#it just seems like theyre trying to tell girls to be a 'perfect feminist' and thats not how to get a movement going again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cmonappayipyip · 4 years

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avatar: the last airbenders characters in american high school au

sokka -> katara -> aang -> toph -> zuko

sokka

-senior

-class clown

-sometimes studies for class but he naturally understands everything in this nice smooth flow so school comes very easy to him

-sokka surprises everyone thinking he'd become a jock in high school (he was the class clown, a little bit sexist, a little rude as all young teenage boys are) by becoming a theater kid instead

-its there he meets his girlfriend suki

-the first time he meets her is in all her makeup and dress

-he says she did good in her auditions, for a girl

-he teases her for it until she tells him all the kids who want in to the club have to perform the same audition script, in the same dress and makeup

-he protested at first but gave in anyway

-and then sokka was casted as the girl love interest to suki

-and the rest is history

-not even a week later sokka is the defintion of a feminist

-and he still never shuts up about his girlfriend suki

-he's very popular, and not just in the theatre kid clique

-he makes friends with everybody

-one time he sees this small freshman standing up for a kid being bullied by a senior and it looks like the freshmans about to be eaten alive

-sokka watches not sure what to do but gets confused as the three seniors back down after the freshman makes a speech about love and acceptance for everybody

-sokka is insanely impressed until he realizes they backed down because a teacher was coming down the hall

-it was mr. jeong jeong

-and nobody wants to deal with jeong jeong, not even the scariest kids in the school

-after the almost fight sokka calls aang young grasshopper and they become friends

-for the rest of the year sokka and aang (and eventually toph) keep getting into weird schemes together

-one night they pull all the chairs out of the entire school and put them into the football field

-nobody ever finds out they were the ones who did it

-sokka plans the entire senior prank by himself and its flawless until aang tells him hes not going big enough

-they keep planning and eventually its so extreme katara comes in and tells them guys you cant set 100 wild geese free in the school

katara

-junior

-when shes a freshman she gets really mad when other people are talking over the teacher

-gets near perfect grades on everything she does but still never stops studying

-she wasnt that popular as a freshman, she was that kid for a while who showed up with 50 notecards for a 10 question vocab quiz

-but she joins the swimming team and calms down just a little and all of a sudden she has more friends than anybody else in the school

-she meets aang in swim

-hes a really fast swimmer and at first thats the only thing about him that catches her attention is how impressive his speed is as a freshman

-but then sokka and aang become friends and katara cant keep her eyes off of him

-she finds him funny and his calm and peace of mind comforting

-he has a way of handling situations that seem wise beyond his years, but then he also sometimes acts just like the kid he is

-she knows he likes her immediately and she likes him back too

-but she wont ever admit it

-until they later start dating when theyre both in college

-katara meets toph through aang and after she sees someone bully toph for being blind she becomes furious

-toph doesn't care, at all

-but katara wont let it go

-and toph secretly loves katara for that

-she starts becoming more active in caring about other people

-she joins student council and eventually becomes student council president, winning by actually caring about her school and not just a popularity contest (although it was a little bit, everyone loved her)

-but zuko ran against her in her junior year for president under irohs suggestion

-she hated him competitively for a while

-she constantly threw it in zukos face that he was a rich kid so he cant just buy his way into anything

-she hated him on principle

-zuko never taunted her back though

-one day as she went in to study at a tea shop, she saw zuko in the backroom serving tea

-she learned zuko didn't have any of his familys money anymore and worked for everything he owned, including his heart and temperament

-he was a good person

-katara stopped hating him, but she didnt give up running either

-when he lost presidency to her, he accepted graciously

-and thats when she asked him to be her vice president, and the entire class voted zuko in

-they were the most powerful duo in the school after that day

aang

-freshman

-respectfully but constantly arguing with the teacher

-he's not doing it to be funny, he just knows more than the teachers do

-but everyone thinks hes funny for it anyway

-he never has to study but always does great on the tests

-he was very popular immediately

-by the time he reaches physics sophomore year he meets mr. bumi

-aang starts eating lunch in bumi's room and slowly all of the class joins him for lunch

-bumi only eats a singular lettuce leaf for lunch and 5 packets of pop rocks everyday

-during tests he gives everyone a packet of pop rocks for when youre finished taking it and promises you a 100 if you figure out what he wants you to do with them

-people try everything from putting it in coke, to stealing their classmates, to pouring it on the ground and stomping on them

-aang figures out his last day of class when theyre supposed to take their final

-he notices on test days bumi never has pop rocks

-he always assumed it was so he didnt distract the students during the test but he knows now

-he walks into bumis room and when the test begins he hands bumi his own pop rocks and says he can have them

-bumi annouces aang was the first person in his 43 years of teaching who got it and he will get a 100 on his final

-slowly the entire class turns in their pop rocks to bumi

-but bumi makes them take the test anyway and he has all 29 packets during the test, distracting the entire class

-the highest score on the test was a 35

-but they all passed with 100s anyway

-parents were mad at bumi's teaching style thinking the kids learned nothing from his nonsense and that his grades were meaningless

-but when the ap test scores came back every single student recieved a 5/5 on their score

toph

-freshman

-she doesnt care about school at all when she starts but becomes famous later on

-class clown but not like sokka

-she does it in a disrespectful way at first

-she always puts her feet on the desk claiming they "need to see"

-shes mad the teachers dont get mad at her for it

-they pity her for being blind instead

-so that makes her act out even more

-she doesnt get to have bumi for physics, she has mr. yu

-yu was a horrible teacher, and toph as a young sophomore year was fed up being treated like she can't do anything, so she taught herself

-she listens to classes online and studies and makes her own physics experiments and learns from the nature of the world itself

-and does better than anyone in her class

-eventually she starts to get 100s on every single test thrown her way, in every class

-she stops being dissrespectful but oh boy does she never back down from a fight if she doesnt like somebody

-at first she doesnt have a best friend but really wants one

-she has gym with aang freshman year and they get really competitive when theyre put on opposite teams

-she nearly takes aangs head off with a dodgeball once

-aang beats her in a mile run freshman year and she doesnt talk to him for a few months until she beats him again

-but they quickly realize how similiar they are and they become best friends

-they talk throughout their english class constantly and keep getting in trouble with the teacher

-aang keeps apologizing ashamed but toph only laughs waits five minutes and starts again

-but all her teachers learn to love her and are impressed by ger instead of pitying her

-when toph has 100s on every single test

she becomes known as the impossible, almost famous internationally for her perfect scores

-shes literally the brightest youngest genius in the world, found in an american public high school

-it seems impossible and like shes cheating except for her 35 average she gets in english every year

-it doesnt matter she cant read anyway she says

-toph loves sokka and after aang introduces them to each other, she never passes up a chance for annoying him for being a theater kid

-she gets involved with many schemes with aang and sokka

-but at first katara and toph dont get along

-one time, katara walks in the middle of toph cornered getting bullied for being blind as a freshman

-katara cant believe herself this is happening in this day and age and gets those kids suspended for discrimination

-toph gets annoyed at katara for caring so much and making such a big deal about nothing

-but one day she realizes katara doesnt pity her at all, shes only mad at the other people

-and she smiles to herself and realizes it is kinda nice to have someone care about her like that

-so she lets katara rant and rave

-but the next time someone said tophs makeup she tried on for the first time is so ugly because she can't see her own face to do it, in fact that explains why she dresses herself like that

-toph throws an entire textbook with perfect accuracy at that persons head

-and when katara is asked as student council president what she thinks should happen to toph next

-katara responds she should be handed a heavier textbook

-and toph smiles

zuko

-junior

-when hes young hes extremely rich and uses his money to get in and out of everything

-hes good at heart but lost still

-he originally went to ozais private academy because his dad is the principal there

-but when zuko stands up for someone being bullied, just like aang did, he doesn't get friends but instead he gets suspended because the bully was the school quarterback and when ozai defended the quarterback, zuko spoke up

-ozai didn't like that

-ozai is so mad he sends zuko to live with his uncle with strict orders that if zuko makes one more mistake he'll be sent to military school

-but zuko has a good healing life with iroh after that

-iroh has zuko take just one year off of school as they travel the world and connect with nature and camp and by irohs request, drinks a lot of tea

-iroh supports zuko finacially completely but feeling guilty and wanting to help out, zuko begins working at a tea shop with his uncle after his father cuts him out of recieving any of the family money

-iroh enrolls him at the same school as sokka katara aang and toph and after a year of traveling and zuko's heart has cleansed of sadness rejection and anger and now healed

-(but that will never stop him from losing his temper every now and then again too)

-hes in the same grade as katara now despite being a year older

-zuko is pretty jack of all trades in all of his classes, (but only master of one)

-and he also couldn't be worse in english even though his teachers think he has a beautiful way with words

-when he talks without thinking he moves people to tears

-but once he turned in a poem that said "you have to look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. only then will your true self reveal itself."

-he comes home sad he got a 20 on that poem "ruining his high gpa"

-but zuko has a natural gift for chemistry and iroh suggests he tutors some kids for it to increase his confidence again

-zuko meets aang, who wanted a tutor to perfect his classes

-it doesn't go too well at first

-after a year of healing and calm and zen, aang is very very Loud to him

-they argue constantly

-zuko's tutoring style is effective but very aggressive

-he tests aang constantly on the hardest chemistry problems he can come up with, some of it stolen directly from advanced college level courses

-aang is just a freshman but zuko has him learning advanced organic chemisty

-one night they were sent out of the library because aang tried to steal zukos answer key because the test was just too hard and zuko yelled at him to stop and they knocked a whole bookshelf over in the struggle of chasing each other

-but after they left it was the first time aang saw zuko laugh

-after that they start to get along and become best friends for life, despite the age difference

-it takes zuko a while to get used to aangs friends loud personalities but one day when hes older he realizes thats the first time he ever had any real friends his entire life

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commentairesnegligeables · 3 years

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On Kamen Rider Faiz: Between Being the Most Perfect Series and Mere Chaos

When i started watching kamen rider faiz series, i initially thought it was potentially better than my all time favourite kamen rider kabuto. I was like, where have i been? Why all this time i only watched kabuto, which besides the overall good story, isnt as complex or realistic as faiz? So i got excited in both watching it and finishing it. But as i got to the end of the series and i finished it, my stagnant reaction was like: no😐 this is nothing better than kabuto. It is even worse than common childish unlikeable rider series. Which is very questionnable, cause it started off as superb!

To understand why faiz is perfect and disappointing at the same time it has to start with the contents itself.

Takumi Inui

Before i watched faiz every time i came accross it and saw this person i always thought he was a nice guy with justice heart or something, like a hero, but after i started watching everyone knows how my perception surely changed. The word gangster suits his outter personality more. Hes rude and doesnt care about most things. On top of that, we dont see his thoughts much, or life, which makes it as if hes.. well.. mysterious?—besides the fact hes the main figure?

Anyhow i still liked this character portrayed cause its fitting to the story and the plot, his character is enjoyable to watch cause it adds dimension and his flow is realistic. And this doesnt just happen in the start of him being unheroic hearted person, it continues throughout the series until the end, that he is nothing but dimensional character.

Sonoda Mari

I like this girls personality since first time she appeared. I truly dont like woman character that is just there just to be protected and become romance partner of the hero (typical western superheroes) and at same time i dont like woman character that is too much strong as if shes not in need of any help (typical feministic western superheroes). The thing about this girl is that shes just there—shes neither a standout nor is she a complementary. Shes just another character to make the story flows, her character is made so sincerely and realistically. I mean, shes just a girl. Shes not magical girl who is stronger than men or happens to be hero’s romance. With that kind of realistic character, shes truly likable. Her personality and portrayal is consistent throughout the series.

Yuji Kiba

Hes my favorite character in the series. I wont say if im him i will be like him, but surely he is what most humans are. He represents humans. It might not seem like that for other people, but throughout the series hes the sanest one with cold head, no dilemma, no contemplation, only determined turns. I feel like while watching i sometimes thought like “why is this character doing this? Why is that character doing that?” And yuji kiba was the only characted i never criticized—any decision he has is unquestionnable cause its always sane decision. Even to the end. Hes the only character i stanced whatever decision.

Except when in the end he fought with faiz and then what—he stanced human? Unacceptable.

Kusaka Masato

I can write thousand words essays on this guy on why i hate him so much (as a character :) ). I really liked the Kaixa form but because of this guy i cant again. Its not even just about his annoying, hateful personality (he needs mental help), its also about how the maker of the series actually decided to just put him NOT as secondary character—but in position of almost as same as main character. Sonoda Mari and Yuji Kiba? Just forget them, his position is same as Faiz in the series from the starting of his appearance. He started off as someone we think oh wow. I mean he goes to college (none other of them go to college), he is presidents of clubs, and moreover hes the chosen Kaixa? Wow. He must be something. Yes, he is something, the story starts to collapse by the time he appeared.

It raises question why he is placed almost as main character, but the simple answer would be that the story plot makes it like that. The maker somehow has to place him there, cause he is the maker’s inner dilemma.

Orphenocs

Orphenocs are the monsters, the ones that are not humans. They are said to be result of unknown rapid evolution of human being, but they dont look like human being. They look like monsters and they have powers that humans dont have, but they can turn into human forms.

The Story

To start it off, Faiz series is weird in ways that are.. well.. unique. We expect Rider gear to choose one person and just stick to that one person, instead of being able to be used by many people. That is the concept of rider gear we want to see, cause we want to see someone being the chosen one and admire them, or hate them in the case theyre the villain. Rider gears on faiz series are not like that, theyre mere killer tools instead of tool that determines “chosen one”. Anyone—humans or orphenocs—can just take the belt and wear them, become kamen rider, and thats it. Then whos the hero?

That is a very good question, cause faiz series contemplates about that throughout the series. Thats why we see characters that have very complex changes revealed time by time. So let me start.

The story started off with Takumi coming accross Sonoda Mari and they then met orphenocs, and Takumi happened to be able to transform to Faiz, and with that they just came back to each other again and again. This is a very good start, both have strong leads of the story that it makes you think probably they will dominate the whole story and they will eventually become together. This is what the story more or less indicated, and so we keep that in mind. Other figures started appearing and this far it was nice, Keitarou is the type that has justice and kind heart, Yuji Kiba as a sane person, Yuka as someone we would have empathy for, Kadoya which is unlikable both in personality and necessity of character in general; but hes there as a flawed complementary and the maker feels he must be “important” in the end of the series, the powerful Smart Brain. As long as it circles around the trio figures (Takumi, Mari, Keitarou) of orphenocs killer solving what is going on and discovering Smart Brain’s doings, it is all enjoyable and good.

The most uninteresting part about the story is Mari’s kindergarten past life. It must be because it was not introduced since start so we get excited upon whats happening now instead of minding Mari’s kindergarten people. I mean, in agito series the Akatsuki Gou was always something that makes us curious and when it was revealed, we finally feel fulfilled (i rate agito 6.5/10), but in this series even when it was revealed about her kindergarten people, theyre very uninteresting people with some of them having psycopathic tendency towards their own “kindergarten friends”. More than they are characters that are fresh and we can consider to stance and look forward to, theyre all dull, boring, and naturally have no good aura. And when i say it, i mean ALL of them. It was nice that many of them just vanished fast. The one that lasted was i think Delta, which is really really disappointing. It would be better if they dont starre Delta at all. I like Gatack as “strongest rider but not main figure” but Delta is just a pure no. No one wants to see lifeless Mari’s kindergarten people.

But instead of just get over them, we got imposed all the time by this kindergarten stuff by having Kusaka suddenly becoming someone that is starred the whole time. He is a very hateful, twisted character, and also smart. He standsout from Takumi in the way that Kusaka is trying to solve the problem from the very root, he is just smart. Takumi doesnt care about these stuffs. With that, started the era of the series having two main figures.

Nothing is wrong with two main figures, but Kusaka has very bad personality that it honestly is frustrating to watch him. He gets in the way of Takumi and Mari, he gets in the way of Takumi in general, he is just.. a main figure with bad personality. Who likes that? But that is not just it. Its not that Kusaka appeared and then Takumi looks neglected. Takumi was, in fact, neglected, because Kusaka would stand out everytime doing the whole stuff (in his annoying way) while Takumi most of the time just stayed silent. He didnt talk back when Kusaka said anything, he didnt do anything to support himself, he is just being there. He was no longer someone with thoughts, he hid his thoughts from the audience to extent we dont even know again what he thinks. He becomes so soft like a cat.

Why is this two main figures importat? Because Takumi turned out to be orphenoch.

I have suspicion that the maker is in fact, confused himself. I mean for me myself i dont mind about orphenocs. I dont think humans are any better than orphenocs, nor that orphenocs are any better than human. Its not about coexisting, its about if orphenocs win then orphenocs win, if humans win then humans win. This is the main reason i like yuji kiba. Will tell more later.

Kamen rider stories always center around fight of humans and monsters, and they always have to give reason as to why we should stance humans. On kabuto, humans are portrayed as nice, and so it happens on agito, and monsters are portaryed as inevitable evil. But on faiz, orphenocs are evoluted humans, they think like humans, they are in fact humans. With this kind of plot to begin with, there is really no solution to the story, and that is why the story is just a bunch of realistic events being put, about figures that change from this to that, about emotion of the figures being told. I really like this part of the story. I dont like how Takumi is silent, but I really like how he is actually an orphenoch, no, its not just a plot twist. Its just a story!

With the annoying changes happening from interesting story to dull kindergarten people appearance, from the fierce Takumi with harsh mouth to quiet Takumi which all the time gives the look of “it will really be better if i just vanish from this world”, from interesting adventure of the Trio with dynamic characteristics to story circling around disturbing Kusaka, the only consistent figure is Yuji Kiba. He had always stanced humans since he became orphenocs, he always believed that orphenocs and humans can coexist. Of course this is what common humans will think once they become orphenocs, unless you have unexplainable grudge towards humans like Yuka or Kadoya. But in general Yuji Kiba is what a sane human usually will be. But the part i like the most isnt him being sane despite of whats happening, it is the fact that the story has to somehow show him being hurt by humans, to prove humans are not as nice as he thought they are. Coexisting? What a joke. And in that instance, he changed. The whole time stancing the humans immediately turned into him leading the orphenocs. I just love that, hes not hopeless like Takumi nor he is disturbingly and unreasonably hateful like Kusaka. He keeps in mind what is fact and acts accordingly. Very plausable. I cant even blame him for hating on humans.

But besides the Yuji Kiba consistency, nothing left is to be liked out of the rest of the plot. It couldve ended goodly by portraying Takumi more and we could follow him to the end, but no, its just Kusaka and Kusaka until Yuji Kiba killed him. Such useless character no one wants to see, but in the same time he justifies the makers dilemma cause if Kusaka character didnt exist, it would seem like the maker was stancing for orphenocs. No, you dont do that in kamen rider series. But until the end i dont understand the makers true intention. I feel like for this level of series it requires a very smart person to write it, so is he trying to say that even humans can be annoying and orphenocs can be nice, or does he somehow have to make character that no matter what always stances human for no reason?

Kamen rider faiz is very realistic and complex and full of emotions and events, its not boring at all, but its inability to make the story continuously intriguing by serving what people will want to see (professionally! Not marketly or like this) it instead just serves what they want to serve, even if it means frustrating the audience and twisting the story as they want as such is switching the main figure.

Kamen rider faiz is, for its professionality (that beats other Kamen Rider series including Kabuto), 10/10. But for the rest of the thing. 5/10!

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betelguwuse · 4 years

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So I just finished VHS and I absolutely loved it. One of the shorts was a bit lacking to me, but even that one was enjoyable to watch. The only big criticism I have is that like at least half the shorts showed a lot of unnecessary tiddy (the only one that didn’t feel totally unnecessary was the one where the whole plot is dudes tryin to make porn) but I mean it’s found footage and I get that irl people do show off to each other on video calls and yknow,, porn. So I can let it slide but I’m not gonna enjoy it lol. Also this goes for most found footage I’ve seen, but sometimes it’s really hard to make out who’s who and what’s going on. But overall it was really good.

There were a few comments (I watched it on shudder lol) calling the movie misogynistic, which I don’t get? I mean unless they were talking about the tiddy issue, but even that I don’t think was meant to be framed as a good thing.

Like the movie is 5 shorts in between breaks of an ongoing story of some dudes breaking into a house. They’re trying to steal some tapes, and what’s on them is the bunch of shorts we’re shown. So the overarching story of the guys in the house has nothing to do with women, except one scene where they gang up on and try to strip a woman in a parking lot, which I’m pretty sure is clearly meant to be a bad thing? I mean throughout the movie we’re shown that these guys are assholes (filming harassment of women for money, excessively saying slurs, breaking into a house for more tapes that could get them money). Yeah the characters are misogynistic from what we can tell, but that doesn’t mean the movie or director is condoning their actions.

Ok onto the actual shorts (I don’t know what any were called but I’m pretty sure theyre all in order in my head lol). I want to pick out whether the individual shorts were misogynistic at all (because I have literally nothing else to do) so for that I might have to spoil. Any spoilers will be crossed out so they’re at least a bit harder to read. And like, I’m no expert in feminism (I don’t consider myself one, but I’m not exactly anti either) but being a person with a brain and opinions I’m going to talk about it.

1: This was the only one I had any previous knowledge of going in, and I was absolutely terrified of watching this whole movie because of the jumpscare and bits of creepiness I’d seen lol. So it’s about this group of guys who are trying to make some porn, so they pick up some girls, take them clubbing, and then go to a hotel to smash. Without spoilers, one of the girls acts really really friccin creepy and I think this one scared me the most overall, even knowing the basics of what would happen. Honestly I’m surprised the internet hasn’t turned her into a meme or waifu like some people did with Momo lol. I for one really want to draw her now (but also I’m terrified of looking up reference photos 👊😔). I think I read that they made a full movie-length version of this story but I could be wrong.

Spoilers: So what happens is this creepy girl is some kind of monster who lures men in to have sex with her, so she can eat them and rip their dicks off and all that fun shit. So like a siren, but on land? Honestly I don’t even know if it’s accurate to say she lures them in, because she really didn’t do anything, the guys kinda just found her and decided to use her? Also I think she had wings?? But again, handheld camera, hard to see everything. I think that what makes this one is that while she is creepy, she doesn’t really seem dangerous, or even like she wants to be there at all. Like when the guys give her and another girl drugs, the other girl seems ok with it, but it seemed to bother the creepy girl a bit. She had this innocent vibe to her that just makes her even more creepy. And then it’s even more shocking when she starts eating these bois. So yeah I don’t think this one was misogynistic at all. The male characters just wanted to exploit her and profit from her body, and she didn’t say no but she didn’t say yes either, which is pretty interesting to see. It’s not like she tricked the guys because she never actually consented to sex. All I remember her saying was “I like you” a few times. 10/10 we love a lady who eats her attempted rapists.

2: This is the one I wasn’t entirely satisfied with, but it was very good and enjoyable nonetheless. It’s about this couple on a road trip in,, I wanna say Arizona? I’m Canadian, I’ve never heard of a state in my life. So anyway they’re at a hotel in the middle of the desert, there are a few parts that were pretty creepy but didn’t actually mean anything in the story, like there was this fortune telling machine that I thought would be something supernatural, and a scene where they’re climbing around a canyon which was just generally anxiety inducing lol. But what the story is actually about is that someone is stalking them. This one I can discuss the misogyny levels without spoilers. There’s one bit where the guy is trying to get the girl to take off her shirt, and she says only if you turn the camera off. Which he doesn’t, and after a little argument he finally accepts the no. So like, dick move, but only a tiny part of the story.

Spoilers: there are some creepy scenes of the stalker recording them both while they sleep, and stealing their money and stuff, and then later stabs the guy in the neck. But then it’s revealed that the stalker is actually two people and they film themselves making out in the bathroom mirror. I couldn’t tell if it was a guy/girl or two girls, and since it was that hard to see their faces it just occurred to me that one of them might’ve actually been the gf? Like we didn’t see what happens to her after, and it’d definitely be a more satisfying ending for her to have betrayed her bf and not just some rando stalkers. Hm. Still unclear but good.

3: This one was really fun, it’s these 4 college aged friends who take a trip to the woods, it’s pretty tropey like cabin in the woods, there’s the final girl, the slut, the nerd, and the popular jockish dude. Which I’m pretty sure was on purpose since it’s kind of a slasher. Otherwise I’d be a bit more critical of the ‘slut’ character who Literally Never Shuts Up About Sex in this short lol. But I think that was meant to be a comedic choice. Idk. Other than that, no issue. So basically final girl has kinda organized this whole trip but she starts acting weird and saying creepy stuff about things that had happened in the forest. This one really felt like a creepypasta, but like the best kind. I really love what they did with the bad guy. I really don’t want to spoil this one, so don’t read the spoilers unless you’re sure you’ll never watch it. It’s great.

Spoilers: So the twist is that final girl had been here before with her friends and was the only survivor of a massacre by some monster in the woods. So now by taking these new people on the trip she’s trying to lure the monster out using them as bait, because nobody believed her after the last trip when she told people it wasn’t human. So we get a bunch of cool deaths, and that sweet sweet betrayal. I was kinda surprised by how much they lingered on some of the gore but that’s not really an issue for me. It did suck to see the main girl die, but I mean it’s found footage not ‘I killed a monster and totally got away, here watch’ footage.

4: This one was actually really cool in terms of like ~feminism~ or whatever. I mean it doesn’t even have to be read as some kind of feminist theme, but that was just the vibe I got. I really don’t think I can go into detail on those themes without spoilers, but the basic premise is that this girl is video chatting her bf (who’s away for school or something) and she’s worried that there are ghosts in her apartment. There’s a neat backstory about something similar happening to her when the guy was away during her childhood, like weird bruises and other injuries she doesn’t remember, so it definitely keeps you interested. Also another one I reeeally don’t want to spoil because the twist is so cool.

Spoilers: So the truth is the guy actually was nearby the whole time (possibly in her place because he rushes in the room pretty quickly when she’s attacked), and it turns out that it’s not ghosts, but aliens, and the bf is using the gf to put trackers and alien babies in her, and tricking her into thinking she just got in some weird accident and forgot, which leads her to get misdiagnosed with something like schizophrenia. I mean it’s a perfect metaphor for gaslighting (he’s not hurting me, I’m just crazy), and while that’s not an exclusively feminist theme by any means (both genders are capable of abuse, and both genders are capable of being victims!) it being a theme here shows that this short is absolutely not misogynistic at all. Honestly I’m surprised I haven’t seen more people talk about this one. It’s really really great in terms of the plot, twists, and underlying themes my dumb brain came up with.

5: This one is really really cool, at first I was a little bored with it, but then you’re kinda like hm what’s going on, and then you’re like oh okay that’s going on. Coolcoolcool. So basically these 4 dudes are going to a Halloween party and they’re kinda lost, and they end up at this huge house, so they go in and it’s empty but really big and creepy so they’re like ‘maybe we’re early, or it’s more of a haunted house than a party’ stuff like that, so a bit of it is just the guys exploring the house and vaguely creepy stuff happening in the background. I’m just gonna leave it at that because like, it’s not exactly a twist but it is really unexpected.

Spoilers: So they hear people talking upstairs in the attic and they’re like ‘o nice we found the party’ but no it’s a literal cult chanting and beating up this girl they have tied up. The cult leader is like ‘wtf get outta here’ and the guys kinda get chased away, but one dumbass just had to be like ‘no man we gotta save her’ (king tbh. ur sacrifice will be remembered) so they all go back up there, beat up the cult guys, and get the girl out of there. But that’s when the really creepy stuff happens in the house, like dishes throw themselves at the guys and arms reach out of the walls (I’d actually seen this bit before in a try not to be scared compilation, but I didn’t know what it was from lol) but they do get out and into their car. But then the girl just disappears and the car stops working, and then they see her out the window and she looks kinda demony, and oop their car is stopped on a train track aaa. This one I’m kinda torn on, like about the misogyny thing, because yeah having the only female in the cast being a demon and justifying the cult’s treatment of her is iffy, but at the same time...dude she’s literally a demon, I’d be chaining her up too lol. So yeah I’m definitely leaning toward the not misogynistic side.

Overall I don’t see this movie as that misogynistic at all, and it’s otherwise just a really really good time. Definitely recommend.

#movie review #v/h/s #horror #vhs #feminism

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years

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If not my surname or my husband’s, could we call our child after a New Zealand volcano?

Franki Cookney and her husband didnt much like each others surnames, so now theyre having a baby theyve are determined to pick a new one

When my husband, Rob, and I wedded last year, the question of what to do about our surnames barely entered our debates. We are both novelists, so our epithets are on every piece of work we do. That we would retain our own seemed a rendered. There was just one niggling skepticism. What would happen if “were having” children?

I had always thought that we would just put both our calls on birth certificates certification, but I knew this didnt quite resolve the problem. Whose refer would go first? And which reputation would end up being used?

We could use a double-barrel figure, but didnt experience our surnames, Cookney and Davies, gave themselves to hyphenation. Whichever prescribe you choose, the result is clunky and we were reluctant to saddle a child with it.

We could have just choice whichever call resounded best with our newborn first name. But in that scenario, one parent culminates up not sharing a surname with their child and neither of us wanted that. Plus, Id discovered too many tales of parents being agreed upon at airfield defence because the reputations on their passports didnt competition that of their children.

The conventional option of taking my husbands surname was never on the table. Fairly apart from the feminist principle of not wanting to abdicate my identity for his, I wasnt keen on the name. Rob supported this and was by no means offended. The disturbance was, he wasnt a fan of my mention either. Its just a little bit ponderous, he said. Its almost Cockney but not quite. Youre constantly having to spell it out. We looked at our mothers maiden calls and our grandparents names but always objective up back in the same lieu, feeling that it wasnt equal, that picking one area of their own families over another wasnt fair.

We hit on the idea of taking a new epithet about a year ago when before our wed we went to write our wills. As we chitchatted to one of the attorneys, it transpired that he and his wife had done exactly this. Theres a fair fleck of admin, but its good, it drives, he said , nod decisively. Suddenly, it didnt seem so outlandish. This wasnt some childish rebellion or bohemian pretentiousness, this was something solicitors did!

We mooted it with acquaintances, who were largely unfazed. What name will you go for? was the thing they were most curious about. Good inquiry. Could we compound the messages of our mentions and create something new, we wondered. Lists were acquired: Dents, Cave, Devine, Kinsey, Dacovnicks Cookies? None of them quite hit the mark.

As our bridal outlined nearer, we set the mention competition on a back burner. But when I became pregnant three months later, we were forced to look at the situation afresh and decided to change tack. How about a plaza? I proposed. Somewhere weve inspected that we adored. A backpacking stint before we got married had left us with plenty to choose from but most sounded jolly ludicrous when attributed to a couple of ordinary Brits. Rob and Franki Tongariro owned any particular vigor, but appointing yourself after a New Zealand volcano would be ridiculous. And Zhangjiajie might invoke storages of dazzling Chinese mountains, but imagine having to incantation it every time you booked a hair appointment or called your internet provider. For a while Salento and Chaltn were on the register, after places available in Colombia and Argentina. But we werent convinced we could pull off the certainly Latino-sounding former and believed the latter would result in a lifetime of chastising people who declared it Charlton.

Then Rob said, What about Stone Town? The beautiful old town of Zanzibar City is where he had asked me to marry him. It instant appeared right. Stone was straightforward but important. It voiced good with both our given name and after a few weeks of trying it on with other epithets would work well with almost anything we chose for our child. It was perfect: a solid mention( with possibilities for puns that was not failed on us) that felt like a constructive solution to our trouble. We would prevent our original surnames for study and adopt this new last name for our personal lives.

By law, all you need to do to change your reputation is, well, remained unchanged. Simply adopting and using your brand-new name is enough. Modernizing your accounts and enters, nonetheless, requires a document of proof such as a wedding certificate or, in such cases, a deed poll. “Were not receiving” official way of acquiring a deed referendum. You can write one yourself applying free templates from the internet, but paucity of clarity about the relevant procedures answers in some institutions demanding an original certificate despite the fact that no such event subsists. You can either fight it out or you can do what we did and pay 15 -2 0 for a company such as the Deed Poll Office to draw up the note on your behalf and reproduce and stomp it on watermarked paper. Returned the listing of bodies and organisations you have to notify and the potential contentions over what constitutes an original certification, this seemed a reasonable compromise.

Perhaps it was naive, but we didnt expect to meet with fight. Uncertainty, perhaps. Intrigue, for sure. When it came to getting married, we had ditched almost every tradition running, prohibiting the union itself, and no one had interrogated us. Surely this too would be seen as a modern update on an outdated tradition. But where reference is announced our decision to our families, the reaction was mixed.

Franki and Rob. Picture: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian

While they understood our quandary, the common restraint was that the child would lose the connection to its family history. Try as I might, I cant know what this is. To me, family history travels far deeper than ones refer. Its in the way we live, our values, the gumption and shared suffer passed down through generations. It is part of the storytelling our parents did and its in the narrations we, more, will tell and the beliefs we will share.

Our roots are not in our appoints, they are in our centers. My grandmother, whose surname was Jones, is important to me not because of her figure but because of her passion. My great-grandmother, a midwife I never even converged, let alone shared a reputation with, forms a part of my appreciation of identity. Why? Because of the space my own mother talks about her, because of the pictures she has decorated in my head of that life, that kinfolk, that time.

Interestingly, the appoint itself has also proved a sticking point, with a few people commenting that its abiding. Youre doing this really unusual thing but youve picked a really everyday mention, said one colleague, as though by doing something different “weve been” obliged to go the whole hog and announce ourselves Rob and Franki Thundercats.

In fact, the accessibility of the appoint was something we thought would be used sell the idea. It turns out “were in” naive there, too. My baby, a former primary school teacher, insisted that someone called Stone would be taunted. Another relative describing him as a dead weight of a name.

In my experience, girls will come up with nicknames no matter what. I spent much of my school years known as Franki Cookie while my given name was often elongated to Frankenstein, Frankincense or Frankfurter.

Never tell people your reputation picks in advance, admonished one acquaintance( too late ). Its as if telling parties in advance is inviting a talk or consultation!

While my familys concerns patently matter to me, I suppose she might be right. Eventually, this is our decision, based on our requirements, and I hope they will come to see it as a practical and positive step , not an irresponsible one.

Its almost impossible to get everyone on board, adviser another friend, who changed her surname by deed ballot in 2004. The hypothesi upset my granny but my dad, her son, understood. When I married my husband, he took my figure. Im still not sure two brothers was 100% behind us, but when we had our first son, he was the first to be born into our empire. Im so excited that we are the first in our tree!

This is exactly how I seem. I adoration the idea that our child will be born into this new, specially opted and carefully thought-out family name. And if the working day he or she decides to change it either to something new or to one of our old family name we will fully support that.

Even when you change names, lineage can still be traced and, if nothing else, I like to think we will be seemed back on as the ones who tried something new; who instead of obliging do with an unsatisfactory statu, belief creatively about how to solve it. Thats a family bequest Im joyous with.