#in a reasonably obvious

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Can you say more about your thoughts on the anti-hero video? I feel that the whole thing is much more nuanced than either "side" is making it out to be and your tags make me want your take!

Anon: This is just to say that I absolutely agree with your thoughts on the Anti-hero video. It's been bothering me, and is a good example of the discomfort I have felt in certain aspects of online criticism in recent times.

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I've been thinking about Taylor a lot with her tour and so really wanted to come back to this question that I have a lot of thought of.

I should start by saying that I have only seen the most high level mainstream summary of the criticism of the video. For example: "[Taylor] made a choice to explicitly name her demon, the fear of being called fat, which is fatphobia in its most literal sense” or "Taylor Swift’s music video, where she looks down at the scale where it says “fat,” is a shitty way to describe her body image struggles. Fat people don’t need to have it reiterated yet again that it’s everyone’s worst nightmare to look like us." Both those statements absolutely fill me with rage, both because I think they're wrong about what the problem is about how the world works, and because I think they're even more wrong about how to change it.

My read on that scene was that it was a very real, if obvious point, about the messages she got about her body as a person and a performer. It was an artistic depiction of a common experience. I don't think anyone who was criticising was denying that there was something fundamentally accurate about what she was depicting. It was just that they thought she shouldn't depict it.

My disagreement is basically two fold - one is experiential and one is analytical. The experiential part is that I know what happens when women who live in our society feel unable to articulate their actual feelings around fat.

In my late 20s, I was part of an activist scene that had enough of a feminist understanding that people didn't talk about fear of being fat, but not a culture of actual liberatory fat politics. What this mean was that all the feelings that would have been expressed somewhat directly in another context - were filtered through the language of 'health'. Just making some things unacceptable to say hadn't changed the politics around it and hadn't changed the way anyone felt. Instead it just meant that the orthorexia talk went up to 11 - and it was even harder to address what anyone meant. Making the language that actually had meaning to people unacceptable made it harder for people to heal and harder for people to fight collectively.

And as one of the fattest people on this scene, it also didn't make me feel any more welcome or acceptable, it didn't feel like an act of solidarity. I always knew what people meant.

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From an analysis point of view - I think I just fundamentally disagree with the people who criticised Taylor's video about how fat hatred works in society. One of the things that I struggle with in the current moment is a version of analysis that maps one form of oppression onto each other. And one of the starting points is that there is a group that is oppressed and a group that's not oppressed.

I've never thought that's how it works in our society. I remember reading a very early version of a thin privilege checklist (I also hate privilege checklists, but that's a story for another day) in like 2005 that listed things like:

You don’t receive suggestions from your friends and family to join Weight Watchers or any other weight-loss program.

You can eat what you want, when you want in public and not have others judge you for it or make assumptions about your eating habits.

And just thinking - how do these people think the world works - do they really think it's possible for women to be thin enough to avoid this sort of policing?

There are many elements to fat hatred and the way it functions in society - but one important strand is as a way of disciplining and controlling everyone, but particular women. In this thread of fat hatred, fatness isn't a function of absolute body size, but falling outside what is acceptable in a particular context. (I do think there are elements of the way fat hatred - systems of oppression are complicated)

I have never met a woman so thin that I was able to assume that she didn't grow up being told that she was too fat by her mother and other female relatives. As well as this social element to what fat is - I absolutely think the same is true at work. I am absolutely sure there are waitresses, actresses, clothing retail workers, and people who work in the fashion industry as a whole, who are a fraction of my weight, but have not just had to deal with more fat hatred, but more material consequences in their employment for their size than I have. (And of course I can't know, but I think it's likely that my size has contributed to me not getting jobs).

So it doesn't make any sense to me to act as if you can draw a line around people based on body size and say - these people are affected by fatphobia and these people aren't.

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My third disagreement is basically the question of how we create change. One of my big criticisms of the fat acceptance movement in general is that it's incredibly individualistic. There's this huge emphasis on how people feel about their bodies as individuals - and I don't think think it matters so much. The idea that the problem is an individual woman being afraid of being called fat, as opposed to the structures of society that made her feel that way - is just completely fucking alien to my politics and makes me want to rage.

I do think there's a important discussion to be had about how to act in solidarity with each other - and that means not casually reproducing fucked up ideas in the lunchroom every work day. But I think it's incredibly important that there's space for people to make art that honestly depicts how oppression structures our life. We don't change the world, by having a problem with art that depicts how it is at the moment.

[dionitro]

Chil is so completely desensitized to the weird shit that comes out of Laius's mouth

[dorykinny]

[the-phantom-peach]

🗣️ huh?? what do you mean I haven’t posted any Link signing propaganda yet??

[darishima]

made a chart of the straw hats' skin tones with the colors being screencapped directly from the episodes, to show how much they've lightened. this is more than just an "artstyle change" or "design evolution" or "just the timeskip" this is blatant racism/colorism. it's fucking ridiculous and i don't understand how toei is continuously getting away with it please reblog btw, i think this is something people should see

[tariah23]

Okay, I said I wasn’t gonna spend too much time on twitter but oh my god!?!!! This is so COOL!?? He looks amazing, omg…!

I’m glad they gave the actor another hairstyle because every black person is absolutely tired of the Killmonger mohawk/comb over 😭!!! One day, we will be free- but anyway, it looks like the name of the anime is “Kawagoe Boys Sing!”

[hadesisqueer]

The concept of Agatha and Rio as a couple is very deep for many reasons but also funny to think about in Agatha's case. Imagine being so much to handle that the only existing being who can match your freak is, quite literally, the personification of Death herself.

[goodlouse]

redraw of famous isopod image !!

[crystalsandbubbletea]

"Sex and romance is what makes us human!"

What if I fuckin' bite you and take a chunk out of your arm? Hm?

[zeldareference]

i 🫶 suffering !!!

the lyrics are from the song "tengoku he ikou" by kikuo !! this part in specific is just... so them fr....

[sandflakedraws]

re : how each brother reacts learning that they can't go back

you'll have to pry the "all the Brozone Bros knew what happened at the tree" headcanon outta my cold, dead dead dead hands.

[nell0-0]

Surrender

[hinamie]

bunch of portraits

[agentravensong]

thinking about how the extra area added on to a pacifist run of undertale, the true lab, is about alphys's past mistakes. how it ends with the story reaffirming that, despite the pain she's caused, the thing that matters is that she has now made the choice to do the right thing. she's still worthy of her friends' love.

thinking about how undertale doesn't expect the player to get a pacifist ending for the first time. how it's more likely than not that the player will kill toriel the first time they battle her, how lots of players don't initially figure out how to end undyne's fight without killing her, etc. what it expects — not even expects, really, but hopes — is that the player, if they care enough, will use their canonically acknowledged power over time to make up for those mistakes.

no matter how many neutral runs a player has done before committing to the pacifist run, the thing that matters to the characters, to the story, is that you've chosen, now, to do the right thing.

compared to alphys, the player honestly gets off lightly, in that you're the only one (other than flowey) who really remembers any harm you might have caused. and any direct guilting the game could have done about it is long past at this point. instead, as undertale often does, it makes its point via parallels: alphys caused harm, and she knows it. she has committed to being better. in doing so, she has unlocked for herself a better ending to her story. and she deserves it. she's forgiven.

those structural narrative parallels are all over undertale, if you know where to look. and that's one of the things that makes it so fuckin' good.

[seasideoranges]

twitter // ko-fi

the blue spirit!! i wanted to play around with his mask a bit, kind of had an idea of what if it was more mechanical and it's mouth could open and close so zuko could breathe out fire/smoke

+ bonus sokka/blue spirit doodles

[snarkspawn]

I really enjoy playing through tnp again like hi it's been a while