#correction: 50

[faith-nerd]

Strap yourselves in boys, this could be a bumpy ride.

[inkskinned]

love when men cry about body hair bc "it's hygiene" and yet 15% of cis men leave the bathroom without washing their hands at all and an additional 35% only just wet their hands without using soap. that is nearly half of all men. that means statistically you have probably shaken hands with or been in direct contact with one of these people.

love when men say that women "only want money" when it turns out that even in equal-earning homes, women are actually adding caregiver burdens and housework from previous years, whereas men have been expanding leisure time and hobbies. in equal-earning households, men spend an average of 3.5 hours extra in leisure time per week, which is 182 hours per year - a little over a week of paid vacation time that the other partner does not receive. kinda sounds like he wants her money.

love that men have decided women are frail and weak and annoying when we scream in surprise but it turns out it's actually women who are more reliable in an emergency because men need to be convinced to actually take action and respond to the threat. like, actually, for-real: men experience such a strong sense of pride about their pre-supposed abilities that it gets them and their families killed. they are so used to dismissing women that it literally kills them.

love it. told my father this and he said there's lies, damned lies, and statistics. a year ago i tried to get him to evacuate the house during a flash flood. he ignored me and got injured. he has told me, laughing, that he never washes his hands. he has said in the last week that women are just happier when we're cooking or cleaning.

maybe i'm overly nostalgic. but it didn't used to feel so fucking bleak. it used to feel like at least a little shameful to consider women to be sheep. it just feels like the earth is round and we are still having conversations about it being flat - except these conversations are about the most obvious forms of patriarchy. like, we know about this stuff. we've known since well before the 50's.

recently andrew tate tried to justify cheating on his partner as being the "male prerogative." i don't know what the prerogative for the rest of us would be. just sitting at home, watching the slow erosion of our humanity.

[bunnyboy-juice]

NO MORE ASSOCIATING THINGS WITH FEMMES ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE PINK!HYPERFEM FEMMES ARE GREAT AND I LOVE YOU CAMPY FEMMES WHO EMBODY PINK BUT ALSO JESUS CHRIST CAN YOU GUYS NOT GO MORE THAN ONE DAY W/O TRYING TO SHOEHORN FEMMES INTO BEING ONLY PINK UWU BABIES. I AM FEMME AS IN GRASS AS IN DIRT AS IN TREE BARK AS IN WEEDS SPROUTING THROUGH THE SIDEWALK CEMENT. FEMME AS IN GENDER NONCONFORMITY AS IN FUCK YOU MY FEMININITY IS WHAT *I* SAY IT IS. FEMME AS IN DEPTH AND DARKNESS AND WARMTH AND TERROR. FEMME AS IN CAVES. FEMME AS IN LIGHTNING. FEMME AS IN AN AMALGAMATION OF TRAITS THAT I HAVE DECIDED ARE FEMININE REGARDLESS OF WHAT SOCIETY SAYS. FUCK IS IT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!???

[eyeballsoup7310]

Spent entirely too long on them interactive pages that the youths (me) are all about these days

[kwillow]

Started this back in February when it was more topical but... I suppose no time is a good time for romance as far as Theo is concerned.

[kraro-school-life]

✦ 15. 4. 24 ✦ 📓 ✦ Monday ✦ Day 13/60 ✦

I stayed after school for a physics lab workshop (kinda?) about solar panels and we got to experiment a bit, I liked it a lot. At home I decided to write my history homework on paper for once, which is ironic, because I still have to type it on the computer, so it turned out to be double the work. But at least my notes look pretty :)

✓ school - history homework ✓ art - started project in art class; art course ✦ sport - //

🌱🌿🪴 - 1h 20min on Forest ♫₊˚.🎧 ▷▷ Void - The Haunting

Have a great day/night !! ~ ♦️

[theglitterdome]

Marianne Baba, Lois Conway, and Ruth Swensen, winners of a Miss Correct Posture contest, as verified by chiropractic x-rays - 1956

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Serendipity should be required viewing material before anyone tries to analyze Homestuck; not only is John Cusack a universal constant, but the themes and vibes of Serendipity are so fundamentally woven into Homestuck's DNA that several of Serendipity's thesises and conversations could be lifted directly from one to the other.

In particular, the way Serendipity utilizes coincidence and circumstantially simultaneous events in order to suggest - nay, decree - that the two leads belong together, is highly reminiscent of the way Hussie uses foreshadowing, and not just for romantic couples. It's also a major window into the ultimate stance Homestuck takes with regard to romance, fate, and destiny, and also more specifically, a really good look at Karkat's own personal philosophies of romance. There's a running theme in his movies of meeting someone that perfectly matches your freak, someone you don't ever need to compromise yourself around, who brings out the best in you.

Also, some of yall need to watch a shitty romcom every once in a while and develop some emotions

[bonefall]

i found a god awful doc about this one person (who, too, is a god awful being) trying to reason why mudClaw would be a bad leader. I'ma try to find the doc but meanwhile I'll submit this because someone could have the link, I'll need your honest thought about it bcs why are we defending oneWhiker now

Anon, buddy, I'm gonna have to sit you down and gently discourage you from casually calling random human people "god awful beings" in my inbox like this. Not when you're just talking about relatively basic media analysis. That isn't ok or normal.

I hope that when I speak harshly, it's coming from a place of condemning hurtful actions and the tangible harm that they cause. I don't appreciate people trying to get me to directly beef with other people directly by requesting I break down their individual posts or analysis documents (when I ask for people to share links, it's so I can see and prepare to counter the ideas because they usually "float downstream" if they get popular); but in a second ask, you linked this document and there's nothing harmful in it. In fact, it's got a far more neutral tone than I'd take if I was writing an analysis about Mudclaw.

If you couldn't tell the difference between a document like this and one that contains active abuse apologia rhetoric, I would be filled with concern. But I don't think you read it. I think you maybe skimmed it and stopped reading, or just heard the title.

Because this document literally says this;

and your takeaway, something you felt so strongly about that you came to me hoping I'd validate it, was "Why Are We Defending Onewhisker Now."

Art is a tool we can use to explore our own biases, and teach us something about ourselves. That overwhelming sense of anger and disgust that you probably felt when you saw "Mudclaw Would Be A Bad Leader" made you jump to an emotional conclusion and you assumed something that was not said. I know the feeling. You might have had a reactionary impulse.

You are not a bad person for doing that-- you're human. You can grow.

Why did it upset you this much, though? Is there something very personal about this that set you off? ...are you spending a lot of time in spaces online that keep you angry? These are questions for you to reflect with.

I do not know the owner of this document or "what they've done," if anything, so I will not link it, because their Discord is at the bottom of the doc. If they are truly a "god awful being", please do not engage, just block and move on. Nothing is accomplished by following around 'A Bad Guy' and boosting their cat takes.

But something VERY bad WOULD be accomplished if I indulged an anon for a situation I know nothing about and unwittingly became part of a harassment campaign. How do I know that you've got good intentions?

I usually just delete unsolicited links to docs and videos that are 'fightbaiting' like this-- trying to get me to beef publicly with a 3rd person. But I've seen more of these than usual lately so I would like to try and cool it down.

[ejsuperstar]

Long live the king.

ty @lilybug-02 for keeping on posting about avm and making me go "oo i need to do my avm human designs" every time i see one of your avm posts

[skitskatdacat63]

I cannot stop thinking about these Niki pictures

[crustyfloor]

Since it's shown that Ivan and Till came from the same dog pound--adoption center...I wonder if they recognized each other at Anakt garden and that's how their friendship started

[wuntrum]

at the point in transitioning where i'm getting a 50/50 pronoun split (got he'd to my left and she'd to my right at the concert i was at) :) BUT i cannot woo or sing along the way i used to because sound either does not come out, or i sound like a squeaky toy :(

[real-reulbbr-band]

The Reimagining of Cats Undermines Female Characterization

My anxiety's going to eat me alive if I keep being chicken about posting this so here's my more in depth feelings regarding what I mean in this post. All opinions expressed are my own and based on what I know of pac. Anyone is free to disagree with me. and thank you to @pinkieclown and @per-the-jellicle-magician for proof reading!

I”ll keep this simple cause I don’t want to get ranty on Tumblr, but by removing and cutting so many aspects of the show out they���ve lost key characterization for the female cast and replaced them with virtually nothing.

My problem isn’t that the characters don’t resemble their stage counterparts; that was expected. The issue is that they aren’t given much of a character at all. You could switch their names, and nothing would change. This problem isn’t apparent with their male counterparts with previously established on-stage storylines. 

Male characters in the reimagining, such as Munkustrap, Rum Tum Tugger, and even Macavity, retain or gain distinctive characteristics and storylines. Munkustrap is portrayed as an MC not a leader but still very much leading the show, it’s the same general role; Rum Tum Tugger as a charming rogue though slightly more akin to his 2019 movie counterpart except he still manages to ‘save the day’ at the end, and Macavity, despite his thievery, is given a more comical persona with a deeper relation to his now fellow jellicles.

 In contrast, female characters are stripped of their individuality and reduced to plot devices or mere extensions of male characters. Victoria doesn’t experience a coming-of-age or even touch Grizabella here. (It’s old Deut pretty sure which…I have problems with) She’s simply another attendant at the ball with a solo at the start that lacks deeper meaning. She’s portrayed as a ‘drag baby,’ and as stated by her actress  this isn’t even her first ball. No pas de deux or additional solo is performed to further her importance in the narrative. This reduction strips Victoria of her journey and her role within the tribe or in this case community. 

Demeter and Bombalurina have no dark history with Macavity, which affects Demeter’s characterization more than Bomb’s. They are reduced to his drag daughters and are merely other competitors at the ball who further Macavity’s story by being the ones he steals for. This change eliminates the layers of trauma and complexity in Demeter’s character, reducing her to a plot device for Macavity’s storyline.

If the female characters aren’t given distinct roles, their characters end up heavily associated with male counterparts: Jellylorum with Gus, Jennyanydots with Munkustrap, and of course, Bombalurina and Demeter with Macavity. They don’t exist as individuals without these associations, as their typical roles are relegated to the background.

In the original stage show, despite its issues in instances, female characters like Demeter and Bombalurina exhibit significant agency and emotional depth. Demeter’s fear of Macavity and Bombalurina’s protective nature towards her and the kittens add layers to their characters. The reimagining erases this agency, reducing them to passive participants who exist only to further male characters' narratives. Namely Macavity’s here.

Now, it is important to note that a lot of characterization happens outside of the character’s main numbers. Things like who they interact with in their down time, what they do when they’re not actively participating in a song besides simply watching and waiting for the next que; that’s when the actors are given time to just be the character. The actors don’t have as many opportunities to do that here just due to the formatting of the show with the runway catwalk and walking space outside it. During which they’re mostly interacting with the audience or reacting to what’s happening on stage. They don’t have a lot of moments to just interact with each other to give the audience a better feel of who they are. 

The reduction of female characters in 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' reflects broader patterns of misogyny in the media. Historically, female characters have often been sidelined, their stories minimized, and their roles diminished to support male-centric plots. This reimagining perpetuates this problematic trend by failing to provide female characters with the same depth and development afforded to their male counterparts.

I know what you’re going to say ‘but Grizabella’. Yea, Grizabella has fifteen minutes of stage time and she’s the character who resembles her stage counterpart the most. That’s why these issues negate her and she’s of the few I don’t have this problem with, the others being Rumpleteazer, Cassandra, and Skimbleshanks as her role has never had a deeper narrative meaning outside of reflecting the behaviors of the tribe as a whole.

In conclusion, the reimagining of 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' is a missed opportunity to reframe and enrich the narratives of its female characters. Instead, it falls into the trap of diminishing their roles and individuality, perpetuating a longstanding issue in media representation.

[theygender]

Guess who just took a 40 question exam in 10 minutes and got 100%

[nart-is-a-monster]

Inside of you there's two wolves and they're kissing.