Precious and Fragile Things

Look, I know you didn't think you were being offensive when you asked, "Why would anyone ever want to role-play a legitimate gay person in WoW?" But, dude, you were extremely offensive.

See, here's the thing, Blizzard is a bit behind the curve when it comes to making non-heterosexual characters, and most major video games of late do have at least one homosexual character. However, just because Blizzard hasn't yet given us any (officially) gay characters doesn't erase the fact that out of those millions of subscribers, there are some that are not straight. And being that many of us aren't 100% heterosexual, it means we'd kind of like to have characters who bear a closer resemblance to us. You get to live your day to day life with your wife and kids and never have to worry about whether or not your marriage is legally recongized in all 50 states, or whether or not you can visit your wife in the hospital should she fall ill. You don't have to worry if you hold hands with your wife in public about getting grief other than the eyeroll from your kids. If you pick up a movie, turn on the TV, or play a video game, chances are you're going to see someone who looks like you (in the sense they have romantic relationships with members of the opposite sex). For many of us, we don't get that luxury, and when we try to make characters like us via role-play or fanfic, we get asshats like you questioning why we need to gay up the joint.

And please, don't hide behind lore. While not officially stated as being a couple, there's some definite heat between Tholo Whitehoof and Anren Shadowseeker that's got nothing to do with the fires of the Molten Front, if you catch my drift. No, it's not official, but it's heavily implied. There's also hints at Koltira Deathweaver and Thassarian, and Asiric and Jaadar, so it's not like a player-made character being something other than heterosexual is completely out of left field. (Now if Blizz would just throw us a few women who happen to like other women...)

Furthermore, speaking as someone who's really big on lore compliance, that generally falls in the area of, "No, your Death Knight can't still be alive," and not, "No, Jimmy can't love Johnny." I mean, even if we didn't have in-game examples to look at, it's really kind of a dick move (heh-heh) to tell anyone who they can or can't love. Really, it makes you look like an asshole.

For the record, yes there were people in that chatroom who were not 100% heterosexual. It really speaks volumes that you were only going to apologize if someone in the room was gay. Again, when you're playing a game that has nine million players worldwide, chances are you're going to encounter someone different from you.

By the way, there is at least one positive thing I can say about our interaction. I know I can save myself the headache of role-playing with a homophobic asshat in the future by ignoring you.

Sincerely,

The Player who Likes ALL THE GENDERS

Dear Dilanndau - Moon Guard,

At first, I just rolled my eyes.

( Sexually suggestive/Sexist language under the cut. )

Some of my aggravation was because I hadn't had a decent dungeon run all night and no sooner had we zoned into Culling of Stratholme than both a DPS and the healer dropped group immediately, but even in my best of moods I'd still have dropped group rather than suffer through your "jokes" while we waited upwards of 15 minutes or more for replacements. Middle school was way too long ago for me, and those sort of "jokes" from complete strangers remind me of some pretty awful people from my past.

You're not as cute or funny as you think you are.

Wondering why I press the green eye,

The Pally player banging her head against the desk

Dear Construction Workers,

Hi, you don't know me and I may not know you personally, but I pass by you every time I drive my son to school and each time I drive into town or travel to Spruce Pine. From what I understand, the highway widening is going to take a few more years, so we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other.

So, with that in mind, could you please try not to hit the main water line? That's twice now that the high school has had to close down, and I know of at least one other time you managed to break it after school was out and shut down several local restaurants in town (places which are likely forced to close today). I'm not sure what you did this time, but they're saying we might not have school tomorrow, so congratulations, I guess for going all out?

I understand accidents will happen, it's just I have to ask if this is preventable. Once it's a mistake, twice...

Signed,

An aggravated mother who hopes they don't cancel Friday's day off.

Dear Pixar,

Please, pretty please with caramel and chocolate sauce and sugar on top, DO NOT FUCK THIS UP!!!

Love,

Jade

P.S.: The fact that my son who swears there are boy things and girl things (and never shall the twain meet--Mommy doesn't count as a girl apparently) wants to see it speaks volumes to your animation. Again, don't fuck it up.

Dear Students of Penn State protesting Paterno's firing:

FUCK YOU!

Your coach didn't even do the bare minimum when he learned his assistant coach was sexually abusing children. Reporting it to university officials was not enough. He placed the reputation of a fucking football team above the safety of innocent children.

You aren't defending an innocent man. No, Paterno didn't abuse anyone (that we know of), but he should be held culpable for utterly failing to stop the abuse as soon as he knew it was happening, if not for utterly failing as a human fucking being. Personally, I'd rather not have people like that representing me or my school on the field or off. I'd want that poison as far away from anything I love as much as possible.

But do go on and continue missing the fucking point. The tragedy here is not that Paterno will miss out on one last game. The tragedy is that those children will never have their lives prior to Sandusky returned to them. Those children will have to live with what happened for the rest of their lives, and their parents will have to live with the knowledge that people knew what was going on and did little to nothing to stop it!

Hoping you walk into a hornet's nest while protesting,

Jade

P.S.: While you're out today whining, take a moment to read the grand jury report on Sandusky's charges. Maybe if you read a little you'll understand why this is such a big fucking deal, way bigger than football. [Massive Trigger Warnings Apply]

Dear Wintèr of SWC,

Hi, see all that gear I'm wearing? It's raiding gear meaning I'm a PvE-er, not a PvPer. You got me when I put out the wickerman in Stormwind. Fair enough, I accepted that because I was doing the quest and knew I'd be flagged, but then you proceeded to camp my corpse and ganked me while I was trying to hearth back to Org. You would have gotten me a third time had my flag not worn off, but you still clucked like a chicken at me.

No, I'm not a chicken, I just know I'm not geared and I sure as hell can't handle you when I'm just rezzed and not even at full health and mana. See, I don't want to do PvP because as bad as pugs are, the PvP assholes are worse.

That is, I wasn't planning to PvP until today. Tonight I am going to be reading up on how to play a Warlock in PvP. I can tailor some of my own PvP gear easily enough and my guild has some awesome PvPers eager to bring me to the dark side teach me the basics. Mark my words, I'm only going to do this so I can totally pwn your ass for being a jerk.

By the way, looking forward to seeing you try Undercity. I hope someone is as much of an asshole as you were to me.

The Belf 'Lock plotting your doom,

Folami

Dear Asshats in the little red sedan:

If my truck door hit your precious little car, I'm terribly sorry. I think there was contact, but I had opened my car door slowly and carefully enough that it did not slam against it as you said. I know this might be hard to wrap your brain around, but I don't make a habit of hitting cars, and at first I thought you were trying to say I'd literally hit your car, which bewildered me because, well, I knew that hadn't happened.

Look, it was pouring down rain. I opened my car door carefully, making sure it wasn't going to slam against anything. Then I had to open my umbrella. I couldn't hear diddly squat except for the rain and my own thoughts. Hell, I thought the car was empty. (BTW, what were you and your friend doing just sitting in the parking lot? You weren't waiting on anyone that I could see, but boy were your friend's eyes red.) You then opened the door and immediately started out with, "OH, SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO WALK AWAY AND NOT SAY ANYTHING?"

First, yes, I'm just going to walk away if I'm unaware I've done anything wrong. I didn't know or think I'd hit your precious baby and, well, I'm focused on getting my umbrella opened and getting the fuck out of the pouring rain. After some back and forth you ask for my license and insurance information and all I asked was to be able to get my son out the car and, unknown to you, to signal that hulking 6' 1" three hundred-pound gorilla waiting at the store's entrance wondering what's taking me so long.

Also, I was going to ask the police be called. Know why? Because you and your friend were intimidating me. You might not be criminals and you might not ever raise your hand to a woman, but I don't know that. I have been pushed around by men before, men who knew precisely what they were doing. Was it mentioning that I had a kid in the car that softened you? I doubt you realized you were being an asshat even after I explained that I didn't hear anything and I wasn't aware and if you'd just give me a second to speak--but no, you cut me off. That teeny tiny mark on your car that most insurance companies would cover without the need of someone else to blame. Also, again, there was no paint on my truck door and for a mark like that, even one that small, red paint should have clearly shown up on my gray door. I've had a car scraped by another's car door before and I know what to look for (granted, that was my mother's truck on a moving day for college, but still, same scenarior minus the asshats).

Some part of me wonders if you did see the gorilla at the store's entrance. I don't think you did, but I do know if he had been in the truck with me and got out with me, this whole thing probably wouldn't have happened, or you would have seriously scaled back your anger. I've seen men with chips on their shoulders around my boyfriend before. It's not because he's violent or that he even makes a threat, it's that it's usually very obvious in a cost-benefit analysis of a situation, it's going to hurt them way more in the long run to test him to see if he can defend himself.

And I hate you for that. I hate that you'd have been more respectful had I the physical strength to back it up. I hate that I was intimidated by a moron who thinks his car is an extension of his masculinity, that you believe I'm the sort of dishonest person who harms someone else's property and just walks away. You couldn't take two seconds to ascertain whether or not I knew what happened. We had to shout to be heard over the rain. You think I'm going to hear it if a car door dings another car?

If that little mark costs you more than fifty bucks to repair, you're going to the wrong auto detailer. And had you pushed for a report, I'd have called in the police to make it all official-like and to make sure you weren't going to push toward violence. Also, your friends red eyes might have been allergies, but again, why were you just sitting in the parking lot? Yeah, bet that's another reason you didn't want to wait and only wanted to yell at me.

Fuck you for making my nice afternoon out full of anxiety. For making me upset enough to feel my hands shaking and to make me feel like crying. Fuck you for making me fear for my son's safety too and make him frightened because a man was outside yelling at his mother and he didn't know what was going on.

Hoping you get a flat tire,

Jade

I hate people.

Dear Certain Commenters to a Review at Dear Author,

I assure you those of us who found the rape in this book offensive aren't ignorant of history. Women especially know rape was and still is a tool of war. We know our history as being treated as property and that in war our bodies were forfeit to the men with power. We know children were raped and abused. We also know it still happens.

But that doesn't mean an author gets to portray rape, child rape especially, as positive or as a given.

Every time we walk across a dark parking lot at night, we think about rape. Any time we go to a bar and order a drink, we think about rape. When we go on a date with someone new, we think about rape. If we're at a bus stop or on the subway, we're looking around to see if there's a potential rapist following us home. If I turn on the news and see a report about the Sudan or Darfur, I hear how so many women are being raped as a weapon of war. Child-sex trafficking is alive and well in various parts of the globe.

So yes, we have every right to demand better from writers, to demand more accurate portrayals of history. Rape happened in the past, it still happens now with alarming frequency. Rape is still a weapon of war and women are still considered part of the spoils of war. That doesn't excuse rape or make it okay. Rape never has been and never will be okay.

This isn't a personal vendetta against the author, nor are we trying to white wash history. We're saying that we're fucking sick of this bullshit and that we demand better and expect more.

Fuck you if you think we don't know or think about how much rape happens. One in six of us has been raped and it's not something we ever forget.

Take your own advice and read up on history and current events. And while you're at it, step on a few legos barefoot.

Fuck you very much,

Jade

Dear Writer's Block,

Please go away. You're not welcome here.

No love,

Jade

Dear Curse,

Hurry up and bring your WoW add-ons back online. I would very much like to stop failing at torch catching/juggling, okay?

Frustrated,

Jade

(And yes, I do know there are other add-on sites, but I'm feeling stubborn and unreasonable. Deal with it.)