#that's not teaching babes

[inkskinned]

no, but really, we need to talk about the casual objectification that has become the fallback discourse of the internet: if you're pretty and dressed nicely, you're a slut. and if you're even vaguely outside of their body standard, you're fucking disgusting.

too-frequently, people position sex workers as being "the problem". they sneer you're addicted to pornography, you don't know what a real woman looks like. but real women are in pornography. the real bodies on display are not the issue here: the issue is that other people feel extremely confident when commenting on someone's physique.

2000's super-thin is slowly worming its way back into the public ideal. recently i saw someone get told to "go for a run", despite the fact she was on the thinner side of average. not that it would ever be appropriate to say that: but it's kind of like sticker shock when you see it. people think that is fat? holy shit. do they just have no idea about things?

but what are you going to do about it? that's the problem, right. because chances are - you're a normal person. we can say normalize carrying fat on your body, but we are not the billion-dollar diet industry. we are not the billion-dollar fashion industry. we are just, like. people. who are trying to make content on the internet, without being treated shittily.

as someone who has been on both sides of things: you are treated better when you are thin and pretty. this is statistically correct. i am not saying that you cannot be bullied for being thin; i'm saying there are objective institutional biases against certain bodytypes. there are videos of men and women who lost weight all saying: i now know for a fact exactly how much worse you're treated. in the comments, some asshole inevitably says something akin to you deserved to be dehumanized when you were fat.

which means that ... the easiest thing to do is be pretty and thin. it is the path of least resistance, because of course it is, because any time you post a picture of yourself without a thigh gap, someone immediately comments something like you need to try a diet.

the other half is also dehumanizing though, huh, just in a different way. when i put on makeup and nice clothes, i am told i slept my way to the top as a professional. do you know how many women in STEM have told me they purposefully dress to "unimpress" because they already struggle to be taken seriously and if they're ever considered pretty - it for some reason takes away from their authority.

so they make it seem like it's your fault. you, existing in a body - it's your fault! if you didn't want shitty comments, don't have a body. they position us against each other like chess pieces; vying for male attention we don't even need.

and i can be an authority on this unless you think i'm fat and unattractive. when i am pretty and thin, i'm an activist. when i am just a normal person who makes a good point: i am immediately dismissed. nobody fucking believes you if you're not seen as attractive. you literally lose value. you cease to exist.

but the whole time, it feels like - is anyone actually grounded the fuck in reality? the line of "pretty and thin" keeps shifting. nobody seems to understand what "a normal weight" even looks like, because it's not something that exists - you cannot tell a person's health by looking at their body. even if you think you could tell that, even if you're sure a person is dangerously overweight - people are not your dolls. they do not need to be dressed up or displayed properly to soothe your aesthetics. you aren't concerned for them, you're stealing their agency. you don't get to say if they're "allowed" to take pictures and post them on the internet - you don't get to tell them how to exist.

people hide behind "the obesity epidemic" without any actual qualifications. they crow things about "normalizing unhealthiness".

but it's bullshit. i have visible abs. there is a pair of parallel lines on my body, even when i'm relaxed; where my obliques meet my abdominal wall. i am proud of this because it means i'm strong, because i overcame an eating disorder only to be ripped as fuck. it is genetic and physical luck that i even get any definition, i'm pleased as punch.

but it does mean that my abdominal wall sticks out a little bit. the other day i posted a video of myself dancing, and, for a moment, my shirt slipped. you could see a little bit of my stomach. i was cartwheeling to the floor. moments before this, i'd had my foot over my head.

a guy slid into my DMs. a row of vomiting emojis prefaced: you should really lose some weight before you think about dancing.

i stared at it for a long time. there was a time when i would have been triggered by this, where it would have encouraged me to starve myself. i would have ignored the fact i'm flexible, agile, good at jumping: i would have lost the weight for a stranger's passing comment. i would have found myself and my body fucking disgusting.

and for what? to please what? because why? so that he can exist in this world without an unchallenged eyeball? what would my self-hatred even accomplish? usually i write paragraphs. obviously. on this particular occasion, in this body i've been at war with for ages: i just felt exhausted.

it shouldn't be even worth saying. it shouldn't be hard to explain. all of this emotional turmoil when he cannot even comprehend the most basic truth: i am not an object on display for him.

[saltpepperbeard]

Ed and Stede Ep1-3 + Pet Names

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

growing up with a perpetually anxious primary caregiver is such a mindfuck. that shit will rewire your nervous system

[bizarrelittlemew]

surely Stede is on his way

[gentlebeard]

Our love was made for movie screens

For @saltpepperbeard 💕 Show: Our Flag Means Death - Season 1 & 2 Music: All I Want by Kodaline YouTube

[blakbonnet]

EDWARD TEACH + Looks for @xoxoemynn ❤️ Happy Birthday, Emy! You are such an amazing writer and friend, and the first person I reach out to when I have an unhinged plot idea I just can't work out. S2 insanity would have been nothing without you and I love our little bitchy sessions as much as our straight up crazy murderer tracking 💀 hope this is an incredible birthday and an amazing year for you babe!

[appleteeth]

Screencaps that made me laugh x OFMD (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) 17

[porschesbabydaddy]

Once again Charlie has 🥺😇🥰’d his way out of facing consequences for his actions

[submariini]

— sue zhao

[bragginball-z]

I just love how the literal Dread Pyrate Blackbeard™ decides to act like a virginal maiden when Mary asks if him and Stede have had sex yet

“That is PRIVATE!” Like Ed, babygirl, you positively RADIATE slut energy, why r we acting surprised rn?

[adriart]

how about some picking each other up content in s2 mr jenkins?

+bonus heart-eyes closeups:

[semi-precious-stoner]

Idk, something about Ed being the more "masculine" one, and wearing the dress on tbe wedding topper, while Steve is often considered more "feminine" one and is wearing his colourful dress suit is just, healing.

[saltpepperbeard]

Yeah, it's a piece of twine. For @blakbonnet 🎉💖. Happy Birthday to my dearest, sweetest clown! Babe, if I could gift you the renewal announcement, I would. Really quite whack that they haven't yet, because you assuredly deserve that on your special day. You deserve the world, really. Thank you for making the fandom space that much more special, and thank you for always enabling me <3 SJDKSSD. Idc what anyone says; we're in it for the long run, babe. We'll CLOWN FOREVERMORE. Love you so much, and hope you have a wonderful day <333

[queerly-autistic]

The thing with Stede getting any sort of piratey makeover is that Ed would absolutely fall over himself with how attractive he finds it, but he wouldn't be falling over himself because it's piratey - he'd be falling over himself because it's Stede.

Yeah, he'd lose his shit over the low-cut top and the earring - of course he would, he's a human being - but he loses his shit just as much over Stede in the frilly shirts and fancy swishy coats and powdery wigs and sleep masks and nightcap and also the teeny tiny little reading glasses.

And he'd make damned sure Stede knows that Ed found him just as sexy before the makeover as he does after it.

[bizarrelittlemew]

"I mean, I've met greater men than you, you know, better fighters, better shooters, better... well, just better. But they're all killed. And yet here you stand."

Our Flag Means Death 1x4 | 2x5 ⇉ Better mediocre and alive than skilled and dead

[sonnetforbonnet]

So at the end of S2E3 when Stede is trying to bring Ed back to life, he's saying "come back to me" and all that stuff. But when he says "I'll never leave you again" and "You're safe" that's clearly in a different voice, right? There's nothing frantic about it, meaning it's a voice over? So it's not something Stede was actually saying to Ed but rather something Ed imagined Stede was saying? I'm not crazy here, right? Have people already talked about this and I just missed all the discourse?