#this is. an incredibly specific post sorry

[octarineblues]

i was todays years old when i learned that the song "gorzki płacz" by kult (& kwartet proforma) is a translation of nick cave's "the weeping song" and i feel very silly. this is like the fourth time they've done it. one day they won't fool me.

[inkskinned]

the thing about some men is that they want you to remember, at all times, that you are underneath them. that with one word or look or "joke", you will stay beneath them. that even "exceptions" to the rule are not true exceptions - the commonly cited statistic that one in eight men believe they could win against serena williams.

women's gymnastics is often not seen as real gymnastics. whatever the fuck non-euclidian horrors rhythmic gymnasts are capable of, it's often tamped down as being not a sport. some of the most dominant athletes in the world are women. nobody watches women's soccer. despite years of dancing and being built like a fucking brick, men always assume they're faster and stronger than i am. you wouldn't like what happens when they are incorrect. once while drunk at a guy's house i won a held-plank challenge by a solid minute. the party was over after that - he became exceedingly violent.

what i mean is that you can be perfect, and they still think you're ... lacking, somehow. i hope you understand i'm trying to express a neutral statement when i say: taylor swift was the possibly the most patriarchy-palatable, straight-down-the-line woman we could churn out. she is white, conventionally attractive, usually pretty mild in personality. say what you will about her (and you should, she's a billionaire, she can handle it), but a few things seem to be true about her: 1. she can write a damn catchy song, and 2. the eras tour truly was a massive commercial success and was also genuinely an impressive feat of human athleticism and performance.

i don't know if she deserves the title of "woman of the year," i'm not debating that in this post. what i am saying is that she was named Woman of The Year, and then an untalented man got onstage at the golden globes and made fun of her for attending her boyfriend's football games. what i am saying is that this woman altered local economies - and her dating life is still being made into a "harmless" punchline. the camera panned, greedy, over to her downing a full glass of champagne. congratulations taylor! you are woman of the year! but you are a woman. even her.

fuck, man. write better material.

a guy gets onstage at a college graduation and despite the fact like half the crowd is made up of women, he spends a significant proportion of it warning these people - who spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education - that they were lied to. that the "real" meaning of femininity is motherhood. that they shouldn't rest on the laurels of that education-they-paid-for but instead throw it away to kneel at a man's heel. imagine that. sweating in your godawful polyester gown (that you also had to pay for!), fresh out of 4 years of pushing yourself ever-harder: and some guy you've never met - who knows nothing about you - he reminds you this "win" is a pyrrhic one at best. you really shouldn't consider yourself that extraordinary. you're still a woman, even after years of study.

god forbid you are not a pretty woman, but if you are pretty, you must be dumb. god forbid you are not ablebodied or white or cis or straight or good at swallowing. you must be beneath a man, or else they are not a man. the equation for masculinity seems to just be: that which is not a woman or womanly (god forbid). anything "feminine" is thereby anathema. to engage in "feminine" things such as therapy, getting a hug from a friend, or crying - it is giving up ones manhood. therefore women need to be put in their place to ensure that masculinity is protected.

this is something i have struggled to explain to terfs - they are not doing the work of feminism, but rather the patriarchy. by asserting that women and men must be (on some secret level) oppositional and in conflict, they also assume that being a woman is akin to being another species. but bigotry does not stem from observational truths or clarity - that is what makes it bigotry. there was nothing in my childhood that made me fundamentally different from my brother. we are treated differently nonetheless. to assert there is some biological drive that enforces my gender role is to assert that women have a gendered role. men do not see women as equal to them not because of biological reality - but instead because the core tenant of the patriarchy is that women aren't full, realized people.

we are told from a very young age to excuse misbehavior as a single man's choice - not all men. it is not all men, just that one guy. all women are gold-digging bitches who belong in the kitchen - but if a man is mean, bigoted, or violent to you, it's just that particular guy, and that means nothing about men-as-a-whole. it is only one guy who got mad when you gently rejected him. it is only one guy who warns her this trophy is heavy, are you sure you can hold it? it is only one guy who smashes her face into the cake. it is only one guy talking into a mic about hating our bodily autonomy.

i have just found that they often wait until the moment we actually seem to be upstaging them. you sit in a meeting where you're presenting your own findings and he says get me a coffee? or you run to the end of the marathon and are about to finish first and he pushes your kids out in front of you. you win the chess game and they make some comment akin to well, you're ugly away. we can be the billionaire and get the dream life and finally fucking do it and yet! still! they have this strange, visceral urge to say well actually, if you think you're so great -

it's not one just one guy. it's one in eight.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

so like do you think they made the plastic wheelchair ALONGSIDE the plastic prison as a Just In Case situation, only after they realized charles was going to be a frequent visitor, or both as in because they knew charles was going to be the only person visiting him during planning they decided to make him a chair ahead of time

[ai-the-broccoli]

honestly it's funny how Light is in-universe conventionally attractive in a way that loops back to being an acquired taste in fandom (in comparison to L, that is)

[boy-blunder]

Extremely Specific Self Indulgent Modern AU Jetko

We'll always have Ba Sing Se

[eddie-rifff]

i need genesis fans to open their hearts to ant phillips and his solo work. take my hand. listen to wise after the event. you like open tuning, dont you boy? fingerpicking? something to nod your head along to pensively?

[soup-mother]

sometimes people obsessed with vampires just need to shut up and get more interesting. wow everyone there's some real counterculture faggot shit going on here: American horror movies

should we call Gerard way and tell him he's so transmasc vibes to you? should we post about how #punk it is to be transmisogynistic?

[tea-earl-grey]

lower decks is the best star trek show. i'm not taking constructive criticism at this time

[antisocialxconstruct]

unsure why or how but i am now receiving all of the comment notifications from a post you made a year ago

the curse transfers to another bloodline

[sp1resong]

the toy soldier from the mechanisms (no burning hate, no bitter fear, no heart to break [so shed no tear]) 🤝 the hollow knight from hollow knight (no mind to think, no will to break, no voice to cry suffering). Is that anything

[kalikoke]

I-I thought this was a comedy?!

But in all seriousness, the "Mom" episode of Abbott Elementary does an excellent job at capturing a particular dynamic between a mother and a daughter that is toxic to its very core.

It's been hinted at in the past that Janine's mother Vanetta wasn't exactly the best parent, so to see her materialize on screen as this kind of...person was a kind of revelation. Because now we've encountered the real Vanetta and seen her for the type of mother she's been to Janine all these years. The one looking to her daughter to parent her instead of the other way around.

I mean, we all know this but Janine's definitely a people pleaser, always trying to fix things even if it comes at the cost of her own wellbeing. So it makes sense now seeing her interact with her mother why she ended up being the way she is. Maybe I'm making a leap here, but the "love" her mom has seems conditional at best? It's just not a healthy relationship at all regardless.

And Barbara immediately recognizing what kind of mother Vanetta is to Janine and stepping in so quickly even if she knows she might be overstepping...that to me is just *chef's kiss*.

Melissa said something about not getting involved in another family's business unless it's on Yelp and it's to go against a competing family or something.

But see, Janine is family. She's a part of Barbara's work family, at least. And as much as she tries to keep her own boundaries with Janine (which imo is healthy to do), sometimes you have to stick up for your family.

And then after all that giving Janine tips about her upcoming trip, making sure not to have too much cash, but also have it, etc. That's saying "I love you" without saying it explicitly. It's like a close friend telling you to "text me when you get home" after a fun outing, or your younger brother getting you donuts while you were at the podiatrist for your sprained ankle and then immediately making fun of your cast when he picks you up from said podiatrist...

That's the kind of love Abbott Elementary's characters share with each other. They don't say it outloud because well, 1. that's probably an HR violation somewhere and 2. they don't need to.

But I digress.

It was so heartening to see Barbara step in to stand up for Janine, but even more so seeing Janine stand up for herself and set these boundaries with her mother. S1 Janine wouldn't have done this, I don't think, and I love this growth we're seeing for her.

(I have a theory Barbara was a lot like Janine earlier in her career as a teacher and Melissa acted as a kind of balance for her the way Gregory is to Janine and--ok ok I'll stop lmao).

Also, as someone equally as terrible at small talk if not entirely incapable, I truly appreciate seeing Gregory struggle with that. #representation

ALSO s/o to Ross Dress for Less, which incidentally is also my actual mother's favorite store, ever

[the-kipsabian]

hey can you do me a favor, can you like this post if you see it on the dash?

[autistic-katara]

u ever see a mildly iffy post and look at the comments and just think “wow, everyone here is so fucking unpleasant in their own special way”

[youngestdaughtersyndrome]

Really glad to see so many of my mutuals hating on the word girlhood. Welcome ..... ive been here the whole time

[themidnightcircusshow]

Every new thing I learn about James Somerton's process just drives home how he almost (but really doesn't) knows what he's doing. Yes, of course you use the sources you read as a jumping off point. Of course you copy and paste the important sections into your outline document so you can reread them. That's why you put them in quotation marks.

[introspectivememories]

How do Bernard and Tim meet for the secret married fic? 

the answer is kinda boring but the same way they do in canon.

the shooting still happens and i'm still deciding on whether he falls into the cult. but in this verse, henry aquista lives albeit with an incredibly down-sized territory and he offers bear a place in the gang bc he wants to take care of someone darls loved and this is the only way he knows how. everything happens like canon and bear is still lost and adrift after the shooting and you know what the military does to children who are lost and adrift. bear joins the military a mere two weeks before tim texts him for the first time in 5 years.

i just couldn't come up with another meeting for them. like what else is there to say about them? we were friends and now we're not. we went through something traumatic and now we're not close anymore. i don't know you anymore. it feels like i loved you more than you loved me. i had all and then most of you, some and now none of you, oh take me back to the night we met.

thanks for the ask! <33333