#and then its either romany or like something from the 70s

[cruelsister-moved2]

i kind of hate when people respond to various stereotypical depictions of travellers from britain/ireland e.g my big fat g*psy wedding type by suggesting that like they're 'fake' travellers or something. you've probably seen the posts where it's like 'real traveller culture isn't this it's this' like... irish travellers are also a 'real' ethnic minority with their own traditions and history and culture like. they may often be stereotyped and also may have ways of living that seem unpalatable to you but they're both deeply marginalised and also umm....undisputably 'real' it's just such a weird response to stereotyping and bigotry

[munchkinmarauder]

I have no idea what the Anonymous poster was on about because the MCU and XMCU adaptions of the Maximoff twins are just terrible adaptations overall. Nothing of the twins histories, iconic stories or relationships are shown and developed. They don't have any the depth and complexity of the comic twins. Their personalities are different. These are literal pale imitations of comic Pietro and Wanda. They only things they have in common are their names (not even that with XMCU Peter Maximoff) and are otherwise original characters.

MCU Wendy didn't even have Wanda's probability powers. She had Jean's. Magic was just something she started doing rather than discovered but they kept making her hair redder and it's clear the MCU just really wanted Jean Grey and didn't care if they had to shit on Wanda Maximoff to do it.

Quite frankly MCU Wendy is the embodiment of gaslight gatekeep girlboss. While there was sexist writing of her in MoM - what we see of her is a women who attacks people of colour, murders anyone in her way, mindrapes and would enslave a town knowingly and maliciously (not to mention act abusive towards her partner and Monika) but it is treated as ok by the narrative and instantly forgivable because she is "sad". Comic Wanda has not done a fraction of what Wendy has and many of comic Wandas worst actions were due to external factors like possession or being in the midst of a tragic breakdown that had built up over years because of the many horrible things that happened to her in her life (this is an extreme oversimplification of the comics but it's not because she is just "sad" and wants to hurt people because of it like the MCU counterpart).

It should also be noted that MCU Wendy is completely defined by the men in her life way more than comic Wanda, who has been independent of them for decades (including being divorced from the Vision for 40years) is. Comic Wanda was always more than Magneto's daughter, Pietro's twin and Vision's wife. We've had multiple stories in the comics which explore this (as early as the 70s/80s). MCU Wendy first shows up with her brother, the actors play up the incest subtext angle, then he dies (taking away the potential to adapt a good chunk of her stories and Wanda's most important relationship) and she is immediately attached to the Hawkeye and vision. Everything MCU Wendy does is for or linked to the men in her life (the only time she was leading the men was in AOU where she was the one spearheading the revenge more than her brother) and she rarely is seen on her own or has any female friends or significant relationships, then all her actions were dictated by Hawkeye and Vision and then in MoM its her sons. She's not a feminist icon she's a caricature of the male idea of the crazy women under the shroud of corporate girlbossim (except as established in the movies and shows she is always aware of and deliberate in her actions). Make no mistake had they gotten rights to Magneto at the time the MCU would 100% reduce the twins to being just Magneto's children and inherently evil as a lot of X-Men fans and properties seem to do. What we would have gotten would be way worse than the comics I can guarantee that.

Also let's not forget they had Jewish Romani characters from the comics, two of the most prominent, work for Hydra and allegory to the Nazis while stripping away those heritages from her (at the time she was the children of two holocaust survivors in the comics).

To say the twins Roma and Jewish heritage or the heritage of circumstances of any minority character is not important is as stated above either extremely ignorant or low-key to outright racist. These aspects of the twins, particularly their Romani heritage was in place before Magneto was their father, their backstory involves then losing their home, community and parents due to a hate crime and we've had several stories of the twins discussing what their heritage means to them. Erasing that left us with a hollow character in the films who gets away with the things comic Wanda never did because she is white.

Quite frankly a lot of these MCU fans when if comes to the Maximoff twins are a mix of ignorant, racist or they know the MCU versions are whitewashed and have so many issues but they want to enjoy those characters guilt free so will go to the worst extremes to justify it.

I've seen so much crying from Olsen and MCU Wendy fans about the Maximoff twins discourse from them online because they want the twins to be white despite there being so many white characters for them to enjoy. They sure do shut up quickly though when you point out that for all the comics obsession with MCU synergy then why are the Maximoffs being drawn as brown Vs making them more like their popular movie like they have with other characters like Loki or Bucky if not to correct a long standing mistake with the comics.

Comics have a colourism issue. This impacts black and brown characters exponentially. Pietro and Wanda are far from the only characters who have been drawn light skinned or white in the past while actually being PoC. Think of characters like Berto, Monet, Storm, Forge, Talia Al Guhl, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Doom, Jinx, Raven, etc. the list is long and extensive and even when they are acknowledged as PoC people will fight for the right to have "light skinned PoC" represented which is kind of ridiculous because those are the only ones of us allowed on screen or in most media. At the end of the day what's most important is what the text says about their heritage and how they are treated in universe. I'm glad we are seeing more genuine attempts from individual writers and artists to correct these issues but it's slow going and sometimes one step forward and two steps back. Something to celebrate but we shouldn't stop talking about it either.

On a side note - Olsen herself was pushing for the version of the outfit that was revealed in the concept art. You know the stereotypical one? This is something she herself admitted and called comic Wandas early costume a "g*** thing". This lady has been told that word is a slur for Romani people on national television and keeps using it and pushing for harmful stereotypes associated with Romani people to be used in the movies in relation to the whitewashed character she is profiting off. I genuinely hope the Nepobaby is serious about leaving the MCU to pursue other opportunities and stays away.

Obviously it’s not wrong to think MCU Wanda is worse than the cartoons, but it reminded me how grateful I was that the MCU made her an Avenger who falls for Vision & finds out she was a real witch, after years of cartoons reducing her to Magneto’s daughter (and leaving her out of Avengers: EMH). It’s the most comic accurate version (which doesn’t mean much; her Romani heritage was a minor aspect of past comics but that can’t “prove” the MCU was right to ignore it, though Elizabeth Olsen was right to turn down the Romani Halloween costume in WandaVision and wear the classic outfit which predates that retcon l).

Please know that I am so, so serious when I say this, but you would have to be either illiterate or lying to think that the M C U adaptation of Wanda, Pietro, or Vision are in any way faithful to the source material.

Nothing about their origins, their trajectories, or their roles as Avengers resemble the comics they're allegedly based on, at least not the Earth-616 continuity. Wanda, in my mind, is the most egregious example! The movies are wildly off-base with how they depict her powers, the Darkhold, her relationship with Agatha and her identity as a witch-- even the nature and history of witchcraft itself-- and I think that, in many ways, Wanda//Vision and MoM are actually more cruel to Wanda and broach some of the most sensitive topics surrounding her character in incredibly poor faith.

Also, if you think that Wanda's Romani identity and background are a "minor" part of her character, I'm sorry, you are being ignorant and lowkey racist. No, it doesn't get brought up every time she's on page, but her entire origin story is predicated on the fact that she grew up in an extremely vulnerable, marginalized community where she experienced racial violence and discrimination. Her birth parents being Jewish and Roma Holocaust survivors is vital representation of a part of history that is often distorted or erased. And the thing that a lot of people seem to miss about Wanda is that, whether the writers intended it or not, her Romani identity is reflected in everything she embodies and experiences, and it is intellectually irresponsible to not recognize that. Her ties to witchcraft, experiences with immigration and assimilation, traumatic experiences with motherhood, and proximity to metaphorical minorities (mutants) and her role in stories about metaphorical genocide have to be interpreted and criticized within the racial context that this character occupies.

Don't message me again.

[givemearmstopraywith]

Re: n****l horoscopes: I unfollowed them a long while ago citing Inexplicable Bad Vibes, so I am feeling very vindicated rn... down with misinformation!

don't reblog or you'll get blocked / (telling this story bc i had a couple of people ask what i meant when i referred nh being xenophobic) i followed and unfollowed off and on for years but what got me was a couple of years ago they used the term wop pejoratively towards italians- i think started because it was columbus day? which like. go the fuck ahead, im not someone who sits around acting like italians are poc or something but my actual grandfather, who left italy in the 1950s because the economy was destroyed after mussolini and emigrated to a very small, very white town in canada, was harassed both in and out of the workplace by white anglos and the term "wop" was what he was called. i have family members who were physically assaulted in xeonophobic attacks specifically because they were italian immigrants in the 70s/80s and "wop" is the term that was used to describe them. the term refers to, and i am not making this up, the sound of two pieces of shit being slapped together. that's the etymology, at least in terms of the crackers who threw it around forty years ago were using it. am i gonna sit here and say i experience racism on account of being italian? no, of course not, but you have be genuinely stupid not to recognize that xenophobia against europeans, especially towards italians, continues to be fucking rampant, especially in extremely anglo (british) communities.

at the time i sent nh an ask politely asking them not to use that term, and they were completely belligerent and unapologetic. i'm not saying people should be offended by this at all, it was a personal offence because that term has a personal history in my family, which is almost entirely comprised of first generation immigrants, but it just. reeked. that side of the family is also where my jewish and romani ancestry comes from, i'm extremely protective of it because i still live around the people who were beating the shit out of my mom and uncle as kids for not being white enough, and that, for me, was where i finally gave up on trying to see the good in nh's blog (there isn't any). like i said, im not going to sit here and say cancel nh for using the term wop, its entirely relative in north america because italians do not face oppression here, but on the whole i'm pretty nh is not as smart or knowledgable as they pretend they are. scratch the surface of 90% of what they post and its either nonsense or something you can find on wikipedia.

[camlangsci]

Big brother is not watching you

When prescriptivism gets mentioned, the formidable Académie Française inevitably crops up. The French Academy – beacon of proper French, publisher of dictionaries, and watchdog of all utterances – is regularly mentioned for its fight against Anglicisms, bringing down one loanword at a time: you send un courriel rather than an email, using a laptop that runs a certain logiciel, rather than software. Time to break for ‘le weekend’? Don’t even dream of it.

There may be more than a hint of over-exaggeration in how the media and popular linguistics report about the Academy’s antics (and with the Academy calling its members les immortels ‘immortals’, it’s not exactly helping its cause), but whatever the truth, it casts a bit of an Orwellian shadow on the idea of language institutes. There’s no equivalent governing body for the English language – which is why some English speakers like to think of their language as more liberated than the supposedly oppressed French – but broadening one’s prescriptivist horizons shows that language institutes really aren’t that totalitarian. I bring to you the Finnish take on the matter – Kotus.

“Time to break for le weekend? Don’t even dream of it.”

Just like its French counterpart, Kotus (or Kotimaisten Kielten Keskus, Institute for the Languages of Finland) is a state-run body. It’s in charge of the study and planning of Finland’s two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, steering and developing language standards and compiling dictionaries, as well as coordinating some of the work on the official minority languages Sami, Romani, and Finnish Sign Language. Researchers find materials in its archives and corpora, while people confused about correct language use can turn to their linguistic guidance and counselling services. It’s not that different from Ghostbusters, really: if there’s something strange in your text, who you gonna call? Kotus!

Also like Ghostbusters, Kotus moves with the times. It accepts that language changes, and that its rules aren’t set in stone, even if that were to give it some extra gravitas.

Katariina and Vilhelm having a little snog there. Credit: murielle29

Ever heard of Prince Yrjö of England? No? I’m talking about the product of the St Andrews -based love story of Vilhelm and Katariina? Still no? Well, worry not, for neither have most Finnish people – under those guises. I’m talking about the Duke, Duchess, and Prince of Cambridge. In the olden days, all royal Georges were referred to as Yrjö, Catherines/ Katherines as Katariina, and Williams as Vilhelm. Mentioning that Yrjö’s aunt Pippa once made Rear of the Year would have been a giveaway, though, not only because of the esteemed prize but because names outside the standard royal paradigm have never been translated, nor will they be in the future. In 2002, the Institute recommended that future European monarchs be referred to with their native names: all Georges up to George VI will continue to be Yrjös, but when the next George hops on the thrown, there won’t be any funny naming business. Other countries still like to hold onto nativising names: in Latvia, for example, the US elections battle was fought between Donalds Tramps and Hilarija Klintone.

Not all Finnish loanwords bow to originals as they do to monarchs, though. In keeping with modern times, puzzled language users can now contact Kotus through a chat function on their website – only instead of chat, the interface referred to as tsätti. While both forms are used in Finnish, and both are equally accepted by the Institute, Kotus defends its choice to use the latter with an argument for user friendliness. Tsätti eliminates issues with the non-Finnish ch-sound ([tʃ] for the phonetically inclined) by replacing it with the more manageable ts. It also conveys a degree of casualness: a rather different approach from naming one’s workers les immortels.

Farao or faarao? Just chill. Credit: Damian Gadal.

Going casual is not just about appearances, either. Going against the Académie Française stereotype of extreme conservatism, Kotus is quite happy to acknowledge that variation is a thing in language. Back in the 70s, the correct spelling and pronunciation for ‘pharaoh’ was ruled as farao over its rival faarao with a long vowel, the former form being backed up by its appearance in the Bible. But in the latest issue of the Kotus journal, the happy news that faarao is back on the cards was announced. As the variation persisted throughout the decades, there was no point in clinging on to the superficially imposed form, et voilà (loanwords are totally cool, too), both the alternative forms were officially approved.

Revealing how Kotus oppresses people in a Nineteen Eighty-Four way would probably have attracted more readers. Alas, no – go and enjoy your freedom in using Finnish.

Big brother is not watching you was originally published on CamLangSci

[ncog]

5,17,23,36,66,81,97

5: What does your latest text message from someone else say?

Cute boy: You’re adorable and I want to cuddle you.  (He speaks directly to my heart sometimes *swoon*)

17: What’s the last lie you told?

Oh fuck..um.. “Yeah, it in my car.” it was about my class ring but I really had no idea where it was at.

23: How do you vent your anger?

This is a weird one, a lot of times I don’t. I bottle emotions a lot, but I’m getting better. I normally will bottle things up to keep a level head and as the day turns to night, I’ll go sit on the roof of my building and let the wind carry away the energy or go stand in the ocean and let the waves cleanse my soul.

36: Define Art.

How did I know you would be the one to ask me this? Art is art. Its different for everyone. For most art can be a simple drawing, a painting, or a picture, but for me art is life. It’s the way the wind whispers through the trees as you walk through a forest, or the energy that rolls off the waves onto the beach. Its the moonlight dancing in your eyes, or the fire in your heart. It could also be as simple as the way someones face softens when they look at someone/thing they love. Art is complex and simple, abstract and realistic, singular yet many all at once. Art changes as the way someone views life changes. A person could hear the singing of a bird one morning and think nothing of it, yet three weeks later the singing of a bird could be a blessing, a work of art. Art is communication, energy, and being. In essence art becomes life, if you learn to look for it. At least that is what I think.

66: Whats your heritage?

The only bits that I can remember are that I’m (Blackfoot or blackfeet idr which) and Seminole Native American, both of which I had either a medicine man or wise-woman as my ancestor. I am a direct descendent of one of the last truly nomadic Romani (gyspy) caravans. And I have some of Attila the Hun in me. I think my mom said I had the blood of some European Witch in me too. One of the few to escape the burning times. But I don’t completely remember. I wanna get tested again honestly.

81: What do you want written on your tombstone?

I’m not sure.. Maybe “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live” or something like “To be continued…” Or better yet something along the lines of a gay pun :P

97: Have you ever thrown up in a car?

I have. I ate 70 pieces of sushi one night. And made it 3 mins from my house when I had to get my grandmother to pull over so I could throw it all back up. Totally worth it though.

Thanks boo~