halfamoon-challenge

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You know what’s novel about Sabrina the Teenage Witch? It had supernatural problems, and the kids, you know, ACTUALLY WENT TO CLASS. 

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This got long so it’s become its own post.

I explained this to my seven-year-old cousin once when she expressed distaste over anyone possibly enjoying horror movies, and she understood perfectly, so adults have no excuse: 

People read dark fiction for the same reason they ride roller coasters. 

It’s a simulation of danger without anyone actually being under threat. It gets the brain worked up, releases a bunch of adrenaline into your system, you experience a whole rush of emotions and excitement and fear; but a safe kind of fear, where you know the danger isn’t real and there are dozens of measures in place to protect you. And then it’s over and you can get off the ride.

That doesn’t mean everyone is obligated to ride roller coasters. I, for example, am scared of heights, and most coasters are scary for me in a way that isn’t fun. The fear isn’t that I’ll die, the fear is of experiencing more of the ride and thus it’s not a safe fear, because it’s real and I have no control over it. As such, I don’t ride large roller coasters. But the fact that large coasters are not mentally or emotionally safe for me to ride doesn’t mean they should be illegal, or that there’s “something wrong” with anyone who enjoys them.

Similarly, sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes people have conditions they don’t know about until a coaster aggravates them in the worst possible way because they didn’t know to avoid it…and that’s no one’s fault. People have died or been injured in coaster accidents, and those accidents are pretty much always the result of human error, carelessness, laziness, or poor communication. It’s the responsibility of the amusement park to make sure that basic safety features are built-in and maintained–or at the very least (mangling the metaphor somewhat because this would obviously be illegal in real life) to make it clear that those features don’t exist! I feel like most people would avoid a ride clearly labelled “HAS NEVER HAD A SAFETY INSPECTION! NO RESTRAINT BARS! RIDE STAFF HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED AND THERE ARE NO EMERGENCY SERVICES ON-SITE! OPEN FLAMES!” but if you click on a fic clearly labelled “author chose not to use warnings” you know the risks and they’ve met their obligation to warn you of them. And sometimes the people providing this content don’t perform that basic due diligence, and people get hurt as a result–but that’s on those specific bad actors, and doesn’t mean we ban all roller coasters. It also doesn’t mean every single ride operator on earth should be tarred with that brush, especially when they’ve openly spoken out against such practices! Furthermore, if you KNOW you have a heart condition and willingly get on a ride that says it is not safe for people with heart conditions, you cannot then blame the amusement park!

What makes roller coasters safe for me? Well, for one, the fact that I’m an adult now so my family has finally stopped trying to force me onto them. Pressure was a constant part of interacting with coasters for me for YEARS, and THAT fucked me up. There was “mild” teasing, frustration when I refused, anger if I changed my mind, and a lot of guilt-tripping about how it was my fault that they couldn’t go on the rides they wanted to because of me. That shit was not okay, and anyone trying to force someone to engage with content they don’t want to is obviously in the wrong.

The OTHER thing that helps me is content warnings the heroes who upload on-ride video of coasters I’m interested in trying. Knowing exactly what to expect–being able to see for myself all the drops so I can judge if they’ll be too much for me, and know in advance where they are so I can brace myself–can turn a ride that otherwise would have been a miserable and stressful experience that I chose not to subject myself to into a really good time. These are especially valuable, because what’s safe for ME is not automatically safe for everyone else. The only thing that makes a ride too much for me–my only hard limit–is extremely tall drops. I love inversions, fast twists and turns, I don’t mind rough coasters, it’s just drop height. But I’ve known people with medical conditions that made rough jolts dangerous, and plenty of people like tall drops but find tight turns and high speed overwhelming. Do I wish more coasters were designed to have the elements I enjoy without the ones I don’t? Yes, and not being able to find many frustrates me. But that doesn’t mean I expect everyone to have the same limits, or that I think people who design tall coasters with big drops and lots of airtime are malicious.

By this logic, actually, darkfic is much safer than roller coasters–once you’ve committed to a coaster you have to ride it out even if you change your mind. But the moment a dark fic or horror movie takes a turn you don’t like or becomes suddenly too real, you can turn it off and walk away.

And if you think enjoying roller coasters means someone will conclude that it’s okay to fling people off cliffs without their consent, then, well, in that case you’re just ungodly fucking stupid. Sorry you had to find out this way.

Have fun on those hypercoasters, you crazy bastards. Keep uploading ride videos for me.

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SHREK 2 (2004)

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Halfamoon: Onwards And Upwards

So, the part where we give you prompts to fill and activities to complete is done, but @halfamoon-challenge will be taking any and all submissions for the next two weeks until the end of February.

So keep telling stories, keep writing meta, keep making gifsets and photosets and promoting your female characters of choice.

There’ll be periodic reminders and reblogs, and we’ll be checking the halfamoon challenge tag to find your work!

Thank you everyone who has participated, reblogged, joined in the activities - it’s good to see you.

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Halfamoon Prompt Challenge

Day 13: Partnership

So many different kinds of partnerships between women - usually friends, but not always. Sometimes it’s just being in the same damn boat together, bailing out the water. They don’t even have to like each other for that!

Today, give us women in partnerships, working together, learning to like each other, learning to dislike each other, just putting their oar in together.

Graphics, gifsets, meta, links, fics, graphics, art, and recs - anything is welcome about any female character. All prompts are simply places to start - don’t feel that you have to stick with the ideas asked, or with the character displayed in the header! Go for your life!

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Maria Hill & Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff & Vision Characters: Maria Hill, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Pepper Potts, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff, Vision (Marvel) Additional Tags: Crack, Humor, Trolling, Memes, Social Media, chuck norris facts, But for Black Widow Summary:

It's somehow Maria's job to figure out who started the popular new Black Widow memes. She really hates her job sometimes.

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Femme-friendly LJ/DW/Tumblr Friending meme

banner made by kalloway

Okay, so it’s always fun to meet other fans of the female characters that you love, get to know them, exchange gifsets, meta, fanworks, and become friends, so here’s a friending meme for the Halfamoon Challenge 2017!

LiveJournal | Dreamwidth

Tumblr Friending Meme: copy, fill out, and reblog!

LJ: DW: Tumblr: Twitter:

About You: [blurb]

Fandoms & favourite femmechars: [list by fandom and character, and possibly pairing if you're so inclined]

I post about: (fandom, real life, combination - do for each platform, if you want)

I want to find people that post about: (specific fandoms, fandom in general, books, RL, SJ, etc)

Anything else?: [gifsets, graphics, links]

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Sabé (Star Wars) Additional Tags: Drabble, Introspection, Grief/Mourning Summary:

Sabé has a task.

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Halfamoon Prompt Challenge

Day 12: Getting The Job Done

A woman’s gotta do what a woman’s gotta do, through prejudice, bigotry, and stupidity, rain or shine, life and living, and all the bullshit we have to put up with.

Today, give us your female characters toughing it out but getting the job done.

Graphics, gifsets, meta, links, fics, graphics, art, and recs - anything is welcome about any female character. All prompts are simply places to start - don’t feel that you have to stick with the ideas asked, or with the character displayed in the header! Go for your life! And don’t forget to tag your work!

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The Unpopular Women Love Post

This post is for celebrating and loving your favorite under-appreciated women. Rules nicked from bofoddity: 1. Start a thread and put the character's name and the canon they come from in the subject line. 2. Those who love the character comment on the thread with squee, thoughts, fic/art/vid recs, picspams, essays, links and everything they can think of. Make sure your character gets all the love and the attention she deserves. 3. If a character has a thread and you want to talk about her, comment to the thread in question. General comments and threads for new characters go to the main post. 4. Focus on the love. This is an all positivity, all time post. Embrace your happy! 5. Absolutely no bashing allowed. Please avoid making negative comparisons to other characters, other character types and "well this character sucks more!" kind of comments. Those characters and character types have their fans too and hey, it's a love post. Save negativity for other things. No bashing actresses or the other versions of the character either. Keep in mind that mileages vary and what doesn't work for you may work for someone else.

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Halfamoon Prompt Challenge

Day 11: Challenge

She likes a challenge. She lives for the challenge. She is a challenge. Today’s prompt is for the women who push back in some way or another.

Graphics, gifsets, meta, links, fics, graphics, art, and recs - anything is welcome about any female character. All prompts are simply places to start - don’t feel that you have to stick with the ideas asked, or with the character displayed in the header! Go for your life!

And don’t forget to tag your works!

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From freyadjacent

LADY SIDEKICKS ARE MY JAM. I've got lovely meta to rec on one of my favourites: Willow Rosenberg. local_max singlehandedly changed my opinion about Willow's S6 arc.

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Title: Whispers on the Night Wind Author: Kat Lee Fandom: X-Men/Generation X Character/Pairing: Emma, Sean, mild Sean/Emma Rating: PG/K+ Challenge/Prompt: halfamoon Day 8: Unsung Hero Warning(s): None Word Count: 2,193 Date Written: 7 February 2017 Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.

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Title: For A While Author: Kat Lee Fandom: X-Men Character/Pairing: Emma, past Scott/Emma and Sebastian/Emma Rating: PG/K+ Challenge/Prompt: halfamoon Day 6: Choices Warning(s): Spoilers Word Count: 1,244 Date Written: 7 February 2017 Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.

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Halfamoon Prompt Challenge

Day 10: Women Being Awesome

Today doesn’t really need any explanation, does it? Whatever your definition of ‘awesome’ and the female characters you love, give it to us!

Graphics, gifsets, meta, links, fics, graphics, art, and recs - anything is welcome about any female character. All prompts are simply places to start - don’t feel that you have to stick with the ideas asked, or with the character displayed in the header! Go for your life!