#AND I like that Medusa said ‘‘we are not our parents until we choose to be. you three have chosen’’ implying that she thinks they’ve chosen

[counting-stars-gayly]

I’m actually LOVING how Rick Riordan, and the other writers of the show, took his initial concept of a Percabeth rivalry fueled by that of their parents and kind of turned it on its head?

Now, instead of Annabeth being wary of Percy because he’s a son of Poseidon, he’s wary of her because she made a callous impression on him. They get off to a rocky start even before finding out who Percy’s father is, and when they finally do, Annabeth doesn’t care. Instead of them fighting because of who their parents are, they’re fighting over their own opposed worldviews.

Then, instead of them arguing over which of the gods is cooler and who was right in the story of Medusa, they realize that, just like Medusa, Annabeth is a victim of her mother and that, unlike Medusa, she is a far kinder and stronger person, unwilling to repeat the cycle of hurt. They realize that, like his father, Percy often acts without considering potential consequences and that, unlike his father, he is a far kinder and stronger person, willing to step up for someone he wronged and whom he cares about.

Instead of Percy and Annabeth’s rivalry being focused on that of their parents, it’s focused on who they are, themselves. But the path to friendship is still the same: a realization that they have each other’s backs, no matter what, because they’re not their parents after all.

[poisonpercy]

Ok just finished the 3rd episode of the show. From a completely outside perspective without comparing it to the books, it’s a fine episode. The writing does fall flat imo, and it doesn’t keep my attention. It’s also still very hard to see what’s happening when it’s supposed to be dark. When will Hollywood let dark scenes be visible again?

Ok, now for more specific thoughts:

The scene with the Oracle sucked in my opinion. Idk it just seemed so much more grander in the book. The scene in the show lacked the mystic and off putting nature of the Oracle, so it kinda just didn’t work for me. I did like that they remembered that Gabe was the voice of the Oracle in tlt, so that was nice

How Percy chooses his quest mates in the show is different in the show than in the books. This isn’t a bad thing, but I do miss Annabeth volunteering herself to be Percy’s 3rd quest mate like she does in the books. Idk I just think it really showed her eagerness to prove herself and get a quest. The show scene doesn’t do that, but I’m not mad at the change

The interaction between Grover and Percy when Percy tells Grover he was chosen to go on the quest was so cute. I love those 2 boys. Besties for life

Percy telling Luke that he thinks the drachmas are from Chuck E. Cheese was hilarious

With Luke in mind, I love how manipulative he is. Like he is so nice, but it’s because he has ulterior motives. I do like that his manipulation is not overt, so you don’t know that he’s the one that ultimately betrays Percy

I personally didn’t find the “she met a pine cone’s fate” line that Percy said funny. It honestly came off kind of rude. It’s definitely something that Percy would say in ttc when Thalia and him are beefing, but not when he finds out about her death. Percy is supposed to be kind and empathetic, and he shows so much sympathy for Thalia and her fate when he hears her story in the book. Idk just felt like that line was ooc during this moment in time

Grover’s song was so cute and funny, it had me cracking up fr

Percy trying to get all of them to vote throughout the episode is hilarious. My boy just wants to have a say in things

Annabeth grabbing all that candy was perfect. It really shows she’s just a 12 year old girl that didn’t get to experience the joys of childhood (also, I feel like overall that the show is forgetting that Annabeth is not a stoic character. Like she very much acts her age. I hope the writers let Annabeth have more personality in later episodes)

I miss the book fight sequence with the furies on the bus. It was so chaotic and there was so much tension. Percy steering the bus and crashing it and the bus exploding was perfect, and I’m sad that they got rid of that in the show. The fight scene in the show was just so underwhelming. I feel like those should be the knock out moments of the episodes but they breeze past them so fast and give no tension. It just falls flat (curse you Mickey Mouse!! I know it’s your fault!)

I do appreciate that Grover keeps trying to diffuse the fights between Annabeth and Percy. They are both his friends, and he can see why they keep butting heads. If only the 2 would listen to him

I do miss how the trio finds Auntie Em’s in the book. Like Annabeth and Percy were dumbass 1 and 2 that followed their stomachs while Grover freaked the fuck out. That was so fun. The show had Grover find and follow the smell instead which is fine, but the og scene was better imo

That being said, they guessed that it was Medusa way too quickly in the show. I like the mystery of Auntie Em’s identity in the book better tbh

“I definitely trust my mom” <- Percy exceeds the momma’s boy standards

I don’t mind the change to Medusa’s character. I actually really enjoyed her (the actresses voice is so gorgeous and calming). I like how she’s like “we’re not our parents until we choose to be them.” It really sets up the ultimate direction of the series imo

Regarding the fight scene with Medusa, it sucked. To begin with, you can hardly see what’s happening bc it’s so dark. Also there was no tension or chaos. It kind of just happened? I also didn’t like that Medusa was killed when Annabeth’s cap was on her. I know it’s because Disney probably thought the death would have been too graphic or whatever, but I would have liked to see what happened

It was cool that Percy used Medusa’s head to kill Alecto

I felt so many emotions when Grover said “He’s not like the others. He doesn’t look afraid” about his Uncle Ferdinand

The beginnings of Percy’s and Annabeth’s friendship is so good. Annabeth not taking the deal with Alecto to give Percy over and killing her sister. Percy not taking Medusa’s offer to get rid of Annabeth and Grover so he can save his mother. It’s perfect. They’re going to become each other’s chosen person and they don’t even know it yet

LMM as Hermes jump scare. Still not a fan of the Hermes casting

Anyways, overall the show just isn’t working for me. I do appreciate Walker, Leah, and Aryan because they are perfect. They are honestly doing such a great job! The writers, however, are not. I’m trying so hard to think of this show as its own entity so I can enjoy it more, but I haven’t been able to so far. Despite that, I am excited to see where the show ends up going (even if I end up not liking it)

[pjo-obsessed-nerd]

someone's probably already said this, but this show took a silly little side quest, something most writers or show runners would overlook as a tiny detail, and made it SO MUCH MORE. And the parallells with Ep 3?? Like? Medusa said we aren't our parents until we choose to be, and Annabeth deadass said she wasn't going to be like their parents! I for sure didn't expect this silly little side quest to hold so much weight, so much character building, so much RELATIONSHIP BUILDING. I didn't expect it to set up so much with just a 'silly little side quest'. It's a MASTERPIECE and anyone who wants to say that Episode 5 is anything LESS than amazing, can go to Tartarus

[klipserz]

So back to listening to my Percabeth playlist that's full of yearning and it's just a bunch of songs that fits so well to their arcs in the books or just the characters and more songs about yearning. Let me just say, I think I cooked with adding "Rewrite the Stars" in this playlist. And with that song playing reminds me a bit of Titan's curse where Athena talked to Percy for a while and from what I remember she sorts of looks down on him and said something about how he's a son of Poseidon and their beef and how she dislikes his friendship with Annabeth (ALSO FIRST OF ALL, YOU DON'T GET TO BE THE MOM YOU'VE NEVER BEEN IM SORRY) and now that made me think tangentially of what they're gonna do with that in the show. I think that will be very interesting to watch, how Athena is gonna be depicted. I mean so far we've only known her from what she did with Annabeth, sort of like this very authoritative, never present mother and that's partly because she's embarrassed because she is also a dutiful daughter of Zeus.

So I do want to see more of that for her, not because her decisions are influenced by Zeus but just her in general. I'm sure she's gonna hold her children to a standard, and that includes particularly Annabeth. So Athena having that conversation, would they lean more into that or would she be just this help to Percy more than she was in the books. But from what we're already seeing from her, maybe she could be the former.

And that will be very interesting for Percy. Because I'm sure by that time he's becoming aware of his feelings for Annabeth. Probably at that moment he was ready to tell her that but Athena talked him into just not doing it lmao, warning him of their relationship. And the lyrics for Rewrite the Stars fit so well.

And I do want to see something that sort of parallels Season 1 Ep3, their confrontation, when they started off on the different ends of the spectrum, not really seeing eye to eye when they first met and getting Medusa to really challenge them to confronting their relationship again, but this time on another level that could potentially be something more than just being friends and this time, no one in between them to put them against each other, just them facing it head on. And now I'm just picturing that moment, probably before they got their dance on Olympus, they could use the same words again from that episode. Percy could be hesitating to ask her for a dance the whole time. Annabeth could say something along with the lines of "we're not our parents until we choose to be". Eye contact then they dance. Wow. That's gonna be a moment.

Also love the fact that this train of thought was merely triggered by playing Rewrite the Stars lmaoo this is like a whole script or a fanfic

[sneakystorms]

I’m compiling my “reading campbell as an utena fan” reblogs into one post cuz that was getting ridiculous. 

Literally no one asked for this but i took Campbell’s hero with a thousand faces out of the library and I’m going to note anything that reminds me of revolutionary girl utena. Here we go

Literally the first thing in the book, a picture of medusa’s head. I’m suddenly reminded of how much emphasis there is on anthy’s coiling locks of hair as well as her eyes. I read in a liveblog that it’s significant kanae was struck by seeing anthy’s eyes when she removed her glasses - the glasses serve as a protective measure meant to conceal anthy’s emotion, but also her power. Reminds me of how modern reimaginings of medusa always wear dark glasses to not turn people to stone.

Page 7, on unsolved childhood issues: “we remain fixated to the unexercised images of our infancy, and hence disinclined to the necessary passages of our adulthood” It’s not very revolutionary to suggest that this is one of the main themes of the show; akip remains in his adolescent state of having left behind his childishly idealistic self (or rather been forced to leave it by anthy) but refusing to progress to true adulthood, choosing rather to fruitlessly chase that childhood state. Other characters are guilty of this too, of course, but it’s less striking because they’re actual adolescents - this is a somewhat expected (though Campbell wpuld argue, not natural) stage in their development, whereas akio is clearly past his due date and dragging everyone down with him.

Page 30, on myths and fairy tales - “typically, the hero of the fairy tale achieves a domestic, microcosmic triumph, and the hero of myth a world-historical, macrocosmic triumph” Not super relevant to rgu itself, but I’d often wonder about the relationship between myth an fairy tale, seeing as rgu relates heavily to both. Utena’s revolution, in the end, is microcosmic - she helped a friend, and achieved a higher degree of self awareness than before.

Page 32, on the world navel: “the torrent pours from an invisible source, the point of entry being the center of the symbolic circle of the universe, the Immovable Spot of the Buddha Legend, around which the world may be said to revolve. (…) the tree of life, i.e., the universe itself, grows from this point. It is rooted in the supporting darkness; the golden sun bird perches on its peak; a spring, the inexhaustible well, bubbles at its foot. Or the figure may be that of a cosmic mountain, with the city of the gods, like a lotus of flight, upon its summit, and in its hollow the cities of the demons, illuminated by precious stones.” WHEW. Where to even begin. In the context of ohtori this would obviously be the gate in the forbidden forest, and the arena itself. There is a spring of sorts at its bottom (even a wall of water), and a bird figure features at the gate. The arena with its staircase resembles a rose, which is close enough to a tree. You could even see the black rose’s basement as the demon hollows.Of course, we eventually find out that it’s all fake, a stage set by akio with anthy’s help, which in this context positions akio as a sort of false god.

Page 35, again on the world navel: “wherever a hero has been born, has wrought, or has passed back into the void, the place is marked and sanctified. (…) someone at this point discovered eternity. (…) the one who enters the temple compound and proceeds to the sanctuary is imitating the deed of the original hero. His aim is to rehearse the universal pattern as a means of evoking within himself the recollection of the life-centering, life-renewing form.” This one mostly caught my attention because of the word eternity, but then i thought of dios’s grave… Since his grave, the arena and akio’s planetarium are really one and the same, it could easily follow that anyone who enters it is seeking to emulate dios, or the prince archetype in abstract. This certainly applies to utena and akio, and perhaps other duelists as well to some extent.

OH WE GETTING TO THE TASTY PART NOW…… ANTHY TIME BITCHHH ITS THE MEETING WITH THE GODDESS CHAPTEROk immediately I’m struck by the phrase “the queen goddess”. I know akio says he thought of anthy as a goddess once, I’m trying to remember if anyone ever refers to her as a queen… she’s mostly seen in context of the princess-witch dichotomy but once you really get down to it it’s more complicated, like is the rose bride basically the epitome of the princess archetype? It does include hyperfemininity, victimhood, obedience, passivity and power that can be obtained by marrying her but which she cannot wield herself… but the rose bride role is also explicitly tied to the witch, since it’s anthy’s punishment for imprisoning dios… It’s also interesting how despised she is - the princess role is supposed to be respectable (especially if we connect the princess witch dichotomy to the Madonna whore complex) but anthy is constantly mistreated and degraded - which, yes, makes her more of a princess in Utena’s (and the viewer’s) eyes, but is also a direct result of her role as the rose bride. If the rose bride position is basically the dragon that the prince has to save the princess from then can the rose bride be synonymous with the princess?Wait I was originally going to talk about something else I think. Well anyway I guess the Ockham’s razor is that the narrative had to make sense somehow and couldn’t JUST be metaphors but. Idk man food for thought. Maybe the rose bride as a role is supposed to be a blend of the princess and witch traits, or maybe it’s meant to showcase how the two are just different sides of the same coin. Anyway I’m one sentence into this chapter and my bedtime is in 7 minutes

Campbell describes the two types of goddesses as representing the good mother - forever youthful, beautiful and kind - and the bad mother - split here into four types but generally cold and distant. I’m tempted to connect the two to the princess and the witch (or the Madonna and the whore) but Campbell explicitly connects the bad mother to Diana and emphasises her chastity, when sexuality is such a big part of both the witch and the whore… hmm

K it’s late so I’ll continue sometime else but I wanted to mention that this whole thing was a result of reading this fantastic essay on anthy and specifically the part about Campbell’s goddess

Page 97, still on the goddess: “woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. As he progresses in the slow initiation which is life, the form of the goddess undergoes for him a series of transfigurations: she can never be greater than himself, though she can always promise more than he is yet capable of comprehending. She lures, she guides, she bids him burst his fetters. And if he can match her import, the two, the knower and the known, will be released for every limitation. Woman is the guide to the sublime acme of sensuous adventure. ” This is the passage quoted in the essay that inspired me… The part about transfigurations is painfully reminiscent of anthy for sure, but the “she can never be greater than himself” sounds more like utena to me, makes me think of that digibro quote about how romantic interests in self insert power fantasy shounen anime (either Sao or asterisk war in this case) are often supposed to be the second best warrior right after the number one hero because they’re a sort of status symbol but of course can’t undermine the hero’s ego. Similarly akio wants utena at her strongest and only wants her because she is the strongest but still wants her beneath him. Also the phrasing of “the knower and the known” is so telling…. Even if a woman is meant to signify great knowledge it’s still in a way that makes her something passive, an object for the hero to consume. This reminds me of the born sexy yesterday video where he remarks on how even if the female character is supposed to be impossibly wise it just means the male hero is the one who gets to “discover” her

Page 99, still on the meeting with the goddess: “and when the adventurer, in this context, is not a youth but a maid, she is the one who, by her qualities, her beauty, or her yearning, is fit to become the consort of an immortal. Then the heavenly husband descends to her and conducts her to his bed-whether she will or no. And if she has shunned him, the scales fall from her eyes; if she has sought him, her desire finds its peace” God, what a creepy and accurate way to portray utena and akios relationship. He sees her as worthy of becoming his bride, he rapes her, he almost has her serve herself to him on a golden platter until she decides to pick up the sword and fight him. He sees himself as her god.

desktop is really fucking this up depending on what device i rb on but alas. lets continue. surprisingly enough i don’t have much to say about the woman as temptress chapter in relation to anthy because now that i think about it, the men of ohtori don’t really see her as one? nanami does, and maybe kozue too, but anthy generally isn’t very proactive when it comes to romance or sex… I guess Miki would be the closest example, since she seems to consciously try and get his attention by playing the piano, but Miki is pretty oblivious to it, so.Trying to think of other characters who might fit that trope… Kozue does act pretty provocative both towards the random dude she flirted with and Miki, but their relationship is one I don’t have much of a grip on tbh. Really the tempting spotlight is pretty firmly on Touga and Akio in this show haha

reading the “atonement with the father” chapter and, like, it’s kind of annoying how much the male hero is the default in this book, with the female hero only an occasional mention, but it does remind me of anthy’s incredibly fucking disturbing line about how akio is “more like her father” since their parents are nowhere to be seen. i don’t really have anything profound to say, but it is pretty interesting that parents are such a non-entity in rgu, given how prominent the mother and father figures are in psychoanalysis and archetype theory. should akio be read as anthy’s father, acting as one in the absence of the real thing, the same way he acts as the chairman? i’m not super familiar with the electra complex theory, but if the resolution to the oedipus complex is letting go of the unhealthy attachment to to mother and reconciliation with the father, i guess the analogous resolution to the electra complex would be letting go of the father? which anthy, in this reading, does do… but then again in rgu it’s akio who rapes anthy and we see him rather than her initiating sex so i doubt the writers had uncritically reproducing freud’s theory in mind

nothing too insightful but in the chapter the magic flight campbell talks about a welsh myth about Caridwen and she seems like a perfect witch character

page 209, on freedom to live - campbell quotes the end of the grimm brothers’ little briar rose, but precedes it with “When the Prince of Eternity kissed the Princess of the World, her resistance was allayed”. the phrasing of course caught my eye, but i’d never really seen anyone go in depth about the similarity between sleeping beauty and utena’s childhood story… the shadow-faced version that sometimes appears at the start of an episode omits utena sleeping in her coffin, but includes the prince kissing her tears away - something that did happen in the ep34 flashback, but was not what made baby utena get up. i suppose i don’t have anything terribly profound to say about the relationship between rgu and sleeping beauty, aside from some similar elements - the sleeping princess kissed awake by her prince, the princess in the grimms’ version being called briar rose, and the unspecified thorny bushes possibly being roses as well… and the witch, of course

page 259, matrix of destiny. “The universal goddess makes her appearance to men under a multitude of guises; for the effects of creation are multitudinous, complex and of mutually contradictory kind when experienced from the viewpoint of the created world. the mother of life is at the same time the mother of death; she is masked in the ugly demonesses of famine and disease. The Sumero-Babylonian astral mythology identified the aspects of the cosmic female with the phases of the planet Venus. As morning star she was the virgin, as evening star the harlot, as lady of the night sky the consort of the moon; and when extinguished under the blaze of the sun she was the hag of hell” campbell continues to insist on tying every female character back to the mother, which doesn’t really seem to be very relevant with anthy, but i’m digging the various aspects of the woman. seems interesting to me how this is at least the second time he’s characterised the woman in myths as someone constantly changing roles and aspects (first time was on page 97) whereas i don’t really see this tendency in male characters. women seem to need to constantly adapt, shift their identity to suit the male character, who is allowed to remain stably himself. also fascinating are the particular archetypes campbell brings up - the virgin (princess), the harlot (rose bride? the position does seem to be given respect on some level, but in practice she doesn’t get much... add to that the design elements tying her to the “scarlet woman”, and possibly even the playboy bunnies, and her duties do seem to include sleeping with every Engaged if the movie is anything to go by), consort of the moon (we all know what akio and anthy’s connection to the moon...) and the hag of hell (witch)

this has very little to do with rgu but reading the Mwuetsi/Massassi myth kinda makes me sick lol!!! not only does it include the first man being given a woman but he symbolically impregnates her with some oil from a horn (subtle, also done without her knowledge since she was asleep) and she gives birth to all the plants on earth. ew

UH OK HE THEN GOES ON TO SLEEP WITH HIS DAUGHTERS.... AND THEN TO RAPE HIS NEXT WIFE.......... MR CAMPBELL CAN I GO like i know it’s old myths so it’s all symbolic or whatever but that doesn’t make it any easier to read lol

page 296, an offhand comment of “The characteristic adventure of the first [type of hero] is the winning of the bride - the bride is life” and my brain automatically supplied “life... eternity... that which shines... the power of miracles... the power to revolutionise the world” LMAO

[babyyy-vampp]

Things I wish I could say to you

When I say I love you I mean it. At the beginning of a relationship I thought it wouldn't last not because you didn't love me I could tell that you did but I thought it would last because of me in reality I really didn't want you I only wanted someone to call me beautiful all the time. In hindsight I realize now that you stole my heart that even trying when I got to know you passed the nerdy shell that you live in I got to know a man with a dark but kind heart. You said once that I helped you knock down your walls but that because of the way I was acting you wanted to put them back up but you didn't. I cannot speak these words to you because of the way you react. No you don't react violently but the look of pain in your eyes I see breaks my heart even more than the words I say causing you pain is the one thing I hate. That's why I'm so angry at your parents not the fact that they're your parents you can't change that that's not your fault that's not their fault it just happened. Your conception happened for a reason. I think that reason is to help people like you I feel that you will become someone famous and Powerful because you are so brave and kind that it would be a disservice to yourself not to be. I don't get why you don't think you're handsome you are sure you're no Channing Tatum but I've seen some men who would make Medusa cringe. Some of them go to our school. The fact of the matter is I don't get why people attacked you I don't get why they hurt you I don't get the fact that your parents hurt you I understand the basic concept of it I just don't understand why? ! You are a good human you're gentle loving person. What did you ever do to them? Were you too innocent? Too young? Too happy? In the case of your parents review reminder of their "mistake"? were you reminder that the fact that they couldn't keep their own lives together? No. You are not a mistake you're a human you were just the winner of the race in a way. Life in that sense is a trophy but in your case is one of the worst trophies I could ever think of but you made it good because you are strong. In the case of the thing that happened Wednesday I swear I just looked up and saw it. I don't know why I laughed guess was kind of funny to me. In every way that depressed me because that art project was past you the heart was keeping him alive well his emotions were weighing him down because the thing is Stone I get when you paint it to say that I saved your life but people don't understand that or choose not to admit it and I don't understand why why anyone would do that you were so angry when it broke but you fixed it because you were so stubborn and smart that's what I'm trying to say is these are the words you will never hear you may hear them once but I do not know what you will say after. when I think of you young I think of a Young Man no a child scared and alone in his room crying because his mother doesn't love his father and she's leaving him again this is the third time again he blame himself for the reasons that they are together but in fact they chose to drink that night they chose to act that way you are not a result of their stupid your result of Science of humanity you were a cell doing what a cell does their reaction to your birth and life it's something that no one should ever go through it was hellish. They should have just given you up for adoption because the fact of matter is they are so incompetent that you are permanently scarred yes you may have never found a good home but at least you at least you had the chance for somebody better than them. If I could go back in time and save you from all of this I don't think I could because you wouldn't be who you are today I admit that. But that does not mean I wouldn't tell you who i was and tell you that you survived but you became a man better than what you had as role model you've been a good man strong man and not strong the physical sense you can't throw a barge in the way but in the true way man of bravery and kindness above all I've seen this and you and the past year only a year small amount of time in the aspect of life but one in all aspects was awful I bet that was an awful year 2016 sucked. But in January of that year I had hope hope for new love to Blossom and it may of that year you saved my life by just telling my mom what was in my head. I got out of the hospital on your birthday and you ran to me through the parking lot of that hotel I thought you were going to trip and fall cuz your were flip flops or run into to me because you couldn't stop in time. But you didn't you hugged me so tightly you hadn't seen me for a week because your parents wouldn't to take you to visit me. Your father says he doesn't want you seeing me because of my "issues" he calls my mother a bad parent for simply acknowledging the fact that her child needs help for acknowledging the fact that her child's brain is different he forced you to do things you didn't want to do socialize when you were not ready and told you to man up when your anxiety was getting more because he didn't realize of the bullying in the darkness you went through he was one of the causes of that I admit it. I don't get the fact that a man says he loves you yet he doesn't love you the way he should he doesn't treat you the way he should he doesn't act the way he should he acts like a man who has a burden instead of a son I don't get it and your mother your relationship with her used to be good but when she lost so much weight and started cheating on your dad you broke up now you live with her crazy boyfriend and place you shouldn't live she should take care of herself and service mooching off him you were going to be able to run for your dog but you didn't because you need that idiots help I don't get it why did God choose you love me? I don't regret you I never will I do not regret loving you I don't regret meeting you I regret nothing about you. The only regret I have truly it's not meeting you sooner because I could have helped you more and help some of the pain. One last thing I want to say I cannot antidepressant I'm a girl who loves you not a pill I can't protect you all the time I need to focus on myself as well but for now pouring myself into use one thing I can keep safe but I can do to help you I can't set you free just yet but I can keep you waiting what I mean by that is simple I can help you wait until the time comes when you're old enough to leave to spread your wings run run as fast as you can away from there and become the man you were destined to be granted there will be some times where we aren't the best of friends but I will always love you I don't think you could possibly understand how much I love you. You're wondering why did she write all this I had to get it out somewhere had to free it somehow if you made it this far. Good job. Because you made it though all of the shit I've been though in the past year. This is surviving a relationship with a man who's abused.

[awinetintedmuse]

@titanofthemoon  Hear hear! Athena isn’t even a woman but a noncis male? Which explains why he upholds the brocode despite being ace/aro himself. I think one of Rucka’s few missteps was not looking at the medusa part of Athena’s myth more critically, albeit retconning it to a tryst between medusa and Poseidon rather than rape. Still, punishes the woman and not the guy who tresspassed. His uncle but still.. way to punch down.

Okay so, I had no idea what you were talking about here, because I wasn’t sure who Rucka was and I wasn’t sure what you were alluding to. So I googled it and I think you’re referring to the wonder woman writer? 

In any case, my feelings on it is that Athena is a woman, and in many respects she represents a very distinct part of womanhood; specifically the elite, well to do, calculating woman who professes virtue but condemns any unvirtuous behavior as being the woman’s fault. Ergo, a woman’s virtue in her ideal is chastity, because it like the shield; it represents the bulwark against the uncleanliness, the savagery, the uncouthness of men and the male sphere. But at the same time, if a woman is say, taken advantage of, then it must have been her fault, because she wasn’t virtuous enough. 

Obviously, this fails to take into account things like power dynamics, but it can be easily read in mythology as being a situation where a powerful individual sides with their powerful family over someone without power, and then justifies their actions accordingly. 

Ergo, Athena is totally into empowerment until that empowerment actually threatens her power or her family’s power. She’s not mad that Medusa had sex, she’s mad that it happened in her temple. And rather than blame Poseidon for raping her in Athena’s temple, an obvious violation of Athena’s sanctuary given that profaning a god’s temple is much like profaning them directly, she blames Medusa for being ‘too beautiful’ and thus being the instigator. 

Essentially, Athena’s argument is that Medusa’s beauty is the problem, that she is the one that caused Poseidon to trespass against her. Nevermind that Poseidon is a powerful god, it is expected of him to go out and have sex with women, because he is a god, and a masculine god at that. See Zeus for more examples. 

Athena speaks a lot about the virtue of women, and about their importance, but at the same time, she doesn’t believe this extends to women when they actually require her putting some skin in the game. As such, she sides with her uncle over her devoted follower, and curses her as such. That’s why Perseus slaying her is a ‘good’ act, because it’s releasing Medusa from her torment. And why having her become Athena’s shield is rather gross, because Athena makes it all about her; In Athena’s mind, she’s ‘restoring’ Medusa’s virtue by giving her a place of honor, nevermind that the one who caused her suffering was Athena. 

I’m discounting Ovid’s version of events here. Ovid is the one who came up with the story of how Athena was ‘protecting’ Medusa with her transformation to keep her from being ravaged by men. As far as we know, that was Ovid’s idea. Now I love Ovid, and that does try to make Athena more likeable, so it’s possible this is a sign of changing cultural norms. In Ovid’s take, Athena obviously can’t punish Poseidon, because he’s too powerful. Athena after all, is just a goddess. She can’t punish her uncle, because she’s not as strong. So she can only protect her worshipper Medusa. It’s not a great take either. 

But the thing is, in mythology, Athena has lots and lots of situations where she could, in theory, do the right thing, and chooses not to. Example B: the Orestia. Orestes kills his mother, who killed his father, who killed his daughter. The furies go after him, only for him to end up in Athens, where Athena is hanging out, and decides to sort this out by establishing the Athenian legal system. 

Now it’s important to note that Orestes did in fact kill his mother. So the crime the furies are punishing him for is matricide. But Orestes goes ‘yeah but the gods told me to do it and also I was taking revenge for my father.’ The furies go ‘yeah but you still killed your mother.’ 

At which point, Apollo decides to make the weirdest of all arguments. Essentially, his argument boils down to ‘matricide isn’t a crime because the only parent that matters is the father, and the woman has no claim to the child because she’s basically just a fetus incubator.’ Different culture and time, obviously. The idea being that, according to Apollo, Orestes can’t be guilty of matricide because mothers don’t matter at all in terms of ownership of children biologically. 

At which point, Athena goes ‘well I’ve heard all I need to hear, so now the jury should totally decide, and since I’m the judge of this court, I’m just going to cast the tie breaking vote, and oh by the way I’m on Orestes side.’ and since there is a tie, Athena goes ‘well Apollo’s logic that women aren’t as important as men sounds good to me as a legal concept’ and casts the vote to absolve Orestes. 

Again, time and place, different culture. It has not aged well. 

Now, the Orestia is a heavily political play, mostly because, again, it’s all about establishing the Athenian legal system and how that came to be. 

But. It can be said that Athena’s character, that of someone that supports her favorites and her fellow gods over normal human women was canon enough to the general population that characterizing her as such didn’t exactly come off as being out of character. 

In many ways it’s similar to Hera, in that as a goddess of marriage, fidelity is important, but because she can’t take her revenge on Zeus for all his indiscretions, she takes them out on his lovers. 

Part of this is the way Greeks viewed women; it’s entirely possible that, absent the ancient Greek worldview, that one can reinterpret the mythology in a new way to suit our own world. The Greeks certainly did that all the time as the times changed. But it’s not an accident that Aphrodite is perhaps the closest you get to ‘modern’ ideas of feminism, but at the same time is also depicted as the cause of tons and tons of conflicts and also someone who is petty and vindictive. 

You certainly get the sense that ancient Greek writers were rather hostile to the idea of women with power and depicted them all as catty, vengeful, and hostile, unless they were dealing with women who embodied what men thought of as ideal female virtues. 

That said, if we’re dealing with just the mythology, and not say, the entire discussion of femininity in the ancient greek world, then Athena does not come off as being particularly just or forgiving or compassionate. In fact, the medusa story is meant to be a tragedy, much in the way Oedipus is a tragedy, but the tragedy comes from the fact that the gods are cruel towards people. 

I think what they were going for was ‘Athena punished the victim because she couldn’t punish the god who caused the problem’ the way Hera punishes people and not Zeus. But it doesn’t make Athena look good, obviously. 

[beingsarahmorales-blog]

A Response to the Shea Moisture Advertisement Controversy - New Work

     On April 25, 2017, Shea Moisture introduced a new television advertising campaign featuring models that depicted an expanding customer base.  While the company believed that the advertisement would increase their revenue and global reach, existing customers responded immediately by noting the lack of diversity within the ad and vowing to boycott the brand.  Although representatives from the company have made appearances on nationally syndicated radio and television shows explaining their stance, there's still a firestorm on social media regarding the campaign and the company. 

     I would like to start off by inserting the response to the controversy that Shea Moisture posted on their Facebook page and explain what I think about that and the advertisement itself. “Wow, okay – so guys, listen, we really f-ed this one up. Please know that our intention was not – and would never be – to disrespect our community, and as such, we are pulling this piece immediately because it does not represent what we intended to communicate. You guys know that we have always stood for inclusion in beauty and have always fought for our community and given them credit for not just building our business but for shifting the beauty landscape. So, the feedback we are seeing here brings to light a very important point. While this campaign included several different videos showing different ethnicities and hair types to demonstrate the breadth and depth of each individual’s hair journey, we must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who have led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way. We are keenly aware of the journey that WOC face – and our work will continue to serve as the inspiration for work like the Perception Institute’s Good Hair Study/Implicit Association Test that suggests that a majority of people, regardless of race and gender, hold some bias towards women of color based on their textured or natural hair. So, you’re right. We are different – and we should know better.” 

     Personally, while I understand that the company is traditionally known to be a company targeted towards African Americans, I don’t see there being anything wrong with branching out to include everyone. With all due respect to the struggles of minorities, I question why it is okay to have a company that caters to one specific group of people, but if it’s the other way around, it’s racist. Why is exclusion okay in some areas and not in others? For me this has always been confusing, especially when it comes to hair and appearances. I am someone who outwardly looks VERY white. However, although my mother’s side of the family is very European, I am also half hispanic through my father’s side. I am a fair skinned, freckled faced, green eyed girl with red hair. However, I have big, curly, frizzy, easily knotted hair that has caused me to be teased so much in my life. Much like the first girl in the advertisement who said she endured people throwing things into her hair, I went through a lot of bullying for what naturally grew out of my head. I had kids tease me saying my hair was big and scary, likening it to the myth of Medusa and her big hair full of snakes. Kids would tell other students not to look at me or I would turn them to stone as Medusa did with men in the stories. I would have boys standing behind me pretending to warm their hands with my fiery red hair as if it was a campfire. I was teased by other girls, of all ethnicities mind you, for my out of control hair and told that I should do something to change it. I spent years hating my hair, wanting to dye it (which my parents didn’t allow) and straightening it til I’m sure I fried the ends. Due to ridicule, I tried to take what was natural and mold it to fit the standards of the world. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized how ridiculous that was and that it only mattered if I liked my hair. Now I’ve come to appreciate my curls as it’s something about me that stands out. 

     I was having a conversation with my mother the other day about how when it comes to representation of red heads in movies, tv shows, or commercials, they’re more often than not depicted with straight, easy to manage hair. For me, that’s simply not my experience. To an outsider, someone watching the Shea Moisture ad would probably compare me to the red head girl that they showed, however my hair experience is most similar to the first girl depicted. Why is it that we’re saying that someone of a particular race must always have a certain hair type? Everyone is created different and no one can help what grows out of their head so why is it something that can cause so much problems between people. It seems so trivial in the grand scheme of life. Yes, I completely understand the controversy of the lack of African American representation in an ad for a company that traditionally caters to African American women, however, the ad itself is not the problem because the message itself is correct in my opinion. Everyone should feel free to love their hair no matter if it is pin straight or kinky curly and no one should shame anyone for having any particular hair type. An article by Snopes said “For a brand designed to cater to women with natural and textured hair, this video didn’t seem to align with its mission,” however, who is to say that women of any ethnicity can’t have textured hair? I’m sorry but I’d say my hair is very textured if I’m constantly struggling to get a brush through it and can never ever brush it dry without literally ripping clumps of hair out of my head. Perhaps their mistake was that all the girls showcased didn’t have natural curly textured hair. However, it’s a hair product, if you think it works for your hair, why not use it? Perhaps Shea Moisture has discovered that women with any hair texture, type, or color can benefit from their products, and as a business why would they not want to capitalize on that?

     A lot of the backlash seems to rely on stereotypes, and perhaps the commercial should have had more women of different ethnicities and hair types showcased with speaking roles in the commercial. To me, upon first looking at the commercial I saw that perhaps they were reaching for diversity by showcasing each a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead. Stereotypically, blonde hair and red head grow naturally on lighter skinned girls so perhaps that was the reason for the so called “white-washing”. They may have had to choose one type of diversity over another. However, I do not think this was done with any sort of malicious intent. They want to cater to ALL women and I think that is great. I do not think it is wrong in the least to for the company to want to branch out to have their advertisements reflect a greater audience they want to cater to. People forget that inclusivity and diversity includes EVERYONE. As a white woman, I know some may say that my perspective is biased but I do not see the difference between a brand catering solely to light-skinned people or solely to dark-skinned people, either way is exclusionary and there is no way around that. If you want diversity you can’t pick and choose where the diversity happens. 

     As far as the company goes, Shea Moisture needs to be completely upfront about how they want to go about expanding their company. They need to explain any changes they would like to make, how the organization could benefit from said change, and perhaps come up with a new more direct mission statement that affirms what they believe. Through their social media, I would suggest that they create posts depicting the stories of all different girls telling stories of how they’ve come to love their hair. Hair struggles are not limited to any one group of women and that’s something that needs to be understood. It’s a risk to break out of a stereotype and add diversity in an instance where the diversity includes white people who have straighter hair, however, if they want to cater to ALL women then that is something that they will have to do. Their customers need to see it as all women now using the same products and everyone benefiting from them. There is really nothing wrong with that. I think the problem was that the ad was a little too vague in its specific intent. Moving forward, Shea Moisture needs to be inclusive without excluding their already loyal customers and assure them that just because new voices are being brought in does not mean that their voices will go overshadowed.