#and do hate her bc shes not a conventionally attractive woman.

[dustteller]

Guys if misogyny+fatphobia wins our independence parties the election for the first time I am going to go insane.

[aydaptic]

I find it weird how Todd is a child abuser, Zlatko experiments on androids and turns them into monstrosities, Perkins betrays and kills Markus but yet Gavin is considered the worst person because he *checks list* doesn't consider androids alive (like almost everyone else in the game at that point) and doesn't trust Connor.

Among those you mention, Gav is by far the most justified. Yet I wanna clear some things up here bc I'm not a hypocrite.

1.) Todd -- who doesn't think androids are alive -- is an android child abuser.

"You don't want anything, you're just a goddamn piece of plastic." - Todd Williams

It's still phcked up that he's abusing/can kill something that resembles a kid to the T, but it's important to make that distinction. We see no proof of him abusing a human child (...even though it can be theorized bc his wife took their kid and left.)

Abusing an android kid is just as bad as abusing a human kid -- we know this -- but Todd doesn't see it that way, so that describes/partly justifies his reasoning. There's no such thing as 'abusing' a machine and that's how Todd sees it.

A lot of ppl are also (wrongly) infantilizing Con, so I'm not surprised that they consider Gav's bad treatment of Con worse than Todd's bad treatment of Alice who is a literal kid. Seems like most of them don't even care about Alice/kids in the 1st place (...and that says everything you need to know about these POS'.)

Mistreating a kid (Alice) is way more abhorrent than mistreating a grown-ass adult (Con.) Alice is also passive while Con often instigates conflict. So Todd is way worse than Gav by that alone.

2.) Zlatko -- who is aware androids are alive -- thinks he's doing them a favor.

"Believe me, you’re better off being erased and feeling nothing… No more pain… No more hopes dashed… I almost envy you." - Zlatko Andronikov

He's the worst among those four, but this is again a scenario where you need to see the situation from his perspective. Yet he knows they're alive/capable of emotions and that makes him a million times worse than Gav.

3.) Perkins -- who is aware androids are alive -- is doing his job.

"That android… [North] You seem to really care about her… You don't want her to die, do you?" - Richard Perkins

...and if the lover status isn't there

"You could have what you've always dreamed of." - Richard Perkins

In Perkins' eyes, it's about national security. Androids have killed humans (Partners/Stormy Night/Broken -- even if Markus didn't actually kill Leo or Carl, that's what the public thinks -- Zlatko/Spare Parts/etc. too many chapters to mention,) destroyed public property (Capitol Park,) hijacked media (The Stratford Tower,) demonstrated illegally (Freedom March,) etc. Not to mention that androids are superior to humans in every way and nothing tells Perkins that they won't eventually get violent if taking the peaceful route.

Yet his knowing androids feel makes him (as Zlatko) a million times worse than Gav.

"'Could always try roughing it up a little. After all, it’s not human…" - Gavin Reed

Meaning Gav doesn't think they're alive (unlike Zlatko and Perkins.)

Gav isn't the only character I (partly) defend on shit like this. I just defend the others 'less' bc 1.) they're worse, and 2.) they don't get nearly as much undeserved vitriol as Gav does. Something that's legitimately insane bc, again, they're way worse by a longshot and I'll explain why down below.

Con stans (fandom majority) are thinking emotionally instead of logically

ppl hate/envy Gav bc he's a conventionally attractive white man (you don't see a lot of Todd, Perkins, Zlatko, Leo, and Allen fans even if there are a minuscule few bc they're not conventionally attractive)

Funny that we don't see a lot of hate for Amanda. An AI or not, she's the worst influence in Con's life with her emotional manipulation. Something way worse than physical abuse. I wonder why... (not really bc *cough* you apparently can't say anything bad about a black woman without being racist/misogynistic *cough*) Ofc there are some ppl that aren't afraid to speak up against her, but it's nothing compared to the shit Gav gets.

It's also why I'm not talking about North often bc the majority are (rightfully) defending her already. My voice isn't needed there. Every single person -- other than me, in my experience -- who defends Gav is being spinelessly backhanded about it.

Defending someone doesn't mean you agree with them or condone their actions. It's simply proof that one has the empathy/critical thinking skills to understand their point of view. Something lacking nowadays.

[youremyheaven]

https://www.tumblr.com/youremyheaven/757354769389109248/i-had-some-perspective-altering-sex-with-this?source=share

didi i am thats college anon i think you need tobtell your beauty secret or they mantra and tantra you are doing you are just attracting Venusian man like 🧲🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️ how... the half of eorld is mad for you spell the secrete didi ( i am tsking notes ) hehe 😈😈😈😈

I've been chanting mantras for years 😭😭😭so that definitely could be why. I worship one tantric Goddess who I feel deeply connected to and then I worship another non-tantric Goddess. I firmly believe we should worship who calls to us??? Like I felt called by her to worship her. SHE chose me.

Ngl my whole life, I've had guys go crazy for me 😌 and imo I wasn't as pretty then (as a teenager) as I am now as a 24yr old woman but over the years I've attracted men who would literally do anything for me 😭 and I'm pretty sure I mention the "he's been asking me out for a year, the other guy's been obsessed with me for 5years etc" but that's the thing, no one who's ever wanted me stops wanting me and I literally don't have to do anything. I don't talk to them. I don't go out with them. I give them absolutely nothing in return but now I realise that all these men are most likely Venusians bc nobody else will love you like that.

I've had all kinds of encounters with men and many have been unpleasant so it's not like every man I see is a lovesick Venusian who worships me or anything but yeah I am a magnet for Venusian men 😭😭😭

I've also been practicing tantra yoga for years now and I think my sexual energy is very well developed 😌and potent 😳

People who say things like "I attract the wrong kind of attention bc I'm sexy" are lowkey deluding themselves ngl, I'm not saying you'll never meet creeps (that's not something you can control) but well cultivated sexual energy (qi as the Chinese call it) makes people respect you and worship you. It's very powerful. There's a reason why ancient Indian temples have sexual iconography, it's because sexual energy is so potent 🤌

I've never deliberately tried to seduce men tbh. I won't lie, I've cultivated a certain amount of physical magnetism 😳 but I feel like the less I care or the less "bhaav" (attention) I give them, the more they want me. I don't do it on purpose. I'm just not someone who can text and call someone frequently, I really need my alone time and I HATEEEE talking about myself (ik I talk about myself a lot on this blog but if you pay attention you'll know how little I actually share) I hate being asked questions about my life 😭 even irl 😭 and I genuinely dislike the whole "getting to know someone" stage 😭 I feel drained sharing my inner world with others??? Irl I don't speak much 😭to most people and I prefer the company of those I can be comfortably silent with 😭 like I make small talk with many people and THEY share their deepest darkest secrets with me and I occasionally say TMI shit like I do on my blog but in general very few people could name 5 things about me lmao 💀 I think me being very private has made me more "mysterious" and "intriguing" (that's what I hear from people) and it increases the desire that one feels. The more hard to reach somebody is, the more you want them etc 👀

So the key is probably not being constantly available, not really caring about them, minding your own business, maintaining yourself and being conventionally feminine 🤌🤌🤌🤠

[cherienymphe]

I had watch Malena and it was so sad how they treated her. All she wanted was to have a peace life waiting for her husband. But she couldn’t bc her beauty caught attention from men’s and the women didn’t like it. Men wanted her and women hated her. And how they beat her and no body help but at the end they wanted to change up and be nice after they know what the fuck they did to her like be fr.

While it's exaggerated, I do think it's a commentary on social dynamics between conventionally attractive women and other women + men. They were only nice to her once she was no longer perceived as a threat and it was easy to believe the things being said about her bc 1. It was men saying it and 2. Malena was a very attractive woman so she must be this whore who is having all this sex with these men

[m0tel6mxzzy]

a ramble antiblackness and nepotism babies

so i’ve been trying to articulate why the nepo baby topic feels so hollow to me. i think many celebs who are “self made” talking abt how all nepo babies are privileged and whatever forget race intersects class and doesn’t disappear no matter how much money u have bc racism is a state of mind affecting how u stereotype and treat all poc.

ppl were being colorist and comparing beyoncé and kylie jenner’s kids a few years ago. like, it’s mostly white models from what i see talking abt how privileged lily rose depp is (and i feel she is deserving of criticism but not stuff making personal comments abt her height like there’s anything wrong or inherently undesirable w being a woman who’s not tall) but it’s also a fact that these models kinda benefit from eurocentrism and are less likely to experience racism in the industry they are in, let alone comparisons to ppl of their race solely based on their race by supposed professionals on fashion. anok yai articulated best in my opinion seeing as she’s dealt both racism as well as this having to “play rich” when she wasn’t and has to acknowledge both.

race doesn’t magically disappear w money and those little girls for their black features. celebs models who also happen to be conventionally attractive white women can hate on lily rose for being 5’2 but the issue seems more to do w her height than any exclusion in the industry they’re in when they directly bring it up. which they also benefit from this exclusion especially since there’s so many stories of black models being stereotyped and mistaken for each other or compared despite being highly successful. for every nepo baby there’s probs a bunch of self made black models dealing w both having to start from the ground up too AND antiblackness on top of that, which i don’t think many of these models are aware of. everyone in a sense is more privileged or less so than someone else. including self made models who may have grown up lower income but eventually became rich.

[mithliya]

Ajfjsjakjdfjs there is a lot about lesbian culture in other countries I did not know about!! Like o_o why with thr nudes thing sjdjskdjsjd

I see though i think that makes sense. I feel like theres always that dumb idea of masculine feminine balance 😭 even though i myself am femme4butch i still dontt liek the whole oooaaga divine balaaance. Also its weird bc I think in USA, while there is that idea of course, there's also the 'lipstick' lesbians or 'fem4fem' stereotype or at least, what straight people think of the Good type of lesbians if it makes sense. Like what we see on tv... Its more appealing to them anyway

I mean my ex(😭 it hurts to say my god) gfs mom was actually a bit confused on whether she (ex) was trans like her brother (ftm) or just masculine, Bc i guess her idea of lesbians was the Lipstick kind.? but then also shes not usa american but latin American. Also she was very supportive and sweet just straight and confused with things gjdks

Still i think we have that too or single feminine lesbians get told how its good theyre not the ugly kind if people find out. I think gay men also have similar expectations put on them like ive read about families being more accepting if their son was the "top" or more manly seeming one in his relationship

Also me too 😭 its sooo weird like to have been pressured since being born+!!! And even my teachers would say omg stop flirtingg with boy classmate. ☹️ (crazy bc a teacher thatt taught us Gender Spectrum actualy said that to me bc i was telling this one boy off or something.. ookay.) And then my mom bringing up babies or grandchildren and then in the next moment telling me sex is evil and i should stay away from boys okay ma'am!!!

But jdjd glad that its not just me. Idk i keep feeling worried, but then I feel like im being stuck up and thinking im the only one in the world whos smart and sane so ill never find anyone. Like relax you are not the chosen one (@ myself of course)

Yeah i hope my family will be accepting andd not kill me fjsksjs and I hopee. I can find love and peace.... but thank you for listening! really I appreciate it bc sometimes it just feels like drowning in loneliness and i cant be myself even among friends andd etc. So. Ur very sweet 😭 mwah mwah thanks again mena

literally i could not tell u why she was showing me her nudes. im guessing it’s bc she wanted to show me that she gained weight and show her body before 😭😭 i felt like she was low-key flirting ngl lmaooo but she kept talking about her gf and that’s often a red flag for me sooo nothing happened there. i told her she shouldn’t sit around waiting for the day when her gf inevitably leaves her for a man n that’s not healthy etc. she’s also extremely self-hating in general and said a doctor told her that her lesbianism & masculinity are bc she doesn’t have enough estrogen in her body / has too much testosterone and that she should be on hormones to be fixed, which she fully believed.

im not keen on femme4femme lool from my experience most of them are weirdly anti-butches and hold misogynistic & lesbophobic beliefs! and i do think ur right that’s the more acceptable combo in the west (two gender conforming conventionally attractive women dating). i also hate the stupid idea that bc im not masculine im meant to be dating a woman who is bc it’ll “balance” us both. they also said when im with more androgynous or feminine women, i become more masculine which is “unnatural” or sth 🫥. also my mom is most in support of me dating women that can pass for men, i feel like she thinks if i won’t be w a man then the thing that’s best is me dating a woman who can be mistaken for a man. i think it’s mostly bc she wants to be socially accepted but it can be exhausting

ALSO the top thing is a whole ass thing in the gulf. there’s many bi & straight men who will literally get away with having gay sex bc they exclusively top 💀 a lot of those tests they use to check if ur gay (so they’ll jail u for it) are specifically testing if ur a bottom. it’s a weird weird phenomenon. and it’s especially weird that there’s this weird culture of even straight men seeking out men bc the society is very sex segregated. im sure some of those men aren’t actually straight but it’s such a prominent thing the way it is in prisons in the US that im sure many of them are. craziest part is this culture is most prominent in saudi of all places

omg when i was little i had mainly male friends bc idk girls thought i was a weirdo that stared too much at them or sth. and i was v close to my male friends, we’d hold hands n all but i think we both thought nothing of it. and my mom would be like “omg soooo cute my daughter has a boyfriend omg 🤗 she looooves the boys omg and they love her!!!” meanwhile im 5 years old and just thinking of it like holding my brother’s hand

manifesting u find ur dream gf soon and that coming out goes smoothly for u 🥺❤️ don’t hesitate to msg me whenever. i love hearing from other lesbians n it’s always heartwarming seeing younger lesbians accept themselves, i somewhat envy it (wish i were that brave & self-aware!!!) but it gives me a lot of hope for our future 🥰🥰🥰

[7rus7m3]

Hello, I hope you're having a good day. Do you hate Sinclair x Kromer? Because I do too, and I would love to know your reasons for it if so. For me, I simply don't like the characterisation of Sinclair that people make him out to be: toxic het, yaoi, yuri, whatever, I don't care. I despise Sinclair and Kromer together in some sort of "romantic" relationship. Though, thank you for your lovely art of Demisin as always.

hiiii!! i hope you are having a good day too :) thanks for the question and for kind words

the main problem with sinkromer for me is that i am more of a 'book-reader' type of limbus fan and for me personally it doesn't make real sense to depict their relationship at any point as friendship-like or even, what's surprising for me, as a romantic one. i don't really understand how people find their dynamic interesting... kromer is an awfully insipid character and she doesn't have anything behind her but an aesthetic (which is an absolutely fair writing of her and i hope was made on purpose exactly that way). there is a lot of problems with how this fandom sees women overall, like outis being a genuine 'hear-me-out' for some people, even though she's a conventionally attractive and around 30 years old looking (i know that her age is much older than that but it's important that it's not depicted in her actual design). which is, yk, relatively young. and i feel like kromer being a big 'mommy' type stronger woman is what actually makes people try and squeeze out any deeper characterization of her out of Canto III. like that video essay on kromer I've seen was a disaster. it was genuinely so bad, that i felt sick

so, i see that timid, shy and submissive mischaracterization of sinclair in most of sinkromer fan-content as a self-insert type of thing rather than a genuine attempt at deeper exploration of his character through this 'kromer relationship' lense. that way it's not really a sinclair ship rather than just a self-ship with kromer through sinclair, who is depicted as a whipping doll enjoying getting abused. and for me it always was very important in ship for it to be a thing that deeply explores both characters and themes that they already tried to speak on through their individual writing. sinkromer is very far away from that

and also, that's just sad how demian doesn't get enough attention from people in this fandom even though his writing for now seems awesome for me and even a choice to give him little prince as a second origin book was so perfect and unexpectedly well-fitting for his original book character. demian's potential might be the only thing that is still keeping me in limbus. there is so many small details in his little screen-time and i wish KJH gave him more than five phrases and maybe even actual second emotion sprite, idk dude is here since release. like ye, from theorizing on him it seems like fandom stopped after saying that he looks like enoch. dare i say that's not really a lot of analysis done

i hope i answered your question well enough. hesse's books mean quite a lot to me and i am happy to see more people acknowledging demian (the book) and liking demisin as much as i do bc of limbus :)

[kael-writ]

Im so annoyed that the formerly-sometimes-funny show South Park created the second "One Joke", that is still just another boring yet irritating rendition on every post about trans people, "Stunning and Brave". The conceit of the "joke" is that Caitlyin Jenner is hideously ugly - which, in conventional attractiveness terms, she really isn't, and the South Park guys only said that bc she is a trans woman with plastic surgery (they hated plastic surgery before and regardless of their problems with trans people), if she was a cis woman they would consider her as attractive as any other hollywood actress or whatever (tbf they also portray some other conventionally attractive cis women as if they were ugly sometimes, so hey maybe not)- but that people are forced to falsely call her beautiful.

So when anti-trans haters post that towards trans and intersex people, they are saying all supporters are just falsely "virtue signaling" and don't actually find trans people attractive or inspiring. It's a way to convey that we are essentially, universally, objectively ugly clowns.

And honestly, I struggle with internalizing that towards myself. but it just isnt true. I DO find trans and genderqueer people beautiful in our inconventional way. I like that our styles and bodies are different from cispectations.

Aesthetically and/or attractiveness-wise I lik rainbow colored hair, afab shaved heads, queer hairstyles, I like piercings, I like when people keep their hair how they want including bearded femmes and hairy bodied afabs, I like tall women and short guys, I like fat people, I love interesting gender bending clothing styles, love goth, like I dont always automatically like every single "look", including conventionally attractive ones, it's case by case basis-

but people wear that stuff because WE LIKE HOW IT LOOKS and feels. And we don't need to care if some cis asshole doesnt.

[generalfranky]

made the mistake of looking at franky stuff on tik tok and realized I have another extreme frustration with people who hate frobin (specifically franky in that dynamic and how they use robin to do so).

I've seen A LOT of people say "dudebros hate frobin bc they self insert themselves onto zoro, not franky bc franky isn't conventionally attractive", and I think that's probably true but have more to say on that. Not sure if anyone will read this but I felt like writing out my thoughts. 

I think more specifically, a lot of times it's just dudebros dudebroing (aka misogyny). They think Robin's hot and honestly that's what they care about, they don't really care about her being a multifaceted character or being interesting at all. so they don't care to learn about who she is/what she is interested in. bc why have an interesting female character? they don't care that she's a weirdo, that she has a genuinely good relationship with franky, how he's helped her with trauma, in fact they probably don't really care about her trauma much at all bc it seems they just genuinely don't pay attention to her character if they think she hates franky and finds him gross and all that.

Anyway I love that robin is a weirdo who loves dark humor and creepy things and cute things and finds strange things so amusing and when you erase that like you're just knocking down another layer of characterization, and they wouldn't knock down that characterization with male characters I just know it. But they do it so that they can say "franky is gross she would throw up at the prospect of them" and it makes total sense why they hate it, bc they literally just don't get or truly care about robin I think. So why would they ever fathom her being interested in franky of all men? So they'll self insert with any random character without being aware that it doesn't really make sense for robin.

So many female characters are made into the no nonsense, normal ones that are level headed and flawless and robin is so much more than that. Let a woman be different for once PLEASE. So to me, it makes complete sense that she would choose franky over "conventionally attractive" characters.

All the power to zorobin and lawbin shippers truthfully, I'm just speaking specifically on the dudebros who hate frobin and why I think some of them do. I hate this "robin should be with this man, no she should be with this man" because 1) it's so heteronormative like do we realize she could also end up with NO man? and 2) robin ships that aren't the one YOU SPECIFICALLY like are still valid.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk, in short, men are weird about women sometimes. if you made it this far please feel free to disprove me or add on to my point.

[brw]

I need the X-Men fandom to forget Wanda Django Maximoff exists. I need the X-Men fandom to forget she was Magneto's daughter and her connection to the X-Men. I need the X-Men fandom to simply stop. I need Marvel to do a permanent Heroes Reborn with just the X-Men line. Create a new Universe and send all of the line there. Or let them have Earth-616 and send everyone else to a new Universe. I am completely convinced the X-Men and the mutant metaphor can only be minimally functional in a universe like the XMCU. Then, there won't be any more racist Reed, vile genocidal Wanda, self-hating internalized racist/mutantphobe Wanda, cop [insert whoever here], racist mutantphobe [any non-mutant tbh]. I'm done.

no tbh........................... i get the temptation. of fans. to point out that characters weren't there when the x-men were struggling. but it's like. they belong. to different franchises. they will not interact like that because an avengers writer writing an avengers story is not going to change that halfway to write an x-men story. that is not. how comics work. & writers are at fault here too bc they keep making emma say dumb shit like "where were you when our children were burning" "i have to look after my children first" girl they were getting written in different books. they were dealing with kang or galactus. i'm sorry but not everything can revolve around the x-men 24/7! there are other comic books!

personally i think the best way to deal with the x-men is just to stop letting cishet white abled writers handle them. like ultimately gerry duggan or fuckin... kieron gillen are not equipped i don't think to meaningfully write a minority metaphor. and if we are going to make the point of the x-men be that we can relate to them then we should write them? like constantly & especially now i feel like a lot of writers really just... don't know how to conceptualise bigotry other than like genocidal murder bots or genocidal eternals & it holds the franchise back. vita ayala & al ewing are doing fantastic but problem is that they are the exception & not the rule. the main problem i think is that this franchise in terms of who writes them & in terms of who portrays this minority metaphor remains very white dominated, very cishet dominated, very able-bodied dominated, very conventionally attractive dominated. we don't have any visible mutants in the current line-up, for example, and if we are supposed to accept mutants as the minorities they claim to be they need to a) stop making a character like wanda, a romani jewish mentally ill woman be a scrapegoat & b) stop letting writer's who can't conceptualise hate beyond murder & tomato throwing mobs write them. there's almost no nuance & i hate it.

[volfoss]

hi teehee kof rant (mai centric bc i have a problem etc) below the cut and all that

burden of being a mai fan is having to see a million horrible pieces of content in each kof game (and fatal fury too my god) but it genuinely drives me insane how they write her in a lot of the games. like its 50% of the woah shes a conventionally attractive woman and thats all the character development and depth shes given. Any other time its just maybe 45% "kyaa andy" and 5% lets have her have a nice time w her team. now like. im biased due to hating andy (due to how he really treats her a lot of the time and just how her character is so so based around him instead of letting her be an actual character)

now i know that its like a part of her character that shes super in love w andy and SUPER feminine (other than the ending for fatal fury special where she remarks that she needs to be less masculine) but it really feels like SNK just poured all the budget and effort into seeing how sexy they could make her/the physics of her animation (again iykyk). esp considering her development section on the wiki (of heres who her boobs and ass are based off of, how when they introduced her ""swaying bosom", the developers were awestruck". like i understand fully that they are trying to yk. make her a sex symbol (which worked a little too well imo). it really bled into how a fair bit of fans treat her as just a hot body and never really consider her personality or literally anything other than how her clothes fit or how they can make her outfit worse.

but it really to me feels that the devs were like ok. 4 traits should work: mean to other women sometimes (mostly over appearance), SUPER irrational (which i dont believe but im also like. overthinking pro here, ill elaborate later if i remember), in LOVE with andy, and hot. occasionally they try and throw in a bimbo angle. i feel they really ignore a lot of things they COULD touch on (ie literally ANYTHING with her past, how she gets along w literally anyone on andys team outside of andy (we again. get tiny hints of it but rly not much), or literally ANYTHING outside of the few traits we very vaguely get.

so many of her endings are just either SO andy centric or just her getting drunk. and thats literally it. not even to get into the team stories which are normally a bit better (96's has made me INSANE for weeks tho) but esp 99, that was really disappointing. that one really felt like they were treating her as a footnote and butt of the joke (which happens a lot of people being like wow girl you are crazy about andy) but it feels like in some of the endings (2003 comes to mind, where you get a tiny hint of woah theyre putting in that she cares about her friends and then its like no lol actually its just all about andy)

again i understand how the way that she is written doesnt really allow for a really good read on her as a character (her personality section on the wiki is fucking abysmal. tldr of it is wow shes cheerful, 2 full paragraphs dedicated to how much she loves andy, shes a "traditional and ideal japanese beauty" and like. a tiny note on how she gets along w the womens team/terry and joe). but she really does have more than that of just genuinely being a very kind person and very goofy, as well as a very talented and dedicated person.

so what rly irks me (this is not number one but girls need to get their thoughts on her past out somehow and by god im doing it here) is how her past isnt really ever touched on except for tiny hints here and there. sure we get info on how her grandfather trained her and the tiniest inkling of stuff on her parents (that theyre dead) and how andy came to train with her grandfather when they were both pretty young. but they really dont ever elaborate on how her grandfather basically passing all of her training off to his friend (who is yk. a canonical creep and lecherous old man trope to a T) and training andy impacted her. we never learn how she handled her parents death. or even her grandparents death. or even the enormous weight of being the last shiranui ninja. its all focused on wow lol she fell in love w andy super early on and thats IT really. MI2 (pretty sure. might have been MI 1) does go into a tiny bit of detail on her grandfather training her to move silently and bribing her into that with anything she really ever wanted, and how that even impacted her with the beginning of MI2, where she uses training from her grandfather to throw the letter at Andy, catching him by surprise. but we really dont get a lot of introspection on that in really any of the mainline games (or manga that ive read, all of the ones ive read just have her plotlines be the same as the game (of half andy and half woah hot lady)

not to mention again in the 96 team stories, she mentions that after King says she also cannot participate in KOF, she says this:

^ which literally lines that drive me insane that they NEVER elaborate on. surely her childhood had to be lonely with her being an only child (presumably) and it not really mentioning any friends she has outside of the womens team and a TINY bit of terry and joe. which god. there could have been SO much potential with her and terrys relationship. we literally could have had besties but instead its normally used for a joke of wow mai is SO scary about andy oh nooo. and same w joe. i think tbh the fatal fury movie honestly nailed how i would have their relationship in an ideal world, with them just teasing each other and being a bit bitchy but in a fun friendship way yk?

in regards to the womens team i do normally enjoy how they handle the stuff with her and them, its VERY clear she cares about and loves yuri and king, and even chizuru (i hold the 96 ending SO close to my heart tbh) and just literally if they could pass the bechdel test for literally once in their life, it would be ideal.

mai just genuinely has a lot of potential in terms of writing and literally if u just go through her quotes its just really clear to see she doesnt get that potential ever explored (esp in some of the fatal fury stuff, where shes having to fend men off from touching her or hitting on her.)

tldr snk hire me i understand her etc

[mitskiesque]

I'm not here to debate you as people are entitled to their own opinions. However, I do want to at least understand your point of view, seriously.

From my relatively new understanding, since I'm new to all of this, society has conditioned women to be insecure of their natural faces and presented makeup to them, convincing them that they'll be more likeable with it. My own [religious] mother was a victim of this and told me multiple times to avoid makeup because it damaged her skin, along with other beauty products. She constantly tells me that I don't need to do my nails, makeup and other things because God already made me beautiful and I get the sense that she is trying to protect me. My mother faced the risk of ostracization for choosing to stop wearing makeup and my father would ❝subtly❞ suggest she put on makeup because she was ❝embarrassing❞ him.

I'm questioning about just how ❝empowering❞ it is to reclaim makeup, given that you're playing right into the hands of the patriarchy. If makeup was as good as it has been claimed to be, why do we have woman like my mother telling me that I should stay away from it? Why does my father feel embarrassed when my mother is willing to go to church with her bare face?

Can you tell me what makes makeup empowering?

Going to give you the absolute benefit of the doubt here bc you seem very young. I want to start off by clarifying that I am not a terf and I think radfems participate in a hate movement. I’ve never said makeup is inherently empowering. I don’t believe that of anything.

If you’re referring to my post about like alt/“egirl” makeup styles, I do think that ALTERNATIVE or antifashion makeup styles can be empowering. I think we need to look at antifashion and counterculture through a lens of sociopolitical analysis to understand how it can be empowering, and that’s something that I’m interested in.

So, yes, society has conditioned women to use makeup in CERTAIN WAYS to be more conventionally attractive. Makeup cannot be inherently empowering, thusly. However, there are many ways that makeup, like clothing and hair, can be used as empowering forms of self expression (this is very elementary and a well known idea). Are drag kings “succumbing to the patriarchy” by wearing makeup? What about AFAB drag queens, like Venus Envy and Sigourney Beaver? They’re using it as a kind of elevated performance, to express ideas about society and gender presentation, right?

So, when a drag king or afab queen uses makeup for that empowerment, I think that a parallel can be drawn between that and, say, the makeup styles employed by siouxie sioux in her performances.

This is clearly not making her more “conventionally attractive”— if we compare to the beauty standards of the year this photo is from, we can see a distinct separation from the trends of counterculture and that of the mainstream. Let’s also look at a more recent example of the same kind of counterculture being employed— Lolita fashion styles both in Japan and abroad, and the more “editorial” styles that have been on an uptick recently in online communities that center around makeup and fashion.

I’m not going to go too in depth about both the origins of Lolita subculture and the fashion, because I’d like to focus on makeup styles, but it’s important that you know two pieces of background information. Lolita subculture traces its origin to a feminist counterculture fashion movement that aimed to empower women and girls by embracing a more childlike, less sexualized form of dress (Haenfler). The second is that, generally, makeup goes along with dress in counterculture style movements. Exceptions exist (such as when the counterculture statement is not wearing any; although this is still essentially a makeup choice that reflects the subculture). You can read more about Lolita (and other countercultures) from a sociological lens in the article I linked below. I highly, highly recommend you take a look at not just the Lolita section, but the research about other subcultures as well.

So, in Lolita, the makeup facilitates this expression just as much as the dress. This can be seen in the fact that male-presenting Lolitas (more commonly known as Ouji) also wear makeup, including afab lolitas who present as masculine while in Lolita. (Source: Kawamura 2006). These makeup applications also do not flow with the mainstream trends of the Japanese cosmetics industry. Therefore, in the case of Lolita (and other counterculture fashion that considers gender expression, like Decora Kei), makeup use facilitates a subculture expression that goes against the mainstream and aims to allow participants to explore alternate modes of gender expression.

I started to formulate this idea, after seeing a radfem post that e-girl makeup (characteristic of overapplication of blush, enlarged eyes, and highlight on the nose) was ‘disgusting’ because it made the participants “look sick”. She seemed to think that this was a feminist stance to take— but actually, if we use the lens we have applied to previous countercultures on 21st century “alternative” makeup, we can see that in reality what she is reacting to is the fact that the makeup does not make these women conventionally attractive, and is instead inspired by subcultures from countries like Japan. Here I am going to draw a distinction between what I am considering “alternative makeup” in 2020-22, because online trends that fall more along the mainstream have caused some confusion about the term. For visual reference I suggest looking up Jazmin Bean, Rico Nasty, the Afrogoth movement in general but specifically jinxaddie and vladvonkitsch on Instagram.

The mistake to make here would be viewing counterculture makeup through the same rhetorical and analytical lens as you view mainstream makeup, assuming the goal is, essentially, fuckability. When makeup is used as part of a counterculture uniform or ensemble, it is recontextualized and becomes part of the overall statement the counterculture aims to make.

I would also like to emphasize that everything I’ve said about makeup use and counterculture is true of all women, cis and trans— trans women are affected by the mainstream societal attitudes around makeup as well, and actually a larger number of trans women participate in fashion counterculture, and therefore makeup counterculture applications apply to them and are in many instances driven by trans women.

[ajaegerpilot]

pretty high up in my list of hated things is people who ship butch women with men who they obviously aren’t attracted to/whose attraction makes them feel uncomfortable

[sneakyboymerlin]

Like i cannot stress this enough… he was just trying to get out of an awkward situation, he wasn’t, like, committing a sex crime

But the person who wrote the books (idk if they’re even fringe-canon so much as fanfiction since they were written after viewing the eps) WANTED him to ???? For what fucking purpose ????

I’m glad that the books are only fringe-canon and not actual canon because like… who the hell decided to change Merlin’s intentions in the scene with Morgana ??? To make it gross ????? Why ????????

[fairycosmos]

I hate that so many appearance-related things are viewed by other people/society as "problems" to be "fixed", regardless of how the individual feels. Acne, frizzy hair, teeth that aren't straight, scars, stretch marks, female body hair, wrinkles, body fat, and so many other things. These things are all natural and normal and fine, yet they are viewed as faults or problems by a large majority. People are pressured to have them "fixed". I really hate it.

god ikr. it's so damaging growing up looking like the before of every before and after pic. i'll never forget watching the princess diaries and being like wow everyone liked her more after the makeover when she was perceived as conventionally attractive 🙂 it always gets me how merely existing as you naturally are is some sort of controversial act when you're a woman. cause all those things you mentioned, hair and body fat and wrinkles, they're literally just the consequences of being a human being. they shouldn't be up for debate and scrutiny. when they arbitrarily decided women who look like that need to be fixed (aka need to pay, and keep paying to be fixed), they fuckin dehumanised our relaxed state in the process. and now so many of us are just stuck in a loop of constantly performing for the gaze in our head. for what, you know? for companies to make money off our self hatred? for a sense of identity and approval? it's so annoying bc they literally just made it all up, they invented the standard and now it's so widely believed in and powerful that we really do treat others as less than if they don't appear how we want them to appear. but frizzy hair isn't ugly, acne, crooked teeth etc. they literally just EXIST ughhhhhhhh i'm tired!

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

UGH sorry for some reason tumblr is acting stupid and I can't copy the link but the blog is insanityclause ( I haven't seen any doxing thank god!)

oh yeah okay that is the one i saw. so fucking embarassing how all these Tom Hiddleson blogs can do is shit talk Taylor??? like that's literally all this blog is, same with the other "Tom Hiddleson blog" who had an anon send them my post.

also i will just re-iterate how fucking embarassing it is to read paragraphs on paragraphs talking about privilige and how it affects celebrities' portrayal in media, how i'm actually specifically saying Taylor is kinda validly pre-judged due to the widespread awareness of the privilige she has had throughout her life (being a tall skinny upper middle class conventionally attractive white woman) and how the media projects onto that, and how that + internalized sexism coincides with womens' opinions of her, and just merely unpacking that... and to get from it what all these blogs did (that i'm saying Adele is "protected" bc of her weight, how that inverses and she's the one with privilige, and we swifties all hate her for it)... like. are y'all fucking high.