#is a culture of enablers

[candycryptids]

Do me a huuuge favor and reblog/like/whatever this post if you’re cool with random character questions to your inbox

[khattikeri]

one of my favorite things about mdzs is that for how heavily its plot involves politics of classism and misogyny... even the characters most directly impacted by it can't and don't free themselves from it. literally the closest exception is mianmian.

meng yao being the "son of a whore" wasn't some sort of commie awakening for him that led him to wanting everyone to be socially equal. he played the political game, climbed the ladders, sucked up to and backstabbed and murdered people, including other prostitutes who actually had nothing to do with how he and his mother were treated at the brothel he grew up in.

he put in so much extra excessive effort for even a fraction of the same respect that members of gentry cultivation clans got. and he did deserve to be treated more humanely! but he feeds into the exact same system that created him, leading to his own undoing.

his efforts were for a fragile upward mobility that was never going to hold up. he never surpassed his origins nor did he empower others in similar stations, because the society he lives in is not one that would accept that.

the second he got caught and all those crimes exposed, he was scapegoated to hell and back, replacing wei wuxian as society's terrible one-sidedly evil boogeyman overnight.

speaking of not-quite male gentry, i think it's interesting that wei wuxian explicitly doesn't try to climb the ladders in BOTH lives, knowing full well that anything he does will be punished just for the sheer fact that he is wei wuxian.

wei wuxian is scolded for giving intelligent and correct answers in school. lan wangji does the same and is praised.

wei wuxian occasionally lounges around with fellow disciples and is punished. jiang cheng does the same and mostly escapes.

wei wuxian refuses to carry his sword around in public (after losing his golden core, which nobody knows) and is scorned as an arrogant upstart. nie huaisang has been doing the EXACT SAME THING for YEARS and nobody bats an eye.

unlike jin guangyao, wei wuxian knew subconsciously from the start that his acceptance was superficial and that he could be cast out any time. when he was 10 and recently taken in by the jiangs, he canonically would not eat or use "too much" food and water because he thought they'd find him a nuisance for "wasting their things" and kick him back out.

now away from just the classism, yu ziyuan is a proud and strong noblewoman in a society that belittles and derides women for everything they do. her strong cultivation doesn't matter. she's victim to the vicious rumors of her husband loving another woman who is strong like her but apparently had a more likeable personality.

it doesn't matter even if jiang fengmian didn't cheat or that wei wuxian is wei changze's son with cangse sanren; yu ziyuan can't bear with the humiliation of herself (and by extension her children) not being "good enough". she's ridiculed for "failing" in that one duty as a wife, mother, and woman.

she lashes out and takes out that anger on everyone present for years, giving her children lasting trauma and also being a key element in how the jiang family and yunmeng jiang sect are effectively wiped out at the hands of the wen clan.

madam jin doesn't even have a name outside of the fact that she's married to jin guangshan. i don't even remember reading anything that indicates if she's a strong or weak cultivator, or what, which in itself proves that to most people, it doesn't matter. she's "just" a woman.

of course she's angry at her husband's affairs and all the bastard children they bring in. but she also can't do anything about them, so she lashes out at the few people she can: servants. non-cultivators, probably. those very same bastard children.

shoutout to meng yao getting shoved down a flight of stairs at age fourteen, because if madam jin tried that move against her husband instead, it would make her lose even more face, which as a noblewoman she'd never do.

and that's not getting into how jiang yanli is consistently sidelined for being physically weak.

that's not getting into how mianmian was actually a good cultivator, but was mocked by everyone around her for trying to stand up for wei wuxian when everyone was turning on him. how everyone scoffed at luo qingyang's words as "just some lovesick woman" who "obviously wants to marry or bed him since he saved her".

luo qingyang is the only one of these characters who HASN'T died. she didn't play society's games like jin guangyao. she didn't dig her heels in confidence of her own abilities like wei wuxian.

she didn't bitterly lash out like yu ziyuan and madam jin. she didn't gently accept it like jiang yanli.

she just LEFT.

she married an ordinary merchant and cultivates separately from mainstream cultivation society, and therein found her own peace and happiness.

mxtx doesn't bother with particularly class conscious or feminist vocabulary to hand-hold readers into understanding these disparities, but that choice highlights them & the deeply entrenched politics of their society even more. i really love it.

[thiagodasilva]

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing all around.

like clockwork, all of the rats are crawling out of the woodworks to double down and remain ignorant to the issue at hand. THIS is why publicly calling out an ALREADY public incident is permissible & encouraged even. it’s embarrassing the way they keep showing their ignorance.

so many of them defending what happened by claiming it to be a “cultural” thing and everyone else just doesn’t understand. so many of them saying Wesley and others were wrong to take to social media to condemn even though that livestream was also very much public, so no. they weren’t wrong. they just didn’t like being publicly called out on it.

when they say it’s cultural, they want it to be overlooked, and that’s one of the biggest problems with why racism like this continues to have such a stronghold in our society, and ESPECIALLY in Latino culture. It shouldnt matter if “that’s just the way it is” if it is has been and always been harmful to a whole group of people. that “cultural” defense is such a pathetic way to keep disgusting and harmful behavior around and to CHOOSE to remain that way instead of learning to be better is so incredibly detrimental. calling it out for what it is is probably the least anyone can do when being witness to it. they have to choose to be better or else they will continue to look like the pathetic and malicious clowns they are.

[honeylemony]

Especially now that three additional women have come forward sharing their stories of abuse at the hands of Neil Gaiman, we just gotta have a talk.

What are you really gaining from engaging with his works. What are you really getting out of fanwork inspired by his stuff. What is NEIL getting out of people still keeping his works in the cultural relevancy? How does engaging with someone's content and created work affect the world around us? What does "death of the author" really mean when hoardes of rabid fans are burying his sins under tagged fanart and fanfic and fan tattoos and zines and endless worship?

What message are you sending to victims when you share his content? Have you heard that one in four women will be assaulted in their lifetime? Have you heard about the ongoing fight against femicide in so many areas of the world? How do you feel about feminism? Do you think it's been "solved" already?

Who are you? Do you care what impact you have on this world? How do you feel when your comfort is threatened?

Do you have the ability to give up something you like if persisting in engaging with it enables an abuser to continue quietly abusing women? If not what does it say about you that you prioritize your comfort over social solidarity? Are you white?

What does rape culture mean to you? Are you it?

[thepeacefulgarden]

[astradyke]

am i taking 18 credits this semester (equivalent of 6 classes)? yes. am i also doing organizing work consistently? yes. am i also a mentally ill individual with physical health issues that reduces my ability to be efficient? yes. am i someone with an active social life? yes. am i someone with a history of ao3 works that still causes anxiety so i have reservations against writing and posting anything ever again? yes.

... am i thinking so seriously so deeply about writing phanfiction? yes, obviously, did you even have to ask?

[ardenrosegarden]

Our uncle could move you away, yet he could do nothing on this second occasion. With every letter I write, not only does my ink wane, but also my hope. Every time, I wish that my words reach you. I believed that you would be the hero who would rescue me, but now I just hope my sister comes back to me. If you happen to read this, please help me, Naoko.

[red-bat-arse]

steddie musician AU where Eddie makes it big after s4 and invites Robin and Steve to live with him in Chicago so he can tour and always have a home base -and now he has the resources to buy a bit more for himself so he makes sure a good studio space gets installed in the house

and ofc Robin's already musically inclined so she likes to help Eddie fuck around with weird trumpet solos for experimental songs, and Steve learnt piano as a kid but never had the opportunity to get creative with it -so when Eddie's gone and Robin's in class, he putters around the studio, learning guitar from Eddie's books and adapting to a keyboard and having fun with synths and singing. that lack of expectations and freedom to have fun is what trips him into making his own music

he puts together a few songs and asks Nancy to listen to them -he knows she'll be honest about whether he's wasting his time with this, since he at least wants to make music Robin or Eddie could give a pass to. but to his surprise she tells him he's good, and if he wanted to he could make a little extra money playing alternative nights at clubs. needing a second, more objective from a personal connection standpoint, opinion, he asks Argyle, who actually worked at a record store for a bit

Argyle, without asking bc he thought it went without saying, passes the cassette on to a few buddies of his in the local live music scene and later introduces them to Steve when they want to have him at one of their regular places. Steve goes with Robin who he asks not to tell anyone -he doesn't want to distract Eddie while the guy's making a big name of himself, and maybe Steve feels embarrassed or inadequate about being late to the game and doing it as a hobby, so he also uses a pseudonym. 'Zdev' maybe, if we want to parallel 'Djo'

he finds out he really likes it, so he starts doing small gigs for bars or parties Jonathan connects him with. puts a short album on cassette that he recorded at home, has fun with it even as the songs become more personal. but by then 'Zdev' has a little local fame and one of his cassettes is picked up by some label and they reach out -Steve definitely doesn't expect it, because psychedelic rock kind of faded from radio play after the 70s, but now he's being faced with a record deal he isn't sure he wants and no idea how to handle it

so he calls Eddie, who comes racing back from recording with the band out in LA, thankfully not ditching at too inconvenient a point

and Eddie nearly doesn't believe it at first but once he gets his hands on a tape so he can get an idea of the sound, he's obsessed. while he's a metalhead to the core, he's never heard Steve sing before (let's use twenty twenty as the album here) and there's something about the way Steve ties the groove to a sense of melancholy that digs into his skull. it also doesn't help that some of the songs set off alarm bells bc they talk about loving a girl or packing up and leaving or feeling adrift and they make him want to stick as close as possible lest they turn out to be true

he helps Steve through it, pretty well versed in the industry by now (i'm thinking its about 5 years post Vecna) but he's quietly worrying over the album's content the whole time. they go through the re-recording process, which ofc Eddie really wants to hear, but with Steve still being embarrassed he doesn't end up sitting in on any; but they talk over each song before and after and its so easy to drift back into hinting at the mutual attraction they'd each independently resigned to pass them by, back when Eddie first moved away after 86. and eventually it comes out that the album was Steve's way of, yeah, having fun, but also exorcising feelings from his past in Hawkins. that there's only one song that's really about his life now, and he didn't put it on the cassette but he's planning on including it on the LP

by now its pretty obvious to Steve that Eddie is flirting back, not to mention the guy put a hold on recording his own work to help Steve out, which is easy to read into. so he finally invites Eddie to sit in for the recording of the last song, which he's hoping will be subtle enough that he can bluff if it doesn't go well, but if Eddie is on the same page, it'll be clear. the song he plays is Mutual Future (Repeat)

it's got a long winding intro of just guitar that Eddie sits through, unaware, and Steve starts singing low, almost just his speaking voice the croon is so subtle, and when he meets Eddie's eyes through the glass to ask will you be mine?

well, Eddie gets it. and while there's not a lot of privacy in a recording studio, he eventually finds a small filing room he can kiss Steve stupid in until quitting time for the day comes and goes

[anxiouspotatorants]

If Sean Gunn had more guts he would lock Amy Sherman Palladino and James Gunn in a room and not let them out until they had written the wackiest, wordiest yet somehow completely logical Gilmore Girls x Guardians crossover short of our until now unknown dreams

[brettdoesdiscourse]

Just by the way. Always be wary around people who say, "it's the boss' job to pay you a fair wage" when discussing tipping.

Because while this is absolutely true, it's usually not coming from a good place.

People who say this very often don't mean, "it's the boss' job to pay you a fair wage and they aren't, so I'm boycotting supporting businesses that exploit their workers."

A lot of people who say this actually mean, "it's the boss' job to pay you a fair wage and they aren't, but I'm going to continue using this service and not tip because it's not my problem that your job is exploiting you."

Always be wary around people who say, "it's the boss' job to pay you a fair wage" because a lot of times, they're just using it to make themselves feel better about their choices.

[markiafc]

familial cannibalism has a powerful presence in chinese history + as a popular literary trope in chinese myths and texts; fathers tricked into eating their sons, sons who display a nonchalance or even willingness to eat their fathers (vice versa for fathers taking the act of eating sons in stride). and ofc these male figures are frequently political leaders & generals; voluntarily eating their own kin is a sign of accomplishment, pride, power, strength. men in power proving they can remain solid & unshaken in the face of utmost brutality.

the whole phenomenon of filial slicing 割股 where younger members and/or children of the family cuts out a part of their body (usually the thigh, but organs are also on the menu) for the parents to eat. both a medicinal means to cure ailing parents and bring the family together via ritual bond.

it entered mainstream chinese society in the late-ming period. and is also a way in-laws can secure a position and/or establish a deeper tie with the other family, eg. a bride giving up her flesh to the mother-in-law entrenches her in the husband's family.

and the ancient chinese practice of sacrificing your firstborn son - to be shared as food amongst the family + other parties like local rulers (who is, again, a male lord or royal aka. an imperial patriarch). exactly because eldest sons are so valued, so prized they are imagined to be a profound flavour befitting of the heavens. so much so they're killed, then dismembered as infants, then turned into sacrificial meat (using the term zuo 昨 which means "meat" as well as "blessings / fortune"); this duality of first-sons as dehumanized victims & also harbingers of prosperity and social order.

and the custom is meant to be a communal event. it's important that eldest son is divided amongst a group in a ritual feast. something for the family to share internally or the people in society to partake in. or, on a greater scale, a portion of the sacrificed son becomes a token of friendship to secure an alliance with other regions. your firstborn son is also a political instrument to secure national stability and safety.

cannibalism inside the chinese family is pretty versatile, it's deployed for a variety of reasons chronic in chinese society: an attribute for the indomitable, power-hungry male ideal. an act of filial piety. a sacrifice in order to ensure the welfare of greater society, be it through gods or governance. and consistently, it's a form of violence which nurtures a closeness and unity amongst the perpetrators.

the confucian structure and traditional chinese thought as a whole breeds parent/child violence in the name of material profit and social wins. it's a filial piety issue & a patriarchal system issue & a pragmatism policy issue, and so on.

[punsandburningroses]

You know, I think there are a lot more people who love and ship Enabler than are willing to talk about it openly.

Like some folk doth protest too much, methinks

[ausetkmt]

Ziwe - Celebrating & Enabling Icons | The Daily Show

“I don’t make it awkward on purpose. I’m just a little strange.” Comedian Ziwe discusses how she turns her interviews into iconic moments, her very specific brand of comedy, and the difference between herself and the character “Ziwe.”

[marzipanandminutiae]

Lucille Sharpe over here like “my love language is Acts of Service. :)”

and the act of service is murder

[subconsciousmysteries]

Men are absolutely losing it because women are seeing through their bullshit and I'm here to watch their collective narcissistic meltdown

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

it can be tempting to assume that the American spirit is one of revolution, when in fact, America was specifically formulated to be revolution-proof