#and because this country is a goddamn tasteless joke!

[insanityisfine]

.

[itsclydebitches]

Why do people get hung up on whether a gay person in media is a good or bad representation of them? I'm gay and I can tell you we aren't all the same? Being gay is our 1 common trait. So as long as they're gay then you've done it. Gay people can be kind, mean, racist, open, kinky, reserved, shy, outgoing, sexist, and literally anything else under the human experience.

Because I am perpetually hungry, let's tell a story about cookies.

You are a bright-eyed, optimistic, baker in the making. Your goal is to wow the world with your culinary skills, so of course you head to The Best Baking School for your degree. Over the course of your studies you learn how to perfect a thousand different cakes, an equal number of pies, and more versions of brownies than most would even assume exist. But cookies... oh, cookies are your passion! You can't wait to learn about the wealth of cookies you can make too. Then, sure enough, that part of your education finally arrives.

Funny thing is though, it's just chocolate chip.

Surely there's been some mistake? The cookie experience is vast and nuanced! Why in the world are your instructors — supposedly the best in the world — reducing cookies to a single class about baking chocolate chip and chocolate chip alone? Hell, why are cookies so sparse in the curriculum as a whole? You're never asked to bake them as a demonstration, or practice with them, and they're definitely not a given across everyone else's baking experience. Cakes, pies, and brownies... they're the default. Cookies are comparatively rare and when you do get to study them, everyone is super focused on the chocolate chip.

Then you graduate and head out into the world, only to find that pretty much everyone is as cookie-blind as your school. A few years back you never would have found cookies in the average grocery store and yeah, the fact that there's a cookie section now is great, but it's, uh... all chocolate chip! Many bakeries still don't carry cookies at all, but when they do it's - again - chocolate chip. Chocolate chip out in restaurants. Chocolate chip at the bake sale. Your friend invites you over and proudly presents a massive sweets tray that includes a single, sad looking, chocolate chip cookie. They beam at you in pride. Isn't it so great?

"Uh..." you say. "Well..."

Every once in a while someone will switch out milk chocolate for dark chocolate, or add nuts alongside chocolate chips. One bakery was even crazy enough to exclude chocolate chips entirely! Crazy according to the press, anyway. Because for years now you've been shaking your head, wondering what exactly is so progressive about realizing that sugar cookies exist. You've found other bakers interested in cookies and, by god, there are thousands. So many flavors! Gluten free and allergy conscious! Someone even made a sweets tray that was predominantly cookies, can you believe it? The problem is, almost none of them are mainstream. Your friend baking cookies out of their personal kitchen is doing fantastic work, but their baking doesn't have the impact that those grocery chains and established bakeries do. Their work isn't going to fix your school's curriculum. Too many people still think that cookies are exotic somehow. They're not the default. And when they do acknowledge their existence, it's chocolate chip over and over. Until one of them adds those nuts and suddenly the whole country is losing its mind about how inspired, creative, progressive their baking is. Meanwhile, you're ready to scream because that baker doesn't even know that something as "exotic" as a gingersnaps exist!

The worst part? Most of these cookies are... bad. Like they exist, yeah, but good god most don't taste good. And that's the whole point of a cookie?? What is the point of buying cookies if the cookies themselves are awful? You go to these bakeries, these restaurants, your friend's house, and you try the very limited cookies on offer, only to find that they've been sloppily baked. Doesn't anyone care that the baker burned their cookies to a crisp? That another straight up forgot to add sugar? This one dropped his on the floor and still tried to serve it to you! But the overall sense is that you should be grateful for getting any cookies at all. "That cookie is an offense to my taste buds," you say and people shake their head at you, disappointed. "I liked the taste of it," one says. "If you don't like it, go buy a different cookie!" Well... easier said than done. "It's not that bad," another says, shrugging in defeat. "I mean yeah, I don't really like it, and the baker stopped making them two years ago... but I'm just happy to have had any cookie at all, you know?" You do know, but that doesn't mean it's any less frustrating. You look at the hundreds of cakes available, these bakers spending decades perfecting their recipes, and wish cookies had even a fraction of that work put into them. You find people who agree with you, absolutely, but there's this this prevailing sense that a cookie is a cookie. Any cookie will do. Supposedly.

Except go long enough and you feel like you're ready to lose your mind. You take some poor person by the shoulders and go, "Doesn't this bother you? Doesn't this make you furious? There is more to the cookie world than these three flavors, 90% of which is chocolate chip! And we deserve well-made cookies, not the crap they've been upholding as the next culinary masterpiece!"

But this person just shakes their head. "Well of course there's more to cookies than three flavors. There's a huge variety of cookies! I know that."

"Yes, but the world isn't selling that variety."

"Of course they are! Just last week I had an oatmeal raisin. That's amazing!"

"Yeah and how many years did it take you to find that?"

"Well..."

"And how did that oatmeal raisin cookie taste?"

Your prisoner pulls a face. "Ugh, not good. Oatmeal raisin is definitely not for me. It's hard as a rock! I really don't understand why someone would want to eat that on a regular basis."

"But it's not supposed to be hard as a rock!" you cry, waving your arms. "That's the problem! Oatmeal raisin is so goddamn rare and then the one time we get it, it was badly baked. Of course people are turned off by it. Everyone who already loves oatmeal raisin is getting pissed because their favorite cookie is misrepresented, they're unlikely to see more of them now, and everyone is still serving the most tasteless chocolate chip cookies I've ever had, acting like this is the pinnacle of cookie baking! Do you even know that a macron exists?"

The person pats your hand consolingly. "Of course I do. My roommate's sister's boyfriend used to bake macrons, you know. I don't know why you're so hung up on this. Cookies can be whatever the baker wants them to be. Provided they're a flat-ish sweet cake, they're still a cookie!"

You hang your head, giving up. "Yes, they can be so many things, but they're not. Let me know if you ever find a bakery actually making the variety you keep acknowledging exists. Bonus points if those cookies are edible. My soul if they're delicious, as a cookie should be."

"You know," they say, still patting your hand. "There's a bakery making chocolate chip with dark chocolate next year. Everyone is talking about it. You should think about buying one before they take it off the menu!"

You contemplate just walking into the ocean.

Now, incredibly long metaphor concluded... switch out "cookies" for "queer rep"! The representation matters because no, just making them gay isn't enough right now. You're right that queer people can be anything under the sun, but right now media isn't providing us with that variety. It's not enough to acknowledge that such variety exists, it actually has to make it into our books and onto our screen. Taking just characters who identify as gay and putting aside the HUGE variety of other identities for a moment (of which we are mostly lacking in terms of rep), where are the gay asexuals? The gay people of color? The disabled gays? Trans gays? Did your gay character appear for just a handful of episodes? Were they killed off? Are they nothing more than a stereotype or comic relief? Is this the only gay character in your entire story? We need to ask questions like this because though gay people can be anything under the sun, our media landscape has only shown a miniscule portion of that variety.

Today, even in 2021, our representation of gay people is still pretty limited to:

You are only coded as gay and evil

You are only coded as gay and queerbaited

You are canonically gay, but a cis, ablebodied, white person

You are canonically gay, but were written terribly/killed off/punished by the narrative/generally making the real gay people watching you feel awful about their identity

You are canonically gay, but you're not human. Gotta other the queerness by making you an alien/robot/fantasy being

You are canonically gay and that's your entire existence. There is one (1) narrative of how you knew by the time you were four, never questioned your identity after that, suffered through a family that rejected you, and now all your major arcs revolve around being gay. You are gay and that is it.

Despite being a list of six, that's still incredibly limiting. Are there exceptions to such a list? Always, but that doesn't mean the list isn't still dominating. We can look at any individual gay character and say, "Of course they can be evil/white/killed off/a joke/etc. because gay people can be anything at all," but when we look at the trends, when we look at ALL the media together, we see that gay people aren't actually depicted as being anything... they're depicted as being these handful of things, severely limiting how gayness is represented. Bad rep. If you hit up the bakery and question why there's only versions of chocolate chip available yeah, the baker can go, "But cookies can be any flavor! Including chocolate chip!" They are not, technically, wrong. The problem is not that chocolate chip exists, but that chocolate chip dominates and other flavors are rare, ignored entirely, or baked so badly it's actively damaging to that flavor as a whole. Yeah, your gay character can be mean. Or kinky. Or murdered by the story. But when so many gay characters are mean and kinky and murdered by their stories — when you're not getting other versions to balance that out and gay characters are still rare enough that it's just 1-2 characters trying to carry representation for an entire franchise — you start realizing that the claim of "Gay people can be anything else under the human experience" is an easy way to shut down the conversation of whether that variety actually exists in our storytelling yet.

It's not enough for the baker to acknowledge that yeah, of course there are hundreds of cookie flavors and of course cookies taste great! They've actually got to learn how to bake them properly and fill up their store with them.

[tays2centsonstuff]

JOJO RABBIT, 2019

synopsis: a young boy in hitler's army finds out his mother is hiding a jewish girl in their home.

director: taika waititi writers: taika waititi stars: roman griffin davis, thomasin mckenzie, scarlett johansson, taika waititi

genres: comedy | drama | war

country: new zealand, usa, czech republic language: english, german filming locations: czech republic

runtime: 108mins

---

overall opinion:

oh lord. ohhhhh lordy. this one. I know what you think… a comedy / satire about world war II??? that sounds terrible and disrespectful, no?

yep, that’s kind of what I thought. so I went into «jojo rabbit» with skeptical thoughts, as did a lot of people I think, simply because a comedy about world war II, how funny can it actually be without being tasteless? but I love taika waititi and I knew both he and scarlett have jewish roots so that kind of told me it couldn’t be bad.

and oh boy am I glad I watched this. 

this movie made me laugh until it had me bawling like a baby. 

okay, first. this movie was nominated for 6 oscars: best picture, best supporting actress (scarlett johansson), best production design, best costume design, best film editing, and best adapted screenplay for which it won. I wish it would have won more (best picture and best supporting actress, come on). it’s such a unique movie in that it portrays one of the worst periods in human history in such a fun, light-hearted and at the same time sobering and poignant way. you laugh, then you’re shocked, then you smile, then you cry, ... this movie is an absolute rollercoaster. it has so much soul and the characters are phenomenal (rosie just captured my heart). I fell in love with all of the characters instantly.

the story follows johannes «jojo» betzler (roman griffin davis), a 10 year old boy living in nazi germany, who’s a proud member of the hitler youth. throughout the movie, his imaginary friend adolf (taika waititi) guides him and tries to influence him (as in, jojo tries to convince himself that he’s doing the right thing as a nazi). at some point he finds out that his mother rosie (scarlett johansson) who is secretly anti-nazi is hiding a young jewish girl (thomasin mckenzie) in their house. for safety reasons, jojo and the girl, elsa, decide not to tell rosie that they have met, and instead meet up in secret while rosie is at work. jojo can’t believe he «caught a jew», and tries to find out all kinds of information to then tell the other nazis to give them an advantage in the war. except everything turns into a completely different direction. 

man, what a ride. honestly, I think this is a movie everyone should watch. all the actors are phenomenal, especially roman griffin davis (this was his first movie ever) as jojo, taika waititi as hilarious satire-hitler, and scarlett johansson as jojo’s mother rosie. every single one of them deserved an oscar for their performance. it was simply beautiful to watch.

the cinematography and the colours were also amazing. the movie looked stunning, despite the sad topic it covered. I love how taika decided to use vibrant colours and stylish costumes to contrast the dark matter of the film. it works beautifully and gives it a very human touch – like there was more to life than just the war, even during this time.

---

SPOILERS AHEAD, I would invite you to watch the movie first and then come back for the rest if it’s something that interests you. :)

---

out of all the perfect characters I think rosie was my favourite. she is anti-nazi and handing out little notes against the regime, which you know from the beginning is a death-sentence. at home, whenever she is with her son, she is this happy-go-sunshine person, ever dancing, making jokes, pretending everything is fine, all to protect her son and the girl she so selflessly invited into her home, knowing it would kill her if they found out. I had to actually PAUSE the movie and recover for a few minutes when jojo walked past those shoes hanging in the air. I CRIED. she was such a loving character. one of my favourites, ever. in any movie or book. simply beautifully created. I want to be rosie when I grow up.

but in the end, I fell in love with all of them. jojo, who was just so sweet in his ways, how he was convinced hitler was doing the right thing and he was proud to be helping them, but in the end realised that «those jews» are just normal people. the bond he develops with elsa over the course of the movie is so sweet and touching. the way he writes those letters to her «from her boyfriend» who he didn’t know had died. he was trying so hard to make her feel safe and happy even though she was «the enemy». that said a lot about him and roman brings him across so well.

and elsa, the jewish girl, played by thomasin mckenzie, wasn’t just intent on playing the victim. she was funny, sarcastic and clever, giving the most absurd answers to jojo’s questions on his quest to figure out more about jews. it made me laugh even though the situation wasn’t funny at all. it took some of the weight from the topic which I thought was great.

honestly, this film has it all. a great story, great morals, phenomenal acting, funny moments, heartbreaking moments, beautiful cinematography, and it will definitely leave you thinking after the end credits.

---

why it stayed with me:

the whole movie is such an emotional rollercoaster. it’s funny, it’s really sad, really intense, but then in the end… there is so much hope. 

the way taika waititi managed to tell a gruesome story in such a poignant way, you just can’t help but love what he’s done. I hate slapstick usually, especially about sensitive topics (like, I would rather die than watch borat which I turned off 15mins into the film), but this was done so well and with so much heart and soul. 

---

favourite scene / moment:

the dinner scene with jojo and rosie. iconic. (39:40–44:00)

and when elsa and jojo are staring out the window at night and having a really sweet conversation.

---

what I didn’t like:

nothing. it was perfect. although I HATED the fact that rosie died but I guess it was bound to happen.

---

interesting trivia / fun facts:

both taika waititi and scarlett johansson have jewish roots. when taika, who is maori/jewish, was asked about why he chose to play the role of adolf hitler, he said «the answer's simple, what better 'fuck you' to the guy?»

one of taika’s reasons for making the film was the realisation that after world war II people cried that «we should never forget» but given the behaviour of «certain people in certain parts of the world», it felt to him like we are forgetting.

even though the spoken dialogue is all in english, all written or printed text in the movie is in german.

«I don't like the idea of seeing people hang,» taika waititi said, and that's what led in part to the reveal of rosie's death without showing her face. he added that seeing your dead loved one is an intimate thing, and that we didn't «have permission» to see what jojo saw.

in the scene where the boys burn books at the camp, tom waits’ «I don’t wanna grow up» is playing in the background. in 2009, scarlett johansson recorded an album with tom waits covers, which also features that same song. the album is called «anywhere I lay my head» and is available on spotify.

---

favourite quotes:

[rosie and jojo come upon six people hanging from the gallows in the town square]

jojo: what did they do?

rosie: what they could.

---

rating: 10/10.

this movie broke my goddamn heart and it had the audacity to do so while I was having a really fun time watching it! 

simply a must-see.

[novelelitist]

Wait, how much worse was the JP version? I already think the NA is bad but I do notice a couple of things I was warned about that weren't in there (mostly the gender jokes about Astolfo and d'Eon). I'm morbidly curious now.

How do I want to explain this... Hm. Nothing was censored. The things that were raunchy in JP were still raunchy in NA. But the biggest differences are how things were phrased. Link to a comment that has a couple of examples of NA vs translation, what you actually wanted.

In JP Agartha, the word choice regarding subject matter was not exactly tactful. Meanings are lost in direct translation, and combined with the blunt nature of the original dialogue, it was read as tasteless and fetishizing. NA said the same things and hit the same story beats without being gratuitous or offensive. It’s not like the entire JP Agartha was gratuitous or offensive, either, but the things that were gratuitous or offensive were more impactful.

While I’m at this, I wanna ramble about some shit I know people are gonna bitch about at some point, but I think calling the NA version of the Singularity gratuitous or offensive would be stupid.

We have a different cultural framing of the story entirely--NA has a Western player-base. And we had 5-6 super different Servants representing the West in one Singularity that really isn’t about the West, but is a nod toward the empire-building and conquest ways of countries from around the world. We got good, bad, and conflicting feelings, and some really wack shit that’s kinda interesting when you think about it. I like the irony in working with Christopher Columbus for 99% of the chapter fighting against the same exact shit he once did.

The gratuitous fetish-y writing became disturbing from the sense of wrongness as opposed to being from gratuitous and fetish-y. 

Aside: Some of the shit in the Fate franchise really makes this Singularity look not-that-bad. Geez, even JP Agartha was tame compared to your grandpa feeding your lifeless childhood body to sex worms that devour your insides and will oops kill you and turn you into a goddamn cup.

The NA team only has so much control. They have to hit the same story beats, follow the same narrative, use the same framework. They make the words palatable, and try to make little changes that make a big difference. Agartha was tone-shifted through word choice and phrasing in a way I really appreciated. (Note: this isn’t censorship, it’s literally part of localization/translation of games.)

NA isn’t going to remember Agartha as anything more than a boring, kinda-forgettable Singularity. It’s not exactly poetry, nor is it fantastic writing. But I was invested in the world of Agartha and the people in it. I’m going to remember it as “the successful localization of content everybody was ready to hate.”

I wanted to start and finish in the first day because for some reason people think my opinion matters or want my opinions on things and I wanted NA Agartha to at least have a chance with my followers/readers/comrades. So please, at least give it a chance.

[fugitivestogether]

hoo-fucking-ray, latinos on twitter are showing off their trans and enbyphobic behavior again over the use of latinx again. Whatever Biden implied about latinos being undocumented citizens, I don’t fucking care; yeah it’s disrespectful and tasteless that’s how politicians and racist gringos have always seen us, especially those who aren’t light-skinned or who have learned english as a second language. i hate the fucking notion of having to use ‘hispanic’ because in spanish, guess what, it still goes to hispano or hispana, (hispanico? i dont fucking know) and it has ties to colonialism, “JUST LIKE” the oh so dreaded latinx. why are people so attached to the language of the colonizers? the rule that ‘o’ is gender-neutral is not so neutral: it’s implied that it’s MIXED, of feminine and masculine - the idea is already implying that truly neutral parties are not included or respected.  each country, even sub states within countries that have spanish as a primary language have evolved their own great dialects, going so far as to be almost unique from the colonizers...but you won’t ever see anyone trying to challenge the gendered origins of that language. that’s why, yes, SOME people, use latinx. That’s why SOME people, want to use something ELSE that isn’t ‘o’ or ‘a’ is that so fucking hard to understand? they keep parroting that latinx was a term made up by ‘white liberals’ and sjws, but it wasn’t - it was coined by someone from puerto rico, and honestly? bless them for thinking about us. it’s nice that someone fucking did.  i’m just so fucking sick of the pretention within latino communities. ‘i nEVer mEt ANYoNe wHo uSes thAt’ well then your dumb ass doesn’t talk to many people, I guess. get out some more, asshole. idiotas, todos people are even suggesting ‘latine’ - that’s perfectly fine. but what do we get?? more fucking complains; ‘omg it shows white ignorance about how spanish works-’ SPANISH IS A EUROPEAN ORIGINATED LANGUAGE!!! y’know, Europe??? where those white people kinda came from? But what do most latinos care...light-skinned latinos worship those who have closer ties to Spain than anyone else. The imperialism, the colorism...not to mention the homophobia, the trans/enbyphobia...it’s off the damn charts. We need to fucking fix our own goddamn problems with racism, colorism, and every fucking thing else before we start getting pissy about how gender-neutral people want to call themselves within our cultures. i’m not saying everyone should have to use it - i’m saying you should respect those who don’t feel comfortable using a gendered language because that aspect of it was never challenged. but hey, trans/enbyphobia, right? it’s like breaking their fucking arm if you want them to respect your pronouns...why would they care about this? i guess I could just start using ‘mexican’, even if that word is like a slur to some people. idk. i’m really sorry if this makes no sense but I’m just so fucking tired of seeing these arguments come up and getting dysphoric panic attacks as a result because of how many people just think people like me i’m a joke- it hurts to never want to be part of the culture you grew up in because you know you’re not really wanted anyway. i don’t feel mexican. i don’t feel like a chicane. i just feel like a freak. DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW MANY MAGA FREAKS ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS LIKE THEY HAVE ANY SAY IN THIS MATTER-

[nekoladyproductions]

Do I seriously have to defend this fucker? Yeah, I do. Shit. (Lady's Thoughts)

Don’t read if you get easily offended, butthurt, or unable to comprehend another human being’s opinions.

Apparently, nobody is allowed to make offensive jokes because it’s “normalizing” and “just as bad” as actually doing the offensive thing!

Okay then. Let’s play this game.

No more murder jokes. No more suicide jokes. No more man jokes. No more Trump jokes. No more patriarchy jokes. No more conservative jokes. No more Christian jokes. No more jokes that reference your mental illnesses. No more Republican jokes. No more penis jokes. No more any offensive jokes–ever.

Why? Because it might hurt someone’s feelings and it will normalize hatred against white men or people who’s family has been murdered.

Only puns and good old fashioned humour, like Leave It to Beaver.

Oh, and while we’re at it: No more plane jokes. No more sex jokes. No more America jokes. No more jokes with coarse language, like shit, tits, cock, cunt, cum, fuck, etc. No more jokes that could offend anyone at any given time ever.

That means no more jokes about any tragedy or bad things. Even if those things are personal, because it could trigger son or make them feel bad.

How about no humour at all? Even chickens crossing roads could offend someone whose pet chicken died when it got loose onto the highway.

Tumblr wouldn’t last a week.

Now, do I dislike certain jokes? Do I think some are garbage and tasteless? Of course I do. I hated that “All Jews must die” joke. But did you know what I did? I rolled my eyes and moved right along. That’s what adults do. They go on about their lives when they see something or hear something that they do not like. A joke won’t kill a Jewish person. A bullet does. And guess what? All of this attention on Felix for a bad joke is turning your backs on REAL crimes against Jews RIGHT. NOW. I bet your ass right now some little Jewish girl just got shot in the fucking face over Bast knows where while y'all are harping on ONE ignorant fuckface for making a 4chan joke. (Let’s also not forget that the man is known for making offensive jokes.)

Do you have any idea how many fat jokes I hear? How many gay jokes and witch jokes? Do you see me shitting myself and saying that their preferred brand of humour is encouraging witch hunts? Fuck. No.

It’s like saying South Park or Family Guy promotes domestic violence because of their abuse jokes.

This is a Swedish dumbass who’s job is to sit his ass in front of a telly all day, not fucking Hitler or a Grand Wizard of the goddamn KKK.

Should he be condemned? Yes. To this extent? Take your meds if you think so.

Bad humour and bad things will always exist, and no matter how much you want those things to disappear, they won’t. It has been proven to us time and time again that the more that you suppress an ideology and try to censor it, the worse it becomes. Look at how Trump got to office. (Also, because of all of this hubbub, a shit storm of actual antisemites have come out of the woodwork. If you would have left him alone, this shit wouldn’t have happened. Woopsies, right? Fuck you.)

No wonder people hate fucking liberals. Bunch of whiny ass pussies that need to have their coffee taken away from them and actually show them what REAL antisemitism is. They’d think that Pewds is the funniest bastard in the world after they’re done witnessing the horror of what other countries think of Jews and what they do to them.

I’m taking a shower. Fuck this. If you disagree with me, I’m not sorry. If you feel the need to unfollow me, then you aren’t a very strong person. At all.