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g4rchomp · 1 year

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sorry for being the billionth person making a post abt barbie. also sorry this post is sooo long I have a lot to say. disclaimer: I am saying words recreationally, don't take any of this too seriously pls!!

a strongly anticapitalist feminist friend invited me to see the movie in a theatre. I was intrigued as to why she would suggest that so I accepted. she said she invited me bc she wanted to see how I would react and what I would think, which I find funny lol

good movie to discuss with friends and people you know in real life around a drink etc. but NOT on the internet. (this is perhaps the most important point I really want to stress that)

any criticism of mattel by mattel (who pockets revenues from the movie) has no value to me

great movie to practice your hater skills. the balance of good stuff and bad stuff is amazing to keep your haterism skills sharp lol

my biggest gripes with the movie

I don't like how Sasha's character (pre-teen who hates barbie and seems to dislike her mom but gets closer to her during the movie) was handled.

First, her very factual and true concerns over capitalism and self-image related to barbie are never explored or taken into actual consideration. throughout the movie she's urged to understand her mother more but her efforts are not reciprocated.

Second, I am sooo deeply tired of teens being depicted as angry for no reasons. like wooow you're growing up and now you hate me, your super cool and understanding mother :((( it's always deeper than this if your kid dislikes you. this stuff always get an eye roll from me sorry

overall the feminism sucked so just quickly: patriarchy is presented as an individual force rather than a systemic one, no mention of race/age/class/sexual orientation etc. etc. etc. only misogyny but the world doesn't work like that

on that topic btw I didn't like how weird barbie (virtually the only gnc barbie) is only here to repair other barbies and make them whole again and doesn't exist outside of that. how fitting lollll

also seeing sasha go from 'I hate barbie and societal expectations' to 'barbie is my friend I'm wearing pink now' was kinda sad. gnc girls and girls who aren't girls I love you. in itself this trajectory isn't necessarily bad but on a personal level it just felt wrong.

it is an ok point of entry/conversation starters for feminist concerns if you're really on ground 0

forever my biggest gripe with the movie is how marketed it was and how it's made to sell me products. any feminism that attempts to grab my wallet isn't feminism I'm interested in

three really distasteful moments that stood out to me:

indigenous catching smallpox joke -> just shut the fuck up incredibly inappropriate and violent.

'to show how our character becomes human, we show she's going to the obgyn hihi' not funny didn't laugh it felt bioessentialist and to have it be the closing scene of the movie was just a bad move (to me at least but more on that later lol)

'margot robbie might not be the best person to deliver a message about how women shouldn't feel pressure to feel beautiful hihi' yeah she's not. congrats on making money by centering a beautiful skinny white woman and telling the audience you did it on purpose

lighthearted stuff

the music was fun I like how they used it throughout the movie

the costumes looked good, the film was pretty and I liked the acting it looked like they had fun filming

it was a real 'oh I get it now' moment when I saw 2ft margot robbie on the screen. she is attractive I can see it now

not related but it was kinda like straight people camp lol

the final scene (aka my other biggest gripe with the movie but it gets a section to itself)

women go to the obgyn hihihihi. ok first of all cool welcome to one of the most central sphere to violence against women. second going to the obgyn isn't a universal experience for women for many, many reasons. third ig it was a joke that fits the humorous tone of the movie but it didn't land for me.

ALSO. they already had the perfect ending (imo) with the pink birkenstocks!! early in the movie she has to make a choice between pretty pink heels and ugly brown sandals. we see her at the end wearing pink sandals. having her picking her new shoes would show she journey she's been on much better than the obgyn joke imo!!!

Anyways here are my thoughts. I'd be interested to know what you think abt these points or if you felt this way when watching the movie too, although honestly I feel like online settings are less than ideals to talk abt that. I wouldn't say I hated the movie (despite what the post might suggest lol) I don't regret seeing it. at least the movie made me want to talk about it and clarify some feelings I have after watching it, which is always something even if I disliked many things abt it!

#didn't think I'd have so much to say BUT I am a hater and a lover which makes me talkative. sorry #also worth saying if you are not following me pleaaaaase don't engage with this post that would be super appreciated!!

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thelesbiancitizen · 3 years

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I was looking up information on the male hormonal cycle and this article popped up, and it is incredibly hilarious/depressing:

“Female” appears in reference to the menstrual cycle in scare quotes. “Women” is mentioned once (but only on a technicality because it is in the name of a linked website!). But the article references “men as the default”, and “men” having hormonal cycles just like “AFAB people” do. Interesting!

The article begins to point out that our society is structured to favor men, but chooses to take the route of saying that that means men have an “ideal” cycle, and that the writer is “green with envy”. How sad…

And while men are men, women are still “someone who experiences (or used to experience) a female menstrual cycle”, which is, according to the writer, an “unfortunate” thing.

Then at the end, the writer even tosses in a reference to “cisgender men” (hey! isn’t that exclusionary to transmen? 🤔). And her “solution” (because it’s painfully clear this writer is a woman) is to just… move around your schedule or something, I don’t know, nothing we can do I guess, just try to beg educate men to see us as worthy of their respect!

This article is exemplary of the attitudes of the queer liberal feminist. It is self-flagellatory and obedient, using all the proper dehumanizing terminology that women are instructed by men to use. And it shows how the ideology is ultimately circular and therefore useless — this woman recognizes that it is unfair that society is structured to favor men’s hormonal cycles, but she is unable to find or offer any real solution other than to continue to grit your teeth and relying on men to maybe, someday, hopefully, eventually, probably not change their minds. This kind of “feminism” is really anti-feminism, and it traps you into an endless cycle of shame, blame, and guilt.

It turns out this website is a vendor site for period products. So they are trying to sell you something.

Women are called “bleeding babes”, and helpfully included within the rather useless category of “everyone who bleeds”. And while the company claims to be “saying fuck you to the patriarchy”, they can’t even say the word “woman”.

I’m getting very, very tired of this brand of “fun & cutesy”, feel-good pseudo-feminism.

#radical feminism #radfem

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phoebe-delia · 3 years

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So not to be a creep but I’ve been checking your blog throughout the day to see when you’d be posting thoughts on the new TSwift songs.

I just saw your reblog to sitp-recs and YAY IM NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT HEARD “RUN!” AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT DRARRY!!

“Run like you’d run from the law”???? All the talk about keeping things secret and running away and hiding and no one understanding????

THATS MY BOYS 😭😭😭

(I’m sorry this was a lot but who else was going to understand?)

Anon,

I grinned when I got this ask. I honestly didn't think anyone would care that much about my thoughts on the songs, but if you're asking I'm more than happy to share! And if you're comfortable feel free to drop another ask or shoot me a DM with your own thoughts :)

First I'll give overall thoughts and then I'll delve into a few more specifics, as well as a tiny bit of Drarry stuff! This is going to be a lonnnggg post which I suspect very few people—if any—are really interested in reading. But if you are, then stick around! And please feel free to share what you think in the comments, DMs or ask box! <3

Overall I LOVED it. The production was amazing and very cohesive. And oh my goodness her VOICE has grown so so so much. It's hard to realize the difference when we just listen to stuff like folklore or evermore or even reputation, but her voice has developed a lot. It's a lot stronger than it used to be when she first recorded Red—and that's saying something because her voice was great then, too!!

Like with Fearless TV, it really felt like a more grown-up Taylor reflecting on her early life, and it was emotional to listen to this album now when I so vividly remember it coming out at the time. It's also so clear that Taylor had fun rerecording it. Her passion for her old music is always so wonderful to see—that she's not the least bit ashamed or shying away from her early work, because it feels like we really grew up with her, yk? And all the parts of ourselves—past and present—deserve to be celebrated.

Now for some specifics.

It was sooo fun to hear her say "who is taylor swift anyway?" in 22, and her little dialogue in WANGBT (although the "weeEE" in the chorus of WANGBT made me laugh a little lmao). And Stay Stay Stay was a lot better—don't get me wrong I liked the original too but this version was even better.

Also I LOVED Holy Ground. I loved that song before—I dedicated a fic to it in the TS/Drarry series!—but I was so satisfied with this version.

The Moment I Knew is and continues to be the melodramatic bop we all know and love. Girl at Home was good, but it was a bit of a shock. It's just so different from the original, and sonically it reminded me of 1989. Still, it was enjoyable.

Okay now the vault tracks:

Better Man and Babe?? incredible. Message in a Bottle is SUCH a bop (and I see some potential Drarry vibes 👀)

Also, I Bet You Think About Me is soooo funny and one of my favorite vault tracks. Forever Winter is so good and sad.

Run is SUCH ROA VIBES!!!! You said it perfectly so I won't add on more than to say it's like the theme song.

Nothing New—I was SO excited to see Phoebe Bridgers get a full verse!! The song itself is also just amazing. love it.

The Very First Night is also a bop. Really fun and a great vibe.

Okay. Now for the song we've been wanting for 9 years: ATW 10 minute version.

I was floored. I knew I would be. I mean she wrote a 10-minute version of my favorite song?? I was shook.

The lyrics are incredible (although I'm a little confused by the "fuck the patriarchy keychain" part, but my theory is that it's a little Picture to Burn reference bc of the "stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive" and now with Jake being like "you drive idc." That's my theory but she also released keychains with that phrase on it, so. idk.)

Okay but the REST of it. There are too many lyrics to point out, but she really holds nothing back and it's just a tour de force. I also loved her harmonizing with herself instead of the other voices that were there in the original.

The only other thing I'll say about this song is that I've added one more songfic to the plan for the TS as Drarry series ;)

Anon thank you SO much again for the ask. It means more than I can quite say that you like my blog and care enough to hear my thoughts. I started this blog and began writing the fics in hopes that I'd reach people like you! <3

#taylor swift #drarry #harry potter x taylor swift #taylors version #red taylor’s version #phoebe delia

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demi-shoggoth · 3 years

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2021 Reading Log, pt. 18

A lot of downers in this section. All of these books were good, but most of them a bit depressing. Even the book about movies is also a sad life story. Part of the issue is reading books to catch up with library due dates.

86. Is It All in Your Head? by Suzanne O’Sullivan, MD. This is a book about psychosomatic illness, told through case studies by a neurologist. Being someone whose anxiety manifested as GI symptoms for years, I have something of a vested interest in the topic. O’Sullivan’s primary theses are that a) just because no organic disease can be found doesn’t mean the suffering of the patients isn’t real or important, and b) the stigma around psychosomatic illness, and mental health in general, makes recovery difficult for patients. Most of the manifestations she talks about here are seizures, because she’s a neurologist and a lot of patients get referred through her. I wonder if delusional parasitosis is a less common manifestation of psychosomatic illness in England than it is in the States, of if those just aren’t the types of patients who consult with her.

87. Technically Wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher. This book is about how tech companies have created sexist, racist and otherwise marginalizing products, and how most tech companies are made up of cis white men claiming “meritocracy” for their bad behavior. It feels like a book written in desperation, being written in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, and covers “fake news”, Gamergate and other issues in part. The book is inspiring in that it calls for how to make the tech industry more inclusive and less predatory, and depressing in that very little progress has been made since 2017.

88. Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun by Justin Decloux. This book was leant to me by @bowelfly, a fellow traveler down the roads of strange and interesting film. Pyun is a weird director who makes weird movies. I’m most familiar with his early 90s output, which typically involves muscular half-naked women running around the desert fighting cyborgs. One of his rare “family friendly” movies, Alien from LA, turned up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The book covers his entire oeuvre, and posits Pyun as a man compelled to make movies, even as his shooting schedules and budgets get smaller and smaller, until the finished product is reduced to being nigh-incomprehensible. There are lengthy interviews with some of “the Pyun players”, cast and crew who have worked with him repeatedly, but Pyun himself remains at a distance in the book, as a mad artist understandable only through the lenses of his ever more bizarre films.

89. Confident Women by Tori Telfer. This is a collection of true-crime stores about woman con-artists and scammers. The dates on these range from the 18th century (Jeanne de-Saint Remy and the Affair of the Necklace) to the modern era (people exploiting recent tragedies like the Manchester bombing or California wildfires for money, attention or both). It is a fun and fast read, although some of the crimes do extend from the “can’t believe she got away with that” to the truly horrific. So typical trigger warning for true crime content apply. But if you enjoy true crime, this is one to check out.

90. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes du Mez. This book is a polemical that is complementary of The Founding Myth, but makes some of the same points. The author is a Christian professor writing about how Evangelical Christianity in the United States has been taken over by militarism, racism and patriarchy. She traces the problem to the perennial fear of white Christian men of losing their power and status, and shows how it grew from a small strand in a pluralistic flavor of Christianity to becoming its dominating factor. This is yet another book written in the wake of Trump’s election, and her thesis is that Donald Trump is the perfect embodiment of masculine swaggering aggression, which has replaced actual Christianity (hence the reference to John Wayne in the title). A lot of the book is confident enough to merely pose the reader with all of the horrible ideas of “moral majority” and Christian dominionist writers and thinkers. It does assume a (fairly well-versed) Christian audience, so if you don’t know your pre-millenniasts from your post-millenniasts, you may need to do some quick Googling to catch up. It also has lengthy discussions of sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, and the like, so again, trigger warnings apply.

#reading log #albert pyun #evangelical christianity #institutional misogyny #institutional racism #true crime #psychosomatic illness #mental health

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sukirichi · 3 years

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hi suki! wanted to tell you this bc i have no one else to talk about it with ><

( you can answer this when the English chapter releases! i was able to read it because my friend bought the WSJ issue)

I was trying to udnerstand Naoy's character, so I was reding everything from CH138-151 again. I'm kinda sad at how people just calls Naoya a Toji fanboy (though true LMAO) and not realizing how Toji really influenced his persona. Like the admiration Naoya held for Toji is so deeply engraved in him that he, who was called a genius sorcerer as a child, looks up to a man who was called a failure. Toji is probably the only man in the clan that he respected, that's why toji's level of strength became his "picture" to follow. And I think a lot of who Naoya has become is because the Zen'ins literally groomed the decency out of him. Still, though groomed to be everything he is, he himself chose not to change anything about it.

(wait but also?? little naoya looks cute like he would guide old ladies on the ped xing so what the fuck happened after that)

I guess one major reason why he does not respect anyone else in the clan (besides his superiority complex) is because of the Zen'in's concept of what is marked as strong. Like, the way they see and treated him as if he's the best sorcerer in the making, yet failing to see Toji's powers and rejecting him fully. It's something similar to Mai when she said "Maki has talent that I don't. And the clan rejected that; that talent that I lacked", except Naoya is raised to be a confident (arrogant?) child, thus he takes it as a challenge instead and works to achieve it.

So, when Maki reached the level of Toji, I think his reaction wasn't simply stemmed on his "fanboy" antics, but his desperation of being part of that level of strength. I think he's more irritated in the fact that Maki, someone who he does not see anywhere near as strong as he is (though he does say Maki is strong in chapter 138), reached a level of strength that he hasn't; that he is trying hard to achieve. It's also the same with having your favorite superhero getting defeated. And Naoya's in denial that there is someone else who could be the same as Toji.

I like how he's an antagonist that was not build under the foundation of a sob backstory (though it was a v small sneak peak of his background and was mainly centered with his admiration for toji, plus I think people forget that Naoya is an antagonist), how he acknowledges that he has not reached that level of strength. Of course, I'm angsty about his misogynistic ideals. I get that he's from a very traditionalist clan so... yeah. I mean, no child is born evil. Children learn from those around them (I've seen many people say he's trash since he was a kid when he said that "i wonder what miserable face he has", but like he's a kid, he doesn't know what he's saying AHSJFJWJQ8QR he was either taught that or he just learned it from others. Funnily enough, he does say toji has a pretty face now LMAO). Maybe it stems from something else, maybe it didn't.

I'm not saying him trying to kill Megumi is forgotten (Though, the Jujutsu Society is a place where teens get executed for the simple fact that they are too strong, so im not surprised. Just like Noritoshi said, age does not matter in Jujutsu Society). I see now why he was really pissed about Megumi being the head, since Naoya has been promised the position since he was young, only to loose of a 15 year old who is the son of the man he admires :')) However, still, none of it excuses the shit he did. He still has a shitty personality, but it's nice to know a bit of a background.

Anyway, that's all for now. My English is bad so that might be all over the place •`,`• That's just my take on it so I could be wrong or maybe seeing him wrong since we still don't know much abt him. I'm always scared to talk about naoya because the last time i did (on twt) i got a backlash of hate (ppl really do get hate just from admiring someone's characterization). Your blog is like a safe haven for naoya stans, so i thank you for that hehe.

Have a nice day suki!! kisses~

(also this is a PSPSPSPS to a naoya childhood friends au fic pls 👁👁)

bestie omg I am so sorry, I found this deep in my inbox and I am *shakes* and yes yes let’s talk about naoya, I would be more than glad to and I’m sorry I didn’t see this any sooner!! more rants and simping under the cut

I'm kinda sad at how people just calls Naoya a Toji fanboy (though true LMAO) and not realizing how Toji really influenced his persona. Like the admiration Naoya held for Toji is so deeply engraved in him that he, who was called a genius sorcerer as a child, looks up to a man who was called a failure. Toji is probably the only man in the clan that he respected, that's why toji's level of strength became his "picture" to follow. And I think a lot of who Naoya has become is because the Zen'ins literally groomed the decency out of him. Still, though groomed to be everything he is, he himself chose not to change anything about it.

omg for this…I’m actually like…like I love the detail that naoya admires toji? as we can see from the panel of little naoya, it’s like people have already planted in his head that no cursed energy = loser, yet he ended up admiring him and I am,,,my heart is just soft! exactly! just think of naoya born as a genius sorcerer yet his admiration for toji, who is painted as the clan’s failure, helped shape him into who he is! idk but I just really love the fact that naoya, who is like born with the pressure and role of being clan leader, somewhat strays from tradition and ends up finding strength into toji and even strives to follow him or “stand by him” someday. for me, it just shows that perhaps naoya isn’t really half as bad as he should be in an honest sense, meaning that he’s evil or morally corrupt because he was born that way or because he chose to be that way. I do agree that perhaps he is the way he is now because he’s groomed to be like that, but of course, I’m not going to disregard the fact that somewhere along the way, Naoya could’ve matured to choose himself to not embody the misogynistic tradition of the zen’in clan.

This could just be me, but my interpretation of it is that Naoya seems more like the perfect product or embodiment of how the clan shaped him to be, blinded him with false morals and the patriarchy presiding into them. Rather than Naoya being just “a misogynistic arrogant man” in my perspective and my opinion, I see him more into the bigger picture of his toxic upbringing to begin with. Like, no child is born evil unless there’s like a predetermined curse deciding their fate for them, so its partly the Zen’in clan’s fault he’s that way. But Gege showing that Naoya admiring someone the Zen’in clan disregarded, it shows that he is capable of being himself without the clause of his clan enforcing things to him once again, like the whole “he’s gonna be the future clan leader” thing, though that is still heavily embedded within him.

(wait but also?? little naoya looks cute like he would guide old ladies on the ped xing so what the fuck happened after that)

OMGGGG PLEASE THAT’S SO CUTE, HE LOOKED SO INNOCENT AND ADORABLE BUT EVEN AS A CHILD HE WAS ALREADY CALLING PEOPLE A LOSER LIKE EYE

I guess one major reason why he does not respect anyone else in the clan (besides his superiority complex) is because of the Zen'in's concept of what is marked as strong. Like, the way they see and treated him as if he's the best sorcerer in the making, yet failing to see Toji's powers and rejecting him fully. It's something similar to Mai when she said "Maki has talent that I don't. And the clan rejected that; that talent that I lacked",except Naoya is raised to be a confident (arrogant?) child, thus he takes it as a challenge instead and works to achieve it.

Anon, is it just me or like…was his superiority complex also enforced on him by the Zen’in clan as well? Again this could just be me going all psychologist mode on Naoya but the nature of superiority complex is quite interesting, you know! As a psych student, I perfectly understand that superiority complex either stems from several things like a) wanting to live up to one’s or others expectations, b) masking it with a deep stem of insecurity, or c) it’s a coping mechanism. See, I could go on and on about but then I’d have to link all my past studies lmao so let’s just put it on layman’s terms that my interpretation of Naoya’s superiority complex is once again, influenced by the clan. Imagine being a kid born into a clan where people remind you again and again that you’re the future leader, that you would be the one to guide them or protect them or discuss the clan’s future and status once you grow, and you’re quite groomed for it.

For such pressure to be put on a child’s shoulders, it kind of strips off his youth and instead of him enjoying his youth, I can imagine that it took a toll on little Naoya, and the reason he grew his superiority complex is his way to cope and reach the standards and expectations that is given to him. Of course, he’s a kid, he might start to wonder, “Can I even do all of that?” but seeing as the Zen’in clan highly measures strength and growth based on abilities, cursed energy, and overall just to conform into the image they’ve held for years, it’s quite obvious that Naoya can’t exactly voice out his worries over this, so instead, he masks it with a superiority complex that absolutely boosts him to a higher level, thus giving him the confidence he needed to carry out his tasks and the reassurance that, “Yes, I am worthy and I will be the clan leader.” As for your theory that he takes it as a challenge, I can see where you’re coming from! I think Naoya is the type of person who definitely likes to challenge himself, but one of the reasons I love his character so much is because he’s not completely a brainless “head on straight to war” type of person too.

He knows his limits and knows which side he should be in, as showed when Yuuta came and mans surrendered easily. Idk why but to me, Naoya, who is such an arrogant confident man who has high trust in abilities, but at the same time can admit when someone is stronger than him (like him admiring Toji and Gojo) just makes him more human and a little more beautifully flawed. Like, he’s not perfect and he’s most definitely an irritating character, but the way he was written is just *chef’s kiss*

Yes, ah I really do love this theory that he’s more irritated because in his mind, he’s like, “I’m a genius sorcerer! I was meant to be clan leader! This is my rightful spot to be a strong one, so how come Maki, who is a woman, with no zero cursed energy has reached the level of the person I looked up most to?” again, Naoya didn’t say that and those are just my opinions and brainrot so don’t come at me for it uwu, but yeah I do think that he’s very aggravated that he didn’t react that level first. Because I guess you could say, he’s probably alluding that Maki reaching Toji’s strength = them being equals, and ofc Naoya wanted to be the one standing beside them. It probably hit his superiority complex that he wasn’t the one in Maki’s spot especially when he tried so hard to achieve it, and considering the gifts he was given (same cursed technique as his dad and him having cursed energy) it threw him off.

Yeah, Naoya is most likely in denial and becomes aggressive over it, although I don’t really mean physically aggressive because Naoya is actually quite calm and ‘composed.’ If ever he did go on a rampage, he does it in such a suave, calculated manner with this silent confidence that he will win. It kind of makes you root for him because he even fools the audience (by audience I mean ME) that he’s going to OWN that fight but whoop, he got his ass kicked. Plus ten points for confidence and a bonus thousand points for being sexy though!!! Yeah, omg he’s probably in disbelief that a woman of all people could be like the person he admired most.

OMG YESSSS ANON YES YES YES *slams down simping button angrily* That’s what I like about him too! Even though Naoya is cocky and wayyyy too arrogant for his own good, I also like that he acknowledges he’s not quite in a level he wants to be in yet. And hah, his backstory, it wasn’t totally sob because it’s obvious he was much too doted on, but I still hate how they made him like that. True, if he’s still carrying the same misogynistic ideals as he is now in an age where he has the mental capacity to improve and be different, then the belief has become more of a choice than something engraved into him, which I am really disappointed and not really into because of course, he’d be much better if he wasn’t like that in the first place. LOLOLOLOL yes yes he’s a kid, it sure as hell doesn’t excuse the way he is now but like just think !!

if a kid was spouting out such mean words and CLEARLY no one is correcting him, who really is the problem here? A child has a harder time deciphering what is right and wrong by himself without proper guidance. And he didn’t have proper guidance, they really just let him be like that and it’s because the clan!! sucks !! ass !! YEAH he probably called toji with a miserable face because he hasn’t seen him before but after seeing the iconic dilf, Naoya gone be like, “anyways, I lied, moving on—”

I'm not saying him trying to kill Megumi is forgotten (Though, the Jujutsu Society isa place where teens get executed for the simple fact that they are too strong, so im not surprised. Just like Noritoshi said, age does not matter in Jujutsu Society). I see now why he was really pissed about Megumi being the head, since Naoya has been promised the position since he was young, only to loose of a 15 year old who is the son of the man he admires :')) However, still, none of it excuses the shit he did. He still has a shitty personality, but it's nice to know a bit of a background.

yeah no of course, no worries! even as a hardcore naoya stan, I can admit this dude is TERRIBLE for so many reasons! yeah I mean that could be pretty irritating because he was born for it, raised to be clan leader, groomed and expected he’d have that role, but nah someone else took his throne. yeah I’m with you on that, naoya has a shitty personality and I would totally smack him if he was real because he makes my eyes roll to the back of my head, but knowing his background and theorizing (read: me going all psychologist mode because he’s the only character I ever cared about to apply my studies into) his character is quite fun. I wish we had more scenes with Naoya though, I really hoped he’d play a bigger role but he just…died, I guess, though I’m starting to believe that maybe he really isn’t dead! Gege did him dirty omg I’ll cry again if it’s really GENUINELY confirmed my baby is gone.

ah no worries about your English, I didn’t really notice anything wrong with it tbh! And I understand, these are all just our opinions/theories/perspectives, we could be wrong or not, we don’t really know because we’re not Gege (⋟﹏⋞) NOOOO PEOPLE HATED YOU ON THAT? ISTG I’VE NEVER SEEN A FANDOM CANCEL SOMEONE AS MUCH AS JJK FANDOM CANCELS NAOYA AND NAOYA STANS LIKE – he’s just a fictional character omg, cancelling naoya is understandable because I would too but attacking his fans? or generally anyone who talks about him in a neutral or not in a way that goes, “yeah I would punch this mfer” is just?? doesn’t make sense to me bestie, people really choose to do that with their time yikes.

AND AWWW THANK YOU YES I PROTECT ALL MY FELLOW NAOYA STANS HERE, I respect who people simp for because if it’s what you enjoy and as long as you’re not hurting anybody, then it really doesn’t matter and it’s not a big deal! and you’re always welcome here uwu. have an even nicer day bestie and I’m sorry I didn’t see this sooner AAAA I really loved talking about this tho HEHEHEH I’m not actually too much of a JJK theorist since I’m not smart enough to pay attention or infer from all the details but NAOYA HMMMMM also childhood friends fic? hmu let’s hear it!! also ahh hmm idk but i get really happy whenever people talk to me freely about naoya bcos even tho i have been a naoya simp for like three months, it was not until recently that people came to me about him and i have just been simping alone (bcos people MADDDD) spsppsps okay rant over thank you anon i love you kith kith <3

#asks with naoya's trophy wife #jjk: manga spoilers #tw: misogyny

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maxverstepponme · 3 years

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CXeOBoSt6O3/?utm_medium=copy_link oh no, not this. "behind every great champ is a great woman" 🙄

Max won because he's a very good driver, because he worked hard all season, because everyone who worked for Red Bull did an incredible job, because Alex spent so many hours in the sim, Max and Checo too, because Honda was competitive and worked hard for it, because Checo helped him on track, because the strategy was great most of the time, because the pit stops were amazing, etc. and she didn't contribute anything directly. I don't think she gave him any advice on how to win a race or the championship - and that's okay, she's his girlfriend, not his manager.

this point of view is clearly conservatism: women only have a supporting role, so they are behind a powerful man and help them to be successful because women could not be successful on their own for a long time. because of patriarchy and society telling them that this was not their place - now it's no longer necessary in many of our societies (in Western Europe, at least) you can succeed on your own, as a woman - but it's more difficult.

it's clearly part of patriarchy because I've never seen the opposite: we don't congratulate Beyonce on Jay-Z's success. I don't like Kelly, not because of her, but because she's a typical product of the patriarchy (and that's not her fault): everything in her life is about the men in her life (father, ex-boyfriend, boyfriend) and she just tries to be pretty, supportive and a mother which isn't bad in itself it's just that I think women can do so much more than just support someone - I admire housewife raising kids because it's hard work - but outside of Daniil for years, Nelsons (his father and his brother when he was in F1) and Max, unfortunately, she's nobody. her whole life revolves around them, even her professional projects. good for her if she's happy that way, it's the only thing I wish her, but I just think it's sad. does she have another passion? does she have any projects than don't invole Max? did she do anything other than that that I missed?

about the quote from Sutton (and many others) I remember Michelle and Barack Obama went to a restaurant once and the owner asked to speak to her in private, when she came back, Barack asked her what he said. the man had a crush on her when they were young, so jokingly he had told her "if you married him, would you own this restaurant?" and she said, "no, he would be president". I like her energy, she is a strong and independent woman who has done a lot of different things in her life; she is really interesting and a great role model in my opinion.

my point is not to bring Kelly down - she's probably a nice person who gave Max a lot of support, a great mom and she's really pretty - she's just a great example of conservatism because it's just the eternal debate between conservatism and progressivism. if you recognize yourself more in conservatism and want that kind of life, then it's more than okay and great, all you need is to find something that makes you happy. I just think these things are interesting because usually you choose your role model because of your beliefs.

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jew-flexive · 3 years

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all too well (ten minute version)

- already the production is so soft oh no oh no

- the way she held out the note for “now” and her voice went all breathy amiright ladies

- oh the first verse is so delicate and wistful it hurts in a deep quiet place oh no

- i'm already crying wow okay

- again the production is so shimmery and careful I love

- “and you were tossing me the car keys, fuck the patriarchy key chain on the ground, we were always skipping town” like they had fun together! she loved him and it was sweet and joyous and red red red! like obviously he ruined it, but in this moment he is clever and sly and she loves him, she does

- ALSO: SHE SAID FUCK

- “and i was thinking on the drive down, any time now he's gonna say it's love, you never called it what it was” these moments, these are why people love her music. she takes this specific moment of doubt we’ve all felt and phrases is it in all its pain and beauty and instability

- oh my god oh my god oh my god this verse is vicious and so hurt... it goes from this tender sort of reminiscing to angry beyond all belief in a moment and i can’t handle it

- “all I felt was shame” yes yes yes yes yes yes

- “and there we are again when nobody had to know. you kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath” TAYLOR!!!!! but also this is such a painful thing-- she is a secret, he will not own their relationship, but she rearranges her whole world for him without having to be asked.

- in other news: get in the car we’re killing Jake Gyllenhaal

- “every time you double cross my mind” and here is the quintessential taylor swift wordplay. god she’s a master lyricist.

- “you said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine and that made me want to die” this is awful i am so sad

- “the idea you had of me... who was she?” god i hurt. i hurt and it is cleaving me in two.

- “you who charmed my dad with self effacing jokes, sipping coffee like you're on a late night show” wow jake fucking sucks dude

- “some actress asking me what happened, you, that's what happened, you” wow so i hadn’t thought about MY ex in a while but i guess that was too good to be true.

- “and i was never good at telling jokes but the punch line goes i'll get older but your lovers stay my age” oh she’s coming for his fucking throat

- the way she sang “that very first week” like she was holding back tears BITCH ME TOO

- there’s so much here, oh my god, i am incoherent

- also: this is a completely different song than the five minute version. it’s not kind. it’s tender, it’s raw, but this song is not kind, not in the least. good.

#red tv

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hirakdesherrani · 4 years

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Scattered thoughts on Bulbbul

(spoilers ahead)

Finally watched Bulbbul yesterday night, with my bff. We thought we needed each other’s support because we are phattus of the highest order, but there wasn’t much horror in it (as we found out later).

Which brings me to the first thing, the trailer. Whoever edited the trailer did a splendid job, because it gave very little clue what the movie was about. I thought it was something like Stree, using horror to give a social message, just instead of comedy in that movie, this was more drama?

The movie, however, had very little horror/thrill. While the movie is one of Netflix’s better online products, it isn’t...great. Like it’s very on the surface. There are not many layers to the characters, neither is there a lot of subtext. Still, the pace is good, and the storytelling engaging. Hindi cinema, theatre or OTT, are very new in this genre, so I don’t want to be too severe here.

Things that I liked:

Tripti Dimri....omg what a revelation. Laila Majnu didn’t let us on how versatile this girl is. In the first few frames, me and my friend were commenting that why is she only sitting around, posing like a mermaid? But then with the flashbacks, her raw performance really took hold. The scene where they are sitting at a picnic and Mahendra pulls at her hair, the way she said, “Dada, na” slightly scared, but also not wanting to hurt his feelings (btw I’m very anti-Mahendra in this post), that was so well done. From there on, she owns every scene, that you can’t look anywhere else. Whether it’s the mix of annoyance and impatience when she wants to meet Satya but Binodini is taunting her, or whether it’s the scene where Indranil informs her and Satya that he’s sending the latter to London, she was so natural. Special mention to the two scenes of violence esp. the sexual assault one, because it takes a lot of guts to portray the victim in such scenes, and the scene was so difficult to watch, that we forwarded after a few seconds of it.

That reminds me, from the moment the two brothers Indranil and Mahendra enter the frame, I knew what was going to happen, and which brother was going to perpetrate which abuse. The writing was on the nose, so to speak, with these two particular characters. Even so, Rahul Bose did the best that he could with them, but we have come to expect perfect performances when it comes to him, so not surprised here.

The third brother, Satya, was what I would say the most layered character in this movie, surprisingly. Initially, I didn’t get why did they cast Avinash Tiwary for this role, because it wasn’t either a substantial role, or even a positive or negative or supportive role. I even thought the makers tried to cash on the Laila Majnu hangover, and hyped Bulbbul/Satya love story in the trailer. Unlike Bulbbul who loved Satya, I don’t think Satya loved Bulbbul, at least not like she did. Sure, he thought of her as his best friend, confidante, and all, but he didn’t care for her like that. It was evident when he was enamored by the idea of going to London, and didn’t notice Bulbbul’s voice breaking when Indranil informed them of the news.

Halfway done with the film, I had made up my mind that Avinash is good with unrestrained roles like Qais, where he can completely let go, but not in subtle roles requiring controlled performances. What changed my mind was my growing dislike for Satya as the movie kept progressing. I kept thinking why does he annoy me so much, like he’s only there in a few scenes, and yet I want to snap at him? That’s when I realized how well the writers have written Satya, captured his mentality and vision, and without any overt or dramatic scenes, Avinash essayed the writer’s message.

Satya is proxy for the society in this film. He hears no evil, he sees no evil, just like our society which likes to pretend that there is nothing wrong going on behind closed doors. Satya is representative of those men, who argue whenever a woman raises her voice, that ‘not all men’ (ala that scene where Bullbul alludes to Master Dinkar beating his wife, while Satya defends the man by suggesting that his wife may have actually fallen down the stairs). In the scene where he meets Bulbbul after five years, he questions her what did she do that girl he knew five years ago, indirectly putting the blame on Bullbul for losing her childlike innocence, instead of asking her what happened to her that she became like this. Satya is classic ‘not all men’, victim-blaming abuse apologist in the film. Evil men are not just men like Indranil, who beat up their wives, or sexual assaulters like Mahendra, evil men are also those who stand by and watch, and pretend that nothing is going on, who put the onus on the woman for the upkeep of tradition, who question a woman’s morality and who act as the judge, jury and executioner of a woman’s character. Bulbbul’s dialogue is telling, “Tum sab ek jaise ho” Satya is no different from his brothers, he may not have committed and violence, but he was just as much a villain as the rest of them for willfully ignoring the evidence of his eyes. I haven’t made up my mind whether he was actually jealous of Dr. Sudip or not, or he just hated the man for being too bold to be friendly with the ‘women of his family’.

Which brings me to Dr. Sudip, the only likable man in this film. Even though at some level it is a little sad to see Parambrata Chatterjee slotted into these male guide/support to the female protagonist kind of roles (his role in Kahaani was something similar), I really do like watching him in these roles, playing them as he does with a lot of charm, subtlety, and empathy. The makers perhaps wanted to signify that there are a few men who are not completely evil, and not afraid or feel threatened in the presence of a assertive, and this case, avenging female. It’s his relationship with Bulbbul which I felt was the real love story of the film, though of course, Bulbbul didn’t harbor the same feelings for him, though she did care for him immensely.

The other female role was that of Binodini. I know I should be feeling sympathy for her, at some level, she was also taught to keep quiet and bear all injustice, but I’m so tired of females taking out their bitterness on other females, making the lives of other women miserable, instead of directing them, rightfully, at the men in their lives and the dictates of the society. Binodini, like Satya, was a proxy for the women in the society who instead of being supportive of other women do the opposite, and help perpetuate patriarchy by teaching their fellow women to keep quiet.

Another minor thing, like I mentioned before, from the first scene it’s evident what Mahendra’s going to do. And I wish to God that we stop with mentally ill men assaulting women. No, their mental condition does not excuse rape. Mental illness can provoke violence in a person, yes, killing accidentally or in a fit of rage, beating, pulling clothes, etc, but not rape. Rape is a specific offense that requires knowledge and intent, unless a mentally ill person has learnt it from somewhere, and even then, the fact that they drew pleasure from that violence shows that they have a sadistic instinct. Which is why I was glad when Mahendra was punished for his crime. (this is why I didn’t watch Ranjha Ranjha Kardi despite liking Iqra, because I knew they were going to excuse marital rape using mental illness).

As such, there isn’t much of a plot per se in Bulbbul, it’s more of a commentary of our society, even though it’s set a century back, the issue of it’s choice being violence against women. Despite that, it’s an engaging enough film. It get’s through the message that the real horrors are not ghosts or witches, but what happens daily in our society. The length of the film is a huge plus, so I would suggest watching this film if you’ve some free time in the weekend.

Also, don’t get fooled like me and my friend, it’s not horror genre.

#bulbbul #netflix #tripti dimri #avinash tiwary #parambrata chattopadhyay #rahul bose #paoli dam #movies #my stuff

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swiftiephobe · 3 years

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fuck it i'm posting these now okay okay here are some thoughts (this covers the whole album so like. if you are still listening and don't want spoilers then don't read i guess?):

first of all: i'm very happy to essentially be back in the red era <3 this is a very special album to me and it was a very special time.

atw 10 min is pretty good for what it is, the lyrics were very obviously written specifically for this rerelease (i do not believe for a second these were the original lyrics, what is "fuck the patriarchy" doing here girl you know 2011/2012 taylor is not writing that) BUT aside from that it all sounds pretty good!! some of the newer melodies are very reminiscent of august. think she could have tried harder to actually channel red era taylor in the lyrics so it kept up the legend of "this is the original version of all too well!" but it is what it is. don't think i'll listen to it very often since i don't think it does enough more than the og to justify the 10 min runtime, i can see it being tiresome to listen to

i'm not as immediately sold on this as i was on fearless tv. i felt like fearless tv benefited a lot from updated vocals and production but still kept really faithful to the original for the most part. i think the only one that was a bit iffy was you belong with me? here there are a few more eh moments, maybe because i just love red a LOT so i'm going to be more picky with these songs, but also because there wasn't really much room for improvement with the vocals and stuff like there was for fearless so any changes that are there are more likely to feel unnecessary? idk, some of these songs i'm going have a very hard time replacing the old versions with tv because they just aren't as good

songs that i pretty much have no complaints about compared to the originals, just to prove i'm not being a negative nancy: red, treacherous, ikywt (the snippet had some dodgy vocals but it sounds better with all the production), all too well (original version), i almost do, stay stay stay, the last time, holy ground, sad beautiful tragic, the lucky one, everything has changed, starlight, begin again, come back be here

now for the ones i have issues with...

the state of grace background vocals are so muted :/ look how they massacred my boy. a shame because otherwise this version is great.

what the fuck are the "WEEEEEE"s in wanegbt. why do they sound like that. also the spoken word part is off but i think it would have been impossible to replicate it perfectly. i'm not sure i can listen to this new version over the original honestly

the chorus of 22... also sounds bad. it sounds almost off-key and is weirdly echoey. i hated the snippet we got way back when and the whole song does at least sound better than that snippet had me fearing. but that chorus...

i'm not a massive fan of the mixing on the moment i knew... i adore this song and the vocals and production on tv are both excellent individually but i think the production overpowers the vocals sometimes? i feel the vocals were very prominent on the original but they seem a bit more buried here and it bothers me

GIRL AT HOME NOW AN ELECTROPOP BANGER?? i remember she knows that people hate it (note that i don't say *WE* hate it because *I* am not included in this group!!!) so i guess she wanted to "upgrade it"?? i liked the original, i like this one too but i hate making such drastic changes on principle when i thought the point was to keep it faithful to the original (and yes now i am afraid for certain other songs because if she was willing to change something as inconsequential as girl at home what else will she change if she perceives it as being disliked?)

i never really cared much about better man and babe and can probably count on my fingers how many times i've listened to both of them. taylor's versions are nice though, i'll probably listen to them more often now.

anyway now thoughts on the vault tracks (the actual new ones not like babe/better man) overall i can see why these were rejects, while i generally like them and i'm glad we have them, i don't think i would replace any song on the original red with these:

nothing new: not as good as i was hoping. i like the subject matter of the song, i think it's an interesting and fairly heartbreaking insight into taylor's headspace back then. it's lyrically very on the nose though, to a fault. phoebe got a good chunk of the song though! so let's celebrate that.

message in a bottle: interesting that this was apparently the first song she wrote with max + shellback because this feels very 1989 rather than red. it's cute! but it's not amazing

i bet you think about me: return of the country drawl i- also the whole "you grew up in a silver spoon gated estate and i grew up in a farm not a mansion" part (paraphrasing lyrics) has me a bit 💀 and not in a good way

forever winter: i like it <3

run: feels a bit ed by the numbers. which isn't necessarily a bad thing. the better collab was chosen for the album

the very first night: I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE!! i like how upbeat it is, this kinda feels like starlight except more closely tied with the story of the album so it's interesting it didn't make the cut. but i guess she wanted most of the "previous relationship" songs on red to be heartbreak songs with the happier songs being more about new love so i'm guessing that's why it was dropped!! again nitpicking but just before the chorus she sings "you" in a way that annoys me because it would rhyme way better if she sang it more like "ya" sdhfsgfs idk if that makes sense.

#red tv

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ghinanotlinetti · 4 years

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My thoughts on Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Seasons 1 & 2 and the liable (s)hero

Hello! I’m going to be talking about The Umbrella Academy. I got hooked on this show when it came out and my friend recommended it to me, at the time we were on our final semesters of university and had a lot of free time because we weren’t expected to take a lot of classes to focus on our final undergrad assignment, so why not binge watch TV shows! I remember the pace being quite slow, I wasn’t too invested to begin with but then later on as the episodes progressed I got so into it. And when the second season came out during this whole pandemic fiasco which was the perfect gift for us nerds!

I want to firstly mention that I've not read the comics and I don't think I'm planning on doing it soon, but I do like watching superhero movies and series. I can't describe what I'm into I just know that I like what I like which ranges from A to Z. So as an adaptation I can't say much on how the show does the comics justice, but from what I've heard from readers of the comics who've watched the show, the show pretty much follows the story from the comics (not word for word but not too loosely either) which is great I imagine. I can tell the series shows the story of these characters who we know and are invest in very well, it gets straight to the action, drama, and develops intriguing plot lines. I personally love siblings dynamics in TV shows; this family dynamic is so interesting to watch onscreen, from the flashback scenes of when they were little (I really do hope there's a spin-off with the kids!) to their current relationship that they have now with each other as siblings. The first season sets the story straight, then the next season steps it up a notch which is awesome! I love Klaus' character plot, especially the banter that he has with Ben, love those scenes and I'm glad we got to see more of Ben in season 2! In the first season I was drawn to Diego’s character specifically, and I also was intrigued by the backstory involving other characters like Reginald, Pogo and Grace. I like all the characters except for Luther but I can respect what he brings to the family dynamic and the role he plays in the story (even if it's very frustrating to watch). I like the story a lot, I can tell the writing is well thought out and it’s captivating to watch the story play out with each episode. And of course, the production is top tier, American productions really know how to produce high quality films, I really appreciate this and that it was paired beautifully with a good story! I thought the plot had pretty much every element needed to make a superhero franchise, from the conflict, character, even to (problematic) stereotypes...

I'm not very invested with superhero movies in general, but some of my favourite movies are those superhero movies. I love the Spiderman movies (the Toby Maguire ones are iconic, Andrew Garfield ones are good I enjoyed it, and I love Tom Holland's Spiderman a lot), haven't watched all of Thor but I really like Thor Ragnorok, obsessed with Black Panther, love Captain Marvel, I've watched all the Avenger movies without having watched any Ironman movies, the Hulk movie and the first Captain America movie. I also watched some of X-Men movies but I’m less invested in them compared to my mild obsession with the Avengers; I like Days of Future Past, Logan was so brilliant, and I've seen the other films but they haven't really stuck with me. So I get the gist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (quite familiar with DC but not as much as MCU) and I have to say, I'm so done with the liable characters who are 9 out of 10 times women in these superhero franchises. Vanya is the liable character, Diego says this himself to her in season one when their house is intruded by Hazel and Cha Cha - everyone's using their powers to defeat them meanwhile Vanya does nothing because she can't and gets bruised. And I’m sick of it. I’ve seen this before with the Scarlet Witch (Wanda) and Jean Grey, and every time it’s annoying for me to watch. They’re the most powerful character, but they have no control over themselves it’s annoying! Wanda ends up having to kill Vision and it’s very upsetting for her because she loves him, and it’s all just frustrating to watch as a viewer because of her very bad timing and almost incompetence to be logical. Jean Grey is killed by Wolverine because she lost control of her powers and then in the Sophie Turner one she also dies to save her friends.

Only tragedy for these lot who most if not all the time are women. There’s already a visible lack of superwomen, so with this liable character trope it’s sad that when women are included in these stories we’re inclined to see them through how the patriarchy views women. If they’re not the hero then they’re the love interest, and if they do get to be the hero it’s the tragic hero incapable of control. Women are “strong” and are meant to save everyone but they’re delicate, too delicate that it gets in the way of them mastering their powers. Women are emotional, they can’t be logical beings so they’re not the leader despite being the most powerful one in the group. Captain Marvel flips this stereotype on its head; that scene when we think there’s about to be a showdown between Captain Marvel and Jude Law’s character (can’t remember the name for the life of me), it’s meant to be one-on-one with no powers but she refuses, blasts him with her fist and says to him that she has nothing to prove to him. Iconic! Now that's a movie and character which is clearly written by women for women and I want more of it! I want to see more female superheros who aren’t the tragic hero with bad timing, zero control over everything including their feelings and powers. The story arc of the liable hero is overdone and predictable, so I really would like to see literally anything else.

Vanya’s story arc was quite predictable. Of course she has to fall in love with the wrong people at the wrong time, and of course she has to face a nearly impossible dilemma to solve. From the beginning I knew I just didn't like Vanya's character but wasn't sure why, then I realised this female character was written by men, and that's why I found her so.. annoying. She's brilliant obviously don't get me wrong, she's the most powrful one but the fact that this had to be paired with her trauma from years of being neglected was utterly corny. It’s also not lost on me that there’s 7 Hargreeve children and 2 are girls; Allison’s story arc for a while was attached to an unnecessary romance with Luther, and Vanya is the seemingly incompetent one but plot twist, she’s actually the one to watch. I already knew the love story between Vanya and Sissy would be too good to last, but regardless I feel for her because Allison gets to have more than one romance throughout the course of the series, and though they also don’t really last either it’s not as heartbreaking for her to cope with when they end. Vanya gets better at controlling her powers in the second season, but she’s kind of the same lost character because she loses her memories and almost has to start from the beginning. Season 2 was also interesting to watch because it introduced a new character: Lila. So that’s another female superhero who’s also a WOC, great, but her story for me felt a bit like the liable one mostly because of her backstory which of course leads to a difficult dilemma towards the end. It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do with Lila's character in the future seasons, I don't think we really got to know her very well and I'm excited to find out more.

I really can’t wait for the next season but no rush, I can wait for how ever long it takes for the team to not slack, stay true to the story and deliver another season we deserve to watch (haven’t forgotten about GoT’s tragic downfall!). The screen writing is a 10/10 surprisingly for an American production, I hope it stays top tier in the upcoming seasons *fingerscrossed*. The production is obviously 10/10 and cast is 10/10. I guess the only thing lacking is the character, particularly the women which the show seems to not know what to do with them (and yet they know exactly what to do with the male characters). We only got to see a split second of the new Ben and I can’t wait to discover more of who the new Ben really is, which should be pretty exciting to watch!

#the umbrella academy #netflix #series review #movie review #klaus hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #allison hargreeves #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #female superhero

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antiracistkaren · 4 years

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On Grief and White Women

The stages of grief are well known: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

I am always surprised when I start coming out of the other side of grief, because the stages don’t feel like the typical grief cycle for me. Acceptance feels first: yeah, that person died. Or part of my life died, and it is that acceptance that kicks off my grief. And I’m angry, not in denial, but depressed, certainly.

It’s a weird depression though. It doesn’t make me sleepy, it makes me sharp and dangerous. It doesn’t keep me in bed, it keeps me focused on all of the pain. Any new pains added in are reacted to in a huge way: I cannot take any more, so I cause harm to others to force my experience of pain to be shared.

I am finding that my experience of pain--physical and emotional--are very intense. I am unsure if it is because of autism, or if it is because I have spent my life connecting my brain to my body, and notice the physical sensations that are a product of my stress much more readily than the average adult.

My threshold for physical pain is almost nil, in some regard. Especially internalized physical pain. I can deal with a cut, sometimes not feel it like others, but any internal discomfort radiates out from my body. It forces me to collapse mentally, I can’t make coherent thoughts from it, and due to that incoherence, I am then unable to figure out or communicate effectively about/around my pain.

So I had a surgery, and then I had a death in the family. Was it sudden? No, the person had been diagnosed with cancer in 2018. However, the speed with which she declined was shocking. I have an email written from her--a response from my own email where I poured out all of the love I had in my body for her--stating she felt really good, and didn’t think that she would be passing any time soon. She passed less than 10 days later.

Now I am about a month out from her death, and I am just starting to see how dark my world was for a long time. How angry I was that she didn’t fully accept my love, how angry I am for not having pushed to have my partner at her bedside sooner, how angry I am at myself for having a surgery which made it hard for my partner to get to her quickly and without concern for my welfare. I carried it all willingly, for a while. It was a welcome distraction from study. An excuse to dip into poor habits that brought out the worst of my anxiety. It was a reason to bomb the LSAT (unconfirmed at this moment, but I’m a catastrophizer), to not be able to focus.

I’m not denying myself those feelings and that time, but I couldn’t even see it until I started to see some sunlight again. Until I could start to receive some of the love my friends had been desperately throwing my way, until I could grab on to some of these lifelines to save myself.

All this to say: it makes me think about white women, a lot.

I learned in undergrad, when I was getting my PoliSci degree, that it is impossible to see the depth and breadth of oppression when you’re still in it or under it. On TikTok this week, white women have been handed a lot of flack for their inability to recognize that although they are oppressed by the patriarchy, they are not the most oppressed people, and their oppression (though difficult) is not the same as the oppression put on Black folks, and especially anyone who is LGBTQ, Disabled, or AFAB and also Black. That’s intersectionality, and white women suck at it.

Much like I sucked at seeing how my own sadness and oppressive grief was causing me to act out in ways that vented some of the physical and emotional pain, I think white women struggle in the same way. When you don’t feel pain, (and although women in general are abused, Black women are 3x more likely to be murdered than white women, more likely to be abused than white women) your introduction to it feels overwhelming.

However, it’s categorically wrong to try to compare oppression for oppression. It’s not a zero-sum game. I think of oppression like a ladder: white cis straight able-bodied christian men are at the top, with zero oppression and a society built around them. They have no notion of oppression, and mistake any pain they feel as systemic oppression and tantamount to the pain that others feel under the boot heel of white supremacy and patriarchy.

Everyone standing under them on the ladder know that those at the top of the ladder are not oppressed, and are aware that those on top have no idea.

White cis straight abled bodied christian women are just one rung below. Woke liberal white women start to wake up to their own oppression and fail to look down. They only look up at the men who are standing on their shoulders keeping them down, and have not a care for the myriad of people below them on the ladder. They can’t even conceive of a person who is LGBTQ, homeless, disabled, BIPOC, and a sexworker as someone who even exists, but they do.

When white women start to attempt to equate their unhappiness with oppression, it is tone deaf and very similar, if not exactly the same, as when a white man feels pain and starts screaming oppression.

Yes, we are oppressed by the patriarchy... but so are men. Yes, we are more likely to be murdered by a partner than a man, but Black women are 3x more likely than we are to be murdered by a partner or family member. Fight for women’s rights, yes, but not White women’s rights. Oppression has an additive effect: that’s what intersectionality is. Oppression has layers, and the more oppressed you are, the harder it is to find you in American Society, the more your voice is buried. The more you’re erased from consideration.

White women, if they are to participate in the liberation of all women or in smashing the patriarchy, have to take a long hard look at themselves, the ways they have upheld the patriarchy when it suits them, and the ways they benefit from specifically white patriarchy in their own lives.

Half-woke white women are dangerous allies. They scream “me too!” when Black women or Indigenous women start talking about their struggles, often over those women who are trying to share their harder, deeper, and more intense experiences. Half-woke white women who fly the banner of ally are dangerous to BIPOC. They’re the ones who will scream that a Black man is threatening because he is a man, without a care to the racism that lives in their minds alongside their fear of men.

And most of all, most white women--especially those are are not close to being awake--have no idea what the depth of oppression feels like. In order to even come to the table with BIPOC, it is our job to examine our own grief, our own mistakes, our own anger and work on that before we step out trying to lend a hand in the community. Getting triggered as a white woman can get a person of color killed in America. Only when a white woman has done her research, committed herself completely to uplifting the voices of women of color--over her own most of the time--can she really start to be effective.

Only when the healing is mostly done can we start to see the overall oppression. Until then, we are a double-edged sword that will swing back on BIPOC every time, to their detriment.

#socialjustice #whitewomen #blm #actuallyautistic #oppression

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alexandrasavior · 5 years

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Alexandra Savior’s Kind of Feminism

Knowing what establishes art as feminist is a feeling more than anything. The line is very fine between exposing a trope and being that trope, just as it is between acknowledging gender and falling victim to it. With that in mind, there’s an honest feminism in Alexandra Savior’s music that is very refreshing. She does not sing as a woman who is marketing her gender or sexuality, though she does not pretend she is not a woman, either. She sings with a human vulnerability, addressing her longing and desires as a woman, as well as her insecurities as one. She does not fall in line with problematic gendered music because she acknowledges the trappings head-on.

While what I mean by “problematic” may be obvious, I would like to avoid sounding vague: Women should not sell sex for the pleasure of men. There has been a perversion in modern feminism that has allowed for this to take place, for female celebrities to sexualize themselves and call it empowering, even though it is both feeding a patriarchal society and hurting women who are not in that position of influence. It has once again become normal for a female singer to degrade herself using her sexuality through lyrics, clothing and actions, and it still remains profitable.

Savior’s music reminds me of Věra Chytilová’s film Daisies (1966), a film one can only describe as a nightmare for the patriarchy – a feminist apocalypse by way of pure female empowerment and a total structural breakdown of society. The film’s characters appear so feminine that they defy their gender by pushing it to the extreme; in a way, this is what Alexandra Savior’s music is doing too. Aesthetically speaking, her music videos also seem reminiscent of the film.

She only has two albums to date – 2017’s Belladonna of Sadness and 2020’s The Archer – which makes following the 24-year-old artist’s career all the more exciting. Her first album was done in collaboration with Alex Turner, and his musical influence is felt – this is even how I found out about her in the first place, through Turner. It may sound counter-productive to have to speak about Savior in relation to a man, though their collaboration is important to note because I would say they are male and female musical counterparts. Turner’s style, especially since The Last Shadow Puppets’ 2016 Everything You’ve Come to Expect, has matured to a level of extreme confidence, in both his music and performance, and this style seems directly linked to a self-conscious masculinity. Turner’s performance in the music video for his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Is This What You Wanted?” is flamboyantly masculine, wearing a vest atop bare skin, paired with an ascot, sunglasses and tight, embroidered trousers; he embraces his gender nearly to the point of parody, which takes it to a level beyond simply being a joke. Savior does this with her femininity: she is so feminine that she becomes something beyond any expectations of gender (like the women from Daisies). The music video for “Howl” (off her latest album) is a great example of taking gender expectations to the extreme. If a woman is meant to be submissive to men – awaiting them with a languid disposition – then this video has flipped that notion on its head. Savior lays lifelessly on the floor, on a bed, on a couch (I am reminded of Ramón Casas' painting A Decadent Girl), on a table, on the stairs, on the dirt. She has stripped sex from these poses by making them uncomfortable to look at; it’s as if her message is a dare: I’m here for the taking, if you still want to take me like this.

“Mirage” is one of my favorite songs of hers. It features the singer deciding upon a stage name or alter-ego that will best suit her:

Violet was tickling my fancy Gives out just the right amount of soul I wonder if it makes me sound too old Decided that a Stella or a Candy Seems as if I’m spinning down a pole Swept them over to the stack of no’s

“Anna-Marie Mirage” becomes her new persona, and the change the singer experiences as a result can be seen in the change of the chorus throughout its repetitions: “I sing songs about/Whatever the fuck they want;” “We sing songs about/Whatever the fuck they want;” “We sing songs about/Whatever the fuck she wants.” By the end of the song, her persona has more freedom than she does, much like the freedom one feels behind a mask, though, since the two never merge into one, our singer does not feel that empowerment on her own.

I’ve also become a fan of her more recent song “The Archer.” It’s a reflective love song that exposes her awareness of her own emotional weakness and insecurity, though it addresses this with the distance one has when examining the past:

You ate me right up You spit me back out You bit my head right off with your tiny little mouth I licked the blood from your lips

Is her songwriting cliché? I’d argue that it dances right up to the line of becoming so, which is not at all a criticism – quite to the contrary; her music is rooted in clichés of femininity which is why she is able to critique and subvert it so well. Take “Crying All the Time,” for example. She sings: “He doesn't like it when I cry/And now he's gone, so I'm crying all the time.” The lyrics, and the title, are a joke with a subtle poignancy to them; she is acknowledging a female stereotype of sensitivity (“crying all the time”) and playing that role, while making an ironic protest by saying it is to spite her ex-lover – but at the end of the day, she is still crying. How does one reconcile feminist ideals with involuntary emotion? Savior seems to find that balance here playfully.

We need women like Alexandra Savior to become popular because women who pretend sexual self-exploitation is empowering harm the rest of us. You don’t need to be sexually conservative to be a feminist, just as feeling emotions that have been associated with femininity does not compromise your stance as a feminist. As 2020 has just begun, let’s hope that Savior offers us a pathway to a new type of sonic female empowerment. Her music, and the message carried within it, is definitely worth our attention.

#alexandra savior #review #kinda ig #fan art #again. kinda ig #just thought this was cool wanted to share #2020 #*

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lochsides · 4 years

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folklore: Track-by-Track review

As I’m writing this, folklore has been on repeat all day long. I’ve been trying to build a relationship with the songs, interpret lyrics and listen in on all the intricacies of the production. If ever Taylor wrote a sonically cohesive album, this is it. The songs flow in and out of each other seamlessly. folklore is emotive, nostalgia-coated, and complex. The storytelling on this album is brilliant. I've always wanted her to write conceptually and the fact that she created this whole world with characters and history is indicative of her talent as a storyteller. This is where she excels. I’m already so in love with this album and I'm certain my affection for it will only grow - I didn’t know how much I needed all that this album is. folklore evokes a sense of comfort within me, like wearing your favourite old cardigan. This project is the best Taylor has ever written.

I've added my song reviews below the cut, for those of you interested. Currently, my favourite tracks are august, exile, the last great american dynasty, cardigan, my tears ricochet, and this is me trying.

the 1 is the perfect entry point to folklore. The tone of the song is natural progression from Lover. This song is nostalgia wearing rose-coloured glasses. The effortlessness production enhances the romanticism of the lyrics. the 1 is one of those songs that's really easy for the listener to insert themselves into. “You know the greatest loves of all time are over now” is one my most favourite lyrics on the album. I also love the chorus line of “we were something, don’t you think so? / In my defence, I have none...”

cardigan was the perfect choice for a lead single. It's one of the catchiest songs on folklore while being one of the most folksy songs too. The drum at the start sets a dark tone to the song, which is verified by her vocals and production. I love the "I knew you" pre-choruses. The one following directly from the bridge is my favourite part of the whole song and the sole reason for this song being in my top 5. There is so much complexity and emotion to that part, both lyrically and production-wise.

the last great american dynasty is first and foremost such a dramatic title, I love it, but it’s fittingly dramatic for the story she’s telling. This is what I meant earlier about creating a world with characters and history. She wrote a song about the previous owners of her Rhode Island house. For all intents and purposes, this song is folklore. It’s whispers and gossip about the widow who “had a marvelous time ruining everything” - genius lyric, by the way. The production on this track is builds around the story.

exile is one of my absolute favourites, I love this song so much. The first note I made about exile is how much it reminds me of The Last Time with the whole two sides to one story thing. Bon Iver sounds so good with Taylor. I love their back-and-forth throughout the bridge. Their overlapping vocals works for the song and the entire production of this song is perfection.

my tears ricochet was a song that really hit me square across the chest. I’ve put a trigger warning in the tags but if abuse is a sensitive topic for you, skip ahead to the next track. This song was hard for me to listen to because I could relate it back to an abusive situation I was in. “Even on my worst days, did I deserve babe, all the hell you gave me” physically hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I really really love this song. It’s in my top 5 because of how accurately she portrayed all the emotions I felt back then. The background vocals give it a haunting sound and the drum kicking in on the bridge really pushes the emotion. My favourite lyric on this song is “... you would still miss me in your bones / and I still talk to you when I’m screaming at the sky.”

mirrorball makes me think of dancing in a bar with a lover. This is my type of dance music. None of that EDM shit, I want to sway to a live band in an airy melody. Lyrically, this song has a bit to unpack. “I’m a mirrorball, I’ll show every version of yourself tonight/ I can change everything about me to fit in” is actually really relatable for me. I’m a reflection of whoever I’m with/ speaking to. I become what they need me to be. It may be people-pleasing but it’s real.

seven is childhood whimsy and nostalgia in a song. I found the high vocals on the verses and lower vocals on the chorus to be an interesting choice, one that Taylor doesn’t often make. I love the honesty of the line “before I learned civility I used to scream, ferociously, any time I wanted.” Hey, let’s do that again. Children are unfiltered.

august is my song. The nostalgia, the storytelling, the production, the summer almost-lovers trope! I also love that she did that thing she does with bridges on a song and repetition through the end. What is it with her and doing that and mentioning cars (see Getaway Car and Cruel Summer). I have a theory that this song relates to betty and it’s from the point of view from the other woman because of the lyric “remember when I pulled up and said ‘get in the car’...” and “she said ‘James, get in, let’s drive’...” in betty.

this is me trying is the song I’ve listened to the most. The whole concept of regrets and this sinking sensation of not being good enough and trying tirelessly to be is something I think everyone can relate to. The whole second verse was a call out and hit a little too close to home, particularly the line “I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” I love her vocals on “at least I’m trying” and the strings! I can see this becoming my number 1 in the days to come.

illicit affairs has a really relaxing guitar pattern to it, which stood out to me because of the starting, but the part of this song that hooked me was the bridge. The production of the bridge shakes up the song and keeps it from being monotonous and the lyrics are amazing. I love the line “look at this godforsaken mess that you made, you showed me colours you know I can’t see with anyone else.” It’s a frustration common to the end of any relationship, romantic or platonic. There’s a level of comfort and understanding of each other that you’ve established and you won’t be able to find that exact thing with anyone else. The length of this song is perfect, in my opinion. Any longer and I would’ve been bored.

invisible string is the soulmate trope in a song. The production is so clean and I love the guitar and the string towards the end. “Time, mystical time, cutting me open and healing me fine” is my favourite lyric on this track. I also like “... string that pulled me out of all the wrong arms and into that dive bar” because of the Delicate connotations.

mad woman has one of the most clever lyrics on the entire record; “women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you” as a metaphor for internalised misogyny and how the patriarchy pits women against each other is fucking brilliant. I am not often so interested in the production of a song that all my notes are production-based. Everything from the minor chords on the piano to the beat pattern to the low vocals make for a chilling, suspenseful atmosphere. Aaron Dessner did that.

epiphany, although beautiful, was a bit slow for my liking. I love the part “with you I serve, with you I fall down / watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out” and the orchestral production. The elongated notes give it a really dreamy feeling, which was probably intentional as it’s about finding some peace / making sense of traumas in your dreams.

betty is a song that I can picture as I’m listening to it, which is a mark of great storytelling. The first note I have written for this song is harmonica in all caps with 4 exclamation points. I mean you can’t call your album folklore and have no harmonica. This song reminds me of old country Taylor and I’ve missed it.

peace is another song that felt a bit slow for me and the simplicity of the production, while very soothing, makes it feel lullaby-ish and sleepy. That was probably the intention, to make the listener feel peaceful listening to it. There are a lot of great lyrical moments on peace. The way she describes their closeness and her devotion through familial themes: "... give you a child" and "family that I chose / I see your brother as my brother." My personal favourite is the line "I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade ocean wave blues come." It's very poetic.

hoax is your classic piano ballad and it's beautifully sad. "You knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart but what you did was just as dark" carries pain. I also love the line "don't want no other shade of blue but you / no other sadness in the world would do". I like this song as a closer, though I'm curious as to why she chose it. I think the production fits with the vibe of folklore.

#reviews #taylor swift #folklore #cardigan #abuse tw #music #ts

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