stormsonhound - Tumblr blog

[stormsonhound]

Chimera

Acrylic on canvas, August 2024

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[stormsonhound]

the queen of the disco or whatever

[stormsonhound]

This might be a very controversial take but Sybil being fat with no hair and Adora being weird about golems and Granny being old and a virgin and Magrat being ugly and Agnes being fat and Nanny being Nanny and Cheery existing does more for feminism than 90% of intentionally "feminist" media produced in the past 5-10 years actually

[stormsonhound]

Every time I see Whedon wank over how he chooses to write women, I’m so glad I never saw Buffy, and that Discworld by Terry Pratchett became my most formative fictional experience.

Because Terry Pratchett’s women don’t always need the some sob story to become strong/have always been strong. He ties strength to willpower and because “someone has to do this and it might as well be me”, and this character is strong because she’s this character, and honestly it’s so fucking refreshing.

[stormsonhound]

Every time I see Whedon wank over how he chooses to write women, I’m so glad I never saw Buffy, and that Discworld by Terry Pratchett became my most formative fictional experience.

Because Terry Pratchett’s women don’t always need the some sob story to become strong/have always been strong. He ties strength to willpower and because “someone has to do this and it might as well be me”, and this character is strong because she’s this character, and honestly it’s so fucking refreshing.

[stormsonhound]

ID #1: An illustration of Brutha, a fat young man in plain robes, holding Om, an old tortoise, who is shouting "AUTISM BE DAMNED MY BOY CAN HEAR THE WORDS OF GOD." End ID.

ID #2: An illustration of Brutha's silhouette (which is filled with the texture of burnt paper) standing out in the night time desert. A fountain of imagery containing text, scientific illustrations, maps, ect., are radiating from a flame coming from his head. End ID.

my review of Small Gods is I like Brutha and his loud mouthed annoying old peepaw

these two drawings get to live together bc i think the juxtaposition is funny

commission info in pinned post 🐢

[stormsonhound]

interesting fact i have titanium in my spine

[stormsonhound]

the way ryoko kui draws women...

[stormsonhound]

Monstrous Regiment (spoilers ahead) is funny and delightful and generally amazing representation and I will love it and Terry Pratchett til my dying day, AND:

Monstrous Regiment has super-questionable takes on how to handle closeted queerness and outing folks. I personally didn't realize til seeing a stage adaptation.

(Disclaimer before I support this thesis: I'm cis and should not be the last word in this conversation. I just want to start it. Please, folks with lived experience, I want to hear y'all. Also TW for mention of sex assault).

Let's start with: the climactic scene of Monstrous Regiment is an older trans man deadnaming and outing other trans/gender nonconforming folks, from a safe position of power in the closet himself. 

And like, there's context that softens that brutal take, right? He makes all the cis dudes leave the room. He tells everyone the things that are desperately important for queer folks to know: that they're not alone, that they deserve better, that there's hope and community and hope in community. He's not just doing it for his job, he's doing it to advocate for the Monstrous Regiment, because the guys he's outing are enacting the same sexism that had them chopping their hair and relocating their socks. 

But Jackrum could have had a quiet chat with each of his little lads when he handed them the socks. He could have told them they weren't alone, offered to connect them with others who gave permission, let them build a quiet and safe community on their own terms. He could have planted the "potatoes of defiance." 

Instead, he hoarded dozens of confessions and secrets until he could throw them back like a bomb. "About half of the officers" and "More'n a third of the country's high command" believed they were alone, for years, because he let them, and it benefitted him. Maybe he wasn't intending it to feel like blackmail, but wouldn't Major "Janet" Derbi or even General "Mildred" Froc think twice about challenging him, knowing that he could end their careers? I don't even think want to get into how enormous the political fallout from that meeting must have been (not everyone would have kept each others' secrets to the guys outside, and not everyone held equal rank in that meeting room). 

And there's the way he he taunts them through the book. I'm talking about the running bit where Jackrum will walk right up to the line ("The thing you don't know about Private Perks...") and we all think he's about to say, is that he's actually a girl!, before he redirects to something innocuous — but then you find out he really has known the whole time. Again, I don't know if I just...missed it in the books? but onstage it's clear Polly is terrified. She is not having fun. Is she worried about having to go back to the inn, or is she remembering Heinrich, thinking about what soldiers could do to vagina-owners in their presence? Either way, Polly is so, so scared, and Jackrum is having fun toying with her, and it's uncomfortable.

I love Terry, and I am patient and forgiving with his work because he's doing the best he can — he fucking nailed it in so many areas. He was a better trans ally in the 90's and aughts than a good chunk of writers out there today in 2023, but I think the way he wrote Jackrum's actions feels like what a cishet person thinks peak allyship should be. I want to be clear that I still love Jackrum too: his sneaky wordplay and his respect for Polly's brain and his militant decency. He's a damn good character, and we're spoiled for them in Discworld.

Mostly, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't notice the implied narrative blessing of "it's ok to out people if it's to other queer folks, and also if they're being sexist or antagonists" until I saw the physical tension in the bodies of the actors onstage, many of whom proudly identified as nonbinary or gender-nonconforming in their playbill bios. Those folks knew how dread-filled and terrifying it would be, and they played it. And I realized that that bit wasn't funny.

TLDR: Jackrum is a fantastic, well-written character, and I'm fine with him being a war criminal but the way he handles other peoples' gender is Too Far.

Again, I want to start that conversation but I don't want to be the only voice, so please feel free to add points of view I'm missing

[stormsonhound]

a reunion

[stormsonhound]

Obsessed with this cut to Murph while Emily and Brennan make Beast Noises at each other.

[stormsonhound]

Siobhan knows what’s up

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Some doodling about Ylfa Snorgelsson from Dimension's 20 Neverafter my beloved <3

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This is death itself. This is the biggest and baddest thing in all of fairy tale, and you want to set it free.

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The idea of dragons in modern times is so fun because imagine a hot summer day on your vacay and go to use the hotel pool and staff is like "valued guests we regret to inform you that the pool area is out of service at the moment, we apologize for the inconvenience"

And people like "wtf why" looking out their hotel room window and there's this. This dragon just curled up in the pool chilling, literally, cooling itself down

Some of the staff are trying to gently shoo him away and the dragon does a soft little "rrrrrr" like a grumpy cat and a warning puff of smoke and they're like "fuck it i don't get paid nearly enough for this" and no ones using the pool today sorry!

[stormsonhound]

*sidles up to you at the bar* would you like to hear my wise aphorism