#buffalo bunch
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crydadoll · 1 year ago
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Crydamoure night
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theonethatyoudreamon · 7 months ago
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13. Where the Buffalo Roam
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shout out to yellowstone national park bison photo gallery for inspiration
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goingtothebes · 1 year ago
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pictures from various goats shows last week!! i don't recall which ones!!!
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Tracklist:
Music Box • Intergalactik Disko (DJ Sneak's Version) • Lovers • Hysteria • Coral Twist • Gator • Wet Indiez • Mirage • Cherie D'Amoure • Wrath Of Zeus • The Turkish Avenger • Spaced Out • T.I.T.T.S • Number Seven (Le Knight Club Remix) • Intergalactik Disko • Troobadoor • Santa Claus • White Winds • In Flight (Raw Club Remix) • Boogie Shell • Coco Girlz • G.M.F • Holiday On Ice
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variousqueerthings · 4 months ago
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watching a PG thing will go something like: "beautiful man is very competent in whatever field he's in. beautiful man appears in the narrative in a way where other people notice his first entrance and one of the first things noticed is how beautiful he is. beautiful man is in some way alienated from the community he is in due to the way he acts and/or his background. beautiful man is unhinged and power structures dislike him intensely for being very honest. beautiful man has a non-normative relationship to sex which stems from a variety of reasons explored in the narrative. main woman would really like to have sex with beautiful man but he's holding back for some reason or other. beautiful man is very very happy for main woman to take charge in all things though and will follow her lead. beautiful man enjoys getting manhandled. there may be ghosts (literal) or ghosts (metaphorical) but this is optional.
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woman-respecter · 1 year ago
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taylor swift you do not have to go to buffalo new york in the middle of january. do not do this to yourself.
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buffa-z · 2 years ago
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according to their animal motifs, buffa is the only character of the main four that cant see in the dark. however, he is the only one who can eat chocolate, so who's really winning
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ialpiriel · 11 months ago
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loveofmylouis · 2 years ago
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fattycherryy · 23 days ago
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I. Am. So. Fucking. Full.
Right after coming home from a tournament I was sooo hungry.. So obviously, I pigged tf out. I had 3 ham sandwiches all stuffed to the brim with BBQ chips, chugged that down with a soda.. Then, three hours I was hungry AGAIN. So, I made me some Buffalo wings and a shit ton of fries in the air fryer. Ate about 10 of those.. God, I don't even know how many fries I ate lmao. Then, I gorged on a bunch of vanilla ice cream.. Forgot to mention after my dinner I chugged two cans of coke. This is the fullest and fattest I've ever been~ I love just stuffing my face with food, I can't help it. I was so stuffed and I even put a belt on my belly while eating.. I ended up eating so much I couldn't even see my belt anymore, just the fat of my belly gushing over it.
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catboybiologist · 7 months ago
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The General Grant Tree.
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When the Civil War ended, the United States had an abundance of soldiers in the East, and a bunch of recently-brutally-colonized lands to the West. So, they put two and two together, and waves of soldiers went West. Most of that legacy is brutality. But some of that is positive- the first park rangers for newly-formed national parks in the Sierra Nevada mountains were part of these companies. Among others, this includes the Buffalo soldiers, all black regimens that scouted and mapped the Sierras, and helped establish better public access.
When they were sent to survey the West, they found giants. The Giant Sequoias, ice age relics clinging to isolated groves on the West slopes of the Sierras, are the largest single stem trees in the world. The largest individual trees were given names by these soldiers, and naturally, they named them after their commanding officers.
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The General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park is the largest single-stem tree on the planet, but many come close- including the General Grant tree in Kings Canyon national park.
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Unlike the Sherman tree, however, the Grant tree obtained a kind of mythic quality. It's been named a national shrine to veterans and the military, as well as the Nation's Christmas tree.
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But me? Well, I like the Sequoias themselves as a symbol of enduring nature more than I love the military or Christmas. I love the towering immensity of Sequoias, and largely disconnect myself from the other meanings that this tree has been given.
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But y'know what else I love?
Tgirl tummy.
That's right.
This is a tgirl tummy Tuesday post.
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Happy tgirl tummy Tuesday from the General Grant tree! I hope I'm being adequately degenerate at this "national shrine" to help divorce it from the US military. I stopped for the night in Grant Grove on my way deeper into the Sierras, so yeah, this is past Sierra with a scheduled post. Apologies for the image quality, these were all taken at twilight. Stay gender fucked, stay faggoty, eat well, and enjoy your public lands!
@xenasaur @lilithtransrights @anarqueeen @whalesharkcat @godless-of-the-hunt @shakukon-to @sagasolejma @eruditegeek @havingsecondthots @subsequentlysilly
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menagerofmischief · 5 months ago
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Hi, I love that you're also doing this !!
for my dinner order Served by Carlos Sainz can I please get Charcuterie board as a starter with a hot appetizer
For main : Buffalo wings, Sushi and Cheese fries
For drinks: Iced tea (receiving), Mint tea and vodka Redbull With dessert of course, thank you
Ps. My favorite tracks are Monza and Singapore 😉
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Dia's Diner Menu
charcuterie board dating hot appetizer sweet sex buffalo wings "Count them for me" sushi "Better quiet down you don't want them to hear us" cheese fries "I love making you squirt" ice tea oral mint tea body worship vodka redbull squirting dessert aftercare + pizza "My good girl"
TW: oral sex, fingering, semi-public sex (driver's room), squirting, PiV, unprotected sex
WC: 1.7k
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“You did good today,” I said, my lips stretching into a smile as Carlos wrapped his arms around me. 
Today was Saturday, which meant quali and Carlos Sainz, my beloved boyfriend, got P2. With the car he was driving that’s the equivalent of pole position. 
“Thank you, carino.” Carlos said, resting his chin on the top of my head as he wrapped his arms around me just a bit tighter.
I giggled, trying to push away from him only to be met with failure. “Carlos,” I whined, attempting to put some space between us. “You’re all sweaty!”
He laughed, releasing me from his hold and taking a step back. “Better now?” He asked and I nodded. Carlos slipped his hand into mine and intertwined our fingers, and then with a gentle but still firm hold started leading me towards his driver’s room. “Come on,” was all he said.
The tone of his voice left no room for argument and I knew where this was heading and it was going to finish up. Every good race and quali ended the same way. First with my legs thrown over his shoulder while he ate me out like I was his last meal and then with him buried deep inside of me, fucking me desperately and passionately, like the world depended on it.
As soon as we’re inside of his driver’s room he lets go of my hands and closes the door. I hear a click, letting me know the door is locked and then Carlos turns back around to face me.
His pupils are blown wide, his eyes slightly narrowed and darkened with desire. He crosses his arms and looks me up and down. His eyes sliding from my legs up to my head and then back down to my legs, his gaze intense enough to make goosebumps rise on my skin.
“Strip,” Carlos commanded, his voice rough and the intensity of his gaze making me hot all over.
I hesitated only for a second before I began removing my clothes, peeling item after item away from my body, fumbling with buttons until I opened them all. I stood in my underwear, a red set Carlos had bought me the last time we went shopping, and looked at him.
Carlos only raised a brow in response, silently commanding me to keep going and take my underwear off as well. “I said strip, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, my voice barely above a whisper. First I took off my bra, reaching my hands and unclasping it before letting it fall down onto the floor where the rest of my clothes were. Then I hooked my fingers under the waistband of my pantied and pulled them off, my cheeks burning when I noticed the huge wet patch on them.
Carlos hummed, I didn’t even notice he approached me until his hand wrapped around my wrist when I went to drop my panties to the ground. His thumb rubbed over my skin before he grabbed the material, bunching up the panties tightly in his hand, he gave me a smirk before making one step towards his jacket, hanging on a chair and putting my panties inside of his pocket.
“I’ll be keeping those,” he said in a matter of fact voice. He took slow, determined steps towards me and with each of his I took one step backwards until my legs hit the couch.
Carlos towered over me, looking at me the way a predator looks at its prey before sinking its teeth into it, and smirked. He brought his hands up and placed them on my shoulders, giving me a moment of comfort before pe gently pushed me onto the couch. 
He climbed over me and placed a few kisses on my collarbones and between my breasts before moving down so was eye level with my pussy. His hand gripped my thigh, his thumb rubbing soothing circled into my skin. “Are you gonna be a good girl for me, carino?” He purred, his voice like velvet of my skin, his breath warm.
“Yes, Carlos, I’ll be good.”
He hummed, dipping his head down and placing a kiss onto my clit, gone as soon as it started, making me whine and buck my hips trying to chase any kind of friction. “Yeah, you’re gonna be a good girl and let me do with you as I please. I think,” he stopped for a second, deciding the rest of his sentence. “I’ll make you cum for me three times. Think you can do that?”
I nodded in agreement instantly. “I can do that!”
He smiled, dipping his head down, tongue darting out and licking from my opening to my clit before his lips left my core, again. “Good,” he growled. “I want you to count how many times I make you cum. How many orgasms you are about to have - I want you to count them for me.”
I barely had time to nod before his lips wrapped around my clit, giving it a long suck before his tongue flicked it, making me moan. Carlos pulled himself away just a bit and looked up at me, “The walls are thin, you know? And the garage is full of employees. You better be quiet, you don’t want them to hear us, do you?”
“No,” I whisper but it comes out more like a broken whine. However it’s enough for Carlos before he returns his lips to my cunt.
He concentrates his lips on my clit, sucking and licking like a starved man and it’s not long until I feel my orgasm approaching. “Gonna cum, Carlos, fuck! So good!” I moan, my hands grabbing his head and fingers tangling in his hair as I attempt to push his face further into my cunt.
I felt his tongue flick my clit one more time before I was cuming with a moan, my legs squeezing around his head so hard I was afraid I was going to suffocate him. 
I was breathless, my chest raising and falling with each shallow breath I took, my body burning. “One,” I said, my voice cracking. “That was one.”
Carlos turned his head to the side and pressed a kiss to my thigh. “There we go,” he said, his lips brushing against my skin with every word he spoke. “That’s my good girl.”
I felt blood rush to my cheeks at his praise and Carlos chuckled when he saw me blushing. One of his hands gently stroked my waist, his eyes locked onto mine. “Good to keep going, carino?”
“Please,” I said, almost embarrassingly fast, nodding my head along.
Carlos smirked, moving his hands instantly. His lips wrapped around my clit again, making me whine from how sensitive I was from my last orgasm. A moment later I felt his fingers circling around my entrance, making me moan.
His fingers easily sink into me, all the way to the knuckles and he wastes no time to begin thrusting them inside me. I’d be embarrassed from the squelch my wetness makes while he fucks me with his fingers but with how good I am feeling, I can’t bring myself to care.
His fingers hit my G-spot every time and he sucked harder on my clit. I felt my orgasm fast approaching and before I could open my mouth to say something I felt myself tip over the edge.
This time felt different than the previous and I realized why when I heard Carlos groan and looked down to see myself squirting. The drops of my pleasure all over his face and soaking up his fireproofs.
“Fuck,” I whispered, feeling like my body was vibrating with pleasure. “Two.”
Carlos pulled away, locking his eyes with mine and brought his fingers up to his lips, licking them clean. “I love making you squirt, carino.” He said, his voice rough. “It’s my favorite thing actually.”
“Carlos, please!” I whined, reaching my hands towards him and grabbing his shoulder. “Need you to fuck me. Need to fill you in me.”
“Is that right?” He growled, already undressing himself from his racing suit. “My pretty girl needs me to fill her up?”
Carlos settled over me on the couch, leaning down to kiss me, pushing his tongue into my mouth and making me taste myself. In the meantime he ran his cock through my folds, covering himself with my wetness before sliding into me.
He filled me up in one thrust, burying himself to the hilt and making me moan into his mouth. His thrusts were slow, deep and passionate. This time he wasn’t fucking me, he was making love.
His hands ran all over my body, fingertips ghosting over my skin before one of his hands grabbed my tits. “You’re so pretty, carino.” He said, his lips brushing against mine. “The prettiest woman - and all mine.”
“Yes Carlos, yours! All yours.”
I could tell he was close from the way he twitched inside of me. He snuck his hand down, his fingers playing with my oversensitive clit and I was cumming around him. Just moments after Carlos stilled, releasing himself inside of me and filling me with his cum.
He waited a moment for me to catch my breath and then slowly pulled out his softening dick. He got up and went to the bathroom to grab a towel before coming back and cleaning me up. 
He kissed my forehead, moving a strand of hair from my face. “You did so well, carino.” He said, his voice holding a gentle tone. I felt his arms wrap around me and then next thing I knew he pulled me up into his arms and started carrying me to the bathroom.
“We’re gonna take a shower now,” he said, his thumb rubbing against my skin. “And then we’ll get dressed and go out for ice cream before going back to the hotel. How does that sound?”
Carlos put me on my feet in the shower and turned the water on. “Amazing,” I hummed in content, feeling his hands gliding over my body as he started soaping me up. “It sound amazing.”
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karlachismylife · 6 months ago
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Tough Spot || The Queen of the Clan pt.2
CW: fem!chubby!reader, mentions of animal marking/spraying/urinating
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When you took a break in trying to get your behaviorist degree and took off to partake in this documentary on a whim, you certainly were prepared that it won't meet the highest expectations - life isn't a movie, after all, so perhaps you weren't hoping to find the purpose of life magically after you somewhat lost the direction, or to make an earth-shattering discovery that would turn behaviorist world upside down and earn you a place among scientific hall of fame. A distraction from an all-consuming apathy that creeped up in your life, perhaps, some useful experience close to your field of interest. Some connections and friendships, if nothing else - these were your (pretty reasonable) expectations.
Definitely not having to share a tent with a man you barely knew, because a huge hyena sprayed its stink all over your things, making it impossible to stay near your posessions for a long period of time.
Sure, lucky you - most of your stuff inside the backpack was very salvageable, your clothes and food intact. But everything that got under a direct attack - your little tent, sleeping bag, your favourite thermos and a little sitting mat, all that was most definitely due for a deep clean with some heavy scent remover, and your crew was in for a filming trip for the next several days without returning to your main dislocation at a sanctuary just next to the nature reserve you were filming in. So no cleaning and washing for you in aproximately a week. In short - you would've been fucked, sleeping in a smelly tent and sleeping bag or completely unprotected in a roofless vehicle, if not for Kir.
As you stand there with an apologetic expression on your face, hands clenched guiltily, he just laughs all your muttered thanks and apologies off, flashing you the friendliest of smiles as he sets up his own tent. A true knight in shining armor (some cargo pants and a blank, tight-fitting T-shirt in his case), Kir doesn't even let you help, telling you that your chatting is more than help enough as he prepares your new sleeping arrangements. Out of everyone on the crew he was the first to offer you to share his tent, and the fact that he had a backup sleeping bag only nailed the decision in.
"Don't worry, it's not a bother at all. If I was a newbie and something like this happened to me, you'd help me out too, I'm sure," he makes it hard to argue and feel like you're being a burden. Already a veteran of these filmings, Kir disctracts you from your upset mood with similar stories - about some scientist guy walking straight into a buffalo shitpile, a bunch of monkeys ravaging crew's backpacks and pulling out some poor girl's vibrator to play hot potato with it, a jackal finding one of the timelapse night cameras and flooding it generously... "They're animals, they just have a sense of humor like that. No one blames you for that guy taking a liking to you."
Kir's bright smile and cheerful words reassure you. He's being a gentleman about everything else too - allows you to take the higher ground to sleep there since the spot where his - and your now too - tent stands has a bit of an angle to it, lets you choose which sleeping bag you want, stays outside as you change for sleep even though you were perfectly fine doing it in the sleeping bag itself. The only un-gentlemanly thing Kir does is stay up with you until deep into the loud wild night, telling you more stories, already from his job at the sanctuary. As you whisper to each other and try to muffle your giggles, you hear rustling outside, someone walking around on soft paws, stopping several times at your tent and even sniffing loudly - you left your backpack nearby, unwilling to put the stinky thing into the tent. But the smell seems to work for you this time, since whatever it was, it leaves soon after.
In the morning you barely get out, a bit tired after your late night talkshow with Kir, only to learn that there were two hyenas in the camp - a bunch of the crew are crowded around a patch where the parprints are especially visible, getting the footage just in case it'll make into the final cut. One of the scientists measures the prints and estimates the sizes of both hyenas: both could be up to 1,8 meters in length judging from how wide apart their footprints lay. In other words - fucking huge, even for spotted hyenas.
"You think your friend from yesterday came with a buddy to spread some more perfume?" You scrunch your nose at Kir's joke and rush to check on your backpack, but it doesn't seem to be chewed on or reek worse than yesterday. Great news, honestly, since you'll be driving with that thing tucked into the back of a Land Rover while you follow the path of the lion pride you should be filming.
The sun is alredy high up and pretty ruthless by the time you come across any significant wildlife - and it's not lions, but something equally good for the documentary: a big herd of zebras. Once again, you are mesmerized, majestic striped horses so close to you that it doesn't seem real. They are aware of your crew's presence, but stay chill, perhaps seeing people and their weird appliances not for the first time.
Following your instructions, you carefully tread the tall grass to move a bit further from the parked vehicles and take some shots of the herd; you choose your favourite zebra - a mother with a little baby waving it's puny tail and constantly shoving its adorable snout under mother's belly for milk - and zoom in on her, setting quite a neat shot. After you settle the videocamera, you take out your personal one to take some photos, but suddenly the zebras perk up, ears twitching and chewing coming to an end. You lower your camera at first, confused by their reactions - you didn't hear anything? - but then lift it up againt to search for the source of zebras' worries through zoom.
And source of worries you find.
Two hunched silouettes, out in the open, dark manes fluffed up and tails in a clearly aggresive stance - a couple of enormous, compared to the zebras, hyenas are creeping up to them, hind legs tucked up under their bulky bodies, ready to pounce... and then one of them, a smaller one with darker fur, darts forward.
A hunting hyena is an impressive view, their speed exceeding what one might expect just looking at their burly, asymmetrical builds - but exactly that legs length difference allows them to speed so fast that your camera struggles to capture them. But what's impressive onscreen, is fucking terrifying in real life.
Because a herd of zebras is panicking at the sight of a predator closing in on one of them, and in panic they start to run.
You're in their way.
The sound of dozens of hooves hitting dry, solid ground mixes with your own blood pumping in your ears. In an act of brain malfunction, you somehow find yourself more worried about the expensive camera (it's not even yours) being trampled than yourself, and try to pick it up with the tripod - seconds dragging on like molten resin boiling under the cruel noon sun. The ground is trembling under the scared animals, dust and dry grass up in the air.
A high-pitched sound breaks you out of stupor. Loud cackling with an undertone of alarm gets closer too, and as you stumble backwards, a big dark form zooms past you, rushing fearlessly towards the fear-crazed zebras. It's reckless even for a carnivoure they're afraid of: nothing can guarantee that the herd will stop or turn away as the hyena approaches them head-on, and you prepare yourself to witness a gruesome scene of a hunter falling by the hooves of hunted.
But it somehow works. Last moment, the zebras notice the hyena flying at them with a scary laugh and change the direction of their fleeing route, less lucky among them falling and getting pushed over, but hyenas - more of them now, four, it seems? - don't bother pouncing the fallen ones, putting all their efforts into... simply chasing their prey away?
Confused and still stunned into a frozen mode, you watch the little baby zebra buck its tiny legs at a hyena barking at it lazily and clamping its huge maw, capable of crushing huge bones, on thin air. Trotting for a few more meters, the predator stalls and then simply turns away, casting you a glance before slowly treading back to its buddy. The one whose disheveled mane and wide stance you recognize immediately.
Blinking, you finally find yourself able to collect your equipment, although with trembling hands - your shoulders are still tense in a protective manner, and you flinch, when Kir rushes to you to help with the heavy camera.
"Oh my god, are you okay? I thought I'd shit myself when I saw them running at us," he looks sickly, you're probably no better. You dump the tripod and the camera into his arms happily, clutching your own, and walk on stumbling legs back to the rover.
You're met with a pair of bit wet eyes when you finally get to the car.
Somehow a single hyena - where did its buddies go? - doesn't seem all that scary after you nearly avoided being stomped by a hundred zebras, so you take a few more steps before finally remembering to be cautious. Kir is just a few meters away, loading the camera into the car, so it means he walked past the hyena unharmed, right?
You don't get to ask that question or shoo the animal away: just like yesterday, it appears up next to you in a gracious pounce, nuzzling your hip again. The noise that leaves its throat is absolutely horrid, an annoying screeching, sightly hoarse and just as high-pitched as its laugh. Wagging its tail, the hyena circles you several time, bumping into your legs - each time you don't respond or move, the screech gets only louder, until you give up.
"Stop it! Hush! S-stop yelling, shut up!" Bold of you to try and order a wild animal around. Maybe that's exactly why it works - the noise cuts off abruptly, the hyena taking a step back to plop its chonky ass on the ground. It looks at you just like a tamed dog would - mouth slightly agape in a toothy smile, head tilted and ears fluttering, as if it's eager to hear what else you have to say.
You're not made of steel to stay indifferent an wary at this sight.
"Huh. So you do listen sometimes. I guess you just hated my backpack that much," you still grumble at the hyena, and it flattens its round ears with guilt, slowly dipping down to the ground. Aren't they supposed to be like cats? But this one looks at you with the definition of puppy eyes. "You could've done worse... and I guess you saved me today. Thank you, Stinky."
The hyena lights up and sits back up with its chest puffed out as it hears you acknowledge the way it steered the scared herd away from you and your crew, but all its pride fizzles out as soon as you give it a name. You get a disapproving look and a loud giggle, clearly mocking your sense of humor in naming the hyena.
"Don't look at me like that, I can't sleep in my own sleeping bag now because of you. Have to share a tent with Kir," you nod at the young man sitting in the driver's sit with an amused expression, and the hyena turns to look at him too. Judging by the way Kir's smile fades, the look he recieved from the animal wasn't a kind one.
"Come on, we have to get a move on, still about fifty kilometers to cover today," he mutters, and you try to move past Stinky (oh yes, you're keeping the name) to the car, but it suddenly jumps to its feet and barrels at you again, rubbing at your legs and nuzzling your thighs. It even shoves its snout into your crotch, tail flailng up high, but the loud sound of an engine starting right behind it finally scares the weird animal away. It trots to the side, stops to look at you again, as if checking if you're still stumbling after being scared half to death by the herd, then resumes its leisurely pace, waving its tail.
You huff, getting into your seat, and dust your pants of some coarse fur the rascal left.
"Weird fucking guy," you mutter about the hyena more to yourself than yo Kir, who already jokes about you being a hyena whisperer. "And stinky, too."
You'll just have to hope his buddies won't try to follow into his pawsteps.
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Part 1 | Part 1.5 | Part 3
Series masterlist | Main masterlist
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Tagging: @elaineiswithyou-blog
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jesncin · 6 months ago
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Thinking about Disney and how we talk about Cultural Representation
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(concept art by Scott Watanabe)
Old essay originally written on Cohost in November 2023. With additions.
With all the promo stuff about Disney's upcoming animated film Wish, I can't help but think about Raya and the Last Dragon again. I spent a year intensively researching things about that movie and the discourse surrounding it for a series of videos on Xiran Jay Zhao's channel, and oh boy did that reveal a lot about the current way we talk about cultural representation in casual media criticism.
Lately we've grown a habit of looking at signifiers to culture, things like a cultural dish, a nod to a martial arts style, a piece of clothing, maybe a hairstyle, a weapon and so on, and then projecting a bunch of intentions onto the work regardless of authorial intent. I witnessed this a bunch of times in discussions surrounding Raya and the Last Dragon.
You basically get a bunch of 4d chess-style justifications for the lazy implementation of culture in Raya.
random examples cuz there's too many to name:
The movie will do something like make the leaders of the villain nation women, and people immediately assumed it was some kind of bespoke reference to Minangkabau matriarchical society.
the art book of Raya specifically stated that they purposely misplaced things as a stylistic fantasy choice "we could take something that is known and place it in an unexpected location, like coral in the desert and cacti in the snow". But when people saw a water buffalo placed in the desert they assumed it was some super clever environmental story decision.
The movie will tell you it includes things like Borobudur, Angkor wat, Keris, and most people will take their word for it without hesitation. Never mind that Southeast Asians could barely recognize these nods to our culture through how amalgamated the designs are.
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(early concept art by Scott Watanabe)
Moving forward, I think we need to talk less about "what" parts of a culture are being represented in these movies, and more about HOW they're being included, we need to ask:
What is this piece of media's relationship with the cultures it represents?
Because Raya and the Last Dragon is not a cultural movie, it's a monolith film pitched and written by white people and a Mexican director with 2 SEA writers added later in production to avoid backlash. Culture serves the purpose of aesthetic set dressing in the film, as opposed to something that informs its themes and characters.
it wasn't even initially pitched as a Southeast Asian movie. The white writers who pitched it were going for a vague East Asian sci fi fantasy story under the working title "Dragon Empire". Southeast Asian culture was an aesthetic change added much later.
This is what happens when a corporation tries to put representational value on a shallow aesthetic. Because of the way Disney constantly marketed Raya as this big authentic cultural film, it primes its audience to read cultural intention in the most benign details. And when we get lost in the details, we lose sight of the bigger picture.
Contextualizing Cultural media criticism
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(visual development art by April Liu)
We need to start demanding more context in our analysis. The next time we see a reference to culture in media we consume, take a step back and ask what purpose it serves in the narrative. And most importantly!! What Is Its Relationship With The Culture It Represents? We shouldn't just accept things at face value.
start asking yourself,
through what lens is this cultural dish and its spicy flavors being presented to us? Are the customs surrounding the food being respected?
If martial arts or dance is represented, how is it translated in the adaptation? Are you getting generic hollywood-fu or are you seeing specific movements with purpose and motivation? Are the philosophies or spiritual contexts of these traditions present in the text?
Are the clothing, hairstyles, and presentation of the characters being de-yassified through a colonial filter? Is the non-conformity of the cultures' different framework for gender presentation being adjusted to fit a more recognizable binary?
If language is present, what role does it serve? Is it presented as other through being exclusively used by villainous beings? Is it being made a monolith as one "non-English" language?
is this temple actually a place of worship or is it just a set piece for a goddang Indiana jones booby trap action fight sequence
This way, instead of unquestionably defending a piece of media because a character wore a traditional outfit one time, or because some characters took their shoes off at a temple, or because there were Arnis sticks in that one fight scene, we can approach the text with a more nuanced and holistic understanding of how culture informs narrative.
To quote Haunani K. Trask (author of From A Native Daughter):
“Cultural people have to become political… Our culture can’t just be ornamental and recreational. That’s what Waikiki is. Our culture has to be the core of our resistance. The core of our anger. The core of our mana. That’s what culture is for.”
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rain-day-today · 11 months ago
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One thing that really rots my brain is the idea of the guild during the og baby fairytail members time and the domesticity of it. Cause like no way was gramps letting a bunch of super powered ( and incredibly destructive) 7-14year olds out of his sight.
Just imagine:
Little Natsu and emo teen Laxus having breakfast while very quietly whispering about their respective hoards collections of cat theme things ( I KNOW LAXUS IS A SECRET CAT LOVER I JUST KNOW IT)
Tiny Gray having an emo phase. Mira (a punk 14 year old) helping him out (after teasing him of course). The two spending many hours and lots of jewel to find and look through dozens of fashion magazines. Eventually falling asleep sprawled on the floor in a nest of semi-laminated paper.
Tween Lissana and levy giggling over the kissy scenes in books and Erza overhearing them. Spitting out her cake into Laxus’s face which makes them burst out into full on cackling.
Little Cana teaching natsu to make card pyramids for 3 hours and when he finally gets it, Elfman knocks it over. Every one thinks Natsu is going to punch someone, but he doesn’t, instead he starts full on bawling. Nobody knows what to do. Little Natsu cannot be comforted. Levy shuts him up by shoving candy into his mouth while cana really quickly rebuilds the pyramid.
Erza and Mira having a dance off on some of the tables ( mira breaks 3 of them in half with her stomping, Erza somehow stabs one). This is how everyone finds out to never take either of them to parties cause they dance like the deaf baby of giraffes and a buffalo.
Gray and climbing a tree to the very top and forgetting that he doesn’t know how to get down? He stays there till the next morning and seethes for the next week cause LISSANA had to carry him down.
Natsu following Gray around like a lost puppy his first week cause “he’s friend sized” and what else was he supposed to do? He knows nothing! Dudes not even from this time period. At least if he follows loud stripper he knows he wont get run over by a car. Gray not noticing or caring that he is being followed cause little guy has his own problems to deal with and “as long as he doesn’t take my food or breath on me.”
Cana having a plague doctor mask that elfman bought for her 13th birthday. She wears it to scare the shit out of everyone at the sleepovers.
Weekly “sleepovers” in the guildhall because it’s easier to do gramps weekly count of them when they are all lined up in their my little pony sleeping bags (yes this includes laxus and mira)
When Romeo is born they have a guild wide contest on whose name he says first (the answer is his own cause the little dude is a true fairytail wizard)
Levy managing to give everyone a heart attack after casually admitting that she hasn’t slept or ate anything but crackers and coffee cause she was trying to teach herself the equivalent of ancient greek.
Laxus and gray not knowing how to hold a baby (romeo)
Natsu “teething” on Erza. Everyone stares in shock cause there’s just Erza sitting there stone faced in full armor while Natsu chops down on her arm like he has rabies. ( he still bites her even when they’re older if he’s really stressed)
Everyone having a default crush on laxus or Mira
The guild kids try to make homemade shaved ice with grays ice and end up covering the entire town with really weird ice sculptures
Mira scaring the shit out of kids with her demon souls during Halloween
Someone stealing Mira or Natsu’s food and ending up with a burn on their tounge followed by natsu trying to “kiss it better”
Levy dozing off on the rafters and falling down onto poor elfman
Spin the bottle but instead of kissing you fight (grays idea)
Laxus has a spray bottle filled with water mixed with really bad smelling cologne that he uses to spray people when they’re bad, like cats.
No one in the guild knew how to swim until they turned 16 Lissana still can’t swim.
Its really really common to see elfman or gray duck-taped to the wall (its levy who does it)
Dont fall asleep around teen Mira she will draw titties on your face. (Where do you think natsu got it from?)
They all took a living 101 class when lissana was 13. It failed miserably. Laxus ended up being the grandfather to 6 rats and 3 hamsters
Laxus takes Lissana and Elfman out for brunch once a month because it pisses mira off to no end.
Levy, Lissana, and Laxus accidentally forming an L name club and plan their “meetings” within earshot of Mira and Erza to make them jealous.
“We should get cookies!”-levy
“And ice cream!”- lissana
“(Super smug face) im craving strawberry cake.”-laxus
*sounds of Erza bursting into flames of jealousy*
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wirewitchviolet · 5 months ago
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That thing about 'the arc of history bending towards justice...'
I'm pretty sure I've gone on about this before, and I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir, but I just had a well-intentioned acquaintance try to give an inspirational speech about American trans people's fears right now, and his heart was in the right place, but all his facts were wrong, in some really important ways. I feel like the perspective he has is the same one as... basically every decent person who isn't like, intimately familiar with WPATH, so please spread this around, and please if you only read one rambling history lesson from a trans person about the current state of things, make it this one.
So here's the big problem. Trans people get brought up in the mainstream media a LOT these days, but the framing is totally wrong. The impression people get is that there is presently a big push for new trans rights, where we want proper government recognition, and trans women in particular want to be able to use public women's restrooms, and play on girls-only sports teams, and a dozen other things. That is a lie you are being fed. These are all rights we ALREADY HAD, for decades. Possibly centuries depending what we're talking about specifically and where we're talking, even. The big issue right now is that a bunch of bigots just woke up one day about 10 years ago and decided that nothing else they were angling for was getting them anywhere with the general public, so hey let's make a boogieman out of this minority of a minority nobody knows the first thing about and act like all the horrors they're inflicting are just them enforcing some totally fictional status quo.
Speaking personally, I can say that The Trans Agenda in like 2014 was something like: 1- I'm gonna make a nice big pot of chili. 2- I'm gonna maybe replay some old video games from the '90s I haven't taken down off the shelf in a while. And OK maybe 3- It'd be cool if it weren't just the medical professionals who specifically specialize in trans stuff had enough of an education to know that when there's a difference in how a drug is going to effect men vs. women, it's for reasons directly tied to the levels of various hormones, or would at least trust their trans patients to know what we're talking about and not give us the wrong doses of things and maybe kill us as a result. And also like, treat us for regular things like broken arms (real example) without weirdly panicking about some prescription we're on they don't recognize.
There was absolutely not a point where some trans woman started petitioning the government or whatever to let her pee in a toilet with a little placard of a stick figure in a dress in front. We've just been doing that the whole time. Nobody's ever had a problem with that. You didn't know we were in there? OK. If I'm like at a restaurant and have to use the bathroom, I don't know how many of the other women in there have like, type O blood. I also don't care, and I think everyone would agree it was weird if I suddenly did care, and demand they post a guard out front asking to see driver's licenses. Just completely out of the blue some nutcases from the UK started foaming at the mouth and writing weird tabloid articles about their completely unfounded fears that... I don't even know. Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs might put on a wig and follow them into the bathroom, dose them with chloroform, and drag them to some basement dungeon through some series of secret passages or something.
This was based on literally nothing at all, to be clear. Like, people pushing for this went and did serious research for anything even anecdotal to back them up on this, and didn't actually find anything. Then they started walking into public restrooms with cameras throwing doors open on people and going "see? See? Some creep could totally do this if we don't ban trans people from using bathrooms!" And... somehow this got traction? I figure it's because coincidentally there was this whole other thing going where people were looking at how every building had equal numbers of men's and women's rooms and saying "you know, like, 90% of people who come in here are the same gender and we end up with really long lines, what if we just took the signs down and told everyone to just use whichever?" which... when it's happening at the same time Chicken Little is ranting and raving about the boogieman wearing a cheap wig, wires got crossed? And suddenly we've got waves of legislation passing all over about who's allowed to use what bathrooms with weird standards that'd involve like DNA tests to actually enforce properly. Absurd stuff.
Meanwhile, your average trans activist at the time was just like... sitting there eating a sandwich and going "huh, they're making a TV series based on Fargo? That's an odd thing to happen out of the blue. And yeah we started going "hey, what the hell?" when this stuff started passing because like... yeah that's what you do when you see an article in the local newspaper that says you can't go to the bathroom at work or whatever without swabbing your cheek and waiting for lab results for 3 weeks first or whatever.
Same deal with sports. Major sports organizations like the Olympics have been weirdly paranoid about men pretending to be women since 1950. And there have been, to the best of my ability to research... zero men who have actually done this. And while the weird standards used for this have been used to kick a good number of women out over the years, none of those women have been trans, for what that's worth. Really, the whole gender testing thing has only ever been used for horrifying stuff like forcing women to strip in front of random creeps, or let them do "invasive internal exams" and of course so many incidents where some woman who isn't white wins at something and people move the goalposts to in some way to get her specifically banned. You may be thinking, "wait didn't I just see a whole bunch of news coverage about someone getting banned after some gender testing thing? She was trans right?" No. You're thinking of Caster Semenya. She's a woman. A cis woman. F on her birth certificate, born with standard issue female genitals, has periods, all that. People are just being weird racists there and crossing the streams with random transphobia. That and just... half-reading stories and making stuff up.
To the best of my knowledge, the total count of trans athletes who have competed in the Olympics would actually be... three nonbinary people, who so far as I can tell all competed against people with the same gender they had on their birth certificates, nothing done medically, so, nobody should have any problem there. Caitlyn Jenner, who didn't come out as a woman until like... 40 years after competing, on the men's team, and Laurel Hubbard, the first and only trans woman to compete at the Olympics as a woman, who placed... dead last, flubbing all three of her lifts.
If we just look at sports in general, OK, there WAS one big famous where a trans woman wanted to compete in a major sporting event, was banned from it, took the organizers to court over it, and the eventual ruling was there was no reason at all she shouldn't be allowed to play against other women. Renée Richards. And this was all the way back in 1976. Nearly 50 years ago now.
And of course in more recent years, again, after a bunch of random bigots just completely out of the blue started losing their minds about trans people with no prompting and started lobbying for new laws banning us from all kinds of things nobody had had a problem with us doing forever, there was Mack Beggs, a trans guy, who was forced, by one of those aforementioned baffling reactionary new laws, to compete on his high school's girl's wrestling team. He didn't want to be there, they didn't want him to be there, but the law said hey, F on your birth certificate, we're classifying you as a girl despite how clearly wrong that is. And then there's been a bunch of other weird cases like that like one state banning trans girls from playing any sports with other girls which only affected one single girl in the entire state, who was playing lacrosse on a team that wouldn't have even existed if she hadn't personally organized it.
But the point here is, trans people aren't asking for anything here. We're just standing here, and people are flipping out and banning us from doing all these things without any prompting. And hell, I THINK this one got shot down in higher courts, but when Florida got the brain worms on this and started passing all the anti-trans legislation they could think of, they actually included a ban on us just standing there! The wording was something like (and I apologize that I can't find it, search engines are useless now), "if a child can potentially see someone who was assigned male at birth who is wearing women's clothes, it's considered sexual assault."
It's important to understand what's actually going on here, both because what's going on here is just plain terrifying, but also because there is this huge segment of the population who has this weird idea that people's rights only ever get better, there's just some weird arbitrary ratcheting where you have to take a number and get in line. Like, "hey, used to be only white men could vote, then eventually the Progress bar filled enough that we let white women start voting too. Then we had to wait for it to fill up again, hey, we're ending this whole segregation of black people thing. Gotta give it another 30 years or so to fill up, now hey, gay people can get married! Don't be impatient trans folks, you just need to stay in line and wait for it to fill again for your turn!"
That's not how anything has ever actually worked. It would frankly be absolutely insane if it actually did, but like, this is an idea people get in their heads because history textbooks really like to gloss over all the stuff that makes the country look pretty bad and promote this whole "stuff is just always getting better!" vibe. But no, sometimes, things just straight up get worse for people. Ten years ago I could go to the damn bathroom, I could have social media accounts, I could access all the medications I need to live, I could safely set foot in any given state in the country... at least if I kept some witnesses around at all times to verify I was not in fact hitting on my would-be murderer in any of the black states on this map.
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The problem is NOT that with Trump in power, the pause button is getting hit on trans people climbing towards some state of finally getting to be regular people. We were (largely) already there, and there's been a huge push over the past decade to strip that away from us. And Trump plus the rest of the Republican party in general have made very specific promises to make that way worse real real soon, including several things that will straight up kill a ton of us.
Like, when I'm talking about losing access to necessary medical treatments, I'm not talking about "THE SURGERY" and magic pills that give you boobs or beards. A lot of trans people are trans because there's weird medical stuff that in addition to messing with what does and doesn't grow mess with things like whether your blood flows properly and whether various organs do what they should. Just one of those many things the average person doesn't know, because everything written about us is from deranged bigots making crap up.
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