curmudgeon saturday

[elapses]

Things I never thought I'd hear myself say: this Ke$ha video is a thing of beauty. (Also never thought I'd succumb to actually spelling that with a dollar sign, I guess I am feeling more charitable than contrary today.)

Also I have decided we should work on eliminating these words from fandom's common-use vocabulary, mostly because of meaning dilution:
- fierce
- flail
- flawless
- hbic

Do you have others?

Comments

[summerstorm.livejournal.com]

Quality the way it's used on tumblr. It drives me nuts. 'Basic,' but I think that's already on its way to gone/I don't encounter it much.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Oh my god basic, I hope you are right about it disappearing because I HATE IT SO COMPLETELY. Such a useless turn of phrase.

(I agree with quality too, but apparently not with the same fervor.)

[farnsworthy.livejournal.com]

I was just complaining a couple of days ago about HBIC/BAMF and flawless! I'd skimmed a few March Madness threads and it was flawless this, flawless that, and I wanted to scream: NONE OF YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WORD MEANS.

I also have beef with "strong female character," because people just say it when they actually mean "sexy lady with a gun."

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Ugh there is NOTHING more frustrating to me than fandom's inability to reconcile strength of character with lack of physical strength in women, it always shocks me how so many people will cite, say, River Tam as a "strong female character".

[ishie]

Flawless is my single biggest fandom language peeve right now. It just. You can't use it for everything! It's impossible for everything to be flawless! It's impossible for pretty much anything to be flawless! AAAAAUUGHH.

Sorry.

Don't really have other meaning dilution suggestions, but I'd LEAP to join any campaign to eradicate the use of 'jewnicorn'.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Oh god I hadn't heard jewnicorn before this comment but that is TERRIBLE.

[ishie]

It's reaaaaally popular with some of the Social Network RPF crowd on Tumblr (or was? I blocked the heck out of it with a script a few weeks back). I just. No. On every level, no.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

It doesn't even make sense, I don't see how Jesse Eisenberg(/Andrew Garfield, if he too is jewish, I don't know these things) is the one lone, mystical jew...

[goldenmelisande.livejournal.com]

"calm your tits"

also that stupid "Y U NO" meme on tumblr, IT IS NOT FUNNY GODDAMNIT

[elapses.livejournal.com]

obviously they should use "clam down" instead

[frey-at-last.livejournal.com]

I pretty much hate all these fan catchwords as soon as I realize they are there. Quality, epic, HBIC, omgggg it could go on and on.

I still like more conversational-style internet talk ("amirite?") but whenever someone uses too much of it it's pretty glaring and feels sort of desperate. We're basically a high school with cool people lingo and anyone who's trying just a little too hard, well, it's sooo last week.

I would like to humbly submit some of the IM-slang my sister and I created (which we also say out loud): "do you kow?" "i kow rite" and "i dunt tink so." Among others.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's hard to say you hate all internet (catch)phrases because we are all guilty of using some of them sometimes, but lol, your high school analogy is spot-on.

[thecolorbetween.livejournal.com]

BUT FLAIL(Y) IS A BIG PART OF MY VOCABULARY, and sometimes, I like using "fierce" as in, "She is fiercely independent." (Not, you know, "She is fierce, like Tyra Banks, LOL!" Okay, ever so occasionally, I have used it that way, but I have always qualified that I don't mean it in the Tyra Banks way!) Alex, you are making things so difficult for me! :-|!

[elapses.livejournal.com]

WELL DON'T LET MY BRATTY FEELINGS GET YOU DOWN, CEE. I don't think you use flail as much as you think you do, and of course "fiercely independent" is extremely different. When I was searching my gmail logs for hypocrisy before I posted this those were the kinds of usages, plus some "x is fierce" as in "x has ferocity". Which is how that stupid word should be used.

[thecolorbetween.livejournal.com]

I flail non my own and try to get it out before posting more than I used to, I guess. Your feelings aren't bratty at all, though; many of the words in this post/comments are overused and then some, for one thing.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I think the context it annoys me most in is the asterixed *flail*, and then when people use it in the same omg FLAIL! sense without the asterixes, and that has bled over into just disliking the word in general. I FEEL LIKE I HAVE LOTS OF REASONS TO HATE THE REST OF THESE WORDS, but my dislike of that one borders on irrational.

[thecolorbetween.livejournal.com]

I admit slight intrigue as to just how strongly you dislike that word. But I guess I don't even use the word that often, I do certainly flail a lot, as a ~feeling~ or whatever.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I mean I don't have a problem with feelings a person might describe as flaily AT ALL, it has nothing to do with that, it's just a weird word choice thing, I don't know. But I am neurotic about words and voice and writing style in a much more general sense than this, so I think it's just a me thing.

[manasseh.livejournal.com]

PROBLEMATIC. People need to stop using it a) instead of just saying they don't like something and making it more ~important~ than that; b) as an explanation for why they don't like something.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I would not have thought of that one but I think you're really right here, it's so lazy: it's become a wordbomb you can drop to make your dislike sound rational without actually having to defend it.

[manasseh.livejournal.com]

yyyyyy it makes me crazy. Sometimes it looks like people do it just so they don't come off as disliking the latest popular thing (while still trying to score points for spotting the problematic aspect at the same time).

[elapses.livejournal.com]

The fact that that happens is interesting though, because it seems like it's a product of how fandom has evolved over the years-- how navel-gazey we have become in general (because you can't just hate something, not anymore), and how prominent meta on race/gender has become.

[modernthirst.livejournal.com]

SECONDED. + all quasi-academic vocabulary that I see groups of people using who, ironically, are also super into reminding everyone that they don't have an "elitist" higher education.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Omg lately I've seen a couple of people refer to actual academic texts while defending or tearing down some aspect of one fandom or another and it makes me want to RIP THEIR THROATS OUT, that alone does not legitimize your stupid argument. God FORBID you darken the doors of fandom if you haven't taken at least one women's studies class.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

"EPIC." I can't stand it when people say epic. I follow someone on tumblr who uses the tag "fucking epic as shit" and I literally want to stab a pencil into something whenever I see it. It doesn't help that she uses it as a stand-in for "awesome" or whatever so it's on basically every post. alskdfjlk let me die

I LOVE THAT VIDEO LOL. I actually really like Kesha tbh, I think she's a lot more legit than people (want to?) think.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

A lot of her music is a little too dance club-y for my specific tastes, but I agree, she's kind of a punchline right now but I think she'll pull herself out of that and continue to be successful.

[veils.livejournal.com]

LOL THAT VIDEO. Ke$ha is such a special brand of nutty, I think I may actually have respect for her.

Also I kind of loathe HBIC, where did it even come from and why the heck is it relevant? HOWEVER I WILL ALWAYS KIND OF ENJOY FIERCE IDK WHY, IT JUST PLEASES ME. I DO WHAT I WANT.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

YOU LOVE HER SAM, DON'T LIE.

I mean I GUESS people can use it for a special brand of women who are ACTUALLY head bitches in charge, but even used correctly it is obnoxious and dumb now. (Fierce I can tolerate when used sparingly, BUT IT IS NEVER USED SPARINGLY.)

[myr-soleil.livejournal.com]

WHATEVER I LOVE ALL OF THESE WORDS. I seem to really like every expression that everybody on my flist dislikes, haha (see: "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt"). I love having a kind of special vocabulary that's specific to fandom, it's like our secret code of awesome.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I actually love your attitude towards this and fandom in general, I feel like so many of us do this thing where we badmouth the obnoxious parts of fandom to the extent that we forget that we are part of this amorphous fandom thing and that it IS good a lot of the time. I don't know though, I don't actually mind the stuff like "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt"/quality/epic as much: they're just different ways to say "I like this" but stuff like hbic/fierce will always be MY LEAST FAVORITE.

[elsais.livejournal.com]

LOL james van der beek

fail and flawless make me cringe everytime

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Because they are gross.

[torigates.livejournal.com]

epic even though I am guilty of using it often.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Epic is the perfect example of meaning dilution! But tbh I think we all are guilty of some of these if not most of them, they are pretty common-use, it's easy to fall into the pattern.

[book-babe.livejournal.com]

hahaha whaaaat is that video. also van der douche and ke dollar sign a. also i didn't recognize him.

also can i ask a stupid question, what is hbic?

look! a related comment!

(also i am marathoning west wing like a champ. i am so in love with it.)

[elapses.livejournal.com]

IT'S RIDICULOUS BUT HILARIOUS, RIGHT

It stands for head bitch in charge, it gets used pretty much in the same ways as "bamf".

LOL I LOVE HOW YOU ALWAYS JUST REWATCH THE WEST WING, CANNOT BE BOTHERED WITH ANYTHING ELSE

[book-babe.livejournal.com]

dude it's become a viral video in my house, basically. like i got my roommate to watch it and then she posted it on my other housemate's wall and then he made jess watch it and jess made her boyfriend watch it and the we all made a mutual friend watch it, and lolololol. i do not even KNOW. also it hasn't stopped being absurd yet.

oh! that makes sense.

hahaha yeahh. i'm awesome. clearly. i don't watch tv anymore? though i've taken to watching mr. sunshine, hahahaha, it is SO BAD but dude i love matthew perry and allison janney (though good god her character is the most absurd thing) so i keep watching. but seriously it is the worst show, but it's bad enough that it's hilariously bad so it's okay. right.

also jesus christ i am tired, i am not going to be sleeping, i had a time management fail re: midterms.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

lolllllllll WELL I AM GLAD IT'S NOT JUST A ME THING, I was kind of afraid.

Ugh I'm actually behind on all two shows I watch, remember when TV wasn't this hard? But lol I was vaguely interested in that one, kind of glad to know it's not worth the effort.

:|

[book-babe.livejournal.com]

haha it is glorious, it is so not a you thing.

omg she sang last night, you need to find it. i think she might have been dueting with james taylor, but none of us (zach - one of my housemates - and i watch it basically because it is so bad) could decide if it were him or not. but she can sing! her voice is pretty! it made me happy. but yeah, def not worth the effort unless it's for "lolol how does this exist" comic relief.

boooo midterms. my last one is due tomorrow! and then spring break! i am excited.

[lissie-pissie.livejournal.com]

Late to this post but that video is awesome, I hadn't seen it yet and aside from the fact that she's a terrible actress, it was SO PRETTY TO LOOK AT. Rainbows~. ♥

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Omg I don't think I would have noticed her terrible acting if you hadn't pointed it out, I swear to god my bad-acting radar is BROKEN. But yes, it was pretty! And kind of hysterical! I'm glad it got pointed out to me, because I know I wouldn't've cared enough to check it out otherwise.

[superskittles76.livejournal.com]

I've never really used hbic or flawless very often, if at all, and I've been actively trying to cut down on my use of fierce. Flail I use because I do, literally, flail when I get excited watching tv or on my computer lmao. It's ridiculous.

I cannot stand Kesha but I watched that because I trust your taste/opinion lol. And in the end, I'm glad I did :D

[elapses.livejournal.com]

SEE IN THAT CONTEXT FLAIL IS LIKE, fine, whatever, I used it like that last week or something because I was literally throwing myself across my bed for some reason and like, what other word are you going to use. BUT IT MEANS NOTHING NOW!!! People use it so uselessly, they've milked the life out of the word. That kind of thing really bothers me. Because I am lame.

LOL A+ GIF USAGE

(his entire life is making fun of himself now, it's amazing)

[book-babe.livejournal.com]

i can't stop watching that gif. can't. stop.

[superskittles76.livejournal.com]