Babylon 5 S1 & S2 - essential viewing

I'm visiting monanotlisa in a couple of weeks, and with me I shall take season 1 of The West Wing, and also Some Episodes of Babylon 5.

The goal is, of course, to get our lovely lady hooked on The Greatest Show of All Time (tm) before having to go back to rainy England. This must also be accomplished without spending every waking hour in front of the tv, as it's Karneval, and dancing must be had. Flist - I beseech you! Below you will find a list of all season 1 and season 2 B5 episodes. The ones in bold are the ones that we definitely have to see (for arc-purposes, or because they rock), the ones struck through are ones I definitely don't want to bother with, and the rest I'm not sure about. Help!! Opinions, thoughts, guidance - maximum b5-impact, with a bare minimum of 'filler' episodes. Possible??

Season 1
( Read more... )

Season 2
( Read more... )

Thoughts, comments? queenspanky, I am looking in your direction. I distinctly remember skipping several episodes from season 1 in order to get you embroiled in arc-heavy stuff, and then dangle season 4 in front of you, teasingly, listening to the pleas for mercy. Ah, good times...

Alias FIC: sleep therapy (1/1)

Tiny wee ficlet, not betaed or anything. I absolutely adore writing people's dreams; it doesn't necessarily result in good fic, per se, but it does help me get a better handle on their character. And, um, with this particular character I think I need all the help I can get!

*

Summary: Arvin figures a few things out when Irina Derevko shows up on the scene again. Set during the missing two years.

sleep therapy

*

Dolls = bad?

A new doll is selling incredibly well in Egypt:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4605334.stm

I'm not entirely certain how to react to this, oddly.

On the one hand I think it is a positive move, as the export of the Western ideal of blonde, blue-eyed, big-breasted Barbie could only be harmful to little girls. I applauded the Japanese girls who protested against this stereotype by throwing blonde wigs into the air at a rally. The alternate to the doll's existence - its lack of existence - would, to me, seem to be a negative thing. Doctor Fulla and Teacher Fulla are due out soon, and the article has a representative that argues that these are honourable professions for women. So, if Fulla is a such a positive role model, why am I so ambivalent?

I can't help but be filled with this nagging worry that Fulla isn't a positive new innovation, but is in fact a symptom of the same mysogyny that generated Barbie. My issue with Fulla is that she is an image of a specific type of femininity that is marketed at impressionable young minds, that portrays another set of 'feminine ideals', just as much as Barbie does. I was worried about my reaction to this, carefully examining it for any possibility of racism or prejudice. Would it make any difference if Fulla wasn't Fulla, but another girl from another culture who displayed another set of cultural mores? Actually, no. I'd still be very uncomfortable. At the end of the day, I have come to the conclusion that it is not a specific portrayal of femininity that I have issues with, but rather than concept of visually depicting femininity at all.

Now, I've read some fascinating stuff on the importance of the female form, and this isn't what I'm talking about here. Not the female form, but femininity is a concept is what I would argue is problematic. The moment you take a concept like that, one that affects everyone and that is a part of every individual to some extent, and you fix a visual representation of it, you limit what it can be. To be feminine is blonde, so to be any other hair colour is somehow deficient. To be feminine is to - in Fulla's case - cover up your arms and legs, so to disagree with that is to be deficient. I don't believe that children are born with any particular stamp on their identities that dictate how feminine or masculine they will be; that is something that society imprints upon them. Dolls, I would argue, are the main apparatus for imprinting the idea of 'the feminine' upon little girls, and are the mould into which girls are shoved into. 'Doll-like' is still an acceptable positive phrase in describing a quiet, tidy, impeccably turned-out girl, and the more I think on it, the more I find the entire concept absolutely terrifying.

What are your thoughts on this? I find myself coming to an unexpected conclusion - that dolls, or any visual depiction of abstract concepts such as 'the feminine' or 'the masculine' that we use to 'educate' children - are necessarily oppressive, as they limit the possibilities of a child's gender development along 'acceptable' lines. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think that the arrival of Fulla is positive event, despite the concerns stated above?

x-posted to feminist

Ficathons / Fundraising / Etc

So, everyone and their mum is running a ficathon nowadays, and I'm probably signed up to most of them. So what's the big hurry with starting something new?

Put simply, I want to run a fundraising event, and I think that the easiest way to do this would be to run it online, in the form of a ficathon or similar. The organisation I want to support is CATW International, which campaigns against the trafficking of women and runs sustainable projects to remove the root causes of sexual exploitation.

Would there be interest out there for a ficathon-style fundraising thing, like fanthevote or similar? The format of it would be people offering to write/design icons/draw artwork in return for an $X donation to CATW International, and deadlines etc could be negotiated between artist and recipient.

Thoughts? Would people be interested?