into US politics, and US feminism, far more so than any other US-based feminist blog.
I’ve made my contribution too, but that makes me think… does HAT need financial support too? Would be happy to help…
Deborah’s last blog post..Friday Feminist – Jennifer Temkin
YAY LISS!
Liss is one of my heroes, and seeing her as a Hoyden made me tear up. I donated as well, because she deserves it.
Dori’s last blog post..Good Morning.
Yeah, safe space except for Godbags.
@ MariaMoria:
Let me guess – you’ve just assumed that the term “godbags” is meant to apply to all Christians, haven’t you? Well, it doesn’t. If you are not a hate-preaching sanctimonious hypocrite, then you are not a godbag.
MariaMoria in moderation queue, you are asserting that a certain word is used on Shakesville and originated there. Google does not support your claim. If you want your comment published, provide a link to an example of that word used on Shakesville in another submitted comment.
[and while you’re there, MariaMoria, you might want to examine your assumption that religious folk are an oppressed, marginalised group in the Yoo Ess of Ay.]
Sorry, I was thinking of Pandagon. My mistake. I haven’t seen anything objectional on Shakesville, and you’re right, google returns nothing on Godbag use there.
I didn’t mean to highlight the word Godbag either, I only mentioned the reasons that I feel it is not an acceptable word because you mentioned that it only referred to a certain type of religious person, and I only used it initially as a shorthand for the hostile environment that Pandagon is for religious people. Not because it’s a word they specifically use at Pandagon (though they do, both Amanda and her commenters)
Apologies to Melissa McEwan, or any other bloggers at Shakesville for the saying that you’re a hostile environment for religious people or implying that you’d use the word Godbag. Also for mixing you up with Pandagon. Assuming you ever read this.
I still don’t like the word Godbag though, like I said in my other post:
“I would not consider a website, that coined or used the made up word “[word I never want to turn up in a google search of this blog redacted ~ tigtog]” to refer to any group of women, a safe space. Even if that group was “hate-preaching sanctimonious hypocrite”[s] as in the Godbag example.”
p.s. I do not mean to say that either Shakesville or Pandagon coined the word Godbag, I’ve no idea who did.
—- [and while you’re there, MariaMoria, you might want to examine your assumption that religious folk are an oppressed, marginalised group in the Yoo Ess of Ay.]—-
It’s ok I know they aren’t. I don’t think that any website that uses derogatory terms for any group, oppressed or not, is a safe space for members of that group, or other groups that feel that sort of speech is hateful.
p.s. you might want to examine your assumption that I’m talking about the ol’ Yoo Ess of Ay. I have nothing against Americans but everything is not about you all the time.
We aren’t Americans either, but Shakesville is an American blog hence the Yoo Ess of Ay comment.
Believe me, we know it’s not about us all the time.
@ MariaMoria:
BZZZT. Thank you for playing, please pick up your consolation LOLCat as you leave the podium.
Hoyden About Town is not a USAn blog. Shakesville is a USAn blog. Both blogs talk quite clearly about their history on their About pages.
Oh hi, Mindy – our comments crossed. Sorry to look like a pile-on, Maria – but accusing Australians of being American is even worse than assuming it of a Canadian!
Whereas we don’t mind being mistaken for Canadians. 🙂
No worries, tigtog.
Sorry about the incorrect attribution of USAness. I’d already noticed that the blog was Australian (with the .au and all), but when lauredhel assumed I was talking about the USA I assumed that she was American. That part of my comment was wrong.
I still wasn’t talking about the USA though, nor suggesting that Americans oppress ‘the religious’. So her suggestion that I might want to examine that assumption is still off base, in that I don’t actually assume that.
A better comment than my last ‘p.s.’ would have been the one I considered but rejected in favour of brevity:
“—- [and while you’re there, MariaMoria, you might want to examine your assumption that religious folk are an oppressed, marginalised group in the Yoo Ess of Ay.]—-”
This seems to imply that religious folk aren’t an oppressed marginalised group in the USA, which is only really true if you mean ‘Christian’ when you say ‘religious’, or at a stretch, Jewish. As I understand people of other religions are often oppressed and marginalised in America.
p.s. Sorry about coining and using that word you redacted, I didn’t even think about whether you’d want that word on your website, what with me making it up and all. I won’t use it again.
It makes me a little sad though that my made up word that has no meaning at all, but sounds unambiguously rude to women (or at least the group of women it’s meant to refer to) is considered worthy of removal, but godbag wasn’t, even though it’s a real word which is an insult for a certain group of religious people and sounds only slightly ambiguously rude to most religious people, and I used it several times.
I guess not everyone can be as wonderfully inoffensive and so willing to avoid using words that upset other people (whether or not that offense seems ‘reasonable’ to me) as I am. I’ll just be in the corner here, blowing on this old trumpet of mine.
@ MariaMoria:
Maria, if you take another look at that portmanteau word you coined, and split its two parts apart just ever so slightly differently, it has a very sexual meaning. We already get enough spam from porn sites here, that’s why I redacted it. Nothing at all to do with its offensiveness rating, which was moderate at worst.
Whoops! Sorry. I didn’t see that at all when I wrote it.
Can we get back to talking about how awesome Liss is?
(Though I confess I find myself oddly curious about that redacted word.)
Liss. Is. Awesome.
!!11!!!1!!!1!!!