#the great big book of families

[telomeke]

Los Angeles Unified School Board President Jackie Goldberg destroys homophobes protesting a children's book. Powerful stuff.

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Link to an explanatory article here:

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[starry-bi-sky]

'Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings' doodles, because Pathetic Wet Cat Danny is the best Danny to practice drawing young faces with (and expressions).

[hanafubukki]

After having a talking with the resident father-son expert (mumble 💞🌺), what the fuck do you mean that Lilia never referred to Silver as his son?!? And the closest we had was him acknowledging that he raised him??

You’re telling me that he basically put a boundary between himself and the diasomnia boys??

With malleus, the boundary is the title he has and the guilt he couldn’t save his parents.

With silver, not only is he a human but you get the additional (probably, child of the enemy) he didn’t want to take away or lower the love of his birth parents.

With sebek, not his kid obviously, but his friend’s and her child’s kid that he trained.

Lilia freaking Vanrouge, we have to have a talk.

No wonder Sebek is the only one able to express himself because Baul never had trouble saying his thoughts and I image sebek’s parents were the same.

But the two kids you raised?? Mentored? Who look up to you??

Silver and Malleus?? Well, no wonder they have trouble saying their feelings and expressing themselves healthily when you are the same way.

We learn from those that we love, and this is something they have learned from you!

[nobodysdaydreams]

Giving a complicated tragic childhood backstory to your favorite character is all fun and games, until you realize you need to account for how old all the other adult characters would have been at the time and realize that scenes that would work perfectly if one character was twenty three and the other was fourteen stop working when you need other characters who are played by adult actors clearly younger than they are to be in college at the same time so your story beats line up thematically.

[hyperlexichypatia]

Obligatory Disclaimer #1: Yes, there is a lot of misogyny in the way people talk about the "likability" of female characters. Women in stories can and should be complex, flawed, nuanced, and human, not (just) "likable" (or "sexy" or "mother" or whatever other one-dimensional trope).

Obligatory Disclaimer #2: Yes, I know that an opinion expressed by a character in a story is not necessarily being supported by the narrative itself, or the author, and that people with piss-on-the-poor reading comprehension get this wrong. Good reading comprehension means being able to tell the difference.

Now that we've got that out of the way.

Doesn't it seem like "Female characters don't have to be LIKABLE, you illiterate misogynist!" is often a Privileged Feminist way to silence criticism of... very mainstream bigoted attitudes being presented uncritically in the narrative by being put in the voices of designated "unlikable female characters"?

I love a complex, nuanced, flawed female character. I love an outright villainous female character. I love a character whose flaws and prejudices are slowly picked apart by the narrative. I do not love having the classism, sizeism, and ableism I deal with every day served back to me in Feminist Fiction.

I do not love trying to point out "Hey, this award-winning book you all love, I don't actually like the way the protagonist talks about the working-class fat man. Or the younger woman with anxiety. Or the acquaintance with a disabled child and, like, linoleum floors or something." (Why do I just have all those examples at the ready?)

And being met with "Female characters don't have to be LIKABLE, you illiterate misogynist. Try reading some Serious Literature instead of your fanfic romance YA smut beach reads!"

"Uh, okay, well, it's not so much about the character being likeable as about the way the narrative doesn't seem to challenge the character's, I must reiterate, very widely held prejudices, that makes it seem less like a depiction of a flawed character and more like an uncritical replication of those very widely held prejudices --"

"It's a LITERARY PERSPECTIVE, GOD, didn't you go to SCHOOL? Do you think Lolita is a love story? Do you think Fight Club is about how awesome fighting is?"

"Well, no, but, for example, the way the character was so emotionally abusive to her fat daughter and her neurodivergent son --"

"Uggggh, you don't understand ANYTHING, women don't have to be PERFECT MOTHERS, she's supposed to represent HOW REAL WOMEN FEEL in the face of UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF PERFECT MOTHERHOOD!"

"So... the unquestioned-by-the-narrative elitism, classism, sizeism, ableism, and ageism are supposed to be... going against societal expectations?"

"OBVIOUSLY! That's how REAL WOMEN REALLY FEEL!"

"I'm a real woman, and I don't feel that way."

"UGGGGGH, YOU ILLITERATE MISOGYNIST, FEMALE CHARACTERS DON'T HAVE TO BE RELATABLE!"

[lacomandante]

Seeing photos of Antonia going around and I have to add these two to the collection. I desperately wish we had more photos of baby Antonia because she's so goddamn cute!!!!! Look at her SMILE!

[marsbotz]

many of you may be unaware that i have been going cazyyyy over herobrine qnd mc lore in general recently. im in my beautiful world

[fictionadventurer]

Well, now I know why Jo was crying.

[rumor-weed]

i’m sorry VOTER FRAUD?

IN MY VEGGIETALES?

it’s more likely than you’d think...

[jack-of-all-daws]

I have this one fic idea rattling in my brain and the fact that there's nothing similar to it on ao3 means that I should take the plunge and write it myself 😔 pray for me dear followers

[fruitgoat]

Only nine extra people for the family reunion. But that's still about a dozen more people than I want to hang out with most of the time. Luckily, there's two houses and a barn to spread out in. I've come over to the Annex for a few minutes to recharge my Social Battery. Even luckier, my siblings will probably text me before moving any of the party over here.

[sonicthedestiel]

I RAN OUT OF ROOM IN THE TAGS FCKN HELL

[magiicxkiingdcm]

belle tag drop

── ★ || belle || i want much more than this provincial life || visage

[neverendingford]

.

[dontstandmedown]

pinky promises make my heart ache because when my cousin was around 3 years old she was scared of them somehow and it was clear she felt so Big about it like this was really something that weighed on her lil mind. but she's getting so big now & has such a big personality, and its just crazy how rn she's probably only gonna remember a handful of the memories I have of her because she's still little. but she's halfway to being a teenager now, who let that happen. i thought she was still a lil baby hiding from zombies in the pantry & playing doctor during COVID..... where did the time go.........

[silhouettecrow]

365 Days of Writing Prompts: Day 357

Adjective: Bewildered

Noun: Fruit

Definitions for those who need/want them:

Bewildered: perplexed and confused, or very puzzled

Fruit: the sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seed and can be eaten as food; (botany) the seed-bearing structure of a plant, e.g. an acorn; (archaic) (literary) natural produce that can be used for food; the result or reward of work or activity; (archaic) offspring; (offensive) (North American) a gay man