#this is a pro-cinderella household

[daydreamsfm]

savannah   smith.     she/her.     ciswoman.      ›       spotted   at   the   met   steps   ,   camilla   ‘   cami   ’   bennett  ,   most   likely   listening   to   cinderellas   dead   by   emeline   with   their   airpods   pro   .   the   twenty-five   gained   quite   a   reputation   ,   known   to   be   -quick   tempered   yet   +observant   to   anyone   who   knows   them   .   you'll   easily   spot   them   when   you   hear   about   self   help   speeches   &   podcasts   playing   in   the   background   to   block   out   self   doubt   ,   endless   skin   care   products   but   little   motivation   to   actually   do   it   ,   swearing   by   the   ability   of   a   good   scrunchie    ,   followed   by   rose   water   &   cucumber   .   latest   nepoupdates   article   talks   about  her   parents   paying   for   her   admissions   to   a   good   college   ,   but   i   guess   any   reputation   is   good   reputation   .

WANTED  CONNECTIONS  !

ESTABLISHED  CONNECTIONS  !

𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐬   ;

spencer  hastings  (  pretty  little  liars  )  ,  hermione  granger  (  harry  potter  )  ,  haley  james  scott  (  one  tree  hill  )  ,  paris  geller  (  gilmore  girls  )  ,  quinn  fabray  (  glee  )  ,  lydia  martin  (  teen  wolf  )  ,  cristina  yang  (  grey's  anatomy  )  .

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬   ;

given  name  :  camilla  bennett  . nicknames  :  bennett  ,  cami  ,  benny  . birthday  &  age  :  september  18th  ,  1997  /  twenty  five  . zodiac  sign  :  virgo  . current  residence  :  manhatten  ,  new  york  . gender  &  pronouns  :  ciswoman  /  she  &  her sexuality  :  lesbian occupation  :  previous  model  ,  soon  to  be  college  student  in  fall  2023  .

𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲   ;

following  triggers  will  be  found  in  this  intro  :  anxiety  ,  panic  attacks  ,  anxiety  ticks.

0    -    10    :    a  patient  child  ,  a  child  that  her  parents  never  thought  would  enter  the  world  ,  but  that  never  stunted  any  sense  of  love  they  had  for  their  daughter.  that  was  their  pride  and  joy  ,  someone  that  they  held  close  to  their  heart.  father  holding  her  up  to  show  everyone  in  his  agency  while  mother  would  bring  her  onto  the  red  carpet  the  moment  she  could  walk.  camilla  bennett  knew  nothing  but  the  spotlight  ,  from  the  moment  she  was  wrapped  tightly  in  a  bundle  and  put  into  the  arms  of  her  mother.  

by  the  tender  age  of  five  ,  camilla  began  to  understand  the  life  that  her  parents  planned  out  of  her  ,  a  life  where  she  would  have  to  dedicate  herself  to  being  the  center  of  attention  and  make  no  mistakes.  mistakes  were  not  something  that  was  accepted  within  the  household  of  the  bennetts  ,  she  learned  that  through  stern  talkings  to  when  she  would  pout  about  the  colour  of  her  dress  ,  or  when  she  would  make  a  face  regarding  the  food  in  front  of  her.  sit  tall  and  look  pretty  ,  there  was  no  need  to  be  intelligent  to  get  known  to  the  world.  

10    -    15    :    with  her  parents  lack  of  care  towards  her  education  ,  camilla  would  hide  under  the  covers  late  into  the  night  with  a  tiny  flashlight  ,  reading  all  about  the  human  body  and  different  species  of  animals  that  were  on  earth.  she  found  peace  between  the  pages  ,  exiting  her  stressful  life  and  entering  a  fantasy  island  ,  pictuing  herself  feeding  birds  from  her  hands  or  demanding  someone  to  give  her  the  proper  tool  to  finish  a  surgery.  it  was  her  little  secret  ,  one  she  only  shared  with  a  single  person  that  she  trusted  with  her  whole  being  ,  but  refusing  to  brag  to  her  parents.  it  wasn't  as  though  they  entirely  cared  when  she  would  bring  home  outstanding  grades.  

despite  this  ,  there  wasn't  much  that  cami  could  do  when  her  parents  would  begin  knocking  on  her  doors  at  night  ,  shoving  a  dress  in  her  face  and  telling  her  that  she  needed  to  get  back  into  the  spotlight  since  she  was  '  grown  '.  at  the  at  of  thirteen  ,  cami  was  consistently  living  on  very  little  sleep  and  sneaking  cups  of  coffee  into  her  room  every  morning  to  make  sure  she  could  last  the  school  day  after  a  long  night  on  a  red  carpet.  although  her  parents  were  proud  of  her  daughter  for  putting  on  the  dazzling  smile  ,  they  were  never  aware  of  how  much  their  daughter  was  wishing  she  was  at  home  ,  curled  up  with  a  good  book  as  the  lights  flashed  in  her  eyes.

16    -    21    :    at  the  age  of  sixteen  ,  cami  was  partying  almost  every  night  but  rarely  getting  reprimended  for  it  ,  as  her  parents  approved  of  the  instagram  photos  their  daughter  was  able  to  get  throughout  the  night.  grades  began  to  slip  ,  which  caused  a  sense  of  anxiety  to  course  through  her  veins  late  into  the  nights.  lip  picking  ,  cuticle  picking  and  hidden  panic  attacks  were  slowly  becoming  a  regular.  even  though  she  was  far  from  failing  ,  her  grades  were  not  where  she  had  wanted  them.  staying  in  was  not  always  an  option  ,  causing  cami  to  fake  illnesses  quite  a  bit  to  stay  home  so  she  could  study  while  her  parents  left  in  the  limo.

graduation  showcased  the  smartness  of  the  bennett  woman  ,  getting  to  stand  up  in  front  of  her  peers  and  make  a  speech  ,  although  last  minute  ,  cami  ended  up  avoiding  the  podium  and  unable  to  catch  her  breath.  how  was  she  supposed  to  talk  to  her  peers  about  graduating  and  enjoying  the  college  experience  when  her  parents  guilted  her  into  working  so  much  she  missed  all  deadlines  ?  she  wasn't  going  to  be  attending  college  ,  she  was  going  to  be  posing  in  front  of  cameras  and  forcing  a  bright  smile  on  her  lips.  in  the  end  ,  cami  did  not  speak  as  valedictorian  ,  rushing  home  to  hide  in  her  bedroom  until  the  celebrations  that  night  ,  where  her  mask  was  filled  with  jokes  regarding  her  monthly  and  loud  laughter.

25    [    current    ]    :   moving  out  of  her  parents  house  was  a  godsend.  her  own  anxieties  began  to  dwindle  to  nothing  ,  allowing  her  to  do  what  she  wanted  to  do.  to  keep  her  parents  happy  and  use  her  voice  for  something  ,  cami  continued  to  be  a  model  ,  but  only  doing  the  calls  that  she  was  interested  in  and  making  sure  that  she  had  a  say  in  what  she  was  wearing  and  what  photos  could  be  used.  

applying  to  school  wasn't  something  that  was  easy  ,  but  she  focused  a  lot  of  her  time  to  making  her  resume  look  stellar  ,  and  contacting  past  teachers  at  her  private  school  to  give  reference  papers  that  she  could  add  to  her  applications  ,  in  hopes  that  it  would  push  her  to  the  top  of  the  lists.  it  wasn't  until  the  age  of  twenty  five  that  she  was  able  to  get  an  acceptance  letter  for  her  pre-med  application  ,  although  with  very  little  confidence  that  anyone  would  be  proud  of  her  for  taking  a  step  back  from  the  spotlight  to  get  an  education  and  further  herself  in  the  career  field  ,  with  something  meaningful  ,  she  hasn't  told  anyone  about  the  acceptance.  

tl  ;  dr    :    camilla  bennett  was  an  overachiever  from  the  beginning  of  time.  a  bookworm  that  was  always  pulled  away  from  her  books.  anxiety  and  masking  got  her  through  her  teenage  /  high  school  years.  now  ,  twenty  five  and  accepted  into  a  wonderful  pre-med  program  ,  unable  to  tell  anyone  because  of  her  status  in  society  and  possible  lack  of  care.  

[palettepainter]

to make eri more comfortable in ua the girls take weekly turns to the teachers dorms to babysit her with teachers approval. after a few weeks it just dishevels into chaos. the first night? all teachers dressed professionally, most keeping their professionality. the fifth night? the moment you knock the door to the dorms, you’re somehow in a teacher karaoke battle for eri’s entertainment.

All I could think when I thought of chaos was Midnight inviting Eri to join in on her weekly girls night in the dorms: Midnight, Thirteen and Shizen being the only girls have a weekly girls night where Midnight (forces-) puts on chickflicks, cheesy romance films and other lovey dovey movies, they do each others nails/hair and gossip. Thirteen I imagine is super up for having Eri come along, they probably proposed the idea.

They probably put on Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or something cuz Eri was there. But Midnight did her nails and hair and Eri was just ecstatic cuz she looked so pretty

(I may write a small drabble with the UA girl teachers having a girls night with Eri-)

And a karoke battle but Eri's singing stuff like Let it Go, Ectoplasm is just as passionate with her and he's singing along. By the seventh night the teachers babysit for them everyone knows the lyrics by heart to Let it Go, Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, Under the sea and let it go Hakuna Matata XD

AND!! What if one night Powerloader has to babysit her, and to everyones shock he just clicks into the role super well. And he's like "I grew up in a household with four siblings and babysit Hatsume on the regular, you think anything this kid can throw at me will scare me?"

Aizawa and Hizashi leave her with him cuz they have an undercover mission to go on, they return home and find the biggest pillow fort on the ground floor. Higari is a pro at pillow fort construction and none of you can change my mind. Eri excitedly invites Hizashi and Aizawa inside and when they crawl in through their pillow fort doorway Hizashi is like "..How does this pillow fort look bigger then our dorm on the inside?"

[rawiswhore]

Hunter Hearst Helmsley x Fem Reader- "You're Beautiful"

During the 1980's, most professional wrestlers, especially ones in the World Wrestling Federation, weren't exactly Shawn Michaels-esque pretty boys.

There were a few that were pretty handsome and even were very over with females, but in the 80's, most professional wrestlers were quite ugly to look at.

And you were not attracted to them.

By the 1990's, before the Attitude era, you didn't care about professional wrestling, in fact, hardly anyone cared about pro wrestling before the late 90's Attitude era.

The WWF nearly went out of business during the 90's, after a decade when they made major pro wrestling draws like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage and even Rowdy Roddy Piper household names and popular enough to cross over into pop culture.

Even some of the men you dated during the 90's didn't watch wrestling before the rise of NWO and the Attitude era, because they felt like they were too old to be watching it, and it was so silly, childish, corny and lame.

Though, when they thought of wrestling, they thought of the World Wrestling Federation and hadn't heard of ECW.

However, on a Monday night near the end of 1995, which is considered to be one of the worst years of professional wrestling ever, you were sitting on your couch in front of the television in your living room, flipping through the channels trying to find something good to watch.

You usually love whatever is playing on MTV, BET, occasionally Vh1, A&E, TBS, Comedy Central, and other TV channels, those were your go-to TV channels growing up, and you even did watch a bit of those channels that night since those channels you usually watch.

You even sometimes watched Cartoon Network if they were playing a cartoon from your childhood, during the majority of the 90's, Cartoon Network was a channel that played cartoons from throughout the 20th century so adults could either see cartoons from their childhood again and kids of the 90's could watch cartoons their parents or even grandparents grew up watching.

You should've had a spare TV Guide with you to see what's playing on television, but you couldn't really turn to the TV Guide channel since they scroll down so slowly of what's playing on television.

However, when you were flipping through the channels, you stopped at the USA Network that aired the newest episode of "Monday Night Raw", the match displayed on television was a match featuring Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a rich, elegant, classy 1800's Jane Austin/Charles Dickens blueblood aristocratic gentleman (that's a mouthful!).

When you had seen Hunter, your eyes were glued to him and didn't switch the channel.

He didn't look anything like the wrestlers you knew from the 80's like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Andre the Giant.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley looked like he should be on the covers of those cheesy paperback romance novels with Fabio on the cover, not wrestling.

You weren't in love with Hunter for his wrestling talent, but for his looks.

You started to watch "Monday Night Raw" just for him, even if "Monday Night Raw" was so damn cheesy and corny during this time (though was slightly improving a bit), and you eventually fell in lust with other pro wrestlers on "Monday Night Raw", like Razor Ramon (one of the few wrestlers of the New Generation era that was over and a fan favorite), Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Marty Jannetty, and of course, the Heartbreak Kid and sex symbol of the WWF throughout the 1990's: Shawn Michaels.

'Tis a shame that Lex Luger was in WCW by the end of 1995, because he's pretty hot too.

You felt embarrassed and like you had lost some brain cells watching "Monday Night Raw" in late 1995, but there were a few hotties in that wrestling company.

You knew that rock stars, rappers, professional athletes and even serial killers have groupies, and of course, professional wrestlers have groupies as well, they're called "ringrats".

You had seriously thought of being a ringrat for Hunter Hearst Helmsley as well as other pro wrestlers in the WWF like Razor Ramon and Bret Hart, and after fighting the temptation, you did one night go to a "Monday Night Raw" show to sleep with Hunter as well as other pro wrestlers.

You had thought carefully what to wear to "Monday Night Raw".

You are going to be a ringrat, and groupies usually always wear slutty, skin revealing outfits for men to lust at them.

Kayfabe is a word commonly used in professional wrestling to describe something as real, be it anything from Razor Ramon being Hispanic, Hulk Hogan lifting up Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania 3, and Mankind being a psychopath.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley's character was a rich, classy 1800's gentleman who scoffed at cads that were beneath him, would he turn you down if you were dressed half naked and showed a lot of skin?

Though, you don't just wanna fuck Hunter, plus, wrestlers are playing characters and even back in the 1990's anyone with an IQ above their shoe size should know that wrestling is fake.

Not to mention, while watching "Monday Night Raw", you notice there are prepubescent little children in the audience watching this, and you're afraid some little kids will see you in a pretty skimpy outfit.

It isn't an outfit too revealing, like being dressed in a thong and nipple pasties, but it isn't something you'd want your teenage daughter wearing.

You had thought long and hard on what to wear, if Hunter will like you in your outfit, and if you don't do it with Hunter, you can always move to Razor Ramon, a major ladies man, or Shawn Michaels.

You decided to dress in some tiny acid wash denim short shorts and a makeshift crop top that tied at your breasts, but you prayed and hoped that Hunter would still bang you even if you're not dressed elegantly.

Thankfully, the WWF rolled to a town that was close to you, and you had arrived to that "Monday Night Raw" taping dressed in that aforementioned outfit.

You had butterflies in your stomach and felt like a giddy, overexcited schoolgirl when you saw Hunter, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and other wrestlers you fancied, tears of happiness weld in your eyes seeing them, and thank God you wore waterproof mascara.

You waited in line with some other ringrats, you felt like a hyper kid on sugar deep down inside, you were so excited to meet Hunter as well as other pro wrestlers, but you wanted to meet Hunter first.

You had never had sex with a professional wrestler before or even anyone famous before, though you did do it with a few guys on the wrestling team in high school.

As you waited in line, you chatted with other ringrats about how this is the first wrestling show you've ever been to and you've never done it with a professional wrestler before, they couldn't believe you.

Then, eventually, it was your turn, and you could nearly wet yourself in meeting Hunter Hearst Helmsley in more ways than one.

You smiled from ear to ear when you approached him, and as you walked up to him, his breath was nearly taken away by you.

No, he wasn't just playing his Hunter Hearst Helmsley character, he really did find you absolutely beautiful.

Like you when you first saw Hunter on television, his eyes were glued to you and looking you up and down.

"Hi" you said as you walked up to him, waving one of your hands to him.

"Hello" he greeted, "What is your name?"

He still talked in a phony, terrible British accent.

"Y/n" you confessed.

"Pleasure to meet you, y/n" he welcomed, taking one of your hands as you got closer to him and kissed the top of it like the gentleman he played on "Monday Night Raw", keeping kayfabe alive.

You could nearly faint when he kissed your hand, your entire body could turn red from bottom to top like in cartoons when a character gets kissed, and you smiled so much.

"You are absolutely beautiful" he gushed, getting up and putting both of his hands on the sides of your face, his eyes observing your face and body up and down.

You stared at him with an ear-to-ear smile and felt like a giddy schoolgirl inside as he touched you, you were trying to contain your excitement inside.

You legit feel like you're at Disneyland meeting Cinderella or Mickey Mouse or whatever, meeting people playing fictitious characters and keeping their characters alive, making you feel like you really are meeting them.

"Thanks" you said "Believe it or not, I've actually never actually done it with a professional wrestler before"

"Well, let me be your first" he purred, grinning as he said that.

"I actually started watching the WWF because of you" you confessed. "I never cared for pro wrestling until I saw you on a Monday night and was flipping through the channels, I changed the channel and found you having a match and couldn't keep my eyes off of you"

"I'm so proud of you" he gushed. "You chose me instead of those other cads"

He really is trying to keep kayfabe alive, even though you aren't buying that he's an English gentleman.

Even his British accent is terrible.

"Awwww, thanks" you said, smiling at him and looking like AJ Lee when she looks in someone's eyes and smiles at them. "Most other pro wrestlers aren't all that handsome, but you are"

"Precisely" he boasted, grinning.

"Do you like my outfit?" you asked, pointing at your outfit. "I was trying to decide what to wear, and I was scared you wouldn't like what I'm wearing right now since you play a classy, rich gentleman that scoffs at people beneath you"

"You look perfectly fine" he admitted.

"Oh, thank God!" you thanked to him, breathing a sigh of relief.

"You're welcome" he replied, smirking. "You are such a beautiful woman"

One of his hands stroked the side of your face, his thumb tracing down your jawline down to your chin.

"I'm thinking of having valets, women that escort wrestlers to the ring, wrapped right next to me as I walk to the ring" he confessed "Would you like to my valet?"

Oh. My God.

Your face and body completely froze, you didn't know what to think.

This is what he had in store for you that you didn't know about.

It's one thing to be a ringrat, it's another to be a ringrat turned valet.

Does that mean you're going to be signed to the World Wrestling Federation and be his valet?

"I-I don't know" you admitted, stuttering. "Am I going to be signed to the WWF and be your valet escorting you to the ring?"

"Yes you are" he admitted, nodding your head.

"It isn't just me being a valet for you once?" you asked.

"Well, it's your decision" he suggested.

He is giving you that decision, but you don't know what to decide.

He's so handsome and so are other wrestlers in the WWF, that means you get to travel with him and fuck them.

But...you'll give up your dreams, and you're in something that's a little bit corny and embarrassing that hopefully won't get any worse.

"I don't know what to do" you admitted. "I'll think about it, maybe I can be a valet for you onetime"

Even Hunter thought you can be a valet for him just once, he doesn't know what kind of trouble you'll get yourself into since you're a ringrat.

"I came here to fuck you" you admitted. "Pardon my language"

"It's alright" he understood, nodding his head.

You didn't want to say how you also wanted to fuck some other wrestlers as well: Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Shawn Michaels and even Marty Jannetty.

Hopefully his feelings won't be hurt if you go off to sleep with them.

You're not sure if you want to confess that you want to sleep with other wrestlers tonight, because you're afraid you'll upset him.

Maybe he might even show you off to those other wrestlers and how beautiful you are, and they'll wanna fuck you and it'll turn into an all out gangbang.

"Do you mind if I say this?" you asked him.

"What is it?" he asked.

You took a deep breath, preparing what to say.

"It isn't just you I want to fuck tonight" you admitted "But also Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty"

His eyes grew wide hearing that you wanna fuck all of those people.

"I hope you aren't upset by it" you said. "Although, having promiscuous sex leads to AIDS and HIV, amongst other STDS"

"Exactly" he admitted. "I'm not upset"

Hunter's character is very possessive of his valets, as evident by next year when he was furious over Wildman Marc Mero stealing Sable from him or when Mr. Perfect/Curt Hennig stole one of Hunter's valets.

Even Hunter admitted his women are his toys.

Hunter shouldn't be getting way too into kayfabe and taking it so seriously, he isn't really a rich 1800's Jane Austen-like gentleman, especially since those kinds of gentlemen carrying canes didn't exist anymore in the 1990's except in movies and TV shows.

That's the problem with pro wrestling: some people take their characters so seriously, they still play them when the cameras aren't filming, and sometimes, when you play a character on any wrestling show, sometimes you have to play that character all the time if you appear on other television shows.

That can be fine, but what if you're playing a nymphomaniac and you have to appear on Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee's talk show, you don't really wanna fuck Regis.

You're basically signing and selling your soul to the devil.

Though, again, wrestling is not real, and anyone who isn't a prepubescent youth should know that.

Hunter would even like to show you off to the other wrestlers, about how he's thought of turning you into a valet.

There have been ringrats he's slept with who are beautiful women, but not as beautiful as you are, much to the dismay of them.

In fact, many women ended up becoming ringrats and sleeping with other pro wrestlers in hopes that they can become a valet and eventual WWF superstar thanks to you.

Basically the Sable effect: Sable joined the WWF because she thought it would be her ticket to Hollywood, and the Bella Twins and Eva Marie followed suit, many other women have been like that as well.

And there has been controversy over "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" on MTV because of allegedly teenage girls getting pregnant just so they can be on those shows.

Later on that night, you made love with Hunter, and he even showed you off to other pro wrestlers who were in lust with you as well, especially Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty.

Did you get to fuck them? Oh yeah.

And you continued to fuck Shawn and Marty next year, but sadly, not Razor, who had left the WWF to go to WCW.

When you had went home, you thought long and hard whether or not to join the WWF or not.

You eventually decided to join the WWF, which was both wonderful and horrible.

When you eventually became Hunter's ringrat, men would cheer for you, but not for Hunter, and you eventually started sharing your own ideas with the WWF's creative staff.

Eventually, you blew up in popularity in the WWF and became the most popular woman in the company, and the most controversial person in the WWF.

Some people knew about your story, how you were a ringrat for Hunter, he got a boner for you and turned you into his valet, and there were many ringrats sending angry emails and letters to you, saying that they're ringrats who've slept with whatever pro wrestler and they didn't get turned into a valet.

Many people also thought you slept your way to the top, you're a gold digger, and you're basically a wrestling Monica Lewinsky, Courtney Love or Lil' Kim.

It's really Hunter's fault because it was his idea to turn you into a valet.

_____________________________________________________________

I really hope that I haven't typed this fanfic already before.

[breakingthedisneyspell]

If Disney ever does a live-action Peter Pan, I'd rather have them portray the Darling household as a family of color rather than attempt to portray the Native Americans in a "progressive" manner, since the source material is inherently rooted in anti-Native stereotyping.

Thank you for your patience anon! 

I am not well versed in Peter Pan and cannot remember the last time I saw it. But after reading this article, I agree with you on how the source material is anti-native. I will be reblogging a few posts about it. 

I am not Native American so I answered this ask with The Jungle book in mind. I am aware of the obvious differences in Peter Pan’s treatment of Native Americans & The Jungle Book’s of Indians but there are similarities. Kipling was grossly racist, pro-colonialism & precursor of The white man’s burden, making the source material by extension racist. Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967) is from a westerner’s point of view at exotic India with a accompanied with anti blackness (King Louie). However I really enjoyed the live action where the obvious racist elements were removed and it was well-needed representation for me. It was led by the amazing Neel Seethi. It did have issues, mainly the cast only having two Indian actors.

Another example is Aladdin where the 1992 film was an orientalist mess with South Asian influences. The remake removed some of the more problematic scenes, mainly Jasmine’s seduction of Jafar and harem girls but there was still colorism, brown face, overwhelming white creative input (see the outfits) etc. So it got polarising reactions from South Asians from the diaspora but I still consider it as representation for Brown kids and some Brown people. 

So I would not say that Disney necessarily needs to take away Native American characters from the Peter Pan remake because Disney is known for taking massive creative liberties (fairy tales: The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc fictional stories: The Hunchback of Notre Dame and unfortunately history with Pocahontas). So they could make it work. 

Also keep in mind that there is very little mainstream Native American representation so if Disney does it right i.e. have Native American on and behind the screen and even if it is not perfect, it could serve as representation.

It would also be great if we have an entire family of color and by extension leads of color! I am here for race bent Disney characters. 

[djseaward]

a simpler sort of christmas

hello all, i hope you have  had a magical christmas wherever in the world you celebrated it, if you are in fact celebrating, that is.

once again, we had a truly czech christmas here in budejovice. normally we get almost two full weeks of holiday for christmas, and we opted to stay put this year mostly because 1) iceland, which i felt was almost like a christmas in and of itself, but also 2) our visa issues (from receiving it to reapplying for our next) making us a bit lighter in the wallet this time of year.

but no matter, we had decided to fully embrace a simpler sort of christmas this year. that is what christmas is really about, anyway. about giving, kindness, togetherness, and as i absolutely a challenge in resourcefulness, this holiday has been great for that! we decided not to give more than a few gifts this year and focus on getting our existing things (from watches to coats) repaired instead. i also made a lot of our decorations from natural materials, even more so than last year.

on the eve of christmas eve, we went out for one last christmas market hurrah and to sing some czech christmas carols and peruse the stalls one final time. a delightful folksy band with funny fur hats and jackets played traditional koledy, some that we now know most of just from spending seven christmas seasons here. now i know the names of them, thanks to my choir. my favorites are půjdem spolu do betléma and pásli ovce valaši. this was the year i finally understood the magic of czech carols and why we shouldn’t push our anglicized carols on czechs too much - these traditional carols are beautiful. 

i realized that after seven (and maybe more to come?) christmases in the czech republic that christmases may never be the same again. how we’ve come to love the festive atmosphere in the square, day after day. the smell of punch wafting into my path as i walk by the town hall. there’s too much to love.

on christmas eve, we went round to a family friend's and had a magical evening of gifts, playing games, schnitzel and potato salad, prosecco, walks with the dogs and traditions, like this czech apple-cutting tradition. if you cut the apple in half and see a star, this is lucky. if you cut it and see a cross, well, that's clearly unlucky. fortunately we all got stars - a good omen for the coming year. and i can't believe i got housed in a english language bluffing card game by a czech five year old. my poker face is the worst around. finally, i realized why we never actually eat carp schnitzels with the k family -- someone has a fish-related allergy. alas, i shall never know carp schnitzel, but třeboň is never far (the best place to have fish dishes in the country) so i can wait until then. 

i’m glad i took several minutes when i got home to sit in the glow of our tree by myself and listen to some acapella tunes, such as ave maria, o holy night, and silent night. there is so much noise and bustle over the christmas holidays that i find some time for quiet reflection on the holidays is essential. it just doesn’t feel quite like the holidays if this time is missing.

on christmas day we enjoyed a wonderfully lazy day at home and a delicious christmas smorgasbord-style lunch spread as we love to do: wild alaskan smoked salmon (that i stash away for special occasions), shrimp cocktail, mince pies, and this fancy vegan cheese wheel i made. as much as i love cheese, we have started to cut back on dairy in our household (more than before) and i promised i would forgo real cheese in favor of this cashew-based cheese*. no deprivation on any of our parts -- it came out absolutely gorgeously and we couldn't get enough of it -- running out of crackers in the process. note: always get more crackers than you think.

alex listened to his new albums he received and i read and watched airwaves videos (can't stop won't stop) of performances i had missed. we eventually settled down with some eggnog and a viewing of miracle on 34th street, the newer 1994 version which i hadn't seen. (the older one is the best! don't bother) he also read me a poem he had written to me for christmas. it was beautiful. i cried happy tears.

we also enjoyed the calm atmosphere outside on walks with nary a soul around, lit all the candles, chatted with my family, and watched our first czech christmas fairy tale: tři oříšky pro popelku. (three hazelnuts for cinderella) this is an absolutely beloved classic, and many of my students have told me they planned on watching it this christmas! it was so magical, and even though i didn't grow up with it, i can easily see why it's a classic. the snowy winter aesthetic is so perfect for this time of year!

fun fact: this film was a 1973 co-production between barrandov studios (prague) and babelsberg (potsdam/berlin) and was filmed with both czech and east german actors, speaking of course their own respective languages (!). this film is equally beloved in germany i have been told, except all the czech actors are dubbed into german (and vice versa when shown in czech!). if you're interested, you can watch it too right here.

we haven't much on the docket for the rest of the holiday besides reading, perhaps a bit of visiting with friends, and anything else that takes up a lot of time that we don't necessarily have during other times of the year. these two weeks are a blessing. you may have also noticed it seems sort of no-frills around here lately as i had to recover the blog from a hacking attempt the day after christmas... and then realized i’m kind of vibing with the blacks and whites lately. so there you go.

i hope you have or are still deeply enjoying your holidays! see you soon with a 2018 recap.

ps, you might like our last czech christmas from two years ago or thoughts on embracing a local christmas.

* because i know someone will ask, it’s based on a recipe from sarah britton’s first cookbook (my bible).

[rainforestgeek]

Unpopular Opinion about Hinny

I realize many in the fandom are fond of the Epilogue. I, personally, reject it out of hand.

In a relationship already as full of tropes as Harry and Ginny, I really don’t like the 2.5 kids and white picket fence ending JK gave them. When you do the math, Ginny would have had James when she was, what, 23 years old? That’s really young, especially for members of generation X. I don’t buy that they immediately got married and started popping out children. My main arguments are these: one, Ginny would not have wanted to be a mom so quickly; two, Harry would not have felt ready to be a dad so quickly; and three, they both needed time to get their lives together and process the trauma of fighting a war as teenagers.

Point One. Ginny was the youngest of seven children. She grew up constantly surrounded by a large and overwhelming family. I have no doubt that she is a family-oriented person. She’s even shown to be her own kind of nurturing in the books, with how she looks after Luna and Neville. That said, she’s also fiery, adventurous, and independent. I can relate to that last bit as a youngest child. When you have your parents plus older siblings smothering you all your life, being away from them is really freeing. Ginny hexed people when they pissed her off, mouthed off to professors, enthusiastically rebelled, mocked those who irritated her (like Fleur), and was active in the war effort. And shall we not forget that she was a total jock? Ginny as a pro Quidditch player is the most perfect thing I’ve ever heard of. If she started playing pro when she was 18, and got pregnant when she was 22, that’s only four years playing pro. For such an outgoing, competitive, and active person as Ginny, I’d expect her to be on the pitch for at least ten years before retiring to be a sports correspondent. I don’t see her in her early twenties setting aside her broom to write and take care of the baby all day. Back to Ginny being family-oriented - she’s got plenty of family to go around. She has six older siblings. Setting aside Charlie who was too dragon-obsessed to get married and have kids and Fred (whose fate we don’t talk about), that’s still four older brothers to give her plenty of nieces and nephews. Bill and Percy would likely already be having kids by her young adulthood, with George not too far behind. With no shortage of kids, brothers, and in-laws in her life, why would she feel the need to have her own children so soon? I totally see her as the cool aunt to all those little munchkins.

Point Two. Harry had a fucked up childhood. Really, a fucked up life, but I’m gonna focus on the Dursleys here. He spent his formative years neglected and bullied. Dudley made sure he had just about no friends and punched him so much that Harry became a really fast runner as a result. Petunia and Vernon talked shit about his parents, made him do Cinderella levels of housework without food for mouthing off once, locked him in his room with almost no food, actively treated him worse than his cousin (favoritism fucking stings, man), gave him crappy clothes and glasses, criticized his appearance constantly, banned him from almost everything, do I really need to go on? It’s no wonder he’s a sarcastic little shit. I’d be really salty by age eleven too if that was my home life. Now, he’s definitely a natural sweetheart and largely became kind towards other people coming out of his experiences, but he’s also a formidable opponent if he doesn’t like you. He’s stubborn and takes no shit because he took too much of it growing up. Even though he’s a loving person, there is a difference between how you treat people and raising children. A common theme with adults who had neglectful and/or abusive parents is they worry they’ll be the same way toward their kids. This fear isn’t unfounded, because we learn how to raise kids from how we remember being raised. There’s a reason it’s called a “cycle of abuse.” With as kind and sweet as he is, I personally think Harry would be self-aware enough to recognize cycles of abuse both from his own childhood and from delving into Merope Gaunt’s and Tom Riddle’s story. He wouldn’t feel ready to have raise a family until he’s really and truly processed almost two decades of trauma. He’d also be terrified of ending up like Vernon and Petunia Dursley - in fact, I think that’s his worst nightmare. After finally being free from the expectation to single-handedly end a war, Harry doesn’t strike me as the type to quickly (and four years is quickly) take on so much more responsibility like a baby until he’s worked through his shit (which will definitely take longer than four years), taken a break, calmed down, and completely settled into adult life. How many normal people do you know who’ve totally adjusted to adulthood by age 23? I can’t name one.

I want to see Harry and Ginny moving into a cheap flat together. I want to see them collapse at the end of the day because it was so fucking long. I want to see them fight because they both had unresolved PTSD. I want them comforting each other when the nightmares hit. I want to see them going to the Burrow to visit Molly and Arthur because neither of them feel like cooking. I want to see Harry at a pro Quidditch match cheering Ginny at the top of his lungs, decked out in full Holyhead Harpies garb complete with a jersey (robes? whatever) with “WEASLEY” emblazoned on the back. I want to see reckless midnight 1-on-1 midnight Quidditch when neither of them can sleep. I want to see them babysitting Teddy for the first time and freaking the fuck out because neither of them have younger siblings and “what does he bloody want, he’s just screaming!” I want to see stupid household pranks because Ginny totally would charm Harry’s coffee mug to spit fireworks at his face. I want to see them act like a ridiculous couple in their twenties.

[uchicagoscrc]

Cruikshank & Dickens: fairy tales and the Temperance movement

A recent addition to our Rare Books Collection is a small collection of materials authored and illustrated by George Cruikshank, which includes two fairy tales from his ‘Fairy library’ (Hop-o’-my Thumb and the seven-league boots and Cinderella and the glass slipper), an autograph letter from Cruikshank to his friend Lovell Reeve, and a slim, 8 page pamphlet entitled A letter from Hop-o’-My-Thumb to Charles Dickens, esq. upon ‘Frauds on the fairies,’ ‘Whole hogs,’ &c. It is the latter item which led me to look into Cruikshank and Dickens’ relationship and discovered a curious story about fairy tales and the Temperance movement. 

The Temperance movement began in the early 19th century and early efforts focused on moderation, particularly of hard spirits, rather than abstinence from alcohol. By the 1830′s the movement had become more radical calling for complete abstinence from alcohol and the movement had become politically entwined in Britain with the suffrage movement for working class men, and later women. During this 1830′s and ‘40′s several temperance societies were established in Britain including the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance, the New British and Foreign Temperance Society, and the Band of Hope. And by the 1850′s proponents of temperance were calling for legislation for prohibiting the sale of alcohol in Britain.

George Cruikshank, formerly a drinker and smoker, became a strong supporter of teetotalism in part due to his father’s death from alcoholism. In 1847 he published The bottle (a tale of a family’s ruin caused by the father’s drinking)  followed, in 1848, with The drunkard’s children. Beginning in 1853 he began publishing a series of fairy tales, his Fairy library, infused with themes of the ills of alcohol (and other vices, like gambling). The first tale in the series, Hop-o’-my Thumb and the seven-league boots, received strong criticism, particularly from Charles Dickens in his articles “Frauds on the fairies” and “Whole hogs,” both in Household Words, to Cruikshank’s bowdlerization of the ‘Hop-o’-my Thumb’ fairy tale and insertion of temperance doctrines. Formerly the two had been close friends, Cruikshank having illustrated several works by Dickens including Sketches by Boz and Oliver Twist, but the fairy tales “drove the last nail into a longstanding friendship” (Ostry, page 29).

Cruikshank replied to Dickens’ criticism with A letter from Hop-o’-My-Thumb to Charles Dickens, esq. upon ‘Frauds on the fairies,’ ‘Whole hogs,’ &c., which sought to rebut Dickens’ accusations of the corruption of the fairy tale through the inclusion of Cruikshank’s own moral agenda. Cruikshank’s own words best illustrate his position (emphasis original):

“My attention has lately been called to an article in ‘Household Words,’ entitles ‘Frauds on the fairies’ ... in which article, as it appears to me, you have gone a leetle out of your way to find fault with our mutual friend George Cruikshank for the way in which he has edited ‘Hop-o’-my Thumb and the seven-league boots.’ ... [It] impels me to take up my pen ... to justify the course adopted by my editor,--and also to take the liberty of setting you right upon one or two points, in which you are entirely mistaken ... your pain, you say, arises from its being driven in by my editor, whom you charge with altering the text of a fairy story, for the purpose of propagating doctrines of his own, and protest against his right to do so ... had my editor been altering the text of any standard literary work ... you might have raised a hue-and-cry--but to insist upon preserving the entire integrity of a fairy tale, which has been, and is, constantly altering in the recitals and in the printing of various editions in different countries, and even counties, appears to my little mind, like shearing one of your own ‘whole hogs,’ where there is ‘great cry and little wool’ ...“

“... [the] spiteful manner in which you attempt to throw ridicule upon the temperance question, and also by your evident contempt, and even hatred, against that cause ... This is not the place, nor is it my purpose now to discuss the temperance question, but I take the liberty of telling you that it is a question which you evidently do not understand, for if you did, your good heart and sanguine disposition would make you, if possible a more enthusiastic advocate than my editor, or any other gentleman abstainer ...”

“When my editor commenced illustrating ‘The fairy library,’ he had no more intention of altering a line of my history, or any of the other tales than I had of now writing this letter to you; but upon constantly referring to the text whilst making the designs, he found there was so much objectionable matter in the old editions, so much that was unfit to place in the hands of children, that he determined to expunge all such impurities if possible ... he has endeavoured to inculcate, at the earliest age, A HORROR OF DRUNKENNESS, A DETESTATION OF GAMBLING, AND A LOVE OF ALL THAT IS VIRTUOUS AND GOOD; and endeavour to plant in the young mind an idea of the necessity, importance, and justice of every child in the land receiving a useful and a religious education ...” 

Cruikshank had altered the plot of ‘Hop-o’-my Thumb’ so that the cause of Hop-o’-my Thumb’s family’s ills was the father’s drinking. Hop-o’-my Thumb’s father, the Count, is described as having “earned very little, and the greater part of that he spent in buying strong drink--of which he used to take a great deal too much--so that he was often very tipsy.” In the course of the tale the family quickly becomes destitute and Count instructs his wife to take their children into the forest and leave them to perish. In A letter from Hop-o’-My Thumb to Charles Dickens he justifies his attribution of drunkenness to the father:

“Now, allow me to ask, where is the amount of tenderness and mercy to be found in such an unnatural and horrible act as is here narrated? and our friend, my editor, seeing that such a statement was not only disgusting, but against nature, and consequently unfit for the pure and parent-loving minds of children, felt certain that any father acting in such a manner must either be mad, or under the influence of intoxicating liquor ...”

Near the close of Cruikshank’s adaptation, the Count is named Prime Minister by the King of the land, and having seen the error of his ways the Count enacts several new temperance laws.

“The Count having experienced the evils arising from gambling and betting, passed a law that the winner in either of these cases should always pay to the State for the support of the poor double the amount of his winnings; and this soon put a stop to betting and gambling entirely. Finding that strong drinks were hurtful to all, and that they created a great deal of misery and all sorts of wickedness, his next act was to pass a law to abolish the use of all intoxicating liquors; the effect of which law was, that in a short time there were very few, if any, criminals in the land ...”(Hop-o’-my Thumb and the seven league boots, pages 29-30) 

As part of his response to Cruikshank’s Hop-o’-my Thumb Dickens had also issued a satirical, moral version of Cinderella in 1853. In it “Cinderella’s father dies because he does not shave with cold water, and the King’s banquet only includes artichokes and gruel ... Dickens links didactic morality to political dictatorship, suggesting the dangers of moral didacticism outside of the fairy tale” (Ostry, pages 31-32). Naturally, Cruikshank had to respond with his own version of Cinderella.

In Cruikshank’s version, published in 1854, Cinderella’s step-mother is fond of giving lavish parties and gambling, which leads to Cinderella’s father being put in a debtor’s prison. Much of the rest of the tale follows the traditional Perrault version, but Cruikshank can’t help but include another pro-abstinence argument towards the close of the tale, when the dwarf fairy godmother and the King are discussing the wedding festivities to be planned for Cinderella and the prince. The king having ordered “that there should be running ‘fountains of wine’” as part of the festivities is met with a strong teetotaling argument from the fairy godmother:

“’... although there is much boisterous mirth created by the drink around these wine fountains, yet your Majesty is aware that this same drink leads also to quarrels, brutal fights, and violent deaths.’ ‘Well! I fear it is so,’ the King replied; ‘but this misconduct and violence is only committed by those who take too much, and not by those who take it in moderation.’‘The history of the use of strong drinks,’ the dwarf said, ‘is marked on every page by excess, which follows, as a matter of course, from the very nature of their composition, and are always accompanied by ill-health, misery, and crime.’ ‘Well, but,’ said the King, ‘what is to be done? are not these things intended by Providence for our use?’ ‘With all deference to your Majesty,’ said the dwarf in reply, ‘most assuredly not; for such is the POWER of the CREATOR, that if it had been necessary for man to take stimulating drinks, the ALMIGHTY could have given them to him free from all intoxicating qualities, as he has done with all solids and liquids necessary and fit for the support of man’s life; and as he never intended that man should be intoxicated, and as he knows that all men cannot take these drinks alike, such is his goodness and mercy, THAT HE WOULD HAVE SENT THEM TO US WITHOUT THE INTOXICATING PRINCIPLE; and when people talk of these intoxicating drinks, that do so much deadly mischief, being sent to us by the ALMIGHTY, we might as well say that he sends us gunpowder, because man converts certain materials into such a deadly composition. And as to moderation, pardon me, your Majesty, but so long as your Majesty continues to take even half a glass of wine a-day, so long will the drinking customs of society be considered respectable and kept up; and it thus follows, as a necessary consequence, that thousands of your Majesty’s subjects will be constantly falling by excess into vice, wretchedness, and crime; and as to people not being able to do without stimulating drinks, I beg your Majesty to look at Cinderella, who has never taken any in all her life, and who never will.’“ (Cinderella and the glass slipper, pages 25-26)

Cruikshank also included another protestation of criticism of his fairy tales in an address “To the public” at the close of Cinderella.

“... I will just take the liberty of suggesting to those gentlemen who may feel inclined to criticise my editing of these fairy tales, that they had better make themselves somewhat acquainted with all the old editions of these stories before they find fault with my version*, otherwise they may probably fall into some rather absurd mistakes ... such as my friend Charles Dickens has fallen into, in his paper entitled ‘Frauds on the fairies,’ in ‘Household words;” and in consequence of which I got my tiny friend “Hop o’ my Thumb,” to write a letter to him upon the subject .... *I have four editions of ‘Cinderella’ now before me, all differing most materially from each other ... upon looking through the several books, I found some vulgarity, mixed up with so much that was useless and unfit for children, that I was obliged (much against my wish) to re-write the whole story; in doing which I have introduced a few Temperance Truths, with a fervent hope that some good may result therefrom.” (Cinderella and the glass slipper, page 31)

Much has been written by scholars over this feud and Cruikshank’s fanatical zeal for the Temperance movement; the above only scratches the surface of the nuances of the disagreement and socio-political environment in which it took place.

References:

Alcohol and temperance in modern history: an international encyclopedia. Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO, c2003.

Cruikshank, George. A letter from Hop-o’-My-Thumb to Charles Dickens, esq. upon ‘Frauds on the fairies,’ ‘Whole hogs,’ &c. London : David Bogue, [1854?]

_________. Cinderella and the glass slipper. London : David Bogue, [1854]

_________. Hop-o’-my Thumb and the seven-league boots. London : David Bogue, [1853]

Harrison, Brian Howard. Drink and the Victorians: the temperance question in England, 1815-1872. Staffordshire : Keele University Press, 1994.

Ostry, Elaine. “Frauds on the fairies: defending fancy” in Social dreaming: Dickens and the fairy tale. New York : Routledge, 2013.

Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Victorian fairy tales: the revolt of the fairies and elves. New York : Routledge, c1987.

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[nirah10]

From ohwhataname,

As you know there are a lot of kids films with romantic elements in them; always hetronormative.

Beauty and the Beast The Little Mermaid Cinderella Sleeping Beauty Snow White Happily Ever After Ect.

And going beyond younger kids films, pretty much every teen movie ever.

So there was a campaign when people heard there would be a squeal to Frozen to make Elsa a lesbian.

The hashtag #GiveElsaaGirlfriend become really big.

Even Elsa’s voice actress Idina Menzel came out in support of it, with the Frozen Star writing a postive post encouraging the idea with her name added to the hashtag.

Anna, the character’s younger sister is straight (so they would not be leaving heterosexuals out) but Elsa herself showed zero interest in men during the film and so it would be a chance to help kids struggling with identity issues.

(Which is still an issue with the LGTB youth sucide rate being EIGHT times higher than the average.)

And they weren’t asking for anything more than the soft innocent romances already shown portrayed by princess/prince couples in kids movies so far.

So what’s the big deal right?

It would be innocent, and straight romance in kids film is already a thing.

It could help young kids who feel different and don’t know why and don’t even know the term yet and are scared because they don’t know if there is anyone else like them yet because they are scared to talk about it.

Thinking you are the only person who likes the same sex is a very real and scary fear a lot of kids face as people just don’t talk to kids about it. Yet lots of kids suffer through this feeling of isolation and feeling alien until they are older and realize their are a lot of people just like them.

Plus not only could it help gay kids, but it would normalize it for straight kids who may turn out to be more accepting and less likely to bully.

An argument against same sex marriage is that the kids of gay parents might get bullied. Well instead of blaming gay parents why don’t we teach kids not to bully? Why don’t we teach kids to be more open minded???

WHICH COULD BE DONE with diversity in kids movies!!!! Teachinf acceptance.

If kids get used to gay people young, they are less likely to stare, gawk at or ask ignorant questions to gay kids / or the children of gay couples at school.

With bullying being a huge issue in the high sucide rates for gay kids. Help gay kids not feel alone and introduce other kids to diversity at a early age? WIN WIN!

Then the Christian groups discovered the #GiveElsaaGirlfriend tag. And were enraged to see it had the support of the Frozen Star who played Elsa.

They started counterattack with a petition and a protest outside Disney and their own hashtag #GiveElsaaBoyfriend.

Give Elsa A Boyfriend? Orginal. Steal their hashtag and change one word.

These groups claim liberals are trying to brainwash children and have gay characters to make their children gay.

Because it totally works like that. We can see it works that that because their have been no gay people born in the last fifty years because kids grew uo just watching straught couples in movies.

Rolls eyes.

If there are already gay kids despite all kids TV being straight, do they really think a romance can brainwash kids into changing kids sexuality???

Don’t give Esla a girlfriend!!!! Brainwashing! Brainwashing!!!

Yeah. It doesn’t work like that. Or else the ‘straight brainwashing’ of boks, music, tv and movies would have got rid of the gay a long time ago.

Despite the backing of many of the people who work in Frozen, Esla probably will get a boyfriend in the squeal as in a profit drive industry threats to boycott the movie sound scary, and they don’t want to risk a huge section of the audience boycotting the movie over Elsa being gay.

As it is normally always the right wingers and conservatives threatening boycotts when they are offended.

Conservatives have far thinner skins than liberals.

Although some conservatives and Christians are pro-gay and are on board with the idea. Not many.

And sadly #GiveElsaaBoyfriend will probably win this fight.

Would your family let your kids watch Frozen 2 if they knew Elsa was gonna get a girlfriend?

Dear ohwhataname,

I find it hilarious that people who indoctrinate their children into a religion from birth and don’t really give them the option to look into or ask questions about anything else are the first people to cry out “brainwashing”. I’ve heard it from certain people in my personal life--“All this gay stuff is just brainwashing kids to be gay”--and those are the ones that I know would be most likely to freak the fuck out and possibly even kick their kids out of the home if they didn’t follow the religion they’ve been born into. So apparently it’s wrong to “brainwash” kids into thinking that being gay is okay, but it’s not wrong to force them into living a strict religious lifestyle and into “believing” (or at least pretending to believe) in one specific religion or else face all the wrath and rejection of their own parents? Okay.

Now, your question is slightly tricky, partly because I’m not sure if there’s a typo or not. I’m not sure if you’re asking if my family would let my kids watch the movie (like if they were babysitting them) or if you meant to ask if they would let their kids watch it, so I’ll answer both. The answer to either question really varies a lot as I have a very large family and some people in it are very different from others.

My kids: I think most people in my family would let my kids watch it if they were babysitting. Some might be more reluctant if their own children were present, but I don’t think it would really be a big deal. I know there are some people who would definitely not put on a movie like that regardless of whose kids were watching it, even if the kids had seen it before, but those are the kinds of people that I probably would not ask to watch my children anyway. The good thing about having such a massive family is that I have a lot of options for babysitters. The most likely people to babysit my kids would be my parents anyway and I have no doubt that they wouldn’t care that my kids were watching a cartoon with lesbians in it.

Their kids: This one is more tricky, mostly because I can’t be entirely certain of how accepting of LGBT people my family are. There are a few that I suspect act more accepting than they really are for the sake of their relationship with me. For example, maybe they wouldn’t say anything about the movie and maybe they would even put it on if they were watching my kids and the kids asked for it, but in their own homes and with their own children, they wouldn’t allow it. Again, I only suspect this, but I do think it is true of probably most of my religious family. I know there are definitely some people in my family who would probably rant about the movie being disgusting and would freak out if they found out anyone else let their kids watch it. A certain household in my family banned the Cars franchise in their home because the sequel had guns in it, so I’m pretty sure that Elsa and her lesbian lover wouldn’t stand a chance.

[mhsn033]

Best health K-State OK’d for 25% capacity for football games

Best health

The Newest on the outcomes of the coronavirus outbreak on sports activities all the very best blueprint by the enviornment:

———

The Chicago Bears remain doubtful if fans will most likely be allowed at Soldier Subject this season.

The Bears said Monday the team and metropolis will “proceed to visual display unit the atmosphere” and every “take into accout there will most likely be a sound thought in blueprint to lift fans lend a hand to Soldier Subject as soon as it’s a long way deemed stable and appropriate.”

The Bears canceled season build applications ultimate month as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They supplied holders the device to discover refunds for this yr or have their funds credited toward 2021.

Chicago opens the season Sept. 13 at Detroit and hosts the New York Giants a week later.

———

The United Soccer League says 1,488 COVID-19 tests were administered to avid gamers and workers from the 35 Championship golf equipment between Aug. 3 and Aug. 10, with 13 folks from seven teams sorting out certain.

Of those tests, 441 were administered to the 11 League One golf equipment, with six folks from 5 golf equipment sorting out certain.

The league says any one who examined certain will have self-remoted per the pointers supplied by the USL. Most effective those that examined detrimental will most likely be allowed to enter coaching floor facilities, and someone identified by technique of contact tracing will most likely be quarantined and examined.

———

The University of North Carolina says it quiet plans to play sports activities this descend after canceling in-person undergraduate classes in favor of a long way-off instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The college launched the pass to on-line-very finest instruction on Monday after reporting four coronavirus clusters inviting pupil housing or a fraternity since Friday. UNC’s athletics department later issued an announcement announcing athletes will proceed to blueprint shut classes on-line and be in a instruct to blueprint shut part in workout routines while following safety protocols.

Athletes can snatch to stay in most up-to-date residences both on or off the Chapel Hill campus.

UNC is a member of the Atlantic Jog Conference, which has launched plans to launch its football and diverse descend sports activities seasons the week of Sept. 7.

“We quiet predict to play this descend, and we’re going to proceed to blueprint shut in mind the downside in coordination with the university, the ACC, instruct and local officers, and smartly being officers,” UNC’s athletics department said in the observation. “The smartly being and safety of our pupil-athletes, coaches and workers, and personnel stays our precedence.”

———

The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs will limit ability of Arrowhead Stadium to 22% after they launch defense of their Large Bowl title, which equates to about 17,000 fans at what’s assumed about without a doubt one of the crucial toughest environments in the NFL.

The club launched its plans along with ticketing data for its first three video games on Monday after consulting with officers from The University of Kansas Health Machine. Tickets will most likely be purchased in “grouped pods of seats” starting next week.

Most effective the first three home video games — in opposition to the Texans, Patriots and Raiders — will streak on sale on the starting up to season build holders. The Chiefs said guidance from local and public smartly being officers will resolve ability the complete season.

Whereas the Chiefs thought to allow tailgating, fans will most likely be restricted to the home straight away on the lend a hand of their car and with fans who have tickets in their pods. They are impressed to wear face coverings, which will most likely be valuable within the stadium, and to make exercise of appropriate social distancing all the very best blueprint by game days.

———

Because of the the downside surrounding COVID-19, the US Tennis Affiliation has canceled all nationwide junior events by Oct. 12.

The USTA also has canceled all grownup Category 1 events, comprising the Grownup, Open, Household, and Age divisions, by the head of the yr.

The resolution to cancel modified into made to compose certain the smartly being and safety of all those enthusiastic since interstate commute required for the tournaments carries an elevated threat of contracting the disease.

The USTA said diverse rules, restrictions and quarantine sessions on the sites of the events and in the home states of the avid gamers were belief about.

———

Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn says his avid gamers have had 33 certain tests for COVID-19 this summer time.

Malzahn says one workers member also examined certain earlier this summer time. The Tigers and diverse Southeastern Conference teams opened preseason camp Monday before a season scheduled to originate on Sept. 26.

Malzahn says Auburn had no certain tests ultimate week, however four avid gamers are quiet going by the sorting out protocols. He expects results lend a hand by the head of the week.

He says the college has administered 863 tests amongst avid gamers, a median of extra than seven times every. Staffers have had 5 tests every.

Linebacker Chandler Wooten and backup defensive lend a hand Traivon Leonard have opted out taking part on this season.

———

Furman of the Division I Southern Conference is suspending all descend nonconference sports activities as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Athletic director Jason Donnelly said Monday the resolution came after ultimate week’s announcement that the league modified into pushing all its descend convention athletic competition and championships to the spring. Furman performs football in the Championship Subdivision.

Donnelly says the college in Greenville, South Carolina, made the resolution to protect the smartly being and safety of pupil-athletes, coaches and workers, and fans.

———

There’ll most likely be no fans at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for NFL and MLS video games performed in September. The Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United assert the coronavirus pandemic compelled the resolution.

The teams assert they’re going to proceed to collaborate with local and nationwide smartly being officers sooner than settling on the probability for fans in video games after September.

The Falcons will play on the very least two home video games without fans — in opposition to Seattle on Sept. 13 and in opposition to Chicago on Sept. 27.

“The smartly being and safety of our fans is our top precedence,” said Steve Cannon, CEO of the Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Clean’s sports activities and entertainment personnel. Cannon said the resolution modified into made “after considerate consideration and collaboration.”

Atlanta United previously launched there would be no fans for three video games: Aug. 22 in opposition to Nashville SC, Aug. 29 in opposition to Orlando Metropolis SC and Sept. 2 in opposition to Inter Miami CF.

———

Soccer’s U.S. Open Cup has been canceled this yr as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 event modified into suspended in early March rapidly sooner than it modified into supposed to kick off. The final modified into to be held on both Sept. 22 or 23.

Formally called the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, it’s a long way the longest-working soccer event in the US and offers newbie teams a raffle to blueprint shut on the pros, setting up the probability for an titillating Cinderella team to advance a long way into the event. The winner earns a instruct in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Affiliation Football’s Champions League.

The U.S. Soccer Federation launched Monday that the Open Cup couldn’t be staged this yr since the pandemic affected teams’ capability to commute, restricted or eradicated fans at video games, and necessitated strict sorting out protocols.

The teams that were invited to blueprint shut part this yr will most likely be invited next yr as an different.

There isn’t this kind of thing as a resolution but on how to allocate the CONCACAF Champions League slot that generally goes to the event champion.

———

Kansas Say will allow 25% ability at its football stadium for video games this season after getting approval Monday from the county price. Meaning a most crowd of appropriate beneath 15,000 fans.

The Plump 12 Conference is allowing colleges to place of abode their contain attendance policies per local jurisdictions.

The Riley County Commission reviewed the the rest of Kansas Say’s return-to-play protocols, too. Fans will most likely be required to wear face coverings where 6 ft of social distancing can no longer be maintained. Tailgating could perchance no longer be authorized in parking heaps managed by the college. There’ll most likely be no reentry. There also will most likely be hand sanitizing stations and diverse keeping measures.

One plus for fans: With the elimination of tailgating and reentry, the college will allow beer and wine to be purchased veritably seating sections for the first time. Alcohol sales had been restricted to luxurious suites.

———

The CFL has canceled its 2020 season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It marks the first yr the Grey Cup won’t be supplied since 1919.

The 9-team league launched the pass Monday, rushing hopes of a shortened season in the hub metropolis of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The resolution comes after the CFL couldn’t resolve a different of disorders so as to investigate cross-check to salvage a season.

“Our league governors determined as of late it’s a long way in the most easy long-term interests of the CFL to be aware of the long inch,” Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in an announcement.

“We’re fully committed to 2021, to the long inch of our league and the pursuit of our vision of an even bigger, stronger, extra global CFL.”

Unlike diverse necessary leagues in North The USA, the CFL doesn’t have the luxurious of a thousand million-dollar television contract. Whereas its kind out TSN has turned into extra profitable over time, the CFL stays a gate-pushed league — a valuable teach when fans aren’t allowed in the stands.

———

Mississippi starting heart Eli Johnson says he won’t play football this season.

Johnson launched on Twitter that he’ll take a seat out the season and heart of attention on ending his master’s level in criminal justice in December.

The Southeastern Conference enables avid gamers to opt out of the season as a result of COVID-19 and remain on scholarship.

Johnson began all 12 video games ultimate season, allowing very finest one sack. His father, David, modified into hospitalized this summer time as a result of the virus.

“I will most likely be forever grateful for my time right here at Ole Miss,” Johnson wrote Sunday evening on Twitter. “God bless and Hotty Toddy.”

———

Extra AP sports activities: https://ift.tt/2OkvChk activities and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports activities

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[livinonaflyingcarpet]

Hello :) I'm back again, your Yousana exchange giftee. I have been pretty busy lately so I am back only now but I hope you're having a good last month of the year, hope you found almost all your presents you want to give (since you had said you weren't that good with it so far). and I just wanted to drop by and ask if there's a movie or a TV show that is your all time favorite or something you can watch over and over again? :)

Hii! 

Hope you were busy with good things! :) This last week was tough, but I’m very excited to get back to joining in the Christmas spirit. Today I went with my mom to see the Christmas markets in the city centre and they were crowded but amazing. I did find almost all! All that’s missing is a dishtowel for my friend (she’s moving to her first house and after much pressure from my side as to what she wants as a gift she came up with a dishtowel, bless her lmao) bc I haven’t managed to find one that I really like, but I’m going shopping tomorrow morning so that’ll be fine.

Ooooh, all time faves in movies and TV. Hmmm.

Since it’s xmas season I just HAVE TO start off with Three Wishes for Cinderella/Tři oříšky pro Popelku, because it’s a national treasure, classic of all classics and a must for every Christmas. The best live acting fairytale that exists on this planet. It’s also for some wild reason popular in Norway and seeing our Cinderella on Skam cast ig stories was crazy haha.

But as to my real faves... I really like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., not really sure why exactly. I just really like the kind of humour they use, and tons of other aspects. The first Potter movie is basically a year of my childhood. I like the 2011 Jane Eyre. Easy A is a classic weekend afternoon movie in our household. Oh, and also Stardust. And To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before!

When it comes to TV shows, besides the obvious fave that is Skam, I really really really loved Agent Carter and am and will be forever bitter about the cancellation. Growing up me and my mom religiously watched Gilmore Girls (but please please please don’t get me started on the revival miniseries, ewh). I also really like Buffy and the Angel spinoff. Veronica Mars is also incredible. I (not regularly) watch The Mentalist whenever there are reruns on TV. I liked  Daredevil the most out of the Marvel x Netflix series, but I can’t say I really rewatched it. I’m sure there’s tons more, but I can’t really think of anything else... well I guess this list is way too long anyway lol.

I hope you have really lovely, warm, peaceful, and happy Holiday season!!

[kansascityhappenings]

Amazon announces deals, says Black Friday sale starts Nov. 22

Amazon will kick off its Black Friday sale on Friday, Nov. 22, as it offers deals on electronics, TVs, toys, clothing, Amazon devices and more.

Deals will run through Nov. 29. One-time deals will launch on Thanksgiving (Nov. 28), Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2).

Amazon is touting an array of discounts in several different departments. Here’s a look at some of the offers:

Echo and Echo Dot

Echo Dot is $27.99 off – just $22.00 or get a 3-pack for just $64.97

All-new Echo Dot with clock is $25 off – just $34.99

Echo Show 5 is $40 off – just $49.99

All-new Echo is $40 off – just $59.99

Echo Input is $20 off – just $14.99

Get the Echo Show 5 and Amazon Smart Plug for just $54.98

Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks

Get select Fire TV Edition Smart TVs and add an Echo Dot at no additional cost

Get a Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Dot for just $46.99

Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote is $20 off – just $19.99

Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote is $25 off – just $24.99

All-new Fire TV Cube is $30 off – just $89.99

Ring Doorbell and other electronics

Ring Video Doorbell Pro is $70 off – just $179.00

Get the Ring Video Doorbell Pro + Echo Show 5 for just $179.00

Get the all-new Blink XT2 3 Camera Kit and an Echo Dot for just $184.99

Get Amazon Smart Plug for just $4.99 when purchased with Echo Dot, all-new Echo Dot with Clock, all-new Echo, Echo Plus, all-new Echo Studio, Echo Show 5, all-new Echo Show 8, and Echo Show (2nd gen)

Get the eero mesh WiFi system for just $159.99

Kindle Fire 7 and Kids Edition products

All-new Echo Dot Kids Edition is $30 off – just $39.99 OR get a 3-pack for just $119.97

Fire 7 Kids Edition is $40 off – just $59.99

All-new Kindle Kids Edition is $30 off – just $79.99

Fire 7 Tablet is $20 off – just $29.99

Electronics

Save on Samsung, Sony, and LG TVs

Save on Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note 10

Save up to 45% on streaming devices and accessories

Video games

Save up to 30% on select Nintendo Switch Software

Save up to 33% on select Nintendo Joy-Con

Save on Nintendo Switch Console with Digital Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Save on Xbox One

Save on PC gaming laptops, desktops, monitors, components, and accessories

Save up to 33% on Play Station 4 Slim 1TB bundle

Save on Oculus Rift S

Save up to 40% on Corsair gaming products and accessories

Toys

Save 15% on L.O.L. Surprise! Winter Disco Bigger Surprise (Amazon Exclusive)

Save 40% on the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Millennium Falcon

Save 40% on tricycles and the 3-in-1 Wagon from Radio Flyer

Save 40% on the KidKraft Cinderella Royal Dream House

Save 40% on the Little Tikes Bake n’ Grow Kitchen

Save up to 30% on select strategy games

Save up to 30% on Glitter Girls fashion dolls and accessories

Save up to 30% on Barbie, Hot Wheels and more from Mattel

Save up to 30% on select party games

Household, Kitchen and Home Furnishings

Save up to 30% on SodaStream sparkling water makers

Save on Hamilton Beach

Save up to 35% on Vitamix

Save on Nespresso

Save on Dash Appliances

Save up to 44% on KitchenAid

Save on Instant Pot

Save on Conitgo Water bottles, Food Saver and Rubbermaid food containers

Save up to 25% on select mattresses

Save on Ashley Mattresses

Save up to 48% on Degrees of Comfort weighted blankets

Save up to 15% on Bissell Lifestyle 220

Save up to 19% on Bissell SpotClean Pro

Save on Casper Sleep Soft and Supima Cotton Sheet

Save up to 37% on Bissell Icon Pet Stick

Save up to 41% on Ecovacs N79S

Save up to 36% off Ecovacs Deebot 661

Save up to 26% Bissell Crosswave

Save up to 19% on Bissell SpotClean Pro

Save up to 22% on Bissell MyAir

Save up to 20% on Oreck Commercial XL Commercial Upright Vacuums

Save on AIRMEGA 400S The Smarter App Ena

Save on Tempur-Pedic TEMPUR-Protect Waterproof Mattress Protector

Save up to 15% on Bissell Lifestyle 220

Save on TEMPUR Adapt Plus Cooling Topper

Eureka NEN110A Whirlwind Bagless Canister

Save on Sunbeam Cordless or Corded Iron

Save up to 50% on Simplisafe 12-Piece Security System

Save up to 20% on Kidde products

Save up to 30% on Hunter ceiling fans

Save up to 30% on DeWalt tools

Save up to 30% on select SKIL tools

Save up to 25% on BLACK+DECKER drill kit

Save up to 15% on Opal Countertop Nugget Icemaker

Save 15% on NewAir Dual Zone Beverage Cooler

You can find much more at Amazon.com/blackfriday.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/11/21/amazon-announces-deals-says-black-friday-sale-starts-nov-22/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/amazon-announces-deals-says-black-friday-sale-starts-nov-22/

[arathoonabroad]

Chapter 2

In which Katie weeds; Biddy arrives; Biddy weeds; and all is well with the world.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

I covet Wigs's life. I long to be assured that some day, eventually, I will be living my own version of the life she leads.

Her house is tiny, and it is in utter chaos. This is not due to untidiness, but is instead due to Brian's proclivity for tearing everything apart and rebuilding it. He is currently in the rebuilding stage, which means that there are pre-deck beams of wood sticking out of the ground at knee-whacking height, a hole in the wall where there once was a fireplace, a mound of bricks in a corner of a room that is otherwise empty except for an ironing board, torn-up linoleum on the floor of the kitchen, and giant mounds of lumber in the yard. The perpetual view of Brian is one seen from the waist down, way up a ladder, while intense hammering filters down through the new veranda roof. There is one small television, no kitchen gadgets, benches at the kitchen table that have an alarming tendency to upend and deposit you on the floor, lots of laughter, and miles and miles of really good books. I absolutely adore it.

The backyard has four chickens who are supposed to be there, two ducks who aren't, a sheep named Butter, a raised vegetable patch, and an orchard accessible only through a honeysuckle-covered gate. It also has weeds. A lot of weeds.

Luckily, I am not the only weeding wwoofer in the Tweed household. Three days after my unexpected appearance came the more-anticipated arrival of our Mad Aunt Biddy.

Biddy is rather ancient and has started shrinking, which means she is almost as short as Wigs now. "It's horrible," she said gloomily at one point, "To be down amongst the pygmies at last." She has lived on at least four continents and tells the most marvelous stories of her various adventures--you can have a lot of adventures in eighty-one years. She calls Wigs "Joan," calls me "That Girl," and calls Brian "That man over there." She speaks of her rheumatism, corns, arthritis, and the deafness in her ear without the slightest respect for avoiding stereotypes, and one day accidentally gave her set of false teeth to Wigs as a present.

I will admit to feeling a bit of trepidation about her arrival. I can play the respectful and obliging great-niece like a pro, but I was worried that looking after her all-day-ever-day, while Wigs and Brian were at work, would get tiring. I was fretting unnecessarily. Biddy stomped into the house with her cane, her plaid pants and her purple cardigan, settled herself in as quickly as I had, and started weeding with me early the next morning. "I can't sit idly and watch That Girl slaving away on her own," she explained when Wigs protested. We have a nice routine going now: three or four hours of weeding in the morning, followed by an hour's lunch; then Biddy takes a nap while I write (or nap, depending) and then we putter about doing various odd things until Wigs and Brian get home.

Weeding is great fun although neither of us will admit it. We both moan and groan and huff and puff about all this work that Wigs is "making" us do, like two little girls playing at being Cinderella, pre-ball. We chat while we weed, but as Biddy is rather deaf and I'm always daydreaming about life and love and librettos, we talk rather at cross purposes most of the time. For example:

Biddy: [pulls up flowers accidentally] Oh dear. Katie: Mmm? Biddy: They're not going to give me any lunch at this rate. Katie: You reckon it's time for lunch? Biddy: What is Wigs going to say? Katie: Ham and Cheese sandwich, probably. Biddy: She'll be very cross with me. Katie: [catching on] We don't have to tell her, you know. Biddy: We'll tell her they're my birthday flowers! Katie: Good plan!

or:

Katie: I'm so glad it's Friday! Biddy: ...a spider? Katie: What? Biddy: What? Katie: ...What? Biddy: You're so glad you're a spider? Katie: I'm so glad it's Friday! Biddy: Oh!

or sometimes:

Biddy: I need a hat for my bottom. Katie: ...What did you say? Biddy: I need a hat for my bottom! [mimes putting a hat over her bottom.] Katie: [thoughtfully] Yes, that's what I thought you said.

My favorite weeding moment came as we tore into the ground near the sheep's paddock. "Oh dear," said Biddy loudly, pausing from her usual mad pulling of weeds. "Oh--Oh dear."

"What's up?" I asked idly, yanking on a particularly stubborn buttercup.

"Oh, spider, oh, come back you silly thing," muttered Biddy. Looking up, I saw a particularly large and ferocious-looking brown spider circumnavigate her thigh before heading directly up and diving into the apparent safety of her crotch region.

"Oh!" said Biddy, brushing herself off rather frantically now, "Oh! Spider! That area is none of your business!"

Doubled over with mirth, I was not the picture of the professionally dutiful and obliging great-niece; nor was I any help in removing the spider from her person.

We all spend much of the time laughing, often to the point of tears. "Do you know," Biddy said the other day," I don't think I've laughed at all in the last three years. Nothing has seemed funny. And now look at me!" It is as if a dam has burst. Sometimes we will just be sitting at the table chatting, and Biddy will suddenly go silent and then start shaking with laughter, hand clapped to her mouth or over her eyes. Wigs and I stare at her bemusedly and then, helpless to resist, start to laugh too, and the three of us sit there, silently shaking, barely able to breathe. Most of the time we never find out what set her off in the first place.

We have gone to a paper marbling class, to cooking classes, to the beach, to the shops; but my favorite moments have been at that kitchen table, shaking silently and gasping for breath.

[vitalmindandbody]

Misty Copeland: dancing into record

She was caught between her impoverished mother and the ballet mistress who offered her a way out. Aaron Hicklin meets Misty Copeland, the first black principal at the American Ballet Theatre

We cannot know whether Misty Copeland would have become Americas most celebrated ballet dancer if she had not met Cindy Bradley, the flame-haired instructor who first recognised and then sharpened her talents, but it seems unlikely. Then again, its doubtful that Copeland would have met Bradley if not for Elizabeth Cantine, the coach of her school drill team who urged her to check out the free ballet class at the Boys & Girls Club of San Pedro. Nor is it clear that Copeland would have joined Cantines squad without the encouragement of her adored older sister, Erica, a drill team star. It was Erica who helped Copeland choreograph an audition piece to George Michaels I Want Your Sex. And who, knowing her story, can omit the Russian gymnast Nadia Comaneci from this roll call? As a seven-year-old, trying to emulate Comanecis pyrotechnics, Copeland instinctively understood that rhythmic motion came as naturally to me as breathing, to quote from her memoir, Life in Motion.

This is life, a cascading series of chance encounters and arbitrary choices that shape our destinies, but for a young black girl in a working-class Los Angeles suburb, who characterises her childhood as packing, scrambling, leaving often barely surviving, catching the right breaks are nigh on impossible. Yet through whatever alchemy of grit, resilience and compulsion, Misty Copeland, a 65lb ragamuffin when she arrived at Bradleys class, beat the odds. In August 2015 she was promoted to principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), the first black woman to achieve the distinction in the theatres 75-year history.

For millions of Americans, Copelands journey to the pinnacle of her profession is an archetypal story of triumph over adversity. At the Boys & Girls Club where she practised her first ballet steps, todays visitor is confronted with a painting showing Copeland in a forlorn crouch, forehead resting on her knees. Around her swirl words like agony, hurting, desolation, hardship and rejection. Next to it is another painting in which Copeland pirouettes like a music box ballerina, music notes spiralling over her head. Nearby, a sign proclaims Great Futures Start Here. Copeland is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who got to stand tall on pointe shoes. Im often asked if Im OK being referred to as the black ballerina, she says. And I say: I dont think thats something I want to change. Were still at a point where it needs to be acknowledged all the time.

Pointing the way: the ballet superstar who beat all the odds. Photograph: Danielle Levitt for the Observer

It is early afternoon, and in a small waiting area inside Steps on Broadway, one of New Yorks best-known dance studios, Copeland sits scrunched up on a bench trying to talk above the din of wailing toddlers as they wait for a class to begin. Although they might not know it, Copeland is the acme of what those little girls dream to be, and a riposte to classical ballets long history of exclusion. Its partly her Cinderella story that has made her a household name in a marginalised art, but its also a reflection of the astute way she has parlayed her visibility beyond the world of ballet. She has danced for Prince (in his 2010 Welcome 2 America tour), appeared in a 2014 commercial for Under Armour that quickly went viral, interviewed President Obama and made the cover of Time magazine in 2015 the first dancer to do so since Bill T Jones in 1994. Her memoir is to be turned into a movie.

Predictably, none of that has stopped the envious from turning her success into a question. People ask: Is she getting this opportunity just because shes had such a voice, and because shes black, or is she good enough to get this part? says Copeland. All of these things can mess with you psychologically and emotionally. Youd think it would get easier over time, but for me it gets harder.

Copeland did not always perceive the prejudice she was up against as plainly as she does today. As an adolescent, dance was a safe harbour where she felt entirely at home. Going to a school in southern California that was very diverse I never felt like I fitted in, she says. But stick me in a ballet studio surrounded by white girls, and I was, like: Oh, I belong here. I wasnt even thinking about the colour of my skin.

A cripplingly shy child, at her happiest hiding in the closet playing Solitaire or locked in the bathroom listening to Mariah Carey, Copeland was 13 when she discovered dance, a belated epiphany. Ballet was always an escape, she says. It was a place where I felt safe, and I didnt have that in any aspect of my life growing up. I was so introverted because I felt that something could hurt me. There wasnt always a man in our house who I trusted, or we werent always living in a place where I felt secure, and ballet was this one constant in my life that I could rely on.

Perpetual motion: does her life validate the idea that talent is innate? Photograph: Danielle Levitt for the Observer

In many ways Copelands life is a powerful validation of the idea that talent is innate. When I saw her in the gym, a tiny malnourished girl who stood with such poise and presence, I couldnt believe it, says Cantine. I just said: Ill take that one. Copeland not only made the squad, she was made captain. But when Cantine recommended Bradleys ballet class, Copeland was sceptical. I was, like, Absolutely not this is as far as I go outside my comfort zone. She went to watch, just to please Cantine, dutifully returning every day for two weeks until Bradley persuaded her to join in. Copeland quickly realised shed found her place. It was the first time I ever felt beautiful, she says. Just to look in the mirror and to be told: Youre what a ballerina looks like.

Bradley, a former punk rocker who had enjoyed moderate success in the 1980s with a band called the Wigs, took to her new pupil instantly. The affection was mutual. Within eight weeks, Copeland had learned to dance en pointe, a skill that most young ballerinas take years to master. The moment of triumph is recorded in a photograph that Bradley had the foresight to snap: Copeland is ramrod straight on the point of her right foot, a smile suffusing her face. Cindy was definitely a big part of my growth, not just as a dancer but as a person, says Copeland. I had never experienced someone forcing me to voice my opinion, and to communicate. I started to develop skills that were so underdeveloped in me.

Copelands growing intimacy with Bradley came at a time when life at home was getting harder. Her mother, Sylvia DeLaCerna, left one temperamental husband for another, and the family found itself living in a motel, sharing two rooms and pooling loose change to buy food. Copeland found her escape in ballet, but DeLaCerna worried the commute to class was too onerous, and told her daughter to quit. That was when Bradley persuaded DeLaCerna to let Copeland move in with her, sharing a room with her two-year-old son, Wolf. Id only been married for two years, and suddenly we had a teenage girl, and she stole our hearts, immediately, says Bradley. On Fridays, Copeland would make matzo ball soup and light the Sabbath candles. It just felt like this beautiful thing that they shared, and I think thats what I was drawn to, Copeland says. When the Bradleys had a professional family portrait taken, Copeland was part of it.

Girl prodigy: in 1998, as a child dancer. Photograph: Kevin Karzin/AP

Its not difficult to see how this would begin to grate on Copelands mother and siblings, who began describing their sister as brainwashed. When those pressures finally exploded, shortly after Copeland won a prestigious award for playing Kitri in her favourite ballet Don Quixote, the fallout was painful and highly public. DeLaCerna decided her daughter no longer needed the Bradleys; in response they encouraged Copeland to petition the courts for emancipation from her parents. DeLaCerna fought back, securing the legendary civil rights lawyer, Gloria Allred. Eventually, Copeland dropped her petition, but the damage was lasting. It was very traumatic having so much of my life exposed for everyone to see, she says. It took 10 years before I could talk about it without crying. It was no easier for Bradley. It was a huge void that never healed, she says. I had so many things to say to her. The two would not speak for 15 years.

In May, Copeland will play Kitri again, but this time in a production for the ABT. Its the role of a lifetime, one she has dreamed about since seeing her idol, Paloma Herrera, play it in 1996. But Copeland is 34 now, and her journey has been arduous. In 2012, days after her critically lauded debut in the title role of Stravinskys Firebird, she discovered six stress fractures in her tibia. It would take seven months of physical therapy before she could return to the stage. Last year, she finally got to reprise her Firebird performance, one of several lead roles she took on as part of the ABTs spring/summer season, including Odette in Swan Lake. She also married her long-time beau Olu Evans. Her promotion to principal dancer may be a vindication of her hard work, but she knows a dancers career is short. A couple of weeks after I was promoted to principal dancer was the first time I felt: This is the beginning of the end, she says. I was promoted at a very late age for a dancer, so my career as a principal will definitely be shorter than most. She thinks for a moment. The scary thing is what will fill that void. She laughs. My poor husband.

We live in an era, to quote dance critic Madison Mainwaring in The Atlantic, when Kim Kardashians selfies get more serious coverage than dancers who have dedicated their lives to their form. Copeland might be the exception that proves the rule, but the vitality of classical dance in America rides on the trail shes blazing. At a time of heightened consciousness around black identity, her story has lured new audiences to classical dance. Is it enough? The ballet world is constantly talking about how we need more exposure, to bring more people in, but they dont want to change anything about it, Copeland says, with exasperation. It doesnt work that way, something has to change and evolve.

Ruffling feathers: as Odette in Swan Lake in 2015 for the Washington Ballet. Photograph: Theo Kossenas Photography

Its a bright blue morning in San Pedro, and the city glows after weeks of abnormally high rainfall. In her black Volkswagen Beetle, Bradley is pointing out the landmarks of Copelands youth. Did you see the sign? she asks, pointing to a plaque that reads Misty Copeland Square at an intersection adjacent to the San Pedro Ballet School, a former bakery that Bradley and her husband, Patrick, bought in 1998. The plaque was unveiled just before Christmas in 2015, and if you Google footage of the ceremony, you will see a visibly moved Copeland thanking the Bradleys for giving me a path and platform to change not only my life, but so many little brown girls lives.

Bradley drives me to her former condo, near a bluff overlooking the ocean. In her memoir, Copeland recalls it smelling of cinnamon and the sea. We sit in the car for a while, and Bradley tells stories of Copeland helping to potty-train Wolf, dancing with him, being a sister. It seems like yesterday, she sighs. I knew it wasnt going to end well from the start. It was wonderful, but very scary, feeling that every minute was going to be our last. She pauses. But it worked out OK.

Our tour ends where the story begins at the Boys & Girls Club of San Pedro. Inside the gymnasium, Bradley indicates the lines of benches. She wasnt just watching casually she was absorbing while she was sitting there, she says, summoning the image. She didnt move, she watched intently for a few weeks and kept saying No, no, no, until finally she stepped on to the floor. She was a skinny, skinny brown girl with pretty hair.

Happy couple: with long-time beau Olu Evans, who she married last year. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision

Ever since Bradley could dance, she has wanted to teach. I just thought: Everybody needs to know this, she says. In Copeland she found her first prodigy. I touched her foot and thats when the magic happened, she says, lost in a private reverie. Ive never been able to describe it before, but I knew she was special. Blinking back tears, she shakes her head in astonishment. She hadnt danced! she says. It was an angels singing moment. That same day, Bradley offered Copeland a scholarship, sending a note home to her mother.

We walk back through the club, past the twin posters of Misty Copeland in despair and triumph, the pool table, the vending machine dispensing frozen fruit bars, the spray-painted symbol of the power fist. And as we emerge into the sunlight, Bradley recovers her composure. I have actually just found my second prodigy Enrique. She pulls out her phone. Ill show you a picture. Like Copeland, Enrique started late (at 16), and like Copeland, he is beset by challenges, most having to do with being a Latino man in a world still defined as white and female. Its the first Ive talked about him, because I learned the first time you should not talk about them too much, says Bradley. She laughs, before adding: Until youre ready to lose them. We both peer at the photo. This is a while ago, so hes more spectacular now, she says, beaming. Hes got it all.

Hair and Make-up by Bank using Pacifica at Factory Downtown; Producer Stephanie Porto; Digital Tech Jordan Zuppa; Lighting perry hall and JP Herrera; Set design Chris Stone; location Steps on Broadway, NYC

Life in Motion by Misty Copeland is published by Sphere, 9.99. Order it for 8.49 at bookshop.theguardian.com

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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