#I swear- did y'all know about this?
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crumblinggothicarchitecture · 5 months ago
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Taylor Swift: The Lyric Thief- Evermore Edition.
Do y'all know about this?
Swift's lyric "How's one to know/ I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bone" ("Ivy" 2020).
Great, interesting lyric from Swift's own mind, right? WRONG.
Originally, it came from a poem called "Compassion" written by Miller Williams in 1997.
Here is the poem:
Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone. (Williams, 1997)
It's later used as an album title "Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone" that Miller William's daughter, Lucinda Williams, published in 2014.
She also used the line, that her father ORGINALLY wrote, in a song tribute to him called "Compassion" on that same 2014 album.
Can we please stop pretending Swift is a genius? When, in fact, all of her most "intelligent" and "powerful" lyrics are lines outright taken from other works in literary, and musical, canon.
She's just a derivative fraud who wants all of her fans to think she's the one coming up with all these ideas.
She stole the line from a woman who used it as a tribute to her dying Father- the original author- who is now passed.
Not only did Swift rip the line out of a tribute album written to the original writer- but she also put the line in a dumb song that romanticizes cheating. She writes, "dare to sit a watch what we'll become/ and drink my husband's wine" ("Ivy" 2020). Clearly, the whole song is about a woman who is cheating on her husband.
The original intention of the line itself is about having compassion for other people, while taking care to have humility and resist the allure of cynicism. It's a poem about caring for your fellow man- and resisting despair in life. Arguably, it is also a poem about mental health issues and respecting those who may struggle. Swift twists the line to describe meeting a clandestine hookup and cheating on her husband.
Not only did she yank the line right out of someone else’s work, with no credit given to the original intention of the line or the original author- but she also made it about such a selfish, sick, thing to do- cheating on a spouse.
The original intention of the line was so kind and empathetic. She ruined it with her endorsement of cavalier attitudes towards moral corruption :(
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kingofthewilderwest · 10 months ago
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I repeatedly am like, "I should scream my views on tumblr more again." But back then it was like, HTTYD and Voltron and Undertale. And I think about what I'm into now and I'm like, "What am I gonna talk about? How I'm over the moon about this specific Abbott and Costello movie because it reverses the A&C formula where it's actually straight man Abbott who gets the bunt of the jokes, but actually Abbott and Costello have few face-to-face interactions, Costello primarily works along woman lead Marjorie Reynolds and their chemistry is a delight and their characters stay as friends the full way through, it starts as a full-ass 1780s period drama introducing multiple factions that makes you wonder if you're watching the wrong movie, Costello our funny man has a literal goddamned death scene done straight and he's a ghost the majority of the runtime, the movie is a fun low-stakes treasure hunt mystery in a single house, the comedy is about ghosts having way too much naive fun learning about technology and pulling childish pranks like six-year-olds, why do ghosts flash the electric lights it's because they don't know what electric lights are and they are ecstacic about learning what these do, Costello is such a dumb ghost he keeps getting scared at the possibility of being haunted even though his Starting Mission is he wants to haunt Abbott, AGAIN ABBOTT as the STRAIGHT MAN is being haunted, they have the extra brilliance to make this straight-man-haunted-man be a psychiatrist who goes from a serious, practical man to a blubbering mess "TOOT TOOT IN MY STETHESCOPE!" as he unravels from the hauntings, the story has cute heart and focuses on the ghosts trying to find peace and rest and get un-cursed so they can go reunite with their respective romantic loves in heaven they've never had the chance to be with, you find yourself rooting for the characters and plot rather than watching for outdated crappy slapstick hijinks though of course those exist I mean it's an Abbott and Costello movie what else did you expect when you signed up for an Abbott and Costello movie, it's refreshing to watch 1940s effects because they don't need to be expensive they don't need to be perfect they just need to let you imagine the moment and have fun, I REPEAT it's got cute heart, and AGAIN it's a type of low-stakes movie you don't see in theatres anymore?"
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itz-pandora · 5 months ago
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To Amy: How do you feel about Sonic and Shadows relationship?
"I think they work pretty well together, and I'm glad they're happy."
"I've been skeptical that they've had feelings for each other for years, and the kiddos definitely are what caused them to settle down. I'm surprised about how well they're doing with raising them."
"And, just in case anyone has any thoughts, I am over Sonic."
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musicallyfomentingchaos · 10 months ago
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A Gentle Correction
Rated E for kinky smut
I didn't mean to join the smut war, but I think I got drafted @goodomensafterdark This idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I wrote 5k
Crowley makes a mistake, which Aziraphale understands. Crowley beats himself up over it, which Aziraphale will not stand for.
BDSM scene where Aziraphale forces Crowley to internalize a compliment
CW for impact play and crying during a scene. Everything stays very consensual and everyone gets to have lots of feelings.
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camellcat · 10 months ago
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sometimes I see edits of eleven with rose and wonder who else is going to be absolutely FOOLED by them thinking that maybe MAYBEEE there's a sliver of truth. just. maybe not that, what I'm looking at, is a shot from the show, but maybe—
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brown-little-robin · 1 year ago
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mad-hunts · 2 months ago
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just randomly got reminded of the fact that gerard way just randomly decided to be silly one day and create his own character designs for his own batman universe that DC was interested in + TBH, since all of the characters in it are very gothic, i just think that barton would wear eyeliner and have his mask resemble a porcelain doll's as well as have big 80's-esque hair in this hypothetical universe
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silvertws · 4 months ago
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Look! It's the fucking Sorcerer who definitely isn't the embodiment of chaotic neutral! And definitely didn't die I mean... Got yoinked by outlaws in our like, 3rd session! (This was months ago btw, he's fine now! Or well, more like, for now)
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mel-loly · 2 years ago
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-Hey🌹
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(also- read the tags please..)
#I went back? perhaps...#I wanted to make this post to clarify some things and also..#I wanted to apologize for my “bad mood” last Friday.. I already wasn't doing well some days. so...#yeah. I know it was very wrong of me to say some things and well. that's it. I'm so sorry..#I also wanted to say and apologize to the people who gave me art ideas and I didn't do it.#as I said before. I've been pretty bad. and even more full of things to do and think about..#I know I should have told you guys this earlier but unfortunately I couldn't...#so- I won't be able to make them anymore. but... I'm open to art ideas now for christmas!#without being crk characters and also without being other people's characters (like- art requests if you guys know what i mean)..#maybe yes it could be with other people's characters but- I don't want it to be an art request for example. as i said#sorry for anything again if I said or did something wrong. I swear it wasn't my intention. and if it was. I apologize more for that#so... that's it. I don't have much to say-#just wanted to clarify a few things and wanted to ask for christmas art ideas so I can get back to posting..#sorry again for everything and hope y'all have a wonderful day/night with this wonderful art of mine that i did for you guys💛#hello kitty is one of my favorite characters. love her <333#hello kitty on my style#hello kitty fanart#hello kitty art#hello kitty#art#i'm mel and this is my blog✌️#my art blog#my art#my art <3#art mel#my art style#fanart
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vulpinesaint · 2 years ago
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bed covered in books feeling fucking fanTASTIC
#READING IS SUCH A THRILL DID Y'ALL KNOW ABOUT THIS#i've acquired two books off that queerplatonic ace rep rec list so far and i am. thrilled about it#the first one is not like. Extraordinary haha but i read like two hundred and sixty pages last night and it was enjoyable!#i have to remember that ya fiction is ya fiction sometimes. haha#but!!! ordered another one online (first one is a library book which was SO fulfilling to go grab) and it got here today and i'm SO pumped#reviews online were largely positive + complimented the like. visuals and dark fairy tale feel to it#and while one review said that the prose wasn't that good (i am always looking for writing that is Technically good)#(technically as in like. the technical aspects of it are well done. it's well executed)#i am still excited about the kind of character dynamics it promises me#i'll take some clumsy prose if it gets me platonic intimacy. i swear to god i will#ALSO IT'S ABOUT THE WILD HUNT AND I AM SO OBSESSED WITH THE WILDHUNT#and i was promised nonbinary knight character??? so. new fixation incoming perhaps#only choice now is whether to finish the first one or jump right into the next haha#i have what. less than a hundred pages of not even bones to finish?#i should get through that one haha#apparently it's a trilogy and the qpr comes in later so :rolling_eyes:#we'll see if i'm invested enough#or i'll read the webtoon or smth haha#I FUCKING LOVE THE LIBRARY I CAN REQUEST + HOLD THE NEXT TWO BOOKS#god. using public utilities is such a rush#anyway!!!! excited excited :)#valentine notes
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fembutchboygirl · 1 year ago
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He's just so cute and sweet and i wanna see him again and kiss him and call him pretty things. I'm in love. I'm literally in love what did i do to deserve this
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bravevolunteer · 2 years ago
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michael isn't inherently religious ( this tracks whether or not the aftons were raised religiously, although i don't think they would've been to a heavy extent if any ), he doesn't claim to have an idea of what might occur after death if anything, but he does spend a long while thinking that if there is such thing as an afterlife, if there is a hell, that is where he would end up. it takes so much for him to accept that he has atoned, that he deserves to rest just like everyone else does.... so when henry ( a man that was likely more faithful than michael ever was ) says he believes there is peace on the other side... that only one of them will suffer for their actions..... there's a moment before the fire where michael finally allows himself to believe it. it's finally not as difficult to accept that, despite his mistakes, he does deserve peace with the rest of them, he deserves to move on along with his siblings
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frodolives · 1 year ago
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1850s Tumblr Dashboard Simulator
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👸🏻 girlbossladyjane Follow
It really makes me sick to see people giving money to penny weeklies when Franklin's expedition STILL has not been found 😭 There are good men out there trapped in unimaginable temperatures and literally all that's needed is a little more funding for another rescue mission yet all you guys seem to care about are your vulgar little stories...
🧔🏻‍♂️ queerqueg Follow
the franklin expedition is dead as hell
👸🏻 girlbossladyjane Follow
Disgraceful thing to say but I'd expect nothing more from a M*lville fan
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👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal
Sorry for posting so much about Tom Gradgrind/James Harthouse from Hard Times lately. It turns out that I was getting arsenic poisoning from my wallpaper? Anyway I took a seaside stroll and I'm normal now. Check your walls y'all
#whyyy did i assume they were committing unlawful actions together like where did i even get that from lol #hard times isn't even that good by dickens standards tbh
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🎨 asherbrowndurand
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Just painted this
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ss-arctic-girlie-deactivated18540927
RIP Napoleon... you may have been unable to conquer Alexander's Russia but you sure as hell conquered Alexander's bed
🖼️ preraphaelitebro Follow
HERITAGE POST
📝 shakespearesforehead Follow
How does this have less than 100k notes you could literally not avoid this post back in the 20s lol
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🌄 loyalromantic Follow
poets just aren't dying young in mysterious water-related incidents like they used to :/
#as useless and degenerative as i find 'the living poets' and i'm glad we're finally moving on from them #i have to agree with op in this respect
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🎀 thefopdiaries Follow
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I finally got a daguerreotype of myself ^_^ Porcelain urn for scaling
📜 bartlebi-thescrivener
i think i hauve consumption
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🐋 whaler4life
They found oil in the ground??? WTF. THIS IS LITERALLY THE WORSTTTT. FUCK MY LIFE FOR REAL THIS TIME
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🌿 naturesnaturalist Follow
I swear this website has 0 reading comprehension skills. Darwin NEVER claimed we "evolved" from apes like if one of you guys actually bothered to open his new book you'll see all his arguments are backed up by evidence. He actually makes a lot of sense
#sure there's nuance like i don't fully agree with all of it #but his general theory of natural selection seems pretty sound imo
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🤵🏻‍♂️ byronicherotournament Follow
🙈 butchbronte Follow
Of course these are the finalists lmao this website is so predictable. Anyway vote Heathcliff if you dont i'm going to assume you're a phrenologist
📖 sapphichelenburns Follow
It's not problematic to acknowledge the fact that Heathcliff was a brute like he literally killed dogs in case you forgot. #rochestersweep
🙈 butchbronte Follow
I love the implication here that Rochester never did anything cruel either. He literally locked his wife in the attic and lied to Jane about it 😭 like that was a pretty significant thing that happened
📖 sapphichelenburns Follow
And? God forbid women do anything
#why'd you have to pit two bad bitches against each other #anyway i'm not attracted to men but still went with rochester #bc in terms of living quarters thornfield hall > wuthering heights easily
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👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal
Not the Russian tsar dying immediately after hartgrind became canon
#i know dickens hasn't technically confirmed it yet but like. SOMETHING was strongly implied ok #see: my previous post #dickensposting
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👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal
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LORD HELP ME. THE BODY LANGUAGE. THE WAY THEY'RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER. AHHHHHH
#this installment!!! im-- #dickensposting #i can't fucking cope #dickens wants to KILL us he wants us DEAD....
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⭐️ newamerican
Hi guys sorry I haven't been posting lately it's been so difficult getting to California 💀 I'm finally here now though just need to find a pickaxe and soon I'll be digging! :-) wish me luck lol
#gold #gold rush #gold rush grind #california #adventure
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nobodybetterlookatme · 4 days ago
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Wait I think I missed something in this incredible saga. Are you going on a date with the coworker??? I swear the last thing I saw was “no I would never” lmaoooo. If so, I (like the rest of snzblr) are anxious for updates about your love life. You’re one of the top snzblr couples now, enjoy 🤙
I did say I would never and I was a fucking liar apparently 😔 it's not technically a date tho bc I never told him it was bc I need to be so casual and mysterious ahdkaksk but it's a date To Me lmao. It's tomorrow tho bc we're still at work rn and it doesn't look like we're leaving anytime soon so at least I have that to look forward to I guess lmao
#not snz#we're not a couple tho nooooo 😭😭 lmaooo#it's just me being delusional#like he's literally not into me i stg i think y'all are gonna be more disappointed about the outcome than me#OH but he did hug me tho so I'm riding that high rn actually ahskamsk#lowkey have just been leaning against him half the shift but we've been watching videos and stuff together bc it's been slow so#that means nothing probably#also he looks at me like 😒 every time i ask one if my stupid little debate questions ahsakslsl#today was if ceral is a soup and if ketchup is a smoothie#please know that i ask these randomly literally out of nowhere like it's a normal thing to bring up lmaoooo#i have negative flirting skills ahdkaksk#this is the opposite of pulling a bad bitch by being autistic this is making the coworker question why he puts up with me lmaoooo#but he's the one who said yes to dinner so 😌#you know what he's never seen me in a cute little outfit before actually 👀#it's always been either the work uniform or hiking clothes#which to be fair my hiking clothes are kinda cute but they're hiking clothes nonetheless#like he saw me in normal clothes a bit ago but i was actively dying so they were just the most comfortable clothes i could find#so like maybe i can wear a skirt i have cute skirts i like wearing out with my bestie#and they're like. very specific kinds of skirts so maybe that'll tell him something ahskasmks#help why am i thinking so hard about this ahdkalslal#like it's literally actually not even a date it's just me flipping out for no reason while this guy is clueless 😭#like I'm telling y'all he's not into me and i don't understand why I'm being like this about it lmaoo#I'm always like 'fuck i wish my coworkers wouldn't crush on me to the point of asking me out that's awkward i don't date coworkers'#AND THEN I TURNED AROUND AND DID IT MYSELF#why am i like this#why am i so 👀 when he's one of the few people i shouldn't be 👀 at#i swear i should give it a couple months bc maybe I'm just feeling some type of way about him bc i was sick#but noooo i just HAVE to be insane about it now 😭#i should really have a tag for me being a pathetic wreck but idk what it would even be lmao#no matter he'll probably figure out that I'm being a freak sooner or later and shut that shit down so it won't matter 😔
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krysmcscience · 2 months ago
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Did somebody say Bill shouldn't be allowed to swear? I think somebody said Bill shouldn't be allowed to swear. Thanks to that, have these retooled The Good Place jokes:
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The "powers that be" can refer to either the Theraprism staff, the Axolotl, or just. Ya know. Disney in general. Or all three! Whichever you think is funniest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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The "party" Bill's referring to is Weirdmageddon, of course. He was quite the ashhole to everyone back then.
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Ford has probably gotten pretty good at the 'tune out your psychopathic ex with dank memes' challenge.
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It must be very cathartic to be able to make Bill shut up whenever you want with just the press of a button. I'm sure Ford doesn't abuse this ability at all.
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Oh, sure, 'Not now,' he says, before he immediately backs out of the newly-made hole in the Theraprism wall. 🙄
Don't worry, Bill doesn't get far.
also yeah i know this one doesn't have an attempted swear - i just wanted to use the joke because of the massive stink-eye involved in it because it makes me laugh
⬇️ More goofs beneath the brief ramble if you wanna skip it lmao⬇️
Why is Ford even there, you might ask? Well, he either decided he preferred to watch Bill suffer in person over being distantly and repeatedly harassed with the same evil desperation book for the rest of his life, or he got roped into some kind of contrived community service for 1.) all his many counts of interdimensional thievery, and 2.) his ignoring all the very clear warnings to NOT summon Bill in the first place (which I like to imagine is also illegal). Theraprism staff were just like, 'Wait, this guy matters to Bill? Ooh, we can USE that! It might be the only thing that can help him want to get better!' It is not considered that throwing Ford at Bill so soon after Weirdmageddon could instead make them both WORSE - in new and altogether special ways! :D
Anyway, I'm calling it the Community Service AU, and I am most likely not going to do anything else with it beyond appropriating these silly Good Place jokes. So, feel free to adopt the concept if y'all wanna??? Just make sure that Bill is still not allowed to swear, no matter what, full stop. It's gotta be a real linguistic corkblork of a situation for him, is all I'm sayin'.
Finally, have these bonus Good Place jokes, but with Handyman!Bill this time:
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'Opposite tortures' doesn't sound so bad...at least until it's an all-powerful chaos entity known for torture saying it.
you may think i forgot mabel's cute pink cheeks but the truth is that i did in fact forget but then immediately stopped caring which makes it okay, SHHHHHHH
And, finally:
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lmao this is shit
True facts, if you cram Season 1 Eleanor Shellstrop and Michael into a singular triangle shape, they turn into Bill Cipher. This is science, look it up. Or don't, and just trust the source that is me, bro.
Anyway, I should be in bed, y'all have fun with these, I guess. Tune in after like a week or so and maybe I'll have an addendum to my comic about how Bill was drawn naked for karaoke night. Because him actually being naked was not the only thing I considered as a plausible explanation. XD
Also if you see any inconsistencies or errors in any of these comics, No You Do Not :D
Also also, reblogs are rad as hell and I appreciate every single one, just don't repost, please and thanks. Every time a repost is made, an artist somewhere cries. :,)
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show-us-kaidenshenandoah · 2 months ago
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a loved one of mine sent me this post back in June, but i was immediately afraid of being a party-pooper so i didnt post my reply publicly but, now, ive had more than enough emotional distance from the knee-jerk anxiety of "oh no what if i correct people and everyone sends me hate and doxxes me" that im like "oh yeah i should post that" lmao (if i already did this: sorry, chronic memory loss stinks. i dont remember having done this before lmao)
if you dont like reading a long thing of text to get information btw, totally get it, here is a video link to Jessica Vill's video about the topic which will walk you through identical information if that is your preferred way to process/learn
also: you can easily google and wiki my sources, these arent hard things to verify once you know to look them up to begin with. but i did include screenshots below as my various sources; as well as evidence of "yeah, it would be super easy to fact-check me about this if you feel so inclined" [transcripts of images will be my reblog of this post under a read more, bc tumblr kept throwing a fit otherwise if i did it here] nonetheless, never blame people for not knowing what they didnt know. the misconception is absolutely the fault of PBS (for not fact-checking the author of that article pre-publication if nothing else) for publishing an article preying on the Black community's pre-existing attachment to Betty Boop for clicks. i wont be going into that article itself that had so terribly misreported, esp since PBS already apologized, im just reporting the information i know
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i will add the following corrections to what i said in that DM:
i do not "blame" anyone above for the misinformation. if i "blame" anyone, it is PBS for claiming Fleischer consciously based Betty Boop's personality and design on Esther Jones, which you can see in the screenshot above; where BlackHistory.com cites and quotes that said misreported article. thats who i was groaning about in my DM, the PBS article; i was not nor was i ever attributing misinformation to come from @rikareena or @lveshae, but especially not @rikareena who fact-checked and was lied to by (a) said misinformation and (b) there not being an editorial within the snippet SAYING "oh btw sorry, our source we mentioned was bad actually. PBS apologized for the misinformation and not fact-checking it and we should too for spreading it without fact-checking our source ourselves". you should always google your facts and that is exactly what @rikareena did. it was not anybody in this post's fault that these sources were based on misinformation. do NOT blame or send negative attention to any tumblr-user/individual person within this post or outside of this post, istg, demand better of these website-sources instead (esp to have fact-checking teams themselves) and not individual people omfg
we do have few photos of Little Esther (you can see all of them in Jessica Vill's video), not just one. but they all are of her as a child. we have NO confirmed photos of her as an adult. also, to clarify, Little Esther was who i was talking about in regards to lost media, we have VERY little records of her performances (to which im glad people HAVE been looking into her and finding more about her that we can confirm is definitely her through this misreport. i love that she is re-gaining fans and her story is being shared, very big silver lining of this whole thing. if you're into uncovering lost media, please do look into her and help find more about her) also, she goes by "Baby Esther" and "Little Esther" as well as her name of Esther Jones/Esther Lee Jones
the photo i said was maybe her as an adult was incorrect. you'll see it below, it's the "Do Tell by James Van Der Zee, circa 1930" portrait that has oft been misattributed to Esther Jones. we do not know who this woman modeling for him had been
the cosplayer in question i mentioned was specifically Olya Gussy. she dressed up as Betty Boop and was photographed in 2008 by Retro Atelier. she is often misattributed as being an adult Esther Jones, which she is not
part of why i can never remember Betty Boop's primary "original" voice-actress is because Betty Boop has had SO MANY, even in just "classic Betty years". but i was specifically thinking of Mae Questel. the main three classic 1930s Betty Boop voices were Mae Questel, Mary Hines, and Bonnie Poe, but there were also several others in the 30s alone. but, yeah, when i was trying to talk about Betty Boop's voice-actress, it was Questel specifically who was in my head
i got my information wrong about the Betty Boop musical "Boop!". i got confused; i blame my chronic memory loss, but still my bad. anyway. it has so far ONLY been OFF-Broadway and is DUE to be ON Broadway in 2025 (get hyped!!! im so excited!!). off of Broadway, it has so far only been in Chicago according to the Wikipedia. and though it only had a had a short run in Chicago overall, the entire time it WAS in Chicago, Betty Boop was played by a Black musical actress: Jasmine Amy Rogers. love her, go support her!!
here are various screenshots with more information. feel free to look into them and/or the court-case on your own time. this is just "yep, shallow 2+2=4 levels of using google/wiki to fact-fact" on myself (which, to reiterate: is NOT a diss on anyone who didnt know what they didnt know, outside of this post or within it, idgaf, i do not tolerate trolls and dickheads being mean and utalizing me/my posts as a weapon to do that with) and show my sources in a more visual way
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so yeah!! Betty Boop absolutely should be claimed by Black people since she has so many connections to Black American art within her performance, and Betty should 100% be drawn as a Black woman by any and everybody who wants to depict her that way
but also dont give Fleischer Studios credit for things they didnt do. they did not utalize Ether Jones in their initial conception of Betty in any purposeful or concious way; they did not design a Black animated female character in the 1930s. do not give them that credit that they have not earned. Fleischer Studios only utalized Esther Jones to get out of a court-case they had with Helen Kane. them accidentally creating a character whose performance is heavily in connection with Black American artists, like Esther Jones, is VERY DIFFERENT than them basing a character off of Esther Jones or being inspired by her in of by itself. do not give them flowers for making a Black female character star in her own shorts (and then rescind said flowers-that-they-didnt-earn for how she then "became white-washed" like that PBS article misreported) when they just?? didnt do any of that?
(also this is mostly unrelated but bc it is tangentially related to "dont give Fleischer Studios credit for things they didnt do" thing: if you know me, youll see me specifically crack jokes about Betty Boop being wlw and/or about her "he/him butch girlfriend, Freddie". im talking about her canon boyfriend, Fred or Fearless Fred, who is a human (unlike her also once-canon boyfriend of Bimbo, the anthropomorphic dog). do not take me making jokes about headcanons and how "Fred's design is too sapphic to be a cis man" as legitimate fact. youll see the internet jokes of a similar vein sometimes, im definitely not the originator of that joke)
Betty Boop is for everybody in the same way as youve likely seen that Hatsune Miku trend where everyone is making a cultural Miku re-design to their specific ethnicity or way of life; we've seen Betty Boop be flexibly "for everyone" tons of times, even outside of her being a nostalgic tribute to the flapper girl era (a cultural niche in which women of ALL backgrounds took part). in classic Betty Boop cartoons alone, we've seen:
Betty Boop as white/white-passing (especially any time they copied Helen Kane which Fleischer Studios did OFTEN and didn't even HIDE until it became a legal issue; but also Helen Kane wasn't even being that original. baby voices like Betty Boop's was a common gimmick of actresses then and Helen Kane's catch-phrase wasn't even her own. i still personally think Fleischer was copying Kane, but also it makes 100% sense why she lost that lawsuit),
we have had Betty Boop be Jewish (the most obvious being parents in some shorts speaking with thick Yiddish accents, implying she is the daughter of immigrant parents, most famously in the "Minnie the Moocher" short as part of the set-up before any music even began to play),
we've had her be rotoscoped dancing using Indigenous Hawaiian dancers, in their regalia, and given a tan (multiple times but my favorite is "Bamboo Isle" for sure),
we've had her collab with Cab Calloway (a famous Black jazz musician for anyone who doesn' recognize the name) along with others and had Betty Boop's catchphrase ultimately come from Baby Esther's scatting, along with other instances of Betty Boop's performances having connection to Black American performance-art
and, hell, you could even make arguments about Betty Boop as a cowgirl in her "Nan McGrew" parodies. cowgirls and cowboys were a largely queer and/or POC group, paid very little but allowed a lot of freedom of expression and welcomed isolation, until America cinema and the like white-washed cowboys to hell and back. you could see Betty Boop as anyone of any identity, really, but especially as being of the marginalized in that vein
Fleischer Studios did definitely (accidentally popularize infantalization in animated women woah who said that, who brought up my special-interest) only announce that they used an alagamation of flapper women in their design to better shoot down Helen Kane, but that doesn't mean it wasn't true. Betty Boop IS the 1930s tribute to the flapper era of the 20s and all the women from there, of all skin-colors and ways of life. anybody can cosplay or draw Betty Boop. but Black people especially do have a special connection to Betty Boop that cannot be denied and is v beautiful
(i could talk for a few hours about Betty Boop, and i will be the first to admit this isn't even her first "well, originally..." debate concerning her as a character, much less the breadth of her impact OR all aspects of her history. there's all the ways she did steal/borrow from Helen Kane, at least in my opinion; her impact of infantalization in animated women's designs; her hyper-sexualization and how theater at the time functioned (in a sexual way*) and her specific "gags in the margins"(*×2) animators would make; her almost movie about her and her father that a lot of Betty Boop fans have dug up and shared the conceptual work of around; and even the debate of her age as that is constantly in flux depending on where you look and at what time of history (*×3). all of which i mention in an "if you liked learning about Betty, there is a lot more to look into learning about her" way rather than an "ask me, ask me, ask me" way)
(said * clarifactions will be with the aforementioned reblog to not make this post even LONGER than it already is lmao)
anyway. again: A++ art though, absolutely love it ♡
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#betty boop#esther jones#baby esther#little esther#esther lee jones#long post#ps. the wiki bit about the PBS article is a bit confusing bc theyre throwing years around around#to clarify: 2015 was when the article was published. well within the same month it was posted (probably the same week ngl but#idk for sure) they posted an editorial on the bottom of the article apologizing and saying they were wrong (in no small part#bc Fleischer Studios themselves contacted them yiKES YIKES YIKES lmao). so these articles from 2017 and everything?? real sHIT FUCKING#JOURNALISM like youre telling me yall could scroll to the bottom of the article??? bc i KNOW it was at the bottom i SAW IT BACK IN 2015#anyway. i guess?? PBS realized people were still citing them and went ''y'all really not scrolling to the bottom?? really??? yOURE#GONNA GET US IN TROUBLE jfc you guys we dont want a court case from the people who own Betty Boop and the defunct Fleischer#Studios about libel and apparently we cant trust yall sO YOINK'' and then in 2021 allegedly deleted the article according to wikipedia#(i dont care enough about PBS' article to check if it was deleted) the one thing i will grant these other articles is my#chronic memory loss makes shit fuzzy so MAYBE the editorial apologizing was posted as late as EARLY 2017. okay MAYBE. but i fucking dOUBT IT#BC??? HELLO?? FLEISCHER STUDIOS MESSAGED THEM??¿???¿¿? but idk MAYBE its a 2015 article that went viral in 2017 so Fleischer didnt know#until then?? buT THATS ME BEING FUCKING GENEROUS. I REMEMBER SEEING THE FLEISCHER MESSAGED THEM AND SEEING THE ARTICLE LINKED AND READING#IT AND THE APOLOGY AND I SWEAR TO GOD IT WAS 2015 I REMEMBER BEING IN HIGH SCHOOL but idk maybe i was visiting a teacher at the time i#saw it and my memory loss is making shit fuzzy bUT 2018 ON GOT NO FUCKING EXCUSE AND I REALLY DO THINK ALL THIS SHIT HAPPENED IN 2015 I JUST#AM WELL USED TO MY MEMORY LOSS FUCKING WITH ME. THATS MY ONLY DOUBT. NOT WHAT I ACTUALLY REMEMBER. BUT THE FACT THAT I KNOW IVE#BEEN CONFIDENT BEFORE ONLY BE WRONG AND BETRAYED BY MY CHRONIC MEMORY LOSS. I SWEAR THE EDITORIAL HAPPENED IN 2015#but yeah the wiki makes it sound like they didnt have to apologize for years ans that they did a quick ''sorry!!'' and delete. nah lmao
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