#the michells vs the machines

[ablobwhowrites]

more transformers prime and animated shitposting and headcanons

M/n texting: 'hey miko I think I found a new auto bot' miko: 'oh cool send me a pic!' *m/n sends a pic of him and a vehicon that is petting m/n with it's finger* miko: 'THATS A DECEPTICON' m/n: 'THIS BITCH TOLD ME HE WAS A AUTO BOT!'

Tfp human m/n has a little rule that each day one auto bot can be m/n's guardian like Monday it's arcee, Tuesday it's bulkhead, Wednesday it's bumblebee, Thursday it's ratchet then Friday it's prime....then when smokescreen joins he gets Saturday, then the kids m/n just hangs out with them regardless cause they are in the same highschool

Tfp starscream after he kidnapped you: "oh hello my little human." y/n: YOUR MOTHER HUNG HERSELF!

you when you see Megatron

Also personal thought, I wanna do a yandere the Michel's vs the machines

[picturejasper20]

If you want to know the reason of why Tmnt Mutant Mayhem looks so good is because people who worked in Into The Spiderverse and Mitchells vs the Machines are working in this movie too.

Source: https://twitter.com/kjettpack/status/1633254907452219392

[sentryhex]

i don't know chat i really don't know its 2am

[t-z-random]

I just watched mitchells vs the machines and the fact that it didn't spread like absolute wildfire and be held as a cinematic masterpiece makes me extremely bitter. I haven't enjoyed a movie this much in years and not only was it fun and absolutely hilarious, but it made me cry four seperate times. Y'all absolutely slept on this one.

[trincketbox]

⋆｡𖦹°⭒˚｡⋆ Judge me based on characters I relate to (let's see how this goes) ⋆｡𖦹°⭒˚｡⋆

[They're in no particular order btw]

[nosignofpi]

Not me infodumping to everybody in my life about the Locked Tomb series because I don't know anybody else that has read it but I need someone else to know what's happening.

[a-hobit]

Just fyi to anyone art books for movies on Amazon are fucking cheap as hell right now. Idk if it’s just for prime members but if you’re in the US they’re around 20-45% percent off your favorites! I have been waiting for this day and have been emptying my bank account all week people they’re like 20 dollars brand new per book before shipping???!?

Literally this is your sign to look up your faves in the wish list.

Not sponsored I hate Jeff but for broke bitches this is your call.

[karatheguardianangel]

These two would be best friends

[rayj4ck]

Alright so who would win in a fight: Yor Forger(/Briar) if the thought Anya was in danger, or Linda Mitchell if she thought Aaron was in danger?

[dannylovesstuff]

Goat mom is very VERY ANGRY!

[poettheythem]

Queer shows, books and moves

Good omens(Amazon Prime)

Owl House(Disney plus or Owlhouse.net)

Nimona(Netflix and Graphic Novel)

Young Justice season 5(Max)

Heartstopper(Netflix)

Our Flag Means Death(Max)

Doom Patrol(Max)

Strange world(Disney plus)

They both die at the end

Six of Crows

Shadow and Bone(Both the book and netflix show)

Helluva boss(Youtube)

Umbrella Academy(Netflix and comics)

Dead End Paranormal Park(Netflix and Graphic Novel)

Kilo and the age of Wonder Beasts(Netflix)

Shi ra(Netflix)

Sex Education(Netflix)

Red White and Royal Blue(Netflix and Book)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

We all fall down by SZabo

Q- Force(Netflix)

Young Royals(Netflix)

Arcane(Netflix)

The hallow(Netflix)

Michels vs the Machines(Disney Plus)

I’m not ok with this(Netflix)

Grace and Frankie(Netflix)

Harley Quinn(Max)

Hilds(Netflix, its less queer then the other but its good)

Everything going to be ok(Netflix)

What we do in the shadows(Hulu)

Rocky Horror picture show(Amazon)

9-1-1(Hulu)

The L word(Netflix)

Will and Grace(Netflix)

Symptoms of Being Human

Gender Queer

In Deep Waters

The Song of Achilles

The Color Purple

I wish you all the best

Loveless

The last of us(Max)

Vox Machina(Max)

Steven Universe(Hulu and Amazon)

Mask of Shadows

The honeys

We set the dark fire

Cryre’s

Jeffery

Call me by your name

Loki(Disney)

Pirate anything you want

[intersexbookclub]

Discussion summary: Trans-Intersex studies

On 2023-09-29 we met to discuss our first foray into academic intersex studies! We read three chapters from Transgender and intersex: Theoretical, practical, and artistic perspectives, edited by Stefan Horlacher (2016).

Overall reactions:

Dimitri: I liked there were perspectives I don't normally think about or see

Elizabeth (@ipso-faculty): I found the Costello chapter really useful because I've wondered why there isn't more trans and intersex connections and this explained it for me

Michelle (@scifimagpie): it tapped into and articulated a larger strain in the queer community “the people who want to have a gender” vs “the people who want to destroy gender, there is a fundamental struggle in that can only be dealt with through tolerance and acceptance

vic: multiple chapters make clear that intersex is made by doctors. This thing happens when you give birth and you don't know what to do and conveniently there’s someone confidently giving you a (usually really bad) answer…  we're foisting off this thing that doctors aren't trained to deal with it properly plus have medical arrogance

Connections to Disability Studies

Though the book was intended to get intersex studies and trans studies in dialogue, we made many connections to disability studies throughout the discussion.

Elizabeth: The book talks about the dynamic that the doctors are the ones who socially construct intersex, which is similar to how doctors contribute to the social construction of disability. 

Elizabeth: And also how in our society, when it comes to who is listened to most on disability/intersex, doctors come first, followed by parents, and it's those of us actually affected who come last (disability/intersex)

Michelle: it was interesting to see the arguments against eugenic abortion… The amount of eugenicist propaganda that's still around in our society, the text addressing the fact that people would abort an intersex foetus didn't surprise me but did alarm me

Elizabeth: Coming from disability studies I felt the question of who is/isn't intersex isn't actually a productive question, in DS we posed those questions for a minute before realizing it's not productive, to instead focus on ableism

Dimitri spoke about the idea of seeing your body as a garden that you tend to, rather than a machine to be fixed, and how it’s been a helpful framing

Michelle: one thing about accepting my intersex identity is that my body isn't broken for having a hormonal imbalance and it's just a way of being

The social and medical models of disability were invoked by Costello in chapter 4, to show contrasting models of intersex (social vs medical) and transness (social vs medical).

-=-=-

Chapter 1: Introduction by Stefan Horlacher, Pages 1-27. 

This chapter gave a brief overview of the state of trans studies and intersex studies, and the motivation for putting these two research areas into dialogue. 

We didn’t talk much about this chapter.

Elizabeth: I personally learnt a new word, repronormativity, from this chapter! Per Wiktionary, it refers to the “assumption that all humans want to have children, especially within the context of a monogamous heterosexual relationship”

vic rather aptly described it as “so GERMAN”

-=-=-

Chapter 4: Intersex and Trans* Communities: Commonalities and Tensions by Cary Gabriel Costello, Pages 83-113

This chapter reports on a sociological study of trans and intersex communities on Second Life, noting commonalities as well as tensions between and within the communities. 

Everybody found this the easiest chapter of the three to read lol 😅

vic: “I really appreciated the breadth of voices that were included. The author clearly has an argument, but still lets people speak. Like with the person who said ‘I'm not intersex’ and the author was like ‘this could come from fragile masculinity’, it was neat.”

Costello’s conceptual framework

To understand both intersex and trans communities, Costello employs a framework which differentiates a:

Medical framework, in which being intersex/trans is framed as “as a biological problem: a physical lack, superfluity, or malfunction” (p98). While Costello doesn’t use the word “truscum”, this is how many of us are used to referring to people who understand transness through this lens.

Identity framework, in which being intersex/trans is “framed as social in nature: social stigma is directed toward those who are in some way physically variant.”

An important insight of this study was that to understand the relationship between the trans and intersex communities, you have to realize there are four communities at play, not two:

Medical framework trans people (truscum)

Identity framework trans people

Medical framework intersex people 

Identity framework intersex people (who are the only ones who use DSD)

And as Dimitri summarized, “the tensions [between the communities] arise in the disorder framework, a lot of the problems lie in the disorder framework, and it's pretty important to make that separation”

In Costello’s study, anti-trans sentiment was linked to the intersex-as-disorder framework 

Costello writes about how the majority of intersex people are trained from birth to employ the disorder framework, which can easily result in anti-trans sentiment. Many intersex people are raised in a way where the slightest gender deviance is punished, and feel threatened by gender deviance. 

Multiple people noted how the intersex participant “Anna” from Costello’s study had misplaced anger at trans people, that it’s unfair to blame trans people for trans fetish porn when trans people have such difficulty getting conventional employment, and that the demand by cis & perisex people is more at issue

Elizabeth: so many intersex people are told they're intersex by a doctor and that they're disordered and the doctor will fix them so they're not given any community because the doctor is like "I'll fix you" and people are just used to the disorder framework because that's what they've only ever seen.

vic: Yeah, being born visibly intersex getting framed as a medical emergency

Elizabeth: really liked the dig that the shame of the parent comes above everything else

Dimitri: many parents don't know what's going on when their intersex baby is born and they're kinda pressured into the surgeries…  the parents might have veered to a more neutral stance on their own, maybe they have some hesitance about having a kid being different, that the surgeries are such a pile-on by everyone around them.... the parents of the kids need their own support, what do the parents need or could have had to make them not make those choices

Similarly, intersexism from trans people was linked to the trans-as-disorder framework

Costello discusses how many disorder-framework trans participants made statements along the lines of wanting to be intersex, or have an “intersex variation of the mind”, mistakenly thinking that this means they may be entitled to free gender affirming therapy (it actually makes it harder to access gender affirming therapy).

Costello explains why this sort of sentiment from trans people is poorly received by intersex people: “It alienates intersex people employing the identity framework by working against their mission to recast physical sex variance as diversity rather than disorder. It alienates intersex people employing the disorder framework by implying that trans-identification [...or] gender-confusion should characterize the intersex person. And the stories told by some trans* people employing the disorder framework about having an impossible intersex history angels intersex people of all camps.” (p107)

Michelle: To be intersex is to have a medicalized gender, and how any gender nonconformity is medicalized… it makes sense why so many trans people would cling onto a misunderstanding of intersex

Michelle: the medicalization of being transgender and you need surgery to fix a flaw in your brain, and the medicalization of intersex, they both need an anti-eugenics approach of let people be a little broken/different

Elizabeth: as a disabled intersex person it's been confusing that trans people would want medicalization like they don't know how terribly medicalized ppl are treated, and the chapter helped me realize they are already medicalized and they're trying to get a more "legitimate" medicalization rather than realizing they’re trying to play a rigged game

vic: transness is medicalized, too–the diagnosis is gender dysphoria and the treatment is transitioning. Also transitioning is only seen as a viable treatment because literally everything else doctors did to “cure” trans people didn’t work (they tried *so* many things). Trans people treating medicalization as something that’s desirable sucks, but I feel so deeply for anyone who was put in a place where that seems like their only option–people who feel like their only way forward is to claim things that don't make any sense. They're like “please, I'll do anything, I'll lie out of my ass, help me”. Those poor people!! And, of course, they also cause harm. It's all so sad. 

Criticisms of Costello’s chapter:

Elizabeth: I felt a weakness was not talking about the hypervisibility of trans people vs the invisibility of intersex people. Like trans people who have huge platforms to talk about gender stuff and should know better than to perpetuate perinormative ideas about sex.

vic: transmascs tend to really minimize our own difficulties. We're not well studied, and when we are, the data consistently shows we have the worst outcomes of any gender (in things like health, mental health, employment…). Disheartening to see Costello buy into it at times.

-=-=-

Chapter 5: Transgender and Intersex: Unavoidable Essentialism and the Normative Struggle for Recognition by Sebastian Jansen, Pages 115-140

High level notes

This chapter makes the argument that it’s impractical, if not impossible, to avoid essentialism of some form when theorizing about sex/gender, and so academic gender studies scholars should spend less time trying to avoid essentialism and focus more on improving the material circumstances for intersex, trans & LGBA+ individuals.

vic: I think they were saying that we can't do it because it can't be done without throwing trans & intersex people under the bus

Elizabeth: ch5 was how I realized that in the social [identity] model of intersex where we see intersex as a natural variation it is essentialism and I'm okay with it thanks to this chapter

We all agreed this was a challenging read. As vic put it: “it was very ‘as you know’ and I didn't know”, and that the author was probably nervous about writing it.

Jansen’s chapter got us talking about the nature of gender

Michelle and vic talked about how finding out truth about gender is building houses on shifting sand

Michelle: I liked the stairwell metaphor [that female is one level of a building, male is another level, and there’s a stairwell in between]... I don't like the idea of female and male in opposition, they are categories, you can be both/neither/change

Elizabeth: I did like how ch5 talked about how gender isn't just a thing in your brain, it's made through interactions of people interpreting your gender in interactions and they didn't talk about euphoria and I think gender euphoria is that feeling of people seeing you for the gender you are

Michelle: [Judith Butler’s]  gender as conversation reminded me of how art and research are forms of conversation... is gender a form of art?? [we then spent some time talking about this]

Elizabeth: I like the idea that gender should be like hair colour - it's there, you can change/experiment with it, it affects how people see you, but we don't organize society around it and I agree that's a good goal

vic: my gender is contextual - it's different depending on whether in an arts context vs. in interacting with landlord, etc

vic: in War & Peace there are four pages spent describing the beauty of a woman with a moustache–Tolstoy waxes quite poetic about how beautiful & beauty-enhancing her moustache is.

Elizabeth: yeah so many cultures see women's mustaches and/or unibrows as beautiful and hate how current Western culture hates hair

Elizabeth: yeah it's SO RECENT the idea that women shave legs, the Gillette company had saturated the men's market and convinced women that their hair is bad

A main critique of Jansen’s chapter was how it only considered Western perspectives

Elizabeth: ch5 was so Western, based on a mind/body dualism and I wanted there to be a discussion of other cultural constructions, like in cultures without mind/body dualism from what I can tell it's often that trans and intersex are not separated. 

We then spent some time talking about different cultural ideas about sex/gender such as Two-Spirit and hijra, and the intense medicalization of transness in Russia

Dimitri described how Russian/Slavic culture is big on repressing any kind of sexuality, and being queer is deeply tied to perversion, which kicked off a discussion of Left Hand of Darkness

Elizabeth: another reason I wanted postcolonial stuff was it'd be useful to have strategic essentialism discussed (Spivak), which seems really relevant to a discussion of essentialism.

Overall we were all glad we got to give our brains some exercise, and we’ll be reading more intersex studies in November! 😅 Join us for a discussion of Holmes’ Critical Intersex on Nov 24.

[video-game-birds-tournament]

What an exciting first round! Here's Round 2, where the real battle in the Iconic Bracket start!

I will be compiling the next round and putting them in queue for tomorrow, Monday 8/28 at 12PM EST. Again, all polls will run for a week and will get a mid point bump at around 3 days.

And again, any match-ups that end in 5% difference or less will have both contestants move on to the next round!

Text match ups under the read-more

Iconic Bracket

Round 2 - Side A

Kass (LoZ: Botw) vs Donald Duck (KH series) vs Chocobos (FF series)

Celeste (Animal Crossing) vs King Dedede (Kirby series)

Revali (LoZ: BotW) vs Falco Lombardi (Star Fox series)

Rowlet (Pokemon - Alola) vs Flappy Bird (Flappy Bird)

Round 2 - Side B

Blathers (Animal Crossing) vs Goose (Untitled Goose Game)

Red (Angry Birds) vs Polly (Ace Attorney)

Ho-Oh (Pokemon - Johto) vs Pidgeot (Pokemon - Kanto)

Cuccos (LoZ series) vs Biyomon (Digimon)

Side A - Round 2

Tiki (NewZealand Story) vs Teba (LoZ: BotW/AoC/TotK)

Wave the Swallow (Sonic Riders) vs Corviknight (Pokemon - Galar) vs Chicken (Crossy Road)

Yveltal (Pokemon - Kalos) vs Dyna Blade (Kirby series)

Germa Warfare (Night in the Woods) vs Nageki Fujishiro (Hatoful Boyfriend)

Pyoro (WarioWare) vs Gustav (Spiritfarer)

Bean the Dynamite (Sonic the Fighters) vs Zapdos (Pokemon (Kanto)

Rawk Hawk (Paper Mario: TTYD) vs Noctowl (Pokemon (Johto) vs Sparrowmint (Viva Piñata)

Storm the Albatross (Sonic Riders) vs Speedy / Battle Kukku XVI (Tails Adventures)

Side B - Round 2

Michelle the Owl (Flutter: Starlight) vs DJ Groove (A Hat in Time)

Berdly (Deltarune) vs Tulin (LoZ: BotW/AoC/TotK)

Sirfetch'd (Pokemon- Galar) vs Medli (LoZ: WW)

Oricorio (Pokemon (Alola) vs Glamrock Chica (FNAF Security Breach)

Qing Yan (Gunfire Reborn) vs Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap (Undertale)

Nugget (Yakuza 0) vs Reyson (FE: PoR/RD)

Quiet Robe (Metroid Dread) vs Beat (Megaman) vs Punishing Bird (Lobotomy Corporation)

Scratch the Robot Chicken (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) vs Pigeon (The Sims)

[roamwithahungryheart]

Episode 3x08 vs Episode 1x05

Something that immediately struck me was the parallel between Michelle's (and Ted's) outfits in 1x05 and 3x08.

At the beginning (and the end) of 1x05, Michelle brings Henry to London and sits with Ted in The Crown & Anchor in a strikingly similar outfit to the one we see in 3x08. The difference? In 1x05, her red shirt is a lighter fabric, it's slightly unbuttoned, Ted & Michelle are more open with each other in this episode, addressing their marital issues and agreeing to let each other go.

In 3x08, it's almost as if the outfits have been inverted. Michelle's red shirt has a high neckline. Her heart isn't open to Ted anymore. Her interactions with Ted are friendly, but still tinged with formality.

And then there's Jake (boo!) who appears to be mirroring Ted's outfits. When Henry asks for money for the pinball machine, Ted & Jake dig around in their pockets at the same time. It's an awkward moment that shows the vast and abundantly clear difference between Ted & Jake. Ted is a devoted father who carries his work around with him, but still goes out of his way to make time for his family, even if he doesn't always have the means to provide for them.

For Jake, it's performative. He's trying too hard, and Henry isn't responding. He could have hit up the Bureau de Change to give Henry some pocket money beforehand and show Ted he's a Super Step-Dad, but he didn't. He kept his sleep mask with him. He isn't thinking about the family unit, only his relationship with Michelle.

3x08 ends with Michelle in an all-black version of her outfit from 1x05.

The blue version of her striped top was worn in 1x05 and 3x04, when she & Ted were open with each other about their feelings. When there was still hope for them to remain amicable and comfortable co-parent Henry. Now in black, with their conversations revolving around Michelle's new relationship, it's a clear sign that whatever's left of their relationship is dead. And Ted is still in mourning.

He doesn't want to let go of Henry's backpack - if he lets go, he might lose him to Jake. He's resisting change. This is evident in his reaction at the end of the episode, when Michelle mentions the Dave Grohl anecdote. They're still on the same wavelength intellectually, but not romantically. It's a shock to his system, and I think the last 4 episodes will see Ted explore his feelings and finally get the closure he needs to move forward.

[trincketbox]

So I've played that game with my brother were you're supposed to make a list of characters that remind you of each other and-

This is how I see him

This is how he sees me

What do y'all think? He's trying to insult me or make me cry out of tenderness?

[soliti]

SOLITI 2023: THE END OF YEAR LISTS

Triani from Soliti

The Good Times Lovely Soliti releases from Ghosts on TV, Juppe, Stinako and Knife Girl.

Old Music Ennio Morricone – Quando l’amore e Sensualita Beach Boys – Friends George Michael – Older Felt discography The Songs of Bacharach and Costello was on constant rotation (my fave reissue of the year.) Teardrop Explodes – Culture Bunker box set Lana Del Ray – Norman Fucking Rockwell Rip Rig & Panic – I Am Cold Plush – More You Becomes You Neil Young – Chrome Dreams Stevie Wonder – Fulfilling His First Finale Joan Baez – Blessed Are Paul Weller – 22 dreams Sault discography Velvet Underground – Loaded Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit David Sylvian discography

New Music I didn’t think this year offered much until I put this list together. It’s been quietly fabulous.

Lana Del Ray – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Kara Jackson – Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? Robert Forster – The Candle And The Flame SAZ – SOS Feist – Multitudes King Krule – Space Heavy Christine and the Queens – PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE Overmono – Good Lies Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12 The Lemon Twigs – Everything Harmony John Cale – Mercy Bar Italia – Tracey Denim Sufjan Steven – Javelin Wilco – Cousin Sparklehorse – Bird Machine Amanda Brown – Eight Guitars Durand Jones – Wait Til I Get Over Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here. Beach Fossils – Bunny ANHONI – My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross Lankum – False Lankum Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We El Michels Affair & Black Thought – Glorious Game

Best tracks Everything But The Girl – Nothing Left To Lose Dexys – My Submission Lana Del Rey – A&W

Devendra Banhart – Sirens Kara Jackson – no fun/party Knife Girl – Estrogen Felt – Primitive Painters

TV, films books The Bear (TV series) The Last of Us (TV series) Mrs Davis (TV Series) The Last Movie Stars (TV Series) Welcome to Wrexham (TV Series) Dirty Harry movie box set (all five movies) Richard Jewell (Film) Crimes oF The Future (Film) Barbie vs Oppenheimer (loved both of these) The Exorcist (Film) Love to Love You, Donna Summer (documentary) Quentin Tarantino – Cinema Speculation (Book) Dylan Jones – Loaded: The Life (and Afterlife) of the Velvet Underground (Book) Alan Moore/Jacen Burrows – Neonomicon (Book) Collected Judge Dredd (Books) Sight & Sound (magazine) The Guardian (online) The Quietus (online)

This is a good thing My family and home life. It’s still my favourite place to be. Football in all its gross financial injustices, still remains a truly entertaining, all welcoming spectacle – a break from our  realities. I spent a lot of my days obsessed with the beautiful game. My own team Tottenham’s reimagining as a team for the neutral under Ange Postecoglou. I’ve had a serious post-covid hangover about going out; crowds and especially going to concerts. But still this year I managed to catch a few shows. John Cale and Knife Girl at the Helsinki Festival was very special. Elvis Costello at Kulttuuritalo was a great way to spend an evening – I didn’t really want it to end (and this was also a rare date with my partner!) Emma Ruth Rundle, Sorry, Jake Xerxes Fussell were good festival experiences. I’m an eternal optimist with dreams that we can all get along, people can be who they wanna be and somehow humanity pulls together to save the planet. My dream state staves off the dark feelings that are increasingly hard to ignore.

This is a low The Israel demolition of Palestine in response to Hamas atrocities is a key world happening which will resonate for decades to come. British Conservatives and all right wing ideologues who – in collusion with the mainstream media – spend most of their time demonising refugees and the trans community. The public discussion around minorities in Finland is base and inhumane. This right-wing Finnish government has been a hard dose of reality that has sprung many of us out of our comfort zones. The casual racism of the Finnish government has normalised terminology that should offend everyone. Disgraceful. The lack of a moral compass or compassion in world politics – who exactly are the good guys? I hope someone could point out who’s looking out for us all nowadays? Elon Musk and the destabilising of Twitter. He just couldn’t leave it alone could he? The unstoppable rise of AI. It’s a slow process (or maybe a fast one) that results in the death of a certain kind of creativity. Hearing that some people in the Music business are using AI to write press releases is a little sad. The Saudi exploitation of football.  It doesn’t stop. How long till the whole of football is owned by Saudi Arabia? The Vinyl market  becoming an expensive artefact for the wealthy. In typical Music Industry fashion, the vinyl format becomes revitalised only for the music industry to make the price prohibitive for most people. Own goals are rarely clearer.

Future To be a better me.

Happy holidays x