Thinking many many thoughts about how Jean was Riko's partner for a YEAR and was still rooming with Goon #3. Because that was how unwilling Riko was to let go of Kevin. And how that implies that Jean was placed as his partner both because of the practicality of Kevin being gone AND as a punishment for letting him go in the first place. Being partners with Jean could actually slow Riko down depending on how often he's hurt (because I don't think Riko was all that exempt from the rules to the point where his partner's performance would completely not matter) and he was still placed there. Riko was just THAT angry at him over Kevin's escape. And all the while he was keeping Kevin's side of room like an altar, even back when he didn't even think Kevin could PLAY, because of an injury he caused.
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It kind of fucks me up to see some people come out of watching RGU having absorbed absolutely nothing of what the show has to say about patriarchy, misogyny, & queerphobia, outside of "men bad, lesbian good." Which like.....sure, I guess? in the absolute barest sense, I suppose RGU is partially about that.
But if this show's thesis were really as simple as "lesbian good," then Juri & her role as an antagonist on the mini patriarchy that is the Student Council would simply not exist at all. Juri would've won all the duels, kicked Akio in the nuts, freed Anthy, & ridden away into the sunset with Shiori in her arms before Utena even showed up if that were the case. But she obviously didn't do any of that despite being a lesbian, so there must be something more complicated at work here.
A lot of RGU's narrative is dedicated to deconstructing binary social systems & the ways in which they harm those trying to and/or being forced to fit within one of two narrow boxes; man vs woman, adult vs child, princess vs witch, prince vs devil, special vs not special, romantic vs platonic, etc. So for someone to watch all of that beautiful complexity, only to filter it through yet another essentialist binary...sucks, to say the least.
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reading beckys book & oh my god she started talking about zowens and i was grinning the entire time but this got me so 🥰🥰😭😭
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let's get back to the classic catefrankie blogging we were doing before we were so rudely interrupted by my gauche airing of my personal crisis
so I think actually it's easier to talk about this coming at it negatively, because I think what we're circling around is less some inherent strength of masculinity or femininity as they were meant to be, and more some particular flaw that masculinity or femininity are prone to falling into. so I think for men it is irresponsibility - the irresponsibility of Adam standing by while Eve is tempted and threatened by the serpent, passively going along with her sin and then blaming her for it, instead of protecting her like he should have. the irresponsibility of perpetual-adolescent young men, of absent fathers, of detached husbands. but for women, what's crystalized for me over the last couple days is I think it is cynicism: the cynicism of Eve looking at her perfect situation in Eden and thinking that it can't be trusted and can't be relied upon to continue, so she has to take matters into her own hands. the willingness to quickly believe the worst, even of the God who loves her and walks with her in the garden. the cynicism of disappointed spinsters, of bitter mothers, of controlling wives. so men must work against their tendency by taking up responsibility, by purposely setting down roots and sticking to their commitments, making the choice to live for something other than power and pleasure. and women have to work against their tendency by clinging to the goodness that they find and believing in it, resisting the instinct to ferret out flaws and dwell on them broodily.
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only real doc-heads (licherally no one) remember her
[image description: a redraw of a drawing of an original character named winnie from 2016-2017. winnie is a sleek androgynous robot with a triangular head and blue accents. there is a split down the middle of winnie's screen that separates it into black and white halves. end id]
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Becky Lynch || book tour vlog
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rereading Fairest bc I have my own copy now (yay $2.50 at a used bookstore!) and so far it's as lovely as I remember
but anyway I do like how Aza's "ugliness" is characterized by people actually treating her badly because of it. People talk about the stereotype of YA protagonists being like "oh poor me I'm so ugly" in an attempt to make them relatable but the narrative actually treats them like they are gorgeous and every character that isn't a villain finds them attractive.
Vs. here it's like. yeah her self perception is all tied up in cultural ideas of beauty and she's definitely not objective either, and a lot of what she thinks is inherent to her ugliness is all wrapped up her related social anxiety, etc.
but! It's very refreshing to see a book that deals so much with beauty standards actually commit to it! It's not like she's just vain and obsessed with looks! You can tell she wants to be beautiful because she wants to be treated like a person! The way it is just that blatant! Most people are rude to her or ignore her! And she makes it worse in her head and compounds the problem by letting her own insecurity draw attention to herself, but at the end of the day, she's right! People would treat her better if she looked different!
The details that we get about her appearance are not even "ugly" traits, either! Like we get the pale skin, black hair, red lips combo pulled directly from the traditional Snow White fairy tale, where those traits are supposed to be beautiful and desirable! But in this culture, apparently those traits are a part of her ugliness, which just perfectly highlights how the beauty standards are inherently arbitrary! And yet! They affect her life in real ways! It doesn't matter much how we, the reader, picture her; we believe that she is ugly because people treat her like she is!
Anyway I especially love how her insecurity regarding her size is portrayed. The combo of feeling small and meek and timid on the outside but being large and imposing on the outside. She feels like she takes up too much space. She doesn't want to wear anything at all attention grabbing. She doesn't know what to do with her limbs. Her biggest fear about demonstrating her magical singing trick is that she would have to show people how she moves her stomach (the horror!)
anyway everyone ever should read Fairest. I could write 12.5 dissertations on it. fantasy books for 12-year-old girls are the most serious fiction in the world actually
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