#some of it was blatant capitalism and advertising

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

Did anybody else grow up with their family having something that was “banned” and you thought it was some cool contraband item as a kid, only to realize when you are older that, yes, the thing was banned, but it was banned from PRODUCTION, not ownership. Your family having one from before they were banned wasn’t actually some cool criminal activity, it was completely legal and kinda boring. Boring to people with the possible exception of those people that get really into some banned product and collect them or something.

[shockyeahmiguelohara]

The post(s) I've seen on my dashboard discussing the explicit and weasel-y language used to describe Miguel O'Hara in the script for Across the Spiderverse, doesn't surprise me.

Doesn't surprise, but otherwise confirms what I was feeling about how they approached the character wasn't at all inaccurate.

And to top it all off, their language towards Gwen Stacy's father, or and cops in general (including Jeff Morales), is couched in the most blatant "good cops, bad apples" sentiment.

And, when you think about the fact that Miguel O'Hara's character was established and lives in a future where all of Nueva York is a Judge Dredd-type police state, and he is routinely attacked by said police? A script calling him an "animal" but asking the audience to capitulate sympathy for Officer Stacy, is some ole bullshit.

These fools really decided that, out of all the Spider-Man affiliated characters to use in their movie about Miles Morales, they were gonna pick the Spider-Man character whose entire narrative was antithetical to their storytelling.

And then on top of that, create a "utopian" Nueva York specifically to cast criticism on Miguel as a character, who is a cop-esque character hunting down a Black teenager.

I've seen the argument that if he'd been characterized as he was in the comics (leaning more towards whiteness than anything), the writer's sympathies might've been for him. I honestly don't think that'd be the case.

In a lot of ways, Miguel's character is defined by the fact that he is Mexican first before he's white. It's like how Miles was advertised as "Half-Black, Half Puerto-Rican" and that colored everything about Miles as a character was approached pre-Into the Spiderverse. Specifically what parts of his character weren't addressed.

I think you can make the argument of how Miguel was initially promoted to the masses in the 90s ("he's not the nice Spider-Man") carried with its some uncomfy ideas about Mexicans and aggression. (And now carries the consequence of allowing certain writers to mishandle him.)

His whiteness is his access to capital (his job, etc), his general outlook, most of which forms so much of his story. Oppositely, his status as "half Mexican" is typically only used or mentioned in passing. A way to highlight the poverty of his dysfunctional family.

(It doesn't have the presence of say, Miles' connection to his culture through his parents and his neighborhood in the Insomniac game and PS5 sequel.)

And then there's his choice of costume (an outfit he modified from a Dia de los Muertos shindig) and sarcastic references to his status as a biracial child.

His being a biracial Mexican man, and the dystopian future he lived in has always been a big component in framing him as the "take no prisoners" Spider-Man legacy character. But, for all the problems that come with how PAD approached in his titles, there was always context for Miguel's actions and his environment.

And I feel like Across the Spiderverse stripped Miguel of that nuance.

It's also why we ended up with Bendis', "Who cares if I'm Black? I'm also half-Puerto Rican!" speech from Miles in the comics back in 2015/2016.

[digital-yuri-saga]

WALL•E and Unregulated Capitalism

So, we all know that the second half of WALL•E (Pixar, 2008) shows that apparently, in 700 years, the human race is all fat, “disabled” and “lazy”, right?

Except, the problem is, they didn’t get that way on their own.

WALL•E’s main message, in my mind, is that if left unchecked, capitalism will take away literally everything. And, you can see that: The Earth has been practically destroyed by pollution, and the human race has to live in a giant outer space cruise ship, confined to their reclining hover chairs and watching their holographic screens all day while they idly sip on their food, all Buy-N-Large(TM) brand.

What’s more - the tasks the humans would normally do, such as housekeeping, putting on makeup, teaching their babies everything they need to know to be able to Human properly, even piloting the damn ship - all of it is performed by robots who were made to take those tasks out of the humans’ hands.

But is that really it? No.

Part 1 - The First Half

At the beginning of the movie, we see WALL•E performing his programmed directive - to “clean up” the Earth by compacting all the trash on the ground into huge towers, and nothing else. There are dozens, if not hundreds of other WALL•E line robots who perform the same task, and they seem to be self-sufficient - they have their own shelter, they are solar-powered so they don’t have to rely on an outside source of energy, and they don’t seem to need anything else.

And then a dust storm happens and all of the robots are damaged except for one, the titular protagonist and the last of his kind.

The movie skips to 700 years later, at which point WALL•E seems to have gained some kind of individuality. He has plenty of spare parts to keep himself alive if needed, and more than that - He likes to collect things that the humans have left behind. He collects everything from twinkies to lighters to even VHS tapes, and he seems to love all of it - all the things that humans loved, that were left behind when they left Earth.

While we see WALL•E’s current daily life, we also get some context: The humans have left Earth as it is, and are now on a giant ship somewhere. This is revealed through an advertisement from Buy-N-Large, which was seemingly a prominent corporation in the world beforehand. They seem to have had control of everything, actually - we see an “Ultra-store”, gas station, and an unholy amount of other Buy-N-Large branded things, as well as enough advertisements to make the average person irate within seconds.

At some point, this company - who knows what they originally were - monopolized so much of everything that it had basically taken over what we see of Earth. Everything, everywhere was Buy-N-Large, and nothing else. There are even corporate-sponsored newspapers - promoting the propaganda they want regular people to hear.

We then get some blatant exposition in the form of an advertisement, fitting for the world as we see in the movie.

“Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space! BnL Starliners leaving each day, we’ll clean up the mess while you’re away.”

The mega-corporation was advertising vacations to the regular people, presumably also non-stop, in addition to the propaganda that the Earth was in trouble and everything sucked. Why not have a little escapism?

“The jewel of the BnL fleet - The Axiom! Spend your five-year cruise in style. Maided on 24-hours-a-day by our fully automated crew, while your captain and auto-pilot try to course for non-stop entertainment, fine dining…”

Here we get to see a glimpse of what humans looked like before they left - perfectly “normal”. There does seem to be some diversity in the people shown, too, though they are clearly actors who were likely cherry-picked and paid to promote this ship. I don’t see a single fat person in the ad, which is more likely implied to be because of the in-universe corporation choosing only the most conventionally attractive people to promote their product.

“…and with our all-access Hover Chairs, even grandma can join the fun! There’s no need to walk!”

Also, it seems that at least a small part of the intention of the hover chairs was to be a mobility aid for those who wouldn’t be able to get around a giant-ass cruise ship on foot. But, they weren’t just advertised to the elderly / disabled / people that needed them, they were advertised to everyone.

Everyone that could afford a “5-year” vacation on a giant cruise ship, anyway.

We don’t see what happens to those who may not be able to afford, or even get to, one of these ships. Presumably, they were left behind too. Would a giant capitalist regime let people on that couldn’t pay them? Doubtful.

After this, we see WALL•E discover the plant - a glimmer of hope. Something finally grew on Earth. And then, immediately after, a probe - presumably from BnL to try and find evidence that the Earth was sustainable for living - lands, carrying several EVE units, also presumably made by BnL. One of them is deployed from this ship, and she is activated and begins scanning her surroundings for life.

WALL•E follows this unit around and EVE pays him no mind, because he seemingly doesn’t have what she’s looking for. She is eventually frustrated with not being able to “complete her purpose” to the point of taking it out on her surroundings. The two finally exchange formalities, and once another dust storm passes by, WALL•E takes her back to shelter.

EVE seems to fall in love with all of WALL•E’s objects, just like he did, and then he shows her the plant. Detecting life, EVE’s programming overrides her free will and collects it as a sample, then forcibly shutting her down. WALL•E stays by her side the entire time until the ship comes back for her. He hitches a ride on the ship, not wanting her to be taken away forever, and it leaves for space with him, docking on the Axiom.

We see here that there is an immense amount of space junk orbiting Earth, and that BnL was even attempting to colonize the Moon.

After the EVEs are unloaded, we see some of the robot crew of the Axiom, who strictly conform to their directive. And, as soon as anyone steps out of line, police bots are summoned - and one of them sees the plant that EVE has found and takes her away.

Part 2 - The Second Half

After some robot hijinks, we see the state of humans 700+ years after they left Earth - All of them have become fat and seemingly unable to provide for themselves to a ridiculous extent. They are constantly bombarded by ads from the screens in front of them while the robots seemingly do everything else. Several generations have passed since the original humans boarded the ship. The robotic teachers are indoctrinating kids from a very young age about BnL - quote, “B is for Buy-n-Large, your very best friend.” The megacorp wants people to be dependent on them for everything - why else would they herd everyone into areas they have full control over?

Keep in mind that while these humans all seem to be fat and hover-chair bound - this seems to be enforced. As stated earlier, BnL wants people to be hopelessly dependent on them, because that’s how they stay in power.

WALL•E breaks one person’s immersion, and she looks around - she doesn’t immediately go back to what she’s looking at on the screen, and even helps WALL•E. She doesn’t go back to looking at her screen, either. She apparently didn’t even know the Axiom had a pool, even though she “could have” looked over and seen it at any time. That is how much control BnL had over these people’s lives.

EVE is brought directly to the cockpit of the ship, where the Auto-Pilot AI notices she has found a plant and wakes up the Captain. The Captain himself is victim to the same automation as everyone else. He simply goes through the motions, and then changes the time for everyone on the ship. After his morning announcements, in which another ad is shown, EVE is reactivated.

We then see the protocol for organic life being found - and a pre-recorded message from the then-current CEO of BnL. In this, he mentions that the microgravity of the ship could have caused some “slight bone loss”, an understatement, which leads me to wonder - Was the CEO telling the truth about the passengers’ state being due to the conditions outside the ship? Or was the complete immersion, to the point where the Captain of the ship remarks he didn’t know there was a jogging track, the real cause for their current state?

During a “why can’t I voice activate the book :(“ joke, WALL•E and EVE reunite, and EVE immediately rushes to hide him from the police bot and tries to warn him of something related. Hmm.

Once EVE is opened up, the plant seems to be gone somehow. EVE is deemed to be ‘defective’, and sent to the repair ward. This will be important later.

We then see the Captain analyze a sample of dirt that came from WALL•E, and out of curiosity, he then begins to look up topics related to Earth. Knowledge that he didn’t already have. Knowledge that Buy-N-Large did not educate him on, because they wanted him to be just as hopelessly dependent on them as the others.

We are then taken to the “repair ward” - where the “defective” robots go. Here we see robots with all sorts of erratic behavior, behavior that puts them out of line. When looking at these robots as if they were human, this can also be interpreted as stereotypical mental illness that this repair ward is trying to “cure”. WALL•E promptly causes a scene, accidentally freeing all of these robots, who parade him around and alert the attention of the police bots. The robots, meant to serve the passengers of the ship, are governed by their own police state.

WALL•E and EVE are framed as rebels, and they go down to the escape pod bay, where we can see a police robot deposit the plant necessary for the humans return to Earth into an escape pod so it isn’t found.

The police robots are programmed not only to enforce compliance on the robots, but to use deception to keep the humans as they are - hopelessly dependent on Buy-N-Large.

WALL•E goes after the pod, and is shot into space along with it. We then see that the pod is set for self-destruct, implying the robot’s intention was to destroy the plant. To kill any remaining hope that humans could return to Earth.

The plant is saved and WALL•E and EVE have some romantic moments in space, and we come back to the woman from earlier, who still has not turned her screen back on. She is still admiring the view of space from the giant windows as the others cruise by, immersed in their screens. She accidentally breaks another person’s immersion, the man from earlier, and they connect over seeing WALL•E outside.

We cut back to the cockpit, and the Captain is still doing research into everything he’s missed about Earth. The Auto-Pilot tries to get him to stop by setting the ship to “nighttime mode”, but he doesn’t listen and continues researching. He does not blindly follow the AI. The other two humans seem to rebel some, too, splashing pool water at each other with their feet, and then at a robot when it tells them not to.

WALL•E and EVE sneak back into the ship, and EVE tries to sneak through a trash chute back to the cockpit in order to deliver the plant. The Captain is overjoyed, but that turns to confusion and disappointment when he sees EVE’s memories of Earth. But, that doesn’t last very long, since he has that hope for a better Earth - the plant. They have to go back.

The Captain calls the Auto-Pilot down, who immediately tries to take back the plant, and when the Captain refuses to give the plant to it, it shows him a video - from the same Buy-N-Large CEO. And the CEO gives the message,

“…so, just stay the course. Um, rather than try and fix this problem, it’ll be easier for everyone to remain in space.”

”Rather than try and fix this problem, it’ll be easier for everyone to remain in space.”

Not that it would be impossible to solve.

It would be easier.

All of this - the programming the Auto-Pilot and police bots conformed to that led them to use deception to keep humans in space, the completely sedentary, fully immersed-in-ads states the humans were led into, the reason they have been up there for 700 years - all of it was because of the opinion of one man. One CEO. One CEO who decided that it was easier if humans never regained their autonomy, that it was easier if they never got back to a state where they could fend for themselves. He wanted this.

The Captain once again rebels against the AI from Buy-N-Large.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing! That’s all I’ve ever done! That’s all everyone on this blasted ship has ever done! NOTHING!”

“I don’t WANT to survive! I want to live!”

The Captain - no, the humans don’t actually want this. And when they are given even a scrap of their agency back, by chance through WALL•E or otherwise - they want to do things their way. Not the way Buy-N-Large wants them to.

As soon as the Captain plainly denies the Auto-Pilot, it and the police bots still under Buy-N-Large’s will immediately go against the Captain. The plant is taken from his arms and thrown into the trash chute. And who manages to climb up the chute just then, but WALL•E. He tries to keep the Auto-Pilot from getting the plant, and the Auto-Pilot resorts to damaging another robot to get what “it” wants.

What Buy-N-Large wants.

Both of the robots are tossed down the trash chute, and the Auto-Pilot forcibly takes control of the ship.

But hope is not lost - WALL•E and EVE reawaken in the trash area, and they realize that WALL•E can be repaired if they get home. So, the two of them fly out of the trash area, going straight for the area where they will deposit the plant and turn the ship around.

The Auto-Pilot catches wind of this, and sends every police bot available after them. The Captain helps by hijacking the comms, telling WALL•E and EVE what to do. The “defective” robots from before help the two, and the Captain stages his own rebellion by causing a distraction. He manages to press the button to launch the return mode of the ship, and everybody’s immersion is broken at the same time. They are herded onto the same deck, and see reality for themselves - the Captain is struggling against his own robot. The Auto-Pilot ends up tilting the ship to get the Captain off of it, and because of this all of the humans fall out of their chairs and begin sliding helplessly downhill.

Mind you, these people have just been broken out of their entranced state induced by Buy-N-Large - likely for the first time. They may never have moved a muscle outside of changing what they were watching, or grabbing a cup - all because Buy-N-Large wanted it that way. They have all just been given their agency back for the first time. And, after the humans are almost killed by transportation vehicles because of the Auto-Pilot, and WALL•E ends up squashed in the plant deposition chamber because of the Auto-Pilot, the Captain stands up for himself.

Literally.

It may not be true for every single human on the ship, but they have always had the ability to stand up for themselves, literally and figuratively. Buy-N-Large - the mega-corporation - tried to snuff all of that autonomy out.

The Captain is able to walk - albeit with difficulty - over to the Auto-Pilot and turn it off, and the ship is turned back upright. Some of the other humans can be seen standing up too in this scene, so these specific humans may not have needed mobility aids - this is unclear. But, either way, they, along with everyone else, were forced into them, necessary or not, for Buy-N-Large’s purposes.

Together, everyone manages to pass the plant to EVE, who tosses it into the deposition chamber. The course is set for Earth, and the humans fall over again as the ship launches at hyper-speed towards its destination. The Axiom lands on Earth, and the humans step out onto its surface for the first time.

One notable thing I see in the background at this point - you can see one human walking with the help of a robot as a mobility aid. Despite their autonomy being returned, some of the humans may still need mobility aids, and that’s okay. That’s normal.

WALL•E is repaired, he and EVE have their happy ending, and, meanwhile, the humans set out to rebuild. The scene pans backwards to see the progress the humans have made - and a lot more plants. And then the movie ends.

The credits show more of this progress, with the humans making progress as the visuals “evolve”, seen with the evolution of art - likely not to imply that the humans were in a “devolved” state, but to emphasize just how much was being done - and, hopefully, the influence of Buy-N-Large is gone forever.

Part 3 - Afterword

Disney-Pixar’s WALL•E is not about how, if left to their own devices, humans will become lazy and ruin the planet.

WALL•E is about how, if left unregulated, capitalism will strip away the freedoms humans have outside of their interactions with their products, to the point where they are hopelessly dependent on them, because nothing else exists.

We don’t see very much of the more controversial parts of humanity in WALL•E - homelessness, real (not artificially induced) disability, the differing opinions of humans - because capitalism in that world has tried (and almost succeeded!) in stamping those out.

Sometimes, a narrative will not include everything that exists to tell itself.

I believe, for a movie made in 2008 (16 years ago, almost two decades at this point!), WALL•E makes a great point. That point is not about the hopelessness of humanity, but the dangers of capitalism.

Was it insensitive, in retrospect, to portray that by way of making all of humanity fat and “lazy”?

Yes, but they were never “lazy” in the first place. They were made that way through several hundred years of indoctrination by the corporation - the capito-fascist regime that had control over their very existence. As soon as they gained their autonomy back, they used it to stand up for themselves - taking the “hard way” out.

Does it demonize mobility aids through this? No. The hover-chairs used as mobility aids throughout the movie were partially intended to be mobility aids for those who needed it - Buy-N-Large abused those to give themselves another layer of control over the humans. We also see a human still using a mobility aid at the end of the movie, a walker, when everyone steps off the ship.

Would this movie hold up to 2024’s standards for fat representation? It definitely seems like this isn’t the case. But, the movie was made in 2008. It would be impossible to properly hold a film to standards that came into play after it was created.

TL;DR: WALL•E doesn’t think humans will end up lazy - but they may be subjected to capitalist fascism.

[beardedmrbean]

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO and accused serial sexual predator Mike Jeffries was arrested Tuesday as part of a sex-trafficking investigation.

The 79-year-old disgraced fashion-giant boss — whose twisted antics allegedly led to more than 100 men being abused — was nabbed in West Palm Beach, Fla. 

His partner, Matthew Smith, 60, as well as a business associate, James Jacobson, 70 — previously described by accusers as a middleman who is missing his nose and covers the spot with a snakeskin patch, according to the BBC — were also arrested in the case, sources told The Post.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were set to hold a news conference later Tuesday to announce the charges in the sex-trafficking and interstate prostitution case – including involving a “former CEO of a major company.”

The arrests come roughly a year after the FBI started probing claims Jeffries allegedly orchestrated elaborate sex events to exploit and sexually abuse young male models during his 22-year tenure at the brand.

The claims first surfaced as part of an explosive BBC News report last year in which 12 men alleged they were lured to events at Jeffries’ upscale New York residence or luxury hotels in the world’s fashion capitals between 2009 to 2015.

In the wake of the BBC report, a class-action civil suit was filed in New York last year alleging that more than 100 men had been abused and that the fashion juggernaut turned a blind eye to Jeffries’ alleged misconduct.

David Bradberry, the lead plaintiff in the case and one of the dozen men who spoke to the BBC, alleged he felt pressured into having sex with Jeffries at one of his parties in his Hamptons mansion.  

Bradberry, then 23 and an aspiring model, told the outlet that he “didn’t feel safe to say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this’” because of the home’s “secluded” location and presence of Jeffries’ staff — who all dressed in a uniform of head-to-toe A&F.

The suit, filed in October last year, also alleged Jefferies had modeling scouts scouring the Internet for prey — and that some prospective models vying to become the next face of Abercrombie ended up sex-trafficking victims.

“Jeffries was so important to the profitability of the brand that he was given complete autonomy to perform his role as CEO however he saw fit, including through the use of blatant international sex-trafficking and abuse of prospective Abercrombie models,” the suit alleged.

Jeffries, who left Abercrombie in 2014, denied the allegations at the time.

His lawyer, Brian Bieber, said in a statement to The Post on Tuesday, “We will respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse – not the media.”

Abercrombie & Fitch said at the time that the company was “appalled and disgusted” by the claims, adding it had hired an outside law firm to conduct a review.

n the wake of the arrests, lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson, said in a statement Tuesday, “Our firm represents all of the victims in the class action case we filed on their behalf. 

“All four of the defendants, including Abercrombie and Fitch, have tried everything possible to delay our lawsuit from proceeding, presumably because they knew it would lead to criminal arrests. Despite their efforts, the arrests happened anyway, and we are looking forward to cooperating with law enforcement to make sure that the criminal and civil justice systems are successful in this prosecution.”

Jeffries was largely credited for the brand’s boost in popularity among teens in the early nineties with its slew of advertising campaigns featuring bare-chested young male and female models.

The brand became a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen mall culture with its stores pumped full of cologne.

Lawyers for Smith and Jacobson did not immediately return Post requests for comment Tuesday.

[venus-is-in-bloom]

i talked about this before in that silly essay and i'm sure everyone's on some level aware of it... but it really does feel like there's a kind of "positive censorship" that governs the media culture around here. like i've had some great finds recently: movies that talk about the trauma of racism (however obliquely), anti-imperialist novels that find publication, essays and papers that, if not perfect, at least are bigoted in unusual and interesting ways. but all of that is through friends and specific social circles. these interesting works, which made it through the difficult processes of production or publication, which were not stopped by the barriers of institutional racism from emerging into the public eye, nevertheless receive zero cultural attention. they are not talked about, are not fondly remembered, do not become classics and do not garner millions of fans who gush over their messages and praise their storytelling and artistic merit. and by contrast, the works that do... well.

whether it's video games, films, books, or any other media, the stuff that you always see get popular is always full of the most boringly backwards racism, misogyny, and imperialist apologia. in every subject that these works touch upon they toe a party line that is far more backwards, far more gracelessly and hideously bigoted, than its consumer base at large seems willing to admit. stuff like the locked tomb series, twilight, the hunger games, star wars, icarly, bbc sherlock, ace attorney, final fantasy fourteen, dungeons and dragons—all wow you with the horrifying blatantness of their adherence to ideas that we have been assured again and again are supposed to be long gone. more remarkable still, very few of these works really disagree in how they present these ideas. taken together, the constellation of the mainstream (and the fandom mainstream) paints a fairly coherent, well-connected picture of what is right or true, and just as importantly, it also produces the baseline of what is normal and unobjectionable to say or depict. it begins to feel silly to object to certain modes of bigotry, of racist caricature, of misogynistic stereotypes, of positive presumptions about capitalism and imperialism, when they are, and continue, to be universal—when it's rare to see anything else.

if the much-feared "negative censorship" is considered contrary to free speech because it silences voices that perhaps should be heard, then likewise does this positive censorship drown those voices out with the deluge of advertisement and consumerism, painting a dangerously narrow picture of the world that acclimates people to accept certain hateful ideas as reasonable and certain monstrous discussions as fair, even if we technically disagree with them.

[lilaccccc]

this doesnt make me mad because im some sort of weird puritan who is offended by swear words, it makes me mad because of the blatant hypocrisy of Google and other internet conglomerates sanitizing the entire fucking internet of any content a youth pastor would deem inappropriate for the sake of advertisement industry compliance, to then let those very same advertising agencies go and do this. like i know the rolling death machine of capitalism is completely uncaring and unknowing to this hypocrisy but like fucking come on man.

why cant i say fuck but the fucking ADS CAN NOW

[possessionisamyth]

Every time I see the occasional floating SU post talking about how no one understood The Point, I both get it and immediately recognize that, due to the complex hate vortex created on tumblr during its run, people have selective memory for what legitimate and illegitimate criticisms were being made for the show. Heres a short list, do not add to it:

-the racism from outside and inside the house (human zoo full of brown people, entire bismuth plotline, white people saying garnet isn't black "shes an alien" which also happened for all of her fusions, blatant silencing of black teens written of as "the discourse" whenever they made decent talking points about anything, etc)

-people crucifying rebecca sugar for drawing illicit material as a minor (something a lot of ppl who do art or likes art makes or consumes when they get really into drawing or shipping)

-people shouting "rebecca sugar is jewish! she knows what she's doing" to any criticism at all to silence other people just engaging with the show and stating things they didn't like about certain episodes

-the reveal of rose quartz, the beautiful fat character we spent all this time learning bits and pieces about, being a skinny tall girl(pink diamond) in essentially a fat suit

-homophobic and transphobic people capitalizing on the discourse tags to shout louder and louder about small things that'd go under the radar of any other show further poisoning the cesspool (dumb shit like peridot being child coded)

-how the SU crew handled advertising when they really shouldn't have been doing any marketing ( the concrete reveal and immediate backtracking) and I do blame CN for not doing more actual marketing and trying to bank on social media clout with animators who are not equiped for this

-people asking for lowered stakes when it comes to the diamonds whole schtick because of the implications, and they could predict what the showrunners would do based on previous plotlines

-people upset because during a time where we were getting a fascism free sample(drump), the imaginary fascists get a handshake and a "okay, restorative justice time" moment

-severe lack of understanding that the show was cut short due to the ruby/sapphire wedding, and the movie and sequel series was an attempt to make up for it, and i can't say whether or not this was done well because I dropped out of SU before the movie dropped

In summary, I do think Steven Universe was important. It did do a lot of things well, and it helped open more doors for other creators to do more fun gay and trans stuff in their shows including handling difficult topics. Whether those other shows handle ALL those topics well isn't something I'm going to waste my breath on. If the writing captivates me then it captivates me, and now whether or not it's good is always second to whether or not I find it fun.

My little brother and I watched SU together like we did Gravity Falls and Adventure Time, and I was able to use the metaphor of Stevonnie to explain my nonbinary status to him without any issue. However, at some point for me, I stopped finding the show fun, and I know for a lot of people sucked into the tumblr hate vortex that meant they had to equate the show as Bad.

I don't know if I'll sit myself down and watch the movie or follow up series, but this isn't because I think they're bad. I simply have gotten back into actual adult fiction books and comics, so a lot of YA or kids content haven't been hitting those same brain spots with me like they used to when I was a minor or a young 20 something trying to figure out how to be a person.

There's more I could say about how lgbt+ writing and art is held under a tighter microscope than the most milquetoast cishet content, but there's already dozens of posts floating around that explain it better than I feel like doing at this hour.

What I will say though, is if you loved SU at first and you started to hate it, like genuinely hate it, maybe take the time to figure out when the hate started, what caused that hatred, and why you hated it, especially now that you don't have every other post on your feed talking about how SU sucks yelling in your ear.

[krizs-main]

Grabbing you and shaking you violently IT'S ABOUT HOW DUCK IS THE ONE WHO'S THE MOST ADAMANT ABOUT DOING WHAT HE WANTS; IT'S ABOUT HOW HE WOULD NEVER WANT TO SETTLE FOR LESS THAN THE PERFECT JOB FOR HIM; IT'S ABOUT HIS DISBELIEF AT WATCHING THE OTHER TWO SLIP AWAY FROM THEIR OWN DREAM JOBS (even if they include doing no job whatsoever) AND SETTLE INTO POSITIONS SHOVED ONTO THEM BY OTHERS; IT'S ABOUT DUCK REFUSING TO BOW DOWN TO THE DEATH GRIP OF CAPITALISM UNTIL HE'S TRANSFORMED INTO ANOTHER COG IN THE MACHINE BY STRAIGHT UP GETTING EATEN ALIVE; (again) IT'S ABOUT WATCHING YOUR FRIENDS SLIP AWAY INTO JOBS YOU NEVER EVER IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS THOUGHT THEY WOULD WILLINGLY DO; IT'S ABOUT BEING THE ONLY ONE LEFT WITHOUT A JOB, THE ONE THING THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GIVE ANYONE MEANING IN THIS WORLD; IT'S ABOUT BEING VIOLENTLY SHOVED INTO THE ROLE OF A MINDLESS WORKER IN SOME RANDOM FACTORY WHO SHOULD DO EXACTLY AS THEY ARE TOLD AND NO MORE NO LESS, IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE BRIEFCASE WHO ADVERTISED JOBS TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE TELLING YOU "YOU CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT"; IT'S ABOUT THE BLATANT LIES YOU'RE TOLD ABOUT GETTING A JOB AND GETTING "THE RIGHT" JOB AND IT'S ABOUT WATCHING THE ONES YOU LOVE DRIFT AWAY

[joytraveler]

#71: Paradise Mall

This looks like a stripped-down version of those familiar "Tycoon" games, wherein you're given a map of a barebones mall and you have a certain amount of money to open various stores; some of them have more profit opportunity, while others profit less but bring more customers in.

Strangely, you're told what strategic value the stores have, but not what any of them sell or do! pigbarrel: these are rather nondescript object parlors. I don't want to eat a food court in a place like this!!

Syrupentine: None of these look like bookstores. Your mall is bad, Bea. :C TaichouSenseiKun: The bookstore is the secret hidden shop you find when on an unrelated side quest Baconnaise: This is true

"Buy some crap from us, you know that you want to- Ohh, I can do a sale but then I'll sell out too quickly if I'm not careful!"

Glockroach: Sell out of what? HNV: Widgets? Possibly blingwads?

"I don't know!! We're meant to use our imagination! Here's the arcade and the snack shop, and down on the right is the Suncoast Video?? Oh, this IS a haunted game..."

Once all the stores are placed for the first day, the tiny stickmen representing customers begin to file in! Some stores get a lot of traffic and make their rent back quickly, while others are soundly ignored. The customers are divided into pink and blue types, each of whom goes to a different kind of store, although some attract both!

Baconnaise: Is this a metaphor for something

"It's a metaphor for mad values and Bea's Bargain Nightmare Emporium!"

DueyDecimal: Seems like less a metaphor and more of a love letter to capitalism at its most ungodly blatant! The dollars you pay with say THIS IS YOUR GOD!

At the close of the day, you can decide which stores to assign more workers to and which ones to cut the open hours of. Strangely, some of the busiest stores are already short employees.

The first time Bea can't give one all the employees it needs, though... the store sticks out a chameleon-like tongue and grabs a customer!

Glockroach: Oh. pigbarrel: !!! TaichouSenseiKun: THEY HUNGER Baconnaise: Oh this IS the food court DueyDecimal: GOD IT FEELS GOOD TO BE RIGHT

"Sorry the dog was bothering me, what happened?" Bea stops to read up and down the alarmed comments! "What. Wait, WHAT?" Well, the does have the right amount of employees suddenly..

The gameplay has changed a bit-- it becomes necessary to move certain stores to different locations, because now that they've tasted customers, they get greedy for them! So the Bupco has to be between the Nerpco and the Glookenburg's, because Bupco wants to eat female customers and those two only attract male customers...

Now customers are starting to SEE the stores engulfing other customers, though, so it becomes necessary to steer a frightened customer into the path of a hungry store-- or else your attendance goes down the next day.

HNV: Bad word of mouth. Or, more likely, word of bad mouths.

"Now I have to play signs and advertise for... whatever these are. I mean you get what you pay for I guess"

pigbarrel: good morning i'd like one cup of being eaten alive please

[jenniferdiazisatransgirl]

So as I keep saying, I’m sorry for my absence lately. The combination of work and not having a working phone makes staying on top of my blog difficult but I do still have my ear to the ground for news as much as possible.

Yesterday, Dana posted a video on Twitter advertising a charity livestream to help LGBT+ causes after it has been revealed Disney has been funding sponsors of the Don’t Say Gay Bill in Florida. Dana is pretty blatant in the fact that she is fed up of making Disney look good and God do I agree with her. I also really felt for her watching her video yesterday as she almost tearfully stated that she is fed up of having to decide between her morals and putting food on the table. Adding insult to injury, Disney has sent a company wide email pretty much along the lines of “we support diversity but we aren’t going to change either.” I wonder Disney, was that “There’s room for everyone under the rainbow.” tweet you put in June taken out of context? Was the full sentence actually, “There’s room for everyone under the rainbow so long as it can’t be seen.”?

And here’s an interesting tweet in the thread from yesterday. So far Dana has tried to maintain there was no bad faith in the cancellation of The Owl House and I’ve happily accepted that when blogging about it. But someone made a comment yesterday raising the point of whether there was some bad faith in the cancellation of The Owl House and even Dana has now said, “it’s hard not to assume.”

I try to avoid swearing on this blog but honestly, fuck you right to Hell Disney and this June don’t even think about attempting any of your rainbow capitalism bullshit! You are so not our allies and have no right displaying the rainbow during Pride Month until you actually unapologetically support LGBT+ rights and not actively work against them or fence sit on/both sides the issue!

[a-girl-must-have-a-new-name]

All of the times Naruto knew she danced and the one time he didn't.

A/N: I've really wanted to write some Naruto fics for a while now but just haven't found the inspiration for it. Not sure how many I'll write but I hope to make a collection of these

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first time Naruto knew Hinata could dance it was on a mission. It was just a few months after the war. Hinata and Shikamaru were assigned as his mission partners to ensure that the diplomatic hero tour (as Kakashi had called it) would go off without a hitch. It had been a long mission, one that Naruto was slightly uncomfortable with. Sure he loved traveling and meeting friends but it felt silly to be paraded around villages like he was the only hero of the war. As though others didn’t help. As though others hadn’t died. Still, having Hinata and Shikamaru there with him made the trip worthwhile.

It was the day before one of the first grand parties to be held in Naruto’s honor. People from all over the land had gathered. All wanting to be a part of the festivities, with many young women hoping to catch the eye of the hero. Naruto felt a slight panic when the Daimyo slapped him on the back telling him how lucky he would be dancing all night.

Naruto looked pleadingly over his shoulder towards Shikamaru begging for help but the man barely shrugged before turning away. Though Naruto thought he caught the lazy bastard smiling at his misfortune. He was about to call the genius out when a gentle hand touched his shoulder.

“Naruto-kun, if you need help I can teach you some basic steps.” Hinata smiled at him encouragingly, causing warmth to spread in Naruto. Hinata was always there to save his ass. Grinning brightly to show his appreciation he grabbed her hand in his and led her away. Once they found a quiet and more importantly private area Hinata stepped closer calmly explaining what a waltz was.

“Naruto- kun in a waltz there are three steps. a forward step, a side step, then together.” Hinata demonstrated the steps to Naruto going over it a few times until he felt comfortable enough to try it himself.

“That’s correct Naruto-kun. Now after you bring your feet together you will go backward so step back with the right foot- just like that. Now bring your left foot back. Good. This time however it’s going to swing back to the side where you first started. Now bring the right foot to follow.” Hinata and Naruto stood side by side as she walked the steps with him, letting him get comfortable with the footing, gently nudging his foot to the correct step when there was confusion. Once he felt confident he had memorized the steps Hinata stepped in front of him, trying to ignore the light blush that was forming.

“Naruto-kun, I think we should practice as partners now, but only if you are comfortable.”

“I’m always comfortable with you Hinata-chan! You’re the best-ttebayo!” Hinata’s face was entirely red by now but she chose to ignore the heat. Instead, she continued on, showing him the arm positions while trying to ignore the way her heart skipped a beat when his arm came across her back.

Focusing on the warmth his other hand provided in hers. Hinata began showing him the rotations. It took quite a while to get the hang of. Especially when Naruto faltered as Hinata went to step backward when he went forward. He panicked thinking he had messed up the steps he stumbled over himself to fix it. Causing both skilled shinobi to fall. Naruto grabbed Hinata tightly around the waist, rotating them so that he landed on the ground and Hinata was cradled safely into his chest. Both stayed laying like that for perhaps a second longer than needed, Naruto once more unconsciously giving the woman a gentle squeeze before letting go quickly an embarrassed and apologetic smile on his face as he began to apologize.

“I’m so sorry Hinata-chan I didn’t mean to do that I swear! I just forgot and didn’t know if I was supposed to keep going forward or follow you!”

“No Naruto-kun it was my fault for not explaining better, you were going the right way, women have different steps to follow in the dance.”

“No! You’re great at explaining all this! really! I should have just trusted what you had told me and done that. I’m really sorry Hinata-chan but I promise I’ll get it!”

“It’s ok Naruto-kun it’s your first time, it is only natural to be nervous. I know you’ll get the hang of it. It’s our nindo, remember?” Hinata’s smile was so genuine and bright Naruto had to look away for a moment, her words lingering even after she had said them.

Our nindo.

Naruto felt a spark of energy soar through him and wondered if Kurama also felt motivated by Hinata’s words. Jumping back onto his feet Naruto stretched out his hand to Hinata. A fire burning behind his blue eyes as he clasped her hand once more. Pulling her up and even closer to him than before.

“Let’s try again-ttebayo!”

“H-hai!”

It was the evening of the party and Shikamaru and Naruto were walking around the ballroom together.

“Would you quit messing with it?” Shikamaru whispered in annoyance.

“I can’t help it, everything feels tight!” Naruto whined as he shifted the collar of his outfit. (A gift from the daimyo) and let out a string of curses. He felt like he was suffocating. Glancing over at his friend he felt envy, the Nara had on a much simpler version of his own outfit and it seemed that the man opted for his own undershirt rather than the constrictive piece of material that Naruto was currently wearing. Sighing the blonde adjusted the collar one final time before giving up and pouting.

“Hinata would feel sorry for me”

“Then go complain to her.”

“Tch- you know she said she would be arriving later.” Naruto had been excited to see Hinata. However, one of the daimyo’s servants had stopped at Naruto and Shikamaru’s room informing them that Hinata had sent a message letting them know that her own dress hadn’t arrived and that she would be a few minutes later than the boys.

That was an hour ago and Hinata still hadn’t shown up. Naruto was itching to go and find her, worried something had happened. Though also just wanting an excuse to escape from the boredom that was the party. However, before he got the chance the Daimyo entered the grand room from a balcony up above.

“Thank you all for gathering tonight to celebrate the end of the war and the prosperity we shall gain from it!" The daimyo smiled down at the cheering crowd, puffing his chest out like he was the reason such prosperity would come about. Still, Naruto was smart enough to keep from rolling his eyes. clapping in approval of the words.

"So tonight I ask that everyone enjoy the entertainment and food. Let the dancing begin!" It was like the Daimyo had opened the flood gates suddenly it seemed that every woman in the room had turned their attention onto Naruto. Many already trying to form a line to get to him.

S-Shikamaru I can’t dance with all of these girls, that's impossible!”

“Naruto you’ll be fine, you’ve worked hard.” A different softer voice spoke out, causing Naruto to jump. Spinning around wildly, he spotted Hinata who had quietly taken her place beside Shikamaru.

“Hinata -chan!”

“I apologize for being late, it took longer than anticipated to get ready.” an embarrassed blush adorned her face as she bowed towards her two friends for her tardiness. Shikamaru waved it off while Naruto looked appalled.

“Don’t apologize Hinata! It’s not your fault the daimyo is using us for advertisement!” It was true, these outfits were a blatant excuse to get the textiles out into the public eye, and what better way to show off your country's goods than to have them paraded around on the most popular attraction. Though as Naruto eyed Hinata’s dress he couldn’t help the irritating though that the Daimyo had requested this specific dress on Hinata for a more lewd reason. Though the dress was far from indecent, the low scooping back and the form-fitted top were far more revealing than anything Naruto had ever seen on his friend.

Old daimyo is just another perv. he thought darkly but he still couldn’t help the thought that she looked really pretty. Naruto was just about to tell her this when a woman stepped forward grabbing Naruto’s arm tightly.

“Naruto-senpai please dance with me!” the young girl Naruto realized was one of the shinobi who had met their squad at the gates of the capital.

“I-”

“Just get on with it. The sooner you do it, the sooner we can leave.” Shikamaru whispered as he shoved Naruto towards the dance floor. Naruto stumbled but caught himself. He turned his head back planning to give Shikamaru a dirty look but stopped when he saw Hinata. Though she was still smiling there was a sad look in her eyes. Belatedly Naruto realized he probably should have asked Hinata for the first dance. After all, she had helped him so much. As he was dragged to the dance floor and could feel his dance partner feeling up his muscles, he couldn’t help but wish it was Hinata in his arms instead.

It had been a few hours and Naruto felt like his feet were going to fall off. He had lost track of how many partners he’d had. It was all the same. Every monotonous move yet it seemed his partners couldn’t get enough, some even fighting for more dances.

Naruto sighed as he spun his latest partner away, waiting for a new one to take her place. Straining his neck he caught sight of Shikamaru’s hair. Since the dancing had begun he’d tried to catch a glimpse of that beacon of spiky hair around the perimeters of the ballroom. It worked every so often but he was disappointed in not spotting long deep blue hair.

He had prayed at some point that Hinata might cut in. Hoping for a reprieve from all these women who only seemed to care that they were seen on his arm. It would have been nice to dance with a friend, someone he could actually talk to. yet it never happened. Still, he needed a break. Stepping back away before the next girl could come up he gave an apologetic grin scratching the back of his head as he did so.

“I’m sorry, but I just spotted someone I need to talk to, please excuse me.”

The girl pouted murmuring that she'd only gotten to dance with Naruto three times but Naruto had already turned away making his way towards his friend.

“Are you ready to call it a night yet?” the Nara asked from his slumped position in his chair. He had acquired the table an hour ago and had been napping ever since. Naruto nodded slumping into a chair of his own. Wincing as his feet screamed in protest over the night's abuse. Though he’d done exceptionally well he had no doubt abused his poor feet. For all the teaching and practice Hinata had gone through with him he still ended up tripping a time or two. though the biggest abuse was in the form of some of his dance partners accidentally stepping on them in their heeled dress shoes. Yes, Naruto was ready to call it a night if it meant soaking his poor feet.

“Then go grab Hinata-chan so we can get out of here,” Shikamaru said stretching out as he did so.

“Where is she?” Naruto asked turning once more to catch a peek of her.

“No surprise you haven’t seen her, all the women clustered around you while all the men have been circling her. She’s in the middle of that crowd over there.” Shikamaru pointed to the other side of the room where it seemed an equally large crowd had gathered. And true to his words right there in the middle was Hinata, dancing with some man.

“Why didn’t you help Hinata-chan?!” Naruto accused glaring at the man already settling in for a nap again.

“It’s too troublesome to get involved, besides unlike you she’s actually enjoying it.” Naruto was surprised by these words. Standing up he ignored the pain he felt as he looked closer at the scene.

Sure enough, Hinata looked like she was having the time of her life, her eyes were half-closed and there was a healthy blush adorning her cheeks though not from embarrassment but from all of the activity. Her hair had come loose at some point in the evening and it followed behind her in a mesmerizing dance of its own. Naruto could only watch in awe as Hinata was swept around the floor matching her partner step by step. It had looked as though the two had been dancing together all of their lives. Like they had been born to be each other’s partner.

“They're a handsome couple.” an older woman spoke near him, nodding her head toward the couple. her friend agreed, speaking up herself.

“That is the Hyuga heiress from the leaf village, Lord Souta would do well to ask for her match.”

Naruto frowned at the two women gossiping. Match? Why would Hinata fight that guy, he’s obviously not shinobi.

Idiot Kurama murmured but Naruto ignored it. Choosing instead to make his way through the crowd to get to Hinata. As he came to the center of the growing circle he watched as the dance came to a close. Lord Souta or whoever it was had just dipped Hinata low. All around him, people gasped in delight at the display but Naruto could only frown. This didn’t look like anything Hinata had taught him. This was obviously a different dance, one that only someone with more skill could do. As if to give the crown one final trick Souta spun Hinata, having her twirl out away from him as far as their joined hands would allow. Hinata was so close to Naruto he suddenly had an urge to take her and run. However, he was frozen in place, Hinata was breathtaking. There was no other way to describe it, Naruto couldn’t think of a time where she looked so relaxed and happy.

Something about that hurt Naruto deeply but he couldn’t understand why. He was happy that Hinata was enjoying herself and was feeling comfortable enough to show him and everyone around them her passion. But still, something bothered Naruto. He watched as the final notes to the song ended, Lord Souta pulled Hinata back toward him as if there was a magnetic force pulling the two back together. Hinata spun effortlessly back into the man’s chest clutching his shirt as she was breathing heavily.

The audience cheered.

Naruto couldn’t help his eyes narrowing at the man’s hands, who had clasped them against the small of Hinata’s back. Bunching the fabric together. Naruto was about to tell him off when Hinata finally seemed to realize their audience. To everyone’s surprise, her blush grew as she went to step back. Souta released her just enough to let her have some breathing room.

“Thank you for the dance, Lady Hinata. It was a pleasure.”

“T-thank you, I enjoyed it very much.”

“We must dance again soon.” Lord Souta smiled gently as he bowed towards the woman, taking her hand before she could walk away and kissing it. Hinata, Naruto was shocked to see didn’t faint, or freak out over this instead she gave the man a dazzling smile before nodding her head.

“I would like that very much Lord Souta, thank you.” Both dancers ignored the gossiping whispers as they moved back away from each other. Before any other guy could ask Hinata to dance Naruto snaked through the rest of the crowd. Grabbing her hand pulling her with him gently.

“N-Naruto- kun?!” Hinata felt surprised at seeing the blonde. She had been trying to spot him all night but was unable to, due to the masses that surrounded him. Naruto just smiled down at her, his grin stretched across his face.

“Hinata-chan it’s getting late and Shikamaru is ready to go to bed. I’m sorry I had to interrupt you but-”

“No, it’s fine Naruto-kun. I was getting tired myself and we are leaving early in the morning to head out to the next village.”

“Still, I hate to make you leave. You looked great out there Hinata-chan! I had no idea you liked to dance so much-ttebayo!”

Hinata felt like she was in heaven, Naruto was actually complimenting her. Still, Hinata tried to calm herself down.

“Thank you Naruto-kun. I had to learn many dances as a daughter of the head of the Hyuga clan. It's believed that dancing helps to create relationships and bonds with others all around the world. Like tonight with Lord Souta, he has many trade deals with the Hyuga.”

“Oh, so you are friends with that guy?”

“Well, we’ve met before. However, tonight was the first time we were able to speak freely amongst ourselves. He was able to talk to me about a special rare herb he has been cultivating in his gardens. I offered to make some special salves using those herbs with the promise that we could keep bundles of the herbs ourselves.”

“Wow, you were able to make trade negotiation while dancing, that's impressive Hinata-chan.”

“W-well that happened during our first couple of waltzes together. The last dance though was to a song from his country and so we couldn’t really speak. The dance is so fast-paced.”

Naruto faltered in his steps for a millisecond before continuing. By now they were close to the table to grab Shikamaru.

“Haha, I thought that dance looked a little more complicated than what you taught me,” Naruto said with a forced laugh. Hinata stifled a yawn as they woke Shikamaru up once more, humming in agreement to Naruto.

“Yes, it’s a bit more advanced, I don’t often get a chance to practice it.”

Later, long after they had left the party, and walked Hinata back up to her room. Naruto laid awake thinking about the events of the evening and everything Hinata had mentioned. He tossed and turned, kicking the blankets off of him as he stared up at the ceiling. Something was still bothering him. Something that he couldn’t figure out. It was only after the image of Lord Souta’s hands clutching around Hinata's waist jarred him out of a fitful sleep did Naruto realize what the problem was.

It wasn't the fact that he didn't like the guy.

It wasn't the fact that he wasn't as skilled a dancer as the guy.

It wasn't even the fact that Hinata repeatedly danced with the guy.

It was the fact that Naruto wanted to be the only guy that Hinata danced with.

[thelittlemermage]

re youtube censorship: it's ads. the entire reason they're doing this is for the sake of advertisers. they're allowed to advertise whatever they want so long as they're paying, which is why ads aren't subject to the same scrutiny youtube videos are. all this stuff isn't to make the site more 'family friendly' but instead to make it more 'advertiser friendly'. removing the dislike button is the most blatant example of this, because by doing so they can make it appear as though ad videos are more popular than they are without that like/dislike ratio in regards to censorship, that's why it's all over the place, and why youtube seems so inconsistent with it. they can't advertise on youtube kids (as far as i know) but they *can* on the main site, so they exploit that to hell saying it's "for the kids" is just an easy way to get people to defend them

Yea, everything boils down to capitalism, doesn't it? Remember when YouTube didn't have ads? What a time haha. It's the funniest on tiktok where you have to use l33t speak for even the mildest of uncomfortable topics (though some of that is bleeding into Youtube too because people don't want to get demonetized x.o). Idk. The fuckiest thing to me was when SBSK got their comments section locked because Youtube was allegedly worried that because some videos featured physically disabled children, the comments would result in bullying. Pay no mind to the fact that videos featuring adults are also comment locked. Or that there was virtually no bullying to begin with. But "kids try" channels and family channels can keep their comments on 🤔 I mean, God forbid those lucrative channels lose views. I'm worried where we'll be in a few years. Is anything going to be allowed to exist if it doesn't turn a profit?

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Hello! (Different anon here). So, re the recent discussions abt the MCU/Disney as imperialist propaganda, how do you think we as fans should approach the issue? Bc--I mean personally speaking I only engage w Disney properties via fandom, don't reblog (cont.)

(part 2) or promote the films/shows themselves, but still worry about the issues of fan complicity in corporate mythmaking. And I totally understand that the answer is "it's complicated", but I wanted to hear your thoughts?

Hi ^-^

It is a complicated matter and I think there’s two major perspective on which you can see the issue and I don’t think one is ‘right’ and the other ‘wrong’, they’re both valid points and sadly coexist. (Not to be like ‘we live in a society’ but we cannot decide to exit capitalism, we can only move inside it.)

One is fandom as resistance: by engaging with the text in a manner that deconstructs it and that transforms it (transformative works that queer the text up, for instance), I am doing an exercise in resistance, and my act of putting queerness in a text that evades it is radical.

The other is fandom as advertising: we’re effectively giving visibility and attaching positive connotations to a product. How many people check out shows after seeing gifsets and fanart on tumblr? A lot. We should be consuming “good” media (say, indie content over megacorporation stuff) and giving visibility to that.

I don’t think that refusing to engage with the “problematic” text at all lest we dirty our hands by making ourselves complicit of the system is a particularly fruitful approach (obviously I’m talking about collective actions, individually one can just do whatever they want within the limits of manners, it’s fandom), it seems to me more like an act of purity. Transformative works have a long, long history and I do think there’s power in that history. Transformative works do help people. And “problematic” media attracts fandoms because there’s so much fertile ground for transformation.

Also, not less importantly imo, it’s not like you can trace a line between Evil Media and Good Media. The MCU is so blatant it’s not really difficult to see it, but how much media just incorporates values that are just mainstream in the culture that produced it and are not good? How do you trace a line? Is Drarry fanfiction advertising for Rowling? Should we stop it at all? What counts as propaganda? Must it have gone through the pencil of the American military or also not?

Maybe I’m just trying to justify my own actions, but I think that maybe we kind of overstate our own importance...? Disney spends billions on marketing, and unless it turns out half of you are Disney accounts swaying the population like the Russian blogs in 2016, I’m not even sure fandom is really that big a part of the marketing strategy. (Do we stop watching actors’ interviews? Is Anthony Mackie’s face problematic during a marketing tour? We end up in directions I’m not comfortable with.) I mean, I know that social media activity is still part of the marketing strategy, and an important one at that. But social media activity comes in many forms and some of those are transformative. Where do you trace the line? Edits are good but gifsets are bad? What about a gifset with different captions that make the scene gay? Slash fanart? Non-slash fanart? Fanart of a canon straight ship? (Hint: none of those are bad.)

Something else I want to point out: this kind of talk comes up when they (not just Disney) make content aimed at progressive audiences. It’s natural. An audience that will pay attention to this kind of issues will not really care about stuff that doesn’t really ping their radar. But the result is that it seems like we’re particularly vicious against “good” things: movies with a female lead, shows with a Black lead. You’ll see arguments like “oh, you weren’t saying this before, but you’re saying it for this product about a woman/Black person so you’re misogynist/racist!”. That’s in bad faith. Of course it stands out when the propaganda is done in something that markets itself as progressive. Nobody really goes to see Macho Batman With Biceps Feels Manly Angst #37 and expects intersectional feminism in it. But they make a movie with a female lead for the first time since 1926, and you’re like “oh? Maybe good? Maybe one good thing finally?” and then brown-skinned people with beards in sandy places want more bombs. Guess which one progressive-leaning people will talk about the most?

I have one Harry Potter fic on my ao3. It’s something I wrote as a teen and found a few years ago and, while it’s not really great, I decided to publish it. I recently debated with myself whether to delete it. I didn’t want to have something related to Rowling on my account. But then I thought, then what? Should everyone delete all Harry Potter fanart ever? Sure, no one will miss my old fic because it’s bad, but that’s not the point. Do I think that deleting HP fics is a “good” gesture? Then do I think everyone should do the same? No. The world of HP fanworks is vast and rich and has a lot of beauty in it. Same with the MCU fandom.

This said, individually one chooses. If you’re personally uncomfortable engaging with a text, you stop engaging with that text. If you want to make transformative works of the most problematic text ever, you make them. (And really, who decides what is too problematic for posting on tumblr about it? Fandom’s still having debates on that nazi manga with the big monsters.) Mega-popular texts are also good collective exercises in text analysis and further debates because they become a common language for many people. (There’s also the fact that the MCU didn’t create the characters, and they have actually a long and often powerful history, although that’s not a culture I’m familiar with.)

Tl,dr... don’t subscribe to the platform :p

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Then as now, the vast majority of the imprisoned in the 1930s were poor and unskilled. The numbers of people behind bars who listed their occupation as “laborer” rose steadily across the decade.16 Some, but not many, were clearly political prisoners: when the state of California sentenced labor radical Tom Mooney to die for the 1916 Preparedness Day bombings, when it kept criminal syndicalism laws on the books and imprisoned labor activists (or neglected to arrest corporate-paid goons who attacked strikers), it worked in obvious ways to limit working-class movements. But most prisoners were just poor, and not highly politicized. Across the nation, prisons controlled people who threatened wage labor relations by finding ways to survive other than through wage work. 

Theft was the most obvious of these, and property crimes made up the lion’s share of punished offenses in the Depression. The expansion of America’s consumer culture of the 1920s led, perhaps unsurprisingly, to an increase in property crimes. As historian Elliot Gorn has observed, “A world of material goods, made more available than ever with the expansion of credit, raised expectations. Glossy magazines glamorized objects of desire, nightly radio programs dramatized the good life, advertising taught Americans about the things they needed to make their lives complete.” These desires, once set in motion, would persist. Desperation drove many to theft in the 1930s, and desire, just as surely, drove others. In 1937 more people in the United States were imprisoned for larceny alone than for all violent and sex crimes combined.

Yet punishment entrenched hierarchies in complex ways. One can argue that nowhere was the unequal protection of private property and the state’s rough treatment of the poor more blatant than in prison, its most repressive apparatus. In the 1930s widespread working-class movements emerged to fight for higher wages and a more equitable distribution of wealth. Workers demanded the state’s protection from employers, the right to organization and collective bargaining, and support from the vicissitudes of an unstable economy. The New Deal, in its many forms and faces, promised succor for Americans down on their luck. From union halls to dance halls and from street parades to bowling alleys, radical, progressive, and multiracial movements grew. In such a climate, prisons might have been particularly vibrant locations of radical proletarian politicization, where, in Marx’s terms, the working class in-itself could become a class for-itself.

When I first undertook this project, I was inspired by Michael Denning’s book, The Cultural Front, which documented broad and multiracial working-class movements in the Depression years. I was driven in equal measures by the new social history’s effort to unearth previously hidden perspectives on racialized capitalism, and by a Foucauldian project of finding transgressive spaces and subjects for critical insight into the workings of modernity. I suspected that border state prisons during the Depression might have been sites of multiracial proletarian class formation. After all, it was in this period... that Georg Rusche and Otto Kircheimer, the Frankfurt School doyens of Marxian criminology, located punishment as being more closely related to political economics than to crime.

The Depression could have provided prime conditions for the development of a radical working-class politics, for inmates to find allegiance in similar conditions of poverty and stern treatment at the hands of the powerful. After all, New Left and Third World radicals would look to prisons for vanguard movements later in the century, and perhaps, I speculated, earlier forms might have existed. Yet judging from the evidence I found—most of it state authored, to be sure, what Ranajit Guha called the prose of counterinsurgency—this was scarcely the case in the 1930s. 

The civil rights and Black Power-turned prisoners’-rights movement of the 1970s built on four decades of struggle, and came into fruition twenty years after global decolonization movements. But the Popular Front, as an opening volley in what some have come to call the United States’ long civil rights era, scarcely penetrated prison walls. Fleeting moments of cooperation, of multiracial and even radical community, existed in the prison cultures of the Great Depression, and the forms of resistance and ambiguities that punishment produced will  be discussed in detail. But far more records revealed antagonism. Denning convincingly argued that labor unions, libraries, public schools, and state funding for artists were key institutional components of the Popular Front as a social movement. In marked contrast, prisons in the 1930s were state institutions geared toward the dissolution of collective class behavior and the imposition of gendered, racialized antagonism that proved resistant to collective challenge. In prison, racial differences were quite literally set in stone. For authorities, this was no mistake.”

- Ethan Blue, Doing Time in the Depression Everyday Life in Texas and California Prisons. New York: New York University Press. 2012. pp. 24-26.

[AL: This quote and book inspired my own research - because the prisons of Canada during the Great Depression were somewhat different - and for a brief period there was something like a radical working class politics developed in federal prisons, especially at Kingston Penitentiary between 1931 and 1935.]

[princessnijireiki]

Of note, it is also a MASSIVE mess bc Taika Waititi was really explicit in that Thor: Ragnarok in general was very much tied into concepts of indigenous displacement & trauma, and Valkyrie/Brynhildr was emblematic of that very specifically— to the point that in the shot with the fireworks after she's put her Valkyrie armor back on & stepped back into a role to serve her people (despite her pain, shame, lost and later redeemed sense of honor, traumatic isolation, and addiction), the spaceship behind her is painted in the colors of the Tino Rangatiratanga flag for Māori sovereignty.

(Because I know y'all will ask: source links here, here, and here.)

Given the movie's themes of colonial violence & conquest, genocide, and trauma, and in particular histories of traumatic addiction in indigenous communities / violent stereotypes of indigenous peoples & persons as addicts and drunks— on top of the biphobia & misogynoir talked about above— it's really ugly to treat Valkyrie's alcohol use jokingly in a way that sets her up as the punchline, and it's very telling who got the trauma memo when it's time to wax poetic about Thor & Loki's hurt feelings, but not Valkyrie's or even Heimdall's.

I think it’s very inch resting that people are so keen to refer to valkyrie’s alcoholism as a personality trait despite it very obviously being an unhealthy coping mechanism brought on by seeing her fellow Valkyries (and her lover) die and by interesting I mean biphobic and racist.

Y'all are obsessed with this idea of Valkyrie being a mess because you think bisexuals especially bisexual women of color and ESPECIALLY black bisexual women are messy in general. Bisexuals are very often portrayed as immature and not having our shit together and being emotionally vacant as are black women (although for black women the fault is rarely shown as a lack of maturity but more as a lack of intelligence whereas our emotional vacancy is seen as us being “too strong” for emotions) and y'all are playing into it and I’m tired. Like y'all REALLY have an issue with just letting black bi women have happy endings where they get better because they feel they have a reason to (and in Ragnorak the reason isn’t even Thor; Valk has the confidence and will to fight because she doesn’t feel alone anymore).

[gameofdrarry]

Wizards Hearts: Stop the Presses!

Wizards Hearts Game/Fest has now been running for nearly a full three months! Sign-ups are now closed, but our players are still diligently reading and commenting on some of their newly-found favorite fics and working together as a team to show their love!

Players are sorted and assigned at random to four different teams. All team activities and discussions are completely optional but can yield extra points to help win the game! There are weekly team activities and longer, creative team activities where players can imagine new, fun headcanons in the Harry Potter universe and perhaps a few stories of their own!

Team Activity 4: Casino Reputations and Notable News

Something very exciting has happened at each and every casino. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, two of the biggest names in the Wizarding World, chose to visit them! But of course, these sorts of things don’t go unnoticed. Wherever it was they went, the press was certain to report on it. Each casino, of course, had guidelines by which to compile their own reports of each incident. The twist being that the events did not happen at their own establishments, but at those of their competitors.

Teams were asked to write  A) Bad publicity for your rival casino (a raid/or arrest by Auror partners, a public argument between the pair, etc..) - OR -  B) Good publicity for your rival casino (a first date or sighting as a couple, a happy event being hosted at their establishment etc...)

It was expected that each team

Write an article at least 350 words long

Use 3 specific details created by the other team ( it takes place at their seasonal event, it involves their signature food, it involves their description of mundungus's issues, it describes their location etc.)

 Write a brief internal memo about how your casino feels about the article. (Happy that it's bad publicity and how to capitalize on that to direct people to your casino, Frustrated that they got the big scoop and how to boost attendence at your casino.etc)

View the first Team Activity post here

View the second Team Activity post here

View the third Team Activity post here

View the fourth Team Activity post under the cut!

Team 1: Loch Lomond’s Treasure

Team 2: Golden Scales

Article:

AUROR MISSION GONE WRONG: ARC EN CIEL TO BLAME?

Arc en Ciel Crêperie & Wizarding Casino had prepared for their traditional All Hallow’s Eve celebration. They’d whipped up a few batches of their famous crêpes—some of which made you shoot sparks out of your mouth or made you float off the ground; they’d hired their favoured vampire band; and they had their famous ghosts at the ready. The only thing that they’d not been prepared for was a sting operation conducted by the infamous duo: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had been working a case that had taken them all around the seedy underbelly of Paris. They’d been called in from London because the ring leader was one of the top criminals that the DMLE was interested in catching. Their search had led them to a certain vampire, who also happened to be the drummer in the infamous band that Arc en Ciel hired each year for their All Hallow’s Eve celebrations. So, Potter and Malfoy thought they’d dress up as casino guests and finally catch the bastard.

They were playing Farkle, which was Arc en Ciel’s famous game and eating some of their famous Dragon crêpes, when one of the hired ghosts passed through Potter, causing him to slightly choke on his Dragon crepe and what was supposed to be harmless fire shot out of his mouth. The harmless fire turned out not to be so harmless (due to potential crepe ingredients and ghost interaction) and the table started smoking. The other players started to scream, shouting “Fire! Fire!” and the host tried to calm everyone down by grabbing the tablecloth and shaking it vigorously. Unfortunately, this only served to fan the flames, making the fire larger. Potter tried to put out the flames while Malfoy went to chase after the vampire drummer, who had noticed all the commotion and attempted to slip out. Malfoy was not able to catch them, though, because all the guests were stampeding out the single entrance to Arc en Ciel (which has to be a fire hazard).

Now, Potter and Malfoy have to go back to the drawing board, and no one is happy. Readers, you tell us, is Arc en Ciel to blame?! 

Memo:

Golden Scales INTERNAL MEMORANDUM Date: 1 November From: Casino Manager To: All employees

Subject: Arc en Ciel All Hallow’s Eve Incident

This is to alert all in-house employees of the incident that occurred last night (see attached Daily Prophet article). While we are fortunate in that our all Hallow’s Eve event was a success, in the wise words of Auror Alastor Moody, “Constant Vigilance!” We have not yet had any issues with our signature beverage, Queen of the Night, but further directions will be sent out to maintenance and security regarding further fire-proofing and charm-proofing measures and a need to revise our emergency escape plans. There is also discussion of anchoring additional safety measures in the lobby dragon. The promotions department already has plans to embark upon an advertising campaign that will highlight the fire-proof nature of our casino, as well as the fact that all our staff is screened for security and also trained in emergency and safety measures. At our upcoming all-staff meeting, each staff person should arrive prepared to make suggestions that might further optimize our position in the cut-throat casino and hospitality industry. Additionally, there has been some discussion about imposing a screening requirement for all customers. Though this information would be confidential, there is also concern that this might discourage some of our more discerning clientele. Thank you for your continued commitment to this establishment. Ellery Badcock

Team 3: Vanaheim

Team 4: Arc en Ciel

Article:

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Known for housing well over a thousand dragons with whom patrons can get up close and personal, Golden Scales Casino seems to have housed something else quite personal last Saturday night. Spotted in a heated argument by the bar, ex-rivals Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy appear to have slipped into their schoolyard animosity once more. Eyewitnesses described the scene as fiery, and not just because they were flanked by four dragons!

While the specific details of their disagreement are not concrete, sources say that it began when some of the fire from the light show veered a bit too close to their table, causing some jostling and giving way to hurled insults. Patrons could not tell who was yelling to start—it was a masquerade event, after all!—until Mr Potter ripped Mr Malfoy’s mask from his face to point his wand at it. No spells were thrown until both had been escorted closer to the exits, at which point one of them let off an impulsive hex in retaliation to another patron who had consumed the Queen of the Night cocktail, Golden Scale’s signature beverage which allows the drinker to breathe fire for a short while. This in turn caused great disturbance near the entrance, throwing off some of the other casino-goers who were involved in the Halloween Treasure Hunt. While an obvious misunderstanding, it is evident that fire is a sore subject for the pair and both resumed their aggressions towards each other, eventually being asked to quieten down or leave the premises.

It appears that while the pair arrived together they made separate exits, both shortly after one another: Malfoy at an apparition point and Potter via the golden elevator. What this means for the pair is yet to be determined, but speculators now wonder if this was simply a night out amongst friends or something that holds a deeper meaning.

A source from within the casino says that both men are return visitors, frequenting the old dragon’s den atop the Dragon’s Hoard Mountain Range multiple times per year; from the visceral reactions to dragon breath, this reporter doubts there is much truth to these claims. Will we see them there again soon? And more importantly, will they be together? Only time will tell…

Memo:

By now you have all certainly seen the reporting surrounding Harry Potter & Draco Malfoy’s appearance at Golden Scales. While it does not look favourably on the casino, any publicity about this pair is good publicity as surely others will wish to see the scene of their disagreement, boosting their business in the coming weeks.

Should you hear any patrons discussing the article, we would not frown upon you making an aside comment or two that paints Golden Scales in bad light. Mentioning safety concerns about the dragons setting off their argument, poor handling of their argument, even that the source within the casino was clearly spreading blatant lies within the press and breaching patron confidentiality.

Your performance and cooperation with this initiative in the coming weeks is imperative. We will be offering staff incentives for most well executed dissuasion.