#but I hope you get my point

[angelshizuka]

As much as it hurts that Blitz wasn't able to save Stolas himself in Western Energy, it was the wake up call he needed to understand Stolas isn't as invulnerable as he thought. In other words, that Stolas is someone he can literally lose, not just emotionally, but also physically.

And it will make him go extra hard the next time Stolas' is in danger... which the trailer loved teasing us with. Blitz will be his real knight in shining armor, no more pretend!

I will never shut up about this scene, just try and stop me.

[ruporas]

dragon meat, you, and me

[inkskinned]

the thing about some men is that they want you to remember, at all times, that you are underneath them. that with one word or look or "joke", you will stay beneath them. that even "exceptions" to the rule are not true exceptions - the commonly cited statistic that one in eight men believe they could win against serena williams.

women's gymnastics is often not seen as real gymnastics. whatever the fuck non-euclidian horrors rhythmic gymnasts are capable of, it's often tamped down as being not a sport. some of the most dominant athletes in the world are women. nobody watches women's soccer. despite years of dancing and being built like a fucking brick, men always assume they're faster and stronger than i am. you wouldn't like what happens when they are incorrect. once while drunk at a guy's house i won a held-plank challenge by a solid minute. the party was over after that - he became exceedingly violent.

what i mean is that you can be perfect, and they still think you're ... lacking, somehow. i hope you understand i'm trying to express a neutral statement when i say: taylor swift was the possibly the most patriarchy-palatable, straight-down-the-line woman we could churn out. she is white, conventionally attractive, usually pretty mild in personality. say what you will about her (and you should, she's a billionaire, she can handle it), but a few things seem to be true about her: 1. she can write a damn catchy song, and 2. the eras tour truly was a massive commercial success and was also genuinely an impressive feat of human athleticism and performance.

i don't know if she deserves the title of "woman of the year," i'm not debating that in this post. what i am saying is that she was named Woman of The Year, and then an untalented man got onstage at the golden globes and made fun of her for attending her boyfriend's football games. what i am saying is that this woman altered local economies - and her dating life is still being made into a "harmless" punchline. the camera panned, greedy, over to her downing a full glass of champagne. congratulations taylor! you are woman of the year! but you are a woman. even her.

fuck, man. write better material.

a guy gets onstage at a college graduation and despite the fact like half the crowd is made up of women, he spends a significant proportion of it warning these people - who spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education - that they were lied to. that the "real" meaning of femininity is motherhood. that they shouldn't rest on the laurels of that education-they-paid-for but instead throw it away to kneel at a man's heel. imagine that. sweating in your godawful polyester gown (that you also had to pay for!), fresh out of 4 years of pushing yourself ever-harder: and some guy you've never met - who knows nothing about you - he reminds you this "win" is a pyrrhic one at best. you really shouldn't consider yourself that extraordinary. you're still a woman, even after years of study.

god forbid you are not a pretty woman, but if you are pretty, you must be dumb. god forbid you are not ablebodied or white or cis or straight or good at swallowing. you must be beneath a man, or else they are not a man. the equation for masculinity seems to just be: that which is not a woman or womanly (god forbid). anything "feminine" is thereby anathema. to engage in "feminine" things such as therapy, getting a hug from a friend, or crying - it is giving up ones manhood. therefore women need to be put in their place to ensure that masculinity is protected.

this is something i have struggled to explain to terfs - they are not doing the work of feminism, but rather the patriarchy. by asserting that women and men must be (on some secret level) oppositional and in conflict, they also assume that being a woman is akin to being another species. but bigotry does not stem from observational truths or clarity - that is what makes it bigotry. there was nothing in my childhood that made me fundamentally different from my brother. we are treated differently nonetheless. to assert there is some biological drive that enforces my gender role is to assert that women have a gendered role. men do not see women as equal to them not because of biological reality - but instead because the core tenant of the patriarchy is that women aren't full, realized people.

we are told from a very young age to excuse misbehavior as a single man's choice - not all men. it is not all men, just that one guy. all women are gold-digging bitches who belong in the kitchen - but if a man is mean, bigoted, or violent to you, it's just that particular guy, and that means nothing about men-as-a-whole. it is only one guy who got mad when you gently rejected him. it is only one guy who warns her this trophy is heavy, are you sure you can hold it? it is only one guy who smashes her face into the cake. it is only one guy talking into a mic about hating our bodily autonomy.

i have just found that they often wait until the moment we actually seem to be upstaging them. you sit in a meeting where you're presenting your own findings and he says get me a coffee? or you run to the end of the marathon and are about to finish first and he pushes your kids out in front of you. you win the chess game and they make some comment akin to well, you're ugly away. we can be the billionaire and get the dream life and finally fucking do it and yet! still! they have this strange, visceral urge to say well actually, if you think you're so great -

it's not one just one guy. it's one in eight.

[carica-ficus]

I've watched the infamous hbomberguy video about plagiarism the other day and cannot stop thinking about "content mills" (and consumerism) and its integration in the book community.

I have a bookstagram account because the community there is much more active (and most of my reading/writing friends use it as their primary social site), but it is filled to the brim with so much stupid and uninteresting content. Moreover, I'd say that the Croatian bookstagram community is even worse than the bookstagram community as a whole.

I'm lucky to have really cool mutuals on there that don't follow trends or don't feel the need to play influencers, but so many people do. I unfollowed at least 15 profiles yesterday because I couldn't take it anymore. None of their posts showed any love for reading and so much of their content is sponsored.

Worst of all is they're not even advertising for the author or their work, it's just for the publisher, which makes no fucking sense, in my humble opinion. Since when are books about congratulating a specific publisher on deciding to publish a book, and not for the author or their painstaking and beautiful work?

Not to mention, I rarely see Croatian publishers actually publishing Croatian authors! The biggest publishers only ever translate internationally popular works. And yes, I do realize why that's the case (there's barely any money in this industry and most of our publishers would perish if it weren't for the profit coming from translations), but for fucks sake, if you're advertising for yourself, at least throw in a few of our own authors. At least make our bookstagramers support their own community, the community without which they wouldn't even exist!

And you know what's the worst of the worst? The constant fake amazement in all those countless sponsored reviews, for books barely any of them even read! They call themselves creative, but most of their content wouldn't even exist without the creative work of others. All those giveaways, AI generated pictures, thousands upon thousands of advertisements for publishers only looking for profit, posting content just to post something, promotions for books which barely even hit the shelves, and the never-ending drama of who copies whom in a community where no one is original.

Yes, I know ads also provide a profit for editors, translators, authors, illustrators and everyone else involved in the publishing industry, but I ask you another thing: Why are these people never mentioned in the posts then? Why are they not given any credit? Because it's hard or because, to them - the publishers and to influencers - it doesn't matter? Why do our publishers print translated works with AI covers? Why do we translate and print new editions of old, popular, international works, instead of giving our own writers a chance? Why do some publishers chose to use an AI generated cover instead of hiring a local artist? How much profit do writers, artists, editors and translators really achieve compared to the publishers?

"Oh, but you don't understand. The industry would collapse if we did it differently."

Yeah, because money is the most important thing when it comes to publishing books. It isn't about the author. It isn't about supporting creative endeavors. It isn't about supporting the local community. It isn't about the story and its idea. Yeah, you're right. None of that matters. Because reading is about consumption and about making money.

Spare me.

Let it collapse then. Maybe we don't deserve all the people brave enough to share their work with millions of people who don't even care about them.

In hindsight, maybe I'm bitter because I spend a lot of time surrounded by the truly creative community - writers, illustrators, photographers and all other forms of artists, so I'm angry they're looked over in the community that should praise them. Or maybe I'm just fed up with all the dishonesty and advertisement these co-called influencers push for a few free books. You decide. I'm just saying that I'm tired of it.

[egophiliac]

crossing my fingers and wishing upon every star that chapter 10 finally brings us the tweel cards 🤞🤞

[bixels]

Scary Sunset.

I'm concepting things way outta order in this story, but I'm sure you can piece things together. Context is for a storybeat where, after defeating and capturing Adagio (thus having all three sirens in her possession), Sunset enacts her revenge plot to release the sirens on Canterlot as Thea discovers she's been manipulated. In a confrontation, the two scuffle and fight over the siren orbs while Sunset struggles with her conflicting wants and emotions.

[bookshelfdreams]

yk when you see someone share a finished handmade item that they clearly spent a lot of time and money on and it's just. The absolute tackiest thing you have seen in your life. And then you ask yourself why someone would waste all those resources on such an eyesore.

(no, of course you can't relate to that because you're a much nicer person than me)

In any case.

BEHOLD!

A wool coat!

The top fabric is handwoven and handspun, the whole thing is sewn by hand, too.

Leftovers. Barely anything, all things considered, which is very satisfying.

This thing took me well over 3 years to make, on and off. And now I'm done.

Thank you for your attention.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji goes to Lotus Pier (No relation to the AU of the same name)

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[edwinisms]

george rexstrew deserves awards for many things but i have to say. edwin’s bloodcurdling scream as niko gets killed deserves a whole award unto itself. like. that scream did not feel at all like a tv show scream. to a somewhat jarring degree. and i can’t express how much I respect that

[feelo-fick]

chilaios telepathy compilation. btw.

also these ones arent telepathy i just think its fun that they defend eachother + are on the same page about alchohol :

[ajwalkerartblog]

them!!! they!!!!!

[lgbttruther]

[krazieka2]

Here's a big old Fire Emblem Search & Find I did for the FE3H Masquerade Zine! Find the Golden Deer, but see if you can't find the rest of the students as well! For the ultimate challenge, see if you can't name every character! (Disclaimer two characters are NPCs with no names)

[stankworth]

after many years of being strong // may you have the chance to be gentle again

[daily-sifloop]

au where Loop's wish for someone to guide them came true as originally intended and the Universe brought Siffrin to their timeline?

(you can decide if a post-canon Siffrin, a Siffrin that escape the time loop without a Loop helping them, or a Siffrin that was randomly plucked from their timeline as two heads are better than one in escaping a time loop)

Day 57: My future WHO?

[bixels]

I'm not explaining why re-imagining characters as POC is not the same as white-washing, here of all places should fucking understand.