#to some tasteless women who don't know what music us

[thenightling]

The reality of "Cancel culture" is jus an annoying casual bullying to make people stop talking about various subjects

Last night I posted something that amused me about Spirit Halloween. It was about spirit Halloween now selling adult sized reproduction Ben Cooper Halloween costumes (Popular but very cheap kids Halloween costumes from the 1930s to the early 1990s).

This resulted in someone hijacking my Tumblr post about to give a "Friendly reminder" that we shouldn't buy anything from Spirit Halloween because Spirit Halloween is owned by Spencer's Gifts and "in 2016 Spencer's gifts sold 'Grab America by the p-ssy' shirts and they have yet to apologize!"

I don't care. Yes, it's disgusting that Trump said he could grab a woman by her p-ssy and get away with it. Yes, the shirt was in poor taste but I'm not avoiding a store because it's owned by the same people who own another store that sold a tasteless shirt EIGHT years ago!

I am tired of being told what I should or shouldn't interact with.

I run a Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Facebook group and I was called a TERF apologist and even Transphobe all because I won't ban the mention of J. K. Rowling. She is literally mentioned in episode 11 of The Sandman Netflix series. And Neil Giaman's four part story The Books of Magic is often mistaken as a Harry Potter rip-off even though it was published over seven-years before the first Harry Potter book was published.

Even though my group's very first rule is "No bigotry" I was accused of leaving transphobic content on the group. Someone in "The Trailer Park Pagans are at it Again" group even kept a bunch of posts from transphobes from within my Sandman group from before I could ban them (Most of those troll posts were less than eleven minutes old when screen grabbed) to make it look like I allowed that crap.

When Hocus Pocus 2 was released to Disney+ someone in my group decided to announce that Bette Midler was a transphobe and she "No longer felt safe in the group" if I talked about Hocus Pocus. Like simply mentioning a fictional character Bette Midler played will make her manifest in their bedroom.

I am NOT justifying or "apologizisting" anything Bette Midler has said. Liking those films is not based on the personal lives of the women involved.

I posted an ASMR video by "Jim's ASMR" based on The Sandman and someone felt the need to tell me how "Problematic" he is because he cheated on his wife in real life with other ASMR artists.

I posted a Nostalgia Critic video and get a lecture about how problematic Channel Awesome is (Yes, I know. I know. I saw the manifesto.)

I really like Danny Elfman. Recently there were some awful accusations tied to him from decades ago that I will not defend but thankfully it appears there was no real evidence anyway. But apparently I'm not supposed to listen to my old recordings anymore, even though he's not getting any new money for them. Annoyingly some people have even used his Oingo Boingo song "Little Girls" as "Proof" that he's a sexual predator even though the song was meant to be a call out to shame people in Hollywood who take advantage of underage girls. You're not supposed to like the main character of the song, and he's even caught at the end of the music video version.

I was told Netflix's Castlevania is problematic and I should avoid it because of some misbehavior of the show's writer. I LIKE Castlevania!

I've been told to avoid Tim Burton because he's "racist" even though I've seen him make a conscious effort to be a lot more diverse in his casting.

On Facebook someone tried to scold me for being Wiccan. They lectured me because Wiccans borrow from other religions and there for "Culturally appropriate." Well, name any religion that doesn't do that. I replied with more or less that challenge and got "If you acknowledge the problematic elements of Wiccan why don't you avoid it?"

Because I'm a f--king adult and I don't avoid all things that are "Problematic." All religions borrow from other religions. There's no pure and untainted form of Paganism. It's Neo Paganism for a reason. And most of it was reinvented or cobbled together in the nineteenth century, just slightly older than modern Wicca pieced together from ancient folk beliefs.

Spirit Halloween Spencer's Gifts J. K. Rowling Harry Potter Bette Midler Hocus Pocus Nostalgia Critic Jim's ASMR videos Danny Elfman Castlevania Tim Burton Wicca (My own religion!)

I've reached a point where I'm sick of being told what I should avoid even discussing because it's "Problematic" or offensive. Note: I am NOT justifying sexual abuse or J. K. Rowling's anti-Trans views.

I understand there's a valid reason to avoid some of these things if you have strong convictions about them and that's up to you but I do not appreciate my posts being hijacked to be given a "Friendly reminder" why you shouldn't shop at Spirit Halloween.

"Friendly reminder" YOU don't get to dictate what I talk about or where I shop, or what music I listen to. If it's problematic that's on me. It's not your business. If I want to listen to an ASMR by a man-whore who doesn't know who to be faithful so what? I'm not sleeping with him, I'm listening to his semi-hypnotic insomnia aid videos.

[faelapis]

some of you guys might assume this is a very "me" property. it deals with a lot of moral ambiguity and misunderstood women, classics here at the faelapis hot take industrial complex.

...eh. i dunno. something about wicked's always rubbed me the wrong way, intellectually.

i like it a lot emotionally. the situationship between glinda and elphaba has always been the true heart of wicked.

i love their characterization - elphaba as self-righteous for pretty good reason, but also condescending and haughty as a defense mechanism. glinda portraying herself as the perfect good witch, but without ever sharing her true feelings because she values popularity over sincerity. i love that their friendship is a tragedy. "for good" always gets me.

that's all well and good. i think my issue with wicked, on a more intellectual level, is that it strikes me as quite... preachy. not to mention conspiratorial.

like. okay. you've taken a bunch of characters and put your own spin on them, the core twist being that the villain was misunderstood.

that's not a bad concept inherently. i think people acting like that's always bad because of a few bad disney live action properties are missing the forest for the trees. there are thoughtful, interesting ways to subvert a narrative. margaret hamilton, who played the original wicked witch, even sympathized with her on some level, spending the whole movie not getting what she wants.

anyway. wicked. the musical really, really wants you to know how clever it is, to the point where its almost cringey. the wizard having a whole song about how uncomfortable people are with moral ambiguities is just... way too on the nose. if you want to be "nuanced," i would appreciate some subtlety about the nuance.

if it went full dark comedy, that would be one thing. but its just stuck in this awkward place between seriousness and satire, and the interplay between the drama and saying obvious shit like "is one a crusader or ruthless invader? / its all in which label is able to persist!" is so, so over-the-top and bordering on tasteless.

the way it frames the masses as big, dumb idiots also is not my favorite. you can do that; i think beauty & the beast actually does that in a more intelligent way. there, the tone is consistent and its not SO preachy about it, even if its blunt.

wicked is very smug. just... unbearably fucking smug about everything. it really thinks you're a dumb baby normie if you believed anything that happened in the original wizard of oz, and it treats every character who believes that story as "the idiot masses."

it's ultimately a social justice story about the oppression of the talking animals, so i get why the author is frustrated with "the masses." propaganda against those who disrupt the status quo is certainly true for our time. we all know that. many of us have personally experienced it, especially lately.

but it doesn't really present a good reason why. like. the things that happen in wicked are so unlikely to have been happening in the background of the wizard of oz that it might as well be fully original. the only character who remains more or less consistent across both properties is the wizard, as a powerless charlatan.

take the thing about how "water will melt her." that's treated, in wicked, like obvious nonsense only an idiot would take at face value. a clear indication that people will believe anything bad about someone labelled an enemy.

but... why? this is a world with actual magic. there is no reason "pure water can melt the wicked" would be any more outlandish than talking animals or witches on broomsticks.

also... it's a fairytale? people don't watch fairytales with the false belief that real life is equally simple.

so wicked ends up in the awkward position of saying you're dumb for taking anything at face value... except what you're told in wicked. while the original wizard of oz is treated like a simple story for babies, what the narrative in wicked tells you goes unquestioned. there is no point wherein this new narrative is ever scrutinized, despite being equally outlandish at many points. you're just supposed to assume this new framing is the "correct" one. "now you know the real story."

idk. there's something in there about female friendship and how powerful women are treated with more suspicion, but that's not really a problem in the wizard of oz. there are "good" powerful women in that movie. i also believe in the books, which i have not read, all the major power players are women? glinda is certainly powerful in the movie.

so to strengthen its narrative, wicked becomes based on this massive, somewhat ridiculous conspiracy against the witch rather than any of the more subtle ways double standards against women work in the real world.

but does it ultimately "work?" kiiiiind of. at least emotionally. like i said, i like the characters and relationships. i like that elphaba isn't a perfect protagonist - she's still haughty, judgmental and defensive. she questions herself and whether she's really even doing anything for good. she still caused a lot of the trouble attributed to her, even if she was disrupting a bad status quo/occasionally doing an oopsie because she couldn't control her magic.

glinda is just a great fucking character overall. that's the one character who is just Superior to her wizard of oz counterpart. because she's everything that glinda was, but more. she's superficial yet compassionate. she's ditzy and intelligent. she's selfish yet deeply troubled by her own selfishness.

what i like about it, more than anything, is that this relationship is a bittersweet tragedy. it's a doomed yuri friendship between powerful women, making opposing choices.

more than anything, of course, because of glinda's choice. i really, really hope they keep that in the movie. i hope they don't reunite. i hope glinda never finds out elphaba survived.

that kind of cruel consequence for one self-serving choice haunting glinda's entire life is very compelling. it's harsh, but it really, really works. it is the price paid for complacency.

this poster is great, btw. specifically because their hands don't meet. that's what the musical is - when elphaba reaches out, glinda wants to reach back... but ultimately, doesn't take her hand. they can't be together. glinda values her image in society too much. and that choice is made forever.

i have so many thoughts on wicked the musical.

[leeminholinoing]

x

[1-800-miss-ur-guts]

Ok so like. Honestly? I think the tramp stamps are getting way too much hate for what they deserve. I'm kind of conflicted about this because on the one hand, I'm not the hugest fan of their music. Kinda neutral on it. Idk punk/pop punk isn't really my jam (i of course do respect people's right to like it! u do u!). And there is undeniably some problematic stuff surrounding the band. The famous lyric in id rather die which has been repeated over and over can be interpreted as tasteless considering they're an all white band. Or wearing dollskill which is kind of a bougie brand and is problematic itself. And of course marisa (allegedly, not sure of the validity of the screenshots) said the n word like years and years ago. While she did apologize in the text post they released like an hour or two ago, i think she could address it on her own in a better way so that it's not caught up in the whole long ass thing. However. So much of the hate they've been getting is just so weird and aggressive. Like just screaming "plant plant plant" over and over again when ppl who personally know the band members and the members themselves have said "we had industry backing yeah, some of us already worked at a label, but we weren't created by a label and we did actually come up with this idea on our own." Just literally a lie. And there's definitely a ton of misogyny and queer erasure - saying that marisa can't call herself gay when she's not lesbian (???) which is super fucking biphobic, and also basically throwing so much shade and invalidation on bi/pan/queer women and saying they shouldn't be allowed to have complicated feelings towards or even some hatred of specifically cishet men because they're still attracted to them. And there's so much worse music out there, there's literally men singing about taking advantage of women and no one gives a shit. Ugh it's so infuriating! I don't get why ppl can't just. Not like certain music. Or a song. Or a band. It's literally not that hard, ppl are allowed to have opinions and not have to ruthlessly slander someone they don't like. I'm not the hugest fan of their stuff but I won't harass them and spread lies about them and claim that a queer member is lying about being lgbtq or send death threats to them. The band should be allowed to make music and explore their feelings about relationships and men and sex and everything even if you don't like their sound or style or think they're cringey. Let them be them! And let their fans be fans! I'm interested in seeing where they take this and if they keep making music. I hope they do because they have important things to say and their music definitely has the potential to make people happy and help them (and it already is!)

Sorry for the long post btw skskfhhdjdjfh I just have a lot of thoughts on this 😭

It's ok I'm fine if people don't like the band and I've seen people talk about their gripes w the band in a mature measured way but the people calling the members gendered slurs and telling them and fans to kill themselves that's over board. Also the gore and porn spam is too fuckin much.