Care and Feeding of an East Coast Liberal

You Sound Like A MAN

Here's that post that I kept promising to make...

You Sound Like A MAN

Really? Do I? Let's test your ability to identify real men - and real women - simply by the words coming out of their mouth.

Disclaimer: I have pulled these quotes from various sources. I've tried to keep away from quotes that might be easily identified ("I have a dream..."), but there's always the chance that you'll be able to say, "Hey! That's Bruce Willis!" or something like that.

These quotes, by the by, are all from cisgendered people - at least, as far as I know. Some are quotes from those I know personally; some are things I've found online. There's going to be variation, from personal to formal. I've tried to make sure there are between 50-100 words in each clip in order for you, gentle reader, to best determine the person's gender.

No webcheating!

aaaand....

BEGIN!

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1. I'm not going to do a massive update of my life and how it's changed since my last post because that positively reeks of effort. That's not a road this LJer is going to be taking anytime soon. No sir! Instead I invite you, the reader, to figure out what's changed in the past nine months. By the way, you'll note that nine months and change is just long enough a span of time for me to have had a child and sold it on the black market for a tidy profit. Just saying.

2. In the run-up to Australian Prime Minister Howard's re-election, the Times noted that he had "made the alliance with Washington a key element of his tenure." The Times was hopeful that Australia would be as pathetic as Spain, noting that "with al-Qaida threatening reprisals for the country's support of the United States in Iraq — a war that most Australians opposed — is Australia poised to become the next Spain? Will it become the next country to abandon President Bush?"

3. What is physical attraction then, if not "how much I want to have sex with this person"? Maybe aesthetics? Yes, but looking at someone beautiful without considering the elements that make them human reduces them to a walking magazine ad - a beautiful object. And if you don't KNOW the other elements that make them more than a beautiful object (their compassion, their sparkling personality, their cutting wit, whatever), then you ARE reducing them to object status. Objectification.

4. I think there are more Black films being made now. The last time they were making this number of films was during the Black exploitation era. The challenge is how do you navigate this world where we're still relegated to those three ghettos. You don't see movies about Sojourner Truth or Matthew Henson or Black science fiction or a Black thriller. The studios say, We're not buying that. They say, do you have something with drugs or a rapper, something we can put Nelly in?

5. These are the sorts of books where I decide on one word over another based on which has a funnier sound in the mouth -- and let me tell you, it's a whole lot easier to scare people or make them cry than to make them laugh continually. These were the hardest books to write of the seventeen. That said, I think humour is a vital part of what makes us human and should be in everything. You can't have constant tension, constant horror, constant drama -- it's too emotional for the reader and a real drain on the writer as well. There has to be a release of tension.

6. I was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1962 and moved to the United States in 1966. I grew up in the States and returned to Canada at age thirteen, moving to Toronto with my family. I have four sisters. I worked as an electrician for five years.

I work as a counselor with the Developmentaly Hadicapped now as well as write. I share five cats with Tanya Huff and a chihuahua she says is only mine. I make origami as a hobby and love reading books on English geography. My favorite toy is my riding lawnmower, and my favorite playmate is my God-daughter Holly.

7. To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

8. It was pretty close...the man pulled me back though.

I got Craig and his girlfriend to come to my church picnic which was cool, but also a little awkward. I’m a Mennonite, but I have no way of telling Craig..."As cute as I find it, nuzzling your girlfriend is probably not the thing to do when in a church service."

I'm also on a hunt for whatever has been causing me breathing problems in my house. Every morning for the last week has been me waking up gasping with a lingering tightness in my chest that dissipates during the day.

9. Sometimes while I'm struggling to finish a book there are moments of fear and doubt. But that is true of thin books too. There are days where you hate everything you've done and days where it's the most brilliant thing you've done. I see it as part of the writing process. So far I'm still very enthused by the series and I will wrap it up in six books, so it won't last forever. It will be a massive story for certain. But with the cast I have and the direction I'm taking, it needs to be massive.

10. It came about in part because I had a real desire to de-mystify India. The India of the British Raj, of Maharajaz and beautiful Princesses surrounded by abject poverty just does not exist anymore. I wanted to make a film about contemporary, middle-class India, with all its vulnerabilities, foibles and the incredible, extremely dramatic battle that is waged daily between the forces of tradition and the desire for an independent, individual voice.

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So? What do you think? Stats will be in a seperate post, maybe on Monday.

posted by Alex @ 12:33 PM