#am not native american

[ssseriema]

yea that anon is just parroting stuff with no source. facepaint is used in almost every culture and is only a native stereotype if the character itself is supposed to be native or dressing up like it. i cant count the amount of times ive seen indigenous artists get harassed by nonnatives claiming theyr appropriating their own culture bc they just heard somebody say it on twitter

youre all anons in my inbox. like i already said, i dont know about this stuff, im not indigenous, so if theres a potential that im doing something wrong, i want to avoid it or correct it. thats all there is to it for me. i understand that this is a nuanced topic but im not equipped to discuss it

[dkettchen]

she would've told them unlike her canon! version who decided not to be an ally smh

[shu-of-the-wind]

GUYS THIS IS....SO FUCKING IMPORTANT

this is so...it's so overdue but the amount of IMPACT this would have i am so,,,i am weeping at this. deb haaland the work that you're doing is incredible and you've been my hero for years but my GOD i would die for you

$23 BILLION YOU GUYS. DO YOU KNOW THE CHANGE THAT WOULD MAKE. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT COULD DO FOR PEOPLE

THIS WOULD CHANGE THE WHOLE FUCKING GAME HOLY SHIT

[barbreypilled]

yayyy horse girls (they have no idea I’ve decided they are distant Ryswell cousins) (imagine fighting for ur life in the red waste meanwhile u share a common ancestor with the manager of a subway)

[will-pilled]

"Being poor is a choice, you can get out of it if you work hard."

I live with 4 people, one of which is a child. I work a full time job. So does another. And the third works two part times.

We have no heating. Our electric keeps getting shut off. We didn't have anything AT ALL to drink for 3 days.

You REALLY fucking think we choose to live like this? You think I want to fucking FREEZE right now as I type? FUCK all the out of touch lucky people saying this shit.

Is it possible to get out of a poor family? Yes. But the majority of the time your area of living is what predicts your wealth.

[elvisqueso]

"Our warriors fought with courage, but none as bravely as Kocoum."

Pocahontas (1995)

long, rambling meta under the cut:

you know i've taken some light dips into the tags looking for content on kocoum and i never see anyone going into depth about him as a character. sure you see the posts that are all "omg he was so hot pocahontas should have picked him instead :p" but that has little to do with his character or his place in the narrative or anything. in fact, it's a further objectification of a guy who is already dehumanized in-narrative, which is so very sad to me. kocoum is a lot more than his looks, which is why they're the first thing about him you're meant to notice. he's handsome, and he doesn't smile. he's a warrior and a stoic kinda guy. but that's all surface-level stuff. he's a very complex person with an intense internal turmoil that circumstances aren't allowing him to deal with properly.

like, you really can't come to an understanding about his character and go on to say "and he should have been with pocahontas" bc the fundamental aspect of their relationship as characters is that they would have been terrible for each other. you could feasibly make an argument that, on some level, kocoum would have been good for pocahontas (the "handsome, sturdy husband" who could ground her), but there is no way in any universe that pocahontas would have been good for him, bc the one who actually needed and wanted a steady, reliable partner is kocoum and pocahontas is the opposite of that (which is one of the reasons she and john smith kind of deserved each other but that's a whole other post).

see, kocoum is like a hemingway protagonist. remember, at the start of the movie, everyone is returning from war; it's important to note how much emphasis the movie places on family as a representation of "the ordinary world." the same is done with the virginia company members at the top of the film. there, they say goodbye to their normal lives and start an adventure. here, the powhatan warriors are returning to theirs. but who does kocoum, the celebrated warrior, have to return to?

kocoum doesn't have a normal life yet. he still belongs to the battle. there's a lot to be said about PTSD as a character motif in this film: it affects a lot of the major characters in different ways. for kocoum, it means he's not allowed to depart from his wartime mindset until and unless he can start a family of his own, and for that he pins his hopes on pocahontas. why exactly he likes her goes unsaid; it's implied they aren't particularly close, but may be familiar with each other. pocahontas being the chief's daughter may be an element, but it may also be that he's harbored an admiration for her from afar for some time. whatever the reason, kocoum has a misplaced idea that being with pocahontas will bring him peace. like a hemingway protagonist, he's taken up with the notion that being with a woman, an angel, will fix him; but the woman he wants is neither interested in doing so nor able to do so, whether or not she cares for him.

and this is why his outburst of emotion when he finds pocahontas and john in the glade is so understandable. he's watching his hopes for the future being ripped apart before his eyes. he'll never get peace, and that breaks him and then kills him.

and when i say he's dehumanized, i'm talking about the way characters talk about him and then how he dies. he's fierce, like a bear. he's handsome, but doesn't smile. he's a tool, an obstacle, and ultimately fodder for both pocahontas's and thomas's character development (mostly thomas's). there's something to be said about how both kocoum and his foil john smith are objectified so differently. where john is the subject of pocahontas's female gaze, kocoum is also objectified through a masculine one (the tension-filled lens that marries fear and admiration for athletic, warrior men and rivals). and then, again, he gets 'fridged for plot reasons because he's also the paris to pocahontas's juliet.

basically what i'm saying is kocoum really needed someone to take care of him, and no one did nor could. and that's why he's so tragic and tbh deserves better treatment by the fans, too.

[wilcze-kudly]

I will also say that zutara fans talking about Katara being "drawn more maturely in her scenes with Zuko" and even focusing on her breasts and hips is WILD when one of the most famous stories concerning Native American women is the rape of a like 10 year old by a man colonising her land.

Btw, Irene Bedard, the actress who voice acted for Pocahontas also starred in Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee which is about the life of Mary Brave Bird, activist and member of the American Indian Movement, and about her participation in the Siege at Wounded Knee in 1973. You can find the whole movie on YouTube.

It a very fun and thought provoking watch and Irene Bedard did a wonderful job playing the lead, despite this being her first acting role! She even became the first Native American woman nominated for the Golden Globe Award for this role (Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television)!

So if you're looking for a really good movie starring a Native American woman, I recommend this one! It breaks the mold for a lot of tropes and streotypes around Native American women in media and you get to learn about a cool activist too.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

It's actually fascinating what information organizations include for their demographics

My hospital profile lists me as lutheran (I'm not; my family are), and obviously they have jewish as a whole category. They have three different "types" of lutheran (I still don't know the differences between these), jainism, native american (I wonder if native religions have names; surely you can't lump them all as one big category when there are three lutheranisms listed?), and zoroastrianism (which is extra neat considering zoroastrians make up around 0.0029-0.01% of the population of the USA and we live in a very small town), and a few other options

But then the only ethnic background you can choose is ashkenazi jew? No sephardi, no mizrahi, just ashki? Yes, it is true that more ashki jews emigrated to the USA and therefore make up the majority of the population of USA jews, but ashki aren't the only "types" of jews with an ethnic background 😭

[severalowls]

Cottagecore instagrammers stripping the protective varnish off antique furniture so that it looks rustic because people in ye olden days absolutely under no circumstances varnished or waxed their furniture so it wouldn't turn into piss after one particularly damp season.

Historical aesthetics based on stained old furniture left as an unfinished project in an architectural salvage warehouse for 15 years after the owner stripped off 2 inches of landlord white that was trendy for 6 months in 2004 to see if any of the original finish had survived or the wood was in good condition (it had not, it was not)

[orionsces]

katniss everdeen my homegirl <3

[blizardopoly]

kind of interesting how mr jeffrey probst does not say “come on in guys” anymore to be more inclusive with his language, and yet, they still call them tribes

[every-sanji]

[autismguy55]

controversial, but: jack being irish is a very common headcanon and i honestly just can’t see it. in chapter 2, jack says “we’re english, and the english are best at everything.” if lotf takes place in the 40s-50s like many assume, the irish war of independence had only happened about 20 years prior and ireland was freshly liberated. i’m sure we all know the atrocities the english committed against the irish, and i just don’t think an irish kid would say “the english are best at everything,” especially so soon after ireland gained independence. i don’t mean to bash anyone by the way, this is only my opinion

[ciderjacks]

Also ok I need to sleep but deadloch is such a good satire also. Like I’ve watched some cop shows, and holy shit it flips every aspect over. The obvious one is that it’s women leading and men getting murdered instead of the other way around, but the one I find the most interesting and most important, is that it takes the “few bad apples”, as well as the “ends justify the means” shit, and completely flips it. Like. Ok. B99 is a cop show. It’s a “progressive” cop show, that sort of tries? To have some messaging about bad policing, but it still falls into the issue of the messages being: “most cops are fine it’s just that some cops are racist! But we can just get them fired so it’s ok” and “it’s necessary for cops to break the law and do morally questionable things to solve a case, and they risk getting fired for it so it’s brave”

Meanwhile even with a progressive show like b99, it still fits into the box of what deadloch is parodying. Like the core messages of deadloch are the opposite of what I listed above. Like we have: “the system is rotten, corrupt, and the few good cops are getting pushed out because cops are actively discouraged from being good” and “the bravest thing an officer can do is follow the law and treat people with human decency”

Like idk what else to say it’s just really good. It’s a really good satire. I went in with low expectations (bc I didn’t realize it was going to be a satire) but like. Yeah It’s really really well done.

[sourstiless]

i think my biggest gripe with the comparison between zuko and john smith and zutara as a whole to pocahontas is that john smith was an active colonizer. he was a grown man who chose and was proud of what he was doing. he didnt even believe the act of colonization was wrong. yes, he tried to end the violence in the movie, but he still lived with the belief that his people deserved to and were entitled to co exist on that land with the indigenous people.

zuko was an active participant in dismantling a hundred years of colonialism and colonization and genuinely wanted to fix the problems that his ancestors had left for him. it wasn’t easy and he wasn’t a perfect leader, but he was genuinely trying to make decisions that would be for the better of all the people, not just himself or his people. where john smith thought that indigenous ppl needed the white people’s help to become “more civilized” because he viewed them as inferior, zuko sought to give those that the fire nation had hurt their autonomy back.

that’s not to say that it isn’t a valid reason to dislike zutara, and if the idea makes you uncomfortable that’s fine and i respect it. i realize that the ship doesn’t appeal to everyone and that’s okay, but i just hate the comparisons because john smith was genuinely just an awful person who never should’ve been glorified in a disney movie.

[konmics-n-stuff]

*hitting the DC fandom over the head with a textbook*

STOP SAYING THE KENTS HAVE A SOUTHERN DRAWL

Kansas is in the CENTER of America, not the South! What you think of as an American Southern accent is usually found in places like Appalachia, the Deep South, and Texas, not Kansas!! Not every rural American agricultural community has the same accent! Kansans typically have a more midwestern accent.

it makes me nope straight out of fanfic sooooo fast