no, but really, we need to talk about the casual objectification that has become the fallback discourse of the internet: if you're pretty and dressed nicely, you're a slut. and if you're even vaguely outside of their body standard, you're fucking disgusting.
too-frequently, people position sex workers as being "the problem". they sneer you're addicted to pornography, you don't know what a real woman looks like. but real women are in pornography. the real bodies on display are not the issue here: the issue is that other people feel extremely confident when commenting on someone's physique.
2000's super-thin is slowly worming its way back into the public ideal. recently i saw someone get told to "go for a run", despite the fact she was on the thinner side of average. not that it would ever be appropriate to say that: but it's kind of like sticker shock when you see it. people think that is fat? holy shit. do they just have no idea about things?
but what are you going to do about it? that's the problem, right. because chances are - you're a normal person. we can say normalize carrying fat on your body, but we are not the billion-dollar diet industry. we are not the billion-dollar fashion industry. we are just, like. people. who are trying to make content on the internet, without being treated shittily.
as someone who has been on both sides of things: you are treated better when you are thin and pretty. this is statistically correct. i am not saying that you cannot be bullied for being thin; i'm saying there are objective institutional biases against certain bodytypes. there are videos of men and women who lost weight all saying: i now know for a fact exactly how much worse you're treated. in the comments, some asshole inevitably says something akin to you deserved to be dehumanized when you were fat.
which means that ... the easiest thing to do is be pretty and thin. it is the path of least resistance, because of course it is, because any time you post a picture of yourself without a thigh gap, someone immediately comments something like you need to try a diet.
the other half is also dehumanizing though, huh, just in a different way. when i put on makeup and nice clothes, i am told i slept my way to the top as a professional. do you know how many women in STEM have told me they purposefully dress to "unimpress" because they already struggle to be taken seriously and if they're ever considered pretty - it for some reason takes away from their authority.
so they make it seem like it's your fault. you, existing in a body - it's your fault! if you didn't want shitty comments, don't have a body. they position us against each other like chess pieces; vying for male attention we don't even need.
and i can be an authority on this unless you think i'm fat and unattractive. when i am pretty and thin, i'm an activist. when i am just a normal person who makes a good point: i am immediately dismissed. nobody fucking believes you if you're not seen as attractive. you literally lose value. you cease to exist.
but the whole time, it feels like - is anyone actually grounded the fuck in reality? the line of "pretty and thin" keeps shifting. nobody seems to understand what "a normal weight" even looks like, because it's not something that exists - you cannot tell a person's health by looking at their body. even if you think you could tell that, even if you're sure a person is dangerously overweight - people are not your dolls. they do not need to be dressed up or displayed properly to soothe your aesthetics. you aren't concerned for them, you're stealing their agency. you don't get to say if they're "allowed" to take pictures and post them on the internet - you don't get to tell them how to exist.
people hide behind "the obesity epidemic" without any actual qualifications. they crow things about "normalizing unhealthiness".
but it's bullshit. i have visible abs. there is a pair of parallel lines on my body, even when i'm relaxed; where my obliques meet my abdominal wall. i am proud of this because it means i'm strong, because i overcame an eating disorder only to be ripped as fuck. it is genetic and physical luck that i even get any definition, i'm pleased as punch.
but it does mean that my abdominal wall sticks out a little bit. the other day i posted a video of myself dancing, and, for a moment, my shirt slipped. you could see a little bit of my stomach. i was cartwheeling to the floor. moments before this, i'd had my foot over my head.
a guy slid into my DMs. a row of vomiting emojis prefaced: you should really lose some weight before you think about dancing.
i stared at it for a long time. there was a time when i would have been triggered by this, where it would have encouraged me to starve myself. i would have ignored the fact i'm flexible, agile, good at jumping: i would have lost the weight for a stranger's passing comment. i would have found myself and my body fucking disgusting.
and for what? to please what? because why? so that he can exist in this world without an unchallenged eyeball? what would my self-hatred even accomplish? usually i write paragraphs. obviously. on this particular occasion, in this body i've been at war with for ages: i just felt exhausted.
it shouldn't be even worth saying. it shouldn't be hard to explain. all of this emotional turmoil when he cannot even comprehend the most basic truth: i am not an object on display for him.
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EULR-S2313 “Holt”
Awesome artfight attack of her by archivebottles on twitter ^^
Holt time let’s go!!
- she’s an old EULR unit that works in Sierpinski-23’s medical wing, she takes care of both replika repairs and patching up gestalts. She’s known throughout the facility as one of the better medical units due to her experience and patients often request her not only for her skills but her company (she’s a terrible gossip even by Eule standards!).
- Holt was given her name from her tendency for hand holding both professionally to comfort her patients, and to generally show affection! Those who know her well also know that her name comes from her stubbornness for a EULR. When she sets her mind to something she refuses to let it go!! She does not take no for an answer! Especially when she’s caring for patients!
- She has a petty grudge against Storch Sieben. No one knows why, but the two of them don’t like each other and can’t be in the same room for very long unless someone wants a shouting match
- When a certain Kolibri unit had an accident in the mines, Holt fixed her face and then after learning that the Kolibri had lost her bioresonance and was being considered for decommission, pulled some strings and kept the decomm request at bay. This initially caused some friction between her and Kolibri, with Holt wanting to keep her alive and well, but Kolibri feeling purposeless without being able to hear her cadre. Although they got off on the wrong foot they grew close and spent a good deal of their spare time together (cue much teasing in the Eule dorms)
- Holt and Kolibri eventually became lovers, Holt had had a crush on her for a while and finally worked up the nerve to confess it. Kolibri felt the same and the two kept their relationship under wraps due to the already tense situation Holt had created in preventing her Kolibug’s decommission request. They still had each other and were happy for a few more years at least (there was much teasing and even more kisses in that time, they loved each other dearly)
- The mysterious illness infecting the replikas of Sierpinski-23 eventually claimed Holt though. During the infection she worked hard to try to treat ailing replikas, or at least bring them some comfort before they had to be put out of their misery. When Holt began showing signs of sickness, Kolibri stayed by her side in the medical office as her condition worsened to the point that she couldn’t recognize her lover at all.
- Holt couldn’t control herself and was confused and scared, she attacked Kolibug when she came to check on her that last day. Kolibug killed her in self defense and remained by her beloved’s side afterwards.
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Clear Sky is fine compared to this one-dimensional bullshit we made up
"Whataboutism? In MY Warrior Cats?"
It's more likely than you think.
Clear Sky continues to guilt trip his son, whine and cry when a vote doesn't go his way because his victims don't trust his newest lie, and Gray Wing walks off so we can introduced to Slash.
Slash is Evil Foreigner Villain 2. Like One Eye, the narrative function of this character is to serve as our antagonist and make Clear Sky look better in comparison.
Don't think about how Clear Sky is the most vicious character in the series with a CURRENT body count of 3 direct murders (Misty, Bumble, Rainswept Flower), nearly a dozen more under his orders, a few counts of physical assault including smacking a kitten to the ground in anger, and ongoing emotional abuse of his own child. That was all "good intentions," the writers are gonna show you what they think "REAL" evil is!
...being more openly mean about the same exact thing Clear Sky did in Book 3. Hitting a kid for questioning why they're making enemies.
But nonononono guys this is UNIQUELY BAD we swear!!!!!
You can tell because Slash doesn't insist this is for Fern's own good somehow. He's just openly twirling his mustache instead of preparing a speech about self-defense or whatever. Their weakness is that they're "ruled by fear," unlike us Clan cats who are kept together by..... something else i guess.
What ELSE do you even call it, if you're held together by the idea that there's a constant barrage of bloodthirsty foreigners you need to defend yourselves against? Or an abusive tyrant who threatens, beats, or kills you for standing up to him? Or the unfounded belief that you're constantly a hair away from starving to the point where you have to send a domestic abuse victim back to her violent husband?
What do we call that, if not fear?
Isn't "fear" the other half of that dumbfuck "All Living Creatures Are Driven By Fear Or Greed" dichotomy they wrote in the earlier books, to try and barf up some kind of excuse for why Clear Sky skinning random women alive was actually very sympathetic?
You might want to twist this story to say, "Ok well it's saying that Clear Sky USED to be this bad, but hes not now" and id tell you that you're writing fanfiction. That's just not what's on the page. It does not draw that parallel and Clear continues to be a bastard without consequence. Read the shitty arc you keep telling me is actually sooo deep.
Slash and One Eye were inherently bad people. Unlike Clear Sky who's good at coming up with excuses that sound nice.
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what is considered "beautiful" by society is inevitably sexist, racist, ableist, classist, transphobic, and bigoted. it targets and attacks any perceived difference, and it particularly villainizes women of color while co-opting aesthetics; as if features and cultural norms can be worn as accessories.
and the scary thing! you can see all of these things, know them to be true logically, and also know that you are treated better if you are perceived as beautiful. if you have ever been treated as "ugly", you know exactly how much society reviles you if you don't manage to scamper along and perform to their rules.
and how are you supposed to balance that? do you want a nose job to fix your broken nose, or have you just recently been seeing videos about how many people look better after nose jobs. do you want to lose weight to feel good, or is it that when you lose weight people treat you better. do you want to wear this outfit, or is it just the thing that's least likely to get you harassed. do you want to get lip injections for your reasons or is your whole reason that you don't feel beautiful unless you get those lip injections?
and the definitions shift. the goals get more specific. in the way that you only become aware of your tongue when someone mentions it; parts of your body are introduced as problems. i had never heard the term "hip dip" until about a year ago - and it was in the context of how to get rid of this. i'm 30, i know this shit is invented, and yet! i still find that strange voice saying but do you think someone is going to notice?
how the fuck am i supposed to say "this is my genuine choice i am making for my body" when i also know that years of my life have been spent socializing me to accept this as my inevitable fate? how do i know i'm actually doing this out of love for my body - or am i doing it for how i want others to see me, which will be lovely enough to feel loved? how am i supposed to recover when my unhealthy habits are seen as self-discipline but if i relax i'm openly mocked for "letting time win"? how the fuck am i supposed to say "i'm doing it for me" when i'm also very aware that i'm doing it to stop myself from being teased or demeaned? is it my choice if the other option is being bullied?
we are living in a hostage negotiation - either consent to the demands or spend the rest of your life being treated like you're a despicable person.
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