8 Against 8 is over! We raised more than $13,000 to oppose Proposition 8 in California.
Thank you, everyone, for the comments and support and re-posting the media I was posting, for sharing posts, for driving traffic, and of course for donating.
I overdid it, really. I’m so sick of gay marriage anything. But here’s hoping that even just one of the things I posted resonated with one person out there, and made some sort of difference. I will still be posting a few political things between now and the US election (Tuesday! November 4th! FUCKING VOTE, PEOPLE!), but it will be back at my regular one-post-a-day schedule. And there will be smut. Promise.
And now for something completely different:
Like a dozen of my blog neighbors, I was given ten copies of The L Word Season 5 to give away to my readers, and they arrived at my place yesterday.
So it’s official. Want a copy?
I kind of love to hate the L Word. I can’t stand watching it. I stopped watching in Season 2 when Shane & Jenny’s roommate set up videocameras in their home, in their bedrooms. Not. Okay. I thought it was a cheap ploy for drama, and a cheap ploy for male viewers to be able to insert themselves into the lesbian action. Hey, if you’ve got other explanations for why this plotline was used, I’d be curious to hear them, but that’s my take – and it was enough for me to stop watching for nearly three seasons.
I caught up last year with seasons 2-4 so I could watch Season 5, and I was able to distance myself from it enough to occasionally enjoy it (oh, Alice) and consistently critique it (Kit, Shane, the lack of character development, the fucking drama, the constant sex with straight girls, the race, the class, the transphobia, the cliches, the gender issues, UGH).
Still, it’s nice to see lesbians of any kind on TV, isn’t it? It’s nice to hear people use my language and reference my culture and hell, the hot girl sex is not entirely awful.
I can’t say I was entirely disappointed that we’re going into the last season of the L Word. I’m kind of glad it’s over so I can stop watching for purposes of keeping up with the culture. And the spin-off – did I just make up in my head that it’s Alice? I thought it was Alice. But now I can’t find a reference.
SO! Back to the give-away contest:
The L Word returns to DVD with the complete fifth season on Oct. 28th in a collectible 4-disc set. DVD includes all 12 dramatic and deliciously provocative fifth season episodes from Showtime’s successful long-running series featuring all the beauty, chaos and complexities of a group of women who inhabit Los Angeles’ lesbian community plus behind-the-scenes special features.
By entering you agree to give me your address so I can mail you these DVDs. If you’re in the US, I will pay shipping; if you’re outside of it, I’m sorry but you’ll have to cough up the shipping.
Leave a comment in this thread to enter. Here’s what you’re going to include:
- Are you registered to vote? (Hint: look it up here.)
- Do you know where you are going to go to vote? (Hint: look it up here.)
- ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH? or, did you already vote absentee/early? (It is possible that just asking people to vote is actually a good way to get them to vote.)
Sorry for the US-centricity of these questions. If you are not in the US, tell me:
- When is YOUR election?
- Are you registered to vote?
Winners will be chosen at random by comment number on Friday. Please only enter yourself once. There will be MORE prizes coming!
1. Yes!
2. Yes!
3. Yes! (I'm so stoked, it's my first time…)
Not in the USA, but in little old New Zealand.
Our Election is Nov 8, 2008 – so just days after yours!
Yes, I'm registered.
And yes, I'm voting.
We have Civil Union's here, and that seems to keep us happy – but, I am definately voting with the party who helped bring them to us – not the opposition, of which ONLY 3 voted yes, the other 21 voted no when they put the bill through parliment a number of years ago.
Jak
1) Yes.
2) Yes, P.S. 172 in Brooklyn
3) Hell yes! I just got my re-registration confirmation letter in the mail today and I can't wait to cast my vote for Obama next Tuesday.
I'm especially excited because it's my first time voting in New York and my first time voting with a real machine, not absentee.
Alas – as a Canadian I cannot vote – but I've been doing my share of activism to try to make up for it. Canada just had their election, and although they re-elected a conservative government, at least it is a minority government.
The L word giveaway people contacted me too – but apparently I don't have a popular enough blog – so I wanna win one of yours ;)
Yes, Yes, and Oh, Heck Yes.
Yes, Yes and Already Did!
prop 8 doesn't even effect gays, why would gays vote about it.
you poor ladies don't realize how empty you are without God. I hope you find a place to cry to God and He will love you.
READ and apply Acts 2:38 in the Bible.
Are you registered to vote?
yes, sir!
Do you know where you are going to go to vote?
Yup, a middle school down the street :)
ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH? But of COURSE!
Hi Sin,
I already voted: I recently moved to India (you have readers in the Mumbai dyke community now, just in case you wondering….), so last week I voted absentee (I'm a California voter: San Francisco, but I sent my ballot for Obama from the American consulate in downtown Mumbai. And if you happen to be following it, 377 (the colonial law outlawing sodomy, oral sex, bdsm….you know, all the fun stuff) is currently being challenged in the Delhi High Court. I guess it's a big year: can we marry in California? Can we fuck in India? There should be a (fingers crossed positive) ruling by the end of the year. Thanks for your blog: it's the first thing I check in the morning, after my email.
xoxoxox
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Tomorrow morning!
yes (in north carolina… hooray swing states that i don’t actually live in!)
yes,
and already did!
1. YES
2. My mailbox
3. Absentee
yes,
yes, the post office,
yes, i already voted by mail (and i just got home from phone banking for no on 8!)
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Hell, yes.
Thank you, Mr. Sexsmith!
Yes, yes, and yes
Already voted. Haven't missed an election since I turned 18 (way back in 1977). In Oregon it's easy cuz it's all by mail. Although, like Mossy said (above) it feels more participatory to drop it off rather than put it in the mail.
As far as the L Word, I have always been disappointed in that show, and for several reasons. Mainly though, it's the lack of dyke diversity. Other than Shane (the ludicrous caricature) where are the hot butch girls? The whole femme on femme thing leaves so many of us out. I'd like a little eye candy of the flavor I prefer ~ studly. Although, any girl on girl sex is yummy!
Yes.
Yes.
And ABSOLUTELY :)
Go Barack!
1. Yes.
2. Yes. The Manhattan New School, 82nd and Lexington. (Hello, neighbor?)
3. HELL YES.
Also, I've never actually seen the L Word.
1. indeed i am!
2. the salvation army about 5 blocks from my house.
3. for the most part, yea. democrats as far as the eye can see (even though i live in oklahoma and that is kind of a pipe dream).
1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
Yep, ready to vote, will be voting early this week with my partner and I hope prop 8 is voted down. Gotta keep some hope that Texans might get a heart and allow us to get hitched. :)
1. yes, i'm registered independent so I can vote in either primary. purely strategic!
2. yes, less than a block away.
3. ummm, yeah.
Yes!
Yes, at the school next to my house!
Yes!!
Of course I'm voting. It's in Lay Park a few blocks from my house next to the Community Arts Center. I'm just going to go on November 4th because I'm skipping school to ferry people to and from the polls all day anyway.
I'm from Norway, and our next election is in september 2009. We don't have to register to vote, it's enough to be a Norwegian sitizen over the age of 18. So, being 20, you could say I'm as registered as I need to be here. And I'm definately going to vote. I wouldn't want to waste that right.
Yes I'm voting, yes I know where, and I already did it via absentee. I even considered that NJ is less blue than MA so I decided to vote there rather than here. Here's to Obama taking the cake!
Oh, absofuckinlutely yes across the board.
registered, voted early and acting as an elections worker at the polls. Love to see the high turnout in Madison. And flirting with those of you in line? A perk. Go vote!
yes, yes, & yes!
1. Yes, Sir.
2. Yes, Sir.
3. Already did that early, and suffered an hour and a half wait in heels, in the cold for the privilege, Sir.
;-)
1. Yes. Clinton was my first.
2. Yes.
3. I have already voted.
On Nov. 4 I plan on spending my day driving fellow dems to their polling placing.
Elections are on the 8th of November.
Yes I'm enrolled and yes I'm voting.
Actually I don't want the L word thanks – I've seen it and the dvds you have would be zone one I guess. But I liked that you were thinking of your multinational readership at the end of your entry.
yep. x3
Completely disagree with you about the Mark/cameras storyline. Yes, it was creepy, but that's the point. For me it represents a the-gloves-are-coming-off approach to the male viewers who are tuning in for the girl-on-girl action and not much else. Basically the execs always order them to put a male in the show for male viewers to ID with. In season one it was Tim, who was a fairly honourable guy to identify with, then in season two it was Mark, who represents a much more critical representation of straight men. Male viewers have two choices: either they immediately recognise Mark's actions as wrong and align themselves with the female characters, or they initially identify with Mark and then as the series progresses they are indirectly chastised and critiqued, particularly towards the end of the series. There's a really fascinating essay on this by Candace Moore in the book "Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts it in a Box" edited by Merri Lisa Johnson which I highly recommend.
[Good point – I like that read on it. I didn't stick around for the chastisement, because I got so angry at the storyline, so I didn't have the full interpretation of it, I suppose. Thanks for the book recommendation, will check it out. – ss]