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She was playing the role of the wounded recluse, and maybe she was trapped in that role. The Lady of Shalott waiting to be rescued. Awaiting a lover who would release her from her spell; or, at least, tear off the veil.

Joyce Carol Oates, from The Falls

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Adolescence of Utena

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Nothing quite as nice as watering your plants in the middle of the night in your school uniform

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you hurt me, i hurt you

Redbubble

Instagram

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so who are you?

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INPRNT

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happy pride

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revolutionary girl utena (1997)

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This was supposed to be a Valentine’s special, but Women’s Day works, too!

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Anthy as the "Rose Bride" represents women who are forced to conform and submit to the ideals and expectations set the patriarchal system for them. In particular, I think "rose brides" are meant to represent victims of the patriarchy (hence; "All girls are like the rose bride", meaning all girls are victims of our patriarchal society.)

Similarly, I think that Akio as the "prince" also symbolizes those who have to conform to societal norms and expectations: specifically, boys. The "prince" is an ideal that boys are expected to fulfill, such as how girls are expected to be "princesses/brides." In the end, the never-ending demands of humanity for the prince are what drives Dios to become Akio. The princes MUST have a princess. They MUST save the brides. Doesn't matter if the girls want that or if they need to be saved; it's the role that they have to fill. They are blinded by their need to conform and reach eternity that princes don't see exactly how harmful they are to those they supposedly save.

Also, the little implications and even headcanons that say Dios might have always been an asshole of sorts could also, I think, represent how the system itself is inherently flawed. Dios was a good person (or at least, he paraded as one), who was bent on saving humanity and rescuing others. It was the path to becoming a prince that somewhat cause his bends to fold completely.

Even if you raise a genuine boy with a good heart, a rare good apple in a basket of bad apples; their rot will be inescapable as long as they remain there. No matter how good or kind-hearted a "prince" can be, for as long as they are a "prince", rose brides everywhere will be hurt.

And this goes back to Utena's most important realization in the entire series; which is the rejection of the "prince." She cannot save Anthy, the "Rose Bride", for as long as she is a prince.

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The charge that capitalism has turned women's bodies into machines for the production of labor power has been a central theme of feminist literature since the 1970s. Yet the advent of surrogate motherhood is a turning point in this process, as it represents gestation as a purely mechanical process, as alienated labor, in which the woman hired must have no emotional involvement. Surrogacy is also a new turn from the viewpoint of the commodification of human life, as it is the organization and legitimation of a children's market, and the definition of child as a property that can be transferred, bought, and sold. This, in fact, is the essence of "surrogate motherhood," a practice that is now widespread in several countries, starting with the United States, but continues to be enveloped in a cloud of mystification.

As the Italian feminist sociologist Daniela Danna points out in her Contract Children (2015), the very concept of "surrogacy" is deceptive, for it suggests that the "birthing mother" is not the real one, but it is only "an aid, a helper," and what she does is on behalf of the "real mother" — the provider of the egg which the surrogate then transforms into a child. Justification for this terminology comes from the new reproductive technologies — in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer — which generate the illusion that the owners of the implanted egg have property rights over the child, since the gestational mother is genetically unrelated to it. As Danna comments, this is a fallacious argument that can only be maintained through an abstract conception of property, ignoring that the "birthing mother" is the one who materially creates and nourishes the child, a process that entails not only nine months of labor but a transference of genetic material, as the child is truly made from her flesh and bones.

—Silvia Federici, “Beyond the Periphery of the Skin.”

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“«La bruja, símbolo de la violencia de la naturaleza, desencadenaba tormentas, causaba enfermedades, arruinaba las cosechas, impedía la procreación y mataba a los niños pequeños. La mujer que provocaba desórdenes, como la naturaleza caótica, debía ser sometida a control.» Una vez frenadas y domesticadas, ambas podían reducirse a una función decorativa, convertirse en «recurso psicológicos y recreativos para el agotado marido-emprendedor».”

— Brujas ¿estigma o la fuerza invencible de las mujeres?, Mona Chollet.

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The first feminist to disinter the witches’ story and to claim this title for herself was the American Matilda Joslyn Gage, who fought for women's right to vote and also for the rights of Native Americans and the abolition of slavery—she was given a prison sentence for helping slaves to escape. In Woman, Church and State (1893), she offered a feminist reading of the witch-hunts: “When for ‘witches’ we read ‘women’, we gain fuller comprehension of the cruelties inflicted by the church upon this portion of humanity.” Gage inspired the character of Glinda, the good witch in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was written by her son-in-law, L. Frank Baum. When he adapted the novel for cinema in 1939, Victor Fleming created the first "good witch" in popular culture.

-Mona Chollet, In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women are Still on Trial

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Women have always been monsters, too, in the minds of great men; in philosophy, medicine, and psychology, the inherent freakishness of women has always been a baseline assumption. Aristotle famously concluded that every woman was a "mutilated male." Thomas Aquinas said that, were it not for their ability to bear sons, God would have been wrong to make women at all: "Nothing misbegotten or defective should have been in the first production of things." [...] Centuries after Aristotle, Sigmund Freud updated and expanded the "mutilated male" theory by arguing that women were "castrated." Male and female children alike were supposedly traumatized for life by the knowledge that their mothers did not have penises, seeing the female body forever after as maimed and incomplete—a walking wound.

Sady Doyle, Introduction. Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers

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Ever see a depiction of St. George and the Dragon? It's pretty fair to say if you've seen one, you've seen them all: Georgie on a horse stabbing a flailing dragon creature, princess piously kneeling in the background, vague landscape alluding to the homeland of the artist's patron.

The most varied part is the dragons. No one had a real definition for the thing, it seemed. For your pleasure and entertainment, I have ranked some medieval depictions based on how impressive George's feat seems once you see the dragon.

Paolo Uccello, 1456

This is a terrifying beast. The hell is that. Uccello was one of the first experimenters with perspective, so the thing also looks surreal, like it's taking place on Mars, or a Windows 95 screensaver. I would not want to fight that, I would not want to be tied to that. (Sometimes the princess is tied to the dragon for some reason.) 10/10

Horse thoughts: Maybe if I look at the ground it will be gone when I look up

Unknown artist, c. 1505

This is a rare change of form for the dragon; it's the only one I've seen actually flying (or at least falling with style). It doesn't look particularly deterred by the spear through its throat, either. Also, George looks appropriately nervous. On the other hand, it hasn't got teeth, it seems to be fuzzy rather than having scaly armor, and George is bolstered by his army of Henry VII and his children, most of whom definitely didn't actually die in infancy. Still, wouldn't want to fight it, wouldn't want my pet sheep near it. (Sometimes the princess has a pet sheep for some reason.) 9/10

Horse thoughts: I am so glad I wore my mightiest feather helmet for this

Raphael, 1505

We are coming to Dragons With Problems. This guy looks about comparable in size to George, and does have wings, but doesn't seem to be using these things to his advantage (and has he only got one wing?) And how does he deal with the neck? He does have a comically small head, but holding it up with such a twisty neck seems complicated at best. But most egregiously, he is doing the shitty superheroine pose where he is somehow simultaneously showcasing his chest and his butt, with its unnecessarily defined butthole (more on this later) (regrettably). 8/10 bc it's Raphael

Horse thoughts: AM I THE BESTEST BOI? AM I DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? WE R DRAGON SLAYING BUDDIEZ

The Beauchamp Hours, c. 1401

We had a spirited debate about this one at work. Again, the dragon has gotten smaller, and this one hasn't got even one wing. He's basically a crocodile. So the debate became: would you want to fight a crocodile if you had a horse and a pointy stick? Would the horse trample the animal, who can't get on its hind legs, or freak out and throw its rider? Would the pointy stick be enough to pierce the croc's thick hide? In this case, George seems to be controlling his horse and putting his pointy stick in the dragon's weak spot, so we can be impressed by his skill and strategy. However, his hat is dumb. 7/10

Horse thoughts: Dehhhh

Book of Hours, c. 1480

Here we have the same kind of croco-dragon, but George's focus on his strategy has gone out the window. He's flailing around, not even looking at his target, he's about to lose his pointy stick, he hasn't got a hand on the reins, and his sword seems to only be poking the invisible dragon over his shoulder. All he's got going for him is that his hat is slightly less dumb. 6/10

Horse thoughts: Yay, new friend! Come play with me, new fr- what is happening

Final dragons put behind this Read More for your safety:

Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1432

I'm thinking this guy is at least semi-aquatic. Webbed feet, wings that seem more like fins, bipedal but top-heavy, jaws that seem more for scooping than biting. Maybe she's crawled up here from the nearby body of water to lay her eggs, and this is all a big misunderstanding. Moreover, George's dagged sleeves seem entirely impractical for the situation. 5/10

Horse thoughts: i got my hed stuk in a jar and now it is this way forever

Unknown artist, c. 15th century

I hate this. I hate everything about it. Why has it got human eyes and teeth. Why is its nose melting. Why has it got a dick on its face and balls under its chin. The fin/wings are back but they look even more useless. Also, George is shifty as hell, schlumped over in his saddle with his bowler hat thing over his eyes. The baby dragon at the bottom eating some hapless would-be rescuer is kind of metal. 4/10 at least the thing is gonna die

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Crack

Book of Hours, c. 1450

Remember what I said about the buttholes? First, sorry. Second, yeah, we're back to that. I'll admit this one is less about the danger from the dragon itself than the very specific choices the artist has made. They didn't need to do that. It's a lizard. They don't even have. And it's like they had an orifice budget and they skipped an exit wound for the spear to focus. Elsewhere. It's so detailed. And George had an even dumber hat. 2/10 take it away

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Weed

Book of Hours, c. 1415

This is just bullying. There isn't even a princess. That is clearly an infant. Look at that smug look on George's face as he swings his sword that's bigger than the whole little guy. This is the equivalent of when DJT Jr. hunted those sleeping endangered sheep. 1/10

Horse thoughts: ....yikes

And this is the previous one, but now the baby dragon is cute. He's chubby. He's got toe beans. He's Puff the Magic Dragon. His eyes have already gone white, implying that George is just kicking its corpse around for funsies. What's the difference between the dragon and the lamb in the background? That the dragon is dead, like our innocence. This George is truly deserving of the dumbest hat of all. 0/10 plus one more butthole for the road

Horse thoughts: Perhaps it is we who are the buttholes.

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Question: Do your country also has the visual motif of St. George in the moon or something similar?

In the anglosphere and in the North Hemisphere it seems that the Man in the Moon is the prevalent cultural depiction of the moon.

But here in Brazil, we have this image of St. George fighting the dragon on the moon. I think it's probably a South Hemisphere thing. The moon appears upside down for us.

But the thing is, the images of St. George in the moon only appear in Brazil. I never saw any other culture of the South Hemisphere that depicts a figure of St. George fighting the dragon on the moon.

@mask131 @ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @tamisdava2

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Fairy Tale Battle Royale

4 volumes (in English as of 4/17/2023, ongoing?)

Licensed by Seven Seas

Kuninaka Aoba, a mercilessly bullied ninth grader, receives a magical contract that grants her greatest wish, but at what cost? Suddenly, Aoba is thrust down a rabbit hole into a strangely familiar world from children’s stories–only this version comes with a dark and gruesome twist. In this Wonderland, it’s kill or be killed, in a dark fairy tale fight for survival!

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