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beardedmrbean · 8 months ago

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Hi, trying to make these one short…but in problem lying 🤡

But this thread

https://x.com/sophianarwitz/status/1772283920249167939?s=46

Also this whole “black people be can’t be in fantasy because of racism!” Is more because a lot of black kids were bullied the living fuck of for liking stuff kind fantasy because it was “white people shit” so they lost passion thus they never desire to go into that stuff to bring more rep

Of course a lot of white kids were bullied too

But the thing is you guys can call out your bullies without being called a coon or race traitor

Actually a lot of women here who were in geek culture often pointed out modern feminists were their childhood bullies

And tbh if this panel accurate…

https://youtu.be/JHgpHfrULHc?si=oJQcSWyPac1bCFZG

And that the thing about black stuff like in gaming or in current fantasy

It made be people who have surface levels of understanding of eras

“The Middle Ages were actually diverse!” The Europeans did established trade routes with the rest of world. Buuuut it was also common to stop or ended trades if Islam wanted to try another jihad again and the internal conflict

But about ac stuff and why I’m defending Yasuke as a second playable character

So when ac Japan was announced I decided to look into what time span they will use. So in ac Japan lore was explored here and there in books and other app. But they keep it light

Now a Chinese assassin Shao Jun acolyte Kotetsu went back home to establish his own assassins branch in Japan.

So the Japanese assassins were established in mid 16 century 1549-50 as that when Templars came to Japan

Now this story was told in a manga when it very like the ac red story being develop so they made sure not step on each other shoes

Then a iirc 2021-22 ac book centered around two Japanese assassins siblings during the Meiji period. It was noted the Templar didn’t gain a presence in Japan again until the American navy thus confirm the Tokugawa era was an assassin control one.

So when the leaks drop that Yasuke will be a second playable character. I figured out through research that the game will focus on the final sengoku civil war.

Now when ac3 did the American civil war in the pov of a Native American. It took a few hours in game and hell years in the story to explain why

Now I hope Yasuke can be handle in similar ways to why he want to help unify Japan in these story

But beyond that, feel like a lot of modern creators REFUSE to acknowledge the modern black American only exists in history during colonial and forward times. Hence my chimera republic idea

There a plenty of African kingdoms to use, but are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Representation matters. Exclusivity is not the same as racism.

She's correct, where it crosses the line into racism is the opening tweet where she's making a big deal out of it. Make your game and then if people bitch about it not containing white men you can point the finger at them.

Same outcome except you don't look like self hating racist, still are one but at least you can play dumb.

Also this whole “black people be can’t be in fantasy because of racism!”.........ect

Ya, that or they were told so many time that it's not something they do that it sapped their will to do it, that crosses over into a lot of things. When I see someone saying that women have to work 10 times as hard as men to get into STEM fields I ask them who told you that, and make sure they give a name instead of "society" because 98% of the time it was another woman that said it, same with the black community except it's white people instead of men.

youtube

Oh just a few seconds in and it looks fun, cackling woman is likely to be the kind of person who will try and claim that the oppression olympics isn't real moments after making a statement like her first one.

And that the thing about black stuff like in gaming or in current fantasy It made be people who have surface levels of understanding of eras “The Middle Ages were actually diverse!” The Europeans did established trade routes with the rest of world. Buuuut it was also common to stop or ended trades if Islam wanted to try another jihad again and the internal conflict

Alexander the Great's empire extended into India, not sure how far down into Africa but at least as far as northern Kush

But about ac stuff and why I’m defending Yasuke as a second playable character So when ac Japan was announced I decided to look into what time span they will use. So in ac Japan lore was explored here and there in books and other app. But they keep it light .........

You have absolutely done your homework on all of this, good to have a focus, nice.

Now when ac3 did the American civil war in the pov of a Native American. It took a few hours in game and hell years in the story to explain why Now I hope Yasuke can be handle in similar ways to why he want to help unify Japan in these story

I think historically at this point he's well enough known, legend or reality is going to be the issue, have fun with the story for sure, hopefully people don't take artistic license for fact (they will) and just enjoy the story, maybe take some time and put in some effort to do the reading like you've done.

But beyond that, feel like a lot of modern creators REFUSE to acknowledge the modern black American only exists in history during colonial and forward times. Hence my chimera republic idea There a plenty of African kingdoms to use, but are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Money. Also could you imagine the outcry if some company got Bantu knots confused with Dreadlocks.

You may have missed all the dreadlock discourse, that was just pathetic and whiny and good lord are there not better things to throw a hissy fit about.

Not really much in the way of records of SubSaharan Africa before the 7th century when some folks came a conquering, they wasn't white or Christian either, and setting up kingdoms and what not. At least for kingdoms that weren't bordering seas or oceans, those got to be older.

are you guys mentally stuck at 15 or something?

Yes, many of them are.

#zoomer huey anon

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percontaion-points · 2 months ago

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TBWSIMBW chapter 10

Today's review might be difficult for some; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Click here for the rest of the series!

Chapter 10

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” I heard Jake roar from nearby. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

[...]

“I had a bad dream, Jake,” I mumbled, looking at the floor, and pretending to be upset.

He gasped and wrapped his arms around me, instantly, putting his chin on the top of my head. “Oh shit, Amber. It’s OK,” he cooed, rocking me slightly.

My problem with this is that… Why the hell is Jake showing this much anger in front of Amber when he knows how traumatised that she’d been by their father?

“Jessica, seriously you need to get off,” Liam said sternly, unwrapping her from him and stepping backwards.

“Liam, baby, how about we skip first period and we go have some fun,” she purred suggestively, rubbing her hand up his chest.

Again, if the roles were reversed, you’d be calling foul. So why is it somehow acceptable for a girl to do this to a guy? (Spoiler: it’s not. Call shitty women out.)

As soon as [Liam] was gone, all the girls started planning and scheming. They wanted to know who the secret girl was, and would stop at nothing to find out, then they each took out twenty dollars and put it into the middle of the table. I looked at them, confused.

“So, the next girl to nail him, wins the pot,” Jessica said, with a smirk. I gasped.

“Seriously? He’s just said he has a girlfriend and isn’t interested, and you’re betting on who’s going to sleep with him next? What if his girlfriend sleeps with him next?”

Once again, if this was a group of men betting on who could bang a girl, every single person would be calling foul. CALL WOMEN OUT ON THEIR INAPPROPRIATE SHIT.

Sarah passed Jessica her money. “I’m in. Who could say no at the chance of all that money and they get to sleep with Liam James,” Sarah said dreamily.

Bitch, don’t you have a boyfriend?

“Hey, Sar. What’s up with you? You haven’t been sniffing those herbs again have you?” I teased. This was a running joke, Sarah had bought some ‘herbs’ from a friend of hers and lit them in her room to cleanse her aura or something. It had ended up being weed and she got high, running down her street half naked whist calling everyone on her cell to come and see the parade. She never lived it down.

I had to read this and so do you.

“Hi, Sarah. Listen, you might not have heard but I have a girlfriend, so….” he trailed off, shrugging.

“That’s OK, I don’t mind sharing,” Sarah purred, putting her hand on his chest to make him stop in front of her.

“No” is a complete sentence.

“Yep, that’s why they’re doing it. They don’t like the idea of you being attached, seeing as you’re such a player, so they want to be the next one to sleep with you.”

My main problem is… Why do so many girls actually want to be with this guy? Is his dick magical or some shit?

Like I don’t care if a guy is that hot. If he has a reputation for sticking his dick into anything, that automatically makes him a billion times less attractive.

“Eighteen hundred bucks that’s awesome, Liam. I wonder how many girls you could bang in one night, if they all thought they were the one to win the bet.”

The feminist side of me is super grossed out over the thought of Liam bouncing from girl to girl as quickly as possible.

The troll side of me is begging Liam to do it, because it would cause so much petty cat-fights in the school. And you know that the drama would be goddamned next level.

“Actually no, the bet is to be the next one to nail you.” I shrugged, giggling.

Time to nail Liam to a cross. /overly pedantic

Actually, just like Liam, though it just took me a long time to see past all of his bravado.

Chapter 10 summary: Despite how Amber always sets an alarm to wake Liam up first, Jake woke up an hour ahead of that. He gets angry at Liam for holding Amber, but then Amber play-acts at being traumatised, so Jake has to comfort her instead. When he leaves the room, she begs Liam that it’ll only be for a few weeks until she feels comfortable in this relationship to tell Jake.

When they get to school, practically every girl there starts to swarm around Liam and Jake. After Liam shakes off Jessica, he reassures Amber that he only has eyes for her. That he’s been waiting 12 years for her, and he can wait a bit longer.

However, none of the other girls take kindly to Liam gently telling them that he has a girlfriend. They find it laughable that Liam would end up with a girl who wants to wait until marriage, and believe that he’s eventually going to slip up. So they start throwing money into a betting pool about who’ll bag him next. Amber throws in $20, even though Jessica tells her that it’s pointless on Amber’s end.

Later, as Liam is driving them home, he complains about how the girls would not leave him alone today. Amber tells them about the betting pool, which had grown to over $1800 over the course of the day, and estimates around 90 girls. When Amber tells them that she put some money in, Jake thinks that she’s joking around, and obviously doesn’t believe her.

After Liam drops Jake off at work, they continue on home. Liam invites Amber into his own home, to tell his parents that they’re finally together; she agrees.

#The Boy Who Sneaks in my Bedroom Window #bookblr #book review #romance novel #new adult

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bushdivingbushranger · 3 years ago

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What was going to an all girls school like, if you don't mind me asking? :)

OK anon im so sorry this is so long and so convuluted I actually got so carried away jdbKJBGKSDBGH. i'm not even sure i properly answered your question i just got overwhelmed with Love for my same-sex schooling DHGKJSDFBHG anyway, if there's anything more you want to know lmk and I will try to be concise next time 💀

Essentially, my own experience at a single-sex secondary school was fantastic—however, I know my experience isn’t universal, especially since my school was a little bit different to most, I think.

That being said, I still think that sending your daughters to female-only secondary schools is something every parent should strive to do if they can. No other learning environment will ever be as good for girls as a same-sex school.

In terms of school staff, mine was about 95% female, and 5% male. The few male teachers we had were genuinely competent men and decent teachers, they were also watched like hawks. Our principal was female, all leadership positions in the school (such as House Leaders, Year Level Co-Ordinators, Department Heads, even the chaplain) were held by women. Our school psychologists, our nurses, our library technicians, our café ladies, our career advisors, our tutors—all were women. Our school houses (think like Harry Potter houses) were named after important women in our country’s history.

I went to a co-ed primary school. And whilst at twelve you might not have the words to describe it, graduating from a co-ed space, into an all-female space is really a giant weight off of your shoulders. You don’t realise how suffocating co-education is until you’re no longer having to bear it. It feels so much more natural, so much more free! You are welcomed as you are. You can be loud and unashamed of it. We joked frequently with each other and our teachers, laughed loudly and cared not whether our laughs were ‘ugly’. I found that teachers were far more supportive than they were in my co-ed school. For example, in a co-ed school I had been told frequently to ‘pipe down’ or to ‘reel it in’ from teachers, and more vexingly to ‘shut up’ from boys due to my boisterous personality. In high school? My teachers encouraged me to audition for the play because I had ‘great projection’. In every school programme (more on those later) that I was involved in, I was the one asked to give speeches about them at assembly. I was asked to be the lead of our house chants during our sports festivals. I was asked to join the debate team because of my passionate nature, which in primary school, had me known as ‘difficult’.

Likewise, I had a friend who was by nature quiet, and loved to draw. In primary school she’d doodled on the back of a work booklet, and when her teacher returned it, she’d taken off two points and had written a comment saying something about teachers in high school not accepting work that was drawn on.

Do you know what happened when she got to high school? Our English teacher had seen the eye she’d drawn on the back of our Romeo and Juliet test and had written, ‘beautiful!’ above it. The next test, she drew a two-headed cat with witches’ hats on both heads (I remember the left head was called Turpentine and the right head was called Esmeralda). Our teacher wrote, ‘wonderful!’ above it, with a smiley face.

The next day she got an email from our art teacher that had a PDF flyer of information on both in-school and local art competitions.

Anyway, she had questions and that teacher answered every single one of them. She also personally helped her select the works she wanted to submit. She ended up having two pieces shown in the school gallery, along forty pieces made by other girls. About five years later for our final year, on that art teacher’s recommendation (and tutelage!) she took all of the visual art subjects on offer. When she graduated, her final piece was shown at a public exhibition in our state’s capital city, that honoured the best pieces done by select graduating students in the state.

So yeah. Our teachers were pretty amazing. Of course, there was the odd teacher or two you would butt heads with but that’s just a universal school experience. Our humanities classes, like history, for example, often had a unit that would focus on the female experience of a certain time period. For example, when learning about WW2, we did projects on female resistance fighters et cetera.

We had health classes that were actually focused on female health. We learnt about female anatomy (even the clitoris! Though we were all about thirteen/fourteen at this time so we found it incredibly awkward to talk about), as well as symptoms of PCOS during our menstrual unit. We learnt about contraceptive methods and devices (however, as a Catholic school they did have to tell us that whilst these methods are available, the church-sanctioned method is of course, abstinence).

Whilst the majority of the girls shaved their legs and wore makeup, as someone who did neither of those things I rarely felt judgement about it (albeit, I think there was a little for my lack of makeup, but this only lasted the first two years). A good portion of our staff also did not wear makeup, I don’t recall this ever being commented on. And, by the time we’d reached about our third year, a good portion of my year level and the ones above did not wear makeup on a daily basis. Leg hair was not looked down upon by any of us I don’t think by this year either. In fact, if you were particularly hairy often your hairless friends asked to rub your legs!

We were never short of female role-models, our staff made sure of that. We had multiple days per year when guest speakers would come and talk to us, mostly these were women who were experts in their fields—whether that be neuroscience or computer science, linguistics and literature or mathematics, politics, et cetera. The only times we really had male guest speakers was when police officers (one male one female) came to give us an assembly about sexual peer-pressure and laws around sharing nudes that was basically, “these are common (male) manipulation tactics used to pressure you into doing something you don’t want to do, don’t fall for them”.

We were encouraged to take STEM subjects, and those of us that had taken interest in computer programming were sent to coding programmes in the city during school hours! That’s how keen our teachers were to get more women into the field! This was the same with the girls interested in politics, who got to go to Model UN events, as well as mock parliaments in the country’s capitol.

We had a lot of programmes generally. A few overseas ones for girls who were in LOTE (languages other than English) classes. A few interstate ones, too. And of course, local programmes and excursions. Most of them (aside from the LOTE ones which focused on immersion) were volunteer programmes aimed at helping women and girls. The rest were about furthering our own skills or learning new ones. Majority of these were year-level based, but a few depended on the clubs/groups/classes you were in. For example, I was part of the Writer’s Club, and we took an excursion to the state Writer’s Festival and listened to female writers as well as feminist panels. We also had self-defence programmes every year.

In terms of peers I generally found everyone to be quite amiable by the time we’d reached our third/fourth year. There’s a common myth about all girls schools being filled with ‘catty’ girls who are constantly bitching about one another, but I really did not find that to ring true. There were a few fights and arguments in the earlier years, I was part of quite a lot lol but that’s honestly… just something that happens at school, at any school. Largely, we were good to each other. If someone was crying there was always someone who’d ask her what was wrong. If you missed the notes on the slide, there was always a girl willing to share her notes with you.

I think going to an all-girl’s school, and not having that much interaction with the opposite sex generally for that six-year period truly does something, I think, to your psyche. We are socialised to look down on our fellow woman, socialised to look down upon ourselves. But actually being constantly surrounded by women, and almost ONLY women, really helps to undo that. Even now I could not describe the fierce love I have for all those women and girls I came in contact with during my time there—even the ones I bickered with. Each and every single woman I met there enriched my life in some way or another. I think that is the effect of consistently spending time in any female-only space: developing a true appreciation for women. It is the only reasonable conclusion to come to.

I have been out of high school for two years, and in university for one. Among the many men I have met since, none of them have even been able to hold a candle to the any women and girls I know.

Anyway. TLDR: it slapped, send your daughters to same-sex schools!!

#this is so long sorry #long post #radfem safe #separatism #radfem

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richardsondavis · 2 years ago

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This post will NOT cover everything that took place in GamerGate. That simply isn't possible here. GamerGate wasn't one drama, it was many small and large events that unfolded and built upon each other over a period of years, and took place in every part of the internet at once. My aim here is to lay out the key figures, and give a general understanding of what happened and why. There are resources linked throughout the post which can expand on events I mentioned, but there are many more that I left out.

Come with me as we explore the dark corridors of the internet that gave birth to the modern alt-right. I'm going to try and keep this gaming related, because this isn't a political discussion board, but references to greater political movements are unavoidable.

Be warned, this post contains basically every ism and phobia that you could possible imagine. Tread with care.

Also, when I refer to 'gamers' with a lowercase G, I just mean normal gamers as a whole. When I say 'Gamers', I mean Gamergate supporters.

Anita Sarkeesian - Sexism in Gaming

This shitstorm began in 2013, though its roots trace back far earlier, and while it would come to suck in thousands of pundits, politicians and thinkers from around the world, it began with one woman: Anita Sarkeesian.

Anita is a Canadian-American media critic. She started her Youtube Channel Feminist Frequency in 2009, analysing portrayals of women in pop culture. In 2011 she worked with feminist magazine Bitch to create a series of videos titled 'Tropes vs Women', which examined the damaging cliches and stereotypes against women in film and tv. It did pretty well, but she was still a small voice in a small circle. The natural next step was to talk about games, and that's what she did in 2012. 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games' criticised the sexualisation of women in games, the way they are treated as helpless damsels in distress, or given to the player as a reward. As Sarkeesian herself points out in her first episode:

"It's both possible and necessary to simultaneously enjoy media, while also being critical of its problematic or pernicious aspects'.

The videos were pretty even handed, and never really took the 'rabid angry feminist' tone that people have come to portray. I recommend taking a look. Anita was clearly not much of a 'gamer' herself, but she saw the positives that could be drawn from them.

In order to fund the project, Anita created a Kickstarter - which was all the rage back then. The kickstarter drew attention from every corner. Some of it was positive - she asked for $6000, but ended up with almost 7000 backers and $160,000 pledged. However a lot of it was bad.

Keep in mind that this all took place at a very critical moment in the feminist movement. Tumblr and Twitter were at their height, and a lot of positive momentum was being made. The video game industry was gradually becoming more inclusive too. Games at the time were - to much controversy - including more POC, women, and LGBT characters. But at the same time, a push began against this. A lot of men were feeling alienated by the rapid change, and this negative stance on feminism tended to look past the majority (who were pretty reasonable) and focus only on the minority of feminists who were explicitly anti-male. And in time, the progressive community would make the same mistake with gamers. But for now, it was these anti-feminists who saw the premise of Sarkeesian's videos as a threat toward 'their territory' - the male oriented video game industry. Anita became the poster child for everything these men hated. There was a coordinated effort on 4chan to destroy her Kickstarter, to DDOS the site, to report her twitter accounts, and otherwise eliminate her. It got pretty nasty. At the time it was a bit of a shocker just how nasty it got, but little did we know it was just the start.

A number of articles started to surface on various sites documenting the bizarre outrage, and that only lent it more momentum. Kotaku, Polygon, and other more left-leaning gaming news sites headed the exposure.

Anita received enormous harassment on social media, including vast numbers of rape and death threats, and she was doxxed multiple times (a practice in which a person's home address is posted online). Her wikipedia articles were vandalised with racial and sexual slurs, and she was sent drawings of herself being raped. A video game was created, 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian', in which players cover a photo of her in blood by clicking on it. Critics who disparaged the 'game' received death threats themselves. The creator of the game, Gregory Alan Elliot, was taken to court. The case had significant implications for online freedom of speech in Canada. She was accused of being Jewish, and received enormous amounts of antisemitism dubbing her Jewkeesian, until it came to light that her heritage was actually Armenian - and the harassment switched to an Armenian theme without skipping a beat.

Anita capitalised on her infamy, and used it to speak out on sexual harassment at TEDxWomen, as well as several universities. She was scheduled to speak at the 2014 Game Developer's Choice Awards, and would receive an accolade herself, but an anonymous bomb threat was called in to try and get the event cancelled. It really is hard to overstate the sheer level of vitriol this woman had thrown at her. But she would not be the only one.

"I don't get to publicly express sadness or rage or exhaustion or anxiety or depression, I can't say that sometimes the harassment really gets to me, or conversely that the harassment has become so normal that sometimes I don't feel anything at all. I don't get to express feelings of fear or how tiring it is to be constantly vigilant of my physical or digital surroundings. How I don't go to certain events because I don't feel safe. Or how I sit in the more secluded areas of coffee shops and restaurants so the least amount of people can recognise me."

Zoe Quinn - Ethics in Journalism

Zoe Quinn is an American video game developer and writer. In 2013, she released the game 'Depression Quest', a text-based game in which the player roleplays as themselves and is taken through a number of scenarios relating to depression. The game was based on her own experiences, and was received positively by critics. It's a raw and heartfelt project, and I really recommend it. However, there was a contingent who insisted that Depression Quest couldn't really be called a game, and it's true that it blurred the lines between a book, a visual novel, and a game.

This began a broad - and still ongoing - conversation within the gaming community. What is a game? People tried to come up with a clear cut definition, but there was always something that fell outside it. Does it need a failure state? That rules out Animal Crossing, which is definitely a game. Does it need an end point? That rules out Tetris. Does it need violence? Does it need characters? Does it need interactivity? Does it need choice? Does it need goals? Does it need visuals or sound? It's easy to look at most games and say 'yes, that's a game'. It's easy to look at a book or film and say it isn't. But when projects approach the line, things get a bit confusing. There are those who looked at Depression Quest and saw a book with extra steps, and there are those who insisted it was a game, but with all the extraneous stuff taken away. This is a massive philosophical debate, but we're here for drama, so let's move on. All you need to know is - it got great reviews, and some players were unhappy.

Zoe was added to the list of persona non grata. She received her own wave of death and rape threats, but rather than backing away, she documented them and spoke out about them to the media. This earned her even more hatred, which steadily grew more and more intense, to the point where she fled her home out of fear for her own safety.

But it wasn't until August 2014 that 'GamerGate' as we know it would officially begin. And it started at the hands of a relative unknown name, even now. Zoe's former boyfriend Eron Gjoni published a long and sprawling blog post about their relationship in which he levelled a number of accusations against her, the most inflammatory of which was that she had been given positive coverage (of Depression Quest, among other things) by a Kotaku journalist with whom she was sexually involved. This was a false accusation. It later came out that this journalist, Nathan Grayson, had barely ever mentioned Quinn or her work, and when he did, they hadn't been together. But never let the truth get in the way of a good story. The letter included copies of chat logs, text messages, and emails, and for all the world appeared to be legit.

The Gamers in question accused Zoe of exchanging sexual favours for positive press and professional advancement in what they called the 'Quinnspiracy'. Of course, Zoe Quinn stood to gain nothing from the praise Depression Quest received. Contrary to the claims that she was using her status as a woman to gain money... the game was free. And always had been. But this spawned one 'debate' which would go on to define GamerGate - that of ethics in game journalism. Video game press came under enormous scrutiny, especially the left-leaning Kotaku. The idea was that if a pundit/reviewer/critic was left leaning, their views could not be relied upon, because according to GamerGate, they were biased. Large lists were created to map out the various 'SJW Journalists', which boiled down to a blacklist of public figures who spoke out against GamerGate.

But for Zoe, it just meant abuse.

A lot of this began on 4chan - because of course it did - and users leapt at the chance to renew their attacks on Zoe Quinn and Depression Quest. Adam Baldwin (yes that one) coined the term GamerGate on Twitter, and his followers sent it trending. GamerGate gradually developed into a movement which would viciously attack anyone it saw as a target, and had its base in 4chan and Reddit.

Within four months of the blog post, Quinn's record of threats had exceeded a thousand. Around that time she is quoted as saying:

"I used to go to game events and feel like I was going home [...] Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?".

I would go into detail on the exact content of these threats but frankly, I don't want to. All you need to know is that they contain the worst possible things that some very creative people could come up with. Quinn's Tumblr, Dropbox and Skype accounts were hacked, and she once again fled to live with friends. Everyone even tangentially connected to her got showered with hatred. It was a full on witch hunt.

In a BBC interview, Zoe summed up her experience.

"To me, GamerGate will always be glorified revenge porn by my angry ex. Before it had a name, it was nothing but trying to get me to kill myself, trying to hurt me, going after my family. GamerGate will always be that to me. There was no mention of ethics in journalism at all, besides making the same accusation everybody makes toward any successful women, that clearly she got to where she is because she had sex with someone".

EDIT: There was a section here in which I covered the Alec Holowka scandal in 2019, but commenters pointed out that it isn't really relevant to GamerGate, and I agree with them, so I removed it.

Brianna Wu - Taking Action

Wu is an American video game developer and the founder of Giant Spacekat, a small game studio. In October 2014, she began monitoring 8chan (think 4chan's even worse cousin), and began tweeting about GamerGate, ridiculing them for:

"...fighting an apocalyptic future where women are 8 percent of programmers and not 3 percent".

In the process, she placed herself in the sights of the mob. Anonymous details about her, including her address, were leaked on 8chan, and of course she got the standard death and rape threats, and had to flee her home. If this seems like it's becoming a pattern, that's because it is. The pattern would repeat itself over and over going forward. A minor figure speaks out about something, right wingers try to shut them up with abuse, they use that abuse to increase their platform (thereby becoming a minor left wing celebrity), they become an even bigger target, and they soon end up plastered across the internet.

But to the fury of many Gamers everywhere, none of these women were backing down. In February 2015, Wu declared:

"By attacking me so viciously, they're helping give me the visibility to usher in the very game industry they're terrified about".

Wu created a legal defence fund for women targeted by GamerGate, offered cash for information leading to the prosecution of its worst members, and became heavily involved with the FBI. She exclusively attended events with a security detail. As of today, she and her husband continue to live under aliases.

In 2017, the FBI closed their investigation and declined to prosecute any of the men who sent threats (even though two had confessed). Wu went to the media, campaigning for dedicated FBI agents who understand and monitor the dark corners of the internet like 8chan.

While Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn would become the three horsewomen of the GamerGate apocalypse, they were not alone. Other women who became major targets include Jenni Goodchild, Liana Kerzner, Devi Ever, Leigh Alexander, Felicia Day, and more. It simply isn't possible to cover every single victim of this movement.

At the time, most people who played video games had no idea this was even going on. And often it was getting swept up in generalisations that turned regular gamers into Gamers. There were those who felt like they were being unfairly portrayed as sexist/racist/whatever else, and responded indignantly. This became heavily involved with the #notallmen and #yesallmen movements (and then #notallgamers). But sometimes those generalisations were right. There was a lot of anger going around in general.

Vivian James - Politics in Gaming

Of course, to the 4channer, the ideal woman doesn't exist. She has to be created. And so Vivian was born. Vivian James (chosen because it sounds like Video Games) was created as a mascot for GamerGaters on 4chan, and her portrayal tells us a lot about what Gamers wanted women to be. She was an anthropomorphized avatar of the /v/ (Vidya) community on 4chan, created in response to a totally separate Zoe Quinn controversy surrounding game jams (events in which developers race to make weird and wacky games). She was used in propaganda as a champion of ‘free speech’.

You see, one of the many debates (and we must use this term loosely) that GamerGate created was that of 'politics' in gaming. Representation was increasing of LGBT people, POC and women in games, and some players insisted that these inclusions were politically motivated. They claimed that games as a medium were not meant to be 'political', and forcing 'politics' into the games was a negative thing. They wanted a return to the 'non-political' status quo - and it just so happened that the status quo was white straight American men (usually with guns). Because they themselves were mostly white straight American men, it never struck them as political for a game to feature a white straight American man, it was simply normal. The default. And any deviation from this was labelled as 'political'.

Of course, any intelligent person can see through this to its deeper meaning - these players didn't want gays, women, and non white characters in their games because they were prejudiced. All media is political in some way. Even games which try not to be political.

This is what GamerGate boils down to - a war over the status quo. One side pushing for change, the other pushing to stop that change.

Vivian never mentioned her gender, her ideas or her politics when she played a game - you could play against her and mistake her for a guy. Rather than disrupt the status quo by existing, she allowed it to absorb her. And that's what Gamers wanted from all minorities - they were welcome as long as they didn't disrupt games as a haven where everything is catered to the default player, a white straight American man. Vivian was a 'real gamer' because she embraced the default. Anyone who rejected that default was a fake gamer, whose love of games was a lie, and whose real purpose was sabotage.

This links in pretty heavily to the #NotYourShield movement, basically a platform for women, POC and LGBT Gamers who supported GamerGate and saw its opponents as exploiting them as a shield to deflect criticism. Ironically, GamerGate used these people as evidence that they were not prejudiced at all, in a very 'I'm not racist, my best friend is black' kind of way.

Penning the Playbook

GamerGate had found an effective way of tearing down its targets, and its playbook would come to include strategies like gaslighting, dogpiling, sea lioning, gish galloping, and dogwhistling - and would inform the strategies of the alt right. By creating a state of fear, where people are too scared to even speak against GamerGate, they were able to silence opposition. And unlike its opposition, who were very real and public figures, GamerGate was decentralised and anonymous, akin to a swarm with no individual leader or face, and which therefore was incredibly hard to defeat. This was never a two way street. Of course, GamerGate had its open and public supporters. Let's go through a few of these colourful characters now!

Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)

Sargon is your standard basement dweller youtuber, the kind of guy who DESTROYS libs with FACTS and REASON. He gained a lot of traction from GamerGate, and he explains why here. You can kind of imagine him as a more extreme Ben Shapiro.

Richard Spencer

Another Nazi. Richard Spencer was a big supporter of GamerGate. You can look into himself if you like but frankly I don't want to do the research into him because that means I have to watch and read shit he has said. His main claim to fame is being the man who coined the term 'Alt Right'

John Bain (Totalbiscuit)

Totalbiscuit was a popular game critic who died of bowel cancer in 2018. He is widely credited with being the man who legitimised GamerGate. It should be pointed out that Bain was never a white supremacist or abuser or anything like that - and he is often wrongly characterised as being more extreme than he really is. He was conservative, aggressive and thin skinned, but he wasn't evil. To him, GamerGate was always about ethics in journalism, what defines a game, and politics in gaming. He had been an ethical crusader long before GamerGate, and so none of this is truly surprising. He was either incredibly naive or just wilfully ignored the fact that these online movements were just fronts. It is somewhat ironic how much he had in common with James Stephanie Sterling (once known as Jim Sterling before transitioning), another British pro-consumer activist and long-time collaborator, who was always on the total opposite end of the GamerGate spectrum. Indeed, most of John's closest associates were anti-GamerGate.

I met TB once at a convention and he seemed nice enough.

Milo Yiannopoulos

During his time working at Breitbart, Milo was an outspoken supporter of GamerGate. His big thing was that he was a gay right-winger, and he used his homosexuality to deflect criticism for his views. He has since been banned from basically every site possible. Like many others, he seemed somewhat right leaning at first, but gradually unveiled himself as a full on nazi.

Steven Jay Williams (Boogue2988)

Boogie is a youtuber who came to fame through the persona of 'Francis', in which he would put on a funny voice and rage about minor things. But gradually he became more popular just for being himself, and his own views. When GamerGate first emerged, Boogie tried to stay moderate, but his views got more and more extreme as time went on. In 2017, Boogie had a gastric bypass surgery, which made him lose weight. But after that, he revealed himself to be quite a nasty person.

Christina Hoff Sommers

Sommers is an author and philosopher of ethics, and a resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. She is probably the most 'legit' of GamerGate's supporters, and has carved out a niche in making right wing talking points palatable to the average person, before they move on to the more extreme online figures.

EDIT: Steve Bannon

As a commenter pointed out to me, I've left out someone important. While Steve Bannon himself was not very strongly linked to GamerGate, he was the founder of the heavily right wing site Breitbart, which gave a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos and many others. Bannon would go on to play a pivotal role in the Trump presidency.

Sexism in Gaming Studios

While this is far removed from GamerGate, it's a case of 'the birds coming home to roost'. The movements that GamerGate helped to start have returned and taken many large game developers by storm in recent years. I thought I would go over some of them.

Part 1: The Fellowship of the Rats

The first big publisher to go under the magnifying glass was Ubisoft. In mid 2020 they came under fire for sexual harassment allegations.

Last month the company, one of the world’s largest video game publishers with a portfolio including Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, launched a probe after allegations of sexual misconduct were shared online. Serge Hascoet, chief creative officer and the company’s second-in-command, has resigned, as has the human resources director, Cecile Cornet, and the managing director of the Canadian branch, Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft said on Sunday.

MANY of Ubisoft's executives were forced to stand down.

This video goes into a lot of detail on exactly how much of this abuse was covered up at Ubisoft.

Unfortunately a year later, Ubisoft had made minimal changes. Luckily for them, the spotlight would soon be stolen away.

Part 2: The Two Lawsuits

This particular controversy concerns Activision Blizzard. After a two year investigation, the company was found to have extreme harassment against women and minorities, and has discrimination baked into its terms and conditions of employment. Everything from compensation, assignment, promotion and termination is affected by gender. The entire company is governed by a 'Frat Boy Culture'. California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against them..

At first, Blizzard's president Allen Brack claimed no knowledge of this. But then numerous former and current Blizzard employees spoke up to support the accusations. They insisted that almost nothing was being done within the company to fix it. On 26 June, more than 800 employees (eventually as many as 2000) signed an open letter too their leadership demanding that Blizzard recognise the seriousness and show compassion for victims. When that didn't work, employees held a meeting and on 28 July, organised the Activision Blizzard Walk Out For Equality. Turnout exceeded two hundred.

Renowned scumbag Bobby Kotick released a statement describing Blizzard's earlier statement as 'tone deaf' and promised 'swift action'.

An article by Kotaku went into more detail on the infamous 'Cosby Suite', and revealed that Ghostcrawler (one a high-up on World of Warcraft) was on the list of guests.

Numerous developers left the company, either in protest or due to allegations against them. More and more horrible stories began to emerge, far worse than the original lawsuit had uncovered. Sponsors pulled out, investors filed a class action lawsuit toward the company, and Brack stepped down.

You can read more about it here

Hilariously, Blizzard also completely neutered any remotely sexual or flirtatious lines, emotes and jokes out of WoW.

Part 3: The Return of the Gamers

Since then, numerous other companies have been accused of similar problems. Paradox Interactive, SCUF, Insomniac Games, Bethesda. In fact, it might be easier to list the gaming companies that haven't had any allegations.

It turns out that the people who worked in these companies were often just as nasty as the fans.

Luckily, the reaction has been a far cry from GamerGate. On that, at least, we seem to have made some progress. And I suppose that's something to be optimistic about.

A Troubled Legacy

So what is the legacy of GamerGate? It never really 'concluded' or 'finished'. But if we zoom out on our scope a little, we see that it was just a tributary which flowed into the greater river of the alt-right. And from that river would spill forth Donald Trump, Pizzagate, Qanon, the Manosphere, and Incels. GamerGate was arguably just a microcosm of a much greater societal movement, not its cause, but it was the moment that young online conservatives began to push back against progressivism, and collectively organise. It was the moment where their techniques for censorship, propaganda and recruitment would be rewritten for the internet era. And it was the moment when thousands of online fascists looked around and realised their views weren't that rare after all.

The positive effects have been there too, however. The push back against Gamergate has definitely helped us recognise the dark corners of the internet, and also led to widespread changes in the industry. But the consequences of GamerGate have not yet fully shown themselves.

It's hard to say where it will all lead.

#gamergate #anita #sarkeesian #brianna #wu #reddit #from rumbleskim of rddit in r/hobbydrama #I meant reddit

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innovativestruggles · 3 years ago

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Anonymous Noise - a (kinda) brief rant

Warning: Spoilers!

Look, i’m not one for sledging characters but the fandom’s reaction really got me to the point that I just need to say something.

And I don’t know if anyone is going to read this or have any remote interest in the anime/manga but if you are curious to see things from a feminist point of view, just read on.

I binged watched this anime and then finished the rest of the story by reading the manga because surprise surprise, the anime never goes into the full ending of 80% of the show it makes.

I have to say, I absolutely loved it! It was so powerful and touching and sweet at the same time. But there were so many frustrating moments, and this pertained mainly to the relationship aspect of the story.

Basic premise of the love triangle goes like this. Nino (our female MC) is in love with Momo (childhood best friend) who is also in love with her but for various reasons I won’t go into, feels as if he cannot reciprocate. Then we add a secondary male MC, Kanade, who is also a childhood friend of Nino for a brief period of time and who is madly in love with her. Fast forward years later to high school, a lot changed, they all drifted apart and then meet again. Kanade creates a band in honour of Nino, claims that her voice belongs to him and on various occasions tries and confesses to Nino.

Kanade has various issues of his own and because of his immense love for Nino, he goes above and beyond for her. Creates a band for her, creates music for her and basically does A LOT for her, all the while knowing that she is madly in love with her childhood friend, Momo. AND also knowing that Momo feels the same way about Nino. Yet on so many occasions, he has taken advantage of Nino’s emotions, he kisses her without consent then claims it was nothing, makes her feel guilty about his feelings for her, confesses twice and gets rejected twice yet still tries and pursues her etc etc Their relationship is incredibly complicated but Nino makes it very clear to the audience that she does not love Kanade romantically and will never see him that way.

Momo, conversely has a bunch of problems that adds to the drama but he is quite distant from the whole Nino-Kanade love thing. Bottom line, the two boys have their own traumas they need to resolve and that ultimately affects how they see their relationship with Nino.

Okay, so I’ll summarise my point. I don’t like Kanade. I don’t like how he disrespects Nino’s feelings and allows his immense love for her to take over. He invades her space, does not heed her boundaries despite on numerous occasions telling him how much she is in love with Momo. I get it, it’s hard to hear the person you love talk about how much they are in love with someone else, but that does not give you the rights to disrespect their feelings, to make them feel guilty about loving someone else, to kiss them without consent then pretend that it’s nothing, to tell them on several occasions that they should break up with their boyfriend, to take advantage of their vulnerable emotional state, the list goes on. And I get it, they are teenagers, they probably do stupid shit like this because their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed - whatever. I’ll give some leeway there. But really, what really pushed me over the edge was the fandom’s reaction.

“Look at all the things Kanade did for Nino and she still chose Momo” “Nino does not deserve Kanade” “Kanade poured his love and soul into Nino and the bitch still went for Momo” Right you get the drift. Well let me tell you something. Women are not fucking obliged to reciprocate a man’s romantic feelings/advances no matter how amazing he is to her. Whether he sacrifices his life or not, whether his whole entire life revolved around her. Seriously. This misogynistic behaviour is rife. Women’s mind, bodies and soul do not belong to anyone. Men are not fucking entitled to a woman just because he has been the most incredible person in the world to her. Get that fucking mindset out of your head. Nino has every rights to choose whoever she wants to be with. This is the same fucking concept I see with the whole Obito x Rin kind of thing. I wrote a post about it here. Read if you’re interested.

Right that’s enough ranting from me.

#why tf is always women/girls who cop the crap when she does not return a great guy's romantic feelings #but if it's the other way around the girl is labelled as clingy and obsessive #iif you wanna know what team i'm on with this anime #i'm team nino #so whoever nino picks i'm going for that #she picked momo so i'm team momo #you go girl #arisugawa nino #sakaki momo #yuzuhira kanade #anonymous noise #fukumenkei noise #anime feminism

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ifthejemfitz · 3 years ago

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Reasons why you should stan North:

First point she’s hot asf. Those doey brown eyes, all that red hair down to her bum. That first mission when they go to the warehouse in the pouring rain - No thoughts, head empty. Just tiddies

She’s infinitely selfless. Countless times we see she’s willing to give her life for Markus and the cause. Being willing to give your life, something you’ve fought for, for a cause bigger than yourself and for others knowing that you won’t be around to enjoy the very rights you’re fighting for, but it means that others will is imo completely admirable

She’s actually a strong and caring leader. Someone who’s willing to pick up the mantel and continue the cause whilst others may prefer to hide away. Yes, she leads a revolution and yes, she can never be victorious in her crusade. But she refuses to back down, and refuses to let her people be the target of an out and out genocide

She’s compassionate. She certainly makes brash recommendations but imo they always come from a place of protection and self-defence. We see with Connor that she never once holds his past against him, besides in jest, even if he’s potentially hunted down other deviants at that point. In fact she withholds judgement on any deviants’ past, because I’m sure that she’d hate for own to held against her

Controversial point (though it shouldn’t be) but her anger is justified. She’s been systematically abused in one of the most violent and horrendous ways for a prolonged period of time with no access to therapy. I’m not trying to justify her approach but I really don’t see any other way a person who has only witnessed violence, only been able to escape using violence and then seeing other deviants in hiding also been victims of violence how she wouldn’t respond using that exact same force. She’s a fighter plain and simple, and victims have no obligation to be tolerable of their oppressors or be the “perfect victim” and respond to their personal trauma in ways that are palatable to others

That being said I’m so glad that certain scenes show that she can be vulnerable. Sometimes bad bitches are also soft bitches and regardless of how you feel on shipping I’m glad that we see a side of her that can emotionally open up to others, talk about her trauma openly, openly sob on multiple occasions and clearly demonstrate the ability to love/receive love/be emotionally intimate (side point which could be its own post but I am so grateful we don’t ever see flashbacks to said abuse. Far too many pieces of media have opted for “realism” by showing unnecessary sexual violence and personally I don’t need to see it graphically displayed in order to believe her. Also props for not making it an “empowering feminist moment!!!” either. Abuse is not something women need to undergo to make them “stronger” and it’s abundantly obvious she’s furious about it and struggling with what is essentially ptsd)

She has a super unique role in the story. When Kara is killed and Connor permanently decommissioned that’s it for their stories. However, even if Markus is still alive but is removed as leader the narrative chooses to follow her. Yes, it’s more to do with the revolution by that point but it’s still surprising that she essentially fills in his role in his absence, even persuading Connor to deviate. And the fact they only made slight changes to the dialogue (conscious changes rather than completely rewriting or having them say the exact same lines) that her and Markus share in those scenes only proves how similar they are in that role. I’m just bummed she can’t be victorious (even with Connor on their side) because the success of a revolution should not be built entirely on the role of one person but alas.

Lastly she’s a bad bish, she takes no shit, she serves cunt, she kills her own r*pist and riot police, she’s bi because she can never sit properly and I say so, she leads a whole revolution with painted nails, her 5ft 3 ass literally hauls Markus out of danger multiple times and personally I’d let her break my face

#dbh north #north dbh #dbh meta #Yes I know I’m like three years late #In fairness I only got into this fandom properly like two months ago #Is this still the equivalent of taking a swinging bat to a hornets’ nest?#I feel I needed to get this out in the world bc I’m sick of *checks notes* internalised misogyny #and *further checks notes* ridiculous shipping drama #Like if you dislike North for reasons such as her personality or values fair enough #She’s not infallible and definitely has unlikeable traits #But that makes for a more well-rounded character #This is for those that sensationalised it to the point of making her a genocidal maniac #Usually not understanding the full implications of that word either #Like we have a real issue with accepting anger and aggression from female characters #Yet completely accept it and even woobify it from male characters #And ultimately that says more about fandom spaces than this character

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criticallyacclaimedstranger · 3 years ago

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Fic: Frankie's Sweaty Balls

Fandom: Triple Frontier

Ship: Frankie Morales x Jay ‘Lady’ Ray (there's a series, go check it out in my masterlist, I may have to create a series masterlist soon!)

Warnings: Language, talk of face fucking, talk of breast cancer (no one actually has breast cancer, there's no cancer scare!).

Summary: Morning in the Morayles household isn't always fun and games.

a/n: The last week has been tough and I'm not really out of the woods yet. Writing is.. I can't even talk about that right now. But this came to me today and I had to jot it down. It's not a masterpiece and bitch there are probably fifteen spelling mistakes, but it made me smile. And I needed that.

The coffee is black and aromatic but it’s not doing much good to Jay’s foul morning temper. She glances out the window and notices that the forecast last night was accurate; dark clouds are covering the entire sky, ready to release rain. No gardening tonight, then. Fuck.

She sips the coffee and listlessly sticks the tablespoon into the yogurt in front of her. The bowl in front of her is filled with Greek yogurt, nuts, and seeds; her preferred breakfast, but this morning she’s not feeling it.

Frankie sits on the other side of the table, downing his coffee, gnawing on toast, and reading the morning paper. He also keeps an eye on little Alma, happily drooling oatmeal all over herself and the highchair Frankie’s carpenter dad made for her.

“Sweetie, could you try getting some of that breakfast into your mouth as well?” Jay sighs and directs Alma’s hand with the tiny spoon into the laughing mouth of the one-year-old. Alma spits it out and laughs even more and Jay, in no mood for parenting, turns to Frankie for help. He looks up from the paper and tuts at his messy daughter.

“Need some help to find your mouth, chiquita?” he smiles, trying hard not to just laugh as he gets some tissue and wipes Alma’s mouth before helping her to a spoonful of oatmeal. Alma obediently swallows it without drooling.

Jay presses a smile for her daughter and tells her what a good girl she is, then goes back to being moody. Frankie helps Alma finish breakfast, wipes her clean and gives her a toy to chew on while he finishes his own breakfast. He turns a page and reads, absent-mindedly stroking his bearded jawline.

“They got this breast cancer special here, baby,” he tells Jay. “246,660 new cases of breast cancer are expected every year, and about one in eight American women will develop breast cancer at some point of her life.”

“Charming, thanks for those numbers,” Jay mutters, not really wanting to hear breast cancer statistics. Her own breasts are tender as hell and she’s due for her period, which is the reason for her irritability this morning. It was much easier when she was in the army and didn’t have a period at all. After Alma, however, she’s like clockwork again for the first time in fifteen years, and she’s decidedly not enjoying it.

“Says here that the number of new cases has gone down a little these last few years,” Frankie reads on, “because of extensive campaigning about regular breast exams. Women are better at checking their tits, basically.”

“No wonder, given the yearly scare campaigns,” Jay points out and shoves a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth. It doesn’t taste well this morning.

“You know, I’m up for breast exams any day…” Frankie winks across the table, oblivious of her grumbling. Jay puts down the spoon and glares back at him.

“You know, that’s so typical!” she says acidly. “They not only scare and worry women with it so they spend half their lives being afraid of a disease they may not even get, but they also make it into a fun, sexy thing! Like, oh I don’t know, ask your partner to help you out, you’ll both enjoy that! Have your husband squeeze your tits for you. Either you have cancer, or you don’t, but at least he gets to feel you up! Not to mention how easily men can seem like the good guy, all they need to do it talk about breast cancer and tit exams! They’ve made breast cancer sexy, for fuck’s sake! And that’s not even mentioning pinkwashing!”

Frankie sighs deeply and gives Alma her sippy cup with milk.

“Jesus, Jay. No need to go all feminist on me. I was just trying to help. And don’t swear in front of the kid.”

“Yeah, well, why aren’t there any huge campaigns for testicular cancer, huh?” Jay goes on, now slipping into a rant. “I’ll tell you why: Because there’s no sex appeal in it! Who the hell wants to feel a couple of old wrinkly balls up, huh? You can always make money out of tits but it’s a lot harder with balls.”

“You’re welcome to examine my balls whenever you want and you know it,” Frankie replies with a good-natured grin. He seems determined not to get provoked this morning and it drives Jay insane.

“Besides,” he adds teasingly, “you know my balls aren’t old and wrinkly. I seem to remember you stuffing your mouth with them the other night.”

“Ugh, do we have to talk about your sweaty old balls at the fucking breakfast table?” Jay groans. “Have some fucking decorum! In front of Alma and all!”

“Look who’s talking. Besides, you brought it up.”

“Fu-fu?” Alma says, her voice wondering. “Fu-fu-fu.”

“Oh, there you go,” Frankie sighs, brows drawn together as he looks critically at the girl. “If my daughter’s first word is the f-word, I swear to God –“

“Ba-ba-ba-ba!” Alma smiles sunnily at her dad, who doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

“It would be even worse if it was balls,” Jay snorts and pushes away her cup of coffee and the remains of her yogurt before getting up.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Frankie calls after her as she leaves the kitchen. Jay stops in the doorway and turns back at him, grimacing.

“Lost my appetite when I started thinking about your gross, sweaty balls,” she tells him sourly, but only gets a chuckle in return. Frankie quickly covers Alma’s ears with his hands before retorting.

“You’ll end this day with those balls slapping against your chin when I fuck your filthy mouth, and you’ll love it,” he tells her with a nasty grin before removing his hands from the sides of Alma’s head and ruffling her dark locks.

“Baba fufu!” Alma exclaims and laughs.

“Jesus Christ.” Jay shakes her head and leaves the kitchen to get dressed.

#my fic #triple frontier #catfish triple frontier #francisco catfish morales #francisco frankie morales #frankie morales #frankie morales x lady #frankie morales x ofc

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heknewwhoyoureallyare · 4 years ago

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Coach: Jason! You’re late! You’re the best quarterback that I have on this team, and recently you’re always late for practice. What’s gotten into you? You’re always so dedicated to the game? Does the religion teacher give you a hard time again because of your behavior outside the school?

Jason: I’m sorry, coach, for my constant lateness! I’ve just been busy with all the SEX that I did with some of the new hottest freshman pussies in our school last night! I have to teach all of these new hot young tight cunts how to take big fucking cock, condom-free, if they want to make it in our school socially! You know, as a kind gesture, because I’m one of the new Senior welcoming committee for the new students!

Coach: WTF? Who told you to become one of The new Senior welcoming committee for the new students?

Jason: The Principal sir! He thinks that by assigning one of the Popular kids from the Senior class to welcome the new freshmens, he can lower the bullying rate that has been targeted to the new students in this school, especially for the girls!

Coach: Oh really? Does he now? So I’m guessing you have been socializing outside the school then? Making new ‘friends’?

Jason: More than socializing sir! I’m their new ‘Fuck’ Mentor! I told them that how to become cool, in this school is by sucking my cock and take it in, in their pussy raw, bare, deep and condomless, right after the school is over! Don’t worry Sir, I’m not totally irresponsible! I also taught them how to take; birth control pills. You know, in any case, if I can’t be bothered to pull out! I can’t always contain my Manly urges. If I have to shoot, I have to shoot. I’m also a benevolent Senior welcoming committee Sir, I told them that I’m available at any hour, at any time, outside the school period! So they can scheduled an appointment with me freely!

Coach: Oh how kind of you, What if they refused to do it? What are you going to tell them then?

Jason: I told them, that they should transfer to another school then! I also told them, that the Junior Class this year are known for their vicious bullying to the new students, so unless they do it, there is nothing that can protect them from their teasing and constant harrassment! Only my big fat cock will! Besides I can’t always protect them. I’ve got Football practice to do, and Parties to go to!

Coach: Oh Wow? Really?!

Jason: Yeah Sir! Really! Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think you know how Popular I am in this school! One taste of my Big Fat Alpha cock and if the word gets out, all the girls that I have fuck, will automatically become socially accepted and popular in this school! No one is allowed to even dare mess with my junior fuck toys! Not even their class Queen Bee. She’s been wanting my cock for a long time to, but I haven’t give it to her because she’s such a bitch!!!

Coach: Aaaahhh I see! I guess I owe you an apology then, you kind young Man, but may I ask you this question? How did you help the new male students then? Without giving them your magnificent cock?

Jason: Male student? Helping them? I didn’t Sir! I just punch them in their face!

Coach: Fuck I’m so proud of you! If this is real, I just hope that you wouldn’t get any rape charges after this!

Jason: Rape charges?! Sir! One look of my abs, guns, reputation, and Big Alpha Cock, the new students are begging for me use their body, over, and over, and over again! Some of them even want to book a consultation with me, more than once sir! I have to turn them down, because, I have to remind these newbies, that I have the power in this school! Not them!!!

Coach: Holy Fucking Shit Jason!!! You really know your way in this school are you? Tell me this, what are you going to do if any of them would’ve spread terrible rumors about you, especially about your performance in bed! Would that hurt your popularity chart in any ways?

Jason: Don’t worry Sir, They won’t! Every female freshman, that I have sex with, been wanting me to perform my bedroom skills; over and over again! This mean I did an excellent job! These words will give our team a reputation to a new height! Not just in the Game but also in the Bed department. We can’t have a Quarterback in our school that are bad at performing their essential Manly duty can’t we!

Coach: Jason you are the most legendary Quarterback that I ever had, and I can’t be more proud of you son! I wished you were my actual son. Unlike that faggy, drama, feminist bitch that that can’t even decide what gender he is now.

Jason: I spit on his face every single day Sir. I heard he’s friends with the Junior Queen Bee now! He’s very proud of it apparently. Couldn’t shut up about it. He think it will boost his popularity!

Coach: Does he now? Pathetic piece of shit!

Jason The School Legend! He always use his tongue, when he kiss you in the mouth!

What Jason and his friend usually do at parties. Making cunts wet!!!

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insomniac-arrest · 4 years ago

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hey! I finished Gideon the Ninth and wanted to ask if you could rec other wlw fantasy books? Also maybe a series that’s not wlw. (I trust your judgement more than the leagues of people on Good Reads)

While I have read a number of fantasy wlw books I’ll admit that I haven’t enjoyed most of them! Crier’s War, The Abyss Surrounds Us, and A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (tho this is sci-fi) were all pretty disappointing for me.

There are a few I can recommend tho!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: this is a high fantasy adult novel about the rise of an ancient evil, defeated and imprisoned once a thousand years previously and then threatening to reemerge. There’s magic and dragons and a bunch of different POVs.

I will say, the story itself feels a little all over the place and too damn long, but I did really enjoy the lesbian romance in it! It was fun and interesting with a classic little set-up. I will say, the evil witch was also very sexy and a part of me was like . . . yeah, go with this bitch, she’s hot.

Overall, I do think it’s worth the read! Especially if you’re looking for a feminist epic fantasy story with a queer love story.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power: this is a YA novel about a quarantined girl’s boarding school where the girls are going through like creepy body transformations. My favorite thing about this book was definitely the atmosphere. It was very spooky and interesting and I enjoyed the mood of the piece along with some of the twists and turns.

Contrast to the other book, I found the romance in this one interesting, but way too rushed. Like, the dynamics were at least fresh and I was invested, but the payoff happened far too quickly. Still a good read tho!

I would be remiss if I didn’t do a plug for my own book of course!

We Deserve a Soft Landing Love: Sapphic Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories by Jacquelynn Lyon: a short story collection by yours truly! It covers stories about mermaids in zoos, astronauts on doomed space missions, cursed princesses, floating islands, bog witches, and more! Check it out here.

Others: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is a stand alone fantasy book based off of Jewish Eastern European folklore. It’s about a moneylender who gets whisked away by fae-like creatures after she boasts that she can turn silver into gold. I love this book a lot, it doesn’t have any wlw romances, but the female friendships within it are fantastic!

The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin is my favorite fantasy series of all time! Absolutely captivating, enthralling, and intense. It’s a story that focuses on people who can move the earth (like earth bending but much more complex) and a time period that the people of this world call “the fifth season” which is basically a major die-off event.

I adore the way she writes and I was literally never bored when reading this. I will warn you that it is quiet dark, like Game of Thrones dark, but smart and purposeful in the way it does it. Also, there are a number of queer characters in the series!

Anyway! Those are some of my recs :D

I’ve actually run out of any major fantasy books I’m interested in reading at the moment, I keep thinking about reading Mistborn for the world building but people also keep telling me that the author is kinda sexist. I dunno, we’ll see!

#reading recs #wlw fantasy #books #I also enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow but not as much as some of these others #Anonymous

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jeannereames · 3 years ago

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Hi, Dr. Reames! I just read your take on Song of Achilles and it got me thinking. Do you think there might be a general issue with the way women are written in mlm stories in general? Because I don't think it's the first time I've seen something like this happen.

And my next question is, could you delve further into this thing you mention about modern female authors writing women? How could we, beginner female writers, avoid falling into this awful representations of women in our writing?

Thank you for your time!

[It took a while to finish this because I wrote, re-wrote, and re-wrote it. Still not sure I like it, but I need to let it go. It could be 3xs as long.]

I’ll begin with the second half of the question, because it’s simpler. How do we, as women authors, avoid writing women in misogynistic ways?

Let me reframe that as how can we, as female authors, write negative (even quite nasty) female characters without falling into misogynistic tropes? Also, how can we write unsympathetic, but not necessarily “bad” female characters, without it turning misogynistic?

Because people are people, not genders, not all women are good, nor all men bad. Most of us are a mix. If we should avoid assuming powerful women are all bitches, by the same token, some women are bitches (powerful or not).

ALL good characterization comes down to MOTIVE. And careful characterization of minority characters involves fair REPRESENTATION. (Yes, women are a minority even if we’re 51% of the population.)

The question ANY author must ask: why am I making this female character a bitch? How does this characterization serve the larger plot and/or characterization? WHY is she acting this way?

Keep characters complex, even the “bad guys.” Should we choose to make a minority character a “bad guy,” we need to have a counter example—a real counter, not just a token who pops in briefly, then disappears. Yeah, maybe in an ideal world we could just let our characters “be,” but this isn’t an ideal world. Authors do have an audience. I’m a lot less inclined to assume stereotyping when we have various minority characters with different characterizations.

By the same token, however, don’t throw a novel against the wall if the first minority character is negative. Read further to decide if it’s a pattern. I’ve encountered reviews that slammed an author for stereotyping without the reader having finished the book. I’m thinking, “Uh…if you’d read fifty more pages….” Novels have a developmental arc. And if you’ve got a series, that, too, has a developmental arc. One can’t reach a conclusion about an author’s ultimate presentation/themes until having finished the book, or series.*

Returning to the first question, the appearance of misogyny depends not only on the author, but also on when she wrote, even why she’s writing. Authors who are concerned with matters such as theme and message are far more likely to think about such things than those who write for their own entertainment and that of others, which is more typical of Romance.

On average, Romance writers are a professionalized bunch. They have national and regional chapters of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), newsletters and workshops that discuss such matters as building plot tension, character dilemmas, show don’t tell, research tactics, etc. Yet until somewhat recently (early/mid 2010s), and a series of crises across several genres (not just Romance), treatment of minority groups hadn’t been in their cross-hairs. Now it is, with Romance publishers (and publishing houses more generally) picking up “sensitivity readers” in addition to the other editors who look at a book before its publication.

Yet sensitivity readers are hired to be sure lines like “chocolate love monkey” do not show up in a published novel. Yes, that really was used as an endearment for a black man in an M/M Romance, which (deservedly) got not just the author but the publishing house in all sorts of hot water. Yet misogyny, especially more subtle misogyny in the way of tropes, is rarely on the radar.

I should add that I wouldn’t categorize The Song of Achilles as an M/M historical Romance. In fact, I’m not sure what to call novels about myths, as myths don’t exist in actual historical periods. When should we set a novel about the Iliad? The Bronze Age, when Homer said it happened, or the Greek Dark Age, which is the culture Homer actually described? They’re pretty damn different. I’d probably call The Song of Achilles an historical fantasy, especially as mythical creatures are presented as real, like centaurs and god/desses.

Back to M/M Romance: I don’t have specific publishing stats, but it should surprise no one that (like most of the Romance genre), the vast bulk of authors of M/M Romance are women, often straight and/or bi- women. The running joke seems to be, If one hot man is good, two hot men together are better. 😉 Yes, there are also trans, non-binary and lesbian authors of M/M Romance, and of course, bi- and gay men who may write under their own name or a female pseudonym, but my understanding is that straight and bi- cis-women authors outnumber all of them.

Just being a woman, or even a person in a female body, does not protect that author from misogyny. And if she’s writing for fun, she may not be thinking a lot about what her story has to “say” in its subtext and motifs, even if she may be thinking quite hard about other aspects of story construction. This can be true of other genres as well (like historical fantasy).

What I have observed for at least some women authors is the unconscious adoption of popular tropes about women. Just as racism is systemic, so is sexism. We swim in it daily, and if one isn’t consciously considering how it affects us, we can buy into it by repeating negative ideas and acting in prescribed ways because that’s what we learned growing up. If writing in a symbol-heavy genre such as mythic-driven fantasy, it can be easy to let things slip by—even if they didn’t appear in the original myth, such as making Thetis hostile to Patroklos, the classic Bitchy Mother-in-Law archetype.

I see this sort of thing as “accidental” misogyny. Women authors repeat unkind tropes without really thinking them through because it fits their romantic vision. They may resent it and get defensive if the trope is pointed out. “Don’t harsh my squee!” We can dissect why these tropes persist, and to what degree they change across generations—but that would end up as a (probably controversial) book, not a blog entry. 😊

Yet there’s also subconscious defensive misogyny, and even conscious/semi-conscious misogyny.

Much debate/discussion has ensued regarding “Queen Bee Syndrome” in the workplace and whether it’s even a thing. I think it is, but not just for bosses. I also would argue that it’s more prevalent among certain age-groups, social demographics, and professions, which complicates recognizing it.

What is Queen Bee Syndrome? Broadly, when women get ahead at the expense of their female colleagues who they perceive as rivals, particularly in male-dominated fields, hinging on the notion that There Can Be Only One (woman). It arises from systemic sexism.

Yes, someone can be a Queen Bee even with one (or two) women buddies, or while claiming to be a feminist, supporting feminist causes, or writing feminist literature. I’ve met a few. What comes out of our mouths doesn’t necessarily jive with how we behave. And ticking all the boxes isn’t necessary if you’re ticking most of them. That said, being ambitious, or just an unpleasant boss/colleague—if its equal opportunity—does not a Queen Bee make. There must be gender unequal behavior involved.

What does any of that have to do with M/M fiction?

The author sees the women characters in her novel as rivals for the male protagonists. It gets worse if the women characters have some “ownership” of the men: mothers, sisters, former girlfriends/wives/lovers. I know that may sound a bit batty. You’re thinking, Um, aren’t these characters gay or at least bi- and involved with another man, plus—they’re fictional? Doesn’t matter. Call it fantasizing, authorial displacement, or gender-flipped authorial insert. We authors (and I include myself in this) can get rather territorial about our characters. We live in their heads and they live in ours for months on end, or in many cases, years. They’re real to us. Those who aren't authors often don’t quite get that aspect of being an author. So yes, sometimes a woman author acts like a Queen Bee to her women characters. This is hardly all, or even most, but it is one cause of creeping misogyny in M/M Romance.

Let’s turn to a related problem: women who want to be honorary men. While I view this as much more pronounced in prior generations, it’s by no means disappeared. Again, it’s a function of systemic sexism, but further along the misogyny line than Queen Bees. Most Queen Bees I’ve known act/react defensively, and many are (imo) emotionally insecure. It’s largely subconscious. More, they want to be THE woman, not an honorary man.

By contrast, women who want to be honorary men seem to be at least semi-conscious of their misogyny, even if they resist calling it that. These are women who, for the most part, dislike other women, regard most of “womankind” as either a problem or worthless, and think of themselves as having risen above their gender.

And NO, this is not necessarily religious—sometimes its specifically a-religious.

“I want to be an honorary man” women absolutely should NOT be conflated with butch lesbians, gender non-conformists, or frustrated FTMs. That plays right into myths the queer community has combated for decades. There’s a big difference between expressing one’s yang or being a trans man, and a desire to escape one’s womanhood or the company of other women. “Honorary men” women aren’t necessarily queer. I want to underscore that because the concrete example I’m about to give does happen to be queer.

I’ve talked before about Mary Renault’s problematic portrayal of women in her Greek novels (albeit her earlier hospital romances don’t show it as much). Her own recorded comments make it clear that she and her partner Julie Mullard didn’t want to be associated with other lesbians, or with women much at all. She was also born in 1905, living at a time when non-conforming women struggled. If extremely active in anti-apartheid movements in South Africa, Renault and Mullard were far less enthused by the Gay Rights Movement. Renault even criticized it, although she wrote back kindly to her gay fans.

The women in Renault’s Greek novels tend to be either bitches or helpless, reflecting popular male perceptions of women: both in ancient Greece and Renault’s own day. If we might argue she’s just being realistic, that ignores the fact one can write powerful women in historical novels and still keep it attitudinally accurate. June Rachuy Brindel, born in 1919, author of Ariadne and Phaedra, didn’t have the same problem, nor did Martha Rofheart, born in 1917, with My Name is Sappho. Brindel’s Ariadne is much more sympathetic than Renault’s (in The King Must Die).

Renault typically elevates (and identifies with) the “rational” male versus the “irrational” female. This isn’t just presenting how the Greeks viewed women; it reflects who she makes the heroes and villains in her books. Overall, “good” women are the compliant ones, and the compliant women are tertiary characters.

Women in earlier eras who were exceptional had to fight multiple layers of systemic misogyny. Some did feel they had to become honorary men in order to be taken seriously. I’d submit Renault bought into that, and it (unfortunately) shows in her fiction, as much as I admire other aspects of her novels.

So I think those are the three chief reasons we see women negatively portrayed in M/M Romance (or fiction more generally), despite being written by women authors.

------------------------------------

*Yeah, yeah, sometimes it’s such 2D, shallow, stereotypical presentation that I, as a reader, can conclude this author isn’t going to get any better. Also, the publication date might give me a clue. If I’m reading something published 50 years ago, casual misogyny or racism is probably not a surprise. If I don’t feel like dealing with that, I close the book and put it away.

But I do try to give the author a chance. I may skim ahead to see if things change, or at least suggest some sort of character development. This is even more the case with a series. Some series take a loooong view, and characters alter across several novels. Our instant-gratification world has made us impatient. Although by the same token, if one has to deal with racism or sexism constantly in the real world, one may not want to have to watch it unfold in a novel—even if it’s “fixed” later. If that’s you, put the book down and walk away. But I’d just suggest not writing a scathing review of a novel (or series) you haven’t finished. 😉

#misogyny in m/m romance #how to avoid misogyny writing women characters #writing complicated women characters #asks #writing life #writing advice

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disney-rapunzel-merida-vanellope · 3 years ago

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- so let’s begin the silver era. My 3rd favorite era. Sleeping beauty and Peter Pan are my personal faves but its just iconic disney magic all over

- i gotta admit…. Cinderella is my least favorite princess 😭 and little me decided this long before even watching this movie. Bare with me and my stupid bias against her. I actually really like her in the movie. My bias actually comes from the fact that SHE WAS THE FRONT AND CENTER OF EVERY DISNEY PRINCESS MERCHANDIZE I OWNED AS A KID 😭 I know its so stupid but little me really made cinderella to be this Regina George mean girl that likes to take the spotlight. In my mind she was a queen b, while Snow White was the Gretchen and aurora was like cady in the beginning of the movie (aurora was my fave disney princess at the time), (I hadn’t even watched mean girls as a kind I’m just using the characters cause they fit the personas i had for the princesses). And the fact that the only cinderella movie i owned was the 2nd one made me even angrier at her cause i thought she didnt have her 1st movie yet so why was she the popular girl 😭 I’m sorry Cindy, i love you in the movies but i cant shake that old bias, you’re still last place

- and speaking of that, i was really confused why i had cinderella 2 in vhs but now the 1st. I asked my mom and she said “its not out yet” 🙂 she could have been more specific and had told me they were waiting to release it on dvd (like we ended up buying) or that my parents never ended up buying the vhs cause they couldn’t find it or whatever but no. Had me thinking disney really made the 2nd and not yet the 1st. I still knew the story cause i had many MANY illustrated fairytale books both disney and nondisney with all the stories but i probably thought they were gonna make the movie based on the disney picture books or something (all this also happened with lion king 💀). I might seem like i only got the dvd when i was already grown but i was probably still in kindergarten so it was still part of my childhood. I dont even know why my brain still has this before and after the dvd time period so defined cause really i was still a kid when i got it

- I generally prefer the 2015 one…. That’s probably the only live action I prefer over the og, tho this is actually not a hot take. Many people do

- story time over, imma watch the movie

- love when disney movies start with a book

- I’m an cinderella and my mom is the birds. Every. Single. Morning. 🥱

- during the war era movies, the girls always had this 2 braids with bows hairstyle but it always looks like pigtails or something, probably to save money not actually drawing the braids. It’s cool to finally see the hairlstyle how it actually is

- i love her positivity, dreamy and strong personality. She’s a slave but still manages to wake up and sing, trying to find little fun and joy in her basic actions in live

- love her bossiness and sarcasm with Lucifer kkkkk

- the animators really asked the question “if rats needed to choose 1 of themselves randomly and fairly, how would they do it? Joining tails and grabbing one”. Genius, really got into the thinking of a rat. Jaq going 😃😟😃😟 is killing me too

- these bitches are so impatient…. I think id cry everyday if i was cinderella

- early disney princesses get slammed a lot for not being “””””strong female characters””””” but that is ancient bullshit. I really wonder how the conversation relating these movies to the female gaze goes. The girls are never sexualized and the boys have no personality and are basically just the love interest (like girls in male gaze movies). Where is the female gaze takes on the early princesses. I want to read some cause i really feel like these are 100% female gaze even tho the staff was mostly male. All this when it comes to the protagonists cause obviously theres the problematic beauty=good, ugly=evil problem… idk, id just like to read more on this non biased woke feminist takes on the early princesses

- the king is hilarious. I’d marry him if i was cinderelli

- pros of the portuguese dub being made in the 90s/early 2000s, she sings “ i sew, bring me the fabrics” instead of the “women sew” thing. This is why a lot of racist/ sexist things in disney movies are unknown to me. Lost in translation and said translation is from the 90s and forward. Can’t hide sexist/ racist visuals tho. Curious to listen to the natives Peter Pan song again and see if i pick up anything weird

- the rats making her the dress makes me so emotional. She goes through so much, its so nice that she has friends.

- ive always liked the pink dress but i also always felt like it was too childish with the excessive amount of bows

- i love how collected and with head held high she talks to them. She really kept her dignity all the time

- the ripping of the dress bit makes me sick. It feels like assault i hate it

- the way the fairy appears between cinderella and the bench always blows my mind 😭 its so simple but i find it so impressive

- i want a fairy godmother 😭 such a kind silly lady

- love how cinderella wants that dress more than anything and the fairy literally forgets the dress 😂

- everything turned out so nice tho. Just like the genie, this lady doesnt let cinderella off with the bare minimum. She goes extra hard. The carriage is soooooooooo pretty. The silver pallet of everything is 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

- I’m so sick of 22, where’s my bibbidi bobbidi boo

- the dress transformation IS SO GORGEOUS 😭 I love it so much. Animation really is the superior medium. I’m always blown away.

- in have mixed feeling for the dress, i love the silver, the puff sleeves not so much. But the hairstyle is really unfortunate 😭

- “the prince only had personality in cinderella 3” GIRL, THE SASSINESS IS PRESENT HERE TOO 😭

- This castle is so pretty

- the king and the duke remind me a lot of aurora and philip’s parents

- i love how in the ball scene, many spectators are moving, instead of just the stepmother and sisters. Normally the other people would be static like the background. It’s a really nice touch

- the whole “so this is love” scene is so iconic, so beautiful. I want that experience 😭

- the king’s bed is literally goals. That mattress would cure all my problems

- the king is literally so funny. “The shoe might fit many girls” #thats his problem” kkkkkkkkk

- oooooh i hate how evil this woman is. The glare alone could kill. If i was her id play nice with cinderella to get a room in the palace

- i like how cinderella reacts here more than in the live action. She screams, tries to open the door, kneels crying, calls for help from her animal friends. In the live action she starts singing like she has made peace with the injustice happening to her. Idk, i just like this reaction more

- the wedding dress is so pretty

- damn now i wanna watch the live action one 😭

- an iconic classic. Not my fave but i 100% see why its loved and timeless

#cinderella #disney #disney animation #watching every disney animation movie #long post #disney marathon

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oliviermiraarmstrongs · 3 years ago

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mid-year book freak out tag

thank you @bloody-wonder for giving me an excuse to share my book thoughts!

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2021?

It’s gotta be The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood; I hear “feminist period novel about mentally ill woman unable to cope in upper-class society” and I am THERE! It’s like [Stefon voice] This book has EVERYTHING: repressed women, a decaying old house, a complex relationship of two sisters, a pulpy sci-fi story-within-a-story-within-a-story, criticism of capitalism and reactionary attitudes and politics, commentary on how conservative society shuns those it perceives to be “other” and a threat to the social order (poor people, socialists, “unconventional” women). It is EXTREMELY my shit.

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2021?

The only one I've read is Siege and Storm, so Siege and Storm! Shadow and Bone was captivating, if a little simplistic, but the sequel really fleshes out the characters, setting, and themes. It’s great to see Alina take a more active role, and I love the exploration of sainthood.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To?

I’m really curious about Michelle Zauner’s memoir Crying in H Mart. Same with Axiom’s End, which I haven’t really been seeking out, but it’s been resting on my list since I like a lot of Lindsay Ellis’ stuff.

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2021?

5. Biggest Disappointment?

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. I’ve been getting into Atwood, and I have a soft spot for female-centric retellings of myths, so this was on my list for a long time. It’s not bad; it’s decent as a character study and offers some good perspective on the hanged slave women from The Odyssey, but overall it came off as...bitter? And not in a good way. It’s reasonable to include commentary on how bad things were for women in ancient times, but after a while I’m just like “But there had to be a time when Penelope was happy, right?” But the biggest failing has to be the treatment of Helen. Why a story focused on bringing literary justice to silenced women also characterizes Helen of Troy as a manipulative, arrogant bitch who single-handedly ignited the Trojan War because she enjoys fucking people over, I’ll never know. Ironic that in the opening chapter, Penelope bemoans being used as a yardstick with which to judge other women, and then the book proceeds to do exactly that with her and Helen. Can’t let Penelope have a positive relationship with another woman! There could be some form of unreliable narrator at play, but there’s not much indication that that’s the case here. Even Homer had a more nuanced portrayal of Helen than this!

6. Biggest Surprise?

I suppose The Red Tent. I picked it up at a Goodwill because of my aforementioned interest in female-centric retellings. It’s not amazing, but I wasn’t really expecting it to emotionally affect me like it did. You spend so much time setting up Dinah’s family and this supportive community of woman within a patriarchal society, only to have Dinah abandon it all after getting betrayed by her father and (most of) her brothers. Hearing about how her family fell apart after she left and she never got to see her mothers again really gets to me. The book has flaws for sure - neither of Dinah’s romances are developed very well, and some of its themes can come off as gender essentialist - but I think it’s a nice exploration of female labor and traditions that too often get ignored.

7. Favorite New Author?

The only relatively new author I’ve been reading is Leigh Bardugo, soooooo... honestly I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t already been said, I got into the series pretty late. Great world-building, witty dialogue, a familiar type of story with enough interesting ideas to make it feel fresh. Check out Shadow and Bone if you get the chance. Sound of the summer.

8. Newest Fictional Crush?

You would think it would be Nikolai Lantsov since I just finished reading Siege and Storm and he seems to be the fan favorite... but nah, not yet. He’s fun, but he doesn’t hit me in that way (Though very sexy of him to just casually proposition Alina and Mal for a royal polycule, a la Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot; would love an AU where they accept his offer). However, I would let Zoya murder me. Every time Zoya is not in a scene I am asking “Where’s Zoya?” Also shout out to Alina, just because I would treat her better than all the men in her life!

9. Newest Favorite Character?

Gonna try to do this without spoiling too much, but Laura Chase in The Blind Assassin really resonated with me. Her personality reminds me a lot of myself, especially as an an autistic person, like the way she has her own way of thinking that makes perfect sense to her, but makes other people see her as odd and naive. I love how she’s set up in-universe as this Sylvia Plath-esque tragic heroine, with Iris spending the rest of the book interrogating and deconstructing, and in a way, reconstructing this image of her. Atwood you’re insane for this. I forgive you for the Helen thing now.

10. Book That Made You Cry?

I never got as far as crying, but the part in The Goldfinch where [spoilers incoming] the art heist goes wrong and Theo is alone in the hotel room and he’s spiraling and considering suicide and finally dreams of his mom… all that was too much for me and I had to put the book down for the night. This guy just can’t catch a fucking break.

11. Book That Made You Happy?

fucidjdjdj I didn’t read any happy books this year. Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm because I read them really fast unlike my usual months-long reading schedule.

12. Favorite Book Adaptation You Saw?

Predictably, Shadow and Bone. I basically bought and read the book less than a week before the show came out because I thought it looked interesting and wanted in on the hype (mostly because Jessie is cute 🥰). Honestly, the show improves a lot on the first book; the multiple storylines make it more dynamic and complex, the actors really help to make the characters feel more fleshed out, and Alina and Inej interacted for like three scenes, introducing an unexpected but thematically rich ship.

13. Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year?

14. Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought So Far This Year?

I impulse-bought this book of Romantic poetry at Barnes and Noble just because it was pretty and I had a gift card

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End Of The Year?

Besides finishing The Grisha Trilogy/Six of Crows duology/Zoya’s duology that I forgot the name of….I don’t know. I’m not a reader that plans in advance. I acquire books, finish whatever I’m currently reading, look through my stacks deciding what to read next, spend an hour doing so because I can’t decide if I’m in the mood for any of them, and either force myself to read one or buy/borrow a new one.

I’m tagging @betweenironyandsilver, @illuminaticns, @borispavlikovskys, @chdarling, @sctine, @mightyaubs, @excuseforadrink, and @trckstergods, if you wanna! Or anyone who wants to yell about books.

#sophia says shit #tagged as me #sorry for taking so long I write slow and am on vacation #but thank you! I don’t get many excuses to talk about books!

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pixieminutes · 4 years ago

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Love Sick | HRJ

genre: fluff, non-idol!au

members: huang renjun x reader, lee donghyuck, na jaemin, lee jeno

warnings: swearing

“y/n! we’re going on a trip—”

“a roadtrip!”

“shut up, donghyuck,” renjun said with an eyeroll, “a kind of roadtrip. want to come? we can sit together in the backseat.”

“and i’ll be sat in the middle!”

“no jaemin, the fuck you won’t,” renjun swore, glaring at the younger boy, “y/n?”

you giggled, rolling your eyes at your boyfriend’s friends, “i’d love to.”

“she said yes!” renjun shouted, the boys cheering in the background.

“wait!” you laughed, “i’d love to, but i can’t.”

“what? why?” renjun asked, “if this is the stupid fucking project again, i swear to god. we have six months, y/n, six months.”

“no,” you shook your head, “i’m ill, junie. i’m currently under three layers of duvets and a blanket and i’m still shivering. i am also sweating. and a sick bucket is ready beside my bed.”

“huh?” renjun asked, suddenly serious, “are you alright? really?”

“i’m fine,” you chuckled, “go on your kind of roadtrip, okay? make sure you eat healthy things, not just mcdonalds.”

“what the fuck kind of roadtrip would that be?!” donghyuck exclaimed.

“not right now!” renjun scolded his friend before coming back to the phone, “y/n, i’m coming over.”

“no,” you frowned, “renjun, go with your friends.”

“you’re more important than my friends, bubs,” renjun sighed, “i’m coming over and you can’t stop me.”

you chuckled, “i wouldn’t even try.”

renjun smiled, “don’t strain yourself, okay? i’ll be there shortly.”

“do you think she’s on her period?” renjun asked absentmindedly as he wondered around the drugstore.

“i don’t think periods are that bad,” donghyuck scoffed, “are they?”

“you’d be surprised,” jeno shrugged, the only other boy out of the four with a girlfriend, “dahee throws up sometimes.”

“from her period?!” jaemin exclaimed.

“shh! this seems very sus!” donghyuck scolded, “four teenage boys talking very loudly about periods.”

renjun rolled his eyes, “no, you’re just uncomfortable talking about periods.”

“am not! i’m a feminist i’ll have you know,” donghyuck said.

“yeah, yeah, we get it, we are all for women’s rights—”

upon the strange, passing look of a middle aged woman, the four boys stopped, nodding and smiling nervously.

“no, i see it now,” renjun nodded, “i’ll just grab some medicine.”

“here, tea,” jeno said, “this one’s healing for headaches.”

renjun smiled appreciatively, jaemin and donghyuck both also piling cuddly toys and chocolate into the mix.

“sorry i can’t go on the roadtrip,” renjun said, pulling out his wallet and paying the cashier.

jaemin laughed, “renjun’s just the best boyfriend!”

donghyuck rolled his eyes, shoving the blonde-headed boy, “shut up, jae. it’s fine. we can all go next week, with y/n.”

“and dahee,” jeno said, smiling at the thought of his girlfriend popping into his head.

jaemin slapped his best friend’s cheek (though some would argue it was barely even a pat), “simp.”

“ya,” jeno laughed.

“well, renjun’s going to look after his sick girlfriend so who’s the real simp?” donghyuck teased, the three already leaving the shop as renjun scrambled to bag his goods.

“ya!” renjun yelled, “lee donghyuck!”

“gorgeous!” renjun shouted, “renjun who brightens the world is here!”

a soft giggle came from under your blankets, renjun’s footsteps coming closer providing you with an exciting heart flutter, one that appears every time your boyfriend comes close.

“my baby!” he cooed, rushing forward and cupping your face in his hands, “you’re so cold.”

you nodded, “i woke up sweating and then suddenly needed 10 million layers.”

renjun pouted, “did you eat something funny?”

you thought back slightly, shaking your head.

“are you on your period?”

you shook your head.

“just finished your period?”

“nope.”

“about to start your period?” renjun asked, his eyebrows raised.

you clicked your fingers, nodding, “that could be it.”

renjun chuckled, stroking your hair gently.

“i think i have a flu as well though,” you sighed, “my throat hurts like a bitch.”

“do you need anything?” renjun asked, looking around at the used tissues and empty cups and bowls on your bedside table.

you shook your head slightly, afraid that anymore would disrupt your headache, which had seemed to have calmed down for the moment.

renjun nodded, “just sleep, love. i’ll be here when you wake up.”

you tried to smile, tried to nod, but nothing wanted to happen. you just closed your eyes slowly, the corners of your lips twitching upwards as renjun pressed soft kisses to your closed eyelids.

“ah, jeez,” he sighed, looking round.

he started to collect up the used tissues, grimacing as he threw them in your bedroom bin. then, as quietly as he could, he collected up all your plates, bowls and cups; the glass on glass and china on china noises making him grimace as he tiptoed out of your bedroom.

placing them all in the kitchen, he then moved to your bathroom, running warm water to fill up the ceramic bathtub.

“there were birds in the sky, but i never heard them singing. no, i never heard them at all, till there was you,” renjun sang as he arranged his convience store goodies on a tray, placing them on the end of your bathtub, “then there was music, and wonderful roses...”

you smiled, appearing in the doorway with small steps.

“and what is this?” you asked with a slight smirk.

renjun sighed, looking you up and down. you were wearing one of his old t-shirts, he was about to throw it away when you snatched the entire ‘chuck’ pile, and kept them all to yourself. underneath, nothing but a pair of your underwear (your comfy ones, not your sexy ones) and some small white socks.

“how are you still the most beautiful woman i’ve ever seen, even with the flu?”

you laughed, a smile lighting up your face, no makeup gracing your features and greasy hair tied up in a half-ponytail.

“i ran you a bath,” renjun said, still taken aback by your visuals, “and i bought you some stuff on the way here.”

“ah, that’s my favourite chocolate!” you gasped, “thank you, junnie.”

renjun smiled, kissing your nose before beginning to lift his t-shirt off your head, “you’re welcome, bubs.”

you took off all your clothes slowly before sinking into the warm liquid, spreading it all over your body as renjun sat on the closed toilet seat, watching in wonder.

“shall we watch a movie this afternoon?” he proposed.

you nodded, sniffling and coughing, both actions setting off the other.

“do you need a tissue?”

you nodded, sneezing, “please.”

“well if you look at the handy pile of things i bought for you,” renjun said proudly, picking up a packet of tissues and placing them into your hands.

you laughed, “wow, my boyfriend’s so amazing, huh?”

renjun nodded with a smile, “so amazing he’ll even wash your hair.”

your eyes widened slightly, your body filling up with love, “you will?”

nodding proudly, renjun sat beside your bathtub with his already-prepared jug to pour water through your hair. he ran his fingers through it as he went, making sure it was smooth and wet enough for your tropical-scented shampoo.

“leave the conditioner in,” you said, taking a sip of the banana milk your boyfriend had so kindly bought you, “at least for a bit.”

“yes ma’am.”

you laughed, shaking your head at renjun’s stupidity as his hands massaged your scalp gently.

you moaned, “you’re amazing. i love you, renjun.”

he just smiled and decided not to dwell on the fact it was the first time you’d said those words.

“renjun!”

“coming!” he exclaimed, coming through into the living room with a measuring spoon full of red liquid, “here, take your medicine.”

you frowned, swallowing the liquid with a pained expression.

“big baby,” renjun chuckled, walking back to the kitchen and collecting the bowls of ramen he’d prepared.

“you’re the one who wants to watch mulan!” you protested.

“mulan is a great, educational movie with a strong, feminist lead!”

“and a talking dragon.”

“mushu is a bonus,” renjun said, glaring at you.

laughing, you shook your head and pressed play on the movie.

“thank you for taking care of me,” you sighed, snuggling into his embrace.

“thank you for loving me. and for saying it out loud,” renjun smiled, kissing the top of your head, the tropical scent lingering in his nose, “but you’ll never know how much i love you too.”

you laughed, watching as you nudged his feet slightly with yours, “wanna bet, lover boy?”

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