#and if that doesnt align with what i want/hope for/expect thats cool

[the-gayest-tree-you-ever-did-see]

yesss the fact that it's a YouTube production and not dinof lowers my expectations by loads

mhm exactly, again, as someone who knows jack shit about it, im not one to talk, but based on what i do know, my levels of disappointment and expectation are exactly equal, so im gonna be going into it with completely open and empty mind, and maybe we'll get some dinofs afterwards

[residentevildash-moved]

you probably already got an ask like this but are you excited for the resident evil movie? if you think its good then i might go see it yr the only person i trust with things relating to re.

short answer: yeas!

long answer: im excited to see it but im leaving space in my head + heart for it to be bad ("bad" as in having something wrong with it that i cant enjoy whatsoever). i dont expect it to be a 1:1 retelling, since we already know theyre combining re1+re2 to happen in the same length of time, so things will be shuffled -- which im ok with! i see it as a re-organization of existing story components into something new, which is cool. i like the casting a decent amount (tom hopper as wesker is fucked but avan jogia as leon makes up for it), and the costuming is sweet (people have criticized it saying it looks cheap/shitty etc, but its perfect for res evil) (except for claire, since i think they styled her after her re2 remake model, so her outfit is a lot lamer to me, but its fine), and in general it seems like the people making it rlly care and had fun with it.

that being said, i see some opporunities for them to change the story/characters in a way thats going to cause me psychic damage, mainly:

- making wesker (evilest man on earth) a hero

- making ada (morally grey awesome woman) a villain

these are my main two. i dont ever want to see wesker be presented in a sympathetic light, fuck that guy. and making ada, one of res evils few asian characters, a villain in a story about a viral outbreak.......it would make me genuinely mad to see. past these, they can kind of do what they want with it. i know that wtrc wont align with how i view the series, and im not going to treat it as canon, but its a fun opportunity to see the characters and locations in a movie thats at least trying to be faithful (if you dont know abt the other live action movies, those are..uhhhhhh........dw abt it), though, like i said, i have my reservations. i hope its good, and itll at least be fun :>

under the cut are lists of what im excited for / what i dont like as much, based off of what we know from trailers/rumors

THINGS IM SPECIFICALLY EXCITED FOR:

- seeing lisa trevor and having her be a sympathetic character!!!!! i love lisa trevor so much. if you dont know who she is, shes a character from re1 who isnt often given a sympathetic narrative (and by god she deserves one)

- the sets ^-^ what weve seen so far of the sets looks awesome. they def are aiming to be faithful in that department

- interactions between the re1 and re2 cast -- its just fun >:]

- AVAN AS LEON HES PERFECT FOR IT

- they said they used a lot of practical effects and if thats true im gonna be sooooo happy i love practical effects

THINGS THAT IM NOT REALLY A FAN OF:

- wesker . . why doesnt he have his sunglasses .. those are a defining trait of his .. the casting is also a little weird

- wesker and jill are rumored to have some romantic thing happening. if thats true im going to blow something up.

- (spoiler?) chris and claire's entire deal seems so different from how they actually are that im going to need to remember that its just a movie lol -- theyre both rlly important to me and their sibling dynamic is like. sofucking. its so important ok. putting them in an orphanage and having claire run away at a young age advances the plot but it kind of wrecks the narrative of chris raising claire from a young age and i worry that they wont be close. but its not a dealbreaker ill just scream and bite things

i would say see it if u want ^-^ but i wouldnt take it at face value as canon res evil, yk?

[adambstingus]

The surprising thing her friends worried about when she came out as trans.

In June 2015, I picked up the phone and dialed my old friend Ricks number, guided by the muscle memory of having done it so many times before.

This time, the topic wouldnt be our excitement over the new Dungeon Masters guide or some neat piece of esoterica we had learned in Mr. Zebrackis history class. This discussion would be much more abstract.

I have something to tell you, Rick, I began. I realized recently that Im transgender, and Im planning on transitioning genders at some point in the next year or so, so that I can live my life a little more honestly.

After a moment of silence, Rick said exactly what I was hoping to hear: Youre one of my oldest friends. If thats what you think you need to do, of course I support it, and Ill help you however you need me to. But he also had some questions: Would I still play video games? Would I still like Star Wars?

Rick and I bonded in high school over our mutual love of nerd culture, which we had embraced long before anyone else thought it was cool.

It started with daily after-school pilgrimages to the comic shop to buy Star Wars cards, our beloved pastime that occupied us for hours. The amount of time and money we spent on them was ungodly. As we grew older, Star Wars cards eventually gave way to encyclopedic knowledge on movies, music, anime. Rick even found a way to make sports nerdy with his encyclopedic knowledge of the history and statistics of any given game. It was more than an obsession. It was in our DNA.

Yet Rick, and many others I shared the news of my transition with, still wondered whether changing my gender presentation would affect my bone-deep love of nerd culture.

Friends asked, “Can we still talk about ‘Doctor Who’?” and “Does this mean you wont play Starcraft with me anymore?” My dad even asked me if Id still want to make beer with him the way we do every Thanksgiving. The nature of these questions made me realize how invested people were in the assumed gender alignment of the activities we all enjoyed together.

“Of course Im still going to do all of those things!” I replied each time. From my perspective, I was making a change that would lighten my mood and allow me to enjoy life better. Yes, I would look different, and I would be happier, but I wasnt concerned any of my passions or interests would disappear. To those who expressed these concerns, I may as well have been walking away from everything that made up my personality.

I realized at a basic level, they thought nerd culture was boy stuff.

Before my transition, I hadnt thought much about how that attitude might have affected the girls experience. Now that I was moving from being one of the boys to “just like one of the boys,” I realized how different those experiences really are.

For people socialized as men, being part of a predominantly male clique is an important part of building a self-concept. It supplies men with a healthy sense of validation and inclusion. Its that same pack mentality that gave rise to concepts like “guy code,” “bros before hoes,” and “locker room talk.” Without feeling a connection to it, some men feel they are missing out on a crucial part of life.

The essence of male hierarchy touches all cultures, as Katelyn Burns points out. So it should come as no surprise that it also touched communities I was involved with.

I, too, had been socialized to believe certain things were for men and other things were for women. Any crossover should be looked at as foreign and suspicious. I dont blame men for these aspects of toxic masculinity that seep into the general population. Its a part of the blueprint men are handed in youth. It’s the same blueprint I was given and lived with uncomfortably for 27 years.

Girls, on the other hand, tend to approach being “one of the guys” as something we use to get past gender barriers and just engage with the things we like.

Women tend to see the activities we participate in as less enabled by gender (i.e., “boxing is a sport for men”) and more enabled in spite of gender (i.e., “just because Im a girl doesnt mean I cant be a boxer”).

Women are conscious that participation in male-dominated activities tends to be at the leisure of the men involved, and that membership in the group could be revoked at any time.

For example, if one of the men begins to pursue a woman in the group romantically and she doesnt return his interest, her continued participation may be threatened. This becomes even riskier for women in male-dominated professions like cybersecurity my own field of expertise. In professional settings, the stakes raise dramatically. Rejection of a mans advances can cost us more than our hobby, sometimes it can cost us our jobs.

Often, women deal with this fundamental outsiderness by creating secret spaces where we can pursue feminine interests on our own terms, where being “one of the guys” is no longer the only key for entry.

When I reintegrated into my old hobbies post-transition, I found there were entire subcultures built by women of the group, for women. These small, isolated, and distinctive societies women created were completely invisible to me before I transitioned.

It was like finding a secret room in a house I lived in for decades.

In these women-centered spaces, topics of feminine interest could be discussed openly and out of view of the men in the group. We were shielding ourselves from having to openly remind anyone that we were women. We feared if they noticed, our passageway into acceptance might close.

I watched this happen many times online, in particularly hostile ways. Once men realized an opponent was a woman, players in online games like “Battlefield,” “Counterstrike,” or “Halo,” emboldened by anonymity, would launch into misogynistic attacks after every victory or loss, or sometimes for no reason at all. Any given round I could expect to hear sage platitudes, such as, go back to the kitchen, or why dont you make me a sandwich? not to mention a barrage of slurs.

The nerd culture narrative is that were a group of outcasts who built a community to cope with the awkwardness and rejection of being a pariah in a social structure that didnt value the same things we did. But we brought the seeds of our own inherent caste systems with us.

It perpetuated an unspoken marginalization of girls that bordered on outright contempt. It forced girls to find ways to evolve and to express themselves despite the constraints that exist when men make the rules.

Nerd culture is always going to be a part of me and my history. I wouldnt be who I am without it, and Im glad that I still have a place in my communities no matter what Im wearing, what my name is, or how I look. In many places at my local gaming store, at my friends houses, and in these women-centric spaces I never saw before Ive found the accepting and understanding community that nerd culture is supposed to be.

Ive also realized how far we are from being that all the time, for everyone.

The road to acceptance runs directly through a minefield of toxic masculinity, and womens participation is often tentative and requires we leave our woman-ness at the door.

Our identities are complex. The interests of women are broad and deep, as is our capability to adapt to situations in casual and professional settings. Being the versatile creatures we are, women will always find a way into communities that interest us.

We have a chance to set aside any preconceived expectations we have of gender and fight the goblins together. Were going to need all the help we can get.

This story first appeared on The Establishment and is reprinted here with permission.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-surprising-thing-her-friends-worried-about-when-she-came-out-as-trans/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/179733011987

[allofbeercom]

The surprising thing her friends worried about when she came out as trans.

In June 2015, I picked up the phone and dialed my old friend Ricks number, guided by the muscle memory of having done it so many times before.

This time, the topic wouldnt be our excitement over the new Dungeon Masters guide or some neat piece of esoterica we had learned in Mr. Zebrackis history class. This discussion would be much more abstract.

I have something to tell you, Rick, I began. I realized recently that Im transgender, and Im planning on transitioning genders at some point in the next year or so, so that I can live my life a little more honestly.

After a moment of silence, Rick said exactly what I was hoping to hear: Youre one of my oldest friends. If thats what you think you need to do, of course I support it, and Ill help you however you need me to. But he also had some questions: Would I still play video games? Would I still like Star Wars?

Rick and I bonded in high school over our mutual love of nerd culture, which we had embraced long before anyone else thought it was cool.

It started with daily after-school pilgrimages to the comic shop to buy Star Wars cards, our beloved pastime that occupied us for hours. The amount of time and money we spent on them was ungodly. As we grew older, Star Wars cards eventually gave way to encyclopedic knowledge on movies, music, anime. Rick even found a way to make sports nerdy with his encyclopedic knowledge of the history and statistics of any given game. It was more than an obsession. It was in our DNA.

Yet Rick, and many others I shared the news of my transition with, still wondered whether changing my gender presentation would affect my bone-deep love of nerd culture.

Friends asked, “Can we still talk about ‘Doctor Who’?” and “Does this mean you wont play Starcraft with me anymore?” My dad even asked me if Id still want to make beer with him the way we do every Thanksgiving. The nature of these questions made me realize how invested people were in the assumed gender alignment of the activities we all enjoyed together.

“Of course Im still going to do all of those things!” I replied each time. From my perspective, I was making a change that would lighten my mood and allow me to enjoy life better. Yes, I would look different, and I would be happier, but I wasnt concerned any of my passions or interests would disappear. To those who expressed these concerns, I may as well have been walking away from everything that made up my personality.

I realized at a basic level, they thought nerd culture was boy stuff.

Before my transition, I hadnt thought much about how that attitude might have affected the girls experience. Now that I was moving from being one of the boys to “just like one of the boys,” I realized how different those experiences really are.

For people socialized as men, being part of a predominantly male clique is an important part of building a self-concept. It supplies men with a healthy sense of validation and inclusion. Its that same pack mentality that gave rise to concepts like “guy code,” “bros before hoes,” and “locker room talk.” Without feeling a connection to it, some men feel they are missing out on a crucial part of life.

The essence of male hierarchy touches all cultures, as Katelyn Burns points out. So it should come as no surprise that it also touched communities I was involved with.

I, too, had been socialized to believe certain things were for men and other things were for women. Any crossover should be looked at as foreign and suspicious. I dont blame men for these aspects of toxic masculinity that seep into the general population. Its a part of the blueprint men are handed in youth. It’s the same blueprint I was given and lived with uncomfortably for 27 years.

Girls, on the other hand, tend to approach being “one of the guys” as something we use to get past gender barriers and just engage with the things we like.

Women tend to see the activities we participate in as less enabled by gender (i.e., “boxing is a sport for men”) and more enabled in spite of gender (i.e., “just because Im a girl doesnt mean I cant be a boxer”).

Women are conscious that participation in male-dominated activities tends to be at the leisure of the men involved, and that membership in the group could be revoked at any time.

For example, if one of the men begins to pursue a woman in the group romantically and she doesnt return his interest, her continued participation may be threatened. This becomes even riskier for women in male-dominated professions like cybersecurity my own field of expertise. In professional settings, the stakes raise dramatically. Rejection of a mans advances can cost us more than our hobby, sometimes it can cost us our jobs.

Often, women deal with this fundamental outsiderness by creating secret spaces where we can pursue feminine interests on our own terms, where being “one of the guys” is no longer the only key for entry.

When I reintegrated into my old hobbies post-transition, I found there were entire subcultures built by women of the group, for women. These small, isolated, and distinctive societies women created were completely invisible to me before I transitioned.

It was like finding a secret room in a house I lived in for decades.

In these women-centered spaces, topics of feminine interest could be discussed openly and out of view of the men in the group. We were shielding ourselves from having to openly remind anyone that we were women. We feared if they noticed, our passageway into acceptance might close.

I watched this happen many times online, in particularly hostile ways. Once men realized an opponent was a woman, players in online games like “Battlefield,” “Counterstrike,” or “Halo,” emboldened by anonymity, would launch into misogynistic attacks after every victory or loss, or sometimes for no reason at all. Any given round I could expect to hear sage platitudes, such as, go back to the kitchen, or why dont you make me a sandwich? not to mention a barrage of slurs.

The nerd culture narrative is that were a group of outcasts who built a community to cope with the awkwardness and rejection of being a pariah in a social structure that didnt value the same things we did. But we brought the seeds of our own inherent caste systems with us.

It perpetuated an unspoken marginalization of girls that bordered on outright contempt. It forced girls to find ways to evolve and to express themselves despite the constraints that exist when men make the rules.

Nerd culture is always going to be a part of me and my history. I wouldnt be who I am without it, and Im glad that I still have a place in my communities no matter what Im wearing, what my name is, or how I look. In many places at my local gaming store, at my friends houses, and in these women-centric spaces I never saw before Ive found the accepting and understanding community that nerd culture is supposed to be.

Ive also realized how far we are from being that all the time, for everyone.

The road to acceptance runs directly through a minefield of toxic masculinity, and womens participation is often tentative and requires we leave our woman-ness at the door.

Our identities are complex. The interests of women are broad and deep, as is our capability to adapt to situations in casual and professional settings. Being the versatile creatures we are, women will always find a way into communities that interest us.

We have a chance to set aside any preconceived expectations we have of gender and fight the goblins together. Were going to need all the help we can get.

This story first appeared on The Establishment and is reprinted here with permission.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-surprising-thing-her-friends-worried-about-when-she-came-out-as-trans/