#cis son privileges are CRAZY

[lazylittledragon]

y'know every time i feel guilty about bothering someone by singing along when i'm listening to music, i just remember that i have to tolerate my dirtbag brother screaming at his ps5 for hours every day so listening to muffled off-key fall out boy is probably preferable

[baelerionn]

The Shipmans' were crazy but awfully smart. Even in jail, they have privileges. One of many proofs that the Shipmans' were part of something bigger. Much bigger.

Les sept survivants ont donc directement été envoyé dans un pgrommae de protection des témoins, pour leur sécurité et leur bonne conscience. Ils avaient tous une nouvelle identité, ils bénéficiaient bien entendu d'aides, mais certains n'avaient participé qu'aux aides "obligatoires" avant de tomber dans l'oubli…enfin, l'oubli pour les médias. Le couple de tueurs était intelligent, même en choisissant leurs victimes; et ceux-ci kidnappaient des enfants issus de l'immigration, qui souvent n'avaient pas de papiers et dont les parents n'osaient pas contacted less autorités de peur de see faire déporter dans leur pays. C'était également un avantage pour que les enfants ensemble dans le sous-sol ne communiquent pas ou pas bien ensemble. Les dernières victimes qui ont réussi à sortir de cet enfer avaient d'ailleurs développé une espèce de langue commune pour essayer de communiquer. Sous leurs nouveaux noms, les survivants ont quand même pu garder contact, mais certains ont très mal tournés. Ils sont souvent retournés dans des quartiers pas très favorisés, où les gangs et la drogue règnent. Deux survivants sont en prison, un autre est un gros bras dans un gang de quartier à Chicago, la dernière victime de la maison de l'horreur s'estt réfugiée en Russie, la victime ayant restée le plus longtemps, outre Aurora, dans ce sous-sol est un sans abris sous la constante emprise de la drogue, et puis il y a Howard et Alice. Howard est pompier, et Alice est donc détective de police. Alice croise souvent dans le cadre de son travail certains survivants, tout comme Howard, et ils ne peuvent pas complètement leur tourner le dos. Ils ont une certaine loyauté entre eux, mais ne peuvent pas s'aider sans arrêt. Howard et Alice, quant à eux, sont très proches, ils se décrivent mutuellement comme des frères et soeurs, ayant comme couvertue qu'ils se sont rencontrés alors qu'ils étaient dans le système, tous les deux orphelins. Tristan et Isolt sont tous les deux en prison, mais ne sont pas dans le couloir de la mort. Ils ne refusent pas les interviews de certains criminologues, mais ceux-ci qui avaient déjà essayé de creuser leur psyche, ils ont tous été perplexes car les deux se jouaient d'eux.

[eliza1911o1]

So I feel lot of focus is on Ed being told he doesn’t deserve nice things but let’s not forget Stede has heard those same words since childhood as well. Stede was born into a life of privilege but was told he didn’t deserve it (particularly from his asshat of a dad) or should be more than satisfied with where he had (society and those like Mary)

Let’s just talk about his childhood for a sec, cause DAMN that’s traumatic (though in a different way from Ed’s)

Since we don’t see his mother or any siblings (along with the way his father who despises him says he’ll inherit everything), we can assume he grew up in a traditionally hyper-masculine family. Additionally, his father hates him (we never learn why) and continuously tells him he has never earned a thing in his life, which albeit true, is not something you can really say to someone under the age of like 13. He is continuously bullied for his status in society, one of his greatest triggers involving being called a “rich boy”, and is able fulfill the expectations of his position. He does not hold a high ranking position, he couldn’t sustain an average marriage, and he doesn’t hold generally accepted traits and is even bullied for it tirelessly. The Badminton twins are a great comparison, being accomplished and the cis jock-type; however, both literally die because of themselves after coming into contact with Stede (which I’m not going to get into but that’s an interesting point right???)

Anyway, although Stede enjoys and has luxury, this has in no way made him more accepted by society, so I think he had little attachment to wealth and status itself. Sure he would prefer a full library and fancy clothes, but what’s make him even happier is Ed being with people who accept him. In that sense I think his decision to leave all his fortune to Mary and run off to Ed the people who accept him might not be as crazy as it seems

(Also side note but did you know young Stede is played by Rhys Darby’s son????? I just think that’s so cute and wanted to share)

[2manyfandoms2count]

Miraculous Tango

It was a murder, but not a crime

(aka the ML Writer’s Guild strikes again)

It all started with a crack discussion about jonks, thanks to @sukker-sugar; how did we end up here? Anyway, have a piece of crack songfic, cowritten by @deinde-prandium, @persistentchaos and yours truly. Hope you enjoy (read the tw before reading)!

Read on AO3

---

[SASS, spoken]

And now, the six savage superheroes of the Paris Prison de la Santé In their rendition of 'The Miraculous Tango'!

[GROUP] Pop! Six! Swish! Uh uh! Contre-attaque, Wishlist! Pop! Six! Swish! Uh uh! Contre-attaque, Wishlist! Pop! Six! Swish! Uh uh! Contre-attaque, Wishlist! Pop! Six! Swish! Uh uh! Contre-attaque, Wishlist! He had it coming, he had it coming He only had himself to blame! If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same! Pop! Six! Swish! Uh uh! Contre-attaque, Wishlist!

[CARAPACE, spoken] You know how some people just can’t help but bring you down? Like...Gabby. Any time you got your hopes up - pop! Never thought twice about bursting your bubble. But one day - and I won’t tell you how - I find out that this guy has been bursting bubbles left and right. Pop. Pop. Pop. So I say to Gabby - I say, “Gabby, you’ve got a chance to go good here. Do the right thing. But if you burst my bubble one more time...” And you know what he did? Pop. So I took my shield off my back and sent him a warning shot. And he lost his head.

[GROUP] He had it coming, he had it coming He only had himself to blame! If you'd have been there, if you'd have heard it I betcha you would have done the same

[QUEEN BEE, spoken] I met Gabriel Agreste aaages ago, when I was six. He was my Mum’s friend - stern, but hey, everyone has a parent like that, right? I was one of the privileged few to hang out with his son - I mean, it’s understandable, I’m the elite, right? So, anyway, I saw a lot of him when I hung out with Adrien. It was fun. Flashforward a few years and he’s gotten worse, stopping Adrien from seeing me. Can you imagine? So I go up to his office, asking – no, demanding – a word, and he has the gall to tell me he’s doing it for Adrien’s protection. And then I find out. Protection, he'd told me? Protection, my ass! Not only is he abusing him, oh no- he’s abusing the whole of Paris! One of those akuma lovers, you know? So I thank him for his service, offer him a nice bottle of Champagne… Didn’t hear from him later. Well, you know, I guess some guys just can't hold their venom!

[GROUP] He had it coming, he had it coming He was a bad guy all this time Because he used him; and he abused him It was a murder, but not a crime!

[RENA ROUGE, spoken] I’m a pretty good chef, if I do say so myself. But Adrien’s skills were...subpar. That’s how I found myself standing in his kitchen, minding my own business, sharpening my knives for a lesson on how to butterfly a chicken for dinner. Swish. Then in stormed Gabriel in a fit of rage. "You’ve been corrupting my son!" he said. He didn’t want his son to be learning how to cook. That was a commoner’s thing. Swish. But he was crazy, and he kept on screaming, "You’ve been corrupting Adrien!" He said he’d be making sure Adrien cut all ties with me. Swish. Mentioned this being the perfect opportunity. And then he ran into my knife! He ran into my knife ten times!

And if you'd have been there, if you'd have seen him, I betcha you would have done the same!

[FARFALLA, spoken] Quando ho incontrato Gabriele, mi ha prometto tutto. La fama, la fortuna...suo figlio. Tutto quello che dovevo fare era un piccolo favore. Dunque, due. E sempre più. Abbiamo fatto un accordo! Ma poteva tenerlo? Ovviamente no. Oltre al danno, anche la beffa! Allora, quando ho trovato il suo gran segreto, ho preso le cose nelle mie mani. Letteralmente. Io ci sono arrivata prima di quegli idioti mascherati, e….ho pareggiato i conti, capisci? Anche l’ho impostato Marinetta a prendere la caduta. Come avrei dovuto sapere che si potrebbe pensare Adriano l’ha fatto??

[RENA ROUGE, spoken] Yeah, but did you do it?

[FARFALLA, spoken] Uh uh, Marinetta!

[RYUKO, spoken] My mother and I used to attend all these fancy events when we were in Paris. Gabriel was always there, with his son Adrien. One day, at a fencing tournament, Adrien had been a little out of it. Parade, Riposte, Contre-attaque, Feinte, Coupé - his opponents cut through his moves like he was a mere Blason Jaune. After the match, I saw Gabriel take him to the buffet room. I didn’t think much of it. He was probably getting him to eat to get him back on his feet. Later my mother sent me to get a glass of water. As I entered the room, I saw them. Gabriel, sword in hand. Landing a contre-attaque on Adrien’s cheek. Well, you can imagine I was in such a state of shock, I completely blacked out. I can’t remember a thing. It wasn’t until later, when I was washing the blood off my sword, that I even knew he was dead!

[GROUP] He had it coming, He had it coming! He had it coming all along! I didn't do it, but if I'd done it How could you tell me that I was wrong? He had it coming, He had it coming! He had it coming all along! (He was a bad guy all this time) I didn't do it, but if I'd done it (Because he used him, and he abused him) How could you tell us that we were wrong? (It was a murder but not a crime)

[MAYURA, spoken] I knew Gabriel had a wishlist It touched me more than I could possibly say He was a real ambitious guy. Artistic. A fashion designer. But he was troubled. So many...setbacks. And his greatest wish was to “bring his wife back.” He’d try every night to find a way, and along the way, he found…Nooroo, Duusuu and Liirii. I guess you can say we broke up because of artistic differences. He saw himself as alive And I saw him dead!

[GROUP] The dirty hawk, hawk, hawk, hawk, hawk! The slimy moth, moth, moth, moth, moth! They had it coming, they had it coming They had it coming all along! 'Cause if he used us, and he abused us How could you tell us that we were wrong? He had it coming, he had it coming He only had himself to blame! If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same--

[GROUP, spoken] You burst my bubble one more time-- Protection my ass-- Ten times-- Ho pareggiato i conti! Landing a contre-attaque on Adrien’s cheek! Artistic differences— (sung) I betcha you would have done The same

[Officer Raincomprix] Well… I’m not sure how all this ties together, really.

[rndyounghowze]

Black Noses And My Personal History With White Supremacy

I finally got the courage to talk about something that Dana has been challenging me to post about for a while. #blm #stopwhiteterrorism

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Mays Landing, NJ

Venmo: @rndyounghowze

I have a very vivid memory of being teased on the school bus in elementary school for having “a black nose and lips”. Until I got glasses and was diagnosed with Tourettes it was the common theme of my playground bullying. My biggest role model at the time was our bus driver Mr. Garland (I think that was his name) because he defended me. I remember trying to make up some story about how I got plastic surgery and they messed up my nose. He looked me dead in the eye and said “we have to be proud of what we look like. We are beautiful inside and out. They’re ugly on the inside. That’s what makes us better”.

I lived with my grandmother during the week and my parents on the weekends. My mom and dad lived in one of the first “projects” in the US and at that time they were one of two white families living there. I would be playing with the kids in the playground and a Black mom who would be watching us would tell me to come up to them and she would hold my chin in her hand and turn my head for inspection to the other mothers sitting there smoking cigarettes. She would tell me “I don’t care what your mom and dad told you” and would let me go back and play. I never really knew what she meant.

Flash forward to high school. I decided that I wanted to dive into my family history. I was in a play about the Confederate Flag and I remembered that I had family on both sides of the war. I had enough info about my family to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I also knew that my family up In Kentucky had fought in the Union. I was proud to have “heritage” on both sides.

I was rooting through photo albums in my Dad’s mom’s house. I came upon a family bible that was really old. It had to be old enough to be owned by the parts of the family that lived in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1800’s. Family bibles used to have these front pages that listed weddings and births. Listed in the middle is a marriage between a woman with the last name Jung and a man named Richard with no last name. This would not have meant anything except that after his name they took the time to list him as “a n*****r”. They then spent a paragraph talking about how he fought in the Civil War and saved lives in a battle by shooting a superior officer and allowing the company to retreat. So he was a n*****r but he was a “good n*****r”.

I knew that the story was that our family had changed our last name from Jung to Young to avoid discrimination. My Dad’s side of the family has an outstanding military history and I know they were worried about appearing to have German ties in the war. I eventually went across the street and asked my great grandfather about this. The only thing he ever told me was “marry a girl with the Irish in her. It’s the best thing you could do.” My great grandfather passed away while I was in Highschool. My grandfather passed away in college. After the funeral I went to the house and looked for the family Bible. I had held it in my hand four times in three years. It was gone. I have never found it again. My Dad has special needs, his mom has dementia. The rest of my Dad’s family has never spoken to me after the funeral. It may be because I married a Black person. Maybe not. I will never know.

One time while driving through my mom’s side of the family’s hometown I saw a church sign that had the family name on it. I asked why we never went there and she just casually said “that must belong to the Black families that live here that share our last name”. I was floored by this. We had a black side of the family? What!? She was quick to tell me that they were in no way related. It was just that the family was as old as we were and had lived in that town as long as we had. My family has lived there and owned land there since before the Civil War. I have been digging into the genealogy based on what she has told me and after two or three generations the family line with our last name seems to disappear. Two white branches of the family go back eight or so generations and seem to have married into the family three generations or so back but there don’t seem to be any birth or death records in their town that support her story that the family had been there for a very long time. There is no not-slave-owning explanation for this. To this day my grandmother refuses to talk about it. She leans into the Scots-Irish side of the story.

In grad school when I first met Dana they made sure to do two things: Tell a very wrong Obama joke and then ask me what I was mixed with. The joke was to see if I reacted to the joke in a ”white way” (their words). If I did they would never feel comfortable being alone with me ever much less date me. The second question is because they saw what every other Black person I know saw. I told them what I knew about the probable Black man on my Dad’s side and my theory about my Mom's side. They kinda looked flabbergasted. Like they were surprised I admitted it.

Dana and I fell hard in love and spent three years trying to do the long-distance relationship thing. We had very long talks about race and whiteness. We had to have massive discussions about privilege and culture. I had reading lists and albums and homework that I had to do and Dana readily admits that in a lot of ways I already ”got it”. However, it was never enough. They wanted me to make a conscious decision to marry into a black family and know what I was getting into.

In August of 2014, I had just gotten back from spending a summer with Dana and I was using my hour before work to buy an engagement ring. I had two months to move to NJ so that we could start a job together. I heard on the news that Michael Brown was shot by a white cop in Ferguson. It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the first time that the weight of what I was doing rang home in the deepest parts of me. I was marrying a Black person. At the time I wanted to bring children into this world. It finally dawned on me that those children were going to be Black. Just as the math in my childhood was Black nose+white skin=white guy the calculus done in a cop’s head was not going to add up well for our children. I worked at a church so I went to the altar and prayed. I prayed for a whole hour. I got the ring and moved to NJ. Dana and I were married five months later. I never looked back.

Why am I saying this now? Because white supremacy is the scourge of American Theatre. It's the reason why our Asian American artists are afraid to walk the streets at night. It's the reason why our Black artists are having to stand up and form their coalitions to get work done without a ”white yes”. It's the reason why even though I have photographic proof that the Cis males in my family have slowly gotten paler with every generation and that I know with absolute certainty that there is a Black contribution to my heritage somewhere that they locked it down and hid it from me like it was a crime (and it was until Loving V. Virginia, the very state my Dad's side of the family hails from). They appear to have bred as much of it out of me as possible by marrying women with ”Irish” in them. I feel like I was force-fed the blue pill and sidelined from my culture. I will never be black. I’m not even trying to be. I am just sickened that something that every Black person I’ve met can see may or may not come from a heritage that was stolen from me and hidden so well I can probably only prove it with a DNA test.

Whiteness is not a culture, it is an allergic reaction to the existence of BIPOC contributions to American life. It is cancer in our American Theatre and we have predominantly white institutions that are standing out like tumors in our cultural landscape. I am singularly focused on rooting them out not just because I'm married to a BIPOC artist. I'm rooting them out so that I can claim all of my cultures so that I can make reparations for the harm that has happened in my personal history. To create me BIPOC heritage may have had to be bred out and hidden and I may never be able to prove it. The sheer insinuation is enough to sicken me. I will uncover it and amplify my ancestors’ stories if I can find them. I will create a culture where this doesn't have to happen again. It ends with me.

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[possiblyderangedpenguinstuff]

saw captain marvel!!

let me just say, as a young girl, that was the goddamn best thing i had ever seen. it was a religious experience. i cried because that is my life. people telling me i cant do things. that i’m too emotional. that i’m not good enough or strong enough or fast enough because i’m a girl.

do you know how i felt, walking out of that cinema? there was an energy inside me, an awakening, i felt free and powerful, i felt like i could do anything. i felt like my sex wasn't holding me back.

she wasn't sexualized, she wasn't a side character, there was no romance (i still ship carol/maria thou) it was just her in a purely singular way. she didn't need a guy to pull her punches, she didn't need a slutty costume and over-sexualized fight moves.

I get a ride with my friends aunt to a youth group. on the way, she was talking about her son (young, cis, straight, white, privileged) seeing captain marvel the day before me. he said it was ‘too feminist’.

oh?

OH??

really, a movie about a women constantly pushed down by men is feminist? a movie about empowering young girls and women is feminist? a move about the most powerful character in the MCU as a women fighting past sexism is feminist? a women rebelling against social roles is feminist?

gee, who would have guessed?

later, on the ride back in a different car, the driver, a 40-year-old father of daughters said that he’s just young and confused, doesn’t know what’s right and whats wrong.

excuse me?

I am a FUCKING TEENAGER, barely out of my ‘tween’ years, and i am not sexist, i am not racist, i am not homophobic. it’s not anything about being young. it’s about being a decent fucking human being. it’s about accepting the struggles women go though everyday and opening your eyes, because it’s there, in the media, online, in people all around you. it’s in the girl that gets catcalled walking down the street. it’s the girl crying in the bathroom because someone called her fat and ugly, a whore. it’s in the jokes that aren’t jokes. it’s in how me, my mother, and my sisters do housework while my father sits on the couch. it’s about how i get overlooked for everything, simply because i have breasts and long hair and a vagina. it’s how i get remarks like ‘are you on you period?’ ‘i guess it’s that time of the month’ and ‘crazy bitch’ everytime i open my mouth to talk about something important, get labelled hysterical, and radical and a feminazi.

it’s how every women in the world has to fight for anything, how many governments fight against them, about how trump is defunding planned parenthood, how pads and tampons are luxury items, about how women have to fight to be allowed into things like the air force, like the army, even harder into sciences.

it’s not hard to find, to see, it doesn't matter how old you are, how confused you are. it is not hard to find, it is staring you in the face, it is screaming and screaming but you plug your ears with it’s her fault, she was drunk/wearing a  short dress/high/leading him on/slept with his friend and cover your eyes with that doesn't happen, i’ve never seen it. (you’ve never looked.)

the truth is that man -- boy, is a who has to call his mother for instructions on how to make spaghetti is living a lie, that he is better, he is smarter, based on his skin and who his dick likes, how he sees his body and how much is in his parent’s back account. he has accomplished nothing in his life, (from what i can tell.) I, a girl about 8 years younger than him, has done so much more, just on the fact i’m not a piece of shit that hates equality.

I have to deal with the same shit everyday, so does any woman, and you have the gall to say that it wasn't valid because you, chad, haven't had the same experiences?

get a life, everyone who hates captain marvel for not being sex on legs, ignoring women’s issues and continuing this toxic culture of male superheros and oppression of girls.

get a fucking life or i will end yours, and so will every girl who grew up watching captain marvel and knowing they are stronger than people say.

[ericdeggans]

Scarlett Johansson Controversy Reveals How Terrible We Still Are at Thinking Through Issues of Racism and Representation

It was so bad, even the hosts of The View had to weigh in.

The topic: Star actress Scarlett Johansson’s steadfast belief that she should be able to play any character she chooses as an artist without enduring a backlash rooted in “political correctness.”

But worse than revealing Johansson’s mistake of standing fiercely in a bubble of privilege, her comments in a recent interview also show how, every few days, a controversy erupts that shows how little most people understand about how to think through issues of racism and representation in America.

And it’s crippling our ability to talk about it.

Johansson’s quote, dropped during an interview as part of an As/If magazine cover shoot, sounds relatively innocuous. “You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job…There are a lot of social lines being drawn now, and a lot of political correctness is being reflected in art.”

Those lines take on a more ominous tone, when you recall that Johansson has taken a fair amount of criticism for a couple of choices; playing the lead character in the live-action film of Japanese anime franchise Ghost in the Shell and initially agreeing to portray a transgender character in the film Rub and Tug (before public reaction pushed her to relinquish the part).

She took a lot of criticism online, including from me. I tweeted: “One definition of white privilege is being able to pretend the advantages you have -- in this case, an industry full of executives who will let you play any characters you want in a way they don't for actors of color -- are just an exercise in fairness.” That post drew 2,800 retweets reaching over 263,000 users.

Still, Johansson’s position is an easy one to embrace. Isn’t equality in Hollywood reached when anyone can play any character, regardless of identity?

Unfortunately, no. And the answer to that conundrum lies in the peculiar dynamics of representation in movies and TV shows.

(At left: Johansson as Mira Killian; at right: Major Motoko Kusanagi.) 

Let’s use Ghost in the Shell as an example. It’s a film based on a Japanese manga comic that is steeped in Asian culture -- from its costumes to the look of the futuristic city where it takes place to the names of many characters. Johansson plays Mira Killian, a person whose human brain was placed inside a cybernetic body; at the movie’s end – Spoiler alert! -- it is revealed that Killian was actually a woman named Motoko Kusanagi.

Okay, anybody who’s actually seen Ghost in the Shell knows I’ve left out a lot of plot details; I don’t think they’re that important for this discussion. What is notable, however, is that by casting white actors like Johansson, Michael Carmen Pitt and Pilou Asbaek in major roles, Ghost in the Shell becomes a film centered on Asian style and culture where Asian actors are pushed to the sidelines.

Something similar happened with Marvel’s movie about a superhero sorcerer, Dr. Strange. The character who serves as Strange’s mentor, The Ancient One, is Asian in the comic books. But he was also a horrific collision of Asian stereotypes. To avoid that problem, Tilda Swinton was cast as The Ancient One and given a new backstory as a bald, Celtic woman.

So Strange trains with The Ancient One in a city in Nepal, inside a building that looks like a pagoda, wearing clothes which seem strongly inspired by what samurai might have worn. But only one major character is Asian. Once again, a movie has usurped the historic style, look and mysticism of Asian culture but placed white actors at the heart of the action.

(At left: Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One; at right: The Ancient One in comic books.)

Contrast these two examples with the latest season of HBO’s True Detective. Creator and showrunner Nic Pizzolatto has admitted he originally intended to cast African American actor Mahershala Ali as the main character’s best friend in the show’s third season. But Ali convinced Pizzolatto to rewrite state police detective Wayne Hays as a black man and give him the part.

Hays also has an African American wife and son, adding more diversity to the cast. His ethnicity also gives the story added dimension, as Hays fights racism and his ineffectual superiors to chase down the perpetrator of an awful crime.

This isn’t always the case. But often, when white actors are cast to play characters of color �� or cis gender actors are hired to play transgender people – those actually depicted are marginalized. They are not allowed to tell their own stories, though the exotic flavor of their culture may be used to spice up costumes and locations. Instead, white characters sit at the heart of their stories, just as they do in many other corners of American life.

On the other hand, when non-white and transgender actors are hired for roles which might have been written for white and/or cis gendered characters, the result is often an expansion of diversity. People who were once relegated to the sidelines get to stand in the spotlight. They can also be humanized – like the judge played by transgender actress Alexandra Billings on Amazon’s legal/crime series Goliath, whose storyline has nothing to do with her gender status. Stories of romance (Crazy Rich Asians) or chosen family (FX’s Pose) gain new urgency because of their authentic and culturally specific roots.

This goes beyond an individual performer’s right or ability to play a specific role. It’s about how a single casting choice can change the entire statement a film makes about certain groups of people or their culture. It’s an impact many people don’t recognize right away, because they are used to talking about diversity and equality in more simplistic terms.

(Examples of white actors playing Asian characters, known as “yellowface,” through the years.)

After the social media explosion, Johansson issued a statement published by Variety, in which she said her comments were “edited for click bait” and “widely taken out of context.” She also nodded to the idea that the industry hasn’t been fair in casting non-white or transsexual actors: “I recognize that in reality, there is a wide spread discrepancy amongst my industry that favors Caucasian, cis gendered actors and that not every actor has been given the same opportunities that I have been privileged to.”

She didn’t explain how to eliminate that discrepancy, given her belief – articulated in the same statement -- that “Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness.”

I can understand why Johansson may be weary of bearing the brunt of these discussions. After all, there are producers, a casting director, an overall director and studio executives who often sign off on who gets a role. When controversy erupts, their name isn’t in the headline of a tough column.

But I often liken weaning Hollywood of its prejudicial tendencies to training a pet. Sometimes, you have to use negative consequences -- shame, embarrassment, boycotting -- just to get everyone’s attention.

Eliminating Hollywood’s preference for casting white cis gendered actors requires bold challenges. It requires asking: Will this casting change exclude rather than include? Can we embrace racial, cultural and gender complexity rather than avoid it?

It requires looking past simplistic notions of equanimity to see what true equality looks like in the real world.

And it probably requires telling highly-paid, accomplished actors like Johansson some version of that old saying: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”  

[youcanrantifyouwantto]

To those who get it and those who don’t:

To those who don’t get it:

We are obviously all entitled to think what we want to. It’s truly the beauty of America. You may not have thought this women’s march was important, and that’s okay for your life. It wasn’t okay for mine. I needed this march. I needed it to show so many women that they are not alone. i needed it to show them that they have fighters and protectors right alongside them. I needed it, and it worked for me.

Please don’t tell me it wasn’t important, because trust me, it was. You probably weren’t there, so you don’t know how great the experience was. You had your experience, and I had mine. Mine was good for me, and yours was what you wanted. I got to see my wonderful, beautiful friends and family feel like they weren’t lost anymore. I got to see women of color, women with disabilities, trans women, women from other countries, and even men of the same get together because we all wanted to support each other. So don’t say this wasn’t important. The love is real.

I keep seeing you bring up women’s rights in other countries, like we don’t understand our privileges in America. We do understand them, but we’re also being threatened by our government. We’re being shown that being gay, being a woman, being non-white, or being transgender could all become more difficult, when it’s not exactly easy to begin with. We’re being shown that sexual assault doesn’t matter if you’re powerful. We’re being shown that being Muslim or black is going to label you a threat. We’re being shown that women are going to lose the ability to choose what we can and cannot do with our bodies. We’re being shown that healthcare is only for the wealthy and healthy. We’re being shown that the LGBTQ community won’t get the same respect as the cis-gendered or straight people. We’re being shown that even if you’re working hard and been here your whole life, if you aren’t born here, you’ll be sent away. For some people this could cost their lives. A bully is in power, and it is only going to inspire more bullies, some who will use violence. So maybe you’re safe, and these other countries have it worse, but for some people in America, it’s going to be worse.

You also say Trump hasn’t taken away anyone’s rights yet, so protesting is stupid. The march was of a preventative nature. Everyone has heard what the new administration would like to do with healthcare, and how they have addressed women and minorities. We protested on his first day in office to show him that there will be a huge resistance to the laws and policies we feel are wrong for this country. We don’t want what he wants, and we intend to show him and his cabinet and his congress that we won’t take it lightly. We will be here. We are here. We were here.

To the anti-abortion group, you can be anti-abortion and also pro-choice. Maybe you can really say there is no circumstance that you’d ever get an abortion, and for you, that’s fine. However, a woman should have the right to choose what goes on in her own body. Be anti-abortion by fighting for better healthcare. Be anti-abortion by fighting for better ACCESS to healthcare for poor women. Be anti-abortion by fighting for better sex education so everyone understands how to properly prevent unwanted pregnancies. Be anti-abortion by supporting better birth control access and research. Be anti-abortion by preventing rape by advocating for true consequences no matter the status and teaching your sons (and daughters) not to rape. All of these things will make unwanted pregnancies and abortions decrease. Most of all, don’t tell a woman who is not yourself that her choice for her life is wrong. She is not you. Maybe her health or body can’t carry a baby. Maybe she was raped and cannot mentally or physically have the child. Maybe having a child results in her death. But most of all, maybe it’s none of your business because what goes on in her body is hers.

You also like to say you’re not a victim so you didn’t need a march. We had to march to show the people who want to hold us down and make us victims that, in fact, this is not the case. We are strong. We rise. They are trying to portray us as whiny and helpless, but we just empowered ourselves by coming together. We are not victims. Nothing about what we did, said, or showed was out of weakness or fear. We created our own strength when we were made to feel like we mattered less. We don’t matter less, and we just wanted to show them that. So we marched. 

For you, maybe there was no reason to march. Maybe you’ve never needed healthcare to an extreme extent. Maybe you haven’t watched your own people unjustifiably die at the hands of people you’re taught to trust. Maybe your parents were able to teach you that anything in possible. Be glad they taught you that. For some people, life isn’t always about being anything they want because they just need to make it to tomorrow. Sometimes people aren’t told they can be anything. Sometimes people are portrayed as the bad guys in life when really they’re just scapegoats for an underlying problem in a country who forgets the working class. Sometimes people are brought up in environments that aren’t supportive. Sometimes people have to start working when they’re 14 (or even younger) because food isn’t available regularly, and then their education suffers because they’re just trying to survive. Sometimes people don’t have access to hospitals or healthcare or mental institutions that actually diagnose what others are just calling crazy. Sometimes people come to another country because they need new opportunities to live a better life, but the true process of being accepted and becoming a citizen is expensive and difficult. Sometimes people grow up being told it is unacceptable to be who they are. Be very grateful and very happy that you lived a life where education and care were provided. Not everyone in America lives that way. We march for them.

We could all use some empathy in life. So maybe this isn’t about you. Maybe it’s about the DACA students who have their education threatened or the LGBTQ community who feels like their own government hates them. It’s about our Muslim sisters who are too often not included in the feminist mold. It’s about my sisters of color who still have to tell you their lives matter. You’ve probably never experienced what it’s like to be them, but what you should do is listen to them. Listen to their experiences and what they want in life. Your experience is your own, and there are millions of other people in the world with stories to tell. Just listen.

One day I hope you realize this women’s march was for you as well, regardless of if you were there or not.

To those who get it:

I’ll keep this part short. You understand why I marched. Most likely you were marching, too. At the very least, you were there in spirit or voicing your support as you watched the marchers across the world. To you, I want to say thank you. I want you to never give up.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you this wasn’t important. We came together in true solidarity. While the march wasn’t perfect, and maybe we had some of our own issues, guilt, and judgments we need to work on, we still came together to show our government that we will not stand for the policies that infringe on our rights. Don’t let someone tell you we didn’t do anything. This was important to me. It was important to you. It was important to nearly four million people in the United States. No one can tell you it didn’t matter.

I don’t know about you, but the MILLIONS of people getting involved (not to mention the rest of the world telling us they are with us) made me feel stronger than I have felt in quite some time, especially since November 8th. The election had me defeated and losing hope. I went to anti-Trump rallies. I’ve called and emailed my senators. I signed petitions, but nothing made me feel as powerful as marching alongside (figuratively and literally) all of you. You give me strength and hope. There are more of us than there are of them, and we will resist.

I am a straight, white, cis-gendered woman. I know that this presidency and the policies that are threatening our country are not going to affect me very much. I could lose my free women’s exams and my free birth control, which are not good things, but I will probably not fear for my safety. I will not fear for my life and whether or not I can step outside without judgment or hate. People won’t look at me differently. They won’t openly hate me just because they see my face or my skin. I don’t wear a hijab, so no one will scream hurtful and ignorant words into my face. I can hold my boyfriend’s hand in public and not even think twice about it. I don’t have to painfully deal with the fact that my president has bragged about sexual assault because I’m not a survivor. All I have is that I am a woman with a little meat on her bones who has been told many sexist things in her life about the way she looks and the way she thinks. I didn’t march for myself. I marched for you.

I want you to know that if you are forced to register under this administration, I will register with you. If you aren’t allowed to love who you want to love, I will fight with you. If you are shown and told that you don’t matter, I will tell them that you do. If you are being blamed for being a survivor, I will refocus the blame to the real problem. If you are being told this isn’t your country, I will open my heart and my arms to welcome you.

You inspired me deeply. You made me strong. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and everything that I am.

[seriousfic]

Television can often serve as a little stationary intruder in your home. All of your resistance and radical thoughts and practice can become challenged by what is in the middle of what should be the safest place in the world; your living room. I recall as a young child being obsessed with the television sci-fi series, The Twilight Zone. I thought Rod Serling must have been the most powerful man on the Earth to introduce such vivid and thrilling stories. [...] My mother might have taken away my television privileges if she knew how highly I was regarding a cis-heterosexual white man in her pro-black, queer inclusive home, but my mother didn’t think to consider the television or film as a possible place for domination to arrive in her young son’s life.

Myles E. Johnson

Well, I was wondering what the fuck was wrong with people. Apparently, their mothers are crazy.