#angry and lost and struggling and unpopular and all the rest?

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I adore Eddie when he's a loser and I adore him when he's LA's prettiest princess belle of the ball but I think it says a lot that he's popular and super social and cool in Los Angeles and then a loser (affectionate) the moment he's in his hometown and within spitting distance of his parents. Something something when you go home you become the child version of yourself again something something.

[moosecow]

UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME!

Ten things I wish would just DIE already…

10. Miraculous Ladybug

Before you sharpen your pitchforks! Hear me out! I actually REALLY like this show…but GOD It is the BIGGEST tease I have EVER seen! Marinette and Adrien should have gotten together at the end of the first season, and maybe we could have explored their relationship, given them more depth? Raised the stakes instead of the CONANT. ENDLESS. FILLER. Of absolute nothing that is this show. We all know they’re going to get together, just rip the bandaid and let us move on. I’ve never seen a show jerk its fan base around so much!

9. Avatar the Last Air Bender

Again, I LOVE THIS SHOW, SO, SO MUCH! But I can tell that they’re now turning this into a cash cow. I don’t want to see another avatar show, especially after what they did with Legend of Korra. What made Avatar so special was that, yes there was a lot going on in their world, but it never stopped focusing on the core cast, their development, their relationships, and their reactions to the world they live in. Korra just gave us more and more characters instead of focusing on the ones we had, and it lost me with its overcomplicated plot, and I fear legend of Genji, AND the live action remake (which already has alarm bells going up because it’s live action and when has worked out well?) Can we just…revive an old gem on Nickelodeon? Or make something new and substantial instead of relying on SpongeBob reruns?

8. Dragon Ball

Yes, another show I like! But MAN! How many power-ups can we go through before it gets old! Even ASH finally reached his goal in pokemon! There’s so much content here, and I’m grateful for that! I don’t mind more games and merchandise, but enough of the show! It’s clear that only Goku and Vegeta are the only characters capable of beating the big enemy, and no one cares much for the younger characters taking over. But at this point their not that interesting. ESPECIALLY Goku. He’s just a guy that likes fighting. Vegeta was more interesting with his reformed villain arc, but he is constantly overshadowed by his dumber super-saiyen. It feels like they’ve exhausted all their stories….

7. Velma

I’m gonna barf. Seriously, all people do is complain about this show. Can we just, STOP? Review bombing it, complaining about it, making reaction videos to it, is just…feeding it at this point. If all of us hate so much! So many shows that deserved to be watched and enjoyed were completely ignored and faded away from the public consciousness, but not this one, at least, not yet. I see video and video about it! Ignore it. Let it die like it’s supposed to! And now I will never mention it again, and neither should you!

6. Marvel

It’s not so much as I want this franchise to die…more like…I think we need a break! It’s been like 20 years of non stop Marvel and I feel like we already peaked with the Avengers Endgame. Besides Moon Knight and Wakanda Forever, all I’ve seen is general dislike of all the new stuff coming out. I know that Disney is a big conglomerate and they’re going to milk this thing for all it’s worth…but wouldn’t people enjoy it more if you let it simmer for a bit, let the ideas come back after some rest, and then get back into it?

5. 13 Reasons Why

This show should have stayed a book! Oh. My. God. As someone that struggles with mental illness, watching this get sensationalized and reduced to nothing more then teenage angst for badly written teenage characters is so gross! I don’t have much to say about it. It just makes me so angry! How do people actually like this and continue to watch and recommend it? It’s basically the same as every other “dramatic” teen show out there, but uses suicide as a hook to draw people in, which is so disrespectful! You want a show that is more mature then this and actually handles mental illness well? Watch BoJack Horseman.

4. Grey’s Anatomy

I don’t care about the relationships in this show. I don’t who broke up with who, who died, who couldn’t have a kid, who cheated on who. I cared more, in the first season at least, when they were just young surgeons, and they were dealing with the struggles of that. BUT MAN! This show quickly became a soap opera! I mean what did I expect from an ABC show. Just end it already! If you want a good show about doctor’s that focuses on their personal growth and the difficulties of the job watch House, or better yet, watch Scrubs.

3. Kingdom Hearts

This hurts. This hurts. So. Much. GOD! I love these games…but I REALLY hate the direction they’re going. KH3 was such a red flag! The story was complicated enough with time travel, the whole foretellers things, how we keep adding characters instead of focusing on the core Destiny Islands Trio, how Kairi is basically a plot device where, EVEN IN HER OWN GAME, she has to be rescued by Sora. And now, KH4 is on its way and Nomura is basically turning it into versus 13….I don’t even know anymore. Things were getting real dumb in Dream Drop Distance. I’m just going to pretend thee series ended at KH2, where the emotions were there and the story wasn’t derailed and removed of all the charm it had…Either end it…or do something actually good with it, because at this point, it’s just getting ridiculous. And this is coming from someone that loves this series with every fiber of their being.

2. Stranger Things

Yeah, Netflix will cancel actually interesting things like Inside Job, Dead End National Park, I’m not okay with this, Sense 8, and introduce stupid ideas such as removing password sharing (EVEN AFTER RAISING THE PRICE BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE PASSWORD SHARING) but they will keep things like Cuties and…this show. At this point, Stranger Things is a shadow of its former self. Not only are there no stakes, because everyone has plot armor, but it’s basically just teenage drama at this point. Remember how in Season 1, the demagorgan was actually scary? Remember how going into the upside down had health consequences? The characters just walk around now without a problem. But this show is just drama filled enough to keep the attention of the masses without actually having any substance. It makes me sad that it followed the pattern of the first season being the most interesting season and then everything going down hill from there. How did THIS show, of all shows…make me not care? What could be worse then this?

Well…

#1. Harry Potter Series

I loved this as a kid. I read this thing so many times…but now…I’m past it, and JK is just. A. Terrible. Terrible. Person…the fact that it doesn’t end with her words, that she actively gives money and supports hate groups, kind ruins the messages I learned in HP. As a kid, I thought part of the point was to be inclusive, and to make life better for people that are mistreated by the mainstream. But no. Not only were the last few movies terrible, but Rowling keeps digging that hole. Even if I wanted to, I just can’t enjoy it anymore. So, even if not everyone will. I’m going to let it die. We need another book series to inspire a generation…I just can’t with this anymore…

[nomouthtospeakof]

Character meta The Iron Bull!

THE BOY I GET TO TALK ABOUT THE BOY (thank you for the ask!)

as an apology for taking a little while (and also for rambling) i'll add on a song that reminds me a lot of bull, specifically his stint in seheron: TOOL - Lateralus (aka the only TOOL song i know lmao)

How I feel about this character

bull is just a... fantastically nuanced character. and he's so fucking heartbreaking. he was twisted from a thoughtful, compassionate child, always ready to help, a tama's boy, to a hot-and-cold-blooded killer who (maybe literally) gets off on overpowering and dominating his enemies... but he never really lost ashkaari to hissrad. nor does he lose either to the iron bull, even after betraying the qun. he has ashkaari's kindness, hissrad's fury, and the iron bull's open-mindedness. he's just so multifaceted - he wars with himself and his ideology constantly, he struggles to do what's right despite how what he feels is right and what he "knows" is right often conflict. and if the dreadnought is sacrificed, he is facing his worst fear - madness, specifically the madness that lurks within the shadows of himself - for the people he loves and the family he’s made, knowing he might die for it.

he blames himself for so much, he's angry and he internalizes a lot of it because it's easier than turning blame towards the only way of life he's ever known, but he tries. so fucking hard. and GOD okay i have to stop i love him too much. he's adorable and funny and sweet and a tiny bit terrifying but also he's SO incredibly safe feeling. comfort character all the way.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

adoribull is definitely one of my top da ships - him and dorian just mirror each other so well, they have similar enough problems that they're able to sympathize while conflicting only a little bit (just enough for angst <3) and they compliment each other with their strengths - bull's patience, willingness to listen, and ability to see through emotional walls; dorian's passion, loyalty, and readiness to apologize; plus how deeply compassionate both of them are underneath all the blood and bluster. not to mention how they're both exploring a relationship like this for the first time... i love em.

other than that? i don't have any main ones - i'm more into how two characters interact with each other than romance itself - but iron lion/bullen is a guilty pleasure of mine.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

bull's interactions with sera and viv are both super fun and cute. him and krem (plus the rest of the chargers) are absolutely fantastic too - that sense of found family, that sense of mutual sacrifice and devotion and loyalty and how they're just a bunch of misfits, it's so good. but also, thinking about him and young gatt, or him and vasaad bonding with each other to survive the horrors of seheron, makes me soft. i really wanna write something about that sort of thing some day.

My unpopular opinion about this character

i'm bad at knowing when an opinion's unpopular so... this isn't so much of an unpopular opinion as it is just an observation i haven't seen anyone else make?

it seems really interesting how a lot of the traits and behaviors bull shows line up... surprisingly well with symptoms of ASPD? the ability to turn empathy on and off is the most notable one, but there’s a lot. plus, bull's deep fear of turning mad and hurting someone he loves because of what the qun's taught about tal-vashoth sounds relatable to what i've heard from many people with PD's (especially ASPD): that they often struggle with the idea that they're a violent monster because that's what society has taught them, even if they've never hurt anyone and don't want to.

i'm not saying bull necessarily has ASPD, most of these behaviors were taught to him as a teen/young adult - it’s just an interesting parallel. i’d be super interested to hear what someone who actually has ASPD thinks of it, since i don’t have any personal experience myself.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

i wish that his personal quest didn't have us entirely choosing for him. it makes it feel less like the choice to sacrifice the dreadnought for the chargers is about bull seizing his own agency, and more like it's about how eager he is to be obedient to something (or someone) other than the qun. which... is fine! but that's not how the story frames it, so it feels very odd. also it’s fun to explore gender through bull since basically no matter what he does he’s gnc in both human and qunari society BUT that’s more something i look to fandom for than canon.

[minervacasterly]

The Complexities Surrounding Kings, Statesmen & Royals: Trying to make sense of their actions

Some legends are told. Some become famous or infamous but celebrity is as celebrity does. Love them or hate them, they are all changed history -for better or for worse (depending on how you view them).

Henry VIII’s decision to break away from the Catholic Church not only changed English history, but world history as well. Equally so, his father-in-law’s decision to remarry shortly after Isabella died, changed the lives of those around him, especially his favorite and youngest daughter, Katharine of Aragon.

As with every historical figure, I do not need to condone or justify their actions. Readers can do that on their own. But I and many others on this page do feel the need to show them in their proper context.

Henry VIII needed a male heir and as many historians have pointed out in their respective books and documentaries, his descent into madness is the product of various factors. For one two injuries to the head, possible blood type, and the constant reminder that there were others with (arguably) more right to wear the Confessor’s crown and that him and his descendants. And then there is his country to think about. The memory of the wars of the roses was still fresh on everyone’s minds and people were not confident of entrusting the nation to a woman.

This will appear misogynistic to some but this was the 16th century and we cannot apply 21st century standards to this era. The last time that England had come close to having a female King, chaos ensued. Matilda was given oaths of fealty by her father’s barons but after he died they stabbed her in the back and decided to cast their lot with her cousin Stephen instead. Stephen and his wife (also named Matilda but let’s call her ‘Maud’ for the sake of avoiding any confusion) both descended from William the Conqueror so convincing them that the crown belonged to them and their son Eustace wasn’t that hard. But Matilda had her way in the end -although not in the way she would have initially preferred. After Stephen’s wife and son died, he recognized Matilda’s son, Henry FitzEmpress as his heir. He became the first King of the Plantagenet dynasty, a dynasty that ruled England for more than 300 years.

For this reason and other reasons that have already been cited, Henry could not afford to leave his country in the hands of his daughter, a daughter he boasted off proudly to his ambassadors.

But make no mistake though. Henry did have his flaws and these were a product of his rearing and his own doing. Robert Hutchinson who’s often hostile to Henry makes a good point in the documentary presented by Tracy Borman (author of “Thomas Cromwell” and “Private Life of the Tudors”) that he “had the ego the size of the truck”. In his book “the last days of Henry VIII”, Robert Hutchinson states that Henry’s ego grew larger as he got older and his paranoia also increased. He became suspicious of everyone. As Thomas More told one of his colleagues, when the lion knows his own strength, no man can control him. When Henry got a taste of true power, he realized that nothing and no one could stop him.

The list of flaws and attributes on Ferdinand is easier to point out as it is on other kings since they are less controversial than His Majesty, the first head of the Anglican Church. Ferdinand II of Aragon, spouse of Isabella I of Castile, was a caring father who was willing to eliminate the Salic Law so his eldest daughter Isabel could inherit both crowns, thus making his and Isabella’s vision of a united Spain true.

But like every one of our subjects, he was a monarch of his era and once he got a taste of power he was unwilling to let it go. This does not mean that he stopped caring about his daughters or his wife. He always maintained his love for Isabella, but as someone who had won many battles and was hailed as a consummate politician and astute king, he believed he would rule the kingdom of Castile better than his surviving older daughter Juana. Juana herself had asked him for help after her husband died. Ferdinand took advantage of this and the rest as they say is history.

But what about Catalina? Some of you might still be thinking that his treatment of his so called favorite daughter harsh and irresponsible, further proof that he was a dick and you might be right but once again I have to remind you that this was 16th century politics and royal families had to deal with their struggles differently.

Ferdinand was embroiled in another civil war at the time that could reach chaotic proportions like the one between his wife and “La Beltraneja” three decades prior. As a result, he could not do much for her but this did not stop him from looking for ways to get her out of her predicament, even if for a short while. Ferdinand turned Katharine into the first female royal ambassador and through this new position, Katharine fare a little better. Being her parents’ daughter, Katharine understood that this was something that also benefited the two of them as she would be her father’s eyes and ears and that if he continued to score points against her sister and her husband, she could have a better chance convincing Henry VII to honor his promise and marry her to his remaining crown heir.

Thomas Wolsey is another figure of contentment. When I was doing this I was thinking of putting Thomas Cromwell but I opted for Wolsey instead because there have been enough posts about the King’s most hated secretary and right-hand man. There are not enough about Wolsey though and that is because Wolsey is easier to dismiss or hate. The man was a conniving, ambitious, heartless man who was a natural enemy of Henry’s true love, Anne Boleyn. He was simply awful.

^That’s how many history buffs generally view him as but the truth is far more complicated than that. Unlike his aristocratic contemporaries, he could not afford to get out of a situation that easily. He was a servant of the Catholic Church but bound to Henry VIII first. He was kept under a close watch and more than everybody he knew how easy it would be to anger his master. He had to keep his favor no matter what -and to his credit he did try. But there was so much that he could do. He could not serve both masters adequately and when Henry realized that he would not get him what he wanted, he listened to Wolsey’s enemies who were eager to see someone of low birth who had risen higher than them brought down. Wolsey never made it to his trial. He died. (No, he did not kill himself like “The Tudors” showed. He died due to medical problems and because of the stress he’d been put in.)

He was as everyone said, corrupt and had a lot to answer from but he was not an anomaly in a time where everyone was an opportunist.

Last but not least there are the York brothers. A troublesome lot whose decisions are also seen through 21st century lens but which make sense once we begin to read more about their lives and the events that brought them to the dangerous game of thrones that was started by the Lancasters and their father, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York.

The legitimacy of the Lancasters had been put into question since Henry IV took the crown from Richard II. Richard II had nominated someone else to be his heir but with his unpopularity growing and Henry of Bolinbroke's popularity surging, his plans were undermined. Deposed and later murdered, Henry's reign put into question his House's legitimacy and right to sit on the English throne. These questions were raised during the Barons' rebellions at the end of his reign but were hushed during his son, Henry V's reign. A major reason for this is because Henry V became a national hero and only someone who was truly suicidal or had delusions of grandeur and no knowledge of how the world worked, would openly denounce or challenge Henry V. But after he died, it became open season again. Henry VI, in the words of many historians and novelists, has been described as a dullard and an utter failure of a monarch and a man.

Men in this era were supposed to fulfill a certain role. He was a scholar like his father, financed universities, painters and other artists, but when it came to war, he shied away from that. A King was meant to be a warrior, a bringer of justice, someone who inspired loyalty in the hearts of his men and fear in the minds of his enemies but Henry VI inspired neither.

After most of France was lost and he agreed to give away part of it after he married Marguerite of Anjou, questions about the House of Lancaster being the rightful dynasty to rule over England began to arise again -this time by none other than his cousin, the Duke of York who was seen as an ideal leader. He possessed qualities that Henry VI did not but he did not make it evident that he sought to be King. It is unlikely that it was his goal from the start but after quarreling with Marguerite over issues like the regency when her husband went into a short catatonic state, and how to deal with the situation in France, and favorites whom he considered were undermining everything the king's father and his late uncles had worked hard to achieve, he was pushed into a corner. He could either continue with his demands and risk being declared a traitor or do the unthinkable to survive.

He obviously chose the latter. When Marguerite of Anjou heard that Henry VI had disinherited her son in Richard and his sons' favor, she became angry and the rest as they say is history.

If Richard had qualities Henry VI did not, his older surviving son, Edward, Earl of March, had that and more. He was the antithesis of Henry VI. Handsome, tall, a womanizer, and with the stomach for war, he inspired loyalty and fear and after his father died, he set out to avenge him by deposing the king and declaring himself King of England.

Edward IV enjoyed many victories but they came at a cost. The brothers who appeared united under a single banner of the sun of York soon let their jealousy fester until it blossomed into something malignant.

George, swayed by their cousin, the Earl of Warwick, rebelled against Edward IV (twice). He was pardoned and he and his wife were restored to favor once he rejoined his old and younger brother to fight against the Lancastrian threat. The three rid themselves of Henry VI and his only son at long last, leaving only Marguerite of Anjou alive.

Their animosity did not last and once again George began to become suspicious of his brother as Edward IV became suspicious of him and long story short, when George suspected that his wife had been the victim of foul play, he questioned two of his servants and made (what he believed to be secret) terrible statements against his brother. Edward IV did not take this too kindly and had him executed. George was drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.

But the clearest example of brotherly betrayal and envy is that of Richard III. Calculating, generous to his tenants and those around him, he showed no disloyalty to Edward IV until like his namesake and their father, he was once again pushed into a corner by another queen and her family. Richard could either convince the Woodvilles to agree to Edward's will naming him protector or share the regency with them until his nephew Edward V reached the age of majority but this was a fool's dream. No party would ever compromise to such a thing. It was a dog eat dog world and only one could survive. Like the fantasy the wars of the roses has inspired, there was no middle ground here so Richard did the only thing he could think of to survive: He declared himself the one and true king, convincing his allies in parliament to annul his late brother's union with Elizabeth Woodville under the basis he had been previously engaged to Eleanor Butler. This disinherited his nieces and nephews and since his older brother George had been tried as a traitor, his son could not inherit. That only left Richard.

It is easy to see why figures such as these will remain controversial. Their actions are hard to decipher but before jumping on any bandwagon, one has to ask the important questions of what, when, where, and why? The 'why' will never be fully answered but the more one reads about them, the more sense their actions start to make.

[inoceaned]

To the people who protested I have a genuine question for you, don’t you think that if you wore face masks and socially distanced yourselves from others that more Australians would have supported your cause?

Because the moment thousands of protestors cram themselves together during an outbreak without any safety measures just shows a complete disregard for human life.

Please stop saying you want “freedom” and to “unite” Australia if you clearly don’t care about all Australians, you do not respect all Australian lives.

Did you forget about the Australians who have died from Covid, or the Australian families who have lost loved ones because of Covid, or the Australians who are immunocompromised, or the ageing or elderly Australians?

Your lack of using face masks or encouraging others to implement simple safety measures, in my opinion, is a big fuck you to the millions of Australians you seem to have forgotten about during your protest (or you simply don’t care about the rest of Australia and only yourself). It’s a big fuck you to all the health care workers and all of the Covid patients who have been in hospital fighting for their lives in ICU trying to breathe. It’s a big fuck you to those who recovered from Covid but will live with damaged lungs and varying lung conditions.

We know that millions are financially struggling and are just trying to live. Australians have lost homes, jobs, their businesses, or even loved ones to suicide. The constant financial stressors and job insecurities we have to face every day has also had a detrimental impact on mental health. I hear you and I understand. I am sorry for what you, and we, have gone through. I know that it seems almost impossible for some people to remain hopeful about a future when you feel forgotten or ignored by your leaders.

And again, in my opinion, when you protest during an outbreak without respecting the safety of all Australians, people will not listen to your cause. Because it looks like you don’t care about them and only yourself. It is not about you. I can understand some of the reasoning behind the protestors but you went around it the wrong way.

Most people value doing things for the greater good and making decisions that benefit the majority of people. I acknowledge that the lockdowns had almost unforgiving consequences on some individuals and businesses, but the lives of ALL Australians come first. Wearing a mask serves the purpose of protecting others. No one has ever said that wearing a mask prevents you from getting Covid, but it stops you from spreading it to others. If you don’t wear a mask because it is too uncomfortable or is an inconvenience for you, then you are selfish. This is not about you. And it never will be.

I just don’t think that the protestors went about the protest the right way. When you verbally and physically attack people because you disagree about something, you will not create change; you are only creating more of a divide. You will only make the rest of Australia more frustrated and angry. Angry at you. The protest looked like (and I repeat, from the lack of masks and social distancing) that you only care about yourself and you are protesting for selfish reasons (whether you were or weren’t). Your lack of care about the safety of others while protesting during the outbreak of a more infectious strain of the virus does not encourage people to support you or respond positively to the protest itself.

And finally, my unpopular opinion. If you were protesting for selfish reasons and you truly don’t care about the health of others then I have to say it… maybe Australia isn’t the place for you. Maybe you should consider moving to a country where it is survival of the fittest during the global Covid pandemic, and that’s okay. Different countries value different things and often it’s citizens will share common values. Cultural and social values do vary in different countries. So, maybe you could consider seeing which country aligns best with your values. If you continue to maintain these survival of the fittest values and don’t want to move, then you have to compromise, because Australia values the safety of everyone during a pandemic. Australia is a country that wants to protect all individuals from getting the virus and if you don’t agree with that then that is okay. There are other countries that align with your opinion.

And if you do move to another country, what will you do you in the moment that you, your mother or father, brother, sister, child or friend is dying and your country turns their back on you and won’t help, will you come crawling back to the country that was trying to protect you and everyone else all along? Or will you be accept their value of survival of the fittest? If you don’t accept the survival of the fittest notion for yourself but don’t care if others die and you protested without using safety precautions then guess what, you are a selfish person and only care about yourself. Or to put it the Aussie way, you’re a shit cunt.

The reason we had lockdowns in the first place was to protect everyone. Australia went into lockdowns to stop spreading the virus around and to protect all of its citizens. The lockdowns didn’t want anyone getting the virus or risk the deaths of any Australians. We are lucky that we went into lockdown soon after Covid hit Australia as we had minimal deaths compared to other countries. The government wanted to stop the spread and majority of us did too. We protected one another.

Now whether the lockdowns continue to be the best solution today is another conversation but I would encourage you to contact your local government representatives, and most importantly vote.

I am always open to hearing other people’s perspectives and if you made it this far, cheers, have a good one.

[initiumseries]

Which parts of BTVS did you not like and how would you have changed them?

Yes! Great question. 

So, if I’m being honest, most, if not all, of my issues with BTVS start after she graduates high school. I feel like the show lost the magic of the Scoobies bond and the older they got, the more distance we had from them as characters, the more OOC it felt like everyone started behaving, So, I’ll start with s4, buckle in this is gonna be long lol.

Season 4

So as usual, I like the idea of season 4. The gang has graduated, they’re growing up, and trying to find their place in such a big pond. On top of that, the Initiative is on campus (which makes sense, you can’t just blow up a high school and there are no repercussions for that, and it’s kinda cool the idea of instead of a govn’t lockdown, they infiltrate Sunnydale and are running experiments to weaponize demons. Clever, fun. I like it.), and ofc Buffy’s given up having a normal life, but now she just wants a normal relationship, and doesn’t even get that. I’m on board. Especially the idea that the gang inadvertently drifts away from each other because that’s real. That happens when you go away to college, even if you go away together. So my issues, are rooted in the details. 

Maggie Walsh turned into this weird obsessive surrogate mother, who wanted to get Buffy out of the way, except the execution was so sloppy. I LIKED commanding, no nonsense, bitch monster from hell Maggie Walsh, and I would have liked to see that follow through in how she attempts to dispose of Buffy, and how she handles Riley. She becomes this soft, weirdly maternal unhinged force after trying to kill Buffy, and I don’t really understand why. I would have liked to see more of that motherly role, while still rooted in that commander in chief sort of aura she exudes when we first meet her, when it comes to Riley. I also thought her death came too soon, like they just didn’t know what to do with her after she executed her function *coughs in the Anointed One* of creating tension between Buffy and Riley (which, honestly, his being in the Initiative at all would have been enough conflict if they had leaned into that without stuffing so much stuff in there). I definitely would have had Maggie maintain that strength and authority, while softening where necessary to emotionally manipulate Riley. I’d make it really clear that Riley is deeply confused because we believe the hold she has on him, and withdrawal on the drugs would have been a nice touch, but I think it came too soon. Which leads me directly into: 

Super cool. I remember when I first watched this on TV and the gang finally rebonded (after a HILARIOUS episode of them finally addressing their conflicts), they’d reached the climax with the Initiative and Adam and Buffy does a very Sailor Moon thing of all the different emotional strengths of her friends bond together to give her enough power to defeat Adam. LOVE IT. 

Except what’s the point? Prof. Walsh created Adam...for what exactly? We never really get a clear, salient reason for that, bc they kill her, and Adam’s exposition is...not sufficient to explain why she had an off the books project to stitch together a...demon son. It’s weird and especially because Adam doesn’t really do all that much, it really leaves me wondering like, what was the point? For me, I feel like, instead of making Adam a spectator for a lot of the drama that takes place in s4, I would have preferred him be the driving force. behind most things. 

Also: Riley’s Black friend would not have been such an angry misogynistic raging asshole because I’m tired of Black people being The Worst to make the white characters look better, more reasonable.

I would have needed a stronger explanation for Adam trying to turn Riley into...whatever that was. 

Willow would have been bi and I absolutely would have, if I went in that direction, had a much more fleshed out discovery of that fact (Because in this world Seth wouldn’t have left lol). I also would have made sure Willow and the actress who played Tara would have had the chemistry they deserved.  

Anya would not have stayed in Sunnydale. She would have left. She was a poor man’s Cordelia and had 0 character growth or interest. 

Season 5

Again, love the ideas. Suddenly Buffy has a sister we ALL knew wasn’t there before? A God shows up? What I love(d) about Buffy is that the escalations felt so natural? Like it didn’t feel like the show was like HoW dO wE oUtDo oURsElVes aGaIN?! It felt more organic like, well, yeah, the govnt. Oh shit, a GOD? D A M N! And Glory had personality! She was crazy! And it also matches alongside Buffy’s coming to grips with her own abilities. She’s one of the oldest slayers on record at this point, watching her in s1 and in s5 you SEE, her skill level is above and beyond, and now she meets a foe that still provides such a challenge, Buffy is scared. LOVE IT.

So Spike, getting neutered, was interesting at first, but it really starts to wear out its welcome for me, about this time. My problem being, he poses so little of a threat, that all his scenes start to feel like filler and not like they’re driving the plot forward in any useful way. His obsession with Buffy becoming sexual, was INLINE for Spike, but I liked Spike because he was a DICK, he was also dangerous, and after a lot of hilarious moments in S4, watching his basically creep around Buffy’s house and try to manipulate her into spending time together (which felt soooo pathetic to me in a way I didn’t like) and like, the Buffy bot (fucking ew) all season was just, not a fun time. I think, for me, I would have had Spike maintain his dignity as a character and I absolutely would not have had him threaten Dru’s life to drive home his obsession for Buffy. Ew. Yuck. Cringe. I just think there had to be more that Spike could do this season than run around chasing Buffy’s coattails. 

One again, Tara/Willow. Tara had no character development (even in an episode that was created to provide her with development? I definitely would have made use of that episode to create more ACTUAL depth for her character) so then to turn around and have her become mindless for basically the REST of the season, is just, rude lol. And because they have no chemistry and their relationship feels so...baseless, when this moment happens, I don’t feel anything. I don’t believe WIllow would be this angry, this heartbroken, this devastated that she’d take in such dark magicks and blindly go after Glory. I’d believe it if it were Oz, but Tara/Willow do not get the same level of build up and relationship establishing for me to buy this. I would have changed that.

Unpopular opinion, but I also would have made Dawn less of an UTTERLY irritating, shrill, whiny, screaming white tween. I get it, she was supposed to be the baby. But I get nothing from watching a white girl who is mostly just bored and irritated with her life, start shoplifting from her sister’s friends and in general, because she’s kinda sad sometimes. Get a grip. The only time I feel bad for her is when she finds out she’s not real. Actual problems. Wicked, I’m on board. But I think I would have just made her less fucking annoying and whiny and a lot more sympathetic. She still could have been frustrating and bratty, but in a way that was a bit more likeable, so that in those moments where she’s *genuinely* struggling, you feel for her on a broader scope. I would not have made her do all of those incredibly infuriating, incredibly stupid things, like running away in the middle of a dangerous situation. Because it ends up reading to me, like Buffy’s anger, frustration and criticisms of Dawn aren’t her being too hard on her as the eldest, as the Slayer, but accurate because Dawn is a horrendous nightmare of a new human being with no real redeeming qualities. Definitely a better ways to execute that. 

Also, I feel like this season is where the Scoobies drift again, but this time we aren’t really addressing it? Buffy’s dealing with Joyce getting sick, Riley being a POS, Spike stalking her, and she never leans on Willow for any of it. They never even really talk about any of the things going on. It’s such a missed opportunity to lean back into the core gang navigating growing up together. Willow is now basically the guardian of her new partner, and again, we don’t really see WIllow lean on Buffy at all. And Giles is preparing to leave, which, to me, felt organic. He felt like Buffy had outgrown him, but I think he was also trying to rediscover himself, but is pulled back into being a Watcher and he seems both grateful and disappointed. I would have liked to, I donno, make that a little clearer. Also what is Xander doing at this point? He’s outgrown his usefulness as well, so he kinda just becomes a hanger’s on. If Xander doesn’t just leave Sunnydale after s3 or 4. He needs to do *something*, he should have been reintegrated into the group in a new way if it wasn’t through school. 

Season 6 

This is so hard. I feel like this season is just, SO dark, SO heavy, and absent the levity that had been established up til s4. But it’s also really earned. Buffy is going through it. The layers are wonderful. I LOVE IT. But I also needed like...emotional breaks? And this is also kinda where I needed the scoobies to feel like scoobies, and trying to figure out how to help their friend.  Xander and Willow have been friends their entire lives, and season 3 really fleshes out that emotional shorthand they have, but it’s so quickly abandoned in s4 and onward. Suddenly Willow/Xander feel like strangers with Anya and Tara between them. I feel like there should have been more moments of Xander and Willow just..being, and struggling with Buffy’s loss together in a way that only the two of them really understand because like Buffy said Xander has a piece of her that Oz, and so then Tara, can’t reach. That should be a constant thoroughline. Xander should have been the first person to see something wasn’t quite right with Willow and the magic. 

Giles should have left earlier to give more time between him leaving and Buffy coming back. I like the idea of Giles beginning to build a life for himself in England and literally dropping everything once he found out Buffy was back. I emotionally hate the conflict of Willow threatening Giles, but I like it as a character development issue, and Giles definitely should have side eyed Willow, maybe even brought up his concerns later with Xander. 

I think I also would have had Spike leave Sunnydale and come back when Buffy does. I didn’t need a reformed Spike, and it would have been interesting to see him ingratiate himself with the group now that Buffy is back, and he’s the only one who sees how much pain she’s in. 

I HATED Warren and the group. The disgustingly overwhelming and unchecked misogyny and Warren was INSANELY unlikeable. I don’t need to like him, but I needed some catharsis way before we got it. He was HORRENDOUS. 

Even in death, Tara is bland. 

Willow’s magic addiction legit comes out of nowhere. I needed more organic build up than Amy, who has been a rat for like 3 years, suddenly being like “hey I know this guys who can give us magic drugs!” 

The chasm between Willow and Buffy this season would have hit if they hadn’t been distant since s3. 

I think we needed the seeds for Dark!Willow planted a lot earlier like I described. 

Also a lot more evidence that Willow was running away from her nerdy past because when it comes up here, it’s completely left field.

This would have hit harder if they still felt close. 

Season 7

Fuck man, the whole thing was awful. But I ESPECIALLY would have thrown out that left field retcon of Buffy having been in an asylum. I lost sleep over that shit lol.

 But I would have totally rewritten season 7. If Spike’s involvement was necessary (it wasn’t), then I absolutely would not have had her defend him against Wood and Giles. I would have had her treat him extremely coolly. Like a tool they require. There would have been *some* level of redemption for him that was believable within the confines of his character, but not so much that we forget he’s an assaulter.

 The Potentials would have been WAY fucking less horrendously annoying and I really would have leaned into conflict avoidance with the scoobies that reaches a peak when Xander loses his eye. Giles and Buffy would have renegotiated their adult parent/child relationship in a far healthier way and we would have had a lot more interiority with Buffy like we’ve had, pretty much since the show’s inception. 

Angel would have been there when Buffy was isolated and alone, not Spike. Because #bangel4lyfe lmao. They still woulda kissed as a “greeting” lol. Buffy would not have told Spike she loved him, or that she ever loved him. She woulda told that dude thank you and dipped out of the cave lol. 

[fandom-smut-shots]

Peter Pan - Seven Minutes

Title

Seven Minutes in Heaven

 Pairing

Peter Pan x Reader

 Fandom

Once Upon a Time

 Peter Pan

A/N: Been dying to write high school AU Pan. This worked out.

Just so everyone knows, I keep tally of all the characters you guys comment that you want and how many votes each character has gotten. I choose between the ones with the most votes and see which one gets inspiration.

             Your locker door closed with an audible slam as you exhaled a sigh. You slung your backpack over your shoulder and turned in the direction of the door. Footsteps thumping behind you caught your attention, and you slowed to a stop to allow your best friend Baelfire to catch up with you.

           “Hey, (y/n),” he greeted with a lopsided smile. “You going to the party tonight?”

           You quirked a brow. “What party?”

           “Felix’s,” he countered. “He’s throwing a party tonight and the whole class is invited.”

           You weren’t unpopular. You had your own group of friends, and you always got invited to social gatherings. You were, however, often a loner, and you rarely attended said gatherings. But the sparkle in Bae’s eye told you that he wanted to go, and that he wanted you to go with him.

           “I dunno, Bae,” you murmured, chewing your lip as you shuffled towards the door. Baelfire followed, as always. You two had walked to and from school together every day since middle school.

           “Come on, (y/n)!” the brunet insisted. “I know you’re not a party girl but Felix is the second most popular guy in our class! Second to Pan, who is going to be there. This is big!”

           “Since when do you care about being popular?” you questioned with a smirk.

           “I don’t,” he shrugged. “I just think it would nice if we participated.”

           Your eyes scanned his face, and he caught your gaze. His eyes widened and he puffed out his lower lip, giving you his best puppy expression. You groaned, reaching out a hand to ruffle his curly hair.

           “No fair, Bae. You can’t use the puppy eyes.”

           He grinned triumphantly. “So we’re going?”

           “Yeah, we’re going.”

             You put minimal effort into your attire on Saturday night. A simple tank top under a plaid button-down, denim shorts, and ankle boots made up your ensemble. Baelfire picked you up at your house and drove you, borrowing his father’s car, to the party. Your heart pounded nervously as the car pulled up to the curb outside of Felix’s house. Bae shot you a reassuring smile before getting out, and you followed suit. Once inside, you were immediately overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the party crowd. Drunken teens attempting to dance, plastic cups filled with questionable liquid littering every surface, easy girls giggling and flirting with the popular boys.

           You sat on a couch in the corner, much to Baelfire’s dismay. He wanted you to be involved in the party, but you refused to drink unidentifiable booze and mingle with drunk jocks. You weren’t friends with most of the party-goers currently present and you didn’t have a burning desire to befriend them.

           “Time for a game!” Felix announced. The music was lowered to a barely audible volume and everyone gathered in the living room. A bowl was passed around the group, and you watched nervously as everyone dropped an object from their possession into it. When it came to you, you exhaled a sigh and took the hairtie from your wrist, placing it inside. Should something happen and the possessions got lost, you didn’t want to risk something of value.

           “We have a twist on the game,” Pan spoke up, his soft English accent catching everyone’s attention. “After you draw an object from the bowl, you will be blindfolded and led into the closet. Whoever goes in with you gets to decide if you can remove the blindfold.”

           You groaned inwardly and shot Bae a concerned look. He responded with a soft smile and a pat on your shoulder.

           Giggle teens took turn after turn, following one another down the hall into a dimly lit room. You chuckled at the disappointment painting every girl’s expression when they discovered that they’d been paired with someone that wasn’t Pan or Felix.

           The bowl passed back to you and you winced before thrusting your hand in. You felt a weirdly shaped object, wide at both ends but thin in the middle. It felt like it had some weight, and just as you withdrew it, a bandana was wrapped around your eyes and tied at the back of your head. A hand on your back guided you down the hall and you heard a door open before you were gently pushed inside.

           Within moments, the door opened again, and your heart pounded as you wondered who you could have gotten. You could feel their presence before you, leaning in, hands resting on the wall on either side of your head. Warm, soft lips pressed against yours and you gasped in surprise, careful not to part your lips and accidentally grant unwanted access.

           “What’s wrong?” a familiar voice inquired. You bit back a gasp at the soft English accent that every girl had been dying to hear all night.

           “What do you mean?” you asked in a small voice.

           “Every other girl at this party would throw herself on me,” he countered, confusion and amusement lacing his voice. “Yet the beautiful, quiet girl who sits in the corner finally gets me alone in a closet and wants nothing to do with me.”

           “I…” Words failed you as you struggled to formulate a response. “I don’t know you, Pan. I hardly know anyone here. I’m not a party girl. You’re right – I’m the quiet girl who sits in the corner. I don’t flirt or date and I certainly don’t expect anyone to take an interest in me or kiss me in a closet.”

           You heard a soft chuckle before feeling a hand on the back of your head. A second later, your blindfold was removed, and you could see Pan’s arched brow and smirking lips in the dim lighting.

           “I like you,” he murmured softly, his hand grasping your chin. Before you could respond, he leaned in again, capturing your lips.

           “I still don’t know you,” you countered between kisses.

           “Then get to know me,” he returned, peppering kisses along your jaw. “Let me take you out.”

           You placed a hand on his chest, halting his movements. “Really?”

           A soft smile- not a smirk- graced his lips. “Really.”

           With a grin, you stood up on your toes and softly kissed him. “Okay.”

           Fists banging on the door caught your attention, and Pan took your hand before leading you out of the closet. Upon returning to the living room, you immediately noticed the angry glares coming from every other female at the party. Bae chuckled softly to himself, watching as Pan sat down and pulled you onto his lap. You caught your friend’s eye and grinned, leaning back against the popular brunet’s chest.

 *I would normally leave Pan open for a smutty sequel but OhmyGod I have written so much Pan smut and I still have more to write and I need a break.

[rapifessor]

This is going to be a little bit of a different post. I wouldn’t normally write about something like this, but I’m a little pissed off right now and I feel like I have something worth saying, whether people listen to it or not.

Yeah, this post is about politics. Buckle the fuck up.

In the recent 2022 midterm elections in the United States, my state lost ALL its Democratic representatives at the federal level. It is now COMPLETELY red. Why? Because Democratic voter turnout was even lower than it was in the previous midterm.

It’s bad enough that Republicans have as much power as they do in this country. They control enough of the government to almost completely obstruct any meaningful progress which is why we don’t move forward like other countries already have. But what makes me fucking ANGRY is the people who don’t vote.

Democrats have the popular majority in the United States. That is a fact (don’t ask me to cite it, you can look it up yourself if you understand basic concepts like population density). And by a considerable margin, no less. If every single eligible person voted, there would be NO REASON, under ANY circumstance, that a Republican would ever win an election unless it were at the local level in conservative-dominated areas. But they do, because people don’t fucking vote. And Republicans are statistically more likely to vote than Democrats.

And guess what happens? Republicans get elected, and they make it more difficult to vote. They stack the odds in their favor, because they KNOW their ideas are unpopular. So they use gerrymandering, voter suppression, and intimidation to cheat. Every time you give them ground, the harder it is for us to take it back.

Right now we are in a situation where we are at risk of losing our democracy to minority rule and authoritarianism. If you still do not understand the severity of the situation when your rights are LITERALLY being taken away from you right before your eyes, I don’t even know what to say. Millions of men and women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and others in disenfranchised demographics fail to vote in every election despite their very real capacity to do so.

It’s for a variety of reasons. Laziness, complacency, “my vote doesn’t count,” “it’s futile,” and so on. To those people, I want to say: your vote is not the problem. MILLIONS of people think like you, and THAT’S the problem. THAT has an impact on the outcome of our elections. We’d be a lot better off if you all just got off your collective asses and voted. You don’t have to be informed. Just pick the candidates that align with your values and be done with it. If you’re lucky enough to live in a state where you can safely vote by mail, all you have to do is request a ballot, take a few minutes to fill it out, and send it in the mail. It’s that fucking simple. There’s no excuse for not voting if this is an option to you.

I understand that there are some who may be unable to vote for good reasons. Whether it be health complications or being unable to afford taking time off from work to vote. People who are in very difficult life situations. These are not the people I’m complaining about. But this is why it’s all the more important that the rest of us vote, so that we can improve the lives of the people in these situations. Their struggles are symptomatic of a political and economic system rife with corruption, over which the only influence we as regular people have is the ballot. So you better fucking use it.

Silence is complicity, and complicity is not an option. Not with a Supreme Court of the United States that’s packed with evil, hateful zealots who will do everything in their power to strip rights and power from everyone who isn’t like them. If you don’t step the fuck up and vote for your future, you not only have no right to complain but you’re also throwing everyone who actually tries under the bus.

If democracy dies in the United States, it will be because YOU failed to defend it. Remember that when you find yourself facing the consequences.

[morethanmeetstheass]

Starscream

MY NUMBER TWO FAVE MMMMMMMM I don’t know if a lot of people know how much I love him?! He’s right behind Ratchet in terms of best boys. 

How I feel about this character

I LOVE Starscream. Can you tell I love conflicted idiots? His backstory is so intriguing, his personality is amazing, an iconic Bitch and a very tragic character. Lost Skyfire, wanted to be a scientist but had the ‘wrong frame’ for it. He dealt with so much. His ambition and perseverence is something I’ve worked to for years, even if he’s a little over the top with it. Starscream NEVER GIVES UP and I LOVE HIM FOR IT. YOU GO.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Skyfire, but in a very angsty way. I know there’s turmoil between them. But I want them to overcome it. I’m also a trash MegaStar shipper, and their relationship is mutually awful, but I can’t help myself. They’re garbage together and I can’t not ship it. I’ve tried. And Wheeljack too.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Rest, leadership, a nap? Honestly. I struggle to see him having non-romantic relationships because he’s so used to being used, manipulated, abused. All that. He either goes all in or he doesn’t go in at all.

My unpopular opinion about this character

TAAO made me irrationally angry and I despise his relationship with Windblade in all regards. My love for Starscream destroyed all positive feelings I had for Windblade. TAAO was awful for him, the whole ‘true body’ thing? Fuck that. Windblade doesn’t know shit about him. Fuck off, Windblade. GOD. I harbor no positive feelings toward her because of how she views Starscream. Sorry.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

REDEMPTION. ARC. REDEMPTION ARC! REDEMPTION ARC! Give Starscream a fucking break! I’m tired of everyone hating him just because he’s Starscream! He’s a great leader, everyone on Cybertron is just an ASS! A REAL REDEMPTION ARC. LET HIM GROW. STOP REGRESSING HIM. HE’S NOT STUPID. HE’S THE SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE DECEPTICONS, HE IS NOT! STUPID! STOP. STOP IT NOW. LET HIS AMBITION PAY OFF. GIVE HIM LOVE.

[blackstarising]

stranger things 2 thoughts under the cut:

okay, this season was good, so everything after this is just going to be details but the season overall was good. any roasting is meant to be more of a light grill or even a light toast, if you will

first of all, can they just mail noah schnapp his emmy early? because that boy literally did the Most™. honestly, i don’t believe i’ve ever seen a child actor come full force the way he did. seeing will suffer onscreen was incredibly heartbreaking and noah definitely brought that depth to his role.

the soundtrack, the bush and mandale signs, the arcades, the clothing, the houses, all 80s, all wonderful.

i think the duffer brothers are trying to actually kill me bc not only do we get hopper but we got hopper in flannel doing dad thing and i am left here very thirsty and very distressed rip i brought this on myself

tbh i forgot that hopper even had a daughter until the fifth episode, because everything he was doing looked so natural

and i know there’s some Discourse brewing about jane (i’m going to call her jane consistently from now on, she deserves to be called by her real name) and hopper’s relationship, especially their fight mid-season, so i’ll throw my proverbial hat into the Discourse Ring

i’m not going to excuse hopper, actually, and i’ll even confess that as a binch with anxiety who hates yelling, i had to turn down the volume of my computer and read the subtitles at one point because it really messes with me

definitely, threatening to turn jane back over to the authorities was wrong, and a new low. but i also saw that it was very much anger born of worry. like, parents get angry, and he had a reason to, because you could see that he was watching his daughter willingly put herself in danger, and it’s not like she’s unaware of the consequences

that being said, i don’t blame jane for leaving. you could see she was starting to match the whole experience to her time in the lab with papa and the fact that she was counting the days. damn

so in the end, they both acted shitty, but they both owned up to that and apologized. and i think david and millie did a really good job in really portraying a realistic father-daughter relationship. it’s not always cute, fluffy, one-shot, material, it’s messy and screamy and painful sometimes.

but ohmygoodness their relationship hurts so good the bedtime stories the waffles the halloween candy sorry i need a mome-

max!!!!!! i!!!! love!!!!! max!!!!!! ever since i learned what internalized misogyny was, i’ve been a bit wary of tomboy characters. but max didn’t play into those stereotypes at all, which is super refreshing. she was very content to be who she was, but she didn’t need to denigrate other girls to do so!!!!!! and it’s just good!!!!!!! 

(also the fact that the boys didn’t question that max beat their high score. also good, also pure, beautiful, beautiful)

[suddenly wearing a mourning veil] okay we need to talk about bob. right now.

i was one of the people who was suspicious of him (not because of shipping reasons, but the show makes you a little on edge, you know?) so i definitely squinted at everything he did but like he was so sweet and supportive of joyce and the boys and he didn’t like overstep his bounds but the way he tried to encourage will was so sweet and and and he’s just working at radio shack and he checks in on joyce to eat lunch with her and make out in the supply closet [hyperventilates a little] and and and the slow dancing in his halloween costume and he knows BASIC [is practically sobbing at this point] and he loves the byers and he died so that they could be happy and he’s a superherO AND I WOULD DIE FOR HIM AND SEAN ASTIN HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO MEEE-

also when he’s talking about how he grew out of getting bullied and “I get to date Joyce Byers!” i get so close to tearing up every time you have no idea

i love how we get development for the rest of the party’s families, and barb’s families too. especially lucas’ sister, a gem, an icon™

and just!!!! lucas!!!!!! i really love how he’s the straight man of the group, but you can tell he’s matured over the year that’s past (also that voice drop, i see you caleb)

and lucas and max is now the only relevant ship on this show im sorry i dont make the rules

dustin is so sweet and big hearted and i really loved seeing more of his depth. tbh i may or may not have started projecting a little especially at the last ep when no one would dance with him!!!! but it’s so hard when you’re so loving and no one returns it in the way you’d want it to!!!! and the fact that he was even willing to love and protect a demon from another dimension dustin please don’t let the world rob you of your sweetness

i was crying about noah earlier but finn also basically killed it this season. you could tell that mike was Depressed with a Capital D and even though he didn’t get as much screen time as he did last season, every scene he did have was Quality,

especially the scene when he was talking about how he and will became friends and those TEARS FINN JUST DRIVE TO MY HOUSE AND STAB ME MYSELF

i really loved watching jane grow and come into her own this season! you can tell that she’s very aware of her power, but there’s that internal struggle about how to use it, which made the final battle that much more poignant.

terry’s backstory was immensely heartbreaking, i don’t have much left to say about it

i really did love kali, though! the detour from hawkins was a bit unexpected, but i love that world building aspect and im really intrigued about kali’s backstory and also her...front story? damn i hope she’s in season three because there’s so much more tea left.

and like....what about 1-7, 9, 10? are they still alive [insert eyes emoji here]

i’m going to be Agressively Heterosexual and agree that billy is pretty™ but at the same time i’m super worried that he’s going to be woobified because he is abusive, and i’m 95% sure he’s racist. so yeah i really hope that doesn’t happen but it probably will [sips wine tiredly]

STEVEN, MY MANS. the development that started last season really paid off here! tbh even i felt hurt when he asked nancy “you don’t love me?” like this binch has got feelings! and he’s not perfect but he’s a lot more genuine than i gave him credit for and the fact that he babysits kids and calls them shitheads but also lets himself get his ass beat for them. oh steve, keep growing but never change.

okay, nitpick and potential unpopular opinion, but i kind of hated the jancy development in this season

because there really wasn’t any, i don’t know, and this is really shitty of me for all my campaigning last year, but it just felt very cheap and superficial

like nancy and steve break up very early in the season, conveniently

and then when they’re at conspiracy guy’s house it just felt too explicit, too heavy handed and cliche, like Conspiracy Guy is basically spelling out their relationship to the audience

and then they do the thing where they just....have sex, and maybe it’s because i’m wearing my grey-ace hat, but like, honestly, two characters having sex doesn’t mean shit, anymore, okay?

its mostly because of hookup culture imo

so jonathan and nancy have sex, but there’s no confession of feelings or anything, so it just feels like a cheap way to show the audience THEY’RE TOGETHER NOW ARE YOU HAPPY

and then they don’t really interact as much in that context for the rest of the season, so it’s left kind of ambiguous

and i understand that it’s a 9 episode season and this is more of a C plot, but i think i would have rather had a slow burn throughout the 9 episodes [cough] like last season [cough] with a more affectionate moment at the end than just break up, nancy’s free, SEX, done

it’s not a very emotionally gratifying narrative as it is

second nitpick: tbh the final battle of this season felt a little too note for note to the final battle of the first season, and it felt repetitive at times, so i admit i kind of lost interest in the middle of episode 9

i really thought the “watering the story down” to get JusticeForBarb™ was really clever 

and just....joyce. i’ll never get over joyce. i have no complaints, she’s a mom who punches back and she’s tenacious and good hearted and amazing and she raised two amazing boys 

i don’t know i need a nap 

[toomanysurveys9]

Are you young at heart, or an old soul? kind of a mix of both, i think, although maybe more of an old soul..

What makes someone a best friend? for me, it’s someone i trust almost more than anyone. we spend time together and talk, but no matter how long we go without doing either, when we do it’s like nothing has changed, if that makes sense. it’s someone that i can have fun with and who is honest with me, even when i might not want to hear it..

What Christmas (or Hanukkah) present do you remember the most? i guess my electric bass guitar. i wanted to learn so bad but then we had to stop lessons and i never started back up..

Tell me about a movie/song/tv show/play/book that has changed your life. there are numerous that have impacted me, but i don’t know about changing my life exactly...

Name one physical feature that you like about yourself, and one you dislike. i like my eyes and hate my legs.

Would you like to reconnect with any friends you’ve lost contact with? i don’t know. there’s a reason we’re not really friends anymore i guess.

What’s more important in a relationship: physical attraction or emotional connection? emotional connection, but you definitely need the physical attraction to some level as well.

Name a movie that you knew would be terrible just from reading the title. the paranormal activity movies.

What holiday do you most look forward to? probably christmas, especially for this year.

How is the relationship between you and your parents? it’s good. we’re close. especially my mom and i.

You’ve got the TV on, but you’re not really watching. What channel is the TV on? whatever someone else decided on.

Name a song that never fails to make you happy. lately i’ve been liking body like a back road by sam hunt. not sure why except it’s kind of fun.

You know at least one person named Michael. Tell me about him. went to school with him, and i don’t know much else.

Have you ever read the “missed connections” on Craigslist? Have you ever posted one, or wanted to? jacob and his sister used to read them for fun when we were all younger, and i was with them a few times. i’ve never posted or wanted to though, no.

If you could pick anywhere to live the rest of your life, where would it be? thinking about georgia. i don’t know. somewhere more south though.

Can money buy happiness? not for long.

Do you drink? Smoke? Do drugs? Why, or why not? i was drinking before i got pregnant. i have not drank since i found out. i’ve never smoked or done any drugs because that’s just not something i was into.

Is there anyone close to you that you know you can’t trust? You don’t have to give names. not anyone close to me. we’re not close if i can’t trust you.

Where was your favorite place to go when you were a little kid? florida trips.

Have you ever spent a night in the hospital? yeah. numerous times growing up.

Do you enjoy being with only one or two friends, or with a large group of people? depends, but in general i prefer one or two friends over a large group.

Do you like the type of music your parents listen to? Do your parents like the type of music you listen to? i like some of the music they listen to, but definitely not all. and same goes for them too.

Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever bullied anyone else? i have been bullied but i have not bullied.

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? i’m not sure. that’s a long time to eat one thing. i guess cereal would be my pick lately. i love cereal right now. lol.

If your partner wanted to wait until marriage before having sex, would you stay in that relationship? i would have been fine if jake had wanted to wait.

Do you believe in a god? i do not.

Of all the social networks in the world, why use Tumblr? it’s a good place to do surveys and stuff. plus no one i know knows i have this so i can be a little more open, although i still hold some back because i’m afraid of people finding it.

What’s your favorite Tumblr tag to track? probably surveys.

Would you call yourself/your family “middle class?” lower middle class, but yeah.

Name a TV series you didn’t enjoy until after it ended. i didn’t find person of interest until after it ended..

Have you ever bought a product from an infomercial? i have not.

If you could give up your car and never have to drive again, would you? no, i don’t think i’d like that. i haven’t had my car for months now and it gets frustrating not being able to go anywhere because my mom always has it and is never home...

If you go back to one point in time to give advice to yourself, when would you go and what would you say? if you’re going to talk to him, just don’t trust him. he’s only going to hurt you. a lot.

What’s your “quirkiest” habit? i only eat fries that don’t have weird marks or weird coloring..

What is “normal?” Are you normal? i’m definitely not what most would describe as normal, i don’t think.

Someone close to you is dying. You have the choice to let this person live for 10 more years, but if you do, you cause the death of 10 strangers. You don’t have to see them die. Do you take the offer? i’m not sure what i would do.. i’ve never been in this situation.. i guess it’d depend on a lot of things..

What is one thing you could never forgive? abuse of another person or animal in any way.

Would you rather be in a relationship after the honeymoon period ends, or be single? in the relationship, of course.

Is it possible for guys and girls to be just friends? of course it is possible.

Where do you and your friends go to hang out? usually they come to our house.

Write the first paragraph of your obituary. i have no idea where to begin..

What is the best TV theme song ever? i don’t know.. i’m not a huge fan of any of them..

When you were young, what would you dream you would be when you grew up? a country singer. lol.

When you’re alone in your own home, do you walk around naked? no. because i’m never alone. and it’d just be weird.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? usually the need to use the bathroom.

Do you want to have more friends than you have right now? i mean, it wouldn’t hurt.. i have one friend, and that’s it.

What part of the past year sticks out in your mind? graduating college. getting married. getting pregnant. hanging out with friends and family..

You win a scratch-off lottery game that gives you $2000 a week (after taxes) for the rest of your life. Do you keep your job? i am not currently working, but i would probably like to still. jacob is horrible with money and i’d want to make sure wyatt, jake, and myself were taken care of.

Could you be in a long-distance relationship? If you’re in one, what makes yours work? i wouldn’t want to do that at this point, because it’d mean my husband would be living far away from me and that would suck.

What’s the best route to your heart? being nice and understanding i guess.

Have you ever met someone through the internet, then met them in real life? nope.

What is your favorite sport? i’m not really into sports.

What has been troubling you lately? still not over the cough from being sick, and my voice is still a bit off. there’s also some pregnancy stuff no one would really want to hear about. lol.

Did you enjoy your high school prom? If you haven’t gotten there yet, do you look forward to it? If you didn’t go, why not? it was fun. kind of too many people in a small area but i had fun with jacob.

What do you use more often: your intuition or logical reasoning? i would say logical reasoning.

Do you know what makes you happy? well, yeah.

Tell me about the last book you read. it’s like criminal minds but with a bunch of special teenagers.

What is the nicest compliment you’ve ever been given? i don’t know..

Who was your first crush? chris.

Do you believe that there is life on other planets? definitely not aliens like most people think of..

Predict what your life will look like a year from now. i will be working. hopefully living somewhere else and preparing to move out of state. wyatt will also be born, and he’ll be almost a year old by then. hopefully things with jake will still be good. maybe kayla will have more time to hangout again, but hopefully we’ll still be friends regardless.

Often, people will ask how your last relationship ended. I want to know how it began. he went to my church, and then ended up at my school after getting kicked out of his.. i wanted a boyfriend and knew he liked me..

Where is your favorite place to go out and eat? i don’t know anymore. i guess texas roadhouse.

What is something you want to change about your current situation? i want baby boy to come soon!

Early bird or night owl? definitely more a night owl.

Are there any childhood possessions you still hold on to? i have a winnie the pooh blanket.

Give me an unpopular opinion you have. i can’t think of anything right now. i know there is something. i just can’t think.

What was the last song that was stuck in your head? better man by little big town.

Where do you live? Be as general or specific as you want. indiana.

Do you believe in giving kids medals and trophies for participation? i don’t really care.. i feel there are more important things to worry about.

What was the longest car ride you’ve ever taken? to florida when we used to go there.

Have you ever taken part in a protest? i have not.

Would you ever use an online dating service? nope.

What is your ethnic heritage? well, scottish, native american (not much, but some), and i think that’s it, but not sure..

Describe a person that inspires you. my mom. she’s always been so strong and she does anything for those she loves. she’s had so many struggles, and she has managed to get through them without giving up no matter how badly she might have wanted to..

If you earn minimum wage doing what you love, would you? i don’t think i would be able to stay in a job like that.. i have to think about more people than just myself..

Do you believe in luck? not really, no.

Describe the last time you were very angry at someone. tito last weekend because he just showed me yet again that he’s a lying asshole i never should have trusted.

Do you want to live until you’re 100? that’d depend on how i was living, i think.

Do people change? If so, how do you keep a relationship together when both of you start to change? people definitely do change. as for how to keep a relationship together, you either work through them or end things..

Have you ever risked a friendship by telling someone you liked them? probably.

Would you rather be alone doing something you enjoy, or doing something you don’t like with your best friends? doing something i enjoy alone.

Do you practice what you preach? for the most part, but i mess up sometimes too.

If you take precautions to stay safe, do you ultimately act more recklessly? no. i’m not really a reckless person.

What do you value more in a significant other: Attractiveness or intelligence? intelligence for sure.

Are you hard-headed? sometimes, yeah.

Have you ever laughed uncontrollably when it was socially inappropriate? not uncontrollably...

When have you felt most alive? i don’t know, to be honest..

Would you prefer to live? A city? The suburbs? The countryside? The mountains? city or countryside.

Do you often skip breakfast? not since getting pregnant. i get sick if i do.

How do you know what true love is? it’s different for everyone i think.

Would you want to know the exact date and time you were going to die? probably not.

Where is “home” for you? two trailers with those i love.

What song best describes your life right now? you’re gonna be.

Do you want to be perfect? not necessarily.

What have you never tried, but would really like to someday? What’s holding you back? i don’t know, to be honest.

How do you express your creativity? write occasionally.

Describe your neighborhood. too many rules, but mostly quiet and safe.

Name something you only liked because it was popular. i can’t think of anything.

Give me the story of your life in six words. it has been a complete mess.

[cedarrrun]

The decision to close the four remaining New York locations effective April 19 highlights the uncertainty facing yoga teachers, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, an email from YogaWorks CEO Brian Cooper delivered the news that all four remaining New York locations of this popular yoga studio chain would permanently close effective Sunday, April 19, due to economic challenges.

YogaWorks, founded by teachers Maty Ezraty, Chuck Miller, and Alan Finger, first opened in 1987 in Santa Monica, California, and grew to more than 60 studios across the country. The YogaWorks school combined different styles of yoga, including Iyengar and Ashtanga, helping to create the vinyasa yoga trend and the careers of many of the yoga teachers students seek out today, including Kathryn Budig, Annie Carpenter, and Seane Corn.

See also Master Teacher Maty Ezraty on the State of Yoga Right Now 

“As a region, YogaWorks’ New York operations have lost money for several years despite many initiatives to improve studio performance and reduce losses, including closing individual studios, as we have tried desperately to keep New York afloat,” Cooper wrote in the email. “Even after closing Westside and SoHo, the economic realities are clear that there is no path to reduce our losses and get the New York region to break-even.”

YogaWorks has endured substantial fixed costs and intense competition from trendier boutique studios, even as classes everywhere have migrated to online or livestream formats during the coronavirus pandemic. YogaWorks would not be the only studio to point out the financial struggles of operating within the New York yoga market, even well before coronavirus had arrived in the United States and forced studios to close. Jivamukti Yoga, an iconic yoga brand owned by Sharon Gannon and David Life, closed the doors to its last-remaining New York City studio on December 22, 2019.

See also The End of an Era for NYC Yoga 

“Our only truly successful studio in New York, Eastside, is now closing as a result of losing our lease,” Cooper writes. “Losing Eastside leaves only three locations, which are each losing money and pushing the region deeper into the red.” In a follow up statement to Yoga Journal, the company said that despite its best efforts, its New York businesses had struggled financially for an extensive period of time. “This is certainly not the outcome we neither wanted nor anticipated, but these considerable obstacles, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have unfortunately made it inevitable,” a YogaWorks spokesperson wrote.

The pandemic also shines a spotlight on the tenuous nature of trying to make a living teaching yoga. Most teachers make hourly wages as contractors, often depending on the popularity of their classes, and piece together a schedule among various studios, private clients, retreats, and workshops and trainings. Most studios do not provide health insurance and other benefits, and under normal circumstances, when you lose a class or job due to a studio closure or schedule change, you can’t apply for unemployment.

Teacher Unionization Efforts Come to a Halt

The shockwave associated with the YogaWorks announcement quickly circulated among teachers, staff, and Unionize Yoga, the first-ever yoga teachers’ union, which formed within YogaWorks NY in September 2019.

Unionize Yoga began just over a year ago in February 2019 as a small initiative among YogaWorks NY teachers who were discussing what job security, health insurance, equity, seniority, and even autonomy could look like for their profession. “We formed our union out of great care for our profession, for each other, and for our students,” reads an email from Unionize Yoga to its supporters in response to the New York closures. “We educated ourselves about our rights as workers. We educated our employer about those rights, too, and our profession has been impacted in important ways.”

Despite initial resistance to unionization, YogaWorks came to respect their teachers’ right to unionize last fall, when they organized under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) and subsequently became formally recognized as a union by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Fast-forward to March 2020, just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Unionize Yoga and YogaWorks conducted their first two rounds of negotiations. And now that studios across the country have closed and more than 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment, there has maybe never been a more pressing time than now to consider the possibility of a yoga teachers’ union. But, as Veronica Perretti, 37, a former YogaWorks teacher and former teacher manager in New York says, “You can’t successfully unionize when a company is losing money.”

See also Teaching Yoga: The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

For some YogaWorks teachers like Perretti, who was among the minority group that voted against the union last fall, the news of the studio closures, as upsetting as it was to receive, didn’t come as a surprise. As the former NY teacher manager for nearly four years, Perretti says she was aware that the company had been losing money in the region for a while—at least since she held that position before leaving it in 2017.

Perretti told me she thought that unionizing within a company that was operating in the red would be the writing on the wall—and would lead to studio closures. “I voted no on the union because I thought that was the best way to protect my job; that if teachers unionize it would be a great excuse for YogaWorks to say ‘this region is not profitable and we have to close,’” Perretti said. She says she didn’t speak out about it a year ago because her opinion was an unpopular one.

“There was so much support in the yoga community at large for this idea, and it made me angry that there were people who don’t even work at YogaWorks who were out there promoting it,” she says of the unionization efforts. “So for teachers like me who were against it, it made us feel like we couldn’t speak up—because it could result in us losing our jobs—and in hindsight, I probably should have.”

David DiMaria, 42, a representative of the IAMAW’s Eastern territory and advocate for Unionize Yoga, pointed out that the efforts to unionize didn’t add any costs to the company since they were still in the process of negotiating the first contract. “I would say there were much larger issues at play including the company’s inability to find a replacement location for the Eastside studio once the lease ran out, compounded by the effects of the current pandemic,” he says, adding that if the closure of the New York studios had anything to do with the teachers’ union it would be a violation of federal law. “It’s hard news for all involved, so I don’t want to discount anyone’s feelings—but with all the information we have we just don’t see it.”

As YogaWorks has openly expressed, the company had been struggling financially for quite some time. The Westside location in New York had closed in late-2018, and a source familiar with the downtown Brooklyn location has said that the studio had been struggling for years. By the time the SoHo studio closed in 2019—no doubt YogaWorks NY’s largest, most impressive, and quite likely, most expensive location—the financial strain in the region was mounting. Though a smaller SoHo space remained in its place and potentially saved the company in exorbitant rent costs, it failed to withstand the financial setbacks of COVID-19—particularly when only one out of the four remaining studios in the region, Westchester, was actually profitable. Meanwhile, YogaWorks’ other studios around the country (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington DC, et al) will remain fully operational (at least in online streaming format) for the time being.

“We cannot stress enough the levels of gratitude, appreciation and sympathy that we have for all of our New York City teachers and team members, and we thank them for their tireless dedication to YogaWorks and our students,” a spokesperson for YogaWorks said.

Unionize Yoga has been fighting for transparency surrounding studio revenue and financials.

On a group Zoom call late Wednesday night with the union and about 35 YogaWorks teachers, Perretti says that one of the teachers who had voted in favor of the union began to tear up when she expressed the possibility that the studio closures may have had something to do with the decision to unionize. That opinion, Perretti says, was not shared by the rest of the group. Following that call, Jodie Rufty, a senior teacher at YogaWorks for 20 years and the director of trainer development for the NY teacher training staff, sent an email to YogaWorks teachers. “It’s important to acknowledge these closures were eminent and not a result of the union,” she wrote.

What all of this means for the future of Unionize Yoga and for other teachers outside of YogaWorks who may want to form a union remains unclear, particularly in the age of coronavirus and a fast-shifting industry-wide landscape. “I don’t think it’s a great indicator,” Perretti says. “I'm not against unionizing—I'm against unionizing when you’re working for a company that’s already struggling to pay you.” (YogaWorks, an anomaly in the industry, employs its teachers as part-time employees rather than independent contractors, which gave teachers the right to organize as a legally recognized union. The company also offers benefits to employees like sick pay, workers’ compensation, and 401K. Health insurance is offered to full-time teachers who teach the equivalent of 10 classes per week.)

See also Want to Thrive as a Yoga Teacher? 5 Tips from a Yogi Who Cut Through the Competition with Grace

Unionize Yoga has said they plan to continue negotiating and bargaining with YogaWorks to ascertain what rights and concessions they can assert following the closures. But without a company to organize within, how can Unionize Yoga continue? On Friday, Cooper is hosting a virtual “town hall” meeting for all NY teachers on Zoom, which may—or may not—address teachers’ concerns about the union.

“None of us knows what the future will look like, but over the past year we have gotten a glimpse of how vibrant it can be when we all come together in mutual support and collective care,” a Unionize Yoga rep said in an email. “The organizing will continue.” 

[amyddaniels]

After Years of Financial Struggles, YogaWorks to Permanently Close in New York

The decision to close the four remaining New York locations effective April 19 highlights the uncertainty facing yoga teachers, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, an email from YogaWorks CEO Brian Cooper delivered the news that all four remaining New York locations of this popular yoga studio chain would permanently close effective Sunday, April 19, due to economic challenges.

YogaWorks, founded by teachers Maty Ezraty, Chuck Miller, and Alan Finger, first opened in 1987 in Santa Monica, California, and grew to more than 60 studios across the country. The YogaWorks school combined different styles of yoga, including Iyengar and Ashtanga, helping to create the vinyasa yoga trend and the careers of many of the yoga teachers students seek out today, including Kathryn Budig, Annie Carpenter, and Seane Corn.

See also Master Teacher Maty Ezraty on the State of Yoga Right Now 

“As a region, YogaWorks’ New York operations have lost money for several years despite many initiatives to improve studio performance and reduce losses, including closing individual studios, as we have tried desperately to keep New York afloat,” Cooper wrote in the email. “Even after closing Westside and SoHo, the economic realities are clear that there is no path to reduce our losses and get the New York region to break-even.”

YogaWorks has endured substantial fixed costs and intense competition from trendier boutique studios, even as classes everywhere have migrated to online or livestream formats during the coronavirus pandemic. YogaWorks would not be the only studio to point out the financial struggles of operating within the New York yoga market, even well before coronavirus had arrived in the United States and forced studios to close. Jivamukti Yoga, an iconic yoga brand owned by Sharon Gannon and David Life, closed the doors to its last-remaining New York City studio on December 22, 2019.

See also The End of an Era for NYC Yoga 

“Our only truly successful studio in New York, Eastside, is now closing as a result of losing our lease,” Cooper writes. “Losing Eastside leaves only three locations, which are each losing money and pushing the region deeper into the red.” In a follow up statement to Yoga Journal, the company said that despite its best efforts, its New York businesses had struggled financially for an extensive period of time. “This is certainly not the outcome we neither wanted nor anticipated, but these considerable obstacles, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have unfortunately made it inevitable,” a YogaWorks spokesperson wrote.

The pandemic also shines a spotlight on the tenuous nature of trying to make a living teaching yoga. Most teachers make hourly wages as contractors, often depending on the popularity of their classes, and piece together a schedule among various studios, private clients, retreats, and workshops and trainings. Most studios do not provide health insurance and other benefits, and under normal circumstances, when you lose a class or job due to a studio closure or schedule change, you can’t apply for unemployment.

Teacher Unionization Efforts Come to a Halt

The shockwave associated with the YogaWorks announcement quickly circulated among teachers, staff, and Unionize Yoga, the first-ever yoga teachers’ union, which formed within YogaWorks NY in September 2019.

Unionize Yoga began just over a year ago in February 2019 as a small initiative among YogaWorks NY teachers who were discussing what job security, health insurance, equity, seniority, and even autonomy could look like for their profession. “We formed our union out of great care for our profession, for each other, and for our students,” reads an email from Unionize Yoga to its supporters in response to the New York closures. “We educated ourselves about our rights as workers. We educated our employer about those rights, too, and our profession has been impacted in important ways.”

Despite initial resistance to unionization, YogaWorks came to respect their teachers’ right to unionize last fall, when they organized under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) and subsequently became formally recognized as a union by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Fast-forward to March 2020, just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Unionize Yoga and YogaWorks conducted their first two rounds of negotiations. And now that studios across the country have closed and more than 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment, there has maybe never been a more pressing time than now to consider the possibility of a yoga teachers’ union. But, as Veronica Perretti, 37, a former YogaWorks teacher and former teacher manager in New York says, “You can’t successfully unionize when a company is losing money.”

See also Teaching Yoga: The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

For some YogaWorks teachers like Perretti, who was among the minority group that voted against the union last fall, the news of the studio closures, as upsetting as it was to receive, didn’t come as a surprise. As the former NY teacher manager for nearly four years, Perretti says she was aware that the company had been losing money in the region for a while—at least since she held that position before leaving it in 2017.

Perretti told me she thought that unionizing within a company that was operating in the red would be the writing on the wall—and would lead to studio closures. “I voted no on the union because I thought that was the best way to protect my job; that if teachers unionize it would be a great excuse for YogaWorks to say ‘this region is not profitable and we have to close,’” Perretti said. She says she didn’t speak out about it a year ago because her opinion was an unpopular one.

“There was so much support in the yoga community at large for this idea, and it made me angry that there were people who don’t even work at YogaWorks who were out there promoting it,” she says of the unionization efforts. “So for teachers like me who were against it, it made us feel like we couldn’t speak up—because it could result in us losing our jobs—and in hindsight, I probably should have.”

David DiMaria, 42, a representative of the IAMAW’s Eastern territory and advocate for Unionize Yoga, pointed out that the efforts to unionize didn’t add any costs to the company since they were still in the process of negotiating the first contract. “I would say there were much larger issues at play including the company’s inability to find a replacement location for the Eastside studio once the lease ran out, compounded by the effects of the current pandemic,” he says, adding that if the closure of the New York studios had anything to do with the teachers’ union it would be a violation of federal law. “It’s hard news for all involved, so I don’t want to discount anyone’s feelings—but with all the information we have we just don’t see it.”

As YogaWorks has openly expressed, the company had been struggling financially for quite some time. The Westside location in New York had closed in late-2018, and a source familiar with the downtown Brooklyn location has said that the studio had been struggling for years. By the time the SoHo studio closed in 2019—no doubt YogaWorks NY’s largest, most impressive, and quite likely, most expensive location—the financial strain in the region was mounting. Though a smaller SoHo space remained in its place and potentially saved the company in exorbitant rent costs, it failed to withstand the financial setbacks of COVID-19—particularly when only one out of the four remaining studios in the region, Westchester, was actually profitable. Meanwhile, YogaWorks’ other studios around the country (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington DC, et al) will remain fully operational (at least in online streaming format) for the time being.

“We cannot stress enough the levels of gratitude, appreciation and sympathy that we have for all of our New York City teachers and team members, and we thank them for their tireless dedication to YogaWorks and our students,” a spokesperson for YogaWorks said.

Unionize Yoga has been fighting for transparency surrounding studio revenue and financials.

On a group Zoom call late Wednesday night with the union and about 35 YogaWorks teachers, Perretti says that one of the teachers who had voted in favor of the union began to tear up when she expressed the possibility that the studio closures may have had something to do with the decision to unionize. That opinion, Perretti says, was not shared by the rest of the group. Following that call, Jodie Rufty, a senior teacher at YogaWorks for 20 years and the director of trainer development for the NY teacher training staff, sent an email to YogaWorks teachers. “It’s important to acknowledge these closures were eminent and not a result of the union,” she wrote.

What all of this means for the future of Unionize Yoga and for other teachers outside of YogaWorks who may want to form a union remains unclear, particularly in the age of coronavirus and a fast-shifting industry-wide landscape. “I don’t think it’s a great indicator,” Perretti says. “I'm not against unionizing—I'm against unionizing when you’re working for a company that’s already struggling to pay you.” (YogaWorks, an anomaly in the industry, employs its teachers as part-time employees rather than independent contractors, which gave teachers the right to organize as a legally recognized union. The company also offers benefits to employees like sick pay, workers’ compensation, and 401K. Health insurance is offered to full-time teachers who teach the equivalent of 10 classes per week.)

See also Want to Thrive as a Yoga Teacher? 5 Tips from a Yogi Who Cut Through the Competition with Grace

Unionize Yoga has said they plan to continue negotiating and bargaining with YogaWorks to ascertain what rights and concessions they can assert following the closures. But without a company to organize within, how can Unionize Yoga continue? On Friday, Cooper is hosting a virtual “town hall” meeting for all NY teachers on Zoom, which may—or may not—address teachers’ concerns about the union.

“None of us knows what the future will look like, but over the past year we have gotten a glimpse of how vibrant it can be when we all come together in mutual support and collective care,” a Unionize Yoga rep said in an email. “The organizing will continue.” 

[krisiunicornio]

The decision to close the four remaining New York locations effective April 19 highlights the uncertainty facing yoga teachers, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, an email from YogaWorks CEO Brian Cooper delivered the news that all four remaining New York locations of this popular yoga studio chain would permanently close effective Sunday, April 19, due to economic challenges.

YogaWorks, founded by teachers Maty Ezraty, Chuck Miller, and Alan Finger, first opened in 1987 in Santa Monica, California, and grew to more than 60 studios across the country. The YogaWorks school combined different styles of yoga, including Iyengar and Ashtanga, helping to create the vinyasa yoga trend and the careers of many of the yoga teachers students seek out today, including Kathryn Budig, Annie Carpenter, and Seane Corn.

See also Master Teacher Maty Ezraty on the State of Yoga Right Now 

“As a region, YogaWorks’ New York operations have lost money for several years despite many initiatives to improve studio performance and reduce losses, including closing individual studios, as we have tried desperately to keep New York afloat,” Cooper wrote in the email. “Even after closing Westside and SoHo, the economic realities are clear that there is no path to reduce our losses and get the New York region to break-even.”

YogaWorks has endured substantial fixed costs and intense competition from trendier boutique studios, even as classes everywhere have migrated to online or livestream formats during the coronavirus pandemic. YogaWorks would not be the only studio to point out the financial struggles of operating within the New York yoga market, even well before coronavirus had arrived in the United States and forced studios to close. Jivamukti Yoga, an iconic yoga brand owned by Sharon Gannon and David Life, closed the doors to its last-remaining New York City studio on December 22, 2019.

See also The End of an Era for NYC Yoga 

“Our only truly successful studio in New York, Eastside, is now closing as a result of losing our lease,” Cooper writes. “Losing Eastside leaves only three locations, which are each losing money and pushing the region deeper into the red.” In a follow up statement to Yoga Journal, the company said that despite its best efforts, its New York businesses had struggled financially for an extensive period of time. “This is certainly not the outcome we neither wanted nor anticipated, but these considerable obstacles, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have unfortunately made it inevitable,” a YogaWorks spokesperson wrote.

The pandemic also shines a spotlight on the tenuous nature of trying to make a living teaching yoga. Most teachers make hourly wages as contractors, often depending on the popularity of their classes, and piece together a schedule among various studios, private clients, retreats, and workshops and trainings. Most studios do not provide health insurance and other benefits, and under normal circumstances, when you lose a class or job due to a studio closure or schedule change, you can’t apply for unemployment.

Teacher Unionization Efforts Come to a Halt

The shockwave associated with the YogaWorks announcement quickly circulated among teachers, staff, and Unionize Yoga, the first-ever yoga teachers’ union, which formed within YogaWorks NY in September 2019.

Unionize Yoga began just over a year ago in February 2019 as a small initiative among YogaWorks NY teachers who were discussing what job security, health insurance, equity, seniority, and even autonomy could look like for their profession. “We formed our union out of great care for our profession, for each other, and for our students,” reads an email from Unionize Yoga to its supporters in response to the New York closures. “We educated ourselves about our rights as workers. We educated our employer about those rights, too, and our profession has been impacted in important ways.”

Despite initial resistance to unionization, YogaWorks came to respect their teachers’ right to unionize last fall, when they organized under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) and subsequently became formally recognized as a union by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Fast-forward to March 2020, just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Unionize Yoga and YogaWorks conducted their first two rounds of negotiations. And now that studios across the country have closed and more than 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment, there has maybe never been a more pressing time than now to consider the possibility of a yoga teachers’ union. But, as Veronica Perretti, 37, a former YogaWorks teacher and former teacher manager in New York says, “You can’t successfully unionize when a company is losing money.”

See also Teaching Yoga: The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

For some YogaWorks teachers like Perretti, who was among the minority group that voted against the union last fall, the news of the studio closures, as upsetting as it was to receive, didn’t come as a surprise. As the former NY teacher manager for nearly four years, Perretti says she was aware that the company had been losing money in the region for a while—at least since she held that position before leaving it in 2017.

Perretti told me she thought that unionizing within a company that was operating in the red would be the writing on the wall—and would lead to studio closures. “I voted no on the union because I thought that was the best way to protect my job; that if teachers unionize it would be a great excuse for YogaWorks to say ‘this region is not profitable and we have to close,’” Perretti said. She says she didn’t speak out about it a year ago because her opinion was an unpopular one.

“There was so much support in the yoga community at large for this idea, and it made me angry that there were people who don’t even work at YogaWorks who were out there promoting it,” she says of the unionization efforts. “So for teachers like me who were against it, it made us feel like we couldn’t speak up—because it could result in us losing our jobs—and in hindsight, I probably should have.”

David DiMaria, 42, a representative of the IAMAW’s Eastern territory and advocate for Unionize Yoga, pointed out that the efforts to unionize didn’t add any costs to the company since they were still in the process of negotiating the first contract. “I would say there were much larger issues at play including the company’s inability to find a replacement location for the Eastside studio once the lease ran out, compounded by the effects of the current pandemic,” he says, adding that if the closure of the New York studios had anything to do with the teachers’ union it would be a violation of federal law. “It’s hard news for all involved, so I don’t want to discount anyone’s feelings—but with all the information we have we just don’t see it.”

As YogaWorks has openly expressed, the company had been struggling financially for quite some time. The Westside location in New York had closed in late-2018, and a source familiar with the downtown Brooklyn location has said that the studio had been struggling for years. By the time the SoHo studio closed in 2019—no doubt YogaWorks NY’s largest, most impressive, and quite likely, most expensive location—the financial strain in the region was mounting. Though a smaller SoHo space remained in its place and potentially saved the company in exorbitant rent costs, it failed to withstand the financial setbacks of COVID-19—particularly when only one out of the four remaining studios in the region, Westchester, was actually profitable. Meanwhile, YogaWorks’ other studios around the country (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington DC, et al) will remain fully operational (at least in online streaming format) for the time being.

“We cannot stress enough the levels of gratitude, appreciation and sympathy that we have for all of our New York City teachers and team members, and we thank them for their tireless dedication to YogaWorks and our students,” a spokesperson for YogaWorks said.

Unionize Yoga has been fighting for transparency surrounding studio revenue and financials.

On a group Zoom call late Wednesday night with the union and about 35 YogaWorks teachers, Perretti says that one of the teachers who had voted in favor of the union began to tear up when she expressed the possibility that the studio closures may have had something to do with the decision to unionize. That opinion, Perretti says, was not shared by the rest of the group. Following that call, Jodie Rufty, a senior teacher at YogaWorks for 20 years and the director of trainer development for the NY teacher training staff, sent an email to YogaWorks teachers. “It’s important to acknowledge these closures were eminent and not a result of the union,” she wrote.

What all of this means for the future of Unionize Yoga and for other teachers outside of YogaWorks who may want to form a union remains unclear, particularly in the age of coronavirus and a fast-shifting industry-wide landscape. “I don’t think it’s a great indicator,” Perretti says. “I'm not against unionizing—I'm against unionizing when you’re working for a company that’s already struggling to pay you.” (YogaWorks, an anomaly in the industry, employs its teachers as part-time employees rather than independent contractors, which gave teachers the right to organize as a legally recognized union. The company also offers benefits to employees like sick pay, workers’ compensation, and 401K. Health insurance is offered to full-time teachers who teach the equivalent of 10 classes per week.)

See also Want to Thrive as a Yoga Teacher? 5 Tips from a Yogi Who Cut Through the Competition with Grace

Unionize Yoga has said they plan to continue negotiating and bargaining with YogaWorks to ascertain what rights and concessions they can assert following the closures. But without a company to organize within, how can Unionize Yoga continue? On Friday, Cooper is hosting a virtual “town hall” meeting for all NY teachers on Zoom, which may—or may not—address teachers’ concerns about the union.

“None of us knows what the future will look like, but over the past year we have gotten a glimpse of how vibrant it can be when we all come together in mutual support and collective care,” a Unionize Yoga rep said in an email. “The organizing will continue.” 

[dani-qrt]

Who Strikes Fear Into Silicon Valley? Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s Antitrust Enforcer

“Europe is acting to enforce antitrust laws where the U.S. is not,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, the chief executive of Yelp, who feels that American regulators dropped the ball when they decided not to pursue a case against Google in 2013 (Yelp is a longtime Google antagonist). “Ironically, many of the complainants in the E.U. antitrust case against Google are U.S. companies, pursuing justice in Europe precisely because the U.S., has not acted,” he said in an email.

While Ms. Vestager’s global influence is ascendant, her political fate is murky. She has made it clear that she would like a second term as competition commissioner, but there is no guarantee that the Danish government will reappoint her to the commission next year. In fact, the new prime minister, who comes from a rival party, has said he will not do so.

Though a long shot, Ms. Vestager is among the potential contenders for president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. It is the most powerful job in the bloc — one never held by a woman, or by someone with her public profile.

Photo

Facebook’s C.E.O., Mark Zuckerberg, spent two days being interrogated by lawmakers in Washington in April. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

Her appeal partly speaks to a populist impulse from the political left, a David-versus-Goliath belief that it is high time someone stood up to giant corporations, particularly those that exert so much power. But not everyone views her as a heroic regulatory warrior.

Critics of Ms. Vestager include leaders of American tech companies who have crossed her and who take issue with both her approach and her facts; Republicans in Congress; some members of the Trump administration; the Wall Street Journal editorial board; and groups like the Business Roundtable, a conservative-leaning, pro-business collection of American chief executives.

Apple is especially aggrieved. In 2016, Ms. Vestager ordered Ireland to reclaim 13 billion euros in back taxes, or about $15.5 billion, saying that the company had illegally received a tax break that was not available to others. Apple has begun paying the money into an escrow account, but both the company and Ireland have appealed the decision. They say it ignores how much tax Apple has already paid to Ireland, misrepresents the tax rate the company is subject to there, and reflects either a willful misreading or an ignorance of tax law.

Critics also accuse her of grandstanding, and of displaying bias against American companies.

“I think she has this vision of what the law should be, and it seems to me that when this radically affects major companies that are headquartered in the U.S., you might want to have more of a dialogue with the U.S. regulators and the U.S. government about it,” said Joe Kennedy, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington.

Continue reading the main story

Both Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, and Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief, have traveled to Brussels to argue their cases in person, apparently in vain. Last June, Ms. Vestager fined Google €2.4 billion, or about $2.8 billion, after concluding that it had unfairly used its search engine to favor its services over those of its rivals. It was the largest such penalty in the European Commission’s history, and more than double similar fines levied by the United States.

Last May, she fined Facebook €110 million, or about $131 million, after concluding that it had misled the European authorities about its acquisition of the messaging service WhatsApp. And in January, she fined the American chip maker Qualcomm €997 million, or about $1.2 billion, saying it had abused its market dominance to shut out competitors.

For the moment, the attention is on data privacy, and whether it is possible to regulate how technology companies share and profit from users’ personal information.

As the top European official enforcing competition laws, Ms. Vestager has primarily concentrated on how a range of companies use, or abuse, their market dominance. But she has also emerged as a major voice of warning about the effect of tech firms on our habits, our privacy, our ability to make human connections and even democracy itself. (Europe has a new data privacy law that is to take effect May 25.)

“What’s fascinating about her role is that in her mind, the new antitrust is about data, not about market power,” said Randy Komisar, a veteran Silicon Valley executive and now a general partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Photo

Apple’s headquarters in Cork, Ireland. In 2016, Ms. Vestager ordered Ireland to reclaim 13 billion euros in back taxes from the company. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

He added: “I believe the European approach is more appropriate than the U.S. laissez-faire approach. The U.S. economy sort of lives or dies by the notion of free markets, and I think what we’re seeing is a perversion of free market economics that is very difficult to counter without regulation.”

Appearing last November at a tech summit meeting in Lisbon, Ms. Vestager was interviewed onstage by Kara Swisher, host of the Recode Decode podcast, as about 15,000 people looked on. Many in the audience were young techies who greeted the commissioner with something like euphoria, particularly when she declared that “we need to take our democracy back” from social media.

“She’s what my generation looks for in a politician,” said Corina Stoenescu, a Harvard Business School student who helped organize a conference in March where Ms. Vestager was the keynote speaker. She added: “The moment tech giants come into question, then Vestager comes into question. She’s the only person on the planet who has a voice about it.”

Other jurisdictions are following Europe’s regulatory lead. Brazil, among other countries, has begun an antitrust case against Google, and one of the search giant’s Brazilian competitors said last summer that it would use the European arguments in its own lawsuit. And in November, the state of Missouri opened an investigation into whether Google violated the state’s antitrust and consumer protection laws.

Continue reading the main story

“It’s good if we can inspire each other globally,” Ms. Vestager said in a recent interview in Copenhagen.

She was juggling interviews and preparing for a speech, as a bag of knitting rested nearby. She likes to knit in meetings, and has recently been making elephants, after moving on from socks. (She also sometimes sews her own clothes.)

Trained as an economist, she grew up in Glostrup, a suburb of Copenhagen, the daughter of two Lutheran ministers. (She’s not a fan of organized religion, she said, and follows a “Believe in God, fear the church” philosophy.)

She entered politics at 21, joining the tiny centrist Danish Social Liberal Party, which was founded by her great-grandfather. Elected to Parliament in 2001, she rose to become the party’s parliamentary leader six years later — she was already national chairwoman — and was blamed as being too young, too boring and female when the Social Liberals lost half their seats in the subsequent election.

“She was very, very young, but if she had been a man, people would not have complained in the same way,” said her biographer, Elisabet Svane.

Photo

Ms. Vestager in Copenhagen during a European Union Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting in 2012. As Danish economics and interior minister, Ms. Vestager pushed through deeply unpopular cuts in retirement and unemployment benefits. Credit Keld Navntoft/Scanpix, via Getty Images

As for the boring part: “She has a lot of humor, but she is a little boring sometimes,” Ms. Svane said in an interview. “The party is boring. They are technocrats and teachers, and they always know what is best for society.”

Ms. Vestager brought in a media consultant, Henrik Kjerrumgaard, who advised her to drop the dull platitudes, simplify her message and stick to her beliefs — even if they made her unpopular. She rethought how to present herself.

“All of us have multiple selves,” she said. “Being a public figure is not about changing yourself, but maybe bringing out some other side of yourself.” She learned to smile more, she said, “to be more direct, less detailed, not like an economist lecturing.”

Continue reading the main story

Her party rebounded in the 2011 elections and joined a three-party governing coalition led by the Social Democrats under Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Appointed to the new post of economics and interior minister, Ms. Vestager pushed through deeply unpopular cuts in retirement and unemployment benefits — forcing Ms. Thorning-Schmidt to renege on her own campaign promises — while helping enact more liberal immigration policies.

She made a fair share of enemies, among them a group of long-term unemployed workers angry about reductions in their benefits. She still keeps the sculpture they gave her, of a middle-finger-brandishing hand, in her office in Brussels, saying it was “a reminder that you will make mistakes, and people will have a different point of view, and that should be part of your understanding of yourself.”

In 2014, Denmark made her the country’s appointee to the European Commission, and she took charge of the competition portfolio.

Ms. Vestager appears to have found that rare thing, a decent work-life balance. (By comparison, the fictional character she and Ms. Thorning-Schmidt are collectively said to have inspired, Birgitte Nyborg, the central figure of the Danish political drama “Borgen,” struggles unsuccessfully to hang onto her marriage.) Ms. Vestager’s husband, Thomas Jensen, a math and philosophy teacher, lives in Copenhagen with their youngest daughter, 15. Their two older daughters are in college.

“Here, it’s more the rule than the exception to be a working mother,” she said. “I have sometimes been asked if I’m a bad mother to my daughters, and I say, ‘They don’t know any different — this is the mother they’ve got.’”

Lately she has been thinking about power — what it is, who has it, how it is used — after reading the historian Mary Beard’s latest book, “Women and Power.” “The #MeToo movement can be maybe the most important catalyst for decades in doing that,” Ms. Vestager said. “It tears down our understanding of power.

“Power is not something you own,” she continued. “It’s only something you’re borrowing.”

Continue reading the main story

The post Who Strikes Fear Into Silicon Valley? Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s Antitrust Enforcer appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2HVZaz8 via Online News

[dragnews]

Who Strikes Fear Into Silicon Valley? Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s Antitrust Enforcer

“Europe is acting to enforce antitrust laws where the U.S. is not,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, the chief executive of Yelp, who feels that American regulators dropped the ball when they decided not to pursue a case against Google in 2013 (Yelp is a longtime Google antagonist). “Ironically, many of the complainants in the E.U. antitrust case against Google are U.S. companies, pursuing justice in Europe precisely because the U.S., has not acted,” he said in an email.

While Ms. Vestager’s global influence is ascendant, her political fate is murky. She has made it clear that she would like a second term as competition commissioner, but there is no guarantee that the Danish government will reappoint her to the commission next year. In fact, the new prime minister, who comes from a rival party, has said he will not do so.

Though a long shot, Ms. Vestager is among the potential contenders for president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. It is the most powerful job in the bloc — one never held by a woman, or by someone with her public profile.

Photo

Facebook’s C.E.O., Mark Zuckerberg, spent two days being interrogated by lawmakers in Washington in April. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

Her appeal partly speaks to a populist impulse from the political left, a David-versus-Goliath belief that it is high time someone stood up to giant corporations, particularly those that exert so much power. But not everyone views her as a heroic regulatory warrior.

Critics of Ms. Vestager include leaders of American tech companies who have crossed her and who take issue with both her approach and her facts; Republicans in Congress; some members of the Trump administration; the Wall Street Journal editorial board; and groups like the Business Roundtable, a conservative-leaning, pro-business collection of American chief executives.

Apple is especially aggrieved. In 2016, Ms. Vestager ordered Ireland to reclaim 13 billion euros in back taxes, or about $15.5 billion, saying that the company had illegally received a tax break that was not available to others. Apple has begun paying the money into an escrow account, but both the company and Ireland have appealed the decision. They say it ignores how much tax Apple has already paid to Ireland, misrepresents the tax rate the company is subject to there, and reflects either a willful misreading or an ignorance of tax law.

Critics also accuse her of grandstanding, and of displaying bias against American companies.

“I think she has this vision of what the law should be, and it seems to me that when this radically affects major companies that are headquartered in the U.S., you might want to have more of a dialogue with the U.S. regulators and the U.S. government about it,” said Joe Kennedy, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington.

Continue reading the main story

Both Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, and Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief, have traveled to Brussels to argue their cases in person, apparently in vain. Last June, Ms. Vestager fined Google €2.4 billion, or about $2.8 billion, after concluding that it had unfairly used its search engine to favor its services over those of its rivals. It was the largest such penalty in the European Commission’s history, and more than double similar fines levied by the United States.

Last May, she fined Facebook €110 million, or about $131 million, after concluding that it had misled the European authorities about its acquisition of the messaging service WhatsApp. And in January, she fined the American chip maker Qualcomm €997 million, or about $1.2 billion, saying it had abused its market dominance to shut out competitors.

For the moment, the attention is on data privacy, and whether it is possible to regulate how technology companies share and profit from users’ personal information.

As the top European official enforcing competition laws, Ms. Vestager has primarily concentrated on how a range of companies use, or abuse, their market dominance. But she has also emerged as a major voice of warning about the effect of tech firms on our habits, our privacy, our ability to make human connections and even democracy itself. (Europe has a new data privacy law that is to take effect May 25.)

“What’s fascinating about her role is that in her mind, the new antitrust is about data, not about market power,” said Randy Komisar, a veteran Silicon Valley executive and now a general partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Photo

Apple’s headquarters in Cork, Ireland. In 2016, Ms. Vestager ordered Ireland to reclaim 13 billion euros in back taxes from the company. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

He added: “I believe the European approach is more appropriate than the U.S. laissez-faire approach. The U.S. economy sort of lives or dies by the notion of free markets, and I think what we’re seeing is a perversion of free market economics that is very difficult to counter without regulation.”

Appearing last November at a tech summit meeting in Lisbon, Ms. Vestager was interviewed onstage by Kara Swisher, host of the Recode Decode podcast, as about 15,000 people looked on. Many in the audience were young techies who greeted the commissioner with something like euphoria, particularly when she declared that “we need to take our democracy back” from social media.

“She’s what my generation looks for in a politician,” said Corina Stoenescu, a Harvard Business School student who helped organize a conference in March where Ms. Vestager was the keynote speaker. She added: “The moment tech giants come into question, then Vestager comes into question. She’s the only person on the planet who has a voice about it.”

Other jurisdictions are following Europe’s regulatory lead. Brazil, among other countries, has begun an antitrust case against Google, and one of the search giant’s Brazilian competitors said last summer that it would use the European arguments in its own lawsuit. And in November, the state of Missouri opened an investigation into whether Google violated the state’s antitrust and consumer protection laws.

Continue reading the main story

“It’s good if we can inspire each other globally,” Ms. Vestager said in a recent interview in Copenhagen.

She was juggling interviews and preparing for a speech, as a bag of knitting rested nearby. She likes to knit in meetings, and has recently been making elephants, after moving on from socks. (She also sometimes sews her own clothes.)

Trained as an economist, she grew up in Glostrup, a suburb of Copenhagen, the daughter of two Lutheran ministers. (She’s not a fan of organized religion, she said, and follows a “Believe in God, fear the church” philosophy.)

She entered politics at 21, joining the tiny centrist Danish Social Liberal Party, which was founded by her great-grandfather. Elected to Parliament in 2001, she rose to become the party’s parliamentary leader six years later — she was already national chairwoman — and was blamed as being too young, too boring and female when the Social Liberals lost half their seats in the subsequent election.

“She was very, very young, but if she had been a man, people would not have complained in the same way,” said her biographer, Elisabet Svane.

Photo

Ms. Vestager in Copenhagen during a European Union Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting in 2012. As Danish economics and interior minister, Ms. Vestager pushed through deeply unpopular cuts in retirement and unemployment benefits. Credit Keld Navntoft/Scanpix, via Getty Images

As for the boring part: “She has a lot of humor, but she is a little boring sometimes,” Ms. Svane said in an interview. “The party is boring. They are technocrats and teachers, and they always know what is best for society.”

Ms. Vestager brought in a media consultant, Henrik Kjerrumgaard, who advised her to drop the dull platitudes, simplify her message and stick to her beliefs — even if they made her unpopular. She rethought how to present herself.

“All of us have multiple selves,” she said. “Being a public figure is not about changing yourself, but maybe bringing out some other side of yourself.” She learned to smile more, she said, “to be more direct, less detailed, not like an economist lecturing.”

Continue reading the main story

Her party rebounded in the 2011 elections and joined a three-party governing coalition led by the Social Democrats under Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Appointed to the new post of economics and interior minister, Ms. Vestager pushed through deeply unpopular cuts in retirement and unemployment benefits — forcing Ms. Thorning-Schmidt to renege on her own campaign promises — while helping enact more liberal immigration policies.

She made a fair share of enemies, among them a group of long-term unemployed workers angry about reductions in their benefits. She still keeps the sculpture they gave her, of a middle-finger-brandishing hand, in her office in Brussels, saying it was “a reminder that you will make mistakes, and people will have a different point of view, and that should be part of your understanding of yourself.”

In 2014, Denmark made her the country’s appointee to the European Commission, and she took charge of the competition portfolio.

Ms. Vestager appears to have found that rare thing, a decent work-life balance. (By comparison, the fictional character she and Ms. Thorning-Schmidt are collectively said to have inspired, Birgitte Nyborg, the central figure of the Danish political drama “Borgen,” struggles unsuccessfully to hang onto her marriage.) Ms. Vestager’s husband, Thomas Jensen, a math and philosophy teacher, lives in Copenhagen with their youngest daughter, 15. Their two older daughters are in college.

“Here, it’s more the rule than the exception to be a working mother,” she said. “I have sometimes been asked if I’m a bad mother to my daughters, and I say, ‘They don’t know any different — this is the mother they’ve got.’”

Lately she has been thinking about power — what it is, who has it, how it is used — after reading the historian Mary Beard’s latest book, “Women and Power.” “The #MeToo movement can be maybe the most important catalyst for decades in doing that,” Ms. Vestager said. “It tears down our understanding of power.

“Power is not something you own,” she continued. “It’s only something you’re borrowing.”

Continue reading the main story

The post Who Strikes Fear Into Silicon Valley? Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s Antitrust Enforcer appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2HVZaz8 via Today News