#education is a privilege education is privilege

[koryxx]

gotta love the people in the notes doing the thing op is criticizing. “that’s just life, things change and you need to adapt” and “friendships have ebbs and flows, they aren’t static” and “people get swept up in romantic relationships but will come back when they realize their romantic partner cannot fill their every need” and “i love my best friend but i have a romantic partner and they do come before my best friend that’s just how it is.”

babes. we should not just accept this as normal and okay and healthy. analyze why it’s so absurd and confusing to you for someone to suggest maybe you should value your friends and maybe you don’t need to have a hierarchy of relationships. friendships are indeed not static, but “i have a romantic partner so now you don’t matter” isn’t the natural and normal ebbs and flows of friendship, it’s the amatonormative belief that friends are only important until romance comes into the picture—that friendship is a mere placeholder for the real thing.

(ever notice how common it is in media for someone to have an established “best friend” but then that title goes to their romantic partner to emphasize their elevated importance? this is a reflection of the belief that your romantic partner not only has to be the most important relationship, but should also encompass all kinds of relationships within it—your sexual/romantic partner and best friend wrapped in one—an approach to relationships that ultimately dooms both platonic and romantic relationships by “expecting too little” from the former and “expecting too much” from the latter. also, if “best friend” is less than “spouse,” why is it imperative that your spouse also be your best friend?)

the implication of folks being clingy or codependent or unrealistic for wanting their friends to not sideline their relationship of years for a romantic partner they met two seconds ago is the problem. we should be making time and space in our lives for all of our relationships, not just the romantic ones. because that’s what it is healthy and fair. and if you sideline your friends to make your romantic relationship the center of your world, only to realize that your romantic partner can’t possibly (and shouldn’t have to) fill all of your needs and you actually need friends in your life in a meaningful way, well, don’t expect them to have just been waiting around for you to realize their value.

and realize that this isn’t just a thing on a personal level. it’s not as simple as "oh your best friend prioritizes her husband over you? just make him your new best friend too! problem solved!" it’s bigger than that. romantic relationships, particularly marriages, are systematically privileged over other relationships: “amatonormativity intersects with other forms of oppression, especially gay and lesbian oppression and women’s oppression, to impose steep costs. amatonormativity is itself systematic in a way characteristic of oppression: legal penalties and discrimination interlock with social pressures and discrimination, stereotyping in the media, workplace discrimination, consumer pricing, and children’s education.” statistics show that married couples are less connected to their friends, family, and community than those who are single, and that not having a network of relationships outside of romance can lead to poorer health outcomes. this is more than your attempts to make people look ridiculous for being upset that their friend's spouse comes before them.

and more importantly, realize that romance being the most important kind of love is a modern concept. there are point in history and different cultures where platonic relationships were not so degraded—where they were treated with the love and passion and care and prioritization that has now come to be reserved for romantic love; where they were considered and treated as beloved family, not disposable side characters; where they would take on roles now only associated with family or spouses; where they were even referred to with language now considered exclusively romantic. so the argument of “of course romantic partners come first, that’s just how life is” doesn't hold up. that’s “how it is” because that’s how people make it. it is not naturally occurring; it doesn’t just play out like that.

we can change it if we so choose. if you don’t want your friends to have such importance in your life, just say that. don’t try to rewrite history or make people out to be dramatic or too much for wanting the people in their lives to value them. (and even if you don’t want that for your life, you should not only full heartedly support others doing so, but also advocate for changes that allow others to live the lives they want without unnecessary societal and legal barriers.)

if anyone is interested, minimizing marriage: morality, marriage, and the law by elizabeth brake (the book “amatonormativity” is coined in) and the other significant others: reimagining life with friendship at the center by rhaina cohen are good reads on this topic.

being on the aro spectrum would be a lot easier if being single wasn't made to feel like a literal death sentence

[disgruntled-detectives]

Im feeling incredibly grumpy right now and im gonna rant about something real quick I’ve seen in a lot of Jewish online spaces but Reddit is really the biggest space I’ve seen this in.

Routinely gentiles go into a Jewish subreddit and they go “hey I’m a goy, and *I* think antisemitism sucks. I hate how you guys are treated!” And then everyone stops and throws this person a parade of congratulatory thank yous and praises for not being a bigot, and being *such* a good ally (and of course tons of upvotes)

I honestly am getting so sick of my fellow Jews falling all over themselves to heap praises on someone for doing the absolute bare minimum in not being a dick. We need allies, yes. We have precious few of them. And if you are an ally, you know exactly who you are.

But you don’t need to tell us you’re our ally. We need you to actually *show the fuck up*.

Are you shutting down antisemitism *when* (not if) you hear it from someone in your own community? Educating the people in your own communities? In person and on social media? Are you uplifting our voices? Are you actually listening to us? Are you pointing people to *Jewish* resources to learn more about Jews and antisemtism? Are you using your privilege to help us? Are you opening yourself up to potential hate and backlash because you’re doing this? Are you doing the very real work of unpacking the antisemitism that is absolutely baked into Eastern and Western Cultures? (Antisemitism is rampant fucking everywhere. We ALL have work to do to unpack and unlearn it) Are you sitting down and shutting up and letting us speak on our own experiences?

Are you *actually* an ally, or are you content to just come into our spaces and demand thanks for not actively wishing us dead, but not actually doing a damn thing to stop the people in your communities from harming us? Do you actually want to help or do you just want “ally” points?

There are amazing gentile allies here on Tumblr and elsewhere. In real life and on social media. They are people I know personally and people I’ve only ever seen online. They are amazing people who are actually doing the work. Not just for our community, but for all marginalized people.

But they are allies because it’s the right thing to do. Not because they want the brownie points.

Basically…Put up, or shut up.

Edit: this is okay to reblog!, Goyim, do not add any goydacity to this post.

[ezziedoodles]

Why Season 2 Of Arcane Felt A Little Off

Let me preface this by saying I adore this show, and I loved this season. I laughed, I cried, and I had a good time watching it. The art direction and animation is a masterpiece. This is probably my favorite show, but I think it's good to critique the things you love and this entire season I felt like I was waiting for something.

For a show titled Arcane, season one had remarkably little to do with the arcane. Yes, there was Hextech and magic, but the show was centered on this class divide between Piltover and Zaun and all the conflicts that stem from this. The very first scene of the show is enforcers killing citizens on the bridge, with Powder and Vi finding their dead parents' bodies. Zilco's reasoning for doing anything he did was because he believed he was helping Zaun, including raising Jinx the way he did. Vi was so passionate about her city and the injustice facing it. Caitlyn witnessing this injustice is what causes her to question the systems she is a part of. Viktor and Jayce (but especially Viktor) created technology with the intention of wanting to improve life for the undercity. Ekko is a revolutionary doing so much to give his people a community and a chance to live their lives. My point is literally every single character is connected by this conflict between the cities.

Now let's take a look at the second season. Where is this part of the story that was so essential to the first season? There's a brief revolutionary beat with Jinx and her followers but once they escape from prison, the show moves on from this and never touches it again. We see Caitlyn's descent into corrupt madness, becoming everything she and Vi wanted to stop. Eventually she realizes how wrong she was but do we see her make any reparations to Zaun specifically for the damage she caused? She gassed the city, poisoning the air even further (with gas that has been confirmed to make people sick in the long run), harming hundreds of innocent people. And Vi, a character so vehemently against enforcers in the first season, goes along with this for how long? Days? Weeks? And only stops when she can visually see the impact of Caitlyn's madness as she almost kills a child in front of her. These characters are flawed and I love that, but we see them get their happy ending without ever truly addressing or helping with what they did to Zaun.

Ekko sees an alternate universe of everything his city could be, everything they all wanted so badly in the first season. Equality, safety, education, food security, and more. He says he is thankful for the reminder and I fully believe he will go forth with this vision in mind, but do we ever see it? And that right there is the problem. We don't know what happens to Zaun in the end, we don't know if things get better. All we see is Sevika on the council but we don't know if that will fix anything since people have stood up for the undercity in council before and it did nothing.

I want to see Ekko rally his people and repair the damage caused by the war. I want to see Vi open up the last drop and make it what it was always meant to be, a place of community. I want to see schools open in the undercity in honor of Viktor and Jayce. I want to see the two cities heal from the damage done to each other. Fuck it, I just want literally any closure on this plotline! Just tack on a 2 minute montage of what happened to this city after the war and I'd feel a little better. But instead this part of the story was completely sidelined throughout the season and ignored entirely in the finale. I'm not someone that thinks every story needs to have a moral, but this show was trying to tell us something! The first season was screaming from the rooftops to beware of privilege, beware systemic oppression, to fight inequality, and I find it really sad that there was no conclusion for that.

I do wish there had been three seasons to give it a smoother transition form politics to magic but it is what it is. Nothing is perfect. This season gave me so much including the best depiction of soulmates I've ever seen in my life so you win some you lose some ig.

[wearingmystripes]

thinking about how difficult it is for able bodied people to grasp how expensive being chronically ill can be

[newrww]

people love acknowledging that society was backward and that men were sexist but they don't like highlighting the fact that sex based oppression was brutal and it existed because of male dominance. because that's not really necessary. or else when it's done it's done to suggest as if we're ever not going to exist under male dominance. All the changes that women have fought hard for are taken for granted in a way or this erroneous idea that we don't need feminism anymore is hinted at. The educated people writing these opinion pieces live in a different world from the rest of us. they may have some understanding of feminism but a lot of the West isn't that knowledgeable and privileged and I don't even think the educated really care about women to be honest. or else they wouldn't be supporting shit like transactivism blindly with very few people willing to risk to their careers to criticize that crap.

Once you start noticing the passive voice being used for men's actions, you can't unsee it. In history class it was always "women weren't seen as equal human beings" or "women weren't able to own property or have jobs or get education" rather than men legally considered women their property and banned them from work, school, and property rights.

In the news it's always "girl raped in park" or "woman killed in home" which would make some sense if the perpetrator was unknown, but they often have already caught the culprit by the time the article comes out and it's always a man.

The amount of times I've seen a headline about a man murdering his entire family before killing himself being titled "man commits suicide after family is killed" with a nice little family photo of them is absolutely absurd.

Hell, just last night I saw an article titled, "3 kids killed after mom let ex-partner take them to get food." Her male ex took the kids to get food and murdered them before killing himself. Not only is the headline passive, but it also phrases it in a way that makes the mother somehow look guilty like she knew what he had planned or knew he was insane.

To top it off, people get really uncomfortable if you stop using the passive voice for this stuff. They start squirming if you straight up say "men wrote laws banning women from voting" even when that is literally what happened. BOTH men and women act this way. It's like we're all just supposed to pretend that rape, enslavement, murder, and other human rights violations against women just fell from the sky.

[blueberri-blu]

rise raph x male reader?? he's way short and super gay for how much bigger raph is than him.

ty tyy!! <3

Of course!! I haven't written for a male!reader before, so it might not be the best, but either way I tried!! I hope you like it, here's what I came up with:

Lil' Guy╹♡╹

╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡

When you two first meet, he's a little nervous

Your so small

And he is so big, especially compared to you

So, at first he avoids you

Anytime you get too close, he'll try to subtly put distance between you two

Emphasis on tries

After some scolding from Dr. Delicate Touch

He stops trying to avoid you,

He's still as careful as possible

Only now you're actually able to spend time with

And you?

The moment you saw Raph, your gay little ass was SO fucking excited

He's fucking huge

Yet his heart is so much bigger

The way he does on his brothers, the way he's just so nice to everyone, opening the door for you, bringing you the last slice of pizza

Who wouldn't fall for the cute teddy bear turtle

You realize your feelings when you get caught up in the middle of a fight

And just as the enemy is about to strike

Raph cages you, practically kabe dons you, to a nearby wall

Your face is so close to his plastron

Once his brothers are able to flee, he grabs you and just starts jumping from roof to roof

You get to the lair, and you're practically as red as his mask

Leo, of course, makes this observation known to all of New York

And Raph and you are now the same color

After this Raph tries to avoid you again

Raph is only doing this because he is very clnfused

Unlike his brothers, he wasn't as well versed in the media

So he's only ever seen hetero relationships

This makes him panic because?? You're a boy??? And he likes you??

He goes to Mikey for help, only to get Dr. Feelings (either way, it helps)

It ends up being a whole TED talk for all of the brothers (between Dr. Feelings and April)

To educate them on different sexualities

After this, he comes to the realization that he does like you, romantically, and it's ok, and no, there wasn't anything wrong with him

But now came the inevitable: ✨Gay Panic✨

He didn't know if you 1.) felt the same or 2.) if you even liked men???

This is when surprisingly, Donnie comes in and talks some logic into Raph

"Look, brother, you know I am not one for... Feelings" (he shuddered at the word)

"However, from the data I have collected, he does seem to be attracted to men" "But how do you KNOW know?" "Raph, he literally showed us pictures of him at a pride parade, with the gay men flag... And he has said multiple times that he can't get a boyfriend..." "oh... OH..."

Raph takes the risk and starts "flirting" with you

AKA sitting really close to you, feeding you (while bashfully looking away), and being your Guard Dog Privilege

If you want a relationship with him, You most definitely have to make the first move

When you ask Raph out confidently, he almost died of cuteness overload

You're just so small

And looking down at you while you look up at him with confidence he just

He breaks

He does say yes though

And once you're dating

Be prepared for his brothers' jokes

They call you his chihuahua and him your Malibut

Raph is constantly dying of cuteness overload

And whenever he gets cuteness aggression, he pinches your cheeks

If you're ever mad at him, he tries SO hard to take you seriously (and he does) it's just so cute seeing you look up at him with violence in your eyes, knowing very well you can't actually hurt him

And whenever you ogle at how big he is?

Raph could die right there

Comparing hand sizes? Redder than his mask

You massage his biceps? Heart attack

And if you give him a sultry look? Nosebleed and passes out

Over all, you and Raph are just the perfect pair <3

╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡╹♡

Sooo ... This is a bit longer than I expected, but I did it!! I hope you like it! If there's any advice you can give me for writing male!reader I'd greatly appreciate it!

[nonbinarypirat]

Can I just say that I really, really love your analysis post on m!ik. It had never occured to me how the theme could allude to education fighting against the fascism that exist in their society that it really put past chapters in perspective and really show how m!ik really stands out among other shounen mangas

After all, school is one of the common setting in shounen mangas, but most of the it was always more to establish a launching pad for the characters and narrative. You can even argue that some doesn't even need a school-setting to tell the same story.

But that's not the case for m!ik. Here, the teachers are expected to learn and grow alongside the students. Here, the school here is considered sacred by demons that there is a "Guard Dog" for generations. And at this point in the story, the students are expected to apply what they learn in order to give back to society. It's like this manga actually makes me appriciate how integral the education system is to the livelyhood of demons, and I love how the author managed to incorporate that in a demon setting where selfishness is a virtue. Makes such an interesting dichtomy.

Yes, all great points! Even the current political system shows us how important education is with the three greats (all of which are powerful and highly respected) are principals of highly respected schools. Hell, even in the newest chapters Iruma established a school for the many ear demons because school and education is that important. Clara herself reflects on how important school is for her and realizes her privilege to get to go to one. And I also love from Iruma’s perspective how much he loves school because he never had the opportunity to go to school and gain an education before now. Education is so vital to the story rather than an after thought. Even when the focus isn’t about Babyls itself, the themes are still there, it never leaves us for long.

[ultfreakme]

I don't think Caitlyn is unkind, but I do think she's too privileged and too coddled by the story itself to ever have her confront said privilege long enough to dismantle it.

Yes, she is kind in S1 to Zaunites. Yes she defends Vi. Yes she tries to save that guy in the airship. But these kinds of actions become nothing to her when she and her position is threatened. The best parallel I can find for this is a character in the first Knives Out movie (got newly emerging issues with that movie franchise but whatever).

For those who haven't seen it- MC is a Caretaker for a very rich writer, the writer leaves all his wealth to her and the writer's family is fucking pissed and demands the money back. There's an 18/19 year-old girl who's the granddaughter of the writer, she's super inclusive, kind and genuinely wants to help the MC. She's very chill with the MC getting the inheritance.

Until we learn, that her Writer Grandfather was the one paying her tuition and now that all the inheritance is the MC's, no one will be paying for her education anymore.

And suddenly, the switch flips. Suddenly, she's acting even nicer to the MC, cajoling her. The MC promises she'll pay for her education but refuses to give her all the money. The girl doesn't trust the MC and by the end of the movie she's basically joined in on the witch hunt for MC to get back the money.

That's what Caitlyn feels like. She'll be kind so long as she is comfortable. She's grieving, she's traumatized, etc. But no amount of personal grief can forgive large-scale harm. If the story of Arcane didn't connect the grief to her actions as an enforcer, I would not be so critical. But the voice actors and writers and the story itself is telling me Caitlyn should be forgiven because she was sad and grieving.

People think fascism and cruelty comes only from people who are somehow horrible from birth till death. Common people are entirely capable of such horrors if they refuse to slow down and examine their actions, using personal comfort and grievance to justify their actions. "I am sad, therefore I won't", "I am suffering, and I need to deal with that first so bye", "I have things to do, so no I can't help".

Yes it fucking sucks. Yes it's a pain in the ass and it's draining but who tf said kindness is easy? It's a skill. It's learnt and built-upon.

I'm closer in class to a Zaunite then I'll ever be to a Councillor in Piltover just in terms of speaking analogically, but I do have privilege. And it's a horrifying fucking moment realizing my own kindness is restricted by how comfortable I am. It's something anyone with privilege feels, none of us are perfectly altruistic and virtuous and we have to look it in the eyes and dismantle it.

Caitlyn never, ever does. She uses her grief to justify things. She uses Ambessa to justify things. Ambessa didn't tell her to gas Zaun and shoot at a child. Ambessa didn't make her tell Vi to join the enforcers or leave her alone otherwise.

[niiwa-angel]

@musingsunderstarlight my point is that a lot of radical feminists will bring up misogyny in the West because, if you have access to something like reliable Internet connection, you are more likely to live in the West and therefore, have a skewed view of how misogyny in cultures like Africa and Asia can really look.

Also, at the time when I wrote this, there had been a few posts going around trying to compare the misogyny in places like South Korea to the misogyny in Afghanistan, and while both are obviously horrific, they are not on the same level. I was trying to bring up that we can acknowledge the misogyny in more "progressive" places like Canada, the UK, South Korea, and the US while also acknowledging that us women living there have a lot of privilege compared to our sisters living in rural India, Somalia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. My response wasn't meant to "sing praises" about the West, it was to point out that those of us who grew up with the expectation that we would know day have drivers licenses, careers, and access to education are not experiencing the same level of oppression as little girls denied education, financial freedom, and the ability to control their medical care/intervention.

i’m not afraid to say that many cultures are deeply rooted in misogyny, including my own. im half nigerian and there’s an expectation that women kneel before men and elders, sit in the kitchen while the men talk, and serve the men before anyone else. perhaps it’s why i’m so distant from my dad’s side, i won’t kneel before anyone

[aaandbackstabbed]

Tell me why the run up to mock exam week is actually kicking me so hard in the arse?!!

[apollos-olives]

before october 7th this blog was a meme page btw.

[empireofthestates]

What You Need to Know about Project 2025

The GOP's Radical Plans for America's Future

graphics from @/pinballwizardess on tiktok

[ennabear]

okay i don’t usually respond to bullshit posts like these, but i feel the need to speak my truth and potentially educate some people.

no, it’s not a “stupid theory”, TLOU is based on israel vs palestine. neil druckmann confirmed it, and he grew up in israel himself.

the WLF is like israel, they settled on land that didn’t belong to them and are constantly working hard to murder the people who were there first. sound familiar? they were based on idf (israel defense force) soldiers, the same people who we are seeing TODAY kill countless palestinians.

and it’s not a war, it’s a genocide.

yes, i do agree that there are more and better ways to donate to and help the people in gaza, but not everyone has the money to donate. instead, it’s easier for all of us to boycott companies and people who send their money to israel (like neil druckmann does). it saves us money, and it prevents the funding of the ongoing genocide.

and no, i don’t think that someone is a zionist for liking mafia!ellie x hybrid!reader fanfic. but i do think that we should all be aware of what this game is about and what it stands for. i’m friends with tons of writers who continue to make content about TLOU, but they do it knowing that the creators are zionists and they don’t send their money to them. and that’s fine!!

i do think that someone is a zionist for saying “y’all need to wake tf up and separate fiction from reality” when people are dying because of it.

you would really rather defend a video game than support the people in gaza?? this stupid game matters more to you than these real human lives?? that says a lot, it shows that you’re extremely privileged and uneducated. i don’t care if you like the game or the show, i’m just saying that you should find a way to pirate it so that none of your money goes to israel and funds the genocide, that’s all.

here are some highlights from this article that i think are important, i recommend reading it to educate yourself further!!

keep boycotting tlou btw!!! the new trailer was shit and that cast/crew is swimming with zionists and heterosexuals… support artists and writers on tumblr/ao3 who keep this fandom alive without sending their money to israel!!!!!

[relaxedstyles]

[theabigailthorn]

You're not uniquely talented or hard working you just went to the right schools.

Yes, yes! This is exactly why I started Philosophy Tube! Why shouldn't someone else, anyone else, have access to the education I got??? The intellectual and cultural heritage of our species is for everyone, not just privileged people like me! :)

[bixels]

The idea that uni protesters are "elitist ivy-league rich kids larping as revolutionaries" on Twitter and Reddit and even here is so fucking funny to me if you actually know anything about the student bodies at these unis. Take it from someone who's going to one of the biggest private unis in the US, 80% of the peers I know are either from the suburbs or an apartment somewhere in America, children of immigrants, or here on a student visa. I've heard about one-percenter students, but I've never met one in person. Like, don't get me wrong, the institution as a whole is still very privileged and white. I've talked with friends and classmates about feeling weird or dissonant being here and coming from such a different background. But in my art program, I see BIPOC, disabled, queer, lower-income students and faculty trying to deconstruct and tear that down and make space every day. So to take a cursory glance at a crowd of student protesters in coalitions that are led by BIPOC & 1st/2nd-gen immigrant students and HQ'd in ethnic housings and student organizations and say, "ah. children of the elite." Get real.