Criticism of the Nostalgia Chick

When looking up FernGully clips last year, I ran across the Big-Lipped Alligator Moment meme and traced it back to a funny video produced by two internet reviewers, the Nostalgia Critic (played by Doug Walker) and the Nostalgia Chick (played by Lindsay Ellis). They were so entertaining that I bookmarked both of their pages, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Lindsay Ellis is a feminist who makes video reviews from a feminist viewpoint. My appreciation of the Nostalgia Chick has greatly diminished over time, however, largely stemming from the character's absurd qualities being difficult to distinguish from Lindsay Ellis' honest criticism, as well as her bad (i.e. anti-feminist) taste in humor.

A Voice for Men: Still Transphobic and Anti-Feminine-Men

Over a year ago, I made a challenge to the men's rights movement to support feminine men instead of attacking them for being traitors to masculinity. Like most of my blog posts, I crossposted it to Fanpop, and MRA Paul Elam responded to it there, saying that his website A Voice for Men (rape apologist site; may trigger) has "5 regular writers, two of which are openly gay, and [they] run regular articles denouncing any efforts for masculinity to be defined by anyone other than the individual". I looked it over, found a whole lot of hate, but tried to scan for good parts.

I came back with a response saying "I found some things there I agreed with. There's some good stuff about needing to teach boys that it's okay to be emotional and some general stuff about the welfare of boys and men. What I don't like is the underlying philosophy about how everything bad for men is the product of evil feminists. There's good discussion of bad gender roles for men, but when 'a feminist did it' is at the heart, there's no way I can respect it." I went on to describe some ambiguous wording I found problematic as well as blatant transphobia such as the characterization of a trans woman as a traitorous man. That sat there without response until I made a vlog response to AoirthoirMasculinist's vlog response to my video counterpart of the initial challenge, in which I borrowed some of my words from my reply to Paul Elam and said that AVfM was hateful and contained more of the same disrespect of feminine men.


This time, I got a reply from an MRA associated with AVfM, called TheHappyMisogynist (not sure if it is Paul Elam or just a friend of his), who claimed that I was making shit up about AVfM to unfairly discredit it, saying "AVfM has always stood behind every man's choice of sexual identity, and personal interpretation of masculine, PERIOD". I sent him the link to the Fanpop thread, and I just got a response on the thread by Paul Elam, who says that my "interpretation of what [I am] reading on AVfM is really off target. So much so that one has to wonder if it is intentional" and "The MRM, as it is active on A Voice for Men, supports and embraces the autonomy and dignity of all men, gay, straight, bisexual, transgender and anything else outside these designations. [My] attempt to characterize it as otherwise is weak and unsupported."

So, I checked out the (disgustingly misogynistic, ageist, and ableist) site, and right in the mission and values list, there's use of the slur "mangina". This is used to degrade a man for respecting women by implying feminine characteristics through bonding male gender-identifier "man" with female sex organ "vagina". Something obvious to me is immediate hostility toward trans men because men with vaginas must be fundamentally bad if "mangina" functions as an insult. So, the claim that AVfM respects men with feminine characteristics as real men (and supports the dignity of trans men) goes out the window at once.

Anime Review: When They Cry

(Though I usually write spoilery articles, I've made effort to not spoil here given the interesting mystery)

When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) is an awesome horror/mystery anime somewhere between The Wicker Man and Lost. When city-boy Keiichi moves to the rural Hinamizawa and becomes friends with a group of girls, he thinks he’s found paradise, until he learns that the town hides its darker face of creepy religious worship, a yakuza group, and a very relevant murder mystery. Similar to the Studio Ghibli anime music video On Your Mark, the show’s format involves the Buddhist-inspired concept of the universe restarting and everyone having another chance to get things done right, even if they don’t always remember anything from their previous lives. The show consists as a series of story arcs that act as these independent timelines involving the group of kids encountering dangerous situations that may be connected to an ancient curse. It seems like destiny that there will be murder, but there is always room to hope for a good outcome, while the viewer can meanwhile piece together clues about the general mystery.

Analysis of Boy Meets World, 1st Season

I decided to bring my analytical skills to one of my favorite shows of all time: Boy Meets World. It makes sense to do as Lewis Carroll wrote and start at the beginning, so I’ll look at the first season first. Hmmm.

Well, I don’t really like the first season that much. I mean, it’s fine, but it’s nothing special. They changed the show around so much in the second season that the first season feels like practically an entirely different show just with the same character names. It can be summed up as: Loud, obnoxious upper middle class boy Cory Matthews lives next door to his teacher Mr. Feeny, and though he wants life to stay the same, is forced to confront the prospect of growing up and liking girls.

If I could talk to the Big Bang Theory characters...

...I'd say the following.

Leonard: Forget about Penny and find a nice girl who actually appreciates the same things you do.

Amy: Dump Sheldon. He doesn't care about you as more than a friend beyond some possessive inclinations. Assume an aromantic friendly relationship based on intellectual stimulation. And then ask her out.

Raj: Even if he wasn't straight, Howard's in a committed relationship with Bernadette, so stop making him feel uncomfortable with your obvious attraction to him.

Penny: You don't have to change your whole identity for a guy, but it wouldn't kill you to be a bit more respectful either.

Jeez, these people are dysfunctional!

10 Kinky Kids' Stories

I’m a masochist, meaning I like pain and the idea of being dominated by a powerful entity. I say ‘entity’ because in the realm of fantasy, the dominant character can be a person or an animal or a robot or anything really. Despite perception of masochism as a conscious deviancy, I believe it’s more like a sexual orientation as I have been this way all my life. This means I was a masochist when I was a kid and as such tended to be drawn to certain stories that unintentionally exemplified kinks. So, here I’ve made a list of the top ten (most likely unintentionally) kinky stories of my childhood. If this isn’t your cup of tea, feel free to move on.

The Pet - BDSM Film Review

A while ago while looking for a completely different movie, I came upon The Pet, a BDSM-related story. Being a masochist and fan of the BDSM genre in general, I watched it anyway. It’s pretty bad. Some movies are so bad they’re good… This isn’t one of them. It doesn’t seem to understand what it’s trying to be, and while I think it was trying to present an open-minded perspective of alternative relationships, it comes off decidedly negative in its portrayal of BDSM. The most overt way this is so is through the unfortunate conflation of consensual “slavery” role-play with real world human trafficking.

Weird Search Terms

Thanks to Site Meter, I can tell when people visit Going Rampant and from where. If it was from a search engine, the search terms are usually recorded. Below is a list of some of the strangest things people have reached my blog searching for:

• "sexy mechanics" - This is a problem of searches ignoring punctuation. "...Sexy? Mechanics..."
• "feminist killing boys" - Sorry, no anti-feminist rants here.
• "sex porno massacre brutaly" - I'm sure I used every one of those words on a page, just not together like that.
• "fanfiction about dark and dominant jacob raping and forcing bella to be his sex slave" - Sorry, not my thing. Now, morally grey and dominant Claire raping and forcing Elle to be her sex slave...
• "STORIES OF CORTANA GETTING RAPED BY MASTER CHIEF" - No. Just no.
• "goa'uld porn" - Um, what the frak?
• "how to kill a womanizing husband" - Yikes! 
• "is halo a girl character in the game halo" - Halo is a pretty cool gal. ehs kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything. Seriously, though, no, Halo is a ring-shaped weapon of mass destruction.
• "obama is an active from the dollhouse" - Ha! Well, it would make sense. Bennett's good at programming leadership qualities.
• "halo elite female porn" - Is it weird that I've actually seen some on the 'net?
• "snakes slither into female womb and gives birth sex stories" - I... What?
• "images of a female spartan from halo getting raped by an elite" - Um... Hell, no.

It's a sick 'net, people! It's a sick 'net!

Dollhouse Is Feminist (Part 17: 2x01)

(Written for the video version)

The Dollhouse second season has a different feel to it. It was pure chance that it got renewed at all. Joss and the others knew that they weren’t going to get another season, so they crammed the rest of the story into one season, leading to a rushed pace and a darker tone as we’re now slouching toward Bethlehem.

Dollhouse Is Feminist (Part 16: Pilot)

(Written for the video version)

The original pilot of Dollhouse, called “Echo”, was Joss’ original concept for the first episode, but it was discarded after concerns from FOX and is now very non-canon, though many of its scenes were scavenged for other episodes. Though it is non-canon, I think it’s interesting to look at the original pitch for Dollhouse.