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| Hosted by a Slinky - Photo credit: Roger McLassus / Foter.com / CC BY-SA |
Did you know that when you stretch out a Slinky, hold it up above the ground, and drop it, the bottom part kinda hangs there in the air until the top part catches up to it?
Click on the link and watch, it’s pretty cool!
What nifty science facts have you learned recently? Bonus points if they involve toys from your childhood!
(Also, has anyone else ever managed to make a Slinky "walk" down stairs? I grew up in a house with stairs, and I never could make it work. I could get it to go a few steps if I gave it enough momentum, but just about ANYTHING will move down stairs if you push it hard enough - cinderblocks, for instance - so I hardly think that counts.)
~ Kristycat
Wednesday Reminder! Open threads are meant to be fun, chatty places to discuss anything that doesn’t “fit” into a deconstruction or other regular thread. This can be something totally off-the-wall and random, or it can be something interesting that a deconstruction prompted you to think of, but which would be derailing to get into in the deconstruction thread itself. When in doubt, move it over here - that’s what it’s for!
36 comments:
Tom and Joel in Common Sons certainly do have sex, and it's mentioned explictely in places, but there are also some gentler, subtler reminders. There's a remark toward the end that Tom is "familiar with Joel's body". And there are conversations in bed. And cuddles. And suchlike.
How much of that would work for your story I don't know.
TRiG.
Tom and Joel in Common Sons certainly do have sex, and it's mentioned explictely in places, but there are also some gentler, subtler reminders. There's a remark toward the end that Tom is "familiar with Joel's body". And there are conversations in bed. And cuddles. And suchlike.
How much of that would work for your story I don't know.
TRiG.
[CN: Sexism and related violence]
Not to downplay the brutalities that women face in India, but under the circumstances I'd be more concerned about downplaying the presence of sexism in the US. We may not call it 'Eve teasing', but we sure as heck still have men who catcall and heckle and victim-blame women for sexual assault. We may not have acid-throwing as a standard form of violence, but there's still plenty of intimate partner violence. India is in many ways not good on gender equality; on the other hand, they've had female prime ministers and presidents (Indira Gandhi took office all the way back in 1966). Sexism is surely different between India and the USA, but I'd be very wary of starting from the assumption that things are vastly better here and your co-worker isn't familiar with the less-explicit forms of sexism already.
[CN: Sexism and related violence]
Not to downplay the brutalities that women face in India, but under the circumstances I'd be more concerned about downplaying the presence of sexism in the US. We may not call it 'Eve teasing', but we sure as heck still have men who catcall and heckle and victim-blame women for sexual assault. We may not have acid-throwing as a standard form of violence, but there's still plenty of intimate partner violence. India is in many ways not good on gender equality; on the other hand, they've had female prime ministers and presidents (Indira Gandhi took office all the way back in 1966). Sexism is surely different between India and the USA, but I'd be very wary of starting from the assumption that things are vastly better here and your co-worker isn't familiar with the less-explicit forms of sexism already.
I think more overt / less overt doesn't necessarily map to worse / better. (And that's assuming that sexism in India is more overt, which it certainly is in places, but India is a big country. So's the USA.)
TRiG.
I think more overt / less overt doesn't necessarily map to worse / better. (And that's assuming that sexism in India is more overt, which it certainly is in places, but India is a big country. So's the USA.)
TRiG.
One thought that comes to mind is the unconscious sexism teachers of both sexes use when picking students to answer questions. I'm sorry that I can't link directly but this does attribute stats to some of the research articles I would have linked to, plus it summarizes the research in a fairly easy to read manner:
http://trc.virginia.edu/Publications/Diversity/II_Classroom_Dynamics.htm
Sorry, I'm de-lurking and pretty new to the whole link, comment and other sundry computer thingys.
Basically, even in grade school, teachers give preference to male students and female students tend to be more diffident and less assertive than male students when responding to the teacher and to thier peers. It is likely that your co-worker's daughter will pick up on the expectations her teachers and peers have for her behavior. I have lots of other ideas (advanced degree in clinical psych with a focues on child/family and LGBTQ, so I could go on and on and on very happily) but don't want to give you a wall of text.
On the slinky front, I've only ever been able to get a slinky down more than one stair tred if I've got one hand on each end of the slinky. Curse you, slinky.
You guys, I am in need of some feminist guidance.
OK so. I have a coworker from India who is expecting her second child, first daughter. Today she asked me - somewhat out of the blue, she's asked me a couple kids-in-the-US-related questions before, will they be able to pronounce this name, will they laugh at her if she has this name, etc. - but she asked me, "Men and women are equal in America, yes?"
And I... oof. I've been thinking about that question ever since she asked it. My answer at the time was basically "Mostly. It's better than a lot of places, but there's still prejudice around. Sometimes girls absorb the idea that there are things that women can't do, especially things like science and math and technology; but when girls have female role models in those fields it's less of a problem, so since you're a programmer I'm sure she'll be fine." Which isn't a great answer, but I was on the spot.
How do you explain the mainstream-American flavor of more-or-less subtle sexism to a woman who grew up in a country with sexism so bad it can't be described without a trigger warning?
You guys, I am in need of some feminist guidance.
OK so. I have a coworker from India who is expecting her second child, first daughter. Today she asked me - somewhat out of the blue, she's asked me a couple kids-in-the-US-related questions before, will they be able to pronounce this name, will they laugh at her if she has this name, etc. - but she asked me, "Men and women are equal in America, yes?"
And I... oof. I've been thinking about that question ever since she asked it. My answer at the time was basically "Mostly. It's better than a lot of places, but there's still prejudice around. Sometimes girls absorb the idea that there are things that women can't do, especially things like science and math and technology; but when girls have female role models in those fields it's less of a problem, so since you're a programmer I'm sure she'll be fine." Which isn't a great answer, but I was on the spot.
How do you explain the mainstream-American flavor of more-or-less subtle sexism to a woman who grew up in a country with sexism so bad it can't be described without a trigger warning?
I'd say go for it if it comes up. As you say, it makes nothing but sense for the characters in question. (As far as your second point on the "no" side is concerned, I would actually find it disbelief-breakingly implausible if a *straight* couple in the same situation wasn't getting it on*, so I don't think there are any implications other than "sexual people who are attracted to each other will, in the absence of external obstacles, generally go for it".) As far as story-relevance goes, I think it depends on how the story evolves, but I would imagine you have places where "...and then they got into bed together," or similar would occur.
*And I have found the "well, she doesn't want to get pregnant and our society has no contraception so everyone sits around being frustrated" plotline to be disbelief-breakingly stupid: dear Eric Flint, you *are* familiar with the concept of handjobs, yes?
I'd say go for it if it comes up. As you say, it makes nothing but sense for the characters in question. (As far as your second point on the "no" side is concerned, I would actually find it disbelief-breakingly implausible if a *straight* couple in the same situation wasn't getting it on*, so I don't think there are any implications other than "sexual people who are attracted to each other will, in the absence of external obstacles, generally go for it".) As far as story-relevance goes, I think it depends on how the story evolves, but I would imagine you have places where "...and then they got into bed together," or similar would occur.
*And I have found the "well, she doesn't want to get pregnant and our society has no contraception so everyone sits around being frustrated" plotline to be disbelief-breakingly stupid: dear Eric Flint, you *are* familiar with the concept of handjobs, yes?
[Newly off-topic subject drawn from the discussion in the latest Twilight thread.]
Sex in YA literature. I don't write erotica and have no interest in doing so myself anytime soon, so explicit sex scenes are already right out. This is more about the acknowledgement or implications within a story. Specifically, for the current project in my head, the two leads are ~17-year-old boys in a semi-magical, mildly-steampunk society. They've spent the last couple of years running around the country trying to track down the long-lost sister of one of them, after which they intend that all three of them will find some way to get out of the country because it's a really unpleasant place to live, what with the totalitarian government and all. They met when they were ~13 and have been a couple for ~2 years at this point. So, including what I know about the characters and their views and comfort levels, I come to the conclusion of 'two teenage boys who adore each other, are not ace, and have no adult supervision = yeah, they're getting it on'.
What I can't quite decide is whether I actually want that in the story. On the 'yes' side, there's:
-the completeness of characters,
-the potential to touch on, however briefly, general points of sex-positivity and consent, and
-the need to not imply that guy-on-guy stuff is, say, somehow worse than the atrocities committed on-page by government enforcers.
On the 'no' side, there's:
-the question of whether it's relevant to the story itself,
-the need to not connect gay->sex moreso than we do straight->sex, and
-a general feeling that if a reader (e.g., a queer teen) wanted to read it as a story of an affectionate-but-abstinent dude couple, I don't actually have a problem with that.
The actual influence this would have on the story would largely be implicit, since, between running from the cops and trying to build a water-walking spell that could last for a full month and getting co-opted into the struggle over the ultimate spying device, they're not exactly going to have a lot of time for it anyway. But I still think it matters whether there's something in there that canonically implies they have sex, and I want to make the authorial decision knowingly.
Thoughts on any of the above?
[Newly off-topic subject drawn from the discussion in the latest Twilight thread.]
Sex in YA literature. I don't write erotica and have no interest in doing so myself anytime soon, so explicit sex scenes are already right out. This is more about the acknowledgement or implications within a story. Specifically, for the current project in my head, the two leads are ~17-year-old boys in a semi-magical, mildly-steampunk society. They've spent the last couple of years running around the country trying to track down the long-lost sister of one of them, after which they intend that all three of them will find some way to get out of the country because it's a really unpleasant place to live, what with the totalitarian government and all. They met when they were ~13 and have been a couple for ~2 years at this point. So, including what I know about the characters and their views and comfort levels, I come to the conclusion of 'two teenage boys who adore each other, are not ace, and have no adult supervision = yeah, they're getting it on'.
What I can't quite decide is whether I actually want that in the story. On the 'yes' side, there's:
-the completeness of characters,
-the potential to touch on, however briefly, general points of sex-positivity and consent, and
-the need to not imply that guy-on-guy stuff is, say, somehow worse than the atrocities committed on-page by government enforcers.
On the 'no' side, there's:
-the question of whether it's relevant to the story itself,
-the need to not connect gay->sex moreso than we do straight->sex, and
-a general feeling that if a reader (e.g., a queer teen) wanted to read it as a story of an affectionate-but-abstinent dude couple, I don't actually have a problem with that.
The actual influence this would have on the story would largely be implicit, since, between running from the cops and trying to build a water-walking spell that could last for a full month and getting co-opted into the struggle over the ultimate spying device, they're not exactly going to have a lot of time for it anyway. But I still think it matters whether there's something in there that canonically implies they have sex, and I want to make the authorial decision knowingly.
Thoughts on any of the above?
"Theoretically" is a good word. We like to _think_ men and women are equal in our culture - in fact, that's been a major stumbling block to some things that might help, like the ERA. Of course, the reality is that there's a nasty chunk of the country trying to destroy what advances we've made in that direction, and that's on top of the ninety-million subtle ways women are still discriminated against.
The hard part is that on paper things are far better than they are in reality. Yay, we have laws against (whole list of nasty things), boo, you can't get convictions much of the time and anyone who wants charges filed will face more scrutiny than the perpetrator and probably be straight up blamed for it. There's still tons of horrible semi-subtle sexism in fiction (and lets not touch stand up comedy) and... yeesh. I don't know.
Point them here? And to Shakesville and Eschergirls and such like and be prepared to answer lots of questions?
"Theoretically" is a good word. We like to _think_ men and women are equal in our culture - in fact, that's been a major stumbling block to some things that might help, like the ERA. Of course, the reality is that there's a nasty chunk of the country trying to destroy what advances we've made in that direction, and that's on top of the ninety-million subtle ways women are still discriminated against.
The hard part is that on paper things are far better than they are in reality. Yay, we have laws against (whole list of nasty things), boo, you can't get convictions much of the time and anyone who wants charges filed will face more scrutiny than the perpetrator and probably be straight up blamed for it. There's still tons of horrible semi-subtle sexism in fiction (and lets not touch stand up comedy) and... yeesh. I don't know.
Point them here? And to Shakesville and Eschergirls and such like and be prepared to answer lots of questions?
I have a request: if a comment is deleted, can just the text be deleted with a note that it didn't meet comment guidelines? When the entire comment is deleted, you can't tell if the comment didn't get posted, or if it was extremely quickly deleted.
I don't think there was anything objectionable in my comment, but I've been wrong before.
I have a request: if a comment is deleted, can just the text be deleted with a note that it didn't meet comment guidelines? When the entire comment is deleted, you can't tell if the comment didn't get posted, or if it was extremely quickly deleted.
I don't think there was anything objectionable in my comment, but I've been wrong before.
See, your responses get to the heart of why I'm having trouble with this. We spend so much time trying to demonstrate to 'skeptics' that sexism even exists that we haven't developed tools for describing/comparing our flavor of sexism to the flavors present in other cultures. The online feminist spaces I've found are either 101s directed at people so steeped in Western culture that they can't see its sexism; or 200+ spaces that assume you already have been exposed to & bought into the narrative of Western feminist thought. Whereas my coworker's coming in as an outsider to the culture, and from a culture where it's much worse - I assume she must have been a person of some privilege & therefore didn't personally experience the worst of it, otherwise she wouldn't be here - but even what she did experience was likely worse than the majority of (young) women's experiences in mainstream USA culture.
She did come to me with this question, so obviously she had some concerns about sexism in the US. Therefore I'm less concerned with convincing her that sexism exists in this country/showing her the statistics, and more concerned about 1) describing the ways in which subtler sexism is still damaging; 2) giving an accurate sense of the scope of it all, in order to not scare the crap out of her by using terminology that she might associate with much more damaging practices from her home country; 3) arming her to help her daughter navigate this culture. (Please forgive the gender essentialism, but I don't think "your child might decide ze's not a girl" would help with communication at this point!)
I think I'll leave off the opposition to the VAWA because I don't want to scare her too badly, given point 2 above. The opposition to the Fair Pay Act, and the fact that we only just legalized women serving in combat, are less scary jumping-off points; but the fact is that those are still adult issues, and she's mostly concerned about the challenges her daughter may face. So I think I might approach from the "subtle prejudice of low expectations" angle, since that's going to come into play as soon as she starts school, if not earlier.
Thoughts?
See, your responses get to the heart of why I'm having trouble with this. We spend so much time trying to demonstrate to 'skeptics' that sexism even exists that we haven't developed tools for describing/comparing our flavor of sexism to the flavors present in other cultures. The online feminist spaces I've found are either 101s directed at people so steeped in Western culture that they can't see its sexism; or 200+ spaces that assume you already have been exposed to & bought into the narrative of Western feminist thought. Whereas my coworker's coming in as an outsider to the culture, and from a culture where it's much worse - I assume she must have been a person of some privilege & therefore didn't personally experience the worst of it, otherwise she wouldn't be here - but even what she did experience was likely worse than the majority of (young) women's experiences in mainstream USA culture.
She did come to me with this question, so obviously she had some concerns about sexism in the US. Therefore I'm less concerned with convincing her that sexism exists in this country/showing her the statistics, and more concerned about 1) describing the ways in which subtler sexism is still damaging; 2) giving an accurate sense of the scope of it all, in order to not scare the crap out of her by using terminology that she might associate with much more damaging practices from her home country; 3) arming her to help her daughter navigate this culture. (Please forgive the gender essentialism, but I don't think "your child might decide ze's not a girl" would help with communication at this point!)
I think I'll leave off the opposition to the VAWA because I don't want to scare her too badly, given point 2 above. The opposition to the Fair Pay Act, and the fact that we only just legalized women serving in combat, are less scary jumping-off points; but the fact is that those are still adult issues, and she's mostly concerned about the challenges her daughter may face. So I think I might approach from the "subtle prejudice of low expectations" angle, since that's going to come into play as soon as she starts school, if not earlier.
Thoughts?
Wishing you success!
Slinkies were one of my favorite toys as a five-year-old. I have managed to get it to go down stairs alone, but not in pairs.
Fun science:
Boil some water and take it outside when it's below zero and toss it in the air. Watch it evaporate instantly.
I'm sure most of you have tried Mentos and Diet Coke. Any soda works, but it has to be a 2 liter bottle. Three liter bottles don't work.
Here's a link to a pair of guys who recreated the Bellagio fountain using Coke and Mentos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znoSaHwbHYg
Eventually we saw it. In about the fifth line, there was a bit where, if you worked all the equations out, it was in fact dividing by zero! It just wasn't obvious at first glance.
I saw a similar thing (only 2+2=5 instead of 2=1) in a magazine maybe a decade ago. I was young enough that I hadn't learned about division by zero yet, so I couldn't figure out where the error was.
A few years later I went back, carefully re-read it, and noticed it relied on dividing by y - y. I was pretty happy to understand something I remembered not understanding earlier.
What nifty science facts have you learned recently? Bonus points if they involve toys from your childhood!
My current example of the awesomeness of science is the way aphids land on their feet. (I did not have any pet aphids as a child, so it doesn't fit the second part.)
November doesn't work for lots of people, which is a major reason the nanocamps (April and July, this year) are so helpful--the OLL just doesn't have the funding to support the same number of real-world events as in November, so it's down to the online infrastructure and whatever people want to organise for themselves.
I'm curious what you mean when you say 'the location is a character'; this is a phrase I've heard many times and I'm not sure I quite get what people are saying.
Good luck with the interviews!
November doesn't work for lots of people, which is a major reason the nanocamps (April and July, this year) are so helpful--the OLL just doesn't have the funding to support the same number of real-world events as in November, so it's down to the online infrastructure and whatever people want to organise for themselves.
I'm curious what you mean when you say 'the location is a character'; this is a phrase I've heard many times and I'm not sure I quite get what people are saying.
Good luck with the interviews!
Good luck!
Good luck!
Creating my own universe without crushing myself under the weight of realism and guilt is still an impossibility for me, but that's a rather different setting related problem.
I also noticed that my writing came to a screeching halt when I tried doing NaNoWriMo. Apparently it is instant writers block for me, for whatever mysterious reason, and I should probably skip it in the future. Which is too bad because I like the idea and I long for some sort of writers group that doesn't suck. (I haven't had good luck in the past.)
Creating my own universe without crushing myself under the weight of realism and guilt is still an impossibility for me, but that's a rather different setting related problem.
I also noticed that my writing came to a screeching halt when I tried doing NaNoWriMo. Apparently it is instant writers block for me, for whatever mysterious reason, and I should probably skip it in the future. Which is too bad because I like the idea and I long for some sort of writers group that doesn't suck. (I haven't had good luck in the past.)
It's not 'new', but a while back Fred Clark linked to this most excellent demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem. On the subject of that, I don't mind that it's called the Pythagorean Theorem despite lots of people having invented it before Pythagoras, because he obviously taught it to a whole lot of people who'd never heard of it before and teachers are worth commemorating too, but it'd be great if we got more of that history taught. The last math class I ever took, in university, had regular mention of the history of techniques ("So this matrix manipulation I'm going to teach you today was basically invented in India about three thousand years ago...") and it made it feel a lot more real and less abstract than just rearranging numbers on a board. Math history is cool.
I was definitely excited when we moved into a house with proper stairs I could Slinky with. They were normally pretty effective, but we were not gentle with the Slinkies, and they were known to lose their slink.
As the first open-thread derail, I have writing on my mind. The first Camp NaNoWriMo for 2013 is in April, but I'm considering a slight reversal this year, because after three technical NaNo wins I am concluding that I am not adept at writing substantially more than 50K in one month nor at completing a story in 50K, so if I want to finish a book and make use of NaNo, I should consider starting in advance and then use NaNo to write the last 50K instead of the first. (This is what Brandon Sanderson used to do, and he is currently, like, The Guy in fantasy novelling, so this is a tested and approved approach.)
So I've got a bunch of stuff I'm liking for a story, I have the lead characters and some initial motivations to direct them and some bigger plots for them to get tangled up in, but I am having serious problems with setting. I want pre-modern aesthetics, but I'm not sure how far back I want to go or how much I want to let magic/magitech affect this society. I'm playing around with a certain amount of steampunk, partly because there's a good dose of totalitarian dystopia in this story and I feel like maybe steampunk could make better friends with its punk roots, but trying to actually picture the cities of this place is like trying to grab a handful of buttered snakes. Do other folks here run into this problem, and have thoughts on how to tackle it? Anyone encountered a really striking architectural style or something lately? Or, more broadly, is anyone else running into writerly blocks or issues they're trying to puzzle out?
It's not 'new', but a while back Fred Clark linked to this most excellent demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem. On the subject of that, I don't mind that it's called the Pythagorean Theorem despite lots of people having invented it before Pythagoras, because he obviously taught it to a whole lot of people who'd never heard of it before and teachers are worth commemorating too, but it'd be great if we got more of that history taught. The last math class I ever took, in university, had regular mention of the history of techniques ("So this matrix manipulation I'm going to teach you today was basically invented in India about three thousand years ago...") and it made it feel a lot more real and less abstract than just rearranging numbers on a board. Math history is cool.
I was definitely excited when we moved into a house with proper stairs I could Slinky with. They were normally pretty effective, but we were not gentle with the Slinkies, and they were known to lose their slink.
As the first open-thread derail, I have writing on my mind. The first Camp NaNoWriMo for 2013 is in April, but I'm considering a slight reversal this year, because after three technical NaNo wins I am concluding that I am not adept at writing substantially more than 50K in one month nor at completing a story in 50K, so if I want to finish a book and make use of NaNo, I should consider starting in advance and then use NaNo to write the last 50K instead of the first. (This is what Brandon Sanderson used to do, and he is currently, like, The Guy in fantasy novelling, so this is a tested and approved approach.)
So I've got a bunch of stuff I'm liking for a story, I have the lead characters and some initial motivations to direct them and some bigger plots for them to get tangled up in, but I am having serious problems with setting. I want pre-modern aesthetics, but I'm not sure how far back I want to go or how much I want to let magic/magitech affect this society. I'm playing around with a certain amount of steampunk, partly because there's a good dose of totalitarian dystopia in this story and I feel like maybe steampunk could make better friends with its punk roots, but trying to actually picture the cities of this place is like trying to grab a handful of buttered snakes. Do other folks here run into this problem, and have thoughts on how to tackle it? Anyone encountered a really striking architectural style or something lately? Or, more broadly, is anyone else running into writerly blocks or issues they're trying to puzzle out?
In the linear versus non-linear I agree that linear is just fine as long as there is cause to keep going. In fact linearity is necessary for telling a story. Video games have the unique ability, in fact, to interact with the player using linearity. Allowing developers to "react" to a certain degree to the players lack of choice. An example is Hotline Miami, a violent game that castigates players for their violence.
You make an excellent point about the thematic reinforcement of personal responsibility, though i will say that isn't necessarily why people play games. Maybe it is though, I mean people like to see their choices have a result. That was part of the problem that people had with the Mass Effect 3 ending, a lack of accounting for their choices. I guess that, for games at least, people like to have personal responsibility as long as their is a tangible result. I guess in a way that is in of it self a form of escapism.
I wonder how NiNo Kuni would change if asking for consent was an option with a tangible reward instead of a compulsion. I'm not sure it would improve the narrative. i mean, part of the novelty is the requisite of consent in this case. Though it might have an interesting effect on later parts of the narrative. And sorry again for derailing.
Oh, see, I assumed that most of the Sixth Years *were* getting it on, it just wasn't in-focus--Harry focuses on what he and his buddies are doing, and *they're* not getting laid even in the last few books because Saving The World and also Romantic Misunderstanding Wackiness--and also that the school environment made it logistically more difficult. But your average Hogwarts kid? Absolutely sneaking off to the Astronomy Tower with the partner(s) of their choice, the way I read it.
Also, actually, there are very few long-established main couples in YA, now that I think about it--which makes sense for a lot of settings that are either in high school or some parallel. If you've been dating for a year in high school, as I recall, it's kind of a huge and rare thing. In HP, the main four characters spend Book 6 realizing that they find each other hot, have maybe a month of Actually Being a Thing, and then shit happens and horcruxes and Spiderman breakup scenes and so forth. Likewise, in Buffy, I don't think anyone but Willow and Oz dated for more than a year during the high school years, and they "went all the way" after a year and change, with who-knows-what going on for a while before that.
So yeah, I would find it hard to believe that a sexual YA couple wasn't having some variety of sex after a year or two, regardless of gender, without some external obstacle. The genre difference for me is that I find it hard to believe that a sexual adult-fiction couple isn't having some variety of sex after a *month* or two without obstacles. ;)
Oh, see, I assumed that most of the Sixth Years *were* getting it on, it just wasn't in-focus--Harry focuses on what he and his buddies are doing, and *they're* not getting laid even in the last few books because Saving The World and also Romantic Misunderstanding Wackiness--and also that the school environment made it logistically more difficult. But your average Hogwarts kid? Absolutely sneaking off to the Astronomy Tower with the partner(s) of their choice, the way I read it.
Ha, yeah, there is that, but I was looking more at the main characters than the hypothetical average student. (I think it's the third movie which has the Marauder's Map effects during the end credits, with magic-GPS footprints wandering the halls on the map, and semifamously features two sets of footprints suggestively intermingled in a corner tower somewhere.) But this is also an illustration in that there's no commentary on anyone possibly having sex in the books, and that doesn't inherently preclude people from assuming that such is happening anyway, so I'm back to the question of whether it matters that it be commented-upon or not, since folks will already be bringing in some assumptions about how the characters are likely to interact.
(As far as your second point on the "no" side is concerned, I would actually find it disbelief-breakingly implausible if a *straight* couple in the same situation wasn't getting it on*, so I don't think there are any implications other than "sexual people who are attracted to each other will, in the absence of external obstacles, generally go for it".)
I guess that's more of a genre-based concern, of the type 'YA with lead abstinent straight couples is probably easier to find than YA with lead abstinent gay couples'? Like: no one in Harry Potter is apparently having naked fun times, even when they're past the point of it being perfectly plausible. A person who wanted to could perhaps presume that the main couple who get together in book six spend the last month of the school year out in the forest making sounds only centaurs can hear, but such is not really implied.
Are they an established couple in the narrative, with (for example) non-sexual affectionate touching and/or pet names or similar indicators?
Yes; I doubt I'd bother giving exact dates, but they've been A Couple for a few years prior to the start of the story, and one way or the other there will be shameless snuggling and suchlike. (Having tried writing a few different flavours of relationship over the last couple of years, I'm much better at this sort than I am with Angst & Drama.)
Just for clarity, no one has deleted any comments in this thread, so if you think you've posted something and it's not there, that is simple the the ever-hungry maw of Disqusrir the Web Serpent devouring your comment for sustenance.
If you're referring to a comment deleted in another thread, please keep questions about it to the thread in question, to help us keep track of what's happening where.
Just for clarity, no one has deleted any comments in this thread, so if you think you've posted something and it's not there, that is simple the the ever-hungry maw of Disqusrir the Web Serpent devouring your comment for sustenance.
If you're referring to a comment deleted in another thread, please keep questions about it to the thread in question, to help us keep track of what's happening where.
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