#context: tumblr recommended me a post that pissed me off

[anti-spop]

i obviously can't just make ppl actually read our posts to get our point, but yeah it's infuriating that spop stans just assume we're haters with no life for hating on a silly little kids show (while at the same time stans make spop look deeper than it is). we're just seen like homophobes/lesbophobes, racists, ableists etc. who send death threats to fans and the crew-ra.

of course, there are some people like that, but most of the anti/crit community does NOT condone harassment. although we may get a little intense about our criticisms, they're still valid. spop does romanticize abuse. it does make light of bullying. it normalizes ableism. it's still racist. maybe these things aren't intentional, but the fact it's a KIDS show is why we're so revolted. kids and teens are going to internalize these elements and think they're healthy both in fiction and in real life. we also have to remember that grown adults are behind this show, hence why we have to call them out on it. and still, we aren't out there attacking or sending death threats to nd stevenson or anyone in the crew-ra. i certainly do not support that.

also, at least i actually post things that aren't negative rants. i do post some constructive criticisms, like how certain characters and plot elements could've been awesome if done right. like i talked about how frosta would've been a more interesting character if she retained her s1 personality, or how a friendship between bow and kyle could've been neat. how characters like castaspella or micah could've been more relevant to the plot, or how catra's redemption arc could've been more efficient. you know, we're not attacking the show. most of us still love it - or at least what it COULD'VE been. spop has a good premise. the problem is the execution.

besides, i feel like this is important to ppl who want to write their own stories or maybe their own tv shows and movies. it might make a difference to these creators! who knows! at least i'm an artist and a writer, so it could help me. but most importantly, this is a space where we can point out these issues and what we would've done if we were the creators of spop. we don't attack spop fans, we just offer a critical view of the show. not to mention we're just a minority in the fandom, it's not like our blogs are going to cancel c//a or anything. the show is over and everyone got their "happy" ending, so we're not rlly ruining your experience. you can just block us or filter the tags, because at least we DO tag our shit.

and again, there are shitty ppl in the anti/crit spaces, but they don't speak over the whole community. at least they don't speak over me.

[dolleminas]

hi, my doctor has given me a tentative diagnosis of pcos and the only info I can find about it online that doesn't relate to getting pregnant is your Tumblr post. do you have any sources for the stuff about fatigue, vitamin D deficiency, etc being super common in pcos? cos I've dealt with those forever too. things are clicking into place but also with the way the NHS is I don't know if there's much point confirming the diagnosis (it's only diagnosed with transvaginal ultrasound :c) because the only treatment offered seems to be birth control and fertility treatment.

Good afternoon, nonny. Thanks for reaching out to me! And congratulations on getting a (albeit tentative) diagnosis. I know it might not seem positive, but now you know what you have and what can be done about it. At least, that is how I felt.

When I first made that post I never expected so many women to add their own experiences, talk of their their shock, their anger... or just admit that they had been diagnosed for years but that I somehow taught them things they never knew.

It's been an experience and a half. But I'm very glad that I can spread information and if that helps you, even better.

First of all, to diagnose PCOS, you need to fit 2/3 criteria of the Rotterdam concensus. Irregular periods, higher testosterone, and 12 or more follicles on your ovaries each. So, even without a hormone test you can usually tell whether someone has PCOS. Even so, I would still recommend asking for a hormone test if your health insurance covers it.

Sources

I tried looking up an English source for you since you mentioned NHS. Do keep in mind that women's healthcare is really not researched well and that there will be sources and information that will contradict one another. Here is one such article about the Rotterdam concensus.

As you can see they also mention the insulin resistance in this article, IBS, and fatigue, among other things.

Here is another one.

Here is some information about Insulin resistance in women with PCOS.

And here is some about depression.

You specifically asked for vitamin D so here is a study.

And another.

And one about fatigue.

I will however stress that these are all scientific sources and we all know that it can sometimes be biased, and again, not researched properly. My advice would always be to listen to women who have PCOS before listening to a medical source (no matter how professional it looks.)

My Own Experiences & Tips

I've not been diagnosed with PCOS long, but I have been quite thrown into studying it because it pissed me off interested me so much, and by researching (and reading a lot) here are some things that helped me, and I hope they can help you too.

Vitamin deficiencies are common in women with PCOS, especially Vitamin D. What I do is drink a glass of orange juice every morning with Vitamin D supplements. I take Solgar liquid vitamin drops, but depending on where you live they might have something of a different brand. Remember; take it during a meal.

Carbs make your sugar spike, so try to swap out some high-carb foods for lower carb. This way I have managed to lose weight, and this is often recommended for women with PCOS. And if you have a tendency for disordered eating, this will (generally) be easier than counting calories and going on a diet. After going low-carb my blood sugar level (which was high before) went down to regular levels and according to my doctor, I am now no longer immediately in danger of developing Diabetes Type 2.

Exercise! Especially weight-lifting, since it is mentioned it gives you more energy. Since starting myself, I have also noticed a difference. Here is a link for at home work-outs. Taking daily walks is also recommended for your exposure to sunlight and to help depression and anxiety.

Keep a diary of your symptoms. I have a word document with my own diary, so if anyone is interested I will be posting it. Just send me a message :)

Besides this, you do not need to go on birth control if you do not want to. My gynocologist said to me that once every three months you need to have your period. Women with PCOS can have a period 4 times a year, and that is enough! If you get your period less, then you can take progesteron pills for 7 days, and it will start your period. Again; you only need to use them for 7 days. You could do this four times a year and that would be all. Then again I am not a gynocologist so do talk about this with your doctor.

Another thing is that the fatigue could also very well be a side-effect of low vitamin D, B12, and low iron. My advice would be to get tested monthly if you can, and then try to balance your vitamins and see if this improves your fatigue.

And last but no least I recommend Meals She Eats. I made a post about it before, but even if you ignore everything else that is said (they are a bit woo-woo about organic foods and sugars) they still are very informative about the menstrual cycle. If for any reason you are unable to get your hands on the book do reach out to me in my DM's and I can help you.

If there is anything else I forgot I will reblog this and add more information, and I also will request others do too! The more we learn about PCOS and our cycle, the better.

I hope you have a nice day, anon. And I apologise if it took me a while to get to this ask!

[carolxdanvers]

Tumblr @staff pls understand:

When I tap on somebody's post to open it in their blog, it's because I am curious what they were reblogging immediately prior to that.

If I see a post that is like "that anon is still pissing me off so here's a psa that blah blah blah" I wanna read the anon. I want to see the context. I don't want a curated recommendation of other posts they've made.

[three--rings]

On Callouts, Triggers, and Problematic Content

So as I’m apparently in A Mood Today, let’s talk about callout culture and fucking drama a little.  Via a story.

So once upon a time I followed a person on here.  They posted about stuff I had an interest in.  And every once in a while they would go all manic about something that pissed them off.  Something someone said on the internet that was Wrong about their favorite topic.  And sometimes I read these rants, amused, and decided to avoid the person they were talking about.  And sometimes I just ignored them.  Sometimes they got annoying when it was post after post about the same damn thing..   You know how it goes, the Tumblr posts of “...and ANoTHeR ThInG...”

And then one day, the rant of the day was about....me.

Someone on the internet, they wrote, had recommended at Thing That They Liked and in so doing had compared it to a Thing That They Didn’t Like.  And it was like 1-2K about how idiotic the comparison was and how inexperienced you had to be in the genre to even make that comparison, and how it was borderline homophobic and emblematic of everything that was wrong with....fuck I don’t know. 

So I read this, bemused, going...is this about me?  It has to be about me, right?  I did that.  Could someone else have made that same comparison?  Maybe...but no, pretty sure this is About Me. 

So I commented.  Yeah, that was me, I said.  I wrote that in a post three years ago.  I was trying to get my followers, who are fans of That Thing You Hate, since that’s the fandom I was in and the main topic of my blog, to consume this Piece Of Media You Like by making comparisons between them.  I was trying to encourage people to support this indie creator and expose them to new art.  Uh, sorry?

And I got a private apology and they took down the post, which, you know, good.  I just sorta went okay and kept following them.  But then I couldn’t react the same to their one-sided rants about How Wrong Other People Were anymore.  Because I’d seen the people reflexively agreeing on their post about me, without any of the context that made the central OMG Wrong Thing make sense. 

And finally this person went on a multi-day rant about someone else, a creator who I happen to know from a fandom.  They were complaining about how terrible their work was, how offensive because of this one small aspect of it.  An aspect that they found horribly objectionable because it reminded them of their own past abuser.

And you know, I didn’t have that reaction to the work.  I didn’t see the horribly offensive flaw.  I mean, I saw a character who did bad things, but I didn’t see that it completely morally compromised the whole work, the creator, and everything they would ever produce ever. 

So I stopped following this person, because it wasn’t contributing to my enjoyment of the internet anymore. 

But I was thinking about them today. Not only the way they took my own post out of context and made it a Whole Moral Deal, but the way they were personally triggered by a work of art due to their specific life history and then used that to label the work and the author Objectionable. 

And it just seems so emblematic of this whole Moment of internet commentary.  Sure, absolutely, sometimes you’re going to have an extreme negative reaction to something because of your individual situation.  It might leave a very bad taste in your mouth.  Sometimes that means you want to avoid anything that has any kind of similar content, or go looking for specific spoiler information before consuming something. 

But that doesn’t mean the work is Bad.  That doesn’t mean the creator is morally reprehensible just because they created something that triggered you.  It doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t enjoy it or are wrong for doing so.  You can really dislike something and still accept that someone else might like it and be VALID for doing so.  That’s POSSIBLE, y’all. 

But what I see so often is people who just get ANGRY when someone likes something they don’t like.  And then they want to justify that anger by writing long posts about the Problematic Content and why no one should enjoy it. 

Like, for real, if you’re asking yourself “OMG why doesn’t everyone have the same emotional reaction to this that I do; they are so wrong!!?!” consider that people are, in fact, different, and have very different emotional responses based on history, brain chemicals, and personal taste. 

Please, please, practice saying “this isn’t for me.  It’s not my kind of thing.  It’s not to my taste,” and then just Walking Away.   Or “I had a problem with this particular aspect of the work for personal reasons but YMMV.”  Your Mileage May Vary, in case youngsters are no longer aware of this very useful acronym.  Your experience may be different from mine.

Because the thing is, there are so many different experiences in the world, just exponentially large numbers of potential triggers and reactions and traumas, and they can’t all be avoided and They Shouldn’t Be.  As an example, my husband was beaten up repeatedly in high school.  Gangs of boys, beating him bloody on street corners kind of thing.  So he sometimes has problems with movies that show that kind of violence.  Beatings, particularly realistic ones.  It means he tends to avoid certain kinds of realistically violent films.  And sometimes he doesn’t.  Sometimes certain scenes bother him and others don’t and neither of us know why.  Can you imagine trying to say all violence must be removed from movies? Especially young people using their fists and feet to inflict temporary injury on each other?

There are a lot of Really Good Films, works of art, that wouldn’t exist.  It would be pretty impossible to make films About bullying, for one thing.  But also there’s a lot of shitty movies out there with violence.  There’s a lot of movies that other people enjoy a lot, that don’t say anything deep, that aren’t ART, but that people enjoy because they have hot people in them or big explosions or whatever.  And that’s OKAY.  People are allowed to get silly, stupid enjoyment out of something EVEN IF it triggers someone else.

[cat-soap-opera]

I am…not usually someone who uses terms like “overreacting” but I literally cannot believe the overreaction people are having to the cloudsnap situation….like sorry not to be mean but it took me 0.2 seconds and $0.00 to google if cloudsnap was a new arc character, which immediately directed me to your post about it. By all means, make the internet a safe space for yourself. By all means expect people to respect you and your needs. But? It’s the internet. Maybe evaluate if you’re mentally fit enough to handle using this platform, and if youre gonna start a pissing contest over something that is literally not controllable, evaluate again.

yea, theres been this sorta "everyone else online is responsible for my mental health" mentality growing in online spaces for years now. like in comparison to stuff that gets spread around on tumblr, cloudsnap is very tame, not even inlcuding how easy it is to find context for whats going on n to block it.

im gonna be hashtag anti-finland for a moment (just bc its been on my mind today, n i think its a good way for me to put in perspective how Fucked the discourse is) n bring up how common it is for me to see posts by finnish ppl abt their "cool ancient finnish culture and mythology" that have hundreds of thousands of notes, and see its nothing but bastardized and stolen karelian (and often sámi and other indigenous ppls) beliefs being sold as finnish. and sometimes these ppl are profting off of doing that! theres ppl on tumblr who have etsy shops where they can "tell you your luonto/soul animal" for actual money! theres ppl selling books abt "ancient finnish beliefs" that are based on research done by finnish ppl who robbed my ppls graves, measured our skulls n killed us for being "too filthy to live", all the while stealing our culture and beliefs, and these books are heavily recommended by ppl on this site as "sources for finnish paganism"!! and these ppl do not care abt the damage theyre doing, and will either ignore any criticism or spit in our face.

and the difference between cloudsnap and That (besides like. the fucking obvious) is that me n other karelians cant just blacklist those posts n move on like u can w cloudsnap. w cloudsnap u can blaclist the tags, block ppl posting abt it, u can go outside n forget abt it.

anti-karelian racism will always follow me into my real life interactions w other ppl, it will affect how me n my peers can practice our own culture. it affects how our ppl and language are treated by the government.

cloudsnap is a fake canon cat for a kids fictional cat fantasy book series who u can cut out of ur life easily.

[audreydoeskaren]

Abridged history of early 20th century Chinese womenswear (part 1: 1890s & 1900s) *improved version

Source here

*I’m fixing and reposting the first two posts of this series because back then I had no idea how Tumblr formatting functioned and they deserve better. I’m keeping the shoddy original versions for archival purposes.

*After some thought I think it makes more sense to group the 1890s and 1900s together.

Other posts in the series:

Part 1: 1890s (original)

Part 2: 1900s & 1910s (original)

Part 3.1: 1920s-silhouette

Part 3.2: 1920s-design details

Part 3.3: 1920s-accessories, hair & makeup

Part 4.1: 1930s-silhouette & design

Part 4.2: 1930s-hair, makeup & accessories

Part 5: 1940s

Part 6.1: 1950s-Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan & friends

Part 6.2: 1950s-mainland China

Intro & context

In order to understand early 20th century Chinese fashion we have to go back a bit into the past to have some clue about the context. When the Manchus conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty in the mid 17th century, Han Chinese men adopted Manchu style clothing but Han Chinese womenswear remained independent and separate from Manchu womenswear. Han Chinese women retained the habit of wearing a two piece ensemble as the outermost layer, unlike Manchu women, who wore a single floor length robe. I will be only discussing Han Chinese women’s fashion in this series.

In the 19th century, Han Chinese women wore 袄裙 aoqun, a two piece ensemble consisting of a robe and a skirt. The robe had a very low 立领, standing collar. In the second half of the 19th century, the robe in aoqun had a very generous and roomy cut and huge sleeves, a look which reached its peak in the 1860s and 70s. The hem of the robe hit the knees, the length in vogue since the 1870s. The collar of the robe is very low, only providing enough space for one button, likewise in fashion since the 1870s. The robe is closed with 盘扣 pankou, which in this era were always plain with either a bead or fabric knot tip. The robe closes at the side, usually at the right side at the 大襟 dajin, the side closure, however examples of robes with closures on the left also existed. Robes with closures on both the right and left were also a thing, a style called 双襟 shuangjin, double closure. Shuangjin robes were derived from a men’s riding vest, the 巴图鲁坎肩 batulu vest (batulu is Manchu for “warrior”), that could be opened from both sides, and would experience a revival in the 1920s. 

Source here

1870s/80s photograph of a group of women in aoqun, the two skirts on the left are the elaborate mamian style, the one on the right is plain.

In aoqun, the skirt was usually of a style called 马面 mamian, made of two long horizontal pieces of pleated fabric with two flat sections each sewn to a waistband with one flat section overlapping, creating a wrap skirt that once worn around the wearer’s waist, appears to have two unpleated sections, one at the front and one at the back. This skirt was very decorative in the 19th century, full of embroidery, tassels and elaborate trim, sometimes giving the illusion of a separate apron being attached (I’ve seen this weird stereotype that traditional Chinese womenswear has a separate apron at the front this is complete bogus). The robes were likewise heavily decorated around the seams, ceremonial outfits like wedding gowns could be so full of embroidery that the original fabric is hardly to be seen.

The combination of robe and pants, 袄裤 aoku, was also a common way of dressing since approximately the 1800s or 1810s. This combination would become the norm in the 1890s.

Source here

1870s/80s photograph of a woman in a ginormous ao, roomy pants and with bound feet.

Another noteworthy fad was bound feet. The middle of the 19th century was the pinnacle of foot binding and fashionable women had incredibly small feet, dubbed “lotus feet”. This was achieved by wrapping tight foot binding cloth around the feet since childhood and restricting the growth of the feet, I think also breaking a couple bones in the process. Women wore foot binding cloth and baggy stockings underneath their shoes, tied up with garters below the knees. Foot binding is said to severely restrict mobility and cause intense pain; I don’t doubt the pain part but I’m not sure about mobility since I’ve seen plenty of photographs of women with bound feet roaming about the streets.

Not every woman did foot binding though, it depended heavily on region, class and the individual family. For one, Manchu women all had natural feet. For Han women, an account from the 1850s said that in Beijing, every five or six out of ten women did not have bound feet, and that probability is three or four out of ten in the countryside. In the provinces along the southern coast, most women did not bind their feet (this probably has to do with the influence of indigenous cultures in the south, since foot binding was primarily a Han fashion), whereas in the northwest almost every woman had bound feet. By the way, I really don’t like how articles on foot binding describe it in the most sensational way possible, why is it so hard to approach history with peace of mind? And it pisses me off that all the articles containing 1890s photographs only talk about the foot binding as if there is nothing more of value in portraits of whole ass women.

Anyway, if you are interested in learning more about foot binding, check out  Cinderella‘s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding by Dorothy Ko, recommended by @thefeastandthefast​ . Or just anything written by Dorothy Ko tbh.

Silhouette

In the 1890s, the cut of the aoqun began to become more slender and form fitting, commonly believed to be a result of westernization. But I think it’s also because the wide sleeve look has also been in fashion for quite a while now (some 80 years or so) and people were getting tired of it. The robe inherited the knee length hem from the 1880s but was less baggy and took on a more straight cut silhouette. The collar remained quite low until the end of the decade. Pants were overwhelmingly more popular than skirts in the 1890s, I speculate this may be due to a rising interest in feminism and women wanting more mobility, but aoku was also very popular in the 1870s and 80s in general so it may have also just carried over. The pants were still ankle length and straight cut but less roomy than earlier 19th century models. Overall the 1890s just looks like a shrunken and simplified version of the 1880s.

Source here

The aoku as of the 1890s.

By the second half of the 1900s, the collar began to rise, becoming medium height. This was kind of reminiscent of late 18th century Han women’s collars I mentioned in this post on Chinese standing collars. The robe and pants shrunk further, becoming quite tight fitting. The robe was still around knee length. The pants were especially tight and could be considered skinny. Foot binding became less common and many women had natural sized feet. However, since foot binding is something that begins in the childhood, the fact that many women without bound feet appeared in the 1900s meant that many parents started to reject food binding in the 1880s and 90s. 

Source here

Ca. 1907 photograph of a group of women, possibly students, in tight fitting aoku.

Design details

The 1890s saw the mass disappearing of wide, embroidered trims around the seams, popular throughout the 19th century. The use of multiple rows of binding/trim from the 1870s and 80s was continued, albeit in a much more minimalistic and geometric way. I’ve seen a lot of plain white ao finished with multiple rows of black binding of different widths, it’s mighty avant-garde and elegant. Because clothes of the era were still constructed in the older Chinese method, they had a seam down the middle of the sleeves used to extend the length of the sleeves; this seam could be bound and decorated but it was not compulsory. Actual embroidery on the robe and skirt/pants was rare, if not non-existent; completely plain fabric was the norm. The ao of this era commonly had a 厂字襟 (厂 shaped closure), where the front placket is held up by one or two buttons and then closed by more buttons down the side seam. This style of closure was first popularized for Han women’s clothing in the 1800s and 1810s, before that Han women’s clothing closures were a straight line from the collar to the armpit. The pankou used to close the ao of this period became a lot more elaborate and the main source of decoration; I have a whole ass post on them here. A general air of simplicity, comfort and proportionality dominated the fashion of this era. In the mid 18th century, Han women’s robes started having folded cuffs (possibly borrowed from Manchu court dress), called 挽袖 wanxiu, and these became fake and represented by a piece of trimming in the 1850s. By the 1890s this design feature largely disappeared, leaving the sleeve edges either plain or simply bound.

Source here

Three women in aoku, late 1890s. I looooove the look on the far left, I will probably make it some day.

Going into the 1900s, the geometric trims became more simplified and austere, while the pankou became increasingly ornamental.

Source here

Late 1900s photograph. The robe is trimmed with fur and thin, geometric binding, and closed by very ornamental pankou.

Hair & Makeup

There were no significant changes in hairstyling in the 1890s, fashionable women would wear existing 1880s hairstyles but style them with bangs. A common style I’ve seen in photographs was long hair pulled back into either one big bun at the back or two smaller ones at the sides. The short bangs were usually very neat, precisely cut and sat closely to the forehead. Elastics did not exist, so Chinese women used strings and hairpins to tie their hair together. Hairpins of this era were usually very thick and sturdy, a single one was enough to hold all your hair into a bun. It was popular to use flowers and/or pearls to form a ring of decorations around a bun. 

Source here

Common 1890s hairstyle, for most people the decorations weren’t so elaborate.

A popular headpiece was this thin headband adorned with pearls worn at the place where bangs should be, although that has been around since the 1870s as well.

Source here

Ca. late 1890s. Some women wearing the pearl headband. 

Around 1905 the bangs began to grow in length but still weren’t long enough to cover the eyebrows. They were longer at the sides and shorter in the middle, creating this volume and curve at the forehead.

Source here

Photograph ca. 1905. Long bangs.

By the end of the decade these evolved into a being with a will of its own. Long hair tied into braids or low buns became fashionable instead of tight, high buns.

Source here

Calendar painting from 1911.

Fashionable women in the 1890s wore little to no makeup, because of the influence of female university students who were usually without makeup. In the 1870s and 80s, thick makeup was more common and was a trend popularized by sex workers in Shanghai, thus becoming increasingly considered indecent in the 1890s. I find this quite problematic cause respectability politics suck and there’s nothing wrong with wearing fashion trends invented by sex workers. All the straight male writers of the 1890s and 1900s praising female students for being “pure” and ”hygienic” in contrast to the supposedly nasty sex workers make me cringe to my core, it’s just pitting women against each other and setting us up for “I’m not like other girls” in my opinion.

The common makeup look includes white power, lipstick and blush. The lipstick shape was usually a tad smaller to the actual lips and blush was applied in large areas toward the outside of the face.

Source here

Standard 1890s and 1900s hair and makeup look. This drawing is probably from around 1902, it’s a bit more festive folk art than fashion plate so take the patterns with a dash of salt.

Undergarments

Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures for undergarments of the era but I can describe them to you. Since women commonly wore pants, they would usually wear another layer of pants (could be considered drawers) underneath that was of a similar construction but plain and easy to launder. Panties and such didn’t exist so drawers were the innermost layer, enough to protect women’s private parts. Likewise for the robe, another plainer, sturdier version would be worn underneath. In the mid 1900s, as the sleeves of the outer robe began to shorten, the undershirt became more form fitting at the wrists and could serve a decorative function. 

Chinese women in the 19th century bound their breasts with long strips of fabric to achieve the flat look. I’m not exactly sure how this is done but basically you wrap fabric tightly around your chest until the boobies are concealed. A famous undergarment of the Qing Dynasty was the 肚兜 dudou, which was actually unisex. The female only version was called 抹胸 moxiong, 袜肚 wadu or 袜腹 wafu, the latter two are etymologically similar to earlier words for “corset” or “a pair of bodies”. However, unlike what many later 20th century artists would like you to believe, wearing only dudou on the upper body was not legit underwear for grown up women, as it was usually worn in conjunction with breast binders as an extra layer of warmth. It was also worn very tightly around the breasts and waist, not tied loosely like in paintings or period dramas nowadays.

Source here

Dudou diagram.

Shoes

Women began campaigning against bound feet in this period and many drawings depicted women with natural feet. However, if a woman had her feet bound since childhood it’s difficult for them to return to their natural size, so some women who were born in previous decades would still have very small feet, even if they began to reject it at this time. Women’s shoes of Western construction weren’t yet so common so most women wore Chinese style shoes, which were commonly made of fabric and had a slightly upward pointing toe. Women with bound feet would use a long piece of ribbon/cloth to wrap their feet (to maintain the shape) and wear small fabric pumps with a white sole. These could be flat or have a teeny tiny bit of wedge heel, called 弓鞋 gong xie, bow shoes. Women without bound feet would wear normal sized pumps, likewise of fabric, with slightly upward pointing toes and a thick white sole. Embroidery on shoes was a huge thing in the 19th century and before but by the 1890s it started to disappear as well, and shoes in the 1890s were commonly plain. In the 1900s, Western leather shoes were increasingly popularized, but it wasn’t until the early 1910s that this popularity reached its height.

Source here

Foot binding cloth.

Source here

Shoes for bound feet.

Source here

Woman with natural feet wearing Chinese style pumps. Western style knit stockings were becoming popularized in the 1880s for women with natural feet as well.

Some editing afterthoughts

I’ve been looking more into 18th and 19th century Chinese fashion lately and I realized I held some deep rooted misconceptions about the Qing Dynasty. For some reason I always considered the 1870s and 80s look with the elaborate, big robes conservative or backwards, which is really not fair. Chinese women’s fashion was revolutionized in the beginning of the 19th century, going from the flowy, slender robes of the 18th century to stiffer, more structured robes with flared sleeves. Styles also differed dramatically from decade to decade, it’s just not very well studied and there’s a stigma around Qing Dynasty fashion so people don’t get into it as much. Because Han women were allowed to continue wearing Han style clothing into the Qing Dynasty, a lot of 18th century reproduction ensembles nowadays get mistakenly labelled as Ming style hanfu, which really isn’t helping... I was definitely not alone in this though, the perception of Qing Dynasty Han women’s fashion most people nowadays have is: in the first couple years Han women were allowed to wear Ming style hanfu, but then bam the late 19th century look was forced upon everyone. This view is super not nuanced and false on almost every level, but it is extremely widespread and I don’t blame you at all if you also think like this, this was me just two months ago too... A wise woman (I mean Karolina Zebrowska) once said that everything in fashion history happens gradually, which is also extremely true for Chinese fashion history. 

I’ve really started to question what modernity in fashion means because the elaborate 19th century Chinese look that white people back then considered the epitome of conservative Chinese clothing was actually new and exciting in the beginning of the 19th century. I can’t help but wonder if this view that Chinese clothing as of the 1870s and 80s was symbolic of Chinese culture’s “backwardness” and “stagnation” was a product of colonization and white imperialists’ efforts to demonize Chinese society and take things out of context. I would prefer to say that Chinese fashion westernized a lot during the 1890s and 1900s but not necessarily modernized because what is modernity. Fashions change and that is the most normal thing on the planet. 

If you read what white historians or politicians wrote in the late 19th/early 20th century about Chinese fashion or culture (which I highly recommend you don’t, that shit is detrimental to your mental health), it becomes obvious that the majority of them have no clue what Chinese fashion looked like before the 19th century and how we got to what we had in the 19th century in the first place, so they just assumed that Chinese fashion always looked like that and that we haven’t progressed as a culture in hundreds of years lmao. Bullshit pseudo-Darwinism at its finest. Oh or if you look up 18th century European Orientalist paintings depicting imaginary Chinese characters, the clothes they wore and the hairstyles they had were so far off from what actual 18th century Chinese fashion looked like to the point they felt racist and were uncomfortable to look at. I stumbled across so many of them when looking for 18th century Chinese painting and every time I see one it almost gives me a stroke. So I think it’s really important to acknowledge that Han Chinese fashion of the 18th century is a valid field of study.

In my original 1890s post I said that the elaborate embroidery and trimmings started to appear on Han women’s fashion around this time because of Manchu influence, I take that back because I’ve realized it’s a whack claim. I’ll explain it more when I make some posts on the 19th century later.

Reworked part 2 is coming soon as well :)))

[stxleslyds]

I follow the #Jason-Todd tag and that panel from Cheer where Jason and Bruce hug popped up on my dashboard because it's recommended to me and I realized that I'm so sick of seeing that panel. I hate it and I hate how people gush over it. Cheer was a crap story and Zdarsky was a crap writer for Jason. That moment from Cheer was cheap and unearned yet it seems a lot people are eating it up. But it made me think, what's your opinion on it? Do you think it's people looking at the panel in isolation and not realizing how cheap it is? Is it accepted because it's canon that satisfies fanon? Is it Jason fans being so starved for good content that they'll accept this even if they know it's not good? Or do you think it's something else?

Oh Anon, you are one brave soul! I stay away from all comic related tags here on tumblr, it is just not a place that gives me joy, you know?

It is funny that you bring up that panel of Jason and Bruce in Urban Legends because just today I was greeted by a post of Jason and Damian “hugging” in that Robin #5 issue, and it is always funny to see it going around without the consequent panel that shows Damian electrocuting Jason.

Like, to me it is obvious that fandom leaches on to every badly written/out of context fluffy “batfam” moment that canon throws our way. Same thing with the Jason and Bruce hug. Because that hug that happened in Urban Legends: Cheer never happened in real life, that hug (it didn’t look like much of a hug to me but okay), happened in the supposed utopia that Jason saw when he was dosed with Cheer (the drug).

That utopia world that Jason saw was completely OOC for Jason, it made zero sense for it to be something that Jason would ever want, please fanon and DC, stop making Chonky boring by encapsulating him in the “he wants his fam to love him”, what appears in that made up world couldn’t be further from what Jason has ever wanted from Bruce, and it pisses me off that people are so willing to dismiss Jason’s true characterization over him being Bruce’s “beloved son” and they love each other so so much. Give me a break fanon, Bruce is a horrible person to all of his kids and Jason would actually be better off if Bruce stopped existing.

(Maybe I got a bit too mad there, but I can’t say that I am sorry about it)

So, that hug was actually non-existent, and the only real contact between Jason and Bruce was a forced handshake at the end of the issue, after Jason had told Bruce that he was going to stop using the guns but not for Bruce or his rules. So, fandom LOVES to take every piece of badly written content and cling to it as if makes sense or validates the “Jason sees Bruce as family and is finally going back to where he belongs”.

Now, you may be aware of this Anon, but I absolutely despise the concept of “Batfamily” and the idea of Jason being in good terms with Bruce after all he has done to Jason. I hate it and there is no way around it. And much like you I strongly believe that the Cheer story was crap and that Zdarsky was a crap writer for Jason.

In my review of the last part of that story, I believe I said that to me it looked like Zdarsky wanted to write a Batman story and DC only offered him a Red Hood story with Batman as an annoying side character. I don’t think for a second that Zdarsky knew who Jason Todd was before he became Robin, while he was Robin or why he became the Red Hood. He is an excellent writer, yes. But he wasn’t a good choice to write a RED HOOD story because it never really looked like he cared about that character, he only seemed to care about writing about Jason’s relationship with Bruce because Batman is the one that matters.

Obviously, I don’t blame Zdarsky solely for that horrendous “Red Hood” story, I actually blame DC and their need to make Jason Todd/Red Hood a bland and pathetic character. Their NEED to make Jason “fit” in their Batfamily bullshit has made them write the most nonsensical things, and have made the complex and strong character of Red Hood into another Batman lackey. And no, this is not me saying that other Batman-related characters are bland or anything, I am saying that Jason being a Batman-related character doesn’t work, it destroys his character and erases his unique feeling in the Gotham-vigilante world.

We don’t need another vigilante that doesn’t kill because of Batman’s stupid rule, we need variety, WE NEED RED HOOD TO BRING DUALITY BACK TO GOTHAM CITY!

Alright, that was a little rant that was not asked for, sorry about that.

So, let me answer your questions in a clear way because this is a mess.

“Do you think it's people looking at the panel in isolation and not realizing how cheap it is?”

I think that there are many people who are just getting into comics or who haven’t read comics in a long time that might see that and be like, “oh wow it seems like Jason and Bruce have a good relationship now”. Or maybe there are people within fandom that don’t like Jason or just don’t care for him and see that panel of them and they go “seems like the black sheep of the family has decided to play by the rules”.

Both of those ideas as a UtRH Jason stan and just a Jason Todd/Red Hood stan (Jason Nation!), kinda make my blood boil, because as you say, those people don’t really see how much that characterization or out of context panel, hurts Jason’s already messy characterization. And I don’t want Jason to be like Batman or for him to be “the black sheep of the family”. I want him to be interesting and complex and I want him to stay far away from Batman’s drama while he still works in Gotham City.

With this I am not trying to say that people who don’t read comics or are just in fandom for the fanon narrative are wrong or don’t have a place here. I am not a gatekeeper or anything, but I would like it if people were more willing to see that fanon and canon are not the same thing and that the fanon ideas and narratives don’t fit in canon, and they actually just mess up characterizations.

What’s fanon is great and should exist within the fandom, but when fanon leaks into canon I would actually love it if people started realizing that while it might be cute or adorable, it doesn’t fit the canon narrative and it actually serves the purpose of hiding Bruce’s abusive and manipulative actions towards his kids, that keep on being hidden and not treated as what they are, abuse.

“Is it accepted because it's canon that satisfies fanon?”

Absolutely, it helps the fanon narrative. But only if you take those panels without context, and spread them like a wildfire (which is what fandom does). If fandom ever gave context or remembered issues like Batman and Robin vol.2 #20, Nightwing vol.3 #30, Teen Titans vol.5 Annual #1, then those soft and whatever moments wouldn’t be taken as fact, or at least that’s what I like to believe.

“Is it Jason fans being so starved for good content that they'll accept this even if they know it's not good?”

I am starved for good Jason content, I have been for a long time. And that need for content makes me want good quality content, I understand that is not the case for everyone but come on, I pay for these comics, I would like to have some good writing in exchange.

I know that the version of Jason that I love will never come back but I am still hoping for a writer to tidy up the Jason that we have now. Maybe that writer will be Rosenberg, I lived what I read in that side story in Detective comics and I really want us to get a win. Jason’s character deserves it and so does Jason Nation.

“Or do you think it's something else?”

All of the above my dear Anon.

Don’t lose hope though, I might be biased but I do really think that Rosenberg will bring some very good writing Jason’s way! Fanon is fun and all, and if you interact with that content make sure to go with an open mind, or be like me and avoid it at all costs!

I hope you have a relaxing and chill weekend Anon! Thank you for sending me this ask!

[starfast]

So you want to write an autistic character

So I watched the trailer for Sia’s movie just to see if it really was that bad. Spoiler alert: Yes it is. It made me feel like Sia was making fun of me for two and a half minutes. But it also made me really fucking angry because there’s not autism representation to begin with, and most of what we do have isn’t really that great, which is what drove me to make this post. I don’t have many followers so even if like 3 people see this, then at least that’s 3 people who have seen this.  

What would I like to see less of

Literally incapable of detecting sarcasm: “Wait,” you say, “But Starfast, there are autistic people out there who are like this!” Sure, there might be, but for me personally detecting sarcasm is a lot less difficult than literally every autistic character has made it out to be. Yes, there are times where it goes right over my head but those times are usually when there’s not enough context for me to figure out whether the person is being sarcastic or not. Some of us actually are able to tell when you’re being sarcastic, it usually depends on context.

The “Sheldon Cooper”:  Autism is really diverse and yet I feel like 99% of autistic characters are basically all just carbon copies of Sheldon Cooper from BBT. They’re maybe overly formal, blunt, or have a hard time picking up social cues. And while these are all things that are commonly associated with autism (although this type of character rarely shows any major downsides to having autism, more on that later), like I said earlier, autism is different for everyone. Not all of us are going to feel represented by this type of character. Honestly I don’t even relate to a lot of autistic characters because they just keep reusing the same autistic stock characters and that’s really disheartening to me. It’s almost like they’re not making autistic characters for autistic people.

The Burden: This probably doesn’t need to be explained that much but it was the one thing that really pissed me off about S**’s movie. In the trailer, I really got the very distinct impression that the older sister saw Music as a burden. Her life was just oh so difficult because she had this autistic sister. No one wants to be thought of that way. And idk if you neurotypicals know this but autistic people have feelings and we hear it loud and clear when you say these kinds of things and it hurts. 

Using autism as a punchline: I think it’s fine to have an autistic character to provide comic relief, BUT! if your comic relief involves laughing at an autistic character’s very autistic behaviour then you’re doing it wrong. This kind of goes back to my first point- the reason why I hate seeing the “incapable of detecting sarcasm” character is because it’s almost exclusively played for laughs. Please stop making fun of us. 

What would I like to see more of

Diversity: I feel like this doesn’t really need much explaining. Autism can affect anyone regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality, etc. And yet most autistic characters I’ve encountered are straight white guys. Let’s see more girls, more POCs, more LGBT+ who are autistic. 

Obvious drawbacks/struggles: When I talked about the Sheldon Cooper-type character I mentioned that this type of character doesn’t really seem to face many challenges that are directly related to autism. What I mean by this is that sometimes they’ll maybe just miss the odd social cue and it’s kinda embarrassing but it rarely gets worse than that. An autistic character is going to face challenges that a neurotypical won’t ever have to deal with and if you don’t acknowledge that then you’re not really properly portraying an autistic character. Show more autistic characters struggling to make friends, having meltdowns or experiencing sensory overload, having a hard time articulating themselves. The list goes on, honestly. 

Actually saying it: Have you ever seen it where there’s a certain character and a bunch of people go “hey, that character seems like they could be [insert literally any minority] and then the creator goes “Oh, yeah that’s totally what I intended!” I personally don’t really like this, because it feels kind of disingenuous. If you’re going to write an autistic character, it would be nice to have that brought up within the story. Autism isn’t a dirty word, you’re allowed to say it. The only exception I can think of would be if you’re writing a historical fiction or some other setting where autism hasn’t been recognized but most examples I can think of don’t fall into that category whoop there it is. 

Literally just anything that isn’t a stereotype. This seems to be setting the bar pretty low, but it still needs to be said. Autism looks different for everyone and just because someone doesn’t fit the mold for a stereotypical autistic person doesn’t mean they’re not autistic. No one wants to be represented by a stereotype. 

“I’m not autistic but I want to write an autistic character. Can I do that?” 

I can’t speak for the entire autistic community when I answer this but my opinion is yes, it’s ok provided that you’re being respectful and doing research beyond reading symptoms off of WebMD. That being said, here’s my final advice: 

Listen and talk to autistic people: If you’re not listening to the group you’re trying to represent then you’re not doing a good job. There are lots of people here out there who would be willing to answer your questions or be a sensitivity reader. There’s a lot of people here on tumblr who are willing to answer your questions (you can even ask me, but I’m just one person and I don’t have all the answers. I’d recommend talking to multiple people). 

Autism Speaks is not your friend: There’s been a lot of talk about why this organization sucks, but it mostly boils down to trying to end autism and not actually helping us. So make sure you’re steering clear of them while you’re doing your research. 

Reddit and Quora are actually great resources: Reason being is that these kinds of sites will give you lots of first hand information about being autistic, and that’s the best kind of information to have, usually. Most sites will just list symptoms, but the right reddit/quora thread will provide more insight about how these symptoms affect their daily life. Additionally, you’ll have multiple people offering their own views and since autism is so different for everyone it’s good to have more than one person’s opinion (psst... this tip works for writing other minority characters too!) 

[synthmusic91]

thoughts? kjfhlkjdfh asking bc i rb'd the original post from u a bit ago because i agreed w/ original poster but i just saw this rb of it and wanted to know what u thought. ciaran(.)tumblr(.)com /post/652413157345820673/there-is-a-genre-of-posts-thats-obsessed-with-the

well first of all i hope this isn't a bait ask. this reply really doesn't deserve the time and effort i put into refuting it, but there was a point in time when i was emotionally confused by these..."arguments", so whoever u are, anon, i hope this is helpful. i also recommend some distance - literally, "go outside and touch grass", which is a lot more difficult than it sounds, but it needs to be done. anyway, here's my "analysis":

for context, here's what the post in question said:

and the tags:

at a high level, we can see that what ciaran is saying doesn't really respond to what OP was talking about. for this reason, i'm not going to bring in much of what OP said, because it's uncontested in this context, and look at ciaran's reply. i'll try to break this up...

EDIT: i had a long-ass response here, but then i realized it was dumb because the source material is dumb. i cut out most of it, but here are the highlights.

"there is a genre of posts that’s obsessed with the notion that fandom is something much larger, more prevalent, and more able to affect the way media is processed and consumed, than it actually is in reality."

so, as we can all see on tiktok and, indeed, on the electronic lore olympus billboard that takes up a side of a literal skyscraper, fandom is no longer the niche thing that "fandom olds" make it out to be. also, we can't ignore how many (white) fandom players go on and work in the industry (cassandra clare, whoever wrote 50 shades, man idk much of anything so there's probably many more). so this comment is sort of myopic. and since this is what characterizes the rest of the reply, well...it's not great.

also don't look up lore olympus; it's basically a dd/////lg fanfic that happens to be one of the most popular series on the line webtoon app, which is rated for teens...and for $1 to the creator's patreon, you can view not sfw p*dophilic art, so. also obviously i didnt do that; there was a video essay about this. i can't find it though

"ironically but understandably, these posts are made by people who are so terminally fandom-poisoned that they ascribe phenomenal power to it, and think of it as some great evil that must be defeated (by making posts on tumblr, which is obviously a very influential thing to do)"

"fandom-poisoned" is such a nebulous term, especially since it appears to mean "has had some really significant, (in this context) bad experiences with fandom." this is, first of all, a huge assumption to make about a stranger, and second, not the own they think it is. i'm just going to link this post, and hopefully you can see how it relates.

anyway, the "making posts on tumblr is meaningless" is um...interesting, seeing as off the top of my head i can think of two very influential tumblr blogs that talk about really important issues, Gradient Lair and Red Light Politics. I don't know as much about Red Light Politics, but Gradient Lair is frequently cited by academics (not getting into academia nonsense now but... -_-). also, they sound more pissed that the original post did gain traction, but whatever. this paragraph doesn't really make sense, but nothing here does, because i wasn't given much to work with.

"...and then because these people have basically no imagination and unfailingly pick on others for their own faults, they project their own experiences on everyone they perceive as being more ‘in fandom’ than them,"

jesus christ. i'm going not say anything about the tone of this because i put too much effort into this for some rando to call me a cyberbully.

i think what they're thinking about is how there appear to be some "fandom critical" people who try to, holistically, "ruin everyone's good time" by "stirring up drama" about popular fandom artists/writers/whoever else idk. oftentimes these people will also make jokes about fandom whatever, seemingly picking on random people's interests.

however, if you look at the long history of fandom racism, fandom's normalization of p*dophilia, and even general fandom harassment, and then you look at fandom's visceral, unwarranted reaction to criticism regarding these things, you can quickly see that disillusionment towards fandom is entirely reasonable. as for the joking, well...this an oversimplification but not everyone needs to like what you like. it sounds like they just need to get over themself.

and go “You, a 27 year old queer blogger who is into [tv show/anime/movie] an embarrassing amount, are now going to be the face of Capitalism” with no self-reflection or critical thought given to how fucking cringe it is-"

so, i'm regretting putting so much effort into this because this is so fucking long and i have to analyze this nonsense...it feels like i'm back in my feminist thought class. nightmarish. but anyway, this seems to deal with- [CUT FOR LENGTH. nothing important was missed].

EDIT 2: actually here's a summary of what I had. it deserves better than to be a response to this nonsense, but first it detailed how this took 1. the op's post and 2. a comment that we don't even know if op agreed with and misinterpreted that, and threw quite a fit about this- and i hate to say this because this term is misused so often by redditors, but- strawman.

I then went on to discuss how, for example, PoC can uphold systems of white supremacy. while obviously no person of color is going to be the "face" of white supremacy, the discussion still needs to be had, especially within that group. similarly, while fandom constituents may not be the face of capitalism, there needs to be a discussion, within fandom, on how they support and are defined by capitalist (and other) systems.

it was really too good of a point to be making for this trash reply. I could go say more, but I'm still trying to stay on topic, unlike ciaran.

"to act like random people on the internet, end users with no influence over corporate decisions, are the ones personally responsible for the fact that late-stage capitalism has destroyed popular art and culture in an increasingly sordid attempt to make money."

we've been over the "no influence" bit - because in fact fans do have influence, especially since media creators are literally fans, etc etc. i'm tired of people acting like they have no power and using that as an excuse to support and perpetuate harmful, easily avoidable behavior.

also, to act like the nebulous system of late-stage capitalism is the only cause of bad media is ludicrous. first of all, someone has to make these so-called "corporate decisions", and the people making artistic decisions are, again, overwhelmingly members of "fandom." this comment is really trying to keep marvel trash and lore olympus-esque nonsense in the same atomic, indivisible category lest someone catches a whiff of nuance.

"the above post is a great example of this phenomenon because op admits freely that they only think fandom is destroying media because they have been spending more time in fandom and thus have an over-inflated sense of its importance in greater culture. posting your own Ls indeed."

i'm so tired. this person literally has 120 works on ao3 like...who is spending more time in fandom.

and the tags:

#i assure you that fandom has no bearing on my actual real life #and if it does on yours. then that is your problem #it's also a very funny problem to

now this is just egregiously tone deaf. you do not need to do more than a cursory google search to find a bottomless well of examples of fandom harassment, threats, doxxing, and violence, much of which is racially motivated. you can see why it would be bad to make fun of this. 

also the way that “fandom has no bearing on their actual real life“...120 fanfics on ao3. 120.

conclusion:

the reply clearly misinterprets of op's point, and as such, does not refute it. they responded to another issue altogether, which is that of the sanctity of their ~coping mechanism~ or whatever it is. their argument in this respect was, in my opinion, delusional and pathetic, especially given that they wrote it on someone else's unrelated post.

FINAL NOTE: i cut out lots of this because the reply went in so many different directions, so some stuff might not make sense. let me know if you have any questions.

[dinosaurtsukki]

kuroo tetsurou + crack alphabet hc’s (A-Z)

A - Alphabet.  Do they actually know their abc's in order? Or do they have to sing the whole song to remember?

not only does he MEMORIZE the alphabet (big brain energy over here) he even has a good handle on how the letters are organized on those old, nokia phone keypads because he still owns a nokia phone

B - Boyband.  Any boybands that they’re secretly or not secretly a fan of?

he says he’s a fan of the Backstreet Boys but he only listens to ‘I Want it That Way’. once, he was talking to an Actual Fan and they asked him if they liked a particular album and kuroo just panicked and yelled ‘tELL ME WHY’

C - Crocs.  Would they wear them? What kind would they wear?

wears them for the specific reason that people hate them. he’ll take aesthetic ootd pics of him in leather jackets and tight jeans with thE UGLIEST PAIR OF CROCS YOU’VE EVER SEEN. he’ll even put his feet up in class to show of his ‘bad boys’

D - Dream. The weirdest, most disturbing dream that they had.  

he once dreamt that he was short, shorter than hinata, and playing during Nationals. kenma set the ball to him and when kuroo was about to jump, he realized that the volleyball was actually a pokeball. he woke up screaming and crying about the pokeball being a void of nothingness.

E - Existential Crisis.  What caused it? What do they do during this crisis?

it happened during his first day studying biochemistry. the professor put up a documentary about the origins of life. kuroo stood up in the middle of the class and said ‘everything’s?? chemicals??’ and left, looking absolutely distraught

F - Fried.  A cooking disaster that they somehow caused.

it was an honest mistake of accidentally rubbing his eyes while chopping chilies. kenma walked in on kuroo with his face dunked in a bowl of milk and said ‘ew, you put the milk first?’

G - Good Morning. What actually wakes them up in the morning?

their Limited Edition Spongebob Squarepants wristwatch that he got in a mcdonald’s happy meal when he was ten

H - Height. What i think their actual height should be.

*looks up appx. thickness of paper money*

*looks up kuroo’s height*

*does math*

his height is $17,210 dollars

I - ...Interesting. Something they came across on the internet that made them delve into a bit too deeply.

he was looking up funny halloween costumes to send as gag gifts to bokuto and kenma and after more than a few clicks, he came across ‘sexy sesame street costumes’ and hasn’t looked at cookie monster the same ever again

J - Joker. I pick one of the weird, out-of-context images I have saved on my phone to describe them.

K - Karaoke. How they act in a karaoke bar.

he doesn’t give the songbook a second glance and keys ‘8008185′ in the machine and sings whichever song comes up. kenma shakes his head at him in the background.

L - Liquor. The dumbest thing they did when they got drunk

this guy was day-drinking and decided to take his binoculars (HE DOESN’T USE IT FOR THAT HE JUST THINKS THEY LOOK COOL) and stare directly at the sun

M - Math. Are they absolute brain lords at math or do they use calculators for basic addition?

his Big Brain is very good for multi-purpose use. he actually plays with his calculator after he finishes his exams. you think he’s checking his answers? no, he’s trying to make a cat face.

N - Neurons. How many brain cells do they actually have?

he has a fuck ton of brain cells and they’re always having an orgy so he experiences critical thinking 24/7

O - Oops. Their brain cells didn't quite connect and they ended up doing this.

okay, maybe the orgy doesn’t happen 24/7. during his small lapse in judgement, kuroo accidentally sent his professor his shopping list that was full of Items he and bokuto were using for a prank (his professor ended up recommending him a better brand of shaving cream)

P - Pictionary. How would they do in a Pictionary game?

the only things he can draw well are diagrams of molecules. he’ll fill the paper or board with hexagons and lines before anyone could guess that he’s drawing a chocolate-chip cookie

Q - Quote. What quote would they have on their yearbooks?

“my hair doesn’t fit in the frame, does it?” - kuroo tetsurou

R - Repeat. What song is on repeat in their heads 100% of the time?

The Periodic Table Song

S - Soccer. As volleyball players, how well would they fare in a soccer game? (Also, would they even call it soccer??)

kuroo actually mixed up american football and soccer. the soccer ball would be sailing at him at full speed and kuroo will just be mesmerized about how an entire spherical surface could be filled with black and white hexagons

T - Twilight. What did they do during their Twilight phase?

kuroo’s tumblr blog when he was 13: 

one day, jacob brouhgt u to the doctor for ur surjery. ‘jacob, im scared’ u looked at him with tears in ur eyes. ‘dont be scared, i will be here after’ he told u, staring at ur e/c orbs. u went to the surjery and then came out. ‘jacob where are u?’ u said. the doctor looked at u sadly. ‘who do u think gave u ur heart?’

U - Until now... What did they not know until now?

that Hollywood is not a US state

V - Video. Someone took a video of them doing this to blackmail them. What was it?

him slicking his hair down in front of the mirror just to see how he would look like with slicked-down hair

W - Wake me up. Are they a  ‘wake me up inside’, ‘before you go go’, or ‘when september ends’ kind of person?

WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO GO

X - X marks the spot. Which spot are they ticklish?

his kneecaps. like, just run your fingernails over them and he’ll slap your hand away

Y - You're/Your. Are they a grammar nazi? How do they type their messages when talking to people online/making posts?

he’ll misspell things and the only punctuation he’d use are exclamation points just to piss off whoever he’s talking to and see just how far he could take things

Z - Zoinks. Weird catchphrase that their friends remember them for.

“it started out with a fish, how did it end up like this?” 

taglist that i forgot to add lskjga (still open to anyone who wants in!): @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart@akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan@therainroguefanfiction@atetiffdoesart@stephdaninja@oikaw-ugh @charliefredb @dramaqueenweeb1469@tremblinghearts @applepienation @doodleniella​

[arethereanyoriginalusernames]

Spooky babbles about RENT (the Broadway Musical (about assholes ))

We all have our guilty pleasures, or at least enjoy things that we acknowledge are bad. I’m sure that you and I can both name examples of these things specific to us.

It’s also likely that, like me, when someone makes a compelling video essay about something that you’ve never seen, that you agree with that person. Only to become exposed to more of it, and then you realize that “hey some of this is pretty good”, but then you become super conflicted bc you know that it’s bad, but you still enjoy aspects about it.....

I’m just making this about me, aren’t I? Welph, let’s do this proper and make another essay, bc I totally have time, and I totally won’t regret this later when I have a million things to do:)

.... oh quarantine, what have you done to me~?

... so, Lindsey Ellis. I consume her content regularly, and I would absolutely say that she’s probably one of the best YouTubers nowadays. You might remember her from her nostalgia chick days, but since distancing herself from that character, she makes video essays on several topics, a lot of them pertaining to popular shows and stories. If you write stories or enjoy creating characters and whatnot, I would make her channel a must to check out.

She also has a podcast on Spotify called “Musicalsplaining”, which I would also recommend you check out. It’s a podcast she does with her friend Kaveh, who dislikes musicals. They both watch a musical, and have a discussion over it, and it can get pretty funny due to their discussions being unscripted banter between two buds stuck in quarantine.

Lindsey has done both a video on a musical called RENT, and she and Kaveh covered it in their podcast. If you want a more funny coverage of it, I’d say listen to the podcast, as both Lindsey and Kaveh basically bond over their mutual rage, which is honestly beautiful. For a more in depth look at how RENT misrepresents the AIDs crisis, the lgbt+ community, and is just a bad story in general, check out her video essay on RENT on YouTube.

As you can probably guess, I’ve listened to both the video and the podcast. At least 8 times each (seriously, they’re really good). Now, I had never watched Rent before, nor had I listened to the soundtrack. The most I did was read the synopsis on Wikipedia. And I still haven’t watched the musical... but I currently have over half the soundtrack downloaded on Spotify.

So.... yeah. And after listening to the soundtrack, I have some thoughts. I don’t disagree with Lindsey’s take on Rent, honestly I still 100% agree with everything that she said, but now... something’s different. I see potential in Rent, and I see some gold hidden in what is basically a steaming pile of narcissism masked as “being artistic”. And that actually makes Rent that much more frustrating for me.

I’ll assume that despite my recommendations, you might not feel like listening to Lindsey’s coverage of Rent. While I still recommend you do so, since she explains the issues better than I ever could, I’ll do my best to give you as brief of an explanation as I can.

Rent is a rock musical loosely based on the opera La Boheme. It follows a group of “struggling artists” attempting to survive in New York during the AIDs/ HIV crisis. It’s one of the first popular Broadway musicals that featured LGBT+ characters, and it was rather successful when it was a new thing. Then years past, people forgot about it, then a terrible movie adaptation was made. Said movie caused a lot of people to realize that maybe Rent wasn’t actually that good.

The heroes of our story are as follows.

We have Roger, one of the more decent people here (which isn’t saying much), who’s a former drug user who’s trying to stay clean from drugs. He lost his last girlfriend to suicide, and he’s currently dying from AIDs. He’s trying to write one great song before he dies so he can leave some kind of legacy.

Mark is a wannabe filmmaker who exploits people’s misfortune for his own passion project (without their consent). He likes to film and romanticize the plight of the homeless while doing fuck all to help. He’s struggling financially, so he considers it fair to not pay for anything bc he’s an artist and being poor is admirable or something. Also, not only is he a privileged white kid with rich parents who could help him, but he refuses to contact them, he also quits a decent job bc he can’t express himself artistically. I wish I was kidding.

Mimi is a stripper with a drug addiction and AIDs. She’s also the love interest for Roger. While logically, it’d be a bad idea for Roger, someone who is trying to be clean of drugs, to not get involved with Mimi, the story wouldn’t have you believe that. She tries to get him to do drugs with her and “live”, and the story tries to do a thing by having her fake die by aids, only to be revived and cured by Roger singing. I wish I was kidding.

Maureen is a narcissist who gaslights her partners, has a weird job as a performance artist, and is bisexual so of course she has to be super slutty and flirtatious, and dance around the idea of cheating on her gf, Joanne, who’s this super smart, serious gal who leads protests for social justice.

Collins and Angel are the local maybe adora-gays, maybe adorable trans x cis person couple. (It depends on the adaptation and audience interpretation whether Angel is a drag queen or trans). Angel takes in an ailing Collins to live with her, and she also gets super rich by killing a dog. Collins is an anarchist currently fighting the aids epidemic. They’re a cute couple, but then Angel dies of aids bc we need a sad, and then Collins starts robbing atms in memory of his dead lover. I wish I was kidding.

Yes, I skipped over some stuff, but kids, this is a Tumblr post, and we’re already dealing with an essay here. And Wikipedia is right there. Basically, all you need to know is that Rent is a musical about assholes justifying their behaviour by being like “oh, but we’re artists!!!”. Oh yeah, and there’s also a guy called Benny who’s a former friend, and the only decent person here despite being portrayed as a bad dude, but I honestly don’t think I can remember anything beyond that for the life of me.

So, clearly Rent isn’t perfect. But, it’s hard to deny its impact. After all, it featured a main cast where half of the characters are POC and LGBT+ . Mind you, it was written by a straight man who “knew some gay people”. But, at the time, it was at least better than nothing.

And one aspect of Rent that people still appreciate to this day are the songs. And honestly? The majority of it is pretty great. A lot of people might recognize Take Me as I Am and Seasons of Love, two iconic songs brought to this world by Rent. And the rest of the soundtrack is great.... well, it’s better if you can make yourself forget the context of the songs, and look over some poorly aged lyrics. Light My Candle and I’ll Cover You are pretty cute songs, Goodbye Love has some great vocals, Another Day fucking slaps, and la Vie Boheme is a fun listen despite some weird lyrics.

While listening to the soundtrack, I realized something. A lot of these songs are great.... out of context. Another Day is great, until you remember that Roger is being portrayed as unwilling to live life bc he’s trying to stay clean of drugs. Yes, he likes Mimi, but there’s a pretty legitimate reason why he shouldn’t. And yet he’s in the wrong for... being concerned about his health? La Vie Boheme is soured when you remember that the cast is doing this entire performance after the restaurant owner begs them “no, not tonight, please!” Like, the guy’s doing his job and trying to run a business, but fuck him, let’s piss off people who don’t agree with us! And Take Me Or Leave Me is basically Maureen accusing Joanne of being too controlling and not accepting, when Joanne is taking issue with how Maureen is flirting with others constantly and is dancing around the line of being unfaithful. And Maureen’s logic is, I shit you not, “oh, but I just can’t resist temptation, and I’m attractive, and as long as I’m in your bed and not someone else’s, it’s ok!”

This... made me think. Maybe all Rent needs is a rewrite. An update. Something like Rent can probably work, but the misunderstanding of how poverty, aids, and societal unfairness works ultimately drags it down. Most of all, I think that Rent is an example of how a Broadway show can have great music, but that’s only part of it. If you fail in story and characters, the music won’t save you.

Let me know what you guys think about this.

I apologize for wasting your time,

- Spooky

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

Special Request: Andrew Dobson vs @crap-hell (Part 2)

aka Dobson is a condescending sexist hypocrite

Link to Part One Here

When we last left off, Dobson had made a number of random accusations as “proof” that Quiet was problematic and Kojima was a sexist, including that there were YouTube compilations of sexy female moments of MGS:V, that Megan Fox was the best and most fleshed out character in the first Transformers movie, and that Quiet being mute “took away her agency as a character”.

@crap-hell responded back by pointing out how flawed that reasoning was, and that if he really wanted to “listen to women” as he claimed, maybe he should start by actually listening to her instead of stroking his own ego.

Now, I think it safe to say that @crap-hell has made it blatantly apparent through this entire exchange that she’s a woman(the people Dobson is supposedly speaking for), especially in that last paragraph.

Naturally, this is also the point where Dobson starts to blatantly talk down to her, insulting her intelligence multiple times and implying that she’s too stupid to Google things, and that’s why she’s not agreeing with him. Keep in mind that all his proof is just a couple random YouTube videos.

“...you’re just really bad at searching for videos.”

“Sigh...you’re really bad at analyzing things, aren’t you?”

“...you’re ignoring women...”

“...because I see you have trouble googling things yourself...”

Note how he’s suddenly much more condescending towards her, belittling her at every opportunity while at the same time claiming to use his “white privilege” to speak up for women and minorities , because people won’t listen to them. As if he’s doing all this ranting and raving to support some unnamed “women and minorities” who find Quiet so offensive and problematic but are too scared to speak up or something, so they need a “straight cis white man” like Dobson to speak for them.

Also, what exactly does “white privilege” have to do with anything in this scenario? Wouldn’t he be talking about his “male privilege” for this particular situation if he’s trying to make a point about sexism?

It’s almost as if he’s completely full of shit or something

It’s at this point, a third party comments on this entire interaction, mostly siding with Dobson but also pointing out that he’s suddenly being a real dick to @crap-hell for some reason. They even point out exactly why people would take issue with Dobson’s arguments, since he’s never actually played the games and therefore does not know the context of said scenes.

(Name has been censors by me)

And here is where Dobson’s sexism comes out in full force, and the bit I alluded to in Part One.

(The red circles are my doing.)

Note that in the entire post, whenever he is referring to @crap-hell , he goes well out of his way to only refer to her as “they”, making sure not to make it apparent that it’s a woman disagreeing with him.

Now some of you reading this post that aren’t familiar with Dobson might be thinking “well, it’s a little odd, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he was trying to hide she was a girl”, and you’d normally be right. That isn’t concrete evidence he’s being sexist.

The fact that this isn’t the first time he’s done something like this is, however.

https://hypocrisyofandrewdobson.tumblr.com/post/170999671267/link-to-the-part-3-found-here-have-another-look

A few years back when Dobson was angrily tweeting about @plebcomics (this was before he had been banned from Twitter multiple times), he also went out of his way to ensure he didn’t refer to her as a she. He even admitted to doing so later on when lying about another incident involving blackmailing and misgendering a teenage trans male.

Note that he fully admits to not referring to @plebcomics as “she” to be malicious, but then also turns around and says “lol how is using non-gender pronouns insulting?” as if he didn’t just admit he did so filling intending to be insulting. He even called it “having fun” at her expense.

(I’ll also point out that he’s laying through his teeth regarding both incidents: @plebcomics was never ”pissed off” about not being called she, she just wanted him to show that he was in fact talking shut about a woman, since he always claims to never do and to always be speaking up for and defending them. She was not stealing his art, one of his paying Patreons were passing the artwork to her. As for blackmail and misgendering a teenage trans man, that’s an entirely different can of worms altogether. But I recommend checking out the Masterpost for more information.)

Now trying to completely invalidate @crap-hell ‘s gender simply to hide both that he was treating a woman like shit and that a woman was disagreeing with him is bad enough, but I want to draw special attention to that last thing he said in the “they” post.

Unless, of course, you’re a woman that doesn’t agree with Dobson’s viewpoints or doesn’t want him speaking for you. Then he’ll just deny that you’re female, hide your comments from the Notes of the post, and then most likely be ready to block you in case you respond and point out that you are indeed a woman.

Because that’s the way Dobson operates. For as much as he likes to claim and brag about being a male feminist and LGBT ally, he’s much more sexist and much more condescending than anything or anyone he accuses of being sexist. Because it’s really all about satiating his own bloated ego.

The full tumblr post I’ve dissected here can be found here: https://adobsonartworks.tumblr.com/post/187813253030/help-me-understand

And just in case he later decides to delete said post to hide what he said, an archive can be found here:

http://archive.li/axV3t

[satans-helper]

I have chatted with some genuinely wonderful young ladies (I’m pointing out “ladies” because I have yet to interact or see a lot of young guys engaged in this shit) in the GVF fandom, so to speak, but fuck, the fandom has become so toxic largely because of how young the people in it are and the lack of awareness that means for you. Y’all have not lived enough or been exposed enough to the world to realize what’s worthy of getting up in arms about. I’m not here to belittle racial issues--that is serious, of course. But why don’t we all reevaluate what’s actually going on within the “Peaceful Army?”

Most of us are in our 20s, right? I’m 25. I’ve noticed the GVF stans on tumblr/insta/twitter are even younger. When I go on instagram I see accounts spewing shit that comes with literally nothing to back it up, and I’m not just referencing Danny. I saw something today about “someone” claiming the band engages in certain activity while on tour...I’m not getting more specific. What the fuck, guys? It’s like your ultimate objective is to ruin the band, either purposefully or not, it’s hard to tell at this point. I’ve never been part of a fanbase like that.

But speaking of Danny, I think we all collectively as a culture (well, perhaps young millennial and Gen Z) need to stop purposefully digging up the old posts on celebrities social media accounts. Again, it’s something I’ve never experienced before the real peak of social media (I’ve been on insta/twitter/tumblr/Facebook for 10 years) and not before the peak of Gen Z.

Like. Just because someone is famous does not mean they’re immune to feeling hurt and sometimes terrorized by other people’s online harassment. Just because someone is famous doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to have made or make mistakes, and my god, pretending like you don’t share in making mistakes is so fucked up. 

I was a total asshole in high school. Beyond asshole, actually. I can admit I’ve held some shitty views throughout my life. It took me well into my time at college to stop being a total asshole, and at the age of 25 I realize I’m still changing my views, values and opinions every day. Cognizance and personal growth is not stagnant. Greta Van Fleet are new young adults and they were basically thrown into a staggering amount of fame. Stop digging into their shit like you know them.

It’s like y’all seriously want something to be pissed off about. Cancel culture is fucked. Telling someone you want them to “choke” is abhorrent. Calling someone “racist” or a “Nazi” is serious shit. You have every right to be upset about something--you do not have the right to maliciously harass and accuse. 

By the way, going back to Danny specifically, you either support the whole band including him or none of them. I thought everyone was on board with believing that complacency was wrong? So if you believe Danny is racist and/or a Nazi, that means the rest of the band is complacent and complicit in that--so why aren’t you writing all of them off? To harass one member and then turn a blind eye to the rest of them--the fuck? Good luck dealing with shit when Josh, Sam, or Jake inevitably does something to piss you off. Or are we all just going to ignore that?

I honestly regret ever checking the insta/twitter comments on the band’s posts. I had little awareness of what was going on until that happened. It’s crazy to me, the things people have said. You don’t even know the real context of anything. You don’t even know the band. Personally, I believe their message of unity, love and individuality to be authentic and true. I believe Danny is integral to that. I’m sure they’re all gonna fuck up in one way or another. But it’s important to let that happen and deal with it in time. I don’t understand literally rifling through someone’s history just to make yourself upset. Fucking chill. Breathe. There’s more important shit going on. You could devote all this energy and time to real causes, to help real marginalized people, to actively fight racism and oppression versus screaming about it online without taking any real action. 

/end rant. For my sane stans, I recommend joining the GVF subreddit. There’s no bullshit there. 

[hamliet]

Hello! Do you know why the stupid "AOT is nazi propaganda" claims seem to have started up again? A lot of people I follow have commented on those claims these past few days and I'm so confused as to what caused this sudden resurgence...

Yes, I do. Unfortunately, and I’m honestly… not happy at all. 

See this. And this. And this.

These are all American writers. I did have a good conversation with one of them, and while I’m not familiar with the initial poster I do like the other two and follow them on twitter. 

However, their behavior is pretty disgraceful. They apparently are totes cool with: 

criticizing something you haven’t read based on Google articles, as the person I had a conversation with and who for the record was extremely polite and not condemnatory, admitted she was getting her information from,

criticizing something when you don’t understand the cultural context, and

making extremely dangerous accusations about someone.

It’s the last one that really pisses me off. That is such a serious accusation to make especially this day in age wherein there’s such a resurgence of it being publicly acceptable thanks to the Orange Guy and his disgusting followers. As it should be, because any kind of imperialism/Nazism is horrific. But, if you make such a statement admittedly without reading the story properly hence not understanding what you’re talking about, you probably should not do so, because it’s serious, and you’re trivializing something that shouldn’t be trivialized. It’s irresponsible–especially when you’re a public figure.

But here’s the thing: the armbands are really offensive, genuinely so, and it’s not wrong for people to feel they are anti-Semitic. And it baffles me an editor didn’t catch it. But though it’s not excuse, it’s also a reality that cultural awareness of the Holocaust might be less prominent in Japan. That DOESN’T make it okay and definitely call the author out for that, but that also doesn’t mean it came from a place of malice. (Also keep in mind Japanese people were interned in America but allowed to leave internment camps during WWII if they signed up for the army soooo if you’re American maybe practice self awareness.)

As public figures what they should be doing, instead of following the tumblr crowds screaming “this is imperialist/anti semitic propaganda,” when it actually is the only work I’ve seen taking a critical look at propaganda and how it works, is educating. (and of course, this doesn’t apply to ppl who are directly triggered by the implications, who have no obligation to educate, but to others because… a lot of the people I see criticizing it haven’t read more than a google search on it). 

Oh and btw I grew up in a brainwashing religious fundamentalist cult-like place so brainwashing/child indoctrination? I know that shit. personally. That’s why I get annoyed when ppl refuse to critically think about how it works. 

But to return to Isayama, yeah, he once based a character off an imperialist general and it is completely valid to be offended by that. Japanese imperialism is a very real thing and has hurt lots of people and the Japanese aren’t really sorry for it. That being said, if every American bothered to call out everyone who spoke positively of George Washington or half our presidents who had slaves or committed actual genocide, they might have grounds on which to stand but… they don’t. And I think they should encourage empathy here (note I am talking about westerners and not people hurt by Japanese imperialism, who have no obligation whatsoever) because… your country isn’t any better, and in America we are taught to revere certain figures in history who… aren’t that great. It takes time to unlearn that, and while I think it’s likely these people have, they should also maybe not condemn someone who hasn’t unlearned that or didn’t back then (what was it like 2013 when Isayama said that? Give people room to grow, good grief) and instead encourage them to learn, or express discomfort without leaping to accusations. 

Anyways, critical thinking and nuance are good tools.  

I highly recommend @midnight-in-town‘s fantastic post on why SnK is not imperialist (which should be obvious to anyone who reads it) here. 

[eledritch]

I was looking into the captive prince series and I only hear good things about it on your blog... Otherwise all the reviews say it romantisizes rape and slavery and I wanted your opinion on that before possibly starting the series

Mmm you know that post about the reading comprehension on this site being piss poor? Yeah, that’s kind of the case with a lot of people on Tumblr who talk about Captive Prince and have never read the books, or just read half of book 1 without any context (and already expected to hate it when going into it). 

Captive Prince does the complete opposite of romanticizing rape and slavery; while reading it I never felt that either of those things was being portrayed in a good light. Just because rape and slavery are elements of a story doesn’t automatically mean the story is Problematic, as long as the author writes those things in an unquestionably bad light. I think C.S. Pacat does a good job of that, which is to say, the first book can be difficult for a lot of people to get through because there are pretty graphic scenes of violence related to slavery (i.e. whipping), as well as some rape scenes that, while I didn’t find them to be gratuitous, can be triggering for some readers. 

The first book made me angry, though, I will admit that. But if you’re able to, keep reading, because the rest of the series gives the first book some much needed context and will likely not only make you less angry, but give you a very different perspective. (Rape is still bad. That perspective doesn’t change.)

The main problem with Captive Prince is really how it was marketed; the summary makes it sound like some kind of sick slave/owner hate-fucking smutfest. I think it was literally classified as slave erotica, which is ridiculous. In reality, it’s more of a geopolitical drama/enemies to friends to lovers slowburn that will make you CRY LIKE A BABY. 

If you do read it (which I highly recommend you do), don’t go into the first book expecting it to be a love story. It isn’t. It’s more nuanced and complicated than that, which is partly what makes Captive Prince so good. You will probably hate Laurent in the first book; I sure did. But you will probably love him by the last book. C.S. Pacat’s true gift is her characterizations and her ability to elicit strong, strong feelings from her readers, whether they are good or bad.

Another big issue that you may see among critics of Captive Prince are American readers who think that C.S. Pacat is racist because the protagonist Damen is darker skinned and a slave, so to American readers, apparently that always means black. As an American reader, let me just say - the entire world is not America so stop comparing every racial undertone in literature to the history of slavery and systemic violence & oppression of black people by white people in America, especially when the author isn’t American and, newsflash, the character in question isn’t black.

In reality, C.S. Pacat is Australian and Damen is described as having darker olive skin, comes from a society with heavy Greco-Roman influences, and in Pacat’s own words is based off of her own experiences growing up in Australia as a “wog,” (generally this is a racial slur but this is Pacat’s description of him and she also identifies as such) which refers to Australians of Southern European and Mediterranean/Middle Eastern descent. 

So Damen is not black, but he does have dark skin. And he is a slave, but he’s a prince first, hence the title of the book. 

That being said, there are still people who try to read Captive Prince and will never enjoy it, and that’s alright, it’s probably not for everyone. (Scrolling through the reviews of this book on GoodReads is a wild ride, yikes.) But if you go into it with an open mind and the understanding that the marketing team fucked up, the first book is pretty brutal, but the second book is GREAT and the last book is a cry-fest, then I think (and hope) you’ll like it. 

C.S. Pacat confronts some very heavy topics, but in reality these are things that maybe we should think about, even if they’re not easy to think about. Especially if they’re not easy to think about. She’s not perfect, and yes she does slip into cliche sometimes. There are many times when she’s obviously writing to provoke the reader and the protagonist. But I think reviews can be waaay more polarizing than the books themselves. There’s more of a gray area than you might expect, and all the characters have pretty skewed morality to some degree. 

On a final note, the thing about Captive Prince is that it deals with subjects we are (and should feel) uncomfortable with, such as rape and slavery, as well as general violence, sexual abuse, and even mentions of pedophilia (none of these, imo, were romanticized whatsoever). But I think it’s wrong to decry a book just because some scenes elicit disgust and anger. Not every book should make you happy and carefree every step of the way. But those are just my thoughts.