The Pope's visit to the UK later this year..

The F Word has an article up about it, cross posted here:

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The Catholic Church has contributed more than most to the oppression of women. Whether it’s the deaths of women in childbirth and of HIV / AIDS due to their commitment to preventing safer sex, or covering up the abuse of girl and boy children and protecting the abusers, they have consistently chosen paths which keep women controlled and ‘in their place’.
This is the church that ordered the excommunication of everyone involved in helping a 9 year old girl, who was pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather, to have an abortion. The church actively tried to prevent the termination, and when it failed it ordered that the child’s mother and the doctors involved be excommunicated. (Not the step-father, tellingly).

“If the B52 bombers flying over Vietnam were dropping contraceptives, the American Catholic hierarchy would have condemned that in a minute, but they were dropping napalm”
— James Carroll

The Pope has also been in the news this week for speaking out against the UK government’s equality policies, which would have required churches to stop discriminating against LGBT people. This is a man who, when he speaks, people listen. Just think what he could use his voice for. He could protest poverty, he could condemn domestic violence. But no, he speaks out against equality. Later this year, the Pope is planning a visit to Britain. Not only do I not want him here, I was really disgusted to hear that the £20 million cost of his visit will be paid for by public money. Just think how many Rape Crisis centres could be funded by that money!
The National Secular Society have started a petition to ask the Catholic Church itself to pay for the visit. As I write, it has 17,457 signatures, one of which is mine.
The Catholic Church, contrary to the guidance of many passages of the Bible, is a very rich institution. If this man, who played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, wants to come here, let him pay for it himself.
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When he speaks out against UK equality leglislation, when he colludes in the abuse and oppression of UK women, his visit should not be paid for out of UK public money.  Particularly not when we're in a recession, particularly not when there are funding cuts made across all manner of sectors.  Please consider signing the petition.

I would recommend reading the comments, if it were not for the seemingly inevitable feminists vs religion bollocks that always seems to occur.  Surely it's not too difficult to accept that feminists can believe in deitys, right?

Coming out in Comics: Superman and Adam Strange

Check out this cover of Superman: World of New Krypton #11:

Well I saw that and thought it was the most homoerotic cover ever.
Why is this?  Partly it's the poses - they are sticking close to each other, grinning at each other with a conspiratorial look.  We can clearly see Adam Strange's arse, and you could claim that Superman's leg is poisitioned somewhat coyly.  So why did I think Gay! when I saw it?

I think it is a combination of things:
1) We rarely see men's arses displayed and highlighted quite so (Green Lanterns aside).  Usually women's bodies are shown off in this manner.  So when I see men being positioned like women I read it as gay.  Obviously this relies on cultural structures defining what it means to be 'man' or 'woman and what it means if you veer from these norms.  I'm not proud of my thinking.

2) As a culture I think we are still very used to tallking about hotness in terms of the male gaze, so even if we see hot men, we assume the intended audience is men, not women.  So when we see stuff that shows hot men objectifying themselves, we call it homoerotic, not hot images used for women's titilation.  There is an exception to this of course - which is the images used in teenage girls magazines, or topless blokes in films aimed at teenage girls, and stuff like that.  But I'm not aware of similar things explicitly aimed at, or generally labelled as such and recognised as being aimed at, adult women.

3) We are unaccustomed to seeing 2 men have an equal, close relationship that is purely platonic and not sexual.  If we do see men being close friends the authors or artists usually go to great lengths to include a female love interest, to assure us that the characters are still hetero males.  This image is lacking women, so when we see them Supes and Strange looking at each other in a way that was probably intended to look like they were planning and plotting the way out of their fight, we read it as sexual.

4) Relatign back to point number 1, there are the poses themselves.  They don't look ready to fight, they look like they are pirouetting in mid air.  They are off balance - this is an artistic tactic used to sexualise women.  When it's used on 2 men who are focused on each other like Supes and Strange are, it looks like they have a sexual link.

Then there's the thing about equating femininity in men with them being gay - again, I'm not proud of my thinking.

5)  Lastly, the boyfriend thinks Adam Strange is particularly camp.  I'm not so sure of that one, but seeing as when I showed it to him and asked his opinion of it, he immediately yelled gay, I thought it was worth including.

In conclusion, I think that 1), my base reactions show I'm not as lliberated as I thought, and 2), regardless of the liberalness of my views this cover will provide slash fodder among fan fic writers.

Last day to download RATM's Killing In The Name...

Just a quick reminder to the UK folks!  I've just downloaded mine and they are currently only 9000 ahead of the X factor boy.  Make a vote for honest, political music made with integrity why don't you?


Oh and a Welsh rugby player comes out.  Good for you mate, I hope you're happier now, and please ignore the homophobic asshats.

They found Atlantis! (And the Daily Hate Mail indulges in more gay bashing)

Holy crap this is awesome!
Some choice quotes:


The sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented

Thanks to shifting sands and the settlement's enclosure in a protected bay, the exploration revealed a world of buildings, courtyards, main streets, rock-cut tombs and religious structures. In addition, the seabed was replete with thousands of shards of pottery.


Our investigations also revealed over 9,000 square meters of new buildings. But what really took us by surprise was the discovery of a possible megaron, a monumental structure with a large rectangular hall, which also suggests that the town had been used by an elite, and automatically raised the status of the settlement.

Woo-hoo!

In somewhat sadder news,  the Daily Mail really are a bunch of hate filled wankers.  Jan Moir wrote a vicious horrible piece about Stephen Gately's death, which I understand has now been amended somewhat, and Charlie Brooker and The F Word have taken her to task for it.  I reccomend you read the pieces and if you are reside in Britain you make a cplaint to the Press Complaints Commission.  Brooker has information on how to do this.
The rest of Moir's article is equally vile.

Linky time

Some things I have found interesting over the last few days:

Gay Youth Centre bombed in Tel Aviv
Heartless Bitches International For women who won't take any shit
ReligionFacts.com Giving an overview of several religions, including less well known ones such as Stoicism, Greco-Roman religion, Cao Dai, Aladura and New Thought
Racebender.com and Chaobunny's Guide to Casting Fail (youtube video) Regarding the Avatar: The Last Airbender cock up. I reliase i'm late to the party on this one.
Superhero themed wedding They're not even comic fans, just theatrical.
Dar: A supergirly web comic featuring two strips which are so me. The main character identifies as a lesbian who sometimes fancies men. It's very good.
Willow's Avalon is unexcited by the DC/99 co mini to be released later this year. When i first read about the project (in the newspaper) I was really excited because I thought that it might mean that I'd be able to get copies of ther 99 over here. However, I completely see Willow's point, it could go very very wrong.
I want this.

Beijing campaign for same sex marraiges

Here. I thought the situation in China was far worse. If this demo can actually go ahead, and if there is sympathetic, nay supportive feeling towards China's gay community, that's great.

Christmas time and catching up.

Topics discussed:
Christmas busy-ness, shoe throwing in Iraq, homophobia from the Pope, blog awards.

There has been so much I’ve wanted to post over the last few weeks, but due to Christmas and an extremely manic period at work I haven’t felt the inclination to write or post anything, and I haven’t had the time.

In personal news, work has now calmed down, at least for a short period, but I fully expect it to remain stressful until the end of January, at a minimum. I feel like I have to learn how to manage my superiors, which I feel uncomfortable doing, because I think they should know better. But it looks like I’ll have to get over that.

I spent a weekend visiting the family and friends 2 weeks before Christmas. 5 destinations in 5 days, all around Kent – between 1 and 4 hours travelling each day. I guess that may not seem a lot to my American readers, but it’s a long time to spend on a train or in a car for me! It was fun seeing friends and family so overall worth it.

In public news, I’ve had my ear and eyes bent by various incidents over the last month. Number 1, the shoe throwing episode in Iraq. Now I know on a mature level that stooping to violence is a bad thing. But on a personally aggrieved level I am supportive of the shoe thrower. I become more supportive when I heard Bush’s response of the facts being that the shoe was a size 10 (or whatever) when the newsreader then pointed out that throwing shoes in Iraq is a big deal – it’s a culturally recognised form of disapproval and dissidence. And for Bush to respond as he did shows a complete lack of understanding of Iraqi society and norms. In context, i.e. that America invaded Iraq under Bush’s say so, it appears that he just doesn’t care one jot about the country. Even in the middle of a speech stating what America’s future in Iraq will be.
I was also pissed off by the TV’s account of this. I really wish I could remember what channel I was watching, it would have been BBC1, 2 or channel 4. Anyway, they finished the article by talking about how under Saddam Hussein no one would have been able to throw a shoe. Well, yes, that might be true, but the implication of the article was that the Iraqis should now be grateful for their new found freedom (supplied by Westerners) and we should focus only on this capability, rather than what they are angry about. I could argue that this conveniently sidesteps the shoe throwers complaints and allows the Westerners to feel smug about liberating a dictatorial country. (Maybe I already have?) I wish I knew which channel it was so I could find a link to the article, so that you can all know I’m not making it up. Or at least, so that you could view it and decide for yourselves.

I heard bits about the hoo-ha from the Pope recently, where he says that homosexuality will be as much of a disaster as the destruction of the rainforests. Yes well, whatever (face). The first news article (on BBC Radio 4 no less), said gay rights groups were angry because of the Pope’s declaration on gender roles. Well, that’s awfully funny, thought I, because homosexuality/bisexuality has fuck all to do with gender. I know that gender issues cross over with gay/bi issues, but they do not define it.

Sexuality is to do with who you crush on. No more no less. Gender is to do with femininity, masculinity, identification with male and female roles and all those in between. I recognise that historically (and in the present) many gay men and women (fuck knows about the bi contingent) have blurred and mixed up the gender roles, but that is not an inevitable part or being outside the heterosexual mainstream. The two issues are separate, but can conflate.
After having listened to two more news broadcasts and reading stuff online I gather that it may have been the news broadcaster confusing the two areas, rather than the gay rights groups.

Lastly, Chris at ComicsAllTooReal gave me an award a few weeks ago! :D I would like to formally say thank you to Chris, I was very touched by it and pleased to hear that you value my ramblings. J
Now, this award is sort of a meme, and I’m meant to nominate my favourite 7 blogs as well and publicise them here, so that we can expand the reading pool and awareness of the blogosphere.

Eeeek! Who do I choose? Who indeed. As you can see from my link list and also the blogs I follow section I read a lot of stuff on the web. The internet forms of a large part of my weekday evening social life and I thoroughly enjoy the social interactions formulated within. Where else can I gleefully exclaim (with appreciative peers) about my comics and the recent events contained within etc?

But what criteria would I choose to nominate just 7 blogs? Initially I thought I’d focus on the ones providing social commentary. So I came up with Willow at Seeking Avalon, for her scathing dissections of race in popular culture, comics, movies, and well anything really. Also check out her post on why feminism isn’t for her. I also thought of maybe Ami Angelwings super cute rants of doom. Ami talks about lots of personal and public issues, often around - racism, transphobia, sexism and homophobia. I know some people don’t like her writing style, lots of internet speak, but if that bothers you I would urge you to get past that and focus on what she’s saying as she’s very bright and eloquent and honest. I value honesty. Oh and Digital Femme. Amongst other things she covers comics and racism. She's a very good writer.

Maybe I should be focusing on blogs that are updated regularly? The above two aren’t updated uber regularly. So lets look at others. Do I want comic based bogs? Or fun blogs? Or innovative ones? Or specialist ones?
For comic based blogs I recommend Green Lantern’s Butts Forever (75% due to the name and the devotion to the cause of locating a good GL ass), Hoosier Journal of Inanity (because it’s a fun light hearted read), Comics Fairplay (because of the Is this Gratutitous? feature, which admittedly hasn’t run in a long time but was very much welcomed and generated interesting debate when Heidi did run it), Supergirl Comic Box Commentary (because it’s a nice clean layout, what posts I have seen look good, and it’s a Supergirl blog. There cannot be too many of these. Ever). Lastly I’d like to mention When Fangirls Attack – not a typical commentary style blog, but a link blog. I’m not sure if this counts, as the contributor’s own views aren’t included, but it’s a wonderful and reasonably detailed resource to all posts concerning women and comics on the web.

I’ve recently found this DC Elseworlds fan videos blog . The costumes are pretty cool and I love the fact that people dedicate all this time and effort into producing this stuff.* Yes, it’s cheesy and clichéd in places, but the acting, direction and effects are no worse than say, oh I don’t know Smallville. It’s essentially cosplay on a larger scale and I feel that should always be encouraged.

For feminism, I recommend The F Word blog (for being the probable number one catch all daily resource for issues affecting women in Britain, and for stimulating good arguments in the discussions), and also Feminist SF – the blog! (does what it says on the tin).

For innovation I think ComicsAllTooReal Chris’ own blog deserves a mention, because it’s quite clearly a project utilising blog technology to get it’s voice and aims out there. I haven’t seen anything like it elsewhere.

For specialist stuff one of my friend’s has a progress blog about his model soldiers and imperial armies. I don’t understand most of it, but I appreciate his enthusiasm, and I think some of my readers may also appreciate it. Plus Drax plays a mean game of Scrabble. And Carcassonne. Kicking my ass every time.

For fanfiction Like Scratches in the Sand writes some beautiful one sentence fanfics.

So that’s 14 of gthe very best. I knew I couldn’t pick just seven. (Sorry Chris I broke the rules!) If you want more recommendations look at my linked blogs and the blogs I follow, on my profile page. I think they’re all worth taking a peek at, otherwise I wouldn’t have linked them.
Hell, if you want more recommendations, read other bloggers linked sites, follow the comments bakc to bloggers own sites, mooch around. In my experience active commenters equal (fairly) regular bloggers.


*If you like the idea of that you should also check out Gotham Public Works. Fucking wonderful.

More homophobia from the church

Quelle surprise.
The vatican wants to use psychological testing to weed out gay priests. From the news story on the internet (emphasis mine):
"Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Catholic Education Congregation, said that a celibate candidate with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should be barred "not because he commits a sin, but because homosexuality is a deviation, an irregularity, a wound" that would prevent him from fulfilling his duties.
The guidelines, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, are designed to prevent the sort of sex scandals involving paedophile priests"

GAY DOES NOT EQUAL PAEDOPHILE. HETEROSEXUALS AND BISEXUALS CAN BE PAEDOPHILES TOO.

Deep seated homosexual tendencies? Are there shallow tendencies? I guess this comes from the same line of thinking that insists that gayness can be cured.
For cured, read repressed, quashed, tricked and led into a lifetime of unhappiness and dishonesty.
Also, homosexuality isn't a deviation, an irregularity or a wound. It's normal, it's not a sin, it's not morally wrong, it's just a way of being.
Where do the bisexuals come into this? Yet again, we're ignored. We can pass as straight if we want, so I guess that's OK huh? Or is it that bisexuals don't have 'deep seated' homosexual tendencies? Guess I'm back to being invisible, again.

To be fair to the newspaper, the online article does state that:
"The decree appears to ignore the consensus among sex abuse experts that homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals."
This is a damn site more than I expected from the Daily Torygraph and is in stark contrast to the physical newspaper version of the story which reads as follows:

"Trainee priests suspected of being homosexual should be weeded out by psychologists and banned from joining the catholic church, the vatican has said.
Homosexuality was a "deviation" that must be rooted out in would-be-clergy early on in order to prevent "tragedies", it decreed in the new guidelines.
The guidelines are designed to prevent the sort of sex scandals involving paedophile priests that have rocked the catholic church in recent years."

I refuse to give vatican, catholic or church capital letters. They don't deserve the distinction. The problems with the dead tree version of this story:

• The use of psychologists implies that homosexuality is a mental illness. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
• The description of homosexuality as a deviation.
• The implication that only gay people cause tragedies or are paedophiles
  
• The lack of a rebuttal to the above implication, as included in the online version. By not including the rebuttal it infers (implies?) that the church's views are correct, and that gay people are indeed the only ones who rape children. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Abuse is not about sex, it's not about hitting on someone you crush on, it's about power. It's the same whether the victim is adult or child, male or female.

I can see why deviation is in quotation marks, as the assertion that being gay is a deviation is incorrect, but why is tragedies in quotation marks?

Why isn't the church concentrating on weeding out paedophiles? Or unstable aggressive morally corrupt individuals who are potential attackers? Why aren't they seeking to help the victims more? Or even listen to the victims?

Fuckers. Ignorant, homophobic, hate filled morally bankrupt fuckers.

Nightwing... (spoilers)

I've been hideously busy lately hence the lack of posts. I'm still hideously busy but today I've given myself a day off to just relax and do what I want, instead of what I should do. Hence lots of Nightwing reading and some blogging. I'm looking forward to getting my life back.

So, I am reading my way through the Nightwing series now and I must say it's pretty enjoyable. Far more so than I expected, and has a lot less problems than the Flash run did. Which means less indignation for me, hurrah! This will be another long post, interspersed with pictures.


Firstly, Greg Land did a run on this title and I was very surprised to notice a complete lack of pornface. Obviously I've been doing the guy a disservice before as he appears to be able to draw women in normal looking poses. Whether he's traced them or not I can't tell, and the art isn't particularly stand out, merely average, but still better than I expected. I'm considering giving him kudos for not constantly drawing pornface but then I realise it's a sad state of affairs to congratulate someone on not drawing porn in a non porn comic.

Tells you a lot about the state of American superhero comics doesn't it? *sigh*


Good aspect number 2: There's this new hero on the scene called Tarantula, she's a lady superhero. Her and Nightwing met then she tries to lose him. Of course, Grayson has been trained by the world's greatest detective so works out she's hiding under a ledge. Like a spider. Do you see what they've done there?

Here's the page:



She slapped him, hurrah! There's not enough of that going on. On a bad note, this woman has grown up in Bludhaven, she knows what it's like. And yet leaves her torso exposed. Shouldn't she be wearing Kevlar? Or something protective? Oh no, exposing flesh is more important than a coherent framework.
Now I think I mentioned before about how the Pied Piper's gayness wasn't really talked about in the Flash comic. They've done a lot better in Nightwing. Basically Dick gets partnered with a new guy who keeps getting beat up in the locker room by a bunch of homophobic policeman. Dick steps in, because y'know he's a hero and protects the innocent etc.
One of the muggers says 'What, are you Grayson, his boyfriend?'. There's a pause and Dick responds 'What if I am?'. We're meant to think that shows how wonderful Dick is, he's not a bigot and he doesn't care about what people think. A knight in shining armour for his abused colleague. I think that this is a very heterocentric way of viewing things. And this is dealt with on the next page!
If you can't read the text the dialogue is as follows:
Grayson: I'm going to file a report with Amy [the boss] OK? The problem's theirs not yours. And I'm here for you, you don't have to deal with this alone..
Gannon: No, you know what? As long as they're hitting me, the problem's mine. And I'm not alone, though that's got nothing to do with your smug little moment of PC bravado back there. save your speeches for your girlfriend Grayson. The only thing I need you to do for me is make sure I don't get shot in the back between 8 and 6.
Fucking score. It's really rare to see that point of view put across. To reinforce that gay people don't need to be saved by straight people, that we're not alone and we're not angsty. And in a later issue we go to Gannon's house and see his fella. And it's explicit they are in a relationship, it's not using hints!
Last point. This big guy called Roland Desmond thinks Nightwing caused his mother to have a heart attack and die. So he sets out to destroy everyone Dick knows. He blows up his apartment block, kills all the residents bar 2. He has Dick's circus set on fire, injuring and killing many. He blows up his partner's house intending t kill the whole family, he goes after Babs (who Dick obviously tries to save despite the fact Barbara is more than capable of holding her own. Pfft. Male heroes).
When Dick and Tarantula catches up to Roland he realises Roland will kill everyone he knows, everyone he saves, everyone he smiles at, shakes hands with etc. So Dick makes the choice to let Tarantula shoot him. Predictably this sends him into a meltdown as he's crossed the line. Then something weird goes on with the story. Tarantula takes Dick onto the roof to make their getaway:

Well blow me but that don't half look like they're having sex. Which is a fucking weird plot twist for a start. Now bear in mind that Dick is ranting and raving at this point and really isn't in his right mind..definitely not in terms of consenting to sex anyhow..which makes me think that isn't a sex scene, it's a rape scene.

Flash - Linda Parks - Whitewashing

Ar god I'm hungover. Feeling very delicate today as I went out to a party last night and got to bed on my mates sofa at about 6am. Good party - twas a fancy dress theme and there was an awesome Heath Ledger Joker there.

This Wonder Woman guide to Office safety video is very good.

I need muffins. Unfortunately I don't have any. What I do have is a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment at having finally finished reading 250 odd Flash comics. That was a mammoth run, and really really enjoyable. They are all the Wally West and Bart Allen Flashes.

Admittedly, the first 60 were more rubbish as I don't like William Messner-Loebs writing, except for Chunk, who's a bloody brilliant guy. Tis a pity he's not really in the picture any more.

Mark Waid's run was by far the best, and not just because he brought in Impulse, who I adore. His year 1 story arc, 62 to 65, was just wonderful. I can't quite work out why there's another Flash year 1 - Flash Annual number 8 - as surely there is only one year 1 story to tell? And which one is in continuity? *confused*. Anyway I don't know how they compare as I haven't read the annuals yet.

Mark Waid made Wally more human, more rounded and let him grow up. He also developed Wally's relationship with Linda into something real and intense and oh so touching. Despite what my rl friends may say, I think I am actually an old romantic after all. The thing about Wally and Linda is that their feelings for each other act like a beacon and no matter where Wally ends up in the time stream, or the speed force, or other danger, he will always come back to Linda because she's his rock. And I think that's awesome. Everyone needs a rock.

My main beef with these issues is how Linda is drawn and coloured. She's Korean, this is made explicit from the start, yet she morphs into a white person several times over this run, and even when she's drawn Korean she's not always recognisable as the same person.

Picking out a random selection of images:

Flash 28:

Flash 78:

Flash 114:

Flash 159:

Flash 233:

And perhaps the worst, Flash Secret Files and Origins 1:

I think the above is the worst because it's meant to be a definitive biography of the character. And portraying her as white is pretty bloody shit. And I know art styles change over time but c'mon, we always recognise Lois, and Jimmy, why wasn't Linda drawn consistently?
Whiteness isn't the default state of being. Is it really difficult for editors and artists to remember that there are other ethnicities in the world? Apparently not. And it's not just Linda this happens to. DC recently fucked up (yet again) with Vixen. Strange how the white heroes are never 'accidentally' given a new ethnicity.
And on another gripe about that Secret Files and Origins issue, having now read the entire Flash v2 and v3 books, I feel pretty safe in saying that the Pied Piper is not an outspoken gay man. Not outspoken about his gayness anyway. In not one issue did he fight and champion for gay rights, and in fact his being gay was mentioned very rarely. His boyfriend was never labelled boyfriend, rather it was inferred.
This is all lame as a very lame thing.
And I'm still gutted over Bart Allen's death, but at least the storyline was really well done, and 'a gripping read', as they say.

If you have to ask..

Then the answer is no...
Is it ok to have a secret Tory crush?
(From The Guardian website, a newspaper that supports a leftwing/liberal view).
For non UK readers - The Conservatives are the right wing party in the House of Commons, they are known colloquially as Tories. They are traditionally the party of the rich and privileged. They are also traditionally homophobic, sexist and racist. They do not like the welfare state. They introduced section 28 in the 80s banning schools from 'promoting' homosexuality with the net effect that teachers didn't dare talk about homosexuality lest they got the sack. The majority of them wanted the legal time limit on abortion to be reduced. They don't support the green movement. They are the only party to have had a woman Prime Minister but this is no reason to support them as Margaret Thatcher is the devil incarnate. Mortgage rates doubled, if not tripled when she was Prime Minister. They shut all the mines thus destroying a lot of northern and Welsh communities. They do not believe in the rights of the worker and they do not care about those in poverty. They don't see the need for a support network. they opposed the minimum wage. They were in power for 18 years from 1979 and in the early 90s a lot of corruption became public.
Boris Johnson is a Tory.
There is also a high possibility they will get in at the next election, in which case goodbye rights.
So, no, if you also support a leftwing or liberal point of view it is not, ever, ok to have a Tory crush.

International day against Homophobia

is today!
I don't really have much to add except that this needs promoting and statements starting with I'm not homophobic but...'* is generally a pretty good indicator that what you're about to say is homophobic, and what's more you know it. So don't lie.

Homphobia is everywhere. It's in the seemingly innocuous (to some) day to day insults of 'gay' used by kids in the playground to the beatings and pain inflicted by wankers who can't deal with two men or women kissing.

What is also needed is more visible representation of bisexuals. Everywhere. And not in the two hot chix getting it on in a male porn way. But that may be a different post and I'm not feeling too articulate right now.

*Recently heard in my progressive feminist workplace and thoroughly raised my hackles.