#with an ethnic twist apparently

[romnianistan]

@joannerowling

[Introduction]

While many articles have been written about Harry Potter and the school board genre or its relationship to fantasy, very few people have looked into the influence of the Gothic in Harry Potter (or in JKR's works in general). Part of it I think is due to the depreciation of Harry Potter by the cultural bourgeoisie, who only regard it as mere children's books that don't hold any actual literary value and that aren't worth to be studied seriously. Yet many tropes, storylines and plot devices used by JKR draw inspiration from the Gothic genre, bringing to it a modern twist by both adverting and subverting Gothic clichés. This inspiration is apparent in JKR's focus on broken families stuck into a cycle of poverty and violence involving incest and alcoholism or in the settings of many of the most iconic scenes of her book (to me the situation of Merope Gaunt, the way she's treated by her male relatives and the description of her house clearly allude to that of Catherine Linton at Wuthering Heights). In another (badly written) post, I tried to argue that one example of such a subversion in JKR's works was her use of the Gypsy theme -- Romani people as the embodiement of marginality, social and sexual danger as well as oriental mysticism --, a trope of Gothic literature most notably used by Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights and Victor Hugo in the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and that's been studied by Ken Lee in his article on Gypsylorism. But while JKR never once mentions Romani people in the Harry Potter series (an omission that is very interesting in itself; she's leaving out of her series the ethnic group that's been associated the most with witchcraft in folk tales for centuries, even though she's drawing inspiration from European folklore), she does mention them a bit in The Casual Vacancy and a lot in Cormoran Strike. However, as opposed to Wuthering Heights and HoND, Romani people aren't actually associated with paganism in JKR's books (they would have if she had been racist); their mention serves a Gothic aesthetic purpose as the non-Romani pov character starts thinking about Gypsy witchcraft and wandering, but that romanticising is quickly destroyed once the narrative brings up the actual reality of what it means to be Romani(-adjacent) in the UK: poverty and social exclusion. (In my opinion, this is a subtle commentary on how rich people idealize wanderness and poverty despite their being trauma-inducing experiences for the people who experience them.)

In my opinion, another influence of the Gothic is also the character dynamic she builds around Harry and Voldemort. In three different ways, the Harry/Voldemort dynamic parallels that of Dracula and Mina Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula: first, the in-narrative construction of that dynamic; second, the way that character dynamic is used as a plot device by both Stoker and JKR in their respective works; third, the significance/symbolism of that character dynamic.

1. The narrative build up

In both Dracula and HP, the psychic bond that unites Mina/Harry and Dracula/Voldemort is created in spite of Dracula and Voldemort. In Dracula, that bond is an inevitable consequence/side effect of the repeated blood sucking Dracula does on Mina. In HP, that bond is created despite the knowledge of Voldemort and as a consequence of Voldemort's murder attempt.

In both stories, that bond was created/reinforced by blood mixing. In Dracula, blood mixing allows Dracula to link his mind directly with Mina's. In HP, that bond becomes much stronger after the graveyard scene, when Voldemort also uses Harry's blood to regain life. In both cases, we have blood magic and DNA mixing involved, resulting in an identity crisis on the part of Harry/Mina (their sense of self is eroded after the distinction between their body and that of Dracula/Voldemort got blurred and as the emotions/thoughts of the other start influencing theirs).

Dracula forms a psychic bond with Mina Harker as a step towards mind control. He wants to read, manipulate and control her mind and her thoughts, and in particular, he wants to use it to spy on his enemies (Jonathan and Van Helsing). However, he is forced to block the link when he realizes that, if he can spy on the heroes through Mina, Mina can spy on him as well by being put into a hypnotic trance that allows her to sense Dracula and his surroundings and can feel how far away or how close he is to them. This is what eventually leads the heroes to Dracula and allows them to catch him.

In Harry Potter as well, Dumbledore fears that psychic link would be used by Voldemort to spy on the Order of the Phoenix through Harry. This is why Dumbledore ignores and isolates Harry for an entire year and this is also what prompted Dumbledore to get Snape to teach Occlumency to Harry -- to block Voldemort's thoughts. But Voldemort doesn't actually use the link to spy. afaik he only uses it twice: once to deceive Harry and get him to come to the Ministry of Magic, and once at the very end of OotP when he briefly takes control of Harry's body. But Harry (just like Mina) realizes he can use that link to his own advantage and spy back on Voldemort (he repeatedly does so in DH): just like Mina, Harry is able to feel what he feels, to hear his thoughts and to sense how far or how close he is.

So we have a similar process following the same steps: evil blood magic on the part of an unwilling villain first, blurring of identity second. In both stories, the psychic link serves as a war strategy playing out over a deep identity crisis. The difference is that this process spans 4 books and 13 years in Harry Potter, with many more smaller steps in between, but overall it's still the same structure.

2. The Harry/Voldemort (Mina/Dracula) dynamic as a plot device

Because everyone uses the psychic link to spy on the other, it becomes a power play for the two characters involved, symbolically representing the struggle between life and death (love and hatred). But it also serves a narrative purpose: both stories are written from the perspective of the heroes. By introducing the psychic link as a plot device, the reader can get some insight into the pov of the villain of the series. The psychic link then becomes a way to drive the action: after each discovery, the character (be it Mina, Harry, Dracula or Voldemort) takes action. They plan a fight/battle, they track each other or they fly from each other. With the psychic link, the writer (Stoker/Rowling) is able to write very cool descriptive scenes from a totally different perspective, taking place in a totally different setting we don't normally see otherwise (think of the description of the Riddle House at the beginning of GoF -- an apparition that is justified in-narrative by its being shown to Harry in a dream). In both Dracula and HP, the psychic link also allows the writer to write dialogues that have more to do with the mystery genre than the fantasy genre (what's the villain doing? are we sure that information is legit? who is he talking to?) Finally, and even if we have to wait a few chapters for it, it leads to the introduction of battle scenes.

So both Dracula and HP use the psychic link as a plot device in a similar way: 1. it drives the action by justifying the writing of descriptive scenes, action scenes and dialogues, 2. it makes the story even more compelling for the reader who gets to hear the exclusive thoughts of the villain in a setting we are not used to (the villain's lair!) so those scenes feel special and cool, 3. it allows the writer to diverisfy the genre of their book by introducing new elements taken from the mystery genre.

3. The symbolic of that relationship

Voldemort, just like Dracula, is an undead being, a living dead. While Voldemort himself isn't a zombie (an "inferi"), a ghost or a vampire, he does surround himself with them and his physical description is very much akin to that of the undead. Two of his most significant features are his paleness (also a recurrent adjective to describe ghosts) and his long, spidery fingers, which together can be used to describe both Voldemort and Nosferatu:

(book!voldemort literally looks like this bad guy over there ^ but without a nose and with red eyes -- and this is why he haunts my sleep sometimes!! that character design fucks)

Symbolically as well, Voldemort is an undead being, a living dead, as it says in his very name ("fleeing death", "flight from/of death"). In his backstory as well, Voldemort became twice a living dead. First, by spiritually killing himself and rendering his soul to the dark arts in pursuit of immortality (in much the same way vampires render their soul to the devil). Second, by falling victim to his own Avada Kedavra spell in Godric's Hollow. (Harry is an example of how one survives the Avada Kedavra; I wouldn't say Voldemort survived it considering all the (physical, if not spiritual) remnants of his past humanity were completely destroyed by it.)

More specifically, Voldemort is a vampire: in his very first apparition in the series, he is seen drinking the lifeblood of a living creature (a unicorn). All throughout the series, Voldemort is the undead that needs to feast on others to survive, by exploiting his followers (in the years following Godric's Hollow, he only survives by drawing on the life force of Quirrell and by living as a parasite with Pettigrew), by living on the terror he inspires to other people, and by turning other living beings (Nagini and Harry) into horcruxes (the same way a vampire would turn the human he drinks the blood of into another vampire). Of course, the number 1 inspo for Voldemort is the boogeyman: everyone in the wizarding world is scared to say his name in case he might literally materialize out of thin air. But he is not described (narratively, physically) as any boogeyman, he is specifically the vampire.

Just as Voldemort is Dracula, Harry is Mina Harker: a human being who represents life. Both Harry and Mina carry a part of Voldemort/Dracula's inside of them, and both of them are scared of eventually becoming like them. Both Harry and Mina survived their confrontations with Voldemort/Dracula thanks to the help of their friends (love and friendship trumping death). Both of them are also common human beings who have been involuntarily turned into something so much more unique by the very assault they survived. The way they responded to it (opposing hatred with love and bravery) turned them into something so much more important than mere human beings: they became symbols inspiring strength to others around them. And all throughout the story, both Mina and Harry retain that common-ness, it is repeatedly stated by both Stoker and JKR, in-narrative, that the only thing that sets them apart from others is Mina/Harry's ability to feel empathy and to draw strength from the love of others.

In the novel, Mina openly feels pity for Dracula - not for the monster that he is but for his soul, explicitly questioning whether it might want to find peace. In the last two books of the HP series, Harry also takes on a similar stance with regards to Voldemort. Dumbledore's last teaching was that Voldemort was someone to be pitied (don't feel pity for the dead but for those who live without love), and even though pity doesn't excuse evil, it gives us the moral ground to be better people and create a better world. This was also Dumbledore's most important teaching, the one Harry only fully understands by the end of Deathly Hallows, when he confronts Voldemort and says the only thing that sets him apart from others and that makes him stronger than Voldemort is the love he feels (only understanding this after spending the entire book trying to figure out why hadn't Dumbledore left a strong weapon, like the elder wand, for him in his will).

So in both their moral complexity wrt to the villain and in the ideals they represent, Harry and Mina are very similar. I would finally add that both of them represent vulnerable groups of people (children and women) who are victims of male/patriarchal violence: Harry (a 14yo boy) is abducted and tortured by Voldemort (an adult male) in Goblet of Fire, while Mina is metaphorically raped by Dracula. It's a bit tangential but I think it's another interesting parallel between these two; in all of her books, JKRowling often associates the harm men do to women to the harm fathers(/male authority figures) do to children and the way Voldemort repeatedly tortured, abducted and tried to kill Harry from age 0 to age 17 could also be one of the ways she builds on that social commentary.

[Conclusion]

=> So narratively, I would say JKR drew inspiration from Dracula when designing the Harry/Voldemort bond. In Dracula and HP, that link is established in pretty much the same way: through blood magic, DNA mixing and resort to the dark arts. It is repeatedly reinforced throughout the story following the encounters of Mina/Harry and Dracula/Voldemort, and it serves as a war strategy between the two of them as everyone involved realizes they can use it to spy on the other, leading to the ultimate demise of the villain. When it comes to character growth, the psychic link also works in the same way: it leads to emotional/mental/psychological distress for Harry/Mina who is scared to become evil too. Structurally as well, JKR used a plot device identical to that developed by Stoker in Dracula to create the Harry/Voldemort dynamic. The psychic link introduces a POV-shift in a book series that's otherwise almost exclusively written from the good guy's pov, drives the action by leading to descriptive/action scenes and dialogues, and makes the story more entertaining for the reader. Thematically, I would also say JKR drew inspiration from Dracula when creating Voldemort and Harry as characters. In the books, Voldemort represents a vampiric living dead boogeyman who rendered his soul in search of immortality (just like Dracula), while Harry represents the hidden force of life and love that lies inside the most common of people (like Mina).

[neoninky]

Ok am I crazy...? OR are Jamil, Kalim, Jack, and Leona all the same skin tone/color...?

-squints-

Putting their sprites together: I can see some very slight differences. Either way-

I feel dumb because I swear Leona, at least, had darker skin. Also more brown and less olive tone if that makes sense??

Hold up a second-

Yes Sam I'm looking for the rest of the MELANIN-also your sick skeleton tattoos what the actual fu-

Ok so I just imagined up an alternate version of Leona that was closer to Sam's color/tone apparently. Granted, I get that Leona is supposed to be African versus Sam who is Black American, and that lighter-skinned people in both ethnicities do, in fact, exist. And that's fine. I'm also aware that darker skinned people also exist in both as well. Along with Arabic or Middle Eastern people. And many, many, other groups as well. Variety and diversity are beautiful not just on principal but also in character design and aesthetics. The world ain't gonna fall apart just because characters have more variation in their skin colors, HOYO-I mean-Japanese Disney! Lawd...

Anyway all this to say, I was looking up reference pictures because I got my adapter for my Cintiq in the mail and I wanted to properly draw my OCs from Scalding Sands and Sunset Savanna with accurate skin tones.

And now I'm seriously considering redesigning one of said OCs because there seems to be plenty of room for color diversity in the world of Twisted Wonderland lol.

[ghettoeloquence]

Black Femininity.

Let’s talk Black femininity: a hidden gem that seems to be within blurred lines.

Disclaimer: For me to “investigate” black femininity properly, I have chosen several beautiful black women who sport natural hairstyles/protective styles, natural bodied, and has a creative essence that envelopes them. These women are glamourous, soulful, eclectic, and beautifully flawed. This makes them no different than you and I. Finding the unique in our natural beauty, and those that sets us apart. Quite frankly, this, to me, seems as if it’s the root and/or epitome of the beauty around the world. The golden standard amongst most.

Hello to you my glamourous ladies!

This discussion will be about something I’ve recently found interesting. So apparently, in today’s society (or to specify, the male-i-sphere), there is a discussion about the level of femininity that black women have in contrast to other races/ ethnicities of women. Now, I’ve spoken about submission (a biblical concept) in a worldly discussion and like always, it’s taken out of context. Or in other words perverted, like the devil does everything God creates. The world has been speaking down on black women for seems like forever but my issue is with black women. 

I find it really disheartening to see you accept this notion, let it sink into your mind, and become subservient to it. This is not us! We are the epitome of femininity and the origin of humans. Show some dignity, ladies (ouch, but needed to be said)! Believe me, I become furious when I hear what everyone says about us too, but we CANNOT, for the life of us, ingrain everything someone says about us. 

HOWEVER…

Lets get something CRYSTAL clear…

FEMININITY IS NOT INHERETLY EUROCENTRIC. 

FEMININITY IS NOT STARIGHT OR CURLY WIGS.

FEMININITY IS NOT DRESSING A CERTAIN WAY.

FEMININITY IS NOT SPEAKING SOFTLY OR A HIGH PITCHED VOICE.

FEMININITY IS NOT WEARING PINK AT ALL TIMES.

FEMININITY IS NOT APPEARING WEAK.

FEMININITY IS NOT APPEALING TO THE MALE GAZE.

FEMININITY IS NOT IN COMPETITION WITH OTHER WOMEN WHO ACT/LOOK DIFFERENT THAN YOU.

FEMININITY IS NOT ACTING ALL GIDDY AND BUBBLY AROUND MEN.

FEMININITY IS NOT BEING AN AIRHEAD SO THAT MEN CAN DO THINGS FOR YOU.

FEMININITY IS INNATE IN WOMEN ONLY!

If you as a women thing all these things are false, I got some bad news for you…

Black Women this is a wakeup call to realize that there is femininity in our own culture. There is femininity in our own hair. There is femininity in our own traditions. There is femininity in our own history. I hate to see black women who change or “tweak” themselves to appear more feminine (which they assume is the appearance of European women). Why do you think that femininity is inherently European? Why do you think that you have to wear your hair a certain way or talk a certain way to be feminine? Are you not enough already, as a Women? 

To me, this just sound like racist talking points regurgitated, twisted, tweaked, flipped, reversed, and spinned again. Why are you so comfortable portraying yourself this way for the sake of acceptable “femininity”? Why are you so comfortable telling the black female youth this madness? Who told you that femininity was a look? Don’t worry Ill wait…

This may hurt but darlings we must be honest with ourselves. If we like this “aesthetic” then cool but who lied to you and said that femininity is based off Eurocentric standards?

Here’s the truth: FEMININITY LOOKS DIFFERENT FOR EVERY ETHNIC GROUP.

How does Latinx femininity look? Polynesian? Asian? Middle Eastern? Continental African?

So why on earth are you so adamant on accepting your own femininity and embracing its uniqueness? I don’t blame you though because I’ve been there. I thought the same as you. I felt how you’ve felt. This has been ingrained in our minds since childhood. But were furthering it at this point. 

Let’s look at some of my favorite examples of what Black femininity looks like.

Thoughts?

[gracebethartacc]

FINALLY.... UPDATED JJHH REDESIGNS..!!!!!!!

Ermmmm design notes/hcs bc I don’t remember ever going into detail the first time soooo:

-more pleasing/more coherent color palette/color coding (orange for Jackson blue for Holt) bc god the og colors are way too all over the place

-sun/moon, yin/yang, half n half etc motif (the necklace, pants, sweater, earrings etc etc)

-holt isn’t straight up blue because.... brother look at his og design.... -_-

-slightly darker skin tone than canon just bc I think darker skinned Jackson designs are cool, tho I’m not 100% certain on his ethnicity just yet? Still up in the air like I said it was mostly just bc it looks cool to me lol

-more punk/emo type clothes for holt (patches on his jacket, nail polish, platform boots etc (tho technically I like the idea Jackson was the one who bought the platforms just bc I think he really likes emo fashion but doesn’t want to outright wear it))

-also keeping the clothes the same/consistent bc i find the logic of them magically having entire different wardrobes when they switch kinda strange lol ?

-hybrid features (you can’t see it here but Jackson also has fangs not just holt, and the “dyed” part of his bangs i like to imagine is actually side effect of being part fire elemental and his hair might slightly flare up if he’s mad methinks) (holt is the same too like his hair fading from Jacksons brown to the orange instead of being just full on fire, also his skintone being a bit human leaning and not like multicolor) I’ve not designed Heath but if I did then holts human aspects would be a lot more apparent to have a full fire elemental for comparison

-holts patches on the jacket are all just lots of dad rock bands I grew up listening to that I think he’d like (if you’re curious considering a few of them are just logos/not got the name, in order: Queen, the cramps, the white stripes, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, twisted sister, nirvana, journey (I saw them at concert actually!!), Pink Floyd, and cheap trick!^^)

-if it’s not also obvious from holts jacket but: duality boys got the transmasc/bi swag, alsoooo some autism/adhd too (tho not sure which one it would be specifically ?)

-hc that instead of music it’s overstimulation/stress that causes the switch, for holt tho I’d say it’s the reverse so like it would be understimulation? (This idea isn’t very new tho I’ve seen a lot of ppl do it but it just makes a bit more sense to me tbh, also plays into the duality aspect more) I’d say things go more by DID rules (tho canon does that too kinda? But also not really??), so fronting isn’t strictly stress related and can be controlled/at will, and I hc they have a kind of head space type thing but I’ve yet to get it down on paper just yet

-OH I FORGOT TO MENTION:

Based the cardigan on the one komos has in the movie bc it’s one of my favorite outfits that they used :D

Um I think there might have been more stuff I wanted to say but can’t think of anything else, sorry if this was rambly/I said stuff I’ve already talked abt it’s just bc I’ve not done MH stuff for a hot second so wanted to do a little hc recap, plus had fun going over the character design stuff !! ^^

ALSO: holts patches in full quality bc they where fun to edit/draw for a few of em:

[davekat-sucks]

ive also always interpreted meenah as like a female version of dave or dirk, making fun of upper class white girls acting "gangsta" as a form of rebellion against their rich upbringing; plus betty crocker was conceptualized as a white woman, and mituna even calls her what seems to be the troll equivalent to either cracker or wigger.

which is why i was weirded out when i learned how people vehemently insist she's black due to, apparently, her hostile personality and her... braids? wouldn't she be wearing box braids, cornrows or senegalese twists instead? she has twin basic braids, she braids vriska's hair in the same style too (why does nobody says vriska is culturally appropiating then?) and in any case, that is such an americentric take, hair braiding has been a part of various cultures all around the world for ages (vikings, mongols, thai, etc) and also done regardless of race or ethnicity. hell, to give fictional examples too, meenah has exactly the same hairstyle as haruka hashida from blue period or suzuha amane from steins gate.

i dont have a problem if people hc her as black or african american, it's just when they justify it with what seem to be very racist reasons, they are literally behaving opposite of the morality they claim to have and actually being harmful by propagating negative stereotypes.

Some people do headcanon Vriska as a black person sometimes. Remember, Vriska can't do anything wrong. So even if she made two people disabled (one on the legs and one on the eyes), acting like a bitch and claiming to be a hero, and created Bec Noir that made everyone trapped in the meteor in the first place, she can't do no wrong. So it is okay to headcanon her black. Why else people are afraid to make Eridan black despite both of them are the same first class assholes? All trolls, according to the nu-fandom, are black except for Eridan. Cause he is a racist asshole. True Vriska reveled in her blood color and top class, but girls like her can't be racist. But yeah. It's stupid that those who claim diversity, subconsciously apply stereotypes on certain things like believing braided hairs are only exclusive to black people. The same people had said this to Gamzee because his hair is like an afro. Only black people can have curly hair. No other race can have it, according to them. And then there's this bullshit about Insane Clown Posse pretending to be black because they rap, black's music art form, ignoring Eminem and other Asian rap artists out there. But then again, people were upset about Asians rapping and think they are taking away black culture. It's all around stupid in this world.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into the Unknown, Part 55

First

Previous

Damian pressed up against the glass, staring up at the fossils with wide eyes.

“Wonder what he’ll be when he grows up,” Marinette joked quietly, adjusting the tiny box of cupcakes she had prepared for their unofficial party at the science museum. “Maybe a weatherman.”

Tim snickered, his chin coming to rest on her shoulder. He was wearing a dorky little party hat, and Marinette rolled her eyes when he purposefully twisted his head to poke her with the point.

“He’s going to be the cutest little biologist the world has ever known,” Tim said proudly.

Marinette hummed her agreement.

~

You know, Hanukkah isn’t actually a huge deal in Jewish culture. There has been a rise in people talking about it in recent years, as to combat Christmas being thought of as a completely secular holiday, but it’s not really meant to be a Big Thing.

Why did Tim care about it so much, then?

Tim wasn’t a particularly pious man. He did some things, and forwent others.

But Hanukkah… was the only thing his parents cared enough to come home for every year. They would get criticism for leaving Tim alone during ‘such an important time of year’, everyone was asking about what their plans were and they couldn’t risk people wondering why Tim never seemed to be involved.

Hanukkah — for him, at least — meant family. Which was why he was so grateful that Marinette was willing to celebrate the holiday despite not being ethnically or religiously Jewish in any way.

And it was also why he was currently pissed off at Jack and Janet Drake.

Not his parents, they were long dead, but instead an alternate version of them. Which, apparently, couldn’t be assed to visit this year.

Part of him wanted to use Kaalki to teleport to wherever they were and punch them both in the face.

He wanted to punch them for what they’d done to this alternate version of him. This version that was curled up on his couch, wrapped up in his boyfriend’s arms, sobbing and wondering what he’d done wrong.

He wanted to punch them for what their counterparts had done to him. He’d never really gotten the chance to tear them a new one in his reality. He’d not realized the extent of their harm when they were alive, and there was nothing but a grave to scream at by the time he’d fully processed it.

It would have been easy.

He still might do it later.

But there was something far more pressing. Tim stared at the alternate version of him.

That could have been him.

It was him, technically.

A version of him that, despite the mental nickname for him saying that he was a worse version of Tim, had done everything right. It was just that doing your best, sometimes, just isn’t enough for some people. And sometimes the best thing you can do is take that first step, confront those terrible feelings you want nothing more than to push down and smother in hopes that one day, maybe, they will love you (if only you can meet their impossible standards)… and decide to simply move on.

Not run away.

Move on.

“You’re never going to be able to get their love,” Tim said, quietly. “No matter what you do. It’s not your fault. Sometimes people just aren’t meant to be parents, and the kids have to suffer for it.”

Worse!Tim… no, Other!Tim… looked up at him with wide eyes.

“You’ve done everything you can, okay? It’s unfortunate that you ended up giving your love to people that will never really be able to return it.”

Other!Tim started crying harder. Whether that was a good sign or a bad one, Tim wasn’t sure, but he did know that this was what he had needed to hear all those years ago, and if this version of him was anything like him at all, then this information might be good for him.

“But… the thing about family is that blood, ultimately, means nothing. You can choose someone else, if that’s what you want.” He sighed. “It hurts a lot at first, trust me… it still hurts a little now, from time to time… but you can’t really heal until you take that first step.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying for a smile.

“It just so happens that I know a family that might just be a perfect fit for you, if you’d like to try.”

Other!Tim was quiet for a moment, other than the sobs that were steadily petering off.

And then he nodded, a steely look in his eyes.

Tim got the feeling that Other!Tim may be doing this with spite in mind, with emotions as raw as they were… but just because someone didn’t have the best intentions in mind didn’t mean that they couldn’t accidentally stumble onto something good for them. Tim’s motivation back when he had become Robin wasn’t entirely pure, either, after all, even if he hadn’t admitted it to himself until much later — he’d wanted a family, people that would be there for him and would have his back through thick and thin — but he’d gotten better, both at understanding his role and responsibilities as Robin and at learning to truly care for the family he had suddenly found himself a part of.

He wanted to give this version of Tim the same chance.

(A similar chance that didn’t involve all the almost dying, at least.)

And… well, he could feel something coming. He could tell Marinette could feel it, too. A change in the air, a whisper that something will happen soon…

He wasn’t sure what would happen, but he did have one thing he was sure of:

He didn’t want to have any unfinished business.

For now, though, he smiled and poked the other version of him’s nose. Right where Kaalki’s glasses sat on his own face.

“Are you feeling better now? Because I want to go back to calling you Worse!Tim in my head and it feels weird to do that when you’re crying.”

“You call me what in your head?”

~

Listen, when you’re a kid, you think odd things. Like parties thrown in your name are actually about you, rather than excuses for your parents to bring over their friends with kids and have them distract each other for a few hours.

Why was this relevant?

Because that was exactly what Paige, Ava, and Marinette were doing with their kids (Floyd, Jasmine, and Damian respectively).

And also this:

“I’m older than you!” Floyd huffed. “So, I’m in charge!”

“No, I’m older than you,” Damian said.

Floyd turned to his mother, who paused in painting Jasmine’s nails. “Tell him I’m older!”

“You’re not, though,” Paige said, gently, patting him on the head.

Floyd blinked. “But… I’m taller, so I’m older.”

“No,” Ava said, her lips twitching. “That’s not how that works.”

“Though, seriously, Paige, what are you feeding that kid?” Marinette joked lightly, fanning Damian’s glittery green nail polish to get it to dry faster, since Floyd was insisting on them two playing with their action figures together. Damian wasn’t actually against it, he just wanted to wait for his nails to dry, which was where the original argument had come from.

“No clue,” Paige sighed. “The doctor said he might end up over seven feet.”

“… I just realized all our kids are probably going to be taller than me,” Marinette said, her eyes widening in horror. “I don't think my old, frail heart will be able to take that.”

Ava made a face at that. “Don’t say that. Jasmine, honey, you’re not going to be taller than me, will you? You’re going to stay my baby forever, right?”

“I’m going to be taller than everyone, momma,” Jasmine said.

Ava groaned.

~

Steph crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, so you invite your long lost twin brother to your weird psuedo-family Hanukkah gathering but not me?”

“Uh…” Tim was torn between pointing out that inviting a supposed family member to a family gathering made sense (he was trying to keep the lying to a minimum), admitting that he had mostly only done it because Worse!Tim was sad (not his story to tell), or just staying quiet and hoping for the best (likely to end in Steph being more annoyed with him). “Yeah?”

She huffed, wiping a fake tear from her eye. “Really makes a fake sister feel neglected, you know.”

“Well, if you want to go…”

“Of course I want to go, Tim!” She swatted at his arm. “I’m a college student do you really think I’m going to pass up a chance at free food?!”

~

“Marinette,” Steph said, pointing at two of the different pictures she had printed out. “There’s a difference between these types of cells. Don’t you see? This one has more of a round shape.”

Marinette who had finals coming up and was very much tired of staring at these things looked at Steph with dead eyes.

“Don’t play with me, Stephanie, they’re both round.”

“But this one is more round, see?”

Marinette did not.

“Man, I’m so going to fail.”

~~~~~

Next

@unoriginalmess @hammalammadamdam @astrynyx @laurcad123 @927roses-and-stuff @toodaloo-kangaroo @queenz-z @imarivers8 @jeminiikrystal @adrestar @twsssmlmaa @literaryhiraeth @trippingovermyfeet @ev-cupcake @its-maemain

[spongebobafettywap]

Thanks to all the anons who sent asks to you here we can accurately describe what the characters have become with the xmen blue origins retcon :

Destiny = Abusive pimp

Mystique = Willing victim succubus incubus

Nightcrawler = Ultimate mommy issues mutant Messiah + The main shipper and cheerleader for the abusive pimp and her willing succubus incubus

Rogue = Fakely loved second rate replacement child

Margali = Old abusive and evil child kidnapper witch + The worst possible caricature of her ethnic group

Baron = Abusive and violent husband willing to beat two pregnant women with a whip

Azazel = OP demon/mutant/who-the-f-knows-at-this-point main that prolly got a power boost after a tough breakup and can one-shot Doom Jean Grey and the Scarlet Witch but just draws the line if player 2 is a pallet swap of himself

Looool truly the genius works of Marvel it's like if M Night Shaymalam worked on all the twists alongside the writers of Empire, with heavy edits done by Rian Johnson.

One tangent I'm gonna go on here. I always found it strange how in almost every other media barring the live action movies, Rogue is always depicted as older than Nightcrawler but apparently in 616 he's always been older? Personally I prefer Rogue being older but given his origins have now put a permanent stamp as him being born in the 40s, unless Rogue also doesnt age like her adoptive family yeah that makes no sense.

I'm only okay with this origin as it now confirms Kurt doesn't age after a certain point which is something that should have been canon given that both Mystique and Azazel don't age at all.

Also cracking up at how Azazel is just able to one shot everyone like he's got all the highest stats, cheat codes enabled, all the armour, all the health potions, all the equitables, all the items, did all the extra missions to unlock secret items and now no one can stop him other than a younger, palette swapped version of him who has less fingers and toes.

[live-fast-pet-frogs]

The Good Lawyer, hopes and peeves

I heard the Good Doctor is looking to produce and episode that can possibly be a backdoor spinoff to the show titled "The Good Lawyer". Apparently it will feature a young female lawyer who has OCD. This was a surprise for me, as I expected that not unlike The Good Doctor, TGL would also be adapted from a korean show and my bet was Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

As a person with OCD I am quite sceptical about this choice though. While OCD is underrepresented in the media, it is also misrepresented and in most cases confused with OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder, with vastly different symptoms eg. keeping rigid schedules and experiencing distress at the slightest change in their routines), autism, or just general cleanliness or quirkyness.

In reality, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) is an anxiety disorder that consists of obsessive, intrusive thoughts that are disturbing and distressing (in some cases can be of violent, religious or sexual nature), and compulsive actions that can be but are not limited to self-harming behaviours. It is also an incredibly debilitating illness that can ruin relationships and make the sufferer isolate, harm and doubt themselves. Without the correct psychological help OCD can become chronic and can lead to the person becoming essentially housebound, or worse. It really sucks, take it from me. It is however treatable to a degree, and therapy can make a massive difference and bring back quality of life. I can say that finally after twenty years of suffering and three years in therapy, I am scheduled to come off my medications soon as I am finally feeling like my intrusive thoughts aren't directly interfering with my everyday life.

So now that we established that this is a serious mental illness, NOT a cute personality quirk, not a developmental disorder or neurodivergence, read this:

Do not get me wrong, the fact that it is role that's open to female identifying actors of any ethnicity and ability is great, and hopefully they cast an actress who has/had OCD and can bring some nuance in the role. But some of the wording around this synopsis really ticks me off.

"Joni's OCD symptoms take a severe toll on her personal and professional life."

This is good and realistic. As mentioned above, people with OCD can struggle with jobs, especially if they are in highly stressful workplaces, for example a law office.

"Joni (...) is often embarassed of her symptoms"

Again, visible compulsions can be a characteristic of someone with OCD. The thing about compulsions is, they are often unreasonable and the sufferer can feel the need to exhibit compulsions at random times and cannot always control themselves (even if they can it is very distressing to them). To give an example, one of my compulsions was knocking on wood, 40 knocks exactly with both hands, and then twisting my wrists 40 times. The intrusive thought that brought these actions out mostly had to do with the wellbeing of my brother who was severly ill at the time. I thought that, if I didn't carry out the compulsions, something would happen to him. Unreasonable, but at the time it feels so real that it doesn't matter whether you are in your room or in the frozen food aisle in Tesco, you have to do your compulsions. It is embarrassing when you feel other people's judgement or being misunderstood.

"She is a great lawyer, using her attention to detail, compulsive over-thinking and analytical skills as a superpower"

Here's where it gets icky. First things first, intrusive thoughts are not something you can control. You can't "turn on" ruminating when you want to, and definitely cannot use it as a "superpower". This was a point that was argued in OCD support groups but the majority of OCD sufferers including me think that it is rude and dismissive to refer to OCD as a superpower, or asking to focus on the "positives". Yes, in my case OCD gives me a higher sense of morality and a bigger attention to detail, but it wasn't usually in the positive aspects of life. I would refer to it more like a curse I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy rather than a superpower. It's an illness that needs treatment. The symptoms ease up following treatment. So portraying OCD like a superpower or something that makes you "special" can be harmful and get in the way of healing. This particular mindset and use of words is usually characteristic of those who aren't well informed on the topic.

Overall, I will make the final judgement AFTER I have seen the respective episode, but so far I am worried that this too will fall into the category of the misused "OCD trope" and fail to represent accurately. A lawyer with OCD is an interesting concept but I would rather watch the character managing her illness, and seeking treatment for it rather than try to use it to her advantage at work.

rant over.

[eddieydewr]

I’m glad Noah is removing himself from social media for his own peace of mind. It sucks but social media is toxic and he’s still so young and naive enough that he is prone to over sharing and putting himself in positions where people can be nasty or take advantage of him. It’s sucks to say this is an exercise in growing up the hard way but he does need to protect himself more and not everyone deserves a piece of him or his time. I just hope he’s ok mentally and has a lot of love and support around him now.

Also the zionist thing re the stickers. Wasn’t that his friends stickers and he was just showing them to Noah? That’s what I remember. Ppl be acting like Noah made them and was posting them around the town which he did not. And as for calling everyone a zionist, I think a lot of people don’t even know what zionism is at the most basic level—is just that jews think israel should be allowed to exist/they should be allowed to self determinate in their indigenous homeland. That’s it! How is that evil or bad unless you are an antisemitic piece of shit or you’re so misinformed that you buy the falsehood that israelis are all white european colonizers? Bffr. That’s literally what zionism is, no matter what these zoomers are hearing online or how some people might be twisting it into something far from what it actually means, that’s what being a zionist means in its simplest form. Just that Isreal should be allowed to exist. And that to me is not problematic unless you think jews don’t deserve to have a place in their homeland that expelled them. And do ppl think a jewish boy whose has ties to Israel is going to believe that Israel should not exist and all the millions of jews there should just… what exactly? disappear? relocate where? be killed? what’s the solution again? the fact that cheering for hamas and houthis literally terrorists who kill their own people and shove gays off rooftops and oppress woman and train child soldiers is ok and cool but believing innocent israelis who were murdered should be spared no sympathy and all those jews should not be allowed to have a home is not… just shows what a fucked up world we live in.

I think these people think that zionism = jews thinking they are the best thing ever and all the palestinians need to die but like… no? also like 90 percent or something of jews around the world consider themselves zionists so…. I’m sorry at this point all I am seeing is a lot of people who simply hate jews or aren’t educated about the situation and are putting western US racial politics overtop this middle east issue and they don’t overlap. at all. this has become the most disgusting display from a generation I have ever seen and so worry about this country. But I’ve said to my friends is give it time, as soon as their terrorist buddies decide to attack here again they might finally catch a clue that these “freedom fighters” aren’t their friends or to be cheered on

anyways if believing jews should be allowed to have a homeland and live there peacefully makes me a zionist? then call me a zionist. i would rather support that then cheer hamas

exactly, yeah. all this. they think noah recording his friends and smiling makes him evil and he was happy about people dying in gaza. 😭

they also think zionism and israel itself are based on the destruction of another land (palestine); ethnic cleansing and genocide. even some jews and holocaust survivors believe it (for many different reasons; some of them are actually non zionists instead) but their opinions are used by antisemites to bolster their ~anti zionist claims and israel’s right to exist. they’re also against a two-state solution and think israel should cease to be. israelis simply can use their dual passports (because all of them are dual citizens apparently) and go to brooklyn or poland 🤪 or just stay and become palestinian citizens. somehow i can’t see that going well for jews, especially if “from the river to the sea” palestine is under hamas’ control. so people are either stupid and don’t realise what they’re saying or some of them are actually honest with their intention; to push the jews into the sea.

[popissue]

i can't stop replaying in my head how my mother called ME uneducated when i expressed my horror over the atrocities that have led to the dead children of gaza, of the orphaned children born from martyred mothers, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers— orphaned, widowed, because entire families are being wiped clean from the earth. every safe haven at risk of being bombed and targeted. just about every lifeline intercepted. I'M uneducated... Because fox news calls us radicals for seeing how twisted the narrative has become, when i have SEEN israelian people on social media mocking the war that is apparently so necessary, it excuses these evil acts. they can laugh, belittle, drink in bars and caption their posts "war days🤍💙" while sunbathing — not covered in the blood of themselves and others, the dust of rubble. they can let everyone blame hamas for the mass genocide that has taken place in just 1 month because they know. THEY KNOW. Listen to the old soldiers of Israel laugh about how they tortured them then just as they are now. THEY KNOW.

I'm so sickened... And so angry. The faith I had left in humanity has wavered so much in these past weeks... and the fear has crept in. But we have to persist for those who cant. Do not stop talking about Palestine. Even when you're not online, DO NOT BE SILENT if you care. Not when the Palestinians have been silenced for so long. You don't have to already know everything, there's a lot of history. But it is there. You can find it. at least be open ... do not look away. Read what is being provided to us, watch the difficult videos, and imagine that this was your country and everyone in the world had turned a blind eye on you. Imagine these were your sisters, your brothers.... your mothers, fathers, uncles, cousins, grandfathers, grandmothers. Your friends and lovers. hear the words of these people as they beg for ceasefire so that this nightmare can end. So much has already been taken from them, DO NOT LET THEIR VOICE BE PERMANENTLY SILENCED BY ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GENOCIDE.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Hi, and happy STS! (As usual, I am @writeblr-of-my-own, this is my main and apparently I can't switch them).

Everyone of us has recieved the influence of someone or something when we first started writing. That is either because we like someone's techniques and we imitate them to better our own, or we were unintentionally influenced by a piece of media or literature we consumed, even as kids. So, for today's question let's talk inspiration!

What is a piece of media or literature, an author, a concept that inspired you? Do you have a role model that you try to imitate a bit in your works? For example in the way they do descriptions, or in how they create settings!

ooooh neat question!!

I am just gonna answer for my current WIP otherwise I could go on forever...

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Neilson (which I read when I was 11) I think has been the single biggest (unintentional) inspiration for how I write dialogue, first person narration, and humour, particularly for this WIP.

In terms of descriptive writing, my two favourite authors to emulate, in general, are Tolkien (basic, I know) and Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards). What I loved about reading Tolkien was the sense of place; you could find every single scene on a map, and you knew not just that there were mountains in the distance but which mountains from which direction. Lynch does something similar but for time, and with smells and daylight. You know what time of day it is in the city by the hue of the light, how the shadows fall, and the direction the wind blows from; and you can smell the muggy evening marsh wind and the crisp morning ocean breeze.

I also love how Tolkien uses careful word choice in his dialogue to tell you about the characters -- social class, age, race, ethnicity, corruption by the ring -- the simple, archaic feel of his prose, and how he sneakily stuck in many allusions to Shakespeare (mainly King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth). My current WIP being accidentally Shakespeare inspired, I figured I would look to Tolkien for some tips (even though my WIP is not fantasy). In terms of dialogue and prose, I noticed Holly Black do a YA twist on those same tricks in tFotA so I have taking inspiration from that series too.

[ikeberry]

crying. someone replied to my discussion post about human rights issues and the internet (in which i mentioned Israel's genocide against Palestine) and refered to the second as the, and i quote, "Hamas-Palestine conflict"

homie said they agree with the points i made when my point was about how the news twists its words to avoid calling it a genocide or ethnic cleansing. i literally said the news calls it a conflict to downplay the weight of what's going on. and that's not even touching on israel not even being brought up?? instead it's apparently the hamas to them?? how did we get to this point??

i want to ram my head into a wall.

[petitelepus]

I know, I know, I already asked for a matchup, but I love your writing too much not to ask for another. This time for an OC (TWST pls) (it's ok if you don't want to do this also) :

Full name: Saima Chowdhury

Race: Human

Pronouns: She/her (experimenting with they/them) (they're a demigirl)

Ethnicity: Bangladeshi

Birthday: June 11th

Height: 159 cm

Likes: Anime, drawing comics, video games, spending time with her older sister, sweets, fairy tales

Dislikes: Cruelty, confrontation, people threatening her friends and family, bullies, poorly written… well, anything, when her sister’s arrogance gets the better of her

Personality and interests: Saima is a cheerful, upbeat young girl. She has a way of speaking that makes a lot of people feel drawn to her, which is something her older sister, Parvana (who she calls Boro Apu) had always secretly admired. Growing up, she looked up to her older sister a lot, as she took really good care of her, helped her with her homework, and got along with her friends. She says that “looking back, she wasn’t conventionally cool, but did younger me care? Heck. No.” While she did look up to Parvana, she couldn’t help but feel jealous of her, as she had a lot going for her. She also thought of Parvana’s best friend Joanne as a second older sister, as she firmly believed in the power of kindness also. Her relationship with Parvana had grown a little bit rocky due to the two of them becoming isolated from each other. She and her older sister, however, are working to smooth out the relationship. While she is perfectionistic, she is also a little bit scatterbrained much to the dismay of her parents and her sister, who, as she says “are much more organized than [she is].” She almost burned the eggs she was making for the first time to a crisp. She is still working on her organizational skills and has come a long way, especially during her time in Twisted Wonderland, as apparently, someone has to hold the brain cells.

I hope this is enough infrmation. Thanks

I match her with Deuce Spade!

When Saima got transported to Night Raven College, Deuce was amongst the first ones who welcomed and took her in. He feels symphony towards Saima's situation and wishes to help her get back to her world and make things right with her sister.

Deuce feels drawn toward Saima's cheerful and kind personality. He used to be a quite troublemaker when younger, but he grew out of it and wants to do good and right and become an honor student. He is sure that with Saima he could do better. Deuce is extremely compassionate and he has a strong moral understanding.

Much like Saima, Deuce hates confrontation, bullies, and such. He tries to keep his temper in check but loses his cool when witnessing injustice. If anyone gives Saimi a hard time or tries to use her kindness for their own benefit, Deuce is there to protect her.

The young man enjoys watching Anime with you and happily lets you pick the shows you watch since they are different from the ones in your reality. Comics and video games are cool also and if Saima wants, Deuce knows a couple of fairy tales that his mother used to tell to him when small.

Deuce admires Saima's dedication to things that interest her and if she starts showing signs of her mind wandering, he is quick to guide her back on track.

It's symbiotic, the relationship between Deuce and Saima. Deuce protects her and she tries to keep him and his trouble-finding friends, Ace and Grim, out of trouble, which ain't as easy as it sounds, but that makes Deuce just admire her more.

[yorkshireword]

PETER SCHJELDAHL

[I]t became apparent that Matisse (to cite an example I am constantly asked about) often had intimate relations with his models. [However,] it seemed useless as well as tasteless to resurrect long-forgotten events whose main interest is in the category of gossip about the great. —Jack Flam, Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869-1919, 1986

I would be more impressed by Jack Flam’s delicacy, a standard compunction of Matisse scholars still apparent in the distinctly G-rated catalogue texts of John Elderfield’s great MoMA show, if I thought Flam covered his ears and hummed when interviewees started relating the artist’s amours. I rather suspect he listened avidly. So would you, and perhaps for reasons besides vulgar curiosity—not that there is anything felonious about vulgar curiosity, whose most effective cure is in being satisfied. You might, like me, be fed up with an exaggerated discretion that seems compounded of the indignantly maintained immunities of bourgeois gentlemen and the old formalist horror of tainting art with life. You might feel as well that a certain fullness of meaning and a depth of reality are missing from your comprehension of this figure so fundamental to everybody’s initiation into Western modern culture.

After sizing up the breadth and complexity of Matisse’s art in the MoMA show, I do indeed want gossip about the artist. I do not mean piquant anecdotes. I mean what Matisse did with which models, how he treated his family, what people who knew him really thought of him and so on. You know: the lowdown. Here was a man who agonized in the creation of apparently shadowless pleasure. Here was a galley slave of delight. Concealment of emotion—even as he drew energy from emotion—was his method, more or less. Elderfield in his catalogue essay theorizes ably on the psychological mechanics of Matisse’s work, but his account is frustratingly abstract for want of biographical grit. The how and even the why of Matisse’s sublimation are meager topics without the narrative nourishment of the what.

Start with Lorette, a smoking gun if ever there was one. Seemingly nobody knows so much as her last name. Matisse painted this black-haired woman, often with remarkable grimness, some 50 times in the years 1916-17. He was morbidly obsessed by her, it was obvious, during a time of decline from his period of greatest invention and also of the increasing domestic misery that he would flee when decamping to Nice. (Did he flee Lorette as well?) Elderfield helpfully hung a room at MoMA with nothing but Lorettes, including a full-length nude that is the most coarsely sensual of all the artist’s images. No reviewer I read picked up the cue. Face it. We have been as conditioned to overlook strange behavior in Matisse as children of a dysfunctional paterfamilias.

Matisse’s veiled private life is inevitably contrasted with the open book of Picasso’s. (Has anyone commented on the ethnic-class component of the difference? By being an arriviste Spaniard, Picasso waived a Frenchman’s privileged privacy; his monkeyshines were fair public sport.) I believe that backstairs stuff actually would be more useful in Matisse’s case than it is in that of Picasso, whose emotional and sexual motives—or their pointed abnegation (not sublimation) in the intellectual gesture of Cubism—are right out front. The tales of Picasso’s mistresses serve us mainly as aides-memoire in tracking his periods. The cold, shifty, self-absorbed Matisse is something else again, with his Arcadian thematics that twist and turn in obedience to obscure pressures. With a rare exception like Bonheur de vivre, where he left dreamlike clues in plain sight, Matisse’s pictures never expose his personality, only his talent. This very opacity is loaded with personal import.

Of course we should learn to take Matisse’s work, like that of any artist, in the way he meant it to be taken. But where is it written that we have to stop there? In wanting to know Matisse the man, I am seeking only a supplementary nuance, another point of access to the art—in this instance, the hidden term of a dialectic, the troubled feeling that accounts for the intensity of Matisse’s sunny-side-upness. The need for biographical data grows more peremptory with time (even as it gets harder to come by). Each new generation is naturally more ignorant of the social codes, including artistic style, that carried tacit information to the artist’s contemporaries. Less and less about Matisse, as about any historical figure, goes without saying. For no end of reasons, then, let’s dish.

[irithnova]

Adding

Fans of colour being called puritanical/obsessed with purity culture when we call out racism

White fans purposefully derailing conversations about racism that fans of colour are having

Fans of colour being called bullies when we call out racism

Fans of colours intelligence and/or literacy being insulted by white fans when we do something they don't like, like calling out racism

White fans using the struggles of poc to virtue signal on their blog but actually listening to poc is too much for them

Fans of colour being instant blocked for trying to explain to a white fan in the most sugar coated way possible why a post is racist

Fans of colour being tone policed when we speak up against racism and if we're anything but meek, polite and sweet, white fans will take that as an opportunity to dismiss us. White fans on the other hand can be proudly, egregiously racist and still earn a decent following

Fans of colour being blocked by white fans seemingly out of nowhere and then finding out that that white fan is racist

All a white fan needs to do when they're being called out on racism is go "I'm sad, you guys are bullying me" and they'll get white knighted by other white fans because white tears over being called out on racism is more valued than poc tears and anger when we call out racism

White fans accusing poc and other ethnic minorities of faking their ethnicity to escape being called out on racism

White fans using the excuse "I don't talk about politics on my blog", and then proceeding to talk about politics on their blog but avoiding anything and everything to do with poc because apparently that's too much for them

White fans using any and every excuse to not include even major non white characters in their posts

White fans playing on the worst racial stereotypes of non white characters to use them as cheap villains in their fanfictions or headcanons

White fans throwing around certain buzzwords like "manipulator" to throw at us when we call them out on their racism to paint us as abusive and conniving

White fans treating poc calling out racism like it's some sort of twisted play of power on the pocs end rather than just..them being exhausted at the racism in fandom

White fans using the fandom as some sort of safe space to let their racism run wild and to dodge accountability, even if the source material for their fandom was created by a poc

Reasons Why Fans of Color Leave/Don’t Interact with Fandom

Casual racism that is brushed off as “an innocent mistake” or “they didn’t mean it” and then everyone pretending like it didn’t happen and moving on with their day (repeat)

Speaking over fans of color about issues that pertain to them specifically

When fans of color speak out about something that makes them uncomfortable or why that don’t interact with it (usually because of the racial/ethnic bias) they are accused of being anti’s or pro-censorship

Characters of color being used as scapegoats/bashed/plot devices 

Characters of color never getting happy endings/real development

Backlash against characters of color if they do anything other than be a white character’s side kick/best friend

Actors of characters of color being harassed for something their character did or didn’t do

White characters/actors getting all the attention/credit despite the fact that they are a side character to a POC or on the same level as the POC

Fanfic authors patting themselves on the back for writing a “realistic” character of color and it’s just a bunch of stereotypes

Being told that they should be happy they were even included when they call out the above people

White fans crying about persecution/exclusion because their fav character/trope/kink/ship isn’t loved by all 

Fan artists re-imaging characters of color as white/lightening skin tone

Everyone rushing to a white fans defense after a well deserved call out while the fan of color receives hate

Never having a safe fandom space and always having to be on guard with new people/fandoms/chats etc because they’ve been burned before

Feel free to add

[dlibaas2]

Modern Ethnic Wear: A Fusion of Tradition and Style

Fashion is a reflection of one’s identity, culture, and personal style. In today’s fast-evolving world, where trends shift quickly, modern ethnic wear has emerged as a harmonious blend of tradition and contemporary aesthetics. It allows individuals, particularly women, to express their cultural roots while embracing modern fashion sensibilities. At Dlibaas, we celebrate this unique fusion, crafting garments that honor Indian heritage while catering to the modern Indian woman’s desire for style, comfort, and versatility.

The Evolution of Ethnic Wear

Ethnic wear, traditionally worn during festivals, weddings, and religious ceremonies, is deeply ingrained in India’s culture and history. Over the years, however, it has undergone a significant transformation. With globalization and the blending of cultures, ethnic fashion has evolved to meet the dynamic needs of today’s modern woman. This shift gave birth to modern ethnic wear, where traditional silhouettes and fabrics are reimagined with contemporary cuts, patterns, and embellishments.

Today’s modern ethnic fashion is all about versatility, allowing women to transition effortlessly from a formal event to a casual outing. Dlibaas is committed to offering this balance, with collections that cater to the modern woman who values both comfort and chic style without compromising her cultural roots.

The Elements of Modern Ethnic Wear

The essence of modern ethnic wear lies in the fusion of tradition and innovation. Here’s a closer look at some key elements:

Contemporary Cuts: Gone are the days when ethnic wear meant heavy and elaborate garments. Today, designers are experimenting with silhouettes, creating lighter, more practical outfits. A classic example is the evolution of the kurta, which is now available in asymmetric cuts, high-low hemlines, and minimalist designs, perfect for both formal and casual settings.

Fabric Innovations: While traditional ethnic wear often features luxurious materials like silk, brocade, and velvet, modern ethnic wear embraces a broader range of fabrics. Lightweight and breathable materials like cotton, chiffon, and georgette are used to create stylish yet comfortable ensembles that can be worn daily. Dlibaas prides itself on using only the finest fabrics, ensuring each piece feels as good as it looks.

Fusion of Prints and Embellishments: Traditional Indian fashion is known for its intricate embroidery, vibrant prints, and embellishments. Modern ethnic wear takes these elements and gives them a contemporary twist. For instance, floral prints, once reserved for casual kurtis, are now being used in more formal settings, while metallic accents and minimalistic embroidery are increasingly popular in modern sharara sets and lehenga-cholis.

Western Influences: The growing influence of Western fashion is apparent in modern ethnic wear. Palazzos paired with short kurtis, jumpsuits inspired by the traditional salwar-kameez, and crop tops paired with sarees are just a few examples of how Western fashion trends have seamlessly blended with ethnic styles. These designs offer versatility and can be styled for both formal and informal occasions.

Why Modern Ethnic Wear is the Perfect Choice

One of the greatest appeals of modern ethnic wear is its ability to suit various occasions, from office meetings to festive celebrations. Its versatility allows women to look polished, professional, and culturally grounded, whether they are attending a corporate function or celebrating a family event. The clothing’s adaptability also ensures that women of all ages can embrace the styles that resonate with them personally.

For the modern Indian woman, this fashion genre also provides a sense of connection to her roots. While she may live a fast-paced, urban lifestyle, her choice to wear ethnic pieces is a celebration of her culture and traditions, reimagined for the modern world.

Dlibaas: Redefining Modern Ethnic Wear

At Dlibaas, we understand that today’s woman wants to celebrate her heritage while staying on top of fashion trends. Our designs capture the essence of traditional Indian clothing, elevating it with contemporary elements. Whether you’re looking for something timeless and elegant or bold and trendy, Dlibaas offers a diverse range of styles to suit every occasion.

Our collection of modern ethnic wear includes elegant sharara sets, contemporary anarkalis, and stylish sarees with modern twists. Crafted with attention to detail and high-quality materials, our garments are designed to empower women to look and feel their best, while staying true to their cultural roots.

In conclusion, modern ethnic wear is more than just fashion; it’s a way for women to express their identity, blending the old with the new. Dlibaas is proud to be a part of this journey, offering clothing that embodies the spirit of the modern Indian woman: rooted in tradition, yet always moving forward with style.