#Afterschool Special

[fuzzyghost]

[victusinveritas]

[highbrow-hepcat]

[capableism]

Disney Channel tries replacing ableist tropes with self-aware disabled protagonist

Go to the mat is slang for 

"fight until one side or another is victorious. "This term comes from wrestling and evokes the holding of an opponent  when both contestants are down on the mat, the padded floor-covering used in  matches." (Dictionary.com) 

In the Disney Channel movie Going to the Mat, Jace chooses to fight the stereotype of a blind musician to become a wrestler, literally going to the mat. Wrestling becomes his focus when a character Mary-Beth "saw a blind guy do it once." It's worth noting that 

the abilities of individual disabled people are not transferable to a whole group. 

That is a result of stereotyping. This coming-of-age sports movie is generic. It only uses the trope that blind people have heightened senses when it is plot convenient. 

The generic beats involve Jace working hard to overcome his blindness. The first and last scenes, where other characters learn about Jace's disability, is irrelevant. They do not see disability. This is problematic because it does not recognize societal shortcomings regarding minority groups.  

These scenes also fail to acknowledge the inequity of living within a minority group. Jace is a basic white guy at the top of the disability hierarchy. The simple plot beats serve their 

Purpose in presenting Going to the Mat as an after-school special about accepting yourself. 

This generic coming-of-age storyline about moving to a small town, joining a sports team to be liked, and then working hard to be the best on the team adds the extra element of Jace's disability.  "The bizarre implication is that visual impairment brings about significant  alterations in the bearer's sense of taste." (Bolt, 10) 

Bolt refers to this assumption about visually impaired people possessing "extraordinary senses." Another seemingly positive representation of blindness is demonstrating it as a disability that eliminates distractions. Along the lines of extraordinary senses, it assumes visually impaired people have an advantage in their ability to work hard and problem-solve because they have dialed in sensory input. These representations are common. 

The kernel of accuracy in these stereotypes is "People with impaired vision might well learn to use such capacities more effectively, but, far from being automatic, any compensation is the product of persistent practice" (Kirtley, 1975).  

While Going to the Mat does feature extraordinary senses and musical tropes, Jace is not more intelligent than other characters because of his disability. He is self-centered because of the assumptions he's faced throughout life. The plot involves Jace being mad about moving from NYC to Utah. He boasts to his "hillbilly" classmates that New York City is the best place to live. Jace's condescending way of treating people in Utah betrays his problem with being blind. After John meets Mary-Beth, she tells him she'll be one of his readers. Jace immediately says, "Why? Because it looks good on your college  resume?" Again, Jace thinks Mary-Beth is taking advantage of Jace's blindness.

In another scene, Mary Beth is seen reading to Jace about the oppression of colonization, and his response is, "welcome to my world." This demonstrates how self-centered Jace is. After he complains  that nobody likes him, 

Mary Beth tells him, "no one cares that you're blind; they're turned off because they think you're a total jerk."  

Sources

Bolt, D. (2006). Beneficial Blindness: Literary Representation and the So-Called Positive Stereotyping of People with Impaired Vision. Journal of Disability Studies, (12), 1-31. https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/bolt-Beneficial-Blindness.pdf

Kirtley, D. D. (1975). Blindness in the arts. The psychology of blindness (pp. 49-92). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

[eatgecom]

Let's go Silverhawks

A very cool double sided design of the retro cartoon Silverhawks.

Silverhawks and ThunderCats were developed by the same production team and provided by the same Japanese animation Corporation. These two animes also shared with the same voice actors, the same supervisor, and many similarities. Silverhawks was created as a space-based equivalent of ThunderCats, which is often considered the cousin of ThunderCats. Main Silverhawks: Commander Stargazer, Quicksilver, Bluegrass, Steelheart, Steelwill, and Copper Kid. Minor Silverhawks: Hotwing, Flashback, Moonstryker, and Condor.

[katameme]

[roysexton]

“The safe joy of dancing with theatre boys.” Mean Girls the Musical (2024 film)

You know you’re a certain age when films you saw in the theatre in your adult life are being remade with some regularity. I think I first felt this pang when they remade Footloose and “reimagined” The Karate Kid, but actually I had seen neither of those films in the theatre during their original runs (and even now I don’t think I’ve watched either all the way through). Carrie and Robocop appear…

[kairunatic]

Fabulous Summer Host

Sarutahiko SQ

Sorry for the delay on this SQ lol I meant to read this but summer river event came by and Also ZZZ kept most of my time

But I was finally able to read This SQ yey

Also This is for @kumakaze I know you're probably wanting for this hahaha

Ok let's start

We start with Sarutahiko cleaning the Bathhouse that he works on its closing time and while he's cleaning. He's overthinking on how he plans to invite MC to hang out

He overthink so much and made some noise which upset his boss

He plans to call them but is still feeling nervous he said he doesn't wanna back down and muster up the courage to call MC.

He calls them and asks them if they wanna hang out again next time on the beach and MC said yes. He'll give them the details later cause it's already night when MC Hang up Sarutahiko let out a victory scream and his boss scolded him again

[an-sceal]

I think a lot of Stranger Things fans are way too young to remember the absolute societal censure and outrage in the US over "latchkey kids". As it became less and less possible for a single income to support a family, and for that matter, as more women were ABLE to pursue careers outside the home, the moral outcry of the age was about all those poor children coming home to empty houses. They might die! They might eat too many cookies! They might get into Unspecified Trouble! MY GOD, MARTHA, THEY MIGHT SMOKE OR MASTURBATE. You just couldn't be sure!

Which is why I gloss over it, but also giggle a little when I read stories about Steve Harrington's parents leaving him for weeks at a time when he was ten. Like, I'm sure it could have happened. But I'm also sure every gossip in town would have known about it and shamed his mother six ways to Sunday. (Don’t worry, his dad wouldn’t have been at fault.) She would have been a fucking pariah, no matter how rich. (And from the show, my guess is they were upper middle class- so "fuck them" rich, not "fuck you" rich.)

Which is not to say I give that much of a crap in fic. Just that it amuses me. These are the perils of your childhood being mined for nostalgia. People can research the Walkmans and the neon, but the deeply ingrained sexism (and bigotry!) disguised as moral panic about the safety of The Children doesn't tend to get the same refresh.

Oh no. Wait. It does. They just find new scapegoats.

[supervettesixpack]

this for the 3 drawn together fans out there 💯💯

[petiteclover]

Michael Biehn in The ABC Afterschool Special “The Terrible Secret” 1979.

[minisinmedia]

Kari Michaelsen as Fran Davies wearing red-white striped satin short shorts on Have You Ever Been Ashamed of Your Parents? (1983)

[toyosu-academy]

We’re… back?

“Hehe, did you miss us you little scamps? We’ve been caught up in a few things but the waves have calmed and we’re back!”

“Ain’t that right Dagon-?!”

“Eh? What’s with the getup? Halloween past already.”

“Where… am I?”

[SPECIAL EVENT ACTIVE: ANOTHER DAGON!]

[rubyvroom]

You know, telling people it's wrong to romanticize bad things is not as effective as you might think. You're telling people already prone to latching on to bad things and obsessing about how bad they are that it's bad to do that? Oh, is it wrong to romanticize alcohol abuse? Is it very very wrong? Is it really truly terrible? Tell me more about how bad I am being

[slowdancerlover]

“just live the life you wanna live” then immediately cutting to sam into the impala. damn.

[sapsolais]

!