Women need to be believed.

I understand that a lot of people have intellectual issues with uncritically accepting a woman’s outcry in regard to sexual assault. I understand that lives are ruined by false rape allegations. I don’t have to agree with these positions to understand that they exist. But look. This is really simple. Nothing gets better unless an outcry is heard and believed.

An acquaintance of mine stated at the weekend that she was raped by her now ex-boyfriend. She is a well-known sex worker. The backlash was horrible. Lots of people applied the first two sentences in the previous paragraph, and that was far from the worst of it. Not least because she made the statement on Twitter and there are a lot of insane people using Twitter. She was told to shut up, she was told that standards of consent don’t apply to her because she’s a sex worker, she was told she was a liar.

I believe Stoya. Not just because she’s an acquaintance. But because she’s a woman.

Make the world a slightly less shitty place.  When a woman finds the courage to speak – or hits bottom and has to scream – believe them. Save all your rationalisations and hatred and half-smart bullshit for another time and put out your hand and stand with them. Stop making it all about you. Just once, make it about them. Believe women.

From Warren Ellis’ newsletter, and well worth sharing.

As you can see, in Carson’s map the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine are moved northeast by about 150 miles or so. Vermont and New York now have hundreds of miles of new beachfront property. Massachusetts shares a border with Canada. Maine straddles what is now the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

twiststreet:

It’s gross how excited I am for Now You See Me 2, even though I’m pretty upset they didn’t call it Now You Don’t.  I really just love that first movie so much.  I can pretend I love it ironically, but who would be fooled?  I love it because it’s dumb and I’m a dumb person.  If I tried to pretend it was anything else, that would just be me being ashamed of my feelings.  I’M NOT ASHAMED.  It’s just one of those movies that everytime I collapsed on my couch for months, it’d be what’d be on and I wouldn’t change the channel, and I would receive everything it’d have to teach.  Remember how Mark Ruffallo wears a triumph hoodie, how when at the end he’s having his big moment he just puts on this random hoodie, for no reason?  Do you remember that?  I DO.  I do because I’ve seen the first one a million times and the Mark Ruffallo triumph hoodie is my favorite part.  Is Common going to be in this one playing an imaginary violin???  Obviously we all want to see more of Dave Franco having magic-fu fights with people, using playing cards as throwing stars, but the people who made the sequel realize we also want more of Dave Franco falling in confined spaces ala the trash chute of Episode 4.  It’s the attention to detail!  Are there going to be characters?  The first movie didn’t have those so part of me hopes not– they would just get in the way.  I’m especially happy they’re bringing Michael Caine back for more because the first movie left me with so many questions, like, “Does Michael Caine have financial planners?  Does he save enough to be able to say no to parts?”  But also, I always want to see the bad guys in con-y movies come back and be like “hey, not cool, we’re going to get you.”   That’s what I wanted to Ocean’s 14 to be – Al Pacino and Andy Garcia teaming up….Oh, I had such dreams for Ocean’s 14… 

This is my Star Wars.

Your value at Gawker is defined by how well your interests line up with those of the people in power. When you have the same predilections, the same fascinations as someone, you are obviously going to speak to them more; you’re going to become closer, and you’re going to trust them more.

The piece this quote comes from, about sexism at Gawker Media, is wonderful and must-read stuff; this stuck out for me, though, from my own experience there. 

You may not like their methods. You may not like that they cross the line. But they get results. And if you get in their way, you’re going down!

In which Marvel PR ensures that I won’t be picking up Squadron Supreme anytime soon.

I love the idea that this scene was selected as a teaser for Marvel’s Jessica Jones. I’m imagining an executive going “There’s a massive audience out there that’s been waiting for a project where David Tennant says ‘balls’ a lot in his English accent!”