#hays code influence

[hippo-pot]

so in college and grad school it was very normal for me to be Very Invested in various pieces of media, and that definitely dropped off after grad school, and ultimately i decided it was just more likely to happen if i was stressed and unhappy. Makes sense, right? Find joy where you can? And I DID have a really stressful week leading up to watching Grand Hotel. but still. bit weird to be here again

[renthony]

If you haven't heard the news, it recently came out that Disney pulled a trans-empowering episode of the show Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. In the time since the news came to light, I've seen a few people say Disney can't accurately be accused of censoring queer content, because "censorship is only done by the government."

Let's talk about the Hays Code a bit.

The Hays Code was a major form of American media censorship. The Hays Code was also not a government policy! While former American politicians were involved in the creation of the Code, they were not acting in capacity as United States government officials by the time the Code was enacted.

The Hays Code was enforced within the Hollywood studio system, never by the United States government. It was successful because the same studios that owned the films also owned the cinemas, which allowed them to enforce which films were shown. (This is called "vertical integration.") The Hays Code ultimately fell apart when anti-trust legislation separated cinema ownership from the studios, meaning filmmakers did not have to adhere to studio censorship in order to show their films to the public.

(If you're interested in reading more about the Hays Code, I recommend the book Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934, written by Thomas Doherty. It'll get you started.)

Corporate censorship is very much a form of censorship. Companies such as Disney have immense political and social power. Disney owns obscene amounts of intellectual property. It employs a couple hundred thousand people globally according to Statista. Disney is a political entity, especially in regions it operates theme parks (such as Florida, where I live).

If the Disney company decides something is forbidden, it has a hell of a lot of influence. Disney absolutely has the power to enact censorship. I wrote a five thousand word essay about how Disney nearly killed the Nimona movie, and that's just one recent example.

Corporate censorship is absolutely censorship, and it's important to call it what it is.

[nebulo-philiac]

Hey guys, remember the 1930s code that banned any depiction of literally anything that wasn't straight hetero Christian romance to not "influence" and give people "ideas', yea the hays code right??? I think we should bring it back to not normalise any BLASPHEMOUS topics😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

(Jokes aside, it's genuinely insane to see "progressive" people parrot Conservative talking points, the SAME points they use to censor any lgbt rep and call them "creeps")

[theoutcastrogue]

"Films entering the public domain will soon face a significant shift. In 2030, films governed by the Hays Code will start to enter the public domain. The Hays Code was a set of self-imposed industry censorship guidelines enforced from 1934 to 1968 by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), under the leadership of Will H. Hays. Designed to regulate morality in Hollywood films, the code dictated strict rules on depictions of crime, sex, and “immoral” behavior, shaping the creative boundaries of American cinema for decades.

In a comment on one of the Internet Archive’s social media posts, Bluesky user josiahwhite suggested an interesting idea: that due to the restrictions of the Hays Code “[t]he public domain will get a lot more boring.” While this idea might at first seem true, upon further examination it actually clouds the clever ways in which filmmakers of the time navigated the restrictive influence of the Hays Code to tell creative and compelling stories.

To illustrate this point, we shall explore three films—It Happened One Night, To Be or Not to Be, and Double Indemnity—each of which engaged with the Hays Code in distinct ways. Through these case studies, we will see that while the Hays Code imposed restrictions, it did not stifle creativity. Instead, filmmakers found ingenious and often subversive ways to work within and around these constraints, producing films that remain influential to this day.

[keep reading]

[sjbattleangel]

The Virgin Lily Orchard:

Sides with abusers

Lies about having Indigenous heritage

Is horrifically abusive to friends and family

Always sides with corporations

Writes awful revenge-fics out of spite

Fetishizes black women

Dismisses an entire cultural animation medium (anime) as "spankbait for perverts"

Wrote the worst writing advice ever

Has a pathetic vendetta against Rebecca Sugar for simply existing

Sends death threats to creators

Throws marginalized creators under the bus for not being "woke" enough

Lied about being a "highly sought-after writer" solely to spite Rebecca Sugar, ND Stevenson, Darron Nefcy, Dana Terrace and her sister

Hates Asians

Hates Jews

Holds nothing but contempt for animation

Wants all of animation to be nothing but slice-of-life romantic comedies

Wants the Hays code back

The Chad Rebecca Sugar:

One of the nicest people working in the industry

Has fought hard for diversity and representation in animation

Is incredibly talented

Is friends with Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls), Matt Braly (Amphibia) and many others

Paved the way for more diverse creators

Has won multiple awards

Wrote and sang songs for Adventure Time

A non-binary, bisexual Jewish woman whose background and experiences influence her work

Created one of the most groundbreaking, inclusive, LGBTQ+ friendly shows of all time

Fought against higher-ups when they tried to censor the queerness of her work

Helped normalize discussions of kids' mental health

An uplifting inspiration to a generation of queer kids growing up

Influenced by both western animation and anime

Married to Ian Jones Quartey

[hotvintagepoll]

This is a three-way poll. Only one of these women will continue to the next round of the bracket.

Propaganda

Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse, An Affair to Remember, The King and I)— For several decades she held the record for most Oscar nominations without a win (6 in total), and she was a prolific leading lady throughout the 40s and 50s. She's best known today for the romance An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant, and as the governess in The King and I. Many people have this erroneous perception of her as extremely prim, proper, and virginal, but this could not be further from the truth. When she first came to Hollywood under MGM she was typecast into boring decorative roles, but broke sexual boundaries for herself and Hollywood generally in From Here to Eternity, when she made out (horizontally!) with Burt Lancaster (on top of him!) in the famous Beach Scene. She went on to play many sexually conflicted women, a character type that would define most of her post- Eternity work. She continued to break Hays Code boundaries with Tea and Sympathy, which addresses homosexuality/homophobia head-on, and even did a topless scene in The Gypsy Moths 1969!! One of the only classic stars to do so. She deserves a more nuanced and frankly a hotter legacy than she currently has!!!

Keiko Awaji (Stray Dog, A Japanese Tragedy, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs)— Her role as Harumi— a dancer who lives with her mom and will go to incredible lengths for one nice dress— is so fucking killer. she more than holds her own against Toshiro Mifune, the incredible sense of dread and foreboding in their scenes has really stuck with me

Hazel Scott (Broadway Rhythm, Rhapsody in Blue)—ok ok let me tell you about Hazel Scott. She was a Trinidadian piano genius. By the age of 3 she could play the piano by ear. She would play jazzed-up versions of classics in nightclubs and could sing too! She appeared in five movies, and used her influence as a piano prodigy to improve Black representation in film—she turned down offensive parts, demanded equal pay, and always wore her own costumes to ensure she was portrayed as glamorous and beautiful. She was the first African-American woman to host her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show. She stood up for civil rights and was an overall icon! If you want to watch her being a genius, here she is playing two pianos at once. And here's this one that shows off her consummate glamor! [videos beneath the cut]

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Deborah Kerr:

I think she was one of my first crushes before I realised I was bi in The King and I when I watched it as a kid honestly. The kissing scene in From Here to Eternity is iconic for a reason. Actually tried to learn the accents for the characters she was playing if they weren't English which is more than pretty much anyone else was doing then. Played very restrained characters who frequently seemed to be desperate not to be so restrained. Did horror movies without venturing into hagsploitation tropes. Gave Marni Nixon the credit she deserved for her share of the singing in The King and I.

Anne Larsen is a peak late 1950s bisexual with big MILF energy. Have you seen the behind the scenes pics of her wearing a suit?? Have you????? Vote Deb as Anne Larsen.

Nominated for an Oscar six (6) times and never won, but besides her having actual talent (hot), and besides her looking Like That (very hot, also beautiful), she was always playing women who are, like, crazy repressed. Which makes it fun and easy for me to read these characters as queer. Icon!!!! You know what's hot? Playing ambiguously gay in vintage Hollywood.

Her face and talent and body, yes, ofc, duh. But also!!! Her HANDS!!!! I may be but a simple lesbian, but she is the best hactor (hand actor) that ever lived and that's HOT! For propriety's sake I feel I must redact a large portion of my commentary on this subject. Anyway. She's hot in her most famous roles (mentioned above), and also some of her sexiest hacting is on display in An Affair to Remember (her hand on the bannister when Cary Grant kisses her off-screen??? HELLO???), Tea and Sympathy (when she's trying to persuade Tom not to go out and she keeps flexing her hands like she wants to reach out to him but can't??? ALLY BEHAVIOR! WE STAN!), and The Innocents (which opens and closes with extended shots of her hands bc director Jack Clayton was also an ally and he did that for ME). Much of her appeal also lies in the fact that she often played deeply repressed characters and you know what's hot? When those uptight characters finally unravel. It's sexy. It's cathartic. It's erotic. Plus, she's beautiful to look at in both black & white and technicolor, and the more of her films you see, the more you can't help but fall in love!

Literally is in thee most famously sexy scene of all time (or maybe just during the hays code era which is what we're talking about HELLO), which is the beach scene with Burt Lancaster in from here to eternity. To quote a tumblr post of a screen capture of a tweet of a video of joy behar on the view: "y'know, there used to be movies where they were kissing on the beach... From Here to Eternity. They're kissing-- Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr are Kissing on the Beach and then the WAVES crash!! You know exactly what they did!"

She might have a reputation of being chaste and virginal or whatever, but we all know it's the quiet ones who are certifiable FREAKS

Keiko Awaji:

Hazel Scott:

[lavampira]

rotating some thoughts on the silver screen au……..

I finally decided on a late 40s/early 50s era for the setting, sort of slotting into the intersection of post-wwii hollywood and the golden age of mexican cinema, and all that entails. the timeframe gives room for some establishment - koana is the adopted son of a big mexican producer, but he’s working in the states as a camera operator and learning about the tech side of the industry, all while keeping his familial connection a bit hush-hush in the public eye. d’alia is recently signed to a contract with a major studio’s production, only having done a smaller film and some modeling before it and hoping to land a multi-film deal when it wraps.

there’s some back-and-forth of developing feelings for each other and trying to be professional, and avoid scandal for their careers, which is fun to me how it mimics the tiptoeing around respective duty and their roles in canon. also potentially some things in their pasts coming to light, like koana’s family, or alia’s previous (scandalous?) relationship, as well as hays code and production nonsense, international relations, and things of that nature influencing things, too.

[randomtheidiot]

I get that the popularized depiction of Loki is a refined, sleek and elegant socialite/queercoded* pompous rich bitch who thinks too highly of himself, even outside the influence of Marvel, but the more I learn about Norse mythology, the more I'm convinced that the opposite is true.

*When I say queercoded, think of the Hays code.

[angelsdean]

I need people to understand how S&P (standards and practices) works in television and how much influence they have over what gets to stay IN an episode of a show and how the big time network execs are the ones holding the purse strings and making final decisions on a show's content, not the writers / showrunners / creatives involved.

So many creators have shared S&P notes over the years of the wild and nonsensical things networks wanted them to omit / change / forbid. Most famously on tumblr, I've seen it so many times, is the notes from Gravity Falls. But here's a post compiling a bunch of particularly bad ones from various networks too. Do you see the things they're asking to be changed / cut ?

Now imagine, anything you want to get into your show and actually air has to get through S&P and the network execs. A lot of creators have had to resort to underhanded methods. A lot of creators have had to relegate things to subtext and innuendo and scenes that are "open to interpretation" instead of explicit in meaning. Things have had to be coded and symbolized. And they're relying on their audience to be good readers, good at media literacy, to notice and get it. This stuff isn't the ramblings of conspiracy theorists, it's the true practices creatives have had to use to be able to tell diverse stories for ages. The Hays Code is pretty well known, it exists because of censorship. It was a way to symbolize certain things and get past censors.

Queercoding, in particular, has been used for ages in both visual media and literature do signal to queer audiences that yes, this character is one of us, but no, we can't be explicit about it because TPTB won't allow it. It's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to those in the know. It's the deliberate use of certain queer imagery / clothing / mannerisms / phrases / references to other queer media / subtle glances and lingering touches. Things that offer plausible deniability and can be explained away or go unnoticed by straight audiences to get past those network censors. But that queer viewers WILL (hopefully) pick up on.

Because, unfortunately, still to this day, a lot of antiquated network execs don't think queer narratives are profitable. They don't think they'll appeal to general audiences, because that's what matters, whatever appeals to most of the audience demographic so they can keep watching and keep making the network more money. The networks don't care about telling good stories! Most of them are old white cishet business men, not creatives. They don't care about character arcs and what will make fans happy. They don't care about storytelling. What they care about is profit and they're basing their ideas of what's profitable on what they believe is the predominate target demographic, usually white cis heterosexual audiences.

So, imagine a show that started airing in the early 2000s. Imagine a show where the two main characters are based on two characters from a famous Beat Generation novel, where one of the characters is queer! based on a real like bisexual man! The creator is aware of this, most definitely. And sure, it's 2005, there's no way they were thinking of making that explicit about Dean in the text because it just wouldn't fly back then to have a main character be queer. But! it's made subtext. And there are nods to that queerness placed in the text. Things that are open to interpretation. Things that are drenched in metaphor (looking at you 1x06 Skin "I know I'm a freak" "maybe this thing was born human but was different...hated. Until he learned to become someone else.") Things that are blink-and-you-miss-it and left to plausible deniability (things like seemingly spending an hour in the men's bathroom, or always reacting a little vulnerable and awkward when you're clocked instead of laughing it off and making a homophobic joke abt it)

And then, years later there's a ship! It's popular and at first the writers aren't really seriously thinking about it but they'll throw the fans a bone here and there. Then, some writers do get on the destiel train and start actively writing scenes for them that are suggestive. And only a fraction of what they write actually makes it into the text. So many lines left on the cutting room floor: i love past you. i forgive you i love you. i lost cas and it damn near broke me. spread cas's ashes alone. of course i wanted you to stay. if cas were here. -- etc. Everything cut was not cut by the writers! Why would a writer write something to then sabotage their own story and cut it? No, these are things that didn't make it past the network. Somewhere a note was made maybe "too gay" or "don't feed the shippers" or simply "no destiel."

So, "no destiel." That's pretty clearly the message we got from the CW for years. "No destiel. Destiel will alienate our general audience. Two of our main characters being queer? And in a relationship? No way." So what can the pro-destiel creatives involved do, if the network is saying no? What can the writers do if most of their explicit destiel (or queer dean) lines / moments are getting cut? Relegate things to subtext. Make jokes that straight people can wave off but queer people can read into. Make costuming and set design choices that the hardcore fans who are already looking will notice while the general audience and the out-of-touch network execs won't blink and eye at (I'm looking at you Jerry and your lamps and disappearing second nightstands and your gay flamingo bar!)

And then, when the audience asks, "is destiel real? is this proof of destiel?" what can the creatives do but deny? Yes, it hurts, to be told "No no I don't know what you're talking about. There's no destiel in supernatural" a la "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" but! if the network said "no destiel!" and you and your creative team have been working to keep putting destiel in the subtext of the narrative in a way that will get past censors, you can't just go "Yes, actually, all that subtext and symbolism you're picking up, yea it's because destiel is actually in the narrative."

But, there's a BIG difference between actively putting queer themes and subtext into the narrative and then saying it's not there (but it is! and the audience sees it!) versus NOT putting any queer content into the text but SAYING it is there to entice queer fans to continue watching. The latter, is textbook queerbaiting. The former? Is not. The former is the tactics so many creatives have had to use for years, decades, centuries, to get past censorship and signal to those in the know that yea, characters like you are here, they exist in this story.

Were the spn writers perfect? No, absolutely not. And I don't think every instance of queer content was a secret signal. Some stuff, depending on the writer, might've been a period-typical gay joke. These writers are flawed. But it's no secret that there were pro-destiel writers in the writing room throughout the years, and that efforts were made to make it explicitly canon (the market research!)

So no, the writers weren't ever perfect or a homogeneous entity. But they definitely were fighting an uphill battle constantly for 15 yrs against S&P and network execs with antiquated ideas of what's profitable / appealing.

Spn even called out the networks before, on the show, using a silly example of complaints abt the lighting of the show and how dark the early seasons were. Brightening the later seasons wasn't a creative choice, but a network choice. And if the networks can complain abt and change something as trivial as the lighting of a show, they definitely are having a hand in influencing the content of the show, especially queer content.

Even in s15, (seasons fifteen!!!) Misha has said he worried Castiel's confession would not air. In 2020!!! And Jensen recorded that scene on his personal phone! Why? Sure, for the memories. But also, I do not doubt for a second that part of it was for insurance, should the scene mysteriously disappear completely. We've seen the finale script. We've seen the omitted omitted omitted scenes. We all saw how they hacked the confession scene to bits. The weird cuts and close-ups. That's not the writers doing. That's likely not even the editors (willingly). That's orders from on high. All of the fuckery we saw in s15 reeks of network interference. Writers are not trying to sabotage their own stories, believe me.

Anyways, TLDR: Networks have a lot more power than many think and they get final say in what makes it to air. And for years creative teams have had to find ways to get past network censorship if they want "banned" or "unapproved" "unprofitable" "unwanted" content to make it into the show. That means relying on techniques like symbolism, subtext, and queercoding, and then shutting up about it. Denying its there, saying it's all "open to interpretation" all while they continue to put that open to interpretation content into the show. And that's not queerbaiting, as frustrating as it might be for queer audiences to be told that what they're seeing isn't there, it's still not queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a marketing technique to draw in queer fans by baiting them with the promise of queer content and then having no queer content in said media. But if you are picking up on queer themes / subtext / symbolism / coding that is in front of your face IN the text, that's not queerbaiting. It's there, covertly, for you, because someone higher up didn't want it to be there explicitly or at all.

[romanceyourdemons]

i was gonna ask you to name one singular charcter who is better as a bisexual rather than a homosexual, but then i saw you're a they/them so your rampant homophobia suddenly makes complete sense

this is such silly and old fashioned bait i almost feel like i’ve just earned my wings as a queer in media studies lol anyways lately i’ve been fascinated by the obvious influence of ingmar bergman on the lurid countercultural american exploitation films of the early 70s such as multiple maniacs (1970) and the last house on the left (1972). i consider it one of the clearest illustrations of the unprecedented fusion of high and low culture in that exuberant and innovative period immediately following the obsolescence of the hays code, and a direct analogue for watchmen, maus, and other comics from the silver age immediately after the obsolescence of the cca

[sirfrogsworth]

There are some people making the smoking in movies thing way too complicated. They're talking about the Hays code and shit. This isn't some mass censorship campaign. And cigarettes in movies are not like some vital narrative device. They stopped putting smoking in movies for like a decade and some people reading this are probably like, "Wait, they did?"

And one person is like, "But James Cameron said..."

James Cameron is dedicating the end of his life to giant blue kitties. Can we not listen to James Cameron about this right now?

It's not that serious. It's a cost/benefit analysis.

Is the small subtextual characterization added from cigarettes worth influencing 10-14 year olds to become addicted to something that will slowly and painfully murder them?

Almost every smoker is a teenage murder victim who just dies really slowly.

Also, do you really want to make tobacco companies happy? Every time someone lights up on screen, people who have done some of the most truly evil shit... get an extra yacht.

I know people have that feeling where any kind of censorship feels like a slippery slope. But there is no slope here. We've already done it and it was fine. Sex and violence and everything else are staying put.

Let me put it like this. What if playing with a yo-yo looked super cool? And for a while directors had every badass in their movie walking the dog and rocking the baby.

But then there were no more yo-yos in movies.

Would you be really upset the yo-yos were gone?

An affectation is not some integral plot device.

Basically we have all of these directors thinking, "I'm a real artistic bad boy." and tobacco companies are like, "Free propaganda. NICE."

[lubdubu]

Team Gai Modern AU Ethnicity Headcanons

Hai guys no one gaf but here r my gaihan ethnicity hcs... 😻

Maito Gai - Han Chinese

- This is both the most statistically probable and rational choice 🤓☝️I think he and lee are supposed to be based off of bruce lee and jackie chan respectively (and to diff degrees), and im p sure jackie chan is han.

- Chinese fans always talk about how they have the same big nose too aebfvjcdbv but thats where the resemblance stops because Gai is a great father to his gay daughter !

Rock Lee - Half Han, half Manchu

- Disclaimer: China doesn't officially recognize more than one ethnicity in its citizens but 1) im talking about genetics and 2) this is my fake naruto world🥸🤫

- I know i just said that he's based off of Bruce Lee who is Han Chinese & subsequently used that same line of reasoning to say Gai is also han... but . anyway... My reasoning for Manchu Lee is based on his childhood design which is very traditionally Manchu, specifically his hair which is braided like a queue (i'll put a pic below !). The queue hairstyle also has an interesting history in regard to han independence during the qing dynasty, in that han men were forced to wear the style, so cutting it was seen as a sign of rebellion/freedom. I think that could be an interesting thing to consider when thinking about Lee's character arc....But i know kishimoto wasn't thinking ab all that + Lee wasn't forced to wear the hairstyle 🙇‍♀️ the queue just became another stereotypical "chinese" trait that many ppl, like Kishimoto, associate w China. For me though, I think it's a nice way to show lee's potential cultural heritage ! 😻

Tenten - Han Chinese

- This is also just the most statistically probable for her asjdncvajks

- I hc she's from Sichuan cuz of her naruto mobile kung fu collab.. and i think she'll like the spicy food (not as much as lee though)

- sometimes... on certain days.... she is half Uyghur bc of a conversation i had with my sister. We believe 💭 she has Dilraba eyelids🤔

Neji Hyuuga - Japanese

- Omg i know a lot of ppl lump him into the chinese thing cuz of his team but the Hyuuga are soo japanese coded like plz guys...their clothes (off duty), their clan's hierarchical structure (main/branch families), their family naming conventions, etc... Hyuuga literally means "place in the sun" or "turning toward the sun" and what's japan called..oh ya THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN. Like plz guys they are nippon af 😭😭😭🙏🙏🧎‍♀️

- Yes their techniques are based off of a lot of chinese martial arts, esp baguazhang, but that can just be explained by the Sinosphere, like a lot of traditional Japanese cultural elements 🙂‍↕️ China has had a lot of influence on surrounding countries

Anyway if u read all that thank u...i hope i didn't waste ur time🙇‍♀️ Also im chinese btw if u couldnt tell🐼🥮🥠🥡🧧🥮🥢

[gayest-historian]

Events Leading to Stonewall

In honor of the Stonewall riots' anniversary I'd like to take a minute to talk about what led up to them.

The Stonewall riots, taking place June 28th, 1969, were a series of riots that started at the Stonewall Inn between police and LGBTQ+ protestors. The events leading up to them are just as important as their impact on today so a few of these events will be discussed in this post. Obviously I cannot cover them all but I plan on talking about more in their own posts.

After WW2 many Americans began efforts to restore the country to it's pre-war state and prevent change from occurring in the social order. During this time any groups considered "um-american" were deemed security risks, among these groups were gay men and lesbians. The reasoning behind this was that, according to the US State Department, they were deemed susceptible to blackmail. According to a report chaired by Clyde R. Hoey: "It is generally believed that those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons" These actions led to 1,700 federal job applications being denied, 4,380 people being discharged from the military, and 420 individuals being fired from federal jobs, all due to suspicions of homosexuality.

In 1952 homosexuality was listed in the DSM as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. The reasoning behind this choice was a belief that homosexuality stems from an unreasonable fear of the opposite sex. Despite numerous studies contradicting this belief, including those of Evelyn Hooker, the APA did not remove homosexuality from the DSM until 1974. The lasting damage of this decision can be seen even today with many queer people still being seen as mentally ill for their identity.

The Hays code was originally implemented in 1934, also being known as the Motion Picture Production Code. Created by a Catholic man named Martin Quigley in 1929 the purpose of the Hays code was to enforce "morals" in the film industry in order to not badly influence american citizens, particularly children. Some examples of Inclusions prohibited by the Hays code include: Profanity, ridicule of the clergy and seuxla perversion (including homosexuality). The frustration regarding these rules could be felt at the time within the queer community and even today with tropes like queer-coded villains.

I hope this post helped to provide some context surrounding the events that kickstarted the Stonewall riots. Looking back at these events gives us both context for how far we've come aswell as how far we still need to go.

[rainecats]

Uhm hai guys I‘m tryna get rid of stock rn!! https://ko-fi.com/rainecats/shop/sale I‘ve got a 50% off sale on certain items!! :3 I sound like a fuckin influencer but this is my own company I‘m not sponsored lmao anyway use code RAINESALE1 when you‘re buying stuff :3 it‘ll work until June 1st!

[colscortex]

I LOVE WHEN ARTISTS DO RESEARCH ON ETHNIC FEATURES. it just really shows how much love and care you're putting into your art

sorry to yap a bit, but when it came out that aventurine is Turkish Romani coded, I spent so much time researching cuisine, cultural traditions, etc. I think my absolute favorite hc I've written for him is his love language being making sarma (stuffed cabbage leaves with rice and lamb) for his partner, or making shah hai mas for his partner when they're sick.

YES YES YES!! To keep a long history lesson short my family has a lot of Persian influence so Turkish food is very homey for me!

I HC that Aventurine doesn’t remember the names of a lot of his childhood foods cuz he lost a lot of his fluency (didn’t really get a chance to use it past childhood) and when he rediscovers the food when he’s traveling he immediately asks what the food is called and immediately learns how to make it.

For the actual food, I think Aventurine really likes Sutlac, is very particular about kebab and adana when he buys it from different places, and his sister really liked Kunefe. He doesn’t have much of sweet tooth so he makes Kunefe only occasionally (usually on her birthday) and just gives it to Topaz or Ratio (he says he had leftovers and doesn’t have time to eat it)

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I think it's a shame the Loki series either:

Didn't come out in the 2010s.

Has to deal with Disney/Marvel execs.

I am rather lenient in how I judge this show for the following reasons:

The short 6 episode format.

The infamous Marvel/Disney executive meddling that EVEN DIRECTORS FEAR... I feel bad for Kate Herron just thinking about this...

JM being found guilty of DV after S2 was done filming (and multiple women coming forward + his ridiculous publicity stunts).

Despite those 3 HORRIFIC challenges mentioned above, the TVA managed to have interesting religious/cult trauma coding (and well conversion therapy too). I think if it had come out *ba-dum-tss* in the 2010s, the metaphors would have been appreciated more (because we had even less shit back then). But I ALSO think people have a right to be disappointed because it's not the 2010s anymore, and that's just crumbs nowadays.

If it existed in the 2010s, it would probably have been allowed more episodes to actually flesh characters (not even TVA!Loki is fleshed out). So that's a shame. I think of it as a show that should have been made in another time because it'd have done much better.

If Marvel didn't shy away from "Are we the baddies?" They could have also extended the cult trauma coding and theme more to Asgard, but I know that's never happening.... There's an unintentional (?) interesting theme with MCU!Loki being passed around cults (both TVA!Loki and Sacred Timeline MCU!Loki). I wish it had been explored more...

I'd have killed for some meta exploration of Loki being an ideal Comics Code Authority/ Hays code era villain. Despite the hasty retcons done to Asgard to erase the queerphobia and misogyny (as recent as the late 2000s and early 2010s), Loki's depiction by the narrative was clearly influenced by queerphobic tropes and was often villainized for not being "man enough." I wish something more overt of this nature had been done.