#Cultural Specificity

[chronictranssexuality]

"you don't owe anyone anything" You are a tar pit. Speak for yourself. I personally owe the cafe employees my dishes put away and my friends a listening ear and small scared insects a cup and a gentle trip outside. Hyperindividualism is a rancid infection borne of capitalism and willfully misinterpreted therapyspeak and I will defy it by continuing to be kind regardless of whether or not it benefits me personally

[saja-star]

a phrase that kinda bothers me when talking about women's historical roles in europe is "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear it so often, those exact words in the same order even. and once you learn a little more you realize that the massive gaping hole in that list is fiberwork. im not an expert and have no hard numbers, but i wouldnt be surprised if fiberwork took up nearly as much time as the other three tasks combined, so it's not a trivial omission.

it's not a hot take to say that the mass amnesia about fiberwork is linked to the belittlement of women's work in geneal, but i do think there's a special kind of illusion that is cast by "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear that and think "well i cook and clean and take care of children (or i know someone who does) and i have a sense of how much work that is" and you know of course that cooking and cleaning were more laborious before modern technology, but still, you have a ballpark estimate you think, when in fact you are drastically underestimating the work load.

i also think that this just micharacterizes the role of women's work in livelihoods? cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children are all sisyphean tasks that have to be repeated the next day. these are important, but not the whole picture. when we include all kinds of fiberwork—and other things, such as making candles or soap—women's work looks much more like manufacturing, a sphere we now associate more with men's work. i feel like women's connection to making and craftsmanship is often elided.

[garvescope]

Your Film Isn’t Too Niche. It’s Exactly What Streamers Want.

The idea that your story needs to be “universal” to succeed is outdated, false, and frankly, dangerous. For years, filmmakers from marginalized communities were told to smooth the edges of their culture. To make their characters “more relatable.” To replace specificity with sameness. All in the name of “marketability.” But in 2023, the numbers told a different story. BIPOC-led films with niche…

[who-is-page]

"You can't have [experience] because you don't identify as [label]!!!" how do I explain to people that experiences exist outside of and prior to the formation of specific language to talk about them

"You can't have [experience] because you don't think of it through [framework/explanation/etc]!!!" how do I explain to people that experiences exist outside of and prior to any formal cosmology, hypotheses, or explanation assigned to them

[descendant-of-truth]

I think the other reason I don't really get into ships as portrayed by fandom culture is that it seems like the mindset is more like. "I want these characters to be in a Romantic Relationship(TM)" instead of "I want these characters' relationship to be romantic"

What I mean here is that, so often I see pairings enacting romance tropes to the point of heavily altering or downright replacing their original dynamic - as if the people behind it only understand romance as a series of checklists to tick off. Couples like to kiss and sleep in the same bed and flirt with each other, so it doesn't matter who the characters are, if they're a couple then naturally they'll do those things, right??

And that's where the whole thing starts to lose me, because I would assume that the appeal of shipping characters is, y'know... the characters? Rather than just, the idea of a couple? If I'm thinking about how it'd be cool for them to be in love, my first thought is always "so how would they show it," because just like everything else about a person, the answer is going to be different on a case-by-case basis.

Maybe the characters involved aren't really into kissing, but they like arranging date activities. Maybe they aren't committed to the structure of dating at all, and just want to be around each other whenever they can. And even if they are the types to like doing traditionally romantic things, that doesn't suddenly erase whatever else they had going on before they started adding that on top of it.

I'm not saying that the more typical romance tropes and activities are bad, just that they're applied kind of excessively, regardless of whether or not they actually work for the characters involved. I want to see my favorite characters having relationships that are true to who they are, not what the stock depiction of a couple says they should be.

[sparrowlucero]

no

[mandragorika]

pennsylvania miku but she’s a coal region creep ✌️👻

[butterflypeaflowertea]

the sheer disingenuousness of modern-day body hair removal brands catered towards women amuses me so much. they’re always like ‘we believe…. Women can do anything. enjoy YOUR body hair on YOUR terms #agency #independence #diverse’ and then the ads are women of varying skin tones and body types shaving off their armpit hair. you don’t want me to enjoy my body hair, you want me to remove it. you are a razor brand! upholding the status quo of shame re: women’s body hair is how you make money. like what is this weird larp omg it’s so laughably hollow

[ashleyloob]

every time I see non Asians go by Asian names online I get whiplash bc I'm like o shit another one of me!! then I find out they are a white weeb from Arkansas going by Haru that can't name more than 3 countries in Asia

[which-star]

ultra specific kpdh american college au where it's Zoey being hounded by korean international students Mira and Rumi to join their "club"? unbeknownst to her they were sent to recruit her bc Zoey never ended up in korea. Mira textbook rich international with designer everything but she can't fucking drive so she keeps asking Zoey for rides to weird places. Rumi guard dog bc ofc demons chased them over here and now they're after Zoey too since they realized she doesn't know she's a hunter yet. Zoey just here like all I wanted to do was join the Korean Students Association...

[waffleandcalzone]

No shade to PBS but being so pearl clutching about curse words in a show about severe mental health conditions, drug abuse, and a suicide attempt is so fucking american and ridiculous

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

cr: 王相予 wang xiangyu

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

YouTube Video Essayists™️ genuinely have no idea what the fuck they're talking about huh

[fluentisonus]

everybody's a theatre nerd on here until it's time to appreciate that comedy as a medium is just as rich & fascinating & culturally important as tragedy

[chestersbraincell]

Being from the Slavic regions is so funny because one small inconvenience and you’re muttering/whispering rapid-fire expletives in your native language like you’re a witch/wizard/sorcerer/warlock whatever tf you wanna call it trying to hex the living fuck out of someone with the ancient tongue

[posting-for-the-void]

Nothing makes me laugh more on this website than when someone asks Neil Gaiman a very millennial/gen-z/chronically online question about his works, (like, the ones about shipping wars and label discourse) and he’s just like “I have literally never thought of doing that, no.”

I know it must be at least a little bit embarrassing for the asker but, like, some of them are so outlandish that I just can’t comprehend what prompted the person to ask it.