#in her capitalist era no kidding

[ilovenights]

Speak Now TV

Midnights (the till dawn edition)

[punkeropercyjackson]

Explanations for this post because i'm a yapper

Jason:Edgecase with a macabe origin story and post-ressurection effects on himself who believes in acab,is anti-rich out of growing up poor and refuses to live with Bruce again on anti-capitalist principal,an intersectionalist who respects other minorities deeply and stands in solidarity with them and after getting over himself(disrespectfully)has an actual good political stance on criminals and the justice system.Also positive and healthy masculinity instead of poser fuckboy shit

Tim:Skateboarder,Green Day fan,mouths off to authority figures,queer(canon bi)and does everything he can to help those in need and gets super upset when he can't do as much as he thought he could've regardless of circumstances.He puts his own cherokee spins on his vibes that white boys could never pull off

Duke:Post-dystopian troubled but good black punk kid who's a hope and light/sun-themed powered saviour of his people(Gothamites)and he'd totes use his powers for enviormentalist activism and he serves cunt so often in such a black femme swagger way i can't help but picture him in them glamrock drips from the 80s

Cass:Gruesome ahh who's super hardcore and explicitly uncomfortable with delicacy and any real femininity both in-text and as a character concept to defy easian woman stereotypes and thrives of the strange and weird and freakish and unsilenceble

Stephanie:Was a teenage anarchist vigilante against The Man(her dad AND the usual meaning)and isolated from her peers with no real friends growing up because of her no masking game audhd and her sense of community largely fuels her heroism and she's a girlypop with a taste for silliness and many softie moments and she's jamaican(-korean)so what belongs to the sea will always return

Damian:His stories and his personality when the writers aren't being racist give kids horror protagonist majorly and as Batman's biokid the gothness is genetic and he deserves to have happy kid interests(his favorite mascot is Domo♡)

Maps:Always wearing bright colors in civillian gear and her bouncy exuberant loud personality matches it and she's canonically a pro gamer,a supernatural junk nerd and a geek in general

Dick:With the exception of his disco era,i can't see him being alt but he DOES have an aesthetic and it's the 'Loving Doc(Dad of color)who's deep in his culture but open and understanding of newer things' energy he radiates

[vindieselsfacebook-blog]

lol was once again having the “who on Gilmore Girls would be a Swiftie?” convo with friends and this just kinda spilled out:

The year is 2023.

Much to Lorelai's chagrin and mocking, The Stars Hollow Blonde Mommy Brigade™️ spend the summer embroidering denim jackets and planning expensive caravans to shuttle their matching blonde children to multiple Eras tour stops. Luke happily has Lorelai's back on this one because he keeps finding those fucking little friendship bracelet beads in every nook and cranny of the diner. Jess thinks they should lighten up and let the kids have their fun. Lorelai knew she could never trust him.

Kirk won't stop selling the bracelets under the table at the diner. "Lulu has found her calling, Luke. The woman is a savant with plastic embellishments." Once Liz gets wind of it, she shows up with cases of her own to compete. Luke contemplates burning the whole building down.

There's a town meeting where Taylor proposes they have an Eras themed night in the square where they project the concert film and sell copious amounts of memorabilia. Think of the tourism! Lorelai and Luke show up to protest and are dismayed as one by one, each and every townie admits they love Taylor's music and support the event.

"Lane? Even you?" Lorelai gapes across the aisle.

"Hey, she's got some solid songs, Lorelai. Don't be a hater." Zach says. Brian shyly reveals his 1989 tattoo.

"I like her work with Bon Iver." Lane meekly admits.

"Et tu, brute?" Lorelai goes on to mock Bon Iver's singing voice, calling him the soy latte Brooklyn farmers market Michael McDonald. Her extended impression falls on deaf ears. Luke pats her on the knee for a noble effort.

Michel returns to work on Monday after a mysteriously vague long weekend wearing an Eras t-shirt underneath his suit jacket. Lorelai sticks her head in the sink.

She is a woman possessed. The final straw comes one fateful day in late November as Lorelai is lazily swiping through her instagram stories and sees folklore shamefully make Rory's Spotify Wrapped. Traitor! She complains so much that Rory relegates her venting to a designated Swiftie segment at the end of their nightly phone calls.

Rory doesn't take it all too seriously until she gets doxxed after writing a thinkpiece on her Substack entitled "Taylor Swift and the Capitalist industrial Complex".

Maybe her mom is onto something.

[aronarchy]

something i was thinking about yesterday/the day before—various ways the Patriarchy and State mirror each other, are interconnected, common points of origin, analogous function. & about how both treat abuse & sexual violence. artificially creating helplessness & vulnerability in the oppressed; concentrating the ability to respond to abuse & assault in hands of the above. so common trope of the husband furiously avenging a rape of his wife (by an outsider), parent raging about Predators attacking “their” child, threatening violence against the preds, doing gruesome tortures. under the logic that wives & children are property of the father, & violation of them by an outsider = violation of the father’s property right over them (how dare you damage my things) (violation of “purity”); not actual solidarity with the victims themselves as persons or the trauma they experience, according to them, or their wants/needs.

crucially, this → victims cannot defend themselves; encountering a Predator = need to have your man around to protect u, need to tell a Trusted Safe Adult so they can handle it, and the only problem nowadays is that the kids don’t realize that these adults are trustworthy safe adults and if they just told everything would be okay, and there needs to be no other possible routes. self-defense is still criminalized overall; the patriarch reserves sole right to defend the woman/child’s “purity” and to attack outsiders.

i remember another thing i read like in early 2022 or so—a CSA survivor talking abt her experiences & saying, that commonly when someone is sexually assaulted the offense is viewed as a crime against the state, not one against the victim’s sovereignty over their own body/self. see the carceral logics of state punishment—how long or violent sentences are commonly being justified based on how to preserve Law and Order because of this crime against our peace and justice and law and order, crime against the System. following the correct rules, technicalities, to the letter (without considering the victim’s perspective/needs, ofc).

and yet.

most reported rapists & sexual assaulters & abusers (already few) do not get sentenced at all. even illegal offenses. rarely is the crime even viewed as a true crime in the first place. clearly they do not care.

state reserves a sole right to determine public safety. “don’t take justice into your own hands.” “still have to respect the rule of law.” “if you’re assaulted then you must report it so we can do state-y things about the perp.” this means survivors rely on a dice roll for safety after. if the state says nope we don’t care then you’re fucked. the state reassures that they are the optimal method to decide correctly, they’ll never answer wrong. but they almost always do.

a way of thinking abt this is that the above systems draw differences btwn “legal” & “extra-legal” violent abuses & victimizations; some forms are mandated as policy, and some forms are technically outlawed/claimed to be wrong; in capitalist systems you have “soft” authoritarianism/rule which are the official/legitimized forms of liberal economic exploitation, institutional abuse, domestic control of women/queers/youth, + conservatism & fascism & “totalitarianism” working to consolidate total control, technically “illegal” (there’s hate crimes legislation! some nazis get arrested!) but ultimately not combatted effectively, still sanctioned enough to allow them power, still an arm of the oppression we experience (antifa far more criminalized). they say that country or that past era over there was “extremely” misogynistic and violent towards women and queers and children but you’re here now and here we have Equality now and you’re probably just experiencing microaggressions and sure you’re being controlled but it’s just “mild” “not as bad” this over here is completely totally qualitatively different from Them we are actually against Them and would ban them if that ever happened here. (legitimized, or technically legitimized vs (constructed as) (technically) illegitimate but still quietly sanctioned)

compare: sexual assault w/in the family or other similar “legitimized” institutions, vs sexual assault by outsiders, even the things they usually use for moral panics and blow up the visibility of such as (actual) sex trafficking gangs who distribute csam online, both are still ultimately part of the same system of oppression, with both the patriarchal status quo is an enabler. compare: sexual assaults that are mandated or explicitly permitted as a part of policy (i.e. “if u get married u have to allow him to have sex w/u bc Marital Rights”; “rule says trans kids get genital inspections”) vs sexual assaults that occur slightly outside of that sphere of explicitly legitimized (some friends ganging up on a woman to rape her. cis adult grooming and sexually assaulting a trans kid they have authority over. not in the rulebook in words but they all know they can get away with it).

it’s very difficult for most ppl to conceptualize actual survivor autonomy everyone thinks there must be at least someone in a higher position to do it for us, decide on our behalf, (with)hold the potential of our safety from us/monopolize it in their hands. when people complain about ostensibly pro-survivor/anti-abuse initiatives that ultimately end up “going too far” (as in goal of punishment, using torture, taking power over a perpetrator/taking away their basic rights, doing genuine injustices to them) these are always used as evidence that the premises of leftism/anarchism are entirely wrong, all violence against oppression/abuse is wrong, we must have pacifism see checkmate extremists, but the issue here is that they only ever conceptualize privileged parties as potential actors/agents in situations of abuse, and no one thinks of the victims, and the conversation never turns to so how do we empower survivors better, show better solidarity, get them what they actually need instead of misdirections that are just selfish self-interested personal ventures, as if these types of social-capitalist vigilantes are truly on the same side as survivors, as if they don’t harm survivors the most, completely brushing aside the long very frequent violent histories of how groups like these are abusive to victims & other oppressed ppls, how they both fail to strike at the actual sources of power and they also take power over the vulnerable and the “anti-abuse” claims are a facade, they don’t truly believe in what anti-abuse activism actually is, don’t truly have what it takes to free us, these are often abusers of the marginalized themselves, but when we fight them or when we fight our abusers [of the first group] neither is viewed as acceptable by liberals, always something to criticize, never listened to or believed

nuclear family abolition is anti-rape activism prison/police/state abolition is survivor activism

[earth-1218designate]

Deadpool & Wolverine #CVReview

At least the Can'nuck's did not kiss ... Is the perfect selling point of this movie. Other than that, for those of us 2000's kids who aren't mindless Disney shills (an odd amount of those in Knoxville,TN , yet they supposedly hate everything else liberals have to offer) that will laugh at every anti-FOX joke Ryan Reynolds had up his sleeve there is a great comic book film here that gives viewers a substantial amount of time with some memorable figures in their toy chest before laying them to rest for the horrors of adulthood that await them outside the theater.

I'm not into the nepotism that got Blake Lively the role as Lady Deadpool, or the gender swapping of Dogpool or Kidpook from the early 2010's "Deadpool Corps" comics, but it's easy to overlook that when the rest of the cast boasts the return of Wesley Snipes ("Blade") , (*childhood crush over that bousteir) Jennifer Garner ("Elektra") having a one-one with Callisto ("X-Men The Last Stand"), and Channing Tatum finally getting screen-time as Gambit for a film of his that never made it out of development hell.

I like the bow this film puts on that era that was dear to my formative years and made for an excellent companion piece to the books I still read today as I cross the threshold into my 30's. Marvel Comics and films have been synonymous since I was in diapers, and for a large part I have FOX to thank for that, and Disney to thumb my nose at - not the other way around like backwards normie euro-audiences are led to believe.

The nods to Wolverine's legacy in this film were superb : "Deadpool & Wolverine" is essentially built around the premise that Wolverine carried the FOX universe (aka Earth -10005) and he gets cameo appearances of his comic book counterparts such as Patch, AOA-Wolverine, Hulk No.181, Uncanny No.251, and even Fang.

All this homage while riffing on Wolverine's height and Hugh Jackman's singing chops as well as questionable morality when Disney money is brought to the table, it's a wonder why a film with Deadpool as the lead on the header isn't more about Deadpool, but it is and it delivers by making Deadpool one of the most annoying characters in a Marvel feature - which he is SUPPOSED to be.

While Wolverine is taking on Sabretooth and pulling out "Drill Claw's" straight from "Marvel vs. Capcom" (Earth-30847), Deadpool is making tone deaf homoerotic jokes that get less of a laugh than on Eminem's latest album and praising socialism in a few barbs that will zip right over capitalist consumerist audiences heads like the Rob Liefeld and Stan Lee easter eggs hidden in the battle against the Deadpool Corps featuring the worst excuse for a Deadpool ever ... Deadpool 2099 !

When "The Marvels" teased this film with Beasts' appearance, I really was nervous and expected very little. But I am happy that this film turned out to be a funeral for the best Marvel films purely off nostalgia - set to corny Euro-pop music (Madonna, Nickleback, and NSYNC get prominent placement all on the soundtrack of this action flick) while providing a gorefest with glory kills and brand new utilizations of slow motion that Zack Snyder is no doubt jealous of.

I've seen alot of clips loaded in action films as a movie buff, but I've never seen a clip loaded the way Deadpool did to face off against Wolverine in 2024 - and that's what the MCU was aiming for and delivered.

Cassandra Nova was a pleasant and surprising toy to pull out the Marvel toybox, I'd be remiss if I didnt say that. Cheering for her, the TVA, and the more baser and nihlistic stances of all the characters was a testament that Marvel raised me right - even though many people might think those of us who read comics keep our heads in the clouds.

No, "Deadpool and Wolverine" shows the world that even people who cosplay in a yellow and blue Wolverine suits can get pissed off at people who think it's okay to make decisions off of "educated wishes".

Yes, the film is still Disney-related and with it's ending featuring Deadpool still simping for Vanessa, amongst other things that make Deadpool unlikeable in this film, "Deadpool & Wolverine" is the worst Deadpool movie. But, with the nostalgia-fest added in thanks to Wolverine and the rest of the MCU rejects, "Deadpool & Wolverine" stumbles it's way into the MCU, but still falters behind far superior films like "Black Widow" or even "The Marvels" directly before it.

All that self-deprecation and self-referencing can get as old as Blake Lively before she decided to settle down with Ryan Reynolds.

Greed was a big factor in making "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" and seeing Reynolds' name all over the credits with Shawn Levy, made we wonder where did Tim Miller go? Because I know if he would have been along for the ride "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" would have been a worthy cap-end to the Deadpool franchise, than just used as a segue to eventually ret-con the X-Men into Earth-19999.

Which all the nostalgia from being a 2000's kid in the world cannot hide "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" from being that cheap. Even "Madame Web" had more tact than that.

-

C.V.R. The Bard

25th Jul. 2k24

[ryehouses]

I don't remember clone wars SUPER well, but wasn't Bo's whole goal to get Viszla on the Mando throne, not Maul? She did accidentally help Maul get there, but it was never her goal, and she did immediately fight to dethrone him. Like Qui-gon is pretty responsible for creating Darth Vader but we don't blame him. Am I missing something???

hold on let me put on my philosophy hat! star wars meta under the cut, because this is way better than looking at contracts:

tldr, for folks that don't want to read a treatise: clone wars era bo-katan is like the shocked pikachu meme, in which bo-katan is running around with a bunch of terrorists, doing terrorist things, and then is surprised when doing those terrorist things has led to, like, the socio-political collapse of mandalore's government. she's the "'but i didn't think the leopards would eat my face!' sobbed the woman who voted for the face-eating leopards party" woman, except the face-eating leopard is a sith lord with attachment issues and moderate megalomania who kills bo-katan's sister to make his already desperately sad archenemy even sadder. she's an australia that has introduced a non-native cane toad to control a native beetle in order to more efficiently maximize a brutal capitalist system and now is upset that her house is full of huge toads with no natural predators. the toads are poisonous and the ecosystem is collapsing. i got carried away here, but you get the gist.

too long did read, for my reasoning: in this case, i'd argue that no matter what bo-katan's reason for going along with the maul plan is -- possibly installing pre vizsla to the throne of mandalore, but mostly just destablizing the neutral mandalorian government -- her reasoning is secondary to the action because she is fully and consciously participating in death watch, which is doing terrible things (not just on mandalore, mind; there's a whole little arc with ahsoka and... the one kid... lux? where death watch has just casually taken over an enslaved a random settlement because they can and think that they deserve to).

whatever bo-katan's original intentions were, be they good intentions (also arbitrary; the neutral mandalorians would disagree than any attempt to return to mandalore's more violent ways is not good, while dw could and does argue that they're just upholding their cultural traditions and fending off a government they didn't elect or support, how can that not be a good?) or not, intention is secondary to an action that does harm, especially to an action that does intentional harm. maul's name, like, means intentional harm. it's very on the nose. even if maul usupring vizsla was a surprise, the whole "building a super crime syndicate" thing is objectively a bad, immoral action, and imo it's pretty hard to "the ends justify the means" that away just because bo-katan didn't mean for what maul did to happen.

also, leaving morality aside for a minute, imo bo-katan holds additional culpability for what maul does because she knows that it's a bad idea to ally with him from the start, but knuckles under and lets it happen in order to get what she wants from the situation. i could be misremembering, but i'm pretty sure she knows that sith lords are bad news and tells pre vizsla as much, but ultimately falls in line because she wants what maul is offering. that's a conscious choice that she makes.

i think it's also important to remember that she does not abandon death watch because she thinks that maul's actions are immoral or bad -- she leaves because she doesn't want an outsider to rule mandalore. she says it out loud, to the viewer -- it's only after maul takes over and betrays pre vizsla that she bolts and lets obi-wan go, presumably to that obi-wan can rally some jedi to help him pry maul off of mandalore.

(I'm not touching the qui-gon thing until after I've shared it with the discord, because we've honestly never seen a "qui-gon is pretty responsible for darth vader" take and have to dissect it over the course of 4-5 buisness days.)

[twilightofthe]

okay i put all my cranky thoughts into a separate post that's now drafted and it made me feel better so i'll be able to watch this episode now lol but if it gets me worked up again i'm posting the rant i'm sorry i cannot be helped or changed or saved <3

ANYWAY AHSOKA EP 2

also i forgot to say so last episode but kevin kiner my ABSOLUTE BELOVED the return of the king is real so happy to have you here my dude the ending and full theme was absolutely gorgeous

anywayyyyyy so i am guessing sabine did not make like satine and survived her shish kabobing

well there's ahsoka

oh yeah there's bean she's fine she'll be fine xD

damn filoni really gave more handwaving to having a character survive a major impalement vs me twisting myself into fucking knots writing anakin getting run through lmao

ahsoka sorry but actually i'm gonna blame u for this you still kinda seem like a mess and i don't think you were a very good teacher to sabine and now ur dropping back in on her when she's convenient to you?

well at least we know why she's so adamant against training baby yoda lol

ope here's goth girl and the fuuuuck is his NAME again i keep calling him fucking bryan

i like the fancy sithy-looking sundial tho

pfff second ep is "toil and trouble" guess we're getting witchy!

OH YEAH WAS SABINE'S KITTY OKAY

THEY BETTER BE OKAY

I SWEAR TO GOD

yea ahsoka what happened to showing up in the nick of time and saving kanan and ezra from inquisitors in rebels u were slowwww girlie

OK GOOD THE CAT IS OKAY

that's all that matters

ope one more droid hanging around ezra's place

GIRL UR SITTING UP ALREADY?!

GIRL HOW CAN U BREATHE

we do love the mechanic girl of my heart

sabine does love her explosions

no huyang hera just likes explosions

sabine works best under explosive pressure we LOVE HER

ope back to corellia i guess? we can reuse the old solo sets?

sabine

you were just

impaled

"but she's not the one who needs to hear it right now" ahhh there's the sabine and hera dialogue. ugh but i'm still not used to natasha and mary i can just hear tiya and vanessa doing it instead :(

WHY DO Y'ALL KEEP MAKING SABINE AND AHSOKA ANGRY EXES TF

"ancient ppl from a distant galaxy" waaaaaaait are they bringing in those eu dudes

no wait i think i remember something about these guys that was mention as the big bad in the canceled animated rebels sequel

or it could just be the chiss lmao

that could be it too, makes sense why they'd want thrawn

ok that is some real cool galactic map visuals i am an absolute sucker for a good starmap

ok but wait how the fuck did y'all get a map to thrawn anyway did the space whales write it

also sorry morgan but i don't personally think thrawn would go for u nothing personal you are hot but you don't quite seem his type

waaaait is fucking thrawn gonna have force sensitivity now THAT would be absolutely hilarious and he'd hate it so much

who's marrok i have no memory

y'all you can't just make thrawn work for you didn't he only work with the empire cuz he had to because it would advantage his people somehow (has read zero thrawn novels and only seen rebels)

please tell me sabine is in the fucking vents of ahsoka's ship

THERE'S THE GHOST WHERE IS CHOPPER

I AM NO LONGER FUCKING ASKING

okay so i think my issue with Mary is she doesn't have any of the same authority and purpose Hera's meant to hav

CHOPPER

CHOPPER

MY MURDERBOT

MY SON

MY ANGEL MY EVERYTHING

Anyway

yeah

oh yeah harping in that the new republic is a total fustercluck

ew a capitalist

bro you know hera used to steal from people like you for the rebellion

sdlkfjsdk omg sabine's mom needs to talk to the teacher to keep her from getting expelled

but also y'all sabine is like 25-30 right now she's not a kid

@ ahsoka bitch you have no fuckin clue what you're doing doooon't talk about readiness

y'know maybe the imperial era just advanced medicine so later impalements don't kill people

oh oh so it IS ezra's!

sabine go find luke he'd love to have you

STOP WITH THE GAY DIALOGUE

ok so yeah she likely doesn't have force sensitvity

goddammit huyang neverMIND

so sabine IS force sensitive :) and kanan and ezra just never brought it up :) great :)

hera my beautiful ship nerd ily

bitch do NOT fuck with hera she has more presence than anyone ever

hera my dude you know better than anyone that if a ship wants to take off you gotta go try and stop it in person

ah i have been waiting like 5 long years to watch hera best pilot there was kick aerial ass

we STAN

chopperrrrrrrrr

oh yeah ahsoka's fighting an inquisitor too lmao

CHOPPER GET THEIR ASS

CHOPPER ADD TO YOUR KILL COUNT

ok this hera and chopper banter is perfect i do love it

VICTORY FOR MY GHOSTS

oh and good job ahsoka lol

aghhh sabine and her therapy cat i'm ;_;

theeeeere's sabine's mando armor

SABINE AND KANAN'S FUCKIN KNIFE I'M GONNA EVEN IGNORE THE BAD MULAN HACKJOB ATTEMPT

okay it seems like mary's kinda on and off for hera so far, she has her moments but she can't hold them

rosario keeps losing me i'm sorryyyyyyyy

natasha is doing GREAT

aaaaaand we redoing the end of the rebels epilogue!

god this makes me miss zeb

and kanan obvs but i've come to accept his death

zeb's still hanging around where is he!!!!!

ah all is right

sabine has her gay haircut back

here we go gay roadtrip to find ezra time

alright so i'm still not really vibing with jedi!sabine at All but i have concluded that this show is watchable but honestly not that good, writing-wise, sorry dave, so i think i'll be able to watch it with my brain turned off

goddammit first i thought the holograms visiting morgan were nightsister witch ghosts xD

RIGHT RIGHT HIS NAME IS BAYLAN NOT BRYAN

morgan stop simping for thrawn i guaranTEE he's not your type

oKAY

we are through with the two episodes! it is very late for me so i'm gonna sit and think on what i've seen so far and shitpost a little. i did really like seeing my rebels blorbos again even if the live action actors don't quite have their groove yet. obviously very excited to retrieve ezra <3 so yeah that was that and i'll be back for more next week!

[limeade-l3sbian]

i couldn't get behind the lesbian ending of lok because it felt like an ass-pull for representation after they both went for the same guy earlier, especially with the cattiness between the women before then. i also couldn't get behind kuvira because she was a cop, and because her character existing implied toph slept with a man (and was also a cop), especially when kuvira also went for men, romantically.

more than that, i'm bothered by the shitty plot, especially the way they threw out basically everything important to the world of atla. atla very strongly supported things like harmony with nature and portrayed much of industrialization as a bad thing for the world (due to both the harm it does to humans AND the harm it does to the environment), but the "better world" of lok is steampunk? only about 100 years or so have passed iirc, and the world has become a completely industrialized, westernized, capitalistic place. it's depressing. the destruction of the avatar cycle combining with that really grossed me out.

plot wise, it just felt infinitely less cohesive and controlled than atla. atla felt like it had things to say (many of them based around social justice and environmental justice), and built a strong story around those things without faltering for even a moment. lok felt like a sloppy anime that clumsily tried to forcibly inject social justice talking points into the plot. it's unfortunate because there are a few impressive character designs and concepts, and i would have loved an atla sequel following a female incarnation of the avatar (and actual, solid gay representation would be nice too), but it just failed to be anything actually impressive, imo.

on the downlow, i kind of feel it paved the way for the steven universe era of cartoons, where children's cartoons are heavily marketed to adults (who they rely on for an audience more than the actual kids the show is meant for) using nostalgic references and weirdly inserted social talking points and instances of representation that feel more like the creators are saying "LOOK HOW STUNNING AND BRAVE AND SUBVERSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE WE ARE" rather than actually trying to tell stories, convey messages they feel strongly about, or represent people authentically. i know a lot of right-wing people use that sort of argument in bad faith, but a lot of these pieces of media with gay representation or therapy talk make me feel like i'm a brand or a market audience rather than a normal type of person.

i couldn't get behind the lesbian ending of lok because it felt like an ass-pull for representation after they both went for the same guy earlier, especially with the cattiness between the women before then. i also couldn't get behind kuvira because she was a cop, and because her character existing implied toph slept with a man (and was also a cop), especially when kuvira also went for men, romantically.

LISTEN ANON LISTEN AUGHHH

Okay! One, you're right! the lebsian ending meant a lot to my coming out development, but i was literally trying to tell people, like, "didn't this shit feel a little rushed?" like, yes they did write to each other and all that and oh, asami said she liked korra's hair (you know, like girls do).

Two, I think you've got Kuvira and Lin mixed up, but your point is no less valid since I completely understand what you're saying. i think the move to turn toph into a cop was supposed to be a funny little "isn't that crazy that the most rebellious member of the group became a cop?" but it's like, yeah, it is crazy. Two point five? If you want to tell me that Toph isn't a lesbian, I might lose some support but I can kind of understand that. To me, Toph is just a tomboy who doesn't like to be restrained. But at the same time, I also don't think that woman is one to just have sex with a cop, have fucking kids, and ugh. Like, I understand they wanted the fun of writing the offspring of a fan favorite, but honestly? Maybe Lin and Suyin should have just been adopted under some strange circumstances because I have never been able to buy that Toph slept with a man. I think that woman cares about herself and helping out when need be.

Three! Kuvira and Lin being straight is another example that another anon said about the writers not being able to fully commit. You know damn well those women aren't straight and you damn sure didn't draw them for the osa gaze. THAT WAS FOR US.

more than that, i'm bothered by the shitty plot, especially the way they threw out basically everything important to the world of atla. atla very strongly supported things like harmony with nature and portrayed much of industrialization as a bad thing for the world (due to both the harm it does to humans AND the harm it does to the environment), but the "better world" of lok is steampunk? only about 100 years or so have passed iirc, and the world has become a completely industrialized, westernized, capitalistic place. it's depressing. the destruction of the avatar cycle combining with that really grossed me out.

I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS

I'll be honest, I wondered how they would go about portraying the future of this world since something that really drew me to it was the necessity of bending. To be a bender was a true boon in the original series. So much so that an entire city functioned off of it. I thought it was so cool the way the fire nation stole the concept of the hot air balloon and were able to create something arguably better around their bending. Bringing more tech advancements into the mix always felt like it would sort of ruin a little of that magic, and to me, it did. Seeing them driving and stuff, I was kind of flat faced. Like nah, what happened to the cool ass animals they ride on and stuff? It definitely took a little bit of the magic away. There had to have been a better way to push the plot into the future (if you really felt so inclined) without completely turning it over on its head.

plot wise, it just felt infinitely less cohesive and controlled than atla. atla felt like it had things to say (many of them based around social justice and environmental justice), and built a strong story around those things without faltering for even a moment. lok felt like a sloppy anime that clumsily tried to forcibly inject social justice talking points into the plot. it's unfortunate because there are a few impressive character designs and concepts, and i would have loved an atla sequel following a female incarnation of the avatar (and actual, solid gay representation would be nice too), but it just failed to be anything actually impressive, imo.

I stand by the fact that I liked the series, but people often think that means you can't talk crap about it at all, and that's simply not true. But this is. I think what I enjoyed about this continuation was the inclusion of more fight scenes. I liked seeing the different ways people used their bending. I've always loved that. I'm an action gal lmao. Plot wise, tho? I understand your point completely.

on the downlow, i kind of feel it paved the way for the steven universe era of cartoons, where children's cartoons are heavily marketed to adults (who they rely on for an audience more than the actual kids the show is meant for) using nostalgic references and weirdly inserted social talking points and instances of representation that feel more like the creators are saying "LOOK HOW STUNNING AND BRAVE AND SUBVERSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE WE ARE" rather than actually trying to tell stories, convey messages they feel strongly about, or represent people authentically. i know a lot of right-wing people use that sort of argument in bad faith, but a lot of these pieces of media with gay representation or therapy talk make me feel like i'm a brand or a market audience rather than a normal type of person.

Damn, that's true. The only thing I'll say is that I don't even really think it did that either. I can't tell you any lesson I learned or was told through LoK except "gay ok" and I already knew that.

You've got some really dope perspective, anon. <3

[incrediblemelk]

At MIFF this year I saw Hello Dankness, the new film by Soda Jerk, which won several festival awards. Using Soda Jerk's signature pop-piracy sampling style, it draws heavily on American film and TV depictions of 'the suburbs' to stitch together an account of the US's post-truth journey into the heart of dankness, from the 2016 presidential elections onwards.

As their artist statement says, "We tried to scream, but all that came out was a meme."

It was literally the first time I had thought about the "dicks out for Harambe" meme since 2016.

Hello Dankness quite extensively samples This Is the End (2013), which left me with a hankering (a dankering?) to watch the film. When I saw it pop up on Stan last night, I thought, "Now's the time."

I missed the film when it was new, because there was a preview screening clash where two screenings were scheduled on the same night, and I chose the Pacific Rim screening instead (a film with which I became obsessed).

It's such a fascinating time capsule of the Apatovian heyday of gross-out 'manchild' and 'stoner' comedy. At the time it was mostly hailed as a self-indulgent minor entry in a subgenre already running on fumes.

But when I rewatched it last night, I was struck by how fresh and culturally relevant it still feels. Has public discourse just got danker over the past decade?

There's a whole act in the middle when the narrative momentum sags as the central group of frenemies barricade themselves in James Franco's house. But now to me it reads like the Covid-era lockdown malaise, when an initial fun buzz ("let's do all the drugs!" "let's make Pineapple Express 2!") gives way to boredom, bickering and a sense of mounting threat from outside.

It's also pre-#MeToo and yet it's prominently about unpleasant, self-obsessed men trying to reassure each other that they're 'good'.

There's a scene where the group get so worked up about their need to reassure Emma Watson that they don't pose a sexual threat to her that she ends up being convinced they're absolutely going to rape her, and ends up leaving, along with all their food and drink.

(Watson notoriously refused to participate in a later scene where Danny McBride has become the cannibal king of ruined Los Angeles, with Channing Tatum as his gimp.)

It was striking to watch an apocalyptic moral punishment come for people like James Franco and Jonah Hill.

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, who end up in heaven dancing with the Backstreet Boys, have basically turned out to be IRL mensches.

Even Craig Robinson, who's had some drug troubles, seems to be living a pretty wholesome life.

In a Daily Beast podcast appearance from May 2023, Baruchel said, "Jonah and I don't get along super well – or at least didn't back then." When the host observed that this comes across strongly onscreen, Baruchel replied, "Yeah, no shit it fucking does!"

Baruchel also recalled:

It was this weird thing of mining personal shit. But not for catharsis … mining it just for comedy. So mining it in the most monetized, capitalist way of, "we’re going to dig up real personal shit," but nobody’s going to go home feeling better about it. We’re just going to turn it into a fucking product.

We never talked about any of the real shit. Like, it never came up for real. Because we’re both 1982 kids, which means we were raised in a great misogynistic tradition of not talking about shit. Especially two boys … we'll air grievances. When we're mad at each other and say that, but it’s very rare to be vulnerable.

I don't know why I'm so frequently drawn to stories of male friendships, but at their best, the Apatovian cycle does create a mainstream space for male vulnerability – even though they frequently can't help undercutting the intimacy with 'no-homo' mockery or self-mockery, or diverting it into jokes about dicks and bodily functions.

As Baruchel said in 2020, "Crass, male gazey shit is definitely in the DNA of the thing, but so was heartbreak and wearing your heart on your sleeve and not being blessed with with every fucking advantage. They’re deeply human things, and were really imperfect and super honest and devoid of vanity."

[ileftherbackhome]

Some day, we're going to have to talk about the toxic positivity in the swiftie fandom tbh. 2016 was 7 years ago, please grow up and realize treating taylor with kid gloves and glowing about her like she's perfect is so unhealthy for her and yall.

I'm seeing a lot of swifties have to manage their negative emotions that taylor makes them feel to "fit in" with the fandom and this is so fucking toxic to people just in general. Yall are doing to each other what yall did to taylor, which is demand she be happy all the time for you guys and willing to be around you all the time.

Idk yall, I'm seeing many swifties ask people not to attack them for critiquing taylor, I've seen people try and mitigate the harassment from other swifties they're gunna get for openly talking about how Taylor's capitalistic ways hurt them.

The eras tour marketing is not the first time that she has disappointed fans, the "unique" midnights recordings just happened a few months ago, why are yall paying for vip packages if yall aren't meeting taylor (to stand around in MERCH LINES earlier??? Are yall okay, seriously, ask yourself how much money you're spending on her and what ur getting out of it), working with a child rapist director (that convo got shut down because all her friends were doing it too! Which is not a defense but I digress), her working with Zoe Kravitz and Lena Dunham and Lana del ray gets swept under the rug, her working on a racist murderers film adaptation was ignored and celebrated, there is so much more that she's been doing recently since she turned 30 that are really just gross things to be doing and she deserves to see her fans angry at her, even yelling at her online, because that's the only way she will bother to café about this issues.

Like yall were laughing about her behavior at the grammys like it wasn't the most OUT OF TOUCH THING I've ever seen. Rolling your eyes at a BLACK MAN who is more culturally aware of the financial burden of his own fanbase than you???????????

And you get swifties who just lick her asshole all day long and call you entitled and rude because you're fucking angry at being used FOR MONEY when that has never been Taylor's branding. You act like the people who critique her branding and her actions not aligning are the ones in the wrong when product honesty is like the #1 that consumers look for in a product.

We buy into taylor the artist ourselves precisely because we are so aware of the way she markets herself being unique but we are very aware of the way we support other artists that are purely financial (beyonce, ed sheeran, louis are all artists that I'm well aware they're not in it for the fans, they're in it for either money, fame, or music is their life but taylor is STILL pushing this narrative on tour that she's alllll about the fans.... is she?)

Like, the eras tour is a money grab because tour is always a money grab but the marketing of this particular money grab is that ALL albums would be fairly represented. Did you forget all the setlists taylor Nation posted that included debut ???? And people were actually picking several songs for debut like cold as you was featured ???????? They put out album shirts, highlighting all albums, she talks about it being a journey through "17" years of music and each era, one at a time.

These are conflicting narratives when you don't put debut or speak now in the setlist.

It's just disrespectful. She asks us to be okay with a lot of stuff that she just ignores and doesn't apologize for because she doesn't care about our feelings, she cares only about the money.

And I wish she would just fucking SAY THAT instead pretending like she cares when she doesn't.

And I wish yall would stop attacking other swifties who are gunna expect things to be a certain way when the marketing is telling you that is the way it's gunna be.

For fucks sake, I wish yall got angrier at taylor more often.

[ruruas]

Kamala Harris Is Not Your Brat

The intersection between pop-culture and politics could decide the fate of the 2024 American election

miro.medium.com

The summer of 2024, so far, has featured multiple events and ‘trends’ that have shaped the season into one to be remembered. In the realm of music, we have seen the rise of three new ‘it-girls’: Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX. The last girl of this trio released her sixth studio album in early June, titled Brat. This electronic-club rave-hyperpop fusion has dominated both the dance/electronic music charts and the current meme and trend climate, especially on TikTok. In the realm of politics, Democratic candidate Joe Biden stepped down from the upcoming presidential election in November, nominating Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place, right after Republican candidate Donald Trump survived a bullet to his ear. These events, although from different spheres of culture, have intersected thanks to memes and the internet, causing (in my opinion) to be an important driving force of the outcome of the American elections–literally ‘pop-politics’.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Shown above is the product of said intersection. These edits combine the fun-loving party girl ‘aesthetic’ of Brat with Harris’s unserious demeanour (see: coconut trees) to create a Generation Z style support for Harris as the future president. It is no surprise that most young Americans support her wholeheartedly as opposed to the, quite frankly, ancient and ‘expired’ Biden. These memes are almost like a celebration of the premature ‘death’ of Biden, and the ‘birth’ of Harris–who will supposedly bring about a new era as the would-be first Black-Indian female president of the USA. However, the usage of Brat in her campaign should not equate to Harris being the ‘perfect’ candidate–as there is no such thing. It is simply a way for her to garner support–a simple marketing tactic.

This is not to say that Kamala Harris is not ‘Brat’ or ‘Brat-coded’, as the very creator of the album, Charli XCX, has given her recognition as Harris being ‘Brat’, allowing for the official X (Twitter) page of Harris’s team (Kamala Headquarters) to officially incorporate Brat in their campaign. This is to say that Harris’s endorsement of Brat (and vice versa) is fake. It is the cooler and less-’cringey’ version of Hillary Clinton’s “Pokémon Go to the polls” from 2016. This tactic, of older people jumping on current meme trends in order to stay ‘hip’ with the kids is nothing new. Harris simply got lucky and managed to land a ‘cool’ meme instead of being cringe.

It is not only political candidates using Brat to market themselves–fast-fashion companies are doing it as well. The video below by Youtuber Katie Robinson details how:

Figure 4

The way companies such as Shein and Zara (as detailed in the video) use Brat and lime-green is quite similar to how Kamala Harris is using it. In a capitalistic world, one must not forget that presences such as billion-dollar fast-fashion companies and political candidates are not our friends. They use whatever means necessary in order to succeed, and one of the more ‘ethical’ ways is to paint their visual imagery in Brat green. Even Charli’s tweet supposedly endorsing Kamala Harris as ‘Brat’ could be a marketing strategy as well, it could not reflect her political views. She too is a celebrity, and would certainly take the opportunity to bring even more attention to her recent release if all it took was a simple tweet connecting her music (pop) to current world events (politics).

This is what an era of pop-politics looks like. Where pop culture is used by politicians to garner votes, whether successful or not, and politics is used by pop culture to garner attention. Both the fashion industry and Kamala Harris water-down Brat as a piece of musical art to nothing but a trend that they can jump on, promptly throwing it away when it isn’t ‘cool’ anymore. Charli XCX is doing herself and her album a disservice by allowing it to be so heavily associated with Harris and unethical fashion companies. Kamala Harris is not ‘Brat’ because she truly is; She is ‘Brat’ because if she is, she can obtain your vote.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I'm gonna expand on what I wrote here, months ago.

A) The "sources" reporting on live-action remakes of THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, TANGLED, FROZEN... And TARZAN, apparently... Are rumor-mills... Take the news with a grain of salt.

B) These movies are inevitable. Disney's mining the whole catalogue, well... Most of it. There are some they probably won't do for various reasons... But I expect at least 95% of their animated feature library to get this garish live-action/photorealistic CGI treatment.

Recent movies aren't out of the equation, they're as "fair game" as the pre-Lasseter/Catmull era animated movies. Up until the announcement of a MOANA remake, the latest movie to be up for that was LILO & STITCH, a 2002 movie.

Like I said before, I used to grouse about these. I just don't care for them anymore, really. They're not for me, more importantly. These things are literally just for little kids who want to see a "real-life" take on characters they love in these movies... To see some actors float around blah, rushed CGI scapes for 2 hours...

And I guess, they're for people my age who stopped watching Disney movies at age 10 because of peer pressure, and they are now "nostalgic" or whatever. Couldn't be me, I watch at least 2-3 Disney animated features in full every calendar year in addition to assorted classic short films. They're on my brain 24/7/365. I have a collection of their many VHS releases, for chrissakes...

Anyways, they're not for me. And yeah, I still get annoyed when the filmmakers/actors promoting these remakes take potshots at the animated films, but really, do their obtuse comments really do anything to the classic movies? I'm pretty sure those who "get it" will still keep a film like SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS - which was recently restored and re-released on physical media, at that - up on the "classic" pedestal, no matter what this 2024 remake tries to "correct" about it. (Outside of outdated portrayals of dwarves, most "criticism" I hear of the 1937 Walt Disney film appears to be written by people who apparently didn't watch the movie or have a serious lack of media literacy.)

So yeah... It's inevitable. Disney will eventually remake TANGLED and FROZEN, given how popular they are. When MOANA was announced, I knew... Yeah, these would probably be next. TARZAN was a big hit in 1999 - which seems weird to think now given how weirdly nonexistent some of those post-LION KING movies were for a while. (I think Lasseter and Catmull didn't really care for a lot of those movies, and swept them under the rug. Kinda acted as if they were mistakes, and they came in and corrected everything after Michael Eisner's ouster. Lasseter infamously hated LILO & STITCH, for starters.) HERCULES is coming, MULAN hit three years ago, HUNCHBACK was apparently in some form of development, so TARZAN's inevitable. PRINCESS AND THE FROG may have underperformed in 2009/10, but it's a beloved film now, no doubt helped by Tiana's presence in the "Disney Princess" line. Now some decade later, a ride is being re-themed for her movie and she's got a show coming, too.

I know a lot of passionate animation fans are distraught every time they announce these things. I on the other hand am just weary of it all, and I understand that it's just the capitalist machine at play here. Instead of Walt's philosophy of putting revenue into making new movies and not retreading old ground, it's "how many different coats of paint can we put on the car?"

It's just the reality of the whole movie industry, really. This isn't Walt remaking the studio's UGLY DUCKLING short circa 1939 because he thought the original version could've been better, this is Disney reheating old favorites over and over because... Franchises. Content.

This is a beast of Bob Iger's making, for sure, this is SO not the small wave of live-action remakes that came out in the '90s. This is the era of everything old is new again. We had a LORD OF THE RINGS show recently. TOY STORY 5 is coming. We had decade-later sequels to INDIANA JONES and MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING and such. You see how David Zaslav over at Warner Bros. wants to make more Harry Potter stuff even though the recent FANTASTIC BEASTS movie didn't do all that hot? Like, sometimes... Let stories end? Whatever. People see this mass live-actionization of animation as this evil "animation is just a stepping stone to superior live-action" scheme. It kind of is, I guess? But I think that's related more to how the industry screws the people who make animation a reality. More than anything, it's just "how many times can we reheat this same dish?"

Right now, a big concern from many is how the filmed arts are being reduced to CONTENT.

For example, Martin Scorsese keeps warning about this, but many people just seem to be hyperfixated on some harmless comments he made about Marvel movies. The very movies that exacerbate this problem with these franchise-happy Hollywood studios.

Like, a successful and beloved animated film is basically now a cash cow. It's not as simple as "Hollywood hates animation, they see it as a stepping stone to superior live-action", it's more "they see a goldmine". Sure, some of the crews behind the remakes disparage the animated features, but what else are they gonna say? "The original's great, so we did it again"? "The cartoon is for babies and is outdated" is what sells.

In the 1990s, Disney would make TV shows and direct-to-video sequels to milk their animated movies, but now? A new Disney animated hit means... A remake, something on Disney+, a reboot of the remake, etc. It's just more content, really. And advertising for the "originals" that got people to love those characters in the first place.

The live-action/tech demo end of Disney barely does anything new anyways (and if they do, the movies go straight to Disney+... Then disappear... Then reappear somewhere else), so they just spend their time and efforts on all these remakes.

In an alternate history, this end of Disney would look different. Maybe JOHN CARTER OF MARS would've been a blockbuster in 2012 and we would've gotten a trilogy out of that, maybe TOMORROWLAND would have spawned at least one sequel if it had done well, maybe TRON: ASCENSION - a TRON threequel that actually follows up on the previous movie and isn't some unrelated Jared Leto vanity project - would exist... But alas, all their riskier movies flopped and their smaller scale pictures didn't really move the needle, so they're largely just making remakes and films based heavily on the animated classics (like CRUELLA)... And occasionally, a theme park-inspired movie, like JUNGLE CRUISE and HAUNTED MANSION.

So really, Disney's just doing what the industry as a whole is doing. Viewing what they have as content, and how to reproduce it, how to make a ton of variations out of it. And in turn, move merch for and raise awareness for the original. Like, most of the merch for LION KING 2019 was actually for the 1994 classic. Ditto that same year's ALADDIN and DUMBO remakes.

Look at Universal, they have that HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON live-action coming, too. Don't be surprised when they start mining DreamWorks Animation's library for more films to remake. Also helps that a good chunk of DWA's movies are based on books or pre-existing source material. Netflix has that AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER live-action show coming. ONE PIECE live-action is a big hit.

And yet, it'll always be the animated versions that'll continue to hit different.

When PRINCESS, TANGLED, and FROZEN "live-action" are made... And are big hits... It'll always be because the animated movies they are based on... Made that much of an impression.

[punkeropercyjackson]

There's no such thing as 'Punk Percy Jackson aus' because Percy Jackson is canonically punk since he fills out all the requirements for it but if you're refering to Percy being a fullfledged member of the subculture,then he'd be punk the same way Hobie Brown is and i'm including being black since Hobie is afropunk and that's the truest form of punk since it was created by black people

He should be afro-dominican since he's from El Barrio in New York and darkskin and super strongfeatured since it's a running thing he looks exactly like Poseidon(who's black in race but etchnically greek to not erase greek rep and yeah,greeks need it too because they were colonized by the west,including that the concept of race didn't exist in Greece until white people forced it onto them).He should have long locs and the mermaid colors style hair dye and different black hairstyles per book and an eyebrow piercing,forward helix on both ears,a spider bite and a tongue ring and a battle jacket with dominican and trans flags patches and ones to represent Sally,Tyson,Estelle,Nico,Hazel,Rachel and his girlfriend.His girlfriend should a pastel punk black woman who's got the same sense of humor as him and his childhood best friend starting in TLT who mutually undoom eachother from the narrative instead of Annabeth because wisdom wants to be bow downed to but the sea does not like to be restrained

His full name should be Perseo Isadore Jackson.She should be transfem genderqueer and use any pronouns and neos.She should be afrosolarpunk as her specific punk subtype since as the son of Poseidon,she naturally cares deeply about enviormentalism and is drawn to nature based aesthetics.She should know how diy things that don't even exist and steal necessities and play only indie video games and free phone games and on emulators on anti-capitalist principal.She should be audhd and not know how to mask and be a straightedge and a fan of Alt Black Era and Teezo Touchdown and Meet Me @ The Altar and Direct Hit! and The Cure and Megan Thee Stallion.He should go to underground parties and shows and on petty crime sprees and to protests and riots and charity events.He should deface public propety and use his powers to help his activism be even better.He should prioritize Hazel and Nico because they're minority kids and be their older sibling,pseudo-dad,mentor and best friend

He shouldn't have crush on Luke but brutally kill him in Tlo since Luke was a fascist.He should kill Zeus too post-Hoo and kickstart a revolution with that which works since unlike Luke,he was actually trying to make one happen instead of lying about hating authority and corruption like he did since as a fash he was a self-trained expert at propaganda.He should work at a family bussiness with Sally,Nico and Hazel to not work for a capitalist chain and it should be 'Familia Jackson Beach Shack'.He should radicalize Nico and Hazel and harrass Poseidon into giving him money for his chronic pain meds and mobility aids and guide Hazel in how to talk to girls because she's a transbian.He should be a guitarist and know how to do guttural metal screamsinging.He should be addicted to energy drinks but only the blue flavors.He should radiate swagger and a friendly vibe that's terrifying to normies.He should be Percy Jackson and Hobie Brown-adjacent,so basically Percy Jackson but with an author that deserves him and Hobie Brown should be Percy Jackson in Spiderverse Pjo aus instead of sidelined 'cause y'all are boring as hell

[whatbigotspost]

I’ll just talk to myself about it, I’m good and experienced at this, teehee.

Just thinking more about how I have such a love/hate relationship with Barbie the doll, the symbol, the movie. Do I feel like I’m dying in a late stage capitalist hellscape of bubble gum pink cross promotional marketing. Like literally suffocating? Sure.

Do I hate the havoc Barbie wreaked on the body image of me, my friends, my generation, and my mom’s before me? Also true.

Have I written entire papers and educational curriculum for girls and endless blog posts related to deconstructing the white supremacist, able bodied, ageist, classist, fatphobic, transphobic beauty ideal of which Barbie is commonly, specifically called out for having played a central cultural role?

Of course. But love and hate are the same sides of 1 coin: a passionate emotion. It’s the whole “the opposite of love’s indifference” thing and I definitely don’t feel indifferently about Barbie.

I’m just the right age to have been raised in a weird quagmire of Barbie popularity meets 90s shallow girl power shit meets the height of the thin ideal during the “heroin chic” era. I had the Barbie that famously told me “math class is tough.” I was one of the little girls devastated to be waaaay bigger than the original “my size” Barbie so I was told I couldn’t get one at all (“you were meant to wear her clothes, why should we waste money on her when you can’t.”) I was 12 when Aqua’s notoriously sexual-flirts-with-kids-doll-content, yet indelibly iconic “Barbie Girl” was playing everywhere. I wasn’t naive, I understood the song’s content but didn’t have the perspective or maturity yet to understand the context. I just knew that right around when that song came out was the first time I was cat called by an adult man as a child because I had grown tits seemingly overnight and I didn’t feel safe or content in my body again for another 20 years thereafter.

AND

I also have an 8 year old Barbie fanatic alive and well inside me. A little girl who loves that plastic fashionista bitch and all her friends. I had about a million Barbies when I was approximately ages 5-11.

The hours I lost playing Barbies with my two neighborhood besties are incalculable.

Or maybe the hours weren’t lost, more like……put toward practicing navigating relationships through plastic model avatars? Figuring out my sense of humor? Learning to tell stories? Just being silly weird little girls having wonderful little girl fun? Whatever the case, it all went down in a boring suburb and the only thing in walking distance worth doing in my tiny worldview back then was hanging out with other Barbie girls. The ones who “knew how to play Barbies right” aka, creating whole worlds and eras and distinct characters and interwoven narratives we could build on for weeks. We had dynasties and lore…the drama, the intrigue, the complex family dynamics and stories we acted out through those dolls.

It’s just why I totally get what Barbieland was, immediately. It’s why some of you know what I mean when I say “play Barbies right” immediately.

It wasn’t changing clothes or brushing her hair although that happened TOO. It was much more us trying to work out what we saw around us in real adults but even more so media adults, emulating the best we could what we thought our lives would be like if we would someday be as glamorous as our Barbies. (Or Rachel on Friends. Or Cher and Ty in Clueless.)

It was us reflecting back what we were hearing, but also it was us being us when some of our roughest and most beautiful edges hadn’t been dulled yet.

Anyway Greta Gerwig made this movie for me. Well, all the me-s. All us ladies with the love/hate Barbie baggage that seems ubiquitous when I’m talking to other Xennials. And Greta says this is so by centering the film between Barbie and America Ferrera’s character (“the mom”) instead of the tween, like it seemed for a moment. Women my age and general background couldn’t be more the center of the target audience for this film if we tried and the layers that are within it are still making my head spin and want to talk about it so fucking much. There’s so much here. Of course many men don’t get it. (The good ones do.)

And it’s also a film you can totally experience at a shallow level if you want to. It’s both, and. Good and bad. Shallow and complex. Fun and dangerous.

Like isn’t corporate propaganda woven in art that moved me this greatly probably the absolute WORST kind? Isn’t it being wildly effective? Did I even have a choice to feel this way about Barbie? Wasn’t Mattel target marketing to me since before I exited the womb? Wasn’t this a creative way to hook me back in when they’re at their most irrelevant in my life? When I had processed and packed Barbie away as “problematic” like any good lil budding feminist of the aughts would have? When I feel guilty buying my nieces the Barbies they want? When I’m like “psh, curvy Barbie is still thin.”

Haven’t they just found a new way to get me? They center my current life values, drive directly into what my Barbie gripes have been, and leverage someone my age’s penchant for nostalgia…BOOM thereby succeeding in making ever more money off of me? (Again using me here as “this general target demographic.” They see the “me” factor here at scale.)

It makes me sick to think how Mattel playing cutsie “in on the joke” mega corp via Will Ferrell, etc. is just another way that there’s a weird dance of cognitive dissonance throughout this whole experience. To which Greta would say, “I KNOW RIGHT?”

Someone talk about the Barbie movie with me moooore. What did you think? I’ve been ruminating on it constantly since I saw it last weekend and I’m seeing it again this weekend so I can absorb and analyze more. My partner is probably growing tired of it occupying so much of my brain 😅

[sixthrock]

oh shit I drew the spam kid again and she has LORE now

kaz was once a seemingly normal addison who decided to be a little rebel and somehow ended up being the darkner form of a limewire-esque file sharing service instead. fond of hacking, cracking and advocating for software piracy (its always morally correct!) which of course put her at odds with her very capitalist dad (who was planning on having her take over the company eventually whether she liked it or not) and led to her running away from home during his big shot era, right before his whole tragic downfall and all that.

after running into her old man again by chance and seeing the rather sad state he's in, she's decided to at least try and patch up their relationship... no telling how successful that will be though.

(fun facts: her name is of course derived from the long defunct file sharing app kazaa; the buttons on her hat are derived from the logos of limewire and soulseek, two other p2p apps from way back in the day.)

[qqueenofhades]

Re: the post you reblogged about Bush. I'm 21 and tbh feel like I can only vote for Bernie, can you explain if/why I shouldn't? Thanks and sorry if this is dumb or anything.

Oh boy. Okay, I’ll do my best here. Note that a) this will get long, and b) I’m old, Tired, and I‘m pretty sure my brain tried to kill me last night. Since by nature I am sure I will say something Controversial ™, if anyone reads this and feels a deep urge to inform me that I am Wrong, just… mark it down as me being Wrong and move on with your life. But also, really, you should read this and hopefully think about it. Because while I’m glad you asked this question, it feels like there’s a lot in your cohort who won’t, and that worries me. A lot.

First, not to sound utterly old-woman-in-a-rocking-chair ancient, people who came of age/are only old enough to have Obama be the first president that they really remember have no idea how good they had it. The world was falling the fuck apart in 2008 (not coincidentally, after 8 years of Bush). We came within a flicker of the permanent collapse of the global economy. The War on Terror was in full roar, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were at their height, we had Dick Cheney as the cartoon supervillain before we had any of Trump’s cohort, and this was before Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden had exposed the extent of NSA/CIA intelligence-gathering/American excesses or there was any kind of public debate around the fact that we were all surveilled all the time. And the fact that a brown guy named Barack Hussein Obama was elected in this climate seems, and still seems tbh, kind of amazing. And Obama was certainly not a Perfect President ™. He had to scale back a lot of planned initiatives, he is notorious for expanding the drone strike/extrajudicial assassination program, he still subscribed to the overall principles of neoliberalism and American exceptionalism, etc etc. There is valid criticism to be made as to how the hopey-changey optimistic rhetoric stacked up against the hard realities of political office. And yet…. at this point, given what we’re seeing from the White House on a daily basis, the depth of the parallel universe/double standards is absurd.

Because here’s the thing. Obama, his entire family, and his entire administration had to be personally/ethically flawless the whole time (and they managed that – not one scandal or arrest in eight years, against the legions of Trumpistas now being convicted) because of the absolute frothing depths of Republican hatred, racial conspiracy theories, and obstruction against him. (Remember Merrick Garland and how Mitch McConnell got away with that, and now we have Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? Because I remember that). If Obama had pulled one-tenth of the shit, one-twentieth of the shit that the Trump administration does every day, he would be gone. It also meant that people who only remember Obama think he was typical for an American president, and he wasn’t. Since about… Jimmy Carter, and definitely since Ronald Reagan, the American people have gone for the Trump model a lot more than the Obama model. Whatever your opinion on his politics or character, Obama was a constitutional law professor, a community activist, a neighborhood organizer and brilliant Ivy League intellectual who used to randomly lie awake at night thinking about income inequality. Americans don’t value intellectualism in their politicians; they just don’t. They don’t like thinking that “the elites” are smarter than them. They like the folksy populist who seems fun to have a beer with, and Reagan/Bush Senior/Clinton/Bush Junior sold this persona as hard as they possibly could. As noted in said post, Bush Junior (or Shrub as the late, great Molly Ivins memorably dubbed him) was Trump Lite but from a long-established political family who could operate like an outwardly civilized human.

The point is: when you think Obama was relatively normal (which, again, he wasn’t, for any number of reasons) and not the outlier in a much larger pattern of catastrophic damage that has been accelerated since, again, the 1980s (oh Ronnie Raygun, how you lastingly fucked us!), you miss the overall context in which this, and which Trump, happened. Like most left-wingers, I don’t agree with Obama’s recent and baffling decision to insert himself into the 2020 race and warn the Democratic candidates against being too progressive or whatever he was on about. I think he was giving into the same fear that appears to be motivating the remaining chunk of Joe Biden’s support: that middle/working-class white America won’t go for anything too wild or that might sniff of Socialism, and that Uncle Joe, recalled fondly as said folksy populist and the internet’s favorite meme grandfather from his time as VP, could pick up the votes that went to Trump last time. And that by nature, no one else can.

The underlying belief is that these white voters just can’t support anything too “un-American,” and that by pushing too hard left, Democratic candidates risk handing Trump a second term. Again: I don’t agree and I think he was mistaken in saying it. But I also can’t say that Obama of all people doesn’t know exactly the strength of the political machine operating against the Democratic Party and the progressive agenda as a whole, because he ran headfirst into it for eight years. The fact that he managed to pass any of his legislative agenda, usually before the Tea Party became a thing in 2010, is because Democrats controlled the House and Senate for the first two years of his first term. He was not perfect, but it was clear that he really did care (just look up the pictures of him with kids). He installed smart, efficient, and scandal-free people to do jobs they were qualified for. He gave us Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to join RBG on the Supreme Court. All of this seems… like a dream.

That said: here we are in a place where Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren are the front-runners for the Democratic nomination (and apparently Pete Buttigieg is getting some airplay as a dark horse candidate, which… whatever). The appeal of Biden is discussed above, and he sure as hell is not my favored candidate (frankly, I wish he’d just quit). But Sanders and Warren are 85% - 95% similar in their policy platforms. The fact that Michael “50 Billion Dollar Fortune” Bloomberg started rattling his chains about running for president is because either a Sanders or Warren presidency terrifies the outrageously exploitative billionaire capitalist oligarchy that runs this country and has been allowed to proceed essentially however the fuck they like since… you guessed it, the 1980s, the era of voodoo economics, deregulation, and the free market above all. Warren just happens to be ten years younger than Sanders and female, and Sanders’ age is not insignificant. He’s 80 years old and just had a heart attack, and there’s still a year to go to the election. It’s also more than a little eye-rolling to describe him as the only progressive candidate in the race, when he’s an old white man (however much we like and approve of his policy positions). And here’s the thing, which I think is a big part of the reason why this polarized ideological purity internet leftist culture mistrusts Warren:

She may have changed her mind on things in the past.

Scary, right? I sound like I’m being facetious, but I’m not. An argument I had to read with my own two eyes on this godforsaken hellsite was that since Warren became a Democrat around the time Clinton signed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, she sekritly hated gay people and might still be a corporate sellout, so on and etcetera. (And don’t even get me STARTED on the fact that DADT, coming a few years after the height of the AIDS crisis which was considered God’s Judgment of the Icky Gays, was the best Clinton could realistically hope to achieve, but this smacks of White Gay Syndrome anyway and that is a whole other kettle of fish.) Bernie has always demonstrably been a democratic socialist, and: good for him. I’m serious. But because there’s the chance that Warren might not have thought exactly as she does now at any point in her life, the hysterical and paranoid left-wing elements don’t trust that she might not still secretly do so. (Zomgz!) It’s the same element that’s feeding cancel culture and “wokeness.” Nobody can be allowed to have shifted or grown in their opinions or, like a functional, thoughtful, non-insane adult, changed their beliefs when presented with compelling evidence to the contrary. To the ideological hordes, any hint of uncertainty or past failure to completely toe the line is tantamount to heresy. Any evidence of any other belief except The Correct One means that this person is functionally as bad as Trump. And frankly, it’s only the Sanders supporters who, just as in 2016, are threatening to withhold their vote in the general election if their preferred candidate doesn’t win the primary, and indeed seem weirdly proud about it.

OK, boomer Bernie or Buster.

Here’s the thing, the thing, the thing: there is never going to be an American president free of the deeply toxic elements of American ideology. There just won’t be. This country has been built how it has for 250 years, and it’s not gonna change. You are never going to have, at least not in the current system, some dream candidate who gets up there and parrots the left-wing talking points and attacks American imperialism, exceptionalism, ravaging global capitalism, military and oil addiction, etc. They want to be elected as leader of a country that has deeply internalized and taken these things to heart for its entire existence, and most of them believe it to some degree themselves. So this groupthink white liberal mentality where the only acceptable candidate is this Perfect Non-Problematic robot who has only ever had one belief their entire lives and has never ever wavered in their devotion to doctrine has really gotten bad. The Democratic Party would be considered… maybe center/mild left in most other developed countries. It’s not even really left-wing by general standards, and Sanders and Warren are the only two candidates for the nomination who are even willing to go there and explicitly put out policy proposals that challenge the systematic structure of power, oppression, and exploitation of the late-stage capitalist 21st century. Warren has the billionaires fussed, and instead of backing down, she’s doubling down. That’s part of why they’re so scared of her. (And also misogyny, because the world is depressing like that.) She is going head-on after picking a fight with some of the worst people on the planet, who are actively killing the rest of us, and I don’t know about you, but I like that.

Of course: none of this will mean squat if she (or the eventual Democratic winner, who I will vote for regardless of who it is, but as you can probably tell, she’s my ride or die) don’t a) win the White House and then do as they promised on the campaign trail, and b) don’t have a Democratic House and Senate willing to have a backbone and pass the laws. Even Nancy Pelosi, much as she’s otherwise a badass, held off on opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump for months out of fear it would benefit him, until the Ukraine thing fell into everyone’s laps. The Democrats are really horrible at sticking together and voting the party line the way Republicans do consistently, because Democrats are big-tent people who like to think of themselves as accepting and tolerant of other views and unwilling to force their members’ hands. The Republicans have no such qualms (and indeed, judging by their enabling of Trump, have no qualms at all). 

The modern American Republican party has become a vehicle for no-holds-barred power for rich white men at the expense of absolutely everything and everyone else, and if your rationale is that you can’t vote for the person opposing Donald Goddamn Trump is that you’re just not vibing with them on the language of that one policy proposal… well, I’m glad that you, White Middle Class Liberal, feel relatively safe that the consequences of that decision won’t affect you personally. Even if we’re due to be out of the Paris Climate Accords one day after the 2020 election, and the issue of climate change now has the most visibility it’s ever had after years of big-business, Republican-led efforts to deny and discredit the science, hey, Secret Corporate Shill, am I right? Can’t trust ‘er. Let’s go have a craft beer.

As has been said before: vote as far left as you want in the primary. Vote your ideology, vote whatever candidate you want, because the only way to make actual, real-world change is to do that. The huge, embedded, all-consuming and horrible system in which we operate is not just going to suddenly be run by fairy dust and happy thoughts overnight. Select candidates that reflect your values exactly, be as picky and ideologically militant as you want. That’s the time to do that! Then when it comes to the general election:

America is a two-party system. It sucks, but that’s the case. Third-party votes, or refraining from voting because “it doesn’t matter” are functionally useless at best and actively harmful at worst.

Either the Democratic candidate or Donald Trump will win the 2020 election.

There is absolutely no length that the Republican/GOP machine, and its malevolent allies elsewhere, will not go to in order to secure a Trump victory. None.

Any talk whatsoever about “progressive values” or any kind of liberal activism, coupled with a course of action that increases the possibility of a Trump victory, is hypocritical at best and actively malicious at worst.

This is why I found the Democratic response to Obama’s “don’t go too wild” comments interesting. Bernie doubled down on the fact that his plans have widespread public support, and he’s right. (Frankly, the fact that Sanders and Warren are polling at the top, and the fact that they’re politicians and would not be crafting these campaign messages if they didn’t know that they were being positively received, says plenty on its own). Warren cleverly highlighted and praised Obama’s accomplishments in office (i.e. the Affordable Care Act) and didn’t say squat about whether she agreed or disagreed with him, then went right back to campaigning about why billionaires suck. And some guy named Julian Castro basically blew Obama off and claimed that “any Democrat” could beat Trump in 2020, just by nature of existing and being non-insane.

This is very dangerous! Do not be Julian Castro!

As I said in my tags on the Bush post: everyone assumed that sensible people would vote for Kerry in 2004. Guess what happened? Yeah, he got Swift Boated. The race between Obama and McCain in 2008, even after those said nightmare years of Bush, was very close until the global crash broke it open in Obama’s favor, and Sarah Palin was an actual disqualifier for a politician being brazenly incompetent and unprepared. (Then again, she was a woman from a remote backwater state, not a billionaire businessman.) In 2012, we thought Corporate MormonBot Mitt Fuggin’ Romney was somehow the worst and most dangerous candidate the Republicans could offer. In 2016, up until Election Day itself, everyone assumed that HRC was a badly flawed candidate but would win anyway. And… we saw how that worked out. Complacency is literally deadly.

I was born when Reagan was still president. I’m just old enough to remember the efforts to impeach Clinton over forcing an intern to give him a BJ in the Oval Office (This led by the same Republicans making Donald Trump into a darling of the evangelical Christian right wing.) I’m definitely old enough to remember 9/11 and how America lost its mind after that, and I remember the Bush years. And, obviously, the contrast with Obama, the swing back toward Trump, and everything that has happened since. We can’t afford to do this again. We’re hanging by a thread as it is, and not just America, but the entire planet.

So yes. By all means, vote for Sanders in the primary. Then when November 3, 2020 rolls around, if you care about literally any of this at all, hold your nose if necessary and vote straight-ticket Democrat, from the president, to the House and Senate, to the state and local offices. I cannot put it more strongly than that.