Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment exists everywhere IN the United States (Except on lesbian media websites).

I really believe that some (lesbian media) sites like AfterEllen, and Feromoon have taken the place of the Official L Word site as the unofficial online baby sitter of the terminally cognitively impaired.

This is not going to be a political commentary but in America if one disagrees with something we are allowed to protest. You see it everyday with conservatives who just can't accept a man of color as President of the United States, depicting him as every unimaginable caricature and stereotype available. That is still considered to be freedom of expression.

We are allowed to write to newspapers to “voice” our displeasure with their coverage on a specific topic.

We are allowed to march on the mall in Washington DC to display our discontent with policies that actually affect our lives in significant ways.

So why then can't we express our disgust with content that we read on the lesbian media website AfterEllen?
Why do thier moderators take punitive actions against readers who display dissatisfaction with the site's approach to media coverage?

What I am alledging and what the courageous amongst you admit is that the proprietors of that site have issues and it's like beating a dead horse to try to affect any change on that site.

The apologists among you will probably counter with: “Well they do have “Terms of Use" that you agree to when you signed up."

Therefore if the terms of use on AfterEllen state that one must not post what can be considered racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive how can a person express dissatisfaction with the culturally lopsided reporting they are subject to what if one chooses to complain about media coverage that is considered lopsided even if in the most subtle ways?

What if one complains about that site's purposeful disregard of a particular Indo-Canadian actress who has significantly deconstructed stereotypical assumptions of Arab and Southeast Asian lesbians by portraying them in a context not usually seen by “westerners”?
What if that site's response was to have a Southeast Indian contributor write about homophobic Bollywood actresses they wished would play a lesbian? Got that? They WISHED these Southeast Asian actresses would play a lesbian. This instead of embracing the ONE Southeast Asian straight actress who HAS played a lesbian? Seems like an awaful lot of effort to avoid the obvious merely because MY site: Urban Sapphic embraced that very same actress.

Oh sure I have repeatedly indicted that site for not only posting photos of lesbians that most of us wouldn't really want to see, just because they are lesbians and white women:

Thanksgiving Appetite Suppressant

If you're gonna post about a lesbian then I prefer her:



I also indict that website for a taking a dismissive approach to issues that affect lesbians such as domestic violence and abuse.

In addition to the allegation of that site perpetuating blatant LIES concerning knowledge of lesbian or bisexual identified content in media, at times claiming privvy to nonexistant insider information.

It states on AfterEllen's Terms of Use Policy:

“No Advertising whether or not for financial or any other form of compensation or through linking with any other website or web pages.”

So why was punitive action taken against member sashabruce when she commended “Venice the Series” for promoting the Multiple Myeloma 5k Your Way when Trish Bendix , an AfterEllen contributing writer was the originator of the article? Was it because sashabruce mentioned Urban Sapphic's efforts as well? If so then how is that a violation of AfterEllens “Terms of Use” policy? She didn't link to Urban Sapphic she just mentioned the site by name.

Although to be fair sashabruce did write that AE's INTENTIONAL ignoring of the MM5k You Way was shameful because it seemed that the site was doing so because it benefited the very same Indo-Canadian actress I accused them of racism over.

If that is the case then why doesn't AfterEllen incorporate some double loop learning?
Instead of using the predictable knee jerk reactions such as: Banning, blocking etc, why don't the writers think: "Well Domestic and corporate abuse are serious issues."
That way when Tila Tequila “Tweets” that she's a victim of abuse then Stunt Double would behave like a responsible woman by taking an empathetic approach to determine if the allegations are true and then direct Tequila and others ewho may be xperiencing the same thing to the appropriate resources. That is a more mature approach instead of writing an article on how Tequila's numerous “Tweets” are tantamount to “Crying Wolf”!

Or why doesn't AfterEllen take the approach that actress Lisa Ray has greatly contributed to the positive perceptions of lesbians and also embrace her? Instead of ignoring her merely because my website: Urban Sapphic supports her and has criticized After Ellen for its exclusionary practices? There are bigger Causes in the lesbian community to be addressed, that don't involve writing: “You Rock AfterEllen" while kissing the moderators asses.
AfterEllen is NOT the only game in town, and they are starting to see that.

Bottom Line: Why is that site such a crotch killer?

zSHARE video - QFN-APG1.flv

zSHARE video - QFN-APG1.flv

Shared via AddThis

The Hurt Locker: An Examination of the Alpha Male as Interpreted by Director Kathryn Bigelow

The Hurt Locker: An Examination of Director Kathryn Bigelow

For the life of me I don't know how long I have waited for Kathryn Bigelow to produce a new project.

How does the extraordinary movie director Kathryn Bigelow, 57, know so much about the alpha male, the Universal Soldier, Sgt. Rock, Joe Palooka, John Wayne, what have you? Clearly she does and her career, remarkable in the canon, is intertwined with his sweat: She probes him, puzzles over him, tries to understand, even love the fellow many women would dismiss as a dinosaur, that hulking chunk of testosterone on the hoof called the Hero.
"The Hurt Locker," is about a bomb disposal technician in Baghdad during the hottest days of the late war, when things were blowing up all over the place and it's up to a guy with steel nerves to disassemble "improvised explosive devices." Or die trying.

"I suppose I'm drawn to them," Bigelow says. "It makes sense when it's all connected -- " she's talking about her other alpha vehicles, like "Point Break," "K-19: The Widowmaker" and "Blue Steel" -- "into some kind of pattern. But at the time I didn't think about it."

It's really been an extraordinary career, maybe not quite fully realized until "The Hurt Locker." Originally a painter who is so good that she studied for two years on scholarship in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, she segued into filmmaking via the low-end horror route, unusual for a woman. Her first film to attract major attention has become something of a cult classic: "Near Dark," (The Original "True Blood) which adroitly combined biker and vampire genres.
The studios beckoned, and she made two more films with genre stylizations, the previously mentioned "Point Break," about an FBI agent infiltrating a surfer/robbery crew, and "Blue Steel," about a guy morphing into alpha by exposure to a beautiful, charismatic, heavy revolver. While both did well, more was expected of her collaboration with soon to be ex-husband, James Cameron, the millennial sci-fi detective thriller "Strange Days." (Um Sorry but I LOVED "Strange Days")

Equally disappointing for the director was her last film, "K-19: The Widowmaker," about a heroic Russian sub crew trying to survive a meltdown in the reactor. (Seems that Americans aren't interested in heroic Russians or Latina Supreme Court Justices or "Black" Presidents for that matter).

What the films seem to have in common is a flair for violent action and male archetypes. She did diverge from her own type in a small independent movie, "The Weight of Water," with female stars and derived from a novel by Anita Shreve.

As she tries to explain her attraction to the bad boys, she returns to her beginnings: "As a painter, I was drawn to gesticular canvases within the overall framework of abstract expressionism. Maybe it's the same thing, and what I like about film is how experiential it is. I like extreme relationships."

"Extreme relationship," indeed. The core of "The Hurt Locker" is exactly that as it chronicles how, under the press of the mission, the three men of a small unit of disposal technicians get along, which is not too well. They flash all over the insurrectionist city to deconstruct the cunning jihadists' infernal machines, nests of wire and detonators and switches twisted into the nose cones of stolen artillery warheads. They do it to save lives, property and American dignity, and somehow, under all this pressure, they have to get along. The problem is that two of them are normals, who want to do the job as safely as possible and make it back, and the third is your basic hero type, the guy seemingly without nerves or doubts who clearly gets a thrill out of the game aspects of it all and loves to test his mettle against the bombmaker's. It's just that the more he tests, the more metal his two colleagues might catch in the guts at 1,800 mph.

So the movie isn't just about the alpha; it's about how the alphas and the betas get along, and what it costs vs. what it gains. It's really a study in etiquette. Do you kiss the guy's ring finger or wait till he turns his back and dump a magazine into him?, because his bravado is surely going to get you killed.