#which may contribute

[bookwyrminspiration]

the way that your blog was what i went to in order to get the slightest grasp on this drama and discourse... i've got a vague idea, but holy cow...

folks just need to re-learn how to moderate their fandom experience. i learned that as a teenager, when i started shipping something people considered "icky." block people, block tags... ugh. people frustrate me.

Well I hope my blog's been at least slightly helpful! I try to stay aware of the fandom's goings on, even if I don't always engage--though there are certain things I feel more obligated to comment on given that I am fairly well known

I do think for at least some of the people involved (though I obviously can't speak for them) this may be their first big lesson in moderating their experience. Keepblr tends to be a first/intro fandom for a lot of people where we learn how the hell to do it, what's courteous, etc. Especially with the recent influx and this being the biggest thing since then

And this is not at all to condescend--it's a genuine observation of just how things work. I myself learned via keeper. So I'm not mad at them for it, it just is a bit sucky to go through at times

I'm not worried either, though. We've been here before and we'll be here again. We'll get through it

[wonder-worker]

A central element of the myth of [Eleanor of Aquitaine] is that of her exceptionalism. Historians and Eleanor biographers have tended to take literally Richard of Devizes’s conventional panegyric of her as ‘an incomparable woman’. She is assumed to be a woman out of her time. […] Amazement at Eleanor’s power and independence is born from a presentism that assumes generally that the Middle Ages were a backward age, and specifically that medieval women were all downtrodden and marginalized. Eleanor’s career can, from such a perspective, only be explained by assuming that she was an exception who rose by sheer force of personality above the restrictions placed upon twelfth-century women.

— Michael R. Evans, Inventing Eleanor: The Medieval and Post-Medieval Image of Eleanor of Aquitaine

The idea of Eleanor’s exceptionalism rests on an assumption that women of her age were powerless. On the contrary, in Western Europe before the twelfth century there were ‘no really effective barriers to the capacity of women to exercise power; they appear as military leaders, judges, castellans, controllers of property’. […] In an important article published in 1992, Jane Martindale sought to locate Eleanor in context, stripping away much of the conjecture that had grown up around her, and returning to primary sources, including her charters. Martindale also demonstrated how Eleanor was not out of the ordinary for a twelfth-century queen either in the extent of her power or in the criticisms levelled against her.

If we look at Eleanor’s predecessors as Anglo-Norman queens of England, we find many examples of women wielding political power. Matilda of Flanders (wife of William the Conqueror) acted as regent in Normandy during his frequent absences in England following the Conquest, and [the first wife of Henry I, Matilda of Scotland, played some role in governing England during her husband's absences], while during the civil war of Stephen’s reign Matilda of Boulogne led the fight for a time on behalf of her royal husband, who had been captured by the forces of the empress. And if we wish to seek a rebel woman, we need look no further than Juliana, illegitimate daughter of Henry I, who attempted to assassinate him with a crossbow, or Adèle of Champagne, the third wife of Louis VII, who ‘[a]t the moment when Henry II held Eleanor of Aquitaine in jail for her revolt … led a revolt with her brothers against her son, Philip II'.

Eleanor is, therefore, less the exception than the rule – albeit an extreme example of that rule. This can be illustrated by comparing her with a twelfth century woman who has attracted less literary and historical attention. Adela of Blois died in 1137, the year of Eleanor’s marriage to Louis VII. […] The chronicle and charter evidence reveals Adela to have ‘legitimately exercised the powers of comital lordship’ in the domains of Blois-Champagne, both in consort with her husband and alone during his absence on crusade and after his death. […] There was, however, nothing atypical about the nature of Adela’s power. In the words of her biographer Kimberley LoPrete, ‘while the extent of Adela’s powers and the political impact of her actions were exceptional for a woman of her day (and indeed for most men), the sources of her powers and the activities she engaged in were not fundamentally different from those of other women of lordly rank’. These words could equally apply to Eleanor; the extent of her power, as heiress to the richest lordship in France, wife of two kings and mother of two or three more, was remarkable, but the nature of her power was not exceptional. Other noble or royal women governed, arranged marriages and alliances, and were patrons of the church. Eleanor represents one end of a continuum, not an isolated outlier.

[disastergenius]

My bold take is that R.F. Kuang and Suzanne Collins are actually doing very similar things with their books/writing and both are doing it very well (but notably only one is getting criticized for it, for which there are many reasons, some fair and most not).

They are both making very specific and strategic points about the way that class, class consciousness and allyship, exploitative systems, propaganda, and rebellions work, just to name a few themes. And it’s far more interesting to examine their respective fictional worlds, both of which are heavily influenced by real-world events and history and hold it as a parallel to our own.

[It is also far more interesting to not boil their work down to shipping, “capitalism is the bad guy,” and oppression olympics for fictional characters with far too much projection into the real world.]

[shinelikethunder]

*holds Dean Winchester up by the scruff of the neck* listen, it's not that i think bottoming would fix him--his problems and disorders are way too far gone for that--but i do think that getting artfully maneuvered into trying it by the only other human on earth with a hope of understanding all his goddamn hangups, only to discover that he's been a winner of the "body wired to experience earth-shattering prostate orgasms" lottery this entire time, all while Sam oh-so-solemnly insists it doesn't have to Mean Anything about anyone's masculinity, lots of guys etc etc etc, and manages to radiate only moderate levels of smugness about the whole incident--

well, i simply think that even if that wouldn't fix him, it would either give him a vigorous shake and a ready-made excuse ("fuck it, why look a gift pleasure button in, uh, whatever orifice it came with?") to let a whole bunch of shit go, or it would drive him into even more insane depths of overcompensation. and either way, the Study That Man Like A Bug girlies get to feast.

[homoeroticgrappling]

Sometimes you have to repeat to yourself "I want the wrestlers I like to work wherever they feel they'll be happiest and be able to do their best work, even if I would prefer they be somewhere else"

[crystallizsch]

yuusha didn’t have anything else to wear so💥

[serpentface]

Question about Couya! Since she is a bastard what are the reasons about her being brought into the main family by her father. Was it genuine care for his child or a way to save face politically/socially? Is her birth mother alive? Do you think she would have had a better life growing up anywhere else?

This is in large part due to how cultural perceptions and legal punishment of adultery varies between male and female citizens, looped into the very strictly patrilineal kinship system.

By legal definition, the word for 'adultery' applies only to situations where a man has an affair with a married woman, or a married woman has an affair with any man. Other forms of affairs (eg a married man having an affair with an unmarried woman) are wrapped into a broader set of sexual misdemeanors and aren't often charged or punished in practice, and the punishments are comparatively minor (if an unwed woman's father pursues charges, the man in the affair is likely to just pay a fine). On a social level, extramaritial affairs in general are certainly not Approved of and seen as lowly and dishonorable, but the average response is significantly less harsh/more willing to entertain Nuance with men than with women.

In this society there's differentiated shades of bastardry depending on the contexts of the child's birth, as well as a distinction for 'nameless bastards' (has not been claimed by their biological father or maternal grandfather, or claimed in adoption).

a) A child born to an unmarried woman via an unmarried man: non-issue for father, potentially serious social harm for the woman (especially if she has never been married and expected virginal, much less severe as a widow or divorcee). The child will not be notably disadvantaged in of themselves (their status will depend more on whether they are claimed and thus provided the social security of a family patriarch), the father will experience no hard disadvantages in claiming them.

b) A child born to an unmarried woman via a married man: mild sexual misdemeanor for the father carrying levels of social shame, even more serious social harm for the woman (often framed as not just loose but a manipulative Seductress of a married man). The child might experience minor to moderate social disadvantages, the consequences of the father claiming them are purely social and will not typically be severe. (Couya is this)

c) A child born to a married woman via an unmarried or married man: both man and woman have committed a crime and can be severely punished. The biological father can technically claim the child but will be disincentivized from doing so. This is the form of bastardry most comparable to the conventional definition, in that it is heavily stigmatized and has effects on concerns of kinship and inheritance.

In addendum to this, if the adulterous wife's legal husband claims the child, this may be punishable if determined to be active concealment of adultery (which is also a crime), and has EXTREME social consequences either way. (Either you're a cuckold too stupid to notice that your wife has been skipping out on you, or you're a MEGAcuckold adultery-accessory willingly rearing another man's child after being horribly shamed by him).

(This is separate from adoption- a man who marries a woman with an unclaimed child after the fact (whether it was a product of adultery or just a general out of wedlock birth) and claims the child is an adoptive father, he is not concealing adultery or being cuckolded.)

A child born in an affair can be considered an heir to their biological fathers (descent and kinship is fully patrilineal and on a Basic level it doesn't matter who the mother is), and can very smoothly and legally be claimed when the affair was not considered criminal adultery. The concern on that front is social perception rather than material legal consequences or kinship issues.

Couya's birth mother was an unwed servant working as a housekeeper for her father Saizen, so the Crime of adultery did not take place. It would be considered a minor sexual misdemeanor, and the woman's father was not about to pursue charges against a nobleman who could Ruin him (and had also formally expressed that he would claim the child, which meant he would not be saddled with a nameless bastard granddaughter). So the concerns here were entirely social.

The affair might have started beforehand but the pregnancy that produced Couya occurred after his wife's third viable pregnancy ended in the premature birth of a underdeveloped boy deemed necessary to euthanize (and tbr would Not have survived either way). This was after Livya Haidamane had a couple early term miscarriages, two viable but very difficult pregnancies wherein one child was very weak and sickly for the first several years of life, and struggled to conceive every time. A lot of people are going to be at least a little sympathetic to a married man having an affair and claiming a bastard in this context. It's definitely ideal and practical to have more than two children, and his wife (while not outright infertile) clearly could not reliably bear healthy children. (The average response is going to be "Well he shouldn't have done it but like, I get it")

Couya being claimed by her father was a mix of genuine care and saving face. Initially it was MUCH more the latter than the former. Saizen made attempts to hide the servant's pregnancy and to keep his own wife out of sight during the late term (to prevent the baby appearing after his wife had been seen Extremely not pregnant). But there's some levels of care involved, he could very easily have fired the pregnant servant and had nothing to do with his bastard and she would have no recompense whatsoever. The choice to keep and claim the baby and ensure its entrance into the world bore as little social scrutiny as possible is an act of care for his own progeny.

This was Not an act of care for Couya's birth mother (beyond the fact that concealing her pregnancy would benefit her in hiding that she is not only Not a virgin prior to marriage but had a child). She probably would have been about 17-19 at the time and was fired a few months after giving birth, and most likely never saw Couya again after this point (if she did, it would most likely be in the context of seeing her as an adult Odonii in public and noting her to look Scarily familiar). She has an Okayish chance at still being alive, she'd be around 50 (and a person who survives the high infant mortality and birth casualty rates stands a good chance of hitting their 60s), though she could very well be a casualty of the drought+famine.

Whether or not Couya's life would have been better is kind of a mixed bag. She had an awful fucking childhood in large part because her adoptive mother Livya Haidamane hated her. (Livya was ultimately a pretty horrible person but not just like. An Evil Bitch. She had A Lot going on and Couya was a living breathing insult to her and reminder of like, every one of her dashed hopes and dreams). Couya is also autistic and presented very intense symptoms as a child in a society that is Not equipped for a mass-understanding and support of cognitive differences. But she still did have an immensely privileged life with profound physical/economic levels of security inaccessible to the vast majority of people in this region, including her birth mother. Saizen also actually Liked her and cared about her, he just wasn't a routine physical presence in any of his children's lives.

Had she been left with her biological mother, she would be in a very disadvantaged situation as a nameless bastard to an unwed mother. Her biological grandfather may or may not have been willing to claim her, and her mother would have great difficulties in finding a husband (which is ultimately necessary for the security of women in this society). I think her mother was a relatively kind person but not like, a perfect angel. She would probably have complicated feelings about her bastard daughter, especially one whose very existence materially disadvantages her and was very, very difficult as a child. So this probably would not have been a good situation for Couya either.

If you broaden the question to ANY other family completely divorced from the circumstances of her birth, yeah it definitely could have been better. But in her case it's like either "Life of grotesque socioeconomic privilege but in an abusive household" or "Life of profound socioeconomic disadvantages in a household that Probably wouldn't have been this abusive but certainly wouldn't be healthy". There wasn't really a good option for her.

[wordsandrobots]

This is seguing out of a moment of getting really quite annoyed, but:

Is Iron-Blooded Orphans the only mainline Gundam . . . *anything* to have had a woman as a major creative figure on the writing/directing side?

A lot of the links on Gundam Wiki dead-end when they go out to Wikipedia so I've never been able to get a firm idea if that's true, but my impression has generally been that most of the main writers and directors have always been men, even up to Witch From Mercury and G-Quacks. Which is something I have seldom seen mentioned in discussions around the franchise's handling of stuff.

This is not to comment on the contents of the individual series one way or another, more that I'm curious about it from a perspectival, um, perspective.

[mosspodge]

ok so ive been. Thinking. about @okartichoke ‘s ace avian AU- specifically vulture Godot bc ya :]

ANYWAYS ITS TIME TO DO MATH FOR FUN!!!

Vultures have some of the largest wingspans, aside from seafaring birds like albatross and pelicans! so i got real curious about Godot’s wingspan being a bearded vulture n all

For atarters, here they are next to people!

I’m gonna be using the averages of all tge size ranges for this btw

The average bearded vulture stands at about 2 feet high, with an average wingspan of around 8 feet.

This leaves them at about a 3rd of the height of Godot, who (according to the wiki) stands at 6ft 1in! I’m rounding down to 6ft even for sake of ease

Taking the wingspan and tripling it, that would leave us with 8ft x 3 = 24ft wingspan

For reference, each wing would be around

11 FEET LONG

(subtracting around 10in for the shoulderblades, based on my brother lol)

this would be about 2 godots on their sides for EACH WING.

anyways i know there was the question of how godot’s wings ended up coffee stained, have you considered he consistently knocks the coffee pots over with his GIANT BIG WINGS

[hyperbali]

hey did you know that if you overuse your foot due to "prolonged standing, walking, or running"

or dragging around 100+ lb furniture

it can make the top of it swell like a balloon and make it extremely painful to the touch?

cause i sure didn't 🙃

[put-me-out-of-my-destiny]

From one perspective, Vergil's "that day, if our positions were switched" speech was kind of stupid of him. Materially, Dante's position was not that different from Vergil's. They both lost absolutely everything, and were forced to start living alone and on the run at eight years old.

And yet, if I suggested that Eva being present and taking the time to offer Dante even a sense of safety didn't actually matter, Dante would manifest in my home and slap the shit out of me.

It might not have made a difference materially, but Eva led by example, her demonstration of bravery and love stuck with Dante for his whole life.

I still don't believe Vergil would have internalized that in the same way that Dante did if their positions were, indeed, switched. Then again, if it was Vergil in the house instead of Dante, Eva might have chosen some more pertinent words for him, something he really needed to hear. And if Dante was alone when he was attacked, who knows how he would have turned out?

[comradecowplant]

So we're fully in lunatic hours, huh. Just every one of these women have fully lost their goddamn minds. And not even, if I may be so bold in my loving-insane-women opinion, in a fun way. Misty-fucking-Quigley is, by several leagues at this point, officially the least certifiably insane person, which I never would have considered a possibility during season 1. Cool cool cool, just keeping up 👍

[sorrygotthesesacks]

Digging through some of my twst WiPs and ah, yes, my “5 things” fic.

[icewindandboringhorror]

"We can get through this by working together, reach out to your friends, community is all we have, a social network will be your security in the world, now is the time to lean on others!"

I do agree, and it's scientifically sound (pretty sure there is data about how people with better social networks live longer and etc) but also....augh..... what about the severe social issues, difficulty to leave the house, physical issues which lead to like zero socialization energy a majority of the time, etc. etc. Social support can be a replacement for structural support, but.. I guess I just wish it didn't have to be. Community is extremely difficult to build, even moreso if you're someone who has issues with social cues or group conversations or even just being around others in the first place. And blah, nuance, of course I'm just complaining or maybe being too negative or maybe misunderstanding, but, I hardly have the energy to brush my hair once every 2 months.. how am I supposed to maintain a wide social network and be active in a Community and Join Groups lol... sometimes it kind of feels like "er.. well if thats my only option then...... ruh roh". It's overwhelming

[obsessivefangirl]

"Stan favors Mabel and Ford Dipper" WRONG!!!

[dullahandyke]

Who is Bláthnaid youve been Bláthnaid posting recently who is she?

Girl (gender-neutral) in my noggin <3