#like wtf do random feminists have to do with any of this??

[ms-hells-bells]

i just don't understand, what is the correlation??? feminists were against the iraq war back then as well, why would feminists support the murdering and raping of women and girls? also

the majority of women on social media talking about mulsim girls and schooling that call themselves feminists were CHILDREN when this hhapened, we didn't have opinions on western imperialism when we were fucking four and

SOCIAL MEDIA DIDN'T EXIST IN 2003, WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WERE SILENT???' where would the average jane young liberal feminists globally announce their war views, fucking livejournal??

these sorts of posts confound me, like there is near NO overlap between the two groups she's talking about, it's such a weird niche to focus on. and i notice this constantly, this inability to talk about feminist issues without somehow attacking feminists for...being born american, or being white, or being straight, or being cis or being wealthy or whatever. like, those groups (barring the cis shit) deserve criticism when those things occur, like pro military, racist, homophobic, capitalist, whatever, but this shit has just completely crippled the feminist movement, among many other things. the women's march is cancelled because it's 'too white', shut up about abortion, it's rich women's fault, they'll just keep getting abortions anyway, lesbians are actually privileged oppressors, white women are worse than white men, abusers' and serial killers' and mass shooters' mothers are to blame, blah blah blah.

what these things tell me is that 1. social media has warped people to be unable to bring up issues without being on the attack, and 2. everything is women's fault, especially feminists; be strict feminists and you're man hating swerfs and terfs, declaw yourselves and you're who's responsible for all the world's problems for doing nothing (despite it being men who start the wars, attack the women, ban the girls from school, etc.).

[deadpoetmagda]

Your mind seems to be a bit messy, so you're fine interacting with zionists and like and reblog radical feminists posts and you're apparently 'religion critical' but you only seem to bring up islam, lol girl do you even know what you're on about, you either don't know what you're babbling about or you're just desperate for some attention, even if it's negative

Random people on tumblr when they know I'm an Arab woman who's critical of any kind of religion and naturally bring up the one she's been raised with the most, who doesn't wish death and destruction upon the jews and who doesn't boot lick for hamas, a middle eastern woman who've been brought up in a conservative religious society and is aware of the world around her as much as she can and turns out to have radical feminism leaning opinions and beliefs, and when they know I post about these things on my tumblr blog from time to time even though I'm kinda risking my safety, mostly cause I don't have much freedom, if not any, to speak about these topics in real life:

OMG NO WTF IS THIS *gasp* I can NOT *gasp* BELIEVE THIS *gasp* someone stop her!!!!!!

Here's the thing anon, all kinds of people follow me, people who mock and make fun of radical feminists and call them names left and right, fellow arabs who are hardcore hamas supporters who call me traitor and even send me threats merely for supporting a 2 state solution and not mindlessly worshipping hamas or hezbollah like them, Muslims who don't like my perspective regarding their faith and want me to shut up about it, even some conservatives and trump supporters who like me for being anti porn then frown when they find out I'm an 'angry feminist' and a hardcore pro choice witch, and so on, so you're free to follow me and try and engage with me if you want but it's my decision later on wether I wanna block you or not, I mean it's fine as long as you behave yourself but who knows, I like being petty sometimes 🤷🏻��♀️

Also this is my blog on tumblr.com, the hellsite itself, and I'm free to post whatever the hell I desire, and apparently I'm a human being with complex thoughts and emotions and an ever changing belief system that can be, and to a very high degree, different from millions others.... I know, what a shocker, so pardon me for shattering your fantasy about what others are supposed to believe in and mold into in order to seem right and normal to you and gain your stamp of approval, and I'm sorry your apparent small mind can't comprehend it, so if you don't like it you can simply just leave.

[youraverageaemondsimp]

Random opinion rant because I'm procrastinating studying below

I wish people could realise that viewing things from a modern perspective while things are happening in the medieval era and forming opinions based on modern experiences kind of defeats the point of any plot taking place in those ages.

Like? You're not a bad person if you see it from a medieval point of view, and neither will you become an anti-feminist because it's just a show after all, you can disagree with medieval practices in such shows but you cannot expect the modern norm to be considered the show's norm when it isn't even taking place in the modern era and complain when certain plot-based decisions are made.

Rhaenyra doing whatever she's doing in the show isn't really much of a big deal in the modern era, in fact, nobody would blink an eye? But it is a big deal in the medieval era, I do not like it when they call rhaenyra a wh//re for sleeping with multiple (like barely 3 wtf) men, but according to the era she is in, sleeping with any man before marriage is literally the biggest scandal one could ever commit, same with having children outside of marriage, it doesn't matter the agreement between laenor and her, because that's not what people see, and they quite literally blame when Alicent (a lady of that era, raised and taught to have such viewpoints) is obviously uncomfortable with it. It isn't meant to be progressive 😭

None of the characters in the show are truly progressive, because once again, they aren't in the modern era.

[x-authorship-x]

i feel like we're not helping you write the red Istari but these pairings are too fun to stop 🌝 any other combinations you'd care to share?

I always was too much of a multishipper to function 🤦

OKAY SO WE HAVE

The OG Idea Ship: Shisui x Faramir:

I love love love Faramir so much, and I absolutely do love him with Eowyn don't get me wrong, but my desire was to explore his time with the Rangers of Ithilien and becoming a brilliant Captain despite Denethor's....everything, and I wanted him to meet Shisui, who is this crazy glowing motherfucker, and be both awed and bemused lmao

The Obligatory Magical Girl Ship: Shisui x Legolas

Honestly this was born from both impatience and sadness for mortality because Faramir is gonna die, he's not going anywhere off Middle Earth, and there's a lot of time between the current chapters and when Shisui gets to meet him. Legolas however is kicking at this time, working on removing the stick from his ass courtesy of his father, and I loved the idea of them finding themselves through knowing each other. Also it's funny to imagine Aragorn trying to live undercover as a random soldier/Ranger BUT TRAILING BEHIND HIM ARE THE ELVEN PRINCE AND A SUSPICIOUSLY HARAD-LOOKING WIZARD 😂 Aragorn what have you got there? A smoothie?

The Bros Are My Hoes Ship: Shisui x Boromir

I have a previous Istari!Shisui fic with this pairing and, well, I never could leave anything alone. I love the idea of these two being sensitive but also slightly meathead-ish. The closest the Fellowship can get to having two all-star sportsmen eyefucking in the locker room. Hold my hand on the battlefield, my brother in arms. Handle my sword, as if it were your own. I'll be your shield, your armour. You look stunning in the dawn of victory; come, place your forehead to mine and we shall draw breath together. This idea will never leave me alone.

Protective Husbandry Ship: Shisui x Samwise

I don't need to preach to the choir about this glorious mix of protective instincts, plant care and good food. It really does speak for itself. Also I love the imagery of Shisui, who alternates wildly between deadly gorgeous and sunshine gorgeous depending on if you can see his dimples, and Sam, who is no doubt the Shire's Hottest Bachelor with a head of sunny curls and a kitchen/garden to drool over. A summer wedding under the Party Tree, please and thank you.

Majestic Heart attack Ship: Shisui x Aragorn

I'm sorry but the inherent homoeroticism of a knight genuflecting to his chosen king. Like. A KING AND HIS WIZARD?! also Aragorn is the fav poetry, brooding, sweetheart and you're telling me you can't imagine Shisui sliding him a tender smile, sitting down beside him at the campfire and twisting their fingers together. The promise of what little happiness they can find now, knowing that 'later' could mean Aragorn sworn to a crown, with the ensuing duties, and Shisui, like a distant star, sailing away with the other Istari. Um. My eyes are glinting with unshed tears in the moonlight. Neither would ever leave the other but fate might not be so kind. Also Shisui wounded at some point and whisked away to be cared for by Gandalf and Radagast and then he gets to make his Arwen-Coronation entrance and declare that he will NOT sail 😭❤️

Sexual Tension and Gorgeous Hair Ship: Shisui x Eomer

Shisui is in Big Trouble because he's a feminist in a world where feminism is a 'weird and not really a thing' thing. Yes he expected Eowyn to be wielding that sword, why wouldn't she, and why are you getting all up in my face for encouraging her. This is different from Aragorn complimenting her desire to defend her people, this is Shisui helping Eowyn smuggle armour and showing her how to garotte an orc. Eomer wants to punch the red wizard so bad, from the moment he dared OUTRUN A HORSE (wtf) to the moment he dared flash that cheeky grin and JUMP ONTO A ROOF TO LEAVE A CONVERSATION. There is a lot of tension and unnecessary interactions, like if they actually hated each other they would avoid and ignore lmao. The very slow slide into allies and gruff trust. Shisui doesn't appreciate being stifled, thanks. Eomer is ramming his head into the wall until he gets a better idea and uses biting kisses to shut Shisui up. Everyone thinks these two need to be hospitalized. (Aragorn, with those healing hands on Shisui's forehead: I have never seen you behave this way?????)

The Holy Fuck My Eyes Ship: Shisui x Arwen

I cannot unsee this, I did this to myself in The Red Ally when I suggested that Elrond had hoped that Shisui could marry Arwen so they could all sail together. And then I went and described Arwen like a goddamned marble sculpture who stepped off her pillar into a pool of moonlight and she held Shisui's arm so gently and they were supposed to be friends but now I cannot UNSEE AND I NEED YOU ALL TO SUFFER WITH ME

[taohun]

Wtf is wrong with you? Like genuinely behan tu therapist ka pass ja.

you always need something to whine about I have wanted to say this for so long and the recent stuff just made me

The mention of her being white and not fulfilling to your level of feminism or anything that makes you be so bitter about a random stranger is just disgusting

can you leave me alone I know you have a fisheye lens view of frameworks of oppression in the world and don’t want to acknowledge that there are positions of power that are afforded to people systemically in this world but I don’t feel that way. don’t call me behan I’m not a woman. don’t tell me to go to a therapist either you’re being way too overfamiliar and this is nasty behavior.

this is my blog and I can say and do what I want. if I want to complain about taylor swift’s bad music and consistent weird patterns of behavior that illustrate white woman privilege I will and you need to stop acting like you have any right to say this sort of stuff to me. her feminism doesn’t need to be perfect but she needs to stop acting like it is because she’s heralded as a feminist #icon while she really is not.

if it’s annoying you this much please consider unfollowing me because you consist in being extremely rude and overstepping every single time you’re here. please figure out your own frustrations and try and understand why you’re so against any form of sociopolitical understanding of oppression and/or people expressing themselves with jokes on their own blogs and leave me out of it.

agar itni hi problem hai come off anon so that I can block you myself.

[lastoneout]

I've spent a lot of time in both female-dominated and male-dominated spaces and overall I think it's less that either group is more misogynistic than the other, it's more that they're both misogynistic in different ways.

The comments I got disparaging me for not being feminine/a girl "correctly" came from women, family or otherwise, and looking back it very much felt like group self-policing, like they had been beaten down until they were acting like Women Correctly, and now were teaching me how to behave and punishing me for doing it wrong, and in the worst cases it felt like they thought they were helping? like "this is how we're supposed to be, don't you get that? why aren't you acting right? I guess we just have to keep reminding you to Behave" which honestly made me hate myself/feel very unwelcome.

Meanwhile, I was more likely to be accepted for being gnc in men's spaces, and in fact I was kinda...I don't wanna say celebrated exactly, but they thought it was cool that I "wasn't like other girls" for sure, but that didn't make them less misogynistic. I still had to face that like, nerdy misogyny? I guess?? It was clear women weren't seen as equals unless they behaved like I did, and even then those guys tended to have that mild nerdy misogyny going on, or to full on believe misogyny wasn't real and turn into gamer gate/MRA types.

So yeah, being around the guys kinda felt better, because they praised me for the things women mocked me for, but I wasn't free of misogyny by any means, I just had to deal with a different form of it.

And this is part of the reason I have never understood wtf terfs are talking about when they claim that all women just naturally feel safer around other women. I have never in my life felt "safer" around women than men. I mean, I've been lucky enough to grow up with and currently still have lots of friends who are women and are very awesome and I do feel a sense of comradery with them, and I still call myself a feminist and am very adamant that radfems/terfs/gender critical women are NOT real feminists, but when I get just like...air-dropped into a group of random women I honestly feel like an alien and it is made very clear very quickly that I just fundamentally don't fit in.

But yeah, I do tend to feel like I can relax a bit more in men's spaces, but tbh the only communities where I've ever actually felt naturally welcome have been queer and disabled ones. The genders of the people involved don't factor bcs both men and women have been shitty to me for different reasons.

Btw, the most misogynistic people I've met have all been cis women.

[eloquentgifs]

DWJ Reading Project. Part III

As I said here, my 2021 2023 resolution is gonna be READING EVERY DIANA WYNNE JONES BOOK I CAN FIND, and due to my love of making lists and taking notes, I’ve decided keeping track of this reading project here in this post, which I’ll keep updated as I make progress. It’s mostly for my own pleasure, but maybe it helps someone who wants to give it a try to this amazing writer and doesn’t know where to start.

Part I (1970 - 1976 & The Dalemark Quartet)

Part II (1977 - 1981 & The Chrestomanci Series )

- Archer’s Goon (1984): At this point it’s just ridiculous how these books keep being surprising and leaving me all wtf (in a good sense). This one is, again, about a family with very realistic dynamics who have to deal with some surreal fuckery. In this case, they live in a town ruled from the shadows by seven brothers and sisters, each of one farming a different aspect of the town (energy, police, crime, education, sewage... etc). I couldn’t explain the plot if my life depended on it, but I enjoyed every single page. ALSO, there’s a TV adaptation, althought it doesn’t seem very faithful***

***Edit: I’ve watched the whole thing now and I stand corrected: It’s actually quite faithful. Some characters are not how I imagined them, but they did mostly a good job, and I’m obsessed with Dillian’s dress

- Fire and Hemlock (1985): Well, I finished it yesterday and I’m still processing it. What a ride. I felt I missed a lot of subtext by not knowing the stories it’s inspired by, so I’m totally re-reading it in the future, after I’ve checked those up. About the parts I did get, it’s just WOW. Polly in all her complexity is just amazing. I love that the premise seems to be a feminist revision of a tale of clingy love, and I love how all along the book you can see different examples of shitty stuff women have to put up with (grown ups sexualizing underage girls, boys mansplaining shit and being a pain in the ass until the girl they’re after gets so tired she gives up, slut shaming between girls, whatever is going on with Ivy’s mental health, THE FUCKING GROOMING –really, this made me so unconfortable from the very beginning). Of course I don’t think this is the main theme of the book, but I do believe DWJ wasn’t random about anything. There’s so much going on in my mind I don’t really know what else to say.

- Land of Ingary Series: · Howl’s Moving Castle (1986): This is 8th time I read this book (the 4th in English. It was actually my first book in English). It's my favourite book in the world and I could write a whole essay about how much I love it and how good it is for my mental and emotional balance, so I’ll just mention a few thoughts to keep this short: 1) I relate to Howl much more than I’d like to admit. 2) Sophie taught me to use aggresive cleaning to cope with anxiety. 3) Also, I would kill for powers like hers. 4) I actually relate to all of them, bunch of human messes. Diana predicted the millennials. 5) I can’t believe it took me this long to really understand [Calcifer spoilery stuff]. 6) Now that I’m more familiar with DJW usual tone and themes, I have to asume she wrote this lighthearted (pun intended) and fun story to relax a little bit after the previous 3-4 books, and that makes me love it even more. 7) I should read Stardust.

· Castle in the Air (1990): I’ve also read this one several times, and there’s a lot to love in it. Most of the new characters are amazing and the plot is quite a ride (and if you’re into The Arabian Nights, you’ll probably love this). I even stole some traits from Abdullah for one of my OC. But I must admit it didn’t age well, or at least there are some aspects I like less every time I read it, mostly regarding the female characters and what is said about their looks and beauty. I also felt Sophie was a little bit out of character, but obviously she’s going through STUFF so I’d rather not to judge. In any case, it’s a nice story and it’s not its fault not being as perfect as the absolute masterpiece that was HMC

· House of Many Ways (2008): The first time I read this one it was months before DWJ died, and since I hadn’t like that much and it made me really sad to know it would be the last book of this series, I used to feel a weird resentment against it all these years. This new re-read helped me to reconcile with it and actually enjoy it a lot. Maybe back then I was too similar to Charmain and I felt attacked or something, idk, but I’ve definitely learnt to love useless idiots who have no clue about anything going on in their lifes and it’s almost a miracle they’re still alive. And the fact that a huge % of the book it’s just her and Peter doing house chores? Hilarious. Also, I have the impression that DWJ was so tired of people fancying Howl that this time she did her best to show us how fucking annoying he can be.

- A Tale of Time City (1987): This was the first DWJ book I read after a long hiatus and I must confess it took me several months to finish it, which was surprising because I had missed Diana a lot and time travel is one of my favourite things in literature. Maybe the hype was too high, but it just didn’t hook me at first. It gets better once the worldbuilding is settled and the plot can fly free, and I did enjoy a lot of silly scenes that only provide vibe, like the main character laughing her ass off during the chaotic morning routine in the house. I also appreciate the racial diversity, and the comeback of the Surprise Evil Uncle (tm), a DWJ classic. And I do want one of those butter-pies now. - Wild Robert (1989): Heather is a girl who lives in a castle-museum because her parents are the curators there. She hates tourists so I could relate to her from the very beginning. She hates them so much she accidentally wakes up a 350 yo wizard from his grave so he gets rid of them. The story is so short that it almost feels as pilot for a show, like, you want to keep seeing Heather and Robert getting into trouble and stuff.  It would have made a nice series of children’s books.

- Black Maria (also known as Aunt Maria, 1991): The timing for this one was weirdly good because: a) I had to move in with my old aunt for a few days to help her while she recovers after a surgery (which is basically the starting point for Mig, the mc of the story, and her family), b) the book has several mysteries, including a crime one (my aunt forced me to watch hours of police procedural shows), the town where Mig's aunt lives has a extreme matriarchal social structure, where women are on the top, and men are just Ken, and the main conflict surrounds this (I started reading the book around the time Barbie premiered). I don’t normally like the first-person narrative, but DWJ managed to do it, once again, in a rather clever way that fits the story quite right and made me like Mig a lot. Also, it was nice to see that the adult relative is actually helpful and good, instead of the classic neglectul piece of shit that she so often includes.

[bearpillowmonster]

She-Hulk Episode 1

Just call it She-Hulk, we already know she's an attorney. I've waited for She-Hulk's appearance for a long time because I myself am a She-Hulk fan. I liked the Hulk as a kid but felt that more recent iterations of him are very bland and not what I look for in Hulk media, it's hard to get right in a live action format but I felt like She-Hulk might've been a little easier to swallow.

So this one had a bad reputation before release, from people judging it without seeing it, people spoiling it without seeing it, people who clearly have no idea who She-Hulk is but are criticizing it anyway, behind the scenes drama and just all around bad vibes, just look at some of this.

So apparently we need to be inclusive...about CGI...wtf. But because of this and the kind of poor trailers and overselling and rebranding, I've felt like this was doomed to fail but I was onboard regardless despite low expectations.

Anyways, the actual episode, it's not that bad. It's short, probably the shortest of any MCU show intro with only 35 minutes (actually only around 30 because the credits take so long with D+)

But it's setting itself up to be a Monster of the Week show and I'm perfectly okay with that, I want an episode to episode basis to do with Hulk. This episode is indeed Hulk. It's cool to see how he dealt with being Smart Hulk and the Blip and losing Tony and all that jazz.

Now the origin is a bit odd because originally she needed an emergency blood transfusion and Bruce had to be the donor (comics). I could see a lot done with that plot, with Bruce trying to wrestle with the idea with making Jen a freak like himself but saving her life and saving lives is what he does since he's a hero. But they take that, shoot it out the window and turn it into "While driving with Bruce, a spaceship came down and caused Jen to pull off the road and flip the car down a hill. She's alright, she just as a few scratches but Bruce gets hurt and some of his blood drips into her wound." Which is really dumb. That spaceship is later said to be a courier ship with a message that they never mention or bother to investigate. It will probably become relevant at some point but let's be honest, it probably won't be until the end of the show or an after credits scene which is even dumber.

The fourth wall breaks are...interesting, it makes me feel like I'm watching a stupid modern sitcom, I just feel like they can be much better. Rather than her commentating and say "Here's the story of my life." I'd rather her be in the middle of a battle and quip or something. I know these comics and this story are practically know for fourth wall breaks so by all means, let's have them but I still can't shake that sitcom vibe.

The CGI for this episode specifically wasn't bad in my opinion, a lot of recent Marvel CGI has been poor but this is only the first episode, I'm sure we have more to come but I'm hoping due to backlash they've fixed it.

You already knew it was going to do a feminist take, I didn't need to tell you that and you didn't need to act surprised so there are a few scenes where she gets catcalled or talks about getting catcalled but it was within a tolerable range for me, I think they made them just shove that in there to appease the masses so it's just whatever. I'm not against making her a feminist but there are far more interesting ways to do it, the way its done here is just a trope at this point but again, I expected it so I'm not going to complain.

All in all, not too bad though, hopefully it keeps at least this good despite a few fumbles within the plot and just random things taking place.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

Wtf is so cleaaaarly going for a “both sides are wrong” conclusion, and they’re doing so by making everyone (including Yasmina) into way more of a dick than they were in Skam. 

Like, when Sana took pics of Sara’s chats with Isak, we could see Sara had talked shit about Vilde in one of the chats. (And we also knew that Sara did that on the reg because Isak said Sara wouldn’t stop talking shit about Vilde when they were together.) Despite this, when Sana posted Sara’s chats, she never posted anything where Sara talked shit about the girl squad. It was all Sara talking shit about random Pepsi Max members, except for ONE chat where Sara talked shit about Sana. 

It was the lack of chats about the girl squad, as well as the fake Sara account having a bio/description that was very similar to something Vilde had said about Sara in public, that made Pepsi Max suspect it must’ve been Vilde. 

The fact that wtf is having Yasmina post messages that very likely can hurt her (former?) besties is way more inflammatory than what Skam did. We know that Zoë did have an ED and still struggles with it (as recently as s2). And like, I want to make it absolutely clear that I don’t like Zoë, and if Yasmina chose to never be friends with Zoë after high school, I would fully support her. But if I were Zoë, I don’t think I could ever trust her again, as a person who made something so personal about me public for everyone in school to gawk at, for the sake of humiliating an enemy. Like, Yasmina isn’t just taking revenge on Britt here (which, again, live your truth Yasmina), she’s making something incredibly personal about her former friend into school-wide (world-wide) gossip. And, moreover, it’s not even something that is relevant to Yasmina’s issue with Zoë, like the chat didn’t say anything such as, “Zoë pretends to be such a feminist but did you see how she laughed at our jokes the other day?” Does Yasmina REALLY have the moral high ground here when she’s using Britt as a proxy to attack her friends? 

The worst part is that, after all the girl squad has done to Yasmina throughout the season, including being friendly with Blonde Ambition and posing in cute pics with them, at a meeting where Luca says Blonde Ambition were openly insulting towards Yasmina, I actually think Yasmina shouldn’t be friends with any of these girls anymore. Zoë included. But instead, we’re going to get a los losers scene and we’ll be force-fed a “friends forever!!” ending for this squad, that throughout the show have been hardly more than acquaintances (even wtfock fans think they’re one of the least close girl squads among the Skams), and that, this season, have been outright toxic towards each other. And, publishing the chat that brings up Zoë’s ED, Yasmina is now part of that toxicity. 

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

Random thoughts about Fate: The Winx Saga 1x01 which I couldn’t fit under any particular thematic post

- I do like the logo with the different wings, TOO BAD THAT IT’S POINTLESS SINCE THEY HAVE NO FUCKING WINGS IN THIS POOR EXCUSE OF A SHOW. Speaking of which how the fuck did they “lose that power over time”????

- I do like the fact that they kept phones and modern technology like in the cartoon but this JUST MAKES ME MADDER THAT THEY GOT RID OF TECNA. WHERE IS SHE. Also nobody believes that these kids all have instagram and yet they still manage to keep magic a secret. 

- Bloom accusing Sky of mansplaining things to her when she actively and truly has no idea of what’s going on is… the worst. God I hate this fake-feminism bullshit. This is doubly true for Bloom’s dad telling her “not to be sexist” about something truly stupid. They’re trying so hard to show they’re modern and feminists but it’s completely performative and devoid of any actual meaning. (Side note: Bloom’s dad is hot). 

- Not truly the show’s fault but Stella’s Italian voice is so wrong. Perla Liberatori I miss you. 

- Why are the specialists so dark and military-like? I miss the capes and the colored swords. 

- I do not like how Sky is clearly the teacher’s pet and the “cool guy”. If I were a specialist in training I’d hate him immediately. 

- I hate the burned ones or however the fuck they’re called because they’re really just zombies and they’re not even remotely tied to anything that was in Winx originally. 

- The “party” at Alfea is the biggest downgrade of anything ever. In the cartoons parties were colorful and magical and with elegant, creative dresses and instead we got something more boring than a regular prom. 

- Not sure I like the changeling thing for Bloom. I mean, it’s not a bad idea, but it just changes so much about her, her story and her parents. I’ll probably talk more about this in another post. 

- Nobody felt the need for fatphobia in this show. Literally nobody. 

- Also Terra WTF you nearly killed a guy. I mean he deserved it, but why did no one stop her. She was choking him for a good minute. 

- Just out of curiosity, are their powers like… strictly bound to their element? I mean, can they levitate stuff or can they only manipulate their element and that’s it? If that’s the case, then it’s the downgrade of the century. 

- I did like how they showed Stella being unsure with Sky, because Stella showing her vulnerability was one of my favorite things in the cartoon as well, but I did not need to see them in sexual situations. They’re 16 and they’re characters from my childhood, I do not need that in my life. 

- I really really liked Musa and Terra’s scene at the end, if only they weren’t whitewashed and substantially changed from their cartoon counterparts… 

[hedgefairy]

Well hello there. While I'm waiting for that breeches video I've been talking about to finally upload, here's

Bridgerton, Episode 4

Phew, half time!

If you've missed the other ones, the tag is Bridgerbore, btw.

Okay, so we start of with Dukey who's going home-ish because drama and heartbreak in the last episode. Stop pretending, nobody takes your pouting seriously! We all know it's twu wuv!

Erm. So, I know, I'm white and this is a delicate matter, but I gotta say I'm not super happy about the whole POC-justifying explanation here. I'd much rather have no explanation at all, it worked perfectly well in Merlin, and this is just as much historically inspired fantasy just with less magic, which I'm honestly quite upset about. I'd be far more okayer with the costumes and overall ugh-ness if there was magic.

But honestly, I'm not a fan of shoehorning that explanation in (it doesn't seem to come up in the books, either, where everyone is basically a baguette in terms of whiteness). The fact that the implications aren't discussed any further makes it even worse. We're talking about the British empire here, and while POC are apparently part of the society (but with more pressure, which... no, this is not how nobility works) the wealth and luxury of this age still stems from the exploitation of POC everywhere else. How isn't there a revolution going on? How is this not talked about? From all I see, Bridgerton is a fluffy, pastel, nice alternate version of the 1800s, and I don't get why anyone would put politics in there instead of just doing what TV tropes refers to as "colourblind casting" and be done with it. Either you do the alternate history thing thoroughly, or you just cast people for being pretty (and maybe good actors) instead of the idea the audience might have about a character's skin colour and have weird costumes and just roll with it.

Also the Queen's marriage seems to suck. I would have liked a deeper, more heartbreaking connection between George III and her, especially because I saw how my Grandmother suffered when she gradually lost my Grandfather to dementia, and it would have been a scene where we could see Charlotte as a person rather than a weird plot device in tafetta and bling, but no, she just seems as annoyed and bored and snappish as ever.

This is getting far too serious. Where's the snark?

We get some Tchaikovsky in the background, which is weird, tbh. Yes, I'm perfectly fine with them covering Top 40s hits and using waltzes from the 1950s, but I draw the line at something from the second half of the 19th century! It's not right! It screams its time of origin all over the place, and even worse, most of the characters would probably actually get to hear it later in their lives, it's not a decent anachronism, it just feels like bad research! This is serious business!

No really, where's the snark?

Oooh, I get it now. That was when I was really, really done with bingeing this show. Yes, I tried to get through as much of it as possible in one sitting. The notes read, in very shaky handwriting

I cannot possibly take more than that

in one day

, so let's continue a few days later when I felt like I could muster the courage to face it again.

So yes, I'm pretty sure this waltz is to young for this show.

Aww, look at that, flirting over cheese! I also like that one of the Featherington girls (I can't really tell the non-Pennys apart) has a suitor, they deserve nice things, too.

The musicians are a mood.

WTF with the hair and the strass. We don't like the strass. Make it go away.

I love Prince Freddy. The poor boy. It's doomed from the start!

Ah, Dukey (also at the ball, even though he was whining about things earlier) gets a heartbeat in the background, because twu wuv.

Middle Bridgerbro goes and meets with the Bohéme. I want more of that! That's finally interesting! That's my people! There's a cool bohemian lady with a pretty dress! People look interesting! Aaaah!

There's a random 18th century burlesque singer at this Regency ball, we need to talk about this. Oooh, it's Opera Girl! Cue Lord B turning into even more of an idiot while Ma Bridgerton tries to hook him up otherwise.

Of course Philippa (that's one of the Featherington Girls) can't possibly have anything nice. Thanks, Dad. You don't get to marry someone you like, that's the people across the street's thing! (by which I of course mean the Bridgertons, just in case anyone forgot the location layout here.)

Eloise is being weird to the housekeeper.

"Are you not supposed to be the smart one", the housekeeper retorts and I'm feeling it, followed by a "WTH, hero" about how servants are too busy to be Gossip Girl, you privileged prat. I think I actually snorted.

Penny gossips with Ducktail Colin, but he's more interested in Cousin, whose dress looks like it was made from the cheap curtains my ex best friend had in his first semester at uni, and God, I hate Daphne's kerchief.

Poor Prince Freddie is trying to propose to Protagonis Girl but of course there's Dukey in the background so she simply must run outside as dramatically as possible where he can find her as she equally dramatically rips the necklace Freddie gave her from her milky white throat. P&P-ish banter ensues. Yawn.

Dukey: * broods *

Daphne: * dramatically exits *

Dukey: * romantically follows her*, and oooh, snogging ensues, oooooh, instant second base, but Bridgerbro the Eldest (known also as Lord B) intervenes.

Lord B: "Marry her!"

Dukey: "I can't!"

Lord B: "Bitch!"

Dukey: "I can't!"

Lord B: "I want satisfaction!"

Me: "Don't we all"

Daphne: "You'd rather die than marry me?!"

(the fuck with her hair)

Middle Bridgerbro is still at the Bohéme-party, and still draws (naked people!). Gay vibes ensue, it's cute. This is Netflix after all, and it took four episodes to get some LGBTQ+ representation!

The Featherington's housekeeper looks a lot like O'Brien from Downton.

Cousin tells Penny about what a cutie Ducktail Colin is, also Penny's "night gown" is really cute (it's not a night gown. She's still wearing stays. It's also the only thing in the whole series that fits her well so far). Penny is super upset but gets interrupted by a hyperfocused Eloise. They fight, and Penny goes on about being mature and not being a "pretty Bridgerton", and that Eloise wouldn't understand. I get her, though, and really, having a perfect family and a "bad" family is such lazy writing.

Somber blah blah between Lord B and Daphne happens and Middle Bridgerbro gets dragged into it. He's informed that his life is pretty much over either way (either way being Lord B dying or being exiled for killing Dukey in the scheduled duel) because his oder bro basically just wants out of his duties. Sucks to be him.

Boxing Bro has to host a frustrated, possibly blueballed Dukey and offers himself up as a second for the duel.

Lord B goes and pleads with Opera Girl to get back with him (doooooon't) because of his little duelling plot and of course intercourse ensues. Girl, where's your self-respect?

Lord F comes into his dark study (we haven't seen much of him yet overall, he probably was too busy gambling) and hark, there's Lady F like the mafia boss I feel she should be, wo berates him about said gambling and that they're broke and how much he sucks. He starts crying, thumbs up for male vulnerability!, but it's kinda played for laughs via her awkward patting of him. Because of course (and I bet the late Daddy Bridgerton would never have lost his composure like that, but he didn't gamble, either, and these are the Featheringtons)

Lord B leaves Opera Girl for THE DUEL (I feel like this almost deserves a ™ by now).

We get gallopping horses! The drama! The panache! Daphne asks Ducktail Colin where it's going down because she wants to stop them, insert pandering feminist ranting about her choosing her own life but I don't really feel it and I wonde where her bangs go when she sleeps because her hair looks so different all of a sudden.

Lord B makes Middle Bridgerbro promise to care for Opera Girl in case he dies.

More gallopping horses! Daphne and her billowing cloak are pretty epic, to be honest, and there's Ducktail Colin on her heels. It's basically a family outing now!

Ugh, I like the seconds in this duel so much more. They should just off and go for a pint or something and leave Lord B and Dukey to their misery.

Duelling protocol ensues. Ten steps, blah blah, nice camera work, though.

Daphne full on rides into her brother's bullet, but she's fine (it would have been so dramatic, can you imagine? It would have been interesting!).

Oh no, they were seen (by her romantic rival, back when they had the dramatic make-outery in the park at the ball after the botched proposal. Sorry, Cressida is such a much better name than Daaaaphneeee. I have a RPG character called Cressida, I might be biased.), she's ruined if they don't marry!. and so she is basically emotionally blackmailing him into marrying her. But he can "never give [her] children!", and goes on how she deserves a household full of love like her family home because the Bridgertons are such a perfect family. God, they all annoy me so much.

Daphne ends the duel by saying that the Duke and her are to be married, with a pained facial expression, no less. I think I just wanna throw a pie in her face or something.

And that concludes Episode 4. That was a long one! Only four more to go! So this is

To be Continued!

Thank you for making it this far with me!

[mtvswatches]

10 Things I Hate About You

Obligatory soundtrack 

1) The late 90s/early 00s were filled with contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays - Julia Stiles starred in three of those, coincidentally - but, in my opinion, none has been more iconic than 10 Things I Hate About You. It’s been over 20 years since the movie was released, and it’s certainly become a teen/rom-com classic. It’s definitely a feel-good movie, and even though it obviously had great source material to work with, it did so in such a unique and fun way. And it was kind of woke for its time, too.

Disclaimer: I am a bit afraid this whole review will turn into me taking screenshots of the movie and just writing “iconic.” You’ve been fairly warned.

Anyway, let’s get into it!

3) I really love how they managed the “show, don’t tell” technique with Kat’s introduction. Her first scene really shows who she is – a jaded, kind of rebellious teenager, who marches to the beat of her own drum. Or to the beat of Joan Jett’s drum…

She’s shown as the opposite of the other girls, but it doesn’t feel like a criticism of the other girls' more cheerful, sunny disposition. We very quickly learn what she is like, but we have yet to find out why.

4) The next characters we meet are Cameron and the school’s guidance counselor. Cameron is the new student and the guidance counselor is just…

I love her. And Allison Janney proves how talented an actress she is by making the token counselor character both memorable and unique.

5) We also meet Patrick Verona, the resident Bad Boy who had “exposed himself” in the cafeteria. Oh, Heath Ledger, you are truly missed!

6) Michael Eckman  shows Cameron around and he basically delivers the token “school cliques scene”, and since I’m not American, I’ve always wondered if this is a real thing in schools? Like, are there really so many cliques that are so visually different from one another? Each group dressing in a particular style and hanging out at a specific spot? Anyhow, the cliques here are the beautiful people (or rather, the assholes), the coffee kids (?), the white Rastas (or white stoners), the cowboys (?), and the yuppies.

7) Michael’s tour gets cut short when Cameron spots Bianca, and he’s instantly infatuated with her. I’ve always found it hard to root for Cameron at first because I’m not really a fan of insta-love, and he ends up doing A LOT of shady things for a girl who he doesn’t know AT ALL. But more on that later. In fact, the movie kind of makes a point of how ridiculous it is for Cameron to be in instant-love with Bianca by having her deliver this little lecture on love:

BIANCA: Yeah, but see, there's a difference between like and love. Because I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.

CHASTITY: But I love my Skechers.

BIANCA: That's because you don't have a Prada backpack.

Bianca clearly grows a lot over the course of the movie, but it’s clear that Cameron was in love with her appearance and not her brains or personality, which makes his quest to sweep her off her feet misguided at best.

8) And then Michael presents the main plot point…

The question then is, how is Cameron going to get the girl? It’s his quest to get a date with Bianca that creates a domino effect that brings all the characters together. 

9) See what I mean? ICONIC!

And can I say that I just love Kat? Not only is she smart, but also, she didn’t take any bullshit from anyone, especially not males. She was a feminist before being a feminist was cool. And she does grow a lot. 

10) Okay, two things, A) I love Mr. Morgan, and B) foreshadowing? Sort of?

11) Iconic.

12) Michael seems to have a lot of preconceptions about Bianca – and most of them were kind of accurate, at least at the start of the film. She was kind of vapid and shallow and self-absorbed. For someone who believes that Bianca is not only completely out of Cameron’s league but also not worthy, he does get very involved in trying to get Bianca to date Cameron.

13) This is one of my favorite lines in the movie, probably because it sounds a lot like Buffyspeak…

14) This is so random…

And the movie does have a lot of these little moments of slapstick comedy that almost seem to belong to a different type of movie, but for some reason, they work?

15) And this reminds me of the Veronica Mars of yore, the one I used to love…

16) We meet Cat and Bianca’s dad, and he is very overbearing at first, but he truly grows on you once you understand where all his rules are coming from. And of course, he establishes The Rule, which sets off the movie’s shenanigans – Bianca cannot date unless Kate does.

17) Bianca does prove a lot of Michael’s preconceptions right during her interaction with Cameron, who asks her out on a date, and even though he has been tutoring her she can’t remember his name and after he reminds her of it, she calls him “Curtis.” Bianca very clearly sees in Cameron the solution to her dating problem, and she very obviously manipulates him when it’s clear she’s not interested in dating him. She’ll get him to do the dirty work, and then let Joey rip the rewards. On the one hand, this is wrong. On the other hand, Cameron sort of had it coming? He was only interested in Bianca because of her looks, and he was about to manipulate Kat with total disregard for her feelings, so...

18) So Michael and Cameron set out to find a match for scary Kat. And what do you know…?

They figure the only way to convince Patrick to date Kat is by paying him, except they don’t have any money. So they turn to Joey, who gladly agrees to invest if it means this will get her Bianca.

19) Patrick and Joey strike a deal, and let me tell you, this deal never made any sense to me? Like, after some bargaining Joey agrees to pay Patrick 50 dollars? And I might be daft but how would Patrick be making a profit here? If he took her out, he’d be spending most of that on the date, making the whole thing pointless if he’s not making a profit? And Joey was supposed to be loaded, so why not offer more than that, to begin with?

20) I really love how Patrick assumed all he’d need to do was say hello and Kat would be at his feet, and she gloriously turned him down and put him in his place. He tries again the next day and he gets turns down, again. And I can’t blame her, he was acting like an entitled douchebag and assuming she’d want to jump his bones only because he was hot and asking her to go out, like that’s all it’d take.

21) And Joey gets a little bit of what’s coming to him…

22) This leads to Kat getting into an argument with her dad, making a lot of valid points…

WALTER: Is this about Sarah Lawrence? Are you punishing me because I want you to stay close to home? KAT: Aren't you punishing me because Mom left? WALTER: You think you could leave her out of this? KAT: Fine. Then stop making my decisions for me. WALTER: I'm your father. That's my right. KAT: So what I want doesn't matter. WALTER: You're 18. You don't know what you want. And you won't know what you want till you're 45, and even if you get it, you'll be too old to use it. KAT: I want to go to an east coast school! I want you to trust me to make my own choices... and I want you to stop trying to control my life just because you can't control yours!

I can see both sides of this argument, though. He wasn’t punishing her because her mom left, I think he was just afraid they’ll get hurt again and that’s why he was so overprotective. And Kat had just crashed her car on purpose, so I really don’t understand how she managed to turn the whole thing against her father?

23) Patrick renegotiates the terms of his agreement with Joey, demanding a 100 bucks per date. He can’t have had getting something for Kat as his goal at this point, but I think he was just trying to screw Joey over as much as possible, which kudos to him.

24) Michael and Cameron approach Patrick and inform him that they’re actually the masterminds behind this date-Kat plan, and they agree to help him woo her. And I get that Kat was not the most agreeable person to begin with, but it’s still very disheartening to see that literally no one considered her feelings in this whole thing? Like, all of them were so proud they were playing Joey, but she was the one getting played the worst? And Bianca even allows Cameron to go inside Kat’s room and go through all her private things? Everyone was an asshole in this movie, is all I’m saying.

25)

26) And then…

Probably in spite of herself, he managed to get through her shell a little bit.

27) Bianca finally begs her sister to go to the party so that she can go, and what do you know? Kat does have a heart after all, and she agrees to show.

28) Which leads to…

29) Kat seems very happy to see Patrick at her door, although she quickly puts the bitch rest-face back on and pretends his keeping his word and coming to get her did not affect her at all…

30) So, now that she got to the party and gets to hang out with Joey, Bianca demands her sister do not address her in public, and I’m like, wtf?! Kat then begs her to listen, and again, Bianca shrugs her off and tells her to go off and “enjoy her adolescence”, which pisses Kat off and probably hurts her, too. So she decides to enjoy her adolescence the way everyone seems to do, getting trashed and embarrassing themselves.

31) Further evidence that Bianca was, indeed, an asshole… Cameron is the reason she got to go out at all – after he pulled off this elaborate plan to get her sister a date – and she manipulated him by feigning to be interested in him, and now…

But karma is a bitch because Joey might be the most popular boy in school – god knows why! – but he’s as dull as dishwater, and she quickly finds herself regretting her decision to brush Cameron off in favor of Joey.

32) Meanwhile, Kat is truly enjoying her adolescence…

And thank god Patrick was there to catch her because if he hadn’t, I don’t think anyone would’ve helped her.

33) I really love Patrick’s pep talk to Cameron…

CAMERON: It's off, okay? The whole thing's off. PATRICK: What are you talking about? CAMERON: She never wanted me. She wanted Joey the whole time. PATRICK: Cameron, do you like the girl? CAMERON: Yeah. PATRICK: And is she worth all this trouble? CAMERON: I thought she was, but, you know, l... PATRICK: Well, she is or she isn't. See, first of all, Joey is not half the man you are. Secondly, don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.

34) And Patrick taking care of drunk Kat is the sweetest thing ever…

35) Of course, now that Bianca no longer wants to hang out with Joey and her friend leaves her high and dry, she asks Cameron for a ride home.

36) On the way home, Kat actually opens up to Patrick, a lot. She admits she’d love to play in a band, and that her father wants her to be someone she’s not – her sister. Patrick admits that he doesn’t really get what everyone sees in Bianca, and Kat delivers what’s probably the greatest compliment you could get from her…

She puts herself out there… and gets shut down. Of course, Patrick was probably feeling remorse about the way he’d gotten to know this girl and the way he’d been playing her because now that he’d gotten to know her a little bit better, he could see that behind that badass façade she was extremely vulnerable and sensitive. Kat feels rejected and humiliated, and who can blame her? He’d been relentlessly pursuing her, and now that she’d opened up to him and offered to kiss him, he’d turned her down…

Anyway, Patrick’s behavior, later on, makes no sense after the way he acted here, but more on that further below.

37) Cameron finally confronts Bianca about her manipulative behavior, and to her credit, she is honest and owns up to being selfish when he calls her on it. And I guess she finally sees he’s worth it…

38)

39) This exchange is so silly and hilarious?

Like, Cameron’s answer seems silly, but what type of answer was Patrick expecting? Where could she have possibly kissed him? On the knees?

40) Kat is clearly not yet over the rejection…

41) See what I mean about the jokes in this movie?

And they just look over and go on talking, as if she hadn’t just nailed her teacher on the ass with an arrow...

42) Joey goes to Patrick yet again and offers 200 dollars to get him to take Kat to the prom. Patrick tells him he’s sick of this game, and Joey ups the ante and offers him 300 dollars, which Patrick somewhat begrudgingly takes. I just would really like to know if it was at this point that he thought he’d used this dirty money to buy something for Kate. Otherwise, he was still being a jerk...

43) This scene just gives me butterflies, okay?

And as charming as he is, Kat is still not over the humiliation of putting herself out there and being rejected.

44) Cameron returns the favor and gives Patrick some very good advice, the reason for that glorious scene later on…

CAMERON: Look, you embarrassed the girl. Sacrifice yourself on the altar of dignity and even the score.

This gets Patrick thinking…

45) And I’m just going to add the video here because this whole scene is just rom-com perfection and bless Heath Ledger again, okay? And why didn’t we get more of him singing in everything he did? His voice just makes me feel things, okay?

Seriously, how do you say no to that boy asking you to let him love you? You don’t say no, that’s how.

Same, Kat. Hard same.

46) Kat goes into detention and distracts the coach while Patrick attempts to escape out the window, and then…

And the teacher is looking directly at her tits? And while the distraction tactic worked, how was she not sent to the principal’s office? Patrick was sent to the principal’s office for “exposing himself” with a bratwurst while joking with the cafeteria lady, and Kat is literally exposing herself and she walks scot-free? Hmm.

47) Patrick and Kat have another heart to heart, and to be honest, it always melts this cold heart of mine…

PATRICK: So, what's your excuse? KAT: For? PATRICK: For acting the way we do? KAT: I don't like to do what people expect. Why should I live up to other people's expectations instead of my own? PATRICK: So, you disappoint 'em from the start and then you're covered, right? KAT: Something like that. PATRICK: Then you screwed up. KAT: How? PATRICK: You never disappointed me.

Same, Kat. SAME.

48) #SWOON

49) And this is the part that doesn’t make sense to me. They’ve just had this perfect date, and they’re growing closer, and they’ve kissed, and he clearly likes her. And the reason he didn’t kiss her after the party was that he was feeling guilty about the way he’d gotten her to go out with him and fall for him – through deception and manipulation. And now that they’re much closer and into each other, he tries very hard to get her to go to prom with him, pushing her in a way that makes her feel uncomfortable, and like, why? They’re clearly not the type of people who go to proms, so why not take Joey’s money and screw the deal? Why did he have to keep his promise? Why not be honest with Kat? Why not tell her, I like you a lot and this idiot is paying me to date you even though I’m honored to do that for free so why don’t we team up and scam him? I know the answer is “conflict”, but it’s always pissed me off.

50) Seriously, though, Cameron. Why?

51) In true teen-rom fashion, everyone needs to be paired up, right?

52) See what I mean about the jokes?

53) Loved the Dawson’s Creek reference…

Believe it or not, a lot of people thought DC was scandalous at the time. And DC was so naïve compared to its predecessors The OC or Gossip Girl…

54) Kat finally opens up to Bianca and explains why she has so many issues and why she doesn’t want to conform to high school’s social rules and expectations and stereotypical idea of “normalcy.” She’d had a less than stellar dating experience back when she was way too young and far too vulnerable with none other than Joey, who had slept with her and dumped her right after. Oh yeah, and it all happened right after her mom had left them. In an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening to her little sister, she had agreed to their dad’s rules, effectively preventing Bianca from experiencing anything on her own. It’s kind of a case of the pot calling the kettle black, considering she’d complained about the very same thing to her father.

55) Kat finally realizes she’s been unfair to her sister and decides to go to prom, to their father’s dismay. Kat even swallows her pride and actually apologizes to Patrick for questioning his motives to ask her to the prom, and he has the nerve to forgive her. Dude, you do have ulterior motives, and the girl you like is actually apologizing even though she’s done nothing wrong and you’re blatantly lying, and he doesn’t even bat an eyelash when he tells her “You’re forgiven.” I mean, I love Patrick, but still… not cool.

56) Bless Walter.

57) I guess they’re a thing, because why not?

58) And this is, among many other reasons, why I can’t hold anything against Patrick Veronica…

He got her favorite band to play in the prom.

59) Chastity is such a bitch for no reason? Like, she and Bianca were close friends, and then, all of a sudden, they aren’t? And she’s so mean to Bianca!

60) And leave it to Joey to ruin everything…

61) And I truly love that Bianca is the one to put him in his place…

62) See? He’s a good guy, he was just trying to protect his daughters the only way he knew how…

WALTER: Bianca did what? KAT: What's the matter, upset that I rubbed off on her? WALTER: No, impressed. Fathers don't like to admit it when their daughters are capable of running their own lives. It means we've become spectators. Bianca still lets me play a few innings. You've had me on the bench for years. And when you go to Sarah Lawrence I won't even be able to watch the game. KAT: When I go? WALTER: Oh, boy. Don't tell me you changed your mind. I already sent 'em a cheque

63) And I also have to include the video for this scene because it’s just… *chef’s kiss*… Julia Stiles absolutely nails this one, and it never fails to bring me to tears…

Same, Patrick. Same.

64) And while the fact that he doesn’t immediately run after her always has me screaming, he does make up for all of it…

KAT: A Fender Strat? Is it for me? PATRICK: Yeah, I thought you could use it, you know, when you start your band. Besides, I had some extra cash, you know. Some asshole paid me to take out this really great girl. KAT: Is that right? PATRICK: Yeah, but I screwed up. I, um... I fell for her. KAT: Really? PATRICK: It's not every day you find a girl who'll flash someone to get you out of detention. KAT: Oh, God. You can't just buy me a guitar every time you screw up, you know. PATRICK: Yeah, I know. But there's always drums and bass and maybe even one day a tambourine. KAT: And don't just think you can...

65) This movie is hardly a masterpiece, but it doesn’t intend to be either, and not every movie needs to be. It’s a feel-good movie, and it delivers on so many levels. It’s funny, it’s tropey, it’s cute, it’s romantic, it has a great soundtrack, and you just feel a whole lot better after watching it. It’s the 90s at its best, and that’s why it became a classic.

What I love the most, though, is Kat’s character development. We see this girl who is a badass and super smart, takes no bullshit, holds everyone accountable for their shitty behavior, and has a great wit. But she is not without flaws. She’s closed off because she has been hurt before, both by her mother and her first love. She holds everyone at bay because it’s easier that way. Throughout the movie, however, she shows empathy and a lot of vulnerability. And she soon finds out that she had been missing out on a lot of things by shielding her emotions. She’d missed out on having a good relationship with her sister and on finding love again. What is truly admiring about Kat, though, is that when she’s hurt the most and she has every reason to close herself off again, she does the exact opposite. She opens herself up not only in front of the guy she’s in love with but everyone. The shrew cries and bares her soul for the world to see. Regardless of the happy ending, I think that in itself s truly inspiring, don’t you? 

66) Bonus: bloopers!

67)  Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi. Thanks!

[truethingsiwishicouldsay]

My issues with the Tumblr radfem community’s behavior (A play in one act)

Me two years ago: Well, the libfems are going completely insane again with walking back women’s rights and protections, and coddling panderers, porn addicts and violent criminals in lipstick. Let’s see what the radfems are doing. They have to have a saner approach. That bit about them being man-haters and bullies has to just be a stereotype. Maybe they’ll actually listen when I bring up ideas for a women’s mutual support system...

Several radfems: KILL ALL MEN

Me: Wait what

Several radfems: KILL ALL MEN NO EXCEPTIONS

Me: O.O ...uh...okay apparently that’s not a stereotype after all

Several radfems: The ideal society would have no males in it at all

Me: (So the ideal society would die out in one generation and would force me to live celibate and without half my loved ones?) K

Several radfems: If you’re straight and not celibate, or you have close relationships with any males including family, you’re a fakefem

Me: (this is completely irrational, wtf?) K 

Several radfems: LET’S SPEND A WEEK HARASSING ALL FEMINISTS WE CAN FIND WHO AREN’T 100% SEPARATIST YAY Oh, and when everyone else tells us to fuck off we’ll pretend that WE’RE the victims (you know, like all abusers do uwu)

Me: (this is completely irrational AND ABUSIVE, wtf?) Fuck off

Same group of radfems: It’s our obligation to be critical of heterosexual sex and relationships and we’ve decided that means individually policing straight women’s sex lives and attacking them for having one. So yes, it is absolutely a Feminist act to harass and interrogate you about such private things even though we’re total strangers with zero authority and would never EVER accept such treatment ourselves

Me: (this is completely irrational AND ABUSIVE, wtf?) No it isn’t you officious, bullying hypocrites, stay in your lane

Same group: NO

Me: K not talking to you anymore ever *starts blocking people*

Several of those toxic radfems, on anon, to someone with admitted suicidal ideation: Kill yourself hetty, die fakefem, hang yourself, die, kys *lather rinse repeat for weeks, with a bonus round every time I argue with one of them*

Me: What the hell is wrong with these people? Is this how they support women?

The same fucking group of toxic radfems: WAIT WHY DO HETEROSEXUAL RADFEMS FEEL LIKE THEY NEED THEIR OWN SPACE AWAY FROM US? THAT’S BIGOTED AND EXCLUSIONARY!

Me: So we should just stay here, be policed and silenced by you, and take your abuse? Straight radfems wouldn’t need their own space if you weren’t being so shitty. (I’m scared to join the Discord in case I don’t fit in there either but I sure af know why it is needed!)

Radfem, to an autistic woman who is legitimately upset: LOL ur crazy get help of course I won’t acknowledge any valid statements in what you just wrote because you’re not NT

Me: So apparently ableism is a problem in this community too. But maybe it’s a one-off. I’ll keep trying.

Radfem, to a maternal abuse survivor: Women are never abusers and if they are it’s actually some man’s fault

Me: (Yeah, the pieces of shit who coddled my abusers said the same fucking thing, thanks for the flashbacks.) Are you fucking kidding me right now I told you what happened to me

Radfem: Nope! Obviously you’re too nuts to remember the truth! You have brain damage, remember?

Me: Yeah, from my mother trying to smother me and nearly succeeding

Radfem: There is no way that is true, your father must have done it! You’re either misremembering or lying!

Me: ...

Me: *sigh* I think I just hit my limit with this shit.

Random person: So what kind of Feminist are you, Liberal or Radical?

Me: ...solitary.

[writterings]

So im starting classes tomorrow and im worried about passing. Like what do guys talk about/ say? Cause i feel like sharing anything about myself is “girly” (sounds stupid i know). And i have anxiety so nervous manurisms like raking my hand through my hair seems weird to me. If u have any advice it would be g r e a t ly appreciated

gonna be honest, mannerisms really don’t determine passing. the only thing that does determine passing is physically passing. doing stereotypically feminine things while physically passing as male will only have people read you as a cis gay man or just as an emotionally open cis man. mannerisms don’t mean too much and tbh i’ve stopped worrying about them as much. 

however, if you’re at that in-between phase of physically passing where anything can make or break how people see you (if you’ve experienced that or currently in it, you’ll know what i mean) learning mannerisms can help. 

here’s some masculine mannerisms:

you can talk about your interests. tbh, most cis guys don’t give a fuck if the person they’re talking to cares about their interests, and they just keep talking. i’m not saying to do that, because it can be kinda rude and overkill, but feel free to talk about what you’re into and what you like to do. no one will think it’s feminine. same goes for sharing things about yourself. 

however, don’t be too upfront about your deepest emotions with strangers. like, this isn’t even a “masculine” thing....like just don’t tell all your trauma to strangers. seems like common sense but god i have run into too many people who have done this. tbh it’s annoying and it could be potentially exposing people to things that trigger them. mentioning it here because you were worried about “talking about yourself” -- which, like, is a thing you totally can do! talk about yourself! but have boundaries. 

the hair thing is no big deal. no one will care.

don’t make eye contact with anyone in the men’s room. there was a post floating around talking about how you should nod at people in the men’s room and like...no?? wtf??? that’s weird. just don’t make eye contact, men typically don’t like to have conversations in the same place they shit.

speaking of which, men typically only use restrooms for actually relieving themselves or smoking weed/vaping, instead of hang outs or “freshening up” or whatever. try not to spend too much time in there. 

P.S. you can shit in public bathrooms and no one will care. like ngl when i lived as a woman i was so afraid to shit in public bathrooms out of self-consciousness....now as a guy i don’t care. gross, i know, but liberating.

spread ya legs when you sit to create the illusion of having balls (the reason men spread their legs)

shake hands when you introduce yourself to people or greet someone of a higher “status” than you (i.e. a professor you wanna impress, your future boss)

learn what dapping is, just in case

wearing brightly colored button-down shirts that you tuck into your khaki pants from JC penny will out you as a trans man right away, heads up. especially if you have a shaved or partially shaved head with dyed or blond hair.

don’t randomly talk to women first, you will scare/unsettle them (i.e. think about how when the time you identified as a woman and remember how horrifying it was when a random man would walk up to you in public and try talking to you) (like yeah it’s a relative situation and play it by ear blah blah blah, just keep in mind how you treat women as you start to pass and live as a man)

don’t make too many “active listening” sounds when people talk. stuff like “hmmm” or “ooooh”. men don’t do it, and they will be the first to pick up on it. with women you can get away with it more, but sometimes they’ll pick up on it too. if you pass well, they’ll just think you’re gay. but still, it is a feminizing trait. it might seem rude NOT to respond, but ya gotta remember that people will stigmatize you for doing it. even opening minded people who claim to be past gender roles will look down on you for doing it. i’ve literally had self-identifying feminist friends comment that they feel like they’re talking to a woman when i do it, and tbh that’s kinda a shitty thing to say. it’s not too important to passing, like i said, but something to be aware of. 

anyways, all the advice i got. good luck, don’t worry too much. there will be a point in your life where none of this will seem like passing or a performance, and it’ll just become regular life. you got this.

[rainhadaenerys]

Ok, so I was about to give up on GOT and ASoIaF. But I thought about it, and as much as this ending doesn't make sense for the show, it makes even less sense for the books. Like, I know prophecies are supposed to be up for interpretation and not reliable, but none of it is happening in the show. Not the YMBQ, the PWWP, I'm not even sure if the show will give us the Valonquar ending, even though it's been hinted at for so long. And Daenerys being bareen. Big theme is the curse in the books (1)

The show even goes into it in Season 7, and we go nowhere with it? Like, it would be one thing if infertility is part of her arc, but the books and show are constantly undermining it so that even though Dany believes it, almost no one else does. And if Dany is going to be the final boss, why not build her up to be a villain? She’s not even that morally grey considering it’s ASoIaF. She should already be a very questionable character in the books, and the show has only 3 episodes left. (2)

I was just wanting to know if you actually think the books are going that way. Because this seems like an ending to a completely different story than ASoIaF (3)

It really doesn’t make any sense. GRRM has said that prophecies come true, but not in the way we expect them to. But no prophecy came true in GOT. Saying things like Arya is the Princess that was Promised doesn’t really make sense, because Arya didn’t fulfill any of the parts of the prophecy. The prophecy is that AA/PTWP would be born amidst salt and smoke under a bleeding star to wake dragons out of stone and pull a flaming sword from the fire. Arya didn’t fulfill any of that. So D&D just dropped it for the sake of a twist.

About barrenness, yes, Dany story in the books has hints that she’s not barren. Her story goes in threes, and she already lost two children (stillborn and miscarriage), so I would expect the third child to live. And honestly, season 7 talked way too much about babies. Why waste time talking about it, if nothing related to it will happen? Did D&D just do it for the lolz? So that people would think she’ll get pregnant and they would have another pointless twist? Because it is pointless. And this isn’t what a red herring works. A red herring is supposed to distract you for something that will happen. But something must happen. There must be a reason for why you do something. Talking about babies in season 7, only for nothing related to that even happen, this isn’t a red herring, this is lying to your audience.

And about Dany being a villain…no. Book Dany is not that grey. Actually, she is one of the more goody goody characters in the books. Book Dany has only done two bad things so far: the crucifixions and the torture of the wineseller’s daughters. Torture is something normal in this world, so I don’t count that as villain territory, especially because Dany later forbids torture. And the slavers crucified were chosen amongst the slaver class and the leaders of Meereen. They weren’t random innocent people. Are they honestly trying to tell me that Dany would start executing random peasants for no reason at all? Just because she got angry and went mad? People that had nothing to do with what happened to Missandei? Daenerys “the blood of my enemies, not the blood of innocents” Targaryen? Daenerys “had no wish to reduce King’s Landing to a ruin full of unquiet ghosts” Targaryen? WTF???? No. That’s bad writing. And not just bad writing, it’s sexist writing. Dany and Cersei are the two main female rulers in ASOIAF. Sansa might become a ruler in the future, but Sansa is still secondary to Jon and Tyrion. With only Sansa as a good female ruler, it still feels like a consolation prize for women, because the main female rulers are villains. Having both main female rulers be bad, while both main male rulers are good is absolutely sexist. Especially considering that Cersei and Dany are women who have sex for pleasure and outside marriage, while Sansa is virginal. What’s the message here? That only virginal women can be good rulers? Only women that don’t defy the patriarchy? I expect George to be a better writer than that. And for someone who has called himself a feminist, I expect him to be aware of just how sexist this is.

I’m seeing people say things like “I didn’t know this character as I thought”. I won’t say that. I know Daenerys. She’s not this thing D&D are turning her into. This is character assassination.

So do I think this will happen in the books? I don’t. I expect George to be better than that. And he has said he’s not a nihilist. But GRRM’s utter silence about the books stresses me out. And he keeps going back and forth about whether the books and show will have the same ending or not. So I don’t know what to believe. I think the books won’t be like this. I think George is better than that. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he is a sexist writer after all. This is just exhausting, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving up on ASOIAF if George doesn’t denounce this show asap.

Sorry if this isn’t a very conclusive answer.

[borisbubbles]

ESC 2019: Preshow: #37

37. ISRAEL Kobi Marimi - “Home” Autoqualifier

Everyone watches Eurovision for different reasons: I watch it to have a good laugh and fun! So imagine my horror when Israel unveiled this auto-fellating theatre monster as their song. 😬 But don’t worry, if you like homely men with cheesy self-pitying ballads and funerary æsthetics, then this is definitely the entry for you!!!

ENTRY ANALYSIS:

I don’t even need to point out the obvious elephant in the room here: You *just* won Eurovision with a quirky, fun, innovative, memorable (if very irritating) feminist party song. So the obvious follow-up is to that is... a heavy-handed, earnest, cliché ballad????? I don’t fucking think so!!!  The main problem with “Home” is how blatant fun-averse it is. This is the sort of song undertakers would play at the end of funerals when the coffin is carried away from the church, you know? It’s not the most uplifting song around. The video clip certainly doesn’t help either. Like, wtf is THIS??

Nightmare fuel

Now, yes, I realize that Israel are attempting ‘High Quality Music’ here, but is “Home” really that good a song? Ehhhh...  The problem with Broadway knock-offs such as these is the context. “Home” doesn’t have any. “YOU MADE ME SOMEONE, I AM SOMEONE!!!” Wait, what? Have Israel ever looked in the mirror and ansked themselves: “Who is ‘Kobi Marimi’? Who or what made him what he is? What is the backstory here?” I’m sure there is *some* depth but good songwriting is defined by using the song to answer those questions, rather than raise them. “Home” vaguely address the presence of a certain unspecified personal growth arc. Because it refuses to elaborate further, “Home” does not have depth. Its lyrics consist of seemingly random, self-aggrandizing soliloquys. That is NOT Quality Music. It is merely trash pretending to be quality.🍷

AUTOQUALIFIER ODDS: Poor

The main issue “Home” has in doing well is the type of vote it’s vying for: "Home” is not fun, it is not pretty and it is not uptempo... so basically, all Kobi can do is keep his fingers crossed that enough people take pity on him. Sob Stories are such a bad, bad angle to draw voters in from, as proven by The Humans and Monika Kuszyńska, amongst many others. Jurors may like it if Israel keep it “Professional and Sleek” and even clarify the Deep And Relevant Meaning this pretentious powerballad claims to have, but televoters will not give a shit either way. I think “Home” might narrowly escape a bottom five finish in the finale if the juries are feeling generous, but the end result will be nothing to -wait for it- write home about. 😏

Projected placement: 17th-23rd

Link to the masterpost