#keep your fucking iNdiAn CuLtUrE!!!

[nohkalikai]

Dalit Madonna (2000) by Jyoti Sahi

[dreamyeyedrose]

listen if we brat summer our way out of fascism I'll fuckin take it

[martian-astro10]

Solar return observations- Part 3

(the artist is @eb_hua on twitter)

Saturn in 10th is a frustrating placement (my mom had it last year and basically with this you feel financially helpless, you keep on trying and trying but nothing works, but the good thing is that 2-3 months before your next birthday, you're gonna hit the jackpot, so don't worry too much) (my sister also has it this year)

I have noticed that in every solar return chart that I've looked at, the chiron was in conjunction with the north node and it has happened way too many times for me to call it a coincidence. (do you have it as well, let me know) (according to my observations, the house that it's in represents the area where you'll experience pain but also by the end of the year, you're gonna be able to deal with the themes of that house in a better way, am I making sense??) just let me know if you have any questions about this placement, I think it's very common

The year in which you have a gemini AC, you will focus a lot on building your professional network, a lot of communication, short distance travel and improving your relationship with your siblings, if you have any. (my sister has it this year and her master's will end on 29th April, she has applied to many places for a job and she's also coming to visit me, I'M GOING TO MEET HER AFTER 5 FUCKING YEARS😁😁)

Mars in 12th indicates a low libido, a very exhausting year in general, if you also have sun in 1st then... It can be pretty bad (it's like you KNOW that you need to stop procrastinating, but you really can't help it, so you look calm on the outside but your brain is like AKDHSGHSKGSKJDJK)

Jupiter in 10th in aries is a REALLY GOOD placement. (you get the courage to go after what you want, especially in terms of career) and if Jupiter is Trine/sextile with saturn, then it's even better

Uranus in 5th can mean having flings with people that are not your usual type. (one of my friends came to Italy this year, and the first thing she did was hook up with an Italian guy 😭😭, she's Indian)

Aries in 2nd is an impulsive shopping placement (if you have it and you think you need something, you don't) (one of my friends had this last year and he bought a hat for €150...... Yeah. He has saturn in 2nd this year and he's finally facing the consequences of his actions)

I know that saturn in 8th is associated with difficulties in sex and intimacy but there's another side to it (a lot of my friends have had this, and they became really mature about sexual matters, like if they were previously very into the hook up culture then that year they were more cautious and had this "I'm going to have sex with the person who I genuinely like or love" mentality)

This is very shocking but I looked at the solar returns of all the married couples I know and the year in which they got married, NONE OF THEM had a 7th house stellium 💀💀. For men, I didn't notice a pattern, but for women, 90% of them had Venus positively aspecting saturn (mostly, Trine and sextile but 2 had a conjunction)

My favorite solar return placement has to be mercury conjunct Jupiter, if its happening in capricorn or virgo, then you're really precise and direct with your words, a very leader type aura for that year. If it's in libra, then good for flirting and talking to your crush, there's a high chance they'll fall for your charms. If it's in pisces, then it's your sign to start a cult.

(all pictures are taken from Pinterest)

© martian-astro All rights reserved, 2024

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

i explain india but i'm drunk.

Hello maggots of mine you're all such babygirls and bastards just like Aziraphale and Crowley. I'm so proud of you all for existing. Yes i'm a wholesome drunk you now know this about me. The wine tastes like rotten grapes and smells of battery acid and cost 245 rupees INR. Speaking of INR, thanks to a maggot's ask, I'm here to explain India. I've never set foot outside of this country. But I'm also very very shit at general knowledge.

To any non-Indians reading this, this is a totally legit 1000% everything covered all-inclusive summary. To any Indians reading this, I'm so so fucking sorry.

India, explained.

So there's south india and there's north india and there's north east india. north india is very racist about south india and they're both very racist about north east india. Most of these people are also probably racist either to other countries or they have internalised racism. It's a wild trip.

There are. A lot of languages here. And a LOT of scripts. I can read two scripts, understand four Indian languages and speak in two of them (badly), and those two are not my native tongues. I cannot speak in my native tongues. It's basically English at this point. These aren't dialects, those are separate. Picture like, Europe, but more, in terms of how many languages.

Everyone hates each other which is valid for the entire planet honestly.

In south india we have a lot of coconuts. Like a lot. There are so many coconuts you have no fucking idea guys you cannot escape the coconuts. I was nearly killed by a shower of coconuts when I was 5 I escaped by one second.

There are also cows. People will tell you that you are being racist when you say India has cows everywhere. But it's true. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to be stuck in a traffic jam. Next to the street barrier thing (what divides a street im too drunk for this) I saw a huge bull fucking HUMPING a cow. The vehicles just had to move around them. They were having sex right there.

If you're a middle class Indian kid, your career options are: doctor, engineer, scientist, CA, lawyer, government official or family disappointment.

Needless to say, I was going to be doctor and am now instead family disappointment. I'm babygirling so hard it's insane. The prodigal son.

It's very ace-friendly and heterophobic in the sense that you are not supposed to be exhibiting any sexuality whatever in a respectable household. Just shut up and give virgin birth already. But be married. That's crucial.

Oh yeah gay marriage isn't legal trans people are constantly othered by society and/or given no respect whatsover and we're just all vibing here this is totally not why I'm finishing a small bottle of cheap wine on a thursday past midnight alone in my room.

Foreigners are like a zoo species you see them you're instantly concerned like what are they doing outside the TV screens and then either people are normal (rarely), they run up and take photos or try to slip into conversation (more often than you'd think, even I've been guilty of the conversation thing as a kid) OR they start talking about how 'this western culture is ruining our culture'. Which is fair but honestly both the 'cultures' these people are talking about usually involve incredible amounts of bigotry and are more similar than they think.

I think the lesson here is that humans just suck as a species. Except for you maggots. I love you all and I will defend you with my life.

THE CHAAT. THE CHAAT IS INSANELY AMAZING. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE CHAAT. I HAVE NO SPICE TOLERANCE SO I HAVE TO BEG ON MY KNEES FOR THE SPICES TO BE REDUCED BUT STILL. THE CHAAT. THE CHAAT, YOU GUYS. YOU NEED IT.

Sorry yes I'm normal. ALSO THE STREET DOGS. THE INDIES. THEY'RE SO LOVELY AND SWEET AND CHAOTIC AND I KEEP TALKING TO THEM. Once when I was crying I made the dog distress while and like five dogs that I didn't know came running to me and comforted me and licked me.

INDIAN DANCE MUSIC. I FUCKING LOVE IT IT'S INSANE. My family were elitist as fuck so I never got to listen to Bollywood music as a kid but it's AMAZING I'm so glad it exists. Bhangra too.

Beaches very very pretty hills very very pretty honestly the nature is fucking beautiful if you can just quickly pretend humans don't exist, which again is true of this entire planet. Yeah. Okay I'm so fucking drunk.

Yeah lots of diversity which is very nice when the humans aren't screaming at each other about it but the rest of the time it's very nice

The garbage and sewer stories? yeah they're all true im sorry

Traffic rules more like traffic suggestions amirite

Well, we still have far better healthcare access than america. so. there is that.

If you speak English well you'll be mocked and isolated. If you speak English poorly you'll be mocked and isolated. Honestly, just be rich. That'll fix it all.

All the conservatives hate each other and don't realise they're the exact same but in like different flavours.

Oh yeah we have auto rickshaws. Look them up. They're so much better than cars I don't get motion sick as easily in them. But the drivers all hate you and never want to take you anywhere.

Eyyyyyyyyyy it's so fucking fun here *drinsk more alcohol* I am so fucking not looking forward to college.

Please someone crowdfund me out of here let's all go chill in Alpha Centauri I've heard it's nice this time of the year.

I will, however, miss the casual live cow pornos. A true highlight.

[I got this peer-reviewed by my friend in India's top law school, just in case, because I'm too drunk and generally dumb. They say I will not be killed. And they've been on Twitter so.]

Irrefutable legal proof y'all. I don't mean to offend anyone except bigots. Fuck you, bigots, if you're not offended then I've disappointed my community.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi I'm sorry for the incoming rant but I'm so frustrated and I need somewhere safe to yell. This is insanely long so I 100% understand if no one wants to read all this.

It’s so fucking ironic that people are trying to make publishing more friendly towards queers/women/POC/disabled people/etc. but at the same time they’re turning publishing into a fucking minefield of discourse.

I'm an autistic, bisexual woman with multiple mental illnesses and a learning disability and I'm absolutely terrified to publish anything.

Everyone keeps going “We love books by minorities! Hashtag own voices! We love to support minorities and their stories! Even if you’re not a minority, we love to see authors making characters that are! :)”

But they certainly don't act like it.

They see people like Amélie Wen Zhao or Tess Sharpe or Isabel Fall get harassed relentlessly and they go, “Well if people dogpile someone over something it was obviously because that person did something Bad And Wrong™ so if you’re a Good Person™ the twitter masses won’t have to punish you :)” except in reality that’s not at all what happens.

If your experience is not generic enough to fit every single person in a group, you’re obviously writing an unrealistic stereotype! How dare you write about your personal experiences as a mixed race Indian if not everyone can relate to it? What about the Indians who grew up in India!? You’re erasing their experiences!

You have to out yourself to prove that you’re one of the Correct People™ who’s allowed to write that experience. Oh, you’re writing a trans character? Please describe your gender, in detail, so we can know whether or not you’re Allowed or if you’re an Outsider who we need to punish. Oh, you can’t come out, because you might be killed or disowned? Well, no #OwnVoices clout for you, we don’t want your book.

Your character needs to be a Good Minority™. They cannot be angry or violent or rude. If they are, you’re clearly saying that all of those minorities are angry and violent and rude and not just that one character.

There are four additional rules you absolutely must follow at all times to prevent harassment, and all of them contradict each other:

If you’re not [minority], you need to have [minority] in your stories, because they exist and it’s bad if all your characters are [not minority].

If you’re not [minority], you cannot have [minority] in your stories, because you’re not [minority] and clearly, you’ll never be able to understand how [minority] thinks and acts because you’re not them.

If you’re not [minority] you can still have them in your stories, but they can’t experience any discrimination at all, or talk about their culture or experiences with being [minority] because that’s not your story to tell and you’re profiting off of their trauma. No, you’re not allowed to do this even if you hire ten sensitivity readers that confirm these experiences are realistic and correct.

If you’re not [minority] you can still have them in your stories, but you need to show their experience with discrimination, and have them talk about their culture or experiences with being [minority] because if you don’t, then you’re basically just taking [non minority] and pretending they’re [minority].

Also, there’s an additional surprise bonus rule: Sometimes people will just want to destroy you for no reason, so watch out!

They’ll take things from your story, remove them from their context and then present them as the most horrific, problematic thing possible in order to create a hate mob.

Sometimes, though, they don’t even know what they’re talking about. People who are not part of a minority group (or not the one relevant) will see something, go, “Omg? Problematic?” and post it on Twitter so they can say, “Um guys wtf is this shit? Are you fr? Can we talk about this?”

And the worst and most horrifying part, people will blame YOU for the harassment campaign!

I’ve literally seen people say, “Well if someone calls you out on Twitter you should admit you did something wrong, apologize, and tell them you’ll do better :)” as if that’s not the most insane, victim blamey shit.

Like, I cannot fathom seeing a marginalized author get torn apart by a mob, get sent horrific death threats, and have their career and life ruined, only to say, “Okay but they must have done something Problematic. Have they tried publicly flagellating themselves to appease the people who are threatening to break into their house and kill them?”

People just sweep it under the rug and pretend that it’s not a big deal, and say, “Twitter’s not real, it doesn’t matter!” as if thousands of people harassing you and sending you threats isn’t massively damaging to someone’s mental health. Like, this is the kind of shit people kill themselves over, and it's apparently no big deal because "Twitter's not real"? What?

Writing is supposed to be fucking fun! Showing your beloved story and characters and work to the world is supposed to be enjoyable!

But instead of writing my story and just enjoying the process and adoring my characters, I’m sitting here, absolutely terrified, trying to make sure I give people the least amount of ammunition to destroy my life as possible.

One of the main characters in my story is vaguely based on me. I love her with all my heart, I think about her all the time, I want people to love her just as much as I do.

But instead of having fun writing about her, I’m waking up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, thinking to myself, what if she’s too problematic?

Will people get upset with her saying the word “cunt” or bathing naked with men (and thus having her tatas out) and accuse me of being sexist or catering to the male gaze or not being a Good Amazing Feminist™? Will people call her a pick me?

Will people get upset with her being bisexual, but ending up in a “straight” relationship with the male character? They have a five year age gap, is that too much? Will people think he’s a predator or abusive? Is their relationship toxic?

Will people think he’s a creep for flirting with her and getting into her personal space and telling sexual jokes, even though that’s how I want someone to flirt with me?

What if people think she’s not autistic enough? Will people get mad that she’s ~glorifying violence~ for not becoming a pacifist and admitting that violence is bad and yucky at the end of the story?

I need to make sure she spends ten paragraphs explaining exactly why she works as an assassin. I need to sit cross-legged and whip my head around like Dr. Strange in that Avenger’s movie so I can imagine Every Possible Discourse Outcome™ and make sure she debunks everything people could call problematic.

I need to change that. I need to remove that. I need to make her sanitized and good enough so that I'll be safe.

And then repeat this thought process, with every other minority character in my story (and there are a lot).

--

Things are bad, but if you stay off of book twitter and do not write YA, you're a lot less likely to face this level of drama. There are always exceptions though, like Fall.

[rubberduckyrye]

I really wanna hear your thoughts on the racism with Angie, I may not have been in the fandom for like 5 years now, but I have ALWAYS been so bothered by how she and Gonta are treated by the narrative and fandom back then but nobody wanted to talk about that back then too, so it's been refreshing seeing it brought up by you.

Honestly I've been screaming about Gonta ever since I got into the fandom--like, back in 2018? Angie I've known for a while her story was a bunch of racist stereotypes but as a pastey pastey white person, I wasn't sure how much I should speak on it. I started talking about it more casually on my blog at first, and now I'm just screaming it into the void because everyone keeps ignoring or dismissing me about it.

I'll start off by saying that the extent of her racist caricature was really brought to my attention by my partner Celest, and she pointed out the initial stereotypes that lead me to further researching on Pacific Islander cultures, Indigenous cultures, and the stereotypes that are associated with them. Even the use of "Atua", while at first glance seems to be more accurate and inclusive, is incredibly inaccurate at best, and racist at worst.

But I'm getting ahead of myself--time to wipe my hands of this once and for all and talk about the thing that the fandom doesn't want to talk about--how Angie is a racist stereotype of Indigenous and Pacific Islander cultures.

I'm gonna need a lot of resources for this one.

So the biggest problem with Angie is how she is characterized/heavily coded to be Native Hawaiian/an indigenous Polynesian young woman. While I can't find any specific articles about specifically Indigenous Polynesian stereotypes regarding it, I know for a fact that the "Merciless Indian Savage" applies heavily to native/indigenous Polynesian cultures just from the horrible media I was subjected to as a child by my own father. Of course I was never taught about how racist it was until I learned it for myself, but I've seen many a movie where Pacific Islanders, specifically indigenous, were portrayed as savage, violent subhuman cultures that horrifically sacrificed human lives and blood.

I can't tell if this just, isn't well documented or I'm bad at finding research material, but I have first hand experience seeing this stereotype in modern media, so I know it's a thing. Like in King Kong movies--I remember those older movies being especially bad about it. This movie was made in 2005 and is one of the most racist depictions I've ever seen and be warned this is quite disgusting to watch with the context of this being incredibly fucking racist.

(Please remember that King Kong's island is, well, an uncharted island called Skull Island. It's an island in the middle of the ocean. Do I need to say any more as to why this is a huge problem.)

The top comments on this video are also incredibly fucking racist too:

"The natives are scarier than the big scary monster" "I would be scared of directing this scene" like Jesus fucking Christ do you people even hear yourselves.

Anyway. Yeah this movie's depiction of natives is incredibly racist and I'm sorry to subject you to this scene. I just want to specify what I mean though when I say I've seen this shit so much in media and yet I'm struggling to find people talking about it. Like, I'm not going crazy, right?

Still.

The fact that in Angie's FTEs, she bluntly describes blood and even implies human sacrifices is enough to invoke such horrible cringe from me, but the fact that her "native island" is referred to as "strange" with fauna that attack humans is also reminiscent of the racism presented for specifically Pacific Islander stereotypes.

This specific instance is especially telling, because--

If this "DeepSea" shipping service can ship just about anything--including organ meat, children, and blood--then what on earth is Angie talking about when she says they don't stock "Offerings"?

The likelihood is that she's referring to adult humans--as these children from this "shipping" company are clearly trafficking human children, blood, and organ meat. Since we know blood offerings are something from "Angie's culture", it can't be blood offering's she's referring to. Since it only lacks those two things according to Angie, that's the only thing that can be really inferred/implied--adult human sacrifices.

This is also shown here in Kaede's second FTE with her:

Angie is having a nightmare about the blood/human sacrifices necessary for her "culture" and "island", and is clearly struggling and horrified with it. This also plays into the racist stereotype in that Angie is Not Like the Other Savages and condemns her people's practices, even if only internally/privately, and portrays her as a victim of something almost cult-like--which from the clip you saw above, is still a heavily racist stereotype of indigenous cultures due to how the "Merciless Violent Savage" appears cult-like when you involve human sacrifices.

So let's talk about Atua.

This is very much only in the english version, but the use of Atua to replace "god" in a more singular fashion is incredibly inaccurate. From my understanding, "Atua" more so refers to the gods of Māori mythology. The way Angie refers to Atua in canon is more like how one would refer to a singular god. The Hawaiian Kupua, something that wikipedia seems to suggest is the Native Hawaiian version of Atua, also expresses polytheistic customs.

So yeah. the English dub made it worse.

But wait, there's more!

Now I have. No idea where this "custom" came from, as when I looked it up I just got a whole lot of nothing--but notice how Shuichi is reacting to it. The custom presented is supposed to be extremely weird and even terrifying, invoking the reader to see Angie as strange/abnormal. She continues on talking about her "island's customs", and--

The sexuality presented here is very obvious--presenting the fluidity of sexuality one might see in Pacific Islander cultures as abnormal, bizarre, or down-right wrong. A small article for this one because I cannot find the other one I originally read: 1 but the general idea is that Christan/Conservative ideology has oppressed the gender and sexuality of a lot of Polynesian cultures. To express that Angie's culture is "exotic" and "strange" for its fluid sexuality is inherently racist in nature. I don't think this is an intended character flaw--this is blatantly the bias of the writers for V3.

Now for this specific one, I've completely lost the article I read it on, so take my words with a grain of salt. However, a big stereotype of Polynesian cultures is that they are extremely carefree--something that we see Angie being in canon without her FTEs. This is portrayed as a mask by the fandom, however, so it's a bit of a sketchy one to include. Still wanted to mention it though.

Anyway--these are all things I've learned from doing research, and I still can't find a lot of information about it. Pacific Islanders/Polynesians/Native Hawaiian people are often incredibly silenced and spoken over, which is why writing this post up was so incredibly frustrating to me.

I know these stereotypes exists for these cultures--but I cannot find many resources on the subject matter.

As someone who is trying their hardest to be racially aware and sensitive, it is very frustrating to try and comb the internet to find resources to reference, and the best thing you can find is a god-damn Wikipedia page. No, really. I could not find any reliable sources on anything outside of Wikipedia. Again I could just be really bad at finding research material/it could also be that the internet is getting so much worse about finding articles on subjects like this, but I digress. The fact that it's this difficult to find things--and then to re-find things, as I mentioned earlier, some of the articles I found are just, gone now--is a testament to how much of a problem this really is.

And it's so frustrating that I keep getting silenced/ignored about the matter because I want to learn. I want to learn what stereotypes to avoid for this demographic of people and their culture. I want to learn how I can fix a character like Angie--who I DO like, by the way--and make her much less of a stereotype in my own AU. I want to learn if the Atua and the Kupua are interchangeable words like Wikipedia suggests. I want to learn for my own Native Hawaiian OC so I can write him correctly. I, as a white person who doesn't have access to this culture, want to learn about it so I can accurately portray it and help fight against the negative stereotypes that people 5 years ago thought was "great storytelling."

But I can't learn anything if the fandom keeps ignoring me because they're too afraid to acknowledge the racism is there at all, in fear that them liking a racist caricature of a character makes them racist.

And to that, I say: Please stop ignoring me. I want to learn. I want to talk to people about the subject. I want to find someone willing to talk about the culture and educate me. I can't do that if I am constantly ignored.

So. Yeah.

Sorry if this is a little haphazard, my brain died halfway through making it because finding the research materials to showcase my points was incredibly difficult. Literally have been here for hours.

I hope this can be spread around though--so people understand why it's important to have this discussion, why it's important to acknowledge the racism, and why it's so frustrating to feel silenced/ignored when all you want to do is better yourself and your own knowledge.

So... let's talk. Let's talk about the racism in Angie's character--and how we, as a fandom, can address it.

[demigod-of-the-agni]

PLEASSEEE TELL US ABOUT YOUR MYTHIC MUMBATTAN AU PLEASE PLEASEE

>:) very well, my people (currently screaming because i wrote a response but i accidentally CTRL+Zd everything out of existence lmao)

The Mythic Mumbattan AU is me pouring the following ingredients into an explosive mess:

Hindu mythology and Indian culture overload

college!Spider-Man shenanigans

revamping the original Spider-Man: India plotlines and expanding the lore

character studies!!! my favourite :)

a potential and self-indulgent crossover with another indian superhero (if we ever get there)

the horrors.

Pavitr and his personal cast!!! just!!!! THEY!!!!!!

(keep reading if you want more goodies >:D)

So the CoffeeBean is a coffeeshop that existed in the mainstream Marvel universe and in real life but that's another thing; the cast below frequently drop by to hang out with one another. The Mumbattan-equivalent of the CoffeeBean is actually the TeaHouse which is another real life thing but shh and so in-universe they're called the TeaHouse gang, but in my heart they'll always be the CBG 😌

Everyone goes to Brihanmumbai State University (BSU). Lots of crazy things happen here. Pavitr's relationship with the others is always in flux but ultimately they're super close with one another (fuck it, they might as well be poly). Their personalities I try to keep as close as I can to the mainstream universe E616 comics, but I'm being creative and letting a few things from the SMI comics and ATSV influence them:

Pavitr Prabhakar — Tamilar (Tamil); he has the charm and skills from his ATSV counterpart and the smarts from his SMI counterpart; he can be a bit of a jerk and a flake, but he tries to be a good friend, and is much more open than he was in high school.

Meera Jain — Kannadiga (Kannada); basically how I've written her in tibim: everyone's first impression of her is that she's carefree and seems to not worry too much about life. She secretly deals with a lot of self-doubt and personal fears, but the gang's presence is enough for her to push them aside.

Gayatri Singh — Gujarati (Gujarati); she's probably the most quiet of the gang, but undeniably the kindest. She's more similar to Pavitr, in that she's stubborn and quick to judge. She's the glue of the gang and always willing to extend a hand to others

Hari Oberoi — Maharashtrian (Gujarati/Marathi/Hindi); the son of the man who tried to bring literal hell to earth, but other than that he's okay. He's a people-pleaser despite having everything, and struggles with his own self-image and who he should become

Ekansh "Flash" Travasso — Goan (Marathi); the high school jock who's grown more understanding and compassionate. He knew Pavitr the longest, so they have quite an interesting collection of interactions. (ALSO I'M SO SORRY I WROTE THOMPSON IN THE ART POST INSTEAD OF TRAVASSO 😭 maybe i should go back and edit that)

Spider-Man is Spider-Man'ing. Mumbattan loves him (sort of. Inspector Singh has mixed feelings). But another question: why is that every where Spider-Man goes the demons of yore all start showing up and begin wrecking havoc? Why is that? I am taking the magic in Spider-Man: India and dialing it up to five million — horrors and magic of every kind! I can get my hands real dirty and /really/ push Pavitr to his limit >:)

That is all for now. There will be more characters, but they'll show up in time. Lots of stories too, all old and new and revamped and crazy, but they'll be told when they're ready. Perhaps this is enough to satiate everyone's hunger? (unless you want to know something else, then by all means go ahead and ask!!!)

[lokh]

Im gonna need your like, whole musical rec list, bc literally every song you have posted has not flopped once, give me your faves i need to eat them

OUGHHH YOUVE UNLOCKED THE BEAST ARGSHHFHJDF....

in the interest of making this both easily accessible but not stretching the dashboard, im embedding bandcamp links when i can, otherwise linking to youtube when unavailable

in no particular order, inclusion based mostly on what im still actively into LMAO but also just things you should give a go at least once:

list of artist recommendations

zeal and ardor: described as a mix of african-american spirituals and black metal. try devil is fine, you aint coming back, wake of a nation or church burns

bloodywood: indian folk metal, literally nobody is doing it like them. recently featured in monkey man (2024), try chakh le, yaad or dana dan

stromae: if youve never heard any of his songs WHAT ARE YOU DOING..... incredible lyricist, described as a blend of hip hop/electronic. papaoutai made the rounds on tumblr a while back, but you should also try santé and l'enfer

alamat: pinoy pop. a youtube commenter described them as sounding like 2nd gen kpop which probably also explains why i took a shine to them LMAO, notable for the amount of filipino culture on display and the diversity thereof (singing in different languages, themes). first heard them thru kasmala either here or on twitter lmao, try aswang or maharani

andy bull: alt-pop. a lot of poppy and upbeat songs with a melancholic undertone imo. an australian artist, try it's all connected or keep on running

cosmo sheldrake: electronic, wikipedia also lists him as folktronica and baroque pop. you may have heard the song come along on an apple ad - hes known for sampling sounds from nature. pliocene for example features sounds from endangered ecosystems.

if you like cosmo sheldrake, you might like hidden orchestra (electronica, ambient). also making use of field recordings, i really love the archipelago mixtape but its a hard sell at about an hour lmao. if you like the following song then i implore you to give it a go

son lux: experimental, you may have heard from them in the entire soundtrack for everything everywhere all at once (!!!!!). try dangerous, dream state (brighter night) or live another life.

ammar 808: electronic/world fusion, also behind bargou 08 (folk rock you should also listen to). i just cant get ain essouda out of my head, but i also love geeta duniki

miyavi: j-rock, used to be a visual kei artist. these days he might be known more for anime openings like flashback (kokkoku) or other side (id:invaded), or for work like snakes in arcane (or actually inspiring and voicing a character in it), but ive always been partial to his early work like sukkyanen myv or ashita, genki ni naare

songs/albums

'threads' album by now, now (indie rock).

'dream to make believe' or 'what to do when you are dead' by armor for sleep (rock, emo). here's the truth about heaven from the latter album

i already posted about it but denzel curry's 13lood 1n + 13lood out mixx (rap, trap) is extremely good

the guilty gear soundtracks and im so serious im not fucking joking. different kinds of rock and metal and all sorts of influences put in, a genuine labor of love. xrd and earlier games are mainly instrumental with some vocal tracks (try give me a break or big blast sonic), while strive pretty much always includes vocals (of course i need to rec rock parade, but also try requiem. its genuinely hard for me to pick and choose lmao)

not an album and not an artist

coke studio pakistan and coke studio bangla knocking it out of the fucking park, im particularly a fan of harkalay and kotha koiyo na. you could try the other coke studios too (tamil, india, etc)

triple j like a version is when the radio station triple j brings in artists and has them do a cover of a song (artists choice). i liked denzel curry's cover of bulls on parade and flume's shooting stars (video for this one is incredible, man had a vision you just have to stick it out), but you get a lot of interesting interpretations like the wombats' running up that hill, gordi's in the end or, infamously. the wiggles' elephant

ive DEFINITELY missed out some, but thats what my music tag is for LMAO i hope someone discovers something they like here!!!!

[whoiwanttoday]

Here is some Deepika Padukone to start your week and excuse me if this post isn't up to standard. I have one of those summer colds that isn't so bad but you know, it's not supposed to happen in the summer and it has worn me out. Anyway, this post is a bit of a celebration as I have been watching the Indian election with great interest. It has been a pleasant surprise as it is a rebuke of a slide into authoritarianism and something kind of nasty. That might get me blowback, I know most of my followers have no idea but I also know that Hindu Nationalists are everywhere on the internet. Go ahead and bring it, I cannot tell you how little I care. Anyway, when the world's largest democracy chooses democracy it is a good thing. Which leads to Deepika Padukone. I won't put any words or beliefs into her mouth, not my place, but last year she was in Pathaan which I saw. It was good, it was also seen as important because it was the return of King Khan and it did very well. Before it came out there was some worry it would not be as there was a big worry of cultural rejection because it was not towing the Hindu Nationalist line. See, Shah Rukh Khan is a Muslim. He also is one of the biggest stars in all of India, the King part wasn't sarcastic. The movie very notably, and it can't be an accident, stared a Muslim Star, a Hindu Star, and a Christian Star. Because Bollywood used to once be dedicated to Indian secularism and this was seen by many as a open rebuke of a cultural shift that was leading to intolerance. The movie did well, that was good. I saw it. I liked it fine. Deepika Padukone looked amazing in it if anyone is keeping track. Anyway, that's why she's here because I thought about that with the election news that came in last week and decided it's not like I need much of a reason to post her. Besides, I assume I am most people's #1 source for current events. Today I want to fuck Deepika Padukone.

[siriusblack-the-third]

The Black Family: Indian?

Inspired by this meta by @narcissa-black-supermacy

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Dani made some really good points about how the Black family could be MENA, and while reading it I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the culture there and the culture in India, specifically Maharashtra.

So many of the points Dani made are so reminiscent of the casteism in India that i absolutely had to make a separate meta instead of rambling in the tags over there.

A few of the points that i want to gloss over are taken directly from Dani's meta so. Let's get to it!

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The first point I want to tackle is how large the Black family is, compared to other Pureblood families.

Yes I know what you're going to say; "but Amrut the Weasley family is also really big". I'm quite aware. The books state quite a lot that the Weasleys are weird for having such a large family. Well, the Blacks have a lot of people in their House, too (before the first world war, that is).

Walburga had 3 siblings, and so did Orion. Orion's father Arcturus had two siblings, and Walburga's father was the eldest out of four. Druella and Cygnus Black had three daughters. Arcturus' father was also one of four.

Indian familes are notorious for being large and complicated. I myself am the eldest of seven siblings, my father has four siblings of his own and my mother is one of three. My mother's father is the youngest of five, my father's father was the middle child of three.

The second thing that struck me was the similarities between the Black Family's brand of blood purism and the inherent casteism that prevails in the Kshatriya Maratha families of my Maharashtrian town.

Listen, listen. I don't give a fuck about the bullshit that the government feeds us about casteism being abolished. It might be "abolished" in theory but where I live, Maratha families are notorious for being hard-core when it comes to casteism and classism.

Caste intermarriage is considered "social suicide", especially if you're a person from an upper caste marrying someone from the lower caste. Sound familiar? A Pureblood marrying a Muggleborn sounds the same, doesn't it? The disowning of Andromeda and blasting her off the family tapestry is very similar to what happens here; disinheritance is very common for people who marry a "lower caste" person.

Casteism has been around for centuries, the same way the Blacks were blood purists for centuries. And keep in mind that the Black family were not your regular pureblood supremacists. Their views have been around for generations, passed down from parent to child. Unlike regular Pureblood "I'm-better-than-you" bullshit, the Black Family's brand of blood purism is so similar to casteism in India that I'm embarrassed it took me so long to realise.

The cousin intermarriage! That is such a huge point!

In many parts of India, marriage between cousins is pretty common. Orion and Walburga are second cousins, if I'm not mistaken.

If we look at it genetically, the people of Ancient India knew that chances of deformation and/or mutation of a child born to first cousins was almost the same as that of a child born to non-related people i.e an extremely low chance. Thus, cousins marrying each other wasn't and isn't considered weird or strange.

You may argue that the Gaunts were also inbred. Yes well, the Blacks were intelligent enough to know how far of a relation must be there between two people. And the Gaunts probably married their own siblings for them to be so inbred.

Now, as Dani said, 12GP being at the heart of Muggle London is pretty interesting.

As she mentioned about the Blacks, they're raging bigots, but they still live in a very muggle neighbourhood in a very muggle region of London.

Exactly like it makes sense with sectarianism as Dani explained it, it also makes sense with respect to casteism. Upper caste (Brahmin, Kshatriya) will mingle with intermediate castes and lower castes. They will talk, they will laugh, they will build friendships and make acquaintances. The different castes mingle a lot. But marriage? No. The Black family is essentially the same.

Like Dani puts it: we can work with muggleborns and blood-traitors.... They are allowed to exist.... remind them who is the boss, but do not engage. We will not marry them, we will not let them into our house.

This is literally what caste discrimination looks like. It's not based on fear or hatred like western bigotry. (I will not elaborate more on this bc the politics are wayy too complicated.)

The fifth point is niche, but it's there: Bellatrix wanting to kill Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora Tonks because Andromeda "sullied her pure blood by associating with mudbloods"

Let me say this once and for all: honour killings are extremely common in India.

Families hire other people, or they themselves go out to perform honour killings. Many of the honour killing cases that I've heard/read about have been about the daughter/son marrying a person from a lower caste and running away, but being tracked down and murdered by their own family for "dirtying their blood" and "sullying the family name" (yes those are the actual words).

Andromeda's disinheritance was not surprising to me; i have seen people thrown into jail for marrying lower/higher. Obviously, the reason cited in court is not the marriage, no— the person is framed for crimes they did not commit.

Bellatrix wanting to murder her own sister— and actually murdering Dora— sounds so identical to the news I've heard over the years.

The Black Family could be Maharashtrian, is all I'm saying. Just because their slogan is French doesn't mean they're from France. India has several regions where France is spoken just as much as the local language. Like Dani said, kill the idea that French is spoken only in France.

This is all for now. I might come back later with more observations if I feel like it, but yeah. Feel free to flood my ask box with whatever questions you want.

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Tag list:

@narcissa-black-supermacy @the-chaosbringer @in-flvx @padfootastic @gracelesslady23 @mycupofrum @mrunmione @thewinchestergirl1208 @fiendishfyre @ad1thi @prongsfoot-wolfstar @siriuslystarbucks @xxmysticrosexx @ghostie-0 @pan-diasaster @h-m-i-a-n @constant-diablerie @strwbi-laces @shanti-ashant-hai @roalinda @fooochka

[jupiter--dream]

What a day man

If I had a euro for every time a fucking tourist family decided to scream at me for something I have no power or say over... (Add another euro every time an old guy makes some incredibly strange comment about me.)

Just. British tourists are fucking everywhere, and they're so, so disrespectful. Mass tourism is dreadful. I keep getting tiktoks where everyone is talking about how they're all vacationing in Spain and just. Where do we go if every building is being bought to use as a bnb?? I don't mind tourism, I just wish tourists had an ounce of respect.

A guy yesterday had the balls to tell me that he's paying a lot of money to live in Spain so that I can have this job. A month ago a guy told me "he was surprised that despite Spain being a rich country, barely anyone spoke English" and just. Spain has five official languages and you can study up to SIX in regular school (Spanish, whichever regional language you have, English, French is always available as an optional class, and if you study humanities you must take Latin and Greek classes) LIKE how many languages do YOU speak???

Other tourists at LEAST try to communicate in broken Spanish, they KNOW your average Joe doesn't speak German or Russian or Italian. But BRITISH tourists?? EVERYTHING is catered to them. EVERYTHING is for them. I'm so tired.

I'm the only person in my workplace with a C2 level in English so I have to take care of most of the talking.

Just. I'll be real and just say that I hate how English has become the lingua franca of the world. How you can't expect to achieve relevancy without speaking it. How I go online to hear about everything and anything to do with the US and then look away from my phone to deal with British tourists wearing "I <3 Benidorm/Mallorca/Madrid/Toledo/Granada" shirts.

I can barely get people to care about my first language and now I have to talk to people who don't even care about Spanish? Who don't try? Who throw an "Hola" and "Gracias" and then look puzzled when I speak Spanish? Who can't differentiate between the culture of the south, north, east and west of the country? Because I assure you, you will NOT find bullfighters and flamenco dancers and paella in proximity.

Do they know about Valencian? Catalan? Galician? Euskera? Basque? Do they know about Turrón? About the centuries we spent as Arab territory? Do they know? Do they care? Would they like to know?

Touristic cities are a paradox of being SO Spanish it's uncanny and also having not a single ounce of Spanish in them, it's all english breakfasts and italian/chinese/indian/etc restaurants and souvenir shops.

I saw a slideshow of a British guy taking pics posing next to "tourists go home" & "end mass tourism" graffiti and had to take a break from looking at my phone for the rest of the day

[beardedmrbean]

Oh sorry, I not raise a fan of ATLA anymore

But y’all get ready for the shitstorm,

I’m the villain in a robe in a background evil smiling as everything get burn down

MUHAHAHAHA!

But also this

https://x.com/esemicolonr/status/1779206669207056485?s=46

Also one thing, just because you’re a child of immigrants DOESN’T MEAN YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR PARENTS CULTURES!

Long vid but this apu shitshow started with this idiot

https://youtu.be/9XLVvQAgiFE?si=dirkSMtJCnCRB_dO

Yes better rep…but the problem is those dispora people overlook how Americanized as hell they truly are

Like I learn that Mexicans and Indians can tell a Chicano or Indian American a mile away

Fuck i thought Nikki Haley was a white southern chick until I learn she Indian

Ugh I hate identity politics, hmm sorry, another one points out a huge issue soon

Browser crashed so I'm going short version instead of writing everything again

But y’all get ready for the shitstorm, I’m the villain in a robe in a background evil smiling as everything get burn down

This would be beyond hilarous, also I posted it by itself so it's easier for people to crack jokes on

Also one thing, just because you’re a child of immigrants DOESN’T MEAN YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR PARENTS CULTURES! Long vid but this apu shitshow started with this idiot

Yay @jlongbone I do miss seeing vince vaugn all the time, lol

Guy isn't popular even in some Indian circles for screwing over Apu like that iirc.

Yes better rep…but the problem is those dispora people overlook how Americanized as hell they truly are Like I learn that Mexicans and Indians can tell a Chicano or Indian American a mile away

Latinos do it by who's wearing the DBZ shirt usually, lol.

Fuck i thought Nikki Haley was a white southern chick until I learn she Indian

Extra shock Nikki is a Indian name

Ugh I hate identity politics, hmm sorry, another one points out a huge issue soon

We've been at a stage for a while now where people see fit to tell people of a particular culture that they're wrong about how their culture should be handled and such.

One of my fav examples.

Then we get.

Stupid question really, we all know why and it's not the bullshit "appreciation" some people tried to claim, not with everything else that's been called out over the cultural appropriation nonsense.

Double standard is pretty consistent, it's how trudeau managed to keep his job after all his blackface and weird dress up stuff.

Short answer yes, the Japanese love seeing it so unless you want to talk over the people you claim to be protecting shut up.

Also I traced the kimono back across time and continents and amazingly enough it's a item of clothing that's evolved and been adapted by different people and cultures all over the world and they all have their own take on it.

Nobody owns it

[newtonsheffield]

Oh gosh Molly, please don't let criticism take away from the mob boss au. As a proud brown Indian woman, just like name the whatever the fuck you want to, but keep writing Kate sharma and Mary and Tharman and bi edwina. I don't know if you know, but your writing of some traditions like the mehendi and haldi and Kate's silk sarees are truly beautiful

Thanks for your support.

I get that what I write isn't going to appeal to everyone but also: It's not going to feel authentic to everyone's experience. That's part of growing up in an immigrant family. Cultural identity is a really personal thing and the cultural identity i choose for Kate isn't going to feel authentic to everyone, that's life.

Anyway, thanks for the appreciation and just a friendly reminder that anyone is always free to not read a story that doesn't feel right to them, or block me all together.

[aeolianblues]

Things I’ve come to learn in the last 48 hours:

UK roads are so much bumpier than North American roads. I have rediscovered that I used to be the most motion sick person you knew. I haven’t been road queasy in six years.

The upside is I simply cannot go on my phone out of boredom. Tumblr would’ve made me throw up on the road. Unfortunately, so would’ve reading the maps. The other upside is I am on fucking international roaming, so I really shouldn’t be using my data liberally anyway.

You all are so nice. You are so fucking nice. Holy fuck, the stereotype of the stoic Brit does not really apply in practice. You’re the nicest people, holy shit.

Also, you are one of the countries where neighbourhoods still feel like communities. Street WhatsApp groups, knowing your neighbours’ names, being in their lives, drinking together. I know only two of my neighbours, and one I know because they were being a dick to me and the other I know because I was bitching about the dicking to my other neighbours and then I asked their name.

The drinking culture is real. Holy fuck. I have consumed more alcohol in under 48 hours than I have in 5 years of being able to buy my own drinks with 0 parental supervision on my day-to-day life in Canada. But how can I blame you? Somehow, your drinks just taste nicer. For one, they don’t taste like $11 of piss.

Youse… how do I put this! You’re able to galvanise prettiness into discounts and free stuff. And it works. I don’t fucking know how. I’ve witnessed the magic with a dropped jaw. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that your servers aren’t under Damocles’ sword of tipping. Flirting in this country does the job of a voucher.

Youse don’t like Americans, do you. I get away here because I’m obviously not American, and to the passing ear I would pass more close to British than authentically Canadian because of my Indian accent (idk how either man, this is just what people tell me), but you are very acutely attuned to the stereotypes. You ever wonder if something is more of online heresay and that people don’t actually feel that way in the real world? It may be so with Canadians, I could mention most stereotypes about Canadians and Brits would be like, ‘huh, I didn’t know that’ (case in point, I said to a few today that Americans think of us first when they talk about weed, and they were like ‘huh. We just think of Amsterdam’). When it comes to the stereotypes about Americans, you know and will tell me every single one. Your friends are exceptions, they don’t disprove the rule.

Adding on to the point about niceness and stereotypes, you are surprisingly willing to travel long distances to meet friends. I’ve already had like four friends offer to travel fairly significant distances to see me while I’m here. I promise to reciprocate, obviously! People say all the time that Europeans don’t do well with the kind of distances North Americans are just used to because the continent is vast, and my bestest friend, a Londoner, is allergic to anything over 20 minutes to the point where I’ve just told her I’m coming to her house. I’ll sort travel, and we can sedate her if it gets longer than 20 (legally that is a joke). Perhaps you’ll grumble every minute of your 2.5-hour long trip, but if there is a train that goes, you will get on it.

Oddly, I’ve similarly had Americans be okay with driving out long distances to catch up. Canadians need to step up their game, holy fuck, I’ve had ‘friends’ in the same city who can’t be bothered to make a 15 minute trip, and this isn’t one or two people, over six years I’ve just noticed this is a Canadian thing. Yeah, we’re ‘nice’ but from a distance. Don’t ever come to our houses. Bye. Step up, Canadians. (My door is always open, I promise.)

You end your nights early. Here I thought we close down early.

The way you call Teslas ‘tezzies’ will actually kill the man dead. Keep up the good work.

[libraryleopard]

Okay, so I'm reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna and I need to know if anyone else has had the same issues as me because I'm fifty pages from the end and I'm kind of losing my mind at how this apparently cozy fantasy novel keeps dropping in things that to me read as incredibly fucked up without really unpacking them

So the first thing that an established part of this world-building is that due to a curse, all witches are orphans because their biological parents will always die shortly after they're born. Which is honestly, like, something that could be in a horror novel and not a fluffy contemporary fantasy novel, but it's meant to explain that the main character, Mika, is an orphan who didn't have a family growing up. But then the novel adds in the fact that the protagonist's grandmother and and mother where both witches who didn't want to have children because of this but did anyway. There's a conversation Mika has with her childhood guardian, Primrose, where Primrose says "Neither your mother nor mother or grandmother ever planned to have children. I think they would have liked to if it hadn't been for the spell, but they did not have the luxury of choosing in the end." Which has also sorts of fucked-up implications to me–rape? violation of bodily autonomy? forced pregnancy?–but not does seem to be a thing that the novel is going to revisit or explore. And also there's no mention of Mika, say, being on birth control to avoid having a witch daughter and dying prematurely even though she has a spell to ease period cramps????

The second thing is that Mika, who is Indian and was raised in England by a witch white after her mother died, is hired to be a nanny for three young witch orphans, Altamira, Rosetta, and Terracotta, who are Black, Palestinian, and Vietnamese, respectively. After their parents died thanks to the witch-curse, the three girls were taken in by a white British archaeologist witch, Lillian, and renamed after notable archaeological discovers. There's, like, one mention of the current guardians of the three girls hoping that Mika could be kind of a role model for them since she's an older woman of color, but I find the fact that a white British lady took in three orphans of color, gave them these weird twee names instead of keeping the names they presumably already had, and is raising them with no connection to their birth cultures weirdly…colonialist? But the main worries of the novel seems to be just getting the girls to control their magic so they don't have to live in isolation. Sangu Mandanna is British Indian so she's coming to this with a different perspective than me (white American), but it just seems weird to me!! Like, there's a whole sequence of the adults preparing for Winter Solstice celebrations and I was just like damn none of these guardians seems to care about keeping the girls in their care in contact with the cultures of their birth families?

Also, the love interest has a really disturbing backstory where his older brothers were horrifically abusive to him after the death of their father (like, he recounts that they would whip him with his father's belt and say it was like he was being beaten by his father) and it's literally resolved in one off-page confrontation with the brothers where he decides they aren't as scary as they were when they were kids.

I just!! don't get!!!! why a book that's marketed as sweet and cozy keeps including these things that seemly massively fucked up and not unpacking them at all. I like fluffy books and I like romance novels (and I think light-hearted novels can still unpack serious topics–like I recently read Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau and it's primarily a sweet romance but also features characters dealing with the grief of losing a parent in a way that felt tonally fitting), but the dissonance of these things being included and not really unpacked in what's supposed to be a feel-good read is so weird to me!!!

And I really thought that the witch curse would end up being a primarily problem characters have to face at the end (it's established as being a protection spell that went wrong and became a curse, causing witches to lead lives isolated from each other), but it seems like it won't be.

Anyway, I'm almost done and I don't know if I'm overthinking things but it's driving me batty.

[aworldofyou]

….. I have no words. Maybe you do? https://twitter.com/ign/status/1663742344066134021?s=46&t=vuUX2OT_2Xw3zZCaC2W1Pw

(for context to people they sent me a link to a Aztec RPG game where you fight Conquistadors, here's the trailer.)

FUCK YEAH. THese guys keep promising me an Indigenous RPG game. First they made a Plains Indian where you could live on the PLAINS as plains life. And nothing ever came of that. So they better give me this. I got nothing but respect for the Aztec people especially with all the drama with their warring leaders.

again tho with all due respect and absolutely not angry and loving these anons, why is this worded like a bad thing ...?

You can't tell me it's cause 'oh the people died tho!' when there's literally games like Plague Tale that literally starts as you being children watching your family die and the realism of how you're adults back then at 12 and 16 that has you walk into cities where THOUSANDS OF CORPSES ARE ALL OVER THE STREETS PLAYING AS SAID CHILDREN. Or just - all sorts of games set in Europe around the topic of dead and dying and whole cultures being burned down. You can't tell me that it's bad now just cause it's going into a POV of some meso-american indigenous people.