#these women are Catty

[shvoowsh]

had a really rough morning but now i’m bingewatching four weddings with my family, which is a really nice time. really grateful rn

[pumpkinnkidd]

generational double standard

[fisksaturday]

people get so like. vitriolically angry at Mean Girl characters who are just like. girls in high school. and i understand being upset by things that remind you of people who have hurt you in real life or something i feel like the same people don't have the same energy for hating fictional male bullies or like. male villains who are evil in very relatable ways

[baravaggio]

was not planning on concerning myself with the wicked movie but this is physically hurting me.

[three-atoms]

I thought the series cut Asriel and Ruta Skadi's past relationship, but I just realized they included a nod to it with this scene (I think).

[banished-away]

i keep thinking about how much more poignant delly's storyline would have been if she and catti-brie had been allowed to interact in a significant way before it all went to hell

delly basically wanted an idealized version of catti's life. a life of adventures and travel and to have a strong man take and save her. she has always lived in poverty half-drunk on the city streets and in stranger's beds and wanted the freedom of the outside and an idyllic little family. and then she got hit with the reality of raising a kid that isnt even her own, having to fight for your life and living closed into a fortress under siege that may as well be a prison, and basically the existence of being a stay at home wife. she feels locked in catti is someone who has lived for adventure her entire life. she has known how to use a sword since she was a kid, was raised the princess of a clan of always battle-ready dwarves, and was sorrounded by over-protective men with hardly a chance to interact with other women (we know that both among the dwarves and the reghed, once a woman marries she's basically home-bound, and when she meets alustriel for the first time she doesnt even know what perfume or cosmetics are, and feels incredibly jelous and inferior). and after a near-death experience she is now torn between this adventurous side and the side that wants to marry and have kids, which she knows is incompatible with her current life and is also running out of time for. shes a tomboy who she admits wasnt really raised as a girl but she does yearn to interact with feminity to some degree (after that first meeting with alustriel she relents and enjoys that bubble bath and later admits she was wrong in her assestment of alustriel, and a few books later when meralda offers her also a fancy bath and some gowns to borrow we see her having fun trying them on)

ultimately, even if they come from opposite ends, they want the same thing. they want to not have to compromise between adventure and motherhood, they want to be indipendant and make their own choices while also having the security of people around them caring for them when they need it. which is a very fair thing want, and yet they feel like its outside their possibilities

i think that couldve been used to properly set up the subplot. they both want the same thing but come from such different lives that its hard for them to relate and that could cause attrition. i think that centering the subplot around them and not wulfgar would have improved it quite a bit

[stardust-swan]

It's important to remember that there are many different types of beauty and that beauty guides at the end of the day are just guidelines, not rules. I really cannot take those posts that are basically just saying "kill every semblance of individuality you have and strip away every trait/interest/hobby you have that isn't appealing to men who hang out at country clubs if you want to think of yourself as beautiful or worthy of love" seriously.

It's hard to take some of these people who act like they're the font of feminine knowledge when their ideas of femininity and what's beautiful are so narrow and rigid. Femininity and beauty are fluid and change depending on culture and time period. There are feminine women with every body type, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, profession, age... It's not a monolith. You don't fail at being feminine because you don't have a tiny Barbie nose and would rather go hiking than go to ballates.

[they-them-that]

With the fatphobia slated against Monster High's Catty, it's honestly worth admitting how the decades of slim and tall dolls with little to no body diversity is, matter of fact, a legitimate cause for concern.

I've seen doll fans and nostalgic netizens fight back against the criticism that Barbie represented an unrealistic body standard (still does but it's slowly improving). Their argument is that she has a "stylized" body and they feign ignorance to the idea it could've impacted, or at the very least contributed, to girls' understanding of body standards. And if you're one of the kids who believe that Barbie didn't affect you negatively at all, then good! I'm glad that was the case!

I understand that the argument comes from fondness felt through Barbie or other fashion dolls and that the criticism can feel prudish or nonsensical since a lot of criticisms against dolls are usually highly conservative and misogynistic. But people end up defending these commercially-driven companies who chose the thin and tall body, not because it's stylistic, but because it's idealized. Pushing back against the criticism of wanting dolls to reflect real life women (because you can do that AND be stylized) is allowing these companies to get away with rejecting body diversity.

Although the demand for female oriented products and media to be more empowering--hence less gendered--has arguably caused the de-feminization of Barbie (which is more of the fault of companies misunderstanding the assignment), it has also pressured Barbie into making more diverse dolls. I feel like if people only ever upheld the mentality that the "stylization" of fashion dolls' bodies shouldn't be deemed problematic, we wouldn't have ever gotten to this point.

Monster High G3 is one of the most body-diverse doll lines out there but characters like Draculaura and Abbey have been reprimanded for representing curvy bodies when they're arguably not even plus sized. Catty Noir, a doll who is intentionally fat, has shined a light on the ever pervasive fatphobia that festers the doll community, a prejudice that has been instilled and unchallenged BECAUSE dolls have fit cleanly into the thin and tall beauty standard for the majority of our childhoods. It's why it matters to call out a doll line that only ever represents a singular idealized body type. We have to open our eyes that it's not as simple and unproblematic as being "stylistic" when our real life body standards aren't even natural for most of us.

[bbygirl-aemond]

Do u think Daemon and Aemma were/could’ve been/would’ve been besties? How do u think Aemma would have reacted to the events of Stormbreak if she had been around (yet somehow not married to Viserys..? Divorced maybe?? I know that wasn’t really a THING but I’m having Aemma brainrot)

i've talked about daemon's massive jealousy with regards to viserys- he wants to be him he wants to have his babies he wants to be his son- so i actually don't think daemon would have been super psyched about viserys marrying and having children, because he would have felt like he was being replaced.

i wouldn't be surprised if daemon acted out when aemma first arrived and especially once she started getting pregnant, and that's part of why aemma sent him back to the vale. (in the show, there's a part of the script- can't remember if it's the original or the actual- where otto mentions that aemma's the one who arranged daemon's marriage, as opposed to alysanne in the book)

so i could totally see daemon making some of his "the sheep are prettier" comments about people from the vale (remember aemma is half arryn) early on in aemma and viserys's marriage and aemma "girlboss" arryn in return very pettily going "oh yeah? well i have just the wife for you 🥰 remember to close the door on your way out 🥰"

(and after aemma stood up to him like that, daemon's resentment would turn into a begrudging sort of respect. like, "fuck you for ruining my life but also you have bigger balls than my brother and that's kinda rad")

[stepfordgoth]

Current family drama situation is that my uncle has very recently been diagnosed with several types of cancer and word is starting to spread throughout the family about it but no one has told my mom yet (because no one speaks to her, deservedly lol, and she doesn't speak to anyone either) but we (the other women in my family, pretty much my aunt and grandma and me) (matriarchal family structure) all agree that it's the right thing to do to let my mom know what's going on, if for no other reason than peace keeping (she has thrown fits in the past about not being in the know when big things happen, even though she doesn't come around the family by choice 🤡) and so that my mom can explain the situation to my kid sister and help her navigate/cope/etc. And so I, for some fucking reason, opened my big fat stupid well-meaning mouth and volunteered to be the one to reach out to my mom (I figured it was the right thing to do to offer since I'm the only adult in the family who knows how to manage her, and the only adult she would be at least somewhat likely to answer a phone call from) and my aunt and grandma are, I think, happy that I volunteered but they're also like "just be careful, we're expecting her to have nasty remarks or say something about this being karmic payment or something like that" and okay I guess that does sound like something my mom would say/has said in the past but I really, really hesitate to think that my mom would react to anyone having a ton of cancers like that. That would be absolutely awful of her to do. But also kind of in line with her character. And anyway I'm just sitting here thinking about what an absolutely fucked up situation this is, obviously about my uncle's cancer but also just the dynamics and relationships in my family and the fact that there really aren't any men in my family (outside of my sick uncle) and all the women have various degrees of contempt for each other and very little emotional intelligence and none of them can leave things in the past and move on from a lifetime of being mutually awful to each other. And the fact that there needs to be a peacekeeping mediator between these grown ass women AT ALL, but especially the fact that it's me, a much younger woman in the bloodline who has watched their dysfunction my whole life and decided early on to not get involved in that shit ever, and to not be like them as I age, who is in that mediator role. Here we are I guess!

[robertsbarbie]

the love and respect female athletes have for one another (for the most part) is really beautiful like the way simone biles talked about rebeca andrade with almost this sense of awe, the way sha’carri richardson immediately celebrates with her teammate who came in their but also with julien alfred the person who beat her and there was just this joy and excitement on the track, the way katie ledecky’s first instinct after breaking another record was to hug and compliment the ‘rival’ from australia she was continuously pit against and the was ilona maher was so excited to trade pins with simone biles and women showing up at different events to support each other it’s just! like the whole internet and world at large wants to put them at odds with one another and ‘no medal but gold is worth anything’ and they refuse to play that game! it’s just!!!

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

what some of the undertale fandom did with grillby fucking fascinates me like my god

[vaugarde]

“oh it’s so hard to care about female characters because their writing is so misogynistic” ???? do you think that’s the character’s fault or??

[banished-away]

smth about how catti is drawn on the sea of swords cover gives me heart eyes

[critterfloozy]

WIP Wednesday - Delilah and Deirta

I told myself I was going to try to do WIP wednesdays for Critter Gen Week, but, uh. Things happened. Anyway, Critter Gen Week starts in four days! You've still got time to draw, write some meta, or write some fic!

The days are as follows:

7 July: Time/Dimension Travel 8 July: Class Swap 9 July: Cross Campaign 10 July: Mourning/Grief 11 July: Food/Cooking 12 July: Storytelling 13 July: Free Day

I'll be posting the first chapter of this fic, still untitled - wondering what if Delilah Briarwood (Archmage of Antiquity who would have had at least some knowledge of Kryn culture and practices) pursued consecution as a possible cure for Silas. The Kryn think they've got a chance of converting them and getting spies. Both groups trying to manipulate the other - what could possibly go wrong?

(imagine in the hall of the mountain king playing in the background)

785 PD.

Delilah Briarwood first arrived in Rosohna as a newly minted member of the Cerberus Assembly with little fanfare. Archmage of Antiquity was neither a role with potential trade implications like the Archmage of Industry or Diplomatic Union, nor to be watched the way the Archmages of Civil Influence, Dysology, or Domestic Protection. There was always the chance that some Luxon historical artifact might be found within Dwendalian space, but barring the unearthing of some new great fallen city in the next few short decades, Deirta had little hope.

Still, respect must be paid, if only to keep the other Western wizards in line. And thus, a grand tour for the little mage.

Deirta, as a point of fact, thought little of most wizards. She’d fought wizards, a near millennium ago, and still remembered all the ways to get around their little tricks. She recognized Da’leth as a dangerous and pretentious fool of the old sort, and could only hope that his bizarre machinations brought him down sooner rather than later. In the meantime, he was a pretentious fool with an army, and they were aiming for peace.

The newest archmage looked painfully young, wide eyes taking in the Lucid Bastion and a precision in her step that seemed artfully designed to hide any sort of nervousness. Everything looked to be exactly put into place, just so, standing as if her spine had been put into a vise.

Perhaps one day she’ll learn that the best way to show power is to appear to relinquish some of that control. Or rather, to make it seem effortless, just so. Perhaps she wouldn’t.

“Is Leylas Kryn a title, also? Or an honorary name?” Archmage Briarwood asked.

“How do you mean?”

“Forgive me for being blunt - but while I realize that I am new, and young by your standards, we do have recorded history. I made a point of studying all of them, and have found most- if not all - mention that the ruler’s name is Leylas Kryn. She is a drow in the most recent accounts, but the first encounters between our Empire and yours mention a tiefling.” She smiled. “We may be short lived, but we do jot such things down.”

Archmage Briarwood looked smug behind her polite facade, as if she had caught the Kryn out on some sort of grand lie. She had no idea that she’d just revealed her complete ignorance to the entire group. How little they had to fear from Dwendalian spies, if they did not even know the secrets of consecution?

Part of Deirta pitied her, maybe. Or maybe it was to gloat. Or maybe it was that the Umavi Mirimm was in hospice and not around to stop her. In any case, she said, plainly. “Leylas Kryn has undergone the right of consecution and has been reborn.”

“Ah, how interesting! It’s always a pleasure to learn about other people’s beliefs!” Archmage Briarwood said, though her fellow Archmage and diplomats shot her quelling looks. Perhaps she had not been properly briefed. Deirta focused more on the others, who seemed more worth her time. She’d done her part to be polite to the ignorant condescending mayfly.

In that moment, Briarwood showed no more interest in prolonging life. But she had been so young at that time, and youth always confers the illusion of immortality. Deirta shouldn’t have expected her to stay dismissive.

[imaginary-regret-608]

C: you know what

i like you and your vibe

Youre mine now.

J: does That mean like a Pet

Because i Am bag sized

C : sure

prepare to be carried around like a chihuahua

J: does that Mean that i get a Cool training montage

C: no

thats too cliche if youre working with me

We'll be doing things my way.

-----------------------------

Now presenting, Grimpula, the Secret Boss of ACT 2! These @tailblayzer590775 's work together as the (mostly-functional) duo of streams and sports. Texts and tactics! DEMONS AND DUNKS!

But really, Grimpula's whole thing as a Secret Boss will be aiming to ACT as the has-been catgirl influencer and sports-loving serpent to Kris'... whatever Kris' thing is. We hope that you like this pretty Cool cat!

And as today is also International Women's Day, why not make this reveal a little more special to better suit the occasion? Now including a drawing made and officially signed by (at least one half of) Grimpula!