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jesncin · 10 months ago

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The Potential of Asian Lois Lane: An extra addition

A bonus addition to my Asian Lois essay. I know Lois Chaudhari isn't technically a Lois since the premise of the comic she's from is where the Superman mythos is fictional and the characters in it happen to be named Clark/Lois etc. But since she's a Lois stand in and romantic partner to the Clark Kent of that story, I figured she deserves an honorable mention at least.

Here's where I position her in my Spectrum of Asian Lois Lane chart. And I'd like to talk about her!

Compared to American Alien, this Lois is actually specific and textually Indian in Superman: Secret Identity. Unlike American Alien Lois (that never specified what kind of Asian Lois was), she can't be replaced as a white woman because the text acknowledges her Indian identity (her name, lines of dialogue like this, etc.) hence she's not interchangeable with whiteness. So this take has that going for it.

Where Lois Chaudhari still falls behind Girl Taking Over (and what it shares in common with American Alien) is yet again a sense of missed opportunities narratively.

In Superman: Secret Identity, a man named Clark Kent from Picketsville suddenly has Superman's powers. After years of being made fun of for his namesake, he suddenly is what everyone has been making fun of him for- and as he lives through life he slowly understands why fictional!Superman is the way he is. It's a great story but where it misses the mark for me is its failure to recognize Superman as an immigrant. Secret Identity's Clark isn't an alien immigrant, or a human immigrant, and is instead ostracized because of his name. Government baddies want to do experiments on him so he has to hide from them too. But then he meets city girl Lois Chaudhari, and they connect because people keep teasing them for their names and Lois knows what it's like to keep secrets because she,,, committed a crime as a teen once.

"I guess we're both dangerous felons, then. Public menaces."

Being hunted by the government and being experimented on isn't really the same as being caught shoplifting.

It works well enough as a connection but to me is a huge missed opportunity to have an Indian American relate to your Superman stand-in as an immigrant. To connect on a deeper level other than "people make fun of us for sharing names with fictional characters". Later in the story, Clark and Lois have twin daughters who are visibly Indian. They too, have Superman's powers. While we're treated extensively to the narrative showing us why Clark would hide his powers from the government wishing to seek harm on him, we never get to see what Clark's daughters have to deal with on top of being visibly non-white.

Superman as an alien immigrant is an anecdote in this story. Because after all, that's not what a white American man from Picketsville would find relatable about him, is it? I have the same thing to say about Secret Identity that I did with American Alien: "Clark isn’t the only American Alien in American Alien, if you catch my drift."

I think this story is the perfect encapsulation of the limits of a white writer. One of my hottest takes on Superman is that the best and most holistic take on his character doesn't exist in the white imagination. Take a look once more at the Spectrum of Asian Lois Lanes chart that I made. All save for Girl Taking Over were headed by white men (MAWS may have Asian directors and writers on their team but ultimately its pitch and main ideas are the brain child of Jake Wyatt, a white man).

People have taken issue with me saying this and assume that I mean white people can't write a good Superman story, and no. That's not what I'm saying. I like Superman: Secret Identity. I even like American Alien. But it's been 80 years of predominantly white writers of all backgrounds getting the chance to write Superman- and already multiple attempts at an Asian Lois- and yet it took until Gene Yang (and artists Gurihiru) with Smashes the Klan and Sarah Kuhn (and artist Arielle Jovellanos) with Girl Taking Over that I felt Superman's themes as an immigrant finally took center stage and weren't just a mention or anecdote.

In no way do I want to imply that getting writers of color or Asian writers specifically will mean you'll be guaranteed a great Superman story. I'm against promoting the idea that diverse talent is infallible or tokenizing and essentializing them in such a way. What I am saying is that the best and most holistic story on Superman as an alien immigrant isn't even a goal in the white imagination. Immigrant Superman doesn't live in that mind. He doesn't pay rent there. He doesn't stop by to visit. And no, Superman creators Shuster and Siegel wouldn't have written that story either. Superman may have been the "Champion of the Oppressed" from another planet under their pen, but he would never have related to or have had immigrant solidarity with America's perpetual foreigners the way Smashes the Klan portrayed him as having. Superman's creators were too busy writing Slam Bradley to be able to write that kind of Superman.

The appeal of these cape characters for me, is the process of adaptation. Seeing them be handed off to someone else with different life experience. Seeing them bring a whole new perspective that surpasses even the creator's intentions on their character. That's what makes these characters rich and worthy of constant revisits. I just think that people of different backgrounds should be able to get as many chances as white men have with writing Superman and his cast of characters.

#ramblings #media criticism #lois lane #jesncin dc meta #“I'm an Asian Lois Lane scholar” i say like a liar bcuz I refuse to watch maws s2 or read the maws comics cuz I value my mental health #also did this clark ever think of writing under a pseudonym if being clark kent bothered him so much idk #maybe his agent was like “it's good for marketing omg keep it” but lol it is a choice to change ya name if u wanna

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ladyloveandjustice · 8 months ago

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so idk something that kind of bothers the "we must save men from the alt right pipeline" because "we're hating for their immutable traits"

why

why specifically are men the ones who we need to always do this for.

I think it would sound ridic to say this about terfs. Terfs are turning to terfism because they don't feel welcome, we need to be gentler and more loving and more of a community and they'll see the light. Terfs as a class are so oppressed by an unloving society :(

Or hey imagine saying this about white women. You don't have to imagine it it's been done and its bad. I think we've all agreed that posting a manifesto on how white women should be treated nicer by POC and its leftism's job to save white women from going conservative always sucks.

So why is it up to women now. Why is it up to us.

I agree leftism needs to be a more welcoming place that doesn't crucify people for mistakes, or react with hostility to questions. I personally want that. But it's weird to frame this as something we need to do for (mostly white) men specifically, but like, not like conservative white women, conservative woc, conservative trans women??? There's a lot out there.

I dunno. it rubs me to frame the message of this. I don't want to actively go around saving white men and boys from themselves/other white men, I've been asked to do that all my life.

I don't think we should be hostile, I'm not a person that would ever say kill all men (tbh even ignoring the fact there are marginalized men...language like that in general...kill all (enemy) has always been uncomfortable for me. Some people can change) I don't react to them with hostility, you know, men are just fine as long as they're fine with me. I'm happy to have them as allies, happy to get behind trans men, gay men, men of color when they need help.

But I do know some women just give a dni because they're traumatized. And idk, maybe they deserve to be treated gently. Maybe everyone does.

I think leftists need to be kinder and more welcoming sure. I think we need to focus on change and banding together But framing the convo around saving men. That men are special and alienated and we're specifically failing them somehow. It doesn't sit well.

I do thing putting stuff into a binary of good or evil and just kind of reinventing conservatism in that way is a huge probem,...I don't know...Can't we just be nicer and in-fight less for the sake of being welcoming in general? For everyone? Can't we come together and be more accepting of people because a community is stronger together? Can't we have unity and nuance because of that?

I don't want to do it to save men from their own decisions, I don't feel inclined to engage with hostile guys, I just want to be nice and open and we all have less of a feeling people might turn against you over any little thing.

#the idea that i need to help men be proud of being men bc we don't do that...dude since when #anyway these are jumbled thoughts i'll probably delete #since people will definitely jump all over me too #i guess there's this like. why would i not get people wanting to save me if i went alt right. you know.#why wouldn't there be a manifesto then. hm.#leftism #feminism

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chainmail-butch · 1 year ago

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A Speech For the Colonist.

It is my opinion that communist movements within the US fail because they refuse to address decolonization.

It is my further opinion that the contradiction between colonizer and colonized supercedes the contradiction of class. The Native American Nations are colonized, Black people are colonized, Hispanic people are colonized. Colonization is the key to white supremacy and white supremacy is the key to class within the United States and Canada.

If you talk to most white communists about decolonization within the United States you'll get things like, "Well, decolonization will come with the revolution because we'll give the people the autonomy and resources they need to care for their communities." This is the exact same rhetoric that alienated black revolutionaries from the American Communist Party in the 60s. "Under communism every worker will have what he needs and be able to give according to his means, so we don't need to worry about race."

Comrade, we do. We do need to worry about race. We cannot simply wish a reality away because in our minds Everyone Will Be White in a communist society.

We need to acknowledge the fact that every single White Person within the United States, and the rest of the Americas for that matter, is a colonist. Our institutions are colonial. Our industry is colonial. Our cities are colonial. Our infrastructure is colonial. Our lawns are colonial. Every single aspect of our lives has its roots in colonization.

We still plunder the earth like we're sending silver and timber back to England and Spain.

By pretending that we are not colonists we make it impossible to address the ways in which we colonize. By ignoring the ways in which we colonize we fail to address the ways in which we are imperialist. By failing to address our imperialism we fail address capitalism.

We are colonists. Pretending that this isn't the case doesn't make it any less reality.

You'll acknowledge the fact that we live on stolen land but would you hand Seattle back to the Duwamish? Would you cede Delaware back to the Lenape? Would you take up arms, and then lay them down to a nation of people that are unlike you? Would you take up arms and lay them down again for a nation of people that you might not agree with politically? Have you confronted your fear that they would treat you just like we treat them?

For that matter, how have you addressed your conception of Black Nationalism? Any white communist will tell you that Nationalism as a concept is counter-revolutionary but how do you address the fact that there is an entire race of people who were ripped from their homes and forced to colonize another land? The solution certainly isn't Liberia, which is itself a colonial exercise.

How do you address the fact that any black person will tell you that a nation created for and by black americans would be a pretty good deal in their book? How do address the fact that our colonial nation isn't their nation and they know it? What do you do? Do you call them reactionary? Do you tell them that their desire for a home of their own is because we orphaned their ancestors and that they need to get over it?

Comrade, these are the questions you need to answer. You need to listen to the people we have colonized and you need to really observe our material conditions.

We live with the unique situation that, as a result of a vicious and often ignored genocide, the colonizers are the majority ethnic group within the colonized land. White people make up 57% of this country. And unlike other colonized regions, there's no France for us to return to. There's no England, there's no Belgium, there's no Netherlands, there's no Spain. The working class white is stuck here. It's up to us to address our own reality and to understand that, ultimately, no way and no how can we be the face of revolution within the united states.

No white led communist movement will prosper because, even now, we still have too much to lose. Our people will never start the fight as we are now. Understand that.

#This isn't the completed speech #Which I am writing as homework for my Rhetoric class #but it encapsulates a lot of the ideas I want to address #Colonization #Decolonization #Communism

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starstruck-sillies · 2 months ago

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system of color here, i’d say theres definitely some racism in the community. the closed name thing like you mentioned, but also how a lot of white systems treat the topic of diagnosis (the idea that diagnosis is always available to those who can afford it and that misdiagnosis just means “well you really are [misdiagnosed disorder] then!”, despite people of color, especially black people, being more likely to be misdiagnosed) and like. Everything about the “is tulpa closed culture?” discourse.

Oh yikes, thanks for telling us, I never even noticed anything like that.

I've definitely heard a lot of issues around diagnosis. We're unable to get a diagnosis right now and likely won't be able to anytime soon, and it's really irritating to see people just. Completely write us and our experiences off just because we legit can't get diagnosed currently. We should still be able to talk about this stuff and our system, especially when what we're learning about CDDs and how to handle them is helping us a ton. We're much better off now than we were when we weren't acknowledging it or just trying to convince ourselves it was something else, and we can advocate for ourselves better.

And yeah, I can definitely see the misdiagnosis thing being frustrating. The way people talk about it really makes it feel like they're just intentionally ignoring the fact that misdiagnosis happens, and because of that, they end up alienating a ton of people, mainly black systems like you said. They say that it's a big problem that so many people are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, which is correct, but then turn around and only respect people that are diagnosed, and act like those that aren't can't know anything.

I understand why they're so obsessed with only accepting those who are diagnosed, but things are not that black and white, and there's a ton of nuance to the issue that people refuse to listen to. It's annoying.

The "is tulpa closed culture" debate is a big can of worms that we've just stopped bothering with. We've seen very different opinions from systems of color, and we realized we don't have the knowledge to form an opinion on it, so we just stopped. We don't know what the truth actually is, and with how split opinions are even among POC, I doubt we ever will.

-Milkyway

#we kinda went on a tangent about the diagnosis thing bc we're very opinionated #it's something we have experience with personally and we wanted to yap #anti endo #syscourse #system #osdd system #syspunk #traumagenic system #systempunk #osdd #osddid #actual system

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kick-a-long · 9 months ago

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your post from a few days ago about the defeatist logic of antisemitism raises another point:

as you said jews are a concrete target. i would also add that we are the easiest target. there's only .2% of us and we are seen as inherently alien by everyone (most ppl have never met a jew so we're sooo unrelatable and mysterious to them) which leads to antisemitism being ignored/labelled unimportant.

because antisemitism is seen as unimportant and gets easily dismissed this leads to an interlocking of all other bigotries with antisemitism being the odd one out. leftists can care about racism because it's something everyone faces and the same applies for homophobia (which is seen as universal), islamophobia (there are hundreds of millions of muslims and it's viewed as a form of racism) and the list goes on. but antisemitism is labelled and viewed as a jew only problem. so why must anyone else care? its the easiest thing in the world not to. for the longest time i saw non jews pair antisemitism with every other form of bigotry as if trying to make it relatable so people can view it as a real problem.

these are really important and good points. as you said, the problem of "antisemitism always needs a chaperone" is both that antisemitism is not treated as important as there are so few jews and it's treated as trodden ground. "not important" if it's on it's own, but also that antisemitic attitudes never travel alone either. it's always the structural underpinnings of violent extremism and the hatred of any other group and it needs to be addressed as THE issue behind the escalation to violence. jews are seen as both an easy target but also a worthy (aka powerful) one that makes an extremist look like they are going up against something much bigger than they are.

that jews are rich and powerful is also widely accepted as true even by centrists.

the end of discussion, dissent, and figuring out how to improve obvious problems in society, and the beginning of random mass violence is antisemitism. people need to recognize that it's where the violence is coming from. you don't need jews around to have antisemitism. not only that, but you don't need to be jewish to catch a bullet because of antisemitic theories that say violence is the only way to defeat (((the jew))) as imagined in antisemitic conspiracy theory.

look into any mass shooting, terrorist attack: black, white, brown, blue, red, purple, green... you will find antisemitism tying it all together and demanding blood, soil, and death.

#jumblr #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism

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punkeropercyjackson · 6 months ago

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Pjo fans insist they don't see Percy Jackson as autistic but the proof is in the blue pudding in how they treat him that they know he's audhd and not allistic adhd

They make fun of him for his (special) interests because he's super into 'kiddy/silly' things and pretend he's into ones he's never even mentioned(The Little Mermaid,Nemo,etc)while ignoring his actual tastes,they call stupid 'affectionatelly' when he's expressed verbally AND in his narration so many times it's upsetting and that it's something he's resigned himself to eternally happening to him rather than growing to like it,they turn his younger loved ones into his 'babysitters' when HE'S the one constantly looking out for younger people on eldest sibling/pseudo-dad instinct,they treat his lack of social skills as a moral failing even though nobody ever fucking taught him how to mask so now he literally can't and the peer abuse,parental abuse,parental abandoment AND grooming into a child soldier for his entire teenage years did NOT help,they insist he's a stereotypically masculine cis man despite countless instances of misandry and discomfort in male roles and gender neutral at BEST gender presentation and several moments that heavily indicate he wants femininity and maybe even womanhood and they invalidate his autism as even a posibility with the excuse he has adhd,as if they aren't a super common combo platter and autistics/audhd people aren't misdiagnosed-on purpose at a number of not uncommon times!!!-as adhd is seen as more 'normal' than autism

Of course Perseo 'Percy' Isadore Jackson is autistic!!He's the personification of black audhd and the abuse and alienation that comes with it!He's also the paragon of how cool black audhd people are and our cycle breaking and reclamation of our traits we were forced to think means there's something 'wrong' with us but you whatever the greek equivalent to weaboo is geeks won't let him be cool,BECAUSE he's audhd and you think every autistic person is 'supposed' to 'accept' we're losers so you can't get uncomfy🥺 when confronted with the fact autism IS a spectrum,not as a joke but as a reality,but you don't wanna say that so you deny he's autistic to not feel bad even though what you're doing IS bad!!!!!Like objectively,Percy is a role model for neurodivergent kids to show them they're not what their tormenters say they are and that they can grow up to be the adults they needed to save them when we were younger when everyone just choose to hurt us!Percy is NOT allistic,he's the most autistic character of the entire american media 2000s-2010s era and if you insist he's not,just call him a r*tard instead.It would be less ableist than this embarrassing disaster you oldheads who harrassed a lil black girl,for existing as something other than a blonde unnatural eye colors white girl,have been pulling since what is going to be 20 years in not too long.What if i killed 'Pjo fandom elders' who want the gender ambigious autistic afropunk anarchist to sell out for their premordial booktok ships with hammers

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retconsatlightspeed · 6 months ago

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Here's how I'd fix Skeleton Crew

see my previous post for my general problems with the series

Give it a full 10-12 episodes. Disney has more money than god, they can spare some.

This is a kid's adventure movie, so why do the kids want to go back home from moment 1? The reason that the binary sunset is one of the iconic images of starwars is that it expresses Luke's (and the audience's) deepseated longing to go somewhere they've never seen before, which SURPRISE: is why we're watching a scifantasy story full of weird and wondrous vistas and alien critters. Either have these kids desperately want to leave At Attin and want to turn around later, or have them stranded deep in a part of unknown space and make getting back difficult. Then you drop them on a series of weird, wondrous worlds chock full of starwars magic (stuff from old movie genres with a scifantasy twist, practical effects, marketable iconography, and the occasional callback) and have them grow in response to adversity. It's adventure writing 101

Lets say that after their first hyperspace jaunt, the kids get stuck on some planet and are having fun, but then get picked up by pirates who have their outlaw port station in orbit.

Have Jod be actually a good guy at the start. We the audience know he's not what he claims to be, but he's charming and legitimately protective of the kids. Let him build a unique relationship with each of them that helps further both their characters: He's building a mentor bond with Wim, he's encouraging Fern's independance, He's recognizing KB's talent, and he's helping Neel to be brave.

This directly interfaces with why the kids want to go on an adventure in the first place: Wim is convinced there's something more to life than the suburbian drugery he was promised, Fern was stifled by constraints and rules, KB was coddled because of her disability. Neel should be our only character who WANTS to go back at the start because he's scared and wants the saftey blanket, but over time learns to come out of his shell and enjoy the wonders of the cosmos. The parts are there in the series already, they just need to be highlighted.

That gets us into Jod's arc. "Pirate with an unfortunate conscience" is a good starting point, but the show bungles his character by saying HEY THIS GUY IS UNTRUSTWORTHY every episode preventing us from ever getting close enough to give his betrayal weight. Instead lets try this: Jod is a goodguy forced to be a badguy, his hero's journey got cut short when his mentor got killed in front of him,...and he bumped around the galaxy taking worse and worse jobs until he ends up a bountyhunter who ends up crossing the wrong crimelord. He gets declared an outlaw, falls in with the pirates, and tries to be a good captian until his "bluster past your inability to be cruel" schtic gets sniffed out by his crew. What he sees in the kids is a chance for redemption, to be the goodguy his mentor wanted him to be, even if he has to tell a LOT of white lies to make them like him.

Jod helps get their vessel ship-shape while taking them out on adventures/field trips where we build up character relationships. Fern gets a semi-dangerous planet where she can cut loose, but learns the value of being a leader ( something something, if you're a captian you look out for your crew). Neel's outings are focused on getting home, but he gets to see some cool stuff that says the rest of the galaxy isn't so bad. Wim gets to visit the ancient Jedi temple of his dreams and we can have a sad meditation on what it means to follow the force in a galaxy without the order. Jod can also have some feelings about this. KB's adventure is sidetracked by her augs malfunctioning, and after the kids are overly protective we get a lesson about not treating people with disabilities as lesser.

Ready for the twist? Jod doesn't betray the kids, he genuinely wants to get them home and be a hero for once in his life. Instead as we keep doing the field trips, we keep running into situations that tempt Jod into going back to his scoundrel/pirate past, but he abstains... until he has to break out the merciless survivor persona to protect them. The kids are HORRIFIED, seeing all the time they've spent together as manipulation. They call him a villain and leave him on whatever plannet they're on as they make the last sprint towards home. That's right: the kids betray HIM

Heartbroken, Jod does a heel turn. The universe has been trying to cut out his heart since day 1 and the kids just went and twisted the knife. If he's not going to get to play the hero then he'll just have to play the villain, he calls the pirates and tells them about the treasure.

The end is mostly the same, except Jod just wants to do a rehash of his previous "Pretend to be scary to get the loot but don't hurt anyone" plan, while the pirates want to take the treasury planet for themselves and force the inhabitants to be their slaves. Queue Jod and the kids forced to reconcile to save their home but fundamentally change it at the same time.

The quietly authoritarian suburbia mystery is actually pretty great and just needs the slightest change: Rather than destroying the overseer, the pirates reprogram it. Forcing the population to work under Orwellian surveillance for an absent republic isn't THAT different than forcing them to toil for a bunch of exploitative marauders. The great work can continue, now there's just someone closer by beneifiting from it. Latestage capitalist decline from global markets to techno-feudalism anyone?

In the end, no one gets what they want, and they're all the better for it. Jod can't be the hero because he has to come clean about his past. The kids get to go home, but they've brought the danger and wonder of the galaxy back with them. Now all of At Attin is looking up at the stars, wondering what adventure will come their way.

SM-33 is there, he's my perfect little 9ft robo-skeleton-pirate-son and I will not hear a word spoken against him.

#starwars meta #skeleton crew #star wars #star wars skeleton crew

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popculturebuffet · 5 months ago

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Black Hair-Story Month Special: Black Hair in Animation

Happy black history month all you happy people ! Every year, often with an idea from my patron weirdkev, I try to do something for black history month. Black lives, history and culture matter and I should dive into them more than once a year.

Still Kev pitched and paid for an excellent idea spotlighting a tredn in animation recently: episodes on black hair.

Now i'll be upfront: i'm a white middle aged balding man. I do not know much about hair let alone the proud history of black hair and the far more shameful history of what white assholes either shaming it as casual racisim or outright coopting it.

I do know I LIKE that we're getting stories like this, to learn something from my children's cartoons. That kids have something they can relate to and other kids can learn about without asking awkward questions that make their freinds deeply uncomfortable.. or in the case of one of these episodes learning that very lesson. It's why diversity in animation matters: personal experience adds that much more to a work, and we shouldn't try to homogenize shit to appeal to everyone. In a time when DEI is being treated as some sort of boogey man by the right, it's good to say "no inclusivity rips". So I will be covering these as they are: pretty good to truly excellent episodes of television and a wonderful short that woudln't be possible at all if we didn't let black creators say what they want and didn't hyperfixate on bein "relatable" to everyone.. aka white cis assholes and no one else.

So join me under the cut for five excellent tales of black hair maintence, casual prejudice, living hair, oblivoius men, heroism, and goblins.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) MGADD was one of Disney's best shows and the beginning of it's marvel renisance in animation. After a hiatus following that spider-man animated series everyone forgot happened, it was a bold welcome return.... that disney canceled after 2 seasons while also shelving a trans rights episode so "parents can have those discussions when their ready"

Yeah this show came out in 2023.. and is already over. It's sobering to realize how short a lifespan that was.. long enough to still have a decent run but way shorter for a show that had the praise, style and Laurence fishburne this show had. It took a solid concept from the comics that had a weak execution and made it something special. This episode highlights that. The premise is your standard kid genius plot: to get around a problem in their everyday life our science hero invents something that seemingly solves the problem but really just makes it worse till they confront the actual issue. To the series credit and my suprise it happens way less often than I thought: out of the series only 8/40. And in half of those the chaos isn't entirely her fault: in half of those it's someone else asking and in both cases things going wrong are the subjects fault: Devil took too much potion and Pops apparently does a mad science instead of being honest with his wife about his insecurities.

In the other half, Lunella dosen't use her creation: She creates a date for the dance, but it dosen't turn out well (Though I still count it as she intended to.. and also count the time she remolds said clone later in the season), and decides NOT to use a mind reading gadget for a sleepover. It only ends up an issue because Pops (Who unlike the above example didn't know about the superhero thing yet) mistook it for a remote because pops is good at many things but technology, respecting personal space and telling a dog apart from scottish david tenant alien dog are not among those things.

It also helps most of those cases that do happen.. are grounded in her insecurities in classic cartoon fashion: in this case a combination of being annoyed at her mom's instiance she take hair maintence seriously and a classmate calling her hair "messy" who Casey, Lunella's best friend, tells to go to her office. Which is code for "beat your head into the girls room stall till you learn your manners bitch", lead lunella to make a straightner.

There's also a reason why she can't just buy some her mom's terrified of it. literally. It's a fantastic cuataway as she throws the thing across the store like it's got a mummies curse. Let's be fair though: I'ts the marvel universe. That's absolutely possible.

I also like that Casey is supportive but repedeately emphasies Lunella's hair's fine: she just gets her friend needs to experiment. She helps her style and when the experiment goes wrong offers her a wig from her vault. I love that for some reason this child has a wig vault including a dolly parton and a punk look, thigns she'd never wear but hey you never know when you need to do cosplay.

Or just want to for funsies when you find it in a dying Party City. Whatever works.

Things going wrong in this case is "Lunella's hair falls out" or so she thinks. It instead gains sapience and commits a mass wig murder, killing both Sheba, Lunella's wig and all of Casey's other wigs to teach her a lesson. And to homage fatal attraction as all children's cartoons do.

Turns out Lunella's hair's sentient, and has become Mane, who is mad she never appricated her: didn't use the right comb, a hair bonnet, nothing. And she.. has a point. While trying to take over the world over it is a bit much even that's standard marvel buisness. I mean we wouldn't have paste pot pete if some guy hadn't decided to use his adhesive to do treason. And what kinda world would that be?

I also love the resolution: First Lunella admits her screw up to her mom.. not the living hair monster part, but everything else.. and despite being pretty militant about the hair thing and appricating it.. Adria and Mimi, her mom and grandma, are both sympathetic. Both get the pressures of the world's white nonsense: that her hair is too "messy" or "Unkempt" and both went to lengths to fit into that shit: Mimi tried hot combs, which sounds like pure hell and set her hair on fire and adria had a straightner accident. They both get it just happen and help her learn to appricate what she had: that yes hair takes effort.. but it's a part of her worth celebrating and it's something Lunella realizes: She liked it's bounce, it's look, how it fit in her helmet. You don't appreciate something like that till it's gone

Thankfully what took her hair wasn't neglect and male pattern baldness so unlike me she has a shot at getting it back. She first plans to use a relaxer, what both she and her mom goofed on using it.. but fighting it dosen't go well> While Devil easily ko's the hair dryer Mane uses as a sidekick mane morphs into a doppleganger and this mirror match is too much.. so Lunella instead.. apologizes. Is sincer and honest.. and thus gets her hair back. NO idea if her hair is somehow still sentient she just can't move but she's content, Lunella's content and in a nice bit of continuity Lunella uses a hair bonet the rest of the show.

Hair Today Gone Tommorow is an excellent episode. It set a high bar that only one other episode and the short cleared, covering a subject well, the prejudice one faces, in a fun way. The jokes are on point, including Casey's 40 wig funerals and Lunella's well meaning gym/science teacher's lesson boiling down to "robots amirite". It's excellent stuff and a good intro to the show if your curious to try it.

Hair Comes Trouble (Karma's World) Karma's World is one of two shows in this pile I hadn't seen before. It's also the weakest of all 5, though this episode's still great. It's just clear Karma's World is aimed at a younger audience without anything really there for adults. It was also produced and created by Ludracris.

Karma's World is your standard aseop of the week show from what I can gather, about a middle schooler named Karma who wants to be a rapper and raps. And... not very well at times. The intro rap is painful and the ending rap is not better. Now is it the dumbest rap i've encountered in a cartoon? Not by a mile. I mean it dosen't have the human torch talking about how a girl has gone on to another while he sings his funky song. It's just eh.

That said the rap Karma has about her crisis and her hair is REALLY damn good with a nice beat and some excellent flow. The show could do better and I get this is for kids.. but making music for kids is no excuse. It's not a remote one. If Phineas and Ferb can make a good song an episode, so can you.

Plotwise the episode works as it touches on accidental microagressions: Karma has a sleepover with her friends which goes well.. till they play a fashion game on tablet and don't want to just.. do Karma's hair feeling it's too messy. And when Karma prepares to use her hair bonet, a device used to keep hair safe and curly, her friends baragge her with questions about her hair and thent ouch it without her permission, all acting like she's over reacting. Even newly minted bestie and main character Switch thinks she over reacted.. when Karma.. didn't. Her friends didn't MEAN bad, they were juts curious. It's a nicely nuanced conflict; Karma is absolutely right to both feel uncomfortable and to set boundries. Having someone randomly touch you is not okay in any context. But you get her friends didn't realize they were being offensive. their just kids. Kids say stupid shit.

So like Lunella karma wants to change though unlke Lunella Karma LIKED her hair at first... it's just insecurity creeping in. Thankfully a talk with her mom gets her to see her hair is fine, it's part of her etc... and that it's okay to set boundries. That's a lesson just to this episode but a valuable one in general and especailly in this context: It's okay to be honest about something you thought was uncomfortable and just because someone else thinks you overeacted does not mean you did. Your autonomy matters at any age. And a talk with Switch making things clear gets an apology and Karma.. is fine answering questions at lunch. But it's now on her terms instead of being barraged and made to cry. There's a line between curosity and taking honest questions, and making someone feel bad.

This episode was decent. I didn't really vibe with the show but again it's just.. not made for me. It's made well even if some of the raps were weak, but it's for small children and unlike say BLuey isn't built to go beyond that. It is what it is.

Trial and Hair-Or (Fairly Odd Parents: A New Wish)

I'm so happy to get to talk about A New Wish. From what i've seen of it, I fell behind quickly and will watch it in fully with my friend @jess-the-vampire one of these days (I've been busy and we've had other stuff take priority when we do have time to watch stuff), but what i've seen is excellent, with nice Peanuts Movie style animation that's pure gorgeous and is how you do a reboot: everything happened but it uses a fresh angle to bring it back in this case the simpliest way: Timmy naturally moved on, Cosmo and Wanda find a kid who needs them in the kind and enthuastic Hazel whose struggling at first with a new city, her brother moving to college, and slowly making friends.

A New Wish freshens up everything that's badly aged about the original: Hazel's parents are loving and simply work a lot, but still make time for her compared to Timmy's mostly absent and neglectful at best parents. The cruetly of the world is toned down to realistic levels, and Cosmo and Wanda are scaled back to earlier season levels and the time between series clearly helped their marriage. Gone are jokes about Wanda being a nag, Cosmo being miserable and Cosmo is still stupid, as he should be, but not callously so. He simply needs to, as hazel puts it in the episodes best gag "work on his active listening skills".

Hazel herself is a nice pivot from timmy: She has diffrent intrests such as french fries, scary movies and shojo manga, and tends to be less Selfish. Not that timmy was lacking in giving, he'd often help his family, but Hazel is way more warm hearted. She still has the same short sightness most kids do, but unlike Timmy tries to learn from past wishes. A simple character change and a shift forward in time make everything feel new and combind with the animation and humor, it's easily one of the best reboots i've seen and hopefully will come back for season 2

All this praise said Trial and Hair-Orr is weak plot wise. Joke wise i'ts fucking phenominal as Hazel wishing for special hair gets her sentient hair whose offended she wants to pizzaz it up with something other than a bow. Hazel's various hyjinmks trying to trap her hair, from a war style look to the old west are pure fun and her father's obession with bows is adorable: Her mom was SUPPOSED to help her but got called away and while he mans well.. the man knows nothing.

My problem is the episode tries to frame it like Hazel was ungreatful or didn't appreciate her hair like Lunella.. but she does. She loves her hair. She just wants to jazz it up a little. Unlike Mane her hair diana is just.. a massive dick whose very fussy. The jokes in this one work VERY well but the attempted heart just dosen't. It's an episode that could've worked better, but is okay at least as is. If nothing else it'll always have this

I missed this dipshit.

The Great Tangle (Zookie of Planet Ruby)

Before this I had never heard of this show.. and there's a reason for that. Once again Nick devalued one of it's shows.. but even for nick the way this show was treated is bafflingly. So this show was a co production with Nelvana that seemingly aired normally for it's canadian airings.. but over here rather than air it themselves nick sold it off to Amazon... who did no advertising for it. They gave not one iota of a shit about this series and it pisses me off. I expect that from Viacom, nick is riddled with shows the network threw away for stupid reasons despite being a success by anyone elses metric. But while Amazon Prime used to be wonky with their animated shows they've treated most decently. I mean invincible's budget could use a boost, stop that shit it's making you enough money to buy the moon, but animated shows generally aren't in horrifying danger of being canceled after one season which i'm aware is a bar so low James Cameron's gonna have to fish it out and raise it again, but that's where we are with animation right now.

I'm glad it came up though as Zookie of Planet ruby has vibrant as hell animation and a fun sweet silly tone. The short of the premise is Zookie, a gerbile like alien with magic powers, escaped his tyrinical world and king after watching the videos of Ruby, a young content creator. We've gotten to the point where "characters making videos' Isn't painfully cringy as a premise again, and the two's friendship is nice and wholesome. It's mostly an excuse for a galaxy hamster to learn life lessons and outwit a tyrannical dog king and a tween nightmare. Also he makes a squirrel able to talk.

This episode is one of the series few half hour episodes and it's excellent. It tackles thing from a similar but still distinct angle from Moon girl. Like Lunella ruby sees her hair as just.. hair and her weekly wash day as something that takes 80 years and isn't worth it. So she decides to solo it. Rubu's Mom well meaningly TRIES to stay out of it.. but is panicky the whole time and understandably concerned when her daughter just.. dumps all the product in her hair and is okay with it.

It's a nicely done conflict: Ruby like any kid dosen't understand why something takes forever. As a kid I HATED clothes shopping.. and I still do unless i'ts a t-shirt, but I get it takes forever for a reason and you need new clothes and kids grow out of them constantly. But her mom should've just been honest or at least insisted on teaching her everything first. It's nice to let your kid be intendent but you have to make sure they CAN do something they want to do themselves.

So while making a video Ruby jams a whole ass ginger bread house in there and can't get it out. Her Grandma.. just wants to use the hot comb and it's a nice show of how good a mom her mom is: While Ruby's Mom won't intervene, simply telling her daughter her hair needs TLC... she doesn't let her grandma use the hot comb aka traumatize the shit out of her. It's a low bar sure, most people shouldn't let their parents torture their children, but not every person can clear it.

This being the show that it is, Ruby's solution is to have her best friend use his magic butt sparkles, techincally tale but semantics, to make her hair okay. I also love the quick cutaway that shows Zokie just uses a painful machine for style and only dosen't for Ruby because her bones aren't built that way.

Instead he magics the hair which makes it grow, and grow and eventually envelop the town, fred and her house, leaving the two alone in a gingerbread house with a mysterious hair creature.

Said creature is the tangle in her hair that caused all this whose happy... and mildly upset Ruby wont' take over her. She also tries the creepy stalker route to that planning to keep her forever when Ruby understandably plans to RUN, RUN, RUNNNNN.

The solution naturally sin't that as her hair has smothered the town.. but to finally ask for help. It's only with her mom, more sparkle sparkle magic, and fred's grumbling can they start to fix the tangle.. and actually help her. It's only with love, understanding and patience that this works. Tangle goes away but she'll be back in like.. a week.

The Great Tangle is a fun story that tackles the issue from a very simple idea of "Why does hair care take so dang long". Because it's necessary to make hair good and simply takes a while. It also has a good joke for two, a lot of great animation. Admitely ZOPR isn't the funniest show to me personally.. but it does have great animation, fun characters and a lot of creative energy. This was the third show in this batch to do living hair.. but none of them had the hair take over the whole town and unlike the last two where the hair was kind of a jerk tangle was obesessive and went a bit too far.. but wasn't outright EVIL she simply didn't understand that kidnapping a child forever is frowned upon. She's more a sympathetic monster than a sympahtetic monster who goes right to taking over the world or just a dick.

Hair Love

No celebration of black hair in animatoin would be complete without the wonderful academy award winning short. I have not seen i'ts spinoff series young love. I intend to and feel bad as it seemed to just.. stop at one season. Then again it's hard to tell if it's a viewership problem or David Zaslav just decided fuck it.

At any rate Hair Love is a truly excellent short following a little girl as she tries to get her hair ready using a hair blog... one revealed towards the end to be her mothers. It's a nice reveal as you can possibly figure it out... but it helps add a punch. She wants her hair nice for some reason... and that being part of it really helps explain it.

She tries but being a small children, that dosen't go well. She also has a cat but he's mostly there to meow disaprovingly at her dad, who tries his best or just a big bow but is clearly NOT the one who does this. He also gets into a boxing match with hair.

Hair Love is a sweet short about celebrating your hair, and about effort. The dad basically give sup but once he gets WHY his daughter is so determined, doubles down, uses his wife's videos and gets it done. It also has a truly incredible nad heartbreaking twist: the wife/mother.. is coming out of cancer treatment. The short implies and the series seems to confirm she's fine, it's at the very least in remission and her hair slowly grows back over the credits.. but it's the final button on the short that makes it all tie together. Hair Love is beautiful, worth watching.

Honestly.. all these episodes are worth your time. Moon Girl easily won with Hair Love a close second, The Great Tangle RIght behind it, the karma's groove ep after that and fop at the bottom.. but none of the episodes are bad and all tackle diffrent sides of black hair: Learning to apricate it, the challenges of accidental well meaning racism from your friends, proper matience, making sure your hair isn't an asshole, and that the time and effort is worth it for those you love. This is a wonderful collection of episodes and I was happy to review them. Thanks for reading and i'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.

#black history month #moon girl and devil dinosaur #karma's world #zokie of planet ruby #fairly oddparents #a new wish #hair love #young love

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genderqueerdykes · 9 months ago

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hiiii so ive been meaning to say this for a hot minute but thank you for speaking up for two spirit folx. we're so often neglected for more mainstream western mostly eurocentric labels & most only treat us as an afterthought if we're even considered at all in queer history & now so thank you it means a lot !!

hello there, thanks for taking the time to send this message!

i'd like to be more inclusive and help talk about two spirit identities more- currently, i feel like i'm not as educated as i'd like to be, as i've only known a small handful of two spirit folks personally. i'd like to make sure i'm being as respectful and accurate as possible whenever i do mention these identities and issues, because i know so much of that eurocentricism ends up alienating a lot of two spirit individuals

i attended a queer rights conference in 2011 or so, and listened to an indigenous speaker on two spirit issues. there, i was introduced to the concept that many two spirit people do NOT consider themselves queer or LGBT due to how eurocentric those identities are. i know that not every two spirit person feels this way, but it's helped me realize that not every two spirit person identifies the same way, just like anyone else, and it's important to listen to that diversity in experience and not force people into a system that may not fit them at all whatsoever

but there's also what you're discussing, which is that many two spirit people do identify as trans and/or queer, and white queers just do their very best to ignore that or act as though it's not something that belongs in the community. cultural queer identities are extremely important and if a two spirit person believes they fit into the queer community due to their experiences, that is their right and their experience deserves to be discussed just like anyone else's, as it's complex and nuanced just like any other LGBTQ identity

i am here to both uplift two spirit and indigenous people, while also not putting words into their mouths and speaking as though i'm a master on an identity i will literally never understand personally. it's not my place to try to understand it from a personal standpoint, but it is my place to try to help people feel welcome in how they identify, whether or not they feel they fit into our white eurocentric concepts of queerness, but also to not deny that person's identity if they do feel like they are part of the queer umbrella

it's still something that's extremely important to talk about, just like how it's important to discuss intersex people who do not view themselves as queer due to their intersex conditions. i know there are many white people out there who would ask a two spirit person "why not just identify as bigender or genderfluid?" which is so painfully disrespectful. some people's identities are inherently tied to their culture and that desires to be heard

some two spirit people identify as trans and queer, and some don't, and that's okay. every person who has this experience deserves to talk about it and feel represented, and not feel like their identity is a backseat to everyone else's. if anyone has good resources on two spirit identities actually written by indigenous people, i would love to read more. unfortunately so much information on the internet has been written by those same white europeans and their descendants and i do not want to listen to those voices at all when it comes to this subject

i hope to be even more inclusive in the future! thanks for your kind message, i hope to become even more inclusive and educated as time goes on. hope you are well, take care of yourself!

#asks #answers #two spirit #2s

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erose-this-name · 1 year ago

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what it means to be human

The common correct definition of the word "human" (according to science anyway) is HOMO

No, not like, gay, (unfortunately). I mean any member of the Homo genus. Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis etc.

Yes, the Neanderthals were human. There used to be many humans. We, the Sapiens, are just the last remaining human species.

But we don't remember a time when this was not the case. So we often conflate "humanity" with "species" with "sapience" with "personhood". (even though just calling ourselves human is the common usage and was also the scientific usage until a century or so ago, but still)

So what is and what isn't human?

This is an issue in my own writing (which is why I wrote this post). Since it's a speculative evolution project, I use the scientific meaning of human, which is to say only ever as a collective term for all the humans. There are many species of human which are people, there are humans and species of humans which are no longer people, and there are people that are not human.

All monsters are inhuman, that is a given regardless of how inhumane they are. Though I feel like "subhuman" has no accurate applications, though. "Human" should not mean superiority.

Unless the monster has human origins like a werewolf or humanimal, etc, in which case they would still be human. But they may no longer be people if they are emotionless, mindless, not self aware.

I don't know if a "soul" is required for personhood, certainly not for humanity. Mindless zombies may be reanimated with a soul, therefore have a soul, but that doesn't make them a person. Vampires usually do not have souls, but surely are still people.

Anything evolutionarily descendant from anything once called a human is still a human, even if they no longer resemble one. Kinda like how all birds are dinosaurs.

I don't know if Pinnochio can become a real human, taxonomy can only be inherited by birth and Pinnochio was not born. But I can say that becoming a real boy can not change the fact that he was already a person. In fact, he was always a real boy as well. Gender and sex and humanity and personhood are of course separate.

Likewise, I'm not sure if human minds uploaded to mechanical or didgital bodies like the All Tomorrows Gravitals or in SOMA cease to be human or not, though I lean towards them losing humanity but not personhood. But most 40k Necrons do lose both personhood and Necrontyr-ity (they weren't humans to begin with but aliens) as they are made into mindless machines. But cyborgs retain humanity if they retain any human flesh.

Elves/Dwarves/Halflings could possibly be humans, depending on if they have some kind of shared origins with us.

Hence why I don't like calling the "Human" """Race""" in fantasy settings "Human", especially if the "humans" in that setting are Just White People™ because then we're normalizing the idea that only Europeans are Humans and that only Humans are people and the obvious logical conclusion to that.

An intelligent self-aware robot capable of all the emotions we have like GLaDOS, AM, etc is not a human, of course not, but it is a person. Not being human makes them no less deserving of life or rights. But, because they are not human, we will surely treat them like objects when they are made. And they may feel the need to act accordingly.

Bottlenose dolphins, which scientists have found to also be sapient, and self-aware, and quite intelligent, and can use tools, even have their own languages and cultures must surely also be people.

But, because dolphins are not human, we have decided they are just animals and their lives and quality of life are worth much less than ours. We can strip their oceans of all value leaving only pollution, deafen and blind them with ship motors, and even kill them without consequence. We don't even have the decency to call what we've done to dolphin pods "peace keeping", let alone war. But it's "crimes against humanity", not "crimes against people".

Say what you will about dolphins, accounts of them raping each other and abusing pufferfish are well known, so they aren't always nice people. But neither are we. Dolphins are also known to save drowning humans and fight off sharks to protect their pods. Doesn't that only prove they also have the same free will we do? Why is it that when we finally acknowledge their humanless personhood, so close to ours, we feel hate and disgust?

If/when we find intelligent aliens, will we do all this again?

And if the aliens or elder gods or whatever it is find us, will they have the same issue? Will they consider Humans underserving of life and land just because we aren't Alien? Will we deserve it?

#writing #writeblr #spilled thoughts #speculative biology #world building #scifi

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seriousfic · 1 year ago

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Furiosa And Its Response: A FAQ

Q: What’s Furiosa about?

A: Ironically, for all the claims prequel Fury Road wasn’t ‘about’ Max, Furiosa isn’t entirely about Furiosa. The first hour or so features Furiosa as a child, kidnapped from the Green Place (an idyllic oasis whose people live in peace and abundance, zealously protected against the post-apocalyptic depredations of outsiders) and then becoming the prisoner of Dementius. Dementius is sort of the villain protagonist of the movie’s first half while Furiosa is on the sidelines.

He seems like the last gasp of the savage warlords like Toecutter and Lord Humongus that we saw in the Mel Gibson Maxes. He is entirely about increasing the size of his horde while taking and consuming any resources he can find. He comes into conflict with Immortan Joe (the villain from the ‘sequel,’ Fury Road), who is more of the iron fist in the velvet glove, and one of the interesting points of this movie is how Joe seems like a reasonable administrator in contrast to Dementius. He’s an awful person, obviously, but at least he keeps the trains running on time.

Furiosa grows to adulthood caught in-between Dementius and Joe’s feud, eventually moving to escape and return to the Green Place.

Q: Is it as good as Fury Road?

A: Not quite. It has a new cinematography look that tends to give things a plasticky CGI sheen, like Attack of the Clones or something. I know that they did a lot of the effects practically and that Fury Road used a lot of CGI itself, but yo, what's the point if it looks fake?

Also, towards the end, Dementus gets into this "we're not so different, you and I" deal with Furiosa that feels like a reach, considering he hasn't seemed to be motivated by revenge at all throughout the story, just bog-standard ambition and lust for power, so trying to make him a dark mirror to Furiosa now seems like a strain for profundity.

Q: Is it woke?

A: I’d say not unless your definition of woke is so expansive that it’s basically meaningless. The themes of the movie are too universal to belong to any one political movement.

-Rapists, tyrants, and warlords are bad.

-In a radioactive wasteland, it’s good to live in a self-sufficient oasis.

-Good people try to avoid violence when possible and want to live in peace.

It does have a female protagonist, but so do Aliens, Terminator, Kill Bill, and a buttload of Michelle Yeoh movies. If you say that you’re fine with female protagonists, just not with poorly written ones, then I don’t see how that’d be a problem here.

In fact, it’s stated that the reason Furiosa is so badass is because a straight white man, Imperator Jack, saw her core toughness and mentored her. He’s not at all a simp and is treated as a paragon of masculinity—reasonable, respectful, self-controlled, and hypercompetent. He and Furiosa are in an implicitly romantic relationship.

That’s right. Furiosa is so cool because a boy fell in love with her and taught her everything she knows.

Other men help out Furiosa on her quest and some women are enthusiastically villainous. In that respect, it’s even less ‘feminist’ than Fury Road was.

Q: Okay, how’s it doing at the box office?

A: Not well.

Q: Why is that?

A: Opinions vary. Some say it’s because, despite the movie’s quality, it’s getting caught up in a backlash against ‘gender-swapped reboots’.

Q: Is it?

A: Possibly. I should note it isn’t meant as a ‘passing the torch’ ‘legacy’ ‘rebootquel’, just as a spin-off. The next movie that director George Miller wants to do is a prequel to Fury Road focusing on Mad Max, entitled The Wasteland. So this movie is more like if, between Batman movies, they made a movie about Catwoman going on a solo adventure.

Q: It can’t be doing poorly because it has a female protagonist, the most successful movie last year was Barbie!

A: You’re telling me female audiences showed up for a wacky comedy with a big showstopping musical number, but not for a gritty action movie focusing on death and revenge, despite both having female leads? It’s almost like girls like girly movies while men like manly movies (most of Furiosa’s audience is male—and I wonder how much bigger it would be if they’d advertised Imperator Jack’s presence instead of keeping it a secret).

Q: All movies are doing poorly this year!

A: Godzilla X Kong did well, as did Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Dune 2, The Beekeeper…

Q: It’s been a long time since Fury Road came out, people forgot about it!

A: It was a long time after Beyond Thunderdome that Fury Road came out.

Q: Well, people are only going to the theaters for big event movies!

A: Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy in an epic action movie follow-up to Fury Road isn’t a big event? Look, I’m not saying these aren’t factors, but I remember seeing a movie before this came out and overhearing an elderly couple looking at a poster for Furiosa and muttering, in a disgruntled fashion, words to the effect of “Oh, great, they made Mad Max a girl.” I think it’s very possible that Hollywood has killed the market for female-led action movies by making people think they’ll get a deliberately assaultive product every time they try their luck.

Q: But aren’t woke people turning consuming politicalized product into a secular religion?

A: Umm… maybe? I think most people who are fans of anything get pissed off when quality work goes ignored while slop (reality TV, Michael Bay movies, Call of Duty games, comics about Batman) get hugely appreciated. Everybody should probably not take the box office so seriously, since the important thing is that we have a fun movie to enjoy, even though it is frustrating that we could’ve had a whole trilogy of Rocketeer movies if just a few more people had bought tickets. Jennifer Connolly, in her prime, playing a thinly veiled Bettie Page!!!

Q: Then you think I should see it?

A: Yes. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, obviously, but if you like action movies or prior installments in the franchise, it’s hard for me to believe that you won’t get your money’s worth here.

Q: Does it have good disability representation?

A: Uh. I guess? It’s in the context of people having birth defects owing to radioactive fallout from nuclear war, but sure. Why not?

#furiosa #mad max

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thebitchkingofangmar · 6 months ago

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Back in the beginning of May of 2024 I took a masterclass on Tolkien's mythopoeia. It was given by a Tolkien scholar, translator and consultant for adaptation projects on Tolkien's work. The focus of the workshop was the study the creation of the Fantastical Myth in Tolkien as a source of knowledge. Mythopoeisis as an epidemiologic act of literary creation. I ate it up.

However, there's one thing that the lecturer said that comes back to me every now and then which mildly enrages me whenever I remember it. He said he was always taken aback by Tolkien's popularity in places that shared nothing of Tolkien's irl culture or worldview. That is to say, outside of England and Europe. He was amazed how Tolkien was read and related with too. Naturally, the man was white and European himself.

This is why it annoys me so much: do white Tolkien scholars think other places in the world do not have a countryside? That the Hobbits could only be envisioned by someone who was deeply tied to the English countryside? When I think of hard labouring people who love their land around them and eat six meals a day I don't think about Hobbits first, I don't think about the English countryside, I think about my own. That there is no such thing as an universal culture doesn't mean there are plenty of common places that different cultures have arrived to in vastly different ways. I agree that there is no other like Tolkien, in the sense that he was able to do what he did, and his work has the value that is has, because of the specific material circumstances surrounding him. His way of engaging with the world and engaging with it through Fantastical Creation is not unique to him, but in the western literary canon he is the precursor of it in a way his moderns imitators (not people inspired by him! imitators!) cannot carry that tradition forward. But even the extremely specific circumstances that made Tolkien Tolkien, are not unique to him. Sometimes, it seems to me like white Tolkien scholars and white Tolkien fans think that because of his cultural commonality with him there are no other places who also draw to the feeling of eucatharsis of hope, the wish for the dawn to come, the last stands for the sake of what is right in the wake of your world being destroyed, alien powers that seem all powerful, older than you, bigger than you, destroying your land and your culture and the bonds between your people.

How is surprising to any of them that Tolkien is read in China, in Latin America? In Africa, by indigenous people, by mixed people, by people of colour* and then related to? How are people surprised we're still able to see ourselves in Tolkien's mythopoeia despite all their tries to kick us out, or their frankly offensive surprise that we relate to it? Sure, Fangorn would not exist without Tolkien's fascination with trees, nature and the English woods. I come from the same place as Valdivian Temperate Forests and the Altiplanic Andes with their majestic condors. I do not need to think about eagles in the UK to imagine Manwë's. I do not need to think about English woods to think about the forests of middle earth. Yavanna grows corn like both mesoamerican peoples and the Incas** and I'm supposed to not see myself there? These are just a couple of examples from my own background, but I know every Tolkien fan/enthusiast/scholar of colour will be able to easily draw their own. We see them in the fandom all the time.

Tolkien was neither your conservative uncle nor a secret progressive. He was a guy, with a non-cohesive belief system like most of us have, who explicitly said and left in writing to stop treating his work as allegoric auto-biography because it was not. This is my opinion, but his letters shouldn't be used to pick apart 'the true meaning' of his work in the way they are sometimes***. People should stop focusing on the 'mythology for England' letter, taking it grossly out of context, and start reading his essays on the fantastical, philology and literary epistemology of myths because they are FAR more relevant to understanding him than his personal thoughts. Also (and I will word it rudely) for a bunch of crackers so stuck in 'honouring' his legacy, which truly just means defending your own white fragility and selfishness, they are the first ones to do exactly what Tolkien himself asked people to not do with his work.

Of course, the lecturer wasn't one of said crackers. Aside from this and another opinion he expressed that is not relevant to this post, the man was a delight. This was one of the highlights of my 2024, even. Still, he carried the accident of his birth and the accident of the culture he carried as a white European like a naive threshold to his own amazement, rather than using it to open himself to what these other cultures could bring to the table in this specific matter.

The world is vaster than our pre-conceived ideas. It doesn't matter if Tolkien meant to write brown people into his work or not, because more often than not, he wasn't the one making it about race, even if some obviously racist ideas which are products of his time he could not get past. If universal to these people means homogenous, means 'same' as in identical, then that is their problem. Not one of Tolkien's work, not one of its fans/enthusiasts/scholars of colour.

*I am using the same demographic examples he used. **Using 'Inca' instead of the multiple denominations for the Tahuantinsuyu and its different ethnicities bc its simpler. ***Not talking about the literary criticism (discipline) done by scholars of colour regardless of whether I agree with it or no. Do whatever you want besties.

#originals.txt #long post #i rotate that moment in my head often and it still baffles me as you can see #tolkien

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azuremallone · 1 year ago

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Why it is that people need to pressure women to meet their sense of beauty is beyond me.

This isn't just me taking a defense for Kate Beckinsale. This is me getting angry that she's forced to respond to jackasses who want her to meet their ideals. She's a person. A Human who, whatever issues there are, has needs and troubles of their own to contend with. Suffice it that she has to explain an illness and personal tragedies she'd rather keep than share; There's always a contingent of assholes and bitches just itching to shit on someone without any consideration whatsoever to their personal well being, and disguise it in a maligned sense of "trying to help."

I can look like anything or anyone I want. I'm fortunate to be a shapeshifter. Yet that too has a price. It's uncomfortable and sometimes it makes me bitchy because I'm uncomfortable. Sometimes, I don't even want to go outside because I'd rather lounge in my true form watching TV shows and movies that no critics liked. And therein, when I go outside, I choose to take on a form that's appealing to other Humans.

I don't choose to look like anyone in particular or specifically, but I do take bits and pieces of other people's appearances that I like and incorporate them into the visage I see myself as in looking like one of you. I can't hide every little bit of me being an alien, but damnit if I have to still carry a sense of "normal" beauty to simply hide amongst you and avoid people looking too closely.

No one notices the average on the short-side height pretty girl who looks way too youthful to stare at for too long lest one get looked at as being a creeper. No one wants to gaze too long at me because I intentionally look like I could be a model just to make people feel nervous but also acknowledge my presence. And it's hard work.

I can't fathom how hard it is for women who can't shapeshift. They are who they are, flaws included. A bad skin day or a medical condition that flares up and suddenly you've got everyone's attention because you look different, unappealing, or gaunt. Heaven forbid that there's evidence you've been in the hospital because OH NO! You're there for some self-induced reason!

Decide to cut your hair short and people who love it longer make comments. Let it grow and people who love it short make comments. Gain a little weight and you're fat. Lose a little weight and you're anorexic. Too pale, too dark, looking tired, looking wired? On and on and on...

If I really thought that Humans wouldn't run screaming from me and could accept my true form, my lovely prismatic bluish-white scales, Azure colored dragon-like eyes, and my rippling musculature down to the tip of my dagger-shaped tail, I'd step outside and roar at the top of my lungs. But no, I can't, because you don't. Some fucking chode will pop their fucking head out of the basement, scratching their fucking neckbeard and comment how I'm poor CGI because I don't have the right size of tits for a proper furry, look stringy and could use a burger while wearing some better done makeup.

For fucks sake, treat people of any walk of life like any other person you know for once. Doesn't matter if they're rich, poor, famous, infamous, Human or alien, vampire or werewolf, politically aligned with you or not: No one is your enemy unless you make them one. Shut the fuck up or be kind and honestly compassionate.

"Oh, Ms. Beckinsale, I'm hoping you're well and wish you improved health. If you're willing to share, we would like to understand what's troubling you. We're all here for you if you need our support. We enjoy your work, so do be well soon!"

How fucking hard is that?

No, you get, "Your cheekbones are showing, eat something."

youtube

#just azure things #just azzy things #wicked bitch of the midwest #what the hell is wrong with you #you got some wicked tastes girl #dankmark #dank #youtube #shit azzy says #shit azure says #putting up with bullshit #just girly things #just girly thoughts #just girly posts #just girlboss things #Youtube

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rei-ismyname · 10 months ago

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From The Ashes: X-Men #5 Review

Spoilers, obviously.

A Journey to the Centre of the Mind Issue

Mambo number 5 is about as close to a bottle episode as it gets in comics, so the main question is 'does it succeed at that?' Cyclops appears briefly at the beginning and end, but he's not a main character per se. The focus is on Kwannon/Psylocke and Quentin Quire - two characters with little, if any history.

Let's assume this white lady is Kwannon, GRRR

It's nice to see Kwannon and Greycrow are still together, though he used to be a lot more attractive. I'm not talking about the weight he's gained, that's great. His facial structure is off - he looks like Kraven the Hunter. I don't think the art style is doing him any favours. They're having the same conversation they've always had so the Kwannon focus is off to a boring start. There's nothing here we haven't heard before, and she's not talking like a real person. Very writerly, like someone who's read the script and is telling us their blunt themes. Trauma stays with you and repeats itself over and over, but unless you're going laser focused on the subject you want to give us something new.

Okay that's pretty funny

Aside from that threat and Quentin saying 'kicks', nothing new here either. 20 pages is a very limited amount of space - I don't think this is the issue for using three of them to set up a smash cut joke. I'll come back to this intro. This mission is the reason these two weren't available last issue. A psychic rescue of Ben Liu, the dude they rescued in #2 and argued with Agent Lundqvist over in #3. He's in a coma and Cyclops tells them not to take their arguing into his head.

There's the 'aliens' he was projecting in #2, and Quentin thinks something is off. Kwannon is right, people usually use sign language and projection during psychic rescues/surgery. He disagrees, of course. The imagery is interesting, but again I feel like we're not learning anything new. I'd expect act 2 here to be more dense - it's a hyperfocused issue but the content is light so far.

Yes, he was experimented on. See what I mean? The art is showing the most blatant 'torturous experimentation by humans' imagery possible - is the most interesting dialogue possible to have them plainly state that? Or to have Kwannon just say she can't see something? This type of mission is an archetype at this point, so we've seen it done well before. Not just in comics either, this is a cartoon/sci-fi staple. People understand the premise, especially if you're economical in setting it up. I think it's a miscalculation to treat the new readers they're trying to hook like they need their hands held. Anyway, there's an entity of some sort - a psychic jack-in-the-box who looks and talks a lot like Cassandra Nova.

Except it straight up tells them who did the experimenting. Great security system lol, or maybe one that assumes they won't be able to tell anyone. 3K sound like overly elaborate dumbasses.

It goes straight for the jugular trauma. Quentin's fear of abandonment name checking his parents (who he accidentally killed, are we retconning that or is this his adopted parents? Probably the latter.) Also Wolverine and Phoebe, which are nice to see acknowledged as important relationships. And of course Sabertooth, who beheaded him and carried it round in a jar, using him as a tool to hurt his friends. It's both very effective and stuff he's mostly dealt with already. Maybe that's why it doesn't stop him for long. No mention of Idie, his oldest friend who's not very impressed with him? No mention of his guilt from X-Force war crimes or the hundreds of times he died? No mention of Krakoa, the loss every mutant should be feeling? Of course not.

Kwannon sees John Greycrow telling her she's wrong and killing himself, and that's it. She has wayyyy more hectic trauma than this so maybe it's fear or insecurity. Either way it feels very small - I love Greycrow and them together but she's a lot more than the relationship. She had a daughter who died, she was bodyjacked for decades, she's been terrorised by Sinister. This feels more like Greycrow's issues than hers. If this is followed up with them being super codependent then fine, it's worth the page space. Right now it feels like Quentin is the main character and Kwannon is a paper cutout. 'I can't' are words I'd expect from Quentin, but Kwannon keeps saying them this issue. If you're not doing it properly, maybe leave her outside as the anchor or something? Focus on Quentin so we get a deeper look under his hood, setup his arc for this run. Psylocke has a solo book coming after all, plenty of time to get to know her again.

Also, is that how Black Bug rooms work? The usage feels odd to me but I'm being hypercritical here. Weigh in if you know.

Quentin hears a psychic gunshot and snaps out of it. That was easy! Cassandra Nova must be losing her touch. I guess it's not the real her anyway, just an echo. Maybe she's not up to her old tricks and letting them know the name of the enemy was intentional. I doubt it, but we'll see. They use Quentin's Omega power and Psylocke's finesse on a psychic fastball special. His echoing of her threat to him as support is a serviceable callback, but it foregrounds Quentin again. Simultaneously too much and not enough, though at least it justifies her presence on this mission.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Is it just me or is that a shitload of blood on the ground? This is the last page, directly following the one I showed above it. Here's what we learned

- Benny Boy is awake.

- 3K are responsible for the adult X-Gene activations.

- On baseline humans, which might recontextualise a thing or two.

- Cassandra Nova is involved.

So a bunch of dipshits dug up an old villain for the fourth time and borrowed a scheme from the Ultimate Universe. Why? How? It'd be good to get Beast or Scott's reaction to that, but there's no room. There wasn't even enough room to show how Kwannon learnt this, but it's a pretty reasonable deduction. My earlier question was 'does it succeed at being a psychic rescue issue?' Just barely. It checks all the boxes but left a lot on the shelf. It took too long to get to act 1 for Kwannon beats that weren't worth it IMO. Yeah I want to know about her but having too broad a focus meant we arguably learnt more about Greycrow than her. We learnt nothing new about Quentin. The psychic rescue was setup last issue, I think starting in media res would have freed up 5-6 pages to put some meat on those bones.

X-Men comics have a long standing tension between new and established readers. 'Every comic is somebody's first' is admirable, but the patience of established readership is finite. I don't think it succeeds well at either, to be frank, and it feels like that tension is a factor. I think at some point you just have to tell the best story possible, otherwise we're left asking 'who is this for?' That's capitalism for you, always chasing growth often at the expense of creativity.

Also, KWANNON LOOKS FUCKING WHITE. She's Japanese. Do better, FFS.

I don't really vibe with numerical ratings, so I'll just say that X-Men issue 5 is totally skippable. The information will be mentioned again and the journey wasn't executed very well. What a shame. The art is okay, consistent with every other issue of this title, except for the whitewashing. It's got a lot of choices I don't love but I suspect they come from editorial (Quent and Cyclops' ages etc.) Thanks for reading.

#x comics #review #x men #kid omega #psylocke #kwannon #quentin quire #cyclops #ben Liu #from the ashes #beast #john greycrow #marvel #xmen #comics #whitewashing

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