#it’s the inherent sexism in this industry for one part

[manicdragondreamgirl]

Nothing can make a bitch more hateful than a SINGLE hour —the FIRST HOUR OF A DAY—at a job where everyone pretends they can do her job better than she’s been doing it because they read something in the news recently

[neurotypicalabusesurvivor]

ASPD is a prefect example how psychology and mental health industry is bullshit.

One of the main criteria for ASPD is a consent disregard for the rights of others. But what is a right? Who gets to decide what a right is? A right is just something someone feel entitled to. Men right activist, father rights, private property rights are things used to oppress people that claim to be rights. A "right" is just something people feel entitled to which may or may not be helpful to society. Even rights which are for the most part good, like freedom of speach can be used to advocate for genocide. The freedom of Assocation can be used by queerphobic parents to disown their queer children. Private property (liberal definition) rights can be used to justify artificial poverty. In other words people with ASPD do not buy into the entitlements of others.

under this logic all men have ASPD because of the patarachy. All white people have ASPD because of white supremacy. All ableist (both neurotypical and neurodivergent) have ASPD. So why are these groups of people who have a history of civil right violations not label as ASPD. Because they do so in a socially acceptable way. Sexism and Racism is still social acceptable to a degree even after many decades of social justice activism.

the basing morality in and of it self is inherently problematic as you are being dependent on a biological function to decide who is moral and admoral. there are many reasons why someone might not feel guilt or remorse. The chief amongst these is dehumanization, racism, sexism, queerphobia, ableism, ageism, classism is all rooted in dehumanization. as a result, a lot of abusers engage in similar behaviors as cluster Bs. This comparison is only on surface level. Abusers get away with abuse because their behavior are protected by society, the verry same society that condition them to be abusers. Are jails are filled with narcissist and sociopaths because they do not have neuronormative privilege. When they act "abusive" they do so in ways that are not socially acceptable. meanwhile rapist, child molesters, killer cops, imperalist soldier get away with their brutality.``

The status Quo doesn't want to admit that the patarachy exist, so when a man become a serial killers they claim they have ASPD refusing to admit that people with ASPD are not immune to the patarachy. If the patarachy did not influence people to become serial killer a equal amount of men and women would be a serial killer and they would kill for the same reasons. Tough ASPD may influence why the serial killer's behavior the ASPD is not the root cause. The role of the medical model of disability as will all forms of oppression is deradicalizations. Just as the ruling class and the privilege class redirected attention away by blaming the jews, immigrants or othger margalized people the medical model redirect attention away by blaming "mentally ill people"

This brings me to my next point neurotypes are social constructs. They are the interpation of human biology that involves the brain. These interpations is done so for the neruonormative gaze. We decide them by comparing neurodivergent people to a standard of health that is also socially constructed. Alot of time people are deemed "disabled" or "mentally ill" because they are not compatible with the status qou, as status qou that is also socially constructed, but also socially constructed for the benefit of the ruling class at the expense of everyone else.

but.... but.... alot of these people are neurodivergent. Neurodivergent people can benefit from the oppression of other neurodivergents who is not the same support level as them and neurotype as them. Being neurodivergent is not a magical pill that make you anti ableist. A neurotypical is just the highest possible amount of neuronormative privilege possible. Alot of neuronormative privilege is required to get a college degree and to become a psychologist or a neuroscientist so even if the mental health professional is neurodivergent they still have a respectable degree of neuronormative privilege.

What is to be done, You may ask? neurodivergents must seize control of the psych industry away from those who want to benefit from neuronormative privilege and weaponize it against those who want to benefit from neuronormative privilege. People who do not accept neurodivergent trait will be pathologized. We will subject them to the same trauma that neurodivergent was violently subjected to. where therapy was weaponized against neurodivergents and used as a excuse to maintain the status Quo. we will seize control of this industry and use it to oppress ableist. Instead of expecting neurodivergent to mask ableist will be expected to learn coping skills, cognitive behavior skills to reduce distressed cause by ableism. Gone will be the days in which ableist infantilize themselves by hiding behind a therapist and psych meds.

What if this system destroys the mental health of an ableist. If you're in a self defense saturation do you care if you defending yourself result in grave bodily injury of your attacker. Do slaves during a slave revolt care about the mental health of their master family or employees. Do feminist care about the mental health of there rapist. Oppressors forfeit there right by violating the justified rights of others. There has not been a single major civil right earned that did not involve violence and trauma. The peaceful protest of the liberal is a lie. When people with neuronormative privilege rape disabled women like it goes out of style, sit by and do nothing as killer cop gun disabled people down in streets, though certian neurotype in jail, the bourgeoise drive disabled people into extreme poverty, imperialist engage in wars that destory the mental health of the global south and homelessness how dare you care about the mental health of ableist. How dare you expect mentally ill people to care about the mental health of their oppressors.

[lostyetfinding]

Sweet Moment

idol Bang Chan x afab journalist

Prompt: Stray kids is on tour, meaning that Chris' girlfriend is frustrated and lonely. Chris only makes it worse when he sends her a song and some promises of what he will do once he gets home.

Word Count: 9.4K

Song: Sweet Moment by Mackenzy Mackay

Can also be read on ao3

MDNI this is a explicit story

tags are under the break ♡

Tags: unprotected sex (wrap it please), sex, oral sex, vaginal sex, fingering, soft dom Bang Chan, pet names (princess, baby, babe), praise kink, hint of a plot, plot what plot, demisexual main character

Quick note: The female main character in this is demisexual. This was not my intention but it happened because my stories take lives of their own. This is not a depiction of every demisexual person's experience, because being demi means different things for different people. This is a depiction of how I experience demisexuality and also how it has impacted my life. Again, this does not mean it is the same for other people who call themselves demi.

I hated the long months of their tours, I know I should be happy that my boyfriend gets to spend months performing and living his best life. 

And a part of me does. 

But a larger part of me is angry about the separation. Angry about the space in my bed without him or the growing leftovers in my fridge because I always order for two even if he isn’t here. Furious about the way I turn to laugh at a funny moment on our show and he isn’t there. And occasionally angry at the fact that no matter how much his voice over the phone turns me on and how good my vibrator feels inside of me, none of the orgasms leave me satisfied.

But most of all, angry at the way my life has slowly morphed around his. At how a mere week without the stupid insomniac that is my boyfriend, I feel like I am missing an arm.

I always prided myself on my independence. In my need for nothing other than the family I had built for myself and the life I had worked so hard to earn. 

Then came Christopher. 

He invaded my life so slowly, I hadn’t even realized I wanted romance. I had spent so long content with my friends and my work and my neverending list of hobbies. And then my editor had called me up, and asked for me to do a feature piece on some artists.

It wasn’t my first. I worked for a lifestyle magazine in the features department for the gods sakes. I had interviewed Halsey when she was working on her album and documentary “ If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power,” about three years ago. My editor had freaked, because instead of asking about Halsey’s influences or her writing process I had asked to go to a day of filming with her. I had turned in an article about how Halsey felt pregnancy was impacting her life, how it changed her perspective, and how she was feeling better than she had in years. We talked about baby colors and names, lyrical choices and parenting philosophies. I wrote about a woman, not an artist.

That was the beginning. Once my article was published, I was given more artist features. I was asked to write about the music industry, and then actors, and then came KPOP.

After all, I lived in South Korea. Just because I wrote for an International magazine based in California did not mean I wanted to remain in America. (I enjoyed traveling and living somewhere far away from my family.) So my editor sent me KPOP groups to interview. 

First, it was BTS, right before they enlisted. BTS were kind, they wanted to tell me how much they missed normalcy, and how excited they were to stay in one place for a while. They said they loved tours and work, but sometimes they missed the routine of a normal life. 

Then came ITZY and discussions of trying to set themselves apart in a male-dominated industry. That article talked about inherent sexism in not just Korean music but music everywhere. So my editor sent me to talk to Solar from MAMAMOO. She had a lot to say about the sexism she had faced and how all the aspects of her life were controlled for so long.

Of course, all of that led me to Stray Kids. And damn Christopher. 

All of Stray Kids were shocked when I walked in, a very white-American-looking woman with bright pink hair and tattoos peeking out of my shirt collar and sleeve. They all introduced themselves in English and smiled. But when I whipped out my worn-in Korean, they all simultaneously stared and relaxed. 

I laughed at their initial shock, explaining I worked for an international lifestyle magazine and grew up in the middle-of-nowhere-America but had been living in Seoul for about four years while traveling for work. When we sat down, they all started talking at once. It was a mix of Korean and English and nerves.

Chris had seen my hesitance and confusion. He slowed them all down and took control, turning to me with that charming smile and asked what I wanted to know. Looking back, that was the beginning of the end of my sweet little bubble.

Because once Bang Chan smiled at me with his eyes wide and welcoming, well that carefully curated bubble of comfort burst. 

He made a whole new one, building it from the ground up with enough space for him and his entire world of chaos. And I was helpless.

Not that I wanted to stop him, more like I didn’t even know what to do in the face of his compassion. I was utterly perplexed by his seemingly endless patience and how he always seemed to know what I needed before I did.

In a year he went from my interview subject to a notification on my phone I never wanted to disappear, to my boyfriend, to my live-in-partner in just about everything. His albums and vinyl fit right in on my endless bookshelves, his jackets and band t-shirts mixing in with my closet of nonsensical outfits. 

My two cats loved him too, quickly choosing his fancy-ass chair in the little studio we made him as their favorite nap spot. Especially if he was sitting there. My home office moved to the living room, where I had a view of the city and sunlight on my face. A choice that somehow made me more productive despite my hesitance, but Chris had known. Somehow he had known that moving me out from the windowless small second bedroom in my apartment to the spacious and open living room would make me less stressed.

He also made a space for himself with my friends. Quickly melding himself into the weird amalgamation of a family I had forged with artists, writers, and cafe baristas. He was an enthusiastic participant in our weekly game nights and helped cook for our monthly ‘family dinners’. Chris had charmed all of them the same way he charmed me.

So now, now when he was busy halfway around the world standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, I was left missing him. And I felt that anger was the most productive emotion in this situation. 

If I let myself feel that space around me that he usually filled, I would grow sad. I would lay in bed, with one of his black hoodies on and pulled over my nose. I would douse the apartment in the cologne he left behind. I would put his songs on repeat just to fill the silence with a small piece of him out of desperation.

But if I told myself I was angry, I could do something about it. I could go to the gym on the bottom floor of my building and hit the bag he had requested. A gym he had to show me despite this being my building before his. And boxing the way he had taught me, he had suggested it to help bring the edge off my anxiety. If I told myself I was angry, I could tease him about the distance, sending him risque photos and making myself all pretty to go out with friends. I could live my life knowing that he wasn’t there. 

But at the end of every day, I had to admit to myself it wasn’t real. I was never angry with Chris. With Bang Chan, or Stray Kids, or his career, or his distance. I was just clinging to a feeling of frustration to cope. Because despite my pride in my independence, I depended on him. And that was the most infuriating thing.

Ding!

The sound of a notification on my phone made me look up from the steaming cup of coffee I had been staring down into for far too long.

Damn, Christopher.

Always distracting me even when he wasn’t here.

I smiled as I reached for my phone. Mentally teasing Chris for his goddamn persistence even in my imagination.

The notification on my phone made my smile grow even wider.

Chris: Hey princess

Me: Hey babe, how are you?

       I miss you… 🥺

Chris: I know baby, but we are only a week away from being home

      I miss you way too much, the guys are complaining about how much I talk about you

Me: well at least I am not suffering alone

      How was the show last night?

Chris: It was amazing!

      But that is not why I am texting

Me: so you aren’t just trying to make me jealous by telling me how much fun you are having without me? 

Christ: I offered for you to come with us

Me: I know

Chris: but no...

      I wanted to send you a song I have been working on

Me: Have you been sleeping? Do I need to text Changbin?

Chris: Baby! I have been sleeping I promise!

      But this song was screaming in my head, I had to make it

      And it’s for you 😘

Me: for me?

Chris: Yes, you, my girlfriend of almost two years

      The woman I am desperately in love with

      My favorite person in the world

Me: you are trying to make up for being thousands of miles away with sweet talking me?

Chris: yes, is it working? 🫣

Me: hmmmmm… 🙄

      Give me the song and I shall see

Chris: of course, love 

      Here it is

[link.todownloadfile.clickhere]

      Tell me what you think? 😉

Me: HOLD ON

      WHY THE WINKING EMOJI?!?!?

      CHRISTOPHER?!!?

      WHAT DID YOU WRITE?!?!?

      You little….

I shake my head at the screen, his little icon letting me know he has read the messages and is deciding to not respond.

I grab my coffee and head to his studio, where the state-of-the-art sound system is. 

If I am going to listen to a song my boyfriend wrote for me, it better be using his expensive equipment so it’s of the best quality. 

So I wake up the monitor and put in the password. Some stupid phrase that is an inside joke between him and his sister. I hook my phone up to the computer, downloading the file onto my phone and transferring it to the computer. 

I open it and the file opens up in the media player, just a black screen with a bar and a play button. 

I double-check that the system is hooked up and on, making sure the speakers have their lights on. Then I press play.

And Chris is a fucking musical genius.

And I wish I could hate him.

But the first note has his voice coming through the speakers and I almost whine. All my false anger seeping out of me like warm water.

From the neck

I’ll be licking that down

With a face

Looking like u might pounce

Any second

I been thinking bout it loads out loud

Can I Kiss you on the hips

It takes me until halfway through the first verse to actually pay attention, my eyes widening as I realize what he is singing about. The initial instinct to curl up and rest at the sound of his voice quickly washed away with a growing arousal.

Show you tricks with the mouth

I just wanna see you for a sweet moment

Yes I been away and now I’m back I’m all in

And your bed wouldn’t stop calling

My name.

never could be too late

Lay down

I go down and you shake

Your legs are trembling

You rain, you doused me

You came and you found these

Ways

Just To show me how much you like it

And Waves

My thighs start to clench as I stare at the monitor. As if it holds the answer to how the hell I ended up here.

Crashing upon all over my lips

Say

Oh would you look what the time is

Silence is so far away

Never will I get used

To how you make me feel

Much too nice and it seeems Fake

Yeah you got this head way over these heels

His words rush through my veins, like lightning. I feel breathless and also like I am breathing too much. Interrupting the music with an unnecessary sound.

Got me So high on you I can barely see straight

Now we on the bed sheets

All wet so sweaty

Like yes please

Breath on my skin so heavy

I’m dreaming how can I

Be awake?

never could be too late

Lay down

I go down and you shake

The beat pulses through me. The deep sound vibrates the speakers and also my body.

Your legs are trembling

You rain, you doused me

You came and you found these

Ways

Just To show me how much you like it

And Waves

Crashing upon all over my lips

Say

Oh would you look what the time is

Silence is so far away

All these ways

Just To show me how much you like it

And Waves

Crashing upon all over my lips

Say

Oh would you look what the time is

Silence is so far away

So far away from being quiet I know

And the Silence is miles from here I’ll slow this

Time as I ride the waves you can’t hold in

The sight from my point of view is soo

golden

Soaking me

Drench me with sweetness

Volume increasing, you feel it

Oh you’re quite a tease when your

Looking this appealing

All these sweet moments

When the song comes to an end I sit there in a shocked silence. Unable to think. Or speak.

I only pull together enough strength to hit play again, falling back into Chris’s fancy chair that still smells like him as the song comes out of the speakers. 

My boyfriend’s voice fills the room as he sings about wanting to eat me out. Wanting to feel me come around him. Wanting to come home and spend time in my bed, our bed. 

That litte-

By the time the song ends for a second time, I lurch for my phone and hit call.

He answers in a moment, laughing as he says, “Hi baby. Did you like it?”

“Christopher…” I whisper, my eyes closed and my grip on the phone tight.

“Oh so you liked it then?” He chuckles like the demon he is.

I cannot stop the strangled whine that leaves my lips as I slouch into his chair. “Chris! This is not fair!”

“What isn’t fair, princess?” I can hear the smirk in his voice and am tempted to hang up on him just to be a brat. But then I wouldn’t be able to listen to his laugh. Or yell at him for making me horny in the middle of a Tuesday!

“You know what!” My voice is higher pitched than I would like, but Chris knows that I get whiny when I am needy. He claims he loves it. Hell, half the time he tries to get me to speechless so all I can do is whine unintelligent syllables at him.

My phone buzzes and Chris speaks, his voice lower and smooth. “Answer my video call princess.”

I do as I am told, my hand trembling a bit as I pull it away from my face and hit answer. The call converts from audio to video and I prop my phone up on his desk before slumping into his chair again.

“There is my princess,” Chris says with a smirk. He is lying on his bed with the phone hovering over his face. Swathed in warm light and barefaced, my boyfriend is more fucking beautiful than me. He makes a cooing noise as I pull his hoodie closer to my face. “Wearing my hoodie and in my chair? You missing me?”

“Needed the speakers to listen to the song,” I mumble as I blush. But I don’t dare look away from him. 

“And the hoodie?” One of his eyebrows goes up knowingly. 

I simply blink at him. Not willing to give him more ammunition against me when I am already desperate, needy, and lonely. If this were a battle, Chris had won a year ago with that first smile.

“Alright, well…you liked the new song?” He asks confidently. 

I groan and look away for a second but miss his face too much so I look back. “Christopher…I don’t know why you ask me that shit when you already know!”

“How would I know, princess? You haven’t said anything, do you hate it? I guess I should just delete the whole song right?” He teases mercilessly.

I take the bait. “Do you want me to show you?” My face is flushed and the hoodie feels both too warm and not warm enough.

Chris motions to me, not saying anything but I can see how his eyes glance down.

I lean forward to change the phone's angle before leaning back in his office chair again. But this time I wiggle the shorts and underwear I am wearing off and allow them to fall to the floor.

“Look, this is what your stupid song did,” I whine as I lift a leg over the arm of his office chair and lift up the hoodie to bunch it around my midriff. Now the camera can see all of me, from my red face to the way his hoodie devoured my body, all the way down to my wet pussy. 

Chris groans at the sight, a hand going up to brush through his hair. He bites down on his lip when I lower a hand to spread open the lips of my vulva.

“Look what you did!” I say huffily. “And you aren’t even here to take care of it.”

“Oh princess, I know. I am so sorry, I swear I would be there right now if I cou-” His voice falters when I let a finger start to circle over my clit. His eyes widen. “Fuck, baby. I miss you so much, such a good girl for me though aren’t you? Looking all pretty and wet for me?”

I nod hurriedly. Chris knows just how to press all my buttons despite my low sex drive before him. He also knows that if it isn’t with him, I don’t really enjoy anything. It’s the emotional connection to him that makes sex feel different than anything else, and while he can make me see stars with just his voice, I am always left feeling sad and alone, unsatisfied, unless he is here. With me.

“My favorite girl, want me to help you?” He asks but I shake my head. My finger continues to rub small, slow circles against the bundle of nerves. The pressure helps with the need that rushes through me.

“Need you,” I say pathetically. It makes me want to curse, or scream, or maybe just invent teleportation. 

“Fuck.” He groans and I see how his hand leaves the screen. I know he is probably about to go to bed, the simple tshirt over his chest and the damp hair meaning he finished his day. Meaning we have as long as we need. But I can’t. Not without him here. “Baby, you are so fucking hot, you know that? I want to make you feel good.”

“Need you here,” I insist, lacking the eloquence that someone with a degree in journalism should have. But he knows. We spent a long time figuring out my boundaries, and he knows that unless he is here, an orgasm is not worth my time. However, I can tease myself, get myself riled up.

His eyes close and his nostrils flare before he looks at me again. “I will be home as fast as fucking possible. That song baby? That song was a fucking promise, when I get back you aren’t leaving the damn bed until you can’t take anymore. You understand?”

I nod, my free hand coming up to grope at my chest, the action makes him groan and I can see how he shifts in bed. Probably already close to coming if I am right. I know when he is away from me Chris tries to abstain from any ‘extracurriculars’ out of solidarity for me even though I told him I don’t care. Even after I have called him to help him come more times than I can count. 

“Words, princess.” He commands.

“Y-yes Chris, I understand,” I say, trying to steady my voice.

He hums in appreciation. “Good girl, now I need you to do a few things for me okay baby? You listening?”

“Mhm” I mumble but I see the challenge in his eyes so I add on a “Yes, listening.”

“Good girl, need you to lift that hoodie for me, show me my pretty princess making herself feel good okay?” Chris tells me. I do as told, stopping my motions to raise the hoodie over my head and bunch it up behind my neck, this way my arms can still be in his hoodie, but my whole body is on display for him. He moans as I settle back down and raise my other leg over the arm of the chair. I am all spread out and on display for him in his hoodie and his office. 

I can hear the sounds of slick skin movie on skin from his end of the call. He must be speeding up.

“Alright baby, now touch yourself again, nice and slow, show me how wet you are.” 

I follow his instructions, slowly rubbing against my clit in vertical motions before going back to the slow circles. 

“Now a finger, in your pretty pussy, love, just to show me how tight you are.”

I lower my finger, teasing my pussy before dipping the finger in. I gasp and arch my back, eyes glued to the phone screen where I can see Chris breathing heavily. 

“Shit, yes, baby, fuck gonna come just looking at that,” He murmurs as a moan leaves his lips. The sound of his hand on his cock speeding up. “Want that baby? Want me to fucking come just at the sight of you all wet and needy for me?”

“Yes! Chris! Want you,” my words have left me completely. If we were being honest, I lost them halfway through his gods damned evil song. Now? I barely understood how to piece together the few syllables I did.

He grunted and I watched his eyes roll back. I heard when he came, no other sounds in the room than him breathing and the sound of cum hitting his shirt and hand. He looked at me with a dopey smile. “Fuck, such a good girl for me, my good girl. Can you do one more thing for me?”

I smiled and nodded, allowing my legs to fall back to the floor and my hands to go to the desk as I leaned forward. “What else do you want Chris?”

“Well I want you sitting on my face until you fall over from pleasure but that will have to wait.” His smile widens as my face flushes again and I scrunch my nose in fake disgust. “But for now? I need you to ask for Tuesday and Wednesday off of work. Our plane gets in at 2 pm on Tuesday and I have plans for us, as you know.”

I giggle and pick up the phone, bringing it closer to my face. “And if I told you I already asked if I can just work Monday and Tuesday morning next week?” 

Chris laughs and it makes me ache to have him here. “I would say that you are perfect. Do you want me to stay on the phone?”

“Chris, you are still in Germany, that means that while it is bed time for you it is only 10 am for me. I haven’t even started work yet because someone distracted me,” I say teasingly. 

He grumbles something I don’t understand as he rolls over in bed, my view of him shifting to see him standing and walking. If I had to guess, it would be to the bathroom to clean up the mess he just made. “Okay fine, go write something super smart for your adoring fans. But I miss you and on Tuesday I will show you just how much.”

I laugh as he stills in the bathroom, the lighting is much brighter and I can see how tired he looks. “Okay, but I am pretty sure you are the one with adoring fans. After all, they write in-depth smut about you online.”

“Hush you.” He jokes. “I love you.

“I love you too, darling. Get some sleep please?” 

He purses his lips and looks away, making me glare at the phone. “Christopher, get some sleep or I will call Felix and make him take your laptop. I will even tell him the password.” I threaten.

“Fine, fine, I will sleep. See you soon?” He says in resignation.

I smile and make an exaggerated kissy face at the phone screen. “See you soon.”

When he hangs up I am left, basically naked, in his office. And I have an entire article to write by next Monday if I want the week off to spend with him. An arduous task when one Bang Chan just made me horny.

・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

All of Tuesday morning I am glancing at the clock. On my phone, on my watch, on my laptop. Time moves too slowly for me. 

Around 11:45 Chris texts me saying they just got on the plane and he will see me soon. I groan as I realize I still have a fourth of my article to edit. I just send the piece to my editor and tell her I am out for the rest of the week. 

I trust her to make whatever changes she wants. We have been working together for about 5 years and if she thinks something needs to go she can do it. I am obviously not going to be productive today.

I close my laptop and get up, stretching as I head to the kitchen and grab the leftover Druken noodles I have in the fridge. As I eat at the kitchen counter, my eyes keep darting up to the time displayed on the oven. 

By 12:07 I am done eating. 

I throw away the takeout container and sigh, going to the couch and turning on reruns of Big Bang Theory. 

I last until about 12:53 before I get restless again. So I shit the Tv off and hook my phone up to the audio system in the apartment. I play my favorite playlist, a mix of music in about four languages I think? All of them inbetween r&b, hiphop, and pop. 

I tidy up my desk and sweep the living room, trying to force myself to focus on simple tasks instead of the fact that my boyfriend will be home in about an hour and a half. 

When I have cleaned the whole living room, scrubbed the kitchen counters, and folded all the clean laundry, it’s only 1:48. I still have 45 ish minutes before Chris gets here.

I huff out my frustration and make myself another cup of coffee before heading to the bathroom. To my giant tub, one of the few things I demanded from an apartment when I moved here. A tub big enough that it could fit 2 people and still be spacious. That was before Chris, and mostly because In liked really hot baths, I liked to go under the water completely and relax. 

Of course, after Chris entered my life I learned just how great it was to have a tub that big. But still, my favorite use was long, steaming hot, relaxing baths.

As I drank my coffee and scrolled through my phone, I allowed the tub to fill with hot water. I poured in Epsom salts halfway through, allowing them to dissolve by the time the water reached the top of the tub. 

My coffee sat on the edge as I undressed and got in, my skin turning pink in the water as I laid back and sighed. The music on the stereos played in the bathroom too, a command from my phone turning the volume in this room up as I started to shave. 

I focused on the task. Getting my legs, and then my armpits, before putting the razor to the side and allowing the water to drain from the tub. I started to refill it once the hair all went down the drain, not ready to leave the hot bathtub just yet. Instead, I laid back and scrolled through a new episode of a web comic as I drank my coffee. 

Suddenly the song that was playing stopped. 

I frowned and looked at my phone, but right as I went to switch to the app that connected the speakers to my phone, a new song started.

From the neck

I’ll be licking that down

With a face

Looking like u might pounce

This one wasn’t mine. 

It was Chris’s. 

Any second

I been thinking bout it loads out loud

Can I Kiss you on the hips

The one he sent last week, the one that got me so turned on.

The one I had refused to listed to again because I knew it was just going to get me hot and needy.

I set my mug back on the lip of the tub and my phone into the little waterproof basket. Standing up quickly as the beat builds in the song. 

I grabbed a towel and wrapped it loosely around myself as I stepped out of the tub. 

“Chris?” I call out into the apartment as I step out of the bathroom. My hair is in a messy bun, water still dripping off of me.

And there he is.

My beautiful, demonic, talented, insomniac boyfriend. Clad in grey sweatpants, a black hoodie, and a beanie over his long black hair. 

Chris is leaning against the doorway of our bedroom, as I leave the bathroom that is attached to said room. He smiles brightly as he sees me, voice low and real and here as he says, “Hi baby.”

“Chris!” I squeal and rush towards him, throwing my arms around his neck and laughing into his shoulder.

His arms are on me in seconds, one wrapping around my back and the other going to my hair, pulling it out of the messy bun and tossing the ponytail away. He cards his fingers through the pink waves and grips near the base of my neck to tug my head away from his shoulder.

His gaze flickers over my whole face, hungry. “Gods, I missed you,” is all he says before his lips are on mine.

I melt into the kiss with a whimper, my hands moving to grip his shoulders as I tilt my head back further and open my mouth to him. Chris quickly adds his tounge to the mix, sweeping into my mouth and across my lips with a hungry growl, using his hold on my hair to keep me positioned how he wants me.

I sigh into the kiss, happy to let him do whatever he wants as long as he doesn’t stop. I smile as his other hand goes from my lower back to my ass. He groans when he gets to squeeze my bare skin because the towel moves out of his way. 

He pulls away and I whine, already leaning back in, but he doesn’t let me, pulling my hair lightly to make me look at him. Chris smiles. “Hi baby, did you miss me?”

“Yes,” I say without hesitation. 

His smile gets wider and he glances up. “Remember this?” He is talking about the song that continues to play, his voice echoing through our apartment. 

I bite my bottom lip and nod.

“You remember what I said I would do when I got home?” He asks, one eyerbrow quirking up in that annoying way that he does anytime he gets cocky. 

I nod again.

Apparently it is not enough because he tugs my hair and squeezes my ass, making me gasp. “Words, princess. What did I promise you?” He asks as he leans forward to kiss behind my ear. I shiver from the featgherlight press of his lips to my skin.

“You-oh fuck, Chris,” I say quietly. My words earning me another encouraging hum from him and tug to my hair as he starts to graze his teeth over my collarbone. I take the hint, trying to piece together a full sentence. “You-you said you wanted to make me feel so good, keep going until I couldn’t take anymore.”

“Anything else?” he asks against my neck, sucking a mark into the skin. 

I whimper and nod. “Said you wanted me-fuck-wanted me on your face until I couldn’t hold myself up anymore.” Getting the words out feels like a battle.

He releases his hold on me and steps away, making me cry out at the lack of contact. But Chris simply tuts and grabs at the place where the towel is bunched up to keep it on me. “Sh, I keep my promises baby, but someone is a little too dressed. Can’t have that can we?” He asks as his tugs the fabric and lets the towel fall to the floor. As it hits the floor the song starts again. He smiles, looking me up and down. “Want me to keep the song on? Or you want me to turn on the normal playlist, princess?”

I bite my lip and have to resist the urge to cover myself up. “It can stay on…or it can be added to the normal playlist?” I suggest.

His eyes meet mine. “I love that plan. So now we are going to do what I promised okay?” I nod, reaching for him and leaning up to kiss him. He smiles and pulls away. “But first I need to change the music baby, go lay on the bed for me? All pretty and ready for me, right?”

I smile nervously. “Don’t take too long please?” I beg.

“I would never,” he whispers against my lips before pressing another passionate kiss to them. When he pulls away he groans and says, “Now be a good girl and do what I asked.”

I run a hand through my hair restlessly as I turn around and walk to our bed. I know he watches me go, can feel the way his gaze blazes onto my skin. Including when I crawl onto our bed and roll over so I can meet his gaze. 

He mumbles somthing to himself as he presses some buttons on his phone. The song switches to a playlist we made together a long time ago, songs that we both liked to use as background noise because I couldn’t handle the silence. The soft and sensual music helped me focus on him, on here, on now. 

He tossed the phone onto the dresser by the door as he walked towards the bed. I propped myself up on my elbows to watch him. He grabbed the back of his hoodie and took it off, the tshirt underneath coming with it, and both being tossed away from him.

I hummed appreciativly as I stared at the well toned muscles that flexed as he stopped in front of me on the bed. Chris liked to go to the gym for his anxiety or when he couldn’t sleep, so he worked out a lot. And I may appreciate that a lot.

His hands untied the top of his sweatpants and lowered them to the floor before he put a bare knee onto the bed and I smiled up at him.

He responded with a smile of his own, but his was much more sinister. This man was not my sweet goofy loving boyfriend. No, this man who hovered above me and grabbed my neck to connect our lips into another desperate and messy kiss was starving. He hadn’t had me in months. This Chris was hungry, and he was going to devour me. 

He started with my mouth, his tounge sweeping through and over my own. Sucking on my bottom lip and allowing his teeth to scrape over it. One of his knees came up in between my legs, pressing against my bare clit and making me moan into his mouth. Making my back arch before my entire body went lax into his hold, the only thing keeping me up was his hold on my neck that held my face up for him.

When I started to grind up against his thigh he pulled away and chuckled darkly. “Okay, okay, princess. I know, you need some release don’t you pretty girl?”

I whined as I ground myself onto him. I could feel his leg against my clit and it felt amazing, perfect, astonishing. Pick an adjective that could describe the feeling of a hot cup of coffee on a cold day or the feeling of stepping into a shower after a workout and it would describe this. “Chris,” I moaned out his name. Already so desperate.

“I know, my baby needs me. I made a promise after all,” he said as he winked at me and suddenly we were flipped. I was on top of him, my pussy pressing down on his boxers. My bare chest pressed against his as he smirked. “Time for you to sit on my face princess, can you do that?”

I nodded, but didn’t move. Instead I pressed down on the hard covered bulge in his boxers and moaned pitifully. 

He tsked and gripped my hips harshly, the sting making me gasp and arch my back. “Now now, I told you to sit on my face, be a good girl and do what you are told.”

I was helpless against his commands. The need to please him and his hands tugging me up his body moving me quickly to hover over his face. I gripped the headboard with one hand as he pulled my body down so I was mere inches away from his lips.

I could feel his breath against me and it made me shiver. Chris seemed pleased as he said, “There’s my good girl, listens so well. Tell me when you are about to come okay?”

“Yes,” I said breathily.

“Oh and baby?” Chris asked, his tone making me look down to meet his gaze from between my legs. “Remember your colors.” He smirked and pulled me down the rest of the way, lips connecting to my clit in an open-mouthed kiss that makes me cry out.

“Chris!” I practically scream as he enthusiastically laps at the wet lips of my pussy. Chris doesn’t start slow, no today he goes all in, flicking his tounge quickly over my clit before sucking it into his mouth and then diving into my tight core to drink the arousal that keeps leaking out of me.

My grip on the headboard is tight and I have no control over what comes out of my mouth. It is a constant stream of whines, gasps, whimpers, and pleading.

I make the mistake of looking down, meeting his gaze. Chris is staring up at me as he groans into my pussy, his eyes bright. It has my legs shaking, the sight of his black hair spread out across the bed and his eyes focused on mine. 

I feel dizzy with need, intoxicated by the way this man took me from restless to the brink of an orgasm in only a few minutes.

“Chris…Gonna make me cum,” I manage to gasp out and I feel his lips curve against me, his eyes crinkling as he smiles. 

He lifts my hips up a small amount to say, “I know baby.”

Then he forces me back down and focuses all his efforts on my clit, pressing quick flicks of his tounge that make me shake. Then he circles it slowly and pulls it into his mouth, sucking it in, grazing teeth against the sensitive bud lightly, before going back to attacking it with his tounge.

I feel the growing tightness in every part of my body, it starts at the base of my spine and in my clit, like a spark of unhindered pleasure. But it spreads, making every muscle in my body feel like it's on fire. My arms tense, my legs shake, my back arches, and I throw my head back.

My mouth is open but the only thing leaving my lips is pants as pleasure takes over me, my whole body freezing for a few seconds as waves of electricity pulse through me. Then it crashes, and I fall apart.

My legs give out but Chris holds me in place, still licking up everything that escapes me enthusiastically. He groans happily against me, the motion only making me shiver as I slump against the headboard and try to catch my breath.

But Chris doesn’t want me to catch my breath.

He doesn’t slow down, instead he gets impossibly faster, moaning against my skin and pushing me from the throes of one orgasm to the brink of another. My body is still quivering and the pleasure feels sharper.

When the next orgasm hits, I scream and let go of everything, falling forward completely. Chris finally slows down his motions to small little licks. He presses an open mouthed kiss to my swollen clit as he lifts me off of him and sits up.

I am barely aware of what is happening when he wraps his arms around me. Pulling me off of the headboard of our bed and sideways into his lap.

I look up at him with a smile that I intend to be content. But the way he chuckles makes me think it looks more dopey than anything else. I lift a hand to brush through his ruffled hair as I stare at the way his mouth, chin, and nose are glistening with my juices.

“Hey, there is my baby girl,” He coos at me with a sweet smile. I swear Christopher could turn anyone into an addict, the way he loves is intoxicating. It leaves me wondering how I could have ever lived without him. “I told you I would keep going until you couldn’t take anymore,” he teases.

I shake my head and tug his mouth towards mine in a wordless request. When he lowers his face closer to me, I don’t go to kiss him. Instead I lick up the remnants of me that are covering his face. My tongue tracing lines across his chin, his lips, his nose, as I clean him off.

His hold on me tightens as a low grumble reverberates through his chest. “Good girl,” he rasps out as I pull away to lick my own lips. His eyes track the motion of my tongue and he groans. “Fuck, I missed this.” 

Then his lips are against mine, his hand is intertwined with my hair and pressing me impossibly closer to him, the other hand on my back to hold me up in his lap. I smile into the kiss, allowing myself to try and tease back, letting my tounge graze over his as I moan into his mouth. I know how to make him lose control, how to ruin all his plans of just making me feel good. And the first step? Trying to escape this kiss, pulling away.

My movement makes his grip litghten on me in an instant. Then the world tilts. 

Suddenly my back is against the bed and his weight is bearing down on me deliciously. The kiss breaks only for his lips to travel down to my neck, teeth and tounge leaving lines and marks into my skin as I gasp.

My legs move to go around his waist, trying to bring myself closer to the bulge of his cock. He makes a tutting noise.

Against my skin he says, “I am not done with you yet, princess.” The words make my back arch and my core clench around nothing.

He lifts himself up, a hand going to move my legs from around him and back onto the bed, but then that hand goes to my core. Fingers slipping through the wet heat and over the swollen clit in a way that makes me let out a strangled moan.

“See?” He teases as he bites down on the skin above my collarbone, right over a tattoo I got 6 months ago of a flower. Chris likes to color the petals with reds and purples any chance he gets. “My girl still needs another orgasm before she takes me, after all she hasn’t had any for 3 months has she?”

I shake my head with a whine. “Not any good ones, not without you-Chris!” My back lifts off the bed as two fingers shove into my vagina, wet and slick with me. The stretch is harsh and stings in the most pleasant way, making me whimper and wrap my arms around his shoulders, holding on for dear life.

“Exactly, need to make up for months without me,” Chris growls out as he starts a fast pace. His fingers diving into me, every brush of them against the tight muscle of my entrance making me gasp at the delightful ache. He can tell when the pain starts to fade, when I start to adjust to his fingers, because I start to slow my breathing and my eyes slam shut. His voice is mocking when he asks, “Does my girl need more? Greedy little pussy not full enough yet?” He punctuates his words by curling his fingers upwards and brushing against the inner walls of my pussy, making me want to squirm. 

But he doesn’t give me another finger, only lifts himself up to smirk at me. I look up at him with hazy eyes and realize what he wants. He won’t give me more until I ask, and I can feel how the two fingers angled upwards inside of me just start to stroke the fires inside of me. The flames demand more.

So do I. “Chris, please, need more, need you,” I gasp out as I try to grind against his hand. We both know fingers in me is not enough to make me come, only enough to get me hot and bothered.

He chuckles and pulls his fingers out entirely. “As you wish,” he whispers before thrusting three back into my clenching core. 

I cry out and hear the sound of squelching coming from where he now stretches my entrance. The ache and sharp stretch that I adore coming back to feed the fire inside me. His pace is methodical, not as fast as he can go but not slow either. His eyes flicker over my face, how my mouth hangs open and my eyes remain unfocused. 

He leans down and kisses me, but I don’t have the state of mind to do much other than lean into his lips so it’s more teeth than lips. “Do you want to come again, princess?” He asks me quietly. “Or do you want to wait for me to be inside of you?”

I grumble something that I don’t even understand as I try to grab at the scattered threads of my thoughts. “You, want to come with you in-fuck!” A particularly harsh thrust of his fingers and curl of them upwards interrupts my words.

He chuckles lowly. “Okay baby, but I have to take my fingers out first okay?” He soothes as he slows his movements to an infuriating hum. 

“Hurry,” I cry out. The fire inside of me feels demanding, the flames grabbing onto anything and everything. The feeling of his lips soothing over the marks he left on my skin as he slips his fingers out of me. The feeling of his hair in my hand as I scratch against his scalp. The sound of his boxers being slid off and the way his weight settles back on top of me. I blink up at him, focusing my sight again. “Chris.”

“I know sweetheart, I am right here,” He hums, lifting my legs up to be pressed between us, to put me on display for him. “How many more can you take, love?”

I shake my head, not in disagreement but because I don’t know. The motion makes him smile.

I feel the head of his cock brush over my clit as he says, “Okay, use your colors like a good girl?”

I nod, desperate for him to just get inside of me. To make me feel full, take away the emptiness that I had drowned in false anger and way too much coffee while he was gone. 

“Good girl,” he whispers right as he enters into me, going slow so I feel how he forces into me. His cock is wet, he must have coated it in lube or my juices without me realizing, making the stretch smoother but still leaving that pain that always makes my toes curl. I may be a sadist, but who wouldn’t be when their boyfriend was thick enough to make three fingers feel easy?

He always went slow at first, no matter how many times I said I liked the stretch. No matter how many times I demanded he make me feel like I was being split open. No, Chris always inched into me with such patience it made me bite down on anything I could. Sometimes my lips, others my tongue, and today I had my teeth buried in his shoulder at the insistent gentleness. 

“There we go,” he said with a groan as his pelvis met with mine. I bit down harder in a wordless demand for him to move, impatient for more than just the heavy weight of him in me. He moaned. “I know, just give me a second, need to fucking breathe. So tight, baby.” 

I hummed, letting my teeth unlatch and instead licking at the bite marks in his skin as I relaxed into his hold. I was happy to go slow if he needed it, but hated if he went slow because he didn’t want to hurt me. After all, I found that pain only added to my pleasure. 

As I licked over the reddened skin again, I felt him adjust his weight over me. Settling his upper body onto his elbows as he began to pull out of me only to shove back in with a harsh and powerful thrust.

I made a noise that sounded like a squeak as my body took the force of his thrust and I felt how he moved inside of me. 

That is how he decided to keep going, pulling out only a small bit before shoving himself back in fully in forceful thrusts. The room was full of the sounds of grunts and whimpers, the quiet thud of his pelvis hitting my own.

“God, how do I ever leave you? Shit this is all I want, love you so much baby,” he grunted into my ear as he sped up. I could tell this would not last long, that we were both already diving down to the full depths of pleasure. 

But we had the whole week to go slow, to tease and edge, to dance around orgasms. Right now? Right now I wanted my boyfriend to come inside of me, to make me dizzy with lust and lose myself in another orgasm.

Chris seemed to have the same thoughts in mind as his thrusts became erratic, his hips shifting to change the angle of his cock. I moaned as the head of it started to hit the upper wall of my vagina, creating a pressure that tipped me into the chasm where I felt like I was floating on the pleasure. 

“So close baby, fuck, can’t last long in this tight pussy,” Chris groans over me. His breathing is mixed with low moans and grunts as he pounds into me. If he wasn’t caging me in with his body, I would be pushed up the bed with each thrust, but instead his elbows were right above my shoulders and his weight held my legs down into my chest, keeping me completely still and at his mercy as he chased his pleasure.

My body felt weightless, only able to pay attention to where his skin met mine or how his cock scraped against my walls. 

“Chris!” I screamed suddenly, my entire body shaking and my pussy clenching around his cock as the full force of my orgasm hit me without warning. I felt overwhelmed in the best way, only able to think about him. The constant chatter in my mind lost in the feeling of sharp pleasure through every cell in my body.

Chris stilled in me with a long drawn out moan and he twitched against my walls. I felt the warmth of his cum inside of me. “Fuck!” He sighed as he collapsed on top of me. I loved being crushed under him. His lips found my ear and pressed a whisper of a kiss against it. “So fucking good baby, shit.”

I hummed happily as I closed my eyes. I started to come back to myself in bits and pieces, the aftereffects of the orgasm thrumming through me. This was content, this was satisfied. If Chris wasn’t here, I would feel cold and empty and bored after an orgasm. I always did unless it was with him, unless he was here to keep my body singing. 

When he wasn’t here that fact frustrated me. How co-dependant was I that I couldn’t fucking come without my boyfriend here? But that wasn’t true. I was just different, I needed the physical connection for sex to feel good, the emotional intimacy to get me aroused

Chris pulled out of me slowly, the movement dragging me out of my thoughts as he dragged himself out of my pussy. “Okay princess, I want cuddles and kisses, but first a shower?” He asked as he rolled off of me. He propped himself up on his side and brushed my hair off of my face.

I smiled up at him lazily. “Wanna watch a stupid movie?” I suggested.

Chris smiled brightly at me. “Absolutely. We can pick something purely garbage, oh we haven’t watched Twilight in a while?” he mentioned and I lit up at the idea.

“Yes please!” I giggled. “I want to mock the Sparkly McBroodster and Madam Indigestion!” 

My stupid nicknames made him chuckle as he pulled himself off the bed. Picking me up as soon as his feet were secure on the floor. He demanded to carry me to the bathroom any chance he got, and I gave up a long time ago on pretending like I didn’t love it. 

“Looks like you left the bathtub full,” he commented as he set me down on the bathroom counter. I blushed.

“I was trying to relax, couldn’t stop watching the clock while waiting for you,” I admit shyly. My flushed face and small smile earn me a small kiss.

Chris moves to drain the tub before starting the shower. “That’s good baby, I am proud of you.” I instantly relax at the praise, watching as he tests the temp of the water. He always goes a tad too cold for my liking, something about not wanting to burn our skin off. But the way he hums to himself in affirmation is adorable. 

He turns back to me and I make grabby hands at him, acting like the spoiled brat I am. “Carry me?” I ask in a sing-song voice.

“Always,” He sweeps me up into his arms and carries me under the warm water. Letting me rest my head over his heart as he sets my feet on the tiled floor. I lean against him as he rinses us both off, carefully lifting my leg to scoop out the bit of his cum that is still leaking out of me. He kisses my hair. “I love you, baby.”

I smile and tilt my head up to meet his eyes. “I love you more. Thank you for the song, Chris.” 

[scuderiakarts]

So in other words, as any reasonable person already knew, there was obviously a disclosure process before appointing someone to an incredibly high profile job.

And obviously, the FOM took appropriate mitigating steps because they were aware of the conflict of interest and knew it was part of their role to keep it from becoming problematic (because secondary interests are not inherently problematic, they occur every. single. day in most industries).

And obviously the FOM, a massive organisation with high-powered lawyers on payroll know how to set up a COI policy properly.

And obviously, this entire investigation/internal review was fuelled by the “reporting” of one man known for writing sexist and borderline libellous hit-pieces on women in motorsports.

And obviously, the FIA gave into that public pressure because a) sexism and b) lack-of-spine-usitis

But of course we had to spend a majority of this week dragging one of the most successful women in motorsports through the mud because there was just no way of telling if this was a merited investigation on its face. But hey, at least it serves as a reminder to anyone up-and-coming in the motorsports world that your presence in it as a woman is always going to be doubted, maybe we were starting to forget that!

[tarncore]

03/12/2024

What is Fashion and Personal style?

Many people tell me that I have a distinct personal style, my own aesthetic. Some have gone ahead and called it “Tarncore,” a name that, I myself have taken fancy to. There are specific items, colours, etc, that are consensually associated with me. I’m not sure how this phenomenon came to be, yet these aspects of my personal style have come to define me in a way.

Now what exactly is style though? I feel like fashion taste is something that can be developed overtime, however, style is something that comes from within (this isn’t based on research just my opinion). Anyone can spend hours on extensive Pinterest boards and figure out how to cultivate for a certain aesthetic, but style comes from within. It’s not about what you wear, but how you wear it. The outfits and accessories that I use, although are pleasing, are not inherently unique and are mostly consumerism at its finest. But I make it look good with my confidence. I do not doubt that there are people who are far more fashionable than me, yet they are unrecognised as they lack this untouchable aura that I possess. Maybe I am just glazing myself right now, but my behaviour is out of the norm and can even be off setting. I DON’T MEAN IT SAY IM QUIRKY OR DIFFERENT. I am just like other girls, and other girls are great.

But the whole idea of wanting to appear different, is there anything wrong with being basic? I feel like at this point, being basic is thrown as an insult. Like if your basic, what’s wrong with that, that’s how YOU feel comfortable presenting. The way I show myself displays my voice and my opinions. I fight oppression subtly through hairclips and eyeliner. I LOVE bold bombshell type eyeliner oh my gosh. Note, when I am speaking of oppression I don’t mean sexism, racism, etc. I mean the suffocating culture that society forces us into. “Birds born in a cage flying is an illness” - Alejandro Jodorowsky

They say makeup is a form of oppression, telling women that they’re not beautiful and then monopolising on their insecurities. Although, this is very true for most of the industry, I also believe the makeup is empowering. I, as stated before, LOVE EYELINER and don’t get me started on kajal/eye pencils for a dark waterline. I am not insecure about my eyes in any way, in fact I think my eyes are one of the most beautiful parts of my face. But when I wear makeup, I don’t do it to cover up my flaws, I do it to show my disregard of the societal expectations of women in a subtle way. This bold look makes me feel confident and like myself, I feel like I am a person rather than a woman which is what I crave at my very core, to be seen not as my body but as my mind. I have been told I look “emo” and that I would look better if I wore brown eyeliner instead for a more natural look. Personally, I don’t want a natural look, stick that brown eyeliner up your ass! I don’t want to look good for other people, other people will never see me the way I see myself, so I might as well see me the way I see myself. I will not make myself an object for your gaze. I know I’m hot as fuck, I don’t care if others don’t see that, at the end of the day I am living my best life while they are wallowing LOL.

The statement “I know I’m hot as fuck” I know most people will not receive it well. It will seem ignorant and condescending, and personally I don’t really care. Being humble is supposed to be a virtue or whatever. So, I am just supposed wait for others to recognise my awesome qualities? Other people are worried about themselves, ain’t no one got time to recognise my greatness and honestly, I don’t want to rely on external validation, if there is something spectacular about me, I will state it with pride. I remember a couple years ago when I was drawing and a friend said to me “I didn’t know you were an artist” and I replied with “I’m not, I’m just drawing.” I was so afraid to recognise my own skill, I couldn’t even call myself an artist because I was afraid my art wasn’t good enough, scared I wasn’t good enough. It's such a frowned upon thing to be confident in your own ability, but in reality, there's nothing wrong with it. If I can appreciate others and their talents, why are my own not worthy of recognition?

[sirensoftheweb]

010101 Spells ‘Systemic Issues’ : "A Feature, Not a Bug"

By: Harmonia ✨

The article “A Feature, Not a Bug” dismantles the myth of Silicon Valley as a meritocratic haven and delves into the pervasive discrimination rooted in gender, race, and class within the computing industry. It exposes how, far from being neutral, technologies often reflect and perpetuate existing power dynamics: “Technologies designed to reorient the ways we live, work, and think more often than not are created to model or enhance older forms of power and prestige.” Sexist values that originated in the early 20th century continue to plague tech industries today, where women are still predominantly seen as secondary workers. Despite initially being favoured for early computing jobs, women faced marginalization as the prestige of computing work rose, leading to their replacement by inexperienced men. This systemic discrimination persisted, with women excluded from professionalization benefits in the 1960s, resulting in their labelling as “Excluded Grades” and contributing significantly to the decline of the British computing industry in the 1970s. These discriminatory practices not only created social problems but also hindered innovation and efficiency within the high-tech labour market, exacerbating shortages of skilled workers and operational inefficiencies.

The article draws upon Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed work, "Hidden Figures," to shed light on the pervasive gender-based discrimination in the UK government's computing sector and the impact of racism on technological advancements in the US space sector. Shetterly's book underscores “the importance of attending to the intersection of race, gender, class, and nationality,” compelling readers to confront the inherent racism ingrained in our technological ideals. Contrary to the oversimplified belief that the US "won" the Space Race by landing a man on the moon first, the reality is far more complex. Early setbacks for the US, including the USSR's pioneering achievements, such as launching the first satellite, Sputnik, and sending the first person into orbit, challenge this narrative. Shetterly's narrative underscores the critical significance of acknowledging race, gender, class, and nationality in the context of technological achievements. Figures like Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan faced systemic barriers due to societal marginalization based on race and gender despite their remarkable talents and contributions. While the US's post-WWII success can be attributed in part to the devastation of its rivals' infrastructure and economies, systemic sexism and racism within technological institutions hindered the full utilization of diverse talents. The failure to address online abuse, misogyny, and racism has allowed major computing platforms to be exploited by groups seeking to undermine political stability, highlighting how technological systems often perpetuate existing systems of privilege and discrimination rather than embodying true meritocracy. Technology serves as one more surface for the blinding and oppressive light of systemic discrimination to reflect off of, “yet, we struggle to see that this discrimination was, and still is, an integral, foundational part of most of the computing systems we think of as successful—and even essential—today.”

“A Feature, Not a Bug” emphasizes the importance of understanding the often obscured computing world and argues that the prevalence of these systemic issues within the tech industry are not glitches “but in fact designed to leverage and heighten existing discrimination.” Software development is often viewed as magic and black-boxed, creating a sense of separation and helplessness for users. Although the digital world is visited daily by most in Western society, users often do not understand how the technology works, making it impossible to decode the systemic issues that live in zeros and ones. 

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

i was being snarky but i got people who are genuinely confused in the comments and BOY do i love to infodump literary devices!! so here we go

"Fridging" is defined by TVTropes as "When a loved one is hurt, killed, maimed, assaulted, or otherwise traumatized in order to motivate another character or move their plot forward." Thing is, that could apply to a lot of things– for death, for instance, as Overly Sarcastic Productions put it, "While fridging is intended solely to upset another character, well-written character deaths almost always upset the other characters too. And since the character themself is usually too dead to care, most of the lingering ramifications of their death only affect the other characters." It is specifically a bad trope because it decides that any potential in their character is worth less than a shallow scene of Character A being sad, which they will forget about by the next arc.

Fridging is given as a trope solely to characters whose deaths/assaults/etc are:

ONLY added to provide motivation for Character A

This is the ONLY narrative role this incident plays. There is no exploration of how this impacts the fridged character or the world around them

"Fridging" was named by Gail Simone after a storyline in Green Lantern: A New Dawn, where Kyle Rayner's girlfriend is killed and stuffed in the refrigerator. She dies only to further this plotline and make the villain seem more evil, and then is practically forgotten about. Overly Sarcastic used the example of Gamora in the MCU, being killed just to make Thanos and Quill feel bad for a bit, and then she gets replaced by a version of her with zero of the character development everyone liked from her. As you can tell, this trope is almost always applied to women due to a lot of inherent sexism in the writing industry. This doesn't mean it can't apply to men, just that it happens less.

And it's not just death, of course– while Barbara Gordon was retroactively given a nice character arc and identity following her attack in The Killing Joke, the original intention for Barbara's paralysis was solely to upset her dad and Batman. How this affected her was an afterthought that had to be explored later, by different writers who actually cared.

"Death by Origin Story," meanwhile, is related but distinctly different. It's a character that dies in order to motivate another character, yeah, but their death is meant to kickstart the entire plot/character arc. See Uncle Ben in Spider-Man– while most adaptations/universes don't bring him up much after he's dead, his death is the reason Peter does everything he does. Batman's parents as well– they may not matter as people, but take them out of the story and you lose Bruce Wayne's entire emotional motivation. They don't die for shock value, and their deaths impact the characters throughout the entire story, not just a short arc.

The thing when looking at a story is that, once again as Overly Sarcastic put it, a lot of characters are supposed to be just plot elements. Because fictional characters aren't people, they're parts of a story the writer is creating. Now, that's okay– but when a character is fridged, the problem is it feels useless in-story. It takes a character who doesn't matter, kills them in a way that shows they don't matter, and only focuses on how sad another character feels about it before moving on. OSP used the example of Star Wars's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru for example; they basically only died so that Luke could get motivated to leave Tattooine, and once he did, they're never mentioned again. If Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were replaced by a dog, or a fun new speeder he just got, or just the farm itself, nothing would change. If Peter Parker's Uncle Ben was replaced with a motorbike, everything would change. Peter Parker's motivation relies on the guilt he feels over Ben's death and the feelings of responsibility that Ben imparted into him as he grew up.

As you can tell, there's a lot of overlap and confusion, but there's a fine line between them. All characters are plot devices, but fridging takes you out of the story and makes you aware of how much the author didn't care about the person they're killing/maiming/etc.

Like, okay, gamer example. Five Nights at Freddy's. The dead kids are absolutely fucking plot devices. They barely get named, let alone any personality. Charlie's only personality is from her robotic duplicate in an alternate universe. Crying Child only gets "cries a lot." But they don't feel fridged because their deaths are given narrative weight and drive, like, all of the plot. Just because "Henry feels sad about Charlie dying" or "Michael feels sad about CC and Elizabeth dying" doesn't make them fridged, because it impacts the entire story and explores the tragedy of these kids dying so young. But conversely, let's go back to Charlie's robotic duplicate– while in the novels, Michael would definitely be DbOS (he's a plot device and not a character, but his death impacts literally everyone in the books), I'd argue that The Fourth Closet fridges both Charlie and Elizabeth. Charlie dies just when she finds out she's a robot (so no interesting exploration of what that would mean for her psyche going forward), then dies so that her friends (mostly the male love interest) can feel sad about it. Elizabeth, after spending the entire book focusing only on her dad's goals and getting her dad's attention, dies with her because the writers couldn't think of any other way to get her out of the story. Charlie's fakeout death from the last book didn't feel like fridging because it was built up throughout the story and had narrative significance. The third book's deaths feel cheap and rushed, to the point where Charlie, the main character, never interacts with the main plot of the book, and dies across town from where the climax is happening, while a (male) side character kills off the big bad. The narrative significance of these two interesting girls is shortened to "and then they die so we don't have to deal with them anymore."

And okay, yeah, I'm posting this on my sonic blog cause listen. Maria is a Death by Origin Story, not a Fridging. Is she a plot device rather than a character? Yes. Could she be replaced by a shiny rock? No. Shadow's entire character and motivations rely on his previous relationship with Maria and her hopes for the future and wish to help others. Does her death make the (male) characters around her feel bad and motivate them? Yes. But she's also supposed to be seen as a character, and the tragedy of her death is that she was a child who was murdered and that she didn't get to actually live the way she wanted to. Her death isn't supposed to feel cheap, and despite Sega trying to avoid mentioning it, it's supposed to have narrative weight.

I can get when people say that, say, Molly from Sonic X was fridged, as her episode is a one-off and really only serves to motivate Shadow. While I love that episode more than life itself, I absolutely can agree there. I'd also argue that Sally got fridged a lot in pre-SGW Archie comics. First when she fucking died in the 50th issue because Ken Penders didn't know how to write women, then culminating in "the universe reset right after Mecha Sally happened so we don't need to care about that." Neither of them have the narrative weight of Maria's death, and thus moreso fit the definition of fridging.

where was i going with this. i had a point.

uhhh watch overly sarcastic productions ig

ok girlies do we have to have a talk about the difference between "fridging" and "death by origin story"

[rottenpeach2001]

Things I learned in WRI227 cont.- Lecture 5

Hello again people of Tumblr,

Today I will continue the lessons I learned from my social media and content creation class. Today’s topic will include themes of venture labour, SEZs, Foxconn and hustle culture

Venture labour is essentially allows companies to exploit people, especially women and minorities.

Venture labour refers to unpaid or uncompensated work that individuals often times women and people from marginalized communities, contribute to tech companies and other entrepreneurial endeavours. Such examples can be unpaid internships, volunteer work, equity compensations, and even emotional labour. In an article called “ The Unwanted Labour of Social Media: Women of Colour Call Out Culture as Venture Community Management”, Nakamura states that social media platforms can generate profits from the labour of volunteer community managers from their efforts to moderate hate speech and are often punished for the efforts form the online community. This labour is uncompensated in wages, and often employ other forms of currencies such as like, followers and sometimes praise by the industry. Other examples of venture labour, as I touched upon earlier, is the emotional labour. Communicating to the public and educating people about social justice issues, racism, homophobia and sexism are often overlooked forms of labour and are difficult and often times under appreciated.

2. Foxconn and its exploitation of workers in China.

Did you know that Foxconn is one of the biggest manufacturers of electronic parts and products, which supplies to various tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Sony. It’s well know for assembling products such as IPads, IPhones and other consumer electronics. In 2010, 18 assembly line workers attempted suicide, which was a tragically desperate plea for the improving the working conditions of the factories (Trusolino,2023).Workers of Foxconn face low wages, long working hours and excessive overtime.Reports have cited concerns of labour practices such as the need to make example of somebody for everybody else when a a manager has decided that someone makes a costly mistake. This practice is easy to perpetuate as American manufacturers take advantage of low wages, flexible labour laws and minimal worker rights in countries such as China, SouthEast Asia and Haiti (Trusolino,2023).

3. We do free labour for social platforms which extends to our data being unknowingly sold.

Have you ever gotten an ads that was so specific and something you might have just searched up recently? Welcome to the world of targeted ads. We assume that social media and other websites are free but in returns we pay it with our privacy. Companies like Facebook claim that they give access to user data if companies are Facebook partners, hence it’s not “sharing”. However, the Vice President of Advertising of Facebook claimed that they didn’t sell people’s data or share personal information. While targeted ads are not inherently bad, it can spiral into an algorithm that can push for content towards the user in order to dictate what they can view and consume as media (Trusolino,2023).

4. Growing Globalization leads to Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Globalization causes people to more interconnected in this era and this means that there is more interest in exploring and exploiting new markets (Trusolino,2023). The proliferation of SEZ is established through the diversification of economies and more . SEZ encourage the diversity by attraction of industries that can go beyond the traditional sectors (Narula and Zhan,2019) . This diversification can then reduce the country’s reliance on a few industries within their homeland and can contribute to the economic stability.

5. Silicon Valley gave rise to hustle culture.

Silicon Valley and hustle culture are closely related in the sphere of the tech and start up companies. Silicon Valley is prominent for it being the hot spot for innovation. Hustle culture refers to the culture of hustling to make an income and balancing multiple gigs (Trusolino,2023). The competitive nature of the tech industry gave rise to constantly working and prioritizing achievement and even promoted high intensity and the fast paced lifestyle. Silicon Valley also has placed an importance in ambitious goals and most importantly yielding success from such goals . This mindset can cultivate a sense of urgency and determination to excel, which often can cause the neglect of other areas of their life. However, the glamorizations of hustle culture fails to mention the magnitude of stress and uncertain futures of the people involved.

Sources:

Narula, R., & Zhan, J. X. (2019). Using special economic zones to facilitate development: Policy implications. Transnational Corporations, 26(2), 1–26.

Trusolino, M (2023). Lecture 5: Political Economy of Social Media: The consumer and Free Labour(Class Slides)

Nakamura, L. (2015). The Unwanted Labour of Social Media: Women of Colour Call out Culture As Venture Community Management. New Formations: A Journal of Culture/Theory/Politics, 86(1), 106–112.

‌

[genderisareligion]

How long do you think this trans nonsense is going to last? Do you think people, especially women, will eventually realise how sexist, homophobic and racist trans ideology is? Or do you think society is just going to keep regressing? I had a discussion - not even an argument - with a girl recently about it all, she has a brother that calls himself a woman, and she cried when I said that I thought we should be abolishing gender stereotypes. I thought I was pretty moderate, I said that I think people should be able to dress and act however they like, but it just doesn't mean that men can claim and appropriate womanhood. She cried and called me a transphobe, and then stormed out when I said that it's inherently misogynistic. Most of my friends, both men and women, agree with me, but said that I shouldn't have brought it up. Which I think is just shit - so women are just meant to lie back and accept the erosion of our rights? This issue is occupying so much real estate in my mind, I'm constantly thinking about how absurd it is and I'm constantly angry. How long do you think I'm gonna have to be angry for?

I can’t say for certain how much longer it will be, but I can recall what ten years ago was like, so maybe things will have changed that drastically in another ten.

2012 Tumblr was peak what’s good about liberal feminism. It’s not all garbage it is still feminism after all. Consent was a huge conversation, used to see posts about male rape culture in the tens of thousands of notes, it was cool and on trend to call out “I’m not like other girls I don’t need feminism,” sexism in the workplace was being addressed.

My in progress tag #notes is in part meant to capture what female solidarity used to look like on the site because it’s taken a massive fucking nose dive and I’m trying to figure out where we went wrong. Going through archives of radblr blogs around 2015-16 is when I start noticing more of the trans/TERF conversion happening, although it always was just on a much smaller scale using different words. “Lesbians who don’t like dick” and sex industry critical women have always been attacked for one reason or another iirc they just used to call us “radscum” and other nondescript shit before landing on these handy -ERF acronyms

The thing is 2012 Tumblr was also peak Superwholock Fujoshi time and “supporting the gays” (voyeuristically living vicariously through them) was more on trend than liberal feminism. The two were seemingly in unison at the time but were going to be at odds inevitably. Mostly straight and male-pref bi women (with a sprinkle of closeted lesbians) coping with IRL men’s increasingly sadistic view of women by fantasizing about safe love between fictional men on an obsessive level. Fandoms and thus show creators going out of their way to avoid F/F slash and instead feeding the monster that is M/M until Tumblrinas felt like just “supporting” them wasn’t enough and they had to skinwalk lol and shame one type of SSA while worshipping another

Iirc by 2016 gay marriage in the US (where most of these people live) had been “won” and queer MOGAI was the shiniest newest trend thanks to a number of influences (Caitlyn Jenner and LaVerne Cox come to mind but it was definitely more than just them). Liberal feminism is capitalistic at the end of the day and the powers that be saw “queering gender” for the cash cow it’s ended up being and the powers were probably terrified that in the early 2010s under popular lib feminism hundreds of thousands of girls and women were openly in agreement online that male violence was the problem. Now it’s “gendered violence” and you can never tell who’s a male and no one can call a spade in a dress a spade

It’s inconceivable to me to cry about the idea of gender abolition like your friend did anon…..makes me like sad how convicted so many women are about this. But I’m also not surprised and don’t blame them all because anti feminist males will stop at nothing. The TERF wars are so fundamentally ridiculous like the topic is a distraction about something that’s not even real yet they’ve made it seem so real and threatening by using their male privilege to instill fear and angry infighting.

I would advise you to not let this shit take up too much real estate in your mind. As someone who sort of watched it all start or at least get this bad I try to remember when I wasn’t censoring my language this much and when misandry was a fun meme on here. Also try to keep in mind how many times the queer theorists change their mind on what language is appropriate for who and when. I will never forget how quickly writing trans* with an asterisk or transwoman with no space became crimes when before you’d get lynched for not doing it. Imo things that change that often have no foundation or could change into something unrecognizable someday. Hopefully whatever follows gender is better than this shit. Hang in there 🖤

[my-mt-heart]

If we leave the gossipy nature of the topic aside, what bothers me is the inherent sexism of the rumor. Classic 'two women fight over a guy' trope. Why is it being framed like that? Who has something to gain from it? Rumors like this are always malicious, so the point of origin is someone with an agenda (even if it's just to throw shit at either woman). If you're not part of the conversation and don't know its context, how do you judge what's going on?

I know it's juicy and we're trying to piece together what happened to the show we were promised, so we're latching onto everything, but it feel like this particular argument is just shifting focus and blame onto another woman. She could feel whatever way about things, but she wasn't on set and she doesn't have a personal relationship with anyone in power at AMC.

The network has had a massive turnover of executives in the past year and I know a lot of people here seem to think that Norman can just roll up and demand things, but unless he's negotiating a new contract, he doesn't have the ability to make the network just give him shiny things because his partner wants them. That's not how it works.

Remember how MT keeps saying personal relationships is the lifeblood of the industry? Changing shooting locations or firing other talent aren't small asks to make and he doesn't have any leverage because he's under contract. It's a big sack of change for AMC to just toss away and it would affect Norman's professional reputation because word would get around.

There's only one person who'd be inclined to be that type of genie in a bottle and he does have his own reasons for wanting to change the spinoff. Occam's razor: with competing theories or explanations, the simpler one (with fewer parameters) is the most likely one.

[Don't know if you want me to leave all this well enough alone because I hear you on the not being a gossip column. The absolute need to find a woman to blame for this mess just bugs me.]

[soul-dwelling]

Long response ahead, as I agree with a lot of the remarks in the original post.

But I want to point out also how the Soul Eater anime would not have succeeded in its art style without the "skull face" designs and Ouran High School Host Club--two such wildly different design choices that helped make just about any character in Soul Eater look cute (Maka, Soul, Black Star, Kid, even Excalibur) or look horrific and bloodthirsty (Tsubaki, Patty).

And I want to point to some other examples, both in anime and manga as they stand right now with being way too hesitant to get away from certain visual cliches in making girl characters "cute," and in Ohkubo's inconsistent art style (I count at least five different styles, from B Ichi to the present).

Spoilers for Fire Force and a number of other series (My Hero Academia).

Let me start with my own thoughts before actually responding to specific passages by the original post: 

My own thoughts / rambling

Speaking as a cisgender man, I think there is no winning at this: a girl is drawn one way, and she’s not cute enough; she’s drawn another way, she’s still cute; she’s drawn another way, now some jackass claims she’s not feminine enough; she gets beaten up and scuffed up, that’s still not beaten up and scuffed up enough because now you’re letting her off easy because she’s a girl; she gets eviscerated and beaten and even disabled in combat, now it’s almost misogynistic or a double standard because the boys are not so brutalized. 

Blame it on toxic masculinity as well as the toxicity inherent in systems that refuse to combat the worst parts of patriarchy. I’m really wanting to give credit to Ohkubo and staff at Studio BONES--while at the same time I am excoriating them, mostly Ohkubo, for just some of the most misogynistic shit in his creations--because they managed (in Ohkubo’s case, despite himself) to make an art style in the anime that avoided a lot of the pitfalls already inherent in an anime industry that, as I just said, is within some really toxic economic and cultural systems. 

But given that it is Ohkubo who fucked up on a lot of this, I tend to give more of the credit to the staff at Studio BONES for making Soul Eater successful, because I think without that anime, the manga would have squandered a lot of that good will. 

I don’t know how many times I have said on this blog that Studio BONES was able to make a definitive look to Soul Eater that exceeds any of the many styles Ohkubo tried with the Soul Eater manga and just couldn’t stick to. 

BONES was able to succeed for at least two reasons: the skull faces, and the Ouran High School Host Club influence, whereby this series had the goal of making just about any character have the potential of reaching either pole along the cute-horrific binary. What do I mean by that? The skull faces meant this series could make any character as horrific and frightening as it wanted, and the Ouran influence meant it could make any character as adorable, charming, and huggable as it wanted. 

Soul Eater, as an anime, got to be violent. It was allowed to make its characters frightening--not just a Kishin or a mummy or a werewolf but even sweethearts like Tsubaki, who is ready to murder her brother, or Patty, who can alternate between gleefully childish and crazed homicidal. Some of that owes to how BONES was able to physically wreck all of the characters, regardless of gender, and make them just look awful, whether bleeding, broken, bruised, sliced apart, crying their eyes out, sobbing (like Maka losing it with ugly tears when Crona was stabbed), screaming in utter agony (like when Asura crushed Maka’s ribs in the final). 

As a result, the anime avoided some accusations of sexism or misogyny or privilege (some, not all--you can’t have this series as it was, especially with its fanservice problems, and act like there was zero sexism or misogyny involved). It didn’t matter how adorable Maka was or that she was the protagonist, she also was murderous and in danger at any time, and her physical appearance would not be saved by the story alone. Look at the scraps and bandages she still had after the Kishin Revival or when Black Star knocked her into the trash bin. Granted, maybe that “cute factor” stayed in place ("Maka looks adorable even when bruised and bandaged")--but you could make the same argument that even when Spirit, Soul, Black Star, Kid, and others were bruised and scraped they still looked “cute” while they were recovering.  

And that’s the flipside of all of this: that also meant the artstyle could make just about any character look cute. It is now not just Maka or even other girls who get to look cute, now Spirit, Soul, Black Star, Kid, and so on all get to look adorable and soft and huggable. If Ouran High School Host Club didn’t exist, I’m not sure Studio BONES could have pulled this off with Maka, Soul, and the others, that they all have the potential to be adorable and soft and cuddly until the scene demanded that they now lean into the Lovecraftian / David Lynch / Tim Burton / Henry Selick horror. 

Hell, this series managed to take Excalibur, who in the manga is still rather stiff and oddly proportioned, and make him look cuddly and plushie-like despite his obnoxious personality, thereby making the joke work better: now not only does he look weird and hence not likely to be a legitimate threat, but now he also looks cuddly, so when he says the most obnoxious things they come off as even more hilarious. 

And now, to finally address some points made in the original post: 

Quoting from the original post: “Like you know what I mean - like these weird idol anime with overly glossy eyes and shroedingers "is it supposed to be cute and childish or sexualised* tone (maybe I'm spoiling to much the iceberg and my negative opinion of SE Not...)”: 

Yeah, as I said, the Soul Eater anime benefited from being able to position characters along two poles--the horrific and the cutesy--and shift a character’s design where it needed to be depending on the scene. It’s probably nowhere nearly as subversive as, say, Madoka Magica, where the cute designs are there in order to contrast with how horrific the story will go. 

And as I said, there is no winning with a lot of the content out there right now that is being read within economic and cultural systems that privilege what the patriarchy wants with regard to making girls and women look and act certain ways. Look at My Hero Academia: is Mirko’s body ripped apart because her behavior and appearance aren’t cute enough and the fixation on her muscular body means that she has to have her limbs ripped off, does Toga’s cute design contrasting with her simultaneously horror-inspired design mean she is doomed because she can’t fit into some visual mode (similar to how she can’t fit into society anyway), and is Midnight killed off because of the Madonna-whore binary? 

It’s even a persistent problem in a lot of works, including in anime and manga, that, while I don’t think are sexist and show far more variety in roles for girls and women, still play it too safe with designs for girls and women and keep wanting those designs to be cute or at least not what would be deemed “realistic” or even “ugly.” I’ll give some examples below: 

I saw a manga that was about women in kick-boxing--and you can tell who the main protagonist is because she’s given a very cute design without any cuts or bruises, while her opponents are drawn to be more grotesque. Come on, even Hajime No Ippo gave the main men protagonists some “unattractive” physical features--they are kickboxers, ugly them up a bit! 

I love Akane-banashi and Blue Box, but both series are too same-y in some faces and body types for girls and women. 

I love the girls and women’s facial expressions in Show-ha Shoten and how “ugly” those facial expressions get, and I love how there is variation in body types, including in weight and height--but I think they could have leaned more into such variations among the girls and women given how much more varied the boys and men are in the series. 

For every Buddy Daddies that has some variety in women’s character designs and experiences, there is a Spy x Family that has the attractive designs for the sake of contrasting the characters’ jobs and personalities, or lean way too much into “this person is old and not that attractive, therefore she is a real jerk to our main characters, and that old woman is a real shrew to her husband” (seriously, Spy x Family, a boring and offensive “shrewish nagging wife” archetype?), an overly simplistic conflation that says your outside matches your inside, which is just not as interesting as “hey, this person is not gorgeous but they are a good person and they are loved and have romance in their life in a committed relationship with a partner.” 

Quoting from the original post: "But I dunno, even beyond my own paranoai of if a piece of media is supposed to appeal to a certain "demographic", I just think there is something lost in manga Maka, especially compared to her earlier charachterization and the animes continuation of it."

I look at the two images the original post shares, of Maka’s determination in the anime’s final arc to defy orders and to hunt down Crona and Marie, and of Maka’s blushing and insistence in the manga that she wants to be called angel. I get upset imagining how Studio BONES could have adapted that manga moment into the anime--because we already saw they can make Maka blush and make it look cute while still keeping with their style, with her personality, and with her integrity (when she blushes at the others making fun of her for writing poetry)...

[ID: From the first Soul Eater anime, Episode 31, Maka's face is completely red in embarrassment as she bows her chin down and looks behind her at Liz and Patty, their backs to the viewer. In front of Maka are Black Star, his hand on the back of his head and his arms up, and Soul, his chin up and his hands in his jacket's pockets. All of them are standing in the DWMA hallway during daytime. End of ID]

And that was animation adapted from part of the manga, that had an artstyle at that point not too dissimilar to the moment the original post showed. (Maka blushing about her poetry was before Baba Yaga, Maka blushing about “angel” is post-Baba Yaga, so, not quite the same art style, distinct enough art styles, but one was subsequent to the other, so they are more similar than, say, B Ichi is to Fire Force.) 

Quoting from the original post: "I think the last time where you really saw it in the manga was around the Arachne madness chapter where she confidently just stretched out her arm to Soul. Idk. People will probably think that I mean "wow, you want Maka to be some fearless badass!!?" and nah, I dunno, maybe Im just fighting phantoms, but I dunno I think there is something there, mayb even something my own stupid story failed to capture, but that what made the whole "bravery" thing at the end work."

Maka looked the most Studio BONES “skull face” in the manga at that point when she reached her hand out to Soul--a reason why the Baba Yaga period of the manga is probably my favorite in terms of Ohkubo’s art style. 

And speaking about Ohkubo’s art style: I think we have to talk about how his art style kept shifting so much, and how it makes it hard to get a read on how Maka quote-unquote “should” look in adaptation. And that means also having to talk about his art style into the present, including with Fire Force. 

If I may spoil Fire Force, this is also why the twist at the end of that series doesn’t work: the visual style and character designs in the last chapters of Fire Force are changed to more closely resemble Ohkubo’s style in Soul Eater…except it doesn’t, for two reasons.

First, Ohkubo’s style never stayed the same across Soul Eater and Soul Eater NOT. 

There are at least five different styles in the Soul Eater manga: 

The post-B Ichi style for the three-chapter prologue and the initial chapters. 

The change around the Kishin Revival Arc that lasted to the end of the Baba Yaga Arc, and which is probably the manga art style I most prefer. 

The post-Baba Yaga style that lasts through the Book of Eibon Arc. 

Then his style changed again around Soul Eater NOT, and that style stuck with both Soul Eater and NOT until their conclusions. And that final art style is pretty much how Fire Force looked throughout. 

But then Ohkubo again changed his style, mostly for social media artwork of Maka and company, and covers for the Perfect Edition of Soul Eater. 

So, at least five styles: post-B Ichi, Baba Yaga, post-Baba Yaga, NOT/final arc/Fire Force, and Perfect Edition/social media. 

And when the stuff in Fire Force looks more similar to mid- to late-Soul Eater, that means the prequel joke doesn’t work: Fire Force doesn’t end suddenly looking like the first chapters of Soul Eater, if anything the style at the end of Fire Force is more similar to the post-Baba Yaga style. Little Maka at the end of Fire Force should look like post-B Ichi Maka, with the same more Cabbage Patch Doll babyface proportions--that is the joke, and Ohkubo couldn't even commit to the bit to make this look more like Soul Eater Chapter 0 instead of how he draws Maka and company right now. 

So, that’s the first reason the twist doesn’t work. 

The second reason the twist doesn’t work is the connection between Kid and Shinra. Again, Ohkubo’s art style shifted so much that it wasn’t until he started doing the Perfect Edition covers and more art on social media that Kid and Shinra looked at all similar--and they still don’t look similar to me, no more so than just about any of his characters look similar because that is his style. It’s why the in-story claim that Lord Death based Kid’s face off of Shinra’s doesn’t hold for me: I can’t see that, if only because Ohkubo’s style of drawing has shifted so much that pinning it down to any one style fails to make Kid as he appeared throughout most of Soul Eater to look similar to Shinra throughout most of Fire Force. 

At least when I can joke that Mana, Patty, and Iris all look alike, it’s by associative property: Patty’s cowboy outfit is based on an outfit Mana wore in B Ichi, then Iris kind of looks similar to Patty, so even though Mana and Iris don’t look at all alike, they both look similar to Patty because Patty’s art style shifted so much during Ohkubo’s run. 

So, that’s about all I have to say in response right now.

Anime Maka vs Manga Maka

Is there anything more to say?

But nah, I know I will be accused of cherry picking, and yeah I know there are many manga moments that show Maka being more simmilar to the Anime Gif in demeanor, but I dunno, I think the point still stands:

I think it's another reason where the manga falters in my opinion, people dont often discuss it, but to me it just seems Maka is reduced to this weird "uwu kawaii" thing (lol dont even how to call it without ruffing too many feathers) - and people will try to respond "Well shenis cutesy in the anime too!" , and I think thats the point: cute vs "kawaii" - yeah its a weird way of describing it, but its the best dichothomie I can come up with - the first is not creepy, like seeing your kids find a new bug and excitedly showing it to you like its the biggest discovery in the world, get what I mean?

While "kawaii" is one reason why I dont really consider myselfs an "anime and manga fan" in general (yeah Im full of contradictions dont gotta tell me lol, but maybe thats why its post anime...not...)

Like you know what I mean - like these weird idol anime with overly glossy eyes and shroedingers "is it supposed to be cute and childish or sexualised* tone (maybe I'm spoiling to much the iceberg and my negative opinion of SE Not...)

Like its not even me trying to say "Oh I hate all cutesy stuff", nah I genuinely like the Maka Crona moments for that fact, but ,I atleast I hop,e there are different from the standard anime thing which has those creepy undertones like all these "uwu senpai wants to sleep in the same bed with me??!" like you know these scenes arent written for girls of the depicted ages but for and by 40 year old greassy guys with guilty consiousnesses...

But I dunno, even beyond my own paranoai of if a piece of media is supposed to appeal to a certain "demographic", I just think there is something lost in manga Maka, especially compared to her earlier charachterization and the animes continuation of it.

I think the last time where you really saw it in the manga was around the Arachne madness chapter where she confidently just stretched out her arm to Soul. Idk. People will probably think that I mean "wow, you want Maka to be some fearless badass!!?" and nah, I dunno, maybe Im just fighting phantoms, but I dunno I think there is something there, mayb even something my own stupid story failed to capture, but that what made the whole "bravery" thing at the end work.

But maybe the iceberg will explain it all...

[larrydoinglaundry]

Twitter and some people here are focusing on the male part of que quote and I can see why. It’s interesting how they did the radio thing, but it’s a bit insulting to the female fans when we were the one who got Louis to the number 1. But in overall it was a good interview! but she should have expressed that better…

oh i agree that the male audience part was very distasteful and inherently just reeks of sexism. it definitely gives "in need of male validation" vibes and implies that female audience alone is not worth taking seriously.

correct me if i'm wrong though but i think the interview is from a magazine that is not really directed at fans or gp but others who work in music industry. kind of from professionals to professionals, and therefore the tone of the interview is her pretty much boasting and showing off their strategy to the others who work in the industry. don't get me wrong, it definitely doesn't make the bad points any better, but it gives it a bit more context on why it's written the way it is.

[fairycosmos]

Stoned moment but I honestly think fat is so demonised in society bc women carry fat more easily like biologically speaking, I reckon if it was men who were the ones that did fat wouldn't be neeeearly as vilified. Like I get that men get shit for being fat too which is horrible but the beauty industry is inherently misogynistic n I think fatness is such a big part of it like. Intersectional. U know?

totally totally......fatphobia is a consequence of so many systems of oppression tbh like sexism classism and racist eurocentric beauty standards to name a few. nd it really doesn't escape me that those who bear the brunt of it are often women especially women of colour. it's just another way to police and control our bodies and to vilify our natural selves literally for just existing as we are?? if they can make us hate and fear ourselves like that then they can sell us anything if they promise confidence and thinness in the advertisement. but yeah dw not a stoned moment ur so so right it's very blatant. if mens bodies metabolized and carried fat the way we do im sure it would be seen as a sign of health or strength 🙄

[o-uncle-newt]

I think both of you are right, and she was a religious conservative with some really interesting and sometimes quite progressive views which always come from an innately socially conservative viewpoint in a way that can actually be pretty fascinating.

Sayers will never be progressive by 2024 standards, and I think it's debatable if she was by 1924 standards, but she was often interesting if nothing else! Would I say her views on women are "progressive," I don't know, but they're certainly very clear eyed about sexism (if you haven't read Are Women Human definitely do!). At the same time, IMO in some ways that same essay perpetuates other ideas of hers that seem to me to be inherently conservative, such as the idea (also propagated at length in Gaudy Night) that particular people are meant for particular jobs/tasks, which she develops further to be more about the decline of society through industrialization in ways that I've seen/heard people say are "anti-capitalist" but I think are actually pretty regressively conservative in terms of class and society. (I think she's trash on class, for the record, all of it from this same socially conservative viewpoint.) Basically, she was a really thoughtful person with lots of really interesting views on things that I don't think can ever be called "stodgy" because they can just be so creative and relevant, while also not necessarily "progressive" because of her internal assumptions that underlie the views and how she articulates them.

Re antisemitism- one of these days I will write my Essay about Sayers and antisemitism lol (in the meantime I need to do more reading). In brief, I kind of think of her as a Christian philosemite, in some ways a throwback to the early modern period in terms of an assumption of the superiority of Christianity yet assigning special and often benevolent significance to Jews that intrinsically included antisemitic elements because they were inextricable from their overall viewpoints. This is definitely weird, but it's way more interesting than Christie's "standard middle/upper middle class condescension" antisemitism even if it's more modern! I don't think Sayers can be summed up as either regressive or progressive- she's got her own thing going on.

To go back to the OP's original point- I think that her love of people is KEY to this. Take the antisemitism angle- I'm not sure she got Jews at all, but her being so brilliant at humanizing her characters prevented even some of her mess-ups from being as bad as they could have been and imbued them with complexity. Christie maybe has fewer actual words in her books that are antisemitic, but that's because Jews barely exist in her universe except as vaguely sinister, or at best social climbing, sideline figures. In the world of Sayers they DO exist as part of the world's fabric- for better or worse, given how she chooses to portray them or have characters talk about them. Even the ones that, like Christie's Jews, seem more like stereotypes are usually imbued with enough personality/humanity that I, at least, feel more comfortable with them.

The thing I'm enjoying most about the Lord Peter Wimsey books- I'm on #3, "Unnatural Death" right now- is that Sayers genuinely seems to love people

and it keeps her out of a LOT of the pitfalls that, say, Christie regularly falls into, even though she's stodgy and not particularly progressive by anyone's standards

[fourangers]

Hi Fourangers,

First of all, I love your blog so much. It's like going through a history back when Naruto Manga chapters were released weekly and your reviews were so Golden, Hilarious and spot-on. Am a new fan though (especially an SNS fan), I just got into this fandom only this year. I don't know if you'll answer my ask, but I just wanted to try and ask you few questions and I pray that you might answer me....

1. Since you've written in a post that you were active in the eastern part of the fandom, How was chapter 698 received in Japan? Because this is the chapter I inherently realized they both love each other. Yeah, I was too late but somehow whenever they interact with each other in previous chapters I always find them to be 'Weird' for just to be friends. Chapter 698 is just blatantly obvious that they love each other. Considering Homophobia and Shounen genre, I have no idea how it was perceived over there back then in 2014.

2. Which scene made you to ship SNS?

3. As an SNS'er how do you feel about the ending, where everyone was married off when they were just 19 just to make some shitty sequel??? As a new fan, I felt betrayed and It would've been perfect if they had stopped at chapter 699, leaving an open ending.

4. How do you face with the accusation about Naruto and Sasuke as brothers and we, SNS'ers are Incest shippers??? I don't care about that Indra and Ashura thing. But Naruto himself told he considers Sasuke as his Brother couple of times. And in Chapter 699, Sasuke acknowledged, 'He finally understood what it meant'.... It's the only thing that confuses me and I don't even have an answer!!! Plus, Kishi himself gave an interview that he based Sasuke on his Brother... I really wonder how he gave such an interview when he literally made them wear necklaces with each other's faces.

5. How was Naruto and Sasuke's sexuality perceived in the fandom back then??? Man!! Kishimoto just made lot of comic reliefs on their sexuality by making Sasuke on Sai jutsu, Naruto not interested in Icha Icha but making Reverse Harem no Jutsu, Naruto was angry when Konohamaru made Boy on Boy jutsu whereas he had no problem with him doing it. LOL. And all those homoerotic posters. What do you think about their sexuality, personally??

6. Why did Kishi had to develop their bond as Soulmates with some unintentional or intentional romantic undertones, if he was eventually going to pair them up with girls??? He easily could've gave many such romantic tropes to other girls and keep the bond between N and S as purely friendship or brothers. It still would've made sense.

7. Final one, Was Naruto really Nosebleeding when Kurama made a joke about Sasuke's kiss in Chapter 572???? We had a lot of heated discussion with other shippers where they claim that it was just a splotch of snot.

Sorry for the lengthy ask....... I am so eager to know your answers and I don't want to spam your ask box by sending multiple asks.

Thanks 😊😊😊

Hey yo! Welcome new SNS fan! I'm so glad that you joined us and I'll try to answer as best as I can. I'm not very active here on tumblr (except browsing lol) but your ask was such a delight to read.

1. I honestly don't remember. I think I didn't follow the japanese boards until the eventual 699-700 disaster. People were craving for reactions and I was curious about it too lol. And well...it's been years, I doubt I'll be able to find the reactions from that time. Imo, most readers don't care much about pairings, they just wanted to read about power-ups and abilities and the basic Naruto Vs Sasuke. Though there are some backhanded jokes about how gay Naruto is for Sasuke.

2. Hah. It's going to be very anti-climatic but it was when Naruto and Sakura were eating in Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto just used Rasenshuriken against Kakuzu and he busted his arm. Sakura was healing his arm and her attention was focused on Naruto. I used to be a NaruSaku shipper so I thought "Oh hey! This is the moment that Naruto would have a candid romantic moment!" But nope. He talked about Sasuke. And I was already getting suspicious about Sasuke's feelings towards Naruto ya know? And the whole "SASUKE IS MIINEEEEEE" in Orochimaru's lair. It was that moment I thought "you only have Sasuke in your head don't you, Naruto?" and started shipping SNS.

3. Hooo boy was I surprised when it was suddenly revealed that they had the basic heteronormative, boring marriage with bunch of clones of themselves. Everyone thought that it was almost like a bad fanfiction come true and some thought that it was fake. It was a pandemonium lolololol. I also thought that it was too lame to be true and lo and behold, when it came true I was floored. And then whenever Kishimoto threw new material, I got insanely pissed off because S*arada and B*ruto becoming pairing material is ok because they are a girl and a boy, and then they paralleled with Naruto and Sasuke which are only FRIENDS because they are both men. ARGH. Open ending was what Kishimoto planned from the very beginning but wrote a sequel to earn more money.

In that aspect, I made peace with it because of the whole anime/manga industry. I learned that, as a mangaka, you don't earn a lot of money with selling books, but rather with merchandise and profiting with sales right. And that guy have a family to raise, have two kids (which is hilarious about how B*ruto movie is his self-insert story), he needs a steady income. Also, I read reports about how anime studios are so poor and animators don't receive a decent income not to mention they are overstaffed and tired, and B*ruto is a good money cow for them to earn money so they can invest later on other anime they have more passion about it. So even though I hate this story with a strength of thousands suns, they are putting meal on people's tables and making them pay rents. I'm ok.

4. Lemme roll my eyes because in the Last movie they said that Hinata is related to Kaguya and so is the Uzumaki and Uchiha clan so they are all related woo hoo. But in the aspect of brothers because reincarnations bla bla bla, didn't Naruto himself said that he's no longer that brother, he's himself? Hmm...I gotta re-read it. One day. Maybe. lol. But I'm sure that he said "Sasuke is not my brother but I'm sure we'll understand well as friends" so there. Honestly, there are a lot of interviews out there and a lot of them are fake, so I'd always take the interviews with a grain of salt lololol. I do know from artbooks that Kishimoto wanted to create Sasuke as a rival-esque character and that was it. As he was developing Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, since he liked the whole yin-yang concept, whenever he wrote Naruto's story, Sasuke's was developed at the same time as his shadow.

5. I can tell from Naruto Forums (I used to participate back in that day) MOST of the non-shippers thought it was gay as hell, but you know...it was a relic of that time. While they thought it was gay, they didn't put too much thought about you know? Because it was shounen, and we knew that it was a joke that it couldn't be taken seriously. Of course, in the SNS fandom, we did make more analysis and there were a lot of instance when Naruto and Sasuke's sexuality was questioned. Some other non-shippers also thought that Naruto was totes gay for Sasuke (including a IRL friend).

Imo, Naruto is definitely bisexual in my view. Sasuke I think he's asexual or gay. He's attracted to Naruto, but mostly because of his connection to him, not because of his physical attributes, so yeah...asexual. Or Pansexual. Sasuke is more complicated lmao. Imo, Naruto could be pansexual too, come to think about it. Yeah, I guess both being pansexual can be valid.

6. He developed Naruto and Sasuke being soulmates from the very beginning, that was proven in his comments in artbooks and in the manga. He probably created with the intention of making it purely platonic, going beyond physical ties. Then he shot himself on the foot by drawing Naruto thinking about Sasuke on bed, talking about how Sasuke is cool, meanwhile Sasuke waxing poetic about how Naruto saved him. What gives? Lol. Yeah, I think he got too enamored writing their relationship that he didn't have time to write romantic ones. What I noticed that Sakura's popularity never was really high, so I could see some editors putting their fingers all over it and making her less relevant. Also, Kishimoto didn't know how to handle her, so when she got her time to shine was the whole fake confession disaster. Coupled with Kishimoto sexism and, in his words (Kurenai's flashback), women are useful to spout more babies, women was never really relevant in his story, unfortunately. Even Kaguya who was technically the big bad boss, was never really fleshed out in comparison to Madara. So the null het romantic moments it's not because he wanted to elevate SNS moments, it's more about how he's incompetent about it. It's either Hinata slowly elevating to a relevant status because forced interaction (Pain's sacrifice and Neji's death) or Sakura being obligated to be pining over Sasuke because she's a girl. It's even more painful to see that, if we ignore B*ruto, both girls are shown to be just talking with their kids and dusting shelves, basically being housewives, even though thorough the story (especially Sakura) it was implied that both of them have much more potential than being their husband accessories.

7. It was a splotch of snot. I can confirm myself lol. Whenever the chapter is out and fans would scan it to scanlate it, the editor usually would amp up contrast to max. So usually the lines get much more thicker than usual, when you read the official release which gets straight from the source, you can notice how the lines are more delicate.

Oh lol...but then we also have a lot of controversy about translating style. THAT one is a whole new can of worms to open.

Man I had fun answering your questions! Please send more :P

[comrade-meow]

“Me love you long time” is a phrase often used when referring to foreign Asian women and sex. It may or may not be explicitly associated with illicit sex but the clear underlying message is that the Asian woman’s role is to sexually serve the man. She is to be docile, unassuming, exotic, and demure — yet wildly sexual and uninhibited. A woman with “slanted eyes and creamy yellow thighs” (lyrics from “Asian Girlz” song) to be tamed and devoured by the white man.

If you ask anyone younger than 30 where the roots are from the line, “Me love you long time," you’d probably get a blank stare. They may think it’s just broken English from an Asian woman who is truly trying to express genuine affection to someone in English.

The reality is that this phrase, “Me love you long time” is not “I love you” coming out awkwardly in an Asian accent. Instead, it’s a phrase popularized by Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 movie, Full Metal Jacket, where the line itself is taken from the scene where a Vietnamese woman propositions herself to two American GIs.

The movie’s objective was in capturing the essence and impact of the Vietnam War based on the experiences of a U.S Marines Corps platoon. The term has since become a popular part of the American lexicon spoken with limited insight into the past or a desire to ignore the realities of the present.

The scene unfortunately speaks the ugly truth about collateral damage in wars, especially U.S. military occupation overseas in Asian countries. The first major American White sexual imperialism occurred during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). The Filipinos fought against being colonized by the U.S. but 250,000 lost lives later, they succumbed to the might of America’s military.

While the actual war only lasted three years, there were insurrections and rebellions along the way that kept a large number of American soldiers stationed on the island for more than a decade. Slash-and-burn techniques swept across villages as the country lay in waste. When the soldiers tired of wreaking havoc on the land, this same imperialistic mentality to conquer shifted to the local Filipina women who they referred to as “little brown f**king machines powered by rice.”*

Filipino women were viewed as so subservient and subordinate, not only to White men but also to White women, that U.S. soldiers sexually denigrated them in a way they would never have treated their spouses or other women back home. “Filipina sex workers, for example, frequently report ‘being treated like a toy or a pig by the American [soldiers] and being required to do ‘three holes’ — oral, vaginal and anal sex.” *

It was this American colonialization period during the turn of the 20th century that gave rise to today’s notorious sex entertainment industry in Asia. Sex and prostitution sprang up to cater to the American military amidst the backdrop of political and economic plight, despair, and poverty where a man could have “a girl for the price of a hamburger”.*

A few decades later, during the Vietnam War, this only intensified as the conflict took a long and brutal toll on the U.S. military and the American psyche back home. But on the battlefield, the mind of the fighting soldier must be protected and preserved at all costs, even at the cost of Vietnamese or Thai women and girls. Consequently, several military bases were stationed in Thailand to shelter up to 70,000 American GIs at any given time for “rest and recreation." “With pervasive disregard for human rights, the military grimly accepts and recognizes access to indigenous women’s bodies as a ‘necessity’ for American GIs stationed overseas."*

If the sexual oppression was to end with the conclusion of the Vietnam War, it’d be relegated to an abomination from the past. But today’s flourishing sex tourism industry in Thailand (and other neighboring Asian and SE Asian countries), should be a reminder of the remnants of Western imperialism (American and European) and military presence overseas. It is “far from being a thing of the past, but is a lived experience of many."*

Millions of tourists from Europe and the United States visit Thailand specifically for its sex industry alone (65% were single men in one study).* So while political Western colonization is absent in the Far East, it is still physically rampant in the pants of many Anglos. The desire to sexually possess, conquer, and at times humiliate a subservient Asian woman permeates our culture.

It may start off as an innocuous joke without much introspection or resistance from others; the joke then turns into a more pernicious modern-day imperialistic mentality of sexual conquest witnessed recently by the music video, “Asian Girlz” by the band Day Above Ground.

In their interview with TMZ, the band refused to acknowledge the racism inherent in their lyrics let alone how it could be perceived as such, “We didn’t expect it to be such a backlash.” Its lead singer says, “It comes from a good place” and “I don’t understand” of why this is inappropriate.

Beyond bewilderment, the band members were defensive saying, “We’ve all had close relationships with the Asian community, Asian people. There’s guys in the band with Asian women. It’s just, it’s hard to believe we’re getting this kind of backlash."

Northern California Attorney Sunny Woan and author of the abstract, “White Sexual Imperialism” tells me how this is another example of how covert racism appears in mainstream America, even if it’s under the guise of music or other forms of entertainment. “Here we have the irreverent trinity that is racism, sexism, and imperialism. The question to ask is why did the band decide on Asian women? What does it tell us about the underlying, prevailing politics of white male and Asian female relationships, even today in the 21st century?”

Woan is also the editor of Kartika Review, a national literary arts magazine that publishes Asian Pacific Islander American fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and art. She has heard many people, particularly Asians, tell her not to take a music video too seriously. But she says otherwise. “If we treat it like it’s nothing, then we are being complacent to racism, sexism, and here most pertinently, the repercussions of cultural imperialism.”

The video has since gone viral, receiving more than one million YouTube hits. Woan believes the song went from conception to post-production because no one spoke up against it; a cumulative consequence from men with a Eurocentric and narrow framework of relational dynamics between Asian women and White men. “It probably started with one a-little-bit-offensive-but-not-awful quip one band member made; everyone laughed and said ha-ha that’s funny. Probably no one, least of all the Asian female model involved or the supposed bandmate of Asian descent, spoke up and said, ‘Hey, look, that’s not funny’.”

In one word, she blames this music video on complacency — intellectual complacency from the band members but also complacency in the form of aloofness and indifference from the greater Asian-American community. If Asians truly want a voice in America, then they must learn to use it. Otherwise, complacency will one day lead to normalcy.”