A spoonful of linkspam

Aoife O'Riordan, , , , , , ,

Only a small few links this week, but they’re hopefully varied enough to keep you interested.

First is a post from the AntiRoom on Lola Montez, Her Name Was Lola. Something that myself and the author share is a fascination with “stories about eccentric, unconventional and often brazen women who happily disregarded what was socially acceptable for their gender in the times they lived in and as a result, led totally badass lives.” What could be better?

Back to the here-and-now with ‘here’s how the unemployment trap works‘ from thejournal.ie. Róisín Nic Dhonnacha argues eloquently against the idea that unemployment is a ‘lifestyle choice’, and pointing out how stigma against the unemployed and fear of unemployment can keep the most able and qualified people out of work. As a recent recruit to the super-trendy world of the funemployed (er, woop?), I hereby decree that you all read it.

While we’re talking about stigma, let’s get to language. In Trust me, you don’t speak English badly, Courtney Stoker argues against English language prescriptivism and the idea that there is one ‘correct’ dialect of English- which just so happens to be the way middle-and-upper-class people speak. Funny, that.

“If some­one is a native speaker, and it sounds right to them, it is right. Native speak­ers are com­pe­tent in their own lan­guage… There’s noth­ing inher­ently or log­i­cally bet­ter about SAE than any other dialect in the coun­try. And the rea­son we believe in the supe­ri­or­ity of SAE has noth­ing to do with the actual speech, but with who speaks it.”

Finally, I love-love-love the Vlogbrothers. But who doesn’t? Here’s Hank talking about a guy in a massively shielded car calling him a pussy as he cycles down the street with only a couple of inches of polystyrene between him and the road. And also bullying. And how you don’t deal with it, you survive it. And why that’s the problem with It Getting Better. TW for talk about bullying, natch.

Oh, also: I know there’s no sound on the vids I posted the other day! I’m currently on a connection where uploading them again somewhere else would take hours (literally- I tried). I’ll repost ’em when I get somewhere a bit faster.

Oh! And before I forget- Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating it! Hope you’re all having a wonderful time. 🙂

{advertisement}
A spoonful of linkspam

About the author

Aoife is located in a small town in Ireland, and she won't let you forget it. She gets paid to teach, but will default to roller derby and social theory if given half a chance. She's quite likely (but not guaranteed) to be writing about: feminism, queerness, wheelyshoes, Ireland, what she cooked last week, or any combination of the above. She will tell you how to pronounce her name, but only if you ask very nicely.
{advertisement}

4 thoughts on “A spoonful of linkspam”

  1. Grant Gordon
    Reply
    1

    OMG Vlogbrother’s are awesome! I can’t believe I’ve never come across them before. Aoife, you’ve now completely destroyed any productivity for as long as it takes me to go through all the archives. Not only that, I’ve passed it along to a whole bunch of other people, so if the South African economy tanks, it’s your fault! 😛

  2. Aoife O’Riordan
    Reply
    2

    Nooooo! That would be Not Good. Especially given that the mission of the Vlogbrothers is to decrease world suck. And I’m pretty sure that singlehandedly stalling the economy of an entire country overnight counts as a bit of an increase in the world suckage department.
    I think you might have to set up some kind of work/vlogbrothers relay system.
    (Also totally go check out the Song About An Anglerfish)

  3. Alice
    Reply
    3

    Thanks most of all for passing on Courtney Stoker’s post against English language prescriptivism! C and I have been batting this argument around for years (mainly using Hiberno-English as the “not incorrect” dialect), and Stoker pretty much pieced together what I’ve been trying to say all along in one well-explained rant!

    I heart the internet so much sometimes.

Leave a Reply