Seconding the job~ma.

Also, holy God, will this day never end?

And it's about to get longer because I have to step away from FB, because more (non-Buffista) friends are being distressing. This time over whether Katy Perry was doing geisha drag last night and whether, if she was, it was offensive or not.

The general consensus on which, including among people of whom I thought better, is: "Of course not! It's beautiful artistry! People are just looking to be offended! If you're right, then obviously I have the right to be offended every time a Japanese person wears jeans! My dad's buddy in the service brought me back a wee kimono when I was four, so that made me a TODDLER RACIST, right? OMG, I'm mixed-race, so now I have to quit Dickens Fair because I'm appropriating, right? Why are people so sensitive about nothing? IT WAS JUST PRETTY GET OFF MY BACK STOP RUINING EVERYTHING PRETTY YOU RUINERS." O, for a bingo card.

I also feel guilty because there are two other people trying gingerly to push back against it all, and I feel like I'm abandoning them by stepping away, but I just can't even.

JZ,

all this is made worse by KP in an interview [link] saying (jokingly, but in WAY WAY poor taste)

“I am obsessed with Japanese people,” Perry said. “I love everything about them and they are so wonderful as human beings.”

But then she took it up a notch.

“I’m so obsessed I want to skin you and wear you like Versace,”

I'm mixed-race, so now I have to quit Dickens Fair because I'm appropriating, right?

What is your response to that?

My response to that, if I bothered to make one (eta: to that person, obvs, not to you, since I AM responding to you, but no way will I post it to her), would be two-pronged; first, that as mixed-race, she's lower down on the privilege ladder than your average WASP, and even though I'm nowhere near well read enough to lay it all out coherently and flawlessly I know that better brains than mine have talked about how very different it is for the less-privileged to appropriate bits of the culture of the more-privileged (see also: reverse sexism/racism, rape jokes that shit on the victims vs. those that "punch up," etc.); and, second, that even if it were theoretically straight-up appropriation, in actual fact the London of Dickens' time was pretty bustling and international and there's no damn reason she couldn't play a mixed race Victorian Londoner with prefect historicity and no appropriation at all.

But I'm not gonna, because that way lies madness.

le n, what the what? DAMN. That's some truly impressive tone-deafitude.

O, for a bingo card.

Number of days since the last time people have disappointed us: 0.

le n, what the what? DAMN. That's some truly impressive tone-deafitude.

Given she is dating John "I have a racist penis" Mayer, I am not surprised.

Woo-hoo, my modem DID magically fix itself while I was at work! Hooray!

First batch of Sausage Stuffing Spheres with Cranberry Centers assembled and in the freezer, also woohoo! I have so much more stuffing than I need for this recipe, which is good because I decided I need to make a double batch for the pot luck tomorrow. I think for the batch I make to bring to my parents I will not try not straining the cranberry sauce, see how that goes.

Good luck, Consuela, even though the interview wasn't really what you were hoping for.

Yeah, can I just say, on behalf of my people, fuck Katy Perry, and fuck all the supporters/racists.

job~ma, Sue. Argh Consuela - still sending job~ma anyway.

Catching up on the Katy Perry - ugh. ugh. ugh. ugh.

The people I'm backing away from aren't even folks I would ever have said were racists, but they are seriously bugging the fuck out over what seems to me a pretty measured (mildly impatient and eyerolling, but all told still measured) response.

One person got nigh hysterical about how "I dressed up as a geisha for Halloween a couple of years ago, so I guess I'm racist now, huh, huh, is that what you're saying?" and it is taking all I've got not to just screencap her post (or possibly the entire thread) and send it to Yo, Is This Racist?

They're good people, generally, but holy fuck are they flipping out like mammals.