#topic: equality

[tayfabe75]

"This song has become an important song for a lot of our fans. Before we came here, everyone was like, 'You can't go and play Russia. Russia's like, really homophobic, it's like really racist'. No it isn't. No. No it isn't. It's really racist and homophobic everywhere, and I can tell you that, becasue I go everywhere, right? And I know the reason that we're here is because young people anywhere are not representative of their government, right? And we're very aware of that, and when you've got like, a billion people in your country, of course there's going to be a lot of dickheads, do you know what I mean? I know that nobody here, nobody in this room is homophobic - homophobic or racist - that's why we're very happy to be here."

July 30, 2019: Matty addresses the inequality in Russia before performing 'Loving Someone' in Moscow. (source 1, 2)

[incesthemes]

there is interesting johndean subtext and insinuations across kripke era, usually through an antagonist insinuating parent-child sexual violence in order to exert dominance over dean. this type of mockery exploits that ambiguous relationship between john and dean and reminds dean that he never had a normal relationship with his father, and that makes him gross and wrong. it doesn't actually matter in the end whether john was sexually abusive to dean. the core of their relationship was damning enough: dean was made to take the place of john's wife—to comfort john and raise sam—while simultaneously being his son. the codependent nature of their relationship implies the incest that underscores their dynamic. again, this is regardless of what literally occurred between dean and john because there is enough doubt toward the nature of their relationship that multiple antagonists can use it against them.

sonwife, brotherhusband—dean is stuck in a liminal space between family and lover and is unable to put his feet firmly on just one side and instead has to accept both together or abandon both together. he doesn't get to have a relationship with his family without it being simultaneously incestuous. he plays the role of wife to john and mother to sam as mary's replacement; he therefore becomes more than a son and transcends the boundaries of the familial into the incestuous. it's baked into the dynamic and he can't hope to escape the liminality in which he's stuck without abandoning his entire family altogether.

this ambiguous relationship is further acted out with sam, where people perceive them as lovers rather than brothers; where their mutual devotion trumps, neglects, and disallows any other close relationship outside each other; where their physical closeness is viewed through an unusually sexual lens despite no literal sex acts between them taking place on screen. once again dean is stuck in a liminal space, paralleling the ambiguous and uncertain relationship he had with john.

in the end, sex (and sexual violence) is just a symbol of this codependency and uncertainly incestuous dynamic. sex acts in kripke era end up being symbolic: misinterpretations of sam and dean's relationship; accusations of sexual violence; literal, on-screen sexual moments between the brothers and someone else. it's a literary device that highlights the incestuous themes of the show. dean hand-picks women for sam to fuck because it allows dean to be symbolically part of sam's sex life. henricksen accuses john of raping dean because it is a symbol of the unhealthy, codependent relationship dean had with his father. the samulet stays on during sex because sam is symbolically integral to dean's sexual gratification (seen too in the way both dean and cassie in 1.13 appear to kiss the amulet at least once in the dark room). sex is used to signify more than what's literally on the screen, and the connections between the literal sex acts and the blurred lines of dean's familial relationships allow for a reading of incest between both john and dean and sam and dean.

it never mattered whether johndean or samdean had a sexual relationship in the canon because that was never the point. the point is the liminality that permeates the narrative. sam, dean, and john all stand upon a threshold between acceptable and taboo. the point of it all is the doubt and anxiety, the are-they-aren't-they that is never answered. the absence of incest within the text invites the understanding that the incest was, in fact, always there.

[danadiadea]

Basically my whole deal with the pretty/ugly/normal Snape discourse is the fact that people behave like Harry is flattering Snape for some reason, build fanon assumptions on that belief, and then behave like those are book canon and the only correct interpretation forever and ever amen.

if Harry calls Snape's nose hooked and prominent – it probably doesn't mean it takes up 70% of his face (people behaving like "hooked" and "huge" are the same word make me kinda tired), if Harry says Snape's greasy hair hangs in curtains around his face – it probably doesn't clump in icicles, if Harry calls his teeth uneven and yellowish – they probably aren't extra crooked and rotten and of a bright yellow colour, if Harry points out his skin is sallow and pallid and white – it probably isn't of greenish shade and with acne, if Harry tells us Snape is thin and haggard – it probably doesn't mean he looks 25kg underweight. Believe it or not, but Harry doesn't actively try to embellish the man he hates! He rarely uses any extreme language to describe Snape – and that's what bugs me when people insist he must have extremely unusual features, because even a pretty lookist boy who hates the guts of him and is ready to misinterpret him at any given chance, is actually being relatively mild. If Harry could debase Snape more – he would!

Harry calls Pancy ugly too, but Rita, for example, thinks she's pretty and vivasious, and I know it's assumed Rita is exaggerating because she and Pancy are both awful people, but Rita wouldn't publically call a girl that objectively had a face very unfitting to beauty standards pretty, especially when it's so uncalled for! Pancy must've looked at least somewhat cute so that it doesn't sound like a mockery.

Severus probably "wasn't pretty" to Harry's taste – just like Eileen, whom he greatly resembled, but he also didn't look extremely out of the ordinary and wasn't repulsive to look at, just tired, a bit unkempt and with intense traits (which can be handled in a whole lot of different ways of course). Enough so that people who hate him can make some derogatory comments on him, but honestly, go to any visual based social media and look at people who receive derogatory comments on their appearance out there and tell me that all of them (if any) are unbearably ugly and barely human looking.

So basically erasing Snape's traits and giving him a straight nose or full lips or rosy skin is misinterpretation just as much as exaggerating every feature of his to the extent that never was even remotely mentioned in canon (and especially since we know we have a negatively biased perspective almost at every instance) is. And it's fine, especially if we talk about art, when artist's style would naturally enhance certain aspects and try to deliver different messages. Some prefer to draw more standardized faces or softer appearances, while others tend to give their characters strong, stylized features and make them visually challenging – and this is all great and good and valuable. It's also fully okay to headcanon different traits for the character, both recognised as attractive or unattractive, depending on how each person wants to interact with the fandom. My problem is exclusively with people misinterpreting the book text, claiming it as canon and saying what people can or can't do with characters based on those misinterpretations.

[disco-troy]

What if I said Rose Wilson Flamebird protector of Bludhaven... what if...

[rosesarewilting]

Is that what you want? Do you want me to apologize?

Hah! You've fallen for my trap... That's right. I've tricked you into a character analysis post with angst art. How devious.

OKAY so …I listened to A Neon Darkness. I have thoughts. Damien is such an interesting, insanely well written and endlessly frustrating character, and I honestly went into the show expecting him to improve over time.

I think part of that is that I (a pretty neurodivergent person) relate to his inability to read other people’s wants, and to me it was… really obvious how he could solve his own problems? Despite what he may believe, he’s not the only person in the world who struggles to connect. And somewhat ironically, that very disconnect is what made me empathize with him.

But unlike everyone else in the show, he also doesn’t try.

He wants to have actual connections to people, but refuses to express his feelings or even make the slightest attempt to control his power. He wants to understand others, but refuses to ask what they want until it’s the last possible option. He wants others to forgive him when he can’t even forgive himself. It’s like he wants to want to change, but can’t bring himself to actually do anything differently.

If, at any point in his story, he had taken accountability for his actions, his life could have been totally different. If he’d just tried to control his powers when the Unusuals asked him to, if he’d given any of his therapists an actual chance, if he’d brought Mark to Dr. Bright like he agreed to, if he’d listened when Mark said he wanted to go back, then he could have gotten what he wanted. Hell, he could have solved most of his problems with some guided meditation and online chats. But instead he acts as though he has no agency or responsibility in his own life. He puts all the responsibility of changing his situation on the people around him.

It’s also fascinating to me how close he gets to understanding. At the end of Neon Darkness, Marley directly tells him that using his ability hurts people and that he would have been accepted if he’d put in effort. He has all of the answers laid out in front of him, yet he doesn’t connect the dots because he’s still convinced he’s the victim. This is especially present in the second half of the Roadtrip From Hell. He talks constantly about how violating his own power is… without ever realizing “Oh, this is how everyone around me feels all the time. That’s why no one feels safe around me.”

Damien could have everything he wants, and he’s the only person who doesn’t see it.

[tayfabe75]

July 29, 2019: The 1975 show solidarity with their LGBTQ fans while performing in St. Petersburg, Russia. (source 1, 2)

[sparvverius]

"The French Revolution, therefore, assumes a unique place in the history of the contemporary world. As the classic bourgeois revolution, abolishing feudalism and the seigneurial system, it forms the point of departure for capitalist society and liberal democracy in the history of France. As a revolution of the peasants and the masses, and therefore uncompromisingly antifeudal, it twice transcended its bourgeois limits: first during Year II, an experiment which, though necessarily doomed to fail, long retained its power as a prophetic example; then with the Conspiracy of the Equals, an episode that marks the birth of present-day revolutionary thought and action. These essential characteristics probably explain the vain efforts that have been made to deny the true historical nature and the specific social and national character of the French Revolution, for it is a fertile and dangerous precedent. Hence also the shudder that the French Revolution sent throughout the world, and the continued reverberation that it arouses in men's minds even today. The very memory of it is revolutionary, and stirs us still."

-Albert Soboul, A Short History of the French Revolution, 1789-1799

[vroom-vrooms]

Mark Webber is currently running to Jenson Button to form the “in love with Fernando Alonso” club

Or to fist fight him for Fernando’s hand idk

[potatobugz]

some equal rites tomfoolery.. i really liked this book

[deathskrang]

i think about zim and the tallest and their inherently, nearly parasitic relationship to each other a lot.

i think about how all of them are, objectively, mostly blind to this fact as well, zim blinded by the swift and stark obedience that he performs under the delusion that he is doing something for the good of his leaders and his empire, and the tallest blinded by their total arrogance and rage over the fact that zim cannot read any of their cues that he is a nuisance. still, it is so obvious that the back and forth is there.

i know that this particular example probably wasn't purposeful in florpus and was mostly just so the audience could see dib's point and the narrative similarities between zim and him, but i think a lot about zim's silence when dib says, "you know, my dad doesn't appreciate what i do, either" after zim explains how the tallest are not coming to bring him back home. i think a lot about that. the impact and the implications behind one simple sentence from dib. i imagine, to zim, this sort of felt like a slap in the face. the first word besides "my tallest" that's ever explained how zim wants them, how zim, in his own way, almost loves them. and it's a word from earth. it's a word that implies a built in, unconditional caring between human beings. it's a word that zim had just said in a mocking tone of voice to dib moments ago in reference to his plan to replace his real dad. and, suddenly, in a single instance, the weight of the word has seemed to hit him.

i think the saddest part of this parallel is that dib has the understanding that because he and his dad are biologically related, unconditional love is the expected thing, it's the supposed natural progression of things. zim and the tallest, though—they don't have any of that. you could argue that they're barely even acquaintances. there is no understanding of what is supposed to happen with them. there is no built in hope of having them step up to the plate the way dib hopes with his dad. i don't think zim truly understands this, though. as if zim can completely comprehend isolation. isn't that apart of an invader's duty? isn't that what he was trained to do? and isn't zim an invader? isn't he?

after all of this, after all of florpus, long after dib had first used that word, dad, in relation to the tallest, how dib said his dad doesn't appreciate what he does, one of the last things zim asks the tallest as he is witnessing their last moments across that transmission is: does this please you? in other words, do you appreciate what i have done for you?

dialogue wise, this is emotionally wrecking enough, but i think, visually, it is equally if not more disarming and depressing. i really, really, really love the imagery of the scene right before it cuts to the tallest burning in their puppet florpus flames. because it's a silly visual gag, yes, two flailing tallest puppets—but zim talking to two distorted tallest silhouettes, not noticing (or, rather, caring about) the difference between this and their usual way of appearing when they're in a transmission—zim talking to a literal representation of how the tallest have always existed in his head, as two distorted silhouettes, as delusions—that is insanely succinct in describing the true detriment of zim and the tallest's relationship to each other, at least to me.

this is, in my opinion, the most fucked up imagery in florpus, maybe even the entire series to me—and, most likely, none of the invader zim crew meant it to come across quite like that. zim's performance of normalcy in the face of what he is unaware is the tallest's last living moments. the delayed video feed in the transmission, shortly followed by complete and utter panic from the tallest, who were possibly oblivious to the fact that zim had even contacted them amongst their chaos. zim almost seeming as if he is staring at his own reflection in the screen rather than right at the tallest. a physical representation of what their entire relationship has been built on since the beginning—a blurry idea, a vague delusion of a bond that is in actuality no more than a fatal, life long misunderstanding on each end. it's the most palpably gut wrenching thing in the whole film for me, and i don't care that none of it was probably meant to pack that type of punch. it's always hit me hard.

[tayfabe75]

"We're gonna do a song that I wrote about, you know, stuff that was just kind of… feeling like, there's so many things in life that are just like, chaotic and unnecessary um, you know, online trolls, people bullying people for no reason, keyboard courage, like people who just like, get online and they're like, 'Oh, I'm brave now,' so I was thinking about that, I was thinking about how, you know, every day people's human rights are being infringed on because people just feel like they need to judge other people for who they love or how they identify. Like, calm down. And then I was thinking about how women are pitted against each other in my industry and in so many other industries and um, so I was trying to think of how I could wrap that all up in one song and uh, managed to do it with a song called 'You Need to Calm Down'."

September 2, 2019: Before performing 'You Need to Calm Down' for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, Taylor talks about the injustice that inspired the song. (source 1, 2)

[witchofthesouls]

Weird headcanon, but I do enjoy the thought that in some iterations, Ravage is more like a Wine Aunt/Baileys Grandma to Soundwave as she came from a different Cassette Carrier. Either directly "inherited" from a guttetmech Cassette-Carrier, or she chanced upon a lost Soundwave and took him under her paws as they help each other put.

[theyilinglaozus]

The updated ui on the tumblr app for ipad is seriously making me want to delete the app off my ipad entierly, honestly. And that's saying a lot considering how long I've been on this hellsite.

At least with the phone update there's still a navigation pad and icons, but this slider bar on the ipad version? It's terrible design. For one it sits at the top of your screen. There's nothing on it, no symbols or writing to help guide you, instead you're just clicking to move to the next 'thing' rather than selecting what it is you want to see / need. There are no notifcation updates to tell you if you have replies, reblogs, messages, whatever - and it's just not user friendly in any sense of the word. I feel for those who struggle with ui's on a good day, because this one is terrible and does nothing to help make naviaging easy.

I've disagreed with a lot of tumblr decisions in the past few years, but this one is a huge misstep. Whoever was in charge of designing it did not even think to consider its effect on the userbase, and I've never known such a terrible system implemented to a website. That along with the forced introduction of the tiktok-ification of short form video content sitting badly with users, it's easy to see why people are upset.

Tumblr, you're struggling as it is. Listen to your userbase rather than driving them further away. Stop trying to make changes that are negative for everyone, and start fixing the damned things on this site that need addressing - like the disgusting/inappropriate ads we keep getting, the bots, the way community posts keep appearing on dashboards of those who aren't even in said community.

[licorishh]

after extensive research (one page of google search results) and painstaking effort (42 seconds of time) i have finally discovered (skim-read reddit flavor text) that apparently the genes that determine head hair color are not the same genes that determine eyebrow color which means !! it is actually possible to have someone with blond head hair and dark eyebrows which means !! au naturel rex is entirely plausible. it is statistically possible that he does indeed just Look Like That.

also i feel i should say that i have no idea if any of that is actually true or if it's a bunch of bull-hockey so take it with a grain of salt. assuming that it is though then we can keep rex sensibly in-character by saying no he does not have the time to be running around with a box of hair dye what the heck

[wonder-worker]

"[Elizabeth Woodville] was the only member of [Crown Prince Edward of Westminster's] original 1471 council not already on the king’s council and her name headed the list of those appointed as administrators in Wales during Edward’s minority. [She remained on the council after it was expanded in 1473 and granted additional governing and judicial powers]."

"In 1478 Prince Richard married the Mowbray heiress. Like his elder brother he had a chancellor, seal, household and council to manage his estates. His council, like that of Prince Edward, comprised the queen [Elizabeth Woodville] and a group of magnates and bishops, few of whom were Woodville supporters. [...] It was Elizabeth who mattered, for Richard resided with her and Rivers treated his affairs as their own."

— J.L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503 / Michael Hicks, Richard III and his Rivals: Magnates and their Motives in the Wars of the Roses

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

yeah, yellow was probably doomed the second arthur told them about their origins. but, at the same time, it’s hard to honestly argue that it would have been, like… morally better to withhold that info from them. bc that just creates this inherent power imbalance where arthur knows everything, and is picking and choosing what to tell them in order to guide their growth. like they’re a fucking. idk. bonsai. and not a person. is that ok to do to someone? in this scenario, does it become ok? knowing what the alternative is, does that make it ok? furthermore, what do we imagine yellow’s reaction is gonna be on learning that arthur chose to keep all this from them. bc my guess is Not Pleased.

I know I keep saying it, but I do think they could’ve worked past the rough beginnings if they had more time and were not under. quite the same amount of stress. I also feel like the rocky start was maybe inevitable. yellow was always going to latch onto the idea of godhood, and arthur was always going to react terribly to that choice. any other introduction would have probably led to the same amount of conflict eventually. it’s just a matter of when and how.