#especially considering i didn't have a reference picture for this pose
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mental-breakdown-machine · 2 years ago
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My favourite lesbians for lesbian day <3
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dailypokemoncrochet · 2 months ago
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Random stats and insights
The last six Pokemon I crocheted, I timed how long it took. Shedinja 4 hours, Guzzlord 15.5 hours, Lokix 3.5 hours, Iron Treads 7.5 hours, Miraidon 12 hours, Koraidon 15 hours.
I specifically picked complicated Pokemon (Guzzlord, Miraidon, Koraidon) to see what the upper limit would be, and I'm confident that I can crochet (what I consider to be complex/more detailed) Pokemon in less than 16 hours total each the first time around. That includes the time spent physically crocheting, checking the reference models, redoing parts, sewing, writing notes. Does not include break times.
Guzzlord (16hr) didn't have so much redoing but it did have physically a lot of parts, many of them small, and that took the most time. Koraidon (15hr) similarly had a lot of small parts (feathers, spiky bits), but what took the most time was having to redo major aspects like the torso and legs and wheel to get the proportions better. Neither of those were especially difficult in terms of figuring out HOW to crochet them; it was mostly that there were a lot of parts. Miraidon (12hr), on the other hand, was more of a challenge to figure out how because it's atypical of a Pokemon to be so machinelike, so that took some time.
Iron Treads (7.5hr) I thought would be medium difficulty because of the machine thing. The part that took the longest was embroidering the outer lines on the treads (they kept coming out more crooked than I wanted) but otherwise was straightforward to design.
Lokix (3.5hr) I also thought would be medium difficulty because of the thinness of the legs. I didn't even know before starting that the back legs swiveled down, but that didn't take overly long to figure out. (Also I still have to take pictures of that because it's a cool effect. The thinness makes it kind of frail and difficult to pose though)
Shedinja (4hr) seemed like it would be pretty simple! The most difficult part was figuring out the color changes on the body. I thought it would be more difficult to make the back an actual hollow hole, but that was pretty simple. Actually the most difficult part was that Saturn my cat was on my arm for a significant chunk of the time crocheting and she surprisingly did attack the crochet once.
Small sample size but the results track with how I've been working on the others so far. I didn't do anything too differently from ones I haven't timed (crochet while watching TV or listening to music, varying levels of assistance from Saturn, taking regular breaks, etc). I've always known it took a few hours at least for any Pokemon. It's kind of weird to put actual numbers to it.
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genericpuff · 2 years ago
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Rachel "Retcon" Smythe Strikes Again!
Okay, so I've been seeing pictures of Volume 4 of Lore Olympus floating around, and people are ALREADY FINDING RETCONS.
Most notably so far, some added panels in the Hades and Apollo confrontation that happens outside Artemis' house (when Persephone steals Apollo's lyre) in Episode 81.
This is the original scene, for anyone who needs a refresher:
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Aaaand here are the panels that were added.
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(all pictures of Volume 4 are courtesy @iwannagutyou on IG!!! thank you for giving me permission to use these! <3)
First of all, the art. It's so noticeably bad. You can tell Rachel has completely lost her ability to draw these characters in the S1 style, I'm fairly certain she took the panel of Hades from the old version and just copy pasted it to try and get around it (look at the posing) but it's incredibly obvious looking at that third panel that LO is not and can never be what it was back in 2017-2019. Those first two panels seem like they were copy pasted from the previous ones, which is just sad if those are the lengths she has to go to to come even close to replicating the older style.
Now, this just might be due to camera translation, it could very well look better IRL, but the colors just look so incredibly desaturated and the lines blurred out, to the point that people are doing double takes over whether or not panels have been directly changed - they haven't been, they've just been so sucked dry of their colors that they look off enough to cast suspicion.
If anything it's a harsh reminder that LO has kinda always had art problems, especially with its lazy humor and stupid meme faces.
Of course, to be fair, color loss can happen in print, but seeing how slapped together these books tend to be, I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't put in the effort to convert the page art to CMYK or at least tinker with the saturation in editing some more to ensure it would come out more vibrant in print.
Now. Excuse me while I go on a bit of a crackpot rant here. Newbie puff pals beware, because this is gonna get dicey and you're about to learn where my tinfoil-hat rep comes from but I just have to talk about it.
Back to the added Apollo panels, where Persephone asks Hades not to hurt him and he looks nervous before she says "I just want him to leave".
Maybe it's just me, but it's a little weird that THESE are the panels they decided they needed to add. It's weird that she's asking Hades not to hurt Apollo when she's about to break into his car and steal his lyre just a few moments later. It's weird that the implication seems to be that she's referring to Hades' act of violence towards Tori... but Persephone doesn't know that's happened yet. So this feels like an unnecessary retcon that's doing more harm than good.
But I feel like the timing of this is kinda messed up as well, as this book released just days after the release of the last FP episode in which Apollo has his 'side' of the assault story told through his perspective, which is often considered a HUGE no-no in writing assault stories because it often comes with the implication that it's asking for empathy from the audience. We already know Apollo is delusional, we already know he thinks him and Persephone are meant to be despite her constant rejection of him, we didn't need a flashback from his own warped perspective explaining that very thing, the only purpose to do such a thing this late in the game would be to try and get the audience to 'connect' with him (it's giving S3 Bryce from 13 Reasons Why vibes). Now we have this scene of Persephone asking Hades not to hurt him (despite the structure of the episode being literally fine before, this change wasn't needed) getting snuck into the physical book release just a couple days after the newest FP tried to present Apollo in an empathetic light (and let me tell you, that's a whole essay and a half that I'll be getting into eventually).
Shit, if I wanted to get REAL Pepe Sylvia with it, I might say that hypothetically, the whole point of the random Leuce abuse episode - despite Persephone having no way of knowing what she attempted as Hades hadn't told her and she wasn't there to see it and we weren't shown her overhearing them in any way - and the following episode that was mostly padding of Hades and Persephone having sex - no consequences or follow-up whatsoever to the Leuce scene - was just to pad out the episode release schedule and buy time until the book came out so that Rachel could release that Apollo POV episode right before the book came out and revealed those new added scenes of Persephone asking Hades not to hurt Apollo, in what could be a sly artificial attempt at minimizing the SA plot so Rachel can finally just brush aside the one major plot point she regretted writing the most. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Rachel's controlled the pace of her comic to release certain moments at certain times that line up with IRL events.
But, y'know. I'm gonna quit on that thought while I'm ahead because it's probably making my credibility meter drop into the red. My ADHD has been real bad lately and it's really starting to show LMAO All ima say is that IDK who Rachel thinks she's fooling here, this kind of shit is stupid easy to fact check when the digital version of the comic is available online to read.
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To end on a much funnier and lighter note, remember how Rachel tried to retcon the Demeter/Hera/Hestia relationship by changing the line "I miss my sisters" to "I miss my friends"? Well, there was one panel that had been missed in the webtoons version that still refers to them as sisters. You can still find this unedited line in Episode 78.
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And uh. They forgot to fix it again for the book.
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It's permanent now. That's permanent marker. It would have cost them nothing to find this in the webtoon version and fix it before it got sent to the book editors. Now it's gonna cost them thousands because the book editors didn't bother (or know) to check.
There's also this... weird shit going on with the speech bubbles. Like, they're REALLY FUCKING OVERDOING IT with the speech bubble outlines. I don't know who made this choice but it was a bad one. Gross. Don't do that. It looks so cheap.
But let's be real, at this point I feel like the book editors are just outright sabotaging Rachel because who the fuck calls themselves a professional when they do this shit-
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Oh, and there's no bonus episode, just sketches. Which is fine. But it makes me chuckle to think that Rachel just didn't have time in her already razor-thin buffer to draw up a new episode to pass off as "cut content".
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herbgerblin · 2 years ago
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That poll you reblogged got me thinking. What would you, an artist who does commissions, consider a good character ref sheet? What do you need/consider when drawing someone's oc/dnd characters/character you don't know?
Shoutout to @ceilingfan5 for that poll because I was also very interested in the responses.
I answered a question about what info to include in the description of your character (s) here. But I can definitely expand a bit more! Disclaimer: Not every artist works the same way.
Example prompt to use for requests is under the cut!
If you have drawn your own ocs, but are afraid of using them as references, don't be! I never judge anyone's examples, and I've seen references from a wide range of skill sets. I'm not an art critic, I'm just here to interpret your work and translate it to my own style. You know your ocs best, so I try to pick up on the details that you clearly want to see.
If you can't find the exact right reference, say so before I start drawing. I keep a lot of stock images on hand and I scour the internet for references all the time. I can probably get closer to what you have in mind. Or I will just model the image myself (I have used myself as a model several times.)
Write objective descriptions. Descriptions written in flowery, poetic language can be hard to parse, especially when I need to read them multiple times to make sure I didn't miss anything. I recommend using bullet points if you require a lot of specific details.
If you have a preferred name and Paypal deadnames you, I will 100% only use your preferred name and I will ignore it on PayPal if it comes up. I don't know if there's a way to filter out customer names on PayPal. I only need the email address to send invoices. If you want to go the extra step of making an email just for commissions, that's fine with me.
I don't do a lot of dynamic scenes but if you ask, include what camera angle and POV you want the scene to be viewed from. Providing reference images of a different scene from that angle is also a huge help!
I repeat: If you have no previous examples of your ocs, I recommend using a Pinterest board or google drive folder with references. But keep them to like a 3-10 minimum (unless there are multiple characters, in which case include more than that.)
Example prompt below ->
Hi [artist]
I am requesting a [insert type of commission] for my character(s) [name(s).] I have attached reference pictures of their hairstyles, outfits, poses, and an example of the scene. I have included a description of the commission down below:
Character A is sitting at a small cafe table. They are wearing a button-up dress. A mug of steaming coffee is resting on the table near their hand. Character B is pulling out a chair opposite Character A. They are wearing a hoodie, jeans, and a silver necklace. They look a little damp and disheveled like they've just come in from the rain, and maybe blushing from embarrassment. A wet umbrella is leaning against the side of their chair. Character A is laughing good-naturedly. The background doesn't have to be detailed, but if you could make it feel like the lighting is warm and slightly dim, that would be great!
Please let me know if you would like any further details.
Thanks,
[Preferred Name]
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ell-arts · 1 year ago
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Come to think of it, I don't think we technically know Pac's full personality all that much outside of being someone who used to be closed off towards strangers according to Sunny when referring to Baby Pac, and also being a glutton too....
Unless I'm just dumb and haven't rewatched the show for over three years by now. :,)
But yeah, do you have headcanons on other things about Pac?
Here's how I would summarise Pac's personality;
Introverted
Friendly
Down to earth (at least Stratos thinks so)
A bit competetive
Hard-working
Courageous
Supportive
Sentimental
Happy-Go-Lucky
Goofy
I guess one could consider gluttony/love for food to be part of his character (he wouldn't be Pac-Man without it) but I'd put gluttonous under a behavioural category rather than personality :-)
Now, as for extra headcanons I have about Pac;
He's pretty good with kids and has a soft spot for them. He likes to make jokes and act like a clown just to make them laugh. We saw him willingly share his food with a young girl in one of the Christmas episodes, and in "Nerd is the Word" he posed with a young boy for a picture taken by the boy's father. Pac also acted a bit like a goof in that instance, probably to make the occasion more special for the boy.
Pac wants to feel valued. He didn't take well to being replaced by Spooka Bazookas for his role in protecting Pacworld. Sure, the biggest reason for this could be that he's gotten used to the fame of being a hero, but I'd like to headcanon that another reason for this is because he had a past when he wasn't valued or seen as important by his peers for being the only Yellow One. Becoming the hero of Pacworld was the first time that most of society saw value in him for a change. Of course, there is a risk that excessive attention and value can get to his head, as seen in "Pac-Mania."
Following up on the previous headcanon, Pac has also grown reserved and introverted because of how he was treated by his peers as a kid, and so he only seeks to have serious relationships where friends and family don't take him for granted.
He hates being played for a fool, or to be given false hope. Pac may be happy-go-lucky and carefree, but we've seen a lot of depth to his emotions, too - there's certain lines that shouldn't be crossed, especially when it comes to his family. In "Happy Holidays and a Merry Berry Day," he didn't take well to finding out that his 'returned parents' were just clones made by Dr. B to fool him into revealing the location of the Tree of Life. And just a few episodes later, in "New Girl in Town," Pac was only willing to give Elli (possessed by Mavis and Pinky at the time) a few chances to be serious with him on the matter of his missing parents' whereabouts. Of course he didn't know he was being deceived, but the moment it became clear to him that Elli was just fooling around on the topic, he walked off and left with a bitter and unhappy countenance.
Pac is a dog person. This headcanon mostly goes off of the fact that Pac and Aunt Spheria have a dog named Uggles. He doesn't mind cats, but generally he prefers dogs. (Which is ironic, since his eyebrows look like cat ears.)
His favourite food is ice-cream and pizza. Yes I know he said in an episode that his favourite is "everything" but I'm sure even he has his favourites that he loves just a bit more above 'everything' xD
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icharchivist · 2 years ago
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Very bad/dumb brainrot but. CagliostroxLucilius
Not entirely sure why my brain went here but it did. And while I don't seriously ship it, I kinda wonder.
Astrals, for whatever reason, promise this young, bright boy a new, better body if he submits himself to a few... tests. He agrees, again for whatever reason, and joins them (maybe the sister had to have died at this point? Who knows.)
Gets introduced to Lucilius as an apprentice, but the boy starts to very much Be Better than him, and they start to grumble their way to becoming Partners.
"I can make you a new body. Better. Look at Lucifer." Cag looks at Lucifer and laughs with haughtiness.
"I don't want your sloppy, egotistical sloppy seconds. I'll make my own body better." And he does. It completely eclipses Lucifer's body in one major factor. Only problem, in Lucilius' eyes is.
"Cuteness? All of this research, power to eliminate islands' worth of life, and you chose to use my ("our") research to beat my penultimate project in... cuteness?" The newly transferred Cagliostro twirls the specifically tailored clothing around, doing a cute pose and winking at Lucilius.
"Hee hee~ of course. I myself have all the power I need, and I can grab more with enough research. Now I can do it as my cutest possible~! Oh, and I'm a girl now. The next primal to misgender me is going to get certain parts re-arranged." A haughty expression replaces the cute look, at the very least reassuring Lucilius his companion hasn't gone mad... yet.
He chooses not to comment when Beelzebub later comes to give a report with a strained face, though he privately snorts when he begins demanding proper resistances to 'certain alchemical brats'.
Dunno. Just seems fun. Both made their own ideal bodies (though Lucifer had a personality) and seem to be reticent towards higher powers. Both are later betrayed and sealed in some way (which btw, how the hell did Lucilius come back from just being a head, wtf). And come back with a vengeance.
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as a little headsup, i know you mostly referred as Cags this way to really mark that it's pre-transition but I think she should still be referred to by her actual pronouns. Like she didn't become a woman the moment she changed her body and all that.
I get what you meant though but DLKJFD At least i'm not really comfortable with that especially considering Cags has heavy dysphoria and looks very unkindly/with panic to her life pre-transition in this other body. I get that it's really to symbolize her past but we have the benefit of the full picture that we can give her that at least.
Either way back to the meat of the ask, i genuinely think interactions between Lucilius and Cagliostro would be hilarious and it's honestly such a shame in wmtsb they don't actually meet despite Cags being around. The fact Cags genuinely admires Lucilius's work while still going "though of course i'm still better <3" makes for such a funny dynamic and i wish it was explored more.
So the idea of them being friendrivals in the lab working together is pretty funny imo, esp with this whole "made a whole other body that correspond more to their actual ideals". And hey, Lucilius did end up in (well, on) Lucifer's body in the end so! Fitting!
And i feel like Lucilius would bear with Cagliostro because she is the only person in this place who can keep up with his own genius. Even Lucifer, for all his perfection, cannot be as fit for that. Lucilius and Cags would send each other opinions and ideas so much so that... Honestly i feel like Lucilius and Cags would have ended up taking God out together at this point. Maybe they had to never meet so they wouldn't be this heavily buffed.
As to whenever to read the dynamic as eventually queerplatonic, that would be a fun reading. Not sure i envy Cags for being a the other end of Belial's jealousy in there though.
So, idea with potential, definitely :3c
Take care!
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perfectlymarilynmonroe · 4 years ago
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Hey babe, I had a q about your last photo caption. The bit about Marilyn refusing to be a kept woman is somewhat misleading to me- didn't she live with Johnny Hyde for a time, and didn't his influence grant her favorable notice during casting for films like The Asphalt Jungle? Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I don't think their relationship was precisely sexual even if he clearly doted on her for a time. Obvi she got further on her own merit, but I do think that's an oft unexplored moment in her life that was definitely instrumental because of her choice to link up with him. Just wondering about your thoughts on this! Love the blog <3
Hi! Thank you for your sweet comments about my blog :) Sorry for the delay in response, but I wanted to give a thorough response to this. I’ve actually received a couple of comments on Instagram lately regarding this, and I don’t mind addressing this confusion.
*Disclaimer to everyone reading: This is based on the research I have done and is to address a number of issues. This isn’t to glorify Marilyn or deny any flaws or imperfections, but to state the facts. I’m publicly sharing this so I can later refer back to it. It’s a longer response to answer any follow-up questions I may get but, of course, you can still ask any you may have. ♡♡
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It can be deceiving, but I think the bigger concern is what she took for what she got, rather than vise versa. If she was looking to be a gold-digging, role-stealing actress, she would have married Hyde the minute he asked her to. She would have inherited his millions and could have bought her way through Hollywood. For a young woman with hardly anything, she chose herself and said no. 
Just before she met him, she was getting help from John Carroll and Lucille Ryman, so when she said, Johnny was the first to believe in her, that isn’t entirely true. Due to her lack of a father-figure as a child I think that when she saw the belief in her from a man like Johnny, at a reputable agency, who was willing to do anything for her, she latched on to it.
Hyde’s co-workers at William Morris later reported being furious with him because he slowly began to abandon his other clients and focused only on helping her. In the case of The Asphalt Jungle, since you asked, it was actually the help of both Hyde and Lucille Ryman that she was given an audition. However, director John Huston later said she didn’t get the “role because of Hyde...she got it because she was damn good.”
In my personal opinion, based on the facts, whether did not sleep with Johnny - some historians even refuse to believe they were ever sexually involved - it was never for roles, auditions, etc. As I mentioned, if it were, she would have married him, taken his money, and used that to her advantage. She actually stopped seeing him - both  personally and professionally - by Fall 1949 because she was so sick and tired of being called, “Mrs. Johnny Hyde” by him and hearing from colleges that he was calling her his wife. 
When it came to being a “kept” woman, she was referring to the large number of “casting directors” or studio execs, etc, who faked an upcoming film to lure her into their office and attempt to seduce her, or held their hand on her thigh while she auditioned, almost forced her, etc... and each time she managed to walk out. 
She wrote an article entitled, “The Wolves I’ve Know” that was published in a number of places like Motion Picture in 1953, The New York Daily News, and more. When she met with Ben Hecht for her autobiography interviews, she also spoke of them and it was published in a London newspaper in August 1954, and in Australian magazines in 1955.
He did leave his family and move into a bigger place and invited her to live there, but she never officially moved in. She did spend quite a bit of her time there, but by early Spring she was living on her own and was very low on rent. This is why she posed nude on red velvet in May 1949. She admitted to thinking of asking men she knew for money to help her, but felt she wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself, and it made her sick to even think of it.
For everyone reading this, remember, she was twenty-three. She was still a very young girl and had grown up with little guidance in her life. She was abused, and was in and out of so many school and homes, she was never taught how to do things. She figured it out on her own, and of course, like anyone in that situation, maybe didn’t always make the best decisions or have the best thoughts.
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I know this answer was very long, but I felt I needed to address a number of points because things are rarely black and white - especially for Marilyn Monroe, who is the subject of much scrutiny, then and now - and there are many things to consider in regards to a sensitive subject like this! 
I hope I’m not missing anything, but I hope it answers your question! xo
--
Below is a list of various quotes said by Marilyn that I hope everyone will find helpful :)
From “The Wolves I’ve Known” published in The New York Times:
The first real wolf I encountered should have been ashamed of himself because he was trying to take advantage of a mere kid. That’s all I was and I wasn’t suspicious of him at all when he stopped his car at a corner and started to talk to me.
He looked at me all over and then came up with that famous line: “You ought to be in pictures.” That was the first time I’d ever heard it, so it didn’t sound corny to me.
He told me he had an office at the Goldwyn studio and said why didn’t I come and see him and he would get me a screen test. It sounded pretty good to me because I was crazy to get into the movies.
I was modeling at that time and I asked the people who ran the agency where I got my jobs what they thought of his offer. The manager called the studio but never was able to get in touch with my would-be benefactor. However, the wolf called the agency and I made an appointment to go to his office on Saturday afternoon.
I didn’t know then that the producers and other movie officials don’t make Saturday afternoon appointments. I found that out later. I also found out that he didn’t really have any connection with the Goldwyn studio but had borrowed a friend’s office.
He was fat and jovial and, of course, drove a Cadillac. He gave me a script to read and told me how to pose while reading it. All the poses had to be reclining, although the words I was reading didn’t seem to call for that position.
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Of course, there are other ways a girl could survive until another studio came along. A starlet could take on a lover, usually a well-heeled married man who could pay her bills, or she could become the mistress to an old man and through his connections help advance her career. Believe me, there were and still are many starstruck girls that do get by that way. But for myself, respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that? If there [is] only one thing in my life I [am] proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.  
And believe me, it wasn’t because there weren’t opportunities to become one. I think I had as many problems as the next starlet keeping the Hollywood wolves from my door. These wolves just could not understand me. They would tell me, “But Marilyn, you’re not playing the game the way you should. Be smart. You’ll never get anywhere in this business acting the way you do.” My answer to them would be, “The only acting I’ll do is for the motion picture camera.” I was determined, no one was going to use me or my body—even if he could help my career. I’ve never gone out with a man I didn’t want to. No one, not even the studio, could force me to date someone.
You can’t sleep your way into being a star. It takes much, much more. But it helps. A lot of actresses got their first chance that way. Most of the men are such horrors, they deserve all they can get out of them!
The one thing I hate more than anything else is being used. I’ve always worked hard for the sake of someday becoming a talented actress. I knew I would make it someday if I only kept at it and worked hard without lowering my principles and pride in myself.
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a-womans-rhetoric · 4 years ago
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Natalie Wynn's "J.K. Rowling" and Disruptive use of Women's Rhetorical Tropes: A Defiant Reply to Transmisogyny
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ContraPoints, surrounded by an opulent, candle-lit set and adorned in witch's garb, leisurely pours champagne into her glass — she's ready to breach the internet's hottest topic of January, 2021: her childhood idol being outed as a transphobe (link here). The video itself being over an hour and a half long, I would be hard-pressed to claim that I could ever hope to cover its entirety, comprehensively, in a single post. So to save-face, I'll be dedicating this space only to breaking down her most frequently used rhetorical tropes, one by one.
Irreverence
"Joanne, I wanna talk to you, Joanne! [Fans herself with a rainbow paper fan with the word "BIOLOGICAL" written across it] What is it about Joannes? I can't catch a break from these people" (00:23-00:29, emphasis added).
Wynn's introductory lines immediately open a dialogue with J.K. Rowling — however, this invitation of discourse is defiantly "irreverent" (reminiscent of Nomy Lamm's punk-feminist style in "It’s a Big Fat Revolution” (1995)). Contrapoints, herself a transgender woman, is aware that her very existence is considered in opposition to the TERF-ideology that Rowling subscribes to. Thus, she's rather playful — even openly disrespectful — with her diction: calling the British author by her first name in a mocking-tone and flaunting her own trans identity to the camera (in a way that would likely offend the fragile sensibilities of a transphobe). Her personal tone (with ample use of the pronoun "I") servers a duplicitous purpose: a simultaneous message of "sit down and listen" and a fair degree of "I don't care if you can't accept me."
"So, now that 2020 is finally over, I think we can let the record conclusively show that it was a year whomst is bad. And on top of everything else going on, truly the last thing we needed was the author of Harry Potter coming forward to announce there's two things she can't stand: bigotry, and the transgenders. (00:31 - 00:50, emphasis added).
Finally broaching the subject at hand directly, Wynn employs kairos alongside her irreverence. Kairos, or the rhetorical use of an "opportune moment," holds incredible weight in the first month after 2020: the year in which the whole world fell into a stasis. Characterizing Rowling's transphobia as a collective "the last thing we needed," is also rather dismissive — she unites herself with her audience with the pronoun "we" and invites us all to groan at the exasperating nature of Rowling's bigotry.
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Claiming the Right to Speak / Personal Experience
"This is a painful topic for me all around because, as a transgender woman, I am honestly really hurt by a lot of the things Joanne has said in the last year. But I also know what it's like to be the target of a Twitter mob" (01:36-01:47).
As she begins to touch on the topic, Natalie Wynn claims the right to speak on the issue of Rowling's transphobia — a type of bigotry that directly effects her. However, Wynn also situates herself partially with Rowling in her acknowledgement that receiving Twitter backlash is a terrifying experience (an experience, she argues, that the human brain is not prepared to handle the scale of, 01:49-02:39). In treating her subject with such dignity — and adding her own deeply personal account— ContraPoints creates a credible ethos in the beginning of her video essay. The audience is inclined to listen to someone who has been directly effected by the subject of Rowling's controversy (transphobia) and someone who is, rather compassionately, willing to empathize with those who would wish her harm. Although the generally sassy, glamorous, and irreverent tone of the video still appears soon after (see: the above image), her opening up for this somber moment garners a fair degree pathos in the viewer — we, as human beings, are inclined to sympathize with people who are open about being hurt.
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Metis (Embodied Rhetoric)
[The following ContraPoints quote is addressing the above J.K. Rowling tweet, content warning for transmisogyny] "Transphobes love to play this game where they pretend that trans people just don't understand basic biology, that's our problem! As if I didn't start taking female hormones because I'm acutely aware that my body is not the same as a cis woman's body, that sex is real. "[Fictional TERF character] You will never be a woman, Nathan. Every cell in your body is male and has a Y chromosome." Really? That's crazy. How you'd you learn so much about science? You know I don't really feel the need to have a second X chromosome, I get by with only one, I make it work. I actually like the Y chromosome, I think it's a little more dainty, you know, it's little softer, a little more petite. The X chromosome has a lot of extra appendages, and don't you think? I don't need anymore of those, thanks. No trans person thinks it's possible to change chromosomal sex and to pretend otherwise is to argue in bad faith" (08:47-09:34).
If you can excuse my gargantuan quote, I hope you'll agree that the dialogue ContraPoints builds here was just too good to cut short. Within this excerpt, we see Wynn's use of irreverance and personal experience blended seamlessly together. For this YouTuber, the personal is perpetually political — especially when her own identity is constantly taken as an ideological stance. She uses her own expertise in trans issues to pick apart just how disingenuous Rowling's assertions are — even accusing her of "argue[ing] in bad faith" with her reductive claims (later, taking specific issue with how Rowling treats trans-ness as a costume). But, here, she also directly invokes another rhetorical trope: that of metis, or embodied rhetoric. Natalie Wynn specifically references her transgender body as a sort of counterpoint to the condescending "sex is real" claims by TERFs. She cites her intrinsic desire to pursue hormonal therapy as evidence that she — and other trans people like her — are all "acutely aware" that there are chromosomal differences between themselves and cis women. With this salient statement, she then follows with some humor: which, again, utilizes her trans body in her rhetoric. Her characterization of the Y chromosome as "more petite" and playful declaration of not needing "extra appendages" lightens up the often dark tone that arguing for trans rights and liberation can take. The clever points she makes are by no means weakened by her humor — if anything, the audience is more willing to listen to someone who can "joke about themselves" (so to speak) while still arguing an incredibly important message.
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Naming and Defining Issues
"When I see Joanne tweeting about how trans people think sex isn't real and they're erasing same-sex attraction and they're silencing women, alarm bells are ringing because I recognize these as familiar transphobic talking points, specifically TERF talking points. "TERF" means trans exclusionary radical feminism. God are we still talking about this? I promise this is the last time. So TERFism is a hate movement that disguises transphobia as feminism. ... The fundamental problem with TERFs is not that they're mean. It's that they're politically reactionary, they want to reverse the progress of trans liberation." (14:05-16:02)
In her definition of TERF rhetoric, Natalie Wynn outlines some dog-whistles that are obvious to her, as a trans woman. She calmly explains to the viewer that, oftentimes in the present-day, rhetorics of exclusion are thoroughly disguised; TERFs, specifically, hide their rampant transphobia as a form of feminism. However, she further clarifies that the specific "danger" that TERFs pose is not from their cruelty — it's from their fervent dedication to strip away trans rights through political means. By specifying this danger, Natalie Wynn shifts the conversation away from empty discussion of offensiveness/terminology, to issues which directly affect the lives of trans people every day.
[This portion addresses the picture above] Also an act of naming and defining, ContraPoints makes a distinction between "Direct" and "Indirect Bigotry." She argues that many people envision bigotry as a festering, public, frothing-at-the-mouth hatred — a phenomenon she dubs "the Westboro Baptist Church theory of bigotry" (20:06). In bringing attention to the human tendency to think of people as exclusively practicing "direct bigotry" — envisioning them as a sort of delusional "other" — she then forces the audience to contemplate the relative omni-presence of the more covert (and possibly alluring) "indirect bigotry." This definition, crucially, requires introspection. By allowing ourselves to think of bigots not exclusively as "Westboros," we're made to adopt a much more nuanced view of subjects (most) generally prefer to keep black-and-white. Natalie Wynn uses her J.K. Rowling case study to complicate this 2D view of "The Bigot," inviting others to more carefully examine how politically reactionary views develop.
Phew, this was probably the longest post I've ever typed up on tumblr! Hopefully, I succeeded in demystifying (or at least adding clarity to) some of the specific tropes ContraPoints uses (that are common to women's rhetorics as a whole). Thanks for reading if you stuck around this long, and my ask box is always open!
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harveyman-wsc42 · 4 years ago
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TOWERS IN LOCKDOWN PT 1
Structure of the human body is something that had crossed my mind when thinking of ideas for this project. Essentially as human beings we are moving towers/structures in the grand scheme of things. Compared to a lot of thing and organisms on this planet we skyrocket in size compared to them. 
For instance an ant vs a human being, somewhat similar to me (a human) standing next to one of biggest buildings in the world. Another point is our muscles, joints, bones all holding us together not to mention the organs inside of us, vital to keep us going, and yet another comparison; would a building be a building without people (organs) in them? no, Just a shell of something yet to be occupied by us humans.
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Structure of the human face.
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Believe it or not the images above are myself. These drawings all came from reference images, and in those images I was nowhere near as toned as I am in these drawings, but that's what so fascinating, I really went extra to magnify and bring out each bit of bulk on my skin, each muscle, strain, shadow.
At first I was sceptical but upon more work I realised how relevant this was. 
I am not comparing my self or my physique to that of the sculptures made by the ancient greeks, but in the images I tried my best to pose in positions like how they would back then. These poses really help bring out the tone and deffiniton in ones body, they’re somewhat poetic.
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This is my landscape study of the Zaha Hadid in Singapore. When going into research to find buildings and structures with great style I had found that Singapore have some the most breathtaking buildings and architecture. Its as if they dont even filter their ideas and I love that! 
The buildings have so much expression and individuality. Incredible.
I was planning on sketching this freehand which something I am more used to doing considering I dont really draw these kind of things, but I considered how bad the quality would be if I didn't use a ruler which I am so glad I used and it went really well. Something I really like about what I did in this piece is how I translated the curve of the building to paper, something that I thought I would really struggle with. I think the mixture of using biro pen and graphite really compliment each other. The biro giving a strong outline and presence and then the graphite really bring that extra element of reality and real life accuracy .
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the two images above are a bit more abstract but was willing to experiment and push myself and that what I did. In the first image it mostly an experiment with colour and how, even if not accurate to the reference, I could create that 3d element and make it pop. Also I wanted to create a contrast with this weird structure amongst all these ordinary square buildings and to then add colour to make it really stand out. I was heavy on the blue because I wanted that to be my back bone and the yellow and red I used to create highlights and shade. I also feel as if this piece was very free flowing and kinda just let my brain take control to do the rest.
Now with the second image your probably wondering ‘okay.. this doesn't look 3d just looks like scrappy paper?’ and yes that's exactly what it is. I wanted destruction and chaos to ensue the page with multi media paper I wanted it to seem out of place, and there, to the side, still scrappy but distinguishable as a stair case still stable and still standing. My inspiration for this is when buildings and such are being demolished and they look like this unidentified rubble area until there would still be a wall with a window, or a door frame standing, untouched, or a staircase. There are ghosts of what was once there standing proud before their final moments, an ode to the building/structures time when it was standing. I call stairway to wherever you want.
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CHOAS IN THE CITY OF PALMS
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BISCUIT TINS : THE SEQUEL!
A biro plus graphite piece, I wanted these two tins to have allot of power. I wanted them to have an edge to them, in the reference they aren't the sharpest tins but I just thought they looked so cool just standing there glaring down everyone.
I wanted them to have a skyscraper feel to them, I think I somewhat achiechevd that but upon review I think something I couldve done was just to go more in with the graphite especially in those darker areas, but instead I used biro which doesn't work as well, its a bit more scratchy and less natural compared ti its rival graphite
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I call this one BANNANA TOBASCO ITALIAN HERBS AND SEASONIG AND SALT. I must say it was difficult to balance all these things on top of each other and once I did I just had to use it as one of my pictures because I really wanted to draw it. In this I used graphite only and I must admit I found it hard to grasp the idea of scale considering this was a Birdseye view picture. What I knew was that the top had to appear larger than the bottom, it is definitley something that needs work but im glad that I did it anyway .
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