Wiscon: friday

Friday:

28: Dressing to make a statement
The Rotund, Sarah Emrys, Laura, Beth Shupe, Betsy Urbik

Mostly a very good panel. Panelists spoke a lot about Steampunk and Lolita styles. Gender and class were discussed. Style is one's personal expression; fashion is the culture's moment. Fashion's major purpose is to signify gender and this is why people can get angry at those of us who dress outside traditional gender types. The Rotund talked about dressing as a fat person and dressing "agressively". She talked about getting sent home from work once because of what she was wearing (a professional dress that showed some cleavage), implying that her body was unacceptable. One panelist talked about dressing in a Victorian style to express a type of femininity that is both visible, but not sexually available. Ageism and classism within Lolita were brought up. Some people brought up that white men in particular tend to limit themselves style-wise. It'll be nice when men can wear feminine styles more openly.

One hiccup when a panelist did not understand cultural appropriation at all!

I know most of you get this but let me explain! When one culture is colonizing, they have the power to appropriate, to pick and choose elements from the colonized culture.

The colonized culture cannot appropriate from the dominant culture. If they are taking elements from it, they are either assimilating, ie trying to fit in, or they are transforming, turning one thing into something else. Or perhaps they are doing something else! But it's not appropriation.

*sigh*

After this I hosted the first-time WisCon dinner, went to Opening Ceremonies, then went to the Vid Party. For me, the most fun part of the vid party was the sing-along with captioned vids.

WisCon Saturday Part 1

86: Academic - Babies and Bows or Bows and Arrows? / Disability and the Problem of Horror
Rebecca Holden and Rob Spirko

This was an interesting panel and I enjoyed it, but as of right now I don't think I got all that much out of it. Rebecca talked a lot about the Hunger Games trilogy and other dystopias, their popularity and criticisms of them. Rob Spirko talked about Frankenstein, the old movie "Freaks", and the uncanny valley. The fear of disfigurement, pain, and death are on Stephen King's list of basic horror tropes. I recommended Sarah Monettes Labyrinth books as fantasy-horror books with disability in them.

97: Beyond Etiquette, How not to disable people with impairments

Ann Crimmins, Haddayr Copley-Woods, Jesse the K, Ann Keefer, Me

This panel was GREAT! Our mod was awesome! We had to do a last minute room change which got my heart pounding really fast, but it all worked out. We talked about the kind of stuff I always talk about here.

Stuff mentioned:
Vital signs: Crip culture talks back
Kestrell's bibliography
John Varley, the Persistence of Vision
Unbreakable (movie) -- character gets more disabled as he gets more evil
Changeling
Harrison Bergeron -- society makes people disabled in order to equalize everyone
Among Others, Jo Walton
works of Lois McMaster Bujold
Gattaca
Izzy, Willy Nilly by Cynthia Voight (YA, not SF)
NYU Medical Anthropology Sever

What we would like to see: accurate portrayals. Characters who are disabled but the story is not about their disability. Sex! PWD in communities and being politically active.

Vids with something to say

Please let me know if you have any additions or corrections.
ETA 2023: some pronouns have changed since I wrote this; am attempting to fix but let me know if you want me to edit this more.

120: Vids with Something to Say
Alexis, Skud, Gretchen

Probably my favorite panel! I arrived a few minutes late, but in time to speak about LC's "Me and My 424" vid. I posted about this vid here; what I said was something along the lines of how technology plays a huge role in these people's lives. Logan is a person with a disability, and for PWD, tech can be life or death, movement or no movement. The vid shows him as a geek that likes to fiddle, that likes to be wired in. So, tech is great, but it is also subject to failure and damage, and to being outdated, as the lyrics remind us. What happens if no one makes the parts for your wheelchair anymore? "Nude descending a staircase" was a painting that came about because of a leap in technology: photography. In the vid, we see moments of Logan and Max reaching towards each other, and moving away again, picking up their phones and putting them down. Max herself is a product of technology-- a genetically engineered super-soldier, and she too has this flaw; the seizures that come about because of an amino acid deficiency. Gretchen said that this vid is about Logan's frustrations and hardships, but he is also very independent in it; it's a great character study. I was surprised that very few people in the room were familiar with the fandom.

There was a lively discussion about Gianduja Kiss' "Shock the Monkey", a Hawaii 5-0 vid. Skud talked about how this show was rec'd to them as "light viewing" and they had to quit watching because of the police brutality/torture in the show. Someone in the audience talked about viewer expectations: there was laughter in the audience at the vid show during the prat falls, and you never know what provokes such laughter, it could be discomfort, but it was strange. Raanve said that the song is one she thought was silly nonsense until she watched the music vid and found it distressing. Someone said that the origin of the song is a scientific experiment where baby monkeys are put with two mama dolls: one is wire and has food, one is snuggly but shocks the baby, and the baby will go to the snuggly one. There was a pause. Gretchen said, "It's about being attached to things that hurt you, but you keep coming back anyway." Then there was a moan of understanding and dismay from the audience. I mentioned at some point that I read a racial critique from this vid too; since it is two white guys as the protags, and the bad guys are Asians and native Hawaiian islanders.

The panel also talked about "How Much is that Geisha in the Window", specifically about how the erasure of Asians from Firefly echoes the erasure of Asians from American history narratives.

There was also a bit of talk about literalism of metaphors and song choices.

Someone asked where to find meta; the Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures was mentioned. Also metafandom.