#am i just being a media boomer

[littlepup93]

Am I the only one who finds new content for old sci-fi media uncanny? Especially in the case of Star Trek, where these new series and movies display brighter environments and sleeker, more advanced technology than series that take place later have.

Like we have Strange New Worlds, but all the characters are dressed in these modernized outfits, most of the consoles are touch screens, and everywhere is brightly lit. Compare that to TOS's pilot with Captain Pike, where the tech feels more analog because that looked sci-fi in the 60s. There was a charm to the old stinkiness.

It feels so disjointed, because most the other series have built off each other. Technology and fashion advanced from TOS to TNG and onward.

I understand our ability to depict these settings cheaply has improved over time, so this is just a reimagining of old things the show didn't have the budget or ability to show well. I'm also not saying SNW is bad, it just feels uncanny to me.

[writeouswriter]

Girl, help, the book authors are trying too hard to be "hip" with the fleeting "teen lingo" and trends again, immediately dating their works before they're even released

[aurosoul]

I'm having to make microvideos for work right now and I'm feeling very knife emoji about it 🔪

social media analytics revealing that 90% of people don't watch more than 10 seconds of video does NOT mean that we need to flood the internet with <10sec clips

it means that we're all chronically over & understimulated due to the fact that advertisements are inescapable!!! and that our focus is a resource that's constantly being drained by increasingly aggressive marketing campaigns!!!!

BUT. you have to make microvideos otherwise the algorithm drops you and literally no one sees what you make. maim kill destroy etc 🔪🔪🔪🔪

[amourem]

watching hsr twt say the xianzhou goes around purging peaceful planets and murdering inhabitants for following yaoshi is insane to me actually. once again. are we playing the same game?

[animentality]

not to be such a boomer, but I think chatgpt is fucking this generation over, at least in terms of critical thinking and creative skills.

I get that it's easy to use and I probably would've used it if I was in school when it came out.

but damn.

y'all can't just write a fucking email?

also people using it to write essays ... i mean what is the point then?

are you gaming the educational system in pursuit of survival, or are you just unwilling to engage critically with anyone or anything?

is this why media literacy is so fucking ass right now?

learning how to write is learning how to express yourself and communicate with others.

you might not be great at it, but writing can help you rearrange the ideas in your brain. the more you try to articulate yourself, the more you understand yourself. all skills can be honed with time, and the value is not in the product. it's in the process.

it's in humans expressing their thoughts to others, in an attempt to improve how we do things, by building upon foundations and evolving old ideas into innovation.

scraping together a mush of ideas from a software that pulls specific, generic phrases from data made by actual humans... what is that going to teach you or anyone else?

it's just old ideas being recycled by a new generation.

a generation I am seriously concerned about, because digital tests have made it very easy to cheat, which means people aren't just throwing away their critical thinking and problem solving abilities, but foundational knowledge too.

like what the hell is anyone going to know in the future? you don't want to make art, you don't want to understand how the world works, you don't want to know about the history of us?

is it because we all know it's ending soon anyway, or is it just because it's difficult, and we don't want to bother with difficult?

maybe it's both.

but. you know what? on that note, maybe it's whatever.

fuck it, right, let's just have an AI generate "therefore" "in conclusion" and "in addition" statements followed by simplistic ideas copy pasted from a kid who actually wrote a paper thirty years ago.

if climate change is killing us all anyway, maybe generative ai is a good thing.

maybe it'll be a digital archive of who we used to be, a shambling corpse that remains long after the consequences of our decisions catch up with us.

maybe it'll be smart enough to talk to itself when there's no one left to talk to.

it'll talk to itself in phrases we once valued, it'll make art derived from people who used to be alive and breathing and feeling, it'll regurgitate our best ideas in an earnest but hollow approximation of our species.

and it'll be the best thing we ever made. the last thing too.

I don't really believe in fate or destiny, I think all of this was a spectacular bit of luck, but that's a poetic end for us.

chatgpt does poetry.

[sirfrogsworth]

I am reminded of when Anita Sarkeesian started doing her videos she would preface them with this quote...

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

Yet people still gave her so much shit for pointing out bothersome things in media. They thought she hated the things they loved. They couldn't wrap their head around the fact that she actually loved much of the media she was critiquing--just as many of them did.

But I always thought that was an important message. It's okay to enjoy things and have misgivings about aspects of those things. Because humans are imperfect and we make imperfect things.

Yet dweebs like Ben would lambast commentary about things being "problematic" and tell people to just enjoy the movie without any further thought.

But now conservatives are so hyper focused on things being "woke" that it has literally impeded their enjoyment. They are unable to set aside the things they don't like.

I see old boomers complaining on my home theater forums that there are no good movies or shows anymore. Meanwhile I feel overwhelmed because I have a list of over a hundred things I have yet to watch. I am drowning in amazing entertainment and literally cannot keep up.

If they keep going like this they aren't going to have any movies or tv shows or music or video games. They aren't going to have any place to eat. No beer to drink.

They are woke-ing themselves into a mundane existence.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

You are aware that Ace and Sabo are brothers. That ship is incest. It would be best if you took it down because of how problematic that is

Warning, this turned into a rant

They are adopted/sworn brothers, so the ship is not technically incest.

If that ship bothers you, several One Piece ships should bother you in between adopted brothers or sworn brothers, but I have seen zero complaints. This includes Buggy/Shanks, those two were raised as brothers as far as we know, and Marco/Ace, who became sworn brothers. Remember, Ace joined The Whitebeard Pirates, AKA the Sons of Whitebeard. They all are sworn brothers. So let's please be coherent in your hypocrisy

Isn't this Tumblr? I can't be that old because I remember the heyday of Superwholock. The two most popular Supernatural ships were Destiel and WinCest. Remember, they were so popular that the Supernatural show even addressed this in its meta episodes. What the hell happened? And I remember the Ouran High School Host Club speech where the twins said the whole appeal behind them is when you have two attractive guys who struggle between their attraction and their friendship. Plus, because they're twins, it makes their relationship taboo so even more intriguing. So they were hyper-aware of what they were doing with their whole queerbating/twincest thing, and Tumblr ate that crap up.

It's one of those things where it's fiction, so it's not real, so it's okay because no actual person is being harmed by whatever problematic content is portrayed in whatever fictional media. I personally have zero problems with the most problematic content. But that doesn't include all problematic content. I do have lines when it comes to child characters and lollies. That's why there are rules on my blog. But I can also separate fantasy from reality, and if you can't, you probably need to talk to someone about that because that's a problem.

Again, seriously, what the hell happened to the fandom culture on Tumblr? Why are the moral purity police everywhere? I joined fandoms and Tumblr to escape the oppressive Bible thumpers that I grew up around. Why am I now encountering more oppressive moral policing online from fandom idiots than I do from the Church Karens in real life? I live in the conservative Bible Belt. Those Church Karens are everywhere and in everyone's business

Sorry for my rant. I am tired, and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened. I've been on Tumblr on and off since 2010, and I feel like I hardly recognize this community anymore. Now, I have been made aware of the anti-shippers/ anti-fandom movement, and I know it's not just a minor thing because this is something I have found multiple academic research papers on. I'll link a good one. But I pray it's something else cuz these are just kids who don't know better at the moment. I hope one day they will realize this behavior is the equivalent of the Boomers blaming all of the Gen Z and Millennial behaviors. They don't like on violent video games. Again, sorry for the rant

[saintsenara]

How are you able to enjoy toxic/unhealthy/“problematic” ships/characters without feeling weird (for lack of a better word) about it?

I ask this because I want to be able to do this myself as it seems like a much more enjoyable way of engaging with fiction to me. I can get over some ships just being toxic and the characters not being good together and still enjoy their dynamic but I have trouble with the other ships that feel morally wrong. I know it’s just fiction but I can’t seem to get over the ick feeling I have when I think about those ships/characters. I feel like I’m being too puritanical about these things but I don’t know how to stop feeling like something is gross when I feel it’s gross…

Do you have any tips to stop jumping to moralizing ships/characters?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i'm going to be upfront that this reflexive gross feeling isn't something i've ever really struggled with - both in fic and more broadly. this is due to various personal idiosyncrasies, above all the fact that i've got disengaged boomer parents who didn't police our media consumption [my favourite book when i was eleven? lolita...] and that i'm a doctor, which is a profession which requires you to develop a very high threshold for what you find disgusting. the human body - at all stages of its life-cycle and its cycle of decomposition - produces a lot of different fluids... and it's also the case that [just as if you can think of it, there's porn for it] if an inanimate object exists, somebody somewhere has got it stuck inside them...

and so the situation that i find myself in is that i consider it infinitely less weird that i enjoy the odd bit of hot tomarrymort action than that i actively enjoy cutting through bone with a saw...

but, obviously, "get a medical degree" isn't particularly helpful advice...

i am a ride-or-die fan of the concept of stepping outside of your comfort zone. this is why i'm such an avowed multishipper - i think it's good for us as fandom citizens to examine the potential of our faves in relationships [romantic or otherwise] which are either not their canon endgames or which aren't our preferred pairings, and in situations which don't align with their canon experiences [whether that means making them suffer or giving them full-on fluff]. it draws out the multiple aspects of a character to consider them from these different angles - and it prevents us from getting so stuck in one interpretation of a character or configuration of a ship which means that it puts our backs up to stumble across stories which approach things differently.

but stepping outside of your comfort zone doesn't mean that you have to go enormously far. it may be that a reader decides - having only ever read teen-rated fics where characters' sex lives don't extend beyond hand-holding and forehead kisses - to take the plunge into an explicit piece filled to the brim with watersports and age play. it may be that a reader decides - having only ever read teen-rated fics for one canon pairing - to read a teen-rated fic for a non-canon alternative. both of these are entirely valid approaches.

by which i mean, our comfort levels and our thresholds for discomfort are subjective, they're personal. if there are ships or themes or characters you don't want to read about because they don't feel good... you're not doing something wrong if you avoid them. exposing yourself to fics you expect to make you uncomfortable can be useful - and fiction is certainly a way to explore discomfort which gives you much more control over the experience than encountering it in real life - but it's not something you're obliged to do to be active in fandom.

the thing you are obliged to do to be active in fandom is to be nice to other people, no matter what their tastes in fiction. this means, at its fundamental level, that when you see people who ship pairings or like themes which make you think "ew"... you keep it to yourself/the group chat rather than putting it on the timeline.

but, once this is something you've got the hang of [which takes a bit of time! but practice makes perfect!], something i feel can be a really useful way of overcoming a tendency towards knee-jerk moralising reactions is to just vibe in the vicinity of people you know like the content you instinctively feel is gross.

this doesn't mean you have to read any of this content - but you'll learn just by hanging out near them that the people who do are just... normal. one minute they might reblog a rec for a pairing you think "absolutely not" about, the next they might reblog a cat picture which makes you squeal with delight. you'll like some of their content, but not all. you'll agree with some of it, but not all. you might like progressively more of it as you spend time in their orbit - maybe they'll explain why they like the pairing or character in question and you'll think "huh, i've never looked at it like that" - or you might not. this is absolutely fine.

all of us - at one time or other - have made a black-and-white moralising pronouncement: people who think x are gross; people who like y are fucked-up, you'd never catch me doing z. and these pronouncements are different from our wider, societally-influenced moral codes - which are good things, otherwise we'd live in the purge - in that they're fundamentally ways for us to feel good about ourselves and our families and our friends by defining ourselves as better than a faceless other. we say "you'd never catch me reading that, it's foul" when we know [or think we know] that the friend we're talking to would agree with the statement. we are far less likely to say it if we know that the friend - whom we see as a human being who is beautiful in their imperfection and inherently worthy of love simply by virtue of being alive - was reading and enjoying that just the other day.

and so the best way to train yourself out of reflexively moralising ships or characters or tropes is to put a face to the faceless other who likes them. be intentional in sharing a space with fans of the stuff you feel uncomfortable with and, eventually, it just becomes background noise. you'll scroll on tumblr, say "well there we are, jane's written some more of her sirius/harry piss kink fic - although i'm not interested in clicking on it" and go on with your day.

because the other thing i think it's really useful to do is to train yourself into reframing your disgust as disinterest. there are plenty of things which i don't seek out to read - and some of these topics are completely benign and some are darker [i don't enjoy reading explicit non-con, for example] - but this is because i try to frame it as that i don't think these things would interest me.

this is still the maintenance of a personal comfort zone, but thinking of the content outside this zone as something you are disinterested in turns it into something neutral. when you think of it as something to be disgusted or grossed out by, it naturally provokes a visceral response which makes you look through a moral lens. thinking in terms of disinterest, instead, gives you sufficient detachment from this visceral response to recognise, interrogate, contextualise, and control it.

and - in time - this neutral reframing may result in you feeling more interested in taking the plunge into the ships and characters and stories you currently don't vibe with, once you don't have an instinctive disgust response as a barrier.

or it may not. and this is absolutely fine.

[magpod-confessions]

i fucking hate that ask equated characters being run down to a younger audience. like. shut the fuck up!! can i not enjoy something complex just because im fourteen? can i not understand complex characters just because im fourteen? am i just not fucking allowed to enjoy something meant for "twenty six year olds" just because im fourteen? yes, characters are watered down in the fandom, everyone fucking talks about that all the fucking time. why the fuck do you have to equate that to younger people enjoying the media. i get the sort of view they have some bullshit "all young people are stupid" boomer horsecrap but like fucking just shut the fuck up and let people of all ages enjoy media. if you dont like an interpretation and equate it to an age group, whoop dee fucking do block and move the fuck on. stop discouraging teenagers from enjoying content "made for adults"(not talking about legitimate adult content but instead talking about things like television and books and shit)

sincerely,

a fourteen year old tma fan

.

[blueapplesiren]

I’m about to go on a rant about infantilization and growing up in the modern world, so if you don’t feel like reading it, feel free to scroll on.

I refuse to accept the narrative that gen Z has “Peter Pan syndrome” or that we “can’t seem to grow up.” I refuse. I KNOW it’s wrong, because I AM growing up, and so are my friends and peers. I’ve participated in elections. I have worked several jobs at this point; when I messed up at those jobs, I faced the consequences and made them right to the best of my ability. I’ve made good decisions that helped me grow as a person. I’ve made BAD decisions that helped me grow as a person. I’m learning to care for my body and mind. I’ve cared for the young, the sick, and the elderly. I am actively integrating myself into my community and society as a force for good.

Yes, I still live at my parents house, but so do many functioning adults of modern day, and people have continued living with their families as adults for CENTURIES. Moving out is not the end-all-be-all of adulthood that many Boomers and Gen X’ers think it is.

Yes, I read fiction, play video games, watch animated movies and cartoons. SO DO MILLIONS OF FUNCTIONING ADULTS. Can you imagine what it would be like if as soon as you turned 18 you were only allowed to indulge in media deemed “mature enough” for you by other people? That would SUCK, and that would be STUPID.

I’m just so sick of being infantilized from so many angles by people who don’t even know me, and I’m sick of my peers being treated the same way. I reject the attempts to belittle and infantilize me because of circumstances outside of my control. I reject the narrative that I am doomed to be helpless and childish forever. I am growing up. I am getting stronger and smarter every day. That is my right and my destiny, and I claim it as mine.

[rebornologist]

I’m nominating Basil for the nation’s boyfriend this year because...

He's perfect and unproblematic and wonderful. He is who I mean when I say "not all men". The bar is no longer subterranean with him. The old Japanese dialect is not an ick for you. Please just give my thoughts the time of day.

He absolutely adores watching historical dramas with you, and will spend free days cuddling under soft blankets on the couch with entertainment from the cheesiest soap-opera trope-ridden shows. The only annoying thing about watching these shows with him is that he’s a straightforward and solution-driven man. He always goes off mumbling about how things would not have spiraled out of control in the show if people communicated and weren’t like, evil and weird about it. That gives you fodder to rant to him about how the shows are stupid and that you have no idea why the two of y’all are so hooked on them. The two of you do have a ton of inside jokes as a result.

“So.. [y/n], what sayest thou is.. the Japanese they speak in this show is not the modern dialect?” You nearly spit out your tea as you fought back the bout of laughter at his realization, and soon you were guffawing at the top of your lungs, feet kicking into the air as you doubled over into his lap in happy hysterics.

Speaking of being in his lap, I think he smells like barley tea and rice flour and warm, freshly washed and sun-dried cotton. There are some evenings where he's finishing paperwork and he would allow you to take a nap in his lap as he shuffles through the files and forms. He smells so good y’all please throw your arms around him, pull him close, and get the biggest hit of pure warmth and comfort. I would sleep like a baby in his presence fr.

He would be the perfect boyfie because he’s a professional errand runner. Studying into the AM or working overtime? Schedule permitting, he’s on his way with a soft warm hug, a blanket, a sweet treat, and your favourite snacks.

He makes a mean matcha or hojicha latte, and makes them pretty regularly for you as your daily dose of caffeine (unless you don’t do caffeine, in that case.. he would simply learn how to perfect your morning drink of choice).

Basil loves quality time, but y’all absolutely cannot have it all because he’s so busy and overworked. He handles it like a champ, surprisingly, and complains very little (if at all) about work, but you do notice that he falls asleep nearly instantly when he comes back to you after being away.

There is nothing in the world more comforting than laying his head in your lap or on your chest and wrapping his arms around you, snuggling close and feeling your fingers threading through his flaxen locks, smoothing them out, fiddling with split ends, and massaging his scalp. You’re always the first one to nag him (playfully) about his bangs getting long again and asking him what he intends to do with his hair now that it’s gotten to that length.

He’s the one I’d totally pin as more traditionally romantic, like, writing love letters and leaving them by your pillow, with your morning tea/coffee, slipping it into your work bag before he leaves for another excruciating span of time, and of course, sending them your way while he’s away.

If you want an offline bf, he is the one, babes. He cannot wrap his head around social media, and upon thinking about it, begins to ponder the negative psychological effects of observing the self and being constantly pressured to present the self and one’s brand online. He's not against other people being online and having social media, but he's the kind of guy that texts like a boomer and doesn't know what a meme is. He will absolutely like and comment on your instagram posts (or allow you to like and comment on your own posts from his device) if asked.

He didn’t know what memes were until Iemitsu started sending them in their correspondence (and Iemitsu sends the most outdated memes from like 2000 that nobody thought they would ever see again in their lifetime). Now the closest thing to a meme you’re getting from Basil is a photo of some samurai painting from the history museum and a follow-up text message, “me when I’m away from my wife/husband/spouse because I am fighting for honor and glory in the war” like HELP???!! WHO IS THIS?!?!

However, he loves photography. There’s something very valuable to him about immortalizing a moment through photos, but he isn’t a “the camera eats before we eat” kind of guy, he’s the guy that likes to take pictures of waterfalls and cool native plants and rare birds to commemorate his adventures. It's the best way to keep a piece of a space while leaving no trace.

He keeps a journal and shares some of the entries with you during your quality time together. He likes to save fallen leaves or flowers from different regions that he comes across, being mindful to press them dry and make sure that he isn’t moving plant pathogens around in his nostalgia notebook.

Basil is really good with his hands and is fairly skilled at dexterity-based crafts such as weaving, calligraphy, and he absolutely excels at origami. He would never tell you this, (because he has his fair share of secrecy due to the nature of his work, and the weight of his human heart, of course) but he folds up some of his failed poems to you in the complex origami that he gives you. He knows that you would never unfold his work, so in a way, he gets to deliver the half-baked expressions of his feelings about you without the vulnerability and potential embarrassment of how impossible it is to put into words (as eloquently as he would like, anyway).

ok thank u for reading my 900 word Basilicum/You pitch. Basil for The Nation's Bf 2024 ♡ ♡ Basil for National BF Day 2024 that is my message good night xx

lil nsfw hc utc.

Service top Basilicum I’m sorry y’all he’s such a giver and so so so so sweet and patient and attentive about it please help us lord I absolutely love the concept of him hovering over his love as he rocks his hips slowly into them, reveling in every soft mewl and gasp and whimper that escapes them as they squirm and wrap their legs around his waist.

His heart might actually burst when you catch the stray strands of his long bangs slipping into his face and tuck them behind his ear, holding his face lovingly as you gaze up at him. Man, you love it so much when he comes home.

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

No but full stop. if you say anything like "Gen Alpha is being raised wrong/horrible to have in class/morally fucked-up/idiotic/doomed/just really really cringe" I will unironically lose all respect for you immediately.

all this stuff about "they're illiterate", "they have no respect for parents or teachers" "screens have rotted their brains" "they just speak in weird Skibidi Toilet Gyatt Rizz Meme Language" "the screens have made them have no behavior standards or morals" "the ScReEeEeEeEnsssss"

...you sound literally exactly like our parents' generation did with us. and elder millenials'/Gen X/even really late boomer's parents' generations did with them about video games and cable tv and...regular tv

and radio

and records

and. dime novels.

and it literally just goes back like that forever

OVID talked abt this stuff in the EXACT same way

so yeah, if you say that stuff without a shred of self-awareness, then I

1) do not think you can keep your commitment to "not fuck up future generations like we were fucked up", since you're contributing to that fucking-up right now by your words and actions.

2) will assume that you have a similar shortsightedness in other issues that require you to compare your own/modern-day views and events to historical ones, and lose faith in your interpretation of everything from aesthetics and online drama to world-altering current events because of that

3) genuinely I just have nothing but disappointment in people who say these things. anyone on this site who hates "icky gen alpha things" almost definitely did the same thing themselves.

They have "Gyatt", we* had GLOMPING, Yaoi Paddles, shitty mspa twerking gifs everywhere, and "Oh My God, Look At Her Butt"

They have "Rizz" we had "YOLO SWAG" and "I made you a cookie but I eated it" and those selfies where you held your camera up too high and then looked up at it from under your bangs

They have "Skibidi Toilet" we had SO MANY THINGS. Llamas with Hats. Charlie the Unicorn. Annoying Orange. Crazy Frog. Potter Puppet Pals. Minecraft Parodies if you're younger gen z. friCKING TOBUSCUS MUSIC, that man was a PLAGUE.

They have a toxic social media culture focused on heavily edited and unachievable beauty standards, enforced popularity culture, rigid aesthetic-based social groups, harmful rumors about health & beauty, a pressure on young girls to act mature, and underlying racism/classism, all leading kids who dont have adequate guidance to, AT BEST, try beauty "products" that arent meant for kids and are usually scams. We had... literally the exact same thing except our airbrushing was on celebs and models instead of coming from filters.

*I am older Gen Z (24 y.o.) but was so fucking sheltered until ~2014, and even then... I'm going off tumblr-history blogs, yt retrospectives and "my friend said so" to understand what "we" had

TLDR STOP BULLYING GEN ALPHA

...except about "Starpatch" or "Starface" or whatever it is. yes, ik its also popular/more popular with younger gen z. yes I'm literally making a post rn to bully(lh) yall JUST as hard about it. if it were my exact age group doing this I would be bullying yall. i dont care who does it, starpatch is so fricking silly.

[batwynn]

as a trans person i am beyond disgusted by tumblr's actions and i honestly want to bail out of this hellsite (and i'm not even calling it that affectionately). but twitter is run by conservatives and elon musk, facebook is full of bigoted boomers, instagram is all ads and tiktok is government spyware. i just don't know any safe social media anymore where i can post pictures and art that doesn't either get flagged, harassed or sold to AI.

They sure do love making us desperate for safe spaces to exist and have a community so that they can slide in some of the worse policies and hope that we just let it go instead of being forced to become more and more isolated. I’m sure that’s fine, right? And nothing horrific happens to people in isolation, right?

[shadowfromthestarlight]

Gen X is by far the best generation to work for in my experience.

They're chill and they're open to new ideas, but they don't just toss all propriety out the window. They're helpful and genuinely want the new people to succeed. They treat people equally without going woke. They understand that people have obligations outside of work and they take those seriously, without taking work less seriously. They care more about the work being done than when and where it gets done. They don't think it's their place to monitor what their employees are doing 24/7. They don't think it's their place to judge how other people choose to structure their careers. They don't hide their beliefs, but they're not going to get mad about other people's politics, either.

tl;dr their attitude towards work is actually rational.

Boomers: I must see everyone in the office so that I can tell what they're doing at all times!

Millennials: I must go to the office to prove how dedicated I am!

Zoomers: I'm just going to pretend to work for an hour in a coffee shop while posting on social media about the future of work and planning my next safari.

Gen Alpha: Wait, there's a world that exists outside my iPad?

Gen X: I care more about work getting done than when and where it gets done.

Boomers: How dare my employees have a life outside of working for me?

Millennials: Embrace the GRIND! Fuck yeah, surviving on coffee and Ramen noodles while sweating away under fluorescent lights for people who hate me! #discipline is key!

Zoomers: We should only be working 15 hours a week and the rest should be spent in luxury hotels sipping cocktails by the infinity pool.

Gen Alpha: Work? I just wanna be a TikTok star. That's not work, right?

Gen X: Yeah, people need to work so that we can have the goods and services that keep society running. But work is one of multiple priorities in a person's life. I'm not gonna sacrifice my health and miss out on my kids' childhoods for work... but I'm still going to do my work. Crazy, I know.

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

On Katara and feminism in NATLA

I grew up with ATLA. I was exactly Katara’s age when ATLA started to air in my country, and this cartoon has taught me more about life than I’d like to admit. Among them, was feminism.

I was absolutely obsessed with Katara as a kid: back then strong female characters - who were BOTH girlish and strong! – were still quite rare in mainstream media. I absolutely loved to see this girl who was raised in a patriarchal society similar to mine, who was both girly and an absolute badass even in days she didn’t know how to properly waterbend.

Back in those days, they were airing the episodes in order and I was super excited to see her FINALLY learn how to properly waterbend once they reach the North Pole. So when Paku refused to teach her for BEING A GIRL, as a preteen girl myself, I was ENRAGED.

Then Katara did something crazy. She freaking defied a waterbending master, knowing that she had no chance of winning whatsoever. And guys, I swear that fight became a core memory for me. On our crusty Windows XP’s desktop, there was a gif downloaded over several minutes of that exact fight. And I would watch it. On loop. When Katara defied Paku, I felt empowered, and that feeling never left.

Now that I am done with my lame ass backstory, back to NATLA.

You can imagine how EXCITED I was to finally see that fight in 4K. At that point, I was already pissed that they removed Sokka’s sexist flaws and subverted his dynamics with him, rather than Katara being “the parent” of the group (which was outrageous, if you ask me. One of the main character traits of Katara was her being a mother figure at an early age, which explained why she always felt like she HAD to be the responsible one, and why she had so much repressed rage).

But Katara’s struggle with the Northern Tribe over her right to learn how to use waterbending for fighting? That, in my opinion, was epic! Why?

Katara’s fight with Paku was a premediated act

In the original series, Paku says that girls can’t learn how to waterbend, and in a moment of rage, Katara whips him in the neck. I agree that it was a totally badass move, and it made especially sense given her drive to learn waterbending for fighting.

But I also really liked how NATLA approached that: in NATLA, when Katara learns that she cannot waterbend to fight, she doesn’t immediately attack Paku. No, she takes the time to think about it, talk about it with Aang, with Sokka. Then, she decides to defy Paku.

In a way, her action is a protest: she isn’t angry at Paku personally, she is angry at the sexist rules he perpetuates. In a way, this calculated way of deciding to fight shows a certain emotional maturity and dedication to the cause of feminism.

I really liked it.

The resolution of the fight

One thing that really disturbed me in the cartoon was how that fight scene was resolved. My preteen brain couldn’t make sense of why Paku suddenly decided to teach Katara how to fight after realising that her grandma was his ex-fiancé. Like, where is the connection??

My adult brain understands that Gran Gran had fled the Northern Water Tribe because of their sexist rules and hence Paku understood that him abiding to those sexist rules was wrong. But still, it feels so odd. Tell me which 60-70 year old boomer would suddenly change their mind about basically 90% of their world view because their ex happened to have fled from them because that world view? You tell me that Paku didn’t have enough time to rationalise in his wicked brain why Gran Gran left with a more nefarious motivation, or hell, just because she didn’t like him enough to get married?

Whereas in NATLA, we see that Paku’s approval doesn’t come all so easy: he does acknowledge Katara’s waterbending talents (a feat that also happens in the cartoon), but he still refuses to teach her. Because it isn’t about talent. It is about principle. And he is a dinosaur with sexist principles.

On the other hand, who is more open-minded to new ideas and social change? Who circles Katara following her defeat and admire her for her fight with Paku? It’s the youth! Social change is usually driven by the youth, and here we see that while the old rulers of the Northern Water Tribe are still sexist af, the young people are the ones who are ready to embrace a more equalitarian society.

Women in war

So then, when does Paku change his mind on letting women fight? During the attack on the Northern Water Tribe. They are outnumbered and they need more benders: lo and behold, Katara has the brilliant idea of bringing in the women. Now, I don’t say that that was actually a brilliant idea: strategically speaking, it is kinda stupid sending your HEALERS to the FRONTLINES to die while they could be much more useful saving the wounded. Nevertheless, I like the inclusion of the women into the battle in a symbolic level: in history, we see that most women’s rights were obtained during and in the aftermath of big conflicts. When men are fighting and there is a shortage of manpower, you employ women to work at the factories, or in the direst cases, you let women fight. This was a cool nod to that phenomenon happening. Also, if literally every man was already wounded or perished, it kinda makes sense that women take up the arms, so the “healers fighting isn’t strategically sound” argument doesn’t hold perfectly either.

Women of patriarchy

Lastly, one thing I really liked about NATLA is how not only Paku, but also the female healing master was sternly against women learning how to fight with waterbending. The healing master in the cartoon was softer, gentler, whereas here, she was even more vocal than Paku in grilling Katara for wanting to fight. This is such a great display of internalised sexism, but also how women in power in patriarchy may be vehement defenders of the status quo because it helps them to keep whatever power they have.

Oh, and in a final note, Katara’s reply to Zuko’s “you have found a waterbending master!” was absolutely horrendous. I may have liked how most of that arc was treated, but GOD, somebody give that girl a proper master to learn how to waterbend, because I don’t believe one second that a child with only ONE waterbending scroll can become a MASTER with self-study. The way Katara was managing to become a waterbending master in the span of weeks in the original series was already weird (and for those who weren’t fans before, it did attract quite some criticism in the fandom spheres back when it aired), but NATLA just took it and made it worse.

Nonetheless, I think that NATLA tried their best. And I appreciate that they tried to give ATLA a new twist, even though it didn’t land perfectly.

Everyone seems to be focusing on the bad of the show, so I felt compelled to share my two cents.

[saiwriting]

Freelancing, Writing, Getting Paid-A Rant Blurb

by Saiya Soublet

I'm going to start screaming at all times of the day if I don't find a way to make money off of my writing soon. Like, in a weeks time soon. I swear I'm doing everything I can and yet it seems as though the money and recognition pervade me. Honestly, I understand that this is a universal struggle with the economy we're in here in America and even globally tbh.

If you know of ANY opportunities, even if it lands me a minimum of $1,000 this week, I would love to capitalize off of it and get my name as a writer out there as well. What's so funny is that I am confident I could win many writing contests, but most of them have entry or reading fees and that is so scammy and terrible. Being jaded about the whole ordeal of having to pay to even be successful as a writer (even in the freelance world where I should be the one getting paid??) is probably repellant of the blessings and money I could be bringing forth, but it's difficult not to be. Everything is for profit and not indicative of a love of the craft of writing anymore per say.

To all of this, I have to say, why? Why is it so difficult to find people who love poetry? Why is it so difficult to make a presence for myself on social media? I feel as though my priorities or the way I'd like to go about expressing MYSELFon the internet is not in alignment with what gets you seen and what gets you popular, but if I need drama or talking about topics pertaining to other people in order to get recognized, then I'm good. I have no interest in gossip or dogpiling the next influencer we all disagree with because I see the toxicity of that space even when it's presumably all jokes and everyone "gets along." My socials should never revolve around conflict.

Sometimes I'm conflicted with the idea that writing and poetry in general are not compatible with social media success because, like, no one reads anymore these days. That's my boomer take. I write for those willing to take the time to read, and it seems as though that is a rapidly dying audience.

Anyway, just a quick little rant post this morning since I've been feeling frustrated lately. I just feel as though I have so much of quality to share and write about, but it's hard when you also have to live and survive. It'd be nice if someone admired the way that I wrote so much that they just paid me to live so that I may keep writing what I love to write or even write what they'd like me to write. Bring back the old days of commissioning an artist to do something for you and paying for their livelihood, haha. If you know of any opportunities, hit my line. Otherwise, much love.

I only wish to exude positivity and deep soul-wrenching poetry that moves the masses. It's not hard and comes from my spirit, so I am in flow with what the universe has in store for me. I just also know that that just so happens to not be the starving artist archetype.