#a whole lot of mysoginy

[aingeal98]

so, steph in the canon text choose to carry her pregnancy to term and give her child up for adoption. this is generally understood to be bc the writer of that issue/run was pro life, but taking the text at face value, what does it say that steph chose what she chose? is it coherent with her character? could it be read as another symptom of internalized mysoginy? or is it incoherent with her character/would it be more thematically interesting to have her have an abortion?

Really really good question I've been mulling this over in my head for weeks. To answer the last question first, I honestly think the issue with the pregnancy arc is less about the choices Steph makes and more to do with how clunkily anti abortion Chuck Dixon is. Like I do think it's very possible to be fully pro choice but also unwilling to abort your own pregnancy. I fought alongside my friends to repeal the abortion ban in Ireland but at the same time I can never picture myself ever getting one, because for me the second I become aware of it it's real to me, not just a clump of cells. But I know full well that's just my own sentimentality and there's no scientific backing, like logically it IS just a clump of cells and also there's a whole patriarchal society dedicated to stopping women from having bodily autonomy, which is why I'd never try and push that belief on others or discourage them from whatever choice they feel is best. So basically I would struggle hard to ever do it, but if you want to, hell yeah abort that thang! No judgement from me or moral reasoning needed from you.

And because of this I could see Steph being the same. I could even see certain story beats playing out the same if they were allowed just a bit more nuance instead of being a conservative after school special. Steph lashing out at her mom and counsellor for suggesting an abortion, not because it's a Bad Thing to do but because it feels to her like her mom is already trying to sweep this under the rug like it never happened, and Steph herself hasn't even come to terms with it. Steph feeling isolated from her peers, again highly plausible it just needs better dialogue than what we got in the original. We could even have scenes of Steph grappling with the idea of an abortion, and wondering how much of her aversion to it is her own choice and how much is internalized misogyny. I think her arc of deciding to have the baby and give it up works best, although a well written abortion au would be super interesting to read.

So basically for me the choices Steph makes in the original run are very coherent with her character, and what actually makes it fall flat is the clunky dialogue and heavy handed anti abortion writing. If Steph was written by someone other than Chuck Dixon during that time, I could see her being pro choice while also being unwilling to abort the baby herself. And it could have been written with a lot more nuance and acknowledgement of what teen mothers go through, instead of just what Chuck Dixon thought Good Teen Moms should do and say in this filthy world of liberal values.

From what we got in canon, I'd say Steph probably grew out of the anti abortion mindset as she got older. I don't think she'd ever regret her decision, but I do see her looking back and cringing at some of the ways she acted because wow the internalized misogyny JUMPED out. And if she ever came across another sobbing teenager with a positive pregnancy test, I'd say modern adult Steph would make sure they knew all their options with zero judgement. And helping that young girl would probably dredge up a million different emotions that she would struggle to name.

So tl:dr, taking the text at face value Steph has boatloads of internalized misogyny specifically around abortion. But I don't actually think her choices are out of character, more so that the entire narrative is written less as a story and more as a moralizing conservative rant on pro life where everyone feels like a caricature. It would actually be quite simple to tweak the dialogue and clunky scenes and end up with similar character choices just... better written. Where her mom and counsellors aren't evil for suggesting abortion but Steph still feels hurt and lashes out anyway. Where her peers say the wrong things and leave her feeling alienated. Where she weighs her options and gets more narrative space to mull over all the consequences. It would be my preferred way to rewrite the arc, but there are a lot of changes that could be made and I'm open to reading about all of them.

Thank you for the ask! Sorry it took so long to respond I was chewing over the whole concept haha.

[towriteloveontheirarms]

I watched you disappear (I could protect you part 3)

part 3 of 4 || series masterlist || previous part || next part

pairing: Aemond Targaryen x wife!reader

synopsis: “It is my duty as Prince Regent to protect my kingdom. To protect my family and to defend my brothers claim on his birth right.” He insists. There hadn´t been many moments in which he had been stubborn like this. Yet still, you cursed every single one of them. Especially now. “Then what about me? I am your family too, am I not? I will be helpless here without you.” You knew it was selfish to ask him to stay, but you couldn´t find it in you to care.

warnings: period typical mysoginy, mentions of the dance of the dragons, character death, angst

word count: 1.1k

After that incident, Alicent and Otto made it a point to show their feelings towards you being at court as much as they could. Which mostly consisted of dirty looks and passive aggressive slights aimed at you during dinners and feasts. While it hurt in the beginning, it was petty and foolish and easy enough to ignore after a while. Especially as you build up your relationships with your good sister and brother. You often sat with Helaena and listened to her talk about her insects or looked for her when you needed some peace and quiet in the busy castle. Just as you got to talking with Aegon. Though Aemond didn´t seem so happy about that. He often reiterated how Aegon´s influence was a bad one, but you found the new king to be a sad presence and in need of a company. 

At the same time, you still spent a lot of time with your husband, which had your feelings for him grow ever stronger. What had only been financial gain in the beginning turned to a small spark turned into the strongest love you had felt for any man ever. Head spread over your face at every small touch and waking up next to him each morning or walking through the gardens in the evening made you feel like you were floating. Aemond was so gentle and understanding with you. Until the war over the succession of the iron throne grew darker, demanding many more sacrifices. Starting with the taking of the young Prince Jaehaerys. The whole castle was shocked when it happened, but no one suffered as much as Helaena. You spent a lot more time with her and Aegon, trying to console them, but that wasn´t possible. You had to watch them both go madder with grief as the days went by. 

Attack after attack was planned, conducted and more losses had been carried. Most of them didn´t affect you as much as they probably should have. And then one day that all pales as Aemond tells you he will lead an army to Harrenhall to attack the blacks´ forces gathering there under Daemon, before they have sufficient force to strike at the capital. No matter how much you plead with him it is of no use. 

“It is my duty as Prince Regent to protect my kingdom. To protect my family and to defend my brothers claim on his birth right.” He insists. There hadn´t been many moments in which he had been stubborn like this. Yet still, you cursed every single one of them. Especially now. 

“Then what about me? I am your family too, am I not? I will be helpless here without you.” You knew it was selfish to ask him to stay, but you couldn´t find it in you to care.

“I will order the best guard to watch over you every second until I come back to you. Nothing will happen to you.” Aemond takes your hands in his and presses a gentle kiss to your knuckles. A gesture that was meant to calm you down, only that it didn´t. Not with the danger lying ahead. 

“Aemond, I am begging you not to go. I love you.” It´s the first time you have said the words. Shocking both you and Aemond into silence for just a second. 

“I love you as well, you know that, but as Prince Regent I have a responsibility that is bigger than you and me.” His tone pleads for your understanding, but you can´t find it in you. 

“If you will not stay for me then stay for the babe growing inside of me!” You desperately speak the words that were meant to be a happy surprise in a dark time. Now they are nothing more than a desperate attempt to get him to stay. 

“The… The what?” He shakes his head in disbelieve. 

“I wish I could have told you at a better time. It was not supposed to be this way. I… I am with child.” You lead his hands that still hold yours to place them on your barely swollen stomach. Aemond closes his eye and for just a short moment a peaceful smile takes over his features. 

Just as sudden as it came, it is gone though. Replaced by a sad and regretful expression. 

“I cannot stay. I can only promise you, to be back before you start your labours.” He swears so quietly only the two of you can hear, even though the room is empty aside from the two of you. 

“When will you leave?” You sigh in defeat. 

“On the morrow. We need to reach Harrenhall as fast as we can.” He leans his forehead against yours as if to apologize, but you just feel cold to it.

When he holds you for what could be the last time in both of your lives that night, you don´t cry. You don´t sleep either. You just lay there, staring at the wall as you feel his chest press against your back with every deep breath and think. Anxious thoughts circle in your head at an impossible speed. Over and over and over again, flashing pictures of horrible incidents happening to either you or him. It´s overwhelming and unstopping. Even as you help Aemond to put on his armor early the next morning. Your hands tremble to a point where it is hard to handle all the buckles and clasps, but no matter how often he offers to do it himself, in that sweet quiet voice of his, it feels like something you need to do. To get at least some kind of closure, you tell yourself. And when the time comes you dutifully press your lips to his in the most delicate manner, before watching him fly away on Vhagar. Standing frozen in your spot until the large dragon is nothing but a small dot in the sky. Only then do you allow yourself to cry. The tears that slip down your cheeks are silent at first. The mask you had put on only for Aemond only breaks slowly, but once it does you stand there in the room, unknowing how or when you even got there. Shoulders shaking violently as you prop yourself up on the back of the chair you lean over.

The rational part of your brain of course knows there is no reason to cry until there are actual news of your husbands passing, yet that thought doesn´t soothe you at all. And with the closest thing you ever had to a friend still occupied with the process of going mad over her loss, you are on your own for the first time in years.

[hardwiredweird]

Genuine question: how does AI destroy the environment?

I'm totally with you on not using AI and that it harms artists but I've not heard the environment angle before.

I think a lot of people aren't aware of that because they don't think about how AI works.

While there are builds that can run on a local machine and even on phones, the way most people use generative machine learning systems like SD and ChatGPT is through a client (often a web client) where the actual processing takes place on remote servers. Those servers need power and cooling.

The processing power needed to generate millions and billions of images and text replies a day is immense, which means the power draw is horrendous. And all those servers need to be cooled. Often with water.

I think you see where there might be a severe environmental impact just from these factors alone. And for what?

Is "haha, funny image of my blorbo" really worth all that?

And then we're not even touching on the whole metric shitton of other ethical issues like the racism, sexism, ableism and mysoginy presented in the output or the medical data that's been scraped and put into the datasets or the fact that people are producing p*rn of real people and children or the potential legal ramifications of not being able to use photo evidence in legal procedings anymore or....

You know.

AI just all-round bad.

But there's still people justifying the use of it because "I'm just doing it for fun."

[lunas-treehouse]

If you are a person who shits on classic disney princesses read this

you are embarrassing yourself. most the shit youve said isnt true.

cinderella wasnt "waiting for a man" she was raised in an abusive household by a step mother who veiwed her as less and made her act as a maid.

aurora being asleep most her movie isnt her fault. she was cursed.

snow white was an abused girl who was happy to be with the dwarves and even happier to get her prince i dont know why thats considered terrible. wouldnt you be overjoyed if someone took you to live in a whole ass castle???

ariel was a curious girl who loved to learn about humans. she was as much as an anthropologist as she could be in her situation. and her dad literally DESTROYED all her special possessions in front of her only for ursula to use her distress to manipulate her. she wanted to be human- getting derek was a bonus.

you dont shit on anna for ending up with kristoff in the end do you? you dont shit on belle for loving the beast [unless its that stockholme syndrome debate]. i dont see you guys talking about real disney princess issues like pochahontus in general or the fact tiana was a frog most of her movie adding to the trend of poc being animals in disney movies.

and a lot of you just love the villains- proclaiming theyre better than the protagonists and theyre innicent.

ursula manipulated a vulnerable teenage girl and then tried to kill her and derek along with many others who were on that ship.

malefacent cursed a fuckin baby.

hades was creepy as hell to meg and literally owned her.

jafars a fucking creep who perved on a 16 year old girl.

like- you can totally enjoy them as villains its why disney villains are looked to as this like expectations for villains almost, but dont act like theyre good people or theyre better than the protagonist they hurt. especially when youre JUST mocking the princesses- that shit reeks of victim blaming and mysoginy.

grow up. being kind and persevering like the disney princesses do will always be better than treating people like shit like the disney villains do.

[canonically47]

canonically47.tumblr.com/post/742593997706559488

this one

okay well total drama has a LOT of obvious mistakes and most of them come from the time in which it was written and published and the rushed season of only 13 instead of 26 episodes starting with ROTI

i also feel like they treat their characters and ships very badly, making them go right back where they started if they ever get any growth, which rarely happens. or their development is too sudden and not believable. priya, max, scarlett, that mini-arc shasmine had about splitting the money, aleheather in TDWT, prileb in TD 2024...

i rewatched ROTI and the girls were mistreated horribly. what can you expect from a season where the finalists are two guys? dakota’s internal issues were never discussed further than a funny haha moment when dawn read her aura, dawn never got to do anything for her team and her elimination was rushed, jo’s internalized mysoginy was a haha joke and never adressed properly, zoey had a whole villain-and-back-to-hero arc and STILL didn’t make finale???

also i hate when they introduce some groups and never further develop them, or develop them very little. lindsay, beth and ezekiel could’ve been an ICONIC trio. i miss leshawna and gwen’s friendship so much, and same goes for bowie and emma. jo and brick had so much potential to become allies or at least frenemies, amy and sammy were not handled well, THE E-SCOPE TRIO!!! i’m in shambles

so if i wrote TDI i’d just give the characters some proper development, more moments to shine, more fun relationships with the others. this show is based on its characters, they’re the stars!! so why not make them shine instead of burn??

gen 1 is too much work to rewrite but i’d keep TDI about the same except have a leshawna vs gwen finale, with leshawna as a ‘canon’ winner. TDA would have a harold vs lindsay finale with harold as the ‘official’ winner.

in TDWT i’d cut the duncney-gwuncan arc, make duncan never come back cuz fuck that guy, gwourtney wins. sierra gets better development. noah makes merge and fulfills his schemer role, constantly sabotaging alejandro. they become frenemies. aleheather still wins and goes to finale. alejandro doesn’t get the robot costume and we don’t hear from him again until TDAS.

for ROTI, would make jo a proper antagonist and make her butt heads with scott when the merge happened. my final six for ROTI would be scott, jo, zoey, brick, lightning and anne maria. yes, brick and anne maria, you read that right.

i still think scott shouldn’t make finale, and jo only if she got development. so maybe the merge could happen just two episodes earlier to get more stuff out of them, so the merge would include cameron and mike. scott would go before jo, and jo would be left to fend for herself after scott got cameron eliminated. this is where i would make her develop a friendship with anne maria and brick. get zoey in there and you have the anti-scott alliance. they get him out (NO TRAUMA CHAIR NEEDED, HE WILL BE FINE) and then lightning, then the girls unite against brick. sorry man.

the finale would be between two of the girls, i’d like to see jomaria or joey fight, jo needs that development. the one who gets out previously is an insta-elimination and not decided by the others.

and voilá! jo gets development and some healthy friendships! her and brick could also get together but maybe in another season. this season is for her alone to shine, she deserves it.

oh, and that’s the main thing about ROTI - i’d give them two more seasons. they deserve a WT-esque season.

i’d completely rewrite TDPI. make rodney first diss when the girls are disgusted by him (and also shit him cuz fuck him), dave an earlier boot, get beardo like third or fourth cuz i wanna see more of him, give scarlett a proper character arc instead of a rushed one throughout just one episode, make max a bit smarter and let him become a ‘hero’ rather than a villain he wants to be by rescuing everyone from scarlett since he knows her weaknesses best...

my ideal final five are shawn, jasmine, max, topher and ella. also my five favorites so no wonder. i’ll explain their arcs.

topher - 5th: shawn and jasmine, as well as max and ella, become duos after the scarlett incident (maybe it happens earlier?), and topher is outside of any alliance. plus he was getting kinda annoying, not to mention he gave chris too many ideas for challenges. damn it, topher!

ella - 4th: when she is forbidden from singing, she still goes behind chris’ back and does it, only that she intercepts sugar’s note and burns it. sugar is an earlier boot than originally because ella realizes she just hates her guts and she’s trying to befriend her for nothing. when ella stops singing, she puts her head in the game more than usual, but her refusal to hurt animals and serenade them instead gets her out eventually, by chris, not by the others.

max - 3rd: with no alliance and a softer spot than usual, he gets out at his own, last challenge.

finale: shawn vs jasmine

the same conflict about splitting the money, only that it comes earlier and is developed more. for one, chris shows jasmine the confessionals right after max’s voting ceremony.

shawn’s helper ends up being ella, but she’s been watching from playa des losers and is unhappy with how shawn treated jasmine. meanwhile, max is jasmine’s helper. max and jasmine sabotage shawn, ella doesn’t help him, but then when max and ella are given the controls for the island, they both realize the gravity of what they’ve done when they see shawn and jasmine buried in snow.

both jasmine and shawn get an ending. in both endings, jasmine gets out of the snow, doesn’t pay attention to the finish line, and goes to search for shawn, who pops out in confusion. the two have a heart-to-heart interrupted by chris to announce the race is still happening, and they have ten seconds left. in shawn’s ending, jasmine just nods to him and he crosses; in jasmine’s ending, shawn insists she crosses. pretty similar endings, the outcome is about the same, but i like to think jasmine’s is the ‘canon’ one.

and then they get another season!

so, our seasons are...

gen 1 - 3 seasons: total drama island, total drama action, total drama world tour

gen 2 - 3 seasons: total drama revenge of the island, total drama retour, total drama cruise or lose

gen 3 - 2 seasons: total drama pahkitew island, total drama reaction

gen 1 x gen 2 x gen 3: total drama all stars

TDAS would include eight contestants of each generation. gen 1 gets heather, alejandro, owen, noah, gwen, courtney, sierra, and leshawna. gen 2 gets jo, anne maria, zoey, mike, brick, cameron, lightning and scott. gen 3 gets shawn, jasmine, topher, max, ella, sugar, sammy and scarlett.

and then for the reboot i’d just make bowie win for the first season. the second season would have more development.

emma and bowie become friends again. mkulia become reluctant allies but still dislike each other. eventually they warm up to each other tho 👀. ripaxel also happens over the course of more episodes. couples butt heads - mkulia, rajbow and ripaxel - but mkulia dominate the game. short ripaxel-mkulia alliance in which they get out prileb (who have a better development trust), wayne and bowie.

damien gets to keep his immunity idol but doesn’t need to use it until the final five: axel, julia, mk, damien and raj. the girls unite against him, but he and raj voted for julia, so you can imagine mk is unhappy, but damien wins immunity. yikes.

so finale time is damien, raj and axel. everyone gets an ending, but damien is the ‘canon’ winner because HE DESERVED IT COME ON.

[nishihii]

Baz I am sorry but you know what I am going to ask for with the bloodborne bingo...

You have to do Doll to restore my sanity Baz

It is your sworn duty

zel dont ever apologise for doll posting. ever. i will gladly restore your sanity

DOLL MY BEST FRIEND DOLL

i think they are super interesting and mysterious and the commentary that their character provides on things like mysoginy is splendid to me (of course there is a whole lot more to them but i do think this a pretty important thing about them). if this part of their character is not clear to you then idk what to tell you man. look at the game

again i am not competent at essays and i dont have to be since @butchladymaria wrote such a wonderful essay on the doll already (link) and everyone should read it i think

do i need to explain why the fandom is annoying about them. i think we all know why i circled that one.

ANYWAYS i think they should be allowed to do whatever they want forever. even murder. doll my beloved

[thekatebridgerton]

Why do you think so many people consider sir Phillip "problematic" and are completely quiet about book! Benedict, who is far more problematic than Phillip?

Do you want the honest answer or the diplomatic answer? Because I might lose a couple of followers for this. So please note that this is my personal opinion and in no way reflects the fandom or Benophie and philoise shippers in general

The honest answer is that a lot of people apply an internalized mysoginy double standard to historical fiction way too much to be healthy.

In fact that's the whole reason I came up with my genderbent Philoise au. Because if Phillip had been a woman, his actions wouldn't look problematic, he wouldn't be 'trapping' Eloise in a life she didn't want in the country with kids that aren't hers (which lemme tell you, in a post pandemic society, sounds like a modern woman's worst nightmare). If his actions were taken by a woman, he'd be a much more typical romantic heroine.

Similarly with Benedict, he did try to trap Sophie in an arrangement she didn't want. But it's just easier for the modern reader to think of Benedict's proposal as romantic than Phillip's because, in Benedict's case, Sophie the female lead doesn't 'lose' anything by being his mistress or by marrying him. She stands to gain both family, home, love and security away from Aramintas clutches

And There in lies the double standard, people can let go of Benedict's problematic behavior, because at the end of the book, the one losing his freedom and his society comforts in the altar of love, is Benedict. That seems like a fitting sacrifice, because he's a man. He's stereotypically able to handle it with the romantic hero buff. But not for Eloise, because she's a woman.

Wheras Eloise 'Loses her freedom' she's seen as giving up more in the altar of love than Phillip is. Because he gets to go on with his life with only the most positive of changes. He gets love, comfort, a mother for his children (same as Sophie) wheras to the modern reader it looks like Eloise gains nothing from the relationship that she didn't have before. And in fact is seen as being losing out on the life she could have had as the spinster sister of a Viscount. So it's easier to be harder on Phillip because of that

Wanna talk problematic?: Here's a rundown of my top 10

1)I personally don't like Benedict much until the end of AOFAG he's pushy, borderline uses his position of power to trick Sophie into situations she doesn't want to be in and ultimately behaves like a spoiled brat denied candy when Sophie insists she doesn't want to be his mistress and side note could you believe I've seen people get annoyed at Sophie's 'hipocrisy' for insisting she doesn't want to be his mistress while being evidently attracted to him, I mean have you seen the entitlement in which Benedict approaches the mistress arrangement with? Seriously? (But then again Benedict's entitlement is purposefully highlighted because getting over it is the whole theme of the book)

2) Anthony, gosh I love him, as a character but the man was willing to marry the sister of a woman he seriously wanted to sleep with. Just because Edwina was a socially acceptable choice. He was also going to marry her fully prepared to cheat on her with any mistress available from the get go. And if you want problematic talk about the scene where he gets mad at Kate for overhearing what I stated above. Kisses her quite passionately may I add. And then throws the key to the room on the ground, to vindictively watch her humiliate herself to pick it up and take her only chance to escape him and avoid further humiliation. Anthony's most problematic scene for me? That one. Takes the cake.

3)Colin, also love him, but have you read Romancing Mr Bridgerton? Colin has the worst temper of all the Bridgertons. Especially with Penelope, like seriously, the guy can get violent pretty easily whenever Penelope does something he doesn't like. But on a scale of one to 10 yeah he's on the low scale

4) Phillip, lied to Eloise about having children and wanting a monther for said children. But considering El was supposed to be Marina's cousin, why didn't Eloise know Marina had children with Phillip?. He's got a temper but he's not on Colin or Anthony's level of mean. And excuse me if I don't consider how bad he did in his early years of marriage with Marina as a strike against him. Thats like me saying Anthony was super problematic after Edmund died because he went full rake and didn't know how to deal with his siblings. Sorry but yeah Phillip isn't that bad

5)Gareth fully planned to trap Hyacinth into marriage. As in the whole ruinning her was premeditated.

6) Simon. Ok Simon isn't problematic, we can leave him alone. He's just not okay with getting married or having children and will do everything to avoid it including taking the risk of killing a Viscount and lying to his wife about why he doesn't want children, that's not problematic

7) Gregory. Also not that problematic. Stupid as hell, yeah. Problematic, no. Lucy probably wanted him to be a little more problematic if I'm being honest. Maybe take Hermione and ravish her or something. Instead Gregory was all about sticking to Lucy like a loyal puppy and honestly, persistently pursuing an engaged woman he knows will marry a gay man, isn't even in the top ten of behaviors I have problems with. Maybe if Haselby had been straight, I'd be like 'oh my gosh Gregory you can't just go after Lucy she's going to get married next week, why didn't you get your head out of Hermione's grass sooner' but meh it's not like Gregory did anything I personally consider jerk behavior

8) honorable mention to Michael who fell inlove with his cousin's wife and later married said cousins widow because *puts on reading glasses* oh yeah, he was goaded into teaching her what being wicked was like. But yup not problematic at all

My point is that, all your romantic heroes are problematic as hell in one way or another. And that depends on what kind of thing you personally consider romantic when you're reading fiction.

I can freely admit I love my male leads, the more problematic the better. You should have seen me at 16 totally obsessed with Edward Cullen and that phase I went trough where I was seriously into Darth Maul ( good times)

But we're not here to deep dive into my psyche of why liking problematic characters who's behavior I'd never tolerate in real life has provided me a great deal of personal growth, helped me recognize toxic traits in real life men and given me a good idea of the difference between reality and fiction as well as developed my critical thinking skills.

And that's the tea

[cepheusgalaxy]

Snow White Worldbuilding

Araxacy's (pronounce: a-ra-shaa-cy), Snow White's kingdom, lore

Royal family wears lots of red, blue, yellow, purple and black. Red because it means sunrise, blue representing the sky, yellow representing gold, purple representing noblety in general, and black representing wealth and prosperity

Along with white, because white is an easy color to make for clothes, so everybody uses, including the royal family

Araxacy comes from tupi (an indigenous languages spoken here in the brazilian territory that influenced lots of our language), "araxá" (pronounced a-ra-shaa), "the place where sun rises" and "cy", "the mother", so the place's name means "mother of sunrise". I made it up, actually. Many cities and states here are named with tupi words so i wanted to use it in my story. It has this name because it has a really hight mountaint there, where the royal palace is, and the sunrise seen from there is gorgeous

The society is inspired in ancient Europe, but I'm inserting my own culture here (sincerely, who cares it's fantasy worldbuilding)

And since brazilian culture also has lots of influence of African culture too... oh, well...

Patterns are largely used by the people, and patterns along with lots of jelwery and gold are only used by noblety. Like, many many gold.

Servants in the palace usually use simple colors, like white and black, along with some jelwery to show their position

Gender roles aren't really enforced there, though this is a really queerphobic society. Hairstyles are plenty: Bald heads, buzzcuts, 50's curls, long braids, all for both woman and man

Woman can also rule their own territorries, like duchesses and marquises, but for the Throne, usually it is a couple that rules, because ruling a whole country alone is hard af

Prejudices: Mostly, queerphobia and ableism. A little elitism too. There is not mysoginy or racism in this setting.

random, but people also don't use much makeup here

[slow-button-off]

I think those past maybe 5 years at least we ´ve seems that the so called pundits and professionals are more and more doing their job as if they were social media amateurs.

We talk a lot about DTS but really it’s the media coverage as a whole. Sometimes some Yt videos or some technical accounts on twitter are actualy way more informative than the tv or paper coverage.

I don’t think it’s only f1, they want engagement they lean toward viral moments. Sometimes i feel like we are watching twitter discourse live on tv.

They see drivers as characters that have to have a few key characteristics so it’s easier to identify with them... no matter how false those traits are.

Also Charles popularity is both great and a curse. It’s way easier to have a go at him, it will be talked about.

And the mysoginy ... Well they act like they do for every good looking guy... us women we are only interested by looks, we can’t enjoy something seriously our brains are not fully formed it seems. Of course we watch f1 for the looks. Someday we will tell them that those guys wear helmets most of the time. Good look is a bonus but come on there are lot of pretty boys everywhere don’t worry guys. The boys can buy their favorite team shirts, write essays about the beauty of a car filled with sponsors but as soon as a girl do that ...

There are some parallels to draw with the mysoginic takes when musicians are concerned also, especially boys band and young women. We see the same patterns sometimes in f1.

I agree with that.

Random youtubers that don't present themselves as experts or real journalists annoy me but those are essentially just fan accounts and I don't care too much about that.

But you expect a certain amount of insight and knowledge from pundits, experts and journalists and when that is forgotten for the sake of clicks or whatever ego trip they are on in the moment it's just wrong.

They are of course allowed to have opinions but don't pretend they are based on facts when they aren't.

The misogyny is so insane. Like I am so sorry that my favourite driver happens to be attractive. But him being attractive doesn't mean he can't also be good at what he does. And even if someone only likes a driver because they are attractive or if that is what initially drew them into supporting the driver that's perfectly fine.

But being a women and supporting an attractive driver doesn't mean we can't also know our shit. In fact a lot of the newer female fans show a lot of interest and understanding for the technical stuff and the "wheel knowledge". It's just automatically discounted just because we tend to engage with the sport a bit differently.

Yeah, anything that particularly young women like just can not actually be good in the eyes of men.

If Charles being cute and kind bothers them that much they should just be honest and say that with their chest.

[jiannguo]

I'm rewatching Ji Chong's scenes from the Wolf and the wedding thing is frustrating me. First of all the whole prostitute catalog thing just... Like this is the most loyal man, about to marry the love of his life, him checking out prostitutes is so out of character. Like yeah, he talks about it at the very beginning but then we immediately see that it's a facade and that's not what he did with the money he got at all. Because he's not like that. And then in the actual wedding scene, her walking down the aisle to him is paralleled by prince Bo walking to his execution. Because surely marrying the kindest, sweetest, most loyal man who also happens to be an 11/10 is the same as death. She does not deserve him and I don't understand what he sees in her.

Ji Chong, the scriptwriters tried extra hard to portray him as a cassanova hence those incredibly odd cringey moments. I blame the scriptwriter a lot here for making his role so weird. But I do want to add, Xiao Zhan wasn't always the second billed ML in the show. So I'm not surprised his character arc was so carelessly written.

Also, I can't even begin to explain how much I hate Mai ZhaiXing. I often was like, was the scriptwriter high when he was writing her character? Or was it pure mysoginy to make her seem that way? I honestly don't know. Like, what were they smoking? It didn't make sense. Also, people joked after the show ended, that viewers weren't unhappy the main leads died, they just didn't care about them as much 🤣

Her character was butchered tbh. And she's literally the worst developed character in the whole show!!!

Honestly the only redeeming factor of Wolf was the incredible music, awesome Cinematography of Shangri La, and Ji Chong. I really fell in love with him, not as Xiao Zhan but as Ji Chong.

And I'm glad Ji Chong had a cute happy ending with Bao Na.

I do have to add, in defense of the drama, a lot was cut down because of censorship, they wanted the drama to be able to air on TV since it had an original script. So maybe some things would make more sense had the original script retained, we will never know.

Thank you so much for the question anon. Please continue to send me any such queries especially about Xiao Zhan roles.

[d3m0nch1ld333]

Just saw a lot of those kind of quotes about how "special" mother-daughter relationship are. That there is mysoginy at play in families when daughter and father "look down" at the mother as her being "dumb". And something like "the daughter won't be saved from the mother's fate", etc... All of that Ladybird kind of love hate relationship between mother and daughter.

And I get that that's true maybe for most people but it just triggers me so much. It makes me doubt everything again. Maybe yes, my father and I are really mean and cruel with her. Maybe we are the evil ones after all....

But also... She has litteraly hit both of us. She's always manipulating us. No, she has never been stuck in the kitchen. My father has always taken care of the house, she's the provider. I literally like my father better because at least he has apologized. She would never.

I don't know what to do when people post things like that. I just feel my whole world crumble. I hate myself more. I'm just the worst am I? She's the always poor victim.

But isn't mysoginy also thinking that women are always weak, the victims, dumb? A wife beating her husband? Unimaginable. A woman scaring a man? Imposible. If women are equal to man we need to also acknowledge that women can be as evil and violent as men.

No i'll never let myself become like her. I'm not her mirror. I'll rather die than become like her. I'm not her. As she said it herself, I'm not her daughter.

[maddiesbookshelves]

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #1-5 (out of 28 and still going since 1993 LMAO) by Laurel K. Hamilton

Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...

Would I recommend it to anyone? Um, no, not really. Or maybe just out of morbid curiosity but I don't recommend going past book 5 because it gets w i l d from book 6 onwards.

Level of (dis)satisfaction based on the summary and my expectations? It was a re-reading and I knew very well that it wouldn't hold up. I read them for this exact reason so, technically, I got what I wanted...

My thoughts on it? For context, I started reading those books when I was in middle school. At first everything was fine, I didn't see the problems I see in it now as an adult, so for me it was just a cool story with a badass MC who, for once, didn't like vampires. And then they introduced ~* s e x *~ in book 6 (particularly with my least favorite character). At first I was like, ok, it was pretty normal sex. Then there was more and more sex, with more and more people and sometimes at the same time, so my uneasiness was gradually increasing. Until book 12 where she sleeps with a half-transformed werewolf. I noped out after that.

So, immediately in the first book there's this weird thing with a 1 000 year-old vampire with the body of a 12 year-old girl, and they talk several times about her "barely formed breast" and an adult man basically burries his head in them (EW). And then it's just a festival of misogynistic/sexist clichés: every man who is described as somewhat attractive is at least 180cm tall, if they're shorter it means they don't have muscles and aren't sexy, Anita is the small (not even 160cm) woman, pretty but badass and you know she's a badass because she's covered in scars (except on her pretty face) and single (but not for long). Also, she's constantly angry about things that are either her fault or not the fault of the person she's angry at. And sometimes she does things to other characters that would piss her off if they were the other way around, so she's also a hypocrite which is annoying (thankfully she gets called out for that sometimes but that doesn't stop her).

All in all a stong woman, y'know. With fake feminist values to go with it.

Something that makes me laugh though, is that she hates vampires because, you know, they're dead and feed on humans and sometimes even kill them! They're monsters! So she's either like "I don't hate vampires, I just don't think they deserve to have rights and that a good vampire is a dead one!" or "yes I hate them, they're monsters".

Anita's whole relationship with Jean-Claude (a vampire) is basically ~* rape culture *~. He forces her to wear his "marks" so she'll be his human servant (? I don't know the actuel term used in english but you get the idea), and when she finds someone she likes and wants to date (Richard, a werewolf) Jean-Claude threatens to kill him if she doesn't also date him. Like, HHHHHHHHHHHHH. And in later books something happens and she has to accomplish sexual acts to feed on the energy because she has a weird magic bond with Jean-Claude and Richard? Anyways, I have nothing against people with multiple partners but for someone who didn't want to have sex before marriage, lmao.

As I said to my friends: it's a cocktail of bad elements thrown into something that could have been good.

French version under the cut

Est-ce que tu le conseillerais à quelqu’un ? Um, pas vraiment, non. Ou alors par simple curiosité morbide mais je déconseille d’aller au-delà du tome 5 parce que tout part en couilles (avec mauvais jeu de mot) à partir des événements du tome 6.

Niveau de déception/satisfaction par rapport au résumé et tes attentes ? C’était une relecture et je savais très bien que ça allait pas tenir le coup. Je les ai relus exactement pour ça donc techniquement j’ai eu ce que je voulais...

Avis sans spoiler ? Pour que vous ayez le contexte, quand j’étais en milieu/fin collège j’ai commencé à lire ces bouquins. Au début tout allait bien, je voyais pas les problèmes que je vois maintenant donc pour moi c’était une histoire cool avec une héroïne badass qui pour une fois n’aime pas les vampires. Puis à partir du tome 6 y’a commencé à avoir du ~* s e x e *~ (notamment avec le personnage que j'appréciais le moins). Au début c’était “ok”, c’était normal, puis y’a eu de plus en plus de sexe avec de plus en plus de gens différents (pas forcément à des moments différents) du coup c’était de plus en plus malaisant jusqu’au moment où dans le tome 12 elle couche avec un métamorphe à moitié transformé. J’ai nope out après ça.

Déjà dans le tome 1 y’a un délire bizarre de vampire vieille de 1000 ans mais qui a le corps d’une gamine de 12 ans et ça parle plusieurs fois de ses “petits seins à peine formés” et un homme adulte met sa tête dedans (EW). Après c’est un festival de clichés misogynes/sexistes (tous les mecs décrits comme attirants de près ou de loin font plus d’1m85, s’ils sont plus petits c’est qu’ils sont pas sexy et musclés), Anita c’est la petite (même pas 1m60) femme jolie mais badass et tu sais qu’elle est badass parce qu’elle est couverte de cicatrices (mais pas sur son joli minois) et qu’elle est célibataire (mais pas pour longtemps). Aussi, elle s’énerve tout le temps pour des trucs qui sont soit de sa faute, soit pas de la faute de la personne qu’elle engueule. Et des fois elle fait des coups bas à d'autres personnages mais si c’était dans le sens inverse elle pèterait un plomb, donc c’est une hypocrite et c’est très chiant (heureusement parfois elle se fait reprendre pour ça mais ça l’empêche pas de continuer).

Enfin bref, une femme forte quoi. Qui fait du mauvais féminisme, au passage.

Après un truc qui me faisait rire c’est qu’elle déteste les vampires, parce que vous comprenez, ils sont morts, ils se nourrissent d’humains et parfois ils les tuent ! Ce sont des monstres ! Et un coup elle est en mode “je déteste pas les vampires, je pense juste qu’ils devraient pas avoir de droits et qu’un bon vampire est un vampire mort”, un coup elle est en mode “oui, je les déteste ce sont des monstres”.

Toute la relation d'Anita avec Jean-Claude (un vampire) c’est ~* la culture du viol *~. Il la force à porter ses “marques” pour qu’elle devienne sa servante humaine, et quand elle trouve quelqu’un qu’elle apprécie et avec qui elle sort (Richard, un loup-garou) il menace de le tuer si elle sort pas avec lui. Genre HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Et dans les tomes d’après il se passe un truc où elle est obligée de faire des actes sexuels pour se nourrir de l’énergie parce qu’elle a un lien magique bizarre avec Richard et Jean-Claude ? Enfin bref, j’ai rien contre le fait d’avoir plusieurs partenaires sexuels mais pour quelqu’un qui voulait pas coucher avant le mariage, mdr.

Comme j’ai dit à mes amis : c’est un cocktail de mauvais éléments jetés dans un truc qui aurait pu être bon.

[handern]

I think my passion for villains being found families originates from that scene in the Arsene Lupin books where he goes feral and beats up a dude for shooting one of his henchmen then cries that he’s a bad boss while his henchman is like “boss, please. chill I’m not dead.”

[danniburgh]

I WATCHED WANDAVISION EP 1 AND 2 AND I HAVE THOUGHTS

needless to say: SPOILERS

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.

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I ADORE the aesthetic of the first episodes, i love that they even did the accents the tv stars had at the time

THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SHES FROM SOKOVIA THATS JUST STRAIGHT AWESOME

the references in the comercial breaks had me screaming, I'll elaborate:

the toaster: MADE BY STARK INDUSTRIES!!!!!!! is it a direct reference to what wanda may see as the cause of her parents death? is it a reference to her "toaster boyfriend"? is it both?

the watch: STRIKER????? HYDRA????? ALSO WORDPLAY "HYDRA IS WATCHING" like damn lady, also i loved the slight mysoginy of that add

i need to say that almost all the analysis I'm making is based on my experience with desired realities, daydreaming and a bit on my obsession with memory

in ep 1 when ms hart keeps saying "stop it" and she's looking at wanda rather than her husband can be interpreted as Wanda's conscience telling her to fix it, so she gets vision to do it instead because in her mind he's the only one that can

also: when the harts ask them where are they from and when did they meet and how long theyve been married wanda was just so confused and scared and i think it was because when she was creating that reality she didn't think of those small details, there's a lot in the dialog that you can get if you keep in mind that most probably everything it's fake

oh God I just love vision being all over the place trynna beat the Google authentication box

VISION DRUNK ON GUM I REPEAT VISION DRUNK ON GUM

don't you just love paul bettany?

from the first moment they said "for the children" i was like "welp, she's preggo", it was almost as if by just doing the repetition of that phrase she self inserted the idea of babies in her mind and that's why the bump appeared so suddenly

the whole sequence of the talent show can be also read/seen as how wanda is basically running the show, she's pulling the strings and fixing the details of her makeshift reality to fit in it and make it as close to her idea as she can.

on that same note: I'm 76% sure that the reason of her making this family sitcom/cheesy crafted/white picket fences reality it's because when she and vision wanted to be together and settle in they only had 3 star hotels and open 24 hour diner dates, she never had the chance to actually live a normal life with him as she would've wanted so she's creating it now

dude also the title of the fucking show lmao im just going all out with this train of thought: wandavision it's their names yes but also may be because all of this it's just a vision that wanda has of what might've been if he was still there with her??????

I'm still thinking about that freaking red helicopter WHATS GOING ON IS THAT JUST A LITTLE GLIMPSE OF REALITY? IS ANOTHER REALITY LEAKING INTO THE ONE WE ARE WATCHING?

can we talk about agnes for a sec?? shes so cute and sassy i love her, I'm pretty sure she has meaning

wanda really said ✨no✨ on the sewer man, he was in color as well as the red helicopter, which makes me think that, as in the end of episode one with the tv on the desk and the voice on the radio, they're keeping eyes on her, they're trying to get inside to see what is she doing and what, I'm still wondering why the man was dressed as a bee keeper... is it maybe a costume? a cover?

can we also talk about the slight change in music and overall camera work when glimpses of out-of-wandas-reality come about?????? it just changes the mood, the vibe, i can see they might have even used a different camera, different lighting and different techniques because its very unsettling, it's the visual way to tell us that something it's just wrong and make us as upset as wanda feels

THE COLOR TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND THEY LOOKED SO CUTE ALL DRESSED UP IN THEIR COLORS

holy shit elizabeth olsen you gorgeous angel

i loved every second of it I can't wait to watch more 🥺🥺🥺

[pigeonneaux]

Wanna know about Reylo ? 👀

(Spoilers ahead)

So, in the new trilogy, the main character is Rey (no last name), an feral gremlin of an orphan who lives ona desert planet and has learned about the rebellion in ancient texts and loves them. One day she meets Finn (ex stormtrooper) and bb8 (adorable nb droid) and they both say they have to bring bb8 to The Rebellion. Rey, being an adorable nerd, absolutly beams with joy and does this, with adventures along the way. There's also Poe Dameron, super cool pilots and best bud with bb8, who keeps doing heart eyes to Finn and has helped him escape. The bad guy of the story is Kylo Ren aka Quiche Lorraine aka the poser emo son of Han and Leia, who idolizes Darth Vador and wants to rebuild the Space Nazi Dictatorship (it's not subtle : theit logo is black thing in white circle on a red background).

So what kind of ship do we have, here ? Rey(white woman) with Finn (black man), about overcoming what you're born into and being your own hero. There's Finn (black man) and Poe (latino man), about being bickering best friend and saving eachother. Or, there's the white man (Kylo Ren), and you can ship him with Rey to make the Heterosexual White Couple where the woman has to redeem the man.

Please note that during the first film, Kylo tortured Rey (and Poe), and they fought a lot. And Kyle was like "uh maybe i can be saved... SIKE it was a ruse to kill my dad".

In large, the internet flocked to FinnPoe... or to Reylo. The Reylo stan were *unsufferable*, attacking people who were saying that the SpaceDictator was a bad man (one unironically said that people should be nicebeing seeing his dad die in frontof hiseyes surely traumatized him, forgetting that he *killed* him) and making up Tumblr Fake Stories about recieving free crepes by a fellow Reylo shipper, The Most Opressed Group Of All time. Dont get me wrong, there was definetly a large anti-reylo movement, because of the inherent mysoginy of the "she can can save him from himself" trope, the "shipping a woman with her abuser" and the obvious need to thirst on the single white man when John Boyega and Oscar Isaac here here, but the Reylo were sooo much more vocal.

The 2nd movie was super divisive for a lot of reasons, mostly that it didnt look like any other star wars film and subverted a lot of expectations. I wont get into,but i really liked it. There was this whole thing about a secret bad guy forming a mental bond between Rey and Kylo, and Kylo trying to manipulate her to come to the dark side and Rey thinking "Leia is nice, i will do all i can to bring her son back to her and save him". But at the end of the film she realizes he can't be saved if he doesn't *want* to be saved and she cuts the connection bc she's badass. She has empathy for him but she cares about *the million of people he opresses and kill* more. The reactionto the film were EXPLOSIVE, and the Reylo shipper kind of harassed everyone (to be fqire they werent the only one, Mary Tran, the only asian woman of the whole star wars universe, had to delete her social media in part bc he character kissed Finn and in partbc she dared to be an asianwomanin a star wars)

The the 3rd film arrived, and it was... a shit show. Jj abraams retconned all the interesting bits of the 2nd film, Mary Tran character basically disappeared, the latino man was revealed to be a drug dealer, palpatine (bad guy from trilogy 1 and 2) arrived out of NOWHERE, i cant emphasize enough how he was dead and not even metionned before that film, Rey was revealed to be a Super Special hereditary mc guffin and she can bring people back to life now, Finn says "Rey i have something to say to you!" and never says what it is, and Kylo Ren said "mh maybe palpatine is evil, i should repent and be a good guy now". So him and Rey join force in a (granted, impressively choreographed) fight scene, and he dies and she kisses him (which does not bring him back to life despite the tchekov's gun before) and the good guys whin. Jj abraams said later that they should have written a 3 movie scenario instead of making things up as they go. A lot of people theorize that the retcon and the reylo change of heart/redemption arc had come bc of the reylo stan outcry online.

So, there. A brief history of Reylo and why a lot of people (me included) think it sucks. I'm gonna be honest, the Reylo stans are a big part of it.

THANK YOU, I'VE BEEN TOLD IN DM BY TWO PEOPLE AND ALSO SORRY I'M NOT READING ALL THAT

[criticalrolo]

Hey hope you don’t mind me butting in so long after the convo ended but something I didn’t really see get brought up was that a lot of the time the ‘I’m not like other girls’ thing was used as like. A way to imply that said ‘other girls’ were all vapid, shallow Barbie dolls who only cared about makeup and fashion and boys, which is uh. Obviously. Not great. So while obviously swinging too far in the other direction to the point of shaming GNC or butch women for not performing femininity and accusing them of internalized mysoginy is Also Not Great, I feel like the fact that the ‘I’m not like other girls’ uh, phenomenon? was like that is something that needs to be taken into account as to why it started to be seen as a bit of a tacky phrase/stance

oh yeah i know WHY the whole trend started. I did speak earlier about how the whole conversation definitely started in like, feminist discussion circles about how some girls/women will tear down other girls to prop themselves up as a way to relieve some of the pressure of patriarchy. the problem comes when people use "Pick me Girls" and "Not Like Other Girls" as reasons to tear down people who don't conform to traditional femininity. it's traditional gender roles repackaged nowadays that leads to a lot of sexist, homophobic, and transphobic takes.

anyway i've already said everything I wanted to about this, basically people just really like to come up with any reason to hate on women