#uppity Women series

[coochiequeens]

No one tell these people that Viking men combed their hair and ironed their clothes and Viking women also joined their battles. Or else we will be seeing articles like “Which Vikings character was TQ+ in real life?”

https://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/world/article275917576.html

Ok I hate to be one of those people who thinks they know better that people trained in the field but 🤦🏼‍♀️. Have these people every read Vicky Leon’s Uppity Women series? In her Uppity Women of Medieval Times she explains how after the plague a good number of blacksmiths were women. It wasn’t because they were non-binary or TQ+. It was because they were their brothers died and the fathers needed someone to help out with the family business since most professions were passed down within families.

Did they look at the remains of the men with hair decorations versus the remains of men without extras? My amateur guess would be that the men with hair decoration would show signs of being better feed throughout their lives. And that the hair decoration on men is a sign of higher social statues, which would bring more food, not gender identity. As for the woman buried with blades , a boar tusk and a fishing hook is it possible the blades were simple tools for ordinary household chores? Maybe the tusk is also a status symbol? Or that she didn’t got out and hunt it but killed one in self defense or in defense of her home and crops? That the fish hook is because she would supplement the family diet with fresh protein by visiting a local stream or pond? Not because she was some transmasc sportswoman but because back then everyone was involved in food production.

[notchainedtotrauma]

I've written a public essay in which I'm working out the way Black women and Black girls perform their sexuality in public landscapes. This essay references Megan Thee Stallion and her orchestrated abuse, Delainey Hayles as Claudia Du Lac in the TV series Interview with the Vampire and the Black woman as jezebel, amongst other points. Since this essay is public, to profit from it, I would appreciate anybody this essay deeply exalted to tip. Pp: ccd4t@virginia.edu

The moving gifs above best visually sum up the essay. Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite:

To be overdetermined by their flesh is a narrative running through Black women and Black girls. The gaze is othering, glassy and blotting. Many a day Black girlhood and womanhood appears a ghostly dot of excessive meat, a haunting blotted carcass. It strains towards the biblical Jezebel, the queen mother whose cruel sinfulness had her cadaver crushed up by wild dogs, as was prophesied by Elijah. Insofar as biblical Jezebel goes, she is murderous, sly and luxurious.

and

But Megan Thee Stallion floats through the world of anime and video games, with cosplay, references, and player technology soaking through her aural and visual performances. The rapper manages to insert within the playful and fantastic universe of the gamer a sexuality that is at once theatrical, hilarious, and self-referencing. Megan Thee Stallion isn't Jezebel, but Menat. What's more exquisite than two bad bitches ?

and

On stage, she becomes sexless and almost genderless, the little girl she is registering more as a an impossible child than as a gendered character; she is funny at the expense of herself. Lulu is scripted within the grotesque of the minstrel show; a high uppity Black girl that must be subdued with the violence of the hammer and the nail. She doesn't exude the menacing sexuality of the Black woman, as she's punished before growing into it. Claudia Du Lac's subsequent speech brings forth the misuse of the signifiers that burrow her flesh, and the constant vertigo to which she is therefore exposed as she must celebrate her pain.

[iguessitsjustme]

Love Sea Ep 1 Thoughts

Okay. I know I said my next liveblog would be She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat because it won my poll BUT I decided I’m gonna be liveblogging Love Sea as it airs each week. And I will be liveblogging She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat later today. Or at least starting the liveblog. But liveblogging Love is the only way I think I make it through this series. I got my snacks I my got a diet coke. Pray for me watching a MAME show. Keep in mind that I am not a fan of MAME generally (and I have now finished this episode and this show is no exception. Don't get mad at me if you click the read more and don't like what I say). Under the cut as per usual:

I do like water so the water effect and sheer amount of water at the very beginning makes me extremely happy. I want more water forever.

FISH!!!!

“Dive and go get it” is not an appropriate response to dropping a pen in the water. Accept your loss.

DON’T PUSH PEOPLE OFF OF BOATS. DO NOT PUSH PEOPLE OFF OF BOATS. I DO NOT CARE. DO NOT PUSH PEOPLE OFF OF BOATS. HE IS NOT WEARING A LIFE JACKET. HE IS NOT PREPARED TO BE IN THAT WATER AT ALL. DO NOT PUSH PEOPLE OFF OF BOATS.

A nice, tranquil place being called heaven on earth makes sense. Our protagonist showing up and immediately calling it hell on earth because ???? does not make sense. Maybe see more than two feet of it before declaring it to be hell?

Calling someone that speaks a different dialect an idiot when you are on their island…bold. Dumb. And bold.

Do not steal his phone. You’re just an asshole. You’re both assholes. But you pushed a man off of a boat so I hate you more. All the other guy has done is been uppity and snobbish. He hasn’t actively endangered anyone’s life for a laugh.

And now purposefully speaking a dialect he doesn’t understand. Yes, he was an ass about it, but you knew he didn’t understand and did it anyway. And now he has explicitly said he doesn’t understand and you’re rubbing it in his face. You can speak a dialect he knows and understands and you both know you can and yet…

Oh I got it. He behaves like a teenager. But like the kind of teenager that needs a good life resorting. He’s a bully but no one really calls him out for it because he disguises it behind class clown behavior. He needs a swift kick in the pants considering he’s an adult that’s behaving this way.

I dislike how these shows always portray women as incapable of talking about the hotness of these guys. It’s not just BL. Other dramas are just as guilty if not more so. But c’mon. Having women characters does not excuse your portrayal of the other women in the story as only caring about some random dude’s hotness. Mut is hot? Not my taste but I can see why people consider him hot. But I guarantee most women on vacation, while they talk about hot guys, are also doing other things and talking about other things. Like the books they are reading on the beach. And how hot they themselves are. And the next activity they’re doing. They aren’t laser focusing on Mut. Except that the show says they are. Because they have no identities outside of a weak plot device to convince the audience of how hot Mut is. If he was really that hot, this tactic would not be needed. It would be conveyed in the rest of the show.

See how differently it’s framed for the men? Women are the ones interest in Mut, but when it’s for the men, it’s that Mut is open to them. The attraction is his. This is definitely setting the tone for the relationship that’s being built. Cause our other lowkey asshole (I’ll learn his name eventually maybe) is a man. He is not interested in Mut. But he is apparently Mut’s type so Mut will be attracted to him. It’s a different way of taking away agency but here it is on a character level and not removing agency from an entire gender.

They better be delivering this to me I have a feeling I’m gonna need it.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA get em

This montage of people interacting with Mut trying to tell us what a good person and community member he is feels like such lazy writing. Incredibly lazy writing. Like makes me angry because despite her faults, I know MAME is capable of better than…that.

DID HE JUST LEFT HIMSELF INTO THE ROOM BECAUSE HE HAS A KEY. ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK NOT.

Romance *gags* aside, this is incredibly poor customer service. He didn’t knock. He didn’t announce he was coming in. I’m hoping it’s not early in the morning and that our lowkey asshole is just sleeping in. He’s cleaning the room and going through not-his-things. HE TOOK PICTURES. Someone call the police. Or call the me. I’ll go kick his ass.

Also also also the fact that he had that key that he was supposed to give to lowkey asshole means that HE SHOULD NOT HAVE USED IT TO ENTER THE ROOM. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD IT.

Okay I need a break. This scene has gone on entirely too long with just the two of them standing on talking. There needs to be some movement on the screen and the tiny amount of body movement is not cutting it. Lowkey asshole should be walking away during this conversation. That would be in character and provide the necessary movement. But as it is…this whole scene feels stale and stagnant. So I’m gonna go make some food. Maybe I’ll be less pissy about this whole scene when I come back.

Okay. I am back but I am not less pissy. Tell me, how did I manage to mess up pasta? Truly is a skill I must say. And I’m not that bad of a cook. I swear but…I digress. Let’s just get back into it *grumbles*

That was the weakest punch I’ve ever seen. And I have weak little noodle arms.

Even the GL part of this is toxic. Miss secretary ma’am. I have an idea. Send her all of the shit on your plate. Email her all of the shit you have to do. In the email tell her what hours you are actually available and if she cannot work with that, then that’s unfortunate but that is her only option.

You don’t call the owner’s secretary to fix a light bulb. You call maintenance. Girl if you don’t grow a spine and tell her no….

I had to mute this damn show because the music is trying to convince me this is romantic and I am not a fool. I have eyes. Also stop using flashbacks of things that happened earlier this episode. This is the first episode. We know what Mut is thinking about when staring at his hand. We were there for that scene five minutes ago.

If someone started reading what I was writing over my shoulder without being explicitly invited to, I would pour hot sauce in their eyes.

This hug makes me mad. I’ll leave it at that.

Okay. It’s time for something I can’t believe I’ve never done before! Rae’s hatred scale. Where I rank the characters on how much I hate them:

Vi - 2/10. Honestly give this girl a raise. She isn’t paid enough to deal with this. I do need her to get a backbone though. C’mon my girl you can do it. You can learn to stand up for yourself. I believe in you.

Rak - 5/10. Look I learned his name! I think. He’s lowkey an asshole but honestly he just wants to be left alone but was sent on this trip that he didn’t ask for and is now being harassed by this guy that he doesn’t like because his “friend” paid for it.

Mook - 10/10. Girl what’s wrong with you? I hope someone slaps you in your face. Learn how to treat people.

Mut - 1000000000/10. DO NOT PUSH PEOPLE OFF OF BOATS.

[jechristine]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13697045/Zendaya-braless-paris-stylish-olympics.html

No need to click the article, think you can get the gist from the link itself. Since you know more about British media also from following Meghan and Harry, Is this a British tabloid specialty? The US is supposedly so puritanical but I don't remember any media here writing stories like these about Z whereas for the DM this is just one in a series of. It's just nipples, everyone has them 🤷‍♀️ can't have too many articles being nice about her, periodically they have to put one of these out. Is this how they generally traet women and women of color or is it part of a larger tactic depending on the level of cooperation?

This is the British tabloid sweet spot—slut shaming a WOC and implying that an American WOC is tacky (with a strong dose of uppity) in her supposedly ostentatious display of wealth. It’s a way to foster resentment and disdain simultaneously among its mostly conservative, white readership.

They’re so predictable🤮

[air3d3lalm3na]

feel like reading these new books aloud to someone over voice on discord. like being read to?

i find it soothing and relaxing - maybe someone else does too. reblog PM or whatever if you feel like that being you.

I was always told I had “a good voice for radio” and people enjoyed listening to me reading. i can do accents and comical voices and i treat it like an acting exercise.

Books are:

👩🏼‍🎤👩🏾‍🔬👸🏻 the Uppity Women of (time period) series, done by Wild Women Association. interesting books with a page or two each on cool af, fascinating women in history. told w some levity.

🧀🍷🌄 A book about someone’s travels in italy figuring out what gives the folks in some places more longevity and just cool stuff about their lifestyle

🐒🐣🐘🐇 A book about animals making unlikely cross-species friendships

✈️💌 a memoir about an Aussie girl who fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to France. Described as basically something sweet for true romantics.

🔛🔝🔜✨ a motivating book about how people from hard and street smart lives can consciously use that as an asset and build success for themselves and basically advice on how

…

I have a BUNCH of other books i accrued too from the other library giveaways. while she was here. but these are just from today.

[smarkbomb]

Wrestling Journalist Heroically Calls Out WWE Personality for Being a "Rape Baby"

One of WWE's most popular interviewers and hosts whose birth was a product of a sexual assault has finally been taken down a peg by a wrestling journalist who was sick and tired of her bragging.

It goes without saying that sexual assault victims and the children produced by some of those incidents get nothing but special treatment. WWE's Kayla Braxton is one of those children. Her mother was assaulted by an anonymous man who ended up fathering her. And she won't stop talking about it. Boring!

Thankfully, Ringside News stepped in and put Kayla in her place via a series of posts on X. As we all know, X is the platform of choice for heroes like this who work tirelessly to make sure women and minorities do not feel valued in the least by society.

You can see Ringside's powerful, coherent, well thought out posts below. This person definitely isn't human garbage and a complete waste of oxygen. Don't let the almost criminal level of basic grammar issues fool you. This person knows what they're talking about.

There's no news yet on who Ringside News will be attacking calling out next between sessions of binge eating lead paint chips. One can only hope they'll be waiting outside of WrestleMania to beat up some of those uppity Children's Wish Foundation kids, cancer or not.

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

August 15, 2023

JESUS TOO WOKE FOR THE RIGHT?

Jesus was a Capricorn and ate organic food — that much we know. But was he woke? Some conservative “Christians” think so and say His teachings are too “weak” and “liberal,” explained Russell Moore, former top official for the Southern Baptist Convention. “Turn the other cheek,” is too woke for the Christian right. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis." Amen. The family values folks have been preaching something besides brotherly love for a while now. Turn the other cheek? Maybe if they drop their pants first. “Evangelical” is a scary term for heathens, like Wilson and the band. It comes from the Greek “euangelion,” meaning “good news.” In times past “evangelical” referred to people and churches committed to the message that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity. For some on the right it means something like, “Jesus Christ is the savior of MAGAtes,” others need not apply. Some 81 percent of white evangelical Protestant voters went for Trump in 2020, according to Gallup exit polls. After all, who is more Christlike than Donald Trump. “If you come after me, I'm coming after you.” Well, not exactly what Jesus of Nazareth would say. But then again, He keeps spouting those woke talking points: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The dude is totally woke. “Love your neighbor?” Ha.

“TREETOP BARBIE” NO TARZAN

Nalini Nadkarni, professor emerita of biology at the University of Utah, was the impetus for a Barbie, known as Treetop Barbie. Nadkarni studies the canopies of forests and spent much of her career in the tops of tall trees where little-known ecosystems thrive. No Wilson, she doesn't swing on vines and call out “ungowa” to the elephants. Two decades ago the biologist put the idea to toy-maker Mattel to create a Barbie that climbed trees for scientific research, she told The Salt Lake Tribune. “I simply wanted to show little girls that being curious about and exploring forest canopies with a crossbow, ropes, helmet and instructional booklet about canopy plants is a possibility.” If Barbie can be an astronaut, a musician or a doctor, why not. But it was a no-go until 2019 when Mattel introduced it's Explorer Series with Barbies of various scientific professions. All told there are some 176 different Barbies with nine body types, 35 skin tones and 94 hairstyles. She does get around. And now Barbie is the star of a blockbuster movie that has over $1billion in ticket sales worldwide. They even love Barbie in China, but the movie has been banned in Lebanon, Kuwait and Vietnam because it “encourages unacceptable behavior and distorts society’s values.” They know trouble when they see it.

WOMEN'S SOCCER DESTROYING AMERICA

Unless you've been living in Iowa where Republican presidential candidates are eating corndogs and trying to be Mini-Trump, you know the Women's U.S. Soccer Team lost to Sweden in the World Cup. True patriots pounced — they knew too well why the U.S. lost: Because the team is a bunch of entitled woke communist losers. They hate this country and are led by the purple-haired Megan Rapinoe, an LGBTQ activist, who four years ago after winning the World Cup said, “I'm not going to the f---ing White House,” when President Trump so graciously invited them.“I'm thrilled they lost. Good. I'm glad you went down,” said conservative commentator Megyn Kelly. In 2016, the then-world champion U.S. Women's team began demanding equal pay. In 2022, they grabbed worldwide headlines when they got it! And if that wasn't uppity enough, they stood in silence during the National Anthem at the World Cup. Trump just couldn't help himself, writing on social media: “Woke equals failure... The U.S. is going to hell.” The internet echoed, “woke pieces of trash,” over and over again. Mike Freedman of USA Today summed it up perfectly: “We have not seen this kind of hatred since Colin Kaepernick took a knee.” It's so fulfilling to have someone to hate. It just brightens up the whole day.

Post script — That's a wrap for another strange week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of AI (artificial intelligence) so you don't have to. AI, it seems, is everywhere. There's even a new app where folks can text back and forth to Jesus. We wouldn't lie about a thing like that. Maybe Florida's governor will give it a try after reading this headline: “Should DeSantis do mushrooms to be a cooler candidate.” The rapper known as Drake opened his L.A. concert with this: “Don't throw bras, my five-year-old son is here.” Throwing bras at Drake has become a thing ever since... well ever since women started throwing bras at him. It could be worse. Saying the political right is up in arms is like saying the sun also rises. Markers honoring Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller, have been removed from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Yes, those damn woke commies have cancelled a horse. What's next? Donald Trump's first wife Ivana is buried at his Bedford, N.J. golf course. Sad. But recently sharp-eyed players noticed that tall grass has grown around her gravestone obscuring it. We have no idea what that means. Last but not least, Republican state legislators, who have been clamping down on abortion rights, think women in the GOP never get abortions. Clearly they haven't seen “Barbie.”

Well Wilson, the Christian right is at it again. But now it seems they're turning on Jesus for being woke and empathetic. It's a troubled world and Jesus probably had a good idea that people were always going to screw up. “Forgive others and you will be forgiven.” So Wilson, tell the guys in the band to put down the bong and take us out with some love and understanding:

Jesus was a Capricorn He ate organic food He believed in love and peace And never wore no shoes Long hair, beard and sandals And a funky bunch of friends Reckon we'd just nail him up If he came down again 'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on Prove they can be better than at any time they choose Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me Eggheads fussin' rednecks cussin' Hippies for their hair Others laugh at straights who laugh at Freaks who laugh at squares Some folks hate the Whites Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan Most of us hate anything that We don't understand

(Jesus Was a Capricorn — Kris Kristofferson)

[brookston]

Holidays 3.8

Holidays

Be Nasty Day

The Bikini Bottom Free (Crabcakes) Day (SpongeBob Squarepants)

Brčko District Establishment Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Colorism Awareness Day

Donkey Appreciation Day

Exceed Medical Microneedling Day

False Case Day

Farmer's Day

Fill Out Staplers Day

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day

International Women's Day (a.k.a. ... 

Day For Women's Rights and International Peace (UN)

Embrace Equality Day (2023 Theme)

Girls Write Now Day

Journée Internationale des Femmes (France)

Nari Dibas (Nepal)

Uppity Women Day

Xalaqaro Xotin-Qizlar Kuni (Uzbekistan)

Yellow Mimosa Day (Italy)

Jedi Day

Mother’s Day (Albania, Eastern Europe, Russia, Soviet Bloc)

National August Day

National Biobased Products Day

National Breast Implant Awareness Day

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Oregon Day

National Proofreading Day

National Retro Video Game Day

Order of Charity Day

Organize Your Home Office Day [2nd Tuesday]

Revolution Day (Syria)

Stab e-Barat (Night of Records; Bangladesh)

Shuttlecock Day (Leicester, Yorkshire)

Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)

Volunteers of America Day

World Maths Day

Ziua Mamei (Mother’s Day; România)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Big Boots Brew Day

Drink It Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

National Peanut Cluster Day

2nd Wednesday in March

Discover What Your Name Means Day [Wednesday of Name Week]

National Decoration Day (Liberia) [2nd Wednesday]

National No Smoking Day (UK) [2nd Wednesday]

Registered Dietician Nutritionist Day [2nd Wednesday]

Sterile Packaging Day [2nd Wednesday]

Independence Days

Mahonia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Matyár (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Annie Bonny Day (Pastafarian)

Apollonius, Philemon, and others, of Egypt (Christian; Martyrs)

Birthday of Mother Earth (Pagan)

Duthak, Bishop of Ross (Christian; Saint)

Edward King (Church of England)

Felix of Burgundy (Christian; Saint)

Festival of the Earth Goddess (China)

Holi (Hinduism) (a.k.a. ... 

Dhuleti

Dolapurnima

Dolijatra

Festival of Color

Festival of Love

Festival of Spring

Holika Dahan

Holi Phagwah (Surinam)

Phagwah (Guyana, India, Nepal, Suriname)

John of God (Christian; Saint) [Against Alcoholism]

Julian, Archbishop of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Philemon the actor (Christian; Saint)

Psalmoid of Ireland (a.k.a. Saumay; Christian; Saint)

Romeo Scuggs (Muppetism)

Rosa, virgin of Viterbo (Christian; Saint)

Senan, Bishop in Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Thucydides (Positivist; Saint)

Weird Al Yankovic Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [16 of 71]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [13 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 67 [19 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [18 of 57]

Premieres

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (Film; 1967)

After Life (TV Series; 2019)

Beavis and Butt-Head (Animated TV Series; 1993)

Brutal Youth, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1994)

Captain Marvel (Film; 2019)

Chungking Express (Film; 1996)

The Downward Spiral, by Nine Inch Nails (Album; 1994)

Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Animal Film; 2021)

Fargo (Film; 1996)

Heavy Metal (Animated Film; 1996)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio Play; 1978)

Just Like a Woman, recorded by Bob Dylan (Song; 1966)

A Knight for a Day (Disney Cartoon; 1946)

La Femme Nikita (Film; 1991)

Mask (Film; 1985)

New Jack City (Film; 1991)

Oz the Great and Powerful (Film; 2013)

Queen II, by Queen (Album; 1974)

Roberta (Film; 1935)

Royal Wedding (Film; 1951)

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Superunknown, by Soundgarden (Album; 1994)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Johannes (Austria)

Boško, Ivan, Ivša (Croatia)

Gabriela (Czech Republic)

Beata (Denmark)

Lepo, Viilo, Viilup, Vilbo (Estonia)

Vilppu (Finland)

Jean (France)

Gerhard, Johannes (Germany)

Hermes, Theofylaktos (Greece)

Zoltán (Hungary)

Giovanni, Salvatore, Severino (Italy)

Dagmāra, Marga, Margita (Latvia)

Beata, Gaudvilė, Laima, Vydminas (Lithuania)

Beate, Bettina, Betty (Norway)

Beata, Filemon, Jan, Julian, Miligost, Miłogost, Stefan, Wincenty (Poland)

Teofilact (Romania)

Alan, Alana (Slovakia)

Juan (Spain)

Filippa, Siv (Sweden)

Humfrey, Humphrey, Ponty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 67 of 2023; 298 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 10 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 2 (Yi-Mao), Day 17 (Yi-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 15 Adar 5783

Islamic: 15 Sha’ban 1444

J Cal: 6 Ver; Sixday [6 of 30]

Julian: 23 February 2023

Moon: 98%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 11 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thucydides]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 78 of 90)

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 17 of 29)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 3.8

Holidays

Be Nasty Day

The Bikini Bottom Free (Crabcakes) Day (SpongeBob Squarepants)

Brčko District Establishment Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Colorism Awareness Day

Donkey Appreciation Day

Exceed Medical Microneedling Day

False Case Day

Farmer's Day

Fill Out Staplers Day

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day

International Women's Day (a.k.a. ... 

Day For Women's Rights and International Peace (UN)

Embrace Equality Day (2023 Theme)

Girls Write Now Day

Journée Internationale des Femmes (France)

Nari Dibas (Nepal)

Uppity Women Day

Xalaqaro Xotin-Qizlar Kuni (Uzbekistan)

Yellow Mimosa Day (Italy)

Jedi Day

Mother’s Day (Albania, Eastern Europe, Russia, Soviet Bloc)

National August Day

National Biobased Products Day

National Breast Implant Awareness Day

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Oregon Day

National Proofreading Day

National Retro Video Game Day

Order of Charity Day

Organize Your Home Office Day [2nd Tuesday]

Revolution Day (Syria)

Stab e-Barat (Night of Records; Bangladesh)

Shuttlecock Day (Leicester, Yorkshire)

Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)

Volunteers of America Day

World Maths Day

Ziua Mamei (Mother’s Day; România)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Big Boots Brew Day

Drink It Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

National Peanut Cluster Day

2nd Wednesday in March

Discover What Your Name Means Day [Wednesday of Name Week]

National Decoration Day (Liberia) [2nd Wednesday]

National No Smoking Day (UK) [2nd Wednesday]

Registered Dietician Nutritionist Day [2nd Wednesday]

Sterile Packaging Day [2nd Wednesday]

Independence Days

Mahonia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Matyár (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Annie Bonny Day (Pastafarian)

Apollonius, Philemon, and others, of Egypt (Christian; Martyrs)

Birthday of Mother Earth (Pagan)

Duthak, Bishop of Ross (Christian; Saint)

Edward King (Church of England)

Felix of Burgundy (Christian; Saint)

Festival of the Earth Goddess (China)

Holi (Hinduism) (a.k.a. ... 

Dhuleti

Dolapurnima

Dolijatra

Festival of Color

Festival of Love

Festival of Spring

Holika Dahan

Holi Phagwah (Surinam)

Phagwah (Guyana, India, Nepal, Suriname)

John of God (Christian; Saint) [Against Alcoholism]

Julian, Archbishop of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Philemon the actor (Christian; Saint)

Psalmoid of Ireland (a.k.a. Saumay; Christian; Saint)

Romeo Scuggs (Muppetism)

Rosa, virgin of Viterbo (Christian; Saint)

Senan, Bishop in Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Thucydides (Positivist; Saint)

Weird Al Yankovic Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [16 of 71]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [13 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 67 [19 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [18 of 57]

Premieres

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (Film; 1967)

After Life (TV Series; 2019)

Beavis and Butt-Head (Animated TV Series; 1993)

Brutal Youth, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1994)

Captain Marvel (Film; 2019)

Chungking Express (Film; 1996)

The Downward Spiral, by Nine Inch Nails (Album; 1994)

Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Animal Film; 2021)

Fargo (Film; 1996)

Heavy Metal (Animated Film; 1996)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio Play; 1978)

Just Like a Woman, recorded by Bob Dylan (Song; 1966)

A Knight for a Day (Disney Cartoon; 1946)

La Femme Nikita (Film; 1991)

Mask (Film; 1985)

New Jack City (Film; 1991)

Oz the Great and Powerful (Film; 2013)

Queen II, by Queen (Album; 1974)

Roberta (Film; 1935)

Royal Wedding (Film; 1951)

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Superunknown, by Soundgarden (Album; 1994)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Johannes (Austria)

Boško, Ivan, Ivša (Croatia)

Gabriela (Czech Republic)

Beata (Denmark)

Lepo, Viilo, Viilup, Vilbo (Estonia)

Vilppu (Finland)

Jean (France)

Gerhard, Johannes (Germany)

Hermes, Theofylaktos (Greece)

Zoltán (Hungary)

Giovanni, Salvatore, Severino (Italy)

Dagmāra, Marga, Margita (Latvia)

Beata, Gaudvilė, Laima, Vydminas (Lithuania)

Beate, Bettina, Betty (Norway)

Beata, Filemon, Jan, Julian, Miligost, Miłogost, Stefan, Wincenty (Poland)

Teofilact (Romania)

Alan, Alana (Slovakia)

Juan (Spain)

Filippa, Siv (Sweden)

Humfrey, Humphrey, Ponty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 67 of 2023; 298 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 10 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 2 (Yi-Mao), Day 17 (Yi-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 15 Adar 5783

Islamic: 15 Sha’ban 1444

J Cal: 6 Ver; Sixday [6 of 30]

Julian: 23 February 2023

Moon: 98%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 11 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thucydides]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 78 of 90)

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 17 of 29)

[thisisbookland]

•Today I decided to read instead of do school work. It’s a mental health day!•

The Line Up:

• The Iliad by Homer (Translation by Robert Fagles)

• The Borgias: The Hidden History by G.J. Meyer

• Uppity Women: Speak Their Minds by Vicki León

• Into The Wild (Warrior Cats #1) by Erin Hunter (E-Book, not pictured)

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I find it so depressing that the writers and so many fans think that a romance where one party treats the other party as someone lesser, as someone unworthy of respect, as an idiot unworthy of their time, as an annoying hindrance, all while being praised and placed upon a pedestal as if they're an infallible being by the very one they treat that way, is a healthy and beautiful True Love romance that should be fully supported. So very, very depressing.

It certainly is, yes. And a lot of these movies and series (the American ones, because this doesn't happen here at all) have the woman treating the man so so badly as some sign of feminism, as if all women should aspire to be like that: mean, cold and uppity who treat their male partners badly but it's okay because it's the man putting up with the abuse instead of her.

Needless to say that's not feminism at all. My cynical side thinks these men are writing women that way so that the MRAs can then claim men are the real victims and all women abuse them, but it is also concerning that a lot of women romanticize both the abuser and the victim - meanwhile in cases where the roles are switched and the abuser is the man they can easily see he's wrong and she's a victim.

It's almost as if they have read -not understood- a few posts on the patriarchy and they have decided the solution is to treat men the way some of them treat us. I see it a lot in fanfics as well, the woman negs the man constantly, she's always right and he's always wrong, and she can call him names and mistreat him at will but if he tries to defend himself he's a monster who must apologize to her - and they portray that as loving and romantic.

I'm all for portraying all kinds of relationships in media and certain dark topics can be pretty amazing to feature on movies and series but just like you wouldn't show an adult killing a 5 year old kid and frame that as the kid's fault, you can't show a partner abusing and mistreating their bf/gf and frame that as romantic and loving - that is, unless in the context of the movie or show it is understood that the character is always wrong and the abuse is another part of his immorality etc (I'm thinking American Psycho).

What you can NEVER do is show a character abusing their partner then claim it's the right thing to do because their partner "deserves" it. A romantic relationship is supposed to be a partnership between two (or more) people who respect and love each other and if the writers can only think of a romance based on a power imbalance then that's veeeeeeeery concerning.

[rwde-chibi]

Why would you even think that gay men would get together in a show about women. God, just another man getting uppity when women actually get things in media.

So like here’s the thing, I wouldn’t expect much if RT never went on about how inclusive they are. But they did, and so going into RWBY four seasons ago, I had expectations of literally the bare minimum. And four seasons later here we are, with only a couple canonically queer/genderqueer characters and like... they’re all bad?

Scarlet was confirmed to be “not into women” in the anthology books, so he could have been ace or gay and honestly the fact that this was confirmed in an anthology book and not the show makes me want to not count it out of spite but he got together with another background character in the novels, so... I guess this is a win for representation to some people.

Saffron and Terra are background characters. They are the equivalent of a kid’s gay dads who we see for one episode in every new cartoon on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. They are inoffensive but they are also the only LGBT+ characters whose LGBTness is actually... in the show itself.

May Marigold is a background character that they announced on Twitter was a trans woman. And when you’re announcing things like that on Twitter... you’re just being J.K. Rowling. And while I get not making her transness a big deal in the show makes sense because she’s a background character... there has to have been a way to handle it better than just putting it out there on Twitter. Maybe an old photo or something from her asshole cousin who is named for some reason.

Coco went from a somewhat cool idea as a base character (ignoring the severely fucked up nature of her design inspiration) into being a controlling, sleezy character who got relegated to the Side Content Dimension never to be seen again.

And the big win for LGBT people everywhere, Blake and Yang still aren’t actually in a confirmed relationship because we’re gonna drag this out like Legend of Kor*a or St*r Vs except RWBY is going to be a 13-15 year long series at this rate and it’s gotten old.

I’m sorry I gave the show that was supposed to be inclusive a chance, before realizing it’s just not worth holding out hope for this to get better.

[sweetfirebird]

@paraxdisepink Prime has a first look thing for the Wheel of Time series. I cannot watch it. My entire soul is flashing back to high school and cringing. But Rosamund Pike is in it... as Moiraine apparently. So.

Getting to see Robert Jordan's "spanking uppity women like it's a John Wayne movie" kink happen on TV is gonna be... weird.

[ashtet]

Is it just me or is anyone starting to really dislike Jaskier?

I think more than anything it's because fandom is turning him into their Mary Sue Baby and I cannot stand that.

Like, all the bad parts of his character and his bad actions are either erased, or a explanation is pulled out of nowhere to make him in the right all along, or all his bad parts are celebrated as wonderfully feral, or awesome when if any other character did them or even less they'd be dragged through the shit and lambasted as a terrible person.

And all this stuff of him being BAMF, or Competent, whatever - like, when it's put as he's not actually useless and can survive without Geralt, fine - but when he's an amazing fighter, or can take down monsters Geralt can't, or shit like that?

Not only is it Mary Sue, perfect bard and fighter, viscount or magical! creature! bard! , better than the decades older and more experienced Geralt, but it's such a slap in the face to the very concept of Geralt and Witchers too.

These men are taken as young boys, trained for years to fight monsters, going through horrific trials at age 10 or so that only 3 in 10 survive, in order to be mutated because without the training and magic and literal superhuman abilities they can't kill the monsters, and then it's like well screw them this dude who's never done physical labour in his life can take down a monster bad enough to seriously injure and almost kill them? What an utter disrespect to those characters. And what use are they then? The entire world of the Witcher series is just turned on it's head because god forbid Jaskier not be able to do everything Geralt can do but better.

That also leads me into the whole Mary Sue thing, actually. Almost every fic has every witcher and character love Jaskier, and if they don't then they're mean to poor baby Jaskier and everyone else hates them. Even if it's completely out of character for them - including such wonderful examples as Yennefer being transphobic so Geralt and Ciri both hate her and love Jaskier (Yenenfer, who suffered so much involving physical transformations, being transphobic? Really?). It's all just so utterly about making every character revolve around Jaskier- either loving him, hating him, being nothing more than a prop to his story with no actual personality themselves except how they can serve Jaskier and maybe Geralt if they're together (especially Yen! ), or just not being mentioned because there's nothing to the world without goddamn Jaskier Julian Pancratz.

I mean, don't you know Jaskier is the main character? Not Geralt, Yennefer or Ciri - they can stay if they serve him, or revolve around him and are less powerful than him, and Need him so much all the time. But only then. And the sheer cheek of the show to suggest the character in literally half the episodes is a supporting one to the mains in all the episodes with the plot and timelines about them! It's JASKIER after all!

Oh, and if Jaskier isn't human, then so much the better! Not just so he and Geralt can grow old together, though - so Jaskier can have magic no one else does, and can be better and more powerful than just a weak little human, and preferably more than a witch or witcher too. Just because he's the best.

At the start of the fandom, it was better and not yet The Jaskier Show, but even then Yen and Ciri were ignored or in Yen's case outright demonised because we can't have a woman get uppity and in the way of Geralt and Jaskiers True Love, so even then Yen was hated for her negative traits and even when Jaskier shared them, he was loved. Just the sheer misogyny, especially that awful post that celebrated Yen being ignored and the fandom centering on Jaskier and maybe Geralt because fuck those women, this is the Witcher not the Sorceress! Or I guess now it's the Bard.

Oh, and one more thing! Not only is Jaksier the best, but all those rumours about witchers being dumb brutes are true! Jaskier Sue has to teach them how to read, talk, cook, wear clothes, any medical skills whatsoever and how to be Civilised people because the centuries old warriors don't know shit and are all just so fucking stupid they need Jaskier to teach them everything, even the basics of life!

:( Don't worry thought you stupid less than human brutes, your saviour Jaskier has arrived and will socialise you properly now.

Jesus, when Season 2 comes if Jaskier isn't a main character and not everyone loves him, I can already see the fandom tantrum. God forbid Jaskier not get everything!

[lizzybeth1986]

I don't think you play TRR/TRH anymore but you should see what they did to Kiara in the newest chapter. It's so dumb and makes me so angry, especially considering the current climate of events. I've already seen people on Reddit be like "but we helped her overcome her trauma" (we didn't lol) and someone called her the c-word, very classy. Honestly PB's been low key racist in the past but all the stuff right now makes it high key...

(Apologies for the long post and not being able to place this under a cut)

I'm pretty glad I got these anons because truth be told I wasn't sure how many people - besides the few that I already knew were constantly speaking about Kiara's treatment in the books - would care enough to ask any questions about this. Most of the posts I saw expressed a disturbing eagerness to throw her under the bus, without exploring nuance or asking questions, and at this point I'm not very surprised.

I've always maintained that the treatment for Kiara is what happens when both the writers and the fandom are heartless, and these past few weeks have only been proof of that.

There are questions you could raise about this finale re: Kiara - questions almost no one seems to bother asking. I have three:

1. In this Coventus Nobilis...how is it that I see four Heads of House, and only one heir? 

2. If Kiara - who is not head of house - is supposed to represent Castelserraillian instead of her father Hakim (who presides over that estate), why do I not see Madeleine? Why do I not see Penelope? 

3. Why are we suddenly seeing Adeleide  popping up out of practically nowhere to rep Krona/Fydelia, and Landon conveniently rep-ping Portavira?  

Some of the answers to these questions lie in the questions themselves. Why else would Madeleine and Penelope not be present in this meeting - if it weren't to purposely distance them from this awful moment? After all, both of them have inbuilt subplots ready for the next book that would require interactions with the core group. How else do you think the writers could ensure we kept coddling them and pandering to them in Book 3, except by distancing them from this "betrayal"?

Why else would the narrative choose to pit Kiara - the lone woman of colour we'd been shitting on for most of this series - against Olivia - the white woman who has been given innumerable individual PoV scenes and her own mini-book (and whose reputation we had to help rebuild in said mini book whether we cared about her stupid duchy or not). 

Why else would they force Kiara to alert us mere minutes before the meeting begin, if not to distract us with crumbs ("See? At least we wrote her as warning you. Of course we don't hate her!"). 

Why else would you have Olivia and Kiara pitted against each other like this - if not to show these two women side by side, on opposing ends -  and compel us to believe that the white woman we spent 4.5 books propping up and pampering, is the most loyal one.  When in fact we have done absolutely nothing to deserve any fucking loyalty from Kiara or her family to begin with! (Ezekiel and his white bride notwithstanding).

What we finally got as a result, was a narrative that (as @queen-of-effing-everything summed it up when I discussed this with her) in one full sweep "glorifies Olivia, shields Madeleine and Penelope and sets up Kiara". Very few of us even noticed. And even if we did notice, is there any guarantee that we would care??

Remember how I mentioned in my last ask that I wished we expanded the same energy that we did with Aurora, to speak up against the ill-treatment of other black characters? Kiara was undoubtedly one of those.

After this, we as a fandom will speak very easily now of her "betrayal". We will call her the b-word and the c-word. We will boast of how we will "take her down" along with Adeleide and Landon and Bartie Sr. We'll boast about how we "never liked her" to begin with, as if doing so required some...idk exemplary foresight. We will make memes about how Olivia was "the only bitch we ever respected". We will make huge, sweeping claims about how Kiara was our "friend" and how (as you've mentioned, anon) we "helped her overcome her trauma" (!!!!) and claim by that token that  we were entitled to good treatment from her. I'm pretty sure when TRH3 finally comes out, her every word and action will be screenshot, put up on blogs, mocked and torn down just so we can write essays on how awful she is. 

Yet I saw very little of this energy in Book 3, where the MC could first emotionally manipulate her into supporting the Unity Tour, and where we actively suspected her  at a time when she was traumatized. At most there was some lukewarm acknowledgement of how she "deserves better", all while people still continued to write fanfic that positioned her as creepy and obsessed and villainous.  Almost no one had a problem with Savannah not acknowledging Kiara's earlier support of her, and in fact I'd seen posts that clubbed her with the other ladies of the court who likely "treated Savannah badly". Her father Hakim was made to join the tour alongside her by default, without the expectations that Landon/Emmeline and Godfrey/Adeleide were allowed to have, and the fandom was mysteriously silent about Hakim being made to "bow to his knees" in a way the others did not have to. Very few people even bothered to  notice or talk about how often Penelope was allowed to hold the MC's baby, or how Kiara was never really allowed to hold her even once. Which "friend" treats someone like this??

When I finally published this essay on the treatment meted out to Kiara especially in Book 3, what I got was a lot of neat, but ultimately hollow, little platitudes about how Kiara "deserved better" (How and in what way? Who knows, who cares). Out of those many many people who reblogged and responded, only a handful held the MC and Drake in particular (and Maxwell, who thought it appropriate to joke about "one suspect down") accountable for choosing to suspect and interrogate just her, and for showing ZERO remorse in forcing her to reopen those wounds. How is it that we can judge Kiara for this latest "betrayal", yet pretend that the MC and Drake had nothing to do with the pain THEY caused to her? How is it that this fandom was so fired up over her comments, yet would have such a weak, muted, carefully-generalized response to the screenshots where Drake was openly suspecting her and optionally  minimizing her trauma? 

Following that, why should we be entitled to good treatment from Kiara when we never really gave her even half as much?? Why is it so easy to divorce characters from their words and actions in Drake/MC/Maxwell's case, but so hard for a character like Kiara? (One may claim this is because Drake and Maxwell are potential co-protagonists, but the aforementioned essay already proves that you as a main character can get punished for not treating a mere side character with kindness).

Another thing that fascinates and repulses me even further is how the fandom has created myths around this one character, and how PB has constantly leaned into these "characteristics" even though the text itself tells an altogether different story:

1. Kiara is a snob. This is especially hilarious considering that she is established in Book 2 as being the only person who befriended Savannah before her departure and cared about what happened to her when she left. Never once in the books has she looked down on us for class-related issues, or outright mocked people for not knowing the languages she knew. In fact, she was the first person to acknowledge our skills if we showed any before Lythikos in Book 1. On the other hand, Penelope can be uppity and look down on us in Book 1 (there is even a dialogue option in Chapter 10 that leads to her calling us a "commoner wench") if we don't do well, and yet she's a cinnamon roll.  Olivia can engage in snobbish , entitled behaviour without the fandom having a problem just because she's their favourite. Madeleine can look down on us and pretend for 3/4ths of the social season that we're not worth her time yet somehow Kiara is the snob. Okay. Okay. 😐

2. Kiara is "obsessed with" Drake and constantly comes on to him. This is said by the same group of people who saw Olivia fucking Nevrakis plant a WHOLE FUCKING SMACKER on Liam's mouth, and said..nothing. Kiara on the other hand, has admired Drake's abs once, mentioned she'd always liked Drake once, spoken normally to him about his sister once, flirted with him once (Paris tea party), and ordered a wine from him when he was bartending. In the next book she either looks at him wistfully or admires his suit. Yet somehow she's the creepy, annoying, stalkerish. Okay. Ooookay. 😑

(This one was particularly damaging, because post the TRR3 hiatus, all efforts from PB were focused on reversing Kiara's position as an alternative LI. This included "confirming" on livestream that her affections were one-sided, at a time when Olivia was finally allowed to have some romantic moments with a single Liam, pushing forward a buildup scene to Drake's eventual secret wedding that had him acting extremely rude and confrontational to Kiara mere minutes after suspecting her (while she was expressing joy at his upcoming wedding in his playthrough!!!), and involving a subplot where he openly and by default suspected her. Sure, he spends a minute to be nice to her and chat about trauma if the MC chooses. But that's like a drop of sewage water floating in an ocean of shit).

3. Kiara Pretended to Be Our Friend And Then Dropped Us: This is false. Kiara only ever promised to put in a good word for us to the rest of the court, no more, no less. And she fulfilled that promise. Otherwise she never pretended to be friends with us nor made friendly overtures either way. In fact if you're going to accuse anyone of duplicity, you have Penelope and Madeleine. Yet somehow Kiara is the dishonest one. Okay. Okay. 🙃

4. Kiara Was Insensitive To Penelope and Didn't Understand Her. I'm not sure how Kiara is supposed to magically understand something that her friend isn't telling her. Plus this argument deliberately leaves out the fact that she stood up for Penelope when people chose to be mean to her, and even explained to the MC that she employs "tough love" because she can't always be around to protect Penelope. It also leaves out how one-sided this friendship is and how Kiara is made to do most of the heavy work in this friendship. Meanwhile, at Kiara's most difficult time period, in Castelserraillian, Penelope says absolutely nothing as the MC forces Kiara to join the Unity Tour, while making bedroom eyes at Kiara's brother. In fact the only reason Kiara's brother even exists is to give Penelope a love interest. The Kiara-Penelope friendship practically revolves around Penelope. I have never really seen Penelope look out for Kiara or attempt to actually support her in any way, and Kiara was the one who got the knife wounds. Yet somehow I'm supposed to believe that Penelope's the better friend of the two. Suuuuure. 😡

And this steaming pile of crap doesn't just make its way into shitposts and short opinion posts. It creeps into fanfic and fandom opinions. It finds its way in the tags and in other social media. It eventually even finds its way into the books, even though nothing in the earlier narrative ever really supported these extremely stale takes. 

Because PB didn't care for Kiara the way they cared for their white characters, they had no problem framing her narrative the way this fandom so desparately wanted it. Book 3 has the MC claim behind her back that Kiara is stuck-up and acts like knowing ten languages makes her better than everybody else, even though this is not backed up by the text, and in fact you will never see any acknowledgement of how Madeleine forced Kiara to make herself sound "exotic" in Book 2, or of how Madeleine and the MC (optionally) could downplay or question her skills unless they wanted to use her. Also, Penelope is never allowed to be talked about like that no matter what she's done. PB even had a scene (in the Hana playthrough) where they aggressively retconned the events of Madeleine's bachelorette party, where Kiara supposedly shouted at Penelope until the latter cried, and Madeleine was the one "having fun". Kiara was literally being thrown under the bus to make Madeleine look better. Madeleine. Imagine that. Madeleine.

Given how desparate the fandom was to nitpick and overdramatize everything Kiara said and did, is it any wonder that the team got away with the writing they gave her in Book 3? Considering that all the false arguments I stated above have made a resurgence in the past few weeks or days...is it any wonder that the only "support" this fandom is capable of re: Kiara, is lukewarm platitudes, cold takes and rank hypocrisy??

Yes, we can hold PB solely/largely  accountable for the treatment meted out to Kiara now. They made these choices over and over, and continue to do so, while tossing us occasional crumbs of faux-sweet behaviour from the MC. And they did this in insidious ways, which were so hard to catch that even a Kiara stan like me had to observe multiple playthroughs just to unravel even half of what they'd done.

But let's not pretend a huge chunk of the fandom was just as responsible for this - with their unfounded opinions, their disgusting bias, their favouritism of white characters, their refusal to observe anything besides their favourites, and their godawful fanfiction where Kiara is a creep or evil or killing the virtuous main character. Out of the huge body of fanwork that I've seen for TRR that features Kiara - at least 90% of it features her stalking Drake, or harming the MC (particularly the Drake MC), or in cahoots with the villains, or generally being referred to as a creep (why Olivia, who kissed Liam without his consent in Book 1 and was entitled enough to be angry about him not returning her feelings in TRH1, never got this sort of writing - I fail to understand). There is a tremendous gap between the vitriol dumped on her when she does something the MC doesn't like, and the milquetoast response when harm is done to her. There have been times when I've had to comb through pages and pages of hate just to read even one positive post on Kiara in her own goddamn tag.

When the next book arrives, I know you folks will continue to gas up the white women in this book every chance you get, and mask your racist vitriol for characters like Kiara (and Hana, let's not forget the way y'all treat Hana) behind the same self-righteous judgements and the same tired, stale takes. I know that PB - despite what I will still believe is their hollow promises today - will write every single one of those stale takes into existence. All because it will be "justified", because Kiara is a "bad person" or "untrustworthy" or "fake". Whatever. Y'all can stick to Olivia The Black Hole and babysit Madeleine and Penelope, I guess. Kiara always deserved better than these writers and most of this fandom anyway.

[dwaynepride]

the unfortunate case of nonchalance

PART I - WHERE TO START

summary: jethro and his gang arrive to a new town, and they’re surrounded by rich folk. but then, he meets somebody unexpected.

words: 1,855

warnings: female reader

tags: @fairytale07​ @jrenn10​ @f4nboi​ @purplestarsr5​ @ladyzombiielove​ @littlemiss3ma​ @minikate--24-05​ @consultingdoctorwholock​ @dressed-up-just-like-z1ggy​ @ms-allenbrown​ @ikbenplant​ @dylpickles1267​ @diaryofafan17​ @specialagentlokitty​ @pageofultron​ @stanathanxoox​

author’s note: part 1 of a new series. this is actually a part of @thranduilsperkybutt​‘s writing challenge. my prompt was cowboy au + secret relationship trope.

PART II

February 16th, 1889

Well, this is the first opportunity where I’m able to sit and write.

Moving East out of the plains has been damn hard - nobody likes being this close to civilization.

Hell, I hate it. Seen more people on the trail the past two days than we used to see in a whole week, back West. It’s necessary; we all know that. Still, I hear Anthony kickin’ up a fuss whenever we see another caravan.

It ain’t so bad, now that we got a place to settle down. For now, anyway. It’s well-hidden, at least. It’ll do the job until our problems in the West die down, and we can move back.

If we’re lucky, Anthony might take a bullet while we’re out here. Save us all the trouble of keepin’ him reigned in, this time.

Dr. Mallard told me there’s a town nearby. From what I gather, it’s mostly aristocrats and artisans and rich folk who live there. Not the kinda folk we run into often, but the law won’t think to look for us here. Not for a while, at least.

So I’m gonna head into the town tomorrow. Have a look around, see what we’re up against. Anthony wants to come along. Says he wants to start sniffing around, despite my warnings that we’ve got to act like upstanding citizens of the law. It’s too risky to start making trouble.

He says he understands, but I’ll keep my eye on him, just the same.

Tim and Abigail will go along with him. They’re much less rambunctious, so I don’t fear they’ll get into much mischief.

All in all, despite the money that no doubt comes through this town, I predict it will be a very dull place to lie low.

But maybe that’s what we need, right now. There’s been too much excitement, lately.

February 17th, 1889

Just as I thought - this town is full of men and women too concerned with stories and the arts to pay attention to much else. I counted five clothing shops on the way in. And only a single gun store.

I’m not even sure the saloon sells proper bourbon.

Though, Anthony seems to be fitting in, well enough. He can keep a pleasant conversation with any rich man he meets - a skill I scarcely care enough to learn. But I suppose it was a good choice to bring him along-

The journal is knocked from Jethro’s hands as someone slams against his shoulder from behind. It falls to the dirt, as does the bags of the person who’d knocked into Jethro. And even though his journal was knocked clean out of his hands, Jethro himself wasn’t much bothered. Because the collision barely moved him and it seems like whoever just bumped into him is suffering more of the consequences.

“I’m very sorry!” A voice says hurriedly. A womanly voice that wasn’t so prim and proper as the other women of this high-end town.

Jethro bends over to collect her bags - brand new, apart from the new dirt stains received from the collision. And the woman picks up his leather-bound journal; thankfully, it had landed shut.

They both straighten up, and Jethro instantly meets your eyes for the first time. Very pretty, he notices, if a little guilty for all the trouble you’ve caused. Dainty little strands of hair fall into your face, and the dress you wear is much too expensive for Jethro to ever be able to buy. And yet, you wears it so simply. He can’t tell if you’re just so rich that this dress is meaningless, or if you purely don’t care.

You speak, and Jethro’s eyes blink once. “Pardon me?”

A small laugh comes from you; light and nervous. “I said I was sorry. For bumping into you, like I did. I suppose I wasn’t watching where I was going. I can be a real clutz, you see.”

You still hold his journal with two hands. Fingers drum against the leather. He huffs and shakes his head. “No, ma’am. The fault is mine for not anticipating your arrival,” Jethro says simply.

And he hadn’t meant it as a joke. It was a simple fact, told in his deadpan way. Still, the nervous look on your face shifts into a wide smile. You’re laughing; light and happy and in a way Jethro wasn’t quite expecting. “Perhaps you’re right,” you say. And when Jethro hands your bags over, you gives him the journal back.

“Are you a writer?”

He’s dusting off the leather, barely listening to your question. “A writer?” He echoes.

“You know, a storyteller.” When Jethro glances back up, you motion to the journal. “I do enjoy a good story. And you seemed rather lost in whatever you were writing.”

Your eyes....your eyes held a sort of enraptured curiosity that Jethro himself hasn’t had in a long time. The type of curiosity that has you questioning a stranger with a journal because they may be a fascinating person. But he was just a man; just Jethro. And your words prompts a light smirk to his face. “Do I strike you as the type to entertain others, ma’am?”

You pauses. Shrug your shoulders as your emboldened smile softens into a smirk. You must smile a lot, he thinks. “Perhaps. I’ve only known you a minute, and you’re already more interesting than many of the men in this town. That’s quite an achievement, Mr....”

Jethro hesitates. He knew coming into this town that he didn’t want to give out his name very willingly. Maybe the law will recognize it and that would cause more trouble than he wants to deal with.

And yet, what harm could this woman do? A woman so soft and sheltered, she mistakes this rough cowboy for a city-dwelling storyteller.

“Gibbs,” he finally answers.

He sticks out his hand, and you smile while taking it. Jethro hears, loud and clear, when you tells him your name. And he hasn’t the mind to notice how soft the skin of your palm is. Your last name - it’s so familiar.

Familiar, as he’s seen it printed over almost every store and shop in this town.

So he gives a slow nod, releasing your hand. “I did not realize I was talking with a celebrity,” Jethro teases. And he expects some pushback from that little jab - women always seem to dislike his brand of sarcasm. They call him rude, and they may be right.

Instead, you grips your bags tighter. Jethro catches a bit of pink in your cheeks, and it makes his stomach tight with no good reason. “My father owns many of the stores in this town. It’s not a fact I share with others, Mr. Gibbs. I feel as though it causes people to treat me different - as though my opinion of them may sway them to my father’s favor.”

Seems like a hard life, Jethro jokingly thinks to himself.

Seems easier to have fake friends than government agents following you across three states.

Jethro stuffs his journal into his coat pocket before looking back to you, bobbing his head with a smirk. “Trust me, ma’am; I will treat you no different than I would any other woman,” he vows. And he’s mostly serious.

You smile again. And even giggle, this time. It’s a nice sound and even after Jethro tells himself to be polite to the daughter of the town’s most powerful man, he finds he doesn’t have to try very hard. You’re nothing like the other people Jethro has encountered in this god-forsaken town.

Maybe because when you look at him, Jethro doesn’t feel like the dirty old cowboy he knows he looks like to everyone else.

His thoughts are cut short by your cross little sigh. “I’m afraid I must go now. I’m expected back home soon,” you tell him regretfully.

Your reluctance was painfully visible, and Jethro is determined not to show his own. Besides, he wasn’t here to make a friend or charm a lady; no matter how pretty she may be. “Then I’ll save you the burden of a long-winded goodbye. I hope you have a good day,” Jethro tells her.

After giving you a single nod, he turns away. Takes several steps toward the saloon - that’s where Jethro reckons Anthony might be, anyway. Following some poor rich bastard in there to get him drunk and pick his pockets. And he thinks he’s about to make a clean getaway.

But your voice calls out. Calls his name in a way that makes Jethro’s feet freeze in their tracks. He almost doesn’t turn, but his head is arching over his shoulder anyway. Watching as you smile and waves him goodbye. “I hope to see you around! Perhaps one day, you’ll let me read the story you’re writing.”

That makes Jethro scoff, but he says nothing as you continue on your way. That expensive dress of yours even has some mud stains from where your shoes kick it up, but your don’t really seem to care.

And as you disappear around the corner, he shakes his head. Such an unforeseen encounter in a town where Jethro only expected to find uppity, rich men and women. And for the daughter of the town’s patriarch, no less, to completely shatter his expectations - well, Jethro found himself wondering if he really would see you again.

His thoughts are broken when Jethro hears a familiar voice calling out. Shaking out of his reverie, his head swivels around until finding the voice’s owner. Anthony’s hand waves in the air, and he starts jogging over.

Jethro can’t help but glance back to where you disappeared from.

But the Italian stops beside Jethro, wearing a big grin that usually gave him a bad feeling. “Afternoon, boss,” Anthony greets.

Jethro only grunts, and as he starts walking, his friend falls into step beside him. “Have fun screwing around?”

“Believe it or not, I wasn’t screwing around. Just the opposite, in fact.” Anthony suddenly steps closer, shoulder to shoulder with Jethro. Aware of the prying eyes and nosy aristocrats eager for gossip. “I think I figured out a way to rustle up some money,” Anthony says lowly.

Jethro scoffs, face forming a frown that Anthony can hardly see under the brim of his hat. Though, he’s already well acquainted with his leader’s sourest faces. “This idea of yours legal, Anthony?”

“Strictly speaking? Not really.”

Great.

“That’s never stopped us before, though.”

No, Jethro answers reluctantly. It hasn’t. And that’s what pushed them away from the West and everything they’ve worked for. Because of those less-than-legal schemes.

And hearing Anthony suggest a whole new one, in a town where nobody knows their checkered past...well, Jethro has a pretty wide pit in his stomach. Deep, aching; familiar in a way that has him thinking about the past. Has him thinking about what led to Shannon’s death, all those years ago.

Glancing to Anthony, and seeing how excited he looks about his dangerous plan, Jethro just starts thinking about the girl who thought him a storyteller.